The book

Different Dimensions: Episode 1: The Battle of Zootopia

Chapter 1

For a change, it was a sunny day on Zootopia. Prime minsiter Drytmark was very pleased. Zootopia was known to have rainy weather 80% of the time. The standard weather shields would hold the rain from coming into the city's anyway, but when expecting a high visit, nice weather was always welcome.

Today ambassador Kurum'ta of the Union of free Planets was paying a visit. The Union of free Planets was an organization that a few planets created when they all declared themselves independent from the King. The planets where located very far from the core of the Kingdom, and the King had put a weak landlord in charge of the galaxy. The landlord had been a stupid man, and he neglected the citizens. When they declared themselves independent, he had been executed immediately. 

The King wasn't at all interested in their galaxy, so he didn't even bother to send a proper army to fight them. That had been one of his biggest mistakes in a long time. They created a powerful army and started negotiating with more and more planets to get them to join the Union of free Planets. And those Planets did. It was only a matter of time before the King had lost a huge amount of systems, soon whole galaxys.

But Zootopia was different. They were located close to the core of the kingdom, where the King still had a lot of power. Drytmark had looked forward to this day, but he was also very frightened, frightened of the King. If he found out about this visit, he would have been executed for sure.

Drytmark could already imagine the torture from which he would suffer.

The prime minsiter got awakened out of his daydream when the space-traffic controller said something true the radio. "Could you repeat that?", he said.

"Ambassador Kurum'ta of the Union of free Planets asking permission to land on platform A sir.", said the controller.

The prime minsiter asked: "Has he got the right authorization code?"

"Yes, sir", said the controller.  He had to shout because of the rustling on the rusty old, worn out radio.

Drytmark cried: "Well, then what are you waiting for? Give him permission to land!".  The space-traffic controller didn't answer, but only a few seconds he saw a regular small cargo ship enter their atmosphere.  The ambassador had finally arrived.

"Ah! ambassador! Welcome to Zootopia!", cried prime minister Drytmark, when the ambassador came walking out of his ship after 10 minutes.

"I am very pleased to finally meet you! I hope that we can come to a fine agreement today.", said ambassador Kurum'ta.

"How how! Let's not be to quick. Why don't I guide you around our wonderful planet first!", said the prime minister. He was a bit offended because the ambassador gave the impression he wanted to start the negotiations as soon as possible. On Zootopia, that was a sign of disrespect. But he eased is mind soon, thinking that the ambassador probably didn't mean it that way.

"Great! Great....", said the ambassador

Now Drytmark got a bit angry. His response was clearly disrespectful, but he kept the friendly smile on his face. He had been waiting for this day too long. Surely the ambassador would be a nice man if he would get to know him a bit better.

"Come, join me in this boat. We're heading for the Main Plaza first.", he said.

"This city, our capital, is one of the only two city's of our planet. As you can see, this plaza is our planets largest trade center!". The prime minister was very proud of the plaza he build. In these bad times, he had given his citizens hope by creating at least a small place where economic transactions could take place.

The ambassador asked: "I thought you only had one trade center?"

"Only one public trade center, yes. But we also have a small trade center in our second city, B. That one is only for inland. B is the only industrial area on our planet. Only the basic products for survival are produced there. We buy all luxury product from other planets, not that we have many."

While Drytmark was saying this, they arrived at the port and went to the main plaza.

The ambassador nodded: "I see."

Drytmark said: "In our Main Plaza, all merchants come through transporters. We do not accept strangers to land on our planet. That way we can check easily if they have illegal product on them. All import arrives in city B, where all ships are checked before they can enter our atmosphere. But let's go to the city hall now!"

The city hall was in fact nothing more than the entrance to city A in the sky's and the power central underground. All affairs regarding the city where settled in the ministry. Why would you need a city hall on a planet with only two very small city's? The prime minister had pleated long to move all city affairs to the ministry. In that way he saved extra money without affecting his citizens wallets. He was very popular with his citizens. Where the King did everything to make himself and the wealthy even wealthier, the prime minister of Zootopia did everything possible to cut into the wallet of the wealthy (not that anyone was actually "really" wealthy on Zootopia.) and give the poor a change to at least feed themselves.

"Here are the private stairs to our underground level and our sky city. Only officials can use these. Citizens enter the city by transporter. But some of the Nobility's of the King have a fear for transporters. It'll be great to kick them off of our planet!", said the prime minister.

He had a real hatred for everyone who had a good mind towards the king. Though, not all nobility's where good minded towards him. Some started to realize that the power the King created for them, was nothing but an illusion. They started to realize that they had no power at all. Some had been angry for that already, but now that they realized that the King was cutting into their wallets, more and more nobility's created a hatred for him. That's why the Union of free Planets wanted to strike as soon as possible, and destroy the kingdom from within its core.

The prime minister said: "Let's take a look at our underground level first!"

"Great!", said the ambassador. But Drytmark could see that he wasn't so interested at all. But he didn't care, he could understand the ambassador. He had to make these kind of trips every day. And since the Union had planned on getting nobility's and there planets on their side, he was probably loaded with work.

So the prime minister just carried on: "As you can see, the only thing located here is our power center. This centers provides power for not only city A, but also city B at the other side of the planet and our animal asylum."

"It looks Impressing!", said the ambassador. For once Drytmark got the feeling he wasn't lying. The Union might have a power source that was not only stronger as theirs, but also much cheaper

(because it was achievable in many of the outer galaxys. One system was even crowded of the stuff), but Redstone looked extremely impressive to people who had never seen it.

So the prime minister said: "Thank you! ", continued by:  "Then, these are the old diamond mines, abandoned now, all useful diamond there is mined." And then: "Now, let's go up to the main city!".

"Great!", said the ambassador.  You could see he was looking forward to getting to the city. He wanted to start the negotiations as soon as possible. Though, he seemed to get more and more interested in their planet. Only good, Itroski thought, he was proud of his beautiful planet.

The ambassador asked: "Say, you seem to have a lot of diamonds on your planet, why didn't you mention them in your trade products list?"

"We do not trade in diamonds, they are worthless here.", Drytmark said.

The ambassador shouted: "How can diamonds be worthless!" He seemed a bit provoked.

"Didn't you do any research before you came to our planet?!" , Drytmark said. Now he seemed provoked. The man couldn't stand that the Union called to make an appointment in 2 days, and then asked him to prepare everything. "In this galaxy of the universe, my best, every planet's ground is full of diamonds, nobody needs them here.", he said.

The ambassador noticed his angry tone, and immediately said: "I do apologize, now that we heard the nobility's want to separate from the King, and possibly even dethrone him, my superiors asked me to get as many planets around the kingdom's core in our Union as I can. Normally I take the whole day before I visit a planet to learn about their culture and habits, but now I sometimes have even more as one planet to visit I day. I really hope you won't blame me for this."

Drytmark's suspicions where correct. The man was clearly overworked. "No, no, I understand." , he said.

Then the ambassador said: "If I may say then, exporting diamonds to other planet's could be worth millions, and you could become a very wealthy planet. Especially if you are the first one to export."

The prime minister said: "That is exactly why we want to join The United Planets. The king knows damn well that all planet's of this galaxy could make a lot of money with their diamonds in other galaxys. That's why he only has one planet exporting diamonds, and makes sure he controls all of the export. Because of that, all the planet's here had to change to other export products. As you hopefully know, we specialized in breeding animals for medical experiments and as luxury products for the King and his Nobility's. But we also supply war animals for the King's army. But the King doesn't pay well, and we are getting poorer and poorer by the day. We're having riot's too, our employees haven't been paid for moths anymore. But let's go to my office first.

"Great!", said the ambassador. He was really happy that he could start his negotiations.

While they were walking to the prime ministry, the ambassador said:"You seem to use a lot of old primitive materials in your city? How come?"

The prime minister said:  "Like I said, ambassador, the golden era is long passed on our planet. We need to use primitive materials in order to save money."

 "And what is this place?", asked the ambassador, when they came to the entrance of the city, where people were being hold by security personnel. 

Drytmark said: "These are the customs."

"Customs?", asked the ambassador, clearly confused. "But I thought only people from in your planet could enter the city?"

The prime minister said: "That is true, but because of our current financial crisis, everyone who is not a citizen of the city or who doesn't work here, has to pay a toll to enter the city. There aren't many visitors from outside the city, but  some product are only available here, so citizens of city B have to shop here every once in a while."

"I see.", said the ambassador. "I'm guessing you also use the Kings currency, emerald?"

"Yes.", said the prime minister. "Why don't we take a look in our national bank."

They came to a pretty small building, where there was nothing more than a few clerks serving people.

The ambassador said: "Is that the national bank? Boy, you really are facing a crisis."

"Where not that poor, ambassador.", said Drytmark. He felt a bit angry again, because of the ambassadors opinion about his bank.  "There's also a vault behind the bank. We don't have much, but there are some pure emerald blocks there.", he said.

"Out of the little research I did do, I noticed that you don't even have an army?", said the ambasador.

The prime minister said: "Having an army would mean continuous controls by the King. And as you would expect, we produce and smuggle illegal animals. That's the only way we can have at least a small extra income to feed the mouths of our people."

"I see," said the ambassador.

Then they arrived at the ministry, it was one of the widest buildings in the city. There were only 4 floors tough.  One floor was the reception, another one the administration office, another one the meeting room of the cabinet(where every minister had a small office) and as last a small floor, with the prime minister's office. The last floor was located very far above the other floor's, and they where only connected by an elevator.

"Here's the ministry.", said the prime minister. They entered the building and went to the elevator.

"This elevator leads to my office." Drytmark said. The elevator was an H20vator. That's an elevator of which the entire shaft is filled with water. The water can stream in two directions. Up and down, that way it can take you to upper floors and down floors. It was probably the most expensive machine on whole Zootopia, because there was something special about the elevator. It might be water, but you stay completely dry when you enter it. That was a system invented somewhere around 500 years ago by a brilliant scientist who had created hundreds of spectacular machines. It wasn't very expensive in most galaxys anymore, but in a poorer galaxys like the one Zootopia was located in, it was something to be very proud of. But when the prime minister noticed the ambassador didn't seem to find it special at all, he didn't mind. He knew that the Union of free Planets had been doing very good economically since they separated from  the King.

They arrived at his office, and he said: "And this is my office, take a seat."

" Thank you.", said the Ambassador. "Now, let's get straight to business. If you join the United Planets, we can protect you from the King, so you can export your diamonds. "

Drytmark said: "But of course there has to be something in it for you, not?"

"We would like you to keep breeding war animals, so we can use them in the army of the United Planets. ", said the ambassador. Of course would he want that. He did have time to look that up apperently. Apart from a few illegal smugglers, the people of Zootopia had the only asylum breeding a special kind of war animal. They were stronger than all the rest. And they were the only ones that could breed legally. But of course, they could only sell the animals to the king, and as you'd expect, he didn't pay much.

So the prime minister said: "That will be no problem. In the past a huge part of this planet was already mined. According to our calculations, we can mine outside of the asylum, and under the ground of the asylum without damaging any of the biotopes of our animals."

 "Well, then I think we can come to an agreement easily.", said the ambassador.

But there was still something on Drytmark's mind. He was very scared of the king, and he needed to be sure that the Union of free Planets could protect him.

So he said: "Not so fast, there is still a problem."

"How so?", asked the ambassador.

"May I remind you that the kingdom is not a democracy? We cannot just leave it. The Kings won't just let that happen. He will be furious.", the prime minister said.

The ambassador said, a little aggravated: "But we will protect you! We have already taken 2 full galaxies of off the Kings hand, and we are closely to getting the upper hand in another galaxy!"

The ambassador was right. Now that the prime minister thought of it, it was pretty strange that so many systems had joined the Union. A lot of the leading officers and ministers where humans. Even the fleet admiral!  Drytmark thought that most planets hated humans. When they discovered the nearest system with a livable planet, their own planet was already as good as dead due to the immense pollution.  Almost every planet had once used polluting substances for energy, but none had almost destroyed their own planet in the process. The humans found other primitive humanoids on the planet, and when they saw those humanoids couldn't resist against them, they moved over there, still using polluting substances, and destroyed their habitats as well. They put the race in zoo's, but finally released them when they realized the creatures where become intelligent. They had taken good care of them though, and they became befriended races. Soon after they discovered intelligent races who were part of the union that ruled the galaxy at the time. That union knew of the human's destroying nature, but they weren't the worst ones they ever encountered, so they gave them a chance.  

But that was thousands of years ago already. Almost reaching a million. That wasn't why the prime minister thought the humans where hated. No, he thought they were hated, because a hundred thousand years ago, a human scattered destruction in the whole universe. He had sought help of the most dangerous race, the perilousta's. They were put in house arrest on their planet by the union, and he freed one of their fleets out the of the enormous shield that surrounded there planet. Together they destroyed the union and took power of the universe, at least the biggest part of it. The human called himself the president. But he soon got betrayed by the perilousta's. They took the power out of his hands. They kept their own people locked down though. Every perilousta was a greedy little evil being, and they all wanted power for themselves. The perilousta's of the ship killed each other till only one remained. He crowned himself as king of the universe. And it was all the human's fault.

When others saw the king's power, they wanted it to. Years after year, challengers came to the throne to beat the King and take over the kingdom. Beings of more than hundred different races took over the throne, but mostly the destructive race of humans.

So now you know why Drytmark thought most races hated the humans, but apparently they didn't. Maybe it was just because the fleet admiral was so intimidating. Even though she was a young woman(only twenty) she was one of the universe most' severe and strict being. She was very intimidating, and everyone who encountered her followed her orders without one word of contradiction.  If she would have been the ambassador, every planet she visited would join out of intimidation.  But maybe people didn't hate the humans because, in contradiction to the destructive, power-seeking ones, there were also a lot of really kind humans. Some humans had a kindness no other race had. They sacrificed their lives for the ones they loved, and that wasn't very common in the universe.

Anyway, the union is strong, they have an outstanding fleet admiral, and are very well organized.

Still, Drytmark was scared, so he said: "Yes, but here, you don't have any support yet. You are getting closer to the core of the Kingdom. Here, people are more frightened of the King than in your galaxies. And there are also a handful of people who even support the king!"

The ambassador proudly said: "I understand your fear, but I can assure you that we won't just let the King destroy your planet. I'll let you in on a little secret. These are the plans for our new destructor frigate, our new special weapon. This ship is capable of destroying a hundred royal frigate's in only matters of time! It will be finished within the next two weeks, and after we have tested it already. We'll bring it here, and I can assure you'll be safe then. We're even planning on building more!

The prime minister furrowed his eyebrows:  "Good, this can be a game-breaker for our decision. Give me a minute to discuss the final verdict with the cabinet."

"Good, I'll wait here", the ambassador said.

An hour later the prime minister came back. "I'm sorry it took so long.", he said.

"Don't worry, I was able to enjoy myself very good! You have a wonderful planet!", replied the ambassador.

"Thank you.", said Drytmark. "Now, for our decision...  We have decided to join the Union of free Planets.

"A condition? What kind of condition?", asked the ambassador.

The prime minister replied: "We do not want any official statements. Nobody, and I mean nobody but the top of your organization, can now that we are joining you. We will only make it official when your new weapon arrives. Only then can we be sure that we will be save. If the King finds out before your ship is here, then our hole planet is doomed. And even worse for you, nobody in this galaxy will ever trust you again, and nobody here will dare to join you. So I think it is in everyone's best sake."

"Good, I will make sure that only the highest in rank will now about your join. Even better, we will only sign the official papers when we arrive here in about a month. Then the King can't find out anything for sure.", said the ambassador.

"Great!", cried Drytmark. "Then I suggest I'll walk you back to your ship, and continue the guide trough our city."

"Good!", replied the ambassador.

The prime minister gestured to a building."These are the living quarters. All citizens of city A live here."

"Everyone?!", asked the ambassador very staggered.

"Everyone except some employees of the ministry, we live in the ministry itself.", said Drytmark.

"My god, there aren't many citizens here, are there?", asked the ambassador.

 "No, my best. Everyone who lives here works either in the asylum or the power center. All traders live on the plaza's apartment block, and all citizens of city B are workers in our industrial region, who live in the factory's.", replied Drytmark. He quickly added: "As you can see, it's a huge building though, it almost reaches out of the atmosphere of the planet.

"Well well.", said the ambassador.

"Now, before you go, I want to show you our asylum.", Drytmark said.

They continued the road and after ten minutes, they reached the boarder to the asylum. The whole city, including the landing platform and the plaza, where surrounded by a giant wall. The wall was made to protect the citizens of the animals of the plaza. Not only the carnivores. There were also beings that where so huge that, even though they're herbivores, they could destroy the whole city by setting two steps. So they had to be careful. All the structures in the asylum where made of titanium. But even with that, they had to move them every month. There was a special bread of predators in the asylum. They came from the planet of the Hunters. The Hunters where a race of semi-humanoids who hunted other species for fun. The King constructed his military academy there planet. The hunters who where strong enough, which where most of them,  where recruited for his army. The others were used as slaves in entertainment fights in the royal city. But anyway, the predator animals where capable of destroying titanium, which explains the move every month. The wall was made of three layers. Two glass walls with a ten meter diameter. But not just regular glass, no, glass from another planet. It wasn't even real glass. It was a transparent sort of metal. Stronger as titanium. It was also very expensive, so they couldn't use it inside the asylum. In between the two walls, was lava. But again, not just special lava. This lava was manipulated. It was concentrated in a lab. It was ten times as strong as regular lava. And they needed it. There was one type of beast, so huge, it was capable of breaking the glass walls. The architects of the asylum searched for the most deserted, most extreme far place in the whole planets. The place furthest from both of the city's of Zootopia. The beasts where meant as war animals for the King, and they were so dangerous that the King had to send a whole frigate to pick up one beast. So let alone training the thing. Luckily for the king, he had his own special remedy for that. Anyway, with the lava, the citizens where curtain of their safety. Not even the beasts could survive that.

The prime minister said: "Here we are! Our wonderful asylum!"

"What an impressive view! ", cried the ambassador. He was really impressed. Unlike the small, uninteresting city, the asylum was one of the most impressive things in the whole galaxy. He had seen pictures of it, but the real view was just... amazing.

Behind the glass stood a huge one-eyed creature. It only had two teeth, but they were huge and looked like they could do some damage. The upper body kind of looked like the body of a skeleton, and it had four legs. It kind of looked like a centaur from the old human mythology.  Kurum'ta once saw one in a human zoo. Human's had the habit of creating artificial life forms of all there mythological beings and put them in zoo's. It was impressing though, so no one really had any problems with it.

"What is that?", asked the Ambassador

"That's a Kuto-Snyaralp, as you can see it's a huge scary-looking monster, but it's completely harmless. It's a herbivore, you see.", Drytmark replied.

The ambassador asked: "Do you only have one?"

"No, we have young ones too, but they get sold when there 2 days old, so there kept in one of the compounds.", replied Drytmark. "This creature is asexual. It reproduces all by itself. It's quite extraordinary too. His teeth, you see, are also his eggs. Every year they fall off, and every teeth contains about twenty younglings."

But who would buy these animals, I don't expect them to be useful in combat, you said they're herbivores.", asked the ambassador rather dismayed.

The prime minister answered: "They aren't used for combat. We are the only planet who still breeds them, as they are almost extinct. They are a real gadget to show off your welt as a rich man. But of course, when they get bigger, they often get destroyed and we need new to send out some new ones. Most wealthy don't like it when they get big, because it's a hell of a job to take of them then. The King only lets us sell them to him and some nobility's. But they are a hugely wanted in other galaxys. If we could sell them freely, and export diamond, we could become a very wealthy planet again. Not that we don't sell them now, but only illegal, so only to those with enough balls and money to buy them."

The ambassador asked: "And where do the ships with these goods take off? I thought only city B had a port?"

"Yes, they get shipped there, the compound where we keep the young ones is also close to city B. There we ship them in our official port.", the prime minister replied.

"Official port?", asked the ambassador. He seemed a bit suprised.

Drytmark replied: "Yes, ambassador. As I said already, we need to smuggle to keep ourselves alive. But all official ports get checked regularly by the King. That's why we don't allow strangers to land on our plaza. All trade there is legal, because it gets checked by the King. Further inland, we have an underground port, where smuggler's take off with the illegal creatures and other smugglers arrive with products we need, but are illegal."

"Then why don't you smuggle your diamonds?", the ambassador asked, astonished once again.

The prime minister was a bit irritated again. He was getting the impression that the ambassador isn't such a clever man. "To smuggle our diamonds, we'd have to mine them too, no? And that would require new mining installations. Do you seriously think that we wouldn't be noticed then?"

"Yes, I see, of course... I'm sorry, I'm just a bit off lately.", replied the ambassador. "But still, you have an illegal port, how do you keep that off the radar?"

Drytmark replied: "It's a very small underground port. All ships who leave there have a cloaking device, and the same is true for all incoming ships. All smugglers use a cloaking device of course."

The ambassador finally got the clue for once. "Of course, the King still thinks you're loyal to him, so he doesn't think about checking on cloaked ships around you're planet.", he said. "But then how do the smugglers get past the Kings borders?", he asked.

"They don't.", Drytmark replied. "The smugglers are also citizens of the kingdom. And I can tell you there rather good in keeping low profile. The King has gotten the identity of only 5 smugglers in 5 years time. He thinks that the only smugglers are a few outlaws looking for a rush. But in reality there are thousands of smugglers in the Kingdom. The King might have a strong military power, but he's quite naive, you know."

"Then why didn't you let me know of that. I had a much bigger risk the way I entered. I'm an enemy of the King remember?!", replied the Ambassador aggravated.

Drytmark replied: "Do you really think we're  just going to give our most important secrets away to anybody!  Plus, for the Kings knowledge your just a ship from another galaxy paying a visit."

"I better hope so.", muttered the ambassador.

"I'll have somebody escort you back to your ship. Till in a month then, ambassador! I'm counting on you to make our lives better!", replied Drytmark.

"Till in a month, minister!", said the Ambassador.

When the ambassador came aboard his ship, his student, Lafbeth, said: "I monitored everything with the eye-cam, master! If I may ask, why where you acting so...So... Well, stupid? You where acting like you didn't know anything about Zootopia, when in reality you studied so much about it? You said you have more than one planet to visit a day, but we've been preparing this visit as our only assignment for two weeks. And I also think you where giving the prime minister the Impression that you didn't understand anything he said, but you already knew almost all of those things?"

The ambassador took a deep sigh. His student was very promising, and he was going to make it someday, but he still had a lot to learn. "We can't have the prime minister thinking that he's all that. He shouldn't know how important he actually is. He could start asking too much, things we couldn't give. But we need him to join the Union, without Zootopia, we can't start anything in this district. But the prime minister isn't stupid. He's much more clever than I anticipated. He was clearly onto me. Anyway, we got what we wanted, I'll make my formal apologies later."

When Drytmark was back in his office, his counselor asked: "Why where you coping with the ambassador's behavior? He was clearly acting stupid. I think he was trying to make us think that we aren't all that important to him. But we know better, he can't start anything in this district without getting our support first. We're the only ones with the balls to do it."

"We're also the most desperate.", Drytmark replied. "We might be important to him, but he's equally important to him. He just thought that we would make demands he couldn't live up to. And I can forgive him for that."

"But we could have gotten so much more!", the counselor protested.

Drytmark replied: "Power corrupts, never forget that. What is important to me is that our people have good existence,  and that we can finally start a good economy again. I don't want any fancy throne or a superfast ship."

"But!..." the counselor wanted to protest again, but Drytmark wasn't going to let that happen.

"No buts!", he said. "I'm the prime minister, and the whole cabinet agreed with me, and that ends it!"

The counselor left the room with the face of a defeated man. 

Chapter 2

"Finally man! Or long awaited vacation! A whole week of relaxation in the Mountos resort in Zor Van!", Van'ta cried.

"We earned it", Drane replied. "Mind you we defeated five whole Kingdom platoons on our own."

"If you call using combat droids 'on our own', that is", Van'ta replied.

"Fair play and heroic two-versus-fifty fights are for idiots, and we're no idiots, are we?.", Drane remarked.

Van'ta wan't listening anymore. "We're here!", he shouted, when their ship entered the orbit of the planet. "A whole week of Death-races, Vorbod hunting and... Well, you know... Exploring them exotic Zor females.."

"Just don't get in any trouble", Drane said. "Remember, no weapons allowed. So atleast keep them hidden this time."

"Whatever you say pal.", Van'ta replied. "Let's check in at the counter first."

Van'ta and Drane where both sixteen years old. Van'ta was a bioton, a race of green humanoids. Apart from there green skill, they had exactly the same body structure as humans, but they where known for having a completely biological technoligy, at least until they started breeding biological spaceships. When they where naturalised in the universal community, they stareted mixing their own technoligy with the common universal technoligy.

Drane on the other hand, was a human, but not a regular one. He was half Biotan. Biotans where a race constructed by the Bioton, in an experiment to improve all weaknesses in there own biological structure. The experiment succeeded, but the mutating from Bioton to Biotan caused death, and the mutation could only be passed on through natural reproduction. Drane's mother was Biotan, wich gave him all there improvements on bioton, and thus also human, weaknesses. Van'ta was also part Biotan, wich caused him and Drane to become friends immidiatly when they met, since all biotans had a connection that gave them the ability to read each others minds, and think together as one, wich is why Biotan army's where one of the the most feared.

Van'ta and Drane where both students at the Zol academy. The Zol academy was an initiative from the Union army of the Union of Free Planets. It trained in the use of Zolrocks, called powerstones by most in the galaxy.

Zolrock where discovered only 10000 years ago. They where first found when scouts of the Kingdom found a new wormhole. But this wormhole didn't lead to another system or galaxy, and couldn't be manipulated by technology!

This wormhole led to... A different dimension...

Through the wormhole, in this other dimension, there was open space. There was only one huge rock floating in the space. Normal ships couldn't fly in the space, they only floated. So a new sort of truster was made, to be able to fly in this new dimension.

But no matter how far they scouted the space, no more than one rock could be found.

After some time though, more of this wormholes started appearing, across the whole known universe. All of then leading to this other dimension, and in all of them one rock was to be found,

But it seemed like it was not one dimension, it where all different dimensions of the same sort.

Because again, no matter how far they scouted, no other rocks where to be found. They called them the Zol dimension, and so the rocks where named Zolrocks.

Ofcourse, the rocks where also examined. They first noted that, when one was on the rock, his or hers physical performences where inhanced significally. They experimented, thinking that when the rock would be consumed, the effect might have been stronger. They soon found out though, that the effect was only present when was close to the rock, and that only a small piece was needed to have the full effect. And it worked outside the dimension too!

They also found out that the effect faded after a time, and the piece carried by one had to be replaced every other week, month or year, depending on the size.

But all the effects where only discovered a hundred years later.

When under the effect of the rock, a person had a much stronger physical build. They were able to undergo a larger amount of physical damage. For instance, some otherwise lethal weapons didn't even make them lose consciousness!

This was a breakthrough for X67, the leading planet in mutation. They where allies of the Union, but many of their mutations where were lethal for regular type-1 humanoids, or there could only be one mutation implanted. Ninety percent of the Union's army consisted out of type-1 humanoids, so you can see the problem.

But under the effect of the rock, these lethal mutations could be implanted on the humanoids, even more than 1!

But what was even better, under the influence of the rock, one was capable of learning much more, in a much shorter period. Even mutations that gave them part of the physical build of other races.

There were other races in the galaxy who were considered to have "superpowers" according to the type-1 humanoids. Even those powers could now be implanted into the regular humanoids.

But even better, with some advanced training, one could have the power telekinesis! They could control other's minds, move things with their hand, and even create fire out of nothing. But they could also create energy, so that for energy weapons, they could even create their own ammunition.

 But to do this, they needed a special training. That's why normal soldiers only got Zolrocks and a few mutations, and there was a separate academy training teenagers starting at 10 years old to learn the advanced Zol training.

Some of them then joined the army as team sergeants, or they could become scientists or other things.

Another reason for the Zol academy was, that in order to achieve full power, and the full ability to have as many mutations as possible, someone without a training would become a mindless killer. Instead of becoming smarter, they became easily manipulated . They could be used as super army's, which was exactly what the kingdom did. Only an elite force in the kingdom could learn the advanced use of Zolrocks, others just had the same basic training and implants as the Union's army, and then there where the mindless super soldiers.

To win this war, the Union had also considered doing this, but they decided that even in contradiction with the popular saying, in order to defeat there enemy, they were not going to become the enemy.

Civilians could also buy Zolrocks, but only with a license. But even with a license, none had the advanced training, and it was still dangerous if they would experiment with many different mutations.

On the black market, special consumables where developed. They where mixed with mind manipulating serum's, that could give the consumer a great hallucination. They were then sold as drugs.

Not only did one die fast of these drugs, but they could also turn him into a vicious killer, just like the super soldiers from the kingdom.

That's also  why healers where trained in the Zol academy. A few of them joined a mission to help drug users and stop their bad habids.

That is the full purpose of the Zol academy.

When they arrived at the couter, the receptionist remarked: "Hey kids! Isn't it school period? I'm fairly certain it is, surely for humans."

"We don't go to school", Drane said.

With amazement the man replied: "School is obligated by law galaxy-wide, You have to go to school. Or are you kids outlaws? Cause we don't allow outlaws in or resort."

"I can assure you that we have the proper documents to be allowed passage to your resort.", Drane replied.

"And by the way, Zol acadamy students don't have to undergo the standard education system.", Van'ta added.

"What the heck is the Zol acadamy?", the receptionist asked.

Drane was astonished. Don't you know Zolrocks?! Who the hell doesn't know Zolrocks?!

"You mean powerstones?", the man replied. "Of course I know them, but what is the Zol acadamy?"