The Saturn Transgression

by Benestro

"Well Suds old pal, You said you wanted out of the system."

The Saturn Transgression

I

Rayfe Tassk took one last drag from his cigar, and then flicked the smoldering butt over the alarmingly corroded safety rail of landing platform B77. He watched it drop for a few feet before it disappeared in the boiling Venusian cloud cover below. A mild twinge of vertigo assailed him and he stepped away from the edge, walking casually back to the battered metallic ellipsoid that was his home and livelyhood, the light freighter Celestial Bounty.

Tassk cut a swashbuckling figure; a swarthy, rangy man with dark hair carefully trimmed to downplay a receding hairline and a thick, resplendent moustache dominating the space between his hawkish nose and often grinning mouth. His tight black trousers and flaring white shirt were immaculately tailored, and his tall spacer's boots were polished to a mirror sheen. Many who would criticize such foppish attire might be dissuaded by sight of the chromed, pearl handled gauss pistol that hung low in an elaborately tooled black leather gun belt.

Standing at the foot of the lowered cargo ramp, Tassk rubbed the stubble on his square jaw and impatiently eyeballed the small structure at the far end of the platform where the surface-lift would emerge. He was impatient to leave. Venus had been sufficiently terraformed in the past century or two to allow for mask-free breathing, but the air was still foul, even at this altitude.

Finally he yelled toward the interior of the Bounty. "Hey, Suds! What time is it?"

"Time for you to purchase a chronometer!" came the gravelly reply. The speaker came down the ramp to join Tassk. Skeks Sudzdozin, A.K.A "Suds", was a lean humanoid of a space-faring species originating in the Sagittarius Arm. He was of middle height and covered in a worn, dirty green flight suit. His skin was hairless and a deep blue. His large bulbous head was near featureless, save for a heavy brow ridge over enormous crimson eyes and a stern slash of a mouth. His teeth were large, white and unsettlingly regular.

Suds was the registered captain of the Bounty, and in a former life was the respected owner of a legitimate shipping company, before the consolidation of the Congress of Federated Systems into the Stellar Empire caused him to go bankrupt, forcing him to earn a seedier living consorting with scoundrels like Rayfe Tassk.

Suds groped in a pocket on his suit and produced a data pad in his long-fingered hand, and thrust its display in Tassk's face.

"Fifteen forty-four." he stated. "Sixteen of your terran minutes until the client is supposed to arrive."

"Yeah, yeah…I just want to get out of here. I don't want any run- ins with the VCC. They've gotten pretty trigger-happy since the Phobos Tong heisted that load right off the pad at Terra Nova."

"Serves them right for suppressing Organic Crystallography." grunted Suds.

Tassk rolled his eyes. "Geez, enough with the conspiracy theories! You sound like that springnut that was suing your planet for abducting his great-to the third power granddad."

"He sued the Reticulans! Who are a quadrant away and not even in the same phylum as my race! You are specist as hell, Tassk! And mark my words, once Organic Crystallography becomes practical, the Venus Crystal Company will go the way of the Venusian Man-Lizards they exterminated!"

"Relax pal! don't get your splanch in an uproar. Look! Here comes the lift."

The surface-lift car creaked up to the platform and locked noisily in place. The Company barely maintained landing platform B77 these days as it was in remote and unprofitable region, precisely why Tassk selected it for this rendezvous.

"Stay frosty, Suds!" Tassk said with a grin.

The doors of the lift opened and disgorged a hulking figure in a battered vacc-suit leading a repulsor sled loaded with what looked to be a large black casket.

Tassk looped his thumbs in his gun belt and sauntered forward.

"Greetings, gentlebeing! Rayfe Tassk, at your service."

The figure slowly swiveled its torso until the reflective surface of its visor was aimed at Tassk. It loomed over seven feet tall, its whole form was obscured by the vacc-suit witch seemed cobbled together from varied and sundry parts. It made no reply to Tassk's greeting save a slight nod/bow.

"Allrighty then." said Tassk. "Go ahead and board, we'll stow your cargo and be off… oh yes, there's the matter of the fifteen hundred credit advance."

The figure nodded again, and held out a credit voucher. Rayfe seized it and slid it into his hip pocket.

"Excellent! Thank you!" Tassk stepped aside and indicated the boarding ramp with a dramatic sweep of his arm. The giant trundled up the gangplank, the automated repulsor sled following closely behind.

Suds scowled at the hulking passenger's back. "I don't like it. That suit is clearly meant to hide that being's appearance!"

Tassk shrugged and thrust a new cigar between his teeth. "If he were the gregarious sort, he might have gone with a mainstream freight company as opposed to us."

Suds fixed Tassk with his crimson orbs. "By mainstream, you mean legal, correct?"

"Look pal, I…"

Before Tassk could fire off his witty retort, a searing blast shrieked out of the boiling sky and scorched the surface between the two spacemen. The black mosquito-like shape of a Venus Crystal Company interceptor hurtled toward them, flame guns blazing.

Suds leapt dexterously and scampered up the boarding ramp, heading to the cockpit to fire up the Bounty's powerful ion engines. In one blinding, fluid motion, Tassk drew his gauss pistol and sent a stream of explosive flechettes hissing toward the bulbous windscreen of the interceptor. Through skill or luck the flechettes found a weak point and there was a fiery explosion inside the interceptor's cockpit, and the craft cart wheeled into the thick clouds below. Tassk grinned and started to congratulate himself, but then he noticed the other six interceptors bearing down on them.

He raced up the ramp and toward the cockpit, pausing to grin sheepishly at the mysterious passenger.

"Better strap in, this might get a tad hairy."

There was a heavy thud and the Bounty lurched. Tassk was nearly thrown headlong into the bulkhead, but kept his feet. He felt the heaviness of acceleration and knew the Bounty was taking off. He thrust his head into the cockpit.

"We're taking hits, Suds! Better beef up those shields!"

"I'm glad I have you here to remind me of such matters, Tassk! Get on the turret and keep those interceptors off our haunches until I can clear the gravity well!"

"Righty-oh, buddy!"

Tassk raced through the ship to the hatch of the gun turret that tracked laterally across the outer edge of the Bounty's elliptical hull. He strapped into the chair and struggled to adjust to the null gravity in the turret that would keep him from being injured as it raced to and fro. Swinging the turret around, he sought the pursuing ships in the targeting scope. Outside the transparent bubble the clouds of Venus where fading and the star pocked blackness of outer space was asserting itself. Red lances of light streaked around the Bounty, or splashed against her deflector screens. The VCC interceptors had switched from flamers to plasma canons as they left the Venusian atmosphere.

Tassk confined his attention to the computer generated images in the scope. The six interceptors appeared.

"There you are, you grasping bastards!"

He locked the crosshairs on the lead VCC ship and squeezed the firing actuator. The Bounty's Quad Anti-matter Canons spat crackling bolts of annihilation at her pursuers. The lead interceptor blossomed in a fiery ball. The remaining ships veered of at right angles to the Bounty and sped away.

Grinning, Tassk reclined in the turret and addressed Suds over the intercom.

"That's that, old buddy! Those rock mongers can't deal with the likes of us!"

Suds' voice crackled angrily over the speaker.

"Look again, you idiot! Point oh-five past the elliptical!"

Tassk swung the turret around to view the location Suds described. Hurtling towards the Bounty was the cyclopean crescent of a VCC battleship. Along it's leading edge multiple points of burning red swelled as its cannons charged to fire.

"Make the jump, now, Suds!" bellowed Tassk.

"Working on it! These co-ordinates your client provided are damned obtuse."

Gelid gouts of red plasma spewed fro the battleship, in seconds they would engulf Celestial Bounty. Tassk stared wide eyed as fiery destruction bore down on him.

"Suds! Make the jump…NOW!

II

Picoseconds before the crimson plasma bolts would have obliterated the Celestial Bounty; Suds activated the hyperdrive that shunted the freighter into a parallel dimension where the speed of light is more easily surpassed. Tassk watched briefly as space warped and elongated beyond the transpasteel bubble of the turret, then climbed back to the interior of the ship. To gaze upon the writhing chaos that was hyperspace was not conducive to one's sanity.

Heading to the cockpit, he once again passed through the main passenger area. Their mysterious client sat stiffly in an acceleration couch, still encased in its patchwork vacc suit. Close by, the black slab-like casket sat on its repulsor sled nearby.

"Sorry about the ruckus, but that happens a lot nowadays when you try to bypass the VCC's traffic policy, that's why we charge a security surcharge. Anyways… all good? Need anything?"

The suited figure made no response, verbal or otherwise. Tassk stood around awkwardly for a few seconds.

"Ohh-kaay… we should reach your destination in about fifteen, twenty minutes. I'll let you know."

Tassk made his way down the short corridor to the cockpit, and took a seat at the communications console behind and to the left of the pilot's seat, were Suds busied himself at the controls. His expression was one of consternation, but Tassk had rarely seen him otherwise. Perhaps it was normal for his species. He leaned closer to the pilot and muttered conspiratorially.

"That guy out there is one weird dude."

"Indeed? He's probably exactly the kind of 'dude' that surreptitiously hires smugglers to carry him to unsanctioned co-ordinates. We don't have time for idle speculation Tassk. We took some solid hits and I don't like the readings I'm getting from the sub-light engines. I'll need to work on them when we set down."

Tassk grinned and slapped suds on the back.

"I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle old' buddy."

Suds grunted in annoyance and busied himself with the controls. Tassk reclined and half dozed while imagining the ways he would waste his share of the profits from this latest venture.

Presently, the coarse guttural of Suds roused him from his brown study.

"Wake up, Tassk! I need you on sensors!"

"On it, what's the problem?"

"We've arrived. And I don't like it, look there!"

Tassk followed the long blue finger that pointed "up" from the canopy. Tassk whistled as he recognized what filled the sky, a roiling multicolored storm thousands of kilometers across, in the shape of a perfect hexagon. Recognizing this, he also knew where their clients co-ordinates had brought them; a polar orbit over the planet Saturn.

"Would you look at that? No wonder our buddy is so secretive! This orbit's been off limits since the Old Earth Saturn probe days! We get caught here…"

"Quit prattling will you?" snapped Suds. "I need readings on that!"

Again the pilot stabbed a finger at the canopy. He pointed to a blot that was growing larger as the Bounty hurtled toward it. To Tassk it looked like a squat grey cylinder of stone. Swiveling over to the sensor suite, Tassk thrust his face into the hooded scope.

It showed nothing save the roiling surface of Saturn.

"Something's wrong. That things not showing on the scope."

Suds nodded his bulbous head grimly.

"I suspected as much. That's our destination though. I have to take us in the old fashioned way, better strap in."

Suds, with the steely nerves and supreme dexterity of a veteran spacer, eased the Bounty closer to the object now revealed to be a massive disk, half a kilometer thick and two kilometers across. It did not seem metallic, nor constructed like a typical spacecraft, it seemed to be carved out of some cyclopean asteroid.

A green light began flashing on the communications board. Tassk swiveled around again to investigate.

"Navigational beacon. Just cut on."

"It's about damned time. Final approach. Looks like I'll be setting her down in one of those pits lining the circumference."

Following the beacon, Suds guided the Bounty into a vast, circular pit. A rough circle of portable lamps had been set out to delineate a landing area. Seconds after Suds started the descent, the ship shuddered and lurched. Cursing, Suds wrestled it back on course.

"Sub lights are losing continuity, the helm is sluggish."

Tassk scowled. "You better bring your A-game fixing them, buddy. We don't want to loiter around here to long."

Suds' heavy brow ridge drew together in irritation, but he remained silent, concentrating on performing a controlled landing. After a few tense, but uneventful moments, the freighter was resting on the surface.

Tassk checked the sensor scope.

"Atmo reads breathable. How convenient. Time to unload and collect the rest of out money."

Suds leapt from the pilot's seat and went to the ship's locker to collect tools, while Tassk strolled to the passenger area with an affected air of nonchalance. The mysterious space suited giant was on his feet already, repulsor sled by his side. Tassk escorted him to the cargo bay and lowered the boarding ramp.

"After you!"

The being strode deliberately down the ramp, ebon casket in tow. Tassk followed, discreetly releasing the retaining strap on his holstered gauss pistol. Taking the short range comm-lock from his belt, he signaled suds.

"I'm leaving this keyed on buddy, if you hear anything crazy happening…well, act accordingly."

"Acknowledged."

Tassk followed the client down a short hall, illuminated by glowing squares spaced evenly along the walls. This opened out into a large chamber. A stone dais rested in the center of the chamber, and upon this was a peculiar mental framework. A beam of light stabbed down diagonally from the ceiling, illuminating the dais. The mystery client stopped the repulsor sled by the dais and began the process of opening the casket.

Tassk cleared his throat in an exaggerated fashion. "Yeah…so… If we could conclude the matter of the rest of our payment, we'll leave you to it."

The being paused and his mirrored helmet seemed to regard Tassk. At length he rose and walked to the other side of the dais where he retrieved a smaller version of the black casket. This he brought to Tassk and placed at his feet. That done he returned to opening the large casket. Tassk knelt and examined the squat black object. He found the lid opened with a slight pressure and swung noiselessly upward. What he saw inside nearly brought a cry to his lips. The casket was filled to the rim with Venusian Crystals, of a value far in excess of the agreed upon price. True, they would be problematic to fence, but Tassk knew a being…

"You're more than generous, I'll…"

Tassk cut short his pleasantries as he saw what the suited being was pulling out of his casket. It was a girl, shaped like one anyway. Her skin was a weird phosphorescent green that had the suggestion of transparency, yet know bones or organs were visible through it. Her hair was a feathery mass of light blue that was cropped just short of her shoulders. She was naked save for a silvery hexagonal plate fastened across her chest that was festooned with glowing jewels. When her eyes fluttered open, Tassk saw they were golden and glowing.

The space suited being carried the girl up to the framework on the dais and began fastening her to it. She was groggily pliable at first, but as she regained her senses she began struggling weakly and protesting in a strange lilting speech. The being ignored her and finished securing her in the framework, then started arranging a system of attached lenses in front of her. These seemed to focus the light form the ceiling into an intense beam that struck the plate on her chest. The phosphorescent green girl began to scream.

Tassk knew it was none of his business. He'd been paid for services rendered, and one of those services was to mind his own business and keep his mouth shut. He should walk away, take the money and walk away. That would be the smart thing to do.

Tassk stepped forward.

"Hey pal, that seems to be hurting her. Maybe you ought to cut her loose?"

The client ignored him, and started rearranging an array of multicolored crystals on a pedestal beside the metallic frame. The girl began to wail in pain and despair.

"Damnation!" muttered Tassk as he mounted the pedestal.

He'd barely sat foot on it when the suited being snapped up and charged. Tassk went for his pistol but was seized roughly by the throat and hurled to the floor before the weapon cleared the holster. Gasping and struggling he tried to rise. The space suited giant was upon him, gauntleted fists raised to deliver a crushing blow. Tassk fired a wild shot. The explosive round stuck the being full in the chest and detonated.

Tassk gazed in shock, for the creature did not fall, it merely stumbled backward. its helmet and most of the suit around the torso had been destroyed, revealing an ophidian nightmare of a head; flat, toad like, rows of spiky peg-like teeth. The chest was a mass of ropey, wriggling tentacles. Tassk tried to fire again but the thing was upon him, pinning his gun-hand to the floor with it's great foot it reached down with one might hand and sized his throat, squeezing, crushing. Rayfe Tassk's vision became a black tunnel that terminated with the loathsome reptilian countenance of his murderer. All the while, the girl wailed.

Then there was the sound of four thunderclaps, accompanied by four blinding flashes. The pressure on Tassk's throat relented and air once more filled his lungs. Shaking his head, he looked up. Suds was leaning over him, replacing the magazine of the ugly little Thorium blaster he usually kept tucked in pocket of his flight suit.

"Still with us Tassk?"

"Still with ya." he rasped. "Thanks buddy, that's another one I owe ya."

Suds grunted an affirmation and helped Tassk to his feet. The pilot examined the carcass of their late client while the Earthman staggered toward the dais where the girl now whimpered.

Suds prodded and poked at the cadaver with the stubby barrel of his blaster.

"By the Void!" he exclaimed. "I think this being is a Venusian Man-Lizard! The VCC supposedly wiped them all out."

"Well old pal, maybe you finished the job for 'em. Come help me get this girl loose."

Suds climbed up and began examining the contraption in which the weird girl was encased. Tassk glanced toward the source of the light, finding it was emanating from a long shaft that led to the surface. He could make out the roiling surface of the Hexagon framed by the opening. How the breathable atmosphere was being contained he could not fathom.

A rattling drew his attention back to the apparatus. Suds had freed the girl and was easing her down to a sitting position on the edge of the dais.

"She okay?" asked Tassk, looking nervously about.

"How should I know? I'm no doctor, or xenobiologist."

Tassk grimaced and started to retrieve the box of crystals, coming adjacent to the casket that housed the girl something caught his eye. He reached into the casket and brought it out, a hexagonal tablet of some yellow metal, inscribed with hieroglyphs.

"look at this, Suds. Can you make anything of these markings?"

"Why would I? I'm no archeologist either! You are really…wait, Actually those look familiar. Give it to me."

Tassk passed the tablet into Suds' great spidery hands. He glanced at the girl, and found her staring at him with her strange luminescent eyes. He grinned and gave her a wink. She smiled, revealing neat rows of crystalline teeth.

He was about to speak when Suds interjected.

"This writing, it's a form of what my people call Dhgthmic, but it was also found on your planet and named Aklo by your earth scholars. I had occasion to learn it while ferrying artifacts to the museum on New Estikklen. My knowledge is sketchy but this seems to name the occupant of the casket as The Matrix of Cykranosh, The Opener of the Way, Releaser of Az…Aza…something or other. The rest is instructions for something, probably whatever our late client was doing to her."

"Matrix of What?"

"Cykranosh"

Tassk turned to the strange creature sitting on the dais. She really didn't look half bad once you got over the strangeness of her.

"Matrix of Cykranosh." he mumbled.

"The girl smiled. "Ma-trix." she said.

Tassk smiled and tapped his chest. "Rayfe Tassk."

The girl tapped the metallic plate on her bosom. "Ma-trix?"

"Yeah, We can call you that. Hey Suds, say hello to Matrix!"

"You are a ridiculous individual, Rayfe Tassk." grumbled the pilot. "We need to get out of here. I don't know what this was all about but it can't be good. We need to get far away from Saturn, preferably out of the system all together."

Tassk reached into his belt pouch and produced a cigar. "Relax pal! Whatever that guy was up to you put a stop to it when you blew his head off. This place is obviously sensor shielded. Let's take our time, fix the Bounty, get to know our new friend, maybe…"

Dust began to fall around Tassk as he spoke, followed by a few pebbles, then larger stones. The whole structure began vibrating.

"Oh, Drakk!" swore Suds. "Get to the ship!"

Tassk grabbed Matrix by the wrist and drug her behind him, scooping up the cask of crystals as he raced by. The floor of the structure began pitching wildly.

"It's always something!" he mused darkly.

Suds was already preparing to take of when Tassk entered the cockpit. He deposited Matrix at the comm station and sat down by the sensor suite.

"Did you get the sub-lights fixed?" he asked.

Suds shook his head.

"Not completely, I need more time and access to a workshop. Hopefully we can clear the gravity well."

The celestial Bounty rose up from the pit as it began collapsing around it. The great disc was crumbling like a stale biscuit.

In seconds the freighter was clear of the structure, but it was slow, sluggish. Suds struggled with the controls.

"We don't have the trust to break the gravity well. The sub-lights are only working at maybe forty percent. Take the helm, Tassk. I'm going to the engine room."

Tassk took over as Suds raced aft to the engines. He was no mean pilot, if not the equal of his alien partner. He busied himself with his gauges and switches when a cry from Matrix drew his attention. She pointed out. He followed her finger and gazed upon the great Polar Hexagon. It was different

The roiling colors of the storm had turned to a calm, flat, obsidian field peppered with points of light. Could they be stars? But there was more, something else occupied the cold neverness framed in the clouds of Saturn. Tassk could not quite perceive it, or his subconscious would not allow him to perceive it. There was the suggestion of tendrils, mouths, bubbles. And somehow, across the vacuum of space, there came a subtle piping. Matrix buried her face in her hands and wept.

The Bounty was falling. Her crippled engine no longer capable of resisting the pull of Saturn's gravity. Falling into the vast black Hexagon.

Tassk keyed the intercom. "Suds! We have to go! Do you have the sub-lights back up?"

"No. there's no way to fix them here. I need parts."

"Then I'm making the jump to light speed."

"Are you insane? You make the jump from inside Saturn's gravity well we'll be ripped to shreds!"

Tassk chuckled grimly.

"That's a damn sight better than what's going to happen to us if we don't jump!"

"Don't do anything! I'm coming up!"

The void yawned closer.

Tassk moved aside and allowed Suds back in the pilot seat. The alien's long fingers raced nimbly along the control panel. "It's no good. The navi-computer won't hold onto co-ordinates, something's making it randomize."

Tassk pointed to the inky chaotic blackness than now enveloped the canopy. "You see that? You want to go in there? Make the jump!"

Matrix reached out, her translucent fingers gracefully caressed the control panel. The readout on the navi-computer ceased its chaotic rambling and stabilized on a set of numbers.

"Jump." she said.

Suds shrugged and pushed the actuator forward.

Tassk first became aware of blueness. He blinked his eyes and found himself still in the cockpit of the Bounty. Suds was slumped over the control yoke, and Matrix lie in a fetal position on the grav-plates. The whole cockpit was bathed in a blue light that emanated from the great orb of a planet that spun beneath them. Tassk reached out and shook his friend.

"Suds, ol' pal. Still with us?"

Suds groaned and opened his bulbous, crimson eyes, now strangely purple in the blue light.

"Still with you."

Suds checked his instruments.

"Whatever happened in that jump, it gave us some control back. I think I can set us down on that planet."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"What choice do we have? I have to land to have any hope of repairing the Bounty. I have to unship the sub-lights and reroute the fluidics. We need solid ground for that."

The Bounty began it's descent toward the surface of the mysterious blue planet. Matrix woke, and weakly struggled back into the communications chair. Tassk checked the sensors.

"Atmo reads breathable. Radiation isn't too bad. There's some weird readings down there though… What the hell?"

A bright blue light crept across the face of the planet. Like a star, but too small, the size of a moon. It's light became blinding as it passed between the planet and the Celestial Bounty.

Tassk winced and reached for the control that polarized the canopy.

"Well Suds old pal, you wanted out of the system."

In a soft lilting voice, Matrix spoke a strange, unnerving utterance;

"Beneath and behind azure Xathar rears the citadel of Ibak.

Beneath and below azure Xathar strive the e'Kos, the Glrnar, the Ulfire men.

Beneath azure Xathar their blood runs and pools, obsidian black.

Beneath azure Xathar the denizens of Gonshu doth writhe and grasp.

And all their nightmares are as dreams of paradise."