He remembered that the society she came from was a dictatorship. Was there an irony here? Had she made an unintentional recreation of the spirit of her birthplace?
If nothing else, the place was certainly comfortable. Hal found that the entertainment center had many movies, and almost any video game he could think of. The library was also well stocked, with classics and many recent titles, and a particularly large section devoted to comic books and graphic novels.
There was also plenty to explore. It seemed that he might never run out of places to see. The ship contained many beautiful rooms with elaborate furniture. It had spaces made to look like outdoor patios, complete with fake plants. There were also play areas of all types. Yet he found himself getting restless and uneasy. The bigger and more luxuriant the place came to seem, the lonelier he felt inside.
Before long, he gave up on his explorations to stare out a window into space. After a few minutes, he found himself crying. Now matter how beautiful a place this was, the fact remained that he was stuck. There were no two ways about it. He was trapped in a beautiful and tremendous gilded cage.
This army was not from Center. That much was clear. Ms. Infinity had no idea who they were, or where they were from. At one time or another in her youth, she had seen representatives of each of her native planet’s many colonial subjects. These men bore no resemblance to any group she had met. They seemed roughly human in appearance, but their mode of dress was not like Earth or Center. They were mostly light-skinned. Their hair was long and unkempt, with long beards. Their uniforms were a dull grey, tight-fitting but only minimally adorned. Their weapons consisted of both complex projectiles and bayonets. It was a strange sight. They looked both primitive and futuristic at the same time.
A man began to gesture in a bizarre manner. By his slightly differentiated dress, she presumed that he was the ranking officer, and she guessed by his manner that he was ordering her to surrender. Everywhere she looked, there were soldiers, all focused on her. How strong were they? Were they as strong as her native species? Stronger? Weaker? She could not say. But she could certainly not find out by waiting around.
She paused for a brief moment, then suddenly dove at the officer. Instantly she was caught in a hail of rockets and lasers. The soldiers gasped at the sight before them. All of their ammunition had bounced off her! Yet Ms. Infinity faced a surprise of her own in that the officer was surprisingly hard to prevail over. Clearly the soldiers were also strong. If their ammunition did not destroy her, then their strength and their numbers might well suffice.
Ms. Infinity continued to struggle with the officer. She was able to grab his right arm, which was holding the weapon, but the fight was much harder than she expected. She struggled. He resisted, and tried to stab at her with the bayonet. By the time his arm was engaged enough to maneuver, he was faced with a sudden, hard kick from her left leg, knocking the weapon out of his hand. The officer reached her leg and began to tackle her, but this proved a useless maneuver on someone who could fly. She floated off the ground and kicked him once again in the stomach. Returning swiftly to the ground, she flipped him by the arm. She caught him in her arms, just long enough to bang him hard on his head, knocking him unconscious. She held him down by her foot. The officer was defeated.
For a split second, she considered whether she should kill the officer. But she had no time to act on any such decision. Now there was an army in front of her.
These men were not her equals, but they were far stronger than humans. More to the point, they were strong enough that any one of them would require a significant effort to beat. Even if her strength did double, and this gift was not coming to her recently, the math was not on her side. She could certainly beat one. Two or three would be harder, but easily within her power. Maybe, just maybe, with a great effort, she could beat up to a hundred. But there were thousands before her. Yet this army was clearly a threat to Earth, and she was facing them alone. There was no choice but to fight them.
She worked at super speed. Taking the weapons from the ground, she tore them apart, crushing the ammunition in her hands. She then slid under the next, nearest soldier, aiming for his legs. But the soldier was fast too. Guessing the strategy, he responded with a hard kick to the head. The impact was hard, but she was unwavering. Grabbing the other foot, she flew into an abrupt upswing. Now holding the soldier by the leg some eight feet off the ground, she swung him suddenly at a cluster of a dozen or more soldiers. All were knocked over, instantly.
She quickly grabbed all the weapons she could and crushed them, but there were many more soldiers. Within seconds there were hands gripping her from behind. A soldier was now holding her by the waist, hoping to prevent her from flying away. She responded with a hard backwards kick, but he was ready for this too. He grabbed her foot with his other hand and held it tight. A number of other soldiers joined in the effort as well, with another grabbing her other foot, and two others diving for her arms.
This might have proved fatal had she not still been significantly stronger than all of them. She wriggled her body, legs, arms, and torso. This simple action alone made her very hard to constrain. The soldiers struggled to hold on, but their grip loosened with every second. Reinforcements ran in from every direction, but they were too late. Suddenly Ms. Infinity swung in a flip, up into the air, free again.
She dove at the largest contingent of soldiers she could see, flying super fast into the crowd. Many of them were knocked over, but she was instantly surrounded. She used a combination of moves. She elbowed a soldier coming at her from behind, knocking him over instantly. She then flipped herself over backwards at super speed, catching him before he reached the ground. She then threw him like a Frisbee into a crowd of men. Most of them fell, but many others were still running at her.
She now tried to use her super speed against them. She twirled herself around so fast that she became like a small tornado. She shot in every direction, sending men flying into the air.
At first the remaining soldiers were afraid, each flinching from the challenge. But soon the officer aroused from his languishing position. He “announced” something by gesturing in a broad, demonstrative manner. Grabbing a sharp weapon from a soldier, he held it firmly in front of himself as an example. The other soldiers followed suit, some daring to move closer and closer to the fast-moving target. Soon she was surrounded. Guessing her trajectory, a line of soldiers held their weapons together and waited. All at once, she was stopped, bouncing back. Then there was Ms. Infinity, now in a kneeling position, bleeding from her left side.
As they charged at her, she struggled to keep her head. The conclusion that followed was hard and frightening. The army she now faced was beyond her skill. She thought of the powers she had not yet used. Shape shifting had not worked well with Misery. Using tricks like super breath might well bring a temporary victory. But this army was huge and well organized, and would likely regroup. And if anything, using too many powers now was poor strategy, rather like showing her cards. She needed something that was much better planned.
Ms. Infinity leaped once again into the air. She then made another dive into the crowd, but this time she aimed near the edge of the space station. She hit only a few soldiers in her impact, but she hit the ground much harder. She watched intently as the ground shook, and the soldiers were suddenly uneasy.
She did all she could to stay toward the edge. At all costs she could not be captured. The first few men she defeated, once again with hard kicks, but she rolled consistently toward the edge of the station. By this time she was bleeding and beginning to look desperate. Then several dozen men charged at her. She stepped farther and father back, until she was barely an inch from the edge. Then with a powerful blow from a soldier, she slipped and fell off, and so she fell into the abyss.
The front line watched their enemy fall, hard and cold. Some might have expected her to fly, and were prepared to fight an enemy in the air. No doubt some were quite surprised to see her simply topple o
ver from their blow, and fall like a dead thing. They watched her fall farther and farther, a helpless body, now trapped in an endless momentum, waiting for death if indeed it had not already come. They continued their watch as she grew smaller and smaller, then disappeared from their sight.
16. Human Potential
One thing Ms. Infinity had not told Hal was how long she might be gone. Hal was growing increasingly concerned about her. But he was also becoming more and more disoriented. He had no idea how long he had been in space, or even how much time had passed since his companion had left; he could not even say whether it had been a long time. In his confusion, he was near despair.
It had now dawned on him that he had made an incredibly dangerous and careless decision, going on a dangerous mission, light years from home, involving people and deeds far above his abilities. But it was worse than that. He had also allowed himself to be sealed up alone in deep space for an unknown period of time with a powerful woman whom he did not know as well as he thought. He could thank his lucky stars that she was decent, and was not someone who would hurt or kill him, or indeed violate him.
It was amazing to him now that he had never thought of this before. Women thought about these things all the time. Lisa never traveled alone at night; she usually had Bonnie, or Julia, or someone else going with her. She had even asked him to walk with her once. Bonnie did walk alone, but now he understood the unique context behind that. For that matter, she was the unique woman who did not have to worry about sealing herself up with a man she might not be sure of. But he was now beginning to think that men might have to worry about such things too. He was not invincible either. At any rate, he had every reason to be terrified of Misery. If she were to get out, there was no telling what she might do to him.
As worried as he was about Bonnie, there were other concerns he had to address. Increasingly, Hal felt it was upon him to take responsibility for the mission, at least to the extent that he could. Ms. Infinity had left him alone on Starship Infinity with Misery, and there was the possibility that she might not get back. It was time for him to step up.
Whatever his criticisms, it was clear that Ms. Infinity was still a tremendously brave and important hero. Her flaw, as he saw it, was failing to think of a “Plan B.” Perhaps her extreme powers had spoiled her; she might not have been used to the idea that she might not succeed easily. So indeed he did have a contribution to make. “Plan B” it was then. So then, what was it?
His first thought was what to do if Misery did get free. If Earth’s Greatest Hero could barely contain her, what chance did he have? But at least he could be as prepared as possible. Could arm himself? He thought about the spaceship. It had everything, including a huge kitchen, many bedrooms, a TV studio, tennis courts, a pool, a prison cell, and much more. Did it have an armory? He didn’t even know where to begin looking. Sure, Ms. Infinity didn’t need weapons. She was all about her powers, and her powers were all she needed. That was well enough for her, but what about guests? Did she keep anything for guests? A hammer? A lasso? A radioactive invertebrate? Anything?
A brief exploration of previously unexplored hallways turned up nothing but a racetrack and a roller coaster. He was running out of capacity for surprise. Soon he gave up. All he could think of was using a few pots and pans from the kitchen, a fairly pathetic defense against a powerful foe. So he would have to think in another direction.
So, what if Ms. Infinity didn’t return? What then? He certainly could not stay adrift in space forever, with Misery as his companion. For one thing, food would eventually run out, and she would certainly outlast him. She would probably escape sooner or later, and she would now have the spaceship to do with as she pleased.
He could not go home either. He had no idea how. The maneuvers through multidimensional planes had rendered him temporarily unable to function even when Ms. Infinity controlled the travel. Certainly he could not even begin to execute such movements himself. And just travelling without such manipulations would never get him home. He was many, many thousands of light years away.
And then even if he could get home, there was no good reason why he should under these circumstances. He was carrying some very dangerous cargo. His prisoner was Earth’s would-be destroyer. He had no desire to function as an unwilling Trojan’s Horse. What could he do? Ask the president to send the military on her? There probably wasn’t enough military power in the world to stop her.
“Well damn!” he said out loud in frustration, “I might as well just steer this whole thing into the nearest sun!”
A deafening silence followed his outburst. He could not believe what his mouth had just said out loud. But it was worse than that. The fact was, he had indeed just delivered himself the very answer he needed, and he could not for the life of him imagine how there could possibly be any other. Try as he might, there was no lie he could tell himself to make that go away. There was the contingency plan. He would die, but Earth would be saved.
Bonnie had told him that she risked her life every day; that was a hero’s life. She told him about the responsibility that was upon her. If she were no longer around to fulfill it, then who could? The entire planet would now depend on him, Hal Holstein of Queens. If it meant giving up his life, then that was what he would have to do. There was no other answer.
He began to cry. He could not believe that it had come to this. This was not at all what he had expected when he begged Ms. Infinity to let him go with her. He had never dreamed that he might never see his family again, his home, his friends. Among many other things, the possibility of death also carried a huge disappointment; that video he had shot had given him hope that his career might take off after all. At the same time, he had to admit that he was feeling something else that was unfamiliar. There inside him, he was beginning to know some self esteem, pride, even courage. This too was the last thing he had expected. Maybe on some level this was all meant to be.
Hal dried his tears. So he had a role to fulfill, and there was no choice but to step up. He thought his protocol through for a while. He would not do anything unless he was quite sure that she was not coming back. It would take a sign, like the approach of enemy ships from the space station. Barring that, there would have to be a very long wait, though that was a much more difficult consideration. What qualified as a very long wait? At this point, he had absolutely no idea what hour or day it was, let alone how long he had been on the ship. But he decided it would simply have to be a very, very long time before he acted.
With that consideration out of the way, the only remaining questions was how?
Earth’s sun was far out of reach, but he wondered whether there was another within relative vicinity. Were they in a solar system? Running to the bridge, he looked out the window. Then he looked through the equipment. Somewhere there had to be some navigational tools. He soon found that there were. There was actually an electronic map, right next to the pilot’s seat, and it was surprisingly user-friendly. And after a few moments, he could confirm that he was indeed in a solar system. The star had a name of sorts, an alphanumeric code beginning with“M53.” The planets had longer alphanumeric names, and the moons had even longer ones.
After further consulting, he discovered that the star of this system was just over a hundred million miles away. That was a distance this ship could reach. How long would it take? He couldn’t say. Again, he didn’t even know what that meant anymore. But he was pretty sure that it could be done.
So now it came down to controlling the ship. That was another problem. How did this ship work exactly? He had never really stopped to consider just what Bonnie was doing with the controls. So how did this thing operate?
The controls were far less user friendly than the map. There was nothing in front of him that he could understand. He saw no “forward” button, no “back.” All he saw were numerous controls with bizarre names.
The task ahead of him seemed bewildering. Even considering all the impossible, magical things that Ms. Infinity d
id, he hadn’t really considered the act of piloting the ship to be a “power.” But now that he thought of it, this was a spaceship that was far beyond the capabilities of human science. What did he expect?
For a time he sat there, thinking. There was a way. There had to be. He had come to think of Bonnie’s powers as “magic,” but he was coming to think that it really wasn’t that. “Magic” was simply a catch-all word for anything humans could not do, though admittedly her abilities included a long and impressive list of such things. But then many people could not operate a video camera. He could. Was that magic? Even Bonnie was not omnipotent. Among other things, she could not carry a tune. And he could, quite well. So was that magic?
She had talked about the many dimensional planes, and how people from her native planet understood many more than humans did. Maybe the key to understanding her powers was in there somewhere. A little understanding was all he needed. Flight, super strength, shape shifting, these were overwhelming to think of. But maybe, just maybe, with a little imagination he could grasp a little piece of knowledge that he could use. All he wanted to do was pilot the ship.
So, he knew three dimensions, or four if you counted time. Bonnie had said something about there being other dimensions that were not “spatial.” He didn’t understand that at all. However that was perhaps a crucial piece of information.
As he thought some more, he mused that sometimes, doing one thing often required doing something else to make it possible. This was true in many aspects of daily life. Just walking forward meant pushing back on the ground with your feet. Playing an instrument was about making sound, but it required many different manipulations, be it the hammering and plucking of strings on a guitar, the blowing of air and movement of fingers on a wind instrument, or the hammering of keys on a keyboard. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that almost no effect was possible without a lot of actions and reactions. Some may be much more complex than he ever imagined. Maybe some involved dimensions he did not know of. Perhaps that thinking was the key to operating the ship.
Ms. Infinity (Book 1): Earth's Greatest Hero Page 17
