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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS:

THE Edge of Nightfall

By Tony Stewart

         Volume 1:  The Night of the Darkness

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.

BLOG, SUBSCRIPTIONS, PAST CHAPTERS AND CONTACT DETAILS LISTED FOLLOWING THE EPISODE:

The Night of the Darkness

By Tony Stewart

Legends: linked to Episode 16 (2)

“My god, what you just told me was horrible enough in its own right, but to realise that the entire planet witnessed the event as it happened is too much to think about,”  Johann exclaimed in sadness at Arkerious’s tale, “and you say there were witnesses to two more similar attacks involving the Rangonians?”

“When the Draxonions finally accepted what they had witnessed was in fact reality, and the horror of it all settled into their minds, they realised they had to report the incident to higher authorities.   The Grand Intergalactic Space Protection Agency is an intergalactic defence authority which only exists in the third universe.   With its headquarters located on the planet Zeus, as the name implies, it is an intergalactic defence organisation something similar to N.A.T.O. on your planet, except it is linked to the majority of inhabited planets within the third universe, and not simply to the inhabitants of its own planet.

Not all life-forms are capable of becoming involved in space travel, but they are still protected by the organisation; every member planet without space capability has a direct link to G.I.S.P.A., and there are usually G.I.S.P.A. war craft permanently stationed on those planets.   So they are fully protected from invasion from anything, but Rangor.   Rangor cannot be protected from on planets other than the ones that the guardians protect, because he is too unpredictable.   There is too little information ever provided to help planets prepare for an attack and repel Rangor’s attempted invasion.    Our records  indicate that the planets inhabitants have rarely been aware of the invasions until they are happening, and in most cases the survivors have no real idea of exactly what had happened, other than the majority of the population of the planet no longer existed.   Very few of the survivors actually witnessed the events, and those that did observe what happened from a close-up point are usually no longer sound enough of mind to tell us what they saw in a coherent manner.   The majority of the survivors were those who were in more uncivilised areas at the time and came home to find the their loved ones and neighbours missing and had no idea what had happened, though a few saw what appeared to be a black swarm travelling across the sky over the cities or villages, but their viewing was from quite a long distance away and they couldn’t really be certain of what they saw, outside of  the fact it appeared like a huge black swarm, but a swarm of what they had no idea.   In point of fact we usually only believe that the atrocities we continually come across was Rangor based on the information and details of Rangor’s previous attacks passed on to us from our predecessors.   However, there is no other known creature in any of the other universes that could do the damage that our history attributes to Rangor, so we accept the information we were given and dedicate our lives to protecting certain planets and assist others as we can … as we were created to do.

G.I.S.P.A., along with similar major co-operative defence organisations across several of the universes, are also aware of Rangor’s existence and have worked with us on the matter for many millenniums, but, so far, to no avail.   How they first obtained their knowledge of Rangor’s existence is also unknown, both by them and by us.  There seems no way of tracking him.   Although over the centuries he has repeatedly attacked the same planets within the universes, he has never done so in the same sequence.   One minute he will attack almost a dozen unprotected planets located in a physical line to each other in one universe and then suddenly attack planets three or four universes away and at the complete other end of the newly selected universe – and from there he will zig-zag across the universes.   All attacks are the same … surprise attacks – and all seemingly at random.”

“So it’s all up to Joseph again,”   Johann declared to no-body-in-general in a voice too low for Arkerious’s ears, forgetting for a moment that their minds were still linked, but Arkerious said nothing and Joann continued in a more normal level.   “Does G.I.S.P.A. need to become involved in many skirmishes or wars?” he then asked at a more normal level of speech.”

“No,” Arkerious replied, “there is not a planet in the third universe that would expect to be invaded by anyone residing in their own universe.   Invasions and wars have not existed in the third universe for thousands of years, not since the Baradians from the planet Gangor, and the Zeusonians had a huge difference of opinion about ownership of one of the moons of Kardonia in the Tridarian Galaxy.   The two planets had been allies for longer than either could remember when a cooperative geological expedition discovered a rare mineral on the moon.   A mineral so rare it was considered the most valuable in the universe and it had been discovered through the co-operation of both planets, but greed can get the better of all life-forms and the Baradians and the Zeusonians were no different to life-forms on your world and many other planets.

Negotiations broke down; first words – then hostilities were exchanged between the two worlds; then finally open warfare began – the end result being the destruction of much of the moon itself where the war had taken place, fortunately for the ever-grateful inhabitants of the two planets who were spared the loss of innocent lives had it taken place on the more populous areas of Zeus and Gangor, but in doing so the mineral was all but destroyed.    What did remain was not enough to validate the cost of extracting it from the ground.   However, what it did bring to everybody’s attention was the cost of greed.   The two worlds saw the error of their ways, apologised to each other and signed a treaty that would ensure that such a mistake would never again be made.   It was as a result of that treaty that G.I.S.P.A. was eventually formed and there have never been any problems for any of the worlds in the third universe that couldn’t be settled through negation with the help of G.I.S.P.A..

There were some planets who, through their beliefs, politics, or arrogance, did not wish to join the united alliance.    These planets were few in number, and, at that stage, did not participate in space travel so they were not considered to be a threat to the peace of the universe, however for safety reasons, what you call spy satellites on Earth, were introduced to the skies above these planets by G.I.S.P.A., and they have been monitored ever since.

Rangonia was certainly not a member of the alliance.   Nor was it ever approached to join the alliance.   History tells us that Rangonia had formed at the beginning of the universe’s creation, but had managed to remain reasonably anonymous until the Draxonions’ arrival.   It fell under the radar, as earthlings would like to say, because it had been thought to be an uninhabited planet.

During the first phase of space exploration in universe three, a long term project initiated by the government of Zeus, and eventually taken over and controlled by G.I.S.P.A., to chart and identify every planet in the universe, a Zeusonian space craft arrived above the planet that we now know as Rangonia.   A series of orbital scans revealed the planet to be uninhabited by any life-form whatsoever, and it also showed the majority of the planet to be undergoing volcanic activity … which, to a degree, it still is.  Still, despite the long distance test results, the craft found a safe place to land.   An exploratory team was assembled and a local search for life forms that may not have been picked up by the orbital scan was undertaken.

Rangonia is a desolate planet due to its being inhabited by nothing but hundreds of volcanoes, many of which are now dormant, many still very active, and some that we are not sure of, and, in a quirk of nature, an oddity that theoretically shouldn’t have existed.  There were trees and shrubs growing in a small valley between two inactive volcanoes that would give the bravest of men nightmares for months after seeing them up close.   Trees, black, gnarled and spindly, with long, elongated branches that seemed ready to reach out to touch, or grab, the visitor to their botanical nightmare grew in sparse patches along the closest thing to a pathway that the early explorer’s could find.   A seemingly natural, rather than a man made track, but still, never-the-less, a totally unexpected and pleasant discovery.    Around six feet in width, it gave the impression that it went forever, with an extremely thick shrub, almost colourless in its thick darkness, growing profusely alongside both sides of the dry, dusty pathway , and in doing so, kept them from seeing what lay behind the shrub or the trees.   It is doubtful that the reports were accurate, but those that set foot on the planet, every single one of them, swore that the bushes moved, vibrated, at their every approach.   A very soft rustling sound rolled of the bushes as the small group walked along the path that never seemed to end.   Somebody suggested that it was just the breeze, but somebody else challenged that suggestion by pointing out that there was no breeze.   Somebody else expressed a thought that the sound was more like birds or animals chattering, and a few heads nodded in agreement.

Then one man called out, ‘Well, let’s take a look, shall we,’ and immediately tried to pull the thick shrub aside, using both hands, in order to pass through it and see what was on the other side, but he pulled his hand back so fast and screamed so loudly that it took the other members of the exploration team several minutes to realise that the man had lost three quarters of his hand somewhere in the bushes and was bleeding profusely, but no sound or movement eventuated within the bushes.   The sound had stopped and silence, other than the constant screams of pain of the amputee reigned over them.   The already nervous, now frightened explorers applied a tourniquet to the severed hand, but to-a-man they were all equally reluctant to search in the bushes for the missing hand.   They were, however, more than happy to put the incident down to an accident involving the extremely large, sharp looking, thorns that were interminably growing, albeit; upside down, amongst the bushes – and as the man needed immediate medical attention the exploration was abandoned and everybody returned to the spacecraft as fast as their legs would take them.

Upon returning to the craft the leader of the expedition reported to the exploration’s overall leader that the planet was too dangerous to traverse, and it was duly noted that way on the craft’s log.   The member who had been slashed had tried to convince the medical team that he had seen the thorn lifting itself upwards high above his head, before it came screaming down – raking itself over his hand during the incident, but as the man passed away not long afterwards, his final words were duly recorded on his medical records with an annotation that the man had become delirious due to the heavy volume of  blood he had lost, and was most likely hallucinating during the final stages of his life.

It was not long after that incident the exploration team left the planet, and as they left, unspoken by tongue, but collective in the minds of every member of the crew, was a feeling of relief and the return of sanity that came with the leaving such an evil planet.   Not a description brought up in their collective minds by an action of reality, but to them the planet had felt dark and foreboding from the day they had first landed.   A sad and lonely planet, devoid of life, and therefore, devoid of the joy and happiness life brings to a world.   But in that thought and vein, Rangonia also becomes a beautiful world, an artistic, eye-pleasing serenity, in a cross between surrealistic and nightmarish styles depending on your point of perspective, with its wafts of dark and ember sparkling smoke moving gently across the blue sky which provides a magnificent background for the huge volcanic peaks as they spew out the brightly burning lava.   Lava that speeds joyously down the side of the volcano to join one of the many continuously running, hot sparkling orange and red rivers as they snake their way across the almost barren land on their journey to the unknown.

But with no sign of life, or edible or usable vegetation of any sorts on this strange world, and very little water, it was assumed to be a quiescent planet, never likely to support life.   They named it Rangonia after Silus Rangonia, the leader of the expedition, and charted its existence on the space map they were creating as a D grade planet, which meant it was classed as a planet not worthy of further exploration for any reason whatsoever, and shed doubt on the possibility of life ever existing on it.    However, just prior to their departure from the planet Silus Rangonia did the strangest thing … he had his scientists install a portal on the planet within a dormant volcano and set the other end of the portal to reside in the spaceship’s computer until he advised them otherwise.

Nobody questioned his request; the installation was completed – and the planet was soon forgotten and unvisited by all subsequent space travellers over the millenniums until the Draxonians reported the event that had taken the lives of their scientific expedition.   And it was then that a long retired from active duty G.I.S.P.A. Group Commander remembered his great-great-grandfather’s diary… and its mention of Silius Rangonia’s strange order.   The Group Commander’s great-great-grandfather had been a young surveyor on Silius Rangonia’s ship during the discovery of the planet that they had named Rangonia and he had kept a journey of his travels on the expedition which was continuously handed down through the generations.   And upon hearing abut the attack on the Draxonian scientists it had also jogged the Group Commander’s memory to recall how vividly his great-great-grandfather had described the way that Silius had referred to the volcano as ‘The Beast’, in your language.   It had been named so because of the solid black image that appeared on the grey walls on the outside of the volcano that he had chosen for his portal, an image that had burned itself into the walls eons ago when huge chunks of hot lava had spewed out of the volcano during an eruption.   Bright orange coloured streams of boiling hot volcanic emission that had somehow become trapped as it had streamed down the volcano towards the waiting earth below and burnt its way into the walls of its birthplace – and had now, over the eons, solidified into a dark, brooding image of a horned beast.”

“Rangor?”    Johann asked.

“We are uncertain.   When G.I.S.P.A. received this information it was the first time that anybody had been aware of the portal, or the exploration’s findings regarding the volcano.    The ex Group-Commander had only reported the diary in case it had any bearing on what happened to the Draxonians, but unfortunately G.I.S.P.A could not find any way of following up the questions they found themselves asking.   All they could do in the end was pass this information on to the guardian who looks after them.”

“I suppose the space craft had long been destroyed, so the computer couldn’t be checked?”   Joann asked.

“No, not really, but it might as well have been.   The spacecraft is in a museum on Zeus due to its historical interest, however G.I.S.P.A. records have it stripped of all usable parts and that includes the removal of the computer … and although there are no records of where it went, it is presumed that the computer would have been completely stripped, all usable parts would have been recycled and the unusable parts scrapped, and that would have included destroying the hard drive.   As far as anybody is concerned there is nothing to worry about.   The markings on the volcano wall were most likely just a natural occurring coincidence  … and there is no ongoing evidence to make one think that there is a connection between Rangor and the planet.   The satellite over Rangonia only records the same level of life as it did when the Draxonians discovered life on the planet.  If Rangor was there the increased mass would have shown up on the readings by this stage.”

“Do you personally agree with their findings?”

“I am open-minded on the possibility.   It would seem to be a likely place for Rangor to rest, or hide, but with no physical sightings on record, and the satellite readings refusing to state otherwise, I am willing to accept that the notes in the diary were quite possibly just a coincidence.”

When the high council of G.I.S.P.A. met to discuss what action could be taken against Rangonia – if, indeed, any action could be taken at all, they knew they were in for a long discussion.   And whatever the end result they knew it would take some time to reach their findings because what had happened to the Draxonians was unprecedented on any of the member planets.   They considered the diary, but were not convinced that there was a connection between the volcano, the Ragonians and Rangor … though they did express regret that Silius himself had not recorded his reasons for the portal on the ship’s log, or report it directly to the Zeusonian government at some stage if he thought it important enough to retain a portal connection.   However, in the end it was as a result of their thinking regarding the possible importance Silius had placed on the portal when he had had it installed that helped them to come to the resolution that the status of his concern had been greatly reduced by the time he arrived back on Zeus, which is why he did not report it*.

But, regardless they decided unanimously, if there was a connection between all three it had little bearing on their reason for the meeting.    Citizens of their universe’s community had been killed without apparent reason and they needed to work out how to deal with it.

Was it murder – and the perpetrators to be punished – or was it a case of self-defence, with the Rangonian’s fearing an invasion?   And if that was the case would anything be gained by placing the suspected miscreants on trial?   Their actions would be seen to be perfectly legal in the eyes of the law.   After all, the Draxonions had not made contact with the Rangonians to warn them of their intended arrival, so the Rangonains would not have expected them and may have assumed them to be hostile when they landed.

Finally they decided on giving the Rangonians the benefit of doubt, and then addressed the security problem regarding a formally unknown portal existing on an inhabited planet and came to the decision that even if the portal was active, the computer wasn’t.   And as the Rangonians did not have a Portable Destination Transporter Apparatus they could not, therefore, use it anyway.   Instructions were given for the diary to be subsequently returned to the Group Commander and the council returned to the final problem which was what should they do about Rangonia itself, seeing as how it was now officially an inhabited planet.   Eventually a visit to Rangonia was arranged by G.I.S.P.A.”

Johann hesitated for a moment, then realised he was not going to be able to give his entire concentration to what Arkerious was about to say with the concerning question constantly buzzing around inside his head.   “Arkerious,” Johann asked, finally finding the words he needed to ask,   “Before you tell me about the second visit to Ranonia, could you please explain to me what you mean by time space jumps?    Is it like some kind of time machine that flies through space?    Like the TARDIS used by Doctor Who?   You mentioned it in your telling of the Draxonian’s ill-fated visit to Rangonia, and you alluded to something similar back on Garocia when you saved Joseph when his monitor exploded.   At the time … at both times, I didn’t feel inclined to show myself up as being without understanding of some of the hard-to-believe things that you were explaining, so I said nothing, hoping that it would make sense later.  But now I am concerned that it will be mentioned again, and I am still no wiser about what it means.

“Nothing to get too excited about, Johann,”   Arkerious answered with a smile, “but it is something you only need to understand how it works in principle, not the intricacies of  an extremely complex system … and accept that it is a reasonably safe transport system to use.”

“Reasonably safe?   I am not too sure that I am happy about where this is heading.”   Johannn said, using a huge grin to cover his misgivings about the many things regarding his possible future that Arkerious continuously alluded to during his teachings.   Johann P Biggs was normally a man of action.   A leader whenever needed in the role.   But talk of battling giant creatures with carnivorous intentions from outer space was too Star Warish for him at the moment, and time and space jumps was adding to his anxiety.   A task better left to experts, he felt.

“Don’t get yourself all worked up, Johann.   Time space jumps have had very few incidents since their inception thousands of years ago.   Time space jumps are not time related in the manner you refer to.   They are portals, either somewhere on land for personal use, or in the skies for spacecraft to use, and they are intended to allow the user to virtually jump from one planet to another by means quicker than the time it would take through more conventional means.   In other words, they are meant to get the user to their intended destination in the shortest time possible, hence a time saving space jump.   The use of the term Space Time Saving Jump simply sounds both superfluous and pretentious so it has been shortened over the years.   Think of the time difference that occurs on your world when using an underground tunnel for crossing from one end of the city limits to the other when you compare it to travelling above ground to cover the same distance.   You have gained time and virtually jumped dozens of red lights and a ton of traffic to do so.   Although the working process of a space time jump is far more complicated than creating a road tunnel under a city, they are both doing the same thing … allowing the traveller to travel in the shortest time possible.”

Johann simply stared blankly at Arerious, his instinct and imagination combining to convince him there was more to what Arkerious was saying than what he was telling him.    Arkerious looked at Johann’s face in bemusement for several seconds before continuing,

“All you need to know is that they are like the cave in the story of ‘Aladdin’ –  only, instead of calling out ‘Open Sesame’ the user has a Portable Destination Transporter Apparatus to open the invisible door and gain entry, either to the portal in the air, or the one on the ground, depending on how they are travelling.    Once opened the user has a short time period to enter the portal before it automatically shuts closed again.   Once the door is shut it is invisible to the naked eye from the outside; no longer a physical presence in any form other than the natural environment in which it is housed.   If the portal is located within the frame of a billboard standing at the side of a footpath, the casual observer will only see the billboard as it was meant to be seen.   Should the portal be established within the framework of a brick building housed in a lane-way the observer would only see a brick building not much different than any other brick building in the lane-way.

Innocent by-passers approaching a portal entrance would not suddenly find themselves in a strange land, nor on a different planet.   And flying machines of any description would not find them find themselves sucked into the vortex or suddenly arriving on Mars or Pluto.   At least they wouldn’t unless they were flying right on the tail of the traveller’s ship as it entered the portal.   Admittedly that has happened on a few occasions, though considering the total number of travellers using Portable Destination Transporter Apparatuses throughout the universe over the centuries, it is an extremely rare event … though it certainly caused chaos for all concerned when it did, but it was soon corrected and, of course, hushed up where necessary.”

“How would anyone know where a portal was?”   Johann asked, his reservations muted for the moment; his curiosity once more aroused

“All travellers, with the exception of my race, and the inhabitants of one or two special worlds, wear their Portable Destination Transporter Apparatuses on their wrists.   The apparatus is an electronic device that looks like the watches that Earthlings wear.   The user simply asks the device the question and it will respond with the necessary details to the closest portal to wherever the traveller wishes to go.   These devices can be spoken to, responding to over two thousand dialects, and once the apparatus is aware of the traveller’s intended destination it will provide both dialogue and holographic details for the traveller.   The dialogue will advise them of the location of the closest portal, including spacecrafts should that be their main form of travel, and the holograph will display images of the portal in its closed form so they will know exactly what they are looking for, and a holographic map for them to follow to get to the portal if required.”

“Why would they need to go by spacecraft if they can travel through the portal themselves?”

“It all depends on the traveller and how they prefer to travel.   Scientists, geologists, medical personnel and others of their ilk often have to travel with equipment that is heavy or delicate, or software that can’t risk exposure to the elements that are a mandatory contributor to the workings of the land based portals.   The spacecraft that travel along the portals have protection measures built into them that safeguard such items that can’t be incorporated into the land based portals.   Spacecraft portals are also used to transport emergency craft to wherever they are needed in the universe in a matter of minutes or hours, rather than months or years.   And, of course, there are those that simply prefer flying through the stars and galaxies like many on your planet prefer long distance coaches and trains over aircraft.”

“Would there need to be dozens, perhaps hundreds of these portals on every planet, or would you need to travel to several different planets to get to one particular planet?   Like going cross town where you have to take two or three buses or trains to get you to your destination?”

“A little bit of both, my friend.  It all depends how far you wish to travel.   Long distance travellers often have to travel through a series of portals to get to their destination for a couple off reasons, one of which is the possibility of damage to their system travelling for so long; so fast; and without a break.   But travelling this way is not a great inconvenience to them as it only takes just over three quarters of an hour of your Earth time to travel from one end of the third universe to the other using interchanges on the way … roughly an hour in peak periods.   But for the majority of users that are coming and going to and from inhabited planets they are usually only travelling a few planets away and will travel directly to their destination, or at least to the main arrival site that is.  And there is only one main portal on each planet.   This is referred to as the interplanetary destination.

There are the odd exceptions, but you would be made aware of these extra destination points by the portal guide, and the teleporter itself, when you connect to them.   The Portable Destination Transporter Apparatus is also used to advise the departing portal’s transit system of the user’s destination in a similar manner to using a remote control on your television or D.V.D. player, only, instead of punching the details of the destination into a physical device, the user verbally calls up a holographic keyboard and types it in.   The system does allow the user to verbally input their destination, however with the system being responsible for interpreting two thousand languages and dialects it is not always reliable.   Like on Earth there can be a series of phonetics used with the language of the residents of one city alone, never mind different countries on each world.   The system does occasionally send the voice addressed user to the wrong destination as a result of miscommunication, which does not go down well with them, or their friends or family should they become separated.   The hologram keyboard is a much safer way of making your travel arrangements at the portal departure point.

The user has a code to input to give them immediate access to the right transport system, or they can key in the planet’s name should they have momentarily forgotten their destination code, or wish to suddenly go to a different planet than originally requested, in which case the teleporter will ask them a couple of questions to verify their identity along with a hologram scan of their entire body.   Mind you, that happens to every shape or form just prior to their admittance to the transporter, but that is for a completely different reason.   Should there appear to be a discrepancy in travel arrangements the matter will be dealt with immediately by the transporters communication system which will link up with the Portal Controller on Zeus.   And security personnel will automatically need to interview anybody whose body scan does not match computer records.

Now this may all sound like the system is always on the lookout for spies, terrorists and criminals on the run, but the truth of the matter is that it is more for the passenger’s safety and well being than anything else.   All travellers require an admittance code when using the portals and they are scanned for a body print before they are allocated a code which is what they must remember and punch into the hologram keyboard prior to departure.   The portal transport system around the third universe is massive and it has millions upon millions of users each year.   Early in the system’s use elderly travellers were known to get themselves lost and nobody had any idea where they were; travellers were injured and hospitalised with no way of communicating with family or friends; tourists found themselves trapped in isolated places they were exploring, and because they were on a foreign world they had not had the linguistic skills to clearly advise their hosts at their accommodation exactly where they were going.

As a result G.I.S.P.A. introduced a scheme where all travellers could be located at any given time, and this was made possible by the introduction of the holographic identification system which took a reading of the entire body and transferred that to a special computer which would keep the image in its records forever.   Should an applicant be a frequent or permanent traveller, whenever the scan was run, and the system identified them as a previous traveller, providing the traveller hadn’t changed physically, it would simply update the travel records, but would not record the image again.   However should the traveller have had a major change to their body such as losing a leg or a tentacle, or for cosmetic reasons had had one of their heads shrunk since their last excursion, medical records would be required before the code would be issued in the first place and a new scan placed on record.

A similar, but more expedient process was set up for permanent travellers such as salesmen, entertainers and politicians.   The scan made it far easier for G.I.S.P.A. to safeguard the travellers and they set up a department especially for the purpose of dealing with potential problems in advance.   This department, The Department of Portal Travel, D.A.P.T. for short, as you can see, Johann, Earth is not alone in having a need for acronyms for every bureaucratic department they create, nevertheless this department was responsible for verifying the safety and the honesty of all travellers, but in particular those that had failed to return to their home base by the expiry date of the code, or who had been reported as missing.

Should either of these, or similar, incidents take place the department would take immediate action.   The person’s body scan would be called up and a copy transferred to a D.A.P.T. agent in the locality where the missing person was last known to be, based on the information obtained by the portal movement records.    It is impossible to travel through a portal without a code, and therefore there would be a movement record of the traveller.   So the missing person should still be somewhere within the locality of where they had arrived.

The agents were in possession of electronic equipment that now housed the holographic image that had been transferred to them from D.A.P.T. and with the aid of a satellite designed purely for this purpose allowed them to do a three hundred and sixty degree search over an area of fifty thousand miles in perimeter and pinpoint the exact location where the match-up signal was originating from.   In the rare instance of the signal not being picked up on the original scan, the agents could call Zeus to despatch a search and rescue craft from the nearest base, transferring copies of the missing person’s body scans to the search craft, and the search craft could cover a wider area.   The majority of times a traveller is classed as missing they are located within less than an hour after being reported as missing or overdue.  The actual rescue, of course, may take a little longer depending on the situation.

But this next piece of information may possibly better explain the answer to your question.   When going to another planet the traveller will initially arrive at the designated interplanetary portal according to the code they had input at the original departure portal, but should this only be a stepping stone to their final destination they will need to reactivate the holographic keyboard and enter the code number for the next stage of their journey and follow the same procedures they had carried out at the previous departure portal – departing from the interplanetary portal where they had just arrived.   And they would continue to do this until they finally arrived at their destination.    Now we are only talking long distance travellers here.

Remember, for the majority of travellers from other worlds who are only travelling to another planet in the same galaxy, there is only one destination portal per planet; the interplanetary portal.   It is not a choice they can make, it is a landing point for the planet designated by G.I.S.P.A..  The long distance traveller is provided with a sequential series of codes, along with the names of the designated interplanetary stepping stone planets – and it is always in their interest to verify to themselves that they have arrived at the right planet in order to continue their journey successfully.

Single world travellers that have arrived on the right planet, but not the right country, village or town would need to locate the nearest inter-planet portal and enter the same code into the holographic keyboard in order to continue their journey.   This portal will take the traveller to the capital city of a state or country depending on how the country is set up.   The inter-planet portal is normally situated close to the interplanetary portal, though there are some exceptions … mainly based on safety and security reasons, and they are extremely rare, so don’t give them any thought.

But to give you an example of how the portals work, to transport from Mars to Earth, or anywhere to Earth for that matter, the portal would automatically transport the traveller to London because that is the location of the interplanetary portal for Earth.    Once there they would have to locate the inter-planet portal in London should they wish to travel to say, Brisbane, Sydney or the capital city of any of the other states and territories in Australia, or Paris should they wish to travel to somewhere in France … and so on.

Now when the traveller transports themselves to another country or state, they may, if their luck is in, have another portal to use in their travels to their chosen destination, and that is a local portal which has access points to several towns and villages located within five hundred miles of the inter-planet arrival location.   The interplanetary portal will usually also have connections to a range of local portals within its own realm.

Brisbane, the capitol of the Australian state of Queensland, for example, which is an inter-planet portal, also has portal to portal set-ups to the Gold and Sunshine coasts and several major cities all within a radius of five hundred miles of Brisbane.     London, which is an interplanetary portal has both inter-planet and local portals – and the local portals have set ups to close locations such as Westminster and Brighton – and to more extreme destinations such as Trenthamville, a small village located around one hundred miles from London.   But in most cases the traveller will have to make their own way from either the interplanetary portal, if that is the country of their prime destination, or from the prime inter-planet portal, to wherever they want to go.   There are no free buses or taxis waiting just for interplanetary travellers on most planets I am afraid.   But some lucky travellers do have an easier trip.

The location and quantities for portals in each country on a planet are decided by G.I.S.P.A. and will vary upon needs and requirements and it is not important for you to know any more in regards to the reasons.    Inter-planet portals are normally set near the arrival /departure point of the interplanetary portal, as are local portals set close to an inter-planet arrival portal, but there are some, for a variety of reasons including security and safety, that are set up some distance away from each other.

However, going to uninhabited worlds are a bit different.   They may have several portals spread around the planet, but the land portals on these planets were originally only intended for the travellers to be beamed down from spacecrafts and to give the ground crew somewhere to store the vehicles and their equipment overnight out of sight.

“Like the thing on Star Trek where Captain Kirk famously says, ‘Beam me down, Scotty,’ and he, Mister Spock and Doctor McCoy would disintegrate and reincarnate in the middle of a strange, weird shaped, rocky Colosseum in the middle of a barren stretch of land where Captain Kirk has to take his shirt off in order to battle a huge space monster.”  Johann asked with a huge laugh.

“Not, exactly, Johann,”   Arkeriosus sighed, a half smile on his face,   “The Star Trek system was shown to be capable of beaming the traveller down to any point that suited the purpose of the moment, but always on the surface of the planet or inside another craft.

The portals that I speak of are far more sophisticated and complex, can transport passengers and equipment far, far further in distance than the Enterprise could ever hope of doing, and they are always located in a fixed point somewhere within an established object at ground level when they are placed on planets that have no need for the inhabitant’s to be aware of the visitor’s arrival … or, for whatever reason, the planet’s government request the portal to be kept out of sight.   The established objects of which I speak are as varied as the side of a mountain; inside an unused cafe; in a shop within a shopping mall, or at the back of a building.   These portals can transfer life-forms and solid objects such as vehicles and electrical apparatuses with similar ease and speed, though having a hover-van making its way through a shopping centre can pose a few problems for all concerned.  Or, alternatively, the portal is in the air for a spacecraft’s arrival, but these portals, like their land based equivalents, can only be seen when activated by a Destination Apparatus … and even then only for the few seconds it will take for the spacecraft to travel through it.”

“What would prevent two spacecraft opening the tunnel at the same time when they were travelling in opposite directions?   Would they crash?”

‘No, all space portals are one-way only; north, south, east or west, the destination of the spacecraft is the first thing received by the portals and only the right one, based on the destination code sent by the spacecraft, will respond and send out the co-ordinates to the craft.   And once the portal has accepted the request to open it will automatically take into consideration the weight, mass and cargo as it begins opening the portal door.   Once the door is closed behind the spacecraft that door cannot be reactivated until the spacecraft and its cargo, including the passengers, have been safely transported to their destination, which is only a few minutes later providing there is no problem at the arrival point, in which case the spacecraft will be held in abeyance within the portal at the departure end itself until the matter is dealt with.    It all works pretty much the way that trains and airlines are controlled on Earth.

Please be aware, Johann, that a lot of planets do have open arrival/departure portals and they are used both for local transportation and inter-planet travel the same way your planet uses trains and planes.   The use of inter-planet, interplanetary, and local portals, are not the sole reserve of visitors to a planet.   These planets have their arrival/departure portals housed in established buildings similar to your planet’s main railway stations such as America’s Grand Central Station in New York for their interplanetary and inter-planet travellers, and more modest terminals for local portals.

There are two parts to the transport system, one being the arrival of a cylinder and the other is what happens to the traveller as they travel through space and I will explain these to you in greater detail in a while.  But for the moment I wish to finalise explaining about portals in general so you will have a greater knowledge of what we are dealing with in the future.

Uninhabited planets were never intended to be set up with land portals; the portals were only meant for use as a delivery point for vehicles that were to be used in exploration.   Remember, these were exploratory trips to ascertain the worth of the planet and double check for life.   The need to safeguard the equipment was simply a precaution against the unknown.   However, depending on how far the expedition had progressed on the first day, should a decision to continue the exploration the following day be made, then a temporary portal would be set up where the exploration crew was physically positioned when the decision was made.   These portals, which, in a modified form, eventually went on to become the local portals on inhabited planets, had a limited power source which only allowed them to transport anything up to five hundred miles, but a wide enough working area to transfer the biggest equipment that they required.    However the ability to be transported five hundred miles was enough for the explorers to see a fair amount of the surrounding countryside as they travelled and still have time to set up a new portal at the end of the day which would return them to the first portal, which they then would use to return to the ship.   And by setting up a new portal every five hundred miles and connecting it to the previous temporary portal it allowed them to travel roughly two and a half thousand miles in their hover-vans, which included several observation stops, in five days – and it was certainly a lot better time-wise on the return journey because jumping from portal to portal got them back to the ship each night in under ten minutes.”

“But why not simply just send everything down onto the surface if it is uninhabited?”  Joseph enquired,   “Couldn’t the spacecraft simply follow the explorers and beam them up from wherever they were at the end of the day?”

“They could, but it may turn out that the planet is indeed inhabited after all.  Lessons were learnt during exploration of several planets earlier in the piece, where the explorers had accidentally managed to wipe out several colonies of intelligent life-forces whose existence they were previously unaware of.   Once they became aware of the life-force they immediately found a way of communicating with them, apologised for their mistake and immediately began the necessary steps to place the planet under the protection of G.I.S.P.A., and deemed the planet to be out off bounds to all worlds without either an invitation to visit issued by the inhabitants of the planet, or authorised by G.I.S.P.A..

Now, when they approach a similar planet, the explorers do not set the spacecraft down after they have electronically scanned the planet several times.   Instead they beam the scientists down to the planet where they will set up a series of high definition observation cameras and audio recorders as well as other sensory equipment in the area before returning to the craft where they will monitor the potential portal location over twenty four hours.

Once they feel certain that there is no life in the observation area they will create a portal, connect it to the spacecraft and then begin their journey into the unknown with hi-range life-searching antenna attached to their vehicles.  The space craft will remain stationary above the planet and continue to monitor the cameras and audio sensors.   Once the explorers reach the five hundred mile limit of their journey, should they decide to travel again the next day, they will set up a local portal and advise the ship of their decision.   Once the ship’s captain receives this advice he will speak with the crew who have been monitoring the cameras and life sounding audio set ups, and should the crew confirm that there still had been no showing of life, he will make a decision on landing the spacecraft in the observation area.   But he won’t give the authority to land until all protocols have been followed.

“And should they discover life?”

“Then they will act as they have before.   Attempt to make contact and befriend the inhabitants, invite them to join G.I.S.P.A. as a protected planet and arrange for a fleet of G.I.S.P.A. war craft to be permanently stationed on the planet.”

“I should imagine setting up an air station like that would have rather large logistical problems wouldn’t it?    I mean there would be food requirements probably not available on the planet, fuel storage, sleeping quarters and so on.”

“You are forgetting the portals, my friend.    A base to base portal set up would be set up to Zeus, or the closest base on an inhabited planet to where the new defence base was being set up.   Housing would be provided for the crews and their families on the inhabited planet.  The base on the inhabited planet would also store all necessary equipment for the new base, and provide maintenance service for the spacecraft when required   Fuel would not be a problem because the space craft’s power system is solar and the on-board batteries hold enough storage to last for up to six days in the sky.  Remember these craft are designed to defend a planet … not go on day trips looking for potential invaders.

The crews and ground staff on the protected planet work on shifts, and use the portal to communicate to and from their daily tasks so the defence base is always at the ready, and all supplies needed on the defence site are transported to them as quickly as if they had been located on the host base they are connected to.    All that appears on these protected planets are the dozen or so spacecraft, a couple of smaller buildings for liaison and radar surveillance, a simulator room for the pilots, a variety of vehicles used mainly to transport goods arriving in the portal from the host base, and a communal dining and relaxation area.   Other than those, the only other building is where the base commander resides and somewhere for the crew and the pilots to await a call out … which, of course, never happens.

The day crew usually become involved in community goodwill programs on a daily basis, taking turns so that the base is always ready for action.   Mainly they visit schools and retirement villages to give talks about life on the other planets, showing visuals whenever they can … remember these planets don’t have space transport, don’t have full portal access yet, and have never visited other planets which is why G.I.P.S.A. are on the planet – and the night crew become involved with local sports clubs, usually ones they had helped develop in the first place.   Of course the sports are a lot different to cricket, soccer or rugby, but they are sports never-the-less.   The G.I.S.P.A. war-craft crew can afford this luxury because there has hardly ever been a call out in nearly two thousand years of G.I.S.P.A’s role as a peace force for the universe, and even then they were for emergency rescue work due to fire, flood or famine on one planet or an other.

However, G.I.S.P.A. has been wary of the peace and tranquility in the third universe, especially since the discovery of the other universes – and, solely in the eyes of Platonia Arguston, Commander-in-Chief of G.I.S.P.A., is a major worry that nobody else in G.I.S.P.A. seems to have much interest in, and that is the arrival of the Rangonians.   According to the original Zeusonian records there was definitely no life possible on the planet so he alone wonders how they got there … and how they survive.

What is of concern to all G.I.S.P.A. senior staff, however, is the worry of how long it will be before somebody in one of the other universes discovers both the existence of the other universes and how to get there.   G.I.S.P.A.’s limited knowledge of some of these worlds, based on the information provided to them by the observers of those planets, makes G.I.S.P.A. fear for the future of the third universe.

“Probably seen Earth in action,”   Johann commented with a wry smile on his face,   “And if they don’t wish to join the Alliance?”

“The expedition will leave the planet and G.I.S.P.A. will place an observation satellite in orbit around the planet.

When Silius Rangonia realised that they could set up the portals for singular destinations as he had with Rangonia and the computer, he also realised that scientists, geologists and their ilk would possibly like the ability to occasionally revisit some of the uninhabited planets some time in the future, so he came up with the idea of modifying these installations so that the portal only took the user to the nearest inhabitable planet, and vice-versa, and not to the universe in general.

However, if the nearest planet also proved to be uninhabitable they would set up stepping stone portals on the uninhabited planets, beginning on the planet the furthest away, where they would install a portal that only travelled to the next uninhabited planet and so on until they reached an inhabited world that was close-by.   A standard portal that went live to all inhabited worlds would then be installed on the inhabited world, if there was not one already installed – and a singular one-way portal to the nearest uninhabited planet would be set up close by.  This, of course, meant that anyone from outside of the inhabited world would have to visit the inhabited planet in order to gain access to the uninhabited planets.   But this would also give everybody living on the inhabited planet access to all other inhabited worlds – plus a connection to the nearest of their uninhabited worlds, including those with stepping stones.   And the stepping stone planets, of course, have huge portals; portals wide enough for air travel cars or personal land-used hover bikes to accompany the visitors.

And this way the scientists, or similarly interested parties, would be able to travel to any of these planets under their own steam as the majority of the uninhabited planets, that were classified as ‘interesting’ by G.I.S.P.A. during the initial exploration, already have most of the necessary transport and equipment stored in the departure portal on the inhabited planet for such an occasion.   G.I.S.P.A. is responsible for the issue of permits to travel between inhabited and uninhabited planets and they will arrange for the issue of the vehicles and equipment where they see fit.

Portal co-ordinators, better known as P.C.O’s., were eventually established by G.I.S.P.A. on all inhabited planets to ensure the safe return of visitors to the uninhabited worlds as all visitors would have to return to the inhabited world they had initially departed from in order to travel back to their own planet, as would local inhabitants return to their homes.   Therefore, the P.C.O’s. would be aware if the visitor had failed to arrive by the allocated time and take the first necessary steps in ensuring their safety … and their subsequent rescue should it be deemed to be necessary.    And it gave the visitors to the uninhabited planet some security in the knowledge that somebody knew they were on an uninhabited world – and would be aware of their non-return should something go wrong.

Travelling through portals throughout the third universe is a natural thing for the professional travellers and tourists alike from just over three hundred inhabited planets that use the system in one form or another.   Mind you, visitors to an uninhabited world are always surprised by the size of the tunnels, but the size is necessary as the portal has to allow for transport vehicles, especially when one or more of the uninhabited worlds are used for the benefit of the inhabited planet the portals are connected to.

Take the planet Magorras for instance.   The farm workers of one of the villages of Magorras who specialise in the growing of strawannas, a fungi delight throughout the universe thanks to the portals opening up trade between many of the planets, have to travel from their home planet to Strawyear, its uninhabitable neighbour, because, due to its constantly muggy weather, it has been proven to be capable of growing strawannas all year round.

But when the crops are ready for picking they need to go to Mowgli, another local uninhabitable planet, and a stepping stone linked to Strawyear, because the conditions there are perfect for the product to be dried quickly and packed in order to keep their freshness for the trip to the Magorras markets for distribution across the universe.

Early each morning the farmers arrive at the singular arrival/departure point portal on Magorras and travel to Strawyear where they will tend to the crops, and on the occasion when one of the fields reaches the picking stage they will load the transport vehicles with as much product as they can, then go to a second singular arrival/departure point portal on this planet and travel to Mowgli.    They can do this because a singular/arrival portal has been set up to go to between Strawyear and Mowgli because it is part of the stepping stone system commencing on Magorras.

Mowgli and Strawyear had had exploration portals allocated to them during the early exploration stage, as all newly discovered planets had always been allocated.   This, as I explained to you earlier, meant that the first portal was only between the spaceship and the planet, and other land based portals may, or may not, have been set up during the planet’s land based exploration.

However in this case, as the two uninhabited planets existed virtually side by side, a headquarters was set up on Mowgli and the portal was set to run between the two uninhabited worlds rather than directly to Magorras, the local inhabited world, at this stage.   And it came to Silius that because they were going to run stepping stones to Magorras once they were finished on the two uninhabited planets, it would be simpler and cheaper to have an open working path between Mowgli and Strawyear for the moment and share their resources, including the machinery and expertise, and explore both planets simultaneously.   To make things even simpler for themselves they modified the portal between the two planets to be permanently open so they could virtually walk between the two planets any time they felt it necessary to do so.   This, of course, is not something that would be allowed to be done very often, definitely never on inhabited worlds.  Too many things could go wrong.   And if two planets declared war on each other …”   Arkerious shook his head at the possibility before continuing

“This particular exploration had taken place not too long after the installation of the portal on Rangonia, and other than the way that Rangonia had been set up with the portal leading directly to the computer, all other portals between inhabited and uninhabited planets were being set up as a singular arrival/departure point between the inhabited and the closest uninhabited planets with a normal sized portal tunnel.  A portal size that was exactly the same as the portal that took visitors on an interplanetary journey.   However, the tunnel size in the portal that connected two uninhabited planets, when they existed, remained as it had been constructed; with a large tunnel to enable vehicles to travel through them when required.

Wherever possible some equipment, including several forms of transport, was left in a hidden chamber within the portal of the uninhabited planet closest to the inhabited planet after exploration ceased on the planet or planets.   And although the portal between the two uninhabited planets were always large, the arrival/departure point between the inhabited and uninhabited world was always much smaller which meant the equipment and transport vehicles could not be taken back to the inhabited planet by unscrupulous opportunists who had somehow gained access to the hidden chamber where they were stored.   It is very much doubted that this situation could have ever arisen, but Silius Rangonia had not been a man who would encourage taking preventable risks.

The transport and other explanatory equipment was not meant for general use even though the general public could request the right to visit the uninhabited planets, often under the care of a guide.   But the vehicles and equipment were only available for explorers, scientists in general and geologists searching for the possible existence of hard-to-come-by minerals.   And providing a technical visitor to the first of the uninhabited planets had authorisation to be there in the first place for scientific or geological reasons, they would also have been provided with access to the equipment along with battery packs to bring the equipment and transport back to life by the Portal Co-operatives as they embarked upon their expedition.

Now this is the way Mowgli, Strawyear and Magorras were meant to end up, and they most likely would have if something totally unexpected had not occurred.   The open portals were still in operation on Mowgli and Strawyear when the explorations of those planets came to an end; the planets were declared uninhabitable with neither world considered to be suitable for further exploration, and the portals were about to be set up as had their predecessors, when Silius’s thinking on singular arrival/departure points was changed forever.

Through a remarkable coincidence, Hercule Christie, the son of a Magorrion farmer, now a scientist with the G.I.S.P.A. exploratory team who had been part of the expedition to both planets, realised the potential of the two planets for one of his home world’s crops and explained his thoughts about the two planets to Silius Rangonia before they installed the singular arrival/departure point portal on Magorras.

The expedition leader gave him permission to contact his father and tell him of his discovery which he did immediately.   With some urgency in his approach, his father spoke to the elders in his village and they, in turn, with the same sense of urgency approached the agricultural division of the Magorrian government who immediately contacted G.I.S.P.A..    G.I.S.P.A., who were responsible for the use of portals, regardless of who wanted access to them, agreed to the request and the setting up of a single-use, wide portal, instead of the regular sized portal, solely for the farmer’s use between Magorras and Strawyear.

A portal, separate from the regular multi-platform portal for Margorras to travel to the rest of the universe – and separate from the normal, narrow tunnelled portal used by scientists and visitors to Strawyear.   The new, farmer’s only, portal was established in the main village on Magorras where the majority of the original strawanna farms were established, while the other end was set up on Strawyear in an area that the farmers declared to be the best area for multi-farming.     Then another singular arrival/departure portal was set up on Mowgli within a purpose-built  structure built by the farmers to enable them to dry and pack the fungi when ready for shipment to the Margorra’s markets where they would be assigned to planets around the universe, such was the popularity of this sweet tasting fruit – and it had been popular since the introduction of the portals also helped create a free trade market throughout the third universe.

From this moment on, every new portal installation throughout the third universe was reviewed and decided on by a committee which comprised various specialists from G.I.S.P.A. and representatives from the inhabited planet that had uninhabited planets within their region in case other planets also could make use of the uninhabited worlds within their region.

In conclusion, Johann, there are, and always be variances, to your questions, but this has been the simplest way to show examples of how they work in the main.    For you to reach one particular planet, the journey could take up to eight different interplanetary portal stops.    That would be the longest journey that I can think of.   But for most travellers it is only one single journey to reach their prime destination … and then the list of ways to get to your final destination is almost endless.”

“Are there really portals on Earth?”  Johann asked, half expecting disappointment, “or were you simply using analogies before when you mentioned London and Australia?”

“There are land based portals on Earth, Johann … quite a few including one located not far from one of your buildings, and one inside Ten Downing Street which is what I usually use when I visit the Prime Minister.   London, as I told you earlier, houses the interplanetary portal, and has both local and inter-planet portals, but there are no air based space time jumps on Earth.    Well, there are, but they are not currently in operation”

“Why not?”   Johann asked in surprise at both answers.

Time space portals were placed on Earth in both space and on land long before humans learned how to fly … long before the first human learned how to walk upright, and then learned how to talk.   Scientists and historians from planets that were far advanced to Earth were transported to several planets within the first universe including Earth, along with similar transportations to planets within the other universes – and the portals, in turn, were used for the scientists and historians to return home at the end of their allotted time – as well as to bring in, or take out, various forms of equipment required for their research, and, of course, their replacements in the field.   All went smoothly on Earth for thousands of years, until, for many of those residing within your cities and nearby villages, it became unsafe for them to stay once the second world war had begun – and the planes and rockets began to attack the more populous areas of England and Europe; a change of address to the country for safety reasons was, in the main, impossible at the time, and the intergalactic rules of inter-planetary study forbade them from interfering in any form whatsoever, which, unfortunately for them, included the construction of solar powered bomb proofed shelters over the roofs of their near neighbours and themselves, so they were forced to leave the planet until the war ended.    However, the time space portals were left fully active, both on land and in the air, for the few hardy souls that remained on Earth.

At this stage there had been no need for Transporter Apparatuses on Earth for the portals that existed in the sky, only for the land based versions, but under no circumstances were the inhabitants of Earth to be made aware of their existence, especially during a war.

Land based portals are not something visible to the naked eye until the portal doors are opened – then they appear as a long, narrow, grey coloured tunnel on the inside, housing a large, transparent, elongated though narrow shaped room, big enough to house several dozen average sized humans,    But the doors, of which I speak, are not doors such as those of an office or the entrance to a building, they are mainly larger objects that appear to the casual eye like a brick wall at the back of a warehouse or building, or even a cave wall.

The exit/arrival portals are usually set so the users can come and go between the portal and the area of exposure such as a street, or the inside of a shopping mall, without bringing attention to their sudden appearance; the portal doors cannot be opened, exposed or entered from either side without the access code built into the Portable Destination Transporter Apparatus, and there is an automatic warning given to an arrival at the portal should it be dangerous to exit because of crowds or problems on the outside.

“How do they get around this problem?”   Johann asked out of curiosity.

“The system will automatically open the second the area is safe.   While the travellers are still inside the portal an announcement will advise those trapped inside the portal the reason for the hold up, and will issue ongoing updates on the situation.    The travellers will have the choice of waiting the delay out, or travelling to another destination.    There will be no other incoming travellers arriving until the portal has been cleared, and those waiting to exit from other departure points to arrive at the blocked portal will also be advised of the reason for the delay and they too can make their own decision regarding their next step.

Each traveller has their way around the problem, but they manage.   It really depends how much they want to arrive in a particular locality.   Wherever they want to go it won’t affect London Central should that be the portal with an exit problem, or any of the main landing portals on any planet, for that matter – it will only be local portals that will have that problem.   The travellers will have access to both local and inter-planet portals whilst they are still inside the interplanetary portal and can use those to transfer to a more suitable location for their main destination.  All they will need to do is ask their portable transporter apparatus for the best alternative location.    For some that may be an inconvenience, but the choice of waiting, or entering the planet through another venue is up to them.

Remember I told you most planets have only one central landing point, the interplanetary portal, but there are a multitude of inter-planet and local arrival points around each inhabited world, and many countries such as England and Australia have more than one such arrival point in the major city of that country, as well as some of the secondary cities spread around the countryside.   London itself has thirty five local portals spread around the place including fifteen in, or near, the city itself.   The traveller only arrives at the central location on a planet because that is where the portal from their place of departure takes them.   They can simply dial in a reactivate code, or a new code, on their portable transport apparatus for one of the local portals once they arrive at the central portal and they will be on the streets of London or Trenthamville or wherever within seconds.  They can also travel around the world via the inter-planet network.   It is their provocative.   It is only when they are travelling to a local portal and run into hold ups that they can have a problem finding a suitable alternative.”

“If we have so many visitors on Earth,”   Johann asked, “why not use the sky-portals?”

“The lack of safeguard regarding the sky-based portals on Earth did not cause a problem for a long time, the portals were located far away from the cities and burgeoning airports, and certainly out of the way of the air warfare taking place around the world in the nineteen forties, but eventually, as time passed, as the war finished and the skies became more crowded across the world, a few unfortunate events occurred where some pilots and passengers found themselves far, far from home.    Most of them were returned home, albeit with induced memory losses that prevented them from remembering what had happened.   Occasionally some of the individual pilots requested, and were given, the right to remain on their new planet.   But it was proving to be too big a risk to leave the portals active, because to warn the various governments of Earth of the existence of interplanetary space jumps on their planet would also mean revealing the existence of alien life-forms, both on Earth and on other planets.    And, to know that troops could travel around the world in seconds, and nobody would be aware of their movement until they arrived at the other end, would guarantee that several countries would try to use the portals for their advantage, and they weren’t created for advantages, they were created for time saving in travel and exploration … and providing help when required in the least possible time.   Not for an advantage in war or invasions.

Eventually it was decided by G.I.S.P.A. to adjust the sky based portals to coded Destination Transporter entry which meant only the space craft of certain planets could enter Earth portals, and then only when it was deemed absolutely necessary for reasons such as the transport back to their own planet for the observers who had been willing to remain on Earth and, for one reason or another, were unable to use land based portals to travel between the planets.

With the Destination Transporter in use the portal was only opened for enough time to allow the craft or crafts to safely enter or leave the planet – then automatically shut behind the craft somewhat similar to the way your electronic gates on Earth do.   After all, G.I.S.P.A. decided, Earth was not part of the third universe and it had been only in the knowledge that Earth was a long way from being ready to use time and space jump portals that the go-ahead had been given to the scientists and historians … it was assumed that the people of Earth just would not know how to use them effectively should they have access to them.   Certainly not at the beginning of their evolution, and not even in the twenty first century

G.I.S.P.A. had had no problem allowing the scientists of various planets from the third universe travelling to, and studying the life-forms of, several planets situated in the first universe including Earth and Svenson One, the planet N.A.S.A. refers to as Kepler -186f, once the Zeusonians had discovered the existence of the parallel universes and had set up the space time jumps on those planets for this particular reason.  The scientists sent back regular reports of the ongoing development of the planets that they observed to G.I.S.P.A. and the reports of the progress of the first universe’s Earth clearly noted the planet’s lack of progress in space travel since their first landing on the Earth’s moon.   The reports indicated there were staggered exploratory attempts, but launches were far and few between and were primarily unmanned missions.

Neither the scientists nor the historians were certain whether the delays were caused by lack of backing by the various governments of the world, or simply a lack of interest by the average human, though the reports that they sent lent towards the former.   Their observation of the popularity of television, books and film indicted the general public had some keen interest in space travel and other worlds, but regardless, nothing monumental was happening and it could easily be another hundred or so years before the Earth was going to be anywhere near ready for space time jump portals.”

“What about Kepler– 186f, or Svenson One … or whatever you call it?   I have never heard of either one.   Have they done any better in the same time zone?”   Johann asked defensively on behalf of his planet.

“We will refer to it as Kepler-186f for the moment,”   Arkerious replied, his face revealing his bemusement at Johann’s defensive, and slightly childish, reaction.   “It is also a protected planet, physically similar to yours in many ways, located in the Cygnas constellation of the Milky Way around four hundred and ninety light years from your ‘Earth’.   It was discovered by Doctor Elisa Quintana, a research scientist with the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Centre in two thousand and fourteen.   In her findings she recognised that the planet, not much larger than your planet, had all of the ingredients to support life.    She was one hundred percent correct.  The citizens of Kepler-186f, who refer to themselves as ‘The Mysterions’, although starting life in the same order that you did, are much more advanced and have been for a long, long, time.   In fact, until proven otherwise, they are the most intelligent life in your universe, and the intelligence level of the entire life-force on Kepler-186f  is almost equivalent with the most advanced prime life form of all the planets in all of the universes … The Aargons.

The Mysteriouns of Kepler- 186 have spacecraft that can travel in a similar way to a time jump portal.   In fact they utilize the portals that we have set up in universe one which is how they can come and go on their travels.   They have been observing the Earth for over seven hundred of your years.  They have also visited Earth on several occasions over the centuries and have even attempted, sadly unsuccessfully, to help the Earth to move forward with space travel.   In the early stages they managed to make contact with some earthlings of great intelligence and importance, including Leonardo da Vinci and Jules Verne, and shared information with them about the stars and travelling through them.

These learned men were both delighted and amazed by what they were shown and told by the visitors to Earth; they were greatly humbled by the visit, and the faith that the people of Kepler had in them to join the great space exploration within the universe, however the times were not right for that kind of progress – Earth was not yet ready.   Humans did not have the tools or the mind-set for such an event and the best that either man could do was share the ideas that they had gleaned from their intergalactic friends with those that were to come behind them; young, eager, learned men of science in a more enlightened age could read their words, see the blueprints of their ideas and prepare the world for a better future.   The Mysteriouns continue to visit Earth and are still sharing their findings with men of science on Earth today, but it still seems to fall on deaf ears in the political world.    Perhaps one day … .”

“How can they visit Earth if the portals are turned off?”   Joseph asked smugly.

“There is a portal on the moon,”   Arkerious’s soft reply causing a sigh of defeat to escape from Johann’s otherwise closed lips, “They arrive through that portal then resume their journey in real time.   It is only a short trip from there to Earth, and because we have provided them with Portable Transporter Devices and Earth currency in the form of an unlimited debit card they have the choice of earthbound transport such as taxis, buses or portals to use, or they could simply use their spacecraft to take them to their destination.

Johann could not think of a word to say, and sensing his friends momentarily sense of frustration and embarrassment, Arkerious continued with his history of space portals on Earth.

“The observers were doubtful that the inhabitants of Earth had the ability to be ready for inter-planetary diplomacy and understanding should they be given access to the space time jumps at this stage of their development.

‘Another century‘ the scientists had noted in the year of two thousand and ten.   ‘And then only if they had re-developed a thirst for real life expeditions of their universe, then they would learn through experience.   However, when it comes to inter-galactic diplomacy,’ they continued, ‘observations of their progress in that discipline on their own planet, towards variations of their own species, indicated that even after a journey of thousands of years the countries spread far and wide across the planet were still having difficulty in getting along with each other in a lot of cases, so their sudden access to other star systems simply by running in and out of a tunnel did not indicate the making of good inter-planetary neighbours at this stage of their development.’

The scientists plainly pointed out in their report that like watching Star Trek on high definition television week in and week out does not make one an astronaut, or a space traveller; having a gate that leads to the wonders of the universes does not make one a space tourist guide.   They need to regain their enthusiasm for space travel, for new experiences, to find new worlds, to explore them, and to learn to get along with each other in a real sense, not a compromise simply for the sake of peace and trade, so they, in turn, learn how to communicate freely and honestly with the new species and lifestyles they come across in their travels.  Once they can prove to us that they have these credentials, and are gaining their experience learning the cold facts of space travel from their own trials and errors, they will be accepted with open arms into the world of portals.

“But how do they work, these space and time jumps?”   Johann insisted,   “At least in principle.   Do you break up into atoms and reincarnate at the other end, does your metabolism slow down to all but death as you travel at a million light years a second?   You keep diverting from the answer.”

“And in principle I shall respond,” Arkerious agreed, “but then we must begin to get a move on.    I am sorry if this lesson on space and time jumps is a bit unwieldy, but I have to give you examples of what you are learning as they occur.   I am not going to tell you what will happen in your future, that is neither my job, nor would it be a guarantee of what will happen, especially if things go wrong for Joseph.   However, in saying that, there is information that I do want you to be aware of should the situation require that knowledge.   We are in a corrupt time zone which will have a bearing on the future of everybody concerned in the situation … and that includes you.   For that reason I will give you one piece of information that may help you relax and accept the way you are learning; to learn to go with the flow as the lessons unfold.   But I will say what I say and then I shall not re-engage the subject matter until such time as circumstances force me to reveal more.   Do you agree to that?   To simply listen to what I say and store the information for future use should it be needed?”

Johann nodded his head in agreement and Aarkerious continued,   “Time has been corrupted.   Rangor may defeat Joseph at any stage of the battle that will occur over an indefinite period of time, and as Rangor can defeat Joseph anytime between now and the final battle Joseph also can win the battle at an earlier or later period of time than he first did.   We have no control of time, for time is now advancing under its own steam – so we must plan every single move and carefully intake any observation with the utmost care.

Although we can move backwards and forwards in time, Joseph is moving in one direction only, and it is imperative that, to a degree, we now keep moving in the same time sequence as he is; which is what we are doing at this moment.    We are currently travelling at the same speed and time that Joseph is and we have been since the last incidence we witnessed.   We now know that the proxy has recommenced the battle based on the monitor exploding … and it is our guess that the wrong target was eliminated, but what we don’t know is if Rangor is aware of that yet.   We don’t think he is, but we are not certain.   However, as long as he is unaware it gives us extra time to learn more about what we are up against and make plans for the next meeting.   The one thing that we think is in our favour is that when Rangor finds out that Joseph is still alive, he can’t go back in time again to rectify the situation.    If he could, then we could never defeat him … no matter what.

From this point on, should we take too long to arrive at the next meeting between Joseph and Rangor we could be too late.   The changes to the future may have already begun by the time we arrive and should that happen it will be impossible for us to continue with what we are doing … perhaps impossible in our being able to do anything at all.”

“I thought you could simply travel to any time zone that you liked, whenever you liked, and in both directions … so why the need for speed now?”  Johann was beginning to feel apprehensive about virtually everything he was currently dealing with, most of which was beginning to fall out of his head due to information overload.   For the first time in his life Johann was feeling both dense and out of his depth.   Johann was also beginning to feel brain dead and knew he was in deep need of some alone time to let his brain sift through and analyse the incredible things he had seen and heard, and the expression on Arkerious’s face made things even worse for him.

Over his many years at the helm of one of the most important offices of National Security in Europe , he had witnessed many strange things; unexplained things; events that denied believability even after all this time, and his department had saved the planet, or at least, Great Britain and Europe, from encountering many disastrous attacks from sources that pushed the mind to the limit to believe in their existence, and he thought he could handle anything by now.   But the continuous series of events that had taken place outside of his own world; out of his own universe was becoming far too much for him to grasp in one sitting.  On top of that he had learnt that interplanetary historians and their ilk had been living in the Earth’s back yard for god-knows-how-long and watching the inhabitants grow up – and now learning there was a highly intelligent group of aliens from the other side of the Milky-Way galaxy dropping in to the planet at any time it suited them, with nobody but a member of another alien race who lived on a planet he hadn’t even known existed until a few hours ago … and now he was standing on it – or at least his body was …his mind?   At this point in time Johann was uncertain where his mind was … except out there somewhere.

And now he had Akerious’s face to deal with, or, at least, the expression that now appeared on it.   Arkerious’s face was normally placid, neither expressing happiness, nor sadness, in most cases, though he had managed a laugh or two at Johann’s expense on several occasions.   But at the moment the face appeared dark … as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Johann did not know what to say.   Then he realised he had unintentionally broken his word … he was meant to listen, not to question.   “I am sorry, I forgot for a moment.   I will be quiet.”

“It is alright, my friend.   There are so many things to tell you.   So many things that you need to know … and so little time to tell you and still do what I must do.   There are so many things changing so quickly, so many things that have happened since we first met.”   Arkerious paused for a second, sighed, shrugged then placed a half-hearted smile on his face.

“The times and events we have visited in the past so far are still as they always have been from the very second that they occurred.”  Arkerious replied, his voice unusually soft, as if regretting what he was about to say,  “And, at this very moment, Joseph is still moving forward as he had the first time … because this is the first time.   Forget that it had happened before … now we are in the present … and what happens now … in this time … now happens in this time!”

Johann looked hard at Arkerious and hoped like hell that he really did understand what Arkerious had just said … that ‘what happens from this moment on really does happen.   If it goes right – good and well, but if it goes bad – then it goes bad for good.’

“When we refer to a time-line,”   Arkerious continued as he returned to the lesson, “the images that we see are only the events as seen and heard by that individual.   Events taking place around that individual, but unseen or unheard by them, are not available to us during the projection.   Now before you begin to point out that you could see all around the room when Joseph’s monitor exploded, I must explain what happened in this instance in a bit more detail.

As I said earlier we are now in real time.  When I took you to the past – to the Grimshaws; to Lord Trenthamville, and Joseph as he grew up, I modified things slightly.   I had already seen Joseph’s time line and recorded it some time ago, as I had done with the others.   I knew the exact date and time of each event that was of interest to us and I used that information to project it for you, using mental fast forward to by-pass the moments that had no action or spoken words.   But I did do that for the event that last took place

To add proof of how the human brain can so easily adjust to accept something that it conceives to be impossible think about how easily I fooled it as we watched events unfold in front of us.  Earlier I projected the recorded image to a monitor back on Garocia and your brain accepted the image.   Your brain accepted the image because it was similar to how you watched television.   You accepted that I could speed the image up, or pause it, or rewind it because that was what you could do with your digital television set or your D.V.D. player.   Your mind ignored the fact that the image was coming out of my mind and not a video recorder and simply accepted it as a relatively normal event.   And as it had been accepted on the monitor, when I switched the image directly to your brain, the brain accepted it a factual event because you were effectively watching the same program.

Only it wasn’t a recording that was being fast forwarded when we viewed the events in the office – it was time itself.  In this particular instance we, or at least, our minds, had travelled in time as well as space.  And while we were observing the goings on I simply fast forwarded to the important bits with carefully constructed editing based on my knowledge of the event, assuming your mind would be so full of wonderment at what you were actually watching, and how you were watching it, you would not notice the speed at which things were happening was at times a little rushed.  I went live, so one does say, to give you experience of moving around in real time, and it was not until I noticed the events in the office were suddenly running a tad different to the previous time that I stopped fast forwarding and left time to run its own course at its own speed – because that was when the present was being changed – and that meant the future was changing too.

It is only you and I and Rangor that have gone back in time.   The creature travelled with Joseph the first time, now he travels alone, with us trailing him.   Joseph travels forward to meet his destiny, while the creature seeks more than his destiny; he seeks opportunities that did not exist the first time around.   But Rangor, too, has an Achilles’ heel … he does not have an abundance of time.   Every second, every minute of this journey is not his to do with as he pleases.   Certainly he can now attack Joseph at times different to the first time, but he is still limited on the time he has available to him because he is still travelling towards his own future whichever way he moves.

Rangor could not, cannot, spend his entire days battling with Joseph via his proxy; feeding life to the proxy, and still successfully engage in whatever else he himself was involved in on the journey the first time around.   Rangor has requested a return to a time period, not an extension of the time in which events took place … that would have been impossible to obtain.    It was quite noticeable that Rangor could not find the time to fight Joseph for hours on end the first time around , mere slap-dash moments in most cases, and we see no reason to expect that this time around will be any different time-wise.   All that we expect will happen differently this time around is that the time schedules for the attacks may vary slightly, which means Rangor has a lot of other things to attend to besides Joseph.   To a degree Joseph may have been simply an irritation to Rangor in the beginning, and the attacks on him were simply opportunistic attempts to flick him away like one does a fly.   However once Rangor found out that Joseph had actually destroyed him – Joseph’s death became both a necessity and a priority.

“What would happen if you did try to change the past after you found it had been changed?”

“We are uncertain of the truth of what we have been told by our ancestors.   The supposed truth introduced into our history may have been recorded in order to prevent us doing such a thing … or it may have been told to us in order to save our own souls.   The answer to your question has been handed down from generation to generation by our forefathers, but we have never been able to be confirm the truth … actually it is doubtful that it could ever be confirmed, would want to be confirmed.   Because we are of the understanding that anyone attempting to change a fixed time point after it had already been changed once would themselves a fixture of that time, neither dead, nor alive, just in a permanent fixture of that particular minute of time, though I do not know how it would affect us if we are still on Garocia physically … it might end up with our bodies remaining in one time; one world – and our minds in another.”

“God, you know how to put the wind up somebody, don’t you, Arkerious.”   Johann declared as he felt the hairs on the nape of his neck rising, wishing he had never asked the question,   “That certainly makes it a bit risky … and hard to prove, I would suppose, but it is certainly not a chance we should take.    I know that I wouldn’t.    But I am not in charge of things at the moment, am I?   Anyway, I must have misunderstood you.   I thought you said earlier that we could go back and fix any problem, that we would have one last chance.   I was under the assumption that you already knew most of the details of the future … That we were merely viewers of the events as they happened to ensure that all was well, and go back to fix any deficiency that may occur.   Why all this doom and gloom now?”

“Firstly, you must understand that time travel is both a privilege and a complex issue.    We are one of the few races that are granted access to full-time time travel.   The majority of the other planets require a permit from the time guardians before they will be given license to move through time for whatever reason they come up with, and even then they must have a live hologram travel with them to ensure that they won’t attempt to change time.   But even we cannot do the impossible.   It doesn’t matter if we go forward or backwards in most circumstances, but should we travel back to a time that has been compromised or changed we are forbidden to change the event again.

According to the time guardians, to constantly change an event will create instability in time itself because every change to one event will inevitably lead to more and more changes in the future.    Perhaps you have heard of the Butterfly Effect, where one event leads to another and so on … and to change just one tiny event would change many things.   A butterfly lands on the leaf of a tree growing close to a house; its beauty attracts the attention of a young boy who is standing on a veranda playing with a small puppy; the boy opens the temporary gate that has been erected on the veranda in order to keep the dog in so he can get closer to the butterfly, and in his excitement he fails to close the gate securely behind him.   The dog paws at the gate and when it opens he runs down the stairs, but instead of following the boy as it usually does, it runs out on the road just as a car comes down the street.   The little boy notices the dog on the road and goes after it.   The driver sees the dog, but not the young boy and jams on the brakes; the car slides sideways and runs into the young boy who dies: the driver has nightmares about the accident and eventually commits suicide; the death of the driver leaves a young boy fatherless and he in turn … well that is the gist of the Butterfly Effect.   If the butterfly had not landed while the boy was outside on the veranda … if the boy had ensured the gate had been shut properly … if the dog had not gone out on the road instead of following the boy as he normally did … ; every action creates another action.    And so it is with time.

Between the time when Rangor first attempted to kill Joseph and the final battle took place Rangor had fought Joseph quite a number of times, or at least the proxy had, and we know because Rangor and the proxy are the same, Rangor would have been responsible for recharging the proxy on quite a few occasions.   This could possibly take some time, but certainly not all of it.   So Rangor would have to be doing something else with his time between his attacks on Joseph – and whatever he did in that time period would have had an impact on the future.   Now, if he is attacking Joseph during a period that previously he did something else, his current action will cause different waves to ripple through the future along with his original actions.   This means that Rangor has had two time streams almost on top of each other.”

“Sorry, Arkerious, please explain that again.”

“There is no need to aplogise, my friend.   Time is complex, unfortunately it is also short at the moment, so I will try to explain the best I can in a brief manner.

I am going to use an analogy, rather than the full facts, because I no longer know the full facts.   Time has already been changed and it will continue to change … unless we defeat Rangor for once and for all.   Now what I am about to explain to you is a rough explanation, so please just listen and don’t quibble about anything I say … remember it is only an analogy … and the premise of what I allude to is accurate..

The time that elapsed between when Joseph first noticed the lift travelling down from the penthouse, and when he finally left the building to go to his lunch was roughly ten minutes; eleven fifty a.m. to twelve noon.   Exactly ten minutes.

It was during that ten minutes that Joseph’s monitor exploded, and therefore, it was during that time frame that the creature attacked something, or someone, in the not too far distance.   We know that because the energy level was strong enough to reach Joseph’s monitor – therefore making itself noticeable to us.   It was so strong, another few inches and it may have reached Joseph himself.

Now we don’t know for certain if somebody, purposefully or accidentally, was killed, but considering the strength of the blast I think that we can safely assume that somebody was.    And Rangor’s actions in that assassination would have triggered of a chain of events into the future that can never be changed because his actions have created a new, and permanent, fixed event in time.   It doesn’t matter now what might have been had he not struck somebody down, what matters is that he set of a new chain of events that will affect the future.   Rightly or wrongly it has happened and cannot be changed.  This is what happens every day in all of the universes.   The wheels of the future are in motion and future generations will have to deal with any ramifications it causes.   The only major difference is that Rangor travels through all of the universes, so anything he does can have much wider implications … much wider.”

Arkerious stopped for a moment and looked deep into the face of Johann P Biggs.   “Can you follow this so far, Johann?”

“Yes, so far.”  Johann advised reservedly.

“And you fully understand the Butterfly effect; ‘Every action has a reaction’?   The sliding door moment!   ‘One inane choice of action may cause the death of millions –   while another equally inane choice may save the lives of millions.’

“I think so.”

“You, think so?”

Johann began to shake his head vigorously, like a schoolboy trying to impress his sixth grade teacher with his enthusiasm just prior to a make up exam.

Arkerious looked hard at his friend and student for a long moment – then continued,

“In the original gap between eleven fifty and twelve noon, as he sat diligently at his desk, Joseph did indeed see the lift come down from the penthouse, and he did indeed see Mary Hopkins emerge from the lift, but ten minutes after seeing the lift door open, Joseph left the building for his meal – unscathed.   The events that we witnessed between eleven fifty and twelve noon that took place as Mary began to enter the room never eventuated that day … the monitor did not explode, Joseph did not collapse, there was no damage to the other computers- and that was because the proxy was nowhere in the area the first time.   Whatever it was doing, it was doing it somewhere else, and with someone, or something, else – and it may not have even been on Earth.   What we witnessed did not take place until Rangor began his trek back in time.   What we witnessed was the creation of a new fixed point in time, but more importantly it meant that Rangor had now created two fixtures in time; the one when he was on Earth … and the one where he wasn’t.  Time and the future has been changed forever.

If Rangor did not attack Joseph in the office the first time it means that he was somewhere else at the time, and it does not matter where he was because Rangor does exist and whatever he did, and wherever he did it, will still have an impact on the future.   Now that he has come back in time and re-entering events at different times; times and locations that he never existed in originally, he is not only changing the future in those time zones, but he is distorting time in the original time zone as well, because in one hand he is in two places at once, and in the other hand he does not exist in either zone.

What he has done, what he is going to continue to do until he defeats Joseph, or he himself is defeated, will cause a continuous array of events to now, or no longer, take place.   Births, deaths and marriages being amongst the many events that would be changed for better or worse, and so will the effect they would have had on the future.   Soul-mates may not meet.   A genius that saved the world may now not have been born.    Wars may have been avoided.   The list is endless.   Only time itself would have known the impact of those events that did not take place, but another change to a particular point in time would cause even greater problems for the future, because there is no give and take in time.   If the attempt to correct the problem by reversing the previous change is out by as much as a millionth of a millisecond it will aggravate the problem even further because it will initiate another change of events that will affect the future, on top of the changes that have already occurred.   The more that time is corrected, the greater risk there is of time exploding.   At least for the planet concerned, if not for the entire universe, should it create a domino effect.

That is the best that I could explain it simple terms, Johann.   I hope that was suffice for the moment?”

“I think I do understand, Arkerious, thank you.  Rangor has doubled up his actions in one part of the time zone, while deleting another part by cancelling it out.  I imagine that puts some things totally out of balance in the scheme of things all great and timey-wimey, to quote the good doctor.”

“You are getting it all together in your head, my friend.   That is exactly right.   Now, here is a bit more to our lessons regarding Rangor.   I explained earlier that other guardians were searching through time-lines to locate the source of the time disruption.   We now know which of the time control planets were responsible for Rangor’s return, and we know why, but there is little that we can do about it the moment.   But with Rangor’s return we are dealing with something unprecedented and, therefore, it is no longer a one man show.  That means, in this situation, I cannot work alone as I usually do; I have other guardians looking; searching the heavens; trying to locate some kind of pattern to follow …but we are currently too early in investigating the problem to find a pattern because the problem is only now commencing.   Normally each Planetary Guardian has the total responsibility for their allocated planet and will make the decision on how best to fix any emerging problem.   We have the sole responsibility for a particular planet and our experience always guides us to a correct decision.    However we are currently in a completely new territory.   I will need all the help that I can get.   There is no right or wrong solution; there is no precedence to follow.  Everything is changing from minute to minute.    All we can do is monitor the situation and try to locate and interpret any pattern or logic in regards to his attacks so we can begin to predict his movements.

There are several hundred guardians examining every aspect of the situation at hand, and as they calculate the effect of major changes to the situation they will pass that information to me via my mind, and it is their latest assessment that I am sharing with you at the present moment.   What I said earlier was true.   But it was dependent on the events taking place at the same time they originally did.    That now appears to be no longer the case, because Rangor has changed the rules.   Now we will also have to view the time-lines of Joseph’s friends as Rangor may use them in some form of attack, and they may unknowingly assist us with information about Rangor that we don’t already know.    This is something that I cannot do alone, so there are several of my brothers helping me by tracing the time-line of each associate Joseph has in his battles with Rangor.   Should they come across anything that we should be made aware of they will instantly connect us to the event through my mind.    Should that happen then there is possibility that we will be watching the same event projected through different eyes.”

“Won’t that be difficult to watch?”   Johann asked, his mind refusing to even conjecture an image of half a dozen amalgamated, similar, images all jammed together and trying to enter his mind with some degree of coherence.

“Think split screen, my friend,”    Arkerious offered.

“Split screen, yes … right.  I will definitely do that …with ease.”   Johann replied with a facetious tone, shaking his head in disbelief as Arkerious once more appeared to be attempting to do is head in.

“My brain is capable of allowing me to view all incoming images simultaneously and select what you see.”  Arkerious explained,   “My brain allows me to edit the images and select the right image for each projection before allowing it to be seen by you.   If there is more than one thing happening in the same environment that you need to see I will cause the images to merge so you can see exactly what is going on by looking around as you would with V.R. glasses.   It will feel exactly the same as the image you witnessed in the building where Joseph was working when his monitor exploded, where you found yourself being able to walk around the office and have a three hundred and sixty degree view of the room.   And I can enable you to do this when watching something in real time as we will be doing from now on.   You will still be in the centre of the action as you were when we viewed the previous events in Joseph’s time line, but you will only see what I want you to see to save you discomfort.   I will not be hiding anything from you, only filtering out duplicate images and only allowing pertinent images to be available to your eyes.   It is simply to keep your eyes and mind unsullied by the various reactions to what is happening by the individual observers.   Think of a tennis match.   If you watch the room rather than the player you will notice the synchronised movements of heads as they follow the ball up and down the court.   The heads swing left, then right, then left, ever rotating until the point has been won and lost, but if you were to stop your mind from automatically following the swinging heads and moved your own head across the crowd in the opposite direction you would always locate one head, if not a dozen, not following the ball, but distracted by something else happening in or around the court.   The same thing is likely to occur in Joseph’s skirmishes with the creature and it is entirely possible that somebody in his little group will notice something happening that distracts them for a second from the main bout.   The part of my mind that is receiving the download from the other guardians will offer me different incoming observations  – and I will meld the various images in a way that you can choose between the different observations as to which one seems of the most importance for you to watch.    Joseph’s battles are not necessarily the main thing that we need to concentrate on.   Should somebody observe something unusual be going on out of Joseph’s sight it may very well offer us an insight to flaws in Rangor’s attacks which we can pass on to Joseph.

Providing Joseph survives an attack, if we deem it necessary, we can rewind the action later and review the action from every angle as everything that we see from now on will be recorded in my mind.   And should we come across something to help him I will advise him immediately”

“How can we advise Joseph?    I thought you just said that we couldn’t go back once we’d arrived in the new time-zone?”

“We can’t,”   Arkerious replied rather too smugly for Johan’s liking, “I will whisper in his ear during the skirmish.”

“You’ll what?”   Johann asked in confusion.

“I will link my mind with his from the moment we arrive in the next time-zone in a slightly different way than I do for viewing his time-line, and should we become aware of something that Joseph should be wary of during the battle, I will mention it to him the first chance that I get.    And if something is happening out of his sight during the battle I will also suggest the appropriate advice to him, and suggest he does whatever I advise him to do, to do it immediately.”

“Wouldn’t he be thrown off by the sudden arrival of your voice in his head and lose concentration for a minute or two?   I would imagine that it could be enough of a distraction to allow Rangor to get the upper hand?”

“When I link to his mind when we arrive at the beginning of our observation of the new time-zone I will condition his mind to accept my voice as being part of his thought processes.   I expect that he will think his instincts are kicking in as he automatically follows my advice – and he will have no more thoughts about the action he took.”

Johann simply closed his eyes, lowered his head towards the ground – and shook it from side to side for several seconds.   Then dismissed Arkerious’s explanation to a special bin within his head and slammed the lid shut.

“Will my time line be shown?”   A smile on his face, Johann finally asked out of a mixture of curiosity and ego.

“Yes,”   Arkerious replied, a huge smile on his face, “soon your face will appear on the silver screen.”

“Movie star in a sci-fi blockbuster which only two people in six universes will see.   That sounds fair enough.”   Johann said in agreement,   “Can’t wait for the repeat royalties.    But seriously, Arkerious, this multi-tasking of your mind; your ability to communicate; to converse; to put a multitude of plans into actions with mental telepathy; your ability to at least ‘appear’ to be in two places; two worlds, at the same time really does my head in some times; does it in almost to the point of illness.   However I still have faith in your abilities to something about Rangor, which is more than I can at the moment.  So what can we do about the situation?   How can we be certain that we know exactly when to arrive in the future, now?   Do you have to do another scan of Joseph’s future at a hundred miles an hour to find a new time-zone?”  Johann asked, surprising himself by the realisation he was suffering a mild form of anxiety about the questions he had just asked, lest the answers proved to be unpalatable.

For a moment Arkerious remained speechless.   Instead of answering the question, he just stood open mouthed and wide eyed, staring at Johann.    Then a broad grin broke out over his face as he began to speak.   “Johann, you may not yet think so yourself, but I am convinced that all I have told you is coming to fruition.    You are really beginning to get a grip on things outside of your daily environment.   You are truly beginning to believe and understand both what we are facing and how we must go about it.  You have much more to learn, and a very limited time in which to do so, but the more you believe the truth of what you are involved in, the easier it will be for your mind to comprehend what I tell you.

You are not quite right, but very, very close, Johann.   I am about to re-program my mind to begin a new search of Joseph’s time-line commencing from the very second that he left the building and headed off for his lunch.   However it will be done slightly different this time.  This time we will see everything of importance that eventuates in Joseph’s time-line, and not just the battles.   It will provide you with an invaluable insight to the circumstances and motivations that encouraged Joseph to become involved in something that was way out of his league at the time … and you will get a far better understanding of what I mean when I said changes to events will change the future forever, as you witness the chain of events he encounters on his journey – and you will begin to fully accept how just one of those circumstances failing to exist would have changed everything for him and the eventual finalisation of his journey.

As I progress through Joseph’s time-line a small part of my mind will be melding with his, not the connection that I will be using to advise him on things, but a link to his mind as he moves through life, minute by minute, and this connection will show me every thing he sees, and I will be aware of new situation comes into contact with, so I will be well aware if is Rangor approaching, or Joseph is on the verge of becoming engaged in a conversation.   I shan’t be listening to his conversations, I will sense the situation – and should Joseph’s mind suddenly react to something that really attracts his attention I will immediately be alerted to it.   I will stop travelling forward and go back in time somewhere between five and ten minutes earlier than it was when I sensed the change in his thinking and we will watch what is happening in real time … as it is happening.   In doing it this way we will not arrive too late to witness an event, and we will be able to contribute to the action should it begin to change from what was expected.   And we will not contravene time if time changes because we became involved in the change – we won’t contravene it because we are now also part of the new fixed point in time, not a latecomer trying to change the results.   However, there is one minute possibility that things will not work out in the way in which I had anticipated.”

“And what is that?”  a rather curious Johann asked.

“If Rangor attacks Joseph without warning and delivers a fatal blow.”

“God, Arkerious, you are just the soul of joy and happiness, aren’t you.”

“Your sarcasm is duly noted, Johann,”   Arkerious replied with a mischievous grin, a sign to Johann that the dark cloud that had covered his mentor was lifting,   “However, in continuation, we will observe Joseph’s conversations and actions as he becomes drawn deeper and deeper into the web of events that are about to unfold , and we will see them and hear them with as much clarity as if we were standing only feet away … which we will be, in a way.   We will also be able to interpret his decisions, or at least I will through his mind … and the reasons for them, which I will pass on to you.   And as a result of following the time-line this deeply, some of the things we will be privy to may not always feature Rangor, but, never-the-less, will play a predominant role in Joseph’s thinking which, in turn, helps guide his instincts in the coming battles.   This style of surveillance will also introduce us to his allies in the fight.   My brothers will be doing a similar thing with their time-lines and there will, no doubt, be times when we see associated events that take place in the individual journeys of his allies as they occur, along with the multi-images we will see in Joseph’s time-line on the occasions when he is in a battle with Rangor and they are observers … or even, perhaps, participants, but most definitely at his side.”

“Can you also protect Joseph’s associates if they are in danger?”   Johann asked, as he wondered about his own involvement with Joseph in the near future.

“Yes, Johann.”   Arkerious assured him, “And talking about battles, I feel now is a good time for me to tell you about the second visit to Rangonia while we still have time.

“You were going to explain to me just how the space portals worked.”   Johann objected.

“All in good time, Johann, I will get around to it shortly, but I think now is the right time to learn a little more about the Rangonians.”   Arkerious responded, his voice, soft, calm, but still flavoured with something authoritative enough to persuade Johann not to bother objecting any further.

“Fine,” Johann conceded accepting the inevitable, but still remaining disappointed his question was still to be answered

“G.I.S.P.A. sent a troop ship carrying thirty very experienced soldiers to Rangonia to investigate the matter.   Like the Draxonions before them the troop ship kept channels open from the moment they took off, and that included the very second that the craft landed and the on-board narrator announced that the troops were about to depart the ship.   As the narrator spoke the in-room cameras were trained on the exit door that was ever so slowly being opened to lower the ramp, and the troops waiting in line to depart the ship to do their duty.

The narrator explained to his audience back at G.I.S.P.A. headquarters on Zeus that there may have been a fault in the door opening mechanism, as the slowness of its opening was not a regular problem, but assured them that the problem would be dealt with in the shortest possible time.

***********************

While the narrator spoke clearly and loudly as the image rolled on, in the background the voice of an unidentified person was suddenly heard just as clearly by the technical operator on Zeus that was controlling the transmission to G.I.S.P.A. headquarters, as it was by the members themselves as they looked at each other in mild confusion at what they were hearing, but not seeing.

************************

“It’s getting rather dark out there.”   The first voice noted.

“It is too,” another voice put in, “and it’s beginning to cover the ship!   What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know, but it’s getting darker by the second.   Perhaps it’s a fog of sorts – though it’s moving a bit fast.    What the …”, but the question was never asked as a sound of something exploding filled the audio … and what sounded like a muffled scream accompanied it.”

And the scream, as loud and terrified as it was, was almost overshadowed by the equally terror-struck voice of the second person in the room,   “Oh, my god! …Nooooooooooo!!!” the voice cried out, the fear within the originator of the harrowing, nail biting, plea for help sent shivers running up and down the backs of all who heard it.

**********************

At the exact moment the second voice had also screamed out in terror the video operator on Zeus, who became concerned by the blood-curdling mood change in the audio he had been half paying attention to, began casting his eyes across the seven screens that appeared on the studio wall in front of him and finally located the source of the audio.   It had been coming from the observation deck on the troop ship; a singular, metal framed, elevated construction rising ten metres into the sky from the forward end of the roof of the ship, and it had been the imploding of the huge metallic glass windows that surrounded the fifteen metre oblong shaped room that he had heard.

The glass, purposely designed and manufactured to bend and crack before breaking, lay scattered across the floor, the slivers and chunks glittering like diamonds from the reflection of both the synthetic light that ran across the roof of the room and the brighter, though limited, light cast upon them by the brightness of the twin suns that shone down on the planet… and as he looked around the room his eyes came across the bloodied bodies that lay under the glass.

But it was when the video operator on Zeus used his computer to manually adjust the room’s camera to face the destroyed window that he first saw the dark swirling mass that lay outside the ship, a strange, gritty sort of mist, swirling gently around a third of the way up the space that was once home to the windows.   The mist, or whatever it was, rocked gently in a mild breeze that seemed to exist outside the craft.   The technician was mystified by the damage to the windows; there were four cameras located around the perimeter of the space craft and he had watched the landing on the planet through those cameras – and they had revealed a large bare area for several hundred yards in a three hundred and sixty degree viewing of the area surrounding the spot where the craft had landed – there had been nothing in the immediate area that could have caused so much damage.   But know all he could see close to the ship on either side was the strange mist that was slowly moving upwards.

*************************

Do you know, Johann, it is a strange thing indeed that someone watching mysterious events taking place on a screen half a million miles from where they were safely tucked away in their environment never have a sense of fear of the unknown, and for Marcuses Stoneman this was exactly what was happening in his life.   The accomplished interplanetary video technician had hundreds of intergalactic broadcasts under his belt; so many broadcasts that he was almost blasé in his approach to them, though at the moment he was becoming fascinated by what he was seeing, but certainly not scared … why, he was not even nervous about the situation, but he was curious.

*************************

The video operator had no idea what it was that he was actually looking at, never mind why the two men had screamed, because in his instantly produced opinion, if the glass had unexpectedly imploded on them, they would not have had time to react, never mind scream or make comment.   But they had, and the window had imploded, completely covering their presumed dead bodies.  ‘How did the window break?‘ he wondered again, ‘there was nothing close by that could have fallen on it … and what the hell was that strange fog …’

*************************

In the room where the narrator sat things were becoming rather frustrating as the exit door was still not budging.   “We will try to open the door manually,” he stated to all that were watching on Zeus as the first half dozen of the still lined up soldiers moved towards the immobile door and sorted themselves into positions on both sides of the exit and immediately began the arduous task of wedging their fingers into the narrow gap that separated the two sides of the huge metal doors in order to get enough of a grip to pull them to their respective sides.

**************************

At the same time that the narrator was giving instructions on how to manually open the door, several members of the ship’s crew had reached the observatory deck in response to the noise caused by the exploding window and got a shock caused not only by the sight of the broken glass, and the two bodies lying beneath the rubble, but also by the sight of the thick dark haze that now covered three quarters of the entire room, but only on the outside.

***************************

The voice of the narrator advising that the doors were about to be forced open caught the attention of the video operator and he immediately took his eyes back to the first screen where he was just in time to see the troops apply their fourth attempt at opening the door manually … and this time they met with success, the ramp was automatically lowered and the troops began their forward march towards the strange black haze that was waiting for them – and it seemed almost immediately after the last man marched down the ramp that the haze expanded into so much mass the limited light from the twin suns disappeared completely from sight … and so did the men.

And it was also immediately after the men disappeared into the thick darkness that the first muffled cry of terror rang out through the pitch blackness of the outside of the craft; a sound so chilling that every member of the crew that still remained in the disembarking room could feel the hackles rising at the back of their necks, and the sweat beginning to pour from their foreheads.

And it was also immediately after the men disappeared into the thick darkness that the stench of death entered the spacecraft.

*******************************

As the video operator watched the troops disappearing into the darkness on his monitor on Zeus, he too heard the screams from the darkness outside as the black mist began entering the spacecraft itself.   But before he could see what was frightening the soldiers the sounds of absolute terror dragged the video operator’s eyes back towards the screen that was displaying the events on the observation desk just in time to see, for a fraction of a minute, the thick mass that now had now begun to move inside the room suddenly seemed to grow darker and darker.

And, as Marcuses Stoneman watched the sight that now beheld his eyes, the mist stopped its constant swirling within the room; in its place, hovering at various levels throughout the room were hundreds of mid-sized, dark green, scaled creatures.   The wings that protruded from their backs, reaching well past their heads and below their knees, were now beating gently; talons over a foot long that gave the impression they could cut a large animal in half with one swipe hung suspended by their side; teeth, more savage in appearance than that of any known wild beast protruded from a disproportionately small sized head; but it was their eyes that fully commanded his attention; deep – yellow – eyes, blazing as if the very soul of the creature was on fire within the dark green scaled body of  the vile looking creature, and in the now fearful and imaginative mind of the video operator every one of the strange creatures seemed to be staring directly at him, their burning, threatening, eyes penetrating through the camera lens – and into his very soul.   It was as if they sensed his presence – and for those long, disturbing seconds he dared not breathe a breath; he dared not move an inch; he dared not make a sound.   Marcuses Stoneman, still in the security and safety of his studio room on Zeus, was suddenly a very frightened individual.

************************

And during that short period of time; despite his fear for his safety should he take his eyes of the savage looking creatures in the observatory for even just one second; as the sweat poured out from his entire body; as every hair on his body rose up in fear; as his entire body shook with the trepidation he felt almost threatened his sanity, for reasons he will never understand, he turned his head, and his attention back to the troops who had been departing the ship into the strange mist … and for a moment he felt that he had indeed lost his sanity … for the mist was gone from the cabin, from the ramp – and there was not a living soul in the console.   No troops, no crew, no narrator – nobody.   The door was wide open, the sun shone brightly outside, but there was not a living soul in sight.   So confused by what he couldn’t see, momentarily forgetting his life-threatening fear, the video operator slowly began to scan the other six monitors, but one screen after the other refused to show him any sign of life and then, to his greatest surprise, he encountered the scene that sent him over the edge.   The observation room was now clear of the dark mist.   It was clear of the creatures who threatened him … and it was also completely devoid of all human life … including the two men who were once buried under a ton of glass which no longer shone like diamonds.   Instead, the glass throughout the room, like the roof above it, was now glistening from the extremely bright, glossy red that was splattered all over it.”

* The Final Chapter – 2018

***Please note that the preceding chapter will be reviewed shortly, and if it is further updated this blog will be replaced (but not re-released) by the updated version on wordpress archives.

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EXTRAS

Information on the blog / subscription details

The preceding 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 weeks as each chapter is ADDED or RE-EDITED.  (Some delays may occasionally occur – as did this (New) episode.)   NB: NEW CHAPTERS:   The Night of the Darkness is a completed book undergoing re-edit, however during the editing stage a (late) decision to include new chapter(s) will undoubtedly cause delays in blog publication and my sincerest apologies for these sporadic interruptions.   In justification, however, I believe these additional chapters are an essential addition to the book as they are both spoilers and a conditioner to future events, and their addition to the book at this stage is imperative as they provide a clearer understanding of past events, in order for the reader to fully accept and understand future events that occur throughout the first three or four books.

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Tony S

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