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Rated: E · Short Story · Action/Adventure · #2280447
President John F. Kennedy meets some aliens and he ends up in the middle of a crossfire.
It was early spring of 1960, an alien race called trindol, had made a contact to the United States of America. They approached the free world in peace, and the sole purpose of their arrival was to expand their knowledge about the universe.

President John F. Kennedy welcomed his guests beyond the stars, and on one day he and some other members of the cabinet were invited to dine to trindol's ship. After long necessary safety precautions, tests and several handshakes later the President of the United States ascended to the space.

"Mr. President, are you ready to go?", asked agent Bolden and knocked softly on the President's cabin's door.
President Kennedy looked at his reflection from the ship's window and straightened his tie. He smiled to himself when his fingers touched the fine fabric. Jackie had chosen that tie for him to bring good luck and safe return. It had been a rough decision to make when the President had chosen the fortunate few who would accompany him. The First Lady had protested for being left out, but eventually she agreed to stay in the safety of the White House with their daughter. Besides, she was heavily pregnant with their second child and after appealing to that fact she submitted to her husband's will.

"Coming", President Kennedy replied and stepped outside.

The spaceship where the trindols had invited them was vast. It could easily accommodate thousand individuals plus heavy machinery for field studies and exploration.

From the day one the trindols, had expressed their wish to study Earth, and learn the ways of its nations. For payment of this opportunity the trindols offered a scientific alliance between themselves and humans. As a token of a good will they were willing to share their knowledge about space travel which the members of NASA, were more than willing to obtain.

Back in the White House the members of the cabinet were eager to take the offer, this could be the very booster they needed to win the space race before it had even started. President Kennedy saw no dumb sides in this deal if the trindols would keep their word which he wasn't too sure about.
"We don't know anything about these beings, so I would tread with caution", he remarked on one late evening when the cabinet had gathered.
There were few who did agree with the President, and eventually, they made a compromise, they would not agree to anything before they were absolutely sure that these beings were not on a warpath.

The captain of the trindol ship who introduced himself, as Jadaah Catedo didn't blame the President about his skepticism and after few weeks of careful familiarizing from both sides the trindols were allowed to conduct their experiments on US' soil.

As President Kennedy was walking on the long silver corridor he could not, but wonder the brilliance of these beings. They had reached such heights which his people could only dream about. Everything in the ship seemed to work seamlessly. Troops of artificially intelligent robots or synths as the trindols called them, kept the machines running while the trindols themselves occupied the controls and more demanding tasks.

Water, oxygen and food were carefully recycled in endless loop of use, cleansing and reuse. Nothing was ever wasted or thrown away. Being in their ship made President Kennedy feel that he had been wrenched far into future, cleaner future where the nature and home were the same thing. The trindols respected all life and it did show in their habits. President Kennedy learned that trindols took only what they needed to survive and then returned the gifts back to their planet.
They respected their home world like a child respects his parents and most of the time they did refer their planet as their mother.
Their detailed depiction of their home reminded the President about Judy Garland's song "Somewhere over the rainbow", how wonderful that world must have looked like.

Soon he and his entourage arrived at the dining room where the captain Catedo and some other officers were waiting. After tasty meal President Kennedy felt the oncoming urge to have a cigarette, and he asked, where he could have a smoke?

Captain Catedo got up from his seat and started to lead the President to more suitable place.
As they were walking inside of a massive glass tube, President Kennedy saw how the Earth's moon was slowly passing by the ship.
"I have never seen the moon so close," he said in awe.
"The nature is the most beautiful thing to look at Mr. President," captain Catedo replied softly.

Just when they were about to reach the ventilation area bright silver lights were turned off to blood red. Soft humming of the ship ceased and ear-piercing sirens started to scream.
"A HOSTILE VESSEL SPOTTED! A HOSTILE VESSEL SPOTTED!" the alarm warned.
Right away captain Catedo contacted the lookout via a strange looking contraption which was in his wrist and asked what was going on?
A small hologram image of the lookout appeared from captain's wrist and he said:
"A fully armed, xadson, warship is approaching."
"Have they made any contact?"
"No sir, they are about to fire at us."
"Transport us to the bridge at once", the captain commanded and in the blink of an eye both he and President Kennedy were at the ship's bridge.

The lookout, first mate and the rest of the crew tried to contact the other ship which was shooting laser beams towards the trindol ship.
As the beams hit the hull, the whole ship trembled, and blue sparks started to rain from the control panels.
Finally, the other ship agreed to open the video message channel and the captain started to speak:
"This is captain Catedo of the ship Nulmyria, please abort hostile activities."
Then President Kennedy saw how the ugliest looking face appeared to the vast computer screen of the bridge.
The closest thing he could understand it's looks was that it had an enormous fly's eyes and wide jaws of a beetle. Then it started to speak, but President Kennedy wasn't able to make any sense of the strange yips and yaps it made.
"We have done nothing to provoke your people, so please abort the hostilities", captain Catedo repeated.
Then that awful mixture of a fly beetle turned its gaze towards the President and another flood of aggressive gibberish followed.
"He and his party are our guests, and his people have nothing what you could want, so leave them alone," captain explained.
From the aggressive respond President Kennedy concluded that this hostile alien had no intentions to pull back.
"They are about to embark our ship!" the lookout shouted.
"Put the protective shields on immediately and prepare to evacuate the humans back to Earth", captain Catedo ordered.
"Don't you have any firearms?" President Kennedy asked.
"No, we don't, we avoid violence at all costs," captain replied.
"But they will kill you all!"
"I know, but we don't spill any blood."

While they were still speaking the xadson ship opened fire and crippled the protective shields.
Nulmyria trembled violently and captain Catedo teleported himself and President Kennedy to evacuation block. Unfortunately, the xadson troops had already invaded Nulmyria and killed several members of the crew and the secret service.
"You wanna play dirty?" cried agent Bolden and emptied his service weapon to the last remaining xadson soldier.
Although the invaders had a thick armor, the led bullets did pierce it and before the xadson soldier died it shot the agent Bolden and wounded the captain.

"Quickly Mr. President, into the pod," captain urged while he was holding his bleeding abdomen.
"Oh my God, you are really hurt," President Kennedy lamented, when he saw the captain's wounds.
"Don't worry about me, I must send you far away, so they cannot find you, or that planet," captain objected and tied President Kennedy to the seat.  
"What are you talking about? You mean the earth?".
"There is no time to explain we must abandon the ship now!"

With his last remaining strength captain Catedo closed the pod's lid and executed the emergency launch. And then he collapsed onto the floor.

The evacuation pod was catapulted to the space with such of force that President Kennedy lost his consciousness.
Before the darkness took him, he saw a softly glowing millipede like being crawling out from the captain's ear. He was far too much in pain to care what he was seeing and then, all went black.

President Kennedy's escape through space was long and silent. As he was hanging from the seatbelts, there was a full panic in the White House. NASA had been watching closely the Presidential visit to the alien spaceship and when they had seen the attack of the xadsons, and the destruction of the trindols, they assumed that none survived.

Vice-President Lyndon Johnson gasped, when he heard the news, but he composed himself quickly and ordered the First Lady and her child to house arrest. Nobody wasn't allowed to speak to them or tell what had just happened. The situation had to be kept under control, luckily the visiting members of the cabinet had managed to escape back to Earth, and they were interrogated. Johnson wanted to have the entire picture of the events to be painted front of him before he would do his next move. When he received the full report from the interrogation, Bobby Kennedy stormed into his office and demanded to know what the Hell was going on?

Johnson tried to dismiss the younger Kennedy, but it was in vain.
"I cannot tell you, before we have all the information in our hands," Johnson tried to avoid.
"Bullshit, you know perfectly well what happened up there so spit it out," Bobby demanded.
It seemed that it was impossible to avoid Bobby Kennedy, so Johnson replied:
"Plainly put we are not yet sure, but it seems likely that Jack Kennedy is no more."

His words made Bobby to step back.
"What," he asked in disbelief.
"According to NASA, some other alien ship appeared next to the trindol ship and blew it up. None of the secret service agents survived and Jack was not among the few survivals," Johnson continued.
It took few seconds from Bobby to digest what he had just heard.
"Do you have a picture or eyewitness testimony of Jack's dead body?"
"No, but..."
"Then you cannot know for sure that he died," Bobby Kennedy roared.
"No one could survive from that blast!"
"The attackers could have abducted him!"
"Believe what you want, but in my opinion, Jack Kennedy is now floating among the other heavenly bodies."
"Its President Kennedy for you. Backstabber," Bobby shouted and squeezed his hand into a fist.

He wanted so badly to punch that smug old man into his face, but he had to contain himself. Puffing with rage Bobby marched out from Johnson's office, he needed to find Jackie and Caroline.
"And where you think you are going," Johnson asked.
"That is none of your business," Bobby replied.
"The First Lady is not available right now, so I suggest you wait."
"Oh really? Watch me," Bobby dared.

Then all the sudden the White House security gripped Bobby and started to drag him away.
"You bastards, let me go, I am President's brother!"
"Oh, that you say you are, well I don't have a brother called Robert," Johnson duly noted as he watched how Bobby Kennedy was dragged away.

After long episode of dreamless sleep, President Kennedy opened his eyes. He was having a terrible headache and he felt dizzy.
Bright lights were surrounding him, and he had to cover his eyes.
Nothing made sense, just few minutes ago everything had been fine and then he had ended up in the middle of a crossfire.
The security measures had been taken to the ultimate level and still they had failed. How could that have happened?
Then he heard a soft sound of footsteps and saw shadowy figures behind of his fingers.
"Is there anyone in here? Could you please, turn the lights off," he asked.

Finally, the lights were dimmed a bit and President Kennedy was able to see once more.
As he focused his gaze, he saw three tall figures which he hadn't seen before. They looked like somewhat of humans, but they had a third eye on their foreheads, four arms and they had no mouths.
At first, President Kennedy didn't know what to expect from these beings, but then a vast wave of memories was flooding into his mind.
These beings were thedais, from a planet Zumuatania, which located in Cavia's constellation.
They had been close allies with trindols for centuries and them both shared common passions to learn more about the universe and keeping its less fortunate inhabitants out from harm's way.
Thedais were telepathic beings, who had long ago mastered the arts of psychokinesis and psionics.


President Kennedy had no idea, how he could know all of these things, since the trindols were the only alien species he had met. Slowly he got up from the hospital bed and asked where he was?
"This is an international space station Themis; we are the medics of this station. I am doctor Duhmos and here are my colleagues, doctors Aris and Havur, its 10th of June and it's 10:30 PM, on Earth's time if you are interested to know," replied the tallest thedai.

As Duhmos was talking his voice was deep, calming and it resonated softly in President's head.
He had never experienced such of a way of communication, and in other circumstances he would have started to doubt his sanity.

"What happened, how did I end up in here and where is captain Catedo," President Kennedy continued frantically.
"Don't you remember what happened?", the tone of the voice had changed, so President Kennedy assumed that one of the other two thedais had joined to the conversation, but he had no idea which one.
"No, I don't," President Kennedy replied and rubbed his forehead.
"The xadson ship attacked upon you, and the trindols, few of your people managed to escape besides of you and the captain. The escape pod which you were in had been programmed to fly straight to us, which we consider to be quite odd, since you belong to planet Earth," Duhmos replied.
"Unless...", started a third voice.
"What," the others asked.
"Unless the captain directed the pod to this station for a reason?"
"By the way where is he," President Kennedy asked and looked around of himself. There were few beds in that clinic, but they were all empty.

There was a moment of silence before Duhmos spoke again:
"His wounds were too great. I'm sorry."
"No, no this is not right! I don't belong in here, this cannot be happening, I want back home," President Kennedy cried and got up to his feet.

His head was about to explode from aching and sudden burst of violent anxiety took over his mind.
Pain pierced his every muscle like a burning needle as he moved.
Unexplainable sense of fear squeezed his chest like a tight rope, he wanted to run, he was like scared animal in a cage.
"Please calm down," Duhmos calmed the President.

He took a firm, but gentle grip on President Kennedy's torso and put him back to the bed.
The tree thedais looked at each other and since there was a long silence President Kennedy guessed that these beings were having a long debate about something which he was not included.
"Please tell us what your latest memory is before you got in here. Try to remember, even the smallest detail could be important," Duhmos asked and lowered himself onto President Kennedy's level.

President Kennedy took a deep breath and pushed away the anxiety which has overtaken him. Then he closed his eyes and returned back to the Nulmyria in his memories.
"I was inside of the escape pod with the captain. He was bleeding so much."
"What happened then?"
"He executed the emergency launch and then he collapsed."
"Go on."
"The launch was so sudden and such of intense force almost squeezed the life out of me."
"Did you see anything else?"

President Kennedy sighed and tried to keep himself calm.
"I remember seeing something white millipede looking thing which had a glow of its own," he replied.

Again, the thedais were silent and their silence made President Kennedy uncomfortable. He hated to be left out from things which clearly concerned him.
Then Duhmos spoke:
"What you told us made us to suspect that the good captain knew he was about to die, and he needed to save his uruth. The death of an uruth is always a tragedy, but it seemed that captain wanted to protect his uruth till the end and sent it to us."

When President Kennedy heard the name of the creature, he knew right away what it was. Without of hesitation, he said:
"Uruths belong to the home world of trindols. They evolved in the warm underground springs about 5 billion years ago. Long ago when the first tribes of trindols started to set up settlements they first discovered uruths. Soon they were worshiped as the divine voice of their planet when the first shamans let them to settle down into their brains. Eventually, all trindol clans acquired an uruth which lived inside the chief. Gift which the uruths granted to trindols was a source of infinite experience of its previous hosts. All memories which the host had experienced were stored into this creature and when the previous host passed, it just took another one of its choosing.

The choosing ceremonies are important events in the families and if there are plenty of potential heirs, the uruth chooses only one of them to be its next host."

Duhmos nodded and pointed out:
"All knowledge has its price, since we now truly believe that the captain granted his uruth to you, you must feed it and keep it alive since it may have some vital information."
"What do I need to do?"
"This being needs plenty of nutrition which you may not have enough in your blood to sustain the both of you. You need plenty of oils, sugar and oxygen which we can provide here at the station's clinic. In the meantime, try to figure out what was so important that the captain Catedo was willing to break their ancient tradition by giving his uruth to you."

After the thedais had arranged nutrition therapy to President Kennedy, he asked one more thing:
"Is there a way I could reach to my people back in Earth, and inform them that I am safe?"

"I will speak to the captain of the station and ask if she can arrange something," Duhmos promised.
Then President Kennedy was left alone, and with this promise in his mind, he let the soft humming of the space station to lull himself back to rest.

In her lavishly decorated bedroom, the First Lady Jackie Kennedy walked anxiously in circles. It was close to midnight, but she wasn't able to sleep. She had no idea what was going on, NASA had watched closely the President's visitation to an alien ship and now something had happened. Jackie had demanded to know the answers, but nobody said a word. She wasn't allowed to see or speak to anyone. Lyndon Johnson had just ordered her into her quarters without telling her why.

As Jackie looked at her little daughter Caroline, cold fear touched her heart. Her little girl slept soundly in her bed, without a care in the world. What if something bad had happened to Jack, how she could tell her little Caroline, and tears started to run down on her cheeks when she felt a soft movement inside of her womb. And their new baby, Jack didn't even have a chance to see him.

Quickly Jackie turned her head away and wiped her tears, she had to stay strong for Caroline's sake. Horrible scenes filled her mind, and it was hard to her not to cry out loud. She didn't want the girl to get upset, so she bit her tongue so hard that she tasted blood. Every passing minute felt like a lifetime, the silence was driving her crazy. Jackie wanted to get out from her prison, but a secret service agent was blocking the door. In her despair she sat down and prayed in her mind.

"Dear Lord, let no harm come to my husband. Please give me a sign that he is alright."

Right at that moment switchboard of the White House got an extraordinary call.
As the lady on duty answered to the phone, she heard a man's voice saying:
"This is the President of the United States."
"Yeah, right and I am the Queen mom," she replied.
"Listen to me, I am John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and I am trying to reach the First Lady or the Vice President Johnson,",
"The President doesn't call into this number," the lady pointed blankly.
"He is calling now, and he is ordering you to connect this call to the Vice President Johnson!"
"Vice President Johnson is very busy at the moment."
"I don't care how busy he is at this moment; I am the President and I'd like to have a word with Johnson!"
"Very well sir I don't have time for this, if you want to get cocky to Johnson then be my guest," she replied and connected the call.

Vice President Johnson had just sat down behind of his desk when his phone started to ring.
Without hesitation he answered, maybe it would be someone from NASA who would have located Jack's body parts.
"Are you sitting comfortably in your chair?" he heard from the other end of the line.
"Mr. President?" Johnson gasped, he recognized that voice.
"You don't sound too pleased."
"Sir, we are all in shock after we learned what happened up there," Johnson hurried to explain.
"I am still alive, so don't plan any overtaking just yet," President Kennedy advised.
"Sir, how can you even suspect me of doing so?"
"I know you Lyndon and first of all I want to speak with the First Lady and then my brother Bobby."
"Sir, she is in very delicate state of mind just now and..."
"Get the First Lady on the phone, God damn it!"
"Right away sir."

Tears of sadness changed to joy when Jackie heard her husband's voice.
Bobby has also been set free from isolation and he was listening the phone call with Vice President Johnson.
"My God Jack are you alright, what happened in there," Jackie asked through her tears.
"Yes, I am. Its a long story, but I will tell you everything when I get back."
"When will you come back?"
"I will return as soon as I can, but I need to deal one matter first."
"What could be more important than coming back to your family?" Jackie asked frantically.
"There is so much in stake that I cannot wrap my head around it either. Listen Jackie, this is very important, I am needed in here for a bit longer, I don't like it either, but this is something I have to do."

Jackie bit her teeth tightly together. She had so much of anger and sadness in her heart, but she pushed it away.
"Jackie are you there," President Kennedy asked.
"Yes, Jack," she answered and wiped a tear from her cheek.
"How is our little princess?"
"She is in her bed asleep."
"Good, you should go to bed as well."
Jackie nodded and replied: "Alright."
"Love you."
"I love you too Jack."
Then the connection was lost.

As the First Lady put down the phone, Vice President Lyndon Johnson waited impatiently what she would say.
"Now Mr. Johnson if you ever try to command me without clear evidence that my husband is dead, I will rip your head off."
Vice President Johnson stayed silent, and Bobby tried to hide his laughter.
"Did I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am."

After long hours of patient concentration and mental exercises President Kennedy was nowhere near of knowing what captain Catedo had hidden into his uruth. President Kennedy had seen the captain's family's vivid memories reaching as far as twenty generations. He had seen their family's humble origins and how they had climbed up in social ladder generation after generation. He had seen their family's almost entire history: triumphs, losses, tragedies and dramas. Each new generation brought something new into their family's fabric which seemed never to repeat itself. Every new host learned greatly from the mistakes of his predecessor so the new host had a greater advantage on his side when he would face a situation which the previous host had already faced and learned from it. Trindols didn't need books as tools of learning, all the experiences were transported to another via this amazing creature.

In President Kennedy's mind that was an excellent method of teaching since the memories had stayed uncorrupt and were as fresh as they had happened only few minutes ago. He was greatly impressed by uruth's capacity to storage so many lifetimes into its fragile body. Trindols had set themselves free from painstaking cycle of trial and error, which was very remarkable.

As President Kennedy was reaching more recent generations, he learned that there was a little girl in the trindol's home planet waiting for the captain's return. She was his only child and the heiress of her father's uruth. Seeing that little girl waving at her father as Nulmyria departed, President Kennedy couldn't help feeling sorry for the girl. She would never see her father again.

"Have you found what the captain had seen yet," Duhmos asked.
President Kennedy's heart missed one beat when he heard Duhmos' voice. The thedai had appeared to his bedside soundlessly or he had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't heard him entering the clinic.
"No, not yet, I must confess I am little lost in all these memories, it's not like I could just open the table of contents and pick whatever memory I'd like. It's like trying to hold together a flooding dam with a tape."
"It's normal, your species haven't adapted into this kind of mental stimulation. It took centuries even from the trindols to perfect their ability to control these beings."

President Kennedy sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead.
"My head is so full of past lifetimes, it's so hard to put them into order."
"It may also be difficult because the captain's death wasn't a natural passing. The sudden loss of the host may have shocked the uruth as well and it is trying to isolate those memories connected to the source of trauma," Duhmos concluded.
"How we could undo that isolation, cannot you take this thing out from my head by surgically?"
"It is not recommended to separate uruth from its host with such of violent way. It would do permanent damage to the both of you."
"Then what do you suggest?"

Duhmos crossed his hands behind of his back and walked while he thought.
"There is one way what we could use to dig out that buried treasure, so to speak."
"What may that be?"
"If you agree to it, you must trust me fully."
"Alright, I trust you."
"Then let me conduct a hypnotic session to you."

President Kennedy gave a slightly skeptical look to Duhmos.
"Hypnosis you said?"
"Yes."
"With all respect isn't that a bit of a nonsense?"
"Don't be so skeptical Mr. President, you have nothing to lose, and besides we will not let you go before we know what the captain was hiding. We cannot take that chance that it is something really important."
President Kennedy knew that Duhmos was right, if that information was something so valuable that other aliens were willing to kill for it, then it must be kept in good hands.
"Very well then, do your worst," he agreed.

Duhmos dimmed the lights of the clinic even further when it was almost pitch black. Then he turned the soft humming sound to alpha frequency, which would ease up his task.
"Now, close your eyes and take deep breath and comfortable position."
President Kennedy did what he was being told, and Duhmos started to guide him to a deep trance.

"Imagine that you are standing on the top of a staircase. And each step you take you will go deeper and deeper into calm, relaxing feeling."

Duhmos waited for few minutes, before he continued:
"Slow steps, take your time, you are in no hurry. Take a nice deep breath, hold it for a while and then let it out. Relax your whole body, let all stress and tension leave from your muscles. Let your mind be at ease and let yourself sink into this wonderful feeling of relaxation."

Again, Duhmos waited and observed his patient.
With his third eye he could see how President Kennedy's body temperature dropped a little, when his heart started to beat slower. His joints relaxed and his breathing became steadier.

Duhmos repeated his words of relaxation one more time, before he started to seek the hidden information.
"Now, I remember your saying that uruth showed you numerous lifetimes. I would like you to go into the life of captain Catedo. He is about to leave from his home planet towards Earth, what happened during that flight?"

As the numerous years of past life memories flashed through President Kennedy's eyes, he finally reached that carefully locked away memory about Nulmyria's departure. He was able not just see the memory, but also to feel the endless longing of that planet which captain had left behind. Somehow the captain had known that this would be his final voyage, but he had kept his thoughts to himself.
"Where are you now," Duhmos asked.
"I am at the bridge of the ship, and we are flying across the space."
"Are there others with you or are you alone?"
"My crew is in here with me."
"What else is happening?"
"The lookout says that he has found something."
"What has he found?"
"He says it is a new planet which we haven't marked yet."
"What happens next?"
"I tell the engines to stop, and I take a closer look of this planet."
"Is this planet special in some way?"
"Yes...It is, as I take a closer look, I notice that it, is a carbon planet in a thinly populated solar system with only five other planets. As I look at it, I call it as Eternium.

Eternium is about 2.1 times bigger than Earth, and its gravity is about 1.10 times that of Earth.

A single day lasts 44.38 hours and a year lasts 302 days. The planet is made up of 4 continents, which make up 75% of the planet's landmass.,
2 moons orbit the planet and Eternium itself orbits an orange sun in a wide, elliptic orbit.
The plant-like organisms on this planet are mostly small shrubs, flowers and grasses, all of which have spectacular colors, but they tend to remain quite small. Trees are spread thinly, but they tend to grow very wide, allowing them to store plenty of nutrients for when they smaller species bloom and take most of the nutrients in the ground.
While their colors, shapes and in some cases their scents may be wonderful, none of these organisms have developed beyond a more basic form. Some are on the right path, but it will take a while before we can see thorned or poisonous species on this planet.
Just like the surface, the underwater world doesn't have much more to offer than basic plants. While they do play an important role in many of the planet's eco-systems, they're not that spectacular to look at.

While the intelligent lifeforms on this planet aren't technologically advanced and it's still an uncertain what they know or think they know about the universe, they are quite advanced, nonetheless. Their current stage can be compared roughly to that of the late ancient Egyptians, but only in terms of progress. Their societies are completely different, as they tend to live in harmony with one another. This is mostly due to the species lack of strong emotions, which has developed, over millions of years without a real natural enemy, besides diseases.

Deep inside of this planet is a massive deposit of akelonite."

When President Kennedy mentioned the deposit of akelonite Duhmos understood why the xadsons had attacked. Akelonite was one of the four basic ingredients which they used to fuel their warships. If they would get their hands onto that planet's coordinates, they would surely rip it apart to get every last crumb of akelonite and they would destroy its inhabitants in the process.
Duhmos knew that their alliance needed to take this planet under their protection, all he needed, were the coordinates of this planet.
"Where it locates, this Eternium?"
Pensive wrinkle appeared onto President Kennedy's forehead while he tried to remember.

"It locates in the constellation of Oryctolagus."

As soon as he had revealed the location, Duhmos informed the space station's captain about the existence of this planet. The captain sent an urgent message to their headquarters, warning them about the potential xadson threat to this new world. Besides the warning, she also informed the trindols that one of their uruth's had latched itself into a human being, and therefore the doctors of the the station asked further advice, how to safely remove it?

Trindols answered quickly, they advised the thedais to sent President Kennedy into their planet, where they could perform the separation safely.

"Will it hurt," President Kennedy asked when Duhmos delivered him the message.
"I must confess, I don't know. We have no precedent, about this kind of case. However, I suspect that the elders of the ruling tribe, want to take you to one of their sacred fountains, where the uruths came to be.", Duhmos speculated.
"Will you come with me?" President Kennedy inquired.
"Yes, as a scientist, I am curious to see what will happen."
"I hope you don't consider me just as a germ under your microscope."
"Of course not, Mr. President."

As soon as all the necessary preparations had been made, a small spaceship was launched towards the trindol's home planet, Istrimia.
During the flight President Kennedy thought feverishly, what he would say to the captain's daughter? He wondered if she was still under the impression that her father would come back?
According to the space navy's protocol, all crew members who had died in the space were launched into its vast emptiness. There was no room for corpses in a spaceship.

Soon they reached Istrimia and a warm feeling of home coming filled President Kennedy's mind.
However, he scolded himself for such of feelings, this planet was not his home, it was only because he had this strange creature in his head which created these feelings. He felt how it absorbed more and more of his identity into its coils, which he didn't like one bit.
The sooner he would get rid of it, the better.


"We just found out that there was a traitor among the Nulmyria's crew, who leaked the information to the xadsons. How we can be sure that we can trust onto this human," the leader of the elders asked when President Kennedy was presented to them.
"Many of his people did die as well in that attack, he is not to be blamed," Duhmos defended the President.
"We know, but it is so hard to us to understand, what madness made the captain Catedo to grant his uruth to a human?"
"It seems that he had no other choice, because if he hadn't, the planet with akelonite would totally be on the mercy of the xadson invaders," Duhmos pointed out.
"That is true, but this was a sacrilege and a violation of our culture."

"With all respect, I wasn't consulted about this affair either, if that would make you feel less violated," President Kennedy remarked.
The elders looked at the President with a slight despise in their eyes.
Duhmos had warned him that they might see him as an abomination, but President Kennedy didn't let that bother himself.

"Besides we don't have any time left for petty disagreements, the uruth must be taken out from this man and give it to the captain's daughter," Duhmos argued, when he realized that the elders didn't want anything more than just roll in self-pity.
His comment seemed to snap them out from their contempt, and they returned to the matter at hand.
"Yes, according to our old laws, if an individual doesn't want to keep the uruth it must be returned back to one of the sacred pools underneath," the leader replied.

The elders took President Kennedy and Duhmos deep underground. As they were walking down the stone steps, strange feeling overtook the President.
"How are you feeling," Duhmos asked when he sensed a change in President Kennedy.
"Everything feels so twirling," he replied.
"The uruth is now sensing that it is coming closer to its home and it might be preparing itself for departing from you," Duhmos explained.

Soon they had reached the end of the steps and they entered into enormous underground cave.
In the middle of the cave was vast milky white lake where random columns of steam were rising up towards the stony ceiling.
As President Kennedy was looking the lake before him a little girl appeared from the shadowy corner.
"Are you the one who was with my father, when he died?", the girl asked.
The President turned to look at the girl and replied:
"Yes, I was.",
"Was he brave?"
"Very much so."

"I wish I could have seen him one more time," the girl whispered with broken voice.
"I know, and I wish I could comfort you by saying that your grief will pass, but it doesn't, you just learn to live with it, however your father left his entire life's memories to you. Are you ready to claim your inheritance?"
The girl looked at President Kennedy and nodded.
Then they started the separation ritual.

Duhmos supported President Kennedy behind of his neck while he floated on the warm water.
The captain's daughter was floating next to him and soon the President Kennedy felt something moving inside of himself. The uruth was on move and slowly it crawled out from the President's right ear.
As the creature left, his intense headache finally gave in, and he was able to focus his thoughts once again. From the corner of his eye the president saw how uruth swam towards the girl and took its place, inside of her mind.
Separation was done, and entry to new hostess had begun.

The captain's daughter was taken under the protection of the thedais, since she was now the keeper of all the information of that akelonite planet. And as a fortunate bonus, she also had access to the life on earth through a short span of President Kennedy's life.

In the end President Kennedy was retuned back to the White House by the thedais.

Jackie ran to his arms, and she held him tightly.
She laughed and cried until she gave in to emotional exhaustion.
"Take the First Lady to rest and bring to me all the ladies who were answering to the White House phone line on that day of explosion, I was being told that I had the privilege to speak with the Queen mom. I want to know which one of them she was," he commanded his staff.















































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