"The Maleficarum Power Station,” said I. “That is what is apparently causing an unusual effect on our engines, hmmm?”
“But what is it?” enquired Millie Drake. “I seem to have heard about it somewhere, but I’ve never had it explained to me what it is.”
Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, sun-kissed skin, and luscious cherry-red lips. The tight, short, pink dress she wore only served to highlight the soft curves of her slender adolescent figure.
I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, military style boots, and one of my favourite opera capes. My panama hat hung from a near by hallstand as I stood there in the café like control room of the DiTraS -- which is pronounced “DYE-tress” and stands for Dimensional Transport Sphere -- one of those incredibly advanced combination Time-machine/Spaceships utilised by our people, the Watchers of the Daemon-Star Algol.
“The Maleficarum,” I explained, “were a race of Space-faring traders -- well, pirates, more like -- who existed many ages ago in this part of the Universe. This power station was used to fuel their ships. Now, the particular type of energy/fuel they utilised has many unusual properties, not the least of which is that it is quite nearly sentient. So, after a while the Maleficarum Power Station seemed to develop a sort of mind of its own, hmmm?”
“So why is it effecting our engines here in open Space?” queried the girl.
“Well, you see,” I replied, “the power station was abandoned long ago, and whatever consciousness it had has most likely faded away, leaving it as just a mindless mass of energy. Therefore, as we passed through this sector on our routine patrol for the Kosmikos, it made an automated connection seeing us as a ship perhaps needing refuelling. Since our systems cannot properly link to it, the attempt has just caused an interference.”
“Oh my gosh,” said Millie, “it’s a good thing Kit-10 stayed behind at Earth headquarters to do that computer filing, or it might have interfered with her systems as well.”
“Possibly. Possibly.”
“So what should we do?”
“We can land the DiTraS inside the station,” I answered. “Just briefly, in order to complete the sequence. That should result in the Maleficarum interface disconnecting from us.”
I then programmed our ship’s control board, setting it to materialise inside the Maleficarum station. In a few moments, the readout announced that we had done so.
“Well, my dear Mills,” I said, “as long as we are here, we might as well have a little look around, hmmm?”
“You mean we can go out there and see it?” asked Millie Drake.
“Yes,” I assured her. “The Maleficarum Power Station has a proper life support system, and according to our scanners it is still functioning.”
I retrieved my hat and then Millie and I stepped out through the porthole like opening of the DiTraS (the exterior of which resembles an old Greco-Roman column) into the alien station.
It was a gigantic area of blackness and greyness, with strange cloud formations and occasional bolts like eldritch lightning. The only sound was a low rumble.
“Amazing that it is still functioning at all after all this time,” I mused, my voice echoing around the area. “The Maleficarum had quite an extraordinary system of technology for a group of interstellar freebooters, hmmm?”
We walked a short distance upon the invisible flooring of the station. Millie held my hand, but did not voice the odd sensations we both felt whilst inside the ancient alien power centre. So taken were we by the fascinating sights of this bizarre location, that we did not notice a tiny spark of it quickly entering the DiTraS porthole that we had left open behind us.
“Well, love,” I said to her, “it should have been long enough now that the DiTraS can break through any remaining interference. Let us return there and begin our journey back to Earth, hmmm?”
“That’s a good idea, Daniel,” replied Millie Drake. “This place is so weird.”
We returned through the DiTraS porthole, which then closed behind us and, a few moments later, the strange gasping moaning sounds of our Algolitish Time-Space engines was heard as our ship dematerialised form the Maleficarum Power Station.
It was after we had gone that it happened, so we did not hear it. It was something horrible, something grotesque and of unspeakable dread. For then, right there in that now empty alien power station, there was the echoing sound of low evil laughter. …
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 “The Girl From Beyond” 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.
These are my memoirs. This is my story.
I am -- THE DAEMON-STAR!!! …
The sound of our engines was heard on the city street as the DiTraS materialised into view there in the bright sunlight. The porthole opened and then Millie Drake and I stepped out onto the pavement.
“So where are we now?” queried Millie. “This isn’t our usual city, is it?”
“No,” I replied, “the after effect of the Maleficarum Power Station’s interference threw off our coordinates a bit. However, it is only by a couple thousand miles and a few decades. According to what I saw on the DiTraS readouts, we are in Denver, Colorado in the year 1996. As I remember, they have very good Mexican food here, so let us go have lunch whilst the ship recalibrates its control systems, hmmm?”
“Sounds great!” replied the girl and we began to stroll down the Denver city sidewalk arm-in-arm, in search of a good restaurant.
What we did not notice before leaving the area was that the porthole of the DiTraS had stayed slightly open and, before it closed, something else slipped out. It was a thing like unto a small cloud, made up of blackness and greyness and punctuated with flashings as of bolts of eldritch lightning. The thing then began to float down the street, hovering and moving as if searching for something. …
Across the street, in a small shop called the Botanica Santeria, there amongst the numerous herbal remedies, crystals, esoteric jewellery, and pamphlets claiming to teach the “ancient magical spirit art”, a rather bizarre scene was being played out. The old woman who ran the shop was in a rather heated argument with a young man.
“No!” said the woman in Spanish as she sat behind the counter clad in her multi-hued dress. “No, I will not sell you the ingredients for such spells! It is evil and demonic, and we must use the worship of the saints only for things that are positive!”
“But I need this!” replied the young man in the same language, standing before her in his Colorado Rockies baseball jersey and blue jeans. “My Heina, my beloved girlfriend, she has been taken from me by that damned Sancho! I need the right herbs for a love potion to give to my Heina! I also need the spells to put a curse on that Sanchito! My name is Manuel, if that helps. Can’t you tell the spirits for me? Don’t you even understand? I need this! I just can’t stand my life without her anymore!”
“I am sorry, but I cannot do that,” rejoined the elderly Latina, her tone now somewhat more sympathetic. “It is just not the kind of thing we do. Please now, leave my store.”
The young man, obviously still quite raging inside, quickly obeyed the woman and left the botanica. He stepped out onto the street and stood brooding, staring at the ground as a look of pain creased his dark features.
“I would do anything,” he said to himself. “I would do anything to get my heina back. I guess I will have to buy a .45 and shove it right down that Sancho’s throat. Yeah, that’s it! I’ve got something for his punk ass!”
Notwithstanding young Manuel’s intention of utilising prosaic violence to solve his romantic problems, it was apparently preordained that his ambitions would take a different turn. For at that very moment, approaching him from across the street was the strange cloudlike thing. It moved towards the youth who, distracted by his own darkling thoughts, did not notice until it was too late.
The thing approached and then touched Manuel. Its black essence briefly surrounded his body, flashing bolts and rays of lightning as it then just seemed to meld with him. The young man had closed his eyes and, when they reopened, they had changed. His pupils were now a covered as if with a cloud of black and grey, and from them were seen continuous bolts of darksome lightning, playing and raging with the force of the alien intellect with which the sad youth’s consciousness had now been augmented.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I feel it. I feel the power of the spirit that has blessed me with its presence. It is a spirit far stronger than the usual saints of the Santeria worship. It is a spirit that will give me the power to get my revenge on that damned Sancho! Then I will get my beloved Heina back and… No. No, I have a better idea. With this power I can get a new Heina! I can get many of them!”
I horrid laugh of unmitigated evil was heard echoing around young Manuel as he then again spoke, forsooth as he first uttered the name of the profoundly wicked extraterrestrial consciousness with which he was now possessed:
“I am now one with the spirit; the spirit from the beyond that will give me powers to get new Heinas and so much more! I can use its power to build an empire! I feel it! I feel the awesome power within me! The power from the dark void! The power of -- Maleficarum!!” …
Millie Drake and I had enjoyed an excellent meal at the near by La Azteca Restaurante. We had shared the taco combo for two along with a pitcher of highly-caffeinated iced coffee, followed by a couple scoops of vanilla iced cream for dessert.
The waiter then brought the bill and left it on the table along with some mints. I took out a blank plastic card from my pocket, along with the transonic turnscrew -- this being an highly-sophisticated scientific instrument somewhat resembling a large writing pen. I activated a certain setting of the myriad ones found on the transonic and then aimed it to-wards the card, which immediately then changed its appearance to a normal-appearing credit card of the type that was valid at the time.
“There now,” I said quietly to Millie. “That will show up in their bank account as money perfectly acceptable for the year 1996, hmmm? I even added a substantial gratuity for our waiter here.”
“That’s good,” smiled the girl. “I really like the food here, and it’s a nice place.”
“Quite so,” I agreed. “I have always rather favoured the Latin-American culture. Some of the finest Earth-people I have known were a part of it. Did I ever tell you about the time that I aided Xavier Cugat in finding his lost chihuahua? The poor little dog had been kidnapped by a group of Selenite scientists who had come from the Moon in order to conduct an experiment with this planet’s biological factors. Oh, they did not mean any harm, really. They just did not realise how attached humans are to their pets, hmmm? Well, anyway…”
It was then that we perceived a ruckus that was occurring near the restaurant’s front entrance.
“Senor! Senor!” I heard the headwaiter shouting. “No! Please wait to be seated!”
By now, Millie Drake and I had stood up from our table and had then turned to face the entrance. We beheld a young, dark-haired man who was stalking quickly into the establishment. He was dressed in a Colorado Rockies baseball jersey and blue jeans.
“Daniel,” whispered Millie. “Look at his eyes.”
In sooth, his eyes were indeed unusual, with his pupils covered by a strange cloud of blackness and greyness, punctuated by bolts as like unto a certain eldritch lightning.
“By the Spires of Daemonia!” I swore. “The poor man is possessed. Possessed by…”
“I am Manuel,” declared the youth, “and I have been given power from the outer darkness! It is power I will use the avenge myself upon the damned Sanchito that took my beloved Heina from me! It is power I will use to get myself many new Heinas, and to get myself riches and everything that a man could want! It is a power beyond anything in this world! It is the power of the Maleficarum!”
(He was speaking Spanish, but of course Millie Drake and I could understand him perfectly; our Algolitish mentalist abilities automatically translate the local languages wherever we travel.)
I raised the transonic turnscrew and utilised it to quickly perform a scan upon the possessed young man from across the Mexican restaurant.
“It is true,” I said upon then glancing at the resultant readings. “A portion of the forces from the Maleficarum Power Station has indeed taken over his consciousness and body.”
“But how, Daniel?” asked Millie Drake. “How did it get here to Earth?”
“I fear we may have inadvertently brought it here in the DiTraS,” I responded.
“You mean it kind of… stowed away?”
“Yes, or secretly hitched a ride, you could say. It appears the power within that old Maleficarum centre is even more powerful than I thought. For it to have secretly come aboard an Algolite ship and hidden its essence from our sensors -- that means it is not only an energy force of immense strength, but it must have indeed evolved and retained a certain sentient consciousness as well.”
By now the headwaiter, an elderly Hispanic man, had approached young Manuel.
“Please, senor,” said the headwaiter. “Please just leave our restaurant, or I will have to call the police.”
At this, the young man turned to the headwaiter and raised his hand at him. From his hand then shot forth a steam of darksome lightning energy that hit the older man and briefly surrounded him with blackness before the helpless headwaiter then fell down quite dead!
“So will I deal with all,” announced Manuel, his voice growing deeper as the alien power strengthened its control on him. “So will I bring death upon all who would dare try to stand in the way of the Maleficarum!”
By now I had again raised the transonic turnscrew and was using it to further scan Manuel.
“Incredible,” I said upon looking at the resultant readings. “His consciousness now appears to be a melding, forsooth an amalgamation of his own human self and of the Maleficarum energy.”
“Daniel, is there anything that can be done to help him?” queried Millie Drake. “Is there anything that can get rid of the Maleficarum power?”
“I believe so, Mills,” I replied. “Yes. It seems quite possible, at least in theory, but I would need a sample of the energies in order to process any sort of cure or antidote.”
The young Latino had now moved farther into the restaurant, and seemed to be looking for something.
“Now I will find what I want,” he stated. “Now I will get all I need and could ever want, just like a powerful Santeria magician!”
“Daniel, you don’t think he means to…” gasped Millie.
“Manuel,” I said, addressing him directly. “Manuel, my name is Doctor Rumanos and I wish to help you. You, as you apparently realise, have been possessed by something that is known as the Maleficarum. It is not a spirit or a saint or anything like that. It is an alien power source that has gained some degree of conscious will. It, as it seems, has developed a certain ambition to become a conquering force upon the planet Earth. It does not care about your concerns and will not help you. Please just attempt to relax and I can try my best to help you overcome its control.”
With this, the young man looked at me. He looked at me through his darkly clouded eyes and then, to my unspeakable horror, from him came forth a deeply sonorous and profoundly evil laugh; in truth, a laugh not of an human being but of the incredibly powerful and dangerous alien force by which the man was possessed.
“No, Algolite,” he said, his voice now that of the Maleficarum energy, “you will not interfere with our conquest of this world. The coming of our new empire is already assured. This human is but a vessel, a mere slave of our service. We are the Maleficarum, and we will conquer all!”
And then, the youth’s hand raised up and there shot forth from it a burst as of the black lightning type energy, an energy that flashed across the restaurant and hit me hard, sending me reeling across the room to hit the far wall. At the same time I heard the transonic turnscrew, which had gone flying from my hand upon receiving the shock of the energy, now clattering to the floor several metres distant from me.
The pain that I was experiencing from the blast of alien energy was immense, and I felt myself quickly falling into unconsciousness.
“Now, scum of Algol,” said the possessed Manuel as he again raised his hand in preparation of giving me another burst of the Maleficarum power, “now, you will die!”
“Oh my goodness!” screamed Millie Drake. “Daniel!”
At this sound, the young man’s head turned to behold Millie fully for the first time. Most of the restaurant patrons by now had fled in terror from the establishment, leaving the floor open for him to see the beautiful young girl.
“Yes, that’s it,” said Manuel, his voice now recovering a hint of its human timbre. “She will be my new Heina! Yes! I will take her right now and make her mine.”
Then, before she could even react, Manuel grabbed Millie Drake and began to drag her from the restaurant. She screamed and struggled, but the possessed youth’s strength was far too much for her.
“You are mine now, girl” then stated Manuel as he carried the girl out the door. “Yes, you are now mine!”
My friends, do you recognise the sublime horror, in truth the absolute and total terror of this ungodly situation? Millie Drake was being abducted by that possessed young man, who obviously intended to do unspeakable things to her -- this in addition to the fact that the extraterrestrial force now in increasing control of him had the further goal of ruthlessly conquering this planet and others. At the same time, I was barely conscious as the result of the eldritch blast of Maleficarum energy that I had received.
When I heard Millie’s screams from Manuel abducting her, I rallied myself. I knew that I could not allow -- under any circumstances whatsoever -- the slightest harm to come to her -- that beautiful and wonderful young Algolite girl who has become my closest friend, my companion, and indeed so much more. I struggled through the pain and regained my feet, finding the transonic turnscrew and picked it up from the floor before hurrying out of the restaurant in pursuit of the Maleficarum-possessed young Latino known as Manuel.
I ran out onto the pavement and soon beheld Manuel carrying Millie Drake -- who by now had fainted in fear -- away from the restaurant. I raised the transonic device and activated it. From the instrument came a low whirring sound that quickly grew in intensity. Within a few moments, Manuel had started to sink to the ground, soon releasing Millie and beginning to shake and shudder. The Maleficarum energy then exited his body, briefly hovering above him as a dark cloud before then vanishing from sight. Then Manuel was motionless.
“Mexican standoff,” said I.
I ran over to them and first checked that all was safe. There was no sign of alien power, and Manuel breathed no more.
Millie Drake by this time had recovered from her swoon and I helped the girl to her feet.
“Daniel!” she said, hugging me. “Is it over? Is everything all right now?”
“Yes, my dear, all is well," I assured her. “Manuel is dead and the Maleficarum power is gone.”
“But how did you do it?”
“When he hit me with the energy,“ I explained, “some of it touched the transonic turnscrew. It was enough for the device to analyse it and switch it in polarisation. I then could utilise the new setting to exorcise the power from Manuel . It was his distracted human mind and body that made it possible. You see, I noticed that Manuel’s consciousness was still alternating between itself and that of the Maleficarum energy. It was only due to the passion he felt from losing his ‘Heina’ -- his girlfriend -- that did this, just as the dark feelings of revenge upon the man she for whom she had left him are what had attracted the Maleficarum to him in the first place.”
“So what happened to the Maleficarum power?” further asked the girl. “Did it just fade away?”
“It indeed dissipated; being only a comparatively small portion of the Maleficarum energies it could not continue its rather ambitious aspirations without an host. Unfortunately, its possession of him was too much for an human being to endure, and its sudden evacuation of his body and consciousness proved fatal to Manuel. I am certain the local authorities will just dismiss it as yet another ‘drug related’ death.”
“Is that really the end of it then, Daniel?” enquired Millie as we walked back to the DiTraS. “Is the portion of the Maleficarum that came here with us now gone forever?
“Not quite,“ I admitted. “The Maleficarum energy dissipated, but will hang around the area for a while before briefly regaining its consciousness.”
“So then it wasn’t completely destroyed?”
“Not entirely,“ I replied. “That type of energy is self-recharging, though this was a comparatively small portion of it and will only be able to do so once. The Maleficarum ‘spirit’ will lie dormant for three years here in the Denver, Colorado area until it can come again with one final burst of violent energy before it fades away forever. That will be in April of the year 1999, hmmm?”
"You mean…” wondered Millie Drake, “the Columbine Massacre?! That was -- or will be -- caused by the Maleficarum?”
“Precisely. A shame we cannot do anything to stop that horrible event, but it is a fixed point in time, and anyway it is best to let the Maleficarum energy dispel itself in a way already known to history -- rather than attempting to upset the balances, hmmm?”
“I understand,” replied the lovely lass. “Oh, so you didn’t finish your story. You did manage to save Xavier Cugat’s chihuahua, right?’
“Indeed so,” I assured her. “I convinced the Selenites to abandon their experiment in exchange for the honour of having a popular Earth confection named after their home-world.”
“Are you talking about… Moon Pies?” giggled the girl.
“Quite so,” I told her as we entered our DiTraS, “And now, my dear Mills, we will have to relay a message to the Kosmikos that they need to put up warning buoys around the Maleficarum Power Station, until it can be powered down and dismantled. Then, let us return to our own time and see how Kit-10 is getting along at headquarters, hmmm?”
The DiTraS porthole closed behind us and then, with its odd moaning gasping sound, the column-shaped Time-machine/Spaceship vanished from the Denver city street.
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
