End Times (STAR-DUST 31) E-Book

Jens F. Simon

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 84

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Sigurd encounters strange aliens in the former AREA 51. Faces that somehow weren't faces. Movements that seemed stiff and awkward. They looked like the undead from a scary movie. Their heads were wrapped in black, very crudely made linen cloths, literally bandaged. Only the bloodshot eyes were still visible. They were rebuilding the 'Room of Dimensions' to change the past.

Leseprobe

STAR-DUST

Under the spell of nanites

Volume 31

End Times

© 2025 Jens F. Simon

Illustration: S. Verlag JG

Publisher: S. Verlag JG, 35767 Breitscheid,

All rights reserved

Distributed by: epubli a service of neopubli GmbH, Berlin

ISBN: 978-3-819091-73-5

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any exploitation without the consent of the publisher and the author is prohibited and will be prosecuted under criminal and civil law. This applies to electronic or other reproduction, translation, distribution and making available to the public.

Table of content  

Shadow on earth

The final battle

The 5th column

'Room of dimensions' times 2

Not of this world

Space-time turbulences

Aliens of the Apocalypse

Set off for GAR

Shadow on earth

I looked pensively at the now emerging continents of the earth. The holographic, three-dimensional images looked very vivid and always impressive.

The twenty space fighters were visible as small, glowing dots, buzzing around the KO like angry hornets.

"Clear the ship for battle," the message from the ship's brain resounded over the loudspeakers in all compartments.

We were prepared. Initially, I had planned to encircle the Earth system with all available spacecraft.

However, the tracking and short-range scanners had been unable to detect any alien ship movements.

Of course, we had checked the space behind the moon especially carefully.

The special shielding of the enemy ships was also no longer an obstacle, since the specialists on board had found a way to locate the ships.

If there were still alien ships, they had to be on Earth. Probably well camouflaged in hidden mountainous regions of the Cheyenne Mountains or directly in AREA 51.

We would find them, must find them.

I looked briefly at Takaarrath. He was standing a little to the side of the semicircular commander's desk and was also looking at the oval central screen that covered the entire front wall of the control center.

The status messages of the six chariots on reconnaissance arrived by the minute and were superimposed as a pop-up screen on the left side. The KO was in descent.

The target was the Mojava Desert at Emigrant Valley. About 110 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, or what was left of Las Vegas. The city looked more like a giant debris field.

The KO moved into a stationary orbit about 150 kilometers above the ground directly over Groom Lake.

The salt lake was visible as a large white patch in the middle of the otherwise heavily karstified mountainous region.

The dried salt lake had a diameter of about five kilometers. Four runways were clearly visible from up here.

One of them had a parallel alignment to the actual base with a length of more than three kilometers.

"Space pod GELCKSITT is ready to take us down!"

Takaarrath pointed to a small frameless holographic screen now visible on the control panel.

The interior of the space nacelle was visible there, and the readiness status was displayed. "Cogburn and Maxwell are already on their way to the hangar. What are you waiting for, Sigurd?"

Takaarrath seemed unable to wait to finally strike. No wonder, after all, his people and his home system were under direct threat.

 "Well, here we go!"

"Finally! It's about time you guys showed up. The enemy isn't waiting for us."

Maxwell stood in the small cargo hold of the space nacelle, looking out the open bulkhead at us as we entered the hangar.

He, too, seemed hardly able to wait. Takaarrath walked straight toward the pilot's chair.

I suddenly had a sense of déjà vu. We had launched out of AREA 51, 250 years in the future from today, in the space nacelle GELCKSITT, to fly to Venus.

I looked at the three-dimensional holo-screen, which made up the entire front inside of the nacelle.

The hangar door had opened in the meantime and Takaarrath steered the nacelle by the power of his thoughts from the KO.

The surface structures of the earth became immediately recognizable. I already recognized the huge salt flat of Groom Lake.

There also the excursion shaft must be, from which we had started at that time in the future.

Suddenly, a few centimeters in front of the holographic 3-D screen in mid-air, the mental-telepathic VR display appeared, and a sequence of the most diverse data became recognizable.

Takaarrath must have activated it by mind command.

"Networking with space fighter and chariot active. No enemy activity detected," the mental voice of the security autocracy of the space nacelle GELCKSITT abruptly sounded in my head.

Takaarrath let out a long-drawn-out growl, causing Cogburn and Maxwell to literally flinch. I just grinned at them.

"It's all right. He just seems a little puzzled that we still haven't made enemy contact. The data shows that the space fighters and chariots have no enemy contact so far either."

"I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing not to get involved in another space battle right away."

Cogburn looked at Maxwell in amazement.

"What space battle are you talking about? You're acting like we're getting into space battles all the time."

"You know exactly what I mean," Maxwell countered in a loud voice. His gaze focused on the screen.

More and more details became discernible. "Over there is the Yucca Flats region. It was part of the former Nevada Test Site. This is where the nuclear weapons testing was done in the past. I think there were well over a thousand. The camp is located further southwest of Groom Lake."

Maxwell points to a spot on the screen with an outstretched arm.

"The things you know," Cogburn immediately grumbled. "Take it easy, folks. You've got plenty of time to let off steam, but please, not now and not against each other."

I tried to nip the incipient argument in the bud. With these two, you never knew if it was serious or just fun.

Of course, we were all tense.

The situation was correspondingly confusing and could escalate at any time.

Takaarrath reduced speed and let the gondola drop to the right.

The salt flat of Groom Lake moved out of view.

"Don't you want to use the entry shaft from which we launched GELCKSITT to Venus in the future?"

"No, too dangerous. I think that the entire area, including the bunker facility, is contaminated by the enemy. I will land at the edge of the Ministry of Energy test site. From the space pod data sets, it appears that there is a direct, underground connection to AREA 51 from there."

I wondered how the data on that had gotten into GELCKSITT.

After all, we were 250 years in the past.

But before I could check with Takaarrath about this, a beam of energy as thick as my arm shot past the space nacelle just a few meters away.

The turbulence it caused was quite large. An alarm siren sounded, and lights of different colors glared on the screen.

"Evasive course has been set. Maximum acceleration reached while respecting gravity. Warning, protective field cannot absorb a direct hit. It is imperative that this be observed by the pilot as he continues his flight."

The mental statement of the control brain of the space nacelle made me laugh briefly.

Takaarrath literally let the nacelle sag and pushed it down.

Just in time, because a second energy beam shot exactly at the place where we had been only a few seconds before.

Then things got dicey. As if fired from a Stalin organ, a whole number of thinner, but no less dangerous laser beams shot toward us.

I thought so far that this kind of ray moved almost light-fast. Here and now, however, we could witness the approach in detail on the screen.

"Speed is at Mach 5. Impact in 6 seconds," the artificial voice of the space nacelle resounded loudly from hidden speakers this time.

"Five times the speed of sound, that was about 6150 kilometers per hour."

The thought had not yet finished being thought, when Takaarrath was already acting.

Cogburn and Maxwell groaned loudly almost simultaneously as the space nacelle made a U-turn and dropped like a stone toward the planet's floor.

In the process, it was lightly grazed by two beams of radiation.

"Fail defensive shield!"

This was the protective field that enveloped the space nacelle to intercept possible asteroid hits in space.

Now we were completely defenseless. Still the pressure neutralizer held. Such, almost acrobatic flight changes, at very high speed, would have long since resulted in the passengers inside being squashed into pancakes by the kinetic energy released.

The space nacelle fell like a stone towards the surface of the earth. In the process, it still hit hooks, like a field hare. At times, only color streaks and fog fields could be seen on the screen.

Takaarrath steered GELCKSITT toward a small hill, which was about fifteen kilometers east of the salt lake.

"The shelling has actually stopped. Very strange all this!"

Maxwell swallowed hard several times. I saw Cogburn launch into a rebuttal and could guess that it contained innuendo again. I beat him to it, however.

"I think we're in for some oddities. Nevertheless, I am convinced that we are on the right track. It's not going to be a walk in the park. I think that should be clear to everyone here."

A high, sing-song sound was suddenly in the air, then there was a sharp jolt.

It was a good thing that all four of us were sitting down. Otherwise, we would have been quite jumbled. Takaarrath had landed the gondola, no doubt about it. On the screen, directly in front of the space nacelle, we saw a slight elevation consisting of gray karst rock. Beyond that, nothing could be seen.

"Unfortunately, the cover options that were available were not very large."

Takaarrath slid open the small cargo bulkhead attached to the back and rose from the pilot's seat.

We followed him in silence. Dusk was falling frighteningly fast over the valley. Groom Lake could still be seen at some distance.

The cry of a coyote irritated me only briefly. Cogburn and Maxwell were acting remarkably quiet.

"Do you remember where we entered the underground bunker in the future?"

Takaarrath replied quietly, "That must have been more by chance, or luck, when we found that strange cone opening. I think we're going to have to come up with something else here and now."

Unexpectedly, he held a small device in his hand that was shaped like a smartphone.

"I got the exact coordinates from the origin of the laser beams from GELCKSITT. With this GPS-like device, it won't be a problem to get there."

"Right into the lion's den, huh?"

Maxwell didn't seem so happy with that decision.

"Do you have a better suggestion? After all, we're here to pay the alien aliens a visit. They have something we want back. There will be no other way than confrontation. But as long as we control the place and the time, we have the advantage."

He looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.

"I am well aware of that, Sigurd. But as you know, Rooster and I know the area here very well. I would suggest we first use a secret entrance we know to get into the bunker complex. As long as we are undetected, we also have a strategic advantage."