Nopileos: A novel from the X-Universe: (X4: Foundations Edition 2018) (X Series)

by Helge T. Kautz

  When measurements confirmed that there was no dangerous radiation, Ebosirireos pumped breathable air into the hangar, then Elena and Nopileos made their way to the spacious hall. When the bulkhead opened, the two Teladi stopped at the sight of the heavily damaged ship and began to hiss. Elena, however, didn’t stop with her first overview, but immediately rounded the crumpled bow to inspect something she had only briefly noticed when the camera drone had entered the dingy. And in fact: above and below, as well as on both sides of the cockpit window, the material of the ship’s hull was silver-colored at four opposite points. From the discoloration on the right side, a less than thigh-thick cylinder protruded about twenty centimeters and tapered to a sharp-angled, fractured edge. It looked as though powerful forces had broken a red-hot iron bar, which had then cooled down again. Elena stepped closer to the ship’s hull and gently ran her hand over the wall. Here, in fact, great forces seemed to have worked: where the butt of the cylinder emerged from the ship, the material of the hull bulged outward.

  She called Nopileos. “Look at this and tell me what you think about it,” she said, and left the Teladi so she could look at the barge’s engines. An assumption was rising in her. While she stood with her chin between her thumb and forefinger, and her elbow supported by her fight hand, brooding in front of the pitch-black and completely burned out expansion nozzles, Nopileos and Ebosirireos approached with lightly clicking claws.

  “The college navigations commander believes that there are welds at the front.” Ebosirireos hissed something as if to affirm Nopileos’s words. “Oh, and very amateurish,” Nopileos added. “The engine is there, right?” She asked, looking at the machines in disbelief.

  Elena nodded. “Hai. If it didn’t sound so crazy, I’d assume…” She hesitated. “It sounds unlikely, but I’d say they tried to accelerate the Phoenix with the barge.”

  “Tsh! That works! That must have done the job!”

  “Yeah, but very arduous.”

  “Do you remember, oh sister? I destroyed the engines of the slave ship when we fled!”

  “And if they had been less sloppy, their plan might even have worked in the end.” Elena turned to go. “Come on, Nopileos, back to the control center. I think I know how to find the slave ship now.”

  With knowledge of the exact vector and exact mass of the dinghy, as well as the approximate estimate for the Teladi Phoenix, the navigations commander managed to determine a search area in space, in which the slave ship was finally located after half a tazura. It floated through the void just as lifelessly as the dinghy, but spun slowly and sedately around its longitudinal axis and not its transverse axis. Elena instantly knew what she had to do: ferry across to the slave ship, board it, and and search for her missing crew members—alone, without Nopileos!

  When she finally entered the ship, she was received by absolute darkness Something clicked softly, like an expiring time bomb or an egg timer. Elena looked around in alarm, but couldn’t recognize anything. The corridors of the slave ship were in vacuum, so the sound came through the floor of the ship and her boots of her spacesuit and to her ears. She had no idea what had happened aboard this ship in the last three tazuras. She just really hoped that Uchan and the two others were still alive and here in this shipwreck.

  “Nopi?” Elena spoke consciously loud into the helmet mic to dispel the irrational feeling that someone was watching her. Nopileos hissed questioningly.

  “I just wanted to make sure you were still there, Nopileos,” the astronaut said. It was meant to sound humorous, but the Teladi felt how tense and nervous her Earth friend was.

  “Is everything all right, oh star warrior?”

  Elena confirmed. “Yes. I’m in the hangar. The door has been broken open with a laser. If I remember correctly, it must be just to the right…” She broke off with a gasp. Nopileos inquired anxiously, and Elena immediately calmed her down. “Moment… I think I have… there, wait!”

  Elena remembered quite well the passage through which she and Nopileos had escaped only a few Tazuras ago in the opposite direction. A few meters from the hangar, they had found access to an isolated environmental area. In fact, there was the bulkhead with the observation port! Elena stepped closer and pressed the elastic lens of her membrane helmet to the peephole. Light? In fact, really just dim light, yes, but it wasn’t dark! Dimly she saw…

  A scraping noise, then something splashed against the bulkhead so hard that she could hear it in her spacesuit. A big, flat eye like an octopus’s stared at her through the circle of the window. Her first impulse was to retreat, but then she understood. Nola Hi!

  The Boron’s eye seemed flat only at close quarters. In actuality it bulged out strongly. A diffuse cloud hovered around the head of the scientific ethicist, wafting wildly with his secondary tentacles.

  “I found Nola Hi,” Elena informed Nopileos clinically. “He seems okay, I just have no idea how to get him out of here.” How did they get him in here? Elena struggled to imagine that. The environmental area was filled with Boron respiratory fluid, all right, but it didn’t have a lock gate. So how was Nola Hi placed in there without his environmental suit?

  “Elena! At ground level.”

  “I know, Teladi door openers.” She knelt down and searched for the frame with the light of her helmet lamp. She soon found the controls, but she didn’t dare touch any of the switches. “I’m afraid I have to go to the control center.”

  “Do you know where the control center is in a Phoenix, sister?”

  “Unfortunately, no. You?”

  “No.”

  “Then… Nopileos, sometimes you make me speechless.”

  The Teladi apologized. Her voice sounded tinny over the helmet radio.

  At that time, the pirates were coming from the other direction of the corridor. Elena signaled to Nola Hi as best she could to be patient, and slowly groped her way forward, through half-opened intermediate bulkheads and others that leaped into service when she pressed the foot switch. So there was still life in this ship, it still worked, even if there was no atmosphere in the corridors. She considered this a positive sign.

  Finally, she reached a large room that was decorated with consoles and wall panels, that was somewhat reminiscent of the Archipelago’s control room. Most instruments were dark, but many fluoresced in magenta or bluish yellow. While she was still wondering which displays she wanted to look at first, it crackled in the helmet radio, and a little girl’s voice cried, “Ele Na, aesthetic, courageous, hairy star warrior! If you hear and perceive this frequency, then answer me and let me know!”

  Elena gasped. “Nola Hi?”

  The Boron cheered at a pitch that made Elena’s eardrums want to crack. “Ele Na, benevolent and brave, most beautiful of the beautiful Argons from Earth, the Blue Planet, Companion of Brennan-san and Companion of Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV, the heroic saurian, the Teladi, the—”

  “I’m glad, too, Nola Hi, but can we cut this short?” the astronaut interrupted the scientific ethicist’s flood of words.

  He paused. “Of course, Ele Na!”

  “Where are Uchan and Kalmanckalsaltt? Are you talking through your environmental suit?”

  “No, negative. But there is a communicator here. The Paranid is in the control room,” Nola Hi answered unusually briefly.

  “He’s not here.” Elena stepped to the consoles and shined her helmet light on the Teladi-labeled controls. “Nopileos, can you read this?”

  There was silence for a moment. “Don’t wobble so much, Elena,” came over the radio. “I think it means…”

  Whatever Nopileos thought, it would stay her secret for the time being. With a loud crash, bright, artificial light crashed through the control center and lit up the last corner. Elena spun around, a thin, tall silhouette rising above the brightly lit central bulkhead. Without thinking twice, the astronaut flung herself around. She found cove behind a console. Carefully, she squinted over the device and her eyes slowly adjusted to the lighting conditions.
The figure, now slowly entering the control room, wore a combat space suit with a helmet that was reminiscent of a fishbowl.

  “Kalmanckalsaltt!” Elena straightened up with movements that were as slow as possible and tried to avoid any rush. Maybe Kalmanckalsaltt hadn’t recognized her yet, but on the other hand, he would have certainly taken the Paranid fighting position if that were the case. But the Three-eye moved as though completely relaxed. The radio crackled.

  “Elena Kho. Along the walkway to the next to WJASL, the Boron’s environmental suit is in a storage room. Bring it. Breathable air will fill the main corridors before long.

  “Where is Uchan?”

  “In the hangar. Go now. We’ll meet each other in your shuttlecraft.”

  Elena thought through a series of questions, but she deferred them til later. It wasn’t until she had sprinted a few meters down the now-lit main corridor that she remembered she should have at least inquired what exactly Kalmanckalsaltt meant by “walkway next to WJASL.” The question was unnecessary, however, as she discovered an information sign that was in Argono-Roman characters with the sought-after letter combination—whatever that meant. A short time later, she found the storage room the Paranid had mentioned and pulled out the Boron environmental suit. The material felt soft, like living rubber. Strangely enough, there was neither a helmet or a life support system! Elena straightened up and hurried down the walkway until she finally encountered several half-open security bulkheads in the way, which was closed off by the fused hangar door. In the meantime, a thin, white mist fluttered around, a loudly growing hiss revealed that Kalmanckalsaltt had apparently been successful.

  “Ele Na?” Nola Hi had spied her through the observation window.

  “I’m here. How do I get the environmental suit in to you?”

  “I believe, assume, I am certain and sure, that the force field will turn on and be activated again. Open the door and don’t be afraid, brave and beautiful Ele Na from the distant Earth. Reach my swan-membrane in!”

  Of course! Now Elena understood why the room had no lock gate. A semipermeable force field ensured that the breathing fluid could not escape. She found the opener and slicked the wide switch up with her boot. The door immediately opened, and the liquid swirled in front of her, shimmering from floor to ceiling, as it had in the conference room on the Teladi trading station where she first met Nola Hi and Bala Gi for the first time. Cautiously, she pushed the limp environmental suit through the vertical water surface. There was a noticeable resistance as the bundle overcame the surface tension, but then it sank in the environmental space without even a drop of liquid being spilled. Any moment now, Elena expected the Boron to complain about missing parts of his suit, but her concern was unfounded. After a few seconds, the scientific ethicist broke through the water surface, wrapped in the familiar, milky, protective skin. Not a moment too soon, because Kalmanckalsaltt now also stalked with long strides that became louder.

  “You have a shuttlecraft, right, Elena Kho.” It was a statement and not a question.

  Elena nodded. “Of course.”

  “Good.” Without further comment, the more than two-meter-tall Three-eye leaned forward and heaved his body through the melted opening of the hangar door. “Where is the craft, Elena Kho?”

  Elena explained to the Paranid in brief words how she, Nopileos, and Ghinn had shot a way through the hangar’s main lock a few tazuras ago. “The boat’s boarding tunnel is directly at that opening,” she concluded.

  “Uchan t’Scct will join us in three mizuras.”

  “You know where he is?”

  “Yes. We have freed him.”

  “Are there still any other survivors on board?”

  “Ask Uchan t’Scct that.”

  “He practices… retaliation?”

  The Paranid remained silent and stepped into the entrance tunnel ducked over, followed by Nola Hi.

  “Excuse me.” Elena turned and strode across the hangar with large steps. Even before she could step out of the smelted door onto the walkway, the Split came towards her. His face could not be recognized properly through the helmet of the spacesuit, but Elena thought she detected cruel flash in his eyes. Apparently, Uchan had overheard the previous helmet radio traffic.

  “I would have gladly avenged the attack on the Raindragon, but there are no damnable creatures located on this ship!”

  Elena saved her comments about Uchan’s desire for revenge. “Come,” she said instead, pointing at the entrance tunnel of the dinghy on the opposite side of the hangar with one hand. “There is a great task ahead of us, and much has happened within the last tazuras. Black Hole Sun no longer exists, but I’ll tell you about it on the way to the Archipelago of Swamp Orchids.

  “I do not agree with you leaving the honorable Ghinn t’Whht on the Teladi world,” Uchan t’Scct said. The Split stood with crossed arms at the side of Elena’s position in front of the console of the Archipelago. His Paranid partner Kalmanckalsaltt had planted himself in the rear part of the spacious control center and silently watched the approaching jumpgate.

  “So? I thought you had fallen out with Ghinn,” Elena replied, listening to Uchan’s grunts with only half an ear. In a short time, the Archipelago would reach the star system of the Black Hole Sun supernova—if one could even speak of a star system at all. A scout drone had confirmed that the counterpart of the local stargate still worked. Whether it was also possible to cross the system unscathed, however, would soon be proven.

  “You humans have no idea about us Split, t’Kho,” Uchan stated. “Ghinn t’Whht and I are friend-foes.”

  “Your hatred makes some strange effects, Uchan, you know that?”

  “It is precisely our hatred that distinguishes us from you—and that makes us superior.” For a long time, Uchan had been thinking about those words of his former master, Cho t’Nnt, that he had once given him to remember on board the Bone Scout. When the astronaut didn’t answer, the Split moved closer to her. “We will pick up Ghinn t’Whht from Ianamus Zura on our way back.”

  Elena wanted to answer that he could go to hell. Heaven knew they had other problems at the moment, but she held herself back. Instead, she sarcastically snapped, “Ask Ebosirireos where this ship is returning, and you will be enlightened.” Uchan laughed croaking. Elena had already discovered with astonishment that Split, contrary to all stereotypes, laughed very occasionally.

  “You are a remarkable woman, t’Kho. I like you. It’s just a pity that you are so small and ugly.”

  “Aren’t all human women?” Elena asked rhetorically.

  Uchan snorted and stepped back again. “That is probably true.”

  In the meantime, the stargate ahead had grown to considerable size, and only a few sezuras later, the ancient hoop filled the entire field of view, then the blue discharges danced around the Zuran ship, tearing it out of the fabric of space and time, to travel within a fraction of a sezura across an interstellar abyss that spanned dozens, perhaps hundreds of light-jazuras.

  Chapter 42

  You can’t say that the developers of the Terraformers didn’t deal with the question of machine consciousness. Could the machines become self aware or not? And if they could, would that be good or bad—or all the same? Eighty long years passed until the response to this question.

  Then Earth knew the answer.

  Nathan R. Gunne,

  from an email to Joan “Hydra” Mitchell

  “We’re still alive!” Ninu stated, stunned. It sounded as if she hadn’t expected in the slightest to come out in one piece after the gate transit.

  “Computer, sector identification,” Ditta Borman demanded as the ship’s brain had not automatically announced it this time upon reaching the target point.

  “Unknown sector.”

  Siobhan opened a video field and sent it to the main console. “Take a look at this.”

  The image showed a section of the optical remote positioning system, zoomed in so far that the edges were wobbling. Ne
vertheless, the pilots immediately recognized what it was. “The Halmnan Aurora!” Seldon shouted. “We’re home!”

  “Not quite—that’s the Aurora, as it looked about five hundred jazuras ago. Or in other words…”

  “We’re five hundred light-jazuras away from the Community!” Ion interrupted. “That’s much nearer than before!”

  “Very true, closed enough that the jump unit can home in on our destination gate in Menelaus’s Paradise.”

  Siobhan deleted the video field and activated the jump sequence. Now that the shields weren’t strained, the converters should be operational in nine mizuras. She leaned back and stared at the mission console’s data. Not even five stazuras had passed since the launch of the AP Providence from Argon Prime, but it seemed to her as though it had been five tazuras. She was still confident in her calculations, firmly believing that the next jump would bring the spaceship to Menelaus’s Paradise. The probability spoke to it. Simply had to speak to it!

  “Countdown is running. Four mizuras until arrival at the entry point,” the computer said nine mizuras later, asking for clearance. Siobhan and Borman confirmed the operating parameters of the jump unit. The ship picked up speed and accelerated rapidly.

  “Ten sezuras until arrival at the entry point. Jump unit properly activated.”

  As the energy vortex swirled flamboyantly around the ship, Major Seldon turned once more to Siobhan. “Seventy six percent, huh?”

  “One hundred!” Siobhan said with certainty before the AP Providence fell headlong into the jump tunnel.”

  “Ship has reached the entry point. All values nominal,” the computer announced an immeasurably brief moment later. “Reached sector Menelaus’s Paradise,” it added after the gravidar recalibrated. Many stars on the navigation console suddenly had names, formed constellations, and became known sectors. Unrestrained cheering broke out in the cockpit, but the joy was short-lived.