NOMADS – LEGACY
Short Stories
A dark secret
From
Allan J. Stark
Chapter 1
Time 11,379 pgZ.
(Pangalactic time)
Nea tightened her seat belt. The end of the gate passage was approaching and she thought she could feel that the speed was already slowing down. However, this could only be her imagination. Within the area between the portals, there was no such thing as speed, if the majority of physicists were to be believed. Whatever was happening in this tunnel between the worlds was beyond the laws of familiar reality. Probes launched during the passage disappeared or provided no useful data. There was no known measuring device that could successfully collect information. One knew purely nothing at all about this strange intermediate world.
Barely twenty-one hours before, Nea had been in the Patory system. With her ship, the Nova, lined up in a seemingly endless column of various starships waiting for their transport in front of the Fayroo portal, she had stared at the giant gate. A golden ring of huge proportions. She had felt the invisible fingers of the gate’s ruler groping for her thoughts. Searching, probing, until she whispered the name of the target system and the Nova, was pulled into the opened passage. How she hated that feeling when the corridor between worlds opened. It felt like stepping into the void. Like missing a step, followed by falling into infinity – past millions of stars.
The luminous streaks that had enveloped the Nova during the passage faded. In the next moment, the ship was again surrounded by the deep black of space and the softly shimmering stars that suddenly materialized around her. The exit from the tunnel was just as rough as Nea remembered it. She had every effort to intercept the tumbling ship. This time, however, Nea was better prepared. Years earlier, when she had first been in this place, she had piloted Captain Zebulon Greenwood’s giant Rimmon, and the mighty ship had vehemently resisted Nea’s attempts to bring it back on course.
Ogo, sitting next to her, went about his work as usual without a word about her arrival. With machine-like routine, he checked the surroundings and the status of the ship.
„It went well after all,“ Nea said, but the big robot didn’t care about the young woman, instead devoting itself emotionlessly to Nova’s needs. „I want to warn you again,“ the robot snarled, flipping a few switches. „What you’re about to do is stupid.“
„It’s more like curiosity,“ Nea corrected him, amused. „And without that human quality, you wouldn’t exist. Curious people are usually good people, because they get things moving and thus humanity moving forward. So just leave me alone. I’m aware that I’m taking a risk.“
„What a big word,“ Ogo returned.
Nea slowed the ship to a complete stop and turned the transporter around. In front of the cockpit window, the gate through which they had just come now loomed. Weightless, it shone in the bright sunlight. A ring of shimmering, sparkling gold, like the Fayroo counterpart in the Patory system, embedded in the deep black of space. Almost flawless it looked. Only in a few places had the color faded slightly. Nea never felt good approaching one of the Fays, as the Fayroo portals were usually called. She was creeped out by these relics from a bygone age. And she was not alone in her fear. Countless Asgaroonians, whether human, Oponi, or Akkato, felt uneasy in the presence of the gates. Few sought the Fays‘ proximity, and even fewer enjoyed the sensation of the Gate’s ruler probing into their minds. Goosebumps covered Nea’s forearms at the thought, and for a moment she regretted coming here.
„Concerns?“ guessed Ogo correctly. His sensors could register changes in Nea’s biofunctions, which allowed him to draw conclusions about how she was feeling. He was also aware of the pattern of her brain waves, allowing him to interpret Nea’s thoughts. Nea knew he would know immediately if she was lying. Therefore, she said nothing. Instead, she pushed the thrust lever forward a little and immediately pulled it back. A tiny, barely visible tongue of flame flared up in the Nova’s two engines and pushed the spacecraft forward. Gradually, the gleaming fayroo drew closer. Ogo unlocked the Nova’s weapons systems and issued an alert status to the ship’s sleek AI. It could assist him in case of emergency, should the gate’s guard ships swarm out, which usually prevented the uninvited approach of a fay. But nothing happened. Everything remained still and unmoving against the dark, star-filled sky. The system was so far out of Asgaroon that the spiral nebula behind the fayroo took up almost the entire field of view. It was a breathtaking sight that few worlds had, since most of the inhabited planets were not above but within the main disk. But Nea was too excited to enjoy this impressive image. The surface of the gateway showed an irregular pattern formed by countless metal plates of different shades of gold and copper. Booms, antennas, and towers rose at several points on the fayroo, jutting hundreds of feet into space. The Nova slid past them like a tiny fish past a massive coral reef, approaching the ring-shaped main body of the world-jumping portal unflinchingly. It was not one of the giant gates usually found in civilized systems. „Even the smallest fayroo in Sculpa Trax was at least three times the size of this one,“ she informed Ogo, who was simultaneously busy recording and monitoring their excursion. The closer the Nova approached, the more the impression of advanced decay condensed. Here and there, cracks and holes appeared in the surface, as if meteorites had punched through it. And there were more lackluster areas where the sun’s intense radiation had attacked the metal than had previously been visible in the distance.
Ogo buzzed, activated some of the ship’s hidden weapons, and upgraded the strength of the shields. He transmitted a brief telepathic pulse to Nea. „Just a precaution,“ Nea interpreted the sensation she received.
„All right,“ she replied, „but back off. I don’t want any trouble with that thing. It’s friendly enough that the Fay lets us get this close.“ Tensely, Nea watched the surroundings, alternately glancing out the window and then back at the tactical display that registered every movement and would alert her immediately if anything unusual occurred. After all, it was not without danger to go below the prescribed distance from a gate and approach it uninvited. The guards never slept and usually reacted immediately when a ship approached that had no intention of making a passage. Then the gatekeeper simply hurled the troublemakers into nowhere. However, this happened so rarely that it was already classified in the realm of legends.
Even now nothing happened. No sentinel ships flew up, no gate steerersman reached for the Nova with his invisible fingers. In the meantime, the Nova had reached some of the long outriggers that protruded from the ring like long spikes. The small transporter crept cautiously closer, as if it were a fly crawling around the edge of a spider’s web. Near the widened opening, the ship finally came to a stop. Nea shone the bow spotlight into the interior of the breach and could make out countless floors and corridors within. She followed the searching, circular point of light for a while, feeling like a glaring luminous finger over sharp, tattered metal edges.
When she had seen enough, her decision was made to venture further. The curiosity was now far greater than all her concerns. As always, when the hunting fever had seized her. The point had come when she could no longer have any doubts. There was only the goal, which she had to pursue with all her strength. And she could not be afraid. In the face of that ancient monster out there, with all its dark secrets, that was by no means easy. She would have been more likely to face a Tigermaug, as she had done a few years ago, and which she could size up to some degree. But the fayroo hovering off the Nova’s bow was something else entirely. There was nothing here that could be anticipated. „It’s gone well so far,“ Nea said, undoing her seatbelt and slipping out of the chair.
„Sounds like you fell off the roof.“ Instead of a mental image, which the robot usually transmitted to her to clarify a thought, he now used his buzzing, metallic voice to lend emphasis to his concern.
„Nonsense!“ dismissed Nea’s concerns. „It’ll be fine.“
She put on the heavy helmet of her spacesuit. The fasteners on the neck ring clicked into place. Oxygen poured in. A spotlight above the visor flared, whereupon the airlock was bathed in blinding brightness, as if the sun were shining into it. Nea quickly adjusted the light down to a comfortable level. She was nervous. More nervous than she wanted to admit. She raised her hands in front of the visor and noticed that her fingertips were trembling.
Feeling the two prouque pistols on her left and right hip, she made sure they were securely in place. The confidence-inspiring compactness of the weapons gave Nea back her self-assurance. Many times the reliable prouques had saved her life. The ancient rail guns fired metal particles that struck their targets with high energy. They came from a salvage operation Nea had conducted a few years earlier on behalf of the Zefren Company. Technically, she should have turned in the weapons, but she had preferred to keep them. Nea opened a valve on the wall of the airlock, and air escaped from the chamber. When the pressure had dropped to zero, Nea opened the outer door. Silently, the heavy bulkhead slid aside. The softly glowing gold of the fayroo took up Nea’s entire field of vision, as if she were looking into the interior of a smelting pit. To her knowledge, no one had ever come this close to a gate without being attacked. It was even more unlikely that anyone before her had ever succeeded in penetrating the interior of one of the portals. And it was not yet certain that she would succeed. Her heart beat so violently in a fit of fear that she thought it would burst her chest. But the curiosity to know what was inside a fayroo, and what secrets there were to fathom inside, conquered the burgeoning fears.
Nea reached for her equipment belt and activated the rocket pack. Tiny gas clouds rippled out of the nozzle openings and she was gently propelled out of the Nova. Skillfully, Nea headed for the hole that opened up before her like a toothy maw. Reaching the edge, she paused for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and floated past the razor-sharp edges into the interior of the enormous machine. Chapter 2
Immediately, darkness enveloped them. With difficulty, the beam of her helmet headlamp bored into the almost material darkness. She increased the intensity of her lamp and could see that she had entered a large hall. The floor was not made for the feet of a human or any other creature. No one could have walked on it without immediately tripping and hurting themselves. The walls and ceilings were also littered with an unmanageable amount of racks, pulleys, chains and wire ropes. Apparently they were transportation routes for machines that moved with gears, grippers, or the like. Nea saw that the linkages had been bent or torn from their moorings in several places. The chains and wire ropes were also loose and hung weightless and motionless in space, like seaweed in a still sea. Possibly a meteor had smashed through the fay and caused this devastation.
About in the middle of the hall a circular hole opened up, which led down into a lightless depth. On the ceiling, a corresponding counterpart opened its maw. Nea slid across the eerie maw and shone down into the depths. After a few meters, the white cone of light seeped into the blackness. She rolled onto her back and the beam of light shone on the ceiling of the hall. Again, the opening led into an eerie darkness that seemed to have no end. Nea tried to estimate the dimensions of the premises and came to the conclusion that they must be junctions to a central corridor. Certainly this ran through the entire ring. Through this tunnel it would be possible to reach every area of the gigantic structure. But since she was never comfortable going down anywhere like a crypt, she decided to use the ceiling access. Anyway, she had decided to call this direction „upstairs.“ She placed a pea-sized transmitter at its entrance to set a marker, and flew in. Nea flew higher and higher. Several times she passed through rooms similar to the one where she had entered the shaft. Her world now consisted of only a few meters that the lamp in front of her could illuminate: an environment of pipes, shafts and endless blackness. The darkness gradually began to weigh on her mind. She had often gone searching in dark, confined spaces, and she didn’t suffer from claustrophobia – yet she began to feel bad. Gloomy images came up in her mind. Nightmare images. Visions she had once had in a fever dream. As a child, she had once been trapped in a dark cellar and had suspected all kinds of beasts, monsters and ghosts in the darkness, stretching out their fingers and claws at Nea. Now she felt the same way. Irrational fears rose in her. Her breathing became heavy, her pulse increased. Tired, Nea clung to a cable on the wall and paused. She began to recite a short poem, as she had learned from her instructor, to overcome her fear. Looking up,
So unexpectedly lonely I went,
Under the moon’s bright glow.
The mists were coming,
surged, undulated,
Like a gloomy shadow play.
On the cool path they enveloped me.
To accompany me, they had come.
So light and effortless, we danced,
In the snow of the evening.
She managed to get her thoughts back in order. Simru Amayev would have been very pleased with her. That stern, gaunt teacher, with his pronounced hawk nose and penetrating gaze, who had so often scolded her and called her a good-for-nothing brat. Still, she had made it big and was now Zefren Company’s best scout, equipped with her own ship and a considerable number of captured or killed alien organisms. She was so good that her superior, Sam Blumfeldt, who was something of a father to her, had asked on many occasions that she be taken off the jumper force. Too often her services were requested, and she had to leave work that Sam had assigned to her. Aside from the fact that he had found in her a skilled mechanic, she was an even better scout, having proved herself extremely capable in salvaging ships and hunting dangerous parasites. She would have loved to know what Simru Amayew’s odds were, and if perhaps she had already surpassed him. It helped her a little to dwell on these thoughts and get her emotions back under control. After a few minutes, Nea felt better, detached herself from the cable she had been holding on to, and floated on.
Time passed without any significant change in the surroundings. There were only shafts and cave-like corridors everywhere. She had actually imagined her excursion into the interior of a jump gate to be more exciting. So far, she found it nothing but tedious, oppressive, and boring. „What a barren enterprise this will be, I wonder?“ whispered Nea. She had expected more. She couldn’t say exactly what, but empty shafts, corridors and hallways were not what she had had in mind.
Suddenly, a bright beam of light crossed their path. It fell horizontally into the blackness, like a lance of light, and formed a glowing spot on the golden metal of the shaft wall. Nea realized that it was sunlight entering the tube through a narrow opening. It was a small connecting shaft that seemed to lead into a brightly lit room. Curious, Nea peered inside and saw a large hall that exuded the sacred solemnity of a temple or church. Just shining light streamed in through the tall, narrow windows. The walls, floor and ceiling glowed with a soft reflection. Nea thought she could see a row of seats below the opening. To the left and right they ran along the wall. She also thought she could see that someone was sitting in at least one of them. Curious, she pushed further into the hole to expand her field of vision, but some force field pushed her back. Tirelessly, she struggled on, like a fish trying to wriggle through the tight meshes of a net. She actually gained a few inches, allowing her to see a larger area of the room. Now she thought she could make out boot tops and a wide velvet sleeve covering a hand resting on a wide armrest. Soon, however, her powers left her and the force field began to push her back into the shadows.
Countless iridescent ice crystals detached themselves from a thick cable that had touched them. Blinking, they danced like tiny insect wings before Nea’s eyes. Fascinated, she watched the dance until she made an astonishing observation. The ice crystals turned into tiny floating drops of water when they came into contact with the sun’s rays, and froze again as soon as they dipped into the shade.
Nea raised her right arm in front of the visor, turned on a flat monitor mounted on her forearm, and checked the environmental data. To her amazement, the display revealed that she was in an oxygen atmosphere. Although the temperature was a few degrees below zero and the air was very dry, it was possible to breathe it. All in all, it seemed like being inside an intact but moderately heated space station. How is that even possible with all the damage, it went through her mind. Nea hesitated for a while, then closed her eyes and opened the visor. Coldness settled on her face and crept into the inside of her spacesuit like slowly flowing water. Thoughtfully, the young woman sucked the air through her lips and opened her eyes. She blinked into the darkness and then took a deep breath.
The cold and the fresh smell reminded Nea of a clear icy winter morning. The sun shining on her cheek through the hatch warmed her. Nea turned off the oxygen machine and watched as white vapor clouds formed in front of her mouth. She then turned back to the small hole and looked again into the room beyond. She wanted to call into the room, but something stopped her. She already had the call in her throat, but it got stuck there. This kind of thing had happened to her many times, it was usually due to the fear of her own voice that disturbed the silence. But this time it was something else that made her hesitate. A sense of danger. It was better not to be discovered. Why should the inhabitants of a fay have different motives than the guard ships that destroyed everything that approached the portal? Carefully, she pushed herself off the wall and slid upward again into the gloom – and again a dark shadow stretched across her mind. It was as if the dust of all the millennia that this portal had existed descended on her all at once, crushing her. A heavy weight of emotions and memories. The Fayroo seemed to her like a dying, gradually decaying body, from which life was slowly and silently slipping away. It was fading away. Inert, without resisting, it surrendered docilely and patiently to unyielding death. Like a huge dying tree, whose memories fell to the ground like leaves and suffocated all life underneath. Chapter 3
Nea thought she had been walking for hours. But when she stopped to check her position, she had only gone a few meters. She could remember making several turns. She had left the main corridor for no reason and had wandered around in the narrow shafts. She had lost all sense of time. As Nea flew silently along, her senses began to sharpen again, as if the fingers of the fist that had captured her had grown tired, giving her the opportunity to escape. She took advantage of this moment and chased down the main corridor. All at once she heard a sound – loud and piercing, like the scraping of metal on metal. She stopped again and listened. Silence. But that might mean nothing. When she had chased the tiger maug that had nested in the remains of an ancient wreck, she had narrowly escaped with her life because she had managed to hold out a moment longer than the predator’s patience had endured, and it had moved….
The tension grew. Nea began to sweat and the sound of her breathing seemed unpleasantly loud, like the hissing of a cat. It would betray her, sooner or later. Surely she was already being watched by watchful eyes.
The Tigermaug had also almost certainly had her, had watched her and flooded her sense with the images of an altered reality. Images of a jungle in which he erased his image and transmitted the distorted vision to her sense. Nea almost ran right into its clutches, had she not spotted the reflection of the crouching, cat-like creature in a pond, getting ready to jump at the same moment. Apparently, the animal was not aware of the principle of light refraction and that’s why he hadn’t erased his reflection from the mental image he projected into Nea’s brain.
Nea shook her head. She couldn’t think too much about the past. She was here now, inside a fayroo and being watched. Nea peered into the darkness, but nothing moved. Everything was still and unmoving. She waited about a minute, then another, just to be sure. Then finally she flew on.
Soon the shaft widened. The walls fled from her into the darkness on all sides. Nea’s headlamp only sparsely illuminated the expanse. The tunnel had widened like a bubble, and an almost immeasurable number of oval side shafts flowed into it. This chamber seemed threatening, downright hostile. It looked like the interior of a colony of gaza spiders. A shudder ran through Nea’s body at the sight. This place radiated a clear threat. She shouldn’t stay here any longer than necessary, Nea reasoned, and flew toward the ceiling where the main corridor continued. But then she stopped abruptly and listened into the void. Again, that metallic screech that bounced back and forth from the walls countless times. This was followed by a kind of pounding and rumbling, like dull, regular drumbeats.
The sound approached quickly and seemed to come from one of the eerie holes. Nea felt a strong urge to get the hell out of there and hurriedly ignited the rockets. Faster than intended, she shot into the main shaft. She bounced painfully against the wall – once, twice. Then she went into a violent spin. With difficulty, she brought her flight back under control, but again hit hard against a bulky bulge that protruded from the wall like a hump and narrowed the tube.
Strangely, lights flared up, but Nea could not determine their source. The hallway was bathed in a dim, murky yellow – a glow that seemed to come directly from the air.
Dazed, Nea came to a stop. She was just aware of the change before she dozed off, and the approaching rumble echoed in her ears. Consciousness slipped away from her. She slipped over into an outlandish dream.
Images of drums formed in her mind.
Big, clumsy hands beat on it until the covering tore. When the thunder died away, silence spread. An ominous calm, as if before a storm. Nea’s gaze fixed on the torn leather. Spiders sprouted from the tear. Horrified, Nea turned away and ran across a shiny black stone slab. Tiny stars glittered in it, as if they were little diamonds. Then she saw a large shiny gold ring fall from the sky and bounce off the dark ground with a bright metallic „pling.“ Shortly after, another one came crashing down, then another. Soon after, a whole shower. And finally, a veritable hailstorm broke over Nea. The bright thrumming became unbearable. Nea pressed her hands to her ears, but it was ineffective. The metallic pattering stabbed her eardrums as if with needles. She cried out.
Immediately, Nea was wide awake. She did not dare to move. Without turning her head, she merely scanned the space around her with her eyes. Her breathing was shallow. Her fingers did not quiver. Only her pulse had quickened, but strangely enough, she was far from losing her nerve. This feeling, of calm and serenity, in which all fear fell away from her, was not new to Nea. Her body had adjusted to the hunt. The light was still on – she also believed everything else unchanged. Everything was still as it had been before she fainted. Still, the strange feeling of no longer being alone crept over her. Then she noticed a star-shaped structure to her left, blocking the corridor. At first she thought it was the propeller of a ventilation system, but when she turned her head, she recognized the silhouette of an eight-legged machine creature that had straddled the tunnel, its thin limbs outstretched. The longer she looked at the thing, the more detail she could make out. A thick, round, silver body formed the center of this figure. It twitched once violently at the moment Nea moved her head and oscillated up and down. Accompanied by a whirring sound, as if a computer was booting up. A pair of compound eyes glittered in the dark, like a cluster of black beads. Pincers flipped out with a snap, grasped at nothing, and retracted again.
Nea couldn’t shake the impression that this thing had its back to her, although it was hard to figure out what was in front or behind. But she was pretty sure that it must have run over her when she lost consciousness and had the brief strange dream. Now it paused where it had apparently lost Nea’s scent. It listened and lurked.
Nea slowly slid her right hand to one of her pistols and closed her fingers around the grip. But this tiny movement was enough to betray her. The metal spider wheeled around in a flash, extended its sharp claws, and stalked toward its prey, clanking and rattling.
Nea straightened up, was kicked away by the machine like a ball, and whirled away. Again and again she hit the walls and caught painful bruises. The spider followed her. Shimmied its way down the corridor on ledges and pipes. Scissor hands cut into the air as it ran past Nea again. Nea clawed at a strut and watched as the behemoth came to a screeching halt. Hooked claws dug into the metal of the walls, then the creature hung motionless in the tube again, legs spread wide apart. It seemed as if it needed to reorient itself. The body bobbed up and down again, twitching and trembling, and the sharp graspers stretched aimlessly into the void. Nea gained more and more the impression that the obscure machine was damaged. This must have been the result of her clumsiness. If it had been undamaged, Nea would certainly have had a much harder time. Possibly she would have already fallen victim to the spider. Nea drew the second pistol. She felt better holding two pistols in her hands and she needed more firepower than usual at the moment. Even if it meant she couldn’t use the taps on her palms to control the control jets.
The monster must have noticed the movement. It wheeled around and attacked again. This time the attack was more precise. A claw twitched just past Nea’s neck as it lost its grip and stumbled over her. Nea trundled through a tangle of legs and blades. The spider slithered through the shaft with a deafening, metallic screech as Nea was trapped in its limbs, as if in an iron cage. Unexpectedly, she slipped through a gap and tumbled across the floor of the shaft. She managed to get to her feet and slid a few feet like an ice skater across the metal on a frozen pond. The ball of metal limbs continued to roll down the shaft.
Nea took the opportunity, aimed both pistols and pulled the trigger several times. The particle projectiles bathed the room in glistening brightness. The recoil lifted Nea off her feet and hurled her away. Then came the crash of explosions that rang loudly in her ears. Glaring flashes drew bizarre shadows on the walls. She lurched dazedly across the room and crashed into a girder. If this thing doesn’t kill me, Nea rebuked herself, I’ll probably do it myself!
Hastily she tried to get her eyes back on the attacker and fidgeted through the air like a wild-eyed marionette until she was able to grasp a recess in the wall. With her legs, Nea braced herself in a gap between two wall segments, gaining a reasonably secure and firm footing. In this position, she awaited another attack.
Meanwhile, a gray cloud of smoke billowed in the weightlessness. Flames curled away to the sides. They crept blazingly along the walls, snaked over lines and pipes like smoldering wisps of mist, and died out.
As the smoke cleared, a strangely contorted ball of metal hung in the air. A strange tangle of bent limbs. Some of them had melted, others had flowed apart like viscous honey and solidified in this form. The round body of the spider showed a smoking hole, from which bright sparks rose now and then. Nea detached herself from the wall and flew over the sharp-edged debris, pistols in fists, continuing to aim at her opponent. The spider’s scissor hands sped forward, slicing into the air and retreating. Nea hovered over the fearsome body, which slowly began to circle, weightless as a feather, in a gentle stream of air. She accelerated, leaving the creature behind. She continued to float along the shaft and a little later the ghostly sourceless light went out.
Again, Nea flew through the darkness for a long time, crossing halls and halls. No ray of sunlight illuminated the oppressive blackness. The darkness became denser and denser, and to the same extent Nea’s mood began to darken again. She found it difficult to breathe, as if she had been put into too tight a body armor. Strangely gloomy thoughts troubled her. More and more often she paused and stared melancholically into the void. It was as if the walls wanted to crush her, to enclose her, as if in a steel tomb. More and more her courage sank. She became tired and sleepy. Lifting the heavy eyelids cost her a lot of strength and effort.
A song, it occurred to Nea. You have to sing a song. Sam had told her that once when he was training her to be a scout. A song can work wonders when you get tired, he had said. It can drive away fears and focuses your mind on something other than fear. Even if it’s just nonsense – Sleeping Beauty don’t fall asleep, Nea remembered an old nursery rhyme her grandfather had once taught her. Couldn’t it be something else, she wondered? Something more current? It’s strange that that’s all I can remember. But somehow it fits, she thought. With that, she began humming the simple melody and singing the lyrics softly. You shall be my lucky star,
When will you finally be mine?
You shall have me always and for all time,
Guide and accompany!
You are my talisman,
My sky light,
I am caught in your spell,
You captivate me.
Since I found you,
Since you bound me,
Hours become seconds,
Time flies by.
You shall be my lucky star!
Strangely enough, it worked – her nerves calmed down. The fear remained, but she was far from panic. A little accompanying music wouldn’t be bad, she thought, and ignited the rocket pack with a roar. Deafening yelps filled the air as she raced up the shaft. The spotlight on her helmet no longer mustered the power to pierce the night, but somehow it didn’t faze Nea to be chasing almost blindly into the unknown. Adrenaline surged through her veins. The fatigue faded away. Like a fish hurrying along in a nocturnal icy stream, Nea shot off. The frosty flying wind administered powerful blows to her cheeks until she suddenly came back to her senses. What’s wrong with me, she wondered. First I’m sad to death, then a little song is enough to put me in the best frame of mind. Nea felt like a spring that had been compressed and then abruptly released. She flew on for a while with less thrust and arrived in a large, bright room. The hall looked sublime and dignified, like the throne room of a Great Age castle. The sun shone in through an arcade of tall windows into the large room. Narrow windows that a broad-shouldered man could pass through without effort. They reached up at least twelve meters to the high ceiling. The sun was beautiful in this enclosure. And all the more so because she thought she had not seen it for days. The light shone beguilingly and settled warmly on her face. She immersed herself in it as if in a golden bath. As if she were being pushed, Nea walked toward the light. She felt as if she were seeing a light blue sky, speckled with white, fluffy clouds.
The sun was above a turquoise sea. A pleasant breeze brushed her face and held the scent of salt and seaweed. Foam-crested waves washed up on the beach, wetting her bare feet. She felt the sand give way as the wave caressed her feet – it tickled under the soles of her feet. It was like back then. The sight took Nea back to her childhood. Back to a wonderful Sunday at the beach. Back then, her father had still been alive and she had been no older than five. One of the few relaxed days when her father had been willing to let all his unsuccessful business rest and forget his worries. Nea remembered it clearly. Everything seemed familiar to her.
Wasn’t there a voice calling her to get into the water?“ she wondered. „Swim in this beautiful ocean.“ The voice was soft and friendly. „Float among its warm waves.“ Nea hesitated. But, as if to encourage her, a foaming breaker rolled in. Overturned, fell rushing in on itself, and roaring caught her feet. Bubbling and hissing, the water rose up to her knees. As it flowed back, it pulled on her legs in a demanding manner. The suction was so powerful that she involuntarily took a step forward.
Startled, Nea reached for the window frame. She felt a gentle but definite pressure between her shoulder blades, which instantly subsided when she became aware of it. The dream was fading. She was back in the great light-filled hall. The murmur had faded and silence pressed on her ears.
„What on earth was that?“ gasped Nea. „Damn it!“
She looked at the windows a little closer. There was no glass in them. Nothing tangible or visible seemed to separate them from the depths of space. Curious, Nea stretched her hand out into space. Abruptly, the glove covered itself with a fine layer of white hoarfrost and her fingers grew cold. She formed a fist and small ice particles came loose like dancing snowflakes. When she withdrew her hand, the white melted and the glove shone. Drops formed and fell. A force field, Nea realized. It holds the atmosphere inside the fayroo, and the sunlight provides warmth. Nea stumbled. There was gravity here. She had not noticed that before.
She turned and walked around the room. Thoughtfully, she let the last few minutes pass before her inner eye. Or had it been hours? Somehow it seemed to Nea as if the whole Fayroo was permeated by memories and feelings. Of strange memories, strange thoughts and feelings, which at the same time reinforced her own sensations. The dream that almost made her step out through the window into the void with her visor open had gone far beyond the intensity of a normal dream. If Nea had not woken up, she would be floating in space as a corpse by now.
Where there was purpose, there was intelligence, and, wherever that was based, Nea seemed to be getting closer and closer to it. And again, a gray murky gloom was brewing around her. It happened so quickly and abruptly, as if a snake were poking out of its hiding place.
Not like this, thought Nea, resolutely folding down the visor and walking firmly back to the center of the hall. The more energetically she showed herself, the denser the impression of reluctance that tangibly enveloped her like a tough mass. If there really was a kiray, a ruler in a fayroo, and not just some kind of machine that interpreted people’s thoughts as Ogo did, it spurred Nea all the more to face this being. From the realization that this was a duel, Nea drew enormous strength. The more they tried to hinder her, the greater her resolve became to take the fight and win. In fact, the more she resisted, the more she felt the power and will that was opposing her. Just as in a duel, the more one resisted, the more one felt the strength of one’s opponent. She must have come very close to a decisive discovery by now. She would not be dissuaded from getting to the bottom of the mystery. From her experience, she knew that the closer she got to the goal, the bigger the problems became. „The harder the fight, the bigger the prey,“ Nea said out of defiance. She ignited the rocket unit on her back and flew into the main shaft, which yawned as a dark hole above her head. The last pale glimmer that dawned from the sunlit hall into the lightless tube quickly disappeared. Her headlamp bravely burned a pale hole in the darkness. As if enveloped in a bubble, it drifted along in a black river. Chapter 4
The shaft tapered off and ended in many branches. Finally, only a tunnel about four meters in diameter led further. Nea switched off the jet pack and floated on without thrust until she was grabbed by a strong gravitational field. As if gripped by the fingers of a giant fist, Nea was jerked out of her flight and thrown ungently to the ground. She slid several meters over the metal plates of the tube. At the end of the tunnel, she tumbled out of the opening, rolled down a few steps, and slid into a wide, dark room.
Stunned, she remained lying. Her whole body ached. Her breathing was heavy and her pulse was beating fast and strong in her throat. Nea waited a while, smiling at herself, before sitting up.
A broad beam of bright sunlight also fell into this room. It came through a single large round opening, in the center of which the sun could be seen. As bright and wide as the beam of light was, it still failed to illuminate the room completely. The walls were almost black and irregularly shaped, as if they were made of wires and cables. A damp, organic sheen lay on everything.
Nea stood up awkwardly. Pain ran through her body. She cursed at her carelessness. She tends to be careless when she succeeds at something, she heard her instructor say. She knew these words by heart and often she had to acknowledge the unpleasant truth behind them.
Soon her attention was directed to a pedestal that rose in the middle of the room. Perched on it was a tall, feminine-looking figure. She sat there, eyes closed, as if introverted, gazing inward, meditating. She seemed to be formed entirely of dark stone. To Nea, the sheen reminded her of polished basalt. A dark shadow in the darkness, like a hole in the world. Countless tubes emanated from the figure, acting like the natural continuations of her body. As if it were an enormous octopus, towering above its countless arms, or like a strangely shaped, medusa-like sphinx. Whatever comparison Nea wanted to make, the impression she made on Nea was always the same. Threatening, eerie and yet beautiful. Sublime like a goddess who had decided to dwell among mortals in her temple. Material, yet unfathomable and intangible.
Nea crept closer, carefully climbing over the thick, shiny tentacles that covered the ground like giant snakes. She approached until she could make out more intricate details on the figure. The towering statue had a dark core beneath a layer as thick as a finger, glassy and transparent. Nea climbed up on one thigh, stood on her tiptoes, and was now at face level with the Medusa. It was a female face that could be seen there under the crystalline layer. Split into all spectral colors, the sunlight penetrated through the transparent surface and drew colorful reflections on the skin of the figure below. Under the glaze it shimmered golden brown.
Nea’s face came closer and closer. She wanted to see more details and finally flipped up the helmet visor. Her nose almost touched the wonderfully alien face. It was as if she were looking through a layer of clear ice. On the skin underneath, the light refracted a million times, as if it had been shattered into tiny colorful splinters. On the high pronounced cheekbones, however, the color was somewhat paler. The eyelids dark, eyelashes and eyebrows jet black. Suddenly the figure’s eyes snapped open. Nea was paralyzed with horror. Her mouth opened, but no sound of terror passed her lips.
At first, Medusa’s gaze was straight ahead, past Nea, directly into the sun that shone through the round window into the chamber, but slowly the dark pupils turned toward her. The gaze was piercing and deep, like space itself. Cold and burning at the same time, like the fire of a thousand suns. One word drilled into Nea’s head like a nail driven into her forehead with one blow. „YOU?“
Nea took a careless step forward, stepped into the void and fell to the ground. She quickly picked herself up and moved away, stumbling backward and trembling with fear. The frightening eyes followed her every move. Their eyes met like two blades crossed in battle – and Nea, unable to avert her eyes, unwittingly engaged in a repeated test of strength. Her mind struggled to hold on, but she was too weak to succeed. The being, however, was strong and powerful, her gaze commanding, piercing, and hardened in the silent glow of countless ages.
At last, Nea slapped her hands in front of her face and sank to her knees. She wanted to scream, but her throat was tight. Only a quiet sob came forth. She doubled over and began to whimper softly. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She didn’t know what brought the hot tears to her eyes. Fear, oddly enough, was not it. It was closer to a feeling of happiness. Would she lose her mind? Or had she already lost it? Is this what it felt like to go crazy? For a long time she sat there – thoughtful and without fear – and pressed her hands over her eyes. But whether she wanted to or not, slowly she raised her head, spread her fingers, and peered between them, like a child trying to hide, but still unable to resist curiosity. Involuntarily, Nea was urged to focus her gaze on the startling sculpture, just as a compass needle is forced to align itself. Nea stared, for the terrible eyes, powerful and piercing as two suns, were closed again, turned away from the world and once more immersed in an everlasting dream. „Don’t be afraid little one,“ Nea heard a voice in her head say. „So far you seemed very brave to me.“ The words sounded loud and clear, like a bell. She couldn’t tell if she could detect a trace of cynicism or mockery in it. Without a doubt, it was the Sphinx with the Medusa head who spoke to her. The ruler of the gate. A Kiray who let her words flow directly into Nea’s thoughts.
„I know you better than you think,“ the sphinx continued, and Nea thought she heard a laugh. „But I wonder if you still remember. Of me and all the fun we had. So many dewy years ago.“
Nea didn’t know how to answer that. And even if she did, her tongue was like a stone in her mouth. She couldn’t bring a sound past her lips. Instead, she stared at the gatekeeper in silence, while her heart hammered in her chest with excitement.
„I want to show you something,“ the creature finally said. „You’ll see, we know each other. That I am wrong is almost impossible.“
At that moment, Nea’s surroundings blurred into a vortex of light and shadow. It was as if Nea had been caught in a tornado of light and darkness that seemed to hurl her into another dimension. But soon contours began to form out of the chaos. Bright colors flowed into the darkness, displacing the gloom. The world began to emerge anew. Indistinct contours took on more and more shape until Nea could recognize almost familiar forms. Clear and distinct, like a freshly painted picture, a landscape of hills and green forests stretched out at her feet, crisscrossed by the shining veins of countless rivers that glistened in the sunlight. The sky of such pure blue that it hurt the eyes. Snow-capped mountains shone in the distance. The air was cool as on a spring morning. Nea stood on a green hill, its tall grass bent by gentle gusts of wind. A peaceful and soothing scene, of breathtaking beauty. Suddenly, thunderclaps echoed through the air, followed by shock waves that were palpable, like punches to the pit of the stomach. A roar and rumble filled Nea’s ears and made the ground tremble beneath her feet. When she lifted her gaze, she saw a fleet of gleaming golden ships that had seemingly thrust directly into the atmosphere from orbit and were rapidly forming overhead. Nea noticed that she was not alone on the hill from which she looked out over this strange world. Behind her stood a group of warriors and had apparently been for some time. They were men and women clad in shimmering armor. Armor that at first glance seemed functional, like light spacesuits. Only on closer inspection did they reveal playful details and ornaments. A large, martial ship towering behind the group of humans, Oponi and Akkato dominated the scene. It might be a good five times the size of the Nova and bristling with cannons. But it also had many ornamental details that made it look magnificent and regal. Nea could not assign it to any common series. None of the noble houses of Asgaroon afforded such a fancy design either, as far as Nea knew. The warriors who had gathered in front of it continued to take no notice of Nea. To all appearances, they were conferring, surrounded by several strategic holograms that were giving them information about the planet and fleet movements. Suddenly, a woman stepped out of the group gathered around them and walked toward Nea with quick and purposeful steps. She was tall and appeared to be an Oponi-Human hybrid. The large eyes, prominent cheekbones, and protruding mouth area suggested this. She had long brown hair braided into several thick pigtails. Before Nea could even dodge, she had approached and passed through her as if through one of her holograms.
Nea turned to see where the woman was going when the ships above them opened fire. Bright volleys of energy hit the woods, setting them ablaze. The earth cracked under the force of the projectiles. Artificial structures appeared. A complex system of caves, full of spaceships and various kinds of war equipment. Most of them were buried under rock, rubble and earth. But some of them succeeded in launching. They quickly rose into the air and returned fire. They were able to inflict considerable damage, although they took several hits and many fell to the ground burning. Even one of the large ships from the fleet that the great half-Oponi apparently commanded fell from the sky like a flaming comet.
The scene changed. Nea was in the middle of a forest. Tall ferns and horsetails surrounded her. Glaring sunlight stabbed in long trails through the branches. Here, too, a battle was raging. The tall woman defended herself with buzzing blades and energy weapons incorporated into the armor of her armor. Spider-like creatures descended from the treetops, raining down on their combatants. Nea saw biting tools, long like sickles, spikes like spears, and grasping pincers capable of penetrating any armor. Several soldiers fell or lost arms and legs. The crashing and crackling of energy charges and battle cries filled the air. The terrible clang of blades echoed in Nea’s ears. One of the spider-like creatures was rapidly approaching. Its jaws opened and hot saliva spurted toward Nea. Nea was unable to react. Fascinated, she stared at the shimmering silvery beast as the half-oponi stepped between them and drove the blade into the creature’s skull between several pairs of eyes. Once again, the image changed. Nea stood in the dust of a red desert with a blue sky shining above. The sun was burning, the air was dust-filled. On the horizon, the slender towers of a city stretched upward; white as ivory. It lay under a glittering protective screen that was just collapsing. The salvos of the fleet overhead hit the buildings and many of the towers collapsed. As if in fast motion, the city sank into rubble until all that was left was a smoking mountain of rubble. As Nea looked around, she saw the tall woman standing in the red sand. Surrounded by the wreckage of countless spaceships, the smoking wreckage of ground vehicles and other combat equipment. Many of her soldiers lay dead on the desert sands. Between them were the bodies of insectoid creatures. A blonde woman stood next to the warrior. She, too, was clad in shimmering armor. Golden and decorated with ornaments. Nea could not make out the face. The sinking sun stood glaringly bright above the horizon, blinding her. Once again the world was transformed and Nea found herself in a gigantic hall. It had to be a hangar, because to her right were staggered rows of heavy fighters, fighters and transports. To her left, a massive bulkhead yawned through which one could look down on a shimmering green planet. Nea realized she was in the front row of a huge legion of warriors arrayed in shining armor. She saw banners and field signs with richly decorated symbols. Eagles, griffins, dragons, lions and other beasts were emblazoned on them in thick embroidery.
The tall half-oponi knelt just a stone’s throw away in front of Nea on the ground that shone like black marble. Beside her, a group of officers in the same posture. The blonde woman Nea had seen earlier now strode down the steps of a low gallery where a large, magnificent throne rose. Two young girls, dressed in plain white, accompanied her. They carried red pillows on their arms. On one glittered an elaborate tiara, on the other lay a short marshal’s staff of polished wood, encircled by golden rings. The blonde woman took the tiara and placed it on the warrior’s hair, which was interwoven with golden ribbons. Then she looked over the crowned woman’s head and looked directly at Nea. For a moment, Nea had the impression that her heart stopped when their eyes met. She was the spitting image of Nea. A perfect likeness.
At the same moment, the world dissolved once again. The vastness of the hangar, with its many ships and endless rows of troops, shrank until it once again took on the simple dimensions of the chamber in which the mysterious Sphinx was enthroned. While Nea was still trying to process what she had experienced, she did not notice the change at first, but the deep shadows that surrounded her continued to grow. The room receded into the night and daylight began to fade. Nea wheeled around and realized that the round window behind her was shrinking, like an iris that had begun to narrow. In a few seconds, the opening would be gone altogether. In one fell swoop, Nea was back to her senses. She closed the helmet and sped like a rocket toward the closing hole. Chapter 5
Ogo, who was connected to the ship’s systems, registered a movement about eight thousand meters away. It was an object about the size of a human and was moving in a straight line away from the Fayroo. Now he could also perceive Nea’s feelings again. When she had entered the fayroo, it had seemed to Ogo as if she had dissolved into nothingness. It had to be Nea who was helplessly trundling through the room. Hastily, he started the Nova’s engines and headed for her. She drew a bright streak behind her, indicating that a propulsion nozzle of her rocket unit was damaged. Caused by the unilateral thrust, Nea rotated wildly on its axis. Apparently she was unable to stop her uncontrolled flight. Constantly rolling over, she raced toward the sun. Ogo had difficulty following his organic friend. He brought the Nova close to Nea until the young woman was circling next to the boarding hatch as if she were a small satellite gone wild. He opened the airlock, caught the young woman, and immediately locked the hatch again. Inside the chamber, Nea was whirled around like a spinning propeller. She bounced against walls, floor and ceiling. The armored spacesuit at least prevented her from breaking all her bones, but the rocket pack was broken. After sustaining an almost uncountable amount of bruises and sprains, the momentum of her movement finally dried up.
Ogo registered with satisfaction that Nea’s bio-values were in the acceptable range. Only the adrenaline level was far above normal, but the little human would survive. After all, she had survived worse.
Nea could not move without feeling pain. She had bruises, contusions and sprains everywhere. It had been a real torture to strip off the spacesuit and slip into her pilot combination. Awkwardly, she limped onto the bridge.
Ogo had moved the ship back into position and completed preparations for the gate passage when she sank into her chair beside him. She shivered as she stared at the perfect gold ring far ahead. Silent and motionless, it shone in the black sky as if it were nothing more than a harmless curiosity from the distant past. Dim and silent, as if it had sunk back into its sleep that had lasted for ages. „Waiting and lurking“ was probably a better description, Nea would have been asked, for the ancient power inherent in the Fayroo out there was certainly not asleep, but filled with hostile intentions and mysterious, sinister thoughts. She could not make up her mind to finally take off to leave the system. Somehow she was not comfortable with the fact that there was no visible reaction from the gate. Actually, it would have been more logical if a swarm of guards had attacked her to tear her ship apart. That would have been a common reaction, but it had been absent from their first approach. Something she had been able to observe a few times herself when a ship had flown too close to a gate. Instead, however, everything remained calm. She would have liked to use the hyperdrive and get away, but this system was far away, and the next inhabited world was about five days away, even for the Nova and its powerful engine. It was a sparsely populated planet at a technologically underdeveloped level. Thus, a journey through hyperspace held too great a risk, for serious damage could mean being stranded on a barren world at the edge of the known universe for a long time. And Nea did not want to risk that.
Ogo readied the power feed to the thrusters, forcing Nea to finally make a choice. „Give me some more time,“ she nagged, „I’m not a robot.“
Ogo transmitted to her the image of a snail crawling over a leaf. „Let me think!“, Nea was annoyed.
No matter how she turned it around, her tour of the Fayroo had put her in a serious situation she hadn’t considered before. But Nea did not want to just steal away quietly and secretly. So she opened the power feeds that had been made ready and the Nova started moving. Ogo entered the target coordinates and wanted to send them to the gate via Kawi. A small device that could be used to send the name of the target system to the Fay without having to contact the Kiray directly. But Nea held it back. „Wait,“ she said, closing her eyes. „I want to try something.“ She focused on the gate. Actually, she didn’t know exactly what to expect. But inexplicably, she thought she could make it without contacting the fayroo through the kawi. After all, she knew that some pilots were able to do this. She herself, however, had never tried it. Therefore, she left the small, box-shaped transmission device untouched. She concentrated and there was indeed a reaction. It was as if a dense fog suddenly lifted and revealed the view. This moment lasted only briefly, then the fog closed in again.
„Sculpa-Trax,“ Nea breathed. „Home.“ She feared they would simply be ignored or sent to a point far outside the galaxy. In any case, she harbored serious doubts about an unproblematic passage.
Ogo pushed the control stick forward and the Nova accelerated. Majestic and sublime, the gigantic ring grew to its fearsome size. Any moment now, something horrible could happen. Nea firmly expected it and clawed into the back of her chair.
But as many times before, the stars blurred, and the familiar feeling gripped Nea, as if she were being pulled into infinity. When the tunnel opened and the nova was pulled in, as if by an invisible, powerful hand, Nea breathed a sigh of relief. But just when she thought nothing more would happen, the cockpit shook. The windows began to rattle like glasses in a closet during an earthquake, and the plastic panels of the pilot’s cockpit creaked. A voice that seemed to come from all directions, deep, full-sounding and yet very feminine, made Nea shiver. Abruptly, the color drained from her face. Words drilled into her head, making her skull vibrate like a bell.
„DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!“ Nea was completely frozen and did not dare to move. Her whole body tensed up. Very slowly, she looked over at Ogo, who was going about his routine chores as usual and obviously hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. But a few moments later, he turned his head in her direction.
„Your bio levels have gone up,“ he noted. „Is there any reason to be concerned?“
Nea stared at the bright streaks glowing outside the Nova’s window. The hypnotic play of colors, that mysterious dimension, between the portals. „I hope we arrive home safely,“ she said, trepidatiously. But the nova drifted unmolested, to materialize after a good twenty-one hours in the normal space of Sculpa Trax. One of the nine gates that existed in the Scutra system had spat out the Nova. Now the ship joined the endless column of spacecraft entering the port world system from all parts of the galaxy. Nea looked at the Fayroo they had just come from through the monitor of the stern optics. Large and impressive, it floated before the stars. Unlike the fay in whose bowels Nea had just wandered, this one was bursting with life and power. Nea could literally feel the power emanating from the huge golden ring. Never before had she been so aware of it as she was now. Nea maneuvered the Nova out of the convoy of starships whose endless stream poured out of the gate and headed for the inner planets of Scutra.
„What you’re doing is against the rules,“ Ogo admonished in a monotone voice.
„I don’t care,“ Nea returned. „The distance between me and a fay can’t be big enough.“ Satisfied, she watched the big shiny ring on the tail monitor shrink. „And don’t worry,“ Nea said, as if to herself. „I won’t disturb any of you steersmen’s dreams again.“
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