Hi everybody and sorry for the delay.
There are some news but I will need to hold back till probably next month as it is not totally confirmed. But we may have done another step towards publishing Farnhams Legend in english. So hold your breath ... well, maybe not for that long.
Anyway, here is chapter 20 of HelgeK's background story to the X Universe.
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The Ancients are astonishing. Profit seems to be an alien concept
to them.
Bomandrolas Sisinfinos Niandeles IIX,
Sales Manager SE
Nopileos stared in horror as Xenon craft fired on the Earth ship. Its shields were obviously failing as the lasers seared vicious burns into the bright metal hull plating. Energy discharges danced over the hull in some sort of vortex that accelerated to an electric blue blur that hurt his eyes. His forehead scale paled as an engine took a direct hit and exploded. The Getsu Fune vanished behind an angry orange fireball and when it dissipated the ship of his warrior friend Elena was no more. The Gravidar confirmed it; the shining return of the Getsu Fune was gone.
"Captain, I have just lost contact with the Getsu Fune's ship computer," Inanias reported. The electronic brain of the Nyana's Fortune had been copying all the flight movements of Elena's ship by maintaining a data link to the old computer.
"What happened to Elena?"
"I have no information on that, oh Captain Nopileos. But the Getsu Fune activated its star drive for an emergency jump back to Earth. I suppose that the ship and its pilot are already in the terrestrial solar system right now unless the damage the Xenon inflicted caused complications."
Nopileos badly hoped Elena had made it; he had taken the tall human woman deep into his heart but there wasn't anything else he could do to help now. Or maybe there was, he could complete her diplomatic mission to Argon Prime, as best as he was able. The trip to Kingdom End, ordered by his grandfather, the Ceo, could wait another wozura. Or two.
"Nyana's Fortune, this is AP Demeter, Lt. Scrollong. Do you copy?"
Inanias really could have announced the incoming transmission, Nopileos thought as he accepted the call.
"This is Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV on board the Nyana's Fortune. Congratulations for shooting down the two Xenon fighters."
The Argon with the short, green hair looked slightly puzzled and hesitated, as if she didn't know how to respond, then she said: "Your sense of humour is refreshing, Teladi. I take it into consideration and remember to smile as soon as the remaining two Xenon fighters are destroyed."
"Just trying to be polite..."
"However!" Lt. Scrollong interrupted Nopileos, "Your further help clearing up this affair will be worth an appropriate sum of credits to the government of Argon Prime."
"Tsh! An 'appropriate' sum to you won't raise more than my smallest scale plate!" Nopileos answered disdainfully, unable to bear the Argon's imperious manner.
"Very well Teladi!" she sighed noticeably. "Senator Nan Gunnar, the chief of the RD Department, will no doubt be able to offer you an acceptable deal. We're transmitting the Argon Prime approach path and landing co-ordinates to your on-board computer now."
"Understood. You can rely on me."
"Yes, I'm sure we can now. Thank you. AP Demeter, out."
Her image faded.
"Inanias?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"How long will it take us to reach Argon Prime?"
"Some quazuras," the computer replied.
"Some...?" Nopileos repeated. "Perhaps you could be a little bit more exact, being a computer?" he snapped.
"Of course Captain. Sorry Captain. Four quazuras, one inzura, three mizuras. Plus or minus ten sezuras."
"Very good. Set a course and proceed."
Inanias confirmed the order and very soon Nopileos saw the star constellations through the canopy shift as his ship turned onto the new course. Meanwhile the Demeter had received reinforcements and as Nopileos watched the hopelessly outmatched black Xenon ships wink out one by one on the Gravidar the 'collision alert' symbol flashed on all displays.
"What… what?" Nopileos hissed, suddenly scared to death. The Gravidar didn't show any objects nearby.
"Visual confirmation of a large object at four o'clock," Inanias stated. "Distance six macro lengths and decreasing. Speed also rapidly decreasing."
A huge cylindrical object appeared on the rear viewer, its milk-white shining bulk almost blotting out the stars. No antenna, hatches, turrets or even engine housings marred its featureless hull but he knew it couldn't be anything but a space ship.
"What is that, Inanias?" he gasped.
The on-board computer hesitated for an unusually long time.
"Seventeen asalajes inzuras astronomical units Nipoleos, destination planetargonearthtaurus mikimadeswerfzzaiuzi..." it then said. Incoherent word fragments melted into a senseless stammering, as the computer spat out combinations of meaningless symbols in an ever-increasing frenzy.
'This was something new,' he thought. 'It's never done that before.' In fact he could not remember hearing of anything like it. The computer kept babbling but the status displays didn't show any malfunctions although the AI kernel registered as functioning beyond 100% of capacity, which was an impossibility. Something was overloading Inanias' logic circuits beyond the limits envisaged by their designers.
Inanias' voice died down and then fell completely silent.
"Inanias?" Nopileos asked anxiously.
No response! Nopileos glared at the screen, holding the thing personally responsible. Without a functioning computer he was going nowhere. The Nyana had no weapons and a quick check revealed the shields were down. He scrutinised the console closely for some clue as to how to manually activate them. Unlike the gravity controls he could see no obvious graphic display and conveniently prominent button to push.
"Egg-salad!" Nopileos cursed loudly as the displays began to fade one by one. Finally the command centre lights went out and the deep humming of the engines fell into silence.
Then the status display for the life support systems died as well.
Even before Nopileos was able to react, the swivelling command chair twitched back to its default position for no noticeable reason, severely jolting the young Teladi. Finally the cockpit dome blurred and became opaque as the light occluding safety systems defaulted to maximum in the face of the total breakdown.
Through the sudden silence cut the crack and rattle of low speed impacts on the hull and his bowels threatened to take on a life of their own. For a blind moment he thought it was his rising panic but then he realised it was weightlessness. All the ship systems had been knocked out and the rattling noises were the sound of all the unfixed objects on board floating loose and colliding with walls, floors and ceilings.
The cockpit was frightening dark; though somewhere below the command platform a little display flickered dimly. "Below," Nopileos snorted when he made it out of the pilot's chair. "Where is up and down?" Even though the Teladi sense of balance was robust and hard to confuse it was not easy for him to orientate himself in the dark weightlessness.
Finally he managed to climb along the command chair struts to the platform railing. He pivoted over them and pushed off. Slowly he floated 'downwards' and after some sezuras touched what would have been the bottom if the gravity had been active. Down here the red flickering of the last functioning device was clear to see and led Nopileos around the central tube of the lift system.
Moving around in zero gravity and almost total darkness wasn't easy, but somehow he managed to work through to the ships' apparently last working control display.
It was a maintenance panel for the on-board computer. Only four lights flickered and the back-up display revealed a huge data transfer pouring into the computer memory banks, and it looked like Inanias was trying to interpret the unending mass of information. Normally this sort of transfer shouldn't cause any problems but apparently in this case it did.
This sort of panel was bound to have a keyboard Nopileos knew, but in the darkness he had a hard time locating it because it was retracted into a slot and he had never really paid much attention to obscure ship systems anyway.
Finally he discovered the keyboard and pulled it out. He pressed the menu key and requested a status report; but at the very same moment he sent the order he heard a metallic, dragging sound approaching. An uncanny violet glow lit the gloom and it was coming from a chrome metal body shuffling around the transport tube.
"Rahhhhhhshhhhhh!" Nopileos screamed. He had seen this metallic monster once before - on board of the burnt out Boron station, The Pride of Ceo! He stopped working with the console and began to paddle wildly with his arms and legs. It didn't really help but it did put himself into a slow rotation around his own axis.
How could it have entered... what was it looking for... what would it...
"Do not be alarmed," a voice whispered inside Nopileos' head. "I am not a Xenon."
Did it come from that... thing over there? Nopileos' claw brushed against something, he took hold of it and stopped his rotation.
"Not a Xenon?" he repeated disbelievingly. "What else..?"
The big machine with violet camera eyes, crawled closer to the terrified Teladi on metal tentacles.
"We are called the Sohnen. Do not be afraid. No harm will happen to you. Ask and I will answer you. Time is scarce."
Nopileos' thoughts rushed by in a torrent and he grasped one.
"Are you, do you belong to, are you a, a member of the Ancients?"
"The answer is not easy to comprehend. But let this much be said; the ones that you call the 'Ancients' are not a single people, they are many. They are the Law. But us Sohnen, we are their envoys, their limbs and their eyes to their executive authority."
"Did you establish the jumpgates?"
"Yes."
"What do you want from me? What is going to happen to me?" Nopileos desperately wanted to know. Words were cheap and it was impossible to judge the body language of the Sohnen in any way.
"The on-board computer of this ship now contains vitally important information for the whole Community of Planets. Incidents that didn't happen, events that have not occurred for a quarter of a galactic rotation are imminent."
"What exactly are you talking…."
The lights came up and gravity abruptly returned. Nopileos fell to the floor and lay before the big, gleaming machine, a perfect picture of misery.
"..about?" he finished, clambering hastily to his feet.
"The Grand Plan has to be altered once again. Additional star gates will have to be opened and existing galactic routes will be changed. The machines that are called Xenon must not be annihilated in the forthcoming conflict. We will open a loophole for them."
"But, but... they're dangerous, they're menacing the wealth of us all!"
"They must not be annihilated completely, Teladi Isemados Sibasomos Nopileos IV! Much harm could have been avoided if you had NOT run away at your first meeting with the Sohnen. However, it is too late now for less than drastic methods."
After these words Nopileos felt the machines' cold presence leave his thoughts and he knew it would not speak again. The Sohnen began to fade away until it was if it had never been.
Step by step the usual noises of a functioning ship returned and Nopileos looked around. The reasserted gravity had scattered items all over the floor and he knew with the differing gravity gradients the whole yacht was probably in chaos. The cockpit dome became transparent above his head and Nopileos circled the lift tube but wasn't able to detect the floating disc anywhere to take him upwards.
Finally he found an emergency ladder that didn't afford him much of a grip due to his broad claws. Maybe it was time to pare them back once again? Well, that didn't matter right now. He clambered awkwardly back up to the control centre.
"Inanias!" he shouted, and flopped thankfully into the pilot's chair. "Are you there?"
"I am here, Captain. My memory capacity is operating at a level of more than ninety-eight percent full. Shall I delete some data?"
"No!" Nopileos shouted quickly. "Don't delete any data, no matter what happens! Understood?"
"Yes, Captain. Shall I re-establish the original flight path to Argon Prime?"
"I... just a moment."
Nopileos opened his eyes wide in thought. Wasn't he duty bound to pass forward the information of the Ancients, in particular the Sohnen, to the Ceo alone? Certainly, from a profit orientated point of view. But the Sohnen had told him in plain terms that the information was of significance to the whole Community of Planets.
Whom could he trust most to really provide all races with all the data? His own people? Well, he trusted in his grandfather, the Ceo - at least up to a specific certain point. But the Board of Directors would also have a say. Therefore, no. The Argon? Well, maybe, but he also wasn't really sure about them. The Split or Paranid? For the last time, no!
That just left the Boron. The friendly, level-headed Boron nation would deal in the most appropriate way with the information inside Inanias' memory banks.
Well, thus it would be. He would fly to Argon Prime first to bring Elena's affairs to a conclusion - and he would keep the incident with the ship of the Sohnen a secret for good reason. After that he would push along to Kingdom End and the long overdue rendezvous with the Boron.
But why didn't the Sohnen contact the Boron right away - or similarly all nations of the Community?
Nopileos turned his claws upwards. Foreign nations, foreign conventions.
FARNHAMS LEGEND: Chapter 20 - September 2005
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