Guardians of the Stars (STAR-DUST 26) E-Book

Jens F. Simon

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

Seitenzahl: 90

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

When Sigurd finds a time transmitter in the abandoned settlement of the Neensziss on Venus, he is transferred 200 years back in time. While searching for his past, he accidentally meets a young woman with the appearance of Majenna. The young woman is on the run from the 'Guardians of the Stars'. Sigurd/Marvin cannot leave the past. He suddenly finds himself in a 25-year-old body and in the captivity of the aliens.

Leseprobe

STAR-DUST

Under the spell of nanites

Volume 26

Guardians of the Stars

© 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: 978-3-819064-55-5

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.

Take your life into your own hands and don't wait for someone else to do it for you. Give your life a meaning, even if you do not know now where it really leads. Your own past gives you the best support for this. But if it lies in the dark, then you can only helplessly rely on your luck.

Table of content 

Prologue

The time capsule

Past times 2

The Great War

Painful truth

Aliens

Escape to the future

Error preprogrammed

Prologue

Guardians of the Stars' was the name of the supreme autocracy of the Neensziss.

I gazed pensively through the wall-sized windows down at the 'City of a Thousand Stars' and tried to organize my thoughts.

Strangely enough, I had no doubts at all about entrusting myself to an alien technology that would send me through time. Rather, I was only overcome with doubt regarding my own past life.

What had happened before I had regained consciousness in the desert?

I looked pensively at the very yellowed photo in my hand, which came from a long time ago and which depicted me. I lacked the memory of my former life.

Even the photo could not restore my memory.

What terrible thing had happened to cause me to lose my memory? Could I dare to revive the past for myself personally?

For my friend Takaarrath, there was a clear answer in this regard. I had to go back in time and find out for myself.

I immediately felt a queasy feeling in my stomach area.

Was it some kind of foreboding or merely the food to which I had devoted myself with great appetite?

"As I mentioned several times, you can only find out by facing your past life!"

I cringed as I abruptly heard Takaarrath's thoughts in my head. He had once again mentally snooped because I had once again forgotten to block my owning thoughts.

But I no longer cared about that, as I had at the beginning of our encounter. At that time, I hated it downright that someone third got insights into my head.

"Marvin, you only need to ask yourself one simple question, why did you seek out the 'Path to the New Worlds'? Also, how did you even know that term? Your search is a logical construct of your missing past. Your subconscious wants to create a balance to ensure your psychological stability. So go where your real home is, namely in the past. At least, that's what this photo you're holding in your hand clearly says."

I had turned to him and his now loudly spoken words resounded preternaturally loud through my mind.

"I think you are right once again. But why don't you come with me? Then at least you will be able to contact your lost people. About 250 years ago they appeared here in this solar system, that's what the central fuse autocracy of GLEESITT, the 'City of a Thousand Stars', told you, right?"

"It's not that simple, because the fractal-temporal time capsule was only designed to transfer time from one person, as you know. TALAH, the guardian of the Star Walk, described it in detail, didn't she?"

"But that's not an obstacle, is it? Then you wait until I've completed the time jump and follow. We don't both have to travel through time at the same time!"

I was desperate to convince Takaarrath to come with me.

I could well imagine that the time after the arrival of the Neensziss and before the turmoil of a post-apocalyptic world had not exactly been a quiet and peaceful time period.

Here, two of us could act much more effectively, especially since with Takaarrath there was the advantage that, as a member of the Neensziss, he probably had more options than I did.

"No, I don't see it that way. On the contrary, my status will have rather negative consequences if the 'Guardians of the Stars' find out that a time jump has taken place. They would immediately arrest or even liquidate me as a Neensziss. As far as I think I remember, jumping through time is in the proscription of this guardian caste. You, as a native planetarian, are unsuspected. No one will even perceive you as a time traveler at first."

I looked at Takaarrath in disbelief.

"Do you have any other information that I don't know?"

I had thought he had told me all he knew about the Neensziss.

"That's just it. I only ever get bits and pieces of new information from my subconscious, if that. But let's not go into that. All that matters to you is that you don't stand out as a human among humans. This is the only chance I see that you can find out more about your past and thus about your life so far. Anonymity is your greatest advantage."

"That's easy for you to say. The way I see it, I'm going to be in for one hell of a mess. Muhlork and his brutal rule, on the other hand, is a recreational oasis. The end of the world, which is behind us, is happening right then and I'm in the middle of it. I don't know if I really want that!"

I suddenly thought of Majenna. Wasn't she also without a past?

She had never spoken to me about it, but Sgrull had once mentioned to me that she herself, just as little as I, could remember past times.

I had known Majenna only briefly, but somehow, I missed her. Just now I realized that we had felt a strong affinity for each other. It was a kind of familiarity that I had not thought I knew at all.

I didn't understand it, yet I missed her.

Before I could plunge further into an incipient emotional chaos, Takaarrath's lanky remark jerked me back into the here and now: "Feelings are no good. They only obscure perception to the essential!"

I changed the subject. "What will you do in my absence?"

I sat down, or rather, I lay down in one of the couches that were all over the place and tried to ease my inner tension a bit. Takaarrath took a few steps toward the window wall and his gaze roamed over the city, just as I had just a few minutes ago.

"I'm trying to find out more about my past, and I think GLEESITT can help me with that. Also, I'm going to take on the classified GENXpl thing sometime. I think that's in your interest too!"

Classified GENXpl, I remembered again. My gene pool was classified as secret.

I'm sure that had something to do with the fact that a certain percentage of my genes had Neensziss hereditary traits.

"I had forgotten all about that oddity. Maybe I'll be able to shed some light on this sooner than you can. Something must have happened in the past that caused a mixing of my genes with alien genetic traits. I will have no choice but to contact your people. Can't you give me some more advice on that? How do I behave best there? Are there any rules to follow? Takaarrath, now say something already and don't get all the worms pulled out of your nose one by one!"

"That's not so easy to say. Your behavior may have repercussions for the future; you may even have been the catalyst for my people no longer being present in this solar system today. I think the less judgmental you are, the more success you will have."

Success at what? I really just want to recover my own past life, as strange as that sounds."

"I can well understand that, after all, it happens to me in a similar way. But it won't be easy to find the right path in the confusion of the impending apocalypse. I can unfortunately contribute little to prepare you better for it. However, there is one thing that may make it easier to avert impending disaster from you."

Takaarrath had been standing with his back to me the whole time. Now he turned around. He suddenly held a small, golden ball in his hand.

It was no bigger than one of the typical berry fruits I had often eaten at Majenna.

It was about an inch in diameter, and it was literally lost between Takaarrath's clawed fingers. He held his hand out to me as he slowly approached.

"What is this?"

Curious, I rose from the couch.

"This is a PERMIT!"

That's all he said at first. I guess he thought I would know what this was.

"The sphere has the imprint of a Grand Master of the pod and is personally assigned to me. I have telepathically conditioned it. It will serve as proof to you that you are acting in the spirit and responsibility of our people. No Neensziss will doubt this."

I gazed in fascination at the small, gold-glowing orb that lay quite still and inconspicuous in the palm of his hand.

"What do you mean by 'conditioned'?"

"Stretch out your hand, palm up, and you'll see."

I looked at him a little thoughtfully for a moment but trusted his integrity.

The little sphere rose abruptly and, with no apparent help from Takaarrath, floated toward my palm, where it then settled, as it had before with him.

I felt absolutely no touch, and that was strange enough.

"The Permit cannot be attacked or controlled by anyone other than the wearer. It is also invisible to non-Neensziss, and thus unassailable."

I didn't take my eyes off the sphere in my palm.

"What is it made of?"

"Of stardust, what else!"

I looked up. Stardust was what the Neensziss called the highly complex nanites and nanobots that served as the basic building blocks of their entire infrastructure, including their starships. That much I had already clearly figured out.

"You can see them, and you can grasp them, that should be a clear and unfalsifiable sign to any member of my people that you are working in the interest of the Neensziss. Nothing more is necessary."

His eyeballs abruptly began to enlarge and bulge out a bit more than they already did in their normal state. Startled, I followed his gaze.

The golden ball in my palm began to change spontaneously.

"That can't be. Only I possess the status of a Grandmaster," I heard his thoughts, then the sphere literally exploded into thousands of gold radiant fragments.

These began to swirl and envelop my body like a typhoon.

"I need you to concentrate. Contact SITT and calm them down!"

Takaarrath's thoughts directed at me irritated me only briefly, then I understood.

The permit had the proper name SITT. I concentrated on the spherical form and telepathically radiated the wish for the fragments to reunite. In a split second, the golden sphere was back in my hand, as if nothing had happened at all.

"SITT is aligned and programmed to my genetic makeup. I don't understand how you can also initiate its full function. But that makes it even more certain. You will have no problems in the past in this regard."

The time capsule

The holographic body of TALAH, the guardian of the Star Walk, appeared as if by magic.