Chapter 5

Consequences

I was nervously talking to Annie, while moving towards the Hangar.

“Grandpa often quoted the great military genius and strategist Carl Von Clausewitz. He told us ‘It is better to move forward with courage rather than sit and dither.’ Or some such. He also said: ‘Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity’.

“I never forgot that. I tried my best and I was audacious. I will take responsibility for my actions. If needed I will fall upon my sword or we will fight the enemies in space, under the sea and in food shops. We will never be overcome. Even if I only have one shoe I will hop on the other foot. If my right arm is cut off I will fight with my left. If both legs are cut off and my last arm I will crawl and bite them. If they use a dentist to take out my teeth I will butt them. Only then will I resort to antimatter again. My powers can threaten this galaxy and even this universe. I will only use them in defense of those we love, excluding my brother.” I said.

Annie continued to giggle. We both walked out into the hangar.

“Greetings and salutations young Chloe. I will create a green light for you to follow that will take you to the study of your grandfather. Your mother is waiting there with him as is Queen Elizaveta. They expect you to make your way there without any ‘dithering’. They all wish to discuss the phenomena they have seen. You are to sit and wait outside the door until you are called in. They are interviewing your brother as we speak. You need to take Annie with you.” Berit said using one of the other AIs speaking in her voice.

She sounded grave and I had a feeling my dire predictions were to be fulfilled.

I now understood what a feeling of doom felt like. Why should poor Annie have to face the music?

“Annie I fear the worst is going to happen and they want you along as well to observe my downfall and as a warning to you. I hope they won‘t punish you for collusion. I am going to face my grandfather, Queen Elizaveta as well as my mother. I can’t imagine anything worse. My suspicion is that I will be arrested and go to the lowest dungeon immediately. That is the dungeon where you are knee-deep in water and have to learn to sleep in the freezing water lying on your back trying to keep your nose out of the water using an old straw. They float your half-filled bowl to you when they feed you once a week. I can feel hot Dragon breath from here – we need to start walking and following a green light.

“There is some hope however, it is a green light. If it was a red light I would be sure that I would be expected to fall upon my sword. Let us proceed onwards and upwards into the rarefied atmosphere of the upper echelons of this fine establishment. Soon I am to face the depths of incarceration. At least it is not as bad as a Siberian prison, I hope. My fingers already feel wrinkled from the water.” I said.

I felt a bit better after saying my piece. We followed the green light which turned yellow as we got near the study and then turned red. “Just kidding,” said Berit and then turned the light green. The light then winked out.

“Did you notice as we were walking along all of the AIs were grinning at us and seemed very cheerful?” Annie asked.

“We have an old saying, ‘Eat, drink and be merry – for tomorrow you die’. I noticed a few smiles, I expect I will have one last good meal and one last request and then I will be arrested by the dungeon master.” I replied. “The AIs are trying to keep my spirits up and they enjoyed a good show.

“Newsflash ... Young Gromelix arrested for colluding with despicable girl who endangered the entire planet. Gromelikine is now unstable in its orbit as the loss of a mountain caused by antimatter and the thrust of a vocano tipped the planet into an eccentric orbit. The planet will crash into the sun on Thursday. The young Gromelix from a formerly respectable family has been taken to the seventeenth basement dungeon and will be held there in chains until our beloved planet is no more.

“You will hear a ping in two minutes from your slate make your way to the evacuation point that will be displayed and make sure you remember your number.”

I wasn’t sure if I was feeling better or not. The suspense was killing me.

“You will do very well in my drama class. That was a first-class comedy act!” Annie said and laughed loudly.

The door remained ominously closed for what seemed like a very long time. The door opened, Chuck left the room and quickly walked out. I could make out nothing from the expression on his face. He didn’t look at us.

I could see Grandpa wearing his stern face in the study and my mother and the Gromelix Queen next to him. Grandpa came to the door. He frowned, then beckoned both of us inside. There were no chairs for us. That was a bad sign.

“Chloe what did you think of your performance in the first round?”

Now what was that. Yes, I recall that. It seemed like years ago.

“I found the sniper functions as good as they told us they would be when we were learning on the range. I believe I hit all the targets with each shot I fired and I am reasonably sure I had a credible performance. As we got closer, I was impressed with the speed of my assault rifle and the accuracy of my fire. The weapon performed to specifications. The armor helped me stabilize the weapon within expected parameters. The heads up display works well.” I said.

“Annie, how did you go with your heavy weapons?” He asked.

“Emperor, I was delighted with the accuracy of my weapons and the firepower I had at my disposal. The missiles and the weight of the cannon were not a burden. I hit my targets and the firepower at my disposal allowed me to achieve my objectives.” Annie replied.

“Annie, how did you feel about your use of your powers in the third and fourth rounds?” asked Grandpa.

“Emperor, I was delighted to find my powers were dramatically increased and improved. I had much more power at my disposal than when I was on my own and I achieved everything and more that I set out to do. The results were bigger and better.” She said.

“Chloe, can you answer the same question please?” He asked me.

“My fireballs were much more powerful than I expected, and I suspect they were augmented by Annie’s power. I wanted to try creating my fireballs at a distance as I had never heard that done. I could not see any reason why that could not be done. I then allowed them to drop on the mountain like a series of cluster bombs. I did the same with a sheet of fire but did not create a fuel air bomb. The results were as expected. I then attempted a cone of power sent as a wave.

“Porquenta sent us the simulation, Grandpa when you used it in the battleship on the Ordreg fleet. It took forever to get to the enemy. I tried starting it at the mountain and then let it penetrate. It took some time to have its effect. It saves a lot of time starting it closer to the target.

“I then created a hole deep in the mountain with a containment field around it and then built some antimatter. I made the antimatter the size of a pea. I calculated the effect I would produce last night and then asked Berit to check my calculations. That was the size that I thought would do the job without collateral damage. Clearly, I was wrong, but I did not intend making a volcano. I suspect two factors played a role. The first was my power wave which I suspect loosened the entire core of the mountain and may well have traveled to the mantle and then the secondary effect of the antimatter explosion cleared the way for a volcano to form.

“Queen Elizaveta, my sincere and abject apologies for causing so much trouble and destruction. I will except any punishment you believe is appropriate!” I said as contritely as I possibly could. I used version 3, the most advanced variant, of my woebegone look. I applied groveling level 10 and contrition level 10. I had no expectations it would work. My mother could see through me like a MRI. I didn’t even look at her out of the side of my eye.

“Elizaveta, what do you think?” Grandpa asked her.

I looked up at her. She was incredibly tall and very heavily built even in her small size. My friend Annie looked tiny next to her. She looked like a Gromelix wrestler, no, more like a Gromelix bodybuilder on steroids. Her arms were bulging with muscles and her thigh muscles had muscles on the muscles. Her teeth looked as sharp as needles and even in her small form were three inches long.

There was a pause as she put her head on her side. That pause felt like I was waiting for a sentence for ten years or it could have even been eleven.

I looked at Grandpa and I saw him grinning. As soon as he saw me looking at him his face froze like stone. Gotcha! I am not in such deep trouble, he was maybe even a bit impressed. He is just making me suffer.

“Child, you have done an unprecedented act. You have demonstrated the use of powers beyond those seen by me in my experience of many years. The level of your powers and the concepts you used are unequalled. I wondered how you caused the mountain to shudder. That explosion was in my considered view one of the best I have ever seen. You and your brother are a fine pair. A black hole and then antimatter. I am pleased you planned your explosion and used an able consultant.

“Fortunately for you this area is desolate. That is why we permitted it to become a firing range. We dragons love fire, lightning and adore explosions. We can paddle in lava. Lava makes our ground fertile and volcanoes bring useful metals to the surface. What you should learn is your powers are potentially very dangerous and you can cause disaster if misused or if used in the wrong circumstances. We thoroughly enjoyed the display today. I appreciate the effort you made to ensure you were not going to cause a disaster.

“I have insisted your grandfather take us to the asteroid belt where you can show us what you can do. Berit says as long as Chuck does not go bigger than a ping pong ball size it will be fine. We asked him how big that was, and he put his arms out wide. I was horrified. Your mother told me he was only joking and she showed me the size of such a ball and the game that is played with it.

“Berit says for you the size of my fist would be good to try if you can. We will need to be a long way away. Maybe a small one in space and then a bigger one in an almost planet sized asteroid we are intending to mine. It is bigger than many moons,” said Queen Elizaveta.

“Chloe, I was thunderstruck. That was an astounding display. You did well in the marksmanship, performing to good sniper levels and your powers blew me away. Chloe no one has ever heard of antimatter creation using powers. No one has heard of the creation of fireballs or a power wave at a distance. I want to try the same tomorrow and I have a few ideas I also want to try. Berit will open some other power channels for me. I will never be depleted as I was again!” Grandpa said, then told Elizaveta about the dream I’d had.

She nodded her head gravely. “Child did you see any runes in the dream?” She asked.

I thought back and pictured the inside of the temple. “Yes, they were everywhere, on the walls, the floor and ceiling. The priestess had them all over her clothes.” I replied.

“Child do you recall the color of her robes?” She asked.

That was easy. I could remember that easily. “They were a creamy white color and the runes glowed sometimes on her clothes. When she told me, she had given me powers, all her runes glowed red, no it was more like they were lighted by red from behind and there were fires that caused the red.” I replied.

“Emperor, the clothing and the temple are much like our legends of the teachers who taught us magic and the meaning of the runes.

“Child can you tell me how you use your powers?”

“All of us children have always seen these threads or trunks of power in different colors. Chuck and I practice bringing them into us. We feel good when we do. We also make patterns and mixtures with them. After the priestess granted us powers we know how to mix the powers to bring them into us to send them out in forms to make fireballs, antimatter, ice or whatever.”

The queen looked at me real closely as I spoke.

“Child tell me what powers you see in this room.”

“There is a thin one near grandpa. It is sort of blue. Annie is it blue or green?”

“I would say teal.”

“There is a brown fat wavy one in the middle of the table and I am pulling in a tree trunk one that is greeny brown from the waiting room outside.”

“I suspect important events are to happen and someone has a vested interest in the outcome. Those ancient Uzliumbax appeared after we were created, and they stayed with us and taught us for centuries. They were not of the creator group,” said Queen Elizaveta.

“They taught us to use sounds derived from the runes and some practitioners such as myself can see power and use it to cast. It is more powerful than our dimensional powers. Emperor these children do indeed see and use these powers. That explains the power of the casting, but we never learned anything like what they can do.

“Some of us can use these powers to lift objects much heavier than by our dimensional telekinesis. These are extraordinary events.”

Mum smiled and gave me a hug then she left.

Grandpa gave Annie a hug and told her he wanted to speak to me on my own. Annie looked happy as she walked out.

“I want you to join me tomorrow, We have a delegation of Uzliumbax AIs who wish to speak to us. They will be here tonight and they will join us on the ship to watch the display tomorrow morning. You need to understand the work we have to do in the family as soon as you can. What do you say?” He asked me.

“Grandpa I am so happy we are not in trouble with Queen Elizaveta. I was scared I would land up in her level XV dungeon, the one with water dripping from the ceiling and always damp. I expected I was going to be there for at least four hundred years. This is a great relief.” I said.

Queen Elizaveta laughed uproariously. I could feel the vibrations in the floor even with her in her small size.

“Child you have provided me with more entertainment today than I can recall for a long time. I will dine out on these stories.” She said.

“Grandpa do I have enough time to talk to Berit before dinner?” I asked.

He looked at his watch. “You have about half an hour if you go quickly. You need to have a good wash in the refresher, you have ash all over your face.” He replied.

“Berit I am worried. We are here, and those mongrels are planning trouble on Earth. I have a very bad premonition. I know you are planning to pick up all those other bad guys, but I have a feeling and I may well be wrong that it will be worthwhile waiting to find out what they are planning in Mandurah. I honestly don’t know what the best thing is to do. I talked to Harry, Chuck and Anita while we were walking and we feel we are not doing our job.

“We need to be here and then I definitely want to help Ooryphyon. It is going to be weeks before we get home. Can you at least start surveillance on the bad guys and if you feel trouble is imminent pick them up. If not, we would like to hear what they find and be part of the decisions. We all think if in doubt please pick them up.” I told Berit.

“Chloe that is a very wise approach. You have not wasted time and you have done the necessary. I will make sure they are under surveillance and we learn what they are intending to do.” Berit said.

“Berit, how are the other operations going?” I asked.

“Our people are beginning to get the feel of the planet and how to go about things. They have briefed the police and are preparing to put surveillance in place in each case prior to apprehending the enemy. We want to find out who are their contacts and find the best time to pick them up. We will not watch them for more than a few days before we arrest them as we can extract most of what we need from their brains directly. We expect that many of them will put up a fight and will be killed.

“We expect all of them to have weapons, to be alert and suspicious and have counter surveillance in place. They were all well prepared to enter the human population. They undoubtedly have plans for what they are intending to do. Both the Grork and the people of Dhoom are very long-term planners and undoubtedly were well prepared. They are likely to have multiple contingency plans as well.

“The operation in Mandurah has a very high priority and we will ensure that there are enough resources to do the job properly, so don’t worry. We will take no chances. Ouma Chatzke is very concerned and insisted we do not expose you to risk. She has sent thousands of her people. She says now the war is over her people want to do as much as they can to help Earth with its problems and move it forward quickly.

“I heard she sent a thousand Ocean Cleaners to pick up the ocean plastics and other pollutants. She also has space cleaners to remove the space junk. She said they were not being used so she send them to Earth. She is a very good woman.” Berit explained.

I walked back to my room and went into the refresher. I saw on the holo-reflector my face was white and I had ash in my hair. I look good as a zombie I decided.

We would all be much happier knowing things were moving ahead. We had thought of taking the train to Mandurah and cycling to the church before we left, but we did not want to fall into their hands. The church was miles out of town and was far from other houses.

I desperately wanted to be in the thick of things and see what was going on. I kept saying to myself it is too dangerous, don’t be foolish.

It took ages for the refresher to finish with my hair there was so much muck in it. There was a lot of ash in my nose. I cleaned my mouth and teeth, dressed and went down to dinner. I told Chuck, Anita and Harry about the discussion with Berit. They were happy things were moving along. They also desperately wanted to be back home catching the evil ones.

“Let’s imagine we are intelligence controllers. We have sent our agents to do a job. They will report to us,” I suggested.

“I heard you had to see the Emperor,” said Anita wide eyed. “Are you in trouble Chloe?”

I stepped back for dramatic effect and used my gloomiest voice.

“I was called into his study and will accept the consequences of my actions; I am in deep trouble. The planet is ripping apart because of me. It is slow, but the process is inexorable. The planet is doomed. There is a search on for a planet glue which has been a rumor in a nearby galaxy. Queen Elizaveta is going to send me to her dungeons. Tonight is my last meal as a free woman!” I said.

Anita looked at me wide eyes.

“You are fuller of it than a sewerage pipe for a big city,” said Harry grinning.

“I also had to see my Grandpa and he punished me. We all have to go into space tomorrow where we will be put through the airlock,” said Chuck gloomily.

“Yeah, my first punishment in space is I have to destroy a big asteroid, then back to the dungeon.” I continued.

“The two of you are definitely related,” said Anita. “You both would compete for sewage producer of the year.”

“Where are Bird and Hazel?” I asked.

“They had to go back home. Bird’s Grandma died. His Grandpa can’t look after himself,” said Chuck, “What a waste, I really liked her and if she had used a pod earlier she would be fine. Mum arranged for the Grandpa to have pod treatment, but he doesn’t want to. He says he wants to die.”

“Shoot,” said Harry, “what a bummer!”

“Did you hear everyone here was found on the old holo-movies? We are going to see more movies after dinner,” said Anita.

“Yeah, I heard Berit was matching them to who they were,” I added.

“That descent stuff is pretty freaky,” said Harry. “We get transported back across universes and galaxies, we are brought up in different families and then we get turned into Uzliumbax and all of a sudden we find who we were. Now we even have powers and a built in AI. I do like the idea and at least the days don’t drag. I like the school. You go to sleep and wake up feeling great and you can do a boat load of more stuff. I love the fighting we are learning and the different people we are meeting.”

I forgot to tell everyone about the interesting stuff the queen had told me and then I found I couldn’t remember what she said for some reason. I couldn’t be bothered to try and remember what she said. That was quite unlike me. It also wasn’t stored on my crystal. That was odd.

Dinner was great fun. The AIs came along with a big box. It was a ball game in the air where each of you had a creature on a flying surfboard thing and it hit the ball with a stick. The ball floated and then slowly began to fall downwards. We each had a holo-controller. The goal was a tiny circle floating in the air, one on each side and it moved all over the place on its own side. It was hell-hard to dribble and keep the ball on a stick. There was no off side. We ate real fast and I got a bit of a gut cramp. The food was great. Grandpa showed all the adults what happened today.

“Harry how did you guys go with powers today?” Chuck asked.

“I got a tiny fusion bomb started but couldn’t contain it long enough for a good explosion to get going. It’s a slippery process like the game we just played. Your Grandpa wants me to try again in space.” Harry said.

“What about you Anita?” Chuck asked.

“I made a quadronic implosive device in the mountain. A piece of rock the size of a car shot out of the mountain towards us. We got out of the way just in time. It was awesome. I am going to do a big one in an asteroid. It was a blast ... and I will make a bigger blast.” She replied.

I got cross eyed when she explained how she did it. Chuck just sat with his mouth open. Her mountain collapsed, and she and her Gromelix were thrown high into the air by the explosion. They went so high Anita had trouble breathing.

“Who are we all if we have powers beyond those of the people we were? Who was that woman who gave us the powers and when do we lose them?” She asked.

“Yeah, good questions,” Harry replied.

“I reckon we learned it all before we descended and we got it back for a bit,” said Anita.

Chuck looked at her like she had horns and barked.

Jones stood at the front of the room.

“We will split the group into two and send you to different rooms to look at the holovids. If we don’t do that we wont be able to finish the holovids without another needing another session.” He said.

He split us up and our group went to another room. I had learned all I wanted. It was a bit boring. Harry was bored too.

I tuned out and talked to Chuck through our hands.

Then we saw mum and dad visit the palace. They were some kind of King and Queen. That was as much as we could stand, it was more of the same. We were tired and left before the end. Most of the others left before us.

At breakfast Grandpa asked us to walk with him to the small conference room when we finished eating to meet the AIs before we took the shuttle. He wanted us to talk to them a bit on the ship.

When we met them it all seemed a bit awkward. They sure recognized us. They seemed nervous, worse than I was when I was waiting outside Grandpa’s study. I never expected AIs to be nervous. I saw them look at Grandpa real close. There were six of them.

“Do you recognize me Emperor,” one of them asked Grandpa.

Grandpa looked at him and smiled – “Let me use the designation I remember somehow.”

It was a long string of numbers and letters and strange sounds. It was weird.

Anyhow they were impressed. Grandpa did the same with each of them. Thank heaven for crystals. I walked behind Grandpa with one of them as we went to the hanger. It was less bother than using a portal for a short distance.

“Sheesh, you guys have weird names or labels. Can I call you something less of a mouthful? I would go cross eyed saying all that unless you use chemical communication?” I said.

Bless chemical conversation. I love it. It is so fast and economical. I started off in Schlogg, but the AI moved to another. So, did I.

“How did you learn Schlogg?”

“Gen Fessel taught me. What are we speaking now?”

“Grongdingulax. How did you learn it?” She asked me.

“I never learned it I just speak it,” I told her.

She just looked at me.

“I have great powers and can do amazing things I learned what I know in another universe,” I told her in a spooky tone.”

Now she really looked at me funny.

“Just watch today and you will see amazing powers and great acts,” I said dramatically, “and be afraid at the wrath of the judgement to come.”

Now she really looked at me sideways. She looked like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“We are young, but we know more than many realize. Those who have reasons for guilt should know it shines like a beacon through the galaxies. The time of judgement is nigh,” I said in my best voice like an oracle. I wasn’t sure of where half of this stuff was coming from but I was into it big time and she looked sucked in so I was keen to continue along the same path. Grandpa wanted our input, I was going to give it to him my way.

“My Grandpa has always quoted from one of the great sages: ‘She who admits to half the crime shall be judged for twice the crime. She who confesses all may even be forgiven if the transgression has some virtue’ It was from Confusionix a great Judge from my planet.”

She looked like she was thinking deeply.

“Chloe we are getting close. Are you ready?” Grandpa said.

“Yes Grandpa.” I replied.

He called all the others. I could see the AIs were communicating. They looked freaked out. I never realized AIs could be anything other than calm. I thought a short few pages of Confusionix quotes could be fun to create. It would be a good game. Maybe I shouldn’t have played the fool. I felt a bit guilty.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, honored AI guests. Today the young ones are testing their powers in a safer environment than yesterday.

“First Chuck will create a small black hole. I am told a small hole is not theoretically possible or viable, but he has done it twice. Chuck pick an asteroid at some distance away. Try a big asteroid and a small black hole” – Grandpa indicated an inch and a half ... Chuck looked out of the holo-view that looked just like a window.

He pointed at a big one some way away.

Grandpa nodded.

Chuck concentrated ... Then peered out.

I noticed lots of small asteroids started accelerating towards the one Chuck chose and then some big ones started heading for the asteroid. It crumbled inwards slowly then there was a sudden big flash.

“Well done Chuck. I think the movement of the asteroids proved what that was.

“Chloe please produce a tennis ball of antimatter in that very large asteroid.” Grandpa then said.

It was huge. It dwarfed all the others.

I made a hole inside the asteroid the size of a basketball then a containment sphere then built up the antimatter. It was a bit bigger than a tennis ball. More like a baseball. I let go of the containment sphere.

“It is done!” I said and bowed at the group. I turned back to look. Nothing yet. I watched closely. Still nothing. Then the asteroid turned color and cracked all over, venting gas and the cracks turned red. The asteroid burst like a pumpkin I once saw shot with a high velocity bullet on the Internet. It was magnificent even if I say so myself. The inside was all molten. Some rocks hit our shield. I bowed extravagantly.

“Well done Chloe!” Grandpa exclaimed, then said.

“Anita mastered the mathematics and physics for the Grork Quadronic Bomb. She will create one between two large asteroids using her powers to show how it could destroy ships” – he held his fingers open to a hand’s-width, four inches or so. She nodded, concentrated briefly then bowed at the audience.

There was a spectacular flash and the asteroids broke into bits. The ship rocked briefly.

“Now for the finale, Harry will try and create a hydrogen based fusion bomb in the asteroid belt.

We saw a bright flare in a semi-transparent sphere. It shuddered then stabilized. The flare remained the same for five seconds – “Just practicing containment – I have to get it right” – then there was a blinding flash shut off by the AI controlling the holodisplay. The display turned back on five seconds later. We looked out as the flash was fading and saw several shattered asteroids.

Lots of rocks hit the shields and the ship rocked.

“How big was it?” I asked.

“Hell, I don’t know,” he said. “I loved feeding more hydrogen in and keeping it in.”

Harry grinned like a maniac.

“Ship tells me it was big enough to destroy a planet. You created it a hundred miles away. She says she has never seen a containment that big remain patent.” Grandpa said. “Harry try a much smaller one please.”

He did and did it inside an asteroid. The asteroid split into four large chunks. One headed our way. Grandpa asked me to destroy it which I did with a power wave. I pulverized it.