The large, egg-shaped ship fell tumbling trough the disintegrating remains of the interceptor; nothing was left of if but a cloud of glittering debris and dust.
Then, the damaged ion engine detonated in a mighty flash. The Nyana's Fortune staggered heavily, when her, until then symmetrical, acceleration was disrupted. The ship fell burning in a shallow angle towards Nif-Nakh’s surface.
Horror-stricken, Kyle saw that Nopileos was being viciously torn from his seat in the moment of the explosion. Everything happened so fast that the poor Teladi didn’t even have the time to cry out in terror. For one moment, the view-field continued showing an empty pilot seat that was now madly vibrating. An instrument panel falling asunder crashed into it when it came loose from its arm. It took only a few more seconds, before the Nyana's Fortune started ploughing through the more dense layers of the atmosphere, blazing up like a torch. Kyle saw yellow and red flames flare up in the cockpit of the crashing ship, then the video connection abruptly terminated.
But there was no opportunity for Kyle to agonize over this. His eyes wandered over to the gravidar and the stern camera’s image; the Rhonda Crave was shaken violently by the turbulence caused by the explosions, but her flickering shields were still putting up with the firestorm.
“Damn”, Kyle murmured when he noticed a host of new blips coming up on the gravidar. He pulled the shuttle up again. That was a whole flotilla of ships coming – Valerie would be giving combat alarm any moment now! The sky grew darker, black eventually, and space embraced both ships again – at long last!
Kyle could already make out a fire exchange at mid-range with his bare eyes, carried out between a couple of vessels. What the…?
The blips on the gravidar grew larger quickly. A Split destroyer took a turn at the X from below, firing from all weapons. The X took several hard hits, but then, the Split destroyer unexpectedly burst into flames, seemingly without much of a reason. Only then, a second blip separated on the gravidar, one that must have followed the destroyer close up! An Argon battle ship!
A view-field opened and a snappy looking Argon with alert eyes appeared. “Captain Brennan, Agent Danna. This is the 26th combat unit at your service.”
“Yeah!” Kyle heard Ban Danna shouting through the intercom connection. His voice was metallic and over modulated, but full of enthusiasm.
The Argon on the view field grinned. “You may want to give the Xenon their due credit, Agent Danna”, he said. “Hadn’t they allowed us to defeat them so quickly we wouldn’t be here now.”
It took Kyle a few seconds to let this information, which had been thrown at him almost casually, sink in. The Xenon – defeated?
“Yup, that’s right!”, the Argon said when he saw Kyle’s questioning eyes. “But more about that later. We’re going to escort you out of here first. The Split are presently running amuck, but our firepower should be superior to that of their few ships, at least for the moment. So hold on to your helmets, Sirs – it may become a little shaky after all.”
With these words, the comms channel was closed.
CHAPTER 46
It is important that we never stop asking questions.
Albert Einstein
It's just not fair", Elena said in a low voice. Kyle looked at her for a long while, silently, and then he turned his eyes to gaze at the deep blue of the Argon horizon, right where the skies and the ocean met.
"No, I guess it's not", he said. A soft breeze arose, playing with the border of his blue USC jacket.
Elena wiped a black strand of hair from her face. "I've not known many Teladi, but he was a very special saurian. Damnit, I'm going to miss him, you know!"
Kyle nodded solemnly. "I've only known Nopileos for a short time, but he's definitely grown on me."
Elena sighed. "Kyle, I'd like to meet his egg-brother Sissandras, and the Ceos, his grandfather. I'd like to tell them about what he did for us, and just how proud they should be of him."
"By all means, Elena."
Voices became audible from ahead when the large hexagonal hovering platform Elena and Kyle were standing on withdrew a few meters, with nearly imperceptible movements. Two more of those platforms were hovering in a distance of about a hundred meters from each other, a couple of kilometres off the coastal line. Elena glanced at them; a few men were running to the hand-railed rim of their platform, excitedly staring down at the calm waves below.
"So how's Ninu?" she wanted to know.
"She's doing alright, considering the circumstances. Her mother died last week. Right now, she's arranging for the ceremony at the Goner temple."
"Hard times", Elena said. "Beg your pardon, if I'm being too curious, Kyle, but…"
"You are too curious."
"Gee! I knew that! So…?"
"There she's coming, isn't she", Kyle replied evasively, pointing towards the rim of the platform. Obviously, he wasn't referring to Ninu, but to something entirely different instead. "Come on, let's go over there. Aren't you anxious?"
"So-so", Elena said vaguely, starting for the handrail anyway. The ocean, lethargically swashing away two meters beneath the platform, was remarkably calm today, and the waves weren't really worth mentioning. "But aren’t we a bit evasive here?"
"Ninu and I are in love. As soon as I'm back from Earth…"
"You're a dreamer, Kyle. Seriously, a dreamer. But that's probably why I'm so fond of you."
"Well, I'm fond of you too, Lady naysayer!"
Elena remained silent for a few moments. "I'm not", she then said. "Never been."
"Don't you want to go back to Earth, Elena? I honestly do, but my heart wants to stay here."
Elena took a step forward, gripping the handrail with both hands, looking down towards the water. Far below the clear surface of the freshwater sea, she could see a vague, bright silhouette, rising up and coming closer ever so slowly.
"Naturally I'd like to see planet Earth once again some day." A little smile shone on her face now. "There's an old man at the promenade of Milano. He foretold me that I'd be returning, once I got rid of my uneasiness."
Kyle looked surprised, but also a bit teasingly. "You're feeling uneasy? News to me. I've never noticed that!"
Elena thumped him in the ribs amicably. "Hey!", she complained, chuckling. "Right now, the thought of returning to Earth causes me more uneasiness than the thought of staying here. I believe that I can accomplish a lot more for Earth when I stay here. I've learned heaps, while you were… playing cat and mouse!" She winked.
"Yeah, like how to brawl with fishermen. Look, over there!"
Gradually, some large fawn thing began emerging from the surface of the sea. The clear water washed over it, dispersing completely, pouring off of both sides, while the object rose further, bit-by-bit. It was vaguely rubber-shaped, slanted at the bow and the stern. A few black and burnt looking streaks graced it's dented, formerly white, now heavily stained flanks; one of them charring a stylized image of a four-legged man in front of a spiral nebula. A writing underneath the image read USC Getsu Fune.
"That's not a tear in your eye, is it?" Kyle asked suspiciously.
"Naw – just the wind. You know that I never weep", Elena replied. She wiped her eye with her index finger.
Kyle nodded seriously, not going into the matter. "Hm. A few dents here and there, and the right-hand attitude jet at the stern is gone. I've seen worse."
"Now why doesn't that surprise me, test pilot? Once you are done with a space ship…"
"Now, c'mon!"
"I'm just saying Nereide. Nine Meters below. Well?" Elena looked at Kyle mockingly.
"Oh-kay. Thank you, Mr. state attorney sir, I think I've heard enough!" Both of them chuckled and turned their attention back to the ongoing salvaging operation.
By now, the Getsu Fune had risen almost halfway from the water, and it was possible to look inside the cockpit. Seemingly, there wasn't any water in it.
"Do you think it's going to work? Putting her jump drive into the X and
head home?"
Kyle looked thoughtful. "I do hope so. Or perhaps we can set the Getsu herself afloat again. Well, I say it'll work."
"Hey!" Something flashed her mind, which she hadn't told him before. "You know what I managed to get hold of? It's a guitar that once belonged to a man named Frank de Vries, of the crew of the Dragonfyre!"
"You're nuts! Do you know how far this dates back?"
"'Course I know that! But the guitar is over there in a storage hold!"
Kyle shook his head. "That's crazy. But, Lin. Tell me one thing. Please."
Elena looked at him attentively. He took a deep breath, stepped forward and clenched his hands to the handrail just like her, while the Getsu Fune right in front of him finally emerged from the water in her entirety.
"Since the day I arrived here in the Commonwealth of Planets, I'm stumbling over, well, you know… loose ends. Everywhere. Do you know what I mean? And many of them fit each other somehow. Or they fit loose ends we brought with us from Earth."
"You mean, like tiles in a puzzle slowly taking shape?"
He nodded fiercely. "Yes, exactly! I may be wrong, but behind all of this, behind all those loose ends, those puzzle tiles – there is someone who fits tiles together, and shuffles them again. And ties up loose ends, or cuts them. Do you understand?"
"Absolutely."
"Yes. But what, do you think is the meaning of this puzzle game, the purpose of all of the cutting and tying of loose ends?"
Elena looked at the Getsu that was now slowly being directed towards the hovering platform she and Kyle were on. The water had nearly stopped pouring down her flanks.
"I have no idea Kyle, not the foggiest notion. But I knew someone who was cruising half the universe with the answer stored in the memory banks of his on-board computer." She smiled. "I believe that, since we were given the answer once, we will be given it again. I seriously do."
She was trying to find words for a moment, before she continued. "At any rate, I for one am going to look for it. Until my uneasiness vanishes." She touched the handrail pointedly with both hands. "Well then", she said, nudging her best friend amicably, "now let's have a look at the Getsu. Maybe Marc put the time he spent on the surface of the ocean to good use and developed some real intellect!"
Kyle smiled absently, still gazing into the sky. Somewhere up there, seventeen light-years straight ahead, and to the left at the third star, somewhere up there, Sol was twinkling beyond the haze of the newborn day. He let his eyes dwell just a little longer on that mystic, invisible spot in the sky that was so near and yet so far away. He reached into the pocket of his trousers, grabbing for Gisbert's morphing globe, and letting it go again. He nodded.
"To develop some real intellect", he echoed. "Perhaps this is exactly what they want from us."
THE END
EPILOGUE
Please bear with me, for I am just a boy. My name is Ion Battler, foster son of Norma Gardna, Beholder of the Truth at the Temple. She raised me, cared for me and loved me, as if I had been her own flesh and blood. These words are dedicated to her memory and I send them out into infinity so that you, the people of the universe, will never forget about her, not today, and not in a million years from now. From her I know the truth, the whole of it, as the telling of the truth was my mother's dedication, her passion, and ultimately, her destruction. Now that she is no longer among us, I shall not cry, but continue what she has begun. I will pass the truth on to anyone with an open mind who is willing to listen and accept for it is of the utmost importance for the future of our civilization.
So hear me.
We, the Goner and the Argon, the only human species in this area of space, do not originate from Argon Prime. Nor do we come from any other planet in this great federation known as the Foundation Guild. Long ago, our species came from a distant solar system with a bright yellowish star in its centre. A star so warm and magnificent that it's hard to find the words to describe it. Count three planets from that sun: the first, a barren place of sometimes boiling, sometimes frozen rocks; the second, shrouded with thick layers of everlasting clouds; then the third planet, a world of beautiful white and blue, covered by vast, deep oceans crawling with life and with the sweetest air to breathe. This is the place where our ancestors first looked up into the night skies in awe, wondering if somebody was staring back at them from afar.
The name of that planet is Earth.
In time a deadly war between the people of Earth and the machines, that later came to be known as the Xenon, separated the last handful of humans in this region of space from their brothers and sisters on Earth. Our Ancestors would not live long enough to return to the arms of their loved ones, left behind on Earth. This is the memory that we, the Goners, have held for so many centuries.
If I ever had any doubts, they have been cast away by the recent events. Events of a magnitude so vast, that my mind still fails to grasp all of their consequences.
Many weeks ago, a lone ship of unknown origin appeared in our realm, a ship that once had the power to cross the gulf of space between the stars on its own, not needing to traverse sectors by using jump-gates. But an accident crippled the ship, disabled its star drive and left its pilot marooned in this part of space, utterly alone and with no hope of return. As the Goner community supposed right from the start, the ship came from our forefather's place of origin: Earth.
All hell broke lose when the Argon Government, knowing as much as the Goner, but not willing to reveal it to their people immediately, started to pursue the Earth ship, as did the Split and the Paranid. The pilot of that ship, a tall friendly man by the name of Capt. Brennan, was unaware of the attention he was drawing. He had a difficult time comprehending where he was, and how to survive in a society of merchants and mercenaries. It must have seemed utterly alien to him. But he was good, and he was astute. Eventually, he became known throughout our space, and even played an important role in the ultimate defeat of the Xenon threat. By then, the Argon government could no longer hide the truth. And we, the Goner, outcast for so long, were accepted at last.
After the battle, the ship from Earth was brought to an Argon wharf, where the engineers began to repair the damaged star drive. The idea was to help Capt. Brennan to return home, taking emissaries with him to establish diplomatic relations between the Foundation Guild and Earth. But when the star drive was started, the ship only blinked away for a split second, then reappeared in the same place, not going anywhere at all!
I can hardly bring myself to describe the desolate expression of the big man from Earth, on the day of the failed attempt to return him home. I could see the pain in his eyes and hear the trembling in his voice, and it made my heart ache.
Later that day, the news came in. The spaceship was to be taken to the wharf again. This time, the best scientists, not only of the Argon, but also the Boron and even the Teladi would try once more to repair the star drive. Promising not to stop until they had the solution, they began to dismantle the ship, piece-by-piece and bolt by bolt, trying to fathom the secret of the jump engine and so locate the source of the problem. Thus they hoped to rebuild the ship to its former glory with a functioning star drive. We knew that this could take months, possibly even years. For all we knew, it might even be impossible!
Brennan spent this time at the Goner temple, sitting in silent contemplation, reflecting on his fate. He was inconsolable, brooding over his future until he finally reached the decision that would change our lives forever. I clearly remember the expression on the face of my little sister Ninu, trying to cover her tears when this man from Earth told us what he had resolved to do. He would ask the Argon government to grant him access to a small cruiser, so he could return to space once more, on his own, to find friends, old and new, and to seek adventure. And so he went with a colourful burst from the thrusters of his new ship.
This was the last we saw of him. It seems like an eternity ago to us now. To the present day, nobody knows where Brennan is now, our hero, our Messi
ah, our bringer of light in a time of darkness. Nobody knows if he fares well or if he faces great danger. We can only pray for him and his safe return to us.
Hope is all there is.
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very ,very small.
Neil Armstrong
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
But he's the webmaster – how can he write a novel?
Darren Melbourne
Many people have contributed in the making of this book. First of all I'd like to mention the folks over at EGOSOFT who spurred my imagination by releasing a fantastic game named "X – Beyond the Frontier" in the year 1999. They did, and continue to do, an incredible job!
However, the single most important contribution to this – the English – version of the book was of course made by all the people who volunteered in helping with the translation (in no particular order):
Michael Baumgardt, Chris Burtt-Jones, Arnold Klima, Stephen Haworth, Nichole Pederson, Georg Armbruster, Piers, Paul Knibbs, Raymond Lashley, Damian Bullmann, Tina Dutschek, Tobias Dahmen, Herbert Hohenburger, Karlheinz Roth, Andreas Fuchs, Steve Miller and last not but least Ivan Tefalco.
When I started writing this book summer 1999 I'd have never guessed so many people would be interested in reading it, let alone translating it! Where do they all come from? Well, they come from the United Kingdom, from Germany, from Australia and even from New Zealand! If this isn't a miracle, then what is?
Thank you all for making this come true!
September 2005
Helge T. Kautz
Farnham's Legend: The beginning of the X-Universe saga (X Games Book 1) Page 37