 
Tsv123:

A Fool's Errand: Redemption

Nick Stone was working with the newest state-of-the-art 3d TDM systems on a very special project when it unleashed his angry alter ego, seeking redemption for an injustice that had him sent to Aton 5, the purgatory of the galaxy.

Timedate estimate: 2025

Par: Aton 5: Another Parallel

Dedicated to all of the people disaffected by the fool's errand.

Copyright: Coldpost-85, 9/2015

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Chapters

1. The Man Who Took a Day Off from Work

2. A Fool's Errand

3. Another Parallel Mystery

4. Dr. Stone meets Mr. Makro

5. A Demand for a Hearing in the High Court

6. Setting the Records Straight

7. Dreaming of a Life

8. Somewhere on the Coast

9. Temporal Spatial Par Differentials

10. The Fracture and the EM Flux

11. A Picnic at the Park

12. Macrovision in Silver Moonlight

13: Blue Moon over the Bay

14. A Multivertical Conjunction

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Chapter 1: The Man Who Took a Day Off from Work

Nick Stone sat in the nightclub nursing a bottle of very expensive water that tasted like it came from a vat previously used to ferment white-lightning, looking at the sultry brunette across the room. Stone waited as she finally decided to come around for a chat, before he decided to spill his guts all over the counter.

"Want to hear a mediocre story?" he said, as she looked him over, and he looked her in the eyes.

The lights were dim but he could see her well enough to know she wasn't hiding a boyfriend. At least, that was what he decided, just because he really didn't care anymore and he was in the mood to lay it all out for anyone to know.

"What kind of story?" she said, and ordered a bottle of water.

"A real heart-breaker with a crazy twist," Stone admitted. He waited for her reaction for a moment, and then placed a 20 on the counter for the bottle of water, and she said, "I guess I've got time, if it's not too long."

"Oh, well, I suppose that depends, " he said, and looked across the club, at the dancers. "I could give you the short version. See, 40 years ago, in the summer of 1975, while I was dating a young girl with a friend of mine and her sister, my step-brother had a jealous rage, went behind my back, and fixed it so that my mom sent me away for the summer, with misinformation."

He looked at the bottle of water and wished it were whisky or rum, but he knew his guts couldn't handle it anymore. He paused for a moment, and completed the story, "I was sent away that summer against my will and lost her forever."

"Sounds sad," she said. "You forgot to tell me your name."

"Yep, it's real tragedy," he said, "Nick Stone."

"Karlena. So what's the twist?" she said.

Stone thought about that, and said, "Step-brother used my mother and she didn't know it. She admitted the mistake 7 years later, in 1982, and that was the first I heard of it. For 7 years, both she and I were in the dark about the misinformation supplied by my step-brother. He fooled both of us for 7 years, and I was exiled to this planet for it, to waste the last 30 years working my way out of the lowest levels of purgatory."

She looked at him with more curiosity and interest, and said, "What happened to the step-brother? Why didn't your mother punish him for the misinformation?"

"I'm not certain, but I suspect it was because he was shielded by step-father," he said. "It's the only explanation. See, step-father was a wife-beater at the time, and a recovering alcoholic. Mother must have been forced to cover step-brother, it really is the only explanation."

"Then why were you forced into exile on this planet?" she said, and added, "If it wasn't your fault?"

"That's the sticky mystery I haven't quite solved. But I suspect it had to do with what happened later in 1978."

"1978?" she said, and looked at her water. "This story is getting much longer than I expected."

"Hey, it's cool, if you don't want to hear the rest," he said, and shut his trap for a minute, listening to the music in the background.

She moved closer to him suddenly, much to his surprise, and spoke in his ear, "We can talk with more privacy in the other room, if you want."

"Sorry, sis, but I haven't got that kind of cash right now, and I don't feel in the mood for sex," he said.

She stopped for a minute, looked around, stepped back, and said, "Give me a minute, I'll be right back."

Stone waited, nursing his water, with nothing better to do at the time, and it was much cooler inside the nightclub at that hour and it seemed like the thing to do. He waited for longer than a minute and began to wonder if she really was coming back or just making him wait. He began to get edgy because he realized he had spilled his guts to a complete stranger and he had never done anything like that before in his so-called life.

He slapped a 5-spot on the bar and started to get up to leave, when she suddenly returned, by herself, in a blue satin shirt, alone, much to his relief.

"I hope you didn't get all dressed up on my account," he said, trying to be funny. He looked at her in the dim blue lights and thought he recognized her for a minute.

"Were you going to leave?" she said.

He looked at her and wondered about that, still wondering where he had seen her before. For a minute he just got lost in her words, and suddenly snapped out of it.

"Uh, well, no, I just had to get up for a stretch," he lied. "I thought you were busy elsewhere... uh..." He stumbled for a minute and made a quick recovery.

"So, how do you like the story so far?" he said.

"It's sad, but interesting," she admitted, and they sat down.

Stone looked at her and could see she was being sincere, so he decided to continue.

"In 1978, the summer of 78, my step-brother and some kissing cousin of his tried to get my friends and I, there were about 3 or 4, to join him and his friends in a naked romp free-for-all. I was still pissed about losing Lisa and I didn't trust him, so I declined the invitation. I didn't know at the time that it was one of the last job opportunities open to me. As it turned out, the town was recruiting young people for summer camp activities that I had no idea about whatsoever that year. Recruits for some naturist videos. My reaction to the proposal apparently had a very negative effect on my position in the town."

He paused and she said, "Negative? How so?"

"My step-brother and the princess both began treating me like some kind of unwanted retard and the rest of the town rejected me completely, for the most part. Oh, I still had a couple of friends, but no more opportunities. They all rejected me and gave me the cold shoulder. After the motorcycle accident in 1982, my mom told me about the mistake and I didn't know what to make of it. It was too late, 7 years too late, to do anything about it. Lisa was gone and I was alienated from everyone I had ever known."

Before Stone could say anymore, he saw a familiar figure step in from the street and remove his sunshades. Another stepped in beside him and left his shades on. Stone looked to the back corner and sited the other exit, and wondered if he could make an easy departure.

"Well, it's been nice... what did you say your name was?" he said.

"Nick," she said, "Are you leaving?"

"I have to get a little exercise, my legs need it right now," he said, and slipped around the corner of the bar counter, headed toward the other door in the dark corner. He was almost there when the goons stepped around the other side of the bar and cut him off before he could reach it.

"Stone," the one with the shades off said, "the company has been looking for you."

"Well, I'm on vacation," he said. "Tell the big guy to get back to me in about 3 weeks."

"Well, I think you should tell him yourself," he said. "We can patch you through to him from our vehicle."

Stone tried to decline and walk around them but the guy with the shades got in his way and stopped him.

They ushered him out the door and around the club. Two more goons were standing outside a van and he knew they weren't going to make it easy. He didn't know it at the time, but Karlena had followed them out to see what was going down. When he had them all in his sites and only one to worry about, he made his move. He quickly pushed the goon aside with all his weight, stepped aside and thought about the secret symbols he had learned to concentrate and project, and within a second the powerful wave suddenly projected away from his head as he held himself firmly against the kickback, and swept over the small troop of goons. They were suddenly kicked backwards against the wall of the building and the van. The van shook from the shockwave and the goons were knocked unconscious to the ground.

He looked about, wondering which way to go, when Karlena waved at him and he went to her.

"I have to get out of here," he said, "do you have a vehicle?"

She nodded and led him to it. He was still recovering from the action as he sat in the passenger seat and let her drive.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, I just defended myself from a bunch of goons," he said, with his head in his hands.

"Are you alright?"

"It takes some time to recover," he said, "but I'll be alright in about 5 minutes."

Karlena was a nice girl, a real nightingale. She took him to a friend's place and they had a chance to get to know each other a little.

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"Why were the DSA after you?" she said.

"Who?" he said.

"The DSA, Drug Security?"

"Is that who they were?" he said and laughed. "I seem to have forgotten where I am. So, they're calling themselves the DSA now, are they? In the last version it was the DEA."

He shook his head and tried to see through the confusion of parallel realities still leaving road-marks in his brain.

"Why were they after you?" she reiterated.

He thought about it and tried to welcome her security, but wondered how much he should let her in on. As a nightingale she deserved the truth but he didn't want to make her vulnerable to his enemies, so he had to keep it general and avoid too many specifics. The less she knew about some things the better, so long as she was still a neutral player.

"My step-brother apparently wanted me to stay where i am," he explained, looking at the bookcase against the wall. "So he made sure i was put on a short leash. After 1978, when I continued to do my own detective work behind his back, he managed to convince the others that I was some kind of loose cannon. He was Mr. Personality and almost everyone loved him, especially the girls. They listened when he talked but laughed at me for just about everything I managed to get in edgewise.

"You see, step-brother had everyone fooled into believing he was a great guy, including my parents, whom he was trusted by to keep his word on everything, including his treatment with me. See, they put him in charge of me, the idiots, when he was 9 and I was just 8, and by the time we were ready to graduate from high school, he had devised a clever way to censor all information flowing from them to me and back to them again, using it all against me, to his own advantage. My mother discovered this fact in 1982 but it was too late for her to do anything about it. All she was able to do was give me a clue; I had to work for years to uncover the rest of it."

Stone looked at her and said directly, "I discovered that he was editing the script while obviously abusing his powers over me. He was an absolute control freak and apparently had managed to rationalize evil ways for manipulating me while betraying the trust of my parents. What bothers me most is the fact that he got away with it all! And I was exiled to this shadow planet!"

He left it there and caught his breath. He felt rage building inside, the heat peaked in his head, he closed his eyes and calmed down quickly, with a teknomantic trick. When he opened his eyes, for a minute he felt shame-faced for his rage, and began to apologize to her. But she was still curious about the goons.

"Oh, well the goons are from the company I work for," he said, "they don't like it when i decide to just go out for some time off without telling them. They just don't seem to understand the kind of pressure I've been under lately. I need a vacation."

"You work for the DSA?" she said, with doubt.

"The DSA? Oh, no, they weren't from the DSA," he said, and almost laughed again but stopped and looked at her. "I sometimes forget just how dim some of these shadow worlds are. Those goons always dress themselves up as the big daddies; it's a matter of security. Call it a uniform, only it's not so obvious as the one with the badges. It's just a power-trick. It insures that they'll get the kind of respect they need everywhere they go from everyone."

"They weren't from the DSA?"

"No, but it's of no importance," he decided. "They are nonetheless some of the most dangerous goons on the planet."

"But you got away from them," she concluded, "will they hunt for you?"

"I dunno," he decided, "that's up to them, I guess. I probably shouldn't give them a chance to get you involved. It would be smart if they didn't know about you. I think i should leave, get back to the shop."

It was too late. He held her close for a minute that began to seem like a century, and broke away.

She gave him a business card with her name and contact info, he kissed her once more and slipped out into the night.

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Meanwhile, Kenderson, the company chief, was at Tri-Dee Media in the head office talking with Doctor Felderzon about his case.

"Stone's case is quite unique," Felderzon said to Kenderson. "Apparently, from everything we know about his personal life, he has been in conflict with a sibling rival for about 40 years. In fact, I'd have to conclude that his is quite possibly the worst case of sibling-rivalry I've ever observed."

"That's just great," Kenderson said, with frustration. "All we need is a loose cannon that has problems with the head office. Why'd they lay him on us?"

"This has nothing to do with security," Felderzon reminded him. "This project is extremely important to the head office. Apparently, this Stone has what they need and they expect him to deliver."

There was a buzz, the door opened, and a messenger stepped in and put a message on the chief''s desk, from dispatch. He read the message as the man left, frowned and shook his head.

"Speaking of the devil," he said, "They tracked him to the city and lost him outside a nightclub. 2 men are down, sustaining shock and minimal damages."

"I would suggest letting him alone," the doctor advised. "He'll probably return after he's become bored."

"Well, that may be your assessment," the chief nodded, "but the head office wants him back on the job ASAP, and they seem to think we can convince him."

"How did he stop your men?"

He looked at the message and shook his head.

"No details here," he said, "is it important?"

"Maybe, maybe not," the doctor said, and stood up to leave, "Let me know if you learn anything interesting."

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Chapter 2: A Fool's Errand

After completing his weekly quota at the Tri-Dee Media workshop, Nick Stone used the TDE (Tri-Dimensional Environment) systems to do some more research. He entered the spatial and temporal coordinates he was interested in, the Western mass-state, June, 1978, and a minute later, TD windows began to open around him. Before the minute was up he appeared at the default setting at a local park. That setting was just fine with him, so he relaxed and accessed the archives thru the interface and did a search.

Apparently, his step-brother had been working as a free agent for a small video production company that was affiliated with a large west coast studio that owned and operated summer resorts and campgrounds.

He needed the specific information but it was not easy to find. Records in digital from that time-period were rare and vague. It took a lot of scanning for about 45 minutes, over a lot of media. Much of it included PFM (Playside Fantasy Media), and it became somewhat distracting, but he eventually found what he was looking for.

It was an old company that made most of its profits in the obsolete videotape technology that had been so popular during the 80s and early 90s. He found the exact information he needed, copied it, and paused to wonder what was next. The info was only a path to a studio, it wouldn't necessarily get him through the front door. Step-brother had worked for the studio during the 80s, of that he was sure, but locating his post 40 years later was more complicated.

He checked to see the present owner of the studio, and found that it had been annexed in the late 90s by another larger studio, or so it appeared, but Stone knew it might simply have changed its base and its name because of the ongoing competition over technology and resources. They had a problem with it in most shadow Earths and this was no exception.

Step-brother had been not simply an agent for the company, he had also acted as a regular "night-worker", and that post included extra duties which step-brother, Stone was certain, enjoyed. After all, it was his jealous rage and weekly addiction to skirts that led him to the plot to use their mother to get him sent away on the fool's errand that was the summer of 1975.

The extra duties, from what he gathered, were performing in acts of sex with females, most of which were very attractive. See, to put it simply, step-brother was a "stud", and he had ambitions to out-score the competition by having his way with all the sexiest skirts within his eyesight. That was obviously a much higher priority to step-brother than the phony trust he used to betray their mother in 1975.

As he sat there wondering and recalling that time, he realized the hardest part about it was how he was alienated after 78 simply for declining step-brother's game-plan for summer activities, or whatever one might call it. The whole truth was Stone did not disagree with the general idea; he simply had personal reasons at that time for not wanting to participate. He had some work to do that couldn't wait; he just couldn't decide exactly what it was. He was, in fact, a confused and angry young rebel with a somewhat vague, personal cause.

He had to figure out exactly why he was sent away in 1975 and how to get Lisa back from the local gang that had stolen her. He was obsessed with these things but could not admit it to anyone because it was too personal.

Step-brother feigned innocence and ignorance about the issue, as usual, and made him out to be a retard after the declination to play step-brother's summer games in June of 1978.

It was impossible to convey the full extent of step-brother's violation to most of the shadow Earth people of Aton 5. It was simply beyond most of their comprehension, and their programmed, fluoridated brains got lost within the confusion of playside fantasies (many of which were forbidden to the public of Aton 5, who were still having problems with the missionary position which took up all their free-time).

The dysfunctional effect caused by step-brother's violation had 2 major effects on Stone's psyche which Doctor Felderzon would probably like to understand better, if he could.

One of the most socio-psychological effects was complete alienation from humanity, which occurred after 1978, because Stone failed to realize at that time that the opportunity his step-brother (Jarges) was selling was his last chance to catch the bus to summer camp, so to speak, and he blew it due to his subjective obsession with Lisa. The reaction of the locals was rejection of Stone for not wanting to participate; he was given the 'cold-shoulder' by many school friends and all of the local clubs. They treated him like he couldn't be trusted and turned him away.

The other major effect on Stone was a flaw which had an adverse effect on his heart, something that nearly got him killed in more than one dangerous episode.

The only way he managed to survive during the first 3 years on Aton 5 was with some teknomantic tricks he learned years ago, before he was exiled. His exile in Aton 5 was extremely hard. He was a homeless scavenger during the first 3 years, before a flying stone experience led him to seek the help of his shadow mother. It was an act of desperation that his shadow dad wasn't too happy about. A fight between them eventually put him out in the cold again.

Shadow Earth Aton 5 wasn't altogether happy with Stone's performance, but he did manage to gain some progress with a night job. It took him 10 years to build a small office with computer but he did it and gained a little security with a small-publishing company and by 2010, had learned to work with some of the most sophisticated programs of the 21st century.

All the time, Stone was floating on the waves, and every time it peaked he recalled his highest priority and it kept him working over-time. His exile to Aton 5 had been unjust and he had to set the records straight to gain his redemption.

Stone sat there immersed in the memory of that time, recalled how his mother admitted in 1982 that she had made a "mistake", and checked the Par-differential factor. There was a 97 percent chance that the shadow Earth was born out of the pre-Atonian line after 1975... a 97 percent chance that the fool's errand he had been sent on in 1975 had caused... preceded the shadow Earth parallel-reality of Aton 5!

He fell back in his seat in suspended shock momentarily, barely able to believe the implications. If the factor was accurate, it meant that it was highly probable that the shadow Earth parallel of Aton 5 would not exist if it were not for the fool's errand he had been sent on in 1975. That fool's errand was his mother's mistake, and according to the facts, that mistake was caused my misinformation supplied by his step-brother, Jarges.

He shook his head with disbelief and couldn't quite get over the suspended shock. It held him for so long, he began to fall back into the "hole" he had crawled out of, quickly snapped out of it, and checked his reality-checker for the time.

The implications of this violation were all too much for him and he almost lost objectivity. In having Stone sent away on that fool's errand, the step-brother had caused a serious refraction with dangerous effects.

The refraction simply got worse after Stone was rejected by his step-brother's company in 1978. Then there was the accident in 1982 and mother's admission to the mistake that led Stone to step-brother's obvious manipulations. It was after the accident in 82 when Stone first experienced episodes which led him to suspect that a shadow Earth existed parallel to his own, but it wasn't until 20 years later that he discovered he was in Aton 5, the opposite extreme to Svenate 5, which was a regular paradise.

Aton 5 was an over-worked purgatory compared to Svenate 5, which was much closer to paradise. If it were not for the fool's errand, Stone might have gone to Svenate 5. Instead, he got nothing but work to do and a serious refraction to worry about. If he was right about this, his step-brother's jealous rage had been the cause of the shadow Earth "parallel-reality" Aton 5 to begin with and because the refraction was a threat to his very soul, he had no choice but to go to work and try to resolve the mess his step-brother had made, else there might be no redemption for him or any of the other poor soul's disaffected by the refraction.

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With all of the evidence together to make a case against step-brother for his violation in 1975,

Stone was more capable of escaping Aton 5. But he had to complete his work with the project before the case against his step-brother could be solidified. The new TDE systems included 3d action scenes which could help him simulate everything that had happened in 1975 and later in 1978 and 1982, to make his case solid. Step-brother would not be able to deny it with all of the evidence in. His mother's own words could not be denied.

There was much work to do and Stone wondered if there was enough time to do it. The refraction would only get worse in time unless he was able to counter it. The shadow Earth Aton 5 was doomed if his work with the project was unable to counter the refraction.

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Chapter 3: Another Parallel Mystery

Karlena was at the club again later that week. He was still officially on a vacation, as far as he was concerned, so he decided he could play a little more.

"I've got just 4 days left to my vacation," he said to her, "feel like doing anything?"

"Are you suggesting a date?" she said.

"Sure, why not," he replied. "How about it? I'm open for almost anything right now, within reason."

She looked across the club for a minute.

"I know this lake with a nice beach," she said. "I spent some time there last year, but didn't get there this year, I was too busy."

"Let's go," he said.

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On the last Sunday of August, 3 days later, Stone decided he didn't want to lose Karlena, and devised a perfect way to keep regular contact with her.

"I have to get back to the club," she said to him, getting her bag together on the table by the kitchen. They had a wonderful long weekend of 3 days together but Aton 5 was not the kind of shadow Earth that lets its denizens lay about having fun for all that long and in the end it was always back to work, and business as usual.

"Hold on," he said to her, stepping up. "I've got a part-time post you might be interested in."

She looked at him and smiled, "If the pay is well enough, I might be."

"The pay will be fine," he said, "it's the hours that I'm concerned about."

"What about them?" she said, as he stepped up to her and took her in his arms, meeting her eyes.

"It's a tri-monthly post," he admitted. "I'm too busy now with the project to make it any more. But the pay will be good to make up for the odd hours."

"Hmm," she said, letting him in to her neck. "I'll have to think about it."

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Excerpt from Stone's Personal Journal:

"In the Aton 5 shadow Earth parallel, history went somewhat differently than my Pre-Atonian roots would suggest. In 1981, the war-party took the Whitehouse and used a propaganda campaign to push a new war upon themselves; a culture war coincided the propaganda campaign, during which time between 81 and 82 the war-party used hostile takeovers of several radio-stations by Clear Channel, a war-party corporation, to blanket the population with fear and ignorance towards all the new left-wing novelties on the playside of life which they all had a taste of during the 70s, in some form or another.

"Suddenly the entire population of Americans was converted into Atonians by exaggeration and lies directed at the subject of new pacific left-wing culture that involved sex, drugs, and/or rock and roll. The war-party used the radio-stations, along with an extra dose of fluoride in the drinking water, to blame all of the world's problems on the pacific left-wing. The antiwar pacific left-wing was suddenly on the defensive as flying monkeys were everywhere, by 1982, acting under the new policies being forced upon the nation-state by the war-party, which had no compulsions whatsoever to wait and let the people make up their minds about any of it."

"So, that's what went wrong," Stone said to himself, and shook his head in disgust. "Because of that little-big propaganda blitz after 1981, the poor sheeple got fleeced and they built their evil empire on the blood, sweat, and tears of the victims. Man, what a bunch of fuck-ups!"

It wasn't until Stone had left his office for the day that it dawned on him that he had been confused, in this shadow Earth parallel, by members of his step-brother's phony pacific left-wing, with members of the war-party, after 1978.

"I was tricked into this whole mess," he realized, "by step-brother."

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It was in late 1981 that Stone first crawled out of the dark hole he had fallen into and noticed the smoky glass effect that he had come to realize was indicative of the shadow Earth Aton 5. Even during the height of the day in the summer sun, it merely cooked itself through the humidity to hang down like a wet blanket at times. Rather than cook it away, it acted like a sponge to sap the strength of the life that struggled to survive it.

Gone were the summer camp breezes he recalled from the distant past, there was no relief for him in the tired, over-worked reality of Aton 5, even if the old factory zone had been newly renovated. The new reality was something that the common worker's themselves had to pay for, just for the privilege of working there, as they were constantly reminded that they still have to work themselves out of debt.

"This is definitely a form of punishment for some kind of mistake," Stone concluded, after all the evidence was weighed.

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The next day, he completed his work with the regular project and had some time with the TDE to review the work he had done with his own 102 project. He had all the scenes from 1975, 1978, and 1982 in Tri-Dee simulations to make his case against step-brother. He checked to make sure the back-up files were all secure, and wondered about Tri-Dee Media security.

Now that he had all of the files secure in back-up, the company might take extra notice and expect a review of progress. To cover his tracks and keep his knowledge secure, he included all of the extra scenes which composed the entire story, so that the facts were lost in the woods until he presented his case. That would keep the real project secure from his step-brother's spies.

If the company called for a review, he'd feed them the short version, with a few special effects to dazzle their palates, and if they wanted more, he'd agree to share it all with them for the right deal.

"What's it called?" Kaswell, a co-worker said to him, after discovering a preview on the internet. The man joined him at the water cooler that day just before he headed to the TDE chamber.

"Fool's Errand: Redemption," he said to the man, and excused himself. But the guy decided to walk with him and talk a little more.

"Well, if you don't want to talk about it," he said. "But somebody posted that review on the internet and it's got a few of the guys in the shop interested, so, can you throw us a bone? If it's heavy metal, Nick, we're all big fans of it. To put something like this in TDE..."

"You're right," he admitted and stopped. "It's never been done before, not like this. But then again, we don't really know about all of the projects that the different companies have going, do we?"

"If you wanted to keep it a secret, why post it to the internet?" he said to him.

"Because the company will want a review eventually and I just wanted to get it out in the open, because it's just a PFM project. No need to treat it as anything more. If the company wants a review, I've got all the bases covered, including the public purview."

"Are you saying that the project is complete now?" the man said.

"No, I'm not saying that at all," he said. "Besides, I don't determine that, the company board does."

He added, before leaving the man, "And the company board doesn't like to have its projects talked to death before they float. Don't forget that point, Kaswell."

He left the man with that reminder, wondered how much spying he had done, and decided to make one more review of the back-up before deleting the files for "FE:R-102, Fool's Errand: Redemption" from the main computer.

He had just enough time at the end of the day to make the review. He went into the program and played it through, from 1975, to 1978, and then to 1982, 1985, 1995, 2015, and it was at the end of it, in 2025 that something unexpected occurred. At the end in 2025, when the avenging protagonist had the show-down with the evil step-brother on the shadow Earth Aton 5 (based upon reality, only the natives called it Earth), the scene froze with the same smoky glass effect he had tried to reproduce, and the lights went low, such that the stars appeared and the night fell, only it was a bright night, lit by a large blue moon.

"Hmm... what happened now?" he said, thinking it was another technical glitch. Sometimes a light went out now and then, that was probably it. He went into the systems and checked all of the lights and couldn't locate the problem. All of the lights that were supposed to be on were working, according to the program. He decided to manually replace the ones he was using and the fix failed. He was baffled and tried to not become frustrated. He didn't like the idea of set-backs, not when he was this close.

He shut the program down and restarted it, ran into the same problem with the environment as before, and checked the files on the main computer. The same problem occurred with the 2025 environment, at the scene of the showdown. He stepped up from the computer and went to get a drink from the water-cooler in the corner of the chamber, but it wasn't there.

"What the hell?" he said, and looked around the chamber. There was something different about it. He looked at the top of the chamber door at the red-light signifying the chamber was in use, and it looked different, somehow.

He forgot completely about the water cooler, went to the door, pushed the green button on the side console, and started to open it, but it wouldn't open. The light was a frozen red glow like the inside of a freezer unit, he thought, as he tried the door again, it failed, and he spun about.

The TDE program was still frozen in place, a spectacular scene in the high sierras, at the edge of an oasis on a plateau. It was not a real place on Aton 5, it was a simulated environment based upon the high sierras, but Stone liked it because it reminded him of ancient Mars. But as Stone studied it, the 3d definition had never been so perfect before. As he walked into it, it took upon more and more substance, and suddenly, the lights changed a little, made him cover his eyes for a second, and when he recovered, and looked about, the chamber existed beyond a thin veil of light in a large rectangle, just inside the edge of the plateau.

He began to lose his bearings for a moment, closed his eyes, and recovered, as his mind focused on some of the most basic teknomantic designs he had to work with, and he looked around again. This program he had created was like nothing he had ever experienced. Somehow, he had created a 3d portal into another realm. He looked about it shortly, touched the veil of light to test the theory, his hand went through it without any problem, and he decided to test the plateau.

He walked carefully out from the corner of the plateau, seeing that the chamber was exactly as he had imagined it, from his main camera perspective, located inside the wall of the mountain, and explored the plateau. It was all so perfect that it seemed to be real. At that point, he didn't know what was real and what wasn't anymore.

The plateau was almost all natural environment, except for the ancient ruins to the left, on the lower steppe. The scene began from the angle of the plateau, and the action took it to the ancient ruins. Stone followed the path to the edge of the plateau, through the sage brush, tumble weeds, and cactus-plants, to get a closer look over the ruins.

He wished he had brought a portable camera with him when he saw how amazing it looked from that angle. The ruins stood out a little higher at the edge of the scene, up against a deep blue night sky with the big bright blue orb of the Moon hanging over it all.

"This is no TDE program," he said, realizing he had discovered something quite beyond the simple 3d trick photographic environment he had been working with for the past 5 years.

He looked down at the dirt on the path at his feet, kicked it, watched it in the moonlight, and said, with sudden realization, as he turned back up the path, "Damn it, this is real... it must be another parallel..."

He hurried back to the chamber because he had no idea if the portal was secure and his work wasn't done. He feared getting lost on another shadow Earth, possibly worse than Aton 5, and stopped before the rectangular veil of light in the side of the mountain. He looked at it one last time, and decided not to risk it for any longer, and stepped through the veil, back into the chamber.

He looked about at the chamber and realized that it appeared different, and wondered why. There were objects missing at the edge of it, objects that were not directly connected to the program, such as the water-cooler, a counter with drawers and other compartments, and the power-panel, when he checked inside it, instead of several switches, he found just one large switch with a red light over it. He pushed it and suddenly the lights went up and he was standing there looking at the same panel, only now it was several switches, rather than just one, as it had originally been.

He looked about and he was back where he was and the scene appeared normal again. But when he got around to simulating the action, he had some trouble getting the action to load, and he lost it, as it crashed. Seconds later, Kaswell stepped in and looked at him.

"I'm sorry, but the green light was on," he said, "did I interrupt anything?"

Stone looked at the time and realized he had worked enough for one day. He secured his backups and left the company, with a new mystery. Had he somehow discovered a portal to another shadow Earth?

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4: Dr. Stone meets Mr. Makro

Stone checked the back-up files for the 102 project in his home computer, but it could only give him a simulation of the simulation, an animated 3d representation in the program view-port. He was able to check it out but the only way he could animate it without crashing it was in a low quality video time-line. The program was much too complex to run it on his computer. He was planning on getting a bigger computer that might be able to support it in the near future, but all that depended on his success with the project.

So he checked out the low quality videos and then the program view-ports, and when he got to the final scene, he couldn't locate anything wrong with it. But the action figures were much too big to open and the dang thing crashed on him.

"Dang!" he cursed once and shook it off. He was afraid that would happen and decided not to try it again until he upgraded his system.

He restarted the program and rechecked the final scene to be sure he hadn't lost it. It was okay, but there was no way to check out the action in the view-port, so he checked the lights again, and the camera, to be sure something hadn't gone wrong there, and was left dumb-founded. He closed the program and checked out the low quality videos. If everything checked out alright, he should get the green-light to use the company computers to render it all in high quality for the market.

He checked the video and everything checked alright. The last scene played through alright, action figures and all, without a hitch. Near as he could figure, the problem was not with the scene but with the action figures and/or the company TDE systems.

The next day, after working with the main project all day long, he managed to get access to the TDE systems again, later in the evening. He loaded the program and the final scene again, and once it was open and running nicely, thought about loading the action figures, and hesitated. That was when the lights had suddenly changed and opened the portal, he realized... Right after he tried to load the action figures. He decided to check out the action-figure files closely before loading them into the scene.

There were 6 figures in the scene total; the protagonist Makro, the evil-step-brother Jarges, and 4 witnesses (2 men and 2 women). He checked them all out closely and couldn't see anything wrong. He closed the scene and opened the figures up separately, one after the other. He opened the protagonist first and simulated some of its basic motions. It checked out alright. He did the same with the evil step-brother, and it checked out alright also. Same went for all the other characters.

He was puzzled about the glitch and a little uncertain about his sanity. He made sure the backups were secure again, opened the scene of the plateau, and loaded the action-figures, the protagonist (Makro), and the evil-step-brother (Jarges). The lights went down again and the scene was stuck again, just as it had been yesterday, in the same moonlit twilight under the deep blue dome of stars.

He looked about at the chamber and it was as it had been before, as if it were some kind of parallel or alternate dimension. The portal was before him, just a meter away, on the other side of the computer console, leading out onto the mysterious plateau. He started to walk to it and his eyes caught a glint of light from the side of the chamber where the water-cooler had once been. On the wall, he discovered a rectangular mirror that reflected everything in that parallel, including his appearance.

To his surprise, when he looked at his face, he looked like the protagonist Makro, much more than he expected. He knew that he had given the character some resemblance to himself, but it wasn't an exact likeness. As he looked at himself in the mirror now, he looked just like the Makro character in the 3d version, and it was an amazing likeness.

"Woe," he said to the amazing figure that looked back at him, "Not bad!"

He checked the rest of his body out then and was amazed to realize that he was in much better form than he expected. Not that he was all that bad, but it appeared a bit more now, and it was a mystery how it had all happened.

"What is happening to me?" he suddenly said, "am I dreaming?"

He pinched himself and felt a little numb, normal for him these days. He slapped himself and made it hurt the second time.

"Owww!" he said, feeling the pain. "That felt real enough."

He looked at the computer console and then the portal, and wondered what was going on. He recalled the power-panel, went to it, found the same alternate single button with the red light over it, decided to not touch it yet, and went to the door again. It was still in the red and wouldn't open.

"This is very strange," he thought, looking back at the portal. He thought about everything he had done that had led to this experience, and when he recalled the fool's errand of 1975 and what step-brother had done, it struck a raw nerve and did something to him.

He felt something kick him in the gut, almost fell over, and suddenly, exploded in a great big rage, as his body went through some kind of transformation.

"Step-brother!!!!" he swore in a low, bass growl that started in the gutter and burst out upon the environment like a wounded animal letting out its pain in one last great cry for revenge.

"Step-brother did this to me!" he cursed across the chamber, out at the portal, and suddenly jumped out the portal onto the plateau, completely forgetting everything but his over-powering need for revenge.

"Jarges!!!" he called out on the plateau, "You lousy little spoiled brat... couldn't go without it for just one week, could you, you skirt-chasing pervert! Fooled everyone into thinking you were Prince Charming while torturing me, and went behind mother's back to get me sent away on that fool's errand in 1975!"

His bass-tone words boomed and echoed over the plateau and seconds later, echoed again deep in the canyon, beyond the plateau and the steppes with the ruins.

He stood out on the plateau and called out for Jarges again, seething with his hatred for the evil step-brother, and waited for the step-brother to appear. He calmed down as he realized what was happening and could barely believe it. He looked at his hands and felt his face, turned slowly, and went back to the chamber to the mirror on the wall and looked at his face and body. He had transformed in just the way his Tri-Dee Makro character had transformed, into a large, muscular warrior, approximately 6.8 feet tall and 220 pounds of muscle.

He couldn't believe his eyes. He had apparently, somehow, become incarnate within the Tri-Dee Makro character. It had happened in much the same way as it had happened for the Makro character in the program. He had been transformed by his anger about what Jarges had done.

He had decided to add it to the Makro character as a fantasy device, a kind of Mr. Hyde to his Dr. Makro. But he never expected this. As he thought about it and calmed down, he regained his objectivity and shrunk down to size, back into the normal Makro character.

He spun about, looked at the plateau, still there through the portal, and realized that everything had happened outside the portal, on the plateau, pretty much the same, in general, as the final scene of the program. In the final scene, Makro had been transformed by the madness caused by his step-brother and the need for revenge. In this case, however, the Jarges figure had not answered his call out.

He looked back into the mirror, realized he had definitely discovered something unusual and mysterious which had no scientific explanation he could think of, except maybe general M-theory, but even M-theory didn't explain the transformation he went through. That was something more along the extemporate zone.

He decided not to risk anymore time with the portal, went to the power-panel, and pressed the button. The lights went up again and the portal was gone. He shut the program down, felt his stomach growl, and realized he was hungry. He secured the backups and left the company, wondering what had come over him. Not only was he hungry, he realized, he was anxious to do something.

As he stuffed himself with food later, he realized he had a whole lot of energy, all of a sudden, and didn't know what to do with it.

He almost lost objectivity again, and then recalled everything that had passed in the TDE chamber at Tri-Dee Media company earlier that evening, and tried to make sense of it. All he could figure was that the TDE program had inadvertently opened a portal to another parallel or alternate Earth. How it did so was a mystery beyond him at the time, but his best guess suggested that his reproduction in TDE space might have made some kind of proximity fix... but that was, as near as he could figure, by everything he understood, impossible.

He knew everything about the TDE systems and could think of no device within it that was designed for such a proximity fix. It was not a feature built into it, and as far as he knew, had never been invented or introduced in this shadow Earth. But, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a possibility in either another parallel or the future of Aton 5.

He was speculating wildly in the unknown, bumped his head on the low ceiling, as usual, and snapped out of it.

He added the experience to his journal and concluded, "The only actual facts I have are that something very unusual occurred within the TDE chamber while running the FE:R-102 (Fool's Errand: Redemption) Program, at the beginning of the final scene, before the action could be loaded.

"Personal note: Whatever happened also affected me during my time in the chamber. It did appear to be some kind of spatial reorientation and transformation, possibly due to a proximity fix on a parallel or alternate Earth. My own physical form experienced some kind of transformation into something similar to a hard-ass Viking Warrior or something equally powerful, seconds after I recalled the fool's errand I was sent on by step-brother in 1975. The thought triggered something very angry deep inside me and unleashed it for about 20 minutes.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5: A Demand for a Hearing in the High Court

The next day, Stone got orders to take down the preview video for FE:R-102 from the office of the Chief Executive. The excuse was "premature publication", and he realized he didn't need it up anymore anyhow, and took it down the first chance he had at his office computer. The actual reason he had it posted was to share the sound-track with an affiliate studio on the other side of the states. That having been done, there was no further need for it online.

The preview hadn't shared any company secrets; it was just a crude rough-cut for the 3d video version, nothing more.

At the end of the day, he used the TDE chamber again, and managed to avoid the transformation for longer this time, by avoiding the mirror and maintaining his objectivity. But while he was on the plateau, wondering how he had come to such a distant post, he recalled his evil step-brother again and the fool's errand and the madness took him over. He transformed again, under the stars and the great blue moon, and thought about Jarges.

"Jarges," he growled in a low, bass voice, managing to keep his cool this time. "You sneaky, lying, dirty little scumbag! Come out here now and face me, you lowest excuse for a human creature in the entire multiverse!!"

"Jarges!!!!" he let it out loud again, and it echoed across the canyon, as he calmed and felt the cool atmosphere about him for the first time.

"Where is this parallel?" he said, with increasing intelligent objectivity, still holding the form of the giant he had transformed into. "Where in the multiverse of shadow planets am I?"

He walked out to the edge of the plateau and saw the path leading to the left, down to the steppe with the ruins. He looked at the ruins and wondered if Jarges was hiding amongst them, and his anger began to rise again.

Before he could trigger the nerve to run down the path to the ruins, one of the action-figures appeared, standing firmly in the left corner of the mountains, beside the path leading down to the steppe with the ruins.

"The case must be presented in complete," the figure stated, "before the challenge can be met."

"Jarges betrayed our mother!" he cried to the figure, "and had me sent away on a fool's errand, in 1975! I lost everything because of his subterfuge!"

"The case has been stated and notice has been taken," the figure said. "When you return, you must be prepared to present all evidence to the court."

The figure disappeared and Makro accepted the words, and by the honor of the Grandfathers of all Quarters, agreed to the terms, turned back to the portal, walked to it, looked back at the scene for one last moment, and returned to the chamber.

He went to the mirror and saw that his normal Makro figure had returned, went to the power-panel, pushed the button, and returned to the shadow reality Aton 5. Then he collapsed at the console and felt a wave of energy wash over him and through him. He must have passed out shortly, but suddenly awoke, checked the time, and realized he had things to do.

As he started to close the scene, he noticed the time-line indicator had advanced 7.5 minutes, and he realized that was just about how much time had passed during his action on the parallel plateau.

It was as if the scene had advanced in time while he was in it, acting as if he were Makro. It was another interesting detail that mystified him. He took note of it, closed the scene, then the program, and headed out into Aton 5.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

It was late enough in the week for him to stay out late without too much worry and he was full of energy and needed an outlet. That was another thing he noticed that seemed like more than a coincidence; after both transformations at the TDE lab, he was full of energy like he hadn't been for some time. It had to be more than a simple coincidence, but he had no time to analyze, he needed to get some exercise.

So he returned to the club. Karlena was there, to his surprise, and she was off in just 30 minutes, so he waited for her and they went to her place, in the suburbs. It was a nice wide studio apartment at the top of a 4 story apartment complex. It reminded Stone of something he'd seen in an old movie about a playboy artist.

"Is this really your place, or are you just sitting for a playboy artist who's on vacation?"

She smiled and stepped into the kitchenette at the side, where a bar-counter over-looked the living room.

"It's all mine," she said. "The place was newly renovated during the last makeover and I got a good deal on the rent," she said.

"I'd say you got a good deal, alright," he said. "A place like this in Manhattan is like gold and the competition is tough. Good luck with the rent. It's a millionaire's play-pad!"

"Not here," she said, "I'm a working girl and I have to work hard to pay the rent."

She passed him a drink and he followed her into the living room.

They settled on the couch with their drinks on the coffee-table before them and Stone looked at her.

"I didn't expect you tonight," she said.

"I hope it wasn't a bad time for you," he said.

"No, it's okay," she said. "I was just getting off. It's late, but i don't mind."

"I had to do something," he said. "I... I've been having some technical problems at the lab and I just needed to get away from it."

"You look different," she said. "Did something happen?"

He wasn't too sure he should confide in her about it. She might think he was crazy; it might scare her away from him. He held it back and recalled the disc with the low quality video, in his jacket pocket. He took it out and held it out for her to see.

"This is it; the complete low-quality, final draft," he said. "100 minutes of original 3d video."

"It's complete?" she said, and smiled with surprise.

"Yes, it's complete," he said, "Want to check it out?"

"I don't know... is it violent?" she said, with some uncertainty.

"Only the final scene," he admitted. "The first 70 minutes are mild, in comparison. It's mostly mystery, intrigue, and some cloak and dagger."

She thought about it and said, "Okay, but only if you don't leave me with it alone."

She took the disc, stepped up, and loaded it into the player, and returned to his side.

She moved closely to him on the couch and as she relaxed with his arm over her shoulder, and the video-screen lit up, he experienced a short deja vu. It had been a long time since he had relaxed like this with a warm companion -- too long. It was just what he needed.

They watched the 100 minute video together. It told the story of Ren Makro, who was exiled from his home-planet after being sent on a fool's errand in 1975, and how he had to crawl out of one dead shadow Earth into the shadow Earth of Aton 5, where he spent 30 years working to no end just to keep a hole in the wall and a roof over his head. On the shadow Earth Aton 5, the ruling-class had made life extremely difficult and unbalanced for most of its people, and Stone found himself at the bottom of it all, slaving his time away to hold onto some hope for a better future.

Makro eventually managed to gain some access to resources that helped him develop new skills and put together the pieces of a puzzle; the mystery of his demise. He did all the detective work and gathered all the evidence and used the TDE 3d systems to reproduce all the relevant scenes for his case against his step-brother Jarges.

They watched as he presented the 3d reproduction of scenes from 1975, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1995, 2015, and finally, the showdown of 2025.

Stone realized, as they watched the final scene, which everything he had said earlier that evening, in the parallel transformation, was the exact script he had given the Makro character. It was as if he had temporarily crossed over somehow into the 3d production, but it was much more than that. It was the biggest mystery he had encountered yet.

Karlena was too involved by then to turn away from the violence, when it came, during the last 20 minutes. During the last 20 minutes, Jarges denied some of the accusations, and down-played the ones he could not deny as if they were nothing.

"You call the fool's errand that I was sent on nothing!" Makro shouted. "And what about the jealous rage you were in a week before? Do you deny these things?"

"It was 50 years ago!" Jarges insisted, "Why did you wait so long to bring it to court?"

"You know exactly why," Makro said. "I was in the dark until mother told me about the misinformation, 7 years too late, in 1982! Until then, I knew nothing of your involvement!"

At that, Jarges suddenly attacked him, and before the court could prevent the violent exchange, it went into full swing.

"Take it outside!" the court overseer demanded, "Outside now!"

Makro was more than willing, but Jarges didn't seem to care one way or another.

Makro decided he didn't want to waste too much time with Jarges, summoned all of the negative energy he had built up over the decades, grabbed Jarges, tossed him across the hall, saw him lined up for the exit and made a quick run straight for him before the man could recover.

He slammed into Jarges and pushed the man out of the hallway and onto the promenade. Jarges pushed back before the edge as they fought, and Makro pushed harder and they both went flying over the edge and down onto the rocks and sand of the steppe several meters below. The witnesses moved out onto the promenade, to a balcony at the side, over-looking the canyon, as Makro and Jarges went tumbling down the brief slope to the edge of the deep chasm.

They fought at the edge of the canyon for almost 10 minutes before Jarges lost his footing, fell back, and began to go over the edge. Makro suddenly grabbed his arm, pulled him back in, slammed his fist into the man's face really hard, and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Makro carried his carcass back up to the court promenade, tossed it on the flat stone, and said, "I rest my case."

The scene turned into a wide angle crane-shot as the credits began to roll and music ac-companied the send off.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Nick," Karlena said, after it had ended, "everything you told me, about your step-brother... it's all the same with..."

"Makro," he said, and explained, "is my alter ego. He and I share many parallels. In the story, he has finally made my case for me against one of my oldest rivals."

"Your step-brother," she said. "He really did all that to you?"

"Yes," he said, with complete sincerity, and looked across the studio, as she tried to comfort him.

"If this video flies, I'll have a chance to set the records straight and gain my redemption. 50 years of exile on Aton 5 will be over."

"Your exile or Makro's?" she said, with wonder.

"Both," he said.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day he was called for a review, and met with the 3 CEOs, including the managing director, in the amphitheater. They sat and watched the low-quality render of Fool's Errand: Redemption, all the way through to the end.

He waited for a response.

"Somewhat violent at the end," one of them said, with some distaste.

"Nonsense," the second one said. "That was true justice, if ever I've seen it. Well done, Nick!"

"I think the word is fantastic!" the third one said. "I say we go ahead with the hi-renders, asap."

"Now wait a minute," the second one said, "we're gonna need a market review first."

"We can do that while the hi-renders are processing," the first one said.

"Well, okay," said the second, "but we won't be able to fit it in until the main CPU is open for it. How much time you need for the hi-renders, Nick?"

"For all of it?", he said, "Oh... at least 3 days."

"Why so long?" the first one said.

"These scenes are extremely hi def," he explained, "and we'll need to give the CPU a 30 minute rest between scenes, other wise we risk over-heating."

The 3 producers thought about that and talked about it shortly between themselves. Finally, the third one turned and spoke to him.

"You've got next Thursday, after 4 pm, and all of Friday and Saturday," he said. "Will that be enough time?"

"Barring any unforeseen technicalities," Stone said, "it should be fine."

\---------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6: Setting the Records Straight

When the time came on the next Thursday to process the hi-renders for FE:R-102, Stone wondered whether or not he could handle it alone for a minute, because the whole process could take as long as 60 hours. He was prepared for the long haul, had made sure he got plenty of rest during the past week, and saw no choice. There would be daily checks by security to keep him awake, if needed, and he didn't think it would be worth the risk of any kind of security leak, by accepting an assistant from the tech-lab at that crucial time, not before the hi-renders. The hi-renders were Stone's responsibility and he had to keep it all under tight wraps until it was completed.

He went to work on it just after security gave him the green-light at 4:02 pm, later that day.

Everything went smoothly, pretty much the way he expected, for the first 2 days. He rested his eyes through much of Friday, realizing that things were working out well with the CPU and the render-engine, and he needed some rest for Saturday, when the final scene would be processed.

He thought about it with anticipation and some apprehension. He had no idea what the final scene would do when he finally got around to it. He forgot about the glitch, or whatever it was, after the head office decided they wanted a review, and when they suggested a green-light with the hi-renders, there was no way he could refuse. This was the opportunity he had worked so hard for; only now, he had no idea what to expect with the final scene.

He sure as hell didn't want to call it off, so when the time finally came, and he opened the scene, it froze again. He retained his calm and studied the parameters in the program interface. Everything was normal... except the time-line, which was advanced to the same place it had been before he shut it down the last time. According to the time-line, the scene had advanced 7.5 minutes.

He recalled the scene and knew what it meant. It meant the first part of the scene had already played through. But would that effect the hi-render? No, it had nothing to do with the hi-render, it was a view-port function only and should not effect the hi-render.

He knew what it meant. The last time he went through the portal, he acted out the first part of the scene, in which he demanded his case be heard in the ancient court. The figure at the top of the path told him that he had to have all the evidence to be presented when he returned.

At that point, he wondered if he could muster up the strength, having only had a couple of hours of catnaps for the past 2 days. He opened the hi-render window, set the process up, looked at the moonlit scene and wondered if it would render or not. There was really only one way to find out, so he tried the button, and let it click through.

The lights suddenly changed, it became daylight again, the way it was originally set up, and the moon became smaller and a light gray against a blue sky with purple clouds.

"Great!" he said, with relief, and checked on the progress of the hi-render. It was rendering without any problem, the way it was meant to.

Suddenly his alter ego Makro action-figure appeared in the render window, moving ever so slowly from the camera perspective at the side of the plateau. For the next 30 minutes, he watched the figure move through the scene, up until the point it spoke to the figure by the path and demanded justice, and returned to the edge of the plateau. At the end of that scene, the lights went down and everything froze again.

Stone tried to stay calm, took a few deep breathes and shook his head. He looked at the render window and wondered if it would permit him to render the next scene or not. He looked at the time, decided to give it 20 minutes to cool, and waited it out, thinking it all over in his head.

20 minutes later, he tried the hi-render but it wouldn't go.

"Damn!" he cursed. He tried to retain his objectivity, but after checking everything and failing to solve the problem, he began to lose it.

"Step-brother," he said, "step-brother did this to me!"

He repeated the words and his voice became deeper as he began to transform again. He slumped over for a few seconds and suddenly grew a few inches as he picked up his head and growled, in that same deep guttural bass-tone, "Jarges!"

He turned to the portal and hesitated, recalling the words of the path-keeper, and thought over everything he had gathered about step-brother's evil deeds, from 1975 to 2025, and he knew it all well.

He stopped for a moment and cooled down, realizing that the high court respected him only so long as he retained objectivity. He checked his reality-checker, saw that he was still at the edge of Aton 5, but the indicator went into the decimal points to point-5975. He had no idea at the moment what that meant, but it helped him focus on the matter at hand, and he stood tall, ready to present his case.

He retained a cool composure and stepped out through the portal onto the plateau. He walked to the edge, to the path, saw that it was clear, and stopped for a minute to look ahead, and across the wide canyon. The lights had begun to increase during his entrance and the purple clouds on the horizon became brighter, as the light increased to high noon.

He looked down the path to the ancient ruins, and began his descent along the brief slope, to the lower steppe. Once there, he stopped to look at it again, from the new angle, as the ruins stood tall against the mountains on one side and the depths of the canyon on the other. This was the ancient court of the Grandfathers of All Quarters, the highest court in the realm.

He walked to it, across the steppe, and ascended the ancient stone steps, to the promenade, and walked in through the huge stone columns, to the central court-square. He stood there at the edge of the court, and waited for a minute. Four witnesses appeared in the corners and one of them said, "State your case for the court, Makro of Aton 5."

He looked about the court and spoke in a civil tone, straight to the point.

"In 1975, my step-brother Jarges misinformed our mother about the girl I was seeing and mother had me sent away on a fool's errand because of it. Because of that fool's errand, I lost the girl and everything else that went with it. My loss was a direct result of my step-brother's misinformation and I demand justice for that act of betrayal to our mother and to me."

"1975 was 50 years ago," one of them said, "why did it take you so long to demand justice?"

Makro thought about that, and began his story.

He told them about how step-brother had kept the lie a secret from both him and mother for 7 years after the fact, and during all that time, step-brother used it to his own advantage in everything, including an important event in 1978, which led to his alienation from humanity.

"I never knew about the misinformation that got me sent on that fool's errand," he said, "step-brother never bothered to tell anyone. But after an accident in 1982, my mother told me about it for the very first time, and admitted she had made a mistake. That mistake led me to step-brother's lie."

He paused shortly for a breath, and continued.

"It was late in 1982, while still in a cast, that I was relegated to the Aton 5 authorities," he said, "without my knowledge. Yes, they apparently went behind my back again to get rid of me. They gave me a one-way bus-ticket to LA in 1983 and after getting lost there, I eventually began to realize that I had been sent to some kind of shadow Earth. It wasn't until many years later that I identified it as Aton 5, the shadow Earth often referred to as purgatory for its slave-labor conditions and poverty.

"I had to work my way up out of the dirt and slime for 10 years before I managed to get a secure post, if one can call a cardboard apartment secure, that is. The point, if I may indulge the court, is that I was hardly in any position to take my case to court after I was sent to Aton 5."

"Very well, point taken," a witness agreed.

"We will take a minute to call the accused step-brother, then we shall examine all evidence on the screen."

A minute later, Jarges appeared across the court from him.

"Well, step-brother," he said. "It's been some time. What's this all about?"

"You know what it's about," Makro said to him. "You are the reason I was sent on that fool's errand in 1975!"

Jarges feigned ignorance, just as he expected the man would. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"In 1975, do you deny that you were in a jealous rage just one week before I was sent away for the summer?"

Jarges said nothing.

"Answer the question," a witness insisted.

"I... I don't know what... you're talking about," he spurted out, with obvious difficulty.

"Of course, but only because you've cleverly buried it all deep within your subconscious and forgot all about it," Makro said, and looked at the screen to the side of the court as it appeared.

They watched the screen as it replayed everything from the past.

1975-06-12: The scene showed Jarges confronting Makro in the kitchen as he was heading out for the night. Jarges treated him harshly and cursed him, as he walked across the kitchen and went to the door. Jarges asked him what girl he was going to see and Makro just told him to fuck off. It was really none of his business, so Makro left him with nothing. Jarges cursed him again as he went out the door into the night.

"I didn't realize it until it was too late," Makro said to the court, "that he was in a jealous rage because I had a date that night and he didn't."

"Do you deny this accusation?" a witness said to Jarges.

Jarges started to say something but got a froggie in his throat and stopped. He shook his head briefly with some frustration.

"The court recognizes no answer as a negative," a witness said.

Jarges said nothing.

"Are you admitting you were jealous?" Makro said.

"Damn it, you wouldn't even tell me her name," he said.

"That was no cause for you to lie about her and get me sent away on that fool's errand!" he said.

Jarges shook his head and turned deep red as the truth sunk in.

"Later," Makro continued, "you never bothered to let anyone in on your little secret, not even in 1978, when it determined my whole future."

The screen went on again and showed the same kitchen scene, in 1978, 3 years later.

There were about 6 or 7 young people just hanging out in the summer heat. One was a somewhat attractive young blond girl; the others were all young men in their late teens and early 20s.

Jarges was there, standing next to the girl, and Makro was there, sitting at the table, playing cards with a couple of his friends.

Jarges suddenly, out of the blue, suggested they all get naked, for the fun of it. The girl was obviously in agreement, and maybe some of the guys, but Makro wasn't in the mood for it, and declined the idea.

It was just not something he felt like doing at that time and he simply had no inclination to do it. But the princess hated him for it and Jarges started to treat him like some kind of hopeless retard after the fact.

"After my declination to play Jarges' game on that day, which I should point out I was under no obligation to do, he used that as all the ammo he needed to get me shut out in the cold and rejected by almost everyone, but the effect was hardest felt with my own kin, who were on the pacific left-wing, and bound for Svenate 5. They feared that I was some kind of throwback because of my bad attitude -- an attitude, I should point out, that I did not have before 1975!

"His subterfuge led to my alienation and eventual exile to Aton 5!"

The screen went on again and it showed him in a cast talking to his mother in 1982. She told him about the mistake she made, due to being misinformed, and he shook his head, under the effect of the PTSD and pain-killers, and didn't know what to say. It was 7 years too late to do anything about it, and at the time, he couldn't even think straight.

"I was under codeine for the pain in my leg, from the accident, in a cast," he said, and I couldn't even think straight at the time mother told me. All I could do was forgive her because it was obviously an honest mistake and she was coming clean with me on it. At the time, I didn't even think about Jarges as being the source of the misinformation."

"Do you deny the accusation?" a witness spoke to Jarges.

Again, he hesitated, and suddenly, just got all fired up and ran at Makro.

Makro deflected his body and threw him across the court. He slammed into the stone pillbox.

"Take it outside!" a witness commanded, and so it went.

It went, in fact, exactly as Stone had constructed it to, and he stayed with the alter ego all through the fight, to the end.

When he returned to the chamber, he collapsed in the seat at the console, put his head down on the open space beside the keys, and fell asleep.

Shortly after that, Stone could only guess, anywhere between 5 minutes and an hour, he awoke as he was sliding off the side and caught himself quite suddenly.

He checked the time, rubbed his eyes for a minute, recalled the program, and looked back at the interface. The very last frame of the hi-render was still there, showing Makro leaving the scene of the court promenade after dropping Jarges unconscious on the flat stone.

He looked at the time-line indicator and it was back at the beginning. He checked the folder for the hi-render, located it, and replayed it in the player.

It was all done! Somehow, the scene had rendered while he was in it, acting out Makro's motions and speaking his words.

"Amazing!" he said, with wonder about the mystery he had discovered. Not wanting to look a gift-horse in the mouth, he realized all of the hi-renders were complete, closed the program, secured the backups and the chamber, and left the company.

It was 4 am on Sunday morning when he finally got back to his apartment and crashed. He slept until 12 noon and over coffee, began to rethink everything that had passed. It was amazing, and almost too much to believe, as if it had all been a vivid dream. But he had the disc with the hi-rendered, high quality video, absolute proof that the hi-rendering process had been a success. But the last scene was... much more than he expected. Whatever had happened, the TDE scene had apparently intersected with some kind of portal to another parallel dimension, perhaps even another shadow Earth.

He recalled everything. It all went smoothly until the final scene. It would only render as far as he had already gone with it in the parallel experience as Makro, acting as his alter ego, no further. But then he had become angry, recalled step-brother, and went through the transformation again. After that, he played the role of Makro to make his case, and it all went exactly as planned. Later, when he awoke at the console, he found that the whole final scene had rendered. Apparently, it had rendered while he was acting out as Makro within it.

He played the disc through while he finished his coffee, saw that it checked out okay, and looked at the time.

He was full of energy again, completely revitalized from the experience.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: Dreaming of a Life

On Monday Stone shared the hi-def renders with the 3 CEOs in the amphitheater, and they talked quietly together for a few minutes. They informed him that they wanted to mass-produce it on digital video disc (dvd), for a limited edition, to test the market, and show it to the public in a Saturday matinee with 2 other 3d videos, in just 2 weeks.

"How's that sound?" producer number 3 said to him.

"Sounds fine to me," he said.

He had some things to square away, a few minor loose ends, but found himself with nothing more to do later in the afternoon, so he decided to quit early. Ever since the experience with his alter ego in the parallel world, he had much more energy, it seemed, than he knew what to do with it. He decided that he could use some exercise, and went for a ride in the park.

As it turned out, they didn't need him for anything at the company later that week, and so they let him take the rest of the week off. Apparently, all of the execs agreed that he deserved it. It was, in fact, the very first time in his entire 43 years in Aton 5 that any company boss had ever been so flexible. Obviously, it was because they knew that his 102 project had real potential for profits.

More time off was fine with him because his last vacation hadn't really been all that much, at least not until he met Karlena at the club and got to know her, but that was at the end of the vacation and he had to get back to the company just 2 days after they met. The first 2 weeks of the vacation had been spent in OPT (Out-Patient Therapy) due to dental surgery. His mouth took 2 weeks to heal; during that time he couldn't do much of anything that humans usually enjoy on their vacations. He couldn't eat anything but soft foods like pudding or yogurt, couldn't drink alcohol, couldn't talk much because it aggravated the wound, and couldn't have oral sex.

He was glad to get the extra time off, he needed it. He went to the gym and worked out on Wednesday, and met with Karlena on Thursday, and they spent the rest of the weekend together. He told her about the new dvd and the plans to show it in a Saturday matinee.

They went for a walk in the park and talked about it.

"I still don't understand," she admitted. "How the video will help you get out of Aton 5."

"I guess I'm not really certain that it will," he admitted, and explained. "It depends upon whether or not the right people take notice. If they take notice, there could be some action on it. If they don't take notice, I'm not at all sure what I will do. I really would rather not force the issue in any one's faces. That doesn't usually go so well in shadow Earths like Aton 5."

"People, like Lisa?" she said.

"Well, yes," he admitted. "I guess if I can reach her, it could make all the difference. But she is not the only concerned person with something like this. It may have variable repercussions."

"If you reach her," she asked him, "will the two of you reunite?"

"Oh, I tend to doubt that, it's been too long, at least in this shadow Earth," he said. "I really am just hoping she'll forgive me and stop hating me for what went wrong. I just wanted her to understand that it was not my fault. If she watches the video and sees the connection, she may understand that once and for all. It may be 50 years late, but it's better late than never!"

"50 years!" she said, with surprise. "It's hard to believe that you were in high school at that time! You don't look a day over 45!"

He thought about that and wondered about all the energy he had gained in the last couple of weeks, after the parallel world experience with the alter ego Makro.

"Well, I don't feel a day over it either," he said to her, and smiled.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

Makro worked on light projects in quiet anticipation of the matinee showing.

On the day it was aired, the theater was packed with young people, and when they ran out of tickets, somebody left the doors unlocked and some people got in for free. It became an open house by the time "Fool's Errand: Redemption" was aired, and the effect was fairly sensational, but not overtly so, at least until the very ending. The youth loved the way Makro dealt justice to the evil step-brother in the end, and the effect was over-whelming, as the credits rolled and the local band's music took over.

Makro shared a bottle of champagne with a couple of the people who worked closely on the project, shook hands with some execs, and slipped out the back before the press got involved.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Kaswell called him and asked him if he read the Sunday review. He hadn't, so he did. It was looking good. The review was positive and gave "FE:R-102" 5 stars, right up there with the 3d version of the Incredible Hulk.

"Good," he said decisively, "now maybe they'll take notice. If something like this doesn't reach them, nothing short of a direct offense will work. Unfortunately, they could spin that against me. So, this has to work!"

He knew it was the only pacific way to solve the problem; he had worked with that idea now for decades. He kicked back for a moment and reflected, and checked the time. He wondered how long it would take for them to make the next move.

The dvds went out on the first Monday of October and by the end of the week, the sales department at Tri-Dee Media reported they had already raked in 50 percent of the initial investment. By the second week, it was at 80 percent, and by the end of the month, they were showing a clear profit margin.

In late October, Stone was leaving the local health spa and gymnasium, where he had recently felt much more welcome to access the facilities, due to a change in confidential respect for the work he had done, when something extraordinary occurred.

He saw 2 women standing outside of another automobile in the parking lot, and one of them was a dead ringer for Lisa. Stone hesitated in suspense and stared at them, as they talked shortly, the other looked his way, and then Lisa turned and met his eyes for a second. She held the look only shortly, ignored him, and got into the passenger side of the automobile. The other girl got into the driver's side and started the machine.

Stone couldn't believe his eyes; the girl looked too much like Lisa, he couldn't ignore her. He quickly got into his automobile and followed them out of the lot, onto the streets. He copied the license of the machine, studied the fine lines of the model and made sure to recall it.

He followed the automobile to a local country club and stopped outside of it, at a service depot, and watched as they drove into it. The country club was at the edge of town and there was plenty of parkway and trees, with freshly mowed laws, now covered with leaves, all about. Aside from the service depot there were just a couple of houses with large yards and woodland covering much of the area.

There was no reason why he couldn't follow them inside, but he didn't want to get too close. He didn't want them to know he was following them. He checked the time and waited another couple of minutes, and made the move.

He drove into the country club grounds and followed a winding road around a grove with a pond and some trees, up a brief hill onto higher grounds, through a tree-line and onto the main parkway, where a large parking lot outside the club showed about a dozen automobiles. One of them that had just entered and was still cooling was the blue one with Lisa and her companion. As he pulled into the lot, they stepped out, shortly conversed, and began walking to the club entrance.

As he drove by the entrance, he looked more closely at them and tried to get a picture of Lisa with his mini-camcorder. He stopped for a short moment, fixed the camera, and clicked on it 3 times as they walked to the entrance, from the lot, turned, and went to the doors. He continued on and found a parking spot, and wondered how to handle the situation.

The place was celebrating some kind of Oktoberfest activities and it appeared open to the general public, but it might be exclusive for members only. If he tried to get inside he could be carded. He called Kaswell at the company on his cell.

"Any chance I can get inside this place?" he said to the man, who was a skilled computer technician and the man to see about free passes into local clubs.

"Checking," the guy said, "give me a minute."

A minute later, the guy said, "I've located the list of members and I think I can get you in as a guest."

"Great, let's do it," he said.

A minute later, the guy said, "Okay, you're in. Good luck."

He took a deep breath, thought about what he was doing, and studied the grounds. If it was some kind of trap he wanted to have a path to escape. He decided to look the place over for a short tour from the outside before heading inside. There was a short meter-tall chained-linked fence a couple of meters across a well-kept lawn, beyond a fancy old wooden one, just beyond the hedge row outside the club. Beyond the metal fence was a large pool, now covered for the cool weather, with a few people on the patio at the open air cafe. Beyond all of that was the wide golf course, with a few parties playing through.

It seemed like an ordinary Friday afternoon, a sunny, warm, day in late October. The club was picking up early for the Oktoberfest. It seemed hard to believe that the girl was Lisa, after all these years, but at the same time, it was not impossible. He couldn't resist trying to make contact with her.

He fought with himself shortly, while sitting in his automobile, checked the time, and made up his mind. This was the kind of chance he had been hoping for; a chance to meet with her without having to worry about the control freaks she had become possessed by, after the fool's errand in 1975. She was in public and with a friend, who could be neutral, and he saw no men with them. But they could have met men inside, for all he knew, and in a place like this, more than likely, did.

So he made the move, went to the entrance, stepped up, opened the door, and went inside. He stepped into the lobby, with a small waiting area, a few empty seats, pictures on the walls, and a service counter to the right side, with a bright young girl in a blue and green suit behind it.

"Hello," she said, "member or guest?"

"Guest," he said, "Nick Stone."

She looked at a flat-screen for a minute, found him, and said, "Ok, have fun!"

He thanked her and walked across the lobby, through the main doorway, into a lounge.

Four people were at the bar counter talking over drinks and there were 2 other groups at the tables. One of them was Lisa and her companion. They looked away just as he noticed them, and continued talking, as if it were just another day.

Stone looked about, found a table in the corner where he could see Lisa without any problem, and took a seat. A minute later, he ordered, and wondered what to do next. Before he could make up his mind, they stepped up and walked toward the doors leading to the patio and the gold course. He waited shortly, and decided to follow.

When he stepped outside, the door suddenly shut behind him, as he looked for Lisa and could not see her, and 2 goons stepped into the picture.

"Okay, Stone," one of them said, "don't make this harder than is necessary."

Before he could let them think twice about what the guy said, he felt something take control deep down inside, took a deep breath, and suddenly exploded. Without losing control as he did before, he focused the energy and directed it, as he never did before, and let it go.

The 2 goons were shortly paralyzed as the force seized them, and thrown backwards with the full impact of the force, like rag dolls in the shockwave of blast. One had fallen onto the pool and lay on its cover, unconscious, as the other rested against the side of the back wall of the club, between tables, with a chair knocked over beside him. Both were out cold. He quickly looked around; saw 2 more goons coming around the side of the club with guns. He started out in the other direction, towards the other side of the pool and the tree-line, and 2 more goons appeared from the cover of the hedgerow.

He stopped, took another deep breath, focused and projected again, just as they took aim to fire. One projectile was deflected as the wave of energy hit them and they all went down. He looked all about and headed for the tree-line, realizing the whole thing had been an elaborate trap.

Seconds later, he went into the cover of the trees, made his way back to the metal fence, and paused to catch his breath. He looked up a minute later, and saw more goons in the parking lot.

"Shit!" he cursed. He wondered how much longer he could keep his defenses up, and decided to make a roundabout approach from the opposite side, to surprise them. He followed the fence all the way to the main road, crossed the road, and left the grounds, then made his way around and back to the parking lot, from the other side.

He waited inside the trees and studied the situation. They were concentrating on the other side, as he expected, but there were 2 more near the entrance, and his automobile was being covered by 2 more.

"Looks like they called the whole company in for this," he said to himself. "Step-brother must really be pissed." He laughed at the thought, and checked the time.

A minute later, he made his move. He followed the inside cover of the trees carefully, avoiding leaves when possible, and made his way to an area inside the tree-line just meters from his machine. He'd have to be quick about it, if he didn't want the others by the entrance to get involved.

He snuck to the edge of the trees, staying low, and managed to sneak on all fours, to the other side of the vehicle, where they couldn't see him. It wasn't easy, but he managed, and made his move quickly.

He stepped up and around suddenly, as they took quick notice of him, but before they could fire their weapons, which he noticed were non-lethal stun-guns, he projected the energy wave and they collapsed like rag-dolls in the autumn wind. He hurried into the vehicle, started it, and pulled out, as he heard the ones at the entrance yelling, and saw them running his way.

He floored the vehicle, burning rubber as it shot across the lot and out the main drive.

They pursued and were hot on his tail as he made it out of the club grounds and onto the public roadway. He headed away from town, knowing that it would be far too dangerous driving like this in town. Besides, he had a few tricks he could use outside of town that they weren't likely to know about, in case of emergencies.

He hoped the local cops didn't get involved as he gunned the vehicle out along the scenic route, into the sparsely developed rural hills. The road became a long and winding route and he had to slow down to make some of the curves. As he brushed the edge of a canyon, he realized it had become quite dangerous, and wondered when the next rest stop would be.

They were still hot on him, but there was only one now. The others might be further back, he just couldn't see them. A minute and about 2 kilometers later, he saw the rest stop he needed, and pulled into it.

As they arrived, he was ready for them, hiding in the trees. They pulled into the rest stop, checked out his vehicle, and looked about. He saw they were armed with stun-guns, not hard ammo as he had first expected. That meant they wanted him alive, and he wondered why. Step-brother was not the kind of competitor that would normally be so careful.

He dismissed the thought and stepped out.

"Okay," he said to the 2 goons, "either you 2 tell me what this is all about, or I do you like I did the others."

One of them acted a bit edgy for a few seconds, while the other acted cool as possible, under the circumstances.

"Now look, Stone," he said, "we just have orders to secure and deliver you. This is nothing personal."

"Who are you supposed to deliver me to?"

"I have no idea," the guy admitted, "Our orders don't include that info."

Stone laughed, and said, "Okay, so here's what you have to do. You can go to make your delivery and deliver a message for me, instead. You can tell the bastards there is no way I'm gonna let them take me out of the game now. I've got too much work to do."

Before they answered him, another vehicle suddenly drove into the rest stop, with 4 more goons in it.

"Too late," the guy said, and took aim with his stun-gun. But Stone was faster and stopped the charge as it was heading for him, as the wave went out, hit the goons, and the force hit the automobile as it entered the scene, stopped it in its tracks, and pushed it to the side. It made a 360 degree and stopped, with all of its occupants out cold in the seats.

He stopped to catch his breath, looked about, and relaxed. They were all out cold and wouldn't awake for some time. He walked back to his vehicle but before he could open the door and step inside, he heard a voice say his name.

"Makro!" He heard the name and realized at once that it wasn't a regular goon. Whoever it was, they had used his real name, not his local shadow Earth handle, Nick Stone.

He stopped and looked across the small picnic area beside the parking space, where the voice had come from.

A man with gray hair stepped out from the trees, and he recognized him from the company news. It was Zed Langerson, a top CEO of the TPM (Trans-Pacific Media) corporation, a multi-millionaire tycoon with the reputation of a libertarian capitalist. TPM was one of the largest competitors within the Pacific-Trade Agreement, a trade organization with significant overseas investments and projects.

"Makro," the man said again, as he stepped closer, and stopped by a picnic table, and gestured with his hands.

"It's okay, I just want to talk," the man said.

"What do you want?" he said, "and why did you call me Makro? My name is Stone, Nick Stone."

"Very well then, Mr. Stone," the man said, "If that is what you prefer. But it's okay, really. We can talk here, for the moment. You see, I know all about you. I know all about who you really are. I've seen the video and I think we need to talk about it."

"Why? What business is it of yours?" he said, suspiciously.

The man thought briefly, and stepped closer, to the other side of the table, so that he could talk more privately with him. Stone stayed where he was, by his automobile.

"I think I can deliver what you need," the man said.

"You know what I need?" Stone said. "What would that be?"

"Redemption," the man said, flatly, and sighed, with the thought.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8: Somewhere on the Coast

Zed Langerson talked to him about the situation briefly and invited him to his beach house on the coast for a few days.

"Why should I trust you?" he said. "How do I know you aren't working for my step-brother?"

"Jarges?" he said. "Jarges works for me."

"Then why should I trust you?" he said.

"If you're worried about Jarges, don't be," he said. "His case is under review by the Corps right now."

"A Corps review?" he said. "That's interesting. Seems like more than a coincidence."

"It's not," he said. "The new information you provided brought up some old ghosts. It may even lead to an inquiry."

"I see," he said, "Can't say I feel sorry for him, under the circumstances."

"So, what about it?" Langerson said. "You're not too busy for a little time off from the grindstone, are you?"

"Well, no," he said, "but I still don't see any reason to cooperate. You're gonna have to make it real interesting to me."

"How much are we talking?" he said. "I'm sure I can accommodate you."

"This isn't about money," Stone said. "You cover the costs, but I want more."

"Name it," he said.

"That pretty brunette you had play Lisa," he said. "She goes with the deal."

He smiled and said, "I'm sure we can arrange that. But Stone, don't let your preconceptions mislead you. She's not your Lisa, she's just an actress that looks something like her. Don't expect too much."

"I want her with me on the ride," he insisted, "and at the place on the coast for the full 3 days."

Langerson agreed, and they both agreed to meet at the airport.

As he drove away from the scene, he knew it was a risky move, but he just couldn't resist spending some time with the mystery girl that looked so much like Lisa.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

Stone met them at the airport, Langerson and Sarena (the actress that resembled Lisa), and Langerson introduced them, and they road in a service-taxi to the far end of the terminal, where a company private jet awaited.

Sarena sat on a couch and Stone sat in a comfortable seat across from her, and looked at her with interest. he was still wearing shades and he was anxious to see her whole face. She looked enough like Lisa to be her and he was glad for that, but he still needed the whole face.

He waited until they were in the air to make the request.

She obliged with some carelessness and looked at him. It was amazing how much she looked like her, the resemblance was uncanny.

"Do you know," he said, "you look almost exactly like a girl I once knew."

She noticed his stare, looked away and then looked back and said, "Listen, I just have to say it and bring it out right now before you get any crazy ideas, buster. This deal does not include sex!"

He thought about that and looked down. He took a deep breath and replied, "Don't worry; I could never force anything like that upon you. You're just a surrogate."

"Surrogate," she said, "What's that?"

He thought about it and looked at her.

"I lost Lisa before I could talk to her," he said, "before I could tell her how i felt. I'd like to tell you about what happened, what went wrong between us, and I'd like you to pretend to be Lisa as best as you can."

She looked at him with wonder, and said, "Well, I guess I can try, but you'll have to tell me about her first."

He smiled and she smiled back.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

They spent the whole day together, on the plane, in a private company limousine from the airport to the estate on the coast, and by the time they were settling into their rooms, they were acting like a regular couple.

They spent 3 days with the sun, sand, and surf with plenty of open space and fresh air. This was something Stone hadn't had the time or money for in decades and to share it with a girl that resembled Lisa was a surreal wonder he had never experienced, to his memory, ever before.

He recalled the one time just before he had been sent away, when they went to the lake and she was playing in the sand. The memory merged with Sarena as she did much the same thing and he couldn't help but get lost in the fantasy for a moment. He listened to her laughing and for a minute got completely submerged in the memory. He found himself in the dark working his way to her home at night, seeing her and holding her as she laughed...

Suddenly he was awakened by Sarena from the deep memory, and completely forgot where he was.

"Nick," she said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

He looked at her and said, "Lisa? Where did you come from? I thought... I thought they separated us."

He stood up and jumped to his feet quite suddenly, and looked around.

"Are we alone?" he said, with agile nerves.

"Yes," she said, "for the moment."

"Where are we? What is this place?" he asked her, looking about with interest. "Is it safe?" he said to her, quite suddenly.

"Sure it's safe. Nick, are you okay? Maybe you should just calm down. Can I get you a drink?"

He looked at her and smiled, went to her and seized her in his arms. As he did so, he felt that curiously comfortable calming sensation he felt with her so many years ago, before they were separated, and the memories returned, and he recalled where he was.

He continued to hold her, wondering what had happened, and she spoke to him.

"Nick," she said. "It's okay, we're safe now."

She was good, he thought, as he let her go, and she drew away.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I'm not sure what came over me. I was dreaming about Lisa when you woke me and.... I guess I just lost it after that. For a moment, I thought you really were her."

"It's okay," she said. "Just stay calm and have a drink. I'll try not to disturb you in the future."

"What about you?" he said, "Are you okay?"

She went to make them some drinks and shied away from the question for a minute.

"Well, it's probably nothing," she said, "but you really pulled an act on me."

"How's that?" he said.

She joined him and handed him a drink and said, "Have you ever done any acting?"

"Professionally? No," he admitted. "Why?"

She shook her head briefly and said, "I haven't seen an act like that since the early 80s, just before Romeo was officially declared dead, at least in this reality."

She smiled at the thought and looked at him. "You really swept me off my feet," she admitted. "I thought for a minute you were completely serious."

She laughed at the thought and blinked at him, and as she did so, he could still get lost in the idea that she was Lisa.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

On the night of the last day together he spoke to her over the dinner table and told her what he had to say.

"I didn't want to leave you in 1975," he said. "It wasn't my idea, I didn't want to go. It was a fool's errand; an act of subterfuge devised by my step-brother to get rid of me for the summer. He used my mother, lied to her about you, and told her that I was seeing Linda, not you. She admitted the mistake 7 years later in 1982. At that time it was too late for me to do much of anything; you were long gone."

She looked at him, wondering what she could say to alleviate his wounded heart.

He spoke before she could say anything, and completed his thoughts.

"I just wanted to tell you, because I never did get the chance, and after 50 years, I just had to let you know everything. I'm sorry it took me so long to get out of the hole I was cast into, after 1982, but now that I have done so, I would hope that you would understand and not continue to hate me for it."

She was crushed quite suddenly by his words. This was the first he heard of Lisa hating him, it must have happened after 1975. He must have been leaving it for last. She looked for cue-cards but saw none anywhere.

"Why should I hate you?" she said, recalling the default plan.

"Because I left you in 1975," he said, "on that fool's errand. It was the biggest mistake I ever made and I never did get the kind of closure one needs for these things."

He looked at her and said, "Don't you understand? It wasn't my fault. I didn't want to go, and I am sorry for that. But you shouldn't hold it against me now, not after all the facts are in. It was my mother's mistake caused by misinformation supplied by my step-brother!"

She recalled the video and suddenly realized what he was saying.

"Nick! You're telling me everything in the video..." she hesitated, "it's all in the video, with Makro... Nick, is Makro actually you?"

He thought about that, snapped out of the fantasy, and smiled at her.

"Makro is my alter ego," he explained, almost as if he were talking to just another fan. "I cast him in the video to help me deliver my message. We wouldn't be together now if it had failed."

She thought about that and blinked at him with keen respect.

"Wow, make a statement, deliver a message, and entertain the public all in one dvd," she said, with admiration, "Not bad."

"So," he said, "am I forgiven for my greatest mistake?"

She said, "If I really were Lisa... I'm sure she would forgive you. But if she were smart, she'd make you work a little harder with the apology."

"How so?" he said.

"Well," she said, "for one thing, dinner and drinks might not be enough. She might want more, I dunno... like a little more fun later..."

She was teasing him, he knew it, but it was just fine with him. She took a drink and giggled.

She left the table and he followed her into the living room. He caught up to her as she went to the couch and went for her, slipping his arms gently, as she turned to him, and they went down on the couch. She didn't resist.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9: Temporal Spatial Par Differentials

"The Aton 5 war-party was fooled too," Langerson explained to Stone, passing him a drink at the bar-counter. Sarena had left that morning and Stone knew well enough when it was time to get back to work, like it or not.

"They thought you were with them in 78," he admitted, "and we thought we couldn't trust you."

"Who is we? I thought you were with the war-party?" Stone said.

He shook his head and said, "Hell no! I was with the pacific trade deal all the way back in 78!"

He stopped the thought, took a breath, and said, "There was quite a bit of confusion after 78 and it got even worse after 1981. The war-party built a phony left-wing during the 80s and the confusion it has caused alone has almost destroyed my company."

"Yes, I know about the phony left," he said, "You're telling me now that you aren't a part of it? I find that difficult to believe, given the recent history."

"Yes, I can understand how you might think that," he agreed, "but what you have to understand is that this new information you provided changes everything. Stone, the war-party of Aton 5 is stubborn and I doubt any of them will admit they made a mistake, but the truth has already had an effect on the international trade."

"I don't follow," he said.

"Stone," he said, "I forgot you didn't want to be disturbed these last 3 days. Well, then you probably haven't heard the news. An entire division of the Air Force has demanded an investigation into allegations that the war-party was complicit in sending thousands of young people on a fool's errand in the 1960s and 70s."

"A fool's errand?" he echoed, "You mean to say they think Vietnam was a fool's errand, also?"

"Not only do they believe it," he said, "I'm beginning to believe it too, along with quite a lot of other capitalists who supported the pacific trade deal during the 70s. See, whether you realize it or not, your alter ego Makro has turned a few heads, including heads within the international market."

"This is going too fast for me," he said. "All I meant to do was reach the right people to settle some misunderstandings."

"You did a lot more than that," he said. "You opened up a new avenue for pacific trade."

"That sounds like a good thing," he said.

"It is, and it should be," he admitted, "but for one thing. The Aton 5 war-party denies it did anything wrong and refuses to make any reformations to compensate. They are a stubborn lot."

"Fools," Stone said, and shook his head.

"Yes, they are fools," he agreed, "even after all the facts are in, they refuse to change their ways an iota. It doesn't look good for the states unless we can convince them otherwise. 3 of my regular overseas investors are threatening to pull out unless i can do something to convince them I had nothing to do with the mess. Lucky for me, I still have a few old associates that were with me in 78 and so they know I had nothing to do with it."

"Okay," Stone said, "I get the picture. What do you need me for?"

"Have you seen this?" he said, and handed him a com-pad with a news story attached.

He read it and said, "It's about the culture war. I'm not too keen on that particular issue. At the time, I was...."

"I know...," Langerson said, and looked across the wide living-space to the patio doors and the beach beyond it. "You were locked away at the time, in a dungeon."

"Yes...," Stone said curiously, "How did you know about that? I never told anyone."

"I found out about it later," he said. "It came across my desk from intelligence later in the 80s but you were exiled to Aton 5 by then. Of course, I had none of the information about the fool's errand until now."

"The point is," he said, "you didn't actually experience the original media blitz we were hit with by the war-party, did you?"

"No, I don't think I did," he admitted. "I crawled out of that hole later in 1982. I knew something was different but it didn't sink in just how different until some time later in the 80s, after spending 3 years homeless, scavenging to survive in Aton 5."

"Okay, well," he completed the thought. "It was the culture war and the culture warriors who started dictating trade policies in 1981, policies which demonized and eliminated all kinds of left-wing cultural practices. Those practices represented more options for peaceful trade, including the international market. My company supported those options and made a lot of profit with those options until the culture warriors decided to demonize them and start dictating policies which eliminated those options."

Stone nodded and said, "Okay, I follow."

"Now, things have been developing since the video," he said, "and there's a growing consensus that the war-party was wrong in 1981 and just made things worse."

"That sounds great," he said, "so what's the problem?"

"The DSA is out of control, gone rogue," he said. "They've got spies everywhere and they've been using their secret government immunity to run a monopoly on the vices. I've been having problems with flying monkeys now for years, cutting into my business, looting my warehouses, seizing profits and assets. I haven't been able to touch them because they work for the secret government."

"The DSA gone rogue is no news to me," he admitted, "but I had no idea they were causing so much trouble for you."

He nodded and said, "I don't know how much longer I can continue the fight. Every year, the bastards take another big slice of paradise and turn it into an expendable resource. To add insult to injury, every time they do it they raise the price, so that the resources are too expensive for most working-class people to afford."

"Yes, I get the picture," he said. "They are running a monopoly on the vices and favoring anyone that supports their imperial wars, while punishing anyone who doesn't support their wars."

"Yes, that's it exactly," Langerson agreed. "But it's not just the vices, it's affecting everything now. They have a monopoly on everything, at least in the states, and they refuse to make reforms to the pacific trade despite the information provided by your video."

Stone nodded and let him complete the thought, with wide eyes of expectation.

"Several overseas corporations are threatening to pull out of the deal unless the fools agree to reforms," he explained. "Their stubbornness to admit they were wrong could fall upon the working-class and the real left wing again. It doesn't look good for us if they refuse to go along with reforms."

"I see," Stone was beginning to get the whole picture now. "Things are already bad enough for us, and this could make it worse?"

"It could get a whole lot worse," Langerson admitted, "unless we can do something to help pass those reforms."

"Check the next page," he said.

"Majority of States call for an End to Nixon's Revenge," he read, and jumped on the thought immediately, "Is this playing in the mainstream, or is it just more alternative media?"

"It's in the main now," he said, "the talking heads of DC are having a regular forum discussion, it's been going on now for days."

"And the DSA's response?" he asked.

"No comment, for now," he said. "They don't like it when they get surrounded and backed into a corner. But it's just talk right now, so they're not taking it too seriously. They're too damn powerful and arrogant to let it worry them."

"But what about the election?" Stone said. "Could we put somebody in office to fight for our side?"

"That's par for the course," he said, "but the right is still using the phony left to confuse people. We have to avoid the confusion or we could drown in it."

"You know, Mr. Langerson," he said to the man, "I appreciate this holiday weekend you provided, and Serena is a wonderful girl, a pleasure to spend time with. But i still don't understand why I am here, unless you want me to endorse your party campaign or something. You said something about my redemption? What was that all about?"

He stood up tall and took a deep breath and said, "I was leaving the best part for last. The problem is far worse than all that, and we've traced it to 1975. How much do you know about nuclear physics?"

"1975?" Stone echoed, "nuclear physics? I know enough to follow most of it, but I'm not completely updated on all of the new subatomic particles or projects. I've been too busy with my work."

"Have you heard of Netzvengard?" he said.

"The accident in 89?" he said, "what about it?"

"Radiation hasn't been the only problem," he said. "The Russians shared the information with us after Katzumeki, in 2011."

"Katzumeki, in Japan," he said, "of course. Why'd they wait until then?"

He looked at Stone seriously and said, "If you agree to work with me on this now, I'll tell you. I'm operating under orders from the left-wing and the joint chiefs. If I let you in on this, we'll temporarily reactivate your post with the ASC, along with your rank."

Stone was shortly shocked by the man's words and didn't know what to say.

"Sounds serious," he decided.

"It is, we've had our best minds on it for years now," he admitted, and explained, "and until you delivered the new information, we were lost completely. Something serious happened between 1975 and 1980 which altered the fabric of space and time, and the fractures are beginning to show."

"Okay, so it is serious," he said, "what can I do?"

"You wrote some articles on free energy and directive energy," he said. "We think the answer could be there."

Stone thought about that and put up his hands and said, "Well, until I know the spex on the problem, I couldn't say. What exactly is the problem?"

"Okay, can I count on your service?" he said.

"If the problem is as serious as you say," he said, "absolutely."

"Then come with me and I'll show you what we're up against," Langerson said, and led him to a chamber which Stone hadn't yet visited, where there was more high-tek equipment and lots of shelves with books and videotapes.

Langerson accessed a computer, turned on a large video-screen on the wall, and showed him the problem.

It was some form of incongruous energy anomalies coming from the scene of a nuclear accident.

"That's Netzvengard, in 1990," he said, "just a few months after the accident."

The screen showed another scene of another accident, and there were the same incongruous energy anomalies, projecting from the nuclear fracture, once every minute or so, while the radiation continued leaking, out of control.

"What are they?" he said. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Whatever they are," he said, with complete seriousness, "they appear to be under some form of intelligent direction."

"What?" Stone couldn't believe it.

"That's right," he said, "we've been monitoring everything and they appear to follow some form of intelligent direction."

"Are they alive?" he said.

"No, I didn't say that," he admitted, "but we can't actually determine whether or not the anomalies represent a life force. It may be possible but we can't be sure. One thing we can be sure of is that they are dangerous. We've suffered many casualties from the accidents and others from accidental run ins with the energy. When it makes contact with humans and animals, it has a harmful effect, similar to the radiation, somewhat more extreme."

He showed Stone some images of victims, and said, "But there's something much more mysterious about this that is beyond us and it poses a much more elusive threat. We have reason to believe that the anomalies have the ability to possess humans and control them."

Stone couldn't believe his ears.

"You're kidding!" he said.

"I wish I were," he said.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10: The Fracture and the EM Flux

They talked about M-theory briefly on the ride to the coastal monitoring station where the Katzumeki was under constant watch.

"It is possible the fractures opened up into an alternate or parallel dimension," Stone admitted, "but that's just a wild theory."

"Like your Aton 5 parallel, for example?" Langerson said.

"Well, I dunno, maybe," he said, "but these energy anomalies are like nothing I ever concieved. I'm just trying to explain their apparent intelligence. If they are being directed by an intelligence, it could be on the other side of that fracture, in an alternate or parallel world."

"Some kind of guerilla war," he said, "that's what the Chiefs thought too, only they didn't figure in an alternate world. They left that note hanging. Trying to sell them the M-theory answer to that one gets nowhere with those guys. It's just too beyond the basis of their knowledge at this time."

"So what do they think the problem is?" he said.

"Some kind of freak radioactive effect," he said.

"A freak radioactive effect with an intelligent directive?" Stone said, with doubt, as the limousine pulled into the gate to the station.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting inside the military-based installation was not a problem; they were obviously expected.

Langerson was treated with perfect respect from all of the duty officers and guards. They were inside the war-room within 5 minutes.

It was a regular small amphitheater about the size of the one at TDM, only it was equipped with enough electronic computers, screens, and other gizmos to make it the starship enterprise. It was active with military personnel, and they were greeted by the Lieutenant on duty, who showed them to the far corner, down a short corridor, into a large office studio space, with a desk, couch, and wall full of computers.

Behind the desk were the obvious brains of the operation, by the looks of his casual attire and aloof, semi-cynical attitude. He didn't bother to stand up to greet us, as any military officer would do, just continued to sit back in his chair with his feet kicked up, trying to relax his neck, by the looks of it.

"Doctor Beckridge," Langerson said to him, as he stepped into the office studio.

"Yes, that's right," he awoke from his disinterest, "I am a doctor. Though one would hardly believe it these days, from the latest reports."

"This is Nick Stone," he said to the man, "I think he might be of some help with the problem."

"Really?" Beckridge said. "Okay, what have you got?"

"Well, I'm not completely updated with your progress," he said.

"We have nothing," the man said, and almost began to lose it, and caught himself.

"Wait a second," he said, "Nick Stone, I've heard that name before. Right, now I recall... Tech designs, right? I read an article about your work with the TDM systems. Amazing stuff!"

"Thank you," Nick said, "have you tried a radio dish yet?"

"Oh, well, a radio dish," he said, with some interest, "No we haven't done that because a radio dish is designed for radio-waves. The problem we have is with low and high gamma..."

He slowed down as if he were going to continue, trailed off, and looked at his computer screen.

"Wait a minute," he said, "I think you've given me an idea. If we use the same deflector-style dish, equipped with a ram-scoop attachment to concentrate the radiation...."

He trailed off again and went to work with his computer. He was busy at work as Langerson said, "I think we'd better leave him for now. Whenever he gets that way with a probable solution he can't be reached. Literally, goes out on the wide end for hours on end, as long as it takes."

They stepped outside of the office studio and let him work it out.

"He's extremely devoted to his work," he completed the thought, and they went back to the war-room theater.

"I'd like to have access to everything there is as soon as possible," he said to Langerson.

"I'll arrange it," he said, and a minute later, the lieutenant directed him to a console at the side. He sat down and went to work, researching everything they had.

Around 4 pm, Langerson stepped up to his side and said, "I've arranged for us to have quarters on the base for the duration of the operation."

"How long will that be?" he said.

"Beckridge just put in orders for his new designs," he said, "and the whole thing will take at least a month. They're calling it the GDX, for Gamma Deflector. They'll be assembling it in Japan, and we'll be monitoring the whole operation from here."

"So that gives us a month before the counteraction?" he said.

"More or less," he said. "We'll know when it's ready."

He yawned a bit at the console and said, "Well, I'm about spent here."

"Come on, let's go get some dinner," he said, "and see about those quarters."

An hour later, after dining at the base lounge, overseeing the rugged, stony coast, Makro settled into a comfortable room in the guest quarters, which was actually much classier than the mediocre one-room apartment he had back east.

"Wow," he said to himself, "not bad for guest quarters at a military facility."

He had no idea what he was going to do for the next 30 days. One thing he knew for sure, he would never again give into the boredom that sapped the life out of him in Aton 5.

He stopped to think about it and looked around. Somehow, things were looking brighter than they were back east. There wasn't such a smoky glass effect. And he had energy like he hadn't had in years!

\------------------------------------------------------------------

On the third day, Stone discovered an interesting pattern in the anomalous energy projections, which suggested they were not completely randomized. Not only were the projections unable to occur during the day, and only occurred at night, the rate of projections was highest during a full Moon, and lowest when the Moon was on the other side of the planet.

He shared this information, which had somehow been overlooked, by the scientists assigned to the problem. It was altogether very interesting, but they didn't know what to make of it.

"The only thing I can figure," Stone said, "is that the background radiation from the Moon enhances the field in such a way that it strengthens the life-time of the anomalies. Contrasting it with the higher background radiation of the sun during the day, I'd guess it has a cooling effect which prolongs the anomalies."

"That does seem to be the effect," Beckridge agreed. "But how does it help us?"

"Well, we might try shielding the fracture from the lunar radiation completely," he suggested, "if that is possible."

"Now wait," Beckridge said, "if this thing is enhanced by lunar radiation, then that suggests we might be able to counter the effect with the right specific radiation."

He went to work with his computer; a full electromagnetic spectrum appeared, with several lines and a table beneath it.

"This might take some time," he said. "I can probably get a general fix but what we need could be much more specific."

He looked at Stone and said, "We're gonna have to run some tests after I get this thing narrowed down."

"How long?" he said.

"Oh, there's no hurry," he said, "we still have 27 days before the GDX is ready. But it shouldn't take that long, maybe 2 weeks to be sure."

Stone left the man with the new tasks and he was busy as a bee when Stone left him.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11: A Picnic at the Park

Later that evening, Stone had another very odd experience, which turned into a regular episode.

He decided to visit a park in San Roseda after an early dinner. He was authorized to use an unmarked guest vehicle; a fairly common model in 2025, not too boxy, with more of a slick style than any service vehicle he'd ever driven in before.

He parked the vehicle in the lot and went for a walk through the park at around 5:30 pm, while the sun was on its final descent. It was the early November and the days were getting shorter. He had about 90 minutes before it set, and took his time about it. As he did so, he saw the beginning of the full moon opposite the setting sun, and recalled the lunar pattern he had discovered to the anomalous energy projections. If the pattern held, he knew, there would be a higher rate of projections that night.

"Well," he thought to himself, standing there at the edge of the tree-line and a wide field with nicely-trimmed hedgerows and finely kept blossoming bushes, still dropping fruit on the ground and inviting a few late bees for a last kiss with the flowers of nature.

"They haven't had enough time to reach the California coast yet," he reminded himself, so as to not let it worry him.

He walked through the park, thinking over everything and trying to relax his nerves at the same time. He had problems with PTSD, in the past, and realized he had completely forgotten about it after seeing Sarena.

He walked for about 30 minutes as dusk fell and the shadows got deeper. He stopped for a rest at a picnic table and looked at a pond with lily pads and heard a few swishes, suggesting fish or frogs in motion. He got to thinking about everything that had led him to that place in space and time, and recalled his commitment to setting the records straight, how his work had got the attention of Langerson and Sarena had lured him into that trap. But it had never been lethal and she knew that too, from what he gathered, so he couldn't quite hold it against her, not after he spent some time with her and realized how much he needed a surrogate for the real Lisa.

She had played the role well and he could not fault her. As he thought about her, his thoughts fell back in time, to the memory of Lisa in 1975.

As he sat there thinking about her, it was as if time went a little faster or something and suddenly, the sun was setting with the last rays cutting sharply through the park, and the full moon was rising, brightening as it did so, into a great bright, blue orb.

His eyes closed for a moment and he saw the memory in his mind, and before he could stop himself, it was too late. He fell into the past and heard her voice call him from the distance.

Suddenly, as if possessed, the alter ego took over again, and he looked up at the full Moon, and jumped onto his feet.

"Lisa?" he said, wondering where she was. He looked all about as the sharp rays cut through the parkway trees, the clouds burning on the horizon with red and violet intensity, as the deep blue of the eastern night sky with the full Moon moved in.

He thought he heard something in the distance and began walking through the grove to the west side of the pond. There was light and sounds. He walked across the grass, through a tree-line and into another wide grove surrounded by trees. The lights were coming on in the park and the grove had 3 tall lampposts to light the picnic area. There within the grove were some people hanging about and he looked closely, from the edge, and studied them.

At first he thought it was a bunch of hippies, but then he noticed that there were all kinds of people there, and only a few that resembled hippies, and others that appeared to be punks, x-geners, y-geners, z-geners, and some that looked like they were just in from school or their jobs, etc... all were individuals just taking some time off from work and responsibilities elsewhere, for a simple get-together sharing food and ideas.

"Hey, bro," a guy said to him, as he stepped by Stone, into the grove, with a girlfriend at his side.

They walked on into the grove and Stone wondered if he should join them. He looked to see if there were any girls that resembled Lisa as he recalled her voice. The people seemed friendly enough, but he wasn't exactly invited, so he didn't know what to do.

He began to leave because he couldn't see Lisa anywhere, until he thought he heard her voice again, and realized that she could be there in disguise, maybe. He thought about her and recalled the memory again and he started to drop, and suddenly caught himself, took a deep breath, and felt the alter ego seize him.

He looked at the group of people and began walking carefully towards them. He stopped about 2 meters from the most populated picnic table and looked at them.

"Hey bro," one of them said, "what's up?"

The man was completely casual and friendly, as if it were just another day.

"I thought i heard someone call me," he said.

They all looked at him, shortly, with interest, and the man said, "Really? Who was calling you?"

"A girl i once knew, years ago, before I lost her," he looked down, and did his best to hide his emotions.

"Well, maybe we can help," he decided. He stepped up and said, "Join us and we'll talk about it."

He hung out with them casually, tried to relax, but something had seized him, something like a prolonged deja-vu, and he was completely immersed in it. He let them welcome him and spoke with them about many things. His talk about Lisa led to the times and everything that had happened since 1975, and the talk intensified when it got to 1981 and 1982.

It turned out that they were all in complete agreement with Stone and it appeared he had made some new friends.

"Hey, we know about you," one of them said. "You produced the video that has been buzzing MTV for the past 2 weeks. Nick Stone, right?"

"Yes," he said.

"Hey," one of them said, "I read an article that said the Makro character was your alter ego and the story was based upon actual facts. Nobody knows how much truth there is to that one. How about it; is it true?"

"Absolutely!" he said.

"Wooee," the guy responded, "how much is true and how much is fantasy?"

"Most of the facts of the case are true," he said, "but the alternate world...."

He stopped and felt his head in his hand for a moment, began to black out for a second, and caught himself.

"You alright?" one of them said.

"Just a little headache," he said, and recalled the lunar background radiation.

Before he could continue, there was some disturbance at the other side of the grove.

One guy ran up to the table and said, "The DSA!"

"Okay!" the leader of the party said, "Just stay calm, we're not doing anything wrong here today!"

Everyone froze where they were and the ones on their feet tried to settle somewhere before the goons entered the area. A couple of them stopped where they were as the goons entered and approached the picnic tables.

"Getting a little late for a picnic," the DSA leader said, with 2 agents to each side and 2 more hanging back by the trees.

"There's no curfew in the park that I know of," the party leader said.

"There is one at 10 pm, at least in this area," the man corrected him.

"It's not even 8 yet," the guy countered.

"Well, nobody told us to expect any picnics in this area at this time," he said. "Do you have a permit?"

"We paid for our parking spaces," the man said.

"Well, I'm gonna need to see some IDs," he said.

Stone had been the only one to step up from the picnic table as the DSA goons entered the area. He didn't like being caught sitting down by them.

"Okay, let's see some ID," one of the goons said to him, and he tried to stay calm.

He handed his ID to him and the guy said, "Well, look at what we got here!"

The leader stopped what he was doing and looked up.

"We have ourselves a real celebrity!" he said looked at Stone. "You're Nick Stone?"

"That's right," he said, and hoped the guy didn't get too arrogant.

"These 2 don't have proper IDs," one of the goons reported to the leader. "Shall we run them in?"

Stone looked at the 2 people; saw how young they were, a boy and girl of no more than 18 or 19, and stared at the leader, waiting for his response.

"Okay," the leader said, but Stone had other ideas.

"You're not taking anyone anywhere," he said, channeling his alter ego without even realizing it.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?" The one checking his ID said, with just the kind of arrogance he was hoping they wouldn't show. "You gonna sick your alter ego Makro on us?"

He waited for it, the guy laughed, and they began to take the 2 people away.

"Yes!" he boomed, lifted his right hand, sliced a path across them with it, and projected the energy out.

"Get down!" he said to the ones about the picnic table, as the energy erupted. He directed the energy with near perfect control as they heeded his warning, dove away from the table to the ground, and the wave hit the goons. They were seized by a paralyzing force for a split second, and thrown backwards like rag-dolls, to the ground.

He watched them go down, eased off the projection, and fell down to his knees to catch his breath. He looked up seconds later, and heard the sound of a squawker. It was the sound of DSA backups moving in.

He went to see if his new friends were okay. The leader and 6 others had managed to get down in time, but the others were out unconscious on the ground, including the 2 younger people the goons were planning on taking away.

"Get everyone under cover," he said, "I'll lead the goons away."

Four more DSA goons, the one's with swat gear and heavy weapons, appeared at the edge of the grove and started yelling at the people.

Before they started shooting, Stone got their attention.

He quickly shot through them at an accelerated speed, knocked 2 of them over, and stopped behind the others.

"How'd he do that?" one of them said, and started to aim. He quickly fled away from the area.

"Let's get him!" one of them said, and all four of them were in hot pursuit within seconds.

He led them away from the garden party picnic, as he planned; giving his new friends plenty of time to pack up their things and leave the area. He met the goons at the top of a hill where a monument stood, a monument that had actually meant something to the people of Aton 5, in the past, including the government. Obviously, he thought, the DSA just didn't seem to get it, and that was a shame.

As they surrounded him by the monument on the hill, he projected again, and knocked them all down around the monument.

"Be sure to read the base of that thing," he said to them, "before you leave the park. You might learn something."

He left them there unconscious, and returned to the grove to help his friends, but they were gone. It was enough to know they were safely away from the goons, all of which were unconscious on the ground now, and would be for another hour or two.

He left the scene wondering how he managed to make that last move, decided to not analyze it too closely for the time, returned to his vehicle, drove back to the base and went his room for a rest.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

That night, he had a strange dream in which he stepped up to the mirror at the side of the room, saw a glowing, incongruous form of energy reflecting within it, turned to the balcony doors, went to them, and opened them into the deep blue and violet night. He thought he heard Lisa again and reacted swiftly, leapt over the balcony, to the ground just above the rugged coast, and ran around the edge of the base.

His vision faded in the darkness at the edge of the base, as he made his way through the trees, and sited a force-field grid ahead, similar to an electric fence, only more dangerous. He hopped up to a tree branch, grabbed it, kicked himself up and over, cleared it with any problem, and didn't think twice about it, as he moved on.

Shortly after that, he ran into a group of incongruous energy anomalies, similar to his own present form, and they held him in suspense with their fields for a minute, before he fought with them, and broke away. He ran about the land with them chasing him, hot on his tail for about 10 minutes, and he took them to a landmark in the middle of a parkway. He pointed to the landmark and made it glow. He kept it glowing and the energy anomalies were held suspended by it, as he broke away from them.

He went looking for Lisa all about the land and awoke from the dream as he was doing so, as his mind wandered and the sun began to rise to the east. He awoke with the image of the sun rising over the mountains to the east.

Minutes later, as he was having coffee, and recalling the dream, it suddenly occurred to him.

"Flying monkeys!" he said, and realized what his next task would be. "It's Nixon's Revenge on Overkill!"

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12: Macrovision in Silver Moonlight

Stone went to the amphitheater, spoke with the duty officer, and settled into a computer station to check on his latest theory.

He checked the satellite maps of the radioactive belt, what they had designated the region about the Pacific where the radioactivity was highest. It followed a general direction along with the El Nino, fanning out as it did so, so that it was less concentrated along the northwestern coast. He added an overlay of the energy anomalies and checked the time. He zeroed in on the western coast to San Roseda, and there they were. He checked the time; saw that it was the same as the time he spent at the park, at the grove, when the DSA paid a visit. The timing of the anomalous projections was the same as the DSA, almost exactly, as near as he could tell.

"No way!" he said to himself.

Stone shared his findings with Langerson and Beckridge.

They studied the electromagnetic maps closely.

"You're saying some of the projections," Langerson said, "possessed the DSA?"

"Yes, that's what I suspect," he said, "I was there, in that scene, when it happened. I checked the exact spatial coordinates and the time and it's all right there."

"This cluster of energy anomalies," he said to them, pointing to the screen, is in the very grove where I was just last evening.

"They're are ten in all," Beckridge counted.

"Ten?" Stone said. "But I only recall seeing 9 agents in all. 5 in the grove at the beginning and 4 later on backup."

"There are 9 anomalies in this scene," Beckridge said. "Maybe one didn't possess an agent, and just hung about with the others, without taking possession?"

Stone looked at the scene closely and it began to sink in.

"Now wait, that's not possible," he said.

"Why not?" Beckridge said, "they don't always possess..."

"No, not that," he said. "This isn't possible, it can't be!"

"What is it Nick?" Langerson said.

He checked himself to be sure, looked back at the screen, looked away with the mystery, and said, "The other one was in me!"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stone was checked out by Dr. Velaquez, the base doctor, a somewhat attractive bronze brunette, and he checked out clean according to the basic physical body-check, but later, the neuroscans were a little more interesting.

"This area here in the frontal lobe near the cortex," she said to him, "is much more active than normal, but without previous scans, I can't say that it is unusual for you."

"Previous neuroscans?" he said.

"Yes," she said, "I'll send out an order for them. If we're lucky, I'll get them before the day is over. Do you recall when the last neuroscans were made? I am assuming you've had them. According to your profile, it seems likely."

"Yes," Stone admitted, "I seem to recall having neuroscans in the first decade of this century. Just before they discovered I suffered from PTSD."

"Well," she said, "if there is a difference, it might have to do with the energy anomalies."

"I see," he said.

He left to return to his room, and called Langerson from there after thinking his condition over. An hour later, after lunch, he met them at the amphitheater.

"Check this out," he said to him. "We may have nailed the bastards again."

Stone looked at the 20 inch flat-screen at more satellite scans like those that had exposed the DSA connection with the energy anomalies.

Another scene, with obvious artificial infrastructure, showed 6 more energy anomalies hanging about inside it.

"Where's this?" he said.

"One of my previous warehouses," he said, and explained. "The DSA seized it and has been sitting on it now for a couple of months."

"Then these anomalies are possessing the DSA?"

"Apparently," he said. "Or at least they were in possession of them during the time of this scan. It's daylight now and the dang things don't show."

"Yes, they only come out at night," Stone said, obviously.

"But this makes another connection," Langerson said. "There seems to be a pattern developing. I'm setting up regular scans specifically designed to analyze the situation and determine whether or not these things are using the DSA as hosts. I've got no more cooperation from them or anyone else in the state department, but I have a list of agents and operations from the past year that I can use to make some pretty good guesses. This was just one."

Stone reflected on that as the man went to work, wondered how he could help, and began to formulate a picture in his subconscious. He left him busy at the console, and went to check on Beckridge.

Beckridge gave him the latest data on the rate of the anomalies and a better idea of the kind of frequencies they were dealing with.

"I think I may have figured out how they do it," he said to Stone.

"How they do what?"

"How they possess humans," he said. "I checked the frequencies of these things and they appear to be within the somatic level, frequencies that have been recorded as inducing narcosis and hypnagogic effects. The most extreme level has also been known to paralyze at times."

"Hypnagogic effects?" he said, "does that include sleepwalking?"

"You got it," he said, and went back to the computer. "If these things are intelligent, and they have the ability to possess humans and use them like zombies, they may be planning something big, like a targeted invasion, I dunno."

"So, do we have some counter-agents we can use?" he said.

"I'm working on it," he said. "I've just sent an update to Japan and we've narrowed it down to somewhere within the alpha, and we think we can use zeta-waves to counter it."

"Alpha," Stone said. "Of course, that explains the moonlight."

"Yes," Beckridge agreed. "But we still need the specific frequencies. There appears to be a fluctuant variant involved, which makes it much more complex, like to the point 197895."

Stone lost him as he began crunching the decimal places, checked the time, and left the man busy at work.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night, while the Moon was in its third quarter, 2 more energy anomalies appeared at the warehouse, totaling eight in all. Four were grouped in the center and four near the outer walls. The 2 that appeared last joined 2 already in the center to make four, in a perfect square pattern, where they remained suspended, as if in a group huddle.

Stone was ordered to stay in his quarters that night under close observation. The station wanted to monitor him to see if he became possessed again.

He had a hard time relaxing but did his best. About the time the 2 new anomalies entered the inner circle; he had finally relaxed a bit, and fell into thoughts about the past few days. When he recalled hearing Lisa call him in the park, it triggered something deep down inside him that he could not control.

"Fool's errand!" he heard his subconscious say with cynicism, and before he could suppress his anger at what had been done to him, it was too late.

Before he could think twice about it, he was standing before the mirror looking at an incongruous energy anomaly taking form into something, energy with more form and detail, but still energy.

"50 years I've waited for this!" he heard himself say, with the voice of Makro, his alter ego.

He recalled the warehouse, looked at the balcony doors, and went swiftly to them, opened them, and flew out over the balcony, following the same path as in the dream before.

When he reached town, it was like some old grayscale gangster scene from an old movie, the prohibition era, in the 30s. The form of the tech and infrastructures was the only difference; aside from that, the people and the players were all the same.

Makro located the warehouse and stopped outside it, standing at the corner of an alley, flipping an invisible coin, and casing the joint. He already had the map in his mind, supplied by the previous owner. He counted the seconds and made his move.

There was a back door with an alarm system, but Makro had some trick frequencies he used to disable it, and unlock the door. He was inside in a minute, standing at the corner of a small office post, at the edge of the light.

The DSA guard posted there noticed him, stepped up, walked toward him, drew his weapon, and said, "Who the hell are you?"

Makro was careful not to move too quickly, and said, "Tell your boss he's got a visitor."

"He'll want a name," the guy insisted.

"The name is Nick, Nick Stone," he said.

The guy started to crack a smile, relaxed a bit, and said, "So, you're the invincible Nick Stone, huh?"

"That's right," he said.

"What do you need to see the boss for?" he said.

"It's private business," he said.

The guy hesitated, and said, "I don't think so!"

But before he could make another move, Makro raised his right hand, sliced it in front of him, and the man was tossed like a rag-doll back, to the wall at the base of the office post, unconscious.

Makro looked about, gathered his energy, and made his move around the perimeter of the warehouse, taking out the other 3 in similar slick fashion.

Minutes later, he headed into the center and stopped, just in time to hear one of the inner goons report, "we've lost the perimeter. What's the problem?"

Another reported, "It's the other one, it's the Makro! I can sense his presence!"

He stepped into the edge of the lights, where the four DSA head lieutenants had a table and a card-game going. It was just like a scene from an old movie, only this time, the DSA were the gangsters.

"Just like old days," he said to them, stepping into the light.

"Makro!" one of them said.

"Actually, you can call me Nick Stone," he corrected the agent.

"Nick Stone," the guy said, and began to laugh.

"That's right," he said. "Got a problem with that?"

"What you want, Stone?" the head lieutenant, who had been quiet until now, said gruffly.

"I don't recall doing business with you before."

"Well, you're doing business with me now," he said. "See, I know all about how you illegally seized this warehouse and I'm gonna have to do some house-cleaning."

They all laughed at that one.

"Forget it, Stone," he said, "You're beginning to bore me."

"I think maybe, you guys should stop giving all of your attention to that card game," he advised.

Suddenly they all stepped up and went into motion.

Makro acted quickly and projected, realizing these guys were very fast. The bullets were flying before the projection had reached them, and deflected wide as Makro went down to the floor for cover.

The energy wave slammed into them and tossed them backwards, against the walls of the huge warehouse storage bins, where they fell to the floor and remained, unconscious.

Makro raised his head, taking a deep breath, to look at them, and saw the outlines of the energy anomalies leaving them.

He went to the table, found a cell-phone which had fallen to the floor, picked it up, and used it.

"Langerson," he said, "the warehouse is open, but the garbage still needs disposal. I suggest you assign a detail immediately. I'm out of here; I'll leave the doors unlocked."

\----------------------------------------------------------------

"There's really nothing too fantastic about Stone's claims," Felderzon said to Dr. Velaquez, who had called him from the coastal base.

"What was done to him was a form of military psyops," he explained. "His family, especially his step-brother and step-father, made him feel so guilty that they forced him away on a fool's errand that left him in limbo, and they did nothing but kick him out in the cold after the fact."

"Sounds like a Vietnam war vet I know," she said. "How does this affect his condition now?"

"Well," he said, "I'm guessing that he may be using his alter ego somehow to resolve a conflict deeply rooted within his subconscious. The conflict began with that fool's errand."

They talked shortly and she let him go, with thanks for the information about Stone's unique case.

\----------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13: Blue Moon over the Bay

The plan was to mount the emv-dish on an aircraft carrier, which was anchored offshore from the coast of Japan around 1 kilometer, and fire the rays inland directly into the fracture, located at the coastal nuclear power plant.

The plan was to hit it at just the right time, which in this case was during the first quarter of the moon, when the light was low. It had been determined that to be the time in which the energy anomalies were weakest and the fracture was most vulnerable to counteraction.

On the evening in which the counteraction was to take place, Stone asked Langerson about Sarena.

"She had a date with a party on a yacht," he told him.

"Really?" he said, "one of yours?"

"A company vessel," he said.

"Any chance i could pay a visit?" he said with confidence, much to his own surprise.

"Well," he said, "I'm not sure you'd like the company, in this case."

"How's that?"

"Jarges is the Captain," he said.

"What? But i thought you demoted him?"

"Sure, he got disciplined," he explained, "and lost a lot of favor with our overseas partners. But he was smart enough not to put all of his nests in one basket and managed to scrape by okay anyhow. There's not much I or anyone can do about that."

Stone seethed with the thought of Sarena spending time with Jarges at a yacht party.

"Why would she do that?" he said, with dismay. "Why would she go to one of his parties, after all I told her about Jarges?"

Langerson shook his head shortly, "Sarena is that kind of girl. She goes to places like that to socialize and find more work. Don't forget she is an actress and a model." He shrugged and said, "It's part of her lifestyle."

"So, like I said," he decided, seriously, "do I get a pass or not?"

"But don't you want to monitor the counteraction from here?" he said, with puzzlement.

"Oh, sure, yeah," he said, and twitched oddly, "I just have to do something, I'll be right back."

\------------------------------------------------------------------

He didn't know what came over him, as he checked the time, at his room, and thought about it. He knew none of the people that would be at the party aside from Sarena herself, and, of course, Jarges. But that was it, he would not know any of the others, as he had only just climbed out of purgatory and into the realm of the wealthy, and had very little experience with the social side of it.

It was 5:30 and the sun was beginning to set. The counteraction was due to take place at around 12 midnight. He started thinking about Sarena spending time with Jarges at a yacht party and began to seethe deep down inside.

"I don't understand how they can let him get away with it!" he suddenly said with growing rage, and before he could stop it, his alter ego took control.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

He caught the yacht just as it was getting ready to pull the ramp from the boardwalk, at 6:00 pm.

"Nick Stone," he said to the receptionist.

The man looked at the list and said, "Sorry, Mr. Stone, but you're not on the list."

"Give Langerson a call on your cell-phone," he said, "he'll have me cleared."

"Mr. Langerson?" the man said. "But I can't do that! I'm sorry, but we're due to shove off any minute."

The man closed the door and left him there on the ramp. He looked about, saw no easy way onto the boat, went back down the ramp, and looked about again. Any minute it was due to depart. It was a big boat, at least a 100 footer, ultra modern, high tech security and all. A regular multi-millionaire's toy.

He looked around with mild frustration, feeling his alter ego taking over, more and more as the sun set. There didn't seem to be any easy way onto the boat. As the anchor was retracting and the boat began getting underway, he saw no other way than the most desperate. The problem was, it might be too obvious and security could catch him, but he decided to worry about that later.

He acted quickly, found a rope near an old locker on the dock, made a lasso, and tossed it at the top corner of the backside of the central compartment, where it went over a pole, and took hold. The boat moved out slowly as he took a firm grip on the rope, and went flying off the dock with it, to land in a squat with his feet against the side of it. He used all of his alter ego's anger and strength to climb the rope, all the way up the side of the boat, to the roof top at the back of the central compartment. As he did so, he saw some people on the deck at the back, but they didn't see him.

He was on the top of the boat's central compartment as it pulled out of the docks, lying low, peaking over the edge to the back of the boat, where several people were lounging about.

Luckily, none had seen him. He felt awkward for the first time with his alter ego, realizing how much he wanted to see Sarena, seeking a way to do so without looking like a fool in the process.

He wanted to slip in somehow without any of the security taking notice. If he could do that, he felt sure there wouldn't be any problem seeing Sarena. He thought about it, sat up and looked around. He was on the very top of the central compartment, at the back, and it looked like there was the top of a ladder on the other side, in the back corner.

He crawled across the roof to it and saw that it led down the other side, to a starboard side corridor. He was in luck; there was no one about. So he quickly climbed down it and looked around. There was a door leading inside, but he didn't know where it led. His safest bet would be to just walk to the deck at the back of the boat and blend in with the people there.

He checked the time. It was almost 6:30 pm and the sun was setting magnificently on the western sea, brilliant crimson and purple clouds stretching out across the horizon. He decided to just relax his nerves as he took it all in. Now that he was on deck, he felt confident and cool, with nothing to worry about. He still had to see Sarena, but with Jarges on deck, he'd have to play it cool.

His alter ego seethed and cooled, seethed and cooled, as he thought about Sarena in the company of Jarges. He still didn't understand why she would agree to attend a party with the man, after what he told her about what he had done to Stone. Quietly, his conscious side shook it off as nothing, but his alter ego, with all of its extra confidence, just didn't get it. He had to see her and talk to her about it, see if he could maybe talk some sense in the girl.

He just didn't like the idea of her getting messed up with a guy who lied to his mother, got him sent away on a fool's errand, made him lose everything, including the love of Lisa, then had him sent in exile to Aton 5, to work in purgatorial limbo for over 40 years, and actually got away with it, despite all of his efforts to set the records straight. It just didn't seem quite right, not one bit at all. Makro was mad as hell about it, and having a hard time keeping his cool.

But he had to if he wanted to get through to her the right way. As he turned to the back deck, he was overcome by an odd sense of deja vu. He acted perfectly naturally, realizing he was with the company and all was well. He stopped, looked at the sunset, and looked at the wide deck. In the middle were half a dozen luxurious lounges and tables, and a Jacuzzi pool. No one was using the Jacuzzi at the time, but there were 6 people gathered about each side of it.

He paused momentarily, looked more closely for a minute, but couldn't see Sarena. He casually walked around the corner, to the right, and stepped inside of a wide, luxurious lounge, where 6 more people were gathered. He stopped just inside, looked around, and went to the bar counter. He took a seat and waited. A minute later, a pretty female in a sexy service-girl outfit served him. He took a drink, relaxed, and looked about.

As he did so, the deja-vu returned and he wondered about it. As he was doing so, he was suddenly awakened.

"Nick Stone isn't it?" a man said to him, stepping up to the bar.

"That's right; you got my handle," he said, "what's yours?"

"Vanderton," the man said, "didn't know you were with us tonight. After all, you've been accredited with suggesting the design for the counteraction."

"Well," he said, "that was nothing. The project scientific head did all the work. Besides, it doesn't matter where I am when it finally happens."

"Well," the man said, "they're piping it in here tonight, around midnight. Right now, the news is carrying the dang thing on almost 40 networks."

They paused, and he said, "I was wondering if I could ask you something, if it's not too much trouble."

"Shoot," he said.

"Is it true, what the stories in the news reported?" he said, "about the movie you produced for TDM?"

"You're referring to the case, in the movie?" he said.

"Yes," he replied, "is it true, about Jarges?" As he said this, he hushed his voice a bit and looked around. "What he did to you?"

"Yes," he said, "all true."

The guy respired, took a drink, leaned closer, and whispered, "Don't you know that Jarges is the Captain of this boat?"

"Oh, sure," he said to the man, "but I'm with the company now."

The guy finished his drink, stood up, said, "Good luck," and left him.

Around about 7 pm, he stepped back out onto the deck, stopped there and looked out into the night sky, as the sun set and the last rays were making a sharp contrast with the deepening blue sky.

"Well, well, look what the catfish dragged in," a girl's voice said, and he turned to see Sarena.

"What are you doing, waiting for an invitation?"

"No, actually," he said, "I was looking to see if the moon was out yet."

She joined him and looked around.

"So why aren't you at the station?" she said.

"I don't have to be there," he said, "I can be anywhere I want. What about you? Any particular reason you're here tonight?"

"Oh, no," she said, "it's just another banger, and they've got a nice big screen to watch the light show at midnight."

"After everything I said about Jarges," he decided, "I guess I was wondering...."

"Wondering....?" she said, "wondering what?"

"If any of it sunk in, or if I'm just another act to you," he said.

She thought about that, and said, "I guess I don't really know, at this point."

She snapped him out of the delirium, took his arm, and said, "Come on, let's go check the big screen and have some fun."

"What about Jarges?" he said.

"What about him?" she said.

"If he sees me with you...." he said, "can I expect trouble?"

"Oh, no," she said, "look around you, dummy. Jarges has his choice of a dozen girls; he doesn't own any of them, including me."

They went inside, Stone anticipating Jarges anytime, but the man was not there. They spent the time lounging within the central square lounges, watching the news report covering the emv dish device which had been installed on the aircraft carrier and what it was intended to do.

"It is kind of bold for you to be here," she said to him. "Jarges might take it the wrong way."

"Well, I'm with the company now and he'll just have to get used to it," he said, smiled, took a drink, and thought about it with some satisfaction. "He kept me out for 40 years, but he can't keep me out anymore."

She thought about it, and said, "So he really did lie to your mother, in 1975, about Lisa?"

"Yes," he said, recalling it all like it was yesterday. "He told my mother that I was seeing Linda, Lisa's older sister. Linda had a reputation for sleeping around and breaking guy's hearts. Mother thought she was protecting me when she had me sent away on that fool's errand."

He paused and completed, "She admitted the mistake 7 years later in 82, 7 years too late, after I lost Lisa. Step-brother had kept it a secret from both her and me."

He looked up at her to see her staring at him with widening eyes.

"So, it's all true," she said, "it really is."

"Yes," he said, and left it at that. He was lost with the mystery of it all; despite doing everything he could to set the records straight.

"Mother was unable to do anything," he said, slowly, "after the accident in 82. My case had already been decided, and I was sent to Aton 5."

She leaned back beside him and said, "Must be a relief for you to be here now."

"Yes," he admitted, "it is. But for one thing. Despite all I have done, I can't seem to undo the 40 years I lost or go back in time and reunite with Lisa."

"Don't take it too hard," she said, "if you're in good with Langerson, you should do alright now."

The time passed, they had some food and drink, and watched the countdown to midnight on the big screen.

Around 8 pm, she said, "Well, we have 4 hours until midnight. Any ideas?"

"Well," he said, "as much as I love just lounging here with you right now, the truth is, i don't want to be caught lying down when Jarges comes around."

"Okay," she said, "we can go out on the deck, but it's getting a bit cool now, so i might need a sweater."

"Alright," he agreed.

They stepped up and she said, "I'll just be a minute. I have to go to my quarters. You can wait here or on deck."

"I'll be at the bar," he said.

She left him there to get a sweater. A couple of minutes later, she rejoined them and they went outside on the wide open deck.

He looked about and saw the Moon in its first quarter just rising to the east.

"Looks like we got the deck to ourselves," she said, "let's sit and talk."

She directed him to the central lounge area and they sat at a table.

"What are you going to say to Jarges?" she said. "He'll be out for the midnight show. Everyone's going to gather for it in the lounge at around 11:30."

"I guess I'll have to play it by ear," he said, "I don't know quite what to expect at this point. If there's a confrontation, I'll stand my ground."

"God, Nick," she said, "I hope it doesn't get violent."

"I won't provoke it or start it," he said, "but I'm not gonna let him knock me down, not ever again."

"Well, I don't know what to expect from Jarges either," she admitted. "But as the Captain, he could have you forcibly removed from the boat."

"You think he'd do that?"

"I don't know, but he could try," she said. "What if he does?"

"If he tries something like that," he said to her, and leaned close across the table, "get ready to go down low to the deck, if you want to stay awake for the show."

"Why?" she said, with near horror on her face. "You don't think they'll use guns?"

"No, but if they use any force on me at all," he said, "just trust me when I say, you'll be safer on the deck, to avoid the shockwave."

"Oh, you mean they might use tazers?" she said.

"Yes, they might," he agreed. "But in any case, just be ready to drop to the deck, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed.

They talked for almost an hour and he told her about what happened in 1975 in detail. When it was all over, she led him back to her room.

As she pulled him inside, he said, "What are you doing?"

She said, "Playing Lisa again," and pulled him to her bed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14. A Multivertical Conjunction

Around 10:30, after leaving Sarena in her room, Nick returned to the lounge and joined a small group of people who were watching the big screen. The aircraft carrier had moved into place and was lining the GDX dish up for the counteraction with the fracture.

He ordered an ice tea at the bar, looked about the lounge for signs of Jarges, saw nothing of the man, and turned his attention to the screen.

"So, Nick, what's this thing gonna do?" Vanderton said to him, stepping up with a drink.

"It's designed to locate the frequency of the anomalous energy," he explained, "and counteract it with the specific rays necessary for a neutralizing force."

"You mean to say," He said, "they still haven't figured out the frequency for the counteraction?"

"All they could get was a general band," he said, "The only way to locate the specific frequency will be using the dish tonight. As soon as the specific frequency has been determined, they'll be able to determine the specific frequency for counteraction."

"How long will that take?" he said.

"It shouldn't take too long," he said. "No more than 5 or 10 minutes, I would guess. It's hard to say with something like this. It's never been done before."

They were joined by a couple of others and they played 20 questions with Stone for about half an hour, as the talk became more relaxed and casual.

Around 11 pm, a few of the other guests entered the lounge, along with Sarena. She eyed him and moved around mingling with them, as everyone relaxed, took it easy, and got ready for the show.

Stone stayed at the bar, perfectly happy where he was, safely in a corner where he'd have a wide angle on Jarges whenever he finally showed his ugly mug.

It wasn't until 11:30 that the Captain appeared in the lounge, in a pleasant mood, greeting his guests with an almost jovial, positive attitude. He recognized him for the aged Mr. Personality he was, still as in denial as ever.

Stone simply couldn't retain it. The Makro alter ego seethed with rage and he stepped up to meet the man directly.

"Well, step-brother," he said. "We meet at last!"

Jarges nearly had a heart-attack, stopped paralyzed and suspended for a minute, and turned white as a ghost.

"Well, step-brother," he said carefully, "I didn't know you were on the guest list. Come to see the light show?"

"Actually, as long as I was here," he said. "I thought maybe we could get some things straight."

"Really? Like what?" he said, perpetuating the feigned ignorance that he had learned to do so well.

"Like, did you lie to mother, in 1975, about the girl I was seeing?"

"1975?" he said, "That was a long time ago. Lie to mother? What?"

"Did you not tell mother about the girl I was seeing in 1975, June of 1975?" he said.

He looked around at all of the people in the lounge, all waiting for his answer.

He faltered shortly, then recovered and shook his head.

"You wouldn't tell me who you were seeing," he said, "I didn't know."

"But you told mother I was seeing some girl, didn't you?"

He shook his head and said, "It was so long ago, it was 50 years!"

"Did you talk to mother about who I was seeing or not?" he demanded, with the bass rage of his alter ego.

Jarges stepped over to the bar and collapsed on a stool.

"What did mother say?" he said, catching his breath.

"Mother told me that she thought I was seeing Linda," he said, "as if you didn't know."

"Well, so what!" he suddenly burst out, and stepped up. "So what difference does it make, who you were seeing? Linda or Lisa, what diff does it make?"

"You know what difference it made!" he roared back. "Mother had me sent away on that fool's errand! She told me in 1982, she thought I was seeing Linda, and because of Linda's reputation, decided to send me away. She admitted it was a mistake, but it was too late to do anything about it. Admit it, Jarges! You told her I was seeing Linda and kept it a secret all these years, despite all the damage that was done to me!"

As he was completing the words, Stone thought he saw an energy anomaly enter the room and get close to his step-brother.

"That doesn't excuse the way you acted in 1978!" his step-brother suddenly accused him.

"1978?" he said. "Are you kidding? That was after you put that hole in my heart and kept your dirty little secret!"

Stone saw the energy blob enter his step-brother and take control. The man's eyes lit up and he smiled.

"Makro," he said, in a bland, neutral voice, "so we meet at last!"

"Who are you?" he said, realizing the energy anomaly was speaking through him.

"I have recognized the corruption within your realm," it said. "Until we became aware of you, we did not know the realm possessed an intelligence equal to our own. We have been studying it and making tests, to determine if it is capable of colonization."

"But I don't understand," he said. "Why do you possess DSA agents?"

"The DSA possess the kind of power we need to control your animals for colonization," it said. "It already has all the intelligence and flexibility we need, so it seemed like the thing to do."

"But the DSA have too much power, and it's out of control," he explained. "We've been trying to reign them in for years. What you are doing is only making matters worse."

The energy anomaly cooled slightly and his step-brother's face mimicked confusion.

"We did not know this," he said. "We only recognized that they were part of your governmental control and worked with them, to study your ways."

"We can't let you continue to possess our people," he said. "We have to close the fracture; it has been emitting dangerous radiations which threaten to exterminate our life. We have to put a stop to it."

He looked at the time, and the big screen, showing the aircraft carrier lined up with the fracture.

"We have 5 minutes," he said. "What happened at your end? Why did you project through the fracture?"

"Of course, you could not know," it said, "not even you, Makro, can know it all."

He waited for it.

"The fracture is a multivertical conjunction," it said. "It is a temporary intersection connecting multiple realities."

"Yes, of course," he said, with an enlightened understanding, "but do you know what caused it?"

"Yes, but if you know Makro as we know Makro," it said, mysteriously, "then you already know the answer to that one. It is a very complex problem, but it will come to you."

"It will?" he said, "but isn't there anything else you can tell me?"

"Only this," it said, "if you ever return to the Aton 5 Court, you better have a damn good reason!"

As it said this, the time was up and the counteractive rays were projecting from the GDX dish into the fracture. Everyone was looking at the big screen as it happened. They waited, counting the seconds with every heart beat. It was as if time froze for a moment as light poured out from the big screen onto everything, and everything changed.

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A timeless eternity later, he awoke from a most peculiar dream, feeling relieved of anxiety like he never felt before. As he rubbed his eyes, he thought how strange the dream was, and wondered about it while opening them to the new day.

He looked around and tried to recall where he was. Somehow, he had forgotten. But as his eyes adjusted, he recognized the living-room in the house, where he had fallen asleep while reading a book on the couch. It began to come back to him. He sat up and checked the time. His head was still a little fuzzy and he was still thinking about the dream.

There on the coffee-table was the book he had been reading. It was titled, "Multiverse Dream Theory", a fascinating book about one of the wildest, most cosmic theories he had ever known.

He mused over it shortly and heard Lisa as she stepped in, and looked up.

"How was the nap?" she said to him.

He grabbed her and pulled her over, onto the couch, and gave her a big hug.

"What are you doing?" she said, and started to laugh.

"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't still dreaming," he said, and held her close.

Finis

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Temspace Variant 8: Fool's Errand: Redemption

Copyright: Coldpost-85, 2018

All Rights Reserved

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The contents of this ebook cannot be republished by anyone

without the consent of the author, Nick Zentor.

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Other books by Nick Zentor:

Temspace Variant 5:

Alternatives

Dead Ends and Other Escapes

A Multivertical Conjunction
