Steve Alten - Vostok

He nodded, causing three electric-blue beams to ignite on the holographic simulation, yielding a massive white explosion that expelled rings of plasma across the vastness of space .

By the time my eyes adjusted, the third planet from the sun was gone .

Whether to destroy an uninhabited planet in order to save your own might seem like an easy decision for the rebel leaders representing the twelve tribes, but there were complex variables in play. If Berudim was destroyed and Charon spared, the Council would return to enslave the people. As for using the scalar weapon on the Council’s orbiting ships, if fired from Charon the anti-gravity burst could potentially set off the calderas .

Then there was Charon’s decaying magnetosphere. Destroying Berudim only represented a temporary solution, for at some point during the next decade the atmosphere would collapse. At least my plan offered us a chance to begin over in a new world, without being dominated by an oppressive regime .

But some didn’t want to crawl out from the shadow of oppression. They had been servants for so long that the thought of being free actually frightened them. Even if transdimensional travel could be achieved in the coming weeks, there were too many unknown variables for tribal leaders to even consider a mass exodus .

How long would our people have to venture across the cosmic desert before a suitable planet could be found?

What if this new world was ruled by a hostile force far worse than the Council?

Under the Council’s rule the tribes had been housed and fed, trained and employed. Yes, there were inequities derived from power and pain inflicted upon our people, but sometimes the safer option is the devil you know .

While voting arrangements were being organized among the eastern tribes’ outlying communities, Kabir and his biologists were hard at work preparing containers of “primordial soup.” At the same time, rebel forces raided the Space Institute, with teams of engineers assigned to prepare as many drone rockets as possible for launch. Slightly larger than the interior dimensions of my cell, these two-stage capsules were programmed to pierce Berudim’s atmosphere at an angle and velocity that would ensure they would survive the journey until impact, bursting their chemical payloads on Berudim… Or so we hoped .

As Kabir explained it, the success of the mission came down to sheer luck, which relied heavily on a numbers game. Unlike Charon, Berudim’s surface was mostly water. Because the atmosphere obscured our view of any landmasses, we needed to launch as many rockets as possible, spreading them out. Each probe carried a twenty-six-percent probability of impacting land. An ocean burst would dilute the biological soup, rendering it useless .

The good news was that the results of the mission would be known to me immediately. If life evolved on Berudim in the distant future because of our efforts then, theoretically, I should have a new incarnate to communicate with right after the drones’ impact. If we failed, then a void would remain in the universal consciousness .

Seventy-two drone rockets were readied for the mission, with three larger drones and two back-ups armed with scalar weapons .

Now it was up to the people. Would they be ruled by faith or fear, hope or uncertainty? I realized that two worlds’ fates hung in the balance, Charon’s and every species that might potentially existed on Berudim .

Eleven days before the Miketz calderas were predicted to erupt, the twelve tribal leaders cast votes that represented the will of their people. By a count of seven to five, a decision was rendered in favor of destroying Berudim. Though I argued with anyone who would listen, the five drones containing the scalar weapons were launched, beginning a six-day journey to vaporize our approaching neighbor .

A day later the plagues struck, and suddenly no one wanted to stay on Charon .

Scientists theorized that the unpredicted events were caused by a bad combination of seismic activity and the effects of Berudim’s gravitational forces on Charon’s iron and sulfur core, causing it to slow its rotation .

The tribes didn’t care what was causing the upheaval — only that it was happening. First the lakes and streams that provided our drinking water became tainted with red clay. This sent the amphibious wildlife — frogs and other creatures — evacuating the water to invade our homes. Our livestock drank the water and quickly fell sick. Fleas and lice, seeking new hosts, targeted our people, inflicting their skin with boils and rashes .

On the second day a small caldera erupted in the eastern province. Darkness covered our planet as the ash cloud spread across the atmosphere, the poor air quality causing severe breathing problems among our youngest children as well as the elderly .

By the morning of the third day a new vote was taken among the tribes. It was decided that my option would take precedence over the scalar weapons, granting me one day after the drones’ impact to make contact with a being from our future. If I failed to receive instructions regarding a zero-point energy system, then Berudim would be destroyed .

Midday arrived with a worsening darkness, and seventy-two rockets launched from antiquated launch silos. Each drone carried a sphere-shaped titanium probe filled with containers of chemicals that represented the primordial building blocks of Charonian life .

Two rockets exploded in the clogged atmosphere. A third struck a Council ship orbiting Charon and was destroyed .

Two more vessels veered off course .

Six days later the remaining sixty-seven rockets jettisoned their payloads into the Berudim atmosphere and abruptly disappeared off our sensory screens .

Zaphenath Paneah escorted me across the paved crater floor to a vessel so immense that it rivaled the Council Assembly Hall. Saucer-shaped with a triangular mast, this particular ship had been assigned to my tribe, assuming I could turn the useless disk of polished metal into an anti-gravitational device able to travel the cosmos beyond the speed of light .

The rebel leader prompted an entrance that led into the bowels of the ship. “The central chamber is located directly over the propulsion system. It has been prepared as you requested. We’ve cleared the crater of all personnel; it’s just your thoughts and whoever or whatever is listening. Good luck, Avi Socha.”

I nodded and entered the transport .

The chamber was circular, located just above the ship’s gravitational well and massive electrogravitic generator rings. Surrounded by darkness, I situated myself before the glow of a crimson candle. Closing my eyes, I began reciting the forty-two-word mantra that dated back to the time of creation, its energy helping me to access the universal consciousness .

“ANA BEKOACH… GEDULAT YEMINECHA… TATIR ZERURA … ”

In my mind’s eye my consciousness was moving through the void, passing over a dark sea .

“KABEL RINAT… AMECHA SAGVENU… TAHARENU NORA … ”

The sea moved inland, becoming a twisting river that separated a rift valley .

“NA GIBOR… DORSHEY YICHUDCHA… KEBAVAT SHOMREM … ”

Snow-covered mountains rose along either bank as the river emptied into a vast lake, its waters dark and forboding .