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  Just then in an instant thirty-five rays of light beam down from the tall ceiling. Subjugator and his companions are astounded as they find themselves bound and shackled with electromagnetic detainers. The lights beam down again and they are surrounded with a force field net.

  “The wizard and warlock cannot use their powers unless their hands are free,” chuckles Daxu Korth. “So my brother has returned to take over the kingdom? You’ve gotten off to a bad start I’d say.”

  The doors open and the guards that Subjugator thought he killed march in and surround the prisoners. They’re astonished.

  “But we killed them,” says Pirate Lord Nase Yennock. “I saw them die.”

  “The guards were holograms,” replies Daxu Korth. “These are real.”

  At once Daxu Korth vanishes from the throne to the intruders’ further surprise and walks in the front door of the hall in back of them. “Here I am. What you were seeing was a realistic hologram, like the guards, made of electronic matter.”

  Subjugator as well as the other captives had no good words of greeting to say to Daxu Korth. “You are a snake in the grass, as the old Earthling saying goes. And I know how much you just love those Earthlings.” Subjugator is speaking in his native language to Daxu Korth.

  “You are a sick person spreading sickness and sadness. I no longer call you my brother,” Daxu Korth replies.

  “Now that I’m in your orbit,” Subjugator replies, using an old Quewythian idiom, “We need to watch each other’s back.”

  “Stay out of my life, Hyukitron,” I won’t kill you.

  “But I can’t, you see, we’re already in each other’s lives,” responded Subjugator.

  Pirate Lord Nase Yennock steps into the conversation. “I’m sorry if I step on your touching moment, but can you two speak Universal?”

  “Why don’t we settle this in the arena?” Suggests Boa.

  “What do you mean?” replies Subjugator. “Me and my brother? Or you and Wathesan Fla-Fla?”

  “Now wait a minute,” Protests Wathesan. “I’m not a fighter.”

  “Oh stop your whining,” says Boa. “Did you think he was serious? I meant our wizards against theirs. Let’s see who’s got the strongest magic.”

  “Now you’re talking, Boa,” responds Subjugator. “You talk better than you fight.”

  “Maybe I should be boss then,” replies Boa with a crooked grin. A tightening of the cuffs, to which all of the captives grimaced and groaned, interrupted their talking.

  “No,” said Wathesan Fla-Fla. “He’s going to torture us to death.”

  “Not so,” replies Daxu Korth. “I have something else in mind for you though. I would not be so foolish as to wager my kingdom in the arena in the hands of magicians and illusionists who claim to harness the elements, but cannot even harness their own consciousness.”

  Daxu Korth then raises his hand and the floor beneath the captives opens and descends and the electromagnetic web disappears. The floor then returns to normal. The captives were taken to cells made of strong Platainium, which is impossible to escape from. Spells are useless against it. There they all are kept while Daxu Korth contacts Cruise by Quantum Cyber Interstellar, informing him of all that went on.

  “The criminals, including The Subjugator, are being transferred in separated vessels to their respective areas, planets, or where they are wanted for the most crimes against their societies.”

  Chapter 16 Escape From Reklaus

  Chajux Motwreq landed his space cruiser on the planet Reklaus in the Galaxy of Pale Oxus. It was located halfway to Cassiopeia, being one of the Twelve Galaxies Cluster. Dvora’s daughters could not show their faces as their mother was known there as the vengeful wife of Daxu Korth. There was a bounty on her head now, and her daughters too.

  “Yes, the man...or woman, who brings her and her spoiled brats in will live happily ever after on the bounty value, no matter what the currency and rates are,” said a drinker at a bar in Tyuged City, where Chajux went to trade.

  Hearing the people talking about Dvora, he knew she had not been arrested yet. He surmised that she must be hiding somewhere laying low. He didn’t say anything, as he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself or his crew who were there to drink.

  “Any news you hear about Dvora report it to me,” He told his men. Then he bought some Reklaus Ale and brought it back to the cruiser.

  “Thought you might need this,” Chajux says to the three sisters he was helping. “It’s quite good.”

  “How long do you think it will take to get us to Cassiopeia?” asks Ophelia.

  “Traveling at this rate I’d say...about another year or so traveling at top speed.”

  They were weary of space travel since all of their lives they had never left their own planet. “But if you’d rather go out there and try to find a faster vessel to take you, beware. There’s a bounty on your heads.”

  Hearing that, their sulking turned to discouragement. They could not be caught and sent back to the life of slavery they escaped from.

  “Do you think Father will take us back?” Asked Yeralai.

  “Maybe...if we show we are truly repentant and only following our mother’s orders,” replied Ophelia.

  “He probably won’t forgive us He’ll throw us in his dungeon,” added Emedria.

  “Well, at least we’d be home and not on some forgotten rock world freezing to death in some pimp’s storage closet.”

  “Anything would be better than that,” says Yeralai.

  They drank the ale with Chajux and talked. “Why don’t you forget about your uncertain future, which most likely will end up back in prison? Come away with the crew and me. We’ll start a new life on a new world far far away. We don’t have to head back to Cassiopeia. I and the crew might even have incurred the wrath of the king for helping you.”

  Yeralai looked at Chajux with sympathetic eyes. “I don’t want that to happen to you, Chajux. We would have no say in the matter. Only the king can decide or agree to the fate of his children.

  “He can forgive us too, then,” said Emedria. “I’m sorry, sisters, but this planet is where I get off. I’ll find a faster vessel to get me to Cassiopeia. Anyone with me?”

  Ophelia and Yeralai looked at Emedria with hard eyes. She knew what they were thinking. Her two younger sisters didn’t want to go out into the streets and get caught. They wished there was a way they could talk to their father on the Cyber Interstellar. Chajux hadn’t used it on their trip to broadcast anything since the name of their vessel and their location would be given away. He had yet to hear his name on the news reports as having kidnapped the king’s daughters or having helped them escape from their mother, but he didn’t want to take a chance of his cruiser being recognized. Back on another planet that they landed on to do trade, they were able to sell their spacecraft and procure another. The one they had now was faster and had a Interstellar connection. But he still did not want to take the chance of the daughters contacting their father only to have their location traced and end up getting picked up by the local authorities.

  The other crewmembers returned to the cruiser. “This is a real hot spot. We have to leave here.”

  “I don’t wanna get caught,” bawled Emedria.

  “Stay with us then and you’ll be safe,” reassured Ophelia.

  “If I could only talk with my father,” assumed Yeralai. “I know he’d understand.”

  Chajux gave the order to blast off and turned to Ophelia, who he liked a lot. “There is a way. I have a friend. I can contact him. He can help us. We can transmit a message through him and he knows how to bounce it off of several galaxies and stars before it reaches Cassiopeia. They can never trace it then.”

  “Father? Is that really you?” Ophelia cried as she reached out on the cyber connection with all her heart and soul to the one person she believed would understand their predicament. She explained everything, and that she, Emedria and Yeralai were separated from their mother and of different hear
ts and minds.

  “I need no explanation to know you’re being truthful. My Quewythian intuition tells me such. Perhaps it is I who need your forgiveness.”

  “Father...I...love you...I...” before Yeralai could finish Daxu Korth finished for her.

  “I know that voice...it’s Yeralai. Right?”

  “Yes, Father...I’m sorry we followed Mother’s pernicious will,” she sobbed.

  “Oh, Yeralai...my sweet daughter...I...missed you.” He replied on the visual and audial. “I won’t ask where you are, because I already know. But do not fret my little ones. For if you have made the estrangement from your mother, then I shall receive you and your sisters with open arms.”

  “ Can I talk to him?” asked Emedria.

  “I guess so...”

  “Father, I am so happy to see you.” tears streamed down her face.

  “Now, now, Emedria, darling, I never though of any of you less than my daughters.”

  “Why did you send us to that horrible place?” she probed.

  “That question will be answered in time, my kitten, But know this for certain, I will never let anything come between me and you again. And that goes for Yeralai and Ophelia too. You have the word of the Daxu Korth.”

  “Greetings, Father.” Ophelia joins in. “We were helped and rescued by Chajux Motwreq.”

  “Ah...a southern Quewythian. I recognize the surname and the origin. He’s from the twin planets.”

  “You are more than knowledgeable concerning your kingdom, Daxu Korth,” says Chajux Motwreq.

  “The valiant deeds of your people are recorded in our annals for future generations,” answered the king. “Name your reward for your bravery and valiant activities in rescuing my beloved daughters.”

  “I only ask one thing, my king,” replied Chajux. “I assure you, it is most valuable to me ever”

  “What can that be, Sir Chajux?” replied the king.

  “You called me Sir...and why might I ask, if it is not presumptuous of me to do so?”

  “It is the title given to all of my knights,” replied the king. “Your unequivocal bravery in the face of impossible odds has earned you the title.”

  “You know what I did?” asks Chajux Motwreq.

  “I not only know what you did, Sir Chajux Motwreq, but I also know why and what you intent to ask me.”

  “How do you know I intended to ask for your daughter Ophelia’s hand in Matrimony?” asked the confused young commander.

  “I didn’t know that...and the answer is yes...that is...if she desires it also,” answered the wise king. “You will have the most lavish wedding ceremony Cassiopeia has ever seen.”

  Daxu Korth had defeated The Subjugator, and so it seemed. There they were, all of them...in the dungeon; Daxu Korth’s mortal enemy, and his cronies. What should he do with them? After counselling with his aides, he came to a decision. Each one of them were wanted criminals on their own planets. He would turn them over to their respectful authorities one by one. None of them had any connection other than they were all pirates. He would see to it that they were punished to the full extent of the law.

  But Daxu Korth was jubilant. A brave warrior and his crew had rescued three of his daughters from their traitorous wicked mother. They were coming home. But what of the other four? Were they safe? Were they all right? He didn’t know their whereabouts. Although he rejoiced in the return of his youngest daughters, he mourned the fate of his oldest, if they made the wrong choice to stay with their ghastly mother.

  Dvora, beautiful at one time, had degenerated into something lesser than she had ever expected. Due to her encounters with the various planets and their suns, spores and pollen and bacteria in the air, corruption beyond her understanding, her loveliness and strength had diminished ferociously. She had succumbed to the baser instincts of her evolution; sorcery. From what she had learned from the Gypsies, the magicians and illusionists, Dvora was able to put together quite a show. The former queen of the Twelve Galaxies Cluster had become a common entertainer, and her four daughters her assistants on the planet they had fled to. She was delving even further into the forces of darkness now and her daughters were not sure they liked seeing her this way.

  Valenza had left to live with Sertis. The other daughters had boyfriends who took most of their time. Dvora was the main fortuneteller on Garv and suffering from depression and forgetfulness.

  Sertis and his friends had been trying to wean Dvora’s daughters away from her. They had at last succeeded. Valenza was the first to leave the ten-bedroom home Dvora had bought when they first arrived there. Kyn’s boyfriend, Hujack, had also asked her to come and live with him and his parents. The liberal Garvian culture had space for that. Kathara’s fiancé was also living with his parents and younger sister who had her girlfriend lover over frequently. Sarita’s boyfriend invited her to live together at his brother’s house whose wife was really a man, but looked like a lovely woman.

  The girls were thrilled with all the new concepts they had been introduced to and the freedom they now had. Dvora willingly released the strong overbearing hold she had on them to delve into sorcery and learn the art of wizardry and fortune telling. She was determined to put what she had learned to good practice in her revenge against Daxu Korth.

  She returned home late one night from the nightclub she now owned. She had been using that as her base to work out of for her clientele. She always left some of the lights on, not to forget what happened when she got a visit from her former lover Lebag Kralc. The thoughts of him had long been gone and it was just habit now.

  Walking into her plush living room she sits down on her purple velvet sofa and grabs the controller to turn on the news transmission on her audi-vision.

  “Hello again,” says a voice that sends chills up and down Dvora’s spine. The high backed chair swivels around and she sees Lebag Kralc.

  “How did you get in here?” she gasps. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see how you and our daughters were.” He replied. “From what I gathered they seem to be adjusting to the society on Garv quite well. Would I be able to say the same about you?”

  “I run my businesses. I take care of myself and the girls too, if they need anything,” she replies. “How did you know I was here?”

  “Forget? I’m a spy. I’ve known you were here for a long while now,” he lights a small cigar and smiles. “They still don’t know do they?”

  “They never will. I’ll never tell them, and don’t you ever tell them either.” Dvora glowers at Lebag.

  “I don’t think I would. Knowing them, they’d probably demand money from me and claim their rights to all I possess,” he chuckles, “If they’re anything like you, that is. Why humiliate yourself here on this piece of space rock? This whole dang planet is nothing but one...huge...growlery.”

  “So you still haven’t told me why you’re here,” fumes Dvora.

  “Business, my dear. Business. I also buy and sell,” he replied.

  “What, little boys and girls?”

  “That’s enough of that.” Lebag slaps her on the face. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean that. I was just caught up in the moment.”

  Just then the door swings open and Sarita walks in with her boyfriend and Dvora swings her head to see. Lebag touches his wristband. Dvora turns back and he’s gone.

  Chapter 17: Terrestra and Celestia

  Captain’s Chronicles: Infinity has left Earth II. We are on our way across the quadrant to another galaxy. According to Infinity’s database on my home planet Earth, the galaxy cluster we are now traveling through is 14 billion of Earth’s light years away from there. Infinity’s data says it’s called Hoag’s Object. The fact that Earth had put a name to it meant that we were getting closer to our goal. If the Earthlings were able to view it from where they were, then we were not far away. I plan not to make a mad dash for it right away, but keep Infinity on course at Hyper Speed.

  The galaxies they were passing they had never seen t
he likes of before. There was a whole galaxy that looked more like a comet. There were different bright colors and shapes of nebulae, quasars, and dead stars. Meteors and asteroids filled the expanse of space. Billions of stars seemingly came up to kiss Infinity like angels in the heavens.

  Cruise was more excited than ever, as were the rest of the crew. Anxious to find planets in this region, Cruise set Infinity’s search codes to the proper frequency. Infinity had evolved to be able to pick up the sounds of life from further away than ever before.

  There were hundreds of galaxies in the cluster. The gravitational force seemed to be greater than anything they had encountered thus far due to the density of the cluster and the speed that most of the galaxies were moving.

  “Captain, Infinity has picked up signs of life from the uttermost end of this cluster of galaxies,” said the science officer Caleo, who was also now the first officer. “According to Infinity’s data she just received, Earth named the galaxy MACS0647-JD in the Earth- named constellation of Camelopardalis, which contains approxmately sixty stars in total.”

  “Infinity, how many solar systems or star systems are there in that galaxy that have any forms of life?” asks Cruise.

  “All together, Captian, there are three solar systems that contain life forms”

  “Okay, Infinity, tell me how many have humanoid or human life forms.”

  “Only one, Captain, I’m afraid. Would you like to know how many planets have humanoid or human life forms?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “There are two, captain. The life forms on the two planets originate from Earth.” Infinity projects a 4-D hologram of the galaxy, pinpoints the solar system and then zooms in on it. “As you can see, Captain, the two planets are in the habitable zone. One is slightly larger than the other. That’s the furthest one, forth from its sun. The sun is larger than the Earth’s sun, but weaker, as it is a red dwarf starting to form into a yellow sun, which will become hotter and scorch the nearest planet. The furthest planet is now much colder than the other one. It will survive and become much hotter, but will keep its polar ice caps and have normal seasons.”