Dream Planet. Book 1. Star Maze

Chapter 9. The Comet

The foreign galaxy Tron met them with cold indifference. They lay out the route to the second tunnel and started to fly in its direction, picking up speed. Yonk calculated the route. He took into account the trajectory of movement and the speed of nearby cosmic bodies, and lay out a route straight to the Delos portal. An uninterrupted four months of travel lay ahead of them, so Yonk could finally relax and focus on trying to fix his sphere.

He was constantly in the laboratory. Bringing the sphere back to life became to him a mission just as important as finding the lifesaving world. Atla saw no harm in it - such spheres were incapable of interstellar travel. They'd already gone through the tunnel, so even if he manages to fix it, there was nowhere for him to go.

"The sphere could be useful when we reach the planet," Marcius supported his initiative, "I'm amazed at your patience! If you succeed, we will have two ships at our disposal."

The Pacifian didn't react to the praise, still trying his best to avoid interaction. Piece by piece, he refurbished the exterior, eliminating dents and deformations.

"What if he manages to reestablish communication with his world?" Atla asked Marcius anxiously.

"I don't think that's possible," he replied. He showed her a shard from one of the needles that he was hiding in his pocket.  

"Is that the one responsible for communication?" asked Atla.

"Yes, only these needles contain no orifice for firing the beams."

"Give it to me, I'll throw it out into space."

Marcius gave the fragment to Atla.

"But what if he manages to reestablish connectivity even without that shard?" Atla worried.

"Even if by some miracle he establishes the connection and sends a signal from here, it will only reach Pacifa in a hundred years. We're too far from home now!"

Atla was reassured. Marcius was a warrior and was trained in the nuances of enemy extraterrestrial technology.

 "I beg you, don't make a big deal of these repairs, he's only just starting to get used to us," Marcius asked her, "Don't deny him his only outlet - he'll be driven mad without it."

"Agreed," she said.

One day they finally managed to learn something about the Pacifian's past. Yonk returned that evening as usual with red eyes, but looked more tired than usual.

"You seem to know what you're doing," Marcius commented.

Yonk looked at him indifferently and reluctantly answered:

"I'm fairly new to the military. I used to work in a factory assembling ships."

Atla and Marcius glanced at each other. If the emperor had gotten to the point of expanding his army to include common workers, things weren't looking good. Pacifa was the most populated world, and its human resources were unmatched by any other planet.  

They haven't had a chance to venture too far from Olmeco or pick up any speed when all of a sudden an inexplicable phenomenon crossed their path. Out of the corner of his eye, Marcius saw something move to the left of the ship, something that looked like golden snowflakes slowly drifting through the expanse of the universe. Marcius looked closer, but still could not identify the nature of this phenomenon. He only knew one thing - nothing in space happened by accident.

"Something is moving on the left," he warned Atla.

"Yes, I see," she said, "Most likely cosmic debris."

"Sharpen the image - what is it?" he asked anxiously.

Atla nodded and pulled up the images on the screen. They displayed the hard, solidified bodies of cosmic stingrays mixed in with shards of Guinean ships.

"Murian animals? Here?" Marcius asked in surprise.

Murian engineers adapted the bodies of stingrays to withstand the conditions of open space. The stingrays served them as spaceships.

"Yes," said Atla, "They're dead!"

"With people inside?!" he exclaimed.

"No, they're empty!" the priestess proclaimed, thoroughly scanning their bodies.

"I'm guessing that a Murian caravan flew into Tron for resources and was attacked and plundered by Guineans," Yonk's voice sounded from behind.  

"Possibly," Atla agreed, "The stingrays likely defended themselves and managed to destroy a couple of Guinean ships."

"What's that?" asked Marcius, frozen, not paying any attention to their conversation.

One of the corpses moved. Atla zoomed in on the object.

"Amazing it survived," Marcius couldn't believe his eyes, "We need to pick it up!"

"What?" Yonk balked.

"What?" Atla was taken aback, "That's crazy, what will we do with it?" she asked.

"I thought you believed in signs," the Tulonian turned her way, "If there's a tiny living creature surrounded by dead bodies on our path, we are obliged to take care of it!"

"No!" Atla objected, "We are obliged to remember that the continued existence of our people depends on our expedition. A stingray's life means nothing right now."

"I'm sorry, but I can't start my quest to save millions of lives by passing by a dying animal like this."

Atla was silent. So was Yonk.

"We'll only lose a little time, but our conscience will be clear," Marcius begged.

"I don't agree," Yonk replied firmly, "We barely have enough water even for us, so what will we do with a Murian fish?"

"Yonk is right," Atla agreed, "We really don't need that stingray. We won't be able to nurse it back to health!"

"It will die along the way anyways," said Yonk, trying to bring him back to his senses.

"No, we'll put it into stasis, and then release it into the waters of the foreign planet once we get there," Marcius insisted.

Atla begged him to reconsider: "We don't even know if it has waters, or if that world exists in the first place!"

"Of course it exists," Marcius replied firmly and began to put on his spacesuit.

Murian stingrays lived in water, so in theory his plan could work. Nonetheless, Yonk was still strongly opposed to the idea, and Atla was hesitant. Her heart was filled with pity for the helpless creature, but her obligations as captain didn't allow her to give into Marcius' whims.

"Stop! We'll vote," she said, "Who's against this?"

Atla and Yonk raised their hands.

"You're in the minority," she told him.

Marcius didn't even hear her. He wordlessly put on the helmet, secured himself with a cable, grabbed an extra one for the stingray and started towards the gateway.

"Wait!" she yelled, "Alright, fine!"

"Aim the crystal into the pack!" she commanded Yonk.

The Pacifian made a face, but followed the order. The ship came closer. Marcius jumped out into space, and while letting a bit of oxygen out of his gloves and boots, came closer to the dead female. The pup was hiding behind her fin. Marcius tied the rope around its head and started to slowly pull it towards the gateway. The stingray resisted, refusing to part with its mother. It was twice as long as Marcius himself, and it was difficult to lead it away against its will. Marcius touched its skin with his glove. Even through several layers of hard fabric he could feel the tremors running through the little stingray's body. He wrapped an arm around its head and very slowly led it away, while stroking it gently.

The opening of the gateway was smaller than the span of its wings, so Marcius had to tie them flush against its body with a rope. The poor creature was so scared and so weak that it didn't even resist.  

The stingray was heavy - Marcius was barely able to bring it inside. He dragged its heavy body along the cold glass ramp down into the laboratory. Feeling the temperature change and the artificial gravity come into effect, the animal gave a dull moan. The stingray's body was big enough to cover the whole floor. Its skin was stronger than steel and felt like dry ice to the touch. The animal was shaking, but slowly coming to. Marcius poured some water into its mouth through a tube. Stingrays received oxygen from water and died only when the water in their body ran out.  

"You understand that now we'll need more water, right?" the Pacifian reproached him, entering the laboratory to have a look at the madness.

"I'll get as much of it as needed," said Marcius apologetically.

"How do you suggest we put it to sleep?" asked Atla.

"The same way as with a human," he replied, "But it's still too weak for that, we need to give it more water."

Yonk and Atla looked at him with disapproval.

"Let me check it for bugs," said Yonk.

The Pacifian got a flat object out of his sphere, used it let out a few translucent waves and traced it along the stingray's body. Marcius watched him carefully.

"No, only organic matter," Yonk confirmed, "It's only just been born. It hasn't even been branded yet."

"So you know a lot about stingrays?" Marcius confirmed.

"As soon as it feels better, it'll want to fly away, will start to move and will smash up the whole laboratory," said Yonk skeptically.

"Then what do you suggest?" Marcius asked him.

"I saw lots of glass containers for specimens downstairs. We can connect them, creating a big, closed-off aquarium," The Pacifian suggested and added, "And one more thing: this creature won't last even a month out in the open air, let alone a whole year of travel. The aquarium needs to be filled with water to the brim, and if we add a triple dose of sleeping draft into it, this guy will fall into stasis."

"Guy?" Marcius was surprised, "I'll admit, you've amazed me with your knowledge of the Murian animal world."

"Not the animal world, but the world of their technology! I don't know what they teach you on Tulona, but on Pacifa we know how to maneuver extraterrestrial machines. This is a biorobot, created to transport our enemies through space. What's more, the aquarium needs to be twice as big as his current size, since he'll continue to grow even in his sleep. And remember, the male stingrays are always more aggressive."

Marcius listened to the advice. Though unwillingly, the other two helped him out. With their combined efforts, they quickly assembled the aquarium. To fill it with water, Marcius spent several days on an asteroid, mining for ice. Atla poured the sleeping draft into the water. Gradually, the little stingray closed his eyes and stopped moving. The substance produced a freezing effect, and as long as the animal remained in the water, he'd be asleep.  

Exactly a month after going through the first tunnel, they were flying as planned and everything was going well, but Atla was constantly bothered by bad premonitions. She knew that their mission was too great - she was essentially trying to go against fate, and the powers behind the destruction of the Seven Worlds wouldn’t let them avoid it so easily. At the same time, the priestess strongly felt the gods' blessing. She could see that on a higher level inaccessible to humans, a war for their souls was already underway.  

The alarm rang. Marcius had heard this sound only recently, when it warned of the Pacifian attack. ‘What could be the matter this time?’ he asked himself.

"A comet!" Atla yelled, covering her face with her hands.

"But it shouldn't be there," said Yonk in disbelief, running over to the screens.

Despite his confidence, the devices pointed to an approaching comet. Its trajectory crossed with that of the crystal, and a collision seemed imminent.

"Change the trajectory!" Marcius commanded.

"You can try, but it's no use," said Yonk, "We're approaching the speed of light, and won't have enough time."

"There shouldn't have been a comet here," said Atla, puzzled.

"Maybe it's a stray that ended up here by accident," Marcius suggested.

"How? Only yesterday it failed to show up on even a single screen!" Yonk exclaimed.

"I mean through the magic tunnel. If that's how we got here, why couldn't it have entered through some other portal?" Marcius reasoned.

"Or else it was aimed at us," Yonk replied cynically.

"We'll have to shoot," Atla ordered.

Marcius got the weapons ready, and Yonk aimed them at their target. They fired the first round of shots. Their speed made aiming very difficult, but the shot would have slowed them down. It flew past the comet.

Now we'll collide only with its tail," Yonk calculated.

"That still means death for us," said Marcius.

"Shoot again!" Atla commanded.

"It's the last round," said Marcius.

"Then we can't miss!" she yelled.

The round of shots hit the comet, crushing its side and throwing it off its path. Tiny rocks and clouds of dust scattered through the weightless darkness.

"No," said Yonk, "We'll still collide with the rubble."

Atla realized that this was the end. At this speed, collision with a dust particle was equivalent to an atomic explosion. Her first impulse was to find a door and run far away from the spaceship, but that was impossible. All around was only the icy, inhospitable void, without a drop of oxygen - imminent death. She couldn't believe that she was doomed. This was some sort of joke, a misunderstanding, this couldn't be happening! Nonetheless, the wounded mass was flying in their direction, spreading out its tail.

Marcius has never seen a comet this close before. Watching it straight ahead, he looked in the face of death, and worst of all was to take no action. The anticipation of physical pain filled his body. In an instant, there would be no trace left of him. What frustrated Marcius most of all was how quickly he accepted the situation. His life didn't flash before his eyes, not even a single memory, only an immense disappointment that he will be dying on his way to his dream, in the moment when he most wants to live.

"This is it then!" he thought, and closed his eyes.

"It's not the end quite yet!" Atla yelled, and put her hands out in front of her.

It seemed like she really was intending to ward off the comet with the power of thought. Marcius and Yonk clung onto this miniscule chance of survival, but common sense told them that the collision was imminent. Then they were swallowed up by a bright flash.

Space got distorted. It crumpled, but kept on racing forth. Marcius felt as if his body decomposed into millions of light particles, and then returned once again to its normal state. He felt a piercing sensation of pain, but quickly came to. They flew through the very tip of the comet's gaseous tail.  

The collision sharply decelerated the spacecraft. The crystal got turned upside down. At that moment, Marcius was beside the panel and had time to grab onto it with his hand. Yonk and Atla stood further away, and having no chance to grab onto anything, flew down towards the sharp crystals hanging from the ceiling. At the last minute, Marcius caught them with his beam, like a lasso, and pulled them towards him. He held them with just one hand, still holding onto the panel with the other.

The weight was considerable. Understanding that Marcius won't last long, Yonk quickly started to climb up the lasso. The radiation burned his hands, but he stubbornly climbed on and was already very close to the top. Marcius looked down on them in horror. He was panic stricken, scared that they will fall and their bodies will get smeared against the crystals.  

"Father, hold on!" he called out to Yonk, seeing him overtaken by convulsions from the pain.

Yonk gave Marcius a questioning look, not understanding why he would refer to him like that. He grabbed onto his hand and used it to climb onto his back.

"The lever!" yelled Atla, still dangling at the bottom.

Only the lever could turn the spaceship around, and that's where Yonk was heading. It was too difficult to reach it, so he had to stand on the shoulder of Marcius, who was still hanging only by one hand, and use the entire length of his short body. Marcius was barely able to bear the pressure. Yonk's spiked boots pressed into his ear. He cried out in pain, and his muscles trembled with tension. Just a second longer and his numb fingers would have lost their grip and all three of them would have fallen onto the crystals below, but Yonk managed just in time. He flipped the switch hidden under the panel and the spaceship immediately began to straighten itself out.  

The ship slowly turned around its axis, assuming the correct position. Atla collapsed onto the smooth floor. Yonk, still breathless with agitation, was already busy checking the surrounding space. Marcius was holding onto his overworked arm and scratched up ear. None of them could quite believe that they survived the collision.

"You called me father?" Yonk asked Marcius in surprise.

Marcius looked at him in silence. Atla looked away - she knew what happened to Marcius' parents, and understood why this exact word came to his mind in this critical moment.

"Doesn't matter. We need to realign the ship's trajectory," said Marcius.

The three of them got to work.

"It's too bad we lost so much speed," Yonk lamented. He recalculated the route, and Marcius rebooted the systems. Atla set the speed, and they could finally relax again.

"We're in the clear now, but from now on we have to be constantly monitoring our surroundings," Yonk concluded, "This star system is unpredictable! There's probably someone out there."

"Yes," Atla agreed.

They sat in silence for a long time. For the first time, Yonk didn't go down into his laboratory but stayed here with them.

"Your father died?" he asked Marcius all of a sudden.

The Tulonian was taken by surprise. This was the first personal question Yonk had ventured to ask, and you could see in his eyes that he was genuinely curious to know the answer.

"Both my father and mother," Marcius replied dryly.

"And you saw it happen," the Pacifian guessed.

"Yes," said the Tulonian sadly.

"Tell us the story," Atla asked him.

"I've never told anyone about it, not even my friends," said Marcius.

"Then tell it to your enemies," the priestess smiled, "Tell it, you need to tell it to someone! We have several months of silence in store in any case."

Unwillingly, Marcius began to tell his story.