Читать книгу The Streetcar to Andromeda - Celeste Hammond Streiff - Страница 8

One bright night while we were out star gazing, I asked Jesse about space flight and when Martians had first begun to fly.

He said: “Ah! That was a long, long while before Parker and I formed The Parker and Randall Construction Company. AL + One Hundred Billion marked experimental inter-stellar space flight and atomic engines came along a little later. In AL+ Three Hundred Billion we developed Inertia-less Drive along with Radiant Drive and that’s when everything changed.”

“Wait a minute! You guys had a Construction Company on Mars? You and Parker?”

Jesse leaned back, and gazed at the heavens in amusement and sighed. “Yeah, what a great time that was. When Moscovitch became ruler, he commissioned Parker and me to build the famous “Martian Canals.” Jesse got excited as he explained. “Ya see, we diverted the mighty river’s course into the canals for our water supply and built all the pumping stations and hydroelectric power plants. After that we built all the stately roads and intricate bridges and paths that run through the countryside.” He smiled and sighed dreamily, “The sky was a beautiful lavender hue then and the air was filled with the scent of honey suckle. It was all quite lovely.” Suddenly his mood changed and Jesse frowned. “That was before Moscovitch and I had our run in with Madman Roth the Renegade and his sidekick Tok Loor, the cranky dwarf pirate.”

“Madman Roth and a cranky dwarf pirate?” I asked.

“Yeah, Madman Roth, he was Evil Per-Son-I-fied! Everything got worse because Roth wanted to be appointed King when Moscovitch retired from Elysium. His lust for greed and power alienated him from everyone and earned him the enmity of The Mighty Moscovitch. All I know is that when Moscovitch did retire, Roth left Elysium in an extremely angry state.

“Who is Roth? Where did he come from?”

“Well, no one really knows for sure. He just showed up in the Virgo Cluster one day and crowned himself Prince.”

Jesse paused, debating whether to tell me more or not then he said in a low voice, “There was a rumor going around that he may have originally come from somewhere most terrible… somewhere that maybe I shouldn’t mention.”

Well, Jesse really had me now. “Wu, woo, Where?” I stuttered in fear, “what terrible place do you mean?”

Jesse stared at me with what I could only perceive as a trace of fear around his eyes and mouth and his face turned ashen as he whispered, “The dreaded Black Hole!”

I involuntarily sucked in my breath, and with apprehension in his voice Jesse continued. “Well, it’s a very small hole in space, but three million times its weight is pressed down to the size of a speck.”

“Whoa!”

Jesse nodded his head and continued. “It stands at the center of our galaxy with a gaping open mouth appearing like a swirling dark vortex. There’s one in the Virgo Cluster now and we think it’s the one Roth may have come from. Where ever you see stars cluster you usually find one. Stars whip around it moving at huge speeds and anything that gets pulled in too close is sucked inside the massive black giant. I’ve seen rivers of gas and stars flowing into its greedy mouth. Only something supremely evil could withstand its pull.”

“Gosh!!! What can we do?” I whispered, terrified.

“Our only hope against it was uttered by the great philosopher Confucius himself when he said, “When darkness has reached its highest level it then it destroys itself and the light returns once more.” Jesse lightened a little as he went on. “ And, that‘s very true, cause one day when a Black Hole is compressed down to almost nothing after gobbling up Tellus and the entire universe, it then turns inside out and explodes in a white electrical mist like a Big Bang— and then everything starts all over again.”

“WOW! I exclaimed in fear and awe. “When will all this happen?”

Jesse lay back and nonchalantly pulled on some grass calmly remarking, “Oh, a Billion Million, Trillion years from now maybe.”

I surely then sighed, a great sigh of relief.

Then he added, “There’s also a theory that Black Holes can become dormant too.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Well, they just sort of die out and stop sucking stuff up, But they’re not really dead.”

“So Black Holes are kinda like a huge vacuum cleaner, huh?” I chuckled a moment and asked, “How do you know about these Black Holes and stuff? Can you see them through a telescope?”

“Well, nobody knows much about them now, but when my Martian friend Paulo invented his first Time Machine, the first place we went of course was into the future. They’ve discovered Black Holes in the future.”

Then Jesse continued on about Madman Roth, “Anyways, after Roth left Elysium, we heard that he had formed a huge army and was in league with the Ex-Robot Dictator of Sirus. The Lady Mordine said Roth had even considered employing ‘The Horrible Jovian Things” for his army, but decided against it cause they were just too greedy and argumentative, even among themselves. Also it was about that time that Tok Loor joined up with him.

“The dwarf pirate?”

“Yeah! Ya see Parker had been a good friend of Tok’s for a long, long time. They used to carouse and play poker together, but when Tok saw Roth’s power was growing he figured he’d better get in on the action ‘cause he didn’t want to miss out on any looting — I mean being a pirate an all, well, let’s just say it came natural. Anyway, together with Tok Loor, and the Ex-Robot Dictator, and a few greedy Martian Aristocrats, Roth attacked the Statosians. Tok had been a sworn enemy of the Statosians for thirteen generations and that particular skirmish caused Carter, an alien friend of mine who lives in Blackfoot Idaho and a Statosian by nature, to enter into the fray against them. —As Roth’s power grew he conquered one planet after another and made slaves of their citizens. You see, Roth’s goal is to conquer the entire universe! — Even Tellus! Anyway, that was the last straw for the Dragons.”

“The Dragons?”

“Yeah, even Erf, Merf, Bzwic and Frmx, who are the most tolerant of the Dragon world, had enough of him. When Moscovitch and I found out about Roth’s plan to conquer the universe, we tracked him down near the planet Nowese, and captured him. There was a quick trial and Roth was sentenced to death. We banished Tok Loor to the 13^th dimension where you have to throw a ladder under a black cat to get in or out.”

Jesse then laughed at his little joke. “It’s not too bad of a place. You see, Tok’s crimes of pillaging and looting were far less serious than Roth’s crimes of enslavement. I mean the punishment should fit the crime. Anyway when we put Roth to death that day on the guillotine, the Lady Mordine said she saw Roth’s ego escape and disappear into a guy that was standing in the front row of the crowd. She said he was a funny looking guy with a small moustache and looks like that Hitler guy in the movie newsreels.

“Wow!” I gasped. “His EGO escaped? How’d he do that?”

“Well, he had such a big one, which might have made it easier. The Lady Mordine who is the psychic keeper of “The Sacred Book of Origins” said Roth had stolen the Scared Book from her when he’d conquered the Alpha Century System just a few years before. The book contained many secrets and spells and I’d guess that’s how he learned to “Ego Escape.”

“WOW! Where’s Roth now?”

“Well, no one really knows for sure, but Erf and Merf said they saw him that day on Nowese, the funny looking Hitler guy with the moustache that is, sneak off and get into a spaceship. They said he took off towards Tellus.”

“You mean he may have come here?”

Jesse nodded. “Of course that was before Parker and I had put up the Goodrum Screen.”

“What’s the Goodrum Screen?”

“It’s a translucent protective barrier that encircles all of Earth, a kind of almost invisible moving Warp Wave. Before Roth came along there wasn’t much need for the Goodrum Screen. We never considered Telluarians much of a threat, I mean the Earthlings were too busy destroying each other, in fact we realized Earth might need protection after the Roth incident, so a friend of ours, Charles Goodrum invented it to protect Earth, and me and Parker put it into place. Although it’s a little bit like closing the barn door after the horse has gone, if you know what I mean.”

I nodded. “So Madman Roth may have come here?”

“Yeah, but he’s never surfaced as far as anyone knows — not yet anyways. But, it is a pretty scary thought, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!”

“Before Roth disappeared he left orders for the greedy Martian Aristocrats and the Ex-Robot Dictator to have the Exiles driven off Mars.”

“Who are the Greedy Aristocrats?”

“Well, they were the Martians who were ravaging the lands and rivers for greed. Roth structured the greedy Martians into positions of power and they came to be called “The Aristocrats.” As Exiles, we went underground to fight them in devious ways, but we were small in number. You see, the majority of Martians were a kindly people and didn’t really understand what was happening. They were too busy leading their lives and having fun. They believed Roth and the Aristocrats lies because they didn’t want to think about bad things and just went on their merry way. The Exiles tried to get the truth out by running an underground news letter, you know, like “The Martian News Letter” we publish now on Tellus?”

I nodded.

Jesse continued. “Well, we were planning a revolt, but on the day it was to take place there was a surprise attack on our underground headquarters by the top Aristocrat running the whole show, a Mr. Varmit Mc Dee and the Ex-Robot Dictator of Sirus.

Jesse suddenly stopped and sighed then said dramatically. “— Billions of years of Martian history and the development of Martian culture were brought to a standstill that day when Roth and the Aristocrats overthrew the government,” after a moment a little melancholy crept into his voice. “—So now we’re all just Exiles, —scattered throughout the universe with fond memories of Mars, and of the way things use to be.”

Jesse stared sadly into the heavens for a moment, but then a defiant smile crept across his face. Suddenly he raised a clenched fist and shouted with gusto. “But, Comes the Triumphant Victory!”

Caught up in the glory of the moment I too raised my clenched fist and hollered. “But, Comes The Triumphant Victory!”

Jesse’s eyes twinkled down at me as a new comrade in arms. Then he exclaimed “But Wait! I’m getting way ahead of myself. Before we became Exiles, there were the Boskonian wars and after that there was a long great time of peace. After Parker and I had finished building the famous Martian Canals, Moscovitch decided to give up his Ruler ship and retire to Andromeda.”

Jesse lay back in the tall grass and sighed, “Ahhh —I remember that day well. Parker and I were waving goodbye to Moscovitch as he flew off in his new red convertible ship with the radio blaring: “Let’s Get Away From It All,” by Frank Sinatra. It was a glorious farewell! That was the very same day Roth left Elysium to form his army. You see, Moscovitch had appointed Parker and me to ascend the throne, but Roth thought Moscovitch should have appointed him King, and I think that’s when his hatred of Moscovitch and me began to fester in his soul and his megalomania became a burning fury demanding revenge.”

“Wait a minute, you mean you and Parker were the Kings of Mars?” I was astonished — my big brother Jesse, the King of Mars.

Jesse tried to act nonchalant, but I could tell he was proud of this fact by the way he pompously held his head and smirked with delight.

He pulled out a big cigar from his gabardine jacket pocket and rolled it across his fingers. “For a short time we were.” he nodded. Then staring at the cigar he became nostalgic again. “Ah what a time it was. Everyone did exactly as they pleased, no work, no chores — it was Utopia!” Jesse emphasized this statement by thrusting a pointed fore-finger in the air.

Well, that sounded pretty good to me, I mean no chores like taking out the trash or washing the silverware, just having fun drawing, reading comic books and listening to radio programs like “The Inner Sanctum.” Yeah, that sounded okay. I knew what I liked to do best, but I was curious about the Martians.”

“What do Martians like to do best?” I asked.

Jesse’s answer came faster than two shakes of a Dragons tail, “Why scientific research, of course!”

†

Later, lying in bed that night my thoughts were filled with visions of the majesty of the olden days on Mars. I thought about The Mighty Moscovitch, the brave Ex-Ruler, about Madman Roth and his sidekick Tok Loor, the cranky dwarf pirate. I wondered about Erf and Merf, the friendly green dragons and laughed again when I thought of The Little Men. But, mostly what I thought about was Jesse and Parker as the reigning Kings of Mars. In my mind’s eye I could see the Martian people — a great cheering throng of them throwing flowers at Jesse and Parker as they mounted the steps in the Roman style gardens of Elysium to sit upon their kingly thrones on that glorious and magnificent day.

Jesse was sad that he couldn’t return to his homeland, but the very last thing he told me that night was that he and Parker and the other Exiles had a secret plan called: “The Triumphant Victory”, and soon they would rescue control of Mars from Madman Roth and the greedy Aristocrats. But, he said, that the timing must be right. He also promised to tell me about the night they all got exiled and how he and Parker just barely made it to Earth or Tellus as he calls it. I could hardly wait.

But, before I continue further there’s something important that needs to be mentioned. It’s something that happened eons before that neither Jesse nor I knew about back in 1938.’—And… it was about Madman Roth.