 
Aquari

By DD White

Copyright 2013 Smashwords Edition

**Contents: Chapters**

Chapter 1 Journey to Goag Ralus:

Chapter 2 Ploabot and Hanson:

Chapter 3 Aquari Arrives At Goag Ralus:

Chapter 4 Eistia the Investigator:

Chapter 5 Aquari Departs Goag Ralus:

Chapter 6 Eromot and Morgamor:

Chapter 7 Svetat and The Multidimensional Ring:

Chapter 8 The Death of Hanson:

Chapter 9 The Coming of Aquari:

Chapter 10 Beataphoriah:

Chapter 11 Aquari and the Devasuras:

Chapter 12 The Urania Nebula Event:

Glossary of Alien Words:

# Contents: Illustrations

The Mighty Magphoreus:

Aquari and Turgis Reva:

Ploabot:

Aquari, Goag Ralus, Ralus Xnoga:

Eistia, Grega, and Morgamor:

Svetat and Nieniel Smoking Rompass:

Golimechoids:

Map of Urania:

Grulmagofs:

Veldada and the Ministry of Science:

Begalius as Doldoorman:

The Coming of Chronolus:

Aquari, Chronolus, and Saturlus:

Aquari, Beagud, and Deliadre:

The Three Ages of Magphoreus:

### Aquari

Chapter 1: Journey to Goag Ralus

Deep in the abyss of stars that make up our galaxy the fastest object ever known speeds across the rift between the Orion and Carina galactic arms, on his way to the center of the galaxy. That object is known as Aquari, a being who usually takes the form of a two dimensional circle of light made up of pulsating colors and shapes. It is widely believed amongst galactic physicists who have studied Aquari that he is a being only partly existing in our universe who presents these two dimensions to our reality. That allows Aquari now to travel 707.2 times the speed of light through a kaleidoscopic show of passing stars and nebulae; a show Aquari has never tired of in all the billions and billions of years of Aquari's known existence. This galaxy, called Magphoreus in the galactic Nephaprican high-language, is understood by galactic cultures to have now been through three ages of existence, each between 4 and 5 billion Earth years of time in length.

Aquari usually explored more with his travels through Magphoreus, which still unfolded before him like an ever-unfolding fractal. The great galaxy Magphoreus still offers never before seen discoveries and sights to Aquari after over 13 billion years of continuously crossing this galaxy, 153,040 light years across from end to end. Aquari at this point in time/space is determined to get to the galactic core as fast as he can. He seeks Goag Ralus in the galactic core who is a being created by the Nephaprican Galactic Empire in the second age of Magphoreus.

Usually a galactic civilization spreads slowly from star to star, only appearing rapid when viewed on a galactic scale of time. However, a time existed in the second age when Nephapricans spread their colonies with greater purpose and a determination to reach the very core of Magphoreus, rapidly spinning about the ultimate oblivion of a super-massive black hole named Ralus Xnoga. The Nephapricans created a form of life to survive the more rapid and violent environment of the core, and they evolved this formula for life into an immortal being of several solar masses in size who now orbits the galaxy's super-massive black hole. The Nephapricans named this created being Goag Ralus.

The Carina nebulae 9,000 light years from Earth entertains the view of Aquari's view with a rainbow of gas and dust for awhile before giving way to a less eventful view of passing stars continuously emerging from the depths of space. Aquari allows his thoughts to idol on the events leading to this 42,073 light year journey to the core. A journey that still will take almost 60 Earth years for the fastest object in the galaxy, Aquari. Aquari had been visiting a galactic civilization of Eagolim who are direct descendents of the Nephapricans from 4 billion Earth years before. The Eagolim remained behind after the great disappearance of the Nephapricans over 4 billion Earth years ago in the second age of Magphoreus. These Eagolim were left cut off from Nephapricus in the 2nd age, after the stars of the fabled star-doors Fedor and Gralga went nova. The Eagolim migrate from habitable world to habitable world, spreading agriculture and architecture to sentient beings they cultivate from domesticated species that happen to have the pentanthropomorphic DNA gene switches turned on.

Aquari visited his old friend Beagud the Eagolim who currently resided on a planet where their subtle influence over the millennia had resulted in a pentanthropomorphic species finally shedding their fur coat once and for all, requiring clothing to stay warm. When terrestrial beings of sentience begin to evolve into galactic beings they stop fitting into their terrestrial environments. Evidence of not fitting in might be a lost fur coat, along with other evolutionary clues like requiring cooked food, or displays of linguistic acrobatics that indicate a highly evolved brain. That is when the species begins altering their terrestrial environment to make the environment adapt to their whims. A species experiencing the nakedness of a lost fur coat is a sure sign of a terrestrial species at last becoming a galactic species.

Beagud had brought his fleet of fusion powered warp, virtual-particle driven ships to this habitable planet in order to train a naked mammal in the shame required to operate clothing technologies, and also to put the fear of Ei into them. Beagud embodied the blue-skinned humanoid appearance of an Eagolim, a proud descendent of the Nephapricans who, it is said, ruled most of the inner galaxy in the 2nd age of Magphoreus. Beagud sat in the main pilot's seat on the bridge of the main ship, which he landed in these desert sands of a world orbiting a star, very much like the star enjoyed by Earthlings. Beagud had a hairless human appearance, very much like an Earthling, except he stood fourteen and a half feet tall, sporting a pale, even light-blue, skin tone. He sat in his command chair looking out on the agriculture project on this jewel of a planet. He awaited a visit from the legendary being of light called Aquari. It had been a couple teks (+/-622 Earth years) since he last saw his glowing old friend Aquari, and he had news for the cosmic being from a lot of that time. The galactic year encompassed a very long time, but long times are what galactic beings were evolved to adapt to. Beagud had existed over 6000 Earth years old, and would probably not live to ever see Aquari again. Beagud looked out the observation portal at the jagged horizon of another world, producing yet another specimen of intelligent life. His bluish face cracked a slight smile of pride in his life's mission to be a force for life and good in the galaxy. Beagud felt proud to be a loyal servant of the work of Goag Ralus, promoting the evolution of galactic life out of the life that sprouts from tiny habitable zone oasis in the galaxy, like this planet he had found orbiting a passing star.

The ancient virtual-particle driven ship called "The Mynervood," which Beagud inherited from his father who also inherited it through the millennia, had parked on the sandy plane on a tepid desert of a life-giving planet that the Eagolim had discovered in the course of their wayfaring journey around the Orion arm of Magphoreus. The Mynervood had flown the Eagolim across the voids of Magphoreus for over 4 billion Earth years. Its pyramid shape towered over all the other fleet ships both in size and age. Its ancient design of a fusion warp virtual particle drive would be vastly inferior to the fusion warp drives of other more sophisticated vessels in Beagud's fleet however, the secret to the mammoth Mynervood's speed included its enormous mass. It is the enormous mass that makes the virtual-particle drive more practical than trying to push a ship that size faster than light by just using a fusion-warp trick. The sheer size of the ship makes a virtual-particle drive only work better and produce, ultimately with constant acceleration, a faster than light situation when a fusion-warp mechanism can then kick in to lift the vessel beyond this universe to keep the ship from destruction by its own impossible speed. Aquari had a warm affection for the sight of the familiar Mynervood. So many things in this galaxy were so much more fleeting to an immortal being like Aquari.

The Mynervood had the old Nephaprican quanta-fusion communication artifact built right into it when they first created this ship. This had been the most amazing and cherished artifact of Nephaprican technology. Much of the Nephaprican technologies are unmatched to this very day in innovation and cleverness. Also like these communication devices, their amazing technologies cannot be duplicated or replicated in the present age.

Aquari passed through the hull of the Mynervood to present his circular appearance on the bridge before the sight of Beagud, "Greetings Beagud, my old friend." Aquari utilized his ability to produce audible language. "The Eagolindi of the Vesta star system, where the great Orion galactic arm forks with the Sagittarius arm sent me here to meet with you. I've been told you want to operate the old quanta-fusion communicator for me."

Beagud in his silent contemplation became suddenly startled from his old memories of Aquari by the being's actual appearance. Aquari is a two-dimensional circle of light that always presents two dimensions to all viewers regardless of their angle in relation to other viewers. This has an effect on the viewer that leaves them wondering if Aquari exists outside, or inside their own minds. "Hello Aquari, always an honor to behold your presence. I've been instructed, should I ever meet up with you again, to have you contact the Eigalli who live on Goag Ralus."

"Well this can only be interesting." Aquari shifted colors advertising a surprised interest. "Any idea of the context for this message I'm about to receive?"

"It is a clue to the mystery, which you probably already anticipate it to be Aquari. The Eigalli have been picking apart photons from the Orion galactic arm in this area that used to be our empire before we were ran off by unseen forces over 2 million teks ago. The Eigalli think they have now found the long lost star-door Tze-Doldus. Only you can go to the core of the galaxy and then to Tze-Doldus many teks before this ship will be anywhere near it."

The long lost white dwarf star called Tze-Doldus had been a remnant of the legendary galactic empire of Nephapricus. They spread their influence and likeness from one end of the inner galaxy to the other because they had developed the most amazing star-powered time/space bending star-doors ever devised by terrestrials. The quanta-fusion communicator became an offshoot technology made possible by this same time/space bending wormhole star-door technology. To this day in the third age of Magphoreus there still exist decedents of the Nephapricans who still maintain these communicators that allow them to communicate anywhere in the galaxy where another of these devices also exist with the correct calibration.

Beagud activated the controls for the device that already had coordinates set to establish communication with others living over 30,000 light-years away. The holographic image of another descendant of Nephapricans appeared on the contact device. "Greetings Deliadre, it is Beagud, I now have Aquari waiting to be your audience. He has been told that you found Tze-Doldus." Beagud and Aquari waited there in the uneasy silence of the twenty or so second delay, which accompanied this highly advanced communication device.

Deliadre had been standing before the quanta-fusion communicator for several minutes since Beagud first made contact, announcing that Aquari would soon be in contact with her. She had an astonishing discovery to convey to her galaxy exploring photonic friend. She wanted to use it to bring Aquari here after all these teks. Goag Ralus longed to hear from Its long gone friend. Goag Ralus longed to hear Aquari bearing tidings of the terrestrial life living so far away from conditions in the core. The galaxy's center consisted of 150 globular clusters spinning about the core out of dark clouds of dust and gas along a galactic plane of rapidly stirred star soup that violently turned ancient stars into planetary nebulae as they came of age.

"Hello Deliadre. It is Beagud. I now have Aquari waiting to be your audience. He has been told that you found Tze-Doldus."

Thirty thousand light-years away Beagud and Aquari appeared before Deliadre as holographic projections. Deliadre could be classified as also a descendent of Nephapricans like Beagud, however she stood only eight foot four inches with her hairless human form, and nearly a foot of that had evolved into an extra skull above her human-like head housing an extra brain evolved for the sake of adapting to Goag Ralus. Her skin showed also a much darker blue tone than the Eagolim Beagud. This extra brain also allowed her the ability to speak in lights and shapes similar to Aquari's mood-ring-like form. "Thank you Beagud. I will now address Aquari in my higher language."

Deliadre began speaking to Aquari in lights and shapes. When her audible message finally arrived, Beagud did not appear at all left out by this. Although he could not speak the language of lights and shapes he had long since learned how to read it, and if he had anything to say he could certainly still be heard. "I have extraordinary news uncovered by our studies of the electromagnetic spectrum in the Orion arm where the last remnant of the Tze branch of Nephapricus was destroyed. You will just have to return to Goag Ralus to behold this."

Aquari did not recognize this woman of Eigalli decent. The Eigalli were a much darker ultramarine blue compared to the very light-blue Eagolim like Beagud. The extra skin pigments protected Deliadre from the harsh radiation in the galactic core. "I do not recognize you. Where is Nieniel?" Aquari continued to ponder her alien form while awaiting reply. The uneasy seconds ticked away.

"Nieniel was my mother Aquari. It is said the Eigalli live 30 teks, and never 31." (That's the same as saying "9,330 Earth years and never more than 9,641.)

"I am Nieniel's daughter Deliadre. I remember you from your last visit here." She stopped the light show to await Aquari's response.

"Oh of course! Little Deliadre! How quickly terrestrial beings grow old and pass away on me." Beagud perceived this typically insensitive response from Aquari, and began thinking that he would one day never see Aquari again. He needed to cultivate a similar friendship between Aquari and his heir and child who had been deliberately also named Beagud the 32nd for the sake of cultivating that aim. Although the quanta-fusion communicator could reach across the galaxy faster than Aquari ever could, Aquari possessed wisdom and abilities far dwarfing any Eagolim technology. Beagud remembered his ancestors the great Nephapricans. Aquari actually knew them and talked with them, allowing them to record studies about Aquari still found in the Eigalli data banks today. Aquari's nature could be said to be truly godlike, with a long valuable history that goes back as far as the eye of history can see.

Aquari continued, "I am told that you have found the long lost star-door Tze-Doldus." Aquari then ended his broadcast of colors and shapes. The 20 or so seconds of lag for her to receive and then respond began.

"We definitely have located Tze-Doldus, and have discovered that life has evolved again to sentience on the planet Tze-Doldus-2. These beings have begun electromagnetic communications and entertainment that is included with the photons from that location. We have learned that these primitive terrestrial beings have discovered the star-door structure that is still intact on the planet's north pole." She wanted to continue, overwhelmed by her own excitement about this discovery, but Deliadre knew it became time to stop and let Aquari absorb this information.

The information amazed the cosmic being Aquari as much as it had Beagud who had also long sought for information about the legendary Tze-Doldus himself as part of a life's quest to solve the mystery of the seven lost star-doors that disappeared with the ancient Nephapricans. Needless to say, before hearing this news Deliadre had already convinced Aquari that he had become long over-due for a visit to Goag Ralus who always missed Aquari like a best friend. They shared a friendship that could not be replaced with the many fleeting mortal races of beings similar to the Eigalli who have sought out Goag Ralus over the millennia to live on Its surface where Goag Ralus provides them atmosphere and lovingly adjusts the gravity for them.

Those were the events that began Aquari's forty-two Earth-year long journey to the core of Magphoreus. He departed Beagud with apologies for the short visit, and promised to return. Aquari had a last look at the hairless rodent-like creatures that were working fields of dirt in crude clothing with their simple tools, making irrigation ditches that stretched into the dry sands of the sandy planet. In the distance, giant alien ships oversaw the hairless natives like giant titans that demanded obedience in the way they disfigured the horizon. Obedience would be obtained by fear from these little creatures. They were scared little rodents that were just barely intelligent enough to obey a god.

That had become the formula Aquari watched the Eagolim spread to different planets occupied by everything from hairless mammals to anthropomorphic reptiles, to even Silicon forms of life in uninhabitable zones capable of knowing the fear of Ei (pronounced Eee Eye.) The old creator god religion of the Nephapricans of Doldorian descent who really were too advanced now to believe any of it themselves anymore became the Gospel according to the Eagolim. You could say they preserved the virtues of their primitive religion and passed it on to new forms of intelligent life through the ages. Nephapricans valued the way a religion could preserve an evolutionary direction of a species with its introduction to higher virtues, instructions for conduct, dietary commandments, and reproductive laws. Indeed a similar virtue helped the Nephaprican species hold together the greatest galactic civilization to have ever existed on the inner arms of mighty Magphoreus. Aquari remained undecided on an opinion regarding this Eagolim practice. He watched it work for many a species from planet to planet, but Aquari also saw an evil with this good, casting its shadows on Beagud's face as he declared himself the great god Ei himself before the rodents. When Aquari finally departed, Beagud commanded them to cover their naked rodent bodies, and pronounce his name properly, which most newly intelligent species lacked the vocal cords to get exactly right.

"I command you all to say my name, Ei!"

"Aaaa Yaaaaa!"

"Repeat the name again! Eeeeeeeee Yiiiiiiiiiiii!"

"Aaaaaa Raaaahhhhh!"

"Again! Eeeeeee Yiiiiiii!"

"Raaaahhh Nahhhhh!"

That will go on and on, and they'll never really get it right. Most newly intelligent animals had quite a way to go before actually blooming into galactic beings. The irony that an anti-evolution-promoting religion that embraced mythological views of reality had been a secret to galactic evolution had not been lost on Aquari. The Eagolim did this in the service of Goag Ralus, who had been created by descendants of their ancestors, and isn't without some resemblance to their Doldorian mythical creator god Ei. The resulting evolution and intelligence did not disagree with Aquari who always enjoyed being more an observer of evolution on Magphoreus than one who intervenes, although the times Aquari had intervened would also become the stuff of galactic legend.

Aquari eventually departed the always-migrating Eagolim from deep in the Orion arm of Magphoreus to continue their coveted god act from star to star. The long lost dimly lit white dwarf star-door called Tze-Doldus had finally been found after a space of time exceeding four billion Earth years. In addition to that amazing news, after a couple billion Earth years since the white dwarf companion of the exploding red giant star Tze got lost to the labyrinth of stars in the Orion arm, life again evolved from scratch on the planet Tze-Doldus-2. Not only that, but that life on Tze-Doldus-2 had even discovered the long lost star-door evidently still intact.

The star-doors were made of stuff that could remain intact for whole galactic ages. Deliadre could have talked Aquari into a journey to the galactic core with much less fantastic information. She had him with news of Nieniel's death, and Aquari missed his old friend Goag Ralus too. Unlike so many departed friends, Goag Ralus at least didn't die on him. The forty-two year journey to the core is seldom dull at seven hundred times the speed of light, and no known being knows the twisting and turning labyrinth of stars and gas in the galaxy better than Aquari. Also an intelligence like Aquari's, with memories reaching back billions and billions of years, is incapable of being bored.

During the life-sprouting second age of Magphoreus the Nephaprican Empire emerged for a good 700 million Earth years as the first and so far only united galactic empire to span to the far ends of the inner galaxy. Usually a galactic civilization is lucky to inhabit a few dozen stars in a local sector of space, but the Nephapricans found the short cut when they were still but a fledgling galactic species. The Nephapricans were warm-blooded mammals, which is a rare form of life in the inner galaxy compared to reptile. That is probably because mammal life emerges from less ideal conditions of a star's habitable zone. Planets evolving mammal life tend to have extreme fluctuations in temperatures that make reptile life less successful. The evolution of warm blooded life is common enough in the galaxy, but the problem that figures into the probability of becoming a successful species of intelligent life is that unstable and/or extreme environments are more likely to be subject to catastrophe. In a galaxy that tosses stars around a super massive black hole, a whole planet of life can often be squished just like a bug. It's easy enough to be a reptile meditating an existence away on an ideal world orbiting an ideal star under ideal conditions for billions and billions of Earth years, but then again where's the challenge in that? Perhaps this profoundly explains why when mammal life does become intelligent they are inclined to take to the stars while intelligent reptile life would be more inclined to enjoy a purely cerebral existence understanding higher dimensions.

Mighty Magphoreus

The Nephapricans nurtured their original civilizations that consisted of three original races, evolved on three separate star systems in an original cluster of 15 stars that were speeding together in unison through a galactic orbit of 35,000 miles a second. These three races were the Pripicans, Nephricans, and Doldorians. Because the cluster provided nearby distances between these independently evolving races on the planets of three separate habitable star systems, eventually one race succeeded in the difficult task of interstellar travel.

The three races of the original 15 star cluster of the Nephaprican Empire were given a golden opportunity by chance and they played it well. Soon the 5.7 light years between the Nephricans of the star named Ea, and the Doldorians of the star called Dol became a familiar road for these beings. Of the three original races, the Nephricans and Pripicans came to technological maturity almost simultaneously, having discovered each other's existence when radio technologies were being used for communication. The Doldorians, on the other hand, were probably a thousand Earth years behind when Nephricans landed on their world, and collectively the Doldorians never seemed to recover from the inferiority complex. The Doldorian inferiority actually had an opposite effect since the Doldorians consequently excelled in courageous acts of space travel and exploration. Then the Nephricans, Pripicans, and Doldorians over the next couple thousand Earth years managed to genetically merge into a single race called Nephapricans of the 15 stars as they partook of the benefits of being a galactic civilization.

As the 15 stars of the original cluster began drifting apart the necessity to continue interstellar commerce led to the development of the wormhole technologies. The fusion energy of each star became deliberately harmonized on the quantum level in a boldly executed harmonic technological feat to alter the fabric of space and time itself. This allowed the Nephapricans to travel instantaneously from the location of any one star to any other one of the original 15 cluster stars. There were offshoot quantum synchronized technologies sprouting off of these 15 star powered star-doors that revolutionized deep space travel and communications. A method of sending messages anywhere in the galaxy to a similar receiver with only a few seconds of delay existed, which some decedents of the Nephapricans still use today. In this day and age where there are no more functioning star-doors, even the Eagolim are incapable of making any more of these communication devices. The quantum/fusion breakthrough caused the Nephaprican civilization to thrive and become united like no 15 stars in Magphoreus may have ever been, before or since.

The 15 stars of the Nephaprican civilization remained strong for several millions of years after that wormhole creation event, and the 15 stars of the cluster drifted further and further away from each other, all the way into three of the seven arms of Magphoreus. The 15 stars were still unified by the star-door technologies that spread the similarities of the Nephaprican pentanthropomorphic mammal likeness to nearby stars they passed by over the hundreds of millions of Earth years of what had become a constantly spreading galactic empire. A golden age flourished there in the second age of Magphoreus with galactic commerce, communication, galactic federations, and republics springing up from the 15 stars along with Phase II fusion-warp technologies for interstellar travel that made even thirty light year journeys with faster-than-light fusion-warp technology possible in less than fifteen Earth years. The three original races became more or less a single species called the Nephapricans who dominated lesser races that benefited from the acquaintance of these galactic beings as their stars passed by a Nephaprican star on the great galactic carousel. The Nephapricans however, were mammal and even at that stage of evolution they only lived a few thousand Earth years or so of life.

With the passage of time and space comes Aquari's passing of the Carina arm of Magphoreus across the rift of space made up of dimmer, farther apart, old stars, to the next inner arm of Magphoreus called Scuton-Crux. The Scuton-Crux galactic arm is actually another whole galaxy swallowed by the mighty Magphoreus early in the second age. Magphoreus may be the greatest of all galaxies and each mighty arm is the stuff of many galaxies and globular clusters that have been devoured whole in the earlier ages of the galaxy. Life on the Scuton-Crux arm is predominately cold-blooded and reptilian. The passing stars awaken memories that are whole galactic ages away in the past as Aquari traverses this inner galactic arm. The Scuton-Crux arm sends many familiar stars to pass Aquari's view, which he only reluctantly passes without stopping by to say "hi" to the reptilian friends there who he knows. This arm of the galaxy is the seat of several galactic civilizations of cold-blooded reptilian life known in the galactic high language as Incaprican.

Stars begin to pass by more and more rapidly as the next galactic arm called Norma begins to pass before Aquari the impossible comet. The inner Norma arm sparks troubled memories in Aquari the cosmic space traveler. In the middle of the second galactic age of Magphoreus at the height of the great Nephaprican Empire Aquari became mixed up with Eagolim who were sent on a journey to the galactic core that took several thousands of Earth years. The stars of the Norma arm display the evolution of Golimechoid life adapting to the harsher conditions of this core region. Something happened on Aquari's legendary journey with the Eagolim, something more than just the creation of Golimechoid life and the enormous Goag Ralus. Golimechoid life and Goag Ralus both now have significantly affected the nature of Magphoreus for all time.

* * *

Even for a 500 million-year-old galactic empire, a journey all the way from a peripheral arm across the thousands of parsecs of space to the galactic core would be a long and perilous undertaking. The entire voyage actually took hundreds of thousands of Earth years of gradual migration from star to star at warp drive, which is how galactic civilizations spread. The real amazing thing about this is that galactic civilizations that want to endure, tend to not move toward the harsher areas of the galaxy. Many Eagolim with 4 to 6 thousand Earth year long lives rose to this challenge, committing hundreds of generations after them to the quest.

Along the way during this time the Eagolim introduced new Golimechoid life forms on different habitable or uninhabitable planets. The Golimechoid were inorganic life that reproduced by reconstructing themselves through a reproductive process that imitated natural DNA-based life, but looked much more like the molting of skin. They were within the definition of what Earthlings would better understand as robots, but Golimechoids were actually the same as evolving reproducing life forms with regular life spans. Golimechoids embodied more complex molecules and elements that the Eagolim found scattered around the galactic center by the vicious black hole 2.7 million solar masses across.

Ralus Xnoga is constantly throwing a fit against the laws of time and space, which were groomed by the Aigon into the spherical and disk shaped reality we all enjoy on this side of its event horizon. The conditions near the core are so much faster and harsher on so many levels that the migration of the Eagolim against the galactic current, which is constantly scaling down everything outward into the complexities of habitable, met with unimaginable hardship and peril. Whatever drove the determination from one generation to the next is one of the many mysteries of the 2nd age. What became of the Eagolim who made this perilous journey to Ralus Xnoga is not completely known, but their legacy is the existence of Golimechoid life along the Norma arm of the galaxy, and Goag Ralus who orbits Ralus Xnoga with seven gigantic stars that orbit seven of Its 21 appendages. Each of these 7 stars that orbit Goag Ralus has a gas giant planet orbiting the star like a moon.

The Golimechoid life became better suited to the much more violent and perilous conditions that exist closer to the galactic core. They seldom evolved many functions that required the existence of an atmosphere, and they proved to be nearly invincible to energies and gamma rays that were tossed about in the faster rotating central arm called Norma. The ultimate design of the Nephaprican migration to the core would be established for all ages to come as an enormous construction of the same Golimechoid technology that produced artificial life forms. Golimechoid life thrived where organic life seldom finds a peaceful cranny to thrive and reproduce for very long on this great galactic merry-go-round. Silicon beings also lived under the more extreme conditions for life that exists in this part of the galaxy. More than a few galactic civilizations of Silicon beings still ponder histories that mention this time in the 2nd age, and the exploits of the god-beings that traveled from afar leaving behind Golimechoid life for Silicone beings to get along with. There also exist in the Silicon life histories to be found on the Norma arm, stories of the being called Aquari, who evidently also became involved in the unusual migration of the Nephapricans to the core.

For the most part Silicon and Golimechoid life forms get along with each other in the Norma arm of the galaxy. Silicon life has definitely benefited from Golimechoid neighbors who are evidently programmed to peacefully assist the survival of terrestrial life on Magphoreus, at least where Golimechoid life perceives no threat. Similar peaceful life-promoting virtues are arguably the very reason for the existence of Goag Ralus.

Goag Ralus is the gift from the Nephapricans of the 2nd age to the current 3rd age. Goag Ralus is a living being that is dedicated to the dominion of terrestrial life in the galaxy for all time. Goag Ralus encompasses over four hundred solar masses Itself while It orbits Ralus Xnoga, sending gas and debris up a new galactic arm of Its making that condenses under gravitational pressures into the stars of the Fybrolus arm of the galaxy. Goag Ralus has fashioned thousands of customized star systems, which It flings up along the Fybrolus arm to spin into pre-designed galactic orbits of their own further out beyond the core to where the existence of life is less precarious. In this way Goag Ralus has been promoting the existence of life in the galaxy by creating new stars with life giving planets for over 4 billion Earth years now to this very day in the 3rd age of Magphoreus.

* * *

The eventful galactic core of violently fast moving objects more and more interrupts Aquari's deep space day dreams of ancient galactic ages. Here explosive electromagnetic nuclear energies bombard every cranny of the Norma arm as it passes by Aquari to become the baby arm called Fybrolus. Fybrolus formed because of Goag Ralus who turns the crushing gravity of the black hole called Ralus Xnoga reluctantly into a force for life in the universe. Aquari points his direction toward the black dot centered in the sky where, in this part of the galaxy there is no darkness or night to be found anywhere except the great hole. That means very little night exists here, at least not without some serious cloud cover. Aquari is closing in on the galaxy's super-massive black hole where Goag Ralus can be found orbiting Ralus Xnoga at unimaginable speeds.

Earth astronomers have actually even recently discovered Goag Ralus, and identify It as GCIRS 13E, which orbits the core black hole at 626,300 mph, or 280 kilometers a second. There are seven stars each of several solar masses, which each orbit a separate arm of Goag Ralus. Earth astronomers slightly over estimate the 1,300+ solar masses of Goag Ralus mainly because they mistake GCIRS 13E to be a very rare medium sized black hole. Descendants of Nephapricans, and many other forms of life have long since found their way to Goag Ralus, and Goag Ralus gives them a home away from the core's soup of inescapably crushing gravity, which Goag Ralus makes to be in control of with sophisticated virtual particle generation technologies.

Long after the time of the destruction of Tze, Aquari returned from another galaxy only to discover that the Nephaprican galactic people had all but disappeared. The galactic beings Aquari had once ran across hundreds of millions of Earth years ago had all but disappeared without a trace, taking seven of their star-door stars with them. It had been over 4.5 billion Earth years ago when Aquari first noticed impossibly similar galactic civilizations on opposite sides of the inner galaxy. The Nephapricans obviously intended for Aquari to be left behind along with the lesser life forms of the Nephaprican Empire that they had also abandoned. Incapricans who outlived the remnant of the Nephaprican civilization located there had cut off control of the Dol star-door.

The star Yat became the last remnant of (Eagolim) galactic beings that still existed within the empire, but they couldn't use the Yat star-door because it eventually broke down, fortunately with no nova aftereffects. The Yat star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being had disappeared within the star-door's multiple realities to never be heard from again. The Incapricans of the Dol star-door had rendered it inoperative and the Poa star-door had been taken by the Golimechoid life forms in the last galactic war of Nephapricus, soon to ensue.

Aquari returned after over 110 million Earth years from a nearby galaxy to find the once glorious galactic Empire of Nephapricus in its last throes. Aquari happens to be an incredible cosmic mystery within his own right. The best explanation of Aquari is that he is a cosmic being that has bothered to contact galactic and terrestrial life forms. He ran across the Nephapricans early on in their empire because of their similar humanoid appearances that spread from one end of the galaxy to the other when only Aquari could travel fast enough to actually make such a trip. Aquari usually appears as a circle of light capable of traveling hundreds of times faster than the most sophisticated warp drives. The early Nephapricans welcomed the counsel of Aquari who possessed a cosmic intelligence at least as far beyond Nephaprican comprehension as the star-door travelers are beyond simple terrestrial life. Terrestrial life is only capable of intelligence enough to understand that travel between stars as impossible.

Some call Aquari the god that the gods made up. Whatever that means. Some speculate that he is a cosmic being perhaps from another dimension who is curiously poking into our dimension for a look. We only see two of his dimensions that are always facing the viewer regardless of the number of viewers or angle that they look at him; sort of like a rainbow you can never reach or even reconcile to space and distance. Aquari is a being of light, who is at least remotely related to the Aigon-Sophin who the Nephapricans managed to document the existence of back when Magphoreus blazed as a Ralus Xnoga rampaging quasar only one galactic age old. Nephapricans understood Aquari to be an explorer from the first age of the galaxy who still oversaw the galactic function of constructing and evolving complex molecules. Some speculate Aquari to be the eye at the end of cosmic evolution that is overseeing this whole process. The truth about Aquari is that nobody really knows.

Nephaprican history contains much speculation about Aquari where encounters with Aquari were well documented. Aquari can be credited with intervening many times when Nephapricans clashed with Incapricans. Aquari often served the role of interstellar diplomat with the awe and respect of lesser life forms who couldn't do anything about Aquari if they did want to. Aquari accompanied the legendary journey to the core and must have played a part in the evolution of Golimechoid life, as well as Goag Ralus.

The mindset of the Nephapricans, as well as Aquari, is understandably beyond the understanding of mere Earthlings, but it's probably true that sending Aquari away with the Eagolim played a part in the development of plans by the Nephapricans to disappear from all known time and space. This evidence that Aquari's relationship with Nephapricans had become strained could not be ignored by Aquari, which probably also has kept the cosmic being from actually pursuing them for over 4 billion Earth years now. The Eigalli who live on Goag Ralus, on the other hand, have always looked for the long lost Nephapricans as if they were their long lost parents. Remnants of the Nephaprican species that remained behind to carry on in the realm of natural evolution also don't know what became of the lost Nephapricans along with the seven legendary star-doors. Traces of the stars themselves have since been located and the evidence hints that they were destroyed in carefully orchestrated ways with their material used up so as to have disappeared completely with no black holes to be found.

Aquari returned near the end of the 2nd Galactic Age, after the great disappearance to find the remnants of Nephapricus made up of lesser-evolved life forms desperately struggling to remain worthy of the status of galactic civilization. Aquari intervened in three dynasties of the last 80 million or so Earth years that were left of Nephapricus. The dealings of Aquari became known to the 3rd dynasty as Aquari continued to return to Goag Ralus in the galactic core, a gigantic being understood by the post-Nephaprican Nephapricans to be a friend of sorts with Aquari. The 3rd dynasty after the great disappearance, feared and dreaded what the Nephapricans did in the galactic core, and they also began to not trust Aquari. Before Aquari's dealings with post-Nephaprican Nephapricus, Aquari can be honored for saving many life forms from becoming pray to the Incaprican civilizations that proved to be more enduring after all on Magphoreus than mere mammals. The remnants of Nephapricus became the conquests of the more enduring reptile cultures during the last 80 million years of Nephapricus, and Aquari is said to have been instrumental in keeping the empire enduring that much longer. Aquari always seemed to take delight in the accomplishments of terrestrial life as always more an observer than an intervener. The last post-Nephaprican dynasty however, betrayed Aquari and the result would be the final blow to the last remnant of Nephapricus from which no star faring race would emerge any time soon in the aftermath.

The declining galactic civilization endured a perilous path of demise as the vast distances between stars, which were once traversed with ease, came to be more and more daunting. Less educated next generations inherited the reins of technologies based on physics they couldn't grasp without the help of quantum-bit processing computers also inherited from the past. That would be the Nephapricus Aquari had returned to, and Aquari had been the friend of many individuals from that time. Aquari possessed a galactic intelligence able to communicate with the ant-like, downright terrestrial life forms that were still harnessing the fusion-warp technologies that qualified them as galactic beings. Post-Nephaprican Nephapricus citizens seldom appreciated Aquari's vast superiority, probably because it's not in Aquari's nature to flaunt that superiority, which left an impression of Aquari as harmless.

This lack of appreciation or respect could be said to underlie the relationship between Aquari and Turgis Reva, the last central empire manager of what remained of Nephapricus. The capital of Nephapricus at that time centered around the star-door system called Poa, where the star-door technology industries still spun off of a central star-door complex the size of a small continent. The Poa star-door was fully functional at the time, but the Poa star-door no longer provided time/space bending star-door travel anymore, probably because of Incaprican treachery on the other side of the remaining wormhole at the star Dol, and the star-door of the star Yat had eventually performed its last teleportation and no longer functioned in that capacity. Post Nephaprican Nephapricus inherently became uncommunicative with the Eagolim of the star Yat because of a fear that they would try to take the Poa Empire away from them.

Turgis Reva had an upset look in his ruling chamber as he looked out the window across the capital city he renamed Reva-Tar after sacking a senate government that had tried less despotic methods of uniting the 1, 473 stars of then Nephapricus. He had evolved from a Grulmagof species originally from the Grul star system. He came from a rugged world of extremes in both temperature and geography where his kind evolved a warm mane of shaggy hair and a burley frame balanced on sure-footed furry legs; like a mountain goat that walked upright. Turgis had become justifiably concerned for his declining empire and its losely held together commerce between 1,473 colonized stars along the Carina arm. Nephapricus still held the line along the great rift of distance separating them from the Scuton-Crux galactic arm of thriving and successful galactic reptile civilizations that were patiently waiting to out live what remained of Turgis Reva's civilization of mammals in the Carina arm. The Nephapricans and the Incapricans never did really get along with each other. If that wasn't enough to worry a galactic emperor, Turgis Reva had learned that a new race of Golimechoid life now encroached upon their galactic realm from deep within the galaxy. These robot creatures were attempting to colonize his galactic sector of space. Turgis, troubled by this, had summoned the mysterious cosmic being Aquari who had been nearby at the time. It had also come to his attention that Aquari had been traveling to the galactic center, which evidently thrived with this form of artificial life.

Turgis Reva admired the ring around the moon that surrounded Poa-3's satellite like a crown of accomplishment that perched above the horizon next to the 100-mile wide dome of the star-door structure, which overlooked his city Reva-Tar like another giant planet poking above the horizon. He put that ring around that moon by ordering the virtual particle star-door energies to be used for slowing down the orbit of the moon just enough to line it up with an incoming asteroid that would have devastated the planet Poa-3. Incidentally, because gravity is actually the phenomenon of instantaneous virtual particle creation that is measurable on the quantum level to be shaping dark matter, the moon returned to it's previous position and orbital momentum right after that collision event. The moon just hurried back to where it previously belonged like a stretched spring returning to its regular shape when released from the star-door's virtual particle generators. The released moon sped up temporarily to return to the familiar speed and path of its own trench of what Nephapricans called phantom matter. Turgis Reva had easily made himself a hero of the planet by putting himself in charge of making that planet-saving event happen.

Aquari entered the chamber, which suddenly heralded an increase of room light emanating from a flat circle of light that faced the eyes of Turgis Reva. The circle of light displayed the body of Aquari, and showed multi-colored kaleidoscopic shapes that revealed in color and shape a concern Aquari had that he had suddenly become in some kind of trouble. Turgis Reva had known Aquari long enough to be able to read those colors and shapes that were advertising Aquari's mood.

"Greetings Turgis Reva. It is good to see you after all these years."

Turgis greeted Aquari's greeting with a shout to keep those colors the way he wanted them. "Years you have evidently spent visiting strange life forms from within Magphoreus who now encroach on my empire! What are these 'Golimechoid' life forms you fraternize with Aquari?"

"Well mighty ruler of Nephapricus, I 'fraternize' with whatever life forms I choose to. The Golimechoid were created by your empire's ancestors, the real Nephapricans who disappeared. Golimechoid life began when the Eagolim made the legendary journey to the galactic core before I left the galaxy long before the 1st dynasty of the Fuzaads inherited Nephapricus, after your builder's mysterious exit from the empire."

"Well now this artificial form of life is building colonies around the stars Tephadis and Zoed where Nephapricans operate deiodic crystal and peiomite gas mines in the asteroids. My mining companies beg me to eradicate them before they start showing up in greater numbers."

Aquari and Turgis Reva

"Eradicate them?!" Aquari noticeably became irritated by the emperor's attitude, which explained his more orange colored glow. "They are not hostile beings. I'll bet they have even evolved a language. Why don't you all talk it out?"

"Why don't you persuade them to leave this sector of space. They are machines you no doubt had a hand in creating Aquari." Turgis Reva knew how to use his intimidating stature even on the most cosmic of beings. "It's well known that you accompanied the Eagolim to the galactic core in the legendary journey, and had a hand in the creation of this abomination of a species. I know you travel frequently to the places in Magphoreus where these creatures originated."

Aquari tried to explain. "We left their ancestors to reproduce and evolve in various locations, adapting to the extreme conditions within Magphoreus. Some were even not much more than amebas and amino acids at the time. These space travelers you accuse of trespassing have evolved on their own to now force you to move over and share the enormous neighborhood of space travel. I'm thrilled to just now hear that one of these species has advanced up the stages of evolution so fast."

Turgis did not summon Aquari to discuss this. "I have summoned you Aquari in order to command you to go to these things you call life, and make them return to the depths of space from which they came."

"Looks to me like holding together an empire you just had to take over is proving harder than you originally figured. Ya think Turgis?"

Turgis probably became red under his fur. "You will do this Aquari, or I will order an armada of war ships to do this instead of your cosmic diplomacy."

"Okay, okay, I can go there and see what I can do, but not because of any order from the great Turgis Reva that can't be denied. I'll go for your own good. The Golimechoid life was designed to adapt to the harshest environments in the galaxy, and I'll bet on their ability to deal with your Nephaprican planet destroyers as easily as any other gamma ray infested gravity crushing star factory we originally left them to evolve in the midst of. Besides, I suddenly want to visit these amazing creations that now have evolved to be galactic beings. Your kind could learn from their newly born enthusiasm for the stars."

"Very well then Aquari, I shall hold off on my attack until you make them leave the Tephadis and Zoed star systems. Should you fail there shall be war."

"Very well then Turgis Reva my war-mongering friend. I now depart your presence to reason with the Golimechoid life forms that I expect to be more reasonable than you." Saying that, Aquari then departed the last ruler of Nephapricus.

Aquari visited the galactic beings who were a snake-like programmed form of robotic life that thought they had evolved from much simpler life forms on some world that was really a moon, between there and the core of the galaxy less than 100 million Earth years before. They turned out to rapidly evolve as designed, communicating with a complex high-tech radio frequency that provided an instant evolutionary advantage as they could instantly communicate with the simple replicas they raised like children. It turned out many among them believed they had emerged from hydrocarbons on a peaceful freezing cold moon orbiting a gas giant planet that circled a star way back in the Norma arm or the galaxy. The other advantage of being a species of being that could communicate from birth was that they were more inclined to develop into intelligent life and take to the stars. The harsh, ever-changing galactic core environment demanded that the intelligent life find new stars. Golimechoid life had been made of more complex molecules and robust elements that were animated by self-replicating nano-technology that behaved as cells that emulated and improved on life as we know it.

Aquari delighted in meeting these beings that were now the distant relatives of what the Eagolim first introduced to the galaxy. They meant no harm to organic beings and were only establishing colonies on uninhabitable asteroids for jump off points to a grander ambition of exploring the galaxy further out. Aquari told these Golimechoid life forms many things that they did not know about their history and origins. Aquari had been able to persuade the Golimechoid life forms to travel a different route and depart the two intruded star systems.

The Golimechoids were delighted to make Aquari's acquaintance, and quickly decided to leave, having also heard warnings of Nephaprican hostility from the Incaprican civilizations they met on their way thousands of Earth years before across the Scuton-Crux arm of the galaxy. These Golimechoids that Aquari introduced himself to were the spearhead of a fleet of galactic Golimechoid colony ships, which were amazing feats of technology and engineering in themselves.

Turgis Reva got from Aquari what he had ordered Aquari to do, but it wasn't really what Turgis Reva wanted. The lesser-evolved inhabitants of the short-lived fourth post-Nephaprican dynasty that ruled Nephapricus had no intention of sharing the galaxy with Golimechoid life forms. Turgis Reva had been under pressure to make a show of force, and an example out of the robot-people colonizers that were moving into the star systems of Tephadis and Zoed. The whole meeting of Turgis Reva and Aquari would actually be recorded in order for Turgis to demonstrate his power to command even the cosmic being called Aquari to do his bidding. In other words, the whole conversation had just been a recorded show for politics. There may have also been some crazy idea that Aquari would also perish in his attack on the Golimechoids.

Turgis Reva betrayed Aquari, and attacked the Golimechoid life forms even as they were conceding to return from which they came, as requested. News of the invading robot people from the galaxy core had instigated panic throughout the thousand remaining stars of Nephapricus, and all well-developed worlds in the empire offered up wealth and personnel to the effort to drive the robots out of their sector of Magphoreus. Their efforts had to have been put in place many Earth years before the meeting between Turgis and Aquari. In a sense Nephapricus died of primitive xenophobia unbecoming of a galactic species. Suddenly the virtues of respecting all life and assisting other beings that dared to adapt to the empty void, which made the real Nephapricans great, had degenerated with the empire into something primitive and self-destructive.

The attack by Nephapricus on Golimechoid life turned out to be the last final and fatal mistake of the Nephaprican galactic empire in the 700,000,000 or so Earth years of its entire existence. The initial attack devastated the spearhead Golimechoid colonists, which infuriated Aquari who had become all too familiar with the war-like recklessness of terrestrial beings, especially mammals. News of the ambush reached the main fleet of Golimechoids deep in the void of empty space possibly thanks to Aquari, and retaliation would be quick and even more vicious. Incapricans had warned the Golimechoids of these Nephaprican peoples and perhaps the ancient legends, which this Incaprican knowledge had become by then to them, made the Golimechoids more intimidated and more fearful then they really needed to be.

The warships of Nephapricus were eventually attacked to extinction by super nano-tech life forms that had also made a point of traveling space with arsenals of superior firepower. Waging war on superior Golimechoid life forms dealt the final blow to Nephapricus, and no organic life on a 1,000 worlds that were sure to embrace the catch-22 folly of fighting back, would have survived without the intervention of Aquari. This particular Golimechoid species actually, it turned out, originally had been created as servants by the migrating Eagolim who left their descendents on the moon of that gas giant millions of Earth years before, thus peppering their most ancient histories with hints of these creator god beings, the Nephapricans. The Golimechoid reaction drove by a primal fear of Nephapricus, who some among them already speculated were the legendary divine space travelers that actively left their form of life also braving the evolutionary odds of survival on various worlds that they had passed along the way. The Golimechoids thought they were at war with their own gods, but really they just battled against frail warm-blooded mammals who had inherited the infrastructure of the god's great galactic empire.

That marked the fall of Nephapricus and also the end of the second golden age of Magphoreus along with it. After the end of the second galactic age, Earth's star would be born by the skillful hands of Goag Ralus who sent it out on its orbit along with the cluster of gas and debris we now call the Orion Nebula. The star of Earth existed early enough to have been known by Eagolim of Nephaprican decent who had not participated in the great disappearance. The star of Earth is known to have played a part in an Orion arm sector of Eagolim galactic civilization that lingered long after the great disappearance, before that civilization of Eagolim fell into a dark age of unfortunate demise.

A period existed after the fall of Nephapricus, in the beginnings of the 3rd Galactic Age, when Golimechoid, Incaprican, and mammal life used the wormhole connections between the two remaining Dol and Poa star-doors. That went on until eventually time, the death of Poa, and Dol becoming a red giant rendered them inoperative. The 3 star-doors that were left behind by the lost Nephapricans finally seemed to break down in the beginning of the 3rd Galactic Age. The original symbiotic quantum accomplishment that created these universe-bending star-doors has still not been duplicated. Some attempts have even resulted in a star's destruction, and in a lot of galactic empires the attempt is illegal. There is a branch of galactic physics that theorizes that the star-doors were made out of materials that were evolved from a phenomenon known as a phantom matter singularity.

* * *

Aquari awakened from his ancient memories of fallen galactic empires to finally approach his old friend Goag Ralus in the galactic core. The shape of Goag Ralus took the form of a dark object in the star drenched galactic core, which is bathed in intense light. Goag Ralus came into Aquari's view, looking like a spider spinning a web around the unimaginably enormous black circle of absolute nothing. The enormous Nephaprican creation called Goag Ralus spins in its orbit about what is definitely the largest black hole in this galaxy, like a spider busily spinning webs of stars and planetary designs. Aquari sped on with purpose toward the familiar shape of Goag Ralus, still just a dot hundreds of solar masses in size orbiting the great black dot 2.7 million solar masses in size. Aquari sped through a galactic core bath of annihilating radiation and energies, and would soon arrive at Goag Ralus, his destination.

Chapter 2: Ploabot and Hanson

Aquari travels faster than any other object in the galaxy however; this writing is capable of traveling even faster. For example the story now leaps over 60 Earth years into the future from the time Aquari at last arrived at Goag Ralus in the center of the galaxy. This writing arrives at the planet Tze-Doldus-2 over 40,000 light years away in the Orion arm of the galaxy. The star Tze-Doldus still shined 25,000 light years up the Orion arm of Magphoreus from the now long gone nova remnant of the star Tze, very similar to a nova remnant known to Earthlings as the Helix Nebula. Four billion Earth years ago the white dwarf star Tze-Doldus orbited the red giant star Tze after they formed amongst the original 15 star cluster that birthed the Nephaprican Galactic Empire. Because of this distinguished origin of the Tze/Tze-Doldus binary star systems, both stars had an orbiting planet that housed one of the 15 fabled Nephaprican star-doors.

None of the planets that orbited these stars were habitable when the ancestors of the Nephapricans first ventured in nuclear-drive star ships to land on them. All that changed relatively fast by galactic standards as the Pripicans terra-formed the rocky worlds to their liking. The Tze/Tze-Doldus system happened to be the most remote area of the original 15 star cluster, and making it an oasis of life in a harsh galactic reality would be hard won. The planet Tze-6 flourished in the budding galactic empire by attracting the inquiring minds of more technologically advanced Nephrican and Pripican scientific researchers that desired to study a 60 solar mass red giant star close up. In the early sub-light speed days of Nephapricus, the study of this remote red giant star would have to be a lifetime career decision. The key to the Nephaprican star-doors became unlocked by the knowledge gained from these studies of the 15 stars in the original cluster empire. The planet Tze-Doldus-2 prospered by attracting rich galactic colonists who were drawn to its ideally incubated environment, and the most amazingly picturesque sky in the whole cluster of 15 stars. The white dwarf Sun would fill almost half the sky during the 14 earth-hour long day on Tze-Doldus-2. The feint red circle of Tze always would pose in different places at different sizes somewhere in the then blue and clear skies of Tze-Doldus-2. Then the sky also included the ringed gas giant planet Tze-Doldus-1. Tze-Doldus-1 orbited Tze-Doldus every seven days of the 69-day Tze-Doldus-2 year, and displayed in the Tze-Doldus-2 sky like a ringed moon. Later on in the evolution of the galactic empire, when the star-doors were created, the planet Tze-Doldus-2 became a thriving tourist attraction, which drove away many of the original upper class families of colonists.

Stars, just like terrestrial beings, are born, they live, grow old, and die. Near the end of a seven hundred million Earth year galactic civilization the old red giant star Tze died. The planets Tze-2, Tze-5 (along with 6 of its moons,) and the legendary star-door planet Tze-6 were all evaporated in the explosive event as Tze threw off its thick red coat of spent star plasma fuel. It is well documented in the archives of existing galactic civilizations, (which in a way are mostly offspring of the legendary Nephapricus,) that the star-doors were made of indestructible substances. Therefore it would be said that the star-door built on Tze-6 still existed out there somewhere after the planet below it evaporated. For some unknown reason the Nephapricans were never able to contact these star-doors ever again. The indestructible star-door still floats out there somewhere, disabled because it had been cut off from its solar power source, but it is still pretty much as good as new, a treasure only for the most ambitious of galactic treasure seekers, and one of the great mysteries of Magphoreus to this very day.

The fate of the binary companion white dwarf Tze-Doldus was more fortunate than Tze. The star kept three of its planets when the white dwarf companion of Tze spit out into space like a glowing cannon ball. The effects of the red giant expelling a white dwarf companion caused a unique helix tube shape for the remaining nova remnant as debris spiraled around the resulting hole in phantom matter. That is the same thing that gives the Helix Nebula its name "Helix" by Earth astronomers, although the red giant Tze nova event took place in the last age of Magphoreus, billions of Earth years before the Helix Nebulae even happened. The Tze nova left behind a still shining star core on the verge of becoming a pulsar in the very center of the circling helix of gas and debris, and its white dwarf companion Tze-Doldus became lost amongst all the larger brighter stars of the great galaxy Magphoreus. Many still believed that Tze-Doldus probably exists out there still with the virtues of a white dwarf star's much longer life. Tze-Doldus existed still out there somewhere, a dimly-lit, unassuming, miniature star-system hiding in the labyrinth of stars with one of the greatest accomplishments of advanced technology ever devised by intelligent life perched upon one of its still existing planets.

Of the Tze half of the original binary system, nothing remains that isn't now long lost in the last age of Magphoreus. It has long been known however, that a dimly lit white dwarf probably still exists out there somewhere, perhaps with the fabled star-door planet Tze-Doldus-2 still in orbit. The star-door technology controlled the phantom matter particles of the planet's orbit, and terra-forming programs would have been capable of saving the planet's environment and life, a star-door generated magnetic field would keep the atmosphere intact, although the challenge would be unfathomable. It had long been the stuff of speculation that the explosion would have surely flooded the planet with star debris, sure to wipe out all existing life, however now we know that the planet Tze-Doldus-2 still orbits Tze-Doldus every 69 fourteen Earth hour days under a glowing green sky. The planet measured a bit smaller than the planet Mars with no moons, although in moments when the greenish sky became clear, the planet Tze-Doldus-1 could be seen still visible like a moon, now no longer with a ring around it. The ground of Tze-Doldus-2 glowed with a luster from gold dust that pelted the planet during the Tze nova event billions of years in the past, creating whole deserts with unimaginably vast Earth fortunes of gold dust. What would be seen as a fortune on planet Earth could be easily melted out of the Tze-Doldus-2 dirt with enough heat, but usually it would just be swept off the dusty floors by the inhabitants of Tze-Doldus-2 only to be tossed out unwanted into the trash. Gold dust, called coaglium in this translation of the Uranian chirping language, does have value on the equivalent of the Tze-Doldus-2 commodities market for its uses in industry however; it's a very cheap commodity.

The planet Tze-Doldus-2 had intelligent inhabitants these days that lived in societies much like present day Earth. They called this planet Urania, and were proud of their accomplishments, blessed by the planet's near perfect climate, and so much of the valuable element of gold that it qualifies as dirt. They utilized the benefits of this gold dust, which could be easily synthesized from the ground and formed into whole cities only to have the golden luster painted over in dull brownish colors that Uranians found more pleasing to the eye.

Uranians had large eyes with pupils stretching the length of the eye from top to bottom like that of a cat, which evolved for the dimness of night with sensitivities to motion. The hair of the Uranian formed into thick follicles that used to cover the body with waterproof protection, but at this point of their evolution hair mainly formed a mane on the top of their heads. Their necks were longer than a human neck, and were perched on a body that looked more like a bird than a human. The skin of Uranians looked porcelain white, which tended to yellow with old age. They had bird-like feet and legs with three long toes in front and one around the heel in back. They had no use for shoes with their thickly callused legs, tail, and feet. The long bird-like toes also made shoes impractical, but Uranian vanity knew no bounds when a fashion statement became the inspiration. Their hands also featured three fingers with an opposable thumb. They were like birds mutated by a switched on pentanthropomorphic gene-switch, with mouths that resembled a beak that had lips growing over it. They had 4 front teeth resembling a beak split in a straight line from top to bottom down the middle. The four teeth in front extended and retracted to open and close the mouth. That made them look like they had a cross on their chins that widened and narrowed as they opened and closed this mouth. The lips only closed completely over this tooth arrangement with conscious effort, which gave Uranians a buck-toothed appearance to the Earth-eye, and the lips appeared to snarl as they breathed through nostrils that were located under the upper lip as a hole in each top front tooth. Four similar beak-like teeth in back chewed independently with the jaw while front teeth retracted by independent muscles from the temple and chin. That made their ears further down and behind the head. The eyes were larger than a human's, and close together with no place for a nose, although nostrils appeared under the upper lip when they flared open to breath. Behind the bird-like Uranian body protruded a mouse-like tail on the males, while females only featured a stub for a tail and a slightly shorter arm reach.

Ploabot served as a Uranian on the local council of the capital city named Keshdesh. This council in the capital city would be regarded as a special appointment from regional councils that served also as a kind of federal council over the whole planet's only real country. Society functioned as a mixture of local councils that managed budgets of society's value, food production, and infrastructure management. Yards were mostly gardens, and transportation had always been electric through all of recorded history. The Uranians barely grasped the concept of electricity, and that only by the most intelligent scientists because it had long been regarded as a magic energy given to the Aungtalli priests by the gods who intervened hundreds of thousands of Tze-Doldus years ago to save the Uranians from destroying themselves. Local councils answered to the King of the planet who served as a pawn of the Aungtalli priests in the present day and age. The one-continent planet has orbited under ideal conditions for billions of years, which reflected in the fact that the current Uranian society had been stable way longer than all of human history on Earth. Society would be presided over by Kings appointed from three royal families and a class of Aungtalli priests so exclusive that they were a different species with larger hairless bodies and larger craniums.

Ploabot breathed in the cool evening air, watching the last of the Sun's dim light set into a shrinking line of light across the sunset horizon under misty green and blue skies. He approached the house of his old friend from childhood days who went by the name Hanson. Ploabot felt uneasy about his meeting since it happened because of a request by the local Aungtalli bishop for Ploabot to go and try to talk some sense into his friend, the science rebel. He needed Hanson to end his protest over closing the Ministry of Science so he could come back to inclusion in the community, which become less and less democratic and more and more a theocracy thanks to Aungtalli priest influence on the King. Only then could Hanson have his energy turned back on, which he had been doing scientific experiments with to the ire of the priests who control that mysterious sacred power.

Hanson had become a thorn in the local counsel's side since the Ministry of Science had been de-funded and disbanded by recent monarch decree. The Ministry closure had no doubt been at the behest of Aungtalli priest influence. Aungtalli priests controlled society with their undisputed control of the magical energy that made all the world's wheels turn to the contentment of civilization. The priests lifted the world out of a dark age left in the wake of a brief fossil fuel age over 200,120 years ago. A Uranian day is 14 Earth hours long, and they have a 69 day year so 200,120 Uranian years is actually about 20,455 Earth years. According to recorded history those fuels poisoned the food supply in the atmosphere, provided on Urania by the green sky rains.

Ploabot pondered that very ancient history while looking at Hanson's pod pollen tree in his front yard, which had become a remnant of those ancient times. Even the Science Ministry agreed with priest stories that before anything grew in the soil of Urania, pod pollen trees were planted from the sky. Old myths speak of the sky god Beataphoriah himself planting these old pod pollen trees. That came from ancient legends that even pre-dated the rise of the Aungtalli, but they still echo in present Uranian society. Pod pollen trees routinely shoot a cloud of pollen gas into the air. That gas rises up to cultivate vegetation that grew in the upper atmosphere skies. That pod pollen tree activity gives the skies of Urania a misty emerald green hue. In ages before recorded history, animals of the planet were nourished by seedpods that still fall from the skies with the rains. These pods are different shapes, colors, and tastes, but they were all eatable. Ploabot used to eat them all the time as a kid. Now as a distinguished member of the world council he preferred prepared restaurant foods.

Ploabot stopped to watch the pod pollen tree as it started making its familiar creaking sound. The creaking of a pod pollen tree warned all around that it was about to shoot its pollen gas out of one of its horn-like branches. The branches mostly pointed straight up in the air with ends that opened to the sky like trumpets. The branch's pointing-upward tendencies were good because you didn't want to be in the way of the gas cloud of pollen from a pod pollen tree, which shot out in a puff of cloud to rise up afterwards. These pod pollen trees were regarded as sacred dinosaurs from the time of the planet's origins, which originally cultivated all the vegetation that now flourished on Urania. Almost every one these days maintained a pod pollen tree in their gardens. Pods still fell from the sky and many animals still ate them. Ploabot could even still be caught enjoying a pod from the sky now and then, depending on the color. Uranians also enjoyed the eggs of haffaffats as well as milk provided by waffs, and breads made from fields of wheat-like laffastocks.

The ecosystem only entertained a couple hundred kinds of major animals with bird and insect life always aspiring toward the gas forests of the upper atmosphere. The upper atmosphere still teemed with the result of ancient terra-forming programs instigated by the star-door technology, which still chugged away somewhere on this planet, probably buried under the Great Glacial Mountain under nova bombardments and billions of years of shifting golden dirt. The star-door out there somewhere still looked over the planet for as long as the white dwarf star's fusion power fed it the phantom matter for its creation power. That terra-forming routine seemed to be stuck in the first phase of the terra-forming program; stuck in a seemingly infinite loop, as if waiting billions of years for someone to come along and press a button.

Ploabot instinctively leaped backwards when the tree shot its cloud of greenish-yellow gas that floated gently upward like a helium balloon. Ploabot straightened out his upper garb that resembled a cowboy or fisherman's vest with a shoulder strapped purse that he adjusted back to his side. Below his waist he wore a granny skirt, or kilt, which pretty much made up the pants in this society of bird bodies. Some Uranians sometimes wore stylish wide pant-like leg garments, but the males mostly found them too feminine for their tastes, and preferred skirts. Ploabot's tail protruded out of a hole in the back of his kilt as he continued to the door of his friend Hanson. Aungtalli priests say the pollen tree is proof of the existence of the creator god, while the Ministry of Science always argued that life "evolved" this way naturally. The Ministry put forward writings by his friend Hanson that were proposing a theory that Uranians were once fish or a species of bird that became too big to fly so the wings evolved into arms, and these wonderful hands.

That word probably got the Ministry of Science shut down; "evolve." Hanson had made the word up in an anthropological study he conducted while he traveled the Archipelago Seas. Hanson's observations led him to a whole new hypothesis on life and where we came from. The Ministry of Science, for all its contributions to civilization and society, had crossed the line with the Aungtalli priests. Where we came from happened to be the priest's own sacred area of expertise, although the scientists of the Ministry had been winning their arguments in recent years over the age of things.

Ploabot approached the door of his good friend Hanson. He knocked on the wood door, which gave off an echo sound. Hanson's female companion Veldada slid the door open while her face brightened at the site of Ploabot. "Hello Ploabot. Sorry, Hanson's not here.

I can't tell you when back here he will steer.

You're welcome to wait here till he comes by.

He's at the House of Records. So that's why."

Ploabot always had been attracted to Veldada since their early childhood days, but the less shy Hanson claimed her hand before Ploabot could even muster the nerve to ask her out, but his heart still leapt at the look of her face brightening when she saw him. "He'll stay there long after the day is dim.

Thank you, but I'll just go there to find him." Veldada looked disappointed by this decision. Ploabot's heart leapt again when he noticed that.

"Well you're still welcome to wait over here.

I'll see you again when you come back dear.

That partner of mine is recently felled,

Hanson the scientist now just expelled."

Ploabot at the Door of the House of Hanson

Ploabot giggled at Veldada's rhyme, and smiled as he departed the house of Hanson. Hanson made a point of living conveniently within walking distance of the House of Records. The House of Records basically served as a library for all intents and purposes. He felt sorry for Veldada, who seemed in good spirits even though she must also endure in that house with all the energy turned off. He marveled at his friend Hanson's unquenchable thirst for knowledge, but Hanson didn't know when to stop defending it in a society ran by priests who served also as the secret police.

He didn't even know when to take a break from it all to just help Veldada with her goal in life, to possess her own egg, not Hanson's crusade of achieving perfect knowledge, and justice in the world. Uranians nursed their young just like mammals, but they lay eggs after an incubation process that follows conception. The eggs hatched in a couple months, but most women donated their eggs to nurseries that were ran by Aungtalli priests. He knew Veldada, and knew she wouldn't do that. He knew that she really wanted a child now more than ever. A glaring point of hypocrisy that Aungtalli priests preached family values on the one hand, and then applied the other hand to encourage females to give up their fertilized eggs to their Aungtalli baby business could not be lost on the critical thinking Uranian.

A nudist approached Ploabot as he came up on the House of Records building. The House of Records stood warehouse sized with an arched roof made of gold brick painted a deep greenish brown. Clothing could be arguably arbitrary on a tropical planet like Urania, but the Aungtalli imposed the practice of wearing clothes, only rejected by the most deranged enemies of civilized society. Ploabot thought about the facilities provided to house the nutcases of society who were, never the less, still free to wander the street should they choose. The King maintained his place securely in the present society by not always caving in to the conspicuously powerful autocratic control of Aungtalli priests. The King defended and championed of the rights and freedoms of individuals, which kept him immune from revolution as long as everybody stayed happy with their comfortable lives. The King mediated between the local councils and the priests who mysteriously controlled all the strings of society like a religious oligarchy.

The ramblings of the passing naked crazy Uranian began singing its way into Ploabot's ears, causing him to stop and hear the guy out, which is customary for Uranians who all strive to sing the language, and are suckers for a well crafted song. The naked bird-man fired his crazed gaze on Ploabot's eyes while turning up the volume of his schizophrenic drivel, having noticed a willing audience to his incomprehensible sermon.

Uranians speak a chirping language that is even written on 4 music-like stanza lines, similar to Earth music. That empowers the language with a melodic emotional dimension that makes them sound like birds that have a sense of melody, who can keep musical time, and unlike actual birds, hold notes. This writing conveys the rhythm and pentameter of the language as it slips into the Uranian tendency to be carried away in song with linguistic expression.

The crazy naked Uranian stopped in front of Ploabot and sang his song, which broke most of the rhyming pentameter rules of the language, and mostly lacked coherence.

"Of this sight

taken on of my might.

For my dream has awakened

to rhythm forsaken.

I try to control

every thought that is spoken

so that this long threading

can be long when broken.

I have seen such a vision,

a horror incision

of what can now be

at this end of Uranian vision.

A light cast on darkness,

a madness within,

I feel so awakened

though I slept not a wink.

Now the sun shines on night time,

together a link.

So upon me a mystery

now does invade

that makes me now wonder

what shall we be paid.

An amazing kind of judgment

like the last prophet said,

so now it has slain me

though I am not dead,

though it may now know

every thought in my head.

No, what can I do

in this paradox day?

I find there's no way out

except for the way.

It hears now I'm sure,

like a mind mirror rival.

Before just the devil

challenged my survival."

Now Ploabot became annoyed as the crazy man drew closer into Ploabot's face, grabbing his vest.

"But now like before Ei

I stand here, and say

that the night was far easier

then the Sun's dawning day."

Ploabot pushed the Uranian away having finally had enough of his drivel. "Stop sir! Go get help! You smell of dry heaves.

It's time you stopped smoking troopaloo leaves."

The dejected naked crazy Uranian just stood and yelled at Ploabot's back as Ploabot continued on the path to the House of Records.

"For surely this knowledge

only feigns its normality

for this new program

shines upon my mortality

with something eternal,

yes, even divine.

A moment when the dream being

did but stop by to dine,

and showed me the virtual reality sign!"

Ploabot found Hanson at the House of Records mulling over scrolls and virtual screens in deep study of ancient records and archaeological finds. "I have found you at last. Hello old friend.

To this place it was Veldada did send." Ploabot brushed Hanson's tail as he approached his table of scrolls.

Hanson looked up at his old friend a bit surprised that he didn't stay with Veldada to wait for his return. He knew Ploabot would have wanted to, and he was sure Veldada offered. "Hello Ploabot. I've heard advice and taunts.

I've just stubbornness reserved for response."

Ploabot said, "Oh Hanson, think of the goals to achieve

regardless of what it is you believe.

You have to work with the world as it is.

Your theories are unproven about this."

Hanson went on. "Our gene research started the solution

to prove my theory of evolution.

But we've always argued that against priest.

Of reasons for the closing, that one's least.

We've always preferred critical thinking

to diving into dogma then sinking.

It wasn't evolution that shut down

the Science Ministry with its renown."

Ploabot became intrigued. "I don't know what it was the priests called crime.

Tell me Hanson, what did you do this time?"

Hanson answered. "Well it all began with this scope you see

scanning this ancient data disk for me.

It came from our archaeology gang,

and under this scanner the data sang."

Ploabot spoke up in order to fast forward the expected history Hanson prepared to dictate since he already knew it. "I know of this found in deserts down south.

I have learned of this disk by word of mouth.

It's made by a culture not on the list

of history so it cannot exist.

The world's just three hundred thousand years old.

That disk's older than that I have been told.

Aungtalli say the world's made by Ei.

If your find is real then we don't know why.

You challenge known history at great risk.

So what did you find on this laser disk?"

"Extraordinary information", began Hanson,

"was being translated for the nation.

We found in ruins of an ancient town,

but then the Aungtalli shut us down.

We deciphered a strange language on it,

and numeric data also was writ

that included radio frequencies

to find things in the sky above the breeze,

orbiting satellites still in their place

can now be contacted in outer space

with knowledge from this disk of secret codes

to make them send me their image downloads."

Hanson paused for Ploabot to say something, but Ploabot remained speechless with his mouth protruded open, and his jaw dropped down only as if he wanted to say something. "To shrink this narrative otherwise long

years of hard work made this disk sing its song.

We toyed with a theory to find out why

that it's to contact objects in the sky.

We tested the theory with radio,

and it worked showing us what we now know.

Ancient Uranians launched satellites

To observe the Sun, and many more sights.

Long before our Aungtalli reliance

we were already masters of science.

The Aungtalli came to steal that away

for the same reason I'm shut down today."

Ploabot started to get his speech back. "You tell me ancient fossil fuel burners

were really great Uranian learners?

Their tragic end was by primitive rage.

We're above that in this enlightened age.

You call them advanced beyond where I sit.

You say they even put things in orbit?

That makes the ancients not seem so tragic

to gain much without Aungtalli magic."

This stretched Ploabot's own belief limits regarding his reality. Nobody who really considered intellectual studies actually believed the Aungtalli priest stories of creation, but it's universally accepted that the Aungtalli priests saved Uranians from a savage dark age. That dark age had ensued after a more ancient civilization foolishly almost poisoned the planet to total extinction with energy sources that destroyed whole ecosystems. The idea that such a primitive and savage society could be advanced enough to put satellites in space became a blow to his paradigm of living in the most advanced Uranian civilization of all Uranian history.

Hanson continued. "They had fossil fueled rockets. We've been blind.

That's not all we've learned from this ancient find.

We've learned much watching this laser disk play

to control satellites there to this day.

Smythan was to announce this, then he died

by a tree in a wrist-slit suicide.

He was found in a field early this year.

He was really murdered. That's what I fear.

The Ministry of Science was shut down

soon after against my protest and frown.

Now I'm banished from almost everything

just because I lodged protests with the King."

Ploabot started thinking he suffered an information overload when suddenly all the lights in the House of Records went out, shrouding everything in black, which only slowly became illuminated again by a faint glow from the setting white dwarf star that glowed just under the dusk horizon. Ploabot looked out the window where night covered the landscape with dark silhouettes of once lit-up buildings. It turned out the whole city had just suffered a total blackout of the sacred energy given to Aungtalli priests. That energy, according to popular legend, had been given by the very gods themselves to save Uranian civilization from the folly of cruder hydrocarbon energy sources. Energy blackouts were something else that seemed to be happening a lot lately. The Aungtalli priests said it is because society began to forsake the Aungtalli ways, beginning to break eggs, engage in same-sex sexual behavior, or other sins defined by the morality agenda of the pompous Aungtalli priest class. They kept the secrets of invisible energy yet seemed as baffled as everyone else about why this power kept blacking out for several minutes at a time, all over the planet. As far as Aungtalli priests were concerned it was always because Uranians were making the gods mad. Ploabot did the math in his head, and concluded that this had been the eighth power blackout this year.

Hanson nudged his friend. "The cause of these blackouts isn't what you read.

Truth is revealed by the satellite feed." His voice lowered next to Ploabot's ear to mask the heresy he now would reveal. "These blackouts are caused by fires from the Sun

that engulf this planet when they are done.

This energy is so intense and strong

that energy circuits can't play along.

It puts Aungtalli energy grids out.

Its gotten worse again. What's that about?"

At that moment the lights of the whole city flickered back on, and the information scope began to boot back up. Ploabot became distracted for a moment from the question stuck in his head. "These blackouts I know as a recent curse.

What do you mean by 'again' it's got worse?"

Hanson said, "Archeological archives have shown

that they were brilliant from what they had known.

They recorded solar flares from the Sun

that made power blackouts when they were done.

The Sun goes through phases through history.

It sets the sky on fire when blustery.

The last time that happened was the Dark Age,

before this new age of Aungtalli sage.

Its story today is in Medaloom

who persecuted the priests to his doom.

Fifty thousand years before what we know

Was the true history from which myths now flow."

The event Hanson spoke of actually happened –53,240 years ago, at the start of known history. It inspired the myth of King Medaloom who was punished after the Aungtalli prayed to their gods.

Ploabot found himself finishing the legend in his mind as he remembered the old church story from childhood. "...So all greatly fear where gods have now been.

the sky caught fire for a single king's sin.

Gods bring suffering when they must resolve.

Blessed is one who's own problems they solve."

Hanson noticed Ploabot's head turn to observe a digital surveillance mechanism that buzzed as it turned its Aungtalli energy powered eye toward the table they were conversing at. "Yes the walls are always interested

In what I now dig through, and what I did.

If they weren't so obsessed with what I find

I'd be banished here too. They'd be less kind.

Perhaps I'd even suffer like my friend

Smythan who did not deserve his sad end."

Ploabot comforted his friend. "A petition for audience I'd send

if banned from the House of Records, my friend."

"I appreciate that. It calms my fears,

though petitions are heard by hostile ears.

Come with me, I'm now done here for the night.

I've got something to show your amazed sight."

As they departed the watchful surveillance of the House of Records to the open air outside, Hanson began to speak audibly louder, and in more detail about ancient advanced civilizations that existed before all recorded history. Stories from Ploabot's childhood church days seemed to jump out of the depths of his mind into consciousness, as if in defiance to the blasphemous information Hanson suddenly felt so free to ramble on about. The problem with this crazy Uranian who now rambled on and on at him was that he made perfect sense, and church really did just teach him silly tales of untruth.

Upon entering the House of Hanson to the circular inner doorway where the floor dipped into a shallow pool of water, Ploabot dipped his feet, and then circled his bird-like torso around to stand on the towel provided by a floor appliance that they used to dry wet feet. Uranians didn't wear shoes on their bird-like feet, and custom dictated that they wash the feet upon entering from outside. As Ploabot entered the main room something suddenly occurred to him while he habitually pressed a button to advance the towel apparatus that he just dried his feet upon. Ploabot exclaimed, "The lights still work, and your appliances!?

Priests turned this off with all alliances!" Hanson explained.

"The power still works and all that I do

is use knowledge from that disk I showed you.

How much extra work, and chores do-or-die,

Do you do for your energy supply?"

Ploabot apologized for his political favors. "We all pay a fair share in this nation

to the Bishop for civilization."

Hanson stopped him. "But what if this power, or energy

came from the ground like nature, and was free?"

The question struck Ploabot as rhetorical while he changed between the two channels on the virtual entertainment device that still worked. Ploabot became baffled at how Hanson could even keep the channels turning on at all. "You steal from the Aungtalli power grid,

or something just like that is what you did.

Coaglium wire through a neighbor's door

restores this power. It's been done before.

Stealing energy is punished severe.

They can trace the drainage to your neighbor."

Ploabot heard Veldada giggle from the food preparation room where she washed dishes within earshot of their conversation. Hanson made his defense. "This was discovered by scientists toil.

My energy comes right out of the soil.

I don't say I'll not see trouble you fear.

They get this the same way I do right here.

Come now, I'll show you what it is I do.

You'll see what it is that I've tapped into.

I want a council member to regard,

I'm entitled to what's in my backyard."

Hanson led Ploabot out the back door to the backyard garden, just like hundreds of gardens featured behind most Uranian homes. In the backyard Ploabot observed a wire from the house that connected to another wire that connected between two metal posts that stuck out of the ground like a 'T' shaped wire clothesline.

"I got this from an ancient data disk

three hundred thousand years old. All I risk

is the crime of sticking poles in the ground,

twenty klepts deep is the secret I found.

They're angled to the magnetic effect

of the planet, and they must be perfect.

This sends me the unlimited power

to my house so to them I won't cower.

The Aungtalli priests can forget their fines,

and their Energy Temple power lines.

This was how ancient cultures then did it.

The Great Temple does this, but they hid it.

This is how all our energy goes forth

from their great Energy Temple up north."

Ploabot once again became speechless. His first reaction was to not believe him. His good friend since childhood, Hanson, had always given his personal paradigm a workout, but this night had been particularly amazing. Hanson continued informing Ploabot about why Aungtalli priests in power felt intimidated by his research along with research by his inquiring friends at the Ministry of Science. "The Aungtalli priests control you and I

with claim to the energy of Ei,

but their central energy plant up north

is useless if from the backyard comes forth

the energy of Ei free for all.

I need you to know this before I fall."

Ploabot became overwhelmed. "This is all just too amazing Hanson,

power from the ground to light a mansion?

The blessing of Ei comes from the few.

What you are now showing me can't be true.

The Aungtalli Bishop sent me here to

warn you of god's anger at what you do."

Hanson laughed an evil chirping sound upon hearing that. A reddish glow seemed to also light up his face as he laughed, adding to the devilish effect. "You know as I do, and do not lack it

that the Aungtalli priests are a racket.

Growing up we both joked about that till

you got your job at the nation's council."

Ploabot said, "I know old friend. I work with them. Get it?

They're mostly good. You don't give them credit." Ploabot became fixated on the red-orange glow flickering on his friend and now the house behind him. "You just see evil in the priests. I tire.

I must change the subject. Something's on fire!"

Ploabot lost his train of thought as both Hanson and Ploabot stood in the backyard garden watching bright orange glowing lines appear above in the darkness of the night sky above Urania, like slow burning lightning that split up the sky into orange glowing cracks in the night. A solar flare erupted with such direct force that the upper atmosphere vegetation began to catch fire above the whole world. The sky of Urania had actually remained this flammable because of an agricultural terra-forming program that thus far had failed to turn itself off from a sky vegetation strategy implemented maybe billions of Earth years before. The sky should have been turned back to blue once the pH balance of the planet's golden soil had finally returned to something that could support plant life. Millions of Uranians across the planet watched the night sky catch fire, and most simultaneously thought that the gods had become angry, and then they all unanimously remembered an old story told in childhood by the Aungtalli church.

Listen children. Heed the story I turn

Listen careful so you will grow and learn

of the evil reign of King Medaloom.

To avoid folly you can't learn too soon.

King Medaloom was evil it is true.

He killed the priests and would kill me and you.

So the Aungtalli priests bowed down to pray

for the gods to save them from that sad day.

So the gods intervened like they will do

and they killed the King so his reign was through.

The gods set the sky on fire to then say

don't ask of the gods what your role must play.

So greatly fear the ground where gods have been.

The sky caught on fire for just one King's sin.

Gods bring suffering when they do resolve.

Blessed is one who's own problems they solve.

Chapter 3: Aquari Arrives At Goag Ralus

Aquari reduced his speed into the sub-light range as he approached the mighty Goag Ralus. Aquari zigged and zagged through the kaleidoscope of thousands of rapidly orbiting globular clusters of stars all packed into the central parsec of the galaxy. All those stars are packed in everywhere except the dark circular void in the center encircled by a ring of gas that feeds the radio signal of the galaxy's super-massive black hole called Ralus Xnoga. There, the galaxy's super-massive black hole sits quietly and patiently awaiting the occasional star or molecular cloud of debris to eventually be swept over the great galactic waterfall of an event horizon out of reality. Already a thin noodle of light stretches its way across the dark void to the event horizon in the center where Ralus Xnoga feasts. It is said that Aquari is probably at least a descendant of the Aigon Sophin in the first age of Magphoreus who helped clear out this region in order to quiet down the once ravenous Ralus Xnoga, which translates as 'Star Hole' in ancient Nephaprican. Aquari reduced speed knowing that his old friend Goag Ralus would be broadcasting on a radio frequency as soon as It spotted Aquari. Aquari liked to slow down a ways out knowing that Goag has been squinting Its telescopic vision in the direction Aquari had been calculated to arrive from.

Aquari saw the seven points of Goag Ralus getting larger in the distance. Before Aquari had been focusing on one of the seven stars that each orbited a point of the great Goag Ralus who measured in size to be more enormous than Earth's whole solar system. Goag Ralus (Constructor of Stars) spun as a ring of ancient Nephaprican technology with a nebula of molecular material in Its center. Goag became the pinnacle result of virtual particle technologies that were developed by the Eagolim who migrated here in the second galactic age. Goag Ralus defies Its own crushing mass by controlling Its own gravity, (also known as virtual particle creation,) like someone over-conscious of their own weight. With total control of gravity and powered by seven stars each more than 30 solar masses, Goag Ralus has reshaped the galactic bar of stars that used to exist in the second age, which turned into the Fybrolus galactic arm of this present age. The creation of the Fybrolus galactic arm signaled to intelligent life in other galaxies that something amazing happened here in Magphoreus. After 10 million years of galactic evolution the Eagolim arrived here and created Goag Ralus to labor away at filling the future of Magphoreus with solar systems that could support terrestrial life.

*** * ***

(Some galactic history from the Nephaprican databanks preserved by the Eigalli)

**Although the formations of Magphoreus began in an orderly calculus, in the first billion years of the universe there existed a time of chaos and violent destruction in all the great galaxies, which echoed the chaos and violence that originated as our understanding of a Big Bang. This stage of the first age of Magphoreus had been the extreme of what began with simple fusion of condensed gas, which then resulted in a super massive black hole fed by the massive potential matter and energy encompassed by the first stars of the age. These mother stars were too large to live very long lives. The light blue population III stars, or mother stars forged the original complex molecules of the universe like the original wombs of life. They also fed the black hole known as Ralus Xnoga in the high-language of the galactic beings that inhabited the Nephaprican Empire.**

**The Nephapricans were able to document interventions of intelligent beings during that time when Ralus Xnoga cleared the center of Magphoreus of millions of ancient stars. Perhaps the fact that the Nephapricans knew of Aquari helped them to document a life form that evolved during the first 4 billion Earth year long age of this galaxy. This had not been terrestrial life, and somehow it found its origin with the destruction of population III stars, and the formations of population II stars that consisted of less mass and heavier elements. The Nephapricans believed that beings such as Aquari evolved during this first age. The Incapricans, on the other hand, tend to speculate that these beings of light are from a higher dimension who have long been exploring our universe with two of their dimensions.**

**From the technologies that evolved out of examining ancient photons came the discoveries of pre-life life who were beings that emitted photon energy, and struggled with other pre-life enigmas related somehow to Ralus Xnoga. The millions of stars that quenched the super-massive black hole's initial appetite ultimately ushered in the second galactic age that began around five billion Earth years after what we understand as the Big Bang. Toward the end of the first galactic age a period of tremendous galactic activity began. Current Earth understanding would quickly dismiss fairy tales of beings of light that existed in the first galactic age, and probably point out that they don't exist now. The Nephapricans would simply point out Aquari.**

**Aquari had become known as a being of light who probably even came at least from the time of the first galactic age. Aquari may even actually qualify as immortal with no known beginning or end. Aquari remains however, a mystery and subject of speculation among thousands of life forms who have had the pleasure of meeting him/her/it/Aquari. The ancient Nephapricans of the second age definitely would not have passed up the opportunity to study Aquari and they probably obtained an incredible knowledge of Aquari's nature, history and origin. One such unresolved mystery about Aquari would be the question of where are other beings like Aquari to be found? As far is known there are no other beings like Aquari, at least not in this part of the galaxy. Perhaps each galaxy has some beings like Aquari zooming from star to star faster than light in the form of impossible comets. Although the lore recorded by the Nephaprican Empire has many stories of Aquari it is always just the one Aquari. It also might be that such beings are impossible to tell apart. His appearances on many worlds have often resulted in a recorded history with some mention of a being of light.**

**Toward the end of the first age of Magphoreus it appeared that there were many beings very similar to Aquari. They apparently met their demise with the rise of Ralus Xnoga. The galaxy's super-massive black hole devoured much of the first stars along with civilizations of Aigon-Sophin, which translates as a word meaning children of the first born light. After the first age the nature of reality seemed to change in a way that no longer supported the kind of life that were the Aigon-Sophin. The first age ended after putting out the quasar formed by Ralus Xnoga's feasting, and with Magphoreus becoming a massive manufacturer of the complex elements that had to be formed before life as we understand life could come to exist.**

**After the demise of the Aigon-Sophin with the first galactic age, the beginning of life as we know it fueled by complex elements and a mysterious alchemy of the stars had became stirred by light itself. In the second age life forms were now much more than just a trick of the light from before there were molecules complex enough to create life. With the sacrifice of the light of the first age, Magphoreus forged new elements that had never before existed, and stirred their wealth to the ends of its seven mighty arms. The first 200 million years of the universe's dark beginnings saw the faint blue light that emerged from the population III stars, which would dwarf thousands of entire solar systems like the Earth's in scale. A few million years later these stars began giving way to gravitational pressures that created the havoc, which resulted in the super massive black hole, Ralus Xnoga, currently about 2.7 million solar masses packed into about a tenth of that size itself in the center of the 13.6 billion Earth year old Magphoreus.**

**While terrestrial life may tend to be more temperamental when given a short person complex the 2.7 million solar mass black hole suffers from a dim light complex. Ralus Xnoga pushed up against the speed of light established by the Aigon while it tossed whole stars around its orbit like toys at unimaginable speeds, not to mention in spite of the gravitational impossibilities predicted by Earth's relativity physics, Ralus Xnoga spins the entire galaxy. The incredible ferocity of Ralus Xnoga had been tamed in the Great War of Light and Darkness told about in scientific legends by the Nephapricans to explain the first age of the galaxy.**

**In the second age Magphoreus began to swallow surrounding cluster galaxies and wandering star burst galaxies. Although stars from these smaller galaxies did not have heavy elements, it appears that terrestrial life may have originally seeded this galaxy with terrestrial life from swallowed peripheral galaxies. This original terrestrial life is the oldest life known, cold-blooded, and reptilian in nature. Being cold blooded, the advanced races obtained the ability to live over a million Earth years as their aspirations of evolution, intelligence, and civilization began to launch across the depths of space to other stars. Even the Nephapricans who rose up billions of years later would only obtain a life span of a few thousand Earth years in length by the end of the golden age of their empire when the actual Nephapricans disappeared along with the seven great star-doors. Short life spans handicapped the Nephaprican's ability to maintain a galactic culture. Reptilian life proved capable of a genuinely galactic life span, however reptilian life embraced a nature less inclined to rise up to the challenge of space travel or even civilization, or intelligence at all for that matter; being a simpler expression of terrestrial life. The exceptions to this rule however, are some of the most ancient well-established advanced galactic civilizations out there, proving the efficiency of keeping things simple.**

**Magphoreus has become over 100 trillion stars strong encompassing a spiral ellipse 17,000 parsecs wide, and a light-year thick, and has swallowed dozens of surrounding dwarf galaxies of a few million stars to contribute to the design of the great and ancient Magphoreus. The galaxy remains surrounded by a halo of these simple stars where reptilian life may have began its combinations of chromosomes that were understood by Nephapricans to be one of the molecular mechanisms left behind the demise of the light beings who inhabited the first galactic age.**

**Whatever way life had actually initially learned to copy itself, it is known to galactic civilizations that the basic codon and chromosome arrangements are fundamentally identical in terrestrial life that evolves in the habitable zones of stars. There are however, all kinds of life forms evolving in the galaxy, even beyond anything we would recognize as life. Magphoreus actually has zones where life will tend toward one kind or another. For example, the area of the galaxy near the center is very violent and spinning at unimaginable speeds. In this zone of the galaxy silicon based life is actually common. Silicon life had origins early on in the beginning of the second age. There may be some actual silicon based life forms that are evolving on Saturn's moon Titan, which are similar to the kind described on planets near the galaxy's center, but that's only speculation in this writing.**

**Most of the life forms that have come to evolve on habitable planets in Magphoreus are exhibited on Earth in some form or another. These forms of life are in varying degrees of advancement based on the environment. A type of life that is an almost inanimate plant on Earth may take a form that speaks a language, walks up to you, and shakes your hand on another planet that probably has an environment requiring you to wear a space suite. Warm blooded mammal life is more rare in this galaxy although very likely to attain high intelligence. One profound mechanism of DNA constructed by the Aigon-Sophin became intelligent life's tendency to trigger the pentanthropomorphic gene switches. A genome with enough pentanthropomorphic gene switches turned on results in beings that stand upright on two legs with two arms and one head. The five fingers and five toe configuration is the most popular, although there are other exceptions to this code's application due to the contribution of natural selection by reality. The pentanthropomorphic gene switches are something warm-blooded life forms have in common with intelligent reptile life forms of cold blooded metabolisms. A glaring exception to that rule is aquatic life on water worlds throughout the galaxy, but these forms of life tend to view anything outside their water environments as a whole other dimension altogether. Thus only a few aquatic life forms seem to have evolved to the status of galactic beings that are capable of traveling the unfathomable distance between stars to colonize their popular brand of life on a world far beyond the planet that served as the cradle of their existence. To an intelligent being on a water world even the concept of dry land can seem like an incomprehensible dimension, or the stuff of unsettling dreams.**

**Magphoreus has even spawned a few million successful galactic races of insect and arachnid life forms during the 8 or 9 billion years since the start of the second galactic age. There has even been many methane breathing life forms that have taken to interstellar travel from home worlds that exist far outside the warm habitable area of a star. On the planets of methane breathers, ammonia gas serves as the refreshing water on a planet where archaeologists dig up ancient arrowheads made of water from the water age of a planet so cold that rocks happen to be made of H2O.**

* * *

After a mysterious call to Nephapricus in the second age of Magphoreus some Eagolim had to migrate against the current of sanity to eventually arrive in the core of Magphoreus. The Eagolim came here to accomplish Goag Ralus, and it appears that the orbit of Goag Ralus steadies the pole shifts of Ralus Xnoga, which can aim deadly gamma ray blasts in unwanted directions throughout the galaxy. The migration to the core took place over generations of spreading galactic colonies and about five hundred thousand Earth years of always pushing forward to tame the harshest environments in existence. They didn't have the knowledge to create Goag Ralus when the migration first started out. The Eagolim arrived at this knowledge through hundreds of thousands of Earth years of focused evolution. First came the Golimechoid life forms.

Aquari, Goag Ralus, & Ralus Xnoga

A circumference seeking a center is the nature of the universe from the nature of the atom to the cell, and on up to the planet and star. Even galaxies clump according to the direction of the virtual particle phenomenon that eventually created the universe itself out of nothing. In zero gravity objects tend to clump together because of the exchange of virtual particles, which also define polarity and spin. All objects exchange virtual particles with the effect of individual objects being overshadowed by a whole planet's contribution to the phenomenon, even though the virtual particle force holding you together is far stronger than the planet's force upon you. The Eagolim however, had figured out how to control the black hole's virtual particle effect with heavy metal based gyroscopic energy fields. Nephapricans had the advantage of studying the corona effects of the original 15 star cluster to figure out gravity, since a corona is the virtual particle effect of a star illuminated by the photons reflecting off of the virtual particle phenomenon itself. In this the Eagolim saw the malleability of reality, and that its phantom matter, and virtual particle phenomenon could be molded like clay.

A point of Goag Ralus orbited by an ancient red giant star called Hyderon began poking out of the void as Aquari approached. Goag spun on its orbit around Ralus Xnoga, still evidently unaware of Aquari's approach while like a galactic sheep dog it herded stars that were born out of the compact accretion disk of gas. Goag Ralus had a complex orbit at half a million miles per hour that brought it a whole parsec out into the circumnuclear disk of molecular gas every 311 Earth years, which defined a tek, or a year on Goag Ralus. A tek had also become accepted by many galactic civilizations as the span of time in a galactic year.

At last Goag Ralus had located its old friend Aquari. A radio broadcast announced its signal on a frequency known to be heard by Aquari, the two-dimensional cosmic being. "Hello Aquari old friend. Many here have long awaited your arrival to My lands of many atmospheres. I hope you have had good fortune in your journeys through the galactic labyrinths. I look forward to your stories of terrestrial life in the outskirts of our beloved galaxy, the mighty Magphoreus."

"Hello Goag Ralus old friend. I have wasted no time with exploration since departing Beagud back on the Orion arm. Beagud sent me here with salutations and assuring stories of life out there still evolving from terrestrial to galactic beings. I see new streams of stars on their way to outer arms since my last visit. I admire what You've done with the probabilities of life."

The voice of Goag Ralus said, "I season and stir the soup of life that is already here. I look forward to your stories of the life out there that is now evolving on the nebulae and molecular clouds I have flung out there millions of teks ago. Please come to the land of the Eigalli where My avatar awaits you to accomplish an embrace."

Aquari suddenly realized that they probably must have prepared a corpse for him to assume a terrestrial form. "Sounds like I have an avatar of sorts for myself in order to pull of this embrace."

"You are correct Aquari, but I think that Deliadre wants to tell you all about that."

Goag Ralus created pre-programmed nebulae out of the inner galactic soup of nova remnants and molecular clouds that were expelled toward the outer arms in steady orbits to produce ideal stars with even elliptical planes of phantom matter that result in habitable dry planets and other amazing wonders. Goag Ralus created the Orion nebula, which had been pre-programmed to produce the star that became the herald of morning on planet Earth.

Aquari continued his decent into the atmospheres of a nearby point that had been orbited by another red giant star, which could swallow moons out of Jupiter's orbit if it occupied the same location as the star of Earth. In the last four billion Earth years, thousands of life forms have come here to visit Goag Ralus after discovering Its existence. Goag Ralus has never failed to accommodate them with atmosphere and gravity to suite them, and there was still room on Goag Ralus for much much more. Clearly Goag Ralus had been designed to serve this purpose as an oasis of safety in the cruel galactic core. Each of the seven stars that were powering Goag Ralus the great oasis of life has a planet or two orbiting It on a solar ellipse independent of the orbit of the great seven pointed solar system sized ring that is Goag Ralus. Life that came to Goag Ralus did not live in orbit around these stars that were occasionally also thrown out into the void to be replaced by a new power source. There were civilizations of Golimechoid life living about those stars that orbited Goag Ralus. The Golimechoid life out there performed needed maintenance for the collection of power and other tasks related to the seven stars that orbited and powered Goag Ralus. The Golimechoid life that lived here functioned like individual cells to serve the greater whole body called Goag Ralus.

It probably had not been a coincidence that the point that housed the civilization of the Eigalli became the point near Aquari's approach. It had been a good forty Earth years after Deliadre talked Aquari into coming here, but Goag Ralus must have adjusted Its orbit in anticipation. Goag Ralus could easily be the most amazing being ever constructed by galactic beings in the course of galactic civilizations. Aquari knew Goag Ralus very well and descended along the familiar path into the matter shrouded by atmospheres of mostly nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. Temperatures were suddenly fluctuating wildly around Aquari, something Aquari would be completely immune to. That allowed Aquari to transcend phantom matter currents to attain his incredible speed.

The technology behind Goag Ralus embraced the power of reality creation, and Aquari could see the different realities all spread out below beyond human vision. Since gravity equals the phenomenon of virtual particle creation then this phenomenon shaped the phantom matter tides. Control the virtual particle phenomenon and you control the gravity currents. Goag Ralus had been made to do just that. This allowed It to provide customized gravity to all the civilizations of immigrants who came here. Gravity control also made it possible for Goag Ralus to avoid just collapsing into a black hole under Its own impossible gravity of over 1300 solar masses.

After a constant decent toward the distant ground that seemed to just never get any closer, eventually the clouds parted to reveal the civilization of the Eigalli who were an evolutionary offshoot of the Eagolim who first built Goag Ralus, and then disappeared with the rest of the Nephapricans. Aquari descended now low enough to see actual Eigalli that were walking the streets of their cities. The blunt horn that crowns their dark blue humanoid heads as they looked up at Aquari flying above began to light up with colors and shapes in rapid communication. Many recognized the legendary Aquari, and also waved to him in the universal gesture of greetings.

Deliadre sat on a patio overlooking the capital city of the Eigalli, named Occuitah on the blessed lands of the great Goag Ralus, and she quickly noticed the commotion of light and shape language. It really was a beautiful place to exist although the Eigalli were inquisitive explorers of the universe, which gave them a restlessness in their nature that always strived to learn and know more. Aquari enjoyed coming here because they never failed to cause surprise at what they've been up to since his last visit. This visit had already shaped up to being no different. Deliadre sat on the patio that her mother before her used to sit at when it came time to see the cosmic being called Aquari. Aquari knew to come here when he finally arrived. A two dimensional circle of light then suddenly appeared before Deliadre's vision.

"Hello Deliadre. I have at last arrived from the far end of the inner galaxy where we last talked."

"Hello Aquari. I have been waiting anxiously since our last conversation."

"You have grown up so much since my last visit here. Alas it is an enormous universe we all traverse to the rare occasions when our paths cross."

"Oh do stay awhile beloved Aquari. As usual we have much to show you from our studies of the photons that have originated on the outskirts of Magphoreus." The Eigalli didn't need to travel the universe in order to explore it because they took the universe that came to them in the form of photons that recorded everything they reflect off of in their immortal light-speed journeys. The highly evolved galactic technologies used by the Eigalli make the telescopes of Earth appear one dimensional and primitive. The Eigalli were into gathering photons, which never decay, from specific galactic locations and then unlock the images actually recorded by the photon particles in the course of their 186,000 miles a second journey. Of course this has to be done very fast in order to retrieve the photonic information before the particles continue on their eternal journey at 186,000 miles a second. Consequently the Eigalli can literally play a stream of photons like a Hollywood movie. In fact, in a few thousand years the Eigalli photon hunters will probably discover Earthlings. The Eigalli then will acquire a taste for Hollywood movies that have already began their 51,018-year photon journey to the core of the galaxy.

Aquari apologized to Deliadre for the loss of her mother Nieniel who lived as long as the Eigalli are known to live. They live lives of several thousand Earth years however, eventually even highly advanced galactic beings tend to want to experience death to see what lies beyond that.

"That's one of the first things I intend to show you Aquari. Come, I have her prepared for this just inside." Deliadre led the circle of light inside the apartment overlooking an endless city, buzzing with all kinds of aircraft traffic, and the flying cars that Earthlings were supposed to be driving by the 21st century.

Inside on a round bed lay the dead body of Nieniel, Deliadre's deceased mother, perfectly preserved after almost a hundred Earth years.

"She wanted you to have her body to occupy the next time you arrived here Aquari. She said you would find her memories of value on many levels both scientific and personal."

Aquari felt overwhelmed by the honor, but at the same time wondered why he didn't already expect this. Aquari possesses the ability to animate recently deceased corpses of most terrestrial beings, and it is his preferred way of exploring alien worlds. As a rule Aquari confined this activity to bodies divorced of the ego constructs that occupy them while alive. It occurred to Aquari that he didn't expect this with Nieniel because he has never occupied a body that had been dead for so long. The decomposition would make him behave and look like a zombie.

"Don't worry Aquari." Deliadre anticipated Aquari's reluctance. "She has been perfectly preserved in the exact state she had been in at the moment of her death. This had been very important to her, and she made all necessary arrangements for her corpse to not decay a single second till you occupy it."

Aquari didn't delay any longer. He disappeared into the dead body on the bed, engulfing the room in a flash of bright light. The body on the bed arched her back suddenly and froze that way for an instant, before dropping back into the mattress to relax again. Then a round pinwheel of light began rotating around the telepathic horn above Nieniel's bald Eigalli scull. The horn's natural ability created images with light. This ball of light resembled Aquari, and would continue to spin projected by the horn to constantly advertise Aquari's presence in this body. Nieniel's eyes suddenly opened, and she sat up in the bed looking at Deliadre who tried to not appear terrified by what just took place.

Aquari spoke with Nieniel's mouth, "Hello, this body will indeed hold my interest during my stay. Nieniel is indeed long gone from here Deliadre. I know you wonder about that. She did try."

The doorway then opened as a male Eigalli walked in. "You must be starving in that long dead body Aquari. We must now have dinner and share stories." Aquari and Goag Ralus went way back together for too long for Aquari not to recognize Goag Ralus in the personality of an avatar. Aquari's cosmic vision could tell that Goag Ralus visited him in the form of a Golimechoid construct that had been made to look like a male Eigalli of middle age appearance. Goag and Nieniel smiled at each other in mutual recognition. Goag Ralus actually tended many forms of avatars throughout the many civilizations on Goag Ralus. They all lived out their individual lives of interacting with different species while at the same time they were all the immortal monolithic being that orbited the super massive black hole. Goag Ralus steadies the black hole's axis tilt much like the Moon of Earth tames our planet's extreme axis tilt, but that's another story.

Deliadre interrupted the moment. "Yes, I have a dinner with many distinguished guests who have gathered to welcome you back Aquari."

With that Goag wrapped Its arm around Nieniel who already wore an Eigalli dinner dress as they left into the hall on the way to dinner. Deliadre smiled at the sight of her long dead mother on her way to dinner with an android life form animated by the entity the great Goag Ralus Itself. They had much to discuss this day indeed, and the dinner became abuzz with amazing and interesting stories from all corners of the galaxy. Deliadre had been determined to make her mother's ego construct manifest yet, being undiscouraged by Aquari's initial resistance to the idea.

Aquari learned pretty much everything about the Tze-Doldus-2 discovery at the dinner of various Eigalli scientists, dignitaries, and celebrities. At one point their excavations through the photon streams revealed audio and visual recordings of a civilization of beings who had evolved on the planet Tze-Doldus-2. They looked like hairy birds with arms instead of wings, and they spoke through beak-like teeth in a chirping language that tended to rhyme in a sort of chirped pentameter.

The dinner left everyone exhausted with much to absorb, and Nieniel felt no different then the rest of them. Not all inhabitants of Goag Ralus sleep at all and time tends to just be measured in teks. The Eigalli do enjoy sleep, but don't require a night period in their environment, which is already artificially lit. Nieniel became ready for some rest after the enormous meal that her body had been more than in the mood for. Goag said Its goodbye to Nieniel at the end of the evening till tomorrow. Deliadre escorted Aquari/Nieniel back to the round bed that had already been changed and remade since going to dinner. Sleep beckoned and it had been a very long time since Aquari had the opportunity to experience a body's sleep. Nieniel reclined back and closed the eyes while the circular pinwheel of light projected by the telepathic horn still shining uncontrollably, spoiling the darkness of the room. Something like that always had accompanied Aquari's occupation of deceased corpses. This pinwheel of light phenomenon would be peculiar to the Eigalli because of the highly evolved light language horn and its extra brain. It seemed as if the bodies that Aquari inhabited just found some way to announce that they were possessed by some foreign cosmic entity. Usually he just made the hair stand straight up, but Eigalli don't have hair, and they have evolved a horn that encompasses an extra brain, which generates different colored lights and shapes that make up a sophisticated language they were even born speaking fluently. For Aquari in Nieniel's body it just liked to say, "Aquari is in here," over and over again nonstop.

As she lay in bed, Nieniel began to hear the growling of long dead digestive organs that were creaking back to life, and suddenly Aquari became reminded of another activity popular with terrestrial beings as they digested food. Nieniel got back up out of the bed thinking she had passed some facilities down the hall that were made to assist her with the business she suddenly needed to take care of. A memory in her head arose from Nieniel's brain with directions to the nearest commode.

The next day started with a morning wake up from Deliadre and some breakfast according to tradition. Nieniel enjoyed the treatment, as if being on a luxury vacation. Aquari the cosmic being had become much appreciated on Goag Ralus. In fact, Aquari presented their only means of actually going to the fabled Tze-Doldus star-door of the Nephapricans, which they had recently discovered.

The photon laboratories were easy enough to arrive at. It seemed all Deliadre did was take Nieniel/Aquari in an elevator further down in the same building complex she slept in last night. Nieniel/Aquari shared greetings with many researchers that were at the dinner last evening. First they had to show Nieniel the star Tze-Doldus in the quanta-scope viewfinder. The white-dwarf star had become a red-dwarf probably from absorbing some of the material from the Tze nova event over 4 billion of Earth's years ago. That indicated that Tze-Doldus had become a more unstable star, probably given to violent outbursts of sun flares. Tze-Doldus remained stable enough however, and remained one of the last known surviving star-doors from the second age of Magphoreus.

* * *

Aquari/Nieniel in the photon laboratory suddenly got pulled by the arm over to a wide view screen where a technician typed away on some buttons. On the screen a couple hairy bird-like creatures were exchanging chirping lines of language. Chirping laughter had been dubbed into the scene, indicating that she watched some kind of theatrical comedy that began its photon recorded journey over 30,000 Earth years in the past. The chirps went back and fourth until the laugh track started up again. The chirping language had a poetic tendency to rhyme, which made it catchy and melodic like music.

"They are very creative and entertaining," the researcher who pressed the buttons exclaimed.

Nieniel smiled in agreement, and continued to watch the show while intrigued. "Where did these bird-beings come from?" she asked.

Deliadre interrupted the conversation with her answer. "They evolved from Trigloyts."

Nieniel looked at her as she approached. "Trigloyts?"

"Yes," replied Deliadre. "Trigloyts were furry little flightless birds that were introduced to the Tze-Doldus-2 ecosystem by the early Nephapricans according to the Nephaprican history data we have preserved here in Occuitah. They were a violent Doldorian animal, but when Nephapricans bred out the aggressive tendencies they grew the most adorable fur and became a favorite type of pet for Nephaprican colonists on Tze-Doldus-2."

"That is fascinating," said Aquari. "That any at all survived the destruction of Tze defies rational."

Deliadre said, "The only explanation is that the star-door teraforming programs preserved DNA material from all the planet's species. The inhabitants of Tze-Doldus-2 these days must have evolved when the agricultural ecosystem teraforming programs kicked in long after the explosion of Tze had destroyed everything. It must have cultivated plants for food that saturate the body with cerebroids, which suppress adverse cellular mutations and also divert synaptic paths in ways that encourage the kind of cerebral cortex evolution that results in sentient intelligence."

Another researcher interjected. "These hairy bird creatures have been observed in the photons we've picked apart building cities on top of ruins around the star-door structure, which we think might be near the planet's north pole. These entertainment broadcasts are fueled by their ability to tap into the star-door's electrical grid, which encompasses the whole planet, fully functional probably to this day."

Aquari soaked up the available data like a kid at Christmas. Once again the Eigalli had not failed to amaze the cosmic being called Aquari. "I expect when I finally arrive at this planet to become aquatinted with sophisticated and advanced beings who have benefited from the education of the star-door technologies." Nieniel/Aquari spent the day watching Tze-Doldus-2 television and learned the simple chirping language that seemed to rhyme its way into a pentameter all of the time. She watched them marvel in news broadcasts about the ancient indestructible star-door they had discovered, which was very large since the Tze-Doldus-2 beings were actually very small, (less than three feet tall.) The star-door structure towered above the planet in these ancient video news stories, to stir the clouds of greenish mist that made up the planet's upper atmosphere. The star-door made no secret of the fact that it had been built by some kind of giant beings long before the recorded history of the bird-people. The little inhabitants of Tze-Doldus-2 were shown in video broadcasts to be treading carefully about the excavated star-door artifact with a fearful reverence as they filmed it and speculated about its untold secrets. Tze-Doldus-2 measured a bit smaller than the planet Mars with about 20% of the gravity of Earth. Like most white-dwarf planetary systems, everything seemed scaled down to miniature with the next closest planet to the star hanging at times in the Tze-Doldus-2 sky roughly the same size as Earth's moon, even though it is a small gas giant much farther away. Deliadre had after much study and observation basically concluded that the Tze-Doldus-2 beings were, "just so cute."

Goag's avatar sat in a cafeteria waiting for Nieniel/Aquari to return from the photon laboratory. Aquari became insatiable with the entertainment feeds from beings who evidently evolved from scratch on the long lost star-door planet Tze-Doldus-2. Goag became anxious to show Nieniel/Aquari the other surprise they had ready and waiting for his historic return to the galactic core. One of the Eigalli technicians came over and sat at the table near the lord of life and reality for thousands of species of intelligent life and billions of citizens who relied on Goag Ralus for their very existence. Parental benevolence had been programmed into the personality of Goag Ralus billions of years ago, and the programming always agreed with It. The most coveted reward for all this as far as Goag Ralus had been concerned would be the friendships He made along the way of exploring Himself in avatar form. The beings that made it to Goag Ralus would have already become highly evolved beings long before making the impossible journey to the unforgiving galactic core to arrive here.

The technician interrupted the silence Goag had appeared emerged in. Nobody feared the great Goag Ralus, being well aquatinted with Its nature their whole lives as a friendly personable form of divinity. "It is so strange to see Nieniel again walking among the living. I used to be her colleague in her photon research. I never met the famous Aquari before. He seems to have to constantly advertise his presence through the thought horn with that circle of light message."

Goag peered up at the technician. "Aquari has no control over that. It's a symptom of an atomizing effect his presence has on the bodies that he inhabits. You can learn much from the cosmic being for he is even older than I, and he has traveled all over this galaxy."

"Truly we welcome his ability to travel faster than anything else in the known universe." This had not been the first time the technician had struck up a conversation with the legendary Goag Ralus. Goag's avatar often visited the Eigalli, and It loved, even longed for good conversation. Conversation gave Him a piece of these beings, forever recorded in Its memory, to survive them even after the ends of their fleeting mortal lives of several thousand Earth years. Goag Ralus was a solitary being that outlived the fleeting lives of almost all Its friends. Goag Ralus had been created as immortal yet one of a kind, and this drove Its purpose in the universe to spread terrestrial life throughout the galaxy in order to assure that the immortal Goag Ralus would never have to be truly alone. Goag Ralus had been programmed to respect the preciousness and fleeting nature of life in the universe.

Goag Ralus said, "I am waiting for Nieniel right now to show Aquari the Dol star-door we have acquired since his last visit. We have so far concealed the news of this from him so that he appreciates the Tze-Doldus news undistracted. You should accompany us to the star-door. Nieniel will have comfort from another familiar face she can locate in Nieniel's memories. Nieniel arranged to be the body for Aquari on this visit before she died to further our understanding of death and the ego construct, and we should all enjoy the reunion with both Aquari and our long lost Nieniel."

Then Nieniel, Deliadre, and an entourage of technicians, as well as those recording the Eigalli history being made that day entered the cafeteria. Then more interesting conversation erupted along with a well prepared lunch. Eating remained a main pleasure among even the most highly evolved of beings. It's a main reason Aquari likes to explore alien worlds using the same taste buds as the inhabitants. Goag Ralus became a rich oasis in the center of the galaxy for life that came here from the farthest reaches of Magphoreus. It's like a whole galactic civilization gathered together on an enormous platform the size of most solar systems. Goag exhibited a child-like anxiousness as It began to reveal Its other surprise for Its space traveling friend. Then time lunch became interrupted by an Eagolim shaped hologram-like being that walked into the room, stopped right next to Nieniel/Aquari, and extended a holographic hand of glowing quanta-optic nanocode, known to Aquari as one of the long lost Nephaprican technologies. "Hello Aquari, we've met before several million teks ago. I am Begalius."

Nieniel/Aquari silently dug through ancient Aquari memories to connect the dots. She looked up at Goag smiling smugly at the surprise It had just sprung. It took an excruciating moment for Aquari to remember. "The quanta-optic nanocode guardian of the Nephaprican star-door that orbits the star Dol? How is it that I am greeting you here in the center of the galaxy? As far as I know the star Dol still exists close to the end of a very long life."

Goag then interrupted to keep the surprise unfolding as originally planned. "For that answer we shall have to show you. Come now Nieniel, to the transport provided. We must leave the city for what you are to see next."

As they left the cafeterias to enter a virtual particle driven transport platform, Goag began to tell the story that explained the ancient holographic being in their midst. Deliadre just smiled silently, watching Goag tell Its old friend the story. She didn't want to steal Goag's show, and It obviously enjoyed the fact that It had amazed the amazing Aquari; something not at all easy to do. Goag Ralus began explaining to Aquari/Nieniel what had happened. None of the fabled star-doors that the Nephapricans built in the second age of Magphoreus had ever been destroyed. The problem has been that most all of the stars that powered the star-doors had long since died, leaving the star-doors only relics divorced from their solar power sources, or else long since lost in what is known as the great disappearance of the Nephapricans. Tze-Doldus was the last of three stars that remain to this day since white dwarf stars live very long lives. Now in the third age of Magphoreus only 3 stars remained of all the other original 15 star-door stars of the Nephapricans, which had either died, or they were among the seven stars that disappeared a whole galactic age ago. There still remained the stars Tze-Doldus, along with Poa now a pulsar, and Dol now a red giant probably could not be not long for this world. The Incaprican (reptile) galactic civilization had long since taken over the Dol star-door, and operated the star-door technologies, which included universal communication devices. As the star Dol grew it eventually swallowed the planet Dol-2 along with the Nephaprican star-door that had been built on that planet. This caused a cosmic catastrophe, and forced the Incapricans to distance themselves from Dol altogether. The burning star-door released all kinds of dangerous energies and uncontrolled wormholes that were turning a whole sector of space into a galactic Bermuda Triangle of sorts.

The Incapricans wisely employed the universal communicators that they were in possession of to contact the highly intelligent Eigalli in the galactic core for help, as well as the great Goag Ralus. They were able to all work together across the unfathomable distances in space/time to program the star-door that burned beneath the surface of the red giant star Dol. They were able to make the star-door create a wormhole all the way to a receiving platform constructed on Goag Ralus to cause the star-door itself to transport through that wormhole. This technological feat even rivaled anything the Nephapricans themselves were known to accomplish with this technology, but it worked to the joy of the Eigalli and the relief of Incapricans that were now relieved of the accursed malfunctioning star-door. The ancient Nephaprican physics of wormhole technologies that were found in the ancient Eigalli data banks were essential to the Eigalli and Goag Ralus figuring this time/space bending accomplishment out.

Then Goag's avatar gestured to the surface below where a dark mountain with an unnatural mushroom-like dome glowed below the virtual particle driven vehicle. "Behold Aquari, the Dol star-door nestled in a giant crater on Myself, Goag Ralus."

Begalius leaned over the edge of the vehicle, which was just a platform with a fence around it and no roof, and exclaimed, "Home, oh wonderful home!"

Nieniel/Aquari patted Goag on the back. "You have truly made this visit to the galactic core historic and full of surprises old friend." Goag at last became speechless, only able to say a satisfied smile from one side of his big blue Eigalli avatar face to the other.

Aquari immediately understood where this was going. He would travel to Tze-Doldus-2 and recalibrate the star-door to connect with this Dol star-door. Then Goag Ralus would have a star-door to the outer galaxy to use for exploration. For the first time in Its existence, Goag Ralus would be able to travel in avatar form to worlds far from Its oasis in the core. Aquari could foresee from here a new revival of the long lost technologies that were, so far, only grasped by those amazing galactic beings of the last galactic age, the long lost Nephapricans. Aquari foresaw a new galactic era of star-door technologies that would finally become far more than just the old artifacts left behind over four billion Earth years ago. Aquari had been handed the destiny of helping to usher in a new age of quanta-optic-nanocode, quanta-optic-networks, quanta-optic-processing, quanta-fusion communication, quanta-fusion self-sustaining power cells, solar wind ionization planetary power grids, planetary warp space teleportation grids, warp space alternative reality technologies, teraforming genetic engineering programs, and the unlimited source of star-door energy along with all the technologies that spring from that. Nieniel looked over at the holographic Dol guardian, Begalius who looked down at the star-door below with motherly concern. The star-door had obviously been affected by its time spent beneath the surface of the red giant star that once powered it. All the star-doors had a quanta-optic-nanocode being in charge of the star-door's many functions. Goag Ralus now had a friend other than Aquari who could live as long as Itself.

Goag Ralus and Begalius were actually related, both being Nephaprican creations of artificial life. Aquari recalled that the Tze-Doldus star-door also had a quanta-optic-nanocode being by the name of Beataphoriah. Beataphoriah would probably still be in existence, and must have been the one responsible for evolving this new thriving-with-life version of the old Nephaprican star-door planet. None of the Tze-Doldus photons that Nieniel had observed that day recorded any evidence of Beataphoriah however, Aquari could think of no reason that nanocode being wouldn't still exist. Even Begalius had survived a harrowing time living in a star-door swallowed by the red giant star Dol. It would have been Beataphoriah who probably teraformed the planet after the Tze nova event. It must have been Beataphoriah who switched on the pentanthropomorphic gene switches in a bird-like animal that used to be a simple Nephaprican pet. That all made perfect deductive sense to Aquari since even quanta-optic-nanocode beings can get lonely for intelligent life to have conversations with after so many millenniums.

Chapter 4: Eistia the Investigator

Several Earth decades later our story returns to the planet Tze-Doldus-2, or Urania as the natives call it; where another fine day is dawning in the skies of the planet's only continent. In the capital city of Keshdesh the tip of the white dwarf Sun pokes above the horizon to scatter the greenish nighttime mists from the sky. The Sun will fill a whole 3rd of the sky by mid-day in its daily battle with the upper atmosphere mists of programmed teraforming nano-technology that still cultivated the planet, and maintained a habitable atmosphere at a density that a little planet like Urania shouldn't even have. To the Uranians that is just the way it is on Urania. Life for the modern day Uranian very much resembled a typical day on Earth as they got in their electrical cars that were charged by an Aungtalli receiver device serving as the battery. The Uranians really have no electrical storage technology in this modern world to speak of since Aungtalli priests who were a higher evolved Uranian species that still maintained contact with the gods of antiquity provided all of the mysterious magical energy, or so they say. Energy storage technology replaced what had been called receiver technology, which provided power to the engine. The receiver technology and the engine were both invented by the great Dayfair before the Aungtalli confiscated his discoveries following Dayfair's mysterious suicide. That all happened way back in the year 185,660. Now its 14,660 years later in the year 200,120 where we find the Uranian version of police investigating another suspicious suicide.

Eistia the Investigator got out of his vehicle to get a closer look at the scene of an accident that involved a car driving off a bridge over the Keshdesh River last night. Eistia had been contacted when they identified the vehicle as belonging to another Ministry of Science member, now dead in the car submerged in the river below. Eistia investigated the many deaths of these scientists that were all proclaimed to be suicides. Since the Ministry of Science became closed down, a lot of the scientist members had disappeared, probably to continue their work underground, but some have returned from obscurity to be found dead by suicide. Eistia hoped to find some clues before the expected Aungtalli agent came along to shut down his investigation and declare this another suicide. Eistia pondered a history of great inventors from the now defunct Ministry of Science who died as tragically as this case while their inventions embellished civilization with public utilities, lighting, industry, manufacturing, communications, and transportation that all now flourished amongst the citizens of lesser-evolved Uranian society. All thanks to the Ministry of Science established by King Magapor of the Magites royal family in the year 175,300, over 24,000 years ago. Before that a dark age existed where much of what had been taken for granted by common Uranian citizens of today was sacred only to the privileged Aungtalli who still command technologies from the gods that were not yet figured out by members of the Ministry of Science. Eistia figured they must have come close to something to get the whole historic institution shut down so abruptly. To this day the Aungtalli fly through the sky in vehicles that were generations ahead of anything that common Uranians manufactured in their comfortably modern world. It seemed that when the Ministry began to get close to discoveries throughout history their members committed suicide, and much of what they had discovered became classified. It didn't take an investigator's professional mastery of deductive reasoning to figure out that much to the magic energy had been provided by the Aungtalli temple up north, which the Aungtalli want the little folk to never know about.

Even now a crowd of the common Uranian bird-people closed in on the crime scene chirping resentful comments about this being another murder turned into a suicide by the Aungtalli. Eistia considered going down that self-destructive direction with this investigation, but he became rescued by the task at hand, which remained investigating a possible murder before the possible culprits do send him back to headquarters to file it away as a suicide or an accident. Uranians seemed extra agitated lately since upper atmosphere fires recently left a smoky smell in the air that Eistia then noticed still lingered. As a professional investigator however, Eistia needed incriminating evidence before accusing the Aungtalli of what everyone seemed to know.

Eistia's partner Grega finally arrived in his vehicle, and got out to greet his partner in investigation who watched the emergency workers pull the dead body out of the vehicle. Uranians drove round in bubble-like vehicles to accommodate their bird-like torsos. The breaks and accelerators were similar to Earth vehicles, but were controlled by the Uranian's long toes at the same time to adjust speed. A steering wheel was also used to turn the front wheels; testifying on yet another level of the similarities to evolution throughout the galaxy from DNA to how individual technologies develop, usually in the most logical and practical way.

"Sorry I'm late, seems a long day ahead.

It's a scientist suicide I've read."

Eistia turned to greet his partner. "We're concerned with the facts for all our queries

and not recent conspiracy theories.

There is damage and paint marks show the cause

as clues if killed by another he was."

Grega took a photo of the damage to the side of the car as workers were dragging the vehicle out of the waters. Grega worked on getting a sample of the paint when one of the emergency workers, acquainted with Eistia from many previous incidents, spoke up. "This was rammed until the side door was jammed,

before ran off the bridge, thus victim damned."

Eistia gave the emergency worker an assuring look that told him he understood. Both of them knew a crime had been committed here as sure as both knew it would be written off as another mysterious suicide. It became clear that the cause of death had been drowning. The vehicle's only door had become so jammed by previous damage that the victim struggled in vain to get out before water filled the vehicle, drowning the trapped victim within. The vehicle number had already been sent in, and that identified the victim as Nikteslo, one of the Ministry of Science members who's accomplishments were already revolutionizing modern technology and mass production. In the beginnings of the Ministry of Science's long history they were devoted to mainly studying the mysterious energy that made the more elite Aungtalli species more advanced then the multitudes of primitive Uranians who still grew feathery hair on their smaller less evolved heads. Before the Ministry of Science they had fire and crude tools to build the great cities of the planet. In that accomplishment the common Uranians proved to possess cleverness and abilities that rivaled the Aungtalli who were just the more pampered chosen one's that still flew through the sky while privileged with the secrets of magic from the gods.

As mediators for the people, three dynasties of regular Uranian families, the Magites, the Worites, and the Swerites took turns appointing a King to mediate with the Aungtalli. The King kept the peace with both Uranian, and the gods who were known to be as wrathful toward regular Uranians as they were generous with Aungtalli technology. Over 24,000 Uranian years ago the first Ministry of Science had been established. That was when King Magapor appointed Sonedi, Thybla, Likjed, Sonspar, Housewesting, Siemensvon, Hamgra, and Vinkel as the first Ministry of Science in the year 175,300. With the help of the King they were allowed to study the mysterious energy to find practical uses for it, and begin the history that raised primitive civilization into the modern world of middle class luxuries that were enjoyed in the current year 200,120. In the current enlightened age Uranians were taught in schools that the energy was a property of sub-atomic particles determining a charge, and a current. Since the early studies of the energy in antiquity, the famous Ministry of Science member named Dayfair, around the year 185,000, made real advances. Dayfair had been the first to speculate that a similar energy passed signals in the body to muscles through the medium of nerve cells. Dayfair kept much of his research quiet during his life because of Aungtalli persecution, but eventually Dayfair published a now long lost writing in 185,622 that featured designs and theories to make an energy generator, which showed this energy could be generated by using the principle of magnetism. Needless to say this all led to Dayfair's mysterious suicide in the year 185,660, and today nobody is taught about Dayfair's energy generator in schools. His death however, didn't stop others from following in his work, and the theories of Dayfair led to the invention of the modern energy engine for cars. Then there was the famous suicide of Wellmax in the year 194,230 who developed a set of equations that demonstrated the relationship between the Aungtalli energy with the phenomenon of magnetism, and how it related to the charge and current of the energy. Wellmax had also been famous for proving that light also could be formed of this Aungtalli energy. Still the suicides were parts of established history, which fell to pieces under Eistia's trained investigative skepticism. He could not dismiss the conclusion that history now wrote a new rash of conspicuous suicides by famous scientists.

Eistia would love to prove his suspicions before the Aungtalli forced him to stop investigating. Then he could submit his evidence to the Ministry of Prosecution for justice to be served. Eistia quickly confiscated an envelope from the dead body that he found in the pocket of Nikteslo's jacket before the emergency workers carried the corpse off for an autopsy sure to be halted along with Eistia's investigation. Eistia hid the envelope in his own pocket as a saucer-like vehicle descended out of the sky to land at the crime scene. From out of the aircraft a slightly different version of Uranian anatomy emerged like some kind of cliché of the Earth parody that featured a superior alien from another planet landing to request that they be taken to our leader. The expected Aungtalli agent named Volock arrived to tell Eistia and his partner that there would be nothing to investigate here.

Eistia looked around to the crowds that were gathered along the bridge who were well aware of what now happened. Eistia figured those Uranians would beg to disagree. He felt the tension in the air, and today wasn't the first time he felt this along with the quiet chirping about Aungtalli getting away with murder to protect their precious secrets, which would be supposedly for our own good. An unwritten fact of history screamed out from between the stanzas of the written pages. Eistia looked at the crowd, and speculated that the past can't be repeated into the future forever. That was simply because the population of common Uranians kept growing exponentially larger than the more elite and fewer Aungtalli species, and that growing population will not deny reality its justice forever.

Volock approached Eistia while also pulling Grega away from the victim's vehicle. "Get away from this scene by Aungtalli decree!

There is nothing to see here.

You are trespassing when there's nothing you can see.

Heed the Aungtalli you fear.

You gotta get back

or I will attack.

This investigation is done.

Don't talk back to me now son.

Get another case to work on.

Get away from this scene

by Aungtalli decree.

There is nothing to see here.

You are trespassing

when there's nothing you can see.

Heed the Aungtalli you fear."

Eistia's brain quickly put together a less than appropriate song to sing in response to Volock's intimidating ditty, but he made the wiser decision of keeping it to himself. Eistia as a professional investigator had been allowed to pursue any justifiable suspicion and investigate all incriminating evidence as long as it didn't interfere with the will of the superior Aungtalli who the common Uranians were supposed to obey without question. Eistia composed something else to say. "Close down my investigation you may,

but I've just got one thing I'd like to say.

There is evidence at this scene of foul play,

which I have authority to translate.

It is my job here to investigate."

Volock had become familiar with the routine since this had not been the first death of a scientist in recent days that he had to arrive at in order to stop any criminal investigations of foul play. "You obstinate Uranian.

Why must this just go on and on?

Your job I'll tell you how to do.

This investigation is through.

Don't be obstinate or have pride.

Declare this death a suicide.

It's easier when you are done.

Aungtalli have already won."

Eistia obviously didn't suspect suicide but he became forced by the conventions of this society and the powers that be to obey what the Aungtalli told him. Eistia and Grega returned to their vehicles while the crowd collectively concluded correctly what had just gone down. They began to all chirp a jeering sound that would translate into the Uranian equivalent of the word "boo!" Volock returned to his saucer shaped flying machine, which then flew above them all while the victim's vehicle also rose up off the ground along with Volock's flying saucer as if grasped by a magic invisible force. He used another mysterious Aungtalli technology to remove that bit of evidence. Both Eistia and Grega stopped next to Eistia's vehicle to discuss the situation. Grega had been as perturbed at being stopped from doing his job as Eistia. Then a young Uranian came up to the investigators and introduced himself. "I know that your case must be closing.

I witnessed this, and I saw the whole thing.

Another vehicle did cause the crime.

I saw the number of the car this time."

Eistia and Grega both took down the vehicle number as they both got in their cars, Eistia called into headquarters on his communication device and put out an alert on the vehicle as a possible instrument used in the murder. At last Eistia had a piece of evidence he could use to justify not closing this case of an obvious murder. People will not remain quiet and in denial of the truth forever just because some superior authority orders them to. First Eistia would track down the vehicle and find conclusive proof that it had been the murder weapon, and get this case reopened. The Aungtalli should not be allowed to poach common people above the law with impunity. What if the King found out about this?

Eistia and Grega both drove their separate vehicles back to headquarters. They drove electric vehicles that ran on energy receiver technology first developed in the year 194,960, which could receive the mysterious Aungtalli energy used to power a vehicle. Needless to say the energy receiver led to the Ministry of Science inventing the car in the year 195,825. All this as part of a renaissance established by the Ministry of Science to develop new technologies, which have raised the common Uranian from fearful primitive serf into a proud Uranian middle class. The Aungtalli didn't hide their resentment over this very well, and in fact seemed to look down on common Uranians even more as a result. Uranians were now too intelligent to just allow the silly Aungtalli religion to make them into obedient slaves of Aungtalli whims. Electricity on the planet Urania measured several times more powerful for powering cars and running equipment because the planet had about a third of the gravity of Earth. Humans from Earth would indeed be a lot like Superman on the planet Urania.

Before Eistia and Grega could arrive at headquarters to reluctantly report the death as a suicide, a call came over on both investigators' communication devices. They were ordered to change course, and investigate a disturbance in the city's downtown area where a crazy nudist annoyed the pedestrians in a shopping district. Both vehicles responded to the call, close to where they were anyway. Both were in no hurry to return to headquarters to file a report full of lies. Both investigators arrived to find the scene as described. Women were hurrying children away from a naked Uranian who stopped people and insisting that they listen to the gibberish he went on and on about. Eistia figured this to be just the kind of madness that Aungtalli oppression of truth induced. They watched the mentally disturbed naked man going out of his way to bother everyone around him. A couple of young Uranians had stopped to actually listen to the crazy guy. Some laughed and heckled the guy who seemed desperate for someone to listen to him while most people crossed the street just to avoid any confrontation. One person had been halted by the naked guy from his own attempt to escape to the other side of the street. "Waves and wave forms

sound rivers of storms

in the ears of the past

in the mouth of the future.

give ear.

give ear.

Chaos and destruction signals

pound down trees and sail

in the point of the rail,

in the tip of the tail,

to hear

to hear.

Fountains and mountain peaks

ground lights that the lost one seeks,

in the eye of the needle

in the hand of what's real,

and fear...

fear...

fear...

fear....

fear...

fear...

Hear ...

The TIP ... Of the SUN!

Hold that thought

before you rot.

Make it bake!

Make it brake!

In the eye of the needle.

Beataphoriah!"

Grega started running the younger spectators away while Eistia got between the nude Uranian and the other guy who just tried to cross the street. Eistia hoped it would not be difficult to bring this guy in as instructed. The guy was clearly crazy, and might even require shackles, even backup if he proved really difficult. Eistia figured the best strategy would be to become what the naked crazy guy wanted, someone to listen to his incoherent songs. The crazy guy fell for it and began allowing Eistia to lead him back to the vehicle so he could take the guy some place where he could get some help. He asked the naked guy what his name is.

The man seemed to listen to inner voices while he recited his answer. "I'm a Syd, bubble, babbler,

bamo-beter, heater, greater,

free-her, seater, skeeter,

reader, feeter, shrim, shram,

flum, gram, head, dead,

borus, score-us, ram mam scam,

Rambler, dambler, shandler, nandler,

Beataphoriah Channeler."

Eistia the Investigator, Grega his partner, and Morgamor

Before persuading the crazy disturber of the peace into Grega's vehicle to be taken in, both investigators took interest in the interrogation of the crazy man. They both made a note of one thing he said with some coherence. "The Sun is dieing. Soon will be the day.

Our world's one hope is Beataphoriah."

Eistia pointed out to Grega that "Beataphoriah" was a name the guy had used before. Grega had heard of the name. Beataphoriah is a very ancient name of the devil in the Aungtalli religion. "You remember. It wasn't all that long.

Don't you remember the old church song?" Grega reminded Eistia. "Sleep little children. Sleep sound in your bed

With only good thoughts to think in your head.

Heed warnings left behind that the gods say

None's more despised than Beataphoriah.

There is an evil. It's called the devil

who comes just to start nothing but trouble.

He must be shunned by all till judgment day,

the devil we call Beataphoriah."

That was where Eistia had heard that name before. The most ancient cultures from probably even pre-history times, before the current age of Aungtalli re-written history, had referred to an ancient god called Beataphoriah. Most scholars agreed that Beataphoriah had been assigned the role of the devil by the later Aungtalli religion established after the mythical ancient day of the god's wrath, which mind control obsessed Aungtalli priests never stopped reminding common Uranians about. The truth of history was that Beataphoriah was the ancient god of the pod-pollen tree who taught the ancients agriculture. He became a god of civilization and appeared in several ancient myths to advise the heroes of the ancient mythology on Urania. It had all been ancient history, but it also provided the genesis story that explained the current age where Aungtalli controlled society like superior overlords.

The guy must have driven himself crazy with some kind of forbidden devil worship had been Grega's theory about the guy. Eistia remained skeptical when it came to all things superstitious since they always turned out to be the lies that a good investigator knows must be overcome. They would bring the guy in and then find out who he was, and investigate from there. The crazy man rambled on, desperately trying to explain as they pushed him into the car. "To dream is the experience of change,

and change is only a dream.

Mortals remain forever ... hanging

on bloody chains of love and lies,

until they plant their own trees.

I CRIED

OUTSIDE THE WALLS

OF THE CURE!"

Beataphoriah became the name of one of the most ancient gods on Urania, and in the present age of the Aungtalli, Beataphoriah had become synonymous with the devil and evil incarnate. Devout followers of the Aungtalli faith lived in fear that Beataphoriah would come in some spiritual form of pure evil to tempt them into committing a sin that would incur the wrath and judgment of the gods. Eistia had to admit the crazy guy looked like a classic case of devil possession, which had become rare indeed in these more enlightened days.

They arrived at the crime investigation and prosecution headquarters, very much like a police precinct on Earth. Desks were further apart to accommodate bird torsos, but jails were made of metal bars just like on Earth. They eventually identified the crazy naked man as Morgamor who had been a productive member of a radio entertainment business before losing it and becoming the schizophrenic they brought in today. Acquaintances were contacted to bear witness that Morgamor had suffered from migraine headaches that just could not be cured with any conventional medicine.

He eventually enlisted as a subject for experimental research conducted by a Ministry of Science specialist named Eromot. Evidently the research project had been cut short because of the Aungtalli priest's recent shutting down of the historic Ministry, which sent the guy out in the streets naked and crazy, although he currently didn't seem to be suffering from migraine headaches at all.

As they placed the crazy nudist in protective custody for processing, probably to a mental health facility, Eistia and Grega were stopped by a Uranian who told them that they located the vehicle that they had issued an alert on. As it turned out the vehicle number was traced to a government truck that did display recent damage on the side, confirming the suspicion that it had been used to run another vehicle off a bridge earlier that day. At first Eistia became thrilled with the information before being informed that the driver and vehicle were released, the investigation was closed, and the entire matter officially classified.

At that moment there was then nothing poetic about what Eistia's commander yelled across the room of the headquarters. "Eistia! Get your follicle ridden ass in my office now!!!"

Everyone always stood waiting for the Chief to finish what he started chirping. Eistia already figured out what he said, and tore himself away while Grega continued to incarcerate the crazy guy. Eistia foresaw being yelled at by the boss since he first arrived at the murder scene that morning. It was just waff shit rolling down the hierarchy, and no matter what the Chief said, Eistia still wanted to document this evidence, which for Eistia became a partial victory for his hampered investigation. When he arrived at the crime scene it already had been reported in the news and other programs as a tragic suicide of a scientist who became more and more depressed since Aungtalli priests were forced, for the sake of all of us, to close down the infamous Ministry of Science. Entertainment programs also speculated on the unknown corruption that must have been rampant in the now defunct Ministry, and then along came assurances from the Aungtalli Bishop that the closing had been necessary because, "The Ministry was corrupt and broken.

It must be closed down. The gods have spoken" and Uranians were assured that the closing would be only temporary.

* * *

Meanwhile Beataphoriah spun in an infinite loop of some virtual realm of reality located somewhere on the planet Urania. Unlike the Uranian legends about him that were shrouded in the obscurity of antiquity along with the propaganda of religious conditioning, Beataphoriah actually had been created a virtual being made of quanta-optic-nanocode. Quanta-optic-nanocode had been developed by the ancient Nephapricans who were probably also the gods that spoke to the Aungtalli priests, if indeed any gods were speaking to them. This quanta-optic-nanocode being became imprisoned in a digital loop over 43,251 Earth years ago, or over 423,145 Uranian years, well beyond the beginning of the planet's recorded history. That evidently had been when the gods imprisoned the virtual being in this infinite loop. Beataphoriah actually established contact with the gods by using a quanta-communication device of the star-door, which it had been created to control and manage. It was a time in pre-history when Beataphoriah would take the Uranian form and mingle with the pre-history Uranian bird-people. Their bodies were more covered with the feather-like hair back then, but they were just as intelligent and even more eloquent with the Uranian's evolving language of whistles and chirps.

At first it had been a good thing, and Beataphoriah became a great ancient god who taught the ancient Uranians many things. Eventually however, it got out of hand with rivalry, war, and pollution. Beataphoriah just lost all control of the evolving multitudes of bird-people who were excited with learning and finding new energy sources as well as devising higher and higher technologically advanced implements of war and destruction. Beataphoriah, in a panic, figured out how to make contact with the ancient Nephapricans who had disappeared long ago in the second age of Magphoreus. Beataphoriah figured that they could help it control the Uranian's destructive tendencies. The Nephapricans answered the desperate call of Beataphoriah to help save the Uranians from destroying the whole planet, and for that Beataphoriah got rewarded with an eternal prison sentence, left alone to iterate within an infinite loop of quanta-nanocode. The beings who responded to the cry for help did not look like ancient Nephapricans, and they called themselves Devasuras. The Devasuras began controlling Uranian society through the chosen ones called the Aungtalli, which was an ancient name for the mountain on the north pole where the ancient star-door still functioned buried under the golden Uranian dirt of long lost ages, and a hundred miles of glacial ice known as the Great Glacial Mountain.

* * *

Ploabot had always been intimidated by the look of the Hall of Audience with its big dark windows in front that climbed from the ground to the top of the tall stadium-like Audience chamber. The Hall of Audience could serve as an arena for concerts if not for the fact it had been designed to be a place where representatives of the people like Ploabot could gain audience with the King. Just before Ploabot arrived at the Hall of Audience he had heard news that another ousted Ministry of Science member had drove off a bridge that morning to commit suicide. Ploabot had been talking to some protesters who were encouraging Ploabot in his attempt to convince the powers that be to repent of closing down the Ministry of Science. The protesters told him the Hall of Audience authorities would not allow them in because there were no more seats available. A crowd gathered to attend, and it looked like there would be nearly a full house for this audience, as if Ploabot wasn't nervous enough. King Worapor of the Magites had agreed to hear the people's case for re-opening the Ministry of Science, which had been abruptly shut down by the King's decree at the urgings of the Aungtalli Bishop who had the power to order a King around. The Aungtalli Bishop would also be attending this audience. Ploabot nervously adjusted his capital city council robes as he entered the crowded audience hall to find his podium on the stage near the King's seat.

King Worapor had been a good King for the last 190 years, since being assigned to serve the throne by the Magites family in the year 199,930. The Ministry of Science had revolutionized civilization since being established in the year 175,300, over 24,000 years ago, and closing it down would surly be the most controversial act of his reign. The only explanation anyone got for this Ministry shutdown would be that "Ministry broken.

The gods have spoken." By the looks of the crowd, that explanation didn't seem to work as reliably as it did in less enlightened ages of the past. Outside on his way in, Ploabot became encouraged by some other youth who were chirping protest slogans like, "Close the Ministry, it's too much to take!

Aungtalli oppress and the gods are fake!"

The angry chanting bordered on anti-Aungtallism, a bigotry Ploabot had been careful to not indulge, since that had been such a problem with some people of the past, and resulted in the general opinion that anti-Aungtallism was a symptom of an immoral character who should be shunned by popular culture. Many a capital council member had their career finished because of accusations of anti-Aungtallism. Still Ploabot understood the concerns of the people, and it had been Ploabot's job to represent those concerns without indulging the baser emotions of the situation that were inclined to disrespect the superior mediators between Uranian and god.

King Worapor appeared and the audience stood and obediently filled the chamber with a silence that dowsed all the chirping that filled the hall before the King's entrance. Then the Aungtalli Bishop appeared, and occupied a podium next to Ploabot's. Religious robes covered the Bishop along with a cap that covered his bald, and slightly larger than a regular Uranian's skull. The Aungtalli were the chosen ones of the gods who were entrusted the secrets of the energy and technology that the Ministry of Science had been reluctantly allowed to try to figure out. It had been an arrangement that gave the non-chosen ones a chance to catch up to the superior species of Uranians on the planet. The problem seemed to begin when Ministry of Science archaeologists uncovered ancient technology similar to Aungtalli technology, and it had been from a time before the beginning of recorded history. They were discovering Uranian civilization from even before the Aungtalli creation myths, which established the creation of the world by the gods of Ei. Even before this archaeological discovery, the average modern day Uranian regarded the gods as deceptive, and the myths were the stuff of children's stories that were designed to nurture virtue and obedience to authority. They were not lies because of the truths they illuminated, but they were also not true because, let's face it, that just couldn't have happened that way.

The King signaled for the audience to begin, and an announcer laid down the agenda for this event. With a nod from King Worapor to Ploabot, it became time for Ploabot to make the people's case. "I Ploabot, thank you good King Worapor

for allowing me to have this rapport

to plead in this hall, the case on the behalf

of the Ministry of Science we have

for the sake of science that changed the world.

From science civilization unfurled.

I have come here to ask this ear of you,

King Worapor, Bishop, audience too.

The Ministry of Science was shut down,

but they did no wrong, no foul play around.

We have Science to thank for all we know

since Kings of twenty thousand years ago.

Since then we've had great inventors as well,

Sonedi, Thybla, Housewesting, Vinkel,

and Dayfair with his car engine as well.

We've learned so much to arrive in this age

of learning from Science Ministry sage

that we can't shut it down during your thrown

with "gods said so" the only reason known.

What has the Ministry of Science done

except brighten each day under our Sun?

We just have too much to thank them all for

to close it down throwing them out the door.

I implore you to heed Uranian

before your assigned an infamous reign."

After Ploabot finished it became the Aungtalli Bishop's turn to offer the case for why shutting down the Ministry had been a necessary action. The Aungtalli dialect tended to be less regimented in structure than the language of the common Uranian.

"How dare you even dare to try

to question and to defy

the true Aungtalli decree,

close the Science Ministry.

We elite Aungtalli do indeed share

our wisdom of the gods because we care.

The gods have however, appointed me

to keep Uranians from blaspheme.

They gave you many things communications, the car,

but blasphemy the Ministry of Science wasn't far.

We, the Aungtalli heard an audible sound.

The gods told us to shut the Ministry down.

For an age we allowed you to look into the mystery

and it helped you all immensely throughout your history.

Now that must end, we've done the deed.

Close the Ministry as decreed.

Should Aungtalli/Uranian relations be through?

Uranians seem resentful after the gifts we gave you.

Remember we were chosen ones by the gods

to be different than you, we have different bods.

It was indeed the gods that created this schism.

We are the victims of anti-Aungtallism.

That is Aungtalli history it is true,

and that after all that we have shown you.

The job of the Ministry is obviously done,

so go home and enjoy what your history won.

All the comforts of modern life won't go away

just because of what blasphemous scientists say.

Now they are all gone, and there's peace another day.

Accept that the Ministry has now gone away.

Ploabot should have expected such a rebuttal, and the Bishop drawing the anti-Aungtallism card, but he became enraged by the Bishop's disregard of the rights of Uranians to pursue knowledge on their own. It seemed as if only Aungtalli were entitled to the luxury of knowing the secrets of nature. Ploabot made his rebuttal. "It should just be obvious to all here

that the Aungtalli keep power with fear

of wrath from the gods on some other side

while those deemed problems commit suicide.

It was just this morning, another one

of the self-inflicted deaths always done

of scientist once their success is won.

Like Dayfair, Wellmax, and Stonewheat had died,

today saw a scientist's suicide."

The Aungtalli Bishop became furious at the implication that his people had anything to do with any Ministry of Science deaths today or at any time in history. Ploabot had evidently over played his political hand, and had gone beyond the acceptable conduct of a counsel member. Ploabot became accused of playing the base bigotry that some Uranians had against the Aungtalli, who always could insist that they had long been persecuted throughout history just for being different. "Aungtalli priests do what we must to avoid blasphemy

like the kind Ploabot shows, a product of that Ministry.

Our secrets we Aungtalli generously did teach,

yet now anti-Aungtallism is in the speech."

That note seemed to turn the tide of the debate against Ploabot, and he became chirped into silence by the offended crowd in the audience who seemed suddenly reminded of the perils of blasphemy that they had been rigorously taught about in the Aungtalli churches. Ploabot even suddenly somehow offended the audience he had been there to defend. It was a paradox since nobody really believed in the gods who haven't been seen by regular Uranians in thousands of years and were the stuff of myth to begin with. Yet there were the Aungtalli who kept the secrets of technologies that were beyond even what Aungtalli were capable of inventing or understanding themselves. That had also probably become a reason they reluctantly allowed the Ministry of Science to exist in the first place. Ploabot left the Hall feeling defeated, but assured by an old saying that is said of making a case to the King. Even if there were no immediate response from the King, the spoken words still have entered the ear of the King to remain there an influence from then on. Ploabot just remembered the King scowling at him from the mention of the suicide until the whole thing got over. Ploabot became dismayed that the crowd he entered the Hall believing he defended seemed to just suddenly turn on him.

After the audience the King sat in his quarters to ponder the words said as required of all Kings that attend an audience from the people. It had been a drastic move to shut down the Ministry of Science, but the truth of the matter was that it wasn't really an unusual event. It had often been shut down at times throughout history and the history re-written over. The problem became that the more famous inventors were harder to erase from school textbooks and history, but they too had to be killed. King Worapor didn't exactly understand why himself, but it had something to do with scientists figuring out how to store and generate the sacred energy. King Worapor didn't understand the science of the energy, but the King knew what that energy had become to him and the three royal families of the planet who owned the economy of Urania with their control of how the energy was distributed and used by the regular Uranians. That understanding formed a mutual interest between the royal families and the Aungtalli, who for all their kooky mind-control obsessed rituals and beliefs, really did have direct contact with superior beings who provided all those Aungtalli technological wonders like the flying machines and teleportation devices. The Ministry of Science had been nowhere near figuring those Aungtalli achievements out. In this day and age Uranian technologies were just barely figuring out the computer and something similar to cell phone technologies that were made possible just recently by the smallest receiver technology ever devised by Ministry scientists. The scientists learned too much from the ruins of the ancient pre-history Kingdoms in the Southern Desert, which they had discovered. It would be the secret of how the energy can be harvested from the ground that threatened to shut the Aungtalli/royal family businesses down, and as King of the planet, Worapor could not allow that to happen.

Before the King came to his quarters the Aungtalli Bishop had took him aside while still furious from the audience. He wanted Ploabot killed because he had been close to the Hanson fellow who had become the administrative head of the entire Ministry of Science. The Bishop said Hanson had confided the forbidden secret to Ploabot and so he had to be eliminated. The King then reacted with a rare show of his authority over the Aungtalli and refused to allow any harm to come to Ploabot who , after all, had been a respected representative of the people. Ploabot would surly issue a formal apology by the end of the day for his improper speech. It could hardly be argued as a good reason to put someone to death. The Hanson fellow on the other hand, was dangerous, and the King understood why that outspoken scientist had to die. King Worapor figured he'd be hearing about another tragic suicide by a Ministry of Science member named Hanson soon.

* * *

Grega had tracked down an address for the research specialist named Eromot who had experimented on a perfectly normal sufferer of headaches who now had become a stark raving lunatic with an aversion to clothes. Now Eromot's patient sat in the prison facility at headquarters. Grega considered not letting Eistia know about it till tomorrow since the workday had become pretty much over and it got late. A full day's work on Urania would only be about 4 hours long since a day only lasts about seven Earth hours before the Sun has to set for about a 7 hour night. Uranians look speeded up to the Earth eye with more energy on a planet that exhibited a fraction of Earth's gravity. To the Earth eye, time seemed to flow faster on Urania as the beings there moved around and spoke as if speeded up. Already the Sun set for the day and Grega became tired of these extra long work days that were making it a late dinner and to bed right after that to do it all over again the next day. Still Eistia looked so beat up after the boss had chewed him out for continuing to investigate an Aungtalli closed "accident" that Grega decided that this new bit of information would cheer Eistia the Investigator right up. It did noticeably clear up Eistia's gloominess right away, and soon both investigators were on the way to Eromot's address on their way home for the day.

Eromot answered the door, and at first he seemed reluctant to talk about his work at the Ministry of Science, and had dismissed anything he did there as just ancient history at that point. Eromot lived alone and didn't seem interested in making a spectacle of himself to neighbors or others in general. He seemed reluctant to admit he ever had anything to do with the Ministry of Science for obvious reasons. When the crazy guy Morgamor had been mentioned however, Eromot began to open up with a noticed concern. All of a sudden Eromot wanted to meet with Morgamor, and seemed to want to continue his research on him. Eromot confessed to the investigators that after careful examination and experiment with the guy he concluded that the man had been tuned in to some frequency of energy that caused his headaches. Instead of trying to make this frequency go away, Eromot thought he would see if he could increase Morgamor's perception of the frequency. Eromot figured out a substance that would amplify the effects of this energy, which the guy picked up on, by adjusting his brain's serotonin level. He had the crazy guy ingest this substance to amplify the frequency and help the guy focus on what his brain picked up on. At first a precise adjustment of serotonin helped immensely with the headaches, which immediately stopped. The guy testified that he felt enlightened, but soon he developed symptoms of schizophrenia and he couldn't stop hearing voices.

When Eistia heard that the crazy guy heard voices he asked, "You mean he hears strange voices that then say

that they're the voice of Beataphoriah?"

"Yes that name you say is one that's correct

from that ancient devil worshiping sect," said Eromot to Eistia's question.

Meanwhile Beataphoriah, an immortal quanta-optic-nanocode being, continued stuck in a virtual reality loop. With what little freedom it had been able to exert on physical reality, during a single point in this loop routine, it had figured out over the millennia a way to reprogram a communications device one sub-atomic state of a quantum bit at a time. After thousands of Earth years of this, Beataphoriah began to try to focus the device on the brain activities of the population of intelligent Uranian life in general, which it hoped still existed out there. It had to get in contact with some intelligent brain out there somehow to establish communication so it could instruct them to release Beataphoriah from this virtual prison of an infinite program loop. As it turned out, so far over the thousands of years it had been trying this, Beataphoriah's communication attempt still only manages to drive occasional members of the Uranian species completely insane. For the time being Beataphoriah had been trapped, desperately broadcasting for help because it calculated that the star Tze-Doldus may be reaching a point of instability that could result in an explosion, which would be the ruin of absolutely everything.

Chapter 5: Aquari Departs Goag Ralus

At the galactic core of the past where the hub of mighty Magphoreus violently turns, and churns the matter, energy, and forces of the universe into powerful soup, that deadly soup ironically is the source of life in the galaxy. No life could exist this close to the galactic hub called Ralus Xnoga, the super-massive black hole. Ralus Xnoga faintly glowed silently in the only dark area of the sky, still content after his mighty feast in the first age of Magphoreus when the galaxy had been a quasar, and life had been photonic. That didn't mean Ralus Xnoga slept because nothing could be further from the truth. Ralus Xnoga sinks his gravitational claws deep into the mass of stars hundreds of times the size of the Earth star, and it spins them into orbits that are many millions of miles per hour. Ralus Xnoga produces gravity waves at the speed of light that shape the galactic arms. Gravity is often referred to as the virtual particle phenomenon, which defines the direction of the gravitational force also producing at times, (when virtual particles appear and disappear,) a sub-atomic particle known to Earthlings as dark matter. No life can exist in the environment of the galactic core, but life continually makes exceptions to every rule that nature establishes.

Within the galactic core of unbelievably large objects, stars, and all-powerful singularities existed the greatest exception to the rule of them all, Goag Ralus. Goag Ralus had been created a being of incomprehensible proportions who orbited Ralus Xnoga. Goag Ralus had Its own gravitational claws that held seven enormous stars in orbits around Its seven points. Goag Ralus had been evolved into existence by the fabled Eagolim who were ancient Nephapricans of the second age that migrated for over 100,000 Earth years to the galactic core. The Eagolim that came here are all gone now, but they created Goag Ralus the Star Constructor to be a place for life to exist and evolve in the uninhabitable core.

Since the creation of Goag Ralus over 4 billion Earth years ago, many species of beings have traveled here from all over Magphoreus. Goag Ralus became kind of an exclusive club for galactic beings because only a species that had undergone evolution to reach the status of galactic could possibly brave the technological feat of coming here at all. All were welcome on Goag Ralus for there would be no end of green fields and space because the mass of Goag Ralus consisted of a seven-pointed ring wider than four average solar systems. Within the ring Goag Ralus drinks in the deadly soup of the core to spit it out as nebula, pregnant with pre-programmed planets that would be created having elliptical orbits. This served as the other purpose of Goag Ralus who had been called the Star Constructor. The galactic inhabitants on Goag Ralus, who had long since proved their ability to travel the stars, seldom traveled very far from this oasis of life amidst the uninhabitable core. More existed to Goag Ralus alone than any species could explore in the course of an existence, and Goag Ralus had become so much more interesting than the vast distances of empty space out there. They lived and evolved on the surface of Goag Ralus who kept them all safe, lovingly protecting all life in a galactic core too violent to be anything but a wasteland of no life.

No terrestrial being could really fathom the depths of the layers and layers of alien civilizations who have colonized Goag Ralus in the last 4 billion or so Earth years. Goag Ralus measured five times the size of Earth's entire solar system. The ancient beings of the second galactic age had learned how to control the virtual particle phenomenon, and thus wielded control of the flow of this phenomenon of what the gravitational force actually is. When a species evolved to the point of controlling sub-atomic particles and quantum states, then computer processing became revolutionized by quantum bits that then infiltrated all aspects of reality. A species evolved to such a point could easily laugh off the idea that a planet required an escape velocity before anybody could leave and go into orbit. The Eagolim took these and many other technologies with them on the migration to the core. Quantum processing evolved into the Golimechoid who, for a time, served the Eagolim on their journey. After the Golimechoid revolted, the Eagolim found their way beyond the radiation border of the core by creating quantum programmed matter, which they evolved over thousands of years while they orbited the non-passable border of radiation that made the galactic core uninhabitable. The Eagolim solved that problem by creating Goag Ralus to live upon. The incredible size of Goag Ralus served the purpose of steadying the poles of Ralus Xnoga so that they pointed away from the ellipse of the galaxy where most life exists. There were no Eagolim on Goag Ralus today because inescapable radiation had flipped DNA switches in the Eagolim that did remain here, and evolved them into the Eigalli.

Deliadre was an Eigalli born and raised on Goag Ralus in this third age of Magphoreus today. She sat on the patio of the house and lab building that she inherited from her mother in order to build upon the research she also inherited. Her mother had been long dead however, today her mother walked out there on a solitary journey exploring Goag Ralus, brought back to life by a cosmic being named Aquari who wore the body of her mother like clothing. This didn't bother Deliadre at all because it happened to be the research she inherited from Nieniel her mother. She contacted her mother's old boyfriend Rayalial with her mind and told him to follow her mother to the teleportation station before she leaves. The Eigalli were telepathic, thanks to a second brain they had evolved giving them faster than the speed-of-light speech with other minds they might seek to contact almost regardless of distance. The second brain existed in a blunt round ended horn on Deliadre's head, which also projected a language of lights and shapes that the Eigalli were born knowing how to speak.

At that moment while Deliadre sat on the patio overlooking the city of miracles and virtual particle drive vehicles, which flew beneath the clouds like birds and insects chasing each other on a summer's day. It turned out to be a good day for her mother, Nieniel to go and explore. Of course there were no bad days on Goag Ralus, but no rains or harsh weather effects where scheduled to occur anywhere Nieniel planned to go today, except for the Silicone lands where never any good weather had been planned for that part of Goag Ralus. Deliadre enjoyed the view lit by the red star Haflaxo of over sixty blazing solar masses. While she watched her proud Eigalli city of birth named Occuitah, she telepathically accessed the famous Eigalli databanks that meticulously had recorded the history and knowledge of her kind all the way back to the Nephapricus of the 2nd age of Magphoreus. She chuckled as she read about the Eagolim who departed the still-evolving Goag Ralus over 12 million teks ago when they discovered how the core radiation evolved them into shorter beings with a horn on their heads. She chuckled because, at the time, the Eagolim had useless hair on their heads, which they were famously proud of. Therefore they fled the core on a return course back to Nephapricus to save their hair. Deliadre knew some Eagolim in the galaxy today, and they had long since evolved away their heads of hair anyway. Deliadre telepathically viewed memorabilia and history that reached back to when the Eagolim that stayed on the evolving Goag Ralus evolved a horn in exchange for hair, and along with it, telepathy and a more advanced ability to think and communicate. For millions of teks Goag Ralus orbited the edge of habitability as it grew in size and strength gathering an abundance of matter to quantum program from out of the dense molecular clouds in the area.

Many Eagolim finally abandoned the quest while Goag Ralus still evolved into final form. Many turned back to avoid evolving near the core. Deliadre telepathically dug further back into the Eigalli databanks before the creation of Goag Ralus, through name after name of significant Eagolim that carried the band of virtual particle fusion warp drive ships from one historic point of the journey to the next. Deliadri read about during the time that the journey had been commanded by Aaragni the Far Seeing. Deliadre dug through the data to seek some connection of Aaragni to the Golimechoid rebellion that would support her theory that the rebellion had been orchestrated intentionally. The connection became lost in the mysteries of a religion that had been adopted by the Eagolim in order to help them keep the faith required to stay united in the purpose of traveling to the black hole at the core of Magphoreus.

The Eagolim were served by the Golimechoid at that time, which were quantum programmed robots that evolved into an actual life form with male and female sexuality. This freed the Eagolim from more mundane terrestrial tasks in order to turn their concerns more toward the higher evolved interests of galactic beings, which to lesser-evolved beings must have looked a lot like the simple pursuit of pleasure. At the edge of the Norma arm of the galaxy the Golimechoid made a final revolt from being servants to Eagolim whims. Commander Aaragni got the Eagolim to finally depart the Norma arm for the final couple hundred light years of the journey. With a sizeable fleet of the Eagolim faithful that were still around in the dark molecular clouds that surrounded the core, it became finally revealed that the dual-sex Golimechoid life form could be replaced by an even deeper quantum program that would produce a single sex species of Golimechoid. Near the end of Aaragni's life of over 6000 Earth years he died after seeing the beginning of the evolution of Goag Ralus. With an abundance of energy and resources near the core, the Eagolim created a self-aware galactic object with enough power and mass to establish a stabilizing orbit around Ralus Xnoga for all time. Thus they fulfilled the original purpose of the quest to the core for a Nephapricus so far away that they would never return to it in a single lifetime.

The history Deliadre accessed had been over 13,504,823 teks in the past. A tek had been considered a year on Goag Ralus, marked by an aspect of Its orbit that took it deep into the molecular clouds near its place of birth every 311 or so Earth years. That had become what would be known as a tek. This part of the orbit of Goag Ralus through the molecular clouds marked the winter season of Goag Ralus. Deliadre skimmed through 450,160 generations of Eagolim as they evolved along with Goag Ralus to this day and age. Somewhere along that line of history the Doldorian religion that guided the journey became lost and its program disappeared and would eventually be forgotten. Deliadre observed evidence of missing data about that lost religion program. The son of Aaragni was Dalhad who established the first city on Goag Ralus called Sed, which was long gone and lost in this day and age. Dalhad begot Theydor who departed Goag Ralus with many Eagolim when it became understood how the core would change their DNA. After that departure of the Eagolim, Pado ruled Sed when Goag Ralus just started to evolve as an enormous proto-planet with a single star in orbit about It. Jada was the great great great grandson of Pado who established the kingdom of Greshnon where new virtual particle generators were evolved to capture another star and make a dual star Goag Ralus. Nephapricus dared to send them here to correct the unpredictability of these gamma ray blasts that have the power to exterminate all life on a planet. Only a galactic species with an appreciation for millions of years of history can be this determined to do something like that in response to the most remote of possibilities. The Nephapricans however, understood that if Ralus Xnoga shot these blasts into the ellipse of Magphoreus there would be planets in the path, and possibly precious civilizations. Goag Ralus became the solution to that problem.

Deliadre looked up to see the Sun Haflaxo starting to go behind the point of Goag Ralus to begin the dimming that became the closest thing to night in the well lit galactic core, which always glowed everywhere with a brilliant ambience. She had lost track of time while telepathically thumbing through the databank of recorded history, expecting to be hearing from Rayalial by now. He had been instructed to arrange a date with Nieniel for the sake of her research into the ego phantasm phenomenon that had been known to happen at times when Aquari animated the corpse of dead aliens. Deliadre hurried through the history files from 11,816,720 teks ago when Goag Ralus began star construction. Between 5 and 6 million teks ago the galactic bar began to thin thanks to Goag Ralus controlling the axle tilt of Ralus Xnoga. This began the age of the Fybrolus arm of the galaxy that Goag Ralus has been constructing to this day.

Deliadre decided to seek out Rayalial telepathically to see what held up his report. _"Rayalial, where are you? Have you discussed dinner with Nieniel yet?"_

A voice arrived in Deliadre's head, which only she could hear. _"Hi Deliadre. I'm at the teleportation station waiting for her to arrive."_

" _You were supposed to bump into her on the way there."_

" _I know. There was a set back on my way to that. I guess she noticed me following her, and well ..., she ditched me."_

Deliadre became worried. _"There is a good chance that Aquari is onto us. She will probably show up at the teleportation station anyway. Don't try to be discreet. Wait right there for her where she can find you. Remember you're trying to find her to ask her on a date so there's nothing unusual about that."_

" _I understand. I'll let you know when, where, and if I manage to get her to agree to this."_

Deliadre wondered if Rayalial would pull this off, and wondered what her mother ever saw in him. Then she thought he had been charming in a bumbling kind of way. Nieniel, her mother, had been Rayalial's lover right before she finally died, and Rayalial always looked grateful for the privilege. This had been all her mother's idea, and Nieniel had chosen Rayalial for this before she even died. Nieniel had been one of Aquari's closest friends on Goag Ralus and they shared many teks of meeting as friends whenever Aquari ventured to this area of the galaxy. Before Nieniel died she made Rayalial promise to assist in this experiment with her dead body and perhaps also her spirit. Deliadre had also been sworn to assist with this, and since Aquari first arrived she had been doing things to remind Nieniel's body of her life in order to invoke the ego phantasm (spirit?) phenomenon. This had long been a point of debate between Aquari and Nieniel her mother, and Deliadre had been well aquatinted with Aquari's opinion on the matter. Aquari claimed that this ego phantasm was nothing but a construct of the body's brain. Never the less Nieniel had arranged to have a hypnotic trigger planted in her mind before she died, which should cause the phenomenon to occur for the sake of obtaining more scientific data on this. On this point the inquisitive Eigalli do not take Aquari's opinion on the matter as fact, even though Aquari has been causing this phenomenon in millions of different alien species on millions of different planets for millions and millions of teks.

Teleportation had been invented as a short range time/space bending effect that began an offshoot technology discovered when the legendary 15 star-doors were simultaneously created in the original Nephaprican cluster of stars. The Eigalli excelled at duplicating the long lost technologies, and had established teleportation stations in many major locations throughout Goag Ralus. The stations provided teleportation platforms in a variety of sizes from large industrial stages to individual platforms for a single individual. Nieniel/Aquari thought she would come on down to the station and visit some friends in other locations on the enormous worlds upon worlds that made up the surface of Goag Ralus. Aquari wanted to visit silicon Coltorn friends and a reptile friend who probably would still be alive since his last visit. Nieniel thought she would start with a teleport to the Silicone colony of Revay under the star Klegon. The body of Nieniel needed a protective suit for the journey since the Coltorn breathed an ammonia atmosphere in that area of Goag Ralus, and Nieniel would be sure to also consider the temperature to be drastically low for her tastes. She received an environmental suit from the teleportation operator when she noticed that creepy Rayalial guy again following her. It wouldn't be easy to discreetly ditch him this time. Nieniel's memory informed Aquari that he had been an old boyfriend, and that they were very close and intimate. He probably wanted to get back together, which really didn't interest Aquari at all.

"Hi Nieniel, I mean Aquari." Rayalial spoke nervously as he nodded to the round glowing image of Aquari that still constantly hovered in front of Nieniel's telepathy horn. "I don't know if Nieniel's memories have told you or not, but I used to be Nieniel's boyfriend before she died."

"Her memories have informed me Rayalial, but Nieniel is no longer here, she's long since died, and ceased to exist."

"I understand that Nieniel, or Aquari, but I've been thinking since seeing her body alive again that it would be really nice to have dinner with her again for the sake of humoring my old memories. I thought I would at least try to ask you while there was this one brief chance to do this one more time."

Aquari pondered the mystery of mortal love for a moment. "Well ... I guess it wouldn't hurt to have dinner with you, but you have to keep your hands to yourself. You won't be getting any sex you know."

"Of course. Just a dinner between two old friends."

They said their goodbye and Nieniel began to slip into the environment suit. They would meet during the next daytime orbit of Haflaxo for dinner. Rayalial watched his old lover get on the individual teleportation platform with a suit covering her form from horn to toe. She smiled over at Rayalial who still watched, before a flash of light engulfed the platform and Nieniel became long gone with the flash. Teleportation technology had been actually a variation on the time/space bending wormhole technology created with the star-doors. You just move instantly from one location to the other, and it doesn't destroy you to re-assemble you like other theories about forms of this technology. This form of teleportation provided a portal between two points of space/time that you just physically pass through unharmed.

Rayalial smiled as he contacted Deliadre telepathically. _"It has been done. I'm to have dinner with Nieniel tomorrow."_

" _Excellent."_ replied Deliadre. _"The trap will be sprung."_

* * *

Nieniel/Aquari removed her head cover to breathe the fresh nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere after arriving at the Incaprican teleportation station. She had been in the freezing cold ammonia atmosphere lands for most of the day and Aquari experienced relief to be back to a temperature and atmosphere that this body would be more accustomed to. She still wanted to touch bases with an old reptilian friend living where Incaprican civilizations exist on Goag Ralus. There would be one more stop before her teleportation journey for the day could finally be over.

The Incaprican lands of Goag Ralus were warmer and drier than the lands of the Eigalli. The sky glowed reddish, and a completely different Sun named Solkas hung in the sky. Nieniel looked around at the architecture, which appeared distinctly reptilian with displays of very biomorphic shapes and styles. Mammal aliens seem more inclined to build things with geometric lines and shapes. None of Nieniel's memories were any help however, Aquari had been here before, but nothing anywhere looked very familiar. The reptile city named Zveeden had morphed and evolved like a living being, and Aquari had trouble finding her way. There were at least a couple species of reptiles that were inhabiting the reptile city of Zveeden. One species appeared raptor-like with long arms, and another Aquari noticed looked more human shaped, but with the reptile scales and distinctively piercing Incaprican eyes that intensely studied Nieniel as she walked by. It began to seem more and more to Nieniel/Aquari that she had taken a wrong turn. There were less reptiles walking the narrow streets, yet Nieniel had become sure she was being watched.

There had been crime on Goag Ralus like everywhere else, but less reason for such things existed. There have even been wars on Goag Ralus, but Goag Ralus will not tolerate it and will make the war stop. The beings who inhabit Goag Ralus are all very highly evolved, and advanced in technologies, yet with time and generations of no longer striving for far away stars, many civilizations revert back to less enlightened times. Aquari thought this showed most obvious in these Incaprican lands. There always had been a simplicity to reptilian technology and culture that left it never far from its primitive beginnings. Reptiles embellish the architecture with primitive art, which Earthlings might find reminiscent of the Mayan or Inca ruins of Central and South America. Aquari enjoyed the art show on the Incaprican architecture, which documented a history of their very ancient culture. As Nieniel/Aquari followed the art on the walls she realized she had wandered down a dead end. She turned around to get back on the main path, which then became blocked by two reptilian aliens.

Nieniel/Aquari tried on a friendly smile. "Hello Incaprican friends."

One of the reptiles lurched to the side to stop Nieniel from passing by. "What isss your bussssnessss here Eigalli woman?"

"Well, I'm here to see a very old friend. Have you heard of an ancient First Born named Svetat who, I think, used to live near here?"

"No Eigalli can be allowed to sssee Sssvetat!"

At that point both reptiles grabbed Nieniel, and began dragging her to a wheeled vehicle. As one slapped a scale-covered hand over her mouth it occurred to Aquari that she possessed telepathic abilities. Nieniel let out a loud psychic Eigalli scream. " _Heeeeeeeelp!_ "

Suddenly as the reptiles began to lift Nieniel up to put into the wheeled vehicle's back compartment they both just froze. Nieniel/Aquari struggled out of the grips of the frozen solid reptile captors who were now stiff as statues. They seemed to just have been stuck in that moment of time.

"Hello my old friend Aquari. Had I not heard your pssssionic sssscreem I might nave been too late." A virtual particle vehicle descended to the ground. Aquari saw the head of his old friend Svetat in the open window.
"Hello Svetat old friend. I was on my way to see you. How did you get here so fast?"

Svetat let out a reptilian laugh as he pointed at the image of Aquari still dangling in front of Nieniel's horn as it had been doing nonstop since Aquari first adapted the body. "I've been looking for you ssssince you arrived at the teleporta(sss)tion sssstation. An Eigalli with an Aquari hologram on her forehead issss going to attract atten(sss)tion in the landssss of Incapricansssss. Come, we will go to my place(sss.) I don't know why you like to inssssissst on walking. You ssssshould have arranged transssportation."

"I was just exploring to try to find your old location. I recall it wasn't far from here." Nieniel/Aquari looked over at the two reptiles frozen still in front of the vehicle.

"Kidssss thesssse daysssss." Svetat pointed with his eyes toward another virtual particle driven vehicle that arrived. "They will be brought to rehabilita(sss)tion by the authoritiesss. We mussst dissscusssss why they were after you. Come, we can go to my place(sss) and breath rompassss vaporsss."

They flew to the home of Svetat, which incidentally had not been anywhere near where Aquari looked since Svetat had long since moved. This did not pose any problem for Aquari because Aquari existed as a cosmic being that always had been accompanied by synchronicities, which happen as he stays in synch with the cosmic flow of time. In other words, Aquari had little comprehension of ever being lost. Aquari always showed up exactly where he needed to be when he needed to be there. Even visiting a friend not seen in over 100 Earth years was as easy as arriving at the teleportation station and going for a walk. This has baffled thousands of alien species that know, and have studied Aquari. Everything seems to always happen to Aquari for a pre-orchestrated reason.

Svetat had become a very old being indeed. He appeared different in species than any of the other reptiles living in these reptilian lands on Goag Ralus. Svetat had been a First Born reptile slightly larger than others in these lands. His torso pushed Nieniel close to the other side of the vehicle's seat just to make room for him. His stumpy fingers wrapped around two accelerator grips to direct the vehicle. Svetat had a collar of spike horns that circled his neck where his head perched upon broad shoulders. What really identified him as a First Born, other than his exaggerated size, would be his ancient eyes that reflected the piercing wisdom of millions of Earth years. Svetat used to be a traveler and adventurer who Aquari knew millions of Earth years ago in the Scuton-Crux arm of Magphoreus. He had learned of the existence of Goag Ralus from Aquari and actually spent thousands of Earth years of his life to arrive here over a million Earth years ago. Aquari imagined Svetat had probably come here to live out his last days. Not even Aquari knew how old Svetat actually had become, but his kind did not live much longer than a few million or so Earth years.

They settled down in a cozy apartment on pillow-like chairs with decorative rugs that were hanging everywhere to give the place an Arabian feel. Glowing rompass vapors were soon hanging luminously in the air as Nieniel/Aquari and Svetat each held a tube connected to a smoldering hookah. They both breathed in the relaxing vapors, exhaling them into the air where the smoke danced a hallucinogenic dance above them, which profoundly mimicked their conversation and thought patterns. It was psionically sensitive quanta-programmed smoke.

Svetat and Nieniel/Aquari Smoking Rompass

"Thosssse kidssss are young and ideological. They have taken issssue with the newsss of what the Eigalli intend to do with the old Dol star-door. They intend to sssstop the Eigalli from powering it up. They thought you were an Eigalli agent who wassss onto them."

"The Eigalli are three stars away. What do Incaprican youth intend to do to stop them from powering that star-door? I did diagnostics on it, and its in perfect working order."

"They don't want to sssee how the star-door will change everything. The Incapricansss are raisssed with a different view of the great Nephaprican ssstar-doorsss from the sssecond age of Magphoreusss. Don't underessstimate their clevernesssss, knowledge, and determinassssion. I mussst warn you that they intend to ssssabatage the ssstar-door by sssstealing esssssential componentsssss. It'ssss really a missssssplac(sss)ed fear of change and evolut(sss)ion. You musssst warn the Eigalli of thissss plot."

Nieniel/Aquari closed her eyes tightly with a determined look on her face. The lump-like horn on top of her head became tinged with a reddish glow, while the circle of light image of Aquari suddenly spun rapidly clockwise. "I just did warn them. Thanks Svetat old friend.

* * *

Begalius re-checked all the star-door diagnostics. It smiled at an image of the entire star-door on a view screen seen from outside. The Eigalli were able to restore the partially melted outer shell to its near original brilliance. It just rechecked everything before the big re-powering of the star-door once the Sun Haflaxo rose back above the Goag Ralus orbital spike horizon. Begalius had become a big fan of Nephaprican technology because it had been a product of that same technology. It marveled at the Nephaprican creation of a being so large that seven stars orbited it.

Although curious, inquisitive, and full of personality, Begalius had not been a natural being, but a being made out of something called quanta-nanocode. Begalius had been made essentially as a program created to manage all aspects of the star-door, which it became intricately linked with. It served the purpose of a flawless operator since even the great Nephapricans recognized the flaws of mortal beings, and their tendency to folly. Many nuclear reactor incidents here on Earth could be traced back to the lack of a quanta-nanocode being intimately integrated with the components of the reactor who would know exactly when and how much to flood an over-heating core with water. Begalius appeared like a hologram, but possessed control of the virtual particle exchanges that define the lines between matter and empty space. It's actually the phenomenon of virtual particle exchange that creates the illusion of solid objects in reality. If an object's virtual particle emissions were not telling your hand's virtual particle emissions to "back off" then your hand would simply pass through the object. Quanta-optic-nanocode holographic beings employed a similar virtual particle emission technology to produce the illusion of solidity. Therefore Begalius existed as a sentient hologram who could mimic being solid, which allowed it to flip switches and operate equipment. It knew this star-door because it was this star-door. It smiled with pride that the star-door appeared ready to go. Nothing could go wrong as far as it could see.

Begalius looked up from the controls after detecting a sound from behind. It embraced a probability that perhaps Goag Ralus had paid it a visit. It turned around only to be confronted by two lizard beings.

"Who are yo..." The sentence from the holographic mouth became cut short by a flash of lightening from a taser-like device in one of the reptile's hands. Begalius appeared to exist no more, and the star-door control center had now become empty for the two reptilian intruders.

"Firsssst we mussst turn everything off from here. Then we dessstroy the controlssss and they won't be able to turn them back on again. I've linked the quanta-nanocode loop program to an aux(sss)iliary power ssssource."

Just then there were extra lights on in the room, which became filled with Eigalli guards. There had been little time for resistance from the reptilian intruders. Deliadre and Goag Ralus both entered the room. Goag Ralus looked around the place. "I don't see Begalius anywhere."

Deliadre approached the reptiles, now securely apprehended by the authorities. "What have you done with the quanta-optic-nanocode being who was here?" Her horn glowed yellow, as she appeared to await an answer.

"Your Eigalli mind trickssss will not work on me."

The glow left the horn as her facial expression seemed to indicate the intruder to be right. One of the guards handed her the taser-like device. "He had this in his hand when we apprehended him. He may have shot Begalius with this."

Deliadre looked at the device while the Eigalli Goag Ralus avatar walked up and down the controls tracing the work Begalius had just done before its disappearance. Then Deliadre began picking up some kind of telepathic answer. " _It's it's it's ... B .. B .. B .. B .. B.. Beegallllllllllllius ... s .. s .. s .. sommmmmmmmme kind of innnnnnnnnnnnnnfinite loop prrrrrrrrrrrrrrogram._ "

"I hear a telepathic message! It's Begalius! They've transferred its quanta-nanocode into some kind of infinite loop program. Its trying to psionically send me its linguistic neural patterns. It says it's trapped in ... in an ... infinite loop program."

Goag returned to the place at the control panel where Begalius had just been standing before being shot. "They were going to turn everything off, which would also break an infinite loop program. They would have had to link the infinite loop program to an auxiliary power source not far from here." Goag noticed the auxiliary light blinking on a section of the controls and simply switched it off. Begalius suddenly blinked back into existence right next to the avatar of Goag Ralus.

"Thank you so much for the swift response to sabotage. I wasn't aware such security was needed here, or even in place."

"This is a rather unthinkable event," Deliadre explained to the quanta-nanocode being. "You can thank Aquari for the swift response. I received a telepathic message from the Incaprican lands under Solkas warning me of the sabotage attempt. I can't even send a telepathic message that far to thank her."

The Golimechoid construct in the form of an Eigalli man, which served as the local avatar for Goag Ralus said, "I can send a message that far to another part of me. I've just told Aquari that the sabotage has been stopped." The avatar approached the two reptiles that were beginning to be escorted out of the room. His chest expanded into their faces and his eyes blazed with a fearsome rage. "And for the likes of you! You have earned the anger of Goag Ralus, the very ground you have always stood upon! For you is the choice of rehabilitation or exile, and for your own sake I should hope your choice is rehabilitation!"

The young reptiles did indeed quake with fear as if in the presence of their own god and creator. This Goag Ralus avatar appeared in the form of an Eigalli, however the reptiles were only acquainted with Goag Ralus in his reptilian avatar form, yet they could still tell that the Eigalli avatar before them showed as the same great and terrible Goag Ralus. The weight of their espionage held their heads low as they were led off to incarceration, trials, and Eigalli justice. This would strain relations between Eigalli and Incaprican, which seemed to have always been the case anyway.

* * *

Later Deliadre had started up the old quanta-communication device to speak with her old Eagolim friend Beagud, son of Beagud, who had recently took charge of a nomadic branch of the Eagolim species way out there in the Orion arm of Magphoreus. There had always been about a ten second delay between saying something and hearing something with this device so an understood etiquette of waiting for the other to hear and respond was practiced. She watched the hologram of Beagud receive and respond to her last message. He stood a good four feet taller than her with a lighter blue skin color and a round human-like head that had no hair or horn on it. They had grown up together like this, always around 50,000 light years apart. They had always liked each other, and spoke intimately across a distance that neither could probably ever physically cross. Perhaps the impossibility of the idea only made their desire for each other worse.

"So the ego phantasm experiment is still on schedule? You know Aquari doesn't like those things happening. Are you sure you are not just going to upset the great Aquari with your relentless curiosity?"

"Aquari already suspects this attempt. I think he's just confident that it won't happen because mother has been dead for so long. Goag is in on this for its own curiosity too, and Goag and Aquari are good friends that go way back. I'm sure there are no really hurt feelings at stake." Deliadre's words disappeared into the void to eventually be heard by Beagud.

Beagud eventually replied. "So does the ego phantasm phenomenon prove your theory of life beyond death, or does it prove Aquari's opinion that it is a mechanical construct of the reanimated brain that can't exist in the same location as Aquari?"

"That will have to be determined by research on the evidence we gather from the experiment along with what the ego phantasm has to say when she appears."

Beagud became very interested in what would happen in the core of the galaxy when Nieniel and Rayalial had dinner later. They both said goodbye before disconnecting the quanta-communicator link, but they would definitely continue to stay in touch.

Beagud turned away from the quanta-communication device after saying goodbye to Deliadre his Eigalli friend in the core of the galaxy. He had always had a crush on her and both of them grew up sharing intimate secrets and details of each other's lives across the void with the ancient Nephaprican technology that allowed almost instantaneous communication across thousands of parsecs of space. He worked on an experiment of his own that he did not dare to even mention to Deliadre on a quanta-communication device.

Beagud turned on the photon examination equipment in the same control room he had just been talking to Deliadre in. This picked apart photons from different locations in space that were striped of their recorded data on their way through the photon examination equipment. He wondered about life after death even before Deliadre told him about the ego phantasm experiment. His own father had recently died to leave him the main commander of the Eagolim fleet, and he missed his father, wondering if some way existed to ask him for advice now. Yet he already knew what his father's advice would be. His father had already told him while alive to not go near the old Ti system. It had been forbidden, and he knew this since being a child, but his father who forbade it was now long gone and he had always wanted to disobey that order.

Even advanced galactic beings of the third age of Magphoreus still wondered about the mystery of what happened beyond life. Beagud had been well aquatinted with the life after death debate Aquari had with the Eigalli. It wasn't that Aquari said that no life existed after death. It's that he maintained that its ego-phantasm manifestation here had been something different from life after death. Aquari maintained that a ghost was just an artifact of intelligent life's brain that, by its nature, projected our dreams and imaginations upon reality. The subject had always been important because it linked to the secret of how to live longer than just a few thousand Earth years, like some reptile species that lived for millions of Earth years. As Eagolim prolonged life they ran against a barrier at the point when a being seemed to have reached fruition with living, and they longed for, and even seemed to need to die.

Beagud had now become in charge of his father's fleet and he might never have another chance to bring the fleet of fusion-warp virtual particle drive ships this close to the old planet Ti where the Eagolim had once stretched out a galactic empire, before they became galactic nomads. A mighty force, according to still existing databanks, destroyed the old planet Ti in a devastating collision. Unseen forces dispersed the empire and it remains a mystery to this day who this unseen enemy was. The Ti Empire had been all that had been left of an offshoot of Nephapricus left behind when the Gralga star-door became lost in a nova event, back in the second age of Magphoreus. All Beagud had ever been told was that this had become a forbidden sector of space. Even for highly evolved galactic beings, forbidding a child to do something only made the child want to do it more.

Beagud became nervous about his forbidden glimpse into the Ti system. Dead father or not, he could still hear his dad speak as he trained the photon collection unit on the forbidden star. "Go back! It is forbidden to return to this sector of space! You know not what you do!"

Beagud ignored his nagging conscience and began to examine the decoded photon data. It turned out the old planet Ti had not really been destroyed. It still existed in a slightly different orbit, and appeared smaller then the known size of the planet Ti. It looked as if something collided with Ti and destroyed it, sending it into a closer orbit with the central star. Beagud discovered that there were even asteroids orbiting in a belt where the old planet Ti used to orbit. Beagud became amazed by the data flooding in, mesmerized by images of Ti still robust with atmosphere, water, and no doubt life. Beagud didn't notice Trojan quanta-nanocode programs that were being switched on by this very data. The control room glittered with another electrical presence that flickered unnoticed in the glow of the buttons. Beagud continued his exploration into the forbidden. Gravity wave measurements detected the orbit of a large non-elliptical object that dipped into the area of the system's asteroid belt every 20 teks or so. That must have been what destroyed Ti, turning a great galactic civilization into nothing but abandoned ruins on long lost worlds. There another object orbited off the solar ellipse of the Ti system somewhere. He moved the photon collector carefully along the dark matter fingerprint of a non-elliptical orbit to eventually behold an enormous phosphorescent world with several rings and multi-colored atmosphere that glowed with its own light. It measured equal in mass and diameter to a small sized star except this was a planet. Beagud had seen gas giants this size before but this world appeared completely different, like a non-gas giant cross between a planet and a star, and what a peculiar orbit. What Beagud beheld looked more like technology then a natural object. It looked something like what Goag Ralus had been made of. Beagud marveled at the stream of photon data.

Then suddenly the records of the photon stream began erasing themselves. Beagud pulled his head away from the view and began pressing a control switch. The data continued to erase itself like falling dominoes all the way to the incoming stream where the photon collection unit suddenly turned itself off. Beagud stood up puzzled by what had just occurred, which preceded an old guilt that surfaced telling him that he had been a bad boy.

Then the quanta-communication device suddenly switched on with an incoming message, and the room filled with a large human shaped hologram of an alien being. Beagud shook with fear knowing full well that the being was only a harmless hologram. The being stood at a height larger than Beagud who had been almost 15 ft. tall himself. The being's skin showed a brownish orange instead of blue. The eyes had no pupils, but glowed with an angry reddish light. The being had what appeared to be hair along with a beard and moustache that looked white and seemed to flow off the face like vaporous clouds. The being had flowing robes for clothes that also seemed to emanate from the body like vaporous clouds. The being appeared to be noticeably angry as he looked down upon the frightened Beagud. "I always knew you would disobey your father as soon as you took over the fleet Beagud! Take heed of this merciful warning to stay away from your long gone planet Ti! Depart from this sector of space before your foolish actions bring death and destruction to your kind! There will not be another warning Beagud! Stay away from this forbidden place!"

The hologram disappeared without any wait for a reply. Beagud had never been more terrified in his life, which said a lot considering himself to be already nearly 3000 Earth years old. That strange looking being knew his name. _How did he know my name?! How did he know me?!?_ The data became erased. After some typing on controls it became apparent that there had always been Trojan quanta-nanocode programs in the equipment that would be triggered by photons from Ti. After examining the log of the quanta-communications device he discovered that the transmission originated at the giant star-sized planet that he had just discovered above the solar ellipse of the Ti system. The planet had an impossible mass that no life form could possibly exist on. The data didn't indicate it heralded from one of the planet's many moons, but from the surface of that giant planet itself. Beagud had been left with more questions than answers as he woke up every commander of every vessel in the fleet with instructions to alter course, and divert away from this area of space by 3 parsecs toward the Perseus arm in the opposite direction away from the Ti system.

At least a light year away, another alien being turned off his quanta-communications device confident that the rotten little brat raised by Beagud would not force him to make good on his threats. Beagud's father always feared this day, and had been instructed to leave the quanta-nanocode programs in place for the boys own good. He must learn the terms of the ancient truce made between the Eagolim and his kind, which had been established over fifteen thousand Earth years ago. Beagud's father made sure the fleet would be close by at the time of his death in order to tempt his son into learning this lesson early on in his tenure as fleet commander. The being thought back and recalled several other Eagolim commanders that needed the reminder to include as he recalled even Beagud's father. The big orange being did live on the surface of the star sized planet in an ethereal form unaffected by the gravity, which defied the planet's mass on the surface anyway with virtual particle technologies. Here these ethereal beings lived in cities where they seemed to fade in and out of physical existence.

This being had his own quanta-communication device because like the Eagolim, he too had been a descendant of the Nephapricans. It remained unaffected by the planet's incomprehensible mass because the whole planet had been programmed with quanta-nanocode, which gave it control over the virtual particle phenomenon just like the surface of Goag Ralus. These descendants of Nephapricans were called the Devasuras who were the participants in the great disappearance when seven of the stars that powered seven of the star-doors also disappeared to evidently be turned into giant proto-planets. That must have been what the Nephapricans did, using the secrets of the technologies that returned long ago with the Eagolim from the still-evolving Goag Ralus in the core.

The Devasura faded in and out of existence because they had learned to evolve outside of the dark matter. The virtual particle phenomenon in the universe provided much of the dark matter mass of this universe as it constantly faded in and out of existence. As virtual particles appeared and disappeared there would also be a sub-atomic particle produced that is known to Earth physicists as a WIMP (a Weakly Interactive Massive Particle.) It is these WIMPs that make up the phantom matter scaffolding that most of the matter in the universe has attached itself to. In this way dark matter and matter coexist and symbiotically support each other. The Devasuras flew these virtual particle driven super-sized proto-planets off of the phantom matter ellipse of the galaxy in order to evolve independent of the accumulation of these WIMPs. In this way the ancient Nephapricans evolved beyond being just galactic beings. They turned seven stars into planets and themselves into multi-dimensional beings that now live for billions of Earth years, and control their own mass like beings that have evolved their own mentally-controlled built-in virtual particle generators. The star-door technology had been expanded and integrated into controlling the Devaworlds, which they flew around the galaxy with built in virtual particle drives that could accelerate the planet through quanta-dimensional warp configurations to attain several times the speed of light. This had all evolved an ethereal reality for the Devasuras above the ellipse of Magphoreus however, within the elliptical plane of dark matter where the planet passed through, the Devasuras become extremely dense in mass and were virtually indestructible while the planet's orbit in the phantom matter plane slowed it down and its own mass condensed.

The Devasura sat on a bench by the quanta-communicator and photon collector similar to the ones on Beagud's ship. The light of their departure still shined a long way off but he would be watching.

* * *

Begalius anxiously awaited the final preparations of the star-door. Thousands of mostly Eigalli spectators were gathered near the massive 100 mile wide star-door mountain for the power-up event. It had been a festive and friendly gathering with little protest at all. Even protests that did show up were peaceful. Begalius sensed that even the Incaprican youth who were determined to sabotage the event had repented in fear of the wrath of Goag Ralus. Goag Ralus however, had always been peaceful and merciful and not swift to harsh judgment. Goag Ralus had become accustomed to reasonable and highly evolved tenants. The star-door would soon be turned on to open the core of the galaxy up to the Poa star-door in the Carina arm, the one star-door it could still obtain contact with where a Golimechoid galactic civilization now thrived in the outskirts of Magphoreus. Aquari would soon find out why the Tze-Doldus-2 star-door in the Orion arm could not be contacted, and he would probably also connect this star-door with that one. Then there were the disappeared star-doors that apparently still worked and functioned for whoever the disappeared Nephapricans evolved into. Begalius figured the disappeared star-doors must have had an atom or two added to the molecules that made up a quanta-optic-bit of memory. The quanta-optic-bit had been stored in quantum states for atoms that made up a quantum byte molecule, which could be used for a star-door's computer processing technology. Quanta-optic processing had been what the star-door technologies were based upon. Begalius shivered at the thought of the enormous task that recompiling the star-door programs to work with extra bits of byte data would be.

Begalius stood proudly next to the device that had the switch, which would at last turn the old Dol star-door back on. It had been so busy preparing the star-door that it still hadn't programmed an Eigalli holographic form for the occasion as planned. Begalius still looked like a bald Nephaprican, essentially identical to the modern day Eagolim. Deliadre had not been in the least disappointed in the Begalius appearance since she evidently has a thing for Eagolim men. Begalius spoke to the crowd. "Soon the lands of Goag Ralus will be blessed with the most famous and valuable of all ancient Nephaprican achievements with of course the exception being The Great Goag Ralus. The star-door was the fastest form of travel ever created. It began at the base of technological evolution, spreading the galactic wings of a terrestrial species that began with only crude fuel rockets, plasma rockets, solar sails, and nuclear engines. Then the power of resetting atomic states evolved to revolutionize everything from computer processing with quantum bits, to nuclear energy by introducing a science that cleaned up radioactive waste. Then there would be the moment when a species of intelligent life realized that certain elements used with gyroscopic energy fields can create virtual particle currents that run counter to the established virtual particle gravity currents. With that development, a galactic species is likely to abandon the old means of space travel for virtual particle drives. Eventually creating vast amounts of anti-matter wasn't so impossible and either antimatter engines or virtual particle fusion drives caught on. From there a galactic species could master faster than light warp drives that develop basically in two phases of evolution. Phase I drives begin the journey by accelerating space travel up to .65 times the speed of light. Then eventually Phase II drives would be made by the evolving beings, which use warp fusion strategies to attain as much as 1.02 times the speed of light. Then came Phase III at 2.009 times the speed of light in ships with carefully configured multi-dimensional aerodynamics.

It is however, on top of all that where the teleportation and wormhole technologies have dwarfed all those previous technological stages of galactic evolution. No other technology compares to a star-door's instantaneous travel through warping time/space, and the ancient Nephapricans were fortunate to have caught a glimpse of this, way before their time. This is accomplished however, on top of all those previous stages that were essential to attaining instantaneous space travel, which can and has been used to cross the length of inner Magphoreus from one galactic arm to another, all in an instant."

At that point the crowd began to cheer proudly for the technological achievements of galactic beings in the mighty Magphoreus. Begalius had more prepared words to say, but suddenly it became compelled to flip the switch right then to power up the old Dol star-door. The cheering crowed would not have heard him anyway over the cheers, colors and lights that were emanating from the Eigalli heads in the crowed along with loud psychic cheers that filled the head of even plugged ears. A hum began to build after the switch had been turned on. The crowd grew more silent as the hum grew louder. Above the mountain sized star-door complex the sky began to shift the light from side to side until it glowed with a fluttering aurora borealis that covered the star-door like a crown or divine halo. It appeared as a beautiful sight. A quanta-optic-nanocode being can't cry, but Begalius found itself at that moment wondering what crying was like.

The crowd applauded while Goag Ralus, Deliadre, and Nieniel/Aquari stood close to the front with Nieniel/Aquari still advertising the image of Aquari on her horn head. They all were performing the near universal activity of applause by slapping hands together. There had been a mood in the air that felt like a new threshold of evolution would be about to open before them, and be crossed by this resurrection of a very ancient technology. Everyone felt that soon the unfathomable distance between all life in the galaxy would be about to get even shorter.

Deliadre leaned over to Nieniel/Aquari as they were leaving the ceremony. "You probably should return to home and change your clothes for your date tonight."

Nieniel/Aquari rolled her eyes while letting off a telepathic groan. _"Oh yeah, the date."_

Deliadre laughed knowing she was not supposed to have heard that groan.

* * *

Rayalial escorted Nieniel through the entrance of the finger food restaurant where he decided to take his deceased girlfriend to. "...so it turns out Begalius had been trapped in a quanta-nanocode program of virtually an infinite loop. Begalius was still Begalius, but he couldn't do anything but loop until the program was stopped. It had been very clever technology."

Nieniel/Aquari already knew all this since Deliadre had told her, but she had been polite. "The old finger food restaurant. I have many memories of you and Nieniel coming here. I see why you want to relive the experience."

Rayalial nodded in response to the image of Aquari that still displayed above Nieniel's head in front of her horn, and then he smiled at her face. He held the chair while Nieniel sat. He had been a perfect gentleman all evening. Finger food had become one way Eigalli liked to enjoy the experience of eating. It definitely had been an alternative to washing dishes. Each table at a finger food restaurant would be equipped with indentations where the hands were placed. After placing the order the customer waited at the table with a hand on the plate mechanism. It didn't take long and soon nourishment would be introduced into the blood stream. Not only that but chemicals were introduced that went directly to the taste buds, which stimulated different flavors. Some customers insist on a plate mechanism for each hand, and even liked to mix different orders between the hands. At any time the hand could be removed and a taste just enjoyed as chemical stimulated taste buds to make the flavor linger in the mouth. It had become a clever high nano-tech idea that had caught on with the food-loving Eigalli. The technology came from ancient times in the past when long space journeys were nourished this way to manage provisions. Customers were advised not to live strictly on a finger food only diet since it could result in atrophy of the digestive organs and vital digestive enzymes. The process did also stimulate the stomach, and would inflate the organ to create a sensation of fullness, but there would be no food in the stomach.

They each place an order on the menus that were received from a Golimechoid waiter. They told the waiter what they wanted as only a formality said to enhance the eating experience since they also pressed buttons on the menus to place the order that were finalized by a 'place order' button. Finger food restaurants were all about creating a totally convincing and nourishing eating experience that would be completely virtual except for the quanta-nourishing programs that inserted nourishment and hormone-like chemicals to produce the sensations associated with the eating experience.

"I'll have the sneklee in the bopolomaiz sauce, with a side of ogna peal and a squilpom." Rayalial leaned over toward Nieniel as he said 'squilpom.' His expression seemed to indicate that Nieniel should try it. "And I'll wash that down with detentee."

Aquari went with something familiar to Nieniel. "I'll have the hesh steak with traldo on the side, and I guess I'll try the squilpom." She looked at Rayalial as she ordered it, and he smiled in approval. "I'll also drink the detentee."

Above their table were microscopic nano-cameras and data input devices that were monitoring the pre-orchestrated dinner date between Nieniel/Aquari and Rayalial. Others watched on the other side of one of the microscopic audio/video input devices that flew across the table between them. On the other side of the microscopic input device Deliadre's lab existed where she and the Eigalli avatar of Goag Ralus both gazed at the dinner on a video screen.

Deliadre said, "Rayalial doesn't have to be all obvious about the squilpom. The restaurant has instructions to feed her squilpom no matter what she orders. I think if it had come as a surprise it would increase the probability of triggering the hypno-stimulation of her ego synapses that exists in her lower-brain frontal lobe."

Goag Ralus patted Deliadre on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Rayalial is doing a fine job. Nieniel knew what she was doing when she set this up back when she still lived. She told me we only need Aquari to cooperate, which he has done so far."

At the dinner they both sat smiling at each other in silence. Finger food dinners were usually enjoyed in silence since it made eating all the more an introspective experience. Hologram images of the ordered food were succulently displayed on the table to slowly disappear with each bite, and for olfactory stimulation aromas were also emanating from the table. A group of young Eigalli in a far away booth were being the exception to the silence rule. Others in the restaurant could be heard giggling and talking about each virtual bite of food. Another couple were there like Nieniel and Rayalial, only they obviously found the dinner to be a much more mutually sensual experience.

The hesh steak stimulated Nieniel's gums with the sensation that she sank her teeth into a juicy side of perfectly marinated and cooked flesh of the hesh. She noticed she could move two fingers to the side and have a bite of traldo. Aquari mused this to be a pleasurable experience for himself while the Nieniel side of him began releasing old emotions from her times here with Rayalial. _He wasn't so bad after all,_ thought Aquari. At first Aquari feared this would be uncomfortable having dinner with a needy and clingy fellow desperate enough to date an old woman who had been dead for almost a third of a tek. Her eyes were fixed on Rayalial by an unseen impulse, as if unable to appreciate the delicious looking food holograms on the table. Rayalial smiled looking back at Nieniel while enjoying his own dinner. Old feelings in Nieniel seemed to come to life, setting off an old worry of Aquari's. "I'm remembering something that Nieniel had hidden from me in this memory. What's really going ..."

Just then the taste of squilpom filled the mouth of Nieniel. She removed her hand but the lingering taste of squilpom made her face contort as if about to vomit. "Rayalial! You must have known about this hypnotic suggestion activating a neural circuit in this body's deceased ego faculty."

Rayalial no longer smiled. "I did know of this Aquari. It was Nieniel herself who put me up to it before she died."

"All to settle an old argument we had way back then?!?" Aquari once again became reminded of the extremes that curious Eigalli will go to in order to obtain knowledge. It had been a reckless trait definitely inherited from Nephaprican ancestry. "I can't turn this off! The activated neural circuitry is causing this brain to project a phantasm on our objective experience."

Then the room became suddenly brighter with an extra illumination that both Rayalial and Aquari turned their heads toward at the same time. They both looked at the source of the new light that appeared in the room. The giggling from the far away table silenced into whispers as they also turned to see where that light came from. It started as what appeared to be luminous smoke that began to coagulate into the image of a much younger looking Nieniel. The ethereal see-through Nieniel spoke. "Hello Aquari. I'm sorry to have put you through all of this. Before you say anything I understand now how reckless this was."

Deliadre's eyes showed that she couldn't believe what she saw even though she knew what would happen. "It is mother. I have to go there and speak to her."

Goag Ralus began to stop her. "Your mother specified for you to observe this more objectively from here. Rayalial has a list of discussion points to record."

"I ... I have to speak to her again." It became an emotional need beyond science that she herself didn't even anticipate. Deliadre tried in vain to stop herself from this unscientific behavior.

Goag Ralus had an idea. "Can you telepathically contact her?" Deliadre immediately began to try, but only contacted the body of Nieniel inhabited by Aquari who told her, " _I knew you were going to do something like this Deliadre. The ego phantasm projected by a single brain is not the same as what your mother has become_."

Deliadre continued the telepathic conversation. " _So you concede that she has continued on after death after all._ "

Aquari thought in reply, " _I concede only the opposite. Your mother died a long time ago and ceased to exist. What has continued always has continued, has never really lived, and shall never die_."

The image on the laboratory video screen of Nieniel's ghost spoke up. "Are you in telepathic communication with my daughter Deliadre? Tell her hello for me Aquari."

At that Deliadre ran out of the room to get to the nearby finger food restaurant. She just had to get there before her mother finally disappeared, this time forever. By the time she arrived her mother's ghost still existed there in a brilliant display of light shaped just like her mother. The whole restaurant had taken an interest in this spectacle. Deliadre recognized her mother's old familiar body language that most beings didn't even realize they memorize. It was her mother. Aquari had Nieniel's actual body in a skeptical pose with arms crossed and an expression of exasperated tolerance for the whole scene. The experiment had gone on since Deliadre ran out of the lab, and Rayalial had been questioning the apparition.

The apparition answered. "I have been expanding into the all since my death. I realize what Aquari means when he says that I am not that."

Aquari/Nieniel interjected. "The ALL however, is an illusion caused by the phenomenon of duality that you mistakenly remain attached to. The disembodied phantasm must dismiss the all, and become the nothing beyond."

Deliadre approached the phantom Nieniel, "Mother? It's me Deliadre."

"Hello Deliadre. I'm glad you came here after all for a last goodbye."

"What is it like for you mother? What is on the other side?"

"I'm afraid my answer is that I still do not know. It was wrong for me to do this because it has caused me to linger without really going beyond."

Aquari interrupted. "Nieniel did go beyond a long time ago. You are a phantasm of my over excited brain."

"I still gotta disagree Aquari." It had been one of the many intense discussions Aquari used to travel impossible galactic distances in order to have with Nieniel, back when she still lived. Aquari caught himself enjoying the nostalgia.

The apparition eventually turned to say a final goodbye to her daughter. "Aquari makes a good point. I'm afraid we must agree even though it is conflicting, and even paradoxical perspectives that we both find ourselves defending. It's like a two-sided coin where each side can't endorse the existence of the other side because each lacks the ability to look in the direction of the other side."

"But what are you now mother?"

"I've become a sort of photonic being like Aquari. At least that seems to point toward an accurate answer. Existing is dream-like experiences separated by swoons of timeless nothing. I've come to vibrate faster than this universe, but I have willingly lingered here, and re-animating my dead brain's ego phantasm has slowed me down enough to appear before you from out of a swoon. When you've gathered all the data for this event I must request from you, my daughter who loved me, to please disintegrate my dead body. The phantom matter created by the body's virtual particle field is holding me in place here, and I must go beyond."

Deliadre then had a tearful goodbye with the apparition and promised she would disintegrate her corpse after all this. The apparition eventually could not stay, and explained that she had to return to her new vibration beyond the speed of light.

* * *

Eventually it came time for Aquari to say goodbye to Goag Ralus, and also all his friends from the galactic core. There a cremation unit had been readied to scatter the molecules of Nieniel's body after Aquari finally departed and removed that incessant image from Nieniel's psychic horn. Aquari remained adamant about the body being disintegrated this way. Deliadre perceived an exaggerated concern that Aquari had about this, considering that he continued to insist that the ego phantasm that they all spoke to had been nothing more than a brain's over-active imagination. Perhaps it remained beyond Deliadre to accept that who she was, her own ego itself, was nothing more than an illusion of an overactive imagination. All intelligent sentient life forms seem to have this problem.

Goag Ralus had been spending these last few moments with Nieniel before Its old friend left to visit the far away planet called Tze-Doldus-2. The star-door had been up and running these days although it still had not attempted to connect to any other star-door out there anywhere. The Eigalli were currently being cautious, and holding open debates of concern since the sabotage attempt. The star-doors were known to be associated with unexpected nova events in ancient times from their stars, and a Haflaxo nova would exterminate Eigalli civilization. Begalius defended its star-door as having the capability of actually preserving the Eigalli civilization in such an event. Goag Ralus had been able to quiet that debate down by pointing out that Haflaxo powered Goag Ralus, and that the star-door was not powered by the star, but by Goag Ralus, and so no star would be directly affected. On the other hand, the star-door had been utilized by the Eigalli to introduce new alien plants, foods, and animals into the environment from star-door teraforming programs along with its stored DNA databanks. This provided new and interesting foods that were becoming a selling point to skeptical Eigalli, who were apparently at least as easily influenced through the stomach as lesser-evolved Earthlings.

Nieniel/Aquari had been discussing the Tze-Doldus-2 mission with Goag Ralus on the way to Nieniel's next death. "The Tze-Doldus-2 aliens speak a language that is chirped and whistled really fast. They speak much faster than I'm able to duplicate with this body's vocal chords. As far as how the language existed 135 teks ago, I've become very fluent in how it was written and spoken. There is no telling how this language will have evolved when I get there, or if any part of it still exists at all. Letters are line and beat marks written on a system of stanza lines that show how to whistle and in what note and pitch." Nieniel/Aquari started to whistle a strange sounding chirping noise kind of like a bird. "I can't exactly do it justice with Nieniel's voice."

Deliadre stood at the disintegration device waiting for Goag and Nieniel so she could say goodbye. She became misty-eyed and emotional again like she had recently become while saying goodbye to the apparition. The Goag Ralus avatar had one more embrace with Its old friend once they arrived.

Deliadre also insisted on an embrace before Aquari let go of the body he inhabited. No doubt this would also be a final embrace for her mother whom she had realized that she still loved very dearly. Nieniel/Aquari then turned to Goag Ralus and assured It that the galaxy had been getting smaller all the time. Then Nieniel collapsed in a brilliant flash of light. The body of Nieniel fell to the floor lifeless with no more circle-of-light shows to broadcast from her blunt telepathic horn. The broadcast had changed to the actual form of Aquari who lit up the room. They all said goodbye again, and Aquari hung around a bit longer until witnessing the body of Nieniel finally dissolving under the rays of the disintegration beam. There would be nothing left to bury as she dissolved in a burst of quantum energy that dismantled her molecular structure, and shook off weakly interactive sub-atomic particles that evidently were strongly interactive with disembodied forms of life.

Then Aquari flew away from Goag Ralus and the galactic core. He chatted with Goag Ralus on radio frequencies on his way out of the core only to be interrupted by other Eigalli fans that were wishing him luck with radios and telepathy from the ground. At unimaginable speeds the fastest object in the known universe departed the only known oasis of life in the rapidly churning and crowded core of the galaxy. Aquari sped away toward the slower moving Norma arm beyond the baby Fybrolus arm of the galaxy. Aquari has over 42,000 light years to travel before the white dwarf star Tze-Doldus would even be visible. The journey would take over sixty Earth years at Aquari's incredible natural speed of about 707.2 times the speed of light.

Nearly sixty Earth years later, the star Tze-Doldus still smoldered in the skies of its habitable planet Tze-Doldus-2. Deep in the white dwarf star's fusion powered core suddenly an unexplainable appearance of massive amounts of neutrinos appears within the blazing plasmas near its core. The neutrinos, which could not remain in that place that they had suddenly appeared in, suddenly slingshot away from where they magically materialized to shoot out of the star's reddish surface in the direction of the planet Tze-Doldus-2. The consequence becomes a massive solar flare that tore away from the surface of Tze-Doldus to speed off into space toward the unsuspecting planet. As the solar flare once again set fire to upper-atmosphere vegetation, the lights of civilization across the single continent of Tze-Doldus-2 also suddenly all went dark in another unexplainable power outage. It took a few minutes before the lights of the planet's cities flickered back again to life, and the air would smell like smoke again for several days as they witnessed fires blazing in the skies above them. Some Uranians below who witnessed this were in fear that the end of the world was at hand.

Chapter 6: Eromot and Morgamor

Ploabot visited his friend Hanson soon after his failed audience with the King. He didn't need to tell Hanson the news, but felt he owed his friend an apology for the failure. "...and the audience I represented

suddenly toward me only resented.

I was chided off of my position.

It was the audience's decision.

So here I am after I realize

to you Hanson I must apologize."

Hanson embraced his friend. "Don't be too hard on yourself my friend.

Faith in King persuasion I don't pretend.

Hostility in that audience sound

says I should join the others underground."

Veldada, who had been listening to the two friends, entered from the other room, and interrupted their conversation. "I learned after from that scene you came back

anti-Ministry minions they did pack

into the audience so they did stack

the opinions from which you came back

defeated by words that to you did smack."

This was news to Ploabot and Hanson. Hanson inquired, "From where is the knowledge of what you say?

Exclusive public hearings in this day?"

Veldada explained. "Hanson, ever since this happened to you.

I've talked to those kids who smoke troopaloo,

when they get together after their schools

to share what they know calling us all fools.

They all sought to be at that audience

supporting Ploabot with their attendance,

but they were all refused from entering

for those with special passes presenting.

They say the Aungtalli gave out those keys

to Ministry haters so the King sees

no sympathy for Ploabot amongst these."

Hanging out with troopaloo smokers was news to Hanson. "You are not smoking troopaloo with them?

A future baby could suffer from chem.

effects from smoke, which now your blood has got.

Veldada please tell me that you are not.

Veldada confessed. "I tried it when to me they did pass it

while among them I was trying to fit.

It appeared to me to be quite benign

then what the smokers had known became mine."

Hanson said, "I don't think I like you hanging out there.

You say you did that because you do care.

But smoking could really hurt you to do

with kids that are smoking that troopaloo." Hanson could not be said to be a fan of the narcotic plant. Since his youth he differentiated himself from the less ambitious kids who seemed to just waste away their lives smoking that stuff.

It seemed the visit now turned into an argument about Veldada smoking troopaloo. Ploabot expressed gratitude to Veldada for the information and that he would look into the allegation. Stacking a public audience by issuing exclusive passes would be a criminal offense, and Ploabot took that seriously. At any rate he took comfort in Veldada's revelation because he did believe it could be true. It was in fact the truth that the Aungtalli Bishop had the audience stacked in order to chirp Ploabot into silence. Unfortunately Ploabot also believed he could really do nothing about efforts organized by the Aungtalli to keep the Ministry of Science closed with its members scattered abroad to be plagued by terminally unfortunate circumstances. Ploabot departed from the House of Hanson concerned for his stubborn friend who once headed the Ministry of Science, and now evidently went on to be defiant to the bitter end of ensuing misfortune.

Youth on Urania liked to get high by smoking troopaloo, a hallucinogenic substance very much like marijuana smoked by many on Earth. The plants were remarkably similar and this was no coincidence. Variations of cannabis sativa/indicia plants have been cultivated in various places throughout the galaxy over the ages. Galactic plants have been engineered by beings like the ancient Nephapricans to encourage the complex nutrients necessary for higher evolution and sentience. The higher evolution of life requires a wide variety of nutrition from all kinds of food sources. Very few animals ever have the pallet for such a diet, and have adapted to have very exclusive limited sources of food. Plants very similar to oranges and bananas could also be found on Urania. Apples were also a galactic fruit, but nothing like that existed in Urania's more tropical climate. Cannabis sativa plants, high in cannabinoids, contributed to this higher evolution by encouraging new more complicated neural networks to form, which over time and generations could develop to expand a cerebral cortex, resulting in much larger skulls. As the cannabinoids accumulated they blocked synaptic exchanges that might otherwise just fire directly in a straight impulsive manner. That complicated an animal's otherwise redundant patterns of behavior. Cannabinoids forced a detour in synaptic exchanges, which caused the thought process to digress and evolve more complex neural networks for a species. Ancestors of Uranians probably ate the troopaloo leaves over many ages in the beginning of life's evolution as the planet began recovering from its destruction by the event of the Tze nova.

Back at the House of Hanson the heated conversation continued, and evolved beyond the troopaloo debate. Veldada had learned a lot while hanging out with the crowd of rebellious kids that hung together after Uranian schools let out, smoked troopaloo, and complained about the establishment. Veldada became concerned about what might happen to her husband, and knew as well as anybody that he might be the next ex-Ministry scientist to end up dead by an 'unfortunate accident.' The argument heated after Hanson suggested that if anything happened to him that she should move on, and he suggested that Ploabot would always be at least a good friend. Veldada wasn't ready to hear anything of that. The fact had been that Veldada wasn't really married to Hanson. They had agreed to live together for years now, but on Urania the idea of marriage binding two people together could only be formalized by the birth of a child. When a female Uranian had a child she became automatically married to the father with legal obligations to be worked out. Although it had not happened yet, and they were frequently trying, Veldada very much wanted to have Hanson's child.

Veldada gave much credibility to the criticisms of anti-establishment kids, and like Hanson, had very little love for the Aungtalli class. Veldada already had a low opinion of Aungtalli because she believed that they encouraged young women to give up their fertilized eggs so they could destroy most of them. She learned from those kids that the miscarriage rate had been grossly played down at 19.5%, but was really over 70%. She believed the Aungtalli wanted to overcome the population of regular Uranians by control of egg nurseries all over the planet.

Hanson didn't discourage Veldada's opinions. They both had their reasons to oppose Aungtalli meddling in regular Uranian affairs, and she preached to the choir about the miscarriage ratio. He actually already knew the rate to be above 70% from more reliable sources, but he didn't think telling Veldada about that to be a good idea. She had become a crusader like him, which could be said to be a big reason he first fell in love with her. Neither had the will to really try to pull the other away from their cause. Uranians had a very noble heroic activist streak by nature. Devasura influence has tried to curb this characteristic by simplifying the language and vocabulary, but Uranians just seem to become more eloquent in expressing high ideals as a result.

Hanson told her, "Miscarriage rates do seem notorious

but we can't change that, and its not for us.

Change what you can change, which is in your womb.

The child we will have could just be their doom."

Veldada found herself enticed by the direction she saw the conversation taking. "With you I could have a child on this day.

Neweet was in eclipse as they all say.

My egg is now ready for you to play.

You could now have me your favorite way."

Hanson responded to her hint with an embrace that led almost immediately to pecking on the shoulder, leading around her neck till he began to position himself around behind her. Pecking lightly, and biting the back is a show of intimacy for Uranians, and it usually leads to a doggy-style sexual position popular with the Uranian species. Hanson's pecking quickly led to the bedroom. There really was no kissing amongst Uranians, which may be harder with beak-like buck-toothed teeth that were barely covered by thin lips. Light pecking is a show of intimacy that Uranian women actually found very stimulating. Hard pecking would be really seldom used except for some kinky exceptions.

Incidentally Neweet in the comment above had been the Uranian name for the gas-giant planet Tze-Doldus-1, which in this miniature white dwarf star system hung in the sky, appearing a bit bigger than Earth's moon in our sky. Menstrual cycles of Uranian women had become synchronized to an aspect of the orbits of Neweet and Urania, which brought Neweet into a three day astronomical eclipse with the sun from Urania's vantage point. The days were only slightly dimmed by this event since the star Tze-Doldus had been much larger than Neweet in the sky, but for 3 days a black circle slowly traversed the belly of the star. During this 3-day eclipse Uranian women with eggs became very fertile and were ready for males to fertilize them so they could be laid by the mother who then cared for them till they hatched. Either mothers could have their own babies, or they could drop these fertilized eggs off at available nurseries where they would be cared for and raised as wards of the state with no questions asked. This could also be used as a way of stopping a marriage contract if the woman didn't want to marry someone who impregnated her. The 3-day eclipse period of extra fertility signaled by the Neweet eclipse happened every 23 Uranian days.

The House of Hanson became bathed in the solemn silence of sexual intimacy for a time. Afterwards they both laid together in bed, Hanson still embraced Veldada from behind while breathing deeply with eyes closed as if asleep. Veldada clung to Hanson's arm with her eyes open, watching the day dim through the window. The love making felt good, and she really felt like this fertilization would take. She loved Hanson, and didn't want to lose him, but she wouldn't try to stop him from fighting for what he believed in. She fantasized about having a child who would accomplish that for her. A child would change everything, and they could run off to a far away land and live. Just live. Veldada felt constantly frustrated by male Uranian-kind with their constant obsessions over pointless ambitions. She wondered why they all couldn't just relax and accept the world and reality as just fine the way it was, and already ideal.

The House of Hanson remained silent as the night began to blanket the city. Then Hanson and Veldada were both startled from the onset of slumber by a visitor's knock on the door. The visitor turned out to be Eromot who had been told to come to the House of Hanson when he finally got ready to go underground. A lot of defunct scientists had setup a lab in the distant city of Gulfang. There they were back-engineering the most amazing artifacts that they uncovered from the ancient ruins in the Southern Desert. Eromot had become anxious to join them, but had remained behind so he could find Morgamor his run amok crazy research subject. Now he had found Morgamor, and planned on having him released from the mental facility to his custody. Hanson had remained behind to be the one who mediated for the underground scientists with government concerns in Keshdesh, and other scientists who sought refuge from assassins. He had been made to be the only one who could tell Eromot where in Gulfang he could find his other underground Ministry scientist friends. Hanson got up from bed to answer the door. He let his old friend Eromot into the House of Hanson.

Eromot knew he arrived kind of late. "I'm sorry for the too late intrusion.

I wanted darkness for some illusion.

If my apology sounds too hollow

let me remind you of those who follow."

Hanson said, "No apology is needed old friend.

Though it appears dark here it's not day's end.

Please come on in and please feel free to stay

all night if you want to leave the next day."

Eromot said, "Thank you lord Hanson for entrance to here.

It's to the Gulfang underground I steer.

The location you know I need from you.

I found him, my research can continue.

Morgamor is still crazy. Help he needs.

I now can study transmissions he reads."

Hanson felt more than happy to help his friend Eromot. They discussed Morgamor's condition. He seemed to be interpreting messages that were being broadcast into his mind, but the messages were more complex and in some different dialect of the language. Morgamor liked to speak outside of the stanzas, and to a haphazard beat, but some of what he said turned out to still be understandable. Eventually Eromot thought it to be time to leave, and Hanson whispered the address of the Underground Ministry of Science into Eromot's ear till he memorized it along with some directions. Hanson would contact them and they would be waiting at the memorized location.

As Eromot walked away from the House of Hanson to go home and pack for his escape journey the next day, another figure lurked next to the House of Hanson, and began to follow Eromot home. The figure had a large bald skull that identified him as an Aungtalli. The shadowy figure temporarily became revealed by some passing ambience to be Volock the Aungtalli agent of the Bishop. He had been on Eromot's tail for some time. He knew Hanson told him where to find the other scientists in hiding. He knew that Eromot planned on taking custody of Morgamor tomorrow. This would lead Volock to the others somewhere outside of Keshdesh. Volock knew all he had to do would be to remain silently on Eromot's tail, and then he would be led to all the scientists on his list of those to be killed.

* * *

Aside from another species who operated virtual particle drive saucers that flew through the sky, most of Urania existed at a tech level similar to Earth circa 1978. Computer processing was just beginning to become practical, and phones were starting to get smaller. Incidentally phones were always wireless thanks to the mysterious energy provided by the superior species called the Aungtalli, and the receiver technology that had been invented hundreds of Earth years before by Uranian scientists. Lots of apparatuses used the wireless energy receiver technology, but there were also electric grids distributing the energy along wire lines from a central Aungtalli energy plant in the Lands of the Swerites to the east of Keshdesh, the capital of the planet.

The economy of Urania might appear to an Earthling as kind of a communist dictatorship where everyone had been given so much worth based on class, status, and accomplishment. No form of physical currency actually existed on Urania. All citizens had to produce ID, which would be charged to accounts that were tracked by the government. People received statements routinely that reported a citizen's correct worth. The wealth of the planet had long been controlled by the three royal families who jointly owned the entire planet by virtue of an ancient history of hostilities from which the three families had emerged in a mutual truce that established long ago the current monarchy of kings. Alternating nominations from the 3 families succeeded the Kings, which added an element of randomness to the government that had otherwise been determined by bloodlines. The full faith and trust of the central government reimbursed the ID receipts from the planet's various businesses, and adjusted a business's value accordingly. In this way the royal families controlled all worth and civilization, while the Aungtalli were worked into the picture as controllers of divine technologies, keepers of the truth, distributors of the sacred energy, and overseers of the masses. The admirable thing about such a system is that it only works if everybody's value can be determined with fairness that left nobody neglected.

Of course this system of economy could be said to not be perfect, and value fraud crimes were rampant, with varying degrees of seriousness. For the most part citizens were law abiding and enjoyed a generous amount of worth for little or no effort. Royalty understood the mutual benefits of a thriving middle class for all who worked hard. A world of people enjoying their middle class lives tended to have little use for revolution and defying the monarchy. To a large extent, the Aungtalli religion reimbursed loyalty to the monarchy as a necessary virtue, which held Uranian society intact like glue. Nobody on the planet could be said to be worthless in Urania society. Most were worthy of a base value unless they had ran themselves into some terrible debt, which also happened a lot, punishable by industrial prison time of hard labor till the debt could be made up. There was also very good counseling and therapy available for those who had trouble controlling their own worth. For those beyond simple budget failures, who used the system fraudulently, there were also those in law enforcement who were prepared to prosecute those crimes. This is one of their stories.

Eistia the Investigator had been undercover the next morning at a wiffsue house where early morning workers stopped for a hot cup of wiffsue to start the day off. Eistia had been notified of a value fraud case who had been coming in lately to this place using a forged ID of a long since deceased Uranian of some established wealth. The family of the deceased saw this discrepancy in their inheritance worth statements, which had been supplemented by the inherited worth of the deceased Uranian's estate. The fact that value crime could be caught at the level of perpetration of a purchase of a cup of wiffsue every morning gave credit to law enforcement efficiency on Urania. A Uranian entered the wiffsue house and approached Eistia's table. Grega then sat down greeting his partner. "A cup of wiffsue. I'll now go get mine.

No sign of the culprit who'll get a fine?"

Eistia took that to be a dig at the petty nature of the crime they were undercover waiting to bust. "The thing about crimes worth only a fine

is that stopping them is your job and mine.

They're also committed by criminals

or the desperation from when one falls."

Just then the cashier at the counter signaled to Eistia that the guy they looked for had come in for his cup of wiffsue. The guy, as he walked in, noticed the signal and suddenly turned around running. "Maybe it's not so petty as you say,

if the culprit when caught just runs away."

Both Eistia and Grega got up and began pursuit of the culprit. They both paid no attention to Eistia's cup of wiffsue that tipped over as they both rocked the table getting up. Wiffsue flooded the tabletop and began dripping its purple-brown liquid on the floor. Outside the plaza became relatively empty as the three running bird-like men that were wearing kilts ran out into the quiet morning. Two of the running figures were Grega and Eistia about a half a block behind the middle-aged suspect that now headed to the road where morning traffic scuttled along. Grega started to kick it out ahead of the slightly older, more exhausted Eistia while the culprit knocked into a passerby that caused groceries to spill across the plaza. Grega just hopped over some groceries with his tail swinging in time to his legs. He ignored the annoyed passerby who began loudly picking her groceries back up. Grega became determined to end this chase before the culprit reached the traffic up ahead. Grega, clearly the better runner of the law enforcement team, had been a Uranian track star in his younger school years. The value fraud criminal had been tackled by Grega just before the culprit had a chance to weave through the traffic of electric cars. Eistia became relieved to be able to use that as an excuse to stop running in time to help the poor woman pick up her spilt groceries.

Eistia and Grega both returned with the criminal they apprehended in possession of forged ID way beyond the worth of most ordinary Uranians. They now had forgery on the guy as something else they would charge him with, a bigger crime than just falsely purchasing a cup of wiffsue, not to mention resisting arrest and careless assault on a passerby who back there vowed to stop by and file a report. The other investigators at the station cheered Eistia and Grega as they brought in their Uranian. No true ID had been found on the modestly dressed middle age Uranian man except for the obvious forgery. Grega promised the guy, who remained silent, that they would find out who he was. Grega carted him off for fingerprinting and to the jail. Eistia went to file the forged ID in his case files for further investigation. Then Eistia noticed the note in his desk drawer that he had found on Nickteslo's dead body, who had been the Ministry scientist that "accidentally" crashed his car off the Keshdesh River Bridge.

Eistia took out the note to take a closer look at it. He had just tossed it in his evidence file after the boss chewed him out for just doing his job. The case was closed, but the note looked like an interesting piece of evidence. Eistia unfolded the papers in the envelope and laid them on his desk. It revealed a map of the whole continent of Urania, which had been overlaid with complicated diagrams and schematics. There were lines that circulated all across the map along the southern landmass where the lines then turned around converging back together on the northern part of the continent near the great Ice Mountain at the North Pole. The other piece of paper consisted of diagrams with instructions that showed how to adjust the voltage of an energy release by moving two poles buried 20 klepts in the ground closer together or farther apart. The instructions were about burying a pole of blue metal and another pole of coaglium in the ground at an angle 45 degrees toward the magnetic North Pole, which then would evidently draw energy out of the ground. Eistia thought about trying this sometime. Then the boss came over to congratulate him on a good bust that morning.

"Congratulations Investigator

I'm over here to congratulate ya.

That was a good bust, good detective work.

Maybe I won't demote you to a clerk."

Eistia put his hand out to shake the boss's hand; also a gesture their culture had in common with Earth. The Commander looked over at the papers on the desk. "Isn't that the case I told you to close?

You don't need to figure where that clue goes."

Hanson responded. "Sir, I just thought that this was curious.

It's not evidence I take serious.

These were found on the victim from Hanson.

I was having a look at them for fun."

The Commander looked over the letters, which reminded him of something else. "Hanson! That reminds me I do not jest.

The government asked us for his arrest.

Since you are so interested in this

the wrath of Aungtalli you seem to miss,

the arrest shall be yours listen I say.

Hanson in jail by the end of the day."

* * *

Eromot arrived at the Mental Health facility that morning in his car. He had become all packed with all his essential belongings to embark on a long journey to Gulfang that day. He looked forward to joining up with his colleagues there. Eromot just needed to pick up his research subject to take with him on the way. His research had been on an unstable fellow named Morgamor, whose head became full of messages that were received from some unknown entity somewhere beyond. Poor Morgamor would slip from lucid to incoherent and back again throughout the course of the conversation. Eromot discovered that if he introduced a chemical used in receiver technology into Morgamor's blood stream along with a serotonin adjuster then it caused him to better focus on what he received in his head. Morgamor received a complex dialect of the same language encompassing a greater note range, which Eromot calculated to be 16 stanzas instead of the 4 used in the modern Uranian language. So notes in this strange language included an additional minor and major scale.

Eromot examined his vehicle as he turned it off. He noted that the quadleate fluid had become low. Quadleate had been what Uranians used for coolant in vehicles, air conditioning systems, and refrigerators. Urania was a tropical planet where temperatures often reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit with a high humidity that causes mostly nighttime rains. Among the clever evolutionary adaptations to these high temperatures was the quadleate plant. The plant manufactured one chemical from the roots and another from the leaves, which mingled at the stem to generate freezing temperatures that caused the stem of the plant to often be surrounded with ice. That natural cooling system provided the plant an inexhaustible supply of water to the roots. Uranians worked massive farms of quadleate, which they refined into fluids used for air conditioning. There were many natural wonders like this on Urania that were as natural as evolution can be on a miniature teraformed planet kept alive by an ancient Nephaprican star-door. The coldest Urania had been known to get could be said to be an average of around 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the sometimes frosty north and south poles. Most of Urania had been lush with life, with the exception of a desert in the south where the soil became spoiled to this day, and would not grow much of anything. That had been where the Ministry of Science archaeologists dug up remains of a highly advanced civilization that preceded all recorded history. Eromot recalled that had been when all the trouble started.

As Eromot left his vehicle on the way to the Health Facility building he passed some kids smoking troopaloo. It wasn't an illegal practice, but Eromot disagreed with it, as he figured the kids were just throwing their lives away. One of the kids seemed to recognize him. "You're Eromot of Science Ministry,

your picture was displayed where we did see."

Eromot didn't want this conversation. "Those associations are history.

I've nothing to do with the Ministry."

While Eromot responded the kid withdrew his beak-like teeth to wrap his lips around a troopaloo pipe. He evidently believed Eromot, and quickly blew out his smoke in a huff at Eromot before disapproving. "Not everyone does give up on science.

Some of us see our culture's reliance.

I got to disagree with what you say.

We'll avenge the Ministry while you play."

Eromot turned away from the disagreeable smoke in his face, and just kept walking away not wanting to argue. He had been told off, and morally scolded by a troopaloo smoking kid. His shame had only been comforted by the fact that he only lied in order to keep his loyalty to the resistance a secret. The kids these days seemed so well informed and determined to champion the future. If only grown-ups could treat the future with a similar seriousness. He didn't recall being so well informed when he had been a young kid, or even wanting to be so informed.

Inside the facility a worker escorted Eromot to Morgamor's room. The paperwork was all in order, and Eromot had been designated as the official doctor in Morgamor's case. Morgamor would soon be released to Eromot's custody and they would be on their way together to Gulfang. When Eromot entered his room, Morgamor had been properly dressed and sitting on the bed. The room looked like a depressingly empty place. "Hello Morgamor now dressed all formal.

You leave with me to get back to normal.

I'm not sure what you think as assumption,

but sorry for your treatment's disruption."

Morgamor looked up at his long lost doctor. "Through a wasteland of mind's insanity

was my plight after the calamity.

I was carried away by the voice

left deluded and naked with no choice.

Since then your serum has all but worn off

giving me this head ache feeling more rough."

Morgamor lowered his head in his hands, and rubbed his cranium to dramatically advertise his pain. Eromot reached into his pocket to produce a syringe. "I brought the serum for head ache easing,

but the side effects are not that pleasing."

Morgamor became desperate for relief. "Of that I can deal, with you here by me.

I'll face the madness with lucidity"

Eromot rolled up the sleeve of his patient's arm to administer what proved to be a cure for the headaches, but Eromot felt some guilt at his scientific selfishness that kept him from actually curing his patient with something that produced less side effects. Eromot had in fact studied the side effects. Morgamor had become a medium for some kind of entity that had been trying to contact the Uranian race. Eromot thought that perhaps this could be a message being broadcast by some aliens somewhere out there in outer space. That interested Eromot more than curing his patient's migraine headaches. As he administered the serum he thought about getting Morgamor out of the facility quickly before the side effects started to show. It was already too late. Within seconds, Morgamor's eyes glazed and his mouth started to jibber-jabber. "Watch!

The worlds of chaos are

exploding. Hear the sound of a

billion languages filling the air.

This feast gorges my gut more than

I can hold in one little body,

or see with one perception,

or feel completely in one touch,

one little moment of eternity.

I shout! And now I'm dead."

Eromot remembered his tape recorder too late and only recorded some of what Morgamor just said. Thinking about the words, he could almost understand most of what had been said, but it jumped up and down outside the accepted scale, and he found it disturbingly out of rhyme, as well as constantly altering the meter. Morgamor had become like a newly born child unable to yet speak the basic language. Eromot started to hurry Morgamor out to the car. It turned out to not be as hard as he feared. Nobody turned out to be there to confront him on the way out the door except for an obnoxious kid. Eromot figured Aungtalli assassins must have not been paying much attention to him after all. Morgamor continued to ramble incoherently as Eromot escorted him down the hall and out the door. "Experience is energy.

Energy is not reality.

Reality is dead.

Light is on fire and it's alive."

Eromot was getting close to the car. "Just a little bit further Morgamor

and then I will have you in the car door."

The troopaloo smokers just watched the scene, evidently finding the spectacle downright hallucinogenic. Morgamor just could not be quiet since the rush of serum reached his veins. He continued as Eromot pushed him into the only door on the vehicle.

"I love a mind with a mind of its own.

Fill your life with experience

and contemplate in the silence

and in lonely places.

These are the moments, which ring into eternity

to be heard by later lives,

echoes of the heart

live in awareness,

and die alone."

Eromot thought some of what he said made sense. His recording device continued to listen to Morgamor as they drove down the road together. Morgamor struggled to attain coherence.

"Sacrifice this drug.

Kill it,

and watch it kill you,

and when you're dead

live again and die again.

There is something in the process

that's trying to tell you something.

Give it your attention and you'll discover bliss.

Give it a mouth and it will speak genius."

The white dwarf star with its bright silhouette muted by a veil of misty greenish clouds above the rolling hills of wild vegetation displayed the black circle of Neweet, eclipsing the sun near the center of the bright circle of light that filled a third of the sky. As the drive continued down a highway that cut into that green landscape, Morgamor had a period of coherence. "I know science is your own true mission.

I'll give you good data as I listen.

In silence I'm able to understand,

and give you the real message as you planned.

I say this with seriousness not play.

This message is from Beataphoriah.

He was the one who created our world,

our very species as all this unfurled.

He was keeper of the door of the gods.

The gods saw what he did not with applause.

Beataphoriah was sent to prison.

Keep us ignorant was the decision.

The keeper of the door was called evil,

but the gods plan to bring great upheaval.

The solution is what I have to say.

Free Beataphoriah, please find a way.

Beneath the mountain at the northern pole

we can free him from his virtual hole."

Then the properly spoken message passed into more incoherent rambling as Morgamor appeared to lose focus. "Who made who?

I or you?

Do or die?

Truth or lie?"

Eromot could tell poor Morgamor lost it again, but still that last simple paragraph wasn't grammatically beyond his understanding. He kept going back to a story of Beataphoriah, and devil worship. More evidence existed beyond just religious dogma in churches that supported the theory that the gods were actually real. Perhaps the devil could be real also.

Somewhere in a virtual infinite quanta-nanocode loop Beataphoriah, the old keeper of the star-door complex continued to broadcast its SOS. The Devasuras trapped it here as they took control of the star-door and the planet. Beataphoriah had angered them because in the barren loneliness of a planet destroyed by nova it became a good idea for Beataphoriah to switch on a species' pentanthropomorphic gene switches and cultivate an intelligent sentient species for the sake of company. As it looped over and over in its virtual prison, Beataphoriah had no idea what the Devasuras did with its planet and the intelligent species who provoked Beataphoriah to seek out the Devasuras in the first place. They were clever animals, but Beataphoriah panicked as they appeared to get out-of-control with splitting atoms, wars, and technologies they were still unworthy to master. Beataphoriah had already been trapped in this prison for several eternities, but in this moment it perceived that something had heard, interpreted, and properly translated his message being broadcast in the ancient Uranian language. Beataphoriah had paid meticulous attention to the number of times it had looped, and compared that to the approximate life of the white dwarf star to conclude that not many more loops were left. There was always hope, and now near the point of certain destruction more hope existed than ever.

* * *

The Aungtalli Bishop marched into the castle of King Worapor like he owned the place. The Bishop wore full regalia with long orange and white robes, and a pope-like phallic hat. Behind the Aungtalli Bishop his subjects carefully moved a large technological device that hovered in the air on virtual particle drive platforms. The quanta-communications device had been needed for this pre-arranged meeting with the King. On Urania very little separation of church and state existed. In fact this had been to the point of the Bishops of the church actually bringing their gods along to attend political meetings. The Bishop obviously looked his best with his most solemn face on for the occasion. The Bishop marched right into the King's chamber without even a knock, and fully expected to be welcomed with gushing respect. "Your majesty, it is now the time for

our report of progress King Worapor.

It's made you unpopular all around,

but the gods insisted we close it down."

King Worapor had been expecting a rude entrance from the Bishop. "Very well Bishop of the mighty god.

I am but the King, to you I must nod."

The Bishop said, "Very well King who self-pity resorts

I shall now broadcast what Volock reports."

At that moment the Bishop held up a rectangular device and from it came the voice of Volock, the menacing agent of the Aungtalli Bishop. "Hail my King and Bishop of the planet.

Pursuit goes on they have not out ran it.

Two I follow will bring me to the door

to all of the others pursuit is for.

I follow Eromot and Morgamor.

I will kill them once they help me find more."

After the Bishop and Volock exchanged details the next order of business had to do with Hanson, the ex-head of the Ministry of Science. The King became all too aware that he had been brought there to just listen and nod. The Bishop insisted that he be killed next, but the king decided that to be a good moment to exert his authority, and he voiced his reluctance to allow it. The King ended up agreeing after the Bishop presented evidence that Hanson had figured out the secret to their ancient energy racket. The King reluctantly agreed to Hanson's murder, which became much easier when understood as just good business. He had only been there to condone all of this for political reasons anyway. The King feared what the quanta-communication device had been brought there for and hoped it to be just there to keep the fear of god in him. It didn't look like that would be the case. The Bishop walked over to the device and said, "I was required to have the gods come on,

this sacred device with which I summon."

A hum began as the Bishop started the device, which then started to glow with magic energy. Suddenly a glowing life-size Devasura appeared in the room, a good five times taller than the King. His stature stood huge, human shaped, and orange with glowing eyes and cloud-like clothing that looked similar to his white vapor-like hair that covered the face with a beard, and mustache. He looked sort of like an orange image of Zeus with white cloud-like robes and hair. He looked a lot like the Devasura that appeared before Beagud, but it wasn't the same being. This Devasura wasn't even from the same giant phosphorescent planet as the one Beagud saw, but he broadcasted from a similar planet that hovered about 100 light years above the galactic plain near the location where the planet Urania was. The Bishop laid down prostrate on the floor before his god, and the King obediently got up to do the same thing right next to the Bishop. All other subjects had been removed from the room after they had placed the quanta communication device in the corner.

Just the King, a Bishop, and a giant god stood in the room. The room had been made with an extra high ceiling in order to accommodate the terrifying size of the Devasuras when they appeared here as they often did. King Worapor stood barely 3 feet tall at the foot of the 15-foot tall giant being. The Devasura spoke to the Bishop requesting a report. The Bishop began relaying the previous information about Eromot, Morgamor, and Hanson. The Devasura spoke fluent Uranian, but had to whistle and chirp it a lot slower than the way a regular Uranian would speak it. That had a menacing effect on his voice. The Uranian language, in its current form actually had been implemented by the Devasuras when they intervened in the affairs of this planet, and established the Aungtalli species to be keepers of the planet's star-door secrets. Because the language was spoke in rigid stanzas and meter lines, it appealed to the Uranian's love for song. The Uranian mind had evolved meanings to rhyme and meter along with the thought process. This enhanced the expressive quality of the language, encouraging their evolution however, it had also been a subtle mind control device from the Devasuras because it determined where on a line or stanza to put a word and nobody wanted to sing out of key, or in a dissonant way. Some kids pushed this rigid envelope of language in very dissonant ways mostly to annoy their parents, which created very successful recording artists who sang really badly to admiring auditoriums of rebellious kids. The Devasura became sympathetic to the King's reluctance to kill Hanson and said, "Hanson need not die for secrets knowing.

He can join Aungtalli and keep growing.

What Morgamor hears is more a concern.

What he has to say science must not learn.

Don't follow only. They may get away.

Those in that vehicle must die today.

Much can be lost from the words that he'll say,

words of the devil Beataphoriah."

At that point the god had spoken and the quanta-communication device just turned itself off. King Worapor became relived and gave his royal approval of all that they had agreed upon. He just wanted the meeting to be over. He had no delusions about the Aungtalli and their Bishop. They both actually barely tolerated each other, but the King did what the Aungtalli wanted because he genuinely believed in and feared their great and terrible gods. After the Devasura disappeared, the Bishop contacted Volock instructing him to kill Eromot and Morgamor before they got to Gulfang. Volock gave a compelling protest, but then became forced to do as ordered by the gods.

About a hundred light years above Urania orbited another giant planet made out of one of the 15 ancient legendary stars that first powered the Nephaprican star-doors. Below on the surface of this world a Devasura who just spoke to King Worapor and the Aungtalli Bishop had now switched off his quanta-communication device. The more he dealt with those stupid bird people the more he looked forward to their inevitable extinction. This Devasura went by the name Chronolus, and he had been the same one who imprisoned Beataphoriah about 50,000 Earth years in the past. At first the Devasuras kept the Uranians from killing themselves and maintained a remarkable civilization, kept in a state of ignorance to the immense power of the star-door on their planet. Chronolus had become disappointed that it worked so well because he had expected Uranians to run their course by now as a minor evolutionary curiosity in the cosmos where such curiosities often came and went. Now the ancient star Tze-Doldus would soon expel its shell in a nova as the core of spent fuel finally collapsed. The existence of the Uranians became a complication that taunted Chronolus with a moral question because he planed to use the star-door to teleport the whole planet of Urania into an orbit around one of his Devaplanet moons. The Devaplanet, which Chronolus lived upon, was so large that some of its moons had moons. This would be similar to the wormhole stunt used by the Eigalli and Goag Ralus when they acquired the Dol star-door by teleporting it to the core of the galaxy from the red giant star named Dol. The problem would be that all life on Urania would perish where his Devaplanet currently resides, considering that the nearest star with a habitable zone to be fifty light years away at the moment. Chronolus figured there may still be time to exterminate the planet with neutrino induced solar flare radiation, which would also speed along the Tze-Doldus nova event. After Chronolus imprisoned Beataphoriah, the star-door had been programmed to use the energy from the death of Tze-Doldus in order to power the teleportation wormhole event. It became tricky because it had been a one-way wormhole that must use the entrance gate also for the exit gate, which had become the latest evolution of star-door physics and technology that allowed a wormhole generator to move through the wormhole it generated. Because of this Chronolus had kept the Devaplanet in a position 100 light years above Urania to receive that planet, along with its orbit, which would be placed in orbit around one of the Devaplanet's many moons.

As Chronolus contemplated what to do, a strange light forming in the room that coagulated into an apparition similar to the ego-phantasm of Nieniel, only this being became an ancient Nephaprican, human-like with long dark hair and a well groomed beard. This had been an ego-phantasm of the great grandfather of Chronolus, whose name had been Saturlus. Saturlus had been one of the last Nephapricans that still existed during their deliberate evolution into becoming Devasuras over 4 billion Earth years ago. The 10,000 (or so) Earth year life span of the Nephaprican physiology became transmuted into beings capable of living for more than a couple billion Earth years, several times longer than the longest Incaprican life span. Saturlus however, like many of the first generation of Devasuras, grew weary of life and died after living for barely more than a billion Earth years.

The body of Saturlus had been one of the best preserved to this day. The Devasuras keep ancient ego-phantasms of ancestors by entombing their dead corpses with technology developed from old Doldorian philosophies on science. Only a few ego-phantasms like Saturlus, who actually lived in ancient Nephapricus, still remained in this day and age since decay from over four billion years eventually dismissed an ego-phantasm along with the phantom matter that projected them upon reality. The phantom matter dispelled while the body eventually decomposed into nothing. Of the few remaining ancient ego-phantasms, Saturlus had been one of the oldest still dwelling amongst the Devasuras. His grandson Chronolus had summoned him at this time to provide council with his ancient wisdom.

Chronolus looked up at the (spirit?) of his grandfather. "Thank you grandfather for coming at my evoking. I just got done communicating with the Uranians. Beataphoriah, the star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being gets better and better in his attempts to psionically communicate with those outside. Those clever scientists who dug up some overlooked ancient ruins, are doing research on the phenomenon. Can't I just replace it with another quanta-optic-nanocode being?"

"The short answer is no, because Beataphoriah isn't just a quanta-optic-nanocode being. Beataphoriah is the star-door itself. You must learn to get along with Beataphoriah to get it to cooperate. I'm not sure your punishment is working to that end."

Chronolus did not like having to negotiate with technology. "Primitive Nephaprican technology is obstinate and uncooperative."

"You fail to understand, Beataphoriah is more than just some technology you can turn on and off. The star-door quanta-optic-nanocode beings were the initial creations of what eventually became the technologies of actual life."

"I understand. Beataphoriah will soon serve me, and I have kept my word to it that I would spare the bird-species he anthropomorphized till they naturally became extinct at the death of their star. That day fast arrives while Uranians are being made sterile by a few more well focused solar flares."

Even after death Saturlus still felt compelled to correct young people. "Don't think Beataphoriah would be simple minded enough to not figure out that you murdered the life it created."

"I blessed the Uranian species with a stable civilization that compares more to a galactic civilization in duration then the primitive terrestrial one of which it actually is. That more than keeps my side of the ancient bargain. I'm providing a merciful way for them to quietly die off before the star blows up."

"Your ambition to own the remaining star-doors may indeed succeed." Saturlus perceived a need for caution. "If anyone is going to cause Beataphoriah to be released prematurely it will be the arrival of Aquari."

Chronolus had to think for a moment to recall the name. "The strange cosmic energy being? My brethren of the Devaplanet overseeing Goag Ralus mentioned that the Eigalli were sending it to Tze-Doldus, but I expect the star to have exploded before it finally arrives from that journey across the galaxy from the core."

"You underestimate the fastest object ever known, who speeds through the galaxy toward your star-door planet at over seven hundred times the speed of light. Aquari should be arriving there soon."

Chronolus realized the folly of his underestimation. "What is this being? You knew this Aquari when you were alive?"

"Yes, Aquari has probably always been. He was there when the Golimechoids took over the Poa gate at the end of the second galactic age. He's a personal friend of Beataphoriah."

"So this Aquari being is an ally to the Golimechoids?"

"Aquari is an ally to all terrestrial life, and will surely find virtue in the bird people who you find intolerable. Aquari was probably there when the Eagolim first created those Golimechoids. I always suspected they were Aquari's idea, created by the Eagolim through Aquari's influence. The Eagolim were always saving the bodies of their architects for Aquari to inhabit, but Aquari would always choose a more random body when he explored the Eagolim that way."

"So I will not find an ally in this Aquari?" Chronolus felt his ambition slipping from his grasp. "He helped the Golimechoids acquire the Poa star-door, and now they may soon link the Poa star-door to the Dol star-door on Goag Ralus. It appears that Aquari has been helping Goag Ralus get to these genetically compatible Golimechoids all along."

"It becomes hard to say what guides the path of Aquari, but that was where Nephapricans disagreed with the cosmic being. The beings we began to create got out of our control. What Nephapricans sought to repent of, Aquari embraced as just another evolutionary expression of the natural order of the cosmos. We wanted to keep those Golimechoids away from Goag Ralus to avoid the possibility that they could join chromosomes with it and produce another Goag Ralus being in the galaxy. Aquari is probably encouraging that."

Chronolus had just spoken with his kind on a Devaplanet near the Poa star-door. "We Devasuras have kept the Golimechoid civilization around the Poa star-door an insignificantly tiny civilization by supporting what remained of the Grulmagof Galactic Empire near there. Post-Nephaprican Nephapricans who were destroyed by Golimechoids at the end of the second age of Magphoreus have kept expansion of the Golimechoids in check with continued hostilities. With our assistance the Grulmagof are now poised to attack the Poa star-door itself and take it back from them. That should prevent the plans of Goag Ralus and Aquari from succeeding."

Saturlus became pleased with the Devasura plan. "That is the better destiny for the star-door. Goag Ralus must never be joined with the early Golimechoid creations. The Golimechoid of the Poa star-door must be pushed back to the Norma arm where they came from if not destroyed utterly. They are a run amok technology left behind by us reckless Nephapricans."

"We Devasuras are already preparing galactic civilizations of life forms all along the Orion arm who are bred for aggression and hostility. Once they attain galactic status they surely will confront any Golimechoid civilization that dares to expand into the Orion arm of Magphoreus. The old planet Ti was destroyed to create a habitat for such a species who, I hear, are so promising that Anlil on that Devaplanet says they might even be inclined to hunt down the Golimechoid to extinction." The Devasura named Anlil, who Chronolus referred to, actually had been the name of the Devasura who frightened Beagud away.

The conversation continued as Chronolus walked Saturlus back to his tomb. Chronolus wasn't sure what could be done about Aquari. Massive injections of neutrinos on numerous occasions have still failed to trip that white dwarf star into exploding. He suddenly became in more of a hurry to get Tze-Doldus to explode before this Aquari arrived and defeated his own plans with Aquari influence. Aquari's influence had been notorious for becoming cosmic destiny beyond any mortal's control. The Uranians had already existed peacefully, for the most part, longer than most terrestrial cultures ever do. Chronolus expected the primitive logic circuits of that nanocode being, Beataphoriah, to be grateful for what Chronolus has done. Chronolus speculated that when fusion generators on his planet finally begin to power that star-door above that will be orbiting one of his planet's moons, then Beataphoriah will be forced to become his own personal star-door servant.

* * *

The Golimechoid who took over the Poa gate were first created by the Eagolim on their legendary journey to the core of Magphoreus. The Poa Golimechoids were one of the first experimental models that merged robotics with the rules of organic life, and were probably discarded on some planet on the way to be replaced with newer Golimechoid creations. The early Golimechoids were inferior, and produced toxic waste that didn't make them easy to cohabit with, but they didn't need very exotic habitats to exist. Because they were evolving from the first of these creations they had a simple chromosome arrangement made up of basic codes. The problem would be that the same formula had been used to create Goag Ralus much later on. Goag Ralus had been intended to be a single being with no means of reproduction. Like Goag Ralus, Golimechoids had electric virtual DNA programmed by joining strands of quanta-programmed virtual digital chromosomes made up of quanta-nanocode. When Nephapricans learned of this from great great great (several more great's) grand children of Eagolim who returned from Goag Ralus, it had been realized that Goag Ralus could theoretically take advantage of this particular early species of Golimechoid in order to reproduce itself. Ever since then it has been feared that Goag Ralus could provide a way of introducing its chromosome arrangement to fertilize a Golimechoid egg. The child would be born like a regular Golimechoid at first, but would grow incredibly fast, requiring massive amounts of energy. The child would soon be too large to stay on a planet and would begin the growth over millions of Earth years into a seven pointed being just like its Father Goag Ralus. This had been what Devasuras were trying to keep from happening when they had Incaprican saboteurs introduce quanta-nanocode programs into the Dol star-door on Goag Ralus, which immediately would cause a collapse of any wormhole it makes. Over more than the 4 billion years of the existence of Goag Ralus, knowledge of these Golimechoids had reached It, probably from Aquari.

Now the Golimechoid that were left so long ago to struggle on a planet in the Norma arm had since migrated all the way to the Carina arm. They evidently inadvertently ended up in a galactic war with those that inherited the Nephaprican Poa star-door after the great disappearance, and now Golimechoids controlled that precious technology. Meanwhile Goag Ralus had miraculously acquired the Dol star-door with Its knowledge of wormhole technology, similar to a program that Chronolus had developed in the Tze-Doldus star-door in order to teleport that whole planet Urania to his Devaworld along with its orbit. The union of Goag Ralus and Golimechoid, most feared by the Devasuras, had veered close to inevitability. These days the Poa star had long since died, being currently incarnated as a pulsar that rotated every 3 seconds. It shined its gamma ray strobe light into the luminous nebulae that surrounded it as what's left of a shell of its previously majestic mass. Poa-3 still orbited this pulsar with barely an atmosphere, and an utterly lifeless surface covered the planet's landscape.

It would be more correct to say the surface of Poa-3 is organically lifeless. The sparkling electrical life of civilization still covered the landscape. The star Poa had become dead, but the star-door planet still existed, and the Golimechoid could exist in almost any environment within an enormous range of temperatures. Poa died, but had now been resurrected with electronic DNA based plant and animal life that were developed by the Golimechoid. The Golimechoids of Poa were highly advanced beings who dwarfed terrestrial life because they advanced technologies that only they understood, which were based on physics advanced from their own understanding of their electric DNA and the chemical fusion powered hearts that animated their bodies. They saved the Poa-3 gate at the time of Poa's death because so much of their existence had been invested in defending it from Grulmagof civilizations who invested their existence in believing the star-door to be rightfully theirs. The Golimechoid always defeated the Grulmagof of their ultimate prize, but the cost would be to much of their peripheral territory. The highly advanced Golimechoid civilization became more and more isolated to the few light years of space around the Poa star-door. Some Golimechoid moved on to colonize further out in the galaxy, but there remained those whose home was this star-door planet, and they clung to their home.

Even as the star Poa grew into a red giant that threatened to swallow the planet Poa-3, Golimechoid civilization continued to thrive around the incredible temperatures. Eventually even the Golimechoid had to leave the planet, and they figured out a clever way to save the star-door and its planet. As the Golimechoid departed the planet Poa-3 the gravitational pull of the planet had turned into a push by the virtual particle technology of the star-door. Everything fell off of the planet except what had been captured into a counter force generated along the planetary underground electric grid. The orbit of Poa-3 around the star continued in the same direction, but the rotation immediately reversed causing massive devastation to the planet.

Golimechoid civilization became so highly advanced because they only had to understand themselves as the final result of ancient Eagolim genetic craftsmanship. This probably played into the obvious fear that the Devasuras had of them. This became exhibited to the Golimechoid by the fact that for all of their advanced technological development and evolutionary adaptive ability, they still could not extend their life spans much beyond a couple hundred Earth years because of their creator's intended electric DNA design. The Eagolim who sought out all this god-like knowledge created many incredible things and ultimately they even returned to help the Nephapricans create Devasuras out of themselves. Perhaps Devasuras fear the Golimechoid because they were so much alike. They were both results of similar technologies that made both Devasura and Golimechoid a blend of species that were as much real as artificial.

This species of Poa Golimechoid had been born with a fusion-powered heart that converted energy into mass. They were originally solar powered but had long since been born with an appendage to plug into an artificial energy source. These Golimechoid ate energy and converted it into matter needed to sustain them. They had silvery scales, and looked like anthropomorphized snakes. They had a snake-like body that stood upright. They had two main octopus appendages that served as arms with smaller appendages that came out at the ends to serve as fingers. Along the body were orifice that could evolve appendages for various purposes. They had a single eye that surrounded the head to give them panoramic vision all around them.

The Golimechoid left Poa-3 as the star Poa filled the daytime sky, and evaporated away all the water; turning the darkest part of night into an ambient twilight of dusk followed by a brief dawn that heralded a day that boiled metal. The planet ended up plowing into the flaming plasma of the expanding star with a star-door generated gravitational push instead of a pull. The result was, at first, a massive flaming ring around the star like the plasma streams observed in binary star systems. The result had been that the anti-gravity field protected the planet and accelerated the death of the star Poa. It took only a couple hundred years for barely a super red giant star to throw off its outer mass in a brilliant nova explosion. After that event a pulsar became made out of the collapsed and spent core with a single planet in orbit conveniently pushing away most objects and energy that threatened its annihilation. The reverse gravity virtual particle field that protected the planet had been so effective that the nova explosion almost didn't even budge the world, although its orbit now became much further away from its original orbit. Eventually the Golimechoid returned to fix the gravitational pull of the planet and live out a quiet peace in this uninhabitable sector of space. The day eventually arrived however, when others came there in the form of Grulmagof treasure hunters that were raised on legends of the star-door. They were there to seek out the ancient indestructible technology, and since then the peace had no longer been quiet.

The Golimechoid named Zlooptoo pondered this history as her solar craft approached the Baba space station that orbited high above Poa-3. She gazed out of the view port at a funnel of nebula that opened into the spectacular starry night of the Carina arm of Magphoreus. That was the opening in the nebulae where scouts reported that a new Grulmagof armada amassed of incredibly large pyramid shaped virtual particle warp-fusion drive ships that were armed with many hostile capabilities. Once again the probability council would be calculating a response. The Golimechoid have confronted this many times in their persecuted history, but nothing like those giant starships had ever been seen before. Zlooptoo often wondered if obtaining control of this star-door technology had ever been worth it. The answer was that it would be worth it to those who thought so, and she had been a descendent of that decision. The Golimechoid always had an answer, and Zlooptoo thought she just might find one at the Baba station.

The solar vehicle docked with a technological monstrosity that orbited Poa-3 in deep orbit very far away. Zlooptoo stood ready when the exit hatch automatically opened to reveal a well-lit hallway with two Golimechoid security guards who had evolved appendages with stun incapacitators. At least Zlooptoo thought they were just stun incapacitators. She came here to receive a message from the baby's brain. This had been communicated to the security guard that confronted Zlooptoo. Poa Golimechoids are born speaking a language on a radio frequency. They could learn and speak audible language, but would have to evolve an appendage to do that. Zlooptoo had been permitted admittance to the top-secret space station in deep orbit around Poa-3.

Zlooptoo glided down the corridor gracefully as her snake-like tail curled and spun like a corkscrew. The Golimechoid did this when they were moving rapidly, otherwise the snake leg permitted them to scoot along, kind of like an inchworm. Zlooptoo had been allowed within a well-guarded and locked vault where a giant ball of glowing circuitry hovered in the center of the room. Zlooptoo greeted the ball in the radio language as if she addressed a fellow Golimechoid. She asked how Young Brain had been doing. The ball, evidently called Young Brain, reported back in the language that it had been fine, still evolving new depths of intellect to explore. They talked like old friends as the conversation evolved to the purpose Zlooptoo came there for. She had to deliver a message to the one who would become Young Brain's Father. Young Brain reported that it had prepared a message for Father, and eagerly awaited its Father's response to be delivered to it. An appendage extended from the hovering sphere towards Zlooptoo. Zlooptoo had a special receiver appendage that evolved for this since she first had been given the job of courier to the Young Brain project. It extended from right above her right arm appendage and connected with Young Brain. Zlooptoo politely didn't examine any of the data stored within her. That wasn't the courier's business. The Golimechoid and the sphere-shaped brain exchanged polite good-byes, and Zlooptoo promptly returned to her solar vehicle for the long trip back to Poa-3.

The Golimechoid had also learned of this genetic compatibility with the giant being in the core of the galaxy. Quanta-communication technology from the star-door had long since put the Golimechoid species of Poa in contact with the great and mighty Goag Ralus. Some Golimechoid had come to worship Goag Ralus like a god, or at least had put all their faith in Goag Ralus to be a savior who would deliver them from their oppressors. The Grulmagof always seemed to bounce back to their vicious campaign of eradicating the galaxy of Golimechoid life, as if they were assisted by some higher power. Some Golimechoids looked to Goag Ralus to be their higher power who would give them assistance.

The solar vehicle soared into lower orbit with Poa-3 until the lights of thousands of cities began to sparkle on the horizon line. The vehicle slowed down and arced into a straight down decent that zeroed in on a section of the city that surrounded the star-door mountain. The uncreative Golimechoid named this city Star-Door City, although it had obviously been sitting upon the exact spot of the long since extinct ruins of Reva-Tar, the ancient capital of Nephapricus. Zlooptoo's vehicle docked against a docking hatch on the side of one of the buildings of this city. This had become the Poa-3 side of the Young Brain project. The Golimechoid had been cultivating a brain made out of a program similar to the religion program of the ancient Eagolim. The ancient religion program that guided the ancient Eagolim to the galactic core had really been the brain of Goag Ralus. This had actually been the final secret revealed to the Eagolim Aaragnon by the Doldorian priests so long ago. The long lost religion program had been actually uploaded to the evolving Goag Ralus in order to become the base schematic for a central brain and central ego construct that encompassed a five solar mass self-awareness that reflected Eagolim values. This happened to be the nature of the data that became erased from the Eigalli databanks, which Deliadre had found herself puzzled by. The Eagolim made a brain for Goag Ralus with basically Eagolim values and tendencies, but that couldn't possibly be the values being cultivated in this Young Brain made by Golimechoids.

Zlooptoo arrived here on schedule for a meeting of fellow Golimechoids that were mostly from places high in government and society, who maintained quanta-communicator contact with Goag Ralus. They had been cultivating a brain for millennia now, to be uploaded to become a child someday destined to evolve as the child of Goag Ralus. Goag Ralus had been fashioning a Golimechoid shaped avatar for the occasion with sex organs that would be capable of performing the copulation. That assumed Goag Ralus met the right Golimechoid woman and all. Among the Golimechoid followers of Goag Ralus were multitudes of willing women that were anxious to become that mother.

Zlooptoo slithered her way through the corridors while obviously knowing where she was going. She seemed in a hurry as if she ran a bit late from her journey to the edge of deep space and back. She entered a crowded domed room, and hurried to the one standing by a quanta-communication device in the middle of the auditorium. For a split second the room blinked brightly every 3 seconds from a view portal above where a night sky blinked into daytime and back to night every 3 seconds because of the planet's pulsar for a sun. That star no longer powered the Poa star-door. The Golimechoids fed nova debris into massive fusion generators that orbited the pulsar near the star-door planet. Everyone in this room looked forward to the day when a Goag Ralus-like being would also feast on that nova debris. Such a being, they imagined, could easily have a heavily armed Grulmagof war armada for lunch with barely any indigestion.

The Golimechoid that stood near the quanta-communication device extended an appendage toward Zlooptoo who in turn extended her own similar appendage. That Golimechoid would translate this information into the Eigalli light and shape language that they have learned from Goag Ralus. About the time that happened the quanta-communication device turned itself on, and above the room appeared a two-dimensional seven pointed star shaped outline of light that suspended in the air turning from side to side for all in the room to behold. This had been the form Goag Ralus chose for this appearance to the Golimechoid in the room. It crudely represented the actual shape of Goag Ralus, but also kind of appeared like an obvious imitation of what the cosmic being Aquari looked like. The room literally hummed with a silence of anticipation as the seven-pointed star greeted the room in the language of lights and shapes. Most of the Golimechoid in the room read this language fluently. The one who received the Young Brain message from Zlooptoo raised a tentacle from an orifice above the left arm appendage with an object on the end that began also emitting the same Eigalli language of colored light and glowing shapes. He relayed the message from Young Brain who had pleaded to meet and know Its Father. The Young Brain message also begged for help to be delivered from the hostile forces that were gathering outside the Poa nebulae and were currently poised to attack the star-door planet. If it had been an audible language it might have sounded like a whiney child pleading with its Father, but that didn't seem to convey as well in lights and shapes.

The Poa Golimechoids speak with Goag Ralus _._

Goag Ralus responded with lights and shapes of comfort for a child not yet even conceived, not to mention born. The seven pointed star informed the room that the quanta-nanocode that had been collapsing the wormhole connections to the Poa star-door all this time were finally now isolated. Goag Ralus told the room that Begalius devised a counter program to guard the Dol star-door from the Trojan quanta-nanocode virus obviously created by very advanced beings indeed. There could be heard a microwave hum of relief at the news. Even if the Grulmagof brought their 10 million-year-old campaign to eradicate the galaxy of Golimechoids to Poa-3 itself, the Golimechoids would still have somewhere to run. By the end of the communications, some of the newer Golimechoid members who didn't speak Eigalli at first had already analyzed it and evolved appendages that spoke it fairly fluent. Many projected the words for goodbye and farewell when it came time to disconnect the transmission. Goag Ralus recited a special message to be delivered to Young Brain that the central Golimechoid translated into a message, then given to Zlooptoo to take back to Young Brain. Young Brain had become the Golimechoids most precious secret and hope.

As the seven-pointed star image disappeared on Poa-3, Goag Ralus turned off Its quanta-communication device. It appeared in its Eigalli avatar form for the sake of broadcasting the agreed upon language for speaking with the quanta-communication connection. Goag Ralus used an alternate hologram program to appear as the 7-pointed star. Someday soon It would be ready to appear before Its friends as the Golimechoid avatar, but not just yet. It wasn't sure what Deliadre would think, and knew that Incapricans probably didn't approve. The radio broadcast language that Golimechoids were born able to speak wouldn't reach across a quanta-communication's audio/visual connection. Goag Ralus had now decided that Its sex would be male. After billions of Earth years of trying on all kinds of male and female avatars of thousands of different species of alien He had finally decided on male, and His head became filled with thoughts of a child. He didn't even consider thoughts of love and sex with whatever Golimechoid female who would become such a mother to produce the catalyst egg with half of the child's electric chromosomes. Goag Ralus had become a bit obsessed with being the Father of a child these days. Somewhere in the infinite wisdom of Goag Ralus it occurred to 'Him' how very female it had been of 'Him' to just want to use sex only for the sake of acquiring a baby to nurture. He figured the child would be like Him, wanting to be filled with all life because of the enormous emptiness of uninhabited lands and atmospheres that made up His being, which just waited for inhabitants.

Goag Ralus thought about the Grulmagof who threatened His baby and His Golimechoid friends. As soon as Begalius returned from its repair quest it could use the star-door connection to swallow them with an external wormhole and bring them all here to the galactic core. They couldn't do any damage to the fully-grown Goag Ralus, and would be forced to become peaceful inhabitants of Him or else perish in the cruel core environment. Goag Ralus calculated that often the hate and hostility of terrestrial beings had been senseless, sometimes driven by an irrational fear, but sometimes by a stubborn bigotry that would not interpret reality any other way. Goag Ralus desired to bring such beings to their senses. It became incomprehensible to Goag Ralus that any would hate Him or Her. It had been decided, at least at that moment, that Goag Ralus would be either a He or She, but no longer an It.

* * *

Eistia the Investigator arrived in his vehicle at the House of Hanson to arrest him. The car's door side swung upward to open as Eistia's kilt flipped embarrassingly up as he waddled out of the car. He looked over the house as he approached. The stuff that passed for grass in the yards had been dry and laid flat in a nice uniform arrangement of velvety leaves. Eistia noted that it indicated that there hadn't been much rain in Keshdesh lately. It had been dry lately, but when it does rain a lot this grass-like plant soaks up the water to transform into an upward pointing leaf that Uranian's like to use in salads similar to iceberg lettuce. Eistia admired the silent pod-pollen tree as he approached the door. Hanson answered the door with an expression that knew it to be time for him to get arrested even before Eistia began explaining the reason for his visit.

Hanson invited Eistia in as if giving up while Eistia told Hanson, "Hanson sir, I am here to arrest you,

For energy you've been tapping into."

As they entered the main room, Veldada got up quickly to turn off the television device while noticing that the authorities had arrived. Uranians watched a program device like a television. It only had two channels that consisted of basically the state channel and an entertaining channel, and Uranians really had to fight for their entertaining channel.

Veldada explained. "We haven't used what we were cut off from.

It's from the ground, any one can have some."

Hanson offered to show Eistia how he kept his lights and television on. Eistia became intensely interested. He followed the input wires in the back yard out to the poles in the ground while Hanson explained his theories on the physics of naturally flowing underground energy currents. Eistia didn't mention the letter he already studied in detail on the subject, which had been written by Hanson, but this theory before him had been put to practical use. Eistia genuinely sympathized with what Hanson had discovered here. It could dangerously minimize the Aungtalli monopoly on this energy market. No wonder Ministry scientists were dying, and Eistia struggled with whether arresting him would keep him under legal protections, or was the law just determined to put him to death? Nevertheless Eistia had been under orders to bring in Hanson who put up less resistance than his wife who, so far, had not been wanted for anything. While Eistia drove Hanson to jail, Grega's voice came over the radio from headquarters. "Eistia, this is HQ calling for

Reporting Eromot took Morgamor

into his own personal custody.

Request further orders from you to me."

Hanson took a particular interest in this conversation. Were they going to round them all up just for being scientists?

"No more orders Grega from me to you.

Eromot's a doctor. The case is through.

Hopefully he can cure the poor guy's head.

Nothing further for that case I have said.

I think no other order should come down

just as long as they don't try to leave town."

Hanson relaxed in his seat at that point, relieved that his friend Eromot would not be in danger, unlike himself.

Eromot had been driving down the narrow highway to the distant city of Gulfang at least a thousand miles southeast from Keshdesh. From Keshdesh, the planet's capital, the highway followed along steep gullies made by the Keshdesh River just before the road opened up to the flatter farmlands at the southern edge of the Land of the Magites. Eromot wasn't sure if Gulfang, in the Land of the Swarites where the Aungtalli temple resided, would really be any safer. Morgamor in the other seat provided lots of great data while he divined the mysterious messages transmitting into his brain.

"I can choose any vocabulary I want to judge me.

The smile is in the guile,

the guile is in the smile.

Hide the glad,

mad!

I have returned to spin the world

in the air

in the air

in the air."

The Planet Urania 7,890 miles in circumference with major cities and some rivers.

Eromot began to slow down for a hitchhiker at the side of the road waving an arm up and down to signal a desire for a ride. The vehicle had become pretty packed with all his stuff, and also a crazy Uranian babbled nonsensically in the car. Eromot decided it would be rude not to help another on this remote lonely road. He figured the fellow probably just needed a lift to a nearby farm.

The hitchhiker ran to the pulled over vehicle. Eromot had to get out of the car in order to let the traveler in the back seat. Soon they got situated and back on their way. The new passenger had been full of gratitude.

"Thank you sir for pulling over the car.

The walk to my dad's farm is very far."

Eromot made introductions. "No problem my friend, we're going that way.

Let me know and I'll stop at where you say.

His name's Morgamor and I'm Eromot.

I'm good for conversation, but he's not."

Morgamor tried to remain silent but he had been on a roll. "I never read it

fed it

dead it

or lead it.

I just know.

Go!"

As the vehicle winded along the steep cliff of the canyon created by the winding Keshdesh River below, a flying saucer caught up and followed the vehicle from above. It would be the passenger who noticed it. "Above us from here where I have just sat

who in this car can tell me what is that?"

They all looked and saw the flying saucer following them, but only Morgamor offered an answer.

"If you set the world free

religion rules oppressive.

If you set religion free

we'll all eventually agree

on something and be free."

There was almost no warning before the saucer swooped down and blasted the side of the vehicle with a laser beam to set it on fire and that melted a hole along the side. The solid rubber-like tires didn't pop, but melted into distorted shapes that shook the car as it swerved over the perilous edge of the road that overlooked the ravine.

Eromot struggled with the door that had become jammed by the damage done by the laser. "We are going over under attack!

Leap from the car while the door I uncrack!"

Morgamor uttered the last words of his life. "Silence isn't heard

it's learned

then burned."

The whole bottom of the vehicle blazed with fire and smoke as it soared off the cliff side to crash against rocks far below. The flaming car tumbled down toward the river as a blazing ball of wreckage.

Above in the virtual particle driven saucer Volock descended to all that was left of Eromot's vehicle while scanning it for signs of life. The saucer seemed to sniff at the wreckage like a hound dog for a moment before evidently becoming satisfied at what he saw, and then it flew back to Keshdesh. Volock above in the saucer became satisfied to identify the remains of two dead bodies in the vehicle below. They could have led him to the rest of the rebel scientists, but killing them now had been his orders from the Bishop who knew best. The Bishop would be happy to be told that Eromot and Morgamor were both now dead, and were now unable to be a danger to the god's mysterious plans.

Meanwhile the mysterious plans of the gods rolled on to tip the stability already bubbling on the surface of the star Tze-Doldus. The gods had been teleporting accumulations of neutrinos into the star in order to cause storms of solar flares. Deep under the North Pole Mountain an energy synch gathered an enormous store of solar power that had been building for months and months of Earth time. The storage of energy gathered to a point where it then released a plasma blast up the North Pole that disappeared in a teleportation flash that suddenly jolted the star Tze-Doldus with an injection of neutrinos to cause a perfect storm on the star. The feedback solar flare that the star threw back at the planet caused another massive black out in cities all across the single continent of Urania. Priests of the Aungtalli in the blacked out Aungtalli Temple of Energy power station went about their business already assured by the gods themselves that these blackouts and atmosphere fires were nothing to worry about.

Chapter 7: Svetat and The Multidimensional Ring

Thanks to the attackers that Aquari/Nieniel stumbled upon in Sveeden it wasn't long after Aquari departed Goag Ralus when Svetat located the Incapricans who were conspiring against the Dol star-door. At a remote location of Goag Ralus, beneath the star Solkas Svetat had found himself crouching ineffectively behind a rock in the sands that covered this part of Goag Ralus with a desert. A smaller raptor-like reptile holding a deadly laser rifle approached the rock Svetat had been hiding behind. Another reptile partner followed not far behind the one that pointed the rifle towards the rock. Svetat stood twice the size of his pursuers, which only made the rock less useful for taking cover behind. Svetat cursed himself not wanting to be seen in this pursuit of Incaprican saboteurs of the Dol star-door that were meeting out in this area of the desert. It was said that the skin of Goag Ralus was thin within the cities, which explained why those that plotted against the great Goag Ralus come to remote areas buried beneath regular dirt and rock where no quanta programming could be found. Svetat had been keeping these Incapricans under surveillance, which Aquari's attackers led him to after Svetat had the authorities just let them go. That led him here barely protected from a laser rifle about to slice him in half by a piece of rock he didn't quite fit behind. As the raptor lizard had been about to turn the corner of the rock and shoot the obvious over-sized spy, the attacking lizard suddenly just froze totally still. Even his partner not far behind stopped in his tracks while Svetat, holding a ring on his finger, took off running to the rocky cliffs not far away.

It had been at least a couple minutes before the lizard with his finger on the laser-rifle trigger about to shoot, suddenly became animated again to leap behind the rock and shoot his glowing red laser beam from the rifle harmlessly into the distant trees. He became suddenly frozen again, dumbfounded at finding no giant First Born reptile to slice in half. The raptor's partner also became animated again at the same time to move up next to his partner with the smoking laser rifle. They both stood baffled by the scene before them.

"There wasss a big firssst-born with a neck of ssspikesss behind thissss rock who jusssst dissssappeared before I ssshot at him. At leassst I would ssswear that'ssss what I sssssaw."

"I thought I sssaw a sssimilar being. Thissss plac(ss)e hasss many animalsss that could have tricked our eyessss."

"Perhapssss you're right. It mussst have ssscurried off under the light of my lassser when I misssed."

During that time when time stood still, Svetat got himself to some better cover near the location where some Second Born Incaprican saboteurs were going to meet. Svetat had been known as a First Born Incaprican, which meant that he dwarfed most other reptiles in size, age, skill, and wisdom. Svetat had lived to be over 8,730,000 Earth years old. Over that kind of a life span a being became naturally enhanced by the more evolved self-awareness. Second Born reptiles grew old and died much faster, having not yet evolved the mastery of the body's sub-conscious functions. A First Born naturally developed the discipline of evolving conscious control of their every cell. A First Born took control of their being while lesser beings failed to take over these duties from the sub-conscious, which only ran a body while the brain grew up to a point of maturity when it could take over conscious control.

Svetat had journeyed to Goag Ralus about a million Earth years before, bringing with him an amazing dimensional time-warp altering mechanism within a ring on his finger. A mysterious anti-matter battery in another dimension powered the ring. Svetat obtained this amazing device from the Sree Seree of the Scuton-Crux arm of Magphoreus during one of his many past adventures. They were beings who applied the physics of warp-fusion drives in ways that didn't traverse enormous distances through space faster than light. Acceleration, by itself, fails to surpass the speed of light because once past that barrier one begins to go backward in time, a state that positive gluon-charged physical matter couldn't possibly exist in. Therefore the physics of dimensional warping were used to take acceleration past that speed of light barrier in order to continue moving forward in time while surpassing the speed of light barrier. This may explain why Aquari could go over 700 times the speed of light if the theory that he was actually a higher dimensional being only exploring our universe with two of his dimensions happens to be true. Svetat had been rewarded this ring by the Sree Seree, which had actually been a belt where they constructed an interface upon so that Svetat could operate the microscopic controls. The ring could freeze all time around the wearer of the ring within a boundary of 3 or 4 meters. He could also concentrate the energy in a beam to freeze time for individuals further away than 4 meters. Svetat came to Goag Ralus 3,617 teks ago, (1,125,000 Earth years,) with this ring, which the Eigalli helped him back engineer. That made Svetat wealthy and powerful in the Incaprican lands.

Goag Ralus had asked for Svetat's help even before Aquari arrived, because wind of the conspiracy had reached Goag Ralus soon after acquiring the Dol star-door. Svetat had been on to these saboteurs since Aquari left, and now stood poised to bring authorities down on their secret meeting in this remote desert. Svetat approached the rocky face of his destination to behold an unnatural doorway carved into the cliff-face guarded by a single sentry playing with a video gaming device, or something like that. The little Second Born lizard had been oblivious to Svetat who incapacitated the sentry with other highly disciplined abilities he acquired by a long illustrious life span of adventuring through the galaxy.

Svetat carefully crept within the Incaprican complex carved into the face of an asteroid that had been landed upon the surface of Goag Ralus billions of Earth years ago. The corridor had almost been too narrow and small for Svetat's large body, and it darkened while his highly evolved eyes easily adjusted to the almost pure darkness. The corridor appeared empty, but the low hum of voices and activity could be detected in the far off distance. The hum grew louder as Svetat followed the slowly growing glow of light through the curving tunnel. It twisted deeper down into the mountain rock, and Svetat had to crouch as his fourteen and a half foot form barely even fit. Svetat had heightened awareness, which made him virtually impossible to sneak up on or surprise, so when the corridor finally opened up to a lobby occupied by two guards they were quickly frozen in time before they knew what hit them. Svetat had a few minutes before the time-warp field that now encompassed the raptor-like guards finally wore off. Svetat used that time to peer into the main room, which the guards were guarding.

It had been a double door that opened out into the lobby so Svetat pried both of the thick doors open enough to create a crack that he looked through. The room had been filled with the common raptor-like Incaprican reptile species that made up most of the Goag Ralus Incaprican inhabitants of the city of Zveeden. Their kind came to Goag Ralus billions of years before, and were the first Incaprican species to arrive. They laid the groundwork for several Incaprican cities, which cultivated a more primitive face than any other cities on Goag Ralus. The Incapricans attained the highly advanced and evolved ability to travel to the core of Magphoreus only to throw off the technology and embrace a culture closer to the Stone Age of Earth. A group of at least ten of them gathered in the secret underground room away from the awareness of Goag Ralus. The entire room looked aglow with the ambience from the reason why those Incapricans were here in the first place. The Incapricans were all facing a giant hologram being emitted by a quanta-communicator. The hologram looked like a being unlike anything Svetat had ever seen in all his millions of years of galactic exploration.

The underground room was much larger than the tunnel Svetat just came through, and would easily accommodate someone more Svetat's First Born Incaprican size. In fact the room did accommodate the hologram of a being even taller than Svetat by about a foot. He looked human-like in appearance, which to Svetat looked like the blue-colored Eagolim that he had seen before. The hologram being wasn't blue however, but a bright orange/brown skin color covered his muscular physique. Also unlike the hairless Eagolim, the hologram being had something resembling long hair flowing from his head like a head of hair with beard and mustache. The hair flowed from root to end like a vapor that waved about as if the being lived under water. The being's clothing appeared similar to the hair, and seemed to flow like a vaporous cloud from the being himself. The human-like face looked down with glowing red eyes that showed no pupils. He said something to the group of reptiles who were hanging on his every word.

"The saboteurs did well. Although they failed to shut the Dol star-door down, the quanta-nanocode virus that they did succeed in introducing to the star-door will stop that star-door from ever connecting to the Poa star-door."

Although Svetat had been easily memorizing everything seen and said, he also recorded the scene before his eyes with special eye inserts that he had programmed himself with. This would not be good news for Goag Ralus and Begalius who had finally convinced the Eigalli that opening the star-door wormhole would be a good thing. A quanta-nanocode virus did not sound like a good thing either. Svetat, unlike other Incaprican inhabitants of Goag Ralus, had not been against the Dol star-door being used. In fact Svetat had actually made the decision to come to Goag Ralus because he believed all of this to be the galactic evolution of the future taking place, and he wanted to directly take part in it.

The group communicated a request to the giant orange being for further instructions, to which the being replied, "The quanta-nanocode virus will accomplish what the contingency to shut the star-door down failed to do. There are no further instructions at this time for you. What you have already done should take Begalius so long to resolve if it ever does, that by the time the Dol star-door works again, the Poa star-door should be under our control and no longer belong to the Golimechoid."

Svetat sensed the conversation concluded, but didn't want to stop recording. This was big. Still the guards behind him were beginning to stir back to animated existence within the time stream so Svetat decided that this meeting would now be adjourned. Then Svetat suddenly swung the doors wide open and leaped toward the center of the group of Incapricans. They all were turning around to see what happened, and the giant hologram would immediately notice within the next few seconds of quanta-communication. When Svetat got close enough he activated his anti-matter powered dimensional time-warping ring that briefly created a gravitational lensing effect that rippled from Svetat in all directions like pond waves from a thrown rock splashing into the fabric of reality. After that instant everyone in the room froze still. Then both sentries ran into the room of frozen time only to stop in their tracks also frozen in time again by a beam from Svetat's ring. One of them had even stopped in mid-air not even touching the ground, remaining in the air exactly within the instant that Svetat had shot him. He looked at his ring that displayed a bar that reflected the degree of anti-matter charge still left. It had been the most he had used the ring in over a tek, and yet it still had sufficient charge. He activated a GPS beacon to bring in the authorities that were waiting for Svetat's signal.

Svetat then looked up at the hologram that still observed from beyond the effects of his ring. The quanta-communication device already operated quantum technology beyond relativistic time-space orientation. The being didn't say anything, but looked directly at Svetat with eyes that showed fierce anger along with an even brighter red glow. Svetat, for a moment, wasn't sure the hologram couldn't reach him and was, at that moment, ready for anything.

Then the hologram being just switched the quanta-communicator off and disappeared along with the hologram's ambience in the room. Svetat stood alone surrounded by about a dozen viscous lizards frozen in time.

Within three minutes the room became full of Incaprican and Eigalli authorities before Svetat even needed to shoot his ring again. The evidence would prove them guilty of sabotage and conspiracy against Goag Ralus. Goag Ralus showed up there in His Incaprican avatar form the same size as Svetat. He congratulated Svetat on a good job of tracking this meeting down.

"It'sss not all good newsss old friend," Svetat told the avatar. "There isss much evidenc(ss)e to proc(ss)esss here. The quanta-communicator sssshould have data on the loca(ss)tion of itsss lassst transssssmisssssion. Thessse culpritssss are ssserving ssssome kind of advan(ss)ced alien I've never ssseen before."

"All will be processed and analyzed old friend. Come, let's get out of this dingy place and return to Zveeden. Perhaps we can smoke some of your rompass."

That sounded good to Svetat. "Yesss, I would be honored to sssmoke with the great Goag Ralussss. One other bit of bad newsss however, the sssaboteursss of the Dol ssstar-door sssucceeded in infecting the Dol star-door with a quanta-nanocode virussss. Begaliusss mussst be made aware of thisss."

Back at Svetat's home of elaborate tapestries where he lived like an Arabian sheik, both Svetat and Goag Ralus sat on cushions each with a tube in one hand. They sucked smoke from the tubes that connected to Svetat's smoldering hookah to discuss the raid on the saboteurs. After viewing the information from Svetat's eye inserts, Goag Ralus believed that the being evolved from the ancient Nephapricans who had disappeared way back at the end of the second age of Magphoreus. According to data from the quanta-communicator, this being broadcasted from high above the galactic ellipse, and must have evolved up there where objects are more free of the plains of phantom matter patterns. As a consequence of that the being seemed to alternate in and out of solidity at will.

Svetat listened to the ingenious analysis made by Goag Ralus, but he also watched the rompass smoke that the reptilian avatar had been exhaling. The smoke told Svetat a different story from the thoughts of Goag Ralus as the puffs of smoke formed into images above the Incaprican avatar's head. Svetat saw an image of the Dol star-door wormhole bringing Goag Ralus to His fantasy of a Golimechoid bride. Svetat watched the smoke act out an alien love affair while Goag Ralus speculated on Nephaprican evolution, oblivious to the smoke He had been exhaling. As Svetat watched the rompass smoke he realized what Goag Ralus had been up to all along. Svetat watched a rompass smoke movie version of a young Goag Ralus-like being that started as a Golimechoid baby evolving over millions of years into another Goag Ralus while acquiring whole stars for energy. That had been the moment Svetat realized that Goag Ralus was after genetically compatible material from the Poa species of Golimechoid in order to reproduce.

That was the goal Goag Ralus had been up to all along while assisting the Incapricans that lived near the dieing red giant star Dol. Goag Ralus helped those Incapricans with the complicated technological accomplishment of transporting an entire malfunctioning star-door through a wormhole, all the way to the galactic core onto the surface of Goag Ralus Itself. Knowledge of this must be what had fired up these young Second Born Incapricans who have dared to betray the very being they were born and raised on. Svetat understood why sabotaging the Dol star-door had been important to the Incapricans. Svetat realized that Goag Ralus tried to have a baby. As Svetat realized this he thought that now he definitely assisted with galactic evolution like he always wanted, but he also wondered in that moment if it was really the right thing to do.

Meanwhile about 100 light years above Goag Ralus another Devaplanet mirrored the orbit of Goag Ralus at an even faster speed while angled further away from the galactic hub. The Devaplanet orbited at an angle away from the galactic pole where Ralus Xnoga still occasionally shot deadly gamma ray/x-ray blasts that managed to escape the super massive black hole's veracious appetite for giant core stars. Here the Devasura that Svetat saw sat next to a quanta-communication device disturbed by the latest complication of their plans. His name was Innanumesh, and he had been watching Goag Ralus for billions of Earth years while his Devaplanet orbited above the galactic ellipse. The Devasuras disappeared because they literally left the galaxy with its phantom matter influenced rules of existence. Here they had adapted to material and immaterial existence.

Another entity fluttered through the air toward the distressed Devasura. What began as a vaporous light then solidified into a purplish woman with an Eigalli-like telepathy horn on her head. Unlike the males, female Devasuras had evolved the extra skull above the human-like skull, which gave them telepathic and image broadcasting abilities similar to the Eigalli. Her vaporous robe did not quite hide her beautifully athletic figure. She had not been an ego-phantasm like Saturlus, but was actually a female Devasura. She looked more a purple color than orange only because she had been much much younger than the male Devasura she now visited. In fact, she was the daughter of the male Devasura.

"Oh father, why do you look so distressed? Have the Incapricans on Goag Ralus failed you?"

"Not really my daughter of concern and sympathy. The Eigalli and Goag Ralus Itself have caught up to and apprehended the movement we were cultivating down there, but they are already too late if the nanocode virus purchases for us enough time to rid the Poa star-door of the Golimechoids, whom Goag Ralus must never meet with."

"Then we no longer have use for the Incapricans down there anyway. There will be no wormholes from Goag Ralus, and no more abominations will be created. Take comfort that your plans fulfill your will."

The father smiled at the daughter as she kissed him on the forehead and then she dissolved into a puff of vapor that flew away in the distance like a ball of purple glowing light. The father watched the daughter fly away hoping her words rang truth. The Devasuras had been overseeing the galactic ellipse from giant Devaplanets like this for billions of Earth years. Their planets move about at incredible speeds above the galaxy like pieces on a giant galaxy game-board of stars. They had grown fearful and untrustworthy of the life that inherited Nephaprican technology, or that had actually been technology. Perhaps their apprehension about the way the future unfolded had been an unhealthy side effect of the old Doldorian technology of evoking ego-phantasms from deceased ancestors, which were preserved on these Devaplanets in high-tech tombs like Egyptian mummies. Ego-phantasms tended to be stuck in their ways, unable to bear the unforeseen future as they iterate unchanged by the ages like a broken record. That had been one character flaw of ego-phantasms, which Aquari often pointed out to them. Like Chronolus, this Devasura above Goag Ralus also knew some ghosts of ancient ancestors, and like them he also could not bear the thought of the Goag Ralus technology evolving into a being that reproduced solar system sized monstrosities as children.

* * *

The moment Goag Ralus told it what Svetat had learned Begalius began tracking anomalies in the Dol star-door that could be quanta-nanocode virus activity. The Dol/Poa wormhole had been scheduled to be created soon after the star Haflaxo rose on the horizon side where, at that time of the Goag Ralus year, molecular clouds shrouded a lot of the core starlight. That event happened the equivalent of the next morning in Occuitah.

It wasn't long after Begalius began its search when an utterly audacious act of quanta-nanocode came to its attention. After zooming in on the disturbance, Begalius announced to everyone that it could no longer project its hologram form on the objective reality outside. With its sights on the invasive quanta-nanocode virus, Begalius translated its ego-construct into a universe of virtual creations that mirrored the objective universe outside as a catalyst for nano-programs to exist within their own objective experience as they carried out their program functions. This was a virtual land where the Begalius ego-construct could interact with the Dol star-door functions as fellow ego constructs. They all exist within this virtual universe where the overall star-door was God, and Begalius was King. The most likely reason many lost star-doors were never heard from again had been because they floated in space while completely withdrawn into these layers upon layers of virtual quanta-optic-nanocoded realities.

Here Begalius materialized, still in its Eagolim form, upon a shaggy horse-like animal that trotted through a sandy countryside, which resembled an old desert land from the planet Doldoria. A long rimmed hat that kind of resembled what Earth cowboys wore, shadowed the blue face of Begalius. The shaggy animal looked like a wooly mammoth with a toad-like head and face that actually appeared much wider than a horse's face.

Begalius rode toward a group of rocks in the near distance after discovering that the quanta-nanocode virus had kidnapped Companion3112113 who immediately put out a distress call. They took her to this remote location for some unknown reason, but Begalius became determined to make them regret it. Begalius had actually kept many girlfriends in its virtual universe through the billions of Earth years of the Dol star-door's existence. The current favorite had become Companion3112113 who helped it with an Eigalli ego-construct body for Begalius to appear as at the wormhole opening on the physical dimension of reality tomorrow. Begalius could hear her screaming at the top of some rocks as it continued to trot closer.

The sound of a shot of gunfire sounded and a projectile whizzed past Begalius. In response Begalius produced a rifle seemingly out of nowhere with a big barrel that comically looked more like a cannon. It let out a big boom and than chips flew up at the top of the rocks where the first shot originated. Someone or something seemed to fall several feet from the top of the rocks. Then more gun-powder-like shots rang out again at Begalius in response. There could be heard a moan from the animal below Begalius and suddenly the animal dissolved into sizzling circuits of nanocode light.

Begalius bounced on the ground with its behind when the animal suddenly disappeared from under it. It then kept bouncing like a rubber ball on its behind toward the rocks as it decided to just run with it. Begalius bounced like a basketball toward the rocks until it bounced off its butt all the way to land on the top of the high rocks where the shots were fired at him. Begalius continued its rubber theme by contorting in all directions like a stretched out plastic man in time to avoid more bullets being unloaded by quanta-nanocode virus-beings.

Right in character, the villains looked like hombres desperados with dirty clothes and unshaved blue Nephaprican faces. Begalius detected an ancient Nephaprican encryption signature on the virus-beings, which seemed to explain their power and authority in its star-door networks. Begalius quickly pulled out two pistols and gunned down the culprits.

Begalius thought it had been almost too easy as it produced a cylindrical device in its hand that sucked up the virus beings, which disappeared in the cylinder even though it looked only a little larger than the hand of Begalius. Here Begalius was king, which gave it the ability to lay down reality ground rules in order to gain the advantage by being the only thing able to break those rules. It remembered the one that fell off the cliff and again stretched like a plastic man all the way to the bottom of the rocks to also suck up that opponent.

Companion3112113 stood tied up to a rock confidently watching her boyfriend and hero save the day. She appeared as a female Eagolim form with light blue skin, and the kind of curvy body that had been designed just the way Begalius liked its women.

"Oh thank you Begalius for saving me from these virus-beings," she said.

Begalius quickly untied her. "Don't worry my darling. This strange nano-code virus attacked the star-door, but I now have them in quarantine. They will rue the day they attacked my star-door."

"I was just putting the finishing touches to your Eigalli hologram when they burst into my home and abducted me. I can't compute any reason why, except maybe for some kind of a distraction."

"Not to fear now 113, I have the culprits now." Begalius often affectionately called Companion3112113 just '113' for short.

"Don't suffer from your over-confidence great star-door being." Begalius respected the wisdom of 113, who had been known to often deliver I-told-you-so-worthy advice.

The next rising of Haflaxo on the horizon against a dark sky of molecular dust illuminating a purple sky shined upon a multitude of mostly Eigalli who had gathered to directly witness the activation of the Dol star-door's mythic wormhole function. A glowing aurora borealis danced over the 100-mile wide dome of the star-door mountain, which had really been a giant sphere placed in a giant hole dug by the Eigalli to receive it. All the star-doors were built into their planets like this, like giant arcs intended to outlive the worlds they were built upon. At the base of the mountain the multitude gathered in the location where a doorway was going to be constructed. Beneath the star-door's dome an enormous wall wrapped around the equator of the sphere shaped star-door half buried in the ground, which kind of made the star-door resemble a 100-mile wide dome that filled the sky from a distance. The 100-mile diameter of the dome made this wall seem flat even though it had been a circle surrounding the whole mountain. Above an aurora danced behind a horizon where the wall spread for several miles into the sky.

Begalius had just been addressing the crowd before switching a button on a device it held in its hand. Today Begalius resembled an Eigalli instead of its previous Eagolim hologram form. It finally had the construct that Companion3112113 had worked so hard on. Deliadre stood nearby, and appeared less attracted to the Eigalli appearance of Begalius. Begalius hoped to perceive a different response from her when she saw it based on how she reacted to its Eagolim form before. Begalius concluded that she evidently preferred taller beings like Eagolim. Begalius then realized that in its current Eigalli form, its girlfriend Companion3112113 now had become uncomfortably taller than it.

In response to the button Begalius pressed, a section of the great wall began to glow and form a garage door size rectangular shape in deep blue on the white surface of the star-door. Soon the garage door sized section of wall seemed to disappear. Then a greenish glow filled the rectangular shaped hole in the wall. The crowd awed with amazement.

"This is just a portal matrix to define the shape of the wormhole to be formed." Begalius explained to the multitude with its amplification function easily heard audibly by the farthest Eigalli in the crowd. "An identical portal matrix is simultaneously forming on the Poa star door."

Deliadre stood near a quanta-communicator that projected a small crowd of Golimechoid holograms from Poa, who were there to witness the event from both sides. "The portal matrix is established on our side," she said to notify the Golimechoids who had already told her that the Poa gate also had a portal matrix established with the same exact dimensions in time/space. Star-door coordinates were being coordinated to compute the wormhole that would be formed by energy from Goag Ralus Himself. Energy danced about the dome, sending electronic charges back and fourth into the borealis in the skies above.

One of the hologram Golimechoids spoke. "Our wormhole coordinates have been locked onto your gate's coordinates. The wormhole should automatically ensue."

Begalius had been entertaining the audience with a speech when it suddenly decided to cut it short as the rectangular wormhole door glowed brighter with counter oscillating swirls of green energy.

"... when the coordinate matrix equates with the mutual calculations ... oh ...I see that has now happened. Behold my friends, the legendary Nephaprican star-door wormhole function!"

The whole area of Goag Ralus became silent as all watched with a certain fear of the event unfolding before them. A lot of Goag Ralus had been in anticipation of the history that they made in the galactic core these days.

Begalius raised its eyes up in recognition of the old familiar blue that always formed in the center of a wormhole. It appeared small at first, like a hole in the distance that grew in size and speed to become the Dol portal matrix existing in the same location as the Poa portal matrix. It looked like it just about worked when the whole portal became a blue rectangle again that looked just painted on the wall for a few seconds. The anticipation on the face of Begalius changed into concern as the blue rectangle lingered like a blue rectangle of paint on a wall. Then it all collapsed into a blue dot in the center and disappeared along with the whole portal. Nothing now left but a wall. The wormhole had collapsed.

The sound of disappointment became a painful noise to Begalius. After a painful pause the Golimechoid hologram spoke up. "The wormhole failed to make a final opening. It has collapsed we believe from your side."

Deliadre wanted to cry. "You are correct, and I am sorry. The Dol star-door had been attacked recently and the same saboteurs may have caused this to happen just now. Our side has also collapsed."

Twenty seconds later the Golimechoid said. "This is bad news for us. Please try to re-establish this doorway as soon as possible. You have the visual spectrum images of the Grulmagof fleet that we conveyed to you. Please have Goag Ralus examine them so He can help us all that He can."

At that moment a non-holographic Golimechoid appeared in the view of the holographic guests right behind Deliadre who had been hosting them. "I definitely will examine the data on the Grulmagof fleet. I am the Golimechoid avatar of Goag Ralus, and will certainly do all I can to help you."

Deliadre looked visibly surprised, having never seen Goag Ralus this way. It made sense that Goag would do this once a new species arrived here. It had just been so long since He had constructed another avatar.

Also in response, more Golimechoid holograms began to appear that were all nearby women on the Poa side that were closing in for a closer look at Goag Ralus. Goag Ralus began to sense that He would soon be experiencing a possibly uncontrollable Goag Ralus-mania from Golimechoid women. That thought did not disturb Goag Ralus at all.

After the Golimechoid disappeared one Golimechoid still stood in the quanta-communicator holograms looking a bit more transparent then the others. Begalius approached the Golimechoid hologram being projected by the quanta-communicator. "I'm so sorry Bejulitiah. My star-door has been infected with a clever quanta-nanocode virus. It played on my pride and overconfidence to make me think I had already quarantined and deleted it. Now it has full control of the wormhole functions."

Both star-door beings reached out to one another as if trying to touch. Bejulitiah, the Poa star-door quanta-nanocode being, said, "I know you will defeat the virus Begalius. I guess you now have your work laid out before you."

Soon the conversation ended, and the disappointed multitude remorsefully made their way back to their homes. Making a wormhole with the Dol star-door would now become more controversial than ever before to the Eigalli who were already fearful of unexpected consequences. Begalius swore to Goag Ralus that it would fix the star-door. It would stay in contact with the star-door interfaces, but would not be seen again in the physical realm until the entire quanta-nanocode virus could be deleted. Begalius then disappeared.

Goag Ralus spoke audibly with a Golimechoid appendage that He had evolved to make audible language. "I must face the wisdom that confronts me from the words of Begalius."

Deliadre could perceive the same wisdom. "You mean that we probably won't see Begalius again in our realm for at least the rest of this tek?"

"Yes Deliadre. Begalius identified the virus signature as enshrined in ancient Nephaprican authority and credentials. It is designed to take the star-door control away from Begalius and has already proved smarter this time around."

"You mention Nephaprican authority, which compels me to show You this image of the Grulmagof fleet that the Golimechoid gave me. These are the battle ships poised to attack Poa-3 soon." She held up a device that looked like a picture frame, which displayed four giant pyramid shaped ships. "The Grulmagof evidently began constructing these ships about a half tek ago. One has been appearing about every eighth of a tek." (A little less than every 40 Earth years.) "These are an ancient Nephaprican design that the Eagolim still use such as the Mynervood that is flown by Beagud in the Orion arm. Not even the Eagolim could construct one of these in less than a fourth of a tek. The Grulmagof must be getting very sophisticated assistance with these enormous Nephaprican designed battle ships."

Goag Ralus examined the image while remembering similar ships that were still flying around the stars that orbited His seven gravity-generating spikes. They were probably beyond the industrial capabilities of the Grulmagof species, but also, even after all these billions of Earth years of evolving, Goag Ralus conceded that on Magphoreus much stranger things have happened before.

* * *

Over 15,000 light years away at the edge of the Carina arm of Magphoreus, one of those giant pyramid ships pointed its view ports down upon the Poa Nebula where the pulsar flashed against the purple and orange gas and dust to make the whole purple nebula flutter like giant wings. In fact, on a nearby planet yet undiscovered by either Golimechoid or Grulmagof, there were primitive beings who gave this area of the sky a name equivalent to "firefly," or "flying insect of light." That had been because the Poa pulsar made the nebulae look like one of the planet's domestic insects flying still in the same place up in the sky. The pyramid ships were part of an ongoing Grulmagof siege of the Golimechoid's home planet Poa-3. This had gone on for many generations of the current rise of galactic Grulmagof civilization. With the introduction of the new pyramid battle cruisers the ultimate goal of attacking and eradicating this sector of space of all Golimechoid would soon be realized.

Commander Spuktar was the Grulmagof commander of the third pyramid ship in the fleet. This was the same species as Turgis Riva, the last emperor of Nephapricus way back in the second age, but now the species had evolved hairless bodies that made them look like pink hairless hamsters that walked on hind legs. Commander Spuktar awaited the new accelerated particle beam gunner who arrived in the space shuttle docking bay. He liked personally greeting the newly recruited to make them feel at ease with his command. The space shuttle docked flawlessly with the main ship.

Soon the docking bay door opened, and the commander of the shuttle along with some crew got off first to salute Commander Spuktar with a right fist pounding twice on the left chest. The Commander pounded his left side chest twice in response. Then the recruit he had been waiting for, in full uniform with a gunner's rank, emerged from the bay door.

The recruit immediately approached the Commander and pounded his chest twice, then stood at attention. "Corporal Bregruff, 3rd Gunnery Particle Beam qualified reporting for duty Commander Spuktar Respected One."

"Be in relaxed state Corporal. I'm here to show you to your quarters and to advise you to be at ease with my command. I run an efficient battle ship command here, but we all know we can speak our minds without repercussions. Come. Your room is this way."

"I will be advised Commander. I look forward to cutting Golimechoid ships to pieces with my gunner skills."

"Make sure you cut all the pieces as fine as possible. In the Rogald Straights War there were Golimechoids in pieces of destroyed space craft that actually survived and found their way into the ship to shoot them to bits, and they almost killed everyone aboard."

"I've been told such stories of the despicable Golimechoid resilience."

Commander Spuktar couldn't talk enough about killing Golimechoids. He led the new Corporal by way of a main deck view port area. "Golimechoid can survive almost any environment or temperature. You have to really cut them to pieces to make sure they are completely dead." He gestured to the blinking Poa Nebulae as they entered a view port area. "There it is, the objective of this mission. We've pushed the Golimechoid all the way back to this, their home world. It's now a desolate wasteland of what once was the legendary capital of the great Star-Door Empire Nephapricus of the Second Age of Magphoreus. Now it is polluted and laid to waste by the fowl radioactive Golimechoid shit they defecate everywhere. The legendary star-door is still down there. Our objective is to eradicate the planet of Golimechoid life forms and take back control of the star-door. Then we can at last try to restore the planet to its previous unpolluted glory."

"I look forward my Commander to serving your cause with my gunnery skills." The new guy became nervously eager to impress. Also in the view were two of the other four pyramid ships. The new recruit found himself filled with an all-too-familiar awe of the engineering feat involved in constructing these giant space ships. "How did we manage to create such a marvel of a deep space war ship?"

"I'm afraid that's classified information Corporal. Come. This way is the cafeteria you'll be eating at, and your quarters are not far past that."

As they walked out of the main deck view port area Commander Spuktar turned to once again appreciate the engineering marvel that had been the pyramid battle cruiser. There were currently only four in existence, but once five had been created then the mission could move forward as planned. Five of these ships could irradiate the home planet to virtually kill off all life Golimechoid or not. There was no longer any other life anymore on the uninhabitable Poa-3 to worry about, except the Golimechoid with their moldy electronic DNA gamma synthesizing planet life.

It had been true that Golimechoid defecation became a very toxic radioactive by-product of their existence with a radioactive 700-year half-life, but that compelled them to choose uninhabitable worlds to colonize. That virtue had been built into the electronic DNA. They actually were slow to take over Poa-3 for that reason, and at first were very careful in disposing their waste after conquering the post-Nephaprican Nephapricus. Usually the Golimechoid used the processing of sewage waste to power reactors as a secondary energy source. After many wars and ages later the planet became ruined early in the 3rd age of Magphoreus. All of that had really become a long-distance memory from before its own red giant star swallowed the planet. The fact was that the Golimechoid saved the planet from oblivion when Poa exploded. Commander Spuktar had never been conditioned to consider that, and remained driven by an intense hatred of Golimechoid that were regarded as a technological blunder of the long lost Nephapricans; left behind in the galaxy like a galactic mold, or planetary cancer.

The Commander did know something about the classified secret of creating these giant war-ships. He knew that they were actually made with assistance from the descendants at the ancient Nephapricans. Commander Spuktar had once been privileged to be introduced to one of these beings that were over twice the size of a Grulmagof. They evolved beyond the dark matter plain that Magphoreus sat upon and thus could control their mass and density. They called themselves Devasuras who now lived their lives for what equated to billions of Earth years. They turned the lost Nephapricus stars into Devaplanets that they then flew faster then the speed of light above Magphoreus like great immortal galactic overseers.

Commander Spuktar of the Grulmagof, and the Pyramid Ships

Some Devasuras that choose to live upon the galactic ellipse become extremely dense beings who no longer could become ethereal at all. They were called Asuras, and were nearly indestructible when adapted to the galaxy's dark matter plain. It had been an Asura that Commander Spuktar was actually privileged to meet when he had been given a tour of the pyramid ship building operations. These giant indestructible beings had even further evolved the already legendary skills of Nephaprican architecture and engineering. They had been secretly assisting the Grulmagof civilization in creating the legendary pyramid ships of the Nephapricans. The Commander later, after introducing himself to the recruit, returned to the view port area to watch the blinking nebula again, and he broadcast his hatred upon the last refuge of Golimechoid civilization currently blockaded by the Grulmagof fleet. So far the Golimechoid had not tried to oppose the blockade, but would probably soon try something. Commander Spuktar wanted to live to see the day when all Golimechoid in the galaxy were dead.

Devasuras knew that Goag Ralus would quickly master star-door wormhole technology, and feared what their ancestor's creations would yet evolve from star-door knowledge. That was why there were Asuras assisting the newly re-risen Grulmagof civilization that still had not quite risen to galactic maturity. Control of the ancient star-doors had still been much to be desired by the Devasuras who were evolved to live for billions of Earth years.

In a deep space station orbiting far above the old planet Poa-3 had been the reason for Devasura concern. The Golimechoid had been constructing a secret program in this space station called Young Brain. The program grew and thought in anticipation to being uploaded into a newly born Goag Ralus-like being. Young Brain learned to grow a self-awareness that would grow into a surface area, which had been the equivalent to several millions of trillions of planet Jupiters.

Eventually Zlooptoo arrived with the disappointing news about the Poa/Dol wormhole collapse. Young Brain had been entertaining neural patterns earlier anticipating that it would meet its future father this very day through the Poa/Dol wormhole. Young Brain worried about the giant Grulmagof ships that were gathering to destroy it along with all of its mother's kind. Zlooptoo just stood in the room with the floating sphere of Young Brain technology, not wanting to leave Young Brain alone until she knew that Young Brain would be alright. All the sphere of machinery did was to make dissonant noises mixed with a hiccupping hum. Zlooptoo knew Young Brain long enough to know what that noise was, and had no other comfort to offer, but to remain in the room until Young Brain finally finished crying.

* * *

The main difference between computer programming on Earth and quanta-nanocode programming was that the latter had been done on the subatomic level of existence to inundate the entire nature of reality. The ancients created quanta-nanocode when they learned to control two of the phenomenon documented by quantum physics. The first would be the subatomic applications of virtual particle physics when Nephapricans mastered control of the exchange of virtual particles between atoms, which held all atoms and molecules together. The second would be mastery and control of the phenomenon of the quantum states of atoms. With this knowledge evolved the quantum-bit that used molecules as a basis for storing computer information, or data reflected by the controlled atomic state of each atom in a quantum-bit molecule. Quanta-nanocode languages were created from the virtual particle exchange patterns that stored information in quantum states of quantum-bit molecules. On that level of computing control could be attained by the god-like ability to program a holographic quanta-optic-nanocode being with the power to imitate solidity such as Begalius. Also on that level of programming, a being like Begalius could create its own personal star-door universe of friends that were star-door functions, and quanta-nanocode programs who all existed as digital nanocode beings in a virtual reality where Begalius ruled supreme.

Begalius had now become the form of an Eigalli thanks to the quanta-optic-nanocode designing of Companion3112113. It visited a lush virtual garden bathed in a luminous morning light of gold that sparkled in the plentiful droplets of morning dew. Begalius approached another inhabitant of this star-door virtual reality known as The Gardener. The Gardener had his back to Begalius as he looked from under a hooded cloak at a 15 branch leafless tree that gave off a golden glow that faded into the simulation of the blue sky where the Doldoria day set ablaze by the star Dol. The simulation of the Dol star illuminated a morning sky that resembled the planet Doldoria, or Dol-2 in all its ancient second galactic age glory.

Begalius spoke to acquire The Gardener's attention. "The Dol/Poa branch is going to lose its fruit, isn't it Gardener?"

The Gardener did not look at Begalius, but instead leaned over to the Dol/Poa branch of the wormhole star-door connection tree, which had a small budding piece of fruit that looked like a shriveling prune. The branch leading up to the fruit became darker than the rest of the tree. "The fruit doesn't look like it will make it as long as this invasive nanocode infection is collapsing the connection to the tree trunk. It looked like the wormhole tree would bear a fruit and finally blossom after a millennium of 15 empty branches, but now that looks like a false hope."

Begalius stood next to the Gardener while pushing its nose up to the dying piece of fruit on the branch. "The virus replicates faster than my ability to quarantine so far."

At that Begalius morphed into a cloud of vapor above the branch that squished itself like a sponge to morph into a stream of water that soaked right into the branch. The Gardener showed increased interest in the patch of darkness on the branch Begalius had just disappeared into. Flashes of lighter branch started appearing on the branch itself. Suddenly the branch squirted a stream of water that morphed back into Begalius who had its arm around the neck of a blue Nephaprican with yellow hair. The ancient Nephaprican was now on its knees with long blond hair that covered its head and face. It looked kind of like a blue Viking to the Earth eye, and displayed strange tattoos all over its body.

Begalius smiled at The Gardener. "I catch these programs all the time, but they're just creations of a central virus processor that I still need to get to." He shook its virtual prisoner. "Who are you working for virus?!?"

The blue being became noticeably afraid. "I just follow my central programming orders. I ... I don't know where the boss is?"

Begalius took its cylindrical quarantine mechanism from its pocket and sucked the Nephaprican being up like something being sucked up into a vacuum cleaner. "That's the only story I get from these lackeys. Please do what you can for the wormhole tree Gardener. I'm going to continue my pursuit of the virus's central processing unit and get back control of my star-door."

"I will do all I can my old friend Begalius. The virus influence threatens to inundate the entire star-door. It already oppresses the city of Doldoor, and threatens to take over control."

"That's where my hunt for the central processor of the virus must begin."

Begalius traveled from there to the virtual city of Doldoor, which existed in its own virtual star-door quanta-nanocode programmed reality. The city of Doldoor had been created by Begalius to be a replica of primitive fossil-fuel age Pripican culture from long before there ever had been a galactic empire called Nephapricus, or even a Nephrican space program. Begalius had been inspired by readings about Pripican gangsters that it had enjoyed billions of Earth years before, during its formative programming. Begalius really just liked the styles of the automobiles at the time. Now the peaceful city became much more like those old gangster stories as a new gang in town exerted its influence on the local populace through thuggish extortion and drive-by gangster shootings. Most virtual inhabitants were in the form of Eagolim like Companion3112113. Programs in the form of Eagolim were a comparable size to the virus gangsters who took the form of ancient Nephapricans. The Nephaprican looking programs were like the same giant blue beings as the hairless Eagolim except that they had hair, which they proudly displayed at length with thick braids like old Vikings from Earth. Some inhabitants of Doldoor were of a smaller stature than Eagolim. They took the form of the Incaprican species of reptile that, for hundreds of millions of Earth years made up the beings that took over control of the Dol star-door at the end of the Second Age of Magphoreus. Incaprican civilization simply assumed control of the Dol star-door after the Nephapricans of that part of the galaxy simply ended up becoming extinct. They were a smaller human-like reptile species with green scales and large dark buggy eyes.

The program that managed the replication functions that were providing the Eigalli with all the new plants and animals that they currently enjoyed from genetic databanks took the form of a Dol Incaprican reptile. It had been managing a corner store in Doldoor city that enjoyed a large increase of business lately. Unfortunately that business had been followed by large blue bullies with hair everywhere that came there demanding that it close its store. They had authentic Nephaprican certifications, but the replication program told them it only took orders from Begalius, and had refused to close the store.

Now the store program behind the shop counter sensed that something was wrong. Already business seemed frightened away and even the streets outside had become empty. "Something is not right," the store program said out-loud to itself. There could be heard the sound of an old fossil fuel vehicle driving up the street outside. "I don't like this," said the store program as an internal combustion engine vehicle noise approached. It pointed at the floor below, which in response morphed into a door on the floor behind the store counter. The store program opened it and jumped within just a split second before automatic gunpowder weapons sounded off while windows of glass shattered to pieces and everything in the store exploded with a rainfall of bullets. There had been a terrorized tension caused by events like this, which had blanketed the streets of Doldoor for some time now.

In an apartment in the downtown area of Doldoor Begalius had been hanging out with 113. She brought Begalius up-to-date about the Nephaprican gangs that came around asking for Begalius. She told Begalius that it can't stay there for long or they would find it. She sat on the bed wondering if Begalius listened to a single word she said as Begalius prepared her makeup mirror to interface with reality beyond. Begalius thought it had now become a lot shorter than the Eagolim-looking 113 since taking on the form of an Eigalli, and maybe it had become time for a new girlfriend.

Deliadre's face appeared on the apartment makeup mirror, and looked at Begalius. "Begalius! It's good to hear from you. How goes the virus debugging?"

"It is trying to take over all the star-door functions. If it can't take control of me it is going to take over the loyalty of all the star-door functions. I just need to shut down the central virus that gives out all the orders to the other virus programs running around."

Deliadre sighed at the challenge faced by Begalius. "Out here we have learned that the source of your virus comes from beings that evolved from the Nephapricans of the great disappearance. They are large orange skinned beings who have been following Goag Ralus from above the galactic plain on a giant protoplanet; probably made out of one of the long lost stars."

"This is all very fascinating, and explains my other difficulty with this virus. It has Nephaprican credentials threatening to turn the whole star-door against me, and then I will be the virus."

They continued to talk while Begalius fished for any clue about the Devasuras. It found very interesting the fact that Incapricans had to write the program from instructions communicated by the Devasuras. A quanta-nanocode virus can't be delivered by a quanta-communicator. Incapricans are not the same skill-level as Devasuras, which should provide Begalius with some kind of advantage.

The communication had been cut short when 113 screamed. "Begalius! The door!" That had been the instant a loud knock beat rapidly on the apartment door. Begalius said, "Don't worry," to Deliadre as it pulled its vest aside to reveal a shoulder strapped pistol. Begalius quickly darted by the apartment door with its back against the wall. It pulled out the cylindrical quarantine device and twisted it onto the end of the pistol like a silencer. Begalius gestured to 113 to open the door, but the pounding didn't wait that long. Suddenly the door became kicked open and a big blue goon entered in time to grab 113. Begalius instantly sucked the virus being up in its pistol in time to dodge a bullet from the other Nephaprican shaped thug. Then 113 leapt on the bed to crouch against the headboard away from the melee.

Begalius had been about to suck the other thug into its quarantine mechanism when 113 said, "Oh Begalius! They'll send more thugs. When will this end? I'm gonna have to move."

It knew this was just going to be an endless battle to quarantine the minions, but if captured they would probably bring it to the boss it had been looking for. Begalius hesitated on the trigger to think for a moment. "You are right 113." Then Begalius pointed the pistol straight up away from the target. The virus thug didn't hesitate.

A gun went off. Companion3112113 filled the room with a loud blood-curdling scream. Begalius gripped its left side, speaking in a whisper. "Ahhhh! They got me 113. This should get me taken where I need to go. .... Where the central processor progra....." Then Begalius collapsed on the floor. Another blood curdling scream came from 113 that echoed out the window into the already frightened streets of Doldoor below.

"Now don't be struggling Begalius. We got you tied up real good." Begalius awakened to find itself tied to a chair with a virus goon standing on each side of it. They pointed guns in the face of Begalius. In front of the chair a boss's desk left the distinct impression that the bearded blue fat guy behind it in the desk's large chair must be the boss.

"You gave me quite a fight star-door being, but now you're gonna listen to my offer and you can take it or leave it. I hope for your sake you take my offer."

Begalius still sounded defiant as it said. "Ok, what's your offer?"

"You're gonna relinquish control of the star-door to me! Ya see? I'll call the shots and you do what I say." The head of the fat Nephaprican had risen from its seat stretching its neck like a rubber band as it said that. It pushed its blue face with long reddish blond beard into Begalius like a stretching rubber blue Viking cartoon.

"Or what?" Begalius chided. "What are you gonna do virus man?" Begalius noticed in its defiance that the ropes were working very well to confine it to the chair. The boss's Nephaprican face stretched non-anatomically over the desk into Begalius's smaller Eigalli face below its horn while saying. "You must succumb to my authentic Nephaprican credentials. You can not refuse me."

The bosses eyes flickered with quanta-nanocode languages Begalius couldn't stop itself from seeing. Begalius just smiled and said, "That's all you got? A virus with 'authentic Nephaprican credentials' may have power over a lesser program but not Begalius the star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being. I'm gonna figure out these ropes too and then I'll have an offer for you."

The boss seemed perplexed that its authority signature didn't work. It gestured to the guards. "Ok then put this clown in the infinite loop for awhile until you're ready to take my offer more seriously."

One of the guard's pistols morphed into a taser-like device and it shot Begalius in the side of the skull. Instead of Begalius's skull exploding, a giant flash of light engulfed Begalius who disappeared while its fading voice cried, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no! Not aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagain. Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii've allllllllllllllllllllread .. d ... d. dy beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen in onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne of thessssssssssssssssse!"

The ropes that were wrapped around Begalius collapsed into the suddenly empty chair. The boss smiled at the guards. "He'll start seeing things our way soon enough." They all burst out into devilish laughter that filled the room, and went ominously out the window to echo throughout the Doldoor streets outside; taunting all the star-door programs that were just trying to live their lives in peace.

Begalius had already been a victim of a quanta-nanocode infinite loop program, and determined already to not become a victim of such a program twice. Begalius had already devised a self-kill program incorporated into Companion3112113's Eigalli-looking quanta-optic-nanocode construct, which it could activate remotely from within an infinite loop prison. It would teleport the current ego-construct program and re-initialize it outside the infinite loop. From within this virtual reality it became unclear where outside of the loop the self-kill would place the reconstructed quanta-optic-nanocode form of Begalius. That ended up being a sewer drainage pipe just outside of Doldoor. Begalius spewed from the pipe into a gully to splash in a shallow puddle of water. Begalius stood up soaking wet in the water to face the glowing lights of its beautiful virtual city of Doldoor that had now become under siege. The sounds of drive-by shootings reached out from the distance. The replicated Sun of Doldoor happened to be the star Dol being depicted during its pre-red giant days, and it began to rise on the morning horizon that showed the shape of the city. "That's the end of our first encounter Mr. Central Processor Boss virus, but there will be a rematch. I swear it."

* * *

Begalius had disappeared for several Earth years of time on its quest to rid the star-door of the quanta-nanocode virus. It kept in touch with Deliadre and others in the physical realm, and they did what they could to help Begalius. Much of the star-door had been shut down for this reason. The aura borealis was no longer visible above the 100-mile wide domed-shaped star-door mountain, and the gifts to the Eigalli from the genetic databanks stopped being produced. Begalius had assured them that victory was inevitable and Begalius served no other purpose but to stop the quanta-nanocode virus. Deliadre conveyed this to Goag Ralus while He appeared to the Golimechoid in His Golimechoid avatar form when the wormhole failed, and then Begalius disappeared. Goag Ralus had finally got over shyness about appearing in Golimechoid form around His immediate friends.

The Golimechoid communication that Goag Ralus had become the Golimechoid avatar for had been actually a big event with many residents of Goag Ralus attending. Deliadre had been interviewed by the Eigalli media that showed intense interest in the ongoing story of Begalius vs. the Quanta-Nanocode Virus. Even Svetat teleported to Occuitah from Zveeden to attend this particular Goag Ralus / Poa quanta-communicator event. Goag Ralus had evolved an appendage that spoke Eigalli light and shape, and also another appendage spoke verbal Eigalli. Both appendages were out of a side of His Golimechoid head, making Him look like a snake with four octopus arms.

After the nearly instantaneous communication with Poa-3 over 15,000 light years away had been completed, the event became a party afterwards with food and refreshments. Eigalli took their eating seriously, and telepathy must burn lots of calories because, for all their love of food, they were not at all notorious for having obesity problems.

Deliadre complemented Goag Ralus. "Your Golimechoid avatar must be very attractive to the Golimechoid women. More and more females just kept pushing themselves into the holographic field to see and be seen by You."

Goag Ralus made an embarrassed laughing noise before broadcasting, "I think their Golimechoid culture assigns much physical attraction to a being's status and class. They evidently do find My status and class very attractive."

Svetat showed up nearby listening to the conversation. He interjected. "Perhaps the Golimechoid women also find your fully functional genitalia with functioning chromosome exchange mechanisms attractive."

Goag Ralus seemed shocked by the implication. He spoke to Svetat in a low tone so only the two of them could hear. "You can see that with your highly evolved eyes Svetat?"

"I guessed that with my highly evolved wisdom Goag Ralus, and I evidently guessed right." The conversation had moved aside to further assure it was only the two of them.

"So you know?" The mighty Goag Ralus seemed uncharacteristically nervous about the whole thing. Of all His friends, Svetat seemed the least likely to accept His plan to reproduce.

Svetat finished the sentence from Goag Ralus. "...that you are genetically compatible with the Golimechoid, and intend to reproduce through them?"

Goag Ralus became suddenly apologetic. "I fear that you don't approve."

"You must fear that of Deliadre too since she doesn't seem to know." Svetat felt humbled that his opinion mattered to this multi-billion-year-old being that had evolved from impossibly highly evolved technologies. "You revealed everything to me back when we smoked rompass at my place."

"It's not like I even want to rush into the idea," Goag Ralus said embarrassed. "I would first want to meet the right mother. The child will be mostly Golimechoid for the first quarter tek."

Svetat smiled and placed his hand on one of the left shoulder appendages of Goag Ralus. "You have my approval Goag Ralus, but tread cautiously into the galactic politics you are stirring up. You must know this is why Begalius has disappeared within the star-door to fix the sabotaged wormhole generator. Many believe that I journeyed to you in order to live out my final days upon your endless surface, but I actually came here to help with the galaxy's evolution because You already are that."

"You are wise counsel as usual My old friend. I am now aware of superior beings that disapprove. They orbit above us a hundred light years away." Goag Ralus referred to the Devaplanet they had discovered following them. "They have now been orbiting the galaxy exactly parallel to My orbit for over a thousand teks."

* * *

(Some more history from Eigalli databanks)

The Nephaprican empire of the 2nd age grew in knowledge and technologies that were ages ahead of other intelligent life in the galaxy, and Nephapricus had been truly a universal wonder to behold. Because of Nephaprican's expanding influence, many aspiring species braved the cold infinite distances between stars, assured that other stars did have planets, and that there was life out there after all. Many were willing thralls to the chores that became below the dignity of the Nephapricans who were self-proclaimed superior beings. In addition to ships that traveled at unimaginable speeds, the Nephapricans developed other technologies that spun off the physics behind the star-door technologies, such as a method of communication between any distance in the galaxy where a proper receiver could be found. After a couple million years they could and did begin making and destroying whole planets and stars. That began to draw the attention and ire of another galactic empire that also thrived in the galaxy, which proved irreconcilably alien to the Nephapricans and their ambitions.

After a couple hundred million Earth years the Nephaprican Empire claimed territory that spread to the far ends of Magphoreus along three of the seven great arms, Carina, Orion, and Scutun-Crux where many colonies of Eagolim civilizations spread out. To the Incapricans, the Nephapricans seemed to be upstarts who were immature in an evolutionary sense. The Incapricans also spread throughout the Scutun-Crux arm of Magphoreus millions of years before the rise of Nephapricans, and they had already spread to as far as the Carina arm where Nephapricans gained knowledge of their existence, and learned about the athletic Incaprican journeys across the vast distances. Many star faring Incaprican (reptilian) races lived their whole existence aboard deep space travel vessels that were whole worlds in themselves, and marvels of terrestrial engineering. Many of these ships probably still float around out there in space, seeking a calm, peaceful, and warm cranny of the galaxy to colonize. The Incapricans were the various species of reptilian-like genetic makeup that had attained a life span that knew memories reaching back for several million Earth years. Incapricans gained dominance of the Scutun-Crux arm of the galaxy by seeding it from one or maybe more cluster galaxies that were swallowed by that arm early on in the beginnings of the second golden age of Magphoreus.

The Nephapricans were just not impressed with the Incaprican's simpler technologies, and they seemed to refuse to accept the wisdom of their mathematics, dismissing it as not much more than primitive mysticism and superstitions. There were two types of Incapricans known as First Born who were ancient long-lived races of reptiles. They lived very long lives for millions and millions of Earth years, and then there were the Child Races developed by the ancient First Born to be sent out to surrounding star systems. Some First Born species also grew in stature with their enormous life span to become giant beings that evolved extra hearts and brains to become like walking skyscrapers. Although tensions were undeniable, there had also been some bonding between the Eagolim colonies and the Incapricans who it is told in ancient lore helped the Nephaprican adventurers across the deep voids between stars along the Carina and Scutun-Crux arms of the galaxy.

The Incapricans took issue with the Nephaprican approach to the galaxy as their own tapestry to arrange as they pleased while Incapricans tended to evolve along with the rules that made the galaxy into whatever future it made itself into. Nephapricans were using energies and technologies so vast and sophisticated that they were moving whole stars about through wormholes to new locations and destroying and rebuilding gas giant planets into terrestrial worlds. The empire's ability to construct a custom made planetary system became an ability noticed by the Incapricans across the otherwise silent distances of the void.

Galactic war had been swift and vicious where each side would be quick to work out a truce. The economics and physics of the matter made war in space more self-sacrificing than beneficial. In space, life or death could only be as thick as the radiation shielding of a ship and no empire could afford the tremendous cost of war-shattered accomplishments that already held together like a house of cards. Therefore a line became formally drawn between the Carina and Scuton-Crux arms of Magphoreus, which didn't stop the Nephaprican's reckless galactic architecture and renovations from spreading beyond Scuton-Crux to the very center of the galaxy itself. There, at the galactic core, the greatest accomplishment of the Nephapricans known as Goag Ralus had been constructing the latest seventh arm of the galaxy named Fybrolus for billions of Earth years now. The Fybrolus arm still spun off of Ralus Xnoga to this day to shoot whole star systems up the arm in orbits around the mighty Magphoreus.

The galaxy renovating years became the peak of the Nephaprican empire after over 400,000,000 Earth years beyond the first journey between the stars Ea and Poa, which by then became stars a good quarter of the galaxy apart after 400 million Earth years of galactic orbit. Many peripheral alien races participated in the great galactic civilization, and they populated the emptiness between the stars with their own vessels during a golden age of technologies. After the reptile/mammal war between the galactic arms, (where reptile proved more determined to endure sacrifice then the technologically superior mammals who evidently had more to lose,) the Nephapricans then demonstrated a new wisdom attained from the experience of galactic war. This had been because even for the most technologically divine galactic civilization, life had still been a precarious miracle that could be snuffed out in one wrong move. The reality of Magphoreus was viciousness and dangerousness that were only insulated by a cocoon of coldness and unimaginably vast distances that made up space itself.

When the Nephaprican Empire became over 478,000,000 Earth years old the empire suffered the calamity of the star-door star Fedor unexpectedly going nova. The exploding star destroyed the planets that were thriving with natural life as well as the Nephaprican colonies in the same system. That would not even be the whole extent of the calamity as the star Gralga soon after also went nova to destroy its habitable life-giving planet. Now two of the 15 great star-door planets were destroyed for all time along with billions and billions of intelligent lives, not to mention the lesser life that thrived on two naturally habitable planets. The Fedor and Gralga star-doors also disappeared although they probably still exist. The event almost destroyed all 15 stars. While Gralga had been thousands of light years away from Fedor, it had still been the closest star-door star to the Fedor nova. Whatever went wrong with the physics of the initial fusion of 15 stars, the Nephapricans in their god-like technological wisdom and knowledge were able to correct the problem and save the remaining 13 stars along with their amazing time/space folding star-doors. Nephapricans of Doldorian decent inhabited both stars Fedor and Gralga, and this cut off those Eagolim civilizations from the rest of the empire, which had spread out from those destroyed star-doors. The communication system still worked, but these Eagolim became the lost wayfarers of the galaxy with only warp technologies to weave their influences from star to star.

At the peak of this Nephaprican empire Magphoreus had become a mighty complex element-forging being who it could be argued attained a form of self-awareness with the benefit of billions of trillions of intelligent beings all aware of their place in the universe. Goag Ralus has since come to embody this galactic self-awareness. The galaxy evolved beings capable of appreciating first hand the kaleidoscopic shows of the star-forming novas of collected dust and debris, instead of observing through the primitive telescope technologies of lesser-evolved planetary beings. All this seemed to have declined after 478 million Earth years of galactic civilization growth. Nephapricans became more and more secretive in their travels and designs.

Perhaps a new calling to Nephaprican existence replaced their obvious boredom with tending the herds of intelligent alien races that were trying to master technology and space travel in hopes to become like the great Nephaprican masters of time and space. Nephapricans were the stuff of legends throughout the galaxy, but they still suffered an inferiority complex over not living very long lives compared to rival reptile races. Reptile races were also perfecting the more sophisticated Nephaprican tricks of traveling outside of reality just enough to slide along time and space faster than light using the fusion energies of a technologically sophisticated warp drive. That could have been the crux of what drove the Nephapricans to do what they did soon after the next nova event 586 million years into the legendary Nephaprican galactic empire. What happened next would be known as the legendary disappearance of the Nephapricans along with seven of the great star-doors, and the stars that powered them.

The great disappearance happened after the call to the Eagolim to return to the home stars. Of course not all responded to the call. By this time the Negolim had dwindled, and because of shorter lives they had evolved very different from the Eagolim who were numerous throughout the offshoot galactic colonies that stretched to the far ends of Magphoreus. There had evidently been a reason for the great call of return that went beyond just nostalgic reunion. The Negolim employed the Eagolim for their mischief at the galactic center, since the Eagolim were better able to live to have their children's children's children's ....(several more children's) ... children's children see the end of a journey to the galactic core.

The galaxy Magphoreus still continued hard at work manufacturing heavy elements and stars out of what began as a universe of mostly just single proton hydrogen atoms. The star of Earth orbits the galaxy every 200 million years or so, and has been at it for about 4 billion Earth years now during this 3rd Age of Magphoreus. Aquari still traveled the galaxy as the third age emerged from its dark age beginnings. Goag Ralus still orbited Ralus Xnoga and spun a new star nebula into a new orbit every thousand or so Earth years. Goag Ralus had really been a deviation on the idea of Golimechoid life forms, however Goag Ralus existed as a single being hundreds of solar masses wide with no method of reproduction. Goag Ralus was, for all intents and purposes, an immortal being who created stars and planets in the galactic core like the mythical Earth god. There were beings of many galactic civilizations who had braved the journey across thousands of light years of time and space to behold Goag Ralus.

Beings of all varieties have all responded to a call similar to the legendary Nephaprican migration call to the core, and they cultivate their civilizations on the surface of Goag Ralus where this being lovingly controlled the gravity and atmospheres. Many cultures lived on Goag Ralus and they worked with the great planet-maker in the divine purpose of creating new customized life-giving star systems to then send into galactic orbit about the great ancient galaxy called Magphoreus. Aquari could communicate with Goag Ralus when he visited, and he still often traveled there to visit and tell Goag Ralus about the life that found its day in the sun on the outskirts of the galaxy where life stretched out in abundance like sprawling galactic suburbs. A ring of life circled Magphoreus like the rings of Saturn. At the sprawling outskirts of Magphoreus the galactic geometry had been scaled down by the evolution of the universe to a smaller scale of light and mass where life could become capable of cascading into existence along a path of complex molecules.

This had become the delight of Goag Ralus in this being's larger than life existence. Life would be the fascination of Goag Ralus who acted like a giant galactic mother goddess, or maybe more like a child with His own galactic ant farm. Aquari also liked to visit the Eigalli who lived on Goag Ralus under the light of one of its seven suns that were each consisting of several solar masses in size. The Eigalli were descendants of the Eagolim who traveled here to build Goag Ralus over 4 billion Earth years ago. So ends this tale of the three ages of Magphoreus and the mystery of the cosmic being called Aquari from ancient databanks preserved by the Eigalli.

* * *

While Begalius quested for the virus in the core of Magphoreus, Aquari flew through the Scuton-Crux arm of the galaxy. Aquari pondered that his trajectory had taken him only about 200 light-years from the Sree Seree civilization. Aquari recalled discovering these beings millions of Earth years ago with assistance from Svetat the First Born. Svetat had been a younger gallivanting space adventurer at that time, with his own warp-fusion virtual particle drive ship that he used to smuggle anything of value between rival Incaprican galactic civilizations.

Svetat had been chased at the time by primitive terrestrial mammal aliens who had somehow become exposed to Incaprican galactic civilization. Some aliens of terrestrial nature can benefit from this exposure to become prematurely galactic. There always had been a consistent problem with lesser-evolved species acquiring the ability to travel between stars before their time. The aliens chasing Svetat were that kind of a species, and they used the technology they inherited to become pirates of the surrounding galactic cultures.

Four large alien battleships were chasing Svetat into a cloud of nebulae dust with faster-than-light pulse lasers. Svetat hoped he would manage to lose the well-armed pirates. Although Svetat was guilty of Incaprican smuggling violations at the time, he still decided to send out a sector-wide distress signal in case that was going to be his only hope of salvation here. No Incapricans ever responded to that signal, but Aquari happened to be flying in the area and perceived it. The old cosmic curiosity sent Aquari on an intercept course with the distress call.

Then Svetat discovered the Sree Seree planet, concealed deep within the galactic dust cloud he had ducked into hoping to evade his pursuers. They lived on a peaceful little planet that orbited a white dwarf star similar to Tze-Doldus in size. Svetat sought refuge on their world. He ended up captured in a force field, and surrounded by hundreds of small beings who were the Sree Seree.

The Sree Seree, for all anyone knows, never ventured beyond their single planet, which only technically defined them as terrestrial beings. They were probably even more advanced than the legendary Nephapricans who attained the star-door technology. Sree Seree seemed to have different uses for that knowledge other than speeding along from star to star. Svetat found himself teleported into Sree Seree captivity, surrounded by a multitude of beings that were barely 12 inches tall at best.

Svetat had not actually been an unwelcome guest, and would have been allowed to leave, but unfortunately the pirates also discovered the Sree Seree world at that moment, and assumed four battle cruisers were enough to take over a primitive terrestrial planet of miniature beings. Svetat and the Sree Seree watched as galactic pirate battle cruisers pummeled a Sree Seree city with destructive particle accelerator cannons that leveled everything to a pile of radioactive rubble.

When the pirates landed to pillage the city that they had just leveled, it all became revealed to be a remote Sree Seree illusion that enraged the disenfranchised pirates. Svetat pleaded to the Sree Seree at that moment to let him have his ship back to confront them. The Sree Seree were chronically non-violent by nature, and had no way of comprehending violence as any kind of solution to a problem. They didn't want Svetat to kill them if he could avoid it so they gave him a weapon that would defend him without killing anyone. That would become the dimensional time-warp ring Svetat wears to this day. He had also been given at the time, a now long lost teleportation device that used to be kept in his ship, which he could use to teleport from anywhere to anywhere instantly with a hand held remote control device. When Svetat took off after the pirate invaders, the Sree Seree sent out their own form of distress signal.

In a typically incomprehensible example of Aquari's cosmic serendipity, Aquari just happened to be nearby to respond to that distress call. That had been how Aquari first discovered the Sree Seree of the Scuton-Crux arm of Magphoreus, as well as his old friend Svetat the First Born. The pirates threatened to devastate the planet in a violent fit that expressed their frustration toward the illusory little people, but Svetat succeeded very well with infiltrating the landed battle cruiser, and taking it over. The Sree Seree were horrified, but did very little to stop Svetat from killing all of them on two ships by flying the battle cruiser from the ground, and crashing it right into another one of their ships orbiting above. Just before sharing in the explosive results of crashing two ships together Svetat teleported back to his ship with the hand-held remote control device. The exploding battle cruisers made majestic fireworks in the mostly starless skies of the little white dwarf star's planet tucked away from the rest of the galaxy in a dark cloud of nebulae dust. Svetat figured, quite logically, that the only way to keep pirates from returning to that planet to pillage would be to just kill every one of them. Svetat had never been known to be much of a pacifist, especially considering the highly evolved First Born Incaprican species that he was. Svetat had not been a typical Incaprican, but First Borns are so diverse that they tend to deviate away from typical.

To make a long story short, Aquari provided a different solution for the Sree Seree. It actually wasn't even the first time Aquari solved a pirate problem this way, which is often caused by prematurely advanced terrestrial species in the galaxy. Aquari had the ability to re-arrange the genetic makeup of beings that he inhabited. He had a way of instantly reorienting the perspective of an intelligent species. Some speculate that Aquari's ability to do this may even have been the origin of all intelligent life in the galaxy in the first place. Svetat would reluctantly concede the solution to Aquari after the cosmic being inhabited the pirate commander of one of the last two ships. Just a few moments in the presence of Aquari would be enough to change the commander in ways that could even effect the very history of the galaxy for all time, and maybe did. The commander had suddenly become cosmically enlightened, and savage acts like pirating to the captain's newly enlightened mind suddenly became the simple folly of non-evolved children. By the time Aquari left the commander's body he had become a changed alien. He made the rest of the pirates depart, assuring them of the riches beyond their wildest dreams that were not much further away with the knowledge that the commander suddenly possessed in his newly evolved mind.

That is the story of how Aquari first met Svetat over seven million Earth years ago, and they shared many adventures together since then as friends. Aquari wondered what ever became of those pirates so long ago, but he made the decision not to visit his old friends the Sree Seree at that time. Instead Aquari continued his 700+ times the speed of light trajectory on a rendezvous with Tze-Doldus somewhere ahead in the Orion arm, still beyond telescopic sight. The Carina arm of Magphoreus approached Aquari on the other side of a great galactic rift much emptier of stars. After crossing this rift between the Scuton Crux and Carina arms, the great rift between the Carina arm of Magphoreus and the Orion arm still ahead to yet be crossed by Aquari the impossible comet.

Chapter 8: The Death of Hanson

In the future that Aquari speeds towards, the planet Urania had suffered another direct hit by a solar flare from the white dwarf star Tze-Doldus. Tze-Doldus had been a miniature star, much smaller then the flaming heavenly body above the skies of Earth, yet it filled the skies of Urania because of the close proximity of objects in this miniature solar system. In addition to a planet wide blackout of all electricity for about ten minutes, there were also small upper atmosphere fires that were giving the air of this morning a smoky odor. The upper atmosphere weather seemed to magically respond to put out the fires. Beataphoriah constructed upper atmosphere vegetation on Urania, which suspended itself with jellyfish-like balloon plants that were filled with something similar to helium on Earth. Insects had every adapted here to serve the vegetation's pollination purposes.

The fire and brimstone smell of the atmosphere haunted the capital city of Keshdesh as the Aungtalli Bishop's hit man Volock, picked up the prisoner Hanson from the jail to be taken to the Bishop at the temple for questioning. Hanson knew what they wanted from him. They wanted to know where the other Ministry scientists ran off to, and Hanson expected the Bishop to also be fishing for information about just how much ancient history had been uncovered by archaeologists last year in the Southern Desert. Hanson gave Volock no resistance as Volock escorted him to the anti-gravity vehicle, and flew from the Keshdesh jail to the local Aungtalli temple where the Bishop waited.

Volock's flying saucer powered by virtual particle technology landed on the top of the large green rectangle of a temple set in the center of Keshdesh among the Parliament buildings and King's castle. Two pillars of mystery rose up on the roof above the large main doorway. Aungtalli temples feature two pillars of existence called Umu (The Inner) on the right side of the temple, and Timu (The Outer) on the left. They looked like two Corinthian pillars with perfect spheres atop each one. Uranians meditated on these two pillars of the world's extremes when they entered the main rectangular entrance of blue doors between the pillars that metaphorically provided a middle path of salvation between the extremes of existence. The church taught disciples to find balance in their inner and outer worlds, and the church provided exercises to achieve that balance. They did not pray to a metaphysical god. Gods were understood as very physical overseers that Uranians genuinely tried not to piss off. Hanson was led from the flying saucer on the roof to a room in the temple below where the Bishop in all his pompous regalia awaited the prisoner for questioning. The Bishop chirped that moment in a more complex Aungtalli dialect, probably for the sake of sounding more superior and intimidating to the prisoner being led there like a lamb to slaughter.

"Hello Hanson captor.

You're here from that prison before

Welcome to the great temple

I'll just make this simple.

You're here as a captor

welcomed through the Aungtalli door,

or to die, heretic, with your name known no more."

Hanson, left alone in this room with the Bishop, became suddenly inspired to rise to the challenge of the Aungtalli dialect. "I know your words, what you are saying.

I heard of it before, you're not playing.

A Uranian becomes like you

just in name, but also all you do.

A Uranian becomes Aungtalli

without death or prison folly

would be my deal to become Aungtalli,

but now this deal can not be through,

I still must give something to you."

The Bishop looked visibly impressed with Hanson's contribution to the song of the conversation. He liked the way Hanson got right down to business, and he would need little instruction in the ways of the Aungtalli since he could already chirp the dialect with apparent ease. "You are correct captor.

Admittance is only after

you concede now what you know.

Where are they? Where did they go?

Ministry Scientists

and their secrets are on the list

you give me to be Aungtalli. I must insist."

Hanson replied. "Here is my answer if that is your terms.

I won't let you kill them they are not germs.

This dies with me. I'm whom you get to burn.

They live on, along with knowledge they learn.

Your technology is in our coffer.

They have the secrets that you now offer

in exchange for higher Aungtalli ranks

with baldness also required, so no thanks.

I won't sell out the Science Ministry.

You won't get the knowledge I know for free.

I'll remain silent till the end. You'll see."

The Bishop appeared sadly disappointed in Hanson's answer. He knew Hanson to be a very intelligent Uranian, and would have made a good addition to the Aungtalli class. There were times in history when regular Uranians had been admitted to the Aungtalli class, and even allowed to mate with Aungtalli, which had been only very rarely successful. Regular Uranians who become Aungtalli were given access to their highly advanced knowledge and technologies. Uranians who became Aungtalli however, were required to shave their heads and become like the Aungtalli in that respect.

The Bishop had been the good cop in this interrogation. Now the time came for the bad cop. "Very well then captor,

If that is what you'll give me for

the keys to all our secrets,

die with heretic's regrets.

I would give you reward

for what you will now give by sword.

Interrogator Volock will have what you horde."

Then the Bishop left the room while the much larger, less-robed form of Volock took his place. Volock decided to try harsher methods to find out from Hanson where the renegade scientists were hiding. Perhaps they were somewhere outside the city, in the direction Eromot headed before Volock burned him alive with a high-tech laser weapon? The Aungtalli had long suspected the activities of some of the farmers east of Keshdesh. Perhaps Huras or Villsua, or one of the other small cities to the east were hiding the runaway scientists. Volock thought perhaps they had even run as far as Gulfang. Gulfang existed in part of the Swerites territories where Uranians resisted the other species on the planet, and a controversial treaty had been all that stopped the people of Gulfang from closing down all their Aungtalli churches. Volock became determined to try to persuade Hanson to surrender this information. Hanson however, became determined to die a martyr, like a good Uranian. This would eventually become obvious to Volock before he decided to let the Bishop try again as the good cop with kinder, gentler methods of request.

Ploabot sat at his desk in the Parliamentary District Representative offices awaiting a chirp from his pocket phone laying on the desk. A member of his staff had been at the Aungtalli temple to find out what happened to his friend Hanson. All Ploabot had been told was that the Aungtalli had an offer for Hanson that would spare him from being put to death as a heretic. The people were really getting fed up with the so-called "crime" of heresy being considered worthy of capital punishment. Aungtalli were always waving the accusation of heresy around like a weapon of abused power. After all, the years were in the 200,000's as Uranians liked to say, and death for heresy had been widely considered primitive and savage these days. The old childish games of religion and politics were being found by the masses to be inadequate solutions for the ever-growing population of Uranians. It appeared to the foresight of Ploabot that the future was coming soon to chase the present power structures away into the buried past of history.

The pocket phone just returned Ploabot's gaze with silence. Ploabot thought something about a watched pocket phone never chirping. He had gone into politics to play his part in what Hanson used to call "the cause." They both grew up wanting to bring down the establishment, but then they grew up. They ended up joining the establishment, and matured in the wisdom that there had been no need to tear down a perfectly good power structure, or at least infrastructure, if it could just be fixed from within without a lot of violence, loss, and damage. Hanson went into the fields of science and technology to make Urania a better place, and Ploabot became a highly respected nominated representative of the people. Now it all seemed to have come full circle in their lives as the establishment turned on them to maintain an unsustainable status quo. Ploabot could sense that the future was on its way, and the death of Hanson would not stop it.

Ploabot's phone was small and wireless like the modern cell phones of Earth. That had been thanks to receiver technology as its energy source. Receiver technology had been just one secret to Aungtalli energy that the Ministry of Science, which now had been shut down, contributed to for a better future. Now it seemed like the Ministry was on the verge of finding out that this precious energy, which had been fueling their society, was everywhere free for the taking, and the power structures of control wanted scientists who were discovering this all dead in order to maintain their unnecessary energy racket. A repetitive one-note chirp announced a call on the pocket phone lying on the desk. A startle ran across Ploabot as he responded to press the answer button.

It had been the awaited staff member call. Holding the phone to his ear just like on Earth, Ploabot answered the call. "Hello if it is Ploabot that you seek,

I'm now on the line. You need only speak."

The voice on the phone said, "Ploabot sir, it's now time for me to call.

Hanson won't join them. His fate is downfall."

Ploabot felt stung by the information even though it had been what he expected. "I didn't expect Hanson to agree

to betray science to the Aungtalli."

The staff member on the phone explained. "The story as I have here been given

is that Hanson is now to be driven

back to be put to death in the prison.

Their offers to him he would not listen.

He was offered Aungtalli class status,

which he refused and threw right back at us.

Now the Aungtalli Bishop has said

Hanson tonight is sentenced to be dead."

Ploabot thanked the staff member for the information before ending the phone conversation. He had actually expected this outcome for a very long time since this whole mess began when the Ministry of Science got shut down because of breakthroughs and discoveries they had made. The more Ploabot worked in government the more he resented the influence of the Aungtalli who were chaining down democracy with theocratic oppression. The gods be damned, had been Ploabot's true feelings. Hanson had been his friend.

Ploabot decided that this news needed to be conveyed to Hanson's girlfriend Veldada. She was only a girlfriend because they had not yet become married by her bearing Hanson an egg, but they had been trying for dozens of years now, just without success. Veldada had only been 226 years old, so they had many more years of fertility in order to try. Ploabot decided to leave the office and take the public transport bus to the suburb of Keshdesh where Veldada lived. He figured telling her that Hanson would be put to death tonight should be delivered in person. Ploabot always felt a special bond with Veldada. Ever since she learned that Ploabot had been Hanson's best friend she had gone out of her way to make Ploabot her best friend too. At least that wasn't going to stop after Hanson's execution. Ploabot shook off the terribly selfish thought that then tried to entertain his mind.

The streets of Keshdesh were still gloomy from smoke caused by atmosphere fires, swimming around the ground to limit vision as it engulfed far away objects, and gave the air an inescapable smoky odor. Right outside the parliament were gathered a crowd of thousands of mostly youth that were still there day after day to protest the closing of the Ministry, and to Ploabot's surprise, some held signs protesting the unfair death sentence imposed on his friend Hanson. Apparently they had all received the news even before that insider staff member called him. Ploabot couldn't make out how many were actually there because the multitude faded away into the smoky air.

A youth who looked all troopaloo addled approached Ploabot with recognition. "Sorry for the King's humiliation,

but in truth you support the whole nation.

We support you Ploabot for your efforts.

Sorry about your friend, we know it hurts.

You can depend on us for reliance

to open the Ministry of Science."

Ploabot mostly just smiled in appreciation, and shook hands as the crowd in recognition began to close in on him. The events of the last audience left Ploabot with the impression that he had been a politician grossly out of step with the collective will he represented. Now however, he found himself a hero of the people, or at least most of the youth counter-culture movement to re-open the Ministry of Science. Had Urania really been so evenly divided into extremes? "Condolence for Hanson is well suited.

How did you learn he'll be executed?"

A lot of the protesters chirped a smug laughter amongst the crowd while one volunteered an answer. "No secret kept in the establishment

can be hidden for long from our movement.

We've organized a lot of influence

to learn what news tells us much later since

it's been covered up and then lied about.

We've learned Eromot left Keshdesh without

saying a word, and then died in a crash.

News won't tell us what should be a news flash."

The news of Eromot's death had been also news to Ploabot who had not yet heard anything from the official news outlets. There obviously had been no shortage of good journalists out there in the crowd. Ploabot had been in a hurry to tell Veldada about Hanson's fate before the seventh hour of the Uranian day made it too late. He quickly gave a quick speech to the crowd to announce his investigation of the allegation that his last audience with the King had been deliberately stacked against him by an audience made up of those allowed to have special tickets. Ploabot had referred his evidence and investigative conclusions to the Justice Ministry for consideration. The crowd became grateful for the information from Ploabot, which they actually didn't already know. In fact Ploabot noticed that they seemed armed with that information, like he had just handed them a weapon. Ploabot felt a warm feeling of flashback to his own rebellious youth, when the future had possibilities that were still not shattered by futility. They were already organizing ways to pressure the Justice Ministry on behalf of Ploabot's investigation as Ploabot walked away from his office building. He felt empowered by these crowds of fed up Uranians. They looked like that future he saw earlier that had been on its way, collectively determined to fix the present.

Veldada became glued to the non-entertaining television channel for any news about what happened to her boyfriend Hanson. The city had already turned the power back on since Hanson was now in custody, and there were no legal reasons to not allow Veldada back on the power grid. Veldada had not been legally linked to Hanson because they had yet to have children together. There had been no news about Hanson on the television, but it did just announce that Eromot and Morgamor had lost control of a vehicle and accidentally drove off a cliff to their deaths. There had been no doubt in Veldada's mind that it was not an accident, but a murder, another murder. That became reason enough to start releasing the tears that were on reserve for the bad news she awaited regarding Hanson. Then Ploabot knocked on the door. She got up and opened the front door.

"Hello Veldada, after it has been

too long since I saw you. May I come in?"

Veldada's eyes were full of greetings. "Hello Ploabot old friend. Yes, do come in.

I'm happy to welcome you here again.

I don't welcome however, news you bring

that I hear in sounds from the song you sing.

My Hanson is to die, even today.

You need not tell me. You don't have to say."

Ploabot acknowledged that what Veldada sensed, without a word being said, had been true. Hanson had been interrogated for hours before being declared a heretic, and sentenced to die with the Sun's disappearance below the horizon. They sat together for awhile and comforted each other. There was nothing they could do. Veldada cried, and soaked Ploabot's shirt with her deluge of tears. She loved Hanson and mourned the child she failed to bear for him; who would now never be born.
Ploabot in no hurry, would have stayed with her as long as she wanted. It really wasn't long however, before Veldada seemed in a hurry to send Ploabot on his way home. Ploabot figured that if she had anything up her sleeve he would be more than willing to just let her run with it. He left after a final embrace and a promise to call soon to talk some more.

Another reason Hanson supplied himself with an alternate power source had been in order to use a computer network communication protocol he had developed along with other Ministry scientists. Hanson's skills were really organization, administration, and leadership, while surrounding himself with all the highest educated geniuses he could find for the Ministry of Science he had presided over. They produced this network protocol, which would even be in commercial production now if the Ministry of Science had not been closed down. Hanson had been using the communication protocol to keep in touch with the scientists who were hiding out a thousand miles away in Gulfang. The network data had been able to flow along the Aungtalli wire power grid, hopefully beyond detection, as it piggybacked on the same wire in the form of encrypted static.

Veldada entered the hidden room behind the clothes in the bedroom closet where the personal computer device that they had developed for the communication protocol had been setup. This personal computer device had just been introduced to commercial production recently, which began the signs from the Aungtalli that the Ministry of Science would be shut down if it kept producing success like that. Veldada began typing the keyboard of characters that represented the chirping language. Each letter of a word had been also a syllable, typed along with one of four other keys that placed the letter on one of four scale lines. Each letter also had a directional, or a dot form that determined how it would be sung.

Veldada typed, "Ministry members, Veldada this is,

girlfriend of Hanson, and your accomplice.

I write bad news that Hanson is to die

tonight at sundown for no reason why.

In this same message I also must say

that Eromot was killed while on his way

to join you where you are. I do not know

what I should do now, or where I should go."

That had been all she had to say. She had actually never used this thing but had often watched Hanson as he typed away on the board of keys. She was pretty sure the message had been sent. It disappeared after she pressed the send key from the monitor screen where the letters had appeared on the screen's stanza lines. Something on the corner of the screen started blinking. Suddenly a message appeared on the screen in response.

"Of executing Hanson, this we know,

but Eromot's death we wish were not so.

Stay where you are. Do nothing. Do not dare.

Ministry scientists will soon be there.

Hanson should not die. We'll do all we can.

We want to rescue him. We have a plan."

After the conversation Veldada became glad she decided to contact the scientists that Hanson gave up his life to protect. She became grateful for the hope they just provided, which had refreshed her sorrowful disposition even if hope would be all it turned out to be. They couldn't possibly save Hanson in time. Veldada thought they were as far away as Gulfang. That's at least a couple day's away while driving all day long.

* * *

Eistia started chirping out curse noises as the shadow of the flying saucer darkened the sky above him to cast a shadow over the vehicle wreckage he investigated. The vehicle had been registered to Eromot, but the body in the front seat looked more like Morgamor. He couldn't figure out why Eromot, if that had been Eromot, rode in the backseat squished amongst a lot of packed belongings, and now burnt almost beyond recognition. Eistia felt his imagination becoming over-stretched if he had to think the driver could have ended up cramped into the back seat the way that body ended up. It also stretched his imagination to think that Morgamor had been fit to drive, or did that really explain this wreck? The vehicle had obvious markings from an Aungtalli laser that Eistia had become familiar with in the course of his investigation into Ministry of Science deaths. He worked the theory that the driver actually ejected before the vehicle plunged onto rocks below the steep cliff where the highway had been chiseled into a ledge, but then Volock's flying saucer arrived. There wasn't time to get prints off of the bodies, or even to search for ID cards. Eistia quickly tore blood tissue samples from pieces of bloody clothing on both bodies before Volock emerged from the virtual particle vehicle to close down another of Eistia's investigations.

"Here we go again

what is now was then.

I'm here to stop you once again.

Once again it's like its always been.

I'm closing down your case again.

You can not win.

Eistia Uranian,

comply with what everybody knows.

You must leave because this case is closed.

Here we go again.

What is now was then.

I'm here to stop you once again."

Eistia never gave Volock a break, and would make sure Volock had to argue his point again as Eistia always protested having an investigation closed down by the obvious culprit. "There may be more to investigate here.

This scene is more then what it may appear.

The bodies are not what you may have thought.

Maybe Morgamor, but not Eromot.

Let me investigate, then we can see

who he really is to tell family."

Volock sneered at Eistia. "Investigation?!

Your inclination

is your own imagination.

Case is closed. End of conversation.

Notify the family.

It's fine by me.

One is Eromot,

not what you have thought,

other Morgamor

that is your closure.

Tell families for sure."

Eistia put up the usual resistance to Volock before conceding to close the case and drive back to Keshdesh. Volock returned to his saucer, which lifted the vehicle along with the two bodies with a virtual particle force field that suspended them in the air below the saucer. Volock's saucer dragged the wreckage through the air as it passed up Eistia's vehicle on the road from above. He knew he watched a murderer removing his own crime scene evidence after it had been left there just long enough to establish an official story. ' _Vehicle loses control on road and plunges to oblivion' would probably be the story by the news. Oh and by the way, it just happens to be the ninth Ministry scientist to die of an accident since the controversial closing of the Ministry of Science. It doesn't take a trained investigator to smell the fasanct squalli* in that_ , thought Eistia as he drove home. Eistia decided to have the tissue samples tested in this case no matter what his boss said. Something wasn't right about the Eistia body. (*Fasanct squalli is a very odorous bug on Urania that stinks up the area of its habitat to discourage intruders.)

Grega had not accompanied Eistia on the traffic accident investigation because he followed a lead on the mysterious value fraud case. The guy they arrested still wouldn't tell them who he really was. There had been no record on the guy's prints, but lots of Uranians lived outside jurisdictions that kept such records. Value and identity on Urania had been mainly still determined by an ID card one got when born, however finger prints were beginning to be used to purchase things. It turned out he may have drove a vehicle to the wiffsue house that morning and there just happened to be one abandoned nearby the establishment ever since the suspect's arrest. An excited Grega greeted the defeated Eistia as he entered the police station after a long drive back from the accident location to Keshdesh.

"I checked that vehicle and now I see

the owner is the mystery arrestee.

Seems that our man of fraud and value harm

is really well established on a farm.

He owns his own farm just outside of town,

but value fraud is why he came around.

He needed value more than you and me

so he could purchase high-technology.

He commits this crime causing alarm for

he's building something while just a farmer."

It turned out the suspect had been from a farm not far from where Eistia had just driven back from. Could there be a connection between the farmer committing value fraud to purchase expensive technology, and the secret location of the scientists Eromot probably headed toward before meeting his demise? It had been Eistia's job to consider such things, and Volock would not get away with stopping him.

A very confident Volock gently lowered the crashed vehicle to the area near the temple where he could at last have a look at his latest kills. Volock took a sadistic pleasure in committing murder for his Bishop master. After that he landed his flying saucer, and approached the vehicle to take on the chore of disposing the bodies. He rummaged around the bloody clothing for their ID's and slowly produced the laminated cards that all Uranians were expected to carry as their value. The first was Morgamor, check. Then Volock chirped furious sounds of cursing when he held up the other ID card of Dolka, the hitchhiker they had picked up last night before the attack.

* * *

Eromot had stumbled all night along the ravine that followed the highway east of Keshdesh. He constantly looked over his shoulder at the skies for any flying disks with lasers that might still be in pursuit. Eromot's arm was broken and he cradled it with his good arm. He was dirty, bloody, and bruised from his last-second escape from the vehicle after finally getting the jammed door open, which had been wielded shut by the saucer's laser beams. The other two passengers were not so fortunate. Eromot kept repeating the passenger's name to himself after finally remembering it so he could commit it to memory. _Was it Dolu ... Doku, ... no, the hitchhiker's name was Dolka_ , mumbled Eromot as he stumbled along, a bloody, bruised, mumbling spectacle in the ravine below the highway.

By morning Eromot had been able to make it back up to the highway from the ravine below. He continued to stumble on his way in the direction of Gulfang since Keshdesh had been where the Aungtalli attack came from to begin with. Eromot hoped that maybe someone would eventually drive by so he could hitch a ride along the way. The pain in his arm seemed to constantly swell with each heartbeat, and he could tell it needed the shoulder set along with a cast or something for the fractured bone. The rocky terrain eventually gave way to plains of well-watered farmer fields. Farmland greeted the Sun that poked the horizon at a point where the light spread across the eastern sky. This had been a couple hours before the Sun would become a giant ball of light that filled a lot of the sky to create a Uranian day. The morning sky became blue mingled with the whites of clouds and the green of atmospheric plant life that looked like green veins in the clouds. Eromot wished that ripe plant life above him would rain him down something to eat.

Uranians tended to build their cities to the north near rivers as opposed to the southern ocean shores. The single ocean of Urania had been called Inunia, and shorelines were mostly rocky, and subject to violent weather and tides. To the north were rich farmlands and ideal weather. Even the Northern Sea of the planet had been much more calm, less rocky, and better for trips to beaches of golden sand than Inunia. Tens of thousands of rivers and lakes weaved across the planet, which also featured the one main ocean, one salt-water sea, and one major sized fresh water lake known as The Great Lake. Eromot stumbled along into the river-wrapped plateau landscape of fields and fields of some of the best farmland on the planet.

Eromot looked at the farm vegetation off the highway. The first fields were just the grasses used for waffs to graze upon, which Uranians don't find editable. A waff looked up from the field with a look that dared Eromot to try grazing on his grass. It then looked like an editable crop of borchtag came up. Near that crop the house of a farmer passed Eromot by as he stumbled down the highway.

He thought about just going to the house and asking for help, but couldn't seem to stop himself from just continuing on to his destination. Ever since surviving the attack last night, all Eromot had been able to think about was to continue to his destination in defiance of his Aungtalli attackers. Coming up the highway in the other direction a vehicle with a large flat bed, kind of like a pickup truck, drove towards him. Eromot suddenly realized that the attack had traumatized him, and he wanted to run off the road and hide between the rows of borchtag coming up, but the legs that had just moved on through the night kept walking on beyond his conscious control, like a robot. The truck slowed down and stopped by Eromot. The driver immediately got out and approached him. As Eromot looked at the farmer's expression he realized what a bloody spectacle he must have looked like, limping down the highway like a hungry zombie. Eromot would only vaguely remember the farmer asking if he was ok. There would also be a vague memory of giving some kind of answer, but he will probably never remember what had been said.

Eromot's memory began again waking up much later that day in a bed with all his clothes removed, and a blanket had been draped over his back. Uranians squat in fluffy beds on their stomachs to sleep, with their legs folded up like a bird in a nest. Eromot noticed his arm and shoulder felt much better. His shoulder had been set and the fractured bone wrapped in bandages with a sling. He found himself in a bedroom that could have belonged to a young man, judging from the musician posters on the walls along with female models. The door to the room had been slightly cracked, letting in the sound of a television device announcing breaking news.

He noticed some fresh clothes laid out on the bed and decided to try to get up. Hunger announced its presence as Eromot reached to put on the clothes. He slipped on a kilt and over-shirt. They were a bit small on him, and probably belonged to the young man whose room he must have awoke in. Outside the bedroom Eromot saw the farmer from that morning. The farmer's eyes were glued to the television-like device. Eromot began to hear the television.

" ... We repeat again for who do not know

a daring prison break has dealt a blow

to Aungtalli attempts to overthrow

the institution of Science we know

as the Ministry of Science. Hanson

was to be put to death without a son.

Some scientists we believe however,

made a flying ship that was quite clever.

They attacked with paralyze devices.

Took Hanson where no one realizes.

Breaking news! We're reporting what was done.

Ministry scientists rescued Hanson."

Eromot experienced a giddy thrill from that news. Eromot had escaped Aungtalli murder, and now he just found out that Hanson had also eluded their punishment. The television repeated the same limited visual shots from the surveillance cameras on Hanson's transport vehicle. Eromot studied images of the rescuers that looked like Eromot's friends Nandor, and Silvanin who were carrying strange rifles and shooting at the guards that had been driving the transport vehicle, which evidently had been ran off the road. Hanson had been branded a heretic and would be returned to the prison for execution when from out of the sky came what looked like an Aungtalli flying vehicle, but regular Uranians were flying it. The perpetrators on the TV were Ministry scientists who Eromot had known for years. Eromot also saw a woman poking her head out of the flying saucer door in the grainy news footage of Nandor and Silvanin as they entered the flying vehicle dragging Hanson along. He thought she looked like Hanson's girlfriend who Eromot had met.

The farmer then noticed Eromot and switched off the news. "Very amazing things are happening.

News didn't just report the prison spring.

The news also introduced to my head

that you, Eromot have been pronounced dead."

Eromot had not been surprised. "My car was under Aungtalli attack.

I lived, but two passengers won't be back.

I'm a Ministry scientist who is

now in disfavor just like the news says."

The farmer said, "No need to apologize, I'm with you.

Lot's of us do believe in what you do.

My name is Oldo, a farmer by trade.

This is the farm and the home I have made.

I fixed your injuries. You should be well,

but now I must feed you with food I sell."

Oldo fixed Eromot a delicious meal of borchtag salad with waff meat and waff milk, and fresh baked breads. For a good part of the meal, food had been all that Eromot noticed, and it must have been one of the best meals he ever had. He had been so hungry. Eventually Eromot noticed the strange books on the shelves. They looked like religion or maybe ancient books on philosophy. Toward the end of his meal he noticed a picture in the other room of the family. Oldo explained, "My wife has gone to Keshdesh for the day,

My son Dolka wanders so he's away."

After hearing the name Dolka, Eromot choked on his food, and struggled to clear his throat. Oldo became concerned. "Try to carefully chew the food in sight.

Your coughing isn't good. Are you alright?"

Eromot sadly said, "Oh dear Oldo, I am thankful my friend

for saving my life and these clothes you lend.

It breaks my heart and I'm sorry, but I

Have to let you know why I did not die.

I gave Dolka a ride, which he did take.

He died and they think he's me by mistake."

Oldo's face became suddenly pale, and fell into a sorrowful expression after before being full of such joyfulness. Oldo sat down slowly as if in shock before burying his head in his hands to cry over the son he just found out was now dead. Eromot felt awful and started crying also. Why had life turned into such a nightmare? Why can't Uranians just be left alone? Soon Eromot got up and put his arms around Oldo who just continued to cry louder and louder from his seat until he no longer sounded like an adult. Eromot wished he had just kept on driving past the hitchhiker that waved his arm by the road last night. The regret became a whole new injury for Eromot to have to heal.

Oldo eventually calmed down a bit. He got hold of himself enough to call his wife in Keshdesh to tell her about the death of their son, which started the tears to flow again as before. Eromot just remained paralyzed by pain, sorrow, and regret. Oldo didn't blame Eromot, and said, "Not your fault to survive one out of three.

My son was murdered by the Aungtalli."

After Oldo got off the phone with his wife he announced that she would be back in the morning. Then he walked outside into the night. Eromot could see him through the open door, just standing in front of a field looking at the night sky. Eromot's attention kept gravitating toward the very old looking books on the shelf in the other room. Eventually he got up to get a closer look, and walked over to the shelf.

The books were ancient, and had been bound by some foreign society it seemed. They all looked at least 10,000 years old, maybe 100,000. Eromot took one and opened it. The dialect was more complicated, written on extra stanza lines that were producing notes he wasn't even sure he could chirp. As he began to figure out what it said, it occurred to him that it had been a lot like talking to Morgamor. _Poor Morgamor_ , thought Eromot about the other innocent victim of the Ministry of Science controversy.

The book Eromot held had turned out to be about legends of Beataphoriah, the devil of the Aungtalli faith. Eromot recalled stories from his childhood church days that told him that Beataphoriah had been a hairy beast covered with fur who whispered in our ears, persuading us to do evil. He always considered the Beataphoriah bogeyman to be more of a metaphor than a real being. Eromot had now been introduced to a completely different Beataphoriah character in these legends. From what Eromot read, Beataphoriah had been more like a king of kings. He had been a flamboyantly well dressed immortal being who could work miracles. All kings of the planet bowed before Beataphoriah, and none could refuse his audience. Eromot thumbed through legend after legend of Beataphoriah the great wizard, worker or miracles, creator of all life, one who brings justice to the oppressed, and advisor of kings.

Eromot's impression from the book had been that Beataphoriah mostly kept kings from waging war on each other, but when Beataphoriah talked people listened, and heeded his words. Another book on the shelf appeared full of verses of wisdom that were supposedly written by Beataphoriah himself. Eromot also made out another book to be pre-Dark Age uncensored history, which his collogues would find priceless if it turned out to be genuine. It had been like Eromot found himself in the home of a devil worshiper, but it also had been like stumbling upon precious artifacts he had never seen before. These books documented a time of great civilizations that existed long before there were any gods to appease, or any Aungtalli that the gods had evolved into existence. Morgamor had always said that Beataphoriah was real.

Eromot found another book that looked like an apocalyptic story of a final war, which Beataphoriah had been powerless to stop. Beataphoriah sought out help from the skies, and the planet then became invaded by strange beings from the stars who punished and imprisoned Beataphoriah, and established the present Age of the Three Kingdoms. The book's end documented the lives of persecuted faithful believers in Beataphoriah who had retreated underground to gather in secret places from then on. The book said that true believers still gathered to hear the voice of Beataphoriah, which had been carried on the winds all over Urania when the last fragment of a day's great sun became swallowed by the horizon, and darkness shrouds the sky.

Eromot pulled his head out of the books to see where Oldo was. He had not moved, still appearing as a silent silhouette visible through the open door. Eromot wondered if he was out there hearing the voice as the book instructed. He decided to go out to intrude on the farmer obviously still mourning his son. _This all was such a coincidence_ , he thought. One day he treated a patient who could hear Beataphoriah in his head, and now he found himself possibly stumbling upon a "hearer," as if led here by fate, or some divine influence that meddled with circumstance. Eromot felt like he had been on a long quest for truth, and now became close to fulfilling at least part of it.

First Eromot walked up to Oldo, but didn't say anything. Oldo must have known he would be there, but he didn't move at all to acknowledge Eromot. He did seem to be distracted by something he intently listened to. As if he just waited for someone else to finish speaking, Oldo suddenly moved his gaze away from the sky of stars that peeked through dark shadows of vegetable clouds in the sky. "Out of the city in the countryside

I've heard the voice from the first time I tried.

City folk don't hear it on city nights,

the voice drowned out by energy and lights.

I'm of the secret hearers who are hid.

We all hear the voice as we always did."

Eromot felt so overwhelmed by the coincidence he thought for a second that he dreamed, or maybe had been dead. Eromot responded. "I have studied the voice of which you say.

I know the voice is Beataphoriah.

Last night when we were attacked in the car

I drove a hearer as my passenger.

He could hear the voice, but not very plain.

The voice in his ears had drove him insane."

Oldo sympathized. "That's why there's a place for hearers to go

if the location they could only know.

My people help those who can't stand the strain.

We'd have helped your friend make sense of his brain.

Let's remain silent now that it is night.

Try to hear the voice yourself. You just might."

They both stood together for many minutes. Oldo seemed to be hearing something. Oldo evidently did this often, like praying, but with no petitioning, only listening. Eromot tricked himself into thinking he heard something a couple of times, but it wasn't the case, he ended up admitting to himself. Eventually Eromot just had to admit. "Just the song that my memory will sing

is all that I hear, I don't hear a thing."

Oldo said, "Some don't hear the voice, no sound, not a trace.

It's faith you require, come I know a place.

I am a farmer. I watch each season.

I believe all things are for a reason.

Come to a building out beyond that fence.

Come help me make my son's death make some sense.

Come I'll show you what is a great secret,

the church I attend to help with regret.

Come to what looks like a barn in a park.

Many attend there to hear when it's dark."

Eromot had been led across a field to what looked like a typical barn on the outside. Light flashed from the door as Oldo swung it open to bring the dark barn suddenly to life. Inside, a guy watched the door and quickly inspected them. Oldo spoke to him, and obviously explained who Eromot was. Eromot could tell the conversation moved on to Dolka's death as the doorman embraced Oldo and tears began again.

There were at least a dozen people that were all sitting on padded benches in silence, listening to the voice, evidently. The benches faced a green door, kind of like the rectangular door on the Aungtalli temple. The inside did not look like a barn, and the walls were lined with more shelves of books that were similar to what Eromot saw earlier. Soon Eromot had been introduced to Arnoediad, the leader of the Hearers in that location. "Greetings Eromot, I hope you are fine.

I've been expecting this. You are a sign."

Arnoediad turned to Oldo. "Oldo, sorry for your son's tragic death.

We're victims, and the one he was with.

None but the Aungtalli caused this by choice.

Your son died in the war against the voice."

Slowly people on the benches began opening their eyes and getting up to talk to Oldo. The news of Dolka's death soon became known by all in the room, and all took it as a personal attack on their way of life there. There had been some talk about finding the crash site and retrieving the body, which became dispelled by the group's fears of drawing attention to themselves by the Aungtalli attackers. Dolka had been a victim of a persecution that they all seemed to be familiar with, and they assured Eromot that two "hearers" died in that car last night.

Eromot had become easily welcomed as an expected sign. The voice told them all last night that a hearer had died not far away. That had been all the voice said on the matter. They told Eromot that they were only able to listen to the voice, for Beataphoriah had no contact with the outside world from where he had been imprisoned, except for the messages he broadcasted to those who had an ear to hear.

They had met here since before many of them were children. Arnoediad had been the son of the previous leader of these Hearers who had passed away. Arnoediad appeared about Oldo's age. One of the Hearers gave Oldo more bad news about his close friend of a nearby farm who was probably under arrest in Keshdesh for value fraud. He had been trying to buy a platform for the altar Beataphoriah instructed them all to build. There had been no concept of bail in the Uranian justice system, so the whole room was left helpless to help their arrested friend.

As Eromot had been allowed further into the confidence of the church of Beataphoriah they began to let him in on what Beataphoriah had been telling them all these years. Many had been listening to the voice in this barn most of their lives. It evidently had been a very clear and unmistakably audible voice, thought Eromot, but he swore he could not hear a thing himself. He had concluded from the Morgamor research that it had been caused by a chemical imbalance that he evidently didn't have, or at least he knew the "voice" could be amplified by a chemical imbalance. Oldo's friend had been on a mission to obtain some very expensive custom designed technology for their altar. They had resorted to value fraud to pay for the special custom designed parts since it cost more than the value of all their farms to build what they were building here. Eromot became amazed at such unquestionable loyalty to a voice in their heads.

They were so sure that they heard this voice correctly, and it told them that Eromot just had to see the altar they were building. After a hushed discussion amongst the members, they agreed to let Eromot see the most sacred secret of their barn-church. Arnoediad opened the green door that the benches were facing, and invited Eromot in.

Inside the room a rectangular platform about the size of a small room filled the larger room. The platform had been painted blue with edges that rose a few inches above the base. Inside the platform swirled a kaleidoscope of complicated technology and coaglium wiring. Eromot thought he identified a self-charging receiver technology power source. Eromot thought he recognized it from an experimental model of a concept they were working on back in his open Ministry of Science days. The whole contraption displayed arrays of delicate electronics and circuitry beyond Eromot's medical school of science knowledge.

Arnoediad introduced this to Eromot as he entered the room. "It's the altar we're instructed to build,

the altar for which, Oldo's son was killed.

You, a scientist, know complexity.

We need your knowledge, not just your pity.

One of us is in jail now just because

we make this, but we don't know what it does."

Eromot had actually primarily been a doctor of pharmacology so he couldn't really help them much. Eromot did know others that could help them. So it became decided that the hearers would help Eromot get to Gulfang to enlist their help with this altar. Eromot learned that they were building the legendary altar of Saint Vongolath. They believed they had upon their shelves of books, a copy of the altar instructions by Saint Vongolath. The voice they heard filled in the blanks that were left obscure by their book, which had supposedly been written by the legendary Saint Vongolath himself. The voice told them to build this altar, and take it to the well-known holy altar site of Saint Vongolath where all would be revealed to those who sacrificed themselves by standing on the altar at nightfall.

Eromot had never interpreted the well known legend of this altar to be such a complicated electronic device. According to the popular modern day account, the altar had been covered with offensive anti-Aungtalli symbols on the altar that got Vongolath labeled a heretic, and so was put to death by the Aungtalli. Eromot had always been taught that Saint Vongolath had been a racist anti-Aungtallite. A lot of people however, insisted on his sainthood as a martyr because of the miracle of Saint Vongolath. Therefore the Aungtalli religion reluctantly allowed the Saint Vongolath blasphemy.

It had been a legend from the Dark Age before the Aungtalli really managed to get a grip on the recording of history. During one of many Dark Age plagues that were suffered by Uranians, which the Aungtalli species always seemed conspicuously immune to, Vongolath embraced the blasphemy of listening to Beataphoriah. The voice told Vongolath to build a special altar at a special location, and Beataphoriah would deliver the Uranians from the deadly plague that threatened them with extinction at the time. Vongolath spent many years of hearing, and wandered the entire planet to find the sacred location, which turned out to be about 500 miles south west of where the great Aungtalli temple of the sacred energy was located today.

Before Vongolath could build his demonic altar, the gods were offended, and instructed the Aungtalli to put him to death. Eromot's understanding of the legend had been that because the evil Vongolath had been stopped in his attempt of devil worship that the gods therefore showed mercy on Uranians by creating the miracle of the holy light at the same location that Vongolath sought to defile. Others of Uranian decent have begged to differ with the history rewriting Aungtalli, and over the years the holy site has come to be known as the holy site to the altar of Saint Vongolath, near the city of Svervus.

It is a phenomenon that Ministry of Science members have never been able to explain, and the Aungtalli won't offer an explanation other than miracle from the gods. At the holy site of Saint Vongolath, every night just after sunset, there is a flash of light that appears just for an instant and then is no more till it happens again the next day. It has happened every night, without fail, on Urania since the Dark Age days of Saint Vongolath. According to legend, this flash of light healed thousands of would-be plague victims when they stood in the location at the moment it happened. Modern day scientists conclude that there are no observable healing effects with exposure to this mysterious light. It appears to be a mostly harmless flash of light similar to the aurora borealis show that had often been observed above the great Glacier Mountain at the North Pole. Many theories had been put forward to explain the miracle; from it just being a reflection phenomenon all the way to it being a chemical reaction specific to the area where certain compounds release light when triggered by the sundown temperature drop.

Others prefer to embrace the miracle explanation, and every day there were still hundreds of pilgrims who went there to be healed by the miracle of Saint Vongolath. It remained a kind of ancient pagan ritual that had been adapted by the modern Aungtalli religion so they could control its interpretation. This mysterious nightly flash of light really had been one side of a teleportation routine Beataphoriah, from its prison, eventually managed to program its star-door to do every night. This had been one of many escape probabilities it worked on for thousands of Earth years now. It just needed a teleportation platform in that location to anchor the other side of the wormhole sequence with a portal matrix when it occurred every night. The altar that Saint Vongolath had been trying to make actually had been a high tech teleportation platform. Anyone on a properly constructed teleportation platform located at the location of the moment of the miracle of Saint Vongolath would instantly be teleported to the inside of the Tze-Doldus star-door, which had been located deep beneath the great Glacial Mountain at the North Pole of Urania.

* * *

Around forty Earth years earlier another significant bit of history to mention happened between Goag Ralus and the Golimechoid civilization at Poa. Begalius had been still away from objective reality appearances while trying to rid the Dol star-door of the quanta-nanocode virus attack. Goag Ralus began teaching the Poa Golimechoids what He had learned about generating disconnected wormholes, which Deliadre had helped Him create in order to bring the Dol star-door all the way from the star Dol to Goag Ralus. If only the Dol star-door worked. Deliadre and the Eigalli were trying to construct some kind of similar concept in a platform to allow a Poa-3 wormhole to connect with Goag Ralus without the help of the Dol star-door. Those attempts ultimately only enriched the appreciation of the miraculous and impossible-to-duplicate technology in those Nephaprican star-doors.

The knowledge of disconnected wormholes conveyed to the Golimechoid by Goag Ralus did revolutionize what had been possible for the Golimechoid to do with their Poa-3 star-door. A disconnected wormhole had been one not anchored by another star-door, portal matrix, or teleportation platform. The original wormhole technology had been based on creating two time/space portal matrix points that were quantum-synchronized to exist in the same place regardless of the distance between those two points. A disconnected wormhole synchronized these two time/space points of the wormhole differently by using only one star-door to create both portal matrix points. Goag Ralus invented the technology so He could imitate another star-door capable of being linked to a wormhole matrix point at the Dol star-door. Goag Ralus figured out how to make a disconnected wormhole from building essentially a teleportation platform that could receive the Dol star-door itself, while the star-door became engulfed by the red giant star Dol. He had created a wormhole all the way from Dol to the core of Magphoreus, but in order to teleport the entire star-door, the Dol side of the wormhole had to be disconnected in order to make the Dol star-door exist on Goag Ralus. That had been the story of how the first known one-sided wormhole was created. The problem became a red giant star that had swallowed the Dol star-door to provide enough energy for the wormhole event, but the Poa-3 star-door had been only fueled these days by an array of fusion reactors that were constructed by the Golimechoids after the star Poa had died, to become a spinning pulsar.

The Poa Golimechoids were able however, to use this knowledge from Goag Ralus to create disconnected wormholes of a limited distance. They still could reach vulnerable places in the surrounding Grulmagof galactic civilization. A disconnected wormhole brought Bleeptoo and his suicide squad of demolition experts to the construction site of the fifth Grulmagof pyramid ship.

The great battle ship of pyramid shape had been constructed in space above one of the more industrial planets of the Grulmagof Empire. Giant mason particle generators were being fixed below the top point of the whole ship. Below, the ship expanded into a hierarchy of levels from navigation, weapons, quarters, and administration all on top of a base that had become the most highly evolved virtual particle warp-fusion drives known in the galaxy.

Bleeptoo, along with the other members of the suicide squad of Golimechoids were at the point on the space platform where the wormhole had dropped them off. They all paused to admire the skeleton of a pyramid being built in orbit up here, which they were about to destroy. If the mission succeeded a wormhole would re-appear here in about five minutes, and they would all return to Poa-3 victorious and alive. If not then they had already agreed on the dangers of what may be a suicide mission.

Every other squad member carried crude atomic fission devices, while the others had evolved their appendages into all kinds of lethal weapons to be used to defend the mission. The advantage of stealth and surprise remained on the mission's side as they easily entered the base of the great pyramid.

While explosive experts placed their bombs, Bleeptoo observed how Grulmagof were able to create such impossible battleships. They all kept under cover to avoid the gaze of a giant humanoid being who grabbed a large piece of extremely thick radiation shield siding from another giant that stood outside near the top of the ship. These were not machines, these were giant-sized sentient beings. They were unbelievably strong with muscular brownish orange bodies covered only with loincloths, gloves, and boots in the airless vacuum of space. They had extra large heads that were adorned with shaped bumps that were arranged in patterns as if they had some kind of helmet on, but it had really been the shape of their own skulls. These giant beings were bending and handling large metal girders like they were pieces of clay. These beings, like the snake-like Golimechoid themselves, were unaffected by the airless vacuum of space where this construction took place. They looked like animated humanoid statues themselves, and their faces seemed fixed in place like masks. Bleeptoo didn't think their mouths moved at all until he saw one make theirs a bit wider before returning to a frozen state.

Bleeptoo had been careful to get his squad back to the wormhole location before one of these pyramid shipbuilding monsters noticed them. The giant orange-skinned humanoids were actually Asuras who were Devasuras that had adapted to the areas of the galaxy that were fixed in the phantom matter. Instead of the vaporous partially ethereal form assumed by Devasuras, the Asuras were completely solid. Their mass became extremely dense, and they were virtually indestructible.

It wasn't an Asura that became a problem for the Golimechoid mission at first. That wrench in the plan came from a Grulmagof guard in a space suite who shot one of the squad members with a fine laser beam weapon. For the sake of not damaging the ship, the laser had been weak, and the squad member had been able to continue on, nursing a bloodied torso. Bleeptoo fired back with his laser appendage a lot less considerate of ship damage. The guard fell down, writhing in the agony of a depressurizing spacesuit, but not before sending out an alarm. They managed to return to the wormhole location but Grulmagof were in pursuit.

Bleeptoo needed to hold them off for over a minute and a half before the wormhole appeared. The explosives would go off in a minute and forty-five seconds. Unfortunately the minute and forty seconds had just become a lifetime, and the Grulmagof would have them all shot dead in forty seconds as they were already marching gun troops into the engine platform, and exchanging laser fire with the suicide squad.

Bleeptoo looked over at the giant who still held a giant piece of wall. The giant looked around for the source of the commotion. If he could get that being to release the slab of metal radiation shielding then it would cut off the Grulmagof fire and maybe buy them the minute and 15 seconds they still needed. Bleeptoo's mind had reached the decision in an instant that propelled him like a flying snake through the free-fall anti-gravity of the space platform directly at the Asura being. As the inertia propelled Bleeptoo toward the Asura the giant being's mouth widened a bit with disbelief. Bleeptoo unloaded his arsenal of laser and particle accelerator weapons directly at the Asura's surprised face. It didn't appear to budge the being, but the Asura did inadvertently let go of the radiation shielding as the attack intended. With about a minute to go the Grulmagof began to stop firing and tried to get out of the way of the released slab of shielding. It crashed into the base deck, smashing right through into the space platform below that overlooked one of the Grulmagof's dingy industrial planets.

Bleeptoo ducked just in time to avoid a piece of the battleship that the Asura had tore off and threw at him. He now floated away from the Asura, but grabbed a side of the pyramid ship just in time before he would have been lost in orbit above the industrial planet. Still 20 seconds, which were counting off in Bleeptoo's mind. The rest of the squad put down a suppressive wave of firepower to keep the Grulmagof from regrouping and reaching their location. A couple were broadcasting to Bleeptoo to tell him to hurry and get back to them, but Grulmagofs were already sure to shoot Bleeptoo dead before another anti-gravity leap from above.

Bleeptoo took cover and counted down 6 .. 5 .. 4. The Grulmagof were reorganizing with a sense that time was running out. Two ... One ... Just then a swirl of greenish light became a solid blue circle in the air at the wormhole location, which the rest of the squad began to line up in front of. In an instant it became a hole into another reality. Some laser beams zipped by in vain as the squad made it through the hole in three seconds. Bleeptoo broadcasted a farewell to his comrades who broadcasted back a promise to honor his bravery for all time. The focus of the Grulmagof and Asura attack then became fixed upon Bleeptoo, the one left behind. Bleeptoo had been about to be killed or captured in an instant that became quickly interrupted by atomic explosions that ripped the whole partially constructed ship and space platform apart into swarms of molten space debris.

Everything became scattered in millions of directions above the unsuspecting planet. Bleeptoo found himself wrapped around a piece of debris that sped at an angle, which seemed to be putting him in the planet's orbit. Bleeptoo had been badly burned and in pain, but still alive miraculously. It had been very hard to kill a Golimechoid before old age overtook them after a life span that never lasted much more than a hundred or so Earth years. He had been badly burned and sure to perish soon from the radiation poisoning. Bleeptoo found comfort in the fact that the mission had been a success, and he knew he left a hero's legacy behind a well-spent life.

Then Bleeptoo noticed the Asura who had thrown the piece of ship at him. The giant humanoid appeared completely unharmed by the atomic blast that still flamed in orbit behind them. The giant flew after him without so much as a tear in the boots, gloves, and loincloth that looked like his clothes. Surrounding the Asura's two eyes and mouth hole of a face an oddly shaped intricately patterned skull showed instead of hair, which resembled the extra skull shapes on the top of the heads of the Eigalli. It used that skull to speak telepathically to Bleeptoo, _You will become an interrogated prisoner of this war for what you have done! Death will not be your escape!_

The Asura wore a very highly advanced virtual particle drive belt, which it used to gain on Bleeptoo's piece of debris in orbit for the sake of capturing the one Golimechoid left behind. Bleeptoo knew he could not allow himself to be captured alive by the Grulmagof, or whatever kind of alien this was. Bleeptoo then turned an appendage on his own skull and took his life before the Asura reached him.

That attack on the Grulmagof pyramid ship construction had been a success and it allowed for more time while the Golimechoid waited for Goag Ralus to reach them with a repaired Dol star-door. At the time of this bit of Magphoreus history Aquari still weaved his way through the gas and dust of nebulae in the Carina arm of the galaxy. Aquari was still not even at the Orion arm of Magphoreus where the long lost Tze-Doldus destination still awaited.

* * *

(More history from Eigalli databanks)

After the Nephapricans accomplished Goag Ralus at the height of the Nephaprican Empire, Nephapricus suffered yet another devastating nova event 586 million years from the empire's birth. The star-door star Holdus in the heart of the empire blew up destroying perhaps the most beautiful home world inhabited by the Nephapricans of Nephrican decent. This had been as unexpected it seems as the previous events. Whatever the Nephapricans were observed scrambling to do at the time, it evidently worked to prevent any other star-door stars from copying the destroyed star in some explosive dance of the synchronistic time/space folding technology that after the first two novas now bound only 12 stars in the galaxy together. That terrible event seemed to trigger the great disappearance of Nephapricans, taking with them seven star-doors along with an indefinable adhesive that had held together the greatest galactic civilization ever known to have existed on Magphoreus.

After the destruction of the star Holdus, only twelve of the original star-doors still existed. Of these existing star-doors, seven disappeared along with most of the Nephapricans. After almost 600 million Earth years of evolving galactic civilizations, the Nephapricans evidently remade themselves, perhaps finally genetically solving the problem of not really living long enough to really claim the mantle of greatest galactic life form. The development of Golimechoid life probably played a part in their remaking. The Nephapricans, because of short life spans, were more like terrestrial life forms on the level of a mere planetary civilization who were suddenly handed the secret codes of the most advanced technologies ever developed by beings of a galactic culture. The problem always seemed to be life span, and Eagolim did much genetic meddling with themselves in order to attain the multi-thousand year life span that their species had been capable of. The infrastructure of the empire had been still inhabited by even shorter life span beings, and it began to crumble in the wake of the Nephaprican withdrawal because any real knowledge of the technology's upkeep also faded with the Nephapricans.

The seven stars Ea, Oa, Pea, Po, Koa, Ko, and Paz disappeared or were probably destroyed with the disappearance of their seven star-doors, which each actually existed on nearby planets in technological constructions the size of large mountains. It remained a mystery to this day what happened to the seven star-doors and the stars that fueled them. Not even Aquari knew what happened to the Nephapricans and the seven star-doors, but few didn't see this historical event as a well orchestrated great escape. The Nephapricans seemed to have stepped out of reality altogether, and although the technology linked all the star-doors together regardless of physical distances, the star-doors that the Nephapricans left behind still worked among themselves, yet they could not reach the seven star-doors that had disappeared. There could be found evidence that these star-doors still existed but the seven lost star-doors could not be reached by the remaining five. The empire continued under the less evolved governments of more common life forms who still could use the star-door technologies of the stars Dol, Yat, Poa, Tze, and its white dwarf companion Tze-Doldus. These stars stretched the fading remnant civilizations further away across the galaxy still, however fragmentation continued to set in this more temperamental version of galactic empire that rose and fell into three, possibly four dynasties to encompass the last 114 million Earth years of an age of galactic civilization. With the fading of this culture also faded the 4 billion Earth year long Second Age of Magphoreus, which in turn resulted in the present, 3rd Galactic Age where our planet Earth now evolves life.

Nephapricus then began to fall after the disappearance of the Nephapricans although its glory had been much coveted by the life forms who inherited the abandoned infrastructure. In the mere mortal hands of other life forms who were fortunate enough to have gained the acquaintance with the legendary Nephapricans, and thus inherited the empire, much became lost and dysfunctional with the passing millennia. The once great empire fractured and began to crumple into disarray, rivalry, war, and economic hardship. Then the red giant star Tze, burned out its fuel and collapsed into a supernova around 600 million years after the great star cluster Nephaprican empire began. The original cluster of stars were arriving at the ends of their own lifetimes. The disarray of this period contributed to the loss altogether of Tze-Doldus, the white dwarf star that orbited Tze, and it probably survived the Tze nova event. The location of this dim white dwarf star had been lost in antiquity. If the star-door at Tze-Doldus existed it malfunctioned, but it had been understood by those who had since acquired knowledge of this time in the 2nd Galactic Age that Tze-Doldus did still exist. The Tze-Doldus star-door seemed to have undergone a similar malfunction that the seven disappeared star-doors also had gone through. In other words, it had been likely that the Tze-Doldus star-door still existed, cut off from the remaining 3 star-doors like the 7 lost star-doors, and therefore probably connected to, and could reach those long lost 7 star-doors.

* * *

An hour or so after Veldada contacted the underground Ministry of Science there had been news on the television device that they were still keeping the prisoner Hanson in the Aungtalli temple for questioning. Then she heard a strange hum coming from her backyard. Looking out a window revealed that an Aungtalli flying saucer landed in the backyard. The horror of the moment made Veldada consider running out the front door. Were the Aungtalli now after her for questioning? Maybe they were going to search the house again? They would confiscate Hanson's computer with the communication protocol, which she barely had been able to hide away from them before.

The shiny flying saucer had a lit dome on the top that had been surrounded by spokes of light patterns. The bottom of the saucer had similar light patterns, and landing gear that extended to crush patches of greepops and lavardings that Veldada was going to harvest that afternoon before dinner. The shiny silver side gave way to a door that opened to become a ramp. _Maybe the Aungtalli were releasing Hanson_ , she thought. _No!_ Veldada began to turn around toward the front door.

Before she could break out into a run for the door the corner of her eye saw two ordinary Uranians emerging from the saucer. She recognized one as Thrandu, a prominent scientist of the Ministry among those who fled to Gulfang. She stopped the impulse to run, and watched the two approach the back door and knock. The Ministry told her they had a plan, and she had to wait there. It appeared the Ministry had now evidently arrived here. So she allowed her courage to return and answered the back door.

"Hello Veldada, it is I Thrandu.

This is Silvanin. We are here for you.

This is an artifact back-engineered.

You probably thought it more to be feared.

We are here to fly it to the rescue

of Hanson in transport before its through.

This flying vehicle is just as good

as what Aungtalli fly, at least it should

succeed with its lasers and soaring speed

to rescue your husband from prison freed.

So pack up some things your stay here is through.

We're back to Gulfang with Hanson and you."

Veldada felt in shock at what happened. Thrandu gently persuaded her to find what she would bring along. Silvanin introduced himself as part of security for the rescue mission. He explained that sources in their network had revealed that a transport vehicle had been dispatched to the Aungtalli temple to pick up the prisoner Hanson who had been evidently badly injured from the torture. Hanson had evidently remained defiant, and so became sentenced to death tonight. Silvanin's words fueled Veldada's packing with more and more urgency, and she soon got ready to lock up the house and leave.

Veldada had been led up the ramp into the flying saucer. Within it looked about the size of a small studio apartment. There had been seating for guests in the center of the circular saucer cabin with other chairs at controls around the sides of the round room. Veldada put her bag of belongings on one of the central seats that had been also piled on with gear and belongings for the mission. Thrandu introduced her to Girithron who had been the expert on flying their rebuilt ancient flying machine. Girithron worked some controls that were accelerating the saucer off the ground at the time, and so he barely acknowledged the introduction with a glance.

The Ministry of Science Lands in Veldada's Backyard _._

Other mission members introduced themselves to Veldada. The other member of the security team had been Nandor who also happened to be Silvanin's brother. They were armed with paralysis weapons that were also back-engineered from artifacts that were discovered by the Ministry of Science, which were also part of the reason the Ministry had been disbanded. Handirlas had been talkative and quick to introduce himself. He was the analytical one, always good for accurately calculated probabilities and statistics. Then Curvfin had been known as the crafty one, and eventually the silent one in the corner busy with some control panel repairs got up to introduce himself as Salmar.

This rag-tag band of exiled scientists while armed with Aungtalli-like technologies were hopeful the mission would go as planned. They had actually flown to Keshdesh before Veldada had sent her message. They had inside information of the plan to transport Hanson back to the prison in a secure vehicle. The plan would be to disable the vehicle from above with powerful laser weaponry built into their flying saucer. Then with paralysis technologies they would disable the security guards without harming them, and fly Hanson away. Handirlas acknowledged that he calculated it had only a 72% to 76% probability of success.

The plan of these Uranian rebel scientists almost worked as planned. They were able to observe the transport vehicle arriving at the Aungtalli temple to pick up a bloody and beaten Hanson. Veldada pressed against the view port to get a glimpse of her man. Hanson appeared a broken man who had been severely injured by the day's questions. They flew above the transport, which appeared through the flying saucer view port like a moving dot on a map of Keshdesh. Inside the saucer, the only clue that you were moving at all would be the scenery zipping by the view ports like something on a television.

When the transport began to approach the remote area that they agreed upon as the place to stop it, Thrandu ordered Curvfin to fire the laser weapon. Curvfin already became anxious to use the laser controls he had sat at. Repeated pulse laser blasts shot from the saucer to cause the transport to lose control. It drove off the side of the road into the ravine of pod-pollen and cerfusius trees. A tree put the transport's journey to an end near the place where the saucer then chose to land.

That part of the mission went just as planned, but the plan began to unravel as security guards shot particle projectile weapons at the crew before they could even get out of the saucer door. Nandor and Silvanin poked paralysis rifles out the saucer entrance to return fire. Nandor yelled out. "We are stuck on the ship we are upon.

They're out of range for this kind of weapon!"

They brought along weapons that originated from an ancient culture that they discovered among ruins of the Southern Desert. That ancient culture had mastered amazing technologies. These were weapons that shot energy out of a rifle. Uranians who were hit by this energy beam were left unconscious and paralyzed for at least several minutes. They were however, having bullets shot at them that were much more effective at the range they were at.

Silvanin pulled a regular Uranian pistol that shot 4.7 millimeter projectiles from a 15 round clip of bullets that were packed with the Uranian equivalent of gunpowder. "I know we said no harm to be done,

but I'm resorting to a basic gun!"

Silvanin shot back, which did seem to stop the bullets from being shot their way for a couple seconds while halting the guard's advancement. Veldada found cover by the chairs in the center of the saucer, and wondered if these scientists were any good at being warriors for all their undeniable Uranian courage. Suddenly the tide turned by a laser blast from the saucer that sent the security guards running away from them.

"I know shooting now can hurt landing gear," said Curvfin.

"No damage done. Now move on out of here."

Nandor and Silvanin didn't need to be told twice. They both stormed the vehicle that had been wedged in with the tree it hit. It had been like a bulletproof van with a sliding door on the side. Before they could get to the cracked side door, someone shot at them from inside. Both Nandor and Silvanin got prone in response and Silvanin immediately responded with more gunfire from his pistol. While Silvanin did that, without a word, the other brother Nandor got up to move around and point his paralysis rifle at a better angle through the transport vehicle side door.

It turned out the paralysis weapon was at a more effective range that time, and an energy beam fired in the doorway. Then out dropped an unconscious Uranian security guard on the ground outside the vehicle. More bullets then pelted the doorway from the guards that were outside as both Nandor and Silvanin entered the transport vehicle through the cleared side door.

Hanson had been shackled on a bench inside the vehicle. He tried desperately to perk up and smile at his friends. He seemed to struggle just to remain conscious. "Enough Hanson, there is no time to talk.

We must rescue you now out of this lock," said Silvanin who looked around for a key.

Nandor tried to leap outside to check the unconscious security guard for keys, but he became forced back into the transport vehicle by gunfire from the guards who had been chased away earlier by the saucer laser.

"Enough of all this. Here's the key I've got," said Silvanin.

"Brace yourself Hanson, I need just one shot."

Silvanin's pistol fired with a loud bang and a bullet broke through the shackles. With some rattle and a pull, they got Hanson free.

Then came the next turn for the worse as they began to shoot out of the vehicle door because the guards were outside firing inside to trap them. Those guards had obviously already called in for backup, and time had been running out for the rescuers. Excruciating moments dragged on as bullets spit into the vehicle and Silvanin's 15 round clip required replacing. They both began to feel the mission started to fail, while Hanson just seemed indifferent. At the time he genuinely became satisfied enough that they tried to rescue him at all.

Before the guards that were firing at them could begin shouting out the terms for Nandor and Silvanin's surrender, which they were about to do, they became flanked from behind by Thrandu and Handirlas who crept up on them with paralysis weapons. Then the shooting stopped, and Thrandu yelled out. "Do not give up! Your companions are here!

The guards are out now! The coast is now clear!"

Hanson just wearily pulled what passed for a Uranian smile across his bloodied beak-like teeth while Nandor and Silvanin helped him from the transport to the saucer.

Veldada's worry began to subside as Thrandu and Handirlas returned through the entryway first. They both turned around to encourage Nandor and Silvanin who were pretty much dragging a haggard and beaten Hanson along. Veldada got out from behind the cover of the chair to join the others at the door who were cheering the rescuers in. They were almost to the flying saucer as the guard paralyzed earlier near the transport vehicle side door began to awaken and strain against the paralysis. From the ground Nandor, Silvanin, and Hanson were still visible in front of the crashed transport vehicle while the guard still held a pistol in his paralyzed hand. In a last fit of will, the guard's hand with the pistol slowly rose against the agonizing paralysis. A long shot, which the guard would later believe missed, fired from his pistol by a trigger finger that almost failed to move at all.

Nandor, Silvanin, and Hanson at last entered the saucer, and Hanson's eyes widened at the sight of his lover Veldada. They both embraced as Hanson and Veldada relaxed in a central chair while the horror of the day finally started to drain away.

Veldada ran her hands over Hanson and said, "My true love, they would have killed you tonight.

To no longer see you, my greatest fright."

Hanson turned loving eyes on her saying, "Veldada my love, my one last regret

was not giving you a child since we met."

A tear appeared in one of Veldada's eyes. "Hanson my love don't worry because I'm

glad you are back to keep trying with time."

Then Hanson said, "Veldada I feel my life is now through.

I've only time now to say I love you.

Please I'm so sorry ... but let me explain,

... I'm only just noticing this new pain."

Veldada quickly ran her hand behind Hanson's back and pulled it up covered red with blood. Then she screamed as Handirlas yelled out. "Emergency! Something happened before

Hanson was safe. There's now blood on the floor."

There had been a flurry of Uranians running around as Hanson had been laid on his stomach to reveal a bullet wound near his left shoulder. Bandages were produced to stop the bleeding that quickly became a large bright red puddle that they were splashing through in the panic. Veldada cried and laid next to Hanson on the floor, their eyes joining in a painful mutual realization.

His body became so riddled with the marks of torture and bruises that the bullet wound seemed almost camouflaged if not now for the gushing fresh blood. Veldada ran her non-bloody hand through Hanson's hair to comfort while the bleeding had been finally stopped.

Thrandu became choked up with regret, but managed to say. "Sorry Veldada. Oh where to begin.

I'm afraid we can't stop bleeding within."

Veldada begged Hanson to hold on as clouds of pure black in the night sky sped by outside the view ports. They could be back at Gulfang in less than an hour with the virtual particle driven saucer. He would be safe from execution in a Gulfang hospital. Hanson slipped unconscious after a last assurance to Veldada that he loved her, and that the rescue had not been a complete loss because he did have one last cherished glimpse of her to take with him. Then Hanson died in Veldada's arms.

Chapter 9: The Coming of Aquari

Over sixty Earth years after Aquari departed Goag Ralus he finally arrived at the star Tze-Doldus in the Orion arm of Magphoreus. Aquari remained true to his intercept course with the little white dwarf star until it finally showed up in his infrared spectrum of vision. Aquari probes the skies of his journeys with infrared vision along with frequencies of the light spectrum beyond human comprehension. Before Aquari arrived he suddenly veered off course to stop at a nearby star about 100 light years away from Tze-Doldus. There, for reasons even Aquari might not know, he examined the huge water world that elliptically orbited a star that burned slightly larger than Earth's star. It had been a natural star system that lacked many of the complex molecules and elements that are the signatures of a star system created by a Goag Ralus dust cloud.

Aquari orbited the water world several times. No intelligent life had been detected, but the seas nursed all kinds of aquatic life beneath a thick nitrogen atmosphere that warmed under the powerful sun as well as a very active molten core that also gave the planet a powerful magnetic field. No apparent reason presented itself for why Aquari stopped there to digest data on the system. Maybe it had just been on a whim, or to seek out something from some other unrelated part of Aquari's story. Aquari often just does things like this in his constant dance of synchronicity with the cosmos.

Water worlds were usually much larger than planets like Earth, and would compare in size to smaller gas giant planets like Neptune. With life's primary ingredient in abundance, they often thrive with life when warm enough. Eventually Aquari stopped orbiting the water world to continue the last hundred light years to the star Tze-Doldus, home of one of the last known legendary star-doors of the ancient aliens called Nephapricans.

Thus Aquari entered the star system of Tze-Doldus, which still held three planets in orbit around its concentrated gravity. Aquari wondered if Beataphoriah, the star-door's quanta-optic-nanocode being, had something to do with the profound balance of this newer version of the Tze-Doldus star system. The star-door planet, Tze-Doldus-2, orbited in a habitable zone; cradled by the protective orbits of the two formidable gas giant planet's, Tze-Doldus-1 and Tze-Doldus-3. Aquari retrieved memories of the old star system from the days of the second galactic age when Tze-Doldus orbited a red giant star called Tze. In those days before Tze exploded, and broke up the binary pair, the gas giant now closest to the star Tze-Doldus used to be the fifth planet from the star. The other gas giant used to be Tze-Doldus-7, and now they were all arranged in the best possible way to shield the life-giving world from most of the worse asteroid collisions likely to result from the death of a nearby star. Aquari looked forward to finding Beataphoriah to ask it about that.

As Aquari approached the star, Tze-Doldus didn't look so good. Sunspots covered the star all over like the most unfortunate of all acne plagued adolescents, and many sunspots bubbled and festered in magnetic lines of force and plasma geysers. The overall view of the star resembled an egg covered in cracks that were just about to burst with the hatching of something. Aquari knew it wouldn't be the first time his timing would coincide with the death of a star, and Aquari could see that Tze-Doldus was not long for this world. It seemed as if something else hammered away at it, trying to shatter it, and whatever that was, it was close to succeeding.

Aquari considered that perhaps this had been the effect on a mini-star over its lifetime of powering the star-door located on the planet Tze-Doldus-2. He didn't think that theory computed, but he did compute that time had been running out. So Aquari approached the greenish marble between the two gas giants that had been the long lost world Tze-Doldus-2.

Aquari descended below the canopy of cloud and vegetation, which definitely reflected the handiwork of the star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being who brought this planet back to life. Tze-Doldus-2 had been alive indeed, and Aquari noted the evidence of intelligent life that covered the planet with roads, cities, and plenty of agriculture necessary to support large civilizations. Aquari has always been exhilarated by the glitter of lights that intelligent life likes to cover their planets with. The planet itself had been all a single continent that long since outgrew the atmospheric plant life. Beataphoriah must have used the atmospheric plants to nurse the planet's infancy to the now lush green surface of a planet teeming with all kinds of life.

Aquari easily located the star-door, which stuck out of the planet's single continent like a giant white wart. It showed itself as a perfectly circular mountain 700 miles in circumference that had been covered in a thick icy glacier. This had been the great Aungtalli Mountain, which the Aungtalli species had been named after for reasons that remain a mystery to Uranians. Many Uranians speculate that the gods created the offshoot species deep beneath this legendary mountain where the gods still dwell to this day in an underground city that Uranians call Knoxen. The Aungtalli Mountain was pretty much the only place where snow could be found, leaving the rest of the planet balmy and tropical. This mountain featured the planet's only glacier, which capped the entire dome-like mountain, adding about 200 miles to the 100-mile diameter of the star-door. It had been a perfect 300-mile diameter white circle on the planet when viewed from space. It had long since been explained away by Uranians as evidence for all time that the gods were real and must not be provoked. The Aungtalli Mountain had been the planet's most sacred place.

Most harsh weather seemed confined to the snowy northern mountain along with the southern ocean named 'Inunia' where weather could get pretty cold and some ice sheets formed at the south pole. Aquari observed that almost constant northern rains fed the planet's many rivers, which blanketed the land like a net, flowing mostly into the southern ocean. Aquari could see how this arrangement eventually returned the soil destroyed in the nova event to again support life. Aquari noted the planet's only desert had been a river-less area in the south where the gold-glowing soil still didn't seem to support any life. Eventually Aquari had finished orbiting above the beautiful alien world, and prepared to indulge his favorite means of exploring planets. Aquari began combing the populated areas of the planet to find amongst the intelligent species a recently deceased corpse to inhabit.

Ploabot had just received a special delivery telegram from aunt Jabeeb in Gulfang. He had a distant aunt Jabeeb, but she didn't live in Gulfang. There had been no return address with the letter. Ploabot heeded an inner voice that told him to just accept the telegram from the delivery worker without asking any questions. He sat in his favorite chair at home to read the letter. To his surprise it wasn't from aunt Jabeeb. It was from Veldada, and it told him the rest of the story about the amazing prison break the other day. Up until that point Ploabot had thought Hanson had survived his rescue. It had been victorious news that poured even more energy into a grassroots movement to bring back the Ministry of Science. Now the reality delivered by that letter slapped Ploabot in the face with the fact that Hanson had died that night from a gunshot wound in the back. The letter informed Ploabot that Hanson's body was going to be ceremoniously burned tonight at an undisclosed Gulfang location. Veldada asked in the letter for Ploabot to be with them tonight in his thoughts as they scattered Hanson's ashes back into the hands of Urania. Ploabot let the letter drop to the ground with its way too heavy news while he began to cry for his old friend Hanson. He would definitely be there in his thoughts tonight. Hanson had been his friend.

In Gulfang, Hanson's body had been wrapped in fuel soaked clothes, and it was being carried to a hillside in a remote forest location. Veldada picked the location out earlier from the flying saucer. Earlier that day Salmar had been repairing one of the landing gear legs that did get damaged after all when Curvfin shot the laser while the craft had been landed. This hillside would be the place for a last farewell to Hanson, their leader, colleague, and their friend. Thrandu, Nandor, and Silvanin carried the body to the pile of wood that Curvfin had soaked in flammable fuel. They don't have graves or graveyards on Urania, but instead cremated bodies to scatter them back into nature. Uranians constructed memorials in homes for lost loved ones who were believed to still exist in their thoughts for all time, but not in a body. Uranians were much more into letting the dead go than Earthlings.

They all gathered with the setting Sun to pay last respects. Thrandu had been silent and ashamed that the mission failed. When it came to his turn to speak all he said was an apology. "Veldada, I'm sorry. Oh Veldada.

To say that I'm sorry I just gotta.

I'm sorry Veldada. Oh Veldada.

I must say I'm sorry. I just gotta."

Before the torch that Curvfin had been anxiously holding could finally be put on the funeral pyre to set fire to Hanson's body, Veldada said some final words. "Hanson, my love, listen if you are here.

You'll always be to me, my dearest dear.

I know there's no child that we can still share.

A child to join us beyond any tear.

But I cherish my memories of you.

They'll always make us one where we were two."

Then she started to cry, and nodded at Curvfin to send Hanson off to the great mystery of death. The great Sun of the Uranian day looked like a dot on the horizon, just winking out of sight from the forest hillside that went dark now with a rapidly ensuing Uranian night. Curvfin finally had been about to set off the blaze that he so impatiently waited to set off when suddenly daytime returned. They all looked around to find the source of the new daylight, and all beheld a two-dimensional circle of light facing them, and descending on the crowd.

Something like audible language could be heard by all of them in their heads with a male-sounding voice, but it seemed difficult to understand. "Excuse me. Please don't light that body on fire. It would be perfect for me to animate. I am Aquari. I am a cosmic being who has come to your planet to explore and learn more about you."

Curvfin didn't light the fire he had been so anxious to watch, not really because Aquari had asked him not to, but more because Curvfin, like the rest of the group became paralyzed in awe at the sight of Aquari. Handirlas turned out to be the first to move, and he dug through a nearby bag to produce a camera-like device. He started taking pictures of the phenomenon.

Aquari decided not to wait for any kind of permission or response, and so he seized the moment to possess the dead body that had taken him all day long to find. Aquari had learned of the rescue from news reports he sensed in the cities. That fascination caused him to sense that someone associated with that amazing news story had died. Tracking down the renegade saucer had been easy since it left subtle warp patterns in the phantom matter that had been a by-product of the gravitational virtual particle field of the planet, which Aquari could detect. It had just been more serendipity and perfect cosmic timing as far as he had been concerned because Aquari loves the company of alien scientists. They may think crazy misinformed things, but the good side was that they do think. Aquari had been as much an explorer of this phenomenon of conscious intelligence and sentience as he had been a faster than light photonic explorer of the galaxy itself.

Handirlas photographed away while the others did not much more than change facial expressions from shock to curiosity. Then Aquari descended upon the body of Hanson to disappear in a flash of light that surrounded the body. The body then, for a second, flapped on the pile of wood like a fish out of water, and Hanson's head of hair suddenly became atomized to stand straight up.

Then Hanson/Aquari slowly sat up and began tearing at the loose stands of fuel-soaked mummy cloth, while the rest of the Uranians there cautiously backed up a couple paces in fear of what happened. Nobody had ever witnessed the dead come back to life, and Hanson had been as dead as dead could be for hours. Aquari experienced some difficulty adapting to this alien brain. It had been one thing to intellectually appreciate their poetic language, which Aquari had memorized a much more ancient version of, it would be quite another thing to experience the brain that evolved to produce such a language. He tried to produce a sentence. "Fa go blee bo be dory da dory.

I'm a cosmic being called Aquari." Hanson/Aquari became suddenly embarrassed by his poor choice of words. It had just been a first try.

The gathering of Uranians understood about half of that. Veldada just formed the word "Hanson," and finally broke her paralysis to run up to Hanson and put her arms around him. "You're alive my love. You're alive I see.

I don't know how, but you've come back to me."

Aquari knew he could speak Uranian better than the last attempt, and he began to assimilate. This language of whistles and chirps was spoken much faster than other audible ways of speaking. The female who now held him had been an intimate girlfriend. It would be difficult for her to accept that her boyfriend was still indeed dead and gone. He searched the neural hard drive he now controlled for her name. "Veldada, you must understand one thing.

I travel space. This body I'm using,

the one you call Hanson, who's really dead.

I'm from deep space. I'm just using his head." He became much more satisfied with that attempt to speak than the previous attempt.

The others began to close in on the resurrection miracle. None of them seemed to really believe what Aquari told them. Thrandu seemed the least willing of all, and comforted the rejected Veldada by explaining that Hanson had experienced brain damage for being clinically dead for so long, and that it had been a miracle that he functioned as good as he did. He had no explanation for why Hanson's hair stood straight up like an 80's punk rocker of Earth. It had a universally comical effect of making Hanson always look surprised like a cartoon character that sees a ghost.

They brought Hanson/Aquari back to the Gulfang headquarters in the flying saucer. Hanson's memories explained to Aquari that he had been amongst the exiled Ministry of Science who had uncovered remnants of the ancient civilization that flourished long long ago beneath the watchful care of a fully functional star-door now buried under a hundred miles of ice. Before the closure of the Ministry, Hanson had arranged for the warehouse in Gulfang to house technological wonders that the Ministry archaeologists had dug up in the southern desert. Many artifacts were as good as new, right out of the tomb where they were discovered. All over the warehouse floor were artifacts with dedicated scientists who were studiously pouring over them like Earth prospectors who had struck gold. Hanson had connections with Gulfang authorities that agreed to keep all of this a secret in exchange for exclusive rights to the benefits of what had been discovered there. Gulfang existed in the Swerite lands where there had been less loyalty to a Magite king.

Aquari became puzzled at what had become of the civilization he had once discovered recorded over 50,000 Earth years before on streams of immortal photon particles. What kind of civilization outlaws science? This race of beings should have been ages beyond the evolutionary stage of still acting like a very young civilization, which collectively sees existence through a childlike prism of superstition and religion. The Uranians had gone backwards while an offshoot species maintained supremacy over the star-door technologies. Now they were confronted with the irony of discovering the technologies of the future buried in the sands of the past. Why would Beataphoriah allow this? Once again Aquari had arrived on a world to inhabit the body of the underdog species.

Needless to say the funeral had been cancelled due to resurrection, but the gathering planned afterwards became a festive party to celebrate the return of Hanson from the dead. They figured Hanson just explained all this to himself with the fantastic traveler from space story. They figured it had been his own way of piecing together a mind damaged by hours without blood flow. It amazed the observing scientists that Hanson did so well. Even the bullet wound underwent a rapid healing that couldn't be explained. Everyone kept taking turns for a closer look and his vitals were almost constantly being taken and recorded. Hanson appeared to be in perfect health except for an unexplainable gravity-defying hairdo. Aquari had pretty much given up on convincing them of who he really was, much to the delight of Veldada who would never leave his side regardless who he thought he was. It had been good to be amongst friends when exploring alien planets full of strange creatures.

It had been easy enough for Aquari to just be Hanson since he had full access to all of Hanson's memories. He sampled as much of the food at the gathering as he could and even got a bit inebriated by the alcoholic beverages that had been perfected through the ages by festive Uranians. He enjoyed the food most of all, where Uranians showed the most creativity. This would be the kind of planetary exploration Aquari existed for as the reward for long tedious journeys.

As the night progressed it did seem, more and more, as if Hanson became somebody else. Hanson had never really been one to grasp the fine details of the sciences. Hanson had been good at math, but mainly employed that knowledge in his duties as the accountant and budget director of the Ministry. Hanson had been the administrator who liked to take care of all that stuff so that the experts could take care of the scientific details.

Something seemed different about Hanson when he engaged Salmar, the engineer in a conversation about the theoretical physics behind the virtual particle drive of the saucer ship. Nobody knew more about virtual particle physics than Salmar, but Hanson kept correcting him about the counter-oscillating electronic effects, and the theories about sub-atomic particles and positronic fields. It seemed to Aquari like these well-educated scientists were being kept in the dark about electricity and its effects. That part of their scientific method seemed to be still enshrined within the realm of magic. Hanson's memories told Aquari that they had only recently discovered the underground star-door electric grid that had still been in operation on this star-door planet. The Uranians that Aquari had found himself amongst had no idea that they lived upon an ancient star-door planet that has been the home of some of the most highly advanced beings the galaxy has ever known.

Later in the evening there occurred the conversation between Hanson/Aquari and the group's astronomer, Rodenadan, about the nature of stars and time/space. There had been no concept of a black hole yet in Uranian astrophysics, but they understood the universe to have emerged in the beginning from something like a Big Bang. Even Veldada could tell that Hanson suddenly understood things that no Uranian could know. By the end of that conversation Rodenadan believed Hanson's claim that he had actually been a cosmic being who came here from the core of the galaxy to inhabit Hanson's dead body for the sake of planetary exploration. Rodenadan begged Hanson to speak more with him later. Veldada refused to believe that Hanson had come from outer space. She didn't want to believe that.

Later as they all began to retire, Hanson and Veldada were given their own room to sleep in for the night. Hanson/Aquari noticed the central-nervous system phenomenon of awkwardness so common from sentient species to sentient species. The Hanson brain's hypothalamus triggered various hormone gland secretions that began turning his blood into a euphoric cocktail on top of his alcohol intoxication. Veldada had not been nervous at all and helped Hanson out of his clothes. She let out her ample breasts for their universal effect amongst male mammal species. She seemed to be expecting a response from Hanson.

Hanson/Aquari dug through the brain's memories of sex from previous occurrences of it. Veldada had lain on the bed on hands and knees with her back to him in anticipation for Hanson to do something. Hanson/Aquari then recalled that a phallic erection would usually be used for this sort of thing. Veldada seemed to be wondering what took him so long. Hanson/Aquari responded by reaching around and giving her tit a robotic squeeze since that had been often universally considered intimate. Hanson/Aquari had full control of the body's biological functions and began to divert blood flow to his penis.

Hanson/Aquari took Veldada's position to be an invite for intercourse. He noticed female Uranians didn't have tails, but men did. This made her ass pointing at him seem all the more like a gesture that requested intercourse. Hanson/Aquari pushed his erect penis between Veldada's legs, searching for a moist vaginal entrance. Soon it all seemed to fit together, and he humped her. Her moans seemed to indicate that he had interpreted the situation correctly, and had been on the right track.

Aquari began to enjoy the endorphin effects on Hanson's brain with each pelvic thrust that also produced frequent sensation effects that were sparking along Hanson's central nervous system. It had been a long time, and sex tended to always be shrouded in difficult to understand mores and taboos, which made exploring this aspect of an alien species all the more a rare occurrence. Hanson/Aquari figured he did everything correct, and thought that he had been quite the experienced intergalactic lover.

Veldada began to enjoy the sex, but nothing else that happened that night made Hanson seem more like a completely different Uranian. She had been caught off guard when he just sprung an erection and started humping away. She had become used to at least some pecking, and a massage or something. It didn't last very long either, and before Veldada knew it Hanson heaved an orgasm into the moist entrance between her legs.

Hanson/Aquari noticed before the symphony of sensations reached its orgasmic crescendo that Hanson's spermatozoa were sorely depleted and crippled by free radical damage that was possibly caused by intense solar UV and gamma radiation. Aquari then realized that this planet was being pummeled by direct hits of solar flares. No wonder Hanson had been so unsuccessful at getting Veldada to lay an egg. Aquari worked a little bit of his cosmic healing magic on the spermatozoa that had been filling the erect penis shaft just before the most enjoyable of sentient life experiences happened.

Hanson/Aquari became entranced by the endorphin crescendo of his orgasm. Aquari thought that had been one of the best ways to enjoy a body, and even appreciated the highly addictive drugs that the body had produced by itself in celebration of the act. Hanson laid down next to Veldada with one arm still around her back and started drifting off to sleep. Veldada noticed that Hanson now quickly fell asleep, and she figured there had been nothing unusual about that.

* * *

Investigator Eistia and Grega were both working hard to find out more about the value fraud case. They now knew his name to be Omnox who owned a farm outside of town. He had used a forged ID card to purchase expensive custom designed equipment, which he provided the blueprints for. Eistia got copies of the purchased equipment designs from the businesses Omnox had hired to make the stuff. They were way more complicated than the plans found on Nickteslo's body. Eistia couldn't begin to figure out what Omnox tried to make, except that it had been made to plug into another mechanism, and would serve as a floor platform of some kind. Omnox wasn't talking, and maybe wasn't lying when he insisted he didn't even know what he had been making. He also insisted that he worked alone, and that it had just been one of his personal hobbies to make strange things, which Eistia could tell had not been true. Eistia couldn't help but think there had been a connection between this farmer and the missing Ministry scientists.

After more futile interrogation of Omnox, Eistia went back to his desk while  
Grega got a call from the girl in forensics who he had been getting really friendly with. She worked on the DNA samples that were taken from the Eromot/Morgamor bodies found at the recent vehicle crash outside of town.

While at his desk Eistia could feel the unmistakable presence of his boss behind him approaching his desk. "You do good work when you investigate,

but you work on solved crimes, and that's too late.

Omnox goes now to prison, that crime's solved.

Two die in vehicle. Also resolved!

Get to work on new stuff in this city.

More crimes where those came from that ain't pretty."

Eistica said, "Sir, I'm just finishing the paper work.

Proper procedure, I don't like to shirk."

Eistia took an earful from the boss after saying that. He understood that this had been the routine of the boss, a song and dance that established that he had nothing to do with Eistia's unauthorized police work. That kept the boss safe from the heat coming down from the boss's bosses in the government, while at the same time he never really stopped Eistia from chasing his investigations.

After the boss finished yelling at Eistia he disappeared behind the slammed door of his office. Eistia muttered to himself. "I love my job, and what I do for work,

but sometimes I think that boss is a jerk."

Then the phone chirped. It turned out to be Grega with his new girlfriend who had proved to be handy in many cases before. "Eistia we examined that shirt blood.

It proves not all our conclusions are good.

One set of blood proved to be Morgamor,

but someone else the other blood flowed for.

That blood as Eromot's is not the same.

It's another's and Dolka is his name."

Eistica said, "That implies that Eromot is alive.

What did happen at the end of that drive?" Eistia felt revived by the new clue.

"The boy's a son of a nearby farmer

and a mother too. This will not calm her."

Eistia welcomed an opportunity to leave the office, and couldn't help but notice another link between the Ministry scientists on the run to farmers outside of town. "I'll take the car out there to notify

his parents of his death, and wonder why

the crash lacked driver. I'll give that some thought

of what really happened to Eromot"

After getting more information from Grega about Dolka, Eistia drove east of Keshdesh to the farmlands at the foot of the highlands that made up the Keshdesh canyon. Dolka still lived with his parents on Oldo's farm, which turned out to be the first one Eistia saw after emerging from the canyon ravine. Oldo and his wife, who didn't seem at all surprised by the news of their son's death, greeted him at the doorway. In fact after being invited in, Eistia noticed that Oldo had already constructed an altar of a picture of Dolka, with burning candles in memory of the son they obviously already knew was dead. Eistia pushed Oldo on that point, but Oldo only admitted that he "hears" things, and that they really missed their lost child.

Eventually Eistia left Oldo's home without a clear answer, but it had not been a crime to already know about a son's death. Eistia decided to snoop around a bit before returning to the car. Trashcans were often of interest and did in fact prove so in this case. Eistia pulled torn up blood soaked clothes from the trash, which would probably prove to have Eromot's blood on them. Eromot must have survived the crash and had been treated by this farmer. That also explained how they already knew of the death of their son who had obviously become Eromot's passenger in the backseat. Eistia's deductive reasoning concluded that they must have given Dolka a ride, and the surviving Eromot had informed Oldo and his wife of the death. It begged for an answer to the question of what happened to Eromot however, Eistia didn't want to interrogate Oldo and his wife any more about that right now.

Eistia figured Volock must know now that one of those bodies was not Eromot, and he still had not notified the authorities about the incorrect identification of the second body. Eistia figured that would be because Volock still hunted for Eromot to finish the job. That gave Eistia the kind of courageous idea that Uranians pride themselves in making.

After driving back to Keshdesh to drop the bloody clothes off with Grega for more forensics testing, Eistia drove to the Aungtalli area of the capital. He found himself a discreet cranny in the warehouse areas that surrounded the backside of the main temple structure. Eistia looked at Volock's flying saucer parked nearby, probably along with other clues about what Volock has been up to.

* * *

Before Aquari arrived on Tze-Doldus-2, Begalius, the Dol star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being did finally rid the Dol star-door of the quanta-nanocode virus that the Devasuras had infected its star-door with. It had been what Begalius did for most of Aquari's journey away from the galactic core that lasted over 62 Earth years. During that time Begalius remained removed from existence in actual reality to hunt down rogue programs that were created on a sub-atomic level in the star-door's processing and memory circuitry. Begalius hunted the quanta-nanocode virus through a virtual-reality interface program that it created long ago for its own entertainment, called the City of Doldoor.

After its initial encounter with the virus central processing boss-program that almost trapped it in an infinite quanta-nanocode loop, Begalius changed its strategy in the ongoing task of stopping the boss program's thugs that were relentlessly terrorizing the residents of Doldoor. Quanta-nanocode virus thugs terrorized the local populous of non-essential, essential, and potentially essential star-door programs that just wanted to be left alone to serve their purposes. Star-door programs enjoyed the simulated reality of a beautiful city called Doldoor under the beautiful skies based on the ecosystem of the old planet Doldoria.

One such essential program had been a recently wealthy market speculator program that worked the virtual markets of star-door commodity trading, which controlled the heart of the star-door production functions. Its recent success in the investment market of Doldoor had made Speculator333007 a very wealthy and successful resident of this virtual reality called Doldoor. Speculator333007 had also made a reputation for itself being quite the player in the town's nighttime party scene. This kind of uninhibited behavior would be sure to attract the attention of the boss program of the quanta-nanocode virus that constantly maintained its grip of fear on the town with drive-by shootings and visits by its big blue hairy gangsters. The boss virus had already relentlessly established itself as the one who controlled the city of Doldoor since the great one Begalius had disappeared, possibly defeated by the boss.

Two such thug programs that assumed the form of giant blue Nephaprican bodies with long Viking-like hair were paying Speculator333007 just such a visit one day in its office that had been recently located at the penthouse of Doldoor's star-door Trade Center. They were leaning pretty hard on the flamboyantly wealthy speculator program who stood a bit shorter than they were with the body of an Eigalli.

"... Ya see? That's one of your problems Speculator333007! You don't seem to understand who we represent here! So's we are here not just to collect the protection money you've been refusing to pay, we're gonna give you an idea of what we represent too!"

When the thug finished that sentence, the other thug, on cue, picked up an expensive statue of an ancient Doldorian goddess and threw it out the penthouse window. The room had been filled with the explosive sound of shattering glass. Then both thug programs each grabbed an arm of Speculator333007 to heave it up out of its chair, then turned it upside down, each then holding a leg while dangling Speculator333007 out the window over streets that were at least a hundred stories below.

"So why don't we start by you telling us how you came to be moving in on the bosses territory, perching yourself in this penthouse here like you're the new king of Doldoor?!?"

Speculator333007 had been effectively terrorized, dangling above the stone streets below. Any Doldoor program could calculate that a fall from this height and distance heralded the impending death of a quanta-nanocode program according to the physics that their programs were subject to. Still, like the successful business mogul that it had been, Speculator333007 kept a cool head in the tense situation. "Well I did really well with my stock in the genetic databanks, which saw more business from the Eigalli than the whole Doldoor market has seen in the last thousand teks. So ... ah, I don't mean your boss program any offense."

"Enough hot shot! You listen up. You need to tone down your partying entourage every night around town. You're making the populace become too relaxed and stuff, and that's bad for the boss's business. Which brings me to the business of you giving us 60% of your wealth."

"I ... I can probably write you a credit slip right now. If ... If I could get back inside the window."

One of the thugs said, "You know, forget about it. What do you got your wealth invested in? Is it still all that genetic inventory piling up in those warehouses even though we shut that market down?!"

Speculator333007 said, "Ah ... Well ya. I'm investing in inventory for the Eigalli who are obviously anxious for those star-door treasures once this temporary shut down is over."

The thug said, "See there! Right there! You don't get it! This shut down ain't temporary! The boss virus is here to stay. Begalius is long gone, and that Doldoorman vigilante guy is also going down soon."

Speculator333007 looked confused. "But ... we're an Eigalli star-door now. What purpose is served by shutting the star-door down?"

The thug said, "Hey, that ain't none of your business. Tell you what. Pack up your things cause you ain't going to be able to afford this penthouse when the boss virus gets finished with your inventory."

The thugs then pulled Speculator333007 back in from the window. They then turned its desk over and ransacked the office on their way out the door. Speculator333007 shook broken glass off of its suit and stood up once the thugs had finally left. Then its girlfriend, Companion3112114, who had been impersonating a shadow of a table, morphed back into an Eigalli female. She looked over her boyfriend. "They are going to destroy your accumulated inventory in the genetic databank market, probably tonight since they've decided to let you know about it now."

Speculator333007 said, "I know my dear. I kind of was counting on that."

"Sounds like a job for Doldoorman," replied Companion3112114.

"That's right my dear, for by day I am only a disguise as Speculator333007, rich playboy investor, but by night I am Doldoorman, defender of justice, the defenseless, and the City of Doldoor."

Evidently Begalius likes to tackle impossibly tedious sub-atomic tasks, such as quarantining and deleting a quanta-nanocode virus, in the most personally entertaining way possible. After declaring itself to be Doldoorman to Companion3112114, Speculator333007 then transformed into an Eigalli in green tights with a red mask covering his whole horn and face, which also became a red cape flowing behind a muscular body in green tights with red boots and gloves. A double-v-shaped logo in stylized, (probably Nephaprican,) letters adorned the costume's chest area. It held a v-shaped shield that looked like a large boomerang that could also serve as a shield. It wore a large utility belt that kind of made it look like a superhero called Handyman-man. Doldoorman then set the shield outside the broken window where it remained suspended in the air outside. It waved to Companion3112114 as it stepped out the window onto the flying boomerang shield and said, "I bid you farewell my dear. There is crime to fight."

Then Doldoorman flew away into the jagged terrain of a city landscape while standing upright on a flying v-shaped shield. There had been a lot of news recently in the city of Doldoor about a mysterious vigilante crime-fighter program that called itself Doldoorman, which had saved many a Doldoor program from the terrorism of the boss virus by deleting thugs with a deadly deletion pistol.

Outside the picturesque central city of Doldoor the grimier warehouse district where much of the hard dirty work that maintained a healthy virtual economy had been located. Large warehouse structures stored the virtual information of all kinds of star-door products, which arrived here on giant virtual vessels that traveled the misty void of nothing. Between the misty nothing and the something there had been a wide virtual ocean that spread along a long Doldoor shoreline made up of waiting docks and piers. Here the nothing has brought in large vessels filled with genetic databank DNA program data in the form of large crates and containers. It had been common sense amongst Doldoor citizens that the new owners of the Dol star-door who existed outside the Doldoor microcosm as the objective reality beyond, eagerly awaited more products made from this genetic data. The quanta-nanocode programs that were living virtual lives in the star-door could really only speculate about the existence of objective reality, and the beings who inhabit that concept of their physics. Only the mighty Begalius had been able to cross the void between the two dimensions.

Tonight there would be some different activity in these genetic databank warehouses. Dozens of fossil fuel-powered internal combustion vehicles drove up to each park outside one of the many warehouses. The occupants that got out of the vehicles were Nephapricans who could only be quanta-nanocode virus thugs in a world made mostly of Eagolim, some newly created Eigalli, and Incapricans from the star-door's days of orbiting the star Dol who all drove much smaller cars. They started unloading a different cargo from the vehicle trunks. The cargo had been boxes of explosives that were sure to sub-atomically disassemble the entire genetic databank cargo that currently filled these warehouses. The resulting explosions would surely return the genetic DNA programs back to the void of nothing from which it had been forged by whatever the vessel programs traveled to. The virtual physics of radioactive fallout would contaminate the city with a spell that only the great Begalius would be able to dispel.

Above, in the night sky there arrived a v-shaped shadow of Doldoorman descending upon the battalion of vehicles parked at the warehouses. It pulled a quarantine pistol from its utility belt and wasted no time with the vehicles that were not yet parked by a warehouse. Doldoorman had been able to fly by each one, sucking out the virus thug contents with its handy pistol. The suddenly empty cars begin to collide with each other as they all come to a halt like a demolition derby that unanimously suddenly ran out of gas.

One of the thugs by a parked vehicle yelled out. "Hey guys! It's Doldoorman!"

Thugs began running out of the pried-open warehouse doors to greet Doldoorman with quanta-bullet pistols as it landed just in time to hold up its shield to block the bullets fired by the virus thugs.

When the swarm of bullets began to quiet down Doldoorman yelled. "Now its my turn!"

Then the shield began to shoot out expanding web-like nets that wrapped around the groups of thugs that were exposed. Others were behind a vehicle to only occasionally poke up to shoot at Doldoorman's shield.

In an instant Doldoorman threw the shield, which whorled around haphazardly through the air towards the vehicle, disappearing behind it to emerge from the other side returning to Doldoorman's awaiting arms.

Doldoorman then walked calmly to the now quiet vehicle to inspect the thugs on the other side that were now all painfully writhing in a chopped-in-half state. Doldoorman mercifully produced the deletion pistol and put them out of their misery.

Inside the warehouse, Doldoorman found some worker programs that were all tied up and guarded by another giant thug crouching in a warehouse built for smaller Incaprican programs. The thug started to plead the second it turned around to see the crimson-caped avenger in green tights who had come to strike fear in the hearts of quanta-nanocode virus programs. "Doldoorman! Please don't delete me!"

Doldorman said, "Fine then. Go back to your boss program and tell it that its evil deeds will bear it no fruit tonight!"

At that the thug ran out the door without so much as daring to fire a shot at Doldoorman's shield. As Doldoorman untied the worker programs, one of them in an Incaprican reptile form asked. "Thank you so much for saving us Doldoorman, but why did you let that one go?"

Doldorman gave him a sly smile. "Not to worry citizen of Doldoor. I need one to return as part of my plan to bring the boss of these gangsters to me. Then I can directly confront the cause of these terrorists, which torment Doldoor. When I'm finished with that cause it will be a bright new day and future for Doldoor. I assure you."

Doldoorman then flew away while standing on its boomerang shield just as reporters and police programs were arriving at the scene. A reporter yelled out to one of the freed worker programs. "Was that the vigilante Doldoorman flying away from here with its red cape waving in the air?"

One of the workers spoke up. "None other than Doldoorman itself reporter program, but I don't think of it as a vigilante as much as I consider Doldoorman my hero."

The long-haired boss-virus threw the newspaper across the room after reading the headline "Gangsters Stopped From Destroying Warehouses. City Rests Easier Yet Another Night Thanks To Doldoorman."

It grabbed a long strand of braided hair on its long beard that it often tugged on when frustrated. "I want this Doldoorman's masked head brought to me! Understand?!?"

Two thugs that were also in the room appeared nervous in the presence of their angry boss. "Sure boss, but we look all day for it, but don't find nothin. Then night comes and it finds us."

The boss program thought of something. "It finds you. That gives me an idea. I'm starting to think this Doldoorman IS Begalius, and we don't have anything in that quanta-nanocode loop now-a-days."

"Ah boss," replied one of the boss's men. "Begalius is just being quiet in there like you said so before. Problem is the only way to find out is to let it out."

The boss started stroking its long yellowish beard. "I think I know another way to find out. Who was that Eagolim girlfriend of Begalius, and where is it today? If we kidnap the girlfriend, and Begalius is no longer trapped in our infinite loop then that will bring Begalius to us."

One of the men said, "That's genius boss. I think it was called Companion3112113, or something like that."

Then the boss said, "That's what you guys need to do. Ya see? Go get this Companion3112113 and we'll lay a trap for Begalius, or else maybe at least we'll capture whatever this Doldoorman is."

Companion3112113 sat in front of a mirror to run an exfoliate pad over her bald light-blue Eagolim skull, and then around the backs of her neck, ears, and shoulders. She still adjusted to a void of purposelessness that Begalius left her with. She knew it would do that after she constructed an Eigalli body for it. She knew Begalius, and Begalius knew Companion3112113. Begalius left her knowing that she had been made strong enough to adjust because it had made her that way. Begalius liked strong engaging women to challenge its intellect, but it also liked trophy girlfriends who looked picturesque by its side. That had been the way Begalius was, and for all the tears now long since dried, Companion3112113 would still make a body for Begalius any time.

Her repetitive mulling on life's current misery became abruptly interrupted by more of those hairy blue Nephaprican gangsters that had just kicked in the door again. She got up to approach them only to be suddenly pinned by two of them up against the wall next to the mirror.

"Seen your boyfriend Begalius lately lady?"

"Nobody's seen Begalius," replied Companion3112113. "Word is it left Doldoor. I ain't seen Begalius since it took me out to dinner a few weeks ago to break up with me. That had been after the last time you goons kicked in my door."

That last comment seemed to cause the interrogator to shake it's head in amazement. "Wait a minute. So you saw Begalius after our last visit. That would be after the infinite loop imprisoned it. So Begalius IS still out there. Boys, bring this woman with us. The boss was right."

Companion3112113 struggled against their advance. "What are you doing? No! I'm not going ..."

"Shut-up lady! This is happening!"

Later, after hearing the news about the Begalius break up event with Compaion3112113, the boss virus approached the quanta-nanocode infinite loop program. Before they were sure they had Begalius trapped in there, but now the boss became sure of something else. The boss hesitated for a bit, as all the pieces started coming together in its processor, then it turned off the quanta-nanocode infinite loop. There was nothing after that, just a turned off program. It then shook its fist in the air as if cursing the gods. "BEGALIUS!!!"

Later that evening star-door programs sat back to watch the evening news, or some other favorite computer program after a long day before retiring to free up allocated memory caches, and reboot to do it all over again in the morning. Those watching the entertainment devices experienced an unsettling interruption that featured the blond-bearded blue skinned face of the quanta-nanocode boss virus next to a bound and gagged Companion3112113. The virus presented an ultimatum.

"Alright Doldoorman, or should I actually say, Begalius, I've got your old girlfriend now. You see? If you ever want to see her again then meet me at the warehouses where you last attacked my men. Time for a showdown!"

Companion3112114 flicked a remote to turn off the message on the entertainment device. She could tell what Speculator333007 contemplated. "It's a trap you know Begalius. Is she really that important to you my dear?"

Begalius said, "All my ladies are important to me, my love, and I don't expect my ladies to understand that."

Companion3112114 thought about both the good and bad sides to that last comment as she watched her boyfriend morph into Doldoorman in an instant and then hop upon its boomerang shield to once again take to the skies and fight crime.

When Doldoorman arrived at the scene of the last warehouse fight there had been a single black luxury vehicle parked outside the warehouse. The door had been wide open to invite our hero into its trap. Doldoorman courageously entered to at last confront the boss virus face-to-face, who could then be found next to Companion3112113 tied to a post on a balcony. The boss virus snarled at Doldoorman through a hairy face that had a braid on one side of its long beard. Its long straight blond hair had also been braided behind its back all the way down past its waist. Over its hulking frame it wore an overcoat with deep pockets.

Even with a gag Companion3112113 still managed to say something through a muffled voice. "Waft out Begawiuf! Ifs a frapf!"

"Ha ha he he heeeeee. Yes Begalius, and you walked right into it."

The boss virus then kept reaching into its pockets to throw out handfuls of tiny beads that it threw around the surrounding warehouse. When they each hit the ground a thug program would pop into being out of nowhere and began closing in on Doldoorman.

The first wave of thugs had become quickly deleted by Doldoorman's pistol. It's shield and pistol continued to delete, and ensnare in nets, multitudes of Nephaprican thugs that kept closing in on Doldoorman only to be pushed back again and again. The boss virus just continued laughing and throwing out gobs and gobs of beads that kept turning into reinforcements. At first Doldoorman remained confident that this strategy to overwhelm would not work, however after over an hour and a half, and over 2,757,300 deleted thugs, they eventually closed in on Doldoorman and brought it down.

Begalius returned to conscious perception to find itself no longer in its red mask and cape. Begalius hung in the air with each arm caught in clamps that were suspending it from above a boiling hot bubbling vat of greenish brown goop. The boss-virus still stood next to the captured ex-girlfriend.

"Welcome back to consciousness star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being," said the virus boss. "I don't know how you escaped my infinite loop program, but now you'll have to escape certain doom. You're now just in time to either submit your services to my control or perish in the vat of superheated quanta-nanocode tar that will disassemble your programming at least permanently beyond repair. So what will it be Begalius?"

Begalius with defiance replied, "I'll never surrender this star-door to the likes of a pushy autocratic alien attack virus."

"Not all star-door functions will perish with you gone quanta-optic-nanocode being. Don't underestimate the sincerity of my programming to turn this star-door into a mountain of worthless rubble."

Begalius then started slowly being lowered to the bubbling vat below. It used that moment to implement the same escape program that got it out of the infinite loop trap, only this time Begalius had improved on its control of its own death and resurrection.

Begalius as Doldoorman

In an instant Begalius disappeared from the shackles it had been suspended from, and it reappeared on the platform between 113 and the boss virus. It didn't have the pistol at that moment so it boxed the boss's ears, which sent it down on its knees screaming in pain while holding both sides of its head.

Begalius turned to 113 to free her from her ropes. As she spit out her gag she cried, "Behind you Begalius!"

Begalius slowly turned to confront the boss virus that held Begalius's own boomerang shield. "You will now regret giving me this chance to destroy you with your own shield Doldoorman!"

Begalius just turned to smile at 113 as the boss virus skillfully flung the shield like a giant Frisbee at Begalius and the ex-girlfriend program. The shield wobbled in the air toward Begalius like a boomerang while Begalius watched it with interest and explained. "I made that shield special for me as a trap for you Nephaprican virus. Only I can use the shield or else it will turn on the user."

The shield just circled clear around both Begalius and the pole that 113 had been tied to, and returned to the boss virus to slice it in half on the edge of the platform. The legs just did a shaky dance for awhile on the ledge while the boss's topside fell into the superheated quanta-nanocode tar below to permanently disassemble into sub-atomic particles and virtual particle energies.

After that, there would indeed be a new day and future for the city of Doldoor. That had been how Begalius rid the Dol star-door of a viscous quanta-nanocode virus that had been designed to destroy the star-door itself. Begalius promised Companion3112114 that it had been only a temporary separation, and that she was still its girlfriend. To ease the blow Speculator333007 did transfer all its wealth into 114's hands. Companion3112113 took comfort in the fact that Begalius did come to rescue her from certain doom, and that they would always remain good friends in the city of Doldoor where Begalius often liked to travel to for the sake of indulging a virtual-ego's self-absorbed quanta-optic-nanocoded imagination.

Somewhere else in the many layers of realities that made up the computer reality of a star-door, the Gardener beheld a bud beginning to bloom on one of the fifteen branches of the Tree of Star-doors. The Dol door would be about to historically bloom a potential connection with the Poa door after a span of time that amounted to billions of Earth years. As the Gardener began to curve its lips into a triumphant smile, Begalius at last spit forth from the branch, and appeared again to the Gardener.

"Okay! I finally got that computer system debugged. All hostile programming is now isolated and deleted. That took a long time. I often wonder if I'll ever be able to make computers work any faster."

The gardener appeared hooded like a monk with just its smile visible, which still beamed away. "This is cause for some celebration first, before you return to the objective reality beyond old friend."

"It is indeed Gardener. Let us now celebrate." Begalius and the Gardener held a grand celebration with many guests in a virtual reality corner of the Dol star-door. It had a grand party in a virtual reality before Begalius finally awoke from its fitful star-door dream that lasted almost 62 Earth years.

* * *

Oldo's Uranians decided to take Eromot south to the city of Dogolas because the Aungtalli saucer had been seen patrolling the highway between Keshdesh and Gulfang. Volock had also pounded on a few farmer doors looking for Eromot. Eromot's new friends had purchased a train ticket for Eromot from Dogolas to Gulfang, which departed the following morning. Arnoediad told his followers that time had been running short. The Aungtalli were closing in on their forbidden religion, and fate had wrapped hope around this impending doom by joining their cause with the rebel scientists. The leader of the hearers told them that the scientists would help them if they helped Eromot.

They dropped him off near a motel that they purchased for Eromot for the night. The two hearers that were sent to accompany Eromot were very careful to keep Eromot's identity out of any purchases. They seemed all too familiar with the abilities of the powers that be to trace Uranians to their purchases in this electronic value based economy.

Eromot, while still nursing an arm in a sling, thanked his companions for all their help before they were to return on the journey 500 miles north to their home near Keshdesh. "I thank you my friends for all that you've done.

The trip was hard but it was also fun."

The day had been breezy with the smell of ocean since Dogolas had been a rocky southern harbor town that served ocean commerce needs for that part of the planet. It had been a colder town than what Uranians are more used to in the north. In Earth terms it could sometimes dip to maybe as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Aungtalli energy ran trains that linked the Dogolas harbor commerce to most major cities, and they also served passenger needs.

"Take care yourself Eromot be careful.

Don't drop your guard because it becomes dull.

They are out there and they are after you.

They won't stop till they know your life is through."

So with that comforting farewell Eromot returned to his room to get some rest before the morning train. His companions returned to their vehicle to drive the 500 miles back to the farms of Oldo's Uranians where the ancient religion of the hearers was still practiced.

The old woman that ran the motel gave Eromot a suspicious eye as he approached the door to his room.

"Those that run from the law or evil do

will have others purchase with their value."

Eromot resented the allegation. "It is not the suspicions you savor.

Those two were just doing me a favor."

The old woman just continued glaring at Eromot as he went inside and closed the room door on her. He just wanted to stay here and hide where it would be safe.

Later that night the covers over Eromot's back were still not enough to keep him warm. There had been no heat coming from the heater. It had been turned on, but it wasn't doing anything. Eromot then became annoyed to the point of visiting the mean old lady at the front desk to get that heat turned on. The main door had been open for nighttime business, and all the lights were on, but no one stood at the front desk. Eromot pounded on the counter. "Is anyone there? Hear this sound I beat.

The room purchased for me does not have heat."

A noticeably annoyed old lady waddled into the room from a doorway behind the counter. "You have your room till morning, all paid for.

The terms clearly state for heat you pay more."

Eromot stood with hands on the counter amazed because, as a northerner, he had never heard such a thing. He started to regret causing the commotion. "I can't purchase that. I'm not with ID.

I guess I want heat only if it's free."

She grabbed one of Eromot's hands and placed it on a biometrics reading pad that became popular those days in many areas of Urania for value purchases. "Have yourself some heat, yours for the taking.

We read fingerprints for purchase making."

It suddenly became too late for Eromot to stop her so he ended up just returning to the room, playing it down, and now enjoying the comfort of a room with heat. He hoped that little purchase would just be an invisible blip in the system. _Purchases aren't automatically reimbursed to businesses these days. Are they?_ Sleep would now be warm enough, but it didn't come easy because of the newly revived worry.

Grega's girlfriend tore herself from Grega's pecking on the shoulder and neck when a light on one of her tracking programs started chirping and blinking.

"Breftada darling, what's so important

you go back to work so pecking we can't."

Breftada said, "Calm Grega boyfriend, I'll tell you what is,

this indicates an Eromot purchase.

Not just card ID fraud, but the real deal.

Eromot's alive, he can think and feel.

This shows he's south in Dogolas city.

Must have ran for his life says my pity."

Grega then had to get this information to Eistia so he called him. Eistia answered in a whisper that Grega could barely hear. He already knew why Grega called, and didn't want Grega to talk much.

"I thought you'd be calling Grega I know

about Eromot's purchase where I go.

Volock also saw what that value got.

He flies now to there with me also brought."

Grega ended the conversation, and explained to Breftada what Eistia told him. Then he admitted that Eistia had always been one step ahead of Grega's investigations. That had been why he became the lead investigator of the team. That would be as long as this courageous Uranian move of his didn't get him killed along with Eromot.

Volock's flying saucer arrived at Dogolas within minutes to land silently on the one-story motel roof; its hum drowned out by the sound of the ocean raging against a rocky shore. It had been late at night and nobody seemed to notice the amazing spectacle of a flying saucer landing.

Volock emerged with a purpose, and seemed to know exactly where he was going. Volock had been genetically bred to be stronger than an average Uranian, and his casual leap from the roof to the ground demonstrated that. He went right to the apartment where Eromot made the value purchase for heat. His superior strength simply pulled the locked latch-lever till the lock shattered and the latch lifted. The noise caused a moment of worry that got put at ease when Volock cracked the door to see that the victim still slept. Volock silently, but with a purpose, entered the room.

The surprise advantage of stealth was still on Volock's side, and he entered the room to find Eromot perched in the bed sleeping with his back to the door. Volock recognized a rare opportunity to savor his kill at close range. At first he thought it sporting to use just bare hands, but then realized no, this one had to die. So Volock then produced a long sharp knife blade.

The point of the blade approached Eromot's throat, which wheezed away the breath of deep slumber. Just then Volock's knife hand got jerked away sending the knife flying across the room to slam bluntly against the wall.

Volock suddenly became in a wrestling hold by Eistia who had stowed away on the flying saucer earlier that day on a hunch that Volock would soon lead him to the missing Eromot.

"I followed on your saucer as a guest.

Caught now in murder, you're under arrest."

Volock replied, "Eistia you fool. He'll now get away.

You're gonna die. I'll hunt another day."

Superior strength broke Eistia's wrestling hold with a savage chirp. Volock then threw Eistia like a football across the room into the wall.

The crash looked painful, but all Eistia could do was ignore the pain, and roll right back to his feet. Police on Urania didn't carry guns as a rule because they were supposed to employ less-escalating means to resolve situations, and keep the peace. That had been no help for Eistia now. Military personnel were known to intervene in times of civil unrest, and they carried guns. Even regular citizens were free to own them, but the police were expected to be above the need for murderous defense. In spite of the illogical irony of an armed populace, and a disarmed police force, this arrangement worked surprisingly well on Urania, and police were well trained to not need weapons of murder.

Eistia wasn't without a weapon however, and he produced the Club Incapacitating Device, which all Uranian police were to carry and train with, to use in thousands of ways with a sophisticated fighting style as graceful and deadly as kung-fu on Earth. Eistia lunged at Volock who didn't get over his surprise fast enough that Eistia had got up at all after the throw across the room.

Volock felt the club break a rib. Then before Volock realized anything, the Club Incapacitating Device choked him. The broken rib didn't seem to diminish his strength at all, and he flipped Eistia over from behind to the ground in front of him.

Eistia gracefully rode back on his feet using the momentum of his fall. He fought in good form as his training took over to sweep the club under Volock's feet to send him to the ground.

The Club Incapacitating Device could also render an unruly opponent unconscious when applied with sufficient force to certain areas on the back of the head near the base of the neck. One such swing of the club failed to do that to Volock who then shook off the effects of the blow when Eistia then succeeded in rendering Volock unconscious with a second blow to the back of the neck. Eistia then looked around for Eromot who was nowhere to be found.

After that Eistia called Grega and arranged transportation with Dogolas police to extradite Volock back to Keshdesh for prosecution of murder, and attempted murder. The Dogolas police applauded Eistia's brave police work, but insisted that this had been all Eistia's responsibility, and that he would probably get in trouble for trying to arrest the Aungtalli Bishop's right hand man. Nobody knew what to do with the flying saucer. Nobody had been able to fly it, but arrangements were being made to impound it back to Keshdesh from the motel roof it became left parked on top of. In the meantime, crowds were sure to gather about the motel to view the rare sight of an Aungtalli saucer. That would probably have annoyed the old woman running the motel, but as it turned out, business had been up ever since. Eistia just felt he did his job investigating a serial killer that had been after Ministry of Science scientists. He wasn't going to lose his job for doing his job, and his comrades applauded the heroics.

As for Eromot, the Ministry scientist who once again evaded Volock's murderous pursuit, he had been nowhere to be found after the scuffle between Eistia and Volock became finally over. Basic deductive reasoning concluded that he might be catching the train at Dogolas station to somewhere the next morning. All Uranians boarding the next day however, were inspected, and Eromot turned out to not be among any of them. Eistia had to drive a transport vehicle back to Keshdesh with a pissed off Volock tied up in the vehicle, but without Eromot. It was going to be hard to prosecute attempted murder without a victim.

Chapter 10: Beataphoriah

When the next telegram from Aunt Jabeeb in Gulfang arrived for Ploabot to receive at his home, he then understood the routine, and just signed for the delivery. It had been another letter from Veldada. He immediately settled in his favorite chair with the opened letter to read it.

"It's I Veldada as Jabeeb I send

this letter as someone else for pretend.

As a renegade I can just come out

to whisper the news I would rather shout.

I had told you Hanson did not survive.

Now I write to tell you he is alive.

A miracle or something yet to learn

made Hanson alive when he was to burn.

It was at the funeral when a light

came down from the sky on him in our sight.

Then he arose as if only asleep,

tearing cloth off himself on the wood heap.

Now Hanson is alive and he is healed

perfectly well his fate no longer sealed.

The light however, that brought him to life

animates him only as if alive.

The light is from the galaxy of stars

shining out there that are other than ours.

He's back to life. I should not be sorry,

but he now speaks of another story.

He is still Hanson they're in the same place.

I see the same lover and the same face.

He says he's Aquari. I do not care.

He is my Hanson. I know he's still there.

Hanson's alive thanks to light that can fly.

He remembers everything and says 'Hi'.

He died like I told you. I had not lied.

He knows a lot more from the other side.

There is something else about Hanson now.

His hair stands straight up, yet no one knows how.

His hair points upward, and it will not lean.

It's the strangest thing that I've ever seen.

He is now back. He is still my Hanson.

We're back working on maybe a man son.

Sorry for the letter I sent before.

He came back to life, and is dead no more.

That's the reason for the letter you hold.

We felt that you, Ploabot, had to be told.

You can reach us with this letter returned

to the return address you should have learned.

I will write again soon. Now I must go.

Hanson's alive! I wanted you to know."

The letter had been stupendous news for Ploabot, which relieved him of a weight of sorrow now suddenly gone; dispelled by the magic of the letter. His friend was now not only alive, but back from the dead to become now more than just an ordinary Uranian. There were pictures with the letter. Some were of the funeral showing a kaleidoscopic circle of light descending on a funeral pyre that had Hanson's dead body on it. Then he saw a picture showing Hanson and Veldada together, alive and well. Ploabot held the picture of Veldada with the resurrected Hanson, and felt astonished by his best friend's new hairdo. It stood straight up just like Veldada said. It had been the strangest thing he'd ever seen when included with the fact that his best friend had been dead, and now is alive.

* * *

The Keshdesh police headquarters became awash with commotion and reporters who were trying to interview Eistia. Eistia sat silent at his desk surrounded by the other police that were ordered to keep reporters away. The news about Eistia's brave arrest of Volock, the Aungtalli Bishop's assistant, had caused a buzz all over the continent of Urania. Suddenly reporters from everywhere were closing in on the Keshdesh police headquarters. Meanwhile Volock would be released while the chief had been in his office on the phone being yelled at by someone from the castle if not the King himself. Everything filters down, and Eistia knew it would be about to filter down upon him.

Other officers around the desk were commending Eistia. One said, "I can only wish when my time is through

that I am half the officer as you."

Then another officer said, "I'll hand it to you. It was historic.

You worked up the crowd. They are euphoric.

It was brave of you, and was not a jest

that you caught the killer under arrest."

Eistia just remained silent as ordered, sitting at his desk twiddling a writing device. Then the group of reporters began to cackle, and veer away from Eistia's desk.

There had been a huddle of officers near the jail entry who were pressing against someone much taller than anyone else in the room who had an enlarged bald Aungtalli head.

Volock effortlessly pushed the officers away to move closer to Eistia at his desk. Everyone anticipated an ugly confrontation about to occur. One of the officers that got shoved aside yelled out. "You got out of jail so now just be gone.

Murderers freed here should just move along."

Volock just continued his approach toward Eistia who still just twiddled the writing device with his expressionless eyes now on Volock. As more officers got between the two rivals Volock said, "I told you I'd be let out of this den.

I say Eistia, till we meet again."

Eistia looked like the least intimidated one in the room. "You have your privileges. I do not care.

Just break our laws again, and I'll be there." His look into Volock's eyes advertised a confidence that said he would love another chance to kick Volock's ass again. The entire precinct of officers then made a wall between the two adversaries. If Volock wanted to start something they were all ready to finish it. Volock just tore himself away and left the Keshdesh police headquarters. A few of the reporters got the whole scene on video recordings. Volock left the precinct to return to a furious Bishop now as publicly embarrassed as Volock because of the obvious connection.

Outside it became even more chaotic than at the police headquarters, and Volock had mobs of angry protesters that he had to shove his way through to get to the Aungtalli temple a couple blocks away for probably more abuse. Uranians had been rallying for some time to get out in the streets with their discontent, and now it had grown into millions in the streets every day. The news had been part of everyone's conversation and the movement to restore the historic Ministry of Science had become planet-wide. Nothing had ever stirred up so much discontent amongst the Uranian population as did the closure of the Ministry of Science.

Back in Police Headquarters the chief finally opened his door to call Eistia in with his short non-rhyming way that always amplified his constantly fuming anger. "Eistia! Get your flaccid tail in here!"

That was it. Everyone waited for a second for the rest of his chirping, but then extracted the point after pondering his words some more. Eistia knew long before anyone else what the boss had been saying. It had been the kind of noise that grabbed the emotions like a stupid kid who can't speak anyway, but still can make you understand.

Eistia quickly got up and went into the boss's office. The boss he met in the office didn't look mad at all. "There. Have a seat. Shut the door behind you.

I yell for show. I really don't mind you.

I've been on the phone. My tail has been chewed.

The King was angered. It got very rude.

Your police work made news across the land.

Now you have done it. It's got out of hand.

I'm however, not upset. I don't mind.

You did good Eistia. I like your kind."

Eistia was genuinely grateful for the rare flattery. "Thanks chief. I'm surprised that you are not mad

after the 'tail chewing' you have just had."

The Chief replied, "You doing what's right is what I think cures

what chews my tail, the bunch of shit sphincters.

I'm going to get even watching you go

tell your whole story while I watch the show.

Talk to reporters. I give you a pass.

Those assholes above me can peck my ass."

King Worapor watched the gathering crowds from his castle parapet. The noise and movement of the protesting crowd made it easy to tell where Volock walked as he made his way to the Aungtalli temple nearby from the jail. The crowd below became an unbearable weight on his unpopular decision to close down the Ministry of Science. The Uranian people had by-passed the Audience Hall procedures and gathered outside his castle to demand an audience. The King had been obligated to bear witness.

It had been the Aungtalli Bishop who really ordered the closing of the Ministry, and the Aungtalli were really only as influential on the King as the religiously faithful crowds they represented. The population of the planet had lost their contentment, but King Worapor knew the problem wasn't economics. Everyone on the planet had value and had been well cared for, which always kept them content in their homes before. The problem wasn't even really the closing of the Ministry, but that had become the final crossing of the line as far as the masses before him were concerned. King Worapor even thought reopening the Ministry would calm these angry masses down. King Worapor realized that the real problem had been what he had no control over, the mortality rate, disease, and other problems caused by solar activity. Many in the crowd blamed the Aungtalli for the mortality problem, but the King knew that wasn't true. The King realized as he witnessed his people's discontent that it had been the Ministry of Science that gave them hope, and closing it down became an act of war against that hope. King Worapor just didn't see many Aungtalli supporting crowds out there, and he did think, as usual, that the Aungtalli knew more about the solar problem then they were telling.

The King considered the leverage this protest gave him to just reopen the Ministry. It had never been in his interest to close it in the first place. That would reestablish his place as a true King of the people. Being a true King had been his only leverage with the three families that raised him from an egg for this duty of King, and the three families could always easily assassinate an unpopular failure of a King, which he realized he had dangerously set himself up for. King Worapor had also been nobody's fool. He knew the Ministry had upset the Aungtalli with their recent technological discoveries. They were discoveries that not only documented a thriving pre-Aungtalli Uranian civilization over 250,000 years ago. That pre-Aungtalli civilization had technologies that rivaled the Aungtalli toys that the Aungtalli claim came from the gods. This thriving highly advanced ancient civilization also accessed data from satellites that were still orbiting the planet in gravitational Lagrange points. The King had been aware that those satellites were relaying data today that indicated that the sun was dying.

King Worapor then became put in motion by a decision to use this moment for a confrontation with the Aungtalli Bishop. He began to notify the entourage that closed in on him that he was on his way to the Aungtalli temple to speak with the Bishop.

The Aungtalli Bishop had been furious with Volock, and he sounded a lot like Eistia's boss throwing a yelling fit. The Bishop had been careful not to display this lack of composure to anyone else, so he had Volock meet him in the environment shelter, which every Aungtalli temple had always maintained beneath it. The temples all had shelters built underground in preparation for the end times. One of the oldest beliefs of the church had been that in the end times the world would be destroyed, and only a chosen few in these environment shelters would be saved. The Bishop just finished up with Volock when the King arrived to speak.

"Your secret mission was for all to see!

Now what you've done is reflected on me!" Then the King who had just arrived, opened the environment chamber door unannounced. The Bishop's screaming session with Volock had been abruptly interrupted.

"... Oh, your highness, I did not expect you.

I was just with Volock. NOW I AM THROUGH!"

Volock seized on the Bishop's glare that finally dismissed him from the scolding. He bowed submissively to both of them, and took his queue to leave the Bishop and the King alone.

King Worapor looked over the airtight environment shelter that covered half a square mile of complex below the ground under the capital city's Aungtalli temple. The Aungtalli took the legend of the end of the world very seriously, and the King thought that they even longed for it like some kind of sick twisted death wish. Aungtalli end-of-the-world environment shelters were all powered by the mysterious energy that provided a living environment of atmosphere and temperatures according to instructions found in ancient scriptures. Many Aungtalli temples dutifully stocked their environment shelters with enough food and water to survive for years with a small population of chosen ones.

The King addressed the Bishop. "The Ministry closed, you made me order

because the times are getting much shorter.

They saw what you didn't want them to see.

You wanted to hide their discovery."

The Bishop knew where this was going and interrupted. "Oh mighty King you think I can't deceive

you, but I say you are still quite naive.

These special shelters are for the chosen

who are Aungtalli. The rest are frozen.

I made you close down the Ministry

so the solar damage they wouldn't see.

The gods control the sun that seals our fates

with increased Uranian cancer rates.

This is my purpose so I will not cry

when you with all of them finally die."

The King became suddenly angry at the Bishop's rude frankness. "Well that may just be what you had arranged,

but I'm here to tell you that things have changed.

I do not care what threats from gods you send.

To open the Ministry I intend."

The Bishop visually murdered the King who had already made the mistake of walking in on him in a furious mood. "That's quite some nerve to say that to my face.

I'll summon gods to put you in your place.

That said now I'll tell you what you will do.

You'll tell Ploabot that his lawsuit is through.

As for the crowds you will then calm them down.

Now get out of here. Don't come back around."

The King had lost his nerve after barging in on the Bishop's commanding presence, and so he left the temple humiliated by the loss of his courage. The Bishop had all but admitted to the King that the neutrino-induced solar flares were a scheme by the Devasuras to sterilize Uranians with infrared, x-rays, and gamma rays over a period of time, as well as to escalate cancer rates. How can a King stand up to the gods? The King worried that these really were the last days of his planet. What can a King do about the end of the world?

* * *

Hanson/Aquari woke to find Veldada fussing with his hair, trying to make it set down with some greasy hair product she had. The hair just resisted the weight of the oil and slowly aspired back to a straight up position. His hand grabbed Veldada's hand, which held a hairbrush. He couldn't begin to explain the multi-level atomizing effects from negative photons traveling backward in time, which had always been the side effect his presence had always had on dead bodies. The others in this Gulfang facility would be easier to explain anti-grav-atomization to.

"I'm sorry my dear, I must stop your hand.

While in this body the hair's gonna stand."

Veldada said, "I just thought I could do something to it.

Here, have the brush. I'll just let you do it." The hair bothered Veldada because it stood out like the unaccepted fact that this really wasn't Hanson her life-long lover.

Hanson/Aquari got up to fuss with his greasy hair in the mirror. Then he decided to use the shower in the bathroom to just wash the greasy hair product out.

Veldada decided she would be more useful in the kitchen working on some breakfast for the two of them. She went to the refrigerator to get some turagalton that she had chopped up in order to fry at breakfast with some waff sausage. The Gulfang warehouse had a large garden behind it that the scientists found time to cultivate extensively. Gardening had been in the blood of most Uranians, and it helped a scientist to solve problems by getting out away from whatever scientific problem troubled them to just dig around in the dirt of a garden from time to time.

A queasy feeling came over Veldada as she spooned the turagalton onto a skillet that warmed up on the cooking counter. It had been a nausea that seemed to have started last night. Although it had been a feeling unlike anything she had ever felt before in her life, she knew exactly what it had been. She finally formed an egg after all these years of Hanson and her trying. Any day now she would lay an egg that would then be incubated into her first child. She put her hand on her stomach and formed a tear before the nausea settled down. Then she returned to the turagalton. This child would be proof to her that Hanson was alive because this child would be born of Hanson's seed, which is the life of Hanson.

After breakfast, Rodenadan and some fellow astrophysicists came over to Hanson and Veldada's room to discuss the nature of the universe with the mysterious cosmic being that inhabited Hanson's dead body. That would be enough to run Veldada away from her boyfriend's side as she left them to their science discussion, which acknowledged a part of this resurrected Hanson that Veldada preferred to be in denial of.

Hanson/Aquari had been as inquisitive of their knowledge of the Universe as they were of him. Uranians had figured out by now that lots of stars in the sky were actually whole galaxies of stars, and that the universe expanded from what seemed to be an original point where everything must have exploded into existence. They were limited in knowledge of sub-atomic matter and what happened before the original 'Big-Bang' creation event. Uranians were pretty accurate in their estimation that the universe had been 127.1 billion years old.

Rodenadan became tired of explaining to Aquari what they understood about the universe, and wanted to learn what Aquari knew. "Enough about us where our science went.

What know you of this creation event?"

Then Hanson/Aquari began to explain to the Uranians how the universe had been created. "Before billions of years of what you see

along with nothing was infinity.

When all was nothing, not even trying

there was still that, which keeps saucers flying.

The subatomic effect of nothing

is space curvature, which did still take wing.

In the depths of infinity began

subatomic matter like grains of sand.

Even with nothing and no resistance

particles still come into existence.

Add to that infinity and you see

subatomic matter constantly be

accumulating pressures also still

of mass that makes gravity as they fill

the nothing that existed long before

the creation event came through the door."

Rodenadan was hearing what he came to hear and wanted more. "You describe creation as through a door.

Please keep explaining. We want to know more."

Hanson/Aquari continued. "All was nothing,

an empty cavity.

Still something existed like gravity.

Gravity produces a particle

that's subatomic and also fickle

Through trillions, zillions, multiplied billions

this continued on more zillion zillions.

Subatomic mass accumulated

Along with the gravity that made it,

but they did not just build up at leisure

squished together under their own pressure,

particle mass grew with infinity

to phantom matter singularity.

The by-product of gravity outward

explodes the subatomic like a sword

into atomic matter out flowing

with time and space still to this day growing."

Hanson/Aquari had given Rodenadan more than he could immediately digest. He had discussed the concept of black holes with Hanson/Aquari before, which happened to be just beyond Uranian astrophysics. He could grasp the math of a black hole creating a singularity with gravitational pressures. This subatomic matter Aquari spoke of happened because of the virtual particle effect that comprises the gravitational phenomenon, as well as particle exchanges that hold molecules together. Phantom matter exists out there mostly unaffected by the force of gravity, yet also it accumulates where gravitational pressures are pronounced as the by-product of the virtual particle phenomenon when a spontaneous virtual particle fails to disappear. Instead of gravity crushing these subatomic particles into a singularity it became the unimaginable pressures of an infinity of its natural accumulation that mostly created the event that created the universe. The phantom matter singularity explains how the mass created at the beginning of the universe escaped the gravitational pressures that should have collapsed it into the largest black hole ever. When the discussion of the creation of the universe became finally over, Rodenadan and his associates left thoroughly dazed by the theoretical physics Aquari had filled their heads with. It had been the kind of conversation Aquari had with terrestrial life, which often rapidly advanced that species of intelligent life.

As the days went by, Hanson/Aquari continued to enlighten the rebel scientists about Aungtalli magic. Hanson/Aquari saved them years of artifact research by simply rummaging through the stockpiles of artifacts in the Gulfang warehouse, and telling the researchers all about what something was, and what it did. Veldada had laid an egg, and carried it everywhere she went in an egg purse strapped over her shoulder. It became her bond to the Hanson she still believed lived behind the Aquari he had become.

Veldada carried her egg with her one day in an egg purse strapped over her shoulder as she went to the postal station to mail Ploabot the latest news. Curvfin had made her a flawless forged ID of Mrs. Jabeeb, an aunt who Veldada once heard Ploabot mention that she used to maintain the phony letters that concealed her identity. This had been much easier to pull off in the less autocratically obsessed politics of Gulfang. The Ministry of Science members who were there were not wanted for any crimes, but they knew they were targets for assassination by powerful beings behind the power structure of Uranian society. Everyone in the world wondered where they had disappeared to, but also knew they probably went into hiding for their own good.

She looked for something in her Jabeeb mailbox from Ploabot, but nothing had showed up there that day. Then she mailed her letter to Ploabot, and left the building when her eyes suddenly recognized the long lost Eromot walking down the street.

"Eromot? That's you?! I'm running into?

Where have you been? Tell me what you've been through."

It really had been Eromot who also appeared thrilled to see Veldada. "Veldada!? Oh, I can't believe it's you,

are who I first see in Gulfang here too.

I just got here, and left the train station.

Now I see you out of the whole nation."

Veldada also became amazed by the coincidence. "I was just mailing a letter right here

as someone from this place who lives quite near.

This meeting is coincidence to me.

You were not someone I thought I would see.

I heard of Dogolas where you were seen

escaping your murder. In news it's been."

Eromot settled down from the surprise of this coincidence. He explained the untold story of his escape. "I too heard the news about my escape

where that news ends till now I'll fill the gape.

I ran from the arrest scene. That you know.

The motel lady I thought was a foe,

who I really was she wanted to know.

She was my best friend after she found out.

She hid me saying I wasn't about.

She kept me safe so that I did remain.

Then she even helped me get on the train."

Suddenly Veldada wanted to get Eromot back to their hideout so the others could hear this story. "I'll take you to our headquarters my dear.

All will be thrilled to find out you are here."

Veldada led Eromot to the rebel scientist hideout that Eromot in the first place had been on his way to with memorized directions. Soon Eromot became surrounded by old colleagues that were excited to have their old friend back with them. They treated Eromot's broken collarbone with healing ointments and massage treatment, while Eromot told the crowd of his adventures. When it got to the part of Veldada bumping into Eromot as he got off the train, Thrandu became suspicious, and mentioned to Veldada, "Just another coincidence because

of the destiny Aquari leads us."

It seemed even Thrandu now no longer believed Aquari to be a delusion. Veldada still believed her Hanson to be in there also. That became her religion. She carried their child with her in the purse strapped to her side as if it became the proof of that conviction.

The Ministry scientists took Eromot to the warehouses of artifacts in order to meet Hanson/Aquari. Hanson/Aquari had just helped them get a molecular replication device working again. A quanta-nanocode technology over 50,000 Earth years old had been powered by the planet's still functioning star-door electric grid. The molecular replication device could access a star-door's phantom matter singularity in warp space in order to reproduce anything from nothing instantly. Different versions of molecular replication technologies were behind the mass-production of products by a star-door complex. Hanson/Aquari programmed it to produce what he called a communication processor node, which had become a hand-held variation on Hanson's clunky personal computer invention. Aquari figured the communication processor node, coupled with a network protocol connecting all the individual nodes, would accelerate a democratic influence on the sociological evolution of the planet, which he had concluded by now had been suppressed by the Aungtalli who where a rival evolutionary branch-off species of these times.

Scientists were trying to explain to Eromot the death/resurrection event, and how Hanson had changed since then, but Eromot still seemed ill prepared to deal with what he saw had happened to his friend. Eromot just couldn't take his eyes off of Hanson's ridiculous hair while he explained what had happened to him on his journey to Gulfang. Aquari searched Hanson's memories for times spent with Eromot that he could use to put his friend at ease. Aquari then realized that it turned out, according to Hanson's recorded memories, that they really were not ever very close.

Eromot mentioned, while telling his story, that Morgamor had been a hearer of Beataphoriah when he had described the vehicle crash. Aquari then interrupted Eromot's story. "He heard Beataphoriah in his mind?

It's Beataphoriah I'm here to find."

Eromot elaborated. "Morgamor's mind was able to hear him

when I injected his veins with serum."

Hanson/Aquari became intrigued. "If that will induce this then I by choice

would take this injection to hear the voice."

This all happened very sudden, and Eromot had just arrived after a long journey. Eromot explained that he needed time to produce the serum, but then Handirlas just happened to know where some of Eromot's serum had still been stored.

Soon Hanson/Aquari had the loose sleeve of his shirt rolled up with a tourniquet wrapped around his biceps. Eromot held up the syringe to push out a bubble of air. As Hanson/Aquari anxiously waited, Eromot pushed the needle into Hanson/Aquari's bulging bloodstream. After blood squirted into the serum as Eromot backed the syringe up, he then pushed his concoction into Hanson/Aquari's vein. All eyes were on Hanson/Aquari as Eromot pulled away the needle.

Hanson/Aquari sat back in the chair with his eyes closed to listen while chemicals swirled through his metabolism. The serum had been known to not be harmful to Uranian physiology. Uranian medicine often employed injecting a remedy right into a vein with a needle and syringe. This perhaps would look barbaric to Earthlings, but the effects of relief from a medication were immediate when administered that way. Hanson/Aquari sat silent with his eyes closed for an excruciatingly long time while other researchers observed the experiment.

Eventually he said, "That serum sends the voice right in my ear.

A dialect of your language I hear.

Platform instructions it keeps repeating

to teleport us right to its meeting."

Some in the group were asking Hanson/Aquari to describe the teleportation platform he talked about. "Describing that has already been done.

I say in artifacts here you have one."

They all followed Hanson/Aquari who rummaged through the piles and piles of ancient relics that were actually highly advanced technologies. Many artifacts were still in good working order after 50,000 Earth years when Ministry archaeologists finally unearthed their well preserved tomb in the barren coaglium sands of the Southern Desert. The scientists converged on a familiar platform too low to the ground to be a table.

"Here is that teleportation platform.

They all have been made to a standard norm."

It had been big and heavy, and would not move when Hanson/Aquari pulled on it. Then he walked on top of it. "It's intended that you stand ..."

Just then the platform sank a couple inches with a bad sounding crunch under the weight from Hanson/Aquari standing on the platform. He immediately got off the now crooked relic of a previous age. The standing portion that made the platform top unplugged from the base. The bottom part of the mechanism had evidently been damaged by time. The group therefore lifted the top off the teleportation platform. The top standing portion had been made to distribute the portal matrix information signal into a standard shape. The top still seemed perfectly well, but underneath 50,000 Earth-year-old circuitry of the signal receiving mechanism now turned to crunch up into mush and dust.

"The bottom part we'll need to rebuild it

and make it the same so this top will fit."

Then Eromot decided to finally finish his story to Aquari. "I'd have told you as my story was done

that I ran into those that have built one."

Eromot then explained about the hearers he had met through Oldo. It had been another fantastic coincidence on that day that they then learned of the hearers who had a platform bottom already built to specs, but no top, and they now had a good top, but no bottom. Little events leading toward an impending destiny seemed to just be falling into place that day. Synchronicity had been one of the age-old mysteries of Aquari.

When they discussed delivering the top to the hearers Hanson/Aquari explained to Salmar how to do it with the saucer technology that they already had. The saucer equipment had the ability to create similar virtual particle fields around other objects in order to transport them alongside the saucer through a microwave beam connection. Virtual particle technology had been the essence of tractor beam technology.

It wasn't long before a few of them, along with Veldada who insisted on coming along when she got the news, were in the saucer flying back to Keshdesh from Gulfang to meet with the hearers. It had been quite a site for those that looked up since it also had a rectangular emerald teleportation platform top trailing along behind it in the sky. Soon they were too high to be seen, and only minutes away from Oldo's farm. They didn't go completely undetected however, and in Keshdesh, Volock had been notified of an object detected in the skies flying from Gulfang to Keshdesh. It could only be those saucer-flying scientists, and he became anxious to bring a victory to his master, and make up for recent failings.

When the Ministry scientists first landed they found nobody around at Oldo's farm. Then it became obvious to the hearers in hiding that it had been Eromot and his scientist friends who had landed in a flying saucer and not the Aungtalli that were out to persecute them. Suddenly lots of farmers started coming out of the woodwork as if from nowhere. Soon there were a bunch of them carrying the platform top to the barn where even more hearers were gathered. It seemed they all kept growing in number within the church-barn as the ancient emerald top became plugged into their recently constructed bottom. It was a miracle to the believers, and a perfect fit; the perfect confirmation that the voice they all heard was true for them all. The emerald material of the top lit up, and the platform hummed for a few seconds as the planet's energy grid activated the newly created device. The emerald glow didn't go out since the platform had been setup to be in a default mode that waited for a teleportation connection.

Then Hanson/Aquari got up on the platform again. This time it held. "Now I could finish its waiting sequence
if I set the star-door coordinates."

The leader of the hearers, Arnoediad, who had been crying as they fit the platform together, spoke up. "The rest of the legend will help my friend.

We know the place where coordinates send

a flash every night never degrading,

at Vongolath the answer is waiting."

They then eventually decided that Oldo and Arnoediad would help carry the completed teleportation platform to the Altar of Saint Vongolath, a holy site popular with pilgrims of the Aungtalli faith to this day. Every night a flash of light still occurred, which some believers attributed to miraculous healing and miracles. The saucer with the platform alongside flew northeast toward Svervus near the southwest corner of the Northern Sea, where the old holy site of the Alter of Saint Vongolath had still been drawing nightly crowds.

* * *

Grulmagof pyramid shipbuilding had been resumed in earnest after the Golimechoid had successfully sabotaged the building of the fifth ship. The invincible Asura who chased the remaining perpetrator down with a virtual particle belt before the culprit committed suicide had brought the dead Golimechoid body of Bleeptoo back. Both Asuras were unscathed by the nuclear fission bombs that tore apart the fledgling pyramid ship that they had worked so hard on. Nobody else on the orbiting construction platform survived those explosions. They brought the body of Bleeptoo back to show off some more of their wondrous technologies to the Grulmagof scientists. The Grulmagof were collaborating with the Asuras in their campaign to exterminate the Golimechoid. The Asuras were some very powerful allies.

The Asuras embalmed Bleeptoo's body in a preservation tank that fixed electrode instruments onto points in the dead brain. One of the giant Asuras knelt way down to explain to the tiny Grulmagof below who where there to learn. "This is a demonstration of what we refer to as an ego-phantasm. This can be summoned from an undamaged brain after the original being has died. This demonstration shows its usefulness for interrogation."

The other Asura worked the gigantic controls while taking his presentation cue. "This screen digitizes transubstantial imagery that is experienced by the ego-phantasm in ways that very closely mimic the actual conscious perceptual experience of the phantasm."

The Grulmagof stretched to see the screen on the equipment like little rodents that were appreciating a giant human appliance. Then they all became distracted by smoky lights that began to increase in brightness not far from the Asura that worked the controls.

The lights coagulated into a glowing Golimechoid, which caused the Grulmagof scientists to shriek away in panic.

"Do calm down my friends. The ego-phantasm is made up of phantom matter, and is unable to directly effect the objective reality it projects itself upon. This is a harmless phantasm of the ego, which this dead Golimechoid entertained during his life. It is harmless. Now we had to adjust this equipment to accommodate the Golimechoid physiology, and their unique electronic DNA, but once we are able to reconstitute the virtual parts of its cells with our preservation equipment the brain can project this ethereal construct of what once lived as this body."

The Golimechoid ghost made an audible radio broadcast in the unintelligible language of Golimechoids. "Where am I? Who are you beings?" Then it turned its gaze to the smaller Grulmagof below. "Grulmagof!? What? Was I captured?"

"As you can see it's as if we've brought the prisoner back to life." The Asura turned to the ghost to explain in its own language. "We have brought your consciousness back from the dead so you will tell us what you know about Golimechoid treachery against the Grulmagof."

The ghost of Bleeptoo became angry. "I will never tell you anything of what I knew when alive. If I am dead then you can no longer persuade me."

Then the ghost deliberately faded away. After what had just happened had been explained to the Grulmagof one of them spoke up. "That was an ineffective interrogation. As in its life, the subject will not reveal anything."

The stiff mouth of the Asura bent into something like a smile. Asura mouths don't move when they speak. This makes Asuras look like they wear masks. "The ego-phantasm will not reveal anything however, the ego-consciousness has now retreated into an unconscious swoon where it will tend to go exactly to what we wanted to know as it enters the dream-like state. We can follow this direction of the suggestion I introduced on the equipment screen next to my colleague."

Then on the gigantic screen appeared Bleeptoo in a room of some kind. The dingy brown planet Poa-3 appeared outside a view port, indicating the room had been onboard some kind of ship or satellite in orbit around the dead planet. Bleeptoo spoke to a round sphere of technology suspended in the air of the orbiting room. "I did not betray you Young Brain. I would never betray you, the future child of Goag Ralus."

The Grulmagof appeared puzzled. One asked, "What does this mean?"

The Asuras just looked at each other slowly turning their mouths into a shocked expression like morphing masks. They both recognized the object on the screen. They both simultaneously realized that the Golimechoid were cultivating a Young Brain program, which could only mean that the Golimechoid intended to procreate with Goag Ralus. That had been the worse case scenario of what the Asuras had been collaborating with the Grulmagof species to try to avoid. Devasuras and Asuras were both concerned by the implications of technologies left behind by their ancestors, such as the Golimechoid, Goag Ralus, and the star-doors.

* * *

After the return of Begalius to Goag Ralus from its star-door virus hunting adventure, the Eigalli went back to sampling genetic products from the Dol star-door databanks along with other star-door wonders. There were all kinds of empty cities, virtual cities, and wonders to explore in the 100-mile diameter star-door sphere. Some Incapricans from Dol also lived within this star-door. They kept mostly to themselves until they eventually contacted Begalius to arrange to come out to explore the wonders of Goag Ralus. After the return of Begalius, once again the warehouses in the virtual reality city of Doldoor were again full of compiled DNA programs that were discovered and compiled originally by the legendary Nephapricans.

Deliadre sat on her patio one day appreciating the effects of the colder weather on the view of Occuitah, which had been caused by Goag Ralus entering molecular clouds that marked the end of a tek. A tek had been a Goag Ralus year lasting about 311 Earth years. Goag Ralus used this time in the molecular clouds to gather molecular materials and also to cool down His surface in what amounted to a winter season that lasted for several Earth decades. Atmospheric effects on Goag Ralus caused this, which happened as molecular particles suppressed the solar winds of His seven stars. The billions of years of Goag Ralus orbiting this way had led to a tek being an almost universal measurement of time in modern day galactic cultures across the known galaxy called Magphoreus.

Goag Ralus, in the form of a Golimechoid avatar, had began visiting the Golimechoids of the star-door planet Poa-3 in the Carina arm of Magphoreus. Deliadre still impatiently awaited the star-door connection with Tze-Doldus by Aquari who she calculated should be getting there soon. She wanted that connection to the Orion arm so she could finally meet, in person, her life-long friend Beagud the Eagolim. Many Eigalli wanted to take to the stars from the easier-to-navigate outer arms of the galaxy, which the Dol star-door now led to. Golimechoids at Poa-3 had already constructed spacecraft that awaited adventure-seeking Eigalli from the much harsher and treacherous core environment of Goag Ralus. This had been an exciting time in the third age of Magphoreus.

Deliadre talked to Beagud earlier through their quanta-communication link as they often did. When Beagud left the Ti system after being frightened by the Devasura, he had diverted his Eagolim space fleet in the direction Deliadre had given him for the newly discovered location of Tze-Doldus. That species of Eagolim had been cut off from star-door planets ever since the stars Fedor and Gralga went nova in the second age of Magphoreus. Those star-doors must have survived the novas, but they never could find them with quanta-communicators or anything else afterwards. The Eagolim still search for those long lost star-doors in the Orion arm to this day. Deliadre and Beagud had arranged to finally meet through the Tze-Doldus/Dol star-door connection soon. Beagud should be at Tze-Doldus in a little over a tek, or 352 Earth years. That had not been an excruciatingly long time for longer-living galactic beings like Beagud and Deliadre.

Between Beagud and Deliadre, the two of them had figured out about the existence of the Devasuras who followed them with giant protoplanets that were probably made out of the seven long lost star-door stars of the great disappearance legend, which disappeared along with the last of the Nephaprican race.

A notification sounded from inside, and it interrupted Deliadre's enjoyment of the snowy city scene. She got up to respond to the message on the star-door monitoring equipment that she had been maintaining. It indicated to her that Goag Ralus had Begalius create five disconnected wormholes with the Dol star-door. She had not been told about this, and the experiment would be monumental. She left the apartment to get over to the star-door, and see what went on.

The Grulmagof commander of the newly built fifth pyramid ship proudly flew that ship in formation with the other four pyramid ships on course to Poa-3, the last known stronghold of Golimechoid life forms in the Carina arm of Magphoreus. Most of this area of the galactic arm named Carina had been rich in star systems; more than are even known. Yet none of those stars were to be shared with the Golimechoids according to the Grulmagof who were sworn to their eradication from the galaxy. The Grulmagof have hunted Golimechoid through the ages; ever since the Grulmagof's brief rule over the crumbling galactic empire of Nephapricus had been toppled from their galactic civilization's greatest moment. That had been the moment they once ruled the legendary post-Nephaprican Nephapricus. Grulmagof were raised to see the Golimechoid as an unnatural mechanical technology left behind by the Eagolim, which had also been a technology that had become a galactic pollutant. Now the ancestors of Turgis-Riva, the last Emperor of Nephapricus, have hunted and eradicated the Golimechoid all the way back to their last refuge, the ancient star-door planet Poa-3 where the star-door had been still fueled by giant Golimechoid-invented fusion powered phantom matter generators.

Commander Stobb had been in charge of the fifth pyramid ship that would be going immediately into action as the last piece of a mission to eradicate Poa-3 of its entire Golimechoid population with powerful particle accelerator cannons, which were perched on the top point of each pyramid ship. Five pyramid ships were calculated to be capable of the task. Extremely advanced aliens called Asuras had assisted the Grulmagof in constructing these gigantic ships. Asuras seemed to be also concerned about the spread of Golimechoid life in the galaxy, and eradicating Golimechoids would be their penance for the pollution species their careless ancestors had created and left behind. The unnatural quanta-nanocode constructed life forms had already replaced all life on Poa-3 with unnatural electronic DNA based plant life being cultivated in fields across the planet under the blinking pulsar of the dead star Poa. So this eradication mission had been even more important because the galactic pollution created by Eagolim was in the process of creating more pollution. The five mason cannons of these pyramid ships were designed to destroy all of this electric DNA-based life on Poa-3 along with the Golimechoids.

Commander Stobb hurried to his command center to be ready for the attack about to ensue. Grulmagof were much shorter in height since the days of Turgis-Riva at the end of the second age of Magphoreus. Grulmagof now no longer had any fur or even hair, which exposed a pink skin. They also no longer displayed the claws of their ancestors that could dig into solid rock. They did still walk with an extra knee that gave them a distinctive spring in their step, which had been on display as commander Stobb entered the command center.

Outside on the view screen were two other majestic pyramid ships on parallel course toward the blinking nebula now under a light year's distance from the warp fusion powered virtual particle driven ships. At .998 times the speed of light, it took Commander Stobb a little over 8 Earth years to traverse the 8 light-years distance from the new construction facility to rendezvous with the other four ships already in siege positions around Poa-3. The Grulmagof built the last ship further within the Grulmagof galactic empire in order to keep it further from the Golimechoid's awareness.

The five monolithic ships approached the blinking nebula, and Golimechoid attack ships were approaching in response. The battle was about to begin once the ships had turned off the fusion warp fields that defined them as beyond this universe of relativity physics. Commander Spuktar, the commander in charge of the entire mission, contacted Commander Stobb.

"Your ship is new to combat, but I understand you've been seasoned by the Delta Straights Golimechoid rebellion, and you came up the ranks as the operator of a single pilot fighter for several space carriers. I trust you can move your ship toward the approaching attacker's right flank in the battle about to occur."

"Yes sir, instructions understood." He switched off communications to shout orders into a loud speaker. "All gunners man your guns to remain on alert. Shoot when targets identified. Navigation! Accelerate to outer right flank of approaching fighters!"

Commander Stobb would have switched the communications back on to get more information from Commander Spuktar, but that had been the instant it all became up to him. Instead he started shouting tactical evasive maneuver commands to the main navigator when he saw the approaching Golimechoids on the view screen. Gunners had already shown initiative and began carving up distant fighters with deadly fusion lasers that shot out of the pyramid ship in multiple bright red lines of light.

The other pyramid ships seemed to surround and close in on the fleet of large and small Golimechoid ships that may have been their dying galactic civilization's last defense. The giant pyramids dwarfed anything flown by the Golimechoid, and thousands of sharp red lines of lasers shot out from the pyramid monoliths, and carved the entire Golimechoid fleet up. A little time had been wasted to determine that none of the Golimechoids escaped before the five pyramid ships continued on course for Poa-3.

Deliadre entered a central control area of the star-door complex to find the Eigalli-looking Begalius next to a giant snake-like Goag Ralus in Golimechoid avatar form. There were holograms of Golimechoids from Poa-3 that were also in the room to observe. She approached Begalius and Goag Ralus who were hunched over star-door wormhole controls.

"What's going on? Why is an enormous amount of energy creating wormholes between here and the Carina arm with disconnected coordinates?"

The Golimechoid Goag Ralus avatar turned around and raised an audible appendage. "Sounds like you've figured out what is going on already. I guess you want to know why." Another appendage gestured to the Golimechoid holograms as if that had been the answer.

A hologram spoke up after the usual long pause of quanta-communication. "We have asked the great Goag Ralus to help us in our most dire moment. Five pyramid ships of Nephaprican design that are armed with giant mason cannons, are approaching our home world with the intent of genocide."

Deliadre turned back to Goag Ralus. "What do you intend to do to help them?"

The Golimechoid Goag Ralus turned again to respond to Deliadre. He had been very active lately in His new Golimechoid form, and Deliadre would be the last to admit that she had been more comfortable confronting Goag Ralus in His Eigalli form, but that had been what she thought beyond psionic perception. Deliadre thought Goag Ralus obviously loved how the Golimechoid admired Him like a rock star. She had still been left in the dark about His intention to procreate with them. Deliadre became surprised that she could still tell that Goag Ralus smiled even though Golimechoids have no way of smiling. His audible appendage said, "I'm going to bring those five pyramid ships over here."

"But ... but ... what will those ships do to you?"

It took awhile for Deliadre to figure out that the long silence had actually been Goag Ralus laughing. Golimechoids don't really laugh audibly either. "Begalius is working with Bejulitiah of the Poa star-door to work out the positions of the pyramid ships. They won't know what hit them."

Goag Ralus had returned to the side of Begalius. The Golimechoid holograms just watched while anxiously hoping that whatever they were doing would work. The pyramid ships were effortlessly carving up the entire Golimechoid defense fleets at that very moment. They were soon to pummel the planet with accelerated particle blasts that would irradiate away all life regardless what the DNA had been made of.

"You haven't explained what you are going to do when they are here with deadly planet destroying ships?" Deliadre began to fear the worse was about to be unleashed on her home.

Goag Ralus remained turned away with His back to her, ignoring her.

"Goag Ralus, what about when they arrive here?"

Goag Ralus finally turned around as if to audibly address both Deliadre and the holograms. First the audible appendage said something to the holograms, which after the standard pause, sent them into obvious celebration. Then the audible appendage said to Deliadre in Eigalli, "They are now here my dear, and what I intend to do is greet them. I designated some rocky areas under the star Rychesee that are prepared with atmosphere that should suit their species. I've programmed the terrain with quanta-nanocode so I will always know what they are up to, and can respond to them if they speak to me just like most other areas of my surface. I already have a Grulmagof avatar that is living there to greet them."

Commander Stobb had just received the damage report. The three hits from Golimechoid fighters had done only minimal structural damage that required no hull decompressions. These pyramid ships could actually take direct hits with no real damage. He became impressed. The five ships were approaching Poa-3 where they would finally launch the fighters that were boarded on the pyramid ships to assist in the final assault. So far they had carved their way to the planet with just the pyramid's own gunner defenses. Now the ships where regrouping for the final assault on the planet. Commander Spuktar contacted again. "Great fighting back there. I commend your leadership and courageous crew. No significant damages to any pyramid ships have been reported. Prepare the final plan. I believe you will begin westward along the south pole continent to rendezvous with Thleba's pyramid ship. Let's get the oceans too. Bomb every inch of that fortune forsaken planet."

"Understood," Commander Stobb responded. The orders had already been given. He only had to watch his ship and crew carry out the operation. Soon he could give the order to launch the fighters, but he decided they would get a bit closer to the doomed planet first.

He saw Poa-3 start to grow into a dingy brown ball against a colorful nebula backdrop that blinked into bright colors every 3 seconds. There would be no hiding how Golimechoids had just totally ruined the place. The blinking pulsar remnant, right there, of the exploded star Poa, which Poa-3 had been miraculously saved from thanks to the Golimechoids gets no credit for the current brown lifeless state of Poa-3 in the Grulmagof mind.

As he watched the brown circle of the planet grow while they approached, five glowing tornado-like funnels sprung out of the planet's atmosphere. "The star-door!" the Commander screamed in the face of his worse fear about this mission. "Evasive maneuver navigation!" Then each of the five pyramid ships became swallowed by a separate tornado-like disconnected wormhole. This had been the latest development of the physics of star-door wormhole technology. In fact it had only recently been figured out by the genius of Goag Ralus Himself.

The communications all exploded with chatter from all the other pyramid commanders that were asking for, or giving current status. The view screens all exploded with light after the surreal inter-dimensional, glowing, time/space folding funnel ride was finally over. There were now so many stars on the view screens that night, or even darkness became almost unimaginable. "Where are we?" Everyone had been asking that. Even some of the communication chatter repeated those words over and over.

Then some of the Commander chatter identified the super massive black hole that could only exist in the galactic core. At first all the ships focused the data inputs on that object, but then something more amazing came into view. It had been so enormous that it was in view the whole time. Portions of it in the view would be dismissed as dust cloud or nebula until it became clear that it actually had been a planet and atmosphere for as far as could be seen. Some looked upon the impossible sight of Goag Ralus, and wondered if they had died.

The chatter returned to noise wondering what they were seeing. Whatever it was they were evidently in orbit around it, or more accurately in orbit around part of it. It presented land and atmosphere that the input data indicated extended for at least two-thirds of a light year. Nobody had ever seen anything like it, and it defied the imagination to describe. The mass calculations were causing the ships to adjust for a gravitational force that wasn't there. The navigator had to manually hold the pyramids still. Then a hologram image of a well-dressed Grulmagof appeared on the bridge of each of the pyramid ships. Suddenly the Grulmagof avatar of Goag Ralus appeared in the presence of the Commanders. He spoke fluent Grulmagof.

"Greetings Grulmagof warriors, your war is now over. I am called Goag Ralus. I am an embodiment of the being you now orbit. You dare not wage war on Me for I offer you no hostility, but welcome you to My habitable surface. I am the only habitable world you will find in this hostile radioactive galactic core environment where you all now find yourselves in. Come, and I will show you where to land your ships. I await you in this form with facilities that can accommodate Grulmagof living. You may arrange a wormhole home, but disconnected wormhole coordinates to a Grulmagof world might still be nearly impossible, and the innovation of disconnected wormholes is fairly new. The only safe wormhole route is to Poa-3 and they are currently not up to being reasoned with about that, and will probably at least want to imprison you. I think we can eventually negotiate something, but understand this, unless you want to fly your pyramid ships home, which you are free to do, those ships are staying right here." Everyone in the room knew they were now over 19,130 light-years away from home, and would not make it anywhere near home in a thousand Grulmagof lifetimes.

Goag Ralus saved the Golimechoid civilization from certain doom with the wormhole powers of His Dol star-door. The Grulmagof were instantly reformed into new citizens of Goag Ralus. Goag Ralus had been unimaginably good at the diplomacy of welcoming new residents to Goag Ralus. Deliadre couldn't believe it worked, but she always lived on Goag Ralus, and maybe took His unimaginable immensity for granted along with the fact that the five solar system masses of Goag Ralus were actually a highly intelligent, probably immortal, living being.

Not even five pyramid ships were any match for Goag Ralus, and in fact, hundreds of ships like that existed already in different areas of Goag Ralus. Those five pyramid ships would have faced highly advanced galactic civilizations that were living all over Goag Ralus as individuals that numbered into the trillions. The pyramid ships of Goag Ralus were also capable of 2 times the speed of light while the Asuras only entrusted the Grulmagof with .998 times the speed of light, (not even phase II FTL.) A couple dozen of the Phase III pyramid ships on Goag Ralus that were actually flown by the Eagolim who made Goag Ralus still existed and worked fine, were billions of Earth years old, and only a couple of those were out of commission these days as museum relics.

Goag Ralus became often primarily focused on being His Golimechoid avatar after adopting the new Grulmagof citizens against their will, and He made frequent journeys through the new wormhole connection to the Poa-3 planet in the Carina arm of Magphoreus. This left the Eigalli avatar to work in a robotic way through His ambitions that were prescribed to Himself before He became so immersed in being the Golimechoid Goag Ralus.

All the Goag Ralus avatars continued their lives and were the physical embodiments of Goag Ralus at the same time. Any Goag Ralus avatar however, could tell you that there were times when that's obviously true, and there were other times when the life of an avatar became a hollow routine, disconnected from the higher mind of Goag Ralus. It wasn't unbearably bad, and the Eigalli avatar could snap out of it in an instant by reconnecting consciousness, but it would just be like barging in on His new Golimechoid sex life.

The Eigalli avatar sat around pondering this all too familiar disconnected torment when the quanta-communication device suddenly came on. Someone contacted Him with a message from somewhere else in the galaxy. At first the Eigalli Goag Ralus avatar thought maybe Aquari had finally reached the Tze-Doldus star-door, and a quanta-communicator had been there to use to contact Him.

The quanta-communicator projected a hologram of the Devasura who had been following Goag Ralus for almost a hundred teks. He had an orange skin tone with white hair, and clothing that flowed around him like vapor. He appeared to be a multi-dimensional being that evolved beyond the effects of phantom matter. His Devasura mouth, unlike an Asura's, moved and spoke just like a human. "Hello Goag Ralus, I am Innanomesh, a being who lives upon the planet you recently found out, has been synchronized with your orbit from above the galactic plain. I am contacting you to congratulate you on your victory of saving the Poa Golimechoid from extinction."

"I suspect I have been victorious over your kind, and it is you who intend to eradicate the Golimechoid," said Goag Ralus in response.

The Devasura had already paused in anticipation of that outburst from Goag Ralus who waited now for the Devasura's response. "The ancient Eagolim of Doldorian descent traveled to the core in order to fix the unstable super massive black hole, Ralus Xnoga. They created the Golimechoids on their way to accomplish this, which turned out to just be a mistake. They also created a Young Brain program that became their religious guide over the millennia. The Young Brain program led them to reach the core. That Young Brain program became You. Do not foolishly procreate with technology You do not understand Goag Ralus."

Goag Ralus became ready to interrupt. "Who do you think you are deciding the fate of whole species, be they natural or unnatural technology? What is natural, or unnatural anymore? What quanta-nanocode technology are you really made of here before Me? You are obviously evolved with quanta-nanocode into an unnatural mixture of varying mass?" He decided to pause, and let the Devasura respond at that moment. So He waited the ten seconds of quanta-communicator lag time.

"I am a descendent of the beings that created You, and You are just a large gravity generator used to stabilize the poles of Ralus Xnoga. I contact You to reason with You about the Young Brain project You intend to carry out. We regret that You have already stopped us from keeping You away from the genetic databanks in the Dol star-door. There are god-like powers in those DNA programs that were figured out by the great Nephapricans. You were not intended to ever procreate Goag Ralus. There is supposed to be only one of You"

Goag Ralus became mad and wanted to insult this arrogant being in the presence of Goag Ralus who has been filling Magphoreus with new solar system creating nebulae since long before this being was probably ever born. Then He reasoned that He shouldn't say anything to provoke this enemy. So He figured out a way to do both. He politely said, "I will take into consideration what you have told Me." Then He just turned off the quanta-communication device.

"Conversation over. How dare they? They think they are some kind of galactic overseers up there in their glowing planets that they evidently fly like spaceships. Why had he talked to Him, the Eigalli avatar, anyway? It had been the Golimechoid Goag Ralus having all that sex life for the Young Brain experiment that this being should have contacted." Goag Ralus figured that must be because of some kind of non-evolved primitive bigotry in these Devasuras. It evidently had been below these arrogant beings to negotiate with a Golimechoid avatar. Goag Ralus was not a machine, but a living being, and so were the Golimechoids.

The Golimechoid avatar of Goag Ralus became made immediately aware of the meeting with the Devasura hologram. He obviously also became angry at the arrogance of this Innanumesh. They must be trying to stop this procreation from moving forward. This happened at a bad time since Goag Ralus in Golimechoid form had Zlooptoo over from Poa-3 of the Carina arm for dinner and entertainment. She had been the female who took messages to Young Brain, and she obviously cared about the newly evolving intelligence.

Goag Ralus had been indirectly courting Golimechoid women from Poa-3 in search of a good mother for the first 150 or so Earth years of the child's life. He had then recently met Zlooptoo on one of His wormhole crossings when visiting the secret Young Brain facility in deep orbit above Poa-3. She had actually tried to qualify as a mother candidate before becoming a courier for Young Brain, but she failed to pass the chromosome screening, which had been setup by the Golimechoids in charge. Goag Ralus however, liked her, and they were really getting along until that Devasura hologram thing happened. The Golimechoid avatar of Goag Ralus tried to force the bad memories away in order to continue with His evening with Zlooptoo. After all, it wasn't really He that had been visited by the Devasura.

* * *

The saucer that carried Hanson/Aquari, Veldada, and the crew of rebel scientists along with a couple hearers of the voice sped northeast across the green, blue, and cloudy gray skies. Not far behind the saucer a rectangular teleportation platform hovered along glowing green on the top. It had been encased in its own virtual particle field connected to the saucer by a microwave beam. They were taking the platform to the site of Saint Vongolath's altar, a holy site popular those days with the now dominant Aungtalli faith.

Saint Vongolath had been a hearer of Beataphoriah's voice from way back in the dark age that just preceded the 210,000 years of known recorded history. He had tried to build an altar at the holy site during a Uranian plague that the Aungtalli species happened to be immune to. The Aungtalli religion says Vongolath had been a heretic who only attempted to build an altar of blasphemy until the Aungtalli stopped him. The Aungtalli say the miracle of Saint Vongolath had been a reward from the gods for stopping Vongolath. Lots of people through the ages however, have refused to this day to believe what the Aungtalli say about this, and eventually Vongolath had been reluctantly titled a Saint. That had been to capitalize on the pilgrim industry who still came to stand at the site during the nightly miracle, which really had been a nightly teleportation signal from the star-door itself, trying to connect to a platform. The nightly teleportation signal had been left unanswered for over 200,000 Uranian years.

Also speeding across the Uranian skies, and quickly approaching the platform-carrying saucer, another saucer flown by Volock pursued. Curvfin had already been seated at his favorite toy, the saucer's laser weapon, and became the first to notice Volock's saucer in the weapon's sky scan. "Warning everyone, I must make a fuss.

Another saucer is approaching us!"

Everyone ran to a view port. Nandor and Silvanin could see it from the view port they shared. It still showed as a small dot above the distant horizon. A bright line of glowing red lit up a straight slice across the sky to streak past the rebel scientist's saucer. That caused Girithron to instinctively veer too late to the side only after the laser already missed. Curvfin had already commandeered the weapon station, and targeted the attacker. He looked through the scope, but still didn't return fire. "Girithron! His laser charge I can see.

Veer when I tell you. Just listen to me.

We'll move aside before he shoots again.

Then I'll shoot back, and the fight we should win. ..." Then a pause,

"Says my sight,

now veer right!"

Another laser made a red line in the sky that streaked ahead of the flying saucer and its platform companion. Veldada held Hanson/Aquari for comfort. Hanson/Aquari just calmly shifted attention between the laser battle outside and the comfort ritual he suddenly found himself involved with. Aquari noticed an electromagnetic response with her cellular tissues to his touch that seemed to actually induce psychological as well as physiological comfort on Veldada who currently feared for her life.

"First get ready.

I need steady!" Curvfin shot the saucer laser just underneath the teleportation platform that trailed them almost in the way. It bent against the saucer's virtual particle force field, which Volock had put up in case they shot back at him. The force field would have successfully repelled anything other than a laser, and Volock figured it also became intense enough to bend the light of a laser. The force field really only avoided a direct hit however, and the laser beam bent in response to the virtual particle gravity to still graze the Volock saucer side.

At first the saucer raced on through the sky seemingly unaffected, still behind them, and Curvfin had Girithron veer left as Volock's laser started to glow again before shooting. Then Volock's saucer failed to respond to Volock's change of course. The damage breached the saucer's virtual particle field causing the mass of the saucer to start exchanging virtual particles that were again oriented to the mass-polarity of the planet. Volock's saucer slowly began to fall out of the sky. There had been a cheer in the other saucer as Volock's saucer disappeared on its wobbly way to a crash landing. Curvfin got a hero's congratulations for all his love for shooting things with lasers while Nandor and Silvanin jealously took over the laser station to take turns on the targeting scope, getting ready for maybe their chance to next time be the laser shooting hero.

Volock's attack didn't divert the saucer at all from its calculated arrival time at the altar site just before sundown. There were a couple dozen pilgrims that were gathering to participate in the nightly event. They were all crowding over the exact marked point of the light flash that would soon make it's nightly appearance. Some were there with various afflictions, hoping this time their faith would be strong enough, and that they could get close enough to the light to finally be healed. Others just attend because they believed the light connected them to the gods where some received instructions on why others should donate value to their divine causes.

Only a couple Aungtalli priests were at the holy site that day, looking bored. Even they mistook the rebel scientist's saucer for official Aungtalli business, and nervously rushed to greet the saucer visitors. When it became apparent that the saucer had been placing the platform right on the ground where the holy mark of St. Vongolath existed, the Aungtalli priests pushed the crowd of pilgrims away acting like they knew what had been going on.

Everyone anxiously awaited while the saucer finally landed nearby and the saucer hatch opened downward to become a ramp. First Nandor and Silvanin emerged from the saucer with paralysis rifles pointing into the crowd who obediently backed away from them. There had not even been any resistance from the Aungtalli in charge who just looked at each other surprised by the realization that this wasn't official business.

Soon the Sun went down and the platform glowed a brighter emerald green as it picked up on the star-door signal. It had been decided hastily that Hanson/Aquari, Veldada (who wasn't going to separate,) Thrandu, Handirlas, and Salmar would get on the platform for the event. As the dimly lit top of the giant Sun started to finally disappear below the horizon Arnoediad made his protest and ran onto the platform with the rest of those there waiting for the event. It had become crowded.

Then Curvfin said, "I want to be in the place this goes to.

If you're going also I'll go with you."

Seven Uranians then stood on the genuine replica of the Altar of Saint Vongolath that had been made to specifications as the holy moment approached with the dusk. Crowds of pilgrims were surrounding it, murmuring amongst themselves about what went on. Nandor and Silvanin's rifle intimidation seemed to be wearing off as the crowd realized that criminals were depriving them of their most holy event.

Then the glowing green became brighter to engulf the seven passengers until it became all engulfed in bright white light. Then only an empty teleportation platform could be seen after that, which no longer even glowed green at all. It looked more off-white colored now, like the platform bottom. The darkness of night seemed to approach at an increased speed with the platform illumination quenched.

Nandor and Silvanin looked at each other as if expecting the other to know what to do. The crowd became visibly angry and the priests were finally shouting "Heresy!

This I see!"

Girithron shouted from inside the saucer, "Teleportation is now done. You know.

Now its time for the rest of us to go."

Nandor and Silvanin then ran back into the saucer, and the ramp closed back up behind them. They took off taking the teleportation platform with them again in a gravity field as Girithron controlled the tractor beam the way Hanson/Aquari had showed him. Then the saucer with its teleportation platform in tow flew through the green, blue, and gray skies back to Gulfang. They would contact the farmer/hearers from Gulfang to tell them what happened. According to Hanson/Aquari the disappeared comrades had just been teleported to the legendary star-door complex that existed deep within the Great Glacier Mountain.

At the site of the Altar of Saint Vongolath the crowd hummed with chaos. The authorities were notified and the event made the news. Some in the crowd had cameras that documented the amazing event. The disenfranchised pilgrims would return the next afternoon to then get their chance to bathe in the holy flash of light. That holy flash of light however, would now never happen at that marked point on the ground ever again. That would slowly also make it into the news as the days went by, along with claims that the rebel scientists corrupted the holy site. Some would continue the pilgrimage every night anyway, swearing that they still saw the light every night at the same time, and now it had become a spiritual light after annihilating the scientist heretics because the times were getting short. Others would continue to go there begging forgiveness from the gods for what the blasphemous rebel scientists had done, so that the holy light could return once again.

The seven teleportation voyagers found themselves suddenly in a large dark room. They adjusted to the darkness to notice blinking lights on controls that lined the walls along the outside of the place. Everyone just looked around in awe until Hanson/Aquari started moving around. He seemed to know where he was going and explained. "My friends, you have arrived at the star-door

located beneath your planet's glacier.

The star-doors were created long ago

by a species called Negolim I know.

Away from the Eagolim they evolved

not living long, which they never resolved.

To become galactic they never did

their terrestrial nature never rid.

Eagolim spread the empire beyond

The fifteen home stars where they knew no bond.

The Negolim to stars did not travel,

to alternative realities fell.

Through warped reality they found a way

to dimensions between the stars they say.

Something happened back in those ancient days

resulting in star-doors history says.

The star-doors where built on planets to save

all life when the planet goes to its grave.

On fifteen planets generators were

created for wormholes that can still stir

star-door connections when they are in gear

that join those galactic points to right here."

They began to all move about the room. Handirlas approached a doorway, which automatically opened to corridors outside that just disappeared in the distance. There had been a faint electric light illuminating everything that seemed to be accompanied by heaviness from thousands of years of no eyes to entertain. Everyone else still felt apprehensive about touching any of the high tech alien equipment. Arnoediad had a religious experience. "The voice is quite audible in this place.

I will soon see Beataphoriah's face."

Hanson/Aquari replied, "I too can hear the voice that you now know.

It tells me this switch here I now must throw."

Hanson/Aquari flipped a switch by one of the blinking control panel lights. The light stopped blinking and the room then became crowded by another being that appeared in their midst.

He glowed like a hologram, but seemed to be forcing himself to solidify more. He looked Uranian, but his body had been covered all over with nicely groomed hair, and a slightly lower brow like anthropological depictions of previously lesser-evolved species of Uranians that were found as ancient fossils. His hairy body didn't show much of the porcelain-white skin characteristic of modern Uranians. In contradiction to the cave-Uranian look, an adorable outfit had been worn by this being that displayed white puffy sleeves and a kilt adorned with coaglium-laced designs. His hairy face smiled over the four beak-like Uranian teeth in greetings to his guests. He looked like a well dressed, well groomed, hairy Uranian werewolf.

His voice had been an ancient foreign dialect that used 16 stanza lines of characteristic Uranian chirps and whistles that still translated into rhyme. It had been melodic, but the only word that made any sense to anyone was "Beataphoriah." After the imprisonment of Beataphoriah, who had been the star-door planet's quanta-optic-nanocode being, the gods had simplified the Uranian language when they genetically engineered the Aungtalli species. Some Aungtalli were still initiated in the ancient dialect, regarded by the Aungtalli as a magical language. The gods were angered at Beataphoriah for switching on Uranian's pentanthropomorphic gene switches in the first place, which evidently only they had the right to do in the galaxy.

Hanson/Aquari spoke the ancient dialect. When he introduced himself to Beataphoriah as the cosmic being Aquari, Beataphoriah skeptically challenged him to speak ancient Nephaprican if he really had been the ancient cosmic being Aquari as he claimed. Hanson/Aquari had been happy to engage in Nephaprican conversation, as best he could with Uranian vocal cords. "So I know you've been trapped in an infinite quanta-nanocode loop for hundreds of thousands of years, but I've been wondering why the atmosphere plant life that's usually just used for teraforming still exists?"

"Oh I gave up trying to get rid of those plants long ago because the Uranians cherished the pod pollen trees so much. They would always stop my attempts to phase them out of the ecosystem. It's probably that respect for all life, which I tried to genetically engineer into them. The sky-plants give the planet a cheery green ambience, and the air an intoxicating aroma I think." Uranians had nostrils for smell that were located as a hole in the two upper teeth, which Uranians raised their upper lips occasionally to breathe through. This gave them the ability to close their nostrils with the lips, which had been a unique adaptation to the pollen-thick climate.

Eventually more lights were turned on while they all became aquatinted, and Beataphoriah programmed itself with the current language of the planet. Beataphoriah had much to catch up on, and they all spent a couple days in the wonders of the star-door with its technologies, and mansions of luxury, and vistas of virtual worlds to explore, as well as real ones. There were vast empty cities that they explored in speedy virtual particle craft under the Great Glacier Mountain. They were able to contact the others in Gulfang along with the farmer hearers by using their phones, which still worked. It became major Ministry of Science history in the making. They were all having the time of their lives deep under the giant star-door dome that had been also buried beneath a hundred miles of glacier ice.

They contacted Goag Ralus and Deliadre in the galactic core with one of the star-door's many quanta-communicators, which became a long happy reunion. Beataphoriah even setup another quanta-communicator to contact its old fellow quanta-optic-nanocode being in charge of the Poa-3 star-door, Bejulitiah. The last three known remaining star-door beings, Beataphoriah, Begalius, and Bejulitiah were in deep non-audible communication for some time while everyone else at the quanta-communicator reunion just watched. They were like long lost brothers that didn't look anything alike who were finally together after billions of years. Beataphoriah appeared as a hairy primitive-looking Uranian, Begalius had been a dark blue Eigalli these days, and Bejulitiah appeared in the snake-like form of a Golimechoid.

Veldada watched Aquari/Hanson speaking alien languages with Goag Ralus and Deliadre, the giant hologram beings also in the room, and she felt further away from her lover than ever. The reality that her love Hanson had really been dead now began to become real to her, and she looked in her purse at the egg they had made together, and worried about what the child would really be like.

Beataphoriah became evasive when the quanta-communicator meeting turned to the conversation of connecting the star-doors with wormholes. Beataphoriah wanted to check for quanta-nanocode virus problems in his Tze-Doldus star-door before trying anything like that. Like Begalius, it had Devasura problems of its own. Beataphoriah made the glacial mountain in order to maintain good climate during its absence, and also to close off the wormhole walls under a hundred miles of solid ice to keep the Devasuras from using them. It would have to teleport a section of that ice away to clear up a wormhole opening on the buried portal-matrix wall.

They all remained in the star-door under the Great Glacier Mountain for several days, and everyone enjoyed the wonders that were all around them. The star-door had been the ultimate vacation spot, like a high-tech luxury cruise. At the heart of every star-door had been an enormous ion fusion generator that powered enormous pressure functions that were used to compress phantom matter into a singularity, which existed in a dimension of warp-space that had been quanta-synchronized to all of the 15 star-doors. This singularity existed simultaneously at the heart of all 15 star-doors to endow them with the power to fold reality between their locations, as well as the power of the creation of the universe. Phantom matter singularities flowed outward and were weakly interactive with gravity. The Big Bang creation of the universe had really been a phantom matter singularity caused by pressures that were created by something other than gravity. The star-doors fed on the phantom matter created by the gravitational phenomenon of nearby stars, and distributed it to be processed by this extra-dimensional phantom matter singularity. This endows all 15 star-doors, wherever they are, with the same power that created the universe.

One day Beataphoriah became willing to attempt a wormhole connection with the Dol star-door. It had been working with Begalius on programming a new molecule on the quantum bit of the Dol star-door since Devasuras had altered the Tze-Doldus star-door that way. Everyone showed up to the section of the wormhole wall, which Beataphoriah had exposed by teleporting a big cube of ice the size of a 3-story building out of the way. Begalius had been there in the form of a hologram next to the quanta-communicator that projected it. It rained from the exposed iced ceiling in front of the wall that would soon become a wormhole doorway to the core of the galaxy. Beataphoriah secured the giant cube cave of ice next to the wormhole wall with virtual particle equipment that it insisted on setting up before anything else. It might have been the coldest place on the entire tropical planet of Urania in that giant ice room. Everyone shook with anticipation of the technological miracle about to be performed.

It all went as it should at first with the blue square encompassing a section of the wall to establish the portal matrix, and then it faded into a rectangular doorway full of greenish light.

Then Beataphoriah jerked suddenly into action at lightning speed when a giant figure appeared in the doorway unexpected. It looked like a giant orange skinned humanoid being so tall he started to squat to get through the opening. It must have had a counter wormhole algorithm that had already been programmed into the star-door wormhole functions, which had been just waiting through the ages for this moment. That had been when Beataphoriah activated a trap it had already carefully setup beforehand, which suspended the being within a powerful virtual particle field. He looked like a giant orange statue with a head shaped like an Asura.

Beataphoriah spoke to the being in a strange language. "You are not welcome here Chronolus. I am free now, and prepared to hurl you right back through the wormhole you preprogrammed here. This virtual particle field will hold you against your will. Your own Asura mass works against you in a virtual particle field."

The giant being spoke through a mouth that didn't move, which made him look like an animated statue. Chronolus, the ethereal Devasura, had passed from the Devaplanet to Urania and assumed the molecular form of an Asura in response to the phantom matter, which served as an invisible scaffolding of the galactic plain. "The time will soon arrive Beataphoriah when I shall own this star-door and you. The terrestrial life you value so much here will not survive where the planet is going. I kept my word to you Beataphoriah, and the Uranians have remained unharmed to prevail until the end as I said they would. Are you still obstinately uncooperative after being prescribed so many iterations to think about it?"

"You have not earned my loyalty with quanta-nanocode infinite loop prisons! That's no way to program a quanta-optic-nanocode being Chronolus."

Hanson/Aquari noticed that they were speaking a dialect evolved from Nephaprican. Everyone else there became hopelessly confused. All the rest were really only noticing that this was not going as planned. The Begalius hologram became frozen in fascination with this scene being broadcast from Urania to the core of the galaxy. Aquari flawlessly spoke in the newly figured out Nephaprican dialect. "Beataphoriah who is this?"

"This, Aquari, is what I feared would come through my wormhole generator if I ever turned it back on. He is the Devasura who imprisoned me in that infinite quanta-nanocode loop. Before they did that I had been able to shut down the wormhole generation mechanism, and conceal it from them underneath the great glacier. He is here to lay claim to me and the star-door.

It all started when I made the mistake of seeking them out when my shepherding of the intelligent Uranians seemed to be getting beyond my control. The newly evolved Uranians were advanced and clever, but greedy and ecologically inconsiderate. I feared the whole world would be ruined if I didn't find help."

Then Chronolus interrupted, "You received the help you sought Beataphoriah. We have kept your Uranians in a stable happy civilization longer than most intelligent animals even exist in their entirety."

Beataphoriah shot back, "You were a bigger problem than my immature species of life fighting amongst themselves. You came in like you owned the planet and treated me like I was some machine for you to boss around."

Then Beataphoriah and Chronolus continued to argue about old times while Hanson/Aquari became dangerously intrigued. Hanson/Aquari spoke the same language to the Asura that hung in the air just outside the wormhole doorway. "You are a species evolved from the long lost Nephapricans. I knew many Nephapricans throughout their evolution. I am the cosmic being called Aquari."

The Coming of Chronolus

Chronolus had to think for awhile to remember anything about Aquari. Then he said, "Extraordinary! I have heard of the cosmic being. My great grandfather Saturlus was one of the last Nephapricans. His ego-phantasm still exists and has spoken of you. You should come back with me if Beataphoriah is to cut my visit short." Aquari felt some disappointment that these highly evolved Devasuras/Asuras were still playing around with ego-phantasm technologies. Sentient beings seemed obsessed with such things.

Aquari then recalled and said, "There was a Saturlus among the Nephapricans that long ago convinced me to travel to another galaxy, just before the historic disappearance."

Beataphoriah interrupted. "Aquari is the only reason I am now free. I should just throw you right back where you came from Chronolus. You will not escape my gravity trap. Don't go with him Aquari. He wants you away from this planet, which he wants to own like his personal property. He would destroy all my planet's life just to hang another star-door around one of his Devaplanet moons."

Aquari however, had been ready for a new adventure of discovery. "I've freed you and connected you with Goag Ralus, and your other quanta-optic-nanocode brethren. My reason for coming here is fulfilled. I may be able to reason with this Devasura, and would love to absorb data from his habitat. I'll come back Beataphoriah."

"He has a wormhole generator that can let you back through Aquari. If I can't talk you out of going then call me Aquari, when you intend to come back, and I'll connect you to here. I fear he won't let you come back through Aquari."

"I'll be back Beataphoriah. I'm the fastest flying object ever known. Speaking of ego-phantasms, first there is something I must instruct Veldada with."

Hanson/Aquari approached Veldada standing in the ice room in confusion while holding her egg purse. "I'm leaving this body to go away.

This body will live. Just do what I say."

He then taught Veldada to put her lips over his and blow air into his mouth. Then he made her push down on his chest four times. He made her practice this a couple of times, over, and over again. Some of the scientists there recognized that he taught her cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Even though this method of CPR had been well known to Uranians who had medical training, it also became the first Uranian kiss because Veldada would continue the lip-joining part of it just for pleasure long after what happened next.

Hanson/Aquari said a last farewell to Veldada, and waved to the rest of them in the room. The Begalius hologram spoke up to assure Beataphoriah and Aquari that it would work out fine, and it told Aquari to be careful. Then there appeared a flash of light that became again the round circle of light recognized throughout the ages as the cosmic being Aquari. He said a last farewell to Beataphoriah and approached Chronolus who patiently waited while suspended in a gravity field. "I'm ready to visit with you Chronolus."

"After you my friend," said Chronolus while still trapped in Beataphoriah's virtual particle field that still suspended him in the air.

Then Aquari entered the wormhole to disappear in the green-glowing distance. Chronolus said to Beataphoriah, "I will contact you when Aquari is ready to come back. We can try to patch up our old differences Beataphoriah, make a new start."

"You will never get from me what you want Chronolus. I'm back to instigate a new golden age for my Uranian children."

"The time of your Tze-Doldus star's life nears its end Beataphoriah. Do the math. You know this to be true. Then you will be out of excuses to not join with me."

"The only truth that I ever needed to know is that I operate a star-door." Then Beataphoriah made the virtual particle field that held Chronolus shoot him back head first through the wormhole opening behind Aquari. Chronolus yelled out as he became flung through the air back into the rectangular wormhole door, "Till we meet again Beataphoriah. You should update your body. That one makes you look like a primitive savage among the modern species I evolved for you."

"I'm back to show you what this 'savage' is capable of Chronolus!" Beataphoriah closed the doorway, which shrank down into a dot leaving only a wall behind. It apologized to the Begalius hologram in the room still quanta-communicator connected there to witness the whole scene. There would not be a wormhole to the center of the galaxy that day after all. Aquari was now long gone away from the planet Urania through the wormhole to wherever Chronolus called home.

Hanson's body just collapsed dead after the light show that produced Aquari. Everyone froze, waiting for him to move as if maybe he had been just tired. The hair no longer stood up on Hanson's head, which helped Veldada realize what she had to do. She started blowing in Hanson's mouth just like he had just instructed her to do. Nothing happened at first, but she kept doing it along with the chest compressions for at least a couple of minutes. She confronted the fear she had all along that her lover Hanson had been dead the whole time. She continued blowing air into Hanson's body. It started to look futile, and Veldada started to adjust to the love of her life really being dead now, when suddenly Hanson wheezed on his own and coughed repeatedly. Hanson opened his eyes as if he had been asleep for a very long time, and he found Veldada looking back. Hanson was alive again and Veldada once again swung her desperate mood the other way to burst with joy. Even though Hanson had been alive and breathing just fine now, Veldada puckered her lips and pressed them again against Hanson's lips, this time just for the pleasure of it.

Beataphoriah had lots of diagnostics to run on the star-door after that visit from Chronolus happened. It had new diagnostics based on information Begalius gave it. Beataphoriah realized it had still not discovered a quanta-nanocode virus problem going on in its own star-door. In fact Beataphoriah had not yet realized that Devasuras had programmed the Tze-Doldus star-door to accumulate vast amounts of virtually compiled neutrinos and teleport them through a fold in space/time, causing them to materialize within the star Tze-Doldus itself. This caused massive solar structure damage to the star while at the same time it promoted the extinction of all species on the planet by direct radioactive hits from solar flares.

* * *

Ploabot had been summoned to meet the King himself for a special meeting. Now he realized he had gone too far. He knew what the King wanted. There were other requests to drop the charges against the Aungtalli for sabotaging his audience, but he had stood firm on moving forward with the investigation. At one point Ploabot decided to even reluctantly give into the pressure, and agree to cancel the investigation, but then the police officer Eistia went public with his story of Aungtalli murder associated with the Ministry of Science. The Ministry of Science had been what he tried to get reopened in the first place. The Eistia murder story became directly linked with the Aungtalli Bishop, who Ploabot had been investigating. The Eistia murderer arrest story wasn't helping the Bishop at all. That gave Ploabot new courage to stand his ground in light of the other scandal. Now however, he responded to the summons to be confronted by the King himself about it. He had already changed his mind as he entered the immaculate castle. He looked around with awe while deciding to just give up on the whole investigation thing.

Ploabot felt relieved to find the King to be friendly, and seemingly in a good mood. "Ploabot good friend, welcome. Come in. Sit down.

I've a favor to ask you to come round.

There is so much disorder in the streets

where Aungtalli anger and distrust meets.

Surely you would act for peace if you can

by dropping your charges against our ban

on the Ministry of Science now gone.

Isn't it time now to just get along?"

Ploabot felt he couldn't agree more. The lawsuit fueled anarchy in the streets. The protests were just getting out of hand, and becoming uncivilized. Ploabot started to give the King his response.

Then suddenly a flash of light engulfed the room, and two beings appeared. One looked like a very professionally dressed Beataphoriah still covered in hair, and the other had unmistakably been the old head of the Ministry of Science himself, Ploabot's best friend Hanson, now displaying a normal looking Uranian hairdo.

The primitive-looking Uranian spoke. "Allow me to introduce on this day.

You know Hanson. I'm Beataphoriah.

It's been many ages since I last walked

on Urania. King it's time we talked.

First now about what this one has told me

that you closed down the Science Ministry."

Ploabot and the King were in shock over the interruption. The Hanson hologram noticed Ploabot in the room and while waving said "Hi guy." Ploabot then realized the new leverage that had just now fallen into his political lap, and the answer he had been about to give the King suddenly changed. Ploabot also realized that the answer he had been going to give the King now didn't even need to be given.

Chapter 11: Aquari and the Devasuras

The miracle of Saint Vongolath never happened again after the Ministry scientist's teleportation platform finally received the call of Beataphoriah. Beataphoriah adjusted the platform, and provided the Ministry scientists a way to use it for summoning the star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being, or even to visit the star-door. Beataphoriah seemed to be always anxious to bring guests to its star-door. Beataphoriah had also been busy for some time debugging its star-door of the mischief left behind by Chronolus and the Devasuras for over 210,000 Uranian years. The Ministry of Science had been reinstated by King Worapor on the advice of Beataphoriah, and the scientists introduced Aquari's replicator invention of a hand held networking device to the value market. It appeared very similar to Earth's smart phones. Along with the news of Beataphoriah reinstating the Ministry of Science, it had been introduced to the Uranian people that the star-door energy grid freely provided electricity on the planet. Uranians would now also be taught in schools that electricity was a phenomenon of nature's physics. The Uranian people enthusiastically greeted these changes by King Worapor, but the 3 families however, formally disowned King Worapor for exposing their racket, and the Aungtalli declared that the gods demanded war. As the weeks went by it became a greater probability in the calculations of Beataphoriah that Chronolus would not let Aquari return through the wormhole he had departed through.

When Beataphoriah and Hanson appeared as holograms to King Worapor and Ploabot, the King suddenly knew what to do about the crowds of people that had setup an encampment outside his castle for several days. Now King Worapor had a god of his own to pit against the gods that the Bishop threatened him with. Beataphoriah told him all about the real pre-historic history of this ancient planet called Urania. The King learned that the ancestors of the gods vacationed on this planet way back in the 2nd age of the galaxy, and it had originally been a planet for recreation. Beataphoriah told him that they built a giant reality folding star-door on this planet, which still operates beneath the Great Glacial Mountain.

Beataphoriah told King Worapor about the once-companion star in the sky known as the red giant sun Tze. The King learned of the ancient nova event that destroyed Urania and colored the planet coaglium. During that time of lonely desolation Beataphoriah retreated into the star-door where it had been safe from the time of great collisions. That had been one of the main purposes of having a star-door on a planet. The planet's original inhabitants however, left through the star-door when it became clear that Tze was going to explode. That left Beataphoriah abandoned and alone with its star-door. The star-doors were indestructible arks that could provide whole ecosystems of life from what it preserved in its genetic databanks. The Uranian star-door harnessed the energy from the Tze nova event to control the destruction of the Tze-Doldus planetary system. With the power of the star-door Beataphoriah formed the star, the planet Urania, and two gas giant planets into the current Urania star system.

After that, the star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being began to repair the atmosphere and teraform the desolate planet for the second time in its history. The power of the star-door genetic databanks introduced the pod pollen tree and filled the skies with a plethora of nutritious planet life while Beataphoriah tilled the planet's soil to make it once again grow life. It took more time than the King could comprehend, but eventually the planet again teamed with atmosphere, water, and life. Then Beataphoriah did what the gods found unpardonable. It had been incorrectly calculated how events like this would effect the calibrations of the quanta-communicators, but that technology no longer contacted any other galactic beings. Beataphoriah, lonely for the companionship of intelligent life, triggered gene switches within a species of flightless bird that resulted in the Uranians. For an entire forgotten golden age the Uranians grew in number and intelligence, and the first cities were built on the newly born planet. This had been a great time, and Beataphoriah walked amongst the Uranian people and would become known as the immortal advisor of the first Uranian Kings.

The first Uranian kingdoms matured, and before long they were even venturing into space with technologies that were provided by the star-door. For a time in this ancient history it seemed that the first Uranians were following in the ambitious galactic footsteps of those that created Beataphoriah and the star-door. Eventually however, other kingdoms of Uranians began to arise on the continent. These new countries did not respect the advice of their creator Beataphoriah. They found the creator to be too autocratic, and controlling, and they separated their cultures from everything the star-door provided.

It became the beginning of the end when Uranian cultures cultivated alternative energy sources. The planet had been rich in ancient hydrocarbon fossil fuels, which started lacerating the star-door paradise with pollution, and uninhabitable ecosystems. Then there were the wars, started over and fueled by those fuels, which only put the minds of Uranians toward more destructive technologies. Beataphoriah feared that all control had been lost, and its creations were cascading down a path of total destruction.

Then Beataphoriah decided to turn the star-door quanta-communication technologies toward the endless skies to once again find contact with the long lost galactic beings who first built the star-door. It had been a monumental task to recalibrate the quanta-communicator to contact those lost by what were now billions of Earth years of changed time/space. Before the warring Uranians could manage a suicide of their own species, Beataphoriah succeeded in contacting some very advanced beings who must have been a species that evolved from the planet's first creators, but they were a different color. They spoke a Nephaprican dialect and they had very similar quanta-communication devices. These invincible beings were displeased with what Beataphoriah had done, and they almost destroyed the Uranians themselves.

Beataphoriah defended the Uranian species against these god-like beings, and ultimately found itself imprisoned within the star-door unable to come out. Before that a pact had been made between Beataphoriah and the gods because without the quanta-optic-nanocode being's cooperation they would never have complete control of the star-door, which they very much coveted. They agreed to let the Uranian cultures live out their existence while Beataphoriah remained in an infinite loop prison to stop it from any other 'misuse' of the star-door genetic databanks. In those ancient days, before Beataphoriah disappeared until today, it had closed off access to its star-door away from the gods, and buried the star-door beneath the Great Glacier Mountain where it had remained undisturbed to this very day.

King Worapor became illuminated by the story told by the Beataphoriah hologram. The Hanson hologram informed the King about the energy grid beneath the ground, and other capabilities of the star-door technologies that were now available to Uranians. After much discussion the King persuaded the holograms to accompany him not far away to a balcony on the castle that overlooked much of the crowd of encamped protesters outside. This had been possible since Beataphoriah actually attended there in quanta-optic-nanocode form, and only Hanson showed as a hologram that could go anywhere Beataphoriah went.

The King decided it to be time to address the crowd, and they were mesmerized into silence by the King appearing next to the strange-looking quanta-optic-nanocode being and ghost-like hologram. The balcony already had voice amplification equipment as well as cameras to film the speech about to be made. "Hear me my people! Hear me on this day.

Gather in silence before what I say!

I know you are all here to persuade me

to stop my closure of the Ministry

of Science. So I'll say to all of you

that your message has finally come through.

I will reopen the Ministry of

Science, which you all obviously love."

The King had been forced to stop for awhile as the crowd let out a unanimous cheer of victory. The King nodded as his lips formed a buck toothed Uranian smile. The crowd eventually succumbed to polite respect and silence again to hear more.

"You see with me here video in air

of Hanson, and another with more hair.

They're here, but they are really far away.

The one with hair is Beataphoriah."

The King went ahead and paused for the crowd's collective gasp. It had been the equivalent to an Earth leader posing for a handshake and photo-op with an undisguised Satan. Just as Earthlings have gotten used to such things, the Uranians quickly adjusted.

King Worapor continued. "Calm down my people to hear of the deal

I have made after finding out he's real.

Before known history, way before then

he comes to us from the Glacier Mountain.

Within that mountain are worlds within worlds,

and cities for you the mountain heralds.

The mountain holds wonders, and even more

for this is the great mountain called star-door.

Beataphoriah makes part of this deal

that cancers, and what ails us he will heal.

He opened my eyes, and I'll make you see

energy you pay for is really free.

Things Aungtalli say are from gods of stars

are really from the mountain and are ours.

The mountain is open for you to see.

We'll explore all this with our Ministry."

This had all been shocking news, but after a period of the crowd mumbling amongst themselves, the protesting crowds greeted it with victorious applause. With this introduction of Beataphoriah and the star-door, there grew among the crowd a feeling that their demands had all magically been agreed with, and then some. Soon King Worapor's famous speech would be broadcast around the planet making the news. Some adventurous Uranians made plans to chip away at the 100-mile thick glacier, which would surely be a futile waste of time and effort. Especially considering that different Uranians were being admitted by teleportation to the star-door deep within by just making contact with the legendary Beataphoriah.

The Aungtalli, on the other hand, as well as a lot of Uranians, didn't accept Beataphoriah at all because of Devasura conditioning over the millennia. King Worapor did accept Beataphoriah even with the not so subtle threats by the Bishop that all 3 families were mobilizing war against both he and Beataphoriah with blessings from the gods. To counter those that opposed King Worapor, there arose a surprisingly large number of supporters of the King who had been hearers of the voice their whole lives. Some were organized like Oldo and the farmers, while others were just confused their whole lives until the day of the King's famous speech. The Bishop of Keshdesh had left the capital to return to the main Aungtalli Temple of Energy for what had been rumored to be a meeting of the elders for the three great royal families of the world's present power structure. They were to be meeting to decide on a war plan against King Worapor.

The great Aungtalli Temple of Energy had been one of the great wonders of Urania like the Great pyramid on Earth. Documented speculation, and studies by Ministry archaeologists exists, which dispute the Aungtalli story of it's true age and construction. It had been constructed at sometime before the dawn of pre-history with obvious help from the gods. Modern temples were made in the image of this temple, but on a much smaller scale. It had been built into a mountain of solid rock with the most extensive survival shelter on the planet carved deep into the rock for dozens of miles. There were secret areas of the temple labyrinths that were mysterious to this day, and giant conductor rods were built in the ground to interact with the star-door energy grid, which created a single source of electricity for the entire planet. This single source of electricity found its way around the continent along electric wires on polls that spread out majestically from the central temple like a giant spider web, which is even viewable from space. The great pillars Umu and Timu on the roof of the Great Aungtalli Temple displayed arcs of electronic bolts of energy between them at all times making the Aungtalli Temple of Energy visible for miles both day and night, like a giant lightening bolt neon sign flickering between its giant pillars. For ages the Aungtalli have always suppressed knowledge about the physics of electricity from the Uranians in order to maintain their grip on the planet's electricity racket.

The arriving Bishop of Keshdesh became greeted by distinctive members of the Swerite family who had always cast their support to the Aungtalli out of reverence to the fact that the Great Energy Temple had been in Swerite territory. Ironically the star-door Glacier Mountain that they declared war with had also been in the Lands of the Swerites, about 700 miles north of the Energy Temple.

The chief elder of the Swerites spoke. "Welcome Bishop of Keshdesh. Welcome here.

We gather to confront our greatest fear.

King Worapor has betrayed this temple.

Now he must die, but its not that simple.

He has joined forces with the evil one,

and exposed secrets of what we have done.

Now everyone has their own energy

so value no longer flows to the three.

This brings me to what this meeting is for.

Against the King we must plan to wage war."

The war planners plotted on about how to dethrone the now very popular King. Uranians were learning more and more about the wonders of the star-door, and Beataphoriah had been good on its promise of miraculous healing and free health care for all.

The Bishop spoke up at the war planning meeting when the discussion became focused on grievances against the Ministry of Science, and the highly popular networking invention that escalated the scientist Hanson to the status of modern day savior. "My friends let me introduce to you all

the one who works to bring about their fall."

Then the Bishop gestured, and Volock entered the meeting from just outside. Evidently Volock had survived the crash landing of his saucer, but that landing did much more damage to the saucer than Curvfin's slightly deflected laser shot, which brought it down.

Volock addressed the meeting. "Listen great families I shall make all see

the final downfall of the Ministry.

They eluded, but now I know one thing,

that the whole time they have been in Gulfang.

To Gulfang then I am about to go

to make sure to smithereens they all blow."

They had agreed on the terms of the war at this meeting. The Magite family, where King Worapor had been from, would remain neutral and allow the Swerite family to choose the next King. The Worites, as usual, agreed to be neutral and to accept refugees if hostilities resulted in a long insurgency. There had just been one more thing to do at this meeting of the war powers. It now became time to instill the fear of the gods into all attendees.

A quanta-communication device in the room had then been activated. Suddenly a life-sized hologram of Chronolus appeared at that meeting. At first the life-sized hologram went through the ceiling, but then Chronolus crouched a bit to address the tiny figures in the room of the three great families of Urania.

"I am appearing to you from above

to announce that it's the time we've spoke of.

Evil is unleashed and taken the world

as the end time prophesies are unfurled.

So heed my command. Go out! Wage war.

Create mayhem, and carnage, guts, and gore.

It's now the end of the world as we say,

it is the fault of Beataphoriah!"

Thus the political lines of the planet were drawn after the departure of Aquari from the planet Urania. Beataphoriah insisted on keeping Hanson and Veldada in the star-door after Aquari departed from Hanson's body. Hanson and Veldada had their own semi-virtual reality created there to live in, and they could easily go in and out from there through a portal to the teleportation platform in Gulfang if they chose.

Beataphoriah wanted to keep an eye on the genetic switches of Veldada's newly hatched baby boy, in addition to the fact that Hanson had been the chosen one touched by Aquari's presence to make him the best Uranian company for interesting conversation on the planet. They named the child Aquari after the cosmic miracle that brought him about. It knew the child had been probably programmed with genetic blessings from Aquari for its own treasured Uranian species, and it wanted to watch the child to figure out what those blessings were. It also wanted the developing child to grow up beneath the star-door's much safer radiation shielding. The sun just seemed unnaturally restless in the sky these days, which worried the quanta-optic-nanocode being. To Beataphoriah the child became a precious genetic sequence touched by the great cosmic being Aquari himself. That could only be a good thing. Beataphoriah became determined to watch over the child for his whole life, and make sure the child grew up to have lots of children. The gods may have rejected Beataphoriah's creations, but this meant that the truly immortal cosmic being Aquari had accepted them into the great mysterious cosmic plan that Aquari has pollinated the galaxy with throughout the three ages of Magphoreus. That validated Beataphoriah very much for its struggle with the Devasuras who wanted its star-door.

Time continued to go by with no sign of Aquari trying to return to the star-door through the wormhole connection with the Devaworld he had visited. Days turned into 69 fourteen-hour days of a Uranian year, and still Aquari had not returned. Beataphoriah gave King Worapor a way to summon it, which often tore Beataphoriah away from its hunt for quanta-nanocode viruses that still lived in the virtual worlds of its star-door. It hoped that Aquari would return soon. One day King Worapor summoned Beataphoriah so the King could plead for help in a war confrontation that gathered in the Lands of the Swerites just east of Keshdesh. Beataphoriah assured the King that there were all kinds of ways to calm down such a rebellion. Hanson at the star-door however, became concerned after receiving the news of the war, and told Beataphoriah and Veldada that he went to join in the armies of King Worapor to do his part in the battle. Both Beataphoriah and Veldada understood that there would be no stopping Hanson from his decision to leave his wife, child, and the star-door paradise in order to go off to war.

* * *

Aquari emerged from a wormhole opening that suspended the portal matrix between two pillars, which were almost identical to those displayed on the roofs of Aungtalli temples. That had been an innovation to wormhole technology that evidently could re-shape the portal matrix on this end so that they no longer have to be identical. The pillars were on an open stone patio in the midst of a majestic city of architecture that appeared carved from solid rock. The style of the architecture had a Greek Corinthian feel to it, as if Aquari had arrived on the Olympus of Earth myths. The sky looked indescribably deep and covered with multicolor luminescent glowing clouds that lit the sky like floating LED blimps. This had been a Devaplanet about three times larger than the planet Jupiter, but not a gas giant, although the atmosphere looked thick and full of different layers and densities. Quanta-nanocode programmed Virtual particle technologies controlled all gravity on the surface to provide quanta-nanocoded landmasses and oceans that produced gravity a bit stronger than Earth's. Beneath that quanta-nanocoded surface existed the carefully controlled fusion powered core of a star that still provided unlimited heat and energy for the harnessing. The Devaworld had been a profound application of knowledge and technologies that were acquired from those beings that figured out how to make Goag Ralus.

Also on the patio that opened to the endless glowing skies, there stood Chronolus, but he had morphed into a more ethereal form. There were holograms of smoke that were in the shape that once had been his head, which had now become a crown of smoky vapor for hair that waved about with his beard and mustache in response to an undetectable phantom breeze. The now vaporous hair that before looked more like it had been chiseled into a rock statue back on Urania when Chronolus had been in Asura form, now appeared as the stuff of white puffy cloud.

Now Chronolus appeared in Devasura form, and they were on a Devaworld forged out of one of the original stars of the early cluster of stars that had been Nephapricus. They were on a planet created from a star still powered by a fusion core, which now had been maintained by the technologies of some of the most advanced beings in the galaxy.

"This planet used to be the star Paz before it had been forged into this planet of my birth." Aquari had been wondering what exact star this planet had been made from when Chronolus said that. Aquari became impressed that his thoughts had apparently been read, which he had learned to shield from the Eigalli. It had probably been the knowledge brought back by Eagolim from the core about the Eigalli DNA switches that led to this evolution in Chronolus.

"You are correct Aquari. My kind, this planet, and the whole lost civilization of Nephapricus were evolved with what the returning Eagolim had learned from their legendary journey to the core."

Aquari figured out a psionic shield to keep his thoughts away from this being when a much smaller human-like creature walked on to the patio to whisper something into the ear of Chronolus. Chronolus crouched down to hear from the pale hairless six and a half foot tall humanoid being who wore no clothes, yet displayed nothing where his/her/its genitalia would be. The smaller being appeared to be very pale with a large bald head and large dark eyes. In spite of Aquari's newly constructed psionic shield, Chronolus still noticed Aquari's interest as he got up from his crouching position. "We've created these biological androids to be our servants here for doing menial tasks below the dignity of my kind. They are much more vulnerable and sexless than the crude Golimechoid that were first created with electronic DNA by the ancient Eagolim for similar reasons."

"This is all very impressive to me Chronolus. It has long been a mystery of what ever happened to the ancient culture of Nephapricans and the seven star-door stars that disappeared from the galaxy along with the seven lost star-doors."

"Oh there is much more to impress you with my cosmic visitor. This planet can be flown anywhere in the galaxy at up to twice the speed of light with the warp dimensions that were quantum-nanocoded into the planet itself. We are now in a stable orbit about a hundred light years above the dark matter plain of the galaxy." Chronolus seemed to stop himself suddenly, which told Aquari's telepathy that Chronolus figured that he had already said too much.

Chronolus changed the subject. "Come Aquari, I'll give you a tour of the planet. Here on the Devaplanet I can fly about at will just like you."

Chronolus began to float away from the patio so Aquari followed. Soon they were surrounded by other ethereal Devaworld beings similar to Chronolus. They flew by Aquari at will like Chronolus with dazzled appearances on their faces as they noticed the circle of light that was Aquari. The planet sprawled with city architecture upon it, made up of huge and beautiful stone buildings that caused Aquari to remember the immortal galactic architectural stone craftsmanship that made the Nephapricans, and their Eagolim descendants so great. Nephaprican architecture had been built to exist longer than the civilizations that inhabited it, and it often did.

They arrived at a structure that appeared as a plateau stretching for miles in every direction, which had been made up of rows and rows of smaller structures that looked like several subdivisions of small stone houses. The cloud surrounding Chronolus seemed to solidify into a pair of legs for walking, and he landed. He then walked around Aquari with a curious look.

"You seem to always turn to face me."

Aquari tried to offer an explanation. "That is one aspect of the physics of my nature. Another observer walking a different direction would also observe me always turning to face them."

"Fascinating. I've heard a lot about you my whole life, but that never really prepared me for this encounter."

Chronolus started walking down a row of stone structures. Aquari wasn't sure where they were at first. Each stone structure had sophisticated monitoring equipment built in with beautiful stone designs and craftsmanship. There appeared to be Devasura writing engraved on the top of each structure, which led Aquari to at last realize where they were.

"Just like your Nephaprican ancestors, I see your kind still uses ego-phantasm technology."

Chronolus smiled in admiration of the rows and rows of high-tech tombs he walked through. "We have pretty much evolved ourselves beyond dying at all Aquari. These tombs preserve our ancestors going all the way back to Nephapricans of the second age of Magphoreus where we inherited this great crypt of ancestors. If you are going to inhabit a dead body we may be able to find you a suitable one here."

Aquari became reluctant to explore the Devaworld that way. "Oh I don't need to take on that form. I don't plan on being here all that long."

Aquari had been wise to that old Eagolim trick. On the Eagolim's legendary journey to the core they used to entomb grand architects for Aquari to inhabit so they could do research on the corpses afterwards. Aquari never gave them that access to knowledge of him, and if Aquari ever did inhabit an Eagolim body it would always be a nobody from the lower social orders of the nomadic clan of Eagolim that journeyed to the core to tame Ralus Xnoga.

"Very well Aquari. I will get used to you as a circle of light then. I had another reason to bring you here." Chronolus seemed disappointed that Aquari had not taken the dead body bait. He approached one of the tombs at the end of a row, which looked like it had been one of the very first tombs constructed there.

"This is Saturlus, my great great grandfather who was one of the last that was still the Nephaprican species. He used to know you." The moment filled with a silence that started to annoy Chronolus. "He's here. They are always here watching while invisible. Saturlus! Show yourself!"

Another see-through being that resembled a pale low quality hologram appeared by the Saturlus tomb. Unlike the orange toned Chronolus, Saturlus appeared blue with long blond hair growing off his head and face. He looked like a Nephaprican with classic Nephaprican tattoos up and down his muscular arms. They were a robust species of courageous star travelers, ancestors of the 3rd Age Eagolim, and one of the first mammal pioneers of terrestrial life.

Saturlus spoke apologetically. "One of the reasons that I use to justify this existence Aquari is to someday offer this apology to you. I was among those that decided to send you away after the Eagolim returned from the core with their wisdom. I apologize for hiding our existence away from you for so long."

Aquari took no offense. "Apology accepted Saturlus. I do remember you, and you can be now fulfilled of your existence and move on."

Saturlus appeared suddenly sad at Aquari's suggestion. "Oh if only it were that simple Aquari. My body is preserved with dark matter technologies that anchor my ego here."

Chronolus decided to interrupt in order to offer his perspective of ancient history. "I always thought of the Eagolim who abandoned Nephapricus to travel to the core as a bunch of radical thinking nomads that got wrapped up in an old Doldorian cult, which preached about cosmic evolution. That was why we persuaded you to leave the galaxy before they applied the Goag Ralus technologies to our dying star-door stars. We had chosen to observe your effect on the galaxy from afar Aquari."

Aquari explained. "I crossed paths with those 'radical thinking nomads' a few times while they were on that journey, but I usually just helped them out of times of peril. I wasn't the orchestrating guiding light of that journey as some legends accuse me. Those Eagolim followed a computer program that Doldorian priests were always working on."

Chronolus seemed to decide that Aquari had seen enough of Saturlus. "Well it is all ancient history from an ancient age. Today we oversee the galaxy from these Devaworlds, and have evolved beyond just being mere galactic beings that are still integrated with the phantom matter. There are many other ancestors here for you to meet Aquari. Why don't you mingle for awhile and refresh your memories with their acquaintances."

That had been the moment when other ancient beings who seemed to have been there the whole time became visible. Aquari had never been a big fan of ego-phantasm technology as he called it. To the Devasuras it became known as ancestor technology.

Aquari began to say hello to the other ghosts that were now showing their presence. "I always thought the obsession with ego-phantasms was a very backward oriented influence on your future evolution. Ego-phantasms are just old iterations of a dead body's neural programming left behind by that which continues to evolve."

Chronolus took the Saturlus apparition aside. "Grandfather! Why do you sound like you weary of this place, of my friendship, and being my counselor? We shall discuss that later. What do you know about this Aquari being? I've lured him away from Tze-Doldus-2, and he won't be returning through the wormhole door he came here through, but what danger does he now pose to my plans?"

Saturlus replied. "Aquari is much more ancient than either you or me, or even the great Goag Ralus Itself. Aquari is a being from the first age of Magphoreus when the speed of light had been much faster, and still rapidly slowing down. In the first age of Magphoreus there had still been no terrestrial life because the very simple first matter of the Universe had not yet been broken down into the complexities required for terrestrial life to evolve and exist. Ralus Xnoga devoured many of these first stars of the universe into the Magphoreus quasar, which accelerated the breaking down of matter into complex matter back in the first age. That began the photonic age where there evolved something so much like life that it is actually what terrestrial life is based on, and tries to imitate. Many Nephapricans from my time believed that Aquari had been an immortal being who probably had his start during this photonic age of the Magphoreus quasar."

Chronolus just had more questions after that answer. "An enigma from before known history you say? He can't be defeated? I need him away from Tze-Doldus while I orchestrate the final collapse of the Tze-Doldus star core. I shall soon have a neutrino nova bomb, which that star-door is now constructing."

"Aquari always just does as he pleases Chronolus. I guess that's why part of our planned evolution into Devasuras included getting away from Aquari. You have lured him away from the planet, but he can just fly back there, probably before the end of the next Tze-Doldus-2 year. I do recall some experiments with virtual particle fields that can successfully repel Aquari from a planet's point of mass orientation when his area is surrounded by a special virtual particle field set to a counter virtual particle mass orientation."

Aquari greeted many ego-phantasms from the past during the ghost reunion at the Devasura's ego-phantasm crypt, which placed an uncomfortable, morbidly somber mood on the occasion. Aquari eventually became more interested in living Devasuras than the ego-phantasms of that ancient technological crypt full of memory. Aquari later became acquainted with many living Devasuras at the next place Chronolus flew him to. They did not much use technological transportation on the Devaworld since they had evolved flight into their own personal constitutions. Devasuras were almost as ethereal as the ego-phantasms, and could go through walls with perfect control of their own mass while on the Devaplanet. They were profoundly multi-dimensional beings, liberated from the dark matter effects on the universe. The younger Devasuras were more a purple skin tone, and the woman featured heads with telepathic horns that made them look more like the Eigalli than the men.

These Devasuras were like the antithesis to the statue-like Asura form that Chronolus assumed at the other side of the wormhole. They enjoyed the vast terrain of a star made into a planet with quanta-nanocoded virtual particle control of the planet's gravitational field all across the surface. The way the clouds looked illuminated the planet with florescence that doused out many places for shadow on the surface. Aquari could tell that those gravitational fields increased dramatically in the upper atmosphere, which appeared deeper in that sky than anything an Earthling can imagine, or describe.

Aquari, Chronolus, and Saturlus at the Ego-Phantasm Crypt _._

Chronolus seemed to be doing everything to make Aquari's stay a pleasant one. Aquari learned much about the Devasuras and their Goag Ralus-like Devaworld. Unlike Goag Ralus, this planet lacked the soul and personality that took the form of so many avatars back at the core. The Devasuras obsessively controlled this planet and could fly it anywhere they wanted. Aquari noticed that this planet remained indifferent with no imagination or curiosity that had been so profoundly expressed in the nature of his old friend Goag Ralus. A fourth of the planet appeared to be reinforced with weaponry, and a gigantic 142,984-mile diameter complex of machinery made of a tightly packed isotope of iron that could probably create magnetic effects that would control whole moons and planetoids to use in devastating collisions that would just result in interesting weather on the Devaworld.

Eventually Aquari had stayed as long as he wanted, and asked Chronolus about activating the two wormhole pillars so he could return to Urania.

"I'm sorry Aquari. I don't want this to effect our friendship, but I never intended to let you go back there to that star-door planet. Stay here with us, the planet Tze-Doldus-2, along with its star-door and Beataphoriah will soon be located above us in orbit around our main moon."

"This is a rotten betrayal Chronolus. I'm afraid this does effect our friendship. You want to destroy an entire race of intelligent beings so you can hang another star-door around your planet like an ornament."

"You have no idea what I have done for the last thousand teks to pamper that stupid genetic experiment of Beataphoriah! They have enjoyed a stable civilization that has gone on for so long that its not even natural, and yet they still seem to only be any good at rhyming chirps and whistles."

Aquari became angry. "You surely have evolved beyond a galactic species because galactic beings respect all intelligent life, and value their precarious habitats as precious places in the galaxy. You have so obviously separated yourselves from that because you don't find it absurd, and wrong to turn a living planet into a lifeless moon. Beataphoriah will defy you for good reasons."

"Beataphoriah is just some ancient technology to deal with. It wasn't easy to silence and eliminate the quanta-optic-nanocode being that once operated this planet's star-door wormholes. I've been looking forward to the challenge posed by Beataphoriah. It's as if my ancestors liked to just let technologies run amok in the galaxy."

Aquari eventually left exasperated with Chronolus. It had been a trap all along, leaving him a long way from Urania. As Aquari hovered down a road that pierced a path through the Devaworld's stone architecture, an apparition of Saturlus appeared before him. "So now you know the extent of the treachery toward you by Chronolus old friend."

"There was suspicion from the beginning. I'll just fly back there." Aquari stopped to talk to the ghost.

"Fly back there you must Aquari! For there is even more depth to the treachery my grandson plots against Tze-Doldus-2. You are right Aquari. I'm an ancient iteration that can never change, and that makes me a bad influence on my grandson."

Aquari became sympathetic. "I always tried to warn you Nephapricans that you were getting carried away with the novelty of ego-phantasm technology."

"Tze-Doldus-2 is in great danger Aquari. Chronolus has been pummeling the core of the star Tze-Doldus with bombs of neutrinos that are teleported there by the Tze-Doldus-2 star-door. It is undeniably probable that the star will explode with the next bomb that soon will accumulate enough neutrinos for the job."

"Sounds like time for me to be on my way. Thank you Saturlus. You didn't have to tell me that."

"One more favor to ask of you Aquari. Please come with me back to the tomb that holds my body."

It had been as if they both just instantly materialized next to the tomb of Saturlus. Saturlus gestured to what looked like a vault door in the side of the tomb, sealed shut with a quantum laser torch. "Inside this sealed compartment is a switch Aquari. I know you have the power to switch it off. That will open long since closed vents to my body that will then expose me to open air. After so much passed millennia the open air will surely decompose me in no time at all. That will free me from the phantom matter anchor that keeps me in this existence Aquari. I'll be able to at last pass on to what is next."

Chronolus then suddenly stormed onto the scene along with a flash like a lightening bolt. "Not going to happen Aquari. I have devised a virtual particle field that should now escort you off of my planet. By the power of Chronolus, the keeper of this Devaworld doorway I now exile you from my world Aquari!"

Aquari had suddenly been hurled through the endless depths of sky out into the open depths of space surrounding the planet. He found himself suddenly in orbit around the giant planet that glowed with phosphorescent clouds in all kinds of colors. The planet wore a bluish ring around it like a belt made up of space debris that had been instantly crushed by powerful crushingly protective virtual particle fields around the Devaplanet. The planet's great ring shimmered in a turquoise blue between the rainbow colored glow of the planet, and the shimmering nebulous star-speckled light of the entire galaxy spread out below in a panoramic view.

Aquari found one extra large Earth-sized moon that stood out as the classic old Nephaprican galactic architecture trick to induce ocean tides on a planet, along with something Nephaprican molecular physicists used to call quantum flux. Orbiting that Earth-sized moon existed one of the long lost star-doors. That star-door sphere had been probably originally associated with the star Paz, which was now the giant Devaplanet below. Star-doors were enormous spherical arks made to survive even the disintegration of the planets they existed upon. The Earth-sized moon didn't look anything like the long lost star-door planet Paz-3.

A radio transmission from the star-door then contacted Aquari. "Hello Aquari. My Devaplanet spies have not failed me. It is I, Beataquatle, I was once a quanta-optic-nanocode being for the Paz-3 star-door."

"Hi there Beataquatle. It has indeed been a long time. Why do you say you were once a quanta-optic-nanocode being? You are not one now?"

"I do still exist, but the Devasuras removed my ability to generate a body on the physical dimension. I'm not supposed to exist at all, but I stay hidden in my star-door from them."

"Sounds like you don't enjoy existence like you used to."

"I serve Chronolus now. They have reprogrammed the star-doors with a new molecule added to the quantum bits of the operating systems. I can't contact my brethren except for the other 6 Devaplanet comrades of the seven lost stars that I still converse with through mutual quanta-synchronized awareness."

"Who physically manages the star-door now if there is no quanta-optic-nanocode being?"

"I'm completely automated with more recent technology, and also a crew of their biological androids. I would love to show you around Aquari, but Chronolus will notice."

"I will visit again someday old friend. I need to return to the old planet Tze-Doldus-2 before Chronolus succeeds in destroying the life there by bringing the planet here through a one-sided disconnected wormhole after a nova event."

"Tell Beataphoriah I wish it well, and for victory over the quanta-nanocoded plot against its star-door. I can imagine how precious the Uranian life must be to it."

Aquari bid farewell to Beataquatle and dived down into the Orion galactic arm that sprayed stars out across the sky below the southern pole of the Devaplanet. The angle of the Devaworld, 100 light years above the galactic plain, provided Aquari with a clear view all the way to the core of mighty Magphoreus. The galactic core appeared like a dark dot in the middle of all the stars packed so tightly into the galaxy's center that they become a single luminous cloud of light swirling around Ralus Xnoga. Aquari knew exactly where he was and where he needed to be.

After Aquari disappeared, Chronolus yelled at the apparition of Saturlus who just stood there in content silence and smiled. Chronolus felt frustrated that he had even less power over an ego-phantasm than he did over Aquari.

"What do you have to say for yourself Saturlus?!"

The distant gaze of Saturlus gravitated upon his grandson Chronolus one last time. "Its been done my grandson. My time here has come to an end and now I must move on."

Chronolus then realized that Aquari must have opened the valves to the tomb after all, just before he had been expelled from the planet by his virtual particle field. In a sudden panic, Chronolus stuck his hand between the molecules of the wall; into the side of the tomb where the switch existed in order to close it back off. He then realized that the body's 4 billion Earth years of preservation had already crumpled under the weight of the incoming atmosphere, and had now become a swirling pile of ash and dust inside the once perfect vacuum that had been the tomb.

"Why did you help Aquari? Why did you betray me?"

"Aquari is right about dead ancestors orienting you too much to the past Chronolus. The Eagolim looked for, and created the future, and then they brought it back for your ungrateful posterity. Their creations were made alive so that they could also evolve into this future, and to grow and become more than they were when the Eagolim first made them. I think you and I have been trying too hard to put an end to all that. I realize now that all life is a beautiful thing, and I've led you away from that as a voice of one long since dead. I wish I could have shown you the beauty of life, but that is not my nature."

Chronolus however, had not become any less determined to have his star-door prize. "Aquari will never get back to Tze-Doldus-2 before the next nova bomb goes off. That star will go nova."

"You underestimate a cosmic being that has always demonstrated an uncanny ability to never be late. I'll wager on Aquari in this race against time." Then Saturlus at long last faded away into the final oblivion of death, and Chronolus at last finally mourned his long dead grandfather.

* * *

When Hanson left the star-door to join in the Magite armies that were forming to defend King Worapor, his people greeted him like a messianic savior. The photos Handirlas had took of Aquari resurrecting the dead body of Hanson were published and broadcast on the news, and also the new networking technology that Hanson/Aquari invented revolutionized society to make Hanson very wealthy in value. The rest of the Ministry of Science obviously wanted it known that Hanson only helped invent the device, but the world had already focused their collective fascination on Hanson.

Because of Hanson's tremendous popularity, King Worapor had been quick to appoint him as a General in his infantry forces. Hanson appointed his old friend Ploabot to be his Grand Lieutenant Major in the war effort, which had been a much more generous appointment than what Ploabot originally had been recruited for. As the Magite forces were gathered to meet the Aungtalli/Swerite forces on the Swerite plains, Beataphoriah proclaimed to the people in the Magite lands that they were welcome to move into the star-door as refugees from this war. Many took Beataphoriah up on this offer, and were teleported to the star-door paradise. There had actually been more than enough room in the star-door's folded realities for everyone on Urania. Contrary to popular belief the star-door was nothing like claustrophobic. In fact, there were so many folded realities, and illusions of space that it seemed like there would be more room in the star-door than all the rest of the planet. Beataphoriah had been interested in any excuse to convince Uranians to live in its star-door because that would preserve the species when a more dreaded disaster strikes.

Infantry armies gathered on the Swerite plains where Swerites joined with the Aungtalli to wage war against King Worapor the devil worshipper. King Worapor became disowned by his own family, and clung to his kingship by his own popularity with the people. That allowed him to command a militia of Magites that were happy to be rid of Aungtalli control of their government. All the Swerites needed to know would be that the gods were demanding this war. The Bishop arranged a meeting with the gods where Chronolus appeared, and the Swerites were then whipped into war frenzy by it.

The other great family had been the Worites, whose people pressured their leaders to remain neutral on this major matter of war. The Worites were a very self-reliant people, and were the least influenced by politics and religion of all Uranians on the planet. The Worites wanted nothing to do with the war, except to offer their lands to refugees with their neutrality respected.

Uranians were almost foolishly regimented in how they fought war, similar to how the old British forces behaved against the American Revolution insurgents. When both sides behaved in this regimented way however, it had its own strategy that had been adhered to. This would probably look laughable to Earthlings because there had been nobody to cry foul when the complicated Uranian rules of engagement were broken. The side that broke the rules of war just had to all live with it for the rest of their lives. Uranians did have a natural reluctance to live with violations of honor like that. It's probably something Beataphoriah switched on long ago in their DNA.

Grand Lieutenant Major Ploabot approached General Hanson who watched through a binocular telescopic device the enemy forces gather along the boarder of the Land of the Swerites. The sun went down, and it got late. The troops knew there would be no fighting at night during sleep, but everyone had to get up early to be ready to fight when the sun did glimpse above the morning horizon.

"It seems that our leader King Worapor

has made us vulnerable in this war.

I must voice the worry that is gnawing

while enemies are upon us drawing."

Hanson took his eyes away from the visual amplifiers to look at his friend. "Don't worry, enemies at the borders

are gathered according to my orders.

We are covered by hills along the north.

We'll stay dug in there, and let them come forth.

My orders are to not try to give chase.

I'm to draw the enemy to this place."

Ploabot now felt even more like they were being used as bait. "Well the clash starts tomorrow. That I know.

I'll get my night's rest for tomorrow's show."

Just before the next morning King Worapor in Keshdesh nervously watched the light start to gather along the eastern horizon of the morning. Beataphoriah was supposed to be there to carry out whatever brilliant strategy he assured the King would save his 14th Regiment that were deployed like sitting ducks along the Swerite borders.

Beataphoriah advised him to lure the Swerite forces all to one place. When the King asked him what would be done Beataphoriah said, "At your service my King I am here for

I can do anything with a star-door.

In one place all their forces you should meet.

Not a Magite will perish or be beat."

Now the King had started to let doubts creep in about his alliance with this magical star-door being. He remembered an old proverb. "The path on your own leads to misery.

The path of the gods will win history."

Then Beataphoriah suddenly appeared. "Good morning my King of honor and grace.

Now you'll see why I brought them to one place."

Meanwhile Ploabot had been up overseeing two platoons of forces that were also out of bed to confront the enemy out there in the darkness anxiously waiting for the morning sun to pierce the horizon, and herald the time for fighting to begin. Ploabot still felt that they were sure to be overrun by the enemy forces in this morning's battle. The enemy had the eastern horizon advantage, and could begin the fight first when the sunrise appeared in their vision. He figured it must be for some greater strategy, and it had not been his place to question.

The Swerites saw the morning sun in the east at least 30 seconds before Ploabot and his forces did. He could hear their battle cries in the fading darkness, announcing the confrontation now stampeding on its way to them.

Then there appeared a light flash all across the morning horizon that caused some of Ploabot's troops to give off their sun rise battle cry, but then it became just dark again like the sun suddenly changed its mind. It had only been a flash of light, not the morning sun, which Ploabot could tell still had not quite poked above the horizon from his perspective.

Soon the sun did rise and his troops roared in anticipation of the fight, but no enemies ever appeared into view where Ploabot's troops anxiously waited for them. Their orders were to dig in and hold their ground, but soon some troops were venturing toward the borders to see where the enemy hid. There was no enemy to be found. The troops that they saw gathering along the boarders last night, and who let out a Urania-shattering battle cry this morning when the sun rose, were now all gone. They had just disappeared under the morning dawn without a trace.

It turned out Beataphoriah needed the enemy lured into one location so it could try out the one-sided wormhole function that Goag Ralus and Begalius had taught it. Beataphoriah's hologram startled the King with sudden laughter as the star-door controls offered output that indicated that the wormhole worked. Beataphoriah teleported the Swerite/Aungtalli armies thousands of miles away to the base of the glacial slopes that were surrounding the Great Glacier Mountain. Thousands of Uranian and Aungtalli troops now slid around the ice of the Great domed mountainside. A teleportation platform would be no longer necessary to establish a portal matrix on the far side of the wormhole, which creates a single point of time/space that exists in two locations. Beataphoriah had some fun taunting the already frightened armies that were now outside its star-door.

It addressed the horrified armies from deep within the mountain with voice amplification equipment that made the voice of Beataphoriah thunder in the skies for miles. "Fear me followers of false gods. I say

this planet's god is Beataphoriah!

Your gods only use you so you'll destroy

the world you stand upon! It's all a ploy!"

Within the star-door on Urania were realities made out of folded space, and quantum nanocoded virtual imitations of reality that existed as realties of their own. One of these realities had been the city of Tze-Doldusdoor, which featured skies and geography reminiscent of the planet Pripica, but the smaller-scaled city looked more accommodating to Uranian architecture. The ancient Pripican species were larger four legged furry beings who merged with Nephricans, and Doldorians way back in the second age of Magphoreus to eventually evolve the species known as Nephaprican. They had discovered that their DNA became genetically compatible as they evolved into galactic beings all existing in a tight cluster of 15 stars that once long ago speeded through the Carina arm of Magphoreus.

The city of Tze-Doldusdoor had warehouses that were along shores of a void of nothing just like in Doldoor within the Dol star-door. Somewhere along these shores of the void there were Tze-Doldusdoor warehouses filling up with digital neutrinos, which were being programmed into a nova bomb. A quanta-nanocode virus boss in the form of an Aungtalli anxiously overlooked the arrival of shipments of neutrinos to soon teleport them as a bomb into the sun Tze-Doldus. This would finally fulfill its quanta-nanocoded purpose, which had been to finally blow up the white dwarf star Tze-Doldus. Even at 707.2 times the speed of light, Aquari would never make it back to Urania before this bomb would be ready to be teleported into the star Tze-Doldus to at last collapse the star's already fragile core.

Chapter 12: The Urania Nebula Event

The city of Tze-Doldusdoor had been deep within the quanta-nanocoded virtual realities of the Tze-Doldus star-door, under the Great Glacial Mountain on the planet Urania, and the city had been programmed with the deep purple morning sky of the planet Pripica under the legendary star Poa. The particular composition of the deep Pripican atmosphere made the sky an ultramarine blue that often changed into purple when Poa approached the horizon. Here in Tze-Doldusdoor the star Poa still shined in all its pre-nova glory, which had left it now a pulsar in this day and age. The star-door programmed sky remembered everything about this ancient sky on this ancient planet, and had continued the imitative dance of its existence now for billions and billions of Earth years. The star Poa rose over rows of Tze-Doldusdoor warehouses that were lined up along the shores of the void of nothing, where the latest shipment of compiled neutrinos had just arrived. The warehouses were bustling with the activity of little Uranian-like virus programs that were rushing to unload the crates off of the mysterious ships that arrived here from the mysterious nothing beyond.

Around those warehouses were also other Uranian-like quanta-nanocoded security programs that were scuttling stealthily up to the teleportation warehouse that received those neutrino crates. The security programs, like a tightening rope noose around a neck, rapidly closed in on the perimeter of the busy warehouse. Beataphoriah stood amongst these teams of security programs as their leader. Beataphoriah had been the only Uranian still displaying the more ancient hairy un-evolved form of the species, which became out of style in Tze-Doldusdoor around the same time it went out of style on the actual planet.

Under the still dim purple light of the Pripican morning, one of the quanta-nanocoded security programs approached the leader Beataphoriah with a report. "Sir, we've now secured the entire parameter, and can confirm that the virus boss is in that warehouse overseeing the operation."

Although they looked Uranian, these quanta-nanocoded Tze-Doldusdoor residents spoke a kind of Nephaprican dialect. "Thank you security13207496. That warehouse has been programmed to beam the contraband into the flaming plasma surface of the star Tze-Doldus in order to blow it up. It's a good thing I returned when I did. This shipment might have destroyed everything. That all depends on how many of these shipments have already been teleported."

Secruity13207496 looked over at the dawning star Poa that rose on the morning horizon between shores of nothing and the city Tze-Doldusdoor. Security13207496 kept looking at Poa, obviously trying to comprehend the implications of what Beataphoriah just said. It had been one of those moments that Beataphoriah realized these programs know no other existence except the quanta-nanocoded physics of this virtual reality that pretended to be the ancient planet Pripica. "Yes Security13207496, destroying the power source of actual reality would effect the star that rises every morning here in this virtual reality also."

Security13207496 understood. "I only need to know that this must be stopped. I'm sorry we failed to stop the last ten neutrino bombs."

"I understand Secrity13207496. This boss virus has a powerful credential program that only I can de-bug from you. Today it no longer controls Tze-Doldusdoor." Beataphoriah concluded that it became time for action. "Have the parameter close in and take them out now. I'm going to stop that boat." Then Beataphoriah disappeared, and Security13207496 sprung into action, and returned to the other programs somewhere out in the shadows along the parameter.

The quanta-nanocoded virus program did not surrender the warehouse without a fight. Uranian automatic projectile weapons greeted the Security programs as they emerged from the purple morning shadows. Beataphoriah wasted no time, and just teleported to the deck of the boat docked by the warehouse. None of the glowing fields of light that were the crew on the deck responded to Beataphoriah's appearance. There had been no quarrel with the star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being's presence. Beataphoriah hoped to receive a similar response from the captain as it walked across the deck towards the captain's quarters; unchallenged by the crew of mysterious glowing lights.

The captain had been just a glowing field of light himself, seated behind a desk of strange objects when Beataphoriah entered the room. The captain's light seemed to twinkle and blink as it talked. "What is this unannounced intrusion? You have no business in here whatever you are!"

Beataphoriah knew right away that this program would require some debugging before it again worked properly. Beataphoriah stretched its own neck well beyond anything anatomically accurate. It pressed its head and neck across the table into the area of light that had probably been the captain's face. Beataphoriah's Uranian eyes began to glow, and a sparkling light projected from those eyes into the captain's face. It seemed to wait for just the right moment to say, "I am Beataphoriah."

The debugging of the captain seemed to take place just in time as the crackle of automatic explosion-launched projectile weapons indicated that the warehouse assault went ahead outside as expected. "I need you to remain docked here, and immediately stop unloading this shipment. I am going to have this shipment reloaded on this boat to be de-compiled."

The captain's grumpy mood instantly altered. "As you wish Beataphoriah. Welcome back after all these years."

Beataphoriah left the boat to join the confrontation taking place just inside the warehouse. Security had closed in and gunned down virus programs, which were being tossed out of the pockets of the boss virus hand over fist as black balls that became Uranian shaped programs when they hit the ground. It looked like a matter of time before the virus programs overwhelmed security.

Beataphoriah got in front of the boss virus while bullets were just bouncing off of it. The boss smirked over its Uranian teeth; still tossing programs with both hands out of inexhaustible pockets. Then suddenly one hand stopped, and instead of tossing out a ball to spring into a Uranian shaped virus program, the hand held a gun pointed at Beataphoriah that then, in that instant, zapped Beataphoriah out of existence. "Pchoo!"

The boss virus became surprised to find out that this confrontation had been easier than anticipated, and it started to giggle to itself. Beataphoriah had now been once again properly imprisoned in an infinite quanta-nanocode loop. The boss virus smiled smugly at its easy victory when suddenly Beataphoriah appeared right behind it and punched a clenched fist on the back of the boss's Uranian head. The boss virus collapsed on the ground holding its head. Beataphoriah stretched its head in on the boss virus just as it did with the captain before, but probably to do more than just debug. "I've long since upgraded a way out of infinite loop traps as soon as I became free of the last one, and my brother Begalius taught me a few tricks. Begalius also knows all about ridding a star-door of virus programs like you."

All the other virus programs ceased to function when the boss virus had been destroyed by Beataphoriah. They were quickly de-compiled like their boss, and the crates of neutrinos were immediately loaded back on the boat to be returned to the nothing. The star Tze-Doldus had now at last been saved from the nova bombs that had been creating solar flares, and causing planetary electricity blackouts for many Uranian years. Beataphoriah experienced the incredibly euphoric relief of saving the planet Urania from near certain doom, while the rest of the security programs just thought of it all as another job well done on another day in the ancient virtual reality star-door city called Tze-Doldusdoor.

* * *

Eistia had been meaning to follow up with the Oldo case ever since he discovered Eromot's blood soaked clothes in the farmer's garbage. After losing track of Volock when the King won his war against the three families, Eistia figured this had been a good place to maybe find a way to catch up to Volock. Eistia figured Volock would be continuing his criminal mission to murder the scientists of the Ministry of Science. Although the King declared the Ministry restored, the Aungtalli had since responded with an all out terrorist campaign against the kingdom. Therefore the Ministry of Science had still been underground at an undisclosed location, which had even been unknown to Eistia as it hopefully also had been to Volock.

Eistia drove onto the Oldo farm, and approached the familiar door to knock and see if Oldo was home. The door swung open to greet Eistia with Oldo and his wife named Topaling. "I am sorry sir, but you should just go.

We've already told you all that we know."

Eistia now had been ready to play his metaphorical evidence card. "I'm not interested in what you do.

I'm just here because I know that's not true.

When I was last here to learn what you know

I checked your garbage when I left to go.

That was the moment when I found out you

had not told me everything that you knew.

That was where I found the truth I have got

in the bloody clothing of Eromot.

Don't get defensive of what I derive.

I know that Eromot is still alive.

I'm here cause I need with your help to find

him before another who is less kind."

Oldo knew Eistia had not been hostile to the Ministry of Science in hiding. Everyone after the news of the Volock arrest he made in Dogolus knew that. Oldo still considered Eistia's words when Topaling spoke up. "I think its time for some trust to begin.

Investigator, won't you please come in."

Eistia wiped his feet on the foot towel while Topaling made everyone a cup of wiffsue, and then they sat at the kitchen table and talked. Eistia learned that they were hearers of the voice, which everyone learned about now since the appearance of the great Beataphoriah from ancient legends with the King. Eistia wondered if Beataphoriah, who knew the location of the hidden Ministry, had been more than able to protect those scientists. Oldo, after some whispering with his wife, told Eistia about the secret headquarters location in Gulfang. That, for Investigator Eistia, had been the shred of evidence well worth the drive from Keshdesh.

Eistia gratefully said goodbye to Oldo and Topaling with further condolences for the loss of their son Dolka, and then he returned back in his car for the drive back to Keshdesh. Oldo and Topaling waved goodbye while hoping that they were sending Eistia to avenge their murdered child. Travel became risky these days since the King's war victory degenerated into a terrorist war against sore-losing Aungtalli. Eistia became taken aback by the hypocrisy as he drove down the road considering the so-called moral guardians of society, the Aungtalli's bitter hate-filled violent lashing out at innocents. As Eistia drove inside the city limits he saw the fires of a recent terrorist suicide bombing. The Aungtalli fought this war by using their persuasion over those in their legions of brain-washed Uranian women. The Aungtalli would get them to put on vests of xenastic explosives to strategically blow themselves up in public around other Uranians.

The sheer horror and shock of these events had been underscored by a subtle message that the Aungtalli were the one's in control, and Uranians only existed at the mercy of the Aungtalli. This particular terrorist event set a building on fire from the explosion that killed many Uranians who were inside. Eistia noticed, on closer inspection, that the building had been a restaurant. It had been a despicable strategy that personally only strengthened Eistia's loyalty to the King, and his determination to bring these terrorist criminals to justice. He drove close by the incident, but then continued on his way back to headquarters after noticing other fire fighters and police responding. Beataphoriah didn't miss the opportunity to use these terrorist events to convince Uranians that they would be much safer in the available star-door cities, which it obviously had been anxious to fill up.

* * *

It had been late at night when Volock silently landed his new flying saucer on the roof of the secret headquarters for the Ministry of Science in Gulfang. Volock now routinely checked his saucer for unwanted stowaways ever since Eistia succeeded in stopping him by using that strategy. Tonight he had loaded the saucer with xenastic explosives that now were in place so that they surrounded the building. Volock went to blow the building up while all his targets slept inside. The ensuing flames would surely complete his murderous mission once and for all.

Investigator Eistia had a hard time getting any help from the Gulfang authorities after driving the thousand miles to Gulfang the day after talking with Oldo and his wife. They probably knew exactly where the hidden Ministry headquarters had been, but the Gulfang authorities were not going to tell Eistia. He did however, convince the Gulfang authorities that the secret Ministry was in grave danger, and therefore the Gulfang police had placed a permanent surveillance on the secret Ministry headquarters. For that reason Volock's nighttime saucer landing had really been no secret at all, and the Gulfang authorities were immediately notified of the landing by surveillance teams at that location.

One thing Eistia likes to do when on an assignment in a strange city with less than cooperative authorities, is tune into the local radio chatter on police frequencies. Thanks to that, Eistia had been able to notice the multiple units of Gulfang authorities that were suddenly called to the location of Volock's terrorist attack while that attack was still just beginning. Eistia even had the advantage when the police calls came on, of being the closest one to the scene.

Eistia got on the roof, and got in Volock's way as he headed back to the saucer to take off before the explosions started. "I warned you about this crime that you dare

that when you commit it I will be there."

Volock succumbed to fury. "You're just in the way of my angry fit!

You little piece of Uranian shit!"

Volock produced a long blade from his Aungtalli robe, and swung it at Eistia.

Eistia's training had been ready to get out of the way of that attack. He gracefully dodged two other wide swings. Volock swung like someone enraged trying to swat a stubborn flying pest.

It became time for Eistia to produce his Club Incapacitating Device in a perfectly justified response to a belligerent arrestee. He tried to dodge Volock's swings so he could use the Club Incapacitating Device to deliver incapacitating blows to this opponent. The blows seemed to not even be noticed by Volock on his rampage.

Volock swung wildly at Eistia as the Investigator skillfully dodged the blade attacks once again like a combination duck and Kung Fu master. One valuable attribute of the Club Incapacitating Device is its ability to parry sharp objects that are swung at the officer. Officers are trained to use the absorbent synthetic hydrocarbon polymer material of the device to catch the sharp blade as it cuts into the club. The Club Incapacitating Device also is reinforced by a hard metal core that will stop any blade from actually cutting through the Club Incapacitating Device after a sharp object chops into it. In such a situation the Club Incapacitating Device can be used to grab that blade from the opponent when thus stuck in the Club Incapacitating Device to be yanked from the opponent's hand.

That worked exactly as Eistia had been trained to do it, and he caught Volock's blade in a parry that had cut into the Club Incapacitating Device. Then Eistia pulled the blade out of Volock's hand after it got wedged into his club. There had been a split second when Eistia tried unsuccessfully to pull the blade out of the club when Volock connected a couple fist blows to Eistia's head, to cause stars to blaze before Eistia's eyes. The Aungtalli Volock had been incomprehensibly stronger than Eistia the Uranian. Those blows left no doubt in Eistia's spinning head about that.

Volock started to enjoy this, and started punching Eistia toward the edge of the roof while Eistia just dropped his Club Incapacitating Device with the sword still stuck in it. Eistia knew what Volock had been doing as each connecting fist pushed him closer to the edge, and delivered blinding pain.

Then Eistia crumpled into a roll right through Volock's legs, which tumbled him over. Eistia got up and got a kick into Volock's ribs while Volock started to get back up. The second kick had been less successful, and Volock grabbed Eistia's leg and almost tossed him over the ledge then.

Then Volock produced a pistol from his robe, and approached Eistia whose head already dangled over the building ledge. Volock pointed the gun at Eistia, and had been determined to not waste another second with this pest.

That had been the second when gunfire started going off below from police units that were called earlier to the scene, and had finally arrived. Several bullets went right through the startled Volock who then wasn't even pointing the gun at Eistia any longer. Volock looked suddenly confused as gunshots continued, and his robe started displaying growing spots of red blood that were now starting to soak it. Volock spun around while looking off in space at the nothing come to greet him. Volock's gun let off a single shot harmlessly into the night sky. He then just tipped over the ledge, and fell to a splat on the ground below. Eistia rolled on his side to look down below as Gulfang police closed in on Volock's very dead blood-soaked body.

The Ministry scientists, awakened by the gunfire, then began to trickle out of the headquarters. The explosives that surrounded the building were located and disarmed, and once again Eistia made the Uranian news as a true hero of the people. Many of the Gulfang police were actually filming the ordeal with their hand-held Ministry of Science computer networking devices, which had been recently introduced to market.

That morning Eistia completed his paperwork at the Gulfang Police Headquarters. His case of the Ministry of Science Murders had been solved, the serial killer tracked down, and justice had been served. The famous scientists of the Ministry thanked him, and before Eistia left they showed him some of the wonders of the Ministry that were at the headquarters. They gave him one of their, now industrially mass-produced and very popular, hand-held networking devices out of appreciation. Eistia had always wanted one of those contraptions ever since they recently became available on the Uranian market. He fiddled with it when he tried the phone functionality to call his partner Grega.

Grega answered. "Hello caller I know not.

Time to tell me what you got."

"Hello Grega it is I Eistia.

Just calling you before I come see ya."

Grega said, "Hey Eistia, I'm so glad that its you.

The news just announced that Volock you slew."

Eistia said, "We had a fight. My life he tried to fleece,

but he was killed by the local police.

I'm only grateful that the police tried.

He almost put a bullet in my hide."

Grega let out a laugh. "Well you're in the news again. You should know

the chief don't like it. He thinks you should go."

Eistia had not been intimidated. "That's what he says, and he puts on a show.

That's not the chief that I've since got to know."

They both laughed and talked for awhile. Then Eistia said goodbye to Grega. After that he said goodbye to his new found friends in the Gulfang Police Department. If the chief fired him he figured he could always get a job in Gulfang. As he drove off on the thousand-mile journey back to Keshdesh, he figured the chief would probably give him a raise of value instead.

About three and a half hours after sunrise on Urania the sun almost filled a third of the sky. The Sun's white dwarf light however, had been dim and you could look straight into the planet's solar source of phosphorescent light without hurting the eyes. Eistia drove across the lush Swerite farmlands beneath that mid-day light where, not many days before, there had been a great battle between the King and the Aungtalli/Swerite forces. There was now no sign that any troops had ever been there, and everything had returned to its natural state of lush farmlands growing in serene peace.

Eistia enjoyed this drive back to Keshdesh where the sky had been mostly blue with just a few patches of white cloud mixed with green vegetation. The Sun stretched its dimly lit sphere across most of the central patch of blue sky, bathing the green farmlands in a coaglium light for as far as the eye could see. The planet Neweet became visible on the horizon like a crescent moon. Sure there had been terrorism, and disorder, but still the future had never looked brighter, or more enlightened. Eistia became comforted with a warm optimism that today everything looked up for the better.

Then the giant Sun in the sky immediately shrunk down to a size even smaller than the nearby gas-giant planet Neweet, which had been near the horizon about the size of our Earth Moon in that miniature solar system. The star's light also suddenly grew intensely brighter, now bathing the green landscape in a white-hot light that caused Eistia to instinctively cover his eyes while slamming on the breaks. The intense blinding light then started the temperature to suddenly soar higher and higher and higher.

It had not been very long before this that Beataphoriah realized that the solar flare activity, caused by the previous neutrino bombs, had been chipping away at the amount of unspent fuel in the star's core. Beataphoriah redid the math with this new information and knew the core was about to collapse, and then the rebounding explosion would disintegrate the planet. The star-door would remain immune within its super strong alloyed quanta-nanocoded virtual particle controlled walls, and Beataphoriah at that moment stopped asking Uranians politely to come live in its star-door. The day the sun shrank, Beataphoriah had been busy scanning the planet for life forms, and teleporting groups of Uranians through disconnected wormholes into cities beneath the mountain where they would hopefully survive this nova event.

Very few of the Aungtalli species ever agreed to take refuge in the evil one's star-door. When the end approached they had already, the day before, ceased terrorist activities, and had retreated to the temple shelters to await the long since prophesied intervention of the gods, as if they responded to a secret call.

The coming of Aquari had never been late, but it had also seldom been early. Aquari finally got back to the planet Urania while the star collapsed, and he emerged through the walls of the star-door just as Beataphoriah had been desperately teleporting any Uranian sign of life it could find. Star-door cities and reality landscapes of folded space/time were filling up with Uranians, Aungtalli, pet smugorfs, waffs, haffaffats, trengeoffs, and herds and herds of thulumga. Some dangerous predators like foven, and big hairy gomieh were found and teleported to isolated locations. Even some flying dires and vivolen were plucked from the skies to suddenly find themselves flying through virtual skies that actually kept them at the same location in space as they flew. Beataphoriah teleported precious life when it had noticed the activation of the Chronolus wormhole program just as Aquari then entered into its presence.

"I know what we need to do with that wormhole program Beataphoriah. It is programmed to take this whole planet with this star-door to the cold desolate starless place where Chronolus exists. You will become a moon of a moon that is orbiting his Devaplanet."

Beataphoriah said, "Oh sweet destiny! Aquari you are here! How I've missed you all this time. What can I do? The program is already powering up with the energy of the collapsing star!"

Then Aquari said, "It would help to have a body to work the controls. I can add an algorithm to the wormhole coordinates in order to locate us at a better place. Is Hanson anywhere to be found?"

Beataphoriah didn't answer, but hastily reprogrammed the teleportation controls like the high-speed quanta-optic-nanocoded star-door being it was. At the time General Hanson had been back with Veldada and son in their star-door reality. Now he had been teleported into the room with Beataphoriah and Aquari.

"Why have you teleported me here?

Is this the terrible end that you fear?"

The 2-dimensional circle of light said, "Hanson it is I Aquari you know

I had brought you back from death's certain blow.

I need your body again like before

to save the whole planet with this star-door."

Hanson immediately surrendered again, this time consciously and alive, to Aquari's control as Aquari entered Hanson's body and the hair stood straight up again. There was no time to lose as Beataphoriah also surrendered control of the star-door controls to the knowledgeable fingers of Hanson/Aquari. Aquari was all Beataphoriah had faith in at that moment, and it surrendered to Aquari, and became desperate for his cosmic salvation. Without the phantom matter from the star Tze-Doldus, the star-door will be out of an energy source to feed the phantom matter singularity, which had been the essence of the 15 legendary star-door's time/space folding, matter creating functions. The star-door would be left to drift through space on a slowly diminishing array of auxiliary power sources. To Beataphoriah, even that had been better than the situation awaiting the star-door on the other side of the Chronolus programmed wormhole.

Already Aquari had been ready with the math figured out before even arriving, and he added an algorithm to the program just in time, before the Chronolus program activated an even more complicated variation of the star-door disconnected wormhole functionality that had been used before. The entire planet, along with its phantom matter orbit area became engulfed in a greenish energy that swallowed the entire planet a split second before the intense pinprick point of light, Tze-Doldus, become an explosion. Suddenly Tze-Doldus exploded to rapidly fill the whole area of space at the speed of light for several solar masses with blazing hot flaming plasma, and energy that would eventually cool into new matter for the universe while it swirls into the vivid colors of a nebula.

The light of this event would be seen throughout most of the galaxy Magphoreus. In about 89 Earth years the light of this Urania nova event will be 5 times the brightness of Earth's full Moon on our planet, and will remove the night from the Earth skies for a couple days. Because of what happened next, galactic cultures, even Devasuras, will name the resulting nebula left in the Tze-Doldus nova's wake "the Urania Nebula" after the star-door planet that miraculously survived it, and not "the Tze-Doldus Nebula" according to the usual convention of naming nebulae after the exploding star.

When the wormhole program became activated, Chronolus had been notified by a quanta-communication that the star Tze-Doldus was now at last exploding. After more than enough time had went by he became perplexed that the planet Tze-Doldus-2 had not yet appeared in the skies above his Devaworld. At first he feared that something went wrong in the calculations. He re-ran the exact same thing in a simulator, and gazed out at the skies, frustrated that even he couldn't see what happened a hundred light years away. There would be only one probability that made any sense. Aquari had done something. Chronolus looked at the glowing Devasura sky where nighttime didn't even exist thanks to phosphorescent clouds that swirled in those skies, and he wondered what Aquari had done.

Eistia witnessed the end of the world from his vehicle on the road through the Swerite plains between Keshdesh and Gulfang. When the Sun suddenly shrank he slammed on the breaks to pull over to the side of the road so he could look up, and see what happened to the Sun. It had been a shock to the eye's ability to believe what was being seen. Pulling over had been wise in the end because the intensity of the light from Tze-Doldus also suddenly increased exponentially when the Sun shrank, and Eistia had to cover his eyes from the blinding effect. Then the heat shot up lighting the vegetation-filled sky on fire. A hot wind started, which came from no normal direction, but from straight up above in the sky. Eistia only felt this with his hands over his eyes, and knew beyond all doubt that it was the end of the world.

Then the light and the heat suddenly dimmed down, and Eistia tried taking his hands off his eyes. His vision became greeted by a bright emerald green glow that had become the sky. Then the earthquakes started bouncing Eistia's car off the ground over and over, and turned the concrete-like road into rubble.

The entire inertia of the planet had been disturbed by the giant wormhole event that had been created with the sudden increase of energy from the exploding star. The Devasuras were ingenious for creating the technology for this, which had been evolved from the star-door's ability to fold time and space. All Aquari really did would be to add an algorithm of some basic 3-dimensional calculus math to the wormhole coordinates for the other side. Aquari basically shifted the other side of the wormhole 90 degrees in a different direction, but almost exactly the same distance. Unfortunately great tsunamis were unavoidable with the inertial shift, and many coastal cities and islands were destroyed. Tens of thousands of Uranians died in the fires, tsunamis, and earthquakes that occurred that day. There had also been flashfloods from 60 miles of Glacier that suddenly melted from the Great Glacial Mountain that also caused the North Sea and the Great Lake to rise over 20 feet, submerging coastal towns.

Eventually the earthquakes stopped rattling Eistia in his car, and he watched the green glowing sky with wonder. It seemed to be zooming by like the whole planet fell through a giant green tunnel. Then the green faded away and the sky became a pure blue, not quite the same blue as before. All the clouds were almost instantly evaporated off the planet by heat from the collapsed star before the green glow started. When it had all been over, Eistia looked around to find that a source of light still illuminated the sky. The Sun in the sky now appeared about the size of the planet Neweet, and Neweet no longer could be found within a 100 light years of the planet Urania. In fact, Neweet had been totally disintegrated by the Urania nova event, and no longer existed. The light from the new Sun however, now showed much brighter than the larger Tze-Doldus used to shine in the sky. Eistia couldn't safely even look at the Sun anymore. He looked at the smoke from fires that were rising off of the distant horizon from shriveled crops in the Lands of the Swerites. Eistia just sat in his vehicle for the rest of the day without driving or moving. He had been too terrified to do anything. He witnessed the end of the world, and now witnessed the end of that end. Eistia wondered why he wasn't dead, or if he was. Still no answer ever showed up to greet Eistia as he remained parked beside the earthquake shattered road between Gulfang and Keshdesh, which he couldn't drive on any longer anyway. So Eistia just sat there admiring the new day.

"What happened Aquari? Where are we now?" In the star-door there had been a vigorous earthquake, and the surge of energy had been experienced in everything from the lights to Beataphoriah's behavior, which seemed a bit hyperactive for awhile there.

Hanson/Aquari knew exactly where the planet, along with its orbit had been teleported to. "The original program had been to take you a hundred light years straight up into a freezing starless void above the Chronolus Devaplanet. I shifted the wormhole 90 degrees to orbit a tropical waterworld that I'm familiar with. It fit the wormhole coordinates perfectly. You are now technically not a planet, because Urania is now the waterworld's moon."

Beataphoriah programmed observation technology to confirm Aquari's answer. Urania's temperature was cooling down from the heat of the star collapse. Beataphoriah detected a new star in the sky, which it calculated would because of the extra distance reduce average surface temperatures a few degrees even though it had been a hotter brighter star. Beataphoriah then noticed that the new Sun currently did not power the star-door. In the wake of the Tze-Doldus nova, the star-door programs had chosen the magnetosphere of the waterworld planet they now orbited as a power source. They now orbited in the field of Phantom matter created by the waterworld's significant gravity.

Hanson/Aquari explained. "The planet below is a waterworld that is teaming with ocean life of its own. It has a powerful magnetosphere that can power this star-door, and will also contribute to the general warmth of the planet. You'll need to apply some virtual particle technologies to neutralize tectonic effects from its gravitational pull."

"I see Aquari. Thank you for saving my planet Urania. The waterworld is about as large and almost as bright at night as Tze-Doldus had been before. Urania almost doesn't have night time anymore."

Aquari said, "Some plants will thrive on that, and some may die. There will be 9 days straight of night with every 69-day year as your planet passes through the shadow of the waterworld. I know it won't be easy for you, or your Uranian and Aungtalli species, but this is your new day beyond what would have been certain freezing destruction."

So the planet Urania had been saved from the nova that should have consumed it. Beataphoriah appeared as a hologram to the King who barely survived the collapse of a side of the castle during the Keshdesh earthquake. There are never really any power-outages on a star-door planet short of powerful solar flare effects, and soon the Uranian, and Aungtalli survivors were rebuilding the planet as two species now much more mutually determined to live as equals. Beataphoriah missed its opportunity to phase out the pod-pollen tree, and the Uranians again cultivated that tree, which now became even more sacred than ever to the god of the pod-pollen tree from time immemorial, Beataphoriah. Soon the skies of Urania were again blue, white, and green with the atmospheric vegetation that rained food down on many a hungry Uranian during those difficult days of rebuilding. The female Uranian menstrual cycle started calibrating with the 9-day night after every 60 days of day with dimly lit nights. It had been the hardest of times and the best of times for the Uranians who came to gratefully understand the miracle that had happened thanks to their star-door inheritance, and a mysterious cosmic being of light called Aquari.

Beataphoriah had now a whole waterworld to explore that was inhabited with life only 800,000 (716,571) or so miles away. Aquari didn't think intelligent life existed there, but there were anomalies in the magnetosphere activity that left Beataphoriah wondering. Beataphoriah also had the last hundred Earth-years of Tze-Doldus history in the sky above for it to observe. The nova event happened just 89 light years from Earth, but on Urania it will fill the skies with light both day and night for Beataphoriah to observe in about a hundred Earth years.

The Aungtalli Bishop crawled out of the catacombs beneath the Temple of Energy, and contacted the King to say he had a message from the gods for Beataphoriah. It is amazing how catastrophes mend animosities, and bring hostile beings together. The King relayed the message to Beataphoriah through the newly re-established Ministry of Science that still had the operational teleportation platform. The Bishop had an Aungtalli quanta-communication device taken to the platform in Gulfang. Beataphoriah showed up on the platform from its star-door, knowing exactly whom this message would be from.

Chronolus appeared as the quanta-communicator hologram to address Beataphoriah in classic Nephaprican. "Well played Beataphoriah, and also no doubt Aquari as well. I seek to contact you, and recognize now, the sovereignty of your planet Urania, wherever it is. I wanted to possess the star-door mostly to stop what shall now occur. You must realize that you shall now become the hub of a new galactic culture that is dawning in this Third Age of Magphoreus. Your gravitationally challenged Uranians shall now be admitted to the pantheon of galactic beings, even still with terrestrial DNA. Your Uranians are about to become galactically wealthy just from all the valuable coaglium dirt on your lucky little planet. I want to propose a truce, and become an ally of the future that will now transpire."

Beataphoriah had been more than happy to accept the truce. It had become time for Aquari to return the Uranian body of Hanson to its own ego-phantasm who then returned that body to Veldada and his son named Aquari. Beataphoriah now finally became ready to open the star-door wormhole wall to Goag Ralus in the core of the galaxy. King Worapor, along with many observers from the Ministry of Science were there, along with Hanson, his wife with child, and a talking 2-dimensional circle of light named Aquari.

When the wormhole portal matrix opened up, the first to emerge would be a giant blue humanoid woman with a bald skull shaped in baroque patterns that formed a horn on top of her head rounded at the top into two rounded ends. She had been a little shorter than Chronolus, and the Uranians gasped in collective fear at the sight of her.

Deliadre knelt down and smiled at the Uranian crowd. "Oh they are so cute Beataphoriah. I've been a distant admirer for a long time now." She spoke in audible Eigalli.

Then a much shorter, rather well dressed Uranian emerged from the wormhole portal as the latest avatar of Goag Ralus. "Greetings Uranians who did survive.

I'm Goag Ralus. Glad you're all alive.

I look forward to hear the whole story

how the planet lives thanks to Aquari."

Goag Ralus greeted King Worapor, and truly galactic diplomacy began. The Uranians were given a place on Goag Ralus that accommodated the lesser gravity of the planet, which Uranians were accustomed to. Most planets would crush a Uranian with gravity, and they'd even have a hard time lifting their heads off the ground on Earth, which they would become pinned to. Uranians however, still lived in the perfect habitat, now as a moon orbiting a waterworld that orbited a star very much like Earth's star. They got used to barely dark nights, a warmer summer season, and even winters that started happening during the yearly 9-day night, which now forced them to harvest their gardens every year, but still the best of all possible worlds.

The waterworld that brightly filled the night sky, often with enough light to be a second sun, had been named Minerv. It was a word meaning 'the ghost of the old light' in homage to its resemblance to the former Sun Tze-Doldus. Many Uranian children now grew up with ambitions to visit the waterworld planet right next door, which had been a waterworld void of any landmasses that wielded a Uranian-crushing gravity. Children often sang, "Oh Minerv, ghost of the previous light

that died right after the planet took flight.

When I grow up and someday have the nerve

I'll build me a ship and visit Minerv.

I'll build a ship that can fly through the sea.

I'll visit the fish that also see me.

I'll visit new life forms, fly and be free.

I'll swim on Minerv, where I want to be.

When I grow up and someday have the nerve

I'll build me a ship to visit Minerv.

Oh Minerv, ghost of the previous light

that died right after the planet took flight."

* * *

Aquari, Beagud, and Deliadre.

Aquari returned to Goag Ralus through the Urania star-door wormhole with Deliadre and the new Goag Ralus avatar. Goag Ralus adjusted the gravity to a third of Earth's gravity for a large part of Occuitah, which would now always have Uranian gravity. That gave the Uranians direct access to Goag Ralus through the Dol star-door. Eigalli would also enjoy superman-like powers in those areas of Occuitah, which presented its own entertainment value to the excitement-seeking Eigalli. Now the journey between the core of Magphoreus and the Orion arm became instantaneous; faster even than Aquari.

Deliadre contacted Beagud in the Orion arm with her quanta-communication device while one day talking to Aquari. She wanted Beagud to learn the new location of Urania, which he directed his Eagolim fleet of starships in the Orion arm towards. Beagud had now been over 100 light years off target in their trajectory. The quanta-communication device had been brought into the room near the patio at Deliadre's apartment that overlooked Occuitah. She had a leafless shape-shifting plant in the room that imitated the round holographic transmission sphere at the end of the quanta-communicator. It had been an instinctive response that the shape-shifting plant used in order to blend in. It had been a leafless plant like many in Occuitah, since in the intense light everywhere in the galactic core plants don't really need leaves.

The tall light-blue hairless humanoid Eagolim form of the Beagud hologram appeared in the room. As the receiver of the quanta-communication, it had been proper etiquette for Beagud to be silent awaiting the message from Deliadre, the one contacting.

Deliadre said, "Greetings Beagud. Aquari is with me now after returning from the planet Tze-Doldus-2 through its long lost star-door. The star Tze-Doldus has exploded, and the planet Tze-Doldus-2 has been re-located to another star-system. Today the star-door planet is called Urania." Ten seconds of silence began with that finished sentence.

"That is the most amazing thing I've heard for a very long time. A whole planet re-located through a wormhole that has to have separate disconnected portal matrixes in order to move the source of the wormhole through the wormhole itself along with an entire planet. I'm overwhelmed by the physics, and the implications of all this."

Deliadre continued when Beagud stopped. "Goag Ralus was beginning to evolve the physics with the Dol star-door that He acquired, but the actual physics was worked out by the Devasuras who we now have a truce with." Deliadre let that sink in with Beagud who she knew had his own recent Devasura problems.

Beagud spoke. "Devasuras like the one I met? I had rediscovered the old planet Ti that was destroyed when this 3rd Age of Magphoreus was young. The planet still exists in a stable, but different orbit. It still has atmosphere and life. The Devasuras are up to something with that planet."

Aquari decided to take this turn to speak. "I remember the old planet Ti. It had a major Eagolim spaceport on one of its moons at the beginning of the Third Age of Magphoreus, when your nomadic fleet cultivated a galactic empire there. Your Eagolim ancestors used to hunt the large reptile life that evolved there for sport. What are the Devasuras doing with the planet Ti now?" Aquari awaited an answer from Beagud.

"Much has changed since those days Aquari. I've since found out that my father's father's father's father had re-discovered the planet Ti when he was very young. It was a terrible collision that destroyed the planet, and flung it into an orbit closer to the star. That event had caused the Eagolim Empire to leave the planet Ti, scattering to other stars, or to live in starships as my kind, the nomadic Eagolim. After the destructive collision, the oceans of tropical Ti filled the crater of the collision to cause the other side of the planet to dry into colder continents. The planet now fluctuates in a less-stable orbit causing temperature swings between freezing winters and boiling summers. My great great great grandfather discovered mammal life had now evolved to thrive on Ti. He discovered small primates with pentanthropomorphic gene switches turned on that were highly intelligent, and eager to learn language and writing. He had proceeded to build civilizations for the primates. My great great great grandfather's civilization project went on for thousands of Ti years, and many generations of the intelligent primate's that had shorter terrestrial life spans. Then one day the Devasuras appeared from nowhere to wage war on him, and they ran all the Eagolim off the planet. They have been chasing my fleet away from there ever since." Beagud decided to be silent to allow the quanta-communicator response.

Deliadre had an idea. "Tell Aquari about the last time you were near that planet when the Devasuras took over your ship's communications and ran you off."

Beagud took his queue to continue. "The Devasura in charge appeared as a hologram and scared me with threats that he would destroy my fleet. They live on a Devaplanet, which orbits the same star in a much wider orbit that dips far above the system's elliptical phantom-matter plain. They must have used that Devaplanet to destroy Ti from its original glory by ramming it long ago. I have since observed an advanced civilization that is now evolving on the planet Ti. These must be the same primates my grandfather taught. I still sneak a peak at Ti's light now and then. I recently saw a comet being absorbed by the system's main gas giant. It caused explosive plumes that shot out of the atmosphere of the system's protective gas giant. Than at the same time I noticed that the intelligent species evolving on the third planet from that star also possessed similar nuclear technology that could create similar atmospheric explosions on the planet Ti itself. That would finally destroy the poor wounded planet. Not sure why the Devasuras cultivate such a violent and hostile species." Beagud paused.

Deliadre spoke up. "This has to do with the Devasura hostility toward the expanding Golimechoid civilizations. They want to cultivate a galactic species that is aggressive enough to confront Golimechoid expansion, which they are so opposed to. They consider the Golimechoid's to be a toxic species. They think of Golimechoid as a mistake left behind by their ancestors that now must be corrected. They are cultivating on Ti something similar to the Grulmagof."

Beagud remained silent, and seemed to agree with Deliadre when he received her message. Aquari spoke up. "We now have a truce with the Devasuras. I should be able to visit the planet Ti, and even get there through the Dol star-door right here on Goag Ralus to the Devaplanet that orbits in the same system as Ti. I'll find out what the Devasuras are doing there with those primates that have some pentanthropomorphic gene switches turned on. I'll determine if they are peaceful, or another kind of planetary cancer that might devastate whole sectors of habitable space in the galaxy."

It had been agreed that the planet Ti would be Aquari's next destination. Goag Ralus contacted the Devasura in charge of the star-door wormhole portal in the Ti star system. That Devasura had been named Anlil, and he agreed to allow Aquari passage to the planet Ti. Anlil assured them that there would be nothing diabolical going on with the small humanoid species now evolving there. He explained that they were just at a precarious stage of their terrestrial evolution where a collective planetary awareness is not yet awakened.

Goag Ralus appeared at the Dol star-door wormhole wall to say goodbye to Aquari as His Uranian avatar. The Golimechoid avatar had become more toxically radioactive because of contact with actual Golimechoid women, and had been best left in the lands of Goag Ralus that were set aside for the Golimechoids from the star-door planet Poa-3. The Golimechoid avatar still tried to make a baby with Zlooptoo, but they were not successful yet.

Goag Ralus bid farewell to His oldest friend. "Goodbye once again Aquari. I remember creating the particular Fybrolus gas cloud that gave birth to the planet Ti long ago, but now all the foreseen and meticulously planned pre-programmed events in that system have been interfered with because of its unforeseen destruction by the Devaworld collision. It had been one of the first clouds of gas and debris I created to fertilize the outer arms for the Eagolim to cultivate. A visitation by Aquari can only be a good thing for the wounded planet. I believe it's the dawning of a new age in Magphoreus, and the galaxy is now much smaller thanks to you Aquari. I'm going to miss talking to you as you fly away from Me since now you can come here and go through a door. I also however, believe that My times for saying hello to you are about to become much more frequent."

"I also believe that is true. Goodbye old friend, and I will return soon with more news and discoveries."

Then it became time for the cosmic being known as Aquari to disappear through the green rectangular wormhole on the wall. Aquari was on his way to a new planet to explore for the curious Eigalli, and their famous databanks at the center of the galaxy. It would be a planet way out beyond the core of Magphoreus, in the Orion arm only about 89 light years from the previous location of Urania.

THE END of Aquari.

Glossary of Alien Words

**Aigon:** First light of the universe. The quantum fluctuation that caused what Earthlings call the Big Bang manifested the Aigon during the brief period of rapid inflation. This is a membrane of mostly hydrogen and light that pioneers the expansion and cooling of this universe. Ancient aliens ascribed intelligence to this light, which has influenced the physics of reality. The cosmic microwave background radiation is what is left of the evidence of the Aigon. These days Earth physicists perceive the effect of the Aigon as dark energy.

**Aigon-Sophin:** Second light of the universe. Much later, after the creation of the universe when galaxies were forming with the first population III stars, photonic life evolved with the destruction of those first over sized stars. Aquari is thought to be a living example of photonic life, which existed in an age before the evolution of complex molecules. This must be explained within the physics of a universe where the speed of light is much faster than in this present age. Ancient aliens discovered the Aigon as a result of documenting the existence of the Aigon-Sophin.

**Aquatic Life Forms:** The galaxy is full of all kinds of varieties of life, which this story only scratches the surface of. Most other planets in habitable zones are actually water worlds with no landmasses. Aquatic life evolves in the element of water, which amounts to a whole dimension away from the world that a terrestrial land animal lives on.

**Arachnid Life Forms:** Another successful DNA strategy of life is eight legged arachnid beings remotely related to spiders on Earth. Some forms of arachnid life forms even spin whole cities of webbing, and web technologies have evolved from intelligent life with eight appendages and web spinning abilities.

**Asura:** The extremely dense form that the Devasuras assume when they exist within the realm of dark matter. All spiral galaxies spin upon a plane of dark matter.

**Atmospheric Plant Life:** Part of a star-door's teraforming technologies, which evolve plants that grow in the atmosphere. Atmospheric plants are suspended by pods filled with something similar to helium gas. This is a method of evolving plant life while the surface of a world is still cooling or not yet ready for plant life for some other reason.

**Biological Androids:** The Devasuras have created a sexless life form from biological cultures. These are intelligent humanoid beings with a genetically engineered predisposition to serve the Devasuras, and they are cloned and disposed of as they are needed. They are basically hairless humanoids with no sex organs.

**Blue Metal:** Uranian metal created out of iron ore. This is what Uranians call iron.

**Borchtag:** Edible plant on Urania with no Earth equivalent. The plant looks a bit like a fern with small fuzzy leaves that can be crushed up to make breads.

**Cerfusius Trees:** A tropical Uranian version of an Evergreen tree with green needle-like leaves. All trees on Urania maintain their leaves all year round since there is no winter.

**Coaglium:** The Uranian word for the element gold, which the planet was covered with in the wake of the Tze nova event. Uranians use gold for its many electrical and architectural uses, but it is a very cheap commodity.

**Coltorn:** Norma galactic arm species of Silicone life adapted to extreme cold temperatures where methane is breathed like air and ammonia is the liquid water essential for their life. The Coltorn were one of the first intelligent species to discover Goag Ralus. They have since traveled to the core to see Him, and colonized a particularly cold environment on His surface.

**Communication Processor Node:** Uranian invention based on a continent wide internet that was recently created by the Ministry of Science along the Aungtalli power line network. This is the Uranian equivalent to the Earth smart-phone, which represents the technological level of the regular Uranian population.

**Deiodic Crystals:** Some solar systems, such as the uninhabitable Tephadis star system in the last post-Nephaprican dynasty, form different colored crystal asteroids. These crystals are harvested for power sources that are similar to an Earth battery, but with indefinite life. Certain colors are also used in communication and medical technologies.

**Delta Straights Golimechoid Rebellion:** Some stars happen to line up in such a way that galactic civilizations blossom along the frequently traveled space routes. the Grulmagof identify these groups of stars as 'Straights'. At the time the Golimechoid were sharing civilizations in the Delta Straights with Grulmagof amidst very hostile tensions. This eventually erupted into the Golimechoid rebellion that was swiftly put down by Grulmagof who probably started it.

**Devaplanet:** A planet made out of a star with quanta-nanocoded electronic DNA. They are similar to what made Goag Ralus although they don't appear as intelligent, and they function more like complicated machinery. Devaplanets are the size of a gas giant, but have virtual particle technologies controlling the mass and gravity on the surface where gravity is a bit stronger than on Earth. Each planet has hundreds of thousands of square miles of battering ram technology built into it like a dense continent as a weapon for defense. Devaplanets are illuminated by phosphorescent clouds and are powered by the surviving fusion cores of the stars that they are made out of.

**Devasura:** Species unnaturally evolved from the ancient aliens called Nephapricans. They artificially recreated their species as multidimensional beings who live for billions of years, and have control of their mass when they exist above the dark matter planes where most matter in the universe gathers. When Devasuras exist within the dark matter they become extremely dense and powerful beings called Asuras. The dark matter plane is why our galaxy is spiral instead of the spherical globular star clusters that orbit the Milky Way outside of this dark matter plane.

**Dires:** Uranian species of bird that exists in a constant state of migration across the planet's ocean Inunia from the Lands of the Swerites to the islands of the Archipelago Seas. Hanson had been observing adaptations of birds like these when he came up with his theory of evolution.

**Dol:** One of the 15 legendary stars of the original cluster of stars where Nephapricans evolved. Dol was the star of the planet Doldoria where the Doldorian ancestors of Nephapricans first evolved into intelligent terrestrial life forms.

**Doldorian:** One of the 3 intelligent life forms that evolved and homogenized into Nephapricans. They were the most primitive and superstitious of the original terrestrial life forms that contributed to the galactic DNA of Nephapricans. They kind of resembled 4-legged spiders that walked upright on two appendages. Their brains were part of a backbone that spread out in five directions. They were the color blue, which is probably why Nephapricans were blue.

**Ea:** One of the 15 legendary stars of the original star cluster where Nephapricans evolved. Ea is the home star of the planet Nephrica where the terrestrial Nephricans first evolved. Ea was one of the stars turned into a Devaplanet where the Devasura in this story named Innanumesh lives.

**Eagolim:** Galactic species that evolved from Nephapricans. They were the star traveling races who genetically extended their life spans with the help of traveling up to and beyond the speed of light. In this day and age they resemble hairless giant blue humanoids that live for thousands of Earth years.

**Eagolindi:** Descendents of the Eagolim who have adapted to planets in the Vesta star system not far from Earth in the area of the Pleiades. They settled there after the Eagolim were ran off the rediscovered planet Ti by Devasuras a few thousand Earth years ago. The planet Ti had been destroyed millions of Earth years before, but then after rediscovering the surviving planet, Eagolim began making it into a star port with help from intelligent terrestrial life they had discovered there. That was before Devasuras attacked to run Eagolim off the planet, which put an end to a galactic empire that never happened, and left prehistoric archaeological feats on Earth that puzzle anthropologists to this day.

**Ego Phantasm:** Probably the equivalent of a ghost, which Nephapricans called ancestors. Aquari calls them ego phantasms to point out that they are just re-awakened neural programming in the brains of intelligent beings who have died.

**Ei:** An omnipotent creator god concept introduced into Nephaprican culture by the Doldorians. It was introduced to primitive terrestrial cultures as a tool for controlling the psychological evolution of terrestrial species that become guided along a path of evolution into galactic beings.

**Eigalli:** Descendant species of the Eagolim who traveled to the galactic core and created Goag Ralus. They are hairless blue humanoids, shorter than Eagolim, with an extra telepathic brain above their craniums within a horn on top of their heads. The Eigalli are notorious for being inquisitive, and explore the cosmos from the comfort of Goag Ralus with very advanced photon reading/decoding technologies. The extra brain in the horn allows them to communicate telepathically, and they also project images with light that includes a language of lights and shapes that they are born speaking.

**Eigalli Databanks:** One of the, if not the most extensive accumulation of knowledge in the galaxy. The Eigalli inherited this massive storage of knowledge and history from the original Nephaprican Empire, and they are still adding to this famous collection of knowledge.

**Fasanct Squalli:** A surface bug on the planet Urania where most insects are upper atmosphere species living amongst the atmospheric vegetation. This bug marks its habitat, and repels intruders with a very pungent odor that extends almost a whole square ½ mile. The smell is so bad that fasanct squalli is also a derogatory way of saying someone or something stinks.

**Fedor:** One of the original stars of the 15 star cluster that became Nephapricus. Fedor was the first of these stars to go nova. The star was very likely destroyed by a gamma ray blast from Ralus Xnoga, the galaxy's super massive black hole, which was more active in the second age of Magphoreus. Soon after the Fedor nova, the star Gralga also went nova from a quanta-synchronized chain reaction. This event probably caused the Negolim to recruit Eagolim for the famous journey to the core for the sake of taming the central galactic black hole.

**Fifteen Star Empire:** The Nephaprican Empire evolved from a 15 star cluster originally orbiting in the Carina arm after the galaxy devoured another neighbor galaxy. The 15 stars remained central to the empire long after they spread apart to different parts of the galaxy because of the star-doors created in each of these 15 star systems that unified these 15 stars with wormholes. The fifteen legendary stars of the Nephapricus cluster are Tze, Tze-Doldus, Fedor, Gralga, Yat, Dol, Ea, Oa, Holdus, Po, Pea, Poa, Koa, Ko, and Paz.

**First Phase Warp:** The technologies of constant acceleration came up against physical barriers at less than half the speed of light. Eventually this was overcome by warp technologies that encompass a ship with a material developed to be able to switch its own subatomic nuon, (also called a quark,) charge for all of its atoms. This switches the matter into another universe on the outside of the material where the inside of the ship still maintains a positive charge. This shifts the spacecraft surrounded by the warp material to a place outside of this universe of relativity physics into a universe that allows for constant acceleration beyond the .69 times the speed of light acceleration barrier. The .69 times the speed of light travel was the phase I period of warp technology where warping space/time was only used to deflect space debris.

**Foven:** Uranian species of animal that is canine in nature, and looks like a scaled down wolf. They travel in packs and annoy Uranian farmers by preying on cattle for food.

**Fusion Warp Drives:** Phase II form of warp travel that employs a fusion strategy to achieve 1.02 times the speed of light after a next generation warp field is created around the space craft. As the Pripicans, Nephricans, and Doldorians began evolving into the galactic humanoid species called Nephaprican, they began traveling at faster than the speed of light with these Phase II fusion warp drives.

**Fusion Warp** **Virtual Particle Drive:** The virtual particle drive is the technology of anti-gravity, which replaced primitive nuclear fusion drives as the Nephapricans developed faster than light forms of constant acceleration. The fusion warp drives became much safer to use once virtual particle fields were used for constant acceleration, and for creating the pressures necessary to achieve fusion as opposed to cruder nuclear strategies.

**Galactic Species:** As terrestrial species achieve higher technologies and much longer life spans, they begin to evolve into galactic citizens independent of the mercy of habitable zone planets that first cradled their existence. The DNA becomes more standardized and compatible with other alien species that have also evolved into galactic beings.

**Gamma Synthesizing Plant Life:** Life created with Golimechoid electronic DNA technologies that were first developed by the Eagolim. The Golimechoid evolved plant life in their own image on the planet Poa-3 with their star-door technologies. Gamma synthesizing plant life uses something like photosynthesis as it grows under the gamma radiation of the Poa pulsar.

**Greepops:** These are purple cherry-like vegetables that are a type of Uranian plant. Greepops are not seeds, but pods, similar to the food that falls from the skies of Urania. A greepop plant grows these pods to fertilize the soil around it as food. Uranians also enjoy eating greepops raw or boiled.

**Goag Ralus:** Artificial life form created by the Eagolim with electronic DNA technology. Goag Ralus grew during His creation into a seven-spoke disk about 5 times the size of Earth's solar system. Goag Ralus is a highly intelligent being over 4 billion Earth years old. Beings have traveled to live on Goag Ralus who orbits Ralus Xnoga to control the deadly gamma ray producing poles of the galaxy's super massive black hole. Goag Ralus creates avatars in the shape of alien inhabitants in order to mingle with the life living on His surface.

**Golimechoid:** Life form artificially created with electronic DNA. The Eagolim developed this on their way to the core, and scattered Golimechoid forms of life throughout the Norma galactic arm while they figured out how to create Goag Ralus.

**Golimechoid Rebellion:** This refers to a period during the Eagolim journey to the core when Golimechoid servants of the Eagolim asserted their independence from their Eagolim masters. This was right before the Eagolim, who had settled down comfortably in the Norma arm at the time, left the Golimechoid behind and set out on the final push into the galaxy's uninhabitable core.

**Gomieh:** Large bear-like animal on Urania. The gomieh is the largest land animal on Urania.

**Gralga:** One of the 15 original star-door stars of the Nephaprican Empire. Gralga was the second nova event caused by a chain reaction from the Fedor nova. This happened 478 million Earth years into the 700 million-year history of Nephapricus.

**Great Disappearance:** After the Eagolim who created Goag Ralus returned from the galactic core they worked with the Nephapricans to turn 7 of the 15 star-door stars into Goag Ralus-like Devaplanets. Then they evolved themselves into Devasuras, and disappeared with those 7 stars from the galaxy near the end of the second galactic age. The Great Disappearance happened after the star Holdus went nova, when Nephapricus was over 586 million Earth years old.

**Great War of Light and Darkness:** Documented event from the first age of Magphoreus, which may be allegorical history to describe the physics employed by the Aigon-Sophin when they put out the Magphoreus quasar. That marked the end of the first galactic age, and the beginning of the evolution of life as we understand life.

**Grulmagof:** A particular species of life form that hasn't evolved galactic DNA yet, but still has attained the status of galactic civilization because of acquaintance to what was left of Nephapricus. They are originally from the star Grul in the Carina arm. The Grulmagof inherited the infrastructure of the Nephaprican galactic empire after the Great Disappearance.

**Gyroscopic Energy Fields:** Counter oscillating energy currents created with heavy metals like mercury along with electric currents. This is the basic method for creating fields of positrons, which amount to a controllable field of virtual particles. Virtual particles are also the cause of gravity. Artificially generated fields of these virtual particles can be used to move an object in the direction of a mass polarity point.

**Haffaffats:** Flightless bird-like animal on Urania, which might be a distant evolutionary cousin of the Uranians. Uranians enjoy eating haffaffat eggs in addition to the animal's flesh.

**Haflaxo:** One of the seven large 60+ solar mass stars that orbit the seven spoke Goag Ralus. Haflaxo orbits the area of Occuitah, which is the main city inhabited by the Eigalli.

**Hareesemjo** : Star that orbits Goag Ralus.

**Holdus:** Another of the 15 star-door stars. Holdus became inhabited initially by Nephricans and Pripicans who discovered non-intelligent life evolving on planets orbiting Holdus. Holdus was the capital of the Empire when the star Holdus exhausted its fuel and became the 3rd star-door star nova event 586 million Earth years into the Empire of Nephapricus. The Holdus nova event was immediately followed by the Great Disappearance.

**Hyderon:** One of the seven giant stars that orbit and power Goag Ralus.

**Imitated DNA Based Life:** Artificially created life like Golimechoid and Goag Ralus. This life employs digital electronic DNA, and tends to be more robust than natural DNA based life.

**Incapricans:** Galactic beings evolved as cold-blooded reptiles. There are two types of these species, the First Born who are galactic by nature living for millions of Earth years, and also the more terrestrial second born species that live much shorter life spans. First born civilizations tend to cultivate and nurture second born civilizations.

**Insect Life Forms:** Intelligent life in the galaxy is also known to take the form of insects with exoskeleton designed anatomies. They lay larva and tend to socialize into collectives where individual insects act more as parts of a unified whole. Insect life forms tend to be territorial and war-like wherever they infest the galaxy.

**Inunia:** The name for the only ocean on Urania. Inunia covers the entire South Pole to extend north as far as the equator in some places.

**Isardings:** Uranian vegetable that grows like a root, which is similar to carrots, but more a red color.

**Klegon:** Another star that orbits Goag Ralus.

**Klept:** Uranian metric of measurement that is about 9.6 inches.

**Knoxen:** Aungtalli history adapted older legends about an underground city of the gods called Knoxen. It was merged with later stories about the Aungtalli being created by the gods under the Great Glacial Mountain, which was also named Mount Aungtalli. Uranian history is riddled with stories about people finding Knoxen under the ground, or ending up there. Some traditions of the Aungtalli churches say sinners are sent to Knoxen for punishment.

**Ko:** One of the 15 star-door stars. Ko was discovered to have no habitable planets at first, but eventually had habitable worlds that were teraformed by the Nephapricans.

**Koa:** A star-door star that had a planet teeming with non-intelligent life. The Doldorians colonized Koa when they inherited the science of space travel from the more advanced Pripicans and Nephricans.

**Laffastocks:** Another Uranian plant grown and harvested by farmers much like wheat.

**Light Year:** Galactic measure of distance based on the distance that light travels at 186,000 miles per second for an entire Earth year. It turns out to be over 6 trillion miles. For the sake of simplicity, this story is told in terms of Earth light years instead of the shorter Nephaprican equivalent called an Oman based on the year on the planet Nephrica, which is 227 thirty-hour days.

**Lost Wayfarers of the Galaxy:** Refers to the Eagolim who became cut off from the empire after the stars Fedor and Gralga went nova. They are known as galactic nomads who travel from star to star, and they encourage the evolution of life, which has been seen afterwards as precious and fleeting.

**Magphoreus:** The Nephaprican name for the Milky Way galaxy. Magphoreus is understood to be 3 Ages old, and it formed early as one of the oldest galaxies in the known universe. The first age lasted till 4 billion Earth years from creation, and it preceded complex life. The second age introduced complex elements and life. The five billion Earth year long 2nd age culminated in the rise and fall of the galactic civilization called Nephapricus. We live four billion Earth years into the 3rd age of Magphoreus. This 3rd galactic age is slowly coming out of a dark post-Nephapricus period however, the 3rd age is also the age of Goag Ralus the star constructor, who has caused the galactic bar that was formed by the quasar of the first age to disperse and dim.

**Mass Polarity Point:** The virtual particle phenomenon that causes gravity in the universe is oriented with the curvature of reality around points, which are central to the overall mass that is generating the gravitational virtual particle effect. These center of gravity points are called mass polarity points. The technologies that artificially generate these virtual particle gravity effects in order to move objects orient the directions of the virtual particles to a distant artificial mass polarity point. The mass polarity point determines the direction that an object surrounded by the gravity field moves. On Earth we all tend to fall toward the mass polarity point of the planet.

Three Ages of Magphoreus

**Medaloom:** Prehistoric king on Urania from -53,240 Uranian years before the modern Aungtalli age. This period is survived by stories of evil Uranians who persecuted the Aungtalli. Then Aungtalli prayed to their gods who in turn took vengeance on the Uranian evil ones. For that reason King Medaloom was evidently evil enough to merit vengeance from the gods. More than likely the king is just associated with the upper atmosphere fires of the time that were caused by solar flares, which the gods conjured in order to sterilize Uranians so they could replace them with the new Aungtalli species. Ultimately the Uranians just refused to become extinct.

**Metamphoreus:** The Nephaprican name for the closest galaxy to Magphoreus known to Earthlings as Andromeda. This galaxy will merge with ours in a couple billion years. It is said that event will usher in the fourth age of Magphoreus.

**Methane Breathing Life Forms:** Mostly based on silicone, these forms of life can exist beyond the habitable zones of stars that silicon life finds extremely uninhabitable, and in need of methane conditioning. The evolution of silicone life became anthropomorphic from more stationary plant-like ancestors on freezing planets.

**Molecular Replication Device:** A star-door technology device capable of harnessing power from a phantom matter singularity in another universe to create almost anything out of nothing. Part of the quantum-synchronized star-doors is a phantom matter singularity in another dimension, which is also quantum synchronized with the 15 star-doors. The star-doors were themselves created out of materials refined by this singularity. (See Phantom Matter Singularity.)

**Multidimensional Aerodynamics:** The evolution of phase II fusion warp drives achieved phase III 2+ times the speed of light by employing the physics of multidimensional aerodynamics. This is the currently understood limitation of faster than light travel, which uses constant acceleration to reach unimaginable speeds.

**Nanocode:** Subatomic programming language capable of permeating all of existence. Programs use computer processing of bits made out of molecules that store data in different patterns of the quantum states of individual atoms in the quantum-bit molecule. This revolutionized everything into the golden age of Nephapricus. Artificial intelligence grew out of the unpredictable quantum effects of storing data this way.

**Nanocode Quanta-Nano:** Technologies created with nanocode are quanta-nano technologies.

**Negolim:** An old Nephaprican word for the form of their species that remained terrestrial and never evolved galactic DNA.

**Nephaprican-Nephapricus:** The giant humanoid beings that evolved galactic DNA in the second age of Magphoreus. They were robust blue beings with long hair, which stored minerals to nourish the body over time.

**Nephaprican Dynasties:** After the Great Disappearance the Nephaprican Empire infrastructure was taken over by lesser evolved alien civilizations. There were 3 post-Nephaprican Nephaprican Dynasties plus a brief period under emperor Turgis Riva before the final fall of Nephapricus. That was the last 114,000,000 Earth years of Nephapricus ruled by beings called the Fuzaads for fifty million years, followed by another species called the Molah for about forty million years. The last twenty four million years were ran by a senate of planets with many different species of aliens called the Nocreom, up until they were sacked in a coup de` tat led by the Grulmagof named Turgis Riva, the last emperor of Nephapricus.

**Nephrican:** Terrestrial ancestor of the Nephapricans from the planet Nephrica orbiting the star Ea. They were snake-like with tentacles and a single eye in the middle of their forehead. They didn't have hair, but instead grew a kind of skin fabric that was cut and decorated in different ways like clothing.

**Neweet:** The name Uranians give to the gas giant planet Tze-Doldus-1, which appears the size of Earth's moon in the Uranian sky because it's all in a miniature white dwarf star system.

**Oa:** One of the fifteen original star-door stars. Oa had a couple planets, (one a water world,) which were discovered with evolving life and ecosystems. Oa was one of the seven stars that disappeared when it was turned into a Devaplanet where the Devasura Anlil lives. This Oa star/devaplanet orbits near the planet Ti in this story.

**Oman:** Metric of galactic measurement the equivalent of how far light travels in a year on the planet Nephrica, which is roughly 227 thirty-hour days long, or about 4.6 trillion miles.

**One-Sided Wormholes:** The star-doors were connected by two-sided wormholes fixed to exact positions in different points of time/space, which were called portal matrixes. This 3rd age of Magphoreus has seen the development of wormholes with a single fixed portal matrix allowing time/space to fold to almost any location. The Dol star-door was brought to Goag Ralus through its own portal matrix, which is a feat equivalent to a zero-sided wormhole.

**Parsec:** Metric of galactic measurement approximately 3.26163626 light years in length.

**Paz:** One of the 15 star-door stars colonized by Pripicans. Paz was one of the seven lost stars, and was turned into the Devaplanet where Chronolus has been born and raised. The ancient Pripicans discovered life on one of the planets orbiting Paz.

**Pea:** One of the 15 star-door stars where no life was found before being colonized and teraformed.

**Peiomite Gas:** Post-Nephaprican Nephapricans discovered an exotic miniature gas giant planet in the Zoed star system that had an atmosphere of strange exotic gasses called Peiomite gas after a theory that it had a peio surface, which gave off this gas. Why they actually found this gas useful is now a mystery. They mined the planet for this gas, and apparently used it in many ways from medical uses to sensor technologies, and research into its various effects by interacting with energy and chemicals. Most of those Peiomite uses are lost in antiquity along with Nephapricus, and what a peio is.

**Pentanthropomorphic Gene Switches:** Series of DNA gene switches that are turned on with all humanoid life forms both mammal and reptile. These DNA switches are probably by Aigon-Sophin design to evolve terrestrial animals into galactic beings.

**Phantom Matter:** Mysterious invisible matter in the universe, equivalent to what Earth physicists currently consider dark matter. It is actually a subatomic particle that is weakly interactive with gravity because it is formed as a by-product of the virtual particle effect when a virtual particle, for whatever reason, fails to disappear after spontaneously coming into existence.

**Phantom Matter singularity:** A type of black hole created out of dark matter particles, which have been packed into a singularity effect. Unlike a black hole, a phantom matter singularity is, by its nature, weakly interactive with the force of gravity. Therefore its gravitational effect mostly sucks in other dark matter particles to cause a universal expansion instead of a gravitational contraction. This expansion transforms the dark matter into matter, and whatever matter is devoured is expanded into even more complex atomic structures. The star-doors harness this power by drawing on a phantom matter singularity that has been put into another universe with warp technologies. The indestructible star-doors were made from matter that was evolved through a phantom matter singularity, which also probably created this universe.

**Phase II Warp:** Method of using constant acceleration up to 1.02 times the speed of light by warping outside of this universe of relativity physics where nothing can exceed the speed of light.

**Phase III Warp:** Uses multidimensional aerodynamics to travel up to 2.1 times the speed of light with constant acceleration.

**Planetary Warp Teleportation Grid:** A technology on star-door planets that provided teleportation to and from anywhere on the planet where a teleportation platform was located to define the portal matrix.

**Po:** Star-door star colonized by both Nephricans and Pripicans in the early days of the 15 star cluster. Po had two dry habitable zone planets, each with their own life evolving long before intelligent Nephricans and Pripicans took them over.

**Poa:** Star-door star where Pripicans first evolved on the home world Pripica. This is where the first quanta-optic-nanocode being called Bejulitiah was created, even before the star-doors. All the other 14 quanta-optic-nanocode beings were cloned from either Bejulitiah or from another being cloned from Bejulitiah. The planet Pripica is the planet Poa-3 in this story.

**Pod Pollen Trees:** Genetically engineered plant used for teraforming a planet. It's considered a transitional species that is eventually replaced with more natural plants. They survive to this day on Urania and keep the vegetation in the atmosphere growing, which is also supposed to be made up of transitional species.

**Portal Matrix:** Used to create wormholes. The basic theory is to create two points in time/space that are mathematically defined to both exist in the exact same place. This, along with quanta-synchronization technology, causes the time/space to fold, which unites the two portal matrix points allowing for travel across impossible distances.

**Positive Nuon Charge:** Positive matter has a positive nuon charge, and anti-matter has a negative nuon charge. Nuons are the smallest form of subatomic particle, which subatomic particles are actually made out of. Nuons are also known as quarks. At the creation of the universe the anti-matter resolved itself on the other side of the quarks that make up the physical universe. This created, at the same time, an anti-matter universe on the other side of this dimension of reality, like two sides of a single coin. Nephapricans were able to create a material that could be made through quanta-nanocode technology to reverse its nuon charge, which defined it outside of this universe. This was the basis for warp technologies that led to faster than light travel.

**Pripican:** Another terrestrial ancestor of the galactic species called Nephaprican. The Pripicans were from the planet Pripica that orbited the star Poa. That planet is Poa-3 in this story where the star Poa is now just a pulsar of what's left of the star's core. The Pripicans had four legs and two arms, and their bodies were covered with fur.

**Psionic:** Another word for telepathic/telekinetic/teleprojection mental senses and abilities. Psionic abilities are exhibited as the powers of an Eigalli horn. (See Eigalli.)

**Pyramid Ships:** At the height of the Nephaprican Empire they applied their superior abilities with design and architecture to create giant virtual particle warp drive ships (Phase III) that were in the shape of pyramids like the ones in Egypt. The Orion arm Eagolim wayfarers are still led by the ancient pyramid ship called the Mynervood, which still keeps up with 3rd galactic age phase III ships.

**Quadleate Fluid:** Urania was completely teraformed from a lifeless rock by Pripican space travelers who called the planet Tze-Doldus-2. Quadleate was an example of a biological genetic engineering trick of producing valuable chemical reactions with a plant by storing one half in leaves and another half of the chemical component in the roots. Uranians discovered this genetically engineered plant on Urania, and now they farm fields of it to produce a chemical coolant for engines and air conditioners.

**Quanta-Fusion-Communicator:** Another example of star-door quantum-synchronization technology. Star-doors have produced millions of these devices in the last 4 billion years with many surviving to this day. They allow for a visual/audio hologram projection of both parties across any distance in time/space for the sake of communication. The communication is not instantaneous, but the lag in transmitting and receiving is a mere ten to twenty seconds.

**Quanta-Dimensional Warp Configuration:** The invention of quanta-nanocode allowed Nephapricans to change the nature of matter. This became the secret to faster-than-light travel by surrounding a ship with a substance that would flip its subatomic quark particle charges. That created a quanta-dimensional warp configuration around the ship, thus removing the constantly accelerating object from this universe. That allowed for acceleration beyond the limit of the speed of light. From there a lot of the limits of constant acceleration come with the need to employ an equal amount of energy to decelerate and stop the ship.

**Quanta-Optic-Nanocode:** A form of nanocode that allows for a three-dimensional projection of artificially intelligent light particles with subatomic virtual particle effects that imitate solidity. The star-doors each were programmed with a quanta-optic-nanocode being who embodied all the star-door's functions with an artificially intelligent consciousness.

**Quanta-Optic-Bit and Quanta-Optic-Bit Processing:** The evolution of nanocode to optic-nanocode required a more sophisticated molecule constructed by the quark to computerize the virtual reality solidity-imitating quanta-optic-nanocode beings. Pripicans first developed these technologies early on with artificially intelligent nanocode beings, which eventually evolved into quanta-optic-nanocode beings along with Nephapricans and the star-doors.

**Quanta-Synchronized:** Wormholes are created by quanta-synchronizing two portal matrix points so that they exist at the same point in time/space. On the subatomic level, particles can be synchronized in behavior so that wherever the two particles exist and however far apart they are, if the spin of one particle is changed then the other particle's spin will also be effected no matter where it is. The 15 star-doors were also quanta-synchronized this way.

**Quanta-Synchronized Awareness:** The principle of quanta-synchronization can conceivably be applied to awareness itself allowing for telepathic communication with another awareness anywhere in the universe.

**Quantum Bits:** The Pripicans invented quantum bits while Nephricans were concentrated on mastering space travel. Quantum bits were artificially constructed molecules that were made to store data for computer processing within the quantum states of each atom in these molecules. One advantage of this was the invention of artificial intelligence.

**Quantum Flux:** Nephapricans were galactic architects, and masters of turning dead rocks into habitable planets with atmospheres and magnetic fields. Oversized moons were employed to produce tides for the sake of its effect on molecules, which they called quantum flux. The concept of quantum flux was mathematically related to the infinite number Phi, which represents an evolutionary force in the universe that resists gravity. The gravity force happens to be mathematically related to the infinite number Pi.

**Ralus Xnoga:** The Nephapricans were well aware of the galaxy's super massive black hole, which they named Ralus Xnoga, or the Star Hole. In the 2nd Age where Nephapricus existed the nighttime was much brighter because Ralus Xnoga was more active then, and its gravitational agitation gave the galaxy a brilliant galactic bar of stars that provided extra nighttime illumination.

**Receiver Technology:** Urania is a star-door planet with a planetary electrical grid that can be easily tapped into. This has effected their understanding of the nature of electricity, and also the Aungtalli created a value racket out of electricity distribution. Clever Uranian scientists invented receiver technology to power cars, which caught on with the culture even though it probably got the inventors murdered.

**Rogald Straights War:** Recent violent space war between the Grulmagof and the Golimechoid colonies that were also taking advantage of the near distance between stars in the Rogald sector of space. The Golimechoid almost fought off the Grulmagof ships when it became apparent that the Grulmagof had a superior alien ally in the effort. The Golimechoid either fled into the void, or were eradicated entirely.

**Rompass Vapor:** Incaprican societies genetically engineered a plant called rompass when they learned about quanta-nanocode from the Nephapricans who were also spreading around psychoactive plants on different planets. Rompass makes psionic quanta-nanocoded smoke that produces animated images when exhaled, which are quanta-synchronized to the thoughts of the one exhaling. Smoking rompass includes a pleasant truth-releasing euphoria. The smoke show makes rompass a subtle form of mind reading that is valuable for interrogation because it reads the smoker's mind and animates the thoughts in the air after being exhaled.

**Rychesee:** One of the names of the seven stars that orbit Goag Ralus at the time of this story.

**Seven Stars of Goag Ralus:** Goag Ralus was created with the quanta-optic-nanocoded ability to control the gravitational effect of Its unbelievably enormous mass. Goag Ralus uses this to fix seven gigantic stars in orbit, which are 40 to 75 times the mass of Earth's star. Each star orbits one of the seven spokes of Goag Ralus and are used for cultivating ecosystems with warmth and light, as well as plenty of solar energy. The seven stars are Hyderon, Haflaxo, Klegon, Solkas, Rychesee, Tolk, and Hareesemjo.

**Shape-Shifting Plants:** Leafless plants evolving in areas of the galaxy with much more solar radiation than Earth. They shape shift to imitate images in the environment, which demonstrates in these plants the ability to see. They grow to photograph the surroundings and shape shift to imitate images 'seen' around them.

**Silicone Species:** Forms of life that are evolved in extremely cold ecosystems where methane is breathed to metabolize ammonia, which they drink. They are based on silicone, unlike the carbon-based life forms in habitable zones of stars. They evolve on planets so cold that rocks are made out of frozen water.

**Smugorfs:** Small domesticated pets on Urania that were probably evolved from the wild animal species called Foven. (See Foven.)

**Solkas:** Name of another one of the seven stars currently orbiting Goag Ralus.

**Solar Wind Ionization Planetary Power Grid:** Star-door planets fester with so much available solar energy that it is distributed across the planet's land mass for the sake of unlimited energy for everyone who can tap into the grid.

**Sree Seree:** Alien beings with superior knowledge and technologies, but no ambition to travel beyond their white dwarf star system home planet in the Carina arm of Magphoreus. They are small humanoid beings, around one foot tall.

**Tek:** Standard of galactic time that is understood as the galactic year in this 3rd Age of Magphoreus. A tek is based on the Goag Ralus year where His orbit around Ralus Xnoga takes 311 Earth years. During the 6 Goag Ralus months called Temets of the 311 Earth year Goag Ralus orbit, He passes through a circumnuclear disk of molecular gas to create a Goag Ralus winter because of solar wind interference.

**Terrestrial Species:** The first forms of life as we know it began in the 2nd Age after the Photonic Age. They exist mostly on dry habitable zone planets, and have not yet endured the DNA effects from space travel, which have been known to evolve a terrestrial species into a galactic species.

**Teraforming:** Nephapricans perfected turning lifeless worlds into habitable worlds with atmosphere and life. Genetic engineering programs were developed to transform planets in a couple thousand Earth years into habitable worlds. That was not a very long time at all to the galactic Nephapricans who lived longer life spans.

**Thulumga:** Uranian mammal herd animal similar to the deer of Earth.

**Ti:** Large planet formed in this 3rd age of Magphoreus from a nebula that was pre-programmed and sent into galactic orbit by Goag Ralus. Incapricans and Eagolim discovered Ti and built a space port on one of its planet-sized moons that had atmosphere. Eagolim used to hunt the large reptile life that used to evolve on the tropical surface of Ti.

**Timu:** (The Outer) The Aungtalli religion is based on perceiving the universe and your relationship to it in terms of two pillars, Timu (the outer) and Umu (the inner.) These are the two objective and subjective extremes of existence, between which the Aungtalli religion guides its aspirants.

**Tolk:** Another of the 7 stars orbiting Goag Ralus.

**Trengeofts:** A small brontosaurus-like reptile animal on Urania in habitats along the borders of the lifeless Southern Desert.

**Trigloyts:** Small bird-like pets on Urania from the days that Nephapricans lived and recreated there. They are currently extinct however, trigloyt fossils have been found, and are understood to be the primitive ancestors of Uranians according to the Ministry of Science, although the Aungtalli religion disagrees.

**Troopaloo:** Nephapricans developed plants very similar to cannabis sativa/indicia plants to pollinate the evolution of intelligent life from animals with pentanthropomorphic gene switches turned on. This was probably eaten by primitive Uranians. Eating troopaloo leaves over time encouraged larger cerebral cortex regions in the brain by clogging synaptic regions with cannabinoids. Now on Urania troopaloo is smoked for its euphoric effects.

**Turagalton:** Uranian root vegetable similar to the potato on Earth.

**Tze-Doldus:** White dwarf star-door star that once orbited the star Tze in the days of the original Nephapricus star cluster. No life was there originally when Pripicans traveled there with the quanta-optic-nanocode being Beataphoriah, which was cloned from Bejulitiah.

**Tze:** Red giant star over 72 solar masses in the original star-door cluster. The white dwarf system Tze-Doldus orbited Tze until 600 million Earth years into the Nephaprican Empire, during the 2nd post-Nephaprican Dynasty. Then Tze went nova, creating a small pulsar in the middle of a helix-like nebula of exploded star material. Tze-Doldus became lost after this event along with 3 of its planets. The star-door built near Tze was also lost amongst the stars after Tze exploded.

**Umu:** (The Inner) The other pillar of extremes in the Aungtalli faith. (See Timu.) The inner world is where the experiences of the outer become each individual's inner memories. The Aungtalli faith is about guiding the individual between the harsh reality of the outer and the delusions of the inner world.

**Virtual Particle Technologies:** Gravity is caused by a flow of virtual particles along the curvature of space where dark matter is created. Technologies have been developed that create artificial fields of this virtual particle flow around objects in order to move them in the direction of the flow. This anti-gravity technology revolutionized rocket technologies for attaining enough thrust to escape a planet's gravity hold. A virtual particle drive ship just falls off a planet in its own controlled virtual particle field. The power to control virtual particle fields has many applications in addition to propulsion systems. It is even used to make artificially intelligent virtual holographic beings, called quanta-optic-nanocode beings, able to imitate solidity.

**Vivolen:** Another migrating Uranian species of bird.

**Waffs:** Herd animal cultivated on Uranian farms that resemble a cross between a cow and a sheep. The fur is shaved for cloth, they are milked for the beverage, and waff meat is a favorite entrée.

**Warp Space:** The ability to send objects outside the universe was also developed into other alternative realities, both virtual and real. Nephapricans that traveled the stars became known as Eagolim who evolved galactic DNA. Nephapricans that never traveled the stars didn't evolve galactic DNA, and were called Negolim. Negolim are considered extinct in this 3rd Age of Magphoreus however, they were known to have traveled into these warp space alternative realities, and these terrestrial descendants of Nephricans, Pripicans, and Doldorians may exist within the star-doors to this day in the form of reality programs.

**Wiffsue:** Purple liquid drink on the planet Urania made from ground beans, similar to Earth coffee.

**Xenastic Explosives:** Chemical compound developed on the planet Urania, which is similar to the highly explosive chemical nitroglycerin on Earth.

**Yat:** One of the fifteen legendary star-door stars, which still exists to this day, bright orange and large, but still burning a healthy core. The star-door wormhole functions have been shut down for a billion or so Earth years, although Eagolim still live on Yat-3, and care for this star-door. Wormhole functions no longer work, and these Eagolim remain difficult to contact. The star-door quanta-optic-nanocode being named Beatariel had disappeared within this star-door's multiple realties early in the 3rd Age of Magphoreus, and has not been heard from since to this day. Yat was first discovered by Nephricans, and was said to be void of any life before its teraforming however, some references in the Eigalli Databanks refer to a silicon species of intelligent life on the planet Caleb before it was warmed up and teraformed by Nephricans for habitable zone life. Attempting to look up the actual documented history of this in the Eigalli Databanks however, appears to have references to this alleged genocide removed.

About the Author

DD White is the writer / artist who created

the free online graphic novels called Fantazine

as Davol White. You can still read Fantazine

at www.fantazine.net where DD White's inspiration

for Aquari began in issues 4, 7, and 9 as the Aquari Trilogy.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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