Strek made the saucer section of The Beyonder detach from the rest of the ship made up of the hyper-acceleration reactor/propulsion system, passenger bays, and the warp deflector apparatus.
That had been when the missiles struck those undetached parts of The Beyonder that were not the now-detached part of the ship connected to the more inferior maneuver drives. Unfortunately the propulsion system that just blew up had been what gave The Beyonder hyper-acceleration capabilities. The saucer had the advantage of virtual particle propulsion that could ignore the gravitational effects of a sharp turn, which would prove superior to these rocket propelled guided missiles. The Captain and his crew looked on with despair as the rest of The Beyonder had been destroyed in a spectacular explosion that could be seen over a large part of the planet. The entire crew knew at that moment that it would now be a very long time from now before any of them would return from this journey.
Below Alldegallo had just married Simeonalli and Diallo, and he watched the night sky begin to remove the last of the day from the dark line of the horizon. The moon Conjiktallo barely peaked above the horizon while the other moon Thule showed high overhead. Since the defeat of the High Priest he had been filled with the feeling that his vision had also won the day. Ever since he returned to reality from his astral battle, Alldegallo felt as if his visions were suddenly becoming true after all. The words of farewell from Chad’s uncle Fassa echoed in his mind. “The future arrives to bring your destiny upon your waking.” Then the falling star from his dreams appeared in the sky above him to remove any still lurking doubt.
Alldegallo had not been the only one who then believed that the prophecy had been coming to pass. He spoke to his followers. “Hear me my followers, for the hour of my vision is now upon us. Behold the star I before have described to thee. This is the sign that the hour is nigh!”
It had just been as Alldegallo’s dreams had predicted. A great fiery star of flames came down from the sky lighting up the night. Then they all crowded the mountaintop to gaze in awe above at the sky in search of the next part of the vision. Everyone looked for the chariot of the sky gods up there somewhere in the night sky. Some of them began to falter in their faith, and doubted that there had been anything else to observe from the sky. Someone then spotted it while it had still been just a feint star that slowly moved across the sky. Many even doubted that while saying they had seen these moving stars many times before.
The word about the moving star had reached the entire crowd of Doldorians by the time it started getting brighter and closer. It eventually did grow into the saucer prophecy, and many figured out early that it was going to land on the mountaintop, and they needed to move away. Then the saucer, which had been all that had been left of The Beyonder, finally landed on the selected flat landing site. It took up a large part of the mountaintop area. That moved many followers and wedding guests off of the mountain altogether.
The Doldorians were mostly overcome with fear when the gigantic aliens exited the ship. Suddenly reality became larger and more frightening than any idea or dream. The sky gods were as large as buildings with slimy bodies of snake-like tentacles. They had a single gigantic eye and terrifying mouths full of teeth. Many Doldorians did not stop running until they reached Trolluer to warn the inhabitants of the invasion from the sky by giant monsters.
Their size turned out to be even more than Alldegallo had ever imagined. He did not run however, and neither did some around him that were still determined to be loyal followers. Alldegallo realized at that moment what the real reason for these visions had been. He realized the responsibility he had for remaining courageous enough to face his vision that brought them all there to this moment. Alldegallo had been responsible to be courageous enough to meet his vision face to face and greet the visitors from the stars.
Alldegallo yelled to the one-eyed giants that towered above him at that moment. “Greetings onto you beings that hath arrived here from the sky. We are the Doldorians who have been gathered here with expectations of your arrival. Welcome to Doldoria.”
Captain Mynervood and a lot of his crew had been studying the language of the Doldorians the entire time they were in space, and the Captain had been very able to understand the words of the little bug-like being below. He gratefully figured his wife Aineemadin on Holdus must have used the microwave satellite project to somehow set up this reunion for their arrival with the Doldorians. He knelt down to greet the newly encountered life forms. “Representative of Doldorians I Captain Mynervood am greetings.” As it would turn out, Aineemadin had absolutely nothing to do with this.
Chapter 12
There had been a significant size difference between the sky-gods and the Doldorians that were gathered at the sacred mountain to greet them. Doldorians were barely four feet tall in stature while the Nephricans, Eagolim, and Pripicans that made up the crew of The Beyonder saucer section towered above the Doldorians with average heights around 12 feet tall. Doldoria had also been an Earth-sized planet while Nephrica and Pripica were both much larger. That endowed Nephricans and Pripicans with strength and density compatible with the gravitation of those planets. It made them almost invincible on Doldoria. The crew of The Beyonder were thus greeted with the fear and reverence afforded by primitive cultures to superhuman god-like beings.
Alldegallo stood as the recognized leader of these little blue beings that populated the planet as the local intelligent life. Captain Mynervood became captivated with these primitive life forms that were at a stage of technological development still of a simple and primitive time that becomes lost in the ancient past for higher evolved species. To Captain Mynervood they were not only less evolved than galactic beings like himself, but they were not even as evolved as terrestrial Negolim back home. The Doldorians were from before the inevitable technological revolutions that would liberate their minds from primitive superstitions, taboo, and myth. Captain Mynervood found himself looking upon them with his first impression as not much more than clever animals.
Captain Mynervood’s initial impression of the bug-like life forms of this planet would begin to improve as he got to know Alldegallo. Unlike most of the others that happened to be at the landing site prescribed by Strek the saucer pilot, Alldegallo had not scattered into the distance like a frightened cockroach. Instead the Captain found himself immediately greeted with an intelligent conversation by a being able to overlook the confusion of accent and dialect.
Fortunately the crew of The Beyonder had not been towing along a lot of passengers when the satellite shot it down with guided missiles. They were comfortably cramped in the ship’s new size as the detachable saucer section, which escaped the explosion that vaporized the rest of the ship as it burned up in the Doldorian upper atmosphere. They began to step out of the saucer to greet the reverent Doldorians. It had been the legends of Alldegallo’s dreams come true just as he had described. There were the one-eyed 3-legged tentacle beings along with the two-eyed two-legged beings both bald and furry. Also just as foreseen by the prophet there were four-legged two-armed beings that trotted down the saucer entrance ramp to greet them.
Diallo had been there with Simeonalli in awe of her nephew Alldegallo’s moment of destiny. Like other Doldorians that didn’t run away they too become brave enough to greet these giant sky-god beings that were taking over the large flat mountaintop. Simeonalli tried as hard as he could to not run away so he could be as courageous as his new bride Diallo, but if it had not been for her he knew he would be in Trolluer right now warning everyone about the coming monsters. Diallo led him to greet Randa and Ferdinand, and the little baby that Randa held in her arms. The baby looked a bit shorter than Diallo. Unlike most of the crew of this mission, Randa and Ferdinand had no idea how to speak or understand Doldorian. They managed however, to communicate friendly greetings to the tiny blue beings that were at her feet also saying hello.
There were no understandable words between the sky-gods and Doldorian newlyweds, but still everything seemed t
o be universally understood. Diallo had been very interested in the pale skinned baby with a crop of her father’s fur on top of her two-eyed head. Diallo believed that this baby would be of a special importance for the future of Doldoria.
The sky-god giants setup camp on the mountaintop. Captain Mynervood informed everyone that Doldoria would be their new home for the foreseeable future, so they might as well become comfortable. The mountaintop had been a good location close to a major city of indigenous life forms for them to study. He stood on the mountainside watching the friendly emissary of the Doldorians head back to the nearby city to inform the locals that they mean no harm. Some of Alldegallo’s followers went with him while others remained to camp at the foot of their god’s mountain. Captain Mynervood had been baffled at how the Doldorians could have known he would be there at this time and place.
*
Alldegallo wanted his friend Chad to ride with him back to the city to calm down the panic caused by the earlier wave of frightened Doldorians who had already returned as fast as they could from their mountaintop experience.
Chad felt honored to be singled out by the prophet. “A most high miracle oh prophet of the sky-gods. I remain in awe of one I once knew as friend.”
Alldegallo didn’t invite his friend on this ride to be worshiped. “Oh how oddly doth thy words sound that I must beg thee to become again my good friend of many years.”
Then Chad said, “For thy advise I shalt take heed, but thou hast shown me true gods, and did guide me to them with thy skills of foresight and vision. I am as a disciple to you the prophet. For it was you that had writ the way on parchment that brought us all hither.”
“Be it known that I did call thee to accompany me to thus inform you that your deceased uncle Fassa did deliver me from the skill of the High Priest to kill my soul.”
“This is joyful to me. Many a story I could tell of ways he hath protected me from where he is in the beyond. Although followers of Ei doth trample the older gods they doth fail to trample my respect for the god of dead ancestors.”
Then the gergo cart halted at the entrance to the city of Trolluer by a band of citizens. They shouted at the cart. “Get you gone thou bringers of terror, thou followers of monsters!”
Alldegallo didn’t hesitate to emerge from the wagon. “Thou shalt not stand as opposed to my message of truth. I come to quell thy intent to oppose these of god-like stature. They mean no harm to we who can only bow to them in servitude.”
The crowd had actually been there to apprehend Alldegallo in order to appease Aternos, in hopes that it would make Alldegallo’s giants go away. The driver of Alldegallo’s wagon had been quick to see this, and he only gave them one warning while Alldegallo got back into the wagon. “Take heed now that ye fail not to be gone from the way of this cart lest damage grow to pain unto ye all!”
They rode through the roadblock into the city while some prepared to carry out the pursuit. They intended to bring Alldegallo to justice. There was one place Alldegallo knew he could resist his pursuers. There had been one place to have his defense heard by all. Alldegallo had the driver of the gergo cart take them to the stage of Jambennin where a crowd, which included his pursuers, all gathered to hear the prophet out.
Alldegallo had become quick to think up songs. “Now my dreams are all overthrown
by reality that is not my own.
Now I must answer to you
because my foresight ‘tis true.
Now the gods shall not be forgot
and make them go away, I cannot.
For now here the gods dwell.
This is not my doing, not my spell.
They will not depart the mountain sands
just cause I’m to justice by thy hands.
I thus beg thee to these ends.
Be it known these giants are our friends.”
So it did become known throughout Trolluer that the giants were friends, and many came to assist the gods with whatever they desired to make them comfortable on the mountain. The gods mostly seemed content to observe and study their behavior. Alldegallo’s sentencing by the corrupt judge of Aternos would soon be overturned. The court of Aternos could not justify convicting the mediator between them and the giant sky gods. Consequently the High Priest had been brought up on 200 counts of attempted murder for attacking the sky god wedding. The god Ei was no longer the number one god in town.
*
Captain Mynervood had eventually been invited to visit the city of Trolluer with assurances that he and his crew would at least try not to disrupt the populous with their frightening appearances. The Captain walked from the mountain with his assistant Tyallor Nudeowan. Behind there were two Doldorians following with stealth while observing the two three-legged one-eyed giants that were approaching the city.
Tyallor did scans, gathered data, and took samples of the local terrain. “Captain, I that the two Doldorians still us just over that ridge following are detect.”
“Just on them watch keep. They harmless to us even if they us harm mean are.”
The Captain had been mostly correct. They were giants from higher gravity planets, while Doldorian weaponry had still been mostly sticks and knives that would just break against Nephrican skin-cloth.
Alldegallo and some followers greeted them as they entered the city. “Greetings unto you from the city of Trolluer, which we the Doldorians hath builded.”
The two giants were escorted through the city, which looked like it had been made of fragile stick dwellings with doorways they wouldn’t even fit in. The residents fearfully moved out of the way as they waddled by. Yet after moving away the people were still closing in on the spectacle of giants from behind them.
The gergo barn of Simeonalli turned out to be the ideal place for their meeting. Captain Mynervood and Tyallor squeezed through the door used for wagons, and could stand upright under the high curved ceiling of the barn. The gergos just pulled back to the walls and watched the giant aliens intently.
Tyallor also intently gathered data on the gergos. Alldegallo showed the Captain his little encampment that had been his home at the beginning of his quest for destiny. He showed the Captain his dream journal. “For within those very walls did I dream of your coming unto us, and wrote of it in this journal.”
The Captain felt particularly interested in that journal. “Tyallor this entire book of writings record. I to this at length later study want.”
Alldegallo had been honored. “The eye of a god is upon now my writings. Be ye forewarned upon thy later study that these writings warn of another god like thee who shall also descend from the heavens to confront thee. Thy coming battle shall thus determine the destiny of us all.”
Admiral Mull had been the first thing that popped into Mynervood’s head at that moment. It defied the Captain’s strict adherence to logic and reason, but he believed this prophet had just warned him, through some kind of clairvoyance of the future, about another attempt on his life by his ex-best friend. He thought perhaps this had been a satellite-induced warning from this wife Aineemadin. The Captain thought if anything had been a god or goddess around here, the satellite microwave mind control project above them made Aineemadin a goddess of this primitive planet.
The Captain had something to offer that he had been there to negotiate. “I your warning seriously my friend take shall. I also here to assistance from your kind to me my spaceship rebuild help negotiate am. In exchange I your kind knowledge of my advanced technology that your society transform will give can.”
Alldegallo still figured out what the Captain said as he agreed to the offer. The gods had a way of talking that had been abruptly to the point, and then the verbs were put at the end like an afterthought. Alldegallo became determined to learn to speak like the gods, believing that it might give him godlike insights and allow him to think like the gods.
*
After the Captain and his assistant left the city of fearful little blue beings, the two spies of the High Priest
that were following them returned to the Sanctuary of EI to report to their master who had now been wanted for 200 counts of attempted murder. The High Priest, as usual had not been at all pleased with the news his spies brought him. His god Ei had been usurped by this excommunicated student’s sky-god, who is now about to teach the Doldorians how to build hyper-acceleration ships. Then the High Priest knew what he would do. He planned to help his god Ei kill Captain Mynervood in the coming battle prophesied by Alldegallo. Then he would once again be the number one priest in this town.
That night brought another visionary dream to Alldegallo just before waking. His dream body walked along the ground of dream mist to once again behold the cherubim. He now knew the cherub in terms of having himself seen the two legged, two armed gods that looked identical. The head of the humanoid being in his dream had still been cloaked in brilliant light obscured by a dark cloud.
The humanoid said, “Let the work, and learned skill of all Doldorians embrace the work of the gods now descended amongst you. Thou shalt build wondrous things that shall evolve your very species to be equal to the gods. Encourage thy influence upon thy following to mingle with the offspring of the one called Randa. This child is the first of many new Doldorians.”
*
The Captain and crew of The Beyonder were impressed with how quickly the Doldorians learned the physics of hyper-acceleration and advanced technology. Within less than one Doldorian year they were beginning to construct nuclear reactors to fuel the industry necessary to make hyper-acceleration vessels. The Doldorians were already industriously mining metals from the planet, although they had not yet discovered uranium. The Doldorians were quick to adapt to a future that would never be the same ever again.
Then the day came when Admiral Mull’s ship, The Drameda finally slowed down into the outer solar system of the star Dol. The Drameda had quickly been re-fueled with hydrogen at an outer gas giant before it quickly approached the coveted planet Doldoria.
Admiral Mull became shocked to discover in the downloaded surveillance satellite data that Captain Mynervood enjoyed the status of god while transforming the city Trolluer into a hyper-acceleration spacecraft-manufacturing city with a nearby virtual particle craft space port.