The Next Universe Over: Deovolante Space Opera, #2

By Marjorie Thelen

Rodan, former misguided pirate, leads an expedition from planet Earth back to the Deovolante Galaxy to re-establish contact with the Oversee, the Deovolante ruling entity, who have disappeared. The return trip is plagued with problems. First and foremost, they discover a mysterious being in the ship's freezer, who shouldn't be there. She is Freya from a Holy Planet that disappeared eons ago. When the expedition arrives back in Deovolante, they discover there is a strange entity pursing them that may be key to the disappearance of the Holy Planet. Rodan and company decide to confront the strange entity at a black hole rendezvous. Unfortunately, their navigator makes a wrong calculation, and they end up in the Next Universe Over. 

Book 2 Deovolante Space Opera

300 pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marjorie Thelen
• Release date: Oct 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393075820

Book preview

Also by Marjorie Thelen

Mystery-in-Exotic-Places Series

The Forty Column Castle

The Hieroglyphic Staircase

Fiona Marlowe Mystery Series

Designer Detective

High Desert Detective

Heroes in the End

Deovolante Space Opera Series

A Far Out Galaxy

The Next Universe Over

Hoodoo Canyon

Earth Rising

Historical Romance

Wings of the Wind

Cover design by Rachel Bostwick

The Next Universe Over Copyright Marjorie Thelen 2015

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or were used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.  All rights reserved. The republication or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic or mechanical or other means, not known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without permission of the copyright owner is illegal and punishable by law.

www.MarjorieThelen.com

By Way of Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the usual gang of suspects: the Harney Basin Writers and my advance readers: Terry, Pam, and Barbara, and the mystery person. I’m grateful to the theoretical physicists who write books about quantum mechanics and cosmology that I can sort of understand and who give me ideas so I can write books like this one. A few names come to mind: Sean Carroll, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Brian Greene, Leonard Susskind, Lisa Randall, and Max Tegmark. World Science University is a great resource for ideas and has talks from top theoretical physicists like Robbert Dijkgraaf and Andre Lindei. I am grateful to my faithful readers. Thank you for reading my books. And as ever I am grateful for my beloved John, who always likes my books.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law

Space is not what we once thought it was.

Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos

Chapter One

Rodan massaged his eyes trying to rub away the fatigue. What is it? He snapped the question and immediately regretted his impatience.

Have extra passenger, said Coco.

Rodan lent his second-in-command his undivided attention. Elaborate, please.

Coco check compartments in freezer.

Rodan nodded his head, afraid where this conversation was going. Freezer therapy was confined to heinous offenders in the Deovolante Galaxy.

Xhosa in number one compartment.

That’s as it should be, said Rodan. His frown deepened. He had figured out the ending. He lifted his gaze. And you found one or more of the other compartments occupied.

Only one, Chief.

We both know that is one too many. Who is it?

Coco not know. He scuffed his soft-soled ship boot against the command panel. Coco not check before leave.

Rodan didn’t have to remind Coco standard procedure was to check the freezer on a space ship before leaving on a trip. One never knew who might turn up frozen accidentally.   One more problem in a trip plagued with uncertainty and doubt. Ever since they had left Earth in what seemed eons ago there had been layer upon layer of problems. Problems with the crew, problems with ship malfunction, problems with communications, problems with the equipment, problems with energy. And the biggest problem of all—they weren't sure where they were going.

They were trying to return to their home galaxy of Deovolante, but they had lost communication when orbiting Earth, trying to solve Earth’s endless problems. The Deovolante ruling command, the Oversee, had been attacked by outside forces and had gone underground. Rodan and his crew didn't know where they were or how to communicate with them.

No ID disc, no identification? Rodan asked.

Coco shook his head. Coco only do visual. Chief need to look.

What sex?

Coco don’t know. Very skinny.

We better take a look.

Rodan heaved his great hulk out of the command chair especially designed for him. The chair seemed to breathe a sigh of relief from its exceptional burden. Rodan was massive, even in Deovolante terms, and when they had refitted Xhosa’s ship for the return trip to Deovolante, the crew had had to modify hallways and doors so he could pass through without bending and squeezing. They had left in place the overhead rails the Belosians used to swing from one part of the Solidarity to another.   Even with his extraordinary size, which lent itself to height rather than width, he navigated the passages of the space ship with the agility of a much slighter man.

Coco used the overhead rails that lined the ceiling passageways, and they were soon on the lower deck outside the freezer unit. He placed his palm on the reader beside the door. It whooshed open to admit them. Notable was the immediate drop in temperature.

Rodan sucked in a lung full of the icy blast and reveled in it. His home planet was always cold, and he missed the thin, chilly atmosphere. When he had been re-tooled to function in heavier, warmer environments, the process had not taken away preference or liking. Cold was de rigueur for him.

Coco was trembling. Even though he was of a hairy race, they were slight in figure and favored shorts and tunics. In Coco’s case he had added a many-pocketed vest to the standard attire.

Rodan nodded for him to release the lock and slide out the drawer where the mystery being resided. As the drawer slid slowly open with a faint hissing sound, the first thing Rodan saw was small feet enclosed in cloth shoes of a once fine fabric now faded. The ankles were skinny and pale but only a slight bit showed as a robe extended the length of the body. As with the shoes the fabric was a faded rust color and embroidered with an elaborate gold design, suggesting the outer covering of a once important being.

The body was painfully thin. Alabaster flesh stretched over hands that lay folded across the abdominal area. The figure may have been sickly when frozen, perhaps one of those who elected freezing until a cure was found for the disease that infested it. Sometimes when bodies were frozen a long time they lost mass.

The face appeared. Thin, pale, and ethereal. Rusty red hair framed it and fanned round the head like an aura. The eyes were closed in sweet repose, and a faint smile graced its shriveled lips. Certainly not the expression of a being sick or in pain. Surely this was a female with those delicate features, although there were bi-sexual worlds where one could never tell

Rodan scrutinized the being through the transparent cover encasing the drawer.   I’d say female, he said.

Chief look, said Coco.

Rodan continued his scrutiny. The chest was flat with no indication of breasts as in original line females. The hips were swathed in fabric. He knew better than to touch the figure in a manual evaluation in its frozen state. He would burn his hands from the extremely low temperature at which it was frozen.

Bring out the sexometer, he said. That will tell us quickly enough.

Ho, Chief. Coco dug in a drawer and came up with the required equipment. It was a wand like apparatus that he powered on and swept over the frozen figure. He held it steady over the genital area and the meter registered Female, Original Line Human.

I wonder who she is, said Rodan.

This was getting more intriguing by the minute. That she was original line human was a plus since he knew something about his own race. But who was she? And why had Xhosa kept her frozen without telling anyone?

Roll her back in, said Rodan. Let's check on Xhosa. Roll her out.

Coco obeyed.

Rodan must have been holding his breath because he let go a sigh of relief when he saw Xhosa frozen with her arm upraised in an eternal sign of defiance. Ray, Chief Investigator of the Supreme Initiates, had fast frozen her for trying to terminate Vita, now Queen of the Supreme Initiates.  Xhosa would spend a long time in the deep freeze for that offense. Re-programming while frozen would make her more agreeable, but it would take a while.

Good, said Rodan. She looks regulation. Close up and set the area to rights. I'm going to talk with Arthur and Ursula.

Ho, Chief.

Thank all the stars in the Woochadi Universe for Coco. After Rodan had gotten used to his simian features, Coco had turned out to be a superb second-in-command, second only to Tito of Rodan’s days of pirating around Deovolante Galaxy. Those days were gone forever he mused as he strode to the wing of the ship that held the Supreme Initiate quarters. He felt only a small twinge of longing for the excitement of that life. The tumult on this trip had surpassed anything that he had been through as a pirate.

Arthur and Ursula welcomed him with ever-ready smiles. They were Supreme Initiates, who  had been training on Earth, when the team from the Deovolante Galaxy had arrived to help mitigate the eternal wars plaguing the Bluebies, as the Deovolantians called Earth inhabitants. Arthur and Ursula were accompanying Rodan and crew back to the Deovolante Galaxy to re-establish contact with the Oversee. As yet they had been unsuccessful.

Shenandoah bounded over with a bark and a welcome jump. She received the mandatory ear rub that she had come to expect.  She was a Bluebie dog and had lived at Rancho Estrellitas in West Texas, U.S. of A. with Arthur and Ursula. Since she was family, they elected to bring her, along with their three cats, on the trip home. 

Sit down, sit down, said Arthur. Will you have your usual?

Please, said Rodan.

A frozen coffee, said Ursula to their short, stubby auto-butler, and the robot whirred out of the room to fetch the drinks. It's good to see you. We hardly take time to sit and chat.

I'm not sure it's a chat you're wanting today by the looks of you, said Arthur.

He wore the standard outfit from his ranch days in Bluebie land—blue jeans, brown plaid western fit shirt, boots, and red bandanna tied round his neck. Rodan marveled that he never seemed hot in such attire. He wore a sleeveless black body suit tuned to the lowest temperature possible to keep his body cool.

Rodan shook his head. We should remove the word chat from our vocabulary since we're always in crisis mode.

What crisis would it be this time? asked Arthur.

There's an original line human in the freezer. He explained the events leading to Coco finding it and a description of the figure itself. Xhosa is the one who could shed the most light on this mystery, but since she’s frozen she's not much help at present.

The auto-butler whirred in with refreshments, and Ursula helped serve. The little robot had a red bandanna tied round the place where a neck might have been on his bullet shaped body. Arthur had named him Tex.

Rodan sucked the frozen coffee on a stick that Tex had brought him and reveled in the cold sensation. Frozen coffee was one of the few good things that had come out of his trip to Earth.

Arthur and Ursula seemed to be thinking about what he had told them over their mugs of Mava Blue, a life sustaining drink from planet Oriana. Shenandoah lay down before Rodan with her head on his foot. For some mysterious reason she had taken a liking to him. The cats watched patiently from cat squats on the floor.

So it's a female, said Ursula.

From West Texas sundresses she had gone back to wearing regulation long sleeve body suits, this one in bright yellow. But instead of ship's boots, she wore Birkenstock sandals in a black patent leather and swore they were the most comfortable footwear produced in any galaxy. She had a collection of them in various styles and colors. Her silver and gold hair was pulled back into a French twist and secured with a bright red plastic clip decorated with rhinestones. A big green rhinestone button on over her left breast read Vote Green.

We can run a missing original line human check, she said, and get a listing of frozen beings from the Archives. All that information is recorded. She frowned. Orb might be of help, since the communication lines are down to the Oversee. She paused. We could try to access the Archives through a different dimension or with magic. Let me think about that.

Rodan nodded. A promising possibility.

If nothing else works we could bring Xhosa out of the deep freeze, said Arthur.

That would be a last resort, said Rodan. She still looks defiant so the re-programming hasn’t taken effect yet. She would be unhappy that someone else has control of her ship. An alternative would be to defrost the mystery being and get the story straight from her. That is, if she will tell the truth.

We'd have to have permission to defrost, said Ursula, but since we can't find our galaxy rulers, Arthur and I could give the okay. What do you think, hon?

That’d be no problem. I'd approve it. But first I'd like to know what got her frozen. She could be dangerous.

That's what Rodan was hoping they would say. But then they would have picked up on his thoughts since they could read them. I agree, so why don’t you try accessing the Archives so we can determine if it is safe to defrost? Are we in agreement?

They both nodded.

Excellent. When you have a chance, swing by the freezer and have a look. Maybe you could pinpoint a culture or planet by how she looks.

Will do, said Arthur. How's everything else going? You look like you could use some rest. Why don't you let me take over for a watch?

Rodan ran a hand over his face and regarded Arthur with puffy eyes. I might take you up on that. The crew seems to be working much better as a team. So far this watch we haven't had any equipment failures, the energy distillers are running well, and we are approaching the first maintenance point on the outer most edge of Deovolante. The point lies right on the other side of the galaxy jump. We have just enough energy to make the jump. It's important that everything go well, or we could be orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy for a long time.

We'll soon be back in Deovolante, said Arthur at first with a smile then a frown. But I’m concerned about what we are heading into.

Me too, but at least we have enough energy to get to the galaxy jump even with all the distiller problems we've had. It doesn’t help that this ship of Xhosa's is a piece of junk.  Would that we had brother Will's fine intergalactic cruiser.

Got to work with what we have, said Arthur.

So true. How is it going trying to establish contact with our rulers? Rodan asked.

Ursula shook her head. Nothing, nothing and nothing. I was hoping for something before now. We've tried everything we know but not a note of response from the ruling command or anyone else in Deovolante. We tried to communicate with planet Oriana and Queen Ince on planet Aegir. But nothing. It's like Deovolante doesn't exist.

The Deovolante Galaxy is located where it has always been according to Orb’s calculations, said Rodan.It's on the coordinates, and everything seems to be in the right place. He stood and stretched.  We’ll proceed with the jump.

He turned to Arthur. I’ll take you up on the offer to take over the watch. I can't remember the last time I've been flat out on my rester.

I'll accompany you as far as the command center, said Arthur. He rose and smacked his cowboy hat against his leg, combed back through his grizzled salt and pepper hair with one hand and smoothed his hat into place with the other. He pecked Ursula's cheek. Rodan gave her a hug.

Y'all behave yourselves, you hear? she said in her best West Texas accent.

What we need is luck, said Rodan. 

Chapter Two

As soon as Rodan walked into his quarters, he crashed face down on the rester.

Milo, the auto-butler, whirred in.  Shall I draw a bath, sir? He spoke with metallic rounded vowels.

Bath? Rodan muttered into the softness of the rester, having trouble thinking. Yes, that will be just the thing.

Right away, sir, said Milo, and he rolled to the bathing area.

Rodan turned over on his back and called up Orb, the artificial intelligence that operated just about everything in Deovolante, that all Deovolantians could access, and that provided communications between just about everyone and everything. Perscom. He spoke the command aloud, and Orb projected a list of numerical representations in the airspace before him. One listing caught his eye, and he bolted upright.

Tito had answered him. Rodan had set up a continuous transmission on the wavelength the pirates monitored but until this moment had not had a response to his calls for acknowledgment. This was a real breakthrough.

Tito was one of the best pirates he had ever had the pleasure of knowing. He was a good fighter and thief but could never have run an operation like this big maintenance spacecraft. It was too institutional for the likes of Tito. Cunning Tito was and if anyone could find a way for them to return to Rodan’s home planet, Tito would. He would also know what was going on in Deovolante and how safe it was to be coming back.

The message from Tito was simple. Read you. Advise coordinates and instructions. Confirmation of the sender came in the form of Tito's embedded signature and code.

Rodan spoke the coordinates of the ship, laid out the ship’s track, asked for a state of the galaxy report, and a site where they could meet as soon as possible. The message registered in code as he spoke. He released it for transmission with his code name.

He didn't tell Arthur and Ursula of his discovery. He wasn't sure how they would feel about a band of pirates coming to the rescue. Rodan didn’t have the greatest reputation in the galaxy, and he hadn't told them he was trying to contact his men.

He relaxed into the rester to wait the return message and continued to scan the numerical data as it registered in the airspace before him. But sleep overcame him, and he never heard Milo return to announce the bath was ready.

ARTHUR AND URSULA STUDIED the frozen body of the mystery being. Coco had left them to their work, giving instructions on closing down the facility when they finished.

She looks familiar, said Ursula. Do you remember the civilization that disappeared in Central Deovolante a long time ago? Rumor was that the planet succumbed to Dead Star Syndrome, and a small colony of humans migrated but in the migration something went wrong, and all were lost. It’s still listed as an open investigation in the Archives.

When Arthur looked puzzled, she said, Of course you do, it was all the news. Just vanished they did. Just like that. She snapped her fingers. They all had the flaming red hair that she has though hers is rather dull in her frozen state. They dressed rather formally in these long robes, like some ancient civilization.

I remember now. They were original line humans, too, if I'm not mistaken. She looks original line and that's what the sexometer registered.

Wouldn't that be something if she were part of that lost civilization? But what’s she doing here and how did Xhosa get her? I must research that lost world. I can't remember the name of it.

Arthur instructed Orb to affix an image of the mystery being into the system so they could retrieve it for their research. That done he prepared to roll the mystery being back into the dark berth, but a glance at her face stopped him short. He shook his head like trying to clear his eyes. "Hold on there. Did you see that, Ursula?

She stood as still as Arthur, her brows arching. I surely did. I saw her mouth twitch. That’s impossible given the temperature at which she’s frozen.

They remained immobile, waiting to see if it happened again. After a long wait, Arthur said, Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Not so, said Ursula. Her mouth twitched. I saw it myself. I think we should put a continuous body monitor on her and keep watch from our research area.

Mighty strange, said Arthur. Mighty strange and darn near impossible to boot.

Ursula grabbed his arm. Wait, Arthur. Do you suppose she is scheduled to defrost? You know it’s customary to schedule an automatic defrost for those who volunteer to be frozen. Ursula looked wide-eyed at her mate. Arthur, she might be scheduled to defrost now.

He grunted in reply. What do you know about automatic defrost?

If no one has tampered with the timer, the frozen being defrosts without assistance. There should be instructions or a notice of how long a frozen being is to remain so. Let’s look for it.

I need to get back to the bridge while Rodan is resting. You carry on here and see what transpires.

I surely will, Arthur. I surely will. My-oh-my this is exciting. I wonder if she is from that lost world. I’ll keep watch and let you know if I need help.

Arthur gave her a peck on the cheek. Good gal. She’s in good hands. He walked to the door, paused and looked back. You don’t suppose she’s dangerous, do you? I’d hate to unleash any more trouble than what we already got.

Ursula shrugged her shoulders up to ear height. From what I remember of that lost world the beings were benign. Besides a little snip like that doesn’t look like she could harm much of anything.

Let’s hope not, Arthur said.

RODAN BECAME AWARE of an unhealthy odor in his semi-conscious state and realized it was emanating from him. He needed a bath. He groaned and rolled over, reluctant to leave his comfortable berth. His eyes popped opened when he remembered Tito, and he checked the airspace above his head. A yellow blinking light signaled another message. He nodded to the blinker, and the message appeared.

Coordinates received. DO NOT repeat DO NOT execute galaxy jump into Western Deovolante at coordinates indicated. Revise coordinates to jump into Eastern sector. Fighting reported in western Deovolante. Oversee not visible. Sitting tight in Petros. Contraband business booming. Advise. Tito.

Drat, Rodan thought. Fighting was a bad sign, and it was on the side of the galaxy they needed to enter. They wouldn’t have enough energy to last until an eastern entrance was possible. He blew out some wholesome pirate invectives, jumped from the rester, stripped, and eased into the bathing pool, which took up an entire corner of the room. The water was ice cold as he liked it. He relaxed and let the cold clear his thinking.

They would have to slow Solidarity down to conserve energy so they’d keep the energy reserve they had produced for the jump. He rued not having his brother’s beautiful intergalactic ship, the Maximum. Will had designed and built it himself and needed it to live in his new realm with lovely Queen Vita 

Lovely Queen Vita. The thought of her and the bitterness of losing her threatened to sink him into despair. It was hard enough attending their magnificent union ceremony back in Earth orbit.  He was glad when Supreme Initiate Ray asked him to return to Deovolante to find out what he could and perhaps help the Oversee. It gave him the opportunity to get away from Will, from Earth and from beautiful, lovely, exquisite Queen Vita.

Bringing in the pirates was his