Alien Walk (STAR-DUST 25) E-Book

Jens F. Simon

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 85

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Sigurd meets the mysterious insectoid human Takaarrath. He too carries a secret, but he himself knows nothing about it; he is the last descendant of the Neensziss people. Aliens who once built the 'City of a Thousand Stars' on Venus and who simply disappeared around 200 years ago after the Great War. Together they set off in search of the legendary AREA 51, where the path to the "New Worlds" is said to be located.

Leseprobe

STAR-DUST

Under the spell of nanites

Volume 25

Alien Walk

© 2025 Jens F. Simon

Illustration: S. Verlag JG

Publisher: S. Verlag JG, 35767 Breitscheid,

All rights reserved

Distributed by: epubli a service of neopubli GmbH, Berlin

ISBN: 978-3-819055-20-1

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any exploitation without the consent of the publisher and the author is prohibited and will be prosecuted under criminal and civil law. This applies to electronic or other reproduction, translation, distribution and making available to the public.

Life means adventure. Only the brave finds their way to the stars.

Table of content 

The outer space

City of a Thousand Stars

The power of the Neensziss

The last of its kind

The fuse autocracy

Later Past II

People unwanted

The power of the past

Escape back

The outer space

The gondola of stardust shot through the opened shaft with increasing speed.

I clung fearfully to the armrests of my chair, not knowing where to look first, at the three-dimensional, frameless holographic screen that was directly in front of me or through the ceiling that had become transparent above me.

The dark gray walls of the excursion shaft just flew past the gondola, and before I felt nauseous, I turned to the screen.

Here, there was no sign of the speedy ride. It still showed the salt lake. I glanced a little uncertainly over at Takaarrath. He was sitting perfectly calm and relaxed in his chair.

I could only assume that he was steering this space boat solely with the power of his thoughts. In any case, there were no other visible control instruments around him, except for the holographic screen.

On the three-dimensional holo-screen, the image suddenly changed.

I could clearly see amid the vast expanse of salt the dark, rectangular abyss of the open excursion shaft from which our spacecraft was now shooting.

The shots were taken from a great height, I noticed immediately. But where they really came from, I did not know.

Was there perhaps another spacecraft above us? No, Takaarrath would have already let me know that.

Before I could ponder any further, the view changed again, and now the frameless holo-screen showed a dense collection of clouds moving sideways away from us. I had no doubt that the screen now showed our direction of flight.

"Takaarrath, I hope you know what you're doing!"

I had spoken aloud, not knowing if I was telepathically interfering with his mental communication with the pod.

The band of clouds we just flew through dissolved without transition and dark space lay directly in front of us.

Although, it wasn't that dark at all. Billions of stars blinked at us, in all imaginable sizes, colors and shapes. At first, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

From the earth's surface I had never been able to perceive such a splendor of colors. Everything seemed somehow fantastic and unearthly to me.

"The colors of the stars you see were of course colored by GELCKSITT according to their significance, distance and size. Normally, the light tends to be white, unless they were clusters of stars that appear to be a single, shining star because of the distance."

Takaarrath's loud, hissing voice snapped me out of my concentration.

"I don't think it was a good idea to leave the planet!"

My concerns grew the farther we got from Earth. Suddenly, I started to feel really creepy.

"The destination of our flight is the second planet in the solar system, right?" I tore my gaze away from the screen and looked closely at Takaarrath.

"Correct. That's where the 'City of a Thousand Stars' is located. At least, that's what GELCKSITT said!"

"But she also said that with the available energy reserves, only one more space flight is possible. That's what scares me. How do we get back?"

"I think the question is not how do we get back, but rather do we want to get back at all? Living conditions on the planet have been greatly minimized. You yourself kept talking about the 'path to the new worlds' that you were determined to find. Well, now we find ourselves on that path."

I was still staring at Takaarrath, trying to mentally process what had been said.

Somehow I knew he was right. But what about Majenna? Surely I couldn't leave her alone down there among the mutants.

When I thought of her, I was overcome not only with remorse, but also with melancholy and homesickness.

I had left her behind, that was true. But she wanted it that way, too. I shook myself and tried to organize my thoughts.

We were still only at the beginning of this journey. I had to concentrate on the obvious.

"The space pod has referred to you as the 'Grandmaster of the pod.' That means you're known to the spacecraft's control computer. Why? How on earth is that possible?"

Takaarrath's answer came in a flash of thought.

"I can't answer that for you just yet. I, too, was taken aback when I was approached like that. But I didn't question it, so as not to give the boat's computer brain any reason to become suspicious on its part. I don't know what would have happened then. In any case, it is a clue, to which I can tie up, to investigate further about my identity. But for me it is already certain that in my past I must have been in very close relationship with the legacy of the aliens."

I could not disagree with that.

"This is the backup autocracy of the space nacelle GELCKSITT. The conducted analysis of the previous conversations within the space nacelle revealed a knowledge deficit of the organic units. It is therefore urgently recommended to restore a congruence of the expertise!"

I was a bit irritated at first.

"That's a good idea. Marvin follows me to the back region. Don't ask any questions, it's for your own good!"

Takaarrath had already risen from his pilot seat, and I wordlessly followed him through the just-opening bulkhead into the rear region of the nacelle.

The knowledge oration lasted less than half an hour and I was fully conscious the whole time.

"Are you really sure that this machine has increased my knowledge in just such a short time? I mean, I can't feel hardly anything at all. Besides, I've been wondering all along how you suddenly know so much about these aliens. How come this space nacelle obeys your mental commands?"

Before Takaarrath could answer me, I saw the image of a Neensziss in my mind. Completely surprised, I took a deep breath.

"No, that's not me. But it is a very good representation of a Neensziss body."

"Takaarrath what are you saying? Of course you are, um, I mean of course you are clearly of the alien Neensziss people. That's already no more similarities, that's an absolute copy, what I see there in my mind's eye right now."

He had once again snooped into my mind, which was ultimately only possible because I wasn't shielding myself strongly enough. But since all communication was telepathic, I didn't care now anyway.

"Now I am also clear about a few things. You were not born on Earth, and you are certainly not a mutant, although certain similarities to other mutant human descendants may well exist. What else are you not telling me?"

Takaarrath had been back in the front area of the small spacecraft the whole time. This spatial distance did no harm to our telepathically conducted conversation.

Now he was standing in the open cabin bulkhead to the aft section, where I was just extricating myself from the helmet-like interface of the ZIVA.

"I didn't really know I was one of these people either until just now. You have more knowledge about these things than I do right now."

He stared at me with his huge googly eyes completely emotionless.

"I actually possessed a strong affinity for the dome building in the first place, and likewise for this space boat. Purely intuitively, I could do the right thing at the right moment. But I first glimpsed the image of a Neensziss in your thoughts. I know the name Neensziss also only from the stories of Sunny Conrad. You must believe me. I do not lie to you. My thoughts lie openly before you!"

I did not really understand a lot of things that were going on in my life now.

In any case, Takaarrath was not speaking the untruth, I could sense that as I focused on his mentally transmitted utterances.

"Wouldn't it make sense for you to undergo a knowledge oration as well?"

I slowly stood up and walked through the cabin bulkhead directly toward him. He was sitting perfectly relaxed in the pilot's chair, his hands resting on the wide armrests where the manual command input and control modules were also located.

"I had thought about that, too, but then discarded it. I don't want the imposed, artificial knowledge to deprive me of the possibility of retrieving my own knowledge of my past, which, after all, still lies dormant somewhere in my subconscious. I can't imagine if the memory of my whole life would be lost or buried."

I stood next to him and looked at the holographic screen.

At that moment, it showed only black space. Along the side edges, in a kind of graphical representation, the most diverse information about the flight was displayed, such as speed, beam pressure, distance to the target planet and so on.

"Yes, I think I can understand that quite well. I would also like to know more about my past!"

"Evaluation of body scan completed during octroying phase. The human individual Marvin is clearly a genetic mosaic. Conditional command authority is granted."

The telepathic transmission from the rum pod made me take a deep breath in amazement. Takaarrath had also heard it.

"Define the term 'genetic mosaic'!"

He looked at me with narrowed eyes, which gave me goose bumps. His huge, bulging eyeballs almost completely disappeared behind protruding flaps of skin.

"What did you do?"

This question of his confused me even more than the statement made earlier by the computer brain of the GELCKSITT.

"Mosaic" in genetics refers to an individual in whose body there are cells with different karyotypes and genotypes, where all body cells are descended from the same fertilized ovum; if, on the other hand, there were several individually fertilized ovules, we would speak of a chimera. Definition of the terms adopted from human language: Karyotype refers to the totality of all chromosome characteristics of an individual or a group of genetically related individuals that affect the cell structure. Genotype is the totality of the genes of an organism, i.e. the hereditary image of a living being. It represents its exact genetic makeup, which includes all hereditary traits present in that individual."

I tried to grasp the transmitted thought information mentally and to arrange somehow into my own imagination world. Takaarrath was a little faster there.

I heard his mental question, or was it a statement?

"There are Neensziss genes in Marvin's genetic makeup?"

"Positive. Further information about this is subject to the highest level of secrecy. A grand master of the pod does not have the necessary security clearance to query. GELCKSITT out."

My thoughts were racing. What did it all mean?

"You're half Neensziss! That's what it means!"

Takaarrath had once again read my thoughts. He could only do that because I had totally neglected my shielding.