It was a warm spring day in the City as Millie Drake and I approached the main entranceway of the Walters Art Museum. I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, panama hat, sunspecs, military boots, and one of my favourite opera capes.
Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut-hued hair, enchanting blue-violet eyes, sun kissed skin, and a sensuously-wide mouth. The tight, short, purple dress she wore only served to highlight the soft curves of her slender adolescent figure.
“So, Daniel,” said the girl, “do you think this relic is really the Sword of Saint Peter?”
“It is difficult to say for certain, love,” I replied. “There are numerous old swords and daggers across the European continent all claiming that same distinction -- of being the actual sword used by Peter the Apostle to cut off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest, on the night that Jesus Christ was arrested.”
“So what is special about this one? The museum is advertising its being on loan here like it is of extreme importance.”
“Well, even posh art museums are not above a bit of carny-style hype, hmmm?” I mused. “This one is usually kept in the Vatican vaults, but was borrowed by the Walters as a good exhibit for the Easter season. In addition, there is the connection it once had to Casanova.”
“He actually owned it for a while and used it to perform magic?” enquired Millie Drake.
“Quite so, according to the claims in his memoirs. The great Venetian adventurer and lover Giacomo Casanova did indeed utilise this very ‘Sword of Saint Peter’ as part of his myriad occult con games and capers during the Eighteenth Century.”
By now we had entered the museum lobby and walked past the security desk (we had not brought our catlike robot friend, Kit-10, along with us due to the possibility of her being detained by the guards, which would probably not have ended well for them) and were strolling through the spacious sculpture court that is the Walters Art Museum’s central feature. As we did, I briefly thought I heard a strange chattering sound coming from one of the side galleries, but ignored it.
“There it is,” said Millie, pointing the sign promoting the very relic we had come to see.
“‘The Sword of Saint Peter’,” I read. “This should be rather an interesting exhibit, even if it is not quite ‘real’, hmmm?”
We entered the proffered gallery, in which there were already a half-dozen or so museum-goers, and approached the glass case in which the exhibit rested. It was a wide-bladed sword, about eighteen inches in length, with a cross-like hilt and guard. The amount of wear evident upon it showed that it was indeed quite old.
“So you say they haven’t been able to tell exactly when it was made?” asked the girl.
“That is what the newspaper article about the exhibit said,” I replied. “There seems to be something about the sword that interferes with the usual dating methods. All that is evident is that it is more likely of late medieval or Renaissance make than actually from the ancient world. Fortunately, we have something that should work far better, hmmm?”
I took the transonic turnscrew, an highly-advanced scientific instrument somewhat resembling a writing pen, from the pocket of my jacket, and used it to scan the relic.
“By the Stellar Trinity!” I swore upon looking at the resultant readings upon the transonic. “Millie, this is unbelievable!”
“What is it, Daniel?” queried my companion.
“This explains why they have not been about to find out exactly how old the sword actually is,” I said. “It is made of iron, but within it there are definite traces of an extremely rare element that is only found on some asteroids -- an element known to facilitate Time travel!”
“You mean… “ gasped Millie Drake.
“Indeed so,” I confirmed, returning the transonic to my pocket. “This relic… This supposed ‘Sword of Saint Peter’ that once belonged to Casanova… It contains… Liddellium!” …
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, along with his dangerously-seductive daughter, Anastasia, 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 professor of the impossible, the saviour of the Cosmos, and 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!!! …
“Liddellium?” replied Millie Drake. “How is that possible?”
“It is just feasible that some of that element could have found its way to Earth through Space,” I pondered. “It then could possibly have been used, certainly in the Middle Ages or even in the time of the Renaissance, in order to make the sword.”
“Could that explain why Casanova could make people believe he had magical powers?”
“It is quite likely. The element known as Liddellium is psyche-sensitive, so this could have indeed aided the old Italian swashbuckler in his Kabbalistic escapades, hmmm?”
By now, several more museum-goers had approached to view the sword, so Millie and I moved somewhat away from it.
“So, isn’t the Sword of Saint Peter being here kind of dangerous?” enquired the young lady. “Because of the Liddellium, I mean.”
“Indeed, it could be," I acquiesced. “Since the element facilitates Time travel capabilities, any detection of it could make Earth a target for alien races looking to utilise it -- including for purposes of conquest and Temporal terrorism.”
Just then, there was a gasp as of astonishment from the patrons viewing the sword. Millie Drake and I turned back to see what was the cause of this and beheld a wonder indeed. From the Sword of Peter were emitting flashes of a certain multicoloured light.
“Daniel, what is happening?” Millie cried.
I quickly did a scan with the transonic then again returned it to my pocket.
“It is the Liddellium,” I explained. “Someone is extracting it from the sword by use of a finely-tuned transit beam.”
“Oh my goodness! But where is the beam from?”
“From Outer Space.” …
And in sooth, at that very time a rocket-shaped Spacecraft was in obit of Earth; a vehicle of decidedly alien make. For in this rocket-ship was a group of tall, silver men -- actually cybernetic organisms from the distant Spiral Galaxy 8675309.
“Controller,” said one of the cyborgs, its voice a whirring electronic drone, “our systems are successfully extracting the Liddellium that was detected upon this planet.”
“That is excellent,” droned another, its bronze highlights denoting it as the leader. “Now nothing can stand in the way of our purpose. We, the Replicants of Leknii, shall have the ability to travel throughout all of Time and Space. We shall reverse the outcomes of the Wars, and shall successfully convert all suitable humanoid life to our own kind.”
“Something else has been detected, Controller,” said the lieutenant cyborg. “Two other organic beings are currently near the source of the Liddellium. They are not Earthlings. Systems show their biology to be that of the Watchers of Algol.”
“They must not be allowed to interfere,” replied the Controller, “but they may be of some use to us. Send our enhanced creature to distract them until the Liddellium is fully extracted. Then we will transmit down to the planet ourselves.”
“Yes, Controller,” replied the other Replicant. …
“Who could be removing the Liddellium, Daniel?” queried Millie Drake.
“I wonder,” replied I. “I will send a message to Kit-10 back at headquarters. She can then use the equipment there to scan for any alien ships in Earth orbit.”
As I spoke, I again noticed a strange chattering sound. It seemed closer this time. I was then just again reaching for my transonic in order to contact our robotic friend at HQ when a thing of exceeding grotesquery occurred.
“Oh my gosh, Daniel!” suddenly cried Millie Drake. “Look out!”
I quickly turned my head to where the girl was indicating and beheld a creature as of out of nightmare. It was an apelike man, his skin a brownish-yellow of hue and much of its body covered with coarse black hair. He was baring his hideous teeth and chattering at me as he approached across the museum floor. Before I could even react, the horrid thing jumped upon me and wrapped his hairy arms around my face!
I heard Millie Drake scream in total abject horror whilst the grotesque ape-man attacked me. The creature was not very large, but he was incredibly strong, having in truth the strength of primitive savagery within him. He held my head and shoulders in a vicelike grip, hence threatening to put me into complete unconsciousness.
Fortunately, my hands were free, though my reach was somewhat foreshortened by the hold the primitive creature had upon me. None the less, I then managed to reach around his back and, with a quick and precise movement, applied a certain jujitsu technique to the lower part of his backbone. This movement then immediately caused the ape-man to screech in extreme pain, and at the same time to loosen his hold enough for me to succeed in prying him free and to then send him hurtling across the museum floor.
The prehistoric creature hit the floor hard, but was then quickly back on his feet and once again jumped forward directly to-wards me. Fortunately, this time I was prepared for the thing’s attack and, just before he reached me, my leg shot out and my foot made hard contact with his bestial face. The resultant blow sent him backwards again, this time at lightning speed, and a split second later he collided with the stone wall of the gallery, the top of his head taking the majority of the impact.
The ape-man slid to the floor with blood spurting profusely from his cranium. Then something quite unexpected happened. There was a weird popping sound as if something suddenly exploded in his head, causing a large part of his upper face to then cave in.
“It is all right now, Millie,” I assured the girl. “He is quite dead.”
“But what is that thing, Daniel?” asked Millie Drake, running over to stand beside me. “It looks like an ape, but not really.”
“That, my dear, is one of a tribe of natives that are to be found in a remote region deep in the jungles of Indochina,” I explained. “Due to their isolation and inbreeding, they have retained many of the traits of the Homo erectus and other prehistoric proto-human species.”
“But, why is it here, and what was that that burst from its head?”
I quickly scanned the now dead ape-man with the transonic.
“By the Triple Star!” I swore. “He has been enhanced with technology, and my instrument shows the tech as being that of the Replicants of Leknii!”
“Oh my gosh!” cried the girl. “So they are the ones who are after the Liddellium!”
“So it appears. They must have enhanced the ape-man here in order to use him to guard the sword until they could properly programme their systems to remotely extract the element. When I defeated him, the control device they had put in his brain then immediately self-destructed, turning into microscopic shards, as all Replicant machinery does upon defeat in order to keep their systems from being hacked or cannibalised.”
I looked back at the ‘Sword of Saint Peter’. The flashes of light had now ceased. I quickly scanned it and read the results before putting the transonic turnscrew safely back away.
“All of the Liddellium element has now been removed from the sword,” I said. “The residual beam signature shows that it has indeed been transported to a location in Earth orbit.”
“So the Leknii Replicants actually have stolen the Liddellium?” said Millie.
“Quite so,” I affirmed. “As you know from our past encounters with them, the Replicants have been attempting to achieve and perfect Time travel capabilities. They wish to use it in order to reverse their defeat in the Last Replicant War, as well as to facilitate their converting humanoid life forms to their own soulless kind.”
“Daniel, look!” suddenly cried Millie Drake.
Indeed, at that very moment there had appeared two shimmering glows near by. They soon resolved themselves into the tall silver forms of what we knew all too well as that of the horrid Replicants of Leknii.
Most of the museum patrons had already fled the area at the sight of the ape-man, but a few stragglers remained. One of the Replicants raised its arm and then shot forth a burst of its energy weapon at one of the people, an elderly man who screamed briefly in pain before the eldritch light of the alien weaponry burned him entirely out of existence.
The other Leknii, its bronze highlights denoting its rank as Controller, then turned to-wards me and raised its arm, firing its weapon in my direction!
The Replicant Controller’s blast turned out to be a warning -- an attempt to intimidate. It fell just short of me, creating a groove in the floor directly in front of where I was standing. Then the Controller spoke, its voice an emotionless electronic whirr.
“You are known to us,” it proclaimed. “You are the one called Rumanos of Algol. You have caused interference to our purpose in the past, but that time is now ended. We are the Leknii. We exist in order to convert all suitable life forms to our own. You and your associate are Algolites and therefore unsuitable, but we have a usage for you at this time -- a usage for which you shall cooperate without question.”
“As a Watcher of Algol and Agent of the Kosmikos, I cannot and will not be of service to you and your kind,” I rejoined. “The Replicants of Leknii are an horror to all humanoid life-forms in all the Galaxies. You are unspeakable abominations that can only exist and reproduce by forcefully taking over others; by stealing the very bodies of others and changing them into your own terrible image.”
“We are the perfection of the Universe,” answered the Controller. “We are the future of all life. We are without the passions that govern and control the physical existence of fully organic life. As such, we are complete and unstoppable. Nothing in the Cosmos can stand before Leknii technology. We will destroy or convert all.”
“That has to be one of the most ridiculous attempts at a manifesto speech it has ever been my misfortune to hear. You Replicants were soundly defeated in the Wars. Because of this, your numbers have been greatly reduced, and you now wander across Space in your small rocket-ships desperately attempting to find some way to regain your rather dubious lost glories. Yes, you may be without emotion, but I dare say envy plays a part in your motivations, hmmm?”
“Envy?” replied the Replicant. “We know nothing of such concepts. We are the Leknii. We are the perfection of life, superior to all other creatures.”
“Ludicrous,” I replied. “Absolutely ludicrous. You are not even superior to this primitive ape-man, hmmm? You needed him to assist you. How utterly pathetic.”
“The primitive was an experiment in augmenting certain forms of life to act as servants to our purpose. We have found the proto-human type to be useful as such, without them having to undergo full conversion.”
“You lie,” I responded. “It is far more likely that you find the primal emotions of such creatures to be far too resistant to your attempts to convert them. In a similar but opposite fashion, our own Algolite brains, due to the level of logic and reason that has been developed by our species in our advanced stage of evolution, make it impossible for you to convert us. It is only human types, who stand at the crossroads between existence as animals and as gods, that you find thus susceptible to your abhorrent technological life-rape.”
“You are incorrect, Rumanos of Algol,” said the Controller. “Even you, as a Watcher of Algol, have an emotional weakness that shall lead to serving us.”
I then heard Millie Drake gasp in horror and turned my head to see what was wrong. Whilst I had been thus speaking with the Replicant Controller, its cybernetic lieutenant had moved near to the girl, and was now pointing its arm -- the arm containing its deadly energy weapon -- directly at her midsection!
“This Algolite child is of value to you,” proclaimed the Leknii Controller. “You will immediately cooperate in aiding us to calibrate the Liddellium element into the engines of our orbiting spaceship, or she will be destroyed.”
“You unholy fiends,” I said. “If you do the slightest thing to harm her I swear the very vengeance of the Daemon-Star will fall upon you.”
“You have no choice, Watcher of Algol,” announced the Controller. “We shall now transport you both to our ship.”
A shimmering light now surrounded Millie Drake, the two Leknii, and me. A moment later we found ourselves in the control room of the Replicant rocket-ship, with the numerous other Replicants of which the craft’s crew consisted working around us. I looked over and saw that the Leknii lieutenant’s weapon was still trained upon Millie.
“We are in orbit of the planet known as Earth,” explained the Controller. “The Liddellium element has already been added to our engine systems. You shall utilise your Algolitish knowledge of Time travel engines in order to properly calibrate the Liddellium and to upgrade our controlling mechanisms to full Temporal transcendence capabilities. You shall do this without further question, Rumanos of Algol, or your young companion shall die.”
I now enquire of you, my indeed most loyal and indulgent readers, is it at all possible that you can even begin to recognise the unspeakable horror, in truth the supreme and utter ungodly terror of this incredibly bizarre situation? There we were, my young friend and companion Miss Millie Drake and myself, being held hostage on that alien spacecraft by the horrid cybernetic race known as the Replicants of Leknii. There we were, with me being forced to cooperate and aid them in their unhallowed purpose at the threat of the girl’s very life!
“Don’t do it, Daniel!” cried Millie Drake. “Don’t help them! I’m not important! You know that the Replicants must not be allowed to achieve the perfection of Time travel!”
I looked at Millie. I looked at that beautiful young lady who has become my dearest friend and so much more. I looked at her and knew what I had to do before turning back to the Replicant Controller.
“All right,” I said. “All right, I will aid you in calibrating the Liddellium.”
“No, Daniel!” sobbed the girl. “Please, no…”
The Controller then indicated the proper workstation to me and I walked over to it.
“This will not take long,” I announced. “The Liddellium is already settling into your systems and I shall just have to make a few adjustments to achieve full calibration and activation.”
I accordingly went to work at the station’s control board, resetting various levers and dials as the Leknii Controller watched me closely.
“That should do it,” I proclaimed a few moments later. “Just one final adjustment, and…”
When I made the last movement on the control board, the sound of the ship’s engine changed from its usual low hum to something far different. A noise was heard within it like unto a far-off whispering sound.
“That is the sound of contact having been made with the Space-Time Current,” said I, turning away from the controls. “The secret of Temporal travel is now properly calibrated with your engine systems.”
“That is excellent,” replied the Leknii Controller. “All of Time and Space is now ours to have. Our enemies shall be destroyed, and we shall convert all suitable species.”
“You will now keep your promise to not harm Miss Drake?” I enquired.
“The child will not be harmed,” replied the Controller. “You and she will be taken to one of our detainment centres where you can do no further acts of espionage against our kind.”
The other Replicant had now lowered the weapon arm that had been aimed at Millie, and I walked over and took the trembling girl’s hand.
“Oh, by the way,” I said to the Controller, “just one other thing.”
Rather incongruously, I then simply clicked my fingers and the sound of the Liddellium-enhanced engines went up a pitch. At this, all of the Leknii Replicants instantly became immobile, their forms then beginning to shake and vibrate. Then they all just disintegrated, becoming nothing but microscopic shards.
“Hold tight, Millie,” I warned her. “We only have an instant.”
Whilst holding the lass close to me with one arm, I reached my other hand over to activate something on the spaceship’s control board. Millie Drake and I were then immediately surrounded with the shimmering glow of the transportation beam as the Leknii ship disintegrated around us.
A moment later, Millie and I re-materialised in the Walters Art Museum, standing before the display of the sword.
“Oh my gosh, Daniel,” cried the girl, “is it all over?”
“Yes,” I assured her. “The Replicant ship has been destroyed, and they have been prevented from achieving the secret of Time travel.”
“But what about the ‘Sword of Saint Peter’?” she enquired.
“It is a completely harmless relic now,” I announced after a quick scan with the transonic. “But we should move along. Museum security will not be too concerned with the things that occurred here as long as the sword is safe. The man who was killed by the Leknii will eventually be listed as a missing person, but the dead ape-man is a bit of a problem. I will contact a scientist friend of mine at the University of Baltimore. If it becomes necessary, they will back us up in claiming the creature belongs to them and has recently escaped from their laboratory.”
“But Daniel,” said Millie as we exited the museum into the sunlight. “How did you destroy the Replicants and their spaceship?”
“As I have said, Liddellium is a psyche-sensitive element as well as having aspects that facilitate the possibility of Time travel. As an Algolite, I already had a certain affinity with it. I made contact with its essence and used it to hack the computer systems of the Leknii ship, causing it and them to overload and then to automatically self destruct.”
“I remember studying about Time-sensitive elements at Daemonia Academy. In order for you to make contact with it so quickly, you must have been near that particular sample of the element before and… Oh my goodness! It belonged to Casanova! Does that mean that you actually were… ?!”
“You know what, my love,” said I, taking the beautifully-smiling girl’s hand in mine. “We have not had lunch yet. Let us go to Little Italy, hmmm? I have a sudden craving for some Venetian-style linguine.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
