69.
THEY WERE TRAPPED, the remaining three women responsible for the near destruction of humanity.
‘How could you do it? How could you kill billions of people on a whim? What makes you so hell bent on destruction?’ Jacqueline asked through the bars of the cell.
Carrie Millwood stood up. As she did, Jacqueline could see why this woman was the leader. If you removed the anxiety that had obviously built up during her time here, she could see the leader in her. ‘Destruction? Is that what you think it was all about?’ she asked.
‘It looks that way to me.’
Carrie moved closer to the rusty bars and peered through them. ‘You know nothing about the Higgs Storm, do you? How could you? You’re a grunt, a foot soldier, tied to the Earth Alliance, giving unwavering loyalty to a fascist state.’
Jacqueline moved closer to the bars, her face millimetres away from Carrie’s. She smiled a cold smile. ‘I’m not a soldier. I’m a scientist. I was brought into this because the Earth has run short of resources, and that includes personnel. That is due to you! The EA is not a fascist state! We’re there to allow the planet to run in union, hence the word alliance. There’s no racial hatred, religious intolerance, homophobic, or sexist behaviour, everyone is equal.’
‘It’s an illusion of equality! Do you not call your superiors sir?’
‘Yes, but it’s a mark of respect. People in the EA have gotten to elevated positions due to their abilities. Gone are the days of reaching the heights by birth right or who you knew in the system giving you an opening. That is no longer tolerated.’
‘But you still have an academy, yes?’
‘Yes, we do. It’s a fine institution for the youth to enhance themselves through the ranks.’
Carrie laughed; it was a cold sound. ‘That, too, is an illusion! The wheels are greased like they always have been. We saw a need to change everything, to start again from grass roots. To build a world solely dependent on science, not religion.’
‘Excuse me, but you said to build a world? The way I see it, you tried to destroy a world. There is a big, big difference.’
Carrie laughed. ‘Once again, you assume that bringing everything back to its base elements is destroying. Did you study the Higgs Storm completely, as an entity, not just its destructive properties? No, I bet you didn’t. Well, I did!’ Carrie smiled as she let go of the bars, wiping the rust residue from her palms onto her already dirty dress. ‘Let me tell you, it has the most fantastic properties of any element I’ve ever seen. Yes, it destroys, but what it leaves behind is the most fertile ground you will ever see on the planet.’ She grabbed hold of the bars again and pressed her face closer to Jacqueline’s. Her eyes were wide and animated, in complete contrast to how they looked just a few moments ago. ‘We have a cave beneath an island in Fiji,’ she whispered. ‘It’s vast, and it’s where we conducted our experiments. The Higgs Storm doesn’t just destroy, it creates too. We have an unlimited source of natural growing abilities. It literally terraforms. It destroys life in order to create life, it re-creates the whole essence of the big bang.’
‘And to reach this utopia, you didn’t mind killing billions of people?’
‘Don’t you see? We weren’t killing them; we were liberating them.’
‘Did you ask the people, the ones who suffered, who are suffering for your megalomania, if they wanted liberating? No, you didn’t. Do you know why? Because you’re nothing but a crazed lunatic, fulfilling your psychopathic urges and passing them off as an ideal. You, my crazy friend, are the biggest mass murderer history has ever seen. I’m not going to give you the option of going back to twenty-two-eighty-eight peacefully. You’re going to join your friends in the eighteen-eighty-eight morgue.’
Abberline stepped in and held Jacqueline’s shoulders. ‘Jacqs, come on, don’t let her get to you. It’s what she wants. We only have a small amount of time left; we need to get these women back home as soon as we can.’
Jacqueline reluctantly moved away from the bars. As she did, she saw a small commodity of amusement in Carrie’s eyes, and a faint smile.
‘I’ll go back to twenty-two-eighty-eight with you,’ Annabelle Farmer said, standing up from her seat. Carrie Millwood turned and looked at her with very little emotion in her face. ‘Will you?’ she asked very slowly.
‘Yeah.’ she replied, her head dropping. ‘Our mission here is done. We failed. It was a good idea at the time, the best idea; but that time has passed. We don’t have the right to liberate people from their lives, even if it is to facilitate a better world to live in. No, I’ll accompany you back to twenty-two-eighty-eight. I’ll go home and face the charges. Anything has to be better than living here, in this squalor!’
‘You can count me in too,’ Rose Mylett said standing up. Carrie closed her eyes as she did. ‘I think what we did was extreme, but believe me, I’d do it again. We failed in our mission to finish the job we started, and I now believe that by standing trial in twenty-two-eighty-eight, we can bring an understanding of The Event and why we did it. We can still relish in our ideals and watch as the terraforming takes place in the already affected areas.’
‘Give me your transponder codes, and we’ll make the preparations to get you home,’ Jacqueline spoke, calmly.
Annabelle Farmer stepped closer to the bars. ‘My code is, AF-3465-JB—’
As quick as a flash, Carrie Millwood produced a short, thin knife from her stockings and flashed it across Annabelle’s throat. For a moment, the poor woman didn’t understand what had happened. All she knew was that all sound had stopped coming from her mouth.
She brought her hands up to her throat as if to feel why her voice had simply disappeared. As she did, slivers of blood began to drip down her neck. They were slow at first, and then, as if directed by the movement of her fingers, the drips became a flow, which soon became a gush.
Annabelle Farmer fell onto the floor, choking on her own blood.
‘Youssef, this is Jacqueline, if I was to give you a partial transponder code, with what we know of their signals, could you do an emergency extraction?’
‘I think so,’ came the raspy voice from her communicator. ‘All we need are the first five digits, and with the quantum signal we already have, I think we’d have them. Why? What’s happened?’
‘No time to explain!’
Abberline was looking at her communicator with awe. How many years has it been since I heard that voice? he thought. Then he watched as Millwood turned towards Rose, threatening her with the same blade that had struck Annabelle.
Rose shrank back into the cell.
The sight of one of her sister’s, killing another, was obviously too much for her to take. Abberline knew from her records that Mylett was a formidable woman, a trained killer, but to see her cowering in the cell as she was threatened by the woman who was supposed to be their leader, shocked him. He entered the cell before anyone realised. He grabbed Millwood’s arm, forcing it around her back. She dropped the knife with little resistance.
‘Youssef, try this: AF-3465-JB. That’s all we have. She’s been wounded, her neck has been slashed, get her immediate hospital care. We may be too late.’
‘Got her! Prepare for extraction.’
A small bright purple light shone from the centre of Annabelle’s stomach. The light turned into a small hurricane as purple smoke enveloped her body. The whole thing lasted roughly thirty seconds; and then she was gone.
Carrie Millwood, while still being held by Abberline, watched impassively as her colleague disappeared.
‘My code is RM-8437-JK-000-RFT. Get me out of this stinking time,’ Rose Mylett shouted from the corner of the room.
‘Did you copy that code?’
‘No, can you repeat it?’
As Rose repeated the code, Abberline dragged Millwood out of the cell, in restraint.
‘Wait…’ Rose Mylett said. ‘She’ll never give you her code, she’d rather die. I’d like her to stand trial with me.’
/> Carrie flashed a dangerous look towards Rose. ‘Don’t,’ she said.
‘I will. You deserve the recognition you’ll receive as being a visionary, and revolutionary.’
‘A madwoman, you mean,’ she snarled. ‘We’ll be reviled when we get back. The populous will hate us for what we’ve done.’
‘No, they won’t. We had six million followers when we left. I bet that that has tripled by now. They’ll understand what you wanted to do for them.’
Abberline interjected. ‘I think they, what’s left of them, will see what you tried to do to them, rather than for them. I think you might be surprised by your lack of followers when you get back.’
Mylett glared at him, then dropped her head. ‘Her code is, CM-1115-JC-2121-RFT.’
The moment she finished relaying this information, the small bright purple light lit up her stomach and she was engulfed the thick purple smoke.
Rose Mylett was gone, four hundred years into the future.
Abberline, Jacqueline, and Carrie Millwood were the only three people left, conscious, in the police station.
‘Are you ready to come home, Inspector Abberline?’ Jacqueline asked, smiling.
Vincent, or was he Frederick now? He could no longer tell. He looked at her. There was sadness in his weathered, and wizened, face. He half smiled at her.
Jacqueline could see something in his eyes and knew he was seeing her as the same girl he’d left behind twenty-six years ago, but she was also aware that he knew she was looking at him as the boy who had left her less than a few months ago but had aged a lifetime.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied, shaking his head. ‘I’m not sure I’ve got anything to go back to. I’ve built a life for myself here. How would I get back anyway? You can’t track me.’
‘I brought a spare slug,’ Jacqueline replied, holding out a syringe with metallic fluid within it. ‘Whatever an extraction target is holding onto during the procedure will be extracted with them. All you have to do is hold on tight.’
He looked at the syringe. ‘I’ll restrain Carrie for the extraction. She may well have another surprise up her sleeve.’ He proceeded to frisk her for any other devices or weapons. ‘She does appear to be clean, though.’
‘Right then, I’ll go first and get your extraction ready. We’ll have to double the Higgs Storm Compensators and the power to the colliders, then we’ll call you. It should take about five minutes. Are you OK with that?’
‘Yeah,’ he nodded. ‘No worries. Get a move on, though, as I don’t know how long Kosminski will be able to stave off those policemen.’
‘I will.’ Jacqueline looked at him. ‘It’s really good to see you again, you know.’ She smiled, but he could see that the smile was for an old friend, not a lover. Not anymore.
‘Yeah, you too, kid.’ He flashed her a smile that was every inch the Vincent of old.
She lifted her wrist to her mouth, and without taking her eyes off him, spoke into it. ‘Youssef, this is Jacqueline. I’m ready for extraction.’
‘Bringing you in now.’
The now-familiar purple light shone from her stomach as she became embroiled in the purple tornado. Then she was gone, leaving just Abberline and the detained Millwood alone in the cell.
70.
Orbital Platform One. 2288
ANNABELLE FARMER MATERIALISED in the racetrack at the same time a medical team arrived, having been teleported in from OP-Seven. A thick, arterial spray was pulsing from out of the deep gash in her neck, and she was gasping for air. They covered her in a stasis beam and then teleported a full stasis pod over from the other OP.
‘Will she live?’ Youssef asked, concerned with the amount of blood loss she had sustained in the extraction.
‘It’ll be touch and go. She’s lost a lot of blood, and she looks malnourished, weak. We’ll do the best we can. What in the world happened to her, anyways?’ one of the medics asked as Farmer was carefully placed inside the stasis pod.
‘You don’t need to know just yet,’ he replied. ‘But you do need to know that her whole body will have sustained trauma in the past few seconds. You will also find a metallic slug that is giving out magnetic signals in her body, among other things. Do not try to remove it, it’ll kill her outright. She may need to be de-loused and cleaned too.’
The medic looked at him like he was pulling his leg, but the grim expression on his face told him he was doing anything but.
‘Got it! Is there anything else we need to know?’
‘Not right now, only that we’d really like to keep her alive.’
‘On it!’
With that, the medical team, along with the stasis pod carrying Annabelle Farmer, left the room.
‘We’re bringing in Rose Mylett now. Jacqueline’s just let us know that she’s still a hostile. She’s not dangerous or armed, but she still believes in the cause.’
‘OK, then. Let’s get a security detail in here,’ Youssef instructed the room.
After the huge amounts of Higgs Storm from Annabelle’s return had been extracted, the Hadron Collider started up again. Within a minute, Rose Mylett appeared within the racetrack.
‘Get her out of there and into a holding cell straight away. If she’s still a believer in the cause, then she’s still a danger to us,’ Kevin instructed over the sound of the Collider still rotating.
The extraction of Rose Mylett’s Higgs Storm began.
‘Who’s next?’ Kevin shouted.
‘Jacqueline’s coming in next. She says that Vincent’s coming back with her too. He’s currently detaining Millwood. We’re going to have to boost power to the extraction process for this one.’
‘Vincent?’ he asked, his face barely able to contain his smile.
The Collider began again, and less than a minute later, Jacqueline appeared inside the racetrack. Immediately, the Higgs Storm extraction began.
‘Jacqueline! It’s so good to see you. I’m glad you’re OK.’ Youssef rushed into the glass room and gave her a hug. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked. ‘I hate that you had to do that mission, but with what happened to Kevin, we had no other choice.’
She shook her head and hugged him back. ‘I understand, honestly, I do.’
He noticed more than a little hardness in her persona that had not been there prior to her deployment. She’s going to need a full psych assessment after this ordeal, he thought, I’ll need to look into that.
‘Come here, you,’ Kevin shouted as he made his way into the Collider room. He grabbed her, and squeezed her, lifting her clear off the floor. ‘You found Vincent too? That’s sterling work, soldier.’
She began to remove the filthy clothing she was wearing. ‘Yeah, he’s coming in now with Millwood. Have we compensated for the Higgs Storm? And the power?’
Kevin winked at her. ‘It’s all set, Jacqs, just let him know we’re bringing him home.’
Now in a latex under suit, she was looking at the monitor next to the Collider. ‘You’re going to have to reassess the quantum compensation,’ she said as she addressed the controls on the station. ‘Vincent went back further than we did. Add another twenty-six years onto your calculations.’
‘Twenty-six years?’ Youssef repeated, his brow ruffling as he looked at her.
‘Yes! The malfunction sent him to the correct location but to the wrong time. He now goes under the mantle of Frederick Abberline, Inspector First Class of the Metropolitan Police Force.’
Kevin was looking at Jacqueline, almost beaming with pride for his student. ‘First Class, eh? This guy’s got delusions of grandeur. Well, let’s not keep the Inspector waiting, eh?’ he said as Youssef added the compensation calculations into the portal.
‘I think we’re going to need extra security with this one too. It’s my belief that Carrie Millwood is psychotic.’
‘Yeah, we had an idea she might be. Let’s bring them back in now,’ Kevin shouted as Youssef started up the Hadron Collider one more time.
71.
London. 1
888
‘ARE YOU READY for the extraction?’ Jacqueline’s voice over the wrist communicator was crisp, not at all like she was talking four hundred years in the future.
‘All set back here. Whenever you’re ready,’ Abberline replied.
‘Do you have any of your tools on you?’ Jaqueline asked.
‘Yeah,’ he replied. I’ve got my extractor.’
‘Ditch it. It’s got a nuclear power signature. That’s what caused you accident in the first place.’
With his free hand, the other one was still holding Carrie Millwood, he removed his extractor took from his pocket and placed it on the table next to him. He then removed his communicator too. ‘All done,’ he reported.
The purple light shone in the centre of Carrie’s body, and Abberline waited for the purple hurricane.
Carrie, however, had other ideas. At the last moment, she shifted to her left, taking Abberline off guard. She broke away from his hold and she swivelled around. She reached over to the communicator, and the extractor on the table, and activated it. The extraction light shifted. She turned the beam onto herself, and cut into her left leg, she then turned it into her stomach, and cut herself again. The glow shifted again as the displacement struggled with the nuclear power signal coming from the tools she held.
Abberline watched in sickened disgust as his extractor beam mutilated his prisoner It took him a few moments for him to realise that she was attempting to cut the quantum slug out herself, to avoid going back to twenty-two-eighty-eight.
~~~~
Orbital Platform One. 2288
‘There’s something wrong with the extraction. I’m struggling to keep contact with her quantum slug. It looks like a problem with the signal. It looks like the same issue we had with Vincent last time,’ Youssef shouted across the room towards Kevin and Jacqueline.
‘It there any way you can compensate for the loss of signal?’ Kevin replied, ‘Maybe boost the hydrogen levels?’
TimeRipper Page 31