Raine VS The End of the World (13 page)

“So you believe… I mean, could this really be--?”

“That is supposedly the world outside, yes,” Yossa said. “Whether they’re real or fake, no one knows. People may be tiring of this realm, but imagine the panic if everyone knew the truth. I mean, as far as we know, nobody who’s left has ever come back, and damn it, the thought of permanent death on arrival is scary enough for me, most nights.”

Gerrit’s eyes were fixed on his shoes. Yossa continued.

“We’re scouring for data. Storms are flooding the
‘Verse
. Just today, in fact, there was an unprompted leak in Clyde. I think you were there, yes? I should have the files decrypted by this afternoon.”

The kid nodded. “If this is real, then we have to do something. We’ve gotta figure out how to escape this place before they wipe our thoughts.”

“One step at a time, Gerrit. If we’re to escape, we owe it to the public to get the truth out first. Then maybe there’s a chance for others to remember. ‘Til our work here is done, I honestly don’t mind being plugged in. What I do mind is those Developers trying to control my thoughts.”

“Do you really think, Yossa,” Gerrit began, and hesitated. “Never mind.”

“No, what?” Yossa continued, flipping through channels. With his trunk he reached into a bag of chips and brought a noseful to his mouth.

“This is gonna sound harsh, but, well, even if you find out the truth and tell all these people, do you think they have the capacity to care, if they ever cared at all?”

“That’s up to individuals to decide,” Yossa said in between bites. “I’m just doing what my gut tells me to. I can’t help being myself.”

Gerrit was silent for a bit. This didn’t go unnoticed.

“As you can probably tell by my quite serious tone today, I have an important task for you.”

“It was written on your face the second I walked in. Truth be told, I just came here to borrow a dragon.”

“Done. Take Linus. Hear me out, though. There’s someone I need you to shadow.”

Yossa hit a button on his watch.

Much to the boy’s surprise, Raine and her unmistakable Rainbow Cat appeared in a hologram, strolling along the seldom-used red carpet path.

This is a joke. There’s no way.

Noticing how Gerrit’s eyes had widened to the size of saucers, Yossa guffawed.

“Don’t tell me that’s your new girlfriend?”

Gerrit shot the elephant man a strange look. “You want me to follow
her
? She’s a newbie! She doesn’t know the first thing about the
‘Verse
. I… I don’t understand.”

Yossa composed himself and pointed his trunk straight at the boy’s chest.

“Look, I’m not asking you to do anything malicious. She’s vital to our cause, Gerrit. Vital in ways even I don’t understand. This must be fate, man! You’ve already met her; you’ve earned her trust. Follow that girl - go see what she’s up to. Keep her out of trouble. Do not let her de-materialize, under any circumstances. And when the time comes, I want to give you the opportunity to recruit her.”

Gerrit contemplated this. Based off the five minutes he’d spent with Raine, he couldn’t imagine her as the type to join up with a band of rebels. She seemed convinced that she was in some sort of dream.

“I’ve got a feeling she won’t care much about the cause,” Gerrit asserted. “What if I fail to persuade her?”

Yossa pushed a thumb against his forehead. Seeing his protégé’s moral dilemma, he put an arm over Gerrit’s shoulder and handed him a bag of Gold with his trunk.

“Failure is not an option, Gerrit. If you can’t bring her in, I’ll do it myself. This way is easier, trust me.”

VIII. General Lacie

“The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.” – Carl Jung

A ball of flames erupted in the midst of the room.

General Lacie had incinerated her android sparring partner.

“Next!” she called.

In her private training chamber halfway up the
Spire
, the twenty-nine year-old head of
Neo Eden’s
military forces flexed her muscles and resumed her breathing exercises, pacing around like a caged lion.

Sky Admiral Lillian,
Neo Eden’s
sworn enemy, was on the attack, and it was her duty to stop her. This assignment would take her into the future and back to the present, something she and Lorelei had vowed never to do. But these were desperate times.

After swiftly destroying the next four combatants with her hands, feet, and nearby weaponry, she showered and retired to her room. The combat sessions served a dual purpose: the data would be incorporated into the Helmet Defense Protocol, and her body kept in top physical shape.

At her holo-desk, she checked the military probe reports on the
Belladonna.
Still no sign of the twinkling spacecraft. Such a shame. Seizing it would be an instantaneous victory.

No word from Macleod either, with regards to the EDC Armada’s whereabouts. That, at least, was to be expected. Lillian had recently shut out the last of her spies by requiring all military personnel to undergo memory traces. Those who refused were simply barred from any service.

The ethics of the technique may be questionable, but the results are inarguable.
It was, however, something that would never fly in
Eden
, where, by law, memories could be erased for national security alone, but never observed – a sort of clause to protect the privileged from their own sins.

As if that and her ships’ advanced cloaking systems weren’t bad enough, the Admiral’s newest tactic to keep her forces hidden was ingenious – within the past two weeks, false positive signals created by phantom holograms, ion disruptors, and heat-spike traps were overloading all detectors. Hidden droids recently took to the surface, jamming or downing
Eden
drones at random. Even with their tens of thousands of satellites and cameras, all the Queen’s airships and all the Queen’s men would be hard-pressed to investigate a fraction of these signals or leads as to the enemy’s advance.

Such were the issues with fighting an organized underground militia with global operations. They knew how to hide and when to hit, in unison.
Going after the communes was
Eden’s
most straightforward option – a risky move, since their defense might be tested sooner than later, but a necessary one. The harder they hit the people, the more likely someone would relent and spill the beans, pleading for the lives of their loved ones.

Lacie unlocked her DNA-coded leather journal and continued working on her memoirs.

“In The Final Analysis: A Life of Death, Taxes, and Time Travel, by Lacie Hermes.”

For the past few years, she’d held off on penning many of her most crucial memories. Many were too painful. But the journey she was about to undertake might prove to be her last.

Calmly focused on the manuscript before her, Lacie let the words flow. She released everything: the emotions, the betrayal, the pain, the regret, and the confusion. Also thrown in for good measure were failed proofs for Multiverse theory, artifacts from years past.

The General studied the yellowed pages fondly. In her younger days, she’d hoped against hope that she might put an end to this bitter conflict.

After all, Novikov’s Self-Consistency Principle had not yet taken effect. How could the
Belladonna
exist in a world where it was never created? This paradox spurred Lacie’s curiosity; it supported the theory that the true nature of the universe was in fact a Multiverse; put simply, an infinite number of worlds with infinite possibilities were all simultaneously occurring in parallel existence to one another, and would continue to do so unto eternity.

She’d been given enough time and funding from the Queen for her research, but even the Divine Matriarch thought Lacie’s musings overly idealistic, and inconsistent with any prior research relating to causality.

It was very likely an impossible theory to test, given the absence of any known means of traversing potential parallel universes, and the countless interpretations of Multiverse theory. The infinite number of universes might exist beyond the physical bounds of our known universe, or in other dimensions.

Long ago, Lacie spent billions of credits sending out probes to determine whether residual dark energy and radiation readings may have spilled over from adjacent universes into the fringes of our own. But most of the probes failed to report their findings, and those that did sent back inconclusive data.

In the end, a complete lack of any tangible results despite tremendous personal and financial investment broke Lacie’s heart. In the following years, she shut down her research division, briefly dated two of the chief physicists, and took charge of more Earthly affairs by perfecting the Helmet Defense Protocol’s combat algorithms.

Despite her staunch belief in the Queen’s principles, Lacie had always hoped that things might end differently, and though she’d never admit it, she missed those days of passion and toil in search of the unknown.

She placed her tablet into its dock and perused the transcripts made from Rutger’s
recordings to use as a guide for her memoir. Against Lorrie’s wishes, she’d kept a library of audio and visual data from her time aboard the
Belladonna
as a sort of a keepsake.

Not that I miss Lily, or anything stupid like that
, she thought.
Like me, this diary is just another piece of ancient history.

Diary from End of First Year Training

September 18, 1982 A.D.

13:32 BT

The Belladonna 5000

“I couldn’t possibly be more proud of you,” Lily says with uncharacteristic sincerity. At eleven, she’s the shortest one in the room, but even so, she was the unquestioned leader of our secret club. We looked to her as the paragon of all we should strive for.

Two hours ago, we had all passed our final exams. Rutger gave us each simulations of Earth under extreme circumstances – mine was a biological pandemic – and we were tasked to resolve the situation with minimal casualties and limited use of time travel. Our results would be judged by the state of the world two hundred years in the simulation’s future. All three of us passed with flying colors.

“There’s only one thing left for you to do!” announces the girl, brimming with enthusiasm
.
“And that’s to take the Time Keepers’ Oath!”

In unison, all four of us recite young Lily’s pledge.

Power is never to be taken lightly.

Time travel gives one the ultimate authority.

It is my responsibility to observe and safeguard the people of Earth.

Involve oneself only when necessary.

Never use time travel for selfish reasons.

Avoid crossing paths with your past self.

Warp prior to 200,000 BC at one’s own risk.

And lastly…

Protect the human race, even if it costs you everything.

Lorelei, Lucille, and myself all graciously accept tiny brass badges. Lorelei’s was in the shape of a digital watch, and Lucille’s a pocket watch, with mine by far the coolest: an hourglass.

“With the power vested in me,” she beams, “I pronounce you officially ordained Time Keepers!”

Rutger set up the round table in the observatory for tea, with sweet tarts and a strawberry-lined cake made with real flour and lard from Terra’s surface.

Hopeful conversation exemplifies our naïve natures, post-celebration.
Lily’s official ceremony… it was simple, yet so powerful that it held us together for the next two years. What’s incredible, in retrospect, is how long we held together in the first place, united by the same goals, four hearts beating as one for the greater good. Together, we could save the human race from any trial.

Was it
love
that kept us from each other’s throats? Lily said she loved us often, but did she really? Even now that I have known and experienced love, I cannot know the answers to these questions, and that fills me with uncertainty. Closer reflection may be in order.

The chances that someone would actually read these ramblings of hers were absolutely miniscule, but her story, Lacie felt, cried out to be chronicled all the same. For science and progress, and for whatever might be left of humankind.

She closed the book for the time being and fed her loyal Maltese puppy, waiting rather impatiently on the sofa.

“Sorry I’ve been so busy, Archie. Take care of ‘Éclair’ for me while I’m gone, yeah?”

Seeing that the other figure on the couch was still fast asleep, Lacie walked over and gently shook her awake.

“No,” the response came. A thrown pillow didn’t help.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Lacie drew the curtains, dousing the living room in blinding light.

“All right, all right, I get it!” the woman cried out, rubbing her eyes.

Lacie stole a kiss from her girlfriend. “You’re not going to like this. Turns out my schedule got bumped up a bit,” she said sadly. “I’m shipping out in five hours.”

Alarmed, Claire skipped her typical grogginess and wrapped her arms around her partner’s firm back. “No! It’s just not fair. You’re head of the military. Why do you have to go yourself?”

“If I told you, I might have to kill you,” Lacie said with the soft voice that she reserved for her beloved. “This will all be over soon, honey.”

Claire pouted. “Can’t you discuss it with your sister?”

“It’s done,” Lacie replied with stoic finality, a powerful act that cast the room in silence.

Half a minute later, the familiar sound of Archie fluffing a throw pillow by digging against it had both women laughing again. Claire wiped away a stray tear.

“I’m… sorry,” Lacie managed. “It’s a quick exercise. I’ll be back in a day or two at most. That’s a promise.”

At this news, Claire softened up a bit. “It-it’s okay. D-don’t be sorry. You’re keeping
Eden
and all her people safe. I’m guessing you need your strength, so the least you can do is let me ease your muscles for a bit,” she said gently.

She’s too good to me,
Lacie thought.
It pains me to think that I’ll have to leave her behind if we jump into the future again. She loves me with all her heart, yes, but is it really me that she loves, or the shadow that I cast?

Maybe if this ends and we stop Lily once and for all, I can stay with her. Live out the rest of our limited years in peace. Or maybe I’m just getting weak from reminiscing. I’m too stressed to know what I really want right now. Best to save such thoughts for later.

Lacie thanked the stars for her uncanny ability to tune out her emotions and put on a straight face. As Claire started massaging her shoulders, the General waved her arm for the sensor, bringing the curtains back to a close.

♥

“Super BlastBoy?”

“Yes, Super BlastBoy, a.k.a. Anthony Kon.”

The daydreaming kid looked up from his poetry. “I heard there was a monument to someone with that name in Sector Nine. Atmoya. It’s a day’s ride from here, as the dragon flies.”

Raine pursed her lips. “How about as the foot walks?”

Concern colored the boy’s face. “Hmmm, I’d say a couple o’ days? It’s a little rough and tumble over by those parts, but you can’t miss it. Once you bypass the border skirmishes, you’ll find a big empty square of desert smack in the middle of an abandoned War zone.”

His gestures matched the general direction she was traveling in – a good sign. Raine thanked the shepherd for the info as she sat across from him under a big oak tree, munching on a ham-and-cheese croissant sandwich. They laughed as Chance tried to play-fight with the smaller sheep-goats in the herd. The animals made it a point to steer clear of him and his glowing coat as they grazed the field.

Once the sun peeked out behind the clouds and her familiar finished his milk and biscuits, Raine bade farewell to another friend, and the duo continued their journey.

Before long they encountered a divergence in the path.

The carpet split into two segments of equal width. The checkerboard grass turned wavy on one side, and into spirals on the other. Difficult to make out from a distance, a crooked, steam-spouting tower on the right persuaded Raine towards its old ruins, despite Chance’s beckoning towards the other route.

As Raine approached, she became very small and began to feel not quite so alive as the tower must have been – for it wasn't a building at all, but a meshing of many different rock structures into a humanoid body, with a face ancient and mossy and yet strikingly alive with long-lost knowledge. She decided that it must have once been a giant golem that grew bored of the world and took a seat on an old temple to ponder its existence.