“If that’s the case, why didn’t you inform me beforehand?” Mark clarified, “We’ve been working together for a long time."
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience; I thought you were a courageous fellow who could respond positively to a very difficult situation . . .because I’ve realized lately that you’re very important to this journey. . .. I’ll just remind you that you’ll miss the golden opportunity for the race for the coveted plum . . . the Grand Duke of the Earth, the apparent heir to the imperial throne.” The colonel grinned.
“Colonel, let me emphasize to you that if ever there’s somebody who’s most qualified to pilot this planet, I’ll assure you that it’s not me, but tor the sake of our beloved planet I’ll go! So please, let’s stop this political bickering,” Mark remarked.
“Hey! Mark, please think it over. . .. You’ve not flown any space vehicle yet,” Kareem reminded the courageous young guy. “He has, Kareem a kite!” A humiliating comment by the colonel.
Mark didn’t utter a word.
“Mark, it you’re interested in joining the expedition, it would be advisable if you tried first . . . our space simulator; we could put off the launching for another three days,” the professor suggested.
“Thank you Professor. I’m already familiar with the spaceship’s mechanism and its functions; it all appears in the spaceship’s manual,” Mark replied.
“That needs to be seen,” Colonel Krispov retorted.
Five hours had elapsed; throngs of people have converged in the vast football field to witness the historic flight beyond.
In a joyful mode the emperor, in an all-white gala uniform, announced, “My beloved people, the time has finally come that we’ll reap . . . the fruit of our unified endeavors. . .. His Holiness Rev. James Reginald shall bless the”- then the long vertical white cloth strips fell from the side of the spaceship and a bold name appeared - “STARGEON” . . . the mighty surgeon of our dying planet!"
The overwhelmed people clapped their hands, in tears, proud of their behemoth creation. The reverend called up Colonel Krispov, who showed up with his thousand crew members running to form three columns facing the stage. The reverend then uttered a long prayer and some inspirational remarks and paced around the columns of space crews; he stopped halfway. “Hey, Mark! Why are you here? I thought you were excluded.”
“I can help more if I go with them,” Mark answered.
“May the Lord be with you.”
After the ceremonial blessing, the emperor delivered the farewell address. “Col. Cedric Krispov, members of the expedition, please remember that the ultimate panacea of our planet lies in your hands. We count on you to return safely with the cosmic spheroid prior to the termination day of the Martian ultimatum. . .. We wish you all good luck!”
The people then began to chant in unison, “God save the Earth!” Air buses then took the space crews to the towering ark. An hour passed; the Stargeon was boosted into the sky, leaving behind a strong tremor that shook the soft alluvial ground foundation, registering a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale. '
VIII
Space Flight
The Stargeon was ascending with a minimal gradient in penetrating the feared atmospheric barrier of the Earth. Even though some scientists had dubbed the Stargeon as the “incredible Spaceship," the crews weren’t carried away by the drumbeaters’ bullish assessment. They took into account the professor’s advice; otherwise they would end up meeting the same fate as the Titanic, the “unsinkable ship,” the professor had warned.
The spacecraft was rigidly shielded against cosmic hazards and laser blasts by “Starlite” plastic polymer, which had been developed by Maurice Ward in the late twentieth century. This incredible plastic could withstand temperature up to 10,000 degrees Celsius.
In the aviator's chamber, the astronauts kept vigil on the space navigational sensors that monitored the incoming space hazards from all angles. They missed the beauty of the Earth which their predecessors had seen from space; like, for instance, the “white water" that stretched several miles in the vast Atlantic Ocean was nowhere to be found, and likewise the 3,750-mile-long Great Wall of China as the last known, disappearing marker visible on the Earth mentioned by the first man who set foot on the moon, the legendary twentieth-century American astronaut named Neil Armstrong.
Mark Gouch, the young maverick of astrophysics, was the centerpiece of this operation. He had diagnosed the Earth as a terminally ill planet that needs immediate medical attention at all costs. It needs instigating centrifugal force to maintain its orbit around the sun before it reached its point of release. Eventually, it would become rudderless. On the contrary, his skeptical detractors who, unfortunately, belonged to the passé school of thought had bluntly dismissed his prescription and labeled it as another phony elixir formula. But the majority of the Earth’s inhabitants were praying that the Stargeon’s mission would succeed.
“Eagle Nest, this is Lunar Ranger One . . . do you read me? Over." A message came from the Earth’s Space Atmospheric Defense Command, based on the Earth’s moon, relayed to the Stargeon.
“Lunar Ranger One, this is Eagle’s Nest; we read you.”
“Congratulations! You’ve made it! . . . If you need some more spacemen, we could furnish them. Over.”
“Thank you . . . we’ve great numbers of space fighters on board. Over," Colonel Krispov, the commandant, responded. “Just reserve your men for the Martian surprise attack; there’s no other way to deter them. Don’t be too complacent. Over.”
“Don’t worry . . . we’re prepared for those crazy bandits. Over."
The Stargeon changed its course; it was now cruising parallel to the polar axis.
“Lunar Ranger One, we’re now heading towards the ‘starfield.’ Over.”
“We wish you good luck, and be on guard for those stray space buccaneer fighters; they aren’t pushovers. Our men encountered them once. Over.”
“Thank you for the reminder, Ranger One; we'll arrange a rendezvous for those thugs. Over.”
The giant spaceship was slowly disappearing from the Lunar Ranger One monitoring system.
The giant silvery starship sped away towards the unending stellar field. Some of the crews had found time to relax while the navigators remained at their posts. They gathered in the recreational chamber, which was especially designed to simulate the gravitational effects of the Earth. Some of the spacecraft chambers were pressurized with pure oxygen at 14.7 pounds per square inch. Some of the crew were playing snooker, chess, cards, or video games or reading pocket books and magazines. There was also a bar that served different kinds of liquor, wine, soda, and beers with pretty stewardesses.
In one corner, the commandant, Colonel Krispov, enjoyed viewing a twentieth-century pornographic film, while Mark and his newfound buddy, Sergeant Major Bendanill, played a tricky game of dominoes. The KEEP SILENCE sign was revoked when all of a sudden a gay bartender screamed and ran toward the position of some crew members while holding a beer mug that he accidentally spilled on one of the concentrated chess wizards and shouted, “Help! I saw a ghost inside the liquor crate!”
“What the hell is that?” someone asked. “It's the barking of a dog, isn't it?”
“Yes, it is a dog. . .. How come it was able to sneak aboard?”
“Maybe somebody brought it along, mistaking the Stargeon for Noah’s ark."
Suddenly, a husky showed up and ran around. Someone was about to strike the dog with a billiard cue stick when Mark interceded. “Wait! Don’t harm him! Sniffer, over here!” The husky rushed towards Mark wagging his tail.
“So, Mark was the one who brought along that puppy. . .. It scared me to death, Mark; you must apply a massage to the erratic beating of my heart." This statement annoyed everyone. The husky incident had unnerved them.
‘Tittt!-tittt!-tittt!’ an emergency call sounded on the intercom, “Paging the commander. Sir, we’ve sighted an unidentified moving formation at 5,000 miles ahead; please advise."
The commander responded immediately, “Order all the crews to be on red alert!"
The colonel then rushed to the navigational control. “Divert the craft ten grads azimuth; we’ll try to avoid any unnecessary encounter, folks.”
Six minutes lapsed.
“Sir, tracking report: the objective is heading fast in our direction.”
“Shit! They want some trouble. Challenge their identity upon closing in at 500 miles.”
The display terminal showed 500 miles after several minutes.
“Alien spacecraft, this is Stargeon. . .. Please identify your origin. . .. We’re from the planet Earth. Over.”
A few minutes passed. “Sir, reply negative. Objective is fast closing in; they’re a couple of hundreds, sir.”
The commander then made the announcement, “Calling all space fighters, calling all space fighters, proceed immediately to the craft ejecting silos.”
The several hundred spacecraft’s then zoomed forward in search of the unfriendly spacecraft.
“Gentlemen, stand by; let’s wait and see what their first move is,” the commander gave his order. “Position your craft, folks!"
In a matter of a few minutes the alien space warriors showed up and fired the initial assault.
The Earthlings then returned the fire, their precise maneuvering affecting the enemy with heavy losses. The Earthlings’ laser gun was too much for their unidentified enemy. Sensing that their fighting ability was waning, the enemy retreated.
“Sir, we lost two fighters. The enemy has pulled back. About thirty percent of their craft have been destroyed,” came the optimistic report of the assistant skipper, Capt. Stalin Hamlin.
“It’s good news, Captain. . .. But watch for the second wave; it will be deadlier. . .. They’ll attack again, I’m sure . . . they’re like Indians of the old West."
Just as the commander finished giving his coaching instruction, the enemy returned in a single group and attacked the Earthling’s left wing position. Intense fighting occurred; the ferocious attack of the enemy caught the Earthlings off-guard. An exchange of rapid beta and gamma rays flared in space.
Mark’s spaceship was pinned by three aliens. The one positioned above him successfully damaged Mark’s craft’s tail and a plume of smoke burst from behind the turret.
“Sir, Red Horse 713’s spaceship [Mark’s craft] is heavily damaged! Sir, permission to rescue him. Over!” Sergeant Major Bendanill reported.
“Face your enemy, Sergeant Major. I saw him; his situation is hopeless. Any moment it will burst into flame,” the commander responded. “I couldn’t impose any special treatment for one man; it would be biased against the others who suffered the same fate ahead of him.”
“Red Horse 713, this is Eagle 3. Do you read me? Over. Mark, you’ve still a chance to save your life. Your spaceship is equipped with an armored survival balloon. Just pull the emergency lock beside your key-board and don’t forget to switch on your radio, it will transmit a distress message: SOS. Over.”
Afar off the ill-fated spaceship burst into flame. Some of the crew witnessed the flare, which made them sorrowful. They had lost the man who showed them the “light”- he was their intrepid pathfinder, an imperial champion. His revolutionary ingenuity had raised the morale of the Earth's population to rally behind him with a great desire to save the Earth at all costs. The crews paid tribute to this young man by offering a silent prayer.
IX
Eternal Feud
The dog day afternoon was a boiling factor in the mounting bitterness between the two old-time warring factions: The Palestinians and the Jews. They worked together with some other unidentified nationals in the Marzo Nuclear Base Facilities. The Palestinians had been on Mars together with other Arab kings, emirs, sultans, mullahs, and sheiks since the establishment of the Mars Arabic Confederation. The Jews had arrived late on Mars, coming there due to the Earth’s deteriorating condition on the insistence of their elders that they leave as a safety precaution. The increasing population of the Jews greatly worried the Arabs and Palestinians.
The whistle of the siren made the workers rush to their designated camp for their lunch. The Palestinians got angry when they found out that their cistern had been drained. This triggered their outrage. They took some axes, clubs, knives, and crowbars and stormed the Jews' camp. The Jews defended themselves by using the chairs and tables as shields. The Jews makeshift tents collapsed to the hot, sandy ground. Purple blood was gushing from protagonists on both sides; while some were limping, with broken legs. The bloody encounter ceased only when an influential Earthling Dennis Demothy, and the charismatic son of the deposed emir, Saud Kubinak, fired several gunshots with their homemade 12-gauge shotguns.
“Hey! . . . What’s this trouble all about?” Kubinak asked.
“The Jews deliberately opened the gate valve of our water storage!” Omar Ibn Ahmad, the Palestinian leader, threw forth his charge. “No! It’s not true; it’s a fabricated lie answered the Jewish leader, Rabbi Judah Meir Kervenchov, a Russian Jew by ancestry. “I think that’s a paltry reason for this bloody encounter,” Dennis Demothy remarked. “I understand that you people have been at odds with each other for a long time. Your case is similar to that of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in the old days . . . they were bombing each other! . . . your ancestral character doesn’t change.”
” You’re right, my friend; the Jews didn’t change! . . .They’ve a hidden agenda in coming here: to grab Mars from the Arabs as soon as opportunity comes. Like what they did to our homeland, Palestine! . . . Islamic unity shall thwart the Zionist adventurism on this planet!” warned the Palestinian caliph.
“Correction! . . . You Gentiles! . . . Your allegation has no substance; the land that our ancestors occupied was the land promised by God to Moses, and that comprises the Holy Land!" Rabbi Judah Meir Kervenchov disputed.
“Hold on, fellows . . . please calm down. . .. Speaking of the Islamic religion, may I ask you this question, Mr.-.”
“Caliph Omar ibn Ahmad.”
“Oh, what a nice name, Omar; your name was a very popular name in the old days in Hollywood. . .. May I ask you this question, if you don’t mind? . . . Does the name Adam ring a bell?"
“Of course! Adam was the first prophet created by Allah on the Earth and he was provided with one beautiful wife.”
Dennis Demothy turned to the Jewish leader. “How about Mr.--”
“I’m Judah Meir Kervenchov; they prefer to call me Rabbi."
“Nice to know you . . . Rabbi, does this man Adam appears your Holy Scriptures?”
“Yep . . . he appears in the Book of Genesis. He was the first man, created by God in the garden of Eden."
“And how about this man Abraham, Mr. Ahmad?”
“Ibrahim was another prophet of Allah. He lived with two wives,” Caliph Omar ibn Ahmad replied, “Sarah and Hagar.”
Dennis then glanced at the Jewish leader.
“Abraham had a son from Sarah named Isaac, who later on became grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel.”
“And, last, who was this man named King Solomon, or Malik Suleyman?”
“Suleyman. . . was likewise another great prophet of Allah. He was a very wise man . . . many women loved him very much,” Omar replied.
“King Solomon delivered the words of God with authority; his wisdom was beyond the reach of ordinary mortals,” Judah Meir Kervenchov elaborated.
“For the grand finale, isn’t the God of Adam, Ibrahim, and Malik Suleyman your God, Omar?” Mr. Demothy inquired.
“Their God is our God named Allah, Allahh, O Akhbar!” A glorifying reply of Caliph Omar Ibn Ahmad.
“How about you, Rabbi? Is the God of Adam, Abraham, and King Solomon also your present God?”
“Our God is Yahweh or Ellohim God, the almighty God of my people," Rabbi Judah Meir Kervenchov replied.
“Or Jehovah?” Mr. Demothy clarified.
“Yesss!” Rabbi Judah Meir Kervenchov rea
ffirmed.
“And now it’s logically clear that you people have been praying to the same God, just differing in name,” Mr. Demothy concluded. “But why in this world have you been fighting each other? . . . It’s very strange indeed . . . it’s essentially wrong."
The warring factions came closer. They dropped their hand weapons and gathered around silently.
“I think it’s time to put aside your crazy ancestral feud and remove your factional barrier. . .. You must now learn to accept the reality that someday you’ll stay together in God’s Kingdom," Mr. Demothy counseled. “As an initial step toward your brotherly coexistence, let me suggest a merger among yourselves. Let’s say a Palestinian marries a Jewish lady, or vice versa. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?"
“That’s impossible! . . . The Palestinians are extremist Muslims. Their religious system contradicts ours. . .. They’re allowed to marry four women and we couldn’t allow that . . . it’s against the law. It’s polygamy,” Rabbi Judah Meir Kervenchov cautioned.
“So far . . . we haven’t broken any heavenly law. . .. In fact, it was forbidden; it’s unclean meat," Caliph Omar Ibn Ahmad reiterated. “On the question of wives . . . it’s our prerogative to have a maximum of four wives provided we can meet their daily needs . . . let me remind you that Malik Suleyman had a thousand wives and still Allah loved him.”
“Let me tell you also that pork was forbidden a long time ago because in that time there was not yet a suitable sanitary system. So hogs were considered carriers of communicable diseases. But in later times hogs were adequately sanitized and were mostly raised away from urban areas,” Rabbi Judah Meir Kervenchov clarified. “And if all the governments of the Earth embraced your conjugal concept, what would have happened to the Earth? . . . It could had been a sorry mess earlier. Imagine if you allow the Chinese and Indians to take four wives each . . .”
Their discussion had become fraternal. The women came and nursed the wounded regardless of religious affiliation.
The Embryo of the Star Page 10