The leprous light of the waning gibbous Moon shone down over the grassy heath, whilst the sound of cricket-song filled the air. A soft breeze rustled through the trees like unto the breath of a very spirit of the night-time, sighing a forewarning of things to come.
If anyone had been there to witness what then occurred, they would likely have been quite unsure of exactly how it all began. In truth, they most assuredly would have thought it all a dream, a mere fancy, a weird fantasy of the hours of darkness. For what then appeared, there over that moonlit heath, just seemed to drift into the very consciousness -- if such a thing can rightly be said -- of the night. It simply was not there, and then it was. Yet it did not appear suddenly, neither did it more slowly become visible. It simply… drifted into view.
It was a spherical vehicle, softly glowing with a strange silvery effulgence like unto that of the Moon itself. In fact, it could have been noticed (again, if there had been anyone at all there to so notice) that it seemed to come from the very direction of that natural satellite. It flew across the sky, neither hurrying nor lingering, and landed, settling amongst the trees on the far side of the heath, away from the area of the near by farming community.
The Spaceship rested on the ground for several moments before what next occurred. For then several figures emerged from the weird vehicle, figures that, like it, shone softly with an argent glow. They were slim of build and humanoid of form, wearing garments rather like athletic bodysuits. Their eyes were large and luminous, their faces smooth and unlined. They walked slowly away from the ship and began to explore the area.
Again, anyone witnessing the happenings of this eldritch night would have noticed a further strangeness, a additional gloomy foretelling of what was to occur, for at that time the sound of the crickets ceased, and an eerie silence settled over the darkling heath.
It was then that one of the visiting beings first spoke, his voice an high-pitched yet vaguely masculine tone at once both sad and mournful yet somehow positive and commanding.
“We have made it, my friends,” he said. “We are on Earth, the planet we have seen and learned of and wondered about for our entire lives: the planet of the human peoples much like us and yet so very different. We have made it, we are on Earth, and now it is time to have some fun!” …
My name is RUMANOS -- DOCTOR DANIEL RUMANOS, Extraterrestrial Espionage Agent and Intergalactic Man of Mystery. Even though I have the physical appearance of an human being, I am in fact several thousands of years old and do carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the legendary Aeternusians or “Watchers” of the Daemon-Star ALGOL. Originating ninety-three light years from Earth, we are the most intellectually-advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it often appears to be “magic” and “miraculous” to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites tend to keep to themselves, preferring to live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe and thus merely observing the goings-on of the myriad races of the vast reaches around them, I am an Operative for a secret organisation known as the KOSMIKOS or Cosmic Intervention Department, tasked with maintaining peace and order throughout the farthest reaches of Space and Time. You know, “plausible deniability”, and all of that sort of thing. It is our ongoing mission to defend the weak, the unfortunate, and the innocent from those who would harm or exploit them.
Currently assigned to Earth, I protect its people (both upon their own planet and across the eternal void) from the hideous manipulations of the arch-villain known as Magister Don Wingus and his occult terrorist organisation, Spectral Paranormal; as well as from alien invasions, mad scientists, and indeed all manner of menace. Assisted by my friends -- the beautiful young Hollywood starlet Miss Millie Drake, and our catlike robot known as Kit-10 -- I am the living icon of Algol on this world. I am a Knight of the Eternal Spires. I am the sword of justice from the planet Daemonia. I am the cosmic crusader. I am the stellar swashbuckler.
I am -- THE DAEMON-STAR!!! …
I parked my car at the side of the fence that separated the farmland from the expansive heath just as dusk was settling over the countryside. Now, it must be stated that said car is in no way an ordinary automobile, but rather my specially-modified and canary-coloured Edwardian roadster -- affectionately known as “Lizzie”. I shut off the motor and alighted from the vehicle with my two companions.
I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, jungle boots, panama hat, and one of my favourite opera capes. Reaching my hand in a pocket of my jacket, I took out an object somewhat resembling a writing pen -- actually the transonic turnscrew, an highly-advanced scientific instrument that I then used to scan the area.
“Anything on the readings, Daniel?” enquired the young girl who is the first of my companions.
“Nothing definite, Millie,” I replied, returning the device to my pocket. “According to the transonic, there is some alien presence, but it is vague and elusive. Although it is certainly here somewhere, it seems to be able to hide its exact nature as well as it did when we first detected its presence from headquarters.”
“There is something very strange here,” she said. “I can just tell, somehow.”
Miss Millie Drake is an exceedingly beautiful young lady, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut-coloured hair, enchanting violet eyes, sun-kissed skin, and luscious cherry-red lips. The short, tight, powder-blue dress she wore only served to highlight the soft curves of her slender teenage figure.
“Yes, I know what you mean,” I agreed. “There is a sort of psychic disturbance, but it seems to be staying just out of reach of true mentalist contact. Are your sensors detecting anything tangible, Kit-10?”
“Negative, s--,” replied the catlike robot in her simulated yet pleasantly-feminine voice. “Alien presence well masked.”
(It should be noted here that Kit-10, along with her other feline qualities, is seemingly possessed of the total inability to openly show respect for anyone. In fact, the closest she ever comes to it is by referring to me by a slight “s--” sound -- for “sir” -- and to Millie by “m--” -- for “ma’am”.)
“Well, in any event,” I went on, “we must investigate. The extraterrestrial presence seems to have settled here a month ago, when we were again off-planet. It has shown no definite signs of hostility, unless those other reports are connected to it, but its hiding of its nature from our instrumentation is troubling indeed. Both the ability to do that and the desire to do so indicate that it may be posing a threat to life on Earth.”
“What are the ‘other reports’ you mentioned?” queried Millie Drake.
“Well, some people from the local farming community have been talking about strange thoughts and dreams. Troublesome memories of traumas long buried in their minds, now suddenly rising up in their thoughts.”
“Do you think it could be another invasion?”
“Possibly,” I pondered. “Just possibly, hmmm? But the questions remain: who are they, and why would an alien invasion force appear here in this isolated and lonely western part of the state?”
“So how should we proceed to investigate?” asked the girl.
“Well, the Moon is now rising, so we will be rather well-lighted. Let us see what is beyond that line of trees over there, hmmm?”
We walked on to-wards the area I had indicated several metres distant. As we did, I listened closely for any sound.
“Millie, have you noticed something?” I queried. “Something about the noises here?”
“I don’t hear anything, Daniel,” replied the lass. “It’s completely quiet.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “It is currently early autumn, hmmm? The cricket song should be quite loud.”
“But what could have happened to silence them?”
“Well, insects of that type have a certain radar-like perception,” I explained. “If the alien presence here is indeed one of a naturally psychic disposition, its presence could have confused them to such an extent that they would have fled the vicinity.”
By now, we had reached the trees and continued on in the liquid moonlight until we reached the comparatively dark area amongst them.
“Stay close to me, Millie, Kit-10,” I cautioned as I searched my pockets for my electric torch. “Continue to remain on full alert until we have some better idea what we are dealing with.”
“I will, Daniel,” returned the girl. “It’s so spooky here and…”
Millie Drake did not finish her statement because her voice suddenly rose into a scream -- a scream of abject horror and unmitigated terror at what she then beheld. For at that very moment several otherworldly beings surrounded us. They were slim and basically humanoid in form but of a bizarre silvery hue, softly glowing and wraithlike. I pulled Millie close and she clung to me in fear as the ghostly beings approached closer to us.
Then, before my companions and I could further react, we heard a voice from one of the alien beings. It was a voice that can only be described as rather like unto an high-pitched lament, in truth an only vaguely-masculine voice that was sad and mournful in tone yet at the same time horrendously powerful and positively threatening.
“We are the Lunarians,” he announced. “You have entered the precincts of our landing site and must not be allowed to interfere with our operations. You will be destroyed.”
It was then that Kit-10 immediately went into action, shooting off a burst from her nose-laser at the alien closest to us. The ray seemed to pass right through the creature’s body without doing any physical harm to it. Nevertheless, I noticed the being reel backwards as if in surprise.
“Of course,” I said. “The light.”
I pulled out my torch and switched it on. The resulting illumination caused the beings surrounding us to back off several paces.
“They are only semi-corporeal,” I explained to Millie, “so Kit-10’s laser could not harm them, but any bright light is painful to their vision due to the dark and dimly lit environment from which they originate.”
“He said they are ‘Lunarians’,” spoke the girl in wonder. “Does that mean that they’re from… the Moon?”
“Quite right, Mills,” I affirmed “There are three dominant types of beings that inhabit Earth’s satellite, though researchers have often confused them. They all live inside the Moon, breathing the thin atmosphere that exists there. There are Moonites, a sort of mindless creature that feeds off the radiation of certain rocks near that world’s core; Selenites, an intelligent insectoid race distantly related to the Martians; and these beings, the Lunarians.”
I looked at the ghostly forms of the Lunarians that were still surrounding us. There were about half a dozen of them and they were still keeping their distance. The one who had spoken and another seemed to be conferring with each other. In a few moments, the first one broke away again and took a step closer to us, although still being careful to not allow me to shine the electric torchlight in his eyes.
“I am He’e-Ne’e of the Lunarians,” he said. “We have come to Earth so that we might use the humans as playthings. You will not interfere with us.”
I noticed that his tone had changed to some extent. It was as if he had been posturing somewhat before and now was telling me something at least a slight bit closer to the truth.
“Greetings to you, He’e-Ne’e of the Lunarians,” I told him. “I am Rumanos of Algol. You are welcome as visitors here, but the Earthlings are not your playthings. They are sentient beings and should not be harassed or molested in any way.”
“But we want to do that, Algolite,” he answered. “We want to play with the humans. We want to play with their minds. We want to use them for games and do what we want with them.”
Millie Drake then whispered in my ear.
“Daniel,” she said, “he hardly seems sophisticated enough to be from a species that could travel here from the Moon.”
“I know,” I whispered back to her, “but according to research records, the Lunarians are an advanced and peaceful people that have developed their own form of high technology, including Space travel. There is something quite unusual about this one and his friends, however, but I have not yet ascertained exactly what it is. Notice how he attempted to sound quite authoritarian at first, hmmm? Then he let his guard down a bit and became more emotional.”
“Could they be escaped psychiatric patients or something?” enquired the lass.
“I think not. Lunarian society has no such mental health issues, due to their rather fluid psychic abilities.”
“Yes, I can still feel them trying to enter our minds,” shuddered Millie. “That must have been the strange feeling we had when approaching the area.”
“Just concentrate enough to resist them,” I counselled. “As long as we allow no distraction, they should not be able to gain a hold of our consciousnesses and…”
I was then interrupted by the Lunarian again speaking.
“Enough!” the one called He’e-Ne’e shouted. “You will not keep us from our playtime, Algolite! We have our pet with us and she will keep you from interfering!”
“Their ‘pet’?” queried Millie. “What does he mean? Some kind of animal they’ve… Oh my goodness!”
Millie Drake then grabbed hold of my arm, well-nigh swooning in abject fear at what she beheld. For at that moment, approaching us through the trees was an horror indeed. It was silvery and softly glowing like the Lunarians, but was about the size of an elephant. The thing was a quadruped beast, huge and heavy and with a pair of twisted antlers upon its grotesque head.
I tried to shine my torch at the horrendous thing, but it was to no avail. The comparatively small light had no effect on the gigantic animal. Neither would Kit-10’s defences be of any use.
“Now, my pet,” said the Lunarian, “kill them! Kill them now!”
Moreover, with this, the gigantic beast roared and began to charge directly to-wards us!!
I quickly reached into my pocket and retrieved the transonic turnscrew, then activating a certain setting of the device. We soon heard the sound of an engine and of an antique automobile horn. It was Lizzie. The trusty old car had responded to the remote control of the transonic and soon came into view, activated her headlights directly in the eyes of the giant beast!
The thing immediately stopped its charge and then quickly backed off with a whimpering noise.
“Daniel,” said Millie, still clinging to me, “what is that thing?”
“That is called a Moon-Yak,” I replied. “It is a semi-physical creature like the Lunarians themselves, and they use its milk as their basic food. The Moon-Yaks are usually rather gentle, but this one has obviously been trained to at least put on a show of hostility.”
“Algolite!” suddenly interjected He’e-Ne’e. “I am sick of your interference!”
It was then that I felt it in earnest. It was the presence of the Lunarian in my mind. In truth, it was only because of the fact that I had been distracted by the events concerning the Moon-Yak and had not kept up my psychic defences that such a thing was even allowed to happen.
What I then began to experience was a feeling like unto an invasion into the core of my very consciousness; like unto a mentalist probing of my absolute deepest self; like unto icy fingers sifting through my brain. I grasped my head in both hands and began to reel.
“Daniel!” screamed Millie. “Daniel, what’s wrong? What’s happening to you?!”
“He is in my mind…” I gasped in pain and in shock. “The Lunarian, aided by the others, has managed to grab hold of my consciousness because of the distraction…”
It was then that the true nightmare began. Within my thoughts, I beheld images. Lurid images of things; of outlandish terrors and of darksome horrors from my past; indeed of the myriad weird and nightmarish foes that I have faced in the long long long years of my career. I saw the total unspeakable terror of the soulless cybernetic Replicants of Leknii, the profane and ungodly horror of the fascist Mynverkossian Mutations; the terrifying Cacodemons of Andromeda: the phantasmagorical Shaitans of Eblis; the dread unholy fear of the U15 Consciousness; the vampiric seductress Carmilla Karnstein; the unmentionably horrid Cult of Kuthalu; the terrifying Daughters of the Horse-Leach; and, most of all, the grotesque and unnameable mocking felony of my arch-foe, that founder of the obscene occult terrorist organisation called Spectral Paranormal, the insidious and utterly mad intergalactic criminal known to eternal infamy as Magister Don Wingus! Within my mind these and so many other bizarre and unhallowed beings spun round and round and threatened and harassed and attacked and besieged again and again and again.
Then -- just then as I felt myself begin to lose my grip on reality due to the supreme psychological onslaught that I was at that time experiencing -- it managed to get worse. For from within this psychic melee to which I was being subjected was now perceived yet another presence -- something outside of the very pale of actuality itself; something unknown and as yet unseen and existing beyond the edge of anything that could be deemed sanity. It was something that was at once a thing of shining light and unspeakable beauty and goodness and at the same time as unto the most unhallowed offspring of darkness and sin and lust and depravity. It lingered in my thoughts just out of reach, just behind the curtain of truth and of falsehood like a concept both eternal and as yet unborn.
“You are most troubled by those things you do not know, Algolite,” taunted the Lunarian. “You are troubled by something that haunts your thoughts more and more of late. It is something from the legends and the dark past of your own people; something you feel will soon be of importance in some deep and troublesome way; something with which you know you have a connection -- a connection the very nature of which is troubling to you in a way you do not dare to even consider. It is something that is somewhat known to you and to your race as… The Starchild!”
“Get out of my head!” I insisted. “I reject you, Lunarian! By the power of the Stellar Trinity I rebuke you and do cast you out of my thoughts!”
With this, I just managed to break free of the psychic hold, and stood there, now free but for the moment quite breathless from the struggle as I concentrated all my powers -- both physical and mental -- to-wards recovery.
“All right, you meddling Algolitish agent,” sneered He’e-Ne’e. “Now let us see how your little friend here will deal with this!”
The Lunarian turned to-wards Millie Drake, who was by now several paces away from me due to my having stumbled whilst being attacked. Neither Kit-10 nor I could in any way aid the girl before it happened. He’e-Ne’e and the other Lunarians were surrounding her.
“Oh my gosh!” exclaimed the lass. “No! I feel them! I feel them in my mind and I… I… !”
With this, the girl’s voice rose into a scream of terror as the Lunarian psychic invasion entered her consciousness!!
Do you recognise the truth of the complete and total abject horror, forsooth the utter unmitigated terror of this extremely grotesque and unprecedented situation, my dear friends and most loyal readers? Young Miss Millie Drake, she who is my closest associate and most beloved companion, was at that time being mentally attacked by the phantasmal psychic powers of the grotesque Lunarian aliens -- in truth an horrid and unholy attack that I, at that time, was not in any observable way able to prevent!
“Daniel, help me!” screamed Millie Drake again and again as the unhallowed horror of the Lunarian psychic probe overcame her now-weakened consciousness. “Help me! I feel them in my thoughts! They can see everything that I feel and think! They can make me see horrible things! They can… !”
It was then, at that most crucial and unspeakably horrendous moment, that another voice interrupted all. It was another Lunarian voice, but of one older and more authentically authoritarian than that of He’e-Ne’e. This voice came from above us.
“You will cease from this activity, my son,” he said. “These beings have done nothing to harm us and you will cease to harass them.”
With this, Millie was suddenly released from the mentalist hold and stumbled into a near-faint, whilst I then looked upwards to view what had arrived.
It was an huge Spaceship, spherical in shape and glowing with the same soft silvery effulgence as the Lunarians. The voice was issuing forth from it and directed to-wards He’e-Ne’e.
“Son, your conduct here has become an embarrassment to our family,” he continued. “You will return home immediately and apply yourself to learning and discipline.”
“Oh, please do not make us go back!” cried the younger Lunarian. “We did not mean to hurt anyone! We just wanted to have some fun!”
“You and your friends must return to your families,” insisted the voice from the ship. “Really, He’e-Ne’e, your mother is absolutely ill with concern over your absence.”
Immediately, the Lunarians, along with their Moon-Yak and their smaller spherical vehicle, all floated upwards and were soon taken into the large glowing Spaceship.
“Watcher of Algol,” the alien voice then addressed me, “I offer most profound and truthful apologies on behalf of the Lunarian people. Be assured that the incident shall not again occur.”
“Think nothing of it, sir,” I replied. “I do fully understand, and do wish health and prosperity to you and to your families.”
“Peace and good will to you and yours,” said the elder Lunarian. “Should we meet again, I do hope it will be under much more congenial circumstances.”
Then the Lunarian ship zoomed away to-wards the gibbous Moon. I ran over to Millie Drake. She fell into my arms.
“Oh Daniel,” cried the lass, “I’m so glad it’s over! They could see into my thoughts!”
“I know, love,” I consoled her. “I know. It is all right now. They have gone and we are safe. Earth itself, and its people, are now safe.”
We then turned and began to walk slowly back to-wards our waiting car, holding hands under the moonlight on that bizarre and strangely troublesome night there in the rural western region of the state.
“So He’e-Ne’e is just a young boy,” said Millie, recovering from her fear, “out for a joyride with one of the family Spaceships?”
“Quite so, and it is certainly forgivable, hmmm?” I pondered. “That sort of thing happens to a lot of chaps. It may be that perhaps I even committed one or two somewhat similar little discretions in my own younger centuries.”
“Oh yes,” giggled the girl, “I can remember hearing some stories of when you were a student at Daemonia Academy. Like that time you…”
“You never mind,” I interrupted quickly, as we reached the car.
“So are you all right, Kit-10?” Millie asked the mechanical cat who had followed alongside of us.
“Systems undamaged, m--,” replied the robot. “All functions are within acceptable parameters.”
“So come on then,” said I as we all climbed aboard Lizzie. “It is still a couple of hours until dawn, so we can find an all-night diner and have an early breakfast, hmmm? Some steak and eggs would indeed be most appreciated right now.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
