CHAPTER 12
Fred Peters III got out of bed, as he usually did, with a yawn and a stretch. Fred was in his 40s, and was reasonably built with broad shoulders and a pleasant smile. He still had a full head of hair, though the brown was starting to turn to gray a bit. That was okay with him. He had lived a good life so far, and he loved what he did for a living.
He heated up some water for himself and then put a tea bag in it to soak. It was nice to be able to work directly from home. He had all the pleasantries of a house right here in his little space. It was good for him.
He hated to start work before his tea was ready. But by now, people were wondering what was happening. He might as well tell them.
He made his way to the viewscreen and flipped it on. As usual, he could see people on the planet Earth below, sending missiles his way. Now, frankly, that was just irritating. He hadn’t even sent them a message to tell them that he was a danger. He was, in fact, a danger to them. But they hadn’t even waited for him to give his speech. That was just rude.
Sometimes, he did it manually, just to add some variety. But since the people on this world were being rude, he didn’t feel like it anymore. He just pressed the button to send out the signal, the way he usually did. He didn’t have to listen to the playback of what he recorded, but he did this time, as he often did. He had worked so long and hard to compose just the right words:
“Hello. This is the last day for your planet. You can try to resist if you wish, but ultimately any such efforts are useless. There will be no debating or arguing or willingness to change on this end . . .”
The words were like music to his ears. Then he checked himself. He hoped that wasn’t arrogant. He so hated the thought of being arrogant. But then, would anyone even know up here whether or not he was being arrogant? It had been so long since he talked to anyone. Ordinarily he liked the solitude, but sometimes it could get to be a bit too much for him.
He sighed as he thought about all of the people running around, screaming and panicking down below. If only he could make them understand that this was for their good! If only he could explain to them what he had brought before the council. But most people would never understand. They couldn’t understand. Still, he did what needed to be done.
Suddenly, a light started beeping in front of him. He checked the readout on the small computer screen. It was next to the large viewscreen on Shiva that showed him that the planet-devouring was, indeed, working. According to the computer readout, someone else had used the same type of dimension-hopping technology that he used when moving from Earth to Earth. It must have happened after he had gone to bed. Shiva was so good at doing her job, that he didn’t have to watch her every time. He only watched because he liked to, mainly.
People did escape from their world before it was destroyed occasionally, and it always annoyed Fred when it happened. But no matter. He would track the person down soon enough and stop them. He wondered briefly if it would be the same one as before. It was odd how often the same people in each dimension were responsible for coming up with the same technology. It made sense, Fred supposed. Similar personalities with similar minds. Still, he would think that the law of averages would mean that it would be different people more often. At any rate, if it was the same person, she would be easy to track down.
Fred pressed another button, so that the message “I am Shiva, destroyer of worlds” played, as this world was in its final stages of extinction. He always wondered if he should play it sooner. He wondered if many people heard it? It didn’t really matter. But he had such a flair for the theatrical.
Of course, even though he had recorded the message, he himself was not Shiva. This machine – this moving planet – this home that he had created for himself – this was Shiva. His baby. His pride and joy. She always did exactly what he had asked of her.
His tea ready, Fred pulled out the tea bag and began to drink. He had to figure out exactly where this world-hopper had went, and catch him (or her). That would require some calculating on his part. But it should only take a few hours. Not too long. Maybe he could even wrap this up by lunch.
As he sat working, he stopped once to sigh contentedly and reflect: It felt nice to be one of the good guys.
- - - - - - -
Meanwhile, on Second Civil War World, Regan #2 continued to work hard on the equipment that Blue had brought her. W.A. was assisting where he could, but he didn’t really understand it. He just attached things where she said to attach them.
“So let me ask you, um, Regan,” W.A. began, not sure what to call her. “Number Two” sounded like something out of an Austin Powers movie. “You asked for some things that were the same on your world, and then you asked for things from this world. How did you know what to ask for, if you had never heard of them on your own dimension?”
“Well, I didn’t know exactly,” said Regan #2, politely but clearly with her attention more towards her work than on the conversation. “I took my best guess at describing things that I could think of that I would need, and I hoped something like that would exist on this world. Some things do exist, some things don’t. Some things are going to take hours to get here and need tons of government clearance. In the meantime, I’m just making due with what I have for now. Obviously, the biggest and most important piece is going to be the bomb.”
“Whoa. Wait. Bomb?”
Regan #2 stopped for a second and glanced at W.A. The look would have been almost patronizing, but there was a hint of friendly affection in it. “Of course, silly rabbit. We’re trying to defeat a giant planet-eating machine—one that’s remorseless and outright says that it won’t listen to reason or negotiate. We need all the firepower we can possibly muster. What did you think we were going to do? Talk it to death?”
“Right,” W.A. says with a nervous chuckle. “So, is that what we’re building now? Something to blow up the ‘Shiva’ thing? I might have been more careful if I had known . . .”
“Oh!” Regan #2 said. “No, certainly not. I would have told you if you were working on something dangerous. No, this device – this is to talk.”
“To who?”
“Everyone. Or at least, the people on the other side of this war. And everyone in the world. I hope the digital translator works properly.” She motioned to W.A. to continue to help her with the assembly. “If something is coming to destroy the entire world, we don’t have time to worry about the infighting of this nation, or of the world. We need to get every nuclear resource at once, and we need to aim it all at Shiva when it comes through.” Regan #2 paused for a minute, clearly saddened by the memories that just came back to her. “If we had more time on our world, this is what we could have done. But we didn’t have enough time to do anything. But this world has an advantage that my world didn’t. It has the time for us to come up with a plan and to work together.”
W.A. nodded. “How did you come up with the idea for this thing?”
“Shiva used the same idea to communicate to our world,” she replied. “My brain’s been working on a way to use that same concept, except for good here.”
Then a couple of minutes of silence fell, while they just worked. Then Regan #2 said, “Actually, that’s enough help for now. Thanks. I just need to use the screwdriver here and tighten some things. So you can let go. I’ll call you if I need you.”
“No problem,” W.A. said. Then he got up, bringing his coffee cup with him. (Regan #2’s coffee was still sitting next to her. In the excitement, she had forgotten to have any.) W.A. walked over to where Blue was standing. “She’s brilliant, isn’t she?”
“She’s all that and more,” Blue said. Then, after taking a sip, he said, “Are you two . . . ?”
“What? Oh, no! I just met her,” W.A. said quickly, feeling his face get red. “We just met. And her dopple—well, we’re just friends too.”
“Good,” Blue said with a nod. “Because I think I might take a run at her.” He smiled and sipped again. W.A. rubbed his ears as if they were cold, but really, he was just trying to get the red out of them from blushing.
- - - - - -
At the same time, on Medieval World, the other Regan – the Regan from W.A.’s own dimension – was hard at work, checking everything on the red suit. They were a short way from the palace, outside the gates but still safely within the kingdom. Regan had almost finished, and she was sure the suit would work to transport them back to the dimension that Red had come from, at least. Who knows what would happen from there. But, one thing at a time.
Even though much of the technology was completely foreign to Regan, she was a fast study. And there were similarities to things she had worked on in her own world. If she hadn’t been so concerned with trying to find a way home, she would have stopped many times to geek out on how cool it was to work on otherworldly technology. She was glad that she was able to get the suit working. Sometimes, she thought with a playful smirk, it paid to be staggeringly brilliant. Not so much when it came to the world of romance. But in moments like this? Oh, yes. It was great.
Meanwhile, Red Laurie and Tyler stood off to the side. Red Laurie was dressed in very fancy royal clothes, but she had insisted on clothes that would be good for traveling. Even at that, they were still too frilly for her taste. But at least she was dressed warmer than she had been before.
All three of them had decided that when it was time to leave, they would go into the forest again, where they were less likely to be bothered by anyone when the “magical” vortex opened.
“In a way,” Red Laurie said to Tyler, “it’s a shame that we can’t stay longer and find out the history of this world. How did it manage to keep ancient European politics? On many worlds, the Europeans who came here were trying to break free of the old monarchy system. Did they fail on this world? Or did the Europeans who came here never intend to break free from the old ways? And for that matter, how did I, of all people, wind up as a queen of any place? As far as I know, there’s no royalty in my family line.”
“Well, that last one, I can see, at least,” Tyler said. “I mean, you’re really tough. In a good way, though. You’re really take-charge. And you had all those folks fooled that you were the queen, with the way you carried yourself and the way you spoke. Heck, I was about ready to bow down to you!”
Red Laurie smiled. “Thanks. You’re sweet.” Then, after a moment’s pause, she said, “Didn’t you say that William—your dopple of W.A.R.—he had a crush on . . .”
“Yeah. And to be honest, I don’t blame him. But he hadn’t done anything. Not yet, anyway.” Then, after he thought for a few seconds, he said, “And you know what was funny? She was much more of a girly-girl than you are. I really didn’t see any of this impressive warrior-type person in here.”
Red Laurie’s smile faded. “Any ‘girliness’ I had was choked out long ago, by the war.”
“Or maybe,” Tyler suggested, “there’s a hidden strength in our world’s Laurie as well. And I’m glad I got to spend enough time with you on this world to learn that.”
Red Laurie smiled again, in spite of herself. “What about you, Tyler? Do you have anyone . . .”
But before she could finish, Regan (with her usual poor sense of timing, when it came to social matters) came running over and said, “All right! We can make the jump now!”
Both Tyler and Red Laurie grimaced a bit. But what they said was, “Great!”
Soon Laurie was back in her red suit – she felt a little ridiculous, being overdressed in this fancy outfit underneath this gargantuan techno-suit. But what did it matter? No one would be able to see it anyway.
After the suit had adjusted around her again, they walked down into the forest. Then, Red Laurie said (with her voice once again electronically distorted), “Hold on to something. We’re going back home.”
Tyler and Regan grabbed hold of the suit, and in a flash, they were gone.