Star of Fantasy

by Jacky Qian

  Gioni, who stood at Ossien's side, bowed deeply. "Yes, my lord! Our dream will soon be a reality!"

  "Dream? What dream?" asked Silverstar.

  Ossien raised his face skyward and laughed. "Well! You are indeed a curious lad!" Then, with a wave of his hand, the surrounding walls changed into a screen showing imagery of the vast forest. "This is our dream!" said Ossien passionately. "We have created the most powerful biological weapon ever. It is... the king of all gods!"

  The imagery changed to the time travelers' base. The towering tree stood amid its own smoky haze, its great hulk heavily damaged in the fierce battle. Suddenly, a roar was heard from the sky, and the forest quaked. A gigantic monster appeared before the tree. It was as if a skyscraper had descended, blocking the sun with its incomprehensible mass. The head of the monster was big beyond description. Its terrifying face was made all the more hideous by the presence of a second mouth directly over the main one. Each of its eyes was half the width of a football field, and a pair of ox-like horns shot from the crown of its head. Its body was emblazoned with a strange camouflage resembling flowers of molten lava, and from that tremendous bulk extended the tail of a sea dragon.

  "Oh, my God!" exclaimed Runt, "How on earth could you have... !?"

  Ossien interrupted. "How could we have such a fabulously handsome monster! Right? I know, it's truly awesome. Still, it has more power than you could ever imagine. I've given the king of all gods an order to destroy the base for time travelers."

  The king of all gods gave an earth-shaking roar and spewed blood-red fire at the smashed-up tree. Then it opened its mouth to spew a blue fire. The tree caught fire immediately. The tree leaves in the flame resembled a roaring dragon. The king of all gods closed its upper mouth but continued to emit gas through its lower mouth. It descended to the ground and spewed more blood-red fire at the tree. Then it threw itself onto the structure. With a series of cracks, the tree, several thousand years old, collapsed with a great, catastrophic boom. It was accompanied by a series of explosions and tremors, shaking the ground for a distance of several kilometers. Catherine screamed in fright, and Silverstar worried that the ceiling of the room would collapse. Although the earthquake's magnitude could be just over four degrees on Richter scale, its impact was stronger than that of other earthquakes of the same degree since its epicenter was at the earth's surface. During the earthquake, only Ossien laughed, but he did so without restraint. He said proudly, "Did you see? It's an ultimate biological weapon unmatched even by nuclear weapons. In eleven hours, we will ride it together with other biological weapons to fly to the future.

  The shaking finally came to a stop. The king of all gods emerged with another roar from the debris of the falling tree. Around the tree scattered living things the shock wave had stunned. Among them, Silverstar found a poisonous scorpion, lying on the ground curled with several claws missing. It was a far cry from its awe-inspiring appearance in that first encounter.

  "So, now you see," Ossien said. "This is what we have achieved through our research. With them, I will become a god. I will be the only god this world should ever fear!"

  "Nonsense!" roared Darwin, "You made nothing of the 95 years I spent here! We left our country and our era and worked together to build all this." Darwin became hysterical and rushed toward Ossien with a scream of bloody anger. However, he was shot a paralyzing laser beam by a guard and immediately fell to the floor.

  "Damn it! You bastard!" Hilton roared. Heedless of the threats from the soldiers, he rushed toward Ossien.

  "No!" ordered Ossien to his soldiers, "Let him come! Let's see what he can do!"

  "Moja rodzina zginęła w Auschwitz!" shouted Hilton.

  "Huh! It seems you've overestimated yourself!" said Ossien with a contemptuous sneer. He flew a kick and sent Hilton back to where he had started. "Here we have another moron from the twentieth century."

  "Huh!" continued Ossien. "Let me tell you the truth! All these time travelers left their own eras because of my experiments with a time tunnel. Those experiments were conducted to cover our traces from the TP... what you'd call the time police). Now you know our great plan. According to an agreement I executed with biological weapon researchers in a different era, I will board a time machine after the success of my research to deliver my biological weapons for a hyperspace trade. Then the time criminals and terrorists across the whole world will see my research findings! We will work together to launch a war against the world of the twenty-second century. After all this, nobody will believe in those fake gods! I will become the only true God! I will lead all survivors to complete the perfect plan of evolutions to a new stage.

  Silverstar was even unconsciously attracted by Ossien's passionate speech.

  "Lock them up. I will have more gifts for them tomorrow!" Ossien ordered. Something about his manner suggested that, like Bernhardt, he would deceive whenever it was convenient. The Nazi soldiers rounded them up and led them into a lift.

  "Remember!" Ossien said. "History has always been written by winners. It's a maxim you would have done well to heed. Starting tomorrow, the history of the world will be written by me!"

  New Hope

  Runt was as agitated as an ant on a hot pan. "What are we going to do!? The earth will be in serious trouble, but all we can do now is to sit in this little room!" Silverstar, Nicholas and Catherine all had the same anxiety.

  "I don't give a damn!" said Hicks carelessly as usual. He was heard saying from the neighboring prison cell, "The idiot said he'd have gifts for us, didn't he? So, we'll just wait."

  Mandis rolled his eyes and sighed. "Oh, I don't know what to say to you!"

  "I wonder how Nina is doing," Jack murmured. "I can't stand the wait anymore." He stood up so abruptly that he nearly knocked Hicks onto his butt.

  He shouted: "I'm going to break this electromagnetic net! I don't care whether it carries electricity or not! Nina, I'm coming!" He reared back into order to rush the net.

  "Jack! Don't cause…" cried Silverstar. Before Silverstar could finish it with "trouble," he saw a bright light and heard a cry accompanied by a bang and a series of cracks and sizzling sounds.

  Jack suffered an electric shock and passed out!

  "Eh…" Jack muttered. He looked like a fool with his tongue hanging by the corner of his mouth. There were holes in the toes of his shoes due to the electric shock, revealing his stinky toes.

  "Electromagnetic net can't be broken through by physical strength!" said Gioni as he appeared outside, "Ha! Look at him! How stupid can someone look!?"

  Nine hours had passed without any of the explorers being aware of it.

  Silverstar, always a snorer, awoke with a start. "Damn it! I fell asleep!" He looked at the others. "Come on! Doctor, Nicholas, Catherine...!" At that moment he felt as if he was transported by her beauty. Even in her exhaustion she was perfect. Nevertheless, the dream would have to wait. Silverstar focused his attention and continued, "Hey, guys! Wake up!"

  "Huh," replied Runt with a yawn. "I don't need to get up, Mom! There's no school today!" He fell back to sleep.

  "The world is about to be devastated! Get the hell up!"

  "Aaah!" Runt woke up with a cry, "Oh, no! We fell asleep! Everyone, get up!"

  Meanwhile, in Ossien's room there was equal urgency.

  "Boss!" said Gioni with a knock on the door, "We need to board the ship! What are you doing, chief?"

  "I'm in the bathroom! Stay where you are!" Ossien's voice could be heard from behind the door marked with the silhouetted shape of a toilet bowl. "Haven't you realized that everyone needs to crap now and then!?" A moment later, out he came. "Okay, then!" Ossien said. "Have all of the materials and research findings been loaded?"

  "Yes, chief," Gioni replied. "Mr. Sellars is still sleeping, but I'll wake him."

  Ossien made a triumphal announcement: "Ha! After all these years, my dream is about to be realized!" He gave a hearty laugh and then said, "Well, take my little guests to the square. Get all the
people there."

  "There are only two hours left!" said Darwin anxiously. "Gentlemen! If we fail to act... even if we try but fail... human history with be erased!"

  "But we can't get out of this damned net!" said Simons in the adjacent cell.

  "I was just going to speak to you about that," Gioni replied as he approached, followed by several guards.

  "Come on! Get them out! The chief wants to see them, and..." Before Gioni could complete that sentence, Nina fired a shock gun into his back. Then, with a couple of swift moves, she knocked over the guards. Jack was again amazed.

  Nina turned off the electromagnetic net. Darwin shouted, "Finally, we are free! Good job, Nina!"

  "Oh! My goddess!" said Jack taking Nina's hand, "You kick ass! I'm beyond speechless!"

  "Thanks," replied Nina, "but the current situation is still against us. Ossien is ready to launch his time machine. If we don't stop him now, the human race will be in a lot of trouble!"

  "Then, we have to stop him!" cried Ark.

  "Let's start with the archive room in Zone B3!" suggested Nina, "There's something I need to find."

  "Good morning, everyone!" shouted Darwin, "It is eight o'clock. At this time, we in this era have been blessed with another sunrise. So, it is for our future... for the future of all good people! We must stop these rats from carrying out their plan! Today, we will fight for Earth, our only home!"

  They whooped and hollered, saying "Yeeeeaaah!" in unison. Darwin's speech, like an eternally beautiful sunrise, had lit the fire of hope within them.

  Archives

  "Gioni? Where are you?" asked Bernhardt as he hurried along the corridor. Bernhardt rolled his eyes and exclaimed "Gi... What are you doing!?"

  Gioni lay on the ground with his pants half way down his legs. He said with a twitch, "You know, too much electrical shock could lead to sterilization."

  "Oh! Those bastards!" said Bernhardt with a stamp on the ground.

  An iron door opened slowly, giving a slight creak. Nina rushed into a pitch-dark room and turned on a holographic imagery machine, which announced: "Welcome to Archives. Please state your request."

  "I need a copy of Ossien's biological weapon documentation!" demanded Nina. Then she inserted a flash drive into the computer.

  "The documentation is being copied," the computer said. "The top biological weapon documents are listed below."

  Biological Weapon Archives

  Partners (Investors)

  Karls Thule (21st century)

  Sellars Nien (21st century)

  Alexander Isaac, Ph.D. (20th century)

  Count Dracula (Dark Ages)

  Rastapopoulos (20th century)

  Rum Gin (20th century)

  King Xin of the Shang Dynasty (1105 B.C.)

  Dragon King (221 A.D.)

  En Sabah Nur (3000 B.C.)

  Morax Lacour (20th century)

  Musca R. Laputa

  Biological Weapons

  Lord of Gods, King of All Gods

  Neptune, God of the Sea

  Dragon of Hell, Spirit Terminator

  Dragon of Ground Drilling, Chief of Earth

  King of Demons, King of Hell

  Geklam Tucson, Dragon of the Sun

  Halls, Eagle of the Sun

  King of Scorpions, Pluto

  Sidku Larsen, Chaos

  Venus, Golden Eye

  Ricksilas, Ripper

  Dome Disaster, Winged Snake God

  The computer emitted a beep and said, "Top-secret files copied. For your information, Gioni issued an order approximately twenty minutes ago. The order states that all members, except for soldiers, must evacuate from the surface and core areas to the port above the lava for boarding the time machine. Technical Department personnel enjoy the boarding priority. All soldiers shall remain stationed within the base. They are not allowed to board. All related personnel must proceed to the appropriate areas as ordered."

  "'Soldiers are not allowed to board.' What does it mean by that?" Runt asked. "Isn't the volcano going to erupt?"

  "Obviously, Ossien has something else in mind," Nina said. "He isn't going to bring the Nazi soldiers along. Well, he's a compassionate son of a bitch, that's for sure."

  "We need to warn them and expose Ossien's conspiracy!" suggested Silverstar. "We might be able to seize the time machine!"

  Concurrently, on the square at the lowest level of the underground base, more than 40 people gathered around Ossien who was making a speech.

  "Dear friends, today our dream will finally be a reality! The years of research will bear fruit! From now on, human history will be written by . . ."

  "You! Right?" shouted Darwin when Ossien came to the climax of his speech. "You can't expect to fool us!" he continued. "Your filthy, stinking plan will fail!" Since Darwin was far away from Ossien, it took a while for Darwin's voice to reach him. The rest of the group approached from the lift.

  "Hahaha!" laughed Ossien. He feigned a complimentary tone and said, "Darwin Speicher, you really are quite funny!" Then he sneered and said, "Guards! Go and get them!"

  "Wait!" Darwin shouted to the Nazi soldiers. "You are deceived! He isn't going to take you with him! Your leader has deceived you! He plans to leave you behind! I got the radio message sent to the Technical Department! You must believe me!"

  The square went quiet for several seconds. Then Gioni continued, "Catch them!"

  "It's okay, boss!" whispered Nina to Darwin as she prepared to be seized. "I have a different plan!"

  "It seems that they don't trust us at all." said Nicholas, "It's likely that they don't understand English."

  "The world will be ours!" cried Ossien. The crowd immediately cheered with a thunderous round of applause. "Now," he continued, "it's five seconds past 8:34. I order all members to board the ship!"

  Great!

  "Move!" ordered a Nazi soldier. He grabbed Silverstar by his shirt and dragged him along. Ossien walked in front, followed by Gioni, Bernhardt and the personnel from the Technical Department. They entered a huge lift, followed by a few dozen soldiers. Silverstar reentered the dark, crowded lift.

  Time Machine

  An awesome boom came forth, followed by the friction of metal on metal that grated the ears like fingernails against a blackboard. The Nazi soldiers clamored forth from the lift, and before them was a vast hole in the ground. It was nearly 100 meters deep and half the length of the base overhead. Its surrounding wall comprised a network of complicated machinery that, in its totality, formed a dome over the hole. These machines were operating like a living thing. From time to time, it would emit a mass of cold air. The lift was located left to the dome.

  "Why don't we feel cold while the cool air keeps coming out of the machines?" asked Silverstar.

  "Well," answered Nicholas, "You'd better look down!"

  "Oh, God!" exclaimed Silverstar.

  "Oh! No!" cursed Darwin.

  "My goodness!" cried Catherine, "Incredible!"

  The dome was supported by a rock wall over a large lava lake.

  "This is the crater of the volcano we call Blade," said Liquor, who appeared suddenly. "Chief Ossien created a system that uses the heat from the volcano to supply the base with energy. The volcano is going to erupt, though, so we keep spraying in cold air in order to delay its eruption."

  "Come!" said Ossien, his face flush with pride. "Have a look at our fantastic time machine!"

  A stunningly bright light dazzled everyone present, and a space ship roughly three times the size of an aircraft carrier emerged just above the horizon. It had a sleek silhouette – nothing like the strictly utilitarian but authoritative look of a twentieth-century craft – highlighted by a rounded bow. As it drew near, Silverstar and his friends could see the rows of threatening electromagnetic guns. It also had a streamlined windshield at the bridge and a gigantic thruster at the back. The thruster glowed with that awesome blue light, indicating that it would surpass anything with a conventional jet or propeller.

 
"Do you see?" said Ossien in a loud voice, "This is the Noah's Ark for elites. With it, we will use our biological weapons to decimate the human race."

  Dozens of Ossien's followers cheered.

  "He hasn't abandoned his soldiers, though," Runt said quietly. "Was the broadcast a dummy message?"

  "No," Darwin replied. "I could see from his eyes that he's up to something. We'll have to wait and bit longer."

  An illuminated escalator descended from the ship. As decreed by Ossien, the personnel of the Technical Department went aboard first. The crowd began to cheer, and even the soldiers in charge of Silverstar and his friends joined in.

  They shouted in German, "Long live the chief! Long live the Nazi empire! Long live Ossien!"

  Gioni glanced at Bernhardt and said, "It's just about time."

  "You're right! Low-ranking soldiers aren't entitled to survive Doomsday."

  Ossien had a few clicks on the nearby computer. A holographic image displayed a message: "Time Chaos Launched." The crackle of electricity sounded above the soldiers. Liquor was the first one to recognize that something was wrong. Seeing what was happening overhead, he felt the onset of terror. A gigantic electric ball could be seen aloft, and from it came a web of currents bearing unimaginable voltage. With a bang, the currents grew more violent. All the followers on the ground started to panic. Darwin shouted, "Guys, back up! Quickly!"

  Although Darwin couldn't precisely know what was going on, he was, after all, a founding figure in the study of space and time. Just as Silverstar withdrew as suggested, an electric current shot the rope binding him. "I'm on fire!" he shouted. By instinct, he struggled with the rope and inadvertently broke it.

  The fire caused by the electric current freed him! Silverstar wiped the tingly beads of sweat from his forehead. Meanwhile, the electric ball started to rotate. A deafening, thunderous sound was heard. Several of the Nazis begged Gioni and Ossien for help, but their superiors were unmoved. Not a word was returned to the pleading. The electric ball became a hurricane and, like a black hole, it sucked the people below into a deep vortex. Luckily, Silverstar had moved away in advance.