NEBULAR Collection 7 - Guardians of the Continuum: Episodes 31 - 34

by Thomas Rabenstein

  »At least our scanner data suggest that,« Welf replied. »The medical emergency beacon of his spacesuit provided information about the bearer’s gender. We still need to analyze all of the data, but that much, we know already.«

  Fossett magnified the holographic image of the dead body. The spacesuit was damaged!

  »The visor is shattered, and the suit slashed at several places. The stranger probably died instantly at the very moment when his body was catapulted into space,« summarized Welf.

  Fossett seemed to hesitate for several minutes before he finally decided, »We recover the body and bring it inside the ship for further investigation. Maybe we learn something new about the tragedy that had happened here a few years ago.«

  »Are you out of your mind?« an energetic female voice sounded over the intercom.

  Fosset twitched briefly, smiled sourly and turned to the comm-system.

  »Ah, Doctor Diva! Please excuse my spontaneous decision. I definitely wanted to consult you on the subject matter, of course.«

  »DaDiva is the correct name,« she replied with a resentful voice. »As the ship doctor, I have, the highest authority in this case, and can even exercise authority over the commander and ship-owner. But of course, you knew that already.«

  Fosset cleared his throat and looked around, grimacing.

  »Of course, Doc. I didn’t know that you were following the command central conversations via the intercom.«

  As Fosset’s questioning look grazed the Navigator, Welf Rouven shrunk in his pilot’s seat.

  »No way! The body is not coming on board without the appropriate safety precautions. I declare a state of quarantine until we can be sure that the corpse is not contaminated. Did I understand correctly that the poor soul probably was aboard an extraterrestrial spaceship?« DaDiva asked firmly.

  »There are many indications to this fact,« replied Fosset.

  »Good Lord!« she called appalled. »Your thoughtlessness could’ve contaminated the entire ship with an extraterrestrial disease! I immediately take over command of the recovery and examination of the body!«

  »All right, Dorothea. You’re most qualified for this job, and we rely on your prudence. Please, call us to the sickbay as soon as the body was recovered.«

  Medical miracle

  Robotic claws cautiously seized the weightless body and ended his rotation, then the arms pulled the corpse gently inside the Solar Pride via an open airlock.

  Dorothea DaDiva operated the robot arms personally, making sure that the body didn’t collide with the airlock walls. No one knew at that time how long the corpse had drifted in space. The frozen and crystallized Human body could break apart into countless pieces when subjected to a violent jolt.

  »The recovery was successful. I have deposited the corpse in the decontamination airlock under weightless conditions and made my first examination,« she whispered, fully concentrated into a small throat microphone, informing the command central crew about the current state of affairs. The crew was holding their breath while following the procedure in the holographic display.

  »The suit of the unknown person looks badly damaged and is torn in several places, which certainly led to a quick death,« she commented dryly while she released a swarm of specially programmed nanobots into the decon chamber. The microscopic robots were not visible to the naked eye, yet the nanobots buzzed around the body after a short time, providing close-ups, which were transmitted directly to the command central.

  »The outfit of the unknown man is a bit unusual. It looks as if he’s wearing some sort of a protective a suit, but it’s not a spacesuit,« Dorothea DaDiva reported in a surprised voice. »You can still see the Union insignia on the shoulders. Although the cracked helmet is connected to a small breathing apparatus on the back, it doesn’t seem suitable for use in space.«

  DaDiva called up other data provided by the specialized nanobots and said, »The frayed gloves were just pulled over his hands and didn’t form a hermetic seal with the suit. This is definitely not a pressure suit. The poor man couldn’t survive in space at all. Even if his suit were intact, he wouldn’t have had a chance out there.«

  As the nanobots just began to penetrate the suit through the torn material, the first holographic scans of the dead man were already available.

  »There’re no injuries to the bone structure or organs. Apparently, there was no internal bleeding during the sudden loss of pressure. This is more than strange,« she murmured thoughtfully. Then, as the enlarged three-dimensional representation of the chest area was shown, the physician stopped the holographic scan.

  »Oh my God!«

  DaDiva further enlarged a strange-looking lump that was partially embedded in the chest, it seemed as if it had attached itself and fused with his body.

  »What’s that? A cyst?«

  She discovered more of those big lumps on his back, upper arms, and abdomen.

  »What did this man die of? Were these bumps caused by his unprotected stay in space?« asked Fosset, but DaDiva wouldn’t confirm this.

  »He has numerous cysts all over his body. I consider this atypical and don’t know how he got them. Perhaps, he was already ill before he was hurled into space,« DaDiva said anxiously.

  She commanded the nanobots to penetrate the dead body to investigate the tumor closer. Since the body temperature was still just above absolute zero, the nanobots had no chance to enter the body.

  »Hmm … then we will defrost you a little bit,« she whispered and gradually increased the temperature inside the airlock which currently served as a decon chamber. She also flooded the airlock chamber with a particular gas to improve the thermal conduction and to kill possible dangerous germs.

  »Minus 221 degrees Celsius,« commented DaDiva, »slowly rising. I have to raise the temperature carefully, so we don’t destroy the tissue and are left with a pile of organic jelly at the end. It’ll take a while.«

  Fosset looked pondering. He rubbed his temples repeatedly and gazed into the void. Lost in thought, he looked through various records and shook his head repeatedly.

  »What’s the problem, Commander? Is this find bothering you?« Gamze Acun wanted to know and looked at Fosset from the side.

  The Privateer briefly raised his eyes and replied frankly, »Of course it touches me when we pick a Human corpse from interstellar space! My informant hadn’t said a word about our people being involved in the destruction of the Circle ships. Maybe he didn’t know, or we’re on the best way to solving another mystery.«

  »You mean a mystery like the tachyon portal in the Neptune atmosphere?« Welf Rouven asked.

  »Are you kidding me?« Gamze replied dryly and looked at Fosset uncertainly.

  Fosset didn’t reply to the comments, but said instead, »Certain events seem to be predetermined. It wasn’t just my instinct that drew my attention to the Circle ships. My intuition has led me here, but the initial impulse came from another side.«

  »I thought it was an informant from the Fleet or Union Government, who simply couldn’t resist your offer,« Gamze remarked with mild mockery.

  »If you want to master difficult tasks, then unconventional methods are often necessary to achieve the desired objective,« Fosset replied impassively. »But this time, it’s different.«

  Fosset suddenly juggled a small holographic memory chip between his fingers. Gamze could not tell where the data carrier had come from.

  »You also know magic tricks? Amazing!« she said surprised.

  »I wish that were the case,« he replied with a straight face. This memory chip contains the data which led me to fly into the Oort Cloud. In other words: This chip was the actual trigger. I received the information free of charge and without any strings attached. It was given to me by an informant who obviously knows the future.«

  Welf Rouven grinned and winked at Gamze briefly.

  »This is usually the moment in time when the second officer arrests the commander due to a case of insanity.«

  »I’m v
ery lucky that this isn’t a Union Fleet cruiser, but a private ship,« Fosset replied sarcastically. »That’s why you’re permitted to remain my navigator and won’t be keelhauled for this remark.«

  Welf Rouven’s eyes widened.

  »Whatever that means, it sounds unpleasant.«

  »You can bet your ass on it, Welf!« Fosset replied, grinning.

  »No one knows the future,« Gamze said irritated. »I hope it wasn’t a fraudster.«

  Fosset looked nervous.

  »The informant has my complete confidence. His integrity is unquestionable. He had chosen me to go on this mission and told me explicitly that I’m a part of that future which must be preserved.«

  »Ah,« replied Welf Rouven briefly and stared at his control console. »Did he perhaps also give you the Union Lottery’s 6/49 numbers? I’d like to win a small jackpot to boost my pension.«

  Fosset was in no mood for joking.

  »He told me that we would meet someone out here who’d give us some valuable information.«

  »Well, your mysterious informant erred by a few years,« said Welf, pointing to the holo-transmission from the contamination airlock. »We probably won’t learn anything from him anymore.«

  Gamze had become quiet and thoughtful.

  »Maybe this important contact that you’re supposed to meet is on board the unknown ship, which is following us for some time.«

  Fosset nodded faintly.

  »I’ve already racked my brains, but that ship wasn’t mentioned in the message.«

  Fosset pressed his lips together and looked at the recovered body on the holo display. »Maybe Welf’s right.«

  The central display suddenly switched to the internal communication channel. The ship doctor’s face appeared. Dorothea DaDiva looked at the command central crew with a chalk-white face. Her dark red and heavy-lined lipstick created an extreme contrast to her complexion, her eyes widened. Fine beads of sweat covered her forehead.

  »Are you all right, Doro?« asked Fosset when he saw the apparently confused medical examiner.

  DaDiva’s eyes were restless. She was probably reading some data from a holo display which was floating outside the focal range of the communication system.

  »The body temperature is now at minus thirty degrees Celsius,« explained DaDiva hoarsely.

  Why is she staring at us? She looks as if she’s met the Devil in person, thought Fosset nervous.

  »Did you find out anything?« Fossett asked cautiously. »Do you have the first analysis by the medical nanobots?« Fosset swallowed his next question. He saw that DaDiva’s lips were trembling.

  »It is medically impossible, but my nanobots register a weak pulse,« DaDiva declared insecure and seemed to doubt herself. »At a little more than minus thirty degrees Celsius, there was a muscular relaxation of the body, not a reflex, as I first assumed. Clearly, there is some weak brain activity. Weak and barely measurable, but undeniably present!« Dorothea DaDiva exhaled forcefully. »If there’s still life in this body, then it’s a medical miracle.«

  »What?«

  Startled, Fosset jumped out of his seat and looked at the doctor in disbelief. Not even Welf Rouven was capable of a sarcastic remark.

  It was Gamze who responded first and commanded, »Transfer the body immediately to the ICU and do everything you can for that man.«

  A breath of life

  Even the experienced doctor was speechless for a moment, as the medical scanner indicated a slow bloodstream at a body temperature of minus 30 degrees Celsius.

  Fosset stood silently beside her and looked at the stranger through a thick bulletproof glass window. Although the man was no longer in quarantine, it was advisable to protect the ICU.

  »Do we have more details about his identity?« Fosset asked, chewing nervously on his lower lip.

  »We’ve discovered a holographic dog tag, as they were common in the Union Fleet or Special Forces a few years ago. They carried their tags around the necks with a tear-resistant plastic band. The tag is still underneath the man’s clothing. We didn’t want to risk taking the tag at this time. His body, including the bone tissue, will be completely defrosted in about an hour. We will know more by then.«

  The dead becomes a body, and the body becomes a man, Fosset thought about the subtle nuances in DaDiva’s remarks.

  Fosset looked at his wrist watch and replied quietly, »I’ve started a database query. So far, there’s no information about a man who was kidnapped by the Circle People. If the invaders have taken a man on board of one of their ships, then the Union is tight-lipped about it.«

  »After all, one of their battleships was in a stationary orbit above Earth for a while,« DaDiva remarked. »Some people say that the aliens tried to invade Greenland and even landed there. Our troops, however, repelled them.«

  Demonstratively, DaDiva rolled her eyes. Her slim reading glasses almost lost their grip and slipped down her nose. She apparently didn’t believe the story.

  »I know,« Fosset acknowledged. »That’s all we know about that, though. Presumably, it’s the way it was always done. We learn only those things which can no longer be kept secret or only things we are permitted to know. The zone in question is still off limits to the public.«

  »Of course, only to protect the people,« DaDiva said sarcastically, pointing to the man in the other room. »After all, his protective suit could fit the Greenland scenario. This is not a space suit, but a survival suit. This type of clothing is used in the polar regions …«

  »… or on Mars,« Fosset added thoughtfully. »Do you have a theory how a super-cooled man, who floated for years in space, suddenly shows vital signs? I’ve never heard of such a miraculous event.«

  »A few minutes ago, the nanobots had analyzed the blood,« DaDiva whispered, although no one was nearby who could overhear the conversation. »The results are more than strange.«

  Is she afraid that the dead man can hear us? thought Fosset with a shiver.

  »What do you mean by strange?« Fosset asked quietly.

  Seemingly uncomfortable, DaDiva wiped her right hand over her left arm, as she explained, »There’s a cocktail of unknown substances in the bloodstream. Some of them are similar to Human hormones and enzymes but were apparently not produced in the man’s body. They were introduced from the outside!«

  »Injected?« Fosset suggested, provoking a shrug by the medical examiner.

  »How else can substances like that get into his body?« she replied harshly.

  »The man was drugged before his involuntary spacewalk?« asked Fosset stunned.

  »Some of these unknown substances act like antifreeze and have a cell preservation property. The more I look at the nanobot data, the more I come to the conclusion that the man was never really dead. He was in a kind of state of hibernation, his body functions were suspended so-to-speak, all his cells were frozen, but still intact.«

  »But that’s nonsense,« commented Fossett and looked in disbelief at the beeping vital scanner which showed the leading edge of a curve which represented the heartbeat. The pulse rate was equivalent to one heartbeat per minute.

  »What about the ulcers or cysts you observed during the first exam?« Fosset wanted to know before he was going to return to the command central.

  »They’re gone,« DaDiva explained and shrugged. »The cysts possibly formed under the extreme conditions in space. After we brought the man on board, exposing him to normal pressure again, they may have burst or collapsed.«

  »That’s very appetizing!« Fossett rasped, covering his mouth with his hand.

  DaDiva raised her eyebrows which were slightly drawn-out using finely tattooed extensions. Her piercing gaze seemed stronger due to her thick spectacles.

  »Appetizing or not, I can’t come up with a better explanation. This is already mysterious enough.«

  »If he opens his eyes and says something, then I want to know about it right away,« Fosset said softly and nodded toward the man. »It’s very important to me!«

&
nbsp; »I’m still trying to understand why a breath of life is in this body. I can assure you that it is impossible that this man, once he regains consciousness, will chat with you.«

  »I’ve got a very strange feeling,« whispered Fosset and left the sickbay.

  The assault

  Arthur Pillgreen often spent time in the bow module of the former Pulsar cruiser. The technician liked to look at space through the viewport at every opportunity.

  Formerly, the bow sector module was only frequented for important maintenance tasks. Most of these activities were, however, now carried out in dry dock and not during flight operations. The older types of these cruisers maintained weightlessness in this particular sector. Also, crew members were exposed to an increased radiation risk from the reactors of the braking and control thrusters. Both problems had been corrected after recent modifications had been implemented. Fosset had made sure of it.

  Thanks to artificial gravitation, Pillgreen could now move normally through the bow sector module. He checked some energy distributors, the state of the air-conditioning units and glanced at the emergency power plant. Everything was in top condition and worked as expected.

  Everything is okay, thought the technician, paused and sighed. No, not everything! Of course, no one had come to this isolated sector to offer me a glass of the Pleunatan punch after the official banquet.

  Pillgreen went over his checklist, then he checked a dozen other items, among them critical interfaces. After a short time, he reached the foremost area of the bow sector module. Then he stopped in front of a wall that separated this sector from another one in which only machines and aggregates, used for the propulsion systems, were housed.

  Pillgreen went on his knees and opened a small maintenance access panel, just large enough for him to crawl through. The maintenance tunnel behind the access panel wasn’t very high so that he needed to bend down to move forward in it. Elbow freedom was a luxury aboard the Pulsar cruiser, and there was little room for comforts.

  Arthur Pillgreen looked around and whistled softly, as he was preparing to crawl into the maintenance tunnel. Officially, he had nothing to check inside this tunnel, but it was the only way to the viewport. The tunnel was filled with buzzing and humming sounds. Energy distributors, cable trays, optical fiber cables and various control blocks lined up against each other, but Pillgreen had no eyes for the equipment.