PLANET OF GOLD part 4

Copyright (c) 2018 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

Keeper and the

PLANET OF GOLD

Part 4

By R. Peterson

You and I have been alive since the beginning of time … and we will journey together through an infinite number of worlds … forever.

I fell asleep holding Leika’s hand, or at least the stems, rhizomes and leaves where her fingers used to be. But the profound truth that entered my subconscious was no dream … it was advanced Viridian communication. The interior levels of Gugo Ventbong’s command-ship were strangely silent. After an hour of ferocious attacks the Gorwat had succumbed to the Viridian protectors that Leika’s mother, Queen Delicia, called carriers. An enormous bee-creature made of a super strong metallic alloy had landed on the destroyer and inserted a stinger-like probe through the heavily shielded hull. Instead of an explosion, an odorless gas, that made animalia species sleep, had been injected into the ship and every crew member, including Leika and I, had been rendered unconscious.

The holograph display, that dissolved walls, floors and ceilings on the vessel, had been activated sometime while we were sleeping and I wandered through the various levels gaping in awe as we rocketed, along with an escort of Viridian ships, through the strangest and most fascinating galaxy in the universe.

Giant rhizomes with leaves as large as moons grew outward from massive planets connecting other living worlds through the unimaginable distances in between and even surrounding stars and nebulas. These plantae life forms were the most well-organized in the cosmos for capturing and utilizing the vast energy in this far corner of the universe in the most efficient and resourceful ways. They were also the most dangerous. Ventbong’s command ship vibrated with plasmatic energy of a type not utilized by any other living organism. “Any offensive action on your part will result in immediate liquidation!” The communication originated from Leika but I had no doubt that it was a warning from the Viridians. They were using the Centurion’s Organic Science Officer as an interpreter.

“I wouldn’t know where to begin … even if I wanted to commit suicide,” I complained to no one in particular. “The weapon systems on this lizard-sled are designed for scaly claws and insect-catching tongues!” I noticed an echo as I sloshed along a circular passage designed for creatures at home wading through water. I wanted the others to wake up; I wanted myself to wake up.

I felt isolated and desolate and I could somehow sense the Viridians reading my emotions. Leika finally appeared at the end of a lighted corridor. “What have you done?” she demanded. I thought she was standing just behind a plant with yellow blossoms … but she wasn’t.

            “I told you to water that Spider plant hanging in your Quarters at least once a month or it would turn on you!” I told her.

-------2-------

            Leika stared at her leafy fingers as if she hadn’t seen them before. She shrugged her shoulders and made the yellow blossom covering half of her face shake. “I’ve been told I resemble my mother … even more so now I fear.”

            “How is your mom?” I asked.

            “She is now almost totally attuned to the Viridians,” Leika said. “And she looks it.”

            “I don’t understand why we were attacked,” I said. “Ventbong told me he had permission to escort your mother to Viridio.”

            “The lizard king was just as stunned as everyone else when the Viridians suddenly became hostile,” Leika said. “I’m sure Keeper is to blame!”

            “What does Keeper have to do with all of this?”

            “The Centurion has been following us,” Leika said, “and has activated a new type of defoliant shield that prevents the Viridians from attacking it.

            “Teuth must have created a giant weed-sprayer,” I mused. “I hope he took into consideration the solar winds.”

            “This is no joking matter,” Leika said. “The Viridians now think the Gorwat bringing my mother here was just a ruse to allow an attack on their galaxy.”

            I had tried activating my remote communicator several times before but I tried it again. “Still no signal. The Viridians must have all transmission-signals blocked.”

            “My mother may be able to help,” Leika said. “Her extrasensory abilities have been magnified enormously during her transformation.”

            “I hope so,” I said, “because I have a feeling we’re going to end up as plant-food.”

-------3-------

            The Queen of Promo 4 no longer resembled a humanoid or even a member of the animalia species. She was growing out of a large crystalline container obviously filled with liquid nutrients. Beams of constantly changing blue-green light swirled around and through all parts of her foliage. “This can’t be your mother,” I gasped.

            “Oh, it’s her,” Leika said moving closer so the rhizomes extending from one half of her body entangled with those of her mother. “She’s been lamenting my presence here for hours!”

            “You mean lecturing you?”

            “No I mean lamenting,” Leika snarled. I wasn’t all that surprised to see tiny thorns emerge from several of her stems. “She thinks I’ve already brought my life to an end.”

            “Mother! First Officer Bland needs to contact the other crew members of the Centurion. Can you help us?”

We waited for what seemed like an eternity. I must admit Leika had developed an abnormal amount of patience along with her new leafy-body. She stood there calmly gazing into nothing. It was driving me crazy. Finally leaves began to vibrate on both the former Porosities and a strange greenish holographic display appeared about our heads. Teuth lay in his specially designed sleeping chamber aboard the Centurion. The land-adapted cephalopod’s eight tentacles floated in green sea-water. I had seen him in this state hundreds of times but was now amazed at the resemblance to Leika’s mother present state.

“Can I talk to him?”

“You can … but you’ll be entering his dreams,” Leika said.

“Dreams?” I was stunned. “But I’m awake. How can that be?”

“All plant life … even on your Earth, communicate with animalia on a subconscious level.” The soft voice was suddenly everywhere and I instinctively knew it came from the queen. “Humans are most susceptible to this advanced form of communication when they are asleep. Those who live in large stone and metal cities, far from abundant plant life, seldom if-ever dream. They become stagnant and self-centered, only concerned with advancing their own status and missing the abundant beauty-of-creation that surrounds them.”

I suddenly understood why half of the Centurion’s gigantic bulk, the rare species acquisition vessel that I served on, was devoted to more than nine massive biospheres each resembling a small world with oceans, forests mountains and streams.

            “Touch me,” Leika said. “If you wish to make a connection.”

I reached out suddenly unsure of myself. “Place each of your fingers gently against one of my leaves … and then relax.” Leika’s smile looked crooked because of the yellow blossom covering one half of her face. “Try to enter into a sleep-like state.”

I was absorbing something through my fingers. It sent feelings of euphoria rushing through my body. Like a sexual encounter it suddenly reached a climax and I found myself floating … not inside my own dreams but in another’s …

            Teuth moved along the ocean floor. In the distance a cluster of caves could be seen shimmering in the blue green water. He was going to investigate the beams of light sweeping the gardens of underwater flora, ignoring his mother’s warning to stay inside the shelter. The lights were familiar and when he stopped and almost turned back, I urged him on with my thoughts. It’s only a spaceship collecting rare and unusual species from across the universe. Do not be afraid!

He ventured on and I suddenly could feel his anguish and fear as he was captured by a tractor beam and pulled inside the vessel. Until this moment I hadn’t realized that the Centurion’s navigator was himself an acquired species. I felt guilt. Was I the reason he was taken from his home? Teuth was a crew member long before I left Earth. How could that be? Then I remembered Teuth explaining the secrets of the universe to me when I was first brought on-board. “Time moves forward and backward,” he explained. “The things an individual does in his or her lifetimes affects not only their future … but their past as well!”

As Teuth struggled being pulled toward the collection ship a cloud of silt muddied the ocean bottom. His dreams were shifting, this time to a very recent occurrence. When the water cleared Teuth, Keeper and others were on the bridge of the centurion. A hologram from military command on Maltese 17 was being transmitted. Admiral Yoádem Frizge appeared floating in the air above their heads.

            “Intelligence has confirmed that two of your crew members have been taken by the Gorwat to the Viridian galaxy. We found their empty shuttle-craft floating in space on a course set for Promo 4.  We have also learned that the Queen of that world is also missing!”

I could see Keeper speaking to the others. “First Officer Bland and Leika must be for some reason accompanying her mother.”

“As you know with the deteriorating situation regarding Midas 7 we can’t spare any military ships.” Admiral Frizge said. “You must pursue your abducted crew members and stop the Gorwat from reaching Diona at any cost. The Viridian’s massive governing planet occupies the central point of a million rotating stars. Half of the gargantuan sphere is covered by an impervious-to-light shield made of dark matter that moves against the world’s natural rotation to provide days and nights.”

            “If Leika is going there with her mother the queen she must be going along of her own free will,” Keeper told him. “She is not a species easily taken against her will.”

            “That may be,” the Admiral said. “But our intelligence has also discovered that unbeknown to the Gorwat Commander Gugo Ventbong, his command ship is secretly carrying an inter-dimensional particle-detonator meant to liquidate the Viridian capital planet and at least a thousand surrounding star systems.”

            “That’s insane!” Keeper said. “Why would the Gorwat do such a thing? Their own vessels would be destroyed as well!”

Admiral Frizge held out his hand and a replica of the Midas 7 appeared to be floating just above his webbed fingers. “Humanity has long known that certain precious metals can infect intelligent hominid species with a rare and incurable disease called greed,” he said. “The Gorwat don’t want just this planet of gold. They appear to believe that an entire galaxy is filled with planets of gold … and they are willing to sacrifice millions of their own people including Ventbong and his fleet to get what they want!”

I removed my fingertips from Leika’s leaves. “There’s more,” she said, but I shook my head.

            “Maybe later,” I told her. “We don’t have time.”

She shrugged. “What do we plan to do?”

            “Find that bomb,” I said.

TO BE CONTINUED …