Memories of Sandra Anderson - A Cosmic Explorer Book II (stories twelve-nineteen)
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Download Book 3 (stories twenty - twenty-eight)
The fantasy series “Memories of Sandra Anderson” feature the astral and space adventures of Sandra Anderson, a space adventurer who defies the tyranny of the intergalactic Yrkanian Empire and seeks extraordinary experiences all over the known (and unknown) universe.
Story Twelve (Art of God): Sandra Anderson gets an invitation from an old friend, who lives on the beautiful planet of Abarth. Yet, she soon finds out there are radical changes about the planet and its inhabitants; therefore, she decides to do something about it before it is too late...
Story Thirteen (If Only You Knew...): Sandra gets quite a surprise when her archenemy asks for her help, so as to get rid of a very dangerous woman. She decides to accept that weird assignment, but she can barely imagine the consequences.
Story Fourteen (The Legend of the Bone Pyramid): Sandra and her beloved Peter visit the legendary Bone Pyramid, which is said to be a gate to other universes; however, no sooner have they arrived there, than they get a very unpleasant surprise...
Story Fifteen (Days of Light and Shadows): This time Sandra and Peter are members of a primitive desert tribe, so as to help them get rid of a horrible monster. However, Sandra finds out soon this is only the tip of the iceberg...
Story Sixteen (Undercover of the Past): This time Sandra ends up on a primitive planet, where she experiences another version of herself in another life; however, sooner or later reality finds a way of rushing back in...
Story Seventeen (A Ship Called Destiny): This time Sandra investigates about an interstellar slave trade taking place on the isolated planet Offir. For this reason, she goes aboard a weird ship that was never bound to cross the oceans.
Story Eighteen (Dawn of Erebus): Sandra gets a job in a research starship that seeks new worlds and life forms, beyond the boundaries of the known universe. However, she soon finds out they have brought something alien and dangerous from beyond.
Story Nineteen (Never Forgotten You): In this adventure Sandra Anderson seeks an invaluable item which is one of a kind, and finds it inside an Yrkanian base. It's all a trap, of course...
Excerpt from Story Twelve: Art of God:
Today was one of those days at school that I wish I could forget once and for all. Nevertheless, it had started under very favourable auspices, as I thought I would surprise everybody with my talent in Maths. During the past two days, I seemed to be the only one who had managed to solve a rather difficult problem in our last test in class. All my schoolmates, including my beloved George Dim, admired my cleverness.
On the third day, that is today, my solution to the problem was eventually proved to be wrong: the correct outcome was -2 instead of my +2. Eva, one of the most disagreeable pupils in class, was the one who proved that on the blackboard, finally crossing my solution out with a gigantic X. All the glory was now hers, before everybody, including George Dim...
After that unprecedented humiliation in class, I felt sad and frustrated. During the break, I stayed all alone at the balcony, leaning heavily on the railing, contemplating on my misfortune over and over again. I knew it was one of those crushing events which are meant to stamp themselves in my soul forever.
Suddenly, my frame of mind began to change, and other thoughts flowed like torrents in my mind: You know something? This is all nonsense! Why do we have to go to school and study hard, day in day out, during the happiest years of our lives? To learn what happened two thousand years ago, or solve differential equations? Of course not! What we do learn at school, is how to spend most of the day in a kind of prison, sitting at a specific desk, performing dull, uninteresting tasks which are actually none of our business! We learn how to become “responsible” workers, that is slaves, who are constantly dogged by the fear of failure in life! But I, the fourteen- year-old Emma Lloyd, have already failed in life – and look what I've become...
Those were my thoughts that winter morning, as I was watching a yellow leaf slowly falling from a big elm tree opposite the school. However, that leaf never seemed to be reaching the ground...
* * * * *
“You got it, pal? You are a skinny teenager, going for a walk in the woods at night, and suddenly you realize that a horrible extraterrestrial monster is following you, its mouth watering! And instead of taking to your heels, you just stay there and make believe clever!”
All three youngsters laughed at their friend's jesting remark about the cinema movie they had just watched. Then, they all stood still as they saw him standing before them in that dark alley...
To cut a long story short: Goddart was a mutant from outer space, probably the only survivor of a nuclear holocaust that had changed him into something that was no longer human. He didn't look like a dreadful alien or anything like that; he looked much like a handsome young man, with a slender figure and wavy blond hair that shimmered in the moonlight. The three boys, who saw him of their way home, were the first on planet Abarth to meet him. From that moment, their lives would never be the same again...
* * * * *
I, Sandra Anderson, was invited to Ibala, the capital of Abarth, by an old friend of mine named Kyel. It wasn't long before I discovered the real purpose of his invitation: I was expected to track down and, if possible, extinguish “a terrible curse which seems to be taking over the planet fast”, according to Kyel's words.
Not that it was something easily discernible or understandable; I mean everybody looked perfectly normal at first sight. Yet, the alteration was taking place slowly and irreversibly deep within them, and I could sense that after coming in contact with certain persons from time to time.
Initially, I had no idea what was wrong; then, after lots of research, I got some vague information about a mutant vampire known as Goddart, who was believed to roam the galaxies absorbing energy from living beings – this is what “gods” usually do to inhabited planets. Of course, I hadn't managed to find any real evidence he was there, on Abarth, but all the facts seemed to be leading to that conclusion.
On the days that followed, Kyle and I visited many cities on the planet. Everybody and everything looked ordinary in the beginning; however, after a little while, I could perceive a kind of general exhaustion in the air, and it was more palpable among human beings. I sensed an invisible stream of life force oozing all around, as it was gradually drained from living creatures. After close observation, not only in the material but in the astral planes as well, I figured out this stream of life force was directed to a specific destination, feeding a secret “center” hidden somewhere on the planet.
We hadn't travelled for more than a week, but when we returned to Ibala, I could already feel -and see- the same, perturbing changes in the atmosphere. People walked up and down the clean streets, but it was getting clearer and clearer that certain persons, more and more every day, were no longer the same. I no longer had doubts about Kyel's theory: It was almost obvious that some alien entity was gradually absorbing their vital and psychic energy, without their being able to oppose anyhow.
Anybody could be mutated; there were no visible signs of the alteration, apart from some increased sensuality. All the affected were very charming indeed – they had the charm of a psychic vampire. Not all of them were active vampires: Some gave more; others received more. Yet, the stream of energy in the air was an almost palpable, and seemed to be directed to a dark centre...