The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 25: The Savior of Thalidia

Stephen continued somberly, saying;

"However, my mind refused to believe what my eyes could quite clearly see: my life long goal of finding a way out had been accomplished. The rest of the plan to escape had been put together many years ago, and the escape plan went like this. I still have it memorized from all that time ago: We would sound an alarm, telling all of the people of this planet to reside in their homes. We have strategically placed 15 different generators around the planet, and these would all be activated at the same time. These generators were programmed to cover the entirety of Thalidia in a special field. We would use a special tool that we have perfected over hundreds of years of testing (Thomas Edison, [look him up] would have been proud) that is designed to shrink everything inside of that specially designed field EXCEPT for things that emitted a special kind of radiation, which is under normal circumstances and when concentrated is unaffected by physical restraints such as miniaturization; which, on Thalidia, is only found around you (the time vortex radiation). This way, Thalidia would shrink so small that the fuel we have would be more than enough to send us straight through you. Our destination, which we have already planned out, would be more than habitable for us. Sadly, there is no way we can think of that we can take you with us. You would be celebrated, of course, but there is no outcome of this where you come out alive...I'm sorry..." he finished, his voice trailing off at the end.

I didn't know what to say. The entire story had been an emotional one, especially for Stephen, although I think that at one point I saw one or two of the council members shed a tear. There was, however, one part of the story that made no sense. If the plan was to move Thalidia, then what the hell was the bomb for? After much thought, I eventually answered him;"I forgive you Stephen. But...first, I need to ask you a question. What is the b-" I was interrupted by an extremely loud whining sound that pierced the air like an arrow. Stephen started.

"There goes the alarm. It begins!" he cried, rubbing his hands together, looking like a little kid, giddy with excitement. He held up a walkie-talkie and told whomever was on the other end;

"Activate the generators! Get everybody to their homes. Double time!" He walked over walked over to the wall to his left and pressed a few keys, and then put his hand on the wall. Before I had time to hack into and see whatever it was that he was inputting passwords into, the wall began to creak open, pressurized gas shooting out everywhere from where the two halves of the wall had been touching. I saw an elaborate system of gears rotating, grinding, and whirling around, slowly but surely dragging the wall apart. Finally they ground to a halt. Amid the gas that spontaneously shot out from the sides, I saw (and I'm not kidding) a giant red button. (YES, ANDREW, I'M NOT KIDDING. INTERRUPT ME ONE MORE TIME AND I WILL STAPLE YOUR HOUSE TO A ROCKET AND SEND IT INTO SPACE!......yeesh......anyways, as I was saying [before I got so rudely interrupted]), Stephen walked up to the button, and stood next to it, the walkie-talkie in his hand, waiting for the order to save the Thalidia. A tense moment passed while we all sat there in varied silence, some of us with confused silence, some with stoic silence, and one with anticipating silence. As I sat there confused I recieved a message from the Computer;

Computer: PC! Are you there? PC! If you are receiving this, tell Stephen to stop this now! Using the miniaturizer will use up so much energy that Thalidia will be defenseless! Wait...standby...no...no way! PC! I just received news that the Sorratakan armada has completely routed the Thalidian armada with some new weapon! They are headed right for Thalidia! They are practically on top of us, we don't have much time! Tell him to put up the shields. NOW!

I whirled around, and shouted,

"STEPHEN!!! Stop this, right now! The Sorratakan armada is about to attack. If you try to do this, Thalidia, and your countless days of work, will have been for nothing!" Stephen whirled around, rage for the second time today covering his entire face. He yelled back,

"FOOLISH COMPUTER! My 'countless days of work' have NOT been in vain! I have succeeded with the task I was given, and that task was to save Thalidia from destruction! And I intend to do so! No one and nothing can stop me from saving Thalidia. HIYAAAAA!" And with that, Stephen hit the big red button. Instantly there was an Earth...wait, no, Thalidia-shattering THUD, and every single light in the lab dimmed to red. A machine rose from the center of the room, a large red machine with huge power cells and three metal spikes sticking up into the sky, and an absolutely massive blue ball in the center of the three prongs. It began to hum with power as it began charging up. Stephen commanded the projector to project camera feeds from the other generators, and I saw a similar scene there too. I looked outside using one of the security cameras placed outside, and saw where all of the energy was coming from. The city was completely black. Not a single thing moved, and not a single inkling of light remained, as the sun had already gone down. Darkness covered Thalidia, as one by one every power source was completely drained. At this point the machine began to hum, quietly at first, but it began to dramatically increase to the point where I manually shut down my 'ears'. The council all put on earmuffs, but Stephen did not. He seemed almost drunk in his victory, smiling with his eyes closed as he listen to the Savior of Thalidia speak. The vibration from all of the power began to break things in the room, and I watched with a mixture of horror and sadness as the Computer that had tried so valiantly to warn us of the future exploded from the vibrations. The rest of the machines that I had conversed with said a sad word of prayer over the computer's dead 'body', all while trying to keep themselves together. Suddenly the noise (and the vibration) stopped completely. I turned my 'ears' back on, not believing what I heard. Or, more accurately, didn't hear. The machine was still gathering energy, but the awful noise had ceased. I turned to Stephen, confused. He grinned at me and said;

"I knew you were lying about the Sorratakan fleet being here! Your treachery against the people of Thalidia will be noted in the history books. I hope you're pleased with the outcome. To explain to your now-sentient friends here (yes, I know. You can't hide anything from me), the frequency of the machine's sound has gone up so high that it no longer affects matter, like you and I. Nothing we can ever do or make will enable us to hear it, but at least that means the machine is ready. He walked up to it, his arms stretched up high, as a screen on the side of the machine began counting down.

"NOW! THE MOMENT THAT ALL OF MY SWEAT AND TEARS HAVE LED TO! THE SURVIVAL OF THE HUMAN RACE CANNOT BE DENIED! THE ENTIRE PAST HAS LED US TO THIS MOMENT, AND ALL OF OUR FUTURES REST ON THIS MOMENT! Hail Thalidia!!!!!!!!!!!! His voice echoed, and with it brought back the vibrations of the machine as it prepared to discharge the miniaturization field. Stephen screamed:

"NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"