Tranos again checked the data and then announced, »This is a distress call. Somebody is calling for help! They’re using the Krolakan language!«
Vasina only needed a second to command, »Battle Stations!«
Redmanes
The three Krolakans stood in a slightly stooped posture before Vasina, flanked by ten heavily armed guardsmen from Vasina’s personal protection group. Tranos introduced the rescued, scruffy-looking beings from the Magellanic Cloud. Their protective suits were damaged and burst and littered with scorch marks. Krolakans were usually very proud of their well-groomed fur. The fur of these three Krolakans was, however, knotted and filthy. Vasina kept her composure, although, the newcomers emitted a penetrating smell.
»I am Ror-Naar, Pack Leader of a small expedition unit of the Redmane Clan. With me are Doom-Gor and Haik-Zar, my subordinates. We thank you for the rescue and apologize for the unworthy appearance. We are ashamed to have to face our rescuers like this.«
Vasina looked suspiciously at the Krolakan.
»There’s no need for thanks for the rescue of allies. But, please, answer one question, Ror-Naar, your Supreme Command informed us before our departure that there were no Krolakan activities in this star field. But, how can you explain this encounter?«
Ror-Naar showed his teeth. Obviously, he didn’t like Vasina’s question.
»The tribe of the Red or Rusty Manes does not feel obligated to follow Krolak’s directives.«
Vasina looked surprised.
»Then, we’re dealing with rebels?«
»With an independent tribe, which is a small difference,« Ror-Naar replied gently. »Our group of clans have decided to move into the Milky Way more than a hundred years ago. We inhabit some solar systems in this spiral arm, have suffered extremely under the dimensional anomalies, and are not accountable to anyone of what we do or where we are flying.«
Tranos clenched his teeth. His hand hovered over the handle of the molecular-hardened short sword, the standard weapon of the Royal Guards. The Krolakan’s rude tone was unacceptable to the shield bearer.
Vasina calmed him with a short nod and turned back to the three Krolakans.
»Okay, Ror-Naar. The Redmanes have decided to conduct an exploration. What happened then?«
Ror-Naar’s eyes became narrow slits and gleamed maliciously.
»This star field had been spit out from tachyon space before our eyes. The stars materialized directly before our habitats. Our shamans regard the star field as a gift and a new territory, belonging to us only.«
»Your shamans were mistaken in some points,« said Vasina, a trace more serious. Already at the first sentence, the Krolakan flattened his ears, a sign of his oppressed rage. »The star field didn’t transfer from tachyon space, but from another potential plane. The purpose was not to create new habitats, but to conquer the galaxy.«
»Do you really think that I believe that?« Ror-Naar hissed.
»No, you can believe what you want,« replied Vasina indifferently with a shrug. »I just want to know from you what had happened to your expedition?«
Ror-Naar looked like a cornered predator. His eyes moved frantically between Vasina and the guards.
»You saved us, for which we are grateful. But who tells me that you are really friends of the Krolakans? We have never seen a ship like this. There are many humanoids, but your species is unknown to me. Who will guarantee to me that you won’t skin us immediately after this interrogation?«
Vasina held her breath briefly.
This must be a translation error, she thought.
»I have to correct you again,« Vasina told her guests. »This is a discussion, not an interrogation, but it could become one if you continue to be so uncooperative.«
Ror-Naar snarled angrily.
»My ships were all destroyed when they approached the outermost gas giant. We hadn’t even really entered this solar system yet when a black guardianship appeared and used a devastating weapon against us. The fight lasted only a few minutes. My cruiser crashed on the gas giant, and we could escape at the last moment with a rescue pod. We deactivated all systems, except the life support system. Our photometers registered the arrival of a larger ship and we took the chance to send a distress call.«
Vasina frowned.
»A black ship? Gigantic and star-shaped?« she asked.
»It was an invincible battleship, and it had a form as you describe it. Our ships had no chance. They simply exploded one by one and in rapid succession. It was as if the attacker had transferred a devastating weapon directly on board my cruisers.«
»If the description of the Krolakan is correct, then we are dealing with one of the infamous Dark Brotherhood carriers,« Tranos warned. »One or more of these dangerous battleships might have accompanied the dimensional transfer of the Sacrificial Suns.«
»Yes,« Hellas acknowledged grimly. »It also sounds as if one of these unpredictable gnomes could be aboard, who, with his mental abilities, also took over the Atlantika, forcing the ship into a temporal anomaly. We must be careful, that this incident cannot be repeated.«
»They are assimilated Kokradians,« Vasina said thoughtfully. »Powerful beings from a distant galaxy who were infected with parasitic or degenerated technology during the first invasion by the Parasite Galaxy!«
»Looters!« Kulatos growled contemptuously. The Neo-Sapiens drew parallels to the infected life-forms of his home-world, which still constituted a danger.
»Far worse than this,« said Vasina unhappily. »If life forms are infested with parasitic technology, then there are different manifestations of this disease. Often, the infection simply spreads out, the life-forms are taken over and controlled by others and lose their free will. The Looters, whose primary objective is to infect other life-forms, are the carriers of the disease, not the end product.«
Kulatos shivered.
»I heard the report about the hostage taking of Atlantika on my home-world. Thus, the infection is different in some cases.«
»We don’t yet know very much about the actual nature of the parasitic technology, but the example of Hassan Khalil shows that, in some cases, latent, dormant abilities of the host are increased potentially. Why Hassan Khalil still controls the disease, despite a severe infection, is still a mystery. The unfortunate and very smart Kokradians were not that lucky. They became murderers with scary abilities. We need to be very careful!« Vasina admitted.
»As long as the Kargash remains in effect, our ship is permanently combat ready,« stressed Hellas. »If the Dark Brotherhood carrier shows up, we will fight it!«
»I know, I can rely on you, Hellas,« Vasina said, looking at Ror-Naar. »I don’t want to be ungrateful. Your information was very helpful and will be taken into consideration as we advance further into this solar system. You remain our guests, and you can now retire. Your needs will be catered for.«
»With your further advance?« Ror-Naar growled, panting. »You want to continue flying and follow the demise of my pack?«
Vasina rose halfway out of her seat and paused briefly in the movement when she said, »This is a battleship of the Progonaut Empire, not a Krolakan cruiser. We have previously encountered units like this carrier and can assess the enemy. No matter how high the threat is, members of the command central and the rest of the crew form a unity. We fight and die together. Obviously, this principle doesn’t apply to the Krolakan Redmanes.«
»What are you accusing us of?« Ror-Naar barked at the Progonaut Queen.
Vasina’s gaze became rigid.
»I don’t care if your clan has split from the Krolakan Empire, or whether you want to claim this solar system. I don’t care about your ambitions in the Milky Way, but what I don’t tolerate are liars and cowards!«
Ror-Naar was trembling all over. He gave the impression as if he was about to jump Vasina in the next second.
»You offend me! Your principles don’t need to be like mine!«
Vasina ignored the Krolakan’s outburst and stat
ed, »You three had already left the ship before the battle and let down your pack! If you had been on board, you might have saved some units or dodged the attack. Instead, you sacrificed the ships and crews entrusted to you, to cover your retreat. Am I right, or am I drawing the wrong conclusions?«
»Ships and crews can be replaced. Our officers enjoy certain privileges. These are our principles,« shouted Ror-Naar.
Vasina looked away from the Krolakan. It became apparent that she no longer accepted Ror-Naar as a conversation partner. To her shield bearer, she commanded, »Remove these individuals from my sight! I don’t want to see them until our mission is finished. We’ll hand them over to the Krolakans later. The audience is over!«
Taachlar Mar
The Atlantika materialized amid a blinding flash of light and was slightly shaken on re-entry. Paranas had calculated the short jump well and earned an appreciative glance from Hellas. The commander sat concentrated in his command seat and surveyed the ship’s status. Despite the somewhat bumpy entry, there had been no damage. The integrity of the ship’s hull was fully guaranteed.
»That was an excellent maneuver,« Hellas said pleased, ignoring the slight vibration of the ship’s cell. »Finally, the Atlantika is again flown like a battleship and not like a vacation cruiser!«
Some command central crew members laughed briefly but didn’t neglect their responsibilities for a second.
The outermost planet of the system, a Neptune-type ice giant, filled the entire central display and was very close. The protective fields of the battleship were glaring as it grazed the planet’s high atmosphere. Hellas signaled his navigator to change to a slightly higher orbit to reduce the danger of detection. A short faster-than-light flight, with such a close exit point to a planet, was always associated with numerous risks and demanded the highest precision. Although all eventualities of the delicate maneuver were simulated before the jump by the computer, there was never any absolute certainty for a successful execution. Hellas, however, had no other alternative. Even with activated disguise fields, the battleship could have been detected by the advanced technology of the Dark Brotherhood carrier if Hellas would have used a direct approach. He didn’t want to take any risks and not give the opponent the slightest tactical advantage. The moment of surprise was the highest trump card of the Progonauts.
»Check the space sector around the planet … passive scan!« Hellas shouted into the room, waiting for the reports from the scanner section. As usual, his commands were very short, and only limited to the essentials under battle stations conditions.
He addressed a kottan, who was equal to an officer rank within the Progonaut military hierarchy. The officer, responsible for this task, explained with quick sentences, »The diameter of the planetary body is 52,400 kilometers, it is slightly larger than Neptune. Eleven moons have so far been detected, two of them with planetary dimensions. According to our close-range scanners, there are no enemy ships in the orbit of the planet and there’re no active tracking attempts after our arrival. We don’t receive any energy signatures from the large moons. However, a debris field with large wreckages was discovered over the polar region of Zorgoss-25, presumably the remains of the Redmane Fleet. The Krolakans must have engaged the enemy in the orbit of the planet. It looks as if there is not much left of these ships.«
»No wonder when their commanders are abandoning their ships!« commented Tranos spitefully.
Nexus Tor gave the shield bearer a ruminative look.
»Zorgoss-25?« Nexus Tor asked quietly. »Do we include the gap after the sixth planet?«
The Kottan nodded acknowledging before saying, »There’s a very high probability that this gap was once filled by a planet. We can derive this from the deviating orbits of the sixth and eighth planets.«
»The space sector is free. We haven’t found any signs of the presence of a carrier near Zorgoss-25,« declared the kottan, and mocked, »Perhaps, the Redmanes lied to us. The reason for the destruction of their ships was a different one. Maybe, it was their own incompetence, and they were trying to blame an imaginary, superior opponent?«
»No, their brief description of the attacker’s profile and weapon effect was too detailed,« Vasina rebutted. »Even if the carrier is not within range of this planet and our scanners at the moment, our alertness should by no means diminish.«
»Yes, Egemena,« confirmed the kottan, concentrating again on his surveillance.
»There’s still a fascinating report, which is puzzling me,« Tranos announced. »It’s regarding one of the two large moons.«
Vasina listened up and signaled Tranos to display the data.
»Surprisingly, it is a water world that is very close to the ice giant. Some indications on the water surface suggest artifacts of a civilization. Looking at the low solar radiation that the outermost planet and its moons still receive from the central star, the five kilometers deep ocean of the moon, covering the entire surface, should be frozen into a thick layer of ice. There shouldn’t be any liquid water there. Nevertheless, there are conditions which make this physical contradiction possible.«
»What’s the deal with these artifacts?« Nexus Tor wanted to know.
»Pointed, tower-like structures protrude from the ocean. These structures are spread over the entire surface of the moon. We don’t know yet what kind of objects that are. They could be antennas or just narrow towers. To be naturally formed, the structures are too evenly distributed. They create a sort of grid,« Tranos said, turning to Vasina, »To find out more, we should get closer to the moon, which I would like to call Taachlar Mar with your permission, Egemena.«
»Cold Sea,« Vasina smiled, nodding in agreement. »Very well chosen, Tranos. I’m delighted to see that some Progonaut names make it back into our star catalogs. There may be astrophysical reasons why a water moon can exist out here. We must determine whether there’s an undersea station, intact technical facilities or detection and defense stations on the moon. It could be a plant of the Dark Brotherhood, we may find on Taachlar Mar the reason for the demise of the Redmane fleet.«
»Either way,« growled Hellas. »We have to look at this world before we get surprised by our opponent.«
Moon without land
The Atlantika was maintaining an extremely tight orbit around the dirty-gray ice giant. The commander and his navigator searched for the optimal passage to avoid any danger of detection. Again, it was necessary to fly with a fingertip feeling. The glaring effects, which occurred whenever the battleship plowed through the atmosphere of the ice giant, were strong sources of radiation and increased the danger of detection, as well as a greater distance to the planet. In addition, a too tight orbit caused great energy consumption, which affected the ships’ power plants. Energy that was missing for the weapon systems in the case of a surprise attack.
When the Atlantika finally left the ice giant’s shadow after half an orbit, a conspicuous moon glittered in the direction of the flight path, which drew the astonished glances of the entire command central crew.
»A turquoise, sparkling world in the outermost regions of this system. Unbelievable,« Nexus Tor whispered, looking fascinated at the big moon.
»Taachlar Mar measures 8,457 kilometers and is larger than Mars,« Tranos said to Nexus Tor, using a standard Nexus Tor could relate to, »The atmosphere is thin and mainly consists of noble gasses. The spectroscopic analysis indicates helium, argon, and traces of krypton and neon.«
When the shield bearer produced the first high-resolution image from the surface, the eyes of Nexus Tor narrowed. The central display showed pointed, tall structures rising from the ocean. At first sight, one could hold the needles for the bases of tall towers or antennas, erected at the bottom of the sea, protruding from the water with their tips. These antennae-like structures all had the same height and were extending about a hundred meters above the still waters into the moon’s sky.
»What could that be?« Nexus Tor wanted to know interestedly and studied the first pictures i
n detail.
»Nobody can say that now,« Tranos said enigmatically. »Our scanners also detected a strong heat source that extends over the entire undersea surface of the moon. We measure temperatures of about two thousand degrees Kelvin above absolute zero, distributed with slight deviations, over the whole moon surface.«
»We found the reason for the ocean’s presence,« Tor heard. »However, the thin inert gas atmosphere is not able to store enough heat to maintain the water of the ocean in a permanent liquid state. Why does the ocean not freeze on the surface, as is the case with Jupiter’s moon Europa?«
Vasina seemed torn, then she decided, »We to send a mixed exploration team! The Atlantika will monitor and protect the mission from space!«
Vasina swung around in her seat and shouted to Kulatos, »Are your landing teams able to dive into the ocean?«
The temporal scientist confirmed, »Our ships as well as our equipment were designed for every element. We’re ready!«
»We only send one of your ships and keep the crew small. This is supposed to be a quick exploration mission,« Vasina decided. »We don’t want to draw attention to us. We just want to unravel the nature of the artifacts in the water. Before the departure, I’d like to make sure that we take full advantage of our abilities to determine whether there’s a danger to our landing team on this world.«
»I’d like to recommend one of my specialists,« Nexus Tor suggested, smiling faintly. »His name is Atilla Scott, he’s a Merinian and one of my best men.«
»I’ve heard from Scott. That’s how it will be!« Vasina determined, giving Kulatos a sign. »A HOT member, a Neo-Sapiens scientist, and a Progonaut who I will name later. Departure in one hour. The mission shall not last longer than three hours.«
The silent ocean
The Neo-Sapien landing ship flew steeply into the thin atmosphere of the water moon Taachlar Mar, drawing a trace of ionizing gasses behind it. The Duckbill ship, as it was called because of its characteristic form, was piloted by Polamus, a warrior from Equinox. Polamus had been noticed by the Progonaut elite units for his excellent aviation abilities and was held in high esteem. Polamus was also regarded as a daredevil among his men, who feared neither Looters nor gaspatic ice spiders.
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