»We should leave her behind,« Vasina said, waving her index finger. »She’s a risk factor and will kill us.«
»I’m saying it again: We do not abandon defenseless prisoners. We are not like Morgotradon. We may need her. Herimos will keep an eye on her!«
Herimos let out a battle cry and slapped his chest, affirming his loyalty to Arkroid.
These Humans sometimes behave totally irrational, Klori’Tar thought. Why do they bother with the replication?
»Okay then. Let’s pick up the gear and go back to the portal. Nood and Naad will make the necessary adjustments!« Arkroid commanded.
Uhh … what the heck? It’s worth a try! Klori’Tar thought and activated his gravitation suit. Hovering a couple of centimeters above the ground, he entered the corridor leading toward the portal.
A hero
The Team advanced quickly, leaving the destroyed sections and busted brooding cylinders with half-finished beings behind, their guts oozing from their bodies – beings which would never receive the wake-up pulse.
They’re all brothers and sisters, in a remote sense, Klori’Tar pondered. They couldn’t choose in which world they were to be born into. It’s better like that, anyway. It’s better not to be born than to become Morgotradon’s slave! I think that the others see it the same way. I can sense their emotions when they look at these beings without consciousness, without soul. Toys of a mad man!
»Klori’Tar!« Arkroid interrupted his thoughts, »The bio-web is also interwoven with these machines. Everything is gray and dead as it seems. The replications no longer receive the energy which kept them alive. They will all die off eventually.«
»That’s how it’s going to be!« Klori’Tar acknowledged, looking at the Ivanova replication to see her reaction as they passed by a dead sister of hers, still in the tank. Klori’Tar was surprised to see some pain in her eyes. This glance changed, however, into a hateful stare as she noticed Klori’Tar.
Green dust settled on the foul reeking, highly poisonous biomass and secretions from the tanks. The dust came from the crystal containers which had been damaged during the fights. Arkroid signaled his team to hurry up. He wanted to leave this section as fast as possible. The crystal dust was already forming a fine webbed carpet, reacting with the brownish puddles on the ground. Klori’Tar didn’t have an explanation as to why the crystal dust showed such an affinity to the gunk. He warned the team not to touch the bubbling substance.
The team members breathed, relieved, when they reached the portal room although the decay, as well as the crystal carpet, was also present there. The dead Kugos were already cocooned.
»What a devilish substance,« Pi remarked horrified and looked around in haste. »Morgotradon was experimenting with highly hazardous substances. We need to get out of here before it becomes too dangerous for us.«
Kuster~Laap wiggled his ears excitedly and said, »The ZyClonians examined the web. It absorbs dead, organic tissue. It’s possible that the crystals replicated dead bio web which is feeding on the dead tissue. This green web is growing very fast and will cocoon the entire station in a short time.«
Arkroid glanced at the energy field, which was still maintained by the portal’s pillars.
»Synchronize the portal with the Kugo receiving station. Do it quickly! It’s high time we left here!«
It was difficult for Klori’Tar to understand how the ZyClonians selected and adjusted the portals. He had no idea how they could achieve this. He saw clouds of nanopods drifting back and forth from the portal to the ZyClonians in small intervals. After seemingly endless minutes, the nanopods returned.
»The link to the Kugo world is active!« Kuster~Laap announced. »It seems to be a small portal, otherwise Nautilus would have detected it.«
»Hmm … I wouldn’t say that, even my Cobalt Hunter didn’t detect it,« Klori’Tar admitted. »I don’t want to put down the Techno-Ferry’s abilities, but the sensors on my ship would have detected an active portal right away.«
Klori’Tar noticed Arkroid’s scolding glance and quickly added, »Perhaps, the atmospheric effects caused by the matter-anti-matter reactions prevented a detection.«
Pi nodded faintly to Klori’Tar’s relief.
»I’ll transfer first!« Arkroid announced and stepped forward. »Should there be any problem, then I’ll let myself fall back into the transportation field and come back. I should be able to do that, since the tachyon aura with the sender portal’s address still clings to me, guaranteeing a safe return.«
»That’s correct,« Kuster~Laap confirmed. »This superimposed tachyon imprint will last several hours.«
»It’s very risky,« Klori’Tar warned.
Arkroid looked at him.
Klori’Tar nervously looked around and explained, »It is possible that the last shockwave grazed the Kugo planet …«
»… what are you saying?« Arkroid interrupted.
»The shockwave could’ve changed the polarization again to normal … provided …«
»I understand,« Pi cleared his throat and continued, »This would be deadly for us, if the polarity has changed to normal. You wouldn’t have time to think, Toiber, before you and the portal vanish with a huge explosion.«
Arkroid swallowed.
»You … you think …«
Kuster~Laap froze for a moment, not even his ears and eyelids moved. He seemed to conference with his bodyguards. Moments later, his ears moved again. »We … cannot rule it out.«
Arkroid looked back at the portal room entrance. The entire area was covered with a greenish spider web-like substance. The dead Kugo bodies showed signs of decomposition.
»Regardless … we can’t stay here,« he proclaimed dryly. »I’ll try it out, whatever happens. If the link collapses then you know why. In that case, Pi will be in charge of the team. He’s the only one Nautilus will accept as a commander in my absence. If nothing happens then follow me a couple of minutes later. Is that clear?«
The Human members of the team nodded in acknowledgement.
He’s risking it! These Humans are showing a lot of guts, Klori’Tar thought and stepped away from the portal. If the Kugo world is back to normal, he won’t even feel his death!
Arkroid took a deep breath and pressed his lips together as he walked toward the portal’s energy curtain. He was about to step into the field, »STOP! Wait a second!«
Arkroid turned around and looked at Klori’Tar who was hovering toward him on his anti-gravity field.
»Let me go. I’ll take a look around and test the link. If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t even know this station exists. By my hunter’s honor, I go first!«
»Hunter’s honor?« Arkroid stretched his words and seemed to contemplate while Maya faintly shook her head. She still didn’t trust Klori’Tar.
»Hmpf, how do we know you won’t try to sabotage the other portal?« Maya said.
Arkroid was thinking differently, however.
»Okay, if you insist? There’s no reason to play the hero or make up for something that happened in your past. I admit, I’m afraid to undertake this test, but …«
»No need for fear, we’ll see each other on the other side!«
He hastily waved at the team before he entered the tachyon field. He couldn’t make out Arkroid’s words: »Good Luck!«
A temple
Klori’Tar had used tachyon portals before, but this transfer was different! The transfer was supposed to be instantaneous. This time, however, Klori’Tar had the feeling as if the transport through tachyon space had taken an eternity. As he set foot on the Kugo world, he quickly took a deep breath, realizing seconds later that he was still alive.
I didn’t blow up! This means that this planet has not changed polarity. Everything around me consists of anti-matter! he thought relieved.
Klori’Tar felt a light breeze on his face. He looked around and saw a steppe-like landscape before him. Colorful grasses and thorny bushes with bright yellow blossoms dominated the scene, interrupted by po
ckets of lichen and moss vegetation. In the distance, there were bleached rock formations which stood apart from the monotonous dull color of the farther away stretching tundra. The yellow sun was already touching the horizon. It was early evening; nevertheless, the cloudless sky was presenting itself in a radiant, saturated blue.
The portal pillars threw long shadows on the ground. Five steps were leading from the portal toward a pedestal made of glazed rock.
Klori’Tar scanned the horizon. He didn’t see anything suspicious.
Why build a portal at a forsaken place like this? What for?
He activated his anti-gravity module and ascended a couple of meters into the air, which smelled dry and a little sweet.
As he looked down he noticed mosaic-like ornaments and symbols on the ground before the portal. At first they seemed like skillfully created art, embedded in the surface. In reality, they resembled picturesque symbols of an age-old galactic language. Klori’Tar had seen these symbols before – Genorantan!
Morgotradon didn’t build this portal! This one is much older and belongs to the Galactic Brotherhood portal network.
He slowly turned around and tried to get a better view. He gasped as he saw a big mountain behind him, about five hundred meters away. The Mountain’s red color didn’t fit into the surrounding landscape. This cubic-shaped mountain obstructed the view to the land behind it. Klori’Tar measured the height of the mountain and obtained a value of two hundred and thirty meters. The almost exactly cut sides and edges convinced Klori’Tar that this mountain had been sculptured. Countless red and brown layers of sediments gave this object a strange appearance.
A monolith in the middle of the tundra! No rubble, no debris, everything looks smooth! A huge cube-shaped rock!
A fifty meter long, wide stair led to a dark opening in the wall. The farther the steps extended toward the top, the narrower they became. Ornaments, sculptures and symbols, had been chiseled into the mountain along the stair’s path. High above the stair, balconies and alcoves, with dark openings were skillfully broken out from the rock.
Klori’Tar assumed that these openings where leading into the mountain toward larger rooms or cavities.
He squinted and inflated his neck pockets. Large archaic statues guarded the entrances at the top of the stairs.
This must be a temple or a cult place. Instead of building it with bricks, they chiseled it out of the rock! It must be or have been an old culture. Whoever created this must have had great skill and knowledge in engineering. This place is must be more than two hundred years old!
He took a closer look at the statues near the entrance.
They don’t look like Kugo warriors! They were made by a different culture!
Klori’Tar slowly approached the stair, while keeping an eye on his surroundings. Nobody was there, no sound. Only the wind whistled around the portal pillars. A narrow, overgrown path led to the bottom of the stair. He took some measurements. The opening at the top of the stairs was aligned with the portal, within one degree.
What was here first, the portal or the mountain?
He inwardly complemented the Kugo’s forefathers for their achievement.
Klori’Tar hesitated. As much as he wanted to explore the temple, he also had to wait for the team, who certainly had figured out in the meantime, that annihilation was not to occur by using the portal.
He had always been fascinated by old cultures. Many relicts were scattered throughout Scutum-Crux, each of them, riddles of the past. This portal on the Kugo world, together with this temple, was one of these riddles which needed to be solved.
The urge became overwhelming and he flew toward the temple stairs, quickly looking over his shoulder to see that nobody was following him.
The closer he came to the mountain, the more majestic it appeared before his eyes. More details became visible. The entire front of the monolith formed a gigantic piece of art. Threatening grimaces of unknown beast covered the mountain’s front.
This is probably a Kugo temple complex to honor the god-like people coming from the portal, revered and highly regarded!
Klori’Tar shivered as he glanced back at the glistening reflection of the portal’s crystal pillars in the distance.
The dead Kugos on Spook had probably entered the portal voluntarily. Maybe as part of a sacrificial rite where selected people gladly step through the portal to reach another world – Welcome slaves for Morgotradon! Maybe … it didn’t even happen this way. I need to find out!
Klori’Tar kept flying.
He pulled out a scanner with his left hand while holding his weapon with the other. Even though, the object seemed abandoned, there could still be a surprise lurking in the dark niches.
Klori’Tar squeaked in surprise as he looked at his scanner. It showed strong energy flows, hollowed out areas as well as technical equipment according to the different signatures. The caverns extended underneath the tundra around the mountain, whereas the installations under the tundra pointed toward the mountain.
This is a gigantic installation! The technology is of such quality that it is still working today!
Fascinated, Klori’Tar looked up as he arrived at the bottom of the mountain, close to the stair. The steps were covered with a carpet of colorful but slippery moss.
Decay has set in already.
Cautiously, he hovered upward, not touching the steps. Magically, the entrance invited him to come inside, at least that’s what he felt. He briefly halted before one of the giant statues and took a 3-D snapshot. The figure was ten meters tall!
No Kugo!
He tried to associate the figure to civilizations and people he knew. He couldn’t remember seeing anything like this.
Maybe the Kugos created these depictions according to the likenesses of beings coming from the portal.
These figures had an approximate age of five hundred thousand years, according to his scanner.
Suddenly, Klori’Tar froze as he looked at the face of the statue. A thought entered his mind: Are these possibly depictions of Genorantans? Did the Kugos meet them and created the figures to their image? Uh … this is absurd. People who designed a huge, galactic tachyon portal network don’t look this archaic, with armaments, swords, helmets and spears.
Klori’Tar wavered.
Hmm … maybe the Kugo artisans just saw them this way, mixing part of their culture with subjective memories?
He hovered past more than a dozen of oversized relief pictures, projecting might and wisdom. The eyes of all of these depictions looked toward the portal. Klori’Tar noticed distinct differences between the individual pictures. The beings portrayed varied in height and wore different clothes or armor. Even their weapons were different.
He looked at his scanner again and became concerned about the high levels of energy flow inside the mountain. It probably had to do with the portal, he figured, because parts of the installation were much older than the temple.
Determined, he hovered straight for the dark entrance. He wasn’t afraid since he felt superior over the Kugos. He took one last look around before he entered the mountain, just at the same time; the energy field between the portal pillars began flickering.
Where is Klori’Tar
The scene seemed eerie. At first, two hands appeared from the flickering energy field, followed by arms, legs, a torso and then a head.
Toiber Arkroid had his eyes closed as he stepped onto the Kugo world. He hesitated, but nothing happened. He exhaled with relief. He threw a small device into the transportation field.
The device should rematerialize on Spook. If it returns to Spook intact then the others will follow immediately.
It didn’t take long for all team members had made the transfer from Spook to Kugo. The last one was Herimos who literally dragged the replication along with him.
Pi had walked around the portal in the meantime and alerted the team about the strange rock formation before them.
»Look at that, never seen this before,�
� he remarked dryly and pointed at the monolith. Kuster~Laap instructed his ZyClonians to check out the portal while the others stared at the mountain. Clouds of nanopods drifted around the portal.
»This is a Genorantan portal,« Kuster~Laap announced moments later.
»And how is this going to help us in our situation?« Maya asked cynically.
»Help? I’m not talking about that, I’m just commenting that the portal is much older than Morgotradon’s star base!«
»A relic, as much as that fantastic mountain over there.« Pi nodded at the rock formation.
»I’d call it a monument,« added Masgur. »It reminds me of the pueblo villages of American aboriginals. «
»This is much bigger. An entire mountain was formed. It’s remarkable!« Pi said.
»Here a portal, over there an age-old cult place,« Tranos commented sarcastically, »this place isn’t attractive at all. Tundra as far as the eye can see. This planet isn’t a galactic jewel.«
»Still better than to die on Spook, being devoured by the crystal spores,« Vasina countered. »At least, we’re alive. We have much more room to maneuver and can make use of the natural resources of this planet. I’d rather be here than on Spook!«
»Exactly,« her shield bearer acknowledged with a strong nod.
»This mountain looks interesting, a huge red rock. I could climb it and check it out,« Paafnas offered, earning a worried look from Arkroid. »I’d really like to do that, Toiber. This way I can contribute to our mission.«
Arkroid pondered for a moment.
»Okay, Paaf. Go ahead, but stay in contact with us,« Arkroid nodded, based on the consideration that Paafnas had been issued a specially designed suit from the Techno-Ferry.
Paafnas slipped down Maya’s shoulders and quickly walked down the path toward the mountain, rejoicing.
»You let him go alone?« she asked, but stopped talking when she saw the replication’s smirking face.
»What’s so funny, bitch?« she snipped at the replication.
»Oh, did my template have to give up her puppy? Just make sure that it doesn’t run away! I have no memories of your love for animals,« Ivanova’s replication snidely remarked.
NEBULAR Collection 5 - Panic in the Galaxy: Episodes 22 - 26 Page 30