“The Sensorians?” enquired Millie Drake. “I remember reading of them at the Academy. They’re a pacifist race, aren’t they?”
“Very much so,” I replied. “The Sensorians are beings of highly advanced mentality, their society finely structured and completely non-violent.”
We were in the café-like control room of the DiTraS (pronounced “DYE-tress” and standing for Dimensional Transport Sphere), our incredibly sophisticated combination Spaceship/Time-machine which is of the type developed by our own people, the Watchers of Algol.
“So we’re near their planet right now?” asked Millie.
The girl is exceedingly beautiful, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting blue-violet eyes, sun kissed skin, and luscious cherry-red lips. The tight, short, purple dress she wore only served to highlight the soft curves of her gorgeous teenage figure.
“Yes,” I replied. “Well, within a few light years, hmmm? Sensoriana, one of the most peaceful worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Sensorians live in a city of computers which they never leave, the remainder of their planet being unsettled and rather prehistoric in its fauna.”
I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, and jungle boots. My panama hat and opera cape hung on the near by hallstand.
“Receiving a transmission, s--,” suddenly exclaimed Kit-10 (our mobile personal computer that resembles nothing more or less than a small mechanical cat) in her simulated yet pleasantly-feminine voice. “It appears to be a distress signal.”
It must be noted here that Kit-10, along with her other catlike characteristics, is possessed of the total inability to openly show respect to anyone. The closest she ever comes to it is by addressing me with a slight “s--” sound -- for “sir” -- and Millie by “m--” -- for “ma’am”. The robotic feline had currently attached her sensors to the control console of our ship I order to update her own systems.
“We shall look at it on the main board,” said I as I activated some of the DiTraS controls.
“What is it, Daniel?” queried Millie Drake concernedly.
“By the Triple Star!” I swore. “It is indeed a distress signal, transmitted by a Spaceship from Earth. Hmmm. The ship appears to be a standard Twenty-Sixth Century trading vessel of the type utilised by the numerous corporations of that era. I shall set the controls to meet them and see how we can help.”
“Do they say what the problem is?’ asked the girl.
“Indeed they do,” I answered, “but it does not make a lot of sense. According to them, they are receiving threats of violence from --- the Sensorians!” …
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!!! …
An odd gasping-moaning sound was heard whilst the DiTraS (the outside of which resembles an ancient “Roman column”) materialised on the bridge of the Earth Spaceship. A round porthole type opening appeared in the DiTraS and I stepped out, now having donned my hat and cloak, and followed by Millie Drake and Kit-10.
The ship’s control bridge was typical of the period, with several crewmembers operating consoles and a central area containing the captain’s chair.
A tall, handsome man wearing a green-hued officer’s uniform with gold piping walked over to us.
“Welcome aboard,” he greeted, “I’m Captain Parker of the trading ship Columbia, fully authorised by the government of Earth to conduct business throughout the Galaxy. Thank you so much for answering our distress signal.”
“Pleased to meet you, sir,” said I. “I am Doctor Daniel Rumanos of the Kosmikos of Algol. This is my assistant, Miss Drake, and our computer, Kit-10.”
“The Kosmikos of Algol?” queried the captain. “We’ve heard stories of the Watchers, but I never thought I would meet any of them.”
“We’re just here to help,” offered Millie.
“Can you give us some information on the nature of the trouble you are experiencing?” I asked.
“Our systems detected some valuable minerals occurring naturally on the planet Sensoriana,” explained Captain Parker. “Since we were in this sector anyway, we sent a message to its inhabitants to see if they would be interested in engaging in a trade deal with us. Immediately after this, our ship was immobilised in Space, due to an energy beam that seems to be coming from the planet.”
“That is unusual indeed,” I pondered. “The Sensorians are a peaceful people, a society of non-violence avoiding conflict of any kind. The only possible reason they would take such an action is if they see you as a serious threat.”
“We did nothing but offer them a possible trade agreement,” returned Parker. “The Columbia is a merchant vessel with only rudimentary defences, just side arms for us and a shield and laser cannon for the ship. There is no way we could be a threat to the Sensorians even if we wanted to be. Obviously their technology has to be incredibly advanced in order to hold our ship here like this.”
“Indeed,” said I. “The Sensorians have one of the most advanced technological systems in this galaxy. There are very few species that could be any threat to them whatsoever.”
“Have there been any other Earth ships in the area?” enquired Millie Drake.
“Possibly, but none that we have records of,” answered the captain. “There are several Earth-based companies trading throughout the Galaxy. As long as they have government authorisation, we do not interfere with each other.”
“Captain,” suddenly interrupted the communications officer from her station. “We are receiving a voice transmission from Sensoriana.”
“Put it on the main speaker,” ordered Parker.
The voice that then came forth was calm and precise, without anger but all-the-more menacing for it clarity and absence of violent intent. It said:
“We are the Sensorians. Your presence here has been found to be a danger to our existence and to the continued peace and well-being of Sensoriana. Because of this, we are holding your Spaceship in a stasis beam and will continue to do so. For the safety of our race and of our society we must never allow you to depart.”
“Captain,” I said, “If I may have your leave to communicate on behalf of the Columbia?”
“Of course, Doctor,” agreed Parker.
“Greetings to the people of Sensoriana,” I announced. “I am Doctor Rumanos of Algol, here assisting this Earth vessel in the distress to which you have brought them. They have not threatened your planet in any way. What is the meaning of this outrage, which seems to be against all the beliefs of peace and non-violence for which the Sensorians are so justly famed?”
“You are an Algolite?” questioned the alien voice. “Our people have been at peace with yours since the beginning of known history. We would like to speak with you in private concerning the activities of these Earthlings. If you would be willing to visit our planet, we will send the matter transmission signal.”
“Agreed,” I said. “My assistant and I will transit down to Sensoriana.”
“We will send the signal shortly,” replied the Sensorian voice.
“Doctor,” said Captain Parker, “are you certain this is safe?”
“Miss Drake and I will not be harmed by the Sensorians,” I assured him. “Our peoples have been at peace always.”
I turned then to the robotic feline.
“Kit-10, you need to stay here,” I told her. “You have a laser in your nose, and therefore the Sensorians might perceive you as a weapon in stead of a nice little kitty-cat.”
“This unit is neither a weapon nor a cat, s--,” protested the little robot, “but your decision is agreeable.”
“Come along then, Mills,” I told the girl. “We are now going to pay a visit to the planet Sensoriana!”
A moment later, the matter transmission signal hit us, and Millie and I vanished from the bridge of the Columbia.
We reappeared instantly on the planet, finding ourselves in a vast chamber in which there was amazingly futuristic computer equipment of a type unseen elsewhere. There were no controls, and all the systems were calibrated by the Sensorians concentrating upon them.
The Sensorians themselves, who stood around the chamber in various positions, were all identical in appearance, basically humanoid but small and thin and with large bulbous heads and golden epicanthic eyes. Their skin was grey in colour and it was obvious from their figures that they were without gender. They were each clad in a simple gown-like garment as grey as themselves.
One of the Sensorians approached us and spoke.
“Greetings, Algolites, and welcome to our world,” it said. “We regret that we will be unable to free the Earth ship from the stasis beam.”
“Kindly explain this outrageous action to us, hmmm?” I insisted. “The Earthlings have done nothing to harm you or your planet. They simply offered you a business deal for some valuable materials natural to your world, a business deal which you were perfectly capable of refusing if you wished and they then would have then been on their way.”
“Some time ago,” explained the Sensorian, “another ship from Earth approached our planet with a similar offer. They said they were interested in certain minerals occurring in the lower depths of our planet. We invited the Earthlings down and spoke with them concerning it, but had to refuse the offer when we found that they had brought weapons with them.”
“Had they used these weapons against you?” enquired Millie Drake.
“No, but they had them concealed on their persons.”
“They were probably just side-arms,” I pondered. “Small laser guns as part of their standard security procedure. I assume you asked them to leave, hmmm?”
“Yes, we did,” answered the Sensorian, “and they did so without incident. However, soon afterwards, some of our people started dying of a strange ailment, a sort of wasting that we had never before experienced.”
Whilst we spoke, we did not see what else was occurring. A man, a human being of about thirty-five years of age, his hair and beard long and tangled, himself clad in ragged clothing, was approaching us. He was creeping around the computer systems unnoticed by the deeply-concentrating Sensorians.
“Could the humans have carried some kind of disease?” queried Millie.
“I think not,” said I. “Earth and Sensorian biology are too dissimilar for any viral infection to be passed from one to the other.”
The man had by now gotten closer to us and noticed Millie Drake. As he looked at her, his eyes grew dark with lust and desire, and a wicked smile spread across his face.
I turned back to the Sensorian.
“From whence do your people obtain your food and drink?” I asked it.
“It is delivered naturally from deep within Sensoriana,” replied the alien. “Both our water and minerals containing all the nourishment we require are thus brought to us.”
“Fascinating,” I rejoined. “Hmmm. So that supply could possibly be exploited as a vulnerability. I wonder if…”
I was suddenly interrupted by a sound like a door slamming. I turned quickly and looked around the chamber.
“Millie?” I called. “Millie, where are you?!”
The girl was missing!!
“What has happened here?” I insisted. “What has happened to Miss Drake?”
The Sensorians then quickly dialled up the security camera footage and we beheld the man abducting Millie. He had suddenly grabbed her, placing his hand over her mouth in order to prevent the helpless girl from crying out. The man had then immediately carried the lass through a doorway that led from the Sensorian computer room to the interior of the planet and continued to take her downwards, out of range of the cameras and down farther into the inner world of Sensoriana.
“Is there a way to locate her and get her back?” I enquired. “Using your matter transmission beam, perhaps?”
“Unfortunately not,” replied the Sensorian to which I had been speaking. “The beam will not work due to certain rock formations within our planet.”
“I need to go after her then,” I announced. “There is no time to waste. Can you open the doorway to the interior?”
“We will do so, Algolite. However, you must be cautious. There are creatures down there, animal life unchanged since the dark prehistory of our world.”
“I shall take my chances,” I affirmed.
The Sensorians did as I had asked and I immediately stepped through the doorway into the eldritch underworld of Sensoriana -- hurrying to save the helpless Millie Drake from being ravaged by that obviously quite deranged Earthman!
The tunnels throughout the planet have a certain phosphorescence that served to light my way as I trekked onwards. I rushed through the myriad caverns in search of my beloved Millie Drake.
None the less, something was going to attempt to bar my way. It was one of the primitive animals that exist in the darksome interior of Sensoriana. For at that very moment, slithering into view ahead of me, was an huge serpent, gold of colour with its eyes pitch black. The horrifying creature was easily several metres in length, and it bared its huge fangs as it drew back its hideous head in preparation to strike.
I darted to the side as the giant reptilian horror lunged to-wards me, barely escaping its horrendous fangs. I then jumped upon it, positioning myself behind its head with my arms wrapped around what served as the monster’s throat. The thing writhed and jerked in an attempt to wrench itself free of my grip, but I held fast. Its hissing sounds were horrific whilst it continued to fight against me.
Finally, the monstrous serpent began to weaken. It started to sink down slowly to the ground. When I was certain it was thus abased, I loosened my grip and lowered myself back down to a standing position facing it.
The gigantic snake looked at me and I gazed directly into its terrible ebon eyes, asserting my dominance and superiority. In a few moments, the huge reptile crawled away, slithering down one of the adjoining tunnels.
“I shall tread wherever I please,” said I.
I then turned and quickly continued my search for the girl and her captor. I found no spore, and thus no definite way to physically detect in what direction the abductor had taken Millie. I knew that the unusual quality of the rock formations within the planet of the Sensorians would preclude any electronic assistance. My search for the lass would have been hopeless except for one important factor.
Miss Millie Drake, my companion, assistant, friend, and lover, is an Algolite. For the first dozen years of her life on Earth she knew nothing of this, living well and pursuing a career as a young Hollywood motion picture actress and fashion model. It is then that I met her, during production of a science fiction film in which she was starring, for which I had been asked to be technical advisor by the producer, who knew something of my knowledge of extraterrestrial life forms due to a previous experience in which I had managed to exorcise several quite famous celebrities that had become possessed by the horrid Maskim of Mercury. Millie and I had soon become friends and much more, her alien powers then being activated by having come into contact with my own Algolitish DNA. Soon after this, she matriculated to my own alma mater, Daemonia Academy on our home-world, and received her education on the history, traditions, and science of our legendary and vastly superior race.
It seems that Millie is descended from a group known as the Twelve Spies of Draconis, these having been sent to the system surrounding the constellation Draco in order to perform a covert operation many generations ago. The upshot of this operation is that the spies had to go into hiding somewhere in Space and Time. The young lady known as Millie Drake is he only trace of their continued existence that has yet been found.
As soon as her academic education was complete, Millie was drafted as a junior agent of the Kosmikos, in order that she could accompany me on my travels and assignments as an operative of that highly-secretive intergalactic espionage organisation. As such, she has remained to this day.
There is thus a certain mentalist bond between Millie Drake and me, a psychic connection that can sometimes be utilised in certain situations. It is this that assisted me in locating the girl that day in the caverns underneath Sensoriana.
I eventually saw the man ahead of me, carrying Millie -- who had fainted away with fear -- from the tunnel into what appeared to be a small rock chamber beside it. I ran to-wards them and the man then turned and saw me.
“No!” he bellowed. “You won’t take her from me! I want her! I’ve been all alone here for too long, and I want her!!”
With this proclamation, the abductor dropped the girl inside the chamber and then quickly drew a small laser pistol from his torn trousers. He then aimed and fired it directly at me!
Do you see the unspeakable horror, forsooth the supreme ungodly terror of this grotesque situation, my dear friends and most loyal readers? Is it even possible for you to perceive the level of absolute fear and unspeakable dread to which this vile circumstance had now brought me; in sooth the unqualified dreadfulness, the unnameable panic, the appalling alarm, and the unmentionably unhallowed ghastliness of the condition I was now in? That obviously-insane man who had abducted young Miss Millie Drake and was now holding her captive had just shot at me with a laser gun -- in truth, a blast that could be hideously harmful, perhaps even fatal; a blast that in all events would, if it reached my person, prevent me from saving my beloved Millie from her mad captor!
It was only my superior Algolitish reflexes and speed that prevented me from being shot by that beam of potentially-deadly laser light. I dodged to the side and the ray missed me by a mere millimetre, striking the stone wall to my left and loosening some pieces of rock.
I immediately picked up one of the stones and threw it at the man with the alacrity of a cricket pitch. It hit the laser gun, sending it flying from his hand.
Before he could further react, I broke into a run and lunged to-wards him, my hands seeking his throat. He struggled with me with a strength well-nigh superhuman. It was the strength of madness. He managed to break free long enough to step back and deliver a blow to my face. I responded with a kick to his stomach then followed by a roundhouse punch to his head that sent him flying. He hit against the unyielding stone wall of the tunnel, the impact shattering his skull and killing him instantly.
“Smashing,” said I.
I then hurried into the small chamber and located Millie Drake. She was lying on the floor of the room, still swooning but unharmed. I gently picked her up and she wept softly in my arms.
“Worry not, love,” I consoled her. “All is well. I am here and you are safe.”
“Daniel,” she murmured, “Oh my gosh, I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I am, sweetheart, and all is now well,” I assured her. “Nothing could ever keep me from you. Nothing ever in all of Space and Time.”
I noticed some stone formations that had been made into a makeshift table, chair, and bed in the chamber. On the table were two objects: a log book and a medicine bottle. Still cradling Millie against my shoulder, I briefly flipped through the book and read the entries that had been made in it by use of an old-style pencil.
“Yes,” I said. “Just as I surmised.”
I then lifted the medicine bottle to my nose and sniffed it. The odour was unmistakeable.
“Curare,” I identified. “Of course. That explains everything.”
I then left the chamber, carrying Millie Drake up the tunnels the way I had come, until we had returned to the computer room. By now, the girl had recovered consciousness and I set her down on her feet before I again spoke to the Sensorian.
“The Earthman was part of the crew of the previous merchant ship that visited Sensoriana. He had been sent surreptitiously into your planet to survey the mineral deposits. The ship had been unable to contact him before they departed, and the man was left to go insane from loneliness and isolation in the depths of an alien world.”
“It is this that somehow led to some of our people dying?” enquired the alien.
“He was poisoning your water supple with deadly curare, a poisonous substance taken from a plant native to Earth,” I explained. “Some Spaceships are equipped with it because it can also, in small doses, be used as a muscle relaxant. He blamed you for his condition and, in his madness, sought revenge. I assure you that the unfortunate deaths that you have been experiencing will now cease.”
“The Earth ship will be released and allowed to go on its way,” assured the Sensorian, “after you have been returned there by matter transmission.”
“Thank you, my friends,” I replied, “It is good to see that the famous Sensorian beliefs in peace and harmony are indeed intact.”
Millie was still clinging to me, trembling slightly from the horrors she had experienced. I looked at the dear girl, I looked into her beautiful blue-violet eyes and I knew in my heart how much I loved her. We hugged each other warmly as we waited for the matter transmission beam that would take us back to the Columbia, to our robotic friend Kit-10, to our own fantastic Spaceship/Time-machine, the DiTraS -- and to many more amazing adventures together.
“I was so glad when you came for me, Daniel,” Millie Drake said, her voice full of love and devotion. “I knew you would! I love you so much!”
“Oh, my dear sweet little Mills,” I said as I held the wonderful young girl in my arms, realising once and for all that she was everything to me. “I love you too. I always have and I always will. Everybody wants you, but you are mine. Mine and only mine forever. You are my one true love, my sweet inspiration, and my only real reason for existing in this Universe. You are my one and only passion, my immortal darling, and my love eternal -- and no one will ever take you from me!!!”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
