The Time War Ch 35

Chapter 35: Space: 2099

Goodlife:

They were having fun in the Binochi Corridor again while rock music with a powerful beat blared through the swirling mists.

"Aaaaah," said Alina Sestacovika 1. She smiled as she grazed the side of her arm against a bright, hot temporal vortex, deep in the mists, blazing like a small sun. The pain she felt was exquisite.

Oliver Wayfairer 2 gave off a loud scream as he burned his hand against the side of another vortex.

"Careful," Mercury Jones chuckled. "You know what they say about moths who stray too close to the flame, right?"

Everyone laughed.

For Goodlife, pain was good. The pain distracted them from all the voices, all the visions, all the possibilities of realities racing through their heads. Their minds were constantly in a blur as they were repeatedly assaulted by the multiverse. They had lost the ability to sense, to feel. So even the experience of pain became a joyous occasion, to feel something genuine, real, now, of the self, and not bits and pieces from countless billions of others living their daily lives.

Mercury danced himself to exhaustion with Alina Sestacovika 3, feeling the strong techno beat of the music flowing through his enormously strained and tense body. And then they made their way back to the control room, where they found the others, exhausted, lounging on the couches.

Mercury lay on his back and stared up at the nightlight he had specially installed. He wanted to see the moon. Or rather, he

didn't

want to see the moon. To be more precise, he wanted to see that he couldn't see the moon. So many thoughts, so many experiences, so many possibilities!

"We need more recruits," said Oliver Wayfairer 2, nursing his burned hand.

"I have a lead on someone named Angie Moore," said Oliver Wayfairer 3.

"Angie, Angie, Angie. It would be nice to have someone named Angie," said Mercury, laughing. "But there is someone else on my mind. Someone else in my thoughts. Someone I see visions of in the Corridor, too much, too many times, too frequently!" He put his hands to his aching head.

"Who?" Nigel Roman 1 asked.

"His name is John Calle," said Mercury. "He should join us."

"Then let's go get him!" said Nigel Roman 1, jumping off the couch.

Mercury shook his head. "It is not so easy. John Calle 1 and John Calle 2 are... not available."

Andrew Wyatt 2 tried to puzzle this out. "If John Calle 1 and John Calle 2 are not available that leaves... that leaves...."

"John Calle 3!" Alina Sestacovika 2 yelled, bursting out with laughter.

"No, not John Calle 3," said Mercury. "At first, I thought he was a 3, but I realize he's a 4, a 4 pretending to be a 3."

"He doesn't disappear?" Andrew Wyatt 2 asked.

"No," said Mercury. "He's like a 2, but he's really a 4."

"Amazing!" said Nigel Roman 1. "Let's get him!"

"It is not so easy," said Mercury, shaking his head. "John Calle 4 lives in the realm of the threes. He is a member of the Continuity Service. He is well protected. We must do something to draw him out... to get his attention." His head tilted upwards, to see the full moon. Why was the moon still there?

"And how will we do that?" Nigel Roman 1 asked.

"Simple," said Mercury. "We'll blow up the Moon, and send it crashing into the Earth. That's sure to get his attention!"

And everyone laughed hysterically.

********

The earthquake took everyone by surprise. Equipment rattled, dust leaked from the ceiling, and people were thrown to the ground.

Even as Continuity Service operatives were slowly getting to their feet, Colonel Strayker strode into the control room, puffing madly on a nuclear cigar. "Sarah, what was that?"

"An earthquake, sir," said Sarah, sitting back down in her chair.

"I know

what

it was," said Strayker. "But why are we experiencing an earthquake in Central Florida?"

"I don't know, sir," said Sarah.

"Well, find out!" Strayker demanded, his arms akimbo.

Sarah rapidly checked her holomonitors while Strayker impatiently tapped the floor behind her. Ayesha came up with a cup of atomic coffee. Strayker took one and thanked her and then watched her large, firm Indian buttocks as she returned to her post, at the coffeemaker.

"I think I may have found the cause, sir," Sarah announced.

"Well, let's see it," said Strayker, stepping forward.

Sarah pointed to a holomonitor. It showed a giant crescent shape, sticking out of the Pacific Ocean.

"What... what is that, Sarah?"

"I believe, sir, that it's the Moon," said Sarah.

********

"As most of you undoubtedly know, the side of the Moon which faces the Earth consists of trees and forests and arable land, with a remarkably Earth-type atmosphere," said Strayker.

"And shopping malls and nuclear golf courses, don't forget those," said Daniel.

Strayker shot him a dirty glance. "The far side of the Moon, however, is very different. It's a barren, rocky wasteland. It was deemed to be the perfect place to dump all of Earth's excess nuclear waste, before nuclear fusion was perfected. Moonbase Luna was created to supervise the waste dumps. That is our history, as it was supposed to be." He paused. "But then something new happened. In the year 2099, the nuclear waste dumps detonated. There was a tremendous thermonuclear explosion. The moon was split into two. One part went floating harmlessly into space; the other crashed into the Pacific Ocean less than 70 miles off the West Coast. The resulting tidal wave decimated California, and the resulting earthquakes and rising sea levels killed millions."

Everyone ooohed as they saw a holoimage of a crescent piece of the moon bobbing in the Pacific Ocean.

Strayker turned to Calle. "Captain, you and Lieutenant Kildaire will look into this, find the cause, and stop it."

********

Calle didn't know Lieutenant Mercy Kildaire all that well. He first really noticed her during the incident with the parasites. She and Lieutenant Ron Cardassian had been among the first infected. They in turn had spread the parasites throughout the base through sexual contact. But Calle had no idea if Mercy was a sexually active woman when she wasn't being controlled by a rider.

She was short, about five feet tall, she had curly blonde hair, and she had a cute smile. She reminded Calle a little of Erica Green, except that Mercy seemed... friendlier.

They stood at the ramp, waiting for Sarah to open the Binochi Corridor. They were wearing period clothing of Moonbase personnel; mostly single color, off white uniforms with bell bottom pants, a wide belt made of transparent plastic, and a single colored left sleeve.

"This is so odd, to have color on only one sleeve," said Mercy. "And why do we have a zipper on the sleeve? It seems like you could put on and take off the shirt without it."

"Perhaps Daniel could tell you," said Calle, feeling equally strange in this outfit. "He's the historian."

"And you're the Special Talent." She gave Calle a flirtatious grin.

Sarah coughed.

Calle looked at her.

She gave him a petulant stare. "Are you ready,

Captain

?"

"Yes," said Calle.

Why is she angry with me?

The Binochi Corridor came alive with light and energy.

********

It wasn't so bad when they saw how other people were dressed on Moonbase Luna. They were all wearing the same ridiculous uniforms, complete with bell bottoms and high heels.

"At least no one is laughing at us," said Mercy, leaning against Calle slightly. "What's the plan?"

"We have to commandeer one of their short ranged spaceships, called Egrets," said Calle. "We'll use one to fly over the nuclear waste dumps and attempt to locate the saboteur."

"Are you joking?" said Mercy, putting her hands on her hips. "The nuclear waste dumps are 400 square miles. How do you expect to find anything from a low orbit?" She paused, and gave him a sly look. "You're going to use your Special Talent, aren't you?"

"Hopefully," said Calle, studying a map of the base on the wall. Then he started walking.

"How do you activate your talent?" Mercy asked.

Those glowing orange eyes.

"I don't. It either comes, or it doesn't," said Calle.

They walked to a travel tube, where two black men with purple sleeves stopped them. "Identity card, please."

Identity card?

They hadn't known they needed those. Calle and Mercy pretended to search nonexistent pockets. "I guess I left mine in my quarters."

"Me too," Mercy smiled.

"We'll get them and be right back," said Calle, turning away.

"Hold it," said one of the black purple sleeved men. He drew something that looked like brass knuckles, but obviously was some kind of stunner.

********

An hour later, Calle and Mercy found themselves in Commander John Karnig's office. All his senior staff was there: his science advisor, Victor Berman, his chief medical officer, Doctor Helena Jack, his computer expert, Kayno Neboya, and his chief pilot, Alan Cartaret.

"You expect us to believe you're from the future?" Karnig said.

Mercy had implored Calle not to tell them. She was worried about contaminating the timeline. Calle had pointed out that a big chunk of the moon was sticking out of the Pacific Ocean, which seemed like pretty substantial timeline contamination already.

"Yes, Commander," said Calle.

"This weapon looks fairly similar to a compression pistol," said Karnig, holding up Calle's weapon. Then he held up a recall device. "But this object is totally unfamiliar."

"It's a recall device," said Calle. "It will return us to our own time."

"So you say," growled Alan Cartaret, the pilot. "Commander, I say we ship this lot back to Earth. Let the authorities deal with them."

"You can't," said Calle. "The nuclear waste dumps are due to explode in less than two hours."

"How?"

"We don't know," said Calle. "We think there is a saboteur who may have planted bombs there."

"They'd have to be pretty powerful bombs to ignite the nuclear waste," said Karnig. "Why would anyone want to do such a thing?"

"They call themselves Goodlife, Commander," said Calle. "They have temporal psychosis. They're insane."

"Temporal psychosis. Travelling through time. It all sounds so... improbable," said Karnig. "Victor?"

"Well, John, I would tend to agree with you. The Science Directorate doesn't believe that time travel is even possible," said Victor, scratching his bald head. "On the one hand, these people could be telling the truth. But... on the other hand, they could also be lying. I would tend to think it's one, or the other." He nodded sagely.

"Kayno, what does computer think?" Karnig asked.

"Computar thinks that the chance of successful time travel is less than one in a billion," said Kayno, in a heavily African accent.

Karnig stared at Calle intently. Finally, he said, "I'm inclined to believe them."

"As am I," said Doctor Helena Jack quickly, knowing her bedroom privileges could be revoked in an instant for disloyalty of any kind.

Kayno slammed a black hand on the conference room table, making them all jump. "You always do that!"

"Do what?" Karnig asked.

"You ask my opinion, and then do the exact opposite!"

"No I don't," said Karnig.

"Why am I even here?" Kayno asked. "Commander, please tell me that."

But that was one thing Karnig

couldn't

tell Kayno. The World Government had done a diversity audit of Moonbase Luna and the results had been devastating. As a result, Kayno had been added to the command staff even though Karnig needed a computer programmer at the command table only slightly more than he needed a barber.

"It's that World Government diversity audit, isn't it?" said Kayno.

"No, Kayno, of course not!"

"Kayno, I'm almost two percent black, I'm with you, brother," said Victor.

"No you're not!" said Kayno.

"I'm twelve percent Aborigine," said Alan. "That's almost like being black, isn't it?"

"No, it's not!" Kayno cried. He raised his voice. "I knew it! I knew I was just a token! Don't think I haven't noticed that I'm the only black man on Moonbase Luna, besides the security guards. I'm gonna sue-"

"Kayno!" Karnig barked. And then, in a calmer voice. "Kayno. I want you to have Computer conduct a full level one diversity audit of Moonbase Luna. Every department, every section. Find out where all the racial and sexual minorities are, and find out if they're geographically dispersed."

Kayno nodded his approval. That was more like it. "At once, Commander."

After he was gone, Karnig said, "Well, that should take him a while." He turned to Calle and Mercy. "And now, what do we do about you?"

********

They were flying above the moon in a short range Egret rocket shuttle.

"We're holding steady at 2000 feet, Commander," said Alan Cartaret.

"Good, Alan," said Karnig.

Mercy and Calle were in the passenger section, along with Commander Karnig and a pair of black skinned purple sleeved security guards. Commander Karnig had Calle's compression pistol tucked into his belt. Calle had asked for it back, but Karnig had refused.

They were hovering over the nuclear waste domes. Professor Berman pointed them out on an internal monitor. "It's a huge area. How do you expect to find what you're looking for?"

Calle shook his head. He wasn't even looking at the monitor. "Tell your pilot to fly an outward spiral search pattern from the center of the dump."

Cartaret looked at Karnig. "Do it," said Karnig.

The Egret spaceship started to fly over the waste dump in larger and larger circles. Calle sat in his passenger chair, his eyes closed, trying to sense the right spot.

Mercy felt so useless. She reached out and held Calle's hand. Calle didn't open his eyes, but he did smile.

Those glowing orange eyes.

No, nothing.

They flew in larger and larger circles for more than 20 minutes. Commander Karnig got more and more visibly impatient. Finally Cartaret said, "That's it, Commander. We've flown over the whole area-"

"That's it," said Calle, sitting up suddenly.

"Where?" Karnig asked.

"Right below us." He looked at the monitor. "There, a little to the right."

"Alan, set us down next to waste disposal dome 194," Karnig said promptly.

"Yes, sir."

The Egret landed and they exited in the shadow of a large nuclear waste dome. "Is it safe to walk here?" Mercy asked.

Victor checked his scanners. "As long as we don't linger too long."

"What exactly are we looking for?" Karnig asked.

"WHY, YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ME, COMMANDER!" a man shouted at the top of his lungs, as he barreled into the security guards, knocking them over like bowling pins.

Karnig tried to draw his stunner, but Nigel Roman 1 was quicker, grabbing Karnig by the throat, and lifting him up in the air.

"It's going to be spectacular, Commander, I promise you!" said Nigel Roman 1. "When the Moon explodes, so many voices will be silenced!"

Karnig attempted to answer but he found he had trouble breathing. Suddenly Nigel's body was bathed in a yellow light. One of the fallen security guards had fired his stunner weapon.

"AH HAHAHAHAHA!" Nigel Roman 1 yelled.

The guard fired again. "THAT FEELS SO GOOD! AGAIN! MORE, I MUST HAVE MORE!" Nigel Roman 1 cried. He threw Commander Karnig away like a rag doll, just in time to engage the security guard who charged him. Nigel Roman 1 tossed the black-skinned purple sleeved guard away as if he were a fly.

And then Nigel Roman 1 staggered as John Calle punched him in the face.

"I know you!" said Nigel Roman 1.

Calle punched him in the face again. His nose opened up, but Nigel Roman 1 barely flinched.

"You're John Calle!"

Calle punched Nigel Roman in the stomach.

"Thank you for that!" Nigel Roman 1 cried, lifting Calle up by the neck. "I have so wanted to meet you, John Calle. All this, the destruction of this pitiful moon, has been done solely for your benefit! Don't you feel supremely flattered? I would!"

Calle couldn't breathe. He felt himself choking.

And Nigel Roman 1 was enjoying every minute of it.

"AH HAHAHAHAHAHA!" he cried, his face a portrait of sheer insanity.

And then a compression pistol rang out, the compression pistol which had fallen from Commander Karnig's belt, which was being held by Mercy Kildaire.

"AH HAHAHA!" Nigel Roman 1 cried.

Mercy bit her tongue and changed the setting on the compression pistol from 3 to 6, and fired again, hitting him squarely in the chest.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" Nigel Roman 1 cried, as he absorbed the impact. Above him, Calle was quickly choking to death.

Mercy adjusted the compression pistol to setting eight, the highest setting, and aimed lower.

Nigel Roman 1 gave a piercing scream and dropped Calle to the lunar surface as his right foot was blown clean off.

********

"Congratulations," said Sarah, as Doctor Vladek examined the black and blue marks on Calle's neck.

"There will be no congratulations for him!" Colonel Strayker barked, entering the medical bay in a severe looking brown suit with tall collars. "How is he, Doctor?"

"Well," said Vladek. "Captain Calle has some severe bruising to the ligaments of his neck-"

"Will he live?"

"Of course," said Vladek.

"What did you mean, no congratulations?" said Calle. His throat was sore, and throbbed with pain, which was understandable.

Colonel Strayker glared at him. "What I mean, Captain, is that a big chunk of the moon is still floating off the coast of what used to be San Francisco, but is now a giant water park filled with syringes and human bodies."

"But... we stopped him before he detonated the explosives."

"Apparently, there was more than one bomb," said Strayker.

********

"It was a homemade nova bomb," said Doctor Vladek, holding up the small black box. "Quite crude, actually. I'm surprised it worked."

"All too well, apparently," said Strayker. "Doctor, is the captive well enough to interrogate?"

"Except for lacking a right foot, he's completely unharmed," Vladek assured him.

*********

"Where did you set the other bomb?" Strayker yelled.

"AH HAHAHA!" said Nigel Roman 1. He was strapped to the Time Shaft. The stump of his right foot was heavily bandaged, and red with blood.

Strayker nodded to Vladek, who pressed a button on the control panel.

A clear "wave" shifted through Nigel Roman 1's body, from top to bottom. Nigel Roman 1 screamed.

"That was only setting 2 on the Time Lash," said Colonel Strayker. "The pain you felt was from part of your body being out of temporal synch with the rest of your body. Some organs in your body moved faster in time than others, causing certain... discontinuities. As I said, that was only setting 2. Would you like to see setting 3?"

"Oh, yes, please!" said Nigel Roman 1, laughing in his face.

Strayker and Vladek exchanged glances.

********

It was a long and unproductive interrogation session. Each time Nigel Roman 1 felt the Time Lash, he would scream in agony. But then he would thank them profusely, ask for more, or inquire how his home base could get a Time Lash so all his friends could try it too.

"Just where is your home base?" Strayker asked. "Tell us, and we'll deliver it to them personally."

"Oh, Commander, it's not going to be that easy," said Nigel Roman 1.

"Let's start with something simple, then," said Strayker. "Where is the other bomb?"

"The other bomb, Commander?" said Nigel Roman 1. "Which one? There are so many."

Strayker stiffened. Nigel Roman 1 laughed again. "Let me see letmeseeletmesee.... 12345678... there are eight bombs in all, Commander."

"You're lying," said Strayker.

Nigel Roman 1 laughed again.

Strayker looked over at the control panel. They were using force level 12 now. "Take it up to 14."

"14 will kill him, Commander," said Vladek.