by Lea Tassie
Charger R/T now arrived using the same method. He had long been on the heels of this mass murderer and was fiercely determined to put an end to the madman. He rose from his crouched position, the perfect image of a vicious demon twisted with hate and vengeance. All around him, the ground was blasted and distorted.
The only one to understand what the explosion meant was Abarth. He knew because he'd caused the same kind of explosion when he landed on an isolated area of Crest. The fear in his eyes showed Jack clearly how bad things were. "What is it? What do you know, old man?" Jack asked as he grabbed Abarth's arm.
"We have to go now!" shouted a panicking Abarth, his fear almost palpable. "Board the ships, board the ships!"
The small group of survivors rushed about, confused and afraid. Jack was not inclined to believe this latest event, whatever it was. He started a radar scan of the area to search for whatever Abarth seemed so afraid of but he had no luck detecting anything.
Charger R/T, moving like a blur, traveled from the site of the explosion to stand in front of Jack, his beastly grotesque form towering over the man.
Jack was astonished and tripped over himself retreating, but managed to hit Charger R/T with hundreds of rounds of gunfire. This did not stop Charger R/T’s advance. He simply walked past Jack, calm and cool, directly toward Abarth.
"Help me!" Abarth yelled repeatedly, and the survivors were grabbing any weapon they could in an effort to help a fellow human. All they understood was that an ugly demon was attacking an old man, and the instinct to protect their own took effect.
Time seemed to slow as Charger R/T advanced on a retreating Abarth. Jack used the Battle Mech suit to further attack Charger R/T from different angles, hoping to find a weakness he could exploit. For a brief moment, the demon stopped, looked directly into Jack's one good eye, growled like a rabid dog, and then lunged at Abarth.
Charger R/T had been waiting for this moment for a long time and he decided to destroy Abarth by completely disassembling the man at the molecular level, then scattering the molecules to every point in the galaxy. With modern technology, Abarth could have reassembled himself on this particular time line, though it might have taken him millions of years to do so. However, such a feat was impossible. He had traveled back in time nearly two thousand years. But technology could not travel back through time. Only bodies and minds could make that journey.
Charger R/T emitted an extraordinary flash of light, temporarily blinding most of the survivors. Caught in Charger R/T’s two great hands, Abarth was compressed and crushed, his long bones cracking and breaking under the compaction, his ribs snapping like small twigs. Abarth's one visible eye stared fearfully into the milky white eyes of Charger R/T's distorted face. Abarth's entire body, now squashed to the size of a soccer ball, reflected in Charger R/T's eyes for Abarth to witness before he disintegrated.
A rage of deafening noise erupted from Charger R/T, and a blast of heat so powerful that everyone near him felt burning air in their lungs. In a blazing flash of white hot light, Abarth was destroyed and only Charger R/T remained standing.
In the Battle Mech suit, Jack was relatively unhurt but confused. He asked Charger R/T, "What are you?" He knew there was something badly wrong with Abarth's actions, and felt no sorrow about the old man's fate. And he was sure that asking a creature like Charger R/T a question was just plain shell shock. So he was dumbfounded when the demon answered.
"I have been hunting for Abarth for many years. He is a wanted criminal, responsible for the deaths of billions."
"How is that even possible?" Jack stumbled over his words, trying to ignore the growing pain he felt.
"I am from your future. And also from your past," Charger R/T responded calmly.
The survivors on the ground, all suffering and many close to death, begged Charger R/T, "Can you help us?"
"No. You are already dead." Charger R/T replied.
Now that Abarth was gone, the effects of his mental trickery were diminishing rapidly. The illusion he had created of a beautiful and friendly world began to fade. The world underneath the mask was revealing itself as intensely hostile toward human life.
The suffering was brief. Jack and the others were rapidly consumed in the many ways this planet could kill humans, leaving only Charger R/T to stand upon its surface.
"Alone at last," Charger R/T muttered as he sat down. He could have used his powers to save these people, to relieve them of their suffering and pain, but he chose not to help. No humans had ever helped him.
Charger R/T sat for several months on this turbulent world, the great mass of his body peaceful and calm. However, a war raged in his mind. He had long believed that modern humanity surpassed him in ability, but with the demise of Abarth, a question began forming in his scattered thoughts. Was it really true that he now possessed the powers of a god? Could he change the future? Should he try?
Charger R/T slowly rose to his feet and walked to a Gray space saucer. He boarded the craft and decided to fly it to planet Crest. The craft offered no resistance and began the transit.
But, halfway to Crest, it stopped.
Charger R/T had finally come to accept that he did, in fact, have the powers of a god. To test his belief, he dematerialized from the craft and re-materialized on Crest.
Yes!
He was a god. A powerful god. He could blink to wherever he wanted to go.
Could he also blink to whenever he wanted to go?
But before he tried an experiment with time, he decided to spend a few days on Crest, and see where his mind took him.
Weeks later, Charger R/T was still walking the streets of the military encampment on planet Crest, restless and frustrated. Far in the future, where he had come from, humans no longer had the backbone to defend themselves and that task had fallen to Charger R/T. This was the usual order of things for him; he was always the weapon mankind used and then blamed.
As he walked the silent, deserted streets, unaware that a rescue ship named Loki was at that very moment traveling toward the planet, an idea occurred to him. The thought was just a whisper from some dark recess of his mind, for Charger R/T functioned more on instinct than intellect. Not knowing where this whisper originated, and because it was something never before experienced, Charger R/T took a moment to listen.
What he heard was a plan for repentance, a way of making things right, a chance to redeem himself. He could go find the soldiers the Grays had captured, and free them. For this action, he might be rewarded and humanity might not condemn him so readily. The Grays would be no match for him. Their ships could not have gone very far, and he had now learned the ability and the power of a blink. Just pick a direction, he thought, and blink to the Grays' marauding ships.
But Charger R/T had not yet learned how to search the stars with his mind. Instead he set off blinking in a direction he only guessed might be right. His instincts were off and the universe is vast beyond comprehension.
***
What the Grays did to the human soldiers they captured on planet Crest went beyond disturbing. It was cruel and sick.
Burt regained consciousness after being captured by the Grays and taken aboard the main space craft. He found himself tied to a platform. The room was dark and smelled musky, and his lungs burned as he breathed in the air. "Is anyone there?" he called out. There was no answer. Burt struggled hard against his restraints, hoping to break free, but they held fast. "Hey! You there, wake up!" Burt shouted into the darkened room, trying to rouse the other two people he thought were in the room with him.
His free hand felt around the surface on which he lay and found it wet and sticky. He found he could turn his head, but not lift it from the surface of the platform. Frustrated and angry, Burt decided to force the issue. With every ounce of strength, he tried to lift his head. It took several long arduous moments, but the restraints began to give and slowly Burt managed to look around. What greeted his eyes caused him to scream in fear. Floating above his chest were his internal o
rgans, still active and working. He realized the wetness he felt was his own blood.
The two forms moved toward him, and Burt realized they were Grays, not humans. They held devices that looked metallic, but moved in their hands as if alive. "Get the fuck away from me!" Burt yelled as he thrashed about on the table.
Burt was powerfully built, a dedicated military man who had endured many years in combat. As one Gray neared, it made the mistake of getting too close to Burt's loose hand. He grabbed the Gray and pulled it to the table, fighting with it for the metallic object it held. As the Gray retreated, Burt grabbed the object. He forced it against his restraints and found that it cut like a knife. The Grays moved to grab Burt, but it was too late. He was free. He lashed out at the Gray, slamming its head hard into the table, killing it. He then turned the device on the remaining Gray, which was trying to retreat, ramming it hard into the fleeing Gray's back. It collapsed to the floor and lay still.
Burt's intestines and lungs floated before him due to the zero gravity. He carefully returned the organs into his broken chest and bandaged it. Then he realized he felt no pain. The Grays must have done something to make him numb. Not knowing how long this would last, or when he might die, he decided to free all the soldiers he could find.
Eventually he found a tunnel out of the room, which led to another room where he killed two more Grays. On a table lay two soldiers who had been bonded together. The Grays had left them only a single heart, a single set of lungs and kidneys. But they were alive, and he revived and freed them. Though suffering shock, they were determined to follow Burt.
The three found another tunnel and floated along it until they entered a large room. Several soldiers hung from hooks, like meat. These men and women were also in various stages of sickening deconstruction, but alive. The group realized that the air they were breathing was antiseptic and sustaining their biological needs, so they took heart and regrouped.
They would take this ship in space and kill its occupants, but they had no idea how large the craft was or how many Grays were aboard. Like zombies, twisted and broken, the soldiers found and freed other humans, killing as many Grays as they could find. Anything that fit in the hand became a weapon, and the fury of these experimental subjects carried them inexorably forward.
The group became twenty strong, a sickening sight to behold. Some were missing limbs, some had limbs stitched to others, one had two heads, both functioning. The group, searching for more soldiers, stumbled into a room with dormant Gray soldiers which suddenly burst to life. The Grays fought against the restraints that kept them from floating free, trying to fight back. The humans instantly attacked. The Grays struggled to retrieve their technologically superior weapons, while the desperate humans used anything at hand to kill. The carnage was intense. Burt, with four others, survived the fight and continued the search.
Meanwhile, Charger R/T found himself appearing and disappearing in the cold black depths of space as he searched for the Grays' ship. Not knowing which direction they had gone, he blinked at random for a long time. Then the voice in his head whispered again, very distant, giving a direction. Charger R/T thought it couldn't hurt to follow what the voice said and, with one blink, found himself aboard the Grays' craft.
He appeared in the central command area occupied by hundreds of Grays operating the ship as it traversed the void of space. Shocked by Charger's sudden appearance, the Grays reacted violently.
"Shit!" Charger R/T snarled, as twenty small Grays instantly clung to every part of his anatomy. Shaking them off like flies, Charger tried to find a stable surface to stand on so he could fight. For every one Gray he threw off, two would return. A boiling rage rose in Charger R/T's mind and, not knowing how he did it, he created a gravity field around himself, anchoring his feet to a solid surface. With that action, the fight really began. Charger R/T was like a wild animal, tearing and ripping the bodies of Grays apart with brutal efficiency.
Alarms rang out and more Grays rushed into the command center to defend the ship, allowing Burt time to find and free more soldiers. They floated down corridors trying to find the command center and killing any Gray that crossed their path. Burt entered one room and found a lone Gray which seemed to be communicating with something. Burt attacked and prevailed. The Gray had been in communication with his home world, explaining the events. The home world Grays witnessed the fight on their video screens, and were appalled and angry over the brutality of what they saw. At once, the Grays vowed to have their revenge on humanity.
Meanwhile, Charger R/T was mopping up the last few Grays trying to kill him. Now, with the craft firmly in Charger R/T’s control, he looked out the viewing port and in the distance saw two more great craft moving along with the one he now stood in.
Burt was stunned as he and the others entered the command room. The sight of possibly two hundred dead Grays scattered in pieces about the room was horrible. In the center of the large room stood a terrifying beast, wild-eyed and breathing hard.
"Holy crap!" was all Burt could manage to blurt before Charger R/T glared at the soldiers. The soldiers began retreating, not wanting to tangle with such a strange and ferocious-looking demon.
"Figures," Charger R/T said. He snorted, then blinked to the other nearest ship. The remaining ships with their crews of Grays stood no chance against his attack. He littered the decks with their dead. The humans he found were just as twisted and broken and fearful of him as any he had seen before.
Charger R/T had the power to save the humans but now felt little interest in doing so. Realizing yet again that he would never be accepted, he blinked to the area just beyond the three ships sitting motionless in the great void. Not really sure how he did it, he drew his hands slowly together, using some massive internal power, and crushed the three ships into a single, tiny point of matter.
***
Dart speaks to Reader:
You got it, didn't you, Reader? It seems impossible that Abarth could have been on Crest in 2205 during the first attack by the Grays when he wasn't born until 3540 on New Eden? And how could Charger R/T be chasing him when Charger R/T didn’t meet Abarth until a hundred years after that, in 3640?
Well, you're right, of course. Time travel! Abarth learned how to travel back in time and he landed on Crest, trying to escape from Charger R/T, who was determined to track and kill him.
No, Abarth being destroyed in 2205 didn’t affect what happened on New Eden during the following fourteen hundred years, because that was a different time line. Abarth disappeared from that particular time line, of course, when Jet sent him into the past, and created a new time line for himself on Crest. That time line was brief and ended forever when Charger R/T destroyed him.
How much of that scene on Crest was real? Oh, everything that happened on Crest was real. Jack's Battle Mech suit existed and he did board the Gray ship. The friendly planet was an illusion created by Abarth. It's hard to say about all the other things that happened. Abarth had great powers, so some of it was illusion.
Yes, Charger R/T's arrival was real. So was his destruction of Abarth.
No, Abarth couldn't fly the space ship. Only the mind and body can travel back in time. He didn't have the technology to fly a space ship. But Charger R/T could. Charger R/T was the only exception to that rule, for his arrival back in time was as a recreated being. He didn't have our modern technology, but he did have the powers of a god.
I agree, it is ironic that Jack, for a brief time, felt as if he was a hero. Feeling like a hero is a kind of illusion in itself.
Okay, I'll explain the time rip. It's a one-way trip for anyone capable of figuring out the process. You can go forward or backward in time to any point, but you travel to a dead end if you go back in time. This is a mechanical problem. You need technology to send you back or forward, but you can't take the technology with you, so if you go back, that's where you're stuck, because no time machine exists. It might be different if you're going ahead in time because technology always expa
nds and improves.
What about the Dark Ages on Earth? Don't be a smart-ass, Reader.
Now, the time rip is best described as a rip current, like the oceanic rip tide everyone's heard about, or maybe experienced. Time is a process of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, where space contracts and time dilates. However, sometimes there is too much time distorted by gravity, and time thus has the ability to flow backward, much like a rip current. In a rip current, the water crashes on the shore, but cannot stay on the shore and must return to the greater body of water, so it gathers and forces a narrow path out until it reaches beyond the breakers. And the same is true for time.
Yes, it's perhaps a little hard to grasp. It was the discovery of the great minds of science in the time of Abarth's existence. The discovery of hidden elements of the universe also led to the discovery of a quantum locked particle. This was an extremely rare subatomic particle that existed outside of time constraints, a single particle that existed when the universe first started and will still exist when the universe dies. A particle that exists at all points of time in space exists eternally, and the people of Abarth's time period discovered how to use it.
The scientists had theorized that if one used the drive engine from the world ship and, instead of locking on to a quantum entangled particle, they accessed a quantum locked particle, they could in theory send information to a different point in time, and reassemble the information there.
Yes, that means that a clone of a human could be built at some destination in time, and the information or mind of that human would be sent to the clone, thus destroying the initial traveler. In the case of Abarth, he could only send his essence or being to the end point clone. He could not send the products of his technology, and so he arrived at the destination as just a man, without advanced technology, but with knowledge of the future.
Yes, that's it exactly! Abarth was like the magician who could, through illusion, cause the elephant in the room to disappear, but he could do no more than that. The only problem with this technology was the destructive violence of pulling a quantum locked particle back into the time stream. The traveler survives but very little at the point of destination remains.
