The Cosmic Crusaders: The Golden Amazon Saga, Book Eight. John Russell Fearn
Two: Lord of Atlantis
A gigantic ridge of land rises from the Atlantic floor, causing massive tidal waves on either side of the ocean. Even stranger, both England and America are then assailed by an invasion of prehistoric monsters! A gigantic domed city rests on the newly risen plateau, whilst out in space an alien spacecraft orbits the Earth. Such are the mysteries and challenges facing the Golden Amazon, self-appointed governess of Earth, as she struggles to unravel the maze of mystery that was the deadly legacy of Atlantis!
Book Three: Triangle of Power
The marriage of Violet Ray Brant—better known as The Golden Amazon—and Abna of Atlantis should have ushered in an era of peace and scientific prosperity to the people of Earth. But an unexpected turn of events finds Abna betrayed and marooned on a satellite of Jupiter, and the Amazon flung far beyond the Solar System. With Earth’s two protectors removed, the planet is now at the mercy of another Atlantean, the master scientist Sefner Quorne.…
Book Four: The Amethyst City
The metaphysical union of the Amazon and Abna results in the mental creation of a fully mature daughter—Viona. Quorne, still struggling for domination, forces Viona into a marriage ceremony, and impregnates her. But with the intervention of Tarnec Brodix, a super-mind from an external universe, Quorne and Viona are separately flung into an ultra-dimensional limbo. Abna chooses to follow after his daughter, leaving the Amazon to brood over the disaster, alone in the Amethyst City of Saturn.
Book Five: Daughter of the Amazon
A miscalculation by the super-mathematician Tarnec Brodix destroys his universe, and the fault spreads into the Earth universe in the form of a Dark Tide of Absolute Nothingness. Unable to save himself, Brodix transfers his knowledge into the one mind powerful enough to receive it: that if Sefian, the son who has been born to Viona and Quorne. Sefian rapidly evolves, and, no longer human, after saving the Earth universe, vanishes into the greater universe, to seek new challenges. Then the Amazon is confronted with a further puzzle—a large section of the planet Neptune is discovered to be an exact duplicate of the Earth!
Book Six: Quorne Returns
The bacterial intelligences of Neptune plan to conquer Earth by replacing humans in key positions with alien duplicates. The Neptunians are themselves subjugated by the sinister Atlantean scientist, Sefner Quorne. Alerted to the threat, the Golden Amazon hits back by creating the ultimate doomsday weapon—only to precipitate a reprisal from the denizens of another universe.…
Book Seven: The Central Intelligence
The Golden Amazon’s arch-enemy, Sefner Quorne, discovers that all mental gifts, such as memory and creativity, are something that is broadcast throughout the universe by a Central Intelligence—and then interpreted according to the quality of the individual brain of the recipient. At the surprising suggestion of his wife, Viona, the Amazon’s daughter, Quorne travels with her to the very center of the universe, in order to wrest the secrets of mentality from the very source itself!
CHAPTER ONE
VIONA’S IDEA
With the passing of Sefner Quorne, master scientist of Jupiter, from the scheme of things, his destruction at the will of the Central Intelligence being absolute, there began for the three greatest scientists on Earth a new era of activity.
“Why don’t we do as I suggested long ago and form the Cosmic Crusaders?”
It was Viona who spoke—Viona of the copper-gold hair and sapphire blue eyes. Viona, daughter of the fantastic Golden Amazon and Abna of Jupiter. Viona—young, vastly strong, impetuously brilliant, already the mistress of a dozen complicated sciences and the widow of Sefner Quorne. But to her the memory of him was bitter. She had never really been his wife: he had simply used her—and now he would use her no more.
“The Cosmic Crusaders, eh?” It was Abna who spoke this time, the metaphysical wizard of Jupiter, seven feet of overpowering blond manhood, and the only male in all the Solar System who had ever beaten the Golden Amazon at her own game. In most things he was her equal, and in a few isolated instances her master, though she had never admitted it and never would.
“At least,” the Golden Amazon herself said, “it would be a change from monotony, Abna. Earth has little need of our assistance and guardianship these days.”
For a moment there was silence in the solarium at the summit of the great building where the Amazon had her London headquarters. Below, there stretched the enormity of citadels that was the metropolis. Overhead there came and went the fleets of soundless aircraft. Occasionally a rocket-powered spaceship took off in a soul-tearing scream, which faded as the vessel climbed beyond the limits of the atmosphere. Here was the world of a future time—placid, organized, and prosperous.
“You once said,” Abna remarked, “that we should start a kind of super ‘help your neighbor’ campaign and call ourselves the Cosmic Crusaders. A kind of helping hand to those planetary inhabitants who haven’t our knowledge and resources.”
“Right!” Viona confirmed. “Anything wrong with the suggestion?”
“Nothing at all; very laudable. The only point is, my dear, I can’t think of any planetary populations which need helping. From here to Pluto they are all under our aegis and our benefits are theirs. Whom are we supposed to help?”
“That is what has been baffling me, too,” the Amazon commented, turning her beautiful face toward the two at the further end of the sunny roof-top solarium.
Viona sat up and smote her head in disgust. “I live with the greatest scientific geniuses in the System and they can’t even see what I’m driving at! You’re slipping, the pair of you! I’m not talking about our immediate Solar System, about which we know all there is to know: I’m thinking of the worlds beyond! Far out in space where telescopic power cannot reach. Worlds nearer to the Milky Way than to us. The galaxial deeps, so far removed from here that our System would not be apparent to them any more than theirs is to us.”
The Amazon said: “We’ve been into the Outer Deeps before, Viona, and have never seen a trace of a planetary system like our own—unless you include odd dead planets here and there, little better than hulks.”
“Until we get out into the Deeps ourselves, mother, we can’t state anything for certain. I’m thinking, initially, of possible Systems that may exist in the region of Alpha Centauri. Alpha being the nearest star to us—together with Proxima, which makes for Alpha being a double-sun—there’s no reason why a System should not exist around him as our System exists around our own sun.”
“Quite possible,” Abna agreed, flexing his mighty arms.
“Very well then—” Viona spread her hands. “What are we waiting for?”
Abna grinned. “We are waiting, Viona, for suggestions as to how we reach the potential worlds around Alpha Centauri. Or have you overlooked that Alpha is twenty thousand billion miles away? A matter just over four years to reach him, even moving at the speed of light.”
“Of course I haven’t overlooked it! I haven’t overlooked, either, that there have been occasions in the past when we’ve often exceeded the speed of light by many times! Have you forgotten that the Ultra’s controls and power plant have been converted for four-dimensional travel? I employed them when I took the plunge with Quorne to the center of the universe in our encounter with the Central Intelligence. By warping the Ultra into the fourth dimension, we were able to travel at near-infinite velocity relative to the normal three-dimensional universe. Light is no more the governing speed factor of the Ultra than the speed of sound is the limit for aircraft.…”
“All right!” Abna protested. “Your mother and I are not exactly novices when it comes to scientific facts. Certainly the speed of light can be exceeded in the Ultra, but can we stand it for the long period necessary to make the vast hops between stars?”
“Why not?” Viona gave a shrug. “If we were normal people, I’d say we’d flatten out and die. But we’re