The Rise to Godhood

*Fizz*

Podixa Sairan stared in disbelief at the hovercraft’s dashboard as it came to a standstill in the Divine Dimension. The interdimensional trip had been vivid, and she was happy that she and her family had come out on the other side in one piece. Yet, why didn’t her vehicle respond?

Podixa got out of the hovercraft and inspected the hovercraft’s motor. It wasn’t there. Instead, there was an empty gap where the engine had been. What was going on?

Podixa realised that she had been lucky when she saw a corpse of a Zetani enforcer. The man had been cut in half.

Seeing the dead man, the young Besim Arishom screamed in terror while Arish calmly tackled the matter and reflected, “Hmm. The Zeto-charged gemstones seem to have enough energy to teleport a certain mass. This is an issue that we need to resolve.”

“So, what do we do?” Podixa asked.

“Well, according to the True Maker, Zetani Nova is 450 lightyears/ 4500 kilometres to the southwest from our current location. That is not something we can traverse on foot.” Arish replied.

“Okay, I’ll contact Areela, and I’ll ask her to pick us up,” Podixa said and telepathed to her friend.

Arish exited the hovercraft and examined the dead enforcer with a medical scanner. The cortisol levels in the dead man’s blood were normal, which indicated that his death was instant and painless. Yet the enforcer was dead nonetheless, so how would he avoid facing a similar outcome?

Arish reflected on a suitable experiment to determine the exact amount of energy he could send through the portal risk-free. To find out the energy in one Zeto-charged sapphire, he needed to push weight from the ordinary world through the portal while a man on the other side measured if the object had lost mass. That was the safest way of figuring out the carrying capacity of one charged gemstone.

Arish picked up his phone. While it was useless for communications as he had no phone connection, it had another use. As he was a prominent engineer on Zetani before his exile, he could use his knowledge to create 3D sketches of an improved portal structure. If he could connect many Zeto-charged gemstones into one superstructure, he would minimise the risk of a power failure mid-travel that would kill a Zetan or lose cargo.

After sketching his portal designs, Arish concluded that a pyramid formation was the best shape for the portal superstructure. With a prism at the top of the pyramid, he could split the sunlight into seven powerful rays. These rays would pass many Zeto-Charged sapphires on the way, concentrating the energy and causing a drift of time and space and thus opening a portal in the middle of the pyramid. If he connected enough crystals, he could transport large space carriers. His idea amazed him; with a bit of luck, this could start a new era of space colonisation.

Arish let go of his dreams and got back to reality. These schematics were only dreams for now. He was stuck in a void between the dimensions, and he didn’t even know whether they would make their way to Zetani Nova. He felt even less confident that he would find a Zeto Crystal on the planet.

Zelinko approached Arish and spoke, “What happened? How could we have lost most of our supplies through the portal?”

Arish nodded and said with an afterthought, “The problem is that our teleportation devices are unstable. So, to make the process stable, we need to have several arrays with charged sapphires, which we organise symmetrically.”

“That doesn’t help us now. So, what do we do?” Zelinko asked.

“We must press ahead. We have four charged sapphires left, so if we return to Disyerto-2, we will run out of sapphires, and our plans will fail.” Arish replied.

“Agreed. Pack everything that we need in our hovercraft. We will need to get to Zetani Nova as quickly as possible.” Zelinko stated.

The group hurried to repack their hovercrafts to make room for themselves and only pack what was essential for the way ahead. An hour later, they were all heading for the teleportation point to Zetani Nova.

***

Two days later, the group had arrived at the teleportation spot that linked the Divine Dimension to Zetani Nova. They had planned for a week-long trip, but since the Divine Dimension was empty, they had set the hovercraft on autopilot, which had cut travel time. They exited their hovercraft and tried to open the portal to Zetani Nova.

“It’s strange. I don’t remember how we opened the portal to Disyerto-2?” Areela reflected.

“The portal activated by itself when we stood in the right spot,” Zelinko recalled.

“Wait, so don’t you know how to open the portal from here? Are we stuck?” Podixa exclaimed.

The blue light returned to Thorax’s eyes, and he spoke, “Don’t worry. The portal to Zetani Nova will open when the sun rises on the planet if you leave a charged sapphire in the right location.”

“The True Maker, are you watching us?” Podixa exclaimed.

“Always and forever. As am I watching the rest of my creation in this galaxy,” Thorax replied.

“So, why didn’t you warn us about the instability of the portal? We lost one of our hovercrafts, and the Zetani enforcers lost one of their men.” Podixa complained.

Thorax stroked his chin, sat in silence for a while, and spoke with an afterthought, “Please tell me, Podixa… How does an infant learn to walk?”

“Through progressively learning to use his or her body?” Podixa replied.

“Exactly. If I had stopped you from falling by warning you of the portal, would you still have travelled, or would you have stayed on Disyerto-2? Because of your partial failure, Arish started working on a solution to the problem. This wouldn’t have happened if you had averted the original problem.” Thorax revealed.

“My son, will we be okay if we travel to Zetani Nova?” Areela asked.

“I cannot tell you your destinies without changing them. But I can reveal that the Divine Dimension is at a higher energy level than the Milky Way Galaxy. Alas, a trip there will cause a massive exotherm reaction. Good luck, my friends.” Thorax said and reverted to his usual self.

As True Maker’s spirit abandoned them, the Zetans reflected on the message they had received. It was a relief that they would not die from teleporting to the surface of Zetani Nova, but the rest sounded foreboding. Then again, it was an age-old reality that one could not anticipate one’s death.

Eventually, Areela spoke, “It’s good to know that we will reach Zetani Nova. But what did he mean by travelling there being an exotherm reaction?”

“Well, as I understand it, travelling here requires added energy, while travelling from here releases energy,” Arish said.

“So, the powerful sandstorm at Areela’s arrival was due to the release of energy from the portal?” Podixa asked.

“That would be my conclusion. Of course, this will make travel more difficult, but I’ll come up with something.” Arish said.

“Mummy, I am hungry,” Besim whined.

The Zetans looked at each other. The young child was correct. While waiting for the sun to rise on Zetani Nova, the best way to pass the time was to have a big meal. Podixa prepared soups consisting of freeze-dried maggots, water, and fungi. When they ate the rancid soup, they silently prayed that their next meal would be better!