NEBULAR Collection 4 - Second Reserve: Episodes 17 - 21 Read online

  Pat had to think about these things as she drove through Denver. Sure, she could have traveled faster and left the city much easier by magnetic train – but that was no fun!

  She opened the H12’s retractable roof and let the wind blow through her hair, and turned south. Her destination was about 100 kilometers from Denver. The Union government had standardized measuring and weighing conventions for the planet and declared the metric system as the only viable standard. Pat hadn’t had to adapt her old vehicle to the relatively new intercantonal standard; the H12 had come from the factory with a switchable speedometer and odometer system. The fuel consumption indicator was intact but meaningless, since her car was now electrically powered and converted to kilowatt/hour per kilometer distance energy consumption. Because she was now driving with an open roof, she briefly stopped and sprayed her skin with a dermatological UV filter for surface travels.

  Below the ocean floor

  The energy curtain flashed briefly and illuminated areas and walls which had been in the dark before. Maya Ivanova and Pi stepped out of the energy field, and the bright light vanished. They were enveloped in total darkness.

  »Maya! Are you here? … The air is stale and it smells strange. Where are we …?« Pi asked into the darkness.

  Noises in the room made Pi strangle his next words. Strong breathing and dragging noises, and a high pitched hum, filled the room. Pi swallowed hard, fear washing over him.

  »Say something, Maya!« he tried again.

  »Calm down, Pi. I’m just a couple of meters away. I can’t see anything either, but I think our extraterrestrial friends are here too. My face was just treated to a whiff of nanopods.«

  »Don’t inhale them!« Pi advised, and groped through the darkness toward Maya’s voice.

  »Don’t worry,« she assured Pi. »I have no idea where we are either. I can’t even tell if we’re on Earth.«

  Pi tried to penetrate the darkness with his eyes and thought things out.

  »Going by the ambient gravity, we could be on Earth. Feel it? We’re definitely heavier than on Triton.«

  Maya was taken aback. She should have noticed that.

  »True, Pi, but let’s not jump to conclusions. This could be someplace with artificial gravity, like at the tachyon portal.«

  Maya’s assessment wasn’t far wrong. The tachyon portal platform possessed gravity close to Earth’s. They could have transferred to a location almost anywhere in the solar system, provided it was shielded from the outside environment.

  »What d’you think about the transfer?« Pi inquired. »Did you feel anything?«

  »Nothing. I just stepped through the energy curtain and I was here. No itching, no burning or twitching, you know what I mean?« she mocked. »It was neutral … kind of. My gut tells me, though, that we’ve transferred over a great distance … but don’t ask me how I know that.«

  ›Strange, I had the same feeling!‹ Pi thought in surprise. »This is an amazing technology,« he remarked dryly. »Was it the same before? I mean … you went through the big portal for a distance of several lightyears, right?«

  Suddenly, he twitched as he felt Maya’s hand on his arm.

  »Well, yes, but I didn’t go voluntarily. I was pulled into the transmission field. It was very painful – I lost consciousness. I don’t want to think about it …,« she replied reservedly.

  »Sorry, Maya, I didn’t mean to bring that up,« Pi apologized, embarrassed. Pi knew about the tachyon portals but had no idea how they worked. Humanity was hundreds of years away from developing anything like them.

  Pi was about to speak again, but another voice sounded in the darkness.

  »The ZyClonians will establish a photon source for you. I don’t need this type of light, and they orientate themselves through their nanopods. Humans are so vulnerable, with their limited visual spectrum,« Kuster~Laap announced in the Progonaut formal language.

  »Wow … you can see in total darkness?« Maya asked.

  »I’m not Human,« Kuster~Laap reminded her, »There are many different ways to see …«

  Suddenly, a bright sphere, generated by the nanopods, appeared in the room, illuminating the scene. Pi was fascinated.

  ›Is there anything those nanopods can’t do?‹ he wondered amazedly.

  As his eyes adapted to the light, Pi looked around. He had never seen a room like this. Maya Ivanova also glanced about.

  »Where are we?« she inquired.

  »We are on your home-world,« Kuster~Laap replied. »This place was chosen as the closest and most suitable location with a receiver portal. The ZyClonians merely established the tachyon path.«

  Pi looked at two tall obelisks that stood behind them. The entire room’s floor was made of marble tiles while the walls showed honeycomb-like structures.

  He pointed these out to Maya.

  »It’s got to be a mini tachyon portal!« he announced excitedly. »Who installed this technology on Earth – and when?«

  The room itself had a semicircular layout with numerous consoles set in small alcoves in the wall. Several seats were installed in the middle of the room, in front of the consoles. A slightly elevated pedestal formed the actual center of the room, surrounded by seats. The marbled floor showed five golden inscriptions or symbols. Pi estimated the room to be about 15 meters in diameter – with no door!

  »You recognize these symbols?« Maya addressed Pi and pointed at the floor, but Pi just shook his head.

  »Not my area of expertise. I can’t tell you what they mean, but they do look familiar.«

  Kuster~Laap followed them, listening to Maya’s and Pi’s conversation.

  »We have to go now,« he invited them after a moment. »We must convene the conference! There’s not much time left. It’s important that I talk to your leaders!«

  »Uhh … this second Retreat …,« Maya put in cautiously, unwilling to drop the thread, »… are there people living there?«

  It seemed like a stupid question, but she couldn’t help asking it.

  The Prophet looked at her with a strange glance.

  »Certainly. Which other species are you thinking of?« he replied dryly

  The answer only irritated Maya. She looked to Pi for help.

  »What’s so significant about us Humans?« he inquired quickly.

  »You Humans have already lost some of your traits, as the ZyClonians have determined. Still, you possess high potential. Unfortunately the counter-plan didn’t account for a gradual mixture of yours and Progonaut genetic materials. That is one reasons your full potential hasn’t been reached.«

  Pi swallowed hard.

  »Are you telling us that there were experiments with Human genetics?«

  The Prophet turned his head all the way toward Pi and looked at him sternly.

  »Did you never ask yourselves what powers your urge for knowledge? Why do you want to explore the cosmos? What drives you to take these risks, venturing into space, to establish colonies on life-threatening planets and planetoids? Why are you researching the age of the universe or the fundamental laws of physics? Your people are doing all that and more!«

  Pi felt a strange sensation trickling down his spine.

  »Yes, of course. We want answers to our questions about the nature of the universe. What’s wrong with that? We’re nosy by nature!« he replied in surprise. A cloud of nanopods left one of the ZyClonians and flew through the room. Pi couldn’t say if they came from Nood or Naad; the beings looked too much alike.

  »You inherited these traits or impulses toward curiosity, but they are weak,« Kuster~Laap answered. »The original, Progonaut, impulses were much stronger.«

  Maya watched the nanopods circling around her before they dispersed throughout the room, entering the consoles, vanishing into nooks and crannies.

  ›Checking out this room and the equipment,‹ she contemplated.

  »You know a lot more than we do about the past,« Maya remarked. »Your technology is so advanced we can’t figure it out. How can we help t
he galaxy, if we can’t even understand your technology?«

  Kuster~Laap looked at her calmly.

  »Do not make the mistake of confusing intelligence with knowledge, or your evolutionary standing with your potential. You people possess something which predetermines your role in the galactic defense plan ...«

  »… okay then …,« Pi interrupted. »We can talk about it at the conference, but first we need to know where we are. Do you know, Kuster~Laap?«

  The Chiropter stretched out his right arm and marked an imaginary point in the air with his fine fingers.

  »We are right here!« he declared. At the same moment, a holographic map of Earth appeared, showing an ocean region between Puerto Rico, the Bermudas and the continent of the USA Canton.

  Maya Ivanova almost shrieked in surprise.

  »We are located about 100 meters below the ocean’s surface, as indicated on the map,« Kuster~Laap explained.

  Pi was speechless, then he asked skeptically, »On the bottom of the Caribbean?«

  Kuster~Laap ignored Pi’s doubts. The holo disappeared and the nanopods that had created it returned to one of the ZyClonians.

  »Something about this area rings a bell with me. You, Pi?« she asked.

  »I think I know, Maya,« Pi nodded. »According to historic reports, ships and aircraft used to vanish mysteriously in this area. It was called “The Bermuda Triangle”!«

  What a welcome

  Pat left the Denver hub behind her and now drove on the new highway called the Front Range Expressway, near the magnetic train tracks. Her exit was between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs. From there she went west to the settlement called Amish Paradise. It was a relatively new village with 700 people, not much older than 50 years. The exact number of people living there was not known to the officials – the Amish refused to use the high-tech chip implants usually required by the Solar Union Department of Health. They were not the only ones who refused them, though. Most members of the civil liberty movement declined them also – they saw it as an affront to privacy. The chips released nanobots into the bloodstream, monitoring the bearer’s health. Designed to call for emergency help in a crisis, they also served as a location device, which the civil libertarians despised. The nanobots not only monitored the person’s health, but also aided a patient until professional help arrived by stabilizing the blood pressure, limiting the effects of thrombosis and even locating and treating certain cancers and metastasis conditions.

  Pat was a chip bearer, but she understood the movement’s concerns. As for the Amish, Pat knew that they only consulted a doctor or hospital as a last resort. They cured many illnesses themselves, at some cost of people’s lives. The Amish separated themselves from the general public by not only living in the past, but still referring to everybody outside their communities as “The English!” regardless of their actual cantonship or descent.

  Pat didn’t judge these people. They had chosen to live this way for hundreds of years; newborn children were automatically brought into their way of life, and it was difficult for them to leave the communities to pursue their own dreams. The education level was kept unrealistically low. Only a select few had an education beyond the 8th grade – much less university degrees. People with higher education were mostly found at the newer communities, where there were generally more liberties and freedoms.

  Pat, however, was on the way to a settlement of the old order, and she only hoped she could fit in. She followed the elevated magnetic train tracks toward Colorado Springs. There were only a few remaining buildings and abandoned farmhouses from the 21st century along her route. There were huge shopping centers and buildings for businesses near the tracks, and she glimpsed houses and apartment complexes at a distance on steep, rolling hills. The magnetic tracks followed the old highway I-25, which was now used as a side road for older electro-dynamic powered cars. Today, the magnetic rail dominated the landscape and ran with multiple tracks in both directions.

  In former times, small towns, truck stops and motels were located along the highway, but that was all history. Today all the cities from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Pueblo, Colorado had merged into one city, 350 kilometers long, called the Front Range Metropolis. The cities of Denver and Colorado Springs were just large spheres on a belt with smaller spheres at both ends. Most people lived in metropolitan areas, leaving only people like the Amish to live off the land.

  Pat found her exit and turned west toward the mountains onto a paved service road. She still had to go about 20 kilometers before turning off onto a gravel road. She was driving toward the old Pike National Forest. The landscape had changed drastically. Formerly heavily wooded areas and green prairieland had transformed into brown steppes. It was depressing to see trees without leaves, standing there as if sadly remembering better days.

  Pat was keyed up wondering how she would be welcomed at Amish Paradise. She knew that the Amish living there were strange but friendly people, reserved and humble. Their averseness to technology made it difficult to make contact with them and understand their way of life. What was also very strange was that they were located a short distance to the north of the Solar Union Space Academy of North America.

  Pat left the paved service road and turned into the gravel road, not listed on any navigation system. It wound into the Amish village, flanked by corn and wheat fields. The irrigation system was well-maintained despite the changed climate – Pat was surprised that plants could still grow under the strong UV radiation. She also saw seven mule deer in the meadow above the wheat field; three were standing and four lying down. A few cattle grazed in the meadow a hundred meters away from the deer. Pat remembered that the self-reliant Amish were their own carpenters, farmers and tradesmen and she thought that they practiced professions and trades no longer known to ordinary Union citizens. The livestock holding required special permits from the regional department of agriculture.

  The first red and black shingled gables of solid wooden houses and barns appeared in the distance, and she realized that the village wasn’t far now. She drove over a small hill and slammed on the brakes as soon as she had passed the top.

  The Hummer stopped on a dime and Pat scowled at the obstacle in front of her. She hadn’t seen anything like this since she was a child – and then only in books and holos. A tall black horse was drawing a wagon with huge pneumatic rubber tires, at least a meter in diameter and 40 centimeters thick. The fully bearded man who sat on the front on a sack of wheat or potatoes wore a tan-colored straw hat and simple, black work clothes. He didn’t flinch when he saw Pat with her Hummer suddenly appearing behind him in a cloud of dust. He pulled the reins and jumped off after the horse had stopped. He approached the H12 on the driver’s side, watching Pat closely.

  »You should drive a little more careful, English woman. You’re scaring my horse!«

  Pat swallowed hard, at a loss for words.

  ›What a welcome …,‹ she thought.

  Under attack

  »How old is this place?« Pi asked in amazement.

  He’d looked around while the extra-terrestrials watched. He figured that the ZyClonians had gathered the information they needed through their nanopods, but remained silent.

  ›Strange people!‹ Pi thought.

  Maya and Pi had briefly discussed their situation but they couldn’t explain what this installation was all about.

  »There’re lots of consoles and other technological devices, but where’s the energy to run them? I’m guessing that this installation has been in place for a really long time,« Pi suggested. »Centuries, if not eons. Hmm … but then why is the mini-portal still working?«

  »The portal is powered by these two accumulators …,« the Prophet announced suddenly, pointing at the two conical pillars at the portal’s edge. »… and those get their energy from the tachyon membrane directly. The portal is self-sustaining; it automatically links to the tachyon transportation network on demand.«

  Pi didn’t fully grasp what Kuster~Laap was trying t
o say.

  »You mean these monoliths?« he asked, but he got no answer. Instead, Kuster~Laap turned around and followed the ZyClonians, who had taken position by one of the walls not obstructed by equipment. Silently, the ZyClonians began sweeping their hands up and down and then sideways along the wall.

  »What are they doing?« Maya asked, clueless. Pi just shrugged.

  »Trying to find the exit?« he ventured.

  Suddenly the wall became transparent. An oval-shaped opening appeared, allowing a view into a corridor behind the wall. Kuster~Laap’s photon sphere wasn’t strong enough to shine into the entire length of the corridor. Maya assumed that the dark corridor must be way longer than she could see.

  »That is … wow …!« she shouted excitedly.

  »… controlled matter-energy manipulation!« Pi finished for her. »We know that from the Techno-Ferry. It just works in reverse!«

  Maya threw Pi a scolding look.

  »I’m not dumb, Pi! I’m just asking how that can be done technically. How did the ZyClonians do that so fast?«

  »I don’t really care as long as we get out of here,« Pi responded with a shiver. »I’m just glad these guys have a way to get us out of this creepy doorless room.«

  He pulled Maya along by her arm behind the ZyClonians, who were starting down the corridor they’d created.

  »Let’s go, Maya – before the wall closes again! I don’t want to be stuck here. Let’s save our questions for later.«

  They followed the extra-terrestrials who were moving slowly through the corridor. Small clouds of nanopods flew around Maya’s and Pi’s heads, returning to the ZyClonians. Naad and Nood must still be checking out their surroundings.

  ›It’s too early to say,‹ Maya pondered. ›But if Laap is correct then we’re in deep shit!‹