Posted 08-10-24
The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 15
A Story of Mantra and
Black September
By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson
Chapter 15
IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED
"Oh, yes. I have gone through a half million perambulations of possible plans and I think I have discovered the solution to all our problems."
"I didn't believe him, but I didn't want to hear this.
I was holding the Time Gem clutched so tightly in my hand that no pickpocket could have snatched it away. But who am I kidding? The gem had the power to evaporate a galaxy and I didn't have a chance of holding on to it if it decided it didn't want to stay with me. I raised it up in front of myself and told it, "The gentleman with me has an idea he wants to tell you. I hope you'll listen to him without doing anything silly?"
There was a short silence that felt like a gulf of time before it said, "I will listen."
"Okay, Gabriel, do that persuasion thing of yours," I told the gingerhead.
The Timekeeper gave another one of those edgy smiles and drew in a deep breath. I wondered if he had anything to say that might interest a piece of rock.
"You and your brother the Reality Gem have been in constant telepathic contact, haven't you?" the scientist said to the god's bone fragment.
The gem made no reply.
"Perhaps it only communicates directly with its holder. Would you repeat what I said in your own words, Mantra?"
I did so.
Yes. We have been in contact," the gem answered.
"From what we have learned so far, you intend to use Amber Hunt to absorb the Nemesis energy and render it harmless, correct?" Gabriel asked.
"That is correct."
"How is it that you and the Reality Gem expect to defy the will of your five brothers who are equally powerful?"
The two of us are capable because we are unique.
"Ah, that is good to know. Do you mean to say that you have run a data analysis that reveals a high probability of achieving success? If so, what is the scope of that probability?"
The gem made no immediate reply. That was bad since these living stones must be able to think many times faster than the fasted AI chatbot on planet Earth. Any delay noticeable in human perception must represent a much longer time in the private world of an Infinity Gem.
I looked back at Gabriel. "Why did you bring us here to be the custodians for Amber Hunt? It seems like we risked our necks for nothing. Now that we have her, how do we help her do something different from last time?"
How's that again?" asked someone who had just entered the command facility. Amber Hunt.
"I'm sorry, my lady," said the Timekeeper. "We have reason to believe that an action that you and the Infinity Gems intend to carry out will come close to succeeding but will ultimately not succeed. Even an entity like the Time Gem that can see all points of time and space instantaneously seems at a loss to know how to improve the odds of accomplishing our goals."
"I don't follow," said the college girl. "If we're following a bad plan, why don't we get cracking and put together a better one?"
"I would conjecture that the immutable laws of time and space are standing in our way.
"I was never good at science," the young blonde said, "but if what the Reality Gem has been telling me is right, throwing in the towel, or just going through the motions of a plan is not the answer."
"The VIGOPS has suggested a plan that might bring us new insights. We have to carry that plan out while we still have time."
We all ran out of words just then until I broke the silence. "A question, Amber."
She looked my way.
"You speak like you're sane," I observed. "The last time we interacted, you seemed to be in a place where even squirrels fear to tread. What happened?"
"The Reality Gem happened. Before the inside of my head would have made Wonderland look sane. But the Gem brought me out of that. I don't know how."
"Maybe it gave you a dose of Realty?" I was surprised I could still make quips while standing one second to Midnight. "Now you seem ready to take on the second most powerful being in the Multiverse. What did it tell you to give you that kind of courage?"
"A lot of things, but one thing it said really made a lot of sense to me.
"I'm all ears."
"It reminded me that I've got nothing to lose."
We all ran out of words at that point and, with a departing nod, Amber went back to her cabin.
Gabriel and I just stood there looking at one another for a minute. I decided to stop badgering the little fellow. I could only distract him and if he got off his game even for an instant, it could be the shipwreck of all our hopes.
"I'm sorry," I said resolvedly. "I'm a worry wart. I believe in you, Gabriel. And I also believe that if this multiverse survives, it will be because of you."
There was a futility in talking to the Timekeeper. No matter what idea I came up with, he would know it before I could utter it. I wondered why the process didn't work for me in the other direction. Maybe since he was my senior, I hadn't been issued the necessary access code.
"You are right, Mantra," the little man replied. "This is no time for division. I do not expect you to out-think a multi-level mind like my own, the VIGOPS, which can think even faster than I can, or the Reality Gems, which can think more quickly than the VIGOPS. Your role is to keep your mind and soul open to inspiration."
"Well, I may not be the brightest bulb in the room, but I'd lay odds that I can think faster than our college girl ex-psycho."
Sheesh! Even at a moment like this, I couldn't stop being flippant!
#
I was almost out of my funk before we were some hundreds of feet above New York City. The scene was the same one we'd seen before. The battle royal was already in progress. Thousands of ultra-clones were throwing themselves into a battle that staggered the imagination. Raw power alone was useless against Nemesis, because against even the remnant of the Creator God, an army of ants could have done just about as well as an army of ultras.
I went into the corridors of the city-sized Time Capsules and went looking for the kids. I just wanted to hug them because they reminded me so much of my kids at home – the home that was absolutely not safe. One thing that life has taught me is that kids need hugs and kisses at times like these. I don't know how much they understood what was going on, but even Gus didn't squirm too much when I put my arms around him.
"Mantra, get ready," the Timekeeper said from the corridor.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Pray."
I blinked but was soldier enough to know that there were no atheists inside foxholes. "I promise that I'll at least keep my fingers crossed. But I heard you said something to Amber Hunt that I wanted to ask you about."
"What's that."
"You said the immutable laws of time and space are standing in our way. What do you mean about that?"
"The VIGOPS believes that the Reality and the Time Gem broke away from Nemesis too late to stop the first release of the lethal energy. They cannot go back in time before that event, because they already exist in that moment. For entities like the Infinity Gems to exist in two places simultaneously will destroy the Multiverse as effectively as the Nemesis release will."
"But I've existed at the same time and space with that other Lukasz and that better-looking version of myself."
"That is perfectly all right. You will not ignite the end of Reality. You are not an Infinity Gem. You are not a chip off the Creator God himself."
"That's something to be grateful about, I suppose. But if that is how things are, what has this excursion been for? Why did we go to the south side of Los Angeles in the first place? We rescued Amber Hunt, but we're still clueless about how to help her."
"When we started on the trail of the Third Force, we didn't even know what the Third Force was. Now that we know, we've made progress."
"What progress?"
"It is always progress when one can test a theory and find that it does not work!"
"Excuse me, but there are easier -- and less painful ways -- to fail, aren't there? Like sleeping late, for instance!"
"We have come here to learn something. Who can say that learning it won't be helpful."
"Go to, Bro," I said.
I couldn't help but take another look through the view screen. The Nemesis power burst moved with the speed of light. I didn't know what I expected to see that was good, but in fact all I saw was a dazzling light.
And, after that, all of the screens started showing blank blue screens.
"What's happened?" I called.
"Fear not! We have simply gone out of phase with that reality. Now I'm re-calibrating," the little man explained.
"Why did you phase out?" I asked.
"Because we have to."
"Why?"
"Because we would all have died if we stayed longer."
"That sucks!"
"The reality of that timeline was destroyed, but as far as this vessel is concerned, we're fine fine."
"Fine? Fine for how long? And where are we anyway?"
"The Time Capsule has taken us into a different future timeline."
"A universe has died and you act like nothing happened?"
"We learned something. That is the fate of the Main Bough reality if Amber Hunt does not intervene. Nemesis released its total charge of reality-changing energy and it made that universe vanish."
"I guess it's true. When one person dies, it's a tragedy. When a universe dies it's just a note in a history book."
"Sadly, that's true. Living beings are not made to fathom a tragedy on this scale." he said with a sigh.
"How much time does the Main Bough have left?" I asked.
"In your world's terms, hours. But, take heart, that still gives us some time to plan and act."
"That should give us a lot of hope! None of our plans have worked so far."
"That's true about our far-ranged plan, but we did succeed in acquiring data about the circumstances of that universe's destruction."
Gabriel was too easy to please. The dry run we had just gone through had been so intense that I had been driven to my limit! The two gems, meanwhile, had joined with the Timekeeper in watching and learning. I didn't know why that had been necessary. The Time Gem, at least, was suppose to know every event in every time and every place.
I had been close to flipping out with stress. Facing what we faced, I realized something about where my core is at. When emotionally driven to that extreme, I had suddenly ceased to be a hero and reverted to my lowest common denominator, a parent. In a way, that shocked me, but it had taught me something. What we think is important perhaps isn't so important. When the chips were down, the people I loved had taken on a meaning beyond anything else in my life.
I looked askance at Gabriel. He, the man, the being, the whatever, who had access to all my thoughts. And the response of his super-fast brain was to flash me a quick, proud smile.
"Do you think the two gems learned anything from what just happened?"
"We will have to ask them," said the scientist.
"Gabriel, do you think we can even trust those weird guys? I guess they're motivated by their wish to go on existing in their state of undeath, but they can't possibly care about the lives of living people. They must see us as dust in the wind!"
"They make strange allies, I agree, but all we can do is what we can do, and hope for the best."
How was I supposed to hope for the best when everything depended on two infinitely powerful aliens? I didn't even know how to classify what they were? Gods? Aliens? Something stranger still? If they could properly be called alive, it was a concept of life that I couldn't put my mind around.
"Gabriel, I said, how much wiggle room do we have? When do we come to the point where we might as well take the kids to the place that's fated to be the last living piece of the Multiverse and hunker down there until there is no place left to run?
I would have wished for a word of encouragement just about then, but my companion didn't appear to have anything to say.
I certainly hoped that he was as quick-thinking as he boasted. We were in desperate need of a single solid good idea.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 16
