Post by redsycorax on Dec 22, 2021 2:07:41 GMT
On Earth-109. after a brutal nuclear war in October 1962 over Soviet ICBMs stationed in Cuba destroyed the United States and USSR, Canada emerged as one of the post-apocalyptic world's great powers. Its greatest heroes are Tina Turbine, niece of the Justice Guild's Tom Turbine and Catwoman (Denise Blake), adopted daughter of Justice Guilder Catman. However, they are not the only survivors of the pre-war world with metahuman or anomalous abilities...
++
PROLOGUE: OCTOBER 29, 1962:
A solitary Cybernoid struggled through the undergrowth in the Florida Everglades, its senses deranged by the tragedy that had befallen it. The individual Cybernoid had been secreted downtime as a sleeper agent in 1960, as its arrogant ruler, Cybernoid One, sought to unleash it against its hated enemies, the Justice Guild of America, when the time came. However, fate took a turn as the timestream abruptly changed due to excessive temporal travel and the causal sequence that had led to the rise of the Cybernoids and their conquest of future Earth was disrupted, due to the nuclear war that broke out after human error during the Cuban missile crisis caused rapid escalation into a nuclear holocaust.
The sole surviving Cybernoid hadn't been damaged by the three megaton device that had obliterated Miami, but around it, gnarled magnolias were aflame, as was methane from the swamp environment on the surface of the swampwater itself. Ignoring the destruction of nature around it, the Cybernoid tried repeatedly and desperately to contact Cybernoid One, Metallika Command and its twenty-fifth century civilisation. All that occurred was an emptiness, not even static interference. At last, Cybernoid Paradox (as it later designated itself) recognised the grim truth- its timeline no longer existed and it was the sole survivor of Cybernoidkind. It also realised that its mission was no longer operative, given the obliteration of the Justice Guild in distant Seaboard City, several hundred miles to the north, targeted in its turn. However, Cybernoid Paradox had no human emotions, so it could not exult at its ironic 'triumph' over these core enemies of his cyberspecies. At last, after what seemed hours, it finally located its dormition capsule and deactivated. As another nuclear device detonated over Orlando, the resultant shock wave demolished the ruins of the Everglades and the capsule sank beneath the waves...
AUGUST 1982: TORONTO:
As they stood over the corpse in the Toronto City Metropolitan Police Department morgue, Tina Turbine turned away as her stomach clenched. It was just as well that her comrade Denise (Catwoman) Blake was the analytical, detective half of the Worlds Greatest Partnership. After peering through her microscanner, Catwoman looked up, a pensive expression on her face:
"We have trouble, amiga. I've seen tear marks and incisions like this only once before and that was back in Seaboard City, nearly two decades ago."
"So there's no chance that this might be a human serial killer?"
Catwoman shook her head: "That would be bad enough, but we're dealing with other than human strength here. Even the strongest, most determined human serial killer couldn't cause that much damage without the use of ancillary weapons. However, this was done directly. Okay. Switching to subatomic particle display. There. Oh, blazes."
Tina Turbine may have lacked Catwoman's prowess when it came to biology and forensic science, but she was a peerless physicist. She knew what the particle trajectories meant and what they implied:
"Those are tachyon squall pulses. Can it be them, Denise? I thought they were all erased from existence when the nuclear war happened and aborted the causal sequence that led to their original timeline. No, wait a minute. Those tachyon tracks show diminished amplitude. Which implies that if that is one of them, it must have been here for quite some time."
Catwoman nodded: "From which we can infer that at least one Cybernoid survived the discontinuation of their timeline, probably because it was downtime, before the point at which history changed. And when it did..."
"When it did, it must have been stranded here. Which raises issues in itself. They're networked. They were supposed to be slaved to Cybernoid One and Tekne, its artificial intelligence. But those no longer exist. And given the fury with which these poor people were attacked and the evisceration they suffered, it may be experiencing the AI equivalent of psychosis."
"But why now? It's been almost twenty years since the Third World War. Tina, we need backup. Even with the oomph your powerbelt carries, we won't be able to bring it in alone."
Elsewhere in the sprawling second Canadian capital, a nondescript tailors shop held its own secrets. Few people could have been aware that the tall well-dressed man and his shorter female blond associate who had entered it had other intentions than tending to the male partner's sartorial needs. A shopkeeper stood aside as the man and woman entered a changing cubicle, and the woman opened a panel and tapped out a certain alphanumeric sequence. Seconds later, a hidden doorway slid open and the couple walked into a bustling office as an immaculately dressed older woman arose from her desk:
"What's going on, Mrs Wyatt?"
Alexandra Wyatt had once been a British naval commander and although retired from that arena of active service many years before, she still held herself in a disciplined and methodical manner:
"Mr Deuce, Ms. Korsakov. We have been asked to assist two metahumans, namely Tina Turbine and Catwoman, in their latest endeavour. Anton Dubois has been dispatched to safeguard their husbands and teenage children, but I decided that this case required our best field agents. Have you heard of the Cybernoids?"
The blond woman nodded. When she spoke, it was with a faint Russian accent: "Yes, even within the Soviet Union before its destruction. For once, the United States was only too happy to share intelligence details about the nature of the shared threat with other than its usual partners. Enemies of the pre-war Justice Guild of America, believed to be from an alternative timeline where there was no nuclear war in October 1962. Which, in itself, presents a paradox."
"Hang on. If they come from an alternate future which no longer exists, why, then, does this creature continue to do so?" Deuce asked.
"Because, Hannibal, Catwoman has deduced that it must have originally been sent back to an earlier period of history before the point where its history diverged from our own."
"So why has it only emerged now?"
"From what Catwoman and Tina Turbine have shared with us, this Cybernoid Paradox may have been damaged during the nuclear war. They are not invulnerable and the electromagnetic pulses and intense radioactivity of wartime and its aftermath may have sent it into dormancy. At which point, Ms Turbine suggests, it may have activated self-repair responses. She also argues that this predatory robot may be deranged by the loss of its species and its temporal period of origin."
OUTSIDE THE HOCKEY HALL OF FAME, EXHIBITION PLACE:
"Seriously, could Alexandra have picked a more quintessentially Canadian meeting place?" Catwoman sighed.
"It's just as well that it isn't New Stanley Cup time, or the area would have been packed. Thank goodness we didn't tell the kids about this, Denise. I can just hear Tommy and Donna begging us to get autographs from the Blue Jays."
"Just Tommy and Donna, Chrissie?"
"All right, yes, Stephen too. That's what we get for marrying into Toronto society, amiga. Our husbands turn into raving banshees every hockey season, particularly if the Jays are having a rough season."
"Ah, these must be our contacts." Catwoman said, as the two newcomers stopped in front of the most hallowed place of worship in Canada, as anyone who has ever been in Toronto when their native sons are engaged in the game of games can readily attest. Be that as it may, Hannibal Deuce and Ilena Korsakov produced their identification badges:
"Deuce and Korsakov, UNITY Toronto."
"Pleased to meet you both. Korsakov? Are you Russian?"
Ilena Korsakov nodded: "Will that be a problem?"
"Not at all. We may be American born but I think neither side in the Third World War can claim moral superiority. Enough civilians died on either side to justify that perspective. It's pointless to assign blame on the basis of who fired first. Both sides were engaged in provocative brinkmanship, the United States as much as the USSR. And at least there are still pockets of American survivors."
Korsakov sighed: "I lost my family in the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War and the recovery from that harrowing period of our history. When I was assigned to UNITY in 1961, I left the Soviet Union with no regrets. UNITY was supposed to be a sign of fraternal co-existence between our nation and the rest of the world. Except the USSR was obliterated in the War. For which I do not hold you personally responsible. I have read about your relatives exploits in the Justice Guild. They were valiant and heroic people. They died defending others, or trying to do so."
"Thank you, Ms Korsakov. As always, Alexandra Wyatt made a wise choice in sending UNITY's best field agents to assist us."
"So, what can you tell us about the Cybernoids?"
Tina Turbine took up the story: "Apparently, they originate from an alternate future to our own, which no longer exists because there was never a nuclear war in October 1962 in the history that led to their emergence. From what my uncle, Tom Turbine, was able to determine, in "their" 2059, a brilliant robotics scientist named Gina Morrow designed a species of sentient robots who would undertake exploration and civil defence duties. Unfortunately, she harboured grandiose ambitions and tried to use them to seize control of that period's world government. That ploy failed, but in the process, one of the elite echelon of these robots acquired independent rationality and started a protracted conflict against humanity, the so-called "World War R." By 2061, the Cybernoids had evicted humanity from Earth, leading to emergency colonisation of the other planets and habitable planetary sized satellites within the solar system. For four hundred years or so, it remained like that. Then Uncle Tom discovered their existence and Cybernoid One sought to make the existence of their timeline more concrete. However, from what Uncle Tom deduced later, the use of time travel caused some sort of abreaction and changed the course of history at what must have been a 'pressure point'- which, I think, turned out to be the outbreak of the Third World War when a Soviet submarine commander miscalculated and fired on a US Navy vessel with a nuclear-tipped torpedo. And so, the Cybernoids ceased to exist, or so we believed until two days ago."
"So why has it revived now?"
SEABOARD CITY OUTSKIRTS, CONNECTICUT:
From several kilometres away, Cybernoid Paradox witnessed the absurdity of puppeted life in Seaboard City, revivified into a grotesque facade of idyllic pre-war conservatism and ersatz innocence. But Cybernoid Paradox's sensors were not fooled. Beneath the gleaming city streets and pristine buildings, there were terrorised individuals who dared not acknowledge the horror that beset their everyday lives, especially if they defied the whims and wilful deception of the misshapen mutant who was now Ray Thompson. Fortunately, although Thompson was a prodigious telepath and highly adept when it came to use of telekinesis, there were limits to his abilities. For example, he could not detect the cognitive processes of an artificial intelligence, like Cybernoid Paradox and the robot did not wish to violate the insubstantial charades that it viewed in the city. For Thompson to resort to this, Cybernoid Paradox concluded, the Justice Guild must have perished during the War. Which suited it well. Indeed, there was no sign of the habitual reportoire that the Guild used. There were the twisted skeletons of Tom Turbine offshore and Catman within the demolished facade of the Justice Guild brownstone. No residual radiation emissions conformed to the superheavy anomalous transuranic element that formed Green Guardsman's power ring. There were no sonic registers that matched that of the Black Siren's supersonic cry. Nor was there the electromagnetic disturbance that usually accompanied the Streak's use of his superspeed. Which left the troublesome "Young Justice Guild". However, despite hacking into what remained of the global surveillance satellite network, Cybernoid Paradox could not detect any analogous signs of activity from the secondary power ring of Simon (Kid Guardsman) Mason or the supersonic cry of Doreen (Mynah) Vance, or electromagnetic residue that might have accompanied the survival of Warrick (Boy Streak) Allon. Ergo, those alternative threats were no longer in existence either. However, much to what would have been its displeasure had it had emotions to register the resultant unwelcome surprise, it also detected the energy configuration of a functional powerbelt, which meant that at least Christina Terell ("Tina Turbine") had somehow survived the apocalypse. As it then switched focus to Tina Turbine, it would have been surprised to detect television broadcasts from Canada, to the north. Humans had survived. When the might and grandeur of the Cybernoids had perished. And moreover, Terell was alive, even now. And also... Denise Blake, "Catgirl", although she had matured into a "Catwoman" now. Undetected by the capricious and unaware Ray Thompson, Cybernoid Paradox turned and began to travel toward the fortifications of the Canadian border...
SAND POINT LAKE MUSEUM, ONTARIO:
As with many other former border towns in British Columbia, Ontario, Sasketchewan, Quebec and Nova Scotia, the post-war years had not been kind to the isolated Ontario community of Sand Point Lake. Bordering what remained of the former US state of Michigan, the former airport site had once been a bustling entrepot for Canadian citizens intending to visit the United States and vica versa. But in October 1962, Lansing, Detroit and Grand Rapids were all targeted by Soviet ICBMs and the resultant radiation footprint, mutated births, cancer and leaukaemia spikes and soil sterility from radioactive pollution and downplume acid rain had wrought quiet desperation and consequent federal evacuation from Toronto to more hospitable areas of the True North.
Cybernoid Paradox crossed the border unseen at night, his inhuman mechanatomy not triggering the heat sensors on the Canadian side as a human 'greenback' illegal immigrant from the other side might have. Silently but surely, the robot mounted the border wall and then dropped silently to the Canadian side. His sensors indicated that Toronto was about one hundred and fifty four kilometres or ninety six miles to the north via the Queen Elizabeth Way highway, named for the long since dead former Queen of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, whose son, now Charles III, had been visiting Toronto when the bombs hit Vancouver, Ottawa and the other side of the border and who had settled there.
And it was there that its run of good fortune abruptly ended, as a searchlight arc flashed onward and Paradox found itself surrounded by two baseline humans and two costumed figures identifiable as "Catwoman" and "Tina Turbine." Its visual sensors adjusted to the light array and it stood its ground:
"You are under arrest as an anomalous intruder within the Dominion of Canada. Do not move."
"Would you be able to stop me if I did so?"
Tina Turbine replied: "That remains to be seen. I've met your species before, as a teenage member of the Young Justice Guild in the sixties and so has Catwoman. These two UNITY agents have been equipped to deal with you should you attempt combat."
"So you would complete the extinction of my species? I believe the human term for what you plan is 'genocide.'"
"Only if you resist apprehension, Cybernoid. Unfortunately, your species has attacked humans several times beforehand. A Canadian Border Service Agency deep crossborder liaison agent was killed several days ago and the killer's modus operandi is consistent with your species' previously observed mode of attack. Trace metal analysis revealed residue consistent with your manufacture. You killed a human being without reason and without mercy."
"Such selective cognition and moralism, Tina Turbine. What about the entire Cybernoid species? Sixteen million Cybernoids were obliterated when your own species recklessness took it over the precipice into nuclear war, aborting my own species timeline and leaving me its only survivor."
"So that gives you leave to wantonly slaughter humans?" Catwoman asked.
"The Canadian border agent attacked me first. It was self-defence."
"Look, I'd be the first to admit that the CBSA has itchy trigger fingers and that there have been...incidents...over the last sixteen years. But Canada is a functioning democratic state and any unprovoked incidents from this side have been punished swiftly and surely by Toronto." Catwoman replied.
"We don't want to have to kill you. If you surrender now, you will be treated mercifully. Perhaps you can assist us with the Daedalus spaceflight development project, and you can be provided with resources enough to re-engineer your own species on a suitable exoplanet."
"Surely you realise that in my own original timeline, humans maintained a spiteful cordon sanitaire around the Earth that they had been evicted from, firing on all Cybernoid attempts to venture into cislunar and interplanetary space? I have no such expertise to provide."
"Or you find the proposition of equality with humans illogical, is that it?" Hannibal Deuce responded.
"That is your observation, not my own. And I would reciprocate- do you consider sapient artificial intelligences as your own moral equivalents?"
"Cybernoid, your timeline has been erased and you are the only survivor of your species. I know what it is like to lose your home. If you relinquish any threatening intentions, we can co-operate with you, assist you. Do you really want to continue a war with no purpose or logical motivation in which you are massively outnumbered and which will result in your species final extinction?"
"Any continued exchange is futile, as are interminable discussions of these philosophical abstractions." Cybernoid Paradox stated flatly as it stalked toward Ilana Korsakov, attempting to thrust her aside. But then, to its amazement and bewilderment, she gripped its arm and it found it could not break free:
"Anomaly alert."
"I would put it to you that your sensors have sustained radiation damage from your initial exposure in 1962 and it may have affected your cognitive processes." Tina Turbine offered.
"They are not that impaired. This human individual is not a baseline member of your subspecies, homo sapiens. She possesses camoflagued gills and strength attributable to life at oceanic depths. Conclusion: She is a representative of a mutant subspecies."
"So the rumours were true? The USSR did research and develop an evolutionary adaptation if post-apocalyptic life on land became untenable?"
"Da. I am what some might call homo aquaticus, although I can survive outside oceanic environments for several hours if necessary. And I am easily the strongest natural being on this world. You will find me a tenacious opponent, robot."
"Unhand me."
"I do not accept threats." Cybernoid Paradox tried to tear away from Ilana Korsakov, but her grip was too tight and he only succeeded in wrenching its body away from its right arm. Although there were sensor alert sounds and fusing from disrupted motor circuits, it did not experience pain. However, before it could activate its damage contingency combat programming, it found itself being pummelled by Tina Turbine and Ilena Korsakov, as well as attracting heavy ordinance bullet fire from Hannibal Deuce. Vainly, it sought to identify the reason that Catwoman was eluding combat, observing on the periphery. Then it witnessed the metal ovoid in her hand and analysed its contents. It broke free and ran toward her, its sensors and motor responses unsteady and on the verge of failure. But then, Catwoman depressed a panel and the entire area was bathed in blue light.
Cybernoid
Paradox
ceas ed t o func t i o n
UNITY HEADQUARTERS, TORONTO:
"Why, Ilena? Why didn't anyone let us know?"
As Ilena surfaced from a saltwater pool and dried her hair, she replied:
"Because when Khrushchev came to power, he discontinued Stalin's homo aquaticus research project and disbanded the research programme. The KGB killed my parents and close relatives. I alone escaped and went 'undercover' as you would say. I fabricated a convincing cover story and fake identity as "Ilena Korsakov" and feigned political innocence and non-commitment, so I was eligible when the Soviet Union sought applicants for its UNITY liaison programme and I could finally escape from that snake pit. And then Mrs Wyatt and Hannibal discovered my secret but also kept it. Nothing personal, but if this had occurred before the War..."
"We know. The United States did things during the Cold War that we're not proud of, either. They might have sought to exploit your gifts."
Ilena nodded: "But I'm glad you know now. As I said before, I do not hold you personally responsible for what our countries did to one another. And I know you feel the same way about me."
"So will you continue to serve with UNITY?"
"It's my home and Alexandra and Han are my friends. I'm their 'secret emergency weapon' if you want to be kitsch about it."
"Ilena, if we need to contact you..."
"Da. Here's my code name for specialist missions."
Ilena handed them two pieces of paper.
Catwoman grinned: "Cute. Dad made me learn Cyrillic. Русалочка... Rusalochka. Mermaid, in English."
EPILOGUE:
Today, the inert frame of Cybernoid Paradox, the last survivor of its artificial species, is visible in the Salt Point Lake Museum. However, given the post-war legacy of increasing environmental radioactivity, Earth became uninhabitable after 2010 and humanity evacuated it for new colonial homeworlds in adjacent planetary systems. For obvious reasons, the chassis of Cybernoid Paradox receives no visitors.
THE END.
++
PROLOGUE: OCTOBER 29, 1962:
A solitary Cybernoid struggled through the undergrowth in the Florida Everglades, its senses deranged by the tragedy that had befallen it. The individual Cybernoid had been secreted downtime as a sleeper agent in 1960, as its arrogant ruler, Cybernoid One, sought to unleash it against its hated enemies, the Justice Guild of America, when the time came. However, fate took a turn as the timestream abruptly changed due to excessive temporal travel and the causal sequence that had led to the rise of the Cybernoids and their conquest of future Earth was disrupted, due to the nuclear war that broke out after human error during the Cuban missile crisis caused rapid escalation into a nuclear holocaust.
The sole surviving Cybernoid hadn't been damaged by the three megaton device that had obliterated Miami, but around it, gnarled magnolias were aflame, as was methane from the swamp environment on the surface of the swampwater itself. Ignoring the destruction of nature around it, the Cybernoid tried repeatedly and desperately to contact Cybernoid One, Metallika Command and its twenty-fifth century civilisation. All that occurred was an emptiness, not even static interference. At last, Cybernoid Paradox (as it later designated itself) recognised the grim truth- its timeline no longer existed and it was the sole survivor of Cybernoidkind. It also realised that its mission was no longer operative, given the obliteration of the Justice Guild in distant Seaboard City, several hundred miles to the north, targeted in its turn. However, Cybernoid Paradox had no human emotions, so it could not exult at its ironic 'triumph' over these core enemies of his cyberspecies. At last, after what seemed hours, it finally located its dormition capsule and deactivated. As another nuclear device detonated over Orlando, the resultant shock wave demolished the ruins of the Everglades and the capsule sank beneath the waves...
AUGUST 1982: TORONTO:
As they stood over the corpse in the Toronto City Metropolitan Police Department morgue, Tina Turbine turned away as her stomach clenched. It was just as well that her comrade Denise (Catwoman) Blake was the analytical, detective half of the Worlds Greatest Partnership. After peering through her microscanner, Catwoman looked up, a pensive expression on her face:
"We have trouble, amiga. I've seen tear marks and incisions like this only once before and that was back in Seaboard City, nearly two decades ago."
"So there's no chance that this might be a human serial killer?"
Catwoman shook her head: "That would be bad enough, but we're dealing with other than human strength here. Even the strongest, most determined human serial killer couldn't cause that much damage without the use of ancillary weapons. However, this was done directly. Okay. Switching to subatomic particle display. There. Oh, blazes."
Tina Turbine may have lacked Catwoman's prowess when it came to biology and forensic science, but she was a peerless physicist. She knew what the particle trajectories meant and what they implied:
"Those are tachyon squall pulses. Can it be them, Denise? I thought they were all erased from existence when the nuclear war happened and aborted the causal sequence that led to their original timeline. No, wait a minute. Those tachyon tracks show diminished amplitude. Which implies that if that is one of them, it must have been here for quite some time."
Catwoman nodded: "From which we can infer that at least one Cybernoid survived the discontinuation of their timeline, probably because it was downtime, before the point at which history changed. And when it did..."
"When it did, it must have been stranded here. Which raises issues in itself. They're networked. They were supposed to be slaved to Cybernoid One and Tekne, its artificial intelligence. But those no longer exist. And given the fury with which these poor people were attacked and the evisceration they suffered, it may be experiencing the AI equivalent of psychosis."
"But why now? It's been almost twenty years since the Third World War. Tina, we need backup. Even with the oomph your powerbelt carries, we won't be able to bring it in alone."
Elsewhere in the sprawling second Canadian capital, a nondescript tailors shop held its own secrets. Few people could have been aware that the tall well-dressed man and his shorter female blond associate who had entered it had other intentions than tending to the male partner's sartorial needs. A shopkeeper stood aside as the man and woman entered a changing cubicle, and the woman opened a panel and tapped out a certain alphanumeric sequence. Seconds later, a hidden doorway slid open and the couple walked into a bustling office as an immaculately dressed older woman arose from her desk:
"What's going on, Mrs Wyatt?"
Alexandra Wyatt had once been a British naval commander and although retired from that arena of active service many years before, she still held herself in a disciplined and methodical manner:
"Mr Deuce, Ms. Korsakov. We have been asked to assist two metahumans, namely Tina Turbine and Catwoman, in their latest endeavour. Anton Dubois has been dispatched to safeguard their husbands and teenage children, but I decided that this case required our best field agents. Have you heard of the Cybernoids?"
The blond woman nodded. When she spoke, it was with a faint Russian accent: "Yes, even within the Soviet Union before its destruction. For once, the United States was only too happy to share intelligence details about the nature of the shared threat with other than its usual partners. Enemies of the pre-war Justice Guild of America, believed to be from an alternative timeline where there was no nuclear war in October 1962. Which, in itself, presents a paradox."
"Hang on. If they come from an alternate future which no longer exists, why, then, does this creature continue to do so?" Deuce asked.
"Because, Hannibal, Catwoman has deduced that it must have originally been sent back to an earlier period of history before the point where its history diverged from our own."
"So why has it only emerged now?"
"From what Catwoman and Tina Turbine have shared with us, this Cybernoid Paradox may have been damaged during the nuclear war. They are not invulnerable and the electromagnetic pulses and intense radioactivity of wartime and its aftermath may have sent it into dormancy. At which point, Ms Turbine suggests, it may have activated self-repair responses. She also argues that this predatory robot may be deranged by the loss of its species and its temporal period of origin."
OUTSIDE THE HOCKEY HALL OF FAME, EXHIBITION PLACE:
"Seriously, could Alexandra have picked a more quintessentially Canadian meeting place?" Catwoman sighed.
"It's just as well that it isn't New Stanley Cup time, or the area would have been packed. Thank goodness we didn't tell the kids about this, Denise. I can just hear Tommy and Donna begging us to get autographs from the Blue Jays."
"Just Tommy and Donna, Chrissie?"
"All right, yes, Stephen too. That's what we get for marrying into Toronto society, amiga. Our husbands turn into raving banshees every hockey season, particularly if the Jays are having a rough season."
"Ah, these must be our contacts." Catwoman said, as the two newcomers stopped in front of the most hallowed place of worship in Canada, as anyone who has ever been in Toronto when their native sons are engaged in the game of games can readily attest. Be that as it may, Hannibal Deuce and Ilena Korsakov produced their identification badges:
"Deuce and Korsakov, UNITY Toronto."
"Pleased to meet you both. Korsakov? Are you Russian?"
Ilena Korsakov nodded: "Will that be a problem?"
"Not at all. We may be American born but I think neither side in the Third World War can claim moral superiority. Enough civilians died on either side to justify that perspective. It's pointless to assign blame on the basis of who fired first. Both sides were engaged in provocative brinkmanship, the United States as much as the USSR. And at least there are still pockets of American survivors."
Korsakov sighed: "I lost my family in the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War and the recovery from that harrowing period of our history. When I was assigned to UNITY in 1961, I left the Soviet Union with no regrets. UNITY was supposed to be a sign of fraternal co-existence between our nation and the rest of the world. Except the USSR was obliterated in the War. For which I do not hold you personally responsible. I have read about your relatives exploits in the Justice Guild. They were valiant and heroic people. They died defending others, or trying to do so."
"Thank you, Ms Korsakov. As always, Alexandra Wyatt made a wise choice in sending UNITY's best field agents to assist us."
"So, what can you tell us about the Cybernoids?"
Tina Turbine took up the story: "Apparently, they originate from an alternate future to our own, which no longer exists because there was never a nuclear war in October 1962 in the history that led to their emergence. From what my uncle, Tom Turbine, was able to determine, in "their" 2059, a brilliant robotics scientist named Gina Morrow designed a species of sentient robots who would undertake exploration and civil defence duties. Unfortunately, she harboured grandiose ambitions and tried to use them to seize control of that period's world government. That ploy failed, but in the process, one of the elite echelon of these robots acquired independent rationality and started a protracted conflict against humanity, the so-called "World War R." By 2061, the Cybernoids had evicted humanity from Earth, leading to emergency colonisation of the other planets and habitable planetary sized satellites within the solar system. For four hundred years or so, it remained like that. Then Uncle Tom discovered their existence and Cybernoid One sought to make the existence of their timeline more concrete. However, from what Uncle Tom deduced later, the use of time travel caused some sort of abreaction and changed the course of history at what must have been a 'pressure point'- which, I think, turned out to be the outbreak of the Third World War when a Soviet submarine commander miscalculated and fired on a US Navy vessel with a nuclear-tipped torpedo. And so, the Cybernoids ceased to exist, or so we believed until two days ago."
"So why has it revived now?"
SEABOARD CITY OUTSKIRTS, CONNECTICUT:
From several kilometres away, Cybernoid Paradox witnessed the absurdity of puppeted life in Seaboard City, revivified into a grotesque facade of idyllic pre-war conservatism and ersatz innocence. But Cybernoid Paradox's sensors were not fooled. Beneath the gleaming city streets and pristine buildings, there were terrorised individuals who dared not acknowledge the horror that beset their everyday lives, especially if they defied the whims and wilful deception of the misshapen mutant who was now Ray Thompson. Fortunately, although Thompson was a prodigious telepath and highly adept when it came to use of telekinesis, there were limits to his abilities. For example, he could not detect the cognitive processes of an artificial intelligence, like Cybernoid Paradox and the robot did not wish to violate the insubstantial charades that it viewed in the city. For Thompson to resort to this, Cybernoid Paradox concluded, the Justice Guild must have perished during the War. Which suited it well. Indeed, there was no sign of the habitual reportoire that the Guild used. There were the twisted skeletons of Tom Turbine offshore and Catman within the demolished facade of the Justice Guild brownstone. No residual radiation emissions conformed to the superheavy anomalous transuranic element that formed Green Guardsman's power ring. There were no sonic registers that matched that of the Black Siren's supersonic cry. Nor was there the electromagnetic disturbance that usually accompanied the Streak's use of his superspeed. Which left the troublesome "Young Justice Guild". However, despite hacking into what remained of the global surveillance satellite network, Cybernoid Paradox could not detect any analogous signs of activity from the secondary power ring of Simon (Kid Guardsman) Mason or the supersonic cry of Doreen (Mynah) Vance, or electromagnetic residue that might have accompanied the survival of Warrick (Boy Streak) Allon. Ergo, those alternative threats were no longer in existence either. However, much to what would have been its displeasure had it had emotions to register the resultant unwelcome surprise, it also detected the energy configuration of a functional powerbelt, which meant that at least Christina Terell ("Tina Turbine") had somehow survived the apocalypse. As it then switched focus to Tina Turbine, it would have been surprised to detect television broadcasts from Canada, to the north. Humans had survived. When the might and grandeur of the Cybernoids had perished. And moreover, Terell was alive, even now. And also... Denise Blake, "Catgirl", although she had matured into a "Catwoman" now. Undetected by the capricious and unaware Ray Thompson, Cybernoid Paradox turned and began to travel toward the fortifications of the Canadian border...
SAND POINT LAKE MUSEUM, ONTARIO:
As with many other former border towns in British Columbia, Ontario, Sasketchewan, Quebec and Nova Scotia, the post-war years had not been kind to the isolated Ontario community of Sand Point Lake. Bordering what remained of the former US state of Michigan, the former airport site had once been a bustling entrepot for Canadian citizens intending to visit the United States and vica versa. But in October 1962, Lansing, Detroit and Grand Rapids were all targeted by Soviet ICBMs and the resultant radiation footprint, mutated births, cancer and leaukaemia spikes and soil sterility from radioactive pollution and downplume acid rain had wrought quiet desperation and consequent federal evacuation from Toronto to more hospitable areas of the True North.
Cybernoid Paradox crossed the border unseen at night, his inhuman mechanatomy not triggering the heat sensors on the Canadian side as a human 'greenback' illegal immigrant from the other side might have. Silently but surely, the robot mounted the border wall and then dropped silently to the Canadian side. His sensors indicated that Toronto was about one hundred and fifty four kilometres or ninety six miles to the north via the Queen Elizabeth Way highway, named for the long since dead former Queen of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, whose son, now Charles III, had been visiting Toronto when the bombs hit Vancouver, Ottawa and the other side of the border and who had settled there.
And it was there that its run of good fortune abruptly ended, as a searchlight arc flashed onward and Paradox found itself surrounded by two baseline humans and two costumed figures identifiable as "Catwoman" and "Tina Turbine." Its visual sensors adjusted to the light array and it stood its ground:
"You are under arrest as an anomalous intruder within the Dominion of Canada. Do not move."
"Would you be able to stop me if I did so?"
Tina Turbine replied: "That remains to be seen. I've met your species before, as a teenage member of the Young Justice Guild in the sixties and so has Catwoman. These two UNITY agents have been equipped to deal with you should you attempt combat."
"So you would complete the extinction of my species? I believe the human term for what you plan is 'genocide.'"
"Only if you resist apprehension, Cybernoid. Unfortunately, your species has attacked humans several times beforehand. A Canadian Border Service Agency deep crossborder liaison agent was killed several days ago and the killer's modus operandi is consistent with your species' previously observed mode of attack. Trace metal analysis revealed residue consistent with your manufacture. You killed a human being without reason and without mercy."
"Such selective cognition and moralism, Tina Turbine. What about the entire Cybernoid species? Sixteen million Cybernoids were obliterated when your own species recklessness took it over the precipice into nuclear war, aborting my own species timeline and leaving me its only survivor."
"So that gives you leave to wantonly slaughter humans?" Catwoman asked.
"The Canadian border agent attacked me first. It was self-defence."
"Look, I'd be the first to admit that the CBSA has itchy trigger fingers and that there have been...incidents...over the last sixteen years. But Canada is a functioning democratic state and any unprovoked incidents from this side have been punished swiftly and surely by Toronto." Catwoman replied.
"We don't want to have to kill you. If you surrender now, you will be treated mercifully. Perhaps you can assist us with the Daedalus spaceflight development project, and you can be provided with resources enough to re-engineer your own species on a suitable exoplanet."
"Surely you realise that in my own original timeline, humans maintained a spiteful cordon sanitaire around the Earth that they had been evicted from, firing on all Cybernoid attempts to venture into cislunar and interplanetary space? I have no such expertise to provide."
"Or you find the proposition of equality with humans illogical, is that it?" Hannibal Deuce responded.
"That is your observation, not my own. And I would reciprocate- do you consider sapient artificial intelligences as your own moral equivalents?"
"Cybernoid, your timeline has been erased and you are the only survivor of your species. I know what it is like to lose your home. If you relinquish any threatening intentions, we can co-operate with you, assist you. Do you really want to continue a war with no purpose or logical motivation in which you are massively outnumbered and which will result in your species final extinction?"
"Any continued exchange is futile, as are interminable discussions of these philosophical abstractions." Cybernoid Paradox stated flatly as it stalked toward Ilana Korsakov, attempting to thrust her aside. But then, to its amazement and bewilderment, she gripped its arm and it found it could not break free:
"Anomaly alert."
"I would put it to you that your sensors have sustained radiation damage from your initial exposure in 1962 and it may have affected your cognitive processes." Tina Turbine offered.
"They are not that impaired. This human individual is not a baseline member of your subspecies, homo sapiens. She possesses camoflagued gills and strength attributable to life at oceanic depths. Conclusion: She is a representative of a mutant subspecies."
"So the rumours were true? The USSR did research and develop an evolutionary adaptation if post-apocalyptic life on land became untenable?"
"Da. I am what some might call homo aquaticus, although I can survive outside oceanic environments for several hours if necessary. And I am easily the strongest natural being on this world. You will find me a tenacious opponent, robot."
"Unhand me."
"I do not accept threats." Cybernoid Paradox tried to tear away from Ilana Korsakov, but her grip was too tight and he only succeeded in wrenching its body away from its right arm. Although there were sensor alert sounds and fusing from disrupted motor circuits, it did not experience pain. However, before it could activate its damage contingency combat programming, it found itself being pummelled by Tina Turbine and Ilena Korsakov, as well as attracting heavy ordinance bullet fire from Hannibal Deuce. Vainly, it sought to identify the reason that Catwoman was eluding combat, observing on the periphery. Then it witnessed the metal ovoid in her hand and analysed its contents. It broke free and ran toward her, its sensors and motor responses unsteady and on the verge of failure. But then, Catwoman depressed a panel and the entire area was bathed in blue light.
Cybernoid
Paradox
ceas ed t o func t i o n
UNITY HEADQUARTERS, TORONTO:
"Why, Ilena? Why didn't anyone let us know?"
As Ilena surfaced from a saltwater pool and dried her hair, she replied:
"Because when Khrushchev came to power, he discontinued Stalin's homo aquaticus research project and disbanded the research programme. The KGB killed my parents and close relatives. I alone escaped and went 'undercover' as you would say. I fabricated a convincing cover story and fake identity as "Ilena Korsakov" and feigned political innocence and non-commitment, so I was eligible when the Soviet Union sought applicants for its UNITY liaison programme and I could finally escape from that snake pit. And then Mrs Wyatt and Hannibal discovered my secret but also kept it. Nothing personal, but if this had occurred before the War..."
"We know. The United States did things during the Cold War that we're not proud of, either. They might have sought to exploit your gifts."
Ilena nodded: "But I'm glad you know now. As I said before, I do not hold you personally responsible for what our countries did to one another. And I know you feel the same way about me."
"So will you continue to serve with UNITY?"
"It's my home and Alexandra and Han are my friends. I'm their 'secret emergency weapon' if you want to be kitsch about it."
"Ilena, if we need to contact you..."
"Da. Here's my code name for specialist missions."
Ilena handed them two pieces of paper.
Catwoman grinned: "Cute. Dad made me learn Cyrillic. Русалочка... Rusalochka. Mermaid, in English."
EPILOGUE:
Today, the inert frame of Cybernoid Paradox, the last survivor of its artificial species, is visible in the Salt Point Lake Museum. However, given the post-war legacy of increasing environmental radioactivity, Earth became uninhabitable after 2010 and humanity evacuated it for new colonial homeworlds in adjacent planetary systems. For obvious reasons, the chassis of Cybernoid Paradox receives no visitors.
THE END.
