Episode VIII – Terminus Venatus
End Games
Sometimes you have days when nothing goes right. You could say that this has happened to the Earth expeditionary forces to try and liberate areas of the Mystical Realms from the grip of a deadly sect. Both the SAS and even the might of the US Marines Special forces have been wiped out by sect forces, thanks to the assistance of a disaffected leprechaun from G2, Ireland’s military intelligence, who has gone over to the sect, and a elf tutor and mentor who happens to be the twin brother of Zathan, the high priest of the sect, who single-handedly assassinated members of the High Council of Elves with Sarin gas obtained from Earth.
And now the Magnus Timor has awoken, and now it is time to open up space and send the world of the Mystical Realms through to our universe to smash into the planet Earth
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RAF Welford
Berkshire / Wiltshire Border
England, Earth
[img=600x400]http://stratojetman.googlepages.com/HQBomb.jpg/HQBomb-full.jpg[/img]
Pete was waiting in the mess hall when the troll clan leader of the Manjura burst in.
He was not happy
“Mr Smith” he asked, “Any news?”
Pete shook his head, “The team sent to the goblin village are overdue, the same for the taskforce sent to Central City”
“What of Miss Wang in the space ship” the troll asked.
Again Pete shook his head, “They were supposed to have opened a wormhole to allow for a transmission, but like everything else, nothing”
“The colonel?” The Clan chief asked
“Nothing” Pete told the troll, “Nobody has been in contact”
“Mr Smith, This is not good”
“Your telling me” Pete replied, “I was at MTAC an hour ago, someone sent a HIDE47, sorry a doppelganger assassin to try and kill the chairman of the committee”
The troll looked deeply concerned, “Did that treacherous creature succeed”, he asked
Pete sighed and looked the troll in the eyes, “He killed the General, but was stopped, ironically by Mr Vee”
“Mr Who?” the troll queried
“Long story” Pete said dismissively, and then added, “Nobody was meant to know where she was, it’s ultra secret. They’re talking about a leak, and given that nobody who crossed to IDE01, sorry Mystecon, er I mean the Mystical Realms has called in”
The troll saw where he was going and completed his sentence, “You are wondering if someone has betrayed us?”
“Well it happened before Clan Chief, you were there”
“Yes I remember, that Mr Zachary” The troll frowned, “I was so glad we dispatched him when he tried to escape” he added with a brief smile
“But he’s long dead” Pete insisted, “He would not even know we have this chairman”
“I wish to return home” The Clan chief then insisted, “I can not stay here, while others are dying or even worse”
“But the Colonel’s orders” Pete objected
The troll narrowed his eyes, “You may be under his command Mr Smith, but I am a troll clan chief, I answer to my clan, not the Colonel, no matter how honourable he may be”
“But your orb doesn’t work” Pete reminded him, “And the artificial wormhole generators are under lock and key, and before you ask, I do not have access”
The Clan Chief dropped his head and shook it, “This is so frustrating”
“Tell me about it”
“Tell me Mr Smith” The troll then asked, “How come yours work and ours don’t”
“Your world is governed by magic” Pete replied, “So perhaps they have cast a spell against their working, where ours uses physics, which can’t be blocked”
Suddenly, there was a rushing of wind, and a small blue dot appeared in the mess hall, getting bigger and bigger
“I think we better go” Pete yelled, “That’s how they attacked the Chairman in Washington”
Pete and the Clan Chief rushed out of the mess hall, and Pete found a fire alarm button and activated it, to evacuate the building, in case this was another attack by the sect.
As they rushed outside, a guard gave the troll a blanket, to try and cover himself from unauthorised prying eyes. Pete shouted a warning about the incoming wormhole
A number of other marines came running with their automatic weapons drawn, to meet what ever was coming through, assuming it was not another missile or a ball of dragon breath.
For ten minutes, it seemed they were in a stand off.
Then a door started to open, prompting all the soldiers to take aim.
“DON’T SHOOT, DON’T SHOOT WE ARE NOT ARMED” yelled a familiar voice.
“COME OUT SLOWLY AND DROP TO THE GROUND AND KEEP YOUR HANDS UP” Yelled an RAF officer.
Slowly the door continued to open, and a naked woman with platinum blonde hair, stepped out with her hands raised and dropped to her knees.
Flying close behind was what looked like another naked female, but one foot tall and with wings on her back. She landed and then she too followed the RAF officer’s instructions. And then there was what looked like a naked female elf that came and knelt on the ground along with what appeared to be another naked female that was one foot tall with wings and flying. Both of them complied with the instructions to kneel down with hands in the air.
“Charlene?” Pete yelled as he recognised the human lady, then he told the RAF officer, “That’s Charlene Henshaw, she was with the American action on the city”
“We have yet to confirm that” the officer replied, the human and the elf could be doppelgangers.”
“We are not doppelganger scum” said the female elf, “I am Jairus, the daughter of Remond, the last leader of the High Council of Elves”
“Excuse me for not believing you” the RAF officer replied
“What will convince you we are who we say we are” Jairus asked with an air of irritation
Then with weapons trained on them, two American marines went over to what appeared to be Charlene and the elf and pulled their hands behind their backs and tied them up with plastic ties. While two RAF security guards did likewise with the one foot high females
“But that’s Charlene” Pete insisted.
“We need to do a blood test to establish that” the RAF officer replied and then got his radio to call the base medic
“Officer” The Clan Chief of the Manjura intervened, “If these were doppelganger assassins, then why are they naked? I know such creatures, they never wear clothes themselves but when they mimic, they always recreate clothing.”
“Maybe they never got the chance to see what person they were mimicking was wearing” suggested the officer
The Clan Chief then beckoned a US Marine over to ask him in front of the RAF officer, “Tell me soldier, when your females go into battle, do they remove all clothing and fight naked”
“That sure would look nice sir” the Marine smiled, “But I don’t think we have made that policy yet sir”
“Charlene went with the Americans” Pete interrupted, “So they would not have made her take her clothes off, would they?. If that were a doppelganger, it would not appear like a naked woman”
“And you forget the little creatures, which are fairies” the troll added, “Only a doppelganger newborn youngling could mimic them at that size, but they do not learn to mimic until adulthood. They can not change size that much and they could not do wings that fly”
The RAF officer exhaled loudly, and then lowered his weapon, “Release them”
“I’m glad you got that straight” Jairus retorted as the officer cut the cable tie from her wrist, “Appearing before other’s unclothed is bad enough!.
Then Charlene and Jairus stood up. The Fairies took to flight, fluttering around head height. Pete made to pull off his T-Shirt to hand it to Charlene, but he was stopped by the RAF officer, who took off his coat and handed it to Charlene, who thanked the officer and put it on.
A Marine did the same for the female elf, who also put the jacket on, although by her face, she did not find it too pleasant.
“What happened to your clothes?” Pete asked
“That was our doing” squeaked one of the fairies who was now flying, “Coming through to your world takes such a lot of effort with an adult for us fairies, so clothing had to be left behind”
“Also” chipped in the other fairy, “If we had it and used more energy to bring through clothing, the sect would have found our hiding place for certain”
The first fairy then interrupted back, “As for us, we hardly ever wear clothing as it gets in the way of our wings”
“We are normally invisible anyway” the second one cut back in, “So modesty is not an issue like it is for the other races”
“We can only carry young babies through with some clothing” said the first one
.”Like two of our kind did with the Spirit of Fancying several years ago, when they took her as a baby for her protection to a police station in Dublin on your world” said the second fairy
“Shame they were unable to do that with her twin sister the Spirit of Fidelity” chipped in the first fairy
“Sorry we don’t have time for this” interrupted Pete, “What happened to the expeditionary force?” Pete asked, “We have not heard from them”
“They were wiped out Pete” Charlene replied.
“What two Apache helicopters, one Abrams tank and four armoured troop carriers stuffed with US Marines?” Pete asked with incredulity
“Gone Pete, it was like nothing I had ever heard” Charlene answered, “They even targeted the troop carrier I was in at the landing site. It was only Clover who got me out”
“So where is Clover” Pete asked
“Someone shot her dead” Charlene replied, “They also tried to shoot me”
“It was the leprechaun” squeaked one of the fairies
“Yes” squeaked the other fairy, “We saw him give the dragon riders the secret of invisibility, so we followed him”
“And we saw him shoot one of his own kind dead and try and kill this female human, so we rescued her”
“Excuse me” the RAF officer interrupted, “We need to escort these visitors to the quartermaster stores for replacement clothing, although I don’t think we have any female underwear”
“That’s fine” Charlene replied, “I hardly wear any anyway to avoid
VPL, and I prefer to go braless when I can, I don’t even pack a bikini top when I go to the beach”
”Too much information” Pete thought
“I will accept what you have” Jairus said, “But answer me this one thing”
“What’s that?” Pete asked
“Why was that traitor and sect leader Zathan riding in the oxen-less carriage”
“You mean the ATC” Pete corrected then said, “That wasn’t this Zathan guy, that was Hadal”
“My friend and mentor when I was a youngling” The Clan Chief of the Manjura beamed.
“Then you do not know my Liege” Jairus uttered with an expression of genuine surprise.
“Know what?” The troll clan chief said with a frown
“Hadal is Zathan’s twin brother” Jairus explained, “And they were quite close when they were growing up, it was only because Zathan was born a needle’s worth of candle wax earlier that he got his seat on the High Council of Elves. He recognised me on the road to the Central City and tried to get the machine in which he rode to run me down, it was only the help of the fairies here that I am still alive”
“Me too” Charlene spoke up ”They saved me too”
With that Charlene and Jairus were lead away, whilst the two fairies opened another wormhole and returned to the Mystical Realms.
The troll clan chief just shook his head in abject disbelief, “I never knew that my mentor and my friend could betray us so”
“And what about this leprechaun” Pete asked, “Do you think that Hogan”
“NO” Snapped the troll, then in a more gentler voice replied, “I knew Hogan, plus he was almost killed when the sect attacked your Facility. Whoever the treacherous leprechaun is, it was not Hogan”
* * *
The Cave of the Magnus Timor
The Deadly Valley
The Mystical Realms
Commander Mark Johnston looked up at the Magnus Timor and shook his head, “I thought you were in the form of a dragon?”
Jenny Green looked at Mark in horror and mouthed at him to not anger the creature any more.
The Magnus Timor put his arms down and gave an evil sounding laugh, “You are so naïve you wench” he told her in his voice that sounded like thunder and rushing waters, I can feel your fear for this” Then pointing at Mark, “Your lover”
Mark ignored this and shouted out, “Answer the question”
“SILENCE Before our Lord and Master” Zathan shouted and stood up from kneeling before the Magnus Timor.
“Do not worry my Zathan” the Magnus Timor said to Zathan, “I am not insulted by this question. I will answer it”
The Magnus Timor backed off a bit, and then grew and morphed into a large red dragon.
“I can take on what ever form I choose” The Magnus Timor went on, “This was the first form I learned”
The Jenny could see the dragon smile if that were possible
“Are you afraid of spiders” The Magnus Timor asked, and then instantly morphed into a giant spider
Jenny breathed in sharply!
Colonel Samuel Peters quickly placed his hand over Jenny’s mouth to stop her from screaming.
Immediately the Magnus Timor morphed back into the form of the Minotaur.
Then he pointed a claw at the colonel, “Are you so scared of a wench screaming?” he sneered
“Perhaps a large snake?” the Magnus Timor continued, and transformed into a giant cobra snake
“Is that all you got?” Mark sneered, “shape changing? Is that supposed to scare us?”
Zathan turned round to look at the commander, “SILENCE BLASPHEMER” he shouted, then smashed Mark around the face with his fist. Mark was knocked to the ground.
“Getting others to fight your own battles Magnus Timor” Mark smirked as he wiped blood from his nose as he sat up on the floor of the lava tube they were in
Zathan walked over to Mark with a look of utter disgust. The Magnus Timor seemed content to see his number one follower handle this apparent infidel. “Our Lord lives off of fear” Zathan began, and then said, “and to whom you will all bow and ”
Before he could complete his sentence, a knife appeared in his chest, and he sank to his knees clutching it.
Dobian the drow, a kind of dark elf had rolled onto his left side after recovering from being stunned by the earlier energy bolt, and had thrown a dagger at Zathan with pin point accuracy.
“We Drow bow to no-one especially jumped up spirits of vice” Dobian retorted
Immediately and in a rage, Hadal drew his short sword, rushed over to Dobian on the ground and after rolling Dobian onto his back with his foot, ran Dobian through with the sword.
“You are avenged my brother” he muttered as he drew his sword out.
“So are you going to run us through as well” Hogan cut in.
“And here was I thinking you did not like drow either” Hadal replied
“He was a darn sight more honourable than you or this miserable excuse of a leprechaun” Hogan spat back, pointing at Paddy McGurty
Paddy McGurty raised his machine pistol and waved it first at Mark and Hogan and then the Colonel and Jenny, “I hope you all have the same idea” Paddy snarled, “As I would like to drop every last one of you, especially Golden boy O’Brien”
Paddy lowered his gun, then raised it, “in fact I will anyway” he muttered and pointed the gun at Hogan.
“ENOUGH MY GOOD LEPRECHAUN” Boomed the Magus Timor, “I want these infidels to experience fear as I bring these two wretched worlds smashing together”
“As you wish my Lord” Paddy replied.
“Brother Of Zathan and Son of McGurty” the Magnus Timor boomed, “Stand by me” as he transformed back into his Minotaur form.
At this, Hadal and Paddy walked round and took their positions one on either side of the Magnus Timor.
Suddenly a crossbow bolt sailed past Jenny’s head and into the chest of Hadal, the force of it sending him tumbling backwards.
A familiar figure came into view at the entrance to the lava tube, it was the Clan Chief of the Manjura carrying his trusty crossbow, “No one betrays the clan of Manjura and gets away with it”
“I thought I told you to stay on Earth” Samuel yelled
“Oh really?” Paddy asked and lifted up the machine pistol to fire at the troll.
Jenny could see no option, in the brief window when Hadal had been shot, and in the semi gloom of the lava tube, she picked up the short bow and the arrow she had surreptitiously laid against the wall, strung the bow as fast as she could. Now she turned round and released it at Paddy.
It hit him in the neck, death was instantaneous.
The troll chief stood at the entrance, while two other armed trolls pushed past him and advanced. Suddenly a blast wave knocked them down.
“The Moons are now in alignment, it is time” The Magnus Timor uttered, raised his claws upwards, and immediately a bright green light enveloped him and part of it shot upwards, blasting a hole through the roof of the lava tube, with such force that the rocks did not have a chance to fall back in.
“The doorway has begun” he boomed.
Jenny, the two marines and Hogan, immediately found themselves almost paralysed by the green light. Jenny tried with every fibre of her being to select an arrow with an exploding tip from her quiver, but it was like pushing against very strong molasses.
* * *
The Russian Progress Spacecraft
In Orbit above the Mystical Realms
Ivan Alekseev finished looking at the gauges then in Russian, said to Sue-Lim, “We have two, may be two and a half hours of air left”
“If the Carbon dioxide does not finish us off first” Sue Lim replied in Russian then added, “I’m sorry you had to be dragged into this”
“I would not have missed this for both worlds” Ivan reassured her, again in Russian.
“I just wish I knew who sabotaged the wormhole generator” Sue-Lim told him in an angry tone, “Why not make it so it would not let us travel here, why set it so it packs up after one crossing”
“I don’t know Miss Wang” Ivan replied, “This sect we have been fighting is very powerful I hear”
Suddenly out of the corner of her eye, Sue-Lim noticed a green light coming from out side. She turned and looked; it was a long beam of green light coming from the planet surface. She pointed it to Ivan
“Is that a laser?” he asked
“Can’t be” Sue-Lim replied, “Unless there is a medium around like smoke to reflect the light, you won’t see laser light.”
“So what is it?” Ivan asked
Sue-Lim craned her head to try and see where the other end of this beam was going, and then she saw it. Several miles from their position, a long line of greenish yellow light perpendicular to the beam started to grow.
“That’s it” Sue-Lim yelled in English, then she repeated what she said in Russian, and then asked “Ivan can you get us to that”
Ivan looked at a computer display on the retrofitted instrument panel, “We have just enough fuel Miss Wang, assuming the engines will relight”
“We have to” Sue-Lim insisted very forcefully.
“Put your helmet on” Ivan insisted, as he reached for his helmet.
Sue-Lim grabbed at her helmet for the pressure suit and fixed it to the rest of the pressure suit, but for the moment left the visor up.
Ivan then started flicking switches in a certain order and then grasped at a joystick control
For a tense two minutes, it seemed like nothing was happening, then suddenly Sue-Lim felt herself pushed into her seat as the spaceship started to accelerate. Ivan flicked on a radar display which showed that the line at the end of the beam was definitely growing. Now his primary focus was keeping the Progress spaceship, normally an unmanned supply ship for the International Space Station headed for the growing rift.
Sue-Lim gripped the edge of the armrest; there was nothing more she could do. It was down to Ivan now. She half expected to feel turbulence or more vibration than that generated by the third stage they were now using, but with no or little atmosphere, there was none.
Steadily as they approached the rift under power, they could see it getting bigger and bigger. The craft was now lit by the greenish yellow light
Suddenly there was shaking after all
“I am having trouble with the
Vernier Thrusters” Ivan yelled, “I may not be able to hold this course”
“Try Issac Newton” Sue-Lim Suggested
“Estimated position where rift will be” Ivan stated, and then he switched off the engines, “I just hope Newton works out here” he then uttered, and then added, “The main engine will never work again”.
Sue-Lim held out her hand for Ivan to grab hold, and hand in hand they sat in the spacecraft as it coasted to the part of space they hoped they would meet with the rift as it drifted towards the world of the Mystical Realms and widened.
Suddenly, they felt another shudder, like a gravitational pull, the rift was actively pulling them in.
“This must be why those other cosmonauts failed to avoid it” Ivan said in Russian.
Sue-Lim just gritted her teeth and said nothing as the rift grew larger and larger and as the yellow and green light grew brighter and brighter.
Suddenly everything became white
Sue-Lim and Ivan found themselves one what appeared to be an infinite plane, which was somehow a total whiteout
Both of them were completely naked, but they did not feel cold, and for a moment Sue-Lim did her best to cover herself with her arms. Ivan did not bother to try and cover himself and complimented Sue-Lim on her body and that she had the finest pair he had seen. Sue-Lim went red with embarrassment, and commented about how well endowed he was. Then she gave up on trying covering her modesty and held her arms out to him, and with a cheeky smile asked if he wanted to have a feel of her assets.
Now it was Ivan to feel embarrassed as Sue-Lim gave a nervous laugh.
Suddenly, coming in the opposite direction were two other people, two men who were also naked. They too made no effort to try and cover themselves, and were walking hand in hand
A minute later they were face to face, and one of the men spoke in Russian, “I am Vitalik Nikitin and this is Oleg Sidorov we were supposed to be on our way to the moon, when we flew in to this big rip”
“Who are you” asked the other man asked
Ivan was about to speak, but Sue-Lim waved at him to stop, “I’m sorry, we can not say, but we do know who you are”
“Why?” Vitalik asked
“Because we are from your future and therefore we can not disrupt the timeline” Sue-Lim explained
“Where are we?” Oleg asked
“I’m not sure” Sue-Lim replied, “Maybe we in the eleventh dimension or are outside of the universe, maybe even outside of time”
“It is like that Never, Never land” Ivan suggested.
“But what happened to our clothes?” Oleg asked
Sue Lim thought for a moment, “Maybe we are in the collective human unconsciousness, and maybe we are just our essences, which are naked before our creator”
“Creator?” Vitalik queried
“I’m sorry” Sue-Lim apologised, “I forgot in your time religion was suppressed”
“We were supposed to have been heroes” Oleg cut in, “Now I suspect they will erase our names out of the shame of our failure”
Ivan shook his head, “You are true heroes of the soviet era, even if at the time they do not recognise it”
“But we will fix that” Sue-Lim added and then said in a stern voice, “There is one thing you must never do”
“What is that?” Vitalik asked
“Mention in any log you take, or tell anyone you meet on the other side that we have met here” Sue-Lim responded, “The timeline depends on it”
Then Ivan went to shake hands with Vitalik, his predecessor, but as soon as he touched him, there was a brilliant white out
* * *
The Cave of the Magnus Timor
The Deadly Valley
The Mystical Realms
The greenish yellow light around the Magnus Timor suddenly vanished, and an expression of anger formed on his face, “NOT AGAIN!!” he screamed.
“Something collapse your little space rift?” Samuel asked, “Looks like you’re not infallible after all” he added sarcastically
The Magnus Timor fixed his angry gaze upon Samuel and suddenly the colonel was thrown backwards towards the mouth of the lava tube into one of the trolls. The Clan Chief of the Manjura scrabbled past his trolls and administered to the colonel his last bottle of elven made, troll healing potion”
Jenny saw the opportunity and fired an arrow with an explosive tip at the Magnus Timor, but instantly he was able to snatch the arrow out of mid air. “Do you think mere arrows and guns can kill me” he asked, “I am immortal to all who fear” he added and then he snapped the arrow in two and the arrow erupted into flames. The Magnus Timor then walked menacingly towards the mouth of the lava tube and reached the body of the drow. He pointed at it, and instantly it was ash.
The Magnus Timor started to glow green again, “You fools” he said, “Did you think that by collapsing one of my doorways you could defeat me?”
Samuel had just about recovered from being thrown into the troll and stood up. The troll tried to get between him and the Magnus Timor, but Samuel blocked him with his right arm. “We will defeat you by all available means” Samuel shouted.
“Your little plan to position a metal can above this wretched world will fail” the Magnus Timor replied, “Soon I will be able to create another doorway”
“But what about the alignment” Hogan asked, “It’s got to be over by now” That was the last thing he said, as seconds later he was vaporised by a bolt of lightning from the Magnus Timor’s claw as he turned round to look at the leprechaun..
“I am no longer bound by elven spells” the Magnus Timor sneered
Samuel quickly made a grab for his side arm that was lying on the floor in front of him. Then he noticed the Magnus Timor, still with the green glowing aura around him that was growing in intensity was looking again in his direction.
“You Colonel” the Magnus Timor said slowly, “Will witness as I once again open up a door from this world to yours, and this time I will smash this worthless world into yours and I will finally have my revenge for how I was betrayed by those who should have worshipped me as their god”
Jenny could contain her self no longer, “But why?” She blurted out, “The people who sent you here and the people here who rejected you are long gone. You will only be killing billions of innocent lives who never harmed you”
The Magnus Timor turned round and fixed his eyes on this young adult female, wearing similar clothes to the male human warriors, but carrying a weapon more attuned to the Mystical Realms.
“Do you question my right for justice” he asked slowly and menacingly, “Do you question my right to be avenged against the descendents of those who betrayed me?”
Jenny looked up at the Minotaur shaped entity that was now glowing with a bright green and yellow aura. “I question the fact you are taking it out on those who had nothing to do with what happened you” Jenny replied
“They are the descendents of the betrayers, for that they must perish” the Magnus Timor counted, “And there is nothing any of you can do to stop me”
Jenny looked up at the Magnus Timor. He was fierce and lived up to his name in Latin of Great Fear, Jenny remembered however, that sometimes the only thing to do with fear, was to face it head on.
She pulled yet another arrow from her quiver and strung it to her bow and aimed it at the Magnus Timor.
“You pathetic creature” the Magnus Timor laughed, “After last time do you think I will be afflicted by such a miserable creature as you, a female one at that”
“Magnus Timor” Jenney shouted angrily at this blatant sexism, “We believe in equal opportunities now” she added and launched the arrow.
It hit it’s target, right in his left eye
Jenny just stood there, it seemed because she had fired out of anger instead of fear, his force field did not stop the arrow.
Now he was angry. He pulled out the arrow and in a rage pointed both arms at Jenny
“NO!” Mark shouted, suddenly realising the danger the love of his life was in and ran to try and knock her out of the way.
But he was too late.
The very moment he reached Jenny, the Magnus Timor released the energy he had been building for the new space rift right at Jenny, and both she and Mark were caught in its full blast. Then they were no more, and there was not a trace that they had ever been there.
Samuel looked in horror at the dispatching of his right hand man for over ten years and the woman he had personally recruited, shaking his head and screaming “NO!”.
Suddenly a rage over took him, and he scooped up his former commander’s gun and ran at the Magnus Timor firing both weapons screaming at him and questioning it’s parentage.
“I’m not scared of you, you coward” he shouted.
The Magnus Timor stumbled back as suddenly he was unable to stop the bullets, his power came from fear, and if anyone did not fear him, then it seemed that they could get through.
The Clan Chief of the Manjura was also stunned at the death of Jenny and the commander and loaded up his crossbow.
The accompanying trolls tried to go into battle, but the clan chief shouted at them, “He’s mine and the colonel’s”
“BACK OFF TROLL” Colonel Samuel Peters shouted, “HE’s MINE” as started beat upon the wounded Magnus Timor with the butt of his firearm with tremendous anger.
The Magnus Timor started to glow green again.
“OH NO YOU DON’T” shouted Samuel, and with all his might, and leg work, used his unarmed combat skills to push the Magnus Timor to the ground, where upon he jumped on him and placed his hands around it’s thick neck.
“You think you can strangle me?” the Magnus Timor asked with derision, “I will change into a dragon and blast you all to ash and then crash these puny worlds together”
Samuel suddenly reached with his left hand to his left boot and brought out a combat blade and with a shout of “Go to Hell” rammed it into the throat of the Magnus Timor.
The Magnus Timor started to gurgle, as the lack of fear in the colonel, driven out by his anger, made his attack more deadly than he realised. The green glow ceased. Suddenly instead of being in the form of a Minotaur, it was a dead human, in clothes reminiscent of those worn in the early days of Ancient Rome.
Samuel stood up and wiped his eyes, only realising now he was in tears. Tears of anger and tears for his best friend and the one woman he had recruited, plus his other friends, who had been killed on account of this entity.
As they gazed at the body, suddenly it decayed rapidly, and became what a body would look like if it were over two and a half thousand years old.
The Clan Chief of the Manjura, came up to him, “What was that?” he asked
“I suspect his last form was that of the original man who brought him into being” Samuel replied, and then he turned and headed out of the remains of the lava tube.
* * *
The Russian Progress Spacecraft
High above the surface of the Planet Earth
Sue-Lim and Ivan suddenly found themselves back in their pressure suits in their space craft, but now they were above the planet Earth.
“What happened?” Ivan asked
“I think I know why the rift closed in 1969 and just now” Sue-Lim replied
“How?”
“Maybe when you touched Vitalik, you created some form of temporal paradox” Sue-Lim guessed, “maybe if neither of us had entered from either side, or just one maybe the planet would have been drawn into the other’s universe as the Magnus Timor planned. I’m not sure”
“This makes my brain hurt more than ten vodkas” Ivan commented
“Where are we now?” Sue-Lim then asked, “Any chance of making it to the Space Station”
“Niyet” Ivan replied, “We just do not have the fuel, even if we could restart the engine, plus we are heading in the wrong direction”
“What about jettisoning the third stage” Sue-Lim asked.
“At this trajectory, it would just follow us, and we still do not have the fuel to change course and head for the station” Ivan answered in Russian.
Suddenly over the radio in English came a transmission, “Houston, this is USS Endeavour, there seems to be a Progress supply ship approximately three thousand yards from our two o’clock position, it just appeared in front of us, heading at twenty degrees from our current trajectory”
Sue-Lim grabbed the retro-fitted radio mike and keyed it, “This is the Russian supply craft to Endeavour. Can you help us”
“This is Endeavour” came over the radio, “What are you doing aboard an unmanned supply ship, and where did you come from?”
“Sorry that’s classified Endeavour” Sue-Lim answered, then she asked, “Can you pick us up? We are not going to make it to the ISS and we can not survive re-entry in this space craft”
“We can tell that, but we do not have space in the cargo hold” the commander of Endeavour told them”
Sue-Lim turned to Ivan, “Will these pressure suits keep us alive if we did a space walk?
“Only just” Ivan replied, “We only have about say fifteen minutes of air as we do not have the life support packs, twenty minutes maximum”
Sue-Lim keyed the mike, “If we did an
EVA would that work”
“Only just, but we don’t have much time if we want to pick you up and make it to the station” the Commander replied, then he added, “We have just been given a go for rescue by Houston”
“Commander, we will only have fifteen maybe twenty minutes of survival time in our space suits” Sue Lim told the commander.
“Then that will be very tight on timing” came back the reply from the shuttle commander.
“We don’t have much of a choice” Ivan said in English as he grabbed the mike, “Commander of Endeavour, we will use an explosive decompression to send us some of the distance”
Sue-Lim was shocked, “I never knew you spoke English” she said in English
“You never asked miss Wang” Ivan grinned as he replied in perfect English.
The two of them waited for Endeavour to let them know that two astronauts were on their way using the
SAFER units to propel them, and then closed up their visors on the helmets, unbuckled themselves and got into the airlock. Ivan took a small cable and hooked himself up to Sue-Lim’s suit, then keyed a sequence, and a warning light came on. Then Ivan spoke a code in Russian, and suddenly the outer hatch blew off and to two were blown out of the spacecraft into space.
Only now could Sue-Lim see the Endeavour obiter, as it had changed course slightly, with the two tiny astronauts in the distance coming to get them.
“Try not to panic Miss Wang” Ivan mouthed as they floated together in space.
Sue-Lim found the experience both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
It was about ten long minutes as Sue-Lim and Ivan floated helpless in space, watching the astronauts getting closer and closer, until finally they reached them. The astronauts grabbed them and then immediately headed back to the shuttle, with no time to lose. By now Sue-Lim was really feeling awful and was sweating due to the build up of Carbon dioxide in her suit. She was at times trying to hold her breath.
The return trip seemed like an eternity, and Sue-Lim found herself almost passing out, just as they were entering the airlock of the space shuttle. Ivan and Sue-Lim went in first due to lack of room, while the astronauts waited outside As soon as the indicator showed they had pressure, the inner door was opened by a crew member and Sue-Lim’s visor as well as that of Ivan’s were opened by two other members of the shuttle crew, and oxygen masks was placed over their mouth and nose
Once again Sue-Lim was able to breath. They were then pulled through into the main crew compartment, so the airlock was available to recover the two astronauts who came to rescue them.
As Sue-Lim recovered from anoxia, she spoke to one of the male shuttle crew, “My name is Sue-Lim Wang and this is Ivan Alekseev” and then asked, “Permission to come aboard sir”
* * *
It was a Saturday afternoon, Rebecca Sands sat between her maternal uncle and his wife, now her adoptive parents, Matthew and Susan Sands on the stone seat with their back to the flowers at the Common, an expanse of Grass in Rochester New Hampshire. They were eating their packed lunches while Susan took her lunch break from working at her Real Estate office. Frank, Rebecca’s cousin, but now her brother was away somewhere in the park talking to his new girlfriend, Sarah.
It had been their first trip out together as a family without Rosie O’Brian the leprechaun body guard. She had been called to Ireland, to arrange the funeral of her brother, Hogan who had been killed in action somehow. Rebecca had also been upset by this news, even though she had only ever met him when on two occasions he entered her dreams the time she had been stranded in New York. Rosie had had to make sure Rebecca understood, that her brother’s death had been noting to do with her, or her once being a minor spirit of virtue. This was something, Rebecca was very sensitive about.
The secret service detail had also been called off, and they had been told that they had caught those who had bombed the place over in London where Rebecca had voluntarily given up being The Spirit of Kindness, to become just a normal human eleven year old girl.
“There’s somebody to see you Rebecca” Matthew suddenly said and pointed at a man in his fifties and a woman in her forties walking down from the bandstand.
Rebecca peered out, and spotted Colonel Samuel Peters. Suddenly the colour drained from her face and she started to breathe very rapidly,
What had she done wrong, she wondered? Were they going to taser her again?.
Matthew put his arm around her and whispered, “It’s ok love, they’re not here to hurt you or take you away. Slow breaths remember”
“That’s right sweetheart” Susan reassured her, and lovingly stroked the back of Rebecca’s head “They rang ahead to make sure it was ok” she added, and then leant over and kissed Rebecca on the top of her head. “We love you Rebecca and would never let anyone hurt you” Susan whispered.
Slowly and nervously looking around, Rebecca walked up the path towards the colonel and the lady.
The two adults stopped walking
“Hello” Rebecca said to them, trying to be as polite as possible, then just to make sure she added, “Please sir, I never meant make those people be kind to me and I swear I was not involved in that cheque fraud in Miami”, her voice was trembling with emotion.
The colonel interrupted her, “We know that Rebecca, that’s not why those men hurt you and your mother”
“But I thought it was because I had done something wrong” Rebecca began
This time the woman interrupted her, “Miss Sands, may I call you Rebecca” she began.
Rebecca just looked up at her, with tears forming in her eyes and just nodded.
The lady then knelt down on one knee and pulled out a handkerchief and passed it to Rebecca. Rebecca said a thank you and took it and started wiping her eyes.
“Rebecca” The woman continued, “You did nothing wrong whatsoever. What happened to you and your mom was not your fault, it was one individual; in our organisation who was bad and ordered it”
“What did I do to him?” Rebecca asked in all innocent, “If I said I was sorry”
“You don’t need to Rebecca” the lady interrupted, “You have nothing to be sorry about and you never did anything to him at all. Rebecca you are special, which makes you different, and sometimes people are just afraid of people who are different”
“He’s gone anyway” The colonel added, “I was there when he was fired, kind of”
Rebecca looked up at the colonel, then at the lady, “Are you the colonel’s wife?” she asked.
The two adults laughed, and then the lady answered “No Rebecca, I’m not his wife. My name is Kathryn and I am the head of the organisation the colonel works for”
“Are you his boss then?” Rebecca asked
“Yes, kind of” the lady replied, then she put on a more serious tone, “Rebecca, I just wanted to come up and see you in person, to say sorry to you, for how our organisation was miss-used to hurt you and your mom and for the disgraceful manner in which you were released”
“I was frightened” Rebecca told her and then as she started to cry added, “I really thought I had done something wrong and I promise I don’t want to cause anyone any trouble” she sobbed
The lady stood up and gave Rebecca a hug, “Rebecca, Rebecca you never caused anyone any trouble” she whispered.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca noticed the colonel was beckoning someone to come over. A few seconds later, her mother was with them, and she knelt down beside Rebecca, and took over hugging her daughter.
“Let me just reiterate this Rebecca” the lady went on, “You never did anything wrong, you have nothing to be sorry for or be ashamed of. The fault was with our organisation and the man who did this to you and your mother here has been punished for what he did. You are the most wonderful child I have ever met, and you are a credit to your parents who I know are devoted to you and love you so very much”
“I appreciate that” Susan cut in, and then to Rebecca, “You Father will also be working part time for this lady, just to make sure what happened to us never happens again” and then looking up at the lady and the colonel added a barbed, “ever!”
The Lady then turned to the Colonel, “You wanted to speak to Rebecca about something else as well” she told him, “I’ll wait in the car while you break it to her”
”Break it to her?” Rebecca was worried,
Had she done something wrong?
The lady said her goodbyes and left, and the colonel waited and watched her leave until she reached the bandstand.
Susan stood up and gently guided Rebecca back to the stone seat by the flower bed, and the two of them sat down next to Matthew. This time is was Susan putting a loving arm around Rebecca.
Rebecca looked nervously up at the colonel as he stood in front of them and hesitated at bit, then pulled from his coat pocket a bundle of letters.
“Rebecca” the Colonel began, “I know that you and Jenny Green wrote to each other on a regular basis”
Rebecca nodded, “She was nice sir” she told the colonel, “She offered to find me a home with her friends before you told me about I was coming here” Then a worry crossed her mind, “Have I upset her?” she asked
“No” the colonel said softly, “She told us all about your correspondence and about how you were making friends as school and at church”
“What’s wrong?” Rebecca asked, she could tell something was up.
“Rebecca, you heard that someone attacked the place where you were taken to when Tania and Mark collected you from living rough”
Rebecca nodded, “They said the people who did it might come after me” she said with worry in her voice.
“Well we finally got those responsible” the colonel told her.
“Are they going to prison?” Rebecca asked.
The colonel sighed, “Some are Rebecca, but they were what we call foot soldiers, and not what we call the brains behind it” The colonel stopped, sighed then said, “Rebecca, there’s no easy way to tell you this, we had to engage in combat to get the main bad guy, and in this action” The colonel stopped and looked up. Breathed in and out, and then Rebecca could detect a hint of emotion in his voice as he continued, “We lost some of our people”
Suddenly the truth of what the colonel was trying to say hit her like a lump hammer, and her face crumpled as she began to cry asking “Is Jenny dead?”
Susan put both arms around Rebecca and Matthew put his arms around both of them to comfort his upset daughter.
The colonel waited a moment, then said, “I was there, if it helps, it was very quick, I don’t think she felt anything. I also lost my best friend Commander Mark Johnston and I understand Rosie told you about her brother Hogan O’Brien, he was killed in the same combat action”
The Colonel then handed Matthew the bundle of letters, “Rebecca, these are the letters you wrote to her, I think she would like you to have them, plus there was one she never got to send”
Matthew thanked the colonel for the bundle, and then the colonel told Rebecca, if she still wanted to keep writing letters, she could always write to him.
Rebecca tearfully mouthed an “OK”
Frank suddenly turned up with his girlfriend Sarah in tow, “What’s up with Rebecca” he asked
“She just heard some bad news” Susan replied, “A friend of hers in England was killed in action”
The colonel then said his goodbyes and left, while Matthew and Susan comforted Rebecca, and Susan, with tears in her eyes read Jenny Green’s final letter, while Frank and Sarah stood holding hands in respectful silence.
+ + +
Samuel got into the back of the limousine, with Kathryn. Kathryn closed her cell phone she was talking into and then ordered the driver to take them to
Skyhaven Airport.
“Rebecca’s just like your daughter Andrea” Kathryn commented
“Before some drunk slammed his car into her in ninety eight and killed her and her mother” Samuel replied
“By the way” Kathryn said, swiftly changing the subject, “I just heard from Florida, Endeavour landed safely with Sue-Lim on board”
“And the Russian pilot?” Samuel asked
“He stayed aboard the ISS, as a cover for his being in space, he will return in a month or so in the Soyuz capsule” Kathryn answered
“So when will she be flying back to London” Samuel asked
“She’s not” Kathryn said abruptly, “We are moving IDC operations to DC, she’s being granted permanent residence along with her fiancé Pete Smith and Charlene Henshaw”
“What?” Samuel asked, “I thought we were going to rebuild The Facility”
“Samuel” Kathryn said with uncharacteristic assertion, “I know that the sect attacked IDW01 as well as us, but it almost played in to the hands on Capital Hill of those who think like Mr Vee and especially Mr Davies and his co-conspirators. I’m glad you kept Paddy McGurty’s betrayal secret that would have handed them victory on a silver platter”
“It was hard to convince the Clan Chief of the Manjura, but there is no way I am going to let things go back to the days of Mr Blue” Samuel replied, “We owe G2 a lot of favours, even if it does stick in the craw that they are going to treat him as a war hero”
“Samuel” Kathryn continued, “They tried to make a lot of capital over the casualties sustained by the expeditionary forces, I only just managed to get them to pass them off as casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan or training accidents.”
“I sense a but there” Samuel interjected
“Samuel” Kathryn went on, “The price I paid was to keep Mr Vee onboard the committee and at his request get the whole organisation moved to Washington DC”
“I suppose you had to do what you had to” Samuel reflected then continued, “At least Mr Sands should be a good counter balance to the likes of Mr Vee and his crowd and help keep us from going down that dark route again”
“I hope so” Kathryn answered, “He’s a darn fine lawyer, and a good man, but even so, I have arranged with a few friends of mine, that if our current policy of co-operation with IDW01 is changed back to the previous repressive regime Mr Davies tried to take us back to, that Rebecca and her family will be taken to somewhere safe from them”
“The Mystical Realms?” Samuel asked
Kathryn shook her head, “I think it would be best if you did not know”
“I guess you’re right, anyway, the trolls and the elves have their work cut out rebuilding after the sect was finally routed”
“How are they coping?” Kathryn asked
“They’re coping” Samuel replied, “The Clan Chief of the Manjura says they managed to find a third of the dimension jump orbs that were undamaged in the raid on the citadel. That goblin family we rescued have been returned to their goblin village”
“I heard the sect upped the number of crucifixions as punishment for us removing them to Earth, so I thought they would not be welcomed back” Kathryn commented.
“The elderly goblin finds it difficult, but from what I hear they seem to understand it was not their fault and they were told to blame us if need be”
“Anything else to report from our IDW01 allies Samuel” Kathryn asked
“I hear that the new Clan Chief of the Rachtal has been selected” Samuel answered, “It was the previous one’s son and he is grateful for what we tried to do” then the Samuel turned to Kathryn and in a more urgent tone told her. “If anyone on Capital Hill questions our policy Kathryn, tell them that we made powerful allies. Also tell them of the alliance between the drow and the Russians”
“I’ll try that Samuel” Kathryn replied, “I’ll try that” she repeated, then added, “I suppose we should be thankful we managed to defeat the Magnus Timor”
“He fed on fear”, Samuel observed, “As soon as that was removed from the equation, he was taken down”
“And it was you, a human from Earth that did it” Kathryn told him, “You beat him Samuel, you beat him”
“I know” Samuel replied and then looked out of the car window, and sighed, “But at what cost”
Then as the car drove through to the outskirts, Colonel Samuel Peters could not help thinking of those that had been lost
The staff in London at the Facility
Captain Strang of the Manjura Clan
The survivors of the Facility bombing and troll allies who were lost in the attack on Karam Tag Chou
The SAS team, the elven healer that went into the goblin village
The US Special Marines lost in the attack on the Central City
Numerous allied trolls, gnolls goblins and elves
Dobian the Drow
Jason Turner from the Annexe
G2 officer Hogan O’Brien
Jenny Green
And his right hand man and best friend
United States Marine Commander Mark Johnston
Kathryn asked the driver to put the radio on, as it was almost time for the hourly news bulletin. It was slightly early, and the station was playing Kelly Clarkson’s song, “Because of You”
At the lyric,
”I watched you die” Samuel looked out at the window, thought about Hogan, Strang, Jenny and Mark, the special operations team he had trained, and who had fallen in the fight against the Magnus Timor and the sect. He breathed a deep breath and sighed, “I sure miss you, you guys”, and continued to listen to the song, fighting to hold back his tears…
* * *
Under an alien red sky
Location – Unknown
Jenny Green regained consciousness and shook her head to try and shake of the feeling of disorientation from the blast that the Magnus Timor had thrown at her.
“Jenny, are you ok” Mark asked her.
Jenny felt his loving arms around her, she was obviously lying in them as he held her. She thought it was such a noble, but stupid thing to do, to try and shove her out of the way, which was why she loved him.
“Jenny, are you ok” Mark repeated and kissed her forehead
“Yes love” Jenny groggily answered, and then she opened her eyes and saw the strange alien landscape.
Up in the sky was a red sun, and the sky was a crimson shade. It was nothing like a sunset or sunrise Jenny had ever seen, as the sun was high up and not at the horizon.
They were on some kind of plateau and in the distance they could see strange plants and what seemed to be flying creatures. Behind them were more of these strange towing plants.
Jenny stood up assisted by Mark.
“Mark, where are we” Jenny asked and hugged Mark.
Mark put his arms around Jenny, “I don’t know Jenny” he replied, “I only came round a few minutes ago myself”
Just then, in the distance they could hear someone approaching through the plants. Mark and Jenny stood to face them. Jenny still had her short bow and quiver, so strung up an arrow.
They listened carefully, it sounded like two individuals.
Suddenly Jenny felt the short bow ripped from her hands, the arrow with it by some unknown force.
Then Jenny and Mark came face to face with someone who was supposed to be dead. A certain man in his twenties, in jeans and trainers nothing else.
It was the former lab technician from the Facility, that had turned traitor and had used doppelganger assassins to attack Jenny outside her former coffee shop as a ruse to get another one into the Facility.
“Timothy Zachary” Mark said in disbelief
“At your service Commander” Timothy replied with a smirk, and then he turned to Jenny, “A little over dressed are Miss Green, I hardly recognised you with your clothes on” he sneered, “Please could you remove all your clothes, I much prefer the Amazon look”
“In your dreams” Jenny retorted
“I thought you were dead” Mark replied and approached him.
Timothy pulled out a small derringer and waved it at the commander and then Jenny, “I forgot all about this at the Facility when I had the other gun” Then Timothy grinned and added, “Well as you can see commander, in spite of your best efforts, I’m not dead after all. I am very much alive and well and living here on what, if I remember our cataloguing convention, should be called Eye-Dee Double-you Oh, two”
Then the other person emerged from the alien forest. She was what looked like a woman in either her forties or fifties, and she had very cold dark eyes and was wearing black dress that clung to her figure.
“Who are these people?” the women in black asked.
Timothy walked to her side, still keeping the gun trained on Jenny and Mark, “They are old friends of mine from Earth” he said sarcastically, then he spoke to Jenny and Mark, “Commander, Miss Green, allow me to introduce my new partner in crime as it were” then he paused
Timothy then grinned,
“The Spirit of Lust”….
To be continued in Season Eight
Sometime in the New Year
Assuming I can get to do season eight