The Forgotten Nomad Read online

  Fabian thought again.

  He no longer thought about the past but the future that awaited him: It was a question of sheer survival. He started to play computer games. He lost himself in virtual worlds, connected to an electronic interface.

  Other days he devoted himself to physical activities: He was like a criminal, stuck in a cell, but not for life.

  He fantasized about Planet X: About people with a different search: With thoughts that didn’t take root: With hearts that burned for eternity.

  One day he discovered a flying object on the radar. On closer examination, this proved to be a spaceship.

  Fabian compensated for speed and docked with the space ship, after agreement.

  The visitors turned out to be a bunch of lawless nomads, free as Fabian. They drove around the solar system, looking for space debris. Fabian needed food, the nomads needed rocket fuel.

  He would repent. The leader, a space pirate named Zack, climbed onboard, but said nothing. He walked around the futuristic ship, with a haggard look, looking for faults.

  They were on ”The Bridge”, an area in the ship’s central regions, where there was a connection interface to virtual reality.

  ”You are from Europa you say?” The pirate smirked, ”Not much on it anymore?”

  Fabian didn’t know what to say.

  ”I know who you are!” Zack said, ”Not that I know you literally! But I know who you are, because I can see what type you represent!”

  Zack went back and observed the young man. The pirate’s face was full of sweat beads. The teeth were yellow. The clothes were worn and loose.

  ”What do you say?” The pirate glanced at the men in the background. ”Shall we skin him alive?”

  ”What do you want?” Fabian shouted.

  ”I just want to destroy something beautiful!” Zack said. ”You see ... I know who you are! You’re a seeker in search for dreams and illusions. And searchers constantly strive for the ultimate freedom.”

  The situation was unsustainable. Fabian tried to escape but ended up in the hands of the pirates. Zack laughed and brought him to the interface for virtual reality, where he was placed in the chair and tied up.

  A sudden sound was heard and an asteroid collided with the spaceship! A large hole formed in the metal hull! Zack was killed and the air was sucked out.

  It was like a cruel dream, as if the computer games had brought Fabian to a parallel reality where anything was possible.

  Fabian gasped for breath, the air was absent. The pirates fled in the other spacecraft. Fabian pulled and managed to cut the tape that held him in the chair.

  The bridge appeared in a different light: Warning lights rotated, alarms howled. The bloodied floor, where the majority of Zack’s body lay without a head, was like sandpaper. Unpolished surfaces had peeled off. Fabian fought on all fours, through an indefinable chaos, but managed to get to the air lock.

  Soon, Fabian sat down in the captain’s seat. When he looked at the radar, he discovered that the spacecraft approached a rocky zone. There was a giant asteroid belt, which stretched in different directions for miles. Fabian steered the spaceship past the compact rocks. Some were small; others were as big as cliffs.

  Soon, he caught sight of the pirates: They had collided with a smaller cliff. The anger welled up in Fabian’s chest! He had never been restrained and almost tortured, for no other reason than the search for freedom!

  Not even the guards on Europa had tied him! Not even Eliah when he told the secret!

  He removed the locking for the ray gun. Took aim at the enemy ship and pulled the trigger. An explosion of green plasma made the pirates’ ship explode. The pirates stared in horror into the light, beaten by the moment. A rain of sparks from an exploding space drive fell on the nearby cliff.

  Fabian steered the spacecraft away from the asteroid belt.

  7

  THE DESOLATE LANDSCAPE

  The spaceship approached Planet X. The gray celestial body wasn’t round like other planets. It was slightly oval, with a slightly uneven surface, bombarded by meteorites. At times it seemed that it had a ”man in the moon” but this wasn’t like the face on the moon, but rather like a tarsier.

  Fabian made ready for contact. He sent radio messages to the celestial body: A carrier that aired on all frequencies. But no answer was heard. He tested new frequencies, analyzed the noise deeper. He thought he heard the tracks of a sound, a kind of signal that differed from chance. But this sound wasn’t repeated.

  So he changed direction and made more excursions across the planet’s surface. No structures could be detected: No cities. No roads.

  Fabian decided to land. Maybe ”The Searchers” were hermits? Tired of humanity and its ways?

  * * *

  The gravel raved when the spacecraft descended. This ship wasn’t like the traditional spacecrafts in Fabian’s world. Instead, it had two controllers: Chambers under glass, reinforced with metallic leads.

  The walkway was hoisted down and the forgotten nomad stepped out onto the planet’s surface. He had a space suit, oxygen tanks and a helmet, the atmosphere was absent.

  It was a feeling of euphoria to walk on the porous rock: There were sand, gravel and pebbles. In some places there were large boulders. Fabian took up a small stone and surveyed the rough surface. There were streaks of unknown minerals in the stone. Not entirely uniform, but streaks of different minerals on top of each other.

  He looked back at the starship, surveyed the tracks. It was quite dark but a light shone over the landing site, from lights mounted on the spacecraft. He thought about going outside the illuminated zone. But he had no searchlights and went back to the spaceship.

  Again he tried to send signals: Perhaps there were colonizers further away? Outside the illuminated zone, behind the next hill?

  No answer.

  * * *

  The next day, Fabian decided to make a longer excursion. He would wander outside the illuminated zone and survey the area in the ship’s vicinity. He took various plastic pipes that he found in the spaceship.

  On this walk Fabian began to think. What if the rumors of ”The Seekers” weren’t true? What if no one ever landed on Planet X? In that case, he was a hero!

  It was almost equal to land on the moon for the first time in human history!

  He walked in euphoria and managed to stumble upon a crevice, which was hidden in the sand.

  He looked around and began to claim the area. If no other people were at the scene, he was at least alone in the lighted area!

  The day passed in a fairly predictable manner. Fabian was looking around the spaceship. He went through an area equal to one square kilometer. No people in sight. He realized that his earlier suspicions were correct: There were no adventurers like him!

  In the evening, he was back in the spaceship. He drew a map of the terrain. It wasn’t a completely flat landscape: There were ridges, ravines, and even parts that resembled river beds. He was looking for special features: Signs of nature he could use to locate himself, in case he would be lost.

  He sat down in one of the driver’s modules and peered with one eye toward the sun: It was like a bright star in the distance.

  * * *

  Day three: Fabian began to feel lonely. He made more trips, longer and farther away from the spacecraft. But there was a limit to how far he would go. He came to a ravine, larger than the others, where he found a rock with something that looked like a face: It was just a human face, not a tarsier’s, as before.

  He leveled the ground and sat down. He listened to the static noise on the radio. He pulled off the volume and marveled at how far he’d gone.

  It started to dawn on him that he’d come for the adventure. But the adventure was an adventure with others, not like this. He thought of Belle, Caspian and the others. What if he would return and unite with them? Not that he wanted the old colony, but what if he would convince them? Convince them to travel to Planet X and start anew?

  It wa
s big thoughts.

  He stood up and returned to the ship.

  * * *

  Day Seven: Fabian created a clear picture of the desolate landscape. The map was printed, erased and upgraded in several versions. In one place he found a big cliff. This was a cliff that got Fabian to remember.

  It resembled the cliff that Fabian and Bastian found on Europa: It was possible to climb on it. Gravity was weak and he approached ”The Big Mouth”, if only he dared to risk his life.

  He went into the mouth and down into ”The Gorge”, a cave that miraculously pierced the rock. In there, in the dense darkness, Fabian decided to light a fire with signal flares. It was a red fire that burned by unknown minerals.

  Fabian looked at the walls, looking for patterns. But no carvings could be found, no traces of humans or other creatures.

  He realized that he was alone and would remain alone.

  He sat there for hours, very pleased with himself and what he accomplished.

  Finally he extinguished the fire. The signal flares went out. He lit a spotlight and found his way out: Up to ”The Tongue”, down the cliff and then to the gravel.

  He marked the coordinates on a paper. The rock would be the center for the new colony.

  * * *

  The following days made Fabian stronger. He overcame his fears, his weaknesses, and his tendencies to resist.

  He walked the landscape again. He nearly ran, jogged on paths that he created around the spaceship.

  He did push-ups on the bridge. He washed away the bloodstains from the pirate who threatened his life.

  He looked ahead and saw life as a colonist. He hated the idea of colonization from the beginning.

  He hated the men who decided his life.

  But now he found his own version of the story: He realized that the adventure wasn’t proper without others. He realized that he didn’t want to watch.

  He made some rounds around the landing site. He gasped exhausted and lay down on the space gravel. He gazed up at the stars and couldn’t help it: Didn’t fail to dream! Didn’t fail to be carried away by the thought of life!

  8

  BACK ON EUROPA

  On Europa, the system had stabilized. It was no longer Bastian that ruled, but local crime syndicates.

  Fabian found his way over a cast plateau, at the sea, and in addition to this, along the mountainside, where buildings were moistened by the sea.

  It was tides that rose and fell, as Europa was affected by gravitational forces from Io and Ganymede.

  Here, in a stairwell that led from the beach to the peak of a cliff, Fabian found the rebels.

  They were very depressed.

  ”Where have you been?” Belle wondered. She sat in a rejected pose, on a step near the others.

  ”I’m sorry.” Fabian said, ”I spoke with Eliah before he died. Shall we go?”

  Belle rose and the others followed her; it seemed that the old hierarchy had dissolved, and that the young woman was the leader.

  The waves came and went. The beach, which was full of gravel, but also adorned by old newspapers, bottles and papers, was hidden by the flood, which slowly found its way up the beach.

  In the distance the gigantic cliffs appeared and also the terraces from the colony.

  ”I understand how you feel.” Fabian said, ”I was in the same situation a few months ago. That night where I failed my mission.”

  ”What happened?”

  ”It didn’t happen instantly. It was experience after experience, over several months. I began to realize I was different: That Eliah was different. That we all were separate from the people and really fought for our own thing.”

  Belle looked at Fabian with a sad face. She never thought that the ruin would be so obvious, so real. But the beauty still shone in her eyes: The sense of life that was hidden behind the skin, soft as velvet.

  Fabian continued: ”It may seem as if everything we’ve done was wrong. But we’re people, just like the other colonists are people. The only thing we need to realize is that the idea was good, we did what was required. In fact, we were never able to do otherwise. Freedom is an idea worth fighting for, but we won’t do it for others, but for ourselves.”

  ”What do you mean?”

  ”We will create a new colony, free from the constraints of Europa: A colony on Planet X, where the warlords are missing.”

  Belle wondered if Fabian had gone mad! Several other rebels had taken to the bottle: In the vacuum that arose after Eliah’s death.

  The water rose sharply, and the waves licked the rebels’ feet. The party went into the stairwell, up a staircase and to a room with a view. There was a group of furniture there, a table, chairs, a sense of hope in a dismal context.

  ”I’ve thought about it very clearly.” Fabian said, ”I’ve been on the planet and laid claim to an area.”

  He took out pictures of Planet X, which he’d previously taken. Belle saw the landing site, the spaceship, and the tracks in the sand: Even the rock that looked like a face: She was very confused.

  ”I’ve been there and seen the light.” Fabian continued, ”It’s like floating on clouds! As if destiny decided that we would become space-travelers! Imagine it: To create something new: To build a society on our own terms. Here and now!”

  ”I don’t know...” Belle said.

  The others went up to the table, gathered around the pictures, and it was like a collection of prehistoric humans, pure independents, deranged but very few.

  ”I’ve laid claim to an area.” Fabian continued, ”I’ve come across a spaceship. All we need is energy, courage and a good conscience.”

  A murmur of voices was heard.

  9

  THE NEW COLONY

  They were at the cliff, where Fabian had climbed before: They had lived on the planet for a few weeks.

  Below the cliff, it was like a small valley. The colonists had achieved the impossible: To make plants grow.

  The plants were a species of genetically engineered algae, capable of growing under unreasonable conditions. The colonists stimulated the correct DNA chains and allowed deviations. Some of the plants could be used as food, others as timber for housing, yet others would trigger a chemical process that emitted light.

  The colonists walked through the organic fields, wearing space suits, and waited for the day when they would take off their spacesuits and breathe.

  * * *

  Fabian’s imagination had no limits: He built houses of stone blocks, first to himself, then as an inspiration to others. There were houses with stones brought from the different places he visited: The areas around the spaceship, the slopes and the dry river beds.

  They drilled at the river beds and found water at the depth of three meters. The water was used to irrigate the burgeoning algae, but also used as a liquid to ”The Dronts”: The different ostrich animals that were previously living on Europa. They wore a special protective shield and had oxygen for survival.

  * * *

  Fabian’s house was decorated with pots, where the algae would bloom. In the evenings, the colonists would gather and watch the play of light, the magical field of bright spots on the plants, which oscillated in the dark.

  * * *

  A lake had formed in the lower regions of the valley. The plants spread out along the corners of the cliffs.

  The planet began to flourish. The pressure in the atmosphere had increased. Finally, it was possible to take off the space helmets. The colonists went through jungles of bioluminescent algae.

  Here Fabian and Belle came together. They weren’t lovers or freedom fighters, rather siblings from a bygone time: They talked about the dangers in the new era: That the government troops would soon discover their paradise and threaten the colony.

  But the years went by and nothing happened.

  Fabian decorated ”The Gorge” in his cave. He built a model of the ultimate future: A future without boundaries, where children would grow up, where colonists were united and ye
lled. But no one would be forced to remain on the planet. They would travel away into space or settle on Europa.

  Fabian thought Eliah had succeeded. He fought for freedom but lost his life. The fight was futile but the ideas were awesome. Now, Fabian brought back the heritage and took the ideas a step further: It was about adventure: To think the forbidden thoughts, but to do it in style.

  And while he did it, he thought about how it all would end: To not build a wall of resistance, where the life-force was denied and gave room for doubt.

  He would listen to his inner voice, please the colonists, and in the process win something he could call life.

  He sat down in the cave, this hollowness called ”The Gorge”. He watched the play of light that moved across the ribbed walls: Bright spots in a controlled movement that played a silent symphony, to the sounds of heavy metal.

  THE END

  * * *

  About the author:

  I’m a Swedish guy, passing 35, writing fiction, articles, composing music and more. I travel the world seeking adventures, meeting people on the way. I look at Internet as a kind of hub for greater knowledge: A beast that must be tamed.

  I meditate, search for the spark within, and use others as a source of inspiration.

  I hope to give something back in the process.

  Coming titles by Andreas Ingo:

  “Entropy”

  “Newborn”

  On the web:

  Blog: The zone of free will

  Facebook: Andreas Ingo

  E-mail: [email protected]

  Thank you for reading books on Archive.BookFrom.Net
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