My life was irrevocably changed by the encounter. As I sat on the bolder reflecting, Jamook, in a fit of utter glee after being released from his burden, ran to the precipice about a hundred yards away and threw himself off, plummeting headlong and dying on impact on the jagged rocks 60 feet below. I stood dumbfounded for a moment then ran to the edge of the cliff. I jumped down after him landing with a gentle thump. I looked down at his body…torn, broken and bleeding and knew he was dead. He will finally be reunited with his long dead wife and children, as he passes into the afterlife. His memory…and literally all of his memories will live on nonetheless, through me. I’m sorry that he’s gone but glad that he got what he wanted. I burned his body on a funeral pyre as was the custom of his people. Then leaped back up to the top of the precipice and walked back to the boulder where I was given the amulet and sat down. I sat for several moments, reflecting. “I will never again be the same person that I was when I woke up this morning. I’ll never be just David Riley ever again.”
I must have sat on that, “bolder of contemplation” for hours. So I took the time to sort through the memories, clear my head and plan what I would do next. I couldn’t make the same mistakes as my predecessors. I had to gain the control and wisdom that this newfound knowledge and power demanded. Then I needed time to digest all of this. I had to become (figuratively speaking) invisible. So I had to do my best to blend in, and the best way to do that was to become somewhat reclusive. This would require a great deal of planning and money.
I needed to leave my 9 to 5 job behind. I needed independence without burden. Then I needed time to dismantle the ship in the quarry and rebuild a new one. “Where can I build an interstellar vessel without prying eyes noticing what I’m doing?” I’ll need a new home on a large tract of land, and fortunately, time is not a factor. I’m going to live forever or at least until I’m tired of living. After thinking things through, I stood up and ran the rest of the way home.
It was 12:32 in the afternoon when I arrived home. I love Saturday because it’s when I get to just goof off around the house. Well, goofing off around the house took on a whole new meaning today. I had planning to do. The first task is getting money to fund my financial independence. I could steal it, but I had the where-with-all to maintain my sense of honesty and integrity even though I was now the most powerful being that had ever existed and could not be subjected to the laws of man unless I wanted to be. Thank God for my parents and the lessons I was taught in church. They taught me how to conduct myself as a good and respectable person and I didn’t want to disappoint them or myself by failing to heed their sound advice. I would need to create something that everyone needed but was so innocuous that it wouldn’t arouse any interest in me. I need an invention.
It took little thought to arrive at the solution. A new polymer strand (Dexornon) that was 100 times the strength of any other polymer strand known to man. The Mirrioda invented it long ago, but no one on Earth knew that, so as far as they knew, I invented it. I took my pitiful life savings and purchased the equipment I needed over the internet. While waiting for it to arrive I maintained my 9 to 5 life and gradually distanced myself from my colleagues at work. My family and I were close but didn’t keep in touch very often, so they were no problem either. As a single man, with few ties, this part of my plan went very smoothly. When not at work, I arranged appointments with interested parties to view a presentation and witness a demonstration of my “invention”. All was going as planned.
It only took a couple of months. I had a lucrative business deal that not only given me a huge lump sum of money, but also huge dividends. I was a multi-millionaire with a large steady six figure monthly income and the whole thing was barely mentioned on the news. I had the money I needed and had already located the perfect plot of land. I worked out a great cash deal for the property. Within the next month, my architect had created, to my specifications, the plans for my new home. It is a large 6-bedroom house (including the housekeeper’s quarters), with 6 baths, a swimming pool, and a gym. A detached garage and separate workshop flanking the house with enclosed breezeways connecting them to the house. The flanking garage and workshop created a large veranda encircling the pool. A 12-foot redwood privacy fence spanned the gaps between the garage and the gym, as well as the workshop and the gym, completely closing it in. The front was reminiscent of the Colonial school of architecture with a red brick exterior and large columned portico. When completed it would be beautiful. I, being an accomplished woodworker with all the time in the world, and my own workshop, decided to complete the interior wood trim and hardwood floors myself. The construction was put in motion and the house was completed (inside and out) in just under a year.
I love all forms of woodworking and with my newfound knowledge, my best work now became great practical works of art. The maple hardwood floors in the large foyer spilled over into the living room, and family room. The foyer is flanked by two curved staircases and in the center of the floor I inlayed exotic and domestic hardwoods creating a mosaic displaying the Riley Family Crest. I also decided that except for the sectional sofa and lounge chairs in the family room, I would create all the furniture for my new home myself. I started out with the essentials, a bed, bedroom furniture, and a dining room set. I quickly proceeded through the house furnishing each room, completing the servant’s quarters last. With a house this large it took me almost a full year to furnish it, but it all turned out beautiful, and I was very proud of it.
The grounds around the house were sprawling. The front lawn was 2 acres deep and 5 acres wide and the private drive (Riley Drive) split after passing through the brick and steel security gate and had a row of Red Maple trees down the center with Azalea bushes between each tree. The trees weren’t very impressive now, but in time they will form a beautiful siren canopy over the drive. The drive merged at the front of the house forming a circle around a large fountain. The drives also curved off both left and right to service the garage on the right and the workshop on the left. The rear of the house, beyond the redwood privacy fence, was a large park-like area with only a select few deciduous trees left standing. I had my landscaper put in a few cherry trees and a variety of nut trees creating a small orchard amongst the other trees. Beyond this park-like area was a shallow valley surrounded by gently sloping mountains, and it all belongs to me.
With my home complete except for the little accent pieces that I will create in my spare time, it was now time to focus on creating a facility in which I can create a new interstellar vessel. It would not be easy. I had to create an underground facility so that my work could not be detected, and build upon the knowledge I had been given, creating the most advanced vessel ever conceived. I had been contemplating the design and technology in my spare time. I constructed computer models of most of the systems for the ship and was to the point that I could at least start the construction of the facility to house it. Knowing that this facility would require a large underground chamber, I chose a tract of land with a preexisting underground cavern. That’s why the beautiful valley wasn’t developed. It wasn’t safe to build on…but, as I’m sure you already know, I didn’t want to build on it, but within it. I told the realtor that I wanted to keep the area in its natural state, to preserve it for future generations, but I had nothing that noble in mind.
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob silently exclaimed: “Bold face lying to the realtor, he should be ashamed of himself.”
The cavern needed a better entrance and needed the old entrance sealed, so I went to work. The original entrance was a mere slit between two massive slabs of stone. The opening was a little over 8 feet wide tapering up from each side to 2 feet high in the center. I had gone out to the property alone and explored the cavern prior to buying the property and knew that with a little work it would be ideal. I sealed the opening with stones and mortar making my work look as natural as possible. I then began digging in a naturally camouflaged area to the right of the original entrance eventually creating a 6X6 feet wide, 20 feet deep hole in the ground. I set up plywood forms and poured concrete creating a concrete shaft with a 6-foot opening facing the cavern for the tunnel I would eventually create. The entry hatch I mounted was electronically controlled and I modified the remote control and the receiver to function on a frequency that mankind had not yet discovered. I was now ready to construct my tunnel and begin work on the interior of the cavern.
I began work on the tunnel. The initial 22 feet were easy. I was digging through dirt with an occasional stone; shoring up the walls as I went, then reinforcing it with rebar and sprayed on concrete. Then I hit granite. Part of the knowledge I received from the amulet concerned particle beam weaponry and mining equipment. I constructed a mining beam and continued my tunnel. It took me a total of two weeks of digging, cutting, removing tons of rubble and shoring to complete the 82-foot tunnel and break through to a small secondary chamber of the cavern. I constructed another remote operated door at the cavern end of the tunnel and began work on the interior. I had to smooth out the floor of the cavern removing the stalagmites and remove most of the stalactites overhead, but it was easy compared to the tunnel. The debris could be moved into an open tertiary chamber with much less leg work and time than removing it to the surface. As in all caverns, water sculpts and continually changes the cavern, so I had to seal the chamber I had cleared to prevent water infiltration. Again, I called upon the knowledge that was given me and modified the spray on concrete mixture I had used on the tunnel to include a substance that rendered it water proof and increased the strength of the mixture 20-fold. Construction was now complete; the cavern was ready to receive the equipment needed to continue my work.
Using the technology locked within me I first manufactured a generator. The power was unlike the electrical power used on earth. The knowledge was gleaned from a race called the Drazel; a formidable race conquered by Sway and his confederates hundreds of years ago. The generator’s power was self-replenishing and created no hazardous waste or heat. If the generator is destroyed, the contents instantaneously dissipate and the power generation simply and harmlessly stops. It was also silent, making it the perfect source of power for the cavern and the sub-light engine and internal systems of my space craft. I constructed the other equipment necessary for the construction of the vessel piece by piece, constructing equipment from my acquired knowledge or inventing the equipment as the need arose. But, the most important innovation that was necessary was to invent an infinitely durable material to form the hull of my new ship. All the ships in the known universe utilized metallic alloys or polymers. I had to create something new. I knew that ceramics could be created that are harder than diamonds. I also knew that the Kodor (another species conquered by Sway) had developed a polymer (Kevlynon) that could withstand extreme heat without melting and would also remain flexible.
The Kodor were a race that was just beginning their first exploration of space. They created a polymer that could be shaped during its processing into any shape needed. They applied it to the exterior of their space capsules (for lack of a better term) and used it as shielding during reentry into their atmosphere. It worked so well that even the heat of reentry couldn’t even singe it and it did not conduct heat. They were well on their way to interplanetary space flight. Unfortunately for them, Sways forces found them. When confronted by Sway’s armada, they were frightened but proud and they refused Sways rule, so their civilization was destroyed and their global population reduced to only several hundred thousand. At least they weren’t exterminated.
I wondered if combining ceramic technology of Earth and the polymer technology of the Kodor would work. I thought it over for several days and worked on several possibilities, and then I realized the answer. I invented and constructed the equipment necessary and then began the manufacturing process in accordance with my original vessel plans. I would create a simple panel first then test it. I began by pouring the ceramic mixture with the added polymers into a wooden form, then using my generator and an apparatus to generate an electromagnetic field around the panel. I released a 20 second burst of energy into the mixture at full power. The burst of energy traveling through the material creating the most intense heat ever created on Earth and the electromagnetic field arranged the molecular structure into an interwoven continuous chain of molecules and altered the initially gray mixture of the panel into a pail eggshell white. Unfortunately, the heat was so intense that it melted the electromagnetic field generator into a molten dripping mass and vaporized the wooden form. But they had served their purpose and could be replaced with a more durable and larger field generator protected by the Kodor’s polymer for the manufacture of the ship.
Testing the potential of the ceramic polymer panel proved impossible. It withstood attacks by water, freezing and the most powerful weapon in the known (recreated by me) without any damage whatsoever. As far as I could tell it was impervious to everything and that test panel I created would last forever, even the supernova of our sun couldn’t destroy it. It will easily outlive this solar system.
So, with the testing of the panel complete, I constructed a wooden space ship to act as a mold or form. I knew that the wood would be almost instantly vaporized by the pulse of energy of the manufacturing process because I used a wooden mold on my test panel. Planning was crucial because it was impossible to cut access holes and doorways into it after the manufacturing process. I had to place the openings I needed with exacting precision. I adjusted and prepared the wooden mold, then positioned the electrical field generator and the ceramic polymer sprayers on a sliding overhead track so that the solution could be evenly applied. Utilizing the gradually burgeoning telekinetic power of my mind, I suspended the wooden ship in midair so the oval shaped field generator/sprayer apparatus could freely pass around the ship as the machine made passes from front to back then back to front with a 20 second burst of power after each pass.
Neither of my predecessors had a brain sufficiently developed to generate telekinetic power, but my human brain did it with ease and as I practiced this new found skill, my ability to use it steadily improved. By the time I had completed 100 passes I was mentally exhausted and had created a one-half inch thick shell that was completely indestructible. I created skid-like landing gear, access covers, and doors, as well as the nuts and bolts to hold them in place using the same technology. Creating seals for the doors was another subject entirely.
I had designed a 2-4 inch overlap of all hatches and doors respectively, just to accommodate seals. I thought of trying to develop some sort of fabric gasket from the polymer strand technology of the Mirrioda, but the time and additional equipment required for the task seamed cost prohibitive. So, I compromised; I created simple molded seals out of the Kodor polymer and sprayed on a thin protective strip of the ceramic polymer that I developed for blast protection, and then applied another layer of the Kodor polymer to hold the ceramic polymer in place during the repetitive opening and closing of the doors and hatches. I attached the hatches and doors, installed their operating mechanisms and tried them out. They all worked like a charm.
With the hull completed I was free to complete the internal construction and install the internal operating systems, engines, the weapons systems, and force field generators (not that I needed them, but since I had the technology, I figured, why not). I saved the niceties for last. I applied steel beam construction techniques to delineate the various rooms and to support the wooden interior structures. The engine and technological systems I used did not generate heat, making interior wood construction possible.
I enjoyed the look of wood and it made the interior environment much more pleasant, so wherever it was practical and attractive, I used it. When completed, it could comfortably accommodate a crew of 6, including myself. It was beautiful and sleek like an oversized delta winged fighter jet, reminiscent of a Navy F-14 Tomcat and capable of atmospheric and aquatic flight, as well as space flight. And, with its interstellar drive capable of cruising at 20 times the speed of light and a maximum speed of possibly 5 times that, it was the fastest, most durable and most powerful ship ever created or even conceived of. I named her Pegasus.
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