Incident 27 (19 page)

Eventually,
he decided that it was, and got up. Noticing the stubble on his face, he went
to the bathroom to shave and poured a dollop of cream into his palm (he always
used too much). He picked up the razor and—

“Ev!”

Scared
out of his mind, he dropped both the mound of cream and the razor. “Shit! What
the...?” Brandon was looking at him from someplace dark on the other side of
the mirror.

“We
don’t have a lot of time. I need you to listen to me.”

Ev
stared, aghast. “What the hell are you doing in my mirror?”

“I’m
not in the mirror. I’m in Gehenna.”

“The
place where the Tower of Babel and the Nephilim were stored? Why aren’t you
here in the new world with us?”

“Because
Arcturus doesn’t want us there. As far as I can tell, the only people who
transferred over are you and him.”

Ev
ran his fingers through his hair as the tension mounted in his stomach. “No,
no, no. I know for a fact Maya made it here.”

“No,
Ev; she didn’t. That’s just a copy he made. He played you. Maya’s with us over
here. I know you’re confused, so let me explain.

“You
may have noticed Bethos didn’t participate in the battle we just had. That’s
because he stayed behind to make certain preparations. You see, he has the
unique ability to transport people between worlds en mass. We knew there was a
strong possibility we wouldn’t be able to stop the Ark from activating, and we
needed a backup plan just in case. I’m sorry to say this is the best we could
do. Bethos warped all of humanity and all gods here the instant the Ark activated.”

“Well...”
Ev said. “I mean...OK. You can just have the President transfer everyone to
this world.”

But
Brandon shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. The laws of the
world Arcturus created are absolute. No one gets in without his permission. The
most we could manage was to temporarily open up a window to you. We can’t go
through it; we can only use it to communicate.”

Ev
could feel madness encroaching on him as everything fell apart. His nerves were
rapidly being frayed. “I-I don’t understand. Are you just going to spend the rest
of your lives in Gehenna?”

Brandon
’s expression was one
of sadness and desperation. “No, Ev. We can’t. Gehenna doesn’t have the
atmosphere to support life as you know it. It’s a mostly empty void. Right now,
we’re using our conjuring abilities to create oxygen and warmth for everyone,
but even though we’re gods, we can’t keep this up forever. Sooner or later,
we’re all going to suffocate.”

“No!”
Ev said. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this! Everyone was supposed to be safe
and happy. And now you’re telling me everyone’s going to die because of me?” He
fought to hold back the tears and the agony, but it was futile. He had
effectively killed everyone.

“Don’t
give up just yet, Ev. We can still return the world to the way it used to be.
There’s a way, but you’re not gonna like it.”

Ev
raised his head from the slouched, defeated position it had been in. “There’s a
way? Tell me! I’ll do anything.”

“It’s
simple, really. You have two choices. Arcturus rules your new world. Maybe you
can convince him to cancel it.”

“And
if he refuses? What’s the other choice?”

Brandon
replied, “I think you
already know. You have to kill him.”

No.
“But...we did this so that we wouldn’t have to kill anyone ever again. He’s my
friend. I mean...I thought he was.”

“Open
your eyes, Ev! He just sentenced everyone in existence except the two of you to
die! He’s
no one’s
friend. You’ve only got one chance to make everything
right. No matter what he tells you, do what needs to be done.”

“Why?
What’s he going to tell me?”

Brandon
avoided eye contact
with him. “I can’t say. I’m too ashamed. But believe me; it’s not worth
sacrificing every last person for. Please, Ev, you have to—”

The
mirror suddenly went back to normal, and Ev found himself staring at his own
reflection. They must have used up the small window they had to talk.

Ev
couldn’t believe this. Arcturus had lied to him. The Maya of this world was
nothing more than his puppet designed to keep Ev in blissful ignorance. And now
everyone was going to die unless he did the one thing he wasn’t certain he
could do. Arcturus had a lot more fighting experience than he had. How could he
hope to overcome him?

He
slapped himself. That kind of negative attitude would kill everyone for sure.
Maybe if he talked to Arcturus, he could convince him to change everything
back.
But what if you can’t? Are you prepared to kill him?

Yes,
he told himself. But his lack of confidence said otherwise.

* * *

Arcturus
had left his office. After about an hour of searching, Ev found him on the
hezball court in Lang Civics Center. The huge building held shops, restaurants
and enough seating to hold thousands of people.

By
the time Ev made his way down to the court, Arcturus was finishing up throwing
a hezball through the octagonal goal situated seven feet off the ground.

Ev
approached him and said, “We need to talk.”

Whatever
Arcturus had been doing before Ev arrived hadn’t caused him to break out in
sweat. He was just as dry as he had been when Ev saw him last. “Oh? What about?
Let me guess—you want to change your major. No problem.”

“No,
it’s not that. Look, I...I need you to change the world back to the way it
was.”

Arcturus
stared at him for a moment before erupting into boisterous laughter. “You’re
hilarious, Ev! ‘Change the world back to the way it was’. You are just too
much.” Ev waited for him to stop laughing, all the while keeping the look of
grim determination on his face. After an uncomfortable silence, Arcturus said,
“You’re serious. I can’t believe this. Why would you want to go back to that
world of evil and suffering?”

Ev
pointed an accusing finger at him. “Because you lied to me. Maya didn’t make it
over, and neither did anyone else except the two of us. They’re stuck in
Gehenna and about to die.”

“Hmph.
Sounds like this world’s not as airtight as I wanted. One of them managed to
get to you. All right, fine, I admit it; I kept everyone else out. Maya
Brünhart was never on board with this plan. If I had let her in, she would not
have stopped poisoning your mind until she convinced you to turn against me.”

“But
what about everyone else?” Ev said. “Why didn’t you let
them
in? Why
fill this world with soulless puppets that only do what you want?”

“Exactly,
Ev. It’s all about the soul. The soul enables free will. Free will enables
human nature. Human nature enables the creation of evil. Without souls, there
can be no evil.”

Ev
shook his head at the lunacy spewing forth from Arcturus’ mouth. “There’s just
one problem. You and I still have souls, so there can still be evil.”

Arcturus
began pacing back and forth. “So what?
Two
people
. Big deal! How
much evil can we possibly cause here?”

“Well,
we’re about to wipe out billions of people. I’d say that’s pretty evil,” Ev
pointed out.

Arcturus
stopped pacing and got right up in Ev’s face. “Have you forgotten all the
crimes they committed, the things they made us do to one another just to
survive? It’s their fault the world was such a horrible place. I say let them
die.”

“How
can you say that?”

He
laughed bitterly. “You think your Academy ‘professors’ are better than Zero
Grade? Let me tell you a little story. A story about how the previous universe
really ended. Let me tell you about Incident Zero.”

Chapter
XIV

The
previous universe. New York City, 2359 A.D.

The
two figures strode casually through Times Square. In another time, this would
have been a normal activity. However, the burned-out shells of buildings all
around them were a reminded that things were tragically different now.

“Boy,”
Ares said. “We really trashed this place, didn’t we?”

“We
trashed
every
place, genius,” Belial replied. The two brothers were thick
as thieves, as the humans used to say. Back when there
were
humans. They
did everything together,
killed
everything together. “New York, Chicago, Boston, Belfast, Hong Kong...”

“Don’t
forget Tokyo.”

“Tokyo! Almost forgot about that. Oh, man! We really did a number on them.”

“Hey,
at least we killed them in a way they would appreciate.” In Japan, the brothers had transformed themselves into giant lizards and stomped the place.
After destroying the Self Defense Force and turning the city into a radioactive
wasteland, they proceeded to destroy the rest of the island nation. The
annihilation of Japan was their favorite experience of all time. The Japanese
had a great sense of humor the rest of the world just didn’t share. Yes, they
had, as one, cried out in terror and anguish while the brothers crushed them
underfoot, but deep down, Ares knew they appreciated the irony of it all.

“The
best part was when the other gods took the form of giant animals and tried to stop
us,” Belial added. “Idiots didn’t even realize they were doing just as much
damage as us.”

Ares
sighed. “I miss hunting humans. It was the best part of being a god. I couldn’t
get enough of their reactions. Whether they were fleeing in terror or trying to
come up with ways to fight us, they always had me laughing. But now look at us.
Every day we wander through this broken shell of a city, looking for mortals to
terrorize, even though we haven’t seen one in decades.

From
somewhere to their left, a voice cried out, “That’s because you killed them
all!” A familiar woman stood atop a building across the street. She must have
been at least ten stories up, but her voice carried just fine.

Belial
said with disdain, “Freya.”

“What
are you doing here, Freya?”

She
walked off the building and fell gracefully to the ground, whereupon she walked
over to confront them. “I’m here to give you one last chance to end this war.
You already killed off every single human and most of the animal life on
earth.”

“
We
killed them off,” Ares reminded her.

“Yes,”
she said sadly. “We all had a hand in the horrific fate of this world.” In this
universe, as in the one that would follow, the gods were split into two
factions. Freya’s group had been at war with Ares’ and Belials’ for centuries
now. “But there’s no reason for us to keep fighting. We’re gods; we don’t need
food, money or resources.”

Belial
snorted. “That’s where you’re wrong. We need the Ultimus Points.”

“Need
them for what?” she said. She was being pushed to the breaking point by all the
needless bloodshed. “Each of us is strong enough to wipe out an entire species
single-handedly, so what would we possibly need more power for?”

Ares
answered, “Isn’t it obvious? To be the god of gods! The first faction to fully
harness the Ultimus Points will become truly omnipotent. And then we can bring
all the humans back...and kill them all over again! Rinse and repeat until the
end of time.”

She
slapped him. “You’re sick! You’re beyond saving. I see that now. I dared to
hope we could go back to the way things used to be. Don’t you remember how
happy we were together? But your brother has completely twisted you into a
mirror image of himself.”

“Enough
of this!” Belial said. “She’s a key member of Orion’s group. Let’s send a
message to him by gutting her like a fish.”

He
extended a flaming hand to grab her, but she said, “Not so fast!”

Behind
her, a host of her fellow gods appeared on the rooftops: Shinigami, Hera, Quandisa,
Dian Cecht, Atlas, and Aphrodite. The fiery brothers were outnumbered four to
one. “Tsk! We shouldn’t have gone wandering off alone,” Belial said. “Let’s
fall back for now.”

The
two of them generated an intense wall of flames in front of them to cover their
escape. They got away, but their pride suffered as a result.

They
would pay those assholes back, though—and soon. Gods tended to have immense
patience because of their immortality, but not
these
gods. They were quick
to anger and even quicker to vengeance.

*
* *

After
Ares and Belial left, Freya’s team dropped down to the street to make sure she
was all right. “You should have let us go after them,” Hera said. “I would’ve
killed them both without fail. Especially Belial. I can’t stand him.”

Freya
replied, “Don’t underestimate them. Even with all of us, we would have suffered
casualties from their fire which is great even among gods.”

“I
think
you’re
the one who’s underestimating
us
. We could have
handled them,” Atlas said.

Shinigami
nodded. “I concur. I believe Commander Freya still has feelings for Ares and is
letting them cloud her judgment.”

“That’s
not true!” she protested.

Hera
snorted. “If it weren’t, you would have let us ambush them. We could’ve wiped
them out in a matter of moments.”

“Leave
her alone,” Aphrodite said. “We can’t help the way we feel.”

“Spoken
like a true goddess of love,” Hera said derisively. She generally didn’t buy
into the idea of romance. It was rumored she and Zeus used to have something
going on, but that was thousands of years ago. Then that whole mess with
Hercules happened, and now she and Zeus weren’t even on speaking terms anymore.

“I
will hear no more about this. If you have any doubts about my leadership abilities,
you can take it up with General Orion. Now let us return to the ship.”

*
* *

Two
months later.

Gods,
like humans, change with the times. Their clothing, personalities, and even
interests evolve as the centuries progress. In the old days, deities would
fight hand-to-hand, and later with weapons. Now, in the 24
^th
-century,
divine warfare had grown to a whole new level.

Case
in point: the gargantuan starships which now hung in low orbit over Earth. They
varied wildly in shape, size and color, but the most common model was the
Sidonia-class starship. These vessels were long, narrow, blocky and packed
enough firepower to vaporize a large star.

Perhaps
“starship” was not the most accurate name; in fact, these ships had never left
earth. At the end of the day, these were warships that just happened to be able
to escape Earth’s gravity. The gods had been influenced by human science
fiction, and felt grandiose vessels such as these represented them quite well.

However,
these ships weren’t powered by nuclear fusion or anything that mortals ever
dreamt up. No, each starship engine drew its power directly from the gods on
board, and the gods in turn drew their power from the Ultimus Points.
Basically, as in the days of old, it all came down to which side had the
strongest gods.

Freya
entered the bridge of the
Gemini
and took her seat in the captain’s
chair. In front of her sat Hera and Aphrodite. Unlike in science fiction, there
were no consoles in front of them; the engine could draw power from them
anywhere on the ship, and giving it was their primary role on the
Gemini
.
The captain had by far the most responsibilities: coordinating battle tactics
with the other ships, diverting god-energy to needed areas, engaging the cloaking
device, and retreating if necessary.

Behind
her near the door to the bridge, Atlas, who
did
have a console,
announced, “Incoming message from General Orion.”

“Put
it on-screen.”

The
tattooed face of their faction’s leader appeared on the viewer in front of
them. Dark as midnight, with flowing dreadlocks and luminescent blue eyes,
Orion never failed to command their attention. “Commander Freya, are you ready
for the final assault?” he asked with a voice as deep as the ocean.

“Yes,
General. We await the order to attack.”

“Good.
Commander Loki, are you ready?”

Orion
shrunk and moved to the left as Loki’s face appeared on-screen. Unlike Orion,
he was unremarkable in appearance, though he remained a serious and dedicated officer
who commanded the
Midgard
. Both he and Freya were directly below Orion
in the chain of command. “Ready, General.”

“Very
well. To everyone in the fleet—bring your UPAS online.” The Ultimas Point
Absorption System was a series of large antennae along the underside of each of
their ships which, in effect, sucked up Big Bang energy and enhanced the power
of their respective vessels. Both factions were fully equipped with the UPAS.

“System
at twenty-five percent,” Atlas announced. On the viewscreen, the faces of Orion
and Loki had been replaced with a view of the northern hemisphere. Up ahead,
the enemy fleet de-cloaked and set a course directly for them.

It
was far too small. Alarm rose inside Freya as she immediately realized what was
going on. “That’s only half of them! They must be moving to outflank us.”

“We’ve
got ships de-cloaking behind us!” Atlas said.

The
Gemini
was rocked by enemy fire. “What’s the status of the UPAS?”

“Fifty
percent. Fifty-five percent. Sixty percent...”

“There’s
no time!” Freya said. “Bring it to one hundred percent
now
!”

Aphrodite
pointed out, “We’ve never put that kind of strain on the Ultimus Points before.
There’s no telling what effect it will have.”

“It
will make us stronger!” she insisted. She fell out of her chair as another
enemy volley struck the aft shields. The lights dimmed and blinked erratically.

Hera,
who had also fallen, rose to her feet in a fury. “You’re insane! You’re going
to get us all killed!”

Ignoring
her, Freya said to Atlas, “Do it!”

He
closed his eyes and focused all of his mental energies on the task. Carrying
out orders on these ships required not the pushing of buttons, but willpower.
Within moments, the lighting returned to normal and he announced, “UPAS at
eighty percent. Ninety percent. One hundred percent. Shields completely
restored to normal.”

Aphrodite
cautioned, “Once Ares and Belial figure out what we’ve done, they’ll do the
same.”

“We’ll
just wipe them out before that happens,” Freya said, trying to sound the
coldblooded officer they needed her to be.

Without
warning, though, the ship began shaking again. But this time, it was more rhythmic
and less chaotic, a steady beating of drums. “Report,” she said.

“There’s
a massive time-space flux in this quadrant,” Atlas said.

“What’s
the source?”

It
took him a moment to pin it down. “The Ultimus Points. They’re going crazy.
Every ship in the area is drawing out their energies like mad trying to gain
the advantage here, and I don’t think the Ultimus Points like it.”

They
watched in horror as Earth was swallowed up into a bright aquamarine abyss.
Ship after ship followed suit, unable to escape the unimaginable gravity field
being generated.