He understood what that meant. He was the God of the Stars.
“Who knows which universe you came from,” he murmured.
He had to study those murals, and unlock their secrets. How many travellers like him were in the universe? How many had unlocked its secrets before he even existed? The judge’s words flashed through his mind, “They will look upon you as a God.”
Days stole by, and his new surroundings were really interesting. The organisation of their society was remarkable and puzzling, given their primitive civilisation. In other books, the priests recorded the inhabitants and their produce. They had developed some systems of calculation as they formed knots on pieces of thread. The murals showed an entire galactic world in great detail. The information the priests held was remarkable, although they didn’t possess any advanced observation tools. The most interesting depictions, though, were the ones in the great chamber, where the archpriest kept his diary and the various organs, apart from the ones Mor had seen in the small room.
The tribe’s calendar was placed on an altar. Next to it, hooked on the wall, a torch shone on it. On this very wall were many more murals. They were the most interesting. They showed the planets and their orbits. There followed a text written in a language he couldn't understand, no matter how hard he tried to decipher it. Then, there were some more drawings. He was close to decoding it.
At dawn, he was armed with bows and arrows. He would go hunting. They would make an offering to the God of the Stars, and the priests had assigned him the task of hunting an animal. He was outside Tetrapolis. Hiding in the forest, he waited for his prey. All of a sudden, he heard a sound behind him. He turned around, surprised. It was the judges. Ashira’s imposing presence, with the long beard and the long white hair, stood out from the rest.
“We meet again,” the oldest priest greeted him.
“Yes.”
“I will be brief. We need your device.”
“My device?”
“Yes, Mor. You’re surprised?”
“How…?”
“We don’t have to say much. We’re trapped in this universe, and we want to pass on to another one.”
“Why? Don’t you have the power to travel, to tame time and space?”
“Unfortunately not. Even we have limited potential.”
He walked closer to Mor. The rest followed.
“The device.”
“I can’t…do this. It’s dangerous.”
“Don’t waste our time.”
The other two judges grabbed him by the arms.
Mor was taken by storm. He moved his body right and left, trying to escape their grip. Odora kicked him in the stomach.
“It’s gonna take you a lot more than that,” Mor murmured.
He made an effort to free himself. He turned to headbutt one of them. The other was thrown out of kilter. Mor stepped on him with all his might, till both of them plumped to the ground. Ashira beat a hasty retreat, but he was too old to run.
Mor grabbed him by the throat, and tried to strangle him.
“You’re no angels or judges. Tell me what you are…I don’t care. I don’t have anything to lose. I like it here, unlike you…You know what? The more I look at you, the more familiar your face. Tell me who you are!”
The Judge began to cough.
“I’ll squeeze your throat a little bit more next time…by accident! It’s weird. If you weren’t a traveller, I’d say you remind me of someone from my old planet…”
“Neuron…”
“How d’ you know that? Speak up!”
Mor squeezed Ashira’s throat a little harder. His eyes seemed to be sticking out of their sockets, his face flushed. His shine was gone. He was at death’s door.
“That’s where we were. That’s where we came from.”
He loosened up his grip.
“You came from there? But the planet was destroyed by meteorites…You were there?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes.”
“You had nothing to do with my work, so you couldn’t have known about my experiments…No one did, not even the government. Only the General of the Army.”
He took a deep breath.
“Wait a second. If you were there, that means you went onto the other side, too…The only persons that escaped were my partner and me…which means that…you passed on to the galactic system…Of course, all of us did, only to different planets. You can’t have gone through with Taurus. He opened the nanohole, and only the two of us were in the lab. Then, I went out in the yard…I opened it and passed through. But…The only way you could have passed on to the other side is if you did that after me. No one else was there. That was the only way…”
“We were behind, coming from the mountain. We saw the hole, and made it through before it closed again.”
“Behind the mountain? There’s nothing else but…But of course! The Golom Prisons! That’s why your face looks familiar.”
Mor scrutinised them.
“My body has altered, but my memory’s intact! Of course! The gang behind those thefts! It’s you…”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“I reached Saabah. You? Where did you find your spaceship?”
“I never thought you’d be so ungrateful!”
“Ungrateful? You want to snatch this away from me, and you say I’m ungrateful?”
“Yes, you’re ungrateful. You owe your life to us, and it’s not only that. You enjoy all these privileges here, thanks to us!”
“Really?” Mor said ironically.
“Look at them! Their civilisation is primitive, they have so little knowledge. They see a bright sphere coming down from the sky, then they see you. Thanks to us, you are a God here. Instead of thanking us, you mock us!”
“You are a bunch of adventurers that were luckier than you could expect. Don't forget, my friend, that you are alive, thanks to me and my device!”
“That was a matter of luck. You don’t say no to an opportunity. Enough with the talking. Give me the device now!”
“I said no!”
He was pissed off. He was so angry, his face flushed. He couldn’t take that anymore. He kicked Ashira, who lay unconscious on the ground, just like the others. He gave them one last look, then began to run as fast as he could.
After a while, the thieves came to their senses.
“He’ll try to escape. Now that he knows, he’s going to leave this planet. Keep a weather eye open,” shouted Ashira. “We mustn’t let him go!”
The gang of the long-term convicts
Ashira stood staring at him. He was much more intelligent and dangerous, which made him unpredictable. Mor had lived his adventure on Saabah. He looked at the bright sphere. He wondered where they had found the spaceship, while Ashira asked himself how they had survived and thanked their fate.
The old man’s mind scurried back to their past, lost country, planet Neuron, a day before its destruction. It was Mor’s country, too. They were in the Golon prisons, where all five of them were detained. Amidst that chaos, the doors opened by governmental decree. The indulgence set them free. Some of them had been informed beforehand. Others had no idea, and rejoiced. It was one last illusion of freedom.
Hundreds of lifers stormed out of the prisons. Within minutes, the cells went empty. They used to be behind bars, and now they were trapped inside their planet. The prisons were built on top of a huge rock, away from all three prefectures. None of those who went in had ever gone out. Their principal once said: “Save your skins, those of you who can.” After his announcement, he left, together with the wardens. The inmates were on top of the world. They thought they would find a way out. They ran down the rocks, drinking in the breeze that stroked their faces.
Everyone was gone, with the exception of five people, who were charged with crimes against the government, and high treason. Two of them were scientists that had worked for state organisations of weapon and space systems. Extremely cultivated, these five criminals, carrying out orders f
rom the eldest one, had stolen weapon construction plans, selling them to their nearest planet’s dictator. That was their task. They bought and sold government secrets. They did a roaring trade. Intheir last transaction, though, on planet Eor, one of them, who had been bribed, turned them in to the intergalactic police, which arrested them soon afterwards. They were sentenced to life imprisonment, and sent to the Golon jails. They continued their transactions from within their cells. As their chief had told them, “Let’s get some rest now, and we’ll see in the near future.” He was an old man, strength oozing away from him. All these years, he had made a fortune, which he had invested in various ways.
The rest of the inmates, without realising what was going to happen, were trying to save their skin. They were happy to be free. They all beat a hasty retreat. The principal and the wardens had gone away on a special bus. The gang knew exactly where they were supposed to get off to find a vehicle, and escape. When they went past Mount Murian, they saw the Plain of Long sprawling before them, where the Centre of Space Research was situated. Out in the yard stood Mor. A black hole had begun to form in front of him.
“Look there!”
“What’s that?”
“Quick!” the oldest man shouted in an imperative tone. “Quick!”
They were surprised to see Mor looking high in the sky, then dipping into the slot.
“What’s that guy doing over there?”
“Look alive! We have to make it through that hole!”
“Enough is enough!”
“He’s saving his skin! Drive faster! The planet’s on the brink of destruction!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Meteorites are going to crash into it! I heard the wardens. Quick!”
Mor was lost in the thick black hole.
The small spaceship carrying the five convicts went down at breakneck speed.
“Quick!” their chief yelled.
The slot was getting smaller and smaller. After a few seconds, the spaceship dipped into the hole. After a while, it vanished. Neuron’s sky turned fiery, as the meteorites heaved into view on the upper layers of the atmosphere, leaving deep furrows.
Through the worm hole, the gang ended up on planet Selios. It was in the same galactic system as Saabah, but it was completely different. Selios was a fertile planet, verdant, with lots of water and oxygen. Yet, it was desolate. Except for some primitive life forms, nothing else existed. The thugs wandered around for days, feeding on seeds, and drinking water from lakes and rivers. At nights, they thought they heard some sounds, and saw pairs of eyes glistening in the dark. They wondered how such a fertile planet could be desert. They didn’t take long to find the answer.
Going through a thick forest, they reached a vast valley. Far afield, they could make out something dark. They plodded on, in hopes that they would encounter some living beings. In the middle of the valley, a tower heaved into sight. They quickened their gait. The closer they got, the more clearly they could see the tower.
“At long last!”
The youngest of the five men began to run, anxious to meet the hosts. Just before the foot of the hill where the tower perched, the ground gave way, and the young man fell in. The rest of his partners ran to his rescue. They were surprised to see a vertical tunnel leading to an underground chamber. Its upper part was covered in dry weeds. The man urged them to join them as he could see light at the end of the tunnel. They made some efforts to go down into the gallery. He was right. There was light.
Several torches hung on the walls. A whole world hid in the dark. There was a special form of life down there, a state of human-like beings that couldn’t bear too much oxygen or sunlight. Whoever went out died in a few minutes. That’s why they had built their own underground world. They didn’t give them a very warm welcome at first.
As the gang was cunning and knowledgeable, it was only a matter of time to adjust to their new surroundings. They had to earn their respect, and show them who had the upper hand. That was the only way they could survive. And they made it.
In a short while, the inhabitants of the planet accepted them, learning their history. Their planet had gone much too close to the sun of their galactic system. For half its revolving time, it was day, and the rest night. During the day, the temperature was much too high for them, and their skin couldn’t bear the sun. Many of them died. They had to come up with a solution. This didn’t take long when they stumbled upon a huge underground cave with big lakes. They made it inhabitable, stashed away lots of food, and began to live underground during the day.
They learnt that there had been a formerly advanced civilisation. The tower the gang had seen was a jammed spaceship. Upon hearing this, the men’s hopes of escape were rekindled. They would go up to the surface of the earth, and try to fix the spaceship.
That’s exactly what they did. No one could stop them. They went out into the sunlight, on top of the hill, where the castle stood, next to the mouth of the underground cave. Repairing the spaceship was plain sailing for the mechanics. Soon, its blast-off system was ready to use. So was its navigation. They bade Selios farewell, and set off for new adventures, looking for challenges and spoils.
The gang was really dangerous. As they were habitual offenders, nobody knew what they were capable of. He had to take action immediately. He went back to the temple, left at the entrance the little animal he had caught, and indignantly made for the yard. He couldn’t decode that riddle with the planets. The thugs wouldn’t leave him alone until they got what they wanted. They were planning to leave for another universe, while he would be trapped there for the rest of his life. There was no other solution. He stopped pacing up and down nervously. He pulled the device out of his wristband, and took some deep breaths. He pressed the button to activate it, then dialled the code numbers. He would leave first. The black hole materialised in front of him, but after a while it was gone. At first, Mor thought there was a problem with the magnetic field. He tried again. Then, it dawned on him. It wasn’t the magnetic field; it was the entrance that led to a dead parallel universe. He put the device back in its place, and sat down, disappointed.
At that moment, Oxanna walked in happily. She was surprised to see him so sad and worried. She pulled him up to his feet. She began to talk to him, and point to the sky. After a while, the Elder came in. His tone of voice was enthusiastic, too. He pointed to the sky, as well. Mor couldn’t understand.
The priest drew planet Za. Then, on the opposite side, he drew another planet, and pointed to the sky. He had never seen it so bright and so close to Zaon. The priest kept drawing other planets behind it. Mor counted them. Seven. He recalled those paintings on the walls.
“Istadil?” he asked.
The priest drew a line that connected the two planets, Zaon and the one opposite it.
“Da Iskadil.”
“Da Iskadil?”
The priest threw his hands up in the air, as if praying, and pointed to the wristband.
“An, Da.”
He took a look at all the drawings at a run. The priest had put the planets in a straight line. Did this have to do with the God of Stars? he wondered. He knew something was going to happen, but he couldn’t understand what. Were the planets aligning themselves? Was God coming? He suddenly froze in his tracks.
“If He is coming, is He leaving, too?” Did that mean that Mor could leave, as soon as the planets aligned?
After offering the animal to the God of Stars to propitiate Him, the priests began praying early on. He was the last one, looking right and left. He was scared of the thugs and the planets’ alignment.
Never before had he seen Zaon’s sky so bright. The planets turned night into day. As prayers and orisons went on, what looked like a bright wreath formed around the planet. A beam of light turned up in the middle of the planet, and came in their direction, all the way to the mouth of the rock.
“Is…is it possible?” Mor wondered. Amid the prayers, he discreetly went out in the yard, an
d clambered down the steps in the dark, till he reached the entrance. There, much to his surprise, he saw a black gate.
“Of course! The ray is a passageway!” he thought to himself. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He was trying to give a scientific explanation, but in vain. Without much thought, he jumped in, lost in spacetime.
KARAGOR
The planet of Dictator Or
He opened his eyes with difficulty. He felt his body freezing cold. He tried to breathe, but he choked on a sense of rust. He began to cough to spit out the water he had swallowed. He reared his head. He realised he was lying face down in a creek. He couldn’t make out much in the dark. Hr tried to sit up, while he kept coughing.
He looked ahead and, much to his surprise, saw quite a lot of people standing opposite him, looking on. At the sight of his bulky body, there were some exclamations of horror.
“Don’t…be afraid! Where am I?” he murmured.
He looked at his body. He was still bulky, his skin even fairer, dotted with a few red spots, rather than burns. He began scanning the place around him. He wasn’t used to so much dark, and couldn’t make out much. He was inside a tunnel. It was made of stone and iron, while the ground was full of dirt. Underneath flowed a creek. Some yards behind him, there was an opening fenced with iron bars. That’s where the stream ended up. The people standing before him were emaciated and worn out, dressed in tatters, their eyes fearful.
“Where am I?”
No reply. They were all looking curiously at that sturdy visitor that had landed in the town’s sewer, dressed in animal skin, and wearing pendants. He went close to the iron bar, touched, and shook it. Not even he could move it. The gaps between the iron bars were quite large. He stuck his head in, and looked downwards. The cliff was so tall and steep, he instantly felt dizzy. Sprawling before him were the black sky and the wild sea.
“Don’t be afraid,” he turned to those staring at him. They wouldn’t react. He couldn’t interpret their intentions. Did they have difficulty understanding him, or were they hostile? All of a sudden, there were some voices. The crowd stepped aside. Several armed men turned up. Two of them stood several yards away, pointing their guns at him. The other two grabbed him by the elbows. Mor didn’t put up any resistance. It was pointless. The crowd, silent, stepped aside.
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