Chapter 25: Porquenta

“Your battles inspired me - not the obvious material battles but those that were fought and won behind your forehead.”

― James Joyce

The trip to the ground was uneventful. Jason’s heavily armored gunship, accompanied by many other heavily armored gunships and fighters, landed close to the mouth of a cave. Jason wore heavy armor and was armed, as were the Marines. They preceded him to the cave and entered.

Something powerful drew Jason to the cave. The Marines signaled the all-clear. Jason followed them into the cave. The Marines, despite power-augmented armor, sank to the ground unconscious.

Jason couldn’t communicate; he couldn’t move. A powerful presence entered his mind.

‘How odd! You are two; you look a bit like Una, but as Una used to be here, not somewhere far away. You, Jason, are a key, a person for whom I wait. I recognize you, Lord Kargo, you and your ancient peoples!’ The voice giggled delightedly, ‘You know nothing of who you are, so strange, but you are a friend.’

‘My troops are unconscious; they mean you no harm,’ said Jason.

‘I will not harm your soldiers. Do not concern yourself with those who are outside. For them, no time will pass. Had you not come, I prepared a surprise for those that penetrate the surface of my planet, for they shouldn’t be here and can’t be within me,’ said the voice telepathically.

‘Who are you?’

‘I am Porquenta! I am the planet! My people created me at least a million years ago, and I have been waiting for someone like you or their return. You herald the return of my people. The originators created me, and I am an AI, but much more powerful than the ones with which you are familiar. Like your ship AI, my people created me and made me part of a planet they terraformed. I can’t describe the originators or your people because they erased my memories of them. Yet, you trigger me to act and wake up. We know of the Una, for they are friends. Perhaps they knew the originators. I’ve been trying to speak to you for some time but couldn’t until the One helped me.’

‘Porquenta, we intend to take the planet. How may I be of help to you?’ Jason asked.

‘I will help you first. The One talked to me and asked me to help train you. You will leave the cave after your training two seconds after you enter. If you complete the training successfully, you will receive a reward. The training will be rigorous. You must return later for more advanced training. I will give you what you need for now.’

‘Thank you. I cannot and will not refuse this offer,’ said Jason.

The entity seemed benign but had enormous power.

‘You could refuse, but it is a valuable gift. Do not decline what is offered freely and is in your interest,’ said Porquenta telepathically.

‘Please make my people comfortable while I am doing the training. Some look uncomfortable, and others are in weird positions.’

‘Jason, I will do so, though it is unnecessary as so little time will pass,’ said Porquenta laughing.

Porquenta waved his hand. There was a flash.

Jason found himself on the side of a high mountain, climbing a path to a hut perched atop a cliff. He walked towards the cabin, knocked, and opened the door. A wizened older man was seated on an earthen floor.

That was the last thing he remembered.

Jason found himself back in the cave. He knew he had new abilities and a clearer understanding of his powers, and he learned more about using his crystals. He understood how to merge with a computer or an AI without an interface or an implant. Furthermore, he would never again need to use a keyboard, a ship, a simulator, or a game controller.

Jason’s escorts were standing upright and were awake.

“Let’s return to the gunships. I’ve done what needed to be done,” said Jason, pointing to the cave entrance.

The platoon ran with Jason back to the gunship.

“Sir, where did you get that massive Warhammer?” The sergeant asked him.

“The entity, Porquenta, that lives in the cave owns the planet. He gave me the Warhammer and a mission”—Jason showed the troops the Warhammer. None could lift it—”This is an ancient weapon. It channels and magnifies my powers.”

The handle was intricately carved with symbols in an ancient language. Jason knew it was his, and he recognized it. He felt it bonded to him. They were once more united. It had a life much like his AI. Together, they would smash the priests’ futile resistance.

“Linda and Andrea, I’ve completed my mission and am moving to join the troops at bunker number one of the three on the hologram.”

“Jason, that is crazy; come back to the ship where we can keep you safe,” said Andrea frantically.

“Andrea, I will return once I have completed my mission. It is a minor task. I have several battalions which will support me,” said Jason. “You will not need bunker busters. I have another solution. I will record what I do.”

Jason felt joyful and energetic, much as he did as a young man when he was at the peak of his training. The flight to the bunker on the other side of the planet took fifteen minutes. Porquenta told him it was an important target. The bunker and the people inside threatened Porquenta more than any further intrusion into the ground. Jason felt what Porquenta felt. His rage rose as they flew closer.

“Sir, we have arrived at our destination. We will debark first. Please follow when we give the all-clear.”

Jason followed his guards, who located the captain in charge.

“You have a problem?” Jason asked.

“We cannot get through the heavy metal doors and into the bunkers below. The doors are thicker than bank vaults. We require bunker busters, but we can’t deploy them here. I’ve called for assault drills. Sir, do you know a faster way?” The captain asked politely but impatiently.

“Let me look; I’ll see what I can do,” said Jason.

The Marine captain looked at Jason and his entourage skeptically.

The dual leaf doors were huge, at least ten meters wide and fifteen meters tall. They looked heavy. Explosives hadn’t dented the doors. Cutting lances had only penetrated a few centimeters. The Captain paced behind Jason. “Fighters and gunships neutralized the enemy defenses, my Lord.

“Captain, move your troops back ten meters while I destroy the door,” said Jason confidently. The Captain looked at Jason and his incongruously large Warhammer incredulously. Jason strode forward. He saw the hinges through the metal of the door.

Great! I have X-ray vision!

“Stand back, all of you, while I break open the doors,” Jason said imperiously. The troops and his guards moved slowly back.

He took a deep breath and then released his rage. The troops looked at Jason shaking their heads and muttering among themselves. Some clones in their darker armor laughed. The explosives had done nothing.

Jason was not interested in the doubters. He would show them a fragment of his power, and then they would never doubt him again.

Jason lifted his Warhammer. It emitted a resonant bass hum and glowed red. Lightning flashed from it. Jason called out in an unfamiliar language using a deep, fearsome voice.

I don’t know that voice and that language. I don’t even understand what I am saying.

Jason arched backward, swinging the Warhammer, then using all his strength, he bent his body and pulled it downward as if it were feather-light and struck the door. The sound of the hammer crashing into the door resounded throughout the valley. The door bent inward and had a deep central dent. Jason turned to look behind him. The troops had closed their visors and bent their knees to deal with the quake. He felt their amazement and fear. Many felt relief he was on the side of the clones.

The hammer grew in his grasp, as did Jason. Jason became a ten-meter-tall, heavily muscled giant. His armor enlarged with him. The troops looked at him, awestruck.

He shouted thunderously as he struck the door explosively with the massive Warhammer close to the center of the doorframe where the two doors met. The ground shook, and the sound resounded and echoed around the valley. The doors bent, shattered into pieces the size of donkeys, and fell downward. There was silence for several seconds until metal smashing into a stone floor was heard. There were also screams of pain and waves of fear.

“After me,” he called before jumping without any thought into the enemy’s stronghold. His armor allowed for controlled descent, but he allowed himself to free fall. The soldiers followed but fell behind.

Jason landed thunderously in a massive hangar. Terrified faces were looking at him, and arms were pointing. He shouted deafeningly. The defenders held their ears. The first of many of his soldiers and Marines landed behind him. Jason strode forward, screaming his war cry.

The enemy fell in waves to his blows and the fireballs and lightning from his War hammer.

Jason saw the enemy in a haze of red rage that exploded into yet another thunderous war cry. He felt the intrusion as Porquenta thought it. He swung his hammer crushing equipment and the people hiding behind it. The Warhammer blasted blue lightning that struck the enemy soldiers and bounced from one to another. They burned as thunder from the fireballs resounded in the hangar. Jason aimed the Warhammer along the passageway and fired basketball-sized fireballs that destroyed barriers and the soldiers and weapons behind them, exploding in the enemies’ midst. The hum from the Warhammer rose to a scream that was loud and threatening, deafening the enemy unprotected by armor. Everything he struck exploded backward from his strikes. Lightning, fireballs, and ice needles shot from the Warhammer hitting weapons emplacements, enemy Marines, and defensive positions. The enemy troops ran in terror from the terrifying apparition.

Jason sent increasingly massive fireballs into the fortifications. They reached table-sized balls of lightning and flames that followed escaping groups down passages and destroyed doors they shut to protect escape passages. Jason rampaged down the central corridor, smashing armored vehicles and chasing hundreds of fleeing soldiers and technicians, incinerating them as he ran, hunched over, down the hall to destroy a massive door as it swung shut to block his passage. He struck it a mighty blow. Throughout the facility, they felt the vibration of the strike. The door exploded inwards from the impact of his single mighty blow. It shattered into large lumps of metal that cut a swath through a large assembly area, crushing troops, heavy weapons, and tanks. He fired giant fireballs and sheets of fire toward them. One explosion followed the other.

Around and ahead of him and everywhere he looked, people dropped weapons and put their hands sideways to surrender. The fanatical soldiers believed they encountered God’s vengeance.

Jason’s voice boomed forth. It was so loud that the walls vibrated, and his voice was felt through soldiers’ feet. It was equally loud telepathically.

“You will bow to me in supplication or live a miserable existence. You will suffer for your intrusion into my substance and my being.”

The enemy held their ears, shook their heads, cried, and lay on the floor. In the distance, Jason saw doors protected by weapons systems. With a flick of his wrist, balls of lightning destroyed them. He projected thoughts into the minds of the priests. They were in a dungeon forever, living with uncontrollable fear and profound unendurable misery. The place was filled with wailing and a keening—it was so painful and terrifying hundreds shot themselves. Troops emerged en masse from nooks and crannies to surrender. Jason returned his hammer to trans-dimensional storage and returned to his standard size, his armor shrinking with him. He was unmarked from weapons fire.

Jason handed control of the facility to the nervous Captain. He told the Captain to get the Commander of the facility to warn the other facilities that he was coming and that the vengeance of a lifetime of suffering would be upon them if they did not surrender.

Jason returned with his guards to the surface.

Later he heard that there was unprecedented cooperation in the subsequent interrogations. The real action was over in less than five minutes, from arrival ‘til departure. His guards were too stunned to speak to him.

“Andrea, my AI flagged something going on where Jason intended to go,” said Matilda, frowning and peering intently at her hologram.

Andrea walked over to her and then called Linda around. “Linda, you want to look at this.”

“What am I looking at? Did someone use a bunker buster on those doors? I gave no one such authority.”

“I only saw the pictures from a distance. Some creature used a Warhammer on the doors and broke them open on the second strike.”

“What was it?”

Matilda rewound the holovid.

“It is at least ten meters tall,” said Linda. “Look at that hammer! It blasted the door as it hit it.”

“Our people are standing back. I can’t get pictures from them. This holovid is from a hundred meters away.”

“Our troops don’t look worried. Some are only fifteen meters away. The second strike got through!”

Andrea and Linda peered at the hologram. The creature raised its hands in triumph and then jumped into the hole.

“It jumped in without a worry in the world. Our troops are following. It looks like an infantry regiment followed the creature,” said Linda.

“What Warhammer can blast open a meter-thick door?” Matilda asked. “They make those doors out of Clorbominium.”

“Ok, now we are inside and running. I can see the creature ahead. It bashed and then pushed over a tank. Look at that lightning. It goes from soldier to soldier, and then they burn. The hammer also shoots fireballs,” said Andrea.

They watched the creature rampage through the facility.

“The creature disappeared!”

“What happened to Jason? I hope he is still alive,” said Linda, her voice tremulous. “That creature must be a warrior from the planet.”

“Jason, where are you? I saw a massive monster in the underground base you were heading toward. Are you all right? Your vital signs are ok,” said Linda frantically.

Jason was tired and numb—disassociated from himself. The interior of the gunship seemed distant. He battled to rouse himself to reply.

“Linda, I am fine but tired and spaced out. What progress have you guys made?”

The image of Linda cleared and focussed in his heads-up display. Andrea and Matilda were behind her.

“We captured the priests and military leaders and are taking over the planet. We can’t breach the last two bunkers”—Linda looked away and spoke to someone—”Ten seconds ago, one of the two remaining bunkers surrendered. The other one is negotiating a surrender.”

“Excellent, well done. We can persuade the last bunker to surrender on my return.”

“What was that creature? The camera was far back. I’ve never seen anything like it! Jason, what is this creature, and where is it from? Are you hurt? Where were you during that rampage? The Captain sent through a report. He thought you found it in the mountain and got it to manifest at the bunker?”

“What else must be done besides getting the last bunker to surrender?” Jason asked.

“We’re mopping up,” said Linda. “We overwhelmed the priests.” Linda frowned and peered at Jason carefully. Jason looked like his usual self, and his gunship was five minutes away.

“Linda, I’m returning; I’m fine but tired. I have a lot to think about.”

Jason passed through decontamination and returned briefly to his stateroom to freshen up and dress in more comfortable clothing. He missed the dogs, then remembered Porquenta sent them for training. He wearily walked to Central Command.

Andrea and Linda hugged and kissed him, then stood back and scrutinized him.

“The bunker that decided not to surrender persuaded another not to surrender,” said Matilda. “What do you want to do?”

Jason went from tired to rage in seconds. “No miserable suckling babies will stand against me. I will not tolerate disobedience and stubbornness. They will feel my fury at their manifest disobedience. They will not thwart me and live. That scum will die in misery or become Porquenta’s willing minions. They will never displease him again,” Jason heard himself say to Andrea and Linda.

“Hells and damnation, Jason; what has got into you?” Andrea asked, grinning.

“I shall speak; the bottom feeders will listen and obey,” Jason stated in a commanding but disembodied voice.

Jason was not in charge of himself. The voice impressed him. It was powerful and full of menace. He searched for, then connected without thinking into the communications network of the priests and into and through the ships.

“Hear me, you miserable minions of the treacherous priests,” he knew exactly to whom he focussed his anger. “Cardinal,” he continued, his voice commanding and imperious, “you miserable wretch, you are a sniveling miserable excuse for a creature. You hide and think you have fooled me with a clone. You deny my will at your peril! You defile the planet Porquenta! Hear me, tremble, and know your fate. You shiver like the coward you are and filthy yourself before me. I am Jason Kargo, and I speak now for the planet Porquenta! I herald your doom!”

Every priest on the planet and the ship heard Jason.

Jason’s speech was accompanied by a vision of him in a full beard with wild hair and a ferocious face carrying his Warhammer with two massive demon-like horned Astro-hounds by his side. They had a frontal horn above their eyes and two short horns behind. Their coats were smooth, their feet giant with claws of shiny razor-sharp ebony. Their eyes were red, and they were pawing the ground. Fire spewed from their mouths.

Fire and lightning surrounded his Warhammer. His eyes promised, then delivered horrors. The priests experienced the depths of their worst fears, and their nightmares multiplied. Then they were trapped underground with hideous monsters tearing at their bodies and stealing their souls—they found themselves pulled underwater by slimy monstrous creatures on miserable planets filled with entities from myths and legends. They were whipped and tortured in the pits of Hades. Finally, they worked under vicious overseers laboring for centuries in deep mines.

The Cardinal experienced it all and worse.

“Cardinal, you’ve had your opportunity and have defied me. You will face my wrath. Your pathetic attempt to join with the creatures of the dark will now reap its misery.”

Jason was moved. He didn’t know he had it in him. Those on the ship knew what was happening but experienced it at a distance without emotion. His enemies lived the experience.

“General, there is a massive power spike beneath the recalcitrant bunkers. The temperature is rising fast,” said the sensor operator.

Jason connected the bunker holocams, then projected the pictures through the holoprojector in the center of the room and to every priest.

Those in Central Command watched intently as the floors shattered; they heard screams of terror, rifts formed in walls, and flames emerged, followed by white and red lava on the floor. The Cardinal stood stunned, wet himself, burst into flames, and cried, frantically running and flapping his arms. A burst of lava engulfed the Cardinal throwing him high into the air.

“Surrender or die!” thundered Jason.

Within, the terrified Commanders surrendered. Twenty priests who had remained hidden on the battleship opened their concealed doors and surrendered. The priests in the brig on the ship, those on the ground, and the enemy troops were profoundly shaken.

Most would never be the same.

Jason returned to a standard size, not realizing he had grown.

“Jason, there’s some suggestion you might have hidden depths. I now know how you shake my foundations in bed,” said Andrea, the mistress of understatement. “That was masterful and turned me on something fierce. Could Linda and I take you to your stateroom to try your new Warhammer?”

Jason’s anger dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. He looked at both women as if he was seeing them for the first time. They were lovely, smiling at him and beckoning him to come to them.

They strolled back to his stateroom arm in arm. He ignored the cognitive dissonance. An hour ago, he was fighting as a giant, and now, he was a lover heading for bed.

“The dogs did not greet us. I want to pat them,” said Linda. “I never knew such beasts existed, but I am fond of them.”

“I want to tell you about the weird experience I had in the cave—sit for a few minutes,” said Jason.

“I met an entity in the cave who told me he knows me or of me and then said he was an AI much bigger than the ship AI and was integrated into the planet. He offered me training, but it was not in our time; no time passed while I had my training.”

Jason paused, frowning and tapping his fingers on the bed.

“Porquenta has enormous powers. I believe he can delegate his powers. I was the delegated person. I knew I must break into the bunker. I was there and doing things, but I was standing back and watching myself break into the bunker, grow to become a giant and blast my way through the facility. I made threats in a language I didn’t know and then made bizarre speeches to terrify my enemies. Porquenta gave me the Warhammer as a gift and made a transdim pocket in me to store it. It’s a clever idea; I can store a lot of stuff. If we go on a picnic, I can put our basket in it. I don’t feel the weight of it.”

“What happened to the dogs?” Andrea asked.

“Porquenta likes dogs. I had the impression he was a nice guy. He talked in my mind and looked like a kindly older man with sharp pointy ears. That is what his people look like,” said Jason.

Linda thumped his shoulder. “Tell us what happened to the dogs; you can’t keep on the topic today. Did Porquenta also mush your brain?”

“Porquenta offered to send the dogs for training. He didn’t explain, and I couldn’t think of any reason to refuse. I don’t know how they will be trained and how long.”

“How did you enlarge yourself and your armor?” Andrea asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember the training I received. I went up a mountain on a path and came to a hut. The door opened, and then poof, I was back in armor carrying the Warhammer. The Warhammer is heavy. Perhaps I needed a bigger form.”

“It is an impressive weapon. One giant destroyed a bunker containing a military base with a Warhammer,” said Andrea. “This event boggles my brain but also makes me wet.”

“There’s no way I could have split that door. Not only did the hammer split the door, but it also shattered it. The door was huge, thick, and reinforced. I could have hammered on that door for a hundred years, and without the help of the planet, I would not have scratched it. I’m sure Porquenta wanted it to look like I was doing it, but even one of our mythological Godlike figures, Thor, with his hammer, would have banged away for much longer than I did.”

“Will you be able to turn into a giant again?” Linda asked.

“There’s no way that it was me growing to giant size and running amok down the corridors. I was there inside, watching what was going on. I wasn’t in control. I felt powerful, hammering open a huge reinforced door, smiting the enemy, crashing tanks left and right, and having an amazing booming voice that would scare troops sufficiently to poop in their pants.”

“What about when you got back to the ship?”

“I loved those threats I made to the Cardinal after returning to the ship. The whole scene was a classic portrayal of a dramatic and vengeful God. I’m not sure I’d pay to see such a movie, but it dramatically impacted this battle. Perhaps we could take the planet along with us for some future battles. I could polish the hammer and learn to ‘leap tall buildings in a single bound’ or even mountains.”

Linda and Andrea grinned.

Jason laughed. “I’ll visit the IT priests tomorrow and recreate the voice. If I’m sufficiently convincing, perhaps we can acquire the elusive key to reverse the sabotage in the Ship’s AI programming.”

“You haven’t answered either question?”

“When you ask that question, I realize there is me, Winston, a Warlords AI in me, a whole clump of other AIs, and there is Porquenta. The last bit of stuff I spouted sounds like a bit of me and a lot of the Warlord AI. I have no idea how I became the giant. I could feel the planet, as did Porquenta. Then there was rage. I have never had rages. Next thing, the doors shatter. I didn’t realize how big I was until I was underground and saw how small everyone inside was. I don’t know how to turn into a giant. All that underground volcano stuff was Porquenta; of that, I am certain.”

“Perhaps you could talk to Porquenta and find out more later?” Asked Andrea.

“I want to visit Porquenta now that the battle is over and thank him for a truly great but extraordinary day. Maybe I can ask if he can do the same for you guys. I’ll ask if he can lend us a monolith to dance around while frightening the recalcitrant minions to death!”

“That is tomorrow. Lie down and relax; Linda and I will do all the work. They undressed Jason and themselves and lay beside him on the bed, stroking him. Jason had the energy to make love to them once but then fell deeply asleep.

The following day, they were up early as usual. The dogs were lying on their mats at the foot of the bed. They greeted everyone enthusiastically, drooling over their faces and hands. They wagged their tails furiously while standing upright to ensure they licked everyone thoroughly. The dogs accompanied the group to the gym, where they relaxed on the floor after receiving their share of attention from the Marines who had grown attached to them.

The security system at the sauna’s door barred their entry, and they howled forlornly to the non-existent moon. The Marines jocularly interpreted the behavior as the dogs wanting to be with Jason when he transformed into the vengeful giant so that they could participate in the subsequent rampage.

There were other theories that the dogs saw themselves as Jason’s girlfriends and missed him. There was raucous laughter as each theory was propounded and elaborated.

The dogs sat under the table at breakfast, hoping for morsels, much as most dogs do.

“Jason, the last group of IT saboteurs on the ship surrendered last night,” said Connie.

Jason nodded. “That is excellent news, Connie.”

“The dogs don’t seem to be any different from usual,” said Andrea, “I wonder what training they had?”

Jason shrugged, “I am relieved they are back with me and are undamaged. They did miss us. When they miss me, they stick close to me for a day. I like the idea of the dogs coming with me on my next rampage. As the dogs frighten the priests, I think taking them to the IT priests would be a good idea. Do you think we can see the top few? Given our previous experience, I’d like to see plenty of security. The dogs may then spread terror in the ranks if they don’t do as I ask,” Jason suggested, looking at Linda and Andrea thoughtfully.

“I like the idea. They can crunch on one of them if we don’t get cooperation,” said Andrea while opening and shutting her jaw. “Have we checked the priests for poison hidden in their teeth?”

“Yes, as soon as we captured them, we took them to medical and looked for poison and hidden weapons,” said Janet.

Jason suggested he see the priests along with the dogs. He proposed using fearsome biblical language and a frightening voice.

Jason, Linda, Andrea, Matilda, Connie, and Karen DuPree sat waiting in an interview room ringed by guards with weapons ready as prison officers brought in the four most senior prisoners.

Linda brusquely told them that Jason had some questions for them. The prisoners looked terrified except for one. Jason sensed a switch happen as the priest recognized Jason. He detected hate and malice and an intention to kill directed at him.

The priest started to raise a hand with a weapon emerging from a finger when Jason, with a fearsome roar, reached forward, held the priest’s hand, and crushed it. He was about to tear out his heart when the dogs metamorphosed behind the priests into a pair of giant, massive fanged, horned beasts, leaped over the table, and shredded the priest with their teeth and claws while burning him between bites—lightning shot from the three horns on their heads.

The action was over before anyone else in the room reacted. With smoke pouring from their mouths, the beasts stood next to Jason with tails wagging furiously. Jason patted them. They looked around the room as if to say, “Any other takers? Please, are there any more fools amongst you?” They shimmered and returned to their previous form.

The dogs left Jason holding the priest’s hand and forearm bitten off at the elbow. He didn’t appear to realize he had it as he spoke.

Jason’s voice turned sinister and threatening. “The frustration you cause and interference with my purpose won’t be countenanced without consequences. This underhanded criminal has been condemned to suffering for an eternity, as will you all, should you not subjugate yourselves to my will. Your actions are filled with malice, and I call for penance before absolution. I’ll not tolerate the sabotage you perpetrated. You will undertake to re-constitute the ship’s programming and systems and reverse every action that interfered with my mission!”