The Embryo of the Star

by Elberto V Badon

  Kareen was frenzied by their reply. “So, why is it that the inhabitants of Jupiter and others are so concerned when, in fact, Earth shall be pulverized by a trillion of those asteroids and her debris shall blend with the asteroid belt? The chance that the Earth can escape this barrier is one in a thousand!”

  The protesters had broken down. They clapped their hands for Kareen’s continuous barrage and chanted, “Give Earth a chance to exist!” While the degraded astrophysicists had become mute... The secretary-general wanted to save the decision of the IPO by saying, “We have reached a consensus to destroy Earth because we don’t want to lose another planet . . . so Earth must go.

  On the other hand, the protest had spread to other planets.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve heard already the decisions of the IPO . . . so, I think there’s no recourse, but we’ll go on with our plans to destroy Earth,” the secretary-General said. “Allow me to leave, so maybe you could leave likewise.”

  “We won't go!" the protesters exclaimed. “Let Martians settle their dispute!” one protester shouted, hoisting her fist.

  “Sir, we have here a signal from Earth, a live telecast by Earth’s news network. Maybe General Bokolov has succeeded in his mission,” the secretary-general’s aide informed him. The wide-screen television flashed a newscaster, a pretty bIond lady. “Good day, Solar System. This is an emergency news report. The emperor of the Earth, Bent Skovllunde, and General Bokolov held an emergency conference the other day. Their discussion was friendlier. The general urged the emperor to let the Earthlings evacuate immediately in order not to suffer from the impending annihilation, but the Earth’s ruler was steadfast in their decision. Earthlings must die for their planet. The general left the Earth’s capital two hours later, but some of his men opted to extend their stay on the Earth for few more days. They wanted to see some beautiful sights on the Earth and especially some mined sites in Europe. Susan here has footage of their exciting tour.”

  Another anchorwoman appeared. “Thank you, Pittipie. Good day, Solar System. We have here one of the tourists who has something to say about their wonderful experiences. Here is Jack Kelvin."

  A handsome guy appeared. “Hi, I’m Jack Kelvin of the IPO Coalition Third Space wings. I’m from Saturn. Some of us have decided to stay for few more days to explore some hidden beauty of this planet. So far what intrigues us most are the precious gems scattered everywhere. Anyhow, the Earth is bound for destruction, so we decided to collect a few souvenirs. I’ll show you some of our wonderful collections. Look . . . here are the piles of tons of gold bullion we've taken from Switzerland and the Vatican. This one is the bronze statue of the mermaid of Copenhagen. This one is a golden Buddha.” (Jack rotated the head and tilted it downward, exposing the precious jewels inside the belly.)

  “This one is the golden Ark of the Tabernacle of the ancient Jews. Our Martian counterparts have likewise hauled tons of gold, diamonds, and other precious stones. Their prizes are the Crown Jewels of Great Britain and the Holy Grail. See you soon, folks. I'm sorry; I forgot something. We also have some art collections of such great Earthling painters as Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Crawshaw, and others. We decided to turn over their masterpieces to the secretary-general of the IPO. Bye-bye, folks.”

  The students responded overwhelmingly to the call of the young student leader by chanting, “Destroy the nukes!” The tempo of the protest likewise shifted into high gear on other planets. The secretary-general immediately consulted other heads of planets. A couple of hours later, he declared, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve reached an accord with other heads of the planets regarding your second demand. They’re ready to sit down with you after the Earth crisis is over. They want to include the Martian emir, and, if the Earth shall, by luck, survive. The Earth emperor shall be included in the summit conference.” The secretary-general happily announced, “We shall hope that eternal peace shall prevail in the solar system. This time count me on your side . . . but please, when you come, don’t display your flesh again, OK?”

  The students were very satisfied by the announcement of the secretary-general, who finally supported their cause.

  Children then swarmed the departing space fighters, giving them red roses and garlands. The space fighters left with their haul. “For ENN news this is Pittipie and Susan reporting."

  “Bastards!” shouted the embarrassed secretary-general. “Shit! Those space fighters are a bunch of bandits! Gold suckers!” assailed one lady.

  “It’s a shame!” yelled another.

  The disgusted secretary-general bowed his head.

  “Is that what your purpose was in sending those stooges, to try to flush out the Earthlings first and loot their wealth later?” one young lady hurled her charges.

  “Don’t try to indict me, young lady; that was not part of our plan,” the secretary-general disputed.

  A few minutes later telephones began to ring.

  “Yes, Mr. President,” the secretary-general answered the phone. Then many phone calls awaited the secretary-general.

  “I’m very glad to tell you that your gallant effort now has the support of the president of Uranus and other leaders of the planets have likewise expressed their immediate withdrawal from the Earth campaign and await further development. . .. Congratulations, Miss Kareen Sandover,” the secretary-general announced and retreated to his private office.

  The students in the IPO court were overjoyed by the fast turn of events in their favor. The others who were near Kareen embraced and congratulated her.

  “Your attention please, my fellow Uranians. I think the time to celebrate our victory has not yet come. We have just won half of the battle. We’ll expect a tough fight ahead. For our final offensive we shall press for the immediate destruction of those evil-inspired bombs!” exclaimed the young student leader. “Paradise, yes! Abyss, 'no! My fellow Uranians, let’s not forget the tragedy of the great nations of the Earth that have sunk to the bottom of the sea. We shall not allow this thing to happen to our beloved planet!"

  The students responded overwhelmingly to the call of the young student leader by chanting, “Destroy the nukes!” The pulse of the mass protest intensified, likewise shifted into high gear on other planets.

  The secretary-general immediately consulted other heads of planets. A couple of hours later, he declared, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve reached a consensus with other heads of the planets regarding your second demand. They’re ready to sit down with you after the Earth crisis is over. They want to include the Martian emir, and, if the Earth shall, by luck, survive the Earth emperor shall be included in the summit conference.” The secretary-general happily announced, “We shall hope that eternal peace shall prevail in the solar system. This time count me on your side . . . but please, when you come, don’t display your flesh again, OK?”

  The students were very satisfied by the announcement of the secretary-general, who finally supported their cause.

  XVI

  Flaming Fortress

  After that unforgettable space battle, the expedition of the Stargeon was inflicted with heavy losses. Half of its warriors perished before the unidentified exterminators were repulsed.

  Several months passed; still their destination was out of sight. The Stargeon was cruising the unending space with its transmitter mast out of commission. The infrared viewfinder was likewise damaged; it failed to bounce back warnings of hazards ahead. The crews relied on the shortwave antenna. The crews’ morale ebbed; they’d been missing any news from back home. “Does the Earth still exist?” and, “How are our loved ones?” were common questions of the crews. Those questions were enough to drive them out of their minds.

  Sergeant Major Bendanill paid a visit to the navigational chamber with a glass of wine in his hand. He noticed something strange on the monitoring screen. Boulders were closing in on the Sturgeon.

  “Please try to increase speed,” the sergeant major urged the crew member who manned the steering control. The
Sturgeon then had increased speed. To the sergeant major’s surprise, the boulders were increasing speed. “There must be something in those rocks . . . I don't think that magnetic attraction is behind this," he told the man steering and, without losing any precious seconds, he rushed to the ultra-advanced X-ray vision and manipulated the space viewfinders. He activated the scanner machine, and the boulders attracted to the Stargeon revealed their secret. "‘Holy Moses! They are shrouded spaceships!” the lieutenant exclaimed. “Everyone, wake up! The enemy is in our midst!” The discovery of the enemy’s breakthrough reached the commander.

  The space fighters then rushed to their spaceships. Then heavy fighting occurred; the Stargeon defenders successfully wiped out their unknown enemy. And all of a sudden another wave of their enemy were detected ahead. The Stargeon‘s defenders were outnumbered, and one by one their spaceships were mercilessly destroyed. The alien fighters successfully shredded their vaunted defense. “Commander, our spaceships are being beaten badly! Shall we continue or deviate course? Please advise. Over and out,” reported the young sergeant major. “L-D-B, don’t abandon your position! We’ll fight ’til the last breath!" Then an unexpected signal intruded on their short wave frequency. “Eagle Nest, this is Queen Eagle. Permission to join in? Over. Commander Cedric Krispov, abandon your position at once! Your weapons are inferior to your enemy’s!”

  “A lady? Who are you, lady? Please identify yourself.”

  “Sir, they are just behind us; it seems they are friendly. They could have shot us from behind if they weren’t sympathetic,” said the communication operator.

  “We’ve got no time to lose, Commander; this is no time for waltzing! Please tell your fighters to stay out of our way! Lieutenant Stonehill, watch out . . . at three o’clock!”

  Then the beleaguered commander obeyed, ordering his men to withdraw from their position. Their unknown rescuers had blitzed towards their unknown foe. Their once-invincible foe one by one burst into flames. Commander Krispov and his men just watched in disbelief as their unknown rescuer fought vigorously. “Commander, did you noticed the emblem emblazoned on their Spaceships?” wondered the young sergeant major. “It’s the symbol of the defunct United Nations in the old days, isn’t it?”

  “You’re right, Sergeant Major. Therefore, they’re Earthlings," replied Commander Krispov. “Their spaceships resembled a devil fish with a whipping tail.”

  “The tail's trunk is firing very powerful laser beams,” Lieutenant Harper noticed. “Maybe a sting ray.”

  “Commander, the other one with an inscription, ‘I LOVE EARTH,’ downed about fifteen spaceships,” Lieutenant Stonehill noted. It didn’t take a long time for their new allies to dispose their unknown foes. The spaceship with the inscription “I LOVE EARTH” came closer to them and raised his right hand with a thumbs-up sign. The Stargeon crewmen responded to the gesture by waving their hands. “Aliens, this is Commander Cedric Krispov. . . . Please accept our invitation to board our ship. . .. We’ve prepared our special foods and drinks. . .. This is just a pittance for saving our lives and our mission. Please come aboard, friends.”

  “Commander Krispov, you’re off-course from your mission. Be careful! You’re heading toward the black hole! If you don't mind, reckon your coordinates: 110 degrees’ longitude from the Great Bear and 17 degrees’ latitude from the Dog Star, in the direction of the infant planet."

  “Thank you once again, Alien Lady.”

  “It’s not yet time to celebrate, Commander; you’ve a lot of things to do. For your information, the infant planet has a lot of hazards.”

  The Commander ordered his men to be on red alert and stay near their spaceships.

  “The commander seems suspicious of our instant guardian angel and her flock," Lieutenant Stonehill remarked. “Her innocent profile reveals a Good Samaritan in this vast space."

  “I’ve got a gut feelin’ that one of our peers has associated with our alien friends,” said Sergeant Major Bendanill.

  “You mean one of the ghosts of our compatriots who lost their lives during the first encounter?” Lieutenant Stonehill responded.

  “No, I don’t believe in ghosts. . .. Only one man knows everything on this journey," the sergeant major reminded his buddy.

  “I know whom you’re referring to. Everybody saw Mark’s spaceship burst into flame. It’s impossible that he could survive it,” Lieutenant Stonehill disputed. “Or you just want to make a legend of your friend to appear in people’s minds as if he’s still alive. Sorry, I’ve no hard feelings against the late guy; I’m just expressing my feelings with respect to reality.”

  “You’ve just mentioned reality, but let’s not forget that our spacecraft are equipped with survival gadgets and that does not imply that Mark had the only chance to survive; the others had a chance, too."

  “It seems that you have a point. Their buddy, how lucky he could be, if he had bailed out! I just hope that your speculation shall come to reality.”

  Their conversation slowed a bit when they saw the commander pacing towards them.

  “Let’s shift our topic to women. I’m sure our CO would appreciate it because he had a bitter argument with Mark once in the imperial court."

  The commander briefed his crews on the latest development. “Gentlemen, our alien escort has sighted the infant planet ...there’s something uncanny goin’ on. They’ve unmasked our secret mission; we just hope that they won’t double-cross us. Otherwise, the Earth's hope shall all be in vain.”

  The Stargeon‘s navigators had followed the alien’s instruction and continued their odyssey. On the other hand, the alien's spacecraft had shadows behind. The Stargeon’s crew were very jubilant when the navigators sighted the glowing spheroid.

  “Commander, you’ve now reached the terminal of your destiny.” The alien called the attention of the Stargeon’s skipper. “Congratulations, Earthlings. We are proud of your achievement.”

  “Thank you very much for the compliments, kind lady,” the commander replied. The commander ordered the engineer to slow down the Sturgeon and stop. They had noticed danger in penetrating the brilliant spheroid. It was surrounded with whistling fireballs that varied in sizes, from tiny pebbles to giant boulders that were blazing at very fast velocity, perpetually circling around the bright spheroid, which emitted an ultraviolet ray. The spheroid was ringed with multicolored gases. As per plan, the Sturgeon disintegrated into three capsules. The head had become the control base, while the middle and the rear segments were positioned at the Opposite poles of the spheroid, the Alpha and Beta poles.

  “Let’s destroy those fireballs first,” said Commander Krispov. “All right, Sergeant Filart, try to get into that bloody damn thing."

  The compliant sergeant approaches closer and shot the flaming boulder, but that proved futile. The gamma rays just splashed on the flaming boulder. “Commander, only cannonballs can destroy them!” the young sergeant exclaimed. “It’s very dangerous to come closer; the raging inferno might roast me alive.”

  “Don't try to play around, Sergeant.,., Don’t act like a coward," reminded the commander. “Now transform your spaceship into a mechanical clamp and try to catch those bloody things."

  The aliens just observed their operation silently.

  “In the name of the planet Earth and our beloved people, I'll offer my life." The brave sergeant inched his converted spaceship in the direction of the polar axis. The mechanical clamp had protruded from the transformed craft and gripped one fireball, but all of a sudden the spaceship burst into flames. It had been hit by a blazing fireball. The commander was tongue-tied and asked himself, how can we penetrate the flaming fortress? If they returned home empty-handed his future kingdom would be nowhere to be found. He didn’t want to ask for further assistance from the alien. This was his golden opportunity to polish his credentials. He must do something tangible.

  “Commander Krispov, do you read me? Over,” asked the alien lady.

  “Yeah . . . you’re on the line,
" responded the worried skipper.

  “Why not utilize those robots that shall pull the tendons by reprogramming it to clear those hell stones around the polar caps,” the alien lady suggested, “rather than waste more men.”

  “I’ll think it over, lady,” the commander replied. “We’ve got a consultant here,” the commander told his men. “She has a point there."

  The Stargeon’s skipper had no other choice but to follow the alien's suggestion. “Let’s utilize the transformer robots to push away those bloody fireballs," announced the commander.

  The Stargeon's engineers then reprogrammed the robots to perform another task. After several hours of computer manipulations, the controlled robot began its task. The robots then approached in the direction of the flaming fortress. It had extended its arms and gripped the fireball with its claws subsequently pushed the fireballs outwards. The robots performed their job magnificently. When both poles had been cleared, the disintegrated capsules came closer to the Alpha and Beta poles. As the capsule penetrated deeper to the spheroid’s poles, both capsules had ejected eight cables with the controlled robots at its end. The robots then’ pulled the tendons and slowly looped the spheroid’s semicircle. Eight pairs of robots met halfway and interconnected with each other, while the cross arms moved in the transverse direction with an auxiliary cable and interconnected with the eyebolt of another robot. The Stargeon’s crew happily watched how their creations performed amazingly.

  “How are things going?" the commander asked the computer man.

  “So far sir, the robots have performed excellently,” the computer man responded. “Sir, in a few hours the capsules shall close in on the poles.”

  “We will see the moment of truth if man can conquer the ‘Embryo of the Star’,” the computer man said.

  After several days of slow and careful maneuvers, the Stargeon was finally able to trap the five-and-a-half-mile-in-diameter glowing spheroid.