"If I may have your attention please!" Henna Steen-Hilmarson demanded, banging the table with her knuckles for emphasis. "Thank you. My last point concerns the arrival of Captain Brennan from Earth. I don't think we can rightfully hold the information about the existence of Earth back from the general public for much longer."
"As long as it's not promoted as the origin of humankind," someone interjected.
"We can't avoid the facts, Senator." Nan Gunnar muttered.
"Facts? Senator, you sound like a Goner."
"In the end we're all Goners, Senator," Gunnar retorted.
"Setting up this committee was a serious mistake if you ask me!"
Gunnar's complexion darkened and he snapped angrily, "Senator Morsa, if any mistake was made it was the one that wiped Earth from our history!"
"There is no Earth, and before all, it's not the origin of humankind!"
"Can I just say something?" Kyle cut into the increasingly heated debate.
"No!" Senator Morsa shouted.
"Please do, Captain," Senators Gunnar and Steen-Hilmarson said in unison.
"With time and study I'm sure you'll answer the question of humanity's origins but I can save you the trouble…"
"Captain – I don't know who you are or where you come from." Morsa clasped his hands on the table before him and glared at Kyle. "Therefore I am, unlike some of my fellow Senators, unwilling to just abandon a constitution that has served us for many decazuras, just on your saying so. And that's my final word on the subject."
"Can we have that in writing." Kyle read on Gunnar's silently moving lips.
"Gentlemen," Steen-Hilmarson said, raising her voice. "Debates on the origins of our species are both pointless and divisive in the present context. Using my authority as Minister of Defence, I ordered a general mobilisation of our armed forces this morning and all governments have been informed. We are in a state of war with the Xenon. As you all know, in a defence condition, military authority is transferred to the prime minister. Questions?"
"I blame the increased Xenon activity on the provocative joint exercises with the Paranid last wozura," said a petite older woman with snow-white hair sitting opposite Kyle.
"Yes and no." The Defence Minister answered with a slight shake of her head. "Xenon encroachments were already significantly on the rise but there were only a few minor skirmishes, while Kyle and his escort passed though the machine held sectors."
"Minimal!" Kyle exclaimed. "That's not how I remember it."
"If you're sitting in a burning house you're not likely to notice the blazing forest." Steen-Hilmarson countered. "Only seven of the black spacecraft and three Paranid cruisers were destroyed."
"That's ten spacecraft, looks like a lot from where I'm standing."
"Where you come from there have not been any major conflicts in a long time I take it?"
"No, there haven’t."
"Well Captain, this is a real war. The Commonwealth will win but the question is – at what cost? We will need your help, for ours and for Earth's sake."
Kyle nodded. "You've got it."
"Thank you Captain." The Defence Minister glanced at her wristlet and stood up, briskly corralling her papers into a neat stack. "I'm afraid I have to adjourn this discussion for at least two stazuras as there is an emergency meeting of the General Staff. I'm sure you'll all be very interested in the results. Shall we say here again in three stazuras Senator Gunnar?"
"I suggest we all think about what we've learned and reconvene in three stazuras. Thank you for attending." Gunnar said to the room at large.
As the meeting broke up Kyle made his way to Gunnar's side to ask a favour. He was planning to take the opportunity to visit the special clinic where Ninu was attending her mother. The Senator was only too pleased to assign Brend Sobert to bring him there, but Kyle declined. The clinic was barely five mizuras, and he needed a little fresh air.
Argonia City was a bright, lively city with clean and wide streets, and a friendly face. The contrasts between old and new, small and tall, angular and rounded lent the city a charm that some would have called futuristic. There were steep surfaces of metal-glass next to red bricks, half-timbered houses coexisted peacefully near skyscrapers. Everything looked as if it had been carefully laid out by the hand of a master. Nothing hurt the eye, and Kyle thought it was fascinating. It was even a bit like Milano, in that Argonia spread well inland from the coast and a Mediterranean ambience seemed to have settled over the relaxed locals.
Too relaxed for the word to have spread Kyle realised. Things would be different after the government made a statement.
The directions were easy to follow and Kyle felt confident exploring the side streets and alleyways that split off from the busy main street. He was admiring the window display of a shop selling a variety of electronics when a tall, slim beauty with long blue hair, wearing a suit of sparkling scales that clung alluringly to her contours, approached him.
"Hello stranger," the girl, who looked no more than maybe twenty, said. "Fancy a round of Schubmukh?"
"Maybe some other time," Kyle warded her off with a smile. What the hell is Schubmukh?
"Some other time might just be too late," the girl answered ambiguously and blinked.
"The grain and the grape are wasted on me anyway," Kyle answered.
"The grain and the grape?" she repeated uncomprehending.
"Yes, that's… oh, doesn't matter. Besides, I've got a girlfriend already – and she certainly wouldn't be enthusiastic if I did a round of Schubmukh without her knowledge..."
The girl laughed brightly. "Why no! I'm sure your girlfriend would have no objections. Where do you come from Stranger, that you not know Schubmukh?"
Kyle lifted his eyes and pointed up with one forefinger. "From up there. Seventeen light-years straight ahead, and to the left at the third."
She followed his index finger and then she looked him straight in the eye. "I'm Siobhan," she said.
"Hello Siobhan," Kyle simply answered. "I'm Kyle."
"Kyle… Kyle," she smiled and furrowed her brows. "I don't know exactly why but I sense you are carrying a big secret. And I do believe you really have come from afar, farther than any."
"That is Schubmukh?" Kyle enquired who surmised that in the end it might be something like fortune-telling, crystal-gazing or something of that sort.
"No, just knowledge of human nature. After almost ninety jazuras you develop some sort of intuition about these things!"
Kyle eyes widened. "Ninety?"
"Jazuras, right. Don't ask. Kyle, I've really got an awful job here and have to carry on disposing Schubmukh. Of first-class quality, by the way! Maybe we will meet again - there's only one Siobhan on all Argon Prime. You will find me."
Bemused, Kyle said good-bye to the pretty, young woman. Ninety jazuras – no, he couldn't and didn't want to believe that!
Still having somewhat stirred thoughts, he crossed back over the street and ambled towards the hospital. An alleyway opened on what seemed to be a larger area, bustling with Argon and Teladi. He had seen no aliens on the streets of the city and intrigued Kyle headed down the narrow walkway. It broadened into a space of grass and cobbles where something resembling a medieval market from an ancient movie was taking place. Traders and stalls selling goods of all kinds from livestock to handcrafted baskets, kitchen utensils, books and electronic components. The air was shrill with hard-bargaining buyers and the outrageous laments of beaten-down sellers. There was even a Paranid juggling an excessive number of geometric objects – pyramids, globes, cuboids, rhomboids, octahedrons, tetrahedrons and shapes Kyle had no name for – with formidable precision. Kyle wondered what prompted a Paranid to prove his formidable mastery of the three-dimensionality to those soulless, two-eyed creatures in a marketplace? Possibly just to demonstrate the superiority of his species. He stopped and watched. The Paranid's white pupils, which could just barely be seen in daylight, were simultaneously looking in three different directions, but
didn't move to follow the twirling geometric figures. Presumably his three eyes gave him a field of vision well beyond 180 degrees. Amazing!
He hesitated for another moment, than moved along. A Teladi offered him a scale-scraper polished to a high gloss shine. Kyle waved him aside. What, did the saurian think he could do with a scale-scraper? Open a beauty salon for reptiles? Crazy descendants of talking salamanders!
Near the centre of the market a cheering circle of humans and Teladi prevented further progress. Something special was going on here! Kyle inserted himself into the crowd and threaded his way through the mass of bodies, drawing furious growls from the Teladi and angry glances from the Argon. Kyle affected not to notice and squeezed through to the front row of spectators just in time to see a big broad-shouldered Argon staggering and falling backwards from the arena. The crowd parted quickly and the toppling giant hit Kyle like a sack of sand, half smothering him with his weight and half choking him with a body odour a lot like fish.
Crushed to the cobblestones Kyle managed to roll onto his stomach and arms but the Argon lay like a lead weight across his body, unconscious.
"Great," thought Kyle, "I can see it now. 'Envoy from Earth badly injured in fist fight with mad body-builder.'"
"I'm really sorry," he heard a female voice behind him saying regretfully. "But I didn't have any choice." Kyle struggled to shift the inert mass of the Argon. "Can I help you up?"
"Would be nice!" he moaned, turned around to grab the hand he was offered.
He looked up into the light-skinned moon face of a dark haired woman with almond Asian eyes that widened as they disbelievingly recognised him.
"K…?"
"Lin?"
"The argon giant had long since awoken and crawled away on all four limbs, and the crowd long since dispersed, before they stopped alternatively hugging and holding each other at arms length in wordless astonishment.
People used to say 'what a small world' when they met someone they knew far away from home.
How small the world really was, nobody could have guessed.
CHAPTER 39
A religion that is to be thoroughly understood by science alone will have ceased to exist at the end of this process.
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Ninu, will now finally come to pass, what we dreamt of for so long?" Norma Gardna breathed, gazing at her daughter from the corner of her eyes without moving her head. She sat half erect in her sickbed, too weak to speak aloud, but too alive to give in to the sickness just yet and be silent.
She couldn't be too old; Elena, standing one step behind Kyle, estimated the Beholder of the Truth to be no more than fifty Earth years. It was easy to see that she must have been a very beautiful woman once, and would still be, without the sickness. Her kinship with Ninu was unmistakeable: her features, the corners of her mouth, the eyes. But she was exhausted to the limits of her power, emaciated and pale. Her skin hung loose and her hair line was shot with grey.
The hospital had made some effort to make the room light and friendly. A picture of a single large bloom adorning the facing wall and a swathe of plants grew in well-tended hydro-bowls. Despite the unobtrusive medical equipment, designed without visible displays and incessant, irritating beeps, the trailing tubes embracing the Keeper left no doubt that this was an intensive care bed.
Ninu sat stroking her mother's hand. Ion Battler stood on the other side of the bed looking down, sad but composed, at his adoptive mother.
"Yes, Norma," Ninu said quietly. "Earth is very close now."
The Keeper frowned and nodded faintly. "Much is still to be done. I don't believe that I…" She took a deep breath and stopped exhausted. After a long pause, she continued: "Xenon attacks, diplomacy, technology. I'm keeping well-informed in spite of everything!"
"I know you are, Norma," Ninu said.
"My daughter! I know you usually don't, but just this one time. Call me mother. I'd so like to hear it."
Ninu nodded, her eyes moist. "Of course, mother." She broke off, unable to speak and leaned forward to gently embrace the frail Keeper.
"Please tell me, Ninu," the weakened woman breathed. "Will you, you two, you and Kyle… will I be a grandmother?"
Ninu looked at Kyle but he didn't really know how to answer. A yes would make the dying woman happy but the future, especially his own, was uncertain.
Norma Gardna coughed loudly. Alarmed, Ninu turned towards her mother to find her features twisted into a strained smile. "Mother?"
"It's alright, Ninu. The look on your face was quite priceless, but…"
"Please, you must rest mother!"
"No! The expression on this handsome fellow's face has been a divine experience!" She turned her head slightly. "Kyle, man from Earth, show us the way to the blue planet. Show my Ninu, your Ninu, how beautiful it is. And compensate Ion for he can no longer become a Keeper of Truth."
The boy looked up, startled. "Why, mother? Why can't I?"
"Come here Ion," Norma whispered. She took his hand. "When the truth is in everyone's heart it no longer needs a guardian. And that's where it will be soon. Kyle will see to that, and Ninu, and the beautiful warrior, Elena Kho."
Elena acknowledged the compliment with a slight bow, she had gotten used to the fact her Eurasian features were unusual and exotic here in the Commonwealth. That Kyle, who she found so many light years from home, had given his heart to someone here, that was something that would take some time to adjust to. At least Ninu seemed friendly; if the girl had more qualities than that, she didn't know, because she had met her only a few hours ago.
"Ion… Ninu… go with your friends and comrades. Go aboard of the Aladna, bear me in… in good remembrance, like I have been, not like I… will be." The Keeper paused and fought long for breath. "I don't want you to be here when I die."
"Mother!"
"Please!" Norma Gardna wheezed. For a short time it seemed that the glimpse of a longed for future had lent the dying woman some strength but now it looked as if she was wasting away before their eyes. "So tired…" she said. "Go now!" Her eyes closed, and the rattling rasp of each wrested breath became a little bit louder.
Ninu stood up hesitantly and looked at Kyle for help. The man from Earth took her close in his arms.
"I believe she is right, Ninu."
Ion looked concerned at his sister. Strangely, he had felt closer to Norma than Ninu since his earliest childhood but despite that, he held his feelings in check while tears flowed down her cheeks.
That evening Ninu returned to the Aladna Hill to accompany her to Montalaar. "Don't forget me," she whispered to Kyle when they said good-bye.
"I will not", he said seriously and they kissed again – a short but passionate farewell. Then they parted.
Ion Battler took the next chance he had to return to Cloudbase. He was living in exciting times and there was much to do even if he could no longer follow in Norma's footsteps and become a Keeper. He would still follow her path because it led to Earth, and there would always be truths to be kept.
CHAPTER 40
The Teladi creatures are quite versatile! Even if diplomacy fails, you can still fashion a rustic bowl from their scale-plates, and serve Boron fillet in it!
Kyo t'Nnt
Pirate
Cho t'Nnt was brooding over the gravidar records he had taken from the deplorable Captain Loanises three tazuras previously. The premonition that he was missing something was prickling like an electric current on his skin and in his guts. It made him irritable. What was it, Thuruk? What?
With growing impatience the Split browsed through a long chain of strangely structured data branches, until eventually he hit the console with his right fist, forming the sign for "being at loss" with his left. More from a feeling of growing frustration than from real curiosity, he re-opened a data branch that he had seen a dozen times over. It was a most unimportant branch, astrophysical logbook entries, nothing but scientific balderdash, good for nothing!
He was about to
close the data branch again, when an entry flashed up that recorded the exact position of two remote pulsars and a mathematical term describing the quantum mechanic difference of an unnamed oscillating weight. He paused baffled, and looked closer. Why did this feel so familiar? This entry was important, it had a meaning!
"He will send me Pha t'Phnn, computer." It would certainly mean something to the flight engineer as well.
"Technician t'Phnn is in a phase of rest. Do you wish to wake him?"
Cho punched the input panel, generating random characters on screen. "He will wake him up instantly!" Didn't he just give an order? Since when it was the on-board computer permitted to discuss instructions?
Scarcely a mizura later Pha t'Phnn requested permission to enter.
"He will tell me what that means!" Cho snarled at the engineer without any greeting.
Pha t'Phnn answered after a quick glance at the screen. These are reference points for a grav-pulser, master."
Of course! Why didn't he hit on it himself right away? The position of a grav-pulser could be determined faster than light at a radius of many light jazuras around the device – provided that one possessed the reference points!
"What does he suppose, Pha, the saurians were tracking?"
The flight engineer partially sketched the sign for 'Excuse me?' and said: "Master, if it didn't sound so strange, I assumed that they were tracking Brennan and his ship. But…"
"But how did the grav-pulser get aboard of jump-ship, Pha?"
Pha thoughtfully passed his hand over his short, white chin-beard and frowned.
"Computer, show all logical links connected with the grav-pulser," Cho ordered before the engineer could answer. The desired information was produced instantly. Cho blinked with surprise and Pha t'Phnn gave an astonished snort. One data-branch was titled, "Nanoscan jump-ship." Among the sub-files was a damage report and attached to that one on the successful installation of a grav-pulser!
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 31
