Mick took a deep breath and stood to stretch after the AI finally finished its programmed expository. Mór evolution figured markedly in to the multiverse's fate and the fact they seemed worried, perhaps even frightened, enough to enlist organics and create the league of Watchers to safeguard the local fractimes was alarming. It was clear the Family was in the middle of some kind of enduring calamity, which could climax with the very end of time. Unfortunately, Luc had no particulars as to the Mór's dire situation.
Moreover, there was a piece missing. Something was manipulating the fractimes surrounding the Reference Plane in what scholars at the citadel called the local anomaly. He thought the anomaly was the result of meddling by the Family and TC, both originating in the RP. Now, he was not sure.
"Anything else Master Michael?" Luc asked.
"Chi tea please," Mick said before falling back in the old chair knowing he was no closer to escape from the sanctuary than before.
RefPlane +1, 17 June 1984
Drac, Miri, Tye and Ces were waiting when Sam and Lars translated to the Breeze after meticulously searching the oubliette. Sam set a small cardboard box on the Breeze's bar filled with Ces' meager personal belongings from her last nine years: a few old books and small paintings.
The simple AI was still functioning but had no insights about the Laiths purpose of taking over the ancient sanctuary. Sam and Lars found the humanoid remains Ces had mentioned and took extensive DNA scans of all. Sadly, one scan returned a match for a young Polynesian woman.
Sam knew the remains were probably Miri's Tui and he assumed Helen's remains were in all likelihood there as well.
"Well done," Drac said to the group as he dropped a third sugar cube into a black tea in one of Sara's fine bone China cups. "Sorry about the coordinates," he added.
"It was a fortunate miscalculation," Lars said looking compassionately at his brother. "We have the answers we've been looking for."
Miri nodded then took a deep breath. "An unbelievable device," he said resolutely while studying the Timestone next to The Machine.
"Your revelation about seeing an older Uncle Mick in the oubliette is what's unbelievable," Tye said to Ces.
"And he didn’t recognize you." Drac said eying his newly teenage niece. "Puzzling indeed."
"Not to mention he destroyed O'Shanley's," Sam added, deep in thought.
"How could Mick shatter Family canon much less align with fanatical Laiths?" Drac asked staring into his beer.
"We have to accept the possibility that a future Mick is in fact the beast," Drac said solemnly.
"But there's a more pressing issue," Ces said. "We have to get Mom back!"
Sam took a deep breath seeing anguish in his daughter's eyes.
"If she did use my TD," Lars said, "the result would be disastrous.
There's no way she could have known it had a security access code."
"Very sad," Miri said softly.
"What were the translation criteria?" Sam asked Lars.
"Local space," he replied. "Random coordinates within a radius of several hundred kilometers."
Sam's heart sank.
"I can't even go back and follow my own TD," Lars said. "More incomplete programming," he added opening the lid of gold TD only to snap it shut and then stuff it back in its pocket.
"I think I can tell," Ces said scanning the clear, blue Texas sky. "But it could take time," she added thoughtfully.
Drac put his arm around Sam's shoulder. "I'm so sorry Sammy," he said tearfully.
"I'm not giving up. We'll find a way to get her back, Ces," Sam said confidently. "We don’t know for sure she used your TD," he added looking at Lars, "and there's another portal we need to check out."
"This time we'll be better prepared," Tye added with a nod to the disrupter rifle leaning against the bar.
"If the black cloak is another temporal entity like the Amhrán or Turas Luath," Drac said, "Catching the beast will be difficult."
"I may have an idea," Ces said while raising her eyebrows, "but Lars, Auntie Tye and I will need some time in the Lars' lab to run some simulations."
Lars nodded making inputs to his TD. "We’ll be right back," he said and then translated with Tye and Ces.
They reappeared an instant later.
"Ces' plan should work," Lars announced jubilantly. "We'll need two of your linear TDs with minor modifications to their activation controls for bio-recognition," he added.
Sam knew Tye was nervous about changing the priceless devices as the Family had very few temporal operatives and the number of TDs was even smaller.
The Family strictly limited the number of TDs for security reasons.
Flint and he had the only two universal TDs, derived from ringlets from the Amhrán and Turas Luath. There were six others, also using ringlet technology that could translate in linear cycles, downline then back
upline. The Family used them for the most basic recon missions as well as training.
Sam looked to his sister and as their eyes met, he immediately knew she was on board with the possible sacrifice. After three hundred years of Family life, they could communicate surprisingly well with the most minor of body language.
"No problem," Sam said.
"Miri and I have a few more leads in the archives to follow," Drac said. "And as time, as usual, is in short supply, we could sure use your help, Ces," he added with a subtle wink at Sam.
"It's just us then," Sam said looking to Tye then Lars.
RefPlane, Planet TarTarus
"Now this could be hell," Lars said wiping sweat from his face as they approached the caves entrance on the scorching planet from their translation point several hundred meters behind them.
"We are very close to Drac's coordinates," Tye said as they quickly entered the cave to escape the red planet's harsh heat.
"How many other portals are there?" Sam muttered while looking down a spiral staircase descending into blackness below them.
"Just the two in the Milky Way in your RP," Lars said. "Miri indicated Drac and he found fewer than two hundred others cited for other fractimes' galaxies within the Local Group."
"Let us hope this is the one," Tye said.
"Looks like it," Sam said holding up a cigar butt then grimacing as he held it to his nose and then held it out to Tye who then cautiously smelled it.
"Whew," she said. "That is Uncle Mick's for sure."
"As arid as this place is," Lars said taking a closer look at the desiccated stubby, "it could have been here a long time."
"One way to find out," Sam said unfastening a small flashlight from his mission pack and shining it into the darkness beyond the first few steps of the staircase.
After descending worn, stone treads for several minutes, they reached the last step and as Sam shown his light on another Mandorla portal, Tye whistled. This one, formed into the caves wall a few centimeters above floor level and extending upward almost two meters, appeared identical with the other.
"Impressive as the one on TarTuras," she said studying the carving and then taking several scans and pictures with a pad.
"It looks identical," Sam said while fighting a deep shiver as he stooped to inspect a cold, dead torch on the caves floor. The possibility of an evil Mick on other side of the Mandorla terrified him.
Lars placed a Family linear TD on the caves floor below the portal then gently covered it with dirt. "Ready," he said. "It should only take a moment to set up the other once inside."
Tye gave Sam an anxious glance. "There are just shit loads that can go wrong," she said.
"It's a decent plan assuming the beast will play ball," he reassured her knowing their trap might never make the capture. "I guess we're all set," he added while removing the Timestone from a pocket in her mission pack.
Tye checked the disrupter rifle's charge and then pointed it at the center of the carved tree as Lars pulled his handheld version from its holster.
Sam adjusted his hold on the Timestone so it matched the details of the recess in the carved tree's trunk then pressed it gently into place.
They fought for balance as the ground trembled, but as the tremor subsided, the portal slowly floated to one side to reveal the inky blackness of the Mandorla.
"I thought I heard someone ring the door bell," a vaguely familiar masculine voice said from behind Sam.
Turning, Sam saw a cloaked figure standing on the last step of the staircase. A black hood hid his face but Sam recognized the gnarled hands from the temporal camera's feed during the last moments of O'Shanley's and an intense chill overcame him.
"Uncle Mick?" Tye asked meekly holding her nose to a horrendous stench.
The figure laughed raucously. "Yes and no," he finally said, pulling the hood back to reveal an ancient Mick, and then laughed again while leering at Tye's obvious female features.
"You are not my uncle," she said raising her rifle.
"My followers refer to me as Abaddon," he said with a wicked grin.
"He's in there," he added with a nod to the blackness of the portal. "His capture like yours was too easy. Very ironic where he and you will spend the rest of eternity. The rest of your meddling family will join you shortly and I then can finally get about my business."
"Which is?" Lars asked indifferently.
Abaddon just laughed again.
Sam knew there would be no reasoning with this being.
Turning to Lars, Abaddon chuckled. "The family is all here!"
Sam exchanged a quick glance with Tye that was enough to tell she had enough of the doppelganger's bullshit.
"Too bad you won't enjoy more meddling from your new station,"
Abaddon said looking at Sam. "I'll enjoy drinking out of that family chalice in the near future or maybe I already have," he added with a nasty chuckle.
"We'll see about that," Sam quipped with a shiver and now knowing Abaddon was atop the command structure for the renegade Laiths.
Abaddon looked at Tye's weapon. "You actually think I can be destroyed with a puny disrupter?" he asked and then laughed again.
Sam could not help but wince expecting his warrior sister to pull the trigger of the mag-spec disrupter rifle, her favorite weapon of choice on most missions needing heavy weaponry.
She fired the weapon nearly point-blank. Its energy continued to dissipate without effect in a brilliant, sustained aurora surrounding the old man until the rifle stopped to recycle its charge.
Sam knew that would be just under three seconds.
Lars then fired his weapon in vain at the center of Abaddon's face.
Tye fired again. This time at his crotch in defiance but still without effect
"Enough stupidity!" Abaddon shouted as he flung them all effortlessly with a wave of his twisted hands into the blackness of the Mandorla.
Null Space
Sam landed hard on a white marble floor an instant before Tye and Lars fell on top of him.
"I wasn't expectin' guests this late," Mick said wearing a large towel wrapped around his thick waist and another, turban style, around his head.
His rescuers just stared at him.
"What?" he said as Sam and Tye embraced the rotund bartender. "It is Saturday night."
"At least the bio-recognition worked and we didn't start the cycle,"
Lars muttered while quickly placing another linear TD beneath the portal.
"We should have thoroughly tested these," he added shaking his head while standing up.
"Lars?" Mick asked recognizing a familiar patron.
"Explanations will take too much time," Sam said. "The beast is on the other side of the portal!"
"Is there anyone else here?" Lars asked Mick emphatically.
"Just me," Mick said. "But—
"And me," the AI interrupted appearing next to Mick.
Mick turned and stared at the now female program.
"Luca?" Sam asked in disbelief staring at the familiar, young and attractive computer display.
"I don't think she's Luca," Tye said raising her disrupter.
"You are correct Tiyehaujitoe. I have many labels but not Luca," she said kindly as Tye's weapon vanished from her hands. "Humanity has referred to me as Tiwi Illy Menwu in the past and future. I am Mór."
"What exactly do you want?" Mick asked.
"Being omnipotent is not exactly what it is cracked up to be," she sighed.
"I thought the Mór were a myth," Lars said walking around and inspecting the AI's field hologram.
"There is no need to fear," Tiwi told him. "You are safe for now from the evil waiting outside. For it, no time has elapsed."
"For now?" Tye asked.
Tiwi smiled and nodded. "I thank you constructing this trap. It was beyond my reach to do so. Very complicated," she said, subtly shaking her head. "This device needed only minor modifications," she added looking at the TD below the inner portal.
"Getting back to Mick's question," Sam said knowing rumors the rare interactions between humanity and Mór generally did not go too well.
"Things have gotten…ah, a bit complicated," she replied. "Meddling on such a scale has its risks. My elders have asked me to provide proof of character related to probability projections for my subjects. Nothing like a bit of field work, eh?"
"Subjects?" Tye repeated giving Sam a quizzical look.
"And how do you intend to provide such?" Mick asked.
"I thought a simple chat would suffice as your Family's evolution is well represented," she replied casting a gaze to each in quick succession.
"A few questions should do it."
"Why would we answer your questions?" Lars asked. "You've imprisoned us."
Tiwi smiled. "You misunderstand. I have saved you from that which is outside. You faced certain death or more likely much worse."
"So, we owe you thanks?" Sam asked softening his attitude to the Mór.
Tiwi bowed her head slightly to Sam. "And there are no questions for you to answer," she added looking at Lars. "You can each ask me one question. Just one should do. As appropriate, I will strive to answer them to the degree of completeness possible for your stage of sentience. From those queries I will have my data."
"What do you ask someone who possibly knows everything?" Lars asked.
"Where's Sara?" Sam asked.
Tiwi stiffened. "A poor question, Sam," she replied. "Nevertheless, understandable. Her bio-sentient programming persists within the continuum, as do and have all others. However, the timeframe of her final amalgamation is uncertain even to me."
"Riddles," Tye said while looking to Mick.
"What of the coming war?" Mick asked.
"Now that's a better question," Tiwi said with satisfaction. "The outcome of a conflict involving significant influences by an assortment of meddlers cannot be predicted. However in the very long run, there are dire risks for humanity."
Tiwi looked to Tye then Lars.
"Maybe we should think a bit more about the last two questions,"
Mick injected. "My question was way too vague."
"We have time," Tiwi said as three more chairs, identical with the monk's favorite, appeared. "Please confer," she added with a chuckle before disappearing.
Sitting down heavily, Lars sighed. "I suppose my question would be answered like Sam's. So, any ideas?" he asked.
"What is this really all about?" Tye asked.
"Looks like a test," Mick said. "And let's hope we pass for humanities sake."
"Could Abaddon be behind the Universal War?" Lars asked.
"Not impossible, but Laiths have erratic translation skills," Tye replied. "I don't see how they could have sustained such an upline war stretching millennia into the future."
"I agree," Mick said while adjusting his turban. "Laiths are a mostly a Family issue."
"How about we ask how to win that war?" Lars asked.
They all nodded.
"Should we see how she answers that question before poising another?" Sam asked.
"Good idea," Tye said.
"Tiwi," Mick called out just before the AI reappeared. He then nodded to Lars.
"How can humanity win the war?" Lars asked.
"As I indicated, that outcome has not been determined because of a multitude of meddling factors," she replied. "However, the Family has a great role to play and if humanity is victorious it will be for that reason."
"Anything more specific?" Lars "And I'm not asking the last question," he added quickly.
Tiwi paused and then sighed. "There is no single strategy, tactic or weapon that will bring victory. You will just need to be open and prepared to embrace luck. This lack of predictability is what has brought us together despite the nothingness that surrounds us."
"Last question?" Tiwi asked turning to Tye.
"Have at it," Mick told his niece adding a deep sigh.
"Yeah," Sam agreed.
"Good luck," Lars whispered to Tye.
Sam thought, as Tye sat in silent, deep contemplation, that his brilliant sister should come up with a good question. However, would it matter? The Mór's answers had been useless so far.
"What is the origin of the temporal entities and how did they come to the family?" Tye asked.
Tiwi smiled broadly.
Sam knew this was a good question; the Amhrán and Turas Luath was the true technological power base for the Family.
"The entities," Tiwi said, "evolved from simple energy into infinitesimal temporal fibers during the early expansion of the fractime you call the Reference Plane. It was a rare and very early departure of similarity, a rare roughness in history, which still has continuing affects in several proximal fractimes.
"Then, the laws of physics were vastly different and allowed a temporal awareness to develop and preserve itself as the universe stabilized into the chaos of entropy in which we find ourselves now enveloped.
"Early humanity in your RP and this galaxy found and somehow discovered how to colonize a few of these sentient fibers into the ringlets to form the living chain mail of those garments."
"Lucky," Lars commented raising his eyebrows.
"Their possession spawned the great wars during the first galactic epoch lasting billions of Sol years," Tiwi said. "Your first Family mother rescued two of them at great personal peril and sent them to a future Earth to escape those who desired their power," she added.
Mick sighed. "Enlightening, but I'm not sure that knowledge helps us."
Tiwi smiled. "All answers I have provided are irrelevant and lack substance because of overly redundant security protocols. You won't remember them anyways.
"Great," Tye muttered.
"Fuck," Lars said eyeing the portal then looking down at the still inactive TD.
"I apologize for the intrusion," Tiwi said sincerely.
"Did we pass?" Sam asked a bit sarcastically.
She shrugged her shoulders. "I owe you one," she said just before snapping her fingers.
Sam landed hard on a white marble floor an instant before Tye and Lars fell on top of him.
"I wasn't expectin' guests this late," Mick said wearing a large towel wrapped around his thick waist and another turban style around his head.
His rescuers just stared at him.
"What?" he said. "It is Saturday night."
"At least the bio-recognition worked and we didn't activate the start of the cycle," Lars muttered while quickly placing another linear TD
under the portal. "We should have thoroughly tested these," he added shaking his head while standing up.
"Lars?" Mick asked recognizing a familiar patron.
"Explanations will take too much time. Is there anyone else here?"
Lars asked Mick emphatically.
"Just me," Mick said. "But how did you find me? The note?"
"Auntie Clare is pissed," Tye said, adding an affirmative nod.
"It activated," Lars announced as the TD inside the portal emitted a high-pitched tone. "He followed us!"
"We've got to go," Sam told Mick before they all leapt back through the Mandorla and into fractime again.
They blindly ran up the stone steps pushing Mick before them. Then as Sam counted the eighty-fourth step, Tye stopped and pointed her rifle back into the darkness.
They stood in silence for several minutes before Sam whispered though chattering teeth, "Think he really took the bait and entered the sanctuary?"
"The Timestone should have been enough motivation," Lars said.
"One way to find out," he added with a nod back into the darkness of the descending spiral.
"An explanation would be good," Mick said while securing his towel.
"Later Uncle," Tye said rubbing her temples.
"He either crossed over or we're all fucked," Sam said as they made the last downward turn on the spiral stairs.
The portal was still open and after Lars gently brushed dirt off the TD, it displayed its activation glow signaling continuous translations in progress.
"Shit. I think it worked," he said. "I was worried the slab would disrupt the temporal field before the repetitive cycles began. It seems the energy needed to engage the field is also keeping the slab open."
"What worked?" Mick asked.
"But the dark matter ratios are way out," Lars mumbled studying his TD.
"The Beast, an older you," Tye said. "We think he's trapped in a near-infinite translation loop."
"This TD," Lars explained pointing the device below the portal, "is set to only return translate to the other just beyond the Mandorla. That one is set to return translate to this one."
"All within nanoseconds," Tye said, "and the forward momentum of the traveler keeps the pair engaged. Ces came up with the idea."
"Dastardly," Mick quipped. "I like it! How long will it last?" he asked turning to Tye then Lars.
"Crossing into the warped field beyond does have minuscule energy consequences; entropy will not be denied," Tye replied.
"Besides," Lars said closing his watch, "these dark matter ratios suggest the Mandorla has another dimension. It has a kind of thickness."
"What? How?" Sam asked.
"Tye's idea," Lars said. "We just couldn't pass up an opportunity to take readings from an active Mandorla."
"If the Mandorla has thickness- we can explore it," Tye explained.
"And just what would you expect to find there?" Sam asked.
"Null Space of course," Tye replied. "Where the ultimate sanctuary must exist," she added looking into the blackness.
"It appears Null Space theory may have a proof," Lars said giddily.
"I think it's given me a hell of a headache," Tye said with a strained giggle.
Sam nodded amid a shiver while watching Mick rub his temples.
"My head doesn't feel so well either," Sam said.
Sam knew if a plane of existence sandwiched between fractimes would be a brilliant discovery. However, it was his experience that any challenges to Tye's competence in physics were usually short-lived. He had no doubt in the discovery.
"You all probably are feeling the effects of a proximal flux of dark matter," Lars said. "That may be a Family thing," he added, "and possibly not healthy for a longer duration."
Mick cleared his throat.
"Ah, sorry," Lars said. "It should last about fifty thousand years."
"That doesn’t give us much time," Mick muttered while tightening the towel around his waist.
"Unfortunately the portal is still open," Lars said raising his voice slightly in concern.
"We'll have to seal off this caves entrance," Sam added flatly while vigorously rubbing persistent goose bumps on his arms.
"Wait," Mick said. "This beast looks like me?"
"He could even be an older you," Tye said solemnly.
"He's responsible for countless abduction of souls across several fractimes," Lars said. "You're sure there wasn't anyone else in there?" he asked desperately.
"She must have been a good woman," Mick said grasping Lars'
shoulder.
Sam smiled at Mick, again lessening the pain of another patron of O'Shanley's.
Lars slumped against the carved tree. "She was," he replied softly.
"A true, evil bastard," Mick said.
"We know he was in league with the dissident Laith hierarchy," Tye said.
"And he took Ces," Sam said. "We just recovered her unharmed but nine years older. However, Sara is missing. I think she tried to follow him after taking Ces from the Breeze using Lars' TD."
"Lars and, I suppose, Miri are travelers; I never suspected!" Mick said. "And I'm guessing things must have not gone as she planned," he added dejectedly.
"TD security protocols," Lars explained.
"What's the Family time?" Mick asked.
Tye showed him the chrono on her wrist.
"Only several days," he said with obvious relief. "We can probably thank another of Armaros' tricks for that. However, re-entering the sanctuary could come at a terrible dilation cost. What else has this bastard done?"
"It’s a long list," Lars said.
"Including destroying O'Shanley's," Tye said cautiously.
"What?" Mick moaned. "My bar is gone!"