It had been several times of late that I had experienced it -- a feeling beyond that of anything perceivable by the normal senses. It was a feeling that, in its last occurrence, had been accompanied by a vision; forsooth, a vision of something remarkable and profound; a vision of a being of glorious light and goodness and at the same time of darkest evil and depravity.
The feeling of which I speak -- that which was accompanied on its latest occurrence with the bizarre vision -- had happened every time someone had spoken to me certain words. I realised early on that for them to have even spoken those words to me showed that I was not the only one affected by thoughts of the supposed being therein mentioned. What I was experiencing was then a symptom of a larger uprising of thoughts -- thoughts that had influenced numerous persons throughout Creation -- centred on the entity therein named.
This entity, this being, was a concept only consciously known to my people, the Watchers of the Daemon-Star Algol. Even to us, however, it is perceived only through whispered mythology and legends, stories told to children and rarely given any credence by academic thought. It is an entity that is said to have had an important part to play in the evolution of our species, in our development to-wards our current status as Masters of all Space and of all Time. Even the myths only describe the being as having been known in the most distant and dimly-remembered past of our race, before those uncounted aeons of time that have passed since the Watchers first developed the technology that has made us the most powerful society in the Universe.
Upon reflection of the implications of this, it has indeed occurred to me that the true understanding and comprehension of all this is perhaps only accessible to those who have left all reason behind and have entered the realms of madness and illogic. For the entity involved -- whether a creature of reality or a psychological concept of symbolism and metaphor -- is beyond all understanding of the usual order. It is a combination and negation of opposites without which all frame of reference ceases to exist, leaving the thinker without a grasp upon anything that is usually termed reality.
As for the name of this being, this unknown and unknowable thing of the furthest past that is both light and darkness, both good and evil, both up and down, both right and wrong -- it is a name easily spoken. The name of this entity that I had heard so many times of late is -- The Starchild! …
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!!! …
The planet’s surface was barren and bleak, its rocky landscape coloured a grotesque sea-green, with flashes of strange energy continuously showing upon the horizon. A wind was blowing, a wind that could be more heard that felt or seen.
In this landscape was also heard, at the particular point in time in which our story begins, an odd gasping and moaning noise whilst an object materialised into view. It was an object resembling an old Greco-Roman “Corinthian column” but was indeed something far more, for it was actually my DiTraS (pronounced “DYE-tress” and standing for Dimensional Transport Sphere), an incredibly advance combination Spaceship/Time-machine of the type invented by my people, the Watchers of Algol.
In the side of the DiTraS then appeared a porthole type of opening from which stepped three figures -- a man, a girl, and a robot.
The man was, of course, me, Doctor Daniel Rumanos. 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. I took the transonic turnscrew (an highly-advanced scientific instrument resembling a writing pen) from the pocket of my jacket and began to scan the area.
The girl was Millie Drake, she who has become my friend and companion on so many journeys and adventures throughout the realm of the Cosmos. She is exceedingly beautiful, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, lovely blue-violet eyes, sun-kissed skin, and luscious cherry-red lips. The tight, short, flowered sun dress she wore only served to highlight the soft curves of her slender young figure.
The robot is Kit-10, our mobile personal computer that resembles nothing more or less than a small mechanical cat.
“It is just like the DiTraS systems told us, Millie,” I announced whilst pocketing the transonic turnscrew. “The scan shows that this planet has been the victim of an energy attack, and the energy can only be categorised as being Aeternusian, or proto-Algolitish!”
“But what planet are we on, Daniel?” enquired the lass.
“The DiTraS was sent here under remote control from the Kosmikos,” I said, “but we were given no information on the precise location. The only reason they would do that is if knowledge of this is just too high security for transmissions. Similarly, the DiTraS location systems were temporarily immobilised. Kit-10, is there anything on your sensor readings?”
“Negative, s--,” replied the robot in her simulated yet pleasantly-feminine voice. “Detection systems are blocked due to energy residue.”
(It must be noted here that Kit-10, along with her other catlike characteristics, is singularly bereft of the ability to openly show respect to anyone. 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”.)
“Ah, there is a clue,” I said whilst pointing to the dim sky of the planet. “Look!”
“Its sun is a blue star,” said Millie Drake. “Oh my goodness, Daniel… that’s Algol!”
“Yes indeed,” I affirmed. “It is much farther away than as seen from Daemonia, but it appears that we are indeed on one of the outer planets of the main Algol system.”
“But who could do this, and how?” queried the girl. “To destroy all life on an Algolite world, and by using Aeternusian energy? How is that even possible?”
“I wonder, love. I wonder.”
I continued looking around the area and saw what appeared to be a structure about half a kilometre distant.
“Over there,” I indicated. “It seems to be some kind of building, though now mostly destroyed. Let us have a look, hmmm?”
Millie, Kit-10, and I quickly walked over to the structure. It appeared to be made of carven stone and of quite ancient origin. It had obviously been shattered by an energy blast much more recently.
“Daniel, look at that,” said Millie. “Some old writing.”
I looked at the carved inscription over what had apparently been the main doorway of the building. I could not suppress my surprise when I recognised what it was.
“By the Stellar Trinity!” I swore. “That is ancient Algolitish script!”
“Can you read it, Daniel?” asked Millie. “We only briefly covered that during my time at Daemonia Academy.”
“Yes,” said I. “It says… ‘Hermitage of the Unknowns’.”
“Oh my gosh! You mean… we’re on Demulus!”
“Indeed we are. Demulus, the planet of the Forbidden Angels, those Algolites who were born with the retroactive trait of having the powers of our Aeternusian forbears. There were only nine of them, and they have lived here in complete pacifism for countless generations. Well… until now!”
“Daniel, you mean someone has killed them?” shuddered the girl.
“So it appears,” I pondered. “Otherwise, their psychic essences would have been revealed to us by now. They could not have otherwise been removed from the planet without the Absolute Convention and the Kosmikos knowing it.”
“But the Nine Unknowns were powerful beyond belief,” said Millie. “Who could do this? Who would want to? Daniel, how is it even possible?”
Before I could answer, an answer that admittedly would have been mere speculation, we were interrupted by another voice. It was a man’s voice, a voice cultured and intelligent of timbre yet tinged with madness.
“Oh, it is quite possible, Miss Drake,” he said, “and it is I who have done it!”
We turned around to face him. He was clad in a black ceremonial vestment. His countenance was like unto a man of middle years, still showing signs of handsome distinction despite being marked with the signs of seeming lifetimes of extreme profligate wickedness. His hair was long and dark, and his visage was decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his eyes shone with a bizarrely mesmeric glare.
“You!” I exclaimed. “I should have known. So you did escape from Dundalk.”
It was indeed my oldest and evilest enemy; that renegade Algolite who has become the most sinful villain and obscene master criminal in all of Time and Space. It was Don Wingus!!
“I cannot say I am particularly surprised to see you either, Rumanos,” mocked the villain. “It figures the meddling Kosmikos would attempt to harass my affairs here on Demulus, but it shall avail them nothing. The power that I now wield is beyond even that of the Absolute Convention of Daemonia!”
“You found a way to demolish Demulus,” I replied. “A planet that was only occupied by a peaceful monastic order. That is far from being something of which to boast, despite the power that the Unknowns had.”
“As usual, Rumanos, your pedantry causes you to completely miss the point. The death of the Nine Unknowns shall serve as a sign, both to the Watchers and to the Universe at large, that I now have a power supreme above all others. It is a power that I shall now use to conquer all of the Algolite systems. I shall make myself Universal Overseer, and shall lead our people to unlimited power over all!”
“But why?” countered Millie Drake. “You’re already a Watcher. Why do you do these things? What can you really gain by becoming the Governor of the Galaxies or whatever?”
“I shall achieve that of which certain on Daemonia have dreamed,” retorted Wingus. “I shall bring our people to fulfilment! We shall at long last achieve the true destiny of the Aeternusians!”
“By the Triple Star!” I exclaimed. “Wingus, you are speaking of the student movement at the Academy, and their goal of contacting the original source of Algolitish power. You have taken this and corrupted it into yet another of your self-aggrandising plots!”
“Indeed, it is the combined mental force of those young Daemonians that has aided me in the destruction of Demulus.”
Whilst Don Wingus was talking, I make a signal with my hand to Kit-10, who then began to slowly inch closer to our position.
“But how, Wingus? I understand that you could just possibly have utilised the combined psychic essences of such a movement, but to do what you have done here, to have destroyed beings as powerful as the Forbidden Angels…”
“Would have required the power of something only known from myth and legend?” he interrupted. “Now you are finally starting to understand, Rumanos. You see, it is the combined mentalist yearning of the student movement that managed to contact that very being that according to some whispered mythologies is the original source of Algolite power.”
“You mean… ?” I questioned.
“Yes, Rumanos, yes!” exulted the villain. “They contacted the power that I now wield! The power of the one who is beyond good and evil! The power of the one that is beyond darkness and light, beyond Space and Time, beyond fact and fallacy! It is the power of -- The Starchild!!!”
By now, Kit-10 had moved around, unseen by the distracted Don Wingus, and could get a clear shot at him.
“Now, Kit-10!” I called.
And with this, the robotic cat shot off a blast from her nose laser. It hit the villain square in the chest, something that should have resulted in stunning him, but it had no effect.
“Really, Rumanos,” said Wingus, “did you actually think that mechanical animal of yours could harm me now? I, Magister Don Wingus? I who now wield powers like this?!”
It is with this pronouncement that the villain sent forth a wave of energy from his hands, an energy manifest in sparkling white and black power. The energy immediately surrounded Kit-10 and Millie Drake, making a sphere around them that soon hid them from view.
“Wingus, you unholy fiend!” I shouted.
“Now, Rumanos,” he said, “I shall get these annoying companions of yours out of our way!”
Then, before I could even attempt to stop it, the energy sphere containing the girl and the robot suddenly shot upwards, quickly moving away from the surface of the planet!
“If you harm them, Wingus,” I told him, “I swear that I will find a way to personally tear you apart and… !”
“Oh give it a rest, Rumanos, you silly old swashbuckler,” laughed the villain. “You can do nothing against me now. Besides, your little friends are unharmed. Look!”
I gazed upwards and saw that the energy sphere had halted perhaps a kilometre or so above the planet’s surface.
“That will just keep them out of the way for now,” said Wingus in his most mocking tone, “whilst we have a little talk, eh, old friend?”
“The Starchild, hmmm?” I enquired. “Do you actually expect me to believe that you have contacted and been empowered by a being from Algolitish legend? A being that, if it ever existed at all, has been lost in the mists of the past to such an extent that recovery of whatever those old stories are based upon is likely impossible?”
“Oh, it is quite possible,” replied Wingus. “In fact, I have done it. The very power of the Starchild is now mine. Its essence now flows through me, and I shall utilise it to conquer all!” …
Far above us, in the skies of the planet Demulus, Miss Millie Drake and Kit-10 stood in the sphere of energy. Millie took a small cylindrical object from her dress and briefly pointed it to-wards the surrounding energy, then looking at it, she read the results.
“Gosh, my transonic lip-gloss doesn’t even perceive this energy as existing,” she said. “Kit-10, is there anything to do to set us free from this thing, so we can go back and help Daniel?”
The robotic puss then extended a sensor from her forehead to-wards the energy surrounding them.
“Negative, m---,” she said after several seconds. “The forces of this sphere are beyond anything in my abilities.”
“It’s the power of that Starchild thing, I guess,” pondered the girl. “If only we knew something about what that actually is. Is there anything in your databanks about it, Kit-10?”
“Negative. I have never encountered information on the being known as the Starchild in any information source. My apologies, m--.”
“Oh, it’s all right,” said Millie, affectionately patting Kit-10’s metallic head. “I guess Daniel is still down there with Don Wingus. I just wish we could hear what they’re saying.” …
“Twaddle!” I exclaimed. “Absolute twaddle! The Starchild, at least insofar as the subject is understood at all, is an complete myth, a fairy tale, a somewhat frightening little entertainment. Whatever energies you have managed to utilise here are a mere illusion compared to true Algolite power. You have committed an heinous criminal act by your destruction of Demulus and by your murdering of the Nine Unknowns. The Kosmikos will bring you to justice, and the Absolute Convention of the Watchers shall make you pay for those crimes!”
“Oh, not this time, Rumanos,” snarled Wingus, the effulgence of energy in his eyes growing in intensity. “Not this time. The power of the Starchild is mine, and I shall use it to destroy all who would dare to stand in my way -- including you, Daniel Rumanos, including you!”
It was then that Don Wingus suddenly set forth a blast of energy from his person; forsooth a blast of power unlike anything I had ever before experienced. It hit me directly and sent my very consciousness away from me. It was as if I were suddenly surrounded by blinking strobes of light, both bright and dim and continuously flashing all about me -- all about my very mind!
“Now, Rumanos,” I heard the mocking voice of the villainous Don Wingus as from afar. “Now, feel the power that is mine; the power of the Starchild! Feel it destroy you! Feel it kill your very soul!”
The last vestige of his voice then faded from my hearing as my thoughts went beyond anything that could even possibly be termed reality. The light that surrounded me continued to flash between white and black as I felt the presence of a being -- a being whose very existence was a logical impossibility.
It was like unto good and evil at once, it was light and dark, up and down, right and left, male and female, young and old, beauty and ugliness, truth and falsehood, pleasure and pain, knowledge and ignorance, virtue and perversion, hot and cold, big and small, the beginning and the end. It was all opposites that have ever been known or unknown. It was absolute ecstatic enjoyment and it was supreme eldritch horror.
Can you even begin to realise the dangers of this situation, my dear friends and most loyal readers? I had suddenly found myself in the presence of something that had only been whispered of in the eldest mythologies of my race; a being, a concept, a legend, a mere fancy -- or perhaps a god!
I concentrated and rallied my thoughts to-wards logic and understanding. With my mentalist vision I then looked into the very centre of eternity, the forever and ever, the always and the never. I looked and I saw. I saw and I understood.
It was an understanding that I knew only I could safely perceive; an understanding that would drive any other being in all of Creation into complete and utter madness.
I then felt the power flowing into me, strengthening me and bringing me back my purpose. The planet’s surface appeared around me again and I beheld Don Wingus standing before me. I again concentrated my thoughts, and the energy now within me shot forth and sent him reeling. He fell to the ground several metres distant.
“What!” bellowed Wingus in shock. “What is this? What have you done?!”
“I have taken the power of the Starchild from you,” I explained. “It was quite easy, actually. Well, easy for me, at least. It is not something any other living being could do.”
“But how, Rumanos?” queried the villain. “How have you done this?”
“Well, you see, I discovered something about the Starchild that you do not know; something that gives me a certain affinity with it, and something that makes it not care at all for you, hmmm?”
“What are you babbling about, Rumanos?”
“It seems that the Starchild is the offspring of your daughter Anastasia,” I told him. “It is the result of her… encounter with me when you used the Time-Stalker to bring her forward in Time. Yes, I filled her with my very essence. It was only after this that you then sent her back in Time to be abused and murdered by your cult when she was secretly pregnant. The result caused a temporal anomaly that gave birth to the Starchild at the very beginning of Algolitish evolution. That is the reason for the mythology; the reason for which the Starchild -- although an original source of the power of the Watchers -- is only whispered of by our people.”
It was then that I behold a look of abject fear overtake the hypnotic eyes of Magister Don Wingus. Still on the ground, he began to attempt to crawl away from me.
“No, Rumanos, no,” he pleaded. “Do not do this. Do not do this to me!”
“Oh yes, Wingus,” said I. “It seems that the Starchild is finally going to get some closure concerning the trauma of having an abusive grandfather!”
The full force of the energy then shot forth from me and hit Don Wingus. I heard him scream in pain and anger and absolute terror before his entire body just dissolved from view. In a mere second, there was nothing left of him.
The energy then sparkled around me for a few moments. I saw the sphere that contained Millie Drake and Kit-10 descend from the sky and land safely on the ground before it vanished. Then the energy faded and disappeared forever. Within seconds, it was as if it had never been.
Millie immediately ran over into my arms.
“Oh my gosh, Daniel!” she said. “I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“I am glad you are safe as well, my dear Mills,” I replied whilst giving her a warm hug. “Kit-10, are you all right?”
“All systems functioning normally, s--,” replied the computerised feline.
‘Daniel, what happened?” queried the girl. “Don Wingus, the Starchild, those strange energies? Are they all gone now/”
“Yes, they are indeed,” I told her.
“But what happened?” she insisted.
“Well, let us just say that Wingus could not handle the powers he was attempting to deal with, hmmm? It rather backfired on him, to put it bluntly.”
“But the Starchild. Did you find out what it is?”
“Oh, the Starchild is just an old legend,” I said. “Nothing more than that.”
“Really?” questioned Millie. “Nothing at all?”
“Oh well, there was one possible explanation for it,” I mused, “but it is too ridiculous to even contemplate. Let us go back to the DiTraS and get away from this place, hmmm? We have certainly seen enough of it.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
