[Sticks]

Episode VI – In Vicem Oppugnare

Counter Attack

It has been said that nothing has caused more wars and suffering than religion. The atheist will point to the crusades, the thirty years of conflict that plagued Northern Ireland, the continuing problems in the Middle East, the Tokyo Subway attack in 1995, Nine eleven and the Seven - Seven attacks.

But atheism has had its own fair share of atrocities with the purges under communism and Stalin through to its collapse in the 1990’s, so it has no right to stand in righteous judgement

If people want to commit acts of violence, then they will seek any excuse and clothe themselves with any justification. But examine the teachings of these established religions and most of the time; it would condemn what is carried out in its name.

Problems arise when a single personality arises and draws off followers either deliberately or not. Then we have a cult or a sect, built around a personality, and here lies the danger.

The wise see this and insist their followers return to the proper path. The evangelist Billy Graham was once asked by a TV reporter how many followers he had, so he told the reporter he did not want any, he wanted people to follow Christ, not him.

However, not all have this integrity, some may even be corrupt, insane or worse, just like Jim Jones of the People’s Temple.

Some may be fanatical, waiting on some kind of promise, and like so many cults, eager to bring on the Armageddon they are waiting for, and they become doomsday cults. These cults who stop at nothing to achieve their distorted objectives, whatever they maybe.

Such a sect has remerged in the Mystical Realms. They follow a leader, described as a dragon like creature, banished from Earth, imprisoned in the Mystical Realms since just after its beginning and locked in perpetual slumber. The followers have been promised a new life on a new world after vengeance has been wreaked somehow on Earth and the Mystical Realms. This sect has even recruited followers from Earth as well, to mount a successful “coup de tat” against the Trolls and their stronghold of Karam Tag Chou, assassinated the Clan Chief of the Rachtal, destroyed the Facility in London, and attacked the Chairman’s office of The Committee in Washington DC. Now as the moons around the world of the Mystical Realms all start to line up, the object of their devotion, they believe, will escape as the imprisoning spell as it weakens .and unleash the dreadful vengeance of the Magnus Timor

- - -

An undisclosed location
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Four days to alignment on the Mystical Realms

Captain Gregory O’Doyle entered the briefing room, where a number of leprechauns were waiting. Gregory O’Doyle was a mere human himself, but he had worked with the special section of G2, Ireland’s military intelligence service for about ten years.

“Gentlemen” Gregory began, “In light of what has happened to our American allies, we are relocating out of Dublin”
“Where too?” asked one of the leprechauns
“Limerick” Gregory replied
“So what makes you think we will be any safer there?” the leprechaun asked back
“It will at least be away from the capital should anything happen like what happened in London and in Washington” Gregory answered.
“So we can be blasted by a fireball so long as Dublin goes unscathed” Another Leprechaun, “There’s gratitude for you”

“That’s a bit unfair” Gregory protested, “You are our elite, and while you are in Dublin, you are a target for the sect of the Magnus Timor”
“With all due respect Captain” Yet another Leprechaun added, “Why don’t we go and kick these cultists collective…”

“Because” Said another leprechaun as he teleported in t the briefing room, “They have a mix of heavy weapons stolen from America, tame dragons and a very powerful elven magician”

Gregory was un-phased by this sudden appearance, he was used to it. “Glad you could make it Mr McTuckle” he said, “I was just informing them of the impending move”

“Shamus” The first leprechaun butted in, “Even if we move out of Dublin, the sect could still track us down like they did the Americans”
“Maybe so, but where we are, if there was an attack, civilians outside could very well be caught up” Shamus told him, “Remember how many were killed and injured by flying glass and debris in London”
“It doesn’t feel right” the third leprechaun chimed in, “Running for cover instead of fighting back”
“I know” Shamus replied, “I don’t like it either, but these guys took Karam Tag Chou and the central city, and they have heavy weapons stolen from the Americans and the Russians. The whole of the Mystical Realms is now under their rule. The British and the Americans suffered heavy losses when they were ambushed over there. It is down to us now to hold the line.”
“So we wait for them to come and get us”
“No, we hold the line, while others try the counter offensive”
“Any news of Hogan?” Gregory asked
“Not yet Mr O’Doyle” Shamus replied, “Not yet”
“So” Asked yet another leprechaun, “What does holding the line mean, we kind of aren’t big and mean like trolls”
“We monitor for cross dimension activity that is not leprechaun, troll or the human’s new artificial wormhole generator” Shamus explained
“An artificial wormhole generator?” a leprechaun questioned
“Yes O’Riley” Shamus answered, “These humans are more resourceful than you give them credit, and it’s thanks to them that the Clan Chief of the Manjura was saved the same fate as his Rachtal counterpart”

Just then a female leprechaun put her hand up.

“What is it Clover?” Shamus asked
“I was not sure it was anything Mr McTuckle” she nervously said, “It was too small to carry even a leprechaun such as myself, but I distinctively traced an opening, or to be more accurate a crack”
“Tell me more Clover, Tell me more” Shamus said, his interest peaked.

* * *

A dwarf owned tavern
On the outskirts of a goblin village
The Mystical Realms

The two hooded figures walked into the tavern, one of them had a Kalashnikov in his right hand.

All of the goblins in there suddenly fell silent, Why had the sect of the Magnus Timor come here? They all wondered. They had all heard what had happened at Karam Tag Chou and how it fell to the sect, and how the central city, where the assembly sat had been attacked. The entire assembly had been wiped out by some strange weapon from Earth, fired from the back of a dragon, and now it was patrolled by men, young elves and orcs in contraptions on four wheels with a big metal pipe that spat death at high speed.

The goblin elected as leader of the village had offered surrender, as there was no way they could defeat them, but the leader was taken by two men from the sect and nailed onto a cross beam with nails through the wrists and his ankles, and left to die slowly. Crucifixion they had called it, and they promised, one goblin would be taken at random and crucified each day, until after the alignment, and they kept their promise. They said it was their sacred duty to instil fear into the villagers as an offering to the Magnus Timor. It was obvious that the next victim was to come from this hostelry

An elderly goblin was serving food to a customer, so he was away from the bar, leaving it momentarily attended by the dwarf landlord.

“May I get you anything?” the landlord nervously asked

One of the figures looked around and then pointed at the elderly goblin who had been serving food, “Him” he spoke a strong elfish accent.

The elderly goblin froze in terror, he could remember the screams from the goblins who had been crucified over the last few days, and now it was his turn. Then his thoughts went to his son and his wife and two younglings, would they fall victims as well to this unstoppable sect of the Magnus Timor. The last he had heard from them was when they had brought the eldest a youngling of just less than five seasons to visit. Although she was not originally his son’s youngling, as her parents had been slaughtered in the troll civil war, he had taken her in to his home as his daughter, and eventually married the youngling’s aunt, with whom he had had another youngling with

“Chidal isn’t it?” the elf said to him

Chidal put his hands together and dropped to his knees, “Please” he pleaded, “I am old. Please could I not just die by the metal rod that spit’s death”

The elf came over and roughly lifted him into the air, “The next offering to the Magnus Timor for your village has already been nailed up, and her screams of terror and pain were most gratifying” the elf grinned

“But what do you want of me” Chidal asked
“I want to know where the troll’s emperor is hiding” The elf snarled
“I don’t know my lord” Chidal pleaded
“YOU WERE AT KARAM TAG CHOU, YOU MET HIM, WHERE IS HE” the elf shouted, then in a whisper, “Maybe little Shaval that youngling that your son adopted would make a good subject for tomorrow’s offering?”

Chidal went white with terror, there was no way the goblins could fight back against this mix of men, elves and other races who had joined themselves to the sect of the Magnus Timor, especially with the weapons from the realm of mortals.

“I swear my Lord” Chidal pleaded, “I was but a scullery slave there and he summoned me to answer questions about the human child he took in as his own. That was the only time I spoke to him, after that business with those humans that sold the white poison he disappeared, they never told me where”
“Because you were a scullery slave” the elf completed

There was a cough, a goblin that had been sitting by the hearth came forward, “I know where he went my lord” he told the elf

There was a gasp from the other goblins, indicating shock that someone would even think of betraying the troll emperor.

The elf placed Chidal on the floor and turned to this goblin, “And how do you know where the troll emperor is.”
The goblin explained that when the trolls sent a crew to help repair the village he had asked about the emperor and if he would make an appearance then went on to say “After the three troll clans pulled out of the convocation, they said he went home, back to the realm of mortals”
“So the troll emperor is no longer here in the Mystical Realms?” the elf sneered
“Yes my lord” the goblin replied, “he has long gone, along with his queen and princess”
“That is most pleasing to hear, as we did not want him rallying support for the trolls or any of the other races. Tell me goblin, did they say what part of the Mortal Realms he had gone to?” the elf then asked
“No my lord” the goblin answered.
“It matters not where he tries to hide in that realm, his judgement will come along with all the others from that world which betrayed our lord, the Magnus Timor” Then the elf paused, “You must be rewarded for your pleasing information”

The elf motioned to his other hooded colleague

Suddenly there was a burst of gunfire from the Kalashnikov, and the goblin that had spoken to the elf was dead.

“But he told you what you wanted to know” Chidal said before he could bide his tongue

“Yes he did” Replied the elf, “Because of his treachery I decided that he was tomorrows offering, so I mercifully rewarded him with a quicker death”
“You are too kind Zathan” the figure with the gun grinned.
“I know Jack” the elf replied, “I so enjoy the screams from this intriguing form of ritualised death you once had on Earth”
“Maybe we should pick another from this room or that goblin brat of the son of that elderly goblin” Jack said pointing towards Chidal.

Chidal shook his head, dropped to the ground on his knees and pleaded, “Please crucify me, kill me, but spare Shaval”

“Chidal my dear goblin” The elf said as he knelt down to be at Chidal’s level, “Where would the fun be in that?” then he stood up and ordered his colleague to remove the dead body of the goblin, as they were leaving.

Then just as he was leaving, said “Maybe I will pick her, maybe I will pick your son or his wife or recent new born, or maybe someone else who knows”

Then they were gone

Chidal went to the dwarf landlord, “Please may I be excused” he pleaded, “I need to warn Keval”
“You may go and warn them my friend” the dwarf said, “but how can you save them against what they have”

“Maybe I can help” a voice came from behind.
Chidal turned around, it was a leprechaun.
“What?” Chidal asked
“The emperor was told this morning of what has been going on, and we have been giving him and his family extra protection. His eldest daughter, Princess Sarah remembered you were kind to her and asked how you were, so I was asked to find you” the leprechaun replied, “I’m sorry I did not get here before that elf traitor” he apologised, then he asked the dwarf, “Can you get by without your cook for a few days?”

“I could try” the dwarf replied, “He has been a very hard and loyal worker since he started work after my daughter left for the goblin city, so I suppose he deserves a break”.

“Oh good” the leprechaun replied, grabbed Chidal’s arm and suddenly Chidal found the room swirl into some kind of weird pattern.

Then the swirling stopped and Chidal was in a large and strange bare stone room with the leprechaun.
“Welcome to Earth” the leprechaun told him, “Known to the locals as Earth”, he added and then promptly vanished.

Suddenly into the room came a swirling green dot that grew and grew into a vortex.

Out of the vortex came another two men, who he did not recognise, wearing some kind of uniform with a helmet and another form of death spitting metal rod.

Then followed Keval holding Quern, his male youngling born to his wife Lupin, but quarter of a moons cycle ago, followed by Lupin carrying Shaval, and another two men dressed as the other two men, with one of them carrying a strange box. The man with the box like object, flicked some switch and the vortex vanished

“Keval” Chidal shouted and ran to embrace his son and his youngling.
“Father” Keval replied, “These men came to take our family here to be safe from the sect terrifying the village”

Suddenly another man entered the room and the four men saluted him, and he saluted them back. The men then left the room leaving this one man looking at them. Chidal thought he recognised him, but could not think of his name. He was certainly not the emperor Graeme.

“Hello?” Chidal asked, “Thank you for bringing us to the realm of mortals, but why only us”

The man walked forward and held out his hand, Chidal recognised this gesture as a friendly one from the emperor and from when humans had trained at Karam Tag Chou, and reciprocated.

“Sorry Chidal” the man said, “We needed to test a new artificial wormhole generator we just had fabricated, and as Mr Andrews and the Clan Chief of the Manjura mentioned you, we thought a good test would be to send a small team and bring you back here”

At this Lupin walked forward still holding Shaval, who was terrified, “My Lord, to whom are we addressing, and what will you want from us in tribute” then she knelt down, still holding Shaval and looked at the floor, “Please do not take our Younglings if that is possible”

The man came over bent down and took Lupin by hand and gently lifted her up, and when she was standing released her hand and stood back.

“First of all, my name is Colonel Samuel Peters of the United States Marine Corps” the man replied, then added, “Second we are here to help your people and we will not be requiring any tribute from you, especially your children, this is our job”
“You’re not going to eat us are you?” Shaval blurted out all of a sudden and then burst out crying and trying to hide her face in Lupin’s chest.

The colonel knelt down, and in his softest voice, “Absolutely not Shaval, we don’t eat goblins or goblin children, we’re here to protect you and keep you safe”

The man then stood up, as there was a knock on the door. There was a human female at the door. Chidal thought he recognised her as well but could not place her.

“People” the colonel then told them, “This is Miss Jenny Green, she will show you to your quarters while you are here”

“Colonel” Chidal piped up, “I am grateful for you bringing us here, but what of our village?”
“Chidal, now we have established that, the unit is working, the plan is to send in a covert Special Forces team, to take out those who have captured your village, without incurring any airstrikes from dragon riders, so we will be round later for any Intel you have”
“Intel?” Queried Chidal
“Sorry, that’s short for intelligence, information that might be useful to the team going in” the colonel explained
“Oh” was all that Chidal could say, not quite sure he understood the answer, and then he gestured to his son and Lupin, it was safe to follow this human female, and so they were led out to find their temporary accommodations.

* * *

An ordinance warehouse
Somewhere in the United States of America

It was seemingly a quiet day at the warehouse. A shipment was being prepared to be delivered to the US Army of thousands of rounds of machine gun ammunition for 50mm guns and a number of hand launched fire and forget missiles.

Suddenly there was a sudden wind inside as a blue dot appeared in mid air, one of the workers looked at it in disbelief as it turned into a swirling blue vortex.

Suddenly a machinegun round went right through him killing him outright.

Several men, gnolls, orcs, troglodytes and hobgoblins poured through the blue vortex into the warehouse.

“Grab what you can and get out” one of the humans shouted as they walked passed the body of the dead worker.

Suddenly the wormhole collapsed without warning.
“Get that back up” shouted the man who had been giving orders.

An elf fiddled with an orb, “Something is blocking us” he shouted.

At this the men took of the safeties on their automatic weapons, “This sounds like a trap” he yelled as all the unarmed non human creatures stood around in confusion

Suddenly the base alarm sounded.

One of the men looked around, and saw a female worker who had tripped the security alarm. “He swung his gun round to riddle her with bullets

Suddenly she was not there, as his bullets hit the wall behind where she had been standing.

“Didn’t your mothers tell you it’s not nice to shoot at ladies” came an Irish sounding voice.

There was a burst of gunfire in its direction

“Missed me” came the voice from another direction

“You are only delaying the inevitable” then lead man shouted, “The Magnus Timor will crush you like an egg shell” he added

“Oh will he?” the Irish voice sounded from yet another location

“Leprechauns” the elf whispered to the lead man, and then the elf took out what looked like a metal triangle and held it above his head
“Try teleporting now Leprechaun” the elf shouted

No response

“Here is the deal Leprechaun” the elf continued, “You unblock the jamming of the orbs of dimension jumping, and I will allow you your teleportation ability”

“No here is the deal” came his voice from behind a crate of armaments, “You lay down your weapons, we send the non humans back and we don’t blow this warehouse to kingdom come, as the humans so elegantly put it, with you in it.

The lead man signed for his other men and the gnolls to circle around to where the voice was coming from.

“So what’s it to be?” the leprechaun’s voice persisted

The elf saw what the humans were doing so played along, stalling for time, “If you were to have this place destroyed you will be killed as well, you can not whisk your puny self away, let alone anyone else”

“We can’t let you take anymore weapons to feed your little overthrow in the Mystical Realms” the Irish voice went on.
“We are only doing the will of the Magnus Timor who was grievously wronged by both these pathetically corrupt worlds” the elf replied, still trying to stall the leprechaun
The first gunman arrived on the scene at where the voice was coming from.

It was a walkie talkie

He handed it to the leader, who keyed it, “Cute” he sneered

“Well I would not want you trapping me inside there would I” the Irish voice replied through the radio, “Not with what we are about to do”

The elf took the radio from the lead man, and keyed it, “You can’t do anything, we control the dimension jump orbs now, and in three days it will all be over. The Magnus Timor will have his revenge on both these wretched worlds”
“Mr Elf” the Irish voice persisted, “The thing about blocking dimension jump orbs, is that in order for you to use your own, you have to lift the block. Now your friends will be waiting for you back on the Mystical Realms, so they will have lifted the block there end. But if I lift the block at this end, like right now”

Suddenly, another blue vortex appeared, but this time a squad of twenty trolls poured through, each armed with repeating cross bows and swords.

One of the men tried to take a shot at a troll, but he was beaten to it as a crossbow bolt landed in his chest, killing him out right.

The non humans, apart from the elf tried desperately to flee, but they were locked in the warehouse, and there was no escape, so they surrendered to the trolls. The rest of the men started to drop their weapons.

“You think you have won” smirked the elf
“But we have” came another elven voice, a female one as she came out through the blue vortex. “And by the way” she continued, “Your telepathic attempts to contact Zathan through the crossing is being blocked by me”
“Not for long” the male elf countered, and before anyone could react, he pulled out a dagger and flung it at the female elf.

The dagger flew at her, but then flew back straight at the elf and into him.

The male elf sank to his knees as he was dying, “Magnus Timor will be avenged” was all he could utter before his body burst into flames as he died.

“Never throw a dagger at a woman wearing one of these” the female elf smirked as she held up a small crystal amulet.

Suddenly five leprechauns appeared in the warehouse and got the trolls to march the non human prisoners back through the vortex, while some of the trolls held their cross bows on the men, and the leprechauns used hand held machine pistols to ensure compliance from the human sect members.

As the vortex ended, the human security team entered into the room with their weapons drawn, to arrest the intruders. Once they had done so, the leprechauns vanished leaving one behind to instruct the security guards on where to send the men they had apprehended.

“You will get nothing from me” one of the men shouted
“Don’t be too sure” retorted the lead leprechaun, and then vanished.

* * *

The Mountains near the Central City
The Mystical Realms
Three days prior to the alignment

Hogan O’Brian finally sat down from his long climb up the mountain side. The Colonel’s strategy of opening several wormholes at once seemed to have worked. If the sect had been detecting them, they would not have known which ones were the false ones and which ones were wormholes in operation. Also it meant that they had not detected Hogan use the special leprechaun personal device to move from Earth to the Mystical Relams.

He was lucky to have found the orphaned dwarf child again and the gnome family he had been placed with. He had made sure he was not followed, especially as the sect had managed to bring army surplus jeeps from Earth with 50mm vehicle mounted machine guns to patrol the city.

The imperial courts of justice and the troll senate had been levelled by the missiles that had been brought across from Earth

The sect of the Magnus Timor were definitely in charge

He just wished he could have taken the child and his foster family to Earth, but with some of the elves having gone over to the Magnus Timor, he could not risk the crossing being detected.

Now he was in the location, according to both the dwarf child and Hadal where the former Russian Space craft was supposed to have come down.

Hogan took out a photograph that Pete Smith back on Earth had printed out for him, so he knew what to look for, if he could find it.

Suddenly he heard a sound of flapping wings, and quickly hid behind a boulder as a large red dragon flew over.

As it flew down the mountain Hogan peered at it and sighed with relief. It had no rider and was therefore still a wild dragon, still potentially dangerous, but at least not consciously hunting him.

Hogan watched as the dragon pounced on some hapless creature in the distance, which looked like some grazing beast of some kind. This dragon at least would not be hungry for a while.

Hogan scanned the terrain again with a pair of micro binoculars given to him by Commander Mark Johnston.

In the distance, about a mile away he thought he could see what appeared like dull metal. Ordinarily he would teleport straight across, but that could be detected by elven magicians working for the sect, so he had no choice but to walk.

As he walked, he had the eerie feeling he was being watched, but every time he looked around, all he could see were the mountains, the wildlife and smoke in the distance from the parts of the central city that had been destroyed before it surrendered to the sect and their over powering heavy weapons they had stolen from Earth.

At least during the civil war, some dared to fight back, but the sect had been ruthless at instilling fear. The sect had even borrowed from Earth’s brutal past, with the roads into and out of the city lined with wooden constructions, where residents were nailed up and left to die. It was called crucifixion. Hogan remembered how some people on Earth who followed a person called Jesus, who had apparently been a victim of this ancient form of death, but had risen from the dead after three days, and how these followers of Jesus would carry jewelled representations of this instrument of death. If they had seen the horror, would they still wear such jewellery?

No matter, no time for such ponderings, Hogan had a mission.

After about twenty minutes of running between the rocks, trying not to be seen, and trying to catch what or who might be following him he reached the item that he had been looking for

The old Russian Soyuz re-entry capsule

His mission was simple, gain entry, find the recording devices and see if there was anything in it that might explain how it got there and what the connection was to the sect and the legend of the Magnus Timor.

The hatch was open and the capsual had been left open to the elements, so Hogan was dubious that they might find anything, although the Clan Chief of the Manjura did point out that the air up here was dry and cold by human standards so it might be preserved.

Hogan was about to go inside when a voice came from inside
“Hogan O’Brian isn’t it?” the voice said in a strange accent.

Hogan pulled out his side arm, only for it to be yanked out if his hand and thrown down the mountain slope.

“That’s no way to greet to a master of the magical arts” came the voice as the owner climbed out It looked like an elf, but darker, it was a notorious dark elf

Hogan sneered at it, “A Drow, I might have guessed”

“Dobian at your service” the drow said

“So just like with the long dead Spirit of Lust, may she be never missed, you have thrown your lot in with the Magnus Timor sect” Hogan snarled, “And how did you track me he then asked”

“Well to answer the last part first, I’m sorry, but I must keep that to myself, one does need an edge now and then” Dobian sneered, “As for the Magnus Timor, oh please, We are Drow, we have taste and no drow has thrown their lot in with that rabble. As for the M T himself, hmm empty, quite a good description of that jumped up Major Spirit of Vice”

Hogan gave a brief laugh and shook his head, “I thought you drow were evil versions of the elves, after all you threw your lot in with the Spirit of Lust and the Arch Orc”
“Maybe we are” Dobian countered, then he continued “but we saw right through the Magnus Timor at the beginning. It was the drow that suggested we kill him outright, but no, the High Council of the Elves and Drow at the time decided they did not have the stomach to do what had to be done, and so they put him into eternal slumber, the stupid fools. As for the Spirit of Lust, we merely saw an opportunity to take back from the High Council of the Elves what was rightfully ours”

Dobian then cocked his head, and with a grin said, “Had he not been visiting the humans at the time, my job was to kill the Prince Low Troll, sorry I forget, the Clan Chief of the Manjura as he now prefers to be called, and put his head on a pole along with his father the Lord Low Troll”

Hogan raised a finger, “You are not going to touch him, he is under the protection of.”
Dobian interrupted him, “Oh please Hogan, the war is over, I no longer have an interest in his extermination, and the High Council has all been wiped out now anyway by Zathan’s treachery. I am here to help offer my services to you and the humans this time, to deal with this annoying little sect and that jumped up Spirit of Fear. I mean, using the human’s Latin for a name, meaning Great Fear, how pretentious is that”

“Us working alongside drow?” Hogan said with incredulity
“And why not” Dobian grinned, and then pulled from his pocket a yellow orb, “After all, I have one of the few dimension orbs that they don’t know about, and from my mind reading of you, when you let your guard down, I know that certain humans would love to get their hands on this pile of metal”
“Maybe I could just get what’s needed, and not use you at all”
At this Dobian pulled out from his other pocket a small crystal rod, “Or maybe I could disintegrate this piece of metal, it’s your call”

* * *

CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research
The Franco – Swiss Border

Frank walked up to the entrance after parking his car, through into the building and headed to his office. As he reached it he noticed his office door was open and made a mental note to have a word with the company that handled the contracted out cleaning.

As he walked in he found Charlene the research assistant and a woman who was incredibly short in height.
“You lied to us” Charlene told him abruptly
“What?” Frank replied
“What the lass means” the short woman began, “is that you were holding back that you already knew your experiment here was sending stuff out of this universe into another one”
“You told us to keep this to ourselves, to sit on it” Charlene continued, “You knew what was wrong with Pierre’s data before I even touched it and you said nothing”
“I told you” Frank replied, “We have had a lot of people trying to close us down saying that we were going to destroy the Earth, the political climate is not ready for this”
“But” the short woman continued, “It’s interesting how in the last few days, you scheduled extra time on this contraption of yours, above the norm for such devices”
“We were behind schedule” Frank responded, “We need to catch up”
“Or you needed to boost a wake up call” the short woman countered
“What do you mean wake up call?” Charlene asked, “what are you talking about”, but to her surprise, her supervisor seemed to know what this lady was referring to by his reaction.

“Well” Frank started, “What are you, a gnome a fairy or a leprechaun?”
“A what?” Charlene replied
The short woman pulled out an ID badge, “Clover O’Leary, G2 Special section, so what do you think”
Charlene just shook her head in disbelief, “Miss O’Leary, I thought you were from the IAEA”
“A leprechaun” Frank said ignoring Charlene, with a hint of disgust in his voice
“What are you talking about Frank?” Charlene asked, “Leprechauns are just fictional creatures, from fairy stories, looking after crocks of gold at the end of rainbows”
Clover seemed to ignore Charlene’s outburst and pointed a finger at Frank, just then Charlene noticed a small crystal rod rise from his outside jacket pocket, “A crystal of communication I see, not something the everyday scientist has on his possession” Clover remarked. Suddenly the crystal darted at Clover and she caught it in her left hand, “I think I will have that” she told him.

Charlene just shook her head and looked at the pair of them; it seemed she had been kept in the dark about more than just the results from the LHC. “You mean leprechauns are real”
“As real as you are” Frank told her, “And from this other membrane universe you discovered”
“But why Frank, another universe with intelligent life and you knew about it all along?”
“It is a bit more than that” Clover cut in, “Isn’t it Frank” then to Charlene, “Your supervisor here has been working with a very nasty group who’s leader has sworn to destroy both our worlds”
“Correction” Frank uttered, “Has promised to make a new and better world out of the dross that these two have become”
“Why?” Charlene asked, still trying to take in something so incredible
“When my son lost his wife and baby daughter because of wrangling over health insurance, leaving him to raise his son and other daughter on his own” Frank went on, “When the local health authority delays and prevaricates over who is responsible for treating my cancer I got while working for the defence industry, you get a jaded look at our governments. I was promised my son and his children would have a better life away from those who can not see past a balance sheet, I was promised that I could be cured of what they told me last month was now an incurable cancer, which could have been treated, had the health authority not been so penny pinching”
“Oh Please” Clover uttered, “You think you are the only one hard done by”
“So you would kill us all Frank” Charlene spluttered, “What did I do to you that you wanted me dead as well?”

Frank looked defensive, “I would have asked them to take you with us. We will need people like you”
“Tell me Frank” Clover then asked, “How did they say they would accomplish this feat”
“Oh no” Frank said, “You won’t get that from me”
“You’re absolutely right” Clover replied, “It won’t be I that gets it from you”

“Why is that glowing?” Charlene suddenly shouted

Clover noticed that the crystal rod in her hand had started to emit a blue light, and then she looked up. Charlene saw where she was looking to see a blue vortex a foot across hovering in mid air.
“Get down” she yelled, but it was too late.

A sudden bolt of lightning came out of the vortex and struck Frank, killing him instantly.

Charlene dropped to the floor as further bolts of lightning started to fly from the vortex. Charlene tried to crawl under a desk as the bolts got more and more ferocious. Suddenly the small woman was there on the floor with her grasping at her arm. “Time we got out of here my dear” she told her.

Suddenly Charlene felt dizzy and the room seemed to dissolve away.

Next she was in some kind of store room with this mysterious lady who claimed to be a leprechaun.
“Sorry my dear” Clover apologised, “I should have known, the crystal of communication must have been booby trapped in case anyone else got a hold of it”

Charlene shook here head, “Miss O’Leary” she asked, “Where am I?”
“Your back in England my dear. At RAF Welford to be precise, where I was going to take you anyway”

Charlene stood up and looked around, “But why, what have I done”
“We need your expertise my dear, to help save our worlds” Clover explained

A door opened and in walked a young woman who was of slight Chinese appearance. “Is this Charlene Henshaw?” the woman asked
“Yes” Clover told her,”I’m afraid they got to the professor, he’s dead”
“Bother” the woman replied, “We were hoping we could find out from him how the Magnus Timor planned to destroy our worlds”
“Can you please tell me what is going on” Charlene demanded
“Sorry” said the woman in an English accent, “My name is Sue-Lim Wang, I understand before you switched to CERN you were an expert in M-Theory and String Theory”
“Until they cut my funding for that” Charlene countered
“I’m sorry; I believe that may have been our lot trying to keep people from discovering this other world called either IDW01 or the Mystical Realms”
“What?” Charlene uttered.
“Excuse me Miss Wang” Clover butted in, “I need to deal with the clean up crew back at CERN and arrange for Miss Henshaw’s belongings to be shipped across”

Suddenly the small woman vanished into thin air.

Sue-Lim walked into the room and put her hand on Charlene’s shoulder, “We are working on boosting the power and efficiency of an artificial inter-membrane wormhole generator, and with your expertise in the field, and we could do with your help on it”
“Is this some kind of super weapon?” Charlene asked suspiciously “I don’t do weapons”
“Not really” Sue-Lim told her, “Just a means of transport between the two worlds, we need it to try and stop this Magnus Timor from destroying our world and the one Clover comes from”

For a moment Charlene hesitated so Sue-Lim pressed her, “Come on Charlene, we know about all the anti-war demos you went on, but trust me, you will be saving lives”
“After this, I can go back to CERN?”
“If you wish, but you could also join our organisation, we monitor the interchange between to two worlds to make sure nobody interferes with each other’s world”
“Look I will go along with this, until we save the world” Charlene told Sue Lim, “And then I’ll see how things go”

With that Charlene followed Sue-Lim out of the room.

* * *

RAF Welford
Berkshire / Wiltshire Border
England, Earth
Two day to alignment

[img=600x400]http://stratojetman.googlepages.com/HQBomb.jpg/HQBomb-full.jpg[/img]

Samuel finally entered the video conference room at the air base. On the monitor on a secure communication video channel was Kathryn, the chairman of the Committee overseeing the Inter Dimensional Entity Control Agency.

Around the conference table from the human side were Commander Mark Johnston, Jenny Green, Pete Smith, Sue-Lim and Charlene Henshaw. Of the non humans were Dobian the Drow, Hogan O’Brian, the Clan Chief of the Manjura and opposite the Drow, Hadal the elf.

Hadal glowered at Dobian. Elves and drow did not usually get on. Dobian decided to rise above things in a smug arrogant manner. Earlier when they had first met, Hadal had wanted to kill Dobian there and then, but had just been able to control himself. Dobian for his part taunted Hadal on how the High Elf Council had been assassinated by one of their own number, by use of Sarin gas, stolen from Earth. Hadal had agreed to work with Dobian under protest. Dobian took great pleasure in rubbing Hadal’s nose in it.

“Sorry to keep you waiting madam Chairman” Samuel said to the monitor, “I was checking on some of our guests”
“Would they be the goblin family or the men that were taken prisoner in the US and transported by leprechaun to Welford”
“Both” Samuel replied, “I wondered if the goblins would like to sit in on the briefing out of courtesy, but the one call Chidal did not think there was a lot of point, and I agree with him”
“Ok Colonel” Kathryn answered, “Were the goblins able to provide useful intelligence?”
“Yes, the team is in place, Hadal provided some amulets to protect against telepathic discovery”
“What about the human detainees” Kathryn asked
“All they know is that the Magnus Timor, once awakened will somehow destroy both our planets and create a new one for the devoted few” Samuel answered, “Apparently the elf with them knew more, but he was killed in the capture operation”
“Ok Colonel, what is the main battle plan you have in mind?” Kathryn asked
“Well remember in Lord of the Rings, they used a battle to decoy the forces of Sauron away from Frodo and Sam,
“I’m familiar with that story” Kathryn replied, “I read the book in high school”
“Well as the decoy” Samuel continued “we hope to send in troll troops from the Yataxal and the Delethon clans to retake the Central City”

The Clan Chief of the Manjura interrupted, “Most of our trained troops and those of the Rachtal were killed or captured in the attack on the citadel, and the Delethon and the Yataxal have agreed to help as atonement for the earlier treachery of their former clan leader and deputy clan leader”

Samuel waited a moment and then continued “while we send in British and American commandos to deal with the heavy weapons. We have just about scaled up the artificial wormhole generators to allow two Apache helicopters for limited air support”
“So” Kathryn then asked “Who is the proverbial ring bearer”
“Myself, Commander Johnston, Miss Green and Mr O’Brian will be investigating one of the volcanoes to the south of Karam Tag Chou, apparently as the sect was starting to spread there were tremors reported in that region”
“With all due respect” Dobian interrupted, “Madame Chairman, I do not doubt the spirit of the colonel and his team, but he is planning to go up, if he finds him, the very first ever major spirit of vice. It was us drow who saw him for what he is, even though our elf brethren at the time refused to see the danger in allowing him to live”

At this Hadal just glowered

“I would propose, that I accompany the colonel and his team”
“So you can stab him in the back like all treacherous drow do” Hadal cut in, unable to contain himself any longer
“Treachery” Dobian countered, “So far, no drow has touched the sect with a long troll pike, unlike the elves who are divided and leaderless thanks to the treacherous Zathan who was once on the High Elf Council”

“Hadal” Samuel interrupted, “Dobian has a point, now I am aware of your racial animosity but both of your peoples are at risk from this threat, so we need to join forces, and if Dobian has expertise with the Magnus Timor”
“Then I will be coming with you as well” Hadal interupted, “to keep an eye on him” he added glowering at the drow

“Listen to yourselves” Jenny blurted out, “you are just like squabbling children, when both our worlds are in danger” Jenny then remembered where she was and uttered a feeble apology to the colonel and shut up.

“I am more than willing to work with Hadal” Dobian spoke up, and then added, as a dig at the elf, “even if he can not bring himself to utter my name”

Next to speak was Hogan, “Colonel, if you are taking an elf and a drow, perhaps I ought to be involved in the attack on the city, you can’t have too many people traipsing around in the fire mountains, besides the more people gating in, the more chance they will discover you.”
“Hogan” Samuel replied, “I still make the decision of who goes with whom, and we may need someone with your teleport skills”
“But colonel” Hogan replied, “If you have an elf and a drow, you don’t need me for that, they can do those requisite feats”
“Well if the leprechaun is afraid” Dobian cut in.
“I am not afraid” Hogan shouted back, “I have been decorated for more battles than you have been involved in treachery. There are only so many who can travel to the chambers under the Fire Mountains”
“Enough” Samuel shouted, then in a quieter voice, “Sorry madam Chairman, Hadal will be with the forces involved in Central City. Hogan will come with me, as will Dobian, Mark and Jenny”
“Don’t worry Hadal” Hogan muttered, “I will watch the drow”
“Oh Hogan, you wound me, what can I do to win your trust” Dobian said in a smug and feigned tone of hurt
“Quit breathing” Hogan muttered under his breath.

“Excuse me Mam, Colonel” came Sue-Lim’s voice as she raised her hand.

“Yes Miss Wang” Kathryn replied over the video link

“We may not have got the information from the elf about what the Magnus Timor plans to do, but due to the investigation of the Soyuz re-entry capsule carried out by myself, Pete and Charlene, we did find some things that could indicate what he might be trying to do”
“Go on” Kathryn said
“We managed to download some of the telemetry and the audio logs from the old soviet capsule brought back” Pete chimed in at Sue-Lim’s prompting
“But I thought those Russian jobs were seat of the pants technology in those days” Mark interrupted
“The others may have been” Pete responded, “But this one was built differently, it may have been one of those originally built to be unmanned like those that were flown in 1971 before the soviets cancelled their manned lunar programme in 1974 so we had some data. From what I can tell, as soon as the spacecraft passed through what the cosmonauts called a rip in space”
“An inter-dimensional wormhole?” Kathryn asked
“Yes” Sue Lim replied, “That is exactly what it was since the craft was sent to the universe of IDW01”
“Where?” Dobian asked
“It’s our official designation for your world, which some of you call the Mystical Realms” Samuel interjected
“Seems like a strange name for a planet” Pete commented, “Why don’t you adopt the name say Planet Mystercon”

At that the room went silent

Pete suddenly looked sheepish, muttered “Oh, where were we, oh yes” and then continued, “Anyway, according to the logs we were able to recover, as soon as they passed through to the Mystical Realms the interference on some of the logs just stopped indicating that the wormhole collapsed”
“Don’t they do that anyway?” Kathryn asked
“No Mam” Sue-Lim answered, “The ones done by the orbs which were captured under the previous administration when they were reverse engineered showed that they still stayed up and required the user to actually shut them down”

“That is indeed true” The Clan Chief of the Manjura volunteered, “You open the crossing, travel through or send someone through and close it after you have done so”
“It is the same with the artificial one” Sue-Lim added

“But” Pete cut in, “Here is the really interesting bit, the radar data on the Soyuz, if you couple it with the data recorded about the propulsion data, given weight and mass taken from the soviet archives”
“Get to the point Pete” Samuel interrupted
“The rip, it was moving at the time the space craft intercepted it” Pete answered, and then he added, “And the radar also showed that it was also widening”

There was a hush, as a sudden unspoken realisation began to permeate the room, and the temporary office of the Chairman of the Committee.

“Which direction was it moving” Kathryn asked

“Given the” Pete began, then stopped, “It was heading straight for Earth”
“Mam” Sue-Lim spoke up, “If it had not been for that Russian space craft, the rip would have hit Earth at a size wide enough to take the Earth through to the other universe twenty minutes later”
Pete then spoke, “I suppose it will be cold comfort to the families of those cosmonauts, if they are still alive, that by going through the rip, they collapsed it and saved the Earth”

“What do you mean saved the Earth” Kathryn asked.

“Mam” Pete began, “According to the audio logs, when they hit the wormhole they were travelling away from the Earth, but when they passed through the wormhole, they were approaching Mystercon, sorry IDW01 with a slight increase in speed towards it. They had to use all the fuel in the lunar lander just to get down to a speed they could safely enter the atmosphere”

This time it was Charlene who spoke up, “Mam, what Mr Smith is trying to say is that”

Kathryn interrupted, “If the space craft had not been there the Earth would have been dragged into the other universe and collided with the world of the Mystical Realms”

“Yes Madam Chairman” Charlene answered

“Given what the sect members have been saying” Hogan chipped in, “It sounds very much like what the Magnus Timor is trying to do”
“But what about this new world he is promising” Jenny asked
“Simple” Charlene replied, “They believe in the early days of the solar system, a Mars size planet hit the early Earth, creating the Earth and the moon as they are now”
“But that would take thousands of years if not millions before any planet formed or remaining after such a collision could support life” Pete objected
“Maybe that is something the Magnus Timor is keeping from his followers” Samuel suggested
“Do not under estimate him” Dobian chipped in, “He does have the power to keep them in a form of suspension until such a new world was ready”

“So bottom line is” Samuel said, “This Magnus Timor is planning to destroy us by smashing our two worlds together”
“And he is two days from doing so” Sue-Lim observed.

To be continued