The Space Traveler (The Space Traveler Saga Book 1) Read online

  Copyright 2017 The Space Traveler

  ISBN

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book without the permission is a theft of author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material, characters or excerpts from this book please email [email protected]

  Other Novels by Devon Shubin

  The Leprosy Act Vol. I (Unpublished)

  The things we leave behind (2017)

  King of Judges (2018 Release)

  For my father who introduced me to science fiction.

  The Space Traveler

  By Devon Shubin

  “Go and spread justice across the galaxy!” – Chancellor Kwela Kur

  Contents

  Chapter 1 - The Jiosk inspection

  Chapter 2 - Escaping from Fequ

  Chapter 3 - Hibot’s detour

  Chapter 4 - Rebellion of Lordak Pogna

  Chapter 5 - Mystery at Cudat Col

  Chapter 6 - Protocol of Underlay Lask

  Chapter 7 - Concluding on Wurtha

  Introduction

  Space is a very lonely and boring environment...without warp speed technology that is. Its vastness is beyond calculation, for the universe is ever expanding, at least that's what the scientists say. It is cold and deathly and without P.P.E. (proper personal equipment) per USHA (the Universe Safety and Health Administration) no living creature can survive. They are speaking about space suites, just in case you were already perplexed by this outset. Dogs can wear oxygen tank-helmets, monkeys can fly starships but only man and alien can navigate through the wonders of space.

  The only name he goes by in this story and in the fictional universe, is the Space Traveler. No, it's not his real name and it's not on any official documents. So why you may ask does he go by his title instead of a fancy nickname like the Assessor, Inspector Planet, Captain Cool or even Duke Starhopper? Well, I will tell you why but you may not like it. It’s basically because our protagonist in this adventure is a real wise guy. Keep reading and you will find out for yourself.

  One of the great things about the Space Traveler is his ship. Typically, starships in the Milky Way Galaxy are the size of a modern-day rocket or to help you visualize a school bus after the burners are released in space. His ship is the size of an outlet mall, you know the ones across North America that are circular so you have so walk around it to get back to the exit where you parked. What a real tourist trap right? You keep walking so you may keep shopping. Perfect setup for the shopaholics on Earth, horrible Saturday afternoon for the mall-walkers.

  Back to our story. Now, here in this part of the Milky Way Galaxy, Earth is only identified by the seven known habitable planets but not part of the Unified Connection. In layman's terms, all seven planets are included in a free open trade with one another. This works great for Wurtha a planet of metals when water is scarce. So, they trade with the green planet Underlay Lask which has plenty of water all the time. There’s also a rainbow planet but we will get to that much later.

  What I like most about this story is our main character and the many strange and weird beings he meets, until he dies at the end….oops, spoiler alert. I’m just kidding, but probably not. Having the hero die at the end of your story like John Wayne did in most of his movies is meaningful. This story is not meaningful in the slightest so hang on to your cliff notes, book mark your digital screen reader and get ready for a ride through the universe.

  Travel 1: The Jiosk inspection

  The Space Traveler stood at the center of the blue room, as his droid 41-A collected the sample of Jioskian blood on the wall. From the video monitor inside the helmet of his safety suit, he could see the reaction of the staff in the next room. Their faces were painted with concern as they paced around the hospital hallways. Then he could see a scuffle from the staff as one of the female nurses tossed two males to the ceiling and broke the door down. She was standing at the doorway looking at the Space Traveler. There was madness in her eyes.

  “Hey!” The Space Traveler yelled through his helmet, “You’re contaminating our testing! Get out of here!”

  The nurse charged at him. Huffing as she galloped toward the Space Traveler. When she was six feet from him, she opened her wings and lunged at him with her scissor-like talons. Coming down on the Space Traveler he tried to fight her off and came down on him. 41-A wheeled around and approached the startling scene. She had a tube of the sample in her hand and folded it inside her metal body to protect it from harm.

  “Get off me!” The Space Traveler yelled at the nurse as she continued hammering her talons at his suit. Thankfully, his suit is made of the strongest heavy metals from the planet Wurtha.

  The staff in the hallway watched like spectators in a gladiator event, but they did so at a safe distance. The nurse was trying her best to slice through our Space Travelers suit. Her face was filled with anger as the staff then pulled her off of him. As they pried her from the Space Traveler she was yelling in the Jioskian language, “Consumption! Consumption!”

  As he stood up from the ground, he watched as the staff drug her away. She was still staring at him with her evil eyes, clawing the air at nothing as they pulled her though the doorway into the hall. He dusted himself off and looked over to 41-A and said, “Dlom has the strangest effects on beings, doesn’t it?”

  The next morning our Space Traveler awoke to the continuous sound of a rooster and a whoopee cushion. Now, I hope I do not need to explain to you what a rooster sounds like. He hit his console on the night stand and the alarm reset until tomorrow morning thank god, right? Stretching and yawning he looked up in the mirror that was directly in front of his bed and smiled at himself. “Good morning S.T,” he said to himself.

  Swinging his legs around and over the side of his bed he released a whoopee cushion noise and then landed his feet on the cold floor. It was not cold to the Space Traveler because he is not human. As a matter of fact, there will be absolutely no humans in this story until the end when the Galaxy blows up. Wink, wink. The Space Traveler is a Duradusk which is an alien being from Hibot’s. Now, before I explain to you what he looks like I want you to erase what humans look like from your mind. Have you done that yet?

  I will wait a couple more sentences to give you time to clear your mind. It’s probably not enough time but I am still writing so I will just continue and tell you what the Space Traveler looks like. He is tall and thin. He has top ramen noodle like purple hair on his head. Two eyes, one mouth and two noses. His ears are where your ears are but I still do not want you thinking about ugly humans. I want you to envision the Space Traveler up until you see the illustration of him later, that is if you purchase the special edition copy of this book. He has two vertebrae’s running parallel down his back to keep his body upright, but we won’t discuss much of that any more since there is no scene in the story where he will have his shirt off.

  Basically, the Space Traveler is an alien being with two arms, two legs, and seven fingers on each hand. The weird thing is though, as I almost forgot, are his toes. He has no toes. Just feet that look like smashed loaves of bread. The ladies on his planet think he handsome, you readers will most likely have in your mind what he looks like to you. There is no illustration of him, sorry to disappoint, unless you purchase the special edition copy.

  Now, it’s not what the Space Traveler looks like that's important, it's what senses he has that are. You see, his job is one of a kind. The Unified Connection appointed him to be an Inspe
ctor of the seven planets. What does he inspect you are wondering? He is inspecting for dlom, which is an invasive, deadly particulate. When breathed in, it can either control, immobilize or kill within time. The Space Traveler can smell, taste and feel dlom whenever it is near. It’s kind of like when you are near a coffee house on Earth. We are not talking about earth in this story so let’s move on to the planet that the Space Traveler is parked on now, Jiosk.

  The last two days the Space Traveler has visited some locations where high concentration of dlom has been found in the past. He did find some of the micro-organism like killers in a field of glopie and had the eradicators of the community destroy it. Sadly, the glopies were taken out along with the dlom. Now you are probably wondering what in the world are glopies? Great question. There will be no illustration later of a glopie field, so I will explain in text. Glopies are a vegetable fruit like food that the Jiokians eat. They look like a watermelon, a mango and a carrot had a big baby. They are quite delicious if you have Jioskian taste buds.

  Then, after handling the situation with the mad nurse at the medical building, the Monarch thanked the Space Traveler for identifying the dlom, gave the key to the city and followed it with a parade. The Jioskians are very thankful alien beings. As a matter of fact, to say hello is the same as goodbye, that way they never have to really say goodbye. Strange isn't it. Anyways, the Space Traveler enjoyed the festivities, took some heemagada (cake) home to his ship and ate it last night while he watched the late show with Billy Niles. That will be a T.V. show on Earth in about thirty plus years, maybe.

  The thing about alien beings is that they are very unpredictable. Well, at least the Fequians are. The Fequians are yellowish fifty feet tall type people with very long arms and legs, a short awkward torso and their face including eyes and ears are in their stomachs. So just imagine when they eat they immediately digest. As you are aware, digesting quickly means restroom time quickly. The plumbing systems on their planet are state of the art, advanced beyond recycling plants anywhere in the galaxy. One of the main reasons the Space Traveler is on his way to Fequ is to inspect the main hub of the recycled waste.

  Fequ is an enormous planet. To scale it up against Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system of Earth, it's like comparing a watermelon to a grape. Huge, indeed right? But just image the size of the star it orbits. The Fequians call their star Goff. That name is not as relevant as is the other star that is dying. What has been happening the last 900 plus years is that Goffs sister star Vodax is being swallowed by her. When planetary bodies and particularly those with strong gravitational pull are near one another, someone comes out the victor. Goff in this case is going to be the champion soon. This strong gravitational pull reminds one of the flushing power of a commode, on a galactic scale.

  Now, when the Fequians flush their commodes, which are the size of an above ground pool, you know the ones hillbillies have in the front yard. Upright walls with white support bars holding up a faded blue weathered liner with 500 gallons of water. Just image that was a toilet. I’m laughing now because if you think about it, those same folks most likely do urinate in their pool so in a sense, it is a toilet in some respects.

  Back to the dying star Vodax. When the Fequian scientists first discovered this issue, panic developed across the globe. The technological advancements have not changed much in the last 900 years so the planet has been observing this space phenomenon from home. Time to time the news media there will give an update on the condition of the star Vodax, showing on screen the massive energy being swallowed by the larger star Goff. The scientists initially thought that there was a black hole developing near the two stars, but soon came to realize that unlike most solar systems, there’s was dual orbiting.

  What is dual orbiting? Dual orbiting is where not only the celestial bodies like planets, moons and rocks spin around their star, that star is also rotating, but at a speed ten times faster than that of our sun. This strong gravitational pull is the perfect vacuum for other large objects to be drawn to. There is no illustration in this book of what is taking place here so using your imagination is an important skill to have when reading. So, excellent job on reading, but try and envision what is taking place with the flames of Vodax being sucked millions of miles through space directly into Goff. It’s quite fascinating and it’s a shame you are at home on Earth instead of on Fequ with our Space Traveler.

  There he is now aboard his ship, sitting there peacefully, flying through the cosmos at warp speed. In a couple of minutes now he will slow down and cruise into the solar system. He sits upright in his Captain’s chair and pushes a few random buttons that you or I have no idea as to what they do, but he does and that’s all that matters. Now, after scratching his noodle like hair he looks at the console at a screen with grids running horizontally and vertically. This display is the star map of Fequ’s solar system. In the center of the screen are the dual stars and the twelve planets each with one or two moons orbiting. The graphics are blue and the background is green. For the Space Traveler who is a Duradusk, this two-toned color screen is perfect for his vision and that is why his mechanics built it this way.

  His ship warp speed and began decelerating to a normal cruise. Just five hundred thousand miles per hour that’s all. Flying passed one planet and then within ten minutes the next, he could now see the two stars, Goff and her dying sister, Vodax. “Too bad Vodax, you never stood a chance against her,” the Space Traveler lamented as he took a gulp of his pinkish slop drink.

  Vodax was being sucked away like stardust through the black background of space. It was a beautiful sight indeed. The yellowish red star Vodax looked as if it had a tail that started large at its body and then vanquished to a thin funnel connecting to Goff. Goff just sat there, fat and happy spinning in a circle like a spoiled older sister on the floor, whipping her little sister around the room with a rope as she got dizzier and dizzier until she would collapse on the carpet.

  “Goff, what a mean big sister to treat your little sis that way,” the Space Traveler said. He pushed a button on the console and an alarm sounded and ended. The robotic voice came over the surround system, “Laser fortress activated.” Laser fortress you might ask, what is a laser fortress? Well, basically it’s the Duradusks way of saying force fields, but since this is an entirely different space adventure then the one you are familiar with, we are going to use different terminology. It makes these universal worlds separate from the other guys.

  The Space Traveler has been to this solar system and to this planet many times before. He typically inspects each planetary system every six to nine months depending on the situation, the seriousness of the problem and if the investigation is worth his time. He always likes coming to this system because of the people of Fequ. He has made some good friends here over the years and now that he is paying them a visit he can catch up with a few of them. Please be patient as soon enough within this chapter you will meet at least one or three.

  The reason though he activated the laser fortress around his ship was because of the pounding it’s about to take from the asteroid field. So why can’t he just go around the asteroid field you may wonder, trying to find holes in the story huh? It is because the entire inner orbit of Goff and Vodax is protected by this rock barrier. Thousands of years ago, there were thirteen planets in this solar system. One of them didn’t make it. Its name was Hyskpada. Weird name right. Sure, but you have never heard the Fequians say it. That is, if your eardrums would not explode in your head causing your brain to convulse. But that is for another discussion later.

  When Goff ate and then spit out Hyskpada, the remains of the planet were burst out into the inner realm. This created a special protection from incoming comets or meteors that could haphazardly hit Fequ. Now, no one knows this, but this was not a natural occurrence. Many thousands of years ago, Hyskpada was deliberately moved by certain extreme Fequians. These giant beings entered space through rocket space suites from a tall lift off platform forty-two thousan
d feet in the sky. Without the use of a spaceship they flew up out of their heavy atmosphere and propelled passed their moon to a space-station. From the space-station they used a highly technological weapon they had no other reason for building than this one purpose. The reason I say that is because the Fequians do not fight against one another. It's kind of a strange thing but if they do, the code for hate or murder against one Fequian to another is immediate termination. Just imagine a fifty-foot-tall tree falling to the ground. That is what happens if a Fequian dies. The ground rumbles, the smaller life-forms bounce and the impression in the soil would last for decades.

  Back to the space-station and how they pushed Hyskpada toward their star Goff. When the two astronauts brought with them the final piece for the weapon, they wasted no time loading it and using it. The large gun-like weapon sent a laser beam through space, like a flashlight in a dark room. The beam was initially yellow but as the energy grew, the color turned to red and traveled three hundred million miles. When it initially hit Hyskfada, the impact was only heat that smacked the planet. But after several hours the heat turned into thrust and built enough torque to gently push the planet towards Goff.

  Goff would have its first victim but as you know from previous pages, it would not be it’s last. Once the planet was out of its held orbit it was now on a collision course heading for certain doom. How many years it took to reach Goff is still unknown, but once the planet crashed into the star it exploded and was visible to the naked Fequian eye. Now, speaking of Fequian eyes, which are enormous, just like everything on Fequ is large on this world. If our human eyes are the size of quarter on average, scale that fifty times larger. What do you image is a comparable object? Are you thinking the size of a car steering wheel? Bigger? Anyways, everyone for a period of two months could see the devastation in the sky.