The Final Option

by Kyle Robertson

  Ron knew that voice. He could recognize it anywhere. “That‘s Owen!” he said, with a surprised look on his face. “That’s why he didn’t return my call!”

  Chet looked at him with a smile, turned back to the panel, and said, “Returning your call wasn’t his priority a few minutes ago. He was preparing for, let’s just call it a skirmish.”

  The arena’s walls opened, and out came a horde of metallic, heavily armored, combatants. They surrounded the MCRD.

  “This is a training exercise, but those are live rounds,” Chet told Ron. You might want to cover your ears. Those M136-AT4's are real.”

  Ron saw the combatant wielding a Dragon in each hand. “An AT4 can knock over an armored personnel carrier. That thing’s got two. This is gonna get ugly.”

  “Yes,” Chet said as the combatant fired both Dragons simultaneously at the MCRD. The explosion shook the arena as if it were made from balsa wood. When the smoke cleared, the MCRD was still standing, without a scratch on its chassis.

  “It’s about to get very ugly,” Chet said to Ron, as he kept his eyes fixed on the arena.

  The combatants rushed the MCRD. As they got close, the MCRD began a Capoeira kata. The balance it demanded for such fluid movement looked impossible to Ron. Nothing the size of a tank should be able to move like a cat.

  It moved fluidly as it began to take out the combatants, punching and kicking them across the arena.

  “I’ve been working on an impenetrable element,” Chet stated. “I named it Bolo-carbenium. It’s a ceramic-based material. Tougher than any alloy, but amazingly light. The tensile strength is off the charts. It can’t be bent to form the shapes you would need to construct anything. I had to find a way to work with it. It turned out the material had to be extruded, but the flashpoint melding temperature was nuclear. So, everything you see was heat formed. Not a seam or crease anywhere.”

  “Yeah, I get it,” Ron said, still watching it plaster its assailants across the walls of the arena. “It‘s a tough mother, but that doesn't explain those exceptional martial arts skills it‘s showing right now.”

  Chet‘s smile grew larger. “Very true, but Owen has been training very hard to impress you.”

  “Owen doesn’t know kung-fu,” Ron said.

  “Correct, Ron,” Chet confirmed. “He knows the Brazilian fighting art Capoeira, and rather well, I might add.”

  Ron watched as the MCRD started to dismantle the remaining combatants. He shook his head, involuntarily, in disbelief.

  Chet saw the look of doubt on his face. He walked to the panel and clicked the com once more.

  “He still doesn't believe it‘s you, Owen,” Chet spoke into the com. “Why don’t you give him a gift?”

  “THAT PLEXI-GLASS IS THREE FEET THICK, RIGHT?” Owen asked.

  “Yes it is, Owen,” Chet answered.

  “ALTHOUGH THAT GLASS IS IMPENETRABLE, YOU MAY WANT TO STAND BACK,” Owen told Chet.

  Ron saw the MCRD grab the combatant that held the Dragons, by the waist and neck.

  “Let‘s step back a little farther,” Chet told Ron, as he pushed him back across the chest with his arm. “‘Ugly’ is about to come right at you.”

  The MCRD picked up the combatant and began to spin its top torso with violent, centrifugal force. The remnants of the recently destroyed assailants began to swirl within the windy vortex it created. Just as it started to sound like a massive fan, it released the combatant towards their direction.

  It crashed into the plexiglass of the observation area with a deafening crash.

  The cascading sparks and shocking noise made Ron jump. The rubble of the initial assailant slid from the glass onto the floor of the arena, leaving metal chunks, transistors, and oil streaking from the glass.

  Chet walked closer to the window and peered out to the MCRD. He stepped back, and began to laugh.

  “What‘s so damned funny?!” Ron impatiently asked Chet.

  Chet pointed to the MCRD, and said to Ron, “C‘mere.”

  Ron came closer to see what Chet was talking about. He saw the MCRD-52 flipping him the bird.

  “I believe Owen is giving you the finger,” Chet said with a grin.

  Ron saw the brash insult, and asked, “Is he inside that thing?”

  “It’s not a Mech,” Chet clarified. It would have been practically impossible to create a pilot station inside of it and keep its integrity. We built it so it mimics the controller’s synaptic reflexes.”

  “Why does it have to be controlled? I didn't give you enough money to make it sentient?” Ron asked.

  “Oh, you gave enough money. In fact, I still have unused grants littering my desk,” Chet began. “As advanced as a computer is, it can never overcome the human element. I was watching my kid one day, playing one of his games. It was some ninja quest game. He had it set on Brutal Suicide mode. The hardest level. He told me later, it was the most difficult level of any game made, and most players wouldn’t even attempt it. Yet, he was getting through it, and having fun doing it. That was when the idea of a mind-controlled defender was born.

  “Well, congratulations, Chet,” Ron complimented him. “You’ve outdone yourself.”

  Chet accepted the compliment as graciously as any narcissistic scientist could. “Now, all we have to do is draw him back here.”

  “We don't know where he is,” Ron informed Chet. “His tracker was destroyed with his heart bomb.”

  “We have a general idea. This cult won‘t run. Arrogance is one of the components to builds megalomaniacs,” Chet gave his opinion. “They haven‘t moved an inch.”

  “Even if your guess is right, how do we draw him out?” Ron asked.

  “Oh, I‘m right, Ron,” Chet continued. “We can‘t use the MCRD-52 that far away from its base. The lag of a satellite relay would be devastating in combat. So I‘ve devised a ‘calling card‘.”

  Chet pointed to the screen on the control panel.

  “Ghost Alpha?” Ron asked in amazement.

  “Not just Ghost Alpha, a team in Ghost Alpha that has worked seamlessly with each other for years,” Chet said. “Ron, meet Dark Ice.”

  Ron saw the commando’s bios on the screen. “The Propagander, Quantum, Scrap, and Harm?”

  “The Grim Reaper’s psychotic henchmen and they’re on our side,” Chet said with satisfaction. “Now, I know they can’t defeat him, but their job is to piss him off. They can do that.”

  Ron saw Chet’s assurances. He still stayed cautiously paranoid. It was inherent at this point.

  “Let’s hope your predictions come true, Chet,” Ron said, almost suffocating under his cautious weight.

  Chapter Thirteen: Exodus 18:26

  “I have a paradox to contend with,” Val-Koorin spoke to Geogyn. His attention wasn‘t directed his way. He just kept looking over, past Oswalt’s platoon into his own doom-laden prison. “This is something I cannot do, but it must be done.”

  Geogyn became confused at his statement. He was God. God could do anything, at least that was what everyone who worshiped him believed. Then the old Atheist question interrupted his thoughts.

  Could God make a rock so heavy, he couldn‘t lift it? After listening to Val-Koorin's dark statement, he believed anything was possible.

  “I will do what you request,” Geogyn said, trying to comfort Val-Koorin with his steadfast loyalty.

  “You do not have the authority or power to augment this decision,” Val-Koorin warned him. “This is my responsibility alone. Your speculated influence is not required.”

  Geogyn was taken aback. His entire existence had been augmented to serve Val-Koorin. The projection of his deity’s absolution had been redirected. It confused his commitment. He believed what he was doing was at the request of a flawless God.

  “I never said I couldn’t do it,” Val-Koorin interrupted his errant thoughts. “I wrestle with morality, also. The problem is, should I do it?”

  Geogyn kept falling into his own conundrum. He began to pass it off as Va
l-Koorin working in mysterious ways when Val-Koorin began to explain.

  “Sometimes the people you erase aren’t completely wrong. Even when every action they had done was deemed abhorrent,” he stated.

  “But I have felt the darkness in all of my targets,” Geogyn said. “There were no redeeming qualities in any of them.”

  “This action is still not redeeming. As vile as this action would have been, it was, ultimately necessary.” Val-Koorin kept adding to the confusion.

  Geogyn tried to keep respect, but the conversation kept derailing. He wanted to keep it on the track to a logical result, but he kept falling off. He finally had to keep the conversation steady. “All right, Val-Koorin, you keep losing me. What are you talking about?”

  Val-Koorin realized he was being enigmatic. He clarified his statements. “When you erased President Nelson, the execution of a dictator never happened. This dictator continued her evil atrocities on humanity and the planet.”

  “Then why don’t I go and erase her now?” Geogyn asked.

  “It‘s not that easy,” Val-Koorin explained. “She murdered many of her people by poisoning the earth of her lands with a chemical abomination that eats and infects everything organic in its path. It was meant for biological warfare. Since it destroyed many of the inhabitants of Changchun China, she forced them to create a rebellion that executed her. She has been dead for eight months, but the chemical has saturated the land. It is growing exponentially. Her death came much too late to matter, and since you can‘t erase who is already dead, I have a paradox.”

  “I can erase the chemists,” Geogyn said, with a positive light gracing his conclusion.

  “Don’t insult your own intelligence by thinking I haven’t come to that as a logical conclusion, Geogyn,” Val-Koorin said somberly to Geogyn. “Chu-Li-Fan started out as an amazing chemist before she became a ruthless dictator.”

  Val-Koorin's woeful despondency finally connected. Geogyn understood how all their work would become unraveled because of a tiny glitch in the master plan.

  “The chemical she created was the lynchpin of her rise to power,” Geogyn conveyed his understanding of the situation.

  “As brilliant as she was, she had no control over the evil she unleashed,” Val-Koorin concluded their thoughts. “Now, this chemical, this plague, is poisoning the Earth. With its rate of spreading, it would take three years to reduce this planet to the state of Mars. I could never augment any indigenous substance of this planet. That was never my intention. I have power over my creation, and their actions to change the state of Earth, but after my creations die, the world has to live with whatever they have done. Sadly, the Earth cannot live with what Chu-Li-Fan has consummated.”

  Geogyn knew all their hard work was coming undone. He felt helpless for the first time in his life. This was the true apocalypse. This was what everyone had feared in their beliefs. The only problem with them was there was no traveling to a kingdom. Their souls would be in limbo, without having new bodies to inhabit. That was the true definition of Hell.

  He also knew Val-Koorin wouldn‘t discard his experiment because of some unforeseen aberration.

  “What do I have to do to correct this?” he asked.

  Val-Koorin hesitated for a second. He finally turned to Geogyn, and said, “You're going to have to participate in an Ouroboros event.”

  Geogyn knew the word, just not the context. “I know Ouroboros is an ancient Latin word for a dragon devouring its own tail, but what does that have to do with our present situation?”

  “It’s a temporal procedure,” Val-Koorin explained. “You have to go back in time to correct this.”

  Geogyn knew there had to be a way to fix their problem. He just didn‘t know the severity of the answer. He knew his journey hadn’t been attempted by any inhabitant of this planet. What he didn‘t know was if he would, or even could, survive the journey. Just before he began to ask his questions, Val-Koorin spoke once more.

  “I see my decision of whether to send you back in time has already been made. My apprehension was concluded already.” Val-Koorin said with a slight elation. “Yes, you will survive this ordeal, and yes, you will accomplish your mission. There are rules to this event, and by telling you of these rules now, I will save you from disaster,” Val-Koorin spoke louder all of a sudden. “Right about now!”

  Geogyn stepped back in bewilderment. He wondered why he yelled at him.

  “You will understand my actions, eventually,” Val-Koorin said. “But for now, the rules. You can have no knowledge of your future self. Perspective wise, both of you will believe they are the legitimate present one. That will tear the fabric of time with a destructive paradox. Time is the one proponent that can destroy all existence. As long as you don‘t see yourself, time will stay intact. There are even laws I cannot control.”

  Geogyn listened, and knew it was an extreme responsibility to adhere to the rules.

  “When you go back in time, the only way to return to the present will be naturally. That means you have to avoid yourself for the duration of your temporal duality. If an individual travels longer than their natural life-span, they die in that time period.”

  Geogyn realized why Val-Koorin was so cautious about this endeavor. It wasn’t just for his safety. If an irresponsible individual was granted this privilege, they could destroy existence with one asinine gesture. Knowing he was the temporal scout made him hope he wasn’t the asshole who’d inadvertently destroy everything.

  “Is there anything else?” he asked Val-Koorin, making sure there were no mistakes.

  “It is… going to hurt,” Val-Koorin revealed to Geogyn.

  Geogyn was used to being put in caustic situations. He had been trained to ignore pain. He believed he was ready for the excursion.

  “You will not be ready for this, Geogyn,” Val-Koorin answered his thought with ominous warning. “Death is lower in the pain threshold than physical presence reversion. This process will molest your synapses.”

  Geogyn knew Val-Koorin would not put him through this if it wasn’t necessary. He knew this had to be done to save the Earth. He also knew he would be the unsung hero of the planet. Only Val-Koorin would acknowledge his deed. That was enough for him. He wasn’t doing this for accolades. He was doing this because it was right. That was what he felt.

  “The result of me not doing this would be far more destructive than my apprehension of pain.” Geogyn was determined to complete this. “Whether you believe it, or not, I am ready.”

  “I do not have to believe, I know,” Val-Koorin corrected his statement. “I applaud your bravery, but I am immensely sorry for what I am about to do to you. Forgive me.”

  “Already forgiven. You don‘t know how monumental an ego boost it is for God to ask you for forgiveness.” Then Geogyn remembered who he was. It was just surreal for a split second. “Well, you know me so well, I guess you do.”

  Val-Koorin was silent for a second, looking over the Lord Order once more. Then he snapped back to tell Geogyn the particulars of the jump.

  “You are not only going to be traveling backwards in time, you’ll be traveling in distance,” Val-Koorin began. “You will be placed at the Se Gun Chemical plant, two years ago.”

  “What does Chu-Li-Fan look like?” Geogyn asked, believing that erasing the wrong person would have been the epitome of fruitlessness.

  “She looks like this.” Val-Koorin didn’t describe her, or give him a picture. He mentally projected her image into his mind. “It doesn’t matter who will do whatever, she is the only reason you are going back. Do not augment the ripples of time any further by affecting anyone else. Remember, you already exist here. If they were meant to be erased, you have already done it, or will do it in your perspective at the time.”

  Geogyn began to think of how difficult this was going to be. After he erased Chu-Li-Fan, he couldn’t affect anyone else. He had to sequester himself in a desolate location until he caught up with the natural current of time once more
.

  “This has to be a minor change in time,” Val-Koorin explained. “If you do something major, it is like throwing a boulder in the rapids of a raging river. It will stop time’s original course, and would direct it elsewhere. Other dimensions are too strict to allow time to flood into them. With nowhere to go, it will keep raging nowhere, until it explodes, destroying existence with its devastation. I am telling you this to impress upon you the delicacy of your task‘s actions. You have the ultimate responsibility placed upon you. I ask for you not to make a mistake. If you do, no one will be here to admonish you for your erratum.”

  Geogyn refused to acknowledge how grave this task was. He knew it was serious, but if he went any further in his query, his true understanding of what had to be done would have halted him in his tracks. No one with any rationality or responsibility would ever attempt this.

  “I will be mindful of my actions,” Geogyn told Val-Koorin. “Once I erase Chu-Li-Fan, I will head north. I won’t have contact with another human. I will stay covert until my duality is inert.”

  “Yes, I know you will,” Val-Koorin said with an air of satisfaction. “I also know what I have told you will sink in, and you do understand.”

  Before Geogyn began to hesitate from the menacing heft of the task, he dismissed his apprehension. He wasn’t concerned about the time travel process, it was the temporal consequence of irresponsibility. He couldn‘t make a mistake, for even the slightest inadvertence could undo… everything.

  “Don't worry about making a mistake,” Val-Koorin assured him. “You'll be free and clear of your duality momentarily. Just keep your bravery and resolve of who you truly are for the few minutes of your transition.”

  “From what you have told me, I will never be ready for this ordeal,” Geogyn acknowledged. “Just know I will be strong enough to endure it. I have no choice. It seems you know of the success of this mission. I’ll just trust your judgment. It would be rather asinine not to trust God’s word.”

  “You have to remain cognizant during this trip,” Val-Koorin said, respecting him more for his blinding faith. “You will know when to exit the stream, but you need to be alert. Trying to sedate you from the pain would dull your accuracy. The window is tiny, and if you miss it, there won't be another exit. Time travel is precise, with no room for leniency.”