Patrik Jones and the Code of the Universe

by Robert S Kleinstone

Billo stopped short, staring at his owner with a strange air, ignoring the thrown stick.

  Patrik leaned towards his dog. «What's wrong? Are you tired already?!»

  But as he was nearly finished speaking a strange cramp in his mouth stopped him completing the sentence and his lips moved uncontrollably. «Get out of here, Patrik!»

  He fell back frightened and with his hand on his mouth, incredulous to have said something without wanting to! And then again.

  «You're late, Kalberham, you should have arrived long before them!»

  Now he said something in a strange language.

  «What are you saying? Are you crazy?!» Marco asked with an expression somewhere between incredulous and amused.

  «I don’t know» replied Patrik, stunned. «My lips moved by themselves».

  Marco looked at the scene without understanding. Then he heard a strange noise coming from behind him. He turned suddenly to look at the sky, put his hand in front of his forehead to cover himself from the sun and exclaimed «And what the hell is that?!»

  The two stood for three or four seconds watching the black solid shape descend through the clouds.

  Patrik did not understand anything, everything was happening too quickly.

  A voice from behind the boys said «You're right, but General Greymar has created a distortion behind the Earth's moon and we've been delayed a bit».

  The man who then moved up in front of the two boys was tall with a strangely slender, almost feline face, a white beard and big eyes with slit pupils, like a cat.

  He spoke an unknown language and seemed to turn to Billo.

  He was all dressed in white with what had to be a kind of kimono with wide sleeves, all covered in unusual black and gold signs. He had a cloak behind his back and was holding a strange metal cylinder in his right hand.

  What swayed behind him had all the features of a tail.

  «For whatever reason I cannot read you, Your Highness, you need to use the boy to communicate? ».

  Patrik still felt the muscles in his face contract, but he put his hand in front of his mouth to avoid saying something that was not being said by him.

  Faced with that resistance, Billo began to growl and Patrik felt himself rise a few inches from the ground, his arms pinned to his pelvis sides, his chin slightly raised and his eyes gazing into space.

  He was no longer master of his own body and began to speak without resistance.

  «The atmosphere of this planet is not congenial to me and the presence of all these electromagnetic waves does not allow me to communicate at best».

  «We have to take him away» said the man, looking at Patrik, intrigued.

  «He has not had even minimal preparation for the task, he still believes he is alone in the galaxy. Taking him now would be a risk for all of us, even for them» said the dog through the boy's lips, looking in the direction of the ship that was about to land across the hill.

  «The Flower has still left its position. It is unstable. Kentaura called the candidates, so we had to anticipate everything. As you can see, even the general has lost no time. We have disturbed their intended landing by a few miles, but they will soon be here».

  «Impossible! They have never called the alignment before!»

  There was a pause for a few moments.

  «Unless the boy is …» The dog approached Patrik, looking him straight in the face. «It's not possible ... a terrestrial ...» the voice commented through him.

  «A spacecraft appeared from behind the trees, a few meters away from them, and the man said «let's go, or we will not have enough distance in the tunnel».

  «And let it be! I’m tired of being in here» said Patrik's mouth before he fell unconscious.

  The cylinder that this strange being had in its hand stretched from both sides to form a rectangle of about two meters by one. He laid it on the ground and lifted the body of the young man without touching it, then he went with the dog towards the ramp of the spacecraft, which had dropped a little further.

  Marco, who had observed the scene dazed with his mouth slightly open, like one who sees a naked man walking in the snow in the middle of the city at midday, suddenly awoke. He had understood nothing of the speech, but they were taking Patrik away, this was clear.

  «Hey! Where are you taking my friend?!» he demanded reaching them just above the ramp.

  «Get down immediately from here, human!» Kalberham thundered, showing the boy some really interesting teeth.

  «You’re not taking anybody anywhere» Marco replied, not at all afraid, whatever that big cat said.

  The ramp closed.

  «Idiot! I'll dump you off Kentaura and you'll die by being incinerated!»

  Before Marco could reply, the spaceship leapt up and the man sat down at the controls.

  Patrik regained consciousness. He lifted his back from the invisible stretcher, looking around in disbelief.

  «What’s going on? Where are we?!» he asked.

  «Atmosphere!» the strange man shouted at the on-board computer, turning to them. «As I was explaining to your unwieldy friend, we are going to Kentaura». Now the boys understood what the man said, because the voice was filtered through the speakers.

  Then he looked into Patrik's face, squeezing his cat's eyes in a threatening way.

  Gas began to emerge from the walls of the spacecraft.

  «There! You must kill someone!»

  Those were the last words they heard before falling into a deep sleep.

  3

  General Greymar came down from the ship with an amused expression, even a little curious to see all these Terrestrials shaking so much for his arrival.

  The Earth belonged to the outer ring of the Milky Way. Although he was part of the group of twenty-one planets of the Flower of Eta Carinae, that is planets with sentient forms of life within the galaxy itself, it had no external contacts and they were not expected to have any for another two hundred years.

  He looked at those people wondering why the equilibrium energy had also chosen a terrestrial as a candidate to transport the Code.

  It did not happen often, not like this. And above all, never out of alignment.

  Something was going to happen, and he really could not miss the chance to get his hands on Eta Carinae's Flower. His control was basic. The war had lasted for too many years, but it wouldn’t last much longer. He felt it.

  Colonel Lehmann, without taking his eyes from the ship, untied the stopper from the holster of the pistol but did not pull it out, because the three aliens advanced with an air that was anything but threatening.

  About twenty soldiers covered his shoulder and the three would be riddled with bullets at the slightest sign of hostility.

  They were preceded by a silver sphere with the size of a soccer ball floating in the air.

  This made him a little nervous.

  He was not prepared to handle close encounters, but the kind guests had arrived without warning, and he was the highest in the hierarchy of that region to handle matters concerning national security.

  The first had to be the boss because the ball seemed to follow him. He was dressed in a strange black kimono edged with a white stripe on which strange black and gold symbols were adorned. The face was black with strange hair and a slightly elongated snout, like a wolf man who had stopped his transformation too early. He had a long-pointed hood on his head and clutched a strange cylinder in his hand.

  Those who followed him walked upright on two legs but were anything but human, Lehmann thought. They wore sort of brown overalls with black boots of a strange flat shape. They had no weapons in their green hands and were completely scaly in the face with big thick mouths.

  They stopped about ten meters from the colonel.

  At that moment Greymar raised his hand, black and hairy, and placed it gently over the sphere.

  The sphere lit up.

  Lehmann drew his gun and the soldiers aimed their rifles precisely at the heads of the three, ready to fire.<
br />
  The general nodded and smiled, watching the scene. Then a metallic voice came out of the ball.

  «I'm looking for ... ». Greymar turned to one of those beings with the air of someone who doesn’t remember something. The soldier looked back at him and moved his mouth slightly, where all the same sharp shark-like teeth emerged.

  «... Patrik Jones!» finished the ball.

  «You are inside Germany and you have invaded our airspace without authorization!» The colonel shouted in the direction of the three. «You must follow me to the police command for further investigation, you and all those inside the craft».

  He immediately realized he had said something ludicrous.

  What would you ask a bunch of non-human beings for? A driving license and their documents? Would he have fined them for occupation of public land and sent them home for illegal immigration?

  There was, had to be, a standard procedure to follow and he cursed the General Staff for not having disclosed it to all the highest officers.

  «Give us Patrik Jones and we will leave» said the voice inside the sphere. At this point the Arkassian general did not smile any more.

  «I repeat ...» shouted Lehmann, who was now sweating while he aimed the gun at them. «You have to ...» but the words choked in his throat when he saw the man with the hood let go of the metal cylinder he was holding in his other hand. The latter began to spin vertiginously, changing shape and becoming a sort of disk as wide as a frisbee.

  «Give us Patrik Jones, now!»

  The disk moved in the direction of the colonel very slowly, as if it were a countdown.

  «Mr. Lange!» Lehmann shouted shakily, and a shot came from one of the soldiers behind the colonel, but the bullet stopped in the air before falling to the ground as if the three were protected by a thick invisible force field.

  General Greymar lost his patience.

  He spread his arms covered by the wide sleeves of his robe and made a sharp semicircular movement with his right hand. Like a blade of light, the disk moved in a fraction of a second and then returned in the middle between him and the colonel. All the rifles, including Lehmann's gun, snapped into two like they had been cut by a samurai's blade.

  Lehmann fell to the ground with a confused and frightened expression, exactly the same as the soldiers at his command, who now found two useless pieces of scrap metal in their hands.

  Once again the sphere lit up. «Hand over Patrik Jones or you will be finished!»

  «What ...?» The colonel said almost to himself, still on the ground and incredulous that this was really happening. Then he stood up, turned to the soldiers and began to scream. «Back! ... stay behind and let the civilians go».

  He took the radio and ordered the helicopters to get up.

  He needed to keep the kind guests under control, trusting the arrival of heavier weapons from the special artillery.

  General Greymar, the great chancellor of the planet Arkass, second only to the gohtarma, watched all that stirring with the concern of those watching a fly buzz over his head.

  Suddenly he saw, on the hill to the right, a little ship that he knew well moving away in the sky.

  «Kalberham ...» he sighed. «Let's go!» He ordered the others, heading for his ship, «they arrived before us.»

  Some of Lehmann’s soldiers who had had their pistols holstered, in addition to the rifles that were now down, drew them and began to shoot in a needless flurry.

  Before getting on board, Greymar turned again to the humans, gritted his teeth growling and almost pleased, he said, «The Code would not mind ...». In a moment the disc recreated the same blade of light pattern as before and moved out before once again returning to the shape of a cylinder, next to its master.

  This time the target hadn’t been the weapons and the general's blood soaked hand held the sphere as he disappeared through the doors of the ship that closed behind him.

  4

  Hiylos entered the throne room, almost trembling at the idea of having to report the news that the impertinent little girl had vanished again.

  After the death of his eldest son, about a year before, the King of the planet Solyar established that his two daughters were to be observed and educated in plain sight. Hiylos had got assigned Princess Alannah, who had the pleasant habit of disappearing every now and then, just for the sake of making him spend some very ugly quarters of an hour.

  Hiylos understood too that the guards were in a virile mood, all strutting and posturing, but what he found illogical was the presence of the two big lizards of the southlands next to the throne. They were tied up with chains that he did not consider sturdy enough and they had an expression that made him shiver just looking at them. However, King Karmora adored them.

  They could be approached only by him and liked hardly anyone else’s presence.

  Milo, the one on the right, slept and did not care about him, but Kolan was wide awake and with a growl seemed to terrify the poor messenger who had just arrived near the steps, above which the royal chair was positioned.

  «Hiylos ...» the King said in greeting, nodding a smile.

  «Your majesty ...» he replied with a big bow, twisting his tail around his torso.

  «We received a reflection signal. Kalberham has managed to extract the young terrestrial and is now going to Kentaura ».

  «Very well Sire, you have to be satisfied. I know that even the top arkassian general was on his trail» he replied, almost relieved not to have to deal with the other subject at once, which was rather inconvenient for him.

  «That old shrewd cat must have used one of his tricks to thwart Greymar and get there first» the King continued, suddenly letting the smile on his face disappear. «I dare not think what happened next».

  «I find bizarre this interest for the boy from you and the Guardians of the Flower, Sire» Hiylos added, almost annoyed. «As you well know, other Terrans have failed before him and I think that this time it will not be different» and with a mocking smile he added «the Kentauros will make meatballs of him».

  «I do not know, Hiylos ...» the King answered, a little perplexed. «The boy seems to be very gifted, the guardians put a limiter at the base of his neck when he was a child and what will happen when it is removed, nobody knows».

  «A limiter, Sire?!»

  «Yes, a limiter, my dear friend. The terrestrials handle controversially people who have a gift, and the greater the gift, the more this is wrong, believe me! In the past, other characters in their history have been persecuted and even killed for this. Kalberham thought it was safe to protect him».

  «Well, it will be good for our friend to remove this limiter as soon as possible from the boy, the kentaurs have already knocked out fourteen of the eighteen candidates, saving only one at the moment."

  «Only one?!» asked the King, almost wounded in amazement.

  «Yes, your majesty, it is an Arkassian unfortunately. He seems to be a person very close to Greymar and even to the Gohtarma itself».

  «His name is Lokkar, father!» A voice echoed in the back of the throne room, while the stiff guards nodded at the entrance of Princess Myah, Alannah's eldest sister.

  The amaranth red hair fell on the light armor that covered her shoulders and upper arms. The bodice and the leather harness covered her bust, and her belly was smooth and tapered; a long cloak behind her shoulders reached her legs, covered with darkleather pants. The boots tight on the calves were closed by long leather straps and fitted with twin rings, used to ride a solaryan saddle.

  The intense, light blue eyes with slitted pupils on the human and feline face, typical of her people, advanced towards her father and her servant, with great confidence and firm steps.

  «Good morning father» she said, making a bow as always, and due to the King.

  «Good morning, my dear» he replied with a smile, tapering his tail out of his royal cloak.

  «Princess ...» Hiylos greeted, bowing his head.

  «Dear Hiylos, I bring good news
before the king».

  From under the staircase of the throne she smiled. «A Solaryan survived the Kentauros, the young Noliah. So an Arkassian and a Solaryan are the only ones left of eighteen candidates, and only the human is missing. The ships of the planetary union, which brought the candidates, have recovered the bodies of those who didn’t survive without leaving orbit because, unfortunately, with one of them and one of us, no majority is created for transport of the Code. The human will not survive, it is clear, but at this point there is danger to the alignment and nothing can be left to chance».

  «We can’t wait any longer, Sire» said Hiylos excitedly. «You have to order the fleet to defend the borders. Broken truce, the Arkassians will attack».

  «We will also wait for the Earthling to die and we will act accordingly. We'll see if that unconscious fool Selidar was right».

  «Selidar, sir ...?».

  Hiylos and Myah looked at each other perplexed.

  Prince Selidar of the Velado planet had died years before during a clash against the Arkassians, the same battle where King Karmora had lost his son. Myah and Alannah were smaller and their brother's loss had forever marked their lives. Their mother, Queen Elida, died a short time later, and the only joy of the King remained in his two daughters, on whom he had placed all his hopes.

  Solyar's ruler looked down and began to walk to Kolan, who gave a sort of growl as he accepted his master's caresses.

  Milo, who a moment before had been sleeping deeply, woke up and went to the other hand, not to be outdone.

  He smiled while stroking them, whispering «Good babies».

  Hiylos reacted with an expression of disgust and fear.

  Then the King left the two animals and headed for his daughter, looking down as if rapt by a distant memory.

  «Father, but Prince Selidar is ...» but a wave of the King's hand cut the sentence in half.

  «I think I owe you an explanation, actually» he continued, looking at Hiylos «I think I owe you both».

  So saying, he headed for one of the large windows in the throne room. The morning was warm and the blue sky was adorned by a few almost motionless clouds. A gust of light wind entered the room making his cloak wavy and, closing his eyes, he savored that moment of peace.