Chapter 17: Under Siege
"Congratulations on your victory in Aerial Aquatics at Ridgecrest today, Alexa!" said Morgan.
"Thank you, Morgan!" Alexa replied, as she watched a group of faculty members being marched into one of the flying vessels. "Where did you get an army?"
"Those are androids," said Morgan. "Even Futurian technology can't stop them or shut them down."
"What type of rifles are those?" Alexa asked.
"They are memory suppressors," said Morgan. "They can close off most of your memories, so they are inaccessible to your conscious mind. They don't erase your memories, they just suppress them. The people of our era do not kill in wars, that’s what separates us from ephemerals!”
"Why do you need to wait for the Vernal Equinox to activate your alternate timeline generator?" Alexa asked.
"It has to be calibrated so that the alternate timeline is generated on a day when day and night have an equal amount of time. I've done computer simulations, and that is really the best day to establish an alternate timeline. On any other day, there would be problems. If I miss that day, I would have to wait for the Autumnal Equinox in September."
"What are we supposed to do until then?" Alexa asked. "All of the faculty have been captured, so there will be no more classes."
"You can continue with your studies in the library," said Morgan. "In fact, because you're my second in command, I'll put you in charge of making sure the students do their studying."
"What about Victoria?" Alexa asked. "She's still out there somewhere."
"She's the wild card in this equation," said Morgan. "It's possible that she could stop me, but I will do my best to prevent that from happening. Now run along and arrange for the students to study at the library."
For the next hour, Alexa set up study times for the students. Each year had their time in the library, for an hour and a half a day. First year would be in the library from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. and second year would be in their from 9:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. They would break for lunch from 11:00 a.m. until 12:30 a.m.. then at 12:30 p.m. third year students would study until 2:00 p.m. Fourth year students would study from 2:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. and fifth year students would study from 3:30 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. They would break for dinner from 5:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. Sixth year students would study from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. For the time when they weren't in class, the students could study with their electronic tablets.
The next day, Alexa reported to the library at 8:00 a.m. right after breakfast. The other first year students were there, too. Alexa received her lessons for the day and downloaded them into her electronic tablet. She didn't have enough time to study while she was in the library, because she had to pay attention to what study material she had to download for each class, and an hour and a half was just enough time to accomplish that.
Meanwhile, Morgan Lefevre took up residence in the office of Victoria Valerius. If anyone had any questions, they could approach her there. Alexa had a question, so she went to the office. Morgan let her in, and they sat down, Morgan sat in Victoria's old office chair, and Alexa where she normally sat when talking to the headmistress.
"That device you gave me, that can abort your plan," Alexa asked, "does it still work? I still have it."
"It still works, but you are only to use it if Victoria is certain to defeat me. The only reason I gave it to you is so you would appear to be their saviour if they developed a plan to stop me. I want you in their good graces if they capture me."
"Why?" Alexa asked.
"They can throw me in prison for a thousand years, but they would have to release me eventually. Since I can manipulate time, I could come up with another plan and travel back in time and implement it. This cat and mouse game could go on indefinitely."
"So if they defeat you, it would be easy to just try again?" Alexa asked.
"I'll try until I succeed," said Morgan. "There is no death penalty among the Futurians, so there is no legal way for them to stop me permanently. How are you doing with the instructions I gave you?"
"Good," Alexa replied, "I have the students divided up so each year studies in the library for an hour and a half a day, Monday through Friday."
The days went by, and Alexa kept up with her studies. The artificial intelligence at the library and on her electronic tablet negated the need for teachers, so she was able to get ahead. If she had a quiz or exam, she took it and passed. Meal times were a somber experience, even the Verso students weren't thrilled that all of the faculty had been captured and imprisoned on Morgan's scout ships.
By the end of the day on Friday, long after dinner had been served, Alexa took her shrunken captive out of his terrarium and set him on the desk.
"I don't know what to do, Terry! If my friends back home get enslaved by Morgan, I'll feel bad, but if I don't go through with my plan to help Morgan Lefevre, I'll feel bad, too! What should I do?"
"Why is it up to you?" Terry asked.
"I have a device that can abort Morgan's mission," Said Alexa as she pulled the device out of her backpack. "The faculty never found it, but Morgan doesn't want me to use it unless it looks for certain that she will fail on her mission."
Alexa went on the explain how Morgan needed to set her device off on the Vernal Equinox, which was less than a week away. She also explained that Victoria Valeris was missing in action ever since the school was attacked.
"I don't think you should listen to Morgan," said Terry. "The fate of the Earth hangs in the balance. You told me you were raised as a normal 21st century human, so you know how it feels to be one of us. Imagine if you weren't a Futurian, and someone was trying to take over the world."
"But that's just it," said Alexa. "I only found out I was a Futurian just before I attended this school. That makes me angry, so I want revenge against my parents for not telling me sooner!"
Alexa put her captive inside the terrarium, and placed it back on the shelf. She got a message on her communicator, Morgan wanted to see her. She grabbed her backpack, along with her electronic tablet inside, and headed for the office of the headmistress, where Morgan had taken up residence. Once she got there, Morgan was ready to leave.
"I want you to come with me on my flagship."
"Where are we going?" Alexa asked.
"We're heading to south America, to the equator."
Alexa followed Morgan onto her flagship, which was slightly bigger than the scoutships. The gull wing door slid shut, and Morgan sat in the pilot's seat. Alexa strapped herself into the passenger seat. Morgan keyed into the control console, and the flagship took off vertically into the night sky. While they were flying to the equator, they had time for a conversation.
"I want you to see the alternate timeline generator that I've constructed. It's a huge piece of machinery, my androids finished constructing it earlier today."
"Why does it need to be built exactly on the equator?" Alexa asked.
"It just makes it easier when both realities are lined up like this," said Morgan. "If I tried to do it on any other day, there would be problems. It's really too technical to get into, but maybe when you get to your final year at the academy you'll know enough about temporal mechanics to understand."
"What's going to happen to the faculty at the school?" Alexa asked.
"They will be freed as soon as my plan comes to fruition," said Morgan. "I wasn't planning on keeping them prisoner beyond that time, I just needed them out of the way while I implement my goal."
The flagship landed soon after, and touched down on a mountainous area that had been cleared off to form a mesa. The landing platform was big enough for ten flagships, and on one end of the mesa there was a huge construct; it was a massive piece of machinery that was at least three hundred feet high. A cylinder that resembled a cannon was at a forty five degree angle, pointed skyward. There were flood lights illuminating the area, and blue lighting from circuitry shone from the device itself.
"At 2:37 a.m. your time at the academy on Saturday, March 20th, this device will be set off. It will create an alternate reality identical to the world of the ephemerals."
"It's massive!" said Alexa.
"This is why I needed to take over this reality," said Morgan. "The faculty of your academy and other academies on this world would've stopped me from doing this. It took decades of research to be able to find a way to thwart their technology."
"Some of the kids at my school think Victoria is out there somewhere, and that she has a chance to stop you. It's mostly Recto students saying that, though."
"That's actually true," said Morgan. "I haven't been able to locate her with my technology. It's possible that the academy has been working on counter technology that can rival my own."
"How is that possible?" Alexa asked.
"I've been working with inter-dimensional physics and time manipulation," said Morgan, "they may have been focusing on other technologies that can stop me from achieving my goals."
"I'll text you the coordinates of this location, in case you need to come here on your own. I'll prepare a scoutship that you can use for your personal errands."
"That's fantastic!" said Alexa. Morgan texted the coordinates, and Alexa's communicator beeped. Alexa pulled out her communicator and looked at it. "The latitude, longitude and altitude?"
"Yes, if Victoria contacts you and she is able to defeat me, this will give you a way to win her good graces until I can try this again. You might need to give her these coordinates."
"Why is it so important that they think I'm on their side?" Alexa asked.
"I don't want them to be certain that you're my apprentice," said Morgan. "If they stop me this time, it will be okay, because I can try again a year from now. Let me show you how all of this technology works."
They made their way to a control console with dozens of monitors and keyboards.
"Once the alternate timeline is manifested, I'll use this reality splicer to trade futures, so the home reality of the ephemerals will be traded with the new reality I'm generating. This will allow me to rule both realities, without letting anyone else know I'm behind all of this. In eight-hundred thousand a.d. I will be absolute monarch, and when the star cruiser our ancestors were on escapes the supernova and enters the past, I will take over!"
"So you'll rule over your own people?" Alexa asked.
"Yes, eventually, but it will take a long time to get to that point."
The two of them returned to the flagship, and departed. They arrived at the academy, and Alexa and Morgan disembarked. Morgan returned to the office of the head mistress, and Alexa went to the Verso common room. Umbra, Stratus, and Gamma met with her.
"So what happened?" Umbra asked. "Where did she take you?"
"To the equator," Alexa replied. "She has a machine that will generate an alternate reality built on the top of a mountain. The whole top of the mountain was hewn off to make a platform for her machine and for her flagship to land."
"When is she going to set it off?" Umbra asked.
"This Saturday, on March 21st," Alexa replied, "at 2:37 a.m."
Stratus and Gamma high-fived each other. "We'll finally rule!" said Stratus. "As we were meant to!"
"According to Morgan Lefevre, Victoria still might be able to stop her," said Alexa. "Nobody knows where she's at right now, she could have technology that Morgan doesn't know about."
"I doubt it!" said Gamma. "Morgan wouldn't have taken over the school unless she knew what she was doing."
"Don't be too sure about that," said Alexa. "Morgan warned me about Victoria, I don't think she would've said anything if she knew she had this wrapped up."
Umbra, Stratus and Gamma stopped smiling.
"She's right," said Umbra. "Victoria could still throw a wrench into Morgan's plans. If we made it public knowledge that we supported Morgan and she loses, we would be seen as traitors, so we should be careful about showing admiration for Morgan or her plans.