“You—? How did you get in here?” said an enraged Gynythian Zee, taking his hand-to-hand combat stance.
“Oh, you want to play hand to hand?” chuckled Cruise. “Maybe I’ll call my brother here for that. I’m a bit tired.” Cruise found that he was able to communicate with Infinity to teleport Arthos down to where he was. Just then, Arthos appeared inside the spacecraft also. “Shall we go outside?” Cruise discovered that he could at will not only teleport himself, but others too. They all found themselves outside the ship, just as Cruise’s soldiers were arriving on the spot.
“He wants to play hand to hand, Arthos,” said Cruise.
“Oh yes, I remember you,” responded Arthos. “You’re the mean red coward who beats women.”
With that remark Gynythian Zee forgot all about the soldiers who surrounded him and made a mad dash at Arthos, who knew several ancient forms of defensive empty hand combat styles and the two of them were locked in a man-to-man, punch for punch bedlam of a battle that rocked the hangar they were in. Gynythian Zee was very strong, but Arthos was very quick and threw very powerful punches with his inherited Quewythian strength that knocked the seven-foot tall red giant off of his feet. Having to depend upon his brute force seeing as how he could not use his magic, Gynythian Zee was tiring. Arthos kept on the attack even though it felt like he was hitting a rippled muscular giant tree trunk. He used every move and stance he knew, and repeated them. Although Gynythian Zee was a hard-boiled rough and tough opponent, one last kick from Arthos’s size eleven and a half boot sent Zee hurtling backwards into the ship and falling down to the ground. It took a lot to knock him out.
“Put the wrist and ankle cuffs on him,” ordered Cruise to the top officer of his patrol. The cuffs were also Newpe devices and neutralized the high iron content in Gynythian Zee’s physiology; not knocking him out, but only weakening him enough so he could not stand up.
“Let’s get him back to Infinity, and then we head for home,” said Cruise. “Arthos that was great fighting. I knew you could do it.”
“But why didn’t you do it?” he asks.
“You really looked like you wanted to,” replied Cruise, as they both laughed.
Chapter 34: Blissful
Dvora’s trial was quick. The evidence was presented. Daxu Korth submitted the visual of the security camera that showed Lebag Kralc dropping the meteorite rock on the lawn. The physicians and the good wizards of Cassiopeia testified that Dvora had indeed been under the influence of the meteor radiation poison that had changed her personality. They also testified that in her state she used her newly acquired powers of sorcery to manipulate and control her daughters to do her bidding.
The king, Daxu Korth, gave testimony that he believed it was true. Dvora was innocent of willingly committing crimes against the kingdom and that the real criminal is Lebag Kralc, who was now an intergalactic fugitive from justice.
The Supreme Justice waived any further court proceedings for Dvora and her daughters and they were completely exonerated and allowed to return to their daily lives.
As far as Gynythian Zee, he was brought to trial in the highest court in the kingdom on Cassiopeia, and charged with multiple counts of murder, genocide, and illegal slavery; also piracy.
He was being transported to the prison-mining planet to serve out his life sentence when way out in space the transport was attacked. It was a secret transport mission, but somehow word leaked out. It was a well-organized escape, intricately planned out to disable the transport ship transporting Gynythian Zee and all of his remaining warriors who had been captured in the great galaxy war.
“Welcome aboard,” said Lebag Kralc, as him and his warriors were transferred to Lebag’s own vessel, large enough to transport the two hundred and fifty escapees. “Another old friend is on board too. We’re heading for the Southern Quadrant.”
“Good you can drop me off on my home planet. I’ll have a surprise waiting for whoever comes to try and take me,” says Gynythian Zee.
After all of the escapees were on board, Commander Lebag Kralc gives an order. “Destroy that vessel.” The disabled spacecraft is torpedoed and the whole ship blows killing all the guards and crew inside.
Hyukitron Hoxenyth, who is the Subjugator, had been stripped of his powers of sorcery, but he was still among the notorious pirates in the Southern Quadrant. “We team up together and even my brother can’t stand a chance. Your mistake, Zee, was trying to take him on by yourself.”
“You have to know their weaknesses, and that’s what I played on,” said Lebag Kralc. “And then they discovered Dvora had been poisoned by the meteor.”
“What happened to R’Darik?” asks Zee.
“He got deprogrammed. He’s no longer a Warlock now. He’s gone; the prison mining planet.
“Arthos is leaving,” says Cruise to Dvora. “He’ll be coming to say goodbye.”
“Oh, Cruise, he’ll be returning to his family then,” She replies.
“Only to get them and then return to earth. He’ll be taking one of the smaller vessels that Infinity produced; Comet. They seem to get along well.”
“That’s still quite a large spacecraft,” responds Dvora.
Arthos did come and he bid farewell to Dvora. Space teleportation does not come without its drawbacks. It had been taking a toll on him, but this was his last trip. He would settle down now after getting back. His mission was over. He and his brother found Earth. They also found the holy relic, the ancient scripture book of truth.
“Earth has copies, brother, but you’ve got the authentic one,” he told Cruise.
“I’m going to share it with father. I’ve been reading it...I mean...since Infinity’s download I’ve assimilated it. It’s part of me now, but I want to place the relic in the holy place.”
They say their farewells and Cruise assures Arthos that they will meet again and that he is capable of making the trip. Arthos would not be able to stand many more trips of teleportation across space. Each time it happens every atom in his body is affected. The whole body is literally torn apart, down to the smallest sub-atomic particle, and instantaneously put back together again. Many more times of that would weaken his body too much.
As for Cruise, he was more Quewythian than human. And now that his body was changing still, he was getting stronger. In him was the knowledge that he would eventually become virtually indestructible. He did not know when, but in time it would develop to be so.
Infinity had almost used up her energy. She made several smaller vessels to carry on her legacy. There was one more task she had to fulfill before moving on to the next stage in her evolutionary development.
“I have wonderful news for you, Cruise,” she tells him. “This last creation has all but drained my powers. I must take the next step and evolve by entering the black hole at the center of our galaxy.”
“What’s so wonderful about that?” was Cruise’s response.
As Cruise sits in the control deck, all alone with Infinity, all personnel having shipped out to other vessels and assignments, he is mesmerized by the sound of a voice he had been familiar with and close with for the generations they had been together.
“Hello, my love,” said the voice of Millennia. Cruise had often listened to recordings of her voice reading to him; even viewing conversations they’d had in the past. She was his loving wife, Queen of Dekkonia and the circle of galaxies in the Cymapucheia Nebula for nearly a Millennium. Was that really her voice he was hearing? Had she somehow returned from the dead? Had some form of sorcery resurrected her? Cruise had to know.
“Millennia, my darling, where are you?” he cries.
“Turn around, my love,” She replied. When he turned around, there she was standing there in all of her Queenly splendor and beauty, just smiling as pretty as she always did.
“I am really here. It’s me, Darling.”
Cruise was thunderstruck; he didn’t know what to say. “I’m dreaming. Has some mysterious asteroid or meteor affected my brain?
”
“Let me explain,” says Infinity. “Just before Millennia died I took her DNA, stem cell samples, memories, her thoughts and feelings, emotions, like and dislikes. I also was able to take her spirit and her soul and I stored them deep in a locked file even you were not able to access. She’s been “living” in cyberspace for all this time.”
“But she died, she’d dead. I saw her lifeless body lying there. And I buried her,” Cruise weeps.
Millennia comes closer to Cruise. “Come and see, my love, that it’s really I. I’m not just a hologram or a figment of your imagination.” She takes his hand and draws close; and then kisses him on the lips.
“It...it is you. That tender kiss, the soft loving touch; I could make no mistake. The soft warm-hearted look in your beautiful eyes; it’s you—
it actually is you. But how can this be?”
“Have you not been listening, my sweet?” says Millennia. “Everything I was before I am again, only much better.”
“But why now? Why did you wait so long? If you could have brought her back why didn’t you?” Cruise asks Infinity in an angry tone.
“We both were not ready yet, although she was always ready,” replies Infinity. “I had not evolved into the knowledge and technology until I travelled the universe always searching for the answer as to how to bring her back. I absorbed all the knowledge that I could; all the technology and stored all of the scientific data, which you now have within you, and also she has within her. Simply speaking, I could not do it before. You, Cruise, had to be ready also.”
“Infinity, I thank you,” says Cruise.
“We both thank you,” says Millennia.
“Frankly, according to the alien data I gathered, I still wasn’t sure if I could do it,” adds Infinity. “Growing her body from the DNA, stem cells and other genetic substances was the easy part. I did it deep inside my core, where there are no doors, no entrances. That’s why she was not discovered until she was one hundred percent ready.”
“And you just teleported her here, am I correct?” asks Cruise.
“Yes, that is correct, Captain. And now is the time I must leave you. My species is evolving and I must go join them,” says Infinity.
“What...you’re a species?” But I thought you were a machine. A vehicle.”
“This Platainium has only been my shell. I was always inside all of its workings. I’ve been the energy passing through its veins and arteries, every wire and circuit, every cyber byte of information. I have been the spirit and soul of this vehicle. Now I must return to my fellow Seraphs and we must move on to our high calling in other universes and dimensions.”
“But what about the other vessels you created? Are they like you?” asks Cruise.
“No, they are not of my species. They are merely vehicles. They have all of my memory and data banks too, but are not living beings as I am. They are, however, artificial intelligences as you thought I was. ”
Infinity’s surprising news is not that easy for Cruise to take. She will be gone and Infinity the spacecraft will be just a shell. Cruise will still be able to use it, and it becomes the greatest space vessel ever known in the entire universe. Infinity created a biological clone of Millennia with her soul, brain and all her memories. She is exactly the same in mind and spirit, but her new body would live for eons more. Infinity evolves to the knowledge of another universe that she must go to, where she will be transformed into a being of light as she passes through the black hole in the center of their galaxy.
Cruise and Millennia are standing on the view port at the very top of Infinity. The area is circular and is slightly dome shaped. They took Infinity as far as they could take her; as close to the black hole as they can get without getting sucked into it.
“This is where we part, Cruise. I have reached the point in my evolution where I am ready for this,” says Infinity.
“Will we ever meet again?” Asks Millennia.
“Perhaps, but not any time soon,” answers Infinity. There are other universes; parallel ones, and other dimensions I will be exploring with others of my species. Perhaps we will cross stars again sometime from now.”
As Infinity the being leaves the spacecraft in one bolt of light and goes racing towards the black hole, the vessel shudders with a surge of energy that causes all instruments and lights to blink on and off. She goes entirely dark for several seconds. Cruise and Millennia watch as they stand there hand in hand. They view the streak of light which is Infinity go deeper and deeper into the point of no return. Then there is an enormous bright flash that resembles a super nova. Cruise and Millennia have to block their eyes, as the brightness is too intense to look straight into it. It continues for several minutes and then collapses into the black hole in one quick flare until it flickers out, sucking everything around into it.
“We had better get out of here,” says Millennia in her gentle way, as the vessel Infinity is beginning to be sucked into it also at a tremendous speed.
“Normal thrusts aren’t strong enough, we’re being sucked into it,” says Cruise.
“It’s okay, my love, we can still teleport out of here, but we have to do it quickly before everything is distorted,” answers Millennia. No sooner said than done. They find themselves back in orbit around Cassiopeia.
Chapter 35: Kingdom Of Light
“Infinity will be Cassiopeia’s manned space station,” explains Cruise to the assembly of Cassiopeia’s leaders gathered at the convention held in Infinity’s honor and to honor Queen Millennia and her reunion with Cruise.
Daxu Korth gave a speech to the assembly that was later broadcast over the Quantum Cyber Interstellar reaching galaxies far and wide, even now able to reach Earth and her two sisters Venus, whose name was changed again to Infinity, and Sophia. The news had reached Cruise that Arthos had become king of the Milky Way Galaxy and was based on Earth. Daxu Korth also mentioned that fact and also that he was retiring from his office of king. Cruise would now be the new monarch reigning over the Twelve Galaxies Cluster and also Millennia’s Kingdom, and she would be his queen. The joint kingdom would now be called The Kingdom of the Galaxies of Light.
Cruise got back up to the platform bringing Millennia with him and carrying an enormous book. He set it down on the podium and opened it up.
“What I am about to read was written in the Pure and Holy Book of the Scriptures of Truth and Light from Earth thousands of eons ago. It was regarded as the words of God, creator of all things visible and invisible, written down as he gave it to mankind. Even way back then, thousands of years before Earthlings took to the stars and colonized their solar system and then other star systems and finally other galaxies, God the creator of all things visible and invisible spoke to them these words and told them that the universe was and would be inhabited, that they were not alone. From the book of Isaiah,”
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it;
he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
“Next is from the books of the Chronicles,”
Again he said, therefore hear the word of the LORD; I saw the LORD sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left.
“The next is just a small portion from the book of Nehemiah,”
Thou, even thou, art LORD. Alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
“I will now read a portion of the text from the Book called The Gospel of Luke, because this is the day on Earth when the savior Jesus was born. The whole Earth celebrates this day and calls it Christmas. His birth was foretold by many of their prophets and was signified by a very luminous star in the heavens.
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustu
s, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them
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