Vortex. Part 2

VORTEX Part 2

"This planet is called EARTH, just like Terra Prime used to be. Ninety years ago, the last wars took place here; since then, this world has become very highly developed, but there are dark aspects here that worry me."

I became curious and pulled the car over to the side of the road: "Come on, A-Tya, tell me what's worrying you so much."

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

"That's not so bad, except for those who pay church tax," I joked, but Tya said something that really turned my stomach:

"Does the word THETAN mean anything to you?"

THETAN was the word for soul used only by the Ectomorphen; everything went black before my eyes. 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 sect calls itself Skytology and rules the whole planet here through brainwashing and other methods we consider uncivilized."

"Sounds like bad news. Do you have any idea how it happened?"

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

"I'm coming with you! Where's her flat?"

"We're parked right in front of it," A-Tya said, not without a smirk.

We got out of the car and Tya pressed a button on the intercom. After waiting a few seconds, it became clear that no one was going to open up, but since someone was just leaving the building, I kept the door from latching shut and went up with Tya.

"Which floor?" I asked.

"First!"

There were two doors, one of which was wide open. I ran inside and found a dead woman on the floor. Rigor mortis hadn't set in yet and there were no external injuries visible; her life energy had possibly been drained by Ectomorphen.

Since she hadn't been dead for long, I was able to at least partially copy her memory. As it turned out, she had stored all the data about Skytology on her computer—a ZX Spectrum, which in the year 2080 only a few people still knew how to operate. So I switched on the computer and called up all the data on the screen; it read like a chronicle of horrors:

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 governments of all countries on Earth.
2012: Every religion except Skytology itself is banned. Very severe penalties for practicing another religion.

What followed was a slap in the face for any rational-thinking Zer. The sect took over absolutely all newspapers, television stations, and other media; they suggested to people that an entrance to Hell or something similar would soon emerge, and that all people who had reached a certain spiritual stage would be safe from it and protected.

I couldn't make heads or tails of it, but it was already clear that the energy of human souls could be boosted through specific training—nutritional enrichment, so to speak—because the files stated that people with the highest level of training disappeared forever.

A police siren interrupted my reading, so I took the computer and all the diskettes with me and said to A-Tya, who was examining the body:

"We have to get out of here now, I've got everything I need."

A-Tya grabbed a pocket television as well and then ran after me out of the flat and downstairs. We jumped into the car and drove off immediately.

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

"Apparently nothing about Genomorphe, but if what I suspect is true, we are in the deepest trouble, which we can only get out of if we join our forces together."

"Well, what is it?!?" she pressed impatiently.

"Turn on the TV!" I asked her, and when she did, we caught some news:

"The story of the day is the discovery of the Demon Gate in deep space. We will soon be sending a research probe through it, which will transmit footage directly to the studio. The other news is the escape of a heretical spy from the military base in Washington DC; he struck down many brave soldiers..."

"Turn it off, I know everything now. We must get back to Terra Prime as fast as possible," I said, exasperated, and stepped on the gas.

"What's going on?" A-Kara asked as I hurriedly inserted the neural probe into myself.

"Terra Prime is in mortal danger. We have to go back and unite the forces of the humans, Genomorphe, and Sekraner," I replied, opening a wormhole near the Vortex. Since the capacitors weren't fully charged yet, we had some time.

"Maybe you could explain to us what exactly is going on," A-Tya said, somewhat irritated. She apparently still hadn't grasped what kind of propaganda smear was about to go down. I turned the TV back on, just in the nick of time. The probe's landing was being broadcast.

"That's not Terra Prime, though," Tya immediately remarked.

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

"The images look so real, though!" Kara said in admiration, as she often worked with computer graphics and knew how difficult it was to render such realistic-looking images.

The pictures coming from the TV were nothing but lies: a hell planet where demons and monsters lived, feeding on human flesh. Then one of them destroyed the camera, cutting off the alleged broadcast. A news anchor appeared and said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, you saw it all with your own eyes—it is 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 had been confirmed. Since the wormhole was open, I flew through and then straight through the Vortex. While the generator was recharging for another wormhole that would bring me straight to Terra Prime, Kara asked me:

"Sure, they want war, but when their combat troops land on Terra Prime, won't they see that they've been deceived?"

"It's not that simple, because if they're on special drugs, all they'll see around them are monsters too."

A-Tya went pale; now she finally understood everything. She suggested:

"What if we also ask our Ectomorphen and Juventaner for help? If all Juventaner unite again into Vahanara, victory will be in the bag."

"What makes you think the Ectomorphen will move against their own brothers?"

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

I could have kicked myself for not thinking of that: if the five peoples united, the Skytologists wouldn't stand a chance, no matter how long they had been working on the plan. Tya opened a channel to Earth and shouted into the microphone:

"Code Red, this is an emergency. I request an immediate Conference of the Six."

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

These six were permanently stationed on Malkor, and that was where the conference was to be held.

Finally, the wormhole opened and I was able to land on Terra Prime. I hated traveling by regular flight, but the wormhole shielding and security precautions around the government complex on Malkor made it nearly impossible to arrive by private starship. There were still some followers of the old government of Agara who wanted to plunge the entire planet into war again. So for the sake of peace, one forgave the convenience of the journey.

When I entered the hall, everyone was already waiting anxiously for my neural projection. They put on the networking helmets.

My seat was at the head of the table; I sat down there immediately and attached the electrodes to my head. Not quite as secure a connection as a neural probe, but piloting a starship with one's mind is quite a different matter from neural networking. The transmission began and lasted only a few seconds. During that time, everything I had seen and learned was implanted into all the other brains.

The first to speak up was Larian 3:

"This is outrageous! After living peacefully with the inhabitants of the Helios system for so long, some of our own want to attack this hard-won peace. We cannot allow this, especially now that we have finally found a way to become independent of human life energy. The remedy is currently being tested on the first Ectomorphen." He was very convincing when he said this; I was certain he genuinely wanted peace.

Cir Stonar also took the floor:

"Since the war against the Sekraner ended, we have wanted nothing but peace. This attack is particularly insidious, and therefore I pledge my support."

Delar had something to say as well:

"Tvorgh... sorry, I meant Varlon, of course! You have rendered us great service in the past, and we thank you for warning us so early. With their fighting style, these fanatics from Earth are dangerous even to a Genomorph, and since we all want peace on Terra Prime, we must all fight this menace. The people of Zer will fight."

Lord Stan Carrington raised his hand and remarked with dignity:

"Gentlemen, Genomorphe, and everyone else: this danger directly threatens Terra Prime, so of course we will not sit idly by and let ourselves be slaughtered."

T-Vesser stood up:

"We are a peace-loving people, but this situation is unequivocal and could threaten us in the future as well, therefore unite..."

...our forces while the enemy has not yet won any victories and repel his attacks."

Stella just sat there and said 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, independent entity, aside from the fact that he has so much life energy that he would be a temptation for any Ectomorph."

Larian unconsciously ran his tongue over his lips. Stella naturally saw that, which reinforced her opinion, but she still conceded:

"If things look very bad for you in the war, we will of course reconsider this decision. And now please excuse me."

She vanished from the hall, leaving the other five in the room at a loss.

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

Delar spoke into his wrist radio:

"Order to the shipyards of all planets: Immediately switch production, we need warships."

I asked him:

"What about the three BRIGHT STAR-class combat vessels that were deployed against Vahanara's fleet five years ago? They are quite good and should still be operational."

Admittedly, they had not been very successful against the flagship and had brought tears of fear to the eyes of the people on Terra Prime, but they were the most advanced ships of the Lords of Zer, superbly armed, and still the most powerful warships the planetary alliance had ever seen.

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

I could not refuse this command; after all, it had always been my dream to command a starship again, and the trips with my Space-Yacht did not satisfy that craving. A BRIGHT STAR-class combat vessel was the best there was when it came to warships.

"Yes!" I shouted, overjoyed.

I was handed over the BRIGHT STAR 3 with a well-trained crew consisting of Ectomorphs, Humans, Zer, and Sekraners. We had to replace a few devices with their more modern versions to bring them up to the state of the art, but otherwise everything remained unchanged. All Genomorphs on board were implanted with a small biochip, which in an emergency accelerates morphing roughly a hundredfold. Instead of one to two minutes in an emergency, according to the manual it was supposed to work in one to two seconds, though that varied individually. The main disperser coils were replaced, as they had suffered the most during the war from continuous fire—some were almost burned through—and the tachyon beam drive was reinforced so that the overall steerability of the ship was improved. The damage to the outer hull caused by the attack shields of Vahanara's ships, which back then had only been makeshift-repaired, had to be completely renewed, but after just three hours the ship looked as if it could take on the entire galaxy.

Control over the wormholes and the steering was handled by two Zer equipped with brain probes. Two weapons technicians also sat at the two dispersion banks, but they were from Terra Prime; they handled target acquisition better than Genomorphs with brain probes. Propulsion and damage control were manned by Sekraners hailing from a Sekraner colony on Mars, which was currently being terraformed. All the other crew members were ground troops, backup teams, and technicians for necessary repairs.

The monitoring station on Ikarus sounded a blood-red alarm—the highest alert level! A massive ship and several small spaceplanes penetrated our universe through the Vortex. Things immediately grew tight in the asteroid belt. All available combat vessels of the planetary alliance emerged through their wormholes. The Earth vessels immediately opened fire with everything they had. I ordered the protective shields raised and waited. The attackers' small spaceplanes instantly burned up in them; then I lowered the shield again and yelled:

"Dispersion banks, FIRE!"

Surprisingly, the beams looped around the enemy ship as if it were surrounded by an invisible radiation shield.

"Commander, a message for us from the Earth vessel," called the Agarian monitoring radio communications.

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

"Put it up on the comms screen."

The rear bridge control console vanished and displayed the transmitted image.

The figure on the screen was a futuristically dressed human; there was nothing unusual to detect about him, except that he showed a few traits of a disguised Ectomorph. He was also able to receive the feed from BRIGHT STAR 3 and took a closer look at me, then lowered a wall between himself and the rest of the bridge and said:

"Well now, you have somewhat better weapon technology, but against my ship you are all helpless. My name is Luzifer, by the way, in case that rings a bell."

"I am Varlon Traas, commander of the BRIGHT STAR 3, and my orders to you are: clear out of our universe," I shouted.

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

"Surprise!" he shouted, transforming in a flash into a horned creature with hooves, and then merely said:

"I lay claim to your home planet. We will see each other again."

The image disappeared. Luzifer's ship fired several nuclear missiles at our fleet; the atomic fire destroyed BRIGHT STAR 1, which truly became a very bright star now. E