Flidoring The Early Wars (8 page)

Back inside the Volkran, Bellmus was just sitting down to the morning meal with Timsssack, Slabriel, and Huglam when he asked, “How would you feel if I was to invite Antamus to go with us to Platon?”

“I wasss thinking the sssame thing,” replied Timsssack.

“Absolutely!” echoed Slabriel.

“It would only be right, if you ask me,” said Huglam. “After all, you did invite me along.”

“Very well then, that settles it, I will speak with him this morning,” Bellmus said enthusiastically. “I think this trip is working out better than anyone could have hoped for. Each culture is unique and has plenty to offer the others. As my world shares Warp technology and our knowledge of space travel with your worlds, we can all travel back and forth exchanging goods and ideas with each other,” pausing to take a bite of his cooling breakfast. “It is truly a great time to be alive!”

Slabriel, grabbing a cup of Tasley Tea and holding it up high into the air said, “To new friends, may our journeys be forever linked together.”

As they all toasted in agreement, suddenly Lyemad sprang into the room, his face bluer then normal from his hearts beating so fast and strong. His adrenalin was rushing through him like a mighty river, washing him with hot waves of obsessive fury. With a trembling in his voice, he blurted out, “Sir, I need to talk with you, in private.”

“Son, we were just toasting our friendship. I am going to ask Antamus to join us on our trip to Platon,” Bellmus boasted. “You look like you have been out jogging this morning. It is good to see you keeping your strength up,” he continued after taking another sip of tea. “I must depart now for the city before the Wicterian guide leaves. We will talk as soon as I return.”

With a couple of farewells and a useless protest from Lyemad, Bellmus was off with the Wicterian, his shadowy figure fading into the darkness of the wooded paths. Lyemad stood frozen in place as he pondered whether he should follow his father to watch his back, or to stay on the Volkran and monitor the actions of Tessslan. Finally, just before he could no longer see his father’s dim shape, he tried to sprint down the path after him. The strong gravity of the planet made him feel like he had lead weights tied to his feet. Just as he caught up to them, he got a strong sinking feeling in his gut while thinking,
“what am I going to do against creatures of such great strength if anything bad happens?”

“Lyemad! What are you doing?” asked a startled Bellmus, as Lyemad tripped on a tree root in the dimly lit path and practically knocked him down.

“Sorry,” replied Lyemad, embarrassed as he wiped the dirt off himself, “I wanted to see the marvelous Mudeline one more time before we left the planet.” He knew that it was a poor excuse but it was the best spontaneous reply he could come up with at the time.

“I am proud to see you getting so involved with the people and their cultures. You will make a great ruler for our people someday,” Bellmus touted.

Lyemad knew he could not say anything about what Tessslan had said to Antamus because the Wicterian guide leading them was Zelmut. He could only watch the Wicterian’s body language—at least what little he had learned of it from the previous night’s dinner—to see if he could ascertain if there was any animosity towards them. He still had strong feelings of distrust for the Wicterians, even though he knew there was no outward reason for it. Nothing in Zelmut’s body language gave Lyemad reason to worry, but Lyemad was not going to leave anything to chance. He was just going to keep a close eye on all the Wicterians until they could leave the planet.

At the main entrance to Mudeline, Antamus along with several other officials were already standing waiting for Bellmus to arrive. With only a slight hand gesture he sent the guide away saying, “Welcome Sir Bellmus and Sir Lyemad, are you all prepared to leave for Platon?”

“Yes,” Bellmus responded, “however, as with Sir Huglam, I would like to extend an invitation for you to join us on the trip. Of course, you can bring along a couple of advisers and attendants. After all, this is your star system. If anyone is entitled to make first contact with the Platonians, it
would be you and Sir Huglam.”

“That is very kind of you to offer,” replied Antamus. “I had hoped that you would ask. I am packed and have my personal assistant and two advisers ready to go also—if you could give me a few minutes to say some goodbyes.”

“Excellent! Take whatever time you need, we will wait for you. I wanted to browse through some of your street venders displays. This will give me the perfect opportunity,” Bellmus said with a slight gleam in his eye. He anticipated finding a couple of mementos for his wife and parents.

***

Tessslan stood quietly, by one of the Volkran landing pads, peering up at the stars, pondering his role in this great adventure to strange alien worlds. His mind fixed intently on the Flidoring that he had encountered as a boy: “The way of peaccce isss futile when thossse who are in charge do not underssstand or follow it?” he thought to himself. “I have sssacrificcced my wishesss and desssirersss for yearsss now, while Lyemad hasss pursssued hisss, and it makesss me feel sssick to sssee him get all the recognition for being ssso insssightful, witty, and sssensssitive. I wish that I wasss back on Grazzznosss where I reccceived ressspect for the manner in which I follow the ‘Way of Peaccce’. Sssome day Lyemad will sssee everything collapssse around him, and then he will be sssorry that he criticccizzzed my devotion to the Flidoring.”

Just then, a meteorite shot through the atmosphere burning a deep red color, until it fizzled out just before reaching the horizon. Tessslan felt that the Creator was affirming his thoughts and wanted to give him a sign of approval. He knew that the fiery streaks were an everyday event in this crowded section of the galaxy, but still he could not ignore the timing and it gave him a feeling of validation.

Within moments of Tessslan seeing the meteorite, Bellmus, Lyemad, Antamus, and a host of other Wicterians all arrived at the landing site. After some short farewells and no outward display of emotions, they loaded into the Volkran. Tessslan and Lyemad just glared at each other inside the ship as Bellmus shut the hatch. Just about the entire crew was relieved to be leaving the crushing gravity of Wicterus. The ship’s infirmary had experienced an almost steady flow of ailments ranging from sore feet and legs, to breathing difficulties and panic attacks. Bellmus was even entertaining the idea of turning off the artificial gravity for a while once the ship was back in orbit.

Bellmus watched out the window as the daytime sky turned to the darkness of space and the eerie colors of the Nebula, and ordered, “Lay in a course for Platon and engage.”

Platon, the closest planet to Tamsek, has a scorched surface. Temperatures range from sub-zero, on the dark side of the planet, to over 200-degrees in the sun. A thin atmosphere prevents the even distribution of heat and forces the Platonians and all other life forms, to live inside underground caves. Small openings in the roofs of the caves allow enough of the Tamsek light in to grow lovely green gardens on the shores of small fresh water lakes.

Huglam had already made arrival arrangements with the Platonians before leaving Furzon. The plan was that Tessslan would fly the Volkran down into a large cave through an opening just large enough to accommodate the bulky ship, with only six feet clearance on either side. Once safely on the ground the Ambassadors would rush into an adjacent cave via a maze of tunnels, to escape the extreme Tamsek heat. The large hole that would permit them to land would also allow the cave’s floor temperature to be dangerously high. They would have to make a near mid-day landing in order for Tessslan to see the cave walls well enough to squeeze the Volkran into it. Tessslan used the bridge monitors linked to exterior cameras that used normal daylight to guide the ship. A shadowy cave would not have been an ideal situation for that monumental feat.

Tessslan was extremely nervous as he maneuvered the Volkran down through the opening. Lyemad felt a small bead of sweat running down the back of his neck as he watched the front window pass just inches from the cave wall. Tessslan had practiced tight maneuvers many times in the simulator, but this was his first real test of his piloting abilities. At one very critical point as the ship was reaching the tightest part of the opening, Tessslan let out a loud, “oopsss.” In unison everyone on the bridge gasped until he let out a little chuckle and said, “I am just joking with you.”

Lyemad was perhaps more shocked at the display of humor than he was at the thought of running into the cave wall. The rest of the bridge crew gave out sighs of relief and nervous laughs. The newest member of the crew, Antamus, stood frozen with fear throughout the entire trip. Tessslan’s joke was more than he could handle and without any warning, he started scurrying around the bridge making small ticking sounds. It took both Bellmus and Tessslan quite some time to convince him that everything was all right.

The floor of the cave was covered with small stones and a layer of dust that the Volkran’s engines kicked up—making the visibility drop to where Tessslan had to use only instruments to make the landing. When the dust finally settled down, Lyemad called out, “There! Over there! I see one of the Platonians in that tunnel on the left.”

The Platonians stand about seven feet tall, are thin, and have pale green skin with half-inch round red bumps all over their bodies. They have a flat head that is wider on the sides and slopes down in the front to a yellow pointed beak. The beak is hard enough to chip away the stone on the cave walls to get the green slugs that hide in the crevasses. Other items in their diet include the vegetables and fruits that they grow around the small lakes.

Bellmus was the first one to feel the stifling heat as the hatch started to open. He was barely able to take a breath as he said, “Hurry into the tunnel and do not stop for anything. I will follow last to make sure the Volkran is sealed up.”

Inside the tunnel, Huglam greeted the Platonian with, “I am sir Huglam of Furzon,” and then pointing to each one in turn, he continued, “This is sir Antamus of Wicterus, Sir Timsssack of Graznos, Sir Slabriel of Angelus, and here comes Sir Bellmus of Electerus. We come to your planet in peace,” taking a line that he heard Bellmus use before.

“I am Peckenson, leader of the Platonians, welcome to our world. Please follow me to conditions that are more hospitable,” he said as he turned and pointed to show the way. “A few minutes in this heat will dehydrate you sooner than you might think,” he yelled out, as they hurried down the long, stone tunnel.

Many tunnels of various sizes branched off from the larger one that they were in as they made their way deeper into the network. At the end of some of the offshoots were large, brightly-lit caverns, where the Tamsek light was shining through small holes in the ceilings. Soft, indirect lighting hidden in channels cut out of the rock at the top of the tunnel walls gave the passages a yellow and reddish glow, as it reflected off the large amounts of sulfur and iron embedded in the rocks. Oxygen from the plants growing in the caves oxidized the iron ore to a rusty red color, while the heat in the outer part of the tunnel caused the sulfur to give off a smell that reminded Lyemad of a rotten Peldo egg—a large predator bird on Electerus that would often abandon its nest in pursuit of fresh prey. When Lyemad was a boy, he had stumbled across such a nest where the eggs had rotted. The stench was so great that he had never forgotten the smell.

Lyemad had made his way to the front of the group and was talking with Peckenson about the other minerals he had noticed in the cave walls, when they turned
a corner and the tunnel opened into a gigantic cave that extended a hundred feet above them and a couple hundred feet below them. Beams of light streamed down like beacons from high in the ceiling—lighting up the many colors of the rock walls, along with the lakes and gardens scattered on the floor below. Large outcrops of rock at the end of tunnels—just like the one they were in—dotted the cave walls. Steep pathways cut into the rock led down from the outcrops to the plush green floor that stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Lyemad’s hearts skipped their beats as he gazed breathless and speechless at the almost mystical marvel. There were thousands of diverse-shaped rock formations lining the floor, walls, and ceiling. The Platonians had hand carved them to depict famous leaders from their past, mythological figures, animals, birds, and stellar objects. The workmanship was breath-taking—rivaling that of the Furzonians. The Platonians did not carve out any buildings because they lived in white tents made from the silk of the Lake Spider—a spider four feet in diameter that makes large webs in the rock walls around the lakes. They feed on the many insects that breed in the water and although they are intimidating to look at, they are quite harmless and make good pets.

Finally able to breathe again, Lyemad whispered, “Someone pinch me, I must be dead. This is the most beautiful place in the galaxy.”

“Thank you,” replied Peckenson, “for generations my people have lived in this cavern and hundreds similar to it. We take great pride in our history and culture. We like a simple way of living, which we try to immortalize in our surroundings,” speaking with an obvious swelling of emotion. “Come; follow me down to meet the council of elders.”

The path leading down to the cavern floor had thousands of hand-carved steps in the rock. It was very narrow but relatively safe, because the Platonians recessed the entire path about three feet into the rock, forming a thin wall about waist high between the steps and the shear drop to the cavern floor. While everyone else was in awe at the magnificent sight, Huglam became increasingly agitated, because he had to jump up to see over the wall.