Brennan was clever. Cho permitted himself a brief moment of grudging admiration for the daring and professionalism of the Earth pilot. Too often Kyle had put all his eggs in one basket, ridden for a fall. He had two advantages on his side: One, no one would fire at his ship to destroy him. And two, his ship's propulsion system was overpowering everything they could throw at him. And these two advantages he played upon time and again, and each time succeeded with this tactic.
The Paranid should never have allowed him to get into his ship. They had him already in their possession - only their fanatical wish to show the rest of the Universe they had nothing to hide, had them lose a sure-fire thing.
How stupid of them! But now he, Cho, had the chance to succeed. What had the Patriarch asked of him? That he should follow the alien ship to the furthest reaches of the Universe, no matter how far it would take him and how much time this would take. At least he had the perseverance and the intelligence the Tree-Eyed Ones lacked.
Cho was by now completely calm, the pilot Kyle William Brennan, Homo sapiens, was a worthy adversary. To follow him would demand his fullest attention and know-how. Perhaps the Patriarch had suspected this and recognised those noble qualities in him, perhaps he did not hate him as much as he had imagined?
Six stazuras later the Bone Scout reached the jump-gate, well ahead of the Paranid pursuers. The traffic in the sector was relatively light and as the Split Destroyer crossed the gate's activation threshold and completed the jump it passed a lumbering Argon Transporter hauling its burden towards the inner planets only a few hundred kilometres away.
A small Boron cruiser, also passing out of the sector through the jump-gate came close enough to tempt Cho into some target practice but he willed himself to keep calm. Instead he re-checked the sensors.
Where was the Earth vessel? There were plenty of targets on the Gravidar but none whose mass matched the Earth vessel. By now he was feeling alarmed. As fast as it was the Earth ship could not have traversed the entire sector already. There couldn't be any doubt.
After two further stazuras his sensors picked up a faint and rapidly expanding cloud of space debris. A stazura on the communications channel with the nearby Paranid patrol and a Teladi cruiser named Phoenix confirmed his worst fear. It was difficult to make sense of their babble but it seemed a Xenon ship had rammed a small ship moving at extremely high speed. The intense flash and the extremely thin cloud of debris all pointed to a matter/anti-matter explosion. Cho knew the alien ship carried a large reserve of anti-matter to power its engines.
As the Paranid refused to share any of their own data a snarling Cho had no other choice but to pay a horrendous price for the video as well as the sensor data of the incident from the Captain of the Teladi Phoenix.
With his eyes full of rage the Special Envoy smashed the arm rests of his command throne. The video recording was somewhat blurred and did not show him much more than a long-distance shot of two ships, which could have been the alien ship and a Xenon destroyer, colliding. However, the Gravidar record displayed the exact signatures of both ships and dispelled any doubts he might have had:
The jump-ship and its pilot had been completely destroyed.
CHAPTER 33
It took thousands of years for mankind to take that first tiny 150 km step into orbit. With malfunctioning heat shields and destroyed retro rockets, the return journey takes a mere 10 minutes. And moments before the air gets too hot to inhale, you ask yourself why, why the hell did we not stay where we came from?
Nathan Ridley Gunne
From a message to Joan "Hydra" Mitchell
"Are you sure that what you saw on board of the Ceo's Pride was a Xenon?"
Elena did not look at Nopileos but kept her attention on the monitor, which flashed images and descriptions of moons, asteroids and small rocks in a rapid procession.
Nopileos rotated his claws upwards in the Teladi equivalent of a shrug. "What else could it have been?"
"A Paranid or Split scouting drone?"
"Hm. No. I don't think so. The Split would simply blow up a Boron base. And what interest could the Three-Eyes have in an ancient, burned out station?"
Elena shook her head. After a pause of several sezuras she replied: "And what would be of interest to the Terraformers?"
The young Teladi got his squawk cubes out, lifted them to his nose and sniffed.
"For Xenon any piece of information they can glean about the Commonwealth will be important." He placed the precious keepsake back into its small polymer bag, while Elena immersed herself in the records. Ever since they came together, events had taken an astonishingly well-ordered course for the young Teladi. This pilot from Earth was more systematic and much more goal-driven than he, or for that matter, any Teladi. It was her aim to find an ancient jump-gate, which was left here many hundreds of years ago by people from her planet. She ran one computer correlation after the other, searched local libraries, even met the Argon Ferd Harding, whose young son Erki turned out to be an unbearable know-it-all, on the distant world of Ringo's Moon. Elena used modified message drones to sort and catalogue small to medium-sized objects of various star systems, and personally reviewed the results.
Elena called her procedure 'detective work'. It was fascinating and kept them constantly moving. Sometimes while travelling between sectors, both developed exciting theories, discussed politics, economics, biology – and told each other the stories of their lives.
Nopileos was deeply impressed by all the scale-raising and dangerous adventures Elena had already experienced, despite her young age. Converted into the time reckoning of the Commonwealth, she was not much more than 21 Suns old, just 8 Suns older than him. An average Teladi could reach a tenfold of this age and could afford to take their time over anything, unlike these short-lived humans, who seldom lived to reach the age of one hundred Suns.
"Nopileos, look here! I think I've got it"
Jolted from his reverie, Nopileos jumped to his claws. Elena zoomed in on a detail of the image on the view field. It looked like an artificial structure; it could be a jump-gate.
"This is it?"
"This is it!" Her almond-shaped eyes shone. "Only a few light seconds away from here!"
The forgotten Earth gate was ancient. Strange actually, as the jump-gates left by the Ancients were eons older but due to their hardiness, reliability and sheer omnipresence seemed timeless. This one here however, looked like a ruin, inactive, forlorn. The singularity it once contained had long since leaked away through what Elena termed Hawking Radiation.
"We are not the first ones to have been here," Elena said. Nopileos watched the outline of her white space suit from the cockpit of the Getsu Fune.
"Tshh?"
"Don't worry… that was long ago. A certain Martinus left an inscription here in the year 211."
"Tshhhhhh????"
Elena had examined the structure of the old terrestrial jump-gate for more than two hours before she found the air lock to the maintenance entrance. Both doors stood wide open and the claustrophobically narrow service tunnel was empty. A square duct allowed her direct entry to the machinery. The plate that was once the cover to lock the duct hung loosely on a single bolt and it was there she discovered the laser-engraved message from the past:
The last directive from the old log of Nyana's forefather, Commander Nathan R. Gunne, has now been carried out. We found the damaged jump-gate of our forefathers from Earth and completely destroyed its circuitry so it can never be repaired and used by the Xenon. But we are leaving its dead shell behind for the generations to come. It shall remain a memorial for what we gave up to protect our siblings on that far, blue planet.
-aC, in the year 211
signed, the crew of the AP Gunner:
Martinus Sandas
Nyana Gunne
Randol Niddong
Jidlak Andreju
Sonja Khadir
Jawn Mantell
It would have been easy for Elena to remove the last bolt t
hat held the cover plate in place. But this plate and its inscription belonged here and not any other place in the Universe. She took a few high-resolution pictures with her helmet camera and returned to the Getsu Fune.
"There is nothing else for us to do here," she said, stowing her helmet back in its compartment.
A very excited Nopileos had met her at the air lock; the pictures of the inscriptions on the plate had made him itch with curiosity.
"But, but… sister! Do you know how much that plate is worth?
Elena laughed out loud. "Nopi, I know a young Teladi who claims credits are not what he craves."
Nopileos stared wide-eyed and disconcerted. "But, but…"
"No 'but'. Look, the old gate is a monument. Even more, a memorial. The Argon forgot it for hundreds of years and although it is on Teladi territory, your people never found it. We will leave it in peace and tell no one of its existence.
Nopileos looked down and rolled one of his ears between two claws. "You are right, sister. But Martinus and Nyana – the Nyana I named my ship after!"
"Crazy, isn't it?" Elena stepped into the cockpit.
"Sure is!" Nopileos answered. "And none of the history books knows that they were ever here. And neither have I heard the names of their friends and their ship before!"
"There'll be a reason," Elena said. "Perhaps they did not want us to learn about them? Or someone else did not want it? For example Argon Prime? Anyway, AP Gunner, doesn't that sound just like the Goner sect?"
Nopileos looked at her with his snout wide open. "Tsh! True! Right! Now what?"
Elena slid her pilot seat forward on its rails and toggled a few switches. "Now we fly to Argon Prime".
"But you just said, perhaps the Argon themselves had a hand in this episode?"
"Nopileos, this all happened almost five hundred years ago. Three hundred and something suns, Jazuras. And now I am here, an ambassador of Earth, the lost home planet."
The Teladi did not look too convinced. It seemed like for a moment he wanted to say something but decided against it. "Sister, I will return to my ship to find room for my thoughts! Inanisas will communicate with Marc and follow Getsu Fune."
"I thought his name was Inanias and not Inanisas?"
Nopileos snorted, "May the adolescent itching never leave your forehead scales, oh sister!"
Laughing, Elena began entering the necessary course data into Marc, while the young Teladi disengaged his yacht from the Earth ship and waited for further instructions.
Her first glimpse of the system momentarily overwhelmed Elena with a desire for home and for a moment she let herself believe she was. However Sonra, the central star of this sector, was a tad too orange and Argon Prime was not quite blue enough to sustain the illusion. Nonetheless the system was beautiful and only the flickering of the jump-gate's singularity behind the Getsu Fune, announcing the arrival of Nopileos' yacht, tore her eyes from the projection screen. Argon Prime was still half an hour away and could not yet be seen directly, all she had were images from the database. The communication screen lit up again and Elena expected Nopileos' face to appear. Instead a woman in uniform, with a strict, almost ascetic visage, with short, white-blonde hair appeared.
"Sector control Argon Prime, 17-8-99-4. Heavy destroyer AP Demeter, Commander Ditta Borman. Unknown ship on course 17-1-64-0, identify yourself."
Elena did not have to think too long about an answer. She had come to contact the Argon government. No more need to play hide and seek and hide behind coy evasions. "Major Elena Kho, aboard jump-ship USC Getsu Fune. Place of origin planet Earth, destination Argon Prime. I request co-ordinates for a parking orbit."
The woman from Argon sector control looked momentarily startled, as if she had not quite understood Elena.
"Origin… please repeat!"
Elena repeated as requested and added: "Please make a Shuttle available to pick me up, I need to talk with representatives of your government as soon as I land."
"One Sezura, please," Commander Borman said as her face disappeared from the screen. A little while after the screen flickered alight again with the image of a small faced Argon male, with greying temples.
"Sector Admiral Henson speaking. Unknown ship, please repeat your identification."
Elena patiently repeated her little speech. Another pause followed.
"Getsu Fune," came the reply, "can you prove your claim to originate from a place named 'Earth'?"
"Scan my ship, Admiral", Elena replied simply.
"We are doing that just now, Major. The profile of your ship is not known to us but it could well be a very old, modified model of Argon construction."
"Admiral..."
"Major, personally I do not question your statement, the weight of evidence so far speaks in your favour, including your unusual appearance. That was meant as a compliment by the way," the Admiral smiled pleasingly. "I assume you are directly related to the unknown jump-ship we discovered about one and a half wozuras ago?"
"Hai. I am searching for this ship so I can bring its pilot back to Earth. However, I just recently learned it has been destroyed and the pilot is dead."
The Sector Admiral nodded. "We've been informed about that too. Major Kho, your onboard computer is receiving the requested approach data. A diplomatic delegation will welcome you at the airfield B3, Argonia City."
"Admiral, unfortunately my craft isn't built for a planetary landing. I need a Shuttle to pick me up from our parking orbit."
"We will arrange that. Major Kho, we have here a curious looking Teladi ship on the scope too, the Nyana's Fortune, whose pilot claims to belong with you. Is this correct?"
Elena took a sideward glance at the gravidar, which displayed Nopileos' ship as a distinctive white blip in close proximity. "Yes, Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV is with me. He has been of great assistance."
Sector Admiral Henson raised an eyebrow. "Indeed, I would have imagined that… just a moment!"
In the same second something flashed on the gravidar, a rhomboid formation of six blips moved rapidly across the screen, closing in on its centre, which marked the position of their three ships. Before Elena could react, there was a flicker of laser beams near the jump-gate and the flash of explosions.
Static striated the image of the Sector Admiral, then the picture flickered and died.
"Terraformers! Marc, evasive manoeuvres. I need weapons control."
"Affirmative."
The Getsu Fune began to slowly accelerate and Elena established a communication connection with Nopileos. "Have the Nyana duplicate my manoeuvres, mirrored and inverted. I hope we can distract them until the Demeter can help us."
The scale-plate of the young Teladi had grown very pale. "I will do that, Elena," he simply said.
"We will meet in orbit. Keep your ears stiff!"
"The ears? I…" The rest of it was lost to Elena as new laser fire seized her attention. Instinctively she cut the communications and grabbed weapons control.
Most of her shots sailed into the emptiness of space as the Terraformers went evasive. A few bolts hit the protective shields, but not enough to have any effect other than to draw their attention. And they reacted immediately. Two of the slender black ships broke formation and swung in a long parabolic arc towards the Getsu Fune. A quick glance at her gravidar showed Elena that another two black ships were stalking the Nyana's Fortune. The remaining two were moving to intercept the AP Demeter.
Nopileos would be safe for the time being; Elena was almost sure of that. Even with their combined forces, the two Xenon would not be able to penetrate the exceptionally strong shields of the Teladi yacht. It was okay when Nopileos got a little pale around the snout, when in turn this broke up the Terraformer formation. But her own safety was not as assured. As the battle progressed the aim of the robot ships became increasingly accurate and more and more blasts slammed into the energy screens of the old terran ship. It wouldn't take many more hits to drain them completely and then the Getsu Fune would
be left defenceless.
Elena let go of the weapon controls; her lasers were completely ineffectual. "Marc, I need combat steering," she ordered. Now, while maintaining the general programmed bearing, she'd be able to perform evasive manoeuvres.
Where were the Argon units? The tactical screen showed more blips moving towards her position but they were minutes away and the battle could be over in seconds.
"Collision alert!" shouted Marc. One of the slender black ships of the Xenon had overshot the Getsu Fune and was now turning into a head-on pass while its companion blasted continually from her six.
Elena's lips compressed into a thin, bloodless line. These were machines, and she knew from history they had no compunction at all about kamikaze rams. They would care no more about sacrificing a fighter than a human would a missile. She pulled the flight yoke into her stomach but the Terraformer matched her course change, swelling in her vision, its lasers a continuous blaze of fire.
"Shields at 20 percent," Marc announced.
Elena brought up the ecliptic plane on the HUD and chose the position of the Getsu Fune as the reference point. She flexed her tension-stiff fingers briefly and gripped the controls again. Constantly monitoring the gravidar in her peripheral vision she focussed on the sleek, deadly foe closing at a frightening rate. Trained and practiced through countless hours of meditation, she cleared her mind from all superfluous thoughts.
Below 150 kilometres. Her fingers were itching but she kept her cool. Just another split second now. Her instruments showed her shield energy had dropped to seven percent. The first energetic fingers of laser-burn began reaching through to touch the hull.
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 26