by Devon Shubin
They could see the opening up ahead as natural daylight broke through the hallway. “Yes! You know I am a lover of music!” the Space Traveler exclaimed.
Alegna wasted no time and replied also, “Yes, music is my love!”
Mizpah smiled and played the song ‘Hit the road jack’ by the great genius himself, Mr. Ray Charles. Running between the guards at the entrance who were now mesmerized by Mizpah and the music. The three-hot tailed it through the jungles running (Mizpah was hovering) for their lives from the army of Cudats.
The Space Traveler looked up into the sky for his ship and asked, “Where is she Alegna?”
She pointed up and out, “Just above the tree lines.”
Mizpah turned and viewed the blue sky above the trees and responded, “Your star ship is like me, Inspector. Does it too have a musical instrument?”
Hundreds of Cudat soldiers came pouring out of the entrance of the pyramid ready to throw their flaming spears at the escaped prisoners. A few chucked their spears missing by a few feet while others came very close. Cudats were excellent spear throwers, they had contests daily. Sometimes the contests were of distances, height and with targets. Right now, as the Space Traveler and Alegna ran through the trees, they were only concerned that they reached the lift pad before a spear pierced through them.
A spear bounced off Alegna’s bone hard tail as it waved behind her as she ran. The Space Traveler was not so lucky as a flaming spear nicked his shoulder causing him to stumble and tumble over to the compacted soil ground. He quickly rose and began running behind them some ten plus feet. The second verse of the song began and they could see the lift pad.
“The lift pad!” Alegna revealed. When she reached, it she jumped on top of the circular silver disk and Mizpah hovered over it with her. They turned around and waited for the Space Traveler who was moving as quickly as he could, for a Duradusk. Behind him came the Cudat army running at full speed. They were only thirty yards behind him now. Plenty of distance for their top spear throwers to hit the target, him!
When she felt, the timing was close enough, Alegna took a chance and commanded, “computer, lift off!” The voice activation transmitted the ships computer and the lift pad rose as the Space Traveler dove for the edge of the disk and held on as it rocketed upwards. Spears flying at them missing only by inches. One spear ricocheted off the silver lift pad. It startled the Space Traveler who held on with both hands to the edge of it as it rose forty feet in the sky. Alegna reached down to help pull him up as Mizpah flew through the disk and faced him as he hung there now one hundred feet in the sky. Mizpah was smiling. “You know ‘Rocket man’ by Elton John?” He said to the Space Traveler. He ignored the synthetic star man for the moment and pulled himself up with the assistance of the very strong Alegna.
Down below, Mossilio the hated arrived by a wagon-type vessel. The Cudats were the beast of burden pulling their leader along the pathway. Mossilio looked up in the sky at the three beings being transported up on the silver disk some two hundred feet in the sky now. He looked over at Oneguld who would not face him. He said, “You let them escape Oneguld!”
Oneguld, still sucking on an animal leg of some kind replied, “Mizpah helped them.”
Mossilio the hated looked up at the three who stood on the silver pad as it lifted into the sky and then disappeared. The ship disabled the camouflage and the Space Travelers enormous ship appeared. He watched as the ship sped off toward space. He then exclaimed, “I will find you, Inspector.”
Meanwhile inside the ship, the Space Traveler wiped his brow and gave Alegna a great big smile. “I can’t believe you did that? You saved me Alegna.”
“You would have done the same, right Inspector?” She replied as she walked around him.
“Absolutely, but, how did you know? I mean how did you know I was on Col?”
“You have made some great friends on Lordak Pogna, including King Beziah who could not stop praising your heroics. He’s really got an indecisive nature about him, doesn’t he?”
He answered her, “He’s unfit to lead. Regardless, we need to get back and help them with the rebels.”
“It’s already over, the King stopped Amrodian and his men. Whatever you did set off a chain reaction and they have claimed victory,” Alegna explained.
The Space Travelers mouth dropped and his heart rose, knowing he would not need to intervene any longer with the drama that unfolded yesterday. “They gave up?”
Mizpah floated over to them in the bridge and said, “Now I shall take you to Earth.”
The Space Traveler said, “Well Mizpah, we kinda’ have a change of plans. We will get to Earth someday, trust me I want to see it, but right now we have a mission to finish on Lordak Pogna.”
Mizpah just stared at him with his big smile, floating there like a helium balloon at a kid’s party.
Alegna shook her head yes in agreement as the computer spoke over the sound system, “Initiating warp speed to Lordak Pogna.”
The Space Traveler jumped in his cockpit and strapped his belt and Alegna followed suite in the co-Captain chair before the acceleration through the cosmos. Mizpah then asked, “Shall we listen to the musical instrument?”
Alegna had never heard music before, other than back when they were running through the jungles from the army of killer Cudats. She had no idea what was to come. The Space Traveler on the other hand loved the 70’s slow rock and blues of Earth and so he requested, “Mizpah, play ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ by Elton John.”
Mizpah glowed and then replied, “As you request Inspector.” Then the piano intro begun and the rest is history. Go and research it online if you are not familiar with the song, but trust me, it kicks major tush. Soon the Space Traveler was singing along with sir Elton John as the stars evaporated and blue light shot across the widow shield. He looked over at Alegna in her co-Captains’ chair and she was listening closely to the sound and harmony. She had never heard anything like it before. The drums and melody kicked up and the high was supreme. By the end of the second chorus line she was sucked in. The Space Traveler was singing along with the lyrics and she wanted in too. Mizpah on the other hand was spinning around in the air as he typically did.
When the song ended, she requested, ‘Mizpah, play it again please.”
Mizpah fired up the song and soon everyone, including Mizpah was harmonizing, “So goodbye yellow brick road, where the dogs of society howl,
you can't plant me in your penthouse, I'm going back to my plough, back to the howling old owl in the woods, hunting the horny back toad, oh I've finally decided my future lies, beyond the yellow brick road.”
It was quiet a scene. When the song ended Alegna asked, “I like musical instrument, Mizpah.”
Mizpah’s face glowed again. He spun around and replied, “I have over fifty-three million songs at my choice. Shall I pick another for you?”
“Yes,” Alegna answered him as she smiled at the Space Traveler, “I have never heard music instrument before.”
“You are in for a treat?” the Space Traveler said as he kicked his purple no toed feet up on the console and held the back of his head with his hands.
Mizpah fired up the classic 1978 rock jazz song ‘Baker street,’ by Gerry Rafferty. The Saxophone blasted over his synthetic speakers and Alegna was mesmerized just as the Cudats were back on Col. Thank god for Earth music and long live rock and roll. You as the reader are deciphering word by word to understand in your brain what nostalgia is taking place in this scene, but if you listen to the songs I have penned for you, you will come to appreciate the journey this book is taking you on.
Through the universe, the ship warped passing stars and planets, comets and black matter. The computer had the trajectory data calculated so it did not matter. Off they went, from one solar system of Cudat Col to where they had come from on Lordak Pogna. All the while he looked at her with inquisitive eyes, and she looked back. She was recently widowed and he was always a bachelor. He wondered what it
would be like to marry and have children, but could interbreeding with a Yiskuliang, even be possible? He was not sure, but he did not care as he found her irresistible and wanted to try and see where things could go. He knew she was in to him and he was in to her. However, if they decided to start a relationship, how would USHA and the affiliates view it. He could ask the Chancellor what his feelings were on the topic and go from there, but the Space Traveler as you have come to appreciate is a renegade and does everything in his power to keep control of his life.
The song continued jamming through Mizpah’s speakers as he bounced up and down with the melody. The Space Traveler smiled and so did Alegna as he entertained them from start to finish. Every time the chorus kicked up with the saxophone, Mizpah hopped and spun along with the rhythm. How could a synthetic star-man become so happy over Earth music he never experienced until now? Perhaps he had listened to the music on his own when the Cudats were not around. Maybe he knew all the fifty-three million songs he had downloaded. Who knew and who cared, because right now, the three Space Travelers were loving life in the great universe.
Finally, they arrived at Lordak Pogna, but this would be a brief stop. The Chancellor congratulated the Inspector (our Space Traveler) for helping the Boda’s prevent a civil war. He just shrugged it off over the digital viewer and said, “I do what I can.” The Chancellor did not want any modesty from the heroism he displayed and promised a parade was in order. “It’s long overdue, Inspector,” He said.
Alegna sat back in her chair and watched the purple Duradusk blush a rose color, she laughed at him.
“What?” He asked her with an attitude.
“Oh nothing. I just think it’s cute when you blush,” she admitted.
The Space Traveler looked in the refection of the digital screen and replied with a pout, “I’m not blushing.”
Alegna just swiveled her chair and giggled. “Whatever you say, space man!”
‘Love me tomorrow’ by the group Chicago came through Mizpah’s speakers as he strutted himself across the bridge of the ship. Alegna listened carefully to the lyrics. She wondered why Mizpah chose that song and when the chorus repeated itself a third of the way she knew why. Staring at the Space Traveler as he glanced back at her, the heavy piano played through the bridge.
The computer’s voice now came over the intercom, “Captain, the lift pad is ready for departure to Lordak Pogna.”
He looked at Alegna and asked her, “Will you join me?”
She reached her hand out to him and he gently held it. “I would be happy to, Inspector,” she said with a smile that had his heart racing. He ushered her toward the exit and on to the silver lift pad.
They stood there, hand in hand, face to face. She remarked, “This feels familiar.” He smiled at her but deep down inside he wanted to kiss her, but he did not have the courage. He began to fantasize what it would be like to kiss a female again. It had been so long for him, he had a girlfriend over twenty years ago, plus. She was short and sweet and he missed that. But he was an Inspector of planetary systems now. He spent all his time and resources to make sure he had USHA’s backing. He was successful at his job and he promised himself he would let nothing interfere with that. And so, he stayed single for the last two decades. But now, with Alegna, he was not sure of his feelings.
Alegna was staring into his yellow eyes, surrounded by his purple face and she knew that she wanted to spend time with only him. She did not like being a widow. She was barren and felt that this gave her an opportunity to have a relationship with someone of another species. But a Duradusk and a Yiskuliang, who would think that. On her planet of Underlay Lask, the people kept to themselves. They were swimmers, the best in the galaxy. It was no competition because the exploratory events ended over two hundred years ago, when the great war erupted. She would like to see those events take place again. But space travel was banned, except for the Space Traveler that is.
The lift pad slowly lowered them over Lordak Pogna at the foothills of the mountain where King Beziah waited them. They could see him a hundred feet below clapping his goofy hands and wagging his dorky tongue.
Alegna looked at the Space Traveler and acknowledged, “he sure is one happy camper.”
“Well, he won the battle and he has every reason to be happy about it.”
She tapped the keypad on her forearm setting her translator to Boda. He noticed what she was doing and it reminded him to set his translator to Boda. ‘Busy day today,’ he thought. He would love to shave shower and brush though; it had been two days too long and he thought she may have smelled his funk by now.
The lift pad landed just above the soil hovering six inches and the Space Traveler helped the mighty female Alegna off the lift pad. “Such a gentleman,” she flirted. He just smiled at her as she waked up to King Beziah who was surrounded by at least a thousand humming Bodas.
The Space Traveler smirked as he watched her walk away from him and then he stepped off the pad toward the King. All he could think about was her. She had become something of a nuisance to his heart.
The King wagged his long pitch fork tail and bobbled his head as he said to her, “I owe you and my Kingdom a lifetime of debt Alegna of Underlay Lask. Your people deserve the blessings of the cosmos. If there is anything that I can do to provide that please call upon me to make it-”
The Space Traveler interrupted him, “wait a minute King. You didn’t tell us what happened? How did Amrodian surrender?”
“Um, Inspector it was all so easy I tell you. Once they realized you had escaped they came looking for you. A few pulled down the metal rocks and once they did that we had them. I brought the entire army of Boda champions down to Amrodian and he gave up very quickly. He is a big talker and a small walker if you catch my drift? The King shuffled his feet and wagged his long pitch-fork tongue.
“Yeah, we catch it. What happened to your spy, I believe his name was Lido? He helped us tremendously, providing some bread and water.”
“Oh yes,” the King replied as he thought, “the spy Lido, yes! He was killed by the rebels.”
“Oh no,” he said as he put his hand on the Kings shoulder area, “just like Fretch. That is a real shame King. We both lost someone dear to us.”
“Not me,” the King said as he shuffled his eight arm/legs.
The Space Traveler shook his head side to side and said, “Okay. Anyways, there is one thing that I don’t understand King.”
The King asked, “What is it Inspector?”
“The transporter. Why are the rebels trading with the Cudats of Col?”
The King looked away and then looked back at him, “I do not know Inspector. But I will have my best men investigate the situation.”
The Space Traveler looked over at his best men; eyes rolled behind their heads, drooling from their mouths as their tongues were hanging out.
“Yeah, I look forward to how all that turns out,” he said to the King. “But until then, shut that transporter down. That is a direct order from USHA. The last thing you need is some of your old enemies using it to send an army here.”
The King clapped. “Very good Inspector! I understand. It will be shut down at once. Now,” he patted the Space Traveler on his shoulder, “let’s celebrate the Boda tradition!” The King began dancing around with his eight arm/legs and then all the Bodas joined in.
The Space Traveler shook his head and looked at Alegna, “Oh great, this ought to be good.”
Travel 6 - Protocol of Underlay Lask
The ship blasted through the outer edge of Lordak Pogona’s solar system at warp speed when the digital console transmitted Chancellor Kwela Kur on the screen.
“Chancellor,” the Space Traveler said as he looked over at Alegna and lipped, ‘this ought to be good.’
The Chancellor coughed and said, “It will be good Inspector!”
He turned his head back facing the Chancellor and shrugged his shoulders.
“Inspector, the dlom sample from Rudon came back
before your extended absence on Lordak Pogna, which I am dying to hear about. However, that will need to wait as we have some serious problems with the findings.” The Chancellor explained.
The Space Traveler sat up in his chair and replied, “What were the findings?”
The Chancellor looked down at his hologram pad and answered him, “The swab sample of the dlom came back with an unusually high concentration of matter that is unidentifiable by our biologists. It is a hybrid type of organic matter that reproduces itself and become aggressive when other organic material is present.”
“Your saying we have dlom that is territorial. That is a new discovery Chancellor. Something or someone has brought this alien matter with them and we need to find out who and how to stop them before there’s an epidemic.”
The Chancellor shook his head yes, “I couldn’t agree more Inspector. Thankfully the transporters are on full-time monitoring by our station at headquarters. Whatever brought that dlom had either created it or kept it secret from us prior to the space travel sanctions.”
