Vortex 10 (Part 1)

VORTEX Part 10

The idea was crazy, but A-Tya had wanted to be a Sekran for so long. Now, after the activation of the chip, my memory contained information on how brains could be transplanted. I decided to finally apply this knowledge. On the opposite side of the square stood a school, and in my opinion it offered the best conditions for transplanting Tya's brain into the body of the dead Sekran woman. I hoisted the corpse onto my shoulder and said to A-Tya:

"Come along, I'm about to give you a Sekran body—that's what you always wanted, isn't it?"

"Yes, sure, but that woman is dead! How do you plan to revive her? Cellular decay..."

I placed my free hand on the dead woman's face and copied her genes. Cellular decay had not yet set in.

"Cellular decay hasn't occurred yet, she hasn't been dead long enough. As for the wound, I can tell you that it only destroyed her brain; with a new brain, she could get right back up and walk around."

I placed the dead woman into the cafeteria's refrigerator to lower her body temperature down to one degree Celsius. She was cold enough already, but I didn't want to take any risks. Ice crystals shouldn't form in the blood, while at the same time the body's cells shouldn't break down.

Unfortunately, the electricity supply didn't work as well as I had hoped, because the power flickered on and off sporadically. Regardless, I started the operation immediately. Using the replicator, I created an anesthetic as well as all the necessary equipment. Everything went smoothly. When Tya opened her pretty blue eyes again, she asked immediately:

"Well, Var, did everything work out? I'm still alive, aren't I, or how do you see it?"

"Yes, don't worry. Everything went as expected! You didn't expect otherwise, did you?"

"I'm very grateful for your help, now I look almost the way I used to. What are your plans now?"

"My plans are to grab a human, knock him unconscious, and then access his memory. That way I can locate all surviving Sekrans more easily."

A-Tya opened her jacket and took her new identity papers into her hand; she wanted to see what name her new body used to answer to. When she opened the wallet, a photograph fell out first. Tya picked it up and examined it closely: a family photo from happier days, when Sekra was still free.

On the ID, the name was clearly legible, even for humans: A-Reela Lefar. Tya turned the photo over and read the names written in Sekran on the back. In her mind, she wondered what had become of this family. I didn't need telepathic abilities to recognize that. If I had access to the memory of God like Vahanhara, I could tell her immediately what had happened to them, but unfortunately I didn't possess that ability.

There was a commotion outside; I looked out through the partially boarded-up window. A young soldier was just about to enter the building. He was evidently braver than the others, but that suited me just fine. Quietly, I went over to the stairs leading down and waited until the human was close enough, then I jumped down and shoved him against the wall so hard that his arm broke.

"Didn't mean to!", I apologized to the unconscious man and placed my hands on his forehead.

The information flooded my brain, allowing me to see everything that had happened in the recent past.

Only the city of Gilam had been attacked as a test and almost completely depopulated; other cities had been spared for now. The attack was carried out with a retrovirus dropped by missiles, looking like snow. It was programmed to destroy only Sekran DNA. The survival rate of the cat-people was only 0.402%, and anyone not killed by the killer virus within two hours had nothing more to fear, because it self-destructed after that time had elapsed. A-Reela was apparently shot because she had survived the virus and then run into the humans. Now I knew where I could find survivors.

The central train station of Gilam was the only place that was reasonably safe from the viruses. Not least because of its location beneath the planet's surface. Since a city map was hanging in the school, we could easily find our destination. Tya tore it down, and we left the building.

"Shouldn't you have helped the soldier?", Tya asked.

"Nobody dies from a broken hand!" My answer somehow came out wrong, because Tya looked at me strangely, as if I had turned evil again; but if that were true, the human wouldn't even be alive anymore.

Ahead of us, another squad of soldiers with flamethrowers was heading in our direction. I wasn't in any danger, since flames couldn't harm me anymore, but Tya, on the other hand... We were unable to push through to the station and had to fall back. It became clear to me that this was by no means the right way; I had to come up with something else.

"Wouldn't it be possible to take all the Sekrans away from here? You know wormholes better than anyone else. Maybe you can manage to create a wormhole for each Sekran and whisk them away."

"And where to? Earth, perhaps? Technically that's feasible, I'd just have to connect my WHEU to a computer."

"Why don't you want to bring them to Earth?"

A-Tya apparently didn't understand that there could be the same problems with humans as on Melcon. I didn't bother to answer, but instead opened a wormhole to Earth and stepped through with Tya.

Kara barely recognized her mother, and everyone else was quite astonished when they saw her and when I told them who she was. Master Two couldn't believe it; only after I explained that I had performed the operation with the help of a wormhole did he understand why there were no surgical scars. The gunshot wound was the only thing that still bothered her.

Now I also got to see Master Six, and I was nearly struck dumb! Even though it had been ten thousand years, I recognized him: Arthur Benedict, the inventor of the time machine. He probably traveled to my parallel universe from here. It might be that I was a bit limited, but after ten thousand years I still didn't understand how this "Chronos unit" worked.

I would have been pretty foolish to tell him about our meeting in the past, as that could trigger a paradox. Arthur must never learn that the time machine breaks down after the journey, otherwise he would probably forgo this adventure. We talked shop about time travel for a few minutes without me revealing any essential details, then Arthur retreated to his laboratory.

Suddenly Dexter, better known as Master Three, came out of the observatory and shouted:

"Master One, Varlon, and everyone else! I've found it!"

"Found what?", I asked curiously, since I didn't have the slightest clue what Dexter was supposed to be searching for in my absence.

"A planet we can live on—a second Earth!"

That simply couldn't be true, because I knew all the planets in my universe near Terra that were hospitable to life and uninhabited. So I immediately took the computer printout from Dexter's hands and studied the coordinates quite closely. According to the data, the system was a triple star with seven planets orbiting the star closest to Earth. It was only 4.3 light-years away from us and didn't even exist in our universe. Instead of Proxima Centauri, there was only empty space at that location for us! Dexter explained it in detail:

"Back in the middle of the last century, astronomers discovered that Proxima moves in a serpentine path; it was attributed to a giant planet supposed to have several times the mass of Jupiter. Only with the new orbital telescopes, developed by Master One a year ago and working on an interference basis, were we able to search for further planets around all stars. Now I have discovered this planet, and we want to get to safety there before..."

"Before what?"

The freshly regenerated Mephisto stood unnoticed behind me and continued Dexter's explanation:

"The Ectomorphs will definitely attack and destroy this planet. Neither Vahanara nor this warship can do anything against that."

Our situation really didn't look very rosy, because Mephisto showed me an illustration of the Ectomorph mothership in comparison to Earth.

Chapter 4: A New World

No sooner had we stepped through the wormhole than we looked around on Sek. Sek was what we named the new world because it was meant to be the SECondary Earth. From the outset it was clear that the air was suitable for breathing. The oxygen content was slightly higher than on Earth, but that was no problem; only an oxygen level three percent higher would scorch my lungs. To eliminate this risk, I altered my lungs to match those of humans, which could easily tolerate a higher concentration of this gas.

It was a very beautiful forest planet with no signs of higher developed life. The most intelligent thing roaming around here was surely just an animal the size of a bear, but we couldn't find anything of the sort in this area. A few animals ran away from us that were definitely edible for me, but whether humans could also feed on them was questionable, especially since they are rather picky. There were only a few humans who didn't shun insects, just like us. The animals were certainly tastier than insects, though I knew how spoiled humans are.

My conclusion from the first impressions was clear: humans can live here if they are able to adjust their dietary habits. This planet was large enough for the surviving humans and Sekrans.

"Seen enough?", I asked Master One, because I wanted to return to Earth to prepare everything for the evacuation.

"Yes, I like this untouched planet very much; my instruments show that there are no viruses or bacteria here that could harm humans."

With that, everything was settled, Sek wou

...would be our new home. We immediately returned to Earth.

Master Six had already traveled back through time, so we could no longer count on his help; instead, the last two Masters arrived. Master One introduced them to me: Carvelo Paluci, alias Master Seven, ran the ASO branch in South Africa. He was a brilliant geneticist who had achieved a breakthrough; he genetically modified himself so that a growth formed on the back of his neck, continuously producing adrenaline. Every time he pressed it, he gained immense strength that was only slightly less than that of a Genomorph. Master Eight, named Merik Tura in civilian life, also possessed a very special ability: he could track down Ectomorphs and absorb their energy, which was then released so their souls could find eternal peace. On Terra Prime, there had been a similar organization in the 20th century under the leadership of the Lords of Zer, but I had virtually no contact with the leader of Z-Force, although according to reports, several spectacular battles were fought before the Ectomorphs retreated. Merik reminded me of a member of Z-Force with his ability; apparently, it was a necessary mutation.

The farewell party began. It was a farewell to the old homeland, but not everyone was in the mood for it. Many of us were preparing the evacuation and refitting the DEON so it could also use a wormhole jump drive. I myself began reprogramming the computer for a multiple wormhole so that it would bring all Sekraner and humans to Sek at the same time.

The first tests went without a hitch, so I began the evacuation. First, I transported all the Sekraner from Melcon to Sek, then came the Sekraner who had arrived on DEON, and only then did all the humans outside the ASO base follow. The members of ASO boarded the DEON and ALPHA, and then they launched into a new future. Only Master One and I remained behind to install a little surprise for the Ectomorphs. But unfortunately, it never came to that.

Next to the Moon, a gigantic spaceship appeared out of nowhere in the sky and fired a glaring beam of light at the equatorial plane. What happened next was unbelievable: the continental plates burst apart and slowly sank into the liquid magma. Huge eruptions of the gaseous interior of the Earth shot into the air, and since the pressure holding the outer crust stable was gone, it sank deeper and deeper. Almost at the very last moment, I managed to escape through a wormhole to Sek, grabbing Master One with great difficulty. I really hadn't anticipated such a massive attack, but that was over now—the Ectomorphs now believed we had all been destroyed.

The evacuees and we arrived on a large, warm continent; it was almost as warm here as in the subtropics on Earth, even though the main star, Proxima, radiated far too little heat. I only noticed this now, but I reasoned that geothermal heat was responsible for it.

The Sekraner who had arrived earlier had already begun setting up some houses; they had already settled in here, but they seemed a bit angry with me. Nobody likes to leave their home, even when their own life is in danger. When ALPHA and DEON appeared in the planet's atmosphere and touched down, we were finally complete and could begin mapping and exploring the planet.

Miles was supposed to build a satellite to photograph the planet from orbit—a new ORBITAL EYE.

"— Varlon, I'm a weapons specialist, so why do I have to build a satellite that just takes photos?"

"— I'll tell you, but it must stay between us. I want you to secretly install a multidisperser; no one is to know anything about it. I also want this satellite to retain the functions of the Orbital Eye."

"— What for? Do you expect the Ectomorphs to track us down?"

"— Yes, Miles, they don't give up so easily, and if I judge them correctly, they will try everything to destroy us. I just really like having an ace up my sleeve. Master One doesn't necessarily need to know about this."

"— I see! So you want to go over his head?"

"— Yes, the fewer of us who know about it, the safer it is."

Miles set his screwdriver aside and asked me in all seriousness:

"— Why the hell do you want me to build the satellite and go behind Master One's back? With your damn Replicator, you could build plenty of satellites in secret."

"— That's true, but as long as we only have a limited energy supply, I have to be very frugal with it."

"— Frugal? What are you planning to do with it?"

"— When the Ectomorphs attack, I will need all the energy we have. First, we need a functioning defense; only then can we concentrate on our infrastructure and build power plants to supply the Replicator with enough energy."

"— I can only hope we still have enough time for that."

Under the leadership of ASO, we began building the first factories intended to manufacture parts for power plants, while the launch vehicle with our defense satellite awaited its launch. Our only chance was to complete the defense system as quickly as possible. For that reason, I ordered an immediate launch.

I should mention that the launch vehicle was quite primitive, powered by solid fuel that we had to extract from carbon, sulfur, and stuff like that. Without a combustion accelerator Made on Zer, however, the rocket would never reach space; I had to replicate that.

What I couldn't foresee was that just a few kilometers outside the atmosphere, the rocket exploded for an inexplicable reason. We were lost!

Vahanara materialized near me—I was slowly getting used to that—but I suspected him of being responsible for the rocket's explosion.

• End