First and Last Contact, Part 2
by
Kevin Wasser
Back at the encampment, Velona was having the children perform various small tasks, which ranged from handing her tools to scooping out all the mud, which had seeped into the ship. They were currently singing an Axonian play song, to help pass the time. But Velona was irritated because the song was interrupting her concentration.
"Those crazy kids! Whose idea was it to bring them along anyway?" She thought to herself.
But Velona already knew the answer to that. The Elders, (the oldest and wisest Axonians, some of whom were over a thousand years old) had decided that since their race was now being forced to lived in the depths of space, that the next generation of Axonians should have plenty of experience upon reaching adult hood of traveling among the various planets. It was determined that this would help in their races survival. So it was commanded that on all exploratory voyages, a handful of children would accompany the adults, so that they could learn about planet exploration.
But perhaps the real reason for Velona's apparent crankiness was that her own son was not with them. Her son, Valtok, whom she had birth to 100 years ago, after taking Altok as her mate, was just now reaching the adult age. At that age, the child was now ready to journey forth on more dangerous missions. Right now, he was supposed to be on a scout ship trying to breach the Cringons defense network, in an attempt to even the odds against the warmongering race.
The entire adult population typically raised axonian children. It was supposed to keep preferential treatment down, that way the good of the race is looked over the good of certain individuals, namely their own biological children.
"Altok doesn't seem to even care what dangers Valtok's running into out there," she muttered to herself. "All's he can focus on is whatever interests him scientifically at the time."
Further thoughts were interrupted though, as a loud stomping noise filled her ears. She suddenly became aware that the children were screaming, and she rushed outside to see a stone giant marching towards their ship.
"Golem will crush you," The Giant exclaimed.
With that he stomped hit foot down where one of the kids had been standing just moments ago. All of the children were scattering in an attempt to confuse the Giant.
"Hold still so I can crush you!" The giant yelled.
Just then, a beam of light shot forth from the ship and blasted the Giant's face. Velona had ran back inside and activated their weapon systems. The Giant screamed in what might have been pain or anger.
"I don't know if a laser blaster will stop you," Velona shouted, "But you'd better believe I'm going to try!"
With that she fired a few more barrages at the Giant. The beast named Golem stepped forward into the marsh where the ship lay and reached to pick up the ship. Velona felt the ground rumbling around her, and then felt the ship being lifted up into the air. The ship was big enough to fit in both of the giant's hands, but it had no problem lifting it up. When the ship reached the Giant's eye level though, Velona fired her lasers on full power right into its eyes.
The giant screamed and tilted backwards, dropping the ship in the process. As the giant hit the ground, (the kids barely managed to keep from getting hit) it broke into several pieces, which started to sink in the marsh. The ship crashed back into its original resting place, except not it continued to sink further into the marsh. As the murky water swallowed up the ship completely, Velona couldn't help but think:
"I'd rather be fighting the Cringon's right about now…"
********************
Sigiro, Elra, and Altok burst into their campsite to find everything in ruins, and their ship missing. Upon their arrival the kids stepped out of the woods and ran to them. But most of them halted in their steps as they looked at Sigiro the Bogbeast.
"It's just me, children. I'm simply having a bad day."
"Sigiro?!?" they all asked at once.
"It would seem that the away team had as bad of a problem as we did," one of them exclaimed.
Elra diverted their attention back to the problem at hand.
"What happened here? Where's the giant? Where's the ship?"
As the children explained, Sigiro broke down exasperated. "Now not only am I stuck like this, I'm stuck on this world as well!"
In response, Elra lost her patience.
"Just what is your problem, Sigiro?" She screamed. "We're all under pressure here!"
"You don't understand," he replied, while looking at his scaled hands. "This sort of thing is supposed to happen to the ensign's of the scouting team, not the captain!"
"Don't give up hope just yet, old friend," the ever optimistic Altok replied. "Preliminary scans of the depth of this marsh now reveal what appears to be an underground cavern below this permeable layer of marsh. Our crashing here, plus the giant's footsteps made the marsh unstable enough, that there is a 90% chance that the ship sank through to that cavern."
"Hey everybody! We have company!" shouted one of the children.
Everyone turned to see the yellow eyes of the Bogbeasts staring at them from the bushes. Elra stepped forward to signal it was okay for them to come out. As they stepped out, the children rushed up to greet them kindly.
"You defeated Golem! You are strong. We always run from him!"
"Is the translator broken?" one of the kids asked.
Elra asked the apparent spokesman for the bogbeasts. "What was that creature?"
The Bogbeasts shook in fear. "We don't know where he come from. Him not only one either. There are several Golems. They walk around and fight. Sometimes they stomp on Bogbeast village!"
"I believe I can shed some light on the subject," Altok said. "I think I know what is going on on this world."
Everyone turned to him in expectation, even the dimwitted Bogbeasts.
"This is a world of magic. Magical creatures roam freely here, and I'm sure there are magic casters as well, and that would explain all the bazaar stuff we've witnessed. It would also account for the enormous amounts of energy I've detected, since magic is nothing more then a type of energy."
"Of course! Magic!" Sigiro gasped. "Then there has to be a magical cure, right?"
"Then…I wonder if the Entity might have come from here…" Elra wondered. It was widely hypothesized that the Entity was a magical creature.
"But what about Velona and the ship?" asked one of the children.
"How about we simply wade out to the marsh and sink down like the ship?" Elra asked.
"Too risky," Altok replied. "What if we don't sink through fast enough? Then we'll drown and I don't want to chance it."
One of the Bogbeasts stepped forward.
"You looking to sink underground? Come to Bogbeast village! There is water sink just down river!"
The Axonian's looked a little skeptical, but they really had no choice. So they let the Bogbeasts lead them to their village. After a march of several hours, they were worn out, but eventually stumbled into the village. The settlement was made up of little more then dingy huts.
"Where is the water sink?" Elra asked.
"It just down there!" said the Bogbeast, who point down the river, which ran next to the village.
After walking a few more meters, they came upon a whirlpool, which lay in the middle of the river.
"Bogbeasts don't go there. It look dangerous!" said their guide.
"On the contrary," Altok said while scanning. "The ground only goes underground a couple of meters before opening up into the underground cavern. This could be a very fast transport down to there."
"All right then…" Sigiro said. "Much as I'd like to jump in right now, we need to play this safely. We'll have Altok run a few more tests, and if it's okay, we'll use the whirlpool in the morning. For right now though, it's been a long day, and we could all use some rest."
The Bogbeasts were more then happy to accept them into their huts, but Elra, after a couple of hours of lying awake, decided she needed to move about. Upon stepping out of her hut, she noticed Sigiro pacing around as well.
The Bogbeast-Axonian turned around as she drew near. "So, you couldn't sleep either."
"Look, I'm sorry for shouting at you today. But things aren't going the way I'd hoped on this trip." Elra sighed.
"There is no need to apologize. It's just that in all my space travels, I never encountered anything like this." The Axonain looked again at his webbed hands. "And Altok's saying it could be permanent. I…truly have never been more afraid. And more ashamed."
"Don't be ashamed!" Elra ejected. "You couldn't have known this would happen. And no matter what your appearance, you are still heroic to me!"
"This isn't exactly what I'm ashamed of," Sigiro replied. "I'm ashamed that I never asked you to be my mate, and now I may never have a chance."
With the words finally spoken between them, the two stood their looking at each other, both not quite sure what to say next. But just then, they both heard the sound of giant footsteps, which signaled what the whole village had feared. Another golem was approaching. The Bogbeasts were suddenly scared and panicking.
"Oh No! Now Golem destroy village again! This always happen!"
Altok appeared from a hut and spoke quickly, "We don't have much choice. If we're going to survive, our best chance lies in taking the whirlpool."
Sigiro, who slipped into his take charge mode, ran back through the village and shouted to all the Bogbeasts who were quaking in fear.
"All of you! If you want to live and be safe from the Golem, follow me!"
With that, he led the panic stricken Bogbeasts back to the Whirlpool, where he proceeded to start pushing them in.
"Just what are you doing?" Altok asked.
"Saving lives! Ours and theirs! Now get in!"
Altok, Elra, and the children entered the whirlpool, and Sigiro followed just as the giant stepped into the village. As the current pulled under Sigiro, he wondered once again how he got into these messes.
************************
As the water roared around him, Sigiro thought he felt himself be pulled down underground and over a waterfall. A current dragged him downstream and then he was pulled up from the water by strong hands. Catching his breath, he saw that the Bogbeasts had been his rescuers, and they and the Axonians were shouting and hugging each other for joy.
Sigiro then noticed his surroundings: they were indeed in the Underground Cavern, and the whirlpool had apparently led them to and Underground River, which ran through the Cavern as far as the eye could see.
"Where's the ship?" Elra asked.
"I'm detecting it on the scanners, along with Velona's lifesigns, downstream." Altok answered. Sigiro stood up and started walking.
"Then we go downstream."
Hours later, they spotted the ship lying next to the river. They also took notice of a strange house, which looked out of place here underground. Out from it stepped Velona.
"So what took you guys so long?" she said, as the Axonians rushed up to hug her. She looked around skeptically at the Bogbeasts.
"Where's Sigiro?" she asked.
"I'm right here," replied the Bogbeast.
She stared at him for a few seconds before breaking out laughing. "So, you breathed in the flower. It would have to be you."
"How do you know about the flower and the Bogbeasts, my love?" Altok asked, hugging his mate. They weren't the closest of couples, but could display affection when needed.
"Simple, my love. The person inside told me all about them."
With that, the Axonians stepped inside the house and beheld a strange site. Inside was a library full of dusty old books, along with table upon which stood many vials and pots. In short, it was a wizard's laboratory. But the strangest item of all was upon the center table. It was a crystal shaped to about 1 foot of height, and seemingly inside it their was an image of a human being, and old man with a dark beard and piercing eyes to be exact. Now the Axonians had never seen a human being before, let alone one inside a crystal, and they didn't know quite what to make of it.
Altok spoke first, "What manner of creature is this?"
The crystal spoke back, "I could ask the same of you, my furry onlooker."
Everyone, (except Velona) gasped at this, for they didn't expect it to talk back.
"I know what's confusing you," the crystal man continued, "allow me to explain. I was not always like this. Once, I stood as tall as you, and was able to walk around freely. I was a wizard of the highest rank, and I held myself in high regard indeed. Know now that wizardry has been around for sometime, yet is just in the last few centuries becoming an art. I was one of those artist; a wizard who was able to create all manners of creatures, and shape the Realm to my desire. In time, I came to belong to an…Order of Wizards…an Order that was devoted to domination of the Realm. It sounds like a presumptuous group, I know, but you must understand, the Realm has always been a hotbed of monsters, a land full of Dungeons and Dragons. We thought we were strong enough to conquer it though. But each of us figured we were the one best suited to bring about this order, and thus, instead of using our powers together, we decided to fight each other for domination, to see which of us would be the one in the end to Dominate the Realm. Such was my folly.
"Each of us ended up creating our own monsters with which to do battle against the others, and each of us become a monster in our own sense. The Bogbeasts, as you call them, were my creation. They were supposed to be a fiercer type of Bullywog, which would spread like a weed through the Realm. Instead, something went wrong, and I ended up with a cowardly frogman, who reproduced thanks to a flower. I probably would have fixed my mistake, if it weren't for a competing wizard quickly getting the upperhand on me. His name was Shargon, and he was perhaps the most powerful wizard of all. It was he that created those Golem monsters, and it was he that cast this spell on me, and trapped me within this crystal, here within my own home. He then left me to be imprisoned within here for all time, while the Wizard's War raged onward. That was some centuries ago, and that war is long since over. Using what is left of my power's, I've been able to detect a new Order of Wizards has come about, one who along with a band calling themselves the Celestial Knights, are bringing a true peace to the Realm. But my time is passed. And thus I consider it a god's blessing that you have come along to free me!"
"Wait a minute," Sigiro interrupted, "You said you created the Bogbeasts. Does that mean you have a cure that can change a person back to the way he was?"
"Not so fast, my eager friend. As I stated, I consider it a blessing you are here, because you can release me from this crystal! Help me out, and I'll tell you how to become your true self again, and how all of you can leave this world of magic, which frightens you, so. All you need to do is to shatter this crystal."
Altok spoke next, "Yet, I suspect that that won't exactly set you free."
The figure in the Crystal nodded. "Oh, but it will! While it would take a spell to release me back to my former self, I told you that this is no longer my time! I wish to be released from this world, and journey onto the next. Shattering this prison will do just that."
"So you wish to die?" one of the children asked.
"Death is not too much to ask for, when you have lived as long as I, young one. I know that your race respects life and death a great deal too, for you are much like the elves in your longevity. My race's lifespan comes and goes like the wind, and I wish only for that wind to finally carry me away."
The adult Axonian's stepped aside for one moment to consider the possibilities.
"Can we trust him?" Sigiro said. "Much as I'd love for this supposed cure, this wizard did say he once wanted to dominate the world."
"I've been chatting with him ever since I got down here," Velona said. "He seems harmless enough."
Elra was the one to put everyone's worries to rest. "Sigiro…what choice do we have? He has seen fit to offer us the help we need. The least we can do is return the favor."
They turned back to the crystal and nodded an agreement to the wizard's proposal.
"First, you should know that there is no cure for the Flower's curse."
Sigiro spat out, "But you just said-"
"Do not panic. There is a way. Here in my lab. In that chest over in the corner…"
One of the Axonian children went and opened it up.
"I need you to pull out the largest amulet in there. Be careful on how you root through there, some of those magical items are a little sensitive to the touch, hehe…Yes! That's the one. Now give it to your Bogbeast friend. Let me say before hand their isn't a guarantee this will work, for the Amulet changes a being into his true self, and if you are truly a coward, you will remain a bogbeast forever! But we shall see…"
Sigiro gulped, and prepared himself for this one hope. In truth, he had never been more afraid. "Does that make me a coward?" he thought to himself, "No. I am a proud Axonian, who has explored the galaxy. Now the only thing I have left to explore is my own heart." As he thought this, he looked over at Elra and donned the amulet.
In a burst of light, Sigiro the Bogbeast became Sigiro the Axonian once more. There were many hugs and shouts of approval.
"And now, about your ship," continued the crystal wizard. "You should know that the reason I choose this underground cavern is because of some inherent magical properties it contains. One of which is the river itself, which rains upside-down every 100 years. The river at the moment can carry a person wherever he wants to go. It can even send your ship back to the far side of the galaxy. The river will perform this feat 3 days from now. I'm sure you can repair it sufficiently by then.
"That's great!" said one of the children, "But what about the Bogbeasts?"
The wizard sighed. "They may stay down here, and live in peace. The only people they may have trouble with are a group of dwarfs that live way upstream, but I'm sure they could build themselves a new village here, and live in peace. But whatever you do, don't let them get hold of my artifacts in this lab. They could bring disaster upon themselves by trying to use some of these items. My promise is kept. Now release me from my prison."
There was nothing more to be said. Whether the wizard was lying about the river was unlikely, all they had to do was keep him around for 3 more days, and they would then find out. But if the river was untrue, then there was no means for them to get home anyway, for their ship was trapped in the bottom of a cavern. With as little ceremony as possible, Sigiro stepped forward, and using a wooden staff found in the house, shattered the crystal in one swoop. There was the sound of a sigh of joy, and a small puff of smoke, and then nothing but pieces of crystal left on the table.
Over the next 3 days the Axonians repaired their ship and prepared for departure. They knew now that this world was unsuitable for colonization, but would still report their findings to the Elders. They knew the river would take them back to the welcome site of the Armada.
As for the Bogbeasts, the Axonians also spent as much time as possible getting them ready for life underground. The used pieces from the Wizard's house to start their own huts, and the Axonians put the artifacts of the wizard in a specialized hut which they instructed the Bogbeasts to set off as off limits and sacred. The Axonians wouldn't take the artifacts for themselves; they had no place for them in their society.
"But what if Bogbeasts need help from you again?" said the Bogbeasts, who were obviously troubled the Axonian's had to leave.
"You won't run into any trouble down here," Sigiro tried to explain. "There's no monsters here."
"But you are sacred friend! You fall out of sky in our time of trouble!" the Bogbeast replied.
"Well, uh…yeah we did…and listen! Whenever you need help again, a Bogbeast like me will fall out of the sky again!"
This seemed to please the Bogbeasts, who immediately set down this account in their own crude writing as a prophecy from their "sacred friends", but Altok didn't look happy.
"Sigiro, are you sure we need to be interfering in their culture, and influencing their society?"
"Why not?" he replied. "The only thing they have to worry about down here is those dwarfs, whatever those are, and what are the odds of a Bogbeasts falling from the sky in a Underground Cavern? I'm just trying to get them to stop being so scared."
"Oh, sure," Altok muttered, "Why the Elders never set a standard or a Prime Directive for this sort of thing I'll never know…"
************************
By the third day, the ship was fully functional again, and had been set on the river, anchored on it like a boat. The Axonians had gathered on the ship, and were preparing for the magical tide, which would supposedly sweep their ship away from this strange planet. The Bogbeasts were standing on the shore and waving goodbye to their friends. Elra walked up onto the deck of their ship to wave back; the ship had an open top until sealed for outer space travel. Sigiro walked up behind her.
"Much as I like those creatures, I hope no Axonian ever has to set foot here again." Elra said.
"None should have to," the captain of the ship replied. "When I make my presentation to the Elders, I'm going to have them issue a warning to stay away from this planet."
"What else will you report?" Elra asked.
"That I've decided to settle down, and take a mate."
Elra gasped at this unexpected answer. "But exploration is your life!"
"And it still is," Sigiro chuckled, "But I was hoping to find time to explore life with you, Elra. If I've learned anything here, it's that I can't put you off forever. Though we Axonian's live a long time, we should never put off matters of the heart."
As they stood their looking at each other, the river suddenly shifted and they felt the boat being pulled in the opposite direction. Sure enough, the waterfall at the end of the river was travelling upward. The hatch at the top of the ship closed and they turned the engines on. The ship roared to life and cruised down the river.
"I can't believe we're using a river as a means of hyperspace travel!" Velona shouted.
"Yes, it is indeed remarkable and fascinating, is it not?" the ever attentive Altok replied.
They sailed up the waterfall, and suddenly found themselves back in the depths of space, with the Armada of Axonian ships just beyond their view screen.
The Axonian's from that point on tried to avoid that planet, but the system in which it lay was a good travel route, and eventually another group of that remarkable race would end up journeying there, much to another wizard's delight. The Axonain race never did fully claim another homeworld.
The Bogbeast, on the other hand, lived a peaceful life, until one of the dimwitted creatures had the stupidity to don one of the sacred amulet's and thus revealing a nature that might have been much more in line with what the wizard in the crystal would have originally wanted. This new creature became a new threat to the Bogbeast community, but everything would eventually turn out for the best, as the prophecy of the Bogbeast that would fall from the sky eventually did come true.
And there are those that say the flower that is the beauty that breathes the Beast still grows in remote portions of the Realm, waiting for someone to come along and pluck it…
THE END
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