The Silence of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (book recommendations website txt) 📕

Cerberus's darkness was so great that it was relatively easy for him to take one of the transport ships and make off with false authentication.

He'd left a special cryptogram in a place that wasn't too conspicuous to make Bonks "appear" as the discoverer.

The hidden trick was that doing so would send the Earth Federation for green caviar - yes, they didn't like Brutus, but professioNaly they were obliged to protect their honor and at least formally embark on the hunt for the now long dead Rento.

Brutus had shown himself to be a despicable, ambitious and arrogant bastard, which in fact he was! But, little did he know that a surprise awaited him this time on Haumea!

When his transport ship landed on the surface of Haumea, he noticed that someone's speeder had left tracks - different from his own and decided to descend into the Undercity of the Ervanans.

The guards greeted him somewhat neutrally. Brutus was dressed in a special Ervanan spacesuit with the distinctive two colors of blue and red, which must have meant a lot to them.

Unexpectedly, they spoke in their unintelligible language. Then Brutus understood - something had robbed him of his telepathic abilities and he could not communicate with his 'mentors'. He looked at their faces differently now - so frightening, yet radiating such calm. It was as if the sleepy expression on their faces - he couldn't utter a word because he had been castrated by a laser cutter that had pulverized his scrotum in the most brutal way. The well-insulated Ervanan suit was not enough to protect him from the insidious Zeranian blade. Another treacherous blow pierced his armor from behind, and he felt his warm blood trickle slowly and fill his insides. Due to the extremely cold temperatures and the decompression of his suit, the leaking blood froze violently, causing him further injuries. Brutus suffered a third blow, which proved fatal. The rigid commander collapsed to the surface and ice began to envelop him.

The world of Haumea resembled some barbaric silent feast, for somewhere there Brutus found his end. The inglorious end of a doomed soul!

They carried his corpse to the old warrior who was the head of this corps of Ervanans, but he did not recognize it either - despite their great intelligence, Ervanans were known for their rather short memories. Their thinking was guided by momentary images which, through complex overlay in the memory of the medium, led to the corresponding emotional state. They were driven forward in their evolution solely by their curiosity and their inexhaustible sense of progress.

He looked at the body of the dead Brutus and said:

Now we know why the Earth Federation had so much trouble getting beyond the confines of its own solar system.

[1] Kuvuneri in Ervanian means cage or chamber.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: THE ERVANAN CIVILIZATION

Om Suv Res knew two and two hundred, and as an experienced military man he set about exploring the mineral deposits in the area. Proxima B had a relatively high radiation background compared to Earth, but the bodies of the Ervanans could handle the higher radiation levels much better than those of humans.

Proxima Centauri was home to a wide variety of resources, which was welcome to the experienced Ervanan colonizers. This alien race had a somewhat nomadic nature, and predatorily exploited the various planets, making the most of each one they came across. Humans, even in the advanced future, had rather vague and hazy ideas about the surface of the planet Proxima B, and its natural riches were steeped in deep mystery.

Om Suv Res assessed the situation correctly. As long as the earthlings could not conquer a celestial body at a distance of a modest 4.2 light years from their own planet, they were clearly lagging behind. This exoplanet was also slightly older than Earth.

But he knew that humans possessed other hidden qualities that were not to be underestimated. How only they had repelled them!

He still couldn't explain how it was that the Earthlings had won a situation that, in theory and practice, was entirely in their favor.

Then they wanted to build their settlement on Deimos, from where they could covertly watch the progress of their opponents.

But the valiant clone GH306 prevented them.

Om Suv Res wondered why Earthlings bothered with cloning at all, which he thought was a bit pointless.

They would hardly exceed the qualities of the original by too much. 'They're playing artists,' he mused. - Try as they might, they would remain confined around the confines of their own Sun, doomed to perish in their low morality.

The morality of the Ervanans, who held themselves up as the standard of cosmic reason, was quite different from its earthly equivalent. The Ervanans did not raise a hand to obliterate life, unlike their earthly counterparts. And fighting them was a natural level of defense that only proved the Earthlings' aggressiveness.

Om Suv Res viewed the situation with the eyes of a true Ervanite who had watched the star of his home planet long enough to realize the tragic nature of higher cosmic morality.

- This civilization was doomed to perish, he shared his views with some of his most trusted associates.

The aliens had developed their psi genes[1] to unsuspected heights - they used telekinesis to move objects, and without much difficulty.

The Ervanans were acutely aware that the presence of psychotronic generators could amplify the effects of various paranormal forces, and this had been exploited on the Cerberus satellite in particular, where they had installed a small model of such a device through their former "slave" Commander Brutus.

That's why he had to disappear.

Om Suv Res was in contact with the forces from the underground city of Haumea, but had been unable to make contact with the dead pilots of the ships sunk deep in the ice of Charon.

The Ervanans viewed development as an endless spiral, unencumbered by temporary lows or highs that could sometimes prove disastrous - like some sudden outbreak of nuclear war, for example.

The home planet of the Ervanans was called Sorimo, and it was several million light-years away from Earth's sun.

The Ervanans were persuaded that harmonious development was the most important thing, and that the home planet was only a temporary refuge, which sooner or later had to be replaced by another, better one.

But Om Suv Res knew that there was no better than home. Therefore Proxima B seemed to him a reasonably good substitute for his beloved Sorimo.

Sorimo was about four times the size of Earth and had some radiation background, which incidentally was more or less comparable to that of Proxima B.

The Ervanans set about establishing their future positions. They were in no hurry, but they didn't linger either, as they knew that once defeated, they might soon fall easy prey to someone else.

When Om Suv Res saw the ordoson[2] rising on a rocky hillside, he felt an inner tremor that filled his whole being. The Ervanans had a saying that the first hundred years were youth, and the next two hundred were the realization of the accumulated sorrow of the years - and they were quite right.

The only reason for this nomadic race to communicate was their common interests in survival, including waging military campaigns against other space-faring civilizations.

Warfare marked various stages in the history of these space nomads, as they forged short-lived friendships, created children, and last but not least, gained knowledge of the surrounding nearby universe while at war.

- "Praise be to Shakdumon," Om Suv Res expressed his adoration for the cosmic god of the Ervanans, "We will survive by succeeding in cultivating this planet, and that will be the last thing I do before I close my eyes to my eternal sleep in the fields of Azun."[3]

In the imaginations of the Ervanans, the various merits of their warriors assigned them different places in the netherworld, which they called Shadduck or Hell.

Om Suv Res feared that he might have gone there, for he almost allowed his own race to be obliterated for nothing and for no reason.

But his loyal warriors did not abandon him at this difficult time - before he came here with the surviving remnants of the Ervanan fleet, he was summoned to a personal audience with King Zonkurvan, who would be his judge of the conduct of the military campaign.

Under other circumstances he would have liquidated him without a thought, but now he realized how weakened their race was after the successful stand her people had denied her. It was not so easy to take his life.

- "I will spare you," he told him solemnly, "but you will live with this nightmare for the rest of your life. I forbid you to commit hepundo, which according to our traditions will wash the shame from your face. Instead, you must find a new planet for us to settle, as many of my subjects have perished from starvation, and from the cursed space plague from which there seems to be no escape."

As an Ervanan who knew what the word honour meant, he took his sovereign's words very much to heart, and vowed inwardly not to shame him in this latest ordeal he was offering.

The sovereign, however, assured him that if he really wished to commit ritual suicide, he was at liberty to do so after doing his duty.

Before he left this distressing audience, the monarch stopped him by saying:

- And remember, my dear Om Suv Res, we were all stardust billions of years ago. All races have an equal right to live in this universe. Don't hate others - no matter how superior or inferior they are. Because in the end, our souls will probably go to the same place as theirs. And we will all see another truth of a higher order.

Om Suv Res hadn't expected a monarch to speak like that - let alone a pure-blooded heir to the throne. But he, too, inwardly sensed the change. The whole universe wanted new life, and many old races were dying off or being modified.

- "And what is beyond, Your Grace?," the Admiral dared to ask.

The monarch paused and scratched the back of his head, a highly uncharacteristic gesture for a royal representative.

- "Look, my friend," the monarch broke the formal tone, "as advanced as we are compared to many other civilisations, we remain children of nature. Our race has always wanted to see things "beyond". But the question is, what comes next?"

Om Suv Res pondered, but did not answer. He vaguely felt it.

- "As for my life," the Admiral replied, "I have no regrets. I was trying to carry out your will and discover new and new territories. We have conquered so many planets. We developed quantum teleportation and transported non-corporeal objects with which we defeated our enemies even before we had arrived at the scene of battle."

- "That is not development, my dear," the sovereign refuted him. "The double helix is such because it has not been affected by ups and downs.