Arkroid and Vasina had reached the hotel lobby on their way out; Arkroid contacted the Techno-Ferry.
»Nautilus, can you hear me?« he called, stepping onto the street. He had a sudden idea …
»Toiber, I can hear you well!« the ship responded.
»I need your help. McCord’s escaped, we don’t know where he is. He’s now completely dominated by the crystals. Can you detect the crystal emissions and locate him?«
The Techno-Ferry responded at once.
»Positive! The emissions are weak, but typical. He’s headed for Quadrant 4. He’s moving fast! There’s a large housing complex in Quadrant 4.«
»Where, and what, is Quadrant 4?« Vasina asked.
»It’s a residential district the size of a metropolis. A million people. We have to catch him before he can finish whatever he’s planning,« Arkroid explained, indicating the point on the map that Nautilus had fed into his comm-device display.
Come back in one piece
»So that’s what Matrix Architects look like, eh? I don’t know why we always assumed that the Globusters were the architects. What do you guys think?« Drustev announced.
»You have a point … and look – there seems to be a hierarchy that determines how they share this cave,« Meyer acknowledged.
Petrow opened his mouth to add to the discussion, but Nadja Bulkin beat him to it with her analysis.
»The Globs surround the blue guys, almost as if they were guarding them. They must have brought the beings here and subjected them to their own living conditions. Do the Globs control them?« she wondered.
»Why do you assume that the Matrix Architects were kidnapped? We’ve seen nothing to indicate that. Maybe the Globs are just honor guards while the Blues are hibernating,« Drustev mocked.
»Blues?« Petrow asked.
»You have a better name than Blues?« Drustev replied dryly. »We know almost nothing about the Globs, and less about these Blues. Maybe they’re the Matrix builders, maybe not.«
»Hmm … now you mention it … I think I know what these coffins are. Remember Vasina’s temporal sarcophagus? She survived over a million years in the ice of Antarctica. These coffins remind me of that. And the energy field protecting these four could also be some sort of temporal conservation technology,« Meyer intervened.
Petrow frowned.
»Then their situation must be different from the Globusters,« Petrow explained. »The beasts can apparently remain in their state of stasis indefinitely, but they can’t deactivate it on their own. They have to await some kind of wake-up signal. The Blues may use an entirely different technology to bridge the eons.«
»That’s guessing too,« Meyer told him. »It does, however, narrow down to two possibilities: either the Matrix Architects went into voluntary hibernation and the Globs are just their helpers and guardians, or the Architects were kidnapped while hibernating and brought to this cave. In the first case, we should get out of here as fast as we can – our presence could awake them, as we found out in the observatory. But if the Globs brought them here against the Blue’s original intentions … we might just have found some potential allies in the war against the Globs.«
»We’re leaving!« Petrow decided. »Nadja, check the navi-computer and guide us back to the surface – out of this labyrinth. Meyer and Drustev: you have five minutes to record everything important in this cave. Get to it!«
The team was getting ready to leave the cave when Petrow abruptly grew restless.
Uh … it’s just this stupid cave, he thought, fighting to suppress a rising panic.
His gut told him to get back to the Hawk – now!
»Belay that recording! Let’s get out of here!« he ordered. The team responded with some surprised shoulder shrugs. »Move! Something’s wrong here!«
»Blue Moon 2 Leader to Blue Moon 1 Leader!« he suddenly heard a weak radio signal in his helmet-comm. »Where are you? We’re ready to join the party!«
Shit … forgot about the second landing team! Have we already been on Sedna over four hours? Time flies when you have fun!
Petrow reacted immediately.
»Blue Moon 1 Leader to Blue Moon 2 Leader … Do not enter the installation! Return immediately to the mother ship! Something’s wrong here! Tell Nemov to be ready to depart immediately. This is an order! If necessary leave us behind – the ship is more important … Is that clear?« he yelled into the helmet microphone.
»Acknowledged, Blue Moon 1 Leader! We will return and instruct Nemov. Good luck and come back in one piece!«
Nobody leaves
Vasina and Arkroid departed the express tube at the site indicated on their displays and found themselves standing on the central plaza of the residential complex. Thousands of people were going about their business or shopping in the malls. The area was huge; Arkroid doubted they would find McCord very easily amidst all the hustle. The plaza alone was enough of a challenge. It was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack … or in the asteroid belt!
He’s carrying something inside him, Arkroid worried, and the odds were that McCord would be able to complete his mission.
Arkroid and Vasina climbed onto the pedestal of a ten-meter-tall sculpture for a better view.
»No sign of him!« Vasina wailed. »There are just too many people here!«
Arkroid nodded.
»Nautilus, we need your help again. It’s up to you to locate McCord!«
»He’s close by, less than a hundred meters, Toiber,« the Techno-Ferry replied.
»What is he going to do?« Vasina wondered. »Does he have a bomb? Does he intend to destroy the dome?«
Arkroid shook his head.
»I don’t think so. He’s got something else in mind. Destroying the dome would take a lot of lives but it wouldn’t destroy the colony.«
Alarm sirens sounded suddenly. Colonists stopped what they were doing and looked up. McCord’s face, bannered with search warnings, appeared on oversized holo displays everywhere, on building walls and free standing billboards. Security forces poured out of the subway entrances into the plaza.
»Your people have finally reacted!« Vasina commented sarcastically.
»Yes, but I wish they’d given us a little more time. The presence of the security forces will only force him to accelerate his plans!« Arkroid predicted. He returned to looking for McCord – to no avail. »Damn, he could be anywhere!«
»There he is … over there!« a colonist yelled, pointing at a man in the crowd.
People were running away in all directions, leaving one man standing behind, a man who didn’t seem to be worried at all – Samuel McCord!
The security forces reacted at once and surrounded him, weapons drawn. They weren’t taking any risks. Arkroid and Vasina ran toward the scene and pushed their way through the blockade.
»You have no chance, McCord … give it up!« Arkroid shouted. »We know who you are and what you want to do, so don’t move or we shoot!«
McCord turned around slowly, and looked arrogantly at Arkroid and Vasina.
»You’re Toiber Arkroid. I know you! What an honor. In a moment, you’ll witness the demise of your colony … and learn the price of challenging a superior power!«
Arkroid took a deep breath.
Vasina pulled her concealed energy weapon from her pocket and pointed it at McCord.
»Your mission has failed, but you won’t have time to report that to your superior!« she yelled at him.
McCord replied with loud and ugly laughter, freezing Arkroid’s blood in his veins. He was too self-confident … not like a trapped man at all!
»Lay down on the ground and spread your arms and legs!« the officer in charge barked.
McCord ignored him and addressed Arkroid.
»Come close and you die! Not that it matters, because my mission is completed, and this colony is going to cease to exist!«
Arkroid signaled the security chief to hold back and slowly approached McCord, trusting Vasina to cover him.
&n
bsp; »You’re wrong, McCord! The colony will not be harmed! We found you, and we will find the agitator and bring him to justice. Your plans have failed, McCord!«
McCord grimaced.
»I am the man you’re looking for, Arkroid. Get that into your head!« McCord yelled back, enraged. »I’m the one who will destroy your beloved colony!«
Arkroid demonstratively shook his head and smiled in contempt.
»You’re a puppet on a string, McCord. We’ll find the agitator, you can bet your sorry ass on that. You’re not going to do anything anymore – you’re finished!«
McCord slumped to his knees.
»You’ll regret that, Arkroid!« he screamed. »You don’t know what you’re doing, you and your ignorant people! You’ve signed your death sentence by resisting the powers who sent me!«
Suddenly, the plaza was flooded with a bright white light. It took Arkroid a couple of seconds to understand that the light had come from McCord. His animalistic screams accompanied the phenomenon, while the light intensity increased. His body was glowing from the inside out. Bystanders and security people were running away, panic-stricken. People fell to the ground and were stomped to death. Chaos!
Arkroid stared at the bright light and was unable to move a limb, the light seeming to hypnotize him. Vasina slapped him in the face to bring him back to reality.
»Toiber! Get a grip on yourself! McCord is changing; he’s creating a tachyon impulse! He’s transforming into pure energy! Nautilus is warning us! Are you listening to me? The crystal substance is going to release all its energy potential!«
Is this the end? Arkroid wondered.
Suddenly, the light was extinguished and nothing else happened. They were still alive. McCord was gone. Where he had been, a small pile of ashes drifted.
»Attention!« the Techno-Ferry’s voice sounded in Arkroid’s and Vasina’s comm-sets. »The tachyon impulse amplitude is strong enough to reach the outer sectors of the solar system. The photon-energy you just witnessed is only a side effect. The impulse is faster than light and it interferes with tachyon technology!«
»Is the colony out of danger? Did I hear you right?« Arkroid husked breathlessly.
»The tachyon impulse will not affect the colony!« Nautilus replied.
Arkroid closed his eyes for a moment, then made eye contact with Vasina.
»Can we sound the All Clear?« Vasina asked uncertainly. Arkroid shook his head..
»McCord was too sure of himself. He yelled at us that his mission was completed.«
»This is Fosset, can you hear me?« Hugh Fosset’s voice sounded over the comm-link.
Arkroid came wide awake when he heard Fosset’s voice. The tone of it alarmed him.
»I’m listening,« Arkroid replied calmly.
»Toiber, we’ve lost three of the five emergency doctors. They just collapsed and died, within seconds! There are no signs of forced trauma or violence. The symptoms are identical to McCord’s security guards!«
He has something inside him …, Arkroid remembered.
Toiber Arkroid reacted instantly.
»Put the entire hotel under quarantine! Nobody leaves, nobody gets in!
Arkroid signaled the security force chief to come over.
»Seal off the entire plaza, and the subways. Nobody’s leaving or entering this sector!«
»Do you think what I’m thinking?« Vasina asked Arkroid warily.
»McCord has infected the colony with a disease. That’s what he meant with his last words. It only took one man to destroy the colony! He didn’t even need to damage the infrastructure; a virus would do the trick! That’s why he came here to the residential complex – to infect as many people as possible and to spread the disease all over the colony … and then throughout the solar system. Are you still wearing the decon chip?«
Vasina gave Arkroid a scornful look.
»Certainly, as are Paafnas and Fosset too! What’s that about a tachyon impulse? Why did McCord sacrifice himself?«
Arkroid’s face was emotionless.
»As I’ve told you, the agitator’s – and the Dark Brotherhood’s – plans are multilayered. Right now we need to stop the epidemic … before it’s too late and all the colonists perish.«
No idea
The change was sudden but unmistakable. The meandering energy flow inside the Globuster cave seemed to start stuttering, and the energy fields sealing the coffin were now glowing brightly.
Nadja’s warning came too late.
A green arc of energy jumped from one of the coffins and hit Meyer directly in his chest. He collapsed with a sigh and lay unmoving on the floor. Heedless of his own safety, Petrow scrambled over to him and pulled him away from the coffins – too late! Meyer was dead.
»The temporal shields just collapsed and extinguished themselves!« Nadja screamed with a trembling voice. Petrow felt Drustev’s hard grip on his right shoulder.
»I think one of the Globs just moved!«
Petrow swirled around and stared at the Globusters. With horror he saw weak movements. A claw of one of the Globusters slowly opened and closed. Its movement was still sluggish, but it told him that the stasis was gradually fading.
Something woke them up! Petrow pondered. He found himself thinking about the hundreds of Globusters scattered inside the installation.
»It’s over, people. We won’t make it out of here alive!« he announced what all of them had already realized.
Drustev aimed his Globuster Fist and shot at the nearest system guardian. The pressure wave from the projectile’s explosion threw Nadja and Petrow to the floor as the Globuster’s upper torso burst into hundreds of pieces.
»Hold your fire! You’ll kill us! We can’t use the weapon inside this small cave!« Petrow shouted, struggling back to his feet.
»Hell with that! If I’m going to die I’ll take as many of them with me as possible!« Drustev yelled at Petrow. He had totally lost his self-control.
Suddenly, a deep humming sound filled the cave, and hit Drustev, Nadja and Petrow like a blast wave. Even in this deadly and unfamiliar atmosphere the sound seemed to carry perfectly.
The low humming increased in intensity until it formed a choir-like presence of alternating deep voices. Drustev was frozen in place and his weapon fell to the floor, then he slowly sank to lay prone beside it. Nadja turned around and wanted to flee the cave, but didn’t get very far before she too fell to the floor.
Petrow’s eyes teared as strong vibrations and tremors went through his head and organs. The Globusters guarding the coffins literally exploded into dust. Petrow thought he heard animalistic screams, while the infrasound waves almost drove him insane. He felt close to losing consciousness.
The humming sounds from the Matrix Architects stopped as abruptly as they had started, and these slim beings simultaneously stepped out of their coffins.
Petrow fought to get back on his feet. Two of the strange beings were standing before him – looking at him!
They were two to three meters tall and Petrow, who was 1.82 meters, was dwarfed in comparison.
Slowly and without haste, Petrow raised both his arms in a non-provoking gesture.
The other two architects had joined the first ones and also stared at Petrow. The situation seemed surrealistic and unreal.
Petrow had already mumbled his last prayer as he activated the suit’s speaker system.
»We’re here in peace; we don’t want to fight you! It was never our intention to harm you. Please let us leave in peace.«
Nadja, who had just gotten up slowly, twitched at some squeaking noises from the tunnel.
»The Globs are awake!« she whispered, horrified.
Petrow ignored her. He could see from the corner of his eyes that all Globusters inside the cave had been reduced to dust.
»Drustev, Bulkin … remain passive, is that clear?« Petrow commanded.
The Blue Moon commander received no answer, but he didn’t dare to turn around toward his team members.
> The blue-skinned beings began to move.
They knelt before Petrow and bowed their heads.
Their deep voices sounded again through the Globuster caves and corridors, but this time they caused no distress to Petrow’s team. They began to sing a strange sounding song.
»What’s this supposed to mean?« Nadja inquired in a weak and sore voice.
»I have no idea,« Petrow replied. »Really …!«
15 - The Agitator’s Power
Written by Thomas Rabenstein
You’ll catch a cold
Teun van Velzen checked his analyzing equipment, glancing repeatedly at the Globuster who was lying on the examination table. The Globuster was one of three extraterrestrials captured after they had fallen into a stasis state following their last attack and the Stinger’s destruction. Along with an intact Globuster Lens, the alien had been transferred from the Triton Base to Earth for detailed study. Earth’s scientists had been probing and testing the Globuster and his ship since then … with very little results.
»Well, Charley, forgive me if I subject you to a much higher X-Ray dose than we Humans could tolerate. Won’t hurt a bit, I promise,« van Velzen said with an amiable smile. He rechecked his setup to determine that the Globuster was aligned precisely in the crosshairs of the powerful X-Ray scanner. Van Velzen’s interests were in the Globuster metabolism and the stasis phenomenon – particularly in the implants which he could see clearly on the screen, devices whose purpose nobody understood.
»You know, Charley, it’s too bad we can’t just talk. I’ve got a load of questions I’m dying to ask you. You could tell me a lot!« he remarked, and set the neuronal computer to take more images. »I’m not sure if you’d care to answer, let alone understand my questions anyway, but it’d be nice if we could chat a little.«
»He can’t hear you!« a female voice resounded from the central airlock.
Van Velzen worked in a high security section. He didn’t need to worry about unauthorized personnel, but he still twitched at that voice.
NEBULAR Collection 3 - Morgotradon: Episodes 12 - 16 Page 21