Tolkut tapped her, and she turned her head so she could see his movements.
How are you? he drummed.
Kimi briefly lifted her injured wing and twisted her mouth.
You are in pain.
Tolkut had interpreted her facial expressions correctly. He had already proven himself to be amazingly empathetic on several occasions.
I can help you, he drummed on. Tolkut turned around and showed her his abdomen. In the end gland we dead tail little pain poison act, he drummed.
Excuse me? This had to be a misunderstanding. Of course—she hadn’t taken into account that he had drummed with his back to her. If she had only paid attention to the rhythm, this mistake would not have happened to her. But his movements had confused her. She tried to remember more precisely, but did not manage it.
No, she tapped out on the floor with the right wing tip.
Tolkut apparently understood, because he turned around and repeated his sentence. A small dose of the venom from the gland on my abdomen has a numbing effect.
It made much more sense drummed this way. So, he could take away her pain? Why not? She trusted Tolkut, and at the moment, there was no alternative. With the right wingtip, she drummed the yes rhythm.
The Mendrak crawled over her injured wing. His hairy belly pushed some of her feathers aside. She didn’t see it because she had her head turned away, but she felt the movement of the quills in her skin. Instead, she looked at Norok. She would have liked a reassuring look, but her partner was apparently staring spellbound at what was happening on her wing. Norok was an open book to her.
Now he lowered his beak, and at the same moment, she guessed, Tolkut lowered his abdomen. A brief burning sensation, then her skin grew warm around the break. A tingling sensation rose up over the joint. It reached her long neck and then worked its way down through her body. It was not an unpleasant sensation. On the contrary, it resembled the gentle vibrations she usually felt just before falling asleep.
But she did not fall asleep. Tolkut left his place so that she could see him drumming again.
The effect lasts for about half a day.
Thank you, she replied with the tip of her right wing.
“Are you feeling better?” asked Norok.
“I think so.”
She moved her left wing. The last segment was stiff. Apparently, not only nerves but also muscles were numb. But she could stand up without feeling pain. Probably she could have even flown, only they were still in this room that was only a wingspan in height, and she had to keep her head lowered all the time.
“Look over here!” exclaimed Kimi.
There was a kind of mirror in front of her, but it provided a spatial image. It was smaller than she was, so that she had to bend down. Behind a screen made of a glass-like material, a second Kimikizu bent down, also lowering her beak. When she turned in front of the transparent screen, her image also changed position, mirroring her. The spatial impression was perfect. There was no trace of projection. Rather, it seemed as if she were conversing with her twin sister, except that a disc stood between them.
“Awesome,” Norok said, “a perfect hologram.” He scrutinized the frame of the mirror. “There have to be cameras around here somewhere,” he said. But the frame was smooth throughout—this mirror must capture the image differently.
Kimi touched the pane, and her reflection did the same. She placed her index finger and thumb on the pane and slid them away from each other. The other Kimi performed the same gesture. In the process, however, the other Kimi’s belly grew. Kimi pulled her fingers further apart, and her reflection visibly deformed.
“Stop!” shouted Norok.
Kimi jerked back, startled. “What is it?”
“Look at you, Kimi!”
She looked down at herself. Her belly was... In shock, she jumped backward and almost knocked her partner over. That was impossible! For a brief moment, her belly had taken on the same horrible shape as her reflection in the mirror. She felt around, but everything seemed normal. Her belly bulged slightly, as was normal shortly after egg-laying. Her heartbeat gradually calmed down.
“Did you see it, too?” asked Norok.
“I... I don’t know what I saw.”
“It must have something to do with this 3-D mirror. What did you do?”
Kimikizu stood in front of the mirror again. Her virtual counterpart smiled uncertainly at her. Her smile! Then, for safety’s sake, she took a step to the side. In her place, Norok was now visible in the mirror. She held a finger on the glass and slowly pushed it aside. Norok turned on his axis, but only the reflection changed, not the real Norok. She looked at her partner from all sides. Although he was facing the device, which could not be a simple mirror, she saw his back.
She put two fingers on the glass. Wait, she told herself. “Will you please take two steps to the side, Norok?”
Her partner followed the request. Now only the entrance to the next room was visible in the mirror. Kimi spread her fingers, distorting the image behind the glass. The mirror image of the door now had a bulge at least the length of a wing on one side. She turned around. The actual door behind her was now also deformed.
“Do you see the door?” she asked.
“Indeed. That’s... Mart owes us an explanation.”
Kimi let go of the mirror. The door immediately returned to its original state.
Norok went to her and examined her. “It’s like nothing ever happened,” he said.
“We would have to study the material at the molecular level,” Kimi said. “The stress of the deformation must have affected the bonds of the molecules.”
“I’m afraid that will have to wait,” said a bass voice behind them in accent-free Iks.
A wingless biped with a comparatively big head was standing in front of them. Kimi had never seen him without a spacesuit, but she recognized Mart’s voice immediately. But how had he gotten into this room? Could the being, who according to his information belonged to a species called ‘human,’ just appear out of nowhere? That seemed doubtful.
“It’s about time,” she said. “Where did you come from?”
Mart twisted his mouth. He didn’t seem to like her greeting, but she didn’t care.
“Kimi, let’s formally greet our host first, shall we?” Norok stretched his beak forward as if he hadn’t noticed that the human’s beak was far too short for a formal greeting.
“He kept us waiting for hours, so he owes us an explanation!” protested Kimi.
“Of course,” Mart said. “I just came through the door here.”
“Alexa, open the door,” he said. Who was this Alexa, and what did the words mean? Before Kimi could ask him, a gap the size of a door opened. Behind it was a flickering light.
“So you’ve been on the ship all this time, keeping us waiting?” Kimi became angry. Her chest feathers stood up. “Couldn’t you have at least warned us before you launched the ship?”
Mart raised his arm and looked at his wrist. “The ship has launched?”
“Are you kidding us?” asked Kimi.
“No, I really didn’t know. I had some work to do. I’m very sorry. It wasn’t planned.”
“But you were on board the whole time!”
“You can’t say that, Kimikizu. But before I have to explain all this twice, why we don’t go and join our other two guests?”
Mart pointed to the door through which they had entered the room. “Then I’ll answer all your questions.”
First they found Kasfok. He had spun a mat in an empty room. Kasfok greeted Mart with his front legs raised high. A bystander might have assumed the Mendrak was about to pounce, but Mart was unimpressed. He took a small cylindrical object out of his pocket and placed it on the floor. Then he began to speak. The item seemed to work as a translator.
They did not discover Tolkut until ten minutes later. The former ship’s master was examining a machine that was roughly the shape of a sleeping couch. Various wheels and blades were movin
g up and down on it, which Tolkut had probably set in motion. He was about to touch one of the cutting edges with his front leg, or at least that was what it looked like.
“Careful!” shouted Mart.
Tolkut did not react. His foot secreted a thread, which lowered itself onto the cutting edge. The machine cut it.
Mart hit his forehead. Then he put the translator on the floor and repeated his warning.
“Thank you, but I’m being careful,” replied a voice from the translator.
“That machine really packs a punch,” Mart said.
“What is it for?”
“It can analyze life forms.”
“But not non-destructively.”
“Hence the warning.”
“Your ship. It seems strangely makeshift. Have you noticed that, too?”
“What do you mean, Tolkut?”
“The rooms are all perfectly formed. But then there are always wires, beams, or pipes that break through the walls, as if they were installed after the fact.”
“I see,” Mart said.
“You don’t want to answer my question?”
“You didn’t even ask a question, Tolkut.”
A loud laugh sounded from the translator while Tolkut rubbed his hind legs together. The machine was apparently also capable of translating behaviors.
“I like talking to you, Mart.”
“My pleasure. I think you all deserve an explanation now. So let’s start with that.”
Tolkut danced the steps of joy and expectation.
“So, what’s the problem?” asked Norok.
The human had led them into a room with a much higher ceiling, so that Kimi could finally stretch her spine again. There were openings in the walls that appeared to point outward. One could see space all around the ship. However, it was clear that other rooms were adjacent, at least to the north and east, so these openings could not be real portholes.
“Hold on.”
Mart placed the translator on the floor. Then he stretched out his short arms and bent his hands. Two hump-shaped seats grew out of the floor. Norok rattled his beak, and Kimi guessed why. Mart was trying to be polite, but it was much more comfortable to sit on his knees.
Mart glanced at the two Mendraki. Tolkut remained motionless while Kasfok anchored a few threads in a corner of the room. He probably expected a longer speech. Norok sat down on one of the stools, and Kimi followed his lead so as not to appear ungrateful.
Only the human remained standing. “Unfortunately, I don’t have good news,” he said. “I’m really sorry, especially after all the sacrifices you made when you got here, but the solar system will be history in a few weeks.”
A booming laugh came from the translator’s speaker. Kimi noticed Kasfok rubbing his hind legs together. He obviously had the floor. Then he began to drum.
“I congratulate you, human. You have managed to study our traditions amazingly well. Yes, we like to tell each other terrible stories when we haven’t seen each other for a long time. It lightens the mood immensely. This is sometimes followed by a little man-on-man fight. I’m ready if you want to continue the dance of tradition.”
Mart scratched his head. Could he really have chosen a traditional Mendraki introduction?
“I’m afraid this isn’t a story,” Mart said. “It’s reality. I’ve detected a scout from the Artificials. The shocks to space-time from the wormhole drives of the net ships must have attracted him.”
“A scout? That doesn’t sound too dangerous,” Norok said.
“Who are the Artificials? Could you elaborate on that?” Kimi asked.
“That’s a long story, and there’s no time for that now,” Mart replied. “But the fact is that the scout has noticed activity in this system that will inevitably lead to the destruction of the sun, and soon—within a few weeks. Therefore, you must immediately board the ships you arrived here in and make for the distance, or you will all die. There is no alternative.”
“We have landed and converted some of our ships,” sounded from the loudspeaker. “It would take us months to even get all the Mendraki into orbit. And then we still don’t have nearly enough helium-3 to restart the wormhole engines.”
“I was afraid of that,” Mart said. “You need to concentrate fuel on a few ships and get as many individuals to safety as possible.”
“But if we take away all the energy from those who have to stay here, they will perish.”
“They’re going to die anyway, Tolkut. The sun will blow up into a nova. All the rocky planets will burn up in it, the gas and ice giants will be stripped of much of their atmospheres, and their orbits will change. Your two species cannot survive here.”
“We are in a similar situation to the Mendraki,” Kimi said. “We can’t escape that fast. The swing-by maneuvers that would allow us to bring our generation ship back up to interstellar speed would take several orbits.”
“You don’t have that much time,” Mart said. “But maybe I can speed up your ship with my sphere as much as you need.”
“Exactly how much time do we have?” asked Norok.
“I would expect three, four weeks at the most. Then a solar torpedo will—”
“A torpedo?” Kasfok interrupted him. “We can shoot that down. The armament of the net fleet—”
“In order to shoot it down, you would have to see it first. But it will emerge from hyperspace right at the core of the sun and place a black hole there.”
“The scout, Mart,” Norok said. “You said you noticed that one. Can’t we destroy it? Then those Artisticals won’t know what’s happening here.”
“Artificials. But it is too late. I tried to reach the scout and neutralize it. You guys were already on board by then.”
“I broke my left wing,” Kimi said.
“I’m sorry about that. We can look at it later in the infirmary. My maneuver wasn’t successful because the scout had already disappeared again.”
“The Mendraki will not roll up their nets in cowardice.” This could only be Kasfok.
“But how are you going to fight an invisible threat?”
“The torpedo may, as you say, appear seemingly out of nowhere. But there must always be a sender. A small part of the net fleet is ready for action. We destroy the home world of these cowardly Artificials with it. The Mendraki have taken on stronger opponents in the past.”
“If you send the last operational ships on such a mission, you deprive yourselves of all possibilities to escape,” Norok said.
“The defense-by-attack strategy has just failed, Kasfok,” Tolkut said. “We’d better send out a single ship tasked with negotiating with the Artificials. Neither the Mendraki nor the Iks are guilty of anything. They need to understand that and call off their attack.”
“Normally, I’d be in favor of negotiations, too,” Mart said, pacing the room. “But to do that, we’d have to know where the Artificials live.”
“Humans don’t know the home world of their apparent greatest enemies?” asked Kasfok. “Do you know nothing about warfare? Reconnaissance is the most important thing.”
“Oh, people know all too well about wars. I guess that’s the root of the problem. But it’s—”
Suddenly, the light began to flicker. Kimi jumped up. No, it wasn’t the light. It was still flowing perfectly homogeneously from the walls. The person himself was flickering. His whole body seemed to dissolve. Holes as thick as arms appeared in his stomach, through which Kimi could see the two Mendraki on the other side of the room.
Mart had stopped and looked down at himself. He didn’t seem to be comfortable with the process, either. His shoulder disappeared, but the rest of his arm moved as if it were still there. Had they been talking to a hologram all this time?
But Kimi had touched Mart several times while he had led her into this room. She tried to touch him again, but Norok withdrew her wing. She thought of the strange machine that had warped the door. There was technology at work here that went beyond the horizon of Men
draki and Iks.
It was not magic, which strangely reassured her, because the technology was apparently failing right before her eyes. Something that failed could be repaired. Or be destroyed. They would probably need both options if they wanted to prevent the destruction of their species.
The holes in Mart’s body kept changing. The human opened his mouth, but nothing could be heard. Kimi tried to read his lips, but when half the chin disappeared, she could no longer follow. The process didn’t seem painful, at least. For a few wing beats, Mart’s body ran headlong across the room. Then, suddenly, it hovered knee-high above the floor. The head reappeared, but was situated the wrong way around. The arms rotated wildly, and Mart’s face showed that he didn’t want that.
Then Mart disappeared completely. Kimi thought she saw a kind of light echo where his body had been standing. But that could have been an illusion, like when the eye displayed shadow images after one had looked too long into the sun. Her sense of sight was not attuned to the concept of material things suddenly dissolving into nothing.
“What was that?” asked Tolkut.
Kimi was amazed, not that the Mendrak spoke, but that she heard his words aloud. The translator that Mart had brought with him was still on the floor. Shouldn’t it have disappeared, too, if everything had been a projection?
She picked up the cylindrical, shiny black device. It was warm, and when she put it to her ear, she heard a soothing hum. The translator consisted of ordinary matter. If they took it apart, they would find plastic and metal. The electronics would undoubtedly be far more sophisticated than the Iks’s, but would be based on the physics they knew.
She felt like breaking the device open. It seemed like she had just experienced a dream. The tinkering might bring her back to reality. But that would be stupid—the translator made communication with Tolkut and Kasfok much easier. They would still need it.
“And now?” asked Norok.
“That was spooky,” Kasfok said.
Everyone looked at her as if she knew more. Kimi wrapped herself in her wings. The left tip hurt a little, so Tolkut’s anesthesia was no longer working as well. Hadn’t Mart said something about an infirmary? She should look for it.
Helium 3: Death from the Past (Helium-3 Book 2) Page 2
