NEBULAR Collection 3 - Morgotradon: Episodes 12 - 16 Read online

  Nok put her weapon back into her holster and threw a quizzical glance at the Dualyte. The display was still skewed and distorted, but it was obvious what had caused the excitement.

  It’s the simulations of the target positioning calculations of the platform in Neptune’s atmosphere!

  »We suspected that a Tachyon Portal had to be inside the Retreat. We just hadn’t been able to locate it yet. Now it is clear. The Original Spark is located on that platform! There can be no doubt,« the Dualyte announced, shifting from one leg to the other. It made him look like a swaying spiral clown.

  »The Dualytes are retreating from the base!« the security department cut in over the intercom.

  In the command center as well, the Dualytes simply vanished through the walls and ceilings, leaving only a small group behind. Glowing energy spheres fled from the base, through space, back to their ship, where they simply disappeared, penetrating the hull.

  »The Tachyon Portal was misused and manipulated!« the Dualyte Nok had been talking to told her. »This is not what we had expected – very unusual. This portal had been effectively taken out of the Creator’s network system. This is not what the Brotherhood had intended!« he added in a scornful voice.

  Nok calmed her crew and tried to keep the conversation going.

  »We know the platform or, as you say, the Tachyon Portal. It’s occupied by beings of unknown origin. They’re invaders – aggressive toward us! Are they responsible for the portal’s misuse?«

  »I doubt that very much,« the Dualyte replied. »But the data begins to form a useful picture.«

  Nok shook her head.

  »I’m glad you think so, but I don’t know what you mean,« she responded truthfully. Then: »Who sent you here?« she asked slowly.

  »We search on behalf of the Brotherhood,« the Dualyte replied readily.

  Nok leaped toward the speaker with her weapon pulled, directing it at his eye.

  »Are we talking about the same people who established the Reserve?«

  »If you mean this Retreat … yes!« the Dualyte answered.

  »Then they’re the same people responsible for the Tachyon Portal in the planet’s atmosphere.« Nok's eyes were set on the Dualyte.

  »It’s the Creator’s technology!« he confirmed.

  »… as well as the Globuster Matrix that envelops our system and the exotic beings with their technology in the Kuiper Belt?« she continued, enraged. Her hands were trembling.

  »The Matrix was built by order of the Creators,« the Dualyte confirmed calmly.

  »Then you’re serving criminals and murderers!« she replied harshly.

  »You don’t possess enough knowledge to talk like that about the Creators. Even the unfortunate beings on the platform deserve our sympathy!« he countered.

  »What about our people who died because of the Globusters and the Soulwalker – who acted on behalf of the Brotherhood?« Nok demanded, raging.

  »Your arguments are illogical!« the Dualyte responded, ignoring the weapon still aimed at his eye. »The Retreat is for your own good and the good of the galaxy, because you are the Protectors!«

  Nok clenched her teeth but kept her self-control.

  »I don’t think you understood what I just said!« she snapped.

  »WAIT!« Helikom interfered. »Maybe it’s us who don’t understand!«

  Nok turned on her heels.

  »Do you have anything to add, Helikom?« she asked cuttingly.

  The SETI specialist signaled one of the computer operators.

  »Transfer the data we have about the Globusters to the holo!« he requested.

  Seconds later a lifelike display appeared of the alien system guards. The Dualyte gave no reaction.

  »Change the display to suit the Dualyte’s visual perception!« Helikom demanded.

  The picture skewed and shifted, getting a startled reaction from the Dualyte.

  The Dualyte and his companions somersaulted closer to the holo.

  »This being does not belong here!« he announced.

  Nok glanced over to Helikom, who just nodded back at her.

  »These are the Matrix builders … they built the Globuster Matrix!« Nok stated aloud. »These beings are occupying the Kuiper Belt and are guarding several Matrix objects!«

  »These beings don’t belong here!« the Dualytes answered together like a choir. Then they turned into energy spheres and vanished through the floor.

  »STOP!« she shouted. »You still owe us an explanation!«

  »Let it be,« Helikom suggested. »They’re gone. We can’t attack them for now.«

  Nok lowered her weapon and just watched the Dualyte spheres, disappearing into space.

  »Damnit!« she cursed. »Reports!« she requested in hard tones.

  »Ten energy spheres on their way to their mothership. They have all left the base!«

  Everyone heard the sigh of relief from the scanner officer.

  Original Spark

  The light emitted by the Original Sparks was bright, not bright enough to hurt his eyes, but when Navis Joos tried to cover his eyes he saw the bones of his fingers shining through his hand.

  »We have four Original Sparks, collected from different places around the galaxy. Soon we will have five!« the Dualyte explained with deep respect. »Until recently one of them served the Maccoranian people. They used it as a light source on the side of their planet that lays in darkness. The Original Spark was sacred to them, and they sent their fleet against us to protect it. They did not understand that the Original Spark is more than just a source of light.«

  »What happened then?« Joos inquired.

  »We had to take it from them, because it was not intended to serve the Maccoranians, but a higher cause,« the Dualyte responded with sorrow in his voice. »Many of them committed suicide out of grief.«

  Joos looked at the Dualyte, not believing his ears.

  »We located another Original Spark on a warm water world,« the Dualyte continued. »It was hidden in the depths of the ocean. We could never learn how the Original Spark had come to that world, but it had been there for eons. Over time, it had thawed the ice of this former ice planet and created vast oceans. Primitive lifeforms had developed, and rapidly evolved due to the spark’s emissions. Unfortunately, they will soon be extinct when the planet inevitably cools down again. It is too far away from its sun.«

  »Then you doomed those lifeforms, just to salvage this thing?« Joos felt his fists clenching. He couldn’t understand the Dualyte’s rationale.

  »Consider: The planet was not meant to bear life to begin with. The Original Spark was not supposed to be there! We could not let this get in the way of our mission … a failure would bring hardship and destruction to all peoples of this galaxy!« the Dualyte explained sternly.

  Joos shook his head.

  »The remaining Original Sparks came from Trox clanships. It’s because of them that we’ve been on this mission for so many thousands of years. It was they who were responsible for scattering the Original Sparks to distant places in the galaxy.«

  Joos listened up. He had heard about the Trox. They’d been mentioned – unfavorably – in fleet reports.

  »What made the Trox steal the sparks?« he asked.

  »We see them as victims. They lived on the far side of the galaxy, and didn’t want to leave their planet; they refused to follow the stream of galactic refugees. Nonetheless they were spiritually attracted by the Original Sparks, and that transformed them. The sparks’ emissions made them restless. They became nomads and, worse, the normally peaceful people became reckless barbarians and plunderers.«

  Joos only understood part of what the Dualyte tried to explain.

  »A stream of galactic refugees? That’s unbelievable! I hope the sparks’ emissions aren’t that dangerous for us. We’re standing here unprotected looking at a source of energy brighter than the sun!« Joos almost shouted.

  »The flood of refugees was not caused by the sparks’ emissions. They were fleeing
the Great Tremor,« the Dualyte explained softly, trying to calm Joos down.

  Joos wasn’t convinced, however.

  »I just hope you have these things well under control and shielded, whatever they are!« he remanded.

  »You cannot see the actual Original Sparks. They’re located inside their secure containments. What you see are merely secondary light emissions,« the Dualyte explained.

  »What?« Joos asked, not understanding. »What happens when the containments spring a leak?«

  »That would have catastrophic results for this space sector,« the Dualyte responded without emotions.

  Joos swallowed hard.

  »If something like that existed in our solar system, we’d know about it. But I can’t help you, I’ve never seen it before!«

  »Unnecessary! We’ve located it,« the Dualyte replied. »Our ship has taken position over the blue gas giant. The Original Spark is on a Tachyon Portal in the planet’s atmosphere.«

  »The platform!« Joos replied in surprise. »The spark is down there?«

  »If you mean the gravitational vector of this planet, then the spark is directly below us,« acknowledged the Dualyte.

  Suddenly the ship shook!

  »What was that?« Joos rapped.

  »Our mothership is under attack from the Tachyon Portal. Plasma charges of high potency have hit us. Such primitive weapons can’t harm us, there’s no need for concern.«

  »I don’t think the Trox like your plan. Looks like they intend to keep their spark to themselves,« Joos speculated.

  »They all want that!« the Dualyte exclaimed, which sounded to Joos like sarcasm.

  Catastrophe Alert

  Everybody in the command central was watching the main holo display. The Dualyte mothership was taking position over Neptune and the Tachyon Portal. Despite its size, the mothership was dwarfed by the gas giant.

  »They’re not precisely above our calculated position for the platform,« Helikom noted tensely.

  »That just means the Dualytes have better scanners than us,« Nok sighed and rolled her eyes.

  »Attention! We’re detecting the energy signatures of plasma charges in the atmosphere! The Dualyte ship is under attack!« the scanner section reported loudly.

  »Do we have visual contact?« Nok wanted to know.

  »One moment … getting a visual from a Hawk … transferring to main holo!« announced a scanner operator.

  Everyone held their breath.

  The mothership was hit by a storm of plasma charges, but it didn’t even change its course to avoid the energies.

  »They must have enormous defense shields!« the scanner officer in charge commented. »Our data confirms that the charges are being absorbed … about a hundred meters from the ship’s hull.«

  The visual link showed the plasma charges dispersing in front of the ship, and flowing around it. The base crews could tell by the plasma streams deflection pattern how far the defense shields extended from the mothership into space. The scanner officer paled as he read the results.

  »Look! The Dualytes are reacting!« Helikom shouted toward Nok.

  A pale-green energy beam left the ship, penetrating deep into Neptune’s atmosphere. In seconds clouds swirled around the energy beam as it hit atmosphere. The gases began to change color and to rotate along the beam’s vertical axis. The ship had created a gigantic tornado!

  »What’s happening down there?« Nok inquired; her voice cracking.

  »My guess is as good as yours, Commander!« the operator replied. »I’ll bet my paycheck that the portal people are feeling a lot of heat now!«

  »Listen up, everybody, this is your weatherman, Lieutenant Lincoln, speaking,« a cheerful voice sounded over the intercom. »The cloud movements lead to one conclusion: the energy beam is creating a very strong gravitation center. The atmospheric movements are the result of a strong eddy current, exchanging massive amounts of gas. This doesn’t seem to be a combat beam so much as a gravitational, directional beam. I think the mothership is lifting the Tachyon Portal out of Neptune’s atmosphere!«

  »Can you imagine how much energy is required to do that?« Nok replied doubtfully.

  »I can, but I don’t know how!« the weatherman rebutted.

  Nok sighed at his bluntness.

  »Okay, keep observing it!«

  A couple of minutes later, the officer’s assumption became reality. A circular, disc-shaped object lifted slowly out of Neptune’s atmosphere.

  »I don’t believe it!« Nok said aloud. »They’re pulling the platform into a higher orbit!«

  »The Dualytes are doing us a big favor, am I right?« Helikom whispered to Nok. »It’ll be easier to get there.«

  Nok’s face looked like a statue’s as she stared at the holo. The platform was now out of Neptune’s atmosphere. Nok saw that Dualyte shield enveloped the entire object as well as the Tachyon Portal. Moments later, the platform reached free space.

  »We’ll see!« she replied to Helikom. »I just hope the Trox don’t react irrationally due to the Dualytes’ involuntary salvage act and launch some sort of defense.«

  »You were right not to deploy our Hawks against the mothership. We would have been annihilated!« Helikom said dryly to his commander.

  The platform occupants had ceased their attack on the Dualyte ship. They must have realized they could never harm the big ship with their weapons.

  New data came in and was transferred to the command center.

  »The mothership has fixed the platform in a 48 hour orbit of Neptune. Our Nova-Hawks were able to get detailed pictures of the platform’s surface!« the scanner OIC announced. »The platform is about the same surface size as the mothership, but its height is a lot less. There’re two crystalline pillars in the center that must be the Tachyon Portal. It looks the way Vasina described it. There’re distinctive circular zone markings on the surface, possibly landing fields for spaceships. However, we do not make out a spaceship on the platform. The Trox must have accessed the platform via the portal!«

  »That would solve one riddle,« Nok whispered to herself, »they came in through the portal!«

  Suddenly, the comm-officer pressed his headset closer to his ears.

  »I’m receiving a comm-channel request from their mothership! We’re being hailed!«

  »Open a secure channel and transfer it to my console!« Nok requested.

  Nok Daralamai had hoped that the Dualytes would contact her, but as the holo display stabilized, she was startled to see a Human face.

  »Major Joos!« she announced surprised and relieved. »I’m glad to see you’re still alive!«

  »Same here, Commander!« he replied with a serious face. »I’m aboard the Dualyte mothership and being treated well. They rescued me and took me aboard. I think they want to use me as a liaison … I have some disturbing news.«

  »Navis, what’s with your voice?« she inquired. »Are you having transmission problems?«

  »Uh … never mind my voice, Commander, there’re more important things you need to know,« he told her calmly.

  »I’ve just been informed that the Trox cannot retreat via the portal! The Dualytes are not responsible for that; it seems there’s been a malfunction at the receiving portal. The Trox are stranded on the platform!«

  »What are you trying to say, Major?«

  »The Trox would rather die than surrender the Original Spark to the Dualytes! The Dualytes have to have the spark, Ma'am …«

  »… we know about the spark, Major,« she cut in.

  »… maybe, but you probably don’t know what could happen. I’ve seen four of those Original Sparks, stowed away on the mothership. They are incredibly powerful! If I follow it, then the Trox are threatening to deactivate the tachyon safety containment shield around their spark …«

  »… and?« she asked ominously.

  »If they do that, then this entire sector of the Milky Way will be history!« Joos rasped. His voice trembled now.

  »The mothership and the platform ar
e on the opposite side of Neptune now,« she tried to soothe Joos.

  »… ‘scuse me, Ma'am, but you don’t get it,« he interjected. »Neptune might as well be made of paper mache for all the good it’ll do us. The spark’s energy potential is way beyond our imagination. If the Original Spark unleashes its full force then a singularity will engulf this entire galactic sector. The space-time continuum will be disrupted – we’ll be a Black Hole!«

  Nok exchanged glances with Helikom.

  »Major Joos, are you alright? I don’t think the Dualytes have told you the truth. They’re working for the Brotherhood, they themselves acknowledged the fact!«

  »They told me that too, but something doesn’t fit. I think we’re misunderstanding the whole situation. That’s all I can say at the moment.«

  Joos looked to the side and then straight back into the holo.

  »I have to sign off, Ma'am. The Dualytes want to retrieve the Original Spark … I sure hope they know what they’re doing!« Joos said, and broke the link.

  Nok Daralamai stared at the holo in front of her for another couple of seconds before she made her announcements.

  »Attention Base! Catastrophe Alert! I declare the highest state of alert and security lock-down! All Nova-Hawks in space will depart the area around the mothership and fly to a safe distance from the ship! Deploy robot cameras and relays for continued data flow!«

  The Hawk pilots followed her orders without delay. Nok hoped desperately that Joos was wrong in his assessment.

  If the Trox follow through with their threat, everybody’s dead!

  Sworge

  »We drew the portal from the gas planet’s atmosphere with a transport field. This will make it easier for you to reach the platform,« explained the Dualyte standing beside Joos. »As soon as we retrieve the Original Spark, the portal will be re-calibrated, so that you can use it.«

  »You’re talking like you already have the Original Spark in your possession,« Joos replied. »What if the Trox carry out their threat? That would be the end of all of us!«

  »In a short while that will be the farthest thing from their minds,« the Dualyte assured. »You’ll have to take care of them; they’ll need time to recover.«