Posted 07-16-24
Revised 07-19-24

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

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Chapter 6

The Hellscape

“By seeking and blundering we learn.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Gabriel suddenly shouted from behind me. “Mantra! I found it!”

I came into the control room. The little man had changed his clothes while I’d been away and was now wearing a quilted white suit. I thought it made him look fat. “Aren’t you going to say eureka?” I asked.

“I dare say I should!”

"Time is wasting. What did you spy with your little eye?"

"I spied -- I saw – what the Third Force is”

“So what is it?”

“It’s a woman."

"A woman? A human woman?" I asked.

"She’s distinctly human, but her power ratings are astonishing! She must be an ultra – an ultra of almost unimaginable potency. But she wasn't at the battle alone; she had the Time Gem and Reality Gem on her person.”

“But Nemesis had the seven gems. How did she get her hands on two of them – or are they time-clones?”

“No, the readings say that they’re the originals! It’s a paradox, I grant.”

“If something is impossible, maybe it isn’t true. What’s going on?”

“I’ll have to put the VIGOPS to work resolving the problem. But now it's vital to find out the identity of this woman."

The mystery woman appearing on his screen appeared to be young and attractive.

He exclaimed: "Now!"

"Now, what?"

“Now is the time to run our recognition software,” the Timekeeper said.

"Don’t bother," I sighed.  

Gabriel glanced up. “Why not?”

"Because I know her.”

“Who is she?”

“That's Amber Hunt."

#

Again I had to ask myself, what did Amber Hunt have to do with all this? When I was in the alternate world that Gabriel sent me to, Hunt's name kept turning up, like a bad penny. She had been identified as part of an ultra gang suspected of destroying twenty-five percent of New York City.

I'd seen her from a distance before, but my best information came from my perusal of the Aladdin files. About two years before, Hunt had been an unremarkable college girl. Unfortunately, she had inherited a rare disease called the Theta Virus and had only narrowly avoided dying from it.

I already knew a little about the Theta Virus. Just months before, Warstrike and I had learned that Aladdin was involved in a treasonous project that involved the Virus.

The Theta Virus had come to Earth inside a UFO that had crashed in Germany in the 1920’s. The Weimar Germans had experimented with the virus culture that they had salvaged, but when the Nazis took over, Hitler saw the amazing possibilities in weaponizing the Virus. By using the Theta Virus, it seemed possible to create an unlimited number of ultras, enough to defeat all the major powers arrayed against Germany. He called his plan the "Übermensch project" and gave it as much priority as he was giving to the rocket and A-bomb programs.

The German scientists ran the core of the Übermensch project out of one of their prisoner-of-war camps that included many captured Americans, mostly airmen. The SS hoped that the Allied air command would not bomb a facility housing their servicemen but the President overwrote all advice to the contrary and ordered a hard bombing, regardless. The destroyed lab released the Theta Virus into the open air, causing widespread infection among the Allied and Axis personnel.

While the Virus had no direct effect on healthy people, it made subtle changes to their DNA, so that their future children were born infected with altered DNA. When these reached early adulthood, they would die. Often, these unfortunates sometimes left behind children, to whom they had passed down the legacy of their Theta infection.

However, German research had developed a vaccine to preserve the lives of the infected people, allowing them to live and develop ultra powers. The most promising of these had come of age when the war was at its height, and they were formed into "blitzkrieg squads" that became bad news for the enemy alliance. By early 1945, however, the overwhelming Allied air power managed to destroy the German facilities making the serum needed to keep the supermen alive. Even the longest-lived of the Nazi ultras did not endure much beyond the war's end. The Allies were avid to create super-soldiers of their own and did all they could to capture the Third Reich’s Übermensch project documentation, but acquired only some incomplete material. Using what they had, the Americans began black ops projects to create Theta-based ultras, all of them under the control of the American Deep State.

Decades later, an American research scientist named Dr. Rachel Deming was recruited into one such project whicih fortuitously gave her access to information concerning the Übermensch project. She realized that the most rotten parts of the government intended to create a super secret police force to take over the American nation and rule despotically. Her goal was to create a counter force of patriotic ultras to oppose the plot and, to achieve this aim, she absconded with the most vital documentation.

Deming stayed undercover for years, setting up a laboratory on a private island and advancing the work started by the Third Reich and by the American security services. She found infected people, saved their lives, and recruited them into an ultra team dubbed “the Exiles.”

Dr. Deming created a better Virus treatment than had the Nazis. The last Theta victim brought into her project had been Amber Hunt. According to Aladdin, Hunt had an infected POW for a great-grandfather. Due to the virus, all family members of Amber’s direct bloodline had died in early adulthood, but Dr. Deming intervened in time to save her life.

But an accidental explosion suddenly wiped out the laboratory, killing or crippling most of the Exiles team. Amber Hunt survived, but when she reappeared in public, she was super powerful and behaved as if violently insane.

But as powerful as she was, would it be enough to confront the zombie god Nemesis?

“Gabriel,” I asked, “how could a human body -- even an ultra-human’s body -- absorb the immense god-power of Nemesis?"

"I can’t really say," the Timekeeper replied thoughtfully. "Possibly she was helped by the Time and Reality Gems.”

"I just wonder…” I muttered out loud.

"What do you wonder?"

"It seems like too much of a coincidence that the planet Earth should have on hand an ultra at exactly the right time and possessing the right powers to handle a crisis like this. I have to wonder whether Amber Hunt’s empowerment wasn’t planned by design."

“Planned by whom?” Gabriel asked.

“Planned by someone a lot bigger than Nemesis."

The Timekeeper sent me a bright smile. “You must be speaking about the One who was the maker of the Demiurge. For all our efforts, we Timekeepers have discovered very little about that entity. If your hypothesis should turn out to be true, it would be wonderful, don’t you think?”

“I wouldn’t have supposed that super scientists like the Time-Keepers would believe in a supreme god," I said.

“Why not? We know that the Demiurge existed. Isn't the Supreme One only a single step above him?"

"I suppose. But why would the supreme power of the Multiverse work so indirectly? Why would he offer his help indirectly through fallible people like us and the Theta Virus? Why not just point at Nemesis and say, "You don't exist anymore!"

“That is a question I cannot answer,” Gabriel sighed.

“Can you answer another question: How can we find that missing kid before it’s too late?"

Gabriel pointed to his main instrument panel. "We'll follow Miss Hunt’s energy signature.”

“How do we get her energy signature?”

“We already have it! The VIGOPS recorded it when we were near her during the battle above New York.”

“But that happened on an alternate timeline! I thought we couldn’t use people who don’t come from the Main Bough!”

“The lucky fact is that time-clones tend to have the same energy signature as do their Main Bough originals. Now that we’ve returned to the Main Bough, we will seek that energy signature’s match on this timeline.”

"So, our next step has to be a manhunt? A woman hunt?"

"Exactly," Gabriel affirmed. “When we locate Miss Hunt, we’ll ask her to help us do what she is predestined to do anyway. But this time, we’ll help her do it better, thereby saving the Multiverse."

"I get it,” I said. “But how exactly are we supposed to make it better?”

“I’m not certain. Hopefully, the events of this journey will show us the proper way,” he said.

That wasn’t much of a pep talk, but something was bothering me, something that I hadn’t thought about before. Namely, Amber Hunt wasn’t just a soulless killing machine. She had been an ordinary girl born with a tragic illness. It didn't seem right that Gabriel might sacrifice her ruthlessly for the cause of the greater good.

But, of course, he had to! And, Hell, I’d do the same thing if it were left to me! I’d hate it, but I’d still do it.

#

By then I'd been up a long time and had gone through some powerful emotional stuff. I needed serious rest. I dropped off too sleep in one of the passenger cabins and, when I woke up, Gabriel was standing by my cot. “I hope you had a good slumber,” he said. “By the way, we’re at the location where we will soon be able to rendezvous with Amber Hunt,” the Timekeeper said.

“How long have we been here?” I asked.

“About five hours.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” I demanded.

"You need to be in top form. The road ahead may be very taxing. Besides, we haven't been appreciably delayed. You were sleeping in an attenuated time field.”

I threw off the covers and stood up. “Where are we?”

“Take a look for yourself!”

I went back to the control center and took a gander through the viewing port. What I saw below wasn’t anything like I expected.

I wasn't looking at any Planet Z in the Sagittarian Arm of the Galaxy. Instead, I was staring down at my hometown -- Los Angeles, California.

What? Had Amber Hunt been hiding in Los Angeles all this time?

If she had, that could be the reason why the megalopolis looked mostly destroyed. The vista below us looked like a version of Los Angeles from Hell.

To be more exact, it looked like a cityscape that had escaped from a drug addict's apocalyptic nightmare.

This city by the sea was ash-gray and barely lit under a dim and dirty-looking sky. “Is that the Los Angeles on the Main Bough? It looks like it’s been through a war!” I was suddenly afraid for everyone I knew down there!

"Something terrible has occurred."

"Well, duh, I can see that much!"

"The good news is that we are no longer on the Main Bough. The energy traces we followed portaled us into a different timeline. We have arrived here a little before Amber Hunt is due to show up.”

“What’s the bad news?” I asked.

“The bad news is that this solar system we've entered is under siege by the Nemesis energy."

"How did that come about?"

"According to the analysis, Amber Hunt’s trail took us about a decade into the future. Rather appallingly, this is only solar system in this universe that our scanners can locate. The amazing thing is that this system has survived only because it is inside a field of attenuated time. Something must have placed this sun-and-planet system into such a field to prevent its destruction by the Nemesis Energy. Unfortunately, it is not any permanent fix."

“Does this throw a monkey wrench into our plan?”I asked.

“Not as long as Amber Hunt appears down there as expected."

"This is too crazy. Why don't we get serious about finishing the job so we can get back where we belong?"

“The VIGOPS is working on a plan that will allow us to do that.”

“I thought we already have a workable plan,” I said.

“We have one plan, but we'd run a high risk by using it. I’m hoping that if we discover a different route to the same end, we may achieve a better result. I only know this much: Our sensors reveal that the time field protecting this solar system is progressively weakening. A powerful force is controlling the flow of natural time, but it is not strong enough to maintain its control for much longer. My VIGOPS estimates that the protective field will collapse in a day – a day in attenuated time, I mean! But that’s only a rough guess. The VIGOPS is at work establishing a more accurate measurement."

"If the dam breaks, do we go under with everything else?" I asked.

“Our self-defense systems are very efficient, but unless we accomplish what we have come here to do, the entire Multiverse will eventually meet the end that this universe is about to, and nothing can survive that."

“Tell me, what power is strong enough to protect an entire solar system, even temporarily?"

"The VIGOPS knows of only one such source with that much power: the Infinity Gems. We already know that Amber Hunt fought the New York battle in possession of the Time Gem and the Reality Gem. The Time Gem is capable of protecting an entire solar system for a while. If I had to guess, I'd say that this is the planet where our version of Amber Hunt will acquire the Time Gem before taking it away to help her do battle with Nemesis.”

“But wouldn’t this Time Gem be no more than a temporal clone of the real one?”

“Not necessarily. The Time Gem can go where it wishes.”

While he was talking, I remained stunned by the sorry aspect of the wrecked and ruined Los Angeles below us. It was never a good place to live, not by a long shot, but it had become my home. It chilled my blood to see it reduced to little more than a cinder of its old self!

Gabriel continued excitedly. "I see indications of the Time Gem below, but not Amber Hunt or the Reality Gem. This provides empirical evidence that neither Amber Hunt nor the Reality Gem has arrived as yet. If we seize the Time Gem, Amber Hunt has to come to us! Unfortunately, our sensors can’t tell us more than that the Time Gem is somewhere in this vicinity. It must be deliberately hiding its whereabouts. The VIGOPS is seeking to narrow down its location, but that will take some time."

"If Hunt takes away the Time Gem, won't this solar system be destroyed immediately?" I asked.

"Yes, inevitably! But remember, this universe has only hours to live, regardless of what we do."

This apocalyptic puzzle box was making a nervous wreck of me! "So, when can we expect Amber Hunt to arrive?"

“The VIGOPS is working on an accurate estimate. If she’s hostile, it will be to our advantage to have the element of surprise.”

I laid another question on him. "Was it the Nemesis Energy that made a wreck of Los Angeles? Or was it the Time Gem? Or was it a nuclear attack?"

He shook his head. "None of those. The VIGOPS has detected a concentration of volcanic ash covering the face of this planet."

"Come again?"

"This planet has suffered from a super volcanic explosion affecting every continent. You may know that your Earth has been living in fear of such an eruption for decades.”

"This looks like there's been more happening here than just an ash fall. It looks as if there's been arson, rioting, rioting, and street-fighting. The Los Angeles I know has about nineteen million people, but this wreck of a city couldn’t support more than a few thousand. Do you suppose that the population has been wiped out?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I suspect that the inhabitants here must be starving! When people battle to survive, they usually battle against other human beings. Alas, human violence often compounds the destructive effects of natural catastrophes."

Another look through the view screen didn’t make me feel any better. Would it be of use trying to help the survivors? The Nemesis energy would be breaking through soon and would blink out the entire solar system no matter what I did. The stakes were too high for us to be scattering our resources. In this crisis, we had to think with our heads, not our hearts. Capturing Amber Hunt was the only goal that mattered. As soon as we accomplished that feat, we would have to take her away so she could do what she had to do to save the entire Multiverse from annihilation!

“What do we do if Hunt doesn’t show up?” I asked.

"In that case, we would have to fall back to a less promising plan. But the odds that she will not arrive are tiny!" Gabriel at least sounded like he believed in what he was saying.

I waited for the little man to elaborate, but he instead stepped away to check his monitors.

What an annoying moment for the usually garrulous Timekeeper to become a man of few words!

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7.