A thousand chaos sprites, all imbued with the Power Cosmic, hovered in space like as many baby stars. Norrin Radd feared few things in the universe, but the list was now one item longer. He’d already dealt with a multiplier, Preak, but these were separate entities.

They could plan. They could think. They could trap. But how could he snare the Galacti without being caught in their trap?

There was one answer: Run. Thus began the race to Godthab Omega.

GALACTIC

Part V: Temporary Solution

By Hunter Lambright

“See how the mighty Surfer cowers before your Heralds, Diableri,” Tenebrous boasted. “Galactus’ lapdog is not all he had been made out to be.”

“Hold your praise,” Diableri cautioned. “The Surfer is one piece. The traitor Galactus is another.”

“Vengeance for immortals is the bane of patience,” Aegis said.

Diableri smirked. “Patience is all we have time for, sister. The rest will happen in time.”

The only sound on Godthab Omega was that of evacuation. The desert planet had been settled by the thieves of the stars, all looking for a place to land after spending so much time on the run from the law of their various planets. They knew how to run, because running was what had led them to Godthab Omega in the first place. Running was something they could do well, and starting over was another concept they understood. Within mere hours of Cardinal Raker’s planet-wide warning, the planet was clear and ripe for Glorian to go to work.

Earthquake stood back and watched, paying attention as the Changer of Worlds began the process of weaving together a new shape for Godthab Omega. He had long been a member of the Imperial Guard, but here, he was not put to work. He was meant to be the new Herald of Galactus, but he was unsure of what that meant. Thus far, he had not been put to work at finding new planets for the Devourer of Worlds to consume. He was grateful for this, but he also worried about the part that the Silver Surfer had for him in his plan. With Earthquake’s newfound attachment to the Power Cosmic, the Silver Surfer’s plan might rip apart the universe… but it was a necessary risk, especially with the knowledge that the universe would die anyway if they failed.

Cardinal Raker held his hands on Glorian’s shoulders, blue energy radiating from his body. As a Cardinal of the Universal Church of Truth, he held the ability to channel the faith of billions from all the churches across the cosmos. He poured that energy into Glorian, fueling his power to the entirety of the planet. Glorian began to glow with the same energy all the way down to a cellular level. If he did not expel the energy, it would kill him. Fortunately, expelling the energy was exactly the plan.

Glorian pushed his hands down into the ground, forcing the energy downward into the planet’s core. First, he planned to charge the planet at its core. The Surfer’s plan was for Glorian to fake a planet so charged with energy and power that the Proemial Gods, the so-called Galacti, would be compelled to come to the planet against their will. As Glorian pushed the energy downward, it spread from the planet’s core, upward out into the rest of the planet. It was an exhausting task, but Glorian pushed onward. He had been promised asylum and safety for his actions. Universal amnesty was too sweet a promise to give up.

Life sprung up where desert had stood only hours before. It started with tufts of grass, pieces that would never have been able to sustain themselves alone. But then the trees came, saplings at first, that filled out and grew in circumference as more and more of the faith energy of billions filled the planet. Trees became forests, and the planet that had been the place thieves went to die became a place mimicking life. Under normal circumstances, Glorian’s changes would fade unlike his mentor’s, but these were not normal circumstances. There was every chance that Godthab Omega would be destroyed in the upcoming conflict, but if it survived, it would do so as a place completely transformed. Glorian had started on Earth hearing the stories of water turning into wine, but somehow the faith of the Church of Universal Truth channeled into his power had the ability to change sand into water. It was almost enough to make him a believer.

Manufactured life filled the planet, and, standing on Godthab Omega’s only moon, Galactus hungered. He stood there, a mass of purple and blue, trying to avoid prematurely sating his hunger and ruining the plan. It would have to be done so that only he remained, as it had been before. It would need to return to the way it had been, or the universe would die in a matter of cycles. Too many siblings, too many who had hungered for the countless millennia of the new universe’s existence, would eat their way ravenously across space, destroying everything. It could not happen. For Galactus, it was about conserving his resources. He could only survive as long as there were planets to consume. The more predators out there eating planets, the more scarce food would become. It was the law of life. The earthlings called it “the survival of the fittest.” He believed it to be the survival of those who thought one step ahead of the competition. Did that make him the fittest? He did not care as long as he survived.

This was the feeling as a planet came to life. It was a feeling that did not go unfelt across the universe…

“Can you feel it?” Aegis asked, pulling Diableri from his gleeful enjoyment of the chase of the Silver Surfer. “Something’s happening.”

Tenebrous grunted in affirmation. “It feels… delicious.”

Diableri gritted his teeth together. “The great disservice this development does to my merry chase,” he cackled. “But enough. I hunger as well, and the last thing I want is for Galactus to beat us to it.”

“I have never felt this way before,” Tenebrous said. “It feels too right.”

“Your worry is unfounded,” Aegis spat. “The universe is not the one we knew. Spontaneous life is something that gives us creatures like the Nova-powered Surfer. This universe is willing to do the most uncommon things to survive. Its willingness to thrive in the darkness is something we have yet to encounter, but now we see it happening anyway. Is it so implausible?”

“Your hunger clouds your judgment, Aegis, but your words have merit. For me, I have always longed to taste a newborn world,” Diableri said, curling his fingers. “Enough deliberation. I aim to taste this delicacy, and if you decide not to come with me, you won’t get to find out whether it was real or not!”

At his last word, Diableri turned his back to Tenebrous and sped off through space toward the source of life energy that radiated from the darkness.

“Quick! He’ll get it all!” Aegis panicked and tore off in hot pursuit. Sighing, Tenebrous had no choice but to follow his siblings into the dark.

The Silver Surfer was made for quick races across space, but the chaos sprites were testing his upper limit. Always fast on their own, these sprites were each imbued with a piece of the Power Cosmic from Diableri himself. He had created the chaos sprites, and the Surfer guessed this made the power imbuement that much more potent.

Each little blast of energy that the sprites got close enough to fire at him stung him through his metallic sheath. The more hits he took, the more desperate the fight looked. He wished for power like the Human Torch complete with the ability to go nova in a desperate situation. In the dead of space, doing so would leave him floating helpless if he failed. It was not an option here, as much as the Surfer wished it was. He would have to come up with something different.

A number of blasts hit him in the back at once, causing the Surfer to hunch closer to his board, using it as a shield against the sprites as he whipped back around the horde in an attempt to lose them while still making his way toward Godthab Omega. The blasts that hit the underside of the board did not hurt him. He needed the respite or he would never make it back in time.

The sprites again found another angle to aim their blasts from, each spike of energy hitting the Surfer in the psyche as much as it did physically. He could not last much longer.

With Godthab Omega nearly in sight, the Surfer realized that all would be lost if they reached the planet before the Galacti. This realization caused him to falter, which was the worst mistake of all. A barrage of energy blasts from the swarm of sprites caught him in the back of the head, knocking him off balance. His body came away from its position hunched over the board, opening him up to a new slew of blasts. He clenched his jaw shut. He would not allow himself to scream. If this was the end, he would face it in silence.

A pixie screamed.

Another shrieked, and the Surfer felt the number of blasts lighten. Were the sprites gone or had they found new targets instead? He opened his eyes to a flurry of orange blasts against the sprites’ white energy specks.

“Surfer! I brought reinforcements!”

Blasting his way to toward the Surfer, Nova Corps Messenger San-Ol was a sight for the Surfer’s stung eyes. “I thought the Nova Corps was decimated!” the Surfer exclaimed.

“It was. I brought the remnants! Our crisis won’t mean a thing if the universe implodes without us doing anything to stop it,” San-Ol explained, his hands channeling blasts of the Nova Force. “Alone, you didn’t stand a chance against these things. With us, they’re easy picking. They can’t all focus on you at once.”

A Nova Corpsman with the appearance of a helmet alone with light attachments for arms floated up to the Surfer. “Corpsman Norrin Radd, the Worldmind sends his greetings. I am Centurion Qubit. We are your cavalry.”

“Your assistance is appreciated,” the Surfer said. “It is time that we show Diableri’s heralds what the true power in the universe is.”

Clapping his hands together, the Surfer channeled the Power Cosmic into his left hand and the Nova Force into his right. The resulting blast of energy vaporized a large swath of the chaos sprites. Though powered by a god, they were still limited to the constraints of their basic form. As a man, Norrin Radd could easily have crushed an unpowered chaos sprite. As a herald, so too could he crush a sprite with the proportionate power of another herald.

“Leave the rest to the Corps, Surfer,” San-Ol said. “Don’t you have to go save the day?”

The Surfer nodded in affirmation. “Thank you,” he said, turning his attention to Godthab Omega.

The sight of the planet took away his momentum. Before, Godthab Omega had been a grey and brown planet, a patchwork of mountain and desert. Now it was paradise. The Surfer felt a pit deep inside, one that came with the knowledge that Glorian’s great masterpiece would likely meet its end before everything was over.

“You have done well.”

The Surfer looked up. In the time he spent gazing at the planet, he had unknowing drifted toward the moon. Galactus looked at him with as much disdain as he could express. For the first time, the Surfer felt something other than indifference from his former master. It was an experience that left him uncomfortable.

“For an expression of approval, your demeanor shows displeasure,” the Surfer said, flying up to meet Galactus at eye level. “I am having trouble reading into the dissonance.”

“Then don’t,” Galactus said. “I do not express emotion well. It is taking everything in my power already not to consume Godthab Omega before my siblings arrive. I am content to wait until after we have dealt with this threat.”

The Silver Surfer was taken aback at the frankness with which Galactus spoke. The idea that he was willing to destroy such fresh beauty did not rest well with the Surfer at all. It made the knowledge of what he had planned that much easier. He held back his reaction, instead saying nothing to the Destroyer of Worlds.

Galactus perked up, turning in the direction that marked the path the Surfer had followed to Godthab Omega. “They come.”

Sure enough, the Surfer could spot the sparks of light in the distance that were the three remaining proemial gods. He turned to Galactus. “Call forth your herald. He is needed here.”

As the forms of Aegis, Tenebrous, and Diableri grew closer, a bolt of light arrived in a flash on the moon. Earthquake, stoic as ever, stood on the dusty surface, staring at the Silver Surfer. “I am ready to do what needs to be done, Surfer, though I have my worries.”

“We have that in common, Earthquake,” the Surfer replied. “Be prepared. I will have need of you soon.”

Galactus shifted uncomfortably. “They are here. I wish to know your plan.”

The Surfer shook his head. “I cannot risk them finding out the nature of this planet. I imagine already suspect the trap because of their connection to you and your knowledge already that we have laid something in place. Direct knowledge of the plan could ruin everything. I have already led enough worlds to death and destruction. I will not do the same for the entirety of everything.”

“Surfer, they grow close. If there is a time for anything, it is now.” Earthquake pointed.

The three proemial gods were now visible, their traits recognizable to the bare eye. For the Surfer’s plan to work, they would have to be stopped before they reached the planet. Impeding them would require the power of someone with the power to force them back. It would need the Silver Surfer and the Nova Force combined. Only he could push them.

It was time.

“Follow me, Earthquake,” said the Surfer. He turned to Galactus. “If you wish to fight your siblings, you may come, too. But this is my plan. You will do as I say if you wish to come.”

Galactus affirmed his understanding. They left the moon, floating in the abyss between the Galacti and Godthab Omega.

It was a last stand of an earthling Western movie, projected on the largest screen in existence. Three gods in black hats stood against a god and his underdog companions in white. The Silver Surfer and Earthquake were nothing more than Galactus’ six-shooter pistols, but the Surfer had been loaded with a new kind of ammunition. He only hoped that it was enough to take them down once and for all.

“Trickery!” Tenebrous bellowed. He looked to his siblings. “Who is paranoid now?”

Diableri’s eyes lit up with primal energy. “My sprites! How did you escape them?”

“I killed them,” said the Surfer, his voice devoid of remorse. “Do not give your children weapons in a war if you are not comfortable with losing them.”

Diableri screeched, sending shivers down the Surfer’s back. “I will kill you for this!”

Aegis held him back. “Brother, they expected us here. We will all fight, if not for your sprites, then for the planet they guard! We must feed!”

“What are you waiting for? It ends now!” Diableri shot into action in tandem with his final sentence, tackling Galactus. The Destroyer of Worlds fought back with equal vigor. The bond of blood ran deep; the bond of bloodlust ran deeper.

The Surfer focused the Nova Force out each hand, knowing that every ounce of the Power Cosmic he used would only weaken Earthquake. The Nova Force was able to drive the proemial gods back, but the Surfer had never attempted to use it on two of them at once. Tenebrous and Aegis recoiled at the blasts in their face. Earthquake used his considerable might physically, hitting Tenebrous in the chest while he was blinded by the Surfer’s blast. He attempted the same move on Aegis, only to find himself batted away.

“Take out the Surfer! He’s the biggest threat,” said Aegis. “The Nova Force may hurt us, but if we can remove it from the equation…”

They were starting to strategize. The Surfer had not accounted for that. If the plan was going to be put into motion, it would have to be now.

“Earthquake!” The Surfer shouted at the new Herald of Galactus. The former Imperial Guardsman flashed his hands twice with the energy of the Power Cosmic to signal his understanding.

As he was gifted with the ability to cause tremors in physical objects to the point of ripping open fissures in the earth and causing physical earthquakes, the Surfer had suspected that the nature of Earthquake’s powers would change once imbued with the Power Cosmic as a new herald. It was the central component of the Surfer’s plan, and now was the moment of truth.

Earthquake clapped his hands together in a tremendous display of power. Light visibly danced off his arms despite the nature of the vacuum of space, rolling off his hands in waves as he channeled his natural gifts into the Power Cosmic to achieve terrifying results. Space wobbled around his arms, distorting and snapping it back into place. The fighting ceased for a moment as everyone stared at the spectacle. Space moved again and again with each vibration for Earthquake’s arms, twisting and snapping back over and over again until finally, the elasticity of reality wore out. The lightshow died as a rift opened outside Earthquake’s arms, a gouge torn in space by the stress of the vibrations. Earthquake slid backwards away from the open wound in space. He had succeeded in his part of the plan. The fissure was open.

“What have you done?” Tenebrous shouted, moving to grab Earthquake. The Silver Surfer spotted his intentions and dove into Tenebrous at full force, backed by everything the Nova Force could spare him, pushing the giant unaware into the rift. He screamed, limbs flailing, as the rip, now gleaming with a light of its own from whatever dimension Earthquake had tapped, consumed him.

There was silence as everyone realized the extent of the Silver Surfer’s plan. He could not kill the proemial gods, but he was entirely capable of exiling them.

Aegis flared with golden energy. “Where did you send Tenebrous?” she demanded.

“Beyond,” said the Surfer. He raced toward Aegis, catching her in the thigh as Earthquake bolted into the nape of her neck. Caught unaware, Aegis spun just long enough for the Surfer to channel his momentum into her torso. She recovered just as her ankle reached the rift. Aegis flailed, attempting an escape from the other universe, but it was to no avail. The realm of exile had its grip on her. She was slowly dragged into her new prison.

“NO!” Diableri sucker punched Galactus, escaping his brother’s grip. His chest throbbed with uncontrollable anger which transformed into a sick, twisted laughter. “Ha! God of chaos I may be, but I’ve been outdone. The Silver Surfer and his world of order and logic came up with something so rife with chaos, I can almost appreciate it!”

Diableri’s face transformed again, this time from amusement to grim determination. “But no more of this battle for children. We have finished this game. You broke the rules, and for that, you will know punishment.”

The Surfer zipped around under Diableri’s arm and down around his hip and thigh, taking a route straight up his torso to deliver a blast of the Nova Force directly to his face. Diableri was prepared for him, grabbing the Surfer out of his flight path and closing his grip, crunching the Surfer in his hand. The Surfer squirmed, struggling to force open even one finger, but Diableri’s grip was unflinching.

“It is over, Surfer,” Diableri said. “Well played.”

“Back off him!”

In a flurry of orange bursts, the Surfer saw again that the Nova Corps had come to his aid, led once again by San-Ol.

“No!” the Silver Surfer yelled, but the warning came too late. Diableri backhanded the members of the Corps down to the planet below with a force that would have killed most on impact. Even fewer would survive the crash-landing onto the planet’s surface. The Surfer gulped at the knowledge that his fellow Corpsmen had just sacrificed themselves in the name of his plan. Earthquake attempted to bolt in at the Nova Corps’ distraction, but Diableri moved too quickly, knocking Earthquake toward the planet’s moon. A cloud of dust erupted as he crash-landed, forming a crater in which the Herald of Galactus lay still.

“There is no one left to come to your aid, Surfer,” said Diableri. “It ends now.”

“You have forgotten me!” shouted Galactus, arriving with a two-fisted punch backed by his full momentum in flight. Diableri released his grip on the Surfer as he crashed backward, tackled by his own brother.

“Traitor!” Diableri yelled.

“What you call betrayal, I know only as survival,” Galactus said. He pulled drew his arm back and punched, powering his fist with every ounce of the Power Cosmic he could summon. The fist landed squarely on Diableri’s chest, releasing with it the force blast. Diableri rocketed backward into the rift, his screams extinguished as he disappeared inside.

“It is done,” Galactus said in a melancholy tone, looking at the Surfer.

The Surfer shook his head, powering the Nova Force into his arms. “No, it isn’t.”

“I do not—?” Galactus’ words were cut off as the Surfer attacked, forcing the struggling Galactus toward the rift.

“I can’t let you threaten the universe anymore,” the Surfer said. “You spoke of survival. This is what happens when I want my home to survive! I sacrificed everything for Zenn-La! I will do it again for the fate of it all!”

They neared the rift. Galactus’ face wore a look composed of mixed fear, hurt, and rage. “Diableri was wrong when he said it was over,” the Surfer said. “Now it will be over.”

“Surfer! Stop what you’re doing!” The Worldmind’s voice jolted into the Surfer’s mind, paralyzing him.

The voice of Cardinal Raker brought the Surfer back to reality. “You are dooming us all!”

Joined by Glorian and a recovered Earthquake, Raker floated behind the Surfer. “The Universal Church of Truth rarely agrees with the Nova Corps, but this instance is one of them.

“What do you mean?” the Surfer asked, looking at the three figures and the projection of the Worldmind. “We can end this now! We will be rid of the threat of Galactus forever!”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Glorian said. “What we did today, creating false life? We’ve upset the balance of everything. Galactus destroys worlds. We’ve created something today that is the exact reason he exists.”

Earthquake clapped and the rift sealed as space folded back in on itself to seal the fissure. “NO!” the Surfer yelled, but it was too late. The portal to the realm from beyond was closed.

Raker pointed to Godthab Omega with his scepter. “Life without death rages uncontrollably. It will expand from here and infect other planets. It will take over everything. To use a term I believe you will understand, the life that we have made on Godthab Omega is a galactic kudzu. It will overgrow all until only it is left.”

Worldmind addressed Galactus, who stood behind the Surfer on an imaginary platform. “Go. Devour Godthab Omega and do your duty to All That Is.”

Galactus ignored the Silver Surfer, and the Surfer made no move to stop him. His head drooped to his chest. “All of this… with the sacrifices made on Xandar and Chandilar, I thought we could be rid of it all forever.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Raker said. “For though we worship a god, there is always a demon. Where one creates, another must destroy to clear way for new creations. It is a balance. If all is good, then none is. Surely you understand this.”

The Surfer sighed. “I understand.” He drifted to Earthquake and put a hand on the new herald’s shoulder. “I have given you a curse. I cannot ask your forgiveness.”

Earthquake looked the Surfer in the eyes. “I am performing this duty for the Majestrix. No forgiveness is necessary.”

Raker opened his mouth to speak, but his words were lost to the sound of Galactus feeding. Had the Surfer been capable of tears, he would have cried heartily at that moment, watching as the planet Glorian had crafted was devoured by Galactus in mere moments until the core itself imploded, showering those hovering in orbit with bits and pieces of Godthab Omega’s remnants.

“So that’s that,” the Surfer said.

Worldmind’s hologram disappeared, reappearing again in front of the Surfer. “You removed the threat of three proemial gods from the universe, halted an attack on Xandar, saved the planet Chandilar, and all you can think of is that it wasn’t as much as you wanted. Your heroism deserves reward, not to be chastised.”

The Surfer did not waver. “Your words should be enough for now.”

Raker moved within the Surfer’s line of sight. “I will take my leave now. Understand that the Universal Church of Truth and the Nova Corps, under the actions taken today, have arrived at a truce. You have done well, Surfer.”

“I’m going with him, too,” Glorian said. “With the Church’s power, I may be able to accomplish much more than I ever believed.”

The two flew off together toward the Cathedral-Three, which hovered in stasis some distance off. The Surfer expected he had not seen the last of them.

Galactus arrived from his meal. “To me, my herald,” he said. Earthquake, adopting the largest piece of Godthab Omega as a platform of travel, floated on the chunk of rock at Galactus’ shoulder. “We will leave now, but your actions today will not be forgotten, Surfer. Your betrayal was not unexpected. It shows initiative.” He paused. “See that it does not happen again.”

“How long before you must feed again?” the Surfer asked.

“I have tasted faith and life,” Galactus said. “I am sated for now. The hunger has left me. Though I do not know if the hunger is gone forever, it has left me for now. We shall see what becomes of us.”

At that, Galactus turned his back, drifting off into the epicenter of the planet’s implosion on his way out of the galaxy. Earthquake followed him, hovering around Galactus like a fly, never staying in the same position for long. The Silver Surfer hoped only for the best.

Light caught the Surfer’s eye as it glinted off a piece of metal. The Surfer flew to it and picked it up, horror dawning on him as he recognized it as one of the stars from a Nova Corps Centurion’s uniform’s chest.

“Galactus… he fed on their corpses!” the Surfer raged.

“Be calm,” said the Worldmind, appearing again to the Surfer. “The Nova Corps takes care of its own. When a helmet recognizes that its wearer is dead or injured, it automatically transports its wearer to Xandar’s morgue or infirmary. Galactus fed on nothing of ours.”

Staring at the rubble of Godthab Omega, the Surfer lost himself again in his thoughts until the Worldmind’s voice piped back up. “There is one more thing you should know, Centurion Surfer.”

“Then speak.”

“It is San-Ol. He yet clings to life,” said the Worldmind. “And his subconscious mind has only one request.”

The pit in the Surfer’s stomach grew tenfold. “What is his request?”

“Your presence,” said the Worldmind. “San-Ol wishes for but one thing: He wants his great hero to be at his bedside when he dies…”

NEXT: Mortality