3035AD - 986TGT(Targum Time)

Level-Zero rehabilitation, Space Mining Cruiser

Orbiting an original planet of the Targum galaxy TG7

Ezra had spent nearly a thousand years as the governor of Targum. On Earth all those years ago he had studied humans. Being half-human himself didn't necessarily give him a heads-up. The inhabitants of Targum were not human. They were a wild mash-up of anything he and his brother Seth could imagine. They had decided to use the human souls captured on Earth in a dominant species they named The Creatives. They would have great intuition and be peaceful, and kind. Above all, they would control their own destiny without being manipulated into false religious beliefs or suffering from personal greed. It was proving to be a little more complicated than they both had previously thought.

They had together created nine planets in the universe and the tenth was on the drawing board. He let Seth and his collection of high achievers make the decisions on AG110. He was more concerned with rehabilitating the more unruly ones.

His ship was guided by Blue. The space swallow had agreed to help the brothers with their creation of Targum. His kind was spread throughout the vast expanse of space and he was in constant telepathic communication with his flight. Every ten years or so he would search out his flight in the great murmuration. For now, he was happy to carry the Cruiser L-Zero and listen to Ezra tell tales of Earth.

Ezra sat in the lounge of the L-Zero. His focus was the current inmates. The inmates, as he called them were nothing special to look at. They were a diverse collection of different forms of creative. Male, Female, dark-skinned, light-skinned, red, green, blue, yellow. What was most important was the souls within. The inmates of the L-Zero were classed as just that, level zero. Or as Seth had regretfully named them 'The scum of the Earth'.

Ezra tried not to think of them as bad. They suffered from various personality disorders that was all. The brothers had not planned on this when they took a million or so souls from Earth. They were just a random selection. Well, now it was up to him to rehabilitate them and pass them back through the transition.

Like a shepherd with his flock, he watched them. His currently green eyes peering surreptitiously from one to the other, picking out traits that would give him a clue to how to unravel their complex neurological imbalances. To fail in this task meant their total exile. They would be discarded souls once more. Left to drift off to another universe. Abandoned by their own kind. Maybe this would be a kinder fate but Ezra believed in diversity. No one deserved to be abandoned.

Struggling with his seemingly impossible task he rose from the comfortable sofa, left the inmates to their one-sided conversations. Walking briskly out of the lounge he turned himself back into a recognisable semblance of himself, bulky, blonde, almost white skin. Tall and strong, he morphed himself out of the inmate issue jumpsuit and into a nice pair of slacks and a dark blue tank top. With a second thought, he gave himself a small goatee beard in homage to his ancient friend Freud. He identified more with the psychiatrist than ever these days.

One to one interviews were always more productive. He had learnt how to digitise brainwaves long ago. It was the building and redirecting that he found more difficult. Some could be redirected by placing the subject in different situations. Some could be rebuilt by intensive nurturing. He didn't do nurturing on the L-Zero as it was best done in a family environment on a planet, so here he was looking at redirection. His most successful outcomes came with teamwork. Most of these individuals were too individual. Selfish. So getting them to work for a greater good. The good of others was a start. Then when he was happy with the brainwaves, they would go through transition again. Then on to a nurturing family environment from infancy and into adulthood. It was a great theory. It was very disappointing that most of these individuals on the L-Zero were repeat inmates. His next interview was with Deller. Deller was on his fifth stretch. This would be his last. One way or another Deller would not visit L-Zero again.

***

Deller didn't like the body he was given. Pale olive skin. Big ears. Beak-like nose! This transition had been the worst. It was only in transition that foggy previous memories came back. He couldn't understand why he wasn't just put back to another life. He had been a very successful merchant on AG103 and a master swordsman on AG104. This governor fellow was going to get a piece of his mind. Five times, five bloody times here on this dratted waste of space. He was better than them. He always had been. Redirection interview! WHAT for?

His cabin had been cramped. He was used to better. Room service was a small metallic oval shaped droid thing. He remembered them from his last visit. Dumb as a brush.

This time however it spoke. "The governor will see you now. Follow the red lights." It turned and floated away.

He hated being ordered about.

The interview room was not too far down the corridor. The space cruiser was a lot bigger than he remembered. They seemed to have changed the colour scheme since he was last here. A lifetime ago. He chuckled to himself. He really was clever. He realised he was missing his tattoos. He always had tattoos.

"Ah, Deller. is it okay to call you that? I can call you anything that makes you feel comfortable." The governor sat on a long cushioned bench that would not look out of place in any waiting room. There were two other similar benches nearby. He sat with his hands together at middle finger and thumb, almost in a pose for prayer deller thought.

"Hmpf," said Deller. "Sir. Will be fine."

Deller sat at the furthest bench and looked towards the entrance he had just come through.

Surprisingly the governor didn't flinch. He had hoped his response would unsettle him somehow. Ah well, this jumped up governor or control freak as he had decided he was was no match for his own subtle intelligence.

"You must know that this is your fifth time at level zero?" The governor, he knew was trying to catch his eye. Don't look at him. Don't give him the satisfaction. Keep looking at the door.

"Yes, and it is becoming rather tedious. I would have been much happier spending some time in transition with my loved ones, pondering my achievements. Then going to another life. Why am I here again?" Deller almost looked at the governor but turned back just in time. He mustn't look him in the eye, He mustn't look him in the eye.

The governor was still unruffled "Is there a reason you don't wish to look me in the eye sir? It's not a problem but it does add to the art of conversation. Your body language also suggests that you are uncomfortable in this situation. if you relax we could discuss your 'achievements'. Maybe that would put you at ease?"

Deller moved his knees slightly towards the governor. "Yes, I would like that."

During Dellers diatribe in which he explained emphatically of how great a person he was, he began to 'open up'. His knees now were directed towards the governor and he looked him directly in the eye.

"May I ask you a few questions sir?" The governor had sat hands together and intent all this time.

"Of course. Of course." He was in full flow now and sure that he had impressed his audience.

"How many loved ones were waiting for you in your last transition? The Valley of Bardon can be very soul-enriching can it not?"

Deller looked taken aback. That was a very personal question. He thought about lying he thought about storming off. It was none of this little toads business and his face began to colour. "None." He said.

"Have you never loved your family? Have you never been in love?"

Deller sat looking thoughtful.

The governer opened his hands wide. "And that is one reason that you are here. You are a selfish person who cannot love another. You prefer to inflict pain than to give love. If we cannot change that then I cannot send you back to live on any of the nine worlds. Do you wish to change? Become a better soul?"

The anger inside was close to boiling point he was a fraction away from jumping up and punching this twat right on the nose. Somehow he stopped himself. Somewhere deep inside there was a little voice of self-preservation. He pretended to be consumed with sorrow. "I will change." He lied.

The governor appeared to accept this admission. "Teamwork is the answer. I am sending you and three others to the planet below. You must work together to find and bring back some of the crystals. If you can work together there may be hope for you."

Deller knew it was his last chance. Somehow he had to escape.

Orbiting, like a giant, spiked bird. The cyber-organic melding of a space swallow and The Governor's mining ship 'L Zero' was seen from the planet's surface as an electric, Zaffre-blue smudge.

The four-man crew of the drill-pod were teetering on a ledge halfway up a steep incline on one of the planets numerous and massive crevices.

Indications were that this was the location of a sizeable deposit of lizard crystal. With its properties ranging in effects depending on colour. It was the most valuable substance in the known universe.

The Governor had taken precautions. After all, the mining crew were on their last chance. If they couldn't prove they could be of at least some benefit to life in the galaxy, then they would be obliterated, blotted out, and not allowed to continue to another existence. They had all failed to pass any trials, in any of their previous incarnations. He was giving them just enough rope to hang themselves with this task. They had shown only hostility, hate and evil intent up till now. The Governor had the power to ensure that one wrong move and they would cease to be.

"Must be green, must be green" Deller muttered to himself.

They knew he had some plan. Kane, Beko and Steff could care less. They had given up. Their world had shrunk, and the only enjoyment left to them, in the grasp of the governor was to squash insects and torture small, mammals. It led to a bleak outlook for them and they guessed their time would soon be up. Maybe if Deller's plan worked, they could move up to creating more chaos and pain, but that was a dying hope.

All four had spread out into a large fissure. Remaining attached to the drill-pod by four, flexible, wire woven lines.

The planet was inhabited by small insect-eating lizards that lived in the porous volcanic rocks.

Kane found the lizard eggs first.

"Over here, we got it!" They gathered around the group of four yellowish-green speckled eggs. Kane picked up each egg and threw them at the side of the fissure. "Don't need that, don't need that, don't need that, don't need that." Steff and Beko chuckled at the mindless display.

The eggs had been laid in gravel with larger rocks towards the outside of the nest.

Deller didn't chuckle with the others. He was more intent at checking out the formation of the fissure they were in and held his breath as Kane rummaged in the gravel beneath the nest.

"There! We got some." Each of the eggs had over time produced a tiny crystal beneath it. Kane picked up the small gems to show the others. Deller let out a gasp. They were green.

Steff reached for her com.

"Don't." Deller stood to face her.

"What? We got to report to The Governor." Steff looked confused.

"I have a better idea. You with me or not?" Deller raised a rock in his right hand.

"But if we don't that's the end of us...He will finish us now. No, I am not with you. I want out of here."

The rock came crashing down on Steffs' skull with a loud crack.

Without a second thought, Deller looked at the other two.

"Well? You two in or out?" They both nodded looking curiously at the body of Steff.

"Right both of you get into the drill pod. We have very little time to get out of here. Do as I say and we may have a small chance."

Deller took the crystals from Kane and put them carefully into his belt pouch. He ushered both of them into the craft and collected a small detonator with a long fuse. The kind they used to crack boulders. He tapped the end of the fuse on a rock, and it started to fizzle. He went to the back of the crevice and threw the detonator as far into the crack as he could.

Then he ran. Scrambling towards the drill pod, stumbling on his way but his black eyes were full of determination. It was not long before he was in the cockpit of the craft. Looking behind him, he ordered the others to swallow one crystal each.

"But we don't know what these crystals will do to us! Even the Governor is still researching them. They could kill us. Painfully?" That was the longest sentence Beko had ever put together thought Deller. He sure picks his moments.

"Look. There is no time to argue. Just swallow and strap in. I have some knowledge of these crystals. We're dead anyway. Just do it."

The drill pod lifted slowly. Too slowly for Deller but its thrusters blew into the crevice and dislodged Steff's dead body. It fell down the side of the ravine.

Deller popped two crystals into his mouth, pulled back the joystick and waited for the momentum drive to kick in. He was counting on this bucket to lift him clear of the atmosphere and away from L-Zero and the confines of The Governor.

Three things then happened at once.

There was a flash of light from the crevice, the small craft leapt forward at a phenomenal rate, and the pod and his two remaining crew-mates seemed to disappear. He could still see the joystick in his hand, part of the seat he was sitting on and the floor of the drill-pod. It was like sitting in a bubble. Everything outside that bubble was gone. The combined bubbles of all three of them had rendered the drill pod completely invisible from any significant distance away.

Hidden from the cameras of L-Zero it would now be impossible to tell that the craft had escaped the thunderous avalanche that now consumed the place they had found the crystals.

Thrusting at half the speed of light, Deller manoeuvred through the alien canyon. He knew he was heading away from the blue space swallow and the L-Zero and would soon be clear.

As soon as he felt he was out of range, he headed for the atmosphere. Kane and Beko could be heard snivelling and gasping from behind him. The sensation was strange as if he was flying on a joystick but without the expected rush of the wind in his maniacal face.

Could this pod break the atmosphere of the planet? He knew luck would be on his side but just how much luck could one green crystal bring? Well, there were three of them maybe this tripled the luck? He hoped so.

The pod was warming up. Sweat trickled down his grimacing face and dripped onto his miner's shoes. Thank the stars for that little bit of floor. Complaints were coming from the other two, but he just ignored them. Pulling back on the throttle the once invisible nose of the pod appeared as a line of red-hot sparks. Then white-hot. The shuttle slowed with the pressure of breaking through then like the birth of a sea mammal it popped into space. The nose turned back to red and then invisible again.

He gave a whoop. He was still alive and the pod intact.

*****

Ezra was in his study. The walls were studded green leather, and he preferred to be surrounded by books and manuscripts rather than computers. His large mahogany desk held many artefacts from many different times and worlds. In the centre stood an art nouveau nude figure of a dancer twirling a ribbon. He was reading a book by Asimov.

He was disturbed by a screen appearing in the middle of his desk. The ship wanted to speak with him.

"Okay Blue, go on." He said in a calm and polite voice.

"It looks as if the miners down there are in some difficulty. There has been an avalanche. We can only detect one body. The body seems to be in a poor state."

"Oh damn, it was probably going to end badly for them anyway. Could you send down another team to recover the bodies, they must be deep if you can't detect them?"

"Yes very unusual. Must be very deep." Blue sounded thoughtful.

*****

Deller was becoming frantic. The effects of the crystals had worn off the other two, but his double dose was still making him invisible. Kane and Beko had not said a word. Their ordeal had left them speechless. The drill pod was still supporting life, but Deller had a feeling that when his crystal ran out so would his luck.

The nearest trade route was weeks away. Deller had headed towards the centre of the universe rather than head outward to try and hide. His best bet was to find the trade route and lie quietly on some quiet backwater planet. The problem was food and water. The pod could supply them for about a week, that's all.

Gazing at the stars Deller found, even more, hatred for the races of the universe. He was going to live through this little hiccup. No one would be safe when he set foot on a planet again.

As if to answer his call, a worm-loop appeared right in front of him. As the force of it sucked him in, he smiled in relief.