by Logan Castle
Her lips moved and, again, a voice that did not belong to Plum came out. She finally stopped gazing at my arm and turned her attention instead to Brendan.
“Those were dark days then and they have come again,” she announced in an inappropriately melodic, singsong voice. “Forgive us. In our arrogance, we did not see, nor did we understand. Only now, when it might be too late, does it finally become clear. We thought we were the protectors but in truth, we were the ones in need of protection,” she mused.
Somehow, I found my voice. “Who are you?” I managed to ask her. “And what have you done to Plum?”
She smiled in a completely foreign way but her smile relieved me all the same. “Do not fret, Isaac,” she sang. “Your lady is unscathed. I am merely borrowing her corporeal form. She is not at risk of any harm.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
Her eyes moved faster than her head. Those understanding blue orbs were already focused on me before she turned her face in my direction.
“Who I am is not your concern at this moment,” she started, her pixie-like voice reminding me of the tinkle of bells. “What concerns you is only this: it is not your time yet, Isaac Kent.” She took a breath as she studied me with Plum’s beautiful eyes. I noticed a benevolence lurking deep within that I hadn’t noticed before. “There is still so much you must do.”
“So much I must do?” I repeated, completely lost.
She nodded before continuing. “All hope of saving the Multiverse demands that you must pursue the fight, and you must also endure. You will need help, of course. But,” she started, nodding towards Brendan, “it seems that you’ve already received some along the way.” I had no idea what she was talking about or what Brendan had to do with it. He and I were basically acquaintances, nothing more. “I have done my part this night,” Plum (the imposter) continued. “You would have perished had I not brought you back when I did.”
I was so up to my eyeballs in confusion; I was drowning in it. “What the fuck are you talking about?! This is craz—!”
“Remember!” Her voice, though merely a whisper, resounded with authority and power.
As the word left her lips, an image of the rickety, wooden bridge flashed through my head. I recalled the black ocean and the immense tidal wave. I could still hear the blaring sound of the heart monitor before it suddenly ceased and the feeling of horror that overcame me once I realized I was on Death’s doorstep. I also remembered an arm grasping me just before I would have been struck by that immense wave, the very same one now gripping my forearm.
“That was you?!” I gasped. She only stared back at me. “Who…who are you?” I repeated as I shook my head, a sense of delirium overtaking me. “What the hell is going on?” I demanded. “Am I completely losing my mind?” I asked. I remembered my first meeting with Plum, which wasn’t how it should have gone at all, then being whisked off into the Valley of Death. Now, it appeared I was here, stuck in another memory that wasn’t staying true to form! “This doesn’t make any fucking sense!” I started, my heartbeat pounding hard against my chest. “I can’t!” I was suddenly dizzy and short of breath.
“Calm yourself,” she mouthed, soothingly. “You must also forgive me, Isaac Kent, for not locating you sooner. But I only became aware of you once you used the Time Force. After you lost consciousness, I entered your mind and commandeered it. I wanted to witness these critical moments, so I could understand who you truly were. I needed to see, for myself and through your eyes, events that have and will continue to affect the outcome of the coming struggle. I needed to understand you. Especially your motives.”
I took a deep breath and slowly released it. “I don’t understand anything you just said,” I replied, my voice sounding downtrodden, even defeated. “The Time Force?”
She nodded. “Unfortunately, in my quest for your knowledge, I did not account for some primary inconveniences. Things like how your physical body was not quite yet ready to handle the stress placed upon it by your use of the Time Force. That, in tandem with my unexpected intrusion into your mind, must have overloaded you. For that I do apologize.”
“What does that even mean?” I inquired.
“It means that my intrusion was too much for you to handle. In fact, you very nearly expired. That accounts for your vivid vision of Death. A rather primitive outlook, I might add, but Death has always been visualized by you humans differently.” She smiled. Perhaps my visit to the Valley of The Forever was amusing to her. It wasn’t amusing to me. “In any case, I am sorry that I brought you so close to Death. Thank you for allowing me to access your memories.”
“Doesn’t sound like I ‘allowed’ you to do shit!” I protested angrily. I hated the idea that this being, whoever the hell she was, could inhabit my girlfriend’s body without her permission. God only knew what the hell was happening to Plum while this being or whatever the hell she actually was, continued to use her.
“I assure you that your lady friend is completely unharmed,” the strange creature repeated.
“Regardless, you borrowed Plum’s body and my mind without asking permission to do so,” I replied stonily.
She just smiled. “In a manner of speaking, you are correct. Your use of the Time Force…”
“Stop! Stop it!” I replied, shaking my head to keep the impending headache from completely debilitating me. “Stop talking all this fucking gibberish and start answering my questions, dammit!” I yelled at her. Not an easy thing to do either. I had to keep reminding myself that, despite her sweet face, she wasn’t Plum. “This is the third time you’ve mentioned that word! What is ‘the Time Force’?!”
With blinding speed, she reached over and grabbed my other forearm, yanking me forward until I was looking directly into her eyes. She gripped both of my forearms tightly. The right one was still burning from the endless hours under the needle, but she failed to notice or care. Instead, she forcibly pulled my forearms up in front of my face so they were the only things separating us.
“The answers are right here, Isaac Kent. These are the key. You only lack the knowledge of how to use them.”
“How to use them?” I repeated, shaking my head. But after glancing down at my forearms and the tattooed images there, I understood. “My tattoos are the key?”
“Yes,” she answered, growing visibly impatient.
“The key to what?!” I yelled, feeling exasperated.
She sighed heavily. “Alas, that journey is one in which I cannot guide you. There will be many challenges to come, and I will do my best to aid you.” She took a deep breath and slowly shook her head. “Unfortunately, our time together has come to an end. Please accept my sincerest apology for the awkward manner of my introduction.”
“What?” I demanded, sitting up straight. “You’re leaving me already?” I shook my head. “You can’t leave now! I still don’t understand anything you’ve been talking about!”
She shook her head again and a sweet, calming smile appeared on her face. “Do not be alarmed, for when you wake, you will have no memory of anything that transpired. Not since your unfortunate incident at the bar.”
Without warning, she released my forearms and they fell back down onto the chair with a thud. She never took her eyes away from mine so I continued to stare into hers until I suddenly started feeling very dizzy. The scenery around me began twirling in a circle, as if it were being caught up in a twister. As the contortions of my world persisted, Plum’s eyes were the only thing that remained absolutely still. Amidst the ensuing chaos, her voice came through like a familiar beacon in the dead of night.
“You are not ready yet, Isaac Kent. You will awaken from this vision with no memory of what has transpired here; but I will not take it away from you completely. When the time is right, this memory will be fully restored to you. Our time together is ended temporarily, but we shall meet again. For now, you must awaken.”
My eyes grew heavy and slammed shut of thei
r own volition. Even with my eyes closed, I felt like I was being hurled head over heels into a sea of darkness and mystery. As I surrendered myself to the mercy of whatever force seemed to be taking hold of me, I heard the voice that wasn’t Plum’s around me, shielding me, and comforting me.
“All will be made clear… in time. Wake up, Isaac Kent…”
Chapter 3.5
Waypoint Station
The Axis of Time
Outside of Time
“Time Keeper?”
A white streak split through the blackness. The bright, white light overpowered his senses, creating confusion where there had once been serenity. It started out very small and insignificant but its arrival forced the darkness to either flee or become completely consumed by it. As the glow intensified and grew, it also brought with it a sharp and searing pain. The pain was like a million voices crying out in despair as the warm blanket of blissful oblivion was removed to expose light to eyes that had otherwise remained in darkness for too long. But with pain came awareness, and a return to consciousness.
“Time Keeper?”
The screaming voices quickly retreated, and the pain was soon no more than a simple afterthought. The bright, white light began to dissipate, leaving in its wake swiftly forming shapes and colors.
“Sirius!!”
The voice seemed closer this time, clearer and filled with an urgency that demanded action. His eyes, having opened only a slit, fully took in the scope of his surroundings. He was face down on the floor with his cheek resting on cobblestones. Lying there, he was breathing with difficulty in and out of his nose, watching the dust from the ground rise up only to scatter into the atmosphere as he did so.
Where…where am I?
His moment of confusion was fleeting, however, and his exact whereabouts returned to him with as much subtlety as a kick to the nether regions.
You’re in the Axis of Time, old fool! Where else would you be?! He thought to himself.
A groan escaped his lips as he lifted his face up from the cold, hard ground. He could feel every muscle, ligament, and fiber in his body. They were creaking and moaning as they came back to life. From the corner of one eye, he saw a trail of dried blood that led from his cheek to the tip of his nose. He made no immediate attempt to wipe it off. As he inspected the scene before him, the color that was beginning to reappear in his cheeks quickly fled once more.
The monitors… the Axis!
Suddenly, all the events that had transpired prior to his waking up in a puddle of his own drool came flooding back.
“I am relieved to see that you are unhurt, Time Keeper,” a soft voice said from his left side that nearly scared him right out of his skin. Spinning around to look for the owner of the voice, he cursed himself. He was so out of sorts that he’d actually allowed someone to startle him.
After discovering the location from whence the voice had come, he found himself staring into the calm blue of two large orbs. The eyes were attached to a cylindrical, almost opaque head, devoid of any nose and only a small opening for a mouth. Its eyes were enormous, occupying the majority of its face. The thing hovered above him with its oval-shaped body, sans legs, and two small, protruding limbs that appeared to be its arms and hands. He stumbled backwards as he cried out in frustration.
“Damn it, KT-1! Don’t sneak up on me like that! You will stop this old heart before its time!” His guilt instantly swelled within him as soon as the words left his lips. He rarely felt inclined to yell, especially not at the robot. After all, it was part of her programming to show concern for human life and, more specifically, his.
KT-1 backed a few inches away with a slight whirring sound until Sirius could see all two-and-a-half feet of her. A machine born of the 31st century in some distant world, she had been physically plucked from the Multiverse itself when he, having spent so long on his own inside the Axis, decided he needed a cohort and companion. Since she was a mass-produced robot in her reality, he had convinced himself that the ripples created by her disappearance from that world would be non-existent. Her complex programming was designed to let her grasp things very quickly. In almost no time at all, she could communicate with the Axis computers directly, allowing the Time Keeper to delegate such tasks to her. Still, from time to time, he had some difficulty in just looking at her without gawking at her physical appearance.
“My apologies, sir,” she said, sounding hurt by his brusque tone before hastily backing away from him. “I did not mean to startle you.”
Emotions. Even after all this time, he still found it strange to accept her ability to exhibit human emotions. It took him a good while to get accustomed to her. But despite his eventual familiarity, there was still something about a robot having emotions that continued to make him uneasy.
Their first few years of working together were awkward but not because of KT-1. She was specially programmed to identify with her human counterparts and “make friends.” As time went on inside the Axis, their awkward relationship morphed into one of mutual respect and admiration. The Axis of Time was a lonely place for anyone. It was imperative that Sirius maintain his own human sanity and that could only be accomplished by having some type of social interaction, whether it was robotic or not.
“It’s all right, KT-1. Forgive me,” he stammered, feeling like a fool for apologizing to a machine. “Something… someone has… attacked the Axis.” As the words tumbled from his mouth, he found them almost impossible to comprehend.
It was impossible, or so he had always thought.
The Axis of Time wasn’t just some place that could be assaulted. It did not have borders that could be crossed, nor any large bodies of waters that could be navigated. The Axis of Time occupied the epicenter of the Multiverse, a collection of infinite galaxies, worlds and their alternate realities. Despite being a real, physical destination, The Axis of Time never spent time in any one galaxy for very long. Instead, it visited all of them, cycling from one to the next for all of time. The purpose of this was part of a security protocol that was designed to protect the Axis’s existence and identity. It was crucial that the Axis remain hidden from all who would seek it out. In the unlikely scenario that anyone or anything might stumble upon the Axis, they would be immediately transported into another galaxy. Should the Axis of Time’s existence or its true nature ever be discovered by anyone on the outside, it could spell doom for the entire Multiverse.
Within the walls of the Axis, time slowed down considerably, nearly to a snail’s pace. This difference in time allowed Sirius to study and analyze large scale events in a fraction of the time it takes those events to occur within a specific reality. The delay in time also gave him the closest thing to eternal life. While aging does occur, it happens extremely slowly. That is, as long as he remained inside the walls of the Axis. Were he to venture into any reality outside the Axis, his aging would speed up considerably. Any time spent outside of the Axis is limited at risk of death; and any world could easily become a very real outcome. Eternal life does not come without a price.
Sirius’s time in this place couldn’t be measured in years. The concept of years as a specific amount of time was only suited for beings who resided on worlds within the Multiverse, but not here in the Axis itself. No, time here is more accurately measured by the number of worlds he had witnessed, from the start to end. On that subject, Sirius had long lost count but one thing was clear. Worlds come to an end for any number of reasons. Whether the endings concerned the actual actions of its inhabitants or not, there are an unlimited number of reasons why they fail. Once any world fails, a hundred more instantly pop up to take its place, for the Multiverse was very much like the Hydra, the fabled serpentine water monster who possessed multiple heads. Every time one head was chopped off, the Hydra would generate a new one.
“Damage report,” he blurted out.
KT-1’s opaque face lit up as she processed the query. “All visual systems are down and totally non-responsive. So
is the Galaxy Teleportation system. All other systems appear to be functioning as normal, Time Keeper.”
Wonderful, he thought to himself, sarcastically.
The Galaxy Teleportation system was the mechanism that allowed the Axis to teleport itself from one galaxy to the next intermittently while cloaking its presence. The fact that it was offline and non-responsive was not, in itself, terribly worrisome; at least, not for the time being. The probability of anyone else stumbling upon the Axis was small enough that the Time Keeper triaged this emergency low on the list. Furthermore, it was a minor problem that could be fixed, given some time.
On the other hand, the visual systems were a sore sticking point. Having them impaired rendered the Time Keeper and KT-1 basically into virtual blindness by essentially cutting them off from viewing and monitoring the Multiverse. This was an emergency of the utmost degree.
The Multiverse was not unlike a house full of misbehaving children. The inability to view all the realities at once was akin to leaving the house without any parental supervision. Using that example, if you multiplied it a couple hundred billion times over, it could give you an idea of what Sirius was now facing.
“We have to get visual back online!” His heart pounded painfully against his ribs. “Divert all the power from the other systems if you must, but we have to get that back online!”
“I have attempted to reboot the system, Time Keeper. Thus far, there has been no response,” KT-1 replied.
Sirius shook his head in pure shock, refusing to believe this could be happening. “Back-up generators?” Now he was grasping at straws and he knew it.
“While back-up generators are online and compensating, sir, we still have no response from visual systems.”
Sirius breathed in deeply, trying to come up with something, anything, else. Then he remembered the voice that he heard just before losing consciousness.