We were on a street. It was a street seemingly like any other, and yet it was not. In reality, it was a time and place that was a prelude, a prelude to historical horrors unimaginable, to a terror that would be remembered for all of the history of the planet Earth and its people as a warning and as an indictment of the hate and prejudice that lurks like a demoniacal monstrosity within the most darksome recesses of the human heart.
The DiTraS (pronounced “DYE-tress” and standing for Dimensional Transport Sphere), our combination Spaceship/Time-machine that has an exterior form resembling a Roman column, had materialised (with its usually gasping moaning sound) on the street. Its porthole type opening had appeared and we had stepped out onto the pavement.
I was dressed in my usual finery -- including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, jungle boots, panama hat, and one of my favourite opera capes.
My companion, Millie Drake -- an exceedingly beautiful young lady with rich chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, sun-kissed skin, and luscious cherry red lips -- was clad in a short, tight, bright orange-coloured dress that only served to highlight the soft curves of her slender teenage figure.
“So, where are we, Daniel?” enquired the girl. “It’s obviously Earth, but the DiTraS systems wouldn’t give us any indication of exactly where we are or what time we are in.”
“Indeed, but the Kosmikos must have sent us here by remote control for some reason,” I responded, mentioning the name of the intergalactic espionage organisation for which we are agents. “We were made to leave so quickly that Kit-10 was forced to stay back at our headquarters to finish her regular computer upgrades.”
I then reached into my jacket pocket and retrieved the transonic turnscrew, an highly-advanced scientific instrument somewhat resembling a writing pen, and utilised it to scan the area.
“Nothing definite,” said I upon looking at the readings on the instrument. “Whatever is blocking the DiTraS systems is affecting the transonic as well.”
“But what could it be?” asked Millie. “Something would have to be extremely powerful to have an effect on the DiTraS.”
“Extremely powerful indeed,” I pondered, returning the transonic device to my pocket. “There are very few things that could do so, hmmm? But let us have a look around and figure out where we are.”
We began walking down the street. It was quite dark, there being no street lamps or other lighting to illuminate the night. The only light was from a waning gibbous moon and starlight filtered through a thin layer of cloud. We were in a residential area, and so far had seen no one. We only heard the sound of numerous raised voices, shouting and screaming in various ways, from afar -- seemingly scattered around the city that surrounded us.
“Early to mid-Twentieth Century, I would say,” I stated. “Northern European, from the look of the architecture. Ah, we seem to be coming to a business district. That should give us a better view of things, hmmm?”
“Daniel, what is this we’re walking on?” queried the girl. “It’s crunchy like gravel or something.”
“I have an idea,” I said, “but it is too horrible to relate. Let us find out some more of the facts before we speculate, hmmm?”
We walked on and saw a line of retail establishments: a tailor’s, a delicatessen, a bakery, a dress shop, and a few others. They were all closed, and there was something else about them that immediately commanded our attention.
“Daniel, those shops,” said Millie Drake. “They look like they’ve all been vandalised.”
“Indeed, they have,” I agreed. “The windows have been smashed out of them. Millie… look at the signs over top of them… the street signs as well. Everything.”
“Oh my gosh!” exclaimed the lass. “They’re all in German. So at least we know what country we’re in and… Daniel, I think I understand! I think I knew where --- and when -- we are!”
“Yes,” I said, taking Millie’s hand after hearing the tremble of horror that had entered her voice. “We are in Berlin on the ninth night of November in the year 1938. This is one of the worst nights in all of human history. It is the night in which Nazis and Nazi sympathisers throughout Germany and Austria engaged in horridly violent attacks against Jewish people and their property. Mills, my dear, this is Kristallnacht -- The Night of Broken Glass!!” …
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!!! …
“But why, Daniel?” wondered Millie Drake. “Why would the Kosmikos send us here? For us to prevent the rise of Nazi Germany would be against the laws of Time travel.”
“Unfortunately true,” said I. “To send us right here to this night, the ‘November pogrom’, the very prelude to the horrors of the Holocaust, and to the Second World War -- and with some kind of alien energy jamming some of our systems, hmmm?”
“Could it be that the Nazis have some extraterrestrial technology?” offered the girl.
“That seems likely,” I agreed, “but what? It is certainly true that the higher levels of the Nazi regime did experiments with various forms of occultism, but that would be at their headquarters, or at remote locations around Germany. It is not something we would encounter here on the streets of the city, hmmm?”
“If only the transonic turnscrew was working correctly,” returned Millie, “you could scan if there was anything unearthly near by, and…”
The girl’s words were then interrupted by raised voices approaching us. They were rough, uncouth tones in colloquial German.
“Look! More Juden!” said one man. “Let’s get them!”
“Are you sure they are Juden?” questioned another.
“Of course they are!” rejoined the first. “Look how they are dressed!”
Millie Drake and I turned to see who was approaching us. We beheld a group of several young men, clad in the garb of common workers.
“Hello, Juden scum,” said one of them, the same that had first spoken before. “We want you filth out of the Fatherland, and this is the night that happens!”
With this, the bigoted miscreant took a brick from his pocket and threw it at us. Fortunately, his aim was faulty, and he missed my head by a fraction of a centimetre, the brick clattering onto the street behind us.
“Daniel,” whispered Millie, “we should run.”
The girl was right. There was no use in staying to fight. These were street thugs. Even if we had easily vanquished them, there were countless more exactly like them around the city and the country. It would be a worthless exercise.
Still holding hands, Miss Millie Drake and I dashed off through the streets of Berlin, away from our attackers.
Whilst we ran through the city, we heard them behind us, shouting slurs and threats as they attempted to catch us.
“Die, Juden!” they shouted as their pursuit continued. “All you pigs will die! We will kill you all for the Fatherland and for the Fuhrer!”
“Keep running, Millie,” I counselled as we attempted a circuitous route through the district streets. “We will lose them eventually.”
Indeed, within a couple minutes we no longer heard them, and realised that we had indeed managed to evade them as we finally slowed down and halted in our new location.
“Daniel, look,” said Millie. “Look where we are.”
We were standing in front of a synagogue. It had been horridly vandalised; its windows all broken; its exterior walls covered with anti-Semitic graffiti, but it still stood -- it stood as if in defiance of the hatred and intolerance surrounding it.
“Quite ironic, hmmm?” I pondered. “Let us go inside.”
The girl and I walked into the synagogue and found ourselves in the lofty front corridor. We noticed an Hebrew inscription carved on one of the walls. I stopped and looked at it with some degree of surprise.
“By the Daemonian Spires!” I swore.
“What does it say, Daniel?” asked Millie.
“Why, it is an ancient Cabbalistic incantation, “ I explained. “Basically, it is a call to…”
Just then, we were interrupted by a strange sound. It was like a low chanting, gradually increasing in volume.
“Daniel, is that noise related to this?” queried the young lady.
“I think not, Mills,” I replied. “That chant is in modern German, and is certainly not a calling to anything rabbinical!”
With this, Millie Drake and I carefully walked out into the area from which the chant was emanating. It was the central sanctuary of the synagogue, and it had been horribly desecrated. There were blasphemously black candles in the menorahs, and the group assembled there -- around a dozen of them -- were clad in “storm trooper” type uniforms, replete with swastikas. The one standing foremost in the sanctuary was leading the chant with these words of eldritch abominable terror:
“Come forth, great one! Come forth, terror to mortals, and grant us your power! Grant us your power that we may conquer the world and other worlds beyond it! Come forth now and bless your worshippers, we who are of the pure Aryan Race! Come forth, ravening wolf that even the gods fear! Come forth, O Fenrir!”
“Heil Fenrir!” replied the others. “Heil Hitler! Heil Fenrir!”
It was then that in the in the expanse above the worshipping Nazis, between them and the high ceiling of the synagogue, a form began to appear. It was a form of unspeakable horror and fear unimaginable. It was like unto the materialising spectre of a predatory animal, and was accompanied by a sound like unto the satanic howling of the dogs of the infernal regions. It was the head of a gigantic wolf!
“Oh my goodness, Daniel,” shuddered Millie. “That thing… It’s…”
“Yes,” I answered. “The Fenrir Wolf, an incredibly powerful and unmentionably dangerous creature found in Nordic and Germanic mythology, but in actuality a beast from the home planet of the Wotanians, the Space-faring race that were the inspiration behind the Norse ‘gods’. It was adopted by them and brought to Earth as a pet and guardian, but it proved unmanageable and had to be put down. However, as it has a certain psyche-mentalist essence, it continues to exist in another dimensional reality that can be accessed by secret formulae that can be found in certain obscure Viking songs -- songs that this person has apparently discovered.”
“Herr Heinrichs!” suddenly interrupted one of the assembled worshippers. “Look, mein herr! Juden! There are Juden here!”
With this, the one called Heinrichs, who had been the leader of the unholy invocation, whirled around to face us. As he did so his concentration was broken and the terrible face of the Fenrir wolf faded from view, the howling subsiding into silence.
“So, I see that some of you Juden filth are still here,” sneered Heinrichs. “It is interesting that you would be present to see that which will bring an end to the existence of your accursed race. The mighty Fenrir will be manifest, and its power will be used to bring about the supreme domination of our glorious Aryan Race over this entire world! After this, the knowledge we will gain from the Wotanian worship will enable us to go forth to the stars! All of Space will be conquered by the Third Reich, and we will reign forevermore!!”
“That is absolutely insane,” I challenged. “You will not be able to control Fenrir. It is a being of brutality and chaos that was too much for even the Wotanians to handle.”
“You are wrong, Juden sorcerer!” returned the Nazi. “I have learned from the ancient songs how to bring forth the Fenrir Wolf, and it shall be under my control. I am Herr Heinrichs of the superior blood, and I will use the powers here invoked to assure our supremacy over all!”
“That will not happen, Heinrichs,” I told him, “because we are here to put a stop to your mad scheme. The Nazi Party will not succeed in harnessing the power of Fenrir. The nations of Earth will unite against your Axis of evil, and you will only be remembered for all time as a warning against the horrid dangers of hate and fascism and racism and intolerance!”
“You disrespectful Juden pig!” screamed Heinrich. “You may have interfered for the moment with the incantation of Fenrir, but you will not succeed in stopping us! The ceremony will continue, and the mighty power of the Wolf will be mine, that I may use it for the future of the pure blood!”
“Madness.” I repeated. “Complete and utter madness. Even if you succeed in bringing forth Fenrir, it has no loyalty to you or to anyone. It is a wild beast and an uncontrollable force. It would ravage the entire planet and possibly destroy all life upon it, including your nation!”
“Quiet, you accursed Juden wizard! I am sick and tired of your insolence.”
Millie Drake was clinging to my arm in fear as this conversation continued between Heinrichs and me. The other Nazis were looking on in hatred, some of them fingering the service pistols that hung at their sides.
“Step away, Heinrichs,” said I. “Leave the synagogue that you have desecrated for the use of your satanic worship and end this madness now. This is the final chance you are getting.”
“I have had enough of you, Juden magician!” proclaimed Heinrichs, then turning to the others. “Kill him! Kill the inferior Juden and his slut!”
With this, the other Nazis drew their guns, and the one closest to us fired a round directly at my midsection!
I quickly dodged to the side, carefully protecting Millie with my cape. Only my superior Algolitish speed and reflexes prevented the bullet from hitting me. As it was, it whizzed past mere millimetres from my form.
Before any of the assembled Nazis could again fire, I quickly retrieved the transonic turnscrew from my pocket and aimed it at them. Within a second, each of them bellowed and dropped the pistols they were holding.
“You used the transonic setting that heats metal and that made their guns too hot to handle!” cheered Millie Drake.
“Quite so, love,” I affirmed as I observed the Nazis nursing their burned hands. “Quite so, and now we will have to…”
“Do not just stand there, you fools!” ordered Heinrichs. “Get them!”
“Oh my gosh, Daniel!” cautioned Millie Drake. “Look out!”
I hastily pocketed the transonic and then prepared myself to defend against the group of Nazis. They all approached at once, and I swiftly dispatched the first two of them with kung fu kicks. I then hit another with a fist to his face, crushing his nose and causing him to bleed profusely. Another I knocked out with a powerful blow to his head.
One of them, however, managed to creep around behind me and threatened Millie. I quickly turned and kicked him into unconsciousness. This had caused me to turn away from another, who them grasped me from behind and attempted to strangle me with his arms. I reached my foot back behind his ankle and tripped him backwards, making sure my full weight then landed upon him, thus causing him to lose his hold.
I stood up and made certain that Millie Drake was still safe before turning back to the remaining Nazis. They were by now cowering back away from me, and it was obvious that this particular confrontation was coming to an end. Nevertheless, when all of this had been occurring, something else was happening that threatened to be of much greater importance and of a far deeper level of eldritch evil.
Whilst I had been involved in the melee with the group of Nazis, Heinrichs had resumed his invocation of Fenrir, chanting the words of demonic worship that would bring the monstrosity forth from it inter-dimensional prison.
“Come forth, O mighty Fenrir!” he intoned. “Come forth and grant me your power! Come forth and aid in our cause to make the Aryan Race the rulers of this and of all worlds, as is our rightful due! Come forth, now, O mighty one! Come forth, Fenrir, ravening wolf feared even by the gods! Come forth, Fenrir! Come forth!”
The form of the Fenrir Wolf had again appeared hovering above us, now more than just a head, but forsooth the entire semblance this grotesque and obscene being -- the gigantic black wolf that is the ancient alien horror known as Fenrir!!
The bestial eyes of the unearthly wolf were glowing with a blood-red effulgence as it looked down upon us, and the howlings had reached a cacophonous crescendo.
“Kill them, mighty Fenrir!” commanded Heinrichs. “Kill the enemy warlock and his tiny witch! Kill them, as you will aid us in destroying all of our enemies! Kill them, Fenrir! Kill the Juden!”
With this, a mighty crimson flame shot forth from the form of the Wolf, an truth an horrid flame of otherworldly power, blasting both Millie Drake and me and sending us careening off our feet and across the floor of the synagogue!!
Can you even begin, my dear friends and most loyal readers, to see and to comprehend the unspeakable satanic horror and the unnameable darkling terror that we were then experiencing? That grotesque alien monstrosity known as the Fenrir Wolf, remembered in legendary lore for its ferocity and unmitigated fierceness, had manifest before us -- right there in that desecrated synagogue in Berlin, Germany in the year 1938. It -- in a mere beginning of the forces that it could use to aid the Nazi Party in their conquest of worlds -- had then attacked Miss Millie Drake and me, blasting us with its horrible crimson firepower and sending us reeling to the floor in an uncontrollable convulsion of pain and anguish!
I had taken most of the blast, and I had to force myself to remain conscious. Millie lay beside me, stunned but otherwise unharmed.
It was then that I realised exactly where we were.
The blast had taken us back out into the entrance corridor of the synagogue. I looked up and again beheld the Cabbalistic Hebrew inscribed upon the wall there. There was now a strange golden light emanating from it.
“Of course,” I said. “It all makes sense now.”
I took out the transonic turnscrew and aimed it at the wall, directly in the centre of the old writing. Then something seemingly miraculous happened. The wall all around the inscription began to shake and the radiance took unto itself a definite shape. In sooth, it began to glow with a golden effulgence in the shape of the Star of David!
Then the wall cracked open. It cracked open and something came forth from it. It was like unto an animated grey statute of an enormous man, strong and muscular and covered with Hebrew lettering and Cabbalistic signs.
“Daniel, what is that?” asked Millie Drake, barely having recovered her senses. “Is that… ?”
“It is the Golem of Prague,” I informed her. “The creature created in the Sixteenth Century by Rabbi Jehudah Leow to protect his people against the anti-Semitic government of that time. It worked, and kept the Jewish people of that city from being expelled or exterminated. None the less, in time the Golem became too difficult to control, so the rabbi deactivated it, with the provision that it would return someday, to once more defend against the forces of evil and intolerance. It must have been brought here to Berlin by some descendant of the old rabbi, hmmm? Our being here aided in reactivating it, since the Cabbalistic powers utilised by Rabbi Leow are a relic of Algolitish technology.”
By now the Golem had approached the hovering form of the hideous Fenrir Wolf. The alien animal growled and challenged it, but the Golem was undaunted. It grasped the form of Fenrir by the throat and hurled the bestial monstrosity against the far wall of the synagogue. The wolf howled in pain and anguish, its crimson fire flashing around the lofty chamber and consuming Heinrichs and the other Nazis.
“No!” screeched Heinrichs as the fire reached him. “No, Fenrir! Do not fall to this Juden magic! No! Nooooo!”
And with this, the horrible Heinrichs and his cohorts were burned to ashes by the flames of the very being he had brought forth; the monster known as the Fenrir Wolf, that same creature which now faded away into non-existence.
The Golem, its work competed, then crumbled away into a pile of shapeless clay, and all was quiet in the synagogue.
I reached down and helped Millie Drake to her feet.
“It is over now, my dear,” I assured her. “The power of Fenrir is destroyed.”
“Daniel, you knew what was there?” enquired the girl. “Behind the wall, I mean?”
“To a certain extent, yes,“ I explained, “based upon the Caballistic inscription. You see, I was certain that the power of Fenrir, strong as it was, could not have been what had jammed our systems. It just is not on the correct wavelength to do so. I knew therefore that there had to be some other power present.”
“It was the Golem!” cheered the girl. “You helped it to come forth from the wall.”
“Quite so,” I affirmed. “It had gotten old in waiting for the day it would be needed to fulfil the erstwhile promise, but it had enough power left to destroy the Fenrir Wolf. You know, it has often been wondered why the Golem did not return to save the Jewish people from the horrors of the Third Reich. However, as it turned out, it did! As bad as things were, it all would have been much worse if the Nazis had succeeded in utilising the power of Fenrir. They could have used it as a gateway to tap into other Wotanian technology, developing interstellar Space travel within a few years or decades. In sooth, the horrors and madness of the Hitlerian world would have possibly spread out across the Galaxy.”
“So that is why the Kosmikos sent us here,” said Millie. “To help the Golem to return and save its people! To help it to prevent the Nazis from gaining that power!”
“Quite so, my dear Millie,” said I as we exited the synagogue. “Quite so. Now, my love, let us find our way back to the DiTraS. Our work here is done, and I for one will be pleased to leave this horrid time in the planet’s history.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
