The War of All Wars

by J. Eric Booker

  Trendon congratulated, “Excellent—now don’t let weight or size ever concern you. You can use telekinesis to fly yourself from point A to point B—just like you did on the Eighth Plane. Ensure that you do not fly around in front of the peoples on Earth, or use any of your other magical powers, for that matter. On this world, magic and magic-users are—for the most part—fictitious. In this world—money, power, and science/technology rule most of this planet’s inhabitants, though religion is right behind at number five…understand?”

  “Yes, my master. Another question does form at my mind now, if I may ask it?”

  “Of course.”

  “Why are we going to this planet and rebuilding a ship, as opposed to going to a technologically advanced planet and borrowing one of their operational spaceships?”

  With a smile, Trendon answered, “Ah, very good question, my apprentice.”

  “Yes?” Baltor asked.

  “There is another ‘special-special reason’ for you going to Earth when we are. However, I cannot say that reason at this time. It is something that you must discover on your own, though we will—for the most part—be working together.”

  After slowly nodding his head three times, Baltor answered, “I see.”

  “Ready to go, my apprentice?”

  “Yes.”

  Trendon nodded twice, before he said, “Good…one final thing to say before I open up the wormhole. All you have to do is enjoy the flight and the view…I will fly us both through to the very end. So, again, enjoy…it’s spectacular to say the least!”

  “Yes, my master.”

  With that, Trendon closed his eyes—when he opened them only a moment later, they were once again glowing like prismatic diamonds. He traced a rune into the air, and a mirror-like portal opened—in the next moment, they entered the portal.

  Instantaneously, they were both sucked inside of a nearly invisible wormhole, in which they had ninety-eight percent visibility—outside, they observed one-star solar system around them that was void of any other planets, and beyond that, stars of all shapes and sizes that surrounded this solar system and encompassed the galaxy. As their speed multiplied and multiplied, they first exited out of this solar system, before passing a countless more, consisting of stars, planets, asteroids, meteors, and other cosmic debris—all in the blink of an eye!

  Only minutes later, the two exited out of the borders of the galaxy, which shape Baltor observed by looking backward strongly resembled “a three-dimensional cube.” Now they were traveling through “the blackness of space….”

  Nearly two hours later, they passed by the first galaxy to their left, which galaxy contained not only a countless number of stars of all shapes and sizes, yet red-intermixed-with-green gases that together formed “an hourglass shape!” Gazing at that most-beautiful galaxy was truly an iridescent experience for Baltor—even though he only received about a minute’s time to gaze at it, as they zoomed on by inside the wormhole.

  Thirty minutes or so later, they passed another equally beautiful galaxy to their right that contained a chaotic shape of clustered stars intermixed with very colorful gases—red, blue, white, and yellow. Thirty seconds later, that galaxy had disappeared…yet two more galaxies had already appeared and were fast approaching—the first one to their left and one to their right! In the blink of an eye, those galaxies were already gone—and dozens more were already coming into view!

  It was only then that Baltor realized that their speed was moving faster and faster each and every second…his mind’s best guess happened to be ten thousand times the speed of light!

  After a hundred-or-so more galaxies had been passed, over the course of the next five minutes, each very unique from the next, still another galaxy began to approach their view directly ahead on their current path—unlike the rest, this one possessed the shape of “a barred spiral.”

  After cocking his head over to look at his apprentice for a moment, Trendon pointed his right index finger before revealing, “This here is the ‘Milky Way Galaxy,’ which is our destination where the planet Earth is located. As a matter of fact, Earth’s astronomers only recently discovered your home galaxy, which they call the ‘Mega Cube Nebula.’”

  “Aptly named—my master…what’s up with that black hole that is located in the center of their galaxy? Most of the other galaxies in this universe that I’ve seen so far, including my galaxy, don’t have a black hole there.”

  “Another good question. This galaxy is held together like glue by the gravitational pulls from this black hole, which scientists of all systems classify: ‘the black hole.’ Galaxies without a black hole spread out amongst the cosmos much quicker. Finally yet just as importantly, though most people cannot see black holes with the naked eye, you and I can because of our ‘innate natures.’”

  “Ah, interesting…”

  “In other important news you need to know, in approximately one year from the time of our arrival onto Earth, their sun will arrive about a billion miles away from the very center of the galaxy. Though the sun will not be affected by the gravitational pulls of the black hole, which is a very good thing for them, the black hole will alter the course of another of the planets in the same solar system, which planet at that time is passing in between the sun and the Earth. In turn, Earth and her moon’s gravitational pulls will severely be disrupted.”

  Looking over with confusion, Baltor asked, “What’s going to happen then?”

  “A major cataclysmic event is going to occur then, which cataclysm shall consist of the entire earth literally flipping over on its axis in only a twenty-four hour period, and everyone in this world will be dead before the next twenty-four hour period starts! That is but one of the possibilities for Earth’s future.”

  By then, the two had just entered the Milky Way—now passing by a countless amount of stars, planets, and other forms of cosmic debris like asteroids and comets.

  “What do you mean when you say, ‘possibilities’?”

  “Well, with the Rod of Ro’shain in the Vompareus’ possession, they can not only teleport entire planets from place to place, yet they can go from time-period to another and alter history.”

  “So how do you know that 2,012 is the year they will strike, and not much earlier in time, perhaps near the Beginning of Time?”

  After looking ahead, Trendon answered, “Because it is in this very time period that this whole planet first becomes connected as one through technology—they have telephones, televisions, radios, and computer. Furthermore, most of the people on this planet are already superstitiously afraid of this very year of 2,012 due to their ancients’ words of wisdom and warning.”

  Looking over at his apprentice, Trendon added, “The Vompareus are not just ruthless killers, but they really love to plague at the minds, hearts, bodies, and souls of their victims first…through fear and chaos!”

  Baltor said, “I’m sorry for asking so many questions.”

  Trendon smiled, “Don’t worry about it—the only stupid question is the one not asked. Do you have anymore?”

  “One more, sir. As the Vompareus do not need air to breathe, can they travel through any part of outer space?”

  Shaking his head for a moment, Trendon answered, “No. They can fly into space, but they cannot pass beyond a mile’s radius of any planet’s outer stratosphere—except with the Rod of Ro’shain as a teleporting/time device. I am one of the very few in this entire universe who has acquired this ‘wormhole spell,’ of which I only mastered fifty-six years, seven months, three weeks, two days, five hours, six minutes, and two seconds ago—mark. This is my third journey this way. Any other questions, my apprentice?”

  Shaking his head negatively, Baltor answered, “No, my master…not right now.”

  As he began to take another good look around, he could see that their speed had diminished drastically—now they were in a solar system that possessed nine different planets of all sizes, colors, and shapes. In the very middle of this solar system
sat a yellow sun, much like his own—it was for the third planet nearest the sun that he and his master flew for. Though still trillions of miles away, he could see that two-thirds of this planet was much like his own, consisting of massive blue oceans with fluffy white and gray clouds, yet the final one-third portion consisted of a wide variety of colorful landscapes, from arctic to desert to jungle areas. Unlike his world that had two moons, this world only had one gray-colored/badly scarred moon that orbited a million miles away.

  Only moments later, Trendon stated, “One final important subject you need to know, my apprentice, before we land in the city called St. Petersburg in the country of Russia, and secure us a room at a luxury hotel, so that I may go to sleep for one week.”

  “Yes?”

  “While I’m sleeping, know that this is no game…nor a test,” Trendon answered. “This is the real deal. Be on your vigilant guard, as we do not yet know how the Vompareus will strike…and again, watch your words very carefully when you talk to anybody. Reveal to nobody that you are immortal, that you have superpowers, or that you are from another planet. You will be allowed to explore the city and/or world on your own…I will even give you plenty of money so that you can keep yourself entertained. Understand?”

  “It is understood, my master.”

  A few seconds after Baltor had finished speaking, they zoomed by the moon—as he looked at the really horrible scars from the multiple meteors that crashed into its surface, millions of years earlier, he suddenly spotted an unusual-looking object stabbed into the moon’s surface.

  His eyes zoomed in like binoculars—it was a red, white, and blue flag, containing a bunch of white stars in the blue corner.

  For about the next half-minute or so, he continued studying the moon. As his eyes strayed back to the planet, he discovered that they were now on the planet’s dark side—the night skies ruled below. He also noticed that they were for the largest continent on this side of the planet!

  The men entered the planet’s stratosphere. Instantly, the night sky surrounded them as they continued to plummet to the ground at an incredible rate of descent. On the ground below, they could see trillions of prismatic lights sporadically shining all across the globe. Some lights were packed together in tight clusters and others were very isolated—as for the colors, most of the lights were white; the next predominant color was yellow; the next was red; and then green.

  Immediately, a human-sized portal could be seen near the smack middle of one such major cluster of lights. With Trendon once again in the lead, both men passed through the portal to the other side.

  CHAPTER XII

  The two men now stood in the middle of a twenty-foot wide asphalted alleyway, containing six large blue metallic dumpsters that were all overflowing with rather stinky garbage. Not surprisingly, variously sized piles of garbage littered the ground everywhere.

  A ten-story building made of red brick existed to the left, while a twenty-story tall building made of brown brick stood on the other. Although both buildings were similar in that they had exactly two dozen glass windows on every floor but the first, and only one door, not a single light in that red-bricked building was turned on while a little less than half of the windows in the other were lit…seemingly random.

  At the near end of this two-hundred-foot-long alley stood a fifteen-foot tall brick wall with barbed wire strewn about the top—they now stood ten feet away from this wall. On the far end, they observed a steady flow of traffic continuing to drive by, going both ways, down the two-lane asphalted road, as well the occasional pedestrian(s) walking both ways on the concrete sidewalks going both ways. Of course, there came the intermittent sounds of a car honking, or of tires squealing, and people talking.

  Once the portal had closed, a handful seconds after their arrival, Trendon turned to face Baltor before stating nonchalantly, “In a few moments, I am going to magically snap my fingers that will instantaneously alter our clothes, so that we look non-descript around here…for obvious reasons.

  “Oh, don’t worry about your swords or armor, as I’m going to put everything in safe storage in my own little magic pocket. If you should happen to need your swords or any of your other gear at any time, just will them into your hands and there they will be in the next moment. Okay?”

  While noting that Trendon’s eyes now looked normal, Baltor answered, “Yes, my master.”

  Trendon snapped his fingers. In the blink of an eye, both he and his apprentice were wearing different attire—from before and from each other—including wide-brimmed hats.

  Baltor spent the next few seconds examining Trendon’s new outfit, which consisted of a long, black trench coat that snugly fit over his dark gray three-piece business suit. A gold-colored silk tie hung down the middle of his white-collared shirt; a pair of shiny black leather shoes matched his hat; and he wore a sophisticated gold watch on his left wrist. In Baltor’s opinion, in which he had seen people dress this fashion in the Eighth Plane, Trendon looked very sharp, professional and rich.

  “So,” Trendon said with a smile, “do you like your attire, or would you like to wear something different?”

  Baltor looked down at himself, observing only now that he wore a tan-colored 3-piece suit underneath a black trench coat—his shoes were also tan, yet his tie was black with a gold arrowhead pin that held it tight in place against his black collared shirt. Although he could not see exactly what his own hat looked like, except for the tan brimming, he trusted his master’s judgment that his hat looked sharp.

  Nodding his head for perhaps five seconds after the self-examination had begun, Baltor finally answered, “Yes.”

  After throwing a point of his left index finger toward the street, he began walking that direction—Baltor caught up and walked side-by-side.

  After getting to the end, perhaps a minute later, Trendon cocked his head to the left and said, “This way.”

  Both men henceforth turned left and began to walk down the sidewalk—not a single other person was in their view walking down the sidewalk on this side of the street, at least for the moment. However, a dozen-or-so people were walking on the other sidewalk.

  Three and a half blocks later, which took them about ten minutes as they continued to walk at a normal pace, they happened to be passing by a five-story tall parking lot on their left—an old two-story museum was located on the other side of the street.

  The walls of the very next modern-day and elegant building—just beyond the lot—made entirely of reflective glass, except for the illuminated sign that hung above the reflective-glass double-door entrance, which Baltor’s eyes saw and deciphered as, The Saints’ Hotel--VACANT. There was even an asphalt drive-through for vehicles to drop or pick people up—for the moment, there was only vehicle parked in the drive-through, which happened to be a very long, black and shiny car with dark-tinted windows.

  Just as they were passing by the front doors, Trendon stopped in his tracks, pointed with his right thumb at the building, and stated, “This is the hotel where we’ll be staying at. Also, from here on out, do not call me master. Call me either Mr. Harrn, or Sir. Follow me.”

  “Yes, Mr. Harrn,” Baltor replied.

  Just as Baltor was just about to manually push open one of the doors in order to enter the building, both doors slid open on their own electronically, evident by the whirring mechanical sounds.

  While proceeding toward the front desk, they passed through the middle of a very large lounge that contained six large luxurious black couches, twelve matching “lazy boy” couches, and about two dozen black coffee tables of all sizes. Nine “rich and classy” people of all adult ages occupied the lounge area, in which six of them were sitting down and reading—the other three were quietly chatting with each other in the near left corner of the lounge. Beyond the lounge area on the opposite wall near the far corners, there existed a metallic door that obviously slid open from the middle yet was closed right now.

  Six inches to the right of the door, near waist
level, there existed a dozen buttons listed in vertical order. In between those doors rested a fifty-foot wide by ten-foot long shiny oak desk—standing behind it, right near the middle, were two very beautiful women who both wore feminine pinstriped business suits and who both were looking down at something on the desk—the one on the left had red hair, and the one on the right had blonde. Located directly behind the girls was a wood, closed door.

  Perhaps forty seconds after having entered this building, the two men arrived at the desk. It was then and there that Trendon bowed his head a second, just before casting a wide smile and greeting in Russian, “Good evening, ladies.”

  Though Baltor had not surprisingly understood the language Trendon had just used, as he had been able to read everything his eyes had come across so far in this city including reading the girls’ nametags, he continued to remain silent although he did cast a small smile. The redhead was named Reva and the blondie was Nadia.

  After returning the smiles and/nods with their own, the girls concurrently replied in the same language, “Good evening, gentlemen.”

  It was then that Baltor noted that these women had very sexy accents and voices, in his opinion.

  After another short nod, Trendon introduced, “Well, my name is Mr. Trendon Harrn from New York City, and I am wondering if you would happen to have the penthouse suite available for my protégé and I for tonight…and for the next eight nights. We have some important real-estate business here in St. Petersburg that could make us both very rich men, while also helping your nation out by making it ‘financially prosperous’ with trillions of rubles. In a nutshell.”

  With a very impressed look in her eyes, Nadia nodded just before looking down and typing a bunch of stuff into her computer. Ten-or-so seconds later, she looked up and answered with a very pleased smile, “Actually, you’re in luck, sir; for in nine nights, the penthouse will be booked by another customer.”

  “Perfect,” he said with a smile. “Do you accept plastic?”