by Lea Tassie
Abarth had gone to great lengths, through the legal system and news media, to smear and besmirch the entire program because of the deaths. Finally reaching the highest courts in the land, Abarth was stopped when it was proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Abarth, and Abarth alone, was fully responsible for forcing his family into the program against their will.
He sat for some time in the small cramped quarters he kept at the pope's church, creating a plan that would result in the death of Pennington and his taking control of the church. When he was sure he had worked out all the angles, he committed himself to his atrocity.
The deed would be done on the eve of all hallows day, a religious holiday recaptured from Earth's past, when the church was said to rule supreme. This holiday required members of the congregation to dress up in antiquated religious garb copied from data in the Taskoids' memory banks. It was also a time of cleansing and crusades. Devout church members would willingly be burned at the stake or tortured without fear of death, thanks to medical science and the longevity program. Brutal acts of violence would be committed upon members who believed that surviving such acts was a test of their faith.
Members also reveled in the violence and stupidity of immoral behavior that night, sacrificing burnt offerings of innocent animal flesh, mostly cats. When the peak of the evening's frenzy was reached, Pope Paul was to appear and give a speech praising the faithful and their commitment to punish science for the loss of their god.
But this time Pennington did not appear. The crowd waited in anticipation and a few members began to ask, "Where is the pope?" Then, in plain sight and with hundreds of witnesses, Abarth mounted the podium and cried, "Our pope is gone. She has been taken by filthy scientific fanatics!" The crowd was first shocked, then angered, as Abarth continued his deceit.
He went on inciting the crowd into an unreasoning mob of angry and violent psychopaths. As the night wore on, calls for revenge and anarchy came from many twisted and terrifying human minds. Yet, though the crowd screamed and shouted, they knew it would be useless to inflict physical harm on people, for everyone was close to immortality now. They needed some other method of wreaking revenge.
At no point that night did anyone ask how and where Pennington's remains were found, or even if there were remains. These people were so taken in by Abarth the deceiver that no questions or even individual thoughts arose. The crowd decided if they could not kill, they would burn and destroy people's homes and businesses in retaliation for a crime they had no proof even existed.
The mob of militant religious stormed, burnt, and looted in the city streets, but Abarth did not lead them. He returned to the church for a malicious reason. He wanted to show Pennington what he had accomplished.
What Abarth had done to Pennington was both demented and tragic. He and a few radicals he had converted sneaked into the pope's chambers, where they bound and gagged the woman. The church had an old service elevator that once operated to access the building's mechanical room but, with new technology, the room had become obsolete. The cramped room was filled with old, unused machinery. The elevator had long since been removed and the doors secured shut, sealing off the old space. That is, until Abarth learned of its existence through his work as a building engineer.
Abarth knew that he probably could not kill Pennington, but he could entomb her. He lowered her kicking and screaming body down the shaft to the floor of the mechanical room. Then, with the help of heavy equipment, he poured tons of wet concrete down the shaft. He hoped Pennington would spend eternity alive but sealed in a tomb of his hatred, a tomb of solid concrete. The whole deed was so well planned and executed that hardly an hour passed between the time she was last seen and the announcement of her disappearance.
Out of sheer spite, Abarth had sent Pope Paul to her tomb with a piece of the technology she hated so much. A pair of glasses had been fixed to her face which gave her a view, through variously located cameras, of the outside world. Images of her flock rampaging the streets in her name were repeatedly flashed to her via the cameras.
Abarth committed one final act of malice before he left, guaranteeing that Pen, if she was truly immortal, would be in torment for eternity. He disconnected the pope from the technology which would have allowed her to blink.
Abarth caught up with the mob again and continued through the night working them into such a frenzy that they mindlessly went on burning and looting. His co-conspirators egged him on to continue these barbaric acts of cruelty and, with no police force to stop the mob, by morning much of the city lay in ruins.
***
Dart speaks to Reader:
Oh, haven't I explained the blink system to you? Sorry about that!
The first use of the blink had been a technological triumph when Tegra-Duran was still in power because it ended the need for external transportation methods. The system required a massive network of orbital satellites and millions of quantum computers. Billions of devices were manufactured and one surgically installed in each human around the globe.
Each device was numbered and cataloged, then integrated into a global network of systems and subsystems which any individual could access virtually. This allowed the traveler to pick a destination and activate the transport, or the blink, which would remove him from his present location and reassemble him molecularly at the desired destination. The best analogy I can think of is the twentieth century telephone system. One could call up the address where one wished to go, then be deconstructed and reconstituted all in a blink.
There are controls, of course, so that people can't blink themselves into the bottom of the ocean, or into a brick wall.
No, using the system doesn't hurt.
You wish to try it? Of course, but we don't have time for you to play with the system right now. It may be, though, that the blink is how you'll escape when we're attacked.
Am I not going to escape that way, too? I don't know, Reader. Charger R/T will save you, but there's no guarantee he'll save me.
You can see that for Abarth to disconnect Pennington from the system and deny her the ability to escape was purely vindictive. His professed religious belief was merely a mask covering his drive for power.
***
During the following days, Abarth went on public displays all around the world claiming the church he represented had been oppressed and that its right to religious freedom had been violated by the murder of Pennington. He demanded retribution and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Charger R/T, who was now being demonized as a false god. It didn’t take much to convince the people that a beast such a Charger R/T could be responsible for this act, for he was known to be violent and unpredictable.
Abarth continued to condemn Charger R/T for being a servant of evil and demanded that citizens everywhere rise up, band together and put an end to this menace. But in order to slay the beast, first they had to find it. Charger R/T was never attached to the world blink system, so he had no 'phone number' to be used in establishing his location. However, the New Eden council continued to be bombarded by complaints from many citizens demanding the head of this monster. Charger R/T had last been seen in the park where Pennington once camped as she built a religion to worship him. When it was confirmed that he was no longer there, a worldwide search began.
***
In a tiny room, in a nondescript building located on the outskirts of the great city of Eur, looking out a dirty window at the green gardens she was never allowed to visit, sat Pennington and her shattered mind. She had been rescued from the concrete prison Abarth put her in, but not before her mind and spirit had failed. Pennington was now regarded by the medical profession as incurably insane. She was forced to wear special gloves to prevent her tearing flesh from her face and body, or pulling handfuls of hair from her head.
The memory of heavy, rough concrete pressing on her living body when she was entombed had given Pennington a constant itching sensation that could never be relieved, no matter how much or how hard she scra
tched. The attendants force-fed her with medications and subjected her to regenerative therapy, but Pen seemed capable only of drooling and jabbering incoherently. The once mighty pope now looked like a desiccated, blackened scarecrow, wild-eyed and endlessly tormented inside her broken mind.
She was alone in her room when Charger R/T blinked into her presence. Pennington simply stared into those reflective white eyes and giggled insanely. Then, without warning, she flew into a rage, rose out of her chair and bashed her head against the padded walls, trying desperately to end her life.
Charger R/T asked one question. "Where is the device you had?" It was more of a growl then normal language, but his point was clear.
The news media had been reporting on the appearance and disappearance of Charger R/T on the worlds that circled the sun. He was clearly searching for something, and Abarth watched with avid fascination. Inside Pennington's room, away from prying eyes, Charger R/T now faced a human who had once worshiped him and hated the way humanity treated him. He took pity on Pennington and, with a touch of his finger on her forehead, released her from her delusions.
For a little while, Pope Paul had clarity of mind. She asked, "Why did you do this for me?"
Charger R/T merely asked his question again. "Where is the device you had?"
Pennington looked at Charger R/T's massive presence filling almost all of the room she was stored in, and asked, "Are you god?"
Charger R/T had no interest in what this woman thought or why she needed answers. Impatient, he spoke harshly. "The device. Where is it?" The growl he uttered would have driven most to quickly answer, but not Pennington.
She asked another question. "If I tell you, will you kill me?" It was a plea, a negotiation.
Charger R/T was again being asked to be a weapon. To get the information he needed, he had to strike a bargain. "The device! Where is it?" Charger reached down and grabbed Pennington by her robes, jerking her off her feet.
Pennington laughed insanely. She enjoyed being tormented now, believing in her ruined mind that torment would lead to death. She encouraged Charger R/T by torturing him. "I will never reveal the location of that scientific abomination. If you want it, you will obey me, Satan!" Pennington spat venomously into Charger R/T's face.
Charger R/T's free hand reached out and covered the whole of Pennington's head. He pressed his thumb against her skull. Before he forced his way through the bone and into her brain, Pennington let out a mad laugh, reveling in Charger R/T's frustration.
"Kill me and you will never know! Kneel before me, Satan, and do my bidding!" Pennington reached beneath her gown and retrieved a cross made of gold and thrust it into Charger R/T's face. "Kneel, Satan. I command thee!"
Charger R/T realized he had little hope of creating fear in this woman. She was obviously in control of the situation. He carefully placed Pennington back on her feet and removed his thumb from her bleeding skull. From deep inside himself, he retrieved a power he rarely used.
When he killed the First Ones of air, they had agreed to give him the ability to see into the lives of individuals who were promised paradise, to know all their secrets so he could confront each and every one with their transgressions in life. Those First Ones of air, who had passed through the gates hidden under the Sphinx in Egypt, paid for their deaths by giving him the all the deeds and consequences of their lives. They were shown how arrogant, pitiful, and selfish their existence had been. Now Charger R/T would use this power on Pennington.
She began to remember the people she had betrayed for power, the people she ostracized for nothing more than their opinions, the existence she had squandered so uselessly on a wondrous planet. In spite of science gifting her the prospect of a full, rich life, safe and protected, with all the necessities of life, she had wasted precious time in belittling and oppressing others who need not have been hurt. Onto the movie screen of her mind flashed every face she had encountered in life, reflecting back at her the decisions and positions she had imposed on others. She was staggered.
This power of Charger R/T's was more than just the ability to clearly show people their guilt. It also showed the victims surviving the hatred of this pathetic woman. Pennington felt the weight of every vile and disrespectful action she had ever taken against another human being. It brought her to her knees.
From that place in the past where few humans go, Pennington's youthful childhood persona arose. The good and innocent child who had once listened in wonder to her great grandmother's stories about a small Gray alien from another world emerged and asked Charger R/T to please stop, she had seen enough. "Please forgive me," Pennington begged as she wept, finally understanding the folly of her life. Charger R/T relented and asked, "The device?"
Pennington was now bawling like a newborn and carried on for some time before she finally regained her composure. She explained that in the last camp where she had lived, in the deep cold of the northern regions of New Eden, the place where she tortured a living being for nothing more than revenge, she had buried the device. She had thought to use science to defeat science, and her unwillingness to accept her limited intelligence accomplished nothing except to kill innocent people.
Charger R/T turned his back on the sniffling pope but, before he blinked from the place, he raised his hand and ended her life. Close to immortal she might be, in the limited fashion of ordinary humans, but his god-like powers gave her a painless death and the air around felt less tainted.
The media caught sight of Charger R/T once again as he materialized in the cold, wind-swept plains of the northern region of New Eden. There, satellite cameras focused on his great mass as he stomped around the abandoned camp. Abarth had taken over the world ship and he watched from its command center as Charger R/T retrieved something from the ice, then disappeared in a blink. Abarth activated the alarm bells on board the ship in preparation for what surely would be Charger R/T's quick arrival to attack the ship. But he did not come.
Charger R/T had one more place to go before he attacked Abarth. Deep in space, a lone ship sat cold and dormant. Free of any gravity pull from nearby planets, it floated aimlessly in the inky black void. It was a forgotten and derelict ship, devoid of life, or so it appeared. From its degraded structure, twisted metal, and the overall filthy condition, it was clear that it had served only one purpose. It was a Tasker mining ship from the early days of the Mahoud, a robotic spaceship sent out to mine precious minerals for the hollow black world. He had found it many hundreds of years before, when it was still mining for the Mahoud and had known, even then, that the ship and its crew would be useful to him. He now had the key to operate it.
Charger R/T knew that his defeat of Abarth was assured, so he didn't need an army. But he wanted one, and what better army could he have than something created by Gray technology many centuries in the past? Charger R/T's sense of irony always brought great joy to his heart, or what passed for one.
Why Charger R/T programmed one of the Taskers onboard to mount a black pirate flag high atop the vessel was anyone's guess, but it did hold a commanding and obvious position. Charger R/T took his time arming the Taskers.
Abarth, for his part, spent long hours wondering when and where the fight would start, and the uncertainty agitated him immensely. His demands became increasingly desperate and erratic as he paced the floor of his command center, constantly asking his devoted personnel if this noise was Charger R/T, or if that sound was Charger R/T.
Time passed slowly.
Chapter 10 Abarth attacks Charger R/T
Dart speaks to Reader:
I need to remind you of some long past history, Reader. It's relevant to what happens next, so please don't ask a lot of questions. Just listen.
You remember the Night of the Black Rain? Well, the day before the black rain encased Earth in molten metal, the Dinosauroids realized that the battle with the Grays had been lost. These industrious beings from prehistoric Earth had built a sizable civilization in their ancient homeland of Australia, and nea
rly all of them signed up to join humanity in their hour of greatest need. The Dinosauroid scientists had figured out the technology of the Grays through back engineering and were willing to share everything they had learned in a desperate bid to save their ancestral home.
With Earth nearing certain doom, the Dinosauroids initiated a final desperate act to strike back at the Grays. A single ship was launched, carrying the last survivors and a possession of paramount importance, a time-lock device, on a one-way trip to the Grays' home world. This would be a daring act of biological warfare against the ever-present and destructive Grays, in hopes of ridding the universe of this menace once and for all.
Sixty-five million years before, the Dinosauroids had been infected by a new virus carried to their continent by storm-borne birds. The virus killed a few weak Dinosauroids, but thereafter the survivors carried the virus in body oils exuded by their fine, delicate scales. When dried, some oils stuck to the scales and some floated freely in the air. When inhaled by the Grays, the dried particles had caused a viral outbreak impossible to stem, and most of the Grays were obliterated.
That had been an accident. Now, sixty-five million years later, with the Grays' empire once more flourishing, the Dinosauroids acted deliberately to annihilate them.
Before the launch, Betty pleaded with her lover, Chehx, a reptoid of political significance who belonged to one of the important clans of the Dinosauroids. "Send the ship and the device, but please don't leave me here alone."
"Chehx must lead, must fight." Chehx had been hatched in a privileged clan and it fell to him and the others of his brood to take this drastic course of action against the Grays. "I feel the longing and loss already for the time ahead."
Betty understood the hierarchy of these gentle creatures, for this was part of what had drawn her affection across species lines. However, during this violent and fearful hour, Betty found she could not bear to be left alone to perish. "Then take me with you," she pleaded, clinging to Chehx's arm, "I lost my family and now have only you."