Nopileos: A novel from the X-Universe: (X4: Foundations Edition 2018) (X Series)

by Helge T. Kautz

  “Just wait!” Dr. Vondran put his hand on her upper arm.

  “Well, how do I look?” she asked, since she couldn’t think of anything better. His fingers were bony and clammy.

  “Like an Indian lady,” said the old man who had once been the young Ruuf, and let her go.

  “If that’s all you wanted to tell me…”

  “Not at all, Dr. Siobhan Inja Norman!” Dr. Vondran croaked with a different inflection. Something in his voice made Siobhan sit up and take notice. “I need Dr. Norman, not an Indian woman, do you hear? Did you even read my message?”

  “I’d hardly be here otherwise,” she replied brusquely. For a long time she had avoided contact with extremely old or especially young people. She didn’t want to have anything more to do with Ruuf! Why did he intrude on her after all this time? Slowly, anger poured into her, suppressing the cold in her body. The trembling eased perceptibly. “I’m sorry. I’m leaving now!” But she still didn’t move a muscle.

  “Just wait!” Dr. Vondran cried again. “Hear me out. In my office, up in the Peregrino Complex. After that you can leave and forget our conversation forever if you want.”

  “Why in your office? Speak with me here!” What did he want from her? Was it personal or, worse, professional? Both displeased Siobhan. She shouldn’t have come here!

  “What are you afraid of—that I’ll attack you? Just look at me!” He noticed that her uncertain, angry glances barely touched him, but constantly slid away from him, as if she could only stand the sight of him from the corner of her eye. She was beautiful and youthful, and so alive that it almost hurt him physically.

  “I’m not afraid. I simply want to know how you found me.”

  “And not at all why I was looking for you?

  She hesitated imperceptibly. “No. Maybe. Yes, that too. Yes.”

  “Then come with me.” Dr. Vondran half-turned and pointed with a motion of his wrinkled, blotchy hand toward the floating platform. “It has room for two—if they like each other.” He winked at Siobhan.

  But I don’t like you, old, dead man, Siobhan thought, as she silently moved to the back of the flying device.

  “There are two ships that came from Earth, ships that can travel through space in zero time, without using jumpgates. Jumpships,” said Dr. Vondran. Siobhan turned her back to him and looked out of the window, down into the brightly lit, busy night of the metropolis of Argonia City. He let his gaze wander down her blue ponytail: over the graceful shoulders, the curved hips under the tight-fitting silver dress, over her bare knees. He didn’t feel the slightest touch of desire. When did they last sleep together? Forty-two jazuras ago? That was almost an entire lifetime! Was this really the Siobhan from back then? Could it be true? She was still as young and beautiful as ever, whereas he was an old man who was already crossing out his last tazuras on the calendar. No, no desire. Only regret—and a bit of nostalgia.

  Siobhan listened to Dr. Vondran with only half her attention. The vibrant metropolis below fascinated her, but she inspected the glittering lights: so the cat was out of the bag. It was clear to her from the beginning that it had to be coming. She had simply tried to suppress it. “Earth. There is no earth,” she replied after a few sezuras without turning around. “The Earth is a myth, a fairy tale. You didn’t join this sect? The Goners? You used to laugh at them.”

  “Do you know why I wanted you to come here? He asked, ignoring her question. She shrugged. “This room is bug-proof. What I am going to show you and tell you is secret.”

  Now she finally turned around. “You’re joking,” she said, but it was long clear to her that he meant it in dead earnestness, and that it really wasn’t about personal issues, but the NQG invariance.

  “Why, no. No joke. I’m speaking to you as a representative of the government, not as… your husband from jazuras long past. I said it already, I need Dr. Norman. We need Dr. Norman.”

  “No one has called me doctor for decazuras, Ruuf. I don’t place the slightest worth in that. Do you actually know how I earn my credits now?”

  “You’re selling Boron insurance policies. Schubmukh, to be precise, that probably means ‘fourth current.’ For two jazuras. Before that you picked cahoona on Kasum IV.”

  “Thank you, that’s enough,” she said, strained. It was unclear where he got this information, and if he knew any more about her. But she didn’t want him to keep talking in any event, and possibly remind her about the darker parts of her life. But he went on, undeterred.

  “Before that,someone picked you up out of the gutter, pumped full of drugs. On Kendai. That’s nineteen jazuras ago. Do you want to hear more?”

  “No! Stop!”

  “Twenty-four jazuras ago, your name first reappeared in the databanks. What happened before that, I do not know. Quite a decline for the namesake of Norman’s Law. Siobhan!” He spoke her name with great forcefulness, as if he wanted to call her to reason with the power of his voice like an unruly child.

  “And you have tracked me for all those jazuras from afar?”

  He shook his head sadly. “Why, no. Why would I have done that, me, the realist? I started a family a long time ago, something that you could never do.”

  “Oh no? I brought two sons and a daughter into the world,” she replied harshly. “And now say what you have to say and let me go.” A part of her knew that this one only one last, weak attempt to delay the inevitable.

  “You have children? I didn’t know that!” Dr. Vondran’s voice trembled strangely. He learned on the heavy white Gahamoni desk behind him with one hand. “A daughter, then she’s also a long-life, right?”

  “You don’t know a damn thing, Ruuf, and I’m glad about it. Now talk, finally. Earth. We stopped at Earth.”

  “You’re right, of course. Excuse me.” Dr. Vondran cleared his throat. He took a small remote control from the desk and activated the holoprojector. In the middle of the room a large videosphere appeared, in which a hexagonal floating platform could be seen floating quietly a few lengths above an undulating surface of water. The camera moved toward a woman and a man standing by the railing of the platform, and they appeared to be speaking silently. Something about the man irritated Siobhan, but she didn’t know what. “Wait!” she cried. “Who is that?” She ran her index finger through the figure of the man in the holosphere.

  “Him?” Dr Vondran changed the angle with the remote and zoomed into the man’s face. Militarily short, black hair, good-natured eyes with small laugh lines around them, angular chin.

  “I know him,” Siobhan said. She couldn’t place the man’s face, but she felt certain that she had seen it before. “Who is he?”

  Dr. Vondran made a surprised face. “Are you sure? Where do you know him from?”

  She shook her head. “I know him. Who is he?”

  “That is Captain Kyle-William Brennan from sector Earth. He came in one of the jump-spaceships. This one.”

  A second videosphere was created, which showed a large hall, in the middle of which a small, partially disassembled spaceship hung on an assembly crane. Even though Siobhan didn’t understand all too much about spacecrafts, she immediately realized that it was a shuttle because the ship had wings that were clearly designed for atmospheric flight. The fuselage was dark and streamlined, with a colorful emblem on its right side that depicted a man with four legs and four arms hovering in the midst of a stylized spiral nebula. Below the cockpit there was white lettering in strangely antique letters: USC X.

  “That’s what we’ve smuggled from the Split and the Xenon. And the Pontifex had his… Siobhan? Are you listening to me?”

  The Argon shook her head imperceptibly. “Looks damn good!” she explained.

  “What?” Dr. Vondran replied, bewildered. “The ship? Since when—”

  “Nonsense,” Siobhan interrupted. “The man. His captain, what’s his name? Brennan.”

  “Ah.” Dr. Vondran shrugged. “Might be.”

  “But if you think that these holos convinc
e my of anything…” In reality, she was already convinced. Why did she still resist the findings? She didn’t know exactly. The decazuras weighed heavily on her. Did Ruuf know what purpose the NQG invariance really served?

  The old scientist waved her off. “Well, no. You can, if you like, see both ships for yourself. The USC Getsu Fune is here right now, on Argon Prime. The USC X—well, no, but you will get to see her.”

  “USC Getsu Fune?”

  Dr. Vondran opened a third videosphere. “Yes, the second jumpship from Earth. It was shot down by stray Xenon weapons fire over Argon Prime. An emergency water landing was attempted and it sank.”

  A chunky, rectangular space ship appeared in the newly opened videosphere. In the front and back it had the skewed shape of a pencil eraser and was a dirty white color. On its dented flank also stood the image of the eight-limbed man in the middle of the spiral galaxy. USC Getsu Fune, announced the lettering near the bow.

  “We fished the Getsu Fune out of the ocean in front of Reef Galvestone,” Dr Vondran commented while Siobhan circled the holographic photo to see the ship from all sides. The old scientist went on to say: “There isn’t the slightest doubt about the origin of the ship. It has a gateless jumpdrive. One built by humans.”

  I knew it, Siobhan thought, horrified, from the beginning! “Impossible!” she said out loud.

  “We couldn’t activate it. We don’t even understand it. That’s why we need you.”

  The blue-haired Argon pressed her lips together. “Listen, Ruuf. The human mind cannot devise any jump technology.” The old lie. She had been caught, but out of an inner compunction, Siobhan had to repeat it one last time. “I thought even you, of all physicists, understood that.”

  “We believe that NQG invariance has a hole that has eluded us all. But that hasn’t stopped the Machines from developing gateless jump technology.”

  At that moment, all reservations about Ruuf disappeared from Siobhan, fading into insignificance. All for nothing, all in vain, her entire life lived in vain! That was exactly what she had wanted to prevent. Nobody should ever be able to develop jump technology, because such a dangerous technology should never fall into the hands of the Machines! Still she had always known, deep in her heart, that the tazura of truth would inevitably come at some point. She had repressed knowledge, buried it, shut it out of her consciousness. Until today.

  “The Xenon?” she whispered in a raw voice.

  Dr. Vondran nodded. “Quite correct.”

  “But weren’t they all destroyed? The media was filled with it! There are no more Xenon, right?” Her words almost sounded like a request.

  The scientist shuffled around the massive, white desk and let himself fall into the chair with a groan before answering. “No one can say with any certainty. Very likely, there are still functioning units somewhere, maybe already over Argon Prime in a week or standing in the skies over Kingdom End. Or perhaps we won’t see or hear from them again for decazuras.”

  Dr. Vondran opened a drawer, reached into a blue measuring cup, and took a handful of white pills which he threw into his mouth, then he shoved the draw closed and swallowed hard. “But one thing is certain: if they still exist and if they have gateless jump technology, we have nothing to to counter it. They will come, they will wipe us out. Sooner or later.”

  The Argon turned and walked back to the window. She put both hands against the glass at head height and stared down into the tireless swarming of the city. “I cannot help you,” she said lamely, in a very last attempt to not have to face reality. She didn’t want to be an astrophysicist anymore. She didn’t want to bear the responsibility for her own theorem any longer. She thought of Deirdre.

  “On the contrary, you are the only chance for the Community,” Dr. Vondran said quietly, then he fell silent and silently looked at her back. She could feel his eyes digging deep into her shoulders.

  After several mizuras of biting silence, Siobhan finally pushed away from the window. “This second ship, this Getsu Fune,” she said, turning to Dr. Vondran, “what happened to the pilots? Did they drown?”

  “There was only one person on board—a woman. She was able to save herself.” Vondran brought the videosphere with the hexagonal floating platform forward and activated it. “Here. Major Elena Kho.”

  The image focused on the woman next to Brennan. She had a round face and almond-shaped, slightly skewed, black eyes that looked pensive and a little sad. Black hair fell smooth and shiny on her shoulders, and her skin showed a golden tint. She wore a light blue windbreaker with the same emblem as the two ships.

  “I need time to think. Not much. I certainly can’t help you, but I… listen. Three tazuras, all right? If I decide to give it a try, I’ll call you. Otherwise you won’t hear from me. Then never look for me again. Do you understand?”

  The old man nodded slowly. “I want to give you something, Siobhan.” Again he opened the desk drawer, but this time took no pills, but a small package wrapped in brown paper. “Here. No—just look at it at home. You’ll definitely like it.”

  Chapter 27

  I am immortal! I will never die! Anyone who wants to overthrow me must therefore be even more immortal than I am!

  Chin t’Thhg,

  Patriarch of all Split

  While the FL Raindragon fought for every length it climbed upward, the bulkhead opened and Kalmanckalsaltt, still in combat gear, entered the control room. He was followed by Nola Hi in a completely dirty environmental suit that was in no way milky white anymore. Ghinn’s features darkened as she saw the Boron enter, but Uchan took no notice of the scientific ethicist. Behind Nola Hi, a child-sized figure waddled into the room who was covered all over with an oily, shimmering black film of grease, which in turn was mostly covered by encrusted mud, crushed leaves, and the like. Out of all the filth, two bright yellow, twinkling eyes stood out. The muzzle, which was just as covered in mud, opened a pink gap.

  “Elena! Star warrior! Tshhhhhhhhh!”

  Elena’s heart leapt as she heard the Teladi enter. “Nopileos!” she cried with joy, but she only risked a quick glance back and kept her hands on the weapons controls. The FL Raindragon would reach orbit shortly, where she would have an encounter with the second pair of warships.

  Nopileos grasped the situation immediately. There was so much to talk about, and he had a humongous pile of questions for his friend, but that would have to wait. Somewhat edgy and high-strung, he remained hesitantly in the rear part of the control room until Nola Hi cheeped at him.

  “Oh, sweet, muddy, encrusted Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV, hero and benefactor of all the orphans of the Queendom! If you wish and would like it, follow and accompany me. I will take you to your room and quarters! There is a sleeping bench and also a lovely scale scraper made of glittering nividium, your personal metal!”

  Nopileos beamed. Scale scraper! Sleep bench! That sounded so good that he was ready to forget about the precarious situation the ship was in. On the tips of his claws, and under the critical glare of the Paranid who had taken his place behind the standing console, he tiptoed over to Elena, positioned himself behind the back of the copilot’s chair, and put a claw on the astronaut’s shoulder. “I’m so happy that you are here, sister, and that you are fine!”

  “You can’t imagine how happy I am, Nopi,” Elena replied, not taking her eyes off the weapons console. “A huge weight has been lifted from my heart!” The lump in her throat made her voice raw.

  “Wherever you go, I’ll be right there with you, Elena.”

  ‘I hope we’re still going to be able to go anywhere,” the astronaut answered.

  “Even if it’s just a short trip,” Nopileos hissed, “with good company is a thousand times better than alone.” He squeezed Elena’s shoulder once more and then withdrew his claw, leaving behind a brown mud print on her light blue USC jumpsuit.

  A short time later, the FL Raindragon had worked its way so far up that the steel-blue sky of the jungle planet was gradually giving way
to the uncompromising blackness of space. To everyone’s surprised, the hunters had let the freighter pass unchallenged, but then hung on its heels.

  “What kind of games are they playing with us?” Elena mumbled, her hands lightly sweating on the fire buttons.

  Uchan obviously understood her. “They want to wait to see what we plan to do.”

  “They could torture us and force us to betray our plans,” Ghin quipped sardonically.

  Uchan snorted. “With respect, but first they have to have us. As long as we’re in the atmosphere, there’s no way they can get a hold of us alive. Outside of here, in the Aurora, they can shoot our engines out at any time.

  “Are this ship’s weapons too weak to destroy our pursuers, pilot?” Ghinn Uchan said in a sharp voice. Elena saw the pilot’s left hand tremble slightly on his armrest. He made every effort not to immediate lapse into a fit of rage. So that’s how it went: now that Uchan had successfully helped her with her plan to kill her master, she became the mistress again. Elena could well imagine what was going on inside of Uchan.

  “The thrall of a dead ruler can count herself lucky that she will not be pushed out of the ship as useless ballast,” Uchan counted with dangerous calm. Ghinn snorted and said nothing. It was more than doubtful that it would last long.

  The two battleships following the freighter with greatly reduced speed now moved away from each other and advanced a bit, so that they put the FL Raindragon between them and toward the middle of their tails. Elena read off the displays; another one and a half stazuras to the jumpgate. They couldn’t escape the fighters in any case, and if the pilots decided to open fire, the freighter’s shields wouldn’t last long. When the two combat ships hadn’t opened fire after a stazura, Elena noticed signs of nervousness in Uchan.

  “It is clear to Us that They will not fire,” said the Paranid, who had also noticed his partner’s agitation, “but the underlying logic is not familiar to Us.”