What exactly happened to Queen Radcliffe and Avi? Did their trouble breathing on the Eros Military Base knock them out? Was it an airborne virus? I shall ponder over this later, as I'm not sure of my perspective yet.
I'll keep in touch.
---
"Wake up, my Queen... My Queen? Queen Radcliffe!"
Queen Radcliffe jolted upright, causing the bed she laid in to shake. "Dr. McCormick," she said, smiling. "What're you doing here?"
"You fainted while coming home from the Eros Military Base," Dr. McCormick told Queen Radcliffe. "I couldn't find the cause, but I managed to resuscitate you and your friend Avi without leaving any repercussions on your bodies."
"And how are the others doing?" Queen Radcliffe asked.
"Queen Devereaux and Eleanor Lawton have woken up and are currently walking around the premises, checking for any discrepancies between my report of their bodies and their actual physicality," Dr. McCormick answered. "Lafayette Archambault is being seen to by Robin and Toni Romero, who have been gracious enough to spend all night building suitable prosthetics for her. Fink De Luca is currently awake and is locked up in the bottom of the New Terran Castle."
"How long have I been out?"
"About a day and a half, my Queen."
Queen Radcliffe got off of her bed and stretched. "What do you plan on doing now?" Dr. McCormick asked.
"I'm gonna question Fink about some things," Queen Radcliffe responded. "Thank you for the help. I would actually be dead if it weren't for you."
Queen Radcliffe made her way down to the basement of the New Terran Castle. Her head began to throb the farther she walked. She stopped herself and leaned against the wall, pressing the back of her left hand against her forehead.
"My Queen?" A voice called from the end of the hallway. Queen Radcliffe looked up as heavy footsteps began running towards her.
"Avi, I'm fine," she said. "Don't worry about me."
"You're not fine," Avi told Queen Radcliffe. "I'm going through the same thing."
"The same what?"
"The sudden migraines. No- they're worse than migraines. They feel like your brain is trying to break your skull open from the inside."
Avi wrapped his arm around Queen Radcliffe. "Come on," he said. "Let's get you back into bed."
"To hell with that," Queen Radcliffe said. "I need to question Fink right now. I want to see what he did to me- no, to us."
"If you say so, my Queen," Avi cautiously said.
"Please, call me Honey," Queen Radcliffe said. "You more than deserve to get to speak my name by now."
Avi led Queen Radcliffe down to the basement. Fink sat in a small prison cell, constantly counting up to ten on his fingers before counting back down to zero. Queen Radcliffe knocked on one of the cell's bars, grabbing Fink's attention.
"Well, hello there," Fink greeted.
"What the hell did you do to me?" Queen Radcliffe asked.
"Eros has a ton of robots," Fink told Queen Radcliffe. "Like, a shit-ton of robots. Fun fact: I even got to build some myself, which I call Foot-Tall Fighters. So, anyway, I found a lot of these tiny nanobots and had them float into your lungs, changing the oxygen you breathed in into something a bit more... deadly."
"How do I get them out of my body?" Queen Radcliffe continued.
"They're probably out by now," Fink blatantly stated. "From what I heard, you were coughing up blood on the way back here. That must've shook them loose."
"Los Angeles. Mexico City. They're both connected to you. How?"
"I've... been to both of those cities?" Fink said, nervously laughing. "Next question."
"You're damn right you've been to both of those cities," Queen Radcliffe snarled, "because you've got a hideout in both cities, each guarded by a hired gun. El Toro and The Gulf Cartel told me so. You remember them, don't you?"
Fink's expression turned to that of anger. "They sold me out, the bastards. Yes, I do have hideouts in both cities. What are you gonna do about them, anyway? You've already got me trapped in this hellhole, my Queen."
"I know." Queen Radcliffe pulled out one of her pistols and aimed at Fink's head.
Fink began to laugh. "Shoot, and no one will be able to tell you the way to stop the nuclear bombs!"
"What nuclear bombs?" Queen Radcliffe asked."Goddamnit, what nuclear bombs?"
"In Los Angeles and Mexico City, silly," Fink laughed. "That's why I hired those guys the Gulf Cartel told you about. Shoot me now, my hired guns find out, they nuke the western side of North America to smithereens. Spare my life, there will be a small chance that you will be able to save the world yet again."
Queen Radcliffe stared down Fink. "Avi, come with me." She put down her gun and walked away. Fink began to cheer as he continued to live.
Avi followed Queen Radcliffe out of the basement and into the Throne Room. Queen Radcliffe called for the other New Terrans to gather in front of her throne.
Mai entered the room first and climbed onto her throne. "Hey, Honey," she muttered, refusing to look over in her direction. "...Thanks for earlier."
"There's no need to thank me," Queen Radcliffe told Mai. "I'm sure you'd do the same thing if we switched roles."
"We never speak about it again, alright?" Mai said. "Only when extremely necessary."
"Okay."
The other New Terrans filtered into the Throne Room one by one. Eleanor's posture reflected her determination to redeem herself from being captured by Fink. Lafayette walked significantly different, as one of her legs was steel and the other was flesh. She awkwardly moved her prosthetic limbs around and looked up at Queen Radcliffe with an emotionless stare.
"We have Fink locked up in the basement," Queen Radcliffe told the New Terrans. "However, there is still a threat among us. I've gained word that there are two nuclear bombs that are under Fink's control; one is in Los Angeles, while the other is in Mexico City. They are both safeguarded by hired guns. It is our job to take them both out, secure the nukes, and put an end to Fink's life. Any questions?"
"Are we splitting up again?" Basileus asked.
"We are," Queen Radcliffe answered. "And you, Aváli? What's your question?"
"Who will protect the castle while we're gone?" Aváli pointed out. "And who will watch over Fink?"
"I've got some guards looking after both Fink and the castle," Queen Radcliffe told Aváli. "You know, we've got one of the best militaries in the solar system."
Queen Radcliffe looked around for any other questions. "Alright. I will head the Los Angeles team, and Avi will head the Mexico City team. We'll separate into three veterans and three newbies in each group. Mai, Lafayette, Eleanor, and the Romero Twins will be with me. Jerrybot, Angus, Huntress, Aváli, and Basileus will be with Avi. Get food, take a shower or nap, whatever you think necessary. We head out in two hours."
---
Queen Radcliffe sat alone on the Memorial of the Fallen, eating an apple while rummaging through loose papers of notes.
"My Queen, we need to speak," Lafayette called as she walked into the courtyard.
"What? No 'It's good to be back' or anything?" Queen Radcliffe jokingly asked.
"Let's be serious for a bit." Lafayette toyed around with her prosthetic arm as she sat next to Queen Radcliffe. "The Corral Canyon Cave," she said. "Fink kept me there. Tortured me. Cut me apart. Knocked me out and took me to the Eros Military Base."
"Where are you going with this?" Queen Radcliffe asked.
"Those two Romero nerds told me about the existence of alternate dimensions," Lafayette said. "And that the albino chick went through the same thing that I did, just in another dimension. It all happened to her in Mexico City, and she retained all of her body parts. What is the cause of all these differences?"
"Not everything stays constant between dimensions," Queen Radcliffe told Lafayette. "Not everything makes sense when translated across dimensions, either. Hell, not even everything in this dimension makes sense."
"What are all of those?" Lafayette asked, pointing to Queen Radcliffe's notes.
"Unsolved mysteries about Fink," Queen Radcliffe told Lafayette. "How did Fink get to Eros? How did he get ahold of the nuclear bombs he owns? Whose money did he use to hire mercenaries? Why did Basileus see all of the cities that he saw, when Fink is only targeting two cities?"
"I don't understand some of those," Lafayette said. "I must not have been here. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it, alright? No need to try and explain all this multi-dimensional shit to me, as it will just confuse me more."
"Am I right in assuming Fink took away your katana?" Queen Radcliffe asked.
"He did."
"We'll get you a new one."
"Are you sure, my Queen?"
"I'm sure."
Lafayette looked up at the sky for a few moments before leaving the courtyard in silence. Queen Radcliffe listened to her walk away, silently wondering about Lafayette's past.
---
The lighting in Avi's bedroom within the castle was very dark. He kneeled before his bed and stared at three pictures he scattered on it.
Avi looked up as his door was knocked on. "Come in," he called, quickly stacking the pictures up and throwing them under his bed.
Eleanor walked into the room and narrowed her eyebrows. "If I may, sir, why do you look so nervous?" She asked. "Is this not- should I come back later?"
"No, it's fine," Avi assured. "What's up?"
"I was going to check on you, sir," Eleanor told Avi. "You're not as upbeat and sociable today as you usually are."
Avi looked at his feet and sighed. "I've just... I've been thinking about my wife, Valencia."
"What about her?" Eleanor pressed.
"I just miss her," Avi told Eleanor. "She died a decade ago today."
"I'm so sorry to hear that, sir," Eleanor said, putting a hand on Avi's shoulder. "I'm here for you if you need someone to talk to."
"We were both soldiers in the Kuiper War about a decade ago," Avi stated. "Brave little Huntress was a field medic at the age of eleven. She didn't know what she was doing, so she was given the materials that could tie injured soldiers over until they could be seen by professional doctors. Huntress started taking care of Valencia once she was shot and got trapped between two soldiers with machine guns... They let Huntress go as they unloaded their clips into Valencia."
Avi began to cry. "I miss her. I really do. Sometimes... sometimes I want to kill myself so that I could join her again." Avi stopped crying and wiped his eyes with his hand. "But I can't bring myself to do it. I've got a daughter to look after. I've got a job to do."
"So what do you plan on doing, sir?" Eleanor asked. "Do you need some time to yourself? Do you need me to talk you or anything?"
"I'm a soldier," Avi told Eleanor. He stood up, picked up and loaded Harbinger and marched to the entrance of his room. "It's about damn time I start acting like one. We leave for Mexico City in half an hour. Get ready."
---
Mai climbed into her throne after taking a walk around the New Terran Castle. Toni walked into the Throne Room after Mai and rested her body against the side of Mai's throne. "If I may, my Queen, what happened at Eros?" Toni asked Mai.
"Fink intercepted Eleanor and I as we explored Eros," Mai told Toni. "He somehow knew every move we made before we made them. As if he was as good at predicting the future as Basileus."
Toni processed Mai's description of Fink. She suddenly started walking around and running her fingers through her hair. She stood in front of Mai and stopped everything she was doing. "Robin and I must have been teleporting and time traveling through the space-time continuum so much that we made little time pockets scattered throughout the solar system. I think that if Fink uses one, he could see into the future. There must be one at Eros!"
"Time pockets?" Mai asked.
"Time pockets," Toni repeated. "Little cracks in the fabric of our dimension that will allow us to see past and future events like a Minkowski diagram."
"How do you know all of this?" Mai asked.
"Robin and I always thought that time pockets could be a consequence of our actions," Toni answered. "Now, they're a reality."
Toni began to hyperventilate. "Calm down, Toni!" Mai said, jumping out of her throne. She crouched next to Toni as she sat down. "Calm down. This is all fixable."
"Do you know how much danger we're in?" Toni asked Mai. "If Fink continues to use these time pockets, he could rip this dimension into fragments, like a paper in a shredder. We could go from being alive and well to not existing in a matter of seconds!"
"Fink's locked up," Mai told Toni. "He can't use time pockets anymore."
"Who knows there's not a time pocket in the New Terran Castle?" Toni asked Mai. "Who's to say that there won't be another person who uses time pockets in the future? Oh God, Robin and I have to fix this..."
Toni stood up. "There's work that my brother and I have to do, my Queen. I'm sorry we're leaving at an important time for the New Terrans, but what I'm about to do is necessary for all life. Robin and I will be back as soon as possible."
Mai watched on as Toni left the Throne Room. "Godspeed," she whispered as the doors closed.
YOU ARE READING
New Terra: The Second Season (Volume 2 of the New Terra Trilogy)
Ciencia Ficción"It doesn't have to be this way," Queen Radcliffe called to Fink as the bridge they stood on started to collapse. She loaded York and Paris and aimed at Fink. "Of course it does," Fink called back. "We're all going to Hell eventually. Why delay it?"...
