Thread:FleetCaptainT/@comment-27324808-20180205030320

57

 

 The tracker on Krill Mathias’s rocket pointed them to Elistra.

 

 So it’s come full circle, Intrepid thought as he settled his pod rocket in an open area in Phoenix Park, blowing a circle free of fallen leaves on the ground.  He disengaged the thrusters and threw open the cabin.  His objective on Elistra and Kate’s dedication for Cyclone had coalesced.  Only Tiberius could have hired Krill Mathias to get Cyclone in his current state: the strongest source of accessible, manifestable Maelstrom, for his Maelstrom reanimation project

 

 Three other rockets landed and their occupants exited while Intrepid surveyed the landscape.  Back on Elistra again and always late, just hopefully not too, for Cyclone’s sake.  And Kate’s.  And whoever else Tiberius wanted back from the dead.  He took a deep breath and started walking to the road.  It lead him, and Kate, Rover, and Blade who followed him, to the blue brick house that was the Talmid residence.  The door, he noted, didn’t have a lock, there was only a hole where one should have been, courtesy of past visitors.  He eased it open and switched on a light.  The dinette was illuminated and as expected its condition was... unruly, with papers and light furniture strewn about.  The staircase and halls were dark.  His eyes flicked to one shut door with a conspicuous keypad next to it.

 

 Too easy, Intrepid thought.  Tiberius was right under their noses the entire time.  So things would end here.

 

 He raised Red’s blaster and smashed the door.

 

 Behind it, cellar steps descended into a dim space lit similarly to the basement floor of the future Leek Works, which was future Tiberius’s workspace.  Just like the basement floor of the present dimension Talmid residence was the workspace for its Tiberius.

 

 It’s too easy.

 

 It’s a trap.

 

 The shift in pressure and suppression of all sound signature of a transdimensional breach alerted Intrepid to the opening of a rift right behind him.  He swung around and caught sight of Rover gripping his cutlass, Blade unsheathing his sword, and Kate already held her samuraizor.  She was on edge, he figured, just before the rift exploded into a spiralling, sideways facing typhoon.  He was ready to fire into it, but it faded as suddenly as it had manifested.  In its place crouched Red, holding a briefcase.

 

 “Don’t scare us like that,” Rover was the first to find his wits and speak.  Blade just nodded, resheathed his weapon, and looked to Intrepid.  He just stayed, blaster in hand, watching Red, as she stood up.

 

 “Sorry to drop in on such notice,” she said, eying each of them a moment.  She looked different in a few ways: hair cut a decent amount shorter in various places, a plain Nexus Force jacket.  “The war is ending right here, right now.”

 

 “Yeah,” Intrepid said.  “We’re stopping Tiberius.”

 

 “I mean, I’m carrying what we need to end this war.”  Red threw the case down to Intrepid’s feet and it popped open, revealing a device with wires, gears, dials, and a countdown timer.

 

 “That’s a bomb.” Blade said.

 

 “It’s an Unverse cementer,” Red said, “hastily constructed by the brilliant minds of both our dimensions combined, designed to on detonation permeate the entire multiverse and solidify Unverse...”

 

 “...impeding any and all Unverse travel.” Intrepid finished.  “Why bring it here?”

 

 “Because the largest Unverse rift is about to open right here,” another voice said.  It belonged to Tiberius Talmid, a middle aged man standing at the top of the cellar stairs, dressed in a tall black trench coat and boots, and holding a pointed blaster in his left hand.  But it was not that Tiberius who said it.

 

 Standing in the other doorway, between the house and the outside world, was another Tiberius.  He had gray hair, as opposed to black, signifying twenty years of increased age.

 

 “I would know,” old Tiberius continued, “because it’s what I attempted to do, in my timeline, in my dimension.”  He stared across the threshold, past Intrepid, Red, Kate, Rover, and Blade, to maintain eye contact with the present dimension’s Tiberius.  He tilted his head back a slight degree, as if in contempt of his younger counterpart, then he let his face drop, in shame.  “But I didn’t have the Darkitect to help me.”

 

 Young Tiberius shuddered, then responded, “Old man, what do you know of the progress I have made in our mission?  Where the Nexus Forec failed, I succeeded!  I revived Evelyne - I can revive her again!”

 

 Intrepid looked up.

 

 “Yes, nephew,” his uncle said, now looking to him.  “The battle in which you could not save her, it wasn’t the end for her, or the rest of our family.  I was there too, doing my research, and I saw the creation of the rift in our planet’s upper atmosphere.  In the edge of our dimension, a tiny pinhole was torn by the chaotic forces brought on by the Maelstrom assault.  And through that hole went the creative sparks of every being that was smashed here that day.  It’s not a full rift, it leads only to a pocket dimension, filled with creative sparks waiting to be rescued.  Using the pull of Maelstrom, I- we can rescue them, the technology is perfected!”

 

 “But it’s not perfect.” Red protested.  “The energy you plan to take from Cyclone is straining that fissure into the largest rift the multiverse has seen yet.  If it doesn’t tear this world apart, it’ll be a gateway for the army of the Maelstrom!”

 

 “Is Cyclone down there?” Kate demanded.

 

 Tiberius looked between both girls, then back at Intrepid.  “We can save them,” he repeated, and silence fell.

 

 Intrepid said nothing.

 

 They all stood, rooted as if, in their places.  No one made a sound except to breathe, then the Unverse bomb beeped.

 

 “It’s been remotely activated!” Red exclaimed.  “It’s part of the plan.  We have ten minutes to send it into Unverse and book it.”  She glared at Tiberius.  “And don’t think of shooting it.  Imagination is part of its catalyst.”

 

 Tiberius wrung his hands, and with a huff holstered his blaster.  “Ten minutes, then, to save our family,” he said to Intrepid, again.  “Your choice is with them, with me - or with this group.”

 

 Again, Intrepid said nothing.

 

 “You’re not seriously listening to him?” Kate yelled from behind him.

 

 “No!” Intrepid shouted back.  “I’m thinking.”

 

 “Well don’t think, say!”

 

 “I think we don’t need Maelstrom to save anyone!” Intrepid said.

 

 Tiberius stared at him, blankly.

 

 Everyone did, for a moment.

 

 The countdown timer passed 9 minutes, 45 seconds.

 

 “Maelstrom and Imagination are equal and opposite... we don’t need to use Maelstrom, or Cyclone’s, er, power as a Darkitect.  We can use Imagination.” Intrepid said.  “We have Nexus Figures.”

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