"The planet… Muskelon,” I said. “That is where we have materialised. A strange world it is. It is… surrounded by a natural radiation barrier, which can only be breached by… ships as advanced as ours. In addition, the core of the planet is filled with a type… of liquid ice, hmmm? Due to its particular… qualities, the ice reaches almost absolute zero but does not… freeze into a solid. Aside from that, Muskelon is a quite lush… forest world.”
There in the café-like control room of our DiTraS (which is pronounced “DYE-tress” and stands for Dimensional Transport Sphere); one of those incredibly-advanced combination Spaceship/Time-machines only available to our people, the Watchers of the Daemon-Star Algol, I was clad in my usual finery -- including a frilled poet shirt, velvet suit, jungle boots, panama hat, and one of my favourite opera capes -- but I must admit I was not quite my usual self. You see, I was still suffering from the effects of having been shot by an energy weapon wielded by a cloaked agent of the occult terrorist organisation known as Spectral Paranormal. Immediately after this occurrence, my companion and I had received a mysterious assignment from the Kosmikos of Algol that necessitated our quick departure in a voyage through the Time-Space Current.
“Any idea why the Kosmikos would send us here?” enquired my companion, the lovely Millie Drake.
(Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady; petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, and sun-kissed skin. The purple dress she wore only served to highlight the wondrous shape of her slender teenage figure.)
“Not as yet,” I admitted. “They are operating the DiTraS under… remote control, and we shall have to… have to…”
With this, I fell to the floor of the control room.
“Oh my gosh!” cried Millie. “Daniel! Are you all right?!”
“Hmmm…” I said, barely holding on to consciousness. “It appears the effect of that energy blaster caused more… internal damage than I at first thought. I will need more time to… heal and recover. Fortunately, the DiTraS shall be able to… help in that, hmmm?”
A golden illumination then issued forth from the control counter and surrounded me, creating a type of bed and blanket of light.
“Worry not… my dear Mills,” said I before drifting into a sort of coma. “All will be well… in time.”
“My gosh,” wept the young lady. “Please be well soon, Daniel. I don’t know if I can…”
Millie Drake’s words were then interrupted by an alarm sound issuing from the control board. She hurried over to it and activated the view-screen. On it was an image of several tall silver manlike beings in what was obviously the control centre of their own spaceship.
“We are entering the atmosphere of the planet Muskelon,” said one of them in its droning emotionless voice. “Our associated controller has succeeded in permitting our passage through the radiation field.”
“Oh my goodness!” said Millie as the video image then faded from view. “Leknii Replicants! But what are they doing here?!” …
My name is Doctor Daniel Rumanos. I carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the mysterious Watchers of Algol, the most intellectually advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it appears as magic to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe, I am an operative for an organisation known as the KOSMIKOS. Assisted by the beautiful Miss Millie Drake, I protect Earth from all manner of menace. I am -- The Daemon-Star!!! …
Millie Drake checked on me, lying as I was on the golden light sickbed that the DiTraS had provided. She saw that I was still unconscious.
Millie then turned around because she heard a slight whispering sound. It was the noise of the opening of the DiTraS doorway, which appears in a porthole-like form. She hurried over to it and looked out, beholding the thick green forest of the planet Muskelon.
“It’s like the DiTraS wants me to go investigate the planet,” wondered Millie. “Or is it the Kosmikos urging me to continue the mission? I don’t want to leave Daniel here alone, but maybe there is something out there that can help him. I’ll just go a short way outside and look around.”
With this, Millie Drake stepped out of the porthole onto the surface of the alien world. She walked several metres through the forest, away from the DiTraS (the exterior of which resembles a Roman column), soon losing sight of our ship amongst the lush greenery.
Suddenly, before Millie could even react, she found herself held tightly by something. It was a mass of numerous vines that had surrounded her form, and which were dragging her farther into the extraterrestrial foliage.
Millie Drake then screamed when she realised that she was being dragged into the gaping mouth of an huge carnivorous plant!!
Millie then quickly reached into an hidden pocket of her dress and pulled out an object like a thin cosmetics container, which is actually an highly advanced scientific device known as the transonic lip-gloss. She activated it and the instrument emitted a sharp electronic whine. With this, the vines released their hold and the young lady jumped away from them, avoiding the hideous mouth of the carnivorous plant.
“So it looks like this forest is kind of dangerous itself,” she mused to herself, returning the device to its pocket. “But why are the Replicants coming to this planet, and who helped them to pass the radiation barrier? Gosh, I wish Daniel were here!” …
I awoke on the floor of the DiTraS, discovering that the golden light bed had vanished from sight. I quickly rose to my feet.
“Spires of Daemonia!” I exclaimed. “I appear to have completely recovered, hmmm? The DiTraS has done an excellent job of stimulating my own Algolitish powers of self-healing.”
I hurried over to the control counter and checked the message system, soon discovering the video of the Replicants, which I replayed.
“The Replicants of Leknii!” said I. “So that is why the Kosmikos sent us here. Of course! The old legend from the Replicant Wars -- the one of an army waiting by an ocean of ice. Millie, we shall have to take care of this right away, and…”
It then, for the first time, occurred to me that Millie Drake was not present on the ship.
“By the Triple Star!” I swore. “She should not have gone out by herself!”
I took my own transonic turnscrew, the highly-advanced scientific instrument somewhat resembling a writing pen, from the pocket of my jacket and quickly scanned it over the control counter for a few moments before returning it to my coat. I then activated the porthole and stepped out of the DiTraS onto the planet Muskelon. …
Far outside my viewpoint, Millie Drake had continued her lonely trek through the forest, now being careful not to get to close to any of the surrounding foliage. She had as yet seen no signs of the presence of the Replicants of Lekni, and was about to return to the DiTraS when she heard the sound of a blaster gunshot form behind her, and ray of energy hitting the ground near her feet.
Millie whirled around and beheld a figure then emerging from the forest, clad in a black coverall garment and indeed holding a sleek energy blaster gun. He was seemingly a man of middle years, his countenance still showing signs of handsome distinction despite being marked with the effects of lifetimes of extreme unspeakable iniquity. His hair was long and dark, and his face decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his pale eyes shone with an absolute mesmerising glare.
“Greetings, Miss Drake,” he said, his voice a wicked mockery, “or perhaps I should say Madame Rumanos. Yes, I did hear of you two manifesting the Pure Mystery in Brooklyn, so congratulations -- or ‘mazel tov’ if you prefer.”
With this, the evil villain known as Magister Don Wingus levelled the blaster gun at Millie!
Just then, I arrived on the scene and, with a quick kung fu kick, sent the gun hurtling from the grasp of Don Wingus to be lost amongst the greenery.
“Don Wingus,” I said, facing him. “I should have known. So you did escape from the horror of Robopederosis. It was you that attempted to assassinate me back on Earth -- and you that assisted the Replicants in passing the radiation barrier that surrounds Muskelon!”
“Oh bravo, Rumanos, bravo,” mocked the criminal. “Your powers of deduction are only matched by your ability to recover from injuries. Nevertheless, it matters not. You and your precious Kosmikos are far too late to stop what the Leknii are planning. For indeed, waiting in hibernation underneath this planet is an army of ten millions of them!”
I stood facing Wingus with Millie Drake safely behind me, but could not help but look up slightly and see the looming shape of the Leknii rocket-ship far up in the sky.
“So the legend from the Replicant Wars was indeed of a regiment they left behind on Muskelon, hmmm?” I pondered. “A regiment kept in hibernation in case the Leknii forces had need of them. Nevertheless, the final war ended before they had a chance to activate their reserves, hmmm? They have been here ever since, waiting near the icy core of Muskelon.”
“Quite so, Rumanos,” answered Don Wingus. “Quite so, and now my Replicant associates shall be arriving on this world to awaken them, an army that they shall use to go forth and conquer galaxies, converting all compatible humanoid races to their own cybernetic kind.”
Millie spoke, “But why are you helping them?”
“Quite so, Wingus,” I added. “What exactly is in this for you, hmmm?”
“I have made a deal with the Leknii Replicants,” Wingus explained. “All non-compatible species shall be mine to rule -- including our own Algolite Race! With the aid of the ever-growing Replicant armies, I shall be emperor of the universe!”
With this, there was the shimmering light of matter transmit beams around us, and within seconds, we found ourselves surrounded by several tall silver Replicants!
Can you see the absolute horror, forsooth the unholy terror of this situation, my dear friend and readers? There we were, my companion Millie Drake and me, Doctor Daniel Rumanos, facing the emotionless eldritch horror of the Replicants of Lekni -- assisted as they were by the renegade Algolite known to eternal infamy as Magister Don Wingus. There we were -- as the cybernetic Replicant terrors planned to revive an army of ten millions of their type -- a long-forgotten army they intended to utilise in order to invade countless worlds and to convert all compatible humanoid beings into their own soulless and unfeeling kind!
“Wingus, you ungodly fiend!” I charged. “You cannot do this! The Replicants are totally unfeeling. To set an army of them free amongst the galaxies is a crime unthinkable even for you!”
“Oh, do prattle on, Rumanos,” chuckled Don Wingus. “It is to no use. The deal is made, the Replicant army will be reactivated, countless others will be converted -- and the universe shall be mine!”
A device like a tall cabinet had appeared next to one of the Replicants. On it was a video screen that was now activated.
“The sequence has begun,” said the Replicant. “Our army is awakening.”
On the screen could be descried what appeared to be an enormous cavern, filled with myriads of silver manlike forms -- forms that now started to stir and move. Indeed, the horrid army of ten millions of Leknii was now reactivated!
“Oh my goodness, Daniel!” cried Millie Drake. “What are we going to do?!”
“It is too late, Rumanos!” mocked the evil Don Wingus. “The Replicant army lives, and you cannot stop them.”
Then a whirring sound was heard from within my pocket. It was the sound of the transonic turnscrew. With this, something odd indeed began to occur on the video screen. The very side of the cavern began to collapse and, within a few seconds, a rush of roaring liquid foamed into the area.
“What!” exclaimed Wingus. “What is this? Rumanos, what have you done?!”
“I previously scanned the DiTraS systems database concerning the elements of the planet with my transonic, hmmm?” I explained. “I programmed it to release the liquid ice into the cavern should the Replicant army begin to awaken. It will surround them and freeze then utterly for aeons to come.”
By now, the sight of the defeated army had vanished from the video screen and, within a few seconds, the Leknii surrounding us had activated the matter transmission beams and thus exited the planet.
“It is over, Wingus,” I announced. “The Replicants have been defeated, and have now abandoned you!”
“Yes, they have returned to their ship,” answered Wingus, “but they will not escape. Look!”
I glanced upwards to where Wingus was suggesting, and beheld an explosion.
“The radiation barrier!” I guessed. “You set it to once again become detrimental to the Replicant rocket-ship should they attempt to leave the planet without you, hmmm? They have now been destroyed.”
“Daniel, look out!” cried Millie Drake.
Whilst I had been distracted, Wingus had taken to opportunity to attempt an assault upon my person. I quickly countered this and we struggled for a few moments. Then, my final self-defence technique sent the villain hurtling a few metres away from me, where he suddenly found himself surrounded by hideous grasping vines.
“No!” he bellowed. “No! Nooooooooo!!”
Within moments, the huge carnivorous plant had pulled Don Wingus into its hideous mouth. His cries diminished into a slight gurgle, and then there was silence.
Then Millie Drake ran into my arms.
“Oh, Daniel!” she exclaimed. “I’m just so glad you’re all right! Are you really completely healed from that energy gunshot wound?”
“Quite so, love,” I assured her. “In fact, I have never felt better.”
“So are the Replicants and Don Wingus really gone?”
I took the transonic turnscrew from my jacket and used it to scan the area.
“So it appears,” I announced, returning the device to my pocket. “There is no sign of either of them.”
“So did that carnivorous plant really eat him?” asked Millie. “Could it digest him that quickly?”
“Perhaps, unless he had another escape plan. It is possible that he had some residual connection to the Leknii matter transmission system, and could have utilised it to transport to his own ship hidden somewhere near by. But there is no indication of him remaining here, so let us leave this planet and go on to find out what our next assignment may be, hmmm?”
Millie Drake and I had by now returned to the DiTraS, and we both stepped through the porthole. Soon the gasping moaning sound of our ship’s Space-Time engine was heard, and the shape of the Roman column dematerialised from the surface of the strange planet known as Muskelon.
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
