It was strange, yet seemed natural.The perfect blending in his mind.Unlike the memories that bleed like light beneath a wave,fragmented and torn.Memories from before. These thoughts ran free and unhindered, released by the Translation Effect.Ordered and complete. Almost as if they had always been, yet seemingly aware that this was not always so.
The Effect of translation on certain living creatures was as random as it was bizzare.The Irony being that the creatures that had reached a level of technology equal to the task of performing a Translation rarely benefited much from the experience, while those that had yet to develop something as simple as the wheel were catapulted to various levels of genius. Yet they cannot perform translation.
The Two's fell into the later catagory, and the Three's well, they were Three's, Prone to rash decisions whatever the circumstances.
Cowboy glanced over at Dix who was busy removing a splinter from a finger with his teeth. He sighed enjoying this brief interlude where things were almost as they had been before. He rolled over exposing his hairy belly, glancing once
again at Dix. The tennis ball floated sublimly nearby.
"Don't look at me." Dix said as he nibbled his finger for more splinter. "It's not the same now that you can talk, and are smarter than me." He spat out an offending morsel and resumed his endeavor."It creeps me out."
"Please Dix, fleas, it's itchy Dix." He flashed those big brown Labrador Eyes knowing full well Dix would succumb. Blinking once then twice.
Dix grunted, and got up, walking over to where Cowboy lay sprawled across a throw rug. He knelt down and vigorously rubbed, scratched and otherwise roughed up the pooch. Producing a satisfied grunt that was as old as the friendship between man and dog. Or as they both knew now. A Two and Three.
Senator Allday and Earie crept quietly into the room not wanting to intrude on what they knew might be the last free moment both man and dog had for some time to come. Sometimes news could wait.
Dix looked up giving the men a sheepish grin."And?" He asked Giving cowboy one final scratch. He pushed him roughly from the rug making him slide a few feet on the hard wood floors.
"It's done". they said in unison. Senator Allday continued, glancing at Earnie."We are effectively in charge, And all production plans are under way." he then motioned towards Earnie.
"And We have implemented Translation stations." Earnie grinned at the rhyme. "All across the globe over 10,000 dogs have been successfully exposed to the Effect, and we are testing Translation on other animals, so far with little or no results. We are thinking about trying it on sea creatures next."
Cowboy looked up, and shook himself once briefly."Good, were ahead of schedule." He said. "Now here's what I need you to do..."
to be continued....Previous pages in Blogs....Read them.
<11
They were emphaticle, no matter where you turned there was something, something that you might not necessarily want to see, like the two Peekeneese w/ a Norwegian body guard , or the Chow in the corner with his laptop keeping an eye on his persons stock quotes for the day.
The most odd thing to the casual observer would be the use of mass transportation by the Dogs. A
person working the counter might not be sure just how to charge an Irish wolfhound. "Will that
be Visa or MasterCard Mr. Hound?" To say the least there were issues. More often than not a
solitary Dog just picked a Bus, Train, or plane and got on. No questions asked.The state of the world in just a few months had changed to unrecognizable. The worlds Police forces had been consolidated into an entity ruled by communications conglomerates. They also
had been provided slimed down versions of the same type of suit worn by Dix and Vic, if only a
more sparse version, still allowing them to get more of the job of keeping the peace for
significantly reduced manpower. Something Law Enforcement over the ages had always striven for.
The shipping companies had nearly doubled, providing the world with everything quickly.
< 12
Senator Allday had managed to pull together the planets manufacturing of the new necessary war
items by simply stopping all production of most big ticket luxury products.No more cars, planes,
stereos, and other disposible consumer goods. These areas of buyer need had plenty of leftover
items still in existence or service.
The airplane industry simply retooled for the new fighter craft capable of functioning in or out
of the atmosphere. The same went for the auto industry who pitched in any way that seemed
needed. People would just have to make do with what had been produced in the past. So far this
did not seem to be a problem.
The Floating Ball had provided complex plans to companys such as Boings , Aerobus, Mercedez, and
Chevy, amongst the many, detailing the millions of parts, and assembly procedures. not much had
changed for the growing work force of these companys. As long as they followed the plans it was easy money.
Dixon and Cowboy were inspecting one such vessle. It was, in fact the first "Spaceship" to roll
out of Boings Everett facility. They were due to produce ten more such as this as soon as the
space worthyness test was complete.
The duo had been circling the craft for five or ten minutes neither saying a word for they were
both speachless, and in awe of it's beauty, and obvious deadly splendor.
The craft had been named Killer One, and it was a very fitting moniker. She was sleek, and
streamlined with numerous sensory, and weapons protrusions. she measured over two hundred yards
in length and twenty yards in width. A minimum of one Man, and One Dog were all that was needed
to operate the craft, but her War systems could be utilized more efficiently by adding extra
crew. There were living quarters aboard that could accomodate ten crew members of various
species as well as space for fourty more people such as infantry and the like.
In Dixons opinion she resembled more a gigantic shark than any of her terrestrial cousins. A
shark that would swallow moons, and breath fire like an interstellar dragon. The Floating Ball
had assured Dix that this was currently the most deadly object that had yet to be upon the
Earth. A deadly object that could cross the solar system in less than an hour, and reach other
stars in days and weeks.
Cowboy looked up at Dix and said "lets go aboard. I want to fly Dix. This ships ours, this is my
spaceship."
"It sure is Cowboy...all yours." Dix replied.
Both man and dog felt a certain nervousness at thier first sight of the interior. They both had
been briefed on how to pilot the Killer One. Yet neither could shake the feeling that things had
went to smoothly. Murphys law after all came way before Newtons first.Dix settled himself into the normal enough seeming pilots seat, and proceeded to go through the pre-flight check list. Cowboy dropped himself into an odd looking foot high harness type contraption with four holes, one for each leg, and form fitting pads providing him with plenty of support allowing him access to an array of muzzle knobs, buttons, and the all important
interface which permitted the ships computer to take advantage of his canine intelegence, almost
tripling the processing power of the computerized systems.
The checklist took less time than expected and soon the two were far past the earth leaving it a
tiny speck in the distance. The time was growing short to the landfall so everything was being
tested. They practiced sweeping in on an object and coming to a stop as well as buzzing it and
blowing it up. They blew up nine different asteroids one comet and two things Dix wasn't sure what exactly they were. Dix decided immidiately that he prefered this, way over running around in the Death Suit. All in all it was a very good test run. Finally they headed out to the Oort cloud beyond the orbit of Pluto for the fuel scoop to be followed by the speed test.
It was during the speed test that they encountered the Ripple. A denser portion of space composed of gas that is fractionally hotter than the surrounding area. A place where atoms of
Hydrogen and Helium pull on each other, and both being pulled on by Dark Matter combined with
the great speed of the Killer One caused an unintended effect. Had either of them been more
experienced they might have noticed the readings on their displays, and avoided this high
density region of space. As it was they barely skimmed off the skin of the Ripple like a rock
skipping accros the water when thrown. Sinking the same way the rock would....only this was not
water this was space so they sank into space...into space and time...
"Missing? what do you mean missing?" Senator Allday asked of the technician in charge of the
testing procedures.
"I..I" He stammered. "I don't know. They were there and everything was fine..Then they wern't
there.We have to have more data. This is all new to us." The tech looked down at his feet on the
verge of tears.
The senator wanted to slap the wimp, slap him into next week. "I knew we should have had someone
else do that first run. You find them and you find them Now!. How soon can we have another ship
out to look you little shit?" He was definitely not in the mood for this. Not today he had
already caught Earnie using the T Effect on himself repeatedly and it had temporarily
hospitalized the idiotic man. He couldn't imagine why Dix insisted they keep him around.
"Three days at the soonest. we wern't scheduled to launch another for a week" he whispered.
"You get one out there Now!"The senator yelled punching him in the nose, and knocking him to the
floor spraying blood for yards."or I will kill you myself!"
"Yes.. Yes sir."the tech sobbed as he crawled through his own blood in fear of his life....
to be continued...previous pages in blogs...read them!
<13
"What in the world was that?" Dix asked glancing at cowboy through the red gloom of the emergency lighting. He had experienced a jolt which had thrown his head back into the cushions, and a swirl in his mid section, somewhat like the T Effect followed by a calm stillness.
"I'm not sure dix, but I don't think we're in the world anymore. Look at the display." and he gestured at the holographics with his muzzle.
Dix just opened his mouth and let the red light flood the inside. the view on the holo was like
nothing he had seen out side of an epic motion picture. They were obviously not in the Sol
system anymore for the Sun had never had a friend like the one he was seeing now. He reached
over to the vast array of buttons and knobs at his disposal and punched the ones that would
provide him with the scientific data he desired.
Cowboy, having more presence of mind, and realizing that they were at risk, instructed the
Killer One to move towards, and attach itself to, a passing chunk of rock therby decreasing
their chances of being discovered by anyone or anything. he then initiated a full systems check
to see if he could come up with an explanation for this odd set of circumstances. How. Thats
what he needed to know most, not where.
"well Dix?" Cowboy inquired. " where are we?"
Dix took a deep breath. "It's not so much where, as when." He answered still looking through the
various displays at his station. "It seems we are not only very far from Sol in distance, but in
time as well." He turned a few knobs, "shit" and fiddled with more of his touch screen. Nervous
sweat beginning to push it's way down his forehead. "In fact we are not even in our own Galaxy
anymore. This system appears to be binary. One Sol-like Sun, and a Red Dwarf companion orbiting
the whole system quite far out from everything else. Now let's see.." He punched more buttons. A
drop from his temple traveling down his chin unnoticed to land on his lap. "seven planets...two
gas giants..three barren, yet huge, rocks...one planet, the inner one, seems to be completely on
fire..and..hmm.This one." He brought up another display to show Cowboy."Apears to be Earth-
like, it's the third one out like Earth, no Moon though." A blue green planet presented itself
similar in every way visually as a stylized portrate might be. "only..." More buttons, and
knobs. "the mass is less than one third of what it should be for the gravity. And cowboy?" The
Dog looked at him inquisitively. " It's got satelites, space stations, and both large and small craft swarming all over it."
Cowboy nodded as if in approval of his friends ability to get the data they so needed at this
time.
"And so..." Dix continued. "We seem to be in...What it says here is the Cats Eye Galaxy.
Approximately 600,000 years in the past." He whistles softly. "Some test run aye Boy?" He said as he brought up a view of a most lovely Galaxy taken in the far future by NASA's hubble telescope.It showed a series of concentric rings of gas, and light with sharp rays leading out from the center of a cloudy, puffy interior in the shape of an almond.the colors were vivid reds whites and blues. Looking eerily like a cats eye, ending in the center with a brilliant, large, white dot most likely being the gravity well that the whole Galaxy revolved around. All in all it was one of the most beautiful pictures that Dix had ever seen, even though it was a picture from
another place and time.
A binging sound chimed to indicate an incoming vessle. Both Man, and Dog looked up to the
proximity screen in unison to see what it could be, cowboy glad at his foresight in clinging to
the rock.
The display showed not one but two Craft in an obvious high speed pursuit scenario. One small
shuttle type vessle being followed, and fired upon, by another much larger, and Evil looking
warlike ship. the smaller one was doing it's best to bob and weave away from the largers lazer
fire, yet was still taking numerous hits. it was clear that it would not be much longer before
it was vanquished. It was also quite clear that both craft were headed straight for the rock.
Dix was never sure what had come over him at this time, but he was out-raged at the unfairness
of the superior strength of the following craft. He knew instinctively that suprise was the best
weapon, and before Cowboy could stop him He launched a barrage of missles , and lazer fire into the path of the following craft just as its own lazers incapacitated the leading combatant. Just as the Floating Ball had said the Killer One was as deadly as she was lovely, and the warship
burst into a silent crimson smear, imploding into nothingness as if it had never existed.
Cowboy knowing that it was to late to do anything about Dix's rash decision manouvered the K1
to a route favorable for retrieving the incapacitated vessle. It would not be the last time his Human acted rashly, leaving him to pick up the pieces. He instructed the port hatch to open up, and swallowed the wounded craft with barely enough room to spare in the hold, then returning the K1 to its previous place on the rock. Deciding that this point in space was no longer safe he applyed a small amount of thrust to their rock allowing them to move from where they had been.
Dix feeling safe in his Death Suit hurried down to the hold barely pausing to instruct it to
become invisible. Upon entering the hold he rushed to the shuttle, and dove through an opening
in the side where lazer fire had compromised the hull. he didn't have to look long before he
realized there was only one occupant. "It's a girl Cowboy". A girl, bruised and bloodied, she lay tossed to the side of the cabin as a doll would be tossed by a child when done playing with it. She was moving in an attempt to reach a rack of suits simmilar to the one that Dix was wearing. Dix remembering that his was set to invisible instructed it to not be so, and knealt down beside her in an attempt to assure her that he only meant to help. Their eyes met, and she motioned to her chest with one hand saying "Teela, Teela" and holding up nine fingers, and again tapping herself on the chest one more time before passing out in her own blood.
"I think her name's Teela 9 Cowboy I'm taking her to the auto doc, she's hurt real bad."
Cowboy sat silently for a moment before replying. "Ok Dix I will get us as far from that ship you blew up as I can. I'm sure it will be missed, sombody wants her dead real bad, I don't think
they will stop now that one of their ships is missing.
"Good idea Boy. I don't know what I would do without you".
Cowboy did...Something stupid he was sure.
And as Dix placed her in the Autodoc he had the strangest feeling. She sure is pretty he thought. You know, for a space chick.
And on the far side of the Red Sun a One sent a signal burst. It would seem that todays drama
had witnesses.
previous pages in blogs .... Read them...
<14
Teela 9 awoke disoriented and confused. Although aware that she was in an Autodoc, and that it had implanted a new language proclaiming itself to be called English in her mind, she remembered nothing past frantically running from the Zero's cruizer. The only thing she could recall with any certainty was a vauge image of a man in a Death Suit, and then...Here. She just hoped beyond all hope that the artifact was not lost or destroyed. for if it was, all was certainly forsaken.
She looked over to her right and pushed the release button that all Autodocs everywhere had. After hearing the satisfying whoosh of the lids release she slowly stood up and found to her supprise her Death Suit layed out waiting for her. This was certainly unexpected, and must mean that she was not a captive. Or her captors were very foolish. She spent the time putting it on thinking.
She cursed the moment when the Ten had found this Star System. All the races of the Ten had lived together peacefully, even the Zeros, before the finding of Those-from-before. It had been common knowledge that the Zeros had been the first to stumble upon the Translation Effect. Until her people had come to explore this unique solar system. Their first clue had been the oddness of the mass descrepency of the third planet out from the primary sun. The second being the peculiarly distant orbit of It's companion star, the Red Dwarf.
The third planet soon named, humorously enough, Odd, was quickly to become the center of the Tens first conflict over beliefs. Simply because the evidence of a star traveling race from before the Zeros infuriated them. They absolutely could not accept the fact that they were not the first intellegence to break free from their world. Why this was nobody was quite sure, but it was apparently a huge loss of honor to them. Something they seemed not able to bear the truth of.
She personally could not give a rats ass who came first (she wondered what a rat was, and why you would not give away it's ass) she was just content to study the planet Odd, and all of its abandoned cities. The Zeros on the other hand were intent upon burying the find, claiming that the planet was a lost member of the Cooperative. Therefore belonging solely to them. Which was completely false as anyone with half a brain could see that this planets artifacts were not only more ancient than anything ever found, but were so far above the technology of any of the Tens as to be thousands of years in advance of anything any of the Ten had yet to develop.
So a war had broken out, And the Zeros had simply enslaved any races that did not cooperate. Which was pretty much all but the Ones, Twos, Threes, and Tens. It was a constant struggle to just stay alive as the Zeros were bombarding this system with all that they had, being focused on nothing else besides this. They had wiped out all the worlds of the Ones, Twos, and Threes forcing these races to hide in space to survive. in fact the last of the Threes were here in the Odd system, in hiding on a base that orbited the Red Dwarf. They numbered only in the thousands.
Teela 9 had been sent on a last ditch attempt to recover the Artifact. An object that was believed to hold all the knowledge of Those-that-came-before, including the knowledge of how to make or destroy whole worlds. While successful in the recovery of the Artifact. she had trouble when trying to escape with it. So now she found herself here, in an unknown place, with a new language in her head. Alive, yet with many questions to have answered.
She had just finished putting on her D Suit when Dix instructed his D Suit to become visible. She had half been expecting something like this, and so acted like she was not suprised by his sudden appearance. She stared at him for a moment before asking. "so where's my shuttle? there's something I need to get from it."
Dix pulled back the hood so she could get a better look at him. "It's trashed." He then walked over to a wall covered in shelves and cabinets filled with various medical seeming items. He opened one up. "Is this what you need to get?" He said indicating an object that to him looked like a large pencil that needed to yet be sharpened. He picked it up and offered it to her.
She reached for it greedily causing Dix to withdraw his hand back sharply as if stung.
"Thank you." She said. "This is very important to me." She was sincere in her thanks although she was not sure what, who or where when it came to this man she had the feeling that he meant well in any case.
"I could tell when I noticed that it was the only thing besides you and your Suit in the shuttle." Even had Dix wanted to he could not take his eyes from her. She was simply the most.. everything.. he had ever seen. Especially for a chick from space. the two of them just stood there, staring at each other, neither seeming willing to interupt the moment.
"Dix" Leave it to Cowboy to break the spell. "We have company. More of the Warcraft. We need to go...soon. How is our guest?"
"She seems fine." He answered.
"The Zeros.." Teela 9 was still looking at him. "Tell him to get us out to the Red Dwarf, my people are waiting for me there."
"I heard her." Cowboy said. "Will do, and Dix?"
"yeah Boy." He said still looking at her.
A moment passed and cowboy returned. "There's two hundred of them this time. Just thought you would want to know."
"Well gee thanks." he said sarcastically. The two of them still unwilling to remove each others eyes from the others. Tella 9 shuddered.
to be continued....previous pages in blogs..read them.
<15
Morl'ty was incenced over the vanishing of the war cruiser in what should have been a textbook case of might makes right. He had not the faintest idea of what could have went wrong that cursed female Three should have not stood a chance. The shuttle she had stolen was out-classed on every level above and below the board.
A Four slithered up to him and presented itself in the customary position, indicating that it had information to impart. He motioned for it to do as it needed by reaching out an appendage, and allowing the disgusting creature to leave a small amount of slime on his person. He received the data with an amount of confusion giving the Four a solid kick to let it know it had been dismissed.
So, he thought, there was another player in this little drama that surrounded the mystery of Those-that-came-before. Just as well.He had been getting a little bored with the utter supremacy of his war machine.
Just then Durl't His second in command entered the room. Morl'ty motioned for him to make himself comfortable, and pushed over a slice of an Eight that had burned itself out earlier that morning. Durl't greedily slurped up the morsel, and in an unrushed manor asked. "So is there any news of the missing Three, and the Artifact?"
"In fact there is..." He answered slowly reveling in the fact that Durl't would be just as happy for some action after so long without. "It would seem that our errant Three had a little help eluding, and destroying our war cruizer, help from an unknown type of craft. One quite capeable of blowing a solitary cruizer out of space." He sat back a moment to let that sink in. "So as far as I can see there are only two possibilities for this..." Again he stopped to see if Durl't would pick up his train of thought where he had left off, a little game the two of them liked to play from time to time.
"yes.. I see." His second in command continued for him. "Either the Three's have a new-until-now-unseen craft available to them or...there is another element at work here. Or..forbidden thought ...both." He grimmaced at Morl'ty in what passed for a smile on a Zero.
"Precicely." Punctuated the Commander. "As I see it once we have the artifact there will no longer be a nessesity for any more of this rediculous war..." He paused.
"And this might be our last chance to have a little fun?" The other finished for him.
"Pre-cicely!" He grimmaced once again. "So my plan is to throw everything we have left at them, and completely wipe out those horrid Threes once and for all. Once we are rid of them, and their useless rebeling we can go on to bigger and better things." He finished with a flourish of all three hands making circular motions.
"Oh I like it.. I like it a lot. I will see to readying the fleet at once." And with that he left the room to prepare upwards of two hundred war ships for a hunt the likes of which had never been seen...Walking away munching on a piece of Eight.
***********************************************************************************************
Morl'ty's Command Craft was huge by any standards, and Durl't's Craft was not much smaller. The two of them by far dwarfed any and all ships on either side of the conflict. Ton for ton they together out-massed the ragged group of Three's that were visible on their hollo screens. What worried Morl'ty was the warship that was not visible. Although if he had been asked he never would have admited to worrie of any sort.
"In range in fifty cycles." Murmered one of his battle techs.
Besides his two command craft he led a flotilla of fifty dreadnoughts, one hundred destroyers, and another fifty or so odd frigates. Quite a fearsome fleet all in all. From what he could see of the Threes forces they had less than ten dreadnoughts, the largest and most heavily armed craft of modern space warfare, no more than twenty destroyers, and only five of which looked capable of landing on the surface of a planet, and another twentyfive frigates, quicker and more heavily armored than their brothers and sisters. The Not-yet-seen-craft had yet to make an appearence, although he and Durl't were both confident that it would show up whenever the Three's were ready to spring their ambush for that certainly was what they had in mind.
"In range in fourty cycles."
He had barely formulated these thoughts when immages of his fleet began to poof into nothingness. Because that was the best way to describe what he was seeing. His large and mighty fleet was basically just vanishing one and two at a time from the hollo image. Confused communications were being relayed back and forth from one ship to the next. Soon he had only 175 craft. Then 150...Then 100. It was all happening so fast he barely had time to shift from one image to the next before two more dissapeared, and then two more again. Then to his great disbelief Durlt'y's Flag Ship also went poof.
The last thing the great War Leader Morl'ty had for a thought was... how can they do that when we haven't even come close enough to their fleet for the fight to begin? then there were no ships left but those belonging to the Threes. Had an outside observer witnessed this "battle" it would have seemed as if not a single shot had been fired as the two fleets had never came within range of each other.
you know the drill.. read them!
