Counsellor Zeddious scorned the apprehensive Warrians. "Negative, you heard his last order. No one is to enter under any circumstances and anyone who tries will feel my own blade in his gizzard." Zeddious unsheathed his energy broadsword and waved it in front of the Superintendent. A few moments past as the crew became restless and the Superintendent began to scrutinise the armed Warrian before him. Maybe this is some attempt to overthrow the Emperor and Zeddious was a part of the plot? Maybe there is a platoon inside assassinating their Lord as they wait? The Superintendent's hand slowly moved to his cutting tool which could be used as a very formidable weapon.
From behind the Counsellor emerged the Emperor with two glowing, jewel studded bracelets upon his wrists. Zardon's congregation bowed as did the Counsellor while backing away from him.
"My Lord, we were in fear for your life, but your last command was specific not to follow you." Said the relieved Counsellor.
The Emperor loomed over his subjects as his wrists pulsed with red hate. "Superintendent, return the mining crew to their battle stations. Counsellor Zeddious, instruct the Warlords to prepare for battle. By the arrival of the next moons the Federation Battle Fleet will be utterly crushed!"
"My Lord, how can this be, our army lies in tatters?" He gasped at the pulsating bracelets. "What are those strange ornaments you wear?"
"That is an order, Counsellor!" Zardon snapped.
"Yes my Lord." Zeddious backed away and rushed down the tunnel.
As the mining crew departed, Zardon broke into a hysterical laugh that was heard throughout the crevasse, Zeon and vast heavens.
CHAPTER TWO - ZARDON'S REVENGE
As Zardon's prophesy depicted, half of the Federation Battle Fleet was destroyed in a single day and many battle ships were captured and modified by the Warrians for their use. The Warrians soon rebuilt their Empire as nothing stood in their way. Now even Andromeda was under siege, the home of the Federation Council. Andromeda was a heavily fortified planet and the Federation felt sure that even the mighty Warrians could not crush this stronghold.
The Warrian strike force was in battle formation and heading to the climax of the war. At the head of the strike force was the immense Warrian Flagship, Kron. The ship homed five hundred thousand soldiers and its smooth outer hull was constructed of a dark grey metal that reflected the light from the distant sun. The main hull was like that of a bird, and projecting from it were two structures that resembled wings thrusting down to provide lift. She stretched eighty kilometres in length, sixty in breadth and at her side were the two cruisers, Xeon and Phase. They homed fifty thousand soldiers each and the main hull was like that of the Kron's but from the sides projected structures that resembled wings of a bird in a dive for prey. These machines of war were originally the property of the Federation, however they had been modified drastically for the Warrian's evil devise and the original shape was barely discernible.
Aboard the Kron, the Warrians were at their posts and awaiting the order for attack from their Emperor.
A soldier strode into the Emperor's private chamber as the doors closed quickly behind the large sinister creature, cutting off the light to the room. The only illumination in the chamber came from two faint lights in the ceiling. The soldier was wearing a black armoured suit that covered his whole body and on his chest was the symbol of two clashing red swords. He stood two and a half metres tall, with a large powerful humanoid frame that displayed superhuman strength. Two elongated, triangular plates concealed his reptilian face and from the top of his helmet came two knife shaped objects that contained the soldier’s alert ears. From behind the "T" shaped slot that extended to the base of the triangular plates was the red glow of two infrared-perceptive orbs. Around his waist hung a hand pistol and a sword hilt that rattled as he walked. It was evident by the golden sword on each of his shoulders that he was senior ranking Warlord of the Warrian Army.
The room was bare, except a large structure at the opposite end that was shaped like a hand lying palm up with its fingers clawing the air. A small amount of light came from the monitors on the structure's console and inside sat the ruler of the Warrian race. His form was obscured by the darkness, except for his eyes that shone like two bright red, deadly beacons.
The Warlord bowed before his lord. "Emperor Zardon, the strike force is in position and awaits your command."
Through the tortured ether that surrounded the Emperor, invisible lips articulated venomous words that only Zardon's ears could perceive. "Destroy them all my Liege. Experience the joy of five billion minds crying out in agony."
Zen, anxiously awaited the Emperor's reply, deaf to the unseen counsellor that compelled the shrouded figure before him.
The resonation from the words played the strings of Zardon's heart like a maestro. The Emperor's response echoed through the chamber. "Warlord Zen, I have decided to show the Federation Council the full might of my power. Whatever is left over, you can exterminate."
Zen shuddered to think of the power that the Emperor possessed. He had seen many battles and weapons of great destruction, but nothing compared to what Zardon possessed. With his own eyes he had seen his Lord destroy an entire battleship with the point of his finger. Now he proposes to destroy an entire planet.
"What of the Megaproton Energy Field, my Lord?" Andromeda was surrounded by an impenetrable energy field that whole battle fleets have failed to penetrate.
"Their puny energy field is no match for the power I possess." Zardon thrust his arms out of his robe's long sleeves and exposed two black bracelets studded with fine jewels that surrounded his wrists and forearm. The bracelets produced an unnatural red glow that brought fear to the war veteran before him. "Leave me and await my signal."
The Warlord bowed, spun on his heels and marched out of the chambers.
Zardon pressed a button on the console and a low hum echoed in the room. Immediately a force field surrounded the structure and its sole occupant, then it moved slowly towards the lofty gloom. A hatch opened above exposing a long dimly lit tunnel. The structure entered four kilometre long tube and quickly passed by countless levels within the Kron. The structure soon come to the end of its journey and was met by a similar hatch as to the one it had first entered. The hatch opened to reveal a starry night. It passed smoothly through the hatch and came to a stop on the outside surface of the Kron. With the planet Andromeda before him Zardon's frame was a silhouette behind the planet's sun.
Andromeda was red in colour with wisps of blue and green at the poles. It was mostly a desert planet but the poles were lush in vegetation and small freshwater lakes. The planet was a symbol of purity, life and tranquillity that Zardon despised with all his heart.
He stood before Andromeda and spread his arms out wide with his palms facing forward. Then clenched his fists and prepared himself for the onslaught his body was about to undertake. He felt the energy that fuels the forces from the four corners of the universe charge him with a vast surge of energy greater than the cosmos had ever seen before. His whole body glowed like a large beacon as if to forewarn the Andromedarians of the forthcoming catastrophe. "Behold the might of Zardon." He announced as he slammed his wrists together in front of him causing the bracelets to touch, then a prodigious beam of red hate expelled from his body and projected to the planet.
The beam engulfed Andromeda and for a brief moment the energy field held. Then with a gigantic explosion the planet and its three billion inhabitants were destroyed. The cataclysm produced light that blinded all that viewed with unprotected eyes, and anything in close proximity was bombarded with heat, light and matter. Like a last great act of defiance, the planet's death spat out a great shock wave that struck the Kron and shook every treacherous bolt and panel she possessed. Zardon was thrown to his knees then forced to clutch the structure he stood on to ride out the explosion. The force field that protected the Emperor from the deadly cold of space was diffused by the unleashing of the Ring’s power. However, he was immune to the futile threats
from space as the superior might at the Emperor’s disposal protected him.
When it passed, he stood up to behold his accomplishment. Andromeda was gone, the entire Andromeda Battle Fleet, that was in orbit around the planet preparing for war, was also destroyed. Zardon reached to the console and activated the com-link. "Warlord Zen, you may now send in the strike force."
Zen's voice replied from the small speaker on the console. "Yes my Lord." Despite all his efforts to conceal his feelings of fear and amazement, his voice still managed to tremble. He feared no man or mortal beast, but magic was something he did not understand, and this was the one thing he feared. Zen also felt cheated. This was a good chance to utilise his vast fighting skills and he felt sure he could even the odds on the superior Andromeda Battle Fleet, without the Emperor's aid.
As Zardon watched his space fighters pick off the few remaining spaceships; with all his heart he laughed..... "Nothing can stop me now!"
********************
On the other side of the galaxy was one of the few remaining planets of the Federation yet to be obliterated. Carillia was an Earth-like planet and the home of one billion of the greatest scientific minds in the Federation. One of these scientists was John Williams..........
John stormed into the small, brightly lit control room carrying a small ornate box, and placed it on the control panel where a young man sat at the controls. "Has the probe returned?" John asked as if his life depended on it.
"No not yet." Replied the young man.
"Great! Of all the times to be interrupted."
John was in his mid fifties, and was of a similar height to the young man that was seated next to him. Though the hair on his head had lost its original colour and was somewhat more sparse. Under what was left of his hair was a lightly tanned face, with a strong brow and alert blue grey eyes. His average sized nose was slightly flattened from some previous breakage and beneath it a full lipped mouth showed some sign of ageing. The ears he possessed were large and rounded with a few wisps of hair growing out from them. The whole portrait was finally masked in a fine pattern of wrinkles. He was in good physical shape for his age as people did not suffer from many diseases and ailments in the thirty first century. The average life expectancy was now one hundred and fifty years. John's current field of research was space travel.
The two glared at the three dimensional imager that was the centre piece of the control room. On the imager was displayed an arrangement of stars and at the centre of the image was a strange dark area. Surrounding this dark spot were spiralling clouds of space dust that were being sucked into the spot's epicentre; this was a rare and mysterious black hole. Surrounding the imager was a round control panel that was covered in buttons and lights that continuously flashed and pulsed like a badly coordinated light show. On one side of the room was a large window. This viewed a landing dock for small spacecraft and medium size freighters. Only one ship presided in the landing dock. It was a modified armoured freighter with a sleek pointed nose and a rounded tail. It possessed two twin barrelled energy pulse guns, one on top and the other on the belly. The other walls in the control room were covered in wall charts, pictures of various spacecrafts and the wall opposite the window housed the security door that allowed access to the room.
"I'm so glad you could be here son, you may be witnessing an historic moment."
The young man was John's only Son, Ryan. When Amanda died giving birth to Ryan, John was shattered. The loss was something that would remain with him forever. Despite the tragedy, he was left with the consolation of a son, and John could not be more proud of him. Ryan was twenty three years old and just exceeded John’s height at one hundred and eighty five centimetres. Upon his head was a full crop of light brown hair that was cut in the traditional army style crew cut, and on either side was a small rounded ear. Under a strong brow were two vivid blue eyes that were always alert and never missed a thing. His nose was straight and well charactered but of average size, and under it was a pair of full lips that produced the most infectious and attractive smile. Ryan was in peak physical condition, he had always strived to tune his mind and body for maximum performance. When he decided upon his career, his high fitness level was a vital qualification for a space fighter pilot.
He was a Colonel in the elite Andromeda Space Force, and the youngest to ever receive his rank. Ryan displayed superior skills in hand-to-hand combat, battle tactics and most of all, the ability to outfly any opponent in the Space Force. He had a special gift for flying. Whether it was a small starfighter or a gigantic destroyer, he could still fly the ship as if he were born with wings. Ryan had spent the last five years on Andromeda with the elite Delta Squadron, though he would spend all his leave back on his home planet with his father. Ryan was currently on three weeks leave.
"Dad, what have you got there?" He pointed towards the small box.
"Commander Edwards of the Carillian Defence Force gave it to me. They were about to destroy this asteroid that had strayed into the interplanetary shipping lanes when they discovered unidentified energy emissions coming from it. When they went to investigate the source, they found this box. "John picked up the small box and began scrutinising it, "They tried to open the box but nothing could break or cut this unusual material."
"What about a Particle Phaser?"
"No, not even that. Anyway they want me to run some tests on it and see if I can work out what it is." He placed it back on the control panel and returned his attention to the imager.
A moment later a cone shaped spacecraft shot out of the black space in the centre of the image projection. Instantly the control panel went wild in the form of readout information and scanner detectors that beeped like crazy.
"Oh my god, you've done it. You've actually done it." Ryan's jaw dropped in astonishment.
"It worked...IT WORKED!" John was so excited that he gave Ryan a hug that was so tight, he flinched from the pain. "Do you realise was this means?" He continued before Ryan could reply. "If my calculations are accurate, with the correct speed, angle and trajectory when entering a black hole; we can travel to any part of the universe at any specified time." John stared at Ryan. "We can completely disappear from time and space so that not even the vast Warrian Empire could find us. This could be the salvation for the human race!"
The very concept made Ryan's head reel. "What about the black hole itself, they don't exactly grow on trees and it can't work without one?"
"We create one every time we make a jump and neutralise it when we are at our destination."
"You can’t be serious?!"
"I am very serious. We've had the technology for years, but until now we have had no use for it. Let alone fly into one! It's called a Gravity Modulator. It can punch a hole in the space-time plane and when we exit, it will retract the hole behind us and restore the plane leaving no gravity residue."
"Does the probe have a Gravity Modulator on board?"
"No."
"Then how did the probe get back when there is no black hole on the other side?"
"There may not be a black hole, but there is a white hole. It's exactly the same but in reverse. Instead of sucking in matter it spews out matter. So all I had to do was reverse the flight path and the probe would return." John had a big smile on his face from the satisfaction of his successful experiment.
"What, like a star?”
"No, very different to a star but looks and behaves similarly. That was another recent discovery after we invented the Gravity Modulator. We have found a number across the galaxy and up until recently we thought they were ordinary stars.”
"You may win the Noble prize for this." Ryan said with pride.
"Well the thought had occurred to me." John replied as the big grin remained.
Ryan quickly got his mind back on the job and commanded the probe's autopilot to return to the landing dock.
"First we must examine the readouts from the probe. Then if everything checks out," John gestured towards the ship in th
e dock. "We can take the Eagle through the black hole. If the first journey succeeds, we can install a Gravity Modulator. Then gauge the co-ordinates and angle of approach against the specific space-time co-ordinates. Feed the data into the Eagle, then go anywhere in time and space. I have already prepared her for the journey. Also, I took the liberty of copying all the data from the historical records computer, all the cumulative knowledge of the thirty first century, including all the latest inventions that could be useful in changing the past. Just think of what we could do, we could correct past wrongs, possibly stop this damn war from ever starting."
"Changing history can be very dangerous, Dad. We could solve one problem and create others far worse than the first."
"How worse could it be? The way we're losing the war the human race would be destroyed in a few weeks!"
"At least we could move to a place where the Warrians wouldn't find us."
"Anyway, we may be getting ahead of ourselves Ryan. When we've examined the readouts, then we can hypothesise the future. Let’s go to the landing bay and wait for the probe." They began to leave the room when John stopped suddenly. "Oh, I nearly forgot. Ryan, bring the box along. We will have a look at it in the Eagle's lab while we wait."
Ryan picked up the box and they left for the loading dock. The dock was a hexagonal shape with two large sliding doors in the roof. The doors were open exposing the blue sky and the light from two distant suns. Carillia was the second of the six planets that circled the two suns and possessed a gravity slightly greater than Earth’s. The probe was thirty light years away and with current technology had two hours flying time before it reached Carillia. While John and Ryan approached the overshadowing structure of the Eagle, John barked a command "Open", and a ramp lowered from the front of the ship towards them. When it came to a halt on the dock floor, they entered the ship and headed towards the on-board lab. The lab was situated at one end of a large room that housed stores, various equipment and a small living area. At the opposite end was the general quarters. The main features of the general quarters were four lounge chairs, two beds and a small kitchen. The entire room extended twenty metres from end to end while its breadth was over ten metres. The room was well lit and the general decor was white with some black panels added for contrast. The lab had three benches that held a variety of analysers and monitors. There were no allowances for the total lack of gravity in space as the ship possessed its own artificial gravity.
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