»Hellas, pull the Atlantika immediately out of orbit. Park the ship at a safe distance of one quant and monitor space around the third planet with the long range scanners!«
The voice of the young woman was used to giving orders and tolerated no objections.
»But, Your Majesty, we’ve watched your lifeboat crash. I just wanted to send a rescue team,« the flagship commander answered excitedly.
»Follow my orders immediately. There’s a Soulwalker on this planet and under no circumstances can he be allowed to board our ship!«
»Then you’re in grave danger, my Queen!« Hellas replied.
The Atlantika’s commander struggled to maintain her composure.
»Hellas, execute my orders! We’ll be all right – and keep radio silence from now on!« Vasina finished speaking and disconnected the link.
Herkales, Vasina’s shield-bearer, and bodyguard tried to suppress the pain from his broken ribs. His injury was not apparent as he spoke to her.
»Your Majesty, what are your intentions? Why don’t you let them help us?«
Vasina turned her head to the crashed glider where it had struck the glacier, many kilometers farther. A pillar of black smoke marked the spot.
»Herkales, our suits, and body shields protect us from the environmental conditions. We can move quickly with the flying suits. It will be a catastrophe if the Soulwalker manages to get on board the Atlantika. He would try to destroy the ship and then he’d be free to tyrannize the helpless refugees on this world. We’ll prevent that under all circumstances! We must find his hiding place, neutralize the beast and then help the deportees. I’m not ready to bow to the Dark Brotherhood. Whatever the enemy intended for our people, it won’t happen!«
The shield-bearer bowed his head and secured his weapon.
»How do you know where the Soulwalker is hiding? He could be anywhere on this planet. We could spend a lifetime searching and still not find him.«
The bodyguard leader noticed the glowing aura around the Jamal-Comb for the first time.
»No Herkales, he’s here. I feel it. His hiding place is in the immediate vicinity. The ice continent is a perfect place. No inhabitant of this world and no deported Progonaut will reach this place in the near future.«
The shield-bearer activated his flight suit and rose a meter above the surface.
»We shouldn’t climb too high, Vasina. The enemy could spot us and attack …«
»… even worse, someone in our group could be taken over!« she finished his sentence. »He’s tried it once and he’ll try it again. We all know that he can easily locate us with his mental abilities. We must all be careful!«
»Why hasn’t he tried it already?« Herkales pondered aloud.
Vasina also rose above the surface.
»He may need to recover from the last attack, or perhaps he thinks we were in the crashed glider and is now concentrating on something else. Whatever the reason, we can’t count on it lasting long. We have to act while we can,« she answered.
Vasina’s communicator signaled an incoming call, making her face turn red in anger. Then she noticed the call was transmitted on the emergency frequency and encoded at the highest degree.
»Hellas! Is the Atlantika at the ordered safe distance?«
The answer from the ship’s commander arrived promptly.
»As you commanded, Your Majesty! But there’s important news!«
»Speak!«
Vasina knew that Hellas would not have broken radio silence unless something unexpected had occurred.
»Your Majesty, the refugees we landed are acting strangely. A probe transmitted that they’re destroying all of their technical equipment we gave them. Radio contact with the colony has been lost … one of the gliders has just exploded! Your Majesty, I have no explanation for your subjects’ behavior. They must be out of their minds!«
»Acknowledged, Hellas.«
The color had faded from Vasina’s face. Her lips looked pale, empty of blood.
»What happened? Still more bad news?« Herkales asked.
»The Soulwalker must be more powerful than we imagined. He has started to influence our people en masse! They’re destroying their equipment and are no longer masters of their senses. They’re no better off now than the deported Progonauts from the other worlds! We have to do something!«
»Where you go, we’ll follow!« one of the guards shouted.
»We’ll fly to the South Pole. The beast must be hiding there somewhere and we’ll find him! Follow me!«
The Progonauts accelerated in their flight suits, led by a determined queen with nothing left to lose.
Rules
Donald Day, Maya Ivanova, Bill Davis and their officers and staff gathered in the large conference room. They took their seats and watched as an image slowly formed from the holographic projector. Lai Pi introduced the subject.
»Commander, what we’re about to see is the first clear video transmission from an alien civilization. We’ve received literally hundreds of such transmissions, but so far only this one has been deciphered and formatted for viewing. The composition is close to our current technology, indicating that the senders seem to think in ways similar to us. We haven’t been able to extract an audio signal from the data stream, but the pictures speak for themselves.«
The room became dark and the presentation began. At first, only interference flickered across the halo, but soon contours formed from the optical noise.
»Is that a … planet?« Maya Ivanova asked, uncertain of what she was seeing.
Lai Pi’s voice was soft, almost a whisper.
»It will get clearer. At this point, its signal strength was pretty weak.«
Abruptly, the video quality improved and showed the full view of a planet, a world similar to Earth but with unfamiliar landmasses and oceans. A whisper filled the room.
»We only have black and white. We can’t process the color information yet,« the DEA specialist added apologetically.
The viewing angle changed. A dual sun system appeared behind the curvature of the unknown planet and flashed on the optics. Lens flare disturbed the picture with light patterns and glowing circles. The footage had apparently been recorded and transmitted by a moving object in space.
»Which solar system is this?« Morgenstern asked interestedly. »Can we identify the dual star system?«
»The signal came from the direction of the Great Dog constellation. Sirius is the brightest fixed star in the night sky and part of this constellation. The picture we’re watching could actually portray Sirius A and B. The dual star system is 8.6 lightyears away and can still be considered a close neighbor. The planet seems to revolve around both suns and at first glance appears to be very similar to Earth, probably an oxygen world with moderate temperatures.«
Then the picture changed again and showed the planet from a different perspective.
»The night side!« Maya Ivanova commented. »Look at all the lights on the surface! You can pick out contours of the continents from the inhabited areas.« She paused, seeming to realize what she was saying. »Bozhe moi … The planet is inhabited!«
Suddenly, an almost intolerable brightness filled the peaceful scene. Like strings of pearls, many salvos of blinding balls of fire shot along the night side of the unknown planet.
Day jumped out of his seat.
»Someone is firing at the planet!«
Cries of horror followed as the effect of the impacts became visible. Every target involved an area of many hundred square kilometers. The reaction from the planet’s surface took only a few seconds, but it was weak and ineffectual.
»They’re defending themselves … shooting back!« Davis observed.
»At least they’re trying,« Lai Pi corrected. »I don’t think the planet’s inhabitants had a chance.«
The picture changed again, zooming to the surface of the besieged world. A flourishing city stood in the morning dawn along the edge of a large canyon. Multitudes of strange lifeforms had gathere
d before the edge of the canyon and seemed to be waiting for something. The short creatures immediately stirred associations. Almost everyone in the room thought of lemurs, or small, hominoid apes. However, these were no mere animals for they all wore clothing.
Obvious offensive and defensive fire arose from the outskirts of the big city, whose architecture was breathtaking. Far on the horizon, continuous impacts from outer space weapons followed. The great explosions shook the ground. Occasionally, one of the huge building complexes of the futuristic city collapsed from the earthquake-like shockwaves, rocking the ground.
»Look at these creatures!« Someone from Day’s staff blurted. »There must be millions!«
As if by a secret command, the strange creatures leaped over the edge into the depths. They fell hundreds of meters before the impact crushed their bodies. The rocky ground at the canyon’s bottom was soon covered by these creatures.
Day paled, sat down in his chair and didn’t move. This message was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen. Still, he couldn’t turn his eyes away from the apocalyptic scene. A hundred thousand beings leaped to their deaths simultaneously. Then another wave followed. As the impacts of the attacker’s weapons came closer and the first defensive positions at the edge of the city were destroyed, an entire folk committed mass suicide.
One of the men in the room had to vomit, and most of the others were almost paralyzed by what they saw. Then the city suffered a direct hit and the shock wave tossed thousands of the unfortunate creatures over the edge. The survivors who had somehow managed to hang on to something were burned to dust. Seconds later the transmission finally stopped and the horrible scenes ended, at least from the hologram. Every witness felt they would be burned into their minds forever.
As the lights came on again, no one spoke. An appalled silence prevailed in the room. Day tried to make eye contact with Jörgmundson, but the scientist stared at the floor.
Lai Pi stood up and spread his arms. In his orange colored outfit and the predominant silence, he looked almost like a priest leading a prayer session. Then he spoke insistently.
»We’ve all seen the images, but don’t know what type of news we’ve received. We’re all shocked … by all rights. This message could be a warning. The unfortunate creatures could have sent the message to condemn the aggressors. Or perhaps the aggressors sent the images to demonstrate their might or made an example. It could even be a simple entertainment broadcast … science fiction! Perhaps a documentary of an event from far in the past or, as we all fear, an actual live broadcast of an invasion and the destruction of an entire world!«
Lai Pi paused briefly, still looking at pale, drawn faces. Then he continued, »What I’m trying to say is that we lack the context we need to understand these sequences. These events probably took place over eight years ago, because if it’s really Sirius that’s how long it would take for the transmission to reach us. Earlier terrestrial entertainment broadcasts could terrify other cultures that might pick them up at random. One thing is sure: Whether or not this transmission originated from our immediate cosmic neighbor, what it displays is force and destruction.«
»What’s your point, Pi?« Day was the first to recover and inquired with a hoarse voice.
»What I’m trying to say is that the universe around us is full of life, but it is also full of danger, violence and catastrophes. If this unknown aggressor were to attack the Earth today, we would be almost helpless!«
»We’ve already been attacked, remember?!« Ivanova yelled.
Lai Pi made a dismissive gesture.
»Humanity was isolated for all this time. The confrontation with the Globusters only began when we went to Quaoar. We crossed a line. If we had followed the rules, nothing might have happened …«
»… rules we knew nothing about!« Davis added, but Lai Pi ignored his remark.
»The second factor was the arrival of the Shwakan, who detected the tachyon signature from our sun through the gap in the Globuster shield. Then the Stinger detected Scorge’s ship’s tachyon emission and brought the Globuster Lord onto the plan.«
»We’re familiar with the chain of events. Now, what can we learn from what we’ve just seen? What should we be afraid of?« Davis asked quietly.
»The worst case scenario is that there’s an aggressive race in our cosmic neighborhood, which invades other solar systems and mercilessly annihilates their inhabitants. I have to ask myself: do we really want to completely dismantle the Globuster shield? It may be the only thing protecting us!«
Day nodded slowly.
»I see what you mean. We don’t want these people to discover us before we’re ready, right?«
Lai Pi bowed slightly.
»That’s my assessment, Commander.«
Ivanova got out of her chair.
»Are you telling me that we should thank the Globusters? That’s absolute bullshit! Those creatures are our enemies.«
»Don’t forget the Globuster Lord on our planet. His stated purpose is to destroy our civilization. There’s a plan we do not yet understand,« Morgenstern tossed into the discussion.
Lai Pi calmed down.
»I don’t even want to come close to suggesting we could come to an arrangement with the Globusters, nor do I believe in an alliance with these creatures. If our world survives the Globuster Lord, maybe we can use his technology for our own purposes.«
Before the commander could answer, the siren from the space surveillance center sounded and made everyone jump in their seats.
Ivanova reacted first and spoke quickly into her wrist communicator. She alerted the special DEA unit.
Day looked helpless. When he spoke, he sounded depressed.
»This is it. Now we’ll learn if we’re to share the same fate as the people in the video.«
Barrels
The small tracked vehicle pushed its way through the icy wasteland. Loaded with two black barrels, it approached the Stinger. The Stinger’s tip glowed from the intensity of its energy beam until it looked like a blinding solar flare.
The confinement ring soldiers had retreated to twenty kilometers by orders of the Union government and dug into the ice. Heavy laser platforms were brought into position and could fire within seconds. The Blue Moon waited in orbit with the crew at battle stations and all of her weapons trained on the Stinger.
In the situation room at Uluru station, Hayes, Arkroid, and Banduk watched tensely as the small vehicle approached the Soulwalker’s bastion. Arkroid could hardly keep still. He didn’t like being this nervous, but the following hours would probably determine the future of mankind.
»You really think the vehicle will reach the Stinger? How can you be so certain?«
Banduk smiled.
»The Globuster Lord’s arrogance is his greatest weakness. He defended himself effortlessly from the Blue Moon’s attack and terrified us with his reprisals. He considers himself so superior that he probably doesn’t consider our small vehicle to be a threat. I guess the spider-like robots will stop the vehicle and examine the barrels – that’s what I’m waiting for.«
Hayes spoke softly into his wrist communicator and turned to Arkroid.
»The Antarctic commandos are ready for action. I have ordered the officers to attack with everything they have if our attempt fails. If our weapons don’t work, then the Blue Moon will fire a space torpedo with a nuclear warhead, and that’s that. Not even the Stinger can survive a nuke.«
Arkroid was skeptical.
»I have a feeling that our weapon systems won’t accomplish much. If I remember correctly, isn’t the detonation of a nuclear weapon in violation of the old treaty which declared Antarctica a nuclear-free zone?«
»We’ll see,« Hayes replied angrily. »The survival of mankind takes priority. When everything else fails, you have to use the last resort.«
»Something is happening!« Banduk shouted, alarmed. »The enemy drones have become aware of our vehicle!«
The tracked vehicle’s camera delivered am
azingly sharp pictures. The spider-like robots slowly and carefully began to surround the vehicle and inexorably tightened the ring even closer. Then a blinding energy beam put an abrupt end to the advance and the pictures ceased.
»Don’t panic!« Banduk shouted. »I expected that. One of the robot units has stopped the armored transport with a salvo. The camera is out of action, but the barrels are still sealed. They’ll be undamaged. I’ll switch to remote video.«
After a few seconds the view changed and the damaged transporter was seen from a more distant angle. The remote cameras also converted the video to 3D. The raging snowstorm obscured the holo-presentation despite computer enhancements.
»That’s all we can do,« Banduk apologized.
»The energy beam has melted the tracks of the vehicle. It is unfortunately no longer maneuverable.«
Both barrels were clearly visible, lying in the snow, surrounded by the spidery robots. They had slid off the transporter after its abrupt stop.
»What are the robots doing?« Arkroid asked anxiously. »If they destroy the barrels the mission has failed.«
»No,« Hayes whispered,» they seem to be examining the barrels!«
Some of the robots used their legs to roll the barrels around in the snow but seemed undecided about what they should do next.
Banduk hurried from the control console to a low pedestal, set up for him near the main steering console. He put on a special full body suit, equipped with numerous sensors and fiberglass interfaces, then he picked up a specially designed helmet. The mask completely covered the researcher’s face and looked like a semitransparent mirror. On the inside of the helmet, in front of each eye, a special, microscopic laser projector projected the pictures and information directly onto the retinas.
Banduk raised his thumbs – ready.
»How far are the barrels from the Stinger?« Hayes asked.
»Seventy meters,« a technician reported. »Critical distance is fifty meters. We have to get the barrels closer to the entrance!«
NEBULAR Collection 1 - The Triton Base: Episodes 1 - 5 Page 32
