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The following is a work of fiction copyright Radical Gopher. This story contains adult themes and situations and should not be read by anyone under the age of 18. ______________________________ THYME AFTER TIME - part 11 Rekooh shook the ponies awake, then packed away her text reader. She watched as they quickly cleaned themselves and dressed, all looking rested, especially Cyanide who couldn't help but hug and kiss the others in gratitude. When they were ready, the copper-skinned alien clicked off her cosmic multi-tool and checked the time. Only one minute of ship's time had elapsed, but thanks to the device, they'd had a solid four hours to rest, and in her case plan. She picked up the emergency lighting globe and nodded to Cyanide before flicking it off. The Chimera lit up her horn again and followed Rekooh out of the room followed closely by the others. Six hours passed as they worked their way towards the exterior of the time ship. As before, the journey was very convoluted and they found themselves walking along passageways, climbing ladders and occasionally resorting to the ventilation system or service tunnels to bypass blocked hatchways. All the while the Prefect guided them, almost as if she had a diagram of the ship imbedded in her mind. "You know," Cinnamon offered, "we could just smash our way through the ship if we wanted. No fuss, no bother." "We could," Rekooh said, "but Sherman's given us an advantage. By cutting off the power, he's also cut off all the security sensors. We can move anywhere without his knowledge; but if we start smashing our way through bulkheads, not only will we be damaging the ship, which I don't want to pay for, but it will trigger the automated collision alert system which can't be turned off. He'll know not only where we are, but that you and I are both loose and roaming the ship." "Yeah. Sometime stealth is the best form of attack," said Clover. "Maybe," grumbled Cinnamon, "but it's nowhere near as fun." "This is a really big ship for just one person, not counting your deputies," Cassia remarked. "It was originally built for a crew of 500,000." The Prefect said. "But over the millennium technological developments and budget cutbacks made having that many personnel superfluous. Every system now has a hoard of internal micro-robots that service and maintain it, as well as replicate spare parts. Humanoid maintenance crews aren't necessary." "Incredible that you could fit so much into a sphere the size of a ping-pong ball." Rekooh abruptly stopped, "Ping-pong...?" She turned and looked at Cassia. "What do you mean?" "We were brought here by being sucked into a shinny, chrome, ping-pong ball," Cassia explained. "Just where did you see this 'ping-pong ball,'" she asked. "It just kind of materialized out of nowhere," Cyanide said. "I actually stepped on it and it tripped me up. Then, it ate Cinnamon and the rest of us." Rekooh shook her head and chuckled. "No wonder no one's come looking for a missing time-ship in the last one-hundred twenty-five odd years." "Huh?" the girls responded. "Think about it!" the Prefect said. "No one just hijacks a multi-quadrillion credit piece of prime tech without someone higher up pushing a panic button or two. The ship's suppose to operate along prime dimensional lines, but Sherman's created his own pocket dimension and is moving it, and the ship, around the prime levels without attracting attention." "So the sphere isn't the time ship?" asked Clover "No. A highly reflective sphere like the one you described is the physical manifestation of a pocket universe as it moves within one of the prime dimensional planes. Because it's separate from the other planes of existence it would be easy to conceal the energy signature of something like this time ship, hence, no search and recovery effort." "Than all we need do is shut down this pocket dimension and voila, Cavalry to the rescue... Right?" "Theoretically, yes. But shutting down a pocket dimension is tricky at best... unless you don't particularly care whether or not you vaporize yourselves and an entire time line in the process." "Ouch," muttered Cyanide. "Wouldn't maintaining such a thing require a lot of power?" asked Cassia. "Creating it would... But once formed the power requirements for keeping it stable wouldn't be more than thirty to forty percent of the ship's capability, depending on its size." "Whoa... If maintaining the pocket universe requires that much of the ship's energy... How much did it take to create it?" "Maybe three or four times it's output," Rekooh said Cyanide shook her head. "The math doesn't add up! If it takes three times the time ship's output to create the thing, how could it be done." "Its possible, if you're using the ship's capacitors to store the required energy." "Flux capacitors?" Rekooh looked at the Chimera. "How did you know that? Do they teach Temporal Physics where you go to school?" "Naw," grinned Cinnamon. "He, I mean she just watches a lot of old movies." The alien's antenna twitched slightly, then she simply shrugged and led them forward to yet another door. Unlike many of the others, this one had a circular disc in the center. Rekooh turned it and pushed the hatch open. The passageway was suddenly flooded with light and the ponies had to squint for a moment or two before they could see clearly. When they were finally able to look around, they were astounded by what they discovered. "This whole thing is the time ship?" asked Cyanide. He looked upward at the inside of the ring as it climbed out of view behind the massive central sphere that hovered above them. "Actually, the ring itself was originally designed as living quarters, infrastructure, systems production facilities, repair shops and the like, all intended to support the operations of the hub," Rekooh explained, pointing up at the sphere. "That is the heart of the ship. Since being fully automated, the ring isn't used much anymore, except when I have to evacuate any large group of beings, say from a natural disaster area or temporal backlash." "Temporal backlash?" "A timeline that has to readjust itself due to a major temporal disruption. Most of those are the result of natural forces, such as a supernova or collapse of a black hole. If you don't evacuate the people closest to the area of immediate effect, they cease to exist." "What happens to these survivors?" asked Cyanide "They usually get reseeded on vacant timelines and worlds where they have a chance of rebuilding their civilization," the Prefect replied. "Since we can't possibly save everyone in those circumstances, we try to at least give their culture a chance to survive." "Wow! Kind of like a trans-dimensional Coast Guard," said Clover "This place is like a cross between a theme park and a history book," muttered Cassia as she examined the different types of architecture that surrounded them. "It's all chaos with no sense of order or cohesion." "That's because chaos is the common theme," replied the alien. What you're looking at is diversity within a patterned system. Time is like that. In a sense time or history is chaos following a fixed set of physical laws that bind it together." "I think I'm getting a headache," complained Cinnamon. "It took you long enough," Clover replied. "I've had mine since we started this whole quantum physics for dummies lecture." "Well, whatever it is, it's high time we find Sherman and put things right again," said Cassia. "Is it just me, or is the power off all the way around the ring?" Cyanide asked. "Yes," Rekooh confirmed. "But why shut everything down cold?" Cassia and Cyanide both suddenly started then looked at each other. "Am I thinking what you are?" they exclaimed as one. "Wait... What are you guys thinking?" Cinnamon asked. "Think about it," said the Chimera. "The ring is cold, we're warm... and that control sphere is undoubtedly packed with sensors..." "And weapons." Rekooh finished Clover scratched her head and looked up. "But that would mean... INCOMING! BREAK! BREAK! BREAK!" The ponies instinctively scattered as the area was plastered with a rain of plasma bolts. Cinnamon grabbed Rekooh who was slow to react and teleported to the roof of a nearby building. The energy cascade began tracking Clover who kept dodging in, out between, up and across buildings at high speed. "What the hell is that?" the unicorn girl asked. "Stun bolts," the alien replied. "They won't damage the ship, but they might be able to shock-blast her nervous system." She frowned as she watched the blue-furred mare dodge another shot. "Why is it only shooting at Clover?" "Probably using infra-red targeting," offered Cassia as she and Cyanide joined them. "Her running generates lots of heat." The pegasus looked at Rekooh and the chimera. "You two get to the sphere and see if you can get inside. Cinnamon and I will help Clover and keep Sherman distracted." Cyanide nodded, then wrapped both arms around the Prefect and launched herself into the sky. Cassia quickly followed, angling down toward Clover. The mare was keeping ahead of the plasma bolts, but not by much. Turning sharply to the left, Clover raced down a narrow street and up the side of a building. As she did, one bolt grazed her tail and her backsides and legs went numb. Staggering, she fell forty feet to the ground. She lay there for a moment stunned. Before the energy bolts could target her however, Cassia zoomed past. The pink pegasus was flying backward using her own optic blasts to heat the air behind her, drawing the plasma bolts away from Clover. Seconds later Cinnamon appeared next to the blue furred pony. Reaching out, she pulled the mare to her hooves. Clover tried flicking her tail, but it only hung limply, its end dragging on the ground. "Aw, man! I just washed that this morning." "Forget the fracking tail," said Cinnamon. "Can you still run?" "My tush and legs feel like they're asleep." "Hang on, then." The green-furred unicorn put an arm around her sister and they both vanished in a pop of imploding air. Cyanide climbed rapidly toward the sphere. She could see the aperture from which the plasma bolts were coming and banked right to bring it closer. "What are you doing?" asked the Prefect. "I'm going to take out that beam weapon before it can nail the others." "NO...not yet!" "Why not?" "You take that thing out now and you'll probably trigger the ship's full defensive mode." The alien nodded towards the sphere. "Set me down on top and we'll access the external mainframe controls." The black and white furred chimera nickered in frustration as she peeled off from her attack run and soared up to the top of the sphere. Landing, she set the Prefect down and watched as Rekooh went over to a small panel in the surface of the hull. She placed her hand against it and a small t-shaped console rose into view. Cyanide flew over to where she could look down at the ring. As she watched the plasma bolts abruptly stopped. Moments later she could make out the form of Cassia climbing towards the sphere. Her progress was slow because she was carrying Cinnamon in one arm and Clover in the other. The chimera dove down to meet them and relieved the pegasus of some of her load by grabbing the green-furred unicorn. The girls reached the top of the sphere and landed next to Rekooh, who was now standing by an open hatch. She stepped onto a platform and was quickly joined by the ponies. She looked over at Clover. "Are you okay?" The blue-furred mare nodded. "Yeah. I just needed a minute or two to recover." She flicked her tail to demonstrate and the Prefect smiled. Moments later they found themselves descending into the interior of the sphere. The platform abruptly stopped and everyone hopped off. The girls found themselves in a massive control room that resembled an amphitheatre. Innumerable consoles and panels lined the walls; some stacked in tiers a dozen or so high. Circling the large open area they now stood in were a half dozen technological columns of blinking lights and screens. Behind them was a giant monitor on a raised dais that resembled a stage. Lighting in the room was muted throwing shadows everywhere. "How come I feel like we're in the middle of a bull fighting ring?" asked Cinnamon. Rekooh pressed a button on her control device. A panel opened in the floor and a large, padded control chair floated up and moved across to her. She sat down, triggering a series of lights. "When the ship had a full crew the work stations up there were manned around the clock and command personnel worked from here using chairs like this one. They called it the pit." She pressed a button and the chair floated over to one of the columns, which she began to examine. "The openness of the area allowed windows into other dimensions to be opened without risking the technicians operating the equipment above." "Cinnamon's right," Cyanide observed. "It's almost a perfect set up for some kind of trap." "PERCEPTIVE... ISN'T SHE?" Everyone turned at the sound of the voice. A small bespectacled boy strolled into the room from a side door. He paused for a moment looking at the chimera. "WEREN'T YOU A STALLION THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU?" The Prefect scowled. "How many times have I told you not to use that ridiculous simulacrum." "IN THE LAST ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE YEARS? NOT ONCE THAT I RECALL." He snapped his fingers and a clear, plexiglas cover slid across the chair effectively enclosing Rekooh within. Lights on the chair switched off and it dropped unceremoniously to the floor. The Prefect began banging her hand against the plexiglas. "SHERMAN... Open this up RIGHT NOW!" "OH, BE QUIET!" he replied. The chair's external shell went opaque and nothing more could be heard from within, though it did continue to rock back and forth like a frustrated egg eager to hatch. Both Cyanide and Clover charged at Sherman. There was a flash of light and the two ponies rebounded off a force dome that had suddenly formed around and over the pit. The simulacrum laughed at their obvious frustration. "YOU OBVIOUSLY THOUGHT I WOULDN'T BE PREPARED FOR YOUR POWERS. NOTHING CAN PASS THROUGH THAT FORCE FIELD. AS ENHANCED BEINGS, YOU REALLY ARE A DISSAPOINTMENT." "Maybe... but for a cybernetic intelligence you don't have fracking much going for you, four-eyes," Cinnamon taunted. Reaching down, she grabbed a floor plate and ripped it up, then hurled it at Sherman. The simulacrum merely stood motionless, a smug look on his face as he expected to see the missile bounce off the force field. The unicorn concentrated. The floor plate abruptly vanished, reappearing on the other side of the barrier. It caught a very surprised Sherman across the face, hurling him back into one of the consoles. There was a high-pitched whine and moments later the shell that had trapped Prefect Rekooh burst apart. The copper-skinned alien stepped out of the shattered sphere adjusting the settings on her control device. "I really have had enough of this!" She aimed the multi-tool at the force field. There was a flicker then it vanished. Sherman pushed the metal floor plate off himself and stood, looking down into the pit. "NO! NO! NO! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET FREE THAT EASILY!" A dozen spheres suddenly appeared all around the pit, each opening into a disc. Gray tentacles reached out from one of the gateways and wrapped themselves around the Prefect, immobilizing her even as they began to pull her inside. She struggled desperately as they tightened. For an instant, she felt as if she were being slowly crushed and then the pressure stopped. A blast of arctic wind froze the tentacles solid. Moments later they were shattered by Clover as she threw a left jab. Grabbing the alien, the blue-furred pony whisked her from the pit and deposited her next to one of the control stations before dashing back to help her sisters. From a second portal rushed dozens of small spider-bots, each about six inches across. They paused for a moment, waving their front legs menacingly then skittered straight for Cinnamon. The green-furred pony was busy holding back three large yeti like creatures who were trying to cross into the pit from another portal. When the first of the bots reached her it began climbing her leg. She looked down and screeched loudly, then began performing her own unique version of a flamingo dance. Bots began to fly in all directions as she kicked, stomped and clogged around the floor, forgetting entirely that she could simply teleport away. One of the yetis reached for Cinnamon as she danced around. Before its fingers could close on the unicorn its hand was abruptly seized and twisted behind its back by Cassia. Spinning the creature around, she shoved him into his two companions and all three of them tumbled back into their portal. Reaching down, the pegasus grabbed the spider-bot that was now clinging to Cinnamons tail and ripped it free, taking more than a few strands of her black, tail-tuft with it. The unicorn yelped. Holding the bot like a football Cassia punted it through the portal after the yeti. The other spider-bots immediately abandoned their assault on the green-furred pony and made a beeline after the lead bot, disappearing into the black void. Sounds of frantic battle began to emanate from the yetis' dimension. As the last bot crossed the threshold Clover dashed forward and unleashed her ice breath, plugging the exit with a solid sheet of ice. She smiled with satisfaction and gave Cassia a quick thumbs-up, only to be head butted from behind a second later by a large Minotaur wearing the armor and weapons of a samurai. Cyanide returned the favor, slamming her head, horn pointed downward, into the warrior's gut. He staggered back, the wind temporarily knocked out of him. The chimera followed through with a series of jabs and punches that left the Minotaur lying dazed and with a bloody muzzle. A second Minotaur leapt from the portal, weapon drawn. He swung on Cyanide who sidestepped, then blocked with her horn. As the larger creature's sword connected, the chimera sent a jolt of electricity along her horn. There was an arching flash and the Minotaur was blown back off its hooves to tumble back into his portal. The half-melted katana clattered to the floor. Cyanide grabbed the back of the first warrior's armor, lifted then tossed him after his friend. Clover again used her breath to plug the exit with a sheet of ice. Meanwhile, Rekooh had climbed up to a console on the third tier and began to quickly work the controls. Three of the portals closed. Pushing the floor plate off himself Sherman glared at the Prefect. "YOU THINK YOU CAN COME INTO MY HOUSE AND RUN THINGS YOUR WAY AFTER ALL THIS TIME? His eyes began to glow ominously. "WELL I DON'T THINK SO!" A white-hot beam of energy lanced toward the copper-skinned alien. Another portal suddenly opened between her and Sherman and the bolt vanished into it. The portal imploded in on itself and Sherman lined up for another shot. Before he could fire though two portals opened up; one beneath the simulacrum's feet and the other directly above him. Gravity took over and he dropped out of sight only to reappear as he fell out of the second portal and plummeted back into the first. Cassia fluttered over to Rekooh and landed, leaning against the console and watched Sherman cycle through the two portals. "Nice move," she remarked, smiling. "Is he actually moving faster than terminal velocity?" The Prefect nodded. "The void he's passing through has a lower atmospheric pressure than standard, so the only air resistance he encounters is here, between the gateways." The other ponies joined her and watched as she manipulated the system controls and closed off the other dimensional doors. "So, what now?" asked Cinnamon. "Well, with Sherman's higher AI functions now trapped and isolated in the simulacrum I can attempt a primary control reboot. That should realign Sherman to his original programming and restore his behavioral..." There was a unexpected energy discharge from the console and everyone was blown back several feet. Rekooh took the brunt of the surge and was knocked unconscious. Cassia recovered first. She knelt next to the copper-skinned alien and checked her pulse and breathing. Both were present, strong and regular. She thought the prefect was okay, but she couldn't be certain. The pegasus didn't know what constituted normal for someone of her race. The ponies stood and looked over towards Sherman. As they did the lower portal vanished and he slammed into the deck at better than 250 miles per hour. The steel floor plates buckled under him and he flew apart. Pieces of the simulacrum bounced around the control room, colliding with walls, consoles and rolling every which way. One of his hands came to a stop next to Clover's hoof. As she watched it flexed its fingers, rolled onto its palm and began scuttling across the floor. "You have GOT to be kidding me!" the pony muttered, kicking it into the center of the pit. It bounced to a stop then continued across the floor as it attempted to rendezvous with other pieces of itself. Cyanide launched herself across the room and intercepted Sherman's head as it tried rolling itself over toward the torso. She held it up and looked at the face. One eyeball was missing and part of the pseudo-epidermal layer was pulled back exposing the circuitry beneath his forehead. The head grinned at her, exposing several missing teeth. "YOU THINK YOU'VE WON, DON'T YOU? WELL YOU'RE WRONG. YOU CANNOT WIN. IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN I SHALL BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE!" "Aw hell no!" the chimera snorted. "You did NOT just quote a good guy from one of my favorite movies." Sherman laughed. There was a small, but audible click and the remaining eye rolled up into the simulacrum's head, accompanied by the sound of a fading, electronic hum. The head became silent. All around the room the pieces of Sherman stopped moving. "What just happened?" asked Cinnamon looking at the pegasus girl. "I don't know," Cassia replied. "He couldn't have transferred his consciousness. Rekooh said she'd isolated his higher functions within his robot body. I assume she meant he was trapped." Cyanide shook the head vigorously then put it up to her ear. "I don't hear anything. It doesn't seem like anyone's home." She tossed the head over to Clover who squeaked in disgust and quickly handed it to Cassia. The pegasus did a cursory examination, then set it down on the console in front of her. "For lack of a better word, he looks... dead!" "YE SHOULDNA MAKE ASSUMPTIONS LASSIE. IT MICHT GET YIS INTAE TROUBLE!" There was a sudden flash of light and the ponies all found themselves floating several feet above the floor. A glowing energy field surrounded each of them. They all looked in the direction of the voice, their jaws dropping in surprise. Before them stood the black and white collie, Mora, dressed once more in her knit scarf and duster and holding a four-foot long staff that resembled a larger version of her multi-tool. The Maestro smiled wickedly. "SURPRISED TAE SEE ME... AREN'T YIS?" * * *

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