»And? What else? C’mon, Paafnas!«
»The Lord seems to look like you – like a Human!«
Maya froze and starred at Paafnas.
»Is that possible? You think he was humanoid?«
Paafnas replied with a trembling voice, »Not just humanoid … his silhouette looked almost exactly like yours and Fosset’s!«
Maya Ivanova suddenly felt sick in her stomach.
Funeral service or rescue mission
The Blue Moon and the Princess had taken position in Neptune’s orbit. After the 24 hour waiting period was over, Belinda Morgan opened the secret documents from Fosset’s safe. It was a testament for which she had been named the executor. It was difficult for her, but she accepted her duty stoically.
She had arranged with Petrow to conduct a mutual funeral service for the missing people. The ceremony was planned for the coming hour and Belinda took the time to reflect and think about the ceremony. She had taken over command of the Princess and wanted to fly the ship to the Uranus moon Oberon later that day. There they would decide what to do with Fosset’s estate. She hoped that the second part of the testament would shed some light on the ship’s future and that of her crew.
Belinda had dressed for the ceremony and entered the ship’s command room. A depressed silence filled the room as she arrived. She asked the comm-officer to establish a link to the Blue Moon. Petrow had been waiting for her call and answered it promptly.
»How are you making out?« the new commander of the Blue Moon asked in muted tones. Despite his friendly address it was obvious how he felt.
»Thanks, considering … we’re all set. You know, Petrow, Fosset wasn’t a religious man, but I think he would have liked us to reflect in silence for a while.«
Petrow nodded.
»Well, it’s more to respect the achievements of the people who have perished. I’d like to say some words, if you don’t mind. Let me know when you’re ready. We have a comm-link to Triton Base and …«
Petrow suddenly looked, alarmed, to the side and disappeared from the screen for a moment. He was red-faced and excited!
»Belinda, we just detected a target echo from Neptune’s atmosphere! Something is moving toward us.«
As per a prearranged command, the Princess’ crew jumped into action and occupied their consoles.
»Acknowledge that, Commander Petrow!« the scanner officer yelled into the room. »No question, that’s the plasma trail of a spacecraft. I can clearly make out the Eagle’s drive signature … it’s running under full load!«
»Roger that!« responded the Blue Moon’s scanner section.
»Stand by for a rescue mission!« Petrow commanded and turned toward the screen on which Belinda Morgan’s stunned face was displayed. »This is unbelievable! You were right, the Eagle is on her way back!«
Speechless, Belinda watched the Eagle fight to escape Neptune’s pull. Just as it had almost reached escape velocity, the drive quit. The craft fell slowly back into the atmosphere.
Petrow forced the Blue Moon into a risky approach maneuver and managed to bridge the distance to the Eagle at a tangent. The elite crew onboard the Blue Moon surface-docked the Eagle barely in time by means of magnetic ties, and the Solar Union ship fled the gravity well.
»Tight as a virgin!« somebody with a Scottish accent commented. Belinda Morgan acknowledged with a stern look but she didn’t miss the odd grins from the Blue Moon’s command central crew.
»We’re trying to get that ship inside one of our hangars. I’ll get back to you!« Petrow announced and cut the link.
The Blue Moon’s comm-section established a new link to the Princess, enabling her crew to watch the rescue mission. The Eagle was soon docked inside Hangar 3, where Maya Ivanova’s Hawk used to be readied. The rescue team approached the craft with all necessary safety precautions.
The team ignited the rescue charges integrated into the airlock frame and entered the craft swiftly. A moment later the team leader reported, »There’s only one person inside the Eagle! The man,« he paused briefly, realizing that Maya Ivanova was not onboard the ship, »the man is injured and needs to be transferred immediately to sick bay. He has received numerous bruises and burns. The Eagle’s interior looks similar. Almost all instruments are destroyed; there’s been a fire, but it’s extinguished by the onboard fire-suppression system. The person is unconscious … he seems to be in a coma.«
The survivor
»He’s coming around!« Doctor McNamara shouted excitedly.
»Pulse and vitals are stable,« an IC nurse announced.
Petrow cautiously approached the bed and looked at the man lying there, who had just opened his eyes and was squinting, irritated.
»How are you doing?« Petrow asked softly. The man only moaned and mumbled weakly in response.
»As soon as you can talk, you need to tell us everything. You’re the only one who has returned from this insane mission.«
The injured man was rocked by choking coughing spells. Immediately, the doctors were at his bedside.
Petrow received obvious signals from the medical staff to make himself scarce, but he stood his ground stubbornly.
»What’s your name? Can you at least tell me your name?«
»I’m … (cough) … my name is …,« the man whispered, breathing heavily.
Petrow brought his head to the man’s lips to understand the hoarse, choked words.
»… my name is McCord … (cough) … Samuel McCord.«
»What happened to the others? Can you tell us anything?«
»They’re all dead,« McCord replied laboriously, wheezing asthmatically. »Fosset went insane and died within the atmosphere. The Hawk crashed.«
Petrow grabbed McCord by his shoulders and shook him until the doctors tore him away from the bed.
»What did you see? What happened down there?« he yelled, enraged, at McCord.
McCord sat halfway up and looked Petrow straight in the eyes.
»Fosset was wrong! There’s nothing! We found an atmospheric anomaly and I told him to return. However, Fosset insisted on landing on it – a big chunk of ice. He left the ship and didn’t listen to me. He went mad and died out there. Only when I was certain that I could no longer help him, I executed the return program. Then you rescued me.«
McCord’s head fell back on the pillow while the doctors finally pushed Petrow out of the intensive care ward. Outside, Petrow looked wonderingly at McCord from the viewing windows. The man seemed to have fallen unconscious again.
Something didn’t jibe for Petrow and he decided that he would question McCord again at a later time.
The testament
Belinda Morgan broke the holographic seal and quickly went over the plasti-foil containing Fosset’s biometric ID. Her eyes widened in disbelief. She briefly looked at each of the people in the room and began reading the testament.
»I, Hugh Fosset, will no longer be alive when you read these lines. If I died during my adventures or excursions, then let me assure you, I didn’t want to have it any other way.«
Belinda swallowed hard before she was able to continue reading:
»I was a wealthy man – more due to dumb luck than any particular genius on my part – and I’m infamous system-wide for my exotic … some would say eccentric … lifestyle. I’ve endured despising smiles and muttered comments over time, mostly from people who either underestimated me or just didn’t understand. I was rich enough not to care. There are only a handful of people I did care about.
I was accompanied on all my excursions and expeditions by my valued Princess crew. I couldn’t have done a thing without ‘em. The crew, as well as all other employees of my different companies, will be receiving a generous reward for their loyalty.
There is, however, one person who has been with me as long as I can remember. He’s been with me through thick and thin, endured my moods and stuck with me when times got rough. Since I don’t have a family, I want Samuel McCord, who was not only my bodyguard, advi
sor and assistant, but also my true friend, to inherit my current wealth as well as the stocks from colony and mining projects in my name. Yes Sammy, now you are stinking rich! Use your inheritance wisely and keep your feet on the ground!
Signed: Hugh Fosset.«
With trembling hands, Belinda placed the document on the table before her. Samuel McCord, only survivor of the ill-fated mission and its only witness was now the heir to Fosset’s billions. He didn’t know it yet; he was still in intensive care. Belinda gnawed on her lower lip.
Out of the mouth of death into a new life. McCord is set for life! she thought, deeply moved.
Doubts
»An atmospheric anomaly?« Petrow didn’t finish the sentence. »Do you believe that?«
The members of the small scientific team looked at each other sceptically for a moment. Then the team leader admitted, »We don’t know enough about Neptune’s atmospheric conditions, especially at that depth, to confirm McCord’s report. We only have his statements until we’re able to develop better technologies to explore this mysterious object. Theoretically, it is possible to find a gigantic methane-ice patch as he described in Neptune’s layers. Our simulations haven’t yielded enough useful results to confirm it. We’re probably still missing some important parameters.«
»Can you personally imagine that a person would leave the ship and walk around there under those pressure conditions?« Petrow asked pointedly.
»We don’t know anything about Fosset’s psychological state at the time of landing on that ice patch. I can’t imagine him surviving the pressure for more than a couple of seconds. His spacesuit would have been absolutely useless under those conditions. I’m assuming that he hadn’t even left the airlock alive.«
»Okay, what about the Eagle? Did you check out the ship as I instructed? Do your findings support McCord’s statements?«
»Yes, Sir, we found traces of atmospheric gases inside the airlock chamber. That could mean that McCord was telling the truth.«
Scowling, Petrow rubbed his chin.
»I want to use the Princess’ together with the Ryan to determine and monitor the exact location of the anomaly. They have developed a certain technique, which might help us further in our observations. Inform me at any moment about its movements and other changes. This object of theirs sounds a bit too static to classify it as a simple anomaly, doesn’t it?«
»Well, not really Commander: remember the huge red spot on Jupiter? The storm center was visible for hundreds of years, not seemingly moving at all. Maybe we’re dealing with something similar here.«
Petrow wasn’t satisfied and decided, »We will continue to observe this phenomenon. Just keep an eye on it!«
… and I will keep an eye on McCord. Something stinks here!
The Techno-Ferry
Inside the hangar
The heavy door slid to the side with a grinding sound, opening the way out of the airlock into the hangar. A moment later, Toiber Arkroid and Lai Pi stepped into the vacuum as if they were on Earth, walking leisurely through a park. They were protected despite their light clothing by a personal body energy field, a welcome change from the bulky spacesuits they wore when they had started out on their journey with Scorge. Lai Pi winked at Arkroid and pointed to the gap between the large hangar gates, making the hangar’s interior environment equal to the outside.
»Four degrees Kelvin, no pressure! It’s the same as walking outside in space,« Lai Pi announced, checking the instruments on his right wrist and the supplementary instrument bundle he carried like a slim, black attaché case.
»That’s what our Morptukels like best,« Toiber Arkroid added with a thin smile. »Scorge really pampers our organic auxiliary ships.«
Two Morptukels were stored in this hangar. Pi’s suspicious glances indicated what he actually thought of these sentient, instinctual beings. He remembered his last flight onboard a Morptukel vividly and none too fondly.
Arkroid didn’t pay too much attention to these sack-like organic spaceships. He was more interested in the smaller, but unusually shaped ship that occupied the middle of the hangar. He stopped for a moment.
»You know, somehow, I remember the ship differently!«
Lai Pi also looked at the ship.
»I’m not sure,« he said, »but didn’t it look more like a sickle?«
»Exactly!« Arkroid agreed. »This looks totally different.«
The ship in the middle of the hangar didn’t resemble the ship they had docked in after they’d left Techno-Center; only its hull texture seemed similar.
Arkroid was rubbing his temples.
»Is this the right hangar?«
»Well, I think so. Finding your way around Scorge’s ship is pretty easy; just follow the illuminated floor markers. A moron could do it.«
»Maybe we misremember the original shape of the ship,« Arkroid admitted. Cautiously, he approached the ship and looked over the hull.
»This shimmering material somehow reminds me of 40028, Pi. What d’you think?«
Lai Pi came over to his side.
»It could be the same stuff.«
The men circled the object a couple of times and then looked at each other in doubt.
»No access doors, airlocks or windows, not even the smallest gap. Not my idea of what a spaceship should look like.«
Arkroid’s disappointment was obvious.
»Could the Techno-Clerics have deceived us?« Lai Pi asked mutedly.
»No, I don’t believe that. Maybe we’re just overwhelmed by the ship’s technology. Maybe we should ask Vasina’s advice.«
Lai Pi shrugged.
»She’s busy going through the Shwakan’s archives. She still believes she can find her people or at least traces. We should keep an eye on her. I’m starting to worry about her. She’s not as stable as she seems, or as she wants us to believe. Her emotions could play havoc with her.«
Arkroid just nodded and turned toward his gift. The ship or whatever it was looked like an oversized drop of mercury. It was about 20 by 30 meters at the base and about 15 meters tall. The surface was rounded and the underside slightly flattened. It seemed to Arkroid as if there was a certain surface tension holding the object together, but that could be a deception. No Human being would ever associate this object with a spaceship unless he already suspected it.
»A really strange form. Not like any ship we’d build,« Pi said.
»We’ve developed our ships according to our technology,« Arkroid explained. Our first spaceships were rockets and based on a thruster principle. That influenced later designs – still does. The form of a spaceship is pretty irrelevant if it’s designed to move only through space. Cube, cylinder or just a huge drop of metal. The Techno-Clerics’ propulsion systems are so far advanced, they probably don’t even need a drive module and don’t need to follow any specific design specs.«
Arkroid blinked reflexively as a warm stream of air touched his cheek. His face twitched.
What was that? How is that possible?
»Our body shield just collapsed,« Lai Pi reported and looked at his instruments. »We have 20 degrees centigrade and standard Earth air pressure at main sea level. The air is breathable for us. How did that happen?«
Arkroid pointed at the still open hangar gate. He clearly saw the blackness of space through the gap.
»The air hasn’t escaped and the pressure is stable. There must still be some sort of energy barrier around us. Our shields deactivated because they’re no longer needed. I assume we’re inside an energy bubble, sort of a super-enlarged protection field.«
»Where is it coming from and how was the atmosphere created in this room? Scorge?« Pi wanted to know.
Arkroid shrugged. He didn’t have an answer.
Their speculating ceased as an opening formed on the object’s surface, almost immediately taking on the silhouette of an upright Human body. A three-step pedestal extended to the hangar floor from the body-shaped opening like an invitation to enter the object.
&
nbsp; »Cheese and crackers!« Arkroid said aloud. »That wasn’t there a second ago. Did you see how the entrance opened?«
Lai Pi swallowed hard and tried to remain calm.
»What’s wrong?« Arkroid asked with a worried side glance.
»The entrance, Toiber. Am I dreaming or is the entrance shaped like a Human body of our size?«
Arkroid wore a lopsided smirk.
»Interesting mixture of functionality and symbolism. Obviously somebody wants to tell us to come inside as long as we’re Human.«
Arkroid stepped forward and walked toward the entrance.
Lai Pi tried to hold him back.
»Shouldn’t we talk to Scorge first?«
»Don’t worry, Pi. That’s our gift, remember? It’s about time that we inspected this ship. You can trust the Techno-Clerics … their moral code doesn’t allow for deception.«
A million years is a long time
Vasina of Atlantika was sitting relaxed in a media chair provided by Scorge and interfaced to the ship’s data banks. Scourge had generously granted full access to the data banks for her personal research. Vasina wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for, but an inward tension urged her on. Her main interest lay in the Galactic Peoples Data Bank, where Scorge had collected and described all the people and species he had had contact with in his long-lived travels.
Vasina quickly adapted to the search engine and navigated through the huge amount of data presented. Scorge had also provided a link to an integrated translation device, translating the data verbally to the Progonaut language.
The data bank interface was easily scriptable, but Vasina mainly used the visual option. It gave her faster results.
A small projector, hovering before Vasina’s face, scanned her eye movements and projected data directly onto her retina. Invisible micro-fields exited the air molecules in front of her ears, transmitting audible signals. A sensor detected her eyelid movements and translated them accordingly. Two blinks of her eyes took her to the next sub-folder or directory; three blinks would display more detailed information at that level.
NEBULAR Collection 2 - The Expedition: NEBULAR Episodes 6 - 11 Page 20
