The Deadliest Haunted Castle (14 page)

Part II

Beyond the
Universe

Chapter 1

The Mind-Bending Black
Hole

A bright explosion of radiance exploded out
stunning Kruger as he came to. An immense whirlpool of shifting
outlines of globes magically shifted by, and he studied it for a
long time and realized that he had no body or proper presence, and
was some form of force formation, and he was swirling out into a
vortex of reshaping energy patterns that replaced reality, in a
surreal splendor of transforming elements and that the mind-bending
display of displacements were altering to something that he could
not recognize.

Why he was there mesmerized him! Was he even
classified as being alive?

He gave a vague gasp as reality magically
spun around him in different patterns while he wondered how worse
the situation could become. He could be trapped there for all
eternity!

So when he saw a white blur in a
miniature central region of darkness emerge ahead, as he swirled
around, he grew interested, and he started to recognize more and
more detail as it grew, and shifted he into it, and within its
depths he saw magnificent distant stars, within a haze, blending
into his surrounding brilliant
colors.

Spectacular white beams exploded out, and
stars shot to him, and he realized the tremendous speed that he was
traveling at.

Space was expanding all across his front,
and he floated into it.

Gradually he felt feelings and saw a
transparent view of his body emerge as it transformed and became
solid again, and he saw the others appear as ghost images, in the
swirling brightness.

The voyager appeared and grew solid about
him in stages, as it entered space and time, and magnificent bright
white and golden lights filled his entire vision everywhere, as if
he were floating into a form of cartoon universe.

The stars became dazzling, which he could
not recognize! Their density filled space everywhere, and he was
staggered that they could even exist in their state, without being
pulled together into an immense explosion.

He exploded with excitement as he looked
back and saw the biggest black hole that he had ever seen
stretching across space, and he wondered why he was being thrown
out of it, and he realized the immense speed that he had been
traveling at.

The size of it looked close to the size of a
small galaxy, and the vision staggered him and stuck in his mind as
he watched it vanish out of view and the spacecraft become solid
around him.

Chapter 2

The
Monster
’
s Death

The
monster/entity had turned mad in the end, especially when it had
attacked the control center of the GX1 spacecraft.

The last
shreds of its plan had been instantly ruined when the scientists at
the other side of the spacecraft had activated a field that had
thrown the whole spacecraft out of space and time, to kill it and
escape with their lives.

It had been
crazy, but it was all that they could do!

It had been
hideous beyond anything anyone had seen, and resembled the devil
itself! Not only had it been an entity/monster, altering from one
form to another again, the G1 explosions had damaged it and its
mind beyond repair, and it continued with only the one goal to kill
every life form aboard, and take down the energy shield around the
whole voyager to give it to the outer entity, and have it to repair
the damage done to it.

Its last
moments had been a chaos of killing and destroying everywhere, to
gain control of the outer energy shield, but it was unable to think
properly and realize how to remove the energy shield, and near the
end had even realized that it was close to death and would not
survive if it never.

Its last
thoughts had been screams of agony, and it watched its existence in
all the dimensions become annihilated.

The outer
entity had monitored what it could, and had detected its madness
with some fascination, as it had never known it!

For a long
time it had been studying everything and trying to find another way
to get the spacecraft!

After careful
examinations of the spacecraft’s outer energy shield it had begun
to realize that around the energy bubble there were small amounts
of weak energy that could be used to attach some of its energy
forms, and it had made a shield of energy made from itself around
the energy shield, which would remain hidden there, so when the
spacecraft left it would travel with it, and when possible, and
they removed the energy screen, it would form into another
entity/life form, capable of far more than the entity/human that it
had put aboard, and it would become a vastly improved version of
it.

Chapter 3

The Mind-Bending
World

For a moment Kruger was staggered as a
dazzling radiance blinded him, and he thought he had been thrown
out of space and time all over again, and he realized that the
space vehicle that he was in had crashed.

The sky outside the front of the vehicle was
a mass of intense light, from immense stars nearby almost covering
the sky there in white and gold, and it was so strange that he was
sure that it was not even in another universe anymore, or was at
the outer limits of the big bang of a universe, at a distant
point.

He switched on a light screen, which shaded
the intense light flare blasting into his brain, which now looked
like the sun on Earth covering his entire front, and he checked the
other two passengers of the vehicle, Major Ripley and Don, which he
could now properly see near him.

Even after traveling beyond space and time
the world that they were exploring was so mind-bending all the crew
were virtually staggered at it all of the time. There was at least
a billion light years of what must be the most compact region of
space possible, and the world had to have the weirdest landscapes
and scan results possible, which was another reason why they were
exploring it.

The world about them was so altered from the
normal the others never said anything and occasionally gave muffled
gasps!

“
So it
has happened again
?
”
Major Ripley moaned, and sniggered, glancing
out at the world through a side window, with his hands shading his
eyes, searching the outer landscape, in wonderment
–
wondering what
they had thrown at him this time. Yet he like new occurrences and
such excitement, and getting out the spacecraft.

“
But I
’
ve not lost any memories of
anything!
”
Kruger stated, checking his memory of everything that he
could.

While Don nodded in agreement, he
replied,
“
I
have not forgotten anything either!
”

The vehicle had crashed again as it had done
on the world in the void, when the alien had wiped away most of
their memories of the people in the vehicles to cover it being
there, to get aboard GX1 spacecraft, but this time it was
different, and Kruger gasped at the thought of the thing still
being alive, and up to something.

It made him shiver thinking of all the
occurrences that had happened over the past weeks, and wondered
what the consequences of it all would be.

“
The alien may have changed itself and
its tactics, realizing the situation is different
...
”
Major
Ridley announced.

“
Yet if it was aboard, why did it come
out here? And why would it make us crash? And why would it even
risk it
–
as it would know that we would not fall for it again. It is
pointless ...
”

“
It
could have been an accident this time? Perhaps w
e have
hit something?
”

“
But why were we
all
unconscious! That is a rare
occurrence!
”

Kruger felt his head for
bruising
–
which he confirmed never existed ...

“
I do not recall us actually hitting
something,
”
Major Ripley finally announced, after some thought, looking
about outside, and below the vehicle.
“
Look! We
’
ve only skidded to a standstill into
a bog of yellow crawling slime
–
and the vehicle has stopped itself
automatically
! Kruger!
You
’
re the
scientist here! You work it out for us!
”

“
Perhaps
t
his time it was gas ...?
”

“
As I
have told you before
there
’
s none in this model! And if this
gas exists, it has no smell, and must be concealed somewhere! And
I
’
m sure it
would be of interest to the military
..
. And for them to investigate why
it was used ...
”

“
There could be some gas in the
atmosphere outside, and we may be taking in the outer atmosphere
...?
”

Major Ripley glanced through all the
shuttles instruments, and replied,
“If I can remember rightly, the vehicle
automatically takes in the atmosphere, which it has been doing, as
it is perfectly breathable, and that it would have stopped anything
getting in that was unwanted ... And t
here does not
seem to be anything in here, or has entered here
...
”

“
This is another universe! It has a
different framework, and could have different laws of nature ...
Unknown to us ...
”

“
Meaning what? In other words anything
could happen out here now! Perhaps the gas just materialized
here
–
knocked us unconscious
–
and vanished afterwards
...
”

“
We better keep things open
that
’
s all
...
”

Suddenly, Major Riley jumped, with his eyes
jerked wide open, when a human figure shifted out of thick mist
outside, at their side, and he removed his weapon.

“
What is the distance to the nearest
shuttle?
”
Major Ripley whispered, to confirm what he knew.

“
Well, there are hundred vehicles out,
and the nearest has to be miles away ...
”

“
We better contact the others! Check
what is happening!
”

Kruger watched the strange figure move in
close, and bang his large heavy glove hard against the vehicle
window near him, and thought he recognized him for a moment.

The problem of having such a vast spacecraft
and crew, which he had not gotten used to, was there were too many
strangers aboard, and that they were always coming into contact
with people that they never recognized, and he now knew hardly any
of the other people in the vehicles, and going by what he had seen
of Major Ripley and Don that they were the same.

There was nothing strange about the man, who
was wearing a spacesuit without a helmet, and only did two things
differently, which was his silent and strange look and him being
there in the first place, as nobody had wanted to leave the
protection of the vehicles, because of the place they were in and
the hidden dangers.

Kruger wondered if he would make it home
alive, which was incredible, after all the years of helping and
preparing for the great voyage to the final frontiers of the
universe. They must have done just about everything to check that
nothing went wrong, and had proven to them that if anything new was
actually found that there would not be any danger. They believed
that dangers in space had been virtually annihilated, and were now
just small accidents. The dangers of the past were thought to have
been left behind. Even in wars, humans were very rarely ever
killed, and were mainly fought with machines, and mainly robots,
and the people involved hardly ever actually encountered
dangers.

He could not place the stranger and put it
down to memory loss from the encounter with the alien, and the
strange environment of the new universe.

“
I cannot reach
them!
”
Major Ripley shouted.

“
There could be some damage to the
communications ...
”

“
You mean something is blocking
transmissions ...
”

Major Ripley stuck his face against the side
window and studied his face and figure outside, and the man ignored
him, waiting for him to open the door.

Kruger did think he looked familiar and
acted like one of the crew, but so had the alien when it had done a
perfect impersonation of him, as Dan.

“
You
will have to let him in or
something!
”
Don announced.
“
At least talk to him through an opened
window!
”