Part Twenty

'Millions of years from now, you will be a legend, Mr Horowitz,' said Haxes.

Terry just nodded, strapped as he was into a large chair, still not quite sure what to make of everything.

'Imagine if you can Mr Horowitz, a Universe where you are a very different person, and not quite so pitiful. A Universe where everyone knows your name, even millions of years in the future, where you are known even beyond the confines of normal space. To many you were a hero. This is you...'

Haxes turned on a large holographic monitor a few feet in front of him. An image of Terry Horowitz appeared on the screen. He appeared to be very much more muscular, and holding a large golden staff, and wearing almost royal garments, with a shorter, militaristic hair cut.

'This man, this version of Terry Horowitz,' continued Haxes, 'was born years before you were. This is the Terry Horowitz that should have been, and the Terry Horowitz which in the long run has caused us to live in such a pathetic way, trapped in a dome to protect us from the sweeping tides of time and space.'

'Do you want to know why you exist?' said another Scavenger. Terry noticed there were now two others in the room, bringing the total to four. Terry nodded.

'Because of a silly old fool called Beiphlat. Millions of years into the future he existed. He wanted to know all about you, or rather the old you. He loved your pathetic legacy, your wife, your children, even the friggin' dog called Rupert. He decided that he would write a book about you, but to do that he would have to break the rules of time. You see before Beiphlat went back to see you, we couldn't get access to time travel devices. Your other self had driven us to the farthest corners of the Universe, and left us there to die. But we survived, and when we heard word of Beiphlat's mighty expedition, we made an almighty push forward into the Space of our enemy. A few of us managed to follow Beiphlat back, but we arrived a few years afterwards, when he was finishing his book. We went straight to kill you, before you could come fully into your power, and we could take it from you. We would give our ancestors the power to rule the Universe, as they should have done all along. Of course they did not know us. Our ancestors were not very similar to us. Our ancestors were the Blieg.'

Terry Horowitz, was stunned at this, he looked at them again more closely. Haxes revealed one arm to have a hand on the end, but the other terminated in a mutilated jaw. He threw back his hood to reveal he had no eyes, only thousands of small white bumps all over his head.

'You see we had evolved. But still we would change things for the good of our people, for our ancestors. We attempted to kill you, but, when Beiphlat found out we had followed him he came out of hiding, and tried to stop us. He was partly successful, in that he tried to alter time with his space/time controller. As he did so time/space altered around us, but he was torn apart and thrown into space, as was your opposite number's wife. We were sent to another part of the universe, but we gradually dwindled in numbers, and had to build this to protect ourselves.'

'We then found the book Beiphlat had written about you. The book was owned by some poor old trader who had somehow found his way off his homeworld. He was selling it on the Universe-wide network, as fiction. We managed to get rid of him, and took the book ourselves hoping that it would lead us to you. We hoped that the more popular it became the more likely it would be that we would be able to find you. That people would seek you out. But it always stayed at 168. No matter what we did something was making sure that only just enough people knew about the book for it to stay at that position. We found out that somehow the trader had eluded our previous attempt to kill him and was managing to live outside the confines of normal space. He was going around altering things. But in the end it was no matter. He even tried to warn you in that forest didn't he? Yes we sensed his presence there. But he was too late.'

'You see, we have managed to capture you at the right time - much later and things would have been too late. Right now you are reaching the age at which time changed for the old you. This version of you is unstable. You see, for your entire life, you have been living in the shadow of this greater version of yourself. But soon you will join your other self in not existing. In five minutes, you will reach the precise age at which your old self ceased to exist. When you reach that age yourself, for a brief moment you will combine with the old Universe where you were a hero. At that moment we will kill you. The effects of this will send us back to the old Universe, with you dead. We will no longer be trapped in our self-made cage, and we will have changed things for good. With the aid of our ancestors, we will rule the Universe!'

There was a brief pause.

'Any questions?' asked Haxes, politely.

'Yes. Why do you want to rule the Universe?'

'What?!?'

'I said why do you want to rule the Universe? I mean ruling the Universe is very good and all but, I mean, what are you going to do when you actually rule it?' enquired Terry Horowitz, who was apparently growing in confidence all the time.

'I would love to kill you now, but I'm going to have to wait five minutes.'

'Shame. I bet you don't even have the guts to fight me on an even playing field, do you? Don't you want to fight the great Terry Horowitz?'

'You are not the great Terry Horowitz! And it wouldn't be an even playing field. You would die a very painful death. But it won't be as precise as we need it too be. So no, I can't.'

'You say I'm pitiful while you live this excuse for an existence...' Terry whispered.

The creature whacked Terry across the face. Suddenly he disappeared for a few seconds, and then phased back in again. Time briefly shifted, and then shifted back again. Terry shook his head and recovered from the shock.

'You're so scared of me aren't you?' teased Terry.

'Stop it!' said Haxes, who threw his large fist through Terry and right through the chair, breaking the chair but leaving Terry intact. The other three Scavengers in the room drew nearer, looking concerned.

Terry moved out of the way as he phased back in to existence. 'I think I'm getting the hang of this,' he murmured to himself.

'You will not stop our plans!' cried Haxes, lunging for Terry. 'Get him!'

'Just five minutes,' thought Terry to himself.

There was the sound of distant gunfire and the whole building rocked. Terry could think of only one explanation - somehow his friends in the Callack organisation had escaped and were coming to his rescue!
While the Scavengers were distracted, he ran out the door.

'No!!!' yelled the Scavenger leader, proceededing after Terry Horowitz. He turned towards his subordinates and shouted, 'Don't let them get in!' - and then carried on.

'We've got to get in,' insisted the Precogiotee, who was now on the bridge of the ship as it assaulted the Scavenger base.

'I'm onto it', replied Recma, somewhat agitated. He fired the ship's weapons at the door until it gave way, then started the automatic landing sequence. 'Right, come on! Let's go!'

The 168th

Greatest Story in the Universe - A Tribute

(Archive)

Vercingetorix

31.07.03 Front Page

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