THE BOOK KEEPERS
Book 2: The secret
PART 1
Johnny Halvard cursed under his breath. He had been asking nearby planets if they knew anything about the “Elders” and the rest of the story. All they knew is that one day, 20 scientists had discovered eternal life, and another secret they dared not reveal. Then they left, and they were never seen again. Johnny had also been given a book about an empire that stretched through 5 galaxies; the Perephis, Noma, Detro-Haban, Xeio, and Zector-1. 37 other galaxies were ruled by different warlords that were constantly in war. This grandiose empire called itself Neocreon.
He also heard that they were in the galaxy “Zector-14”, and 687 more galaxies laid out of the Empire’s reach, and constantly attacked the empire, weakening by every year. The reason he was cursing, was, that he had found no answers to why the Guardians had founded Veldor and hidden it in the midst of secrets.
Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door. “Dad?” He sighed. It was Cassie. He had 4 children; Cassie, a girl, Fernando, a boy, Arthur, another boy, and Francesca, an Ika: he had adopted the alien 4 months ago (Ikas were aliens that came from the galaxy Ika). She (he called the Ika a girl: there were no genders, so they reproduced once at a certain age) had telepathic powers, so was able to know what one was thinking, but in reverse, she couldn’t lie, except when writing.
Cassie came in tears. “Fernando left without telling me, and… and…” Johnny stood up. He grabbed a metal object on the wall. “I’ll go find him. Leave. I’ll be back in a few hours.” And with that, he pressed a big red button on the object, and teleported away.
Fernando sat with Devers, his cousin, in front of the mental controller of the ship Shadow Stealer, or S.S. “Are you sure your dad wouldn’t make a big fuss about you leaving?” Devers asked, with a fearful look on his face. “I don’t care, Devers. And look, if you want to leave, leave. There’s a ship waiting for you at this precise moment. And who cares; I’d rather find the secret of Veldor and get grounded, than sit there and do nothing. We’re going to the Neocreon Empire now.” He answered angrily. They were heading for Neocreon, and that was it.
Devers walked out to his cabin. “Fine, I’ll stay. But I’m warning you: If there is ANY problem, I’ll be gone before you even think about me.” And with that, he slammed the door, and 3 seconds later, Devers ran out of the door, screaming. “The cabin! A whole WALL is getting ripped off!” Suddenly, an alarm sounded and Shao Tali, their personal guard and tech came in the room screaming. “We’re under attack! A spaceship with the universal galaxo-subiano sign, carrying the name Neocreon!” Then he fell, as a man with a smoking nuclear laser-gun walked out of Dever’s cabin.
“Well, hello there! Looks like we’ve got a good ransom. The son of the Emperor of Veldor, alone with a maniac friend and one guard! Well then, you will be kind enough to follow me, or else…” his guards spoke for him. They walked in, guns pointed at Fernando like if he was a space creature.
They walked in Dever’s room, and surprisingly, the whole cabin had been ripped off and replaced with an imperial ship from Neocreon, with men wearing ripped clothes from the old Shakinan empire. At the precise moment Fernando saw their uniform, he gasped. “The Shakinan empire! They were blasted out of space 350 years ago by the first Neocreonians!” Devers blushed. He had never payed attention to Galactic History lessons, and had no clue about Shakinans.
Suddenly, all the guards snapped their feet into attention.
A humongous glass container with blue liquid and green slime was rolled in the room, with cables behind it attaching to the back of a man. The man was sitting in a wheelchair. “Creepy…” Devers shivered.
The man swirled around, and his face was half robot, and he wore a leather black jacket, secured with straps. He talked with a metallic voice: “Welcome to what’s left of the Shakinan empire, fools. We stole this spaceship from the the Neocreon empire, and we’re planning to get a ransom of 1,000,000 credits because of your FOOLISHNESS! We have been following your trace for hours, and your stupid Tech with his stupid primitive instruments couldn’t find that out until WE found YOU! And now, you will be excused, for we are leaving in hyperspace because your dad and his primitive fleet is coming to find you. And he’ll DIE! He he he!” With that, he moved out of the room, followed with his liquid.
PART 2
“Get ready for Hyperspace! The Neocreon ship with my SON is escaping!” Johnny screamed with frustration. They had been chasing the kidnappers for hours through Hyperspace and parallel dimensions. They were heading for the Nirvana falls, a place where time and space had no meaning. If they got in, it would be impossible to catch them, for the Veldorian ships weren’t powerful enough to go through. But why the NIRVANA FALLS? Couldn’t they just go in their epic EMPIRE? He hated the Neocreonians! He thumped his fist on his seat and stood up. “Faster! Can’t the damn pilot make this piece of space dump go any faster?” He shouted. Suddenly, a young man with an intelligent look stepped up and replied: “The 2-pilot emergency ship could go faster than the Neocreonian ship, sir!” Johnny smiled. “Thank you. PREPARE THE EMERGENCY SHIP! I’LL GO OUT THERE AND GET MY SON BACK!” Then, he added: “And, who wants to go with me?”
He waited. Silence. Finally, a shadow stepped forward. I will come. Everybody gasped. “A Shapeshifter!”
Johnny shushed them. “He is a living creature, and has a soul. He can come, but first, I will test him in the machine.”
What isss thissss mysssteriousss machhhine? The shape shifter hissed. Johnny replied: “Just to see if you’re loyal.” A man walked pass, and eyed Johnny suspiciously. “You were talking to no one…” Johnny started: “Well, you see, I was talking to a sha-” The Shapeshifter was gone. He turned around, and the man was gone, leaving way to the shapeshifter. hahahaha! Human creature isssss sssstupid! Ssssika became man! (By the way, Sika is the shapeshifter). “Stop that immediately, and never do it again.” Johnny said quietly, holding back his anger. Human creature not having a sssenssse of humour? Johnny sighed. “let’s go.”
They walked through a hall, and arrived in a room. He told the shapeshifter to sit down on a metal seat, surrounded with a big machine.
The Shapeshifter sat uncomfortably in the chair, and for a while, Johnny thought he could see a doubt of scaredom in the darkness of the Shapeshifter’s face.
Shapeshifters are people who get forgotten from all memory, and become shadows with the ability to become anything their size. They do not have any memory of who or what they were, and adopt a soul as they grow to full strength. Many of them die, either from people stealing their power, either by the weapon known as a “Shadowsucker”, making the Shapeshifter lose his soul and become dust. If they grow to full strength, they have more power. We are not completely sure, for no Shapeshifter has ever grown to full strength.
People become shapeshifters when erased out of time. Example: they go back to the pass, and change events purposefully or by accident, making them get erased out of time by the guardian of time, Woolooga, 5th of his name. Encyclopedia Neocreon
Fernando and Devers were locked up in a room, tied up with electrical chains, that would send a miniature electricity shock if you struggled. But at least, he had a plan.
“Guard!” He shouted. A guard came in the room, gun up. “What do you want?!” “Come closer.” Fernando whispered. “Why?” the guard charged his gun with a mini-nuclear bullet, so small it could only make you faint.
‘So they want me alive’, Fernando thought. He continued: “I just want to tell you something secret, that I don’t want my friend Devers to hear.” He said these words loudly, so it caught the attention of Devers. “Fine.” The guard approached, and Fernando spit a mini-bomb in his ear. Without any noise, the guard’s head crackled slowly, and fell apart. He was dead.
“Where were you hiding it? They checked all our clothes, and even our mouth!” Devers demanded. “You don’t want to know.” Was Fernando’s only answer. He grabbed the guard’s electronic key, tossed it in the air with his feet, grabbed it in his right hand, unlocked his chains, and then Dever’s.
Silently, they crept out of the room. “Well, well! What do we have here?” The man who had captured them walked up to them and said: “Run. There is no escape, so it’s just for fun. I’ll give you… a 1 minute head start. GO!” Devers and Fernando took off.
The machine buzzed, and a signal appeared on the screen. Johnny smiled. “Good. You can come.” The shapeshifter stood up, and spoke. “I have a deal. I come, and you ssset me free from my body, and turn me back into human creatttture.” Johnny thought, then shook hands with the shapeshifter.
They stepped into a pod that brought them to the 2-pilot emergency ship. Johnny stepped on a pedal, the doors slid together, and he took of to the Neocreonian ship.
“Hurry up!” Fernando shouted to Devers, who was trailing behind. All guards had been ordered to not interfere with Fernando and Dever’s chase, so they ran along empty halls.
Fernando stopped suddenly, and opened a door. Inside, there was a big panel with an international mental keyboard, where you were supposed to attach an electronic mental hat, and you could type in your mind. “I guess it’s probably the control room”, Devers said. “It requires a password. Do you have that hacking chip I gave you last year?” Fernando checked his pockets, and then remembered: “They took it when checking for any weapons.” Devers sat down, and thinked, while Fernando closed the door. As he closed it, he had an idea.
He opened a closet that was on the other side of the room, and closed it after 5 seconds. He kept on looking, until he found what he needed. A fully charged nuclear blaster, and a recorder.
Johnny and Sika quickly caught up with the Neocreonian ship, and planted the spikes of the emergency ship in the other one. The spikes closed to become a hall, that led to the Neocreonian ship. Quietly, Johnny used his oldest gadget, the electro-key, and the wall opened up, leaving place to an empty hall.
Johnny and the shapeshifter took their weapons, two silent chemical blasters, because they knew Neocreon soldiers wore anti-nuclear armor. Suddenly, they heard the footsteps of two men running, coming in a room, and closing the door.
2 minutes later, a louder footstep of a man came, as he walked near the door. He swirled around. He had heard something, and it definitely sounded like the two brats he was chasing. It came from the room in front of him. He opened the door.
Fernando and Devers watched quietly as the man walked in the other room, because he had heard the noise of the recording they had made 30 seconds before, and had put in the other room.
They rushed out, and Fernando hit the man with the back of his Nuclear blaster, and dragged him across back in their room, and shut the door close.
5 seconds later, they heard a knock at the door, and through the camera, Devers gasped. “Fernando, it’s your father and… a shapeshifter!”
Johnny rushed in, followed by the shapeshifter, and grabbed Devers and Fernando. “We’ve got to get out of here!” Right after, an alarm sounded, and the sound of hundreds of foot soldiers on both sides, still far away, echoed through the halls. They all ran, and arrived at the emergency ship. They went in, and started closing the hall that led to the Neocreonian ship, but it was too late. 10 soldiers had stepped in the hall.
The shapeshifter had shifted into the old emperor of the old Shakinan empire, and was walking towards the soldiers, shouting: “I am alive! Save these men, for they saved me!” The soldiers stared at each other, confused, leaving time for the hall to close on them, and they were crushed to death, drifting through the infinite of space.
A electro bolt was shot from the Neocreonian ship, towards the emergency one. The emergency ship crew had just enough time to put on space suits, when it fell apart, leaving the shapeshifter, Devers, Fernando and Johnny in the darkness of Zector 14.
The shapeshifter suggested: “We could use blassssters to big sssship, advanccccing with explossssions?” “That’s fine to me”, were Fernando and Johnny’s immediate response. Devers thought about it, then opened his mouth: “O…” and his body exploded. The ship had zapped him.
10 Tiberian minutes later, (they were in the Tiberius solar system) they reached the Veldorian ship. It was stopped, all war machines out, buzzing and beeping. Of course, you couldn’t hear it in space. The airlock opened at the sight of Johnny, Fernando and the Shapeshifter nearing the ship. They climbed in, and without regret, for they were out of ammunition. But they were safe. Without Devers.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?!” shouted Johnny at Fernando once inside. “It cost you the life of a man, and a good one, even though he is certainly dumb and scared.” “Dad, I wanted to find out who were the Elders! You were sitting around in your office or in some old crappy library, barely even trying to find out. I had to do the job!” shouted Fernando back. “Fine. But now, we have a new problem. The Neocreo-” “Shakinan,” corrected Fernando. “Yeah, whatever, have entered in- wait. The Shakinan empire?! They were destroyed long ago!” Fernando smiled: “Or were they?”
The shapeshifter walked in. “Indeed. knew it wasssn’t the Neocreonian empire when I chhhhanged in thhhheir leader. Thhheir uniform. Gray. Not blue.” Johnny sighed. “Man, I’m becoming too old for this type of problems. I’ll have to tell the Neocreonian empire about the Shakinan, then tell Woolooga about them going in the Nirvana falls. They could mess up all of history!” Finally, he thought, I have to set the shapeshifter free from his body, and make him a man. But I’ll do it, if I have to die doing so!