NEBULAR Collection 6 - The Great Tremor: Episodes 27 - 30

by Thomas Rabenstein

  »That doesn’t make sense,« Bruno replied. »Why would one of these robots crash and destroy itself? Why here? Why so close to us on an insignificant and remote planetoid?«

  »Haumea is a Kuiper-object,« Fitz corrected him. »We know about the importance of this object as part of the Globuster Matrix, right? Haumea is one of the largest asteroids in the Kuiper Belt. I’m pretty certain there are some installations of the Matrix Architects located on this planetoid.«

  »Matrix Architects?« Bruno asked surprised.

  »The Globusters didn’t design this matrix; they misused the installation for their purposes, although under orders of our unknown enemy. These beings are not able to develop their own initiative. Something else is behind it. To find this out, we came here!«

  »… but, Professor … the accident changed the situation drastically,« Bruno interrupted. »How can you possibly think to continue the expedition? We need to make an emergency call. They need to pick us up!«

  »This wasn’t an accident,« Fritz replied sternly. »The Techno-Cleric didn’t just crash here by chance. Perhaps, he was attracted to this place by the same phenomenon which manipulated the Globusters.«

  »Globusters are living, organic beings. Granted, they’re strange looking monsters, but no robots,« Bruno rebutted. »I can’t follow your train of thoughts.«

  Fitz pointed at the impact crater.

  »I want to look at the crash site. Globusters possess implants of degenerated technology. They’re not purely organic. Do you remember the aggression module?«

  Bruno held his breath

  »What are you suspecting, Professor?«

  Fitz slowly walked toward the impact crater while Bruno followed him hesitantly.

  »Professor?«

  Fitz drew a deep breath.

  »I’m not a specialist, but this crash seems puzzling to me. It is said, that the Techno-Clerics are perfectly designed and made. They adhere to a philosophy, which they call Cosmic Morals. A self-destruction doesn’t fit their image. The Techno-Cleric must also have noticed our Hawk. These robots have very delicate sensors. The robot had been fully aware of the effects the impact would have in the immediate vicinity of our ship. Nevertheless, it crashed right before our eyes! I think, I know why!«

  Bruno stopped for a moment.

  »You have an idea, Professor?«

  Fitz turned around, but the reflective visor prevented Bruno from seeing the professor’s face.

  »The robot must have gone mad! Something on this planetoid interfered with his program, turning him into a flying bomb. I’m determined to find out what caused this radical change in behavior. I think the reason lies underneath the planetoid’s surface.

  Fast! Away from here

  Nautilus dropped back to normal space for an orientation stop. The central display showed dazzling brightness and energy vortices. The ship seemed to have jumped into a space sector that was filled with only vague silhouettes.

  Arkroid became nervous. Sweat formed on his forehead. He was very impatient.

  Where are we? Why was the flight interrupted? He communicated with Nautilus via the mental bridge. We’re losing time!

  The parasite galaxy is very close, Nautilus replied.

  Arkroid knew that Nautilus wasn’t referring to spatial distance rather an inter-dimensional approach.

  The dimension distortions are growing in strength, navigating the tachyon continuum is becoming increasingly difficult. I fear that faster-than-light travel will no longer be reliable in a couple of hours. Already at this time, I have to correct my course vectors, as the reference parameters are changing rapidly. Otherwise, we’ll miss the Solar System and materialize lightyears away, or worse, in the center of a star, Nautilus replied.

  »Your star gods!« Vasina and Tranos shouted at the same time. »We exited directly above the central region of our galaxy! No Progonaut ship commander has ever dared to do this! The stars are so close that they almost touch each other. This is an unbelievable concentration of energy and masses. The radiation showers from the core of our galaxy are deadly! Whoever gets lost in this star jungle, is doomed!«

  Arkroid closed his eyes and thought, I hope, Tranos is wrong. Why, of all places, did you make the orientation stop right here? Is there a danger?

  There is danger all over the universe, Nautilus replied. If we’d stay a long time at this location, then the forces that rage in this sector would destroy us sooner or later. My navigation systems are far superior to any Progonaut unit. There’s no risk that I’m getting lost. Don’t worry, Toiber. The halt won’t last long.

  »I interrupted the flight about a thousand lightyears above the galactic core to check the course data. Below us is the dense central region of the Milky Way, made up of various arc-like structures of supra-hot plasma. The plasma streams are several hundred lightyears long and weave themselves around Sagittarius A, a gigantic Black Hole. In reality, we’re still far away from the galactic center of gravity. The star accumulations are, however, already quite dense in this sector. I detect one stellar object per cubic astronomical unit. The gravity of Sagittarius A affects us and speeds up my body with about 100 meters per second squared. Space around us is filled with matter and gaseous plasma. Everything that comes too close to Sagittarius A is caught and can no longer escape.«

  »That’s how Synthia’s residence looks like. Her home is one big place of absolute chaos,« Herimos murmured reverently.

  Vasina turned around.

  »Who told you this old myth, Herimos?« she inquired.

  »I heard it on India,« he replied and tried to envision the goddess, who, according to ancient Progonaut teachings, was holding the ends of the galactic spiral arms in her hands.

  Maya was also staring at the flickering lights of the galactic center.

  »What an incredible phenomenon! This spectacle is almost magical. All this light! Although, the region is dangerous, it seems to me extremely fascinating. Here, things are happening that cannot be explained by our physics,« she said awestruck.

  »Ours can,« the Chiropter replied smugly.

  Maya swallowed while Pi just grinned at him.

  »Do you see the little sparks, dancing around the central light source? There are hundreds, no thousands of sparks that flare up almost every second and then disappear. What’s that?« he asked.

  Kuster~Laap’s ears fluttered excitedly as he answered, »Each flaming spark is an exploding sun. The stars are torn apart by the enormous tidal forces or they collide with other stars due to the high density of stellar objects in this sector. We are fortunate that our home-systems are located inside the spiral arms, at the edge of our galaxy. Life has no chance here.«

  Maya gnawed on her lips.

  »We shouldn’t be here,« Paafnas admonished. Scared, he was crouching in his seat. »This place is worse than the soulchamber of the biting kurrok.«

  Pi knit his eyebrows.

  »The biting kurrok? Who is that? Is this a cousin of yours?«

  Pi saw Paafnas shivering and regretted his bad joke.

  »I think our friend means the Pleunatan variant of the devil,« suspected Arkroid. »Nautilus! If you corrected the flight coordinates, then we can continue the journey without further delay. Paaf is right. This is no place to hang out for a long time.«

  Paaf winked at Arkroid thankfully and liked his eyeballs. However, as Nautilus didn’t answer right away, he became worried again. His chest was heaving rapidly as if he was gasping for air.

  »Nautilus!« Arkroid inquired impatiently. »I’m waiting!«

  But only about a minute later, Nautilus, responded, which was an unusually long time.

  »Don’t you hear the cosmic music?« Nautilus asked.

  Pi thought he hadn’t heard correctly.

  »What?«

  »The galactic core area is dominated by chaos, but there are also higher-level, structured phenomena. The entire space is filled with spherical music,« Nautilus revealed to the astonished crew.

&nbs
p; Arkroid held his breath and focused on the mental bridge between him and the ship – he couldn’t hear the music.

  »I hope Nautilus didn’t suffer any damages,« Tranos whispered worriedly. »If the spaceship were to fail here of all places, then we’re doomed.«

  »I hear tachyon chants,« Nautilus explained with an ecstatic intonation. »Depending on how I interpret the tunes, they sound plaintive, admonishing but also confident and friendly. They want to tell us something. There are messages contained in these melodies.«

  Arkroid squinted at the holos, showing the outside of the ship. Bright, luminous plasma, led by invisible magnetic fields, originating from somewhere in the central region, approached the ship from starboard. The ultra-hot gasses raced straight toward the ship in the form of a luminous cloud at half the speed of light.

  »Nautilus! Jump to tachyon space, NOW!« Arkroid commanded aloud.

  »Oh, Toiber, these tunes and melodies are so fascinating!« Nautilus replied, ignoring Arkroid’s order. »Somebody is sending us messages. I can receive the signals, but I can’t understand them. I will decode the messages immediately! This has the highest priority!«

  »Stop! No! We have to leave this sector immediately! Nautilus, didn’t you hear the order?« Pi exclaimed briskly.

  »You put our mission at risk!« Arkroid added emphatically.

  »... and our lives!« Vasina added angrily.

  Nautilus didn’t respond. Instead, sections and partitions of the command central dematerialized. The ship’s cell became semi-transparent in some places. Arkroid screamed and closed his sensitive eyes, blinded by the light of a million suns. The reality, seen through the transparent walls, was even more chaotic, as it was displayed in the holos.

  »Don’t look at it!« Arkroid warned, shielding his hurting eyes with his hands. »Nautilus, obey my order and get us out of this sector!«

  »The ship draws power from the life support systems and is jeopardizing the structural integrity!« Vasina screamed in horror, clutching her armrests.

  »My capacities are insufficient!« Nautilus declared in a plaintive voice. »I need more energy ... more time ... I need to learn to understand the messages.«

  »Nautilus has gone mad!« Maya yelled at Arkroid, squinting her eyes. »Wouldn’t this be the right moment when the commander flips a switch to take over manually and fly us out of this disaster zone?«

  What’s wrong with you? Arkroid thought panic struck. Transfer, NOW!

  The bow sector suddenly became transparent and began to dissolve. To Arkroid, it seemed as if he looked directly into a bottomless pit.

  No! Don’t do that! Arkroid thought horrified.

  Fear stirred his senses while he was desperately trying to make contact via the mental bridge, but to no avail. He didn’t hear anything. The telepathic connection was interrupted. His mind entered a vacuum. Arkroid groped further than he had ever ventured before. All of a sudden, he felt something like a reaction. Suddenly, he sensed functions of the ship as if they were parts of his body. At first, he withdrew scared. This was an entirely new and strange feeling, but then he tried it again and overcame his fear. An astonished cry left his lips, which he could not hear. His mind and body had separated at this moment. Arkroid’s consciousness had found a new body – the ship!

  »What’s happening to him?« Vasina yelled alarmed, pointing at him.

  With wide open eyes, he was turning and twisting in his seat, uttering words nobody was able to understand. He rose up in his chair, to just fall back a moment again a moment later. Arkroid looked around frantically, but he didn’t seem to recognize his surroundings. His eyes rolled, the arms and legs were shaking uncontrollably while his head continually hit the headrest of the seat.

  Paafnas was scared. He crawled to Pi and looked at the scene with terrified eyes. He took Pi’s right hand, which was painfully clasping the seat’s armrest and squeezed it hard. He pulled himself up onto the armrest and put his head on Pi’s arm, weeping and moaning.

  »I’m not sure, but I think, he actually wants to fly the Techno-Ferry by himself!« Pi suspected.

  At this moment, it seemed to Arkroid as if he was looking at himself from an elevated location. He was shocked when he saw his body. He seemed so vulnerable and deficient. Was this the end?

  No, I’m not dead. I see myself by way of the ship’s visual sensors! I look through the ship’s eyes. But where is Nautilus, this artificial intelligence? Why did you leave us alone? What did the spherical music do to you?

  Suddenly, he noticed a distant murmur. Immediately, his mind flowed in this direction. The distant whisper slowly increased to a hurricane. Shocked, Arkroid realized that the ship was caught in a discussion with itself, speaking with thousands of different tongues; extracting the data and interpreting them in a particular manner, consequently contradicting itself.

  The ship argued continually, which used up its memory capacity while every statement raised a new issue that needed answers. Arkroid listened to these discussions for a millisecond and was flooded with thousands of pulses. Nautilus was caught in an infinite loop!

  I need to get out of here or I’m going insane, Arkroid thought dismayed and fled. His mind had retreated instinctively before he was drawn into this maelstrom. Stop right now! You cannot decipher the meaning of these tunes!

  Nautilus was unable to understand Arkroid’s words. The ship was exclusively occupied with itself.

  These are not messages, but the songs of cosmic sirens, Arkroid realized. I need to find the transfer generator!

  His mind found the central control unit and Arkroid felt his new body for the first time. He suddenly had a thousand arms, a thousand ears, and a thousand eyes. One thought sufficed to dissolve the ship’s hull or to reconfigure it. Suddenly, he heard strange, unmelodic sounds that first reminded him of tinkling glass, but then he could make out a rhythm and structure that made him listen mesmerized.

  His mind hung on to the rhythms with devotion.

  Nautilus is right! Something is behind it!

  Moved, Arkroid listened and tried to find the source of the cosmic symphony.

  It comes from the center of the galaxy! I wonder what it means and who created it.

  Suddenly, a sharp pain, like an electric shock hit him.

  What …?

  Arkroid’s mind screamed in pain, then he thought for a moment to hear a familiar voice, »I injected a cardiac stimulant which could raise the dead.«

  Pi? Is that you?

  Arkroid didn’t receive an answer, but his mind was getting clearer.

  He had almost been pulled into the same nightmarish entity in which Nautilus was trapped.

  I need to find the transfer generator … this sector … my new body ... the ship ... leave immediately!

  Oddly enough, it required only a single thought! Arkroid, all of a sudden, knew exactly where to find the transfer generator and how to trigger it. Like a person who instinctively knows where the heart is located, not only by feeling the heartbeat.

  Arkroid’s mind whirled around the transfer generator. He penetrated the energetic fields and directed the apparatus to leave this place at once. It was like triggering the flight instinct and unconsciously tell the legs to run away from danger.

  Quick ... get out of here, fly anywhere! Jump ... NOW!

  Violent and ruthless

  Stephano Bruno cautiously approached the crater rim and peered down. He felt sick and had trouble concentrating. The situation had changed drastically. This was no longer just a simple research mission on a remote planetoid.

  What am I doing here? To climb the steep rock walls is extremely dangerous. How can Fitz just stick to his plan, while the Hawk pilot lies dead next to his ship? We’ll run out of air sooner or later.

  To climb over the crater rim, the two men had to dodge razor sharp rock shards. Because of the near horizon and the asymmetric shape of Haumea, the eye was deceived regarding distances and object sizes. The climb was very demanding despite the low gravity.
Bruno began to sweat in his suit. Immediately, the life support filter system processed his sweat into drinking water after a short time. Bruno didn’t need to worry about this automated process. Lost in thought, he sucked on the drinking tube. I can’t forget the dead and frozen eyes of the pilot. Why did I have to look at them?

  Behind the rough ridge, the terrain fell off sharply. Before Bruno’s eyes, a circular depression, that formed the interior of the old crater, opened. The new light source in the sky produced razor sharp looking crater wall shadows. He could see the circular, dark glowing impact site in the dark area.

  »What did you find?« Fitz asked, slowly coming closer. Both men were still connected to each other via the intercom cable.

  The young assistant didn’t answer right away.

  »Bruno!«

  Bruno was breathing heavily.

  »Look for yourself! If this actually was a Techno-Cleric, who crashed here, then he has created a surprisingly large hole. The impact has, so-to-speak, made a crater in the crater.«

  Fitz appeared at Bruno’s side and looked down to the point of impact.

  »It released a lot of energy on impact. The explosion has spread a lot of debris over a wide area. I thought at first that the robot had exploded and atomized on impact; instead he drilled himself deep into the surface – parts of the surrounding rock evaporated and liquefied.«

  »I don’t know …,« Bruno helplessly tried to find words and glanced at the display of his oxygen supply. »I think, this wasn’t an accident!«

  »What makes you think that?« Fitz asked warily. His voice sounded inquiring, challenging and full of expectation. Bruno knew that tenor all too well. The professor always expressed himself like that when he expected solutions from his students.

  We’re not at the university or in the lecture hall, Bruno thought indignantly and gritted his teeth.

  He turned his head. His space helmet seemed very restrictive all of a sudden. Despite his efforts, he couldn’t see Fitz’s face. The visor’s golden reflection layer prevented it.