Authors: Charles E. Borjas,E. Michaels,Chester Johnson
Tags: #Politics & Social Sciences, #Philosophy, #Ethics & Morality, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Science Fiction, #Colonization, #Space Opera, #Post-Apocalyptic
“Why that—.”
“You can do nothing about it, just be calm now. Help will be here soon,”
he looks out the view window. “But you could help too with your energy.
However, you cannot use it ship to ship. It would destroy the ship if you used
it from this ship to another. So it’s useless.”
The battle raged on for seemingly days on end and there were serious losses
on both sides. Because of both Gynythian Zee and R’Darik being powerful
warlocks, their power was useless against each other unless they were standing
face-to-face down on the surface of a planet with a weak magnetic field.
Neither leader could break away from the battle to go after Daxu Korth,
so the only thing left to do was to keep fighting until there was victory on
one side.
Gynythian Zee had managed to bolt from the battle. He left his top
general in charge. What he had in mind was to go to Cassiopeia, kidnap Daxu’s daughters
and hold them for ransom. The ransom would be unconditional surrender of his
kingdom. Dvora was against it of course, but did not want to voice her
disagreement right then. She knew he would try to use her to get them all
together and then make his move. She had to be honest for once; she didn’t know
where they were. Gynythian Zee would take no excuses this time. If her
daughters knew she was at the Citadel they would come. He forced her to let him
in, as she knew all the secret entrances and escapes. And then he said that if
she didn’t contact them to come there, he would kill her.
She knew Daxu Korth’s secret code by which to contact him. She entered
that number first, and then the girl’s. Since Gynythian Zee knew she had seven
daughters, she left out the youngest, Yeralai. Then he would only count seven
codes.
“I don’t know if they’re going to answer them,” she said with all the
sarcasm she could muster. “I don’t know if they’ll come.
He gave her a glassy eyed blank stare. “They’d better come. For your
sake they’d better come.”
Daxu Korth received the message just before he was about to lead his
forces back into the battle. He planned to surprise them and knowing they were
weakened, finish wiping them all out to end the war.
Seeing the emergency message from Dvora
coming from the Citadel, he knew she was in danger, but then again, she was
quite the deceiver. He was thousands of years old and he knew all the tricks.
He was willing to bet that Gynythian Zee was there waiting for him. He decided
to send his first general to lead the assault back into where the warp brought
them before, and take several ships with him back to the Citadel. He had also
just got a transmission from across the quadrant from shape shifter
Salocina Gasette—she
was on her way with a multitude of spaceships ready to do battle with the
warlord sorcerers.
Daxu Korth asked her to meet
his armada there and gave her the space coordinates. She got there right after
Daxu Korth’s ships did, which was an added surprise to both wizards that threw
them off guard. Here they were battling each other when the kingdom ships sent
by Daxu Korth show up and start giving them all their big guns, and a short
time later Salocina arrives with her fleets of various races that live on her
planet and in her solar system. Her shape shifting was not just biological, but
using her DNA and genes, her scientists found a way to extend that to her ships
too. There she was with her ships changing into either side back and forth so
the enemy did not know who to fire at. Her people also had smaller fighters
that they utilized to get in close to Gynythian Zee’s ships and also R’Darik’s
vessels so they could get in some good shots.
“Where is the sorceress,
Dvora?” asked Salocina, who especially wanted to target her for her insolence
on her planet in trying to bring Caratrah back to her youth again. She was
communicating with the leader of Daxu Korth’s forces.
“She is a captive of
Gynythian Zee and has taken her to Cassiopeia,” replied the commander.
“I must go there,” she told
her second in command. “Keep doing what has to be done to rid the universe of
these murders.”
Salocina left the battle and
traveled through the warp to Cassiopeia.
Cruise, having finished the surrender
negotiations with the Ikuptaxians, had picked up the news. Infinity had
received it through her long range Quantum Atomic electron equalizer. The
Quantum Interstellar had not been set up, but Cruise did have communication
with his father.
Arthos was already on his
way back there in one of the baby ships Infinity had been cranking out from
time to time that were just like her, only much smaller. They were equipped
with Infinity’s new Quantum Space Teleporter. They now could zip from one end
of the quadrant to the next quadrant in the time it takes to shift the direction
of an electron. He arrived at the preset coordinates in merely a few time
phases. Infinity’s offspring, Comet, one kilometer in length, six hundred
meters wide and seventy-five meters tall at the tallest spot hovered over the
Citadel sixty thousand feet in the sky.
Arthos thought he would
startle the two unauthorized occupants and their guards, who were now trapped
inside Dvora’s former quarters on the east side of the Citadel, which was in
itself a virtual mansion, surrounded by every Citadel guard. Comet’s evolution
had integrated 4-D touchable holograms. The electrons forming the synthetic
matter projected the subject as an avatar, looking and feeling as real as if
the person was actually there. However, holding on to the subject for more than
five phases was impossible. If the real subject moved away, the hold was
broken.
An avatar of Arthos was
projected into the same room Dvora and Gynythian Zee. “Why did you bring my
stepmother here?” Gynythian Zee and Dvora turned around shocked.
“And I thought I new all the
tricks,” said Gynythian Zee. He whipped out his side arm and fired a searing
blast that should have turned Arthos into charred ruins, but it only went
through him. “What manner of sorcery is this? Who are you? Is this Cruise Daxu?”
“No, I am not. I’m his
brother Arthos.”
“Ah, now we’re getting
somewhere. Arthos the long lost child who left home in search of Earth; the
planet of his mother’s ancestors, how touching.” Gynythian Zee holsters his
gun. Arthos walks over to a sofa chair and sits down. “Oh now you can sit can
you?”
“It’s a technology I’ll
never share with the likes of you, Gynythian Zee. I thought my grandfather got
rid of you a long time ago on some galaxy far away.”
“Arthos,” says Dvora,
“where’s your father?”
“You’ll see, mother dear.
Meanwhile, you’re trapped here; y
ou and your guards. They should come in
here and pick you off one by one,” Arthos says as the guards standing around
the room have their blaster rifles aimed and ready to fire if anyone comes
through the door.
“And as for you, Mother,
deceiver, traitor and now sorcerer I hear? Well, aren’t you coming up in the
universe?”
Dvora pleads with Athos to
stop her daughters from going there and tells her the plan.
“Shut up you dirty dealing
double-crossing hussy,” shouts Gynythian Zee and smacks Dvora across the face
with the back of his hand. She falls down on the floor and starts to get up on
her knees. Arthos gets up and walks over to Gynythian Zee and they stand face
to face.
Arthos has to look up to
him, but he glares right into his ferocious looking eyes. “You feel real big
striking a woman?”
“Yeah, I do, little runt,”
replies Gynythian. “You’re gonna be next you piece of space garbage.” Arthos
has control of his avatar, and lets loose with some powerful punches he learned
on his way to Earth. It was an old ancient form of self-defense. It isn’t
really him hitting, but his avatar made out of electronic matter, microwaves
and plasma energy. Nonetheless, his punches connected, Arthos having switched to
plasma mode and then back to photon mode.
“Now you’re really gonna get
it, kid,” Gynythian Zee says as he gets up from that ordeal, but when he gets
to one knee he yells in pain. “Arg...I think you broke some ribs.”
“That’s not all I’m going to
break before I’m through,” responds Arthos. “Don’t worry, mother. My sisters
have all been contacted and they all are safe and sound with their husbands.”
“Husbands? Cries Gynythian.
“Why you sneaking...you knew they were married didn’t you?”
“It’s not going to matter
for you anyway,” says Cruise, who also has just beamed his own avatar into the
room. “Dvora...I’m sorry...I cannot call you my mother, but you brought this
upon yourself and the girls. Now they are safe, but there will be
repercussions. I’m here to see that justice is served.”
“Oh,
how nice, justice boy,” sneers Gynythian Zee. He springs up ignoring the pain
and makes a leap for Arthos, but goes right through him.
“I...uh...er...changed back
into photon mode,” says Arthos. “But if you want some more lessons on Chakornese
Samurian Kintei, I’d be happy to teach you, red man.”
“No need to make him suffer
some more, Arthos. I think you not only broke his ribs, but his wrist too,”
interrupts Cruise as he helps Dvora into a chair. She was still holding her
neck. Gynythian Zee hit her really hard and it looked like she had whiplash.
“Now as far as you guards
are concerned, you will all drop your weapons. You’re under arrest in the name
of the Kingdom of the Twelve Galaxies Cluster and its king Daxu Korth.”
The guards just stood there
ready with their weapons refusing to put them down. “We’re not taking any
orders from an avatar,” said the head guardsman.
Cruise looks at Arthos and
they both start walking over to the head guardsman. He glares at them and takes
a swing at them with his stun rod but it goes right through them, to his
astonishment. Cruise takes the big man, almost as big as Gynythian Zee, and
lifts him over his head. He then tosses him like a feather pillow over at the
door and he hits it, shattering it to pieces. The other guards as well as
Gynythian Zee are bewildered at Cruise’s strength. Arthos looks over at him.
“This is my real strength, man,” he
responds. “Guards, come on in the door is now open. Take these huge guards
away, and someone bring a stretcher of a wheelchair for this other huge lug
over here. He was referring to Gynythian Zee, who was still writhing in pain.
Walking over to him crouched
over on his knees; Cruise’s eyes meet his glare. “What’s the matter? Cat got
your tongue? Oh, I forgot, your planet doesn’t have cats; the monstrous dogs
ate them all. This is my real self see?” He knocks Gynythian on the head with
his fist and then picks him up with one hand lifting him into the air and
setting him down on the sofa. “The avatar turns into the real self as I’m
instantly teleported from my vessel, which is in orbit right now around
Cassiopeia and has impounded all of the ships and crew that came with you.”
Cruise turns to Dvora.
“Gynythian Zee’s race has a low threshold of pain. Once a bone is broken, or
there is a sprain, it takes weeks for the pain to subside. He’ll be getting a
headache soon too, a migraine, and then an upset stomach. They’re really big
babies when it comes to pain.”
Arthos had also teleported
down through his avatar and was sitting there in the flesh. “Sorry, Mother, but
we’ll have to put you on ice until father gets here.”
“Ice? What do you mean on
Ice? Are you going to freeze me?” She was horrified.
“No, of course not. It’s an
expression I learned on Earth. It just means you’re under arrest too.”
Daxu Korth upon returning to
the Citadel, has Ibiza interrogated concerning the whereabouts of his brother. Ibiza
attempted to use sorcery on him to confuse his words.
“What do you think I am, a
novice?” laughed Daxu Korth. “You try to use your flimsy sorcery on me, the
king of The Twelve Galaxies Cluster?”
Daxu Korth then ordered
Ibiza be taken, bound by the electromagnetic cuffs so he couldn’t use his
hands, and gagged so he couldn’t use his voice to conjure up any spells
whatsoever. He was taken to one of the laboratories of the Citadel where the
wizards of Cassiopeia would extract all of his powers with the magic dark green
precious stone Moxxakate. It was from the mines of Anteluctan on the planet
Hychromomius, found in the galaxy
Cymopolea, just
outside of the Twelve Galaxies Cluster far in the north.
The jewel produced radiation
that was not harmful to beings, but drained the bodies of any being that
possessed powers of the dark forces from the underworld. With Dvora, a
different stone had to be used. The best physicians in the city, as well as the
wisest wizards who only used their powers for good, agreed after she had
undergone a full examination: Dvora had been infected by a rare meteorite that
poisoned her mind. It was also responsible for her strange new powers. The
Citadel magicians, wizards, and physicians all worked together to purge the
poisonous radiation from her as well as the powers. Another precious stone was
used. It was the rare blue colored Opaxilate stone.
“It would help if we knew
where the meteorite was from,” said Yuhiot, Citadel magician.
“Daxu Korth said that she
had no recollection of being near a meteor,” replied Salocina, who had arrived
at the Citadel after leaving the battle. “Perhaps she will remember after the
poison is out of her body.”
After the poison radiation
is purged from Dvora’s system, she is then
subjected
to Infinity’s brain regulator, which is therapeutic and helps her to return to
her original mindset.
“Where am I? Why am I here?”
she says. “
Oh gods and goddesses, I'm
going to die. I'm going to die! I know I am, look at me, there's no coming back
from this. Oh gods, oh my goddesses, I'm going to die. I don't want to. What do
I do? What can I do? I'm going to die.” She looks up at Salocina. “I can't
focus, everything is spinning. It doesn't matter which way I look, with one or
both eyes, everything keeps spinning. I feel dizzy.”
Salocina tries to calm her
down and comfort her. She explains all that had happened and spends time with
her showing her audial visuals of main events. Even security footage from Infinity
of events she recorded during the time that had passed since Dvora was
affected.
According to the king’s law,
a trial must be held for all accused criminals being held in prison. This would
mean putting Gynythian Zee on trial for his crimes against Daxu Korth and the
kingdom. This had never been accomplished before as Gynythian Zee had always
escaped back to his realm. Dvora and her daughters would also have to go to
trial, even though they had been exonerated of all charges that were previously
brought against them.
“It’s the law,” says the
Chief Magistrate. “Everything must be judged and decided in a court of law.
It’s the King’s law.”
Subsequently, Gynythian Zee
manages to escape using his powers. His magic is old and deep but he only knows
how to wield it when he is in precarious situation. He had his guards bring him
food and although he was locked up with chains and electronic wrist cuffs, he
turned the chains into water, and the cuffs into knives. The guards opened the
door believing he was secure and brought the food in. Gynythian Zee slashes
their throats and darts out and down the hallway. He needs to go up ten flights
of stairs and through a heavy metal door that is separating him from the
outside roof up on top of the Citadel.
The dead guards are
discovered when they failed to check in after bringing the food. The guards
then chase Gynythian Zee, who now must find a way to escape the planet. He
rushes out onto the roof of the Citadel and climbs even higher to the turrets.
He plucks the buttons off of the leather strap on his chest and turns them into
grenades. He tosses a few back down the stairs and they detonate, killing the
guards that were following him.
Making it to the highest
turret and then climbing up its tower, he looks over the city of Shovaya and
pulls a chord on the side of his belt. Small rockets pop out from his belt.
They are about the size of a wine glass and almost the same shape, but golden
in color. He pulls another chord and green wings looking very much like dragon
wings shoot out, giving him flying power with a wing span the same as his
height. He presses a button on his belt and leaves the Citadel far behind as he
soars high into the sky and away from Shovaya. He navigates towards a forest
where his spacecraft was hidden. He is long gone before even Daxu Korth and Cruise
know he escaped. Now, he returns to the scene of the battle he left, still
raging in a far away galaxy.
With the guards dead it was
some tie before Daxu Korth was notified that his greatest archenemy had
escaped. The court session was set for the next day. Daxu Korth would have to
be there.
“I don’t have to be,” says Cruise.
“I’ll go after him and either bring him back, or bury him on one of those
planets out there.”
“Either way, Son, you must
stop him,” replies Daxu Korth.
“If he’s going by Hyper Warp
Speed, it’s going to take him quite some time though,” Says Cruise.
“He’s still a powerful
wizard, Son,” replies Daxu Korth. “He knows the deep magic and can get there
sooner than you think.
“Well, I have some magic
too,” responds Cruise. “She’s called Infinity. It’s about time we joined that
battle and bring it to an end.”
Cruise readies his crew and
tells Infinity the new plan. “Locked onto the coordinates, Cruise.”
“That means we are just
about there,” says Cruise, taking in all he sees at the battle site and
wondering how each side could have avoided annihilation from the other. But
instead they worked hard to evaluate their losses. Cruise recalls an ancient
Quewythian poem.
We will honor you, my
brother,
with the blood of war.
Spirits of
the past,
and spirits of the present,
Suns and
Stars give signs,
of magic and fortune telling,
Rule your
world
with majesty and grace,
Rule the
Galaxy
with justice and strength,
Rule the
Universe
with wisdom and knowledge.
They all
shall be brought down,
all Governments, Cities, Countries,
They that
bring death to the inhabitants,
All of the Time Stealers,
All of the
Skin Walkers,
all of the powers of darkness
Shall fall
and the light of truth shall rule,
The words of truth shall overcome.
After programming Infinity
with data on how to stop the battle, the enormous EMP takes out all of their
systems. Infinity drains the energy that powers all of their weapons including
carry weapons. After that, she restores all life support systems and the power
to all engines. She then teleports all of the enemy vessels into her holding
dock, where they are lined up and again disabled. Cruise sends a message to all
of the Kingdom ships ordering them to return to Cassiopeia. Salocina’s ships
follow, after receiving a message from her to return to meet her there.
Infinity scans the ships, but
Gynythian Zee cannot be found. Seeing that all of his armada had been
impounded, he flees in his own vessel, which was shielded from the EMP. Cruise teleports
Infinity back to Cassiopeia, and the several hundred thousand prisoners are
transferred to several prisons temporarily until their fates are decided.
Gynythian Zee’s remaining armada of warships is put in an enormous hangar on
the Citadel’s military base.
Salocina is watching over
Dvora, while she recuperates from the treatment that took away her powers and
restored her original memory and state of mind.
“The last thing I remember
is picking up a pretty blue stone and thinking I wanted to make a pendant out
of it,” said Dvora. “Everything after that is blank.”
“You may start remembering little
by little,” said the head physician. “But then again you may never remember
anything that happened between then and now.”
“Trust me, Dvora, there are
a lot of things you would not
want
to
remember.” remarks Salocina.
As far as Dvora’s daughters,
the spell Dvora put on them was broken when she lost the effects from the
meteorite. They went into a state of amnesia, not remembering anything that
happened since their meeting at Dvora’s villa, when she was infected by the
meteorite’s radiation. Needless to say, their husbands were bewildered, as they
also had no recollection of getting married, or who the men were.
It had been many Earth
generations. Their husbands had them sit and watch audial visuals of their
lives since they got married. They felt awkward that they really did not know
their own husbands.
The top magician in the
Citadel said that in time they would regain their memories, but it will not be
sudden. Yeralai seemed to be the exception. Somehow she could still remember
everything, and yet it all seemed like a bad dream.
Chajux Motwreq had just returned from the mission.
He was one of the pilots in the battle with Gynythian Zee.
“My love, you still remember me don’t you?” He heard that the daughters
of Dvora had all lost their memories. “You know who I am?”
“Oh, darling, most of all I do remember you and I can’t understand why
I’m the only one who does remember,” she replied.
“Then you can help your sisters’ husbands; my comrades,” He said.
“Please tell your sisters what you remember. Tell them what you know about
their marriage and weddings.”
“I’ll tell them, but I cannot make them remember their love for their
husbands,” she replies. “That is something they will have to remember
themselves. They’ll have to feel the love, as I do for you.”
Dvora cold not remember the hate and vengeance she felt for Daxu Korth.
“I have no memory of anything but love for you. I saw the visuals and heard the
things I said. I could not imagine it was really me. I’m so devastated.”
Daxu Korth knew she was telling the truth as he scanned her mind with
his powers. He opened the sliding door to the sky terrace where he could view
the whole city of Shovaya. The night sky displayed clusters of stars, each one
with their own names. He could view each of the twelve galaxies with his own eyes,
something that Dvora was not able to do. He took his lovely Dvora; her beauty
restored by treatments, by the hand and led her out to the terrace. Her initial
reaction was to pull back in fear, thinking that in his hate for her he would
toss her off of the high terrace and she would plunge to a horrible death. She
knew very well what he was capable of; he possessed the strength of fifty
normal males. Daxu still pulled her outside even though she was trembling.
“Come and have a look. I want you to see something. Trust me”
With the sudden change in focus, Dvora forgot about her terror for a
moment, wondering what he was up to. Her curiosity got the best of her and she
stopped resisting. He led her over to the very large and powerful telescope
that was at the far end on the right side of the terrace. It was massive; the
optical tube was ten meters long it was three meters wide at the aperture.