Langlo breathed faster and said sarcastically, »This oversight will probably be corrected in a few seconds.«
»Don’t tell me when the time comes,« Bennett pleaded. »Just let it happen.«
»I can see something,« Langlo stammered suddenly. »Something is floating in this strange ocean, and we’re falling right toward it. That’s unbelievable!«
Crystalline Worlds
Death does not come. He just doesn’t want us. We were thrown out of an exploding Hawk, saved by aliens, together we entered the atmosphere of a gas giant and fall ever deeper, Langlo thought, shaking her head. Her eyes were fixed on her feet. She was standing on rough and solid ground, white granulated matter was blowing around her. It looks like a massive ice sheet, but that’s deceptive. Although this vast structure floats in a sea of liquid hydrogen, it doesn’t sway. The conditions cannot be compared with a terrestrial ocean.
Simon Bennett, who had watched Langlo, smirked.
»I can see what’s going on in your beautiful head. You ask and wonder why we’re still alive.«
»It must be allowed to think about what’s going on here,« Eno Samura replied, somewhat more harshly than he had intended and spread his arms demonstratively. »You usually cannot be found every day deep inside a gas giant. Under normal circumstances, our protective field would not be able to withstand such intense external pressures and collapse within milliseconds. The enormous gravitation would crush our bodies and kill us instantly. There wouldn’t be much left of us. But it doesn’t happen! Instead, we’re standing around here, clueless and talk via our communication system, wondering, why that is?«
»Your question already contains the answer,« panted Kel-Nar. He looked around with his sharp eyes, raising his lips. There was a strong wind. At times, the cadets had to fight the strong gusts. The atmosphere was incredibly dense and offered high resistance to their movements. Again, and again, clouds of tiny, ice-cold and piercing ice crystals were blowing at them. Although the particles evaporated in their body protection fields, they caused loud noises due to static discharges, which affected their radio communication. »These are not normal circumstances!«
»I have to agree with our friend from the Magellanic Cloud,« Bennett said seriously. He had become considerably quieter and wasn’t that sarcastic anymore. Bennett evidently strove to do his best, even though his slightly trembling voice revealed the opposite. »As exciting as the immersion into this planetary atmosphere was, it was not a crash, but a controlled landing.«
»What did you say?« Eno Samura raised a hand in protest. »Landing? You want to tell us that the aliens in the strange ship live here? Under these extreme physical conditions?«
»Extreme conditions are manageable, provided you have the technology,« Kel-Nar said. »We’re all still alive. I need no further proof.«
»Are you aware of the fact that a probe, I don’t even want to mention one of our ships, had ever penetrated so deeply into the atmosphere of such a planet? What we experience and see here has never been recorded,« whispered Langlo, glancing over the violet shimmering strange ocean toward the diffuse horizon. »The deeper you dive, the denser the ocean gets. Due to the rapidly increasing pressure, the hydrogen changes into a metallic form in even deeper layers. We can’t even imagine the size and extent of this strange ocean.«
»Well, fine! The picture would be perfect if we’d had a romantic sunset,« Bennett said dryly. »Unfortunately, you won’t see a sun down here. The soup over us is almost impenetrable. It’s a miracle that we have clear visibility and just enough light to illuminate this bizarre environment.«
»We’re probably located a few thousand kilometers beneath the weather-making layer of the planet,« Samura interjected, pointing upward. »Just think of the beautiful colorful pictures of Jupiter or Saturn. Hurricane swirls of the size of Earth, Mach 1 or Mach 2 jet streams with sonic booms, thousand-year-long monster thunderstorms with permanent flashes, the big red spot, a continuously agitated atmosphere – all these things are up there, high above our heads. Luckily, a relatively clear and temperate zone seems to exist right here. This atmospheric phenomenon is possibly the reason why the aliens can live here. That this is not the darkest of all darkest nights is probably due to the weather zone above us. I suspect that the flash frequency of these monster storms in the upper layers is intense enough to illuminate this level adequately.«
The four cadets looked up for a moment.
»Let’s just get used to the idea that we made it here all in one piece. We live and apparently nobody wants to harm us. Otherwise, the aliens’ rescue action wouldn’t make sense,« remarked Bennett and looked around. »The ship has set us down here and flown away. The energy bubble in which we were trapped has dissolved and released us. Now, we’re standing here and wait. The question is only how long and for what?«
»The gravitation on this level is 1.8 Krolaks, which is about 1.45 times of Earth’s gravity,« Kel-Nar said soberly. »This value contradicts the physical environmental parameters and is certainly artificially generated and maintained. To stabilize the gravity conditions at this level, you need very powerful technology. The gravity generator must be somewhere. Since this area is empty and flat, it can only be located somewhere below. This floating plateau is honeycomb-shaped, the surface enormously large. The external pressure is four times higher than on Earth or on Krolak, but much lower than the expected value. This is certainly no problem for our protective fields.«
»Incredible!« Bennett said, whistling surprised. »I can confirm the values with my suit sensors. This structure is huge! We stand, so-to-speak, at the edge of a floating surface, which cannot be defined and which is still located below the sea level of this strange ocean. What’s this? Some sort of a methane and ammonia iceberg?«
»A city!« Langlo said hastily. »The surface of this structure is definitely used to land spaceships.«
»Is your intuition telling you that, or do you have any proof of your theory?« Bennett wanted to know, unusually calm and objectively. »I see no spaceships far and wide here, only four cadets standing on a floe, whose speculations are about to grow like weed.«
»I don’t understand this statement,« Kel-Nar hissed. »What does our situation have to do with garden plants?«
»This is certainly not the only floating object of this kind,« Langlo said, slowly sinking to her knees, not replying to Kel-Nar’s question. Then, she rubbed the rough surface with her right hand and wiped the ankle-deep granules aside. »It’s undoubtedly a crystalline structure of different hydrocarbons. This floe on which we stand could, at first sight, be a natural phenomenon, perhaps it is truly a product of these extreme environmental parameters. A giant crystal that grows top down, into this amazing ocean.«
»Top down?« Samura asked uncertainly, and Langlo nodded. »The surface at the aggregate boundary is flattened by the planet’s extreme gravity, but the crystal can grow downward. It thus floats in the hydrogen ocean, and is forced downward by the gravitational forces and the increasing pressure in its growth direction.«
»I don’t understand how you’re mentally connecting this to a landing site for spaceships,« Samura replied doubtfully. »That seems a bit abstract to me. I can understand this gigantic crystal. In this extreme environment, we have to expect extreme landscapes.«
»The surface was strengthened and hardened by an energetic charge,« Langlo said confidently, moving her wrist-mounted sensors just above the ground. »The grown giant crystal was reshaped, and this was certainly not a natural process. Its structure can no longer be broken up quickly. The crystalline and brittle material was made into a very robust and resistant molecular structure. In this condition, the surface is as hard and resistant as Krolakan marbleite.«
»If you decide to build a station or city in this environment, you can’t simply build buildings or pour solid foundations,« Kel-Nar said. »If the aliens live here, then they must have developed an entirely unfamiliar construction and materials technology. I could well im
agine that the aliens artificially stimulate the growth of such super crystals and use them for their purposes.«
»Langlo is right!« Bennet shouted suddenly. »There’s something unnatural about this floating structure,« he exclaimed excitedly. »Just a hundred meters from here, a kind of tower has emerged from below the ground!«
Bennett pointed in the direction with his outstretched arm. Everyone whirled around.
»Shunned Krolakan zworge!« Kel-Nar shouted surprised and narrowed his eyes. »What’s this?«
»I’ve been wondering when the aliens would be giving us a first sign,« Bennett remarked. »It doesn’t make sense to save us, bring us here and leave us to ourselves. A next logical step would be to make contact.«
»Then we’ll get closer and take a look at this tower?« Samura wanted to know with a wavering voice.
»Of course,« Bennett said sternly. »Or do you have a better idea? Our protective fields and life support systems still function reliably, as does the oxygen regeneration. Something must happen, or we die sooner or later. Without outside help, we can’t get away from here.«
Samura’s frowning face relaxed. The African looked around again in all directions. Then, he paused, displayed a forced smile and nodded to Bennett. »You’re right. We want to be mission specialists then let’s act like them and take a look at this thing!«
A storm
The cadets had circled the tower several times and stood, undecided, in the shadow of the tall structure.
»The object is ten meters high and measures six meters in diameter. As far as I can tell, it consists of the same material as the ground on which we stand. The base is honeycomb-shaped,« said Kel-Nar. »Where does this thing come from and what function does it have?«
Langlo shrugged his shoulders.
»No entrance, no windows, no hint, no visible locks.«
»No welcome sign either,« Bennett added, winking at Kel-Nar, who didn’t understand the gesture.
Kel-Nar was panting heavily.
»The aliens set us up for a small intelligence test. An intelligence test for impertinent cosmologists.« Kel-Nar found his remark hilarious and snorted typically.
Bennett mocked Kel-Nar by distorting his face and making the same sounds. He tilted his head.
»That thing grew from the ground up. I could watch it grow. Langlo is right. There’s something down there. Maybe, I pull my gun and test how resilient this material really is.«
»We’d probably won’t pass the intelligence test this way and wait outside until our life support systems fail,« Langlo said sternly. »Fortunately, I know that you didn’t mean it.«
»We’re probably being watched since we got here,« Eno Samura speculated. »If the aliens possess automatic universal translators, like us, then they have already analyzed our language and understand what we’re talking about. It would be logical if they’re listening to our comm-frequency and are probably in the process of categorizing us somewhere between instinctive primates and intelligent beings.«
The four cadets briefly held their breath. Everyone thought about what they had said in the last minutes.
»All right,« said Langlo after a couple of seconds of silence, clearing her throat. »They’ll probably hear us. What’s been said, is said. Let’s try to do something more intelligently.«
A strange sound suddenly came from their receivers. Sharp and short, like noise of a rasp scratching over metal, snarling, deep, and eerie.
»Was that an answer to our conversations?« Samura asked in a trembling voice. »Purely phonetic. It didn’t sound very enthusiastic.«
»Somebody wanted to tell us that we’re right with our assumption,« Langlo realized and pondered for a moment. Then she said in a calmer voice, »The mission team of the Firedrakin is thankful for the rescue from the space emergency. We regret the incident with our ships and assess the clash as a misunderstanding. We hope the attack has not led to any damages and losses and offer our services as mediators. Since we cannot survive long in this extreme environment, we formally ask for help and hope that we’ll have the opportunity for a personal meeting.«
The four waited eagerly. Again, a series of strange sounds followed. The aliens were talking over the frequency of the cadet’s communication band.
»Our universal translators can’t cope with this strange language. Either it’s too complex, or our devices need to gather more information to work properly,« Samura regretted. »It’s embarrassing that the communication is going only in one direction.«
»People, it doesn’t matter what direction. I hope, the aliens understand our clear and urgent request for help,« Bennett said hastily. The cosmologist stared, with his eyes wide open, toward the plateau’s edge, toward the hydrogen ocean.
»Oh my …,« Langlo swallowed the rest of the sentence and looked, hypnotized, at the phenomenon that was approaching at a furious speed.
»A tornado?« Samura shouted in ascending panic. »It’s drifting right toward us!«
The first wind gusts arrived and threw the four cadets off their feet, only Kel-Nar withstood the forces of the winds, howling loudly, a sign of his fear. Fist-sized rocks of methane were whirling through the air and struck the hexagonal tower like bullets from an old machine gun.
»Down! Take cover!« Langlo screamed horrified. »This tornado is powerful and fast! It absorbs liquid hydrogen from the ocean and transports it into higher layers of the atmosphere! When it catches us, we are doomed!«
The cadets tried to find a secure foothold. Kel-Nar rammed his knife into the crystalline ground, but the blade shattered. In the meantime, the suction funnel grew larger, lifting the hydrogen ocean upward. The vortex rotated at an incredible speed around its axis. Violent discharges flashed from newly formed, dense and low-hanging clouds, which accompanied the storm while the lightnings struck the ocean with hissing sounds. The discharges left deep impact channels and evaporated the hydrogen.
»Help! We need help!« Langlo screamed desperately, hoping that the aliens would listen to her pleas. She felt how she was caught by an unknown force and dragged across the floe’s surface. »No! Damn it! Hold tight, everybody!«
Within seconds, an apocalyptic Hell had formed from the previously moderate atmospheric zone. Liquid hydrogen flooded the edge of the floe and rose steadily and threateningly. The tornado was not comparable to similar phenomena on Earth but was categories larger. Langlo looked speechless as the funnel broadened.
Oh God, the storm is so great that you cannot see the edges of the funnel cloud anymore, she thought terrified.
»This isn’t the storm doing that!« Bennett shouted against the thundering noises of the super-tornado. »We’re being dragged toward the tower! Don’t resist!«
Langlo closed her eyes and gave up her efforts. She rolled over and watched as she and her teammates were drawn to an open gap that had just opened. Just before the tornado reached their position, all four disappeared inside the tower, and the gap closed again.
Suddenly, an almost uncanny silence prevailed. The four cadets lay on the floor inside the tower, breathing heavily. Samura still had his eyes closed, afraid that the storm might tear the little tower from the floe. But the chaos seemed to be averted, the room appeared safe.
When the African hesitantly opened his eyes, he looked around in amazement. The room was hexagonal and pleasantly bright. Everything was bathed in white. The actual light source, which illuminated the room, could not be seen.
»Damn it! They caught us!« Bennett whispered in a hoarse voice. »We’re in paradise waiting for admission, or how do you explain this?«
»The Incarnation Bubble of Light!« whispered Kel-Nar. »I’ll meet the fathers of my ancestors!«
»Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you,« Langlo said regretfully. »Bennett didn’t grow any wings, leaving the question whether he will ever become an angel. We’re inside the tower and have been saved. We must thank the aliens again.«
»And what’s next?« Bennett wanted to know.
The Mother Crystal
»This silence makes me nervous and agitated,« Langlo admitted. »How is it possible for the world to perish in a century’s storm, and we can’t feel and hear anything of these powers?«
»Basically, I don’t care. I don’t want to go back. I really like it here,« Samura said, running his hand over his face. »After all this chaos, a breather is quite pleasant.«
»It certainly wasn’t a century’s storm. Such weather phenomena are probably very typical for this gas giant,« said Bennett, who was sitting on the ground like everyone else, leaning his back against the half-translucent, bright, white wall. »We better not fool ourselves. Although we weren’t killed by the immediate effects of this monster storm, our situation has not improved at all. Even if this strange room suggests safety, we’re still inside the gas giant’s atmosphere. Has anyone ever had time to think about what planet this is?«
Kel-Nar huffed strongly.
»According to our observations so far, we can’t say anything with certainty. The alien ship has jumped through tachyon space. Whether the flight went over a short or long distance, I can’t tell. We could still be in the Solar System, or lightyears away.«
»It doesn’t really matter,« Langlo replied. »We’re depending on the help of strangers. We can only hope that we didn’t lose all brownie points due to the attack by our fleet.«
»I remember the words of Admiral Friedberg,« Samura said. »Didn’t he speak of a similar phenomenon which our ships encountered in the Oort Cloud? What did he mean by that?«
»I’ve already thought about that,« Langlo replied. »If there had been already a similar incident, we would know from the Union Fleet’s news channels.«
»Of course!« Bennett said, sarcastically. »Gee, why didn’t I think of it myself? These channels broadcast all top-secret reports regularly for all members of the Fleet.« The cosmologist shook his head and added, »Forget it! If there was already a clash, then the event was undoubtedly declared a confidential matter, to prevent a commotion among the Union’s population.«
NEBULAR Collection 7 - Guardians of the Continuum: Episodes 31 - 34 Page 27
