Playing Marbles for the Big Blue

22: Makelan's Requiem

By Jo Dora Webster

Will Amaza and Sala be able to subdue Makelan and his doomsday weapon? Will the Tessalt Torpedoes developed by the Royal Alban Navy and reproduced by Princess Amaza be enough?

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22: Makelan's Requiem

The Nevada desert stretched endlessly beneath the blazing afternoon sun as our convoy of modified vehicles approached the coordinates Sela had identified for Area 514. Through my connection with her, I could sense the massive underground facility that Captain Makelan had spent decades constructing, hidden beneath layers of rock and classified government secrecy.

"Amaza," Sela's voice carried through our quantum-entangled link, "I'm detecting massive energy buildups throughout the facility. Makelan is preparing for something significant."

Greg drove the lead vehicle, his jaw set with determination as he monitored readings from the Alvian equipment we'd managed to salvage and modify. Behind us, Linthan and representatives from the Ceti Alphan, Akanian, and Myukian refugee communities followed in their own vehicles, each group bringing their unique capabilities to bear against our common enemy.

"The temporal distortions are intensifying," I reported, feeling the strange ripples in space-time that emanated from the hidden base. "Whatever technology Makelan has been developing down there, it's affecting the local quantum matrix."

Amaza, I'm detecting something else, Sela said privately. The energy signatures suggest he's found a way to amplify Earth's natural magnetic field using hybrid Golram-human technology. If he succeeds in his plan, he could create a planetary-scale electromagnetic pulse.

The implications sent a chill through me. "That would destroy every electronic system on Earth."

Worse than that. The pulse would be specifically tuned to disrupt Limoxian energy matrices. Any refugee who hasn't achieved full emergence would be killed instantly.

I felt my emerged form responding to the threat, energy crackling around me as my protective instincts flared. "Then we stop him here and now."

Our convoy reached the perimeter of the facility, where Sela's scans revealed a network of automated defenses that had been carefully concealed from human detection. Guard towers disguised as radio antennas, weapon emplacements hidden within fake geological formations, and sensor arrays that could track movement across vast distances.

"Everyone out," Greg commanded as we parked behind a ridge that provided cover from the facility's sensors. "Sela, what's our tactical situation?"

Sela's holographic form materialized beside us, her expression grim as she displayed a three-dimensional map of the underground complex. "The facility extends seven levels down, with the primary laboratory located at the deepest point. Makelan has approximately two hundred human personnel working for him, most of whom believe they're part of a classified government project."

"What about Golram forces?" Linthan asked, his Ceti Alphan features tense with concern.

"None detected. Makelan appears to be operating entirely with Earth-based resources and personnel. However, his hybrid technology gives him capabilities that exceed anything the human military possesses."

I studied the facility layout, my tactical training from Alban Kai providing insights into the defensive arrangements. "The main entrance is too heavily fortified for a direct assault. We need another way in."

Amaza, Sela said privately, I've been analyzing the quantum distortions emanating from the facility. There's a temporal weak point approximately two kilometers to the east—a location where Makelan's experiments have created a rift in local space-time.

"A rift we can exploit?"

Potentially. Your emerged form should be able to navigate temporal distortions that would be lethal to anyone else. You could infiltrate the facility while the rest of us create a distraction at the main entrance.

I nodded, understanding the plan immediately. "Greg, I need you to coordinate a frontal assault on the main entrance. Make as much noise as possible and draw their attention."

"What about you?" he asked, though I could see in his eyes that he already knew the answer.

"I'm going in through the back door." I felt my energy matrix beginning to shift as I prepared for emergence. "Sela, I'll need those Tessalt Torpedoes we discussed."

Greg's expression grew confused. "What Tessalt Torpedoes? We don't have any military ordnance."

I smiled, feeling the familiar surge of power as my emerged form began to manifest. "We do now."

Drawing upon the vast energies that my purified matrix could now access, I began the complex process of matter conversion that I had learned during my time on Earth. Excess energy flowed through my consciousness, guided by Sela's precise calculations, as I transformed pure power into physical matter.

The air around me shimmered as ten crystalline projectiles materialized, each one a perfect replica of the Tessalt Torpedoes that had been aboard the Quantum Dancer. The weapons hummed with contained energy, their Tesseract Drive cores ready to bend space-time itself in service of destruction.

"Impossible," Linthan breathed, staring at the weapons I had created from nothing. "Only the Alban Royal Navy has access to Tessalt Torpedo technology."

"I am the Alban Royal Navy," I replied, my voice carrying the authority of my royal heritage. "At least, I am now."

Greg picked up one of the torpedoes, marveling at its crystalline structure. "How do we deploy them?"

"The same way we did against Makelan's Dreadnought," I said, remembering our first encounter with the rogue captain. "Sela can guide them using Tessaract field manipulation, allowing for precision strikes across vast distances."

The torpedoes are fully functional, Sela confirmed, her consciousness interfacing with the weapons I had created. Each one can bypass normal space-time constraints and strike targets with pinpoint accuracy.

I felt my emerged form stabilizing as the matter conversion completed, the energy expenditure leaving me momentarily drained but exhilarated. "Greg, take five of the torpedoes and use them to breach the main entrance. The explosions should provide enough distraction for me to reach the temporal rift."

"And the other five?"

"Those come with me. If Makelan has built what I think he has, we're going to need serious firepower to stop it."

As our teams prepared for the assault, I made my way toward the temporal rift that Sela had identified. The distortion was invisible to human eyes, but through my emerged form's enhanced perception, I could see the twisted space-time that marked the boundary between present and past.

Amaza, Sela warned as I approached the rift, the temporal distortions are more severe than I initially calculated. Passage through the rift will be extremely dangerous, even for your emerged form.

"Define extremely dangerous."

There's a significant probability that you could be scattered across multiple timelines, or worse, trapped in a temporal loop that would prevent you from ever returning to the present.

I paused at the edge of the rift, feeling the strange pull of distorted time. "What's the alternative?"

We wait for the frontal assault to succeed and hope that Makelan doesn't activate his planetary weapon before we can stop him.

Through our quantum link, I could sense Greg and the others moving into position around the main entrance. The Akanian orcs were preparing their plasma weapons, while the Myukian dragoneers readied their energy blades. Linthan and his Ceti Alphan team had activated their phase-shift technology, making them nearly invisible to human sensors.

But I could also sense something else—a massive energy buildup deep within the facility that suggested Makelan was accelerating his timeline. Whatever he was planning, it was happening now.

"I'm going through," I decided, stepping toward the temporal rift. "Sela, maintain our quantum entanglement no matter what happens. If I get lost in time, you'll be my anchor back to the present."

Understood. Amaza... be careful. I can't lose you now, not when we're so close to success.

I smiled, feeling the warmth of her concern through our bond. "You won't lose me. We're family, remember? Family always finds a way back to each other."

With that, I stepped into the temporal rift and felt reality dissolve around me.

The passage through distorted time was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Past, present, and future seemed to exist simultaneously, overlapping and interweaving in patterns that defied comprehension. I saw glimpses of Makelan's arrival on Earth in the 1970s, his desperate attempts to rebuild his power base, and his gradual descent into obsession with revenge.

But I also saw something else—fragments of possible futures where his plan succeeded, where Earth's electromagnetic pulse wiped out every Limoxian refugee and left the planet defenseless against future invasion. The stakes were even higher than we had realized.

Amaza, I'm detecting your emergence into the facility's lower levels, Sela's voice reached me across the temporal distortion. You're approximately fifty meters from Makelan's primary laboratory.

I materialized in a corridor lined with hybrid technology that combined Golram engineering with Earth-based systems. The walls hummed with barely contained energy, and I could feel the massive weapon charging somewhere nearby.

Moving with the stealth that my emerged form allowed, I made my way toward the laboratory. The five Tessalt Torpedoes I carried responded to my mental commands, their Tesseract cores synchronized with my energy matrix.

The laboratory doors were massive affairs, reinforced with both Earth steel and Golram alloys. But they were no match for a Tessalt Torpedo guided by royal authority. The first weapon punched through the barriers like they were paper, clearing the way for my entrance.

Inside, I found Captain Makelan standing before a massive device that pulsed with malevolent energy. The planetary weapon was even more terrifying than I had imagined—a fusion of Golram technology and Earth's magnetic field that could indeed wipe out every Limoxian refugee on the planet.

"Princess Amaza," Makelan said without turning around, his voice carrying the same arrogance I remembered from our first encounter. "I wondered when you would arrive. Your temporal signature has been quite... distinctive."

"It's over, Makelan," I said, the remaining Tessalt Torpedoes floating around me like deadly satellites. "Surrender now and I'll ensure you receive a fair trial."

He laughed, finally turning to face me. The decades on Earth had not been kind to him—his scaled hide was scarred and weathered, his predatory features marked by obsession and rage.

"A fair trial? From the foundling who destroyed my ship and cast me into this primitive world?" He gestured toward the weapon. "I think not. In thirty seconds, this device will activate and every Limoxian refugee on Earth will die. Your precious adopted family, your AI daughter, all of them will be reduced to scattered atoms."

"Not if I stop you first."

"You cannot stop what has already begun," he snarled, his hand moving toward the activation controls. "The weapon is automated now. Even if you kill me, it will still fire."

I felt the Tessalt Torpedoes responding to my will, their targeting systems locking onto the massive device. "Then I'll destroy the weapon itself."

"And cause a chain reaction that will devastate half of North America? I think not, Princess. You're too noble, too concerned with collateral damage to risk such destruction."

He was right, and we both knew it. The weapon was too large and too integrated with Earth's magnetic field to destroy safely. A direct assault would cause exactly the kind of catastrophic damage he described.

But I had something Makelan didn't expect—a daughter whose capabilities exceeded even my own.

Sela, I called through our quantum link, can you interface with the weapon's control systems?

Already working on it, she replied, her consciousness flowing through the facility's networks. Makelan's security is sophisticated, but he never anticipated an AI with my capabilities. Give me thirty seconds.

"Thirty seconds," I said aloud, smiling at Makelan's confused expression. "That's exactly how long I need."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that you never learned the most important lesson of our first encounter," I replied, feeling Sela's presence infiltrating the weapon's systems. "You underestimated my family."

The weapon's charging sequence suddenly reversed, its massive energies dissipating harmlessly into the Earth's magnetic field. Makelan stared in shock as his decades of work unraveled in moments.

"Impossible! The system is isolated, protected by quantum encryption!"

"Not from my daughter," I said, allowing my emerged form to fully manifest. "Sela, shut down all of Makelan's systems. Every weapon, every defense, everything."

With pleasure, she replied, and throughout the facility, lights began going out as hybrid technology failed one system at a time.

Makelan reached for a weapon, but the Tessalt Torpedoes were faster. They struck with surgical precision, disabling his equipment without harming him directly. He collapsed to his knees, finally defeated after decades of obsession and rage.

"It's over," I said quietly, my emerged form beginning to fade back to human appearance. "Your war ends here."

Through our quantum link, I felt Greg and the others breaching the main entrance, their assault having succeeded in overwhelming the facility's remaining defenses. Soon, human authorities would arrive to take custody of Makelan and his operation.

But as I looked down at the broken figure of my enemy, I felt no satisfaction in victory. Only sadness for the waste of potential, the decades of hatred that had consumed a being who might have found redemption if he had chosen a different path.

Amaza, Sela said gently, the facility is secure. All hostile systems have been neutralized.

"And the refugees?"

Safe. All of them. Makelan's weapon will never threaten anyone again.

I nodded, feeling the weight of responsibility settling on my shoulders. We had won this battle, but the war for Earth's future was far from over. The rescue fleet from Alban Kai was still coming, first contact was still approaching, and we still had to decide what kind of future we wanted to build.

But for now, it was enough that we had protected the innocent and stopped a madman's revenge. The rest would come in its own time.

As Greg and the others joined me in the laboratory, I felt a profound sense of completion. We had faced our greatest enemy and emerged victorious, not through superior firepower or advanced technology, but through the bonds of family and the power of love.

The real battle for the future was just beginning, but we would face it together—as family, as allies, and as bridges between worlds that had never known they were connected.

Makelan's requiem was finished, but our song was just beginning.