The Superluminal Man

Phazarus was intrigued by this creature; this Hypernaut as he called himself, from the planet Urth. The scaly, alien super capitalist had never seen a being fly through outer space without a spaceship or even a spacesuit; no more than a flimsy, skin-tight costume. “How is it possible?”, he asked as he manipulated the joy stick which controlled the direction of his levitating chair, lowering it so that he was at eye level with the Hypernaut. “I’m made from synthetic subatomic particle’s called Hyperparticles”, the Hypernaut explained, going through a speech he had given many times to V.I.P’s visiting the Yuri Gagarin centre in Moscow, “I’m a robot of sorts although I resemble the species that created me, human beings, in almost every superficial detail; designed to survive in the frozen vacuum of Space without a spacesuit and to travel at sixty times the speed of light for the purpose of exploring deep space and making contact with intelligent non-human life such as yourself. My creators, Dr Rybnikov and Dr Morgenstern will be so thrilled when they find out that I have discovered a planet containing an intelligent alien species”. “This planet is not my home world”, Phazarus informed him,“I own it or you could say my company, the Phazaron Corporation owns it and its inhabitants are mostly clone slaves or androids produced by my company’’. But then the alien C.E.O, who seemed more interested in the technology that allowed the Hypernaut to travel through space than in interspecies relations, asked, “The science which made you would be of enormous value to my company. Perhaps we can negotiate some little trade agreement . You allow my research computers to analyse you and, in return, I will help to establish communications between your home world and mine”. The Hypernaut was overjoyed, almost like a schoolboy who had received a glowing school report, “Oh! Oh thank you. Thank you, so much”, he said. But then, the Hypernaut noticed, a look of unhappiness crept across the alien chief executive’s reptilian features and, turning round, he saw that two other aliens of similar appearance had entered the room but, unlike Phazarus, they were dressed in what looked like military uniforms and were both armed with some type of hand-held energy weapon. “What!?”, bellowed the alien business tycoon, enraged, “How dare you come into my office! Anarchists! Terrorists! I will have you both atomized”. “We have come to warn this stranger about your true nature, Phazarus”, said one of the Aliens and then, turning towards the Hypernaut, implored, “Do not trust this vile person, Urth creature. His corporation has waged war upon the other planets in our solar system. He is a vicious and blood-hungry tyrant and he will only use your technology to destroy and enslave innocent people”. The alien oligarch pressed another switch on the arm of his floating chair and, another door in the wall of his office sliding open, a strange floating robot shaped like a dodecahedron entered and, out of all its facets, the Hypernaut saw long, pointed, blood red lazer beams emerge like glowing porcupine quills. “Fazaroid, destroy these intruders”, ordered its master. Following his orders, and spinning round so fast that its dodecahedron form became a blurred glowing sphere, the multi-sided robot started to move slowly towards the two aliens who, though they tried, vainly, to destroy it with their small handblasters couldn’t make a dent and, losing all hope, one of the aliens let out a long, high-pitched scream. But the Hypernaut had seen enough to convince him of Phazarus’s true character and, curling a fist, he shot towards the robot at a speed close to that of a lightning bolt and hit it at twice that speed, tearing a hole through the centre of one of its armour plated facets and destroying the computer brain within. “Your power is undoubtedly too great for me”, said Phazarus, activating a loudly pulsating device like an electronic heart that the Hypernaut took to be the timer for some sort of detonator. Then Phazarus, like a picture on a Video monitor being switched off, along with his floating chair disappeared and the Hypernaut realized that he had only been talking to a 3-D hologram. “He has activated a 5th Dimensional shredder”, said one of the aliens whose lives the Hypernaut had saved, “When the destruct sequence is finished, this entire complex will be ripped apart like a 4 dimensional sheet of paper”. But, even before the alien could finish his sentence, the Hypernaut had already punched a large hole in the roof of the office and flown both of the aliens to the safety of nearby red, rocky hillside that overlooked Fazarus’s complex. “Twice you have saved our lives”, said one of the Aliens, smiling warmly, “We are so grateful to you. If there is anything we can do to repay you, we would be happy to”. “It was my mission to make contact with Alien intelligence and set up diplomatic relations between our planets”, replied the Hypernaut, “If you will help me do that then I am sure the Socialist Republic of Earth will help support you in your war against Phazarus and together we can beat him”.