Arkroid straightened.
»Okay, that’s right. Please set up a tactical analysis of this system as soon as possible,« he commanded.
»Roger!« Nautilus replied with the age-old Human acknowledgement term.
Arkroid smiled and looked around.
»I’d suggest we get ready!« he advised.
An octahedron
Three hours after the Techno-Ferry had left for the Second Retreat, alarm sirens wailed through Triton Base. Nok Daralamai had just caught a brief shuteye and was mercilessly awakened by the sounds.
›Space Alert!‹ she recognized by the sound pattern.
She jumped out of her bed and was suddenly wide awake. She went to her personal comm-unit, entered her access code and established a link to the command central.
The OIC came to attention.
»Never mind that, Captain! What’s cooking?« she rapped.
»We’ve received an energy signature from an unknown source in the Kuiper Belt two minutes ago, Sir!« he announced stiffly, in an aristocratic British accent. »It appeared like lightning, the Ryan crew detected and logged it also.«
Nok grimaced. She had trouble understanding the woman’s local English.
»Any other observations associated with this flash?« she inquired.
»An unidentified object appeared and vanished again from the scanner monitors, then rematerialized at once again inside our safekeeping sector. It seems to be jumping through space over great distances. We have no explanation at this time, though.«
Nok Daralamai knit her brows.
›That object jumped with one step into our 500,000 kilometer safety range,‹ she realized.
Nok slipped into her uniform jacket.
»I want Ready Five Hawks deployed immediately … and inform Earth on the tachyon comm-link!« she commanded. She cut the link and stalked to the command central.
The OIC announced, »Ready Five Hawks have been launched. They have orders to intercept the unknown object.«
»Roger!« she acknowledged, and commanded, »General Alert, Battle Stations! Can we categorize the alien object?«
»No, Commander,« the scanner officer reported. »We’re still lacking data.«
The Hawks’ tactical radio communication was switched to a conference link.
»Triton Hawks have arrived at intercept point …unidentified object remains motionless on position. Our short range scanners are recording it,« the interceptor commander reported back to the base.
»Can you see anything … what is it?« she inquired.
Moment later she pilot broadcasted, »The neuronal computer has calculated the received data. I’m transmitting the pictures. It’s a dark, almost black object shaped like an octahedron! The surface is non-light-reflective, rough and ridged. The object seems pretty dinged up after a long time in space! The height of the object is about twenty meters, if the scanners are not lying.«
Nok swallowed hard.
»Is it a spaceship?«
»Hard to say, Commander,« the pilot responded hesitantly. » We cannot detect a propulsion system. Energy signature is low, but since we know it can move through space like a maniac, it can probably suppress its energy emissions, at least to our scanners.«
A loud, surprised yell went through the command central.
»Object disappeared again in a flash! We lost contact!« a scanner operator announced breathlessly.
Seconds later, the OIC of the troops deployed to the tachyon portal called in.
»Unknown object has appeared over the tachyon portal! Distance: 10 kilometers!« he reported in a loud voice.
»Commander, our scanners confirm that!« an officer announced.
»Petrow has ordered Battle Stations on the Blue Moon!« a comm-operator shouted into the room. »He requests permission to leave orbit and assist the Hawks!«
»Commander Petrow to you, Sergeant!« Nok shouted back at the operator, who suddenly became a bit smaller in his seat.
She pondered for a moment.
»No, Blue Moon remains where she is and covers us. The object is small, but if the Hawks can’t keep up with it, then it’s no use deploying the big ship.«
»Triton Hawks Leader to Base: we’re approaching the new intercept point, request permission to fire!«
All eyes were looking at Nok at this moment, expecting her to react.
She turned around and slowly walked over to her command seat, sat down and leaned back.
The command central crew looked at each other in frustration, but Nok Daralamai just grinned.
»We can’t just shoot at visitors and unknown objects like cowboys. Triton Hawks, maintain safety distance and escort the object. Laser batteries on the tachyon portal stand by, but hold your fire! We shoot only in self-defense! Acknowledge!« she commanded calmly.
»What’s a cowboy?« a comm-operator asked another one mutedly.
»No idea, maybe an asteroid miner or something? They’ve got loose fists and guns, don’t they?« his counterpart replied clueless.
The acknowledgements of Nok’s orders were received promptly, while the Hawks encircled the alien object. The command central holos showed the object clear and crisp.
»Transfer the picture to one of the Trox scientists; maybe they know something!« she commanded a comm-operator.
Suddenly, the object emitted a bluish beam that scanned the portal surface.
Nok straightened up in her seat to surprised calls from the command central crew.
»The blue beam is not causing any damage,« the portal OIC reported. »It might just be a scanner.«
»Keep watching!« she commanded. »Record everything and analyze all data. I want to know who this is and what they want!«
A sudden flash announced that the object had jumped again. Overloaded scanner displays flickered as the object appeared directly over Triton base. The short range scanners initiated a new base alert.
»Octahedron materialized above Base, Commander!« the scanner section reported excitedly. »Only 5,000 meters up! The Blue Moon has direct optical contact and could engage.«
»Calm down, people!« Nok advised. »This isn’t the first time – nor the last – that strangers will appear here. Send a welcome message before we let the weapons talk. So far, the object has made no hostile act.«
The direct comm-link to the Blue Moon showed Igor Petrow, who was sitting in his combat suit before the camera.
»The octahedron is scanning Triton Base with a blue beam! Can you feel anything or detect the beam? Do you want me to fire a warning shot? Our high energy lasers are fixed on that thing!« he requested.
»We confirm the beam, Commander!« a scanner officer replied. »Type or nature undetermined.«
Nok Daralamai looked up to the ceiling as if she could see the octahedron ship.
›What do you want from us?‹ she thought at it.
Suddenly the octahedron disappeared again with a flash.
»Issue an alert to the outer bases, and to Earth and the colonies!« she commanded quickly. »Advise commanders and Fleet HQ to remain passive!«
»Do you think that object will reappear somewhere else?« the OIC of the scanner section asked quietly.
»Of course it will – it just arrived here in our system!« she replied, looking to the ceiling again.
Hope dies last
If an observer watched a spaceship re-entering the Einstein continuum from tachyon space, he would see a colorful spectacle. A bright dot of light appears out of nowhere, and blossoms into an aura with all the colors of the rainbow seconds later. The glowing energy sphere seems stable … but only for a moment, before dispersing in showers of brilliant photons in a second burst, leaving a brief near-absolute darkness that blankets the light of the stars behind the ship. It looks like a nuclear explosion, but it isn’t.
Progonaut scientists had wondered why this cold, bright energy burst occurred whenever a ship left tachyon space. They argued that a ship traveling on a tachyon track dragged along a whiff of t
achyon energy when it returned to normal space. That substance, also called tachyon fog, cannot exist in normal space, and it evaporates immediately, creating a beautiful display of photonic energy.
Nobody aboard the Techno-Ferry saw the burst of light; the flight through tachyon space and the re-entry were relatively unspectacular for them.
As Arkroid had learned from the Techno-Ferry, the re-entry event was the only really critical moment of the entire flight. A civilization with a similar technology could detect it, since it contained more than only photonic energy. The invisible part of tachyon fog emissions was detectable with the right kind of scanners.
Because of the detection risk, the Techno-Ferry enveloped the ship with a strong anti-detection dimension field. The ship was now virtually invisible not only to the naked eye but also to tachyon scanners. The ship had disappeared from ordinary tachyon scanners, but that didn’t mean that there was no enemy technology that might detect the ship despite the shield. Over the millennia, better detectors could have been developed.
Arkroid was aware of the possibility. He wanted to set about collecting information about the conditions in the unknown system right away.
»Here we are,« he stated, glancing at the tactical display.
»Of course we are, Toiber,« Nautilus replied. »You have to learn to trust me!«
»I didn’t mean it that way,« Arkroid frowned. »Why shouldn’t I trust you … have you obtained any information so far?«
»I have the entire system before my eyes,« Nautilus explained as if it meant real eyes. Its sensors and scanners were far more sensitive, of course, than eyes.
»Does this system have an energy shield like the Globuster Matrix?« Pi inquired, glancing at Arkroid.
Arkroid understood the motive behind Pi’s question. He wanted to know if conditions here were similar to their home-system.
»Negative!« Nautilus replied. »I detect no barriers or energy fields.«
Kuster~Laap’s ears were flapping again, indicating that he was agitated by the answer.
»Why so nervous, Kuster~Laap? Is there something you’re not telling us?« Maya Ivanova asked sharply.
»Ever since we left, you’ve been arguing about whatever I say,« Kuster~Laap snapped at her. » When will you quit?«
»When I’m sure that you’re telling the truth, and not hiding anything from us!« she rebutted, pointing her right index finger at him.
Arkroid had noticed Maya Ivanova’s private war with Kuster~Laap, and wasn’t too happy about it. Tension among crew members was not something he was looking forward to.
»The missing energy shield is rather strange,« Kuster~Laap admitted. »This system was also supposed to be prepared for the Great Tremor! I’m certain the Techno-Ferry must have detected the presence of a Kuiper Belt. As in your home system, the Dimensional projectors were also installed there just as in your home system.«
Moments later, a holo materialized in the middle of the command central, showing a far expanding debris belt.
»The Kuiper Belt of this system stretches in a disc 9 to 22 astronomical units from the gravitational center of this dual star system. The disc is aligned to the main plane at an angle of almost 0 degrees. It consists mostly of planetary debris and asteroids and planetoids of various sizes. The largest is about 900 kilometers in diameter. We’re approaching the plane and this sector at about 90 percent below the speed of light and I will adjust our speed accordingly in about ten minutes.«
»Try to find Dimensional Base Proklon!« Kuster~Laap requested. »It’s located on the largest planetoid. It should be evident because of its mineral structure. Its diameter is 1,400 kilometers.«
The holo display changed and showed the highlighted Kuiper Belt sectors as they were scanned. The entire process lasted only seconds.
»No such object exists in this solar system!« Nautilus announced. »There’s nothing out there that even resembles Sedna’s energy signature!«
Kuster~Laap received the information without a twitch. Whatever his reaction, it wasn’t obvious to the team.
»That’s not possible!«
»I will expand my search beyond the main plane and include the outermost sectors of this star system, including eccentric orbits,« Nautilus replied.
While the Techno-Ferry raced into the dual solar system, Vasina pondered. She looked more and more worried.
»I wonder if we’re even in the right solar system!« she doubted. »If there’s a tachyon portal in this system, we should have detected its emissions by now.«
»You’re right, Vasina!« Nautilus responded. »But there’s no signature! According to my scanners, there’s no portal in Delta Trianguli.«
»Fly to the fourth planet,« Kuster~Laap demanded suddenly.
The fourth planet appeared immediately on the holo.
»The planet’s located at the inner border sector of the Kuiper Belt, so it‘s similar to Neptune,« Vasina noticed with a quick glance.
»It’s currently in a preferred position relative to our approach vector. It would make sense to check it out,« Paafnas suggested.
»What are you looking for, Kuster~Laap?« Arkroid wondered.
Kuster~Laap briefly changed his facial expression and replied, »Taif, a moon, is located within the local system of this planet. Its size is almost the same as the terrestrial Moon, so Taif should have become an important outer base for the Neo-Sapiens here, if they developed as planned.«
»Search completed,« Nautilus pronounced to everybody’s surprise. Then Arkroid remembered that Nautilus had scanned the entire system on its search for Proklon. »The planetoid or the moon are not present!«
Kuster~Laap looked nervous, but he didn’t comment on Nautilus’ findings; just stared at the holo.
»The shield doesn’t exist, we’re missing a planetoid and a tachyon portal … this Retreat was also sabotaged!« Vasina declared coldly. »The enemy may be lurking in this system. I think we should get out of here!«
Arkroid smirked.
»What do we do then?« he asked. »Give up and watch the demise of the galaxy? That’s not what we came here for … and I don’t know about Progonauts, but it’s not in our Human character.«
»Now you sound like a Protector!« Kuster~Laap responded. »We’ll learn what happened to this system. I still have hope, after seeing how you Humans developed despite the gene pool manipulation!«
»Certainly, Kuster~Laap … hope dies last,« Maya Ivanova threw in sarcastically.
Kuster~Laap took that as a positive sign.
»Exactly, Maya Ivanova!«
Jammed signals
»The octahedron has been sighted in the Saturn sector!« a comm-officer announced loudly.
The command central crew heard the alarm from Titan Base over the tachyon amplifier: »Automatic sector surveillance on the moon Daphnis detected the object, but it transferred again and then re-appeared on the other side of Saturn. We don’t know what it’s doing right now. I’ve dispatched a Hawk squadron to intercept!«
Nok Daralamai sprinted to the comm-section and activated a link to Titan.
»Titan Commander, this is Nok Daralamai. Tell your Hawks to observe and follow the object, but until the octahedron commits a hostile act, you do not engage! Do not fire on it except in self-defense!«
»It’s scanning us with a blue beam!« the Titan commander reported anxiously. »It’s trying to spy out our defense capabilities!«
Nok understood.
»Stay calm, Commander Ranguin! Record all its movements and actions and transfer the data via tachyon amplifier to Earth. Let the neuronal computers analyze the data then.«
»Roger, Commander Daralamai …,« Commander Ranguin acknowledged. »… Hold on! The octahedron has just materialized above Titan Base. That thing jumps around like a drunken dervish! It’s diving into the atmosphere … approaching the base. Request permission to charge laser batteries …«
Ranguin’s voice reflected his excitement. The alien object could not be pinned down
; it always slipped away.
»Permission granted to charge, but HOLD FIRE! Make sure your people know my orders and remain level-headed. The ship was also over Triton and made no hostile move! It’s some sort of a scout from an alien nation, lured here by the Dimensional Shield.«
Nok signaled the comm-officer to transfer the Titan images to the main holo.
»Still, the presence of an alien probe is disturbing. We probably shouldn’t let it get to Mars orbit. That’s too much of a risk …,« Nok muttered, mostly to herself.
»… agreed,« another voice interrupted. Admiral Friedberg had joined the conference via Tachyon Bridge from Earth. »You’ve handled the situation well, Commander, but I will not allow the octahedron to enter the space sectors around Mars, Moon or Earth. I’ve put the defense batteries and the Union Fleet on special orders.«
Nok gnawed on her lower lip. The inner sector was Friedberg’s area of responsibility.
»Have the neuronals come up with a result yet?« she inquired.
»The octahedron’s movements reveal a pattern. It’s jumping to all the important outer bases and collecting data. Uranus and Jupiter were not visited; they’re in unfavorable positions. If the object jumps past the Asteroid Belt, the situation becomes critical. No matter what its objectives, if we don’t know true intentions, we’ll have to take countermeasures!« Friedberg announced.
Some inner impulse told Nok to command, »Ranguin, align your antennas at the object and transmit a greeting, inviting it to reveal its identity. We didn’t have a chance to do so when it was above our base.«
Ranguin acknowledged.
»The Octahedron is now right above our polar base and scanning us with the blue beam,« Ranguin reported. »Crew and equipment unaffected. No idea what this beam is about. I’ll give the order to send the message now …«
Suddenly, the comm-link to Ranguin was interrupted. Daralamai was speechless for a moment.
NEBULAR Collection 4 - Second Reserve: Episodes 17 - 21 Page 10
