The Geekorium

The Other travelled with him.

{{% voiceinthedark %}}What will you do with it when you have followed the Ortrix to it’s source?{{% /voiceinthedark %}}

Rex pondered.

“I suppose I’ll see if it can be destroyed, or use it in some way to take Jones’ power away from him again. If I can’t do that, maybe I can stop it being made in the first place.”

{{% voiceinthedark %}}A sound plan,{{% /voiceinthedark %}} his companion replied, {{% voiceinthedark %}}although perhaps more difficult than you expect.{{% /voiceinthedark %}}

“No doubt. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned since I died, it’s that nothing worthwhile is easy.”

The pair sped on into the past.

The time-belt was the Ortrix again.

And now the time-belt.

It wouldn’t stay each way for long. While tracing it backward and forward through time, he’d seen it forged into time-belts and reverted back to something like the Ortrix so many times he wasn’t sure which was the original any more.

Occasionally it had been sent back in time to collect itself with varying levels of success. He held his out-of-body breath as he followed it through the short time Jones had it.

He also wondered about the sneaky joy-ride The Professor had taken it on once.

It took a while.

The Ortrix had led an interesting existence. As the time-belt it had observed the beginning and end of governments, watched the deaths of lovers and seen evil men frustrated over and over again. Empires rose and fell on its unyielding law. When used as a weapon, it more often than not backfired. When used for personal gain, it invariably led to heartbreak.

Those who used it well learned to ride it, saw some sights and left things mostly the way they were.

The time-belt did not allow time to change, but it did cause some mind-bending time loops.

{{% voiceinthedark %}}They are one and the same.{{% /voiceinthedark %}} \

{{% voiceinthedark %}}The power of the Torimbalo was used in the device you observe.{{% /voiceinthedark %}}

The thread Rex had followed hadn’t tapered out, so much as disappeared into itself through the time belt. Squeezing his consciousness through it, like yarn through a needle, he could see the thread emerge from the other end.

He followed it through to another time, pausing to get his bearing while the other slipped through after. As he tried to establish when he was, he noticed the thread looped back on itself and through the time belt again.

“This is going to take a while isn’t it?”

{{% voiceinthedark %}}You are searching for the Torimbalo.{{% /voiceinthedark %}}

“Well I still don’t know what that is,” corrected Rex, “I’m looking for the Ortrix right now.”

Rex continued his clumsy dance through time and space, following the temporally luminous thread of the Ortrix. The Other followed alongside.

On a nondescript planetoid, in a system that no longer existed, the thread unravelled.

Finding where it ended, Rex turned to his companion bewildered.

“This isn’t the Ortrix. This is the time belt!”

Rex crashed through the past.

Following the thread of time, he ricocheted around divergent moments trying to find one that would not alert Jones to his changes.

He found the threads increasingly intertwined about the presence of the Ortrix.

{{% voiceinthedark %}}Where are you headed Rex? {{% /voiceinthedark %}}

The voice of the other startled Rex enough that he misjudged a quantum event and plunged through the fusion-heat of a star seventy thousand years in the past.

“Shoot, man! Don’t do that,” he complained.

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}It’s OK, you don’t have to live with this.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}It’s OK, I’m certain I can change this.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}Jones rested a heavy hand on Rex’s shoulder. Producing a small vial of an indigo liquid from within his cloaks, he leaned in closer.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}His heart heavy with grief, Rex watched the scene unfold again. He had forgotten all of this, but he remembered his heart breaking.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}“I picked this up on a recent mission and I’ve only just confirmed its properties.”{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}“I would only have to change one thing. One tiny little thing.”{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}He unstoppered the vial and took a small whiff.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}He went back to a moment before and hovered over the alarm panel{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}“What were we talking about?”{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}“Come back to me,” he thought.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}Jones looked around uncertainly, noticed Rex - brooding, distressed - and the vial in his own hand. He struggled to keep a smirk off his face.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}A dull pain bubbled its way into his consciousness. He watched his own memories unfold from this moment as the pain slowly increased.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}“Ah yes. This is a memory toxin. A measured dosage could erase all those ghastly images from your head. You wouldn’t have to remember how you found her, or that she was even with you that day.” Jones gripped Rex’s shoulder harder.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}Anrianna heard the alarm and raced to her station early. Rex and The Professor were surprised to see her, but forgot their surprise as the Hundred-Tonne-Husky lurched out of control and began it’s devastating decent toward Nolix.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}Overwhelmed with grief, Rex snatched the fluid from Jones hand and downed the whole bottle. Then he passed out.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}The trio emerged groggy from their synthetic cocoons and Rex’s panic dissolved into joy to see Anrianna safe.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}Taking the vial from Rex’s fingers Jones muttered to himself, “Well that was quite a bit more than I wanted to give you, but no matter, maybe now we can get back to more important matters.”{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}The pain intensified as the next few days played out. As they returned to base and Jones hailed them home, Rex watched the ripples of change flow forward to the future where the new Jones would notice.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}He crushed the empty vial beneath a boot and helped Rex to his feet.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}He left the alarm panel alone and the past remained unchanged.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

{{% timeswap %}} {{% timeline 1 %}}Jones chuckled.{{% /timeline %}} {{% timeline 2 %}}Rex cried.{{% /timeline %}} {{% /timeswap %}}

Leave here. Don’t stay.

The foam dissipates. How long it takes is hard to say.

Rex is conscious now.

He rises slowly, groggily, then frantically as he remembers.

Anrianna is not at her station behind him, and a tiny mewling sound escapes unbidden from Rex’s throat.

He pushes violently at the door release. Punches it. Screams in frustration and pulls the door open with brute strength.

Stumbling down corridors. Door after door.

He finds her.

“…Anrianna…”

Stop this. Look away.

Rex feels the impact like a body slam, even through the impact foam.

Jarring, shuddering pain curses through his body, threatening to liquefy everything inside him. He feels himself losing consciousness.

“Anrianna!” he yells before the darkness covers him.

Please not this.

The Professor is coming around. He realises the predicament and punches a button at his console.

“Why don’t I have that button?” wonders Rex as The Professor’s impact foam surrounds him.

The gelatinous goo encases him and the roaring sound of the ship decomposing in the atmosphere becomes a wash of quiet white noise.

Rex hopes Anrianna was at her station.

Not this. Not this.

The Hundred-Tonne-Husky slammed into the atmosphere, igniting a trail across the sky.

On the ground below, the Nolix heard the thunder and saw the fire and prayed to their deity to spare them.

Aboard the ship, Rex grit his teeth and tried not to black out. Through blurring eyes he could see The Professor passed out at the navigation console.

He could not see Anrianna.

He’d been a bit of a dick.

Rex reran his life in reverse and found himself wanting.

He watched his past heroics from a new perspective and decided he didn’t like the man he’d been.

All the mooks he’d killed and the villains he’d slain had been part of a whole he had no right to alter. The lives he’d destroyed were not, for the most part, evil. And those that were, not irredeemably so.

He saw that now.

Rex went back, way back.

Having watched the Xentash calamity play out in reverse, Rex realised time was as malleable to him as his own form.

He knew interfering with the Xentash would alert Jones to his own ability to bend time, and at that point Jones would never be stopped.

But maybe if he went back to a time before Jones had the Ortrix, he could find a way to unravel it all.

Jones and Havoc skidded to a stop behind the jeep. Backing up against the vehicle, Jones peered around the edge and squeezed the detonator.

The aircraft hanger exploded, showering the pair with fuselage and debris. Uncovering his head, Rex peered over the top of the jeep and had to duck down again as another explosion rocked the airfield. Rex giggled and looked at his chum.

“Let’s go.”

Drawing their weapons the duo emerged from cover either side of the jeep and strode purposefully toward the ruined hangar.

Guards were pouring from the buildings nearby to survey the carnage and were caught unaware as Rex and Jones opened fire. The few remaining guards had found cover and were trying to determine where to fire through the smoke. Rex reached the hatch of the small planetary defence craft on the other side and was urging Jones to move faster.

As Rex took aim at a guard who had spotted them, Jones stooped quickly and scooped something from the ground without missing a step. Watching Rex carefully, he slipped the object into his pocket.

With a sigh, Rex’s consciousness delved into Jones’ pocket, already knowing what he would find. It was a small crystal, imprinted with a holographic map. Watching himself stepping up into the cockpit of the defence craft he wondered how he had been so oblivious.

As Jones joined Rex’s past self in the ship he took one last shot at a guard. Like he’d done with the other guards earlier, Rex slowed the bolt before impact and eased the unconscious guard to the ground as the bolt passed harmlessly overhead.

The mission had been engineered for Jones to get the crystal map and the airport belonged to a rich but benign old man, not Dr Phelchoff as he’d been told at the time.

“Jones, your depravity astounds me,” he thought to himself.

Rex wept for days.

He was responsible for this. A whole planet tortured mercilessly for years, it’s people enslaved, and their world destroyed.

He could barely comprehend it. But he knew it was his fault.

Jones had not known the extent of his powers before. When Rex confronted him and unleashed the fury of the universe, Jones had realised what he himself was capable of.

Then he had used that power to destroy the entire Xentash civilisation.