"Of course, Elena," answered Ferd. "I'll have to say good-bye now; my son Erki has just arrived. I think we're going to take-off for Ringo's Moon in 25 Mizuras latest. Why don't you come over and visit me and my family some day – we'd be honoured!"
"I'd very much like that, Ferd! Time permitting, of course. Until then – good-bye!"
The Argon waved once more, then the display went black and Marc switched off the video field. Deep in thought, Elena wolfed down the rest of her meal. She was too anxious to integrate the new astronomical charts and information she had just received from Ferd into Marc's database, and then review everything carefully to savour the taste. What had the Argon meant when he mentioned the "Ancients"? Perhaps Earth's colonists that had settled here in this part of the galaxy so long ago? Elena hoped to find the answers somewhere in the new data. Possibly, Marc would eventually be able to locate their exact position in space!
She let her eyes wander to the old guitar, which she had put down neatly on the seat to her left. The original owner, Frank de Vries of the USCSS Dragonfyre, had immortalized his name on it many centuries ago. So, when the Earth fleet had arrived here safe and sound back then, didn't logic dictate that also…
Shocked by her own thought, Elena stopped chewing.
Of course! Assuming the Earth fleet arrived here over seven hundred years ago, wasn't it obvious that the Terraformers must have arrived shortly after as well?
"Marc, integrate the new star charts into your data base," Elena ordered, chewing again, and repeated, when Marc didn't immediately understand her. She swallowed and carelessly threw the tray with the only half-eaten meal onto the co-pilot’s seat.
She had stirred up a hornet's nest here!
But where were the hornets?
CHAPTER 27
Since before time, there's a thin line connecting Argon, Goner and Xenon with each other. Probably it's their bad taste.
Frijan Eldna
ArgoNet::Editorial, Issu 1/546 z.t.
Minutes after cutting his engines, the gravidar showed Kyle a dozen ships approaching at speed. Soon he saw there were seven black Xenon ships and five Paranid destroyers. Both formations were already engaged in a grim battle, while they were still matching course with the X. Ahead, coming from the jump-gate, ships of the Paranid fleet amassed, to form a corridor. But the distance to the jump-gate was almost one AU still, and according to Valerie, it would take them half a day to get there.
When Kyle saw for the first time the ferocity and precision the Paranid employed in firing energy beams and missiles at the Xenon ships, he was almost glad that they did not consider him an enemy, but "only" the Xenon. Apart from that, he thought, it was perhaps time to test the laser that had been repaired by the Teladi days ago. He unlocked the fire button's security when one of the Xenon under heavy Paranid fire dove across the X's path a couple of hundred metres ahead in a vain attempt at evasion. He sent out a long streak of fire and shouted triumphantly when the already damaged Xenon went off in a bright explosion. Immediately three of the remaining six Xenon concentrated their attack on the X, scarring her shield badly. The Paranid used that distractive moment to concentrate their fire on those three ships, while simultaneously taking their positions in the cordon around the X-Shuttle. With the help of Kyle's light laser, two more Xenon were destroyed, while the remaining enemies passed by the X, driven by their own inertia. They would join a new formation outside weapons-range. The Paranid, however, now completed the security cordon with the X right in the middle. Kyle was now covered by five destroyers. More destroyers were approaching to replace possible losses.
Kyle marvelled at the ease with which the whole operation had gone, now that the formation had established a certain balance. Five Paranid covered him in a 360° circle, two more were at his tail, and further two were preceding him. Approaching Xenon were effectively intercepted and destroyed by additional Paranid units. When, at one point, one of the five cordon ships was hit and had to leave the formation, burning, it was replaced nearly instantly. Far off course the hit Paranid ship exploded and Kyle started to wonder, if this battle, if he was worth such loss: Paranid that had given their lives for him, and Xenon, that were annihilated by the dozen on their own territory.
He was quite certain he'd have to pay for it in one way or another. Suddenly he knew with clarity, that he wasn't through with his role as prey after all. The Paranid wanted the X as well – didn't the Boron Hila Mo predict precisely that? But glances at the star charts that were still on the tactical screen above, showed him that he – whatever the Paranid were up to – would be close enough to the Argon, once he arrived in the God Realm of Paranid. There was some hope, and he was entitled to it after all!
More than twenty hours at full alert had left his nerves frayed and his body tired and aching. The situation had levelled into some sort of a combat equilibrium. The naval formations of the Paranid waiting after the next jump-gate had pushed the Xenon back a fair distance, even before he arrived. But still, the Paranid had suffered heavy losses. Kyle was too busy to even think about this, and with all the death and destruction around him, he was also unable to close his eyes to grasp some sorely needed sleep.
He had been in combat situations in the Earth system, yes. There were pirates, terrorists, even illegal AI breeders. Normally the USC attacked only when there was no other solution left, and when they did fire, a long, dense salvo usually sufficed to incapacitate any ship they chose to apprehend. Here, however, matters were totally different.
Kyle awkwardly stretched out into his seat, his eyelids jittering. He needed some exercise for his oppressed limbs, and he needed sleep for his mental health, desperately! For a moment, the combat outside, the battle and skirmish he was following through the cockpit window, and on the view fields for hours on end, blurred and faded. He blinked when suddenly his hands fell off the flight-stick that started to develop an unexpected life of its own.
Annabel stood before him with her wild, blazing red mane and her no less blazing eyes. "Kyle, I've had it. I can't stand it anymore. This is beyond everything I am prepared to bear. Say something!"
Kyle moved closer to her and tried to take her in his arms, but she avoided him. "Annabel…"
"No, no and no again! I will hear from you that you'll stay, here with me, for good, and that you'll quit with the USC. Once and for all." Tears ran down her cheeks and Kyle felt his throat become sore.
"I can't", he whispered. "I've tried."
"Why yes, nine metres below the surface of Nereide, in a crashed salvage craft, for six weeks, together with Elena." She started sobbing. "And when they brought you back you were missing an eye."
"They grew me a new one…" he said helplessly.
"Why don't you marry her? The both of you are the perfect couple!"
"No… no, we're not! I love only you!"
"The hell you do! You love Space and not much else!" She almost shouted. "And that's how it'll be for all eternity, Major Kyle William Brennan! Isn't it so?"
He swallowed hard. He nodded, almost too subtle to notice, his voice a hoarse whisper. "Yes, probably." It almost tore his heart in two, but she was right. His true passion had always been with the universe, and one day they would bury him in the unending void of space, slowly drifting towards eternity.
Annabel wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. "No one was ever able to make me laugh like you do, Kyle William Brennan, astronaut, officer, damn, damn idiot." She came closer to him again, laid her arm around his neck and gave him a warm kiss on his lips. When he tried to get hold of her, she backed off once again.
"But no one has ever broken my heart as you have either," she said, "farewell." With these words, she turned on her heels and left the room.
Kyle would never hold her again.
Four years later, having long since been promoted Captain, he received an electronic card with an image of her and a young man he'd never before seen. Both looked into the camera full of joy and Annabel held
a rosy, wrinkly bundle on her arm, a baby. Beneath the image, there was a short note: "A new citizen of Earth welcomes the light of the sun. His name is Kyle and he'd like to say hello to you too!"
He woke up startled and confused, when a croaking sound cut through his unsettling and superficial drift upon the painful ocean of nightmares. Annabel had been history for so many years now, and she had left him with nothing but a numb feeling of emptiness that didn't stand out much from the cold background of space.
"Collision alert!" Valerie said. When she noticed that he was awake, she cut the unpleasantly croaking siren. Kyle reached for the flight-stick.
"Give me control", he demanded and felt the stick give way to his hand at the same moment. The X was his once more.
A quick glance at the galactic map showed him that he'd have only two jumps until Priest's Pity. Gravidar and camera were almost unchanged. The Paranid still formed their cordon around him and protected X from attack. But something was different – the battle had ceased whilst he had been asleep, as he now realised with amazement. No black Xenon ships anywhere, no laser bolts, no debris. But there had to be something wrong… Valerie wouldn't sound a collision alert for nothing! And then he saw it.
"Damn! Where is…?"
One of the two Paranid destroyers that had been hurrying ahead of the X were missing. Instead, there was a tiny white blip dead pan on his trajectory, coming towards him and becoming larger. An enemy!
"Valerie, I need exact vector data. Is he going to ram us? Quickly!"
The on-board computer projected the data he had demanded onto the HUD and the gravidar. "The enemy ship will ram us, Captain."
"I can't imagine that – that doesn't make much sense!"
"I'm incapable of assessing that. But the ship will ram."
"I don't think so. We stay on course until it evades us."
Kyle focused on the point that approached the centre of the gravidar even further. The Xenon were deep black and not easy to spot against the darkness of space, it took quite a while until Kyle could zoom in using the optical telescope. He had never before had the opportunity to look at one of the enemy ships in detail. It had something like a cockpit, but without a window, that much he could already make out as the Xenon maintained its course.
"A Terraformer!" he whispered, when the unsettling moment of realisation touched his mind with icy fingers. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. That was exactly how the ship had looked like that had destroyed the USC Rii-4 seven years previously, and had killed Ayse McCallum and John Friedmann!
The Xenon were the Terraformers! The Terraformers were the Xenon!
"Captain, collision in three minutes. Evasive manoeuvres recommended."
Kyle shook his head slightly. "One more moment. I'm sure he'll change course."
Now he understood why the Paranid were incessantly talking about machines. Oh unfortunate Earth; like Pandora's Box humanity had opened the jump-gate hundreds of years ago to send the Terraformer fleet into the universe, just to turn away their countenance, almost wantonly shirking their responsibility. But had it been possible to anticipate that the fleet had not been destroyed when the Earth gate had been sent to oblivion? Mustn't they have known that there were other species in the galaxy? Back then, matters hadn't looked that way, no signs had been found. Nothing to tell humanity that they had responsibility to more than their own kind! And still, it had been obvious all along, always! Because, who had built this network of jump-gates that had been used with such brilliance and carelessness, by an emerging humanity during the prime of interstellar travel?
"Collision in 15 seconds. I recommend…"
"We're holding the course for a couple more seconds." Kyle could now see the Terraformer without electronic zoom as a tiny point through the cockpit window. It seemed like an awfully large vessel.
Yellow flashes blinded him when the Paranid opened fire on the enemy simultaneously. Astonished and terrified at once, Kyle saw the Paranid widening their cordon, as if they were making room for the Xenon.
"Collision in five seconds. I…"
"…hold!" screamed Kyle.
The black ship was dangerously close and large in his field of vision now. Blue flames sprayed from his lateral attitude jets and his course was set directly for the X. The Terraformers wanted him alive. They wouldn't ram. The attacker didn't even shoot. He simply wanted to frighten him. The Xenon would change course, he would…
An enormous near-guttural wrench sent Kyle almost into unconsciousness, shaking the small Earth craft intensely; bright energy discharges screeched through the cockpit, but Kyle didn't feel much anymore except his innards, that felt like a giant's fist squeezed them from all directions simultaneously. He caught a short glance out of the window before his head was forcefully jerked to the other side again. There was the flank of the huge, dark enemy craft, wearing the ancient sign of the Terraformer fleet. Then he passed out completely.
"Val…? Valerie?" he moaned.
"I'm here, Captain", the on-board computer replied dutifully.
Kyle blinked and opened the eyes. Space was as calm and black as before, the Paranid ships were back in their position in the cordon as if nothing had happened. Also, the two spacecraft ahead of the formation were back on their position. The shields were stable at 95%, the inertia dampers, albeit on backup, ran flawlessly.
"Don't thank me, Captain Brennan," Valerie said suddenly without being addressed. "It was my pleasure to save your life!"
"What happened?"
"Exactly 0.43 seconds before the collision the command subsystem authorised me to take control from you against your explicit wishes. I then conducted all actions necessary to save ship, crew and on-board computer."
Kyle wiped his brow and moaned. Madness! He'd almost sacrificed himself just to ram the Terraformer! Or had the black ship intended to ram him? Hard to tell. And what was the reason that the Terraformer did not evade collision? He had not the faintest idea.
He checked the ship's systems meticulously and stifled, when he found that he had fuel for no more than about four hours.
"Valerie, is there a fuel leak somewhere?"
"No, Captain," Valerie answered.
Of course not – a fuel leak would have destroyed the X! Apparently, he wasn't completely up to it again mentally. He checked the instruments once more. Nothing out of the usual. The evasive action and consecutive course corrections commissioned by Valerie couldn't possibly have used that much fuel. Or could they?
But then he looked at the gravidar, and the star chart that remained on the view field since he had never cancelled it. "Priest's Pity" was the name of the star system they were currently in. The enemy sectors lay behind him, his destination – a Paranid space station, maybe a wharf or something of that sort – was barely two hours away.
What would he have to expect there? Well, whatever it was, almost anything was better than being trapped in this cockpit any longer! It had been almost one week since the Teladi destroyer Phoenix had dropped him into space, and he was completely fed-up with the narrow, uncomfortable X. This ship had never been meant for excursions like this!
Terraformers! Suddenly, Kyle recalled the last moments before Valerie had taken the control of the ship to save his life. The Xenon were the Terraformer Fleet. Seven years ago, Terraformers had appeared in the Sol system with a jump-capable craft – and had suffered perhaps a little accident. Nevertheless, this meant, they had jump technology. Perhaps they were already en-route to Earth with a vast fleet right now!
At all cost, he just had to find a passage back to Earth, even if it meant snatching the technology from the hands of the Xenon! One thing he knew, though – he would never be able to do this on his own. He'd have to reach the Argon government – whether the holy fleet of the God Realm of Paranid permitted this or not.
Out there, set against a background of pinhead-sized stars and colourful nebulae, Kyle could already see the dark silhouette of a colossal square bu
ilding glistening through the veil of space, and his convoy headed right towards it.
Finally! Enough of the unending hardship, enough of this lonely journey amongst unwavering stars, enough of this desperate battle against alien life-forms and machines.
Just enough already!
CHAPTER 28
It seems certain that jump-gates were not distributed randomly across the galaxy. There are obviously different routes, which link uninhabited and inhabited star systems; however these networks are not interconnected.
According to this the Winterblossom is on a route, along which only uninhabited systems are reachable. That seems to me the only logical reason for the complete absence of alien life forms.
Capt. René Farnham
Logbook of the Winterblossom
It was insane, completely insane! Elena had repeatedly checked the result but regardless of how she approached the data, the result always remained the same.
"Please give me the correlation map again, Marc."
Focused, she watched as two cubic sections of the galactic map merged. The light spots on the right side were blue and showed all stars that had ever been observed from Earth. Those on the left side shone red and represented all stars that were known to the Commonwealth of Planets. Each cube was about one hundred light-years side to side with Sol in its centre. They moved and rotated within each other, until a large number of blue and red points were congruent. Marc highlighted them in green. These were the stars known to both the Earth and the Commonwealth. Now, the onboard computer began to draw red and blue lines. The blue lines marked the solar systems connected by jump-gates known to humanity during the colonial age, the red corresponded to the routes, which were used by the ships of the Commonwealth nowadays.
Incredibly, there were no matching connections whatsoever! The spaceships of Earth at that time had been using completely different routes and visited other star systems than those the Commonwealth of Planets were using in the present! There was only one system that was known to Capt. Farnham and Earth and the peoples of the Commonwealth.
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 21