I was hopeful that the contest between the Dux and Zeelok would last for several years. There was still much to learn about our own galaxy, but having the capabilities to reach the next galaxy was also important. So, I set both tasks in motion simultaneously. The quest for intergalactic flight and communication continued, and archeologists were sent out to the planets with extinct civilizations. The archeological teams consisted of groups from the Dux, Tetrite, and Humans. The species from the area once ruled by the Junock were subject to suchopression and singularly focused on the tasks dictated to them by the Junock, that they lacked the skills necessary for archeological exploration. That’s why I chose the Dux, Tetrite, and Humans.
Humans were sent to worlds that had very limited technology. They were much better suited to the study of the ancient civilizations reminiscent of ancient Greece, or the Aztec Empire of Earth. They were good at it and experienced with the study of such civilization. Anthropologists, botanists, zoologists, oceanographers, and geologists, among other specialists, were also sent along to study the flora and fauna utilized by the defunct civilizations. And to study the currently present life forms and geologic features of the planets. The oceanographers also obviously sent along to study the oceans and sea life of these worlds. The geologists were sent to help the biologists determine if geologic features or occurrences that contribute to the downfall of the civilizations. As well as, determining the current stability of the planet, as a prelude to colonization.
The Dux and Tetrite were much more adept at the study of industrialized planets of varying levels of technology. Those planets were studied in much the same way as the planets being studied by the Humans, but the potential for finding usable technology was increased. It was also an opportunity to study why relatively advanced species failed. The answer was fairly obvious in some civilizations. They mirrored the folly of the people of Earth. They achieved the technology necessary to utterly destroy themselves and render their planets uninhabitable. So, they weren’t lucky enough to have a benefactor like me, to rescue them from themselves.
Other civilizations simply failed to maintain the proper equilibrium in their biosphere to sustain life. They ran out of resources and room to grow and their expansion created an unsustainable ecosystem. The same thing would have happened to the Humans if it wasn’t interrupted prior to its occurrence. I knew that the human race was destined to fail without the ability to colonize other worlds. I’m glad I was around to give them the opportunity to survive.
There was a great deal of study into pandemic plagues as the cause of death in several of the more advanced civilizations. They had the potential for the global transmittal of disease through excellent transportation systems that provided rapid global travel. They had diseases that were extremely virulent to their respective species, but the theory of global transmittal failed to materialize in the form of hard evidence. There were always either isolated pockets of geographically protected groups or resistant people that could actually fight off the disease. If a pandemic had ever wiped out an industrialized civilization, we had no knowledge of it, but there were still many defunct civilizations to study.
This galaxy has 2, 226 unpopulated habitable planets at various stages of planetary evolution that could sustain any of the member species of my Empire. There are 567 more habitable planets that had previous sapient life that we are currently studying prior to colonization for a grand total of 2,793 currently habitable planets. There are additional 1,065 planets that needed minimal manipulation via terra-forming to become habitable. The galaxy has plenty of expansion room if the colonization is managed properly. I planned to manage it with the utmost care.
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob thought: “It’s a romantic notion…all those planets, but in the Bible, God only mentions the planet we live on…Earth.”
As the exploration of our galaxy continued, several interesting finds were discovered, but none that advanced our current technology. One of the most interesting finds discovered was a hominid-like species that never came down from the trees. They built a vast industrialized arboreal civilization in and amongst the treetops. Their planet had vast forests and abundant rainfall. It also had many large ground-dwelling carnivores and herbivores reminiscent of the extinct dinosaurs of Earth.
The trees were the height of the redwood and sequoia of the Pacific Northwest but were spreading deciduous trees instead of conifers. The beings were sustained on numerous varieties of nuts and fruit, supplemented by bird-like creatures that they caught in nets and snares, as well as domesticated in vast coops. Their civilization increased beyond its capability to sustain a viable ecosystem and their trees and food animals began to die due to the stress their civilization placed on them. This hominid-like species simply faded into oblivion. They were evidently poor adapters to their changing environment.
While this exploration continued the quest for intergalactic travel and communication proceeded. The Dux were excelling in space travel, building on their current technology. Their ship’s engines had become twice as efficient and their ship speed had increased by 20% over the past few years. The Zeelok were excelling in communications. Some of the abandoned Junock technology was adapted into a very effective long-range communications system. It was still only in its experimental stages though.
They could send a compressed data stream of 200,000 gigabits of information through a 10-second window of a stable event horizon before instability developed and closed the window. The “wormhole” was about the size of the head of a straight pin and required vast amounts of energy output to produce, but could provide brief instantaneous information transmittal from station to station from one side of our galaxy to the other. Increasing the stability, decreasing the energy needed and increasing the size and volume of the data stream still needed some work. Its range also needed improvement if it was going to send a signal across the void between galaxies. Stability was the key though. We needed sustainable, reliable two-way communication on an intergalactic scale. They were doing a great job though and I made sure they knew it.
The years became decades Keesha was now in her sixties. Her mother died a couple of years ago. It was devastating to Keesha and distressing to me. We both loved her very much. We took her mother back to Earth for burial and buried her in a spot where the contamination had decayed completely. Keesha wasn’t really ever the same after her mother died. The strain of losing her devastated her mentally and the stress created physical problems. She was still my Keesha and always showered me with love, affection, and kindness, but her other interests began to fade away into obscurity. Our planet-hopping visits to the planets of our Empire were more and more often becoming trips that I took alone. I understood and sympathized, so no ill-feeling became manifest, but I did long for the good old days of our inseparability.
The planetary archeological expeditions continued and occasionally I was called in to assist. I gave strict orders for the scientists to contact me if they had discovered anything that they determined to be potentially dangerous. They would fill me in on their research to date and then we collectively would decide how to best proceed to preserve the site, study the artifact and provide the appropriate safety for the scientists. Usually, it involved just flipping a switch on an innocuous or often non-functional machine that had an unknown purpose, but occasionally my task was a little more involved.
One such expedition involved a city-sized machine on a planet that was completely devoid of life. The atmosphere was intact, the freshwater clean and uncontaminated, the seas were also uncontaminated and had a Ph that was ideal for life to flourish in. What could have happened? Was this device responsible? All good questions, so we began looking for answers. First, we explored the planet’s surface looking for clues. The carcasses of the beings, sea life, plants, and animals were nearly intact. No life survived, even the microbes that decay organic material were missing. The only things that were deteriorating the carcasses and plant life were the ravages of wind and rain. No odor emanated from all this death either and for the same reason, no microbiologic cellular metabolism with its ensuing byproducts (decay and odor). Thank God, because death was everywhere.
This civilization was vastly superior to most industrialized civilizations that had not reached for the stars. They apparently were content to stay at home and manage their planet’s resources to the utmost. They were doing a great job too. Until the disaster hit that wiped out all life on their planet. They had developed what appeared to be a completely stable, self-sustaining biosphere in conjunction with a large sapient humanoid population and industrialization.
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob remembered: “According to the Law of Entropy, nothing is self-sustaining or stable. Everything is gradually wearing down to unusable energy/matter.”
Many of their environmental stabilization techniques can be employed throughout our galaxy. I look forward to studying them further at a more opportune time.
The study of the plants and animals revealed that whatever happened must have happened a long time ago. It is estimated that it happened some 500-700 years ago. Not long in geological time, but for corporeal life forms it obviously represents generations. The scientists had completed most of the research when I arrived. Their research revealed that the species had a 156,000 year written history and were unique and native to this planet.
They steadily made technological breakthroughs but weaved them into their planetary system dedicated to sustaining their biosphere. No technology was used if it didn’t fit neatly into their system. The technology was abandoned if it was found to be detrimental. It was a planet of “tree huggers”. It was smart but bizarre. This philosophy of conservation was never developed to the scale that these beings achieved. So, where did they screw-up? The scientist could find nothing on the planet or in the planet’s archives that could account for it, except possibly the city-sized device that was discovered.
So, last but not least we started studying the device. The preliminary research conducted on the exterior of the device noted that there were also no windows, doors or access ports, except for the front door next to the one and only discernible switch. The switch was a red lever about 4 inches long that was to be pulled from its position against the wall to an erect position then pushed in flush with the device. The device had a square base that covered about 62 square miles and was about 120 feet tall. There were no adornments and very few markings.
All the markings were at the entrance. The markings consisted of five black glyphs with a red triangle below them. According to the research to date, it was the name of the device or location of the device and the words “power plant.” The scientists were still unsure about the intricacies of the language though, so they were unsure of what it actually said, except for the words power plant. They had seen several references to power plants and discovered numerous much smaller versions of this power plant. None were found larger than 1,000 feet square. So, we knew what it was, but if this was tried and true technology used all over the planet successfully for hundreds of years, what happened this time?
I opened the door of the device and ventured in. It was dark, so I had to exit the structure to retrieve a powerful light to take along with me. I reentered the structure and I saw nothing but smooth walls without markings, an occasional access panel to some circuitry, but nothing else. The corridors meandered about like a maze but always spilled out into the main corridor. The corridors all stood the full height of the building and were about 20 feet wide.
I did the exploring myself because I’m the only being in the galaxy that can traverse the vast corridors, examine each point of interest and return in a matter of minutes. It would have taken a team of scientists weeks if not months just to walk through each corridor and back to the entrance. So, for the sake of expedience, I performed the exploration. I darted expeditiously and efficiently through the corridors and then back to the entrance.
After finding nothing to give me further insight into the nature of the device or what happened on this planet, I decided the best way to determine what the device did was to turn it on. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “That’s crazy!” Well, I’m indestructible and with my shield up nothing could happen to me. The only problem was that the scientists were still on the planet with me. That’s easy to remedy though, I’ll just send them off the planet…but how far? I sent all of them to their ships and instructed them to leave this system. I didn’t want to take any chances. Their ships headed for a position about 3 billion miles away, beyond the most distant planet in this system.
As they were traversing the system, I examined the body of one of the sapient beings. It had brown leathery skin and was hairless; it measured about 5 feet in height and had a slight build and four-fingered hands. These features seemed to be the norm for both males and females of the species, but the females had much broader hips. The scientists had determined that this species laid eggs, the shells of which were soft and leathery. The creature I was examining wore finely knitted clothes that were obviously machine manufactured. The clothes were unadorned and colored utilizing bland earth tones. They were very bland beings and the only art form noted was simple geometric sculptures. Whether they were for architectural adornment or served some other purpose was still being debated.
The ships were now in position and their scanners and detection apparatus was ready to record anything that happened. They also left satellites in orbit and ground-based devices to detect changes that they could not detect from their current position. Everything was ready…so, I flipped the switch. I instantly felt a wave of energy pass around my shield. The machine disengaged a moment after the wave past me. It was on for less than a second, but in that second of time a huge wave of hitherto unknown energy sent a wave out that engulfed the planet in a matter of seconds.
I contacted the ships to determine if everyone was okay, and they were, and then ask how far out from the planet the burst of energy projected. They determined that it did not extend beyond the magnetosphere of the planet. The device was no longer emitting the energy and the lever-like switch had automatically reset itself. So, I invited the scientists to return and fill me in on the results of their instrument readings and their theories. We had to determine if this energy wave caused the planet’s global extinction.
We used one of the conference rooms of an office building near the device to discuss the findings. After all the data had been sifted through, the only strange thing noted about this seemingly innocuous energy wave is that it instantly shut down all the devices the scientists left on the surface. Those with automatic battery backup systems instantly turned themselves back on and continued functioning normally.
It was very strange…but wait…okay, guys, I have a theory. What if this energy wave disrupts all other energy emissions? “My King, that’s obvious.” The lead researches said. “Yes, but you don’t fully understand the gravity of my statement. Do you have any laboratory animals?” “Yes, my king, how many do you need?” “I think two will do, with the second one only being there as a control. It will be in my force shield with me. I will observe the other as the wave passes through it, and since instrumentation is useless in this application, I’ll monitor the critters’ biological systems with my mind,” I said.
I sent the scientists away again, but not as far away this time. They left me two animals that strongly resembled tiny rabbits that were about 5 inches long. Each was in a cage. So, I sat one on the ground about 10 feet away and held the other cage with my free hand. I grabbed the switch with the other hand, raised my force shield around both myself and the tiny bunny-like creature in my other hand, and then focused my attention on the other creature’s biological systems. I flipped the switch. The wave emitted and stopped just as before, but this time it took another life. The critter that I was protecting within my shield was fine, but the other was dead. It died instantly and painlessly but in a fascinating way.
I called the scientists back down to the surface, in order to explain what had happened. They arrived a few minutes later. “As I stated before in theory and now again, in fact, the device disrupts all energy emissions. Not only mechanical energy but also biological energy.” Most of the scientists instantly knew what I was saying. The pulse from the device did not in actuality disrupt energy emissions, it turned them off. All biologic life forms…plants, animals and one-celled organisms have a bioelectric field and require bioelectric energy to live. This device emitted a wave that instantly turned off that bioelectric energy. All the creatures of this planet were simply turned off at the cellular level.
The wave didn’t last long enough to completely disrupt the tissues on the molecular or atomic level but did cause some instant decay. “I submit that these creatures died less than 200 years ago, and I’d like you to examine the dead test animal to determine if I’m correct.” The scientists quickly studied the hapless little critter and came to a conclusion. I was correct, the creatures of this planet didn’t die long ago. but they were disrupted at the molecular and atomic level just enough to throw off our first “time of death” estimation.
In reviewing the plans, we had determined that there were subtle changes in the design of this larger version of their power plants that were required due to its size. They had no idea that those minor changes would make such a difference and for some reason failed to run small scale tests incorporating the changes. They destroyed themselves, but I would not allow their device to destroy anyone else.
I destroyed the defective device and all the technical plans necessary to create another one. The only thing it could ever be useful for is as a weapon, and a weapon like this was simply useless to civilized beings. It kills everything and leaves their dead remains littering the entire planet. I’m sure some crazy idiot would think it’s a great idea though. Wipeout all life, introduce bacteria from your own world and then wait until they clean up the lifeless mess for you, and then return with a sort of Noah’s Ark set-up and seed the planet with living things you recognize and are comfortable with. Wrong! That’s murder and that’s a ridiculous waste of biodiversity and I will not allow it to happen!
The scientists unanimously agree with my decision and cheered after the destruction of the device. I stuck around for a few days prior to leaving for home. The planet had some interesting technology and information that I wanted to further investigate in person. I called Keesha and gave her a brief account of what had transpired. She was fascinated, but after a few minutes of talking, she started to sound tired. “Precious, are you okay, you sound tired?” I asked. “I am a little tired. So, I think I’ll cut this a little short today and I’ll talk to you again later,” she said with a tired voice through a yawn. “Okay, you get some rest and I’ll call you sometime tomorrow. Take care,” I said. “Okay, I will,” she replied.
The next day I was working in an office on the planet. It was a very drab office with no windows, a metal chair and desk, and a glass lamp and several glass bowls. I was reviewing some of the more interesting technology of the defunct civilization. Noting the time, I decided to call Keesha back, I called several times but she wasn’t answering, so I called the service line to our Imperial Palace and asked one of the servants to track her down and get her on the line. As I held the phone for what seemed like ages, I began to hear screams and crying in the background.
One of the housekeepers picked up the phone and through deep sobs that made it hard to understand her, she said, “Your Queen has died”. “WHAT! NO! NO! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? I JUST SPOKE TO HER YESTERDAY!” As I heard the sobbing of my housekeeper, my shock and despair shifted abruptly to anger. So, I stood motionless staring at the wall, my eyes glistening with tears and my blood boiling. The metal wall in front of me began to creek and flex, the glass bowls and lamp began to melt, and the chair and desk began to warp. The last time I had been this angry was when the Zet attacked me injuring Keesha, killing our one and only unborn child. This time I had no one to lash out against, so I just stood there for several minutes seething with anger.
As I stood motionless melting the walls and furniture of the office, another voice came through the line. The male elder of the palace staff said that the doctor on call had arrived and was examining the Queen. I still remained silent with only my deep angry breaths betraying my continued presence on the line. Several minutes later, I forced myself to start cooling down, specifically so the building wouldn’t cave in and kill the scientists in the adjacent offices.
The doctor got on the line. “My King, as you’ve been told, the Queen has died. There is nothing that can be done.” “NO!” I said, throwing the phone to the floor, spinning around and punching a hole in the thick metal wall. Vanishing from the lifeless planet and appeared in my palace bead chamber. I walked over to my precious Keesha lying on the bed, knelt at her side, took her hand in mine and began to cry. The servants backed away with bowed heads in respect and sorrow. Then the doctor re-entered the room and said softly. “My King, it appears she died several hours ago from an embolism that blocked a primary artery in her heart causing a massive myocardial infarction. So, it appears that she died almost instantly with little or no pain.”
I said nothing and continued holding her hand, gently kissing it frequently as I wept. Hours later, as my tears dried and my weeping subsided. I stood and turned to those in the room (no one had left), I said, “Thank you for attending my wife and I. I greatly appreciate your love, loyalty, and respect. Please contact the rest of the Imperial staff so that proper arrangements can be made for the funeral of my precious wife.”
I sounded excessively docile, almost meek, so they failed to respond right away until finally an elder male took charge, herded the staff out of the room and began directing them to accomplish the necessary tasks. My precious wife was gone and my heart felt like a heavy stone in my chest. I’ll need to return her to Earth to bury her next to her mother. My precious wife…dead…gone, and her spirit was now in heaven.
