Why some of their race turned against the others and joined the Tolarion alliance was a mystery to the Republic. Their mental abilities surpassed most beings in the galaxy, other than the Zacharians, who possessed the ability of telekinesis as well as telepathy. Andronians could levitate objects using a form of gyro-magnetism, but only using a special hand held device, and not with the power of the mind.
Balta met Varloo just before he met Jeff Walker, and before he set up base on Ventros. He sat at a lounge on an orbiting space station just off the planet of Gama I, and was looking for an infiltrator to the Republic. Varloo seemed eager to oblige him, having grudges of his own against the Republic and his own race. He didn't count on him being trapped on Tolaria, but when he was, he used it to his advantage.
Akira was also an old acquaintance of his, going back to when he was first created. As he became the leader of the Tolarions, he and the Garlicians formed an alliance, with Alokia as their neutral meeting place. At first, there was a possibility of war between the two races, but in the end, similar goals caused them to form a partnership against the Republic. Akira and Balta, being the two leaders, forged the partnership with stolen Republic information and weapons. It was first believed the Tolarions were enemies of the Garlicians, but the close proximity of its world from Sentros later proved to be a cornucopia of information and weapons given to the Tolarions. Balta, Akira, and of course, Riona; his right handed, decimated ally who was killed on Tolaria by Zarcon, were all working together to bring the Republic as well as Avery down.
Even though Balta considered himself by rights his son, he despised Avery because he was still dominantly human, and inferior. The doctor specifically and genetically designed his kind to be stronger, healthier, and more intelligent than an average human or ape. One common similarity were their lungs. Balta's set of lungs were the same as one of Akros' set of lungs, alien and indigenous to Tolaria, the only part of the two of them that actually came from the alien life form on the planet. The alien virus metastasized itself in Akros' lung area, and when he used his genes to clone the Tolarions, the virus passed onto them in a simpler form. It wasn't a parasitic organism; more of a symbiotic relationship, allowing the host to live even longer by cleansing his body of natural poisons, and the incurable disease that Avery contracted before he came to Tolaria. The problem was to clone more of his kind, he needed to know the specific process, which he didn't. Only Avery knew this, as well as the formula for the Triachilite compound, and Balta was unable to find his personal notes anywhere in the ruins.
Once he learned Angelica was alive, it gave him hope he could restore his past glory as a warlord again. She claimed to no know nothing about his work, but he had a strange feeling that even if she was telling the truth, Avery would pass the information to her somehow, perhaps through her android. As he thought about this, he turned towards Varloo.
"When we get to Garlicia, I want the android's arm repaired," he ordered.
"You will not gain her trust that way," Varloo reminded him. "She no longer trusts you after you destroyed an entire battle cruiser."
"I don't care if she trusts me or not, I still want it repaired. He could be useful to me."
"You won't get him to follow your orders, either. He is completely loyal to his inventor."
"He'll follow my orders, or I'll kill his inventor."
"When are you going to learn, you can't always use force to get what you want? I'm trying to assist you, Balta, but I can't if you insist on using such archaic methods-"
"Just do as your told, Varloo. I need a subordinate, not an advisor. And before you reactivate him, scan his memory banks to see if there's any hidden information in them."
"Yes, Sir," he answered, pulled off the droid's back panel, and connected some wires from Cely into the main computer. "It will take a while, probably about five hours."
"That's fine," he said. "That will give us just enough time before we land on Garlicia. I'm looking forward to building a new fusion ray, and this will be the most destructive one yet. Sentros will be my first target, and once they're gone, the rest of the galaxy will be mine!"
'Simple conquest,' thought Varloo. 'For a simple mind. Why stop there, when you can have universes to command. That is the real beauty of wormhole travel, having the power of a god, not some silly thing like controlling one or two races.' He could remember learning of the ancient stories in Earth's religious texts that spoke of beings coming from other dimensions and 'heaven.' He knew these stories as the history of his own ancestors. as well as other alien races, who were treated as Gods among the people of Earth because of their periodic visits.
This is what he wanted; a place to call of his own as a God of the people. Surely he could achieve this by simply disappearing somewhere in another universe, and settling on some unknown planet. But he really wanted to be a god among his own people, to achieve power over all Andronians; and with the powerful Triachilite, he could make it a possibility. Their intelligence surpassed the Zacharians, even though they were telekinetic, and he was counting on that advantage. He could eliminate Balta afterwards, but that wasn't what he wanted; he just wanted control of Aldron and to destroy the Zacharians once and for all. It was revenge against them, and his own people for treating him like a mere human, and a nobody. Humans were nothing more than tools for the Gods, beings who could master the laws of physics and the universe.
He scanned through Cely's memory banks, and came up empty handed. There simply wasn't anything in there pertaining to cloning, Triachilite, or anything else that had to do with Louis Avery. Unless it was encrypted in some sort of secret code the computer couldn't decipher, there was no record. After he told Balta this, the cyclopic dictator became frustrated.
"I was certain the android was hiding the information," he told his protege.
"I'm afraid not, Sir," Varloo reported. "Like the prisoners have told you already, whatever he knew died with him."
"Well, she will find the answer anyway," Balta said. "We have the finest facilities on Garlicia, and she is an intelligent young woman."
"An angry, vengeful, bitter, young woman," Varloo reminded him. "You will never gain her cooperation, even if you repair her android."
"Then she will die there an angry, vengeful, bitter young woman. I won't debate the issue any longer. We are set to land in twenty minutes. Make sure Garlona gets the prisoners ready to be transported to the holding facility." Varloo complied, knowing all too well that he was dealing with someone who couldn't possibly understand the disadvantaged trait of being ignorant.
As the reddish brown world of Garlicia appeared in the distance, and the red binary suns of the Marlon system became visible, Balta prepared the Starlighter for entry into its atmosphere. The proximity of the stars from Garlicia heated the surface of the arid world to a dry eighty degrees at its equator. One sun was slightly larger in the sky, and due to the planet's daily rotation of twelve hours, there were only four hours of nighttime.
There was little water there; mostly on the polar ice caps, small lakes and rivers that covered the planet. There was seismic activity and tectonic plates, but no oceans present. The atmosphere had a dark purple-reddish tint to it, and the vegetation, what little there was, appeared purple, brown, gray or black, due to the color of the suns. Garlicians were carnivores, and ate the indigenous life forms of the world, and even humans sometimes. They approached the ground base there, which was built out of the side of a mountain, and Balta smiled as he turned to Varloo. "Prepare to land," he told him, as Varloo manned the navigational controls.
The large craft descended toward the landing bay, the main doors opened, and revealed a large landing bay with at least 200 ships inside, all about two hundred feet across at their wing tips, and were triangular in shape. They were black in color, and were strategically arranged to exit at a moment's notice. As they docked in the bay, Balta turned towards Varloo.
"You can reactivate the android now, but make sure you keep your distance from him,"
he said. "He has an electric power field that knocked me off my feet."
"No need to worry about that," Varloo stated. "I've removed his defense system program, and reprogrammed him. He won't hurt anyone, except who you want him to."
"Ingenious," Balta complimented. "Ms. Avery will have no choice but to help us now."
"He will no longer follow her orders unless we agree to let him follow her orders."
"You are clever, Varloo. Have Garlona bring Rollings and Malone to the holding area. I'll have some of Akira's men take the human female to her quarters. I want you to concentrate on honing into your friend Batar's brain waves."
"I can't locate him at this distance," Varloo replied. "It's impossible."
"Nonetheless, you will try," Balta insisted.
Varloo began to think he made a mistake trusting Balta. Was he going to eliminate him as well when he became no longer useful? One had to wonder what his motives were and if he could be trusted to keep up his end of the bargain, which was to give him the formula for the Triachilite. He knew him for a long time, but now he treated him a little different; was it because of what he said earlier about the woman not trusting him?
"I'll do what I can," he responded.
"Thank you," he said. "I'll have some of my men who are here repair the android's arm, and then I'll meet you in the lab in about two hours. I have a meeting with Akira first."
"Yes, Sir," he answered, and left through the door, and down the exit ramp of the spaceship.
Garlona also walked by, with Rollings on his left shoulder and Malone on his right. Balta stopped him before he left. "Treat them like all our guests and put them in the lower holding area," Balta said.
"Sir, those are the prisoners reserved for the Garlician games of death," he said.
"Exactly," Balta said. "My gift to Akira, a couple of worthy challengers."
"Very well, Sir," he said, and followed his order.
Balta proceeded up to the conference room, after his men secured and closed up the Starlighter. When he arrived Akira was waiting. "Akira," Balta said, and gave him a bear hug, around the waist of his seven feet frame. "Daruk Tuk," he answered, offered him a seat, and then sat down himself. He continued to speak in Garlician. "So what do you have in mind?"
"I have three hostages, actually four, but one is an android. He and Akros' daughter are mine. The two other humans I'm giving to you for the games."
"You have Akros' daughter?"
"Yes."
"Where in the world did you find her?"
"She came to me on Tolaria."
"You're joking."
"No, she was looking for her father. Apparently, she somehow ended up here in the future as well."
"Fascinating," Akira said. "What do you propose to do with her, your excellency?"
"She is going to help me with some research I've been working on, and the reproduction of a clone army of Garlicians, Tolarions, and rebel Andronians."
"Anything else about her I need to know?"
"No," Balta said, subtly.
"You're sure?"
"Positive. I will need your men so I can start production on the death ray. Riona gave me the schematic plans before he died. Follow them to the letter, or it won't work."
"What would Zarcon have thought, if he knew that even though he killed Riona, his plans for the fusion ray still existed?" Akira laughed.
Balta laughed as well, then turned serious.
"Unfortunately, Walker survived."
"Walker?" Akira questioned. "I thought you eliminated him in the attack on the Renake?"
"No," he stated. "And he has an Andronian with him as well."
"Which one?"
"Batar."
"Batar? I'm unfamiliar with him. What if they try to come here to interfere?"
"He won't if I can help it. You let me worry about him, he's my problem. Just make sure the weapon is finished as soon as possible. I have two fusion warheads onboard. Use them along with the four we already have. That's should be a sufficient amount of power to generate the weapon with enough range to reach Sentros. That will be our first target. Once Republic headquarters are destroyed, the rest of the galaxy will beg for mercy."
"Explain to me how it works," Akira said, as his large green eyes stared down at him, intrigued.
"The weapon will draw its power from the six fusion reactors. If that isn't sufficient enough power, we will have to attack another battle cruiser, and capture its fusion reactors onboard. The fusion weapon also contains a wormhole generator. The fusion ray generates a light beam, which is directed through the wormhole at its desired target. This allows the beam to travel faster than the speed of light to its target and destroy it."
"Sounds simple," Akira stated.
Balta laughed.
"It's anything but simple. If you only knew the physics involved. Do you think your men will be able to decipher the schematic plans?"
"If they don't, I have your men. They do understand it, don't they?"
"My physicists do. But I only have a team of twenty, and you'll need more than that, I'm sure."
"If I run into any trouble with it, I'll let you know. What about the android?"
"What about him?"
"What are you going to do with him."
"I have my own project with him. Why do you ask?"
"I would like more of him if possible. More strength to the alliance."
"Yes, I see your point. They probably might be able to help us with the death ray as well. Well, that can be arranged."
"Excellent." Akira smiled, as he rose.
His red thorny, crested and bumpy face looked old and tired to Balta. After this was over, he hoped he would retire a wealthy and proud warlord. He was loyal to Balta for many years, even defying orders from Akros himself. He wanted no less for him; next to Riona, he was the best ally he ever had. He shook his hand, and the two left the room, each with his specific assignment.
Balta walked to a nearby elevator, and the door closed behind him. "Level two," he told the voice activated device, which brought him to his destination. The doors opened, and he walked down a long white hallway until he reached two glass doors that opened, revealing a large laboratory. He walked in the entrance and suited up in one of the white uniforms by the door, covering everywhere but his face, which was already covered by his face mask. He walked through the array of medical and chemical equipment, and passed several Tolarions and Garlicians, who all saluted him by placing their right hand on their left shoulder as he walked by.
He walked up a stairway at the far end of the room that led to an upper level. He came to his first door on his right, which had a keypad device on it, and Balta pressed in the proper code. The door opened, and revealed a large apartment, with plush carpeting, a full kitchen, and full bathroom, a living room, and a bedroom which contained a large queen bed, where Angelica was asleep.
Balta entered, sat down at the edge of the bed, and removed his white hood. He shook Angelica's shoulder to wake her. When she saw him, she immediately lunged to the other side of the bed.
"Get the hell away from me!" she exclaimed in fear.
"Don't flatter yourself, Ms. Avery," he laughed. "I have no interest in you sexually. I may be part human, but as a general rule I detest them, especially the female gender of the species!
"What do you want? And where the hell am I?"
"You are in my biological facility on Garlicia, as my guest," he explained. "And as I've stated several times, I want your cooperation. I have your android."
"Cely?" she asked, as she rose from the bed, and ran out to see if he was in the apartment. Balta walked into the living room with her. She found no one but the two of them in the room. "What is this place?"
"This is your new home," he stated. "At least until we finish our work here."
"I told you before, I will continue to refuse, if you continue to kill people."
"Your android will no longer help you."
"What do you mean?" she a
sked, as her eyes narrowed in anger.
"He only follows my commands now. He has been reprogrammed. He won't defend you, and he won't kill anyone unless I tell him to. Akira wants to build more of him, and since you built him, you can show him how."
"And if I don't?"
Balta smiled.
"Defiant to the end, huh, Ms. Avery? If you don't, I will dismantle him and discover how he works anyway. He is unique, unlike the robotic droids we already have. He uses actual artificial intelligence, something that only the Andronians understand and are capable of duplicating. How in the world were you able to build him?"
"None of your business!" she snapped, and Balta shook her head.
"You have two hours to decide what your decision will be. If you refuse, you will die with your friends." He turned around and headed towards the door.
"It could be a million years, and I still wouldn't help you."
"It's just as well," Balta replied. "I have a sufficient enough militia to destroy half this galaxy already. Once I build our army of androids and clones, we will bring the Republic to its knees, and Sentros will be the first place to go. How does it feel to condemn seven billion people to death?"
"Surely, you're bluffing."
"As you have already learned with the Republic's battle cruiser, I seldom bluff, Ms. Avery. Two hours, Ms. Avery."
As he left the room, Balta knew she was going to continue to be a problem. He needed to up the stakes, which gave him an idea; what if he ordered the android to convince her? Surely, if her own creation persuaded her, she would cooperate. It was an idea he couldn't resist, and the thought of it sent a sinister sensation of euphoria through his veins, and gave him an orgasm of torturous delight.
Dimension Lapse II: Return to Doomsday (Dimension Lapse Series Book 2) Page 14