Volume 60

The Navigator and the Nexus

(Hugh Cook in Red)

        (7) Overview of Volumes 41 to 60.


        Volumes 41 to 60 will go under the title of CHRONICLES OF AN AGE OF HEROES and will tell of the Nexus, of conflicts imported from the Nexus into the local cosmos, of the gradual awakening of the Powers of the local cosmos, of the resulting conflicts, and of the resolution of those conflicts.
        Detail is as follows:-
        The Nexus, a transcosmic civilization which specialises in manipulating probability, is colonising a series of increasingly unstable universes.
        The Nexus approves the establishment of a prison complex on the local cosmos, which is unstable in the extreme, and shows ominous signs of having been experimented upon by the hypothetical Experimenters.
        The series follows the lives of Rinprofen Rum, Ivan Pokrov, Anaconda Stogirov and Shabble, plus several of those condemned to suffer in the prison complex.
        Initially the prison complex in the local cosmos is linked with the rest of the Nexus by the Chasm Gates, but Ivan Pokrov severs that link.
        The series then follows the desperate power struggle between the survivors who are trapped in the local cosmos. The final crisis comes in the aftermath of the Gotterdammerung featured in volume 40.
        The final crisis comes with the rise of new Powers, most notably Codlugarthia of Untunchilamon and Lord Dreldragon of Ling.
        The conflicts between Pokrov, Stogirov, Shabble and Rum finally come to a head at a peace conference held on the Lesser Teeth.
        By now Lord Dreldragon is sixty years of age, at the height of his political power, and the ruler of the Empire of the Sealords, which is supported by the mighty war machines of the Technic Renaissance which were long housed at Ling (and were discovered by Lord Dreldragon in Volume 4, THE WALRUS AND THE WARWOLF, though he thought nothing of the discovery at the time).
        The key issue at the Conference is the making of a Peace between Codlugarthia and Lord Dreldragon. Both of these two Powers are exceptionally ignorant of the needs of the many minor nations which will be affected by the terms of their Peace.
        Delegations from those minor nations have come to the Conference to speak for the needs of their own peoples. They include the very young (who are idealistic but over-optimistic and inexperienced), those at the peak of their power (who must attend to the short term if they are to stay in power and so be able to secure the world in the long term - the conflict between the day- do-day exigencies of politics and the long-term needs of nations ever threatening disaster), and the very old (who are wise, or at least think they are, but who have limited power and influence).
        The crisis in the affairs of the survivors from the Nexus sees the Conference disintegrate in a bloody battle which threatens to doom all those involved and once more plunge the wider world into war. The struggle against catastrophe ends with the death of Morgan Hearst, the death of Shabble, the marriage of Ivan Pokrov to the formidable Anaconda Stogirov, and the signing of a Peace.
        Thus bringing this sixty-volume story to an end.

(Includes the Return of the Grand Guardian Avatar)

A Commission from the Hierarchy of the Nexus has sent Navigator Ship XC444 to investigate Olo Malan.

'Our commission is fourfold,' said Captain Curtis. 'Firstly we are to station ourselves in the skies of planetary body Olo Malan, visible to the populace, a foundational Civilization which was planted long ago with standard protocols. They are now ready for Intervention. Secondarily we are sent ahead of schedule for the Intervention, which was not due for 2 more millennia, due to employment procedures contracted by a service robot in the repairs of a Ventigern unit. 3 citizens of a parallel planet, Bera Shambala, had travelled here, and were required by the service robot for repair assistance on the Ventigern. They have legal interactivity rights with the Nexus, and will be contacted so they can spend their finances. Thirdly, we are to re-establish the Chasm Gates which link the Nexus with this unstable world. These are some of the Universes in the Transcosmos which are unstable. Our view is that the Experimenters have been at work in many universes of this frequency in the Transcosmos, and laying down seeds of improbability, which is never a good thing. Only chaos ensues.'

Doctor Sponk spoke up. 'The Experimenters are unproven at this stage. But the likelihood of renegades once associated with the Alpha-Wurm and seeking their own power and authority is highly likely. Everybody wants to rule the world it seems.'

'Indeed,' replied Commander Curtis. 'Finally, the fourth part of the mission is apprehension of those who have severed the chasm gates and to take stock of the global situation in relation to extant Nexus facilities on the planetary body. We will monitor in the skies above the planet for some time before making official contact. Is that all understood.'

'Aye aye, Commander,' replied the crew.

'Fascinating,' said Lieutenant Uhrana.

The ship spends some time monitoring the 'Shark Tooth Nebulae'. This is a severely chaotic Nebulae in the Cosmos of Olo Karanada. Planets in the Universal Cosmos Olo Karanada are often titles with the prefix Olo. Karanada was a minor dignitary of the Nexus in which this particular Universe was names after. The Shark Tooth Nebulae is home to trillions of stars which are very temperamental and morph into angry starbursts from time to time exploding out of being seemingly against the physical laws of a standard cosmos. They seem to be replaced soon enough by replacement stars but these are often just as angry in their light displays. Many universes in the Olo Section of Universes display hectic and chaotic patterns in them which seem to go against nature. It is believed there are 'Rips' in space and time which cause these universes to malfunction regularly, believed to be caused by the experimenters. The Shark Tooth Nebulae is one such example. Navigator Ship XC444 spends a few weeks studying the nebulae making its assessments and records before moving on to planetary body Olo Malan.

'It is the Drednaath Continent,' said Doctor Sponk. 'As you can see it is a terrible mess. It is strewn with chaotic geological patterns which show extreme irregularity. It is by no means formed by natural elements.' The screen of the Navigator flicked through dozens of pictures of geological objects, all seemingly in horrible disarray in comparison to more natural forms. 'It is a sign, we are sure, that this planet too has been terrorized by the Experimenters. We have seen many examples so far in Olo Karananda of signs likely of the Experimenters Intervention. They are chaos causers. Experimenters with life and matter in doing things which no civilized civilzation ought do.'

'Part of their experiments,' said Uhrana. 'To discover aspects of reality which they can pervert for their own uses. The tensions and tolerances of things has long been my thinking. They like to push the natural elements past their breaking point.'

'So it would seem,' replied Doctor Sponk.

The crew visit, and the ship stations itself above the Sunlight Sea for a few months, monitoring the planet. Squirrel Dalydius and the excited Cults gather their forces, and when the ship finally descends, and Nexus cronies talk to them, Squirrel asks the leader

'Are you the Grand Avatar'.

The commander, realizing they still believe Protocol 4Z on establishing civilizations, responds, 'Yes. Yes I am.'

A fellow on the command ship says under her breath to the captain, 'You are incorrigible'.

'Run with it, Uhrana,' he replies. 'It's standard Nexus Protocols to establish them on religious thinking.'

'Terrible,' she replies, under her breath.

STRUCTURE OF VOLUME 60

The first Half sees the plans of Hugh Cook for Volume 60.

The Second Half sees the survivors from the Nexus satisfied that a peace has come and that they have escaped the clutches of the Nexus. But the religious who have been marginalized somewhat by the outcome of the Peace Treaty, having not gained much of an audience, gather from around Olo Malan to the Sunlight Sea to witness the return of the Great Grand Watermelon. Lord Dreldragon has signed a Peace Treaty as the Prince of Babel with Lord Codulgarthia of Untunchilamon. Peace is abounding now in the Age of Heroes, or so the Propaganda goes. But Olo Malan, with the re-engagement of the Nexus at the grand intervention of Part two has now officially, ahead of time, been entered into the Nexus Transcosmic community. Olo Malan finds that it is a planetary body of concern in this particular Cosmos, which is part of a series of several trillion galaxies, only so many of which have life in them so far settled by the Nexus. Other powers of this cosmos have started to engage with space travel and are connecting civilizations and federations gradually together. The Nexus monitors all it's universes in its transcosmos, and Olo Malan came to its attention due to the circumstances outlined above, just one of the countless concerns of the Nexus. The new Age is the 'Chronicles of an Age of Light' which is a time in Olo Malan were they are entered into the knowledge of the cosmos they are part of and are connected to the Transcosmo and their Nexus Overlords. The 20 volumes of the Age of Light tell of a fledgling civilization moving from magic and myth into science and greater civilization.

The Prison Complex was established on Olo Malan as a way of dealing with Misfits of Nexus Civilization. It is common practice to build prison complexes in the 'Less Likelies' as they are called, Universes which are potentially hazardous to long term residency. The Nexus, though, has engaged now with several of the civilizations of Olo Karanada, who have formed their own fledgling federations to search out their local cosmos. In the grander scheme of things the Nexus is involved with several quadrillions wars and diplomatic situations with other powers that be in the Multiversal realities. The Nexus does not dominate every frequency or dimension of reality by any means, and cross-transcosmic disputes are common place to maintain and grow their civilizations. The Experimenters are believed to be renegades of the Alpha-Wurm, formerly of his employ, who have caused havoc and chaos on the general bandwidths of reality which Nexus Civilization can transverse readily enough. There are Infinite variations of dimensional frequency in the Multiverse but the way Nexus citizens are structured they can only access their current general range of frequencies. But it is strongly believed there are infinite copies of their general frequency at different wavelengths in other parts of the Infinite Multiverse. These are speculated upon but yet to be encountered. The planet Earth is a frequency and cosmos which can be visited by Nexus powers, and runs in a traditional way, but it is not known what, if any, are the powers which may possibly lay claim to that universe. It was studied a while ago and notions on religion were borrowed from it and, in particular, used in the settlement and colonisation of Olo Malan as one of the examples of use of this particular knowledge. Conflicts were brought into Olo Karanda from the Nexus, from battles and treaties which required surveillance of various linked frequencies to the Nexus of powers that be in similar wavelengths. Transcosmic travel is known to many of the powers of the Multiverse. Conflicts sometimes arise, and throughout the Age of Heroes several civilizations from both the local cosmos made contact as well as the greater transcosmos with the Olo Karanada Cosmos. Olo Malan had surveillance from the 'Altair Children of Light' Federation, which was a federation of planets in their own galaxy, not that far from Olo Malan in actuality. A lone space explorer landed, albeit monitored by the Nexus, from Altair, and the Humanoide 'Tristan Lightbringer' explored some of the Penvash Peninsula. Stranded, due to his ship being in need of repair beyond his abilities, Tristan Lightbringer made connections with the powers in Penvash, and ultimately went into business with Dreldragon and Jon Arabin in the third expansion of the Babel Network. The Nexus powers were aware after some time of Tristan's activities, and one of the minor functions of the Navigator was to bring Tristan to Justice for his abuse of protected Nexus technologies in contracts between Altair and the Nexus. Volume 45 sees the advent of Tristan Lightbringer in 'The Dragon and the Devil'.