The Accidental Astronaut

by Matthew K Wyers

  “I’m pleased that you like my walls. We haven’t properly made our acquaintance, however,” the voice of Gregorical shot through the air.

  “My name is Hannelore. This is my best friend, Micah. And this is his dog Jimmy,” Hannelore pointed toward Taurean.

  Darbian looked at Taurean. “I suppose you’ve been shape shifting, Mr. Armankouri, and I imagine a proper introduction is in order.”

  “Quite right, sir. My name is Taurean of Armankour. I must insist, however, that we delay our pleasantries. Vinitor has not come looking for me but for an object in my possession. We must retrieve it immediately. Vinitor can never possess it. Can you help us?” Taurean put his hands together almost as though he were begging, but begging wasn’t the custom of the Armankouri people. They put their hands together to make polite requests.

  “Consider us at your service, Taurean. Gregorical and I will do everything in our power to help you retrieve it,” Darbian replied.

  Just then, they arrived at the bridge of the ship. There was a large round screen at the front showing where the craft was going. The children didn’t realize the craft was flying evasively. Stunned at the views from above their home of Garden City, they were hooked on the screen as though it had captured them. Even more stunned at how quickly the scenery changed from one second to another, they gasped and awed.

  “I think I’m going to be airsick,” said Micah.

  Darbian stooped to get eye level with Micah. “Don’t look at the screen, young one. Focus on the back of the room instead. We’ll be out of this mess soon enough.” Darbian stood back up and went to the front of the bridge.

  Micah and Hannelore turned instead to the back of the room where they saw blinking lights and machines of all kinds along the walls. There was a station at the center of the room with multiple screens and buttons and levers all around it. It was circular with four seats around it.

  It tickled Micah’s imagination. All the years he had dreamed of being an astronaut and now he was in a spaceship surrounded by gadgets and inventions beyond human understanding.

  Taurean tapped Darbian on the elbow. “Master Darbian, we must reach the Palace Hotel in the center of the city. That’s where I’ve hidden the Convergence and we must retrieve it before Vinitor’s soldiers find it.”

  The lights blinked aboard the ship.

  “They’re landing more hits Gregorical. Time to fly for real,” Darbian shouted.

  The fighters outside had split into three groups and were chasing Gregorical from multiple angles.

  “There sir, the river will lead you to the hotel,” Taurean pointed at the display.

  Darbian commanded Gregorical to fly along the surface of the river. Meanwhile, Darbian sat in his captain’s chair directing laser fire at the fighters.

  Gregorical was quite nimble. He plummeted himself toward the river and pulled up at the last possible instant.

  Two fighters crashed into the river as they could not match Gregorical’s expert movements.

  Gregorical sustained several more hits, however; and with the first shift anyone had experienced on this flight, a quarter of the left section of the ship ruptured and came flying off. With navigation now limited, Gregorical flew as upright as he could and landed on the street in front of the hotel. The ship skid along the street and smashed through a large water fountain right in front of the building. There, Gregorical came to rest.

  Sparks flew out all sides of the ship. Now sitting beside the grand and luxurious hotel, one could see that Gregorical was about three stories high and fifty yards long.

  Inside, Darbian and his passengers were fine, but frazzled with their predicament.

  As Gregorical sat with a piece of his left stern broken off, he spoke, “Darbian, now would be a good time to hurry. It will take me several minutes to repair myself and the lack of solar energy will make it even more difficult. At that, my teleportation device is damaged.”

  “Taurean, take me inside to your device. We must work quickly. Children, you stay here. You’ll be safe with Gregorical.” Darbian walked back through the corridor from which they came only moments ago.

  Taurean followed, and the two leaped out of the gaping hole left by the ripped apart stern of Gregorical. They found themselves on the sidewalk.

  There were hundreds of people mulling around outside. Some of them were flooding out of the hotel as they feared the craft would hit the building. Others came out of neighboring buildings. Frightened and confused, they rushed to call loved ones. Unfortunately, their concerns were about to grow more dire.

  At that moment, several of the fighters that had been in pursuit arrived at the scene. They surrounded Gregorical and all the people on the street including Darbian and Taurean. There the fighters hovered with their guns trained.

  Chapter 3

  “Master Darbian, what do we do now?” Taurean asked as he peered toward a sky filled with fighters.

  Darbian looked at the hovering craft. Then he turned to Taurean. “They’re drones. Their command was to follow the ship. If we slip into the hotel, they shouldn’t notice us. Getting back to Gregorical and the children, that will be the problem,” Darbian said as he walked toward the entrance to the hotel.

  Taurean followed and the two jogged into the lobby of the building.

  “Master Darbian, we should take the stairs. The Convergence is hidden on the fifth floor.”

  As the two raced up the stairs, Taurean told his story of coming to Earth.

  “I came to this world to hide the Convergence. Never in a millennium would I have thought someone would be able to find me. I left no trace of myself. I used the Convergence to travel into the future. How is it possible for someone to find you in the future when you’ve disappeared into thin air?” Taurean threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

  “You did what?” Darbian stopped. He stooped down to Taurean’s eye level. “You traveled here from the past using this device?”

  Taurean frowned. “Yes. It was of the utmost importance that the Convergence never be discovered. I thought the best course of action was to travel to the most remote planet I could think of and then proceed into a future time. If one were to travel into the past, then one would leave evidence of one’s presence. There would be a trail to follow. I couldn’t risk that. If I were to travel to the future, however, then no one would know where to look. I don’t understand how anyone found me. I told no one where I was going! When I arrived, I made sure to destroy my ship. I planned to live the rest of my life here among the humans. That’s when I met Micah, so lonely and wounded. I felt for him, but now I’ve put him and Hannelore in mortal danger. How did anyone find me? I don’t understand!”

  “It takes a time traveler to find a time traveler,” said Darbian. “Come now, we need to retrieve this device of yours.” Darbian pointed to the top of the stair well.

  The two climbed the steps once again until they reached the fifth floor. When they came out of the stairwell, they found several people huddled in the hallway.

  A few of them shouted as they assumed Taurean was one of the invaders.

  “Keep calm everyone; we’re the good guys,” shouted Darbian as he whirled around to look at people on all sides of him.

  “This way, Master Darbian, I’ve hidden the device under the bed I first slept in here.” Taurean jumped up and down as they approached the room…512.

  The two barged into the room. They found no one in the room and that was fortunate as neither thought ahead and concerned himself with having to explain their presence to a half dressed guest.

  “You hid the device under the furniture?” Darbian marveled.

  “Absolutely,” Taurean remarked. “Everyone on this planet knows they don’t clean under the beds in hotels. It’s a rather dirty world, actually.”

  Darbian flipped on the light switch.

  Taurean crawled under the bed and retrieved a small silver canister about the size of a basketball. He was very dusty when he emerged from under the bed
, but that was the least of his worries.

  “Master Darbian, we have to get the Convergence off this planet and away from Vinitor at all costs. I’m almost positive of who he’s working for and if the Halinkoy Cult ever obtains the Convergence then life as we know it would be in danger.” Taurean rubbed his brow and then set the device on a table in the middle of the room.

  “The Halinkoy Cult? Why have I never heard of them?” Darbian responded as he rubbed his chin.

  “I'm not sure, Master Darbian, but be mindful…the Halinkoy Cult is the ancient enemy of the Armankouri people. I came here to hide the Convergence from them, hoping against hope they could never use it against us.” Taurean sat down and punched buttons on a small key pad on the side of the Convergence.

  “I’ve heard of the Relic Destroyers, the Dragonfly People, and others certainly, but I’ve never heard of the Halinkoy Cult. Taurean, you know more about what’s going on here than you’re letting on. You said you traveled through time using this? What exactly is the Convergence? It’s more than a time machine. What makes it so dangerous?” Darbian sat down at the table besides Taurean.

  “The Convergence was created by my people many generations ago. It was used to transport an entire planet and an entire people through time and space. We used it to avoid slaughter at the hands of our enemies. There were always some among my people who wanted us to abandon our pacifist ways and develop weapons. Instead, our scientists created the Convergence. We used it many times and always successfully. Then something terrible happened.” Taurean paused and looked at Darbian right in the eyes. “One of our people betrayed us…one of our top scientists who helped build the Convergence. He took the device and sold it to the highest bidder. Oh, Master Darbian, this happened thousands of years ago and we can’t do anything about it now, but the one who bought the device was a human named Ajax Halinkoy. It’s the reason I came to this planet and not any of the others. I thought if the Halinkoy Cult was searching for the Convergence then the last place they would go is to Ajax’ own planet. Nothing terribly important has ever happened here and the technology isn’t at all advanced. Halinkoy left this planet behind a long time ago. Who would have thought he might look back?”

  “A human with the power to move through time and space? There must be more to the story,” Darbian quipped.

  “Not a great deal is known about Halinkoy. He comes and goes and he destroys. That seems to be his only aim.” Taurean squinted one of his eyes and examined the device more closely.

  Darbian leaned back in his chair. “Well, how did you get the Convergence back? You never involved the Wardein? Why not?”

  “We don’t know what Halinkoy used the Convergence for. We don’t know if he used it at all. And we didn’t have to involve the Wardein. Some time ago a Warden of mythical proportions, of whom we don’t even have a name, stole the Convergence from Halinkoy and returned it to our people. Ever since then, we’ve been hiding it. We can’t even risk keeping it on our planet anymore. We’ve had to devise new ways to avoid our enemies. Allowing the Convergence to fall into the wrong hands would be disastrous. It would cost countless innocent lives and my people cannot allow that to happen.” Taurean went back to work on the Convergence.

  Darbian cocked his head to the side. “Ok, explain something. The Convergence is needed on Armankour to move the planet when it's threatened. You brought it here to hide it from Halinkoy, but you never intended on going back? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Taurean relaxed. “Yes, it’s quite complicated. I should tell you I took the Convergence without permission from the Council.”

  “You did what?” Darbian jumped from his chair and threw his hands up.

  “I’m a bit too much like my father, I’m afraid. I act when action is necessary.” Taurean went back to punching buttons.

  Darbian pointed back at Taurean. “How is it you get to decide when action is necessary? You’ve put the people of Earth in danger and you didn’t even have your Council’s blessing to come here?”

  Taurean stared straight ahead. “It was in the best interest of my people, I assure you.”

  Darbian whipped back around. “How so?”

  “We were attacked. As I told you, Halinkoy destroys. Over the centuries, he attacked us many times. He always failed. That was until his most recent attempt.” Taurean sniffled.

  “What are you getting at?” Darbian said.

  “Armankour has fallen. Our people have been scattered. We’re being hunted to extinction. Perhaps the faction that wanted us to create weapons was right all along. I'm not sure.” Taurean wiped his eyes. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  Darbian froze in his tracks. “How is that possible?”

  “Honestly, we don’t know how it happened. Halinkoy used some weapon to cause our Reality Shields to work against us. A Reality Shield works by deflecting energy weapons harmlessly into another dimension. Generally, they work perfectly,” Taurean said.

  “But?” Darbian replied.

  “Whatever Halinkoy hit us with caused the Reality Shield to work in reverse. Suddenly, the alternate dimensions were flooding the planet and causing untold destruction. Our only option was to shut the Shields down and flee. It was chaos. There was little time to prepare. My office was responsible for keeping track of the Convergence so I took it and left the planet. Others left and took our technologies with them hoping to protect them from Halinkoy.” Taurean turned his face up to Darbian. “Armankour doesn’t really exist anymore. The Ruling Council doesn’t really exist anymore. We’re stretched across the corners of the universe…on our own so to speak.”

  “I don’t understand. The Wardein would have helped. Why did you allow yourself to be attacked repeatedly?” Darbian sat down next to Taurean.

  “It’s a mystery to us, but the Warden that recovered the Convergence so many generations ago told us never to involve the Wardein with the Halinkoy Cult. The only explanation that solider offered us was this…’the future depends on it.’ We didn’t know what to make of it except that perhaps the space-time continuum had been thrown out of whack.” Taurean covered his eyes with his hands. “We’ve made great sacrifices Darbian, but I don’t have any idea why.”

  Darbian shook his head. “Something is terribly wrong here.”

  “The only explanation is that time travelers have been at work and doing a dastardly work at that. We may never comprehend what has happened, but please understand that this device must be hidden at all costs. Do you understand, Master Darbian? All costs.” Taurean looked down and fiddled with his fingers. “I know now what we must do. We can’t destroy the Convergence because it would cause a rift in the space-time continuum. We must, however, hide it where no one can find it.”

  “How do we do that?” Darbian’s tone grew dire.

  “The last few minutes, I’ve been adjusting the controls. Normally, a person must input a time and place and then accompany the device to its destination, but what if we set the device to travel on its own to a time and place even we don’t know?” Taurean cracked a sly smile.

  “You’re thinking if no one knows when or where the device ends up then no one could track it? That it would be lost to all of civilization forevermore?” Darbian stood up and turned his back, looking out the window onto the street below.

  “Yes, that’s it. It’s the only way to secure the future. The Convergence will choose where to hide and no one can follow it.” Taurean further adjusted the controls.

  “But how would we be sure that no one could track it? We don’t know how Vinitor found it here. He knew you were here with it and that's another mystery. There are too many unknowns, Taurean. The first thing to do is take it to the Wardein Central Command. The Conference of Wardein can devise a plan to hide it safely away from any threat.” Darbian spoke this but wasn’t terribly confident in his own words. He perceived there was so much more going on than what he could understand. He knew that implicitly trusting the Conference of Wardein to handle the situation, as he would
normally do, might not be possible.

  “We don’t have much time to think about it, Master Darbian. Vinitor and his guards will be here soon enough, as they surely know by now that Gregorical has been damaged and is sitting in the street. We might not even get away from Vinitor. How could we get back to the Wardein Central Command?” Taurean’s eyes sunk.

  “Don’t you worry about Gregorical. There are plenty of tricks up his sleeve. And he’s got more fight in him than any army Vinitor can muster.” Darbian put his hands on the window. “But you’re right about one thing; Vinitor and his guards are here! We have to get back to Gregorical and the children!”

  “I’m right behind you, Master Darbian.” Taurean picked up the Convergence.

  The two rushed out of the door and back down the stairs.

  Meanwhile, Vinitor and a battalion of his guards arrived on the scene. They stood on top of a group of craft that hovered a few stories above the street.

  Vinitor stretched all four of his arms out. “People of Earth, aliens alike, and especially you Warden, bow before the supreme being of the galaxy!”

  Darbian and Taurean came out of the hotel at that moment.

  “Supreme being of the galaxy? Vinitor, you’re nothing but a glorified bounty hunter! Who are you working for?” Darbian shouted from the street below.

  “Ahhh, you insult me, you pitiful Warden. Your ship is battered. You’re surrounded. You’re defeated,” Vinitor answered. His voice then grew more subdued. “And it’s no business of yours who I’m working for.”

  Darbian and Taurean inched toward the ship. The people around them were huddled together and bowing down.

  Vinitor peered down at Taurean. “I see you’ve finally brought the Convergence. Good boy. Now hand it here before I freeze this planet anyway!”

  Taurean set the Convergence down and moved away from it.

  The device made quite a bit of noise, a thunderous sound. It spun and a bright light emanated from the core of the device. The outer shell became transparent and the light within shined through. A high-pitched sound filled the air and the light grew so bright that everyone within sight of the device had to cover their eyes. Then it disappeared. A glowing portion of pavement was all that was left behind.