The Past Page 17

  The memories and revelations about the Universal Council have opened his eyes. And whilst he has not yet chosen to side with the Utopians, he most certainly is no longer on theirs. He also knows the risk of answering, so manipulative and dirty are their tricks, their latest trying to influence his mind into killing Iris. It is time to start making his own decisions, his first priority finding his sweet Iris and protecting her from the Seductress.

  ‘Captain… be sure to report status… come in… ’ transmits through again from the Commissioner. Only, the transmission is even weaker and patchier than the previous one.

  VanWest deactivates his Quantum Communicator. The Council no longer has power over him, certainly not in this past, for they no longer have a working Quantum Accelerator rod. However, the transmission does serve a useful purpose, confirming that the time continuum remains unaltered. The Council still being in control in the year 3000.

  In order to infiltrate the Kennedy Space grounds and make it to Launchpad 39A, he will once again need a disguise. As shown on CNN, the astronauts are already in quarantine awaiting the first scheduled launch. Grabbing the box of Popping Tarts, he hurries from the apartment. Relieved to find his red Nissan rental car still parked, and the backpack of Ankit Bhargav ‘the Priest’ on the passenger seat. After figuring how to turn the funny knob on the car radio, he checks the various channels for news reports.

  There are more channels than in 1951 Paris. By 1998 both FM and AM frequencies are available and is glad to find that there are ‘no incidents’ being reported on any. Taking out the facial re-modulation kit, he rummages around to retrieve the NASA identity card, changing once again to this Engineer D. Drake.

  With all that he has learnt, this notion of a ‘New Beginning’ still doesn’t sit well. Changing the time continuum feels immoral and wrong. Furthermore, he’s not convinced that Dr VonHelmann’s Utopian mission will have the desired outcome he hopes for. It is not clear if these events in the 20th century are actually to blame for the rise of the Universal Council or a dystopian world in the year 3000. It seems the issue is more mankind’s nature, not machine’s, and its manipulation as Hans Ashtar philosophised. The Seductress a prime example of those working for their own selfish gains. Stopping this launch will only slow what comes after, be it a hundred or a thousand years delayed.

  Using his Moggle X once again, he speeds out of Horizon Drive to head to the NASA Causeway, the fastest time to destination indicates 04:40:00 to reach Launchpad 39A. There’s not much room for error, it’s only five hours from the scheduled launch of Endeavour and its Unity node. Making matters worse, the traffic is laden with space enthusiasts and tourists coming to watch. With the sun setting, it’s also getting much darker and harder to see.

  It takes 25 minutes of swerving in and out of traffic down Vectorspace Boulevard to even reach the NASA Causeway and then longer to reach a drawbridge over the Indian River Lagoon, from where he hopes to reach Merritt Island, the home of Space Kennedy.

  Watching his Moggle X’s timer count down, taking a long-time to eventually reach this island. Chowing down the Popping Tarts as he drives, he needs the energy to stay alert. The taste is quite intriguing; oddly crusty on the outside with a fruity and sweet filling. Since arriving in this time, his diet has been high on sugar, a big change from his strict high protein diet as an Enforcer. It doesn’t feel all that good, after an immediate sugar rush, it follows by giving him a slight migraine and stomach-ache. He can’t quite believe that people actually ate this.

  In the distance, with the help of his Moggle X, he sees a tall rectangular building in the dark. The Vehicle Assembly Building. It partly obscures an even more impressively tall building behind, and his target destination, Launchpad 39A. He zooms in to confirm it holds the space shuttle he’s looking for; the long white spacecraft has a black nose tip with Endeavour written further across. Closer to its base, the United States is written alongside the NASA meatball logo in red, white and blue. It’s the shuttle.

  The emblem reminds him of his walk with Colonel Cornelius to Dr King’s Elite Quarters on the SCC-400. Little did he know then that this meeting would end up with him being here, in 1998 Florida, at the home of NASA. So much has happened since.

  The Launchpad is still estimated to be a long - 02:45:00 - time away, having taken him close to two hours to just to get just this far. A bottleneck ahead forces him to slow, where he spots a NASA security checkpoint, it is screening the vehicles that are coming to watch the launch, at the Space Kennedy Visitor Complex. Following the other drivers, VanWest winds down his window, hoping his disguise does the trick as he holds out the identity card of NASA Engineer D. Drake.

  The security guard looks quite surprised, ‘Sir! You work for NASA’!?

  ‘Yep… Been called out for an emergency to Launchpad 39A’! VanWest reacts, improvising an excuse.

  ‘Oh my! Better I get you fast-tracked’.

  The guard immediately radios that he needs to make an urgent escort, signalling to VanWest to follow his vehicle as he turns his blue lights on, to head to the Launchpad. An unexpected piece of luck, the cars promptly moving out of their way. The estimated time to destination on his Moggle X drastically decreases as he drives behind, passing the Launch Control Centre and the Vehicle Assembly Building much faster than previously estimated.

  Having saved him close to an hour and a half, the guard accompanies him right up to the perimeter’s security gate. But he is still quite a distance from the Launchpad. The guard leaves, exchanging with him a salute before returning back to his checkpoint. The launch site is very flat, one big concrete slab with large patches of sand and in some places pools of water, swamps. There is barely anywhere to hide.

  Getting to the Launchpad will require a new disguise, and despite saving so much time there’s only 00:01:00 until the scheduled launch time, the countdown will already be underway. He doesn’t want to risk using the NASA Engineers badge to go any further, the security is likely to get heavier. He recalibrates the facial remodulation kit to restore his own appearance but with one key addition - night camouflage: dark green stripes on darkened brown skin.

  He pulls right and parks his car, opting to continue on foot. Leaving the flowery shirt inside, he proceeds semi-naked and bare-chested. Athletically hurdling over the first fence, he hurries and slips past a set of searchlights. It reminds him of his exercise courses at the academy on the Enforcer’s moon base, except there he could at least find the occasional crater and rock for cover.

  In front of the Launchpad is a shallow swamp. VanWest wades into the muddy water, doing his best to stay low and not make a splash. However, a searchlight suddenly falls on the lake, illuminating it across and forcing him to dive under the water. Holding his breath, he tries to stay calm, knowing time is of the essence.

  The light soon moves on, half-crouched he exits. The swamp having given him an additional layer of camouflage, covering him in mud. Skilfully eluding a security patrol, he runs stealthily in the dark, a 00:20:00 run, until he reaches a low-level security fence that encircles the Launchpad. With another set of searchlights scouring the area around, he carefully navigates the razor-sharp barbed wire at its top, lifting himself up and over, where he lands inside the Launchpad’s perimeter, the sand muffling his fall.

  Straight ahead a dozen engineers wearing white lab coats inspect the launch rocket. Using his bionic sensors, he detects the signatures of the six-man crew inside the orbiter 195-feet above. Having already crossed the long swing arms, which connects the launch tower to the shuttle, they await lift-off in the white room of the Endeavour space shuttle. NASA very much aware of the poisonous gases emitted from the rockets; they stay in an environmentally hospitable room for protection. Unfortunately, this same awareness didn’t lead to the creation of stricter international regulations, long before long-distance space travel took off with nuclear propulsion engines over the next two centuries.

  An announcement staggers VanWest, T-minus 19 minutes, holding for
another inspection’. His Moggle X now reads 00:19:00; he believed he had more time.

  Wondering if time is already beginning to shift, VanWest sets about surveying the area for Iris and the Seductress. His bionic sensors though return no matching signatures. But, as the engineers evacuate the blast area, he notices that one has not followed them. Instead, this engineer is walking towards, and not away from, the rockets!? Spotting an object in her hands, a primitive device called a walkie-talkie, he hones in to hear her speak.

  ‘Houston, Florida, making one last inspection, over’, the woman radios. Her voice isn’t quite like that of Iris, but with the facial remodulation kit, she could have changed it along with her appearance.

  ‘Standing by, awaiting your instruction’, radios back Flight Control.

  With all the other engineers out of sight, VanWest decides to intercept the woman. It’s a gamble if it is not her he risks the alarm being raised and those watching in the Launch Control Centre.

  The woman turns towards him as he approaches. It’s indeed Iris, her electric blue eyes giving away her identity, having remained unaltered behind her thick-rimmed glasses. She holds in her other hand a tool, a silver circular Corrupter, not of this age. It also looks just like the one he foresaw during a moment of unconsciousness at the end of Stage 3 of Universal Red and Blue Games. He hopes the outcome will be different with no blast. Whilst the device is mainly used to corrupt electronic and mechanical systems, if left on maximum charge, it can detonate.

  ‘Iris’! He calls out.

  Iris takes a moment to realise that this striped man is him, ‘VanWest? Is that you? … My love, why did you come’?

  ‘I can’t let you kill yourself. I love you… I want us to build a new life. We have an opportunity to do so here’, he pleads. Undeterred, she continues her sabotage, placing the Corrupter on the hydraulic pumps.

  If it detonates, it could cause a chain reaction, blowing up the fuel tanks and all those in the immediate vicinity, the astronauts in the shuttle and herself. What’s more, the whole explosion would look like a technical malfunction, the fault of the engineers.

  ‘This is the only choice, my love… you MUST know that! The Council has destroyed everything. This is a sacrifice I MUST make’, Iris explains, her voice breaking.

  ‘My sweet. You can destroy the rod. It is the last working one. We can live here, together in the past. Help this world and time in other ways’.

  ‘My love, it is not possible. Go, start a new life in this Utopia, you deserve it… ’ Iris urges him. Reciting a line from one of Emily Dickinson’s poem, ‘Because I could not stop for Death - He kindly stopped for me’.

  ‘T-Minus 10 minutes, evacuate the area’! Time seems to have speeded up.

  As VanWest takes another step towards Iris, the sound of a gun cocking - click - stops him still. Their heads turn to find the Seductress dressed in a blue and black NASA security guard uniform pointing a black Desert Eagle gun at them.

  ‘Hands up’! She strides over and takes the Quantum Accelerator rod from Iris’s belt, knocking her Corrupter out of her hand as she does so.

  ‘You two are pathetic. Dear Iris, I believe you are wanted for Judgment Day’! The Seductress taunts, as she activates the rod, which jolts out to create a black portal to a destination of her choice.

  ‘I won’t go alive’! Iris warns her defiantly.

  ‘I see… well, I’ll kill your lover if you don’t go! You are both fools, your love repulses me, it disgusts me’, the Seductress scolds as she gestures that she will shoot VanWest. Showing a hint of jealousy at VanWest’s love for Iris and Iris’s love for him.

  Iris looks mournfully at VanWest, just like she did when leaving through the holoscreen in Ward B. He tries to think what he can do to stop the Seductress.

  Before he can react, the Seductress shoves Iris inside and in a split second Iris disappears. Seeing Iris’s Corrupter on the floor, he jumps towards it, narrowly dodging the Seductress’s bullet - pop and grabs hold of it, ready to detonate. Locked in a stalemate, she thinks about aiming another bullet to disable it, but she needs a clean shot.

  ‘Listen to me, VanWest. There’s an opportunity for there to be no Judgment Day, one without Dr King, one without VonHelmann’! The Seductress tries to negotiate.

  Waaahhhh! The sound of the gunshot has caused the alarms to sound. In the distance, he can see armed security guards racing towards them.

  ‘This daughter of Mad Newton, I sent back to where she came. You can now think for yourself! Make your own decisions… Neither Dr King nor Iris’s father care for us. Mad Newton wants the past for himself like King wants the present. Let us together shape a new world and time’, the Seductress offers.

  The portal’s pull weakens and its whistling decreases, it is starting to shut. VanWest is unconvinced. He doesn’t trust her, having already fallen for her tricks twice, in 1951 France and the Utopian’s bunker. All he knows for certain is that he must rescue his sweet Iris, therefore stopping this Seductress and leaping back to the present. He slowly lifts his Electroskeleton hand, the Corrupter in his other hand.

  He scowls, ‘The past is neither yours nor mine to meddle with. My time is the present with Iris’!

  The Seductress reacts by firing her gun - pop - destroying the Corrupter, careful to hit it so it doesn’t explode. But before she can fire again, VanWest reacts with his Electroskeleton hand, sending out a powerful pulse - whoosh - that smacks into her and pulverises her entire body.

  With the portal now closing, VanWest jumps back to his feet and leaps into it. Disappearing as the NASA’s security guards arrive, confused to find that no one is there.

  Chapter 18 Leap to Judgment Day

  VanWest spirals through the portal and slams into the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air. He rolls to his side, badly winded and struggling to breathe, his skin stinging and his head spinning. Flashes of Iris on her knees with a laser dagger against her slender neck cross his mind as a loud chant with his name rises, ‘VanWest, VanWest, VanWest’!

  Even though he still wears the baggy shorts of the Homestead pilot and his electroskeleton hand, his body no longer bears camouflage stripes. Mustering all his strength and balance, he presses his palms against the sand to clamber to his feet. As he foresaw, he is in a Romanesque gladiatorial arena lined with giant marble pillars. The chanting comes from stands filled with spectators in grey jumpsuits. Many are there in the flesh and not as holograms; a rare occurrence for only the most high profile of executions. VanWest realises that he has leapt to the Seductress’s destination, Judgment Day! The day of executions!

  The large holoscreens display his image in 4D. He looks nervously around and, as expected, finds Iris. Having been forced to her knees, she winces in pain as Alpha presses his laser dagger against her slender and once pale neck, now reddened and blackened from its searing heat. For all he could foresee, this ‘gift’ as both Dr VonHelmann and Dr King have called it, has done little to stop this from coming true. Seemingly it was inevitable that Iris would be here with him helplessly watching.

  The silver Quantum Accelerator rod lies close to her partially buried and hidden in the sand. His visions intertwined with the Seductress, she the one to transport them here, right to this spot, their fate.

  As VanWest looks despairingly at Iris; unsure what to do, still slightly disorientated. A man shouts through the chants, ‘Down with the Council’!

  The voice sounds familiar. Looking to his right, he sees Dr VonHelmann, aka Mad Newton, his bruised body chained to a metal pole. He shouts again, ‘Down with the Council’! He has been tortured, likely by the Interrogator, and given his final punishment, forced to bear witness to his daughter’s execution at the hands of Captain Alpha.

  Every Sunday, Judgment Day broadcasts live from the Colosseum. It is less an entertainment show than a propaganda tool for the Universal Council: an event used to terrify its citizens and deter those that may commit offences against them. Unsurprisingly, the Colosseum i
s linked directly to Queen Elizabeth’s most notorious prison, aptly named Lord Kitchener, after a British Field Marshall who built the first concentration camps during the second Anglo-Boer war of 1900. This camp was used by the English army to force the Boers of South African to submit to its rule by starving their families, wives and children.

  The mega-prison is laid out in three triangular sections; the pre-trial detention centre, the correctional facility, and the execution block. Most of those locked inside have only committed minor crimes, such as stealing food, medical supplies or are merely awaiting trial for no other reason than having been rounded up by the quadrotors.

  In the Universal law system of guilty until proven innocent, just deemed to ‘look’ suspicious can get one arrested. Those in pre-trial undertake factory jobs such as making jumpsuits and shoes. They are the lucky ones. The others sent to work in the mines are never leaving. They are the property of the Oligarch Linus Sugar, the Mayor of Queen Elizabeth, and owner of this land.

  Pre-trial doesn’t apply to the NEA rebels and Utopians, deemed beyond rehabilitation. They bypass the detention centre and correctional facility altogether and are sent directly to the execution block to await Judgment Day. After endless tortuous dream sequences, simulating their execution over and over, the Council not content to kill them once, leave most praying for this day to finally arrive.

  With the Seductress pulverised in 1998 Florida, the Universal Council has given VanWest this unwanted credit of bringing Iris to Judgment Day, hence the chanting of his name. She is to be executed alongside several fellow high-profile Utopians, making this Sunday a propaganda bonanza. Today’s theme could as well be called The Universal Always Wins. These executions will be broadcasted across the Solar System to show the immense cost of defiance. Not only will Dr VonHelmann be executed, so will his own flesh and blood, his beloved daughter Iris, and his loyal followers.