by Jack Challis
‘Have you learned something?’ asks the Mar-Lissa.
‘Yes, Your Highness,’ answers the Serpentile Captain with enthusiasm.
‘What?’ asks the Mar-Lissa.
‘Everything is shiny and new,’ answerers the Serpentil Captain; a silver georgette around his thick neck with the legend: ‘Servant of a Star worshiper.’ The Mar-Lissa looks upwards and roles her eyes in frustration at this infantile, serpentile answer.
‘The space ships my Serpentils build are rubbish.’ She says to Admiral Sebus, ‘they break down, blow up or fall out of the sky for no apparent reason….’
Suddenly the Mar-Lissa stops and looks around.
‘The Galla Qualls do not eat… the Ida Jaade are sea-weed eaters… and yet I smell a meat-eater in your group – she spots Blodwyn, who curtsies politely looking rather sheepish; after all she had been hiding.
‘A female Terasil!’ the Mar-Lissa says with surprise,
‘Come here! I have always wanted a pretty female Terasil as a pet, to sit on my knee while I stroke her head… do you sweat much… are you house trained?’
To Blodwyn’s embarrassment everyone turned and looked at her, waiting for her answer.
‘No …. I mean yes…. no, I don’t sweat much… well not more than anyone else my age. Yes, I am housetrained!’ answers Blodwyn indignantly, ‘since the age of one.’
‘Do you have talent for the arts… music… dance… Greek drama?’ the Mar-Lissa asks.
‘I dance, sing and play the Irish tin whistle… and indulge in a little drama.’(Drama queen.)
‘Do you have bad breath… or grow hairs under your arms?’ Was the next embarrassing questions.
‘I certainly do not have bad breath…,’ answers Blodwyn.
‘I see,’ replies the Mar-Lissa… well I suppose I can’t expect everything.’
All the Serpentils check their armpits for hairs. Some even check the palms of their hands!
‘But I can’t live in a burning planet!’ protests Blodwyn in alarm. ‘Besides my parents and my little ‘crippled brother’ (an outrageous fib) will miss me… sob… sob… and the hard work I do … they would probably die of starvation if I don’t go back home soon,’ answers Blodwyn pulling her most pathetic face.
‘I live in cool marble halls,’ answers the Mar-Lissa, ‘and by the way… you forgot to mention your other talent… female theatricals!’
For once Blodwyn had been rumbled; by the first female alien she tried it on with.
Admiral Sebus comes to Blodwyn’s rescue.
‘With respect Your Majesty… this female Terasil is the companion of
the Queen of the Star worshippers… a True Changeling… like yourself… Grunwalde Angharad the Queen of the Fairies would miss her greatly.
‘Very well… the trouble with Terasils,’ replies the Mar-Lissa,
‘…is that by the time you get fond of them and their strange habits … one minute they are jumping around like a demented Perry-grist…the next minute they drop dead… I shall not insist on this occasion.’
Blodwyn breathed a deep sigh of relief: that was close! For the second time she had got away with becoming the Mar-Lissa’s housetrained pet: but her female theatricals had got her nowhere! She would either have to practice more, or adopt another ploy.
‘How can we be of assistance Your Highness?’ asks Admiral Sebus.
‘Help my Serpentils build a reliable ship … they would make honorable allies … they are fearless warriors and faster with the blade than the Malis Afar. The Cold-bloods and their bondsmen – the feline Na Idriss, are rebuilding their warships to attack Quilla Prime again… you will need allies. In return I will tell you… this mission will end in disaster… your timing of five hundred million years into the past… is wrong … your ancestors were simple brainless, and sightless amoeba then, swimming around in circles! But your ancestors developed quickly… after all the only organ in your bodies is a brain.’ Continues the Mar-Lissa knowingly. ‘You were the first species to develop a moral conscience… that is why we Higher Beings look on the Qualls with favor.’
The Galla Qualls looked shocked; any miscalculation meant the end of their species and the lives of all aboard the Time-ship.
The beautiful Mar-Lissa re-sets the computers with a Delicate hand, to four hundred and eighty million years back in the far distant past.
‘I will also give you three warnings,’ continues the
Higher Being. ‘The further back in time you travel…the less time you have to linger … Time will catch you up – with a vengeance.
‘What are the consequences?’ Admiral Sebus asks.
‘Everyone on board your ship will age by four hundred and eighty million years in an instant… into the dust of time! Time does not like being cheated to such an extent… she is proud!’ the Mar-Lissa answers.
‘The second warning?’ asks Admiral Sebus.
‘At that time both lakes on Quilla Prime contain your distant ancestors… only one set of ancestors evolved into Galla Qualls, the other died out. Bring back your direct ancestors by mistake and your race will cease to exist… you will have no past or present… your species will never have existed!’
‘Lastly, a Hydra-Medusa arrived on Quilla Prime on the wings of a Storm.’
‘A carnivorous Medusa!’ exclaims the Admiral in surprise, ‘killed our ancestors… I believed Medusas were extinct… wiped out by the Jed Bella and the Renndille Nass… is it still present?’
‘The Medusa was the last of its kind. You will have to find out yourselves if it still dwells in one of the lakes when you arrive,’ the beautiful Mar-Lissa answers.
‘Thank you Your Majesty,’ answers Admiral Sebus. ‘We will help your Serpentils… if we return.’
The Serpentils salute the Mar-Lissa with their swords and bow low. By the time they were upright again: their Mar-Lissa Mistress had already disappeared.
‘We thank the Admiral,’ says the Serpentile Captain.
The Snake-heads leave.
Blodwyn knew that even though the Snake-heads looked evil, they were honorable, their leader, Cintilla had allowed the Cold-blood Karak to warm up in the sun before challenging him to mortal combat on Tarrea-one: Blodwyn had been the prize! They would make good allies to the Galla Qualls. She made this point to Admiral Sebus.
Chapter Twenty Five
Quilla Prime: Four hundred and eighty million years BC.
The little Hydrozoas were happy; they frolicked and played in the enchanted, briny glow.
Medusa’s deadly tentacles hung like a tempting, trailing labyrinth. Death held no lingering painful stinging grasp,
no struggling; no final choking gasp:
no dying red-blood flow.
In her quarters Blodwyn hoped she would not meet that particular Mar-Lissa again; she did not fancy the idea of dwelling in “cool marble halls.” Or sitting on the Marr-Lissa’s lap… having her head stroked like some spoilt, humanized slobbering mutt for the rest of her life on some distant planet. “What a cheek to ask her if she was housetrained in front of everyone!” She then ate a lamb pie in rich gravy, then another lovely pork pie with lots of jelly: excitement and danger made her hungry.
She was now determined to become a vegetarian the next time she had to enter deep space; despite the fact she would need a fork-lift truck to carry her greens and pulses around with her. It seemed that most aliens who were not carnivorous could smell, detect a meat eater at close range; there seemed to be a stigma attached to meat eating life-forms!
Blodwyn turned on the blue light and went to sleep; it would wake her at the right time. The Sisling was still asleep, its stomach extended like some little pot-bellied Siamese pig after stuffing its face with pollen toffee while she was away.
“At least it had not wiped its sticky mouth and hands on her pillow” she consoled herself. “Don’t you dare go back to chrysalis again” thought Blodwyn. That is exactly what the little Sisling was about to do.
The Galla Qual
l Time-ship was gently slowing down to adjust to the exact time of arrival on Quilla Prime; four hundred and eighty million years BC, when Blodwyn entered the bridge.
There is no day and night in deep space; not all planets have orbiting suns. Planets without suns were just varying shades of dark and light, relying on star or moonshine; which can be bright but contains no warmth: on these planets strange life-forms evolve like the saucer-eyed, skeletal, Shape shifting Semmi-Tal.
Blodwyn also noticed all the stars, moons and suns were much brighter back in time. “Were all stars suns and moons dying, losing power while constantly moving apart; would one day all the Universes be dark and silent: without life!?” She sadly ponders.
Blodwyn sat down; she did not wish to distract the procedures with the unnecessary questions she was dying to ask; bearing in mind their short unknown window of time on Quilla Prime due to the dire consequences of Time catching them up!
Then excitement: the crew spots Quilla Prime and its two small satellite planets – as they were four hundred and eighty million years in the past. Everything looked so different to Blodwyn. On her first visit as a prisoner of the Cold-bloods with a mission to poison the lakes that the Qualls and the Ida Jaade lived in, all kinds of weird life-forms flourished here. Without their help she could not have tricked the Cold-blood and escaped.
Everything seemed so still now, without the vibrant and strange life-forms and creatures of mythology like Pan the Goat-man, the two prancing, useless amorous Satyrs – whose only interest was chasing nymphs and quaffing wine; then their was the wise Centaur. Then there was also True Arcadia which could have been heaven, full of Angels and Star-children. On that occasion there was only one very deep inland saline lake, now there were two lakes, side by side – glimmering like aqua marine gemstones. These were divided by a wide, long golden sandbar. Only one sun now circled Quilla Prime: the other would appear later and cause the great drought, which killed one group of the distant ancestors of the Galla Qualls. Blodwyn hoped Admiral Sebus would pick the right set of ancestors. If he was wrong; what would happen to her?
‘I think the dividing of the lake was the work of the Medusa and not the effects of the great drought.’ says Sebus.
‘To what purpose Admiral?’ asks Zander.
‘It would give our ancestors less room to escape the Medusa’s long stinging tentacles.’
‘Have you seen a Hydra-Medusa Admiral?’ asks Commander Galus.
‘Once, in the Aquiline Sea of Quintus Three,’ answers the Admiral, ‘they are intelligent and powerful beings… the oldest life-forms in the Antares Cluster.
‘Did the Medusa attack Admiral?’ enquires Galus, the youngest of the Quall Commanders.
‘No,’ replies the Admiral, ‘we were in the sea repairing our damaged ship….the Medusa swam towards us … perhaps out of curiosity… or perhaps wishing to communicate … we could not delay… the Jed Bella were about to attack.’
Blodwyn knew that there are many smaller deadly Cuba-Medusa; Box jelly fish ‘Sea wasps’ on Tarrea-two which were capable of killing Terasils … but these are still to develop a brain and gain size; when they do, thankfully Terasils will no longer exist on Earth!
‘Is it true a Medusa can fly Admiral?’ asks Galus.
‘No… but in strong winds it can leave the gravitational pull of a planet and float in deep space for very long periods.’
‘What are their species Admiral?’ asks the Ida Jaade Centurion.
‘They are… our… the Galla Qualls nearest relatives!’ Answers the Admiral.
Blodwyn hoped the Hydra-medusa had left - close relative or not. If anything happened to the three Qualls, the Ida Jaade were not capable of manning the Time-ship on their own without commands and guidance from the clever Qualls!
No trees grew on Quilla Prime at this early time and of course there was no False Arcadia or a Prism Window to enter True Arcadia. In fact there was not even a Fairy Queen at that period; the Lings were still insects on Venus and earth was still cooling down.
Below them now, Quilla Prime was made up of contrasting blues of the water and golden shades of the sands. The Time-ship began to orbit while two frigates were being prepared; each would carry a large clear telium tank to bring back their purely aquatic ancestors: back from the distant past. No longer were the Qualls taking them back to the lake in modern day Quilla Prime but to the strange waters on the home planet of the Worm-eaters who had the power to accelerate evolution! The Galla Qualls looked tentatively; they had a vital decision to make. Their large gentle, dark liquid eyes looked even larger with the trepidation of making a mistake.
Galus the Quall is monitoring the first lake and reports:
‘There were thousands of small hydrozoa (Jelly fish) on the surface… until they saw our ship… they have now sunk into the abyss.’
‘Their brain capacity?’ asks Sebus.
‘Small, Admiral… no brain area for a memory… or for a conscious… but they have excellent eyesight.’
‘The Medusa?’ the Admiral asks.
‘There are no sings of the Medusa in this lake Sir.’
‘We must be careful… a Medusa can stop its heartbeat for long periods to avoid detection,’ answers Sebus, ‘scan the next lake.’
‘Our ancestors are much bigger here Admiral,’ reports Galus, ‘their brains are also larger. Look Admiral… tracks… on the sand… similar to the tracks we leave … our ancestors are beginning to support their own weight… and are able to walk on land for short periods! These must be our direct ancestors… the ones we must not take back to Signusgragg the Planet of the Worm-eaters!’
Admiral Sebus thinks for a long moment … his thin three digit tentacle stroking his large head.
‘I disagree!’ answers the Admiral. ‘I believe the Medusa lives or lived in this lake… its predatory activity accelerated evolution… these ancestors were forced on land to be out of reach of the Medusa’s deadly tentacles.’
‘But the great drought!’ says Zander. ‘The beginning of our chronicles?’ Blodwyn recalled that the Galla Quall chronicles were not in written form but handed down by memory and began just before the appearance of the second sun that caused the great drought which was much later in time.
‘The great drought has not happened yet,’ answers the Admiral, ‘when it did… this lake began to dry out. Our ancestors in the first lake had evolved a memory and a conscious by then. They witnessed these more advanced ancestors trying to cross the sand to rejoin them… but perished in the effort… they died of sun-stroke because of their large brains! These are our distant relatives that died out… the ones that we will take back!’ Concludes the oldest and wisest of the Galla Qualls.
Blodwyn noticed the Admiral’s reasoning is accepted by the other aliens without argument. Blodwyn kept her mouth tightly closed: her life depended on the Admiral’s decision. She was dying to ask what would happen to her if Sebus was wrong but felt ashamed of asking such a question so heavily laced with self interest.
Two armed frigates land behind a sand dune out of sight from the lakes: time was running short. Blodwyn was first out and breathed in the atmosphere of four hundred and eighty million years before she was born. A certain stillness prevailed. A very unnerving stillness: one she had never experienced before. It was not an atmosphere created by life-forms that did not wish to advertise their presence but simply a void because there was as yet no life on the land – a land totally devoid of life. All life evolved in the water – but created by whose hand?
A slow procession follows the three Galla Qualls. On reaching the edge of the first deep salt lake the three Galla Qualls begin to flash blue: just like squid. Blodwyn focused her eyes just below the surface of the water; large, flat-headed jelly-fish with two dark eyes had risen and were watching them.
‘We come in peace… you are our direct ancestors,’ says Admiral Sebus, trying to communicate with the delicate blue creatures.
There is no response: the watching eyes had disappea
red back into the deep.
‘They are not even curious,’ says Zander… curiosity, is the first sign of intelligence… we must hurry Admiral … Time is catching us up!’
The group moves to the second lake. Reaching the other golden shore the Galla Qualls stop and study the tracks in the sand: Galla Quall tracks! Floating near the surface are many jelly fish; their heads are large and rounded with big dark eyes, just like the Galla Qualls. Standing at the water’s edge the three Qualls all begin flashing blue again: the Jelly fish respond.
All three Galla Qualls then cast off their thin, pale layers of semi transparent cloaks: “My God!” thought Blodwyn, “their legs were tentacles! This was the first time she had seen what these aliens used as legs; they were only one step away from a jelly fish themselves, but with a massive brain.” She now knew why the Qualls moved so slowly on the ground.
The three Galla Qualls slipped gracefully into the water. The aquatic Ida Jaade quickly followed, armed with lasers in case the Medusa was still in residence. Being gilled and filter breathers the two species of aquatic, aliens could breathe under water and swim with the speed and grace of fish. Blodwyn was left alone; she was curious and walked into the water, up to her waist then dived. What she saw was amazing. The Qualls and the Ida Jaade were soon joined by the inhabitants of the lake, still flashing blue. All gracefully swam in unison in some kind of synchronized ballet; as if familiarizing whilst communicating with each other.
She surfaced and stood on the sandy bank, four hundred and eighty million years BC … she looked up at the clear sky, her pulse racing; would she see Time catching them up: would she just end up a small pile of dust on the sand? She hoped they would hurry back to the surface. She felt uneasy as if she had no right to be this far back in time.
To Blodwyn’s relief the Qualls and Ida Jaade surfaced – followed by their distant ancestors. Sebus spoke in gentle tones, coaxing their distant kin to surface from the depths. at least four or five hundred jelly fish were floating on the surface.