The complex was immense, perhaps the size of modern day aircraft carrier. They built it within the gigantic ravine; taking advantage of its elusiveness, and it was only visible from above the canyon and from the south end of the lake. It was made of marble and stone, and indestructible to the elements. Jeff was bewildered at how they made such an advanced structure in three hours. It apparently used some form of power to run it, but what? Its shape was spherical, which made it even more perplexing, and there were no windows, and only one entrance he could see, which was at the end of the bridge he was on. It had writing on it next to the door, and a hand print drawing, which was most likely their own genetic code of entering.
The storm affected the atmosphere, and caused high winds and lightning. He knew Riona would be looking for him, and he needed to find shelter. He placed his hand on the drawing, and the complex door opened, and revealed a large long corridor. Jeff entered as he looked behind him to make sure he wasn’t followed.
When the human entered, he saw the tunnel was extremely well lit and quiet. He was amazed at the fact that just a handful of beings could construct such a massive complex in just a matter of hours. It wasn’t possible by the laws of the universe or physics. Then again, the more he thought about everything he had seen up to this point was against the laws of physics.
At the end of the corridor, he was greeted by Jalok and a couple of his subordinates. “Ah, Human,” he said. “We were expecting that you would return.”
“Call me Jeff. My name is Jeff Walker.” Jeff scratched his dirty, unkempt hair and beard.
“Of course, Mr. Walker. We have been working on your ship, but we still cannot find some of the essential elements needed to build it within this vicinity.”
“That’s okay,” Jeff said. “I feel safer here than outside right now,
even if I am stranded. Is there anything that I can eat, a place to rest, maybe a shower or a bath?”
“You will find everything that you need within your quarters,” Jalok said. “Barva will show you the way.” He placed his hand on the shoulder of his companion to the right.
Jeff followed the large reptile-human hybrid down several corridors until they came to various chambers on both sides of the hall. They all contained the same handprints he saw on the main entrance.
“This will be your quarters,” he said, as he placed his hand on the design. The door opened, and revealed an enormous room with very elegant furniture.
“We’ve done some research on your culture. I’m sure you will find it to your liking.”
He did indeed find it to his liking as he felt the soft blue fabric of the sofa, and the softness of the silk sheets on the bed. He didn’t have anything so comfortable since he was back on Mars. As he eyed the bathroom, it felt good to also finally be able to have a good hot shower and shave. The Talokian followed him as he walked to the kitchen area, which even had fruit and some vegetables for him to snack on. There was a little cooked fish with some rice on the table as well. “There is a small bar over there if you become thirsty,” Barva said. “I’m afraid we only have our type of alcoholic beverages, however.”
He pressed a button on the wall, which opened a door to a compartment. Behind it were various colored beverages. He decided to go with the red fluid, and poured himself a drink.
He tasted the sweet beverage which had a slight kick to it, as he coughed. “Not bad,” Jeff said in approval. “You don’t know how long it’s been since I had any of this stuff.”
“Do you wish for something to read, or watch on our viewing screen?” Barva asked.
“Do you receive signals from other worlds?” the human asked, as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Jeff was surprised they actually had such a concept.
“We don’t,” Barva explained. “Everything that you see on the screen is artifacts of your past and present, manufactured to your liking.”
“From your Talokian teacher, no doubt.”
“Exactly. It knows every thought you possess, even the unpleasant ones. Is there anything you would like to recollect on? The computer can take you back to experience your own past.”
“Yes, come to think of it, there are some memories I would like to relive.”
“Place your hand on the panel,” Barva said, and directed him to the wall panel. Jeff placed his hand on the print of it, and another door opened, which revealed a twenty feet wide by twenty feet high screen.
“Now place this upon your head.” He handed him a brass ring which fit snug around his head. He pressed a button marked ‘mind probe,’ and the human began to see images on the screen of exactly what he was thinking.
“Now,” Barva said. “Relax your mind, thinking of only the thoughts that you want to.”
He saw his close friend Lori on the screen. Her curly, golden hair glistened in the sunlight of the Martian artificial forest. She smiled at him, and laughed at a joke he told. They were on a small picnic, and he just opened a bottle of champagne he brought with them. They were celebrating her promotion to the main control center, and they toasted their glasses together.
“To best friends,” Jeff smiled.
“To best friends,” she answered, sipping her champagne.
“Does this mean I have to call you Maam now?”
“Only if you want to. Just call me Commander when we’re around brass. At least when we’re alone you don’t have to be totally formal.”
“Only half formal. Commander it is,” Jeff said, as he peered at the man-made lake that was just twenty feet away. “Would you like to go for a swim?”
“Sure,” she answered, as the two walked towards the water. As the human saw a slice of his past, he missed home again. The screen changed as quickly as his mind and he saw images of his childhood, about the time he was five.
“Dad?” Jeff asked his father. “How long does it take to get to take to get to Earth?” His father put his hand on his shoulder.
“Why do you want to know that?” he asked him.
“I was just wondering, that’s all,” Jeff said. “I want to be a flight commander someday- just like you.”
“A long time, Son. About four months.”
“Do you sleep on the way?”
“Part of the time, yes.”
Reliving his childhood at eight years old, he remembered his parents’ accident as well. He was surprised the mind probe enabled him to see other people’s past as clear as his own. Even though he was
with his Uncle Clark at the time, he saw what happened to them during their flight. They were onboard an interstellar spacecraft which was sent to the Earth’s space station Edronomis for a three hundred passenger pickup to return to Mars. The warning light came on and one of the fuel tanks exploded. The craft lost altitude, and plummeted through the atmosphere towards the ocean helplessly. Jeff could hear, see, and feel their fear and agony as he placed his arms against the screen. His mother grabbed his father’s arm, and buried her head against his shoulder in fear. They both cried, until the crash broke Jeff’s concentration from the mind probe. He violently threw the headband to the floor is disgust. Sweat poured from his body, as he fell to the floor and wept. Barva placed his hand upon the man’s shoulder, trying to console him.
“Take care, Friend,” he said. “You must learn to accept what is, and concentrate on your inner happiness. Otherwise your future will be as grim as your past.”
“But I should have been there with them?” he cried.
“You couldn’t have been,” the reptilian creature said. “You were just a child. You had no way of knowing that would happen, just as you had no way of knowing that Balta would attack Lingwort.”
“How do you know about that?” Jeff asked. “Can you read minds too?”
“In a sense. The teacher teaches us everything it knows, and it senses your thoughts as if they were our own. We are connected through the teacher as it is connected through you.”
“That is definitely one awesome computer,”
Jeff stated. �
��Your people have saved my life. I wish there was something I could do for you.”
“If it wasn’t for us, your life probably wouldn’t have been in danger. There is one thing you can do. Continue to spread our word of peace throughout your travels.”
“That might be a little difficult, even if I do escape here. You see I’m dealing with two tyrannical societies and we’re kind of right in the middle of their war with each other.”
“Then, as unfortunate as it may sound, you have to somehow diffuse the two societies’ conflict. You have our support.”
“I thought you were peaceful?”
“Peaceful, yes, but not vulnerable. We realize that force is sometimes necessary to maintain peace within the universes.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell my friends,” Jeff explained.
“They believe in absolute peace to the point of refusing to protect themselves!”
“They are a primitive race, however, and you cannot expect them to understand. They have found peace within themselves and their brothers. They haven’t even really learned what good and evil is yet.”
“Are you saying that I made a mistake by bringing them?”
“Varmoth believes so, but I personally do not. You saved them from an almost certain death. There is no guarantee that the rest of their race will remain unchanged. The Tolarions, as you call them, will probably return to destroy them.” Jeff believed they were truthful and compassionate beings, despite their frightening appearance.
“Is there any way of stopping them?”
“Yes, if it’s not too late.”
“I really could use your help. I’m afraid I don’t know where my friends have gone.”
“We will be glad to assist you in any way we can.”
“Thank you. I’m a little tired still, do you mind if I rest for a while?”
“No, not at all. Your ship will be ready in a day or two as promised. A small fleet of our own ships will accompany you in about four weeks.”
“Can you really build them that fast?”
“Yes,” Barva explained. “They will all be built simultaneously. We’ll need the location of the Tolarion planet, and the other nemesis that plagues you.”
“I’m afraid I won’t be much help in that department,” Jeff stated. “Zarcon is from the Republic, and has that information as well as the ship’s computer banks.”
“We’ll have to find him then. Where do you think he might have gone?”
“He did mention something about a council, but I don’t know where their headquarters are. “I’ll try my best,” Jeff replied. “At least now I don’t feel totally alone.”
“You’re never alone," the Talokian philosophized. “If you find peace within yourself and within your heart.”
He left the human staring at the empty mind probe screen. He realized even without human companionship, there was perhaps some truth to that prospect-maybe he wasn’t as alone as he thought after all.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Riona and his men returned to their ship to find out the storm had temporarily disabled the computer systems. Lieutenant Zaroz accompanied him as they entered the craft. Riona sat down at his command chair, disgusted, and defeated. “Where is that human?” he snapped. “I can’t even register his thought patterns!”
“Perhaps he escaped with Zarcon?” Zaroz suggested.
“Impossible,” Riona sneered. “I could sense him when we landed.”
“Perhaps you are wrong?”
“Wrong!” Riona yelled. “I’m never wrong about my powers.”
“Sorry, Sir,” Zaroz answered in a solemn tone, knowing how determined he could be.
“No, he’s still here,” the humanoid hissed. “But something is blocking my abilities, perhaps it’s the storm. Did you get any readings of intelligent life here, Sergeant?”
“No Sir,” the sergeant, who was also a Belorion, answered. “The sensors indicated only insignificant plant and animal life before they went out.”
“Could an intelligent life form be causing this negative interference?” Riona asked.
“It’s possible,” their chief science officer said, a human with black hair, a rather wiry build and five feet tall. “But it would need a tremendous amount of energy to do so. Almost as much as a wormhole generator.”
“Lieutenant, I want you to find a way of getting the engines back on. Sergeant, bring some men and come with me. We’re going to investigate this. We’ll head towards the caverns we spotted.”
The tidal surge of the approaching storm began to engulf the island’s beaches. They ventured as quickly as possible in the direction Riona had sensed the human earlier. It was only a matter of hours before the low land would be underwater, and their spaceship would sink in the mud. Riona told them he wanted the doomsday weapon, which was being stored in the ship’s cargo bay, to be saved at any cost, even their own lives. While the storm ripped apart sections of trees that lay in front of them, his men began to panic.
“Relax,” he told them. “It’s just a storm! Stay in formation!”
He started to wonder if Walker evaded him somehow; perhaps leaving the planet before the storm. That seemed unlikely to the humanoid because his controls would be affected the same way any other ship would, unless they worked on some other technology he was unaware of. He knew the ship they stole was Tolarion, and more primitive than his, and the storm was too powerful for a ship to maneuver in. Sure this human was an excellent pilot and extremely clever, but he couldn’t escape without help; the orbiting ships would still detect them and do something to stop him. Their photon laser banks were inoperative, but the Republic’s ships also possessed photon missiles that worked on a manual jettison device.
They came upon the huge complex that lay in the canyon over the waterfall. After two hours of fighting their way through the thickness of the wet jungle and driving winds, Riona and his men climbed their way up to where the bridge was, and came upon the entrance which was completely sealed. He turned towards the science officer, and grabbed him tight around the collar in angst. “No intelligent life, Huh?”
“Maybe the sensors went haywire before the storm,” the science officer said over the howling winds.
“Yes,” Riona said as he let him go. “That must be it! Let’s see if we can get in!”
The rain pounded against their faces, and the science officer placed his hand upon the insignia on the door. It would not open for him. “There must be a code,” suggested the sergeant.
“I’ll show it my code!” Riona yelled, as he drew his laser and fired. The door still remained intact. “It must be some kind of metal alloy that resists heat! Let’s take cover in the cavern over there!”
The troop of twenty men ran to the cavern at the end of the bridge to seek shelter from the tropical storm. Several hours passed since the departure of the Talokians and the only thing that remained in them
was their complex teacher, Varmoth. When the troop entered the cavern, the door to his chamber sealed shut.
“What was that noise?” the sergeant asked. Riona turned on a light on the front of his suit, similar to a flashlight. He pointed in the direction of the sealed tunnel.
“It appears to be a tunnel of some kind,” he stated. “Perhaps the human hides there! Let’s find out, shall we?” He pulled an explosive from his pack, and the other men scrambled in haste. He threw it at the entrance, making no effort to do the same. The entrance violently exploded, and sent rocks and debris on him which he shielded by his arm, but remained unscathed. Laughing wildly, he watched his men scurry to the entrance of the cave. The tunnel door was destroyed, and the master computer revealed itself.
“What are you waiting for?” he asked his frightened men. “An invitation?” His men reluctantly followed him as he entered. Riona gazed at the complex machinery in disbelief. “What a fascinating machine. “An inferior life form, my eye.”
“Who has desecrated my chambers?” Varmoth questioned, his face appearing on
the wall. Riona searched the room to see where the voice came from.
“It is I,” he answered. “Riona, leader of the Galactic Republic of Peaceful Civilizations!”
“I have no records in my memory banks of such a person. Please wait, while I check them again.”
“What is causing this storm?” Riona asked the device.
“I am unable to determine that at this time. Please wait, while I check your identification for authorization.”
The humanoid grew impatient, wanted answers and didn’t care how he got them. He drew his laser and pointed at the computer. “Tell me what I want to know or I’ll destroy your memory banks!” he shouted.
“Do you think that is wise?” the sergeant asked.
“It’s just a computer left over from an ancient civilization,” Riona barked. “It’s of no use to us.”
“No hostilities will be tolerated,” Varmoth said, building a reddish force field around itself.
“What can it do to me?” Riona jested, and fired his laser pistol which didn’t penetrate the force field. “So you have your own defense, Heh? Most ingenious.”
“What do you want?” Varmoth asked.
“I am looking for a human named Jeff Walker. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”
“There has never been a human here. We are a reptilian race.”
“For a computer, you lie exceptionally well,” the commander hissed. “Would you like to try again?”
“You are intruders, and must be dealt with accordingly,” Varmoth stated. “You do not bring peace, only destruction. You must be terminated.”
“No my friend,” Riona said, realizing he was getting nowhere. He pulled three explosives from his waist, and set their timers. “You must be terminated.” His men scrambled from the cavern onto the bridge in fear, as he dropped the explosives and casually left himself.
Dimension Lapse (Dimension Lapse Series Book 1) Page 11