»I can vouch for that!« Lyla asserted.
Oodergoo nodded.
»We suspected as much. I’ve sent our security forces after them. We’ll find the culprits. They can’t leave Uluru Station; they’re as much locked up in here as we are. We will find them, and the people who sent them!«
Van Velzen closed his eyes, squeezing Lyla’s hand.
»I want to leave Uluru and work somewhere else. I … can’t work here any longer. Will you come with me?« he asked her mutedly.
Lyla smiled.
»I’ll go wherever you’re going,« she promised and kissed him.
Please, call me Nautilus
»What were you thinking?« Arkroid asked sharply as the connection to the Destiny was re-established. Hayes’ head appeared on the Techno-Ferry’s holo. He remained ice-cold and ignored Arkroid’s question.
»You’re a traitor! I believe that you were captured by our enemy and turned against us. You’re working for the people responsible for this virus. Cease your transmissions or I’ll fire again!« Hayes was breathing heavily. »You’ll pay for it, Arkroid! You’ll hang for this mutiny!«
»Mutiny?« Arkroid retorted. »You seem to have a wrong impression, Admiral. I assume there’s a reason for that.«
»What you assume or believe is not important, Arkroid. Surrender the extra-terrestrials in your company and you might face a lighter sentence!«
Paafnas was frightened and licked over his eyeballs.
Toiber Arkroid looked at him – and smiled.
»… you will also surrender the alien spaceship. We can use its technology for the Union!«
Arkroid pondered for a moment, ignoring Hayes’ request and turned the tables on him.
»Oh, yes, I’ll bet you want this alien. Paafnas helped us unmask McCord. What would you say if I tell you we’ve found a way to defeat the disease?«
»If you try to incite a rebellion against me, you’re a dead man!«
Hayes was raging like a madman. He seemed to have lost control, Arkroid didn’t believe for a second that Hayes’s emotions were real.
»Stop threatening me, Hayes,« Arkroid hardened his tone. »What did you do to help the colonists? Where’s the emergency aid? Looks more like a blockade to me.«
Vasina nodded grimly.
»Keep digging. You’re getting to him,« she suggested.
Hayes was foaming.
»One more word and I …«
»… don’t promise what you can’t deliver!« Arkroid cut him off. Your attempts to worsen the situation are transparent. I’ll handle the disease with the means on my ship. Every minute is costing Human lives, Hayes, which you don’t seem to care much about anymore!«
»Destiny has launched three missiles, Toiber!« the Techno-Ferry announced. »Targets are the central colony, Marsport and the eastern settlements. Emission signatures indicate nuclear emission. They’re trying to destroy us and the entire colony!«
Arkroid paled.
»Knock out the missiles! Open all comm-channels so everybody in the solar system can hear us!« Arkroid commanded.
While the missiles disintegrated in space, Arkroid announced coldly, »That’s it, Hayes! You’re not going to destroy the Mars colony and murder these people. I’m relieving you of your post!«
»Destiny and two Nova-Hawks are taking position over the colony!« Nautilus announced. »This could be a concentrated attack.«
Arkroid nodded slowly and continued speaking.
»This is Toiber Arkroid, addressing all Union Fleet units. Admiral Hayes has been manipulated by extraterrestrial forces and is acting as an agitator for the Dark Brotherhood. I have relieved him of his duties from this moment in accordance with my powers invested in me as Chief of the SEA and in agreement with Nok Daralamai Chief of SIS. Hayes is an enemy of Humanity! The person you knew as Admiral Hayes no longer exists. He is an enemy clone sent to destroy us and the colonies. Hayes is to be arrested. These are my direct orders to the commander of the Destiny … execute! You’ll receive Nok Daralamai’s and my authentication in a short while!«
»You knew?« Fosset asked perplexed.
Arkroid smiled weakly.
»Hmm … let’s say Commander Daralamai had her suspicions. We made some preparations.«
Moments after the authentications were received, the Nova-Hawks pulled away from the Destiny and moved to a neutral orbit around Mars.
»This is a coup, Merinian! I herewith sentence you to death!«
»Death sentences are no longer executed in the Solar Union. Those times were over a long time ago, Hayes. Your Dark Brotherhood superiors forget to tell you that, Mr. Agitator?«
The central holo showed a couple of rough scenes inside the Destiny’s command central as SIS agents tried to apprehend Hayes and some of his followers tried to defend him. The situation was spiraling out of hand. Suddenly, a radio message from Mars was received over the Union Fleet channels.
»This is Admiral Jones, Commander, Mars Defense, speaking. All Mars Defense Forces are now under the direct command of Toiber Arkroid. The Destiny will immediately leave Mars orbit and assume a safe distance from the planet. Any repeated missile launches will be interpreted as a direct attack on our colony and followed by appropriate defense measures!«
Hayes and his followers were frustrated, long enough for the SIS agents to seize control and disarm them. The Destiny’s command central crew remained passive and neutral.
»We’re in control, Arkroid. Commander Daralamai is being informed,« an SIS Agent announced via holo. »Please, resume your mission and save the Mars colonists.«
Arkroid thanked the agent for his swift action while Hayes was led away, cursing and swearing loudly.
»Be careful! Hayes is no longer Human, but an agent of a powerful extraterrestrial force. Secure him. Paafnas will be transferring to the Destiny to identify Hayes as an agitator. I knew the real Admiral Hayes – he would never have acted like this.«
Fosset was very excited, perspiring heavily.
»I hope we didn’t promise too much, Toiber. Are you certain that the Techno-Ferry has sufficient power to bathe the entire colony and eradicate the crystalline spores?« he asked apprehensively.
»You may address me directly, Hugh … and the answer is yes, definitely!« the Ferry replied. »Please, call me Nautilus. My body can generate more than enough power to move along the highest tachyon track levels, to travel from galaxy to galaxy, even force suns from their galactic orbits.«
»Okay, then we shouldn’t hesitate much longer and go on with it!« Fosset suggested convinced. »Let’s use your power for something positive!«
»I wouldn’t use it for anything else, Hugh,« the Techno-Ferry proclaimed.
Arkroid smiled and issued the command via mental transmission.
Nautilus started and maintained an orbit above the colony, while it was changing its shape to form a pseudo-parabolic antenna. At the same time, it produced and materialized a couple of gigantic loudspeaker-like acoustic fields inside the colony, including the eastern settlements. Moments later, the first high-energy acoustic impulses were transmitted to the Mars surface. Arkroid hoped that everything worked flawlessly.
16 - The Genorantan Prophet
Written by Thomas Rabenstein
Inside the Globuster ship
The worst part is the feeling of powerlessness – my entire body being usurped and misused. Even my mind is beginning to think in different realities, trains of thoughts so foreign and repulsive it’s like being another person. I don’t know how else to describe it; nobody else has ever gone through anything like this. At times there is an alien thinking for me, controlling me – artificial, cold, calculated, but nevertheless, alive! I’ve fought against it but it’s no use. The other is intangible, invisible, but omnipresent. It’s in my thoughts and it controls my muscle movements and actions. I feel like a prisoner in my own body – buried alive – and then there’s something more …
Suddenly, I can see and feel things I had no p
erception of before. My eyes see things I never imagined. I see tachyon streams, gravitational lines of force and – I understand them! My mind comprehends things I couldn’t have dreamed of. My technological intellect has evolved exponentially since this intervention. I’m no longer alone. My personality has become part of a bigger scheme … and it’s not a negative experience.
I am Hassan Khalil and I was a Globuster lens pilot. The ship didn’t obey my orders; it used me as an integral part of it! It took away my right to make my own decisions. I don’t resent that - the ship gave me knowledge and never before experienced insights in return, but my problem is the constant bombardment with thoughts from the ship, echoing in my head. The probe inserted into my bone marrow caused only a brief pain that no longer bothers me. The same with all the other 47 implants that adapted to my nervous system by means of semi-organic neuronal interfaces. I’m not angry about the ship using my body and my metabolism, but what I can’t stand is its constant thought of defeating Humanity! The ship is not really alive, but it has a conscience. It has instincts, but to transform these low level reactions to intelligent behavior, it needs me – the pilot! I lend the ship the capabilities it’s lacking. It taps my brain and feeds on my emotions to nourish its own. We live in symbiosis – but at what price?
I know that I can’t return to what I was before. Strangely enough that doesn’t bother me; I could be almost entirely resigned to that, if it weren’t for the ship ordering me to murder Humans! That – I can’t do! I have disobeyed that order with all my will, denying the voice in my head that demands I kill my brothers and sisters!
I decided to change the ship’s plans, and was able to send a mental impulse to the propulsion system which forced the ship off course, making it tumble. I triumphed inwardly as I deactivated the weapons, already aimed and ready to fire. My action stopped the ship from engaging the Hawk interceptors! My actions were implemented immediately – by thought, without keyboard or sensor pad. There were no such archaic input devices on the ship. In my fight to keep the upper hand, I had to deliberately cancel some actions while others were executed. This was a very different, and at first difficult, way to navigate and control a ship.
I was bathed in a wash of emotions from all directions, especially from my sub-conscience. Parts of my brain that had never before been used to their fullest potential flooded me with questions and reminding signals, somehow amplifying the ship’s demands. I knew I was beginning to break down, so I steered the ship on a collision course with Triton, which suddenly appeared before my eyes. Fighting the loud voice in my head was exhausting, but colliding the ship with Triton, destroying the ship and myself made my fate easier to bear. What a strange relief … I hesitated … and my resistance faded almost as fast as it had risen. Suddenly, I felt like an embryo connected to its mother on an umbilical cord. Was I able to destroy the ship … my life-line? Can I exist without it?
While I hesitated, pondering our inter-dependence, the ship acted. It seized control and, for an instant, dominated. It reduced the speed and the force of impact. We hit, and I felt physical and mental pain. The cracking of the hull felt like cracking my own bones. My silent cry was the cry of pain from the ship, echoing inside me. I felt like dying together with the ship.
Then the interfaces and straps holding me safely in the pilot’s bed-like seat loosened and gave way. While the temperature rapidly increased within the ship, tiny hairs, almost like legs of a centipede, transported me through the connecting tunnel toward the airlock, which opened with an eerie sound. I was evacuated – no, thrown out of the ship, and landed on my feet on Triton’s surface. I was irritated for a moment and needed to regain my orientation. I looked up and saw the blue disk of Neptune above me.
I was naked! I didn’t feel embarrassed even when I was approached by heavily armed Human men and women in space-combat suits. They could barely move about if it weren’t for Triton’s gravity. Somehow, I pitied them: they weren’t able to see the universe as I could.
I made my first insecure steps across the rigid landscape of the ice-cold moon and felt like a toddler learning to walk. The sharp edged rocks and stones under my feet were cold as space, but I didn’t feel a thing. The ship had provided me with the necessary protection – and I was grateful for that! Sadly, I looked back to the ship. Even Neptune’s beauty in the distance could not cheer me up; because I was now separated from the seemingly endless flow of energy I had felt onboard the ship.
The sudden separation from the ship seemed to drag me down into a depression, even after the short time I’d been with it. Then, I heard a weak, whining mental impulse and listened in surprise. It was my old analytical computer, calling me.
Help me. I’m burning up!
Too late! I thought. I can’t help you.
But I want to function further, the computer whined. I don’t want to end …
I felt grief. I knew it was the ship talking to me, using the analytical computer as an interface.
There’s no other way. Run if you can, because I will also devastate this area around me. If you stay, you can follow me into another dimension, the ship suggested. I can no longer suppress the unleashing energy.
At this moment, I made contact with the troops.
Not just one problem
The brilliant flash of the exploding ship blinded all their sensors and surveillance equipment. Even the satellites in orbit around Triton were affected. The command central crew, witnessing the event on their holos, had to shield their eyes.
»An uncontrolled release of energy at the impact site!« reported the scanner section. »About five-hundred megatons of TNT!«
A glowing ball of ultra-hot, spinning plasma expanded rapidly, seared the entire area and transformed the rocks into lava. A small sun appeared briefly over Triton.
Nok Daralamai stiffened, still holding her right hand over her eyes, as the explosion subsided.
»What happened to the men and women out there?« she demanded.
She clutched the armrests of her command seat until her knuckles turned white. Nok had paled. She awaited a response from the comm-section impatiently.
Valuable seconds expired as the comm-operators could not establish connections with the team outside due to strong interferences.
Lai Pi held his breath. He estimated that the force of explosion was unusual even for the size of this Globuster ship.
Everybody waited …
About two minutes later, it crackled in the receivers.
»Team Alpha … reporting back. We’re safe and are situated, under cover, inside the Mark Twain crater. We took one prisoner and barely made it to safety. If the stranger hadn’t warned us we wouldn’t have made it.«
Everyone in the command central saw Nok Daralamai nodding in relief. Her eyes sparkled and Pi caught the brief smile on her face.
»Bring the prisoner here! I want to know and understand what he was doing aboard a Globuster lens!« Nok commanded.
She pondered for a moment.
»How is the prisoner behaving? Giving you any trouble?« she wanted to know.
»He’s very cooperative, Ma’am, and follows our instructions. He has a very sophisticated and effective life sustaining system. That’s all I can say for now.«
»A body field, like the Globusters have?« Pi asked quietly.
Nok looked at Pi, shrugging.
»What’s his physical condition?« she inquired.
»Well,« the soldier cleared his throat, »as you know, he’s naked. He doesn’t seem to be wearing any equipment. He has some open wounds, which will need to be treated soon. I could be wrong, but it seems to me as if he’s has undergone some surgery recently. We can see implants under his skin. His wounds are still leaking. We brought a doctor to take a closer look at him. There are several brush-like fibers located along his spinal cord – I don’t know what they are. He’s conscious but refuses to talk to us. And get this: on closer examination you can see that he’s hovering above the ground by a couple of mill
imeters. That may be connected with his energy field. His feet do not make direct contact with the surface.«
»Hmm … how, if you can’t communicate with him, was it possible then, that he could warn you?« she asked, perplexed.
»He told us with his eyes!« the team leader announced. »His eyes are very expressive.«
Before Nok could answer, a scanner officer approached her, saluted and handed her a holo-foil – a personal priority message for the commander.
Nok looked up.
»What is it?« she asked him rhetorically and looked at the message.
The officer didn’t reply and returned to his station.
She squinted and read the message.
»Something, or somebody, just arrived through the portal, Pi!« she remarked softly.
Blues
Nadja Bulkin slowly examined the body in front of her and shook her head.
»No vital signs … the energy flash killed him! His whole chest is charred,« she announced.
Alexander Drustev kept an eye on the blue extra-terrestrials while Petrow stood still, in a mild state of shock over the unexpected death of a team member. Petrow knew that the Blues, as he now called them, weren’t responsible for Meyer’s death; that had been a weird accident. Something had caused the temporal caskets to malfunction, awaking their occupants. That didn’t mean that Petrow had completely ruled out the suspicion that these strangers were working with Humanity’s enemies.
It wasn’t clear, either, if these doubtless highly intelligent beings were the actual Matrix Architects.
Petrow realized he had to get a grip on himself. He called Drustev via his helmet-comm. Drustev was still staring at the Blues, uncertain, holding his weapon ready. Petrow was afraid that the situation would get out of control.
»Drustev, can you hear me? Lower your weapon and secure our retreat! Keep an eye on the entrance and the tunnel! I’ll take care of making contact with the strangers!« he commanded.
NEBULAR Collection 3 - Morgotradon: Episodes 12 - 16 Page 29
