My Tribute to Flash Gordon

Note: coming in the near future will be realistic illustrations, using the latest modeling software.

It is my claim that that my Larra Universe is a tribute, rather than much of a derivation of the Flash Gordon Universe. If anything, it is far more of a homage to the Universal Serials, which are now in the public domain, rather than the comic strips of Alex Raymond. I pay far more attention to the rules of science and science fiction, and to logic, than any of these predecessors, which totally lack any historical expository material for the stories whatsoever. In addition, there are only so many root plots that are the basis of all of fiction.

MY PLOT:
Exposition: the pilot, his wife, and their scientist buddy, are caught in a swirl of energy and accidentally whisked across the galaxy to an Earth-like planet. They end up at the mercy of a demented ruler, who had been corrupted by narcotics and a faulty transformation. They escape and are rescued by a rival faction, who are not necessarily better than the demonic ruler. They get drafted into a war not of their making, with tragic consequences. They go home, but it is not a happy ending.
Story: jetliners are being whisked out of the air, and this time it is no accident. Having picked up a new crew member, they take their spaceship to investigate. Reluctantly, they find themselves once again on the other side of the galaxy, even less equipped to deal with the encountered situations than the first time. There are old enemies, old allies, and strange new allies. The demonic ruler has grown even more powerful and can only be defeated through the use of a fabled transformation. There is no other way to combat fantastic strength, magical powers, and a giant monster. This time there will be victory and romance, but some things have changed forever.

The basic plot of Flash Gordon is very easy to adapt, unlike Star Trek, which has a very complex universe. In order to write a story that readers would recognize as being in a Star Trek universe, it is necessary to reference stock descriptions, names, and places. In Star Trek jargon, a story taking place in the Star Trek universe is called a May Jane story, but Paramount Studios will vigorously fight to disallow any such story.

Note: the beginning portion of this page is not a description of Larra Conquers the Universe; rather, it is a compilation of all the expository material that precedes the actual story.

Long, Long ago...

A civilization arose on a planet called Taegella, which is located about 80,000 light-years across the galaxy from Earth. As a planet, Taegella is much like Earth, only twenty-seven percent greater in diameter, with a five percent greater gravity, due to its lower internal density. The planet has a major Northern continent, with many accompanying islands, and a major Southern continent. The Southern pole is an open sea with some ice fields, while the Northern pole is a vast, icy wasteland.
Taegella has three small natural satellites or moons, whose approximate diameters, in order of closest to farthest distance from the planet, are 950, 1975, and 1225 kilometers.

The Taegellans are a humanoid species that are very similar to human beings. They are not quite so tall, on the average, and they tend to be more lithe than us. They have a narrower nose, rounder ears, and cat-like vertical pupils in their eyes. They have a similar sexual dimorphism, between males and females, but they only have four digits on each hand and foot. However, this was a feature that allowed technical advances early in their history, because their octal arithmetic was readily adaptable to computers.

The Taegellans are divided into several marked races. In the North, live the Lazarrians, who have reddish skin and hair. They are called the Martial Techs, due to their militancy and their need to dominate the planet. Though there is a Royal House of Lazarr, the real power is vested in the Priests of Odak, who are not really priests, but a kind of military police.
In coastal islands and marshes, live the blue-skinned Teeli, who are called the Water Techs. The Teeli despise the Lazarrians, and they tend to coexist poorly with all other races.
On the Southern continent, live the olive-skinned Xehborans, who are called The Forest Techs. The Xehborans are quite skilled at integrating their technical society into their rugged landscape. On the other side of the rugged Western mountains live the pale olive-skinned Relkash, known as the Mountain Techs, who are a defiant, ultra-feminist society.
The fifth and last race are the extremely pale Quemgi, the Sky Techs, who live in their vast city, that is suspended several kilometers over the Northern pole. The Quemgi are an enigmatic race, who are highly androgynous, and quite xenophobic. While it is known that the Quemgi can fly, they do not have wings, so it is more correct to say that they have mastered the art of levitation.

For centuries, the planet has consisted of mostly technological societies locked into feudal, warring factions, whom the Lazarrians have long strived to dominate. Most scientific advances were accomplished by the Quemgi, but their creations were always being stolen by other races on the planet, which is why they have sought isolation.
Thousands of (Taegellan) years ago, the planet had been relatively peaceful, until the Quemgi discovered an artifact, that had been drifting through interstellar space for millions of years. This artifact contained a description of a kind of trans-mutational power generation, through the use of special kinds of gems, along with enhanced genetic modification that would make it all work. There were three of these gems: a small crimson sapphire, which was like a control unit; a large crimson sapphire, which was a trans-mutator; and a medium-sized black sapphire, which served as a fail-safe override. It was a scientist named Tarrok, who put the small sapphire in a ring and the large sapphire in a necklace. It was also Tarrok who devised the trans-mutational process linked to Taegellan DNA, and who was the first to undergo the full version of the transformation, that would allow advanced powers without the jewels.
When word spread of this development, warring faction formed everywhere, driven by an insane desire to possess this ultimate power. There was a great aerial battle over the equatorial ocean, as factions tried to obtain the black sapphire, that had just been stolen from the Quemgi. It was felt that, if the crimson sapphires could not be obtained, at least the black sapphire could be used to negate the effects of those powerful gems. The airship carrying the back sapphire crashed into the sea, allowing it to be retrieved by the Teeli.

Not so long ago..

There was an auspicious birth amongst the Lazarrians. Prince Kragg, a rare right-handed boy, and his twin left-handed sister, Princess Zolanda, were born into the royal house. This raised expectations for their eventual subjugation of the whole planet. Kragg was eligible to become a kind of super powerful man-woman, called the Tarrok; however Kragg had many problems, not the least of which was that he was quite psychotic, and totally addicted to the powerful narcotic, Tavik.
This may not have entirely been Kragg's fault, since the Priests of Odak pushed and prodded him into the role of the chosen one, along with large doses of unrefined Tavik.
The Quemgi had control over the transformation process, and they were not about to let Kragg enter their city. Kragg needed a way to get into the sky city, and it was made possible by means of a null ship, recently developed from stolen technology, that could become invisible to all means of detection.
Kragg stealthily entered the sky city, along with the right-handed Lazarrian woman he needed as a template for the transformation. Many Quemgi died in the assault, and Kragg initiated the transformation using raw, rather than the required refined Tavik. Though the transformation was somewhat of an abomination, Kragg had become the powerful Empress Kragg, self-styled, demonic ruler of the universe. She killed her woman companion, and then stole the prized red sapphire necklace, along with its complementary red sapphire ring, before escaping back to Lazarr.
As if Kragg's powers were not demonic enough, she had also become a kind of estrogen vampire, who could increase her powers by sucking the life from a right-handed woman in the embrace of death.

Though Kragg had become a Tarrok, after a fashion, she found herself unable to use the sapphires, so she gave the powerful jewels to her sister Zolanda, and proclaimed her queen of magic. Once she learned to use the energy in the jewels, Zolanda would become a great sorceress. No one could stand in her way, except the Teeli, who possessed the black sapphire, that could negate the power of the red sapphire.

At this time, one of Kragg's scientists had developed the galactic lamp, again from stolen technology, that would allow them to view planets and stars up close anywhere in the galaxy. They were searching for a fabled species with pointed ears. During one of many scans, they discovered Earth, and became intrigued the the human beings that they discovered. We were the most similar species yet discovered.

During one scan of the Baha area of Mexico, the accompanying atmospheric disturbance caught the attention of those in a small plane, who were flying down on vacation. On the plane were Lawrence Coop Cooper, his newly wed wife, Jean DeLong, and their scientist friend, Dr. Frank Zelenka, affectionately referred to as Doc. Their plane became caught in the swirling energy field of the galactic lamp, which whisked them across the galaxy to Taegella. The surprised Lazarrians eventually renamed their device the matter bridge.

Escape from the fire into the frying...

Upon emerging from the beam just above the outdoor cradle of the galactic lamp, Coop struggled to keep the plane in the air, while pulling away from a kind of containment field. As the plane picked up altitude, Coop paused to marvel at the grandeur of Lazarr City, intricately constructed of complex, intersecting geometric shapes, archways, and terraces. However, much of the city looked discolored and dilapidated.
Since he saw nowhere to land the Cessna, and since the obvious airfield was not long enough, he steered the plane toward a nearby open plain, populated in places by a large herd of alien animals. Soon they were flanked on each side by a pair of strato-cruisers, flying black wedges, each with a bubble gun turret on its upper hull. When proximity torpedoes exploded in the sky ahead of them, it was obvious that it was a good idea to land as quickly as possible.

As soon as one of the strato-cruisers landed, a rear hatch dropped to the ground, and three Lazarrians emerged and cautiously approached them. They wore ruddy uniforms, which had an emblem of a giant black claw within a circle on their chests. They had drawn disrupters in their left hands, so Doc advised not to provoke them. As Coop, Jean, and Doc each raised their right hand as a sign of peace, the Lazarrians jumped back, as if struck by awe for a moment, but it did not last, since they promptly placed some kind of a headband on the head of each of the human beings, which caused everything to go black.

When the ringed headbands were removed, it was as if they had suddenly awakened. They found themselves in the royal chambers of Lazarr City. As a hint of problems to come, these chambers were also dirty and in disrepair. There were many conversations going on around them, but they understood nothing, until each of them had a small disk clipped to their clothing near their necks. Suddenly, much of the speech they heard started to make sense. The devices were universal translators, which were quite effective, but as they soon learned, not perfect.

They were greeted and welcomed to Taegella by Empress Kragg and Queen Zolanda. When Kragg spoke, they were immediately filled with a sense of trepidation, as if her cordiality was a ruse. The more Kragg spoke, and the more strange comments she made, the worse the feeling got, especially considering the way Kragg eyed Jean and insisted upon touching her right hand.
As they were being led across a small airfield to their quarters, Coop whispered that it sounded more like they were heading for cells, and that they needed to flee at once! Coop overpowered the two guards, and forced them to give them access to a nearby strato-shuttle. Inside, even though Coop was an experienced pilot, he could not coax any reaction from the controls. Doc pulled on one of the guard's hands, revealing a special tattoo, which was a kind of servo-metric key. Coop forced one of the guards to pilot the shuttle Southward at low altitude, and then to land on the coast once there was only ocean ahead.
It was not a place of safety, because they were promptly captured by olive-skinned Taegellans, each wearing a green uniform, which had an emblem of a black lighting bolt within a circle on their chests. They were led into another strato-shuttle, outfitted with a null generator, which promptly took off and steered a course Southward over the ocean. This time, no headbands were used.

The shuttle landed in Xehbora, where they met the ruling prince, named Aahn. Prince Aahn was quite open and friendly, but also seemed tricky, as if he had a hidden agenda. He assured Coop, Jean, and Doc that they were his special guests, and that, since they were all right-handed, Xehboran law specifically protected them.
Aahn had a plan, which was so many schemes within schemes, that it could hardly be tracked. Coop and Doc were given servo-metric tattoos, but not Jean. Aahn insisted that the law forbade women from from piloting any aircraft. Aahn finally revealed his plan: with Coop, Jean, and Doc as his allies, he could build an alliance that could topple Kragg. Reluctantly, the humans agreed to help, wondering if they would ever see home again.

After being on Taegella over a year, the time for action had arrived. Coop had become a master pilot, and Doc was beginning to understand Taegellan physics. They joined an invasion force heading North, and they reluctantly allowed Jean to join them.
They quickly crushed their opposition and entered Lazarr City. Zolanda fled in her personal spaceship, but Kragg stood her ground, ready to fight. Just as victory seemed assured, things went horribly wrong. Being forty times more powerful than any man, Kragg plowed through Coop's contingent, and then casually approached Jean. Coop tried to stop Kragg, but his disrupter had little effect. Though Coop was well trained in martial arts, he was no match for Kragg, who broke bone after bone, and finally threw Coop against a distant wall.
Once Jean emptied her disrupter, she was caught in Kragg's hypnotic gaze, and pulled into the embrace of death. Coop could only cry in vain, limping along behind Kragg, as she carried Jean's body out into the plaza. Along the way, Coop found a discarded turbo-disrupter, which he quickly adjusted to maximum power. He could only watch as Kragg flung Jean's body into the Waterfall of Oblivion.
As Kragg turned, she faced Coop and snarled in contempt. Kragg turned black in the beam of the weapon, but she stood her ground until the turbo-disrupter went dead. As Coop searched for another weapon, Kragg staggered and fell over the edge into the falls.

The victory celebration was somber. In an unusually generous gesture, Aahn gave Coop and Doc his personal space cruiser, and send them on their way home, back through the matter bridge.
While this seemed like the end, four years later, they would learn that this was actually only the beginning. Adventure, love, and transformation await them on the other side of the galaxy, and this time, Kragg will meet her match.

The Spaceship...

Of course, the story is much about that classy spaceship. My design is different from the one's in the serials, that started out in Just Imagine in 1930. My design has several variations in my story. Aahn's personal space cruiser is 15 meters long, constructed out of metallic-ceramic, which has partial regenerative capability. It sits on special elastic skids that are nearly invisible. It is very streamlined, with a narrowing just before the fins in the aft section. The airlock is situated not far from the forward section: the inner door recedes into the floor, and the outer door folds downward, to reveal built-in steps. Near midships, on either side, are black bubbles that house the flash disrupters, double-gimbaled weapons that pop out when the bubbles open up. Flash disrupters feature a quick rise to to ultra-reactive harmonic frequencies.
Just aft of midsection are the gravitonic impellor tubes that girdle the hull. Just two meters further aft, within the ship, sits the accumulator, the power source. The accumulator is about the size of a basketball, and is filled with allotropic helium. Using a kind of stasis field, energy is stored within the accumulator within all the empty space found inside the helium nuclei. The accumulator is charged by siphoning energy from nearby stars. At the narrowing of the aft section of the ship, is located the gravitonic coil. This area is translucent to reduce the field leakage that makes people sick, especially people from Earth. In the midst of the vertical rear fin and two horizontal rear fins, are four large gravitonic impellors. The popping and spitting during take-off is caused by the evacuation of air from the impellor tubes.
The spaceship has artificial gravity with inertial damping, and a repello field to lift it off the ground. A gravity brake holds it in place until it is time to move. For protection, there is a force shield that can directly link with the accumulator; however, excessive usage can deplete all the power.
Inside, there are two restrooms, eight escape pods, and eight seats, including the pilot's and copilot's seats. On one wall, there are charging racks for disrupters.
At the very front is a nose gun. It shoots tactical nuclear missiles, which are a variation of the accumulator. Within the allotropic helium interior of the missiles, are two small fissionable rods. At the moment the stasis field collapses, the rods come together, creating the miniature nuclear explosion.
The spaceship is capable of faster-than-light star travel using its overdrive module, which ties in with the gravitonic coil to alter the effective gravitational constant. This method of travel is not especially fast, and trips of more than a few light-years can be quite time-consuming.

Larra Conquers the Universe...

The story opens as a prologue, on the small planet called Vulcra, to where Zolanda had fled during the allied assault on Lazarr. Now she has been joined by her brother-sister, Empress Kragg, who has been nursed back to help by her followers, after almost perishing in the Waterfall of Oblivion.
They have built another matter bridge device, and focused it on Earth. This time, they intentionally scooped up an airliner. The crew and passengers were all taken prisoners, to become the subjects of the next test of Zolanda's developing powers. Zolanda successfully turned all the Earthers into Lazarrian women, with the lowly status of love slaves, to be used by the male garrison on Vulcra.

The scene switches to Earth, at an FAA center. Airliners have continued to vanish without a trace. They have called upon Dr. Frank Zelenka, who is now considered to be somewhat of a crackpot. Using his laptop computer, Doc shows that the airliners always vanish under the same configuration of stars. No one present at the meeting believes there can be a matter bridge, but that is of no real concern, since the appropriate government agency does understand, and they have assigned one of their top agents, Valerie Rogers, to assist Doc.
Doc and Valerie immediately leave to meet Coop, still badly crippled from his injuries sustained fighting Kragg, in a classified bunker in the mountains, above Indian Springs Air Force Base, in Nevada. There, they board the spaceship, and head for a close approach to the Sun, to recharge. Upon return, they track the next potentially targeted airliner, hidden in radar negative mode.
As predicted, the swirling vortex of the matter bridge appears. However, the old control codes no longer worked; this was a different matter bridge!
It was too late, as they latched onto the airliner with a coupling field, and found themselves being sucked in too. Coop and Doc were determined not to get caught like the first time, so they sped ahead of the airliner, and exit too fast for the containment field to trap them.

And so begins the new adventure. This time, not only do they have to deal with Kragg, but also her sister, Zolanda and her developing powers. Their ship comes under massive attack and is damaged. Forced to exit their damaged spaceship using the escape pods, Coop becomes separated from Valerie and Doc, who are captured by Kragg's forces.

Upon finding a network of friends, Coop returns to Taegella, where he and Prince Aahn are forced to form an unlikely alliance with the Quemgi. Too crippled to help in any kind of a fight, Coop must attain the strength to defeat Kragg.

Eventually, there is a happy, if not strange, ending!

The Crisscross Universe...

The next installment has not yet been written. For some reason, no matter how really dead Kragg might be, her followers, specifically the Priests of Odak, simply cannot abide their loss of power. Though our version of Kragg is dead and embalmed, there are still other, even more evil versions of Kragg in alternate realities. The priests are playing with matches, and the fire quickly gets out of control!

Our heroes' lives go on. Doc has a large research institute, and the United States has its first small fleet of spaceships. The children are growing, and they already are starting to exhibit inheritance of their father's powers. The institute has just completed the new prototype spaceship, taking the original design much farther than the Taegellans had ever dreamed of. Doc also has a girlfriend, and he no longer looks so gaunt and undernourished.

While they are at Wolfe 359, testing the new prototype, all hell breaks out on Earth, as a hazy, purple energy field envelopes the whole planet. Reality starts constantly shifting, and normal reality, including gender and identity are no longer a constant. As soon as the news reaches them, they attempt to return home, but some kind of widespread suppression field prevents the impellors from working. Then they come under attack, and their only hope lies in Larra's ability to teleport.

Larra must eventually confront the ultimate Kragg in a fight to the death. But first, they need allies in their part of the galaxy. Their search uncovers the greatest secret of the Quemgi.