Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
THE DAY THE EARTH MOVED
by TS Caladan
[Author’s note: Story deals with the end of life on Earth in 3000 A.D. To the rescue are Cal-2 and a variation of Gort from: ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still.’ Will our world stay lifeless?].
How to order novels by TS Caladan
or go to publisher’s site: TWBPRESS.COM
TWB Press, publishing, electronic, e-books, ebooks, short stories, novels, science fiction, supernatural, horror, thrillers, fiction
TS Caladan's 3-Book "Traylogy" can be purchased thru TWB Press.
9" x 6" books with cover art are less than $18.00. EBooks are $3.99.
by TS Caladan
[Author’s note: Story deals with the end of life on Earth in 3000 A.D. To the rescue are Cal-2 and a variation of Gort from: ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still.’ Will our world stay lifeless?].
The year was 2999, “the last year of life on Earth.” Time Machines of a wide variety of credible types have shown 2999 as the last year for living creatures on and in and around the planet. In fact, every method of Time Tunnel, Stargate, dimensional-viewer or mystic source brought forth nearly the same set of circumstances that led to the exact same result: 3000 A.D. and beyond contained nothing that moved, breathed or thought. A dead planet and a dead world.
Today was the END, last chance to not let everything go to hell. My desperate ‘hope’ lay in my latest creation, an invention of my own design formed from physical and digital remnants of the last ‘Wing-Maker.’ There were only 17 hours until midnight and the year 3000, the end of everything, the end of me. Vort was finally coming online now; he’s actually ACTIVATED! A dream set my actions in motion. Could this really work, the last hope for life on Earth?
Vort was a 7 and a half-foot tall humanoid shell made from Latinimide: an impervious, electrical, hybrid substance. No one but the EM programmer set the frequency, which was the password or key-code for the shell’s access. Only with the precise frequency activation-code could Vort be opened, operated and controlled.
‘He’ moved.
The power light came on in the middle of the mechanism’s ‘head.’ It moved once more and fully activated all teletronic systems within the Latinimide shell. He looked around and comprehended his surroundings and then looked down at me.
“Who am I?”
“I call you…Vort.”
“Why?” the creation asked and tilted his head.
“It stands for Vortex. The idea is for you to become a vortex and…and, well, to make a bridge to another world.” I took a slow and casual step forward and touched the hard, dirty-silver exterior. It was much warmer than when not activated.
The artificial humanoid with Galactic Library databanks contained mega-knowledge, but lacked specifics and probably the truth to recent events, here, at the end of everything and at the threshold of Hell itself. Did the creature understand that the Earth was the last bastion of goodness in a wicked universe? Did ‘he’ know, this reflection of my engrams, how close the very END of cosmic things was, only hours away?
“Your name is…Cal-2?” he coldly asked me in computer confusion along with some small animated movements.
I gave the final sequence and hit the ‘Cal-2’ button. “That should do it. Should even give you my personality also.”
“Cal!” he said loudly in my voice and with joyous feelings. It almost appeared as if his head light glowed brighter.
“There you go.”
“I have it now on you, my friend. I know who you are and who I am. Although I still have questions.”
‘Man’ and machine shared a laugh.
“Ha, ha. I’ll bet you do.”
“Bet?”
“Never mind,” I answered in delight. For a happy and wonderful moment, I forgot about the coming DOOM and smiled. “Ha. Ask your questions…”
“Why are you named Cal?”
I replied, “I took my name after an ancient legend, the “2” was wishful thinking, kind of personal reasons. But I’ll answer as best I can.”
“Why is so much of my data conflicted? Where is the one truth on these points?”
The giant ‘mirror’ of me made me laugh again. “Ha, HA. What is truth is a very big question indeed.” He was my child, learning and there was no time for any of this. “What else?”
“Why are we speaking verbal, old English that hasn’t been used in more than 500 years?”
“I thought it best for our initial, basic communication. You know, before the merger and, I guess, during it.”
“Merger? Oh excuse me, I am still a bit slow, sir. Ha. You mean my purpose, why you built me in a humanoid shape? What is to come, yes? I’m an outer hull to you as an inner driver.”
“Yes, Vort.”
“I realize my function in life…or reason for activation: to be your strong skin and travel hyperspace. But. What are we going to do today? What is there to do?”
I smiled again and hugged my shiny strong skin, my hope. I said, “Such an important question. Huh. And spoken on the very last day to do anything about it. Just like my dream.”
“Dream, sir?”
“Don’t say: sir. Call me, Cal. I’m the last human being on Earth.”
“But that conflicts with what history records as a human being. You are not human, Cal.”
“We don’t have time. No time to fill your historical blanks. We have to merge now.”
“How?” he asked as a child in wonderment.
“I’ll show you.” It felt tremendous to have company, like the good old days a very long time ago, to not be alone anymore. An intelligence to interact with. My frequency was tuned to his very fine and long code-frequency…
I walked right into Vort like he was a gundum suit. We merged and I became Vort.
Then a sudden VORTEX doorway opened and the automatic ‘hyperspaceship’ in the shape of a humanoid blasted through the portal rift at impossible speeds ~
We continued our audible conversation, which was similar to talking with myself.
“Nice colors. Cal?”
“Yes, my close friend.”
“I know this sounds like a ship’s computer asking the pilot about the…mission?”
“Yes?”
“Where are we going? I mean, after we cross the ‘bridge to another world,’ you said? What are we going to do on the other side of the Rainbow, our directive, our mission objective?”
“Hmmm…” How could I explain it to him? “Okay, here goes. We’re going to convince a young Lizard Prince, under a dark spell from an Insectoid, to turn against his Evil Empire that controls our universe…and possibly find an answer to save our once precious planet from a fate of total lifelessness?”
My exterior hulk responded with, “Oh, that’s all? Anything working to our advantage, Cal?”
Vort also possessed my humor.
“Would you think having only 16 hours to do it is an advantage?”
Inside the colorful ‘skin’ replied, “No…funny. The other realm is in sync with Earth time, I see. Cal?”
“Yes, I’m right here.”
We flashed by more fantastic colors in hyperspace.
“According to calculations, we have a little time before we reach the other side, yes?”
“You have a million questions. I understand. What do you want to know?”
“History would be a good start.”
“Oh, I could go on and on, Vort. History has been badly recorded, changed, used, misused, wiped, smeared, implanted, altered…”
“Specifically, I would ask…”
“Hmm?” I was curious.
“Why is the Earth special and key to the coming apocalypse of a universe?”
“Earth was part of the first Solar System in the Golden Age and first experiment of material/physical existence. It was from Earth that the gods sprang forth. It was from the original 14 planets where all life within stellar systems and galaxies exploded from. Surprisingly, Earth IS the center of the corporeal or universal plane. Various forces, empires and militaries have occupied the Center System of the Great Life Explosion, like a Capital. For prestige. Lizard Kings ‘drove’ the Moon here and placed it in orbit as a monitoring station after the last, fallen occupation…”
Vort was enthralled. “Fascinating.”
I continued, “Once, basically, ANGELS ruled the System of 14, the ‘Sons of Heaven.’ Earth had always been of prime importance because it was the Genesis Planet. Spawns of Hell and dark forces from negative dimensions wanted to own Earth as a ‘trophy’ because of its long history in material existence, centrally located…”
“Please give me a quick rundown of truth, the real story of what happened recently, in the last 800-900 years…because the history files in the databanks are, are, I mean…”
“Don’t look at them; won’t make sense, Vort.”
“Thanks. That makes sense,” my reflection stated with a tone of understanding.
“Here goes: After ages and eons and epochs of WAR between Guardians of Light and the invading Darkness from a multitude of realms, the entire exploded universe had been lost. The Dark Side won. It was not only Earth and the sacred System that fell…IT WAS THE ENTIRE SURROUNDING STARS AND GALAXIES of incredible numbers of lifeforms that also fell to Evil. No one came to save Earth because every good, kind, compassionate System in the Big Bang had its own problems and downfalls as well. Evil grew like a disease/epidemic and, in time, consumed every solar system. It was like everything went dark and evil, everywhere.”
More colors streaked by.
“Unbelievable. No Guardians? No one of the Light left to fight and fend off the Dark?” the ‘child’ composed of silvery Latinimide asked in disbelief.
I said with sadness, “No. They were called ‘Rangers’ near the end, our final heroes. They were rounded up, captured, exiled or destroyed. Most were imprisoned on Venus. That beautiful, fabulous and closest planet became a Prison Planet. Our greatest Defenders of Truth and Light were kept there in a sealed, static confinement."
“Explain the human race. I mean, what happened to them? Why are you not one of them?”
I answered, “Well, you can’t explain the human race. Maybe that’s what saved me, you know, to be the very last one? Unpredictable. Here’s what really happened: Machines took over. Hundreds of years ago, the bruised/bloodied/embattled human race gave themselves totally over to A.I. Control. Sentinel androids, not too different-looking than you, my friend, only 200 feet high, flew through space! They were the Policemen of the Galaxies with the ultimate weapon of Mega-Particle Beams. Moons, planets and whole suns could be winked out of existence in an instant. No nuclear weapons were allowed or any atomic powered sources. Peace reigned supreme. It was fantastic. It was glorious. It was fail-safe. The system worked perfectly. Wars between planets and dimensions halted.”
“What went wrong, Cal? I don’t have that in my teletronics.”
“Saturn. Saturn went wrong.” I sighed and did not want to remember or think of it.
“Yes, both polar vortices. Let me synthesize, summarize. Tell me if I have it right, yes?”
I agreed. “What went wrong, Vort?”
“I assume you know our ride across Rainbow Bridge is about over? Saturn’s ‘Broadcaster’ had been a hyperspace corridor to the Dark Dimension. It had pumped so much negativity into our world and was the source of Cosmic Cancer, the ‘epidemic’ you stated. Hell emptied because it all drained into this central and prime Solar System, then the whole cosmos. Is that right, Cal?”
“Good. You have it correct, my friend. A great and powerful MACHINE system was also installed and created a Utopian Earth for hundreds of years called the “Wing-Makers.” Human beings, far more technical and cerebral, were under the loving authority of WM Mechanisms. The System was high-tech perfection that elevated and inspired people.”
“A Mechanical World.”
“A Free World.” I suddenly felt a shiver in my warm exterior.
Vort realized and said, “Saturn’s Broadcaster turned the Sentinels against each other and the robot-Policemen utterly obliterated countless solar systems and themselves! Wing-Makers and their devices on Earth and elsewhere went amok and had to be destroyed along with the entire human race. You, ‘Cal-2,’ a bio-drone, were specially created in an old lab and you carry the human race in your head?”
Vort realized and said, “Saturn’s Broadcaster turned the Sentinels against each other and the robot-Policemen utterly obliterated countless solar systems and themselves! Wing-Makers and their devices on Earth and elsewhere went amok and had to be destroyed along with the entire human race. You, ‘Cal-2,’ a bio-drone, were specially created in an old lab and you carry the human race in your head?”
“I’d rather think I carry their compassionate souls or conscience in my heart. Essentially, yeah. You got it. Ah, we’re here.”
The bright light show stopped. The wild warp tunnel the ‘hyperspaceship’ made ended, anticlimactically. Cal-2, protected by his humanoid shielding named Vort, was in another universe that resembled the other, static universe of a black void of space and stars.
Vort described it with the words: “Hmm. Rather boring, don’t you think?”
“After all the colors, yeah. Now. Now we only have 10 hours to convince a Royal Lizard, we’re his Gods and he should do exactly as we say.”
“We’re going to do what?”
In a matter of Earth hours, which were the same as in the parallel, dark universe…
Both Cal-2 and the Vort exterior found themselves prisoners, locked in what was essentially a ‘Royal Dungeon.’ It was hard, cold and creepy.
Vort expressed in old English to his pilot on the inside, “That happened way too quickly, my friend. Could you explain, like exactly what that was and what the hell happened?”
“Sure.” I explained, “You saw young Prince Lizard cast his spell and it manifested a blackish ‘Wall of Darkness.’ We entered the vortex-conduit as planned and magically became his ‘Entity,’ like Grand Wizards and thank you for not speaking. Already had a contingency if you had…”
Vort interrupted, “A ceremony shrouded in 100% secrecy, yes?”
I replied, “That’s what the ‘Wall of Darkness’ is. Even Lizard-boy’s masters, the Insects, cannot penetrate it or monitor the ritual. You know, Vort. I think I convinced the kid.”
“Well, boss. Ha. Then why are we sitting in prison? They, somehow, found out.”
“Ha. Ah. You continue to make me laugh. Shame you weren’t activated earlier.”
“What time is it?”
“There is no time in hyperspace,” I responded, flippantly.
“Seriously, Mr. 2. I want to know the countdown until, you know?”
“What kind of computer are you that doesn’t know the time ‘til Doomsday?”
“Stop with jokes, Cal. It’s not funny. Must be because of the massive humanity there is inside you. You know what’s going on?”
I answered, “You don’t want to know.”
“Yeah, I do,” my voice and personality told me. “For an artificial lifeform, I’m awfully concerned about my existence too. I think therefore…”
I told him, “Less than an hour.” I was not happy in containment.
Vort asked, “I thought they couldn’t get through your, you know, substance?”
“We ‘wizards’ were shocked and beamed here, for your information. See those walls; we are tuned within the same vibration as my suit, meaning YOU. Thought you were smarter…”
“Hmm.”
Suddenly, the incomprehensible occurred…
A small, neat, black vortex, one of those hyperspace doorways, opened in the middle of the containment cell…
Out of the rift walked the Lizard Prince and partial owner of this quadrant of a dark dimension, a universe similar in appearance to Earth’s, only the opposite polarity.
HE BELIEVED ME.
“Your Majesty!” I was happy to see the ugly critter, as long as I had a shield of Latinimide between us.
“I heard that,” Vort whispered.
“Come with me,” coaxed the Lizard Prince. “Unless you want to stay?”
“Hell, no,” I said and followed the Prince. Vort had no choice. We passed back through the controlled time portal that also functioned as a Wormhole.
We, my silvery coating and another mind, found ourselves in his Royal Laboratory. The strange room of mystic machines and blackness was actually extremely large and irregular in shape. But the gloomy, cylindrical force-field called the ‘Wall of Darkness’ cut through the ceiling and surrounded us in one, round section of the lab. It was the section with the new machine that could possibly be…
“The answer,” the dark green Lizard in robes of the Royal Order declared in a deep, slithery voice. “It could be the answer to your problems…and mine…”
“Your problem?” Vort involuntarily asked.
“Quiet,” I told him.
The Prince, whose name was “Debusi-Marduk Zef,” scratched his scaly head. “What?”
“Very sorry, your Majesty. Forgive my computer: it speaks.”
“Hm.”
“I completely understand, Cal. How do you like my Outercrometer? Isn’t she a beauty?” The Prince asked with an air of high sophistication and pride.
I thought I understood and did not. I inquired, “This is the amazing device that will divert Doomsday for Earth and the universe around it?”
“No, Cal. I’m not sure I have crystalized my machine well to you and what will happen. Shall we continue in this language?” the Reptilian asked me.
“Please.”
“Because of me?” my shiny shell answered correctly.
“Ssssh. Sorry. Please make me understand, your Majesty.”
Prince Marduk-Zef expressed, “The Outercrometer cannot help the Earth, the holy Genesis Planet and Center of all things. Or its universe. Earth MUST be destroyed.”
My mouth opened. I was shocked and missed something. “Did I not feel your passions stir against your Father and Lizard Empire? Did I not sense the breakup of the Insectoids’ dark hold over you? Zef, you know what Fate has in store. You are the drop of light and hope in a dimension of Hell that has completely consumed my world. We have seen that YOU, my fine Prince, will turn away from evil, defy your Father and are key to a positive future for the universe…and will build a…”
“A what?” a sincere Reptilian voice inquired.
I was nearly quoting scripture rather than clear on my facts. “I, alone, have seen: You will possess the technology…that, that…will somehow HELP life on Earth survive. You’re to save what I carry, so what’s left of humanity continues and does not get destroyed at Year 3000, in minutes.” I wasn’t completely sure of my facts. “I know little more than that, Prince Zef…”
Those were my last words.
Something struck me like an N-Ray beam and I died ~
Time had no meaning to a hulk, an exterior of Latinimide, a shell of an electrical, hybrid substance whose only purpose was to function as a hyperspaceship and prevent Doomsday…
…If the interdimensional vehicle had no pilot. No driver.
Cal-2 was gone. He was invisibly gouged out of the inner portion of Vort in a fraction of a second. There was a flash, a blinding light ray in a black, sinister universe of negativity and then…
NOTHING.
Only the body of a depressed and defeated Vort-crust remained and a voice that weakly mimicked the driver-pilot’s voice. Vort lay prone on a ‘medical table’ in a different section of the Prince’s large lab. He, with teletronic engrams of his pilot, was in deep thought and rested inside quiet meditation. He mourned.
Vort stared at the high, bleak ceiling and sadly voiced the words: “Let me see, Cal is dead and gone. I have estimated that approximately less than a minute remains before an insane Lizard Prince pulls a lever or pushes a button on a goddamn machine my Maker believed would save his world. Instead, the little monster will turn Earth into a lifeless cinder. This can’t be your dream, my friend; this is your nightmare.”
~CLICK~
Vort immediately rose from the table and turned toward the sound of the ‘click.’ The mechanism thought he was alone and everything that his pilot loved was gone. What was this?
“Come, let me show you. It’s time for you to see this. The end of Earth. It’s destruction, yes? Yes. I can’t wait,” Zef said with glee. He was happy.
“What?” the 7 and a half-foot tall silvery ‘surfer’ of space asked in curiosity and disgust. What the hell was wrong with the kid? Why would I want to see a dead ball that was once so beautiful? Why? How would I take joy in…?
The time was right, in the last seconds. Armageddon was not what anyone thought it would be. Outercrometer projected a true scene and what was exactly in Cal’s former universe: The last stronghold of Life on the Genesis Planet was snuffed out. The oceans and atmosphere were gone. Everything good was gone. The Lizard acted overjoyed and as if I should be thrilled too.
The ugly critter was crazy and jumped in sick delight. His royal robes flailed. Look at him!
I stared directly into his slit eyes and said, “This is supposed to make me happy?”
“You don’t understand yet, Cal…”
“Don’t call me that! I’m not…” Vort lost himself in the bizarre thought that he actually was Cal-2.
Prince Zef smiled as if everything was on track, precisely as calculated. The clever boy’s plan was not to overthrow the nasty Insectoids or Reptilian Empire or Father, but to fool them into thinking they had won. Zef gave them their ultimate goal, their ‘trophy.’ Zef left the Earth defenseless and the Dark Dimension consumed the last, delicious morsel of positive goodness on the material plane. Evil Agendas fought over endless ages to CONQUER EARTH, the Center, and success was finally, finally achieved as a glorious ultimate victory by the Dark Side.
In truth, the Earth did not matter.
In truth, the entire real universe that contained the Earth and the First Solar System did not matter. Tainted, corrupted galaxies and countless star systems of the Big Bang consumed by evil did not matter, anymore.
What did matter were trillions of individual souls held safe and warm inside teletronics with a hard, Latinimide casing. There was no more Vort or need for a hyperspaceship. There was only Cal-3 and the lovely spirits the vessel secured for a new world.
The new world was Venus. Venus was no more a ‘Prison Planet,’ but those of the Dark assumed the second planet was their ‘cosmic dungeon.’ Devilish forces reveled in a belief that they placed such a ‘Jail of Rangers,’ a prison of what was left of purity and goodness right next door to the, now dead, Capital of the physical universe.
The Prince’s device did the trick. A parallel reality was produced of a clean and pristine Venus ~
Cal-3 released what was held within…
Pure spirits, a spectrum of lifeforms awoke and crystalized into being on the wondrous surface of Venus, which will forever be masked from cosmic conquerors or anything negative. It was a new world at its beginning. Once more, the gods spread out into the cosmos from a new center.
Tomorrow wasn’t bleak; it was big and bright.
There’s never an end ~
How to order novels by TS Caladan
- http://www.twbpress.com/authortraycaladan.html
- Promo-page from publisher: TWB Press in Colorado
- http://www.twbpress.com/sonofzog.html
- TWB Press in Colorado
or go to publisher’s site: TWBPRESS.COM
TWB Press, publishing, electronic, e-books, ebooks, short stories, novels, science fiction, supernatural, horror, thrillers, fiction
TS Caladan's 3-Book "Traylogy" can be purchased thru TWB Press.
9" x 6" books with cover art are less than $18.00. EBooks are $3.99.
