Vasina squinted and looked at the portal.
»How long does the monolith usually remain here?«
The Kugo swayed his upper body, a glazed look on his face.
»Our records are incomplete and have many gaps. It’s quite possible that some of the appearances occurred unnoticed. Either they were of a short duration or nobody was around to witness it. We don’t possess your technology after all.«
Vasina nodded.
»What can these documents tell us? Can we derive a pattern? Is there a certain cycle in which the monolith resurfaces?«
Nervously, Wrecker leafed through more pages.
»I’ve been living for more than sixty years in this region and only saw the mountain twice. I don’t know anything about a cycle. The recordings don’t show this. This appearance coincided with the burning skies, that much is certain.«
»Did you hear that, Toiber?« she asked Arkroid via radio-comm.
»Every word, Vasina. This seems to be a phantom-portal, it comes and goes when it wants.«
Vasina didn’t know what to do for the moment. She could not expect more information from the Kugo soldiers; they weren’t scientists who might have been able to shed some light on this phenomenon.
»Hmm … you may be right, Toiber,« Vasina said. »I think that portal and the mountain re-appeared after the dimensional shockwaves ran through the solar system, more or less triggered by the event. I’d suggest strongly leaving the portal vicinity and getting to safety. Nobody knows when the artifact is going to disappear again. Tell Kuster~Laap and his ZyClonians to get down to business. They might find a solution or at least get a better idea. The Kugos mentioned a banned sector or forbidden area, they know how far it reaches.«
»Until the other team members return, I won’t leave the portal!« Arkroid insisted, although, Vasina could hear his hesitation from his voice. »We can’t abandon our friends. I’ll think of …«
Vasina’s receiver crackled loudly. She looked up. A strange manifestation established itself around the mountain, also reaching for the portal. It looked like scintillating hot air. At the same time, a strong, rumbling and droning sound filled the air. Vasina held her ears and looked at the portal.
»My scanners can no longer detect the mountain!« Tranos yelled at Vasina over the droning sound.
A loud thunderclap sounded. With a bright flash, the artifact had disappeared followed by a strong wind like a giant lung inhaling the nearby atmosphere, causing a storm and a huge cloud of dust.
The Kugos were thrown from their feet and tumbled through the air, carried by the strong wind currents. Tranos had reacted quickly and established a defense shield around him, Wrecker and Vasina. They were tossed around, but not carried away. It took a couple of minutes until the storm died down.
As the dust settled, Tranos deactivated the shield. Vasina looked at the site where the portal had been – the mountain and the portal had disappeared!
»It happened!« Wrecker screamed. »It may take years until the phenomenon re-occurs. Your friends are doomed … I’m very sorry.«
»Pardon?« Vasina asked absentmindedly, probably not yet realizing the full meaning of Wrecker’s words.
»They’re gone!« repeated Tranos.
Surrender
Herimos was the first who noticed the vibrations, which suddenly shook the entire portal and the surroundings. Stones were moving as if being thrown by the hands of ghosts. Fine ripple-like shapes and grooves formed in the tundra sand.
Pi jumped up and alarmed the others, »Herimos, keep an eye on the prisoner! Something’s happening to the portal!«
Pi’s warning came at the same time as Arkroid lost communication with Vasina.
»What’s going on?« Arkroid shouted as the contours of the adjacent landscape faded. The horizon turned into display of colors and lights, only the mountain remained at the same place.
»The planet! It’s disintegrating!« Herimos shouted.
»Nooo, you dumb and hairy knucklehead! We are disappearing!« the replication shouted. »We’re all going to Hell now, huh, huh!«
Irritated, Herimos stared at the rejoicing replication, but Pi remarked calmly, »She’s right at one thing: the portal and the mountain are leaving this plain and the planet! It reminds me of something …«
»Yepp,« Arkroid agreed. »You’re probably referring to our adventure on Bachtar and Techno-Center!«
»Your analysis is correct,« Kuster~Laap remarked and pointed at the monolith. »The mountain is changing as well. The portal and the mountain are now elevated to the potential of a dimensional swing!«
Arkroid felt nauseated a side effect of the dimensional transfer. He slowly sat down. Pi and Herimos followed his example while the two ZyClonians were standing upright, supporting Kuster~Laap.
Arkroid saw that the contours of the mountain became more distinct. The cubical shape changed to towers and domes, growing out of the mountain like mushrooms. The rock-like, rough facade seemed to melt, transforming into a smooth and shiny surface. The former mountain was now looking exactly like a two hundred meter long, metallic cube!
Even the immediate vicinity around the portal changed. Sand and boulders disappeared to make space for other structures. The area changed into a huge circular platform on which the portal was the center. The former mountain was also standing on the platform.
Pi held his breath and watched the former stair turn into a steep, long ramp. The ramp consisted of energy and led to an open, oversized airlock from which bright light emitted.
Pi looked through his binoculars and paled.
The guardian statues hadn’t changed much; however, they now looked like gigantic metallic machines – combat robots of an unknown civilization!
»I think, we’re in the deepest of shit!« Herimos remarked. He tried to keep his composure, but snarled nervously.
»That’s an exaggeration,« Pi disagreed. »As I see it, we’re in a different dimension, in front of a tachyon portal, similar to the one in Neptune’s atmosphere.«
»In front of us is no mountain, but a spaceship!« Arkroid summarized. »These robots are probably not very pleased to see us.«
Heavy steps made the platform vibrate as the foremost statues approached the portal.
»They noticed us!« Pi squealed. »Heavens, they’re gigantic! Each of them is as tall as a small house!«
Instinctively, Herimos pulled his weapon and aimed at the robots.
The robot closest to Herimos’ position made a quick head movement and focused on him.
»I wouldn’t do it, Herimos,« Arkroid warned as the second robot walked around the portal in a pincer move.
The replication was shaking.
»This is almost like Gulliver’s travels,« Pi whispered to Arkroid.
The middle eye of the first robot emitted a strong, greenish light beam which engulfed the entire portal.
Herimos grumbled but slowly put his weapon on the ground, realizing that he’d had no chance at all against these giants.
Arkroid and Pi nodded in agreement.
»What are you doing?« the replication screamed in horror. »Wipe them out before they kill us! You weaklings! Make a decision, quickly before they squash us!«
Arkroid’s eyes teared. The view of the spaceship and the humongous robots was hard to take in.
»We already made a decision, in case you didn’t notice,« he replied calmly. »A decision which, in many cases before, prevented bloodshed.«
He signaled the other team members and said aloud, »We surrender!«
The cave changes
Maya’s doubts faded as she saw the cave walls moving, transforming into molten rock with an eerie glow. Spikes and consoles as well as large blocks, resembling unknown machines, appeared suddenly. A new reality was created, nobody in this room had dared to imagine. Only Klori’Tar seemed to have expected this kind of transformation.
The cave, in which they were still suspended in the air, had changed into a brightly lit room, fi
lled with strange technologies.
Voit moaned while Maya stared at the walls. Paafnas seemed paralyzed, he didn’t say a word.
The Pleunatan plays dead, overwhelmed by the transformations. Now, the Human woman will have no other choice than to believe what I say.
Klori’Tar looked around.
»Okay, Klori’Tar. I don’t even want to have an explanation how you knew what was coming,« Maya admitted. »Fact is: the cave wasn’t real. I doubt very much that we just observed a well-functioning and complicated cloaking technology. This was something else!«
»What are you talking about?« Voit asked with a vibrating voice. The transformation didn’t sit well with him and he tried to get out of the restraining field.
»I meant a dimensional transfer or a shift into a different reality,« she explained.
»Yeah, a different reality … I can see that too. We switched from the cave reality into the techno reality,« Voit replied. »I just don’t know if I can still believe my senses! Is this now the real reality or was it the mountain?«
»Whatever. This reality suits me better,« Maya admitted.
Suddenly, she had a ticklish feeling from her head down to her toes. She shuddered and tried to throw a glance at her wrist sensor device. Since she was still restrained it was a laborious attempt. Slowly, she twisted her arm toward herself and strained her neck to be able to see the display.
»There is a lot of energy generated in this room,« she huffed. »Somewhere, there must be that damn generator for the restraining fields. Maybe one of you can reach for a weapon and …«
»Before you do stupid things like that, you should assess your situation and surrounding better,« Klori’Tar advised sternly. »Didn’t you ask yourself already why we’re in this room? This is not a typical cell for prisoners. There must be a reason why we’re inside this particular room, filled with all this technology.««
Maya squinted. The room had continued its transformation as they spoke and looked now like a hollowed-out sphere from the inside. She estimated the room to be about twenty meters in diameter. Hundreds of long antler-like spikes or probes were pointed at them. Some of them were glowing, others seemed ridged and hard like steel. Other elements seemed bio-technical and where winding themselves around some of the probes or were swaying as if inside an ocean current.
Maya quivered. Narrow bands of light scanned the prisoners as if they wanted to trace their outlines.
»Did you feel that too?« she asked. »We’re being examined!«
»Well, it’s definitely not a decontamination chamber, that much is clear,« Klori’Tar remarked. »Yes, we’re being scanned.«
»Why is there no exit? How did we get inside this room?« Voit inquired nervously.
»Relax, we’re not in pain and still alive! This procedure might seem strange to us, but it’s bearable, not causing any side-effects … much better than cutting us up,« Maya said. She noisily cleared her throat, frowning. »At least they’re cautious. They don’t want to kill or harm us … at this point. Don’t forget, we’re the intruders. We would do the same thing. We should display a co-operative attitude. So far we have nothing better to do than wait. We can’t leave here anyway.«
»Let’s hope then, that we’re not inside an oversized microwave oven that cooks us alive,« Voit said.
Klori’Tar looked at Voit with wide eyes, not understanding his humor. »Why would anybody want to cook us?«
»Uh … forget it,« he replied, rolling his eyes.
Stuck
Speechless, Vasina was still looking at the location where the portal had been.
»They’re … they’re gone!« she said disconcerted a couple of moments later.
Wrecker didn’t listen to her and gathered his men. Some of them had suffered minor injuries from the falls.
»The next appearance is unknown,« he remarked dryly. »It can happen in ten or hundred years. It seems that your friends will never come back, the artifact took them!«
Vasina threw her head back and replied sharper than intended, »That’s not acceptable. They’ll find a way!«
Cautiously, she groped for the small bag inside of one of the side pockets of her suit. The Jamal-Comb was still there. She took a breath of relief.
»Tranos, I need an analysis. I want to know what happened.«
While Tranos extracted the data from his shield processors, Wrecker was stomping his feet on the ground to get Vasina’s attention.
»I understand that you don’t want to lose hope, but nobody has returned so far,« he said.
»Then this will be the first time!« she rebutted strongly, also stomping her foot like a little girl.
»I suggest you come with us to Plast, which is the closest settlement in this region. Maybe you can make contact with other star farers. We have a small spaceport, which is used on occasion. It happens all the time that we get visitors from out of space.«
»The next ship which attempts a landing on your planet will glow bright and blow up. If not already in the upper atmosphere then on the ground. This would destroy the settlement and the spaceport,« Vasina warned. »It is better to send warning messages into space, forewarning everybody not to land on Kug. You should establish a quarantine for this planet. The universe around us is deadly!«
The rest of Wrecker’s crew came closer. They were loudly discussing what they’d just heard. Wrecker stomped several times with his feet on the ground to regain control.
»There’s no reason to scare my people!« he objected. »Our world is not the center of the universe, even if some of our astronomers once believed that. We found out that our world is nothing special after we were contacted by space farers. Our planet doesn’t have much to offer. Kug is just one of millions out there!«
Vasina didn’t explain further. He would not understand anyway.
Maybe there are scientists or members of the government in Plast who are more open. There’s still a chance that space farers will detect the change of polarization when they approach the planet. The indications are clearly visible! She thought.
She glanced at Tranos, but he just shrugged. He couldn’t find a trace of the portal.
»It’s definitely not a disguise field that’s hiding the portal – it vanished.«
Vasina knit her eyebrows. She became painfully aware that she was now dependent on the Kugos. It didn’t make sense to remain at this location, as long as there was uncertainty when the portal and the mountain returned. A watch was senseless – it could last years!
She swiped her black hair out of her face and tied it behind her head. The wind rose, making the Kugos sniff the air.
»We need to leave here. The shuurt-wind brings unwanted creatures at night. We still need time to repair the vehicle and straighten it out. You decide, either you come with us or you stay here.«
»We’ll come with you,« Vasina said. »Tranos will help you with your vehicle. Are you able to get in contact with officials in Plast, to let them know we’re coming? We need to talk to them as soon as possible.«
»We have a shortwave radio onboard the hover tank,« Wrecker declared. »It’s not very strong. If we can’t reach anybody then we need to drive to an outpost ten kilometers from here. They have a telegraph!«
Vasina looked back in hesitation – the portal was still gone!
»Okay then, Tranos can amplify your shortwave radio signal with his shield. They should be able to receive the message in Plast.«
The chosen one
Two more of these titans had reached the portal. Arkroid’s group was now surrounded on four sides. Like angels of the apocalypse, the giants marked the four wind directions and observed the crew from their elevated viewpoint.
Moments later, a bright beam emitted from the open airlock of the ship and countless, small robots streamed to the outside. Their numbers were overwhelming.
Arkroid didn’t pay attention to the replication’s demands to fight the robots.
»Give me a weapon and I’ll take care of t
hem, if you’re too chicken to defend yourselves!«
Respectfully, Pi looked up to the titans who returned his glance calmly.
»Who’s building these robots and spaceships?« he asked himself. »The dimensional swing is definitely of Techno-Cleric origin, but I can’t see any of them! As once before, we’re inside a dimensional bubble, the effects are the same as we witnessed on Techno-Center.«
»That’s not quite true, Pi,« Arkroid corrected. »The dimensional swing is not from the Techno-Clerics, it was devised by their Creators!«
Pi looked up, he had forgotten the fine difference.
»Hmm … then we’re probably dealing with the same people who created Techno-Center? Now, these giants make sense.« Pi tried to hide his lapsus.
»Speculations, Pi,« Arkroid cautioned him as he saw the columns of small robots marching toward the portal. »That won’t help us. We may find out sooner rather than later, provided that the ship’s crew is willing to tell us their identity.«
»Have you seen such a ship before?« he addressed Kuster~Laap who was nervously flapping his ears.
»I would remember this type of ship,« he replied. »Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of Galactic Brotherhood or Genorantan ships. Maybe these types of ships were built during the time of the ancient people. I am sorry, Arkroid, I’ve never seen a ship like this.«
Quickly, the small robots filled the gaps between the giants.
Herimos growled as the robots came closer, tightening the encirclement.
Arkroid looked around and said to the replication, »This is the true reason why Morgotradon established his base in this solar system! Correct? It was never about the Crux-Heart. It was about this phenomenon, the portal, the mountain and the dimensional swing and this spaceship, right?«
Her eyes twitched nervously, a sure sign Arkroid was on to the truth.
Slowly, Arkroid and his team moved back toward the portal, just to be followed by the robots, tightening the circle even more.
NEBULAR Collection 5 - Panic in the Galaxy: Episodes 22 - 26 Page 33