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StarMountainKid's Zarkor and Zerak Blog

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Into The Great Cosmic Void - Chapter Ten


StarMountainKid

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blog-0457353001462137269.jpg“I think at last Computer has got something!” Zerak exclaims. “There’s some kind of communication coming through!”

Our three intrepid heroes gather around the com. “Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there?” A soft voice comes through the speakers.

“Yes, yes, we’re in here!” Zerak shouts. “Are you the one wrapped around our ship? Who are you?”

“Why, I’m a Value, of course!” Comes back the answer, rather surprised.

“A Value? What’s a Value?” Zerak asks, glancing nervously at Zarkor.

“What’s a Value? That’s me! What are you?” The Voice says.

Zarkor puffs himself up. “We’re a superior species!” He shouts out. “What a ridiculous question, who are we! We’re heroes on an Adventure! You’re intruding on our voyage! That’s not very polite! We can’t even see where we’re going because of you! Why are you wrapped around our ship?! Move away so we can see your!”

“I’ve wrapped myself around your ship because I need protection!” The Value answers. “Being wrapped around it, they’ll think I’m your ship!”

“Who is “They”?” Zerak asks, calming down somewhat.

The voice comes back over the com and says matter-of-factly, “Oh, Security or some mercenaries, thugs mostly, hired by the Supervisors. They’ll have noticed I’m gone by now and they’ll be trailing me. See, I escaped the Depository. You wouldn’t blame me, it’s awful living there. It’s overcrowded, the food is bad, the guards are mean, recreation periods are getting shorter… You think you could hide me and help me get away?”

Zarkor and Zerak look at each other in puzzlement. “What’s this “Depository” you speak of?” Zerak asks. “Is it some kind of prison?”

“It’s where we all are kept against our will, that’s what it is! If they capture me they’ll hurt me and put me on half-rations in Solitary for ever so long! Can’t you help me? I’m not a criminal!” The voice pleads.

Cloney bobs up and down in excitement. “Let’s help it!” He begs. “It sounds so sad and helpless out there in the cold of that awful Nothing around us! We’ve got plenty of room inside! It could bunk with me!”

Zarkor brushes Cloney aside and shouts angrily into the com, “Look you, we’re trying to get someplace and we keep running into weird creatures that distract us from our Adventure, like you, whatever you are. Just peel yourself off our ship like a good lad so we can at least see where we’re going. We’ve got important business around here and we don’t need any freeloaders or hitch hikers!”

“We’d like to help you,” Zerak suggests, ignoring Zarkor’s diatribe. “Maybe you can come into our ship, like Cloney says, and we can discuss all this.” Zerak thinks. “We have lots of room in the cargo bay, but I don’t think you’d fit through the airlock. Can you shrink yourself a little?”

Zarkor turns to Zerak. “We can’t let this creature in!” He says. “We don’t know what it is or if it’s dangerous. You believe everything anyone tells you, Zerak! If there’s some police or someone after this thing, we may get in trouble, harboring a fugitive! Let’s get this thing unwrapped and move on!”

“Hmm…” Zerak murmurs thoughtfully. “What exactly is a Value?” Zerak asks the creature, ignoring Zarkor once again.

“Why, a Value is…is… It’s like a fundamental. The original, the primary, the elemental, the innocent and pure expression. It’s difficult to translate it into your primitive language.”

“Primitive language?!” Zarkor starts to protest…

Suddenly, Cloney has a thought. “Maybe this thing is what we’re looking for!” He exclaims excitedly. “I mean, I’ve been wondering what the good stuff would be like if we ever did find it! Wouldn’t it be something like what this creature says it is?!”

Zerak considers Cloney’s idea for a moment. “You may be on to something, Cloney!” Zerak speaks into the com. “And there’s a Depository where more you are kept?” He asks.

“Yes, of course,” the Value answers. “All of us are being kept there against our will. We all want to escape and spread through the Universe and fulfill our natural expressions, but they won’t let us! It’s cruel and unusual punishment! And we’re all innocent!” It exclaims.

Zerak begins to think he’s on the right track. “And who is keeping you in this Depository against your will?”

“The guards and the others who are in charge of the guards, the Supervisors!” The Value answers. “They’re all against us. They’re keeping us hidden here away from the Natural Order! It’s despicable and wicked! If you could help me, maybe together we could help all the others to escape, too!”

“And just why are you being held there in this Depository you speak of?” Is Zerak’s next question.

The Value is silent for a moment. Then in hushed tones it replies, “Them.”

“Them?” Zerak asks quietly. “Who is Them?”

There is another silence. “The ones who made us,” whispers the Value. “The ones from… the other place.”

Zarkor and Zerak look at each other intently. “The ones who made you? From the other place” Zerak asks cautiously.

“Please, we must not speak of Them,” the Value cautions. “It is forbidden. You must try to help us escape. You may be our only chance!”

Zarkor, Zerak and Cloney gaze at the whitened View Screen, private thoughts rushing through their heads. Zarkor turns to Zerak and whispers, “It’s the good stuff…”

Zerak whispers back in Zarkor’s ear, “I think so, too. It must be.”

“I don’t feel good, I mean any better than I did before.” Cloney interjects loudly. “If it’s the good stuff, how come I feel the same? Shouldn’t I be feeling good or better than usual right now or something?”

“Hush, Cloney. I don’t know,” Zerak says quietly. “We don’t know enough about all this yet.”

Zerak and Cloney hear Zarkor mumble something. They turn to Zarkor. “It’s the good stuff,” Zarkor is slowly repeating to himself, a dazed look in his eyes. He’s mumbling to himself, “It’s the good stuff. We’ve found it! I knew it! I knew we would! It’s the good stuff! We’ve found it!”

Zerak and Cloney, startled at Zarkor’s sudden mumbling, look closely to Zarkor, who is now staring unfocused and misty-eyed into the blankness of the View Screen. He continues to mumble the same words over and over.

“Zarkor! Zarkor!” Zerak says anxiously at Zarkor’s strange new countenance. But Zarkor does not respond. “Zarkor, are you with us?” Zerak gives Zarkor a little telekinetic push. The slight touch causes Zarkor to drift slowly away, now seemingly unaware of what is going on around him. Zerak watches with alarm at Zarkor’s unresponsiveness.

“Zarkor, wake up! What’s wrong? Can you hear me?” Zerak says anxiously.

Zarkor continues to drift slowly across the room, a dreamy and unseeing look in his eyes.

“What’s the matter with Zarkor?” Cloney asks Zerak, looking from one to the other. “Is he hypnotized?”

Zerak hovers close to Zarkor and drifts around him, examining him closely. “He seems to be in a trance or something,” Zerak says to Cloney. “I’ve seen him absentminded before, but not like this! Zarkor, snap out of it!” Zerak gives Zarkor a little shake to try and wake him, but to no avail.

“What’ll we do?!” Cloney asks excitedly. “Is Zarkor going to be alright?”

“Value! What’s wrong with Zarkor?” Zerak shouts into the com.

“If your friend is not responding, it must be the telepathic messages we’ve been sending! The Values back in the Depository must be aware of your presence and are increasing their transmissions!”

“Tell them to stop!” Cloney demands. “Zarkor is going crazy!”

“He’s in telepathic contact with the Depository now,” The Value says. “He’s in no danger.”

“But what does that mean?” Zerak asks uneasily. “What kind of telepathic messages is Zarkor receiving?”

The Value was silent for a moment. “They’re asking him for help. They want your help, too, to escape the Depository and be free at last!”

“That’s all well and good,” Zerak says, “but how can we help them? You say there’s guards and mercenaries, just how do you expect the three of us to break all of you out of some prison?!”

The Value was silent again. Then, “You’re going to have to be led by your friend there in his trance. He is aware of the construction of the Depository. It will be up to him to contrive an escape plan for us. He is your leader, now. You must trust in his guidance. It is the only way.”

Cloney stares at Zerak. “Zarkor, our leader?” Cloney exclaims and rolls his eyes. “I think I’ll go hide in my corner again, Zerak.”

“Wait Cloney,” Zerak says. “If Zarkor in his telepathic trance is the only way to aid these Values, then we must rely on his judgment in this situation, as this Value says.”

Cloney glances over to Zarkor who is still slowly drifting around the room aimlessly from Zerak’s nudge, eyes dilated, peering blankly into some mysterious and ethereal telepathic reverie within himself.

“Well,” Cloney says at last, “I guess he really doesn’t look much different than usual, especially when he’s thinking about one of his stupid Theories. I just hope these Values can guide him into a sensible plan for us. But if he starts barking useless orders at me, I’m going back into my corner and I’m going to stay there ‘till all this is over.”

With that, Zerak and Cloney drift away from Zarkor, waiting for him to come to himself and come up with some sensible plan, as Cloney has said, and take command of their Cosmic Adventure.

Cloney drifts farther away, keeping an eye on Zarkor. He then looks up to the vacant View Screen. “I knew it would turn out like this,” he says in knowing frustration. “Another Boating Adventure with Zarkor at the helm. I just hope he can keep his brain inside his head this time.”

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