Please note:  This chapter originally released as part 2.

When a highly intelligent carnivorous creature that has raided the galaxies for a billion years in search of new nourishment sources decides to attack the Earth … Who will save us!!!!!       

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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS:

THE Edge of Nightfall

By Tony Stewart

The following story, ‘The Night of the Darkness‘ (abridged version ©2016/17), the first volume in the series,The Edge of Nightfall, is available in a free to read or share (but not to reproduce) serialised blog version via wordpress, facebook and Tumblr for a limited time.   The blogs are output roughly every two – three weeks as each chapter is ADDED or RE-EDITED.   (Time frame depends on the (unforeseen) need to create new chapters during re-editing stage.)

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Press ‘HERE’ to go to ‘Episode 1′, (OR type ‘start here‘ in the wordpress ‘search’ menu).   For all other chapters type in the episode number. eg: ‘episode 7’ in the wordpress search menu.

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Regards, and happy reading

Tony S

LEGENDS: LINK TO EPISODE 14 (1)

According to Johann’s watch he had arrived at 10 Downing Street at precisely ten a.m. … the watch now showing the time to be twelve fifty nine.   “Three hours ago.” Johann thought, an exasperated sigh escaping through his lips,  “Three hours ago I was expecting to be enjoying a coffee and a bit of reminiscing back on Earth with the Prime Minister.   Now I am God knows where in space, watching home movies projecting from a stranger’s memories on Earth through an aliens’ mind, and jumping backwards and forwards in time to see if something from the future is going to change in the past, in order to change the future.    And now my body is still in space, but my mind has travelled into a video reality world on Earth, and grown a new body to boot.   My god, if I was under the care of a psychiatrist and tried to explain what was going on in my life at the moment, he would have me committed without hesitation … and I would probably counter sign the paperwork in agreement.‘

However, it had not taken Johann very long to realise what the Prime Minister had been referring to* when he had first arrived at Downing Street.   The situation that he had tried so hard over the years to push out of his mind soon flooded back in as Arkerious had spoken, and he shuddered as he realised just how similar the two situations had been.   But it hadn’t been Rangor that had been the threat back then, or at least he had not heard that name before Arkerious had explained the purpose of their meeting at Downing Street earlier this morning.

    Back then it had been one of his own who had discovered the danger and alerted him to the possibility of an attack from a new source; an attack like the Earth had never seen before.   An attack sanctioned by several high level players in London including a senior cabinet minister.    Sanctioned, that is, to benefit them, not the innocent people who were to be sacrificed in return for their perceived riches and power.

   Like Joseph, only one man had appeared to be the defender of the planet, and although he had inflicted enough damage on the potential invader to prevent its arrival on Earth, he had failed to annihilate it completely – and paid for his inadequacy with his own life.   Johann knew that there had been no way of saving the man; no way of dealing with the problem other than the way in which it had been handled, but Johann had lost the best man in his squad … as well as a friend that he had admired greatly.   It was the loss of his friend that had led him to have no faith in Joseph as the planet’s champion.   As far as Johann was concerned if his friend; a trained and experienced man in the field; a man with the highest I.Q. outside of himself in a highly specialised outfit; a man whose intuition and reflexes were well beyond those of the ordinary man; if this man could not completely defeat the invader, then he could not see a thirty five year old, untrained civilian, do what Arkerious expected of him … even if he supposedly did defeat the creature once.   The creature had come back, hadn’t it? 

   ‘Damn it‘, he thought to himself as his reflection of the past began thundering silently inside his head,   “Damn this whole bloody thing’.   But regardless of his feelings in the matter Johann conceded Arkerious, from what he was learning about him, was probably the world’s only hope of survival.   As far as Joseph was concerned … he would watch and see.

“Something like that,”   Arkerious replied, the sound of his mentor’s voice bringing Johann’s mind rudely back to the present as Arkerious tried once more to help him to understand the perplexity of the situation when it came to Rangor’s powers, but for the moment it was falling on deaf ears.”

“Sorry, what did you say?”   Johann asked in slight confusion.

“You asked me a question about how many creatures Joseph was combatting. Arkerious explained in a quiet, soothing voice,   “Do you not remember?”

A quizzical look appeared on Johann’s face as his mind tried to make sense of what Arkerious was saying, then it hit him with a jolt and he began to realise just how much his brain was trying to absorb.   His question to Arkerious regarding Joseph’s battle with Rangor and his proxy had seemed like a lifetime ago, when in fact it had been but a second earlier.   But he had become so sidetracked in attempting to make sense of all Arkerious was trying to teach him that the question had fallen out of his mind from the very second that he had asked it.   “I am sorry, Arkerious,” Johann apologised, slightly red-faced, “I am afraid that I let my mind wander a bit.   I consider myself to be an intelligent person, but what you have been telling me; showing me, is taking a bit of time to sink in and feel comprehensible to me.  But I will get there, of that I am certain.”                                                                       

Arkerious smiled and nodded his head in agreement, “You will, Johann, you will.”   Arkerious paused momentarily until he was confident that he had attracted the full attention of Johann’s constantly wandering mind – then, certain that he did, at least for the moment, he continued.  

“To understand what Joseph is physically fighting try to imagine a person that suffers with a multiple personality disorder that actually splits their body into two physical beings, along with individual mind settings, whenever they have a seizure, instead of having two personalities locked inside one mind and one body, and letting each personality out one at a time like most affected people do.   Imagine if someone could physically duplicate themselves using the power of their own mind, resulting in, for all sake and appearances, and exact replica of themselves standing by their side   Each of the two bodies housing a completely individual personality – yet fully linked to each other’s mind.   The individual bodies could have some physical differences such as deformity due to something physically associated with one of the two versions, but, for all sake and purposes, they are the same person – with different personalities.

Multiple personality disorders, such as in the case of your world’s famous novel, (The) Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the body, regardless of it’s physical alterations during transmutations whenever the exchanging of control of the shared mind took place, retained the two minds in the same body whenever the control of the mind shifted between its two occupants.  The physical appearance of the two personalities would vary between the current occupiers of the body, but it was always the same body regardless of its appearance.

At first it was an average looking man with an inquisitive mind (Doctor Jekyll) who appeared in the pages we were reading who suddenly, and unexpectedly, changed his body into a grotesquely deformed demon (Mr Hyde), before miraculously returning his body and mind back to the more palatable version of the man that had been attracting our attention earlier.  His body changed physical appearances to suit each personalities’ requirements, but the two shapes of his body never appeared at the same time.   In the case of Rangor there is but one creature; one mind, but it is shared by two bodies.   Each one of the split creatures communicates with its other half continuously because they are the same creature.”

“How do they communicate, Arkerious?   Do they use some form of telepathy?”

Arkerious grimaced, uncertain in his mind that he would be able to answer Johann’s question clearly and precisely.   Worried because he wanted Johann to fully appreciate and understand the power that Rangor had available to him … power well beyond the imagination of most intelligent creatures … and the majority of that power come from within the creature’s own mind.    For both Johann’s personal safety, and that of the planet Earth, it was imperative that he truly understood what he was dealing with; the chaos that could occur with one single mistake, or how much an underestimation of those powers could cost them.

“You can think of it like telepathy between twins who can finish each other’s sentences,” he replied, “and automatically; instantly, become aware of illness or death should it concern the other, even though they may be miles, even countries away from each other, and be without normal communication devices to advise the other about their problem or condition.   Every single word; thought; decision that the proxy says; hears; has; or makes, appears in Rangor’s mind as it is happening.   The only problem for Rangor that we are aware of is the fact that the two creatures also have to share a singular power source.   The creature that Joseph deals with is totally dependent on Rangor to provide it with the energy it requires to survive; the younger version only exists in order to open the door to the pantry for its other half, so as to say, which is why we believe it disappears every so often.  It can’t go on a feeding frenzy to obtain its protein; it relies purely on what Rangor provides.   We are fairly certain it has to get a recharge just after a battle, which most likely stretches its resources, leaving it at its weakest.  Other than that it can do anything it pleases to achieve its goal … whatever it may be at the time.”

What Rangor has created is unique; a truly independent version of itself with a single minded purpose of dealing with protected planets, and uncooperative ones who object to his constant invasions.   Not a clone, but a truly individualistic version of itself that will do everything necessary to find a way of gaining entry to a hostile or protected planet such as Earth for its other self, and needs no help from Rangor to perform its quest.   Yet it is totally dependent on Rangor to survive because it lives and exists on energy produced by Rangor, so it could never go rogue should that thought ever enter its head.   Not that that would be very likely.

This, of course, means Rangor has the ability to be in two places at once.   Now this may sound like the creature has an enormous advantage in its armour, but in fact that actually gives us the advantage, because as long as Joseph once again defeats the much smaller, and assumed weaker, proxy – he will destroy Rangor at the same time – because of the direct link.  Or at the very least, it will break the link forever.   Of that we are certain … or at least we were – until his sudden return following his demise. 

We feel certain that Rangor somehow had made contingency plans for his possible demise in advance, and he is attempting to come back from a time before his death in order to change history.   This reasoning is why we believe that Joseph defeated both Rangor, and his proxy.   If only the proxy had died there would be no real need to try to recreate the battles.   The creature that Joseph has battled with does not really exist, he is an extension of Rangor, so Rangor could simply have reinstated his proxy and continued the battle until Joseph could no longer defeat him because he was either dead or considered to be too old or too ill to continue the fight.   After all Rangor had all the time in the world.   He could go on fighting Joseph forever using the proxy if he so chose, while Joseph, however, would eventually grow old, become worn out and lose.   But Rangor didn’t recreate the creature after the battle, he was forced to come back in time to do so – which means that he was killed in that battle.”

Johann needed time to review Arkerious’s reasoning because it would mean that he would be forced to accept that Joseph was what Arkerious thought him to be, and that was something that he was not quite ready to concede.   He needed a distraction in his mind in order for his mind to digest what Arkerious had just told him.

“These battles between Joseph and Rangor; the proxy; the creature, whatever you want to call it … are they explosive blasts that scream out loud like Banshees and fireworks in the night as they demolish buildings, set fire to half the neighbourhood, and blow cars over onto their roofs?   That would certainly bring attention to the creature, wouldn’t it?    And if the creature is as large as you say it is, surely somebody would have seen it by now and reported it to the authorities.   Why is the presence of a creature of that size never reported?    I know that I had never heard anything about such an event, and I would be a prime position to hear anything that far out from normality.” 

For the first time in the three hours since he had met him, Johann was taken aback by Arkerious’s reaction, not by his words, but by the fact that Arkerious actually broke out in laughter.

“No, Johann,”   Arkerious replied once he had regained his composure.  “Perhaps I have over-embellished the force of the battles.   Though, in their own way, they are just as powerful as those you have described, but they are certainly not in the way Hollywood would reproduce the events.   To assess the effectiveness of the ‘battles’, and the damage inflicted on each party, is a little different than assessing skirmishes fought with weapons.   

Rangor’s mind, which he has duplicated in the proxies’ programming, is capable of many things which does include the ability to destroy a victim to a state beyond recognition of existence and this action does require the proxy to become visible and unleash a blast that is often mistakenly thought to be a storm as it appears in a similar manner.   The heat and moisture released from the creature’s body as it materialises in the sky creates, what to the human eye, are dark storm clouds that tend to release electrical discharges as they form, giving the impression of being streaks of lightning, and the eventual thunderbolt that it destroys its victim with tends to confirm that it is indeed a storm, which, of course, can bring unwanted attention to itself.    Rangor has recognised the need to remain incognito on hostile and protected planets, as well as those it is about to attack, and the proxy has been programmed to make a split second decision whether to attack in a manner that exposes its presence, or attack its enemy with its mind.   Usually the only times it makes itself visible on purpose is to install fear into the heart of its intended victim or allows itself to be seen by its willing servants to ensure their loyalty.   There is one other way in which the creature can attack both individuals and huge groups and not necessarily be seen, however this form of attack requires assistance from a life-form that resides on the planet, but you will see this in action shortly, so there is no need to explain how it works to you right at his moment.”

“What did you mean when you said the proxy uses his mind to attack?”

“Too complicated to explain at this stage, Johann, but again you will have plenty of time to witness events as they occur.   Better to hear what I have to say in regard to Joseph’s battle so you will  better understand the events that are happening in front of you.   In many cases Joseph will win a battle simply by surviving the attacks from the Proxy.   These are not prolonged attacks as the proxy usually has a limited time to find and destroy Joseph without being seen, however as time goes on Joseph learns to do battle with the proxy and his associates using the power of his mind to repel the attacks, and these skirmishes can last longer – and can often go down to the wire.   We do not have time at the moment for me to explain in detail as to what the future holds, but you will have the ability to witness these events as they take place as we move further down the timeline … providing all goes well for Joseph.

“That’s fair enough, Arkerious,  It is all slowly coming together inside my brain, but I still can’t get my head around how the creature can come back to life before he died … after he died?”  Johann asked, instantly wishing he hadn’t opened his mouth.   He was certain that Arkerious’s reply would open more questions that it would answer.

“We believe that he had made some form of arrangement with the time changers** for them to travel back in time to a point just before he had been defeated and inform him of his future should it be reported that he had died.    They would then allow him to travel backwards in time to his first encounter with Joseph. 

At that point in time his death would not have occurred, and he would have been allowed to travel backward in time to the starting point, but he couldn’t move forward to, or past, the day of his death unless he had killed Joseph at some stage of their forward journey.  Providing Joseph had survived all attempts of his life to that stage – then the final battle will determine the future.

 Why the time changers would agree to his request is as yet unknown, though I doubt very much that it would have been out of sympathy for Rangor.   It would have been payment for something that we are currently without knowledge of, but we will know everything soon … very soon, and then we will know what extra action we can take, if any.   

 Whatever the results of our investigation, we need to be on the lookout for Joseph’s survival the best we can.   Once he reaches the time when the original final battle took place Rangor must defeat Joseph … or finally succumb to death.   Mind you, if he is defeated again his acceptance with finality will not be his to make … it will simply happen.   And we cannot prosthesis any other outcome that would allow him to attempt a further challenge to the events of time.   To do so it would traverse all laws concerning time … and should it be possible it would undoubtedly lead to utter chaos throughout all of the universes.

Unfortunately, there is another point we must consider as well; if our theory of what is happening proves to be correct, Rangor does have a chance of surviving, and our only hope is that Joseph once again defeats him on schedule.    You can see now the importance of why we must check every single time zone in Joseph’s timeline where conflicts and deaths occurred in order to ensure that the outcomes are in our favour.”

“How could Rangor know that he would need to return to the past in order to change his future?   Does he have the power of clairvoyance?”

“No, but he is highly intelligent.   It would not have taken him long to discover that Joseph was a worthy adversary and defeat would have been more than a possibility.   It would have been in his best interests to take precautions to avert that situation arising, or correcting it if he was defeated.”

“We do not know for certain that what I have suggested to you is what happened, or how it was done, but it is the only logical situation that we can come up with at the moment.   We, the Guardians that is, have a team working on it, checking through the timelines of certain planets throughout the universes.   Looking for an anomaly in a planet’s history that would result in giving us a clue to what happened so we can then work out a way to counter it if possible.”

“Universes?”   Johann questioned, without seeing the need for him to expand on the question.”

“There is not one universe, Johann, there are six,”  Arkerious explained with an audible sigh, so audible it gave Johann the impression that Arkerious was not exactly happy having to give him any more information to absorb than was necessary, which was a correct interpretation, however Arkerious decided against saying so.   Instead, he took a deep breath and continued with his explanation, “and in each universe the majority of the planets and stars and constellations that exist in this universe have duplicates that exist in the other five.   There are some exceptions, however we have no knowledge as to the reason for the anomalies, but then again, we have no real knowledge of why there are over a trillions planets, stars and suns in every universe and over half of them have no life on them whatsoever … yet there they are, out there causing the night sky to glitter like a million diamonds highlighted by the reflective glow of a thousand suns.   A lot of them seem to serve no purpose other than to balance the orbit of the other planets, if that is indeed what they do, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t exist.  

The same applies to the replica planets.   They have a right to exist regardless of our knowledge inadequacies.   Just because we don’t know why they exist the way they do, doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t.   But I must admit there are many things in the universes that have intrigued my people for a long, long time and we still search for answers about them.   The planets and their duplicates are, in the main, all physically similar to each other.   Those that have life-forms all have the same superior life-forms, though the lower form of life such as insects, animals and plant life often differ, and from the sky each planet is identical which means they all have similar shaped land and water masses.   

What does change on a grand scale, however, is the path that progress has taken on each of the planets since their creation when comparing one replica planet with the others.   All six universes and their galaxies started out simultaneously, yet the progress of development of the prime life force on these planets can offer extreme disparities when comparing one planet with the other.   Though that is not to say one planet is superior to the other due to its variation in progress over the same time period.  As far as we are aware there is no intergalactic law that requires the inhabitant’s of the replica planets to duplicate each others journeys through evolution; to be progressive clones of each other in every aspect … which, indeed, they are not.   The differences in progress will vary from planet to planet, universe to universe, but there will always some form of difference which is so different it will alert any inhabitant from a different universe that they have arrived at the wrong world.

For example take the planet Earth as it exists in the first two universes.   In most cases everything seems the same between the Earth in universe one, the one that you come from, and the Earth in universe two.  Should you arrive on Earth in the second universe you would think you were still on Earth one.   The names of the airports are the same, as are the names of the various countries on the two planets; the people speak the same languages depending where they come from … with the same accents.  

Everything about the two planets seem totally duplicated – the transport is the same, as are the buildings, the parks and so on … you are certain that there is no difference between the two worlds … until you suddenly realise that while the inhabitants of both worlds are similar in appearance to your world’s inhabitants – their roles are reversed.    Women are the stronger, more dominant partner; the men don’t give birth, but they are the ones that usually receive custody in the case of a divorce; they are the ones who are normally the ‘stay home‘ parent; in the ongoing quest for equality it is the male who is the underdog and it is the female who has the dominance in positions of company boards.   In the war games played out between various countries seeking dominance over the oil rich lands of the poor it is women who are in command; the jet pilots of the world’s air forces; the drivers of the huge tanks that roll across through enemy territory and the commanders of the nuclear submarines and massive aircraft carriers: and, with few exceptions, the leaders of their countries.   The gender domination aside, however, the two planets are running side-by-side, have always run side-by-side, in progressive timelines.

But on the Earth of the fifth universe, humans there have total equality, wi-fi; a web of sorts; television; refrigerators; washing machines, 4D, V.R. and holographic cinemas and televisions, drones, personal teleporters, artificial intelligence guardians and companions for the young, the old and the lonely, and many of the modern day appliances that your planet has, as well as some that your world has not yet invented or even thought about.   Their shopping complexes and storage areas are made of timber, bricks, and cement.   Their clothes are made from the same fabric as yours, their hairstyles are similar, and tattoos for both sexes are becoming the biggest rage since facebook was introduced to the world.  

 Mind you, there are quite a few factors that differ greatly from your world – and the Earth in the second universe as well, for that matter.   The entire planet’s energy source comes from the sun and water, and has for thousands of years.    It was one of the planets first great inventions, but they control it a lot differently from the way that the Earths of the other universes do.   They have never used coal for any source of power, switching straight from burning timber for cooking and warmth to solar energy when they discovered a metal laying close to the surface, combined with several other elements from nature, allowed them to safely harness and transport power around the entire world.   The staple food of the planet is communally grown fruit, for four days of the week, and livestock meat and poultry, also communally produced, on the other three for protein.   There jobs are sometimes similar to, and at other times outdated by hundreds of years, in comparison to the trades and needs of twenty first century Earth in the first and second universes.   And the reason for that lies in the way they have chosen their lifestyle. 

 On the fifth universe Earth they live in fully furnished caves instead of houses, use horses and bullocks for their transport and farming, still use sailing boats for transport and exports between countries.   Yet, as backward as you may think they are, they have had running water and sewerage for thousands of years and some of the best hospitals you would ever hope to visit should you have need of one for virtually any known ailment raging from cancer and dementia to the common cold … all of which are relatively rare on the planet as cures for the majority of illness were discovered eons ago.    There is no racism there, never has been, and they have never been involved in a war.  

So you see they are still moving forward, but not the way your planet is, nor the way that the second Earth is.   It may seem strange to you at first, but when you think about it they are continuously progressing the same as you have only they have done it in their way.   They have not made wrong choices as they have progressed – they have simply seen things outside of the square and acted upon their findings to go about their way of life.   A sliding door moment in each decision that helped move their lives forward as your forefather’s decisions moved your planet forward.   Like your planet was never aware of your distant cousins, they were not aware of your existence so neither of you had anything to compare with and made your own choices.   Your people opted for bricks and mortar for your homes which you spend a huge proportion of your life paying for, and giving you stress and constant expenses to boot.    The people of the fifth version of your world opted to utilise nature as their place of dwelling; a cave already built and rarely needs to be maintained.   It is always there until the day they die and available to be used by their children, and their children’s children when they pass away.  The entire planet utilises solar energy to provide one hundred percent of the power required to run the appliances in the caves allowing them the same comforts that you have, only set in a different structure.

So you can see their life is not exactly running in accordance with the way that yours is, but in truth, they are much more settled and are a happier people than many of the other planets that roll around in the night sky and call themselves Planet Earth.   It is not right to compare them because they chose to do things their way and not yours.   Every minute, every thought, every decision on every planet is a sliding door moment.    A choice is not made for comparison, for there is no comparison to be made.   One world can not see another universe’s world to make comparisons, they are not even aware of each other’s existence.   Each world has continuous sliding door moments where a thought is born, a choice is given … and a decision is made.   And that decision is the catalyst for the next step in that planet’s progress.   There is no right or wrong decision – just the one made. 

However, there is one thing on one of the variations of Earth that is totally out of kilter with the others, and that occurs on the Earth in universe four.  They have a most unusual species living there.   Different not only to the remainder of the five Earths, but different to the life forms found on any planet in any of the six universes  … other than the dark planet, Rangonia.   Situated below the seventh constellation of the fourth universe Rangonia is, or was until ten millennium ago, the only known home to the Rangonians.   Strange, upright standing, reptilian like creatures almost  sub-human in appearance from a distance, and up close they are the substance of nightmares, and that is the only place that you would feel relatively safe in their company.   They don’t walk – they move.  It is hard to describe, incredibly hard.   Try to imagine that you are walking through the woods on your world; it is night; there is an extremely bright moon; you hear a sound; you look hard; finally you see an owl sitting peacefully in a tree; its large, bulging eyes staring in your direction; it is over one hundred yards away from you; you are uncertain if it can see you, or simply senses your presence; you blink for less than a millisecond to refocus your eyes; your eyes reopen almost simultaneously to your closing of them … and when you do the bird’s huge, fearsome looking face appears but inches from yours – without warning the talons sweep across your neck; the speed in which they kill you is the only benefit you receive for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.   The Rangonians move faster and are equally as dangerous … if not more.

  We do not have any information on why they migrated to the Earth four; they just arrived one day and stayed.    And whatever their reason for being there, it is not to co-habitate with the human population as friends, but nor are there any signs that they wish to do them harm.   The human population of this version of Earth are not a populous species as are the other versions of Earth, but they were once.   Millions died virtually overnight around a thousand years ago, mainly those living on the islands who were totally annihilated, along with around two thirds of those living on the mainland –  and those surviving the catastrophe never repopulated with any vigour, nor did anybody attempt to reclaim the islands.   We do not visit this version of Earth on a regular basis for it is not a planet that we protect.   Only your version of Planet Earth has that privilege, so we do not know the cause of the desecration of so many lives.   It could easily have been caused by a nuclear war, an invasion, or even a plague similar to the one that ran rampant throughout Eurasia and Europe on Earths one and two in the fourteenth century.   But whatever it was it seemed to change the mood of the planet forever.

We, my predecessors in the job that is, tried to find out what had happened by selecting random timelines on the planet when they first heard about the catastrophe.   Thirty different earthlings spread across the planet were chosen.   People of different ages: different races; different sexes, but it was as if there was a filter placed over the planet.   They could pick up on despondency; fear; loss, but never a reason for their sadness.   And for reasons unknown the images they viewed all went completely blank at certain times for hours at times, sometimes days, before suddenly continuing.  

My predecessors tried returning to the time -zones directly before each of the blanked out events began on several occasions, at different times of the night and day to see if there was any change to the images they viewed, but nothing changed.   The images failed to reappear.   We have no idea whether the planet itself had some form of protective filter surrounding it, or the human population had learnt how to completely block the memories out of their minds.   Whatever had happened we had only investigated to see if there was anyway that we could help in the recovery.   There are some things that we can interfere in, and a national disaster is usually an acceptable reason – however, in this case we decided to cease our investigations.   We doubted there was anything that we could have done in the circumstances.  

It was not long after this disaster that the Rangonians first appeared on Earth four and took over nearly every now deserted island on the planet as soon as they arrived.    The authorities had no idea how many Rangonians had settled on their world, and by all reports they did not care.   ‘The islands now reeked of death and the newcomers were more than welcome to them’, were the words supposedly reported to the press by the world’s leaders and nobody on the planet appeared to see the need to disagree with them.

It was strange, their appearance.   They had simply arrived on the islands.   There had been no spacecraft, no diplomatic requests to occupy the islands, no communication whatsoever with the planet.   The humanoids were aware of the invasion, if that is what you would call this strange, partial occupation, but it failed to raise any concerns, or requests for help from the other planets.   It seemed that despite some well known facts about the creatures the Earthlings were in no way distressed at the arrival of their new neighbours.   Over the following one thousand years the Rangonians seemed never to leave their islands, and the humanoids never attempted to visit the Rangonians.   As a result the two species seem to keep the peace.   However, every other planet, in every galaxy in the fourth universe, keeps one eye on the strange alliance because they are all aware of Rangonians‘s reputation.

They were strange bed fellows indeed, these Rangonians and Earthlings.   We have no idea why these particular Rangonians migrated to Earth four, because as far as we knew the rest of their species were still happily settled on Rangonia.    They are not what one would call the perfect neighbours, but they have no reputation for being invaders either.   However we had learnt many thousands of years earlier about the Rangonians, and the savagery of their reprisal against an incorrect assumption of an attempted invasion of their planet – and we would have thought that they would have used the same techniques should they themselves have decided to invade another planet.   But when they arrived on Earth it was as if they had known in advance that the islands were now uninhabited and unwanted by the human race that existed elsewhere in the planet … and the Rangonians had not gone anywhere near the mainland either on the day that they had arrived, nor at any stage following.

We, it seemed, had been proven to being incorrect in our assumptions of how they would carry out their arrival on another planet.    There has been no changes to the way of life on Earth four over the thousand years since the Rangonians had arrived and everything had seemed stable and peaceful, but the subtly of their peaceful takeover of the uninhabited islands of Earth four still does not help the inhabitants of the other planets in the fourth universe to sleep any easier each night.   The Rangonians are seen as race not to be trusted at any time.   There had been several witnesses to what had happened on each of the three earlier attempts to make contact with Rangonia and the reports that followed each failed attempt have been distributed far and wide across the fourth universe.

The first known landing on Rangonia was by the Draxonions, a race from the constellation of Kronos, also in the fourth universe, a planet situated between one hundred and fifteen million miles and twenty five million miles from Rangonia – depending on their individual orbits at the time.  The Draxonions were a highly intelligent, softly spoken race; a race that excelled in science and were forever seeking out new information about life and every single thing that existed in their universe.   Humanoid in appearance, they were slightly thinner and taller than Earthlings, standing at an average height of eight feet seven.   And they were naïve, in many ways, including the fact that they never knew there could be reasons to mistrust outsiders.   This was to be Draxonians first scientific expedition into outer space, and the excitement was shared equally by the entire planet … and they expected that they would be welcomed by a life form that would be just as curious about them as they were about the Rangonians, if not as excited as they were.   The main problem had been the speed in which the expedition had been put into action, with both their parliament, and the public in general, all so excited at what was going to take place that adrenalin produced planning failed to take all forms of safety into consideration.

The expedition, made up mainly of scientists and air crew, barely had enough protection accompanying them on their journey to deflect an attack by a swarm of mosquitoes, never mind what they confronted within minutes of landing on Rangonia.    Being scientists they had been excited at the prospect of visiting the strange, dark planet that was always believed to be a dead planet.  A planet, as old as time itself, that had never been visited by any other life form existing in the entire universe.   It had always been considered to be an uninhabited, volcanic, barely vegetated planet, of no use to man or beast, but recent improvements in technology that involved their telescopes, space drones and other space exploration devices had revealed to the Draxonians that life forms now existed there, perhaps always had.   Though what sort of life still remained a mystery.   

They planned their trip at a time when the two planets would be closest together in their orbits.    Using the time jumps created by travellers from many of the other planets in the universe that could space travel it was only going to take one week to arrive at their destination, providing they hit no hurdles such as the Argoynens, space dragons that tried eternally, but always ineffectively, to destroy space craft entering the jumps.   The dragons would not cause much damage if they made contact with the ship, and a blast of power running through the hull would quickly move them on, but should a school of them temporarily restrict the pilots vision he could easily make contact with the time/space ignition ring that surrounded the tunnel, which would result in them not being able to use the jump until repairs were carried out and that could create a delay that the adrenalin intoxicated group of scientists could not bear easily.  

As they had travelled towards their destination a constant stream of images of their voyage had been transmitted through an open channel back to their base on Draxonia where edited extracts of the journey were re-transmitted daily on V.R.Visioncast to an equally excited public.   Once the spacecraft had landed these now live broadcast images included those that came from cameras situated at various points around the girth of their ship that could be stitched together to create a three hundred and sixty degree panoramic view of the circle that surrounded the craft by the ground crew technician.   An image that caused millions or Rangonians wearing V.R. glasses to walk in never ending circles in their lounge rooms as they explored the new planet with as much interest and enthusiasm as the scientist themselves who, more intimately, provided images from cameras strapped to the forehead of several members of the crew as they walked down the gangway and surveyed their new surrounds.  

The  excited voice of the chief scientist could be clearly heard by all on Draxonia, as he described the thoughts in his mind, as he and his fellow scientists looked around the dark, brooding planet.   And when the Rangonians were first sighted nearly two hundred yards away, almost invisible at first against the thick, dark bushes that grew behind them, standing stiff and still, as if at attention, on the peak of what appeared to a ridge covered in thick blue and purple leaves, the chief scientist’s voice reeked of the adrenaline induced, unequivocal happiness that was running through his entire body at the realisation that their dream of new life discovery was coming to fruition.  

“There are hundreds of them … hundreds,”   He screamed out as he went on to describe the tall, black scaled, upright standing reptiles; their slouched arms stretching down past their knees, ending in large, curled talons instead of hands; teeth that looked so long, strong and sharp that they could easily chew through the husk of a coconut; the large, blazing, yellow eyes that stared menacingly in the direction of the Draxonians, so menacing they that made his blood run cold, but nothing could contain the happiness and excitement of their discovery.   To a man, the scientists could not restrain themselves and immediately began to walk towards the strange life force that confronted them, eager to communicate with them, desperate in the hope that language problems would be a simple matter to overcome.   This was the sole reason for living according to these scientists; to discover new life; to communicate with it; to learn from it.   These scientists were ready for the pinnacle of their careers.    An unknown, unseen, life style being analysed, researched, communicated with, for the first time in history.    They were ready for both the satisfactory realisation that the curiosity that burnt within their collective minds would soon be resolved in a satisfactory manner, and they were ready for the accolades that would come their way as a result of their completing their quest.

In the years to come the inhabitants of  Draxonia that were old enough to watch the live broadcast of the landing on their V.R. Videocasters still shook their heads in grief and disbelief at what they had witnessed … their collective minds still refusing to fully accept the reality of what they had witnessed on that fateful day. 

The still excited, happy, grinning scientists, proudly resplendent in their soft clothed, red and gold government issued uniforms, moved  but two steps in the direction of the Rangonians when they suddenly stopped dead in their tracks.   The scientists couldn’t believe what they were seeing.   No – I will rephrase that; they couldn’t believe what they weren’t seeing.   The Rangonians had mysteriously disappeared from sight; vanished without a trace.  They hadn’t run away; they hadn’t flown away; they hadn’t fallen to the ground to hide within the thick blue and purple foliage that had lain at their feet; they had just simply disappeared before their very eyes.   Then, as the ground crew in the studio on Draxonia stared at the monitors in absolute disbelief at what had just happened – within less than a heartbeat the Rangonian’s  faces, saliva dribbling down their long sharp teeth, their yellow eyes blazing like the noon day sun, reappeared on the monitors showing them to be less than a foot away from the front of the cameras on the scientist’s heads.  

It was quick, it was brutal.   A large claw slashed several times across all the screens that produced the images from the scientist’s cameras, a spurt of unsourced, unidentified, bright red fluid flew past several of the cameras – then the image was completely blurred – as if the cameras had been thrown across the terrain and crashed, lens down, into the purple and gold foliage, for a distorted image vaguely resembling the colours of the foliage is all that the screens now displayed.

In the meantime, as the ground crew video technician on Draxonia attempted to gauge the reaction of those inside the craft to the events taking place outside in order to better understand what was happening there, he accidentally selected the monitor that displayed an outside broadcast of the entrance to the spacecraft in his haste.   For the brief second that that particular camera was being transmitted to all and sundry, the extremely observant viewer, both in the control room, and the millions that were watching on their V.R.Videocasters, noted a thick, dark blur scrambling up the ramp and into the spacecraft just as the technician corrected the transmission error.    The images that were now displayed from the cabin proper revealed the dark blur had moved into the room and its thickness intensified so rapidly it now enshrouded so much of the room that no image was possible.   For fifty three and one quarter seconds the ground crew, the Draxonian government and the entire population of Draxonia anxiously, frustratingly, stared at the dark screens in a mix of confusion and dreaded anticipation.

Then, without any indication on screen that it was about to, as many members of the government, the ground crew and the general public were facing each other and not the screen, locked in deep discussion about the possible things that may be occurring on Rangoria, the blackout disappeared faster than it had arrived.   And once the government, the ground crew and the public realised that transmission had returned to display the images coming from the interior cameras they were left speechless as they surveyed the scene that appeared before them.    The crew of one hundred and fifty scientists, technicians and other assorted disciplines were nowhere to be seen.   The scientists that had gone down the ramp were nowhere to be seen.   They knew that the audio was still working because they could hear the soft humming of the air controls; however that was the only sound that was being broadcast.   But the ground crew, the government, the viewing public all knew, deep in their hearts, that they would not make further contact with the ship … not judging by the blood that lay splattered on the spacecraft floor, splattered across the wall, splattered on the ceiling … and outside on the ground where the scientists that had gone out in search of the planet’s life-forms had stood.

*vol 3:  The Night of the Damned

**THE LEGENDS OF ZARGON: The Final Chapter – 2018

PRESS HERE FOR EPISODE 16 PT 2