Meanwhile, at the time of the first civilizations, the Star Hunter spacecraft was traveling towards planet Earth, following the coordinates traced by Drako, the specialist in information systems and navigation. The Science spaceship followed them to help capture Mirov and his military men. They tracked the battle cruiser Genesis, and even without knowing exactly the place where they had fled to, they decided to follow Zara's intuition and go back to the early beginnings of the formation of human society.

Again, the clever doctor was right. She imagined that the Machiavellian Mirov wanted to rule the human beings, in a moment when their civilizations didn't possess the warlike knowledge to fight against him. This way, it would be easier to control them. His intention was to use the science he had to organize the human societies and develop them under his subjection. In addition, Mirov would build the civilization through fear and divinization, making them serve him from the beginning, with the support of extraterrestrial technology.

Commander Merko and his allies were anxious to approach Earth. The Star Hunter spaceship captured the signs of enemy presence by analyzing the surface of the planet.

"Sivoc, prepare the crew, we're almost at our destination," Merko said, watching the Earth through the hatch of the command bridge.

"We're all set, Commander. Let's get Mirov and, this time, he won't escape!" Crom stated.

In Science spaceship, Drako warned his commander:

"Sir, I already have Genesis ship on our radars."

"Put our shields in full force and hide our presence. Synchronize the radar with ship Star Hunter's for Commander Merko to track information from his ship's command bridge," Sivoc retorted.

"Done, Captain."

In the engineering room, the weapons were checked and the crew moved through the ship, verifying the systems for an imminent battle.

"Open a communication channel with the ship Star Hunter's Commander."

A hologram with Captain Merko's image appeared in the center console:

"Tell me, Sivoc, my friend. What do you have for me?"

"Mirov's ship is on our radars, Commander", Sivoc said.

"We were able to intercept him. Are all the shields raised?"

"We're in invisibility mode. Do the same, Captain. We need to plot a surprise attack plan. Dr. Zara is incredible, she hit the spot. She scares me sometimes... I'm glad she's on our team."

"I'm going to teleport to your ship along with Nicholas, Zara and Crom for us to study the approach", said Captain Merko.

Nicholas was traveling alongside Zara. After so many adventures, he now had some experience and was ready for whatever happened. As the mission's physician, the doctor's help was needed. In addition, the couple showed that they both were also good strategists. Their ideas helped their friends win the first battles and would certainly be useful in the next clash.

Zara approached Nicholas, who was resting in his lodge on the ship and gave voice to a thought that had bothered her for days:

"How must our daughter Helen be? I'm missing her so much!"

"Don't worry, honey. She's fine, next to our family", Nicholas replied, bringing her to him and hugging her.

She was nervous and worried. She moved away from his embrace, saying:

"We're taking too long on this mission. Will they be able to stand waiting for so long? I'm afraid that they will decide to return home and expose themselves to the dangers that Helen's differentiated condition may bring."

"Don't think nonsense, my love. Remember that after imprisoning Mirov, we can return to Earth at the exact time we left them in Costa Rica."

"That's the problem, Nick. It may be too late. I have a bad feeling..."

"Don't worry, Zara. Everything will be fine."

"You've already seen that my intuition is strong. And this time, I'm feeling there's danger in the air."

"Calm down, my love."

"I don't like this excess of optimism of yours", she sighed as she said it. "You always think everything will work out. In the world, there's good and evil. One is always close to the other, what protects us is the distance between them. Here, at this moment, we are experiencing this. Mirov is the real incarnation of evil. And to make matters worse, where my daughter is I can't protect her and I don't like it."

Zara felt tense, because she liked to have everything under her control. She couldn't bear the idea of being far from the one she wanted the most to support in her life, but she knew that this action was vital to the preservation of the human race.

She got anxious because of the situation. Nicholas chose to stay quiet. He realized that Zara wouldn't divert her focus from her concern. He was also distressed, though he trusted his mother to take care of Helen. What he didn't know was that Zara was right. Something dangerous was approaching them...

Merko summoned them on the ship's bridge and they all teleported to Science spacecraft, to meet Sivoc and the others. Everyone knew that they had to prepare, because the enemy team was trained for wars.

"We have two ships, while the enemy has only one, but I prepared them myself for the moments of interstellar combat. This could be our last battle. I never think a fight is over before knowing the strategy of the enemy, because they knew that we were coming after them and must have prepared some not so warm reception for us."

"We'll be ready, captain, to receive your orders and do what's best for humanity," Sivoc added courageously.

"I'll leave my team forearmed against the enemy attack. The sensors are ready to detect any maneuver from the opponent", Drako showed he was ready.

"I want you to stay in your positions and pay close attention. Any carelessness could be fatal."

Nicholas and Zara looked at each other worried about the conversation they had just heard.

The tyrant Mirov maliciously established his rule over the earthly population. The spaceship Genesis' crew made the first contacts with the nations of the Mesopotamian region and north of the African continent. They helped them understand the value of building a nation, and to establish it under a central administrative power, that controlled the entire population.

With the constitution of a government and the inclusion of other nations, the Sumerians and the Egyptians soon became great nations, which dominion extended far beyond their lands. The political-administrative organization developed agriculture, architecture, and commerce, causing the approach of all the humans of the planet around those who created the first civilizations. Everything happened exactly as Mirov had planned.

As the years went by, a dynasty of pharaohs rose in Egypt, while in Mesopotamia the Babylonian Empire emerged with all its force. In both, the rulers were chosen by Mirov.

The visitors from the planet Life, with the help of the Egyptians, Sumerians and other inhabitants of Earth built pyramids all over the planet. They also used their large robots to cut and position concrete blocks.

Mirov used as an argument that the pyramids would be great tombs for the burials of the royal family, and that they would allow a safe trip to the world of the gods. No one should enter their chambers to preserve the privacy of the pharaohs and their families buried.

Their souls would travel, while the bodies preserved like mummies would be intact. This way, they could return to their bodies and claim them as gods.

For the Egyptians, the construction would protect the pharaoh's body and his valuable material possessions from thieves. These pyramids had several traps and false entrances to deceive the looters. All designed by Mirov's engineers, who wanted to keep the electromagnetic power generation devices safe.

For the Sumerians, it was said that the great monuments would be symbols of the greatness of their kingdom and he would show them the way to reach the heavens. The mysticism of the ancient nations was the main ally of Mirov's plans.

He and his entourage were the people of the stars, regarded as deities by the humans, because they had arrived with their spaceship, weapons, and high-tech robots. And to the conqueror's joy, they would do what he so ordered. He was satisfied with the results of his plans.

Now, Mirov would take the next step: he planned to order his genetic engineers to improve the constitution of the humans' DNA, recombining their chromosomes and advancing the evolution of Homo sapiens.

"Why wait? I don't have much time. I have many ideas and I need to put all these things into practice."

However, before that, he knew he needed to eliminate his enemy Merko, who would surely come after him. That was the only hindrance between him and his ascension.

"The best way to eliminate a strong enemy is to look for his weaknesses... I know where and how I can defeat Captain Merko. I have kept a gift for him", Mirov thought, feeling as astute as a fox.

He ordered them to begin preparing the pyramids in all regions of the planet. He would create from them an electromagnetic energetic field around the planet, able to neutralize Merko's telekinetic forces.

The tyrant's engineers also lined up the Earth's main pyramids with stars from the Orion constellation, in order to create transport portals if need be. The electromagnetic energy would change the gravitational field, creating a wormhole.

The technology of the gravity shaping weapon could also be used to distort space-time, and take a smaller ship to another solar system if that were needed.

Mirov and his accomplices were worried about the arrival of the enemy commander, who wouldn't rest until he had imprisoned the tyrant, to punish him for his crimes.

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Read #ThePhantomMan Duology by #ChaieneSantos