Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure

by Christian Kallias

  After a few minutes of watching, Chase shot her a glance and she burst out laughing on the sofa. She had found “something that would fit” indeed. It was a tale of starship fighters, good versus evil, aliens and intrigue. The entire galaxy seemed to be at war.

  “Have more of these?” He gestured to the cartons when the movie was finished.

  “I’m afraid not and it’s too late to get more. I have some leftovers from last night but there’s not very much. Let me warm it up.”

  “Okay, cool.”

  She went to a device that was not dissimilar in looks to the food synthesizer. The food turned in a circle inside and, when she came back with it, it was steaming. She called it a microwave.

  Chase had an idea. “Maybe we can program the synthesizer to replicate this food…”

  “Can it do that?”

  “Technically, it can replicate almost any taste. It was programmed to deliver standard protein, vitamins, and other nutrients our body needs to function at peak efficiency, but maybe it can replicate this food.”

  “It wouldn’t be the same though, would it?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  “You’re right, let’s give it a try. What should we try to replicate?”

  “I love the sweet and sour pork. Let’s try that.”

  He put the container in the synthesizer, then went on to scan the food inside. The on-board computer analyzed the food and some red symbols appeared on the screen. Sarah leaned curiously over his shoulder.

  “What’s happening?”

  “The computer says that thirty percent of this food contains things that aren’t good for the body. Eating only this food would lead to health issues.”

  “Ah, obesity. We have loads of that in this country.”

  She went on to explain that Earth people knew the foods they regularly ate were bad for them, but they tasted so good that it was a daily struggle as to what to choose. Something fattening but delicious or something healthy. Apparently, the healthy foods hardly compared.

  “That’s so strange,” Chase murmured as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Who would have guessed that would constitute a ‘struggle.’ But I have to admit, that kind of emotional satisfaction is hard to resist. We have a similar kind of satisfaction, but…Well, it comes from a different activity.”

  “Sex?”

  Chase didn’t expect her to approach the subject so openly, and he flushed as he glanced at the ground to gather his thoughts. “Well…yes. Are sexual relations also regulated on Earth?”

  She hopped up onto the counter. “Hell no! That would suck!”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “It seems humans have a lot of pleasures we don’t have in our daily lives.”

  “Why would sex be regulated in the first place?” she demanded.

  “To control population growth.”

  “We don’t really do that here. With all the sickness and war, the population kind of controls itself.”

  Chase frowned. “So every time you have sex, you get a baby. Isn’t that inconvenient?” He suddenly wondered how many children she might have.

  There was a brief pause, then she burst into uncontrollable laughter. It went on so long that eventually Chase started to smile himself.

  “What did I say that was so funny?”

  It took her another moment to regain her composure. “We’ve made sex recreational. We can have sex and not have the result be a new life.”

  She briefly explained the concept of birth control, and Chase listened with wide eyes. It baffled him how humans indulged in time-consuming activities on a daily basis just for the fun of it. But somehow, it sounded like a good time.

  “What an interesting world you have... Doesn’t it take up all your time when you indulge in preparing food, eating it, watching movies, and having sex?”

  She grinned. “Yes it does. Maybe that’s why we haven’t progressed that far as a civilization; we like to procrastinate.”

  He nodded but stayed quiet. She’d given him a lot to think about.

  “What about the replicator?” she asked. “Can it make more Chinese food? I’m feeling peckish again.”

  “Oh yeah, sorry, I got distracted. The synth— replicator can replicate the food and lower its amount of toxicity. Should we try that?”

  “Yeah why not. I would love it if it could do that.”

  Once Chase entered the parameters, the synthesizer made a replica of the food in a matter of seconds. He took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised that it tasted quite similar.

  “So how is it?” she asked eagerly.

  “Very similar. Why don’t you try it?”

  She took a bite and made a sound of satisfaction. “Yes, it tastes almost the same. Not quite exactly, but very similar.”

  “Good, you could use this for food from now on. But we would need to program it with various recipes; I’m afraid the ones that are pre-programmed won’t be to your liking.”

  “Sure, but won’t it be able to only replicate what we scan?”

  “Not necessarily. If we feed the computer a database of recipes, it should be able to emulate it and you can use these controls to choose how to make it more to your liking.”

  “That seems overly complicated, but what about feeding it recipes from the Internet?”

  “The Internet…? Oh yes, that network of information you humans use.”

  “You’ll have to do it though. I’m good at kicking some butt in the air, but technology isn’t my strong suit. When my computer refuses to work, I end up kicking it.”

  It took a while to interface the synthesizer with the wireless stream of information that humans called Wi-Fi but, after a few minutes, Chase managed to connect it to the Internet.

  “That should do it. What food would you like to replicate?”

  Sarah put her finger over her mouth and made a humming sound as she considered. A second later, her eyes lit up. “A double pepperoni and cheese pizza, Chicago style!”

  The synthesizer made a similar humming noise for a few seconds, and then a thick rounded dish appeared out of thin air. The smell of it filled the room, and Chase suddenly felt like he needed to eat again, even though his stomach didn’t seem to agree with the thought. Sarah took a slice of what she called pizza, and gave him a wide grin.

  “Any good?” he asked.

  “Dude, you have to try this. It’s one of the best pizzas I’ve had in a long time. This replicator thing is wicked!”

  Chase picked up a slice and experienced his first taste of pizza. He was bowled over, and quickly finished it off.

  “This is delicious! How many different types of food are there to try?”

  She laughed. “Too many for you to try in one year, let alone one night, I’m afraid.”

  “That much, huh? Then it’s something I can look forward to. I’m going to download the settings of this synthesizer so I can try more later on.”

  “Yeah, you do that. As long as this one stays here. Will it?”

  “Of course. It’s a gift, remember?”

  She slid back off the counter and ran her hand over the top of it. “I sure hope I’m not going to gain too much weight. It’ll be almost impossible to resist now that I can have anything anytime I want…”

  Chase shrugged. “You shouldn’t gain too much weight at all. The machine will continue to replicate the taste while avoiding most toxic elements.”

  “That’s incredible! We all need one of these!”

  “That would be a little bit of a problem right now. It runs on quadrinium, and we’re running out. But hey, if we find a source for it, then we should be able to make a lot more. They’re already present in most of the food centers around the globe. They just deliver our kind of food, not yours.”

  “Can’t you just connect them to the Internet as well?”

  “Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll put it on my list of things to do when I get back to my ship. Speaking of which, it’s already 4 a.m. Should I maybe let you sleep
?”

  “That depends…are you sleepy?”

  “Not at all. I’m having a really wonderful time.”

  “Great!” She clapped her hands. “Then let’s watch the sequel! There are actually about a million of these movies now, so our options are unlimited.” She put the next one on the monitor and they sat down to watch. After a while she turned to him. “I’m actually surprised you like these so much. I would have thought you’d think it was too much ‘magic’ and not enough ‘science.’”

  Chase laughed. “Well, I’m not sure about the ‘force,’ but there seems to be a lot on your planet that seems pretty damn magical itself. I wonder if that’s what Aphroditis was talking about.”

  “You lost me there, Chase.” Her eyes grew wide. “Wait—you talked with the goddess? On your own?”

  He shifted, a little embarrassed by the attention, but dying to talk to someone about this huge revelation in his life. “She appears in my dreams sometimes. She was the one who made us come here and rescue you from the Zarlacks.”

  “No shit!”

  “She also told me I’m part human…and part Fury.”

  “What’s a Fury?”

  His face fell. “I wish I knew. Apparently, it’s the world I’m originally from.”

  “Well, how don’t you know? You mean you’ve never set foot on the planet?”

  “No, it was destroyed a long time ago. I was found on the planet Alpha Prime, in a small capsule, with no memory of who I was. The technology of the capsule was nothing from our world. Scientists tried to look into it, but it was dead beyond repair.”

  Sarah’s voice grew soft. “What about your parents?”

  “I never knew them. I was adopted by a couple on our world. They were the sweetest people you could imagine and they raised me as their own. Being an adult with no recollection of my past made me kind of feel lost, not so different than being a kid I guess.”

  “I can imagine. We do that on Earth as well, adopting I mean. Are they still on Alpha Prime?”

  His face was hard. “They were killed many years ago…when Obsidian launched an attack on the Alliance. That’s what motivated me to join the Alliance’s military and become a pilot.”

  “I’m sorry.” She patted his leg. “My parents are dead too, so on some level, I know how you feel.”

  “Did they die in a war as well?”

  “No, my mother got sick, very sick. She had cancer and she fought it for a long time but, in the end, it got her.”

  “I’m so sorry to hear that. What about your dad?”

  “My dad never really recovered from my mom’s passing. He started to drink too much and, after a few years, he developed cirrhosis of the liver and died as well.”

  “That’s horrible,” he said softly.

  “Maybe your real parents are still alive. Did you ever think about that?”

  He shrugged. “Not really. To me, the couple who took care of me were my real parents.”

  “I can understand that. Hey, what do you say we watch a more…uplifting movie?”

  Chase chuckled. “That’s a good idea. Hey, can I ask for some water?”

  “Yes of course! I’m sorry, I’m a terrible host. But wait…maybe you’d like to try a soda instead?”

  “What’s soda?”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Oh, just another Earthling marvel. Hang on, let me find it.”

  She went to the replicator and handed him a thing called cola. It was a dark liquid, strange and bubbling, but it was incredibly refreshing.

  “I love cola!” Chase declared after a moment.

  Sarah laughed. “Me too. I rarely indulge in them because they’re pretty bad for you, but they taste great. So, how long will the replicator work until it needs more quadrinium?”

  “I would say a few months, unless you use it more than this.”

  “Nah. Tonight we ate a lot because you had a lot of catching up to do, but I don’t eat that much food all the time.”

  “Either way, hopefully we’ll find more quadrinium soon enough.”

  She frowned. “How will you find more?”

  “I’m leaving on a mission soon to scan for it in other sectors.”

  “What mission? When do you leave?”

  “Tomorrow or the day after. There are still some preparations to be made.”

  “Will you all be going? What if the enemy returns?”

  “It’s just a small group of us. We’re also going to try to locate more survivors. It’s possible that other battlegroups escaped like we did. If we found them, they could join us here. After all, we need to strengthen the Alliance if we are to survive.”

  Sarah was quiet for a moment. “It’s just like the movie. We’re the rebels, aren’t we?”

  “I guess…but we’re not alone. Maybe we’ll encounter other civilizations on our travels. Have you ever had contact with other life-forms on Earth?”

  “There are rumors and theories about that. Many people say they’ve seen UFOs, unidentified flying objects in the skies. We thought they were alien races visiting us without revealing themselves. But most people think it’s just made up.”

  “What do you believe?”

  “Well, if you had asked me that question a few months back, I would have told you I’m not sure. Today, I’m inclined to think there are many other species roaming the universe. You’re proof of it. Maybe they’re not even as far as we might think.”

  “If they’re close by, we could try to form an alliance.”

  “Yeah, I hear you.”

  “Hey, weren’t we supposed to watch another movie?” He smiled and lightened the mood. “And screw ‘uplifting.’ I want to know how the story we were watching ends.”

  “Absolutely.” She grinned. “I’ll replicate us some ice cream to go with it.”

  Chase froze. “Does it actually scream?”

  She shook her head and laughed.

  “Hey—you guys eat actual flesh. Maybe screaming’s not that far off—”

  But before he could say another word, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. He skin flushed and his pulse started hammering in his chest. Was this going where he thought it was…?

  But Sarah just grinned, threw her arm around his shoulder, and flicked on the next chapter of the story.

  Chase opened his eyes to find that he and Sarah had fallen asleep. Her head was nestled in the hollow of his shoulder and he immediately froze so as not to wake her. She was so beautiful! How was it that she was unattached? Well…maybe she wasn’t. Maybe that kiss on his cheek meant nothing and she wasn’t interested in him like that. But he was definitely interested in her. Without jostling her, he gently ran his fingers through her hair. It was softer than he could believe and smelled intoxicatingly sweet.

  The movie was still playing. Some sort of teddy bears were pelting the bad guys with rocks. He was intrigued, but nature called, and he slid out from under her to find the bathroom. But when he reemerged a moment later, Sarah wasn’t in the flat. In fact, the flat itself had disappeared.

  It was like he’d stepped onto a different planet. The door vanished behind him the second he stepped through, and he walked tentatively forward onto the unusual terrain. The ground was covered in sharply pointed mountains and a cloud of sand hung in the air. It was a wasteland, yet there was a strange beauty to it. In the sky, he saw layers of iridescent rings circling the planet as well as many moons that hung like lanterns in orbit. From where he stood he could see a distant blue moon, a gray one that resembled Earth’s, and a giant red one that was so big it might actually be a nearby planet.

  He was about to call out to see if anyone was there, when he heard Aphroditis’ voice.

  “Hello, Chase. I’m sorry to disturb you again, but there’s something you must know.”

  He looked around, but saw no one. “What is it?”

  “The Zarlacks are approaching our part of the universe. Soon, we will be at war with them as well.”

  “Can you defend yourselves?”<
br />
  “For a while maybe, but they outnumber us millions to one. We are the last descendants of Olympus and, while we aren’t affected by the passing of time like humans, we are not completely immortal either. We can be killed.”

  “Gods can be killed?”

  “God is a concept, Chase. We’re just more advanced creatures. In the same way that you’re perceived as gods by the insects on Earth, we are perceived as gods by you. Do you understand?”

  “I think so.” Chase struggled to wrap his mind around the concept. “You are older, wiser, and more advanced life-forms.”

  “A nice definition if there ever was one.”

  “What can we do to help? We’re already struggling to help Earth.”

  “I know, and you must do whatever you can to protect it. The future of all living and breathing beings in the universe depends on it.”

  “But what about you?”

  “We’ll be fine for now. We have enough experience with other races trying to find and destroy us that we’ll manage. We’ve gotten very good at hiding ourselves from others over time. However, I need to talk to you about your next mission.”

  “What about it?”

  “You must take Sarah with you.”

  “Why? Not that I mind, but…?”

  “I cannot tell you why, only that it is imperative.”

  “Alright, I’ll ask her to join me. But I don’t like the idea of putting her in danger.”

  “That is part of who both of you are. Danger will always be a part of your lives. Don’t tell her I asked you though; she must come because she wants to. That’s very important.”

  “I understand. Are we going to find more survivors?”

  “All I can tell you is that you will find what you need now but, when the time comes to enter a destination, just trust your instincts.”

  “Understood. I was wondering, will I ever meet you in person?”

  “All in good time, Chase. I know you have plenty of questions, but right now it’s important to focus on the task ahead.”

  “Alright. Is this place the world I must find?”

  “It is a representation of the world, yes.”

  “But it seems so barren.”