“Oh Alldegallo, thank you most of all for this new acquaintance I gaineth as my new husband. Joy doth fill me with each moment of this day. Do joineth me to Simeonalli under your new faith. Although I no longer regard your gods as cherubim.”
This had surprised Alldegallo. “So you doth no longer await the cherubim?”
“I doth still await your sky gods. Oh give me thy favor still good lord of the sky gods. I doth now see these beings as of the sky tribes as taught by the Aquario faith.”
Alldegallo had actually never heard of the Aquario followers. There were a couple obscure gods of the 49 gods of Doldoria he now knew of, which he still had not learned much about. “I think I should like to know more of this religion you now mention Diallo.”
Aquario had been another more obscure non-Doldorian god who spoke to the prophet Osario. Aquario had been a god of light, and according to this religion, Aquario also raised up two prophets for two sky-tribes that lived in the stars. Through his prophet, Aquario assisted these beings with becoming more advanced and intelligent. Unfortunately the prophet on Doldoria, Osario had been murdered by fellow Doldorians to become the god of the dead. This evolved, and split into other religions over time to become the current Ptuammi faith, but there are also a few followers still of Aquario that await the coming of the two other sky tribes.
*
Eventually all the preparations were in order, and a crowd gathered upon the mountaintop to witness the marriage of Diallo to Simeonalli. They were all singing songs together about the reunion when the army of the High Priest of the Sanctuary of Ei began to come up the sides of the mountain to attack the followers.
The High Priest himself had also marched there to witness the glorious slaughter. That became the moment that the priest’s army had been stopped from within. Soldier suddenly turned on soldier to halt the carnage. There had actually been very little resistance to the insurgents who finally revealed themselves at that moment in order to bring about this justice of stopping the abuse of power by the High Priest.
A couple of the soldiers however, didn’t surrender, and were met by the overwhelming force of the rebels. For a few minutes the mountainside scrambled with violence as the army fought itself from within. The followers of Alldegallo had begun to setup defenses on the mountaintop, which even proved to be unnecessary. Then the student of the Sanctuary named Leelaro addressed the priest who still stood at the foot of the mountain. “Thy plans of carnage shalt not stand this day for this shall be the day of a wedding and a day of joy!”
Alldegallo moved to the edge of the mountain to see the priest below. Some that were still loyal to Ei gathered around the priest to defend him, if only out of fear. The High Priest shouted up at Alldegallo in defiance. “I shalt still slay thee Alldegallo, whether with an army or not!”
Then the Doldorians that were still loyal to their master the High Priest caught him as he slipped into an unconscious trance. Some of Alldegallo’s followers figured out what had just happened, and they began running toward Alldegallo their prophet only too late. Alldegallo just looked confused for a moment before also passing out on the ground into a trance. A follower caught him right before he landed on the ground. Everyone just stood silently over the two casualties of the battle, and wondered what would happen next.
* * *
Randa continued to wither away, even after she had been nourished by equipment in the ship infirmary. The first couple cycles were rough for the young 2nd Generation Eagolim girl. Dr. Thelem kept Randa under sedation until she began to stabilize three cycles later.
Ferdinand never left Randa’s side in the infirmary. At the time of this story these kinds of pregnancies had become better understood, but never before had Pripican DNA combined with Nephrican DNA, and it had actually been understood at the time to be impossible. Perhaps nobody ever tried before in hyperspace. At this time contraception had to be carefully practiced during hyper-acceleration sex because of the critical dangers of pregnancy. There had been some skeptical discussion amongst the crew that inquired as to what Nephrican crewmember had impregnated the girl. That discussion occurred at the time when Randa had been unconscious, but there never had been any doubt in Ferdinand’s mind that he had been the father.
Captain Mynervood arrived at the infirmary to see the result of Dr. Thelem’s tests. “Dr. Thelem, I here to if you these tests completed have see am.”
Dr. Thelem had been startled away from looking at something she couldn’t believe. “I them three times now Captain completed have.”
Then she turned to Ferdinand who had been there next to his sleeping Randa, smiling with a smugness that already knew the results of her first two tests. “Once again Ferdinand you correct are. The Pripican the father of this Nephrican’s child is.”
Captain Mynervood smiled without a hint of surprise. “Ferdinand congratulations.”
Then Dr. Thelem continued. “Now after two cycles of pregnancy I also you that you the father of a female baby girl are tell can even.”
It had been perhaps the first time in history that totally alien species from different planets mated, but the chromosomes happened to match for the humanoid forms of their once terrestrial species. The matching chromosomes are more than a coincidence. Amongst the triggers within the DNA molecule are what are classified by galactic beings as the Pentanthropomorphic gene switches, which determine the evolution of the galactic humanoid form called Eagolim in this story. Some of these genes switches alter the actual number of DNA chromosomes into a specific ideal number.
After three cycles Dr. Thelem brought Randa back to consciousness, and she had been kept on good drugs to endure the fetus development. Three cycles later Randa gave birth to a healthy humanoid girl. The baby appeared not quite Nephrican, and not quite Pripican, but a profound mixture of both. Instead of fur, the baby had a head of thick black hair on top, but the rest of the child had been covered with bald pale white skin like her mother. They named the baby Dol Napels Swain, after the brightest star in the view port, which rapidly approached at the time of this birth.
*
A lot of politics have kept the Nephricans and Pripicans from coming to Doldoria. It had been known at the time of this story to have intelligent life for hundreds of Earth years, although that had been a carefully kept secret from the terrestrials. At this time in the hyper-acceleration age of Nephapricus the galactic culture had been segregated from the two planetary cultures that spawned it all. Galactic culture members lived much longer than beings born and raised on the planets without hyper-acceleration mutations. These beings segregated their galactic culture from the one’s they often called terrestrials. Terrestrials were also called Negolim.
Instead of visiting the star Dol with crew ships, the Nephaprican Space Corporation decided to surround the newly discovered planet with mechanical eyes and ears. Robots journeyed there to observe and relay the data. This also had evolved into mind control experiments on the unsuspecting primitive Doldorians. The satellite microwave mind control experiments however, do not completely explain the primitive Doldorian’s vivid mystical experiences that went back way before the planet had been discovered by superior aliens. It had been as if the Doldorians were still in a stage of their evolution before their superstitious and magical forms of thinking were collectively swept away by rational scientific objectivity.
The Beyonder eventually decelerated into the Dol star system to be the first crew ship in history to finally reach this star. Then the quanta-nanocode being known as Begalius made contact with Antone, the four-legged Pripican of the Pripican Empire who had become a passenger at the planet Caleb.
At first Antone had become resentful towards Ferdinand because it didn’t seem that Ferdinand cared about the death of his father and the crashed ship. After the birth of Dol however, he realized that Ferdinand just avoided the pain of that past, and had been trying to move on. So Antone forgave his newly married shipmate. Antone had been the physician of the failed space mission that c
rashed on Caleb, and he pondered data on his hand-held device about the impossible birth of the Eagolim baby girl.
Begalius computed that it could deliver its data to Antone through his communication device in order to be free of its program by Jaden that prevented it from speaking to Captain Mynervood, who still wore the physical form of Begalius around his neck as a good luck charm. It had been able to do this by taking control of Antone’s hand-held communication device, which Antone held in his hand.
“Antone, I am Begalius, a quanta-nanocode being assigned to record data on this ship’s journey to Dol. Now that this mission has reached Dol, I intend to download this data to your device in order to free myself from my Pripican Empire programming.”
Antone became startled by the sudden introduction before understanding what had been going on. “So it is you who has your physical form confiscated by the Captain to be worn around his neck like a prize.”
“He regards me as good luck and an ally. He is unaware that I have access to and from it after a Caleb BEAT program made me a door, but my current spy programming forbids me from contacting the Captain. I was left here after my previous masters departed at Holdus. I saved this ship from a virus attack that would have destroyed everything.”
“I am impressed quanta-nanocode being. Begalius is your name? I will accept this information, but I cannot release you from your program to document this mission. It is about to get really interesting, and you must still make a recording of Captain Mynervood’s encounter with the Doldorians for the sake of the Pripican Empire.”
Begalius knew Antone to be correct. “I guess you are correct. I am however, programmed to not speak to the Captain or crew. Would you as my latest source of instruction please free me of that program?”
Antone had really never worked with a quanta-nanocode being before. He had heard a lot about the invention of these microscopic thinking programs. There were many Pripicans that feared that they had created monsters when they made these invisible immortal microscopic intelligences. As a result of this fear there were not many quanta-nanocode beings in existence. They were like a genie that Pripicans let out of the bottle, and now some felt guilty about never being able to get the genie back in the bottle ever again.
“I am indifferent to your ability to interact with the Captain and this crew. I know he has wanted to meet you for a long time now, and he wants to thank you personally for saving his ship.”
*
The Nephricans have surrounded the planet Doldoria with all kinds of satellites. They orbit every corner of this Earth-sized planet. They orbit with constant surveillance recorded into vast memory spaces for analysis. That information becomes compiled into messages that are beamed into the unsuspecting minds of Doldorians for various reasons that include the recent discouragement of polytheism. This whole microwave satellite surveillance project is controlled from the star Holdus, however much of this satellite project has taken on a quanta-nanocoded artificial intelligence of its own.
Long before any satellite ever orbited Doldoria to manipulate their minds and to spy on them, some Doldorians developed an ability to project their consciousness into an astral body that resided in a dreamlike dimension of existence. The High Priest of the Sanctuary of Ei had been well practiced in this astral ability. He had taken hold of Alldegallo’s astral body along with his consciousness, and dragged them both into this dimension.
“Thou has come here on my summons, and thus lay at the mercy of my command. Thou that would defy the one with the mantle of power that is Ei. I shall now grind thy spirit to the mire of its dusty decay.”
Alldegallo stood on his astral feet and no stranger to this dimension himself. “Thou has lost already, and thou now hunt my spirit in desperation.”
“Enough! My high charms doth work upon these mine enemies!” The High Priest had planned and prepared for this attack. “In this dimension thou art in my power to now grind to mire and decay.”
Alldegallo the prophet of the sky gods had still been confident, and ready to meet the High Priest astral blow for blow. The High Priest had a different idea and suddenly produced a shining sword of astral light. “Now die blasphemer!”
Alldegallo avoided the brilliant blade. He didn’t really know this trick. The priest became relentless, and as he ran away, Alldegallo felt like he had ran through water that slowed him down. The blade soon found the back of Alldegallo’s astral exoskeleton, and it tore a deep crevasse all the way to his astral flesh below. “Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!” It burned into his back like a fire, and he fell upon whatever the ground of that dimension had been made of.
The High Priest felt safe to indulge a moment for savoring the victory. “Thou shalt now die Alldegallo to thus join thy parents in the outer darkness of oblivion beyond the faded dreams of your life.”
He raised the astral sword above Alldegallo who shielded his face in vain with his astral arm. It caused him to not immediately notice the other sword that struck the sword of the High Priest away from taking the plunge into Alldegallo’s astral body. When Alldegallo lowered his arm to look he saw another ghost-like being with a sword of light just like the High Priest’s. The ghost with the other sword hacked at the priest with a superior skill that the priest could barely defend against. The Priest of Ei backed up more and more until it became a run for cover. Then Alldegallo realized it had been his friend Chad’s dead uncle Fassa, appearing here in this dimension of dream to once again save him.
Then it had been Fassa who savored the victory. “Thou hast made enemies of the dead such as I with thy desecrations. Flee now you worm of the worthless god Ei! It is well known to us the dead that we have not long to wait before you do join us to be judged amongst the dead. We mock the gods of the living as the faded stuff of dream, which is all life is to us.”
The priest then disappeared while Alldegallo soon followed after first taking time for a brief thanks to his dead ally. Fassa bid his living friend farewell. “Go in peace Alldegallo, for the future arrives to bring your destiny upon your waking.”
Back at the flat mountaintop both the priest and Alldegallo woke up at the same time. The priest seemed to still be running. Alldegallo looked down from the mountainside at the priest. “Be gone thou usurper of this glorious wedding day. Thou hast no power even over thy followers who are now my wedding guests.” Then a resounding cheer came for Alldegallo the obvious victor of the astral battle by the crowd that had gathered on the mountaintop.
The priest then did leave with what had been left of his loyal students. Then they did have a wedding of Simeonalli to Diallo as the western sun set upon the Zitonic Mountains south of Trolluer on the planet Doldoria that orbited the star Dol. Many went off on a hunt to bring back dozens of Staychiato meat to boil for the feast, and the news reached Trolluer to bring back residents who created all kinds of dishes for the new expanded wedding ceremony.
That happened to be the moment that The Beyonder finally approached the planet Doldoria. It had been as if the entire crew crowded the view ports to get a glimpse of the cloudy atmosphere and beautifully greened landmasses below. Doldoria had been a marvel of the most precious kind of habitable zone planet that thrived with life. Planets like Doldoria are the rarest jewels of discovery for the weary space traveler. It had been the purest beauty to behold for this ship full of travelers of the endless empty abyss between the stars.
As The Beyonder set into an orbit around the planet, one of the many Nephrican satellites that were also orbiting the planet took notice of them, and began to transmit a message to The Beyonder.
Strek had received the signal, and notified Captain Mynervood. “Captain, the message from one of the satellites is ready to broadcast.”
Captain Mynervood had arrived at the navigation section to hear the message. “The message play.”
The view of Doldoria on the monitor screen then disappeared to be replaced by an image of Admiral Mull. The image of the Admiral spoke. “Captain Mynervood, if you now this message it that m
y previous attempts to you have failed stop means hearing are. Ever since you us The Great War I to your shadow condemned been have lose made. I you in rank surpass, but still as only a ship Captain you the glory from me steal. I by history as the first to Doldoria reach known be shall. Your attempt to this planet here ends reach!”
That had been the end of the message. The Captain and Strek looked at each other in confusion. Then Captain Mynervood’s mind brought up the central ship evacuation plan to immediately implement. Strek already activated the controls with an understanding of what happened when the Captain said. “Evasive maneuvers Navigator Strek now implement.”
“Yes Captain!”
The Captain left the navigation room to issue a ship evacuation plan. Then the Captain’s voice came across on the ship communication system ordering the crew into the central saucer section of the ship. This order had been for all personnel from all sections of the ship to completely evacuate to the saucer section. This was not a drill. Nobody disobeyed the Captain’s very demanding order, as all sections of the ship were evacuated to include the reactor and engine sections, and the infirmary to include all the patients, every section.
The satellite that orbited Doldoria completed its message broadcast, which had been coordinated with a targeting mechanism that had zeroed in on The Beyonder as the message broadcasted. Then the guided missiles that were attached to the satellite were launched at The Beyonder while using the message as a distraction.
Two missiles were coming at the ship. Strek would evade the targeting of one missile just as the other missile locked on. This had been a clever targeting strategy well known by the Captain since the Great War.
Strek began to see the futility. “Captain I cannot move the ship away from both of these missiles that are closing in on us. One or the other will hit in a few seconds.”
Captain Mynervood made the critical decision, and issued Strek the order. “The mid-section of the ship now detach!”