ENIGMA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED
PART THREE
THE FINAL BATTEL
BY
GERARD WHITTAKER
Enigma: The Final Battle
By Gerard Whittaker
Smashwords edition.
Copyright by Gerard Whittaker, 2010
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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PART THREE
CHAPTER ONE
ÆDEN
From the depths of Terra's seas the Enigma Jumped halfway across the Cosmos, appearing in deep space- to behold a spiral galaxy that covered a third of the heavens, glowing with the light of a hundred thousand million stars. A snowflake shaped space station, hundreds of miles across and constructed of asteroids on ten-mile long crystal spokes, shimmered in the enchanting glamour.
"That'll teach that smug Christmas bauble who's boss," Wendy chuckled. "I'll probably melt it down for earrings."
"Frog, as we christened it, is now a valuable part of the Enigma," Miles said coolly, "and as such is protected by our understanding."
"Oh, all right, but if you knew how much trouble it'd caused? I could have picked you up weeks ago; without any of this fuss."
"Before War World? When you destroyed the solar system. That was you, wasn't it?"
"Just another chore Captain," she shrugged. “It needed doing; there's no way to make it sound nice, is there?"
"We were on that planet a few weeks earlier, and while I'm glad the Others are dead, the cost was terribly high.” He gestured to where June gazed through the Eye at the galaxy, as her daughters sat playing at her feet. “Most of the women aboard came from one of their farms."
"You took out the city?” Wendy gasped in surprise. "Well, you live and learn- if you live! Sorry, when I first saw them I misjudged… I thought you were just greedy. You did a damn fine job, but it didn't half stir them up; I had to delay the rescue for a week."
"What rescue?"
"Twenty farms.”
“How did you know?” June asked in awe.
“The report came through a friend of mine called Jim, I didn’t bother to read the details; we had to sterilise the infection at once, before it could spread. We couldn't help those in the cities, it was too late the moment they entered, but there's no way we could let over a million women and children go to hell with their masters."
"You saved them?" he gasped. "All of them!"
"It's what we do," Wendy said simply. “And if not us, then who? There is no one else.”
They floated up to the space station, watching in awe as a hundred work pods and robots manoeuvred a new moonlet into place at the end of a ten-mile long crystal arm. “This rock holds the farms we rescued, still held in stasis. We had to snatch the farms whole until we can decide what to do with the slaves- there are still plenty of ‘Farmers’ left there.”
“Some kind of prison?” June asked sourly.
“No, a storage facility. If we tried to help them all at once we’d bankrupt Æden, but a few hundred at a time we can manage.”
"This is Æden?” Hugh gasped.
"Currently, it used to be a planet, until we got kicked off; the landlords woke up. But we've much bigger plans, at the moment we're building with asteroids- pretty soon we'll be using planets.” She shrugged expensively, "After that, who knows- maybe whole star systems."
Harris gasped, "How on earth?"
"You saw us move one planet," Wendy said with a shrug.
Miles sighed, “No, but we saw the splash it made.”
"We could have left it anywhere…!” she said with meaning. “Space or time, alternate dimensions- it’s all the same to us. We've got a cluster of nearly a thousand stars pegged out. All we have to do is use the stars to power an industrial sized Jumpdrive and seed them with as many well chosen planets as we wish- and we've got the biggest space ship you could imagine- fifty light years long."
Miles croaked, "Why, what for?"
"Consider it a lifeboat, the Others could still win."
"Æden could do..."
Wendy chuckled, "In fact Æden is nearer a state of mind than a physical place. It stands for total freedom to be yourself; life, health and love."
"No wonder you hate the Others”, June laughed as she held Miles's arm.
"They're a cosmic disease, and we're the penicillin."
"Nicely put," Harris applauded. "But what are they?"
"More that just aliens, much more," she replied grimly. "You’ve heard the titles before: The Precursors; the First Born; the Progenitors; the Aelder Gods; the Forerunners; the Creatures from Beyond Time; Those Who Feed in Darkness, and ten thousand more across the Multiverse. They come from a realm of darkness we can scarcely comprehend; we think they're refugees from a war before, and that created, the Big Bang- the predators who inadvertently started our Multiverse. Okay, we’re not really sure, it’s very hard to have a profound conversation with a creature that’s trying to eat you."
Miles gasped in incredulity, "But they couldn't exist here, surely not..."
"Exist may be the only way to describe it, it sure isn't living. They managed to break through to this reality, in a hundred Universes, intending to absorb and enslave all they meet- until chaos reigns in darkness for all time."
Harris gasped in horror, "What are they like?"
"Nothing you could possibly imagine, no two are alike, but were not sure if they're different species or not, because they're in a constant state of metamorphosis, as they mutate into something that can survive here- until their new body dies and they have to mutate again. They live in eternal agony."
"Why?” Marina begged. "Why would they suffer so?"
"To cause our Multiverse to collapse back into the previous one, to recreate their home dimension."
"I had to ask," Marina sighed.
Wendy shrugged off the darkness, and laughed, "Now, let's meet Dad, shall we?"
The Enigma Jumped inside the hundred-mile wide Admin sphere, seeing not the expected barren rock but a flourishing eco-system of blue sky and a bright sun, with small clouds casting shadows on the rich land. She flew over miles of forest and farmland, passing by a small walled town and on towards a large mansion standing high on a hill about a mile beyond.
Wendy chuckled at their shock, “These rocks are free, so we’re only picking the big ones, and Time doesn’t think small.”
The Enigma glided down over the fortified wall, to land in front of the manor house on the firm grass and crisp gravel. Smiling mischievously Gwen put them down next to a green Land Rover. “Same Gravetic grid as on the Enigma, theoretically we could turn the station into a thousand spaceships.”
A simple brass plaque on the house's oaken door said: 'TIME'. A much newer plaque below it said: 'Department of Cosmic Guardians'.
Wendy led them out of the Enigma as a score of six-inch high fairies swooped around her head, laughing in glee; most were dressed in short silken costumes, sometimes adorned with fresh petals. Several wore tiny rapiers, made from needles, and saluted Wendy with a flourish of steel; however, one figure hung back, sullenly.
"Tansy”, Wendy sighed with gentle admonition, "won't you greet your friend?"
However, Tansy fled sobbing into the forest, fluttering between the trees on gauzy wings.
Miles chuckled, "Well Pelle, now do you believe in direct power to speed? After all, you've seen the fairies."
"What was that about?” June asked.
"She's just learned that I created them by accident," Wendy apologised.
"I'm getting fed up of saying this," Miles sighed as he held June's hand, "but- what the hell..."
"You know we can design Biroids from scratch on a computer?"
"Well, I suppose..."
"Æden has never needed to create Biroids, we're up to our ears with surplus stock now," she sighed. "We buy them from Terra's version of Exchange and Mart by the hundred- for many it's either us or termination- Terra doesn't like the idea of them being released and forming their own culture. It nearly happened once, there were quite a few casualties."
Miles mused, "An army of Biroid Sparticuses? It'd scare the hell out of me."
Wendy chuckled, "And you've never seen their combat models- Marines and Bodyguards- all with built in weapons and armour."
"Sounds nasty," Harris said with a burr in his voice.
"We are, I was created a Biroid- and adopted." She glanced at Marina with meaning, "It took years of hard work and a lot of love to make me truly human; there were far too many shitty little programs springing up, telling me how to behave."
June asked, "But what has this to do with fairies?"
"Biroid's are the art form on Terra," Wendy said grimly. "You wouldn't believe some of the new models. While most are merely aesthetically pleasing, they would far surpass any so called supermodel on Earth, some are in the worst possible taste- not all the genes are human."
“Hybrid, Chimera?” Harris spluttered.
“That and a damn sight more,” Wendy said grimly. “Angels, Elves, Mermaids, Dryads, Succubus… You know how good man is at creating fictional monsters? Well, now he can take them from the page and into real life. If you’ve got the money you can own a whole herd of centaurs, or what ever else takes your perverted fancy.”
June asked nervously, "Are there any limits?"
"I did once hear about a Dragon, and yes, it did breath fire. Tansy's the smallest intelligent life form that can breed true- so far."
Harris moaned, "You're not trying to..."
"I was doodling once with my Miska, and we designed fairies, just for fun; I thought we'd deleted the patterns, but some moron transferred them to the vats..."
Miles sighed, "Oh boy!"
With Hugh and Marina in attendance, Erin stepped from the ramp and saw the familiar sights around her, as though from some long forgotten dream.
She glanced to the right, expecting to see the town's crenellated wall a mile in the distance, and sure enough, it was there. A short flight of wooden steps led up to the wall that surrounded the house- somehow it seemed strange not to see the honour guard of Roman Legionnaires standing watch. A small swimming pool was housed in an annex of the three-storey manor house- surrounded by sun beds. Through the half open garage door the grill of a dusty Rolls Royce peered- one that had been mothballed before she was born and all but forgotten. Two names had been crudely carved on the inside of the garage door- she did not need to be able to read them- her own hand had carved one.
A young man called from the wall, "If you'll hurry up the dinner won't burn." He saw her staring, and laughed, "Hi there, I'm..."
"John," she gasped in wonder.
The two sides of her personality clashed, as one set of memories struggled with a set long buried; the collision drove Erin to her knees as her mind seemed to explode in slow-motion. She sank limply to the grass as her husband watched in shock.
Erin was carried into the house between Hugh and John, and placed on a couch in the well-lit library, as the household gathered around her family.
George entered the room, grunting in annoyance on seeing a perfectly healthy young woman faint. “Wendy dear, did you have to park that thing on the lawn?” he sighed. “What’s the point of having space docks, and bringing the ships home with you?” He walked to the fireplace and reached for a weapons rack on the mantelpiece, withdrawing his triangular sword of glittering crystal. “Now, what’s up with her?”
"Mindwipe dad," Wendy said calmly. "This is the second fit in two days."
He hurried over and ran the glowing pommel of his sword over Erin; it blazed red on touching her forehead. "Nasty, some creep really screwed her up."
Hugh gasped, "Can you help? Lady Wendy said she'd need specialist..."
Chuckling, George said, "This is a bit more powerful than the portable healers." He let his pommel glow for a minute or two, bathing Erin’s face with a red glow, and then smiled slightly as he examined her scar; feeling the angry flesh with callused fingers- but a delicate touch.
"That's it," Wendy chuckled. "But he's not finished yet."
George laughed, "She'll not need this, will she?" He slashed out with his sword at arm’s length, the needle tip slicing down the centre of her scar with surgical precision from forehead to jaw; a little blood ran free.
"What the hell are you doing?” Hugh gasped in shock.
“Only sterilising the infection, about fifteen years too late, I’d say.”
"Trust him," Julia chuckled, "he's doctor, of sorts. We used to have a scam, I'd carve em up and he’d sew em up- we were a good team."
However, even as Julia said it, Miles realised that there was a hole in her life; something was missing that had left her little more than the shell of a once vibrant woman. She was tiny, elfin, with bronze hair and green eyes; her beauty was still there, but the inner fire had been extinguished.
George examined Erin's face, and sealed the wound with a crimson flash from his sword- the angry red flesh flowed and knitted into smooth skin.
Hugh knelt next to him, and gasped on seeing her face whole and healthy for the first time. "I owe you," he said simply.
"Not at all, could you let a work of art rot? Well neither could I."
"She's been having trouble with her dreams lately, kept seeing impossible things- and now this."
"In this line of work," George grinned, "there are no impossibilities; what did she see?"
"Herself in a Western, some kind of wagon train being attacked by Aztecs, and a Quetzalcoatlus flying overhead."
"Just a left over from a trip to Tenochtitlan," Miles assured them.
"So you've been there too."
"Hey, Dad," John said nervously, "there was that time Jennet and I went walkabout; we ran into a bunch of Aztecs trying to invade North America."
"Yeh, I remember grounding you for a month," George chuckled.
"Well- we had to cast a hologram to scare them back South."
"You didn't mention that in your report."
"I, ah, didn't want to worry you. Thing is, she cast a Plumbed Serpent, a Quetzalcoatlus from our biology homework."
"So that's where Jim got the idea," he said absently.
"We mentioned it, but he wanted to raise a real one from the egg."
"Brave man."
"Thing is, we had a Western wagon train attacked by Aztecs and a Quetzalcoatlus; rather a coincidence, don't you think?"
"One in several billion," George agreed as his curiosity was aroused. "Was she there?"
"That was a long time ago," John mused.
"About all of sixteen years."
"There were a few girls that age, but I...” He froze in shock for a few moments.
"John, what's on you mind?” Julia snapped. "I haven't seen you this white in..."
John looked dumb struck, as an awful yet wonderful thought became a potential reality. The idea was totally impossible, insane, and crazy- but it felt right. To reveal his guess would hurt his mother more than he could endure, but if he was right! "Mister Fitsymonds," he gasped, "is Erin your real daughter? I hope you don't mind me asking, but..."
"Oh no!” Julia gasped in terror. "Not again, I can't..."
Miles whispered as his worst nightmare became real, "Erin was rescued from a burning car sixteen years ago, I adopted her soon after." He said calmly and surely, "She had, and still has, amnesia."
George gasped in impossible hope, "Could it be?"
"She died," Julia screamed in anguish. "My daughter is dead!"
"No mother," Erin said firmly as she struggled to sit up, "I'm not dead. I've come home."
Time seemed to freeze as the words shook everyone in the room. Hugh felt his heart lift on realising that Erin was now whole- her past revealed. However, what of her future? Their future? Could she still be the same person?
"Computer," George snapped, "run a scan on Erin- identify her."
"Running," a musical voice from nowhere chimed, as several beams flashed from hidden devises- targeting Erin with powerful sensors.
The entire room froze for several minutes, as the household computer ran an identification match against several trillion named individuals, across the Multiverse.
"The person identified as Erin Lothingland is on file as Jennet Bartholomew."
Julia felt her legs turn weak, and sank to the floor in shock.
George turned white as he knelt by his wife, and gasped, "Did you check for cloning?"
"Confirmed, no trace of cloning or other genetic manipulation can be determined; the ID is valid."
“Alternate realities?”
“Particle scans reveal the subject was raised on Æden- no other logical choice is credible- may I offer my congratulations?”
"It's really you?” George gasped as he held his trembling wife.
Erin sighed, her face a tense smile as she explained, "Pushkin gave me a Mindwipe, but you'd given me the brain bud treatment after we returned from Wyoming, so I was shunted into the tiny bud instead of being destroyed- it's no surprise, that's what was meant to happen in an emergency." She stood up and walked over to them, nervously. "I’ve been feeling the barrier start to crack this last few weeks, as reality and long buried memories began to mesh.” She knelt by her parents on legs that felt weak, gasping, “Your Sauronic sword washed away the barrier. It's me Dad, it's really me," she cried.
Hugh and Miles looked on in shock and Marina in delight, as Erin nervously embraced her real father and mother for the first time in sixteen years.
"It's okay Hugh," she laughed, "it's still me; a few more memories is all. I still love you."
"Thank god for that, I thought I'd lost you."
Wendy chuckled, "It explains why the Jumpdrive would obey Erin, sorry Jennet, over me; I'm adopted and she's the first born."
"No, I am," John, snapped.
"They're twins," Julia explained, "nobody noticed who was out first."
"Wendy, sister," Erin chuckled, "I was adopted too. We were both lucky."
"I'll say," Wendy sobbed, and flung her arms around Erin. "I blamed myself, all these years..."
"I missed you, there was always some strange gap in my heart; now it's filled with love. But if you ever open fire on my boat again!"
"I'd only dare from the Ardent," Wendy laughed. "I've learned one lesson today, never send a spaceship to do the job of a submarine."
"So you lost," George chuckled.
"I completed the mission sir," Wendy said primly. "My orders were to bring them to you; here they are. There were no deaths or losses, I'd consider that a success."
"She's got you Father," Erin laughed. Then she saw Miles, and frowned in confusion. "Dad, Father; this is getting silly."
"Quite right," George stated, "if we don't sort this out now we'll never be able to look each other in the eye.” He held his hand out to Miles, "I want to thank you for taking care of Jennet; name it and it's yours."
"It was a privilege George," Miles laughed as they shook hands, "and she's paid me back every day, with every smile; there can be no talk of a reward."
Erin laughed, "Captain, I'd not have said that if I were you..."
"Well, if you insist, there is the Jumpdrive."
"Oh, now we get down to it," Julia stood by Erin, resting a hand on her daughter's shoulder, her face glowing with eagerness. "What's your first shot?"
Miles gasped at the change, Julia had returned to life; the inner fire of her personality burst forth like a beacon in the night. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
George laughed in joyous relief, "Welcome home love." He did not mean his daughter.
"My name is Erin," she insisted. "Erin Jennet Lothingland."
"Yes my dear," Julia sighed.
"This is my home, but you know I can't stay. My place is on the Enigma with my husband."
"Of course it is," George agreed, "but who do you think you'll be working for? This saving the Multiverse business is a family affair, and we need all the family we can get."
"Then you've more than you think, Gwen and Basil. Not to mention Marina."
Julia beamed at the Biroid, and held out her arms, "Come here child."
"Lady Julia, I'm sorry if..."
"Yes I know what you are, and I approve.”
“Thank you…” Marina sobbed.
Julia examined the girl, picking up a conflicting mess of emotions so accurately she was almost reading her mind; it was her strongest talent, and had never failed. “Biroid Marina, report!” she snapped.
Marina snapped to attention, her face rigid with lifelong fear, sobbing, “Here mistress.”
“What do you fear?”
“That, that, tha…” Marina sobbed. “I am not good enough Lady Julia, Lady Erin deserves far more than I.”
“Silly child,” Julia chuckled, holding the Biroid’s face, forcing Marina to look into her eyes. “That kind of devotion can not be bought, a correctly programmed Biroid would have begged to serve, not to be replaced with a new model; so you are good enough to join us. Wendy is also a Biroid. We are all family."
Marina hugged Julia and George, as John waited to welcome her. Wendy whispered, “If you want to learn more, let me know.”
"This is Æden, remember," John explained, "We've no laws as such, just common courtesy, treat others as you expect to be treated. There's no crime at all, no shame or prudery; you're only expected to be yourself, and to do it the best you can."
Miles gapped at the young man, "You make it sound like anarchy, and yet you run the place like an army."
"A common misunderstanding," George explained. "Æden is a refuge, quite a high percentage of our population are rescued slaves, many more fled war, persecution and abuse of a thousand kinds. In a population like that there's a lot who can't accept freedom. We only ask that they try to be happy, and don't harm others.”
Julia took over, "Time is our Scientific Investigation Branch, searching for anything and everything worth knowing that will give us an edge in the war. But our new organisation, The Guardians of the Cosmos, are our army, made up of volunteers who're dedicated to saving life. Our agents cover a thousand planets throughout history and alternate dimensions; that’s a lot of ground to cover for a small organisation like ours."
Harris gasped, "You call this space station small!"
"Relative to the Multiverse," Erin chuckled, "it's infinitesimal."
"And if you fail?” Hugh asked, "And the Others win?"
"You saw what Wendy did to that solar system?” George said grimly, “We'll do it to the Universe if we have to."
"What!” Hugh gasped. "Do you think you're gods?"
"We've been mistaken for deities several times," Julia chuckled. "But we've never claimed to be gods- They wouldn't like it."
Miles sighed, hopefully, "That power can't exist..."
"You were using it," John said stiffly.
Wendy almost laughed, "You never knew, did you? The Jumpdrive is the ultimate weapon. It could take you back to the Big Bang, or forward to the End of Time itself; one little change could stop a Universe branching off from the Multiverse. We could abort a Universe that was destined to fall to the Others, and sleep soundly after..."
"You hate them that much?" Hugh gasped.
"Fear, is the word," George said dryly. "You only saw the Others' farm, what do you think they were breeding Humans for?”
“Do I really want to know?”
“The Others don’t feed their underlings, so if they want to eat, they have find something lower down the Pecking order. Their cities are places of insanity on a scale I couldn't begin to describe..."
Basil pushed forward, saying, "We rescued one of their Janissaries, so we've some idea of what they're capable of- but couldn't help her. Could you try?"
George sighed, "We've tried before, it's far from easy- even for us. She'll need virtually her entire body regrowing, and then there's the mind; she'll need reprogramming the hard way."
"Can you..." Basil gestured to George's sword.
Wendy explained, "She's brain dead, right? We cannot heal what doesn’t exist. We could give her artificial memories and personality- we could convince her that she's madly in love with you."
Basil snorted, "Thanks, but I'm not that desperate."
John said with distaste, "We could make her into anyone you could imagine..."
"But it wouldn't be real, she would never be real," Wendy insisted. "She'll need to learn to think and feel from scratch."
"In short," John sighed with distaste, "we'll have too give her a short course in being human- and a slave. Aversion therapy, we'll have force her to beg for freedom."
"All that, for one woman," Basil gasped.
Julia spoke in hardly disguised horror, "Imaging them spreading from one world in a dozen directions, and each of those infecting a world, then the dozen worlds infect a dozen more each..."
"Exponential on a scale of twelve," Hugh gasped, "they'd conquer a galaxy in years."
"And then a dozen galaxies, and soon after a hundred and forty four; then...” Julia broke off as George held her sobbing form.
"Mum, dad," Erin spoke softly, "I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but I'm beginning to regret getting my memory back."
George chuckled, "Quite understandable, I only regret discovering the truth a hundred times a day."
"And that's on a good day," Wendy giggled. "You want to hear him when he's really depressed."
The command staff and their mates dined well in the house, having the best meal since leaving England months ago, catered for by twenty beautiful maids, who danced around the table with polite smiles and rich laughs. Trestle tables had been set up on the lawn for the other crewmembers and guests.
“Lady Wendy,” Pelle asked, “you mentioned that you still have slaves.”
Erin interrupted, “You’re talking to an aficionado, I’m afraid, Wendy made a hobby of it. I’ve not seen Miska.”
“Still on the sunflower, doing the paperwork. Well, why not? That’s what slaves are for.”
“I still hate that word,” Erin sighed. “I prefer HS, Household Staff, it's much more polite.”
“But it means the same thing,” Pelle insisted.
“Tell that to these girls,” Julia snapped. “I was born a slave Pelle; till George bought me I could not think of any other way to live, and I was brought up by a man who loved me. Most our staff have seen things that would make you sick.”
“That’s the past, you live in the future.”
June said sadly, “Like my world, you mean; only we were not slaves, we were cattle.”
Erin pointed out, “Every world has slavery of one kind or another. Yes Pelle, even modern Earth, there are more enslaved children than at any time in history: check it up with the UN High Commission.”
After lunch, they gathered around the swimming pool, bathing in the artificial sunlight, surrounded by all the Enigma’s crew and passengers. George sighed, “You got all these in a three-thousand tonne sub! Did you use a shoehorn to get through the hatch?”
“Almost,” Miles sighed. “Look, George, we need accommodation; there’s no need for everyone to sleep aboard the boat, is there?”
“I’ll have a hotel ready for you in the morning, plenty big enough for you and your passengers; how did you manage?”
“First, the Enigma is a Naval Warship, and as such we don’t carry passengers- certainly not in combat.”
George laughed, “Then what are they?”
“Crew, none standard crew,” Miles insisted, with a grin, as he played with Chloe, a cute eight year old crewmember. “And we had to manage, didn’t we.”
“You’ll do,” George said, with hidden meaning.
“Most of you use titles, should I be calling you something?”
“Lady Julia and Lady Wendy? They earned those titles by right of combat on a dozen worlds. If I wished I could invent my own: The Highest Lord of the Cosmos, George the First, Defender of the Multiverse, or some such drivel.”
“Pretty nauseating, and it would take ages to have a chat like this.”
“Basically, when I want to attract attention I draw my sword. That cuts through a lot more than red tape.”
“Okay, I’ll bite, what is i?.”
“An alien artefact, a scalpel from a world of super advanced Dinosaurs; it’s just as good at killing as healing- believe me. It’s saved Æden so many times I’ve lost count.”
“Marina once recounted the Myth of Terra’s Genesis; there was a George and Julia in…”
George slipped into a mock Cockney accent, “All right, I’ll own up guv; it was us. On our first Jump from Roman Britain to the present, I was taking Julia home, and we sort of took a wrong turn and created Terra by mistake.”
“George, when your family makes mistakes, you don’t mess about with little ones.”
"Tell me about it," he sighed.
John mused as he paddled in the pool, "It's one hell of a coincidence sis, meeting you like this."
Erin swam over, and gasped around a mouthful of water, "Now you mention it, I agree. Dad..."
"Call me George, everybody else does- it'll save a lot of time and effort."
"Right, George... I don't believe in coincidence, so why did I find my way home? Not how, we know that..."
"Miles," George mused, "she's right, it's crazy; any ideas?"
Miles was sunning himself next to June as her daughters played in the shallow end with Marina. "Some," he grinned. "When the rescue services pulled Erin from that burning car, they found a half melted laptop. They handed both over to the police. The computer had a strange Naval insignia, so they called Naval intelligence, who called me; I examined it and found plans for a vessel like the Enigma. It took me fifteen years to turn those plans into reality; I also took Erin to keep an eye on her, in case somebody wanted either her or the computer back. They were two of the happiest decisions of my life."
"Pushkin’s plans," Julia laughed. "His blundering built the Enigma."
Miles asked, "Who's this Pushkin character?"
"An under achieving scientist with more pluck than brains," George laughed from a sunbed. "We met him while spying on a Gulag prison where certain insane experiments in time travel were on the point of blowing half of Siberia part way to Mars. He was convinced that the laws of physics would change if he only pushed them hard enough. We had to take him back to Æden with a hundred other slave scientists when the camp was destroyed."
Wendy carried on, "When he realised that we'd mastered time travel, by a way he'd never considered, he went a bit loopy. However, we ignored him, as was his right; we don't run a police state. Anyway, he must have spent years planning to get his hands on a Jumpdrive; quite a terrifying thought, you must admit. He created a Jump jammer field, freezing the whole of Æden in space-time, kidnapped Jennet, and forced us to give him a personal Jumpdrive mounted on a belt, and a computer with all of Terra's science and military plans. The inference was obvious, he was going to pick some nice little innocent world, and become a god."
"We couldn't let it happen," Julia cried. "But we gave him the drive and the plans. Then he killed her, or so we though, he blew her up, turned the jammer field off for a split second and Jumped to your Earth. Of course the jammer turned back on again and we spent weeks searching for the damned thing, before we could Jump after him."
George held his sobbing wife, and continued, "We don't know how he did it, or even why. A hologram or a clone? Jennet was dead; we all saw it happen, there was no way we could go back, through the jammer field and save her. There wasn't any point of looking for her. But we sure as hell went looking for Pushkin."
Erin mused, "Once off Æden Pushkin wanted to hide, so he Mindwiped me, and made me think I was his daughter. He took me with him in case you found him, but after the things he did to me, he knew that it wouldn't work- he was dead. So he told me to hide from you, and like a good little girl I did so."
"Jen, Erin," Julia whispered, "what did the bastard do?"
"He died mum, burning in agony- it took a long time."
"Good, I'll not have to go back and watch."
Hugh gasped, "Could you really do that?"
"If we didn't interfere and change history," George confirmed, "but the temptation would always be there... Julia, if you went back now, and saw little Jennet by the burning car, what would you do?"
"I don't know," she gasped in anguish. "If I picked her up none of you would be here now, so I didn't, but I'd be so..."
"If you picked her up," Hugh said simply, "we'd be dead, and a lot more besides."
"I'm happy mum," Erin said gently, "things turned out well, and you did go to my wedding- I saw you at the back of castle Falkenberg’s great hall during the ceremony."
George laughed, "You don't say?"
"Can we George, please?"
"From the sound of it, we already have."
Erin and Hugh were woken early in the morning by Julia and Wendy banging on their door. “Oh, all right,” Hugh moaned, “come in!”
“That Castle,” Wendy gasped, as she entered the room noisily; still dressed in the long robes from Castle Falconburg.
"Oh, that dress," Julia sighed as they sat on the bed, laughing and crying at the same time. "I wish I'd one like it."
"But your face," Wendy chortled, "you looked like you were going to be shot."
"If we hadn't gone through with it, we would have been," Erin grinned.
"Miles wasn't too keen about two officers sharing a cabin," Hugh agreed.
"Where's Dad, I mean George?” Erin asked.
"Oh, he and John stayed at the castle to give thanks," Julia replied.
"Not in the chapel?” Hugh gasped.
"Where else?"
Erin and Hugh burst out laughing and collapsed in stitches.
"Well," Wendy snapped, "what's the joke?"
A public holiday had been declared to celebrate Erin's return; she and John showed the Enigma's bridge crew around the old town as Miles stayed to chat with George, and Wendy went to check on the Sunflower’s damage with Miska. A tall, well built redhead walked with John, she wore a figure hugging breast plate and a weapons belt. He introduced her as Moona, his bodyguard. She was quite, a bit standoffish, but very professional.
“So, now I know where you got to,” Erin laughed.
“Lady Erin,” Moona snapped, “our relationship is strictly business.”
“Then what does he get up to?”
“Oh, I’ve a couple of bondmaids keeping my apartment.”
“I’ve not seen them.”
“They don’t get out much,” he said mildly.
Moona pulled back slightly, smiled, raised one finger to her lips, and mouthed, “Jealousy.”
They walked from the house towards the town, through the ripe fields that were being harvested by hundreds of slaves; none showed signs of fear or abuse, and many called out good-natured greetings as they passed by.
“Slavery,” Hugh wondered. “Real slaves?”
“They have plenty of choices,” John explained. “Domestic, recreational, manufacturing, catering; even research. Truth be told, we don’t need this food, we could replicate as much as we need, it’s just to give them a feeling of self-respect.
“You make it sound like social work,” Pelle snapped back.
“And the women you rescued,” John replied, “what did you intend to do with them?”
“We didn’t think,” Hugh admitted. “But we couldn’t leave them.”
“Nor could we. But our choices are limited, leave them to starve, put them in an institution and force them to become ‘normal’, or treat them well and keep them happy.”
Natalie asked seriously, “You’re sure they’re happy, John?”
“They can ask for a transfer any time they feel like a change.”
“And freedom?” she insisted.”
“Most of our agents are freed slaves, or their children.”
“There are children here, but not many, surely you save them too?”
“By the thousand,” John insisted proudly. “At this time most are in school, but we have large numbers of orphans; there we have to get creative.”
Erin took over, “We used to sell them, to licensed owners.”
“Consider it a polite fiction until the new families got to know each other.”
“And then?” Pelle snapped.
“They’re usually adopted. If not by the first couple, then the next… Many still didn’t want to be free, and volunteered to remain bound.”
“How many?” Hugh whispered.
John sighed, “We don’t keep figures, but it’s something like this: only ten percent of our population were born free; another thirty have freed themselves and become Citizens of Æden; about another twenty are thinking of freedom; thirty more are happy to remain slaves, and ten percent need to belong to someone!” He glanced at Marina.
“How real is all this?” Hugh sighed.
“As real as you want it to be.”
Erin whispered, “Hugh, do you see any shotgun wielding guards, any overseers with whips, any slaves crucified by the roadside, and girls being raped? They are free Hugh, free to feel safe and happy.”
They entered through armoured gates in the twenty-foot wall that surrounded the town with guard towers and a stake-lined moat. Two giant robots in stained jungle camouflage stood thirty or forty feet tall, guarding the inner gates with an impressive display of weaponry; laser cannons in each arm, multiple missile launchers on shoulders, partial cannons poking from heavily armoured chests, gattling guns and more exotic weaponry sticking out at random angles. However, the pilots high up in armoured cockpits, glared down on the Enigma’s crew with frozen anger. Surrounding the sentinels were blue beams emanating from projectors on the ground.
Pelle reached over to intercept the beam, only to feel his hand go dead on touching the stasis field.
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” John laughed. “I you fell in you’d be stuck there for eternity. Or until we turned the field off. And when you consider that these Mechs are enemies, you’ll realises that we really don’t want to do that- ever!”
“Trophies,” Hugh guessed.
“Not at all, we could park a dozen far more impressive monsters if we were so inclined. No, we brought them back for research, intending to take them to bits. However, Dad took one look at them and decided that we didn’t need that kind of trouble. We had to park them here when we ran out of storage space at the University museum.”
June glanced up at the frozen pilots, a man and woman, both wearing little more that a cooling waistcoat and neural helmet; they glared back at her with frozen arrogance. “The blue beam, stasis?” she guessed. “What would happen if it was turned off?”
“They would flatten the town,” John explained, “it’s what they do.”
Besides the Mechs, there was enough firepower evident on the walls and guard towers to take on an army. However, all the defences looked out of place pointing into deep space- it was years since Æden had had to face a war. Most of the citizen still wore well-tooled gunbelts holding enough firepower to guarantee their personal freedom anywhere except World War Three. Even many of the slaves were armed. John explained, "Many times in Æden's past the Citizens have had to defend themselves whilst the Army defended the town. Besides, there's a tax incentive if you proved your ability with a weapon by requalifying on the public range every three months." He smirked, "The better you are the less you pay, so far I've not paid a penny."
Erin chuckled, "It was Dad's idea, of course- they're paying him and Mom."
"Mom failed the last five years," John said sadly. "She didn't even try."
"That'll soon change brother," she reassured him.
John smiled his thanks and continued with the introduction, "Jensburge only has a population of forty thousand or so- but we've millions in the other spheres."
"Jensburge?” Erin gasped. "Last thing I heard the town was still on Æden and had never been named."
"It still hasn't, officially. But we started to use the name shortly after you died."
Hugh laughed, "They named it after you!"
"Only when mom couldn't hear," John chuckled.
Erin went from white to bright red, gasping, "Well I'm not dead, so you can change it back."
"Hardly, now we can pressure mom into accepting the name."
Harris chuckled, "Well, what do you know? She's blushing- quick, somebody get a camera."
"It was more than I could ever manage," Hugh smirked.
"That wasn't hard," Marina, pointed out, "all it took was to have a town named after her."
Graceful streets ran straight between classical buildings of white marble, none was over ten storeys high but all showed good taste and great craftsmanship. The town resembled a little Rome, with only the occasional high tech touch, like streetlights and open-air restaurants, there were no vehicles, and all traffic was on foot; even the occasional litters carried by slaves. Erin explained, "Most of the labours were the same slaves who built one version of Rome, they retired to Æden when it was destroyed by an alien invasion. Of course we saved some of the more interesting buildings," She pointed to where a brand new Coliseum towered over the town. The great Flavian Amphitheatre, the greatest and most notorious building in antiquity, was surrounded by rows of arches, reaching up far over the town, each holding gilded statues of gods and emperors; it was topped by a great blue and gold striped pavilion. Birds and terrasaurs nested among the golden statues, taking off to swoop around the pennants flapping from ship-sized masts.
Hugh sighed, "I don't even want to known how you stole that."
"Stole it darling?” Erin laughed, "We saved it from being destroyed."
“It’s still in use?” Harris asked.
“Of course, we have to keep the gladiators busy, they do sulk when they aren’t fighting.”
Moona insisted, “No one dies any more, so it’s a very popular form of entertainment.”
Pelle mused, “Won’t they lose their edge, without that incentive?”
“Have you ever been gutted by a gladius?” John snapped with remembered pain, “Believe me- it hurts!”
They wandered the immaculate streets, amidst thousands of others, savouring the exotic and mundane. Flowerbeds were in abundance, glowing with unearthly blooms and tended by little gnomes who were devoted to each flower. Aged trees of a hundred varieties, many totally alien, supported colonies of singing birds and tiny monkeys that could be enticed to be hand-fed nuts and fruit.
An exotically carved wooden ship lifted from a small lake outside the town, her triple hulls supported by three horizontal, triangular sails that resembled gigantic kites- a young woman stood on the deck, her arms raised, her dress rippling in the hurricane she called up to fill the sails. The enchanted vessel sailed over them gaining altitude and vanished when her Jumpdrive was activated.
Hugh gapped after the flying work of art.
"Don't ask me," Erin sighed.
"The Lady's Pride," John explained, "out of Yag-Urth."
"What held her up?” Harris asked, dreading the answer.
"Magic," Erin confirmed his worst fears.
John explained as they sat in an open-air cafe, "Not all the worlds we visit are alternate Earths, some are so bizarre anything is possible."
The crowd washed around them wearing a thousand kinds of dress from a hundred worlds: from bearskins to Augmented Battle Armour; iridescent feathers to thermo fluorescent body paint; stiff tweeds to nothing at all. Nobody paid any attention to the newcomers.
A tall brunette turned from watching the Lady’s Pride leave Æden, and saw them. John called out, “Zandra, still here?”
“We have parted company,” she said meaningly.
“About time, you were wasted on that ship.”
Harris observed the woman with unease, she was tall and slender, with long dark hair and grey eyes; her personality was proficient and abrupt- beautiful but distant. ‘Typical Biroid’ he thought.
She almost read his mind with a quick glance; seeing the usual human prejudice. “Am I so distasteful?” she snapped.
“Sorry, but…”
“Humans,” she snapped. “You’re great designing us, but the moment we start to outgrow our programming, it’s fare-thee-well.”
“If anyone around here is prejudice, it’s you,” he snapped.
Before the incipient bickering could degenerate into name calling, a small chariot pulled into view; shocking even diehard Ædenites. Four horned women pulled the Trapp, or rather pushed against hand bars coming from the single shaft; they were glowing with sleek muscles, and well over six feet tall. They were bald apart from an inch wide stripe of short hair that ran from between short curling horns, down their spines to short tails that were wrapped tightly between their legs, to hide gentilia with little tassels. They glanced around with curiously empty eyes, as the driver coaxed them inexpertly with reins fastened to bits between the girls perfect teeth, and a long riding crop that tapped against bare buttocks. All had full breasts, that seemed strained under the pressure of harness and chains.
“Look!” Zandra snapped in rage. “Do you see what your kind can do?”
“You’re mistaken,” the driver laughed. “These be not Biroids, but come from a new world of delights.”
“They’re aliens,” John gasped in shock.
“Be not misled by an anthropomorphic accident,” the driver insisted. “These be but alien animals, with no intellect above horses.”
Zandra walked around the creatures, looking into their placid eyes, seeing only curiosity, not intelligence reflected back. “I would prefer to examine them formally,” she said reluctantly, “but I am tempted to agree.”
“These were checked out on arrival, and pronounced safe and fair game,” the man chuckled.
“What world?” John asked.
“I be Shondalare, Captain of the mining ship, Drager Three; I was dropping an agent off on Therras, prime galaxy, five hundred light years core-wards, and found these fillies in the market; come in many breeds do they, from a child’s pony to a eight foot hunting steed. Funny thing is, they’re hermaphrodites, there aren’t any males; self fertilising,” he explained to Marina.
“Any other surprises?” Hugh asked.
“Their milk, it provides essential minerals that are needed to survive on their world, and so they were bred to produce and serve; they need milking at least once a week.”
“Curiousa, and curiousa,” John sighed. “What plans have you?”
“I be on my way to the Coliseum, to enquire about races; I could start a new fashion, and begin to import these beauties by the ship load.”
“That will have to wait for the agent’s report,” Zandra insisted. “It could take years.”
“Not that long,” the man insisted as he drove off. “I have orders already, for matched teams to pull buggies. Jensburge only bans powered traffic in daylight.”
“He could be right,” John sighed. “But I’m looking forward to reading the agent’s report, I bet he’s having a hell of a time.”
As Zandra left them, with a backwards glare at Harris, Erin mused, “I wonder how he milks them.”
Several different species mingled with the human majority: whilst most were clearly new evolutionary branches of humanity, with different hues of hair, eyes and skin, many could never have evolved on Earth.
Harris tried not to stare at a five-foot tall reptile that had a whorling greenish, purple pattern from a sensitive snout to the tip of her long tail; as she went from table to table, taking orders and serving food.
A tall redhead in her early thirties laughed as she stood in the doorway, "Don't worry about it, all our food's guaranteed untouched by human hands."
"Oh, not again Louise," John moaned. "That wasn't funny the first time I heard it."
Erin chuckled, "I'll say, you invented it."
Louise chuckled, "I've not seen... You're Jennet?"
"Used to be, Erin now though. Been here long?"
"'Bout ten years.” Louise hollered into the back, "Hey, Thel; come on out here."
A second redhead appeared and sat at their table, grinning, "So you finally made it home."
"If you can call this home," Erin sighed, "it was still planet bound when I left."
Hugh mumbled, "I'm sure I'll regret asking this, but how did you move the town here- brick by brick?"
"You sure are new here," Louise chuckled, "an’t, you sugar?"
Thelma explained, "You've seen our Jumpdrive move ships? Yes, well if you extend the Jumpfield and set it for a monomolecular edge you can slice a scoop out of anything."
Erin laughed, "Imagine the Jumpfield as an ice-cream scoop, only miles wide, that's what we do- on a cosmic scale. We Jumped the entire town, and miles surrounding it, across the Universe and inside this asteroid."
"Er...” Hugh sighed.
Harris chuckled, "What else can you move?"
"Was the Earth big enough?” Cadminus laughed.
Marina sat back and gasped, "Well now we know why George wanted us so badly. We were like children playing with nukes, one mistake could have killed a world."
Thelma explained, "I doubt if your Jumpdrive could have been set for planetary excavation, that's left to the experts- but you could have changed history."
"If you don't mind me asking," Harris butted in, "how come you know so much? If you're only..."
"Waitresses," Louise chuckled, "we run this place for fun, and do the odd mission back in America."
Thelma said proudly, "You're looking at two of Time's top agents."
Harris stammered, "But you're..."
Erin laughed, "Did you think all field agents would look like Wendy? These two'll be able to blend into the background and disappear."
Hugh mused, “Good point, if you sent Wendy, half the population would disappear- running for dear life.”
Harris chuckled, “Yes, but in which direction?”
"Half the people you can see are field agents," John pointed out. "They cover a thousand worlds throughout history."
"How did you join Time?” Harris sighed. "Answer an add that read: 'Time travellers wanted?'"
"No," Louise chuckled, "but quite a few did."
Thelma explained, "We got into some minor legal difficulties and had to run for it..."
"She means we shot a creep who tried to rape us, but couldn't prove it was self defence."
"Given a choice between mandatory life or the death penalty, and running for it, what would you do?"
Erin laughed, "We're here now, so what do you think?"
"Smart girl," Thelma laughed. "So we started the biggest man, or woman, hunt in recent history- and wound up driving off a cliff rather than go to prison."
"You survived though...” Harris mentioned.
"No we didn't," Louise said dryly, "it was nearly a mile straight down..."
"Turn's out that our pursuit had attracted Time's attention, we woke up on Æden- and were offered a second chance."
The women clasped arms across each other's shoulders, grinning from ear to ear.
"Time snatched you in mid fall," Harris gasped.
"They needed agents with local knowledge to snoop around, and we wanted to live," Thelma pointed out, "I'd say it was a fair deal."
John said seriously, "Whatever you do, don't start thinking that we're all saints, we're not- but we're all there is between life and Universal Chaos."
"Many of our agents have quirks picked up on strange worlds," Thelma explained, "most are either illegal or immoral on your Earth. Damn it, we've perversions you've never even heard of."
“Like those Pony girls,” Erin chuckled.
John sighed, "Can you expect to stay sane when you're dealing with insanity every day? How long can your moral fibre withstand temptation in the face of overwhelming odds?"
"So what do you expect?” Hugh gasped.
"Just that you get the job done, and let us help you recover."
Cowering nervously near the kitchen, a woman of about twenty-five tried to help two young girls clear the tables, all were silent but flickering fingers betrayed their origins.
“From the farms,” John guessed. “We’ve still a million in stasis, sleeping until we can help them.”
“Bought them last week,” Thelma explained. “They’ve still a lot to learn, but they’ll make it.”
“If they don’t?” Natalie asked.
“We’ll keep them anyhow,” Louise said mildly.
A strange group entered the open-air restaurant, a tall man in leather, two women in simple white smocks, and a third girl in a skin-tight suit of transparent PVC that clung to every nick and cranny of her marvellous figure. Each woman had a simple collar of gold bearing her master’s name.
Thelma burst out in delight, on seeing that the girl in the PVC was bleeding from her groin, the blood trickling down the inside of both legs. “He did it,” she gasped aloud.
The girl nodded, blushing furiously.
“What?” Hugh gasped.
Erin shook her head in bewilderment, “Your first time?”
Shyly, the girl explained, “Hardly, we’ve been together five years.”
Thelma laughed, “This is almost an engagement, not a rape.”
“Do you like periods?” the girl asked. “Well nor do we, so we don’t have them until we decide to have children.”
The man spoke at last, with nervous bluster, “I love Timie, and she acceded to my request to have my children; this blood is showing my declaration of love to the whole of Æden, and that I will take her as Concubine on the birth of our first child.”
“How romantic,” Natalie said weakly.
“Indeed,” Timie said dryly. “I would have preferred to go naked, it wouldn’t be polite to bleed everywhere.”
As the four left, John said quietly, “As I said, we’ve picked up lots of strange customs from very strange places. But he’s right about something, Timie is incredible in that PVC!”
George and Miles sat in the library, sharing a decanter of brandy while the younger members were off sharing the delights of the old town.
"How," Miles gestured around the cosmos with his brandy glass, "how did you manage all this?"
"An accident, that's how most things happen," George chuckled. "I stumbled onto time travel and wound up in Roman Britain, where I met Julia, but without knowing the rules of temporal meddling I created Terra by accident. Since then we've been hanging on for dear life, and it's been a hell of a ride!"
"Travelling in time must be quite a thrill."
"It's a bloody nuisance," George moaned around a gulp of brandy, "most of history is a cesspool. If you go back and interfere, you wind up with yet one more Universe to police, and we've more than I can count now; if you go forward you can never be sure if the world you see will ever happen. I once spent a year in the far future, learning about their history and technology; when I got back none of the predictions came true, and the laws of nature wouldn't let the technology work. Don't ask me, our scientists are still arguing about it."
"Then what use is it?"
"Not much." George explained, "By the time you're sure you won't change history there's not much left you can do. Oh, we've saved thousands of lives, and our historians are having a field day learning what really happened in some obscure point in history, but for practical purposes, it's a bloody pain in the butt. I strongly recommend you avoid it like the plague and stick to space exploration and dimensional hopping. At least they're safe, I once met myself coming, and nearly died; don't ever be in the same place twice."
"With great power comes great responsibilities," Miles quoted with a sly smile.
"You sound like a comic book. No, its, 'With great power comes great parties.' if you can find the time. And boy, have we had some great bashes? You haven't lived until you've been to a Roman party; we've several restaurants that specialise in them."
"I'm glad you haven't forgotten how to have fun."
"I nearly did," George admitted sadly. "When Jennet died Julia fell apart; we're going to live a very long time, but only if we want to. I could see her fading year by year. I owe you both my daughter and my wife, and Time pays her debts."
"I told you, there's no need..."
George tossed him an applicator, a plastic cylinder the size of a thick pen. "Try that, if you trust me."
"I don't touch drugs."
"Neither do I, now do it."
Miles dithered, and then pressed the applicator to his throat and flicked the key; a compressed stream of gasses shot into his blood stream. "Now what? I don't feel any different."
"No, but you will- in a few months you'll feel five years younger, and then another five. You'll never be ill or overweight- ever."
"What is it?"
"A development of our old AVE treatment, you might have heard of a prediction in micro robotics called nanobots? Well we've taken them to the next stage in evolution, they're self replicating, self-programming medical repair robots that can build in single atoms. Effectively they'll rebuild you from the ground up, perfectly and continually."
"How long..."
"You should reach a thousand, if you keep busy; after that who knows? Maybe forever... I'll have a crate of the applicators delivered to the Enigma; June'll welcome one, but don't treat the kids just yet- wait till they mature."
Miles gasped, "I see what you mean about paying debts."
"Oh, that was purely business; Time can't afford to let her agents rot."
"I wasn't aware that I'd signed up."
"You will after you've seen our plans for the Enigma; she needs a refit."
"Oh god, not again, I've only just got used to the last one."
"Relax, we'll not do anything drastic; just polish off her rough edges." George smirked, "Now if you'd like to pick up your girlfriend, I've booked a banquet in the New Thracian's Arms; I hear my old friend Serbius has arranged a floor show in Erin's honour."