Tesla's Signal (42 page)

Niko's ethereal form twisted in anguish.

 

Ayin's flame narrowed. <
We call them the
Despoiler Host.>
 

Niko shrunk into a tight ball of fear and anguish. <
It was I who signaled them. In my arrogance I brought doom on my world. No punishment is too great for me.>
 

Alu pulsed gently above him.

 

Despite these ominous words, Niko felt a flood of relief.

 

Ayin took up the thread.

 

Niko looked from the orange flame to the gold wing
.
 

Alu turned in a swirling motion, signaling Niko to follow. Niko found himself in a place of rising concentric circles...a cosmic equivalent of a university auditorium. The 'students' assembled there, in many lovely and changing shapes which Niko suspected were merely images produced out of courtesy to him.

A speaker approached in the shape of a tall crystal obelisk.

this one said.

 

The crystal obelisk projected dark filaments of cloud, which seemed to be the words or thoughts of the story.

Light and Darkside, thought Niko: this must be a tidally locked planet like Mercury...the kind scientists would think barren and hostile to life. How marvelous that advanced life could exist even on a planet like this!

said Akai. The unfamiliar words manifested as diagrams against the sky. Niko longed to catch hold of them and study them.

 

 Niko turned the words over in his mind.
Plasmotics...Manifestors.
Although none of these words were really words...merely vibrations that his brain translated as sound.

Akai went on.

 

said Akai
,
 

Akai's
thought-streamers changed color, becoming a sooty gray. <
We soon learned of our mistake. They were an aggressive, dense-matter species that had never learned restraint, because their planet contained such rich chemistry that was usable as weaponry. They had destroyed their world with savage warfare. A few of their race managed to survive on an orbiting station. From there, they assembled a fleet and visited us.>
 

The thought-filaments became fiery-red: a color Niko had never seen in this serene realm.
your
world, Bright.>
 

Niko faced the tall obelisk.

 

The thought filaments knotted around each other.
.
One could say they are soul-eaters.>
 

Niko thought of the Silver Chamber show with its mind-numbing screen, and his hazy memories of bliss and terror, and the pull of the Orb which he had felt during his mind-link with Clara.

Soul-eaters.
He struggled to overcome his fear.

 

,
dense-matter friend
,> said the Obelisk. <
We've all gathered here to discuss that, and see what might be done.>
 

For the first time, Niko felt a shred of hope. These wise creatures had rescued him and Clara. Now perhaps they could offer a solution to all of humanity...

The Aon assembly stirred, changing form and shifting colors while they discussed the matter. Akai turned to Niko.

Akai said.
> the Obelisk continued, <
may lie in one of our objects, which we believe they still possess. This object is the Nexus Key.>
 

The naming of this object produced a diagram that looked to Niko like a complex Origami puzzle.

Niko asked.

 

The Obelisk moved directly across from Niko.

 

Immediately Niko understood what was needed, and he didn't like it. But he forced himself not to panic. He had run away for too long.

the Obelisk told him.

Niko wanted to run away and hide somewhere. <
No, I can't...>
he began, and stopped.

He had traveled all the way across the
Galaxy. There was no place left to run!

He made himself take the step.

 

The Obelisk brightened
.
 

Alu and Ayin picked him up, and they rode an energy current. <
Come. We're going to visit Mentor Azel in the City of Afternoon.>
 

He sensed a change in pressure. Vast columns of cloud rose up around them as they descended to the surface. Niko could feel the tremendous heat of the planet's dayside, not far off. Surely his dense-matter body would not have lasted one second on this planet.

The City of Afternoon proved to be a magnificent ruin. A forest of gigantic towers, of all shapes and sizes, shimmered in the tremendous heat. The constructions, made of strange translucent materials, appeared pitted and decayed and of great age. But that did not diminish their greatness.

He wished he had a lifetime to explore this place.

They passed through a tunnel of crystal, and entered a bright chamber. Its surface flickered as though with reflections of water. Niko wondered how that could be, as liquid water could not possibly exist in this world. Unless everything he was seeing existed in some other dimension, where the planet “Lumina” was not a hellish furnace world...but a beautiful paradise of gently pulsing forces.

In the center of the room there floated a purple, folded being that resembled the petals of a flower.

The flower-being radiated a frequency as tranquil as a cat's purr. Niko felt himself enveloped in great wisdom and greater serenity. He felt Azel scanning him, but there was no sense of invasion... he felt like a small child, embraced by his mother.

said Azel. <
I have studied minds of all types, for over four hundred turns. But I have never encountered one quite like yours
.>

Niko didn't know what to make of that. <
Are you going to look inside my mind...retrieve my memories?>
 

The petals of the flower that was Azel opened up, and invited Niko to lie inside.

Niko searched for a memory that would drive away the terror, and the one that came to him was a vision of Clara's impish smile.
I'm staying with you, Nikola, 'cause where else would I have such exciting adventures? It's just like being in films!
 

Indeed. He smiled in his star-form, embraced serenity, and opened the door in his mind.

***

Cringing, Niko dug out the memories of his ordeal on the U'jaan ship.

Memories flooded back, of his captors' contradictory commands and irrational punishments.

He remembered the constant voices of V'kaan and Z'duun, like knives stabbing into his brain.
Worthless, selfish wretch, refusing to aid us in our noble quest to benefit humanity. Earth's suffering will be your fault.
 

wanted
to obey...but my brain wouldn't work.>
Worse than any physical punishment was the torment of being given problems with no solution, and being derided as
stupid
and
useless
. He remembered groveling at his captors' feet, begging for the chance to solve the problems and prove his worth.

If you cannot be of service to us,
Z'duun said,
you will be cut up into useful components. Your brain cells. Reproductive plasm, so that we can breed from you a race of geniuses loyal to us.
 

Now, reliving these moments, Niko had to grip the petals of the healer Azel to withstand them.

said Azel,

 

syma
form, and observed their technique directly. Mind control is their supreme talent. But there is still another memory that torments you...>