Voyage of the Beyonder



  Voyage of The Beyonder

  By DD White

  Contents: Chapters

  Chapter 1:

  Chapter 2:

  Chapter 3:

  Chapter 4:

  Chapter 5:

  Chapter 6:

  Chapter 7:

  Chapter 8:

  Chapter 9:

  Chapter 10:

  Chapter 11:

  Chapter 12:

  Epilogue:

  Contents: Illustrations

  Captain Mynervood’s Hologram Disguised Vehicle:

  Fifteen Stars of Nephapricus:

  Jaden and Fluisudal:

  Prospero and Randa:

  Hagan Hiedalli and Beatarkameed:

  Diagram of The Beyonder:

  Alldegallo’s Rude Awakening:

  Alldegallo Sees Mountain from Dream:

  The Trial of Captain Mynervood:

  The Battle for Caleb:

  Begalius, Beatariel, and the Calabites:

  Ceres and Prospero:

  Dr. Thelem, Ferdinand, and Randa:

  The Phantom Matter Singularity:

  Chapter 1

  The voyage of the Beyonder had been accomplished by beings that are now not only long since dead, but also were species of aliens that have now been extinct for over 4 billion years. Then ancient aliens called Nephapricans rose up and established a legendary galactic empire that unified the whole galaxy known as Magphoreus, with the 15 star-door wormholes that were located at the empire’s original 15 stars. The famous voyage of the Beyonder took place when those 15 legendary stars were still just a tight cluster not yet the energy sources of the star-doors of Nephapricus. Before the galactic species of Nephapricans arose there were three terrestrial species from different stars that had evolved in that original cluster of fifteen. They were the Nephricans, the Pripicans, and the Doldorians.

  The legendary journey began at the planet Nephrica, which had been one of the three planets that spawned the life forms that would someday evolve into the ancient aliens called Nephapricans. At the beginning of this journey the planet Nephrica resembled every bit the budding hub of a newly born galactic empire. The planet Nephrica as one approached would be seen shrouded with gray clouds that had long since been tinged by the progress of intelligent life. Above the shroud of gray clouds there orbited a mist of billions and billions of Nephrican-built satellites that were tingling with mischief of all kinds by intelligent life. Above the satellite mist were storms of the glow of interstellar commerce, space exploration and colonization. This activity made the busy planet Nephrica shine unlike any other.

  Beneath the gray clouds there could only be seen a barren gray terrain that only looked natural from afar. On closer inspection the mountains and craters reveal a tapestry of patterns and designs that could not possibly be natural. The patterns become the creative architecture and infrastructure of intelligent life as one approaches even closer. This civilization still thrived with the activities of intelligent beings like some kind of blood that flowed through some new kind of planetary entity. The obsessive spread of this civilization had crowded out much of the planet’s agricultural potential, and the air of modern Nephrica had become choked with visible pollution. For that reason most good foods were imported to Nephrica from agricultural asteroid and satellite colonies, as well as far away colonies on other planets around other stars. Most Nephricans would love to get off Nephrica and live on one of the new worlds. The planet had now become the industrial hub of a galactic civilization with nowhere else to go but up.

  Nephrica reflected the nature of the Nephricans who tended to not change directions once they got going. Nephricans crowded this civilization with wheeled vehicles that were powered mostly by powerful batteries that charged a radio transmitter of a particular frequency that turned tanks of salt water into burning fuel for the turning of pistons. These cities were also filled with Nephricans who walked on 3 legs that looked like tentacles. They had two tentacle-like arms with two long fingers and a long thumb. Nephricans had one large eye in the middle of their faces, and a long aardvark-like snout where their mouths displayed thick human-like lips and teeth. The snout has a mini-stomach and brain that digested chewed food close to the brain. That probably encouraged, for the Nephricans, the evolutionary adaptive strategy known as intelligence.

  Unfortunately on Nephrica good food had become expensive, and so a lot of the food that digested in the snouts of common Nephricans had been food product made mostly out of Nephrican excrement. The other interesting and pronounced adaptive strategy of the Nephricans that were walking these streets like anthropomorphic squid, were the skin shirts on display. Nephricans grew their own clothing out of the skin, which they found various ways to wrap themselves with for warmth and environment protection. Today on these streets this skin clothing could be seen cut and dyed into different fashion statements on display by the crowd that walked on tripod legs through this spaceport city. Nephricans created wardrobes of this skin clothing, and the material remained strong like leather for years.

  One of the salt-water powered cars driving down the streets of Nephrica looked more luxurious than the others. That particular vehicle advertised to most common Nephricans that the driver of that vehicle had probably been chauffeuring an Eagolim. The Eagolim were a new breed of Nephrican who had their lives prolonged by space travel, which had been a luxury not exactly accessible to everybody. Common Nephricans that lived typical 100-year lives were called Negolim. Eagolim were less intimidated by Negolim since they could just out-live them. For that reason the Eagolim tended to out class the Negolim in wealth and power. The Negolim however became very intimidated by this, and they devoted much time and energy towards spying on, and mischief against the Eagolim.

  The rich Eagolim passenger of this particular luxurious vehicle had been none other than the famous Captain Joberk Mynervood. Captain Mynervood pioneered the still very young and now budding galactic empire that at this time stretched between Nephrican and Pripican civilizations to the stars Ea, Poa, Paz, Holdus, Yat, and Oa in the now famous original 15 star cluster. Ships at this time of Nephapricus traveled up to .6 times the speed of light. Captain Mynervood had traveled toward this speed most of his life, making him currently over 3,500 Earth years old on a world where the average Nephrican would be lucky to prolong a life for a length of 200 Earth years. This had been one of the first effects for the evolution of galactic DNA, and Captain Mynervood felt as young as ever.

  Captain Mynervood held a video device up to his single eye in his tentacle hand. He observed a geo trace on a vehicle behind them. He had been well aware of the local Negolim that were following him. He had grown accustomed to them following him on Nephrica ever since a wife over 200 Earth years ago had his baby here. Evidently his sub-light speed flights had mutated his DNA, and his child had been born a deformed freak. That wife never forgave him, and the child had been taken away. He had been later told that the child had died soon afterwards, but he now knows these days that they lied.

  He had been studied along with other Eagolim like him, but the changes to his DNA didn’t seem to be anything unhealthy. In fact Captain Mynervood had never felt better at the age of 4,502 Nephrica years. He hadn’t been back on Nephrica for a very long time, but Negolim technology had not advanced very much in the last 40 Nephrican years since he had last been there. He decided it now would be the time to scramble his follower’s geo trace and disappear.

  “The next turn counter-orbit need I you navigation driver take.”

  At this time the Pripicans and Nephricans shared a single language already called Nephaprican, however Nephricans had their own dialect at that time. The Pripican dialect in this story tends to read more like current Eng
lish grammar on Earth. Counter-orbit is a space traveler term equivalent to “left,” and the term “orbit” is the space traveler term for the direction “right,” not unlike the seafarer terms “port” and “starboard.”

  Captain Mynervood’s hologram disguised vehicle on Nephrica

  The vehicle veered past a stop signal that left his pursuers waiting for a large train-vehicle while the Negolim pursuers tried unsuccessfully to unscramble their equipment. Meanwhile some passing Nephricans blinked their single eye in amazement as they happened to notice the luxurious vehicle transform into a smaller less-expensive vehicle with a small dent in the rear.

  The chauffeur did the equivalent of laughing, which sounds more like gargling. “That them completely left lost.”

  Captain Mynervood also let out a gargling laugh before responding. “The whole concept of reality quanta-nanocode hologram technology that the Pripicans created will change.”

  They drove on down a highway in the hologram disguised car, far from the area they had been driving around all that morning in order to defy the agents of Ea that were following them. Captain Mynervood had been on his way as promised long ago, to take his child from the now aged mother Hagan Hiedalli. He didn’t want the authorities to know where he had been going.

  Captain Mynervood kept a deeply personal secret that in the last 100 Earth years he has fathered a couple more children, even though Negolim doctors have assured him that they would be born mutants who would soon die. He now knew that to not be true. He knew these children were like him, and they just had different DNA gene switches turned on. He kept them in secret, and supported the mothers financially for discreetly taking care of, and nurturing the young mutants.

  He had not seen Hagan Hiedalli in over 42 Nephrican years. She never wanted to change her last name to Mynervood, and apparently she had still not changed her name for anyone else. Nephricans were very much like Earth humans in this way. They often married monogamously however, both parties were free to marry as many partners as they wanted. Nephricans were obsessed with family lineage and used last names from whatever side of the family had the most prestige. The last name either designated the main lineage of multiple marriages, or they just had lots of last names arranged chronologically or in order of importance. Both male and female were able to choose a partner’s last name. Hagan Hiedalli however, had remained Hagan Hiedalli although she still enjoyed all the benefits of being a wife of Captain Mynervood, and the mother of his child. He wondered what the child would be like after all these years.

  The inexpensive car hologram drove up to the house of Hagan Hiedalli, which sat in an upper class housing district outside the spaceport city. Hagan might have been about to alert the authorities that a strange beat up car parked in front of her house, but then Captain Mynervood emerged from out of the illusion. She had no doubt been watching because she opened the front door as the Captain approached. She had been 42 Nephrican years older, but still looked not a day over 40.

  She spoke first. “Last you long time saw it’s been. The feelings softened have, but harder now they become.”

  “Hagan, I away to other worlds have been. Different for both of us time is. Away a long time not a lot to me has been. Right back I came. By time for you much longer I’ve been gone.”

  “I the space mission you from return all about know, which you almost killed were.”

  The Captain shrugged it off. “That an experiment my next easier mission was to get. Now a tourists space cruise my next mission will be. You a day over 40 mans don’t look.” A man in the language of Nephrica means year.

  “I know. Please in come.” She swung the Earth-like door wider to let the Captain in. The chauffeur drove the hologram away to put more salt water in the tank.

  She seemed unfazed by his clumsy comment on her age, but still Captain Mynervood decided to soften the blow. “As beautiful you as the day I left.”

  She smiled at the end of her aardvark snout, and did indeed look much younger than her age. “Really a day you to me haven’t aged. Wife of Captain Mynervood easy has not been. My communications monitored are. The stake out here you watched saw come rest assured.”

  Captain Mynervood suddenly realized that all his evasion that morning had been for nothing. For the most part the Negolim agents of Ea were harmless. They just were always there watching all the time and gathering information. They were harmless annoyances up until they finally decided to make their move. Unlike the average citizen of this planet however, Captain Mynervood had come to value his privacy after a lifetime in deep space.

  “So my son these days how is, and where is?” He had expected his son to be waiting for him.

  “His things he has been packing, my summons awaiting. He to you from here looks forward him taking away. Here he a deformed freak two eyes and no skin shirt lives the life. He all his life that on your ship has believed can be.”

  In earlier days, (almost a thousand Earth years before,) knowledge of the mutant offspring of Eagolim had been better known about and accepted by the Negolim. In terms of the shorter life spans of Negolim however, those days were a whole age ago, and the current autocratic Dark Age has imposed a vicious ignorance of the mutants. Captain Mynervood has lived through all of this, observing from the cultural divide between Negolim culture, and the culture evolving as the Nephaprican Space Corporation.

  Captain Mynervood became anxious to see his mutant son. The baby he left here had completely grown up while he had been on a space flight that seemed to take only a few months. “Please the boy call, and finally him me let see.”

  At that Hagan called for the boy. “Adma! Your father come see!” Then she turned with Negolim ignorance to brace Captain Mynervood regarding what he was about to see. “Perfectly healthy he is, but two legs on he we three more gracefully he with walks.”

  The Captain heard the boy dragging a couple well-packed bags down the stairs. Then three tentacle-like legs maneuvered down those stairs. It had been a young Nephrican man with a tunic made out of his own skin, and a single eye over an aardvark-like mouth. Nothing unusual about the boy’s appearance whatsoever.

  “This can not be. I a perfectly normal boy see. Adma hello, I your father am.”

  Adma put down the bags and pushed some kind of button on his belt wrapped around the tunic skin shirt. In a blink of an eye the Nephrican boy disappeared, and a hairless Nephrican-gray skinned humanoid then stood before Captain Mynervood, still wearing the skin shirt tunic, which his mother actually grew for him. “Father hello. Your son I am.”

  It had been more of a shock than expected, especially after being temporarily fooled by the same hologram technology in his car into thinking he had a normal Nephrican son. The shock had only been temporary for Captain Mynervood who had actually provided Hagan with the hologram technology himself before he left for space. The two very different beings held out arms and embraced.

  The boy before Captain Mynervood looked indistinguishable from an Earth human except the skin had a more neutral gray color, and he actually stood over twice the height of an Earth human. He had a mouth with teeth, but no snout, and he spoke in a higher pitch than typical Nephricans. “Father on your ship all my life I to be have wanted.”

  Strange expressions filled the mutant child’s very animated face. To the Captain the two eyes were mesmerizing the way they both moved together. Captain Mynervood had the same fascination with Pripican eyes. The two eyes were getting watery. The Captain’s wife Hagan Hiedalli had prepared a Nephrican meal for the occasion. What is meant by ‘Nephrican meal’ is that none of the food even came from the over-industrialized planet. These days lots of food had been shipped from agricultural satellites full of farms and ranches.

  The chauffeur eventually came back with the hologram-disguised vehicle, and they invited him in to share dinner. He had been one of Captain Mynervood’s crew named Tyallor Nudeowan whose job basically had been to wait on whatever the Captain needed. Tyallor already knew all about the mu
tant child Adma who has lived his whole life behind a quanta-nanocode hologram disguise. By now the Negolim authorities seemed to know something had been going on, and surveillance always had been like a recognizable ghost in the room.

  The mutant boy had become beautiful to his mother’s eye. He looked like a graceful freak of nature. She always saw something superior in her child who she had raised in secret. While they all ate and had conversation she wondered if they also saw it in Adma. Adma behaved more graceful with just two legs than Nephricans were with three. The handicapped boy could run circles around them, and there were other things about the boy in the way he spoke so eloquently with a voice that sounded like Pripican music, and his eyes moved together so precisely, and seemed to even see better than Nephricans. Adma had bifocal vision like Pripicans, which had been well documented to be better for perceiving depth then Nephrican camera vision. She saw nothing deformed about Adma as far as his mother Hagan had been concerned, and she even believed him to be superior. She thought it appeared that nature had improved on Nephrican anatomy.

  The four-legged Pripicans from the star Poa were already famous in the galactic empire for the music they made and liked to sing. Nephricans have music, but it’s more primitive, and Nephrican music is mostly used for changing crowds into a controlled unison, like at sporting events and rallies.

  She cried as she said good-bye to her beautiful boy who disappeared before her eye to waddle off to the car as a Nephrican hologram illusion. She would miss both her son and the Captain, but Hagan had become glad to finally have her own life back after all these years. Soon the time came for the Captain, and his son to go. The good-bye had been intimate and Hagan had tears dripping down both sides of her snout. After she finished hugging her son the Captain repeated his previous offer. “You Hagan with us should come. From all of this be taken away.”

  They had already thoroughly exhausted this discussion. “Joberk no. From all of this be taken if I here stay. I my life a mother for your son I’ve given. Now that he a man Hagan Hiedalli to finally just being go back is.”