VORTEX Part 12

VORTEX Part 12

A-Tya had just walked through the door into my office when she suddenly felt so sick that she collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. I fared no better, as I was struck just as severely. Bracing myself against the back of the chair, I stood up and dragged myself over to the window. When I opened it and looked out, I realized that we were not the only ones in this state. Everyone else was writhing on the ground as well.

Fortunately, it stopped after a few moments, but what caused it, I did not know. Still somewhat dazed, I sat back down and called Dean over.

"— Dean, what on earth was that?"

He was visibly dazed as well, but quickly composed himself and answered with a question of his own:

"— Why don't you ask Vahanara? She seems to have an answer for everything."

That was the last straw. I ran over to Vahanara's apartment block and stormed into her flat.

"— Vahanara, you clearly know much more than anyone else, and if you don't tell me what just happened, I'll break every single bone in your body."

She could only manage a tired smile at that, since broken bones healed just as quickly in her as in any other Genomorph; yet the determined look in my eyes made her slightly uneasy.

"— Var, you wouldn't hit a little girl, would you?"

"— Do you really want to find out?"

She understood that I was dead serious this time and conceded that she had to reveal at least part of it:

"— You would have figured some things out sooner or later anyway, and those are the only things I will tell you. But mark my words: this is the last piece of information you will get from me, so ask one question."

I had actually wanted to know why we all suddenly felt so sick, but then I asked another question that had been on the tip of my tongue ever since Vahanara had arrived on Sek:

"— How is it possible that I carry the legacy of a time-traveling Zer in my brain, when all Zer perished in the attack of the Ectomorphs?"

"— I am sorry to disappoint you, but not all Zer perished. The crew of the Ikarus is still alive, as is a certain Zer who happens to be sitting right in front of me."

I jumped up. No, I simply could not believe it—the others, or even I myself, were supposed to have left that legacy behind?

"— Who exactly left the legacy? Was it me?"

"— I told you to ask me only one question; I will not answer another."

I had to find out. Therefore, I decided to return to my universe with the ALPHA and tow the Ikarus over to us.

No sooner had I vanished through the Vortex than Vahanara slipped aboard the DEON, which was waiting in our laboratory hangar to be examined.

"— DEON, listen closely," Vahanara said. "— Activation code DAR MUL KADY, wake up."

"— What is your wish, Commander?" the main computer asked in a female voice.

"— Launch from the hangar via wormhole, then set a course for Gotar. I want you to fly there at maximum speed, because all of our lives depend on it."

"— As you wish, Mistress," DEON said, opening a wormhole out into space.

A few kilometers away from the city, Luzifer's ship touched down. The Ectomorph was practically glowing with absorbed life energy, using his force field to disguise himself as a human. He immediately decided to head into the city to find old allies with whom he could annihilate us all. What a stroke of luck for him: without my departure, he never would have been able to penetrate the shield, but this way he simply used the wormhole before it had completely closed.

The Ikarus was not hard for me to find; after all, it was the only intact celestial body left here in the Helios system. But if I towed it with a tractor beam, it might break apart. Oh well, so be it—I opened a wormhole to it and ordered an immediate evacuation over the radio.

One of the first to rush aboard was Tero, throwing her arms around my neck.

"— Tvorgh, I thought you were already dead!"

Well, in a way she was right, since I had indeed been dead for a certain amount of time.

"— To be honest, I thought the same of you, but everything will be all right now! In a parallel universe, we've found a world where we can live in peace."

She sank into my arms and broke into tears of relief. The evacuation was complete; I opened the Vortex and flew straight back to Sek through the wormhole.

The entire operation went off without a hitch, and there were no casualties. Finally, something had gone according to plan—right?

I was not granted any rest after my return; no sooner was I back on Sek than everything descended into chaos. The fact that Vahanara had bolted was of little concern to me, but that she had stolen the DEON was the height of insolence. I could have strangled her on the spot, if only she were mortal.

A Sekran named A-Dron Refol came to me with an interesting proposal. He wanted to explore the ice planet Elnor in more detail and needed the government's support—more specifically, the technical knowledge of a Zer. After our scientists had determined from tree growth rings that Proxima had radiated more heat several centuries ago, A-Dron suspected that Elnor might have been inside the biosphere back then and potentially harbored life. He wanted to determine if that had truly been the case, why Proxima had then suddenly grown colder, and why Sek had not been scorched at the time. Knowing this was truly vital for our survival, as it would tell us where we stood: were we on a planet of life, or had we all been sentenced to death?

For his research, A-Dron requested a transport ship and a specialized vehicle that would allow him and a handpicked crew to conduct investigations beneath the planet's surface.

After A-Dron had left, Tero asked me:

"— Your infrastructure isn't even properly built up yet, and you're still authorizing such resource-draining research?"

"— What if Proxima started shining as intensely again as it did centuries ago? We would probably burn up, or we'd have to evacuate to Elnor."

Tero wouldn't give up trying to talk me out of the plan:

"— Tvorgh, I can only advise against it, you stubborn fool, but knowing you, you'll probably want to explore the entire system. Put it off until later. I can sense that this planet here harbors its own secrets as well. Proxima won't heat up that quickly."

"— By the Eternal! First of all: I wouldn't be so sure that Proxima won't suddenly turn into a variable star, and secondly: finally call me Varlon Traas."

"— Yeah, yeah! You'll remember my words, little brother!"

I didn't want to admit it to her face, but my sister was right, just as she had always been. I was simply too impulsive and occasionally careless, which had nearly cost me my life on more than one occasion.

"— Tero, you are a scientist. Perhaps you and the other Zer could explore this system?"

"— Yes, the Ikarus might be lost in that other universe, but if you provide me with a spaceship, it won't be a problem."

The trouble was that I no longer had a research vessel at all, but rather the mighty battleship ALPHA, and without it, we would be completely defenseless. On the other hand, the Ectomorphs no longer posed a threat, so I could lend the ship to my sister after all.

"— All right, take the ALPHA and explore the system. But I want to see usable results, not what the Ikarus delivered—we already had plenty of data on Helios before."

Tero went pale with rage:

"— Our work was not worthless! We determined the exact point when Helios will exhaust its hydrogen reserves and consume itself. We also determined exactly when that sun will grow colder!"

"— Well, there you go, that is precisely what you are supposed to do here as well—except here, an entire planetary system remains unexplored."

She understood, but there was still something she wanted to ask me.

"— What else is on your mind?"

"— One thing I'd like to know: why did you name this planet Sek?"

"— It stands for Secondary Earth, why?"

"— Sek is also one of the seven Eternals, have you forgotten?"

How could I? The seven Eternals were something akin to gods on Zer, only unlike Terrestrial or Earth deities, they possessed physical bodies and were even more omnipotent than Vahanara. After Zer was knocked out of its orbit around the primary planet and everything froze over, nothing more was heard of the seven Eternals. Not even Vahanara knew what had become of them.

Sek and Elnor were two of the Eternals; it was pure coincidence that we had named both Earth-sized planets after them, so it seemed only natural that the remaining planets should also bear the names of the Eternals.

Sek and Elnor were sister worlds, both the exact same size as Earth. The third planet was to be called Gil and was roughly twice the size of Zer. Next in line was the gas giant Trun with its breathtaking rings; it was ten times the size of Jupiter and radiated heat, making its nearly one hundred moons relatively warm and hospitable to life. According to initial observations, three of them even possessed atmospheres. Planet number 5 we named Gonari, also a gas planet roughly the size of Uranus, followed by the ice world Dleb, while the outermost planet of the system was Faln—a lifeless wasteland of frozen ammonia and hydrogen, the latter forming vast oceans on the side facing Proxima.

Tero was pleased with the names and was about to head toward the launch pad, but I leapt out of my chair and held her back:

"— Tero, I think it would be better if not all the Zer explored the system with you; perhaps some should stay behind here. In exchange, you can have a few humans and Sekrans."

"— Can I pick them myself?"

"— Yes, only Vahanara is currently unavailable."

"— I didn't want Vahanara anyway. I'll take a look into your memory, and then I'll make my choice."

I closed my eyes and let Tero place her hands on my head. She began sifting through my memory, and since I am also a Genomorph, I didn't even need to be unconscious for it.

"— I already know who I'm taking," she said resolutely.

Towering between the buildings, the ALPHA looked gigantic. Tero boarded the vessel, and behind her followed the most extraordinary

...people of the ASO, which had been disbanded since Luzifer was dead after all, as we all believed. Master Two, Three, Four, Five, Seven, and Eight were there, as well as several Sekran and human scientists. Besides Tero, several other Zer were also present, like my old friend Hulock Lar.

At last the ALPHA launched and shot toward the sky like a bolt of lightning. Only shortly before the shield did Tero have a wormhole opened to Faln. Faln, the most distant planet of the Proximian system, was, as I mentioned before, a planet as cold as the heart of Luzifer. Its surface consisted of frozen ammonia and methane, partly covered by an ocean of hydrogen. The size of the planet roughly equalled Mars, but the gravity was higher, pointing to a dense core. That aside, its orbit was very irregular, probably caused by one of the two companions of Proxima: Alpha Centauri A or B, also known as Tolimak A and B. Tero immediately set to orbital calculations to predict exactly which of the two stars was to blame for it.

I laid down just briefly. Actually I wasn't tired at all, just a bit tense. Tero had upset me, because she questioned my authority. Just because we both descended from the same single-celled proto-genomorph didn't give her the right to do something like that to me. But whatever, she was gone now and I finally had the time to examine this planet more closely.

My calculations proved two facts: First, we wouldn't stand the slightest chance of survival if the protective shield were suddenly gone, because the temperatures would drop and the atmosphere would escape into space at the current temperatures. Second, thanks to satellite imagery, I was finally able to find out where the origin of the force field was.

After a few minutes of rest, I called Dean Rho over and asked:

"—, My friend, how about a little expedition into the unexplored jungle?"

"—, No problem, I built an anti-gravity vehicle the size of a car, we could leave immediately, but..."

"—, What do you mean?"

"—, I met a gorgeous Sekran woman and would really like to spend the evening with her."

I understood his decision; to be honest, I would also have preferred a rendezvous with a pretty Sekran woman. Then an idea struck me—I hadn't been out with Tya in a long time, that would be the opportunity for a romantic flight in an anti-grav.

"—, All right Dean, lend me the anti-grav and then you can go to your bride-to-be."

Dean gave me the key and then vanished, wordless but happy. He had earned this little moment of togetherness. I quickly walked over to A-Tya's housing complex and knocked on her door several times. When she opened it in her evening dress, I was totally blown away. She hadn't looked that beautiful even back when she still had her first body on Malkor.

We were already far outside the megacity; Trun shone in the sky, brighter than the Earth's moon. Influenced by this romantic mood, Tya rested her head on my chest and I set the anti-grav to autopilot, but barely had I moved to the back seat when our vehicle was suddenly shaken by an uncanny force and crashed. The flight with Tya was so lovely that I lost track of time and we had already reached the destination.

I crawled out of the crashed vehicle and pulled the unconscious Tya out. Without realizing it, I had flown directly into the generation beam of the force field generator, which had disabled the anti-gravity generator in Dean's vehicle. Since it was too dark to return to the city, I decided to stay where I was and repair the vehicle at dawn, but barely had I turned around when my highly sensitive eyes spotted a cave that looked rather interesting. I just left Tya lying there and walked in as if hypnotized.

Suddenly I heard a noise behind me; only now did it dawn on me how carelessly I was acting. Leaving A-Tya alone was certainly a huge mistake, because we hadn't yet explored the planet's entire fauna, not to mention the flora, since carnivorous plants were allegedly supposed to exist as well, after all. Dean had wanted to build automatically operating devices to explore all animal species, but right now he was otherwise occupied after all.

I pushed the overturned anti-grav upright so that we could launch again in case it hadn't suffered any major damage, and put Tya on the back seat, then opened the front part of the engine cowling and inspected the damage more closely. It was just a couple of wires that weren't seated properly; I plugged them back together, but without me noticing, a small spider-like insect dropped from the tree onto my neck and bit me, then quickly leaped into the cave.

At first I didn't notice how heavy everything felt, but then, as I grew colder and colder and tried to stand up, I had no strength left. I lost control of my muscles faster and faster.

A-Tya finally regained consciousness; since she was still somewhat dazed, she didn't notice me lying helpless in the grass. I couldn't get a sound out of my throat, and even my morphing ability was unusable. Something was blocking the messenger RNA, and so I couldn't deploy any new genes.

"—, Var!" cried Tya when she finally spotted me like that.

I lay motionless, unable to say a word, and my thinking ability became increasingly impaired.

She ran over to me, leaned over me, and asked:

"—, But you are immortal? You will survive this, won't you?"

As long as I wasn't dead, I couldn't regenerate—which also meant that I could remain like this for all eternity.

End