Excerpt - GALACTIC TROUBLE SHOOTER - BOOK 1

Chapter ONE

The night was pitch black and in the distance the headlights were very

faint indeed. The sensor noted the light, measured its length and

performed a hundred different calculations on them and their source and

after a short time it was satisfied that there was no danger to the

things in its care and returned to close quarters surveillance mode.

In the distance the lights grew larger and came to a stop on the road

near the sensor. A pair of feet emerged from the driver's side of the

car and the stranger got out. He was a tall, broad shouldered man and

quite handsome in all appearance. Yet a close look at his features

would reveal that this entity was slightly irritated.

In a gruff and restrained voice he said "discontinue physical mode"

and walked off in the direction of the sensor.

Behind him there was a faint buzz and the space where the car stood was

now empty. If a time monitor was available and pointed at that

particular spot, one would have seen the jet black car shimmer, turn

slightly silver and fade.

The man stopped and looked around. The car was gone and he surveyed his

location. The moon was just showing up in the distance and with his

enhanced vision he could clearly see for miles and miles around him. He

was in a valley of sorts and the trees were thick near the center of the

valley. He checked the main highway about five mile away and all was

quiet and he continued his walk towards the center of the trees. He was

about fifty miles from Belize, halfway between the next town called

Stann Creek. All was quiet as it always was in Belize, British

Honduras, Central America, before the rainy season. He had just returned

from one of his monitoring stations in the rain forest.

He approached a large boulder with trees tightly packed around it and

paused. He scanned the area for about three miles around and noting

that nothing stirred and that the sensors were quiet, he uttered "Open"

and the face of the bolder, a space about ten feet high and just as

wide, seemed to dissolve before his eyes.

Opening this passage and stepping into the total darkness beyond the

face of the boulder as he now did, always made him a little

apprehensive. He knew that no one else would be inside his sanctuary,

but he worried a little anyway.

Inside, he paused, extending his senses into the darkness and fully

satisfied that all was well, he mentally shrugged and the entrance

sealed itself, he immediately dropped about 200 feet, landed as soft as

a dove and lights flooded the space.

Standing in this vast underground place he now called home reminded him

a little of his home planet - just a little. The cavern was about the

size of a football field with smooth walls of rock and dotted about were

boxes covered in dust with a few boulders scattered between. Had anyone

been able to penetrate this deep into his "home", that was all they

would see or find - so like his home planet when he last saw it.

"Its about time you got here" a slightly melodious voice called.

The space transformed itself into what could be described as a very

sophisticated computerised facility with a walled-off portion for his

private quarters, exercise track, swimming area with lush green

vegetation surrounding it and in the far north corner, his space

vehicle.

The hum of machinery was slight like the hum of the humming bird from

this area of the planet.

"If you had done your job correctly, it would not have been necessary

for me to go out repairing monitoring stations that you should be

looking after" He said - directing his attention to the main console of

his equipment. Still a little annoyed, he calmed himself and strode

over to the console and took a seat.

"I did my job correctly, the sensors in that area broke down primarily

due to the saline content in the air from the many oceans around this

country, which I correctly analysed and informed you about! My job is

not to repair machinery".

"Right - please fix all future problems of this nature before the

machine breaks down"

"And", Continued the machine, "I have already created a sheathing for

the more delicate parts, so this problem will not occur again".

This was quite a speech from his companion that he had fondly named

Zebra because the stripes on that animal reminded him of the many facets

of his mechanical companion.

"OK, your right, please check the monitor in the rain forest and give me

a detailed report!" He snapped good naturedly at Zebra.

Zebra, which could not actually be called a computer since it was about

two or three thousand years ahead of anything on this planet even

vaguely resembling it, purred, carried out the request and placed the

information in his mind.

"Completed" Zebra said unnecessarily.

He scanned the information, noting the temperature variations, growth,

decay and all other information about the rain forest and satisfied that

the monitoring station was working, discarded it.

"Now, lets see the latest report on the ionosphere, superimpose it on

the data about the latest atomic tests on this planet". Hoping that the

beings here did not further endanger his health while he was away, with

their atomics, he waited.

"Ionospheric data superimposed and ready for viewing".

"Hard copy in rest area" he uttered and started walking in that

direction.

Just as he was nearing the entrance, he was interrupted with "Monitors

indicate ground objects approaching".

"Specify please".

"Two male natives of this region, 4.6 miles south west of main entrance,

normal clothing for this time of year, temp...".

"OK", he interrupted, "let's see them on viewer".

In the space about six feet in front of him a shimmering light appeared

and then sharpened into a view of the area. He could clearly see two of

the local natives, from the Caribbean Indian tribe of the area, moving

cautiously through the bushes, they each had a headlight on their head

and both carried hunting rifles. They were stalking what looked like a

full grown deer. He studied them for a few minutes. They were simply

out hunting for food and he lost interest in them.

"They are local hunters - disregard" he said, turned and continued on

his way.

Inside his rest area, was a beautiful room decorated with various Indian

artifacts that Zebra had "borrowed" for him from the various Mayan

excavation sites in the country. Strung up in the center of the room was

a huge hammock that he had grown quite fond of, after falling out of it

a few times getting used to it. He scooped up the hard copy from a stand

on the way to the hammock where Zebra had deposited it and casually

dropped himself in it and started scanning the report.

TWO

He was a bit tired from his long trip and as soon as he started reading

the ionospheric fluctuations and atomic radiation increase tables, he

found his thoughts drifting. The fluctuations reminded him of his trip

to this planet on the outer rim of a little galaxy. It was all a game

then, just flitting about with his friends, protesting the forced

movements of planets and their moons by the Council to make way for

their new project. What did they call it? .. Ah yes, a black hole

converter. Yes, it was definitely fun doing all that protesting until he

had accidentally stumbled onto the Council's plans to build the biggest

and most destructive weapon in all known universes.

He had gone to the protester's meeting in his luxury craft intending the

condemn a few council members, flit over to the edge of the Uri-Marcus

III galaxy to get his ship refitted and then get back to his studies.

Tenth dimension mathematics was his passion, he liked the fact that

within his fourth year of study, he was considered one of the best

problem solver of space-time distortion in the three galaxies around his

home planet. So, it was always a pleasure to get back to his studies.

The meeting, that's where it all started. He was just one of the

protesters voicing his opinion on the legality or lack thereof of

forcibly moving planets and their moons about. His summation of the

problem was concise and very direct - the Council did not have the

legal and certainly not the moral right to do it! . The crowd loved it

and gave him a thundering round of applause. Quite pleased with his

speech, he took his seat, at the back of the meeting hall, so that he

could slip out quietly.

"Good speech mathematician" said a burley stranger behind him. He

turned, still caught up in the success of his speech and said "thank

you" without paying too much attention to the man and was about to turn

back when something in the stranger's face held him.

"Ah, I don't believe we have met?" He said questioningly to the

stranger.

"Name is Sutherie and I'm more interested in what happens AFTER the

planets are moved". This was said in a hushed voiced that implied that

there was more to be known from this fellow.

"I am in mathematics, name's Padovan, friends call me Pad. "

"I know who you are, what I don't understand is why you waste your time

protesting about the movements of planet and avoid the real issue?"

"What issue is that?" But Pad already knew. He had started an analysis of

the effects on time and space when black holes were converted and the

figures were staggering and frightening. No, this could not be what

Sutherie was talking about because he had told no one about his

analysis, NO ONE!.

"Ever wonder why the Council would be interested in converting black

holes? What they are planning to do with all that energy? Or where

they are planning to store it?". Pad felt ill, he had started his

analysis simply as an exercise in the use of tenth dimensional integral

mathematics addressed to the problem of massive amounts of converted

energy in a space devoid of all planetary type masses and he did not

like the results. He had told his personal analysis bank to seal the

data. Trying to control his breathing he said.

"What makes you think I'm interested in wild theories?"

"Relax Pad, my friends and I know you started working on an analysis and

we want you to have some information that could help you."

"No comment!" Was the first thing Pad came out with and he was a little

embarrassed at the sound of his voice.

Sutherie studied him for a moment, sighed and fidgeted about a bit and

then came to a decision. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out

a message chip and handed it to Pad.

"Scan that when you are alone, it will tell you how to get in touch if

you are interested." He then got up and disappeared out the back.

Pad woke from his reverie with a start, sat up straight in his hammock

and looked around, it took him a moment to gather himself and realize

fully where he was. He glanced around, looked at the report in his hand

and was a little nervous. "Why did I have to take that chip?" He asked

himself. He noted the slight chiming sound that Zebra made when it

wanted his attention for something that was not an emergency.

"What is it Zebra?"

"Oh, nothing important, just thought you would like to know that it is

now daylight outside - 7:43am local time - and playback monitor says

that animal got away from those hunter's last night."

"Thanks Zebra, I was just dozing and recalling how it was I got into

this mess - I'll finish scanning this fluctuation information and then we can

go through the rest of the planning we started before I went out."

"OK - Ah, Pad?"

"Yeah?"

"We're in this together you know."

"I know Zebra, thanks."

Pad went back to the report. Another test was done in Nevada -

radiation content in the air is up a little, but not much and

fortunately the test was not too close. The Russians were planning

another secret underground test....Hmm, that's interesting, Miagatsu

Industries were developing a new analysis system to monitor radiation -

could be interesting.

"Zebra?"

"Yes Pad."

"Analyze this Miagatsu system, see if there is anything valuable in it."

"No - nothing there, already looked - its using the same old binary

system, one of my external monitors can do a better job."

"OK - I'm finished with this report. I am going to take a swim. Is the

pool heated?"

"Always, why do you keep asking me questions when you already know the

answer?" Zebra asked in its slightly amused voice.

"Because you are the only one around here to talk to and you know you

can talk to me all day and night and still monitor everything around

here. Are you working on something special or are you just being lazy

today?"

"Nothing special, just trying to make sense out of some of this

mathematics you have in the experimental banks."

"Forget it - I haven't worked out all the laws for that set of equations

yet, so how can you make sense out if it?"

"Got to keep my circuits busy on something..." that lingering bored

voice now.

Pad's only response was a "ha!" as he dived into the pool with hardly a

ripple on the surface. He swam with easy strokes back and forth and

after about an hour he started to breathe a little heavier. Getting out

of shape he thought and swam a bit more and stepped out of the pool.

"Speaking of lazy" Zebra casually said as if the conversation had not

been interrupted, "you only did 102.6 miles in 71.34 minutes - so, who

is being lazy then?"

"It was not a race Zebra, just swimming for fun!" Pad said with a smile.

He got dressed and walked over to the main console, sat and punched

several buttons that activated the view screen over the console. The

scene on the screen changed every minute or so and showed various

approaches to his cavern. He activated another set of buttons and the

screen divided itself vertically and on the right side were scenes from

different parts of the planet. Some of these were quite interesting,

showing rolling hills, lush green valleys and wild animals.

"Which satellite are you getting these pictures from Zebra?"

"Those are from a Russian "weather" satellite, which is actually one of

their intelligence gathering machines and the area your looking at is

part of the bush country in the southern part of Africa. They apparently

think there is some sort of atomic factory out there."

"Is there one in that region?"

"No - closest one to that location is across the border to the north -

12,042.62 miles from current position of satellite viewer. Its under

about ten feet of rock and cement."

"What are they doing at that site exactly?"

"Just some test on the shelf life of plutonium, do you want to see the

test results?"

"No, that's ok - let's get on with our planning...what are we going to

do about the Councils black hole converter?" He mused, thinking out

loud.

THREE

Just saying the words brought back some of the fear and horror of what

he had calculated and the additional information supplied by Sutherie

and his message chip! He had deliberately put the chip in a sealed

container when he got back to his ship and tried to forget it on his way

to Uri-Marcus III, but that was a useless gesture as he was quite

incapable of forgetting something as taunting as the possibility of

confirming one of his own mathematical analysis. But, he did manage to

stay away from it until after the ship was refitted. The new

trans-dimensional interface connectors and the self correcting

mechanical synthesis that he had created on paper, now built and

installed by the Cybrats, was impressive indeed!

It was now his most prized possession. It had taken him a good part of

a year to work out all the formula, schematics, pathways, relays,

bypasses. The final configuration and the tenth dimensional mathematics

involved had taxed all his old analysis systems, but they held up and he

had done it!

He now had the most powerful computational analysis and mathematically

correct and self propagating machine in the known universe at his

command, he smiled at that - "and to think I gave it a name like Zebra!

Ha!". Pad sobered his thoughts and realized that he was avoiding the

main problem at hand and decided to get back to the subject, but his

thoughts lingered. On the way back to his home planet, he had tested

the machinery. It could run the ship, so he no longer had to pay

attention to where he was going - he just simply told it where he wanted

to go and how fast and the machine did the rest. Left with nothing to

do, he had succumbed to the chip.

He took it out of its container and popped it into his personal scanner

and watched in horror as his worst possible fears were confirmed. There,

rolling out in front of him, was the Council's Grand Plan. The forced

movement of planets and their moons and the area to be cleared - much

bigger than he had projected! The conversion of black holes, cost

projections, timetables, stress analysis, enclosure screens, storage

sectors etc. Then the final piece of madness - the purpose of it all.

Convert enough black holes, store the resultant energy in enclosure

fields that spanned about twelve million square miles, compress the

fields and shoot the released energy along a triangulated six

dimensional core at whatever the Council wished.

The result? Consider dropping a million tons of solid steel on an ant,

then multiply that by a factor of about two hundred and whatever it hits

simply ceases to exist.

That was the theory of the Council and the basis of their plan. However

- there was a flaw, there was one nasty little flaw - space itself.

Pad recalled turning off his scanner, he was sweating, dazed and felt

like he had been kicked in the head by a Nobian Scale Changer. That

beast, about two thousand pounds, with a metabolic system that produces

metal plating for skin and lives on a diet of solid rocks, was not

something you would want to run into!

He remembered telling his machine to plot a circular cruising course. He

then spent the next eight hours calculating and rechecking his figures.

That completed, he sat staring at the results on the screen. It was a

nightmare! He was overwhelmed and he fell into an exhausted sleep which

was filled with dreams of chaos. He woke up to find that it was all

real.

He chided himself for his reaction. After all - he was a problem solver

and this one needed solving. There was time. The Council's timetables

and schedules predicted about thirty five years for the project to be

completed. It had been under way for about five years then - so there

was time.

He got to work again, called up the sealed information he had started,

brought the integral analysis up to date with the new information and

started doubting his abilities immediately. This was no longer a theory,

it was a real, live problem that he had to solve - what if he could not

do it? Can anyone help? If the projected analysis he had started was

even vaguely correct, this project could backfire and wreck the very

fabric of space itself! All lives, all material life that is, in the

universe could be torn apart - his initial analysis said that space

simply could not stand up to the pressure of a compressing enclosure

field of that size bearing down on that much converted black hole

energy. What could he do?

And then all hell broke loose. The high pitched sound of about ten

school bells going off at once in a confined space echoed off the walls

around him and he jumped, temporarily startled out of his wits!

"Five armored glide crafts approaching on intercept course, twenty

thousand miles and closing" followed immediately in a voice devoid of

all emotion - from the machine.

"Who are they - what do they want?" Pad asked in a still shaky voice.

"Fighter glide crafts, Council design - may have something to do with

what you are working on."

Pad was stunned, Council fighters! What is going on. He was not a

fighter. Then that brilliant mind of his took over. He rapidly

calculated and fired questions at the machine.

"Speed - distance?"

"Approximately one thousand miles a minute, now seventeen thousand point

two miles and closing."

"Can we outrun them?"