If talking about mansions and luxury, that must be one of the most typical features concerning a person called Warp Darkmatter. His other major character flaw -beside the tendency to show off, of course- was his immense ego. It was hard to identify, though, who possessed the gift of autophilia the strongest, his ex-boss, Zurg, or his nowadays-friend-again chum, Buzz.
However, speaking of aspiring to glory, it was apparent truly through the buildings and luxurious apartments of this man. On his evil days, this blue crook had owned a whole moon where he had kept a flock of servants in his colossal mansion. After the stepping away from the dark side, it was turn to crop the seeds of snobbish life elsewhere. His wide, complex underground apartment on Xaneda resembled some grand vizier's domicile, with all the expensive furniture, big sinking divans, and tapestries.
Next, it was of course Capital Planet's turn. As this former scoundrel (or actually calling him furthermore a scoundrel would not be a far-fetched definition) had for some time been able to stomp freely along the streets of this Alliance's core with his big boots, he had been in need of an abode there. Zarah's modest single-family house had been sold and she had stepped up to live in the rooms of the Darkmatter Mansion II. Their habitation was quite complex, modestly said. The male Darkmatter's home was officially in Xatagah, but then again his wife officially lived on Capital Planet. The main key to the door of knowledge why she was usually lodging there, was the landanah-specialized enterprise she owned. But then again, as Warp wanted to have a decent place to sojourn there, he had bought a site and built up this half-palace there. And then again, Zarah often went to Xaneda...this was the merry-go-round of changing planets.
In every case, the conclusion is that Warp Darkmatter is bombastic. And that he wants to flaunt. Thus, in the suburban areas of Capital Planet, was squatting this fortress, whose main entrance was decorated with Roman pillars. On the foreyard, where the gaze of the by-passers most often was aimed at, was huddling a smugly-grinning statue of the owner itself, in the middle of a small fountain. The garden was not that remarkable, since Agent Z had wanted to fill almost the whole site with this 'modest' den. Then again, as marble was not quite weatherproof in the cold winters, he had chosen red brick to keep the walls up. What came to the architecture, the building was... ahem... original. It had five floors, the walls filled with little balconies of different sizes. There were round-arched and rectangular windows, depending on the floor. At least the frames of the topmost one were shaped like ovals. All in all, it was a very peculiar bustle, together with all the little façades and the Roman pediment above the front door. The roof was flat, so that all the rainwater would have nicely gathered there to form a swimming pool if there would have not been good drainpipes. The disadvantages of this kind of frippery were that there were too many rooms with no use and it took an eternity to clean up the dust. But, of course, for guest-use it was ideal.
Today was actually one of those diurnals that the Darkmatter household was filled with visitors -temporal, and those who spent several nights in the guest rooms. It was the middle summer, but the days had been cool and rainy the past two weeks, since the deep-space dollop was found. However, the weather phenomena had no mystical connection to that lump at all. Because of the little chill, the windows were kept shut, and the guests forced to hunch inside, in the large living-room. Warp had apparently adopted well to Xanedian furnishing, since even this place was conquered by tapestries, all kinds of inside curtains, and pillows on the floor. Mainly the colours there were dark red, and black, with a shade of purple. As Booster had completely invaded the sofa, Buzz the divan, XR the hammock, Mira was allowed to feel herself a bit odd by sitting on one of those sinking pillows. Emperor Zurg lolled lazily in a high-backrest armchair, like in some throne, sipping at a drink. His young wife, Mariañ Lightyear, was chatting girlishly with Zarah Darkmatter, while the blue man himself kept some small talk up with his former Master.
Yes, so had the relations changed during all this time. Zora and his Smoopsiepoo had been wed a few months before. Everyone had the opinion that the surgeon was too young for him, with 28 years of age difference; however, mostly everyone handled this with humour, excluding one person. For Buzz, it was a fish-bone to swallow. He had often privately discussed this with Warp, with whom he was chummy again after all the mousehunt years. He considered Mariañ a really nice girl, but there was the point that she was just a girl in his eyes. It was ultimately troublesome for him to call someone nine years younger his stepmother. In his opinion, someone so year-lacking would be too young even for his girlfriend. But... whatever Buzz's cranium was then opposing, Zurg and his birdie kept their heads together.
Other life could be spotted there too in this room, added to the normal gang. In Zarah's arms was the result of the Isgurda-trip. This little girl, named Ay'noh Darkmatter, was barely seven months old. She was a healthy wee tot, although her mother's early duration of pregnancy had severely hung in the balance. There was the fact that she had been almost in a deadly state when the new life had bloomed inside her. In addition, combining the DNA of two completely different species in such a way was not a piece of blazar. But despite all these problems in the basket, no harm was occurred for the progeny. After the unusual eleven months (this was due to the different DNA) of gravity, she had brought this well-rounded infant into the daylight. Now the petite round-faced packet was in full sleep, puffing a bit. From under the little dark-red cap she had, were flowing soft but strong black-blue locks, contrasting with her fair, almost white skin. This feature Ay'noh had inherited from her mother, as well as the big, bright green eyes.
And Zarah, she was back in her slim measures. Good physical exercise had made the stomach vanish. At the moment, she was chatting with Mariañ about as fascinating and intriguing topic as baby food. Choi was that type of woman that would have preferably pondered quark's inner structure than this kind of intergalactic mommy-mumbling. But Mariañ was Mariañ, and her interests were others. "So, from the 3rd month on the normal thing is to..."
Warp, across the room, caught his wife's words and joked back, "What is normal food, Za babe? I remember when ya carried the li'l one, you were munchin' happily ice cream and boiled potatoes together, spiced with salt. Not to mention anchovy, and that... what was it?... that brown, odd-looking mess... rye budding."
The whole room burst into laughter, whereas Zarah's cheeks and forehead got a nice crimson shimmer.
Booster was the only one whiningly wondering, "What's wrong with potatoes and ice scream together? It only needs a bit chocolate dip and peanut butter..."
The discussion continued on the lighter side. Warp kept grinningly asking Buzz about his occasional new nightlife. Namely, peculiar things had happened in the younger Lightyear's course of time. After he had been allowed to tap away from the bleak hospital rooms, he had noticed he had property on such a weird place as Trade World. In the most notorious part of Killersville was jutting the even more notorious bar called The Black Hole. And no one, not a single person had come to claim it back. And also, for Buzz' sheer amazement it indicated that he had even loyal servants there. Those grubs, who had almost worshipped him as the Z Empire Prince, where furthermore calling the shots there.
One day, the Captain had taken his father and a good fistful of space rangers with him and flitted to that Galactic Ghetto. At the spot, he concluded that maybe it would be the best, if he furthermore kept the place, although with some crucial changes. And the insect lackeys were quite easily bent to serve his reformed self. Although they were several hundreds in amount, Zurg with no efforts after a bellowing rebuke, had frizzled even the last drops of the dark side out of them. This all was finished with a pleased Jim-kraken-dandy, and the alterations were started immediately.
After a good year, Killersville was only a mild shadow of its old self. The crooks and scum spat at the whole idea that the core of their lair was now owned by the Pride of Star Command. Thus, little by little, they picked their bones up and moved to tease other areas of Trade World. So, the underground oasis became the most peaceful part of that planet. The Black Hole was a bit rebuilt and widened up to a small hotel. It had joined together with a nice nightclub for the less scandalous population. And, as absurd as it sounded, Buzz used to host there in the free weekends he occasionally had. There, dressed to a crimson red silk shirt and black trousers, he did not quite resemble his former self any more. Yet, on the weekdays he was again a decent space ranger, patrolling with his team and 42.
But during the chit-chat about what DJ would come to sample the background music the next weekend, Zurg brought his concern about the lack of one thing in his scion's life. "Son, have you not met anyone yet?"
"Umm... what?" Buzz's big, blue eyes turned flustered towards his father.
"You know very well what I am talking about. You have not told your father if you have finally found a dandy girlfriend for yourself or not."
Buzz's forehead began to have a healthy red colour, when he confessed, biting his lips, "Umh, well, not exactly..."
Zora left a deep sigh from his armchair. "I should have known that. Hrmh. Tsut-tsut-tsut."
"Um... Father, could we discuss this some other time?"
Mira and the rest of Team Lightyear exchanged some amused glances on the background.
"No", Zoxedaszec snarled. "You do know you should finally steel up yourself and ask some dandy young maiden out with you. Hrmh, this is a tardy matter."
Zurg's scolding lecture started to become oppressing for Buzz. As his father left the next sentence flow out with his deep bass voice, the captain would have wanted to find a hole under the heaviest rock of the galaxy.
"Buzzy, I am truly concerned with your personal life. You are thirty-four years old and you still do not have a girlfriend. Should it not be about time to start to think about building a family?"
"Dad, shht..." Buzz mumbled, attempting to hush Zurg's too clear speech.
"You shall listen to your Father now, Buzzy boy", the elder man continued, determined. "Quasars, you have not thought about your future at all. You shall start to search for some female company." He folded his arms across his wide chest.
The others in the parlour were holding back their titters, but for the target of harangue, this was a severe issue. He would have been very pleased if someone had thrown a bucket of invisibility paint over him and he would have been able to slink out of the room unnoticed. XR's words reached his ears as he was hiding his face into his both palms.
"Hey cap, I can help! I know many tootsies around here! You know, you could try..."
Abruptly, the Captain rose up roughly from his chair. On his face could be seen the dilemma that scorched his inners. "If you will excuse me, citizens, I'll go out for a little walk." He nearly yelled out his syllables. Next, they heard a clack of the French window that led to the veranda, and through that to the garden. The rest of the fellows were left gaping after him.
"Zora, I think you hurt his feelings", the female Lightyear touched the Emperor's arm lightly.
"No, I do not think so. That boy has to learn that he is not so young any more. And I shall not be left without grandchildren. This is not the first time I have mentioned about this to Buzzy." Picking up a crochet work holo-mag, the sturdy man began to read it as if he had cared a fragment of Thevenin voltage about the whole thing any more.
Warp therefore felt that he should go to exchange a couple of words with the sullen pal. "Heya, folks, the lunch is comin' soon. I just go to throw some cold water over Buzzy an' get him back in." Hence the porch door rumbled after him.
Darkmatter caught up the sulking ranger behind a large bush. There the brave captain was sitting in the grass, leaning his back to the pillar of a birdbath. Pouting to the arriving Warp, he was about to rise up.
Chuckling the blue alien still stopped him, "What's the matter? C'mon, be a man. We got lunch comin' and..."
Buzz interrupted him by sighing, "You don't understand. This is a grievous thing for me."
"What? The universe is full of tootsies! Just go and be gallant!"
The men had begun to lead a slow walk along a narrow paved path. There Lightyear went on with his frustrated exhaling. "Well easy for you to say. Baddies seem to gather all the girls around them." He cast a side-glance at Warp. "For me... Blast, I don't know how to put this... I... I'm shy."
"Ha-ha! Shy, you? Quasars, ya own a whole nightclub, it should be more than easy for you to pick up some pretty sweetie. Come to think of it, ya don't look so bad, of course you're not as handsome as me. But, as ya got even that beard hiding your dumb too-big chin, there shouldn't be much wrong with your appearance."
Nevertheless, the wrinkles on ex-Zenith's forehead stayed. He kept his angry eyes aimed at the ground, his pose stooped. "You don't understand, do you? I really, really would like to come to know some nice citizen girl, but when I'm around women, I just... I'm not myself. Blast, I begin to stammer and let out words I wasn't intending to say. I mean, I was once doing shopping for Dad because he was at this Intergalactic Needlework Conference on Planet Zartha, and I went to this little wool shop on the High Street because he was out of some material for his handiwork..." He inhaled and paused to wipe sweat off his forehead. "I started talking with the saleswoman about something... don't remember what it was any more. I noticed she was... very good-looking and I really liked her long, thick light-brown hair. So... I thought... craters... to say some nice about her hair. So I uttered something like 'Uh, ma-am, I just wanted to say you have a beautiful yarnful of hair...' . A wee pause was needed again. Darkmatter's expression had turned to surprise during his friend's explanation. "Double craters and their pups, I must've mixed my associations with the yarn ball pile she had on the table. But, I was so ashamed that I stomped out of the store and left my purchases there. Never visited that place again."
Darkmatter spread his hands staggered in the air. "Why? Quasars, ya missed a good chance! Who knows if the babe would have even liked ya!"
"Yeah, right. And she would have given me a hug and giggled 'Aren't you the sweetest space man I've ever met!' Not in this universe." Buzz slapped his cheek with his palm.
"But haven't ya gotten some scintillation with ...ahem..." Warp began counting with his flesh hand's fingers, "Ozma Furbanna, Gravitina, Bonnie von Madm..."
Buzz' face turned to horror. "What? Who has told you about...?"
The blue one tried to form a nimbus over his crown. "Tra-la-laa... li'l doveys coax, as always. Hmm... I think it was Father Dark Lord and that know-it-all gadget jar, who gave out li'l clues..."
"Craters. Dad and XR just cannot hold their tongues. Well... Gravitina is out of question. She has this big head that gathers all kinds of junk orbiting it. And then the things she wears. If she'd once put something decent on, but uh-uh-uh..." he shook his head. "And besides, she's EVIL. Then Ozma... umm... she doesn't like me. She really doesn't like me. It... never turned out to be anything with her, after all. And Bonnie... uh... talk about the age difference. No." At this point, bale shaded his face. With a grievous crack in his voice, Lightyear concluded, "Maybe it's meant to be that Buzz Lightyear flies solo."
Then came the classic quiet instant that always jumps there after the sober discussions. Warp had not really guessed the situation being this bad. "Hmm... maybe ya should try one of those courses where they teach polite manners an'..."
"No, absolutely not. I... I just have to think this over... in my own way."
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A few hours later, the lunch was eaten. Warp had been able to drag the moping Buzz inside and feed him some snack, and the mood of this Ex-Prince of Z Empire had gotten a more jovial tone. Hence the living-room was colonized again, as everyone sipped their afternoon coffees. Warp kept playing some silly babble game with Ay'noh who had woken up from her nap.
"Goo-goo." The big alien formed a cone with his lips and uttered some goofy sound effects.
"Dada." The little one responded.
"Daa."
"Daddy." The girl grabbed his goatee with her little hand and pulled rather hard, so that the father yelped.
"Ouch! Quasars, this kid is getting evil!" He guffawed, and lifted the baby a bit further from his sore beard.
"No-ope," XR commented, "She just wants to tell her daddy to stop the goon gurgle. Heh, a few seconds ago she produced a lot more understandable words than her parent. Maybe she wants you to go to take some speech training."
At the same instant, the doorbell rang.
"Uh, will someone get that? I got some li'l pest in my hair," Darkmatter threw in half-amused. Ay'noh, who he had kept a bit too high with his hands, had now gripped his hair with both hands and was with good speed trying to pull it out. "I gotta teach this lass that daddy is not the neighborhood dog."
Thus Mira padded to the front door, coming back after a few seconds. "Buzz, it's for you. Ed the Courier."
Surprised, the captain put down his coffee cup and bolted to the entrance. There was this blonde postman waiting for him, with a registered post packet.
"And sign here." He was offered a pen and receipt.
"So what's this all about? It's Saturday, a bit strange to be delivering mail! And by the way, how did you know..." Buzz asked while putting his autograph on the paper.
Cutting him short, Ed replied straight, "...knew you were here? From Commander Nebula, he told me to find you in the Darkmatter Grand Mansion. By the way, this delivery is from him. Said he was too busy to start a vidphone session, so he decided to send this to you as a direct post."
Lightyear was given a small case where holo-disks were usually kept. Opening up the cover with some wonder he slouched back to the common hall.
"Hot rockets! Did Ed bring you a packet?" Booster merrily assigned, "What's in there?" This rotund, kid-like Jo-Adian was keen on all kinds of presents and surprises.
"This is from Nebula. A holo-rom. Just marveling at what this is... Wait, there's a label... 'Urgent new information about B.L.U.F.F. X-1014.'"
"What? Beta-Labile Unidentified Far-away Finding X-1014? But that's..." Mira raised her brows.
"...the hyperbogey we found in hyperspace," the mecha concluded.
"Jim-kraken-dandy", Zurg suddenly started to rub his fingers together, an enthusiastic gleam in his eyes, "I have waited for new information about that unidentified flying object. You shall put the disk right ahead to the holo-reader, Son."
"Wow! This is so exciting!" Booster's eyes shone, too. "It's like we would be back on Isinglass and reading The Perenna's Journal together in the big tent!"
"Hey, hey, big guy, I think you should vent the moths out of your ears." XR crossed his arms over his metallic torso, "It's Isgurda and The Peregrinator's Journal. If the planet was made of isinglass, we would have got stuck there for forever. And if that would have happened, Buzz would be now an evil emperor using purple robes and a grinning helmet."
"Oh well, whatever I'd be, then. Troops, let's take look at this..." The younger Lightyear installed the minidisk-looking info rom into the reader. A red 3D-sheet with text lines and images rose above the utensil. Zurg began to read, because his voice was very audible in its bass frequencies.
"New study results about the unknown article, hmm... this tells they have estimated the age wrong. It shall... what?" Not very often the mighty emperor was seen gagged that much. His big, brown eyes had gone round like two Frisbees. His long, thin finger was prodding the holo with the tip of the nail.
"What?" came the unison-yelp.
"No years... were given to it."
"What do you mean, no years?" Buzz scratched his head. Physics and mathematics were not his best area of knowledge.
"It says here it has traveled in the hyperspace approximately 10 to 20 million light years! Quasars, and those pathetic green grubs gave at first 10,000 to 20,000 years age for it."
"Whoa..." Warp left a little whistle. The others had their jaws almost on the floor, except Munchapper, who had also a bit of problems understanding physics.
"But it says years, then why do you say it was not given any years?"
"A light year is not a concept of timing, but for measuring distances. One light year is the distance that light travels in one year; that would be nine comma forty-six multiplied with ten raised to the powers of fifteen. That's in meters. And if that is multiplied with ten million that makes a lot of more nulls after the digit", Zarah explained, with no technical jargon mixed with the sentence at least once.
"Ohh..." Booster grasped the matter, "So that's like... a really long trip!"
"Really really." XR nodded.
When the constraint had ebbed somewhat, more facts were brought forth. There were assumptions from where the space roamer could have originated from.
"In this case I think those green squeakers are schitzoids. They should think as one 'cause of that unimind-whatsoever-stuff, but they still give 'independent' ideas from where that trash is from?" Warp was astonished at the hypotheses.
"Indeed..." Zurg fiddled his beard, "They can not decide where it could have started its journey. How pathetic. If I was there with my supreme intelligence, I would... hmm... ahem... estimate something else." He was a bit annoyed because could not pick up anything himself. "Grooh, in any case, I shall believe it is not from our Group of Galaxies. Andromeda, the Magellan Clouds and even such galaxies as NGC205 seem to be a little bit too near."
It indicated that the UFO had some kind of inner structure, as if it could be divided into six separate parts. That much the X-ray scans had told. No real sense was made of the carvings all around it; there was only this very feeble theory that those might be some grooves for energy canalling. At the moment the Star Command engineers were trying to figure out if there were any hieroglyphs or relevant that could be read, in it.
"Energy? They think it could produce energy?" Mira leaned her head against her hand, the elbow on the living-room table.
"But, there's much stupidity to it, if it was an energy source. Too big for that," Choi, the energy economics specialist pointed out.
"But it's so exceedingly old! What if it's like a steam engine from the stone age?" The robot suggested.
"Nah, not very likely."
"Hmm. This scribble presents a theory that it is not a weapon. But that energy has something to do with it."
"There would be sense in it that it's not a weapon. But then again there's no sense. Why someone would send a weapon to float randomly around hyperspace? So obviously it's not a weapon, then." Nova tilted her head.
"I still suggest it's a moving museum!" XR grinned.
"Luckily I am not any more on the dark side." Zora rubbed his fingers again together, "I would have my hornet army surrounding your pathetic flying object, wra ha ha muhahah." The old man was the only one to laugh to his own joke, the others only rolled their eyes. They had enough experience how the Emperor had wanted to get everything into his claws, while spreading his evilness even in the most marginal places of the Milky Way.
"Whatever it is, there's a huge risk in even studying it. My ranger instinct has never failed before, and it tells that there's something wrong with that finding." Buzz drummed his fingers on the surface of the table.
"The presence of the dark side..." Zurg crumbled. "It searches its balance. Its balance has been disturbed in the previous times. No Dark Lord has risen instead of me, and..."
"Dad, don't start that again." Buzz had heard enough jargon about that topic.
"In any case, what kind shivers or quivers anyone would feel, there is a risk. Come to think of our galaxy's technology... we haven't been able to contact even Andromeda, our nearest friend. Two comma three light years is a bit too much", Mira added.
"E.T. phone home..." Warp had started to play with his daughter, again. Obviously the subject did not inspire him much anymore.
"Hmh. We just have to hope that Madame President, the Universe Protection, and LGM's know what they're doing..." Buzz sighed, a bad side buzz in his brains warning him about something.
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A week more passed... and another call arrived for Team Lightyear and their usual companion, telling that more results had been found. And that this might lead to the activation of the odd space ghost.
...to be continued...
