Meanwhile, the high-pitched whirring of the partial jump drive bubbled through the hull with an angry, barely suppressed vehemence. It would only take a few sezuras, one mizura at max, until the ship entered the jump tunnel. Ninu got sick at the thought of what a Kha'ak could do in the engine room right now; even more unimaginable to her was what would happened to the Community of Planets if the Kha'ak destroyed the AP Providence and with it, possibly the only chance of survival for the many hundreds of billions of inhabitants.
The central bulkhead was a hand’s breadth open. Fear and dismay pounded on Ninu’s face like a fist; the Goner shrieked loudly and pulled desperately at the door, which resisted the onslaught and only sluggishly yielded. From within, strange sounds and cries rang out: an excited flutter and a wild torrent of sounds that sounded like the rattle and click of a rusty chain. Ninu heard the onboard computer ask in its neutral voice for authorization for the jump unit. Instead of the expected answer, the noise increased to a veritable fray. Someone screamed, “There! They’re firing!”
A heavy blow hit the ship and made it ring like a bell. Ninu was almost knocked off her feet, but she dropped to her knees. With both hands, she clung to the gap until the compensators were able to respond adequately. “Ion! Ion!” Desperately, she pulled at the door. Where was Seldon? Finally the door was open enough for her to push through. The image that presented itself was chaotic and grotesque at the same time: a Kha'ak lay across Siobhan’s console, its wings spread to a considerable wingspan. It clawed at it hard with his five fingers, his scaly skin hanging from his body in blisters and shreds; its faceted eyes already looked smashed. Ion tore at the creature’s shoulder while Siobhan worked on the appendage on its hind quarter with her boots. Ion was bleeding from a large wound on his upper arm, but he ignored it. The insect-bird made wild, clicking noises whose interpretation across species was immediately clear: he was mortally afraid and in terrible agony, and yet he didn’t want yield one bit. It stank horribly. Another Kha'ak touched Ditta Borman with an apple-sized metal ball. Borman screamed and rubbed her hips. She kicked the Kha'ak, who was as damaged as his comrade and only moved itself forward sluggishly.
A flickering video field hovered over the instrument console, showing Lord Captain Ulmanckessolnn. “This was merely a warning shot,” he said unctuously, but no one paid attention to him.
“Please give authorization, Dr. Norman, Dr. Folkna, and Command Borman,” the onboard requested over the fracas. “Energy levels can only be sustained for one minute and twenty six sezuras.”
“Cancel immediately” Borman shouted. “Shields up!”
“No! Don’t cancel!” Siobhan exclaimed in a overriding voice. “we have to jump now! The singularity in the jumpgate is oscillating as if—” a leathery wing wiped across her face and made her stagger.
Borman set her foot on the Kha'ak’s neck as it was about to push the stun ball back in her side. The creature’s head bulge dropped, its beak crashed to the floor. Borman jerked her weight on the right foot. A nasty cracking resulted. The Kha'ak didn’t move anymore, its wings sagged and spread wide in death. The body of the being was in an advanced state of dissolution, bubbles were still popping up and the compound eyes were increasingly dissolving.
“Computer, authorization granted!” That was Siobhan, who pulled on the tail end of the remaining Kha'ak that was still defending itself as before. Folkna quickly did the same as Ninu hurried over to Ion to pull him away from the insect-bird.
“No, leave me!” the boy cried. “I’ll be okay!”
Commander Borman momentarily glanced in confusion at Jahn Seldon, who at that moment came though the half-open bulkhead, bleeding and with a slashed up jumpsuit. The status indicator on the projections showed that the energy level could only be maintained for twenty sezuras. “Authorized, Borman!” the pilot screamed as she realized that the gravidar was showing an interceptor missile fired by the Paranids, which would strike at any moment. Instantly, the blue vortex swirled around the ship and devoured it. The Kha'ak let out a sharp moan.
There, where a ship had once been a fraction of a sezura before, a Paranid cruise missile hissed through empty space.
Chapter 45
Love—and be loved! Hate—and be hated!
Unknown author
Aboard the Archipelago, they were received by Navigations Commander Ebosirireos personally, of course accompanied by Nopileos. “The gravidar indicates a single ship that came in through the Alpha gate a few mizuras ago,” she translated.
“Which type?”
“We don’t know. There was no visual contact, the light is still underway. Low mass. Scout or something.”
“Scout?” Elena frowned. Maybe pirates, who else would have lost something out here, so far off the beaten track!
Kalmanckalsaltt stood in the control center as always, in the same place in which he was last seen. Uchan t’Scct came a bit towards Elena as she came in through the bulkhead with the two lizards and Nola Hi.
“Be gone,” the Split just said. Nola Hi floated wordlessly beneath the ceiling like a gas-filled balloon. “Look there, t’Kho, and have an answer ready.” On the central communication screen, the inscrutable facial features of a Paranid were revealed. Even though Elena barely noticed the creature’s nearly translucent pupil, she knew that the Three-eye was not looking directly into the camera field—a gesture intended to demonstrate how little importance he attached to his counterpart. Several sezuras passed as Elena slowly stepped in front of the screen, leaving her crew and the commander of the Archipelago behind her.
“So We are the Priest Count, First Class, Negotiator and Advocate of the Great Divine Council,” the Three-eye finally began with razor sharp accentuation, albeit with an intonation that hummed with cold. “Plenipotentiary and Beneficiary of the Bishop, Envoy of Pontifex Maximus Paranidia, Commander of the Holy Flotilla of Three, Prophet of Renewed Revelation in His Own and in the Rights of Bashra and Xaar, Reverend Somancklitansvt.”
“And be forewarned, unholy creatures,” added the Paranid while Elena was still looking for a reply. “Never take Our title in Your mouths without great need, for only our larval name is Yours to utter.”
“How can we help you, Somancklitansvt?”
“You have committed an act of blasphemy for which in good time you must answer with your life. But first you will reactivate the Dimensional Gate.” Although the Paranid’s around lips moved only minimally, the threat in the inflection of his snarling voice was as clear as that in his words.
“Your fleet is in Boron territory, Reverend Somancklitansvt. Your intrusion is undesirable and also unjustified.”
From the corner of her eye, Elena noticed that the Alpha Gate, still centered on the gravidar, flashed again. Something else had come through, and this time it was many times more massive than the scout.
“Cosmic laws of higher Dimensionality break those of the Community of unholy Planets, whose allegiance is the the final test imposed upon Us,” Somancklitansvt continued.
“Not quite, because—”
“And then who gives You the right to speak for the Boron Queendom, Argon female?”
Elena glanced over her shoulder to find the gaze of the Boron hovering beneath the ceiling. Nola Hi reluctantly lowered herself and joined Elena.
“I, Reverend Somancklitansvt, because I possess comprehensive powers, permissions, and rights of the Parliament as well as the Queen-as you well know and remember,” he chirped and watched the video of the Paranid, waiting.
Somancklitansvt’s three stalked eyes jerked out in parallel; Elena registered with surprise that he obviously knew the Boron.
“Envoy Nola Hi, Scientific Ethicist of the Boron Queendom! It has been long since We most recently met Each Other over the same premise and in the same adverse circumstance as Hewa.” Somancklitansvt spread his long, bony arms as if to embrace the camera field and threw his arms up theatrically. “So take it as a show of Our esteem,” he intoned,” that We will allow You
three stazuras, three mizuras, and three sezuras to erase the injustice of the will of Bashra that You have committed in Your ignorance.”
Somancklitansvt lowered his many-fingered gripping claws, spread out the long, thin fingers in front of his three eyes like bodily death and arched his back. “Otherwise, You will die immediately,” he whispered in a grave voice. The last word echoed for a few sezuras, then the connection cut out.
For a moment, silence prevailed in the control room, apart from Nopileos’s softly whispered translation for Ebosirireos. Elena, unable to resist the unreal feeling that Somancklitansvt’s threats had suddenly become irrelevant, contemplated. “What came through the Alpha jumpgate?” she wanted to know. Nopileos hurried to replay the question. The navigations commander turned his palms up.
“A carrier ship of the Pontifex,” Uchan answered. The Split seemed certain. His Paranid partner quickly agreed with him.
“Sister, the navigations commander suggests leaving the system. The engines of the Archipelago of Swamp Orchids are stronger than anything our colleague Paranids have to offer, and the shields will protect us until we’re out of range. Ebosirireos says.”
“Yeah, that would have been my suggestion, too. Uchan,” Elena said to the Split., “We’re not fleeing from the Paranids: it’s just the conclusion of our job here. Successful, mind you.”
“And yet is it an escape, t’Kho. But do not worry, falling in defense of honor for the Family is one thing. For money is another.”
Elena wanted to express her surprised at this—quite practical for a Split—expressed attitude. But an alarming whimper prevented her from doing so. Nola Hi, who had been keeping an eye on the gravidar, interrupted with a scream of horror. Excitedly, the Boron fluttered with his primary and secondary tentacles. “The scout—” he started, but didn’t get any further.
Several things happened at once. The first, smaller of the two blips faded and disappeared from gravidar. At the same time, energy whirls in the Delta jumpgate visibly rose through the cockpit window. It should be disabled, Elena thought, bewildered. Did they not disable it? What was happening?
A small craft materialized in the hoop of the supposedly deactivated gate; it was clearly an Argon model. For a while, nothing happened; suddenly the reaction thrusters of the small ship ignited, however not in meaningful sequence, but in a coincidental and chaotic way.
“What are they doing and trying there?”
Before Elena could respond to Nola Hi’s question, the order in which the small Argon spaceship ignited its thrusters changed; the performed correction sequences were clearly well-planned and had a stabilizing effect on the trajectory.
A buzzer signaled an incoming radio message which the computer diverted to the monitor.”This is Commander Borman from the AP Providence. Please come in, unknown spaceship.” A round-faced woman with short, blonde hair and piercing blue eyes looked down from the screen. She looked exhausted, literally drained.
Ebosirireos looked questioningly at Elena; she nodded. “This is Elena Kho aboard the Archipelago of Swamp Orchids,” she replied. The blonde Argon seemed less surprised than one might have expected.
“Major Kho, is the Boron next to you scientific ethicist Nola Hi?” she asked. Elena confirmed. “Nola Hi, Major Kho! In the name of and by full authority of the ICSCS, Argon Prime, and Kingdom End, I order you to reactivate the Delta Gate immediately. Do it—explanations will follow later.”
A thousand thoughts ran through Elena’s head like a wild storm. Reasons? Consequences? Deception? And—why
“Is it not active then? You just came through with your ship, Commander,” she hesitated.
“Borman. One moment, Major Kho.” The picture flickered. Another face looked, oversized and worried, out of the screen. Long, blonde hair, even, calm features.
“Tssssshhhh! Sister Gardna!” Nopileos hissed, full of surprise.
“Ninu?” Elena realized, stunned.
“Elena, listen. Next to me is Dr. Norman from Project Providence.” When Elena showed no sign of comprehension, Ninu added, “Project Providence—partial jump drive.”
“I… I understand.”
“This jumpgate is really disabled, you’ve shut down the dimensional anchors, however you did that. I…” The Goner suddenly looked fell silent and went pale. She looked over her shoulder heatedly, and seemed to waver, then caught herself and continued frantically. “I don’t understand much about it,but I’ve been told that the gate is no longer passable, except by means of our partial jump drive.”
“But why should we turn it back on to appease the Paranid?”
“No. Elena, there’s good reason to believe that in each sector of the community, a sun destroyer is waiting to be deployed. Black Hole Sun was just the beginning. Great Earth!” the Goner held her hand in horror. “You don’t know that yet!”
“Wait a sec…zura. We know about the supernova, Ninu, are you saying that the Terraformers, the Xenon…?” Elena struggled for words. A wave of nausea rose in her. She remembered the words of #efaa. The CPU ship should be long on the other side of the jumpgate, and therefore in safety; there was no reason for such drastic safety measures! Or had #efaa not yet reached the refuge? No, that couldn’t be, anything but that!
“Look at the gravidar,” Ninu whispered. “Do you see the big blip at minus 0.84 AU? It’s a Xenon CPU ship. At any sezura it could issue the command to wipe out all life in the Community if it doesn’t reach its counterpart on the other side. The gate must be be activated again—immediately!”
“Of course—at the time, #efaa had spoken about a second CPU ship! One that would exceed the edge of consciousness; it had to already be on the other side of the Delta Gate! And that meant that it was the CPU ship the Paranid had shown on Hewa, the one they had been zeroing in on from the beginning! #efaa, however, had completely escaped the attention of the Three-eye! Elena was almost certain it had happened this way. The Paranid fleet would annihilate this mind ship, no matter how high the losses would be; that was also why they tried to invade the refuge in attack formation! But #efaa’s sister ship would defend herself. And if it was true that the Xenon had singularity weapons that could destroy suns… “Nola, what do you think?”
“I feel great confusion and uncertainty, said the Boron, whose environmental suit made restless movements. “Still, in the wet of the continual equatorial currents, I still taste the presence of the wise and kind guardian Norma Gardna, whom I had the privilege and pleasure of knowing. And also her as aesthetic as she is clever daughter Ninu I remember as a little one. I trust Ninu, Norma’s daughter, and believe her.”
“Ninu, I hope you know what will happen as soon as the gate is running again, because I sure don’t!”
“Farewell, Elena!” the Goner cried with a cracking voice and eyes wide with dread. A bright flash of light flashed across through the picture, extinguishing Ninu’s face, leaving behind a white, bright screen that glowed for a few moments and then turned off.
“They’re under fire!” Nopileos cried. And so it was—one of the Paranid ships left its formation at that moment to intercept the AP Providence. His turrets flashed in a quick rhythm. “We have to help them! Elena!”
For the merest instant, Elena froze, uncertain what to do. But the moment passed. “No weapons on board,” she cried. “Activate the gate! Nola Hi!” Then she ran in the direction of the hangar, followed closely by the Boron.
Nopileos stared after them, horrified.
Chapter 46
There is no true ugliness.
There are merely ugly truths.
Dr. Siobhan Inja Norman
When the gravidar was reestablished, the AP Providence was still in the Menelaus’s Paradise system. Behind her shined the Delta jumpgate, beside the iron ring, a dinghy remained. Only a few thousand lengths away was the strangest spacecraft Siobhan had ever seen. It had strange, flowing shapes, and looked like an exuberantly colored clam.
Zakk stood up, leaned over to the scientist, care
ful not to touch the Kha'ak, and began to put his arm around her shoulders, but she fought him with a fierce movement. For a moment, he appeared to be surprised, but smoothly composed himself again. “Thank you, my girl, I just wanted to thank you,” he mumbled.
Siobhan looked at him with a white face. “Don’t thank me too soon. There, look—the Paranid fleet is coming straight at us. Will you still thank me now?”
“What’s with the jumpgate?”
“Give me a mizura.” She plunged into the data panels as though there had never been a fight in the cockpit and there wasn’t a dying insect-bird lying on her work space.
“There are two more in the back,” Seldon gasped, eyeing the Kha'ak’s last twitches on Siobhan’s console with disgust. “I don’t know how they came in. But our breathing air finishes them off.”
“They also finish off our breathing air,” Ion added.
Ditta Borman let out a single, gasping laugh. “Open the windows and let some fresh air in.” She immediately became serious again. “Gardna—take care of the boy. Jahn—how bad is your injury?”
Seldon waved it off. “Flesh wound. Not tragic,”
“Good. Are there any medical cryostasis chambers on board? We have to freeze you and the boy.”
“We’re not poisoned, Ditta.”
“Hopefully those in Pathology will see it the same way when I countersign your death certificate.”
Siobhan looked up from her data screens. “There are no cryogenic devices on board,” she said. “And I do not think they would help us anymore. The singularity of the jumpgate is active…”
Ninu looked up hopefully. “Then it’s still active?”
“Active, all right,” Siobhan answered, “But no longer passable. The dimensional anchors were rendered useless. Without dimensional anchors, no jump tunnel. And without a jump tunnel, the gate is nothing more than a pile of space junk.”
Nopileos: A novel from the X-Universe: (X4: Foundations Edition 2018) (X Series) Page 39