The Wars of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (find a book to read .txt) 📕

The fugitives had managed to avoid those tawdry lawsuits that Pindor and the other intellectuals had fallen prey to. Here they lived by their own laws. And it could be said that they lived well. At least for the time being. Of course, though very rarely, they had concerns that something bad might drop on their heads out of the blue. But for now, they were calm.

Gordon Elmbaum was going to a not entirely appropriate place in view of the fact that he intended to enforce his own laws upon them. No that was not going to happen for certain. He just hadn't hit the right spot.

So from three places at once, three groups of adventurers wanted to impose their values on the Unknown Quadrant. The question was who would arrive first.

Time, as we know, is a relative concept. But here, for the first time, the colonists' first-born children could breathe ‘free’ air, which, though fed through compressed air bottles, was much more pleasant than the stifling atmosphere of Zegandaria.

Any attempt to quell the rebellion could have meant the end of this paradise. So fleeting. Created from the one nothing. It was the one place of joy created by the utter timelessness or complete lack of idea of what was happening during that time.

The concept of a trial didn't exist here because the word 'crime' didn't either.

Gordon was still on Sebur Nag, but not for long. Chris Zonrethis had already started with the plans to build their space dominance. That was more than certain. They weren't going to let it fail due to elementary carelessness.

Zonrethis' financial pyramid was built on more than a flat idea. They were going to sell a sort of ‘space indulgence’ to anyone willing and ready to go back to their home planet. They relied on the ignorance of the colonists, who had no idea what was going on elsewhere in the galaxy. But for there to be at least one subliminal moment, there had to be a surprise. For those who won, they had prepared a full pardon.

Naturally one would have just wondered if this wasn't some kind of nonsense, given that they were fine and where they were at the moment, but it wasn't. The planet Zentica 12 54 was extremely small, and that was going to cause overpopulation problems soon enough. The main reason was the fact that very few of the places were habitable.

The Governor was ready to play his part properly, as befitted a man of his rank. Disslan might be capable of fixing all sorts of problems on the shuttles, but problems like these were the sole purview of Gordon Elmbaum.

The Governor was also hiding where he would leave his healing feathers, like an Indian chief unwilling to part with the halo of his glory. He was to be not just a mentor to Zonrethis, but his equal business partner. That was the key to success.

A little later, however, something extremely unforeseen happened.

The authorities of Sebur Nag told them that before they could proceed, they were subject to a thorough background check that would decide whether they should go to jail. Gordon was astonished, but kept his mouth shut anyway. The formalities dragged on for far too long. There was nothing to be done. He and Zonretis were in a situation from which there was no moving.

Fortunately, they were informed that they had found nothing amiss and could continue on their space journey, much to Gordon's extreme relief.

Sebur Nag was in Quadrant 175, which meant that, deducting the relevant subjective time, they could reach the cherished Quadrant 426 after too much longer. More than Gordon would have liked.

He knew that two of the shuttles were intact and could be used to hunt him down, but he had to resign himself. He was counting on his bribes and his innate charm as a political orator to get support in every place he went.

They decided to make a small change in the plan. Instead of jumping from quadrant to quadrant, they could maneuver to confuse and mislead the opponent.

The claim that ‘Warp Drive’ was enough to get away from their pursuers simply wasn't true. But there was something that was definitely relevant. And that was the ability to hide in the right place at the right time.

Gordon knew there was a special area of antimatter. It was well known from physics that matter and antimatter shouldn't exist, as they would destroy each other on contact. Not where Gordon was going. The place, called an antimatter hideout, was a little-known service usually provided to ultra-rich crooks and criminals who needed to avoid the blows of the law. An entire parallel universe made of antimatter. They decided to hide in a special vacuum chamber that could move without coming into contact with this antimatter and disrupting its integrity.

After Sebur, the nags visited the planet Osonia, which was famous for its trade in just such vacuum chambers. Different planets around the galaxy had completely different levels of development, and for the first time Gordon was getting to know its true appearance. It was astounding how little he actually knew. Apparently, he was too limited and selfish a man. And apparently he considered himself master of the universe while ruling some little planet like Zegandaria. So they hadn't even heard of him here!

When they sold him the chamber, they warned him that it wasn't very appropriate for them to stay in it for too long, because its isolation might still succumb. Then their doom was inevitable. But they had to take something else into account as well. They weren't going to be able to go back just like that.

Chris Zonrethis was quite remorseful because they couldn't take the treasures with them.

- 'We'll hide them on Osonia,' Elmbaum spoke simply, 'At least for a while, until they forget about us. But not too long though.

'The Great Elmbaum will be hidden in a most ordinary pot, lest they cook it! What an oxymoron!,' thought Zonrethis jokingly, but he didn't voice his humor, for Gordon might not have understood.

- 'Naturally we'll stay there as long as it takes. That's clear!,' said Zonrethis quite simply. - 'We must do our best and not despair.'

The treasures were transported to one of the many caves of Osonia in order to avoid any potential problems. There were also mercenaries there to guard them. They would return there when they could. If they returned at all.

Gordon took only a small amount of Archanian feathers with him, which he hid in a special compartment of his suit. He made sure Zonrethis didn't see it. That would have brought out his weakness.

^^^

A universe made of antimatter was something poorly understood even by physicists of the future. It wasn't that many brains hadn't studied thousands of formulas to prove its existence, but no one had gone so far as to conduct a research expedition and verify everything in practice. Now Gordon was going to appear in the role of unwitting experimental rat.

He and Zonrethis slipped into the chamber and their assistants sealed it. Then a special launching device took them onto their ship, which would transport it to a certain point from which the launch into the free vacuum of space would take place.

Both feared they might never return, but some reassured them that this was the only possible way out. They were still being chased and had to save their lives.

After the successful launch of the vacuum chamber, which, for an additional cost, was reinforced with special layers of alloy, they began to float through the nothingness of the vacuum of space.

They were wearing Izentia spacesuits, manufactured only on the planet Osonia, for enthusiasts who wished to make long-distance space journeys.

They knew that time in this Antiverse went backwards, and if they stayed long enough, they might even rejuvenate.

Of course, leaving the confines of the current universe was not such a simple and elementary matter, namely, an engine with enough acceleration was needed to bridge the boundary between the two universes. Such an antimatter engine was under development on the planet Osonia, but everyone unanimously agreed that Gordon and Zonrethis were suitable experimental mice. The necessary knowledge was implanted in their brains in negative time. But their bodies had to spend a few weeks in a special simulator, where they could catch up on the years of physical training they had apparently missed.

Reach first space speed, reach second space speed, reach third space speed, they heard in the transmitter.

Elmbaum had worried too much because acceleration was a problem. They had enough initial thrust at launch, but now a technical malfunction could occur.

But everything went smoothly afterwards - textbook. Too many different opinions had been expressed as to their actual survivability. A team of scientists had instructed them to take special notes, as many things could go wrong. Special equipment recorded the results of the flight.

Elmbaum had begun to realize that it wasn't money that would be able to save him, but the knowledge of what to do next. While these cowards were jumping from quadrant to quadrant, which even with subjective time deducted could take hundreds of years, Gordon had chosen the smarter move. Things would fall into place later, or so the Governor hoped.

But somewhere in the plan thus constructed something was definitely limping, and limping badly. They couldn't just stay in the new place. They had limited supplies of food and water. Everything had to be calculated. They were going to stay, however, for a short time. The antimatter engine might fail on their eventual return and then they would be irretrievably lost. And this time, no one would save them.

Passing into the new reality, they sensed something strange. The time flowing back was hard to describe, but there was something else in there somewhere. Their memories slowly began to fade, as if they hadn't lived their previous lives. They had to struggle to remember. It was too many problems that had accumulated over the years, too many unredeemed sins. Why exactly were they going to be ‘cleansed’ now? What had changed after all? No one anywhere had told them that the recovery of memories they were so proud of would not help them in the new place.

Some of the financial machinations he had carried out under Gordon's pressure, cruelly depriving the refinery workers of their wages, flashed through Chris's mind. Another memory also 'stung' him almost in the face, namely the misuse of Kevlarite in the construction of the spaceport. Not to be overlooked were some crooked deals with union leaders that Gordon had bought through his agency. These memories were like so many bright spots bombarding their minds.

Gordon and Zonrethis continued to stay quiet and peaceful in their cell. She kept drifting off to who knew where. But somewhere in there something flickered. The two fixed their eyes on the endless darkness. It wasn't a spaceship. It wasn't asteroid debris or anything, but there was something strange about that light. Then they heard the Voice! It was the real Voice now! Not the one that had been Jacob Wallace's, guiding his sons and Mark's little band of adventurers. This Voice was of a higher order. This was the Universal Voice!

- Gordon had nowhere to hide! The crimes he committed caused great imbalance throughout the universe. Why are you trying to escape your fate? And how far do you think you'll get by doing evil to others!

He and Chris both heard the words clearly. The capsule was deadly quiet.

- 'You are trying to escape human justice. But you can't escape God's!,' the Voice