Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Book 2: Chapter 4: The Division Bell

[Mr Fox]

Raider picked that moment to teleport back to his shop. Hearing the Novas outside he let them in. "York is worse than here. I don't know for sure it was the Moon people, but something caused it, it wasn't a natural phenomenon."

[SalmonMax]

Ashley jumped when Raider appeared literally out of nowhere, but listened to his report.

"Newborough wasn't attacked from the outside," she tells him. "Basically, all the novas living here went crazy...went aberrant...and finally were forced to leave. Have you been in touch with Doug? Wasn't he going to find his girlfriend?"

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: Courier

"They didn't want you like this. They wanted you as mindless as the York types. And if we let them do it again, that's what you'll be."

"Men on the moon who can turn novas into aberrants. Perhaps you have become insane in the time you were gone. No person has ever had that power, to make monsters out of gods. And you, what would you do against such a foe if they did exist?"

[Mr Fox]

Raider looked at the other novas. "Yeah, I heard from him. He's talking with KB. Thing is, I'd be willing to bet the same thing happened all over the world. Something like this is a serious issue. Honestly until we get us all back together and talk, I'm at a loss on what to do next. We just don't have enough pieces of the puzzle."

He started ticking points off with his fingers as he talked, "First we don't know for sure whether it was the Moon people that did this. It could have been someone down here that was trying to increase the power levels of the novas and instead caused everyone to lose the battle with taint. Second, is there any civilization left on the Earth? Are there any cities at all? If so then someone there might know something. Third, if it was the moon people can we even face them. They have technology way beyond us. Hell, they could have progressed another decade since we've been back, or a hundred or even a thousand years."

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: jameson (ST)

"Men on the moon who can turn novas into aberrants. Perhaps you have become insane in the time you were gone. No person has ever had that power, to make monsters out of gods. And you, what would you do against such a foe if they did exist?"

Doug said somewhat bitterly,

"Oh, they exist. A city under a time field with thousands of really, REALLY weak novas. They came out of the time field after tens of thousands of subjective years thinking that all the novas and abberants died in the burn and expecting to own Earth. So they tried to step on us like we'd exterminate a wasp nest."

Doug paused then let some more of the bitterness he felt show through, "It was kind of bazaar talking to them. One moment they're talking about how ethical they are, how since we're poor and struggle WE'RE the unethical ones, the ones introducing violence."

Doug continued with an obviously false sincerity, "Oh, but it turns out that they moved the rock so it'd kill us. Of course it wasn't their fault since they didn't know about us... but being ethical creatures, it never occurred to them that they should blow it up before it hit us... because that would be taking actions and interfering. Of course when it came to saving their own lives they were more proactive."

Doug continued to talk, now with a false voice mimicking someone, "Oh, and by the way, just be sadistic and to show how powerful we are, we've moved you forward in time by 4 years. Everyone thinks you're dead."

Now with obvious hatred Doug said, "They arrested the bozo who did that, but get this, not for what he did to us because it wasn't a crime. After all we're just abberants, it's not like we have rights or feelings. They also refused to take mass murder off the table as an option, presumably for the same reason."

Now in full rant mode Doug said, "So YES! THEY DID THIS! They did it to you. They did it to me. They did it to the world. And even the ones who bragged about how ethical they are didn't see a problem with it. And I WANT THEM DEAD! THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE!"

Breathing heavily Doug stopped for a moment and held up a hand to show he was collecting his thoughts, he said almost calmly, "And I know how to kill them."

Doug looked at KB in the eyes and said, "They're telepathic but you and I both have mind shields. It can be done. That time field makes it look easy. They spend years getting ready for their little feats. One quick and brutal blow could make their civilization fall apart. Bring them crashing down like they brought us crashing down. It'd even be easy. Raider saved one of the burn weapons. They're thinking of us as bees who don't think or care, they won't see it coming."

[Joani]

Anna looked at Raider as if he declared the end of the world.

"Then they are unstoppable?", she flatly stated.

"Is there any reason for us to go on now? People hate us now more than ever. I saw it in their eyes. What good can we do if no one cares? I think the moon people won...", she slumped her shoulders forward and slowly let herself slide down to the floor until she sat. Giving her huge size she could still look the others in the eyes. Sad tears ran down her cheeks but she didn't cry.

[Mr Fox]

"I don't know. We need more information. Has anyone seen James since we came back, we could use his brain on this problem too." Raider was very close to despair himself, but he was trying to keep up a brave face. They had a nuke, but he wasn't completely convinced even with his stealth abilities they would be able to use it, assuming they should.

[Gregory]

"Yeah.." Gregory spoke once more. "James is smart. He might know who could do this to this...besides the moon people." Gregory hoped it was not the moon people. They were strong and they could see him. That thought sent a shudder through him: his survival depended on stealth.

[SalmonMax]

Ash shook her head. "Haven't seen him. And frankly, if he's that smart he'll keep out of sight. The people around here are -not- happy around obvious mutations. Anna might have had problems if I hadn't been there."

She grimaces and rubs the back of her head.

"We need to regroup. Give Doug a call on the head-phone and we'll find a safe place to get everyone together and work out our next step."

[Joani]

Anna swallowed hard and nodded in agreement. "I... I tell him. Hold on"

*Doug - we need to regroup. The people hates us now. You know somewhere safe to go?*

"Done.", she said wiping away the tears that ran down her cheeks. She wasn't really crying but sadness made her shed tears.

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Now in full rant mode Doug said, "So YES! THEY DID THIS! They did it to you. They did it to me. They did it to the world. And even the ones who bragged about how ethical they are didn't see a problem with it. And I WANT THEM DEAD! THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE!"

Breathing heavily Doug stopped for a moment and held up a hand to show he was collecting his thoughts, he said almost calmly, "And I know how to kill them."

"Then lets kill them. We will show them that we wield the power of GODS!" The glow of her body grew as did the feel of static electricity in the air. Wind whipped up and overhead clouds began to form, "Let us not waste any more time, I wish to see their cities burn!"

[Courier]

KB's statements struck a cord in Doug. *Can it really be that simple? There is no cure. Accept it. If you love her you have to accept her as she is. And while you're at it, you have to accept the world as it is and not what you want it to be.*

Inside Doug buried all the anguish, grief, and anger he was feeling and let it turn into something else. *Survival is over rated.*

Slowly Doug nodded and general goals started to become specific plans. Doug stood and said softly, "So do I. KB, how many Novas do you know now? Who is still around?"

(Doug has changed his nature from Survivor to Bravo)

Originally Posted By: Joani Reikspar

*Doug - we need to regroup. The people hates us now. You know somewhere safe to go?*

Doug closed his eyes to let KB know he was communicating and said both out loud and mentally, "It doesn't matter. Raider's shop is as good a place as any. KB and I will deal with anyone who insists on causing problems."

Doug said to KB, "We'll talk on the way."

[Joani]

"Doug says we can meet here, this is as safe as any other place he knows. Should anyone cause problems he and KB would take care of it.", Anna said without thinking much about Dougs implied threat. She was still completely devestated by what happened and had trouble to recover from the incident with the baselines. Now no one cared if she still was 'normal' inside because she didn't look like it on the outside. Anna looked at Ashley with a mixture of sadness and abandoned hope. She felt like dying.

[jameson (ST)]

"As you wish. Let's be quick, I long to crush those who would dare take you away from me." She watched him through narrowed eyes for a moment as if gauging his reaction, she seemed willing to take him at his word but still distrustful how he could be so unchanged after four hard years. The two streaked across the sky toward Newborough and Raider's former shop. As they swung low over the city Doug could see the baselines pointing into the air and quickly running inside or slinging rifles from off their backs.

The whole trip took less than five minutes and KB, careless of the damage tore into one of the holes in the building's roof until to was large enough for her to slip through. She looked up at Doug, "Come, I do not wish to wait any longer."

[Courier]

Doug hovered over the hole and then went in. He said and sent over the link, "We're back at the Shop. Anna, if you and Ash need a pick up just say so."

[SalmonMax]

"That'd be them, I'm guessing," Ash comments dryly as she sees the couple barreling through the sky and then down through the roof.

"As subtle as ever."

[Courier]

Doug looked around and spotted everyone. He said, "Yeah, basically."

Doug paused then decided it didn't really matter, "I think we've gotten the Moon people's answer on whether or not they're willing to take mass murder off the table."

[Gregory]

He watched at KB and Doug flew overhead and began to destroy the roofing to Raider's shop. Whatever was going on, the two of them were not happy. When Doug spoke, Gregory knew why. Doug and KB had come to the conclusion that the people on the moon turned everyone abbie.

It still didn't make sense and despite his treatment by the lunar people, he did not share Doug's feelings about them. He grabbed the edge of the roof and hauled himself up onto it. He followed Doug and KB into the interior, his skin changing to match the surroundings. He listened to the two of them for a few minutes. Eavesdropping was always a good way to find out what someone really means: people said things they did not say in front of others.

[SalmonMax]

"That's a pretty big assumption," Ashley pointed out. "We were gone for four years. A lot could have happened. We need to learn more before we start picking targets."

[Mr Fox]

Raider nodded at Ashley's words. "She's right Doug. We only have one hammer. We'd better make damn sure we hit the right nail."

[Joani]

Anna jerked up alarmed, "Wait a second - are you planning to retaliate? What sense would that make? It wouldn't fix what happened here - they've won, we lost. All we can do is go away..."

The large plant like girl's will had been broken but she still wouldn't allow mass murder. It was against her ethics.

[Mr Fox]

Raider frowned, "Win or lose, I'm not going to give up and go away. If the moonies did this, and I stress that we don't know for sure they did yet, then they will have proven themselves willing to commit genocide against us. For that they don't deserve to live. But I'm not going to retaliate until we have more information. I want to know that we are going after the right target."

[Courier]

Doug replied to Ashley and Raider sarcastically, "Sure. No doubt it was some other group of god-like ethical mass murderers who think novas are scum and should be killed like rabid dogs."

Doug said harshly, "They might as well have signed their names to it. We all know this, we're just trying to NOT face up to the reality."

Originally Posted By: Joani Reikspar

Anna jerked up alarmed, "Wait a second - are you planning to retaliate? What sense would that make? It wouldn't fix what happened here - they've won, we lost. All we can do is go away..."

Doug replied, "It's not over. They're going to keep killing people, specifically all of us, until we make them stop. So yes, I want to retaliate. I even have a way to find out whether or not they did it."

Doug nodded to Raider in acknowledgment of his point. "If we're going to do something, we need to have them in our time stream. So... I propose that I go up and ask them whether or not they did it. I'm the only one without aberrations, they'll react a little more positively to me."

Doug continued, "There are two factions up there. The one in charge when we left would either lie or appoligize for the inconvenience." Doug said that last word with especial bitterness. "If they lie, I'll know. If the other faction is there they'll probably brag about it."

Doug shrugged and said, "Raider will start the next stage 30 minutes after I go in. If they didn't do it, then I'll call off the next stage when he teleports in. And they're telepathic. If anyone is planning on insisting they come with me then you need a mind shield to hear about the next stage."

[Joani]

"And when they're all dead? What then? What if it is really us who are the 'bad guys'? I never knew what taint was but look at what it did to me. This is not what I wanted.", she looked down at herself, at her freakingly large body that was half covered with leaves. She looked more like a plant than a human.

"Killing them won't give me my life back... it changes nothing."

[Courier]

Doug says, "Anna... look at this city. What it was like. What it is like now. They ripped the heart out of it like stepping on an ant. How many people did they kill when they pulled their trigger? A thousand? Five thousand? More?"

"And we're just the start of it. World wide... world wide I think we're looking at millions of people. Much, MUCH worse, they've eliminated the heart of civilization. They did what they did so we couldn't rebuild the world."

"Killing them won't bring back anyone, but this world isn't going to get back onto it's feet until they're dead. And that's if we're lucky. If we're not lucky, then they did their thing so that no one could stop their next rock which will end all life on the planet!"

[Joani]

Anna flinched away from Doug scared of him, "Please stop, Doug. You are scaring me."

As a natural response to feeling threatened Anna started to grow while she tried to get into a defensive position. She wasn't sure if they were still friends now. Doug was determined and he was hurt and was that KB next to him? What happened to her? Anna didn't know what would happen next.

[SalmonMax]

"You've lost it," Ash said flatly, staring at Doug. "You've completely lost it."

She looks at Raider. "Can he do anything about that nuke without you?"

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"You've lost it," Ash said flatly, staring at Doug. "You've completely lost it."

Doug looked at Ash coldly for a moment then he barked a laugh and said, "I keep forgetting you're not in the link. You miss a lot of information that way, you should think about joining." Doug gave Ash a grim smile and said, "Raider went to York. Gregory poked around outside the city limits here. I've got good news and bad news for you."

In a mockingly cheerful voice Doug said, "The good news is you don't need to worry about freeing the slaves in York any more. Our oh so ethical fellows on the moon have dealt with that situation." In a dead-pan serious voice Doug continued, "The bad news is they're dead."

[SalmonMax]

"No, actually Raider told me," Ash demurs. "When Anna and I got here. And it doesn't change anything. Aberrants enslaved them and aberrants killed them, and I still want justice. Real justice. Which means making sure."

[Mr Fox]

Raider was not happy. "Doug my point is that the moonies were NOT the only ones big powerful and crazy. The York novas were crazy enough to do something stupid. They might well have caused this. They could have been trying to increase nova power levels and miscalculated. I heard a rumor once that novas were first caused by someone jacking with quantum energies and deliberately poisoned the atmosphere with it to turn people into novas. Might not be true, but that's the sort of thing I wouldn't put past the Yorkers."

Looking to Ash. "You are making a dangerous assumption. I never said I had a nuke. I said we have one hammer. That doesn't necessarily mean nuke, and for someone without mental barriers to be speculating on that isn't very wise. Perhaps I shouldn't have spoken so directly, but please do you best not to even think that word until after we resolve what we are going to do."

[Gregory]

Gregory jumped down through the hole in the roof made by Doug. He looked at the others and spoke, his voice calm, but firm.

"We can't attack anyone until we know for sure." Gregory had to supress a shudder as he remembered the time Doug killed that man before finding out if he was really the man. The young scout began to wonder if Doug's issues were not resurfacing and the murderous rage returning.

"We are better than them. We can't kill people who might be innocent. We become like them. We need to make sure who did it." Gregory prepared to counsel Doug and KB, if needed, to help the two through their anger issues. There was no way he would let Doug commit slaughter against people who might be innocent. More investigation would be needed.

[jameson (ST)]

Her body fairly well crackling with power KB scoffed, "We are gods, we make our own morality! You have one of the weapons of the burn yes? Then we shall use it and our enemies shall tremble and bow before us! The power is ours to seize, to have, to control. We have the power and none can stop us!"

[Courier]

*Well, that's what I get for telling her. Fine, we move forward.*

Doug said to Gregory, "Innocent? Of mass murder? You must mean of this mass murder since we know they were behind the rock."

Doug said to Raider, "Might. York might have had the knowledge. Might have been doing the research. Might had the ability. Might have been stupid enough to try it."

"Sure. But the Loonies told us they were doing the research. They told us they'd tried mass murder before. They told us it wasn't a crime. They even told us the world had passed us by, and they refused to rule out more mass murders."

"I think they knew. That's why they refused to take future mass murders off the table. They'd knew what they'd done before we warped out of the meeting. It just never occurred to us to ask what other acts of genocide they'd been up to."

Doug threw his hands up in exasperation and said, "But fine. Let's prove it. Let's NOT act if we find out they're innocent lambs. But maybe we should pretend they have the motivation, the power, the opportunity, AND a history of pulling this kind of shit?"

"If we go back up there and ask them, they'll tell us, like they did before. And if we have no planning on what to do WHEN we find out they did it, we lose. Just like we lost the LAST time we treated them as decent human beings."

[Gregory]

If he could get Doug to think he agreed with him....

"So you agree then?" Gregory asked somewhat innocently, seeking to evade Doug's attempt at persuasion by throwing him off guard. Gregry knew he was not as smart as Doug, so it was necessary to get him to change the subject or the object of his attention.

"I'm glad that we see eye to eye." Gregory then said, hoping that it would at least ease Doug's conviction.

[Courier]

Doug asked stupidly, "Agree? Why is that even... oh. Oh! Right... you don't know. Because I haven't told you."

Doug sighed and said, "OK everyone, it's confession time. Especially since James isn't here and he was the one I was hiding this from. KB knows. Raider might have figured it out, but I need to tell the rest of you."

"I know when someone is lying to me. It's a trader thing, I just found that I was getting better and better at it, and now when I focus, like at the meeting with the moon people, it's an actual extra sense. That means my experience listening to them was different from everyone else's."

{Lie Detector On: I'll assume someone will test me on this at some point.}

"And shock, there were times when they lied to us. When they said that it was an abby who pushed the rock so it'd kill the Earth? That was a lie. I don't know that they did it themselves, but that's the only way I can see how they'd know and why they'd bother lying about it."

"They were telling the truth when they said they hadn't expected anyone to survive the burn however and that the rock was supposed to bury all the radiation. Of course they also knew that we were here long before the rock hit... and they did... nothing."

"They were also telling the truth when they said the world had moved past us, and they were telling the truth when they said that one side of that political mess was taking advantage of us being stuck in the time field."

"And that ass who said nothing he'd done to us was a crime? That was true. Moving us forward in time and getting our families to think we're dead? No crime there. We're aberrants after all."

[Mr Fox]

Raider nodded as Doug spoke. "I don't have Doug's sense of lie detection, but he is right. Whether the moonies are responsible for all novas devolving into aberrants in the four years we were gone is only part of the issue. I agree with Doug, I believe they were responsible for the comet that was on it's way to wipe out the planet. Whether they pushed it at us or not, they were willfully allowing it to come down and smash the Earth in the hope that it would bury the remaining radiation left over from the burn, and in the process they cared nothing at all that there were people still here."

As he was speaking Raider had stood up and begun to pace. After he said that last he stopped and turned to face everyone. "It's worse than willful destruction of the remainder of mankind. I believe they may have engineered the Burn itself. Their words, 'We hadn't expected anyone to survive the burn.' How would they have 'expected' something about that if they weren't there and watching when it happened. We know they can manipulate time. We know they lived thousands of years on the moon, presumably by accelerating time to a very high degree. My theory is that they caused the burn to rid the world of us, or at the very least they allowed it to happen, then not expecting anyone to survive they slowed their own timeframe down in order to not have to wait between the time of the burn and the time the comet buried the radiation that the burn caused. They expected to inherit a blank empty world, but instead we shifted the comets trajectory enough that it didn't hit us after all."

"I think they are responsible for both the Burn and the Comet. I don't have facts to back that up but it is a very solid theory that fits all the facts that I do have. I am sorry I didn't put this together before now."

[SalmonMax]

Ash stares at Raider in disbelief.

"What, is it -catching-?" she asks. "Is insanity a virus now? Hell, for all we know, it is. I mean, he goes to his girlfriend, he gets it...he comes back, gives it to you..."

She turns away and rubs her forehead.

"This is getting too weird for me."

[Courier]

Inwardly Doug smiled, he'd missed the part about the burn but Raider was coming on board. Many times he'd taken part in talks designed to do nothing other than let people convince themselves of the obvious. Maybe in another hour or so and they'd be good to go.

Doug commented, "And they claim they know a hell of a lot more about taint than we do now. They weren't lying about that either, they might be mistaken but they were serious about thinking they knew more than we do. Of course, just because they're the world's leading experts on how to build a 'Taint Bomb' doesn't mean they actually did so and then used it."

"Anyway, they want a clean Earth, they just eliminated the vast bulk of the world's technology and organized opposition. Their next move is..." Doug frowned, "...Nothing. There's two political factions up there and what passes for the 'peace' group was in charge when we left. I doubt they'll act against us until they win the next election or whatever."

Doug gave a forced grin, he wasn't going to like the next part but it had to be said, "I'm open to other plans than force. We have some time... of course for them the next election might be in days or hours."

With a certain grim humor Doug said, "We could send them a peace delegation. You know, ask them to not commit any more war crimes against us and let them know we'd like to be friends.... of course that didn't work out real well the last time we tried that. Their 'peace' group may not want to kill all of us but they are NOT going to hand over their war criminals for trial."

Doug gave a very forced and savage grin that was more of a snarl, "That asshole who bragged about how he'd screwed us over wasn't lying about that. Nothing he did to us is a crime."

[Mr Fox]

Raider shook his head, "Doug the next election might have been centuries ago in their subjective time, in fact it probably was. I imagine they would have shunted out of normal time the second we stepped out of there. What I don't know is which way they would have shunted. If they viewed us as even s small threat they would have speed up time for themselves to give plenty of time to prepare for anything we might do. If they viewed us as no threat at all then they might have switched to slow time to wait us out in comfort. If I had to bet though, I'd guess they sped things up to get their political wrangling out of the way so they would be united if they needed to act against us."

[SalmonMax]

"None of you have any idea what you're talking about," Ash points out. "We have no idea what they can, or can't do, or what limits they have. It's pure speculation. And they're on the moon, so facts are going to be hard to come by. Lets stick with what we can actually do something about."