What follows is a work of
complete fiction.
This series will include detailed
descriptions of sexual encounters between a human male and other males from various alien races in a science fiction setting.
If this is not the type of story you
would enjoy, please stop reading now.
If there is any reason legal or
otherwise why you should not read such a story, please stop reading
now.
If you are the type of person who
has any difficulty whatsoever separating fantasy from reality, please stop
reading now.
That said if you are still reading I
do hope you enjoy the story.
This story is the property of the
author and may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any way without my
express, written consent. Nifty.org has my express
consent.
About the story:
This
series tells the story of an ordinary man who's life is near its
natural end, but who suddenly finds himself, at the moment of the
unexpected destruction of his world, the victim of an alien
abduction with a bizarre motive, that ultimately opens the entire
universe to him and propels him into a life of adventure that he'd
never
imagined was even possible. He eventually finds himself thrust
front and center into events that could, both figuratively and quite
literally, change the shape of the entire known universe.
I hope that you enjoy it.
Look for more of my stories under the pseudonym JakeXtraTall at http://www.nifty.org/nifty/authors.html#JakeXtraTall
The Nifty Archive is an incredible
source of wonderful stories that provides so many of us with countless hours of
entertainment. If you enjoy this story I would greatly appreciate if you would
do your part and donate something to the site to help cover the cost of running
the archive. http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html
Favors of the First Ones - Chapter 22
Jake had briefly drifted off in the powerful lull following the multiple orgasms he'd shared with his two new lovers.
He woke to the sound of Mak's laughter coming from the living area of the house.
"He
looks like such a goof flipping and flailing through the air! I
wish you guys could have seen him on his first kwarren ride. It
was awesome! He looks like he's having a blast.
I have to try that with him. I bet I'll look even worse.
My balance isn't the best. It looks like so much fun
though. Could we go try it?" the young bull asked.
"I
would prefer if everyone stayed away from the water park for the time
being. It took Jake's life once already and the next time would
be permanent. I would not want to risk losing any of you. I
love you all. You are my family now," Srythryn said.
"I
have never been one to like to fly. I like to keep four feet
firmly planted on the ground, but even I might enjoy that park.
It does look like immense fun," Rhokki said.
"Oh
shit, now I really wish we could go there! I would love to see
how a big ass cat handles weightlessness!" Mak exclaimed.
Rhokki chuckled and said, "It would not be pretty, I assure you."
"That's the whole point. It would be hilarious! Srythryn, couldn't the park be fixed up to be safer?"
"You
have an
engineering background, Rhokki, do you not?" Srythryn asked, "Perhaps you could work with
my crew to design safeguards for the water park.
We would need to ensure there is no way for anyone to move
out beyond the rim of the ring pool and fall to the ocean below.
That should be simple enough. Slightly more complicated
would be to find some way to keep those of you who cannot spend significant time
underwater from drowning in the zero gravity sphere of water at the
center.
No one is immortal anymore so I intend to block access to the
park until it can be made safe."
"It should be a
simple thing to make the necessary changes," Rhokki said, "We could set
something up that would act against a small device that could
optionally be worn to give haptic feedback indicating the swimmer is
moving in toward the center of the sphere rather than out to the edge.
They could use that to guide themselves quickly out of the
sphere. It would not
do to lose such a source of entertainment. We may be in this
battle for the long haul and we will have to keep an eye on morale and
take any steps to keep it from dropping too low. People need a
way to take their minds off of things if even if only for an hour or
two."
"Agreed,"
Srythryn said, "We will likely prevail against the jinvhon force that
pursues us but we will be left defending the planet against a steady
flow
of threats that could keep us under siege for a significant time.
With the mass of zeth ships fighting alongside us and resources
streaming to us from the planet and its moons we could hold
out for a very long time indeed. Things will be quite
difficult from here on out. We cannot last against the
collective forever, but in the time we do have remaining we may be able
to find some way out of the jam."
There was silence for a moment as they moved further into the house.
The door to the bedroom was still open and Jake heard Mak's voice from in the hallway say, "Jake, are you awake?"
Jake
felt it was important for the others to come to grips with the fact
that the Chets were in their lives now too so he didn't bother to
scramble to put on his clothes and simply said, "Yes, I am."
"Srythryn
explained the situation with the other Chet to us," Mak said while
still staying out of sight to give them their privacy, "We asked the
computer if you were asleep and it said you were, so we knew we weren't
gonna be interrupting anything. We just wanted to come and meet
the other Chet and let you guys know we're completely cool with
everything. The battle's gonna start soon and we don't know
what's gonna happen. We want to spend some time with you while
we still can before we fly into the next shit storm."
Jake was snuggled up between the Chets and all three of them sat up on the mat as Chet 2 said, "Please, come in."
Mak came to the doorway and looked in at the sight of his life's love sitting between the two identical polar bear bookends.
He walked up to the edge of the mat grinning at the two white bears, who were smiling back at him.
The
young bull got onto the mat and crouched and hugged each bear in turn
and said, "I don't know which of you is which, but it doesn't really
matter right now. Welcome to the family, Chets!"
The bears
smiled at him and Chet said, "I am the Chet you know. Thank you,
Mak. I suspect we will be seeing even more of each other from now
on. I am anxious to have you continue our training in the
simulators, but I suppose we will have to use the ones on the
Slirkstrith now."
"Those would be Juggernauts," Mak said, "I'm not familiar with them, so I'll need to learn them too."
"I
would be more than happy to instruct you all myself," Srythryn said as
he entered the room, "It would be a great deal of fun for me."
Rhokki followed Srythryn in and the whole family looked at each other, smiling.
"I
guess I should make proper introductions. I hope you don't mind," Jake
said to Chet 2, "but I've come to think of you as 'Chet 2'."
Chet
2 said, "It is fine. I am in fact the second version so it is
perfectly fitting. I will need to have a small marking made to
keep us distinguishable in future or you will all find it difficult to
know which is which. I've always been tempted to get a piercing
in one of my ears. Perhaps that would do the trick."
Jake
chuckled and said, "It would certainly do the trick for me. I
find piercings sexy. Chet 2, I would like you to meet the
other people I love. This is Komakwa..."
"Call me Mak," Mak said.
"It
is a pleasure to meet you, Mak. The other Jake told me all about
you. He loved you very much and it pained him deeply that he
could no
longer be with you. I am most pleased that he no longer has that
concern. Do not feel badly about what you did. He gave you
no choice. I do not hold it against you in any way."
Tears welled in Mak's eyes as he thought of how he'd killed the other Jake.
He
hugged Chet 2 hard once more and said, "I'm so sorry I took him away
from you. If there was any way I could have avoided it I would
have. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."
Chet
2 patted him on the back with one of his massive paws, then as Mak
pulled back from the hug the massive bear smiled at him and nodded.
"This is Rhokki, who saved my life on the sacred planet," Jake said as Rhokki smiled and nodded at Chet 2.
"Jake
told me some of what went on while he was held captive," Chet 2 said to Rhokki, "You saved
him in more ways than one. He would not be here with me now if it weren't for you."
"I did it for entirely selfish reasons. I love him deeply," Rhokki said.
Chet 2 smiled and said, "For good reason."
"Of course you already know Srythryn," Jake said.
Chet
2 smiled at them all and said, "I am most pleased to count you all as
family. Jake gave me a brief synopsis of your adventures together
while we rode the elevator to the front of the ship earlier. It
sounded most exciting and I look forward to hearing the full tale in
more detail from each of you."
Chet
said, "I look forward to that as well. I have been mainly no the
fringes, but I have never enjoyed my life quite as much as I have in
these
past months with you all on the Shadow's Claw. It has been a
revelation for me to discover the truth about
myself from my alternate self and the brief time we've spent here with
Jake showed I have been missing out on a great deal of enjoyment in
life. I look forward to getting to know
all of you much more
intimately now."
Everyone grinned as they all looked from one to
another. They were going to have a lot of fun together and they
all knew it. Despite the dangerous situation they were in, they
couldn't help but be excited about whatever the future might hold for
their little family.
Chet finally said, "I am ravenous.
I can feel my fat reserves draining away as we speak. I
wonder if we might all go to wherever the mess hall is on this massive
ship and have lunch."
They all agreed and Jake quickly dressed and they all headed out to the elevator and rode it to the mess hall.
During
the elevator ride, Rhokki and Srythryn were already discussing the
animals in the jungle so that the big lion would have an idea what he
would be stalking later on when it got dark. He was thrilled to
call the Slirkstrith home and he couldn't wait to get out and enjoy it.
The
elevator opened and they emerged into the mess area. Rhokki, Mak
and Chet all gasped at the size of it. It was all still new to
them and it would take a bit longer to get used to the size of the
ship, especially in these open areas.
Mak looked up at all of
the siskreths walking upside down and along the sides all around the
cylinder, having their meals or sitting on benches and relaxing beside
the water fountains and trees, or shopping in the small markets.
"This
is the coolest thing I've ever seen," the young bull said, "I love this
ship! I can't wait to see the entertainment section!"
Jake chuckled and said, "I haven't even seen that myself yet. We'll get to discover it together."
Mak grinned and nodded.
They
proceeded to get their meals and as they approached a table they saw
Sintas come in with her XO. She waved at them and when the two
cats got their food, the XO went to join other rhuxus from the Shadow's
Claw and Sintas came to join Jake and the others.
"It is
wonderful to see the whole family together," Sintas said, "I wish
conditions were such that you could all enjoy each other without the
threat that hangs over us. Your ship is truly a marvel, Srythryn.
I hope that we will have the time for a proper tour soon."
Srythryn
smiled and said, "The Slirkstrith is large enough that a single tour
would simply not suffice. It will take me days to show you all of
what she has to offer. I look forward to it. I'm sure that
once the next battle is won, we will settle into a pattern that will
allow us some time for relaxation and recreation occasionally."
"It's
so unfair," Mak said, "We're trying to help everyone in the universe,
and they all think we're their worst enemy. I get why we can't
tell them the truth, but I sure wish we could have been luckier and
destroyed the hub when we had the chance. We didn't do anything
to the jinvhon people, yet they're doing everything they can to destroy
us. It sucks."
"The jinvhon are good and honorable people, but they
do not tolerate aggression against them. From their point of view
we are the aggressors and we have wronged them deeply by destroying
their ark ship and its entire population for no reason. It pains me that we are forced to
try to destroy their fleet in order to defend ourselves. With the
power of this ship, combined with the massive force of zeth ships that
will be joining us in the defense of my home world, we should be able
to hold out for an extremely long time." Srythryn said.
Sintas
nodded and said, "Yes, there is no reason to despair just yet."
They all become somewhat more solemn and subdued as their thoughts turned to their predicament.
They ate mostly in silence.
When
they'd all had their fill they went their separate ways to tend to any
outstanding tasks before the encounter with the jinvhon fleet, then
finally they all assembled on the bridge. Voph joined them there.
It
had been hours since the decision to sacrifice the Shadow's Claw in an
attempt to take out as many of the jinvhon ships as they could.
Due to the use of the outer planets for gravity assisted
acceleration, the Slirkstrith's ultimate course quickly became obvious to the jinvhon
navigators and they could plot it out to its end.
The enemy had plenty of time to react once they'd
determined the exact point that the ark ship would be exiting the
heliosphere and they had used their time well. The jinvhon ships
were now out ahead of the Slirkstrith. They were moving at a slower rate of
speed due to having to change course, but they were now essentially
heading in the same direction while closing together to try to block them, and they were accelerating at a much greater rate
to attempt to match speeds as quickly as possible.
The jinvhon ships would
turn to face the oncoming ark ship as soon as she approached range of
their cannons so that they could begin to fire on her to try to weaken
her shields. They did not intend to allow her to help the Shadow's Claw escape their wrath.
Unfortunately
for them, the range of the Slirkstrith's cannon was much greater due to
the higher power behind each shot, so she would be able to begin
shooting first if she needed to.
The
four hundred Juggernauts launched and headed out in front of the
Slirkstrith to
form a wall of strike ships. Their intent was to launch their
sixteen hundred antimatter torpedoes in staggered sequences, creating a
continuous wall of flak that would utterly destroy any ships caught in
the center, and soften the shields of any others nearby so that the
Slirkstrith could easily take them out with one or two shots of her
powerful cannon.
Unexpectedly,
almost at the moment the Jugs all launched their warheads, the jinvhon
ships
began to scatter from the center of their blockade ahead without
hesitation. Clearly
they must have surmised the plan and decided not to throw away warships
needlessly. They knew that the Slirkstrith had enough momentum to
break through, and they would need the firepower of every ship they had
in order to try to take her out before she could reach the edge of the
heliosphere and escape. Getting out of the way and continuing the
chase from behind her was the only tactical move available to
them. They had simply waited long enough to ensure that the
torpedoes were
expended needlessly, leaving the Slirkstrith even weaker for the
upcoming fight.
The warships' acceleration was far superior and it was only a
matter of
time before they caught up to the big ark ship even if they let her
slip through.
Srythryn
called the Juggernauts back and they all docked with the ark ship again
just as they approached the hole in the blockade and blasted through it.
A few of the jinvhon ships came into range and turned to
bring their cannons to bear as the Slirkstrith passed through, but the ark ship's massive shields had no
problem shrugging them off as they sped past and quickly got out of
range again.
The jinvhon ships turned back on course and began to close their ranks again as they continued to
accelerate hard. They knew that the Slirkstrith could not outrun
them for long. Their acceleration capability was greater than
hers because they did not have to deal with such excessive mass, or be
concerned with preserving wildlife that was a source of food. The
jinvhon could kick their thrusters to full and hang on tight to blast
themselves forward as fast as possible and eventually their speed would
be greater than the big ark ship and they would begin to catch up to her.
The
Slirkstrith was pushing to get out of the heliosphere, and they might
just make it. The jinvhon might think the aim was to jump away,
but instead the idea was to get into a position where the remaining zeth ships that had wisely been held back
could jump in and join the fight.
They
were far enough from the siskreth home world and the other planets now that
they could safely detonate the Shadow's Claw without affecting them.
They wanted to ensure that any jinvhon ships at the fringes of
the explosion that would survive could not make it out of the
heliosphere to jump to new positions. They needed to stop them
all. That was where the remaining zeth forces would come in.
Just as the Slirkstrith popped out past the edge of the heliosphere the zeth
ships would jump in behind them racing inward to quickly engage the
remaining jinvhon forces and keep them occupied while the Slirkstrith
arced around to come back in and join the fight.
Finally, they
were getting close to where they would let the Shadow's Claw go and
start
to accelerate her back towards the chasing fleet. It would take
some time for her to build a great enough distance behind them to keep
them safe from the blast when she self-destructs. They would use the time to continue
accelerating outward. It had been timed so that in the hour it would take for the Shadow's Claw to accelerate back to the
midst of the pursuing fleet, the Slirkstrith would be crossing through
the heliopause into interstellar space. The zeth forces could
then jump in to join her.
They all waited anxiously for Srythryn to give the order to launch the Shadow's Claw.
Suddenly, the sensor officer shouted, "I'm detecting a mass of ships jumping in ahead! They're jinvhon!"
"What?! How many?" Srythryn asked.
"I
count just over fifty so far, but more continue to join those! They
are coming in hot just outside the heliosphere and are already racing
inward towards us!"
"Shit!" Jake exclaimed.
"They
must
have held some of their forces back, just as the zeths did," Sintas
said, "They
are great tacticians, as I said before. They moved out of our
way and let us through so easily because they knew they would be
bringing another large force in from outside. We are now caught
between them with our torpedoes expended. We will be utterly crushed by their combined
forces."
"Indeed. If we
use the Shadow's Claw, we can only weaken one force or the other.
Even if the zeths jump in, they will now be on the other side of
the new jinvhon force and will not be able to join us. This fight
just got a great deal more difficult," Srythryn said.
Jake's
mind raced. There had to be some way out of this mess. If
only they didn't have the restriction of not being able to open a
wormhole inside of a heliosphere. They could simply jump away and
none of this would be a problem.
He
still wasn't sure exactly
why they had to jump between points in interstellar space instead of
jumping out from within a heliosphere, or into one from outside.
Srythryn had
explained
long ago that 'bad things' would happen if they tried to open a
wormhole between two areas of space with significantly different
charges and the only way to avoid that was to open the wormholes
between two points in neutrally charged interstellar space. He'd
never asked exactly what those bad things were, but he assumed it must
be quite devastating.
As
he thought about the mess they were in now, his mind wandered back to
the QECH hub that controlled the favors and their failure at destroying
it from within. If they had succeeded, they would have been heroes of the
entire collective, instead of being hunted by them all. If only
they could have somehow found a way to get at the hub and destroy it
from the outside.
There was no chance of doing it now.
They knew the hub was hidden in a nearby dense nebula, but they
didn't know exactly where it was within the cloud. They did not have exact
coordinates and because of the nature of the nebula, it was impossible
to scan it to find the hub. It was likely chosen as a hiding spot
for that very reason.
If they didn't have this restriction of
having to jump in interstellar space, they could jump right into the
nebula where the hub
for the favors was hidden and thus bypass all of the defensive turrets
that littered the cloud and attack the hub directly. It didn't
matter anyhow since they didn't know the exact coordinates of the hub
within the nebula. They wouldn't know where to jump in, and in
any case it would cause whatever devastation happens when you jump into
the unlike-charged space and the ship would be destroyed.
He suddenly got a glint of an idea.
"We
will launch the Shadow's Claw in thirty seconds," Srythryn said,
"We have no choice but to proceed. We cannot risk being caught in
the blast if we launch her ahead of us so we must still launch her at
the force pursuing us to weaken them and reduce their numbers.
Voph, if you could have the zeth forces jump in behind the new
jinvhon force ahead and chase them in to engage them, we will have them caught
between the Slirkstrith and your people and we may make a serious dent
in their numbers before the remainder of the force behind us that
survives the blast catches up and joins the fight. It will be a
much harder fight than we had hoped, but there is still a very small chance
that we might prevail."
"Wait!" Jake shouted.
All eyes on the bridge turned to him.
"Srythryn, you told me long
ago that the whole reason we have to open a wormhole between two
areas of interstellar space was because bad things happened if you
tried to jump into a heliosphere. What sort of bad things, exactly?"
Rhokki
said, "I can answer that. Our people have studied wormholes
extensively. The effect is very similar to our yanking system.
If we were to open a wormhole between interstellar space and the
inside of a heliosphere, it would be almost like opening the hole
between a high-pressure area and a vacuum. The heliosphere would
instantly rush into the wormhole and be compressed together as it attempts to blast out the hole at our end.
The result would be massive focused collisions of charged
particles that would result in a powerful explosion at both ends.
We would be destroyed."
"Just how big would that explosion be?" Jake asked.
"It
really depends on the exact conditions. If the other end of the hole was near the heart
of the heliosphere, it would be quite large, but not even quite as large as the
explosion we are about to cause by annihilating all of the antimatter
in the Shadow's Claw's buffer and converting all of her matter to energy. It would most definitely destroy
any ships in a large radius around either end of the worm hole, including our own."
"What if we opened the hole from interstellar space to connect it right to the heart of a dense nebula?"
"That
would be an entirely different story. The potential difference
there would be several orders of magnitude greater. The resulting explosion would be much larger..."
"Jake, are you still thinking about the QECH hub for the favors?" Sintas asked, "Have you got an idea?"
"I
thought I might, but now I'm not sure. I was hoping the explosion
would be large enough to sweep the entire nebula. If it was, we
wouldn't even need to know where the QECH hub was hidden within it, and
we wouldn't need to get through the defenses. We would just blow
the whole damn cloud up. It sounds like the explosion wouldn't be
nearly large enough though. We'd be destroying ourselves for
nothing, just on a chance that the hub might be within the radius of the explosion. It
might work if we knew where exactly it was, but otherwise it wouldn't
be a big enough bang to be sure we caught it in the blast."
"We
might not create a big enough bang," Rhokki said excitedly, "but we
might well create a big
enough crunch. The dynamics vary from
situation to
situation as I said before. A heliosphere is lightly filled with
a very thin cloud of charged particles streaming outward from the star
at its
center. That is an entirely different thing from a nebula, which
is filled with a very dense gas of mostly hydrogen and helium and some
dust that would have significant mass along with the charged
particles streaming from any stars within the nebula.
Theoretically, if a
wormhole large enough could be opened, the better part of the mass of
the cloud would rush inward to collide at the center of the wormhole as
it attempts to squeeze through to come out the other end.
"If
the
mass were sufficient, before it
could blow out the other end it would succumb to its own gravity and begin to
collapse even further. The mass off all of the dust and gas in
the entire cloud would be greater than that of a super massive
star and it would be compressed into a space a tiny fraction of what
such mass would
normally occupy. It would be like squeezing a great
many stars into a space smaller than a moon almost instantaneously.
As all of the mass collapses in on itself the
result should be a singularity, with gravity so great that nothing in
its vicinity could escape it.
"The
singularity itself would pull the rest of
the mass of the nebula in and consume it to grow even larger until the
entire cloud is sucked in and it reaches equilibrium. The event
horizon of the initial singularity would
likely be far enough out to engulf the QECH hub, destroying it
instantly. Even if it was not, as the black hole rapidly grows in
size by sucking in the remainder of the nebula, the radius of the
singularity would become greater until it eventually did encompass the
hub. It would all happen within a brief instant. The
downside is that,
while the wormhole is open, both ends would be exposed to the
singularity. All of the matter on this side would be sucked into
it as well."
"So if we could make that happen, we would be
sacrificing ourselves, but destroying the entire nebula and everything
in it, correct?" Jake asked.
"Yes, if we could ensure the
formation of a singularity, the rest of the nebula would be pulled into
its gravity well in short order. Nothing in or around it would
survive."
Everyone stayed silent for a few moments as they thought about what Jake was proposing.
"This
idea is dangerous, but I believe it might have some merit," Srythryn said,
"How do you propose we do it, Jake? What is it you were thinking,
exactly?"
"Well, I just thought that when we were skitching the
Slirkstrith, we were able to do it because she has to generate a
wormhole big enough to cover her entire length, but the hole is a
sphere, so it's massive and it allowed us to ride alongside her through it. Could she make an even bigger wormhole?
What's the limit exactly? How far apart could the ends be if you pushed as hard as possible?"
Rhokki
said, "The energy
required to generate a wormhole grows very quickly as you bring the two
ends farther apart, and it grows exponentially with the radius of the
hole.
Each time you add ten percent to the distance between the two
ends of the hole, you must use fifty percent more power to do it.
However, if you add ten percent to the radius of the hole to make
it larger, you need double the energy to do it. As you can
imagine, the
energy to make a hole larger as well as farther apart grows extremely
quickly. Still, the bulk of
the energy the Slirkstrith uses to make her maximum jump of a thousand
light years is used to bend the space. If she didn't have to bend
space, she could easily make a hole a hundred times larger than she
normally does. It
would be absolutely enormous. I would have to run the numbers,
but
it would likely be more than big enough to trigger the formation of a
singularity in the nebula, especially if any stars were in range to be
sucked into the hole by the potential difference. If the dust and
gas in that nebula is the remnant of the supernova of a super massive
star, which is likely the case, the remnants of that star would be near
the center of the nebula."
"Didn't
the zeths say that the hub was hidden in the accretion disk of a
neutron star? Isn't that the remnant of a supernova?" Jake asked.
"Yes,
a neutron star is the stellar remnant brought about by the gravitational
collapse of the core of a super massive star caused by the ejection of its outer mass during a supernova.
It is
likely that the star itself was the original source of most of the gas
and dust in the nebula. That would place it fairly close to the
center of the cloud. It would most certainly not be at its outer
fringes. I think if we made a hole large enough and placed it at
the center of the nebula, we would catch the neutron star, and its red
giant companion, and even the QECH hub itself and compress them
together with the other gas and dust in the nebula. It is nearly
guaranteed that a singularity would form in that case."
"By the sound of it, even if it didn't make a black hole, it would still destroy the hub, right?" Jake asked.
"Yes.
There is very little chance it could survive. If in fact
there is insufficient mass or gravitational force to form a singularity, it would at
least be sufficient to compress the gas in the cloud enough to cause a
fusion ignition that would create a new star. The resulting
shock wave and burst of radiation would destroy the hub no matter where
it might be in the nebula. The hub would not survive if we
created a wormhole large enough and the Slirkstrith's buffer is the only one in existence large enough to do so," Rhokki said.
"So really, everything would hinge on being able to create a large enough wormhole."
Rhokki nodded.
"Srythryn,
would you be willing to sacrifice the Slirkstrith if it meant having a
good chance at destroying the QECH hub for the favors and freeing
everyone in the universe?" Jake asked.
"Of course, I would
do it without hesitation if the result was guaranteed. Tell us
precisely what it is you propose."
"I'm still working on that as
we speak," Jake said, chuckling, and then he suddenly thought of
something and said, "Wait, you said the buffer and drive system could
separate from the Slirkstrith in case of emergency. Does that
include the warp drive and wormhole initiator?"
"Yes,
absolutely. The idea is to protect the ark ship in the case of an
imminent breach of antimatter containment. If possible, once
detached, the drive system will initiate a jump to quickly bring it to
a safe distance from the ark ship in case it detonates."
"That
would not be sufficient, Jake," Rhokki said, "The tidal forces of the
singularity would affect both ends of the wormhole for an incredibly
great distance. We couldn't have the buffer and drive system move
a safe enough distance away from us and the siskreth home world without
giving it a great many days to accelerate. If we have her jump
away to a safe distance it will consume too much antimatter and there
will not be enough left to guarantee success. The buffer itself
does not have a generator to replace the used antimatter. The
generator stays with the Slirkstrith to keep us under power."
Jake continued to think
hard. It should be possible to do this without sacrificing any
more than the Slirkstrith's drive system.
Maybe they could use the old skitching idea one more time, but in reverse.
"Voph said the nebula
is just a short jump away," Jake said, "We were on board the Shadow's Claw
when he said that, so I assume he meant it was a short jump for the
Claw. What if instead of blowing up the Shadow's Claw, we send
her out ahead with the detached buffer and drive system from the
Slirkstrith riding along further ahead of her. Once they got out into interstellar space, the Shadow's Claw
could bend space and initiate the wormhole to send the Slirkstrith's
buffer through to a point just outside the nebula, but then close the
wormhole before the Claw herself goes through. She would stay behind. There would be no reason to sacrifice her.
The buffer would then be sitting right at the edge of the nebula and it could then use its wormhole initiator to open up a
wormhole from there to a point
near the cloud's center, and make the hole as large as it can, using up the
entire load of antimatter in the buffer. Would that do the trick?"
Rhokki grinned and said, "It would be a hell of a trick indeed. In that
case you would be exposing not only the center of the nebula to the
tidal forces of the great mass rushing in, but the edge of the nebula near interstellar space
where the other end of the hole is would be exposed as well. Any
matter that did manage to escape through the wormhole would come out at
the edge only to be sucked right back into the center in a sort of
feedback loop. The result would not be completely predictable,
but the most likely outcome that would almost be guaranteed would be
the utter destruction of anything within the nebula, including the QECH
hub. It is an amazingly clever idea! I think it would work!"
"Wait,
you said we need to send the Shadow's Claw out along with the buffer
and drive system into interstellar space," Mak said, "How do we do that
now? There's a whole
wall of jinvhon ships rushing in ahead of us again. We already
blew off all of the antimatter torpedoes we had the last time to make a
hole. That's not an option anymore."
"Srythryn
said it before; if they see the massive buffer
detach and race towards them, they'll assume we're using it as the
biggest antimatter bomb ever made. There's nothing they could do
but scatter and try
to put as much distance between them and it as they possibly can or be
completely vaporized. It's us they want to destroy and they won't
care about the buffer," Jake said.
Srythryn smiled and said,
"That is correct. You are truly brilliant. They will open
very wide to let the buffer through. They couldn't even risk
taking a single shot at it or it might detonate and take them all out.
Their only choice will be to run from it. With the stealth measures
of the Shadow's Claw, they will not even know she is right behind it
and following it out. They will get out of the way, then turn
their attention to us as we will be completely defenseless without our buffer."
Sintas
laughed and said, "You've done it yet again, Jake! You've given
us the means to succeed in a way we never would have conceived of.
We spent too much time thinking about how to locate the hub and
then how to get through the defenses to go and destroy it.
Clearly that was not possible. The idea of destroying the
entire cloud certainly never would have occurred to me. Rhokki,
how quickly could you get together with the other engineers to run the numbers? I trust you, but we need to be quite
certain that this will work. It will leave the Slirkstrith
completely defenseless with the entire jinvhon fleet already racing in
from both sides to destroy her."
"Agreed," Srythryn said, "We would most
definitely be sacrificing the Slirkstrith and all aboard her.
Without the buffer we would be at the mercy of even just one of the
hundreds of ships that are almost upon us already but,
as I said earlier, I would be most willing to do it if the result
were guaranteed."
Rhokki said, "I will get right on it now. I'll have your answer in ten minutes."
"Make it five, please," Sintas said.
Rhokki
raced off to the nearest briefing room to open a comm link with all of
the engineers from both ships at once to confer with them.
Mak
said, "Jake, someday when I make my play to become ruler of the whole
universe, I want you to lead my fleet, OK? No one will be able to stop us!"
Everyone on the bridge laughed.
"It
is quite interesting how your mind works," Chet said, "It is a solution
I would not have considered. It seems like it can't fail.
In fact, it almost seems like an obvious solution in hindsight
and one that any of us should have seen, though none of us likely
ever would have."
"I think it's just that I haven't been
exposed to the 'rules' of this universe for my whole life the way you
all have been. You know without doubt that opening a wormhole
from empty space into non-empty space would be catastrophic so your
mind simply doesn't go there," Jake said.
Srythryn nodded and
said, "I believe you are correct. A fresh perspective always helps,
and from the point of view of all of us who have been exposed to this
wide universe for so long, yours is by far the freshest."
"If
this works, we need to be ready to start broadcasting every last bit of
evidence the zeths have gathered out to the entire collective.
They need to know everything we did this for, before the jinvhon
destroy us and the truth dies with us," Jake said.
"Yes, you are
correct. Thriststris, please make the arrangements. If this
plan should work and the hub is destroyed, we need to immediately push
all of the evidence we have against the First Ones out to everyone on a
universal broadcast immediately, and loop it non-stop for as long as we
can. We may not have much time before the jinvhon reach us and
destroy this ship. We no longer have QECH comms on the
Slirkstrith but I believe the zeth QECHS system can communicate with a
relay back on the miquanowan world that can pass it on to a QECH
broadcast system to everyone in the collective," Srythryn said.
"Aye, Captain. I'll make it happen," Thriststris said.
Voph raised his hand and waved at Thriststris, but Rhokki was not present to translate.
"I assume you're saying you'll work with me to get the information out?" Thriststris asked.
Voph nodded.
"Rhokki will be back shortly," Sintas said, "He will work with both of you."
Just
then Rhokki came back into the room grinning and he said, "I have
discussed it in great detail with members of the engineering teams from
the Claw and the Slirkstrith and we've run the numbers thoroughly.
We are all in agreement. Given the size of wormhole the
Slirkstrith's drive system will be able to generate with a fully
charged buffer from not having to bend space, there should be sufficient mass compressed together as
it tries to rush through to the void beyond the hole to collapse it all
into a singularity. It will be right on the borderline.
That means that even if the singularity fails to form, there will
be more than enough to ignite into a very energetic star. The
resulting blast would destroy not only everything within the nebula,
but the enemy forces that are gathering around it as well. It
would be quite devastating to the hub either way. Its destruction
is completely guaranteed."
Srythryn smacked his hands together
and shouted, "By the Granth's gargantuan goiter! We thought we'd
lost our chance at extricating the collective from under the thumb of the
First Ones, but Jake has given us the means to do it! This is
unexpected good news!"
"Indeed," Sintas said, "We will likely
not survive this, but you will be a hero to the entire universe, Jake.
It may take them some time to forgive you for it, but in the end
they will know that you have almost single-handedly saved the lives of
untold hundreds of billions, or even trillions of people who would have suffered
death as a result of the depraved entertainments of the First Ones over time.
You are a truly unique man and I feel honored to have known
you and to have been a part of this."
"As do we all," Rhokki agreed.
Jake
looked around at everyone as they all grinned back at him.
Everyone
he loved was right here in the room with him and he was essentially
condemning them all to death along with him, yet they only seemed happy with him. It
spoke to the kind of people they all were. They gave no thought
to the sacrifice they were making and were only happy that they were
able to help the rest of the people in the universe, no matter the
cost. He loved them all intensely for it.
The two Chets came
forward and each put a massive paw on one of his shoulders and kissed
him on the cheek. Mak came and gave him a big hug, followed by
Rhokki, who did the same.
Srythryn came last and wrapped Jake
into his arms and said, "I knew from the moment I first met you that
you were something special. You have proved that assessment to be
incredibly weak. There will never be another like you. I
cannot tell you what it means to me that you are mine."
Tears
began to well in Jake's eyes as he hugged the big croc back. It
didn't seem to him like he was anything so special. It was all of
them that made this possible. He was nothing until they came into his life. They were everything to him.
They made him feel that nothing was impossible.
He only wished there were some way to do this without leaving the Slirkstrith
defenseless. They would all likely die at the hands of the
vengeful jinvhon, but at least they would die knowing they had achieved
what could be considered the single most important victory in the
history of sentient life in the universe.
Srythryn
pulled back
from his hug, kissed Jake quickly on the lips, then turned and said,
"Let us do this before it is too late. Sintas, you and your crew
are no longer welcome aboard my ark ship. Please move everyone
back to your own ship and accompany them as quickly as possible. We have less than
an hour to prepare. Once you've sent the buffer and drive system
through, you will find yourself out in interstellar space with the
freedom to go and join your own ark ships. They will need you to
aid in their defense. There is nothing you can do for us here. I would greatly appreciate if you would
take Jake and the rest of my family with you."
"Like hell! I'm not going anywhere!" Jake said.
"Please,
my love. I cannot live with the knowledge that you will perish
along with this ship when you could live aboard the Shadow's Claw.
You are still an officer of Sintas' crew and you should do your
duty."
Sintas said, "Jake, since you have refused my offer to
become my second in command I'm afraid I have no further use for you.
You are no longer a member of my crew."
Jake smiled and
turned to Srythryn and said, "Looks like I'm jobless now. I'm not
going anywhere. There's nothing you can say about it so you
should just not waste your time. I'm staying right here."
"Me
too," Mak said, "I'm not gonna miss out on being a hero to the
universe. It's step one in my plan to become its ruler someday."
Jake chuckled and grinned at the cocky young bull.
Rhokki
said, "And me. I'm sorry, sweet sister, but I must stay and
accept whatever fate is in store along with those I love."
Chet
2 said, "I'm not going anywhere either. I can fly a Juggernaut
and I will be needed. I am a member of this ship's crew and I
will defend her to my death."
Chet said, "I will not be going either. I see no future for myself any longer except at my new family's side."
Srythryn smiled and said, "You all make me proud. I love you all so much. It will be as you wish."
"Voph,
I will leave the decision of your fate to you, but we haven't much
time," Sintas said, "I will be leaving immediately to begin to move my crew back
aboard my the Shadow's Claw."
Voph put up his hand, palm out, and shook his head. It was clear that his intent was to stay with Rhokki.
Sintas smiled and nodded, then exited the bridge to begin the preparations to undock with the Slirkstrith.
The
entire crew of the Shadow's Claw was together in the emergency section
so it took a great deal less time to get them back to their own ship than it did to bring them all here.
They filed quickly back through the docking ramps while members
of their flight crew boarded the Stilettos and flew them out to dock
with the Claw once more.
As soon as they were ready, the hatches
were closed and the clamps released, and the Shadow's Claw was under
her own power again.
She began to accelerate as hard as she
could forward along the ark ship's length just as Srythryn ordered the
massive sphere at the front of the cylinder that contained the
antimatter buffer and drive systems detached.
The buffer began to
race forward and the Shadow's Claw slipped in behind it.
As
expected, the jinvhon force ahead of them immediately began to
accelerate as hard as they could to get out of the way of what they saw
as a desperate move to eliminate them all in a massive antimatter
explosion.
The Claw was able to accelerate at an incredible rate
because of her antigravity systems protecting the crew, and there was
almost no limit to how hard the Slirkstrith's drive system could
accelerate without the mass of the ark ship attached.
It took only minutes for them to blast well past the in rushing jinvhon force and reach the edge of the heliosphere.
Just
as they passed into interstellar space, the zeth forces began to jump
into the gap behind them and raced inward to engage the nearest jinvhon force.
It was unlikely they would get in range in time to save the
Slirkstrith but they had to try.
The Shadow's Claw bent space
and opened a wormhole connecting a point well ahead of the
Slirkstrith's buffer to another point just outside of the nebula that
the QECH hub for the favors was hidden in. The moment the buffer
passed through the hole it was closed to protect the Shadow's Claw, and
everything on this side, from what was going to happen next.
The
Slirkstrith's drive system had been preprogrammed and as soon as it
came into position, it consumed every last bit of antimatter stored in
its massive buffer and popped open the largest wormhole that had ever
existed, connecting its own space with a massive sphere of space right
at the heart of the very dense nebula.
The result was precisely what Rhokki had predicted.
The
greater part of the mass of the nebula, along with all of the millions
of automated turrets that made up the defense system, instantly began
to rush inward
toward its center to combine with the mass of the neutron star and its
red giant companion and the QECH hub itself as it all tried to squeeze
through the wormhole to force its way out the other end.
Even before it could begin
to spew out the other side of the wormhole, the incredible combined
mass succumbed to the forces of its own gravity and began to collapse
further and faster inward on itself. As more mass rushed in to add to the
gravitational forces the collapse sped up until, within mere seconds, a
singularity formed at the center.
The rest happened at very near the speed of light.
The
event horizon shot out to encompass most of the remainder of the nebula
and it instantaneously vanished to be replaced by a massive black hole.
Close to a thousand warships belonging to the few races that had been doing the dirty
work for the First Ones for millions of years had gathered at the
fringes of the nebula at the request of the First Ones in order to
protect the hub from an outside attack. All of them were almost instantly stretched and
torn by the massive tidal forces at the event horizon and ultimately
sucked right into the black hole along with the Slirkstrith's drive
system, and anything else in the vicinity.
In a stretch of time
that amounted to little more than the blink of an eye the massive gassy
nebula vanished, to be replaced by utter blackness that swallowed all
light that came anywhere near it.
All over the known universe,
in every corner of explored space, in all of the plants, animals,
buildings, ships, and people, the favors of the First Ones all went quiet at once.
The
First Ones were quite suddenly, completely and utterly blind and deaf
to everything. They could no longer watch anyone.
They no longer had the power to touch anyone in any way.
They were completely and utterly disarmed and removed from the
equation. They were quite suddenly nothing more than disembodied minds floating in their own silent blackness.
As the billions of streams of lives that were being enjoyed by the First Ones suddenly ceased, the minds all cried out at once.
Somewhere
in an unknown location hidden well away from any area of the universe
that was known to the collective were the computers that housed the
minds of the First Ones. Inside of all of that circuitry, they all screamed in range
and anguish at being robbed of what was theirs, but no one could hear
them. They had been utterly silenced.
The
Slirkstrith
immediately began streaming the evidence that had been gathered over
time by the zeths, including the proof that the First Ones had
destroyed the Earth and everyone on it, as well as the rhuxus world,
Ausku's world, and the jinvhon ark ship that had been in orbit around
it. Everything they had done right down to the final bid to
destroy the hub by collapsing the nebula was added to the stream and
looped for all to see.
All over the known universe the broadcast went out and the
information streamed to governments, military, science and educational
institutions. It streamed into people's homes and their vehicles
and all of the ships in space. Everyone everywhere was suddenly
learning the truth.
The
one thing the First Ones still had was control over the main QECH
communication hub that services the entire collective. They saw
the data that was being broadcast and in their rage they shut down the
hub to silence everyone else in the collective.
All at once all of the QECH comm gear throughout the universe became useless and instantaneous communication was lost.
The
stream of data being transmitted by the Slirkstrith abruptly ceased,
but hopefully it had been recorded by enough equipment to continue to
spread, though now it would be limited to the speed of light.
As
the jinvhon forces closed all around the
Slirkstrith, all of those aboard her waited for their ends. They
still had shields that were being fed by the trickle of antimatter from
the generator, but there was no buffer to back it up. A couple of
shots from a cannon was all it would take to finish them off.
They
had done all that they could and they felt that despite their impending
destruction, it was a complete victory. They had beaten the First
Ones. They had freed the entire known universe from chains they
did not even know until now were tightly shackling them. The
sword of Damocles that had been hanging over the entire collective had
been removed.
The
jinvhon fleet finally reached the Slirkstrith and matched speeds with
her but, to everyone's surprise, instead of opening fire to blow her to
bits, they turned and took a defensive posture around her.
Everyone
on the bridge waited with baited breath to see what would happen next.
They did not have QECH comms so they couldn't attempt to hail the
jinvhon fleet. They couldn't try radio because it couldn't
possibly get through the jinvhon ships' shields without being
encapsulated within their secret shield harmonic codes. They
could not communicate in any way.
After a long wait, the sensor officer said, "I'm detecting a mass ejection of some sort of garbage from the jinvhon ships."
"Can you focus on some of it and scan more thoroughly?" Srythryn asked, "Could you zoom our forward scopes on it?"
"One
moment," the sensor officer said as he tapped some controls and the
main view screen switched to a view of one of the massive capital ships
of the jinvhon fleet.
There was a small cloud of debris forming at the aft end of the ship and the view shifted towards it and zoomed in closely.
"Holy shit!" Mak shouted.
Everyone
gasped as they saw what it was. As the image zoomed in the mass
of particles grew and resolved quite clearly. It was dozens of
tiny grey bodies. The jinvhon were spacing every one of the
lackeys that had been aboard their ships.
"This reminds me that we have some trash of our own to dispose of later on," Srythryn said, "The jinvhon are a vengeful
race indeed, but honorable, as I said. It
appears they have been studying the data we transmitted.
Thriststris, I want you to drop our shields."
"What? Why?"
"Just do as I ask, please," Srythryn said.
"Aye, Captain."
Thriststris lowered the shields and then shortly after that the sensor
officer said, "The largest of the jinvhon capital ships ahead is
lowering her shields, Captain."
Then the communications officer said, "We are being contacted by focused radio beam, Captain."
Srythryn smiled and said, "Put them through."
The
image on the main screen suddenly shifted to show the bridge of the
jinvhon ship. An extremely large and muscular looking creature
filled the screen. He looked vaguely like a gorilla from Earth,
but with a more prominent brow and slightly longer and more delicate features on his face.
He had four arms. The two at the top were massively
muscular
coming out from incredibly broad and powerful shoulders and a thick
neck. Those arms looked like they could snap a tree in half.
Their hands were massive and thick, with three powerful fingers
and one opposing thumb. They looked like they could form an iron
grip, but would not be very good at manipulating tools. The
second set of arms just underneath the large and muscular ones were
longer and very slender. The hands on the slender arms looked
extremely dexterous and each had four long fingers with two thumbs opposing them. They looked like
they would be well suited to even the most delicate work. The
creature was covered in a longish, light grey fur that looked sort of
shaggy. Jake couldn't see down past the creature's waist but he
suspected the legs were thick and powerful.
The
massive creature
studied Srythryn for a moment, then he said, "You are Captain Srythryn
I presume. I am Captain Dokan. We have been monitoring
your transmission. We understand now that the stealth ship we
have
been hunting was not responsible for the destruction of our ark ship.
We also see clearly now that you and your people are not in any
way the enemy of the collective, but its saviors. We are
displeased beyond measure at being duped by the First Ones for so long.
It is they who callously destroyed our ark ship and all of those
aboard her at the same time as they murdered everyone on that planet,
simply in order to further dupe us into doing their dirty work for them
and hunting you down. We do not take such deceit lightly.
You have
exacted our revenge against the First Ones for us by removing their
ability to harm us further and for that our race will forever be
grateful to
you. We pledge our strength to you and we will defend you against
any who attempt to do you any harm.
"As I'm certain you are now
aware, the First Ones have cut off all of the members of the collective
from each other by shutting down the QECH communication hub in order to
cripple our diplomacy. We must now retreat to our world to keep
it safe during whatever chaos might ensue, but for the time being we
will be leaving half of our force here to help you defend your planet
until such time as the last of those threatening you retreat to their
own worlds. Shortly before we lost communication I was asked by
our leaders to convey a message to the one responsible for the
destruction of the hub that your transmission called Jake Smith.
They wish him to know that he will be considered a guest of honor
by our people any time he may wish to have dealings with us, and that
in return for removing the yoke from our necks, we will grant him the
fulfillment of any one request he might make of our race in the future
without question. He has only to ask it when he is ready."
Srythryn
said, "Thank you Captain Dokan. Before your ships depart, we
would like to make an important offering to you. We have aboard
this ark ship many millions of communication cores for a new hub and
spoke quantum communication system of zeth design. We would like
to offer you sufficient numbers of them to allow you to equip all of
your ships and your home world so that we may all re-establish
instantaneous communications as soon as possible. We would like
to enter diplomatic discussions with your people to begin the formation
of a new collective. We have sufficient QECHS cores to begin to
disperse them to all of the races over time so that we may return to
the levels of diplomacy we enjoyed before. Please pass that
message on to your leaders. Thank you."
Dokan smiled and bowed deeply and then the screen went blank.
A
rousing cheer went up all around the bridge as they realized they'd
pulled themselves out of the fire and they were no longer in danger.
Over
the next months some chaos did ensue throughout the collective.
Several races who'd had strained relations in the past began to
fight aggressively over resources that bordered their systems.
The loss of instantaneous communications meant each race was
suddenly on their own once more and couldn't call anyone for help.
Piracy became rampant as well for the same reason.
A few
of the more militant and mercenary races who had been doing much of the
heavy lifting for the First Ones in the past immediately broke from the
collective and refused to join the new one. They came together to
form a union of their own and cut off diplomatic ties for the time
being. They would need to be closely watched. No one knew
when or how the First Ones might attempt a comeback, but whatever they
did, they would need arms and legs to do it for them and those races
would likely be the ones chosen for the job.
The QECHS
communicator cores were being distributed as fast as possible to bring
instant communication back to all races who wished to join the new
collective, but it would take time to cover everyone. The cores
were being given away, but each race who received some were asked if
they would like to donate fuel credits to a fund that would be used to
rebuild the orphaned races whose worlds had been destroyed. Many
races refused, but many gave generously to show their gratitude.
Needless to say the entire new collective was watching and made
note of which races went which way as they began to form strong
alliances with others while weakening relations with those they found
less appealing.
Ausku's people already had found a new home.
Chet's people expressed
an interest in having them use the space in the more temperate regions
of their world that were too warm for them to use. Her people had
accepted and their ark ships were already in orbit and waiting as land
was developed for them to live on. Their offer would be extended
to
the humans and the rhuxus people if necessary but it looked as though
it wasn't going to be needed. Negotiations had already begun with
the miquanowans to see if they would allow the rhuxus and the humans to
share the sacred planet. The miquanowans were intensely proud
that one of their people had a hand in the liberation of the universe.
Mak was a hero to them now and his father was nearly exploding
with pride. With the help of Mogwo it looked as though it was
just a matter of time before they would be allowed access to the
uninhabited planet and the orphaned races would have a new home to
begin rebuilding their populations.
The
call had gone out for all humans to contact Jake but so far not a
single one had done so. Jake assumed it was due to the fact that
it would be months yet before all of the planets were back on line with
instantaneous communications so he tried not to let it concern him too
much. There was no longer any link back to the First Ones or
their vast computer systems so there was no way to track down the
humans. They would simply have to wait to hear from them.
The
zeths who were now separated from their own galaxy were also looking
for a new home to call their own, but their needs were entirely
different and it would likely be easy to accommodate them. They
have no need of oxygen, or even any atmosphere at all. Their
metabolism was so completely alien that they were more like machines
and any place that was not overly hostile in terms of radiation or dust
storms would do, provided it met certain mineral requirements.
They were interested in a large moon orbiting a gas giant planet in the
miquanowan system. They wished to stay in close proximity to the
rhuxus. Most likely it would be given to them as soon as the
negotiations for the sacred planet were complete.
Modifications
were underway to the Slirkstrith to fit her with a far more efficient
antimatter generator based on the design of the one on the Shadow's
Claw, which would dramatically improve her antimatter output to refill
her capacious buffer in a much shorter time. They were also
fitting her with a large yanking room with multiple chambers and
scanners. Though she would remain a spinning cylinder because
that was the most efficient way to create artificial gravity on such a
large scale, they were also looking at working in antigravity systems
that would act to negate the effects of acceleration, allowing her to
accelerate to up to 10 Gs without having to evacuate anyone or worry
about the life in the jungles or oceans.
They were also planning
to fit her with a much larger version of the disrupter weapon that
could take advantage of her massive buffer to strip the shields off of
even the largest capital ship with one shot. She would be almost
unstoppable once she got her antimatter buffer and drive system
replaced in several more months. For now, she was surrounded by a
massive guard fleet of zeth ships and several from the jinvhon fleet.
The Slirkstrith was now considered by all races to be the flagship of the new collective.
The
name Jake Smith was now being spoken in nearly every language on every
world in the known universe. Much to his dismay, everyone had
begun to refer to the massive black hole that had been formed as a
result of his idea as 'Jake's Hole'.
He was considered by many
of the most powerful people in the universe as their greatest enemy.
From their points of view, he had single-handedly destroyed their
immortality. Though he didn't know it yet, many had already begun
to plot his demise.
Most races saw him as the greatest hero
they'd ever known. He was being bombarded with diplomatic
requests from tens of thousands of races. They all wanted him to
come and visit them and meet with their governments. He was
turning them all down. If he gave in to even one he would have to
agree to them all and that was not what he wanted the rest of his life
to be.
He wanted to be right here, aboard the Slirkstrith, with his wonderful family.
He
loved them all more than he could ever have thought possible, and he
could not wait to see what other adventures awaited them all in the
future.
No matter what might happen, no matter how desperate
things might be, with the ones he loved so much at his side, absolutely
nothing seemed impossible.
The End
***
So
ends what will likely become book one of the "Jake's Hole" anthology,
until I come up with a better name for it. :)
I've
always loved science fiction so it was fun to take a crack at a story
of my own. I often struggled to come up with reasonable
explanations for some of the seemingly magical technologies that I see
in other fiction so I injected some of my own imaginary solutions into
this story. I think it turned out fairly well for a first try.
I
want to thank all of those who took the time to write me an email now
and then to keep me encouraged. It makes all the difference
during those times when I'm having trouble getting motivated to write
the next chapter. I am always thrilled to hear from anyone who
enjoyed one of my stories, even if it's just a few words to let me know
you're out there and you're reading. Without the emails I have no
way of knowing if anyone is reading what I submit.
If there is
sufficient interest I will most definitely be writing more stories in
this universe with these characters, and of course some new ones.
I had too much fun with them to just forget them and move on.
There is still a lot of fertile ground to work. The First
Ones are still out there somewhere and God only knows what sort of crap
they might get up to. The races who stayed loyal to them have
formed their own union and they will be a problem. There are new
worlds to build as the orphaned races try to get themselves back on
solid footing. Someone will likely be working on some new form of
immortality and whoever gets there first might have the advantage over
everyone else. And where the hell are all the humans? Hmmm.
I
already have the kernel of what could be an interesting next
installment forming in my mind. I just need to shovel some shit
onto it to see if I can fertilize it enough to grow into something
worthwhile.
I hope a lot of you out there enjoyed this story and I hope you will enjoy the others that will be coming in time.
Thanks,
Jake
***
If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more from the author
please look in the Gay/Adult-Youth section at Nifty.org for...
The Patriarch
- The ongoing adventures of a man, possibly the only one
remaining in the world, and the young boy he takes under his wing as
they travel through a world where the majority of the human race has
been wiped out by a plague. The disease's lethality was
linked to
sexual maturity killing the adults and leaving the earth's children to
fend for themselves.
The Sock Thief
- The
heart warming story of how a humorous encounter brought about by
a fetish not only leads to unexpectedly wild sex between a man and a
teenage boy, but also changes their lives in a way neither
could have foreseen.
Bang the Drummer
- The
story of a submissive man who uses his video game skills to win the right to be properly used by
some neighbors.
Predators
- The
story of a man who enjoys a hobby of luring teenage boys in for a bit
of innocent exploration in the woods.
or
check the Gay/SF-Fantasy section for...
Love and Lycanthropy
- What if after a long life of loneliness you finally found the
one person who you could truly love? What if you found out that
there might be moments when he wanted to tear you to bits and eat those
bits? Find out how a man who brings home a homeless teenager
finds love he never knew he was capable of and learns to cope with the
one minor quirk the boy is afflicted with.
The Hawthorne Accord
- The adventures
of a teenage boy who is rescued from a cruel fate in his home village by a friend,
but ultimately finds himself on his own and hunted in a world that is
being
ravaged by brutal race wars between the humans and three races of
monsters: kobolds, orcs and ogres. He discovers in his travels
that the world is not quite entirely the way he'd thought it was and
that even a single teenage boy can make a difference in the fate of
entire races, including his own.
James and the Giant Perv
- A humorous modern fairy tale involving three teenage boys,
some "beans", a very tall pervert who dwells in his own kingdom in the
clouds, and the various interesting ways they find to enjoy each other
sexually.
Feedback
is the fuel for the author's engine. All comments are much
appreciated
even if they say nothing more than "Liked it, thanks." or "Hated it,
don't go there again."
Thank you,
JakeXtraTall@gmail.com
The
Nifty Archive is an incredible source of wonderful stories that
provides so many of us with countless hours of entertainment. If you
enjoyed this story I would greatly appreciate if you would do your part
and donate something to the site to help cover the cost of running the
archive.
http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html