Comes Great Responsibility

by Chuck Kienzle

  Jacobs swung his chair around toward us and said,” Now, Rita, there is no need for that. Please forgive her, patience and diplomacy are not two of her strengths.”

  “No apology needed. As I am sure you understand, we are a little busy right now. I am sure the scientists among the Visitors will be quite willing to meet both of you in the morning. In the mean time, Clarissa and I would be pleased to show you your temporary quarters,” John said.

  “We thought that we would stay at one of the motels in the town,” Jacobs said.

  “Given the current uncertain security situation, it will be safer for you both to stay here,” John said.

  Doctor Torres stood up and said,”Your security protocols are slowing my remote access to my computer system. I need that rectified,” Torres said.

  “Control, this is Apollo. Please contact Technical Support and see if they can change the security protocol for Doctor Torres' tablet computer to allow her faster remote access,” John said.

  “Will make the request,” I heard over John's comm link.

  “I can't promise anything. You understand our security needs,” John said.

  “Of course, anything you can do will be helpful,” Jacobs said.

  “Since we can't meet with the Visitors now, then take us to our quarters,” Torres said as she stood up.

  She was someone who expected to be obeyed. I did not like her. As for Jacobs, he seemed to be a bit too smooth. I would look over their background info later.

  John and I escorted the two out into the lobby to the security desk. Their identities were verified and were given guest security badges. We took the elevator to the third floor and walked past the cafeteria.

  “This is the cafeteria. It is open twenty-four seven, but at night it is self-serve,” John said.

  Doctor Torres ignored John, her attention was directed to her tablet. Jacobs nodded and continued to look around. It seemed like this was the first time he was in an office building. He looked around like Mandisa had done in the meeting room. If I did not know better, I would have wondered if he could see beyond the walls. I dismissed that, he could not have hidden such power.

  When we reached their quarters, John had Torres touch the door scanner. He pulled the door open and Torres looked into the room. It was a bare room with a single bed, a chest of drawls with a mirror, a closet and a computer station. There was a attached bathroom. A single suitcase was on the bed.

  “Let me know when I can meet the Visitors,” she said as she went into the room and closed the door.

  “Cold,” I said.

  “Yes, but brilliant. That makes up for it,” Jacobs said.

  We took Jacobs to the next door. Before he went in he said,” Apollo, when did you loose your powers”?

  That information had not been made public, yet.

  “How can you know that?” I asked.

  “I am familiar, from the media, how Apollo carries himself. He projects power. You do not now,” Jacobs said.

  Then I understood what Jacobs did on our walk. He was observing everything around him. It was something that I did before I left the Artemis identity. I “looked” around to learn about my surroundings. I was a habit that I thought I might take up again.

  Jacobs thanked us, went into his quarters and closed the door.

  “What do you think of those two?” John said.

  “They certainly seem like Ying and Yang. I can see why Doctor Torres keeps him around,” I said.

  Chapter 13 Thursday, July 22, 10:00 AM Mountain Daylight Time

  The next morning at ten, The meeting between Doctor Torres and the Visitors began. John was called away for a one on one press meeting. The media had demanded to speak with him and he would explain, lie, that he was away from the complex and could not get back until the attack had ended on a mission that he could not discuss. The explanation was a bit thin, but he was Apollo and people trusted him, perhaps,too much.

  The Visitors at the meeting included four experts on portal technology and inter-dimensional theory, two who had stayed in Krelick's group, Krelick, Abilola and Mandisa, who would act as the primary translator. Krelick and Abilola monitored the discussion. It quickly became apparent that Doctor Torres knew as much about both the theory and implementation of inter-dimensional portal creation as the Visitor's experts.

  After three hours of technical discussion, much of which I actually understood, Doctor Torres stood up and said,” Thank you for confirming my my knowledge. I have the means to reach your world.”

  Everyone in the room was shocked. The Visitor's looked at each other.

  “Where?” I asked.

  “Alaska,” she said.

  A half hour later, I sat in the Director's office with John. Director Tenneth looked all his seventy years. John and I had watched yesterday's press conference. The Director acknowledged that someone had infiltrated the headquarters and disabled the security system as we were attacked from the outside. He praised those who gave their lives in defense of the Agency and warned that those responsible would be brought to justice. Then he turned the podium over to the Agency's Press Secretary, Phillipa Tan. Tan was a tall, fiftieth, un-powered with a bit too much weight. She wore a black pants suit with a white blouse. She wore just enough makeup to accentuate her eyes and de-emphasie her cheeks. She spent most of the time answering the question with either, “no comment” or that is under “investigation.” I did not envy her.

  “You gave a good speech,” John said.

  “Lacking in details,” I added.

  “What you you have me do? Explain how an apparent shape-shiftier managed to avoid our security, how one of our own telepaths, apparently, worked against us and why we hid the arrival of visitors from a parallel world,” Tenneth said.

  “And, why we have nuclear bomb under the headquarters?” I said.

  Tenneth just looked at me. It had been a very long two days and he was not in the mood to argue.

  “So, our Doctor Torres says she can create a portal to the Visitor's world?” he said.

  I handed him a portable drive and said,”She had a proposal ready before she got here. Her project had already created viewing portals. She knew about the backlash from a transit portal. The information about a transit portal is a bit vague. It seems her American benefactors did not authorize her to give out any more specific information.”

  “Yes, after she gave you that, I contacted the United States government. Apparently, one of its government agencies did not embrace the “One World” philosophy. Someone saw the advantage of being the first to implement Doctor Torres's theories. I have been assured that they will give us access to Doctor Torres' work, as long as we keep it to ourselves, for the time being.”

  “And we will?” I said.

  “The Security Council has, already, been informed. Given that is is important to keep Apollo's loss of his powers, as well as your power reduction, a secret, we will keep this secret, until both you are restored to full power,” Tenneth said.

  “And then?” John said.

  “Then, the government that I served will understand that keeping such a secret from this Agency is a very bad idea,” the Director said.

  I was a naturalized American and believed in the principles that the country was founded on. I, also, knew that the America was just part of a greater world. A world that a few decades ago just avoided nuclear war because of the conflicts between nation states. There were still those, some in political power, that preferred the old times.

  “Like the fact that we have Visitors from a parallel world?” I said.

  “Would you like to deal with the chaos after we explain that an apparently insane being with all of your powers will soon appear?” Tenneth said.

  I almost replied, but thought better of it. He was right. We could evacuate the immediate area, but the battle with The Destroyer could devastate the entire state and if she got free there was no telling of the damage she could cause. There would be no place to hide.

 
“Don't worry. The Visitors and our scientists believe we will have at least a forty-eight hour notice when she is about to appear. We will have plans to evacuate the immediate area. Let us hope we can stop her here,” Tenneth .

  “Now, you will both be on the flight with Doctor Torres to her base of operations in Alaska. While you are gone, we will make plans to deal with this Destroyer, with or without you,” the Director said.

  “And what about those who attacked us,” I said.

  “We are putting all the resources we can spare, along with any aid from national police and security forces, along with all the other functions of the Agency,” he said.

  It was a cluster fuck. I wish I could help finding the damn people behind the attack. Then I thought, maybe I could.

  After I packed, I went down to the Detention Area. This time, I sat with across a table from Mr. McCree in an interview room. Both telepaths, Hector and Polly sat next to me, as well as an agency attorney, Mike Horan. Hector was a short Hispanic man. Polly was plain looking woman, tall and thin with red hair. Mr. Horan wore a black suit and had a tablet computer on the table in front of him. McCree sat back in his chair. The nullifier he wore could not be deactivated remotely. Behind McCree was a monitor that showed his court appointed lawyer.

  His lawyer said,” I am Sean Dooley, Mr. McCree's attorney. I have talked with him and he is willing to cooperate, if he can avoid being sentenced to the Lunar Super-Powered Prison.”

  “Mr. McCree is being charged with violations of both United Nations and United States statutes. He can be sentenced to the Lunar Prison on either statutes. We have a federal warrant allowing telepathic verification of anything he says. What can he do to justify a plea deal?” Horan said.

  “I understand that a full telepathic scan was conducted on my client,” Dooley said.

  “All under the emergency clause of the United Nations Super-Powers Security act,” Horan replied.

  “True, but the justification for that requires a threat of extreme harm, which I would argue, did not exist,” Dooley said.

  “Enough of this legal bull. I will fight anyone that Agency tells me to, including the guy who upgraded my powers. What does that get me?” McCree said.

  “Mr. McCree, please,” Dooley said.

  “Your murders cannot be dismissed so easily,” Horan said.

  “I did not kill anyone. Thatcher killed those two guards. She turned them off,” McCree said.

  “Why didn't she kill Apollo?” I asked.

  “That was not the plan. He was bait so other heroes would try to save him. After she took down his saviors, she was supposed to kill him. He got lucky,” McCree said.

  Lucky he was. Thatcher's ability was more powerful than Kim let us to believe. As for McCree's offer, he would be useful against either his employer or The Destroyer. The question was; could he be trusted.

  “You assisted in a crime where a murder was committed, which makes you as guilty as Ms. Thatcher,” Horan said.

  “But, he is offering to help, what kind a deal can you offer?” Dooley said.

  “He will have to wave his rights and have a telepathic scan to verify his sincerity?” Horan said.

  “I need to talk with my client in private,” Dooley said.

  “There is not need for that. As long as I am not sent to the Moon, I will agree to anything. Look into my head as much as you like,” McCree said.

  “I want to speak to my client, alone,” Dooley said.

  “No problem. We will be waiting outside the cell. Just don't take too much time,” Horan said as he stood up. The cell door slid open and the three of us followed him out of the cell.

  Once outside and the door closed, I said,” We can use him.”

  “He is telling the truth. He is terrified of being sent to the Lunar Prison,” Polly said.

  Horan put up his hand and said,” We don't have his official release to allow a telepathic scan. I can't hear anything you my have found out.”

  “I does not take a telepath to see he is scared. They question is can we trust him. What deal can you offer?” I said.

  The lawyer thumbed on his tablet computer and then said,” He will have to plead guilty one of the lesser charges, agree to a full telepathic scan and wear a nullifier. I think the Director and I can persuade the Mr. Mead, the federal prosecutor in charge of the case to recommend that Mr. McCree is held in Agency custody to serve out his sentence. That should solve both the justice and the Agency's needs.”

  “What about Thatcher?” I said.

  “Without a signed release, we can't tell you anything we found in our scan, however, off the record, she is a true believer. I don't think we can expect any cooperation from her,” Hector said.

  “A true believer that enjoys killing,” Polly added.

  Horan's tablet pinged. He looked at the screen and said,” They came to a decision. Let's go in and see if they accept the deal.”

  McCree, as I expected, accepted the deal. Like most people, he did not start out bad. Once his standard powers manifested themselves in his teen years, he thought he was at the top of the heap, and that felt good. Then he realized that he was just one of many. He wanted to be a top dog, someone who people respected, and that respect came from physical power. It was sad. At one time, I sort of had a similar belief. John taught me that a measure of a person is not whether they are physically strong or weak, but what good or ill they do in life.

  “I have a flight to get to. Let me know what plea agreement McCree agrees on,” I said.

  Horan said he would and I left to get on the flight to Alaska.

  Chapter 14: Thursday, July 22, 2:33 PM Mountain Daylight Time

  John, Doctor Torres, Mr. Jacobs, Mandisa and I boarded an Agency VTOL at the landing pad behind the headquarters and took off for Doctor Torres' base in Alaska. John and I sat in the right side of the first row of four separated seats. Mandisa sat behind us. She wore a uniform similar to ours. Torres and Jacobs sat in the first row on the left side. We reviewed on John's tablet computer information about Doctor Torres's project. It was based at the United States Fort Greeley Army Base, about a hundred miles south east of Fairbanks. It was established during the Second World War to help with the war effort against the Japanese. Since then, it was used for cold weather training. It was officially closed in the nineteen seventies. It was, still, officially closed. It was in the middle of no where. A place the United States government could use for a black ops site.

  Jacobs unbuckled his seat belt and stood in the aisle next to our seats. He leaned over and said,”I am sure you have questions.”

  I scanned his vitals and they were normal. It gave me a standard to judge his response to our questions.

  “You and Doctor Torres were raised in a Luddite commune. That is an unusual place for the most renown scientist in multiverse theory to be raised,” I said.

  Jacobs laughed and said,” Our commune was destroyed in a forest fire. We could not be warned because the authorities had no way to contact us about the threat. I think that is what drove Rita. I think she wanted to believe there was a world where our families were not killed.”

  “Did she find one?” I asked.

  Jacobs shook his head and said,”She realized that all that matters in the world where we exist.”

  “How did this base in Alaska get built without anyone knowing. It is not only the equipment needed, but the people needed,” John said.

  “Never underestimate the power of a half-truth. The cover story the purpose of the base is to do research in the use of Nina's theories to generate power, a clean, ever lasting source of power,” Jacobs said.

  “Can it be used for that?” I said.

  “Theoretically, yes, if we could connect to the right universe. Since, we are locked with your Visitor's universe, no,” Jacobs said.

  “According to the information we read, you managed to create a viewing portal but not a transit portal,” John said.

  “Except for the increased energy needed
to create a transit portal, there is no significant difference between the processes. However, when a transit portal is created, it generates a residual time-space distortion when it closes that damages the portal unit. The unit has to be rebuilt, which, as you can imagine, takes considerable time, which, in your case, we don't have,” Jacobs said.

  “How do you know that?” I asked.

  “We used this unit to create a transit portal, one that existed for less than a second. It took us a month to repair the damage,” Jacobs said.

  “Then what do we do?” I asked.

  “We use a second portal unit,” Jacobs said.

  “That was not included in the documentation you gave us,” I said.

  “Government secrecy,” Jacobs said as he went back to his seat.

  “I don't have a good feeling about this,” I said to John.

  He nodded and said,”Agreed, not that we have much of a choice.”

  Mandisa said in my head.

  >Why not?>

 

  I “looked” at Jacobs and did not see anything I did not expect. Perhaps, being from another world, Mandisa could “see” something I could not.

  >Please watch him.>

 

  Three hours later, just as we began our final approach, I heard on my comm link,” This is Control. The Visitors found something interesting in their review of Doctor Torres's portal unit design. They say that it is almost identical to an older design from their world. The differences seem due to our less advanced technology. One of their experts said he can't believe Torres did not have help from someone.”

  I tried to scan the base, but my “sight” was blocked. As far as my clairvoyance could determine, there as a dome over the base that it could not penetrate.

 
  She looked down at the floor of the aircraft. She frowned and closed her eyes.

  >There is a distortion field around the base. If I push myself, I can “see” through it. I see a portal unit in the center of the base. It has additional psi shielding. Once we land, I may be able to “see” through the psi shielding.>