THE GALAXYMBION ODYSSEY

“Nothing happened, sir. We might as well have blown a kiss to a hurricane,” Colochul observed.

“Are you sure you went through that Learning Sphere program at intensity five or more? You still sound like a Ledaran.”

“Yes, I did, friend Balasaniwa. Intensity seven. Twice. I feel okay now, really, Sir. I am sure I do not really sound like a Ledaran.”

“If you say so; I did not mean to doubt you, but perhaps a couple of more cycles might be advisable, if this mission allows you such an opportunity. What is the status of the galactic core’s perimeter?”

“The atoms, even their constituent particles, appear to be super-condensing. Minced history will be coming to an end.”

Balasaniwa gave Colochul a sideways glance as if he still doubted the sub-commander had actually visited a Learning Sphere Suite. “I believe it is time to recite the original five articles of The Galaxymbion Inauguration Charter,” Balasaniwa murmured in a rare moment of galactic pride. “Who knows whether we will survive our next mission or what awaits us on the other side. Princess Sebria, you still have time to return to Omnipotence; the Galaxymbion does not ask you or your crew to put themselves at further risk, though we are deeply grateful that you decided to join us. Only Kulnidaro and Maidenquest have to face this final mission. You could go with them, Colochul.”

“I will stand with you and your courageous followers. Princess Sebria of Caldia does not go home when her friends face danger.”

“We wish to be at your side, planetfriend,” Colochul added.

“You are most eloquent, Princess. Caldia is a revered world, and you are an exemplary Triumvir. Colochul, in your case I just think your mind is still in disarray, after two millennia in Nazareth, but I am happy you wish to stay the course. You are an excellent friend. Telhyra-En-Rarm, perhaps you would like to return to the command deck of Maidenquest, where you can observe Kulnidaro’s progress from afar. If Kalmek’s predictions are correct The Creators will be here soon, and anyone on Kulnidaro will potentially be in danger. Before you go, however, there is something I wish to share.”

Balasaniwa switched universal broadcast on. “It is time, my valiant crew. Before we are committed to our fate I would like to commend each and every one of you; your honour and duty on this final mission will live on in the spirit and soul of the Galaxymbion. The command crew would like to remind you of the founding principles of our great association of planets. I will start with Article One. To deliver freedom from ignorance to all conscious life, whether that ignorance is its own or another’s.” He was silent a moment, the prescribed delay when reciting any FOUNDING PRINCIPLE. “Okay, Colochul, it is your turn. Article Two, if you please.”

Colochul smiled. “To carry the mantle of responsibility, picking it up wherever and whenever it has been dropped or neglected.”

“Princess Sebria, perhaps you could orate Article Three on behalf of Omnipotence?”

“To achieve fairness and equilibrium, wherever it has failed.”

Balasaniwa smiled. “Telhyra-En-Rarm, I would like you to do the honours for Maidenquest.”

“Article Four. We shall carry the duty to unite worlds and untie all those bound by their own chains.”

“Thank you, Colochul, Sebria and Telhyra-En-Rarm. And now in remembrance of the many Galaxymbion citizens who have lost their lives in their line of duty or merely through Temporal disaster, I will recite the Fifth Article. To elevate all life to a noble, honourable plateau.”

They all remained silent, until a blip sounded on the Navigant station. “It’s them, I think,” Colochul announced.

“Time to try that new device of yours, Telhyra-En-Rarm. What is it called?”

“Matter-dimension invertor. Maidenquest, commander Telhyra reporting. I will be returning now. Have all systems ready for almost anything. Friend Balasaniwa, I’ll see you and your crew on the other side.” She pressed the button and disappeared in a swish of green light.

“Neat trick,” Colochul commented. “Fourteen pulses till proximity. Maidenquest has assumed flank guard position, Omnipotence is adopting forward defence. Great heavens have mercy upon our souls; here comes some serious galactic shit.”

“Colochul, knock it off or I will have you removed from command. I do not wish to be reminded of Earth and there is probably not enough time for you to have more learning sphere therapy. All hands brace yourselves.”

The voice was a sonorous one; a timeless, hollow slit of a sound that resonated artificially from every rounded corner of every room within the vessel.

“We are The Creators. We command reality as your superiors; you are only that which serves cosmic order. You will obey our commandments without question or challenge; all else is perversion. Your vessel has that which is ours and so you have interfered in our Plans and set yourselves against us. Since you have sabotaged our Incubus and removed The Cube we will use you to complete our Plan. We have taken control of your Kulnidaro, to serve our purposes. Submit or be destroyed.”

Across the infirmary ring green lights danced through and around the curved crystal polymer observation screens, darting here and there between crew intent upon their duties. The curved corridors became full of people trying to avoid The Architects.

Balasaniwa saw little point in trying to argue with these beings, or even gently persuade them to alter the current situation in which Kulnidaro was embedded. The polycom on his desk rang and Kulnidaro’s secret Temporal Viceroy spoke evenly and without anger from the small screen.

“Who initiated Chrysalis Command?”

“The Creators, your eminence. They have external control and initiation was most definitely not from within our crew. I fear it is Their will to force chrysalis conversion and use us to distribute their virus; Kulnidaro’s enhanced Pathfinder mode has initiated irreversible countdown. We will be automatically heading for the galactic core in fifty pulses. As you know there is no override, since this was our ultimate purpose; all systems are in complete lockdown. I am sorry, Anavar, that we have failed to prevent this.”

“You have done what you can, Time Commander. I will try and deal with it if there is time.”

Yellow gas began filling every room and linkway, submerging all inhabitants in induced sleep; The Suspension Aura. Within twenty pulses Kulnidaro’s entire population was unconscious and so The Aura began its secondary phase transfiguration, setting in a colloid jelly suspension holding everyone and everything firmly in place. All non-essential systems switched themselves off, leaving Kulnidaro’s interior cloaked in mysterious darkness.

The Cube had no red shift or blue shift at present; each contour’s cross-sections had a unique time frequency with its own spatial relationship to the macrocosm’s time distortion curves. Everything channelled through a matrix of power crystals in 3D polygons, each one carrying the raw power of one hundred billion minds, each one directly connected to all others in a saturated lattice. Trillions of such polygons were packed into a space the size of a small asteroid, and each carried unique emission patterns in mathematical base three thousand, as far as could be discerned from analysis. The Cube was powered by energy equivalent to several billion galaxies; dark matter and dark energy harnessed in tandem. The very stuff of Gods.

Kulnidaro, carrying The Cube, turned away from Andromeda and silently embarked upon its pre-set course to galactic centre. Switching its matter to temporal matrix it streamed forth at infinite velocity and was gone, leaving its luminous green visitors behind.

Elsewhere thoughts coalesced, reshaped and responded to this event. Kulnidaro had departed from the galactic rim prematurely, as The Mirek had predicted. Seed-ship alerted Kalmek and began moving toward the galactic core also. Navigating a clear temporal flight path, The Mind matched Kulnidaro’s matrix and streamed into infinite velocity also. This would be its end; The Mind knew that all of its power would be required to boost The Cube’s contents and Kulnidaro’s quantum phase shift engines, whilst protecting the glowsnakes and supporting Kalmek’s structure. There would be no survival except in memories.

Nothingness. It was a terrible concept to grasp. The Mind wondered if its Designers had any idea what was about to happen. No, They could not have understood anything or they would not have fallen into the trap of initiating Kulnidaro’s Chrysalis Command themselves. It could not calculate accurate probabilities for Kulnidaro’s survival since that Galaxymbion vessel would have to utilise its limited technology in simultaneous fusion with The Cube and Seed-ship – both organic sentient technologies fashioned by Them. The Mind hoped that its Galaxymbiont friends could survive such an experience and that if they did not their sacrifices would be purposeful.

Maidenquest sparkled out, not far behind Kulnidaro. Elsewhere two Nivas joined as one and streamed through Kalmek until they also formed at the galactic core.

“This is it, Imari. Are you ready for what comes, even if it means we cease to exist in our current form?”

“I am ready, Mirek. I am at your side where I belong.”

“Here come our compatriots. Remember what we must do?”

“Yes. I remember. Let us begin.”

Kulnidaro sparkled in, closely followed by Seed-ship and Maidenquest. The voice of Commanding Admiral Huwain could be heard by all present.

“Okay friends. You know what to do. We have only a few pulses. Kulnidaro is in Chrysalis Command lockdown, so it is up to us to complete the Gomaspid. The Pirmakron is engaged. Commodore Zelispra, I presume you are in engineering? Is your Balandeon Resonance Crystal installed and functioning?”

“Yes, Commanding Admiral. Maidenquest’s Temporal Drive is channelling its power through the crystal and directly into the Web of Kalmek.”

“Maidenquest to Mirek, Imari and The Brethren. Are you fully dispersed within The Cube?”

WE ARE, ADMIRAL HUWAIN. THE GOMASPID IS ALMOST COMPLETE: KALMEK IS FUSING WITH US AND CHARGING YOUR ULTIMATE LEARNING SPHERE. WE WILL SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE.

“Honour and Peace to you all. Maidenquest out.”

So, hearts and other regulatory life support organs pounding, the last defence against catastrophic decomposition of space-time stood as one against The Creators. They stood firm and steady to confront a Crisis and preserve intergalactic life and order: The Galaxymbion Web. Only as ONE could they defeat the misguided, egotistical and heartless Architects. It has always been that way and it always will; stand united or fall divided. The Creators had counted on separatism and the mentality of factions, separating Kalmek from life and time, making lives disparate and aggressive. They had encouraged the stupid and predatory disconnectedness of one being from another. It conveniently served Their Plan to dominate by dividing and conquering all elements of reality. And when life began to think chaotically and endanger time’s stability They turned upon their own defective creation, making Seed-ship and Letungexeva to destroy time, thought and life. Only the Galaxymbion Web had seen how to stand against them.

Ribbon beams – long, flat, luminescent creatures undulating through space. Flying through time, vacuum, air, water, ground and rock. The Cube was activated, slicing Kulnidaro into shards as The Gomaspid saturated Kalmek’s web with seeds of Letungexeva. The Makers had planned this annihilation for millennia; now it was realised. The death of time delivered by Kulnidaro – Slayer of Time. The spawn of Temporal destruction radiating out multi-dimensionally across the Macrocosm, unfiltered and unhindered. Nothing could stop this combination of The Virus diffusing across all eternity through Kalmek, multiplying with the power of The Pirmakron and the structure of the Gomaspid. The Originators watched as Kalmek and Seed-ship poured their power into the mixture, drawing even more tachyonic forces from Kulnidaro and Maidenquest.

How blind had the Galaxymbion been to try and stop us? We are Gods and the Universe must kneel before us. We will have all of cosmic power and rule unchallenged.

Nilpoint – matter without life, thought disassembled. How everything had begun; worlds without end and matter without sense. Firstlife – matter with primitive self-regulation, control only upon its immediate environment, but puny control and weak thought matrices. Secondlife – no longer bound to physical energy matrices but extending into time itself, with stronger self-regulation. Thirdlife – independent living thought fully connected to Kalmek’s web, with advanced thought matrices and total control over matter, space and time.

The galactic core blazed with incandescent Temporal energy surging out in relentless waves ever growing, replicating and multiplying. Such was The Virus. Particle Matrix Boundaries collapsed. The Pentaxis of Ledara, Braagan, Gelaymer, Elvakay and Thesa X crumbled as Time’s destruction raged and consumed all existence. So had The Masters planned to wreak havoc upon existence for its failure to worship Them. Yet into this mix there were things unplanned and unforeseen.

Letungexeva had evolved; the Time Guardians and The Brethren, The Nivas and Rinx were united. They were diffusing differently from The Plan. Warped Pulsewaves and Collapsons were being destroyed instead of created and magnified. Mirek and Imari were there, and Kalmek. Kulnidaro was not pawn of Gomaspid or Pirmakron; it was using them. Maidenquest was augmenting the Matrix. The Cube was augmenting the Matrix. Seed-ship was augmenting the Matrix. And the Matrix was set against chaos, against the self-styled Gods, delivering indestructible sanity and order through the Ultimate Learning Sphere. Instead of destroying life this would complete its transition to existential perfection, as built into the macrocosm’s true Pulsewave structure. When They saw this it was too late.

Macrocosm in one instant became all places and all times; all matter and thought encapsulated in one instant and all instants. The light was blinding and the darkness total. The Macrocosm became as it was intended, as it would have been if never poisoned by These Architects; an endless reservoir of self-regulating, self-balancing energy, resetting itself at the microphoton level. Fluctuations became one and then myriad, creating and recreating all Temporal, Spatial and Corporeal matter and regenerating thought as a reflection of existence. Below sub-atomic levels the Pulsewave stream of consciousness binding all of time and space fused into the exquisite lattice configuration it was supposed to be. The Galaxymbion Web spread everywhere and everywhen, sweeping all disorder before it. Freedom from the tyranny and chaos of false Gods. Unified and solidified by Kulnidaro’s Menkorian Chronomesh Systems.

The Mirek planet, Elvakay, once an empty relic of a world called Braagan that had just popped lazily out of the cosmic womb, blossomed. Cross-time eventualities ceased and multi-dimensional cosmic geometry returned to invincibly logical structures. Now thought, calmed and regenerated, once more became a unified part of the textured nuclear fabric. What had once been – the chaos wrought upon life by The Designers and perpetuated foolishly by life itself – became mere stains being cleansed. All stories from a dead planet leading to a dead galaxy. Now the Macrocosm, which had started as a singularity, became a singularity again. It was a different transition, though; neither entirely physical nor entirely spatial. It was integrated with time and thought, fused by Kulnidaro’s Chronomesh network. Billions of identical microphotons latticed together with elastic time links; the more compacted in space the more information and power they contained, the more expanded through time the stronger they grew.

“In hostilities stealth is the only wealth,” Olrinky II was telling Eleena, when The Wave caught them.

Je-Sus-Tra could barely see he was in such pain. The wreath of thorns bit into his head as cruelly as the nails holding his hands and feet. “I forgive you; I forgive you all. You shall be redeemed through me,” he managed to say, as The Wave journeyed back through time. He looked up and saw a halo of light expanding in front of him; a portal to Elsevara III. He could see the Air Ferns, floating blisters with trailing fronds that travelled the airways of his world. The thorns and nails fell away, the pain dissolved. He was home on Elsevara III, with Lia-Sus-Tra.

A fleet of eleven Glane destroyers entered the Pelithon solar system – well beyond their usual range and too far from Kolda-ra for the Pelith to receive help easily. The Wave struck them as they charged weapons. They disengaged the attack and returned home, ashamed of themselves.

A young Event Squadron Member approached me as we were finishing our neural enhancement array in Paris. “Excuse me, Coordinator Lantt, but there is a slight problem with a generator; a small component seems to have slipped through a micro vortex and there are no replacements in Europe. We contacted FSS Turbillion and the nearest combi-truck supply run is currently in Egypt, in the Eastern desert. When we contacted the combi-truck direct they told us they had found a detachment of eighteenth century sailors wandering around the desert mumbling something about Elvakay being a tropical paradise and meeting a nice Talaran beauty.”

The duty defence officer was doing his best in the heat of a very strange battle raging in nearby space. “Omnipotence is leaving our vicinity, and the egg thingy appears to have miscalculated its vector. It will scrape our outer defenses soon, so I have raised shields to maximum.”

“Let’s hope that is enough,” the Yoltessandrian Director murmured. “Here it comes; may the Gods of debauchery hold us together, otherwise all our profits are also out of the window.”

The Gods were not listening, or even interested. The Ovum was made of highly organised shell-matrixed material – one of the few things The Creators got right. The Great Rendezvous, however, was a degenerate pile of rubbish. As The Ovum impacted on its shields it pushed their energy barrier inwards towards the station’s framework. Explosive decompression ensued along the whole flank; glass, metal and combusting air, plus several thousand assorted misfits, unintentionally evacuated the station. The Great Rendezvous stared obliteration in the face.

“Are you sure those were shields going up and not welcome notices?” the director shrieked as several years’ worth of immoral profits haemorrhaged into the frigid vacuum of space along with variously unscrupulous paying customers.

The duty defense officer mumbled in disbelief “they swarmed away quicker than greased fecula from a petrified coward’s expulsion orifice.” These were the last words ever uttered on The Great Rendezvous, because their immoral universe ceased to exist.

Nothingness was absolute; only the equations remained. And whether they supported vacuum or energy was another matter. In this phasic transition they supported only themselves; the Pulsewave contours of microphotons. Written into their core was the Macrocosm’s destiny. Only they knew what brave new world awaited. This null-space and null-time could have been just one Planck-Electron-Neutrino Event or it could have been infinity. Nobody knew, nothing saw or witnessed, only the equations survived. Was the universe destroyed or was it rewriting itself purged of the poison that had marred its original incarnation? Would it finally be rid of the stupidity and corruption of the creators and their flawed projects? And what would survive afterwards? Time flamed in its own inferno, thoughts froze then melted then froze again. Nothingness ruled and then even that was gone.