Vortex Part 1

VORTEX Part 1

May I introduce myself first? My name is Varlon Traas, and as many of you already know, I am a Genomorph. Humans label us as soulless monsters, but they often overlook what they are themselves. We are writing the year 2080, five years after the terrible invasion by my people, the Zer, and one hundred and ten years after the atomic war of 1970, which almost completely destroyed Terra. Since we found a way to live peacefully with the humans, we have saved their planet from an environmental catastrophe and have been inhabitants of Terra Prime ever since. We, the Zer, have also brought a planetary association into being, to which the Ectomorphs also belong.

CHAPTER 1: The Attack

Everything started quite innocently on the fourth of April 2079, fifteen days after a Genomorph was elected president of the United States of Eurasia. It began like a perfectly normal day; I was sitting at my computer monitoring the space around Jupiter's moon Europa, our former home which we inhabited before the war. At my side stood A-Tya, my wife, who had just brought me some hot tea. Since the war, she has been a human, and she didn't exactly like it, but until I find a way to return her old body to her, she unfortunately has to remain a human.

"When will you work on the brain transfer again? I would really feel more comfortable if I were a cat-person again," she asked.

"Don't worry, darling, Dean and I are almost there; the tests still need to be completed," I replied. She had been waiting for four years and asked about it so often that I eventually brought in Dean Rho to help; it turned out that this human was superior to us in terms of intelligence. Many of the inventions we have made lately would not have been possible at all without the parallel connection of our brains, but the transfer of a brain from one body to another was not easily possible without Vahanara's help, and since he dissolved and thus restored the population of Juventa, one could no longer count on his help.

"What is that?" Tya asked suddenly, pointing to a small blinking dot on the screen. I turned to the screen and took a closer look at this dot. The analysis program started immediately and showed the detailed data.

"Can't you translate? I don't know the Zer language," urged A-Tya.

The symbols did not mean anything good; the quarks in that area had a completely different fuzziness for a few seconds than usual. I had never seen anything like it and hadn't the slightest idea what was brewing there. The analysis program indicated that this phenomenon was artificially created. It could be a gateway to a parallel universe. Back then, I didn't know how right I was, and what dangers it held. However, I immediately notified the Icarus space station, which was operated solely by Zer for scientific purposes, a station inside the planetoid which comes closest to Helios.

"It could be that it is a gateway into one of the parallel universes," I replied to Tya's question, but she felt the excitement in my voice: "But that is something more dangerous than the wormholes you experiment with?"

"It is something completely different and unfortunately also artificially created. I'd better take a closer look at it."

"Do you want to penetrate into the other universe? Is this phenomenon at least stable?"

I didn't want to lie to my wife, so I answered: "No and yes, not necessarily in that order."

"I am coming with you, and don't try to stop me! Two brains are better than one." Naturally, she was right; as a scientist, she would be of great use in exploring the parallel universe.

On the roof of the skyscraper where I lived was a hangar containing my private space-yacht. I took the elevator to the top and climbed in. The systems were all programmed for me, but the other seat where A-Tya took her place was freely configurable. Only I could fly the ship with any co-pilot. Upon sitting down, all systems activated and a brain probe drilled into my brain and connected to the orientation center. In a human, this would lead to death, but the healing powers of Genomorphs handle this procedure without any problems. This was the reason that, so far, only a single human had wanted to steal a Zer spaceship. Well, he couldn't enjoy it for very long.

The electro-gravitational capacitors began to glow and lifted the yacht into the air; then, without opening the hangar doors, I switched the flight mode to space-drive and opened a wormhole near Icarus.

"Tvorgh Kor, long time no see," called Tero, the director of the Icarus Station. She is my sister and did not know that I had called myself Varlon Traas since the last memory erasure.

"Yes, that's a long time ago, but call me Varlon Traas; that is my current name. Have you also measured the quark fuzziness that is nearby here?"

Tero looked at me in astonishment, then she sat down at the computer and scanned the immediate vicinity. Indeed, it was not initially recognizable due to the Helios wind, but now that all sensors were aimed at it, one could see the whole thing more precisely.

"We need more accurate data. Can you fly through it?" she asked.

"I had no other plans, little sister."

When I looked at the stars through this quark fuzziness, I immediately noticed that they were the same as usual; even Terra Prime could be seen through it. However, when I asked the computer for a magnification, my assumption that it was a gateway to another parallel universe, a vortex, was confirmed! Terra Prime looked completely different than usual; instead of green and blue, it was all gray, and on the night side, the lighting looked much stronger than with us. On this version of Terra Prime, there should be about twenty billion people living there, not like with us, half a billion humans and a quarter of a billion Genomorphs.

I flew through the vortex and when I was on the other side, I suddenly had no contact with Icarus anymore. In order not to further attract the attention of the inhabitants of this planet, I turned off the radio and turned on the cloaking device. This planet deserved to be examined more closely. My ship was secured against radar thanks to the cloaking device, but it was impossible to make such a large ship invisible optically. In order not to be seen, I used a wormhole to penetrate the atmosphere.

This parallel planet showed no traces of the atomic war of 1970, but the environmental pollution here was even greater than on Terra Prime shortly before the Zer war.

I landed the space-yacht on an abandoned factory site. "You stay here and I'll look around the area a bit," I ordered A-Tya, because I had no idea whether humans, Zer, or other beings lived on this planet in this parallel universe, and if they weren't humans, A-Tya might stand out. I, on the other hand, could transform into any living being with normal DNA. Since it was currently night, I could move around unseen. I put on a long trench coat to hide the battlesuit, because this could betray me, and I didn't want to do without its help if I found myself in a dangerous situation.

A storm was brewing, the full moon was darkened. I still couldn't get used to the unusual sight; instead of seeing Malkor, the Luna in the sky, the former moon of our planet. It looked as if a war against the Zer had never taken place here. Nearby, I noticed a military airfield where advanced-looking spaceplanes were being armed—not such lame crates as those that were supposed to fight against the Zer warships, and none had ever gotten so close that it could fire. These spaceplanes looked dangerous and had the standard of the Juventa attack ships, which could become dangerous even to a full-grown flagship of the Zer Empire.

I took a pair of binoculars and examined the armament particularly closely. The armament consisted of nuclear missiles, laser cannons, and magnetic launchers. Fortunately, no dispersers were present, so my space-yacht was technologically superior to them, even if it wasn't exactly developed for a fight.

What was going on here, whom do these humans want to attack? But before I could collect my thoughts, I received a blow with a rifle butt to the back of the head, where the brain probe had been just a few minutes ago. Since this area was still particularly sensitive, I lost consciousness.

---

"Who are you?" the high-ranking military officer asked me, shaking my body. "Are you a spy? What are you doing at our base?"

I was in a sparsely furnished room and tied to a chair. With my strength, I could easily tear the ropes, but my goal was also to find some answers.

"Where am I?" was my first question, which was chosen very tactically. If I only had telepathic abilities, it would be child's play to find out everything. Only when this human was sleeping could I look through his brain content; this was not a telepathic property as our scientists had previously suspected, but something similar to copying DNA, only that the RNA messenger substances and prions were copied, which store all information.

"You are here at the military base for flying machines in Washington DC."

I had never heard of Washington DC before, but it must be something very important.

"What is a Washington DC?" I asked, but he thought I was trying to mess with him and didn't respond to that; instead, he pointed to the table where my WHEU and a few more things lay and asked: "What are all these devices? I have never seen anything like them."

Luckily, nobody had thought to unbutton my coat, otherwise they would be wondering about the battlesuit, which had remained unnoticed during a simple body search.

...is. In any case, I had had enough of the whole game and decided to finally put an end to it.

"Battlesuit!", was the word that activated the battlesuit. Diamond armor formed from the carbon atoms of the CO2 in the atmosphere and enveloped my body protectively. The ropes snapped, and I stood up. You should have seen the human's expression. I lunged at him, but the man had excellent combat training. He ducked down very quickly, so I missed him and flew against the wall—that hurt! Before I could get back on my feet, the soldier was already digging his knee into my spine. They were simply rather well-trained, so having greater strength didn't do much good there.

Actually, I didn't want to reveal this just yet, but I had to transform in order to still win. At the last moment, it dawned on me that such interrogations are very often recorded, so I turned my head and took a closer look at the ceiling. In a ventilation shaft I actually found something: a gleaming object that could be a camera lens. I couldn't take that risk. They didn't know yet that I was a Genomorph, and the later they found out, the better. Quite possibly, they didn't even know what Genomorphs were.

A-Tya was surely already growing impatient; if she came out to look for me, it could become dangerous for her.

My only chance was to reach the Dispersor lying on the table next to the WHEU, so I spun around skillfully and threw the soldier over me. The wall was too close to give him any usable initial velocity, so he was not knocked unconscious. When I stood up, the guy clung to my leg and wouldn't let go until I convinced him with my fists that it would be better for his health if he finally released me.

From outside, I heard approaching footsteps. The room was indeed being monitored, meaning that even using a Dispersor would betray me, so I took the weapon of the soldier who was lying in a pool of blood on the floor, though still conscious. As long as he wasn't unconscious, I couldn't extract any information from him either.

The door was torn from its hinges, and the rest of the soldiers stormed the room. Without hesitation, I fired the weapon. This little submachine gun tore ugly holes into the walls and the soldiers standing in front of them; it was hardly one of those civilized dispersion weapons with which one can painlessly erase a target, but it served its purpose. I aimed as best I could so that none of them would lose their lives, but they at least had to be incapacitated.

I ran out into the corridor where there were even more soldiers, but the weapon gave out right then—it was out of ammo. Several bullets bounced off the battlesuit; they could hardly injure me even without it, but the humans here didn't need to know that. The armor deflected all the bullets splendidly, and the paper-thin muscle enhancers granted me enough strength to escape the building. I then leaped over the fence, which at a laughable eight meters was no problem for the battlesuit. Then I deactivated it and ran off. Once deactivated, the battlesuit looked like a particularly nicely crafted belt clip.

The space yacht was still where I had left it, but when I looked inside, A-Tya wasn't there. As usual, she ignored my authority and decided to take a look around for herself. When will this woman understand that I have a few thousand years more life experience than she does?

"Well, hopefully she's still wearing the pendant with the tracking beacon," I said to myself and sat down at the scanner. Sure enough, it showed a strong Hypercom wave in the city.

Suddenly there was a commotion further down in the space yacht. I went below to see what had happened and spotted A-Kara.

"What on earth are you doing here? I thought you were still asleep at home!" I shouted in exasperation. This trip was no place for children. When she saw my horrified face, she tried to guilt-trip me:

"If you had said goodbye to me, you would have seen that I wasn't in my room, Father. I did tell you that I wanted to spend the night in the yacht."

"But it wasn't even night yet."

"Well, I was just about to prepare my sleeping spot when we launched."

"And you couldn't come upstairs and say that you were still on board?"

"Well, then you would have flown me back, and you know how boring it is on Terra Prime since the Zer government took all the criminals off the streets—even the television news has been boring," she retorted cheekily.

Well, somehow she was right, because ever since all criminals have been fed to the Ectomorphs, things have truly gotten too dull. Secretly, I had to admit to myself that I too had been seized by wanderlust, and that was the only reason I flew through the Vortex. After all, she was just as (almost) immortal as I was, so for that reason I didn't need to worry about her; if Vahanara hadn't transformed her back then, she would have long been fifteen by now and wanting to go out with boys, but this way she didn't age. To be honest, I partly considered that a good thing, because I didn't necessarily want to transport her every Saturday evening to Malkor, where the other cat-people were located.

"Alright, since you're already here, you're staying put. I'm going to look for your mother now, and you have the important duty of guarding the ship." You just had to know how to phrase the order to stay behind properly.

I took the scanner with me and leaped out of the ship. A-Tya had to be in the city center.

A few cars were parked in front of the factory; I took one of them, a red Ferrari Turbo 28VT. Hotwiring it was child's play, even though the ignition system was far superior to the ones I knew from Terra Prime. I drove off, hoping that traffic regulations were the same on both worlds.

A-Tya was strolling along one of the shopping streets, looking at the shop windows. I got out of the car and asked her:

"Weren't you supposed to wait for me in the ship? Now you have no idea what kind of guest we have on board."

"Oh god, not..."

"Exactly, our daughter. And now get in, we have to head back."

Tya hopped into the car, and as I drove off, she began to explain: