Masters of the Arches

The trio entered into a small room which had another door facing them. This other door was opened and they could see the immensity of the other room through this door. The minute they entered the small room, the door behind them slid shut noiselessly.

There was nothing else to do now except to walk toward the opened door. It was clear to Vincent that they were somehow forced by an invisible hand to move into one direction. It reminded him of experiments he had seen on television with mice or rats moving into a miniature maze. Now they were the rats in the maze of this underground compound.

They slowly passed through the opened door ahead of them and they found themselves into an impossibly long room. Vincent couldn't even distinctly see the end of it. Beside being exceedingly long; it was so high that it was difficult to judge accurately its height. They were in a large corridor and on each side were machines of all shapes. Some were even humming with activity. He couldn't even begin to guess the purpose of all this equipment and whether they were electronic devices of mechanical one.

They walked ahead for a long time along the wide path until the machinery was replaced by row upon row of tables having hardware of all kind on them. There were gadgets with dials and some with screens, while others had hundreds of hair thin wires sticking out of them. Some of the equipment did remind him of research materials he had once seen when he had visited such a facility in Boston.

Yes he could tell that this immense room had been used at one time to conduct researches of some kind. As a matter of fact, he could still see the numerous chairs and stools near each tables. Everything seemed to be ready and waiting for the arrival of the occupants of the place. Even the floor was very clean, no dust could be detected anywhere and on the hundreds of tables everything seemed to me in order. It was as though whoever was in charge of the place could not tolerate untidiness or smeared glassware.

For the next ten minutes they walked straight ahead until they came to the end of the room. They found another opened door leading to a brightly lit hall. At the end of the hall was a circular room and in its center stood a four foot high table which reminded Vincent more of an altar than a table.

As soon as they entered the room, the light intensity diminished and a strangely dressed woman appeared, standing on the altar-like table. She was beautiful beyond description. Her hair was very black and it went down to her waist. While her complexion was olive in color, her face was sort of oval with wide green eyes having long eyelashes. Never before had Vincent seen such a woman. The high cheekbones combined with her thick moist-looking lips gave her a sensual look that was hard to resist.

After looking at the trio for many seconds, she began to speak in a clear and high-pitched tone that reminded Vincent of the voice of an oriental woman.

-- My name is Brumelle. I have been waiting for a very long time for someone to come here. You are the firsts to reach me in an extremely long time. You are now seeing a pictorial representation of how I used to look when I was alive.

At this point Vincent realized that however real the woman appeared to be, she was not real. They were looking at a sort of extremely realistic hologram. A hologram infinitely more advance than anything he had ever seen or heard before.

-- All the knowledge of my people and all the emotions I ever experienced interacting with everything and everyone I used to like and love as well as that which I hated and feared was placed in a computer program. The process is more complicated than anything you could ever imagine. I will not go into the details as to how it was done since it is not necessary for you to know that. All you have to know is that a machine is now talking to you.

A machine that thinks loves and hates just as I used to do when I was a living creature. I will now explain to you why I need your help. If you choose to refuse to help me, no harm will come to you but you will be transported to another world with no possibilities of returning back.

On the other hand if you do decide to help me, you will encounter many dangers but at the same time you will have a chance to save your world and many other worlds including the one we are now on. Do not interrupt me and listen carefully while I tell you my story.

At this point in time, the woman ceased talking and she looked at them, each in turn as if she was trying to scrutinize theirs thoughts. When her eyes came to rest on Vincent, he felt a spark of passion for her and he realized that he could very easily fall in love with such a woman. But as soon as she began to talk again, he was shoved back to reality and he proceeded to pay close attention to what she had to say.

-- A long time ago, my people used to live on a single planet. We were born on that planet and we worked hard. We experienced pain and joy as well as all the in-between emotions like all intelligent beings that have ever lived, and of course we also experienced death on that planet. As time went on, we evolved in our way of thinking and we also made tremendous advances in all branches of science. Drugs were discovered and medical techniques were introduced that made it possible for us to live longer and longer. The life expectancy of the average population doubled in a very short time.

-- Then, there came a time when there was practically no more room for the ever increasing population. Immense efforts were made in new technologies and much research was done so as to find a mean to reach our nearest planet in our own system.

-- Our solar system had nine planets, and beside the world we were living on, there was the possibility of establishing colonies on two of the others. Gradually those two planets were reached and colonized thus reducing greatly the pressure of our ever-increasing population.

-- As time went on, many new discoveries were made so as to cure diseases and the life expectancy of the population increased even more. Soon all three worlds became overpopulated and we were back with our initial problem of overpopulation. All of our efforts were then focused so as to find a way to reach our nearest stars, but progress was exceedingly slow in that direction. Then in a stroke of luck, a group of scientists discovered the secret of displacing material objects through space by mean of intense gravity fields. It was the discovery of the Simultravel technology.

-- This discovery was tremendously important for us, it was the greatest thing that could have happened to us since it allowed us to travel instantly to any of the three worlds in our solar system. Of course it did not solve our problem of overpopulation but it did help a great deal in solving our food shortage since the spaces that had been used to build roads could now be used for cultivation since travel within each planet could be done with the Simultravel.

-- We had been working on means to build a faster than light star ships for a very long time but we were never able to reach a speed faster than ninety percent of the speed of light. After many generations and much effort in that direction, it was then proven without any doubt that it was an absolute impossibility for anything to travel faster than light. It thus met that our problem of overpopulation could not be solved by emigration to other solar systems.

-- The closest planetary system to our own was so far away that even at ninety percent of the speed of light it would have taken two generations to reach it.

-- We then decided to take the next best approach so as to solve this problem. Many vessels were built and on each one of them we installed a Simultravel device. Then each vessel was sent in a different direction toward stars systems on which we were relatively certain that they had planets. On the way to these yet unexplored stars, the crew of each ship could be changed easily my mean of the Simultravel. The technology of transportation over great distance is not affected at all by either the distance or the fact that the Simultravel is moving when it is used.

-- You see, Simultravel technology will get you from one place to an other place with no lost of time at all. It creates a reality field that is outside of the dimension that we are now. When Simultravel is in synchronization with a similar field elsewhere, - even it the distance between the two fields is very great - everything enclosed within these two fields becomes common and both places then become one. When the field is shut down at the departing end, whatever is in the field will appears at the other end. So all we had to do was to wait until a ship reached a star system with an habitable planets. Then using the Simultravel on that ship, we could transport other Simultravel equipment to that new world and therefore create a suitable environment for the population of our overcrowded planets.

-- As soon as each vessel arrived at its destination, more people were sent there and whenever there was one or more habitable planets on this system, these worlds were colonized also. More and more vessels were then sent from this new stars system and the process was repeated over and over again. A last we had a permanent solution for our overpopulation problem.

-- The first vessel arrived at its destination when we were on the brink of collapse. All of our resources had long been used and people were dying by the millions for lack of food and also for lack of the minimum necessities of life. As more and more vessels established a foothold on other worlds, the pressure on our planet - because of the ever-increasing population - was greatly reduced and finally the problem no longer existed.

-- This was the time of discoveries and exploration. It was the glorious age of my race and for a long time we prospered. It was during this period that the Rad virus was engineered in a laboratory. It is a virus that can be introduced in the body either by injection or by eating plants that were exposed to the virus. Once the virus is in your system it will take care of you. It contains the prints of the perfectly healthy human and it will work on your genes and order repairs to your body whenever and wherever it is needed. Diseases were thus completely eliminated and besides making the body perfectly healthy, it also made it immortal. The only way to experience death is by mean of an accident.

-- The Rad virus was released on every world that we had already colonized and the population greatly increased. It did not worry us since we had all the room we needed for expansion. Then things began to deteriorate. Some of the worlds that were discovered were already populated by intelligent life forms and some of these aliens even made war on us. Of course they were easily beaten since they were all less advanced than we were technology wise. But it had been countless years since my people had not wage wars and now the old spirit of war mongering was rekindled once again.

-- Two completely opposed and divergent opinions developed as to what should be done with these intelligent life forms that we encountered. On one side were those that were in favor of the complete elimination of all intelligent aliens while the other side demanded that we didn't touch these worlds where aliens life forms were discovered.

-- These discussions and debates went on for a few generations and gradually our whole race became polarized on that matter. There were those in favor of the destruction of all the aliens and then there were those demanding that they be left in peace to live on their world. Finally, when it became clear that the question would never be decided with the mutual consent of both sides, those in favor of destroying the aliens proceeded to take matters into their own hand and they began the destruction of the aliens.

-- The result was an all out war among my people. There were wars on all of the planets of the star systems that had been colonized. These wars went on for a very long time and the great majority of my race was destroyed. The planet that you call Earth was among one of the worlds that saw all its intelligent life form destroyed and so is the world we are on now. That war is still going on at this moment on this world, even if there is only one of the ancients left alive to keep it going.

-- He is the last of the ancients left and he is engaged in trying to destroy all of the intelligent life forms he can find. He is not aware yet that all those on our side are dead and that the only opposition he now has is an artificial intelligence namely me. When I was alive, I knew very well this last representative of my race; you see he was my brother Valdo.

-- Valdo became a general in the group that favor elimination. Those of us in my family that were not on his side, feared him greatly and to escape from him we all went into hiding in a ship orbiting a non-important planet. We were more than two hundred people on that vessel as we watched planet after planet being depleted of alien life form. He would kill all life forms, intelligent or not.

-- All kind of weapons were used during this terrible war. Since diseases could no longer destroy us, devices that created tremendous amount of heat were used while on some planets an evil weapon was made use off, it caused a reaction on the surface of the planet and it removed most of the available oxygen from the atmosphere. While on other worlds, they simply introduced diseases that killed some of the plants life thus disrupting the food chain. In so doing it starved most of the population -- at least those that could not leave in time. With the Simultravel it was always possible to save some of the population before the ecosystem collapsed completely but in the end even that didn't work since new planets suitable for life were not being discovered fast enough.

-- Things continued to degenerate and before we knew it there were only few dozens groups like us remaining -- and this on both sides -- that had managed to escape the war. Then, for a long time the war ceased completely, we even managed to introduce plants and animals life on most of the worlds that had been sterilized. Some people even went to live on these worlds, but these were too few in number and they soon lost contact with the rest while the technology that they once knew was soon completely forgotten after a few hundreds of your years. These people became very close to nature and finally they even forgot about the war. This is what happened to your planet Earth.

-- At one time, all traces of life, whether it was plant or animal were eliminated from your world and when we introduced it back, it was mostly the same flora and fauna that had been on your original world. You are the descendants of our people, and so are the people of this world and many others.

-- Since your Earth has been completely sterilized during the war, the Rad virus has also been destroyed there, but when people established themselves there they were still protected by the Rad virus in their body. But all the newborn were not protected. Two things prevented us from introducing the Rad virus again there. First the ecosystem had not evolved enough for the virus to take hold; second we no longer had the facilities to mass produce the virus so that it could spread of its own.

-- Finally, a few of the descendant on both sides became aware of the existence of each other and war resumed once again. Instead of destroying whole planets in the process, the war was concentrated on the small groups of population that existed on them. When we realized on our side that soon both groups would be completely obliterated, we began the construction of a super artificial intelligence that I now represent.

-- The technology-advanced population on both sides continued to decrease until we were reduced to a few hundreds on each side. About that time we made the recording that you are now looking at, we also placed Simultravel in a few places on some worlds that began to show signs of sustaining life. It was hoped that when a civilization did evolve on these worlds they would continue the fight for us.

-- Valdo is now completely mad. Even though the Rad virus does keep diseases away from the body it does not work on the intellect of a person. My brother now lives only to win his war whatever the cost, he will never stop until he is certain that everyone on our side has been destroyed then he will set himself on the task of destroying all form of life everywhere.

-- Since I am now talking to you it mean that there is no one alive left on our side to oppose him. Everyone, including myself have been destroyed. Before you were permitted to enter this place, you had to past a test. Since you are now standing before me it mean that you were successful in doing that. The test to enter this complex has been chosen in such a way so as to prevent the entry of those that would be of no help to our cause. Had you fail the test, you would all have been sent on a far away planet and no one would have ever seen you again. You see, only someone with a technology advance background can help our cause.

-- Now if you have questions I will answer them and then you will be told what is expected of you if you decide to help our cause. But on the other hand if you choose not to get involve in this fight, no harm will come to you but you will all be transported on another world.

Brumelle remained very still after the last words left her mouth, Vincent could see her eyes resting on him still. Even now he still had trouble accepting the fact that he was looking only at a hologram of what she had probably looked like a long time ago. For one thing, looked so real and she was so beautiful. Still the fact that she could answer questions did mean that she could interact with the present. Then somehow she had to be alive.

Vincent's mind was still shaken by her story. He had trouble absorbing all that she had told them, but the fact that he was here in this world talking to a computer -- because that is just what Brumelle was even if he could see her -- was proof enough that the rest of her story probably had much truth in it.

During all this time, Verla and Nika had not reacted. Even it the conversation had been in English, they both knew enough of the language to understand what Brumelle had said even if the technological part was too much for them. Both had an expression of exaltation on their face as if they had been listening to the words of a god.

At last Vincent was able to regain his composure enough and he finally said.

"What will happen if no one stop Valdo, can he create more disorder and destruction than he has already done?"

-- He now has access to no other world beside this one, but it is only a question of time, - of which he has more than enough - until he discoverer the Simultravel or the arch if you wish, that will permit him to reach Earth or other worlds even. If he is not stopped he will sooner or later discover these teleportation systems and then he will proceed with his dark design of destroying all life where they will take him. Since all of our Stars Vessels have been destroyed and also most of the Simultravel leading to other worlds, it thus leave him only with a possible access to only those worlds that he can reach from this planet.

"Can he reach Earth yet?"

-- No, but you already know that there does exist an arch on this world that will permit him to reach Earth, you have already use it to come on this world. I do know since that fact was recorded in my information bank each time you used the arch. This is why I know you came from the planet Earth.

"If he is the only one remaining on his side, why is it so difficult to destroy him?"