Glassidor

Glassidor is the story of a mothers love, duty, and devotion, in her protection of Earths children. Dee, a space nomad, arrives on this blue planet in 1620 AD to recover a lost artifact sent there by her ancestors 74 million years earlier. Dees mission proves easier said than done and is complicated by a galactic war that is raging light-years away. The threat is mounting, and if this war is lost, a whole lot will change, and humans everywhere will face annihilation. The war between humankind and the sinister Muss will eventually turn up on Earth in the prophecy of Armageddon, but if Dee, with guidance from her creator, can accomplish her mission and find the relic, she will be the only woman in this galaxy that might be able to prevent the inevitable. Although this novel is pure science fiction, it will draw the reader into parallels of recent world history and offers interesting snippets for the folklorists among us.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

GlassidorBy Lewis A. WalmsleyAuthorHouseCopyright © 2010 Lewis A. WalmsleyAll right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-7003-8ContentsForeword....................................................ixAcknowledgements............................................xiThe Glassic Discovery.......................................1The Very Old Bahamian Lady..................................8Blue Planet History.........................................14The Visitor.................................................23The Other Monsters..........................................29The Bencaveon Action........................................36A Giant Cover-Up............................................40Science Fiction.............................................53The Chinese Threat..........................................60Seeking Help................................................67Telling All.................................................76The Chameleons..............................................81The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Lizards.....................85Back Into Space.............................................92The First Attack............................................103Neutralization..............................................116Assassins...................................................120Processing the Prisoners....................................128Vice Presidential Action....................................134The Final Count.............................................141Preparations for A-Day......................................147Protecting the Data.........................................151These Ones We Can All See...................................160About The Author............................................171Chapter One The Glassic Discovery The crippled starship had sustained heavy damage but despite all odds had arrived at its destination. The blue planet lay just four hundred miles below as the dying vessel prepared its very last fixed orbit. The year was 1620 AD. "Well, what now?" asked Ed. "We continue on," she replied. "And what should we do about the war, Mother?" "What does it matter? It is eleven light-years away. Our best bet is to do what we came to do. Just complete our mission and fulfill our oaths, Ed. Nothing's changed. We are still Glassidors!" "There is a spectrum of Glassic somewhere down there, enough to destroy this whole galactic spiral. We were sent here to get it back before the Muss get their scaly hands on it." "Do they know it's here?" "Of course they do. Go prepare the hopper. Take lots of provisions. We don't know how long we will be down, and there is no help left alive for us up here." "Poor sods. I wonder what it feels like to die like that," Ed said, pointing to the rear section of the starship with his eyes still tearing. "They say a vacuum decompression death makes you feel lightheaded first, then your eyes, ears, and nose start to bleed, then you scream with the pain as your body inflates, and you explode. It's quick and very messy, and that is what we saw, wasn't it?" barked Dee, the mission commander. "Dee, you always have a way with words, Mother." "I am not your mother! Come on, let's move!" In the past days, they had lost their comrades, their friends of some years, their team. All were dead. They were alone now, the only two survivors. Jittery and scared, they were running, fleeing from the satanic Muss. The pair, a male and a female, prepared to abandon ship. They were Dumarians, from across the galaxy, human in form and appearance. A carbon-based species, they reluctantly shared this universe with the Muss, an aggressive and sinister genus that was rapidly evolving and populating the galaxy. The mission commander and a first lieutenant were all that were left of the starship's sixty-member recovery team that the Glassic Corporation had sent. Their undertaking had been to find and recover an ancient probe that was lost here 74 million years earlier. Recently, after a long journey, and as they were leaving the relative safety of the Dumarian sector, a Muss marauder battle group had launched a surprise attack on them. Two well-placed tachyon beams had quickly disabled their ship's mid and aft sections, and the burst and bloody remains of the asphyxiated crew members now floated in the compartments. The Muss aggressors, as usual, had all perished in the fray, but their weapons had punched two clean holes through the 400-meter diameter of the sleek Dumarian star cruiser. This had caused a disastrous decompression of the ship, but there was no damage to the guidance or propulsion systems. Dee and Ed had been extremely lucky. The forward cabins and pilot section remained intact and pressurized, which allowed the ship to continue and Dee and Ed to survive. Survive they must, as their mission, to deny the Muss access to Glassic, could well protect the last humanoid races from extinction. Across this galaxy, the jihad raged on. Their mission objective, the probe that they sought, was one of six "seeders" that had been deployed here millions of years earlier. Just one had malfunctioned and still contained its prized payload of Glassic. Glassic was the most precious and powerful substance in the known universe. Both scientists and theologians referred to it as "the God Factor" and argued that its total universal mass was equal to that which had been missing from all of their celestial calculations. Whether this was true or false did not matter to the Muss, as they used it indiscriminately whenever they could. The substance was rare and had been the root cause of a continuing war between the Dumarians and the Muss. Both species used Glassic to "seed" planets for protein sources. This substance defied all the laws of physics. Created during the Big Bang, this collection of subatomic particles had melded into plasma like material that floated throughout space. A leftover from the creator's primary thoughts, Glassic resembled the orange globules in a lava lamp. It had incredible properties. Like the element iron, it was magnetic, but it was unaffected by gravity and could pass freely through solid matter. Since the beginning, tiny globules of Glassic had floated endlessly throughout the universe. These minuscule, unused thought particles remained undetected, as if they had been waiting on guard. Glassic was unique. Whenever it touched biological matter, a rapid transformation in that particular life form occurred. The Dumarians, and later the Muss, had harnessed this quality to feed their massive populations. When Glassic touched carbon-based organic life forms, the cell structure of the animal or plant would expand rapidly. As the organism absorbed the Glassic, its growth accelerated as it transformed into a much larger creature. In just seconds, they could twist a Dumarian sand chicken from a two-kilo animal into one of a size that would feed hundreds. Live and fresh protein sources could then be grown, bred, farmed, enhanced with Glassic, then processed and fed to the hungry Damarian populations. The Dumarians had been the first to discover Glassic, with an accidental encounter. Seventy-four million years earlier, a deep-space expedition, heading for the center of the Milky Way to investigate unusual star spot activities, had inadvertently run into "the" globule of Glassic. Just two centimeters in diameter, it had entered the spaceship, passing freely and unobtrusively through the solid matter of the spaceship's hull. Then it conveniently collided with carbon-based biological matter, a crew member, with astonishing results. The dumbfounded man writhed in agony as his body reacted to the Glassic's effect. It had entered his left leg just above his knee. His left foot instantly ripped through his boot as it suddenly and without warning expanded to gigantic proportions. As it coursed through his veins, the activated Glassic quickly started the rest of this remarkable transformation. Within seconds of entering the man's body, it would all be over. In just another few seconds, his friends and shipmates would also be dead. The rush started, and his inquisitive smile turned to shocked grimace as his distorting and flexing body filled the cabin. His legs and arms flailed uncontrollably. His head, now several feet in diameter, drooped from his stretched neck, which waited to be affected by the substance. His mouth gaped, his tongue lolled, and his eyes bulged. His right boot exploded as he slipped into an ecstatic oblivion. His friends fled in disbelief and terror as his gigantic bare legs and feet crashed through the cramped cabin. Unrelenting, this grotesque transformation continued. The chest and torso crammed the inside of the compartment, crushing instrument panels and distorting the ship's bulkheads. Sparks flew and electrical fires burned the flesh, filling the remaining cabin space with a sickly smelling acrid smoke. It burned their eyes and lungs as they choked, hyperventilating in sheer panic. Pressure on the hull increased, and the sounds of popping rivets filled the smoky interior. Stress fractures, creaking, and cracking finally opened to space. The groan of fatigued metal stopped abruptly, and the end came swiftly for the horrified crew as their spacecraft decompressed, blasting apart in two, bursting at its seams with a deafening bang, spilling them and a very large cadaver into the silent darkness. Without a sound, the large naked body, with limbs outstretched, slowly and gracefully spun in weightlessness, streaming plumes of red vapor vented from its orifices as its internal body pressure pressed to equalize in the vacuum of space. Within several minutes of this Glassic touch, a pinkish cloud of human blood, body fat, and body parts jumbled with sparkling ship's debris, all that was left of the pride of the Dumarian space fleet. This, then, was the first human encounter with Glassic, an event that in the coming millennia would dramatically change billions of lives throughout this galaxy. The cabin and flight recorders had transmitted the data, including video of the interior, and the search was on for this mysterious substance. Several centuries of intense research would eventually qualify the Dumarians in efficiently managing their new discovery. The costs were huge, and in the beginning, tragic accidents were common. Thousands of scientists and technicians perished in their attempts to control this substance. Nevertheless, just like their mastery of nuclear technology some 500,000 years earlier, they persisted, and this inquisitive and clever species were soon successful in unraveling the mysteries of Glassic. Their first and most important discovery was that it could not pass through certain elements, specifically gold, titanium, and lead, and that a casing manufactured from a tri-laminate of these elements was an efficient way to safely contain and transport Glassic. This paved the way to their passionate development of this gift from their creator. They rated this substance as being the most dangerous in society and marked it accordingly. Eventually they banned it from all six hundred or so planets and colonies in the Dumarian sector of the Milky Way. Research and the exploitation of Glassic were restricted to the relative safety of outer research planets and later on to the deep-space delivery vehicles, of the Glassidors. A symbol, a warning label, the symbol of the skull and crossbones, was designed, and it adorned all laboratories, all vehicles, equipment, and uniforms. Even the personnel involved in the processes proudly wore two skull and crossbones tattoos on their bodies, one on their right arm, at the shoulder, and one on their left leg, just above the knee. The leg tattoo was symbolic of the first human contact with Glassic. As part of their training, the Glassic Corporation required that all recruits watch the tape of the first event some five hundred years earlier. This horrifying twenty seconds of destruction demonstrated how dangerous Glassic could be if not handled correctly. After viewing the horror, they swore an oath. They then received their tattoos, and for these selected bright minds entering the academy, this was the highlight of their introduction. Induction into the Glassic Corporation meant a life in the stars, a one-way ticket, and the glory of space travel in search of Glassic. For young men and women in the Dumarian race this was a romantic notion, a notion somewhat similar to lesser-developed humans dreaming of traveling across their seas to lands far away in search of gold and riches, privateers all. Glassic and its use to enhance the food supply of the Dumarian populations soon became their single economy. Armies of young and privileged Dumarians trekked the galaxy seeking out the rare Glassic globules, which were then captured, encased, and used to arm their seeders for later deployment in their one-way missions. This was the undertaking of these Glassidors. They were champions. The distances that they traveled were boundless, and measured as one way only. As their journeys continued, they would investigate planets that supported carbon-based life forms, potential food sources for their race. Once a dangerous ground study was complete, and protein sources catalogued, they transmitted the data homeward with a notice of pending deployment. Every planet that they visited was potentially hostile. They were stung, bitten, and chased; hidden predators consumed them, strange allergic reactions disabled them, and many perished violently at the hands of the similarly intelligent, who were merely protecting their territory. Exploration of this creator's mysterious universe, and contact with its evolving species, was only for the courageous Depending on the size of the planet, calculations would dictate how much Glassic they should use. They then released the Glassic seeders from the safety of orbit, and the team continued with their mission. Once delivered to the planet's atmosphere, the Glassic gently dispersed. Quickly spreading evenly throughout the planet's atmospheric gases, it soon engaged the various indigenous species. These seedings were always spectacular events, as whole planets would be radically transformed within days of delivery. Millions of years of God's evolutionary intentions changed violently as these emerging planets and most of their life forms succumbed to this human meddling, and monsters soon roamed where none had existed before. Event recorders would transmit the action back to the Glassic Corporation, which would then send the harvesters. Harvesters were enormous ships, designed for collecting and transporting the food harvests. Several miles in length, they were fully automated machines capable of traveling light-years to bring back the grim reaping. Driven with a single gigantic tachyon thruster they were capable of speeds approaching one-third light speed. Gravity wave devices on the underbelly allowed them to enter orbit around a planet and slowly descend to the surface, where methodical harvesting could begin. These machines could float several hundred feet above the ground and would fire various designs of grappling hooks, spikes, and harpoons into the massive protein sources below. Everything over 100 kilos was taken; the struggling harvested creatures were unceremoniously dragged up into the slaughter holds, where humanoid robots would dispatch them, wrap them, and stack them, ready for the light-years' trip to market. On occasion, the Glassic Corporation used actual seeding footage to advertise the future arrival of a new food. These discoveries they called Newfs. Food wholesalers and distributors would compete for these spoils, and market prices would be driven high. Their economy worked perfectly, and Dumarians soon became gluttons. Their lives were safe and comfortable. Their empire was safe, their food source was assured, and their people were happy. They bred, they populated, and they overwhelmed nature's balance in their given lands. They were no longer the placid hunter-gatherers, because with their harnessing of Glassic, they had become the most threatening and dominant of all the galactic species. To be a Glassidor in this social system was a perilous calling. All of them were lost, and none of them would ever return home. Like worker ants in a colony, for the common good of their species, they all eagerly and without faltering sacrificed a comfortable utopian Dumarian family life in their pursuits of Glassic. Seventy-four million years later (1620 AD) Ed and Dee were the latest in a proud history of Glassidors. The Glassic missions had changed significantly in that Dumarians had finally realized that their seedings had all but destroyed God's evolutionary intentions in the second spiral. This day the Glassic Corporation's goal was recovery and denial. They would try to undo the wrongs that they had inflicted in this galactic sector. They would recover all of the malfunctioned Glassic time bombs that lay spread across the galaxy. They would see to it that rival species would never repeat their mistakes of the millions of years past. Ed was the male, thirty years old. All of his four brothers were Glassidors. They had all departed, having accepted earlier missions. He had not seen or heard from them in years and he never would. His father was an executive in the Glassic Corporation and had pulled all the right strings to get his male family members through the academy. Ed was athletic and well proportioned. He was not too bright by Dumarian standards, but he was a fit and handsome black man, and he had a secret crush on Dee. He knew that nothing could ever come of it because of their oaths. He was happy to be alongside her and wondered what the future held for them now that their mission group had perished. Dee was a beautiful female, the mission commander, twenty-six years old, a black light-skinned mulatto, five feet tall and feisty. A brilliant student, she had excelled in university and her family was very disappointed at her becoming a Glassidor. They thought she could do better in the diplomatic corps. Her father was an ambassador and had always hoped that she would join him in his political ventures. Unlike Ed's father, he had tried to keep her out of the corporation, but his strings broke when he pulled; Dee was simply ideal for the academy and was exactly what they sought in their Glassidor program. She passed enrollment despite her father's fervent objections. (Continues...) Excerpted from Glassidorby Lewis A. Walmsley Copyright © 2010 by Lewis A. Walmsley. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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