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

Then I heard a voice in my head:

- Jervond, you go forward solely at your own peril, and it's up to you to see what happens and whether you save yourself!

Then I understood the idea of the Ervanans. It was extremely simple. So simple that Earthlings wouldn't even consider it frivolous. The Ervanans just wanted to lure the Korolan Bru out of the confines of the solar system so they could deal with them once and for all. But that could be done if the secret communication between them and ERTOL GIS was broken. To put it another way, Cerberus' outpost would have been the main hotbed of disinformation, and once the Earthlings vacated their territories, transferring significant portions to Nanjagar, the hidden Ervanan threat would have been unleashed to its full potential - apart from Haumea and Charon, it would apparently not have been much of a problem to effect a quantum teleport from their headquarters on the planet Proxima B.

Brutus was already the first casualty, and he had buried the secret of Von Blask with him, as well as the secret of his patrons, and his venal sidekick Erdemon Bonx to play the dislocated Cerberus soldiers long enough.

Well, it was unlikely he'd be so far gone that he'd be able to attempt to slip away like his corrupt commander, but still! The plot was quite dastardly, and so effective that it would have achieved astonishing results if the Earth Federation hadn't sensed which way the wind was blowing. I examined the suits of the dead - I wasn't really fooling around, but then I noticed a small chip that the Ervanans had apparently missed. I decided to take a look at it and use my suit's built-in quantum microcomputer to analyze it.

After carefully decrypting it, the message read, at the top or bottom, as follows:

"The great wealth I have accumulated from illegal activity is hidden nowhere else but on Earth. And there, I, McDougle Enbright, longed to begin a new life. Alas, apparently my hopes were in vain! But the mystery will be solved sooner or later."

I tucked the chip away and looked around. Dead Seacourt's guess was pretty accurate as a hit. And how could I possibly come back? I was trapped in my own rage. I had no time for explicit reasoning, but prepared to start back. And then an even more frightening thought struck me! What if there was no one waiting for me in Semrik Sin for a long time! If I had been the last living soul left in this cursed place!

I gritted my teeth in frustration! I had paid too high a price for my knowledge!

I had heard that the path of awareness can lead you to self-destruction. And that's exactly what I was doing right now. I had lost teammates I didn't particularly trust - all those who had died along the way. Yes, you could say I was alive because of them, but we had also each put on such a successful mask and used it to fool those around us, a special form of mimicry that helped us survive difficult situations.

Don't get me wrong, if Rivinus Olk hadn't stepped foot in that place, we'd probably all be dead and we'd never have made it to the inside of that alien ultramodern ship, where we could glimpse one part of a rather grand design that, as a whole, could have ended up as a giant tower doomed to collapse.

I needed to rid myself of the curses that someone might be pouring on me from beyond the grave, or simply, in one form or another, return back home - to the Semrik Sin colony, which, incidentally, might well prove to be my last refuge!

On my way back from the third chamber, which I would persoNaly classify as a warehouse for humanoid biomaterials of particular importance to our enemy, I again looked into the hysterical faces of my frenzied companions, and was horrified to find that they were dead. In the middle of it, of course, was the aforementioned artificial gravity generator inside the ship - it was now completely unnecessary. And perhaps if I had reached it earlier? All those casualties could have been avoided! The Ervanans had simply used Sikur for their fatal purpose - these space nomads had a very cunning design, namely that when one of their wards died or was put in a stressful situation, he could inflict a similar thing on those around him by suggesting that they end their lives.

But how could psychokinesis[1] kill? He had activated certain centers in their subconscious that would cause their brains to distort and activate their suicidal instincts - one had opened a huge hole in his skull with the laser cutter of Sikur himself! When you were part of a criminal gang operating within the confines of a small colony located on a moon like Charon, whose economy was based on the principles of near-total autarky, the risk of having a distorted view of reality was enormous, and Emborio had taken advantage of a given and subsequently developed ability in a very nefarious way!

It also had to be said that Charon's right to free choice had been taken away from us. Come to think of it, I did not inherit Von Blask of my own free will, but out of necessity, or rather, almost by force! We had to survive, and no one anywhere wanted us, and on top of that we were hiding from the Earth Federation and the Intergalactic Police themselves, who could easily have stopped us if we weren't cautious enough.

What they did was they got our other companions like Ezerea Kio, Brendan Sonks and even Jessica Edwater to ...! Where was she?

I looked around but didn't see her - she was definitely not one of the drooling, eye-rolling dead creatures.

- "I must look for her," I spoke to myself, almost oblivious to the real danger the lack of oxygen could cause me.

Then I headed back to the most dangerous part of the ship, and now the darkest. One of Sikur's bonetie rifle shots during our skirmish was someone powering the eblonodium lighting units along the second hall, and I had to navigate in almost impenetrable darkness, but fortunately my spacesuit had some illumination, and when I returned to the cockpit I saw something startlingly nasty - Beria Klist was dead, and all that was left of him was a small piece of exoskeleton that had lodged itself in the hull. I looked at it more closely - it was actually his leg, or rather pieces of the exoskeleton! That damn thing had fallen victim without even managing to resist them!

But again, I couldn't see where Jessica could be? This cutie had as much brains as Lake Kio and Brendan Sonks himself combined, and I had to find her at all costs, as well as extra oxygen supplies.

Then someone behind me perked up - it was her. By some miracle she had managed to survive and was looking at me with the eyes of an innocent child, but the toughness of a true warrior! So her mother, Miss Edwater, was a true legend who was even recorded in the annals of Zegandaria!

- "I was able to read their minds," she told me quietly, "These creatures control their charges, as they put it, through telepathy and psychokinesis, which generally serves as punishment as well, as you saw for yourself, by the way. It's a pity we lost Brendan Sonks - he could have been a great help with his ship piloting skills."

I gritted my teeth and remained silent - she really was right, and the situation was getting more and more confusing.

- But how did you manage to slip away in the first place? Everyone else fell easy prey, including Beria Clistehimself.

There was sadness in her eyes. She looked at me. And froze - she was as if speechless. Behind my back was Cleist! He wasn't dead! But how was it possible! How the hell had he got in? That bastard!

With lightning speed, he grabbed my plasma blaster and pointed it at me!

- "You wanted to kill me," he roared, his disfigured face showing through the suit.

I looked down at him - part of his body was missing, and he had patched up his missing leg with a special heroin prosthetic, the kind we carried with us in case of emergency. These prostheses - a marvel of engineering - were developed and used in the colony, especially by those who worked in the greenhouses where accidents could easily happen. The area was instantly patched by the prosthetic's special nanoprobe and the limb became usable - well, it wasn't quite on the level of the Ervanans' bionic limbs, but it was far better than nothing. Especially when you're mortal!

Shortly before he'd fallen onto the nitrogen ice, Beria had somehow managed to roll to the side and land in relative safety like the ship's neon hull, which had saved him.

But he hadn't noticed Jessica, who also had a weapon! The distance between them was a few paces at most - no more.

With one accurate shot into his viewfinder, she finished him off completely! The helmet of his spacesuit burst open and chunks of it stuck out to the side, revealing his head blown off by the powerful shot and now there was just a giant hole gaping!

[1] Psychokinesis is the ability to deliver an energetic blow to the victim's mind.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN: THE MISSION OF SIKUR

After we came to our senses, Jessica and I both decided to move out of that damned place an hour sooner, but she suggested we explore some more. Maybe the Ervanans had left a coded message that we could decipher one way or another. Frankly, I didn't like their language, with its staggering complexity and intricacy that made our task all the more difficult.

We went to inspect the wreckage of Clyst and were horrified to find that it was not him at all, but one of the Ervanan pilots. Apparently, these creatures could also use living biological matter to transfer their own minds onto it, something I couldn't even imagine. The Ervanans had fallen into lethargy, but maybe they weren't completely dead. I mean, we'd seen... It was starting to get shitty! I didn't even know if I could trust my own senses or if the demonic atmosphere of the ship was just playing some kind of bad joke on us. Soon all of this could lead to fatal consequences!

Jessica and I both turned our gazes towards them:

- "How do you think they managed to do that to the Klyst?," I asked her, filled with lively curiosity, "I've never seen anything like that before."

We approached to look at it and found the real reason. Yes, it was not Cleist, but his double! Or rather, a poor copy of him - the Ervanans were transferring their preserved minds, as we were able to read from some of the electronic documents left in the