Infinity (21 page)

   
“I know,” responded Infinity.
“That’s why I’m preparing a special present for you.”

   
“For me? What’s the
celebration for?”

   
“That will be later,”
answers Infinity. “For now, I will follow the cosmic trail of the Ikuptaxian
armada and we will overtake them. They will have one chance to surrender. I
will show them the visuals we just showed their planets. I will also show the
communication we had and they will know that we spared their race and solar
system. They will have a chance to surrender and repent. If they do not, and
continue to show hostilities, they will be wiped out of existence.”

Because of
Lebag’s inside sources and expertise in interstellar communications and
espionage, Daxu Korth knew the exact coordinates that Gynythian Zee’s armada
would emerge from. When they started leaving the warp, Daxu Korth was right
there leading the colossal and invincible Kingdom of the Twelve Galaxies
Cluster armada, as they were in formation above the level of Gynythian Zee’s
exit. They were looking down on them when they came out and unable to be seen
until it was too late. Gynythian Zee’s warships were getting slaughtered as
they dropped out of warp drive. The assault continued and it was impossible for
those coming behind to know what was happening ahead of them.

   
Finally, a radio message got
through to Gynythian. “That’s impossible. No one could have known where we
would emerge.” At once, he ordered the armada to stop their emergence and this
would put them somewhere in a different Galaxy, so they could start making
sense of it all. “I want a damage report. How many warships did we lose?”

   
“Oh great Lord,” said the
top general. “We lost almost half of our armada. One thousand have been
captured in their electromagnetic dragnets. They caught them like fish in a
pond.”

   
Gynythian was furious.
“Fifty thousand? Well, we’ll give them another ten thousand when the
Ikuptaxians arrive at out rendezvous point.

   
Infinity was trailing the
Ikuptaxians and located them. She promptly teleported to a location behind and
above them, and then cloaked. The audial visuals were sent to all of their
vessels, and the message in their language from Cruise demanding their
surrender or else be vaporized in a Super Ion Storm, which Infinity
 
had already started to whip up around
them.

   
They slowed down a bit, and Cruise
asked if they were ready to discuss terms of surrender. They answered with a
barrage of atomic torpedoes, which Infinity
 
had learned to easily evade from her last
encounter with them. Sending one last warning Cruise ordered Infinity to
increase the intensity of the storm. Their warships were now swaying and some
had crashed into other ships they were flying near or next to. Infinity increased
the intensity again. Finally, the reply came that they were ready to discuss
terms of surrender, which was unheard of in the history of their race.

   
It was agreed that Cruise and
their top warlord would meet. Hekrodian was fierce looking as he was big. He
was covered from head to toe in armor that looked similar to the ancient
Japanese warlord armor. The helmet was intricately decorated with ornate carved
animals that looked like representations of constellations. Hekrodian
reluctantly agreed to be teleported onto Infinity. Three of his top generals
accompanied him. They were very impressed at the instantaneous teleportation Infinity
 
had, and were awed by the colossal size
of the oval shaped vessel; as long as Earth’s Long Island and almost two times
wider.

Their scientists
had tried to improve their transporting technology but to no avail. They used
microbiological molecular beaming, whereas Infinity’s was at the Quantum Action
level.

   
Using the Universal
Translator, the terms of surrender Cruise and his team had previously worked
out were presented to the Ikuptaxians. Hekrodian was ready and prepared to
reject them and willing to fight to the death, believing that no leader in is
right mind would every present terms of surrender that were fair. After hearing
Cruise’s terms and seeing the translation on paper, Hekrodian was taken back.
Here he was, expecting Cruise to say he would only keep his race alive if they
served him. What Cruise was proposing was unbelievable. He wanted the
Ikuptaxians to be allies, not conquered servants. This was an entirely new
concept for Hekrodian. It took time for him to understand there were no other
strings attached or angles. He asked and asked again and again, over and over,
arguing that there was some underlying scheme to enslave them.

   
Cruise was patient with
Hekrodian, and he knew that Hekrodian was testing him; testing his patience and
negotiating ability. The meetings lasted all day for seven days. They went over
every clause, every loophole, every dot and tittle until Hekrodian, still
sceptical, accepted the terms. The hardest thing to accept was that this
surrender treaty was just for him and his armada. The treaty for the planets
had already been worked out between Cruise and Ogox.

   
According to the treaty, the
Ikuptaxians could never again be the aggressors and they had to split up the
armada equally among all five planets. They could never again attack another
civilization for any reason other than in defence of their own planets.

   
The part that Hekrodian was
the most sceptical about, and he took as much time as he needed to understand
fully, was that their whole solar system would be relocated to the galaxy of
their choice, providing it was not already occupied, or the occupants agreed to
share their galaxy with them.

   
“We were going to try to do
it with sorcery. Move a whole solar system into an entirely new constellation,
a new galaxy,” said Hekrodian, shaking his head in doubt and disbelief. “But
you say that you are able to do this with technology.”

   
“It’s pretty much that,”
replied Cruise, not willing to say that it was Infinity.

   
Gynythian Zee was at wits
end waiting for Hekrodian and his armada. He needed them more than ever now.
Daxu Korth’s forces had traced his cosmic trail and had surprised him once
again, using the same warp to follow them back to the place where Gynythian Zee
had gotten out. His armada was in disorganization and they were working on
regrouping. There was no formation, no lining up.

   
Everyone was working on
repairs and refuelling and other preparations when they came through opening
fire as they passed through and emerged from warp drive. Almost five hundred
thousand warships were there with no rhyme or reason in a rag-tag disorder.
Gynythian Zee had realized that he was no general, only a warrior. He ordered
the fleets to start fighting back, but not before ten thousand more warships
were lost.

   
And then the news came
through. A message from the newly established Quantum Action Interstellar, that
Gynythian Zee had no idea even existed. It was Hekrodian informing him that his
armada was not able to join them there.

   
Gynythian Zee felt betrayed
and felt like throwing Dvora out of the spaceship and watch her skin explode.
He brought his ship way back; he fell back to the rear while he thought. He
ordered his warships to attack and keep attacking, at least the ones that were
ready.

   
And then there was another
factor entering to the equation. R’Darik had broken through the barrier; the
warp that Gynythian Zee and his followers had come through. They landed right
in the heat of the battle and were taken by surprise.

   
Daxu Korth had the larger,
superior warships and weapons by far. His warrior vessels were picking off
Gynythian Zee’s vessels like shooting flies off a wall. R’Darik led his forces
in a circling the conglomeration of ramparts to see if he could reach a point
of vantage.

   
“Wait for my orders,” Cried
the warrior warlock. Daxu Korth’s warships were firing upon his fighters and he
had already started losing some vessels when he called upon his dark powers. He
ordered all of his ships to line up behind his and formed a net that sent forth
a force field of meteors that went crashing into many of the warrior ships on
both sides.
   

   
It was then that Gynythian
Zee also had called upon his powers of the underworlds and the deep magic of
Qephesh
F'aurralet, his ancient
mentor who would now help him from that world. Daxu Korth ordered his ships
into warp space and planned to come back in another surprise attack after
receiving a damage report of how many warriors he lost.

   
Dvora noticed he was pulling
out and alerted Gynythian Zee, but he was too deep into the trance he put
himself in to get
Qephesh
F'aurralet’s help. She took advantage of his trance
to take control of his ship. With her own powers of sorcery she repeated
incantations to invoke the Krachoos, who were genii living inside
The Shattered Mountains of Irra,
another underworld magical realm on the planet Quanik. It was an uninhabitable
giant of a planet in with an atmosphere that would crush any mortal being. The
surface had oceans of radioactive liquid hydrogen and mountains of sulfuric
oxide crystals. It was covered in green swirling clouds that were in perpetual
intense motion driven by the violent winds.

   
When the Oltre Ganth, or leader of the Krachoos appeared in a misty
apparition, part of their technology, he inquired of the task. The dark green
beings were hairless whether male of female. They were small and thin with
large round eyes that were white. They saw through tiny pinhole openings for
pupils, and survived on the many small animals that crawled through the caverns
and tunnels on their planet. Their special ability was to be able to travel by
tis mist anywhere within their galaxy when summoned by the magic of the dark
underworld.

   
“By whose authority do you call upon us?” The dreadful looking creature
said with a voice that sounded like sandpaper scratching a piece of sheet
metal. Dvora was frightened; having not known what kind of creature would
appear.

   
“I have called upon you in the name of the Great Sorceress Caratrah
Shadowfire,” she replied. The green creature stood there hovering in its green
mist looking very much like a ghoul. “We are under attack. As you can see, the
Great Warlock Warrior Gynythian Zee is in a trance right now because of the
attacks made upon us by Daxu Korth and the warlock R’Darik.

   
“You...are the wife of Daxu Korth...” the creature said. “I have seen it
in your mind.”

   
“I was his wife until he had me banished,” she replied.

   
“And now you want revenge against him, and also against R’Darik and
Gynythian Zee, correct?” The creature looked straight at her sending chills up
and down her spine.

  
 
“What is your price for
helping me?” She asks.

   
“Our price is very high, you are not willing to pay it,” answered Olthre
Ganth. “I could see it in your mind.”

   
“Why do you know this?” She asks.

   
“The price is to give all of your seven daughters to me,” he replied. “For
lengthy torture worse than any you can imagine, and then slow assimilation by
us, the youngest first, while the others watch. “Then all shall be yours.”
 
The Krachoos were notorious for granting
requests through sorcery, if the inquirer’s heart was dark enough, evil enough.
The price was usually an impossible one or extremely difficult one involving
something dear to their hearts.

   
“No...never...I could never pay that price. It is too dear. You go back
where you came from and when I am queen again I will order you and your world destroyed,”
she replied with such vehemence and intensity that she lifted her hands and
jutted them towards the creature. White electric-like energy came forth from
her fingers and hit the creature straight on enveloping him in a blue and white
energy cloud that radiated streaks of lighting. The creature screamed and
howled in agony as the energy consumed it until it disappeared.

   
“That will teach you to request such a horrible payment,” she seethed. Then
she turned to Gynythian Zee, who was just coming out of the trance.

   
“What happened here?” he asked.

   
“I was getting help from Olthre Ganth, but his price was a bit too
high,” she replied.

   
“You are an ignorant novice. They require no payment if you order them
to do what you want. But they will test you to see if you are willing to do it
before they help you.”

   
“It was horrible. He asked for my daughters...”

   
Gynythian interrupted. “And he said they would be tortured beyond your
imagination and then consumed by them...I know...I know...you see...they got
that from me. Those were my words and they only copy what they hear. They can
do no harm.”

   
“So I killed him with lightning,” she said with firm confidence.

   
Gynythian laughed. “You cannot kill them in their misty state.”

   
“But I saw it and I heard him scream. He died in agony.”

   
“Listen...they may be ugly creatures, who can only survive inside their
atrocious planet, but they are mischievous imps who know how to entertain
themselves. Right now Olthre Ganth is having a good laugh with his fellows.
They’ll never stop talking about you now for ages to come.”