Janjafn
Janjafn watched as this strange man allowed himself to be enclosed in
this substance. Yet this strange man was also his friend, Gouln. He
trusted his friend to know what he was doing. After all, Janjafn had
vowed to help him. His mind was swirling with the strangeness of this
whole situation. Never had he imagined such things would transpire as
he had placed his hand on the symbol of The Wall on the chest of the
Holy man. He could not help but wonder where it would lead him still.
After several minutes the man reappeared out of the wall. He stood
there for a few seconds, a blank look on his face. Janjafn asked, “What
now?”
Gouln looked at him and said, “You must go and make sure your people
do not fire on this asteroid. This is a living creature and it deserves our
protection. Whatever happens, it must not be taken from this place.”
Janjafn nodded. Even as he did, the space over them opened again and
the ground rose. When they were even with the bottom of the crater
again it stopped. Gouln addressed his friend one last time.
“Go now, we have to go elsewhere. If we are successful there will be no
more problems with the Dawlgs for a long time. If not, the Olan and
UTC must do everything in their power to keep this creature safe.” With
that he nodded and disappeared through the floor.
Janjafn entered his ship and immediately the bubble appeared to melt
away. He set course back to his fleet.
Battle of the Asteroid Belt
As the Command Minders were recovering from their mental
scrambling, the UTC forces kept the Dawlgs busy defending their
position. This had given the time needed for Gouln and Janjafn to land
and then for Janjafn alone to take off. Things were not looking good for
the bugs now. They had lost over forty percent of their fighters and
three of their version of stream ships, the larger vessels that carry them
between the stars.
As Janjafn approached the main fleet, sending coded messages and
identifying himself once more, there were suddenly hundreds of bug
stream ships phasing into space, flanking the UTC forces in two
directions. Twenty three new bug carriers immediately released their
fighters. At almost the exact same moment, twelve UTC Stream Ships
had large sections of their hulls explode into hot plasma. Now the UTC
was surrounded, outnumbered and taking heavy casualties.
The Asteroid
Deep in the heart of the entity whose only name was Mother, the
engines of a spacecraft came to life. The craft had once been an Olan
scout ship/fighter. While it had floated in a sea of crystalline life, that
same substance had explored its composition on a molecular level. This
substance possessed the ability to mimic almost any element or
combination of elements. Although it more readily copied biological
structures, if given enough time, it could duplicate complex artificial
structures as well. There had been enough time.
Because the substance was a complex intellect, not only could it mimic
structures, it could improve designs. The person that was both Gouln
the Olan and Bob of Earth was transported through the substance into
the cockpit of the new and improve Olan vessel. Even as the cockpit
closed and sealed against the hard vacuum of space, the substance
pulled away from the vessel and a tunnel opened to the surface.
Gouln/Bob looked through the canopy, down the tunnel and saw the
stars. There was the strange sensation that they were vibrating and
expanding at the same time. There was nothing but brilliant light and
the ship phased out of space into Otherspace.
Omni
Far away in the chamber of the Omni, the excited clicking of their claws
echoed against the bare rock walls of the cavern. “It is coming.” They
need not bring the whole rock here to them; they could use this small
bit that approached to connect with the rest. “Soon, very soon.” They
thought as they clicked their claws eagerly.
Dr. Angel Hernandez
Several hundred feet under the Texas desert of the Big Bend national
park a very large pyramid lay hidden. Within a chamber inside that
pyramid was a stone carved cistern filled with a reddish gelatinous
substance that the ancient race called Observers call Goss. This is the
same substance that the entity they call Mother consists of. It was in
essence a little bit of Mother. All over the globe in thousands of
pyramids, cisterns like this one held the true form of the creatures that
helped her on Earth. In every culture, in every tribe of people, the
observers moved among the humans, their consciousness clothed in
bodies that were very much human in almost every way.
There, buried in the Texas desert, within that cistern, was the true form
of Dr. Angel Hernandez. Normally his body there moved in sync with his
other body, mimicking the movements that his human vessel made
hundreds of miles away in Corpus Christi, Texas. At this moment though
there was a trembling through the Goss that was translating into the fur
and skin in the form of tiny vibrations. Small muscle twitches began
occurring at random.
The Doctor was walking down the hall of the hospital when he began to
feel the strange effects. There were no vibrations, or muscle twitching,
but he had an odd feeling that he had never felt before. The Observers
never knew sickness, seldom felt any sort of pain or anxiety, but this he
seemed to feel with every part of his human form. It was an awareness
of something new. Something was about to happen and it wasn’t good.
He hurried to the doctor’s lounge and sat down. For the first time in his
long life, his mind was full of questions and doubts. He sought
connection with Mother and found that he was not alone in his mental
state. Mother also reflected these same feelings, and to his dismay,
there was no comfort.
Gouln
As the ship phased into space a display of the system they had entered
sprung to life in front of Gouln. He had been fairly impressed with the
ship he now occupied. He couldn’t say he was piloting it, since it had
piloted itself. He corrected himself at that thought; she had piloted
herself. As he understood it, this vessel was an entity much like the one
that Dr. Hernandez referred to as Mother. She had given this ship her
own individual identity. Basically, she was living crystal, the same
material as Mother, connected telepathically to Mother, yet capable of
individual thought. To him it was as if Mother had created a computer
with artificial intelligence, because that was the only way he could
come close to understanding how his ship was now alive. It was a being.
He shook his head of the thoughts and turned his focus back on the
mission at hand.
Yes, a mission. He wasn’t even sure what his role here would be. He
was somehow supposed to put an end to some kind of special Dawlg,
or group of Dawlgs. As he looked at the screen, he knew that he would
never make it to whatever destination she had in mind for them. This
system was infested with bug ships.
The scanners showed several planets orbiting this star. He was
unfamiliar with this system. Obviously, this was Dawlg occupied space.
Even though he knew the ship was now in stealth mode and couldn’t be
picked up by any mechanical scans, he also knew that there were
hundreds of thousands of Dawlg telepaths through this system. They
were all around him, and he was headed deeper into the midst of them.
Even now, on every side he noticed ships of all kinds slowing in their
courses and turning his direction. The ship would soon be surrounded
with no hope of escape. Even if he knew the destination, he could not
target and destroy whatever it was he was here to destroy. He would
never make into range.
After all this trouble, after getting this far, Mother’s efforts were a
failure. He could only hope that the UTC fleet would be able to stop the
Dawlgs from doing whatever it was they were up to before it was too
late.
As he expected, the Dawlg ships zeroed in on his location, using only
the sense they had of his thoughts, and probably those of the ship. He
quickly looked over the weapons controls and found they were exactly
what he was familiar with. He resigned himself to taking out as many of
the enemy as he could before they destroyed the ship and himself.
He was about to open fire when he noticed that, instead of surrounding
him, they were maneuvering their ships into a formation. Two lines,
one on either side of him. It was as if a welcoming committee had been
sent to guide them along the way. What was this? He held his fire as he
passed thru the mouth of the formation. No action was taken against
him as he slipped past hundreds of their ships, large and small. Perhaps
this was the ship’s doing. He did not know what kind of things she was
capable of; perhaps this was the plan that Mother had when she had
sent them here.
Bob
As I floated around in a state of never, never land, I thought I would
lose all sense of self. I am Bob I told myself, even as I was Gouln sitting
in the cockpit, watching the lines of Dawlg ships form before my eyes.
But as Gouln questioned this, I felt like I knew exactly what was
happening, but I was unwilling to allow my knowing to leak through to
his consciousness. The creatures we had been sent here to destroy had
already won. We were doing exactly what they wanted; bringing a
piece of Mother to them. I knew there was a big, ball shaped chunk of
Her in a compartment behind us. I knew this because She told me. She
also instructed me to take it to Them. I also knew what would happen
when they got it. They would have her. In a way, they already did,
because she was the one that was unwilling to let Gouln know and She
was unwilling because they were not allowing her too. What a mess I
thought. I couldn’t even struggle against it. I had no way to gain control
of my own brain any more. I thought, I should feel something about
this, but I didn’t feel anything. She wasn’t letting me feel anything. I just
observed, looking down this bizarre spectacle unfold before me. It
looked like a lighted path, a run way leading us to our ultimate end,
deep in the belly of some strange planet, to be literally consumed by
some hideous monsters.
There was a planet ahead, a gas giant similar to Saturn. As it got larger
and filled our screen I was thinking how strange it seemed to be going
to such a place. Surely even an advanced race couldn’t exist on the
surface of a gas giant, if there were such a thing as a surface. Then I saw
it. There directly in our path was a small moon. Soon even the small
moon loomed large before us. A moon with what appeared to be an
atmosphere. Thin veils of ugly yellowish clouds partially hid the rough
grey and brown terrain beneath.
I noticed a pair of small scout ships had taken up positions to each side,
escorting us down through the atmosphere to the surface below. As we
got closer, I could see buildings through clouds. These structures were
everywhere, squat and lumpy, almost indiscernible from the landscape.
I thought, there must be billions of bugs on this moon alone. I thought
of how horrified I should be right now. I wasn’t though; I guess I should
have been glad I couldn’t feel anything at that point. Most probably I
would have already messed myself and destroyed my throat from
screaming if I could feel. It didn’t get any better as we neared a massive
hole in the surface and began to descend. Our escort stayed above.
The hole was lined with bug made structures. They were covered with
lights, which I soon realized were windows. I then discerned the forms
of Dawlgs behind those windows, hundreds of bug eyes focused on us
as we descended further into the pit. I thought again how terrified I
should be as I realized how much like Hell this place really was. And we
shall soon face the devil himself I thought. What an end. Even this
thought brought me no feelings. How strange.
Gouln
Gouln instinctively put up his own mental wall, the mantra of the
Chawktarn repeating over and over in his head. Even as hardened a
warrior that he was, he had never faced a situation such as this, and he
felt the sweat of fear break out on his face. He tried to reassure himself
that the ship, or Mother herself, was controlling all these creatures and
that there was hope that he would fulfill his task. It wasn’t really
working. He had a bad feeling that things were not going according to
her plan, but according so someone else’s. He was not so much afraid
of dying as he was of failing humanity right now. He had already died
once, if he failed now, so many more countless human beings and other
creatures all through known space would die.
As the ship set down on the bottom of the pit, he stood up and went to
where the weapons locker should be. He was glad to see it there, and
inside what appeared to be a fully functioning plasma pistol. If nothing
else I can still kill a few of them, and then use it on myself before they
rip me to shreds, he thought. He holstered the weapon. As he went to
close the locker, he noticed an object that didn’t belong there. A shelf
held a ball of what looked like dark red glass. Without knowing how he
knew, he knew that he was supposed to carry this object with him. He
picked it up and cradled it in one arm and opened the hatch. His nose
was immediately assaulted by a stench similar to sewage and dead fish.
He considered putting on his helmet but felt urged to continue on his
way so he climbed out of the ship. As he jumped to the ground he was
aware of a noise. Ahead of him were dozens of warrior bugs. They
surrounded the ship and there was a single opening, a path that led
away into a tunnel. The noise, he realized, was the sound of countless
bugs clicking their claws shut over and over. He put his free hand on the
butt of his gun and walked through mass of bugs. The smell was
overwhelming. He had to take care for the saliva that was dripping from
the maul of each of them was pooling on the stone floor.
In the tunnel there was only room for a single line of Dawlgs and him. A
small stream of water meandered along the floor, appearing to get
deeper as he went along. Now he could feel the breath of each Dawlg
as he passed them. The tunnel was about the length of Bob’s living
shelter, he thought. It was dark, lit only by the light of the chamber
behind and ahead. When he walked into the chamber he was horrified
to see that under the single light of this room, in the center, were three
giant Dawlgs. The backs of these three were nearly level with his head.
Each one was drooling and each of them where clicking their giant
claws in sync with each other.
He hesitated at the tunnel’s entrance. The monsters before him were
standing on an island, surrounded by what looked like a moat of dark
oily water. . He could get a clear shot at all three of them from here. He
could easily kill them and then try to fight his way back to the ship.
Even as he had these thoughts he felt himself compelled forward
towards them. The water came up to his waste and seemed to be
inhabited by something alive. Several times he felt a large body brush
against his leg in the water but he gave them no thought. He was under
the power of someone else now and all his training gave him no help
gaining control back. He now gripped the orb with both hands, held out
in front of him. He rose up out of the water onto the little island upon
which the giant Dawlgs stood. As he approached the center of their
little circle their large pinchers snapped quickly together, the clicking
sound echoed through the room. He bent over and set the ball
between the three of them and then stepped back.
All three lunged forward, totally ignoring him as their long black
tongues flicked out and touched the shining surface of it. At the touch it
seemed to melt into a non-descript blob. Gouln watched in horror as
the substance traveled up each tongue and into the mouth of the bugs.
As it disappeared, so did his last hope.