Flash Gordon 4 - The Time Trap of Ming XIII (15 page)

There was no dome around him now.

He shot through open air and endless waste. There was absolutely nothing around him except the astro-seat and the heart-shaped weight against his stomach. The weight was turning over and over and he was turning over and over with it, and the astro-seat simply clung to his back. Or so it seemed.

Now he was out onto the edges of eternity, with distance absolutely infinite. He saw strange bursts of light millions of miles away, and then dazzling displays of exploding stars and planets and novas in the throes of creation. Lightning in chains and in strange shapes flashed across the sky all around him, but never touched him.

He was stunned and his body felt as if it were in total shock, perhaps in a state of arrested animation like a man might feel being electrocuted by one of Earth’s old-fashioned electric chairs.

Through what might have been centuries he hurtled and then, suddenly, he realized that he hung suspended over a strange and ghastly sight. He looked down from the astro-seat, which hung in the air over what seemed to be a blighted landscape of some kind. Flash was reminded of deserts and dying lakes and dead seas he had seen on Earth during the pollution crisis before the World Council took over the management of the ecology.

Yes, he was looking down on a dying planet! The ground was seared and cracked. Not a living plant was in sight. Sand and clay and volcanic effluvia predominated. There was no atmosphere, only a stillness like that which surrounded the astronauts from Earth who had finally landed on Earth’s moon in the past.

Then he saw buildings in the distance. The buildings were standing, but were beginning to decay. Bricks had fallen out of the walls. No windows were unbroken. Pieces of rotten wood lay about the bottoms of the buildings like detritus from a falling mountain.

Huge cracks seamed the dried-out loam. Into the cracks, rocks and pebbles drifted, although there was no wind to be seen and nothing to be blown by the wind except dust and sand. A poisonous mist hovered over the surface of the terminated planet.

And then the mist shifted and Flash saw a strange sight in the sky. It was the seventh of Mongo’s suns, the last of them all. Like the other six, it was also in its death throes. Gaseous vapors swirled about its silhouette, sparkling with some kind of eternal fire, and vanished into the void as the heat of the sun went in the last of the fires. Auras of strange pastel light emanated from the sun as the last of its vapors were slowly consumed by the diminishing scraps of its heat.

Soon it would be a cold satellite hurtling through space—a meteor without fire. And Mongo would go with it, a dead planet with no future but eventual disintegration.

“It has to be Mongo,” Flash said. “I must have jumped thousands of years into the future! Thousands! Lari must have thrown me ahead as far as he could. I’m trapped out here in eternity. There’s no place to go now.”

Then suddenly mist swept around him, lights flashed, and his body went numb again . . .

For what seemed forever, the surging power sped through him. He moved in space again and then the lights faded from the vastness of the distances about him and he saw the planet below him. But this time it was shrouded in a gray mist.

He peered through the mists and they cleared enough for him to see the scene below. He was in a swamp of some kind—or rather he was suspended above it in the astro-seat. It was a swamp of algae and water plants from a long-ago era. As he watched, he saw strange reptilian monsters pushing through the mud and the goo, foraging for food.

An enormous, ponderous-looking creature like a dinosaur was locked in mortal combat with another like a pterodactyl, thrashing about in the swamp water that was now turning red with blood. A miasma of foul odors rose from the surface of the swamp, engulfing Flash and forcing him to close his eyes.

A tremendous explosion sounded. In the distance, Flash saw a cloud of smoke and lava belch into the skies. Molten lava rock hurtled through the air, red hot and sizzling loudly as the pieces fell into the swamp. Sulphurous smoke swirled up around him. Hot ash singed his clothing.

The air turned to fire. Smoke billowed up around him. The dinosaur bellowed and struck out at the pterodactyl for the final stroke, and then sank into the muddy waters and died. Blood gurgled to the surface. The pterodactyl bellowed a chant of victory and turned to slosh away in the foul water.

Its triumph was short-lived. An enormous cloud of molten lava, glowing red and yellow as it whirled through the air, caught the water just in front of the beast, sending a boiling geyser of steam into the air, and the pterodactyl screeched in agony as it was boiled alive in the lava-roiled water.

Flash turned his head.

And then he was moving again.

“Hey!” he said aloud. “I’ve gone hack in time, all the way to the beginning. How about that? And now it looks as if I’m heading for the future again.”

The violet light closed in around him . . .

When the haze cleared, Flash saw that he had gone into the future. He saw a very clean-looking city below him—tall towers, multi-leveled roadways, trees and parks staggered throughout the industrialized area for ecological balance, clean air, sparkling water in rivers nearby, green forests all around.

“Beautiful place,” Flash murmured.

He saw a large square in the center of the city, a statue in the middle dominating the square.

“Wonder who the hero is?” Flash said. “Maybe it’s Prince Barin or someone else we know.”

Then he was swinging closer to the statue, so close that he could see it very clearly. And it seemed very strange to him, almost as if he were looking into an enormous mirror. The head of the statue looked exactly like his own head!

He stared.

The monument on which the statue stood said the following:

FLASH GORDON
THE MIGHTY LIBERATOR
OF ANCIENT MONGO

And he saw that the statue was a metallic representation of himself. He was in his uniform, holding a gigantic sword in his hand, quite like a conquistador of some earlier Earth culture rather than a conqueror of Mongo. But, nevertheless, the spirit of victory was there. The statue was dedicated to Flash Gordon.

There was more:

CHAMPION OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE
DEFENDER OF THE OPPRESSED AND
CRUSADER AGAINST ALL TYRANTS.

“It’s a statue of me,” he said in astonishment. “Must be hundreds of years in the future. How did I become a legend? Or maybe it’s not me. Maybe it’s my son or grandson or great-grandson.”

The mists closed around him again . . .

The planet was filled with mist and then it became clear again. He felt himself moving, and then slowing down almost to a complete stop. He felt that he could almost rise from the astro-seat. The enormous weight of the heart-shaped thing in his lap seemed like nothing now.

Was the time-trip through?

No.

He was in the forest kingdom, or what looked greatly like it.

He could see the metallic dome down there in the woods—what Kial and Lari called the Tempendulum. He was hovering over the place he had been, but now he guessed he was very far in the future, for the two military men he saw were dressed exactly like Kial and Lari. He could see that the two men were not Kial and Lari, however.

And then, to his shock, he could see a third, man quite clearly.

The third man was Emperor Ming!

Flash stared. How could Ming be in the future? Perhaps it was Ming’s machine, and then—

No! It was not Ming. He could tell by the voice.

The creature who looked like Ming said: “All right, Orto and Lanl. You have your orders. See that you do not fail!”

One of the royal police bowed briefly. “Yes, Great Ming XIII. We hear and we obey. But we must be sure before we obey.”

“Sure of what?” Ming XIII demanded.

Ming XIII, thought Flash. That’s what he is—a descendant of Ming the Merciless.

“Forget all this nonsense,” Ming said. “The Tempendulum will carry you to any moment of the past you want. We’ve already gone through the details on the computers. Now get in there, set the dials, and be off with you.”

“But you must promise us that Flash Gordon will not interfere! It is written—”

“I’ve promised you that!” Ming XIII said impatiently. “We’re sending another time probe to take care of him. Now you get in there and strap yourself into the astro-seats.”

“We obey, Ming XIII,” one of the men cried.

“Remember,” Ming warned, “get Prince Barin at any price. The other probe will take care of Gordon. You need not worry.”

“Yes, Mighty Ming XIII,” said the other man.

Flash sat up in the astro-seat. “That’s what it’s all about! Ming is sending back assassins to kill Prince Barin in Arboria. I’ve got to stop them. And Kial and Lari—they were sent to take care of me so the other two could kill Prince Barin.”

Flash lifted the heart-shaped weight and started to jump out of the astro-seat.

The heavens were full of light and energy and Flash could not move. A numbness crept into his arms and legs and he sank back into the seat.

“I can’t get up,” he cried. “I’m moving again—across time. I’ve missed the chance to stop them.”

The two uniformed men of Ming XIII’s royal police climbed into the Tempendulum as the mists closed in around Flash and he began his trip through space and time once again.

D
ale lay on her side on the ground and watched Lari walk toward the Tempendulum. She could hear a great deal of noise inside the hemispheroidal building. It sounded like the humming of some giant transformer or electromagnetic generator.

Quickly she wriggled around to see if she could touch her ankles with her hands. Lari had bound her wrists behind her. By bending her knees, she could touch her feet with her hands. She tugged at the tight knot he had tied in the duraflex twine. It was strong, unbreakable cord, but the knots were not pulled too snugly for her fingers. She had always prided herself on her athletic ability, anyway. Now she thanked her good muscle tone for the dexterity of her fingers.

She heard Lari and Kial talking In the Tempendulum. One of them laughed loudly. They were doing something to Flash. Dale wondered if they might not be trying to put him into one of those astro-seats. She could see them moving about through the entry port.

“There!” she said. “I’m free!” She shed the pieces of cord and ran over to the port, looking into the huge hollow dome. She saw Flash seated in one of the astro-chairs, unconscious, the enormous heart-shaped object that had been attached to the bottom of the pendulum tied to his stomach by a leather belt.

Lari stood at the huge console of instruments. Kial stood by Flash, a wicked leer on his face.

“Good, good,” Kial said eagerly. “Pull the master switch and send him into eternity!”

“Exactly what I was going to do, Kial!” Lari answered. And he threw the big master switch at the console.

There was a movement of air inside the dome, and the floating ovate globe suddenly glowed bright purple. Dale drew back. She could feel the heat emanating from it. And then the weight in Flash’s lap vibrated, throwing the atmosphere around it into a kind of convulsion. Instantly the interior of the dome turned a luminescent violet—quite similar to the violet ray created in a radioactive substance.

Lari cackled loudly. Kial turned to the console and grinned. Both pointed to the astro-seat where Flash sat.

He had vanished! Dale recoiled, her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with terror.

Flash and the astro-seat were no longer there. They had hurled him out into timeless eternity, into endless space where he would be unable to harm them.

“They’ll do it to me if they catch me,” Dale said. “I’ve got to get to Arboria. Only Doc Zarkov can help Flash now. If I can get there to see him, and if we can find the Tempendulum again, he can get Flash back from outer space.”

Dale turned and ran into the woods.

She was hidden behind the giant fern fronds when she heard a shout from the clearing outside the Tempendulum.

“Where’s that fool woman?” Kial yelled.

“Huh? I tied her up. She can’t have gone far.”

“Dummy, you’ve let her escape.”

Lari stumbled out through the entry port of the Tempendulum and looked around in a daze. “Yeah, she’s gone.”

“You bet your life she’s gone.”

Lari pointed to the ground where the two pieces of duraflex cord lay. “She got loose! She’s a magician, that’s what—a female wizard.”

Kial grabbed Lari by the throat and started to shake him. “She’s no wizard. You’re a moron, that’s all. She untied the granny knots you put in that cord. That’s what happened. She’s at large, now, and worse luck to us.“

“We’ve got to find her,” Lari declared.

“You bet your sweet life we have to.” Kial paused. “She’s not so important as Gordon, of course. She’s just a silly woman. But we can’t report in to Ming XIII that we let her get away. He’s mad enough at us, anyway.”

Dale moved quietly through the purple-and-orange foliage of the forest kingdom. She was seething with anger.

“Not important enough, am I? I’m just a woman, is that it? All right Mr. Kial and Mr. Lari, you two male chauvinists from the future, let’s see how important I can be to you. If I get to Zarkov, I’ll fix your little red wagons.”

She pushed a bear’s-paw fern over in her anger, and sprayed spores all around the loam. She ran.

Exhausted, Dale finally sank down onto a soft pad of semi-aquatic algae that grew from the forest floor. She had run into a huge stand of bladder ferns. The seventh sun of Mongo could not penetrate the forest of giant vegetation above her. She was alone. She was tired. She was frightened.

“Come on, girl,” she said through clinched teeth. “This is no way to be. You don’t know where that silly superway is, and you’re lost. But if you press on, you’ll certainly find something soon. Arboria has simply got to be in that general direction.”

She closed her eyes and tried to rest a moment.

“At least Kial and Lari couldn’t pick up my tracks. I’d hear them if they had. They run like a pair of hippopotamuses.”