by J E Kerry
“That’s what Sniper was talking about,” he remembers.
The princess activates a highly advanced algorithm in form of a holographic, sacred geometric Octagon Matrix, trying to find the right spacetime frequency on their sphere.
“Since time actually doesn’t exist, we must use a complex frequency system that acts like what you would call an IP address.” Dha-loo-ma continues.
Wang doesn’t quite follow and falls quiet all of a sudden.
“You still remember what I’ve taught you about ‘Sound-before-Form’?” the princess asks.
“Yes,” he gains his self-confidence back.
“So, you know, everyone, everything exists of Qi,” she says. “Your scientists call it atoms. Think of these atoms as a bridge that connects us all with planets, dimensions and even with past, present and future. The atoms don’t know time, they only know frequency. Once you tune in on the right frequency, the atoms activate; just like super smart, self-programming, nanites.”
That very moment the Octagon Matrix lights up a red dot, marking the requested frequency.
“We’ve found it,” Dha-loo-ma points to the portal. “You see, right there.”
Wang is clearly stunned. “Wow!”
The princess finally locks in the coordinates on the octagon and the ship prepares itself. Their target destination is zoomed in on the sphere for departure.
“We’re now ready for portal. Turn your seats around and activate the helmets,” she instructs the team. “And try to relax.”
The crew follow Dha-loo-ma’s orders and are ready for their first space-travel. She maneuvers the craft into the right position, and they disappear through the vortex portal; shaken during a few turbulent seconds before traveling smoothly through the wormhole.
“What did she say about relaxing?” Rahul asks Brian, portal-raged from head to toe.
“The atoms are re-organizing,” the princess explains. “It will be over in a moment.”
“You’re positive it’s safe?” Rahul worries.
A heavy bounce rattles not only the craft but also the crew, who squeal like little kittens.
“We’re toast,” Brian squeaks from behind his helmet as the light at the end of the tunnel finally expands, and Dha-loo-ma’s craft vanishes right in it.
The spacecraft has slowed and is finally out of the wormhole. Their helmets deactivate and Dha-loo-ma slides back with her seat to open the central holo-sphere.
Jodie looks over to Philipe, who is as pale as a white blanket, and notices him searching the seat for something, his lips pressed together tightly. Understanding what’s going on, she immediately reaches for her left arm to detach a triangle-shaped sticker that uncannily opens itself and transforms into a barf bag for space-travel. Jodie hands it to Philipe and he instantly vomits into it, relieving himself in front of the entire crew.
“Let it all out, bro',” Brian teases him from across.
“Shut up, B'!” Jodie snaps as she rubs Philipe’s back compassionately and he wipes the last bits of vomit from his mouth.
“This is brutal,” Philipe says still a little nauseated, then glances at Jodie with his typical French charm, teasing her.
“But I could get used to ‘this’.”
She instantly stops rubbing and slaps the back of his head.
“Ouch!” Philipe whines. “Ma beautiful tête.” (head)
“Spacefart!” Jodie rolls her eyes at him, back to her old self.
“Let’s thought-create some popcorn to fully enjoy this,” Rahul whispers entertained to Brian, giving him a high five.
Right next to them at the front, Dha-loo-ma prepares the central sphere for demonstration and uploads a simulation of the mothership.
“We’re now very close to the Mothership, but there’s still enough time to brief you,” Dha-loo-ma instructs. “Please switch to your Visuals.”
The holo-sphere animation commences with the appearance of the Lyr-an mothership.
“The Mothership is a large centric sphere that includes a docked battleship. It is surrounded by eight carriers traveling in an octagonal formation,” the princess narrates. “I’m now going to simulate how it counters an invasion.”
On the animation, an unidentifiable space-squadron approaches the mothership. The protective shield lights up as the enemy enters the third ring, triggering electromagnetic waves transmitted to the ship’s command tower.
“Every mothership in the galaxy is protected by an electromagnetic shield. Once you enter the third ring with your craft, it triggers waves transmitted back to the command-tower, where an evaluation takes place before allowing to pass the second ring.”
The battleship undocks from the cloaking mothership as the triangular shaped carriers position themselves and release their fighters and destroyers to attack the enemy squadron.
“If danger has been detected, the battleship usually undocks and loses its triangular shaped carriers that go into defense while the mothership cloaks.”
The animation zooms through the battleship and outlines each section and sub-facilities of the ship.
“The carriers hold our fighters and destroyers while the battleship itself is home to the Lyr-an hybrid army and military facilities. The Mothership on the other hand acts as a supplier, hosting agricultural modules, basic material generators, technological and scientific manufacturing sections, as well as education and simulation opportunities. You’ll even find small parks and waterfalls there.”
Dha-loo-ma blows up the largest tower on the ship.
“The Queen’s dwelling is located in the ‘Crystal Tower’, right at the center of the Mothership. That’s where she must have taken the president,” the princess deactivates the sphere. “Any questions?”
“What if the enemy just keeps moving?” Jodie asks.
“They will go insane before they can even reach the first ring,” the princess answers patiently.
“But how?” Jodie wants to know more.
“Through a defensive mind-wave that’s sent out their way,” Dha-loo-ma adds.
“So, they will hallucinate?” Aaron guesses.
“And kill each other. Their ability to understand reality as it is will be greatly compromised,” the princess confirms.
“Are there any toilettes?” (toilets) Philipe changes the subject, having everyone look irritated at him while he’s still quite pale around his nose.
“Just in case my petit déjeuner (breakfast) should join lunch,” he adds.
“No, sorry, we don’t have any sanitary facilities,” Dha-loo-ma says.
“Voilà. Reasonable question,” Philipe feels confirmed.
“But how do you - you know - do your ‘Space Business’?” Jodie wonders.
“The mothership is a self-contained and self-sustained closed ecosystem,” the princess explains. “So, everything gets recycled in one way or another. The same happens with our body. We digest through our skin in order to release any pathogens and toxins being trapped in the body. But also, to boost our immunity and health. These suits help us with that.”
“So, you poop into your suit?” Brian assumes.
A shared disgust by the thought of relieving oneself like a newborn in their precious stealth suits makes the round. Philipe pales once again, keeping the barf bag close.
“Exactly,” the princess confirms. “The suit is an AI that reads all info of your body and absorbs your… ‘poop’.”
Another moment of disgust is shared on their faces.
“It’s basically the transmutation of atomic particles and structures, shooting fine-tuned waves at the object and turning it into dust,” she says.
“Vaporized poop,” Brian jokes.
“Poopsie dust,” Rahul joins in.
“Abrakapoop,” Brian adds.
“That’s a lotta ‘poop-talk’ for one mission.” Aaron stifles a laugh.
“Just ignore them,” Jodie suggests to the other only female/sane being in the cockpit and leads the focus back to their prepa
rations. “But what about language?”
“Get back to your Visuals and open the language program,” Dha-loo-ma instructs, and Wang launches the AR program on his Visuals.
“Go to the first row on the left,” she adds. “Now, choose the second on top.”
The princess stops speaking physically and switches to telepathic Saren language, “Can you understand me?”
“I can speak Alien!” Brian says in Saren, hyped.
“Spacenoodle,” Jodie rolls her eyes at him.
“Don’t forget to control your private thoughts and blend them out once we enter the ship,” Dha-loo-ma reminds them. “Otherwise you’ll get exposed. And keep calm. Every thought is connected to your emotional code.”
Aaron points to the mothership nearby, “There!”
“Activate your bio-shields!” the princess prompts them. “Once we get cleared to enter the platform, the craft will be scanned.”
“How about you?” Wang wants to know.
“The other me from the past will be getting ready for the ceremony,” she says.
Wang is concerned, “So, there won’t be any suspicion?”
“One of my duties as a princess is to train our people in space. So, there won’t be any suspicion, even on this special day,” she assures him.
“Special?” He wonders to himself as the carrier-gate opens and the spacecraft swoops inside, passing by endless rows of parked Lyr-an space-vehicles until it arrives at a spacious parking lot on 3rd level.
The craft docks, and Unit 12 materializes on the ground.
They are approached by an immense, muscular humanoid man. He’s one of many spliced beings created by the Lyr-ans to serve the military.
The behemoth stands no less than nine feet at the minimum and easily towers over them. His arms, bulging and muscular, are split at the biceps into four powerful-looking tentacles that never seem to not be in motion, slithering back and forth against each other to maintain their moisture, each of them long enough to stop between his knees and feet.
“My Princess, you shouldn’t work on this important day,” the hybrid creature welcomes Dha-loo-ma in Saren.
He uses one of his tentacles to bring her hand up to his forehead and bows low in a welcoming gesture while the other tentacles reach out to the rest of the unit members behind her. They retain composure, keeping calm, as his tentacles holo-scan them from head to toe.
Wang notes to keep an eye on him and any others like him. That ability to multitask in such a way belies a dangerous enemy to ever face in combat.
“The Prince has already settled in his chamber,” he adds. “Would you like to meet him before the ceremony?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Dha-loo-ma responds, “Thank you”.
The hybrid finishes the scan and pulls its tentacles back, “You may proceed now”.
Unit 12 follow Dha-loo-ma through a colossal door, large enough to invoke the thought of the orthodox Russian cathedrals of ancient St. Petersburg that climbed to many, many meters in height, and onto a holo-bridge towards another gate where they enter the mothership’s central dome and step right into an exotic alien rainforest.
Dha-loo-ma carefully leads them past several carnivorous flower breeds that are twice the size of the average human.
“Watch out and keep your distance,” she warns.
That very moment a large carnivore snaps after Rahul who leaps up and screams like a little daisy.
“AAAAAAH! Indian Chole (Chickpea Curry) hot and spicy. Out of my way!!!!”
Another plant’s vine reaches for Brian who shrieks and pauses in his steps, attempting to scare off the carnivore with a rather funny compilation of Kung Fu moves and some very weird sounds.
“Ayaaa! Uoooaaaa! Pachu, Pachau.”
The unit watches on from close distance, amused.
“Should we tell him he’s trying to fight a meat-eating plant?” Aaron jokes.
“Na,” (no) everyone stereos entertained.
Brian continues his conversation with the carnivore and dodges its attacks.
“If you thought you can just ‘eat’ the Master of Dumplings, you haven’t gotten the taste of my Killer-Mushu yet. Ayyyyyaaaaa!”
That very moment the carnivore snaps after him, and only narrowly misses once it seems he’s outright vanished.
The plant as well as the unit are utterly surprised.
“What the ...?” Aaron wonders.
Jodie is the first who gets it and turns around, gesturing Wang and Dha-loo-ma to resume their walk.
“Classic Brian. All mouth and no jumpsuit,” she jokes sarcastically.
Caught in the act, Brian uncloaks next to Jodie who gives him a bored look, followed by the others.
“Come on guys, you didn’t honestly believe I would fight a plant?” he says.
The unit shares a laugh before proceeding through a jungle of illuminated plants.
These draw their attention as would be expected with the introduction to a new ecosystem. Growing up on Earth and being used to a certain natural design based on its unique template can dull the mind, Wang realizes, as he takes in the sorts of flora and fauna that one previously only saw in the wildest imaginations of science fiction writers. Brightly glowing mushrooms of pink and blue and translucent ‘roses’ the size of Teslas hang overhead.
The floor is dominated by vines, some occasionally pulsing with life in a manner similar to veins in any animal creature, looking to transmit green, red and yellow pulses that flash from one location and zip so quickly across to vanish into the dense thickets.
“Nature’s traffic lights?” Phillip mutters.
Jodie ignores him, her eyes tracking a large moving collection of insects.
It is a swarm of exotic, eyeless butterflies, with wings sharp as blades that come with silent flaps into the depths of the rainforest, through an enchanted waterfall and along a silver lake in a direct beeline for the housing facilities. Wang looks up at the artificial sky, filled with various alien birds of different flying efficiency, beguiled. He halts slightly in his tracks as one of these large alien-birds dashes across the ground before him.
Healthy and fat in body, coming up nearly to waist height, it possesses small wings that start thick-plumed, green and feathered at their shoulders and slowly reach out to small, skeletal fingers of an orange skin tone, surely incapable of flight. It is followed by two smaller ones of similar appearance, a lot cuter as young ones usually are.
Wang is in awe, “Spaceballs.”
Dha-loo-ma and the unit slow in front of a dangerous cliff. She peers down into the thick layer of mists that blur their view.
“What’s there?” Aaron asks.
“The ‘Upside Down’,” the princess says with a look on her face that somehow seems different to what Wang is usually used to. She’s hiding something.
He follows her gaze into the abyss.
“We also call it Gan-zir, the underworld, split into the ‘Seven Gates of Kur’,” the princess adds.
Philipe, who has recovered from his nausea, takes a step closer to Dha-loo-ma when a dreadful howl reaches them from the unknown.
“Well, coucou toi,” (well, hello there) he jokes.
“Spliced beings, insects, plants and other alien organisms are bred there for research and defense. Our little carnivores here are nothing compared to what’s waiting down there,” Dha-loo-ma warns.
“But how do you make sure these creatures aren’t attacking?” Jodie wants to know.
“Frequency,” the princess winks and jumps off the cliff, dragging Philipe unexpectedly with her. The two disappear through the heavy mists, Philipe’s screams echoing once more in the distance.
“Bordelllllll!!!!”
“Did she just -?” Jodie wants to make sure he’s really gone, gloating.
“Yep,” Wang confirms.
“He kinda seems to attract portals,” Rahul jokes.
“And holes,” Brian finishes the sentence with a ‘low five’ to Rahul, laughin
g their lungs out.
That very moment Dha-loo-ma and Philipe rise up in front of the unit, air-surfing through the artificial sky.
“Woohooo! Je suis venu, j'ai vu et je surfed the underworld!” (I came, saw and...) Philipe howls.
“Don’t forget to cloak!” the princess reminds them from above.
Without further ado, the unit activate their cloaks and take off the cliff, following her and Philipe into the sky.
The 12 soldiers air-surf through a number of self-sufficient organic housing airships, previously seen at the Lyr-an island on Earth until Wang slows near the window of Dha-loo-ma’s dwelling and catches a glimpse of the princess from the past.
She undresses herself, exposing her flawless, elf-like skin and opening the view on the back of her naked shoulder where a Lyr-an rune for ‘purity’, the spiritual translation of her name, rests.
Spellbound and not thinking straight, Wang almost collides with the wall in front of him when the future Dha-loo-ma yanks him back, and he lands right in her arms, gently aroused.
“Watch out!” she shouts.
Their cloaked silhouettes romantically spin up into the ship’s sky and blend together with its artificial sunlight, reminding of two angels departing into the heavenly realms.
The Rebels
After their early-morning visit to the underground facilities of the SFB and seeing Unit 12 and Dha-loo-ma off, the High Council arrive in their hover-pods at the AN-CDC Square Garden parking lot. They step out of the vehicles and move to the street, bewildered by a mysterious silence covering the city like a secret veil.
“Where is everyone?” Counselor Azarov looks around, confused by the ghost town stretching in front of them.
“The houses,” Counselor Tinibu notices. “There are no lights. My calculations tell me that -,”
“Not now, Tito,” Brooks interrupts, impatiently. “How long have we been at the SFB?” he asks Counselor Tsung.
“Since morning,” Tinibu cuts in. “As I was about to say, my calculations -”
Counselor Azarov abruptly halts and announces firmly, “Enough time for the Lyr-ans to intervene”.
Tinibu is still trying hard to get his thoughts out.