smashed flask running between the loud droning wails of the alarm. He was able to make his way to the concourse near the edge. It was chaos. Any semblance of order and security had vanished. A crowd was gathered near a viewport; some of them making moans or cries; all obviously deeply distressed. Then, as Eldon got nearer, he could see the outside view, the crisis causing the mass fear and panic.
The swirling, burning vortex of the remains of Okron was very close. Galaga Alpha was caught in its gravity. They were being sucked into it! Galaga had lost its far orbital position and apparently had no means of pro-pulsion now, no escape. To Eldon's knowledge, this had never happened before, not in Alpha sector. And he found it extremely hard to believe that it was happening now. What happened to the ion hyperdrive propulsion with all its fail-safes? Was this deliberately done to Galaga by the destroyers of Okron? These questions flashed in Eldon's mind, but could not receive any thought. The only thing to be concerned with for Eldon now, like everyone else, was survival.
He started running in the direction of the craft bays. The majority of the ibees were heading for the bays. But then another outside view, this one on a monitor screen, caught Eldon's attention. The crafts that had been able to launch from Galaga were not able to escape Okron's gravity. Only a few escaped – the rest struggling to stay alongside Galaga. Many were pulled down into the ring of fire like tiny seeds in a full-flowing storm drain. Eldon stopped and stared, realizing that the attempt to fly his small craft away would be futile.
As he watched the desperate reachings of falling ibees all around him, he saw a larger ship come into view out the port. It was an SSF cruiser. Then two more could be seen taking positions near Galaga. They were making a courageous attempt to push the sinking city out of danger. The ends of their propulsion units glowed brightly, but no noticable difference was made. One of the ships backed off. Whether it was to get a new position or it was just losing power, was not clear. In seconds it became evident that it was losing power as it wobbled and drifted from Galaga. There was a small explosion on its 'prop' end and away it went into the swirling vortex. In a few seconds it was out of sight, lost forever. The other two SSF ships then simultaneously abandoned the rescue effort. They were barely able to get past Galaga and away from the Okron vortex of death.
Suddenly all went dark on this doomed city-ship Galaga. The only light coming in was from the burning ring around the vortex, growing larger very fast now. As Galaga entered a tighter spin at the edge of the burning ring, the G forces became intense. Now no one could move because of centrifical pressure keeping them on the walls. In this extreme situation, reality was blurred and perception was unreliable. A second could seem like an hour; up and down could not be recognized; you may not know who you are, or if you exist at all. Before Eldon lost consciousness, he felt everything being stretched toward a blending point, the singularity at the center of the vortex.
A bell sounded. Clouds – he was moving through clouds. The bell rang again. More clouds of water vapor, then a glint of blue. The bell continued to sound as he descended through an atmosphere. Gradually, through the mist now, he could see a structure. It was what was called on ancient Earth, a church. As his 'flight' neared the church, he realized the bell sound came from it. It had rang nine times.
This flight, Eldon (if that is who he still was) thought was strange. He did not seem to be in any craft. So maybe it was a vision or some unknown way of traveling. He flew from the church to another, larger building. Then, apparently not in control of the flight, he went over the building to view the other side. On this side he noticed something unusual. A yellow box vehicle was stationed there right in front of the building. He knew something was wrong.
A bright flash instantly filled the entire area. It was a tremendous explosion. It brought down that whole side of the building! To Eldon, who was now the 'T-viewer', it seemed to happen 3 times. Each time it happened slower. When the smoke cleared, all the levels, perhaps ten, had collapsed. An awful crater lay where the yellow box was.
'Who was the destroyer?' and 'Why was such a violent, haenous crime committed?' were questions that passed through the T-viewer's mind. But he did not dwell on those because he saw something that was more important and interesting to him. As he watched the aftermath from above, which was now speeded up, he could still see many details. The ibees there were not immediately repairing what was toppled, like pre-programmed worker ants.
They were very actively engaged in search and rescue efforts. Their primary concern was not the building, but the lives of their fellow ibees. An ibee, apparently Hearthite, found a baby one of their kind in the rubble. Was it alive? No, but very carefully the ibee searcher gave it to a uniformed rescue worker. Even from his elevated viewpoint, T-viewer could see little things and feel what they felt. The workers there were extremely shocked and saddened. It was obvious that life was precious to them. They wanted so much to mend and somehow heal the wounds of the fragile bodies of those victims. Their desire to help was so strong that they even risked their own lives and safety to come to the aid of the unfortunate victims of the disaster. This really impressed T-viewer since he had not seen this selfless, courageous quality much where he was from.
Next, T-viewer was shown some of the activities of the ibees there in the following days. Those directly affected by the disaster were given much help and support by others. This made it somewhat easier for them to cope with their damaged mental and emotional state. These ibees had such sensibilities, feelings or emotions as they called them. They covered a wide range and affected their life and activities profoundly. Most other advanced cultures considered them to be a primitive disadvantage. However, T-viewer found them refreshing and very intriguing.
The next view was from the controls of a large fixed-wing aircraft. It was flying low over a tremendous metropolitan cityscape. The T-viewer had no control over the aircraft, just as he had no control over what he was seeing. He knew this was the same planet, but later in its history. The plane flew toward twin towers at the end of the island city. Its objective was to crash into one of the towers! T-viewer looked around. No one was in the cockpit of the plane but him. The building grew larger by the second. The flat steel wall became a target. The aircraft became a missle.
The approach was frightening to T-viewer, but the moment of impact was different. From that moment on, the action was super slow. He knew he was not really there, but being shown exactly what happened in every milisecond of time.
A flash came from the underside of the aircraft .05 second before it hit the target. At .10 of impact, the nose penetrated about two meters into the wall. The metal frames and glass disintegrated into a hundred thousand flying pieces shooting across the two levels of impact. By .25 the fuel exploded. The liquid fire enfulfed everything within ten meters of the point of impact. Everything not metal was incinerated instantly. He saw the ibee creatures flesh disappear into a superheated blast wave cloud. Their bones pulverized to dust, became an integral adhesive element of the cloud. By .75 second, the burning cloud was blasting out the other side of the building. T-viewer, getting the inside fraction-by-fraction of a second view, wondered,
'Is this some kind of test?', and 'Why am I being shown these events in this kind of detail?'
Instantly the view was of the other tower. It too was struck by an aircraft, only more dramatic as the explosion's firery cloud expanded on the outside of the tower.
T-viewer could somehow see everything that was happening inside and out. He took note of the ibees inside trying to help one another to get out and survive this disaster. Many were cut off and had no way to escape. Some even jumped, falling nearly 300 meters to their death, rather than burn in the smoke and flames.
This looked like an earlier version of his home planet. But he did not know of any events like this in its history.
He now noticed the rescue workers. They all entered
the towers without fear, as far as he could tell. They helped all they could find to get out of the burning structures. As the seconds became minutes, and the smoke clouds rose high, ibee lives hung in the balance. Dutifully and courageously they made their way up many levels by stairs with their heavy gear, which in many cases was more than a third of their body weight. This was apparently the only way now to reach those trapped near the top.
On approximately the 89th level of the tower that was hit first, a woman ibee (they called them 'persons', man and woman) helped a man coworker who was injured to get under a desk near a wall. With all communications out, she wondered how to call for help. Everyone else on that level, as far as she could tell, was dead. She made her way through various small fires to the large opening in the side of the building made at impact of the aircraft. Holding on to some twisted metal, she positioned herself as close to the edge as possible. Trying to be visible, she waved her arms in a desperate call for help. Above the tallest structures in the city, to view the dwelling of millions of ibee 'people' was no longer a pleasurable thrill, but an overwhelming sight of