"A Blast From the Past" Part Seven AD 1989, that is 2364 Galactic Year [Nomad of Norad] "So," said Sleep, "what is it I supposedly know that Caldon wants to know so badly?" "You know where a certain large golden key is," explained Terzlux. "Gold key?" said Nomad. "Do you mean... THE golden key that Dave was carrying during..." "Yes," said Terzlux, "THAT gold key!" "Verilox will be very interested in THIS!" exclaimed Nomad. "Speaking of him, he's been with Pladgah and Pla'anuk looking for K-Bear... but.... but I haven't heard from them in two days! I've been worried sick!" "I found them," said Terzlux, "they collided with another cloaked ship--" "WHAT!" exclaimed Nomad. "...but they are unhurt," continued Terzlux. "The crew in the other ship wasn't so fortunate. They never knew what hit them. However, the RED 417 has been repaired and they have resumed the search." Terzlux paused, looked over at K-Bear, and added, "but I had no idea *I'D* find Koala Bear instead!" "Guess I'd better signal them to end the search," said Nomad, heading to a keyboard on the console. He typed for a moment on it, and then stepped away. "They're going to rendezvous with us at the battle fleet." He glanced at Koala. "However, we need to drop K-Bear off at his starship first." "Back to this golden key," said Sleep. "Is it important for us to get it? What is it for?" "No," said Terzlux, "it is merely important that we keep Caldon from getting it. As for what it is for... I don't know either!" "But where IS it?" asked Nomad. All eyes turned to Sleep. Sleep thought a moment. "It's stored in a trunk in an old section of Elsinore... under alot of other trunks and boxes... behind even MORE trunks and boxes." "In other words," said Cappy, "it's hard to get to. Tell me, how did you come to find this out?" "We were doing some housekeeping and inventory work. Each person in the group took so many trunks and boxes and went through them. That key happened to be in one of the boxes I did." "And so," said The Flip, "you happened to mention it offhand later on?" "Well," said Sleep, "it WAS an unusual item. Why make a key so large? And with such lavish filigree and artwork?" "Well," said Nomad, "even if Caldon's men get the key now... it is unlikely they can get it TO Caldon before we do him in." A chime sounded from the console and the transparent column darkened and stopped. "We've arrived at Koala's ship." He opened the main doors and K-Bear left the TARDIS, then Nomad closed them again and dematerialised the TARDIS. Captain Koala stode onto the bridge of his ship and took the con. The ship was still crewed by small kids that had been adults. "We have recieved coded signal from the RED 417," said the communications officer, "they should be in position by now." Koala turned to his first officer. "And the special Past Blaster reverser device is ready?" "Ready and activated," said Sarteel. "Then begin the attack!" Koala sat back in his command chair gleefully. "Forward one half lightspeed!" cried Sarteel. "Arm all weapons!" "Caldon, it's that accursed ship again!" The scanner operator turned and looked to the leader. "They are coming in on an attack position!" "Battle stations! Battle stations!" blared throughout the ship in Kryptonusian. The ship rumbled and the lights flickered as the first shots were fired upon them. Several passes were made, and many shots scored Caldon's ship, but they couldn't seem to hit the DROMANA SORRENTO. "Why don't they try to hit us with the Past Blaster?" said Captain Koala. "Presumably," said Sarteel, "they haven't been frustrated enough to bring it out. Or they're afraid we will shoot at it as soon as it is brought out. At this range it would be a sure shot." "Take us out to ten thousand kilometers and make a long approach course," commanded Koala. "Executing," said helmsman... oops... helmsperson Meckette. Her apparent age was about three. "Now," said Koala, "lower slightly the shields' power. I want them to think we are pulling back because the shields are threatening to collapse." "Yes sir," said Yiyrah, the cheif of enginearing, now a boy of about eight. "They've pulled back," said the scanner operator. "Their shields seem to have weakened." "So," said Caldon, "like cowards they turn tail and run!" "They've moved to four thousand quatsuk and are turning back around. Looks like they're making another attack run, from further out." "Bring out the Past Blaster," said Caldon, "we'll deal with this pest now." "Their bringing out the Past Blaster," said Sarteel. "Finally!" said Koala. "Slow to mach one and make like we are preparing for evasive action." "They have fired!" said Sarteel. Quickly the huge globule of energy reached the DROMANO SORRENTO, and engulfed it. Then suddenly everyone was adult sized again! Sarteel studied a screen briefly. "Success! Everyone is his former age again!" "Signal confirmation to the RED 417," said Captain Koala. "Sending," said Jontath. Suddenly the RED 417 decloaked right next to the Past Blaster! The '417 hit the huge weapon with everything she had, even as she came out of cloak. The weapon erupted into a satisfactory series of fireballs as the RED 417 cloaked again and rushed away at near lightspeed, making fast, rapid course changes so the Kryptonusians couldn't guess where they were and fire at them. "WE'VE DONE IT!" yelled Sarteel! "WAHOOOOO!" "Signal the rest of the fleet," said Koala. "Let the battle begin!" "Signalling!" said Jantoth, jubulantly. * * * * * * * "So," said Nomad aboard the pseudo-TARDIS, "what was this about a superman project?" "The Kryptonusians found an Ancient's laboratory in deep space," Larsbaan explained. "It had been used to turn homo sapiens into a sort of enhanced life form." "A what?" said Nomad. "Enhanced humans?" said The Flip. "What do you mean?" "Basically," said Larsbaan, "they took humans and... sort of overhauled their physiology. They... well, it was sort of like converting a groundcar so that instead of running off of liquid combustables, it ran off of... oh... say... background radiation, and sunlight, and broadcast radio, and hyperspace fluxcoil power, etcetera. And then say that they added equipment to it so that it could take to the air, functioning as a skycar, and even go into space, functioning as a warp shuttlecraft." "And these... enhanced humans," said Cappy. "What are they like? Or were they like?" "Well, their bodies now are just a framework, a shell of sorts, surrounded by an energy field much like an Aelaam field." The Aelaam field had rendered spacesuits obsolete, encasing the wearer in an envioronment force-field. "So," said Nomad, "what does this have to do with Caldon?" "Well, he figured he could adapt the process to Kryptonusians. But the process was genetic. It required a strong understanding of human DNA before it could be adapted to Kryptonusians." "So," said Cappy, "he needed alot of DNA patterns from alot of humans." "Precisely," said Larsbaan. "And he needed a transmutor to perform the actual process." "Fortunately," said Nomad, "he got niether." "On the contrary," said Larsbaan, "he has both!" Everyone else turned white. "Fortunately, they couldn't do much with them, what with the blockades and the attacks. The equipment and the data is up there on his ship, in storage. He cannot get it back to his planet and cannot use it himself without a large-scale lab complex." "But what about our transmutor?" said Cappy. "He was so antsy to get it." "He was trying get it so you couldn't get it, fortunately I put some... ape wrenches into his plans." Larsbaan smiled proudly. "'Monkey wrenches,'" said Nomad, regaining some color in his face. "How did he get the DNA patterns?" asked The Flip. "The miniships!" exclaimed Nomad. "Yes," said Larsbaan, "the miniships." "But..." said The Flip, "they were... without power when we got them..." "They were reactivated long enough to make a large number of bodyscans, then deactivated before you noticed anything." "But the scanners were short ranged," said Nomad. "The scan-ees would have to have been within the same room as the miniships. But the miniships were stored away..." After a moment, The Flip spoke. "I saw them on display after they had been stored away. I mentioned it to The Doc, who said they were supposed to still be in storage. He went and had them returned to storage." "Obviously," said Cappy, "there is an inside man at CommHex." There was silence for a moment. "But if Caldon wanted the transmutor I had," said Nomad, "why didn't he attack my house earlier? It has been... months!" "Well," said Larsbaan, "you weren't doing anything useful with it, just scanning it in every way shape and form. You didn't have the facilities at your house to use it, anyway. It would take a large scale matter-antimatter reactor to power it, like that found on the bigger starships." "So, why DID he attack us?" said The Flip. "To get me," said Larsbaan, "apparently he didn't find out where I was until this afternoon." "Come to think of it," said Captain R/C, "there was a tour of Nomad's research and development center by CommHex people scheduled for earlier this afternoon. It would have been not long before the attack too place. "Yes," said Nomad, "someone must have mentioned that Larsbaan was at my place..." "And the attack soon followed," said The Flip. BONG! said the console. "We've arrived!" said Nomad. "Let's go get that key!" * * * * * * * Back aboard Caldon's ship, the crew stared incredulously at the screen. What looked like thousands of ships were heading their way. The frontmost vessels opened fire. "SIR!" cried the communications officer. "I've just recieved a message from Kryptonus!" The shrillness of his voice indicated the worst of news. Caldon turned and stared towards him a moment. "S-s-sir... Galdpromm is... dead! They committed suicide... set off novabombs all across their planet. Kryptonus... g-g-gave up... they've s-s-surrendered..." Caldon fell back into his chair. He stared straight ahead of him, at nothing. The ship rumbled around him, and shook. He didn't notice. Tears came. "Sir?" said his second in command, placing a hand on his shoulder. Caldon turned his gaze up to the other man's face, for a moment. "Take us out of here." It was a cold harsh whisper. "Get us far away from this place." "Helmsman," said the man, "take us out of here. Best speed." He looked back down at Caldon, staring blankly ahead again. "We are cutting our losses." The ship quickly left the system. Caldon and his men would find someplace to hold out, perhaps build a large scale spacelab of their own. Complete Caldon's superman project, using just the crew of this ship. Such a pity about Kryptonus. But what they did not know, could not have known, was that the Galdprommans had not committed suicide. They had enclosed themselves in vast numbers of temporal stasis fields, then set off the novabombs so their enemies would think them dead. They had sent word to Kryptonus, but it had not gotten through in time. Such a nice Shakespearean ending, don't you think? TTTTTTT H H EEEEEEE EEEEEEE N N DDDDD T H H E E NN N D D T HHHHHHH EEEEEEE EEEEEE N N N D D T H H E E N N N D D T H H E E N N N D D T H H EEEEEEE EEEEEEE N NN DDDDD ------------------------------------------------------------- Epilogue: [Koala Bear] [Title: FINALLY ] (Finally! The end of one VERY long story. Thanks Nomad for taking over when I did not post, I'll try to do better next time. However, this WAS ONLY my first story I have ever participated in. Now then, let me finish my story about Captain Koala.) * * * * * * * * Everything fell silent on the DROMANA SORRENTO save the hums of the ship itself. Captain Koala rested on his command chair in great releaf. Caldon has been defeated. "Captian's monolog general entry..." Dictated Koala tiredly into the comm," We have been through a great deal in the past several months. Our port of call was under attack by a vast evil, which, after long trials were defeated. We have said good byes to our dear new-found friends, maybe some day we will return. But we must continue our mission of exploration in this galaxy. Many more adventures will surely follow. End of entry monolog." Captain Koala looked around at his crew and chuckled, everyone was in tattered rags which hardly covered anything. "Sarteel, give the general order for everyone to be clothed properly please." "Yes sir," said Sarteel. "Jantoth, do a detailed positional scann of this planet and system." "Yes sir," said Jantoth. "Mechette, facilitate Jantoth's request." "Yes sir," she said, "Ship is coming to 399.1155--scan." "Affirmitave," said Jantoth. "Those of us who are non-essential personnel," said Koala," will report to the clothing areas. Jantoth, Mechette as soon as you can join us." "Yes sir." they said in unison. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A few hours later everything was back to normal, the scan was complete, and everything was in order. "Jantoth send final greetings and thanks to our friends in this system." "Yes sir. Sending message now." FROM THE DOMANO SORRENTO TO OUR FRIENDS IN THIS SYSTEM. THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT. WE REGRET TO TELL YOU THAT OUR MISSION OF EXPLORATION MUST TAKE US TO OTHER PARTS OF THIS GALEXY. WE WILL RETURN AS OFTEN AS WE CAN. AND A SPECIAL THANKS FROM OUR CAPTAIN, WHO SINCERELY THANKS YOU FOR ALLOWING HIM TO PARTICIPATE IN YOUR ADVENTURES. UNTIL WE RETURN AGAIN, GOODBYE... "Message complete, Captain." "Good, thank you Jantoth. Mechette, set course for our next destination." "The Centauri system. Ship coming to 138.668." "Afirmative. Ahead slow flux factor 100," said Captain Koala. "Slow flux, coming to 100 on my mark.................mark." "Engage." As the ship began to move, the sleek shape arc'd beautifully toward the eight-sun system of Centauri. Just then, a reply message came. THANK YOU K-BEAR FOR JOINING US IN DEFEATING CALDON. WE WILL MISS YOU. "Thats what I was waiting for," said Koala. "Increase speed to flux normal factor eighteen." "Ship speed will reach flux normal on my mark................mark." As the ship reached flux normal factor one, there was a brilliant flash, and from what onlookers would see, the ship seemed to turn inside out and back again, yet this was only an illusion. Thus ends Koala's adventure as we pause to see the space-fold made by Koala's ship return to normal. I'll be talking to you.