Alternating Worlds (STAR-DUST 24) E-Book

Jens F. Simon

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Sigurd meets the mysterious insectoid human Takaarrath. He too carries a secret, but he himself knows nothing about it; he is the last descendant of the Neensziss people. Aliens who once built the 'City of a Thousand Stars' on Venus and who simply disappeared around 200 years ago after the Great War. Together they set off in search of the legendary AREA 51, where the path to the "New Worlds" is said to be located.

Leseprobe

STAR-DUST

Under the spell of nanites

Volume 24

Alternating Worlds

© 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: 978-3-819055-19-5

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.

The soul is firmly connected to the human body. However, the spirit, the mental I, is something separate, something independent in the Christian faith. If, by chance, the firm connection between soul and body should ever be severed, it is unalterable that there is no going back. Is that so?

We are often not aware of how much we are influenced by a person's appearance. Only when we also get the opportunity to look inside, we will find the truth. But is it really the whole truth?

Table of content 

Dangerous journey

The old guy from Greenside

Muhlork ‘s scouts

Desert fellows

Restricted area

Ghosts

Takaarrath's secret

The gondola of stardust

Dangerous journey

Takaarrath went ahead and I followed him. He knew the mountain pass and its access kept secret by Sgrull.

The morning was still quite cool, and the few clothes I had been given by Majenna and the daughters of Fammer, which I wore on my body, were not warm.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced briefly at the insectoid human walking to my right.

He wore only a single coat of fur over his chitin-like body armor. I wondered again how his body could compensate for major temperature changes.

Did he even have something like a blood circulation and a central nervous system?

In any case, he did not have such a bone structure, as it was present in vertebrates and of course in humans, but an exoskeleton, which was normally only found in insects.

I increasingly got the impression that he somehow did not fit into this world. I quickly blocked my thoughts.

I had remembered almost too late that there was a special mental connection between the two of us. When I concentrated on Takaarrath, it was possible for me to read his thoughts and vice versa it was also easy for him to perceive my thoughts.

Unless I blocked them beforehand. I had practiced blocking again and again in the last days, so I could do it instinctively.

But every now and then, individual trains of thought still seemed to elude my control.

The lush foothills stretched to the horizon. Among the clod-like sand and rock layers, sparse tufts of grass grew as far as the eye could see.

Takaarrath seemed as unenthusiastic as I was. Each was absorbed in his own thoughts.

We had only been on the road for about half a day, and already I couldn't get Majenna out of my mind.

Had it been right to leave her with the mutant family? Had it even been right to just leave?

I just had to realize that there was no real alternative for me there.

Then there had also been the constantly recurring dreams. I suffered more and more from the loss of my memory and in my dreams the path to the new worlds appeared again and again.

Something about this designation really fascinated me. And I associated this path with the mysterious AREA 51.

It was the only right decision to look for the way there, I abruptly disciplined my drifting apart trains of thought.

A cotton wool-like feeling slowly drifting in the back of my mind told me that my thought block was still active.

But what I hadn't noticed, Takaarrath was no longer walking by my side. He had suddenly just disappeared.

I looked somewhat irritated over the barren and very straight plain that still stretched to the horizon. Only there, at the very end, I could make out a darkly appearing elevation, the mountain range.

Otherwise, only tufts of grass that sprouted less than half a meter from the dry and cracked ground.

Where could an insect-like creature over six feet tall possibly be hiding here?

I spun around once and tried to strain my eyes, but in vain.

I could not make out the slightest irregularity on the ground.

I was on the verge of contacting him telepathically, but then decided not to. He was his own master, after all.

The day was already ending, and I reached the foothills without incident. The plant growth increased, which was probably due to an underground water source.

When I reached the first tree stumps that marked the beginning of an area overgrown with light green pines, I took a rest.

I gazed pensively at the vast expanse of conifers that stretched across the slopes of the nearby mountain range.

The ground had taken on an anthracite color, broken up only by the pines, which were about two to three meters tall.

Around the tree trunks, the ground had turned beige. This hue caught my attention.

I pulled the backpack Majenna had given me full of provisions off my back and put it down next to a rock.

Then I took a closer look at the spot under one of those spruce trees. There was a lot of dust when I stepped on the bright spot on the ground.

A fine cloud of ash was rising. The dark layer of soil all around consisted of dark lava rock.

A gigantic slide of a volcanic debris avalanche must have taken place here once. The only strange thing was that there was still light-colored lava ash wherever a pine tree grew out of the ground.

I was so distracted by contemplation that I did not notice Takaarrath until he was already standing in front of me. I was not startled, however, strangely enough.

I did, however, realize that the visible chitinous armor of his body had changed to match the color of the ground.

I noticed this chameleon effect now for the first time. Only the parts of the body that were clothed in fur made Takaarrath stand out from the immediate surroundings.

"Here is a good place to rest and spend the night. My stomach is full and I'm ready to meditate for a few hours."

A loud roar from the steppe behind us made me flinch for a moment before I replied, "So that's why you snuck off to fill your jerkin. All right, let's rest here."