The Attempted Abrexi Checkmate
Hearing the dying mantra and prayer of all Time Jumpers
It was several days until Gavin Delph saw the light again. Slowly and purposefully, he made his way through the serpentine tunnels of an unknown world; soaked in unending darkness, starless and bible black. He knew from the The Winkler’s map that the tunnels ran some thirty or so kilometers from his initial entrance point, straight to the inner sanctum and throne room of the ancient Abrexi Proximate. Farther and deeper he delved into a world not trod in ten thousand years, moving along a path of polished obsidian, which seemed to consume and store the surrounding void, limitless and lightless.
After some time, Delph could see if ever so faintly at the end of his electric torch’s silent glow, a polished door in the distance. As he drew closer, a golden door appeared before him, shining bright and true, emblazoned and festoon with all manner of spectacular precious gems from all corners of the known universe — including an array of very rare cerise and precisely cut (and harvested) fire gems from Althalolin IV, which seemed to burn with the intensity of a thousand suns, and which seemed to contain within them a crucible of wildfire.
In the center of the door was a keypad. Delph entered a lengthy series of numbers. The door seemed to exhale a breath saturated in time and loneliness as the security mechanism disabled, and a small light on the keypad interface switched from red to green. It was then that he entered.
“I am everything and nothing. You know why you came here, and you know of me. There is no returning now from whence you came, and the paths you traversed to find me here are now closed to you, and the paths that will — if I allow you to ever leave this place — take you from here are strange and terrible roads indeed.”
Delph stepped forward into a massive space, cold and black, and seemingly without form or end. In the center of this void stood a tall white marble pillar of considerable height, bathed in a single beam of clear bluish-white light emanating from an unknown source above, atop which floated in midair a massive black orb. Suddenly, from depths unknown and unfathomable came a baleful voice. The orb was speaking.
“Who are you?” The voice snapped and echoed endlessly through the chamber and was everywhere at once.
“I could, and will, ask the same of you.”
“I am everything and nothing. You know why you came here, and you know of me. There is no returning now from whence you came, and the paths you traversed to find me here are now closed to you, and the paths that will — if I allow you to ever leave this place — take you from here are strange and terrible roads indeed. Listen to me now and heed my words: I was there at the exact moment this reality came into existence, and so shall I be there at its end. There is nothing I have not seen or created and nothing that escapes my expansive and all-consuming focus. You are here, I fear, for some kind of dreadful purpose. So, speak honestly, earnestly, and purposefully to me now; and open up your mind and its designs to me. Speak!”
There was a long silence as I absorbed all that I had heard, and tried to formulate some semblance of thought and answer.
“My name is Colonel Gavin Zelph. I have tracked you here through time and space so that I could be here at this precise position in time at this exact moment. I am a Time Jumper of the Sixth Level. We have tracked down almost all of the remaining members of the Abrexi Proximate save only a few, you being one. It has been an anomalous and mysterious pursuit through and across the ever-expanding tunnels of time, and I have seen and done much beyond the comprehension — and approval — of the others to be here now. As for my purpose, well, I think we both know why I am here. It matters to me not whether I leave here alive. Only that I accomplish my mission.” Silence then returned to the chamber in a rush of sudden cold.
Rather tall for a Time Jumper, Gavin Zelph stood well over six feet tall and was quite an imposing figure, especially in his deep black temporal modulation suit, which looked especially dark against his fire bright glowing red eyes and stark white hair — the telltale attributes of a Seeran, a being from the cloud covered and perpetually dark moon of Seer. On his back, he wore a tactical bag, and one hip he wore a laser pistol, and the other his time modulator. Staring straight forward at the pedestal and the floating Orb, Gavin knelt down to the cold and seamless white marble floor. Slowly he began to remove the bag from his back, setting it down gently in front of him.
His piercing red eyes fixed ever ahead, Delph continued in his rather raspy voice.
“This ends now. The continuum is on the verge of complete inflation, and its fragility is far beyond total temporal reversal. Irreparable harm has been done to the space-time fabric. Cosmic rules have been shattered and ignored for eons by you and constituents.” Removing a small device from the bag before him, Delph suddenly took on a grim and deathly appearance. “In the name of the Council of Three and the Watchers of Time, it is my solemn duty to inform you that you have broken: articles 114, 114a, 114d, 578, and 1,004 of the Time Law. As a……” A scream of unparalleled and unearthly horror filled the chamber as it emanated in shrieking and percussive waves from the Orb itself; filling every possible space with its pernicious tonality. “Level Six Time Jumper it is now my responsibility to eradicate and erase you from the central and all ancillary time streams.”
Beginning in the year 4187, beings of the known universe first began to unravel the many mysteries of time. By the year 6111, after considerable effort, the few who had mastered time formed, the Time Consortium. From there great and delicate pains were taken to compose the first Time Laws that governed reality, dimensional proximity, and space-time. Thousands of years ago the species of the known universe had become interstellar and began to explore the farthest reaches and corners of space, discovering a panoply of all manner of species and creatures. By the year 13200 the very same became true of the Time Consortium, as they delved ever deeper into every aspect of time itself, and in so doing encountered a multitude of time and dimensional beings previously known or imagined.
Amongst the time beings discovered and encountered were a species of nonmaterial and disembodied energy beings of light known as, the Abrexi. Existing in parallel dimension 42, and in time stream XVII, the Abrexi have been traveling the multitudinous layers of time since before the Big Bang — which predates our own primitive conception of cosmic linear time. After discovering the key to temporal erasure and binding techniques — the inner workings of which we don’t even really quite understand even now — the Abrexi began to manipulate time and particular dimensional time streams to further their own dark purposes; which, of course, began to greatly affect and warp all of the adjacent time streams, including our own, the essence of time itself, and the fabric of space-time.
After the first time disruptions began to occur, and especially after the first major time shift, panic enveloped the known universe, and impending doom permeated every facet of reality. Faced with complete temporal annihilation and death, the Time Consortium created the first Time Laws in an effort to stabilize time run amok. Enforcing these Time Laws is a small cadre of highly trained agents called, Time Jumpers.
For millennia the Abrexi Proximate had been embroiled in an all-out war against the Zorthon Designate. Beings who also have mastered time travel. What resulted was the Great Time War, wherein both species endlessly jumped through time in an effort to rewrite and reorganize the fabric of space-time in attempt to control reality and erase the other; ceaselessly pursuing each other in and out of every dimension and substrate of reality. Unremitting violence and horrors beyond measure and understanding were perpetrated as each side attempted to dismantle Dimension 42, though, the war expanded in both the higher and lower dimensions until it enveloped all of time itself. It became a war without end as each side time jumped each other to earlier and earlier time frames, dimensions, and realities.
In the mid-26th century, first contact occurred. Close to madness, bedraggled and gaunt, the final few surviving Zorthon’s appeared in the central Time Chamber on Earth. Terrifying us with tales of a sleepless malice that stalked their reality, and warning us of a forbidding and dread filled future, past, and possible present; then, exhausted and close to death, they collapsed. The three Zorthon’s died on the third day, but before they perished and returned to the Source, they furnished the Time Consortium with the proper calculations and temporal coordinates, so that we might be prepared to meet the onslaught of the Abrexi Proximate.
Since that time much has befallen our known universe: planets destroyed, trillions dead and the Time Chambers of the inner worlds dismantled and melted. All that remained to forestall the insidious incursion was the central Time Chamber on Earth, and a handful of high-ranking and exceedingly skilled Sixth Level — and above — Time Jumpers. For close to ten thousand years the last of the Time Jumpers stalked the Abrexi Proximate through every possible structure of dimension and configuration of time. Following centuries of terror filled pursuit, fraught with mind-bending dangers of unimaginable proportions, the Time Jumpers had reduced the Abrexi Proximate’s numbers to just five.
Floating hundreds of feet above Gavin Delph, and vibrating at an imperceptible rate, one of the remaining five Abrexi Proximate looked down on Delph, measuring his mettle and resolve. Suddenly, from depths most foul, the Orb broadcasted out a cacophony of unearthly howls; starting out as a solemn whisper they built into an infinite crescendo.
“You impetuous whelp! Be gone and trouble me no further. There is nothing that you can do that will reverse the temporal transmogrifications of this realm!! Go ahead and present your precious detonation cube, you will not exist much longer. Pray, tell me, why have you invaded my time?” The vibration of the Orb appeared now to intensify, and a deep buzz began to build and erupt.
“Time is time, if time is time, and time is only truthful. In time our mind, mind’s time’s eye, and time is ever youthful. We try in time, behind the mind, is time complex and true. This ends your time, and also mine, the Consortium erases you.”
The Time Jumper’s ears began to bleed as pressure beyond measure enveloped Gavin Delph, and he struggled to stay in an upright position. Gripping his tactical bag with a dire determination, he slowly produced a palm-sized small glowing green cube with two small yellow buttons on two opposing sides of the cube. On his knees and using all his strength to combat the sonic torrent that assaulted every fiber of his being, and using one hand to grip the seamless and cold floor, Delph outstretched his right arm to its absolute length engaging the first yellow button with one of his fingers, at which point to durasteel razor legs sunk their pint into the floor.
The auditory assault continued as Delph’s nose and eyes also began to drip blood, dripping dancing dots of crimson red blood across his stark black and shining suit. Screaming, Delph lowered himself further, even closer to the floor for better stability, and using one of his other fingers engaged the second yellow button, at which point the other two opposing sides sprung legs of their own that dug into the marble floor with exact precision. Silently out of the top rose a red blinking button. The sound waves began to slowly rise in pitch as previously unheard harmonic structures entered the savage sonic spectrum. Wrapped in a cloak of all-encompassing crushing pain Delph’s ribs began to splinter and crack. Pieces of his hair disengaged. He struggled to remember and recite voice activated engram:
“Time is time, if time is time, and time is only truthful. In time our mind, mind’s time’s eye, and time is ever youthful. We try and time b……….” Suddenly, a laser bolt hit his back between his shoulder blades. Knocking him flat to the ground as a small hole burned in his upper back. Unable to speak or continue, his vision blurry, Delph craned his neck ever so slightly so he could glance behind him. Floating two meters off the floor vibrated another Orb of solid, comprised of an unending blackness, underneath a beam of pure white-bluish light. Turning back around the original Orb atop the towering white pillar began to descend in a purposeful and dreadful movement devoid of pace until came to rest a few meters off the floor directly in front of Delph. Both hummed and shrieked their terrible emanations. His exposed skin began to peel. The terrifying and disembodied Orb voice continued.
“There is no temporal impediment, or nefarious enemy, that the Abrexi do not account and plan for. We have prepared for this moment since your time and reality began. We were the ones who brought you here. Your stream, Time Jumper, is at an end.”
Knowing his death was now imminent — but not permanent — Gavin Delph reached down to his waist through the sonic forces that assailed him from all sides and opened a small durasteel compartment that hid and protected from view a white triangle button. It was a Temporal Relayer of Reconstitution, a brand new and portable version of the Time Chambers of old, totally unknown to the Abrexi. The Time Consortium had been here before, and so had removed the veil of temporal possibility through millennia of careful study and examination: they knew the initial Abrexi would be there; they knew a second would be summoned and/or planted from a second time stream; and they knew Gavin Delph would assuredly suffer an extremely terrifying and painful death, far removed from any kind solemnity and or salvation. But they had a plan.
The Time Technicians, in conjunction with Consortium thought and theory, were able to design the very first device known as the Temporal Relayer of Reconstitution. It is this device that allows for any being wearing a time modulation suit to reconstitute and reform to an originally functioning and healthy state, as long as the proper time coordinates are inputted. Once engaged the user can reform and reconstitute immediately in a preprogrammed time stream and/or dimension, as long as the user’s life functions have not entirely ceased. Pulling from his final well of minimal strength Gavin Delph engaged the white triangle button, and everything disappeared in a blinding flash of total white light.
Gavin Delph ran at an astonishing speed down the sinuous tunnels atop a river of solid obsidian; starless and bible black. After an unknown amount of time he eventually reached a golden door, bejeweled and lustrous; unique in all respects. Taking one last gasp of air, Delph unclasped his laser pistol. Opening the door, he was suddenly assaulted with a cacophony of shrieking vibrations that seemed to permeate all things. Falling to the floor Delph forced his head up against the discordant torrent, looking forward to the grim scene he had just left.
In front of him floated a vibrating black orb; in front of it lay a mangled and torn Gavin Delph. A mirror from a different time stream, battered and broken, and erased from the central stream forever; in front of him floated another black orb. Fighting to stay stable he swung his tactical bag to his front and removed a small green cube. Setting it down in front of him he quickly engaged both yellow buttons in succession, deploying two sets of durasteel razor legs. Suddenly, the cube began to glow and vibrate a frequency of its own. Keeping his head forward Delph began the voice activation engram sequence once again:
“Time is time, if time is time, and time is only truthful. In time our mind, mind’s time’s eye, and time is ever youthful. We try in time, behind the mind, is time complex and true. This ends your time, and also mine, the Consortium erases you.”
And with that simple collection of words all fell silent. The terrifying din that previously had enveloped everything vanished in an instant. Slowly emanating from the small green cube emerged a bluish-white bubble that began to grow and expand until everything within Delph’s field of vision was submerged and soaked in purifying opalescence. Fragment by fragment, piece by piece, reality began to disengage and fracture as time unraveled, and everything that had ever been ceased to be.
It was there, in that dimension and time stream, where Gavin Delph had is final thought as time disassembled around him. “I fall in awe of the enormity of time;” the dying mantra and prayer of all Time Jumpers.