Jeff didn’t want to see any planet destroyed, but he also didn’t want his own race obliterated either, assuming that the Tolarions hadn’t retaliated and destroyed it already. Why did Balta and Riona have such an interest in where Mars was anyway? His only alternative was to bluff him.
“Just to show you how human I am,” he joked. “You can go ahead and destroy my planet.”
Riona smiled, as he anticipated his behavior. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. “The Republic has had just enough of Zeloria, so I choose Zeloria. Goodbye, Traitors.”
He entered the proper coordinates for the planet, and a bluish-green world appeared on the viewing screen. He pressed a button on
the panel, which activated the death ray at the helpless planet. They watched in anguish, as the world exploded, sending fragments across space and the viewing screen. Over fifty million lives were lost instantly. The Tolarions would probably find out about it, if they hadn’t already. If Zarcon was telling the truth about Riona’s powers, and the capabilities of this new weapon, they’d better prepare to meet their match in any universe.
CHAPTER FOUR
After the last particles of the planet disbanded into the darkness of space, Riona turned towards the human. He pressed another button which closed the screen doors. He raised his right index claw again, and approached Jeff, more solemn than before.
“You don’t understand me, do you, Mr. Walker?” he asked. “I am not a violent being, and I don’t like war, but sometimes there is no other way. I am only trying to do what is best for the Republic, as you are trying to do what is best for Tolaria.”
“I’m from Mars, not Tolaria.”
“You’re a liar! Mars is a cold and barren world. There are no humans there!”
“Something must have happened to them,” Jeff said. “Maybe the Tolarions attacked them.”
“Perhaps, “Riona pondered. “Or maybe you are trying to block it from your memory?”
“Only you would know,” Jeff joked.
“True,” Riona answered, as he smiled again.
“Release my friends at least!” Jeff pleaded with him. “They have done nothing.”
“You will all be executed in good time!” he yelled and became more psychotic, physically slamming Jeff against the wall, grabbing him tight around the neck. “Do you know what type of atmosphere is outside? It is much like your own. It is totally poisonous and unbearable. What better way to kill you than to let you suffocate in a
soup of noxious gas! Enough sentimentality, it’s time to die!” Jeff crouched, short of breath as the guards lifted him and began towards the door.
“Isn’t there any other way?” Zarcon pleaded.
“No, Zarcon,” he stated. “You know the Republic is firm on such matters.”
While he grabbed Jeff, Zarcon caught Riona off guard, and used his mind to inflict pain on two of the guards. Riona turned towards the commotion, and Jeff grabbed his hand, firing the laser into his leg, which caused Riona to fall to the floor in pain
“Run!” Zarcon yelled to his friends, transmitting brain waves that pierced through Riona’s head painfully. When Riona was near unconsciousness, Zarcon ran behind his friends into the corridor. Riona regained his strength, and lifted himself up. Even though Zarcon had maimed him, he was still quite powerful.
Terror flowed through their bloodstream while they approached the hangar deck. When they entered the Rigil Four, a guard tried to grab Jeff from behind but Zarcon counteracted his attempt by using his mind. They entered the craft and prepared for take-off. Jeff fired up their propulsion system and the ship began to propel down the hangar deck, and left the dome city, as several Belorians chased after the craft, leaving a path of blue flames behind them as the hangar doors closed behind them.
“How powerful is Riona’s mind?” Jeff asked, as they accelerated through the atmosphere and towards space.
“Not powerful enough to do us any harm once we get away from them,” Zarcon answered. “I can feel him trying to attack my mind, but his influence is getting weaker.”
“Thank God for miracles!” Jeff barked, as the lingworts smiled at him. “Dormiton, switch that red button on the panel. The one that activates the gravity control onboard the ship.” His friend responded to his request.
Zarcon glanced at the viewing screen as they approached space. “Republic ships closing at 79,000 parsecs,” he stated. “We also have Tolarion ships closing in at 120,000 parsecs.”
“Looks like we’ve outstayed our welcome on both sides of the fences,” Jeff said. “Zarcon, you didn’t by any chance get time to have your men put the jamming device in, did you?”
“With Riona coming?” he answered. “Their minds were probably under his control the whole time.”
“Well then,” Jeff answered. “It’s gonna take some ingenuity and quick maneuvering to get out of this one. Dorm, activate the dimensional transporter on my command. Zarcon, do the shields need to be on when you travel through the wormhole?”
“Yes,” he answered. “But if any those ships get into the field of the portal, they will be with us on the way out.”
“Then we’ll just have to get them to come after each other. Zarcon, how close are they now?”
“Republic ships at 40,000, Tolarion at 80, 000,” he answered. “They’re activating their weapons system. Impact in eight seconds.” Three seconds passed and Jeff responded.
“Now,” he yelled. “Get us out of here, Zarcon!” He pressed the button, and within seconds, a solar flare appeared again from the closest sun intersecting with the ship’s light beam and forming a wormhole, which they passed through and found themselves in any empty quadrant of space.
“Where are we?” the amphibian asked, feeling a bit dazed again.
“Back in Mr. Walker’s own universe,” Zarcon stated. “Somewhere in the Orion system. We cannot stay here long; they will find us. We’ve got to find a place to hide and come up with a plan.”
“I agree,” Jeff answered. The lingworts looked at each other like their friends were insane. All this jumping in space was making them feel like they had rolled down a hill.
“Are you two out of your minds?” Dormiton screeched. “A plan to do what? How do you expect us to go up against both sides? We’ll be killed!”
“If we don’t do something we’re as good as dead anyway,” Jeff replied.
“You are willing to die for this senseless war?” Milgic asked.
“They’ve probably killed off both our races already. What else do you suggest we do,” Jeff asked the amphibians.
“Survive,” Dormiton answered. “If what you say is true, we are the last of our races and we must preserve that legacy.”
He admired the fact that he finally was catching onto the idea of optimistic thinking.
“I don’t intend on dying yet,” Jeff said. “But we can’t allow Riona to go through with his plans of using that death ray.”
“Well,” Milgic muttered. “You can count me out of any plans you have.”
“Well, at any rate,” interrupted Zarcon. “We have to find a place
to hide. I’ll send out a probe.” He pressed a button, which launched a tiny probe into the darkness ahead of them.
The computer relayed its findings to the crew of the Rigil Four. “Nearest planet is Zebula. Two weeks arrival at maximum speed,” it said. “Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, surface temperature 90 degrees at equator, approximately 72% water. Land masses at the North and South poles and at the equator. No intelligent life forms present.”
“Set course for Zebula, maximum speed. Keep shields down, unless enemy ships are indicated.” Jeff was curious to find out a little more about the Tolarion government so he consulted the computer. “Computer,” Jeff commanded. “Tell me more about these Tolarions.”
“The Tolarions evolved as a race 105 years ago," the computer responded. “They are a race of genetically altered humanoid, developed from simian, human, and an undefined alien DNA by the 21st century
human Tolarion leader, Akros.”
Jeff digested the information, amazed to believe that a human had anything to do with this grotesque race of beings or with wormholes for that manner. This explained why they were able to understand English. He remembered from Earth history one particular man had gone farther on the study of genes than others, but he found himself unable to remember his name. The other question he had was how this particular human would know anything about theories that weren’t even developed on Earth or Mars yet.
“How did the human reach Tolaria?” Jeff asked.
“Insufficient data,” it answered.
“What was his name?”
“Insufficient data.”
“What is the location of Tolaria and its known defense systems in relation to its own universe?”
“Tolaria is in star sector 18-905 in the Aria star system. Defense systems unavailable to this unit,” the machine answered. He became impatient with the device. He began to wonder if the alleged attack on Mars wasn’t a deliberate attack to get humans involved with the conflict. They wanted to rule every planet in both universes, and the humans were just as much a threat to them as Riona.
“How did the Tolarions develop the ability to travel through wormholes?” the human asked.
“Insufficient data,” the computer evasively stated again.
While Dormiton periodically monitored the scanners, Jeff consulted the computer one more time about a connection between the
three worlds of Earth, Beloria, and Tolaria. They all were similar in composition, but their atmospheric characteristics were different. Earth was mostly nitrogen-oxygen based, Tolaria was mostly nitrous oxide, and Beloria was mostly carbon-dioxide. Oxygen was present in each atmosphere, but the concentration of each one was different.
Something else was odd. They received readings of a distress call from Beloria which was recorded before they left the other universe. It couldn’t have been a Tolarion attack because the Republic sensors would have detected this. Two thoughts passed through his mind-either the Republic set a trap for them, or he suspected something more sinister was going on.
“Is it possible for your planet’s defenses to have a malfunction?” he asked Zarcon.
“Not likely. The Tolarions must have attacked.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Jeff said. “I’ve got a bad feeling that something else has gone terribly wrong. Well, at any rate, we can’t turn back.”
“Our lives are in your hands, Captain Walker,” Zarcon said.
He liked the sound of ‘captain.’ He always wanted his own starship to command, but not under these stressful circumstances. He only flew small scout ships that surveyed close to uninhabitable worlds that tormented the soul. He didn’t realize at the time the size of the ship he would later command was much larger than even this one. He allowed Zarcon to pilot the craft while he slept on their journey towards Zebula. He’d been through one of the toughest weeks of his life, and was exhausted. Dormiton and Milgic remained awake with Zarcon, mesmerized by the stars, and began to fully realize how vast space can be.
“I always thought that Lingwort was it,” Dormiton said to his life-long friend. “To think, we’re only one kind of animal among billions in this emptiness called ‘space.”
“Will we ever see home again?” Milgic asked.
“Probably not. Once we left there, I don’t think Jeff had any intentions on going back.”
“I wonder what happened to the rest of our people.”
“They are probably all right. That is if the Tolarions didn’t get them.”
“I don’t like this thing called ‘war.’ It has separated us from our homeland, and brought out bitterness in Jeff.”
“Yes, I know. He used to be a lot happier.”
“Until the aliens came.”
“Yes the aliens. Milgic, would it be wrong to feel anger over the loss of our friends?”
“I think I can answer that,” Zarcon interrupted. “If you feel the Tolarions are responsible for their deaths, then you are not wrong. Although it is not always advisable to fight for what you believe is right, sometimes you have no choice. This is what we call ‘war.”
“Why can’t we just find a planet to live on in peace?” Milgic asked.
“Because the Tolarions will not allow us to do so. They’ll keep on invading worlds until somebody stops them. Right now we just have to bide our time until we come up with a plan.”
“How can the four of us defeat an empire?” screeched Milgic, who almost woke Jeff up. He rolled over, and went back to sleep.
“We alone cannot,” Zarcon explained. “But we can find other worlds willing to join our cause.”
“Like the world we’re going to?” Milgic asked.
“No, there isn’t any advanced life there. We’re going there to seek refuge until we can figure out what to do.”
“Will we be safe there?” Dormiton inquired.
“For a while,” Zarcon said. “I have to work on a jamming device so the Tolarions cannot detect us. The Galactic Republic won’t be as easy to escape from, however. Their ships are just as fast as this one, and we cannot hide from Riona’s powers. He knows everything about the Tolarions and the Republic’s defense systems.”
“He does?” Jeff asked, just awaking from his long rest. “That explains a little. Is it possible that he is a double-agent?”
“You’re joking,” Zarcon stated. “He’s the president of the council!”
“Which gives him full access to all information, correct?”
“That is correct,” Zarcon answered, seeing his point. He also now saw that something much more sinister was going on than just an attack or invasion. Someone in the council lied to him, and he was going to get to the bottom of it sooner or later. “You don’t suppose he’s used the fusion ray again do you?”
“Let’s hope not,” Jeff said. “But it kind of appears that way. Why don’t you explain to me how it works?”
“The gun is fired by a nuclear fusion based generator in its base that can absorb the amount of energy needed from a nearby sun, and then distributes it to its target wherever that may be. It is also capable
of generating a wormhole if necessary to achieve the task.”
“Again I ask,” the human inquired. “Why the hell would you create such a thing? You people sure like to play with fire!”
They obtained every piece of information they could extract from the ship’s computer banks, including the location of their main control center and weapons arsenal on the planet of Tolaria. Zarcon did the best he could on a jamming device but he lacked certain materials he needed. He lacked Cobalt to finish the casing on it, and there was none on the ship. He was certain he could find it on Zebula. With the planet only a few days away, they prepared themselves for whatever animal life was there. Zarcon was more of a scientist than a diplomat, and was eager to study it. Jeff warned him, however, to keep any life forms away from the ship, and to carry a weapon with him just in case they were hostile.
Dormiton and Milgic were ordered to stay on board after their arrival. They were trapped inside the vessel for a long while and were starting to get edgy with one another. “I need someone to watch the ship,” Jeff explained to them. “We can’t afford to risk all of our lives!”
“If there are dangerous animals what do we do?” Milgic asked.
“Stay in the ship!” Jeff answered. “Even if I’m killed in the process.”
“What if we’re captured?”
“I don’t have all the answers, Guys,” Jeff said. “Chances are we will not get killed if we’re careful. Isn’t that right, Zarcon?”
“Yes, that is correct,” he answered.
“What will this world be like?” asked Dormiton. “Will we able to swim in it?”
“I don’t know,” Jeff said. “I don’t even know if we can drink the water, let alone swim in it.”
“I hope so,” Milgic replied. “I hope it’s filled with beautiful trees and white san
dy beaches, just like Lingwort.”
“That’s very doubtful,” Zarcon stated. “Sensors indicate that the vegetation is limited and only in certain regions.”
“Well, Zarcon, let’s aim for one of those regions,” Jeff instructed. “We’re all very hungry and tired. Hopefully there will edible vegetation there.”
“You do not eat meat?” Zarcon asked the human, surprised.
“I do, but my friends don’t.”
“Don’t they eat insects like most amphibians?”
“Their ancestors once did. Their culture has taught them that it’s
wrong to kill, even for food.” Zarcon nodded, and checked the scanners again.
Ten days passed since their departure from the other universe, and there was still no sign of enemy craft. They knew their luck wouldn’t last forever, and they were beginning to get a little nervous. Zarcon eyed the scanners and the lingworts stayed alert in case they were needed. “Still no sign of Riona,” Zarcon stated. “We’ve been lucky.”
“What’s so lucky about two days without food?” grumbled Milgic.
“Well,” Jeff said. “Let’s not press our luck. We’ve still got to make it to Zebula in one piece once we get there, however, it will be difficult to leave without being attacked.”
“Not if I can finish the jamming device in time,” Zarcon added.
“If we have time to finish it. Besides, you even said yourself that it would not be effective against your own people.”
“Yes, that is true. The only way to defeat him is with the mind,” Zarcon said.
He turned back to the scanner console. The probe sent back more information about the aquatic world. “Sensors indicate that there are reptilian life forms on Zebula.”
“Reptilian?” asked the commander.
“Yes, reptilian.”
“Any indication of size and anatomical structure?”
“Not at this time.”
“Send out another probe.”
“There is only one left. If we use that, we have no indication that there may be life on other worlds.”
Dimension Lapse (Dimension Lapse Series Book 1) Page 6