Vortex 3 (part 1)

VORTEX Part 3

All the other ships were able to raise their shields in time; as the nuclear explosions slowly subsided, Luzifer's ship disappeared through the vortex. I immediately ordered our ship to follow, because the radioactive residues couldn't harm us at all—the shields kept the radiation out magnificently. Since the vortex was growing larger and larger, it was no longer a problem to fly through with a massive battleship like the BRIGHT STAR 3.

Luzifer's ship was flying right ahead of us; we were already so close that I could read its name off the bow: it was the ENORA 2. We were close enough for magnetic projectile weapons. Both they and we could finally deploy them, since the dispersers had already failed once before. We had a few new, untested weapons on board, but I only wanted to use them if everything else failed. ENOLA 2 fired again, launching magnetically accelerated projectiles at us, which drilled straight through our shield, though causing only minor damage to the hull. BRIGHT STAR 3 fired back immediately and damaged the ENOLA 2 around its engines; both ships were evenly matched in their strength. Only the weapon technology differed in a few aspects.

The other ships of the Planetary Alliance waited on the other side of the vortex; they wouldn't have been much help anyway, as the BRIGHT STAR 3 didn't have enough firepower to take down the ENOLA 2, so the other ships would have stood just as little chance. Fighting all the way, we approached Earth and entered its atmosphere. To avoid crashing, the Space Drive had to be deactivated and switched over to anti-gravity engines suitable for atmospheric flight. In atmospheric flight, however, the Enola 2 was much faster, because the BRIGHT STAR class of starships had not been designed for atmospheric pursuit battles. Back then, they were meant to attack Vahanara's ships in space and, if necessary, seek refuge within a planet's atmosphere.

A mighty battleship, bristling with countless weapons, suddenly appeared before us and immediately opened fire without attempting to make contact. Despite our activated shields and trans-atomic armor, the weapons took effect immediately; the protective hull buckled under explosive forces equivalent to those of hydrogen bombs—our ship couldn't withstand that for long. While the alien vessel fired from every weapons bay, a holographic image of a spider suddenly appeared behind it; what happened next within a matter of seconds was indescribable. The battleship tried to turn toward the holo-spider, but before it succeeded, a smaller ship in red and blue colors showed up and fired a single beam—the giant battleship glowed white-hot and vanished. In its place, only a cloud of steel atoms drifted above the ocean.

The BRIGHT STAR was so heavily damaged that it could no longer operate in space, so we had no choice but to make an emergency landing on a nearby island to repair all the damage. The other ship landed next to us, and a man leaped out of the hatch.

"Allow me to introduce myself! I am Master Four, an opponent of the Skytologen, and I have a proposition for you."

When the fully repaired BRIGHT STAR ascended into the sky again to disappear toward home, I sat down on a fallen tree and asked Master Four about his intentions.

"As far as I know, you are a Genomorph and can transform into any living form you wish. The Skytologen have kidnapped my wife, and if I approach the building where she's being held prisoner, those bastards will kill her. That building just happens to be their headquarters, and they know I could obliterate it in the blink of an eye."

"So you basically want me to sneak in there, free your wife, and then you can level the building?"

Master Four nodded, remarking:

"Quick on the uptake, this lad, I like that. Something else you should know: inside the central hub is also the device that keeps the hole in our dimension permanently open, so you'll have to hurry if you don't want to remain our guest forever."

I nodded in agreement, but said at the same time:

"I know nothing about this world, and above all nothing about you—what's this strange name supposed to mean?"

"Master Four is of course my code name; I never reveal my real name to anyone, because then I wouldn't be safe anymore. Besides, everyone in our organization uses a code name in the fight against Skytology."

"Tell me more about your organization, and then you'll get my answer."

Master Four sat down next to me and explained:

"The organization I'm talking about is called ASO, Anti Skytology Organisation, and we were founded in the year 119 when it became clear that the Skytologen were going to seize power. We've been fighting them ever since."

"And who was this Luzifer?"

"Is, not was! He is immortal and arguably the most dangerous being in the universe. A year ago he had the idea that one could conquer a parallel universe. Now he wants to destroy you all, keep you as slaves, or who knows what?"

"Alright, in that case, I'll help you," I said, activating the wormhole expander in my wristband. Before stepping through, I said: "We meet here in one hour."

The main administrative building towered high into the sky and was impossible to miss. In the background, the crescent moon shone, bathing the building in a mystical light—an intentional effect that proved very impressive. Around the building walked all kinds of people, all wearing the same emblem: the depiction of the building. Limping, I walked up to one of the people, a young man, stuck a cigar into my mouth, and asked him for a light. As he handed me his lighter with a smile, shielding the flame from the wind with his hands, I brushed against him and copied his genes. I threw the cigar away immediately, brought my metabolism to maximum within seconds, and morphed into the man. Naturally, it shocked him, but he didn't have much time to think about it, because in the very next instant I grabbed him and dragged him into the nearest building, knocking him out with a well-aimed strike. Since I was now built according to his genes, his clothes fit me perfectly—not even his own mother would have been able to tell us apart.

Without difficulty, I entered the building and put on a pair of sunglasses, which were actually an energy detector meant to show me the location of the vortex generator. The computer readout revealed a tremendous power source on the fortieth floor, possessing the exact same coherence as the vortex—this had to be it. I ran straight into the elevator and typed the number 40 on the keypad; the door closed, and I felt the elevator shoot upward, but what was this? Instead of the fortieth floor, the elevator stopped at the forty-first, and as the doors slid apart, several armed Skytologen were already waiting for me. Luzifer shoved them aside and greeted me:

"Mr Black, planning to betray us? You really should have known that the fortieth floor triggers an alarm in the elevator. You should have been standing guard downstairs instead of snooping around like a curious little boy trying to look at the generator; that positively calls for punishment."

Truth be told, I felt like finding out whether this Luzifer really was immortal. The armed guards arrested me and led me to a cell where I was supposed to serve my punishment. I didn't want to give away too early that I was someone entirely different, so I let myself be locked up without resistance. After a few minutes, Luzifer stepped inside and said:

"This breach of trust is punishable by death; no one will ever know what happened."

Then he plunged a knife into my heart and opened his mouth to capture my soul. Since this minor wound posed no danger to me and I possessed no soul to begin with, the time had come to finally strike—because once Luzifer realized that I wasn't mortal, he would guess the truth anyway.

I pulled the knife out of my heart and shouted:

"Battlesuit activate!"

The muscle servos, armor plating, and anti-gravity belt materialized, forming the Battlesuit—a combat suit that granted its wearer tremendous strength. Luzifer was a bit slow on the uptake, but once I landed a few blows so powerful that he flew through two walls, he realized what was happening. He still didn't know who I really was, but he recognized that I was an almost evenly matched opponent. The blows didn't seem to faze him much, but his camouflage faded and I saw his true nature. He was a horned creature with horse hooves and an arrow-tipped tail—an ordinary second-class Ectomorph.

"Now it's your turn!" he yelled furiously and punched me in the stomach with all his might.

The couple of broken ribs healed instantly, but since I lay on the floor for a few seconds, I could take a closer look at the other cells. Various eyes peered out at me from some of the openings—from one, even gorgeous female eyes; that had to be Master Four's wife. I morphed my hands into talons and leaped at Luzifer; his horns injured me, but I still managed to strike his energy center behind the spine. He exploded in a colorful burst of fireworks, releasing the souls, but at the same time, his new body was already beginning to form.

I used those few seconds to break open the cells and get everyone out; they all ran outside immediately. Once Luzifer had regenerated, he realized we were at a stalemate and vanished. Now it was child's play to penetrate the control center one floor below. The operators at the screens were utterly stunned when they saw me; after all, one rarely sees a human with claws. They all scattered like frightened rabbits.

As I looked at the main screen, all

...became clear: Luzifer's plan was, just like back then with the Zer, to wipe out the entire defense of Terra in a single blow. The entire fleet of Earth was en route to the Vortex; only because they were slower than Luzifer's ship, they were only halfway there. The strategic display on the screen was breathtaking—there had to be more than ten thousand warships. Terra Prime wouldn't stand the slightest chance against this overwhelming force, and not even the United Fleets of Terra Prime, Zer II, Malkor, and the Ectomorphs of our universe could have withstood them in battle. If the fleet reaches the Vortex, Terra Prime and Malkor are as good as lost. But if I were to destroy the generator, I would be trapped in this parallel universe forever, together with this Luzifer.

I had no other choice. With a fire axe, I smashed the vacuum tubes. A dull bang, then everything around me turned bright. When the smoke cleared, I stood up. My healing powers had saved me from severe injuries, but the nutrients in my body dropped to a dangerous level. Another injury would certainly be fatal—for a Genomorph as well, by the way. On shaky legs, I left the ruined floor via the emergency stairs.

One floor down, Master Four's wife was already waiting for me and helped me make my way further down. She said:

"If you were a normal human, you would already be dead. So who or what are you? I'm also curious how you turned your hands into claws."

"I am a Genomorph. I'll tell you everything else later when I'm back at full strength."

When I emerged from the wormhole and found myself back on the island, Master Four greeted me:

"You saved my wife! I will always be grateful to you for that. Unfortunately, your spaceship didn't manage to fly through the Vortex before it collapsed."

So the BRIGHT STAR 3 was still in this universe.

"What are we going to do now? We can hardly hide a ship as large as the BRIGHT STAR 3 from the remaining Skytology people," he said nervously.

Due to the poor overall condition of my body, my patience wasn't exactly resilient, but Master Four reassured me:

"In return for your help, I offer you an unlimited stay at our base, provided Master One agrees. The base is strictly secret and yet large enough for ten spaceships of this size."

Ravenous with hunger, I began gnawing on the grass. The fact that I swallowed a few insects along the way didn't bother me much, even if the chitin shells didn't taste great. Some Genomorphs don't like it when their food runs away when the light is turned on, but I was starving and these little critters were just a welcome source of protein. The couple, however, felt sick and threw up. After a few minutes, I was fully recharged and morphed back into my old form.

"Enough puking, take me to Master One, I'd finally like to meet him!" I shouted and boarded their flying saucer.

During the flight, I said:

"We could finally introduce ourselves properly. Best if I start: My name is Varlon Traas, a Genomorph from planet Zer and advisor to the president of Terra Prime—the planet Luzifer wanted to conquer."

"Fair enough," Master Four said. "My real name is Miles Scarab, I am the scientific advisor at ASO. This is my wife Andrea, also with ASO."

"And Master One?"

"We know very little about him, but one thing is certain: he is not from this planet."

That piqued my interest. Earth didn't seem to be such a boring planet after all. Although there seemed to be no Genomorphs in this universe—evolution on Zer probably took a different path—there were still several alien races here as well.

A camouflaged plate in the desert we were flying over opened, revealing access to an underground base. Miles hadn't exaggerated about its size. We flew in and touched down rather hard for my taste; the saucer probably had an outdated beam-gravitation drive that wasn't exactly known for gentle landings. Granted, ASO had excellent weapons, but their propulsion systems weren't exactly state of the art.

Hardly had we stepped outside when a man with a steel mask stood before us and said:

"As I have learned, not even the Genomorph could destroy Luzifer! That is very bad, of course, but we will destroy that devil sooner or later."

"That is Master One," Miles explained to me.

Master One turned to me and said:

"Welcome to ASO. Since you are now trapped in our universe, I suggest you join us!"

I really had no choice but to agree.

"I'll introduce you to the other members: Master One, that's me. Master Two is named Rolf Schwarz and is our propulsion systems expert. Master Three is Dexter Peel, the one who worked on the research spaceship PROTON before the Skytologists halted the project. Master Four, who is responsible for our weapon systems, you've already met. Our tactical officer is Jessie Grave, an outstanding tactician and fighter. Your code name from now on is Mastermorph."

Mastermorph—that sounded pretty good, but at my age, I cared less about fine-sounding names than about the situation I found myself in, and that wasn't very funny at all: I was in deep trouble. Thanks to my new friends, however, the situation might not be quite as hopeless as I initially thought.

The BRIGHT STAR 3 was already on approach. Thanks to the transmitter in my handheld computer, they were able to pinpoint my exact position and adjust their landing approach accordingly. With this ship, ASO finally stood a chance against Luzifer; we only had to modify the weapon systems.

When my ship finally touched down and the hatch closed behind it, I boarded the vessel and explained the whole situation to the crew, with all the details they needed to know. None of them were thrilled about our involuntary stay in this parallel universe, but they knew it was destiny, and that I would not rest until a way back was found.