by Jimmy Guieu
“In this case, by going back farther to reach the roots of common genealogical tree, who were… or rather who are these immaterial beings, the transparent, fluidic creatures we saw in the houses?” Professor Harrington asked.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” Glanya started, “but I have to admit it now that they can’t be anything else but Plaskshians, the ancestors of the Earthling androgynes with golden skin. These translucent beings are the first form of thinking life that appeared on Earth. From their race was born, by mutation, the yellow-gold Earthlings like the ones who visited them a little while ago.”
“I understand,” Kariven mused. “When the territory of Gondwana became buried under the sea and only Lemuria was left—with the other islands that emerged from the depths—the survivors from the Earthling androgynes in turn gave birth to the Lemurians, the Earthlings with light brown skin whom we saved from the cyclops.”
“Exactly,” Glanya confirmed. “As long as these giants are my ancestors, we have nothing to fear from them. Let’s go talk to them. You’re starting to get used to our telepathic communication now. Thanks to their helmets that amplify psychic waves you’ll be able to hear our thought-talk.”
“Great!” Streiler rubbed his hands together by habit. “Commander, you can open the hatch.”
“OK,” Commander Taylor answered simply, pressing a button with his right hand and turning a knob with his left.
The time explorers left the ship and crossed the astrodome, talking casually. On hearing strange voices getting closer the two pre-Bimkamian looked around. They were stunned to see a huge, shiny metal rocket ship (that should not have been there!) in their astrodome. And likewise on seeing the weird dwarves walking toward them.
Instinctively their hands went to their belts and promptly unholstered long-barreled guns. With an agile bound they leapt behind the ship’s landing gear and waited, on guard, for the strangers who had come out of the mysterious machine.
Glanya was marching at the head her friends and stopped three feet from the giants. With impeccable style she saluted them by bringing her right hand up to her left shoulder. The two men in their spotless white coats hesitated, looked at each other and then automatically answered the salute after switching the gun into the other hand.
Glanya pressed the button in her transparent helmet so that her friends could hear the thought conversation. Unsure, the pre-Bimkamians wondered at her helmet. All of a sudden their faces showed an intense surprise. They had just received the thoughts from this pretty, young blonde.
“We’d like to be brought to the Grand Instructor,” Glanya said mentally.
“I am the Grand Instructor,” one of them responded. “My name is Hornuk and this is Inshtug, my chief aide. You seem familiar with our customs…”
She introduced herself and her friends and continued, “Contrary to what you believe, we don’t come from another solar system but from the Future.”
Hornuk and his aide raised their eyebrows. “What do you mean?” the Grand Instructor gaped.
“My friends come from an Age on Earth placed in the future, 130 million years from your time. I, too, come from a future era… 94 million years. However, although my friends are native Earthlings, I myself belong to your extraterrestrial race. My twin sister was the Grand Instructor of my generation with the Bio Galactic Code 733 100 91 KLP.”
Hornuk furrowed his brow. “You talk about this so-called Instructor from the future in the past tense. Moreover, I’m afraid my aide and I don’t take your story seriously…”
A cloud of sadness shadowed Glanya’s face. “My sister is dead…”
“We can furnish you with irrefutable proof that we come from the Future,” Kariven confirmed through telepathic speech. “The ship that brought us into these different epochs is at your disposal. Come with us and see for yourselves if we speak the truth. We will take you into the Time Spiral to an era of your choice.”
Hornuk abruptly brought out his gun, which he had put back in his holster, and taking a step back shouted, “You think we’re stupid! It’s you who are coming with us. And you can be sure that we won’t bring you into the Future or the Past but into a good and solid prison of the present time. Come on, march!” and he waved his gun to back up his order.
“But you can clearly see that we’re not armed,” Kariven tried to protest. “If our intentions were hostile as you seem to think, why would we be coming to you in full daylight and without weapons?”
“You will explain that later. Now get going!” the Grand Instructor barked, obviously unwilling to take them on their word.
Kariven looked at his companions and shrugged his shoulders. He decided to obey.
The explorers were taken into the cement building surmounted by the metal tower. The least that could be said was that their entrance made a splash.
20 men and women stopped their work to watch them pass by. Every pre-Bimkamian was sitting before a metal panel full of buttons, knobs and multi-colored blinking lights. The muscular women, beaming with health, were between six and eight feet tall. They were, therefore, smaller than the other sex. A simple “two-piece” was all they wore.
The prisoners crossed the huge room and before the threatening guns they entered the next room. Inshtug put them in individual boxes with one seat in each and closed a thick, transparent door behind them.
“Sit down,” Hornuk ordered. “I’ll give you one minute to tell me in what zone your squadrons are hiding and the real purpose of your being here.”
“But since I’ve already said that…” Glanya risked.
Pointing at Kariven in the first box Hornuk ignored the girl and said, “I’m interrogating you!’
As Hornuk had not turned on his psychic amplifying helmet, Kariven could not hear his thoughts.
“I’m warning you,” the Grand Instructor growled. “When the time’s up, we’ll put you under the psychic probe and I can tell you that your brain will not like it.”
“You’re idiots!” Glanya lost patience. “I’m the only one here who can hear your thoughts without needing the wave amplifier. I’m telepathic because you and I are of the same race. My friends talk but they can’t hear your thoughts without the help of your psychic-amplifiers. So, go up to them and probe their brains—you have no need of a machine.”
Her animated rant, although telepathic, made an impression on Hornuk and his aide. The Grand Instructor thought about this for a second, then decided to approach Kariven. With his big hand he pressed the button on his helmet. Right away the young French scientist received the thought message:
“Relax and empty your mind.”
Kariven obeyed and forced himself, without too much difficulty, to think of nothing. After a few minutes of drifting, during which Hornuk concentrated hard, the barrier that guarded the unconscious thoughts was broken through. The two of them stayed like that, facing each other, for more than half an hour. The giant had to squat down so that he could look into the eyes of his prisoner.
For his part, Inshtug tried the same thing on Streiler. Then came the turn of Professor Harrington and Commander Taylor to undergo this psychic inspection that they played along with willingly.
The probing ended two long hours later after which the Grand Instructor and his aide withdrew into an adjoining room. They were gone for a long time and when they came back, looking worried, they turned on their helmets. Inshtug opened the individual cages and led out the captives who noticed that the guns remained in the holsters hanging from the giants’ belts.
Hornuk took Glanya’s hand and looking down into her eyes, which barely reached his stomach, he smiled kindly, “I’m sorry, Glanya. We treated you and your friends a little… rudely. I apologize. My aide and I got indisputable confirmation of your intentions in the subconscious of these… humans from the Future. It’s incredible, but I believe it!”
“You’re forgiven, Hornuk,” Glanya smiled back and looking up to stare the giant in the eyes. “But why did you treat us like
thieves?”
“Not thieves,” Hornuk corrected, “but spies. We were sure that you belonged to the League of Independent Worlds.”
“Spies!” Kariven gasped as he could now hear the Grand Instructor’s thoughts being amplified through the system in his helmet.
“We’re in more or less open conflict with a group of seven solar systems totaling 23 evolved planets,” Hornuk explained. “Instructed and perfected by our care, the civilizations on these worlds joined forces in a ‘League of Independent Worlds.’ After taking from our Empire the benefits that we grant to all inferior worlds, these beings are constantly led astray by the false promises of a powerful chief who is trying to get total power by any means possible. For Siomak—that’s his name—the most vile tricks are common practice. Three times already he’s tried to corrupt the population on Earth to recruit them into his revolutionary league, although in the end the planetary races we educated and perfected never had any complaints about our presence. Our methods are basically pacifist and no act of violence was ever committed against these peoples. The fault, therefore, is not ours. Siomak is just a jealous creature with no scruples, ready to sacrifice more than one world to quench his thirst for power.”
“So, get rid of him, put him in prison or make him disappear,” Commander Taylor spoke out, thinking of the Euro-Asians who, while shouting out their desire for “Peace,” were only fighting to enslave their neighboring states. Because though the times change, the customs stay the same!
Hornuk sighed, “I’m afraid we’ll be forced to do just that when this chain reaction of takeovers threatens us directly…”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Glanya broke in. “I studied our history that you don’t know about. Even though I can’t remember the dates, I can guarantee you that Siomak will have the last word… at least in a small portion of the Galaxy. After taking over 51 planets, the schemer will start a huge war in which hundreds of millions of human beings will die. Using a secret weapon invented by a research group affiliated with the League of Independent Worlds, he will just miss conquering out Galactic Empire.”
“What secret weapon?” Inshtug asked, who was particularly interested in new weapons.
“An absolute-speed missile capable of instantly crossing the 100,000 light years of our universe!18 This extraordinary device was built after an invention no less extraordinary of a device that could ‘launch’ into space solid objects transmuted instantly into waves. A ‘receiving unit’ was therefore sent by traditional means, but secretly, to the planet to be destroyed and when it landed in a deserted zone the absolute-speed missile was placed in the ‘transmitting unit’. It created a kind of radio transmission of matter, not on the principle of hertzian waves, whose speed at almost 200 miles per second is insufficient, but on a new formula imprinted for the mass of the missile—a mass that the ‘transmitter’ renders unchangeable—at absolute speed. The device, therefore, disappears from the ‘transmitting unit’ in which it had been placed and appears instantly in the ‘receiving unit’ located at any distance whatsoever. Its disintegrator cone could pulverize an entire planet! The secret of this phenomenal weapon was lost in the cataclysm and it just might be for the best…”
“That’s terrifying!” Hornuk groaned. “Are you sure about all this?”
“It’s not me who said it, it’s history,” Glanya emphasized logically. “Coming from a future age, I’m in a better position to talk about the past than you are to talk about the future.”
“Of course, of course,” the Grand Instructor conceded, being battered by a storm of alarming thoughts. “But I hesitate to admit that Siomak could have succeeded… hmm… that he will succeed in conquering so many planets and sow death on such a large scale. This absolute-speed missile should, therefore—if what you say is true—be perfected in a few years? Don’t you know when he’ll attack and where it’ll happen?”
Glanya thought hard, searching, racking her brains but in vain. “I can’t remember the date but I think the first target world has a weird name, something like Tekla-na or Katlaka… Names change, you know, over millions of years and maybe even…”
“Katlounka!” Hornuk said with fear in his eyes, clenching his big belt.
“That’s the name, I think…”
“I’m sure of it,” he raged. “A planet in the Lit’Rak solar system, the site of our research center for experimental spaceship prototypes. It’s also where new weapons and intergalactic vehicles are tested, where we can work in secret. If this planet were destroyed, it would delay generations of thinking beings in their planned evolution… Not to mention finding ourselves in dire straits to defend against a heavy attack in that isolated corner of the universe.”
“Siomak, I can assure you, destroyed this important research center,” Glanya repeated firmly, “and the treachery allowed him to destroy any planet that tried to resist while waiting for reinforcements and weapons that never came. Our race had to endure Siomak and his crimes for 92 Bimkamian years. The Galactic Empire itself was under threat. But my ancestors were finally able to overthrow him and free the peoples whom he had so wickedly deceived and almost completely enslaved.”
“We have to fight this tyrant and make history lie!” Commander Taylor shouted angrily.
CHAPTER EIGHT
While the Earthlings were having a friendly chat with Hornuk and Inshtug, Lieutenant Clark and four men were giving each other the transparency serum. They had, in fact, watched on worriedly as their superiors were arrested by the two giants and they were ready to help.
Made almost invisible they snuck around the control tower cautiously. After peeking through the windows they went up to a door in the back of the building. On guard, arms at the ready, Clark and his men opened the door ever so slowly. The lieutenant looked through the partially open door and almost dropped his machine gun at the unimaginable sight before him.
In a huge room, a kind of office with a lighted ceiling, Commander Taylor and the members of the expedition were sitting comfortably in green plastic chairs, talking casually with the two giants!
They obviously had no idea that the team from the Retro-timeship was standing so close to them.
Since Inshtug and Hornuk were using their psychic amplifiers to “converse” with the Earthlings, Clark and his GIs could clearly perceive their telepathic exchange. Relieved by the peaceful nature of the thought-conversation, they concluded that their companions were no longer in danger. It must have been considered a wrongful arrest caused by a misunderstanding that was all cleared up now.
Fully reassured about their superiors’ security, the GIs went quietly back to the ship without being noticed.
As the door closed silently behind dutiful Lieutenant Clark and his team, Hornuk declared after careful consideration, “I’m ready to try the impossible to put Siomak out of commission. But by killing him before he has started this war, we’ll be committing a willful murder.”
“Not a murder,” Kariven corrected him, “an absolutely justified, preventative execution!”
“I’m afraid I must refer it to the Eternal Wisdom, the Supreme Chief of the Galactic Empire… and I highly doubt that he’ll believe your story right away. He won’t be satisfied, like I was, with probing your subconscious and he’ll probably demand irrefutable proof. He might ask you to take a group of scientists into your future age before making up his mind.”
“But,” Glanya objected, “the fact that I don’t remember the date of Siomak’s attack could mean we’ll lose valuable, perhaps crucial time for your era.”
Hornuk looked at his aide, Inshtug, and saw the same worry in his eyes. “Would you suggest that I forget about the need to refer the matter to the Eternal Wisdom?”
“Undertake a pre-emptive expedition against Siomak, today if possible,” Glanya advised.
“Where is Siomak’s headquarters?” Professor Harrington asked.
“On Nysmi, the main planet of the Choïko solar system, 27 light years from Earth. With our reconnaissa
nce ships we can make the trip in around three hours.” After a short pause he added, “If you’re not afraid of being exposed to danger, I’ll accept you on board my ship.”
A smile lit up Professor Harrington’s face. In the eyes of his companions he could read the pleasure they took in the offer.
“We’re at your disposal, Hornuk.”
The Grand Instructor sat before the powerful viewer that linked the various bases of the vast Galactic Empire. He pushed three black buttons on the chrome panel, slowly spun a selector knob and the rectangular screen lit up, showing the most impressive man in colored relief.
In general appearance he could have been a “wonder-man” or a mutant. His skin was green and scaly like a reptile. His red eyes and thick lips had something clearly inhuman about them. His slightly pointy ears and his hooked nose made him look like a faun. His head was bald and covered with a brown, horny shell.
Hornuk saluted him. The Nysmian—the green man from the planet Nysmi—responded in kind, raising his right hand with three bony, webbed fingers.
“Peace be with you, N’xok,” the Grand Instructor bowed.
“Peace is always with us and our dependents, Hornuk,” the green-skinned Nysmian replied.
Our friends were not sure if this thought striking their brains was ironic or if was simply a polite expression.
“Our planet,” Hornuk began, “has just received a delegation from Bitnak, the last star landed on only one K’tag ago. The representatives have expressed a desire to visit your Independent worlds. They’ve got authorization from the Eternal Wisdom to make a survey trip in the Empire. I would appreciate if you would submit to His Majesty Siomak their wish to get to know the worlds of your League. If His Majesty does them the honor of granting their wish, I will take them to Nysmi.”
N’xok the green Nysmian nodded his head. “I will transmit your request to His Majesty Siomak. You will have your answer within a N’btog.”