Fantasy Journey to Year 1,000,000,000

Elizabeth looked at Victor. Victor looked away. She looked at Suki instead. "Suki, what's happening?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know," said Suki. "We were ordered to take on personnel from the Devonshire, and to transfer some ordnance from the Judicator's stores."

"Ordnance?"

A look of surprise slowly dawned on Suki's face. "No...." She looked at Bill Carey. "He wouldn't. He couldn't."

Bill Carey didn't answer.

"What, Suki?"

"The nova bombs," said Suki. "We have four on board. The Devonshire has two. He must have taken the ones from the Judicator."

Elizabeth looked from Suki, to Bill Carey, to Victor, to the viewscreen. "No!" she cried. "Bill! You can't let this happen!"

"It's the Captain's order," said Carey.

"I don't care about that! You have to stop him!"

"Elizabeth, this has to be done," said Victor.

She turned on Victor. "You knew? And you didn't tell me?" said Elizabeth.

"I thought you might react, well... just like this, actually," said Victor.

"No!' she cried. "Bill, stop him! Lieutenant Bill Carey! I hold the rank of a full commander in the Survey Service Reserves! I order you to stop that ship!"

"You should leave the bridge now, Doctor Shaw," said Carey.

"I order you!" Elizabeth yelled, hysteria creeping into her voice. "I'm a commander! I'm a commander! I order you! I... order you!" Her voice started to break down in sobs. Victor held her gently, and started to propel her to the lift.

After they left, Suki turned to Bill Carey. "Was there really no other option?"

"The Captain is doing what he has to. What any Survey Service Captain would," said Bill Carey, in an even tone. "Follow the Devonshire at a distance of five miles, until I give you my mark."

Twenty space bubbles carrying Tammad and the members of his expeditions speedily headed towards Corta. There was a tiny flash as they approached the energy screen around the planet and it deactivated, sputtering out and becoming visible for only a moment. And then the bubbles were through, followed by the Devonshire.

The Judicator, which had been following closely, veered off at the last minute, and headed back into space.

Tammad hailed the Devonshire. Taylor opened a channel, audio only.

"Captain Taylor... is there something wrong with your visual communications?" came Tammad's voice.

"Not that I know of," said Taylor.

"Captain Taylor, why has the Judicator moved off?"

"They're going to support us from high orbit," said Taylor.

"The shield is down for the moment, but if we're unsuccessful, it could be raised at any time."

"Then let us hope we are successful, Tammad. Please continue with the plan."

"Very well," said Tammad, clearly unhappy.

The bubbles moved down into the giant opening in the planet, into the third of the planet that had been ripped apart. The Devonshire followed.

The molten solid core of the planet loomed ahead. The glare of it was almost blinding The bubbles zoomed in on the rocky inner core of the planet, nearly 700 miles inwards, to the United base. As they got closer, Taylor saw a number of buildings, as well as a large monolith. He resisted the urge to train his pulse cannons on it and blast it to pieces. They would be expecting that. It would be better to stick with the original plan.

The bubbles touched down, and for five whole minutes, Taylor heard nothing. And then Tammad hailed him, and Taylor opened a channel, audio only.

"Captain, they have conceded," said Tammad. "I gave them your ultimatum. I told them your ship would lay waste to their base unless they surrender... and they have. It is safe to come down now."

"Very good," said Taylor. "I'm coming down in a shuttle."

Taylor walked through the empty corridors of the Devonshire.

Jennifer, the walls seemed to yell out at him. This was the last ship they had served on together. This is where everything happened. Where everything fell apart.

Jennifer.

Taylor felt incredibly alone as his footfalls echoed through the empty ship. He entered the large, empty hanger bay, empty except for himself. He entered a shuttle, took the pilot's seat, and strapped himself in, and paused for a long minute, looking at a device in the palm of his hand.

Jennifer.

Taylor launched from the shuttle bay, and flew down to the United base. As he approached it, however, it was no longer Jennifer he was thinking about.

It was Pam. Taylor suddenly should have resigned his commission. He should have stayed on Earth. They would both be together. They would both have been happy with each other.

But instead he was about to die, 500,00,000 years in the future, and the worst thing about it is that he would never see Pam again.

Taylor landed the shuttle on a landing pad near the United base. As he got out, he saw beings waiting for him. Tammad was there with his men. They had rifles pointed at a number of United squid like creatures. Taylor resisted the urge to laugh.

Taylor looked at the device in his hand and took a deep breath. Then he squeezed it. Still squeezing it, he walked towards them.

It was an amazing sight. The United base was bathed in the warm, yellow glow from the molten hot core of Corta, as if it were a brilliant sunset. Behind Taylor, an ocean of water continually dropped into the open core, creating massive clouds of steam which shot upwards.

Taylor walked forward, holding the device tightly. He saw Tammad and his men, standing next to several United, as well as... something that defied definition.

Tammad had told him that the United could merge their bodies into one, large being, but Taylor had never seen it. Now he did. It was like a large pool of flesh, ringed with flailing tentacles which shot up into the air. He heard hissing sounds from it, and he could see a psychic yellow glow coming from all around it, not unlike the glow around Tammad and his men.

Tammad welcomed him. "Congratulations, Captain. You've done it. Your mission is a success. How do you feel?"

How do I feel?

"I feel wonderful," said Taylor. "Thank you so much for asking! Now, I want you to shut down that device," he said, pointing at the monolith, "and I want to see that thing disappear," he said, pointing to the Black Box, which was visible to the naked eye.

"I'll ask them to-"

"No, you can do it," said Taylor.

"Captain, I don't know how to operate that device."

"I think you do," said Taylor. "I think you do, because you work for them. You work for the United."

"Why do you think that?" Tammad asked.

He didn't even try to deny it.

"Must we really play this game?" Taylor sighed. "At first, I thought you were merely a competing race of aliens, with your own agenda, and you were using us to overthrow the United so you could take over."

Taylor almost smiled as he saw the surprised look on Tammad's face. "But then something happened to me. Something I can't explain. You might say that I began to see you in a different light. Specifically, when I look at you, Tammad, and your men, I see yellow halos around each of you."

"That's because you were given the isotope, Captain Taylor," Tammad said calmly.

Taylor's heart started beating rapidly. He had suspected something like that. "Then why didn't I turned into a squid? Or get melted into mush?"

"You were given a very low dose, to insure your safety. Too low a dose, as it turned out," said Tammad.

"Who are you? What are you? Why are you working for the United?" Taylor demanded, his hand holding the Device tightly.

Tammad said, "You are mistaken, Captain Taylor. We do not work for the United. We are the United." And suddenly Tammad and his men shimmered, and turned into large, one eyed squids.

Taylor took a step back. He hadn't quite expected that. "And that's it? You're all United? Have you managed to completely wipe out humanity?"

"Not at all," said the voice of Tammad, now sounding clearly in his head. "Look around you, Captain Taylor."

Taylor looked at the squids, and at the large meat pie of the United, and slowly shook his head. "No... no... it can't be. You are aliens! You told me the United were aliens!"

"No, Captain Taylor. The United is humanity."

Taylor felt a shudder go through his body. He momentarily lost his grip on the Device before he tightened it again. "How... how can that be?"

"I can see from your mind that your last visit was to the year 22,000,000, some 480,000,000 years ago. Is that correct?"

"Yes," said Taylor.

"At that point in time the human mind had progressed intellectually, as you saw. But the human body itself had not changed nearly as much. What I told you was true, Captain Taylor, to a certain point. The United have evolved so that every cell in are bodies are self-aware, and mutable. Your brain is a collection of neurons which are only self aware operating as a group. Our brain cells are self aware on an individual level. When we combine our neurons within our individual brains, our sense of awareness increases tenfold. When we combine our individual bodies within the mass you see here, our awareness increases a hundredfold."

"How so very wonderful for you," said Taylor, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"It is wonderful, Captain Taylor, if only you could understand it, if only you could screan it, and see what we have learned from the galaxy, and the true nature of existence."

"It all sounds so wonderful. Really, it does," said Taylor, still holding the device tightly. "Now, what does this have to do with the Black Box that's threatening Earth in my time?"

"The Black Box, as you call it, is not threatening your Earth. It never was."

"What about the shockwaves coming out of it?"

"A mere cosmic poke, a nudge, to enhance your natural curiosity and encourage you to visit us," said Tammad.

"Those shockwaves were getting pretty strong when I left."

"And that was the strongest they got. After you left, they gradually reduced in strength, and within a few weeks, they ceased altogether, and the time tunnel closed. When we saw no other ships were coming through, we didn't see any need to maintain it. We tried to return your Exeter, in the hopes of encouraging more visitors, but yours was the only ship to come after them."

"Are you saying you believed sending back an empty ship filled with liquefied bodies would make us want to send even more ships?" said Taylor.

"Well, you came after them, didn't you?"

"True," said Taylor. This was a lot to absorb. He quickly looked up at the sky. "You say you closed the time tunnel. But... the time tunnel exists here, and now. I see it."

"Yes, but it no longer exists in your time."

Taylor wondered if Tammad was telling the truth.

Tammad could read the doubt in Taylor's mind. "After all, we couldn't wipe out the race which created us. That would cause us some difficulties for us, temporally speaking, wouldn't it?"

Suddenly Taylor realized Tammad might be telling the truth. If these creatures really were descended from humanity, they would have every incentive not to destroy Earth in the past. If they were telling the truth about their origins.

Taylor scratched his head with his free hand not holding the device. "So why is it that you perfect beings want visitors from the past? And why did you mur*er four members of my crew?"

"We did not mur*er them, Captain Taylor. We simply gave them the isotope."

"Why? Why would you want to turn them into a puddle of liquid?"

"We did not desire that outcome, Captain Taylor. The isotope is extremely unpredictable. It only works on 17% of subjects when administered dermally. It has a very high failure rate."

"But... I didn't turn into a pile of liquid."

"You were given a lower dose. We have also found that the isotope has better results when given internally."

Internally.

Taylor flushed, as he suddenly realized what happened to Jennifer, what Alex Stone must have done to her.

"Yes. We did to Jennifer exactly what we did to you."

"So... have I become one of you now?" said Taylor. Could he turn into a squid at any moment? The thought terrified him.

"No. Yours was an unexpected result, one we have never seen before. Previously when low doses of the isotope have been administered internally, the subject either liquefies, does not react at all, or transforms into one of the United. The experiment we conducted on you gave us a result not readily applicable to any of these categories. You seem to have latent screaning abilities, and yet your genetic pattern appears basically unchanged."

"So... what is this all about? Why are we here?"

"That was the most important question you could ask, and yet, it has taken you nearly thirty of your minutes to arrive on it," said Tammad, in his mind.

"Sorry, I'm not as perfect as you," said Taylor sarcastically.

"We are perfect, Captain Taylor, and therein lies the problem. As the cells in our bodies evolved and became self-aware, we shed from our DNA that which we felt held us back. We reached a standard of perfection which you see before you. But in doing so we lost something. We achieved a remarkable homogeneity in our cell structure. One of the United is very much like the next and the next and the next after him. We have a remarkable ability to screan the wonders of the galaxy, but we have lost... we have lost purpose."

"What?" said Taylor, not believing what he was hearing.

"Our existence has no purpose."

"Great. Go and do the universe a big favor and kill yourselves," said Taylor.

"You are angry over what happened to your crew, and especially the one called Jennifer Hale. We understand that. Unfortunately, we do not feel the urge to kill ourselves."

"How very unfortunate," said Taylor.

"Captain Taylor, We do not feel the urge to do anything at all. Hence our problem," said Tammad, in Taylor's mind. "We have shed everything that made us imperfect, but in doing so, have lost purpose. That is why we have brought you here, to regain that which we have lost."

"What do you mean?"

"We told you that the United wanted humans to entertain us. That was a lie. We have brought you here so we may study you. You have a purpose, many purposes. You also call them emotions. You feel anger, fear, love, greed, hunger. We wish to understand these motivations, without reverting entirely back to our animal predecessors. There are two ways you can help with this. The first is as Encouragers."

"Encouragers?"

"Those who, by example, try to teach us about motivations," said Tammad. "This is not usually very helpful. For a time, we studied 22 members of the crew of the Exeter as Encouragers, but did not learn much of value."

"And the rest of the crew... what did you do to them?"

"We gave them the isotope, of course; which we eventually gave to the entire crew."

"What happened to them?"

"Eighty seven percent did not survive."

"And the other thirteen percent?"

Tammad waved his arms. "To my left is Engineering second officer Miles Henry. To his left is sensor officer Michelle Garcia."

"No," said Taylor.

"They were turned into hybrids. They joined with us, and we sampled some of their modified DNA. That has allowed us to at least understand some of your emotions. It has also allowed us to simulate the ones you knew. The one you knew as Captain Audrey Spaulding was actually Lieutenant Romana Martin of the Exeter."

"No," said Taylor.

"Colonel Alex Stone was actually Lieutenant Commander Gary Culverson of the Exeter."

"No... Survey Service officers would not participate in this," said Taylor.

"They are no longer Survey Service officers. They are United," said Tammad. "But we quickly went through their numbers. We needed more. We thought to go back in time and take people ourselves, but feared the impact on the timeline. If we are seen; if people understand what we are, if one of us are captured, we could have a ruinous effect on the evolution of mankind. But fortunately, we don't have to take that risk, not yet. Because we have you, and your crew."

"Then... why did you make us jump through all these hoops, going from planetoid to planetoid to collect elements? Why not just bring us here immediately?"

"We were observing you. We wanted to know which of your crew had the greatest potential. We gave Ensign Clay Raleigh the isotope because he demonstrated a passion for greed. We gave Doctor Bruce Anderson the isotope because he had a passion for science. Lieutenant Babangida demonstrated warlike aggression, so he got the isotope as well. And we gave Lieutenant Jennifer Hale the isotope because she showed a passion for sensual love. Not sensual love for you, Captain, but love for others, nonetheless."

"And me? Why did you give me the isotope?"

"Your passion is perhaps strongest of all: the determination to carry out your mission, regardless of the personal cost to yourself or your crew, in the finest tradition of your Survey Service."

Taylor felt a surge of pride. He didn't know if Tammad was being sarcastic, but Taylor suspected that the United wasn't capable of it.

"And now we have you, and your crew," said Tammad.

Taylor gave him a mocking smile. "Well, I got some bad news for you, Tammad old boy. You don't have my crew, and you don't exactly have me," said Taylor. He pointed up to the Devonshire, which was hovering above the base. "Do you see that? There's no crew in it. They're all safely on the Judicator, in high orbit."

He looked at Tammad for a reaction, but what kind of reaction could a squid with no face actually show? The giant eye blinked. Once.

"But the Devonshire isn't exactly empty. It has six nova bombs on it. And do you see this device in my hand? It's the activator. If I release my grip on it, the bombs go off."

Taylor waited for a long moment. There was no response. He wondered if the United were conferring telepathically. He wondered if they were trying to stop the bombs.

"What do you want?" Tammad said finally.

"Get your people off of Corta. Evacuate this base. Then we're going to blow it, and this monolith, to pieces."

"I have already told you that the Black Box has been deactivated in your time."

"Yes, I'm sorry, but I don't believe you," said Taylor. "You see, after the first set of lies, it's a little hard for me to believe the second set."

"We have no reason to lie to you."

"You have every reason to lie to me."

"Then go ahead," said Tammad, in Taylor's head.

"What?" Taylor asked.

"Go ahead. Detonate your bombs."

Taylor paused. Did they think he was bluffing?

"You are referring to these, correct?"

Suddenly, in a flash, he saw six nova bombs, materializing besides him.

"Y-yes," said Taylor, staring at the big, ominous dark, round bombs.

"Then do it."

"What?"

"Detonate them," said Tammad, in Taylor's head.

"Really?"

"Yes."

Taylor paused, licking his lips. "You think I'm not serious? You think I won't actually do it?"

"Well, you've talked a lot about doing it... but you haven't actually done it."

They were calling his bluff.

"All... All right," said Taylor. "I will." He licked his lips. He had been preparing himself for this moment.

And yet, not like this. He had always envisioned releasing the trigger while the United were attacking him, rushing him, leaving him no choice but to let the trigger go.

But to do it this way... to do it this way was harder. Much harder. Taylor's heart beat rapidly. He felt the giant squid eyes all on him. He bit his lip. He had to do this, to save Earth. To save humanity.

To save Pam.

Closing his eyes, and gritting his teeth, he released the trigger, and-

Nothing happened.

Taylor opened his eyes. He looked at the nova bombs.

They were now black dust scattered on the ground.

"He really was going to do it," came Tammad's voice, inside his head. "Did you feel it? Did you feel his emotion?"

"Yes!" said another voice excitedly. "At that moment he had purpose. A purpose so strong that he would willingly extinguish himself to accomplish it!"

There was a babble of voices inside his head.

"Stop!" Taylor cried.

Blissful silence.

"All right. You've neutralized the bombs. Why don't we call this a draw? Let me return to my ship. We will go back to our Earth, in our time. What do you say?"

"We say no, Captain Taylor," said Tammad.

There was a sudden flash, and the crew of the Judicator suddenly appeared, all around him.

"How... how did you do that?" Taylor asked.

"You had a fairly good grasp of the situation, Captain Taylor. For a primitive, of course. But you have absolutely no grasp of what we are capable of doing," said Tammad. And then there was another flash, and Taylor found himself somewhere completely different.

"And so here we are again," said Victor.

"Not funny, Victor," said Taylor. They were in a large, circular chamber reminiscent of the room where they had been experimented on by the Ascended. And now the same thing was going to happen to them, only 492,000,000 years later.

"It was a good try, Michael," said Victor, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But we were simply outclassed by superior technology. We never stood a chance."

"Victor, there's always a chance," said Taylor, practically reciting the Survey Service mantra.

There was a flash of light, and Colonel Alex Stone appeared in front of them, flanked by two of the United.

"Captain Taylor, we meet again," said Stone. "It wasn't nice of you to leave me locked in crew quarters on the Judicator."

"I hope I didn't hurt your feelings," said Taylor.

"That's why you're here, Captain Taylor," said Stone. He walked up to Taylor, and looked at him with blank eyes. "I have no feelings. No feelings of any kind."

"How sad for you," said Taylor. He glared at him. This was the man who had killed Jennifer. The man who had seduced her away from him-

"Sadness. An interesting choice of words," said Stone. "But sadness is not the motivator I have been sent to study."

"And what would that be?"

"Pain, Captain Taylor." He smiled as he saw Taylor flinch. "I have chosen to study the infliction of pain on others."

"Why would you do that?" Taylor asked.

"We have found that is a powerful motivator in your society," said Stone. "My initial studies will require two volunteers."

"No one's volunteering," said Taylor coldly.

Stone looked at the crew with inhuman eyes. Each crewman shuddered as they felt his gaze fall among them. But then his head stopped twice.

"We have selected Ensign Gary Torrence, and Crewman Rudy Garrett."

"No!" said Taylor.

There was a flash of light, and Stone and the United disappeared. So did Torrence and Garrett.

"No!" Taylor cried. "Bring them back! Bring them back now!" He spun around the room.

"You seem upset," said a familiar voice.

Taylor turned around and saw Jennifer Hale. She gave him an inhuman smile. "It's good to see you again, Michael."

Gary Torrence and Rudy Garrett were in a room full of United. Alex Stone stood in front of them. "Thank you for coming. We are here to study the concept of giving pain."

"It's called sadism," said Ensign Torrence.

"Yes... sadism," said Stone. "We have observed that sadism is a very powerful motivator in your society."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your society glorifies the hurting and killing of others." Suddenly images from a hundred holodramas appeared all around them, scenes of shooting and killing and fighting and beating.

"That's different," said Torrence. "That's fiction. It's not real."

"And yet it does have appeal to you," said Stone.

"No, it doesn't," said Torrence

"Doesn't it?"

Suddenly they saw a scene from the cube planetoid, where Torrence was fighting the United. "Die, squids!" he shouted as he blasted one to pieces. Another scene showed Garrett blasting a squid of his own, and then laughing hysterically.

"Is that what this is about? Revenge for the death of your comrades?" said Torrence.

"No," said Alex Stone. "We do not feel anger at their deaths. We do not feel anything. We want to know what it feels like. What it feels like to inflict pain."

"And now we will begin."

No words had ever instilled greater fear in Gary Torrence's heart.​