Leukonen panicked.
Don’t! It isn’t the people’s fault! the Norwegian begged.
The Soulwalker ignored the researcher and entered a new sequence. A holographic globe formed above the console and slowly began to turn. The image of Earth was surrounded by objects labeled with unknown symbols. Those must be the different orbital stations. Suddenly a high pitched singing noise filled the room. Horrified, Leukonen saw through the eyes of the Globuster Lord how several objects raced away in different directions from the Stinger’s position. The researcher choked back a silent scream of terror as one of the points moved toward his home city.
Atlantis
»Incoming plasma weapon, coordinates 4-10-30!«
Hellas remained calm despite the suddenness of the report. The enemy ships came from behind the gas giant and opened fire at once.
»Evasive maneuvers: Phi-Delta, initiate emergency thrusters. Gunners, select your targets! Return fire!«
Sitting on her throne, Vasina turned and watched the display with disbelief.
The Atlantika turned to port and the plasma weapon missed the ship by only a few hundred meters. The high energy Progonaut launchers returned fire and sent the energy to the calculated intercept point. A new sun shone in the gas giant’s orbit as the energy hit the opponent’s ship.
»Friend/Foe scan identifies a Mindcatcher patrol ship,« Hellas called out.
»Block their comm!« Vasina ordered. Technicians scrambled to obey.
»A second attack!« the scanner officer warned.
Too late. The brightly glowing, blue energy spheres approached the Atlantika and Vasina knew that any evasive tactics now would be a joke.
Herkales clasped Vasina’s throne as a heavy hit shook the entire ship. Then the enemy ship seemed to swell up and disintegrated in a bright ball of fire. The Progonauts had achieved a direct hit.
»Damage reports!« Hellas demanded from all sections of the ship.
»Primary energy banks are damaged. The secondary drive works but the tachyon drive has been severely hit! The enemy ship must have hidden behind one of the moons of Bloody Eye over there and detected us, despite the stealth shield! That’s not good!« He nodded at the striped gas giant with its ominous red storm system.
Vasina met Herkales’ dismay-filled eyes. If the drive was irreparably damaged, the Atlantika was stranded in this system.
»Getting data from the spy probe!« a comm-officer reported.
Vasina held her breath.
»Scan the entire sector! I want to know how many of the beasts’ ships are wandering around here! Transfer probe data to the control room!«
When the first pictures of the blue planet came in Vasina thought she was looking at Atlantika, but no – it was definitely a different planet. Swarms of ships descended to the surface of this world and landed on different continents, large land masses bordered or surrounded by even larger oceans.
»They’re driving our people out of the ships, leaving the survivors behind. All they have is their clothing!« Herkales merely said what everyone in the control room saw anyway. Other pictures followed and showed groups of Progonauts with darker skin color.
»Survivors from the House of Nubia! How is this possible?« Vasina called out, astonished.
»No doubt we’ll see survivors from all the other houses. All of them being left behind without supplies. No weapons, no shelter and no food. Most of them will die on this strange world!« Herkales said, grief evident in his knit brows.
»The Dark Brotherhood destroys our worlds and leaves some of us in this faraway system. What does it mean?«
Herkales still couldn’t understand the situation.
The shield-bearer turned to Vasina, but she was just staring at the pictures. The ruler of the Houses of Atlantika seemed to grasp the situation and whispered in such a low voice that Herkales had to strain to hear her, »They’re placing our people on different continents without weapons – yet a large enough contingent from every house to guarantee their survival. The Progonauts will be too concerned with essential details of survival to think about anything else. Look at them: mostly young, perhaps young and strong enough to endure in the new surroundings but not wise enough to preserve the knowledge of our culture over the years.«
»Vasina?« Herkales asked softly. »If you know what this is about, tell me!«
With a movement of her head, she swept her long black hair over her shoulder and frowned at her shield-bearer.
»They’re establishing a reserve, Herkales! They’ve devastatingly defeated our people but at the same time preserved enough of us to fulfill some mysterious plan of theirs. As they battle for survival, our people will soon forget what they once were until some distant time, when they will learn their new purpose.«
Deep silence held in the control room. Herkales defiantly raised his chin. »Your Majesty, we can’t permit that! Not as long as we live and this ship can still fly the stars.«
Vasina’s eyes narrowed.
»Keep a watch on the Deporters’ movements. As soon as the Rexa ships have departed, set course for the blue planet.
Hellas issued some orders and turned back to Vasina.
»Your Majesty, what should we call this planet?«
The Progonaut Queen glanced over her shield-bearer’s golden armor and the proud insignia of the House of Atlantika it displayed.
»I name this new world Atlantis, in memory of our homeland, and in the hope that the souls left behind may find peace, and someday return to the surface.
Trondheim
»Our weapons are useless!« a gunner reported. The Stinger showed no reaction to a direct hit! The laser beams were simply absorbed!«
Arkroid’s face hardened.
»Turn the ship and try it again!« he commanded defiantly.
The scanner alarm cut off Arkroid’s words.
»Attention! Incoming unknown weapon. Impact in eight, seven, six …«
Arkroid saw a glowing energy sphere that had emerged from the Stinger’s tip and was racing toward the Blue Moon.
»Evasive maneuvers! Maximum acceleration! NOW!«
The cruiser’s propulsion system thundered and Dragonis forced the battleship into a maneuver he thought he never would have attempted. The plasma charge missed the ship by meters, its nearness leaving a dark burn mark on the mirrored hull.
»Nobody on board would have survived this without the inertia compensators,« the first officer said dryly.
»More shots fired! Plasma balls moving toward Orbital Stations III and VII! A third shot is aimed at a surface target! The impact will occur near the Norwegian city of Trondheim!«
Arkroid jumped out of his seat. His hands were clenched so tightly that his fingernails cut into his palms. The Merinian knew that it was already too late for an evacuation of the city. The first orbital station glowed and disappeared from the radar screen, then the second. Nobody dared to say a word until Arkroid, voice trembling, asked, »Did they get out?«
The control room officers stood as if in deep shock.
When no one answered, Arkroid screamed, »Did you see any rescue pods?«
Dragonis quietly shook his head.
»The third weapon has reached its target,« the scanner officer reported. »The Norwegian city of Trondheim was destroyed in a raging ball of fire.«
»Turn the ship around and park it in orbit at a safe distance,« Arkroid said. This was going to be the darkest day of his entire life.
A strange find
You damn murderer! You beast! What did those people do to you? Leukonen thought in pure despair. He didn’t expect an answer.
Be quiet, your whimpering makes me sick! I can force this meaningless world out of its orbit, stop the pulse of all its lifeforms or sink the continents into the oceans, which I’ll do if you keep challenging me! Your people know nothing. Naïve, powerless and weak; you weren’t always like that, you know. I can remember when you exposed the Brotherhood’s agitators, rebelled against the galaxy’s des
tiny … but no trace of the power that so frightened and fascinated my creators remains in you now!
Leukonen didn’t understand a single word of what the Soulwalker shared with him.
We’ll defeat you and bring your creators to ruin! Leukonen thought boldly.
You don’t know what you’re talking about, you poor worm! the Soulwalker laughed. Once the collector is repaired, I’ll not only hold your miserable life but legions of action bodies in my hands.
With these words, the Soulwalker again left the scientist’s body. Leukonen felt a brief bioelectric shock. He became nauseated and had to vomit. The assaulting, burning headache that ensued felt as if gleaming iron bars poked his eye sockets. The Norwegian collapsed.
Close to a total breakdown, the scientist pulled himself to the Stinger’s central elevator. He had one thought: ESCAPE FROM THE SOULWALKER! He’d rather die on the ice than let the Soulwalker take over his body again.
With failing strength, the Antarctic researcher reached the central elevator and literally fell into the shaft. He was caught by a transport field and carried into the depths. Leukonen didn’t know how long he drifted downward, until he landed hard at the exit to another level, striking his head on the wall. The pain was scarcely bearable, but it brought Leukonen back to himself. The pain helped him to shake off the paralyzing transfer shock.
A new room spun in before his eyes. His distorted sense of balance dazzled him, telling him everything around him was in motion. Squinting, he observed his new surroundings. Blood ran from the corners of his mouth and he had to swallow to get rid of the taste. This level differed only slightly in size and arrangement from the control room he had come from, but some details caught his attention.
Evidently he had ventured into an area not used for a long time. In contrast to the Globuster Lord’s control room, this section looked abandoned. As Leukonen crawled forward, he stirred up thick clouds of dust that must have accumulated for many years. The dust obscured his vision, burned his eyes.
Where am I? he asked himself.
Filigreed objects splintered beneath his hands and knees, some of them disintegrating to fine dust at his lightest touch, while others felt as hard as stone and were tossed in all directions with every forward movement.
As hard as stone, or petrified? he wondered.
The researcher had a horrible thought and rubbed the stinging dust from his watering eyes. As he slowly became able to see again, he looked directly at the Human bones scattered over the floor before him! With a loud cry, he scuttled backward, breaking even more bones. They were strewn everywhere.
Oh no! Leukonen thought, horrified. The entire room was covered with the skeletal fragments of several people. Leukonen felt strangled. What is all this, all these dead people?
Then suddenly the scientist knew.
Are these the dead remains of earlier action bodies? Did the Globuster Lord just discard and abandon them?
The thought almost robbed him of his mind. Leukonen jumped up and managed to stand on his feet. The fear gave his abused body unsuspected strength. As he turned to flee, he suddenly caught a blue flash of light between the bones. The researcher halted and stared at a strange object, feeling its attraction on him. With trembling hands, Leukonen swept the bone fragments aside and looked with disbelief at the device on the floor. He reached for it, and as his fingers touched it a form of alien energy flowed through his body. It couldn’t have been more unlike the Soulwalker’s brutal, mental rape. He felt a warming, calming impulse that strengthened and revitalized him. The researcher pressed the object to his chest gratefully and left the level of horror.
Abandon ship
The Deporter fleet had left the system, but Mindcatcher ships were still being detected in the peripheral sectors. What they were up to remained a riddle.
Vasina had given orders to approach the blue planet to assist the stranded Progonauts and provide the deportees with essential supplies, but now she turned her thoughts to her people still on board the flagship.
Damage control painted a disheartening picture after the short battle with the enemy lens ship. The Atlantika had lost her long-range flight capability. The tachyon drive system was hit badly and the technicians were not certain how much was reparable with onboard resources. The Progonaut flagship approached the planet she had named Atlantis cautiously at well below light speed. Vasina had put her crew on full alert with orders to ready all auxiliary units to shuttle the refugees to the new world as soon as possible.
There were no signs of enemy activity anywhere near the third planet. After spending a day observing the sector from the dark side of a small moon, the Atlantika finally left its shadow and approached the planet directly. Short range acquisitions confirmed the data provided by the previous scans. Progonauts of the five Houses had been released on different continents. Survivors of the Houses of Persia, Nubia, Asia, India and Atlantika could be found, but each group was separated by great distances. None of the survivors had the technology necessary to contact the others.
The flagship’s sensors located a large, uninhabited land mass that formed a land bridge between two continents. It possessed sufficient natural resources to support her people and lay in a moderate climatic zone. Vasina gave orders to settle the refugees there. She personally oversaw the operations to ensure that all went well for the refugees.
While the Atlantika was parked in orbit and watched over the planet’s vicinity, Herkales flew Vasina down to the surface in an auxiliary ship. Their flight passed over the ice covered continent of the South Polar Region, which had been classified as uninhabitable.
»We can visit the more northern continents without spacesuits, Your Majesty. The atmosphere, air pressure and gravity here are almost identical to Atlantika. Your theory makes more and more sense to me. The Dark Brotherhood selected this planet for a reason. It’s perfect for Progonauts.«
»That may be, but this planet is not a new home for us nor does it mean the salvation of our people. It is a reserve, where the last Progonauts have been exiled. We still don’t know why the enemy did this. Whatever the Dark Brotherhood intends, it’s certainly not good for us.«
Herkales steered the small ship manually across the ice-covered landscape of the southern continent. The bleak ice desert stretched for many kilometers until it reached the horizon.
»Your Majesty, what if we can’t repair the Atlantika’s tachyon drive? Have you considered that?«
Vasina shrugged off her shield-bearer’s concerns. Maybe she was fatalistic, ignoring that very real possibility, but she had to take things as they came.
»Let’s tend to the refugees and divide the equipment among them. Together with the Progonauts of the other Houses, we’ll find a way to help our people.«
»That won’t happen, you miserable creature!«
Vasina and Herkales froze. One of the soldiers who had accompanied them on the flight had gotten up without warning and uttered that spiteful statement. Herkales whirled on him and reached for his vibrator sword, the traditional weapon of shield-bearers.
Vasina met the guard’s eyes evenly.
»Your name is Achilles, is it not? What do you want to add to our discussion, soldier?«
The grin was repugnant as he answered, »Did you think the Brotherhood released the Banned without a way to monitor them? Do you really think you can defy your destiny? That you have the slightest chance?«
Herkales drew his sword, protecting his queen. From what, he was not sure.
»Achilles, what’s going on with you? You’re a friend and loyal soldier of the House of Atlantika, but such disrespect is inexcusable!«
»Get out of my way, you ridiculous worm. I’m going to execute your queen! You can’t stop me.«
Two additional soldiers had leaped from their seats and drew their weapons, pointed at Achilles. He took a step backward, grabbed one of the guards and hurled him across the command room with one sweep of his arm. The man struck the steering control console hard and fell
to the deck, covered with blood.
Suddenly, Vasina noticed the deep blue glow of her Jamal-Comb.
»He’s a Soulwalker!« she screamed, terrified. »Herkales, watch out! He can lend Achilles’ body unbelievable strength.«
»Nothing will help you now!« Achilles yelled and charged at Herkales with his vibrator sword. Herkales barely avoided his first strike and Vasina watched in horror as it sliced the steering console in half. Shorted circuits sparked, dark smoke and the smell of ozone came from the console even as the assassin made his second strike. Herkales would have been killed instantly, if not for his golden chest armor, hardened by tachyon radiation at a subatomic level and able to withstand even a particle beam.
Even so, the force of the strike knocked him off his feet. Herkales was breathing heavily. The ship began to lose altitude, tumbled and fell toward the icy surface. The Soulwalker, using Achilles’ body, evinced only disdain.
»You will die now! You miserable queen of a destroyed kingdom!«
Vasina’s eyes turned icy. She whispered softly, »Forgive me, Achilles.«
Lightning fast, she drew her heavy particle gun and aimed at the only vulnerable part of the soldier’s body … his face.
She pulled the trigger unflinchingly and the Progonaut collapsed, fatally hit, in mid-attack. Horrified, the remaining guards stepped away, eyes averted.
»The ship!« Herkales sighed with pain. »We’re going to crash!«
Vasina leaped to the emergency controls and fought to stabilize the small vessel. The controls didn’t respond.
»Abandon ship! At once!«
The guards reacted immediately and opened the emergency exit. Icy wind struck them and quickly condensed the moist cabin air. In seconds, heavy dew coated the consoles.
»Jump! Leave the ship, use your emergency equipment. The tachyon shield will protect you!«
Herkales was struggling to get up.
»I think my ribs are broken. Forgive me. I’ve failed you miserably.«
NEBULAR Collection 1 - The Triton Base: Episodes 1 - 5 Page 28
