“Sir, you need to sign this.” A younger BADGE agent came up to him with a computer tablet.
Gar looked at it. It was a report on the medical assessment of the Legion creature they had in stasis. He hardly understood the highly technical readings given to him, but he signed it and then sent it along so that Nova would see it.
The slurping of a straw announced the approach of a familiar friend. The blue hero, Strange Quark, walked up, drinking a rather tall tropical cocktail, with a colorful umbrella in it. “How are things going up here?”
Gar said, “Steady. I feel strange being in command this long.”
Quark nodded, “True. I don’t think you’ve held the command position this long before.”
“Not like this. But five years ago, I would not have been able to do this without help. Now, I think I can handle it.”
Quark said, “You’ve grown.”
Gar frowned at Quark. “Aren’t you supposed to be down helping fight those Legion things?”
“I was, I did, and now one is being put into storage.”
“Frozen again?” Gar asked.
“Nope. Mr. Rockalanche turned this one’s skin into solid stone. The creature is still alive, but can’t move a muscle.” Quark took a long drag off the straw and then asked, “Do we know anything more about these things?”
“Nothing much. I can’t understand the stuff Dr. Henderson writes, but I think she says that they are like copies, fakes, something that isn’t real. One out there is the original, and it must still be on the loose.”
“Joy,” Quark lamented in a sarcastic tone. “And, to make matters even more fun, the mechanical dude is still causing trouble, and we can’t seem to take him apart without him coming back together.”
“It has to stop sometime,” Gar said.
“It will.” Quark quickly held his head and seemed to be in pain.
Gar asked, “Brain freeze again?”
“Nope. I feel something... something that is ripping space apart.”
Gar cocked his head. “What?”
Quark looked up at the lone monitor scanning space, a routine operation. “Focus on section seven five five four, by two eight, nine six, by four four eight three.”
Gar looked at the robot that immediately followed the directions. The image shifted to a different part of space. There was nothing unusual about it. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s there.”
Gar asked, “Can we scan that with something that will tell us more?”
The robot said, “Affirmative. Conducting full multi-vector sensor analysis of the target section.” It processed the scans for a moment. Then, it plainly stated, “Gravitational sensors indicate a point zero seven stress increase in the primary space layer. All other sensors are normal. Analysis complete.”
Gar looked at Quark. “Does that mean anything?”
“Maybe space needs a therapist to reduce its stress?” Quark snorted a laugh.
Gar said, “No time for jokes. Is this important?”
“I don’t know. It feels like it is growing, but I don’t know what it is.”
“I’ll tell Nova. He might know something.” Gar started to leave and then said, “Uh, Quark, could you watch Operations?”
“Sure. I need to finish my Zombie.”
Gar paused, “Your what?”
Quark held up his drink. “This isn’t going to drink itself.”
***
EB zipped through the shadows that fell across most of the interior of this ruined building. Each room tilted, and every floor was wet or slimy. This place was dredged out of the bottom of the ocean and is now being used again.
Holding onto a railing, EB made his way down a tilted hall that had long strands of seaweed hanging from the ceiling. Here and there, a few lights flickered, reminding him that someone had restored power.
“This is a horror movie in the making. Only I’m not gonna run into the basement or hide in the closet. If any horror monsters are lurking, they’ll think twice once they get a face full of Easter Bunny magic I...” He jumped when something dislodged and crashed onto the floor. A decidedly unmanly scream escaped his mouth, and he had to catch himself before he too slid down the hall. “Soooo glad Nova wasn’t around to hear me do that. But I guess Drocha might have heard that as well. I gotta find him.”
Focusing on his job, EB followed the trail of flickering lights and searched for anything that might be Drocha’s command center. He opened doors and found bathrooms, old meeting rooms, a broom closet with a noisy mop and pail that fell out and slid down the hall.
He was about to give up and go back to Justin when his keen hearing picked up a strange buzzing sound. It was a constant sound, like a computer running.
“That has to be him.” He whispered and crept down the hall with one hand holding a rail and the other holding an explosive egg.
At the end of the hall, there was a room with an eerie glow emanating from the crack in the door. Someone had laid wood and metal plates roughly to level off the floor in front. The hum of the computer system grew louder as he got closer. Someone was making a noise in there, but he couldn’t make out any words.
“Now Drocha’s talking to yourself. Guess we already established your nuts.” EB muttered.
He stood on the metal and wood plates in front of the door and sucked in his stomach so he could slide through the opening without moving it. Tiptoeing across the room, he saw a ring of computers surrounding a chair that had a dozen wires hooked into it. The screens each displayed various parts of the BADGE space station, and a few BADGE facilities.
A voice rasped out, “Who is there?”
EB slunk into the shadows again, hoping to avoid being seen. The chair didn’t turn; the head of the person didn’t look around. He slunk around the room until he finally set eyes on the person in the chair.
EB’s eyes widened, the glow of the computers reflecting off his face as he said, “Oh my God.”
***
Gar stepped out of the lift into Nova’s private quarters. Nova had his eyes glued to a monitor where Justin waited on EB. The baby sat up in her crib, playing with a stuffed bear.
“Director, we have something. I don’t know if it is important.” He held out a computer tablet.
Nova looked over the readings and examined a calculation on a chart. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t know what it is.” Gar said. “Is space hurt?”
“What?”
“The robot said something about space being stressed. I don’t understand.”
Nova smiled. “That’s what I like about you.”
“Huh?”
“You have a simple mind. I don’t mean that negatively. You keep a childlike attitude and a naïve understanding of things. You see good in things first, and first seek to do good. This is why you’ve been a good leader up in Operations during this time.”
Gar said, “I’m not a child.”
“I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean, you have a quality many of us lost a long time ago. I hope you keep that for as long as you can.” He looked again at the tablet. “This, however, is troubling.”
“What is it?”
Nova said, “Something is creating a rift through space. I have rarely seen this in my long life. It is the first stage of an artificial wormhole.”
“Uh... worms?” Gar asked.
Nova smiled, “No. This is how people travel in space over very long distances.”
“What does it mean?”
Nova said, “It means we have to find Drocha sooner than later. If his command ship arrives while he is still in control, we could face something we don’t know how to fight.”
“Where is Drocha?”
EB interrupted Nova’s answer. The voice on the comm came alive as EB was hopping around. “NOVA, NOVA, NOVA!”
“Calm down. What is it?”
Justin looked at him through the comm as he walked through the interior of the tilted base. “We have something you need to see. Come down here and bring a tech unit with you.”
“I will make arrangements…”
Justin said, “No time. Get here now.”
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