Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Vol. 02

"Predictable yes? Then why don't you put twenty Credits on the Terrible Tyrant while I put twenty on the Awesome Avenger?"

Part II

GalNet Entry: Uni, the >>>The Universal Collective or more commonly known as the Uni were a community of star faring civilizations united under a common government.

Not much is known about the Uni. Few known artifacts of this culture exist and the ones know to exist and identified to be of Uni origin are to be between two and five million years old. Some scholars believe their culture reached tremendous technological and sociological advancements considered to be Tech level ten or higher. Scholars familiar with the subject believe the Uni existed for a considerable time and reaching their peak of expansion and development about ten million years ago. and then declined sharply. The same scholars suggest that the Uni vanished from the galactic stage about one or two million years ago million years ago. It is generally believed, from Uni were of humanoid shape and size and there are those who believe the Uni seeded humanoid life on planets in the Upward sector and thus explaining the unusual high occurrence of human species that share many similarities down to the DNA level. A phenomenon otherwise known as the Human Mystery. Yet other scholars reject this and claim it was the Pree, a similar high advanced society that apparently shared the same time period who were responsible for the proliferation of humanoid sentient life the seeding.

The Saresii believe to had contact to the last Uni before they vanished or left, during their so called First Age of Knowledge.

Most Union based information about the Uni finds its origin in Saresii myths, and legends. The Kermac claim direct kinship to the Uni but have not shared any scholastic indormation.

One popular myth is the legend of the Knights of Light and Order. In this legend a small elite group of noble Uni heroes survived or remained until present times to guard a mythical treasure and bestow special gifts to individuals for being especially good and orderly.<<<

The Call

The Grand Wizard and a band of his companions had completed a very long journey crossing almost half way across the galaxy and stood on the surface of the planet Koken that was his species world of origin.

It was here the five races had originated. Somewhere on this mostly lifeless planet must have been the place where the first Ker walked upright, made the first fire and killed the first Blue. Where the chosen ones merged to become the Kermac.

They exiled the Blue and drove the Golden into space.

Shortly thereafter, so Kermac ancient lore told they too left their home world behind to seek a new home closer to the Galactic center in an entire different sector of the galaxy.

The reasons for this move, abandoning their world were lost in time and only myths, legends and tales remained. Kermac scholars believed it was done after receiving a warning or a command by an external source.

The official explanation told all Kermac that it was the Uni, that chose the Kermac to be their successors as the supreme species that made this suggestion.

The real or actual reasons were shrouded in mysteries and legends.

The Grand Wizard did not believe in gods or anything higher than himself. It was very conceivable to him that if such entities exist it was the Kermac on their way to ascent to a new state of perfection and thus perhaps Godhood and of course he the Grand Wizard would be the first among Gods.

It was cold and the red sun in the sky did not seem have to the energy to warm the planet. As he emerged from the Kermac space ship, and gazed over the crumbled and mostly covered remnants of an immense city, he pointed in the sky. Here is your answer why we left this dirt ball. Our forefathers observed the continuous cooling of the sun and decided to find a warmer and better place. No mystical voices, just common sense."

He paused in his approach to the Hidden Caves and raised an impressive jewelry piece that hung on a chain around his neck and spoke into it. "Memorandum to the Communications Wizard. I the Grand Wizard of them All, more wise than anyone, blessed by Intellect beyond comprehension and understanding shall furthermore be addressed by adding the title: 'First living God conceived by the Universe soon to be Omnipotent and solely worthy of worship'."

He was very pleased with that. He most likely just found the ultimate title. This could hardly be bested. Then he waved at his companions and said. "This place is very inspirational already. Upon our return, all our Thrall species shall have no religions other than one that centers on me. The first Thrall species that erects a temple to honor me will receive some nice reward, perhaps a holiday or something like that."

One of his companions, the usually so loyal Cultural Wizard said. "It might not be the wisest decision to prohibit religions. It was always considered a good practice to allow the thralls their own religions."

"Nonsense, I just realized why Kermac do not believe in Gods, because it is us who will reach even higher states of perfection. I am Wisdom incarnate and my decisions are never to be questioned. I shall forbid the worship of the Voice of the Universe as well, all Kermac and all Thralls serving us should not pray or call upon divine intervention from non existing idols but focus their energies and praise on us and of course dominantly on me."

While the Cultural wizard already saw temples of great beauty erected in his name and statues with beautiful robes, it was the Communications Wizard who was certain the Grand Wizard finally went over the edge."Not that our return is certain, the journey to here has consumed more spare engine cores than anticipated."

"I threatened the technicians with severe punishment if they fail, this fear will motivate them."

They were on a plateau high in the Jetda-Mountains of the Ningine Continent, overlooking the crumbled barley visible ruins of Esscas the ancient capital. Checking on the progress of the excavations. For two days a team of Plato slaves under the direction of two Hythagh engineers had dug and cleared sand, dirt and rocks away from a mountain side to find the actual entrance to the Hidden Caves and now finally uncovered the entrance to a cave network. The Grand Wizard had the Plato slaves shot, as they were not worthy to remain any longer on this sacred planet and in his presence and it was cheaper than transporting them back. The Hythagh would be allowed to live until he was sure there was nothing else that required work.

The Cultural wizard blabbered. "The priests that worship me will have pristine sky blue robes with white lace and cute little hats, and..."

The Grand Wizard ignored him as they entered the Caves and the Communications wizard used his telekinetic abilities, completely accidentally of course, and threw a small rock against the arm of the Cultural Wizard who yelped in protest.

All three were carried in sedans by Hythagh slaves through winding corridor. After a few kilometers, the ceiling became too low for the sedans and the three wizards faced the task of walking over uneven ground in a cold cave. The Cultural Wizard was not pleased at all. "Look at this. My shoes are getting dirty. This is unacceptable. We shall have the slaves carry us back and conceive another way of transport us, or we should have them remove the mountains."

No one answered him as the Grand wizard moved on. After an hour of walking the Cultural Wizard protested that he would not go another step and even the Communications Wizard had to admit that this was not very dignifying to walk behind light carrying Hythagh on their own feet and felt fatigued.

The Grand Wizard shot the Cultural Wizard with a weapon beam emitting from a finger ring and hissed to his other companion. "We are guaranteeing the survival and the dominance of our species, by doing what we are doing. Are you too of the opinion we should turn around?"

"Of course not." The Communications Wizard said glancing at the body of the dead wizard. He followed the Grand wizard deeper into the mountain and his conviction that the Grand Wizard was insane was now confirmed. No Wizard had ever slain another, at least not this openly.

Eventually they did reach solid looking metal doors.

The Grand Wizard opened the ancient data device and read the instructions again, then found the recess and placed his hand on a darker rectangle.

With a grading sound the metal doors swung open. The mechanism had been last used for over a million years, but worked flawlessly. These doors and what was beyond had not been made by the Kermac.

He felt elated."This is the secret of the Grand Wizards. Only we know of this place. These doors and the shafts of Knowledge were left here by the Uni."

A cold breeze came from the now open doors and a voice both acoustic and mental overwhelmed their senses. " The master was defeated with the price of a Universe and must not be woken again."

The message repeated and then the voice was silent. Not even the Saresii had, as far as the Kermac knew means to record a telepathic message that could be repeated with such force as to burn out the best psi shield generators, Kermac technology could produce.

The Grand Wizard ripped his smoking false beard of his chin and with it a little bit if skin. He was very proud of himself only to cry and scream for ten minutes, a lesser being would have died in withering pain. After he managed to collect himself, they waited until one of the Hythagh returned from the surface with first aid supplies, only then they entered.

Behind the door where three shafts of 40 meters diameter in the metal floor. The lights the Hythagh had brought were not needed as small lamps in the tube like shafts had come on illuminating them straight down in regular rows. The shafts were so deep the light chains narrowed to one tiny glow in the far distance. The Communication Wizard felt dizzy looking down.

The Grand Wizard said."According to these ancient instructions handed down from Supreme Wizard to Wizard. Only one shaft can be accessed, if the wrong one is chosen we have to wait twenty years before it can be tried again and the one trying will not come out alive."

"So how we going to do this?" The communications Wizard asked.

"Just like before, by trial and error." The Grand wizard said and pushed the Communication Wizard over the edge. He found it quite astonishing how well the Comm Wizard could scream. His colleague fell but only for a perhaps two meters and then came back sitting on an almost invisible platform.

"Congratulations you have found the right one." The Grand Wizard said and stepped on the platform as well and said with a loud voice. "I want to see the Crystal Tablets."

The platform sacked away so fast his feet were in the air for at least two heart beats. He pointed his ring weapon at the Communication Wizard who was about to attack him with his bare hands. "I don't need you anymore for the rest of this so behave or I kill you."

Without their psionic enhancers their powers were quite weak but both could now read the others thoughts and Einzvorsecz the Communication was amazed at the depth of the First Wizards megalomaniac ego.

The platform descended now for almost five minutes but had slowed down enough to see details of the shaft walls. There were nooks at even spaces of about ten hand spans wide and two hand spans high, there had to be billions of these.

Each nook held a red semi transparent sphere about the size of a Kermac head

The platform stopped. There were only two slots exactly opposite of each other.

The High Wizard took a round shimmering glass like discs out of each alcove. Each shimmered like a soap bubble and seemed to have about the same substance. They looked no bigger around than the handwide Hymlah- cakes the Hythagh fried up everywhere they went.

Einzvorsecz could hear the Grand Wizard take a deep breath and then he said. "This is it, for the glory and dominance of the Kermac." Then he placed the disc on top of each other. Einzvorsecz mind felt as if ripped out of his head and he was traveling without a body and without control faster than any ship could move covering millions of light years in the span of heartbeats. For a brief glimpse he saw the entire galaxy. His disembodied journey came as suddenly to an end as it had started. A dark construct of sorts was floating before him in deep space. While there was no reference to size, it felt enormous and bigger than a planet.

A strong alien consciousness touched his mind. "Are you a Caller?"

"Yes. I am here to make the call."

"The Call has been made. The ones that have come before will come again."

"The ones that came before had been defeated."

"The Call is made to the Creator of the ones that have come before."

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Chapter 15: Arsenal Gate

I woke from a dreamless sleep and I was glad of that, the most recent events were not the stuff that made pleasant dreams. I rubbed my eyes, the sleep inducer of my seat had been turned off and that meant we were close to the next destination.

After arriving on Palomino, a pleasant garden world. I stayed in a hotel for a week, and did some thankfully uneventful sight seeing to pass the time.

Seven days ago, I had boarded a space bus and after a short layover at Corri-Door (This time I decided to remain aboard the bus) I was finally on my way to Arsenal and to a new chapter in my life.

I swung the seat in its upright position and deactivated the opaque privacy bubble. I saw other passengers of the Space bus do the same. One of the flight attendant robots floated down the middle isle and started to announce: "Dear passengers we are approaching Arsenal Gate. We will dock at the station in 25 minutes. All passengers with destinations beyond Arsenal system are asked to remain in the lounge area. The space station is a military installation and is off limits to non military personnel. Passengers with destination Arsenal System please gather your personal belongings and prepare for debarking. Gray Lines Incorporated cannot be held responsible for items left behind."

The robot had reached the end of the isle of this passenger compartment, turned around in a fluid motion and continued. "Arsenal Gate maintains a nitrogen oxygen atmosphere and living conditions suitable for oxygen breathing carbon life forms. Non humanoid life forms with special needs are asked to remain in their protective suits or keep their life support devices' active.

"This space bus will remain docked for three hours and resume its journey to our next destination the Barrows System and we will reach Moon base Nome in seven standard days."

The attendant robot repeated his message.

I suppressed a yawn and wondered why I never really felt refreshed when I used a Sleep inducer and dialed for a drink of water at the Serv-matic installed in front of me. Moments later and half a credit poorer I sipped the cold water.

"You're getting off at Arsenal as well?" asked a male humanoid sitting next to me?"

"Yes." I answered, putting the film cup into the waste recycler.

I guessed he was about my age. He had almost white blond short cropped hair. His skin had a rosy shine and his face was covered with freckles. He held out his hand. "I am Derek Simmons from Harvest 12."

I shook his hand. "I am Eric Olafson and I am from Nilfleheim."

"I am certain you never heard of Harvest 12, but then I wouldn't blame you, no one ever has."

"Nope I never heard of Harvest 12, but then I don't think you know about Nilfleheim."

He smiled. "Actually I do. I saw a National Galactic show about it on GalNet not that long ago. Isn't that the planet where they have those really big fish?"

"Yep, sure enough that's Nilfleheim, we call them Tyranno Fins.Why don't you tell me about Harvest 12?"

He sighed." We don't have anything exciting on Harvest 12. It's a boring planet, entirely dedicated to raise and grow agricultural products. The planet is owned by SII Agra Corp and completely Terra formed. If there ever was any native life in the past, there isn't any now. Our entire planet was sterilized, homogenized, fertilized and leveled and plowed a thousand times over. We have no seasons, weather control and orbital mirrors see to that. The weather is always just perfect for the crops and we have wheat fields as big as continents and that's about all there is to Harvest 12, identical cookie cutter world, just like Harvest 1 through 56. The only changes are crop rotations." He sounded cynical and sighed: "My father is an Agra Bot technician, my Grandfather was an Agra Bot technician and so was his father. I simply had to get away or I would have ended up doing the same thing."

"Nilfleheim isn't all that exciting either. We have really long winters, lots of snow and lots of water. All we export is ice and fish."

He smiled. "So are you going to apply for the Academy or are you going to enlist?"

"I am trying to apply at the Academy first."

"So am I. I want to become an Engineer. One day I will have my own Engine Room on a battle ship."

"That is a tall goal. "Said a dark skinned being, leaning over the back of his seat so he could look at us. " But that's what I am dreaming about as well."

The being was humanoid proportioned, had two arms and three fingered hands, but his eyes were huge and his ears looked like dinner plates glued to the side of his head. It was covered with a short black pelt and had red eyes.

The lower jaw was pronounced and he had rows of sharp looking teeth."I am Mix." He introduced himself." And I am from ThreeOz."

"I never meet a Threeozian. Said Derek." Where is your planet?"

"I am from across the Bridge. I come from M 31. My race is one of the newest members and I am the first of my species trying to become a Cadet."

"You come from Andromeda?" I repeated. "That's sure a long way from home. Don't they have an academy branch there?"

He looked at me for at least a minute without any reaction and then nodded. "Yes it is a long way indeed. I am also sorry for my delayed answer. I had to remember that nodding your head means yes to most humanoids." Mix made a gesture with his ears. "I think the Navy has two academies in our galaxy, but they are at capacity with applicants, so they diverted me to here."

"Almost everything is just as alien to me. What gesture do you use in your culture for saying yes?"

"Like this." His dinner plate shaped ears spread away from his head like opening hatches.

"I doubt I could move my ears that far away from my head, even with a lot of practice."

Derek laughed. "I have an uncle who could say yes in the Threeoz way just fine. He has big ears and everyone in my family always made fun of him" He placed his hands to his ears and so simulated larger ears and moved them back and forth

The black pelted alien chirped in a happy way. "That actually would be a good way for humans to say yes. Gestures with a meaning are so hard to understand, more so than language I find. The first time a Terran smiled at me and I thought he was angry at me and wanted to eat me."

"Eat you?" I asked with a surprised tone in my voice.

"The display of teeth is a sign of extreme hostility where I come from and usually means I am so angry at you I will eat you."

"Does that happen? I mean do folks eat each other where you come from?"

"Not anymore but in the old days it sure did. It is against the law to eat anyone now."

"I am sure glad they outlawed it. Otherwise I might smile at a ThreeOz and end up on his dinner table." I said with a smile.

"No worries Human. Your kind doesn't taste all that good."

Our attention was diverted by someone a few seats ahead pointing at the big view screen that provided passengers with a view of the space ahead of the ship. "I can see the station now. I'm sure glad we're through that darn corridor."