Epic

by Alexander Strijewski

  Precious hours passed and after many close calls he thought he had finally figured it out, or at least as close as he could come. He created a derivative using a lesser amount of isotopes and alloyed with Plutonium which he called Temporilium 475, it seemed to allow some safe time displacement going back through time. But it had the side effect of projecting a lethal amount of radiation any time it was used. Well, he was going to die anyways, might as well make his last day count. But he felt bad for his counterpart in the future. He was easily able to requisition a black carbon-based strongbox given his security clearances. However removing the 475 from the premises was a whole different story. He had to wait for nightfall and he couldn’t fail, if he was detained then that would be the end for all humanity. He would need to use blunt force as needed, so he packed a concealed ray gun he had been issued in the event of nuclear catastrophe. He figured this fit the bill.

  He also had to make it back alive because while he could finally communicate through time to the future now, his companion and himself had not come close to figuring any way to prevent the inevitable conclusion of his planet. But from the message imprints a few things were beginning to be clear. Among them was that if the military hadn’t decided to put all the Temporilium into this one chamber, the cascade reaction would not have been enough to wipe out the entire whole planet. Man! What he would’ve done to know that a week ago! But it was too late now.

  Rintar put his attention to the security view screens above. He was so tired, blinking he rubbed his eyes to clear them of the muddy film of exhaustion. He stared around him. It was now 2:30 am, he was the only scientist left working. Dragging himself up from the desk he made his way to the restroom, the one place the cameras wouldn’t follow him, he hoped. He changed his appearance to match one of the other scientists by adding a beard, frizzling his hair and creating a fake paunch. He then worked his way to the repository pretending to slouch slightly. If he was going to impersonate someone, why not impersonate the most annoying member of his crew, Hanley. Hey it was for the greater good.

  He just hoped to God he could get away with this. He slid his card for access into the inner security shelter and put on his best mask of fake confidence knowing the cameras were rolling.

  He altered his voice to be deeper and gruff. “I need to sign out block four of Temporilium by order of the General”

  The clerk looked over his display.

  “Sir I don’t see any orders like that here.”

  “He just made them today, listen son I don’t have all night. Move out of the way.”

  He leaned over and unlocked the containment block himself.

  “Sir I can’t allow you to do that. I have my own orders.”

  “LOOK BOY! DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU’RE DEALING WITH!? Why don’t you do as you’re told so I don’t have to report you!”

  The guard paused, and drew his sidearm. Great! Thought Rintar, the only person in this whole place who can think for himself and stand up for himself has to be the one guard he has to circumvent. ”I’m sorry sir I can’t let you leave with that.”

  With so much at stake Rintar knew what he had to do instantly, but he knew that his next action would bring him to the point of no return. This was it!

  Rintar, while holding the strong box with the 475, pretended to look astonished by the fact that the young man held him at gun point. In actual fact he was long past the point of giving a damn anymore. “Oh dear! Look I’m sorry. This box is extremely volatile, here let me put it down while I…”

  While still mid-sentence and with a swift motion Rintar pulled out his blaster and fired on the guard, instantly vaporizing him. He had silenced his blaster but didn’t account for the fact that this being a maximum security installation, any discharge of a firearm would immediately mobilize and set the base at alert. There was no time to lose. Weary as he was, Rintar sprinted for the exit!

  He made it outside in time before anyone could stop him. Quickly he called for his auto-transporter and within seconds it flashed in front of him ready for boarding. He got in and took a moment to think about where he was going to that would still be around after a thousand years but at the same time would not draw enough attention for him to be able to hide the strongbox.

  Rintar turned his head and thought he heard some bells. He listened... gloonnnnnnnng. The church, of course! The spires of the ancient Saints had persevered through the centuries, but with a progressive materialistic culture less and less people seemed to be willing to frequent the grandiose Cathedral at the center of the capital. This spot would do.

  He set a course. ( Mmmp. ) What!? The transporter circuits were locked! Rintar looked behind him and saw the MPs thundering into view with their fanfare of lights and matching blaring sirens. They were coming for him! Luckily reprogramming a transporter module would not prove too difficult for him, he had helped patent the software for all military issue modules. But could he do it fast enough?

  In seconds, he had disconnected the circuit boards and began an override. With what seemed like the entire army of Speros right next to him decided to play it cool and set the getaway speed to the slowest possible so as not to attract attention to himself. It was agonizing. Rintar made sure to not make any movements at all while inside the vehicle, any more motion than necessary could bring suspicious eyes in his direction.

  A minute later he was a block away and could finally move again, he exhaled and set to work re-programming the ID transponder to mask his scent in Wi-Fi and a minute later he was officially part of a “military convoy of hazardous waste materials”, thereby automatically causing nearby auto-piloting transporters to give him a wide berth. While en route he removed his disguise.

  It wasn’t long before he arrived. At this time of night no one was here, perfect. He blasted the catch on the outer gate allowing him access. It was almost completely black inside, how was he going to hide the box not to be uncovered for forever in such poor lighting? Reaching into his coat pocket he took out his assessment display and went by the dim light making his foray into further blackness. He came upon the prominence of the central rostrum as it jutted out of the ground. Quickly he took a matter splicer out of his pocket and began with an incision with as close to surgical precision as he could. Finding it hollow he crawled inside and after spending the next half an hour shoveling as deep a hole as he could he buried it as far into the interior structure. He prayed no one would ever find it. After all, future church goers would be praying at it for the next thousand years at least. He decided to join them in prayer. Replacing the outer cover he melded it precise enough to make it look like nothing had changed and went back outside back to the waiting transporter.

  Minutes later he arrived back at the test site installation. Naturally his exploits had caused quite the stir, the amount of commotion was almost overwhelming but his mind was set on only one thing as the sun was rising now in the horizon. For all he knew they only had minutes left before meltdown. There he was!

  Quickly Rintar edged his way behind Hanley and whistled for him to come near, beckoning him to a side alley.

  “What is it now Rint!? Can’t you see where in lockdown? Apparently there was a…(blam)”

  Rintar silently vaporized him with his blaster mid-sentence! Careful not to leave a trace, Hanley was gone! He tossed his blaster into the near trash receptacle and scurried his way to the main compound. By the time his crime was uncovered it would probably be too late anyways.

  If he was right, the substance would already be almost at critical at this point. He would have to talk his way through the security red tape. After a few barricades and overrides so he could use the elevators he made his way back to the testing grounds at the bottom level.

  The remaining Temporilium was shimmering through its containment fields now. He looked at the readouts and critical mass was only a few minutes away. He fought his way to the lab! He prayed that Render had come up with something, anything! There was a new message waiting for him. The hopes of billions o
f habitants of Speros for thousands of years prayed with him, whether they knew it or not…

  * * *

  Watching the aerial defense drones make mince-meat of the first 2 raiding parties did little to raise Brok’s spirits. It had been many hours and he was starting to feel sick at his stomach and lethargy was setting in, undoubtedly radiation poisoning. Brok would’ve inquired about this but Render had been going non-stop and of course couldn’t be bothered.

  The only thing keeping him sane now was his planning for the oncoming attack. It wasn’t every day that one was expected to defend a light civilian scout vessel against an Advanced Confederate Battle Cruiser while not being able to move from your spot. But a few traps had been laid already and he figured his first priority was in keeping the invaders from firing a single shot at the ship. One stray blast could set everything off. There were already 3 other additional blips on his screen, this was going to be a real party. This area of space was filled with pirates. If he could repress their attack long enough then he hoped the infighting could buy them more time.

  Brok took his attention off the radar and panned the skies to finally find a small grey block looming moments later. Here they come.

  “Rend! We need the shields! Now!”

  “OK give me a sec.”

  “No! Now! They are in visual range now!”

  An iridescent fine glow enshrouded the ship. Brok readied the universal communicator and steadied his hand over the controls of a series of land mines he had the drones install over the last several hours.

  “ATTENTION INCOMING VESSEL! This is Brok of the Civilian Scout Vessel Tamarand. Stand down all your weapons or the Temporilium you seek will detonate!”

  He recorded and set his message on auto-loop so they would be sure to understand.

  The massive cruiser set down half a mile away and Brok could see the foot soldiers as they methodically made their way towards the ship in groups of four, standard cover formation. Donned in full-armor body suits and carrying automatic pulse rifles there must have been over 30 of them, all of them 9 feet tall. They weren’t messing around. Well that ruled out any blasters. Render’s three battle-drones were useful when it came to fire fights, almost overwhelmingly so in certain situations, but we didn’t know if we could even penetrate their armor in the first place and it would only take a split second for their deadly riposte.

  In a few moments the first squad was nearing the mark where Brok had placed a copious amount of land mines. They may be impervious to all their weapons, but it would be interesting to at least watch them all launched into the air when he let the mines rip through the earth. His fingers perched precariously over the trigger button. It was for all his life was worth not to press it. There was so many of them, the action would only provoke them. His only hope really was to play the, don’t shoot or we’ll all blow up card.

  Sweating through his clothes he peered over at Render for direction. But he was still far away in some other world with his calculations. The foot soldiers were now making their way up the hill in front of him and came right up to the ship. Undaunted they lined up in front of the bay doors. It was a stand -off, they could see the drones and were aware of the shields, they stared right at Brok. Brandishing their weapons, they just stood there for several minutes. Another soldier, perhaps an engineer, came to the front carrying some type of hefty gear which he set down right next to the shield cover. He began typing commands and after a few seconds the machine enveloped our shields with a flickering static effect, apparently trying to neutralize the phase variation making them inert. After that they could probably walk right in! The soldiers, well trained and highly disciplined, all seemed to be staring right at Brok in unison. He tried to refrain from peeing his pants.

  Brok held his guns at the ready and stood ready to set off the bombs they were all standing on. He looked over at the countdown Rend had installed before the Temp went full cycle and exploded, there was less than an hour left now.

  “Hey Rend, I just thought you should know we have guests at our front door. Would you like for me to invite them in?”

  “Just a minute, just a minute, I think I’m onto something here…HOLY GODS!”

  Render Bulwark got up from his station and walked over to stand next to Brok. He was staring at what was well over thirty soldiers now. That they hadn’t returned their communication could only mean that they didn’t care about who was in the ship, just what. And that they hadn’t opened fire meant that they knew of the cargos volatility.

  “How long before others arrive to challenge them?” asked Render

  “In about twenty minutes there will Gornaks here as well as a large contingent of pirates. But they won’t be able to put up a fight against these guys. But right now they are standing on about 400 pounds of incendiary thermite fortified with hexa-nitrates. If the blast it won’t penetrate their suits it will at least send them flying for miles.”

  Render seemed to be doing calculations in his head.

  “I think that could work, our shields will hold stable through thermite, just not their weaponry. Listen we have an important moment coming up. We are trying to create a wyrm hole with the Temp. from the past so we can send the metal through the gate into our time thus having the wavelengths of both completely match and cancel each other out creating a paradox. That should make all the wavelengths nullify and close out our whole time stream. It’s all theory and I am still working on the logistics but so far that’s the best we’ve come up with. Now it may be that we can’t even create a gate at all, but one thing is for sure; when we make out attempt we will have to use all the power on the ship and the shields will temporarily fold. So you will have to keep them at bay.”

  “I think we should set off the mines moments before you start. How long before you are ready to begin?”

  “At the current rate we will be ready to initiate in an hour or two. The math behind this equation should really be being worked by a program, not a human. That’s why I’ve been working like a madman.”

  “Oh nice! Have you looked at the countdown recently?”

  They both looked over at the clock. Only 0:39 minutes was left. The shimmering cube was now radiating strong enough to be seen through the barrier Render had erected. It hurt to stand near it.

  “I know which is why I have to get back to work. But no matter what we have to make an attempt very soon in case something goes wrong.”

  Render returned to his station continuing with his calculations and programming. Brok was on full alert as any second the shields would fail and a bloodbath would ensue. Nervous minutes passed, both of them past the breaking point. Tremulous, Brok saw some of the soldiers slowly start to unearth the mines. Render sent and received one last communication through the strands of time. Finally he turned to Brok.

  “OK this is it! DETONATE!”

  Brok made sure one more time that the shields were still holding, closed his eyes, braced himself and pressed down hard!

  KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

  All of the enemies went flying! They watched as they literally were thrown many hundreds of yards, some half a mile away. Render initiated the temporal rift. Again everything gradually became white and…

  The ship was plunged into darkness with the exception of the Temporilium which shined brightly as ever. All systems had shut down even the generator for backup life support systems. It became hard to breathe but most importantly the shields were now down!

  “Nothing happened!” Render Bulwark stood incredulous.

  “Nothing”

  Brok watched as the soldiers who were violently thrown into the air were not only all in one piece midflight but despite the chaos some of them were even landing on their feet after which they went into an immediate sprint! They were heading straight for them!

  Brok looked over at Render. He was just standing there with his jaw hung and eyes wide open in shock.

  “Rend!”

  “Rend! Come on! They’re coming back! RENDER!�
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  Brok ran over to him as fast as he could, grabbed him by the shoulders and shook with all the strength he had left. Renders haunted face swiveled over to look Brok in the eyes. “No you don’t understand. It’s all over. It didn’t work. We’re finished. We’re dead!”

  “THAT’S FINE BUT WE HAVE 30 CONFED SOLDIERS HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US RIGHT NOW!! DO SOMETHING!!”

  Brok smacked Render hard in the face!

  “Do something! For God’s sakes, do something!” He shook him.

  Render look out and saw the soldiers were almost upon them.

  He looked back at Brok…

  BLAMMMM! BLAMMMM! BLAMMMMMMMMM! The battle-drones had mobilized and engaged the enemy. Their fire only served to impede the enemy progress. The soldiers return fire seemed to cause the drones to simply shut down. The first enemy soldier was just about to run up into the bay.

  Render sprung into action! He took “Sparky” his trusty energy induction sphere out of his pocket and started him up. The ship suddenly came back to life. Instantly the shields redeployed and the two soldiers on the cusp of entering were caught in the field causing them to become two bloody segments!

  He looked at the countdown. 1 minute and 45 seconds remained! He ran to the computer.

  “This is impossible! All my calculations were wrong! My life was for nothing! My parents died for nothing! Everything! It was all a waste. We’re going to die here. Why did I even try!!???”

  Frantically he typed. There was only time for one more final message. With the hopes of billions behind him, he typed. The shining metal was burning him now, scarring him as he kept writing.

  “OK! QUICK GET BEHIND THE BARRIER!”

  Just as the emitter went off the enemy broke through the shield! Both Brok and Render opened fire. In seconds Brok was caught in the crossfire and was mortally wounded pitching over into Render who kept shooting. The white light was blinding now causing him and everyone else not to see their targets. The timer counted down 3…2…1…. And the world was swallowed in a brilliant achromatic white.