PHASE Conclusion


by C.M. Hiebert



After the foot-swapping incident, Davidson stops working on me and goes back to his teleportal.  “So what’s next?” I ask as he tinkers with the machine’s mosaic of electronic guts.

“We’re done with you for now, Andy,” he says. “I’ve got to get back to my first priority. When I’m done with Earth, I’ll fix you.”

“When’s that going to be?” I ask. All I can think about is how close I may be to getting out of this.

“Well, the invasion starts tomorrow. So, however long it takes after that.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes, there’s some things I haven’t been letting you in on,” Davidson says without looking up from his task. I can tell he’s no longer worried about what I know. “All those times you saw me whacking off, I was really out coordinating the Earth-side tactics of the invasion. What you saw were projections. At first the picture quality wasn’t that great so I had myself doing something repugnant. I thought you’d turn your back out of embarrassment, or politeness if you thought I was pulling my pud, but you didn’t.” He stops what he’s doing and looks at me with another dumbass smile. “Pervert.”

I once wondered how Davidson controlled his small army of renegade Ultras. I could never figure out why they’d follow him, why they’d play his game. I don’t wonder anymore. Davidson was a doer. He got things done. He controlled people by giving them their heart’s desire. He figured out what they wanted and then he figured out a way to get it for them. Just like he for did me.

^^^

At the first flicker of the Lodotian sunrise, the giant teleporter fires up and the invasion is on. Columns of Lodotian tanks and infantry march into the machine and seem to disintegrate a few paces inside, reappearing at various points on Earth, I guess. Davidson has designed himself a special craft that’s part tank, part spaceship. He will be rematerializing outside the Earth’s atmosphere so he can have a satellite’s view of the battle.

As he pilots the craft into the mouth of teleportal I stand behind him, always watching.

“There is one thing I have to tell you, Andy,” he says as he fidgets with various controls. “When I caught you talking to Nelson those times, I know you thought I was reading your mind. But I wasn’t.” He giggles at my expense. “Your lips move, man. I knew when you were talking to him because I could see your lips move.”

For Christ's sake.

We enter the teleportal on Lodo …

… And exit in orbit around Earth. The southern hemisphere fills the top half of the craft’s cockpit window. There is a spiral storm off the coast of Brazil.

“All right let’s see how it’s going for our eight-legged friends,” Davidson flicks on several small video monitors and each one reveals a different image of chaos. Explosions, heavy gunfire, flying bits of Lodotian.

“What the hell?” he is stunned. It’s obvious that the Lodotians are getting the crap kicked out them, as are the renegade Ultras Davidson enlisted to help him. “They knew. They were ready.” He farts off a bunch of orders to his commanders.

Something strikes the side of the craft hard and we go into a spin. The world whirls insanely in front of us. There, gone, there, gone, there, gone. Then I catch a glimpse of something else outside, something hanging in space. It’s Nelson. His suit is a flaming pulsing red. He is pissed off beyond belief.

The outside of the craft starts to glow as it nears the atmosphere. I see beads of sweat glitter on Davidson’s head.

“Well, this it Andy,” he says. “It doesn’t look like I’ll be bringing you back as planned.”

White smoke begins to leak from the console and flames lick the outside of the craft. Alarms scream and moan.

“There’s a couple of things you need to know,” Davidson coughs. “You’re…you’re the key to it all, Andy. You’ve got the answers.”

“What do you mean?” The cockpit is filling with smoke. I see it all slipping away. My freedom burning to ash against the skin of the Earth.

“You aren’t floating in the quiet place, Andy. You’re not there at all. You’re nowhere. You’re nothing.”

“And you’re nuts.” I’m not sure I want to hear this.

“Andy, listen. The reason you can walk on floors is because you think you can. That’s what you know to do. You believe you can, so you can. The powers the others posses, me included…” A chunk of the ship breaks off and I can barely hear him over the roar. “We have them because we believe we have them. The Atlantian science-magic...If we learn to control it, we will be able to do anything. Even untie our bootlaces with our mind.”

I can’t think of anything to say to him, the cockpit is almost completely black with smoke. Tongues of fire flick inside from every seam of the hull.

“And, Andy,” Davidson chokes. “You need to know ... There’s another…”

Boom.

I see Davidson’s flesh flash burn off his skeleton and then disappear in a bright red mist of fire. The ship is gone. The debris carries on without me and continues into Earth’s atmosphere. It has momentum. I do not. I float in open space. It is silent like the quiet place.

Nelson flies up to me. Peacehammer is with him carrying a great big plastic tube that looks like a jar. They place me in it and take me back to earth, back to headquarters. For some reason the method works. I guess because I believe it does.

Everyone is pretty bummed to see me. Bandog won’t even look at me. They seem to know about everything. My other self is there and we merge. Now there’s just me and the me on the pearl.

“We’d confirmed your quantum nature quite sometime ago,” Nelson explains at what could only be called my trial. No judge, jury or lawyers, but every member of Union Ultra was there to listen and pass judgment. “We learned that we could tune in your frequency to see and hear what your various selves were experiencing. We basically turned you into a listening device. A bug. We were going to tell you about it after we handled Davidson. We didn’t want you to know because we thought we might accidentally tip our hand. In view of your collaboration, I’d have to say we did the right thing. Andy, my only question is: why?”

I shake my head, shrug, show my hands.

“I thought he could get me out of this. You’ve been studying me for twenty years with no progress, no hope of helping me. I thought Nelson could figure out how to free me. Or kill me.”

The room became dead quiet on that note. Seventy-six living members of Union Ultra present and not one took a breath.

“So you were going to let him take over the world?” Nelson said, basically dropping the gavel.

I had no comeback to that.

They don’t punish me because they can’t. If they shun me they would lose me to the League of Heroes, and Nelson doesn’t want that. Behind closed doors, he agrees to channel more funds into studying my condition, and takes a great deal of interest in the quantum harmonic device Davidson designed on Lodo.

He says he’ll try to help, but I know things are never going to be the same.

In the end, I am divided again and sent to track down and observe Pantagruel, the latest uncontrollable badass. The other Ultras give my headquarters’ self sideways glances, or they don’t acknowledge my presence at all. That me is in therapy now.

A new routine settles in. I stalk and infuriate Pantagruel and give Nelson his daily updates.

I cooperate in every way he asks, but for some reason, I never tell him about Davidson’s final words. Those I keep for myself.

THE END