Scavengers: Dark Dreams

by Allan J. Stark

  Nea needed a while until she found her voice again. “Yes. Everything is good. Actually very good.”

  “I just do not understand,” said Ogo, “how this accumulation of old metal can lead to any emotional stimulation at all.”

  Nea had no desire to go back into a discussion with her robotic friend and saved the answer for later. She activated the rocket backpack. Gently, tiny flags of crystallized gas penned from the nozzle openings. Slowly pushed by the well-dosed thrust, she glided out of the Nova. Nea skillfully steered towards the hole which yawned in front of her like a toothed throat. At the edge, she paused for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and propelled herself over the messy edges, into the belly of the huge machine.

  Chapter 3

  Nea was immediately embraced by deep darkness. The rays of her helmet headlight laboriously penetrated the tangible and palpable blackness. Nea intensified the brightness of the lamp and could see that she had entered a large hall. The ground was not created for the feet of a man or any other creature walking with feet. No one could walk here without stumbling or hurting themselves. The ground was covered with an immense array of rack, chain, and wire ropes. They were obviously transport routes for machines, moving with gears, grippers, etc. Nea saw that the linkage was bent here and there or torn from the anchorage. Also the chains and wire ropes were loose and hung weightlessly and unmoved in the room like sea grass in a quiet lake.

  In the middle of the hall a circular hole opened up which led down into a dark depth. On the ceiling a corresponding counterpart opened its mouth. Nea moved over the terrible throat beneath her feet and shined the spotlight into the depths. After a few meters, the white cone of light peaked in the blackness. She rolled over on her back. The beam of light now shone onto the ceiling of the hall. Here, too, the opening led into sinister darkness; the end of the tunnel could not be seen. Nea tried to assess the dimensions of the space and came to the conclusion that these were junctions to a central corridor. Possibly, it leads through the entire ring. Through this tunnel, she guessed, it should be possible to reach every area of the gigantic structure. But as she did not like to descend down into a tomb, she decided to use the deck access. In any case, she had decided to call this direction “Above.” So she placed a tiny transmitter at its junction and flew into the tunnel.

  Nea strove higher and higher. At the same time, she crossed several rooms, similar to those in which she had entered the shaft. Nea’s world closed in to only the few meters which could be illuminated by the lamp on her helmet. An environment of pipes and shafts hidden in eternal night.

  The darkness gradually began to press her chest, like a millstone. Normally Nea was a very happy and fearless person. So she could not explain what was happening right now. She had often hunted in dark, narrow rooms, and she did not suffer from any pain. But now, she felt worse and worse. She could hardly take a breath. Her pulse increased. Tired, she clung to a cable on the wall and paused and began to recite a short poem until her nervousness settled. A procedure she learned very early in her career, from one of her best teachers. It worked. After a few minutes, she had recovered and continued her flight. Actually she had expected Ogo to report in, telling her how much he was worried, by receiving and analyzing her biodata. But the communication with the O.G.O. was not possible. The connection must have failed when Nea entered the Fay. She felt alone now, and that worried her greatly. It had never happened that the connection to her companion was lost. The communication systems of the Nova were too strong and Ogo too capable to let the signal disappear.

  Anyway. This situation was new, but Nea would get along with it.

  Time passed, without the environment changing significantly. Everywhere nothing but shafts and corridors. Her journey into the secret floors of a jump gate had to be more exciting, she guessed. So far it was only tiring, oppressive, and dull. Taking the proque guns with her now seemed to be completely exaggerated.

  “What a barren business will this be at the end?,” she whispered. “It would have been better to fly to the Boolin System and have a bit of fun. The Casinoworld was called the hottest spot in the galaxy. Colo rful, bright, and shiny. Full of life and excitement. Things Nea sorely missed right now, even if she did not like the loud and noisy world of gamblers and superficial rich people.

  Nea raised her eyes. At first, she thought of a mirage, when she thought she recognized a reflex. A misty glimmer, far away. But when she turned off her headlights and the dark night wrapped her again, the glimmer in the distance rose more clearly. It fell horizontally into the blackness, forming a bright spot that lay over the bizarre surface of the tunnel.

  Without hesitation, she flew nearer to the spot, which sparkled like liquid gold. It was sunlight that came through an oval hole. A short air shaft leading to another room, Nea noticed. She peered into the shaft. It seems it leads into a large hall, which radiated the sacred solemnity of a temple or a church. Through tall narrow windows, light shined into the room. Walls, floor, and ceiling glimmered in soft golden reflection.

  Nea could see a row of seats below the opening. They ran to the left and right along the wall. Nea also thought that someone was sitting in one of them. Curiously she pushed herself further into the shaft, but even with all her effort, it was not enough to expand her field of view. Some force field pushed her back. Still, she was tirelessly struggling like a fish trying to get through the tight meshes of a net, and gained a few more centimeters. She finally recognized the tips of boots and a soft velvety sleeve covering a hand resting on a wide armrest. The hand was stuck in a metal glove, which reminded her of armor made of steel . Soon, however, Nea was softly pushed out of the shaft by the energy field, back into the shadows.

  At the same moment, countless ice crystals loosened from a thick cable fell in strips. They danced in front of Nea’s eyes. Blinking, like tiny insect wings. Fascinated, she watched the weightless dance, until she made an astonishing observation. The snowflakes deformed when they came into contact with the sun’s ray and turned into small, floating drops of water .

  Nea lifted her right arm in front of the visor, switched on a flat monitor attached to her forearm, and examined the data. The display betrayed her astonishment that she was moving in an oxygen atmosphere. The temperature was several degrees below zero and the air was very dry, but breathable. All in all, Nea seemed to be inside an intact, moderately heated space station. How is that possible with all the damage, she wondered. What kept the atmosphere from escaping into space? Must be some kind of energy field, like the one that pushed her out of the shaft some moments ago.

  Nea hesitated for a while, closed her eyes, and opened the visor. The cold began to cover her face and crawled slowly into the interior of her spacesuit. She gently sucked the air through her lips and opened her eyes again. She squinted into the darkness, then took a deep breath. The coldness and the smell of fresh air reminded her of a clear icy winter morning. The sun that was shining through the hatch onto her face warmed her skin. Nea switched off the oxygen device and watched the white clouds forming in front of her mouth. Then she turned back to the small hole and looked into the room behind. She wanted to call into the hall, but she couldn’t. She had the call in her throat, but it was stuck there. Something like this had happened often before, and was usually because she was afraid of her voice disturbing the silence. But this time it was something else that made her hesitate.

  Cautiously she pushed herself off the wall and slid upwards along the corridor, away from the glooming light – and again, a dark cloud pulled over her mind. It was as if all of the dust of the millennium that existed in that gate was sinking down to her brain and all of her memories and thoughts to crush them. The Fayroo seemed to her like a dying, gradually decaying body. Its life was running out, like blood from a wound, bleeding for millions of years. It dwindled, sluggish, silent, and without resistance. The Fay was a giant dying tree, whose memories fell like foliage to the ground and drowned all life under it.

  Ch
apter 4

  As Nea flew, she heard a sound. She paused again and listened. But there was silence then, nothing else. That did not mean anything, Nea told herself. A long time ago, when she had chased a Tigermaug which was lodged in the remains of an ancient wreck, she had barely escaped alive. And only because she managed to hold out a moment longer than the patience of the predator allowed. The predator had chosen to move, instead of waiting motionlessly.

  The tension grew. Nea began to sweat and the sound of her breathing seemed unpleasantly loud, like a cat’s hissing. It would expose her presence as an intruder, sooner or later. But surely she was already being watched by vigilant eyes.

  The Tigermaug that almost caught her had not let her out of its sight, and flooded her mind with images of a changed and virtual reality. Images of a jungle in which he eradicates his image and conveys a falsified view to the brain. Nea would have walked straight into his grasp if she had not noticed the reflection of the crouching, catlike creature in a pond. Apparently, the animal was not aware of the principle of refraction, and so he had not erased its reflection from the mental image he projected into Nea’s mind.

  Nea shook her head. She should not think too much of the past. She was here, inside a Fayroo, and was being observed. Nea peered into the dark, but nothing was moving. Still everything was quiet. She waited about a minute, then another one, just to be sure, and finally she continued her flight.

  Soon the tight corridor ended. The walls fled into the darkness in all directions. Nea’s headlight illuminated the distance only sparingly, even as she increased its intensity to the maximum. Here the tunnel expanded into a sphere-shaped hall, and a seemingly immeasurable number of oval sub-shafts flowed into it. It drew an organic pattern on the walls, like honeycombs. This chamber was threatening, almost hostile. Nea did not want to stay here any longer so she flew towards the ceiling, where the main corridor continued. But she stopped abruptly and listened into the emptiness. There had been a sound from somewhere, reaching her ears. She was sure. This time it was not a trick of her imagination. It was a kind of pounding and rattling, like dull rhythmic drumming. The sound grew louder and louder. It seemed to come from one of the holes. Nea felt the urge to quickly get out of the hall and hastily lit the missiles of her backpack. Faster than intended, she shot into the main shaft. She bounced painfully against the wall – once, twice. It was like an upward fall through the walls of a narrow canyon. Nea had barely brought her flight back under control when she hit hard against a series of massive bulges that tightened the tube. The helmet protected her from any harm resulting from the impacts, but she became really dizzy . Her vision began to dim. Nea came to a halt and tried to hold onto something. The world staggered and blurred before her eyes.

  Strangely enough, lights flashed, whose source Nea could not determine. The passage was bathed in a dull, gloomy blue glimmer that seemed to come out of the air. A ghostly light that did not seem to have any source. Nea just realized this change before she passed into the sunset, and the nearer rumbling reverberated in her ears. Consciousness escaped her and she slid into a strange dream.

  Chapter 5

  In Nea’s mind images of rough, wooden drums were formed. Big, rough hands struck it, pounding the covering tear till they cracked . Spiders swelled out of the hole. Thousands. Millions. Nea turned away in horror and began to flee. She ran over a shiny black stone slab. The stone stretched endlessly in all directions. Tiny stars glittered in it. Her feet hurried over suns, fogs, and galaxies.

  In the distance, she saw a large gold shimmering ring, falling down and bouncing off the dark ground, with a bright, cheerful tone. Shortly after that, another one fell down, then more of them. A whole shudder, and finally a hail burst over Nea. The light sound they made was unbearable. Nea pressed her hands on her ears, but without any effect. As with needles, the metallic crackle pierced her eardrums. She screamed.

  Immediately Nea was awake. She hardly dared to breathe, dared not move. Coming right out of that nightmare, she knew she was not alone. She did not dare to move her head. She examined the space around her using only her eyes. The strange light was still there. Everything was quite the same as before she fell into powerlessness. Finally she noticed a star-shaped structure to her left which blocked the passage. At first she thought it was the propeller of a huge ventilation system. But as she turned her head, she recognized the silhouette of an eight-legged machine which, with its spiderlike limbs, had spread into the tunnel. A thick, round, silvery body formed the center of this figure. The thing twitched a few times in the moment Nea finally moved her head a little. The round body was gently swinging up and down . At the same time, the strange machine emitted a buzzing sound, like a computer being started up. Claws snapped and retreated.

  Nea had the impression that this thing had its back to her, although it was hard to figure out what was front or back. However, she was pretty sure that it must have passed over her when she was unconscious. Yes. She was sure that she was looking at the back of the spider robot. Now it remained where it had lost the track, listening and lurking, to find its prey again.

  Nea pushed her right hand slowly to one of her pistols and closed her fingers around the handle. But this tiny movement was enough to let the robot react. The metal spider turned around. The machine stretched out its sharp claws, and ran through the tunnel, pounding and rattling.

  Nea straightened up and was kicked by one of the robot’s legs. Like a ball, Nea whirled away. The spider hardly responded and ran on. The scissors cut into the air, as the machine swept over Nea, passing her again. Nea clung to a strut and watched as the monster came to a stop. It seemed as if it was struggling to orientate. But the round body pounded up and down to adjust itself. The spider shivered and quivered, while the sharp claws again snapped into the air.

  Nea pulled the second gun and aimed at the machine with both weapons. The monster turned around and started another attack. This time, its actions were more precise. A claw hit Nea’s neck and left a deep scratch on her helmet. Nea drifted through a tangle of limbs and blades. The spider slipped through the shaft with a deafening, metallic scream, while Nea was trapped in its legs and claws, like in an iron cage. Suddenly she slipped through a gap and tumbled over the bottom of the shaft. She managed to get on her feet and slipped a few meters like an ice skater over the metal as if it were a frozen pond. The ball of metal limbs rolled further along the passage.

  Nea took the fortune of the moment, aimed with both pistols, and shot several times. The particle bullets dipped the surrounding area into glaring brightness. The recoil drove Nea away. Then the thunder of explosions followed, which roared in her ears. Flashes of light drew bizarre shadows on the walls. Nea whirled through the tunnel and bounced against a big pipe. If this thing does not kill me, she tells herself, then I will get it myself!

  Hastily she tried to get a look at the attacker again. Nea fidgeted like a wild marionette through the shaft, until she could hold onto a bulge in the wall. She struggled to find a safe position in the tunnel. At last she pushed her legs into a gap between two wall segments. Now she had a secure and firm stand. In this position Nea expected another attack. She was aiming her guns at a gray smoke cloud, which grew in weightlessness. Flames lurched curlingly to the sides. They crawled along the walls, winding over pipes like glowing fog. A draught finally extinguished the flames.

  As the smoke vanished, it gave an unobstructed view of a smoldering metal coil, slowly rotating in the air. An extraordinary tangle of bent and torn limbs. Some of them had melted, like viscous honey, flowing away and finally solidifying in this form. The round body of the spider showed a smoky hole, from which bright sparks cracked out from time to time.

  Nea broke away from the wall and started to glide over the sharp-edged debris, the pistols in her fists, aiming at her opponent. The scissorhands slid forward, cut into the air, and retreated trembling. Nea hovered over the frightened body, which was circling slowly and as weightlessly as a feather beneath
her. Nea accelerated her flight and left the creature behind her. As she slid into a new section of the shaft, the ghostly, sourceless light went out.

  Chapter 6

  Again, Nea flew through the darkness for a long time and crossed rooms and wide halls. No sunbeam brightened the blackness again. The darkness became more and more dense, and to the same extent Nea’s courage began to wane. Anxiety touched her heart, pressed on her chest, until her breathing became heavy. Strange, mournful thoughts troubled her. Nea often interrupted her flight and stared into the void with melancholy. It felt as if the walls were approaching to encircle and bury her alive. At the same time, she became sleepy. It took a lot of effort to lift her heavy eyelids. She just wanted to sleep. Just for a few minutes.

  A song, Nea suddenly thought. You have to sing a song. That had been Sam Blumfeldt’s advice. Her boss on the port world Sculpa Trax, who had begun to train her to become a scout. A song can work wonders when you get tired, he said. It can drive out fears and focus your senses on something else, instead of fear. Sleeping Beauty did not sleep, Nea remembered from an old nursery rhyme that her grandfather had once sung to her.

  Could it not be something else, she asked herself. Something more up to date? Yes, she knew a text. A song that Sam had always sung when they were working together. With this she began to hum the simple melody and then quietly sing the text. It was something about a lucky star. It should keep her forever. A lead and a companion. A talisman.

  “I am in your spell,” Nea whispered. “Since I found you.” She continued to sing, and strangely enough, her nerves calmed down. The fear passed, the invisible grip around her chest lost its force. Now she was far away from panic. Nea’s mind become lighter and she could think again clearly. A little accompanying music would not be bad, she thought, lighting the rocket backpack.