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| Lpnet2-100 Lpnet2: The 4D Earth War Chapter One: Callisto Colony Two Chapter Two: To Amplexa and Tranqua Chapter Three: Asteroid Mining, Politics, and War Chapter Four: Return to Earth Chapter Five: A Friendly Reunion Chapter Six: The Last Outpost Chapter Seven: Air-strike in the Night Chapter Eight: The Temporal Connection Chapter Nine: The Temporal Intersection Chapter Ten: Reunion with Old Friends Chapter Eleven: Ideals for the Future Chapter Twelve: Stonedancer Grounded |
The 4D Earth War
Chapter 2: To Amplexa and Tranqua I’d been planning to take the girls back to Tranqua for two years, but there was too much work to do. Now, it seemed, I had no choice. Dr. Vanezo admitted that there was nothing she could do. The ‘medicine’ she gave them had no effects. So we hurried then, to the mining company in an ambulance and Grodena helped me take them in the elevator, to the sublevel, where the Warbird rested in its hanger. I punched the code on the lock, used my thumbprint, and the doors opened wide. Grodena was shortly awed by the Tranquan Warbird, never having seen it at such close quarters before. “Want me to come along?” he said, as I opened the valve-way and carried T'rwani inside. “No, stay and keep the company base secure,” I said, and set her down in the midsection on the bed. Grodena set Venali down beside her, and I threw a blanket over them and secured them for the space-ride. Grodena was obviously amazed by the inside of the Warbird, so I directed him out and checked the time. “I’ll give you a call from Amplexa in about 2 days, if there’s a window. If Nezmot calls, tell her where I am.” “Sure you don’t need me?” he said. “I need you here, Grodena,” I said, went back into the Warbird, and closed the valve. Minutes later, we passed through the company’s massive airlock dock, out of the dome, and into space over Callisto. Once away from the moon, I put her in high and speeded through space at 200,000 kph. This was an emergency and we had to take it fast. It was a long voyage, but would have been longer if Amplexa hadn’t been close to conjunction with Jupiter. The medicine Vanezo provided was somewhat helpful, at least as a spiritual treatment. I locked the Warbird on course and let the autopilot takeover, as I checked on the girls and assured them we were on our way ‘home’ to Tranqua. “We should be there in about 30 hours,” I said, as I gave them the pills and some water to wash it down. T'rwani smiled, but had trouble keeping her eyes open. I hoped and prayed they’d survive until then. I owed my life to T'rwani. If she hadn’t been there, in spirit, on Amplexa in 2086, I might have gone insane and killed myself out of hopelessness and desperation. Her spiritual presence gave me the strength I needed to survive under such harsh conditions. When I succeeded in cloning her in 2088, she became a wonderful companion, a young girl full of vitality and spirit. Something that had died in me years before was reborn when T'rwani took the flesh and blood form and respected me as a father figure. Now, after 4 years, she was a brilliant young lady of perhaps 16 or 18 years of age, and the closest thing I had to family in the universe. I couldn’t lose her now; I had to get her back to the safety of her home planet. After 24 hours, as the Warbird reached the edge of the asteroid field, I prepared to take the manual pilot controls and decreased our speed for a safer passage through the randomly scattered field of space-stones. The two girls were in a deep sleep and only their heart beats told me they were still alive. It wasn’t easy maneuvering through the field at 1500 kph, but I had experience and the signal from Amplexa was a helpful pointer. It was an obstacle course, by no means an easy one, and required much evasiveness. Finally, after 4 hours of intense flying, the signal from Amplexa became very clear, and I knew it was just minutes away. I slowed the Warbird upon approach, and sited the 75 kilometer wide chunk of irregular space-stone. I signaled it and the lights came on, providing an obvious outline of the ‘station’ at its north pole. I swung the Warbird about the temple, the northern most tip, and sited the lights in the massive cavern of the docking bay. A minute later, I maneuvered the Warbird into its stone hanger, high near the ceiling of the cavern at the back. I set her to rest on the pods, disengaged the spatial engine, and locked the anchors in place. I set the temporal coordinates for 3700 AM, a time-zone at a safe distance before the final war. We’d only used the Warbird’s time-traveling ability twice in the 4 years since its discovery, and I still found it very hard to fathom. However, regardless of my ignorance about the mechanism itself, it was simple enough to use, and I did so with extreme care. As we traveled backwards in time at an accelerated rate, the Warbird rocked and rolled to and fro, side to side, like a ship on rough seas. After six minutes of this, it suddenly got very rugged. The ruggedness was due to the final cataclysm, in which the planet Tranqua had been torn to pieces and became the countless fragments of the asteroid belt. I held on tight in the seat and waited for it to pass. The anchors held the Warbird as securely as possible in the stone hanger, but it still managed to bump back and forth, side to side, in response to the ‘explosive’ conditions of the cataclysm. Finally, after 2 minutes that seemed more like 10, it calmed down and rested quietly on its pods. I looked outside and saw the blue violet sky of Tranqua outside the cavern, coming and going frequently, as we continued to go back. The Warbird began to decelerate as we approached 3700 AM and the tem-engine disengaged as we phased into the late spring season of Tranqua. I quickly reengaged the spatial engine, dropped the anchors, and jetted out of the cavern, into the bright blue-violet daylight of Tranqua. I swung her about, flew over the temple, and headed into the beautiful valley. Minutes later, we landed on the lawn outside the Onzark conservatory. According to the records, most conservatories had medical facilities, and T'rwani had said the Onzark was her favorite. I disengaged the engine, unstrapped the girls, and carried T'rwani out. I carried her up the steps to the second level, and inward between the stone columns. One of the conservatories caretakers noticed us and offered help. I followed the native Tranquan to the medical facility and set her on a bed. Then I went and got Venali and set her on another. A medical doctor appeared and gave them vital checks. “Can you save them?” I asked, noting that they were still in a deep sleep. “I think so,” the doctor admitted, checking their vitals. “It appears they suffer from a vitamin deficiency.” She gave them some shots and they began to stir into consciousness. T'rwani opened her eyes and looked at me, with a smile. “It’s alright, T'rwani,” I said. “You are home.” “They should rest,” the doctor said, “For one or two days, at least. They need to regain their strength. What happened to them?” I thought of something to say that wouldn’t require a lengthy explanation. “They were taken to Mars, as slaves,” I said. It was true enough; they had been abducted, before we went to Callisto in 2088. The doctor accepted this, with a slight curse beneath her breath directed towards the evil Martians. I checked the time and wondered if I should stay until they recovered. Then I recalled the fact that they had wanted to return to Tranqua for over 2 years, for a vacation. I recalled Kemoli and Foneci, the other two Tranquan girls that we’d taken to the temple on Callisto after the second trip back in time, and requested a supply of the ‘vitamin’ for them. The good doctor gave me a box of the pills, and I tucked it into my jacket. I left the girls in the doctor’s care and went outside, onto the promenade, and gazed out upon the wonderful beauty of Tranqua. After giving it some thought, I decided to let them stay longer. I had no right taking them away from their home, knowing how much they missed it. I left a message with the doctor, to be given to T'rwani, and returned to the Warbird. As I flew back to the stone hanger, I knew they would be safe on Tranqua. I had to return to 2092, there was too much work to be done in my own time. With the Warbird securely anchored in the stone hanger, I reengaged the tem-engine, wondering if and when I’d be able to return. |
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