Alldegallo awoke in his makeshift campsite at the barn of Simeonalli the gergo trainer. He still practiced the Sanctuary discipline of dream remembrance, which had got him into so much trouble in the first place. He didn’t understand why becoming proficient at a spiritual exercise would be a crime.
He wrote in his journal about the recurring dream he again had last night. He wrote.
“The vision heretofore recorded in this chronicle hath appeared yet again. Before mine understanding was child-like forasmuch as today this vision did show as an adult understandeth. Before I did describe a mountain in previous dreams with a top that was flat as with a plateau. Yesterday all these dreams flooded my remembrance when learning how to ride the gergo with my master Simeonalli. These dreams did return to me when outside of Trolluer to the south we rode into the Zitonic mountain range.
There as our gergos traversed the canyon of these mountains my remembrance was of little memory wherein my sleep swims. Then did memories of these visions of previous journal entry leave me barely not drowned as yet while riding gergo reality formed before me the stuff of my dreams. Moreover I do declare unto this journal that the very same mountain heretofore described was before me yesterday where our gergos took us south of Trolluer. It was as if with eyes wide open riding a gergo, and yet so fast asleep.
Alldegallo sees the same mountain from his dreams.
Now cometh this end to my previous documenting that upon waking this mourning the mountain seen just the day before did yet again visit my morning dream time. Today the chariot of strange forms came down upon the level top of this very mountain. There upon this mountain the gods upon the chariot did dismount for this holy mountaintop shall be the place of the reunion to come.
Then as in my other visions the colossus of two arms and two legs appeared below the light of his unseen head that did as it always does hide itself in a cloud of obscurity and light. Then as in other visions the colossus did speak unto me.
They that are at this coming are the first fruits that shall gather at this very site, said the colossus. Then cometh the age of the gods when this kingdom they shall deliver to Doldoria from above. This age shall put down all authority and power under the foot of their rule. For they must reign till under the foot of their enlightened dominion all things shall be under. Then there shall be a new heaven and a new Doldoria. Thou shalt now awaken to this knowledge wherein all others still remain deceived by the veil that doth separate bodies from worlds.
That was then the end of my dream body where I inhabited the body of the waking world’s dream. I record this on the day of my routine vacation from working in this barn. Therefore I shall now use this day from working to walk the distance to this mountain. It is an arms worth of shadow in time away by walking.”
An arm’s worth of shadow is how far a morning shadow shrinks from the time the star Dol rises in the morning to an arm’s worth of about fourteen inches. An arm’s worth amounts to about two hours of Earth time.
Alldegallo finished writing about last night’s dream and put together a picnic of nourishment of nuts, berries, vottalli jerky, with water to begin his walk to the south of the city into the canyon that had led up to the Zitonic mountains, which were a few miles just south of the city. After Alldegallo disappeared to go on the adventure that he had planned for his day off, another figure then stirred the attentions of the other gergos in the barn. It had been the Doldorian that followed Alldegallo, and watched over him all this time. Alldegallo’s stalker walked up to his encampment and opened Alldegallo’s journal to read about his latest visionary experience.
*
Alldegallo became out of breath when he once again saw the mountain of his quest. He now had a new respect for the work that before had been done for him when he rode a gergo to get here. He pushed on to his planned lunch on top of the unusual shaped mountain that he dreamed about long before he ever actually saw it. As he took on the thousand-foot slope of the mountainside to his destination his pursuer also discreetly worked up another side of the mountain. Someone still followed him.
Alldegallo admired the view for awhile after reaching the mountaintop. He still had been unaware of someone following him up a different side. Alldegallo took some water from his bottle and setup lunch. The view looked spectacular with patches of Trolluer showing across a distant horizon line that became obscured by closer mountains he had passed on his way here.
Alldegallo had a picnic on the flat top of the mountain of his dreams. The flat top extended the size of half a football field and had been almost perfectly flat with Doldorian grasses scattered across the mountaintop. He held up some food on a plate and used his mandibles to spoon it into his mouth like built-in Chinese chopsticks. Doldorians, like Chinese of Earth, do not use forks or anything like that. Something resembling a really deep spoon is used for liquids and stews, but the Doldorian skillfully feeds most solid food to the mouth with mandibles that protrude from the Doldorian mouth.
Then the mysterious figure that had been following and watching over Alldegallo the whole time finally came out of hiding to introduce herself to him.
“Greetings at this first sight where we exchange glances for mine eyes hath been thy keeper now for two moon crossings and some days. Diallo is my greeting name.”
Doldoria is orbited by two moons called Conjiktallo (Large Overseer,) and Thule (The Little Follower.) Thule is a smaller moon with a fast orbit that crosses Conjiktallo every 23 days, which is known as a moon crossing. Moon crossings are equivalent to the Doldorian month with 11 months plus three new year days that make up the 256-day year of the planet Doldoria. Seasons were prevented from shifting because calendars were always shifting the new year according to the time of the 1st moon crossing after the 10th, or 11th crossing of the previous year.
Alldegallo didn’t know what to think, but managed to greet her back. “Alldegallo is my name of greeting. What is this that greets my eyes with the eyes that have in secret silence followed me all these days?”
“Please torment me not with anger while mine defense remaineth unconsidered. Understandeth that I am your aunt, the sister of your deceased mother. You who are now the excommunicated Alldegallo. I too am despised by the Priests of Ei because of my loyalties to the older goddess Teyoo who did also find ministry to thy father because of the sympathies of thy mother. They in spirit form did appear to me the morning of their final desecration to beseech me that I would find thee and minister upon thee an eye that would bring thee no harm.”
Alldegallo became speechless for a while, but his aunt Diallo felt no need to provide him another word of explanation. Alldegallo spoke at last. “Thou art mine aunt whom never hath I met, but for this very meeting upon a faraway mountain of mine dreams. Dreams that did mention as recollection befalls me, a reunion.”
“I know thee of the visionary gifts that your mother also had by nature from birth. I too share the gift within the understanding of the religion of the goddess Teyoo. Do prepare thyself to understand my words. Thy mother and they father lived the life of the breath as musicians that believed in singing songs in worship of Teyoo. That religion that I too share is now forbidden by the reigning priests of Ei who do also control the Eye of Ei, and thus also with that the population of Doldoria.
These priests of Ei do veil thine eyes as they feed thee truth by decree. Thou art actually trained to be thus discouraged from direct knowledge of vision and truth. Thou art given empty rituals to pay but loyal tribute to such knowledge while it is the priest who doth make himself the guardian of all knowledge. Rituals are only a tribute to belief in such things, and oh how these priests of Ei do resent that the crypt of ancestors cannot be like your parents thus utterly desecrated, but that then the population would thus hunt them as the criminals that they are. For thus Ptuammi god of judgment still knows the respect with fear from the living masses to this very day, for not thus so easily killed is the god of death.”
Ptuammi had been one of the most ancient gods on Doldoria, known as
the god of Judgment and Death. This god took the form of a Doldorian stripped of the exoskeleton to reveal the naked exposed flesh and cartilage mechanisms that make up the Doldorian anatomy. The god of death had been the inner self who granted Doldorians the vision that could see the dead. The Priests of Ei were forced to adapt the Crypt of Ancestors tradition from the Ptuammi religion because of popular demand by a populace that would otherwise volunteer to be controlled no other way.
Alldegallo had an amazing picnic with his aunt that he had just met. She told him many things about religions that had even been demonized in his mind up to that point because of the teachings of Ei priests.
Meanwhile Sanctuary representatives were in town to investigate Alldegallo, and they visited Simeonalli the gergo trainer. Simeonalli told them that Alldegallo had been away on his day off, and that he had been of no current concern of his. After they were sent away by the gergo trainer the Sanctuary representatives went back around to the gergo barn in order to dig around the possessions in Alldegallo’s encampment. One of the Sanctuary representatives reached over to grab Alldegallo’s journal when suddenly a gergo prod slapped him against his exoskeleton chest so hard it knocked him back into a corner of the room next to his accomplice.
“Thou poisonous slavers of minds that would thus otherwise think with freedom. Be thou cast out of this place lest I crack thy pampered shells to thus ooze the stuff of they life. Verily thy trespassing shalt even again be met with even harsher punishment by my sharp eye on thy dealings. Again be gone from this place!”
They would have already left had Simeonalli not cornered them that moment with the prod to hear out his angry speech. Then when his anger said its peace he moved aside to allow them to flee back to the Sanctuary of Ei where they came from.
* * *
On The Beyonder just before the centrifuge explosion occurred, Captain Mynervood stood in the sickbay being briefed about the condition of his Eagolim son Adma. He had just summoned a security detail after learning that Agents of Ea right here were controlling his son on his own ship. He wondered where his loyal assistant Tyallor had disappeared to, and had not bothered to ask doctor Thelem about that, who had just minutes earlier talked to Tyallor the assistant who always had been there when needed.
Thelem tried to back engineer the mind control technology that had been subtly implanted into Adma’s mind. Adma had been unconscious on a bed under heavy sedation. She tried to use the technology to locate the ones using it who were somewhere on this ship. Thelem the ship physician had tried to surgically remove the implants, but soon discovered that if she had done that it would have killed the Captain’s son. She reported her progress to the Captain.
“This easier if culprits to Adma a suggestion give would try would be, but they we aware of them so they not it use will are must know.”
Captain Mynervood inspected the security detail that had just arrived before hearing what the doctor just said. “How we then still this to them locate use can?”
“I some past history that nanocoded into a memory buffer exists am accessing. It some past suggestions by microwave receptor buffers recorded it triangulating.”
There had been some pause before the doctor continued. “… I it got. They in the orbit wing of the ship are. It probably room 811 passenger bay four is.”
The Captain repeated the information. “Room 811 passenger bay four it is.”
Doctor Thelem confirmed that information had been correct, and Captain Mynervood turned to address the security detail. “Security! We now dangerous criminals on the orbit wing of the ship passenger bay four confront will. The door 811 till my instruction unannounced hold.”
Dr. Thelem stopped the Captain as he left with the security detail. “Captain Mynervood! I the memory buffer am still reading. Adma a weapon had, and already to you kill tried. It how he was stopped not does say.”
Then the sabotaged centrifuge in the reactor section suddenly exploded, sending the ship rocking between the explosive force and Strek’s navigation corrections like an Earth ocean boat navigating the waves of a hurricane.
*
Tyallor stuck his nose into Ulusu’s business just in time to find him burning in radioactive flames. Tyallor had only taken the time to put on a protective mask after the centrifuge exploded. He looked over the equipment, and the monitors reported that the other centrifuges were unaffected by the minor instability explosion, which sprayed the entire reactor section with partially activated superheated nuclear material.
Tyallor then turned to assist Ulusu who he thought from the first glance already did not live at all. He must have intuitively turned away before the explosion, which saved him from having his face pelted by superheated shrapnel. The radioactive shrapnel material however, still blazed a superheated fire through Ulusu’s protective uniform, and much of his backside already had been exposed and turned into a Jell-O-like substance of irreparably damaged molecular tissues gleaming in the flames.
Tyallor sprayed foam from an emergency extinguisher over Ulusu’s backside, which immediately put out the flames and hopefully gave Ulusu some essential medicinal cooling effects. He found a special blanket of lead that he carefully wrapped Ulusu in. He had been amazed to find a weak pulse and other signs that indicated Ulusu had still been alive. Emergency response teams were just then filling the reactor section, and Tyallor shouted at one to help him bring Ulusu to the sickbay.
It must have been the pain of being handled that managed to bring the miraculously still alive Ulusu to consciousness. In a desperate whisper he kept calling out to Tyallor from the other side of the lead blanket.
“Tyallor! … Tyallor! … Tyallor!!”
Tyallor and another Nephrican were carrying Ulusu completely wrapped in the heavy blanket of radiation protection. “Not do speak! You to live are going.”
Ulusu’s voice still spoke through the blanket. “Centrifuges sabotaged are! The monitors … the monitors false data give. This ship to blow is going!”
*
Lockfreedow, the officer in charge of the crew caught up to Captain Mynervood and the security team. He had already talked to the response teams in the reactor section who were putting out radioactive fires. It had been a minor explosion with unrefined nuclear material, which didn’t do a lot of damage to the inside of the ship. The design of The Beyonder contained the explosion in the reactor centrifuge section. That had been the good news that he thought he would use to begin his report of bad news for the Captain.
Captain Mynervood and six of his security team members were outside the room of the Agents of Ea who were trying to use his son to kill him. Two Nephrican, two Pripican, and two Eagolim born of Nephrican decent were the security team. The Agents inside were behind the cracked room door already opened by the security so that it could no longer be locked. The Captain ran out of patience with the vermin inside.
“Out of the room come! You the brig housed till Holdus-2 prosecution will be!”
The Agents of Ea were defiant. “We not out come will! You us leave will, or we our hostage who the boy you to protect were sworn is will kill!”
The Agents thrust a tied up Trunlio in front of the cracked open door showing they were not bluffing before pulling him away.
The Captain had been like a chess player in check with no idea what to do next. He turned to his First Mate Lockfreedow. “First Mate Lockfreedow the status of reactor section and centrifuges report.”
“Captain yes! Response teams reactor section up cleaning are, and radioactive states in the area resetting are. There to problems with the centrifuge activation process seems be, and Ulusu critically by the explosion wounded is.”
“What with centrifuges wrong is? Will the material for deceleration ready be?”
Lockfreedow gulped to give the bad news now to an impatient and visibly angry Captain. “The centrifuges as they should to be working appear. Monitors active material in less than two sub-cycles report, but the monitors sabotaged have been, and we off the
centrifuge process not can turn.” A sub-cycle is a little longer than an hour and ten minutes, and the equivalent of an hour on a hyper-accelerating space ship with 10 hours in each cycle day.
Lockfreedow braced himself for the Captain’s response. Whatever the sabotaged centrifuges were up to they were powerless to shut them off, and they were probably going to blow up just like the previous centrifuge only with the super-heated shrapnel of activated radioactive material that will just tear apart the entire ship. Lockfreedow found himself remembering that they were refining material during the last mission so long ago when that ship exploded. There had been no doubt in the epiphany Lockfreedow suddenly found himself in that the same kind of quanta-nanocode activity discovered there now tried to blow up this mission.
Captain Mynervood accepted the decision to do nothing about the Agents of Ea for the time being. The hostage situation suddenly shrunk under the perspective of another one of his ships again about to explode. His mind quickly solved the problem of surviving the explosion by using concentrated electromagnetic fields to shield the rest of the ship along with the warp debris deflection technology. He figured out how to evacuate the passenger bay wings into the virtual craft that had been the center of The Beyonder. They would eventually stop in the detached central portion by using virtual particle technology while navigating indefinitely around the local cluster of 15 stars under a much slower virtual particle drive-driven deceleration process. There had only been silence as Captain Mynervood began putting together the order he prepared to shout, which would put this plan into motion.
Trunlio on the other side of the door of this standoff had been tied up tight so he could barely move. The Agents of Ea in the room had noticed him in a corner of the room still tied to the stool, but getting loose. Now a couple Nephrican Agents had re-tied his arms, and stood over him to make sure he didn’t try anything. Trunlio pondered breaking out of the ropes, grabbing the mind control consul behind his guards, and he imagined crushing them under its obviously substantial weight. Trunlio comforted his current despair with such thoughts of fantasy, being still just a young adolescent boy growing way faster than the eight-year-old child within who began this journey. So much had been changing him like fingers of metamorphosis within that were tearing up the genetic fabric of his being during this two Earth year journey that seemed to last around 180 days from within the hyper-accelerating ship.