Incident 27

by Scott Kinkade

  Ev pointed an accusing finger at him. “Because you lied to me. Maya didn’t make it over, and neither did anyone else except the two of us. They’re stuck in Gehenna and about to die.”

  “Hmph. Sounds like this world’s not as airtight as I wanted. One of them managed to get to you. All right, fine, I admit it; I kept everyone else out. Maya Brünhart was never on board with this plan. If I had let her in, she would not have stopped poisoning your mind until she convinced you to turn against me.”

  “But what about everyone else?” Ev said. “Why didn’t you let them in? Why fill this world with soulless puppets that only do what you want?”

  “Exactly, Ev. It’s all about the soul. The soul enables free will. Free will enables human nature. Human nature enables the creation of evil. Without souls, there can be no evil.”

  Ev shook his head at the lunacy spewing forth from Arcturus’ mouth. “There’s just one problem. You and I still have souls, so there can still be evil.”

  Arcturus began pacing back and forth. “So what? Two people. Big deal! How much evil can we possibly cause here?”

  “Well, we’re about to wipe out billions of people. I’d say that’s pretty evil,” Ev pointed out.

  Arcturus stopped pacing and got right up in Ev’s face. “Have you forgotten all the crimes they committed, the things they made us do to one another just to survive? It’s their fault the world was such a horrible place. I say let them die.”

  “How can you say that?”

  He laughed bitterly. “You think your Academy ‘professors’ are better than Zero Grade? Let me tell you a little story. A story about how the previous universe really ended. Let me tell you about Incident Zero.”

  Chapter XIV

  The previous universe. New York City, 2359 A.D.

  The two figures strode casually through Times Square. In another time, this would have been a normal activity. However, the burned-out shells of buildings all around them were a reminded that things were tragically different now.

  “Boy,” Ares said. “We really trashed this place, didn’t we?”

  “We trashed every place, genius,” Belial replied. The two brothers were thick as thieves, as the humans used to say. Back when there were humans. They did everything together, killed everything together. “New York, Chicago, Boston, Belfast, Hong Kong...”

  “Don’t forget Tokyo.”

  “Tokyo! Almost forgot about that. Oh, man! We really did a number on them.”

  “Hey, at least we killed them in a way they would appreciate.” In Japan, the brothers had transformed themselves into giant lizards and stomped the place. After destroying the Self Defense Force and turning the city into a radioactive wasteland, they proceeded to destroy the rest of the island nation. The annihilation of Japan was their favorite experience of all time. The Japanese had a great sense of humor the rest of the world just didn’t share. Yes, they had, as one, cried out in terror and anguish while the brothers crushed them underfoot, but deep down, Ares knew they appreciated the irony of it all.

  “The best part was when the other gods took the form of giant animals and tried to stop us,” Belial added. “Idiots didn’t even realize they were doing just as much damage as us.”

  Ares sighed. “I miss hunting humans. It was the best part of being a god. I couldn’t get enough of their reactions. Whether they were fleeing in terror or trying to come up with ways to fight us, they always had me laughing. But now look at us. Every day we wander through this broken shell of a city, looking for mortals to terrorize, even though we haven’t seen one in decades.

  From somewhere to their left, a voice cried out, “That’s because you killed them all!” A familiar woman stood atop a building across the street. She must have been at least ten stories up, but her voice carried just fine.

  Belial said with disdain, “Freya.”

  “What are you doing here, Freya?”

  She walked off the building and fell gracefully to the ground, whereupon she walked over to confront them. “I’m here to give you one last chance to end this war. You already killed off every single human and most of the animal life on earth.”

  “We killed them off,” Ares reminded her.

  “Yes,” she said sadly. “We all had a hand in the horrific fate of this world.” In this universe, as in the one that would follow, the gods were split into two factions. Freya’s group had been at war with Ares’ and Belials’ for centuries now. “But there’s no reason for us to keep fighting. We’re gods; we don’t need food, money or resources.”

  Belial snorted. “That’s where you’re wrong. We need the Ultimus Points.”

  “Need them for what?” she said. She was being pushed to the breaking point by all the needless bloodshed. “Each of us is strong enough to wipe out an entire species single-handedly, so what would we possibly need more power for?”

  Ares answered, “Isn’t it obvious? To be the god of gods! The first faction to fully harness the Ultimus Points will become truly omnipotent. And then we can bring all the humans back...and kill them all over again! Rinse and repeat until the end of time.”

  She slapped him. “You’re sick! You’re beyond saving. I see that now. I dared to hope we could go back to the way things used to be. Don’t you remember how happy we were together? But your brother has completely twisted you into a mirror image of himself.”

  “Enough of this!” Belial said. “She’s a key member of Orion’s group. Let’s send a message to him by gutting her like a fish.”

  He extended a flaming hand to grab her, but she said, “Not so fast!”

  Behind her, a host of her fellow gods appeared on the rooftops: Shinigami, Hera, Quandisa, Dian Cecht, Atlas, and Aphrodite. The fiery brothers were outnumbered four to one. “Tsk! We shouldn’t have gone wandering off alone,” Belial said. “Let’s fall back for now.”

  The two of them generated an intense wall of flames in front of them to cover their escape. They got away, but their pride suffered as a result.

  They would pay those assholes back, though—and soon. Gods tended to have immense patience because of their immortality, but not these gods. They were quick to anger and even quicker to vengeance.

  * * *

  After Ares and Belial left, Freya’s team dropped down to the street to make sure she was all right. “You should have let us go after them,” Hera said. “I would’ve killed them both without fail. Especially Belial. I can’t stand him.”

  Freya replied, “Don’t underestimate them. Even with all of us, we would have suffered casualties from their fire which is great even among gods.”

  “I think you’re the one who’s underestimating us. We could have handled them,” Atlas said.

  Shinigami nodded. “I concur. I believe Commander Freya still has feelings for Ares and is letting them cloud her judgment.”

  “That’s not true!” she protested.

  Hera snorted. “If it weren’t, you would have let us ambush them. We could’ve wiped them out in a matter of moments.”

  “Leave her alone,” Aphrodite said. “We can’t help the way we feel.”

  “Spoken like a true goddess of love,” Hera said derisively. She generally didn’t buy into the idea of romance. It was rumored she and Zeus used to have something going on, but that was thousands of years ago. Then that whole mess with Hercules happened, and now she and Zeus weren’t even on speaking terms anymore.

  “I will hear no more about this. If you have any doubts about my leadership abilities, you can take it up with General Orion. Now let us return to the ship.”

  * * *

  Two months later.

  Gods, like humans, change with the times. Their clothing, personalities, and even interests evolve as the centuries progress. In the old days, deities would fight hand-to-hand, and later with weapons. Now, in the 24th-century, divine warfare had grown to a whole new level.

  Case in point: the gargantuan starships which now hung in low orbit over Earth. They varied wildly in shape, siz
e and color, but the most common model was the Sidonia-class starship. These vessels were long, narrow, blocky and packed enough firepower to vaporize a large star.

  Perhaps “starship” was not the most accurate name; in fact, these ships had never left earth. At the end of the day, these were warships that just happened to be able to escape Earth’s gravity. The gods had been influenced by human science fiction, and felt grandiose vessels such as these represented them quite well.

  However, these ships weren’t powered by nuclear fusion or anything that mortals ever dreamt up. No, each starship engine drew its power directly from the gods on board, and the gods in turn drew their power from the Ultimus Points. Basically, as in the days of old, it all came down to which side had the strongest gods.

  Freya entered the bridge of the Gemini and took her seat in the captain’s chair. In front of her sat Hera and Aphrodite. Unlike in science fiction, there were no consoles in front of them; the engine could draw power from them anywhere on the ship, and giving it was their primary role on the Gemini. The captain had by far the most responsibilities: coordinating battle tactics with the other ships, diverting god-energy to needed areas, engaging the cloaking device, and retreating if necessary.

  Behind her near the door to the bridge, Atlas, who did have a console, announced, “Incoming message from General Orion.”

  “Put it on-screen.”

  The tattooed face of their faction’s leader appeared on the viewer in front of them. Dark as midnight, with flowing dreadlocks and luminescent blue eyes, Orion never failed to command their attention. “Commander Freya, are you ready for the final assault?” he asked with a voice as deep as the ocean.

  “Yes, General. We await the order to attack.”

  “Good. Commander Loki, are you ready?”

  Orion shrunk and moved to the left as Loki’s face appeared on-screen. Unlike Orion, he was unremarkable in appearance, though he remained a serious and dedicated officer who commanded the Midgard. Both he and Freya were directly below Orion in the chain of command. “Ready, General.”

  “Very well. To everyone in the fleet—bring your UPAS online.” The Ultimas Point Absorption System was a series of large antennae along the underside of each of their ships which, in effect, sucked up Big Bang energy and enhanced the power of their respective vessels. Both factions were fully equipped with the UPAS.

  “System at twenty-five percent,” Atlas announced. On the viewscreen, the faces of Orion and Loki had been replaced with a view of the northern hemisphere. Up ahead, the enemy fleet de-cloaked and set a course directly for them.

  It was far too small. Alarm rose inside Freya as she immediately realized what was going on. “That’s only half of them! They must be moving to outflank us.”

  “We’ve got ships de-cloaking behind us!” Atlas said.

  The Gemini was rocked by enemy fire. “What’s the status of the UPAS?”

  “Fifty percent. Fifty-five percent. Sixty percent...”

  “There’s no time!” Freya said. “Bring it to one hundred percent now!”

  Aphrodite pointed out, “We’ve never put that kind of strain on the Ultimus Points before. There’s no telling what effect it will have.”

  “It will make us stronger!” she insisted. She fell out of her chair as another enemy volley struck the aft shields. The lights dimmed and blinked erratically.

  Hera, who had also fallen, rose to her feet in a fury. “You’re insane! You’re going to get us all killed!”

  Ignoring her, Freya said to Atlas, “Do it!”

  He closed his eyes and focused all of his mental energies on the task. Carrying out orders on these ships required not the pushing of buttons, but willpower. Within moments, the lighting returned to normal and he announced, “UPAS at eighty percent. Ninety percent. One hundred percent. Shields completely restored to normal.”

  Aphrodite cautioned, “Once Ares and Belial figure out what we’ve done, they’ll do the same.”

  “We’ll just wipe them out before that happens,” Freya said, trying to sound the coldblooded officer they needed her to be.

  Without warning, though, the ship began shaking again. But this time, it was more rhythmic and less chaotic, a steady beating of drums. “Report,” she said.

  “There’s a massive time-space flux in this quadrant,” Atlas said.

  “What’s the source?”

  It took him a moment to pin it down. “The Ultimus Points. They’re going crazy. Every ship in the area is drawing out their energies like mad trying to gain the advantage here, and I don’t think the Ultimus Points like it.”

  They watched in horror as Earth was swallowed up into a bright aquamarine abyss. Ship after ship followed suit, unable to escape the unimaginable gravity field being generated.

  “This entire area of space is coming apart!” Atlas said.

  Freya had planned on victory today. Retreat hadn’t even crossed her mind. Nevertheless, that was the only option left now. “Get us out of here!”

  “No can do! The pull of that...thing...is too strong. We’ll be sucked into it in less than a minute.”

  If they couldn’t run from the abyss, that just left one bad idea. “Tell the fleet: initiate space-fold! Take us to Gehenna!”

  “The drive is untested!” Hera said. “It’s suicide!” True; they were gods first and engineers second. Yet some of them possessed an even greater knowledge of physics than Albert Einstein.

  Freya stared her down. “Do you have a better idea? Aparently not, since Hera stayed her tongue. Freya turned to Atlas. “Do it.”

  “Initiating space-fold,” Atlas announced. “Uh-oh.”

  That was probably the worst thing he could have said at that moment. “What is it?”

  “It’s not just Earth. I’m reading implosions all over the solar system. The computer’s crunching the numbers, and it calculates a total universal breakdown.”

  Her eyes went wide. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying...whatever we did with the Ultimus Points is causing the universe to fall like dominoes.”

  The enormity of that statement didn’t fully hit her, at least, not yet. She still had a job to do. “Is the space-fold ready yet?”

  “Just about...annnnnnnnnd...ready!”

  Everything turned to cold liquid. Every single molecule on the bridge became a translucent nothing. There was no consciousness to speak of. Or perhaps everything was consciousness itself. Freya didn’t have the words to describe it. This had never happened before. She merged with all living and nonliving matter around her, yet remained outside of it. For an indeterminate amount of time which could have been anywhere from a second to a billion years, she knew everything. She had true omniscience.

  And then it was over. The bridge returned to normal. Only the total darkness on the viewscreen told her something had changed.

  “Space-fold complete. A little under half the fleet made it.” Atlas said.

  They were safe, but at that moment, it hardly mattered to her. Her heart ached at the universe and limitless knowledge she had just lost.

  Hera grabbed her by her neckline. “This is all your fault!” she said, spittle flying into Freya’s face. “We followed you and you got the entire universe destroyed! Everything we’ve ever known is gone!”

  Freya didn’t have the energy to defend herself. What Hera said was true; she had doomed them all.

  Aphrodite pulled Hera back. “Leave her alone. She was just following orders.”

  “We weren’t under orders to suck the Ultimus Points dry! That was her call,” Hera said.

  “I concur,” Shinigami said. He must have entered the bridge while they were arguing. “Bringing the UPAS to full power was reckless. The resulting loss of life is unimaginable, even to ones such as us.”

  Atlas stepped forward to Freya’s defense. “What choice did we have? The enemy had caught us in a pincer maneuver. If the Commander hadn’t given the order, we’d all be dead right now.”

  “So
we survive while everything else gets sucked into oblivion? That’s a fucking bad joke,” Hera said.

  Aphrodite made the wise decision to change the subject. “The important thing now is figuring out what we’re going to do. We can’t survive in Gehenna indefinitely.”

  “There is very little we can do,” Shinigami said.