Flowings
by Anatol Rathbaurer
Sector - Unknown
Empire - Unknown
Q-dex - Unknown
"He didn't respond to his environment
at all. When a telepath tried to access patient 1024-B-83's mind, he collapsed
dead
on the ground. Through galacto-genetical
analysis we have an idea of where he came from, but even the TFP we queried
didn't know anything about the location
- surprisingly he answered with "No reply.", which means that he was old
enough
to know about the place, but that
there was some other problem. So we were forced to try to acquire further
information
by force. Interestingly enough, although
his pain-receptors indicated he felt the pain, he did again not seem to
notice it. We
were unable to retain any information
about and/or from patient 1024-B-83 by intruding into his mind, the use
of torture and
a TFP. If he is typical of his race,
its members would make perfect Vestis Inquisitas."
- Excerpt from the report file on "Patient 1024-B-83",
who appeared on an Omnet ship without an explanation
* * * * *
Lil'Tkuhl~brq* walked on the soft,
wet grass below his feet. The wood under his feet gave him a certain security.
He looked up into the pink sky
and saw a few blue clouds drift by. Lifting one of his
three hands he screened his eye against the suns to follow a small bird
with his gaze. When the
giant dragon was out of sight, he continued to stroll
towards thebridge, sending out ultra-sonic screams to find the way as he
did have no eyes. The
bridge, which was cut out of a single stone, appeared
in front of him and Lil'Tkuhl~brq* accelerated his speed as he wanted to
get home as quickly
as possible. He stepped on the wooden planks of the hanging
bridge and the countless feet of his insectoid lower body sounded like
rain erupting from
the earth and racing into the sky. Below him the ice-cold
water of the river roared past the bridge, and Lil'Tkuhl~brq* picked up
a small stone from
the gravel that was scattered all about the chain-bridge
and threw it into the water. Halfway down the stick was swallowed by an
eruption of the lava
flowing below.
Lil'Tkuhl~brq* stepped on the comforting
sand he had walked on for hours again. He had set out from home just to
walk around a bit, and now he
was getting farther away from it with every step he made.
He smelled a noise behind him and turned around to look at its source.
There he was, thirty
meters behind him on the bridge: Lil'Tkuhl~brq*, who
had just thrown a stone into the water. He stuck his head through his liquid
upper body and had
it come out on top again, facing the direction he was
flowing in again. What fun it would be to return home soon, when he was
back in Lok'nar, the town
he had set out to, and from which he had come. It was
a Frig*Gkar pilgrimage, a journey without end or beginning. He was still
young, almost too young
for it, many had thought, but now he was underway. His
handsome face looked around and spotted a fox in the bushes. Drawing his
sword with his right
hand, he jumped back to defend himself. The fox, which
appeared out of nothing to his rear, leaped forward, his maw wide open.
The bullet Lil'Tkuhl~brq*'s
drawn gun ejected hit it on the last moment.
Suddenly a bright flash of light raced
through the blue evening sky, and had it not blinded the fox for a moment
to give Lil'Tkuhl~brq* the chance
to break its neck, the man would have been killed by
the beast. "Next time I shouldn't miss again," he mused. Struggling to
his feet after the flash of light
had sent him down onto the ground where he had lain numbly
for more than a minute, he saw an object entering Finsdwson's atmosphere
in a great ball
of fire. Lil'Tkuhl~brq* spread his wings to fly over
to the crashsite to find a kind of box, which was somehow continually *not*
changing its shape, but then
again, everything seemed normal when it dissolved slowly
in the ground. To his right stood Lil'Tkuhl~brq*, and before this other
Lil'Tkuhl~brq*'s humanoid
form melted into that of a bear, he said to his melting
counterpart:
"You're back!"
"I've never been away," he replied,
before his paw struck out to rip Lil'Tkuhl~brq* open, and he fed on him,
like bears do. Then he pulled his hat a bit
deeper into his face and continued to follow the Frig*Gkar
path, as humans used to when they were still young.
* * * * *
Ronda Bragghins sat on a small stool
in a dark corner of the tiny room. Basically, it was an empty cell, except
for the stool she currently sat on and
the restraining seat in the middle of the room, which
was permanently lighted by a lamp in the ceiling. The Vestis Inquisitas
had been observing the man
in the restraining seat for hours. He was a normal human,
with brown hair, brown eyes and a nice face. Maybe it would even have been
handsome, if the
eyes weren't red and sore because the man had never closed
them since he had been found on the Omnet ship almost two months ago. Now
he was lying
in the seat, eyes wide open, with a somewhat sad expression
on his face. He couldn't move an inch, the titanium clamps around his limbs,
throat and forehead
assured that, but Ronda knew that even if they had been
removed, the man wouldn't give as much a lifesign as raising a finger.
They had already tried that.
Among other things she had had to do, but didn't want
to think of now. The man, patient 1024-B-83, was still a complete mystery.
Sometimes the Vestis
thought that the man was dead already, but when she checked
his pulse, he was always well alive. It appeared that he simply didn't
know how to react to his surroundings.
"Vestis Bragghins, report to the bridge!" cracked a metallic voice through the chamber.
With a sigh Ronda lifted herself from
the stool and walked to the security door that sealed the room. Her fingers
flew over a numeric pad, and an instant
later the door opened almost noiselessly.
The bridge was, like the rest of the
destroyer, dark and threatening. Dim lighting assured that you never forgot
you were on a military vessel, although
the energy aboard would have been sufficient enough to
increase the lighting until all crewmen were blind from it. A screen opposite
of the three lift-doors
displayed some data in green letters, while a three-dimensional
starmap floated in the mid of the room, separated from the area of the
bridge crew by a half-
high railing. Facing the screen were the consoles of
the bridge crew, and amid them the Captain's command chair. Right now Captain
Jonus was standing in
front of the data-screen, though.
As the lift-door closed behind Ronda and five soldiers snapped to attention, the Captain remarked without turning around to her:
"Ah, Vestis Inquisitas Bragghins! We
should arrive at the Quantum Front any minute now, and I
thought you should be present when
we cross it. After all, this is your brainchild, isn't it?"
"This is the "brainchild", as you call it, of the Vestis Inquisitas. I am merely carrying out the mission."
When the Vestis noticed her harsh tone, she added: "Of course you could say it was me who drew the Vestis's attention towards it."
The First Officer, who had approached
Ronda from beside, smiled at her and nodded in approval of the polite turn
she had given her words. Suddenly
a siren howled three times, and an officer announced:
"Quantum Front detected in three hundred kilometers distance."
"Excellent!" exclaimed the Captain. He stepped back and faced his crew, while he fingered at his mustache with his left hand.
"Ready all redundant drives to take over upon crossing! Raise shields, power to maximum! Activate weapons banks!"
Ronda Bragghins had frowned upon that last order, but it was the Captain's ship, and she had no word in how he ran it.
"Would you like to give the command that may change the history of Omnet's struggle for complete control of the galactic knowledge?"
It took Ronda a while before she realized she was meant, and even then she only reluctantly said:
"Go ahead!"
In fact she was far too pre-occupied
by her thoughts about what they were about to encounter. Entering a new,
unexplored Q-Zone was always
risky, and the stoic man who was locked away in the ship's
innards was no help either. She had strange feelings about the prisoner,
and much alike
she had strange feelings about this Q-Zone. By all means
the man Omnet had discovered lying on a floor *inside* one of their ships
was healthy and
sane, but his autistic attitude belied that. It was simply
inexplicable.
The Captain was smiling confidently
while he was watching his officers preparing the crossing. The Omnet destroyer
was a mighty ship, and it would
be able to cope with virtually anything that would be
on the other side. Its drives were able to propel the ship throughout the
known universe, and its
armament was impressive. Even if it encountered hostile
aliens, the destroyer would be able to escape unharmed due to its extra-inforced
shields. Indeed,
the Captain was very proud of his fine vessel.
"About to enter Quantum Front... no
readings from the other side... all systems normal...
Quantum Weather inconspicuous..."
the various officers reported.
Then the ship rocked violently and the lights flickered for a moment. They were crossing the Front. For a while, there was nothing. Then there was chaos.
"Exiting front... Captain, we're directly inside a star system!"
"Sir, energy dropping!"
"Sensor readings down!"
Ronda felt strange, as if she didn't
belong here. The feeling got worse, and she began to feel sick and swindly.
She didn't belong here. It was wrong...
panic struck her, and she became hysterical when she
sensed the ship was not the ship anymore. An officer cried out aloud:
"The star system... impossible... it's...
no... hehe..." then he broke out into a maniacal, cackling laughter. "Pool
balls... it's only pool balls..." he repeated,
while he tried to read a screen that wasn't really there
anymore. It should have been, and it was, but somehow everyone, including
the officer, felt it wasn't
there anymore. As if it had flown away.
The Captain fell to his knees and clenched
his head with his hands. They belonged to a stranger. The floor beneath
him wasn't metal anymore. His
senses broke down. He screamed in his low, reverberating
voice. The high-pitched scream pulled Ronda away from the image of the
chuckling, crying
officer, who, for some reason, now really held a pool
ball in his hands. The high-pitched scream? The Vestis stumbled towards
the lift, she just wanted to
get off the bridge, as her senses weren't able anymore
to process the contradictory information. The lift-doors opened (Doors?
There had been only one?)
and she threw herself into the lift, and at least the
pain that erupted in her head when she forgot to catch herself told her
she was still alive. Ronda pushed
the round button of Deck 4. The corner of the button
stung into the sensitive skin of her finger, and she lurched back from
the sensation that shouldn't -
couldn't - be. Deck 4. That was were she needed to go.
To the man in the restraining seat.
She exited the lift when it halted
and ran into a gangway she recognized, but didn't know where from. The
rubble on the floor irritated her. A wooden
door stopped her, and as soon as she had opened it, she
knew she was wrong: this was the engineering, not Deck 4. Turning around
she tumbled back into
the gangway, but this time she seemed to be on the right
way, although this still had to be Deck 6 instead of 4. Underway she met
a crewman who cowered
in a corner and tried to nestle his beltcase open, where
his weapon was. Finally he managed to rip it open and produced his gun.
The man looked almost
happily into the nozzle of the blaster and pulled the
trigger. Blazing energy consumed his head. For a brief moment Ronda considered
doing the same, but
something urged her to go on and look for the man. After
a few steps, or some hundred meters, she couldn't tell anymore, Ronda reached
the prisoner's
room. The doors swished open immediately and she fell
onto her knees on the floor inside.
The man was there, sitting in a comfortable
ear-chair and smiling at her. His eyes were sore, but filled with life,
and he smiled. On the opposite side of
the room was a second door, and someone lay there, apparently
dead. Ronda touched her breast as if to support her breathing and looked
at the former
prisoner in awe. He was alive again. The restraining
seat was gone. And he smiled... he looked happy. The light above him went
out. Suddenly the ground
below her seemed to lurch again, felt soft and hard at
the same time, and Ronda wasn't at home in her body anymore. She clenched
her head with both
hands and screamed in pain. The last thing she saw before
she passed over into the afterlife was herself coming through the door
on the other side of the
room, falling down.
* * * * *
He was home. The flow of life, the
flow of constant change was there again. The nightmare-world that had held
him prisoner within his own mind,
caught in a constant state of immobility and depression,
had gone away. Slowly and carefully he stepped out of the wreckage that
was the last remainder
of his cage beyond the barrier. Flapping sounds made
him aware of the being that approached him rapidly. Lil'Tkuhl~brq* landed
to his left and looked
at the cage, which was dissolving already. He looked
at Lil'Tkuhl~brq* and recognized his own face. Lil'Tkuhl~brq*, who had
just emerged from the
wreckage, savored in the feeling of dissolving into another
form. Lil'Tkuhl~brq* threw him a startled look and said:
"You're back!"
"I've never been away," replied Lil'Tkuhl~brq*
and struck out with his paw to rip Lil'Tkuhl~brq* open, as he was hungry
and had to gather strength
for the remainder of his Frig*Gkar pilgrimage.