Rebirth
A Story By
Philip R Benge
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Published by
Rebirth
Copyright Philip R Benge 2012
Cover Art Copyright Philip R Benge 2012
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.
Rebirth
Prologue
It is the year 2497 and as in any other time it is a lucky man or woman who finally comes to realise that there is more than one route to travel along to reach your destination, to think otherwise is not only foolish it is also illogical. Tyler Burrows is one man who is slowly coming to realise that there is more to the universe than science can provide an answer for at this moment in time. Unfortunately, for him he is getting a lot of help from what his friends call fate, to bring him around to this point of view.
Recently a mystic had told him that he was soon to journey to many new distant worlds, where he would find new friends, but also that many dangers would be awaiting him, but he was not to worry for the gods would accompany him on his journey!
Rebirth
Chapter One
Late in the evening of the January 10th 2497
It All Begins Again
President Michaels was sixty-three years old but he looked older, as he had done for some while now, for the stress of the job was affecting him, as it had with all of the previous Presidents of Earth and all of its colonies. His once dark bushy hair was now sparse and grey, his face full of stress lines. Even so, he still attempted to keep his ramrod stance that emphasized his six feet tall figure, and his seemingly electric blue eyes still had the power to dominate all those around him.
He had just put the phone down, Ivor Johansson had called him to ask whether he could spare the time to come over to the laboratory tomorrow morning, and if possible, to bring Sir Charles Fulbright with him, as he wanted to put on a demonstration that he was sure would delight them both. When Michaels had asked right out if the Matter Transporter was now a working machine, Johansson had refused to say, what he had said was that all would be revealed tomorrow morning; tonight they had some final checks to run to ensure that all would be ready for them in the morning. Michaels had wanted to damn and blast the man, and at one time, he would have done, but following a chastening experience three years ago on the far off planet of Orion, he had learned now to constrain himself. If the science team wanted to show off their box of tricks tomorrow then so be it, tomorrow it was.
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At the Chichester Laboratories, Ivor Johansson, Barry Rogers and Peter Swanscombe had just run the final test and they were now celebrating the success of that test with a glass of champagne, also celebrating this success were their three assistants. For a moment in time, the six people inside the laboratory were happy, for tomorrow would herald a great and joyous day in all of their lives.
Walking towards the laboratory were Johor Rigor and his wife Mariah. Rigor was a professional killer and thief working as an agent for the planet of Aldebra, he looked too short for his chosen occupation, being only five feet six inches tall, his brown hair was rather long for today`s fashion and he was clean shaven, apart from his hair he would normally go unnoticed in the world. Mariah was about the same height as her husband, with mousey hair that came down to her shoulders, she had a slim figure that was hidden at the moment by her winter coat. If she took a little time over her appearance she would be quite attractive, but then as her chosen profession was that of an assassin she did not want to bring undue attention to herself. They had returned to Earth just two days ago, having been resting on the planet of their birth Aldebra, they were back here on Earth to carry out this one mission. The two killers pushed open the doors to the laboratory and entered, much to the surprise of the scientists inside. The first thing the scientists noticed about them was that their two uninvited guests had a Phaser pistol in their hand. It was Mariah who fired first; her Phaser was pointed directly at Johansson, who had so recently been speaking with President Michaels. The bolt of energy whistled through the air for just a moment before striking Johansson just above his heart, and killing the tall Swedish American scientist instantly before he could even react to their presence. Next to Mariah her husband had chosen one of the assistants as his target, his Phaser too sent a short bolt of energy whistling across the space that separated him from his victim, a young man not long out of university, James Royston, and moments later, he too lay dead upon the floor. Within a few seconds the remaining four men also lay dead upon the hard ground, Rogers and Swanscombe just inches away from their attackers who had not moved an inch even when it seemed possible that two of their intended victims might reach them.
"Wallace, will you please come in here."
Wallace was their informant, when he came into the room he was nearly sick, he saw his erstwhile colleagues lying dead upon the floor, large energy burns disfiguring their bodies. However, he knew they would be dead even before he had entered the room, for he had heard the many high pitched whistling sounds known by anyone who had ever used a hand Phaser.
"Why did you have to kill them, you could have just locked them away in a store room while you took what you wanted?" Wallace raved. "Now they will be searching for us for murder as well as for espionage." Wallace had signed up for robbery, but not for murder.
"We were thinking of you Wallace, they may have seen or heard you, and then you would have been captured and probably led the police straight to us. Now pull yourself together and download all of the data from the computer banks into this recording device, and stop complaining, you are being paid enough to cover anything and everything." Rigor ordered, thrusting a portable hard drive into Wallace`s hand.
Wallace connected the remote control device to the computer that would enable the portable hard drive to receive the data stream from the computer, and then he began to download all the data appertaining to the Matter Transporter into it, including the programming that operated it, the schematics of all the working components, and how to make and operate them. The Aldebrans would now be able to construct their own Matter Transporter within two or three years, assuming that they had the scientists to carry out the exacting work, and the engineering expertise of course.
"All right Wallace, while that is downloading, take out the heart of the unit, which our people will need if they are to build their own Matter Transporter." Johor Rigor ordered the technician.
Wallace obeyed immediately, as fear for his own life began to grow in his miserable mind. He knelt down and began to take off the panels of the Matter Transporter`s main console that concealed the heart and brain of the unit. Within minutes, he had taken off the panels that protected the fragile workings of the machine, and disconnected the main unit that was what the scientists had called the heart of their unit; the brain being the computer program, this Wallace had now successfully downloaded. While he had been hard at work, Mariah Rigor had set up incendiary devices all around the room, all timed to explode in ten minutes.
"Right my love; let`s get away before the timer on our light display reaches zero hour." Mariah said to her husband.
Mariah put the hard drive in a bag that she then slung over her shoulder, her husband picked up the heart of the Matter Transporter, which glowed and pulsated in his hands. The unit was warm to his t
ouch and vibrating sending a warm thrill through his body, it would not need an additional power supply for a long time as it was no longer a part of the Matter Transporter, but it still seemed to be alive to Johor.
"I might buy myself one of these things." Johor said laughing as he put the unit into the small crate that they had brought with them. Johor and Mariah then made to leave the Laboratory before the incendiary devices exploded, but Percival Wallace was standing in the hallway preventing them from doing so.
"Hey! What about paying me what you owe me?" Wallace demanded belligerently. "Oh and I have some information that you will be wanting, something that will cost you a further one thousand credits." Wallace said knowingly, his recent fears now stifled by his greed.
"An extra one thousand credits Percival, that is a lot of credits, so why don`t you tell me what you have and then we will discuss just how much extra you will be paid." Johor said smoothly, but the look in Mariah`s eyes almost froze Wallace`s blood, and so while Wallace would have preferred to bargain first and tell later, he now told them what he had found out earlier in the day.
"I heard the scientists here discussing the Sentry Security System this morning, and it seems that the manufacturers have now made a new version, and its job is to detect Crystillium. Either you get that piece of technology in that crate off the planet within the next twenty-three hours, or you will not get it off at all. The reason why you must hurry is that this new Sentry System is being deployed at midnight, which is in less than twenty-four hours` time. It will be set to detect the passage of items going through one of the spaceports of items that incorporate amongst other things, Crystillium, and that piece in your hands is almost total Crystillium. They are going to put one in the centre of each of Earth`s space ports and it will detect Crystillium up to ten miles away, so you see unless you get that thing in that crate off of the planet today, you may never get it off." Wallace`s face said that he knew that that piece of information was worth what he had demanded from them.
Mariah Rigor who had been studiously ignoring Wallace, was in fact stunned by his new information, but only for a moment as she then turned about and looked directly at Wallace.
"Thank you Percival, you are quite correct about the value to us of your piece of information, and I intend to pay you all that we owe to you in full, here you are." Mariah brought out a specially adapted Phaser that she had named Pain. She first shot Wallace in the left leg making him collapse to the floor with his now useless leg a mass of pain, the small delicate looking Phaser giving out a soft hum as it worked. Mariah smiled down at him as she moved the Phaser across to target his right leg, this was followed by each of his arms, and while Mariah smiled sweetly at him, Wallace was screaming in agony, begging her to stop.
"Mariah we don`t have time for this, finish him off." Johor said rather annoyed at this waste of their time.
Mariah looked a trifle miffed at having to stop playing so soon, but she obeyed her husband this once, and shot Wallace in the head killing him instantly.
"There you are, Percival, paid in full." Her smile even more sweet than before, as she looked down at his limp body.
They were one mile away from the Laboratory when the bombs went off. The explosions lit up the sky, rattled the windows of the nearby buildings, and destroyed the laboratory complex.