»Commander Ranguin, can you hear me?« she cried.
»I can still hear and see you, Daralamai,« Friedberg announced from Earth. »We have also lost contact with Saturn Base! The tachyon amplifier has either failed or is being jammed. Maybe it was a mistake to let the object jump freely about the solar system!«
Nok Daralamai swallowed hard.
›He’s probably right …,‹ she mused.
Ships of different origin
The Techno-Ferry re-entered the standard universe following a brief tachyon flight to the fourth planet. Immediately, visual and audible warnings flashed and sounded through the command central.
Arkroid jumped out of his seat and looked around in dismay. Some of the displays were fire red. The Techno-Ferry had adopted terrestrial danger signals at Arkroid’s request a week ago. Outside cameras showed a green-bluish gas giant, smaller than Neptune but still an impressive sight. One large moon, five midsized and 14 small moons circled the planet on different orbits, but it was not the planetary system that had caused the alert.
»Attention! The space sector before us is heavily littered with small and large debris!« Nautilus announced. »I’m evading these objects and reduce our speed to 5 percent sub-light!«
Hundreds of tags flashed on the displays, indication the positions of the objects.
Arkroid squinted; all these tags and vector indications irritated him.
»What are all these echoes? Comet cores, asteroids or other stellar objects?« he inquired.
»Negative!« Nautilus replied. »We’re viewing fragments of former spaceships which have collected around Trianguli 4. The debris field is following the Gas Giant on its orbit around the dual star. There are more shipwrecks between the gas planet and the large moon. All of them are located at the respective Lagrange points ...«
»… wait a second,« Pi interrupted astonished. »Did you say wrecks?«
»Yes. There’s no doubt that we have found the debris of various ships of different origins,« Nautilus responded. »This space sector, and especially this system around the Gas planet, has seen a ferocious space battle … a long time ago. Some of the ships clearly show damages caused by space decay as well as battle damage. I feel sad thinking about the many beings who have lost their lives here. This is against the Cosmic Moral Code!«
Kuster~Laap’s head swayed as if in empathy. Nobody spoke a word. Toiber Arkroid saw this ship cemetery as confirmation that this Retreat had also been lost to the enemy. Whoever had won this battle had turned the Brotherhood’s plans for this Retreat into a farce. Arkroid pondered for a moment.
»Collect as much data as possible and maintain your anti-detection shield,« Arkroid broke the prevailing silence. »Try to identify the ships and catalog them – but stay alert! Let’s not become victims, if there are still any remaining guardians or automatic weapon systems. Try to establish a timeline for when this fight occurred. We need to know what happened.«
»Toiber, that is why I love to work with you! Your assignments are challenging and satisfying,« Nautilus replied.
Despite the ship’s words the mood in the command central remained grim. Everybody seemed worried, even if it was difficult to assess what the Chiropter and the ZyClonians were thinking. It was very possible that a Human-like civilization had fought an overwhelming enemy – and lost! The outcome of the battle was obvious on the holos.
»Some wrecks are easily identified,« Nautilus responded. »They’re Globuster lenses, about 5,000 of them! Some show damages caused by weapons, and others seem intact but display no energy signatures. There are also large fragments of Globuster Tenders, probably carrier units for the smaller lenses.«
»Stay alert. Those lenses and their pilots may only have fallen into stasis, like the ones in your solar system after the Stinger was destroyed,« Vasina said warily.
The team watched as Nautilus reassembled the lens ship fragments to one unit by animation sequence.
»Well, it’s happened here too,« Pi sighed. »History’s repeated itself!«
»The difference is that the system inhabitants here fought back. They didn’t just let the Globusters take over,« Vasina remarked with respect and admiration in her voice.
»Didn’t help them much, though, «Voit Masgur interjected with sad eyes. »Whoever flew these ships is long dead!«
»As I told you,« Kuster~Laap picked up, his deepened voice reflecting his emotion at the scene of destruction. »The Globusters are not the real enemy. The degenerated technology has taken them over. The Globusters deserve our pity because they fight against their own will, against defenders who could think freely. We have to prevent this from happening to other galactic communities!«
»Well, what are you doing about it? Why have your micro-technical gurus come up with a way to defeat this? Can’t you, I don’t know, engineer a virus that infects this rotten technology?« Ivanova said aloud, pointing at the ZyClonians.
»It is not that simple,« Kuster~Laap apologized for his guardians. »The Order of Micro-Technicians has been working on a solution for a long, long time, to no avail.«
»I have something more,« Nautilus announced. »A large amount of matter that does not behave analogous to the spin of the solar system … several objects that defy the astrophysical parameters of this system. The total mass of this matter in relation to its movements and point of origin suggests fragments from the destruction of a moon-size planetoid.«
»Proklon!« Kuster~Laap responded with a very deep voice. »The Dimensional Base and the planetoid were destroyed!«
»My data agrees,« Nautilus approved. »Using the debris drift, it’s simple to determine when this occurred. Relatively recently on a cosmic scale – only about 2000 terrestrial years ago!«
»Hmm … about the time of the birth of Jesus Christ,« Voit Masgur, who had lived most of his life amongst the Amish people, murmured to himself.
While Delta Trianguli 4’s sickle became larger and larger on the holos, the biggest moon of this system slowly pushed its way into the holo from the left. Arkroid was moved by the sight. A new solar system! Thanks to the Techno-Ferry, Humans were now able to conduct interstellar space flights.
Still, he realized, the journey to this solar system was only depressing. It had nothing to do with research and pioneer spirits. The survival of Humanity, and other civilizations, was at stake!
»I was right!« Nautilus proclaimed. »Even here, between the gas planet and its moon, at the locus of gravitational equilibrium which you call the Lagrange point, there are vast debris regions, mostly consisting of wrecked or destroyed spaceships. I do not understand why such sacrifices were necessary. There must have been thousands of ships involved in this battle. The great moon Taif must had a special strategic meaning for the defenders and they protected it to the last man.«
»We would probably do the same for Triton – if we had enough ships to defend our base against an overwhelming enemy fleet like that,« Pi remarked mutedly.
»Hmm … perhaps your lacking means of defense is one of the reasons why Humanity is still around. The Globusters in the Kuiper Belt could have easily wiped you out a long time ago!« Vasina speculated.
»Life and death are close relatives in the universe!« Arkroid replied. »Nautilus, what can you tell us about Taif?«
»I’ve entered the moon’s name in my registry log,« Nautilus announced. »Taif has a diameter of 5400 kilometers – larger than Mercury. It follows a retrograde orbit, due to its being caught by Delta Trianguli 4. It probably came from the local Kuiper Belt. The moon possesses a dense nitrogen-methane atmosphere, comparable to Saturn’s moon Titan.« After a short break Nautilus continued, »A thick layer of ice covers Taif’s surface, constantly thickening due to volcanism that delivers water and methane from the moon’s inner depths to the surface. I detect many shipwrecks, some of them still protruding from the ice into the atmosphere. They’re scattered all over the moon’s surface. They must have either crashed landed or were shot down.«
; Although the layers of ice could not be penetrated by the ship’s optical systems, its scanners that used tachyon technology delivered perfectly clear images of what was underneath the ice. What they saw was devastation! Rudimentary fragments of the once thriving and expanding infrastructure of a busy colony were revealed. Unlike Triton with only one base, the former inhabitants of this moon had established bases all over Taif. The surface structures were all destroyed and reduced to rubble, but they still showed the remains of an advanced civilization. Toppled, high buildings, covered with layers of dust, indicated a business oriented society – but between the buildings were only impact craters of bombs and spaceships!
Arkroid took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As he opened his eyes again, he threw a hard and unforgiving look at Kuster~Laap.
»If I ever get to meet the leaders of the Galactic Brotherhood, they’ll have to explain why all this suffering and sacrifices were necessary! If what our data and your own words are telling us is true, a Human civilization similar to ours and far more advanced was left alone to fight a barbarous enemy – abandoned, sacrificed and slaughtered! Fed to the Globusters! Just cannon fodder!« Arkroid raged with a hiss in his voice.
»I understand, Arkroid,« Kuster~Laap admitted. »However, it was not the Galactic Brotherhood’s fault. The Enemy has no respect for life. They simply eliminate everything in their way. Direct your anger toward the common enemy, who threatens not only your home-world but many thousands of others – mine included!«
»Doesn’t matter, Kuster~Laap. No matter how many excuses you can come up with and how you turn and twist it … the fact is that the Galactic Brotherhood had failed miserably!« Maya Ivanova said with finality.
Vasina was staring at the floor.
›Did you sacrifice the Progonauts too, and blamed us for the aftermath?‹ she wondered.
She looked up and threw her long hair onto her back, looking defiantly at Kuster~Laap and not saying a word. She didn’t need to say anything … her golden eyes spoke volumes!
Arkroid sighed, put his index fingers together and held his hands before his face, touching his nose tip … also pondering.
»We leave this sector and fly to Delta Trianguli 2,« he commanded in a rasping voice moments later. »Nautilus has reported to me that it is an Earth-like planet, probably the former home-world of the Human population in this system. We’ll check it out thoroughly and then decide how to proceed. With this scale of destruction, I have little hope of finding anybody alive there, but we have to try!«
With the depressing mood lingering in the command central, Nautilus accelerated and changed course toward the second planet, leaving the space battle sector behind.
Data channels overloaded
While Nok Daralamai and Friedberg waited for a life-sign from Titan, the Union Fleet went on alert, with special enhancements Friedberg had added to the standard alert procedures. Union Fleet squadrons were ordered into space to protect the colonies and moons which were still in contact with each other via tachyon amplifiers. No one knew if this would be enough. It was still unclear why the Titan base didn’t respond. There could be a number of reasons, but Friedberg assumed the worst – that Titan had fallen victim to the aliens.
Nok Daralamai also considered scenarios as she paced up and down the command central.
»Nothing yet?« she inquired again, but the comm officer in charge just shook his head.
»How much longer until we have standard radio contact?« she kept asking.
»At least 20 minutes, Ma’am,« the officer replied dryly.
›20 minutes till we know!‹ Nok thought somberly.
She had no illusions. Even if another outer base reported a hostile act by the octahedron, it would take hours until the message was received and help sent.
All ships on route to the outer bases had been redirected. Friedberg had interrupted the tachyon link to Triton temporarily. Nok suspected that he was busy commanding a greater defense strategy. She frowned, imagining a fleet of octahedrons invading the solar system. She called herself to order. Thoughts like that didn’t help. She needed a clear head.
Nok was just about to walk to the scanner section when the speakers of both tachyon and radio comm-links suddenly screamed and crackled … Ranguin’s voice sounded over the speakers, at first with a lot of feedback, but the comm operators quickly adjusted the gain and his voice became clearer.
»…adio link interrupted … data channels … erloaded! I repeat: a massive data transfer by the octahedron has caused our neuronal computer to shut down the tachyon comm-link because the data channels were overloaded!« Ranguin announced.
Nok jumped over to the comm-section, pushed an operator aside and slammed her hand on the push-to-call pad.
»Good Heavens, Ranguin! We were worried sick! Report please! Friedberg has put the entire solar system on alert!« she spoke swiftly into the microphone.
Ranguin hesitated with his response, but then he understood.
»Comm-loss … there’s no need for concern, Commander. The octahedron is behaving peacefully … it’s even given us something for our scientists to brood over.«
»What do you mean?« Nok inquired cautiously. »What did you get from the octahedron?«
Ranguin cleared his throat laboriously before he began to explain.
»After we transmitted our welcome message to the octahedron, it must have found a way over our comm-channels to enter the base’s neuronal computer, since it’s part of the tachyon network.«
»Are you telling me that the octahedron has obtained information from us?« she replied, alarmed.
»No! No data has been transferred to the alien ship. Just the opposite! We have received so much data that our systems were on the brink of collapsing. That ship used all available data channels and filled our memory banks to the brim. That’s why we lost contact with you and the rest of the solar system. Our base scientists tell us that the data transferred to us are intelligible – we can read the stuff!«
Nok Daralamai was speechless.
»Okay … let me get this straight … the octahedron transferred information to your neuronal memory banks, pre-translated to our language?«
»It sounds incredible, but it’s the honest truth, Commander,« Ranguin acknowledged.
»What happened to the octahedron?« she inquired quickly.
Ranguin was talking to somebody in the background.
»The octahedron shrunk and then disappeared,« he replied after a minute.
»You mean … it jumped again?« Nok wanted to know.
»No, Sir. With each data pack transferred it became smaller and smaller. We don’t know why, but the octahedron shrunk drastically. The more data we received the smaller it became until … uh … pop … it was gone!« Ranguin snapped his fingers.
Nok chuckled to herself at the “pop” analogy.
»Okay. I want all your data banks and neuronal computers offline and locked until we can be sure that we didn’t catch an alien virus. The computers may only be accessed by your specialists. Analyze the data packs and try to come to a conclusion quickly, especially about the data content!« she commanded.
»Consider it done, Ma’am! We’ll get back to you ASAP!« Ranguin replied and broke the link.
Nok could only wait …
Clear as pea soup
The planet looked a lot like Earth at first, with a blue atmosphere and a diameter of 13,533 kilometers. A more detailed analysis made the differences obvious. All the land on the planet reached from North to South as a single super-continent. The atmosphere was suitable for Humans, if slightly denser and little less oxygenated.
The major difference was the lack of polar icecaps! Instead, a large ring of ice encircled the Equator and divided the northern and southern hemispheres. The planet had an axial shift toward the main solar plane of 62 degrees, bringing enough sunlight to the poles that ice could not form. People on the planet’s surface would see not one sun, but two in the sky. One of the suns was slightly c
loser to the planet so that the North Pole region, facing it, was drying out.
The Techno-Ferry detected a rich and active biosphere on the planet, named Equinox by Arkroid. The world was teeming with life despite signs of heavy destruction. Circular, highly developed cities spread across the entire continent, but lay in ruins.
»I detect far-reaching underground cave systems beneath the ruins. They were probably used as bunkers or shelters. There are still some nuclear reactors smoldering with very little radiation and almost no energy signatures. I detect no highly developed technology on this planet. This world seems to be as dead energy-wise as the moon Taif. There is no tachyon hub. If it weren’t for the fauna and flora, this planet would be lifeless.«
Arkroid’s eyes reflected his sadness. The enemy had wiped out intelligent life on Equinox. Despite the low radiation levels from the reactors, there were none of the characteristic signs of nuclear warfare … the enemy had deployed far more powerful weapons.
»Let’s leave this system and return to your solar system, Arkroid,« Kuster~Laap suggested after a few minutes.
»I don’t think so!« Arkroid disagreed. »We didn’t come all this way to turn around and go home. We’ll look for survivors down there – they may need our help!«
Kuster~Laap didn’t seem to understand Arkroid’s viewpoint.
»The Retreat is lost – destroyed a long time ago. There’s nothing here that can help us … it’s just a waste of time!« he replied.
»Kuster~Laap …,« Arkroid took a deep breath before he continued, »You can’t even tell us when the Great Tremor will occur. Your experiment here failed, and you’re ready to write off this world. I hate to say it, but I expected this kind of reaction from you. We Humans don’t think that way – we’re interested in finding out who these people were and how they lived … and died!«
»Yes, I understand your need to know more, but this is not the right time. Return to your home-system and prepare for the Great Tremor,« Kuster~Laap demanded. »My companions and I will use the tachyon portal and report to the Galactic Brotherhood that the Retreat systems have been lost to us …«
NEBULAR Collection 4 - Second Reserve: Episodes 17 - 21 Page 11
