Nok cautiously groped at her shoulder, but didn’t feel any pain.
»I’m okay … I guess.«
»The situation is under control again,« reported Hassan.
Nok coughed and turned her head toward him.
»What happened? Where are the Moxantans?«
Nuri’s eyes had a sad look. Nok noticed for the first time the strong energy which Nuri emitted. Her golden eyes were glowing fiercely.
»You predicted it, when you said that we’ll need to use our abilities at some point in time.«
Nok understood and tried to get up. There was an ugly burn spot where the laser beam had entered her shoulder, but the skin underneath the garment was intact. The wound had healed flawlessly.
»Thank you!«
Nuri helped her on her feet and observed her closely.
»Did we lose a lot of time?« Nok inquired, touching her shoulder.
»Hmm … a little more than an hour,« Hassan responded. »Do you feel strong enough to continue?«
»Yes, let’s go, enough time has been wasted,« Nok sent Nuri another thankful glance. She avoided the topic of the Moxantans.
Hassan concentrated and opened a wall to a maintenance tunnel in front of them.
»I even had the chance to …« he began.
»… question a Moxantan?« Nok finished his sentence with a grimace.
»Yes,« admitted Hassan. »The Moxantans under the command of Mindbreaker are almost finished breaching the firewalls of our main frame. The Quadranans were supplying the technology with which the coded computer data bases can be read. The other group around Destroyer, however, doesn’t possess this technology and still tries it the “old fashioned” way.«
Nok smiled mysteriously.
»There’s obviously some rivalry amongst the Circle people,« Nok concluded. »This is one of their weaknesses. At least two Circle generals can’t see eye to eye.«
»Three,« Hassan added. »The Frigonans left for Earth on their own behalf. The Moxantans are associating these Frigonans with hungry parasites. I don’t know if this is good or bad news. The Moxantan, I probed, didn’t know much.«
Hassan stepped through the opening into the maintenance tunnel, followed by the two women. According to the base’s layout plans; this was one of the tunnels, leading to the main computer center.
More beautiful – and much colder
Covered with snow, Main and his team lay in wait for an hour watching the extraterrestrial machines.
»No change, they behave as before,« Bondifar remarked for the fourth time.
»What we can call normal,« Hosch murmured. »I can’t see any picobot effect, but the temperature fell another three degrees.«
»We need to be patient,« Main reminded them. »Did you see any of the extraterrestrials outside the igloos?«
»No, so far only robots …«
Hosch held his breath and ducked deeper as a robot drove along the landing zone periphery. It was a semi-spherical machine adorned with multiple sensors.
»What the … is that?« Bondifar whispered. »Some sort of a guard dog?«
»… don’t know, his sensors are pointing in all directions.«
»Maybe a combat robot? What if these sensors are weapons?« Hosch asked worried.
»Laser weapons aren’t the problem,« Bondifar replied, »as long as they don’t use plasma weapons.«
»You know what I mean,« Hosch countered. »We don’t know what kind of machine this is. Maybe it’s a guard robot, maybe even a survey robot or a sweeper. Speculation on our part is useless … one thing is clear that particular hardware is still working! We’ve been waiting here for more than an hour and it seems that the picobots didn’t work the way we expected.«
The team’s mood shifted.
»Stop talking, we’ll wait! I hate surprises,« Main commanded.
Bondifar checked his scanners while Main kept an eye on the robot which had lost a small cylindrical object.
›What’s that supposed to mean now?‹ Main asked himself.
The robot stopped for a moment noticing the piece that had fallen into the snow.
Main’s wrist detector unit suddenly made a piercing sound. He twitched briefly.
»Guys, we have a signal again!« he announced.
The display showed the robot, covered with green picobots but also with red particles which seemed to devour the picobots.
›Shit! Antibots!‹ Main thought alarmed.
The robot moved again but stopped after a couple of meters, losing another piece. Despite the damage to the machine it became clear to Main that a silent battle between micro-technologies was raging on. A quick scan revealed that more robots had ceased to function.
»The picobots are working!« Bondifar yelled enthusiastically into the wind.
»Huh … but they’re losing!« Hosch dampening Bondifar’s enthusiasm. »Our little friends can’t replicate as fast as these red killerbots!«
»At least the robots are partially paralyzed,« Main interjected. »How much time do we have left?«
»I can only give you a wild ass guess,« Hosch swallowed. »Considering the replication rate of these killerbots … maybe thirty minutes!«
In the meantime all the worker robots had seized, none of the machines were moving anymore.
»We’re going in! Now!« Main jumped from his sled and pulled his weapon from his back. Bondifar and Hosch did the same. Thanks to the diamond-hard spikes under their boot soles their footing was good on the icy ground. They approached the village in V-formation. They disregarded the immobile robots while Bondifar, nevertheless, secured in the direction of the machines.
»Everything is made of ice, unbelievable!« Hosch yelled to Main as they stormed across a transparent ice sheet which allowed a view of the underlying rock. At first it looked as if they were standing before a ridge, but the wide gap was filled with ice.
»This is not normal ice!« Bondifar remarked aloud. »Water-ice is not that clear and transparent. They must have done something to the water!«
»He knows everything about water!« Hosch mocked obviously referring to Bondifar’s Merinian heritage.
»Shut up, keep moving, save your breath!« Main commanded and ran toward the first pyramid-like ice igloo. When they arrived at the back of the structure, they stopped dead. Before them, Hundreds of robots were standing, motionless, on the ice between the igloos.
»Remain calm guys,« Main instructed the two other men. »The machines are deactivated. Let’s look for the entrance.«
»There’re several entrances!« Bondifar announced. »Two big ones and a two meter wide one. Which one do you want to take?«
»The smaller one!« Hosch decided quickly running for the smaller entrance.
»Why this one?« Main asked breathlessly when they arrived beside the entrance, taking position.
»Gut feeling,« admitted Hosch. »The bigger ones are probably for robots.«
»Okay!« Main commanded as he tried to enter the igloo, only to be thrown on his back by an invisible obstruction.
»Damnit! What’s that?« he cursed with surprise, rubbing his right arm. He got up and cautiously advanced again with his hands extended. Then he felt it. »Feels like ice, just much harder!«
»I think we were a bit too naïve,« Main admitted. »It’s logical that they close their doors. The material looks like crystal clear ice, the same that filled the ridge.«
Main used his rifle and hit the door with the shoulder piece, to no avail.
»Hosch, give me the ice pick!«
Tiller Hosch handed him the pick and took a wide swing. Just before he slammed the pick into the door, Bondifar stopped him.
»Wait!«
»What?« Main asked perplexed.
»That’s not ice! But it ain’t normal matter either, not even an energy field. I’d call it frozen energy. I don’t think it’s a good idea to use the ice pick on it.«
»What else can we do?« Main asked in frustration.
Suddenly
, the three men were enveloped with a bright, green light, emanating from the entrance, making them take a step back. The invisible barrier slowly disappeared before their eyes.
»Step back!« Main commanded.
They quickly took positions on either side of the entrance with their weapons ready.
»What’s going on?« Hosch wanted to know, but didn’t get an answer, instead he saw a young woman – a naked woman!
The woman walked barefoot into the cold for a couple of meters and then turned around, facing the men. Frozen icicles hung from her hair. Her skin was blue and her entire body covered with Frigonans.
Main, Bondifar and Hosch were speechless.
Despite the fact that the Frigonans had drilled their stingers into her body, she wasn’t bleeding. It seemed as if she felt no pain at all, she even broke a smile toward the men.
»This is the missing Uma Boos!« Main whispered and opened his helmet visor to talk to her. »We’re here to rescue you!«
Main’s offer didn’t sit well with Uma Boos.
»You won’t touch me!« she replied steadfastly while her eyes glared mysteriously. »You have to leave, now!«
»She’s nuts,« Bondifar hissed. »Let’s paralyze her and take her with us. We need to be quick before the other beings show up.«
»Wait!« Main warned. »What’s that noise?«
The other two men became aware of a strange chirping and hissing noise coming from the entrance, growing louder and more threatening by the second.
»I’ve got a really shitty feeling about this, Boss!« Tiller confessed and aimed his weapon at the green glowing entrance while Bondifar and Main concentrated on the woman.
Uma Boos still smiled her strange smile.
»They will make your world more beautiful – and much colder,« she spoke through her toothy grin.
Off limits
The Paradise Bird was slowly accelerating. Friese was keeping his mouth shut about the destination and smiled like a little boy at Christmas. The ship was performing as expected after years of almost standing still in space. It was in a much better shape than Chopra had always proclaimed.
In the meantime, the three visitors inspected the ship. Chopra didn’t have a clue what these scientists were looking for. The rest of the crew also questioned why Fleet HQ had selected this ship. More and more rumors surfaced, which Friese couldn’t confirm or deny, having little clue himself.
So far, none of the three visitors had replied to Friese’s requests, but after an hour, they seemed to be satisfied and called for several containers, which the Nova Hawk had delivered. The techno-module section was declared as their working space and off limits to the crew, including the ship’s technical staff. They installed holographic projectors and new terminals, but left some containers untouched for the time being. Friese became uneasy by this approach and would have to get more involved as soon as he got a spare minute.
Purged and deleted
Nok Daralamai, Nuri Jawa and Hassan Khalil passed through an airlock and arrived at an iron-bar gate, which separated the maintenance tunnel from the computer center. On their way, they had to circumvent and bypass base security sensors and barriers. These security measures were a standard part of base security and had nothing to do with the Moxantans. Hassan’s abilities aided Nok in finding the hidden sensors and laser beam traps.
»I think, we can safely assume that the Moxantans don’t know anything about our advances through the tunnel system,« Nok suggested.
»There’re no Moxantans behind the iron-bar gate,« declared Hassan. »At least, I’m not sensing them. They are, however, in the adjacent room where the different neuronal interface modules are located.«
»Are there any surveillance cameras inside the memory bank room?« Nuri inquired.
»Well … there’re sensors of different types to protect the memory, as well as proximity sensors, but no cameras,« replied Nok. »Since the room is fully climatized, there’re temperature and humidity sensors as well as smoke detection and fire suppression sensors under the floor and on the ceiling. We shouldn’t have to worry about the fire sensors as they activate the suppression system only in a case of a fire. First the room will be flooded with an inert gas and if that doesn’t work, a water sprinkler system will douse any remaining heat source hotter than ninety degrees Centigrade. As a matter of fact, you don’t want to be in this room when the gas is discharged as it deprives the room of oxygen. If this is not enough, then this room can be subjected to the space environment outside. All these system can be de-activated via my personal access codes or a mobile interface.«
Nok smiled confidently and reached into one of her leg pockets, pulling out a projector for a virtual terminal. The palm-size device created a holographic keyboard through which the access codes could be entered.
»As previously mentioned, we won’t destroy the memory banks, on the contrary, I’ll disable the self-destruct sequences. I assume that the Moxantans will lose their patience soon and directly manipulate the banks. This would definitely engage the self-destruct sequences, which I’ll try to avoid ...«
»… but then they’ll find the information about the octahedron, Commander,« Nuri replied in confusion. »I thought, we wanted to destroy the data banks.«
»Don’t worry, Nuri. We’re going to play a game of deception and feed new information into the banks, pointing the Moxantans into the wrong direction. All pertinent information about the octahedron will be changed and replaced with coordinates which direct them to the Kuiper Belt. They can search the sector until Kingdom comes.«
»I don’t understand, why we’re taking such a risk. There’s still a chance that they destroy the memory banks, nonetheless,« Nuri worried.
» … I think, the Commanders plan follows a two-fold strategy,« Hassan interrupted and gave Nok an understanding nod. »If the Moxantans retrieve the information then they believe the data to be correct. If they then follow the fake coordinates, then we’ll gain some time. It would also weaken the Circle, because they’re only concentrating on their search.«
Nok nodded in agreement.
»It is not quite clear what the Reusus Moxantans would do if they find out that we purged and deleted the information inside the data banks. This could be perceived as an affront, followed by retaliations. If we would have known what they were looking for as soon as they arrived in the Solar System, then our strategy would have been different,« Nok explained, looking seriously at her companions. »Since we cannot engage in open warfare, we need to make time for counter measures, which on the other hand, must not appear like sabotage or resistance.«
Hassan concentrated for a moment and dissolved the iron-bar gate, the way to the memory banks was free.
Nok deactivated the sensors via her virtual terminal and suppressed associated trouble messages. She tip-toed over to the main memory bank with extra caution, making sure not to upset any sensors which she might have missed. Having cleared the room to the main memory bank, she began to integrate her terminal with the comm-connector when she froze suddenly!
›This doesn’t belong here!‹ she thought with alarm, glancing at a couple of strange looking devices and a large box.
»What is that box doing here?« she inquired.
Hassan looked at the box and cautiously walked toward it. He kneeled down and observed the small box, not larger in size than a small dog.
»The Moxantans must have left it here, probably the ones under the command of Willbreaker.«
Nok’s face paled.
»I hope we didn’t come too late and the Quadranans know about Titan.« she remarked worriedly.
Hassan seemed absentminded as he remarked mutedly, »This is a tachyon sensor and transmitter. It seems as if this device can copy the coded data and send them to the Boodrum. There, the Quadranans can decipher the information without haste.«
Nok didn’t hesitate any longer and connected her terminal to the main bank. A larger holographic interactive display established, enabling her
to enter her codes. She was very worried that the Quadranans could have been faster.
»I’m executing the data scan and replacing the information in question, then I re-activate the read/write security measures.«
Nuri and Hassan watched her bypassing the different security levels and firewalls. A second display activated, indicating the current security situation and the firewall statuses.
Nuri pointed at the second display and correctly commented, »The Destroyer Moxantans have already defeated four out of the five barriers!«
»Saw that already, Nuri!« Nok replied in a hoarse voice, while watching her own manipulations and status indications. »It’s going to be tight!«
That’s the spirit
»One of the robots moved!« Bondifar shouted. »I think the killerbots are gaining the upper hand!«
Sawyer Main looked excitedly back and forth between the woman, the pyramid igloo and the robot.
»Leave, now!« the woman yelled at them with condensing breath.
»We can’t leave her here, that’s what we came for, right?« Hosch shouted.
Uma Boos looked at the men with wide open eyes, »Quick …!«
Her eyes sent a clear warning to the three men.
›She wants to help us, but we cannot escape together with her. The Frigonans would catch us!‹ Main pondered, realizing the danger.
»Retreat!« Main decided. »Quickly! There’s nothing left for us to do. Move or they’ll catch us!«
Tiller Hosch and Montas Bondifar clenched their teeth, turned around and ran for their sleds. Main briefly looked back and waived at Uma Boos, who returned the gesture, which seemed out of place under these circumstances. Moments later, a stream of Frigonans came from the igloo entrance and dispersed in all directions.
»There are hundreds!« Bondifar screamed in surprise as he ran.
The men were now running for their lives. They found their sleds on top of the small hill and looked back quickly to see if they were being followed. It seemed that the Frigonans had lost them due to a sudden change in the weather. The heavy snow storm seemingly made it difficult for them to orientate themselves.
NEBULAR Collection 4 - Second Reserve: Episodes 17 - 21 Page 32
