The Past

by Kenneth Thomas

  ‘Bravo! Bravo! Tan-tan’! The Interrogator taunts and sings.

  Dr King, no longer scowling, gestures to the Interrogator to pause the torture. Impressed by his resistance, he says ‘Boy! The Universal has engineered and trained you well, lest it must be said, your gullibility lets you down. A mere human would have begged for mercy and a quick death long ago. But then again, you are not quite that’.

  His tone a little more forgiving, ‘Boy, are you so gullible? So easy to fool… Explain yourself’?

  VanWest musters all his strength to finally give an answer. His throat dry and his voice hoarse, he comes up with a plausible excuse, partly a lie, ‘My liege, it was part of my mission. I needed to gain their trust to gather intel. This after I stopped Jaaro and saved our present. The Seductress though was too cunning’.

  Dr King gives a half-smile, ‘Yes, the Seductress is quite so. Explain further, to gain their trust? Intel’?

  ‘Yes, my liege… It led… me to Mad Newton’, VanWest explains, his voice croaking.

  ‘Go on’! Dr King encourages. The Colonel discreetly nodding too.

  ‘My liege, it worked… But the Quadrotors outside of the motel came too late. Not all is lost, I have intel on Mad Newton’s plan’, VanWest offers, hoping to barter it in exchange for his life.

  Dr King is intrigued, staying silent to hear more. In contrast, the glee and excitement of the Interrogator evaporates, who stops licking his lips and sits down.

  ‘The leap is happening in a subterranean base… A final leap, a New Beginning’.

  Dr King stares at him before replying, ‘VanWest, my boy… I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt! This is most useful! You have always proven to be a loyal and skilled Enforcer. Lest I did not acknowledge… I give credit where credit is due… stopping that deviant Jaaro from changing time and chasing the Seductress out of 1951’.

  VanWest replies obsequiously, but he is surprised, those are details he didn’t share. ‘Thank you, thank you, my liege. I am but your humble servant’. He continues, perhaps oversharing, ‘The Seductress got away with the… with the rod’.

  ‘Ah my boy, fear not. The Universal is all-knowing. Lest you did not know, the Seductress, yes, she has risen to Mad Newton’s inner circle’!

  VanWest looks up, shocked and surprised, by his response. Is she a spy?

  Dr King smiles, ‘By killing this higher-ranked deviant Jaaro and returning him the rod, she has taken his place. Our plan coming together perfectly’.

  An alarmed VanWest cannot help but ask, ‘My liege, I do not understand. She gave Mad Newton the rod’!?

  ‘Fear not, we have his dented prototype. Our Head of Science, Dr Schuurman, fixes it. Lest you had not known, Ling Ling ‘The Seductress’ we control, our inside agent. By giving Mad Newton this working rod, she has won his trust. This so-called new beginning now a trap, to lure the Utopians, deviants, into his bunker. There we, well I mean you, will strike’! Dr King explains his cunning plan, looking very proud of himself.

  ‘My liege, I’m very glad to hear this. Please know this, I am the most loyal and most devoted of Enforcers, always adhering to the Universal commandments. I thank you and continue to serve and work for the progression of man and the Universal; to serve without question and with utter devotion’.

  VanWest, being as obsequious as he can possibly be, does his best to act pleased and to hide his concern for Iris. Mentally and physically drained, he winces in pain with every word he speaks.

  ‘Tell me, your visions, what do they show now? Is there still a wreck’? Dr King asks with a slight hint of anxiety.

  VanWest ponders what to say. It seems this ‘hacker’ that Mad Newton mentioned has indeed managed to stop the Universal Council from reading his mind. Finding it hard to continue speaking, he forces himself, ‘Only but one, the executions of those deviants by the Universal Council. This evil woman will be executed at the hands of Captain Alpha’.

  ‘Excellent! Be it better you to kill this evil woman. But Captain Alpha makes sense’, Dr King smiles, indicating he wants more from VanWest.

  ‘Of course, my liege’, VanWest replies.

  Dr King’s eyes narrow, his forehead frowning, ‘My boy, lest you forget, this evil woman, do not let her make your mind weak. She is bent, unbalanced by the ideologies of her father. This gullibility you are susceptible to… you must understand she cannot be saved. We will strengthen your mind. We will help you to kill her’.

  Taking cue, the Colonel interjects, ‘My liege, the program is ready’.

  ‘Yes, thank you, my liege’, VanWest replies, relieved to have survived this and that the torture has finally ended.

  The tanning salon glass panes change once again, this time spraying his body with foam, reversing the damage from the burns and removing most of the pain. VanWest, now able to move, bows low to Dr King to give his thanks and respect.

  ‘Mad Newton’s bunker, his hiding place, is part of your mission tomorrow. Use it to rebuild your reputation. Prove once and for all your allegiance to the Universal Council by killing Mad Newton’s daughter! Bring me Mad Newton ALIVE in time for Judgment Day. Do not fail me’! Dr King warns him in a firm tone.

  ‘My liege, I relish this opportunity. I will not fail you’, VanWest doing his best to not show any empathy and worry for Iris.

  The Colonel asks, ‘My liege, if I may’?

  After a nod from Dr King, he turns to VanWest, ‘Captain, the briefing commences at ten hundred hours. You will join Captain Alpha’s squad at the command centre. Joining you will be two bunker specialists to devise a plan to enter their well-guarded base. Now heal and begin Master Jiang’s convalescing and mind strengthening program. You will have a few hours to revise the commandments as your wounds heal’.

  VanWest replies obediently, ‘Yes, Colonel. Affirmative’.

  Dr King ends the conversation, ‘Time is of the essence, their New Beginning draws closer. You will strike before their scheduled leap between seventeen and eighteen hundred hours. Be ready’!

  The Interrogator’s Elite patrol androids grab hold of him, steering him out of the torture chamber and away. The Interrogator still holds his amber stone pendant, licking it as he leaves.

  VanWest shrewd excuse and explanation has saved his life! He exits mostly in one piece to a pod on C deck to undergo Master Jiang’s Hypersphere program. He exhales deeply. It doesn’t feel like a victory as he tries to suppress thoughts of Iris and her safety. Inside the pod, his body shudders as the convalescing commences, quickly entering him into a dream state.

  The sequence takes him back to the Enforcer academy, back to his first philosophy class. A class taught by his professor Master Jiang. The professor forces them to repeat the Universal’s three commandments, which he writes with chalk on a blackboard.

  Commandment 1. To serve without question the Universal Council

  Commandment 2. To work for the progression of man and the Universal

  Commandment 3. To destroy all those who defy the Universal Council

  Master Jiang hands VanWest the white chalk crayon and instructs him to continue writing the commandments out. VanWest does as he is instructed, writing them until he cannot remember anything else.

  Several hundred lines later, VanWest awakens back in the elevator looking at his reflection. He’s now dressed in a standard-class Enforcer uniform, his Moggle X lenses and hazmat mode activated. His body, apart from his bloodshot eyes, shows no visible signs of his torture. As if it was just one long, terrible nightmare.

  VanWest’s mind has been refocused, his conflicting thoughts gone. His only thought, how best he can serve his Masters, fulfil his commandments, including to destroy all those who defy the Universal Council. It’s 10 in the morning, ten hundred hours, and it is time for the mission briefing with Captain Alpha and Colonel Cornelius.

  The elevator travels sideways to collect the Colonel who looks happy to see him, ‘Captain VanWest, good morning’!

  ‘Good morning, Colonel Corne
lius’, VanWest replies mechanically and bows slightly.

  ‘Are you ready for today’? The Colonel asks.

  Staring blankly at the Colonel, he answers, ‘Yes, Colonel Cornelius’. Reciting the commandments, ‘I serve without question the Universal Council. I work for the progression of man and the Universal. I will destroy all those who defy the Universal Council’.

  The Colonel looks at him with concern, ‘I’m sorry for what happened… VanWest, I never was able to thank you for winning the Games’. Revealing a worrying detail, he adds in a low voice, ‘I owe you honour on behalf of all the Enforcers, if it weren’t for your gift and victory, we would have all been replaced by Space Soldiers by now’.

  Chapter 12 To Serve the Universal

  The elevator transports them to the top of the SCC-400, into a dome-shaped room on the command deck. The ship sits hidden from view on top of the Enforcer HQ in Mid-City, cloaked to remain discreet. Its panoramic views are truly breath-taking, giving an uninterrupted 360-degree view of the capital Queen Elizabeth. The deck perfect for surveillance and to strategise.

  On the Westside is the district of the Elites. Large buildings line the streets, many surrounded with their own magnetic dome, opaque and tinted to hide and protect those inside from the outside world and elements. There are several skyscrapers, the most impressive of, which is the Vitali Sun Terra: a humongous twisted green tower whose design represents a rarity amongst the plethora of grey, anti-radiative painted, concrete buildings that make up the majority of the capital. Built after receiving special approval from the Universal Council a couple of centuries ago. It belongs to a reclusive Oligarch Marcus Vitali who constructed the tower in memory of a child he lost. He wanted to create a community for the descendants of Elites, to protect them against the dangers of the outside world, fully self-sufficient, so its residents never need to leave.

  The structure is a mini-city, built up of a neuron-like collection of towers that interconnect and reach up over 700 meters high. Each neuron is co-dependent on the other. Everything can be found inside; residents live and work there, sharing amenities and facilities such as pools, theatres, healthcare and parks, as well as workspaces. It even has its own renewable energy; including solar panels and wind turbines and collects methane from human excrement and food waste.

  Citizens of Queen Elizabeth refer to these people as ‘the descendants of Vitali’. Few have ever seen these residents, leading to many tales being told. That the people are severely obese and pasty-skinned hobbit-like hermits or that these people cannot even walk, requiring wheelchairs and transport tubes to get around the massive building.

  On the Eastside the views are, one might say, not so aesthetically pleasing, more plainly put, very grim. The Universal Council raids have not helped, leaving the landscape and many of its buildings a charred and twisted mess. The Universal’s most recent incursion, the gruesome massacre in and around the nuclear fission powerplant, has left a large section smouldering and covered in a thick blanket of black smoke.

  Some of the smoke has drifted to the capital’s edge, shrouding the relatively low-tech glasshouse plantations of the green and radioactive resistant soya beans. The citizens will be hoping it clears soon, relying on the soya beans for protein, especially for those that cannot afford or find cockroach meat scraps. Without sunlight, there will be no photosynthesis, and some may even starve. Soya beans, fed by a network of canals, are one of only a few crops able to grow and make use of the capital’s heavily toxic water supply. The water passes through the plantations before emptying out into the ocean, the Weddell Sea.

  In the middle of the command centre are several circular green sonic chairs facing towards a large spherical 4D holomap. Seated, and interfaced with it, are figures that VanWest has come to know a little too well of late: Dr King, Commissioner Ming, and, as he was told, Captain Alpha. There are also two well-known experts in bunker infiltration, Captain Dell and Captain Zheng. Their missions have become a thing of legend in the Enforcer academy amongst the students and professors alike. Indeed, VanWest had to master their technique of breaking into locked and blockaded rooms, known as the ZhengDell, before he could graduate. This involved sending a series of shots in opposite directions and then forward to protect from a side assault.

  The Colonel and VanWest take their seats and join the interface, instantly taking them inside the map, a 4D blueprint of the Utopian’s base, which extends several floors below the surface. Rotating clockwise, it reveals more detail, highlighting a path through each level. VanWest notices the surface level looks very familiar, it is the cockroach farm he leapt into! It makes sense, the Seductress returning here from 1951 Paris and unwittingly taking him to the NEA’s secret bunker base.

  As an agent and spy for the Universal Council, it isn’t surprising she shared this location with them, having likely been picked up soon after leaving the farm. Thinking back, VanWest wonders if he missed the Seductress giving the farmer the working Quantum Accelerator rod. Or maybe she left it to be collected later in one of the cockroach pens.

  With the return of the Quantum Accelerator rod, the Seductress must have earned Mad Newton’s full trust just as Dr King had hoped. The cockroach farm is a perfect hiding place for a Utopian HQ, their comings and goings disguised as farm work, the selling of meat products an excellent cover. The map augments the surface area of the bunker base, focusing in on a black, high capacity industrial furnace located near the cockroach pens. The furnace incinerates and converts agricultural waste into electricity.

  Commissioner Ming leads the briefing, ‘Armed with the information from our agent, be sure we have surveyed their base in great detail’.

  The interface zooms inside the black furnace as the Colonel takes over, ‘Captain Alpha, your squadron must infiltrate with lightning-fast speed through this furnace and enter into the bunker below. See the trap doors? Make sure you time it RIGHT, every 20 seconds flames shoot from within’.

  Captain Alpha responds enthusiastically, pleased to have been appointed squadron leader, ‘Affirmative, Colonel’!

  The Colonel continues, ‘Pay close attention, everyone… The agent will load a Trojan virus to corrupt their security systems, allowing you time to infiltrate, pass through. You MUST be fast, speed is of the essence, if not Mad Newton will leap into the past and alter our present’!

  Dr King interjects, warning, ‘Lest I must say again, time is running out. We expect there to be many Utopians readying’.

  The hologram changes from the bunker layout to that of a series of faces - VanWest recognises some of them from his earlier mission to 1951 Paris and the Most Wanted list. More than anyone else, he recognises the frizzy-haired Iris. An internal conflict plays on his mind. His mind is telling him to kill her his heart telling him to protect her. This ‘New Beginning’ has indeed brought together many high-ranking Utopians. Mad Newton’s entire inner circle must be there.

  After Master Jiang’s HyperSphere sequence, his mind focuses on one thought: the commandment to destroy all those who defy the Universal Council. Even if this includes Iris. He MUST kill them all.

  The Colonel activates the node behind his ear, inserting a red diamond chip with the secret base’s coordinates. Returning with the layout of the third-level basement floor. ‘Squad! Our inside agent will rendezvous with you at this level, follow this path from the furnace. If all goes to plan, the agent should be waiting. Identifying herself by the letters T-I-T-O. I repeat T-I-T-O… Affirmative’?

  ‘Yes, Colonel. Affirmative’! The squad replies.

  He continues, ‘In the unlikely scenario that she doesn’t appear, assume the worst. That a portal is already open. Charge straight in! Affirmative’?

  ‘Yes, Colonel. Affirmative’! The squad repeats.

  The 4D hologram map shifts to the outside of the farm as Captain Zheng takes over. In succession, the map highlights several possible entrances into the building. Captain Zheng systematically crossing out each:

  - the access poi
nt on the rooftop - impeded by a razor-sharp electric wire

  - the large sliding hangar door at the back - several hidden sensory turrets

  - the front entrance blocked by giant farm cockroaches and goo - too slow

  With all entrances crossed out in red, High Risk Of Delay, Mad Newton would likely get a heads up if they were to approach, able to leap before they arrive. This 48-hours delay is for a stable leap - a random, erratic one can happen at any time.

  Dr King interrupts, ‘Lest we forget, time is of the essence. Zero hour is fast approaching until the time the Quantum Accelerator becomes sufficiently stable for a targeted location and date. Once so, the Utopians’ New Beginning commences’.

  Captain Zheng nods and shifts to the east side of the farm where another entrance is highlighted green. Zooming in on an access point that empties wastewater into the water system, a green line showing how it is collected at the waterworks facility nearby. Behind this access point is a water tank, filled with hundreds of creatures, their bodies elongated and cylindrical, which twist and swim up and down. VanWest activates his Moggle X and Wiki to get more detail on the creatures, downloading the file, Electric Eels.

  It details how the hardy species is capable of delivering large electric shocks, swimming up to the surface every 10 minutes to breathe in oxygen from the air. Unlike the cockroaches, the eels are far too valuable for consumption. By harnessing their electric shocks, they provide an additional source of power, further helping the Utopians to stay off the capital’s energy grid, avoiding suspicion and probing by the Enforcers that regularly investigate anomalies.

  The hologram map zooms in on the eels, showing how the energy is harnessed. Every twenty minutes, a giant claw incites them to act defensively, generating an electric shock in unison. This electricity is then collected via thousands of small conductors connected to the tank and stored in a battery. More importantly, the tank is a way for the squad to enter into the farm.