Hassan Khalil was standing two meters away from Nok, studying the different projections.
»The Kresolytes seem to be made for this type of work,« he remarked dryly. »The efficiency of this branch of Circle people is frightening. They’re sucking up huge amounts of debris and ejecting, almost at the same time, functional and self-arranging building blocks for the Moxa fortress.«
»Well … so far this species has not actively participated in the invasion,« Nok said.
Nuri Jawa was breathing heavily. The young woman was sitting on a seat beside Nok’s command stand, slightly below her. Anger and rage underlined her voice as she looked up to Nok and said, »They’re building a fortress from a destroyed moon!«
Nok looked at in surprise, as this was uncharacteristic of Nuri to let herself go this way.
»Many people lost their lives!« Nuri continued. »This entire undertaking by these Circle people is grotesque, abstruse and abhorrent! These beings do not possess morals! The Kresolytes are as guilty as the other Circle people.«
Frowning, the astro-physicist observed the continuation of the fortress construction.
»These beings possess a different value system and mostly follow their instincts. They don’t possess the same moral values as Humans. We need to evaluate, assess and categorize these Circle people by different standards.«
Nuri looked at Hassan with anger in her eyes.
»Does that mean that the Circle Generals’ actions can so easily be excused and must be tolerated?«
Hassan shrugged and returned her glance with sadness in his eyes.
»I didn’t mean it that way, Nuri.«
Nok Daralamai held her breath for a moment.
Two worlds are colliding as it seems. Nuri Jawa, half Human, half Progonaut, an attractive, young and seemingly sensible, fragile person – and on the other side we have Hassan Khalil, originally Human and now infested with degenerated technology – a techno-hybrid! This fusion lends him unbelievable abilities. Does he control this alien parasite technology or does it control him?
Nok looked at the central holo. The Fortress out in space became larger and larger by the minute. The more the modules bound to each other, the more the structure and the contours became visible.
It already looks like a flat disk. The fortress will probably be bigger than ten kilometers in diameter when it’s finished – almost a small moon! An extra-terrestrial bulwark in our solar system! We cannot allow that at any price!
»We’ll make the Circle Generals responsible for Despina’s destruction and the loss of our people!«
The command central crew members looked up from their work as they heard Nok’s announcement. This was, however, still wishful thinking on her part for the time being.
»The Circle Fortress Moxa will be occupied by Moxantans. After the completion of the fortress, the Union will have a more difficult time fighting the aliens. As soon as the Moxantans have established a foothold here inside the Neptune system, we won’t be able to impress Circle General Exterminator anymore,« Nok said.
»Their strategy has changed since they arrived in the solar system,« Hassan Khalil commented, which sounded to Nok as if he was just talking about the weather. »Initially the Circle ships came here to capture the octahedron, then their scientists probably found out what the Dimensional Shield is all about. Now they want to integrate this knowledge into their plans and annex the solar system.«
»And …?« Nuri said trembling.
Hassan gave her a lame smile as he continued, »We should concentrate on the Circle’s original mission. Why did they send four generals with their mighty battle ships to steal a relatively harmless object such as the octahedron?«
»While you’re at it,« Nok glared at Hassan, »I hope you’re not hiding any information from me!«
Hassan Khalil shook his head.
»Trust me, Commander. I know as much as you do. I’m just trying to put one and one together.«
»Aren’t we all.«
»I’d suggest checking the octahedron data for information about the Circle people. It might help us to fight them more efficiently.«
Suddenly, the main holo began sounding an alert while flickering red. The far range scanners had detected an intruder into the Neptune system.
Nok Daralamai slowly turned toward the holo, gnawing on her lips. A red dot appeared at the edge of the holo, approaching Triton at high speed. The neuronal computer continuously updated the course vector and speed information. There was no IFF response. It didn’t look like a Union ship.
Nok’s mouth was becoming dry. She quickly exchanged glances with Nuri Jawa and faintly nodded at Hassan Khalil.
»There we go … Circle General Exterminator noticed that he’d been had by our scheme and is probably pissing mad at us,« Nok whispered to Hassan who chuckled at her.
»It’s the Reusus!« the scanner officer announced, clearing his throat after. »The Moxantans are coming back!«
Hassan Khalil seemed upset as he whispered to Nok, »It was to be expected that the Moxantans would find out sooner or later that we manipulated the data. Our game of deception only gave us a breather, which we, I might add, didn’t use efficiently … or do we have a plan?«
»At least the Circle ships are now dispersed over the entire solar system. This might be an advantage.«
»We heard of several murders on Titan … Circle General Mindbreaker is living up to his name! The Frigonans are orbiting Earth! I can’t see where our advantage could be …,« Nuri yelled erratically.
Nok knit her eyebrows and tightened her lips.
The Hybrids are theoretically capable of resisting the invaders. Their special abilities to manipulate the electric aura of other beings can be used for the good, but can also bring death. Circle General Mindbreaker has first-hand experience with Nuri’s powers ... We should make use of their potential to thwart off the invaders … What will happen, though, if the Hybrids become aware of their full? Will this eventually be a new threat to all of us?
»Commander, do you want the Triton Hawks to launch an attack?« the sector defense OIC said.
Nok Daralamai glared at him.
»Are you for real, Captain? Do you want to sacrifice our pilots?«
The officer blushed.
Nok calmed down and added, »I understand, Captain. Put the Triton Hawks on standby, but tell them to remain cool and level headed. The Moxantans will probably have a keen eye on the hangars. Let’s not give Circle General Exterminator an excuse to vent his aggressions.«
»The Reusus stopped near the Circle Fortress,« the sector surveillance officer announced.
»They’re not coming to us?« Nok squinted at her holo.
»The Circle battle ship is maintaining a position at a close proximity to the Moxa Fortress.«
»They’re not landing on Triton!« Juri remarked perplexed.
Nok was silent for a moment.
»Apparently not,« she whispered to herself, seconds later. »What are they up to?«
Between Mars and Jupiter, a couple of days earlier
The Paradise Bird had arrived in the target sector and was maintaining a “low profile”. The cruiser was flying through a dangerous sector with valuable freight on board. The cargo was not stored in containers; however, it was stored inside the cruiser’s holographic computer memory. The old Solar Union comm-relay ship was the only one in the solar system which had enough memory capacity to store the mountains of data received from the octahedron.
Just in time before the Circle battle ship Boodrum invaded the Triton Base, the Paradise Bird had taken over the data from the Triton main frame. Since then, the ship had vanished from the scanners. Only a handful of people knew about the ship’s mission.
»I don’t know what came over me when I accepted this stupid mission. Now, we’re inside a fucking asteroid field!« Jonathon Friese cursed, something he normally never did. »One single irregular running asteroid and we’re history. Damn!« he slammed his right hand onto the top
of navigation console to underscore his delight.
The well versed commander had been on this ship for the larger part of his career. He had grown fond of his bucket. People said that he knew every nook, screw, bolt, rivet and cranny on his ship.
His first officer and companion, Digamber Chopra, was focusing his attention on the scanner displays, monitoring the evasive maneuvers calculated and executed by the navigation computer.
»The matter density is much higher as in other places in the solar system, but we’re not really encountering large chunks of debris every five minutes,« he said. »We have adequate time to even calculate and avoid the path of a fast Asteroid. I always wanted to fly through this sector to push our navigation computer to the limits.«
»Yeah, that’s right!« Friese grumbled. »The asteroid belt is no match to our Paradise Bird! I was already cruising with this ship through the solar system as …«
»… I know …,« Chopra replied uninterested, knowing what would come next, as he had heard these remarks umpteen times before, »as I was still pooping into my diapers. You use that line all the time!«
Friese grinned and slammed his hand again onto the navigation console.
»Exactly, there’s nothing you can do about it: the truth is still the truth!«
Friese scratched his head and looked at the scanner display.
»You know damn well that I didn’t mean possible asteroid collisions. I’m more concerned about the increased amount of micro-matter, which could scratch our beloved lady. Even fast flying dust can make grooves. We don’t have this new-fangled technology that repairs the hull by itself … what’s it called again?« He made some helpless hand gestures in Chopra’s direction. »You know what I mean … these … these …«
»… nanobots.« Chopra said.
»Exactly, these guys!« Friese nodded. »At the time when I joined the Fleet, we had to be careful with our ships. We had to decide if the plotted course was correct and not risky. Any leaks, we repaired by putting our hands on them …«
»... tjuh, right,« Chopra grinned, rolling his eyes as he continued, »from the outside and no spacesuit! Oh, yeah, these were the good old times, eh? Yes, the Paradise Bird is an old lady and has seen better days. Nevertheless, I fully agree with you. We should not cruise too fast and too much through this sector. It may not even be necessary for much longer anyway. The Circle ship crew didn’t seem to be after us, probably didn’t even realize that we’ve left the Saturn system.«
Friese frowned.
»These invaders don’t take us seriously! They are too full of themselves. They probably detected us, but didn’t care about an old ship!«
»If that’s true than I’m happy for their ignorance.« Chopra was alerted to a fast approaching target on the display.
Friese saw it too.
»Dangerous?«
»An eighty meter long, irregular shaped asteroid, almost looks like a flying potato. It’s passing us at a distance of eight hundred meters. No need to get excited. You can baptize it, if you want. So far it’s not in the catalogues.«
He looked to the side and nodded at Friese.
»Did our three guests have any success yet?« Chopra asked. »Do you remember their reaction as we gave them a tip?«
Friese smiled.
»Sure, I remember. Moments later, they stormed into the ship’s techno module, where they’re still working on the holographic memory banks.«
»Did they eat yet?«
Friese frowned.
»They blocked the access to the memory banks. I found out the hard way as I tried to peek a little bit. I can’t even access the banks via my command console.«
»They’re locking us out on purpose? That’s pretty childish, don’t you think? It seems that the scientists think that this is privileged information for their eyes only!«
»This octahedron info is for all of Humanity, including us! This is my ship! Nobody tells me what I can do or cannot do!«
Digamber Chopra shook his head, minimized the scanner holo and opened a terminal holo instead. He entered some commands via a virtual keyboard, but wasn’t successful with his first attempt to access the data banks.
»Hmm … that sucks!« he remarked dryly and chuckled. »What were we actually doing on board this ship for the last twenty odd years?«
Friese gave him a devilish grin.
»Well … we relayed messages, enhanced their signals, coded and de-coded messages and handled huge mountains of data packages.«
»Exaggerly!« Chopra mispronounced the word and pointed his right index finger at the airlock, leading to the techno module. »Don’t they know that? I’m asking myself why they’re trying to keep us out by using a lame and much too simple fractal access code. This is almost an insult. This coding technique is ancient and was used by Neanderthals! Did they forget that this is our ship?«
Chopra’s face grew mysterious before he continued a moment later, »As you well know, there’s always an open portal for the Paradise Bird’s command crew available, through which we can access the data banks. Their coding scheme is no challenge. I’ll initiate my personal decoding matrix, which I scripted when I was still a student. That’ll do it, just watch me …«
Friese squinted as about two minutes later, rows and columns of data were scrolling down the terminal holo.
»I knew you could do it, one of the reasons why I hired you as my first officer.«
»We’re in!« Chopra announced as his eyes widened, »Everything in clear script! This is something … the extraterrestrial sender even translated the data into our main language, even in metric!«
»Wow …!« Was all Friese could muster.
»This is remarkable. Whoever had sent the octahedron to us wanted to make sure that we clearly understand their information.«
Friese straightened.
»Do you think that this Banduk Oodergoo, Teun van Velzen and Viktor Senitschko are searching for a message, hidden amidst this pile of data?«
»What else?«
With fast fingers, he managed to display the addresses of thousands of memory units. Some segments were colorized others just gray.
»Hmm … I see that they are searching according to a statistical scheme … in other words: they’re groping in the dark. With this amount of data, they need to apply an indexed search scheme and a system of key data blocks. The scheme they’re using takes way too long.«
»Well … maybe they are trying to find what they’re looking for by chance. I think they need our help. Digamber, come up with a better scheme for a more efficient search. Even though our visitors are highly regarded scientists, who are well known in Admiral Friedberg’s circles, it doesn’t mean at all that they’re also system specialists for neuronal computers. Let’s show them how it’s done!«
Chopra grinned and began scripting.
»Before I forget, Digamber: Do not hit the delete button on your virtual keyboard by accident. If we lose the data, then we might as well pack our suitcases and move to Alpha Centauri for the rest of our lives!«
Chopra swallowed hard, rolled his eyes and continued his entries.
I don’t trust autopilots
The heavy vehicle was laboring through the storm’s heavy snowfall. The Union brass had assigned an armored snow-grooming machine, specially converted and equipped to withstand the harsh Arctic conditions, for Main’s small group of daredevils. The vehicles color was white, making it difficult to see amidst Greenland’s ice and snow desert. The tinted panoramic windows allowed a good view on all sides. By a push of a button, steel plate covers could be deployed within seconds over the windshield and the side windows. A powerful fuel cell delivered the necessary currents to the strong motor, lending the vehicle an action range of a couple of thousand kilometers. The wide, spiked tracks were digging themselves into the icy ground, providing traction. Even extremely icy and slippery glacier slopes were no challenge for this type of vehicle.
Sawyer Main had to speak loudly to overcome the outside noi
ses, which even drowned the high whining of the strong motor.
The storm lasted already for hours and dragged everything with it that wasn’t either heavy enough or tied down. Ice pellets and debris were thrown at the modified grooming machine, making it sound, on the inside, as if being subjected to an artillery barrage. Stopping and venturing outside was not an option.
»I just received a catastrophe alert from the Union weatherman, before the radio connection failed. We should switch over to satellite link,« Main said. »The wind velocity above ground is reaching two hundred fifty clicks an hour! That’s a new record! The storm is still expanding, with no break in sight!«
Tiller Hosch clenched his teeth.
»The strategic situation has changed tremendously. Our troops can no longer advance. Needless to say, I’m not feeling safe inside this contraption. If this groomer brakes down, then we’re screwed.«
»We didn’t have much of a choice, Tiller!« Bondifar yelled back at him. »The remaining satellites above the North Pole region had beamed down the pictures from this area … not a pleasant sight. We can clearly see that the spindles at the landing zone are manipulating the storm, making it even stronger. These units are not just simple landers but work in concert, ionizing and rotating the air-masses above Greenland. The enemy fortress is located exactly inside the storm’s eye. As soon as we arrive there, the weather will become much calmer.«
NEBULAR Collection 5 - Panic in the Galaxy: Episodes 22 - 26 Page 13