She sighed as she thought about theses tumultuous times. Some things didn’t seem to make sense, it was difficult to find the red thread or was there no connection between some of the players.
A hissing sound made her look up. She turned off the water and listened closer, but the noise didn’t repeat itself.
»I’m already hearing things,« she whispered to her mirror image and squinted. »I’m even talking to myself …«
Nok Daralamai left her cabin and hastily stepped into the corridor. She staggered for a second, but regained her balance. She had almost stepped on a body in front of her airlock door. Irritated, she looked around. The body belonged to one of the men from the security detail, a young officer assigned to her personal safety.
»What’s going on? Are you not well?« she inquired.
The man was croaking and moving slowly.
Nok looked around, but they were alone. She crouched down and wanted to turn the man onto his back. The officer screamed in pain. She jumped back in shock! He had a large, twenty centimeter wide hole, in his belly. Parts of intestines had spilled outside. With a deep moan, the man fell limp. He was dead.
Nok Daralamai pulled out her weapon and secured in all directions. She was alone in the corridor. Again, she looked at the officer’s wound.
Only an extra-terrestrial being can cause a wound like that! She thought. Nok had a very good idea what being could have done it. The hissing noise! The murderer must still be nearby! The officer wasn’t the target! Wrong place, wrong time! The assassin wanted to kill me!
She got up slowly and listened into the corridor. She noticed the scorched intercom at the wall.
Can’t use that anymore to issue an alarm, she realized sarcastically. She cursed inwardly as she noticed that she had left her communicator in the command central. Big mistake, Nok. How can you be so stupid? She scolded herself. When this is over, I’m going to lay down for a couple of hours!
»Where are you hiding?« she yelled, hastily looking for cover. »The man had no chance! You coward!«
A gurgling sound made her shiver. The sound came from above! She looked up and saw a stinger equipped tentacle fly toward her. Only her fast reflexes saved her, otherwise, the Trox would have impaled her.
With a scream she jumped aside and instinctively shot at the ceiling.
The Trox, who had squeezed himself between a couple of conduits, let himself fall down and landed before Nok’s feet. Lightning fast he extended his smaller tentacles and grabbed her by the feet. Nok fell to the ground and lost her weapon. The Trox held her down and extended his larger, thorn equipped tentacles which he slung around her face.
Nok screamed in pain. The tight grab almost made her fall unconscious. He had trouble breathing.
»Why?« she wheezed. »We trusted you. We gave you refuge and took you in!«
The thorn tipped tentacle pulled back, as if the Trox wanted to shove it into her with a quick push, as suddenly, after a loud spitting sound, the tentacle separated from the torso.
With a wild grumbling hiss, the Trox extended another tentacle while a yellow substance oozed from the severed tentacle. Covered with foul reeking Trox blood, Nok tried to resist as much as possible, by kicking and beating the mollusk-like being.
As she was fighting the extra-terrestrial being, she noticed a shadow from the corner of her eye.
»Pull him away from me! Fast!«
The Trox stopped his attack while all his tentacles began quivering. The he fell to the side.
With stomping movements, Nok struggled out of the danger zone.
Out of breath, she grabbed the offered hand and came back on her feet. It was Nuri Jawa with a team of security soldiers.
»Is he …?« Nok hinted.
Nuri nodded.
»I had to stop him! There was no other way! He wanted to kill you!«
»An assassination by a Trox?« Nok whispered. »Why?«
At this moment, the sirens wailed throughout the base.
Nuri frowned.
»This was not a single occurrence!« she announced. »The Trox are revolting! They plundered the weapon chamber where we stored their equipment. They’re fighting against our people. The aura of this Trox was estranged. I couldn’t recognize him!«
»His skin,« Nok realized. »It has a bluish hue! «
»What does that mean?« Nuri said.
»That means nothing good, Nuri,« Nok replied hastily. She signaled the soldiers to follow her before she ran to the command central.
Warmth and gratitude
The pattern was destroyed. The colors ran off and dispersed. I’m disappointed about the short longevity of the matrix; I did my best to stabilize it. Her soft touches stimulated me. She didn’t want it to happen either! I did what had to be done and supported the pattern’s geometry by recreating it in my mind. I was satisfied. I stopped the decaying process, the picture evened out. She responded by increasing the frequency of her touches, meaning warmth and gratitude to me. I’d do anything for this feeling of joy! I remained alert and kept an eye on the pattern’s geometry so it didn’t degenerate.
Balkhanchi Batu-iin Obugtan
This kiss was not for you
Huan Berga and Gabriel Touns had no problems opening the airlock from the outside. There was nobody around in an area which was normally heavily guarded.
Uma Boos had predicted that.
Touns slowly turned around. His physical abilities had suffered. His dead body didn’t respond well anymore to his mental commands.
I’m surprised how easy it is for us, Touns remarked.
Berga nodded in agreement.
Look at the monitor displays and the visual alerts! They’re busy defending themselves against the mollusks. This will work to our advantage!
You sound as if we don’t belong anymore, Touns complained and deactivated the airlock security system. Then he tore apart the proximity sensors and threw them against the wall.
Huh … so that’s what you think about it, Berga replied with a devilish grin. His face looked horrible.
Touns tried to refasten a strip of his skin to his face, but the skin tissue didn’t adhere anymore. It didn’t even bleed, it was dry …
Hmm … we looked much better in the past, don’t you think? Berga mocked. We’ll probably scare somebody to death if we run into anyone.
I’m not interested in an encounter with the base crew. We’ll use the service tunnels to get to the computer center, Berga declared quickly. We need to get to the data banks and a terminal, everything else is not important.
Not even our lives?
We’re long dead, remember? I never felt better!
She kissed me, Touns whispered telepathically. Why did she do that?
Kissed? Who?
Berga tried to gain access to one of the many service tunnels.
Uma Boos, Touns explained. She kissed me on the forehead and it was as if an electric jolt went through me … I don’t know why she did it.
The kiss was not for you!
Berga opened the access door to the service tunnel.
Here we go!
Before he stepped into the tunnel, he looked at Touns.
She’s dead as a door nail. She’s no longer capable of showing emotions. Did you look into her eyes? Somebody told me once that you can look into a woman’s soul by looking into her eyes. Her eyes were frozen! Her eyes were … dead!
Ours too, Berga smirked as if he’d just made a bad joke.
Both men listened up as a loud bang sounded in the distance.
What was that?
The Trox, who else! Berga chuckled. Uma unleashed them for this phase of the game.
The Circle makes us strong
Hassan Khalil sank on his knees, then he fell forward. He moaned, pointing at the Circle ship.
»What’s going on?« Tor asked worriedly, while keeping an eye on the naked woman. »Are you not well? Is it because of her?«
»No, it’s not her, but she caused it!« Khalil groan
ed. »Do you know how it is when you’re alone in the dark and suddenly a bright light shines in your eyes?«
Tor nodded.
»It hurts like a son of a bitch!«
»Yes,« Khalil coughed. »Exactly. I was concentrating on the unknown energy source and was searching for these energy quants. Suddenly, the containment field around the source collapsed. It overwhelmed me. The shock almost burnt my senses! Nex … tell Batu that the energy source is an Original Spark!«
»Say that again!« Tor straightened; he had no doubts that Khalil had spoken the truth. »How’s that possible?«
»It’s the truth!« Hassan croaked aloud, alerting the entire team via his comm-interface. »The energy source has an unbelievable potential! Even though, you can’t feel it, the Original Spark blinds and hurts me! Warn Nok! The Trox will become raging beasts under its influence!«
Nexus Tor remained calm and looked over to Batu. He had already received the new information, but showed no excitement, contrary to everybody’s expectation. Batu remained calm; he had no new instructions for the HOT.
»Identification in progress,« one of the specialists the front announced. »The woman’s name is Uma Boos. She was kidnapped and also seen on Earth. At the time when the Frigonans retreated from Greenland, she boarded the Blosphor!«
»You did your homework,« a silent voice came over the comm-connection. Uma Boos had injected herself into the team’s comm-link. It was unclear to Tor how she’d done this, maybe in the same way how Khalil managed it. »You’re very courageous but also very dumb to come so close to our ship. It would be easy for me to collapse this tunnel section. Consider it as good will from us that you’re still amongst the living! Your men cannot hold us back.«
Tor signaled his team members to change comm-channels with a higher degree of coding. He, however, remained on the frequency and said calmly, »We are very well capable and have proven it already. If we noticed signs that your troops will attack the base then we know how to prevent this. The previous attack on my people, I see as a misunderstanding and won’t mention it again.«
Uma Boos smiled. It was an ugly, appalling smirk.
»Uh … I’m not talking to a stupid soldier, Humanity actually sent me a diplomat?«
»Huh … to bring an Original Spark to Triton and unleash its energy is not very diplomatic, don’t you think?« Tor replied dryly. »We know what your intentions are. You want to cause chaos and take advantage of the situation.«
»We have possessed this energy source for a long time,« she responded, fainting friendliness. »So far, we didn’t know what to do with it. Now it has found a useful purpose!«
Tor didn’t let her get to him and remained composed. The entire conversation was automatically transferred to Batu in form of Matrices and translated if necessary … but he didn’t change strategies.
»Your actions tell me that you’re not interested to die on this cold moon,« Nexus Tor continued carefully. »We still have a chance to avoid a deadly conflict.«
»Surrender of your species is the only way out!« a different voice snarled.
Moments later, a Moxantan jumped out of the airlock and bounced over to take position beside Uma Boos.
Tor was certain that it was Circle General Executioner!
Nexus Tor closed his eyes and concentrated on Uma Boos. He could no longer taste any life energy. A Frigonan was talking through her, probably the general. Tor was deeply touched by the woman’s fate, but he had to look reality in its ugly face. He could no longer help Uma Boos, but it wasn’t too late for Humanity yet.
»It’s very surprising that you can put away your differences,« Tor threw at them. »We just need to create a situation where all Circle people must work together without killing each other.«
Uma Boos threw her head back. Tor wondered how it was possible that a dead body could still produce such despising gestures.
»The Circle makes us strong! We suppressed civilizations who were much more advanced than you,« the voice from Uma Boos’ body affirmed.
Whisper’s voice sounded via the second comm-channel, »It’s obvious that they want to waste time. I don’t need to be a Tactic-Master to see through this senseless dialogue.«
Tor looked over to the Guardian Angels, convinced that they protected Batu well. He smiled as he glanced at Hassan Khalil’s position. He was gone! He could only be inside the alien ship.
Imploding aura
»The Trox have gone mad!« the Base Ground Defense OIC shouted in Nok Daralamai’s direction. He had just come back from the heavily defended section to report in person. »They’re raging like mad and kill everyone who comes their way. Several of my men and women were killed!«
Daralamai gnawed on her lower lip. She had no explanation why the Trox acted this way, this sudden aggressiveness.
»We need to drive them back to their living quarters! We cannot let them advance into sensitive or critical sectors. Evacuate the scientific personnel and send them to the bunkers. Secure the command central and especially the computer section. If the neuronal computers fail, we’re doomed!«
Distant rumbling indicated heavy fighting. The OIC nodded and repeated her orders.
»We’ll do our best, Commander. The Trox re-possessed their weapons and fight vigorously. I’m afraid we can’t hold them back for very long.«
Daralamai closed her eyes briefly. She regretted to have given refuge to the Trox, the forefathers of the Shwakans. Now everybody inside the base had to bear the consequences.
»There’s no explanation for their change in behavior,« Nuri Jawa announced loudly, just arriving in the command central, holding a holo-foil in her hand. »The blue skin indicates a hormonal change. The same effect appears when energy emissions of an Original Spark is present.«
Nok Daralamai looked at her.
»That would explain it. The Trox are not responsible for their actions,« she concluded.
»That doesn’t bring my people back to life,« the OIC complained.
»Just received a message from the HOT!« the comm-officer yelled into the room. »Nexus Tor sent a warning about the Original Spark and the Trox! A HOT unit is on the way to assist us.«
Nuri Jawa looked at the message surprised.
»We’re supposed to give the HOT team access to the computer section. Does that mean they’re not going to fight against the Trox?«
Nok shook her head.
»Doesn’t look like it, but if they secure the neuronal computer then that would help us too!«
An explosion close by made the crew twitch. A side wall of one of the corridors to the command central was suddenly breached. With a loud bang, a Trox appeared, enveloped in smoke and dust. The extra-terrestrial was raging and ran toward the open airlock. His thorny tentacles extended, he targeted the group around Nok. He wanted to kill!
Nok slammed her fist on the emergency Airlock button. The doors closed immediately and the Trox ran into the steel doors. He tried to breach the doors by running into them, over and over, but after a couple of minutes he gave up.
»If they’re using the large ventilation ducts, they can be here any second!« Nok warned.
Nuri looked depressed when Nok glanced at her.
»That was Dorsh, the new liaison of the Trox colony. He’s usually a very soft spoken individual.«
»Usually … normally,« Nok waved her hand through the air. »Either we get this situation under control quickly or we’ll have a disaster on our hands, almost as bad as the Globuster attack!«
As if Dorsh had heard Nok’s words, he ran again against the airlock doors. His raging voice was faintly audible through the closed steel doors.
»We need to take that Trox out,« the OIC demanded. »We may still be safe here for a while, but not the people outside. Do you want me to call the troops?«
Nok looked around and then shook her head.
»No, we need all hands in the lower floors, to keep the other Trox at bay. We have to deal with Dorsh ourselves.«
Demon
stratively, she pulled out her weapon and commanded to everybody in the command central to have their weapons ready.
»We open the airlock and shoot at him all at once. We cannot let him damage the control central or hurt somebody. Is that clear?«
»Uh … before you kill him, please, let me try to talk to him first,« Nuri said aloud. Her eyes were wet. »I’ve spoken with him many times. I owe him that much at least.«
Another dull sound came from the airlock, followed by a wild howl.
»How?« Nok asked perplexed. »Quickly, tell me before that Trox kills somebody out there!«
»I … I don’t know yet, but I’ll try to calm him down,« Nuri replied hesitantly.
»Okay, you have one minute!« Nok nodded.
Nuri nodded and stared at the airlock. She concentrated on Dorsh’s life aura.
»Calm down, Dorsh,« she whispered, reaching out with her hands. »Let me heal you. Find peace and fight your aggressions.«
Moments later, it became silent outside the airlock.
»Is he under control?« Nok inquired.
»You can open the airlock now,« Nuri replied mutedly.
With weapons ready, everyone watched the doors slide to the side. A shivering Trox was sitting on the ground while Nuri kept his aura under control.
»He’s got a lot of pain. He probably sustained internal injuries from running against the steel doors.«
Dorsh trembled and constantly extended and retracted his thorny tentacles.
»Calm down. We’re your friends,« Nuri said to him, pearls of sweat rolling from her forehead. »It’s hard to restrain him.«
Nok squinted, she raised her weapon.
At this moment, Dorsh screamed like a wounded animal and aimed his tentacles at Nuri.
»No!« she said loudly and raised her hands. »Don’t!«
»Move over!« Nok commanded. Dorsh attempted to jump. Suddenly, he slumped and sank on the floor.
Nok took a deep breath, »Is he ...?«
»I had no other choice!« Nuri defended herself. »He was completely insane. Our weapons wouldn’t have stopped him. I imploded his aura and killed him,« Nuri wept and hid her face behind her hands.
NEBULAR Collection 6 - The Great Tremor: Episodes 27 - 30 Page 8