Chapter 59: Brave New Worlds

JB POV:

We were just a few days away from our destination. Our trip has been very ... enlightening, not to mention interesting.

I suppose I should elaborate about some of our experiences...

With our original departure date from ‘The Penance Planet’ having been significantly delayed due to helping our ‘old’ Family, we did have some nice surprises.

Braitak and Juules ‘volunteered’ to accompany us!

Monte had ‘visited’ us by joining with me and expressed an urgent need for at least one of our Gromorik friends to help him. At first Tumrik jumped at the chance to go, knowing Ibera would send him back via a wormhole. But, when Monte said the reason was more about needing to get ‘intel’ of some kind from the Russian’s secret Gromorik compound, it was decided Braitak might be better suited. When Monte discovered that Braitak was fully versed in all Gromorik security procedures, he was the obvious choice. And Juules wasn’t exactly a slouch when it came to Gromorik technology and was eager to join him.

Monte was ecstatic to have them both.

And ... just as we were making last minute preparations to leave, Linda shows up, wanting to know if she could ‘tag along’ with us for the trip!

I thought Max was going to vapor-lock he was so excited. I was afraid their kiss alone might delay us another day or so! That, and the fact that many of the members of our Island Family thought the world of ‘Max’s Angel’ and, desperately requested having a special ‘Family Fun Night’ in her honor. Even Blaine engaged her in a very long and loving kiss and I think she even ‘joined’ with him for a bit.

Anyway, that made our total crew for the trip: me, Max, Annie, Wanda, Tiny, Lucy, Lonnie, Braitak, Juules and now, Linda.

Shortly after liftoff, which Tiny handled magnificently, we maneuvered to our first of four ‘hyper- warp’ legs of our journey. We broke the trip into four legs due to the relatively large number of solar systems between Perdition Island and Earth. There were a few known ‘inhabited planets’ that we wanted to check out, just because we could. We estimated the trip would take us approximately 45 Earth days. Our longest single leg would be our final one, that would drop us off just short of the planet Mars if all went well.

We’re planning to hold our speed at hyper-warp factor 8.0 for the first three legs then bump it up to 8.5 for the final one. Tumrik and Braitak had assured us we had more than enough fuel and provisions to easily cover our entire trip. This first leg was the shortest and lasted for seven days. During that time, it seemed that Linda never had a minute’s peace. Everyone was peppering her with questions mostly about the family, but Braitak, Juules and Wanda were more interested in what life on Earth was like.

The first two days, however, she and Max spent alone, really getting to know each other. Hard to say who finally wore whom out. Let’s just say, both of them were glowing each time they came out to eat with everyone. And, judging by the questions Max asked while everyone else was there, they didn’t do much talking!

Annie asked, just as we were nearing our first turn, where everyone was going to live.

Linda explained, “Right now, we’re all living in three large travel trailers that are parked on the site where we’re building our hacienda. We’ll probably have to buy at least one more to have room for all of you.”

Then Max said, “Well, if we’re still planning on parking this thing on your property, we could probably just teleport back and forth to the ship and stay here? From what Monte told us, it didn’t sound like we’re ever going to just turn our ship over to anyone.”

Linda nodded, “That could work. As long as your ship has air-conditioning?” She giggled, “Because, it’s going to be pretty damn hot during the day!”

“Braitak chuckled, “That won’t be a problem, since the ship’s life-support system will maintain whatever temperature we have it set at. We’ll install a fresh crystal right after we land that will easily last nearly 2 of your years if all we’re doing is maintaining the life-support system and the cloaking device.”

Wanda had a strange look on her face when she asked, “Just how much hotter is it going to be than the island we just left?”

Linda giggled, “During the day, it can get up over 30 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the island we left. This time of year, the highs regularly get as high as 117 degrees, although the average is only 106. On your island, I don’t think the temperature ever exceeded about 86 degrees, am I right?”

I put my arm around Wanda, “Don’t worry sweetheart, it’s only that hot during the day, and only for about four months out of the year. And the good news is, our months only have 30 days as opposed to the 50 where you came from. It also gets down in the mid-80s at night, so it’s really not so bad.”

Lonnie chuckled, “I’ve lived in Arizona for most of my life, down around Tucson, which is like 100 some odd miles south of where we’re going to be. JB’s right, it’s really not that bad and trust me, it’s a whole lot better than living up north where it seems like half the year it’s colder than a witches titty!”

That’s when Tiny announced, “Prepare to exit hyper-warp.”

Max and Annie were watching the monitors as they guided Tiny to the first planet we wanted to observe. Max advised us that the planet appeared to be about three quarters the size of Earth but with a very sparse population.

As we observed more closely, most of the more densely populated areas were all around the different coasts. Having picked up no radio or other transmissions of any kind we descended into the atmosphere to get a closer, visual look.

Juules, using a slightly different type of sensor added, “This planet appears to be way behind Plebe, or as you guys put it, the Penance Planet, as far as technology. The atmosphere shows no types of industrial pollution of any kind.”

About that time Braitak alerted us, “I just picked up a signal that there’s another spacecraft in our area.” Then he chuckled, “I don’t believe it! It’s a Trilok vessel. I wonder if our old friend Captain Pootami is observing this planet?”

Figuring we could take a chance, while maintaining our cloaking device, I sent out a message, “Trilok vessel, Trilok vessel, this is the Starship Redemption, captained by JB Hornsby and co-captained by Maxwell Lester. Is that you, Captain Pootami?”

We heard a high-pitched chuckle, “Why, yes, it is? May I ask what you are doing here and why do you not appear on our sensors?”

We decided to uncloak, then I added, “We are taking our new toy out for a bit of a joy ride. We noticed that this planet was inhabited and decided to check it out. I take it, this is one of your planets?”

“Yes, it is. I’m afraid there’s not much to see yet. We only finished populating this planet some 200 of its years ago.”

“Max said, “Then, thank you for saving us some time. There is another planet we plan on visiting approximately 15,000 light years from here. According to our Gromorik friends, it is nearly at the same level of technology that Earth is. We’re thinking about checking that out, also.”

We gave him the astrological coordinates of our next checkpoint and he confirmed that it was also one of his observed planets.

After chuckling again, he asked, “Very good. Perhaps, since you’re going that way, you might check out a few things for me? I am planning on stopping there again in about 40 more star days. However, I am concerned that planet is at a very delicate time in its evolution.

“Not long ago they began experimenting with nuclear physics and have managed to figure out what you earthlings call atomic weapons. As you will discover, that planet has four nearly equally sized continents and all of them have been at war with each other for decades. I would be curious to learn of your impressions of what is going on there, if you care to take the time to check it out for me?”

We briefly discussed whether or not it was something we wanted to do, and decided to go ahead and help out our buddy.

I told him, “My crew and I have discussed it and we would be glad to do that for you. Will we be able to reach you on this same channel, at that distance?”

“Thank you. And no, you should use sub-space frequency 069. I will have my people monitor that channel, anticipating your call. One word of warning, I fear that like Earth, they may have been visited by the Greyzarians. You need to be aware that could also mean some of them may still be there, so you should remain cloaked at all times so you’re not discovered. Since it appears that your ship’s cloaking device is far more advanced than ours, I’m sure the Greyzarians will not be able to detect your presence. I would also appreciate it if you scanned and reported back whether or not any of their ships are either on the planet or in the area.”

Braitak chuckled, “We’ll definitely do that for you, Captain Pootami. As you know, my people and I are not exactly fans of the Greyzarians. Anything I can do to help be a thorn in their sides will be my pleasure.”

We could hear the Captain chuckling, gaily, “Thank you for that, Mister Braitak. I had a feeling my Earth friends may have one or more of you aboard. So, happy hunting and I’ll be looking forward to hearing back from you, Pootami out.”

We quickly plotted our course for our second leg, engaged the hyper-warp engines, and headed for our next planet. Thanks to Captain Pootami’s warning, we had our cloaking device engaged prior to exiting hyper-warp.

And it paid off in spades.

Sure as shit, there was indeed a Greyzarian spaceship orbiting this planet. Thanks to our knowing the language, we were able to listen in on all of their ship to ground transmissions. We found it interesting that they were probably even more concerned about a possible nuclear war between the continents than Captain Pootami was.

From what we could tell, they had befriended two of the four major nations on this planet. We learned that one of the things they were attempting to help this planet’s inhabitants with, was their extreme dependence on fossil fuels. Fuels that were becoming more and more scarce and were the subject of the majority of the different nations animosity toward each other. The more we listened in, the more we learned that they blamed themselves for the precarious predicament the planet was now in.

Originally, they helped two of the nations ‘discover’ nuclear energy, in the hopes to lessen their dependence on fossil fuels. What they underestimated, however, was that their leaders soon discovered the untold devastation using a nuclear-based weapon could do to their enemies.

The parallels between here and what was currently going down on Earth was startling. Leave it to the fucking warmongers to subvert something that could go a long way to benefit the entire planet into something that could very well destroy it. Or at the very least, leave it totally uninhabitable.

We discussed many options on how we could use not only our starship, but our unique abilities to try and rectify the situation. We knew that this would be a perfect opportunity for us to try it on a random planet before we attempted to try something similar on our own planet.

The biggest drawback was the fact that it might take us several weeks if not months to pull it off.

This also wasn’t something we could just go in and start doing willy-nilly.

While simply targeting and destroying all the nuclear reactors would be easy enough, it wouldn’t mitigate the fact they would still have the technology. Granted, we could set them back a decade or two but that would not solve the underlying problems.

We also recognized the fact that none of us knew jack shit about politics in general or on this planet in particular. Or, really about how to correctly affect such a change. We were tempted to try and join with Monte to see if he could advise us, but just knew he would freak out at the idea of us being delayed that much longer.

So, instead, we decided to place a ‘call’ to Captain Pootami. After all, even if we did implement some of our crazy ideas, it would no doubt have a profound effect on this planet’s evolution.

Our favorite Trilok was both pleased although highly displeased with the news we gave him. When we told him what we were thinking about trying to do, he came up with a much better idea.

“Thank you for informing me and giving me all this information. First off, since the damned Greyzarians have already thoroughly compromised this planet’s evolution, I would not have a problem with what you suggest needs to happen. However, understanding your need for expediency, I may have a better idea for you to consider. Why not use your superior psychic abilities and simply, forcibly ‘request’ the Greyzarians to fix their own mistakes?”

I replied, “I like the way you think, Captain Pootami. I also want to let you know that we considered doing this in order to see if something similar may be done on Earth. Will this subspace frequency transmit all the way to Earth?”

He chuckled, “Yes it will. And if you will do this favor for me, I will gladly keep you informed as to how it all ends up working out. I knew from the day we met, that you and your friends were all good people. Good luck with your plans, and I hope you don’t end up displeasing the Greyzarians too much?”

Braitak added, laughing himself, “and what fun would that be?”

Braitak, Lonnie and Juules immediately began scanning for any and all nuclear signatures. We were relieved to discover two of the continents weren’t showing any nuclear capabilities or weapons of any kind. The other two continents, however had 16 locations split nearly evenly between them. We discovered that the type of reactors they were using were, what on earth is known as breeder reactors. That means, the spent material was what was being used to create their nuclear weapons. Because of that, we initially planned on taking them out, also.

We had an intense debate as to whether or not we should inform the Greyzarians about what we intended on doing. In the end, between Braitak’s desire to piss them off to the max, and Max’s saying, “I believe a little ‘shock and awe’ could well go a long way to getting everyone’s attention.” We decided to target everything except for the reactors, first.

Wanting to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, we decided against using the Gauss cannon. So, using our particle beams we systematically, surgically destroyed every nuclear weapon storage facility on the planet without setting any of them off.

We knew that, even cloaked, this was going to draw the Greyzarian’s irate attention immediately.

And we were right on.

Just as they began frantically broadcasting for whoever it was to show themselves, I replied, “Unknown Greyzarian warship. This is the Starship Redemption. We are close friends with the Chaemarian people and have been sent here to avert a planet wide disaster. As you’ve no doubt figured out by now our ship is nearly invincible. We have no intention to harm you, however, we must inform you we have our Gauss Cannon aimed right at you and will not hesitate to use it if we determine you are attempting to activate your weapons.”

The ship’s captain replied, nervously, “We have heard of the Chaemarian race, and do not wish to anger them. We were under the impression that the Chaemarians were pacifists and that their ships were typically unarmed. Is that not true?”

I chuckled, “That is true indeed. However, I did not say that we were Chaemarians. Unlike our pacifist friends, we will not hesitate to use violence if it should become necessary. So, what will it be? The easy way ... or the hard way?”

In a much angrier tone of voice he replied, “Just what is it you want us to do?”

I replied calmly, “It’s simple really. Because of your interference with this planet’s natural evolution a dire situation has arisen, that we know you’re aware of. Therefore, we are ordering you to completely fix the problem. All we have done so far is rid this planet of all nuclear weapons. We understand why you have attempted to help this planet with nuclear energy. The problem is, you should have given them the technology for nuclear fusion as opposed to nuclear fission, especially using breeder reactors. You had to know, unless you are the most ignorant of all Greyzarians, that the byproducts of those reactors could easily be turned into weapons.”

“Oh no, you know of all that?”

“Yes we do. We have been monitoring all of your ship to ground transmissions for the last two days. My only question now is, will you or will you not comply with our demands to modify the current reactors to rectify the situation?”

The Captain came back, now apologetically, “Doing what you request will not be easy. As you must know, we will need to completely shut down and remove the majority of the parts from the current reactors to make this happen. In hindsight, what we have done was an attempt to keep another group of aliens, known as Triloks, from discovering we’ve been helping this planet’s people.”

Braitak was chuckling in the background, while I told him, “The Triloks are already aware that you are here and of what you have done. We must inform you, that we are also friends of theirs, as well as the Chaemarians. The, um, suggestions that we made to you were made with their full knowledge and blessing. They are fully planning to monitor the situation and will be keeping us informed as to your progress. I assure you Captain, it will be very bad for you and your crew if we discover you have not met our demands.”

The Captain asked, “Do you mind telling me, exactly what species you beings are?”

I was glad he could not see me shrugging my shoulders, trying to come up with a slick answer.

Then I chuckled, “We call ourselves... ‘the Changelings’. We are few, but, we are mighty!”

Max tapped me on the shoulder, then took over, “I assure you Captain, um, what is your name again?”

We heard a slight cough, “My name is Colonel Ben Dover, Captain of the Greyzarian warship Starduster. And with whom am I speaking now?”

Max chuckled, “According to our leader, I am co-captain Max Lester. I am going to explain to you, if you have time, how our leader, JB came up with the name you were given. Trust me when I say, ‘changelings’ is very appropriate.

“You see, at one time, nearly all of us aboard this ship were amongst some of the most evil and despicable criminals you could ever imagine. We were members of one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet Earth. That is, until one of the Chaemarian’s most powerful catalysts, named Charlie and his family ended our reign of terror in less than one day. Faster than you can imagine we were all teleported to a special jail where we were held until we were banished to an island, never to be heard from again. What most of us did not know was that island was on an entirely different planet! That’s when many of us had our first encounter with an amazing Chaemarian lady by the name of Ibera. None of us had any idea that she and a few of her close, human friends were going to be watching our nearly every move.

“We were all told that any and all provisions we would be given would be solely up to her to provide. That’s when several of my friends and I began changing our ways. At first it was simply to be nice to her so we could get better supplies. However, during that process we were all captivated by the fact that deep down Ibera was a very loving lady. She showed kindness to all of us who simply showed her a little respect. I could go on forever but I need to cut to the chase.

“Not long after we all found ourselves on this island, many vicious battles for dominance ensued amongst all of us prisoners. In some respects, it was a classic good vs. evil. The ones who had no intentions of ever changing their evil ways began attacking those of us who had made up our minds to try and create a peaceful and civilized society.

“Then, besides having to deal with that, we discovered that this planet was home to these extremely large predatory birds. One of which swooped down and took away my girlfriend, named Annie. It was during our desperate attempt to find and rescue her that I had my first encounter with an angel who completely changed my life. You see, Annie was not the only one of us that had been abducted. Another young female, by the name of Lolita, was taken from her group of friends, also. Her friends were like us in that, they were also trying, desperately, to make better lives for themselves.

“We had nearly given up our search when suddenly both Annie and Lolita appeared before us along with this beautiful, glowing Angel. They told us how they had been nearly killed but thanks to this Angel and two of her invisible friends they had been healed and rescued. I wouldn’t find out until much later that one of those ‘invisible friends’ would become my best friend, JB, our Captain.

“Please understand, while I loved Annie dearly, there was something about this Angel I couldn’t get over. Anyway, as time went on we discovered Ibera had been helping us in ways we couldn’t possibly imagine. None of us had yet figured out that many of these ‘special gifts’ that unexpectedly came to us ended up saving our lives. Before long, it seemed like all of those who were trying to make a better life for themselves found themselves drawn toward all living together or near each other. Shortly thereafter we discovered many of us had been given our very first psychic abilities.

“Whether or not this was simply a test of our integrity, we will probably never know. However, as we began using and refining these newfound abilities we also began exploring the mainland of the planet we were on. We still had one evil person in our midst, who was masquerading his evilness by pretending to be helping us understand our abilities. I could go into more detail, however, I need to explain how it is we all came to be changed.

“Unbeknownst to us previously, we discovered there was a race of aliens known as Gromoriks on this planet who were essentially making prisoners of all the able-bodied native men they could find.”

We heard Colonel Dover chuckle, “Sorry to interrupt your story, however I must admit we too have had many of our own dealings with those cursed Gromoriks. Until recently they were our sworn enemies. But enough of this, please continue your most interesting story, Mister Max?”

Braitak was just shaking his head when Max continued, “Anyway, at one point we rescued several of the natives from a Gromorik patrol who had captured them. We relieved all the guards of their weapons and other things they had with them, including a brand-new psychic nullifier/neutralizer they had just developed.

“However, we made the serious mistake of activating it only to discover, to our horror, it nearly killed all of us.

“And it probably would have if JB hadn’t sent my Angel to come to our rescue. She was able to heal all of us. And while the results of which were amazing, when she healed me ... Well let’s just say that’s when I truly fell in love with her. Not just for healing me, that I can understand, but it was far more than that. Due to a special pill that all of us were given we were able to join body, mind and soul with many other humans who had accompanied my Angel to our planet. I could not believe it when my Angel, whose name I discovered was Linda, asked me to join with her. That was an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life. You see, that is when I learned that the power of love is far stronger than the power of hate and evil. She helped me discover what true, unconditional love was really like. Colonel Dover, there is no feeling or emotion that even comes close to experiencing sharing unconditional love with someone. Your heart feels as though it is bursting at the seams with love!

“And, I wasn’t the only one of my friends who was completely changed that night. Nearly every one of my other friends had ‘joined’ with our new earth friends and also discovered the wonders of unconditional love. That was the night all of us became ‘changelings’. We were given new, much more powerful psychic abilities that night also. And we also vowed to use these newfound abilities solely for good and to help other less fortunate individuals.”

Max chuckled, “The first thing we did was convince the Gromorik’s Commandant to leave our planet and all of its natives alone. While we probably could’ve just threatened him, we decided to make friends with him and told him about another planet. It was far richer in the crystals they were trying to mine than the small planet they were currently on. We also vowed to protect him if he ever came under attack, especially from a race known as the Helgordes.

“It wasn’t long after that when we had a meeting with an unhappy Trilok Captain named Pootami.

“He was upset with us for exposing the natives to some of our more advanced technology. However, we also discovered his brutal attempt to rid this planet of all of its natives with psychic abilities. We had already befriended many of the more powerful psychics, who the natives called wizards. A heated argument ensued, but in the end he listened to reason and admitted he was wrong.

“And, that now, with this new Helgorde menace, that trying to get rid of this planet’s psychics was perhaps a serious mistake. You see, that is when we first learned that neither your race, nor the Gromoriks, nor the Triloks have any psychic abilities whatsoever. And that because of that, you are all deathly afraid of what an encounter with a powerful psychic race would be like. Tell me, Colonel Dover, do you know of a fellow Greyzarian leader by the name of General Zeid?”

Suddenly we could hear him gasp, “OH MY, oh dear, are you the ones who freed our General from the Helgorde’s mind control? Then convinced the Gromorik Commandant to give him the crystals so he could rescue his stranded ships!?”

Max chuckled, “Yes we are! And if memory serves me correctly, it was his ill-advised attack on our Gromorik friends that led to us shooting down many of your General’s fighters who were engaging our Gromorik friends in an unprovoked attack.”

“I am aware of the particulars of that attack!” He said resolutely, “That is why immediately after General Zeid rescued our stranded ships our ambassadors met with the Gromorik ambassadors and a truce was forged. All warship Captains, on both sides, were ordered never to fire on each other again. Both sides were impressed, Captains JB and Max, with the words and actions you and your ‘Changelings’ demonstrated that day! That you would put yourselves in danger to protect your friends was something never before witnessed by neither ours nor the Gromorik High Commands. And then, to go after and defeat the interstellar menace, Helgordes, has made your group legendary to both of our cultures. Were you aware of that!?”

We were totally stunned! Legends?

Linda, Lucy, Juules and Wanda had tears in their eyes and were looking at us in awe. Even Braitak still had his mouth open, I’m sure regretting having been somewhat of a pain in the ass to the Colonel.

I just had to say something, “Thank you, Colonel Dover, for telling us that. We honestly never realized our actions and words would have such a profound effect on both of your cultures. We do, however feel that part of our mission, so to speak, is to try and right any wrongs that we come across. We feel we owe that to our Chaemarian benefactors for everything they have done for us.”

A happy sounding Colonel replied, “I feel honored now, to have made your acquaintance. Would you mind if I informed our high command of the name of your starship? That would ensure that no Greyzarian vessel would ever consider attacking you. Your actions of destroying this planet’s nuclear weapons, while causing no fatal casualties also makes much more sense to me now. You have my solemn word we will clean up this mess that we have inadvertently created. Take care my friends and I hope one day to meet with you again, Colonel Dover out.”

I’m sure I still sounded stunned when I gave the Colonel our permission to inform the Greyzarian High Command of our ship’s name, the Starship Redemption.

Max looked at me and chuckled, “Who’d of ever thunk it?”

Braitak barked a laugh, “You can say that again! Who’d have ever thought you band of heathens would ever be interstellar legends!?”

We were still laughing as Tiny input our next set of coordinates and dropped the hammer as we headed for our next checkpoint.

Linda had her arm around both Max and me when she giggled, “I sure hope Darren and the gang were watching all that!”

Then she let out a whistle, “Okay ladies, as soon as Tiny gets this thing put on autopilot, I think we all owe it to our ‘legends’ to drain them of every single ounce of love juices they have!”

All the ladies were giggling like crazy as they grabbed our hands, dragging us to our bunks.

Blaine POV:

Our friends have only been gone for 10 days, but it feels like a lifetime.