Vortex 2: Part 1

VORTEX Part 2

"This planet is called EARTH, exactly the same as Terra Prime used to be. The last wars took place here ninety years ago; since then, this world has developed quite far, but there are shadows here that trouble me." I grew curious and pulled the car over to the roadside. "Come on, A-Tya, tell me what's bothering you so much."

"Well, there's a church in power here."

"That's not so bad, except for those who have to pay church taxes," I joked, but Tya said something that truly turned my stomach: "Does the word THETAN mean anything to you?" THETAN was the term for soul, used only by the Ectomorphs; I felt faint. They had indeed promised to leave Terra Prime alone as long as all criminals were handed over to them, but in this parallel universe, they had no reason to make such a promise. They are here!

"Go on, I'm all ears," I urged.

"Well, this cult calls itself Skytology and rules the entire planet with brainwashing and other methods that we find uncivilized."

"Sounds like a terrible thing. Do you have any idea how it happened?"

"Not yet, but I met a woman who wrote this story down; I was just on my way to see her."

"I'm coming with you! Where is her apartment?"

"We are standing right in front of it," A-Tya said with a chuckle. We got out of the car and Tya pressed a button on the intercom. After a few seconds of waiting, it became clear that no one would open up, but as someone was just leaving the building, I didn't let the door latch shut and went upstairs with Tya.

"Which floor?" I asked.

"First!" There were two doors; one of them was wide open. I ran inside and found a dead woman on the floor. Rigor mortis had not yet set in, and there were no visible external injuries; possibly her life energy had been drained by Ectomorphs. Since she hadn't been dead for long, I was able to copy her memory, at least partially. As it turned out, she had stored all the data about Skytology on her computer—a ZX Spectrum, which very few people could still operate in the year 2080.

I switched on the computer and called up all the data on the screen; it read like a chronicle of terror:

1980: The first Skytologists infiltrated the most 
      important companies and the beginning of the 
      government takeover.
1998: More than half of the government already 
      consists of Skytologists.
2011: Skytology government complete, unification of 
      the government of all countries of the Earth.
2012: Every religion except Skytology itself is 
      forbidden. Very high penalties for practicing 
      another religion.

What followed was a slap in the face for every reasonable-thinking Zer. The cult completely took over all newspapers, television stations, and other media; they suggested to the people that an entrance to a cave or something similar would soon emerge, and that all people who had reached a certain mental stage would be safe and protected from it. I couldn't make any sense of it, but it was already clear that the energy of human souls can be increased through specific training—nutritional enhancement, so to speak—because the files stated that the people with the highest training level disappeared forever.

A police siren interrupted my reading, so I took the computer and all the disks and said to A-Tya, who was examining the corpse: "We have to go now, I have everything I need."

A-Tya grabbed a pocket TV and then ran out of the apartment behind me and downstairs. We jumped into the car and drove off immediately.

"Do they know about us?" my wife asked me.

"Nothing about Genomorphs apparently, but if what I suspect is true, we are in the greatest of trouble, from which we can only escape if we combine our mutual forces."

"Yes, what is it?!?" she asked impatiently.

"Turn on the TV!" I asked her, and when she did, we heard some news: "The news of the day is the discovery of the Demon Gate in space. We will soon send a research probe through it, which will transmit the images directly to the studio. The other news is the escape of a heretical spy from the military base in Washington DC; he has [killed] many brave soldiers..."

"Turn it off, I know everything now. We must return to Terra Prime as soon as possible," I said, unnerved, and stepped on the gas.

"What's wrong?" asked A-Kara as I hurriedly put on my brain probe.

"Terra Prime is in the greatest danger. We must go back and unite the forces of the humans, Genomorphs, and Sekraners," I replied and opened a wormhole near the Vortex. Since the capacitors were not yet fully charged, we had some time.

"Maybe you'll explain to us what's going on exactly," A-Tya said, somewhat irritated; she apparently still hadn't understood what kind of propaganda was about to run here. I turned the TV back on, just in time. The landing of the probe was being broadcast.

"But that's not Terra Prime," Tya noted immediately.

"Of course not!" I had to reply. "There is no probe; all these images were generated in a computer."

"But the images look so real!" said Kara admiringly, as she dealt with computer graphics very often and knew how difficult it is to calculate such real-looking images.

The images coming from the TV were just lies—a hell planet on which demons and monsters lived and fed on human flesh. Then one of them destroyed the camera, and with that, the alleged broadcast cut off. A news anchor appeared and said: "My ladies and gentlemen, you saw it all; it's unbelievable. The government has decided to send combat troops to this planet and..."

I crushed the TV with my bare hands, I was so furious. All my fears were confirmed. Since the wormhole was open, I flew through it and then directly through the Vortex. While the generator was charging for another wormhole, with which I would arrive directly on Terra Prime, Kara asked me: "Sure, they want war, but when their combat troops land on Terra Prime, they will see that they have been deceived."

"It's not that simple, because when they are under special drugs, they only see monsters around them too."

A-Tya turned pale; now she finally understood everything. She suggested: "How about we also ask our Ectomorphs and Juventaner for help? If all Juventaner unite again to form Vahanara, we'll have victory in our pocket."

"What makes you think the Ectomorphs will act against their own brothers?"

"Well, after all, their so-called brothers are poaching in their territory."

I could kick myself for not thinking of that. If the five peoples united, the Skytologists would have no chance, no matter how long they had worked on the plan. Tya opened a channel to Earth and shouted into the microphone: "Alert Level Red, this is an emergency, I request the immediate conference of the Six."

The Six—that was the number of representatives of all peoples of the known space sectors, which wasn't exactly many, but it sufficed for our purposes: The humans of Terra Prime were represented by Lord Carrington Stan, the Zer had elected the long-time president Delar Nor, Sekraners sent T-Vesser, Agarian humans had Cir Stonar, Ectomorphs had Larian 3, and the Juventaner had Stella Pluri when important decisions were up for debate.

These six were constantly on Malkor, and that was where the conference was to take place. Finally, the wormhole opened and I was able to land on Terra Prime. I hated traveling with a regular flight, but the wormhole shielding and the security measures around the government complex on Malkor made it almost impossible to travel with a private spacecraft. There were still some followers of the old Agara government who wanted to plunge the entire planet into war again. For the sake of peace, one therefore sacrificed the convenience of travel.

As I entered the hall, everyone was already waiting anxiously for my brain projection. They put on the networking helmets. My place was at the head of the table; I sat down immediately and connected the electrodes to my head. Not quite as secure a connection as a brain probe, but steering a spacecraft with thoughts is something quite different than brain networking. The transmission began and it lasted only a few seconds. During this time, everything I had seen and experienced was implanted into all the other brains.

The first to speak was Larian 3: "This is outrageous. After we have lived peacefully with the inhabitants of the Helios system for so long, some of our own want to violate the hard-earned peace. We cannot allow that, now that we have finally found a way to become independent of the life energy of humans. The remedy is currently being tested on the first Ectomorphs." He was very convincing when he said that; I was sure that he sincerely wanted peace.

Cir Stonar also asked to speak: "Since the war against the Sekraners ended, we have wanted nothing but peace. This attack is particularly insidious, and therefore I pledge my support."

Delar also had something to say: "Tvorgh... sorry, I meant Varlon, of course! You have served us well in the past, and we also thank you for being able to warn us so early. These fanatics from Earth are even dangerous for a Genomorph with their fighting style, and since we all want peace on Terra Prime, we must all fight this danger. The people of Zer will fight."

Lord Stan Carrington raised his hand and said noblely: "My gentlemen, Genomorphs, and all others, this danger threatens Terra Prime directly; therefore, we will naturally not sit idly by and let ourselves be slaughtered."

T-Vesser stood up: "We are a peace-loving people, but this situation is clear and could also threaten us in the future; therefore, I unite..."

"...unite our forces while the enemy hasn't achieved any victories yet, and beat back his attacks."

Stella just sat there, saying nothing. All eyes were on her, but that didn't seem to bother her much. Finally, she stood up and slammed her fist onto the conference table.

"No! Merging into Vahanara is too dangerous; he is an uncontrollable, autonomous entity. Besides that, he possesses so much life energy that he would be an irresistible temptation for any Ectomorph."

Larian unconsciously ran his tongue over his lips. Stella noticed, of course, which reinforced her opinion, but she still conceded:

"If things start looking very bad for you in the war, we will naturally reconsider this decision. And now, please excuse me."

She vanished from the hall, leaving the other five stranded in the room without answers.

The situation was not amusing at all, because without Vahanara's ultra-brilliant brain, we had a chance, but no certainty that we would win.

Delar spoke into the communicator on his arm:

"Orders to the starship yards on all planets: Switch production immediately, we need warships."

I asked him: "What about the three BRIGHT STAR class battleships that were deployed against Vahanara's fleet five years ago? They are pretty solid and ought to still be operational."

Granted, they hadn't been very successful against the flagship and had brought tears of terror to the eyes of the people on Terra Prime, but they were the most advanced ships built by the Lords of Zer, superbly armed, and still the mightiest warships the Planetary Alliance had ever seen.

"They are stationed on Jupiter's moon Europa and were actually scheduled for scrapping. You can take command again if you want; after all, you were one of our best commanders."

I couldn't refuse this command. After all, it had always been my dream to command a starship once again, and joyrides with my Space-Yacht couldn't satisfy that craving. A BRIGHT STAR class battleship was the finest warship in existence.

"Yes!" I shouted, overjoyed.

I was handed BRIGHT STAR 3 along with a well-trained crew consisting of Ectomorphs, Humans, Zer, and Sekraners. We had to replace several pieces of equipment with their modern counterparts to bring her up to the latest state of technology, but otherwise everything remained unchanged. All Genomorphs on board were implanted with a small biochip, which, in an emergency, accelerates morphing by about a hundred times. Instead of one to two minutes in a crisis, the manual claimed it would take one to two seconds, though this varied from individual to individual. The main disperser coils were replaced, as they had suffered the most from sustained fire during the war—several had almost burned out—and the tachyon beam drive was boosted so that the ship's overall maneuverability improved. The damage to the outer hull caused by the assault shields of Vahanara's ships, which had only been patch-repaired back then, had to be completely overhauled, but after just three hours, the ship looked ready to take on the entire galaxy.

Control over the wormholes and navigation was held by two Zer equipped with neural probes. The two dispersion banks were also manned by two weapons technicians, but from Terra Prime; they handled target acquisition better than Genomorphs with neural probes. Propulsion and damage control were operated by Sekraners hailing from a Sekraner colony on Mars, which was currently being terraformed. All other crew members were ground troops, relief squads, and the technicians needed for repairs.

The monitoring station on Ikarus signaled a Blood Red Alert—the highest alert level! A massive ship and several small spacecraft burst through the Vortex into our universe. The asteroid belt immediately grew crowded. All available warships of the Planetary Alliance emerged through their wormholes. The Earth ships instantly opened fire with everything they had. I ordered the protective shields raised and held fire. The attackers' small fighters incinerated in them on the spot, then I lowered our shield again and shouted:

"Dispersion banks, FIRE!"

Surprisingly, the beams curved around the hostile vessel as if it were wrapped in an invisible radiation shield.

"Commander, incoming message for us from the Earth ship," shouted the Agarian monitoring radio communications.

I swivelled my chair toward the large screen on the rear bridge wall:

"Put it on the comm screen."

The rear bridge control console vanished, displaying the transmitted image.

The figure on screen was a futuristically dressed human. There was nothing unusual to be seen about him, except that he displayed several traits of a disguised Ectomorph. He was also receiving the video feed from BRIGHT STAR 3 and took a closer look at me. Then he lowered a blast wall between himself and the rest of his bridge and said:

"Well now, you have slightly better weapon technology, but against my ship, you are all helpless. By the way, my name is Luzifer, if that rings a bell."

"I am Varlon Traas, Commander of BRIGHT STAR 3, and my orders to you are: Get the hell out of our universe," I barked.

"Well, well, so you humans are insolent as well!" Luzifer clearly had no idea who I was, but the laugh would soon be wiped off his face.

"Surprise!" he shouted, transforming in the blink of an eye into a horned creature with hooves. Then he simply added:

"I lay claim to your home planet. We'll be seeing each other."

The screen went black. Luzifer's ship launched several nuclear missiles at our fleet; the atomic inferno destroyed BRIGHT STAR 1, which now truly turned into a very bright star.