“A billion years – then he is a god?” Jacob was amazed by His longevity.
“No more than I am! And no more than you are. His technology is just better and far more advanced. His people typically gain the benefit of longevity. It makes for better soldiers.” Belial looked displeased and added, “It allows him to torture his prisoners longer as well. He takes pleasure in that.”
“I'm confused. How is it that I was whisked away to here? And why?” Jacob was frightened as well as confused. “Only a god would have such powers.”
“It is merely your time and misfortune, I guess. The Emperor’s expansion in the galaxy has simply caught up with your people’s development.” Belial walked around Jacob sizing him up. “As to how you were whisked away, well, it would take you years of graduate school in quantum physics to get that. The key is… well, the things I am about to tell you might prove difficult for you to understand at first, but for your sake, for your people’s, you must try hard to grasp it.”
“Okay, but this is so very strange to me. What's kwantun fissks?”
“Quantum physics,” Belial replied. “Tell me, what is the most complex tool or machine or device you have on your homeworld?” Belial stroked his goatee.
“We have great machines designed to lift large stones the size of a dwelling. Our architects have used them to design vast monuments to our gods,” Jacob replied proudly.
“Typical. The coward is afraid to reclaim a planet with any real technology. Hmm, that’s why I’m here, don’t you know. We almost ran him off, the son-of-a-bitch.”
“But where is here and why am I here?” Jacob gritted his teeth.
“The Emperor has lost touch with reality, I think. He believes that he has sent you to Hell – a pit of despair and torture that you will beg to be free from. And no doubt, Lucy here will take you to all of the levels herein and you will see some of that. She is an automaton that functions only to serve Him. The only way in or out of the event horizon is through the connected transport tunnel that you came in on. And as far as I can tell He alone controls that. But Hell? No, I would dare to say that Hell is out there under His tyrannical rule.”
“I came through no tunnel, Belial. I was there at His palace in the Heavens and then I was here.” It was more than Jacob could grasp at the moment. connected transport tunnel, event horizon. He understood the individual words, but used together as this Belial just had, made little sense to him.
Belial laughed. “Yes, it's not easy to grasp and should not be an easy concept to understand for your people for thousands of years. But you must begin to grasp this information now, if you wish to survive this invasion.”
“Very well, explain it to me.”
Again Belial laughed, “That's the spirit, Jacob.”
Belial spent the next day telling Jacob the story of his people and how they were spawn of Abhir. How his people had achieved over several hundred thousand years of development the means of longevity, of superior strength and intelligence. How his people had mastered all of their homeworld and then reached out into the heavens. They had colonized several of the moons and planets in their own solar system and had begun to expand outward to the nearest stellar neighbors. They had even defeated two separate alien invasions. But then came the Army of the Seven Stars.
Jacob found this all amazingly difficult to believe. Yesterday, it would have been fantasy, but today he had met a “god” and had seen his planet from the heavens. He had seen this all-powerful creature named Abhir and his army’s top ranked individuals. The Army of the Seven Stars officers that he had already seen with his own eyes alone was nearly a full percent the size of the entire population of Jacob’s homeworld. There was no knowing the full magnitude of His armies. And His Kingdom spanned over a hundred billion homeworlds!
Belial described the armies as massive and requiring vast armadas of vessels that could traverse the heavens just to move them about. The magnitude of those armadas was lost on Jacob as he could not really grasp the vastness of the galaxy and what a hundred billion worlds truly meant. Jacob did understand that Abhir’s domain was huge; it was just the scale that was lost on him. And he finally realized the dire situation of his people as Belial described the fateful day when his people crossed the boundaries of the Kingdom of the Seven Stars’ developed worlds. Then Abhir was more arrogant and less cautious. He attempted to force Belial’s people into worshiping submission with the same offer that had been made to Jacob. War is what occurred.
Belial’s people saw Abhir for what it was and stood their ground in a war that waged for more than a century. Finally, when his people were defeated, most of them were assimilated into the Seven Stars Army. Those who remained dissident were imprisoned or simply disposed of. Belial had been their leader and Abhir had taken pleasure in seeing him tortured in prison for eternity.
“That brings me back to my question as to what and where here is?” Jacob responded.
“Well, Jacob, you see when some stars reach a certain maturity in their life cycles, they collapse on themselves into a single minute point, but they still maintain their mass. These stars become bottomless pits from which nothing can escape once they begin falling inward past a certain distance. Anything too close to this star – inside its event horizon – will never be able to escape.”
“How could we survive being inside such a place?” Jacob challenged.
“Somehow, the Emperor has seen fit to place several oases with varying forms of atmospheres and levels of gravity. He is smart and powerful, I’ll grant you that. You're at one of the lower levels now, where the remainder of my people are held. We have learned over the years to tolerate the harsh conditions here. The red cloud was placed here to make the very act of breathing difficult as punishment and reminder of our defiance to Him.”
“Why would He do that?”
“We used this gas cloud against His armies during the final battles. It killed hundreds of thousands of his soldiers, but they kept coming until they eventually overran us. It was that bastard Michael who finally defeated us in the end – too bad the gas didn’t get him. Forcing us to breathe the gas is His idea of poetic justice. His scientists altered the gas just enough that it wouldn’t kill us, but would make us suffer, forever.” Belial lowered his head and began to cry. He whispered something under his breath and Jacob could tell he was praying. Jacob bowed his head and offered a prayer to his God in pity for Belial and in fear for his people.
“It is time to move onward,” Lucy’s voice interrupted the silent moment.
“Jacob, do as he says and your people will not suffer as mine have. Enthusiastically and thus peacefully allow yourselves to be assimilated into the Kingdom. You cannot defy him…now.” Belial bowed slightly to him as Lucy swept Jacob upward and then away from the oasis in the bottomless pit of despair.
#
Lucy showed Jacob similar cases to Belial for the first four days and then she took him to a part of the pit that housed what Lucy described as the Emperor’s most feared and evil enemies. Indeed, Jacob agreed with that assessment. There were creatures that seemed mindless and murderous that had no will other than to inflict harm. There were beasts and creatures that were so far from anything resembling Jacob that he felt fear and revulsion from the mere sight of them. There were animals with intellects far superior to what Jacob possessed, but their motivations were alien.
One small gathering of creatures that appeared to be large men with lion fur and manes and claws and fangs showed interest in their presence – an intelligent curiosity. One of the largest of the lions with a white stripe on his forehead approached the red boundary of Lucy and peered in at Jacob.
“Creature, you misunderstand us,” it said.
“What?” Jacob was startled.
“There will be a day that we are needed, as we are not mindless animals. In fact, there are those who believe us to be gods. Indeed, we will be needed.”
“Needed for what?” Jacob asked.
“One day,
one great day, the key to His defeat will fall to my species. For that day, I pray that at least one of us still survives.” The lion roared in heart-wrenching agony and turned away.
“What did he mean by that?” Jacob asked Lucy, but Lucy had proven to be nearly useless when it came to information.
#
The boundary war with a new evil had been waged for more than two centuries. If there ever was a true evil in the galaxy it had to be these creatures. Standing more than nine feet tall and appearing like giant black and red locust, the creatures proved to be horrid adversaries. They seemed to have come from nowhere and procreated at an amazingly nonlinear rate. No one in the Kingdom knew who they were or where they came from, but their purpose seemed clear: spread and devour anything in their path – anything. A fleet of the giant beasts could completely ravage an entire star system in a matter of years. Their standard procedure being to start in an outer cloud of comets, building up their forces and devouring all the raw materials in the cometary cloud. Then they would move inward to the belt of larger bodies. When the belt of outer planetoids was devoured the bugs would move inward and swallow up any civilizations that might exist in the planetary system.
All attempts at negotiations with the creatures only seemed to fuel their desire to destroy and spread destruction. No living being within the Kingdom, not even the all-powerful Emperor, knew what fueled their rage. They simply advanced and continued to advance. The Army of the Seven Stars slaughtered them by the hundreds of millions over the past two centuries, yet they still advanced.
Jacob grew tired of fighting the bugs on the fringes of the Great Kingdom, but he knew that this was a true evil that must be halted. He had faced countless other species and none of them were as frightening as the bugs – and none of them deserved to be slaughtered by the millions as He had ordered done. But not long after Jacob’s people were assimilated into the Kingdom, and not long after Jacob had begun fighting to protect his people’s well being, the bugs appeared on the fringes of the Kingdom. Soon Jacob, as a competent soldier, was moved to where the need was greatest. The General Michael noted Jacob’s abilities early on and personally promoted him to the Fleet in the Fringe to battle with the new foe. But that had been two hundred years past and the evil creatures advanced, and the Army of the Seven Stars fell back. On all other fronts the Kingdom grew, but here, against this adversary – this evil – the Kingdom retreated.
Four of the Great Seven Generals were now stationed on the fringe. Occasionally He would visit the “front lines” to rally the soldiers of His Army, but He never seemed concerned with the advancing expansion wave of alien insects. The bugs had forced the Kingdom lines of expansion to a complete halt since Jacob had been on the front lines and he was beginning to wonder if there was a Great plan that would lead them to victory over the bugs. Did He have a plan? Jacob would only wonder.
The expansion wave was beginning to encroach on the comet cloud of a small yellow star system that contained an implanted civilization. Michael had explained to the front contingents that this planet’s development showed great promise and the inhabitants must be protected and allowed to continue developing. The species had begun building large monuments to their gods and showed a great propensity for combat and strategy. It was decided by Him to let them evolve another few thousand years before assimilating them into the Kingdom. However, the horrid alien insects were changing His plans – THAT COULD NOT BE ALLOWED!
An all out offensive was ordered against the bugs in that region of space – planet designation 17,777,111,342. There were several surrounding star systems in similar situations and several behind the lines that would make for good muster points and tactical operations centers. Michael had personally asked Lieutenant Colonel Jacob to handle initial contact on one of the primitive worlds.
#
“Lieutenant Colonel, we are falling out of pseudo-jaunt space and are now subluminal!” Lieutenant Spixcer informed the bridge captain.
“Thanks, Spix. Standard parking orbit. You and Captain Freeney meet me in the launch bay in ten minutes, suited up and ready to go.”
“Yes sir!”
#
Jacob walked beside his Starfire FB111, doing his preflight and pondering his present mission. How far I’ve changed from the leader of a primitive world those centuries ago, he thought, as he always thought.
“Sir? We are preflighted and ready when you are,” Spixcer thought over the net as he waved to him from across the launcher.
“Right. Let’s move out.” Jacob thought to the control device in his frontal lobe and the repulsor field appeared tightly around him making a shimmer of light surround him for a split second. Jacob calmly levitated himself into the pilot’s seat and then lowered the canopy of the Starfire. Wireless connections to the control systems began handshaking with his implanted control device and Jacob could feel the starfighter/bomber come to life. A few milliseconds of handshaking with the fleet launch tower and Jacob was thrown out of the larger craft into space at more than five percent of light speed. The repulsor field damped the acceleration and Jacob barely felt more than four gravities. Lieutenant Spixcer and Captain Freeney were right behind him. They had done this tens of thousands of times over the last century or two.
“All right, boys, standard ops. We land in the desolated area here.” Jacob highlighted part of the map in their heads. “Then when we are certain the perimeter is secure, we have the convoy descend and set up base camp and operations.”
The three starfighters dropped in formation and landed quietly in the designated area. Freeney flew from his ship and began a security sweep. Spix followed suit.
“Boring, sir. Nothing unusual,” Freeney thought over the net.
“Great. You two continue setting up and get the convoy started. I’m going to reconnoiter,” Jacob commanded back through the net. He watched the two men at work – a bright golden glow surrounding them from their repulsor fields interacting with the atmosphere making them look extremely regal even to his sophisticated eyes.
The little planet was not that unlike the one he had grown up on centuries before. There were loamy rolling hills and occasional tropical vegetation and trees. The indigenous creatures were not overly harsh or meek – it was a typical planet. Jacob flew at a moderate pace of a few hundred miles per hour until he reached the first sight of dwellings and intelligent lifeforms. They were humanoids, as most all of the implanted species were. He didn’t really like nonhumanoids. Jacob had never understood that, but his was not to question the Emperor.
Jacob set down on the loamy soil between an outcropping of tropical fruit trees. On his way down he picked one of the fruits. His implants told him that the fruit was not only safe, but also enjoyable, so he held it to his mouth and the field made an opening for the fruit to pass through. Jacob took a bite of the fruit and felt the juice dribble down the corner of his mouth. The field quickly cleaned it – the reflex to wipe his face had been conditioned away a century ago.
Two of the indigenous humanoids were startled by his presence and ran away. The two seemed to be a male and female and were young, perhaps adolescents. Jacob followed them on foot toward a small village. Sometimes it felt good just to walk like a man. By the time he reached the center of the village a crowd had gathered, led by an elderly female in a brown cloth sarong and wielding a large bent staff. Jacob decided she must be the mayor, high priestess, or whatever they called the leader of this tribe.
The woman jabbered at Jacob for a few seconds and he stood patiently listening. Then finally the interpreter program correlated to the language and Jacob understood them.
“Hello, I am Jacob. I have traveled a long way to meet you and I come in peace.”
“These two say you fell from the sky,” the old woman said, pointing to the teenagers that Jacob had startled in the orchard.
“That is true. I come from far far away. The bright spots in the sky you see at night is where I am from.” At that several of the primitives fe
ll to their knees and bowed. Get up you fools, Jacob thought.
“Why are you here, Great One?” one of the younger tribesmen asked.
Jacob hated playing to the primitive beliefs of any species, but it was the standard protocol for first contacts – any contacts. It was His protocol. “I come to help you and to bring paradise to your people. I am here to help and spread the Greatness of my Kingdom to yours. I am but the adjunct and emissary of my Leader. The One who rules the heavens. I am here to spread His word and bring you into His fold.” Jacob bit back his distaste for this approach.
“Will we meet this Great One, emissary?” the old woman said skeptically.
“Likely, in due time, as he is everywhere.” He always shows up sooner or later.
#
It took a mere few weeks to have the tactical operations center and rear post camp set up. The locals built a village around the camp and were used as labor forces when possible. Jacob coopted as many of the smarter locals as possible to “spread His word” and bring more of the locals “into His fold.” Occasionally Jacob would have to levitate a house, cure an illness, or rescue a missing child in order to prove His might. Once, Jacob even appeared in front of a local architect and implanted him with all of the languages of his planet. Jacob told him to go spread His word and bring more workers. Jacob also had his most trusted officers spread out and set up multiple stations across the planet using the same tactics.
A month later the planet had fleets of starfighters, hovertanks, and heavy armored walkers at each of the muster points. Word through the net was that the other rearward planet muster points had been established as well. Hospitals, training centers, and manufacturing facilities were set up and the locals were used in menial labor tasks everywhere possible. Battleships, spacecarriers, and attack class frigates filled the void between the worlds behind the lines. Hundreds of millions of soldiers from the Army of the Seven Stars rallied and prepared. Convoys from the center of the Kingdom were moving more and more of the war machine closer to the front lines. Very soon it would be brought to bear on the evil beasts.
Free Stories 2011 Page 10