The power of dreams: Legacy of the stars

By Jens Fitscher

Aruru and Connar fall out. He realizes quite quickly that their relationship is being exploited one-sidedly by the quasi-intelligence. She is not the substitute for Scarlett vanDyke as he had hoped. She is too non-human.
Tarik Connar's body has been altered so that he is now no longer subject to the natural law of time correlation. He is transferred to TOHIKUM PANGAE on Earth through the Chron Bastion located in the asteroid ship. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and there is a time shift. He finds himself in the year 2022.

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Aug 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9783966745949

Jens Fitscher

Jens Fitscher war bereits als kleiner Junge begeisterter Leser von Science-Fiction und Fantasy Büchern. Insbesondere liebte er die gängigen Taschenbücher der 70er und 80er Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts. Ein starkes Interesse zeigte er dabei für die Protagonisten mit außergewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten. Seine Geschichten handeln immer von starken Persönlichkeiten, die durch ungewöhnliche Umstände über sich selbst hinauswachsen und dafür mit übernatürlichen Fähigkeiten belohnt werden.

Book preview

The 5th column

Jet'ha was behind the console when the five Shiidur'ist stormed the central unit #VII. Aruru had suddenly disappeared again.

Connar was still in the gray haze of phase shift when Jet'ha's time-relief suit could no longer withstand the strain.

The five onrushing Shiidur'ist gave continuous fire. The control panel perished in a single explosion.

Jet'ha was thrown back, his battle suit trying to protect him with the last of its energy reserves. He slammed into the wall and remained crumpled on the floor.

Connar was now standing directly in front of him, but still could not influence what was happening.

Instead, the avatar of the universe ship suddenly appeared again. The material hologram of Aruru appeared amid the ray paths, which simply passed through her appearance as if she were not there.

Aruru seemed a bit irritated for a moment.

The Shiidur'ist, on the other hand, immediately recognized in her a new opponent and intensified their fire on her hologram.

The temperature inside the room immediately rose another ten degrees as a second group of Shiidur'ist led by Kalma'han reached the central unit and began firing at Aruru as well.

Connar leaned over the former Zisslies warrior.

A slight flicker of his eyelids showed him that there was still life in him. Connar cursed for the umpteenth time that he could not intervene.

Even his special mental power was useless in his current state of phasing. He could not use it through the gray haze.

He had tried several times before, but each time he completely failed. Smoke and flames mixed and shrouded the field of vision.

Yellow-reddish and light-blue rays were the only things that could be seen perfectly clearly in the gloom that had set in. Only a few of the lighting fixtures were still intact.

As if by magic, two heavy laser cannons appeared in Aruru's hands.

Connar had no trouble seeing in the nearly dark room. He was just wondering if Aruru was serious when the two laser weapons also began their activities.

He was blinded for a moment, as thigh-sized laser beams the size of the sun shot out of the long barrels and roared down everything in their path.

The temperature in the room rose another fifteen degrees.

Explosions and liquid metal formed wherever the extremely compressed light beams hit solid matter.

Aruru began to slowly swing the two heavy lasers. There was no sign of the attacking strangers in the chaos that now prevailed.

There was no more counterfire. The two groups of Shiidur'ist had retreated in flight.

Connar looked fixedly at his friend, who still lay unconscious on the floor. The temperature in the room had reached its peak of 68 degrees Celsius when Aruru's material hologram had disappeared from one second to the next.

With her disappearance, the heavy laser cannons also fell silent, and it abruptly became quiet.

Connar began to worry about Jet'ha. Several rivulets of liquid metal began to flow toward him.

He tried to pull it aside for the umpteenth time but kept reaching through it.

There had to be some way to reverse this damned phase shift.

Connar had not consciously brought about this state, rather his subconscious had intervened when the pain inflicted on him by the Kriib'ist had become too intense.

Only the distanceless step from the planet here, into the asteroid ship he had brought about consciously.

Perhaps he could also get out of the phase shift now if he concentrated hard enough on it. The heat that abruptly hit him made him act immediately.

Connar didn't get time to wonder about the sudden change. Breathing was difficult and thick drops of sweat were forming on his face, already clogging his eyes.

He had already forgotten about the brief spinning dizziness and the missing gray haze as he grabbed Jet'has upper body with all his might and pulled him towards the exit.

His lungs burned as if they were burning from the inside out when he finally left the room coughing and on the verge of suffocating.

With the last of his strength, he hit the display of the bulkhead lock, although he wasn't sure if the automatic system was still working at all.

But he was lucky. With a rattling sound, the bulkhead slowly began to close.

Air renewal was already in full swing, and the temperature was rapidly dropping to a tolerable level.

Connar tensely let his gaze wander over the two intersecting corridors that opened before him. He had Jet'has body up and leaning against the wall.

A mental-telekinetic protective field shielded them both from a sneaky laser blast. He could not be sure that the strangers had fully retreated.

Kalma'han, 5th Column's operations officer broke off the assault storm. The reason, however, was not the abrupt appearance of the enemy with the laser cannons.

The suits of his Shiidur'ist fighters had a protective charge that could easily absorb a scattered laser attack.

Only point fire would have been lethal. The real reason for his retreat had been information from Squad 3, radioed shortly after storming the central unit.

The squad had come across clues that suggested that this asteroid ship was a Kriib'ist vessel.

Kalma'han could not believe this at first, but due to the report the situation had changed somewhat, so that he had no choice but to stop the sabotage campaign until it was certain that the ship was not Kriib'ist technology.

He was considering whether it would make sense to inform the outpost SKA'HALA about the new findings already now but decided against it. He wanted to convince himself with his own eyes first.

His Shiidur'ist sometimes showed a tendency to exaggerate. Although in this case he could hardly imagine it.

Jagdr'ha, the leader of Squad 3, was also a specialist in alien technology.

That it had taken him so long to figure out that this was Kriib'ist technology irritated Kalma'han somewhat.

However, the retreat turned out to be more than difficult. Suddenly, all the access points stopped working.

There was no more energy. Atmospheric pressure dropping rapidly, came the message from Squad 3, and Squad 4 additionally reported, Robotic drones are combing the corridors and hallways. We are under constant fire!

The situation had changed abruptly to their disadvantage after their presence became known.

The passive resistance alone was completely enough that there was only one option left for them, and that was to retreat to their spacecraft, causing as much damage as possible.

The oxygen reserves of the now closed spacesuits were still sufficient for ten hours.

That would have to leave them enough time for it. The closed passages, however, put this time span into perspective.

A heavy explosion at the end of the passage distracted Kalma'han only briefly from his train of thought. His people had blown another bulkhead.

Jet’ha’s body was literally shaken by a coughing fit as he awoke from his unconsciousness.

Connar looked at him with concern.

I think we'll take you to the medo-bay of the KLONDIKE first. You can get checked out there.

No, that won't be necessary, I'll be fine in a minute. Jet'ha tried to get up, but immediately slid back down against the wall.

Don't fool around, Jet'ha. I'm taking you to the KLONDIKE now. Whether you like it or not.

Instead of retorts, the young Zisslies warrior began to gasp and pant for breath. Connar pulled him up and supported him.

Only with difficulty could he hold himself upright. Jet'ha wanted to say something but had no strength to do so.

Only a soft croak could be heard. Connar handed him over to the care of the medo-station. Afterwards he tried to establish a mental connection to Aruru, which of course failed.

He should have known better.

This strange creature had changed in a strange way.

Where were Zeno and Tarja actually? They went to take a closer look at the huge ship and then disappeared.

Connar remembered that they were also planning to visit the Chron-Bastion Urschanabi, which was located on the asteroid ship.

Zeno harbored hopes of learning more information about his body transformation; perhaps even finding a way to reverse it.

Connar didn't believe it was possible. After all, Zeno and Tarja's body parts had been destroyed after the transformation; hadn't they?

If they were still preserved, it was hardly possible to restore them to their original state.

Zeno had not been in touch since then. Neither with him nor had he left a message with the ship brain of the KLONDIKE.

The thought of the Chron-Bastion made him think of his own transformation. By now, his body was entirely composed of nanites. The cells had been replaced by assembler nanobots that reproduced themselves.

Thus the aging of his body was as good as stopped. Connar used the time of Jet'has examination to relax a bit and get clarity about his future life.

He retreated to his cabin and lay down on the bed. Here, completely free of external influences, his thoughts could be ordered in peace, and he could draw a summary.

It was more than disturbing for him that he found himself in the middle of an argument that, in his opinion, was not necessary at all.

Why did Aruru let herself be provoked in such a way?

Why didn't she just ignore this solar system and keep flying?

Was there perhaps a connection between her and the strangers?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed to him. Here he had to start and confront Aruru. Should she again only stall him or even ignore him, there was an alternative, the KLONDIKE.

He could take off with his ship at any time and leave this place. Of course, he would also leave her and that forever. Did he really want to do this? He had already lost Scarlett. But he was not entirely alone.

After all, there was his loyal friend Jet'ha, as well as Zeno and his partner.

He had tried to communicate with Zeno using the logcom, a combination of mic and speaker chip, that had once been transplanted into his skin under the ear by the robot ruler Tart-prio, as well as the entire crew of the SORROW.

This communication option had served them very well at that time.

Unfortunately, it had occurred to him much too late that after Zeno's body transformation, he no longer had a logcom.

The Logcom came from Ellio'sh legacy, just like his current ship KLONDIKE.

The ship's brain should be able to contact Zeno, who now had a high-tech body. Connar immediately instructed the KLONDIKE via logcom to contact Zeno.

Instruction not executable. Overlapping interference fields have been over the entire asteroid ship for 2.45 hours. The fields extend to an altitude of 85 kilometers in all directions. Annotation. The universe ship has a size of 427 kilometers. The location of the KLONDIKE is relatively close to the surface at kilometer 17. To avoid the interference fields, it is advised to change location to 102 kilometers lower.

Connar was initially a bit taken aback by this statement. He had not known about the interference fields.

Another solo effort by Aruru, was all he could think, and the onset of melancholy disappeared just as quickly as it had tried to catch him off guard. Suddenly, the cabin bulkhead announced a visitor. Since there was no one else aboard, it could only be Jet'ha. Open!

At Connar's command, the access opened, but much too slowly for the entrant.

The young Zisslies warrior literally stormed through the only half-open bulkhead, stopping briefly after a meter and a half to get his bearings. Then, when he saw Connar on the bed, he became downright indignant.

You lie here relaxing while the enemy storms our ship. Let's fight him at last! I'll stomp them into the ground and crush them like a SEmpa fly!

Now don't be so hasty. After all, you've had to experience what comes of it yourself. Aruru has no regard even for his own people!

Connar stood up slowly as he spoke.

Are you recovered? No internal injuries?

Jet'ha emitted only a short snort in response to the questions.

I'm fully operational, you can see that.

Connar looked at him skeptically but left it at that. When Jet'ha was in a fighting mood, it was best to let him do what he wanted to do.

If you don't want to, that's fine with me. He said and had already disappeared again through the closing cabin bulkhead.

Jet'has hunt

Jet'ha hunted the aliens who had invaded the universe ship. This 5th column consisted of creatures that seemed more than alien even to him.

These grotesque, insect-like creatures moved on four legs, but they kept their bodies upright.

Their four legs served for walking, and they moved in a synchronized sequence of individual movements.

A second ball-and-socket joint divided each arm in the middle again, allowing a 180-degree radius of action for the lower part. A powerful spherical head sat on the wedge-shaped upper limb, with no hint of a neck-like transition visible.

The 427-kilometer asteroid ship resulted in a huge area, which did not necessarily provide the optimal conditions as a hunting ground. It was too vast for that.

But Jet'ha, a member of the former warrior caste of the animalistic Zisslies, had his honor violated.

The foreign invaders had humiliated him. He would not be able to simply forget that.

He had left the KLONDIKE's sick bay, against Connar's advice, to hunt down the intruders. Unfortunately, his time-relief suit had given up the ghost during the last battle.

Jet'ha now had only the Sjarkrat, a short-barreled handgun in the shape of a dagger.

That was enough for him. After all, he did not want to fight a one-man war, but rather to eliminate the intruders in partisan fashion. Furthermore, he now wore an Ellio'sh battle suit after his own had been destroyed.

This one was also space qualified.

After the interference fields around the ship had disappeared again, he was able to stay in constant contact with the KLONDIKE.

With the navigation scanner he had received from her for position determination, which was coupled online with the ship's systems, he was able to determine the exact location of the aliens.

Thus he had learned that there had initially been four different groups that acted autonomously from each other.

First it was necessary to find out where exactly the individual groups were.

Based on the scanner he had first learned that each group consisted of five individuals.

His attention was focused on the group closest to him. Nevertheless, there were still about twelve kilometers between it and him.

Jet'ha wasted no time and set off at a trot.

As he did so, he held the sjarkrat in both clawed hands crossed in front of his chest. His species could thus reach a speed of up to 80 KMH.

The two horns on his heavily hairy skull began to bob in time as the young Zisslies warrior now reached his top speed.

The corridor ended after three hundred meters in front of a closed bulkhead.

Jet'has energetic suit helmet was closed as the atmospheric pressure continued to degrade in the corridors.

All the bulkheads had been hermetically sealed by the ship's brain to make it difficult for the aliens to enter and progress further.

Thousands of very small combat drones were already searching the corridors and hallways for them.

Jet'ha knew nothing of all this until now. Since the hadron brain of the universe ship still classified him as an ally with the status 'Eligible', the battle drones naturally avoided his immediate environment.

This classification, however, was his good fortune.

For as he approached within a meter of the bulkhead at a consistently high speed, it opened as quickly as the shutter of a camera did.

He shot through without braking and immediately found himself in a flurry of laser weapons.

Jet'ha ducked and reflexively rolled on the ground while searching for cover with rolling eyes.

In seconds, he surveyed the situation. Over the intersecting laser beams, he saw that there was a tube elevator about fifty meters away.

That's where the fire seemed to be the heaviest. More and more combat drones came out of the elevator and were immediately fired upon by the strangers.

Smoke partially obscured the view but made the laser beams appear all the clearer.

Jet'ha just observed how one of the strangers changed his place on his four legs reactively. He moved so fast that Jet'ha could no longer recognize the individual movements of his legs.

There, where he had been a moment ago, the flooring turned dark red under the concentrated fire of three combat drones.

The stranger, however, was already standing three meters away and shot back, keeping his arm with the weapon rotated 180 degrees.

This feat was only made possible by the second bullet joint in the middle of the arm. There were several intersecting corridors in the corridor.

Jet'ha also counted five bulkheads on the walls.

Two of them were destroyed. It looked as if the entrances had been blown up.

Parts of the bulkheads still hung smoking in the duct, and he could see torn struts and sparking, severed wiring.

The strangers had entrenched themselves in the rooms beyond and were firing at the combat drones now approaching them through the tube elevator.

One of the strangers had apparently attempted a lunge but hadn't gotten very far.

Jet'ha was wondering where the smoke and flames in the tube elevator were coming from when the elevator shaft was blown apart with a loud bang.

Where there had just been half a dozen battle threats, there was now only a large hole.

Part of the corridor ceiling had also come down.

It took only a few seconds, and the Zisslies warrior saw more of these insectoid aliens coming through the resulting opening.

They had flight-capable suits that were also surrounded by a reddish flickering energy field. Irritated, he glanced at the navigation scanner on his arm.

The strangers should still be about 12 kilometers away from him if this device were still working.

Only now did he notice a small diode glowing a bright yellow at the bottom of the scanner.

The device had been offline all this time and the record update was apparently still running. Jet'ha uttered a loud curse.

Since he still had his helmet closed, his opponent could not hear him. Nevertheless, he suddenly found himself the center of general interest.

After there were no more combat drones of the universe ship in the immediate vicinity, whose attack had claimed the entire attention of the 5th column, Jet'ha was suddenly fired upon from two sides.

He returned the fire briefly with his hand laser and immediately retreated.

The bulkhead behind him opened as soon as he reached it and promptly closed again as he threw himself through it.

Jet'ha, however, did not get a chance to catch his breath. Under a glare of lightning, the bulkhead behind him burst into a thousand pieces that literally flew around his ears.

The protective shield of his Ellio'sh combat suit held, but the kinetic energy of the impacting bulkhead pieces hurled him several meters into the corridor. Dazed, he remained lying there for a few seconds.

This short period of time, however, was enough for the intruders to rush forward and overpower him.

Jet'ha had lost his hand laser in the fall, so he was initially incapable of any resistance.

This circumstance most likely saved his life.

Three Shiidur'ist stood over him and threatened him with their weapons. The situation was more than grotesque.

No one said even a word.

All of them just stared at Jet'ha and on and on into the hallway from which they had come.

It was a spooky situation that Jet'ha had never experienced before. They didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

Before the strangers could get the wrong idea about him, however, Aruru appeared in the narrow hallway. She held in the crook of her arm a heavy laser gun that immediately began spreading death and destruction even before the Avatar's material hologram had manifested.

Jet'ha saw no other chance than to press himself as flat as possible on the ground when the sun-hot beams already shot over him.

It turned out that at that moment he had a tiny advantage over the Shiidur'ist; he was still sitting on the ground while they were standing.

The protective shields of their battle suits flared bright red as the arm-thick laser beam struck them at close range.

The temperature in the small corridor literally exploded and the opposite wall surface began to liquefy.

The Shiidur'ist closest to Aruru was hurled over Jet'ha by the impact energy, and before he reached the other end of the small corridor, his body passed away in an explosion as the protective shield imploded.

By now, the temperature had risen to over 200 degrees Celsius.

The two remaining Shiidur’ist, according to their species, completely stress resistant.

Seeing no possibility of cover, they began to fire back automatically.

The shields of their suits glowed brighter and brighter as Aruru now fired directly at them as well.

Jet'ha still lay sprawled on the ground, watching the laser fire from the two Shiidur'ist pass through the hologram of the ship avatar without Aruru even noticing.

Only the laser cannon seemed to show the first signs of the fire.

It began to glow reddish and when he looked closely, he could already see small deformations on it.

No question, the cannon was real. Like a beacon from hell, the end came upon the Shiidur'ist.

A violent lightning storm passed through the protective fields of their battle suits, then came a sunlit discharge.

Even Jet'ha's protective shield glowed dangerously red as the Shiidur'ist's fields imploded, taking their wearers with them to their doom. They burned to dust in seconds.

The roar of the beam cannon in the crook of Aruru's arm went out.

She briefly gave the Zisslies warrior lying on the ground a piercing look, then the material hologram dissolved.

Jet'ha was not given time to recover from the