Two Steps Forward - One Step Back

[Maharg67]

0020: Of Tommy Tomkins and Others

 

It was not easy but the group was taken care of by Tommy Tomkins and his people.

 

Apart from the brainbug controlled soldiers there turned out to be three shaperzae and the others were brain washed followers of the DeathlessOnes as ruled by the DeathlessOnes High Lord and Lady. The whole operation had not gone well. The capture of the real Professor Quatermass, Stella Ketchen and two others, had been discovered by free humans. There had been trouble with the big hulking damphir who did not like the presence of the brainbugged slaves or the shapeshifters. The big electric vehicle had broken down three times on its way to the town. A way had been found to sedate the damphir, to make it controllable, but then it was unable to detect either the undead or other damphirs for the group. They suspected they were being followed by special forces soldiers of the British Imperial Special Assault Service, the BISAS. At least once an airplane had passed high overhead, perhaps a British Imperial machine spying on them.

 

The process of waking up the four status sleepers was a slow and careful one. Tommy Tomkins had also to free the shaperzae and the brainbugged, along with the brain washed, from their different kinds of bonds. There was only real answer in the end and so he utilized his TransCube and put them into that slow rejuvenating, regenerating space of a sanctuary.

 

TT-Jane, a female clone of himself, arrived with a team of damphirs. They had been gone to a bigger neighboring town to gain what resources they could. They returned with guns, ammo, canned food, tools, books and other stuff but also with some rescued peaceful zombies, damphirs and others including some stray animals. Being his clone, and not divided across the alternates, TT-Jane had a good impression already of what had been going on. She also brought some good, neutral and bad news along with her.

 

TT-Jane stood in fatigues and was armed with a big old Webley revolver-pistol holstered at her side. Such a gun had good stopping power as a secondary weapon. She was looking carefully at the big electric vehicle that the supposed infiltration group had come in. "What is it? It does not really look like a machine of this world?"

 

"I would say a late 19th Century machine of some other AlternateEarth made up to look like a 1940s machine of this world but not in a highly successful manner." Tommy Tomkins looked puzzled. "Question is, where were they taken from? They were delivered to the infiltration group already captive and in special status capsules."

 

A jury-rigged device was scanning energy fields of the big, clumsy, armored vehicle. TT-Jane turned to examine its various dials. "The machine was taken from a just viable AlternateEarth, a very dangerous thing to do."

 

"Yes but it is just like the DeathlessOnes to carry out such madness." Tommy nodded. "Luckily the machine has stabilized fully into this alternate reality. With some alterations and upgrades, the machine should do fine. That is after we find out what else could be hidden inside of it."

 

They searched it and found that apart from the spare equipment and supplies for the mission, apart from where the status-capsules had been stored, there were big old rechargeable batteries that were highly toxic, some strange weapons seemingly designed to destroy the undead and a so called flat-chest full of exotic items that probably should not have gone with the mission. Tommy Tomkins, along with TT-Jane, knew what those items were and at once triple sealed the flat-chest to make sure none others could access it.

 

Tommy entered the TransCube that was much bigger inside than outside but largely bare and fairly bleak in a cold metallic fashion. He slipped the flat-chest into a storage slot designed to take such, being one storage slot in a special room with vertical rows of them. Time went quicker inside the TransCube than outside of it, in a relative sense that one did not age faster. Tommy made sure that TT-Tom01, TT-Tom02 and TT-Tom03 were carefully tending to assisting the real Professor Quatermass, Stella Ketchen and other two. The three were TT-Clones that looked like dull copperish, hairless, versions of himself. He was not surprised to find they were working well.

 

The old man came walking into the big chamber with the assistance of a beautiful, sexy, seminaked young woman who was actually an android. She looked Japanese and was dressed like an immodest version of a nurse. None of this was accidental, of course. Tommy Tomkins turned and frowned softly at the man. "Can't help yourself, can you, OldTom?"

 

OldTom was a very old special clone from-of Tommy Tomkin who could only survive in the TransCube. OldTom smiled. "Now, now, give this old fool some leeway. There is not much to look at in this place that is nice and LucyLee is so very nice to me."

 

"LucyLee03, you mean!" Tommy Tomkins shook his head. "LucyLee01 looks like a young white blonde, LucyLee02 looks like a red-brown Islander girl and there, with you, is the oriental LucyLee03. You were supposed to have only one android but I will let you off with three. Why did you come out of virtual reality status?"

 

"Got a 'message' that you would need me, that I had to do research on a particular list of subjects. That is what I have been doing, with the help of the LucyLee Sisters as very efficient research assistants." OldTom sighed as he sat on a chair that altered to better fit his body shape. "Love these chairs! List was recent activity of the DeathlessOnes, the AlternateEarth you grew up on and the AlternateEarth you are now on. Despite the assistance of the TT-TransCube quasimentality and extensive databanks we have here, I did not seem to learn much of value." He drew out a very small silvery cube and passed it to Tommy. "What I did learn were some strong possible leads. They are in this datacube along with datafiles backing up the findings and some other possibly useful data."

 

Tommy Tomkins like the very aged clone to a great deal but was also a bit wary of him as clones of that age range could go strange, become eccentric even to a dangerous degree. He placed the datacube against his forehead and then the datacube glowed softly as Tommy Tomkins took in a stream of concentrated data. Then he placed the datacube into a pouch. The briefing was clear in his mind but other data would take time to become clarified enough for him to use, for his brain-mind to be able to use efficiently.

 

OldTom soon returned to his comfortable home chambers where he would soon be relaxing in a spa-pool with his three android companions. Tommy Tomkins went and carried out some other tasks before he returned to the town, to the ten level building.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0021: Of Others

 

The big multiple turreted battletanks were cumbersome and fairly slow but were good at destroying lots of zombies if well used. They were based on a Russian type of battletank known as the T35 but were improved with better armor, weapons, motors and in other ways. Five were UT35A1s with all cannons and heavy machineguns, two were UT35A2s with howitzers replacing the central big cannons and two were UT35A3s with twin 40mm anti-aircraft guns replacing the main cannons. Four others were field altered UT35B1s with only two heavy machinegun turrets and a large amount of armor protected space for people and cargo. There were other machines being armored cars, armored trucks, smaller battletanks and a few civilian vehicles used because they had to be. These last were a mixture of trucks, cars, one van and a big semitrailer truck lumbering along with a big box trailer along with its box back. Two armored trucks were topped with slowly revolving nadar, or N-ray, devices something like radars.The nadars picked up indications of strong undeathly activity be it swarms of zombies or of other kinds.

 

The area they moved through had been only lightly inhabited by humans before the Great Bubble had appeared but now there were very few who dared to try to survive there. Many of those formed alliances with friendly smart zombies (zomans), friendly dumb zombies (zombats), and friendly damphirs. While the Australian Government, what was left of it, officially frowned on such cohabitation they unofficially considered that the idea made a great deal of sense. Now Australia was returned fully to the British Commonwealth Empire as a Protectorate it was assisted greatly by a large input of British Imperial resources. The BCE wanted very much to establish a large colony close to the Great Bubble where many projects and other work would be carried out.

 

Marshal Nelson had been given disturbing information of alien shapeshifters trying to infiltrate not just the BCE but other powers of the world, bigger and smaller. Officially it had been the work of human agencies that had discovered the truth but unofficially people knew that an unknown faction had alerted governments and others around the world to the danger. They had even been given ways to detect the dangerous imposters.

 

The Marshal sat in the back of an armored HQ-truck, was studying a big map table of the area. There were Green Fogs, also known as GlimmeringFogs, in the area. With them came the varied kinds of green fog monsters such as the stingerbugs but also much worse than they. As the big column of vehicles moved steadily along, they attracted swarms of savage zombies that came clambering up out of the ground in the semidarkness. But the zombies were too slow and they could not begin to catch up to the machines. Some that arose on the dirt highway were quickly shot down or crushed beneath armored vehicles.

 

They came to a small, largely abandoned town where the occupants were in a fortified area, being a mixture of humans, friendly damphirs, zombats and zomans. They had a two way radio set of some power and had been expecting the taskforce. The column moved into the area, spreading out over what had been a local multiple purpose clearing of rough lawn. Soldiers and civilians were soon setting up a temporary base with the battletanks and other warmachines aiming their weapons outwards.

 

Marshal Nelson stood on top of the HQ-truck, looking out over the area. He wore nothing that identified him easily as a high ranking officer but was dressed like a typical soldier. Unfriendly smart zombies, zombers, could use rifles to snipe with and had done so around the world. The warmth and brightness were increased but Australia had generally become cooler since the appearance of the Great Bubble.

 

Lieutenant Crale was an Australian man with some Aboriginal blood who had grown up in the area. Before the crisis such a man would not easily become an officer but many things had changed. Race had come to seem less important when facing a common outside threat that was quite nonhuman. Crale specialized in military intelligence, in liaison duties with Aboriginal peoples still living in the areas, many having regained their traditional lands by default. He had also proven to be skillful at dealing with zomans, damphirs and even zombats in gaining information.

 

In the distance the Great Bubble loomed up as the Great Dome. It could hardly be missed. Water that fell upon the Great Dome often vanished into it, somehow, but much of it flowed over and downwards to flood the areas around the base of the dome. It was said that new rivers and lakes had been formed in such areas, along with other changed geography.

 

Crale spoke. "Robertville is the town where Professor Quatermass, Stella Ketchen, Donald Friday and Alison Wilson may have been taken. It is further along this dirt highway. The BIAF spotted the electric machine moving that way. I have not worked out why the alien shapeshifters did what they did, why they used such a cumbersome electric machine and where they got it from. There are three BISAS platoons out there scouting the area and they have picked up assistance from native trackers. The Aboriginals have had to become very good hunting, avoiding and tracking the undead and the green fog monsters."

 

Military sappers, civilian workers, techies and boffins (scientists) would need to set up in the town and useful buildings had to be found for them and the military base. The small local airstrip had to be replaced by a far bigger airstrip. As it was the first smaller aircraft had already arrived, which was how the BISAS platoons had been brought into the area. Marshal Nelson, who had proven himself to be a fine commander in a series of military campaigns against the new threats, knew that the column was vulnerable despite its numbers of fighters and firepower.

 

"We have to know about vampire, super zombie and green fog monster activity in the area." Marshal Nelson scowled. "We need to know if any of the bigger green fog monsters have appeared. Thankfully they have never appeared in big numbers."

 

Stingerbugs were bad enough! Such as the big running, swimming or even flying green fog monsters were terrible threats. Dark stories spoke of strange humanoids running, flying, with strange intrinsic weapons. Only good thing about green fog monsters so far was their relatively few numbers. The fear was that this could change at any time.

 

Sunlight was the friend of humanity! It burned zombies, vampires and hurt damphirs. Oddly enough it had less harmful effects on friendly zombies, zomans and zombats, than it did on unfriendly zombies. Nobody had worked out why this was the case though some claimed it was to do with some kind of spiritual blessing. The strange thing was that if a faithful follower of a religion used a religious symbol it could, would, turn back the undead and green fog monsters or even hurt them but the user of the religious emblem had to be a truth believer, have real faith.

 

There was much to do.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0022: Of Others

 

Bethena was the town, named after a Concert Waltz, that the military column had encamped at and it was there that the Marshal was to learn of a strange maze of tunnels, of other spaces, that had appeared below the ground, that was expanding steadily out from the Great Bubble. One could get to it via old mines or caves or even by strange new tunnels that had created strange new entrances. As it was the locals gained access through the eccentric building of a wealthy old man who had commissioned three basement levels to be made, at great cost, and turned into a kind of exotic underground mansion. This had been done so he could escape the heat and to place him in a world of his own imagination. The man had died of the Z-virus but the strange upside down mansion, it had only one level above ground, was taken over by the survivalists who remained in the town.

 

Marshal Nelson stood looking out over a great chamber that looked part 19th Century European luxury, part early 20th Century luxury but also part survivalist with all sorts of furniture, fittings and other gear there. A big old dog was curled up sleeping on an expensive antique couch while a zoman, a friendly smart zombie, was quietly reading a Charles Dickens book that was an expensive leather bound edition. There were militia soldiers cleaning their guns, a small class of children being taught including zombies and damphirs, along with other activity.

 

With the marshal were two bodyguards, an aide and another officer along with two field-scientists.

 

Lieutenant Crale stepped up to the Marshal with a tall, elegantly beautiful woman who was the leader of the community. She wore practical women's clothes and carried a clipboard full of note paper. The woman was Helen Hale, titled Mayoress though she had never been voted into office. She was pale white of skin and had very light blonde hair. Helen Hale spoke in a crisp no nonsense voice. "I suppose the British Empire wishes to take over the settlement as its own, now it has arrived in force."

 

The Marshal shook his head. "Civilian rule of the town remains with you, the locals, though British Imperial Laws will come into force and proper democratic elections will be expected. That is not my area of responsibility or authority. I am here only to set up a base of operations, to strengthen the town and to make it more secure. Now, what of this great labyrinth that people are going on about. Is it very big?"

 

Helen Hale sighed. "It is vast! It stretches out and downwards. It is not just a labyrinth but has an odd nature about it. The very air seems to glow with energies. Some parts of it feel good, some parts bad, most seem rather neutral. It appears to grow outwards from the Great Bubble but who knows?"

 

Nelson just nodded. "Before the coming of the Great Bubble, this Great Labyrinth would have shocked me but not now."

 

They went down a pair of rampway tunnels that would had led to yet another basement level had it been made but instead came to a large metallic stone chamber. It was fairly bare, it was filled with fairly bright light and it had open doorways to other chambers along with a rampway tunnel being also of metallic stone. Stepping into the chamber one felt at once a refreshing, almost rejuvenating effect and a very slight tingling sensation. The big chamber was an outpost but also a medical centre because people seemed to recover better, faster in that place from all injuries and ailments. Older people seemed to slowly rejuvenate. In fact people seemed to rejuvenate in general, growing more youthful, fitter and slimmer if overweight or bigger if underweight. The chamber was so big that it was also used as a storage area. Crude armored gates had been placed at the openings into the labyrinth and guards stood at all of them being every watchful, ever patient, never sleepy zombats.

 

Marshal Nelson frowned softly as possibilities went through his minds, plans formed and potential threats were considered. Then he spoke. "Are there any other entrances, in the town, to the labyrinth."

 

The woman nodded. "A big old pit was dug at one time for a purpose long forgotten. The metallic stone substance grew upwards and filled it out. Now there is a kind of rampway going down in a ramp well, as one might call it. The labyrinth does not seem to generate stairs or steps. Other things generate that might interest you. Please come with me."

 

A gate was opened, with a little difficulty, and the group went into another chamber. There was a structure fused into one wall, coming out of the wall, that looked like an exotic vending machine. Some people were using it, were obtaining cube shaped boxes of smaller items, by some unseen means. They would would take turns using the strange device and making different sizes of cube-boxes appear. Yet these people were not from the town being humans in odd clothes of robe-tunics, overalls or stranger immodestly tight skinsuits. Their skin was of different colorations but all translucent, slightly glistening, and the hair was all translucent white if there was any. The men and women, there were no children, were all oddly beautiful but somehow removed, as if their minds were not quite tuned with the world around them.

 

Helen Hale spoke. "They call themselves the Evertorana, or everfolk, and they are not sure of their origin. They only know they have been part of the Grand Labyrinth for a very long time and that they can not leave it; they must stay within the life supporting areas and away from what they call the life taking areas though the neutral areas really do them no harm. They do know their ancestors were humans but not of one kind or just from one world. They have strange powers, go to be very very old and fear that something terrible is coming to threaten not only them but others, including we humans. Well, you humans and damphirs like myself. Yes, I am a damphir."

 

She then paused before speaking again. "They speak of Robertville, a town where they 'sense' dwells an ancient one of great power in a ten level building with a bunker complex beneath it. We have yet to gain access to the autodispenser, as they call the device, but they have taught us how to use it. They are gathering supplies of trade-goods to take with them back to their GreenDome home, a GreenDome being a kind of great domechamber that supports life, including a naturalistic environment of flora and fauna. Such are many but only a relatively small part of the Great Labyrinth. They can access menus of items that we will not be able to access but there is a short list of useful items that we can use, though the choice of items seems odd in some ways it would be very useful."

 

The Marshal nodded yet again but as if to himself. "We must get a message to Canberra as soon as we can of what is going on here."

 

Canberra was the old federal capital of the Commonwealth of Australia but was now the capital of the British Imperial Protectorate of Australia. Information would need to get to the nearest telephone cable connected outpost, many of the national telephone lines having been destroyed, or the nearest powerful, reliable two-way radio. But it turned out that Helen Hale had an answer, of sorts, to the problem.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0023: Of Tammy Tomkins and Others

 

Tammy Tomkins had special psychic abilities, was officially listed as an Esper or one who was endowed with Extra Sensory Perception, ESP. She sat in the back of a LandRover four wheel drive vehicle moving steadily across the Australian Outback of tropical rain-forests. There had recently been big battles between greenies and developers plus forestry corporations. All of that had ground to a halt as the Great Bubble had begun to emerge, was still emerging, in the central part of the continent. An eight track cartridge was playing popular music of the 1970s though it was 1985. Tammy did not mind too much. She had her camera to take photographs through the window with, using a telescopic lens, she had a small library of books to finish reading and she had work to do at times. The books were a mixture of science fiction and scientific non fiction in such areas as higher mathematics, physics and the space program.

 

The Apollo Program had almost been scrapped when the lights on the moon had begun to appear, small lights moving in odd patterns or just being stationary. At first there had only been a couple but the number had steadily increased until there were thousands of them. The Apollo Program had become the joint Apollo-Luna Program of the Capitalist Democracies and the Soviets along with any others who wished to join in who could contribute something of value. Poorer nations had given over land and minerals. Fear was mixed with fascination. Hopes were high of meeting a new wondrous civilization, of gaining much and even giving much in turn.

 

Then the small Apollo-Luna Moonbase, that was armed with some guns and protected in other ways, was attacked by a swarm of monsters. Contact had quickly been lost with the base. The world had declared war and preparations were being made to send an invasion force to the moon. There were big problems in doing so for the world was hardly equipped for such big undertaking.

 

Then had come the Great Bubble that was still expanding upwards and outwards, absorbing Australia into it as it went. The Royal Australian Air Force had dropped bombs, shot rockets and shot missiles at it to no effect. Refugees had fled from the growing bubble. The bubble was still to stop. People speculated if the appearance of the Great Bubble had anything to do with the lights appearing on the moon and the attack of the monsters on the moonbase.

 

The LandRover slowed, turned and moved along another dirt road until it entered a large walled encampment dotted with prefabricated buildings, some foam domes and neatly parked vehicles. The encampment was protected by a low security barrier with sentries, guns and razor-wire. The Australian Civil War was over but Communist guerrillas moved through the rain-forests as they were hunted by government forces and corporate mercenaries. The guerrillas sometimes turned and did the hunting. The isolated encampment would make a nice target for the Communists.

 

Tammy Tomkins climbed out of the back of the LandRover with her backpack and duffel-bag of gear. She was met by the sounds of parrots, the muffled roar of a diesel generator and Henry Manders, the man who had driven the LandRover and whom she did not like at all. He talked to her breasts when he bothered to talk to her at all and he assumed he was clever in hiding his contempt for her but he failed miserably to do so. Henry Manders was dressed in civilian hiking gear but he was a member of the Royal Australian Security Intelligence Police, the dreaded RASIP. Manders did not believe in ESP and suspected her of political treason simply because her family had supported the Republican cause during the Australian Civil War. Tammy thought he was an arrogant chauvinist thug.

 

Then there was Lisa Evans, a rather naive psycho-psychologist fresh from university, who was frightened of Manders though she tried to hide it. Lisa came to Tammy and frowned at Manders. "We can handle it from here."

 

Manders scowled. "I was told to escort you both to the local commander and that is what I am going to do."

 

But he did not have to do so for the commander, one Marshal Karen Dunlap, came in her uniform and kevlar body-armor, to meet them. She frowned hard at Manders. "I do not know why Canberra sent you here, Manders, but as far as I am concerned this is still a military operation and you have no authority here. I will take over from here."

 

The RASIP Officer scowled. "Canberra House doesn't like your attitude, Marshal! There may have been a peaceful ending to the war, and concessions made by both sides, but you did fight for the Republican cause." Manders dared not say too much or the wrong thing. He turned and strode away, heading towards the clearly marked cafeteria.

 

Tammy looked around at the rather bleak and bare looking outpost. She had hoped for more. She could 'sense' some odd things out there apart from the flora and fauna, the people in the camp. She spoke. "We are being observed by very well hidden guerrillas."

 

"No surprise there!" The Marshal frowned. "I would be more surprised if they were not doing so but there will only be a couple of them at most. They simply do not have the resources to risk more than that."

 

"Three of them!" Tammy frowned. "I heard you fought for the Republicans but you had some troubles with the Communists."

 

The Marshal paused before speaking, as if checking out Tammy first. "The Communists were as brutal as the worst of the Royalists and Neonazis. They were doing our cause more damage than good. The survivors out there have been forced to rethink their tactics. We have been in contact with them trying to learn more about the Great Bubble and strange stories that have arisen. Come to my office. There are some people that I want you to meet who you will find to be most interesting."

Edited June 21, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0024: Of Tammy Tomkins and Others

 

The black man was of the Australian Aboriginal people known as the Austrarns by Europeans and white Australians. They were not the only native people of the continent but were those who had made he rain-forests their home. They had supported the Republican Cause and then, later, the Greenies so as to protect their beloved rain-forests. The man wore practical, tough outdoors clothes and yet his jacket was dotted with tribal emblems and he had more on a leather necklace hanging at his chest. Harold was his English name.

 

He gave a mild grin and winked at Tammy. "You have the 3rdEye, I can feel it in my guts. You are strong with it, more stronger than even my grandmother and she was famed through out the territories of our clan and our neighboring clans and their neighboring clans. I do not know why you were brought here but I suppose it was so you could 'sense' strange things happening. Well, I can tell you that strange things are happening, some good, some bad, many just strange. Animals are moving away from where the Great Bubble is expanding and so are the wildfolk."

 

Wildfolk were only found in some areas of the world. In that region were short, tough, furry humanoids known as wozzles and their companion peoples but also tall, hairy humanoids known as the yowians. For such to leave their beloved home territories could only mean that there was great forces pushing them to do so.

 

The man lost his grin. "Stories speak of glowing white mists that can do good but which can make people vanish or change them. Then there are the horrific glowing green fogs. Only good thing about the glowing green fogs is there does not seem to be many of them and they are only small. Wozzles and yowians say that when they die in the green glowing fog, sometimes the bodies come back as the undead but when humans do so there is much more chance of it happening. Except my people seem to be more immune than you white folks or other Outlanders. My people have been working with the Communists and the wildfolk to hunt down and destroy zombies except the friendly ones. They are taken to the white glowing mists where they seem to transform back to life of some kind but not back to being what they were. There are damphirs also."

 

The Marshal frowned and unbuttoned her shirt just one button because of the heat. "Damned climate and weather is changing, the heat is less but still to damned hot. The rains came early but more patchy than they normally would be. Our patrols have gone out along the dirt highways to local settlements, to scientific stations, to military outposts. Reports are much the same all over. Something is disturbing the wildlife and it is not just the Great Bubble. There are stories of vampires, of great big zombie monsters but also of other things out there. Even Canberra House has been forced to accept that the strange stories have some real basis to them. I asked for a taskforce and they sent you, Tammy Tomkins."

 

Tammy shrugged. "Nobody seems to know what they are doing back in the big cities. People are pressuring the Federal Government to do something but what? The Australian Defense Force has been fractured since the Civil War. Federal and State Parliaments are pretty useless. The USA never forgave us Australians for not letting them send soldiers to join in fighting the Republicans. The Soviets look upon us with suspicion. The United Nations has become an international joke. People like me are employed by the Federal Government but we are an embarrassment to them so they sent me here to just get me out of Canberra."

 

It was well known that the Western Alliance and Soviet Pact were busy trying to invade the moon. US and Soviet satellites had been spying on Australia for many years and would be observing the Great Bubble.

 

A big white gecko lizard crawled across the ceiling after some small black bug. A fly hummed through the air as a big fan swiveled slowly back and forth with mild cooling effect. The office was cramped and sparely furnished and fitted. The civil war had almost bankrupted the nation of Australia. Death, destruction and disorder had left behind a broken nation state. The people were simply not ready to deal with the challenge of the Great Bubble that was swallowing up a large chunk of the continent.

 

A big old fashioned black telephone rang. The Marshal picked up the handset and spoke. "Marshal Karen Dunlap here. Go ahead." She paused and then listened intently. Then she spoke. "You can confirm that?" After another long silence of her listening she spoke again. "Get back to me when you learn more for sure."

 

After she put the hand-piece down, the Marshal frowned hard. "Contact has been lost with the forestry town of Harper's Crossing on the Southern Harper River. Reports came from wildfolk that there was the sound of gunfire and explosions that sounded like mercenaries were fighting. The town has a garrison of mercenaries hired by the Bannings Corporation. There is also a protest camp of greenies in the same area. The only other people in that area are supposed to be the wildfolk, some organized crime thugs growing cannabis and cocaine and some of your people, Harold. I did not think there was much guerrilla activity in the area."

 

Harold frowned. "Nor did I. I suspect that we should send an expedition to the town as quick as can be done and make it as heavy manned and gunned as possible."

 

The Marshal shook her head. "What with? I barely have enough people here to carry out security for this area. At most I could spare a dozen people and two LandRovers; even those will be sorely missed."

 

Harold shrugged. "We could always send young Tammy Tomkins here. Perhaps she can be of special assistance?"

 

Tammy Tomkins did not like the idea at all.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0025: Of the OmniObserver and the Observed

 

The OmniObserver could observe more than one AlternateEarth at a time and was doing so. It focused primarily on three worlds though it did not ignore the others. It focused on events as centered on SamWaSam, Tammy Tomkins and Tommy Tomkins. It would in future focus more on other individuals, on other groups. For now it was concerned mainly with these three who were far more than they seemed to be. Three worlds that were already heavily inflicted with the Great Bubble or were being heavily inflicted. One was in the 1950s, one was in the 1980s and the other was in the 2020s.

 

SamWaSam continued, as a HarmonyGuardian, in operations against the undead arising in parts of HarmonyCity; always it was linked with the glowing green fogs and always it was linked with recently dead corpses or in places large amounts of executions took place. SamWaSam was shocked to learn that the HarmonyGovernment was actively mass murdering those it did not see fit to be alive in the HarmonyState. Most were exiled to the Undercity that did not officially exist while many subhumans and semihumans ended up as slave labor; that is like those who had worked in the big corpse recycling complex where SamWaSam had first confronted zombies. SamWaSam was not happy with serving the HarmonyState, was not pleased with having to fight zombies and realized that breings were observing him with their 3rdEye, as they called it, which caused him justifiable fear.

 

Tommy Tomkins brought the real Professor Quatermass, Stella Ketchen and the two others, out of status but they were understandably confused and tired, needing some days of sleep. The brain washed, the brainbugged puppets and the shapeshifters would take longer to free. The TransCube continued to be a sanctuary for all of them. Tommy Tomkins had to deal with the vampire threat that was newly arrived in the city of Robertville, having come through a vast labyrinth that was expanding out from the Great Bubble, through the underground. Tommy Tomkins had not only been expecting this to happen, he would have been surprised if it had not happened. He even 'sensed' the presence of the everfolk who were trapped inside the Great Labyrinth and in a bizarre form of immortality. He expected that the more powerful, and oldest, of the everfolk would have detected him.

 

Tammy Tomkins remained at the fortified encampment for some days. She took photographs of the forest and the wildlife, when she could. Security protocols meant she could not take photographs of the encampment or people in it except some restrictive shots of a few people that the Marshal allowed her. Manders lurked around the place being unpopular and heavily suspected by the others there. Manders was suspected of having links with both the British Imperials and the Union Americans as in MI6 and the CIA. Efforts were being made to get the resources for the expedition but were only being attained with some difficulty.

 

Australia, with its population of fifty-eight plus million people and large industrial base, had told both the British Empire and the USA, along with the Soviets, to stay out of the Australian Civil War. Oddly enough it was a loose alliance of other nations who supported Australia's right to remain independent in its conflict including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and many others. The other super power, the TripleEmpire, sent much foreign aid to both sides of the war but nothing such as weapons that could be used directly by military or paramilitary forces. The TripleEmpire was the balancing part of the tripod that was also the oppressive Soviet Pact and the fairly unstable Western Alliance.

 

The OmniObserver observed the DeathlessOnes and their enslaved followers, the arising of undead and other unnatural forces and the appearances of the GlimmeringFog and the GlowingMist.

 

Every bit of gathered data was sent to more than one unknown destinations by very secure and well hidden means; the OmniObserver only knew what it had to know to fulfill its purpose.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0026: Of SamWaSam and Others

 

"They call themselves the HarmonyLords, the 13of13, yet many of HarmonyCity do not even know they exist though they rule HarmonyCity and the HarmonyState." The HarmonyGuardian Marshal stood looking out over a great dome spaced chamber, the upper half of a great bubble filled just over half with ground and underground networks. The grounds were of a great grass lawn genetically engineered to grow fairly short. The matted grass kept the ground bound heavily down. It had a peaceful appearance for a killing ground of mostly innocent folk. "They are served by a wide range of networks, ministries and other organizations but also by the deadly, secretive HarmonyOnes and the very exotic breings."

 

Marshal PayaZoPar was in power armor with nothing to easily identity her rank or name. Others were also in power armor be they HarmonyGuardians or HarmonyGuards. In the distance were thousands of zombies who had recently been killed by deadly nerve gas. Amongst the zombies drifted glowing green fog, strengthening them and making them more dangerous. Some of the zombies were smart, dangerous zombers.

 

Friendly zombies had gathered by themselves, away from the dangerous ones, and the HarmonyGuardians had no intention of harming them for they would be enslaved by the HarmonyState to serve many useful purposes because of their immunity to many kinds of toxins, including the glowing green fogs.

 

SamWaSam had no idea why he was there, amongst a chosen few followers of the Marshal. He did have a strong, subtle 'sense' that all those around him were somehow 'special'. They 'felt' like SueToSar, the woman who had tricked him into making her pregnant and who was part of the infamous Unity, being one grouping of of psychic transmutants. He dared to speak openly of this. "You are Unity."

 

PayaZoPar responded at once. "Please do not use that word, SamWaSam, but yes we are. Unity has managed to do the seemingly impossible by infiltrating the HarmonyGuardians, an elite of elite group serving the HarmonyLords but we have come to suspect that we were manipulated into doing so. The HarmonyLords, or at least one faction of them, knows we are here. The 13of13 do not seem to be as united as they pretend; HarmonyLord Factions are in a power struggle with each other. Nor do the HarmonyLords seem to have great control over the Great Sphere, that is also called the Great Bubble. They have been steadily losing control. The unwanted, dangerous, appearance of the glowing green fogs is one outcome of that loss of control. They have powerful enemies outside of the Great Bubble such as the DeathlessLords and DeathlessOnes."

 

SamWaSam showed his anger. "Why do they kill the innocent?"

 

The Marshal responded. "Only some of the HarmonyLord Factions want the mass murders to take place while some others are heavily opposed to them. Many have been rescued, and sent to relative safety in the Undercity, by the HarmonyLife Factions while the HarmonyPurity Factions have killed many thousands; it would have been millions if the HarmonyLife Factions had not intervened with the support of the moderate HarmonyBalance Factions. Those are the largest and most powerful and influential of the HarmonyLord Factions of the 13of13. We do not know what '13of13' actually means."

 

In the distance the friendly zombies, zombors, were being drawn away from danger and into waiting electric trucks that moved away as they were filled and sealed up. Truth was that the 'enslavement' of zombors was far from cruel. The creatures got what they needed, along with some bonuses, and were even given human handlers to care for them. Matters could have been far worse for them. The HarmonyLife Factions had gained control of their fate with some difficulty. The problem was that some zombors fell into the wrong hands, into illegal experimentation projects and cruel slavery work. The HarmonyGuardians dealt with such crimes as much as they could.

 

The Marshal turned to SamWaSam. "We have a series of special missions for you to undertake because of your special nature and abilities."

 

SamWaSam shook his head. "I have yet to begin to understand truly my 'nature' and 'abilities'. How is it that I am part breing?"

 

Marshal PayaZoPar nodded. "All of the HarmonyLords, and HarmonyOnes, are part breing. Like you they appear to be a seemingly impossible hybridization of carbon based life and silicon based quasilife. By this time the breings will know you exist, SamWaSam, will be monitoring you, but they are a very cautious people and will not approach you unless given a very good reason to do so."

 

As the last zombor was taken away to safety, xolasergun pulsebeams began to flicker out against the zombies and the glowing green fog. Soon there was a great barrage of pulsebeams firing from special roboremotes and HarmonyGuard warmachines. The zombies, and green glowing fog, were soon being destroyed but this was only one small problem site; there were too many and they the GlimmeringFog was appearing with increasing frequency and strength.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0027: Of SamWaSam and Others

 

SamWaSam headed through a big tunnel as lead by Major TajenRiTaja. He had not idea of where they were going but 'sensed' it was important. Then they were in a big museum like chamber dotted with display-cases of items and some bigger items in the open. They ranged from 'primitive' tribal spears to advanced tracked moon exploration robots to a big World War Two ocean going patrol boat and much more. As they moved along wide laneways SamWaSam wondered if they came from the same AlternateEarth as they passed books, posters, domestic appliances, crude looking 'primitive' androids, plastic action figures, mannequins with clothing of different eras.

 

TajenRiTaja climbed up onto a disk shaped platform with two half circle areas of fence. She turned to him as she joined her there. "Nearly all of humans of HarmonyCity came from this world as shown in this museum complex, this being but one chamber of it. For their own reasons, unexplained to us mere mortals, the HarmonyLords had this place made after billions of humans, and many more other lifeforms, were abducted from that original home world. Not everybody was abducted during that First Phase of the rise of the Great Bubble on that world or later in the quietness of the Second Phase. When the Third Phase of total engulfment of the world came, they may or may not have perished. During the Third Phase the Great Bubble engulfs and then absorbs the world until only a dead, wrecked, airless AlternateEarth remains. The Final Phase is the Great Bubble leaving the AlternateEarth behind or making it a permanent anchor point but mostly it does the former."

 

SamWaSam was astonished and revolted by what he heard. He spoke. "You earlier told me that the Great Bubble has arisen on two new worlds and is arising on another."

 

TajenRiTaja had told him quite a few things, backed up by 3Dvideo data. She nodded. "We know very little of them, as yet, except that none appear to be as advanced as the world was that this museum represents. That world was in the year 2111 when the Great Sphere appeared there. The only good thing was that humanity of that world had gained quite advanced and efficient space transportation technologies and had space colonies both in zero space and on-in many worlds. Many escaped to the Space Colonies, where the vanishings did not take place. Hopefully even more life was saved after the vanishings ended and before the Final Phase began on that world."

 

SamWaSam shook his head in wonder. "How many chambers does the museum complex have?"

 

The Unity woman responded quickly enough. "We do not know for certain but we have computed over a thousand big, to very big, exhibition chambers and at least ten times that many archival chambers. As much as it is a museum, it is also an art gallery, a zoo, a botanical reserve, archives and much else including a huge gene bank. We wanted you to see just part of this place so as to understand what was lost to humanity that now fills HarmonyCity. There were no subhumans or semihumans on that world as there are in HarmonyCity or any other sub-variants of humanity are there here. They came later when the human gene pool began to be polluted, to be damaged, by the distorted nature of living in the Great Bubble. We can only get into the outer chambers of this complex for we are expelled brutally, sometimes leading to death, if we stay too long or try to go too deep. That is if we come here with out a HarmonyLord and they do not seem too keen to take us into many parts of this place."

 

SamWaSam shook his head. "I do not know how I know it but to this place I am just like a HarmonyLord. Stay with me and we can go deeper, and stay longer. You were hoping for such an answer, weren't you?"

 

The handsome woman smiled, nodded. "I am Unity's prime specialist of this place but even I have only gone, at most, three chambers in and that almost got me killed. I suggest that we continue onwards while we can."

 

So they did and SamWaSam was most curious to see what he could. Great 3Dscreens showed wilderness areas that humanity had given back to nature as they transmigrated steadily into space. There had been just over three, and a third, billion people on that world when the Great Sphere had appeared in 2111AD. This had gone down from the peak of human population that had been nine and a half billion people. Mars had taken many as had the Lunar Underworld and huge orbital colonies in the Belt. The Martian Moons had become huge citystates. Yet the vanishings had taken over two billion people before they stopped. Great supercities, beneath big graceful domes, had not protected the people and neither had Skynet of AI-supercomputer controlled forts, platforms, gun-satellites and roboremotes.

 

They entered a huge chamber and there was the great ocean liner, the Titanic that had narrowly avoided being sunk by an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. The damage could still be seen on the side of the ship. Close to it was the Apollo Eleven atomic rocketship that had carried thirteen astronauts to the moon. All were later to die young of cancer thanks to a fault in the design of the atomic drive that caused a terrible radiation leak. After that, for a long time, only robots, and colony building resources, were sent to the moon until the atomic rocketships could be made safer to use.

 

They could have gone on but they left for the moment so as to plan a larger, more daring expedition for later.

 

Neither noticed the two breings hidden in a special observation bubble so shielded that even SamWaSam did not 'sense' their presence.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0028: Of Others

 

TT-John managed to get the teleport-gate fully activated, the one that the True Illuminati had created. The metallic archway sat on a metallic rectangular base and a ramp ran up to that base at a gentle incline. As if through a flickering transparent sparkling mist, one could see a chamber somewhere in the former USA near the city of Boston which was still functioning to a great extent. The other chamber was only dimly lit and much of it was hidden from sight. Some machines were in the shadows. Nothing moved.

 

Walter Bishop studied the controls of the teleport-gate and then looked through the gateway. He was clearly both impressed and disturbed. "The True Illuminati played with great and dangerous forces here on a world that was not their own. I wonder where they came from?"

 

TT-John shrugged. "From another AlternateEarth where the Great Sphere appeared, perhaps, to one day engulf it as it always does."

 

Olivia Dunham gave a start and turned to TT-John. "So it will engulf our world also. Perhaps you could have told us this earlier."

 

TT-John sighed. "My memory sharing with Tommy Tomkins is far from perfect and the resting period lasts at least a century after the Great Sphere finishes its first expansion; on average it is about a century and a half to two centuries. That is about ten years ago on this world so you have at least ninety years to do something major and probably another fifty to a hundred years beyond that to get anything extra done. The Great Labyrinth is expanding out from the Great Sphere. That will need to wrap the world and then will need to transform. Why these things happen as they do, Tommy Tomkins knows but will not, can not, speak of. He is over three thousand years old and has experienced much, far too much perhaps."

 

Olivia nodded. "Soon as we can get through to Boston, using that teleport-gate, the better."

 

Walter shook his head. "There is a security lock down on that teleport-gateway that the True Illuminati instigated. They had three levels of security lock down being Red, Amber and Yellow. That one has a Red Code Lock Down on it which indicates extreme danger. Too bad there is nothing here that indicates just what that danger was."

 

Olivia frowned softly. "Are there any other teleport-gates closer to Boston?"

 

"Yes but it is in the Washington DC area. Back in the very late 19th Century the True Illuminati must have been very busy infiltrating this world for a range of reasons." TT-John spoke. "I wonder how much they influenced the history of this AlternateEarth."

 

Olivia shrugged. "That would take a major investigation while we barely enough resources to get done what needs to be done. Not only were there the vanished but many others died."

 

TT-John responded. "All those that died on this world since the Great Sphere came here, they would have gone into the Great Sphere. Or so Tommy Tomkins believes. He says that this disruption to the natural cycle of life and death is one reason that the Great Sphere must be stopped from expanding any further, from absorbing more worlds."

 

This caused some obvious consternation amongst the humans except for Walter. TT-John was more than human.

 

Peter Bishop had said nothing for a time but then he spoke. "Then I suggest we go to Washington DC if there is no major lock down on it."

 

There turned out to be no such major lock down. Indeed there was no lock down at all. It was coded 'green'. They stepped into a large chamber, very much like the one they had left behind, with body-armor and guns. With them went shapeshifters and human special forces soldiers. They felt some disorientation for some minutes, a side effect of the teleportation and of going from one time zone to another so quickly. There were huge hulking machines in that chamber and, to their surprise, some devices taken from the 1800s of the Earth. That included a basic steam-car, a semi-enclosed sedan, a big black mechanical typewriter, a phonograph with some records, a big black telephone, a bookcase of leather bound books in various languages but mostly in English, a big old fashioned camera on a tripod, some art-works and even some guns.

 

Walter snorted. "Those two paintings have been famously missing since the late 19th Century. Now one knows what happened to them."

 

TT-John had given them some instructions. They had to wait at least one hour before trying to go through any teleport-gate. Three hours was the best waiting period, the safest. Somehow the teleportation process caused disruption to the body that was adjusted away by nature but a quick second trip could do permanent damage of a horrible kind. The use of special teleport-suits got over this problem but they had found no such teleport-suits in the bunker complex. When the True Illuminati had abruptly departed, they had taken much with them. Evidence indicated that they had even taken many larger devices, somehow.

 

They searched the chamber and then others linked to it. Many were big, bare spaces but some had exotic machinery and one was a kind of multiple purpose chamber with strange furniture, fittings and other items that had apparently been used by humans of some kind. They found storage rooms full of more exotic items and items from the late 1900sAD. Then they found armored doors that led, through an airlock chamber, to a cave system. The door was itself heavily locked and cleverly hidden.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

0029: Of Others

 

They found metal catwalks, signs and glowing electric lights. There were people there who were understandably shocked and worried when many body-armored and armed folks came through from nowhere. Olivia Dunham soon reassured them that the newcomers were friendlies but she politely refused to state where they had come from. They were in the right place and time. Indeed they were very close to the outskirts of the city itself.

 

They were refugees and emergency workers who had turned the cave system into a refuge from unseasonal stormy weather and other problems. A local town had been abandoned and people were based in the Lamplight Caverns. Not only that but an old government nuclear bomb shelter was in the caves and was also being used. There were National Guardsmen equipped with older type stuff. There was the Sheriff there for many town institutions had moved into the huge cave system and the very large bunker. The town had been a satellite settlement to the city, had been almost a rural outer suburb for many had commuted from there to work in the city proper.

 

There was a working telephone and Olivia managed to get through to somebody in Washington DC, to speak with a Fringe Office there. Fringe had changed nature since the USA had collapsed and the New Confederacy had arisen to take over a large part of the old USA. Fringe focused on investigating the Great Sphere and the effects of it along with phenomena that was, or might be, linked to it. There was also the on going work with the other Fringe on that other AlternateEarth where, thankfully, the Great Sphere had not appeared at all. The world had learned of that other world and that other world had learned of this one. Aid was sent in the form of technological advancements, the other AlternateEarth having been more advanced; thanks to instability factors not many material resources could be sent and the other world still had many problems anyway. The other world was also undertaking a great deal of research on the Great Sphere with data sent to it.

 

Advanced liftergas airships, airbarges and airboats were now flying across that AlternateEarth, computers were more advanced and much else was more progressed. The other world had gained also from areas that this world was more advanced in.

 

An airboat was soon to arrive with supplies for the town, along with some passengers, and there was room for two people to go to Washington DC proper. It was decided that Olivia and Peter would go while Walter would remain to study the exotic machines and the True Illuminati and Astrid would remain to assist him. It was soon decided not to keep the existence of the teleport-gates a total secret because it was impractical to try to do so.

 

Olivia and Peter walked out into the open of Union American air, as versus Confederate American air, and looked towards a broken town in the distance, that lay just beyond a light semiwilderness type forest. It was getting darker thanks to the ending of the day and a coming of yet another unseasonal rainstorm. Some areas had been abandoned because they were simply too prone to flooding. There were some long abandoned cars to be seen, long stripped of anything useful. Oil still came from other parts of the world but it was greatly decreased in volume but so was the demand for it.

 

Storms had ravaged it and salvage teams had stripped much of it. Salvage teams were still at work there. It was said much of the once human inhabited world had become semiwilderness or even wilderness where humans rarely ever went. Both the Antarctica and Arctic had become abandoned and were only then being returned to. Spacestation Freedom had been kept operational through remote robotic means but now astronauts were once more there. As for the isolationist and aloof New Utopians, they had actually sent aid to the peoples of the world during the crisis and continued to do so.

 

The New Utopians had been accidentally discovered, in their secret undersea cities, in the 1960s when they had appeared to pressure the world into stop over fishing the oceans, into stopping the whale hunting, and the polluting of the oceans. They had succeeded with the carrot, some technological secrets, and the stick, proof that they were far more advanced than were the Non-Utopians. They had revealed that the New Utopians already had a large colony inside the moon but they gave over data that allowed the use of ramjet-rockets to greatly improve both the US and Soviet Space Programs. Spacestation Freedom had become a huge structure at L5. The United Nations had created three large Lunar Colonies. Mars was untouched as it had been claimed by the New Utopians who had begun to Terraform it; they stated that one day they would abandon Terra (the Earth) and Luna (the Moon) to the Non-Utopians and transmigrate to their new home world of Mars.

 

The New Utopians had assisted Fringe to solve the problem between the two AlternateEarths, both with Fringe as part of them.

 

Olivia stretched, thrusting out her chest a little. "The air has become a lot fresher since the world population became reduced. What about the idea of all those dead people's souls going into the Great Sphere? That will not go down well with the religious people."

 

The Catholic Church had collapsed, as had other large scale organized religions, but religion itself had gone through an upsurge in popularity and strength. One of the big religious debates seemed to be if or not the Great Sphere was the work of God or the Devil. Others spoke of the Great Sphere coming in response to the over burden of very bad karma in the world.

 

The Great Sphere could not be seen from Washington DC but its effects were otherwise felt around the world. Seasonal, and off-seasonal, bad weather had battered the world and severe climatic changes had also had terrible effects. Famine, plague, war and other problems had caused much death, destruction and disorder on top of the vanishings.

 

They heard the shooting after both of them 'sensed' trouble. They looked past some domefarms, intensive farming with crops that suited such agricultural methods, that had replaced some older style farms. They then heard the sounds of shooting and, amongst some trees, saw figures rushing towards the farm-domes. They seemed to be farming people and some other locals making a living out of the local area. Dogs barked hysterically. Then the first fast shambling zombies appeared in view. There was some more shooting. A couple of National Guardsmen appeared, with out body-armor, firing only semiautomatic pistols at the oncoming monsters.

 

Olivia and Peter went to the rescue, taking some soldiers with them.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Maharg67