Saturday, October 8, 2024
The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS -- Chap. 17
Posted 10-08-24
A Story of Mantra and Black September
By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson
Chapter 17
STARTING OVER
“By seeking and blundering we learn.”
I never got as far as the flaming tower. The next thing I knew, I was back in the piloting deck of Gabriel's Time Capsule. Startled, I looked and saw him standing across from me, frowning.
"Mantra, you've been taking unnecessary risks," he scolded. "I had to bring you back."
I rounded on him. "I was trying to save lives! How did you snatch me out of mid-air?"
"Teleportation technology is relatively easy compared to time travel. I needed to bring you back to the Time Capsule. The moment after I transported you, the Avengers will receive the alarm that Nemesis is approaching Earth. They will commit themselves to the fatal battle that will destroy them and the universe they occupy, just as the three alternate timelines we've visited have been destroyed. If we remain in the same universe, we will be destroyed, too. The Capsule's self-preservation AI would have left you behind without my intervention."
“You mean everyone I just saved down there is going to die?"
"The possibility of that is close to being one hundred percent," he replied. "Even if that timeline's version of Amber Hunt intervenes, the universe will merely be written over by an aberrant and flawed replacement. Even that will be unstable and disintegrate in two to three hundred years."
"For a change, why don't you tell me something that will cheer me up?" I asked.
He gave a faint smile. "You'll be glad to know that people are waiting outside that hatch door, who will be overjoyed that you've returned safely."
He opened the portal, and the three kids came rushing at me.
Jamie grabbed my cape, and Evie's arms were tight around my neck, her cheek pressed against mine. Gus stood off, hovering just beyond her, looking uncertain. He looked so much like his father, just as tall though thinner. But the senior Gus wasn't so emotionally constipated as his son. I have sometimes wondered whether it was his parents' divorce that had damaged him.
I reached out to him over his sister's shoulder, and he took that as encouragement to step up closer. I put my gloved hand behind his head and stood on my tiptoes to kiss his forehead. I remembered how much I had liked to be kissed by my own mother at his age.
Gabriel was walking with a shuffle behind my back, and I looked his way. "If we can't save anybody, what have we accomplished by coming here in the first place?" I asked him.
"We've come to observe and learn."
"What have you
learned?" I asked."
"The most confounding thing I've learned is that Amber Hunt has escaped."
I glared at him like a grizzly bear. “What? After the hell I went through to capture her, you already let her slip out the back door?"
“In a metaphorical sense, yes. I'm very sorry
."
"What I'm sorry about is that you have me believing you're smarter than you really are!" I told him.
“Recriminations are not productive, Lukasz. But I haven't told you everything yet. The Reality Gem vanished with her. Possibly, it had even instigated Amber's escape. It's bonded to the young lady, as you."
“Do you think they'll remain together?"
“I hope so," said the little man. "Because without Amber, the Time Gem, and the Reality Gem working in tandem, they cannot attain so much as a Pyrrhic victory over Nemesis.
If the Main Bough collapses, it will take the Tree of Eternity with it, not hundreds of years from now, but immediately."
"Is the Time Gem gone, too?" I asked.
"Fortunately, no. The Time Gem remains, at least for now. It's probably created its own bond with Jamie and hasn't seen fit to abandon her yet. If it can be reunited with the Reality Gem in time, we will not have worsened the situation."
“Do you have any more good news to dispense? At least tell me you've discovered something useful on this doomed planet!"
“Every experience teaches the keen observer something. It has brought us one step closer to crafting a new plan for saving the Multiverse," remarked Gabriel.
"If you have a new plan to fix this disaster, tell me about it before I develop ulcers!"
"The VIGOPS has no explicit recommendations for a new course of action. But in general, it is saying that our earlier action plan is fatally flawed and should be abandoned."
"Duuuh! I could have guessed that much on my own! It sounds like you've got nothing but a wish, not a plan. Or did you concoct a bright idea while I was fighting ten-alarm fires?”
Gabriel shook his head.
"I can envision various possibilities, but we must polish them carefully before returning to Zero Time on the Main Bough."
"By the way, what's happening in Zero Time?"
"Presently, the UltraForce is trapped in Sersi's Soulscape pen. She is, of course, doing the bidding of the Ego Gem. The Ego Gem intends to use them as bait to lure Loki into a trap.”
“You've said that the Avengers will join with the UltraForce and do battle of Nemesis. I met a couple of the Avengers’ time clones in the world we last visited. Where are the real Avengers right now?”
"In Zero Time, the Avengers are still in their home realm, the Scaffold Universe. They will soon enter the Main Bough when the Grandmaster induces Loki to accept a challenge with the seventh gem – the Ego Gem -- as the prize. That is the trap that the Ego Gem has set to take the six gems from Loki. When Sersi touches Loki, the Ego Gem possessing the body of Sersi, it will take power over the six that Loki holds and the seven will merge to become Nemesis."
“I don’t remember you mentioning anyone called the Grandmaster before? What woodpile did his one crawl out of?
"The Grandmaster is one of the oldest living beings in the Multiverse, coming from one of the first intelligent races to evolve after its creation. In the Scaffold Universe, he once possessed some of the Infinity Gems but lost them to a mighty being called Thanos. He's a strange being, a cosmic game player whose favorite game is pitting teams of mighty beings against each other. The Ego Gem can control his actions, probably due to some contact the Grandmaster has had with it over the eons of time since the death of the Demiurge.
“Since Sersi is the one who has been entrapped into acting as the Ego Gem's main puppet with the job of seizing the six, shouldn’t we be trying to keep Loki out of her grasp? Shouldn't he at least be warned?"
"Definitely, but Loki is a hard entity to guide or manipulate. Because he is the god of lies, he will naturally assume that anyone who tells him something is also lying. It's hard to negotiate with Loki, but his ego makes him susceptible to trickery.”
Then Gabriel abruptly changed the subject. “You seem exhausted, Mantra. Fighting that fire by the lavish use of magic so lavishly has depleted you. You need to rest and allow your power to regenerate.”
"How can I doze off when I'm hot-wired the way I am now?"
The scientist resumed fiddling with his control board and, a moment later, spoke to me over his shoulder. "I’ve brought the Time Capsule into attenuated time again," he said. “A single second can be extended into a century, giving you plenty of time to rest and recharge. The Capsule has a guest room with a subliminal-wave emitter to induce a long, restful sleep. I use it frequently myself. I can configure it to accommodate a human being such as yourself."
Though I still didn't want to drop into bed, Gabriel had a hard core and knew how to dig in his heels whenever he wanted to.
I was too weary to argue, so I excused myself from the kids and let the alien scientist lead me along the corridors to the resting room he'd highly recommended. The couch it contained looked pretty much like a bed, though it didn't look comfortable. With a show of grumpiness, I lay down and shut my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was wide awake but feeling rested.
#
As I already knew, going to bed in armor caused me to rise with aching shoulders. I flashed into my civilian garb to be more comfortable and then went to find Gabriel.
"Hi," I said, "has the VIGOPS come up with any good ideas?" My tone had sounded chipper, and I realized that my cloud of morbidity had been lifted. It seemed as though I had had a good night's sleep!
“The considered opinion of the VIGOPS is perfect unless it is carried out with perfection, and no extraneous events occur to disrupt the perfection of the plan which is otherwise being carried out perfectly," he said.
“That's just a bromide saying nothing!" I replied. "How can mere mortals ever achieve perfection?"
"Do not you Earth people have a saying that practice makes perfect?
"That's just a cliche! But how can a person prevent chaotic events from occurring to make a mess of everything? Don't you Timekeepers believe a chaotic principle is built into the universe? No matter how carefully one can plan a picnic, a sudden cloudburst will squelch it!"
“That is very true. Success comes from carrying out a perfect plan perfectly, plus the addition of one vital ingredient."
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Luck.”
“A two-bit scriptwriter can come up with an idea better than that. If that's all that your AI app has to offer, we're in big trouble."
"Mantra, our greatest piece of luck is having you to rely on when we deal with this dilemma. When you've needed strength, you have been strong. When we've needed a charm offensive, you have been charming. When we needed negotiation, you negotiated. When we've needed courage, you have been courageous. When tenderness was called for, you have shown tenderness."
"Let's hear more about my strength and courage. Tenderness is for wimps."
He looked at me with patient amusement. "Entire religions have been built from the foundations of tenderness and compassion."
“If you want to start talking religion, remember that the nutcase Demiurge was a god.
"Don't depend on me to do a fix-job for this catastrophe. I recently fought and lost a battle that allowed this avalanche to tumble down upon our heads. If I had had power and smarts enough to keep the Mind Gem out of Loki's grubby paws, he couldn't have assembled the Infinity Gem array in the first place!"
"But you never possessed the gem yourself. It was the synthetic life-form Primeval who took it into battle. Primeval was so weak of mind that required the mighty power of the Mind Gem to raise him merely to the mental acuity of an ordinary Earthman. He was entirely unfit to challenge Loki. On the other hand, if the Mind Gem had been able to enhance your brilliant mind, you might have been inspired with the means to win the day. An opportunity was lost, but you are not to blame."
"If so, why don't we time-travel back to that day on the Godwheel and start all over again?"
He shook his head. "It is too late for that. Refighting that battle with Loki would only create a new alternate reality, one doomed to perish with all Creation when the Tree of Eternity collapses. The Main Branch can only be rescued with actions initiated in Zero Time.
I took a deep breath. "We've already learned that we can't win the battle over New York by using Amber Hunt, with or without the rebel gems. We must find the weakness in the Ego Gem's plan and keep Sersi from ever getting her hands on those gems!"
"I agree. Now, Eden, do you see what a good night's sleep can do for a person? We will have to use every bit of information gathered and build a new plan from the ground up!" said Gabriel.
I threw up my arms. "You're so damned agreeable! Stop flattering me! Why don't you shout at, insult, or demean your companions?"
He smiled. “I've found such behavior on my part to be productive."
"What do you really expect me to do? I'm no match for the power wielded by the ancient gods! The magic I've used so far hasn't done us all that much good!"
"The VIGOPS recommended you as the optimum companion I could recruit. And I have not been at all disappointed in your performance so far. You come closest to making mistakes when you yield to your best qualities. Namely, tenderness and compassion."
"Don't soft soap me! Add as much sweet talk as you like to $2.83, and you still can't buy more than one cup of coffee!"
Chuckling lightly, he shook his head. That gentle smile of his was starting to infuriate me. I wondered if the alien scientist honestly admired me in some naive and undeserved way or if he was calculating that flatter could motivate me.
What good was flattery coming from a man of his sort? What was Gabriel? A short guy with the look of a high school math teacher who had downed a few too many Whoppers in his day?
