Paafnas licked over his eyes nervously, but returned Ray’s look. The air in the underground city was a touch too dry for Paafnas whose amphibious evolution preferred a higher humidity.
»You’re a strange bunch of troopers. So far we only have your word and your DNA analysis. I’m not certain yet if we should trust you. I’ll give you a chance, however, by subjecting you to another test!«
»Another test?« Masgur asked, perplexed. Ray-Tor chuckled again.
»Exactly! It will also help you to understand us better. If you pass the test, we will honor your friendship and consider you allies.«
Kuster~Laap fluttered his ears excitedly.
»We should not remain too long on this world,« he warned. »We should use the available time to prepare for the catastrophe …!«
»… and hide like cowards behind the Dimensional Shield in our solar system instead?« Maya Ivanova threw in angrily.
Kuster~Laap ignored her.
»Let me put it this way …,« interrupted Ray-Tor, stifling a stronger response from Ivanova. »You just don’t have a choice!«
Not much longer
Ray-Tor led a heavily armed group of about 100 Neo-Sapiens, and Arkroid’s team, who had been ordered to join them. They prepared for the ascent to the surface. Ray-Tor refused to answer Arkroid’s questions about their destination, and his troops had also been briefed to do the same. The team had been fitted with equipment, leather-like, 20 centimeter wide belts, to wear crisscrossed over their chests and backs.
»Keep these belts at all times on the surface!« Ray-Tor emphasized.
Pi slipped into his belts and inspected the rough surface. He felt bumps beneath the leathery material and realized that devices must have been woven or sealed inside the belts. It took Vasina a while to agree to wear hers. Arkroid had to plead with her to cooperate and stop acting so stubborn. He wished that Ray-Tor would have explained himself better; that would have helped immensely. But the Neo-Sapien leader was a man of few words and simply led the group silently toward the ramp.
Before leaving the underground abode, the men gave a combat cry that was echoed by women and children who had assembled near the ramp.
›Looks like we’re going to be gone for a while!‹ Arkroid pondered.
When they arrived on the surface, they were quickly surrounded by more grim looking warriors. The group moved swiftly on and urged Arkroid’s team to keep up the pace. Arkroid had to admit that the warriors made effective use of the terrain. They crossed the fields of ruins in a disciplined manner, covering each other and signaling with their hands to direct the large group to halt or to advance faster. Ray-Tor’s men were clearly not on an afternoon stroll. The march was always secured on all sides, and several times weapons came up when they had scared up animals or large insects.
›We’re in enemy territory!‹ noted Maya Ivanova, who as a Union Fleet commander, had received ground tactics and infantry training at the Moscow Academy. ›They know their job!‹
Paafnas had trouble keeping up, and had to ask Pi to carry him on his back. Pi readily obliged; Paafnas wasn’t heavy at all and no burden to him.
»Thanks, Pi, I really appreciate this,« Paaf whispered in Pi’s ear.
Kuster~Laap, who had only reluctantly joined the troops, was flanked by his ZyClonian companions – still void of their nanopods. Nood and Naad had changed over the last couple of hours, turned pale. Their movements were uncertain and they stumbled a lot. Most of the time they were quiet except for some moaning and groaning, something they’d never done before.
Vasina and Voit Masgur followed the troop behind Arkroid. She had taken her golden shield from her shoulder, ready for use.
Ivanova pushed her way over to Arkroid’s side, walking beside him silently. She kept her eyes on the troops, watching every detail .
»Do you see Ray-Tor anywhere?« she whispered to Arkroid.
»I think he’s ahead of us,« he replied softly. »What do you think this is all about?«
Ivanova grinned.
»You’ve seen what I’ve seen Toiber. I think you know already,« she whispered back.
Arkroid smiled and blinked at her.
»I’m more interested in your assessment, Maya.«
Arkroid looked skeptically over his left shoulder where he had noticed a large insect following the troop.
»Well … I think we’re with a combat unit heading into battle!« she suggested. »They’re on the alert and heavily armed. They know their destination and they’re moving in stealth. These men expect to encounter a bad situation – maybe an ambush – any second … and we’re marching northbound, toward the ice barrier! That’s where the Looters live. Although at this pace we’ll be marching for a couple of days before we even see the foothills of the glaciers.«
»Do they want to involve us in a fight with these Languins?« Arkroid asked worriedly.
»Don’t think so,« she doubted. »He probably wants to see how we react to the Looters – he still doesn’t trust us.«
Arkroid nodded, pondering, and activated the tiny comm-device in his throat by means of a quick swallowing movement with his Adam’s apple. Nautilus had provided the device so he could communicate secretly with the ship. A small acoustic energy field formed just above Arkroid’s larynx, catching the slightest sounds.
»Can you hear me, Nautilus?« he requested.
»Loud and clear, Toiber,« responded Nautilus through a similar acoustic field just above Arkroid’s middle ear.
»Where are you now?« Arkroid inquired.
»I’m located 100 meters above and ready for action!« advised Nautilus.
Arkroid had to force himself not to look up.
»I’m monitoring your movements and await your orders. I’m concerned about the heavy weapons the Neo-Sapiens are carrying. I remind you of the Cosmic Moral Code, Toiber. Don’t ever forget it!« Nautilus abjured strongly.
The warning was clear.
»I see that it’s not only the Neo-Sapiens who are masters of disguise!« Arkroid complimented. As hard as he tried, he could not see anything in the sky overhead.
»Analyzing their disguise fields helped me improve my own! I’m learning, Toiber – I can locate you with no problem, even under a disguise field.«
»Really, Nautilus?« Arkroid asked in surprise.
»As soon as you reached the surface you were enveloped by a disguise field,« Nautilus explained. »You probably don’t notice it. The individual field-modulations are synchronized so that you can see each other’s disguise auras.«
»Disguise auras?« Arkroid wondered. »Fascinating term.«
»The field modulators alter your bio-electric aura. Your bodies become generators and power supplies. The projectors are hidden in the belts you’re wearing.«
›The belts …?‹ Arkroid thought. He was interrupted.
»Are you talking to yourself?« a voice mocked from the right side. Ray-Tor had suddenly returned and greeted his men with a fist slam to his chest.
›He must have hearing like a wolf!‹ Arkroid wondered.
He thought a moment and decided to tell Ray-Tor the truth.
»No, I’m talking to my ship. It’s following us at a safe distance.«
Ray-Tor smiled enigmatically and shook his head like a Human.
»Not exactly, Arkroid! The ship is hovering above us. Your morphing ship’s abilities are remarkable, but if you look around you’ll see that the animals are reacting to its energy field. See how the soaring insects change direction when they sense it!«
Pi looked up and smiled embarrassedly.
»Yeah! I can see it now too!« he admitted.
Ray-Tor laughed out loud and addressed the Chiropter.
»You don’t seem to be enjoying our excursion?«
Kuster~Laap turned his head 180 degrees and remarked in a very deep voice, »I’m following you under protest! We’re wasting our time … while time is running out for the galaxy. We have more important things to do than run around here.«
<
br /> »You’ll understand better when we arrive at our destination!« Ray-Tor predicted.
»Can you at least tell us how long this will take?« Voit Masgur inquired.
»Not too much longer,« Ray-Tor growled.
Let’s move on
Equinox was an impressive world even to the Neo-Sapiens, who were a foreign element here. Their forefathers had long ago been transferred here – apparently against their will! They were intended to evolve and create a new civilization capable of building a Retreat. The destruction of Proklon, the largest planetoid in the system and the site where the Dimensional Base was located, had changed everything. Delta Trianguli was filled with wrecks and stellar fragments, the Equinox civilization ruined. The Neo-Sapiens had made the best of their situation in the face of an overwhelming enemy and despite the deadly blow by Atlantika.
The march over the surface seemed never-ending. They had been moving for hours already. Arkroid had lost his sense of time. The Southern hemisphere faced the dual suns more directly than the Northern, so that sunlight prevailed even at night, making it difficult to assess time in the usual sense.
They were still marching through fields of ruins that told clearly how big this city had been in better times.
Ray-Tor ordered a halt near a destroyed dome. A small group of warriors separated from the main group and secured the area while other members prepared food.
Arkroid’s team followed their example and took a break.
Pi slipped Paafnas from his shoulder.
»I think he’s fast asleep,« Pi commented and winked at Voit Masgur. »How are you doing?«
Masgur opened his arms in an all-encompassing gesture.
»What do you expect? I’m afraid being on this planet surrounded by people I cannot understand overwhelms me. Still, this expedition is fascinating and not without suspense. I still can’t believe that I’m walking on the surface of an alien planet!«
Pi nodded .
»Just watch out for the flora! Some of the plants love us so much, they want to eat us!« Pi joked.
Pi grinned at the look on Masgur’s face.
»Your abilities and those of your brethren ... what’s it all about?«
Masgur smiled. »I was talking to Arkroid about it back in Amish Paradise. That’s one reason he wanted me on this mission. It’s ... difficult to explain our abilities in plain words.«
»Try me …,« Pi invited
»Well … we can taste the auras of living beings …«
»… you can taste them?« Pi interrupted.
»I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s not the same as seeing, listening, smelling or feeling. Maybe tasting isn’t the right term either, but that’s as close as it can get. It lets us manipulate or strengthen a person’s for healing in a way that’s not like any known phenomena.«
»The wondrous healings we heard about …«
»… a positive side effect when an individual’s aura is boosted. If a person is ill or injured, his aura suffers as well. I can sense this and repair the aura with my personal field.«
»You heal by stimulating and stabilizing the person’s aura?« Pi repeated. It sounded like metaphysics to him.
Voit Masgur understood Pi’s doubts and studied the sky for a moment.
»It’s like recharging. I feed the damaged aura with my energy and assist the body’s immune system. There are many documented cases where this helps when people are injured.«
»You mean healing rituals, like in India … needles through the tongues and cheeks?« Pi asked doubtfully.
Masgur remained calm as he replied, »It’s not a trick or magic. Those people were able to recharge their auras, closing wounds within seconds. The wholeness of a being is not only defined by flesh, bones and blood … the aura energy is also part of it.«
Masgur saw that Pi still wasn’t fully convinced.
»The sum of all the energy auras of all the people on Earth usually form a balance – but it’s different on this planet! The balance, the symmetry, is out of whack!«
»What do you mean by that?« Pi asked, fascinated and concerned.
Masgur closed his eyes for a moment. Pi saw fear in them when he looked back. The golden eyes were glaring, sending shivers down Pi’s back.
»A storm is brewing and we’re walking right in to it. Something evil is closing in!«
Pi looked around nervously … he was worried now.
»That’s not good. Let’s tell the others,« he whispered with a dry voice.
Pi signaled Arkroid and the others to come over. He told them what Masgur had said.
Arkroid stroked his well-kept beard, considering.
» You’re sure, Voit?« he asked. »Maybe we should warn Ray-Tor.«
As if he’d been waiting for someone to call his name, Ray-Tor was suddenly standing behind Arkroid.
»Have you rested enough, Arkroid? We march in a short while,« he announced.
»Where are we going, Ray-Tor?« Arkroid said, loudly enough so that Ray’s men looked up from their meals.
Ray-Tor clenched his teeth, stepped closer to Arkroid, flexed his muscles and stared into his eyes.
»Don’t you dare raise your voice to me,« Ray-Tor warned. »My men could misunderstand . I’m the leader here!«
Arkroid blinked in irritation, he realized that he had gone too far.
»I’m not questioning or challenging you!« Arkroid replied and lowered his eyes. He could see from the corner of his eyes how Ray’s men were getting excited, as if they were expecting a duel. »… but we’re worried. One of my team members senses a great danger approaching. As leader of my team, I have the right to know what danger that might be,« Arkroid made his point without wavering, which seemed to impress Ray-Tor.
Ray threw another brief, scornful glance at Arkroid before he turned to Voit Masgur.
»This hybrid man has very fine senses; he’s more sensitive than us. He probably senses Looters or Languins!«
»The same Languins as the one in the temporal coffin?« Maya Ivanova inquired.
»Exactly!« Ray-Tor acknowledged. »Come with me. I want you to see something.«
Ray-Tor led them behind the dome and climbed on a marble-like pedestal, 2 meters high and overgrown with plants, with makeshift steps carved into one side. Atop the pedestal, he pointed into the distance. Arkroid followed his gesture and paled.
He saw a large plain, filled with hundreds of skeletons.
»Languins!« he recognized breathlessly.
»Right!« Ray-Tor responded simply.
›It’s a battle field!‹ Arkroid thought in horror and disgust. ›What a bloodshed!‹
»About a month ago, a troop of Languins appeared and mercilessly killed a group of my people in an ambush,« Ray-Tor explained. »They were cataloging artifacts, salvaging the ones worth keeping, when the Languins attacked and murdered almost all of them. When my warriors arrived, only a handful of the archeologists and helpers had survived. We eliminated all of the Looters! If even one of them had escaped, he would have brought thousands more back, possibly even to our underground abode. It was them or us!«
Ivanova shuddered.
»The Languins are the reason we’re advancing like we’re on a warpath!« she concluded.
Ray-Tor let his gaze wander across the battlefield.
»The Languins normally live beyond the ice barrier in the North, but we can never be safe, because they are very sturdy beings and driven to come across the barrier. They manage it from time to time, but they pay a high price for it. They’re thousands of them when they set out, but only small groups manage to get through. They’re still dangerous and they attack as if from nowhere.«
Arkroid came down from the pedestal and turned toward Voit Masgur.
»Is this what you’re sensing, Voit?«
»I can’t tell with certainty,« Voit admitted.
Ray-Tor jumped from the pedestal and yelled to his men, »Let’s move on!«
I’m a little confused
&nb
sp; The city’s ruin fields stretched as far as the eye could see. Pi and Arkroid had given up trying to remember where they were and looking for significant landmarks or even trying to assess which ruin field could have been an office building or a housing unit. The city was proof that a thriving civilization could vanish overnight. A ghost town was all that was left.
›No,‹ Arkroid corrected himself. ›The Neo-Sapiens were a highly developed civilization. But they can’t keep hiding in the underground or they’ll never overcome the setback the Languins handed them‹
A horn signal from Ray-Tor made Arkroid and his team listen up.
›Are we there yet?‹ Arkroid asked himself.
Masgur and Vasina were further ahead and signaled Arkroid to come closer. Vasina checked the inside of her shield and seemed to run some tests with its integrated scanner and sensor technology.
»We have a great ruin field before us. There is an underground infrastructure with mostly collapsed ceilings; however, I detect several tube-like structures expanding like a star in all directions. Most of the tunnels are destroyed or collapsed.
»Where are we?« Pi inquired and tried to catch a glimpse of Vasina’s scanner displays.
»This seems to be an ancient transportation system,« she speculated. »I’m certain we’ll find out sooner or later. It’s probably our destination.«
›She’s right,‹ Arkroid thought relieved. ›The warriors are laying down their gear and seem to be waiting for something‹
Suddenly, Ray-Tor appeared from among his men and walked over to Arkroid.
»As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve arrived at our preliminary destination. This is the underground subway hub “Ray-Mainai North” – a former gravo-train main station. Large sections of the subway system can no longer be used. We worked hard to re-open one line to the North. This station as well as our abode are shielded from watchers from space.«
»But it’s not our final destination?« Voit Masgur concluded.
Ray-Tor acknowledged with a deep growl.
»We’ll descend into the station and board the one train that is still running. It will take us North. Be careful down there – the terrain is difficult and there are flesh-eating plants down there. The actual station platform is clear of debris and plants. The train line takes us directly to the ice-barrier.«
NEBULAR Collection 4 - Second Reserve: Episodes 17 - 21 Page 15
