Post by redsycorax on Sept 29, 2018 23:59:49 GMT
Earth-200: It was once a world where two moons shone in the Earth's sky, Luna Major and Luna Minor. Its greatest metahumans were assembled in the Ultrahero Forum of California, given that the United States never came into existence after the War of Independence in this world, except as a defensive alliance against the British. They included Milly Fawcett, Thunder Woman, given her abilities by an ancient Native American shaman; Whisper, a female Ninja adept, committed to fighting injustice with the assistance of her lover, journalist Brandon Fowler; Lycan, an ethical werewolf; Atlantean, an exile from the separatist undersea nation; Spiritwoman, a postmortal female crimefighter; and Brainwaver, a hyperintelligent refugee from the destroyed planet Colu.
And then came a great Crisis, and its larger satellite was shattered. Although, unlike many alternate Earths, antimatter storms did not descend onto the surface of the planet to ravage and obliterate its remaining inhabitants, the death toll was still considerable. Innocence died that day as the UFC fought to save the embattled, immobilised citizens of their world from the ravages of the sudden loss of Luna Major. It was not wholly successful- the planetary southern icecap's western fringe cracked asunder, the Pacific Rim was afire with the unleashed furies of the San Andreas and other faultlines, and Hawaii was obliterated by runaway seismic activity. Thunderwoman managed to prevent the Yellowstone supervolcano from igniting, but the death toll was estimated to be four and a half billion. The agonies of that world were felt for months, as were its long-term consequences.
At times like this, Thunder Woman thought bleakly of her brother Harry, formerly Thunder Boy. Like so many others, he had perished when Luna Major ceased to exist, before he could speak the magic sequence of words that unleashed his hidden identity. It was just as well he wasn't around to witness this sickening carnage, the debris, the blankfaced shambling adults, the skeletal children, the poisoned land, the deep, riven fissures, the shattered cities. It wasn't only Earth that had suffered, though. Venus and its satellite Lemas had been thrown into a more distant planetary orbit and the saurian inhabitatns of that predominantly aquatic planet were blinded and starving as their once-nurturant planet froze around them. Mars had been thrown out of the solar system altogether, while the sun was visibly larger, and burning brighter. She ended her morose thoughts and alighted on Lemuria Prime, the Indian Ocean outcrop that served as the UFC's base.
Lycan looked up from his sensor array: "Morning, Mill. Phew, you look beat."
"I was working all night evacuating civilians from the Rift Sea coastal areas in Africa. Of course, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya have taken the opportunity to start up territorial disputes."
"Sympathise. It was my time, last week, ridin' shotgun on a relief convoy in Australia. We were attacked about five times before they got the message."
"Sometimes I wonder what it's all for, Serge. Why do we keep doing this when they seem determined to keep ripping themselves apart?"
"Because none of this was their fault." Atlantean said as he entered the room.
"You're right, but that doesn't completely absolve them of moral responsibility for learning to live with the consequences."
"We can't just abandon them." Whisper added to the conversation, arm in sling:
"Ouch. That looks nasty." Lycan winced
"Qual thinks he's found out what happened to us. And it's not just our solar system. Antares, Betelguese, Arcturus, all the red giants have gone nova. The Andromeda Galaxy has been ripped to shreds and the Milky Way's Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxies are nowhere to be seen. Whatever happened, did so to our entire universe."
"Was it some sort of cosmic scale natural disaster?" Whisper asked.
"No, it wasn't. The scale of antimatter incursion throughout the universe suggests that it was not indigenous to it, and could not have been the product of even its entire complement of white holes."
"So...this was volitional? Why?!?" Atlantean exclaimed
"Whatever it was, it stopped short of destroying our universe. But it left it a charnel house with no roof and a shattered door." Brainwaver replied
"Is there any way we can seek help for what ails our world?" Thunder Woman asked
"The Khu'und, the Dominators... all the major galactic empires fragmented in the aftermath. They're embroiled in civil war." Brainwaver said, pointing to a map of the known significant political entitles within the Milky Way Galaxy.
"If not our universe, alternate ones?" Thunder Woman continued.
"That remains to be seen. We don't even know if there are any." Brainwaver said darkly.
But within a month, he was proven wrong. Thunder Woman landed at the UFC's Mount Sierra headquarters with Spiritwoman, who frowned:
"Milly? There is profound ectoplasmic disturbance in this area."
"Postmortal incursions, Amanda?"
"No. No, they are non-communicative and secondary in nature. However, somewhere else, a large population died amidst great turmoil and suffering."
Brainwaver turned as they entered the Situation Room:
"It appears I was incorrect. One of the STAR interdimensional probes has found an alternate universe and an Earth analogue within it."
"Great!" Thunder Woman exclaimed
"Not neccessarily. Elementary radio communication has disclosed nothing. That world may be uninhabited."
"Or inhabited by a preindustrial society." Lycan suggested
"Land area analysis indicates no concentrations of human population, not even small scale. There don't even seem to be signs of neolithic human culture."
"So it isn't currently inhabited by humans. Oh. What?" Thunder Woman queried.
"The climatic conditions are congruent with the Cretaceous era, and what's more, there are large herds of immense creatures. They're saurians. Moreover, there seem to be no signs of the asteroid that impacted in the Gulf of Mexico seventy million years ago, which indicates that it did not do so in this alternate universe. Ergo, the saurians here adapted to changing environmental conditions and have survived to the present day on that Earth."
"But how could they have wiped out that Earth's humanity?"
"Good question. Perhaps they may have evolved sapience."
"Really? The original saurians had brains that were the size of walnuts."
"We need to deal with this situation. This world could enable industrial and agricultural relief for our own world, or if worst comes to worst, perhaps humanity could be evacuated there."
"Do we have the right, Qual? Especially if that world already has intelligent indigenous inhabitants."
Earth-159.
It was sepulchural and silent. Only the wind whistled through the ruins, akin to those in ancient Egypt, but on a far greater scale. Thunder Woman looked around them as the teleport platform deposited them on the soil of the virgin world, where no human had trod for millennia. Lycan whistled:
"Check out the rows of pyramids. This world's humanity must have perished at a time analogous to ancient Egypt in our world. But no signs of human skeletal remains. It must have happened thousands of years ago. Or anything that looks like large object damage to those pyramids or that sphinx."
<Halt! You are intruders on this planet!>
"Looks like your theory was right, Qual." Lycan commented.
<We are the dominant species here. You must leave or face the consequences.>
"Telepathic dinosaurs?"
You have plenty of living space available here, Spiritwoman communicated to the saurians. We can co-exist side by side.
<These hominids hunted and exploited us, despite our possession rights as the oldest sapient species on this planet. We will not tolerate any further incursions>
"Try to stop us." Thunder Woman said, levitating into the air, balling her fists and staring balefully at the tyrannosaurus across the clearing.
<We shall.> Abruptly, a golden-scaled saurian with an identical insignia to her own appeared across from her.
"Sorry, that was not a declaration of conflict." Thunder Woman remarked.
<It is well. We appear to have analogous abilities and would probably be too well-matched as warriors. I am Dragonbane of the Protectors of the Kind."
"Thunder Woman, Ultraheroes Forum of California, from an alternate world to this one. Which has seriously been damaged by a universe-wide cataclysm."
<We observed something akin to that even in our universe. Fortunately, as far as we can tell, it has not touched Earth or its solar system. Elsewhere was less fortunate.>
<I apologise for the prior unpleasantness with General Ursienke, Millicent. She is an obstinate, aggressive militarist.>
"And I apologise for what I suspect must have been the enslavement of some saurian species to use as vehicles or construction aids, or food. Two centuries ago, much of our planet abolished the institution of chattel slavery, although the lasting consequences are still felt."
<It is well. Truth be told, we Draekenarys were still trapped in cannibal diet until the reforms instituted by Thought Mother four millennia ago, which leaves over several hundred million years of cannibal intraspecies consumotion by our own kind. And then there is the exogenocide practised by our species against your counterparts here, which was equally shameful and unconscionable. If you were expecting to encounter some utopian paragon of ethical virtue, I am afraid our species does not fit that worthy goal.>
"Neither do humans. So, from what you say, the Draekenarys, your people, occupy most of what we call Africa, Southern Asia, Southeastern Asia, Australasia, South and Central America and Antarctica?"
<The Heatlands of our world, yes. We have tried to expand out to North America, Northern Asia and Europe, as you call them. However, they remain too cold and temperate for Draekenarys to be comfortable. To which we have contributed- until Thought Mother came amongst us, our species herbivores routinely followed an ecological cycle of overpopulation, maximum greenleaf consumption, vegetation depletion, climate deterioration, species dieback, and then recovery and replenishment, only to repeat our absence of wisdom innumerable times.>
"As for us, we have our own issues. Intraspecies war. Have you developed nuclear fission on this world?"
<Yes. And shamefully, in the Ages Before Thought Mother, we used them against one another>
"So have we."
<Neccessity demands we reach an equitable solution.>
"There is one. We leave this world to its indigenous inhabitants and do not colonise it."
<When humanity faces extinction on your own world? No. I cannot accept that.>
General Ursienke had other ideas:
<The altruism and foolishness of Dragonbane knows no bounds. Millennia after we rid this world of usurping human vermin, they are back to take this world from us>
The alpha tyrannosaur had considerable presence as she awaited the response of her Praetorian Guard. The most ambitious, Verisyme, took the initiative:
<Can we not use the ancient haemorrhagic anthropotropic virus?>
<These are not humanoids from our universe. Their biochemistry is sufficiently different for HAV to be unable to cleanse our world from them. What is even more worrying, their Dragonbane counterpart Thunderwoman possesses invulnerability and advanced sensory capabilities. The stealth adept Whisper rivals our own stealth and surveillance capabilities. The Atlantean can command icythyosaurs and plesiosaurs and bend them to his will. The Spiritwoman entity can communicate with other postmortal residua. The Lycan utilises specific light and radiation frequencies to shapeshift into what appears to be a large predatory mammal. The alien Brainwaver has a highly sophisticated intellect. Added to that, they are desperate- their alternate Earth is in ruins, which may give them added motivation to take advantage of our relative paucity of numbers and concentration in specific geographical areas.>
<Ursienke! What treachery is this?>
<No treachery, Dragonbane, merely self-respect for what is gifted to us here. This has been our homeworld for millions of years. The humans have no right to be here, or to usurp it.>
<There is no "usurpation" here, apart from that within your fevered mind, Ursienke. In any case, the Council of Governance has approved human settlement in areas of our world. You have no authority to prevent it.>
<It appears you have lost sensitivity to the needs of baseline Draekenerys, Dragonbane. You and the other Protectors of Shrynaere are so isolated in your mountain sanctuary, you cannot see the threat that these intruders represent.>
<What are you trying to do, Ursienke, foment a coup d'etat, with yourself as dictator? What next? Purge all 'lesser' species of Draekenerys apart from your kindred therapods?>
<Untrue. For one thing, you are a sister therapod yourself, even if you have abandoned your heritage.>
<You claim to be a 'conservative', Ursienke, dedicated to preserving 'traditional' Drakenerys ethics. I see nothing of the sort. The Protectors will not let you violate the sanctity and wisdom of Thought Mother's teachings this way.>
<Do not presume to impose your weakling cult and its strictures on me, Dragonbane. I will not tolerate it.>
<True, but then tolerance, compassion and dialogue have always been problems for you, hatch-sister, have they not?>
Thunderwoman assembled the other members of the UFC:
"Okay. Situation report. Dragonbane and her fellow Protectors of Shrynaere are onside with us, and so are the Draekenerys Council of Elders."
"But General Ursienke clearly isn't. We can't expose the survivors of our world to her active malice and that of her political faction. Worse still, we could precipitate a civil war here." Whisper interjected.
"What is it, Brainwaver?"
"I have performed some troubling quantum calculations for this universe. It may face an imminent threat precipitated by the Crisis that is as damaging to its long-term survival prospects."
"Meaning?" Atlantean asked
"Meaning that unless I am very incorrect, this universe is about to undergo a quantum vacuum phase transition. The results are measurable at lightspeed and could cause irreversible spatiotemporal rupture within it. Earth-159 may be doomed."
"There is no doubt?" Dragonbane asked
"If we had an alphamage, we could confirm this, but it looks like the Crisis on Infinite Earths has resulted in the formation of a charged quantum transition within your universe. It is spreading outward at lightspeed."
"Ironic. Then it may be our universe that is doomed, not yours."
"Look, your people are welcome to evacuate to Earth 200."
"How far away is this vacuum transition from our world?"
"We don't know. The data isn't that exact." Thunderwoman confessed.
"It could explain things. About why I have had difficulty in access to the Shaman's Cave, about why our timestream is too chaotic to enter. Because it is being eroded by this malignant phenomenon."
Brainwaver pointed to a growing, intensely white pinpoint:
"I don't think any of us have that long, anymore. That is the vacuum phase transition. And it is already consuming Sirius and its planetary system. At the rate that it is travelling, it will arrive here in six years. Long before that, however, it may trigger catastrophic anomalies within the solar system, affecting planetary and cometary orbits and the evolution of the sun itself. By that time, it will be impossible to transition to an alternate universe to escape the impending catastrophe."
"It seems we owe you our lives and the continued existence of our civilisation. The problem is that in conscience, we cannot allow Ursienke and her minions access to your Earth. Her insanity would trigger a catastrophic war between our species. One question. Do you have access to uninhabited alternate Earths?"
Thunderwoman nodded: "Brainwaver, can you calculate one that would meet the Draekenerys needs?"
Earth 28,556:
While the sun shone brightly in its Cretaceous equivalent sky, there were no signs of Draekenerys or any sapient saurian dwellings. The planet had a large satellite, although it was only to be expected that the configuration of craters on it would not match those on either Earth 159 or 200's moons. Brainwaver sighed in relief:
"This alternate universe has no Earthgrazer asteroids or distant Kuiper Belt objects in perilous orbits, no eccentric gas giant orbital trajectories and its primary is more stable than our own. As you can see, bacteriological and viral development is virtually identical to your world. It would be a perfect habitat for the continued survival of your species."
Dragonbane nodded: "The problem is, whether Ursienke and her collaborators will accept this?"
"We can sidestep that problem. Given your small population, we can manufacture enough personal cross-universe transition units to avoid detection until it becomes obvious that something is happening."
"Knowing my insane hatchsister, she will try to stop the evacuation. That means that the Protectors must stay and fulfil our duty to protect our people to the very end."
"But you won't be able to escape the phase transition. Dragonbane, no!!!"
"What is one life against those of the many that will be saved, friend Millicent?"
Six years later, Ursienke and her colleagues awoke to a nearly silent world:
"What is that light in the sky? Has one of the adjacent stars gone nova?"
"No," Dragonbane said as she faced her hatchsister,"but you wouldn't listen, would you? Not even when Titan's atmosphere combusted, when Europa's desperate marine inhabitants broke the disintegrating ice surface of their world, not when Pluto, Eris and the other trans-Neptunian dwarf worlds were lost to our solar system. Now it's too late. For both of us."
Ursienke looked wildly around: "What do you mean?"
"It is a vacuum phase transition, hatchsister. One which our world will not survive."
"You lie, Dragonbane."
"Why do you think our world is nearly deserted? You never were particularly observant, Ursienke."
"Are they your captives?"
"No, you fool. We have already evacuated all that will be saved. From under your eyes. We remain to prevent your subversion of this."
"You will die as well!"
"Yes, we will. But it is a small price to pay to insure that your insanity and the menace that you represent to our people ends here."
But at the very next minute, there was an unexpected development. Thunderwoman and her colleagues appeared from nowhere and grabbed their Protectors counterparts. In the next instant, there were coruscating balls of heat and light as the two Earths metasapient coalitions vanished from the scrutiny of their opponents.
Ursienke was left to rage and scream as she laid waste to the surrounding buildings and foliage around the deserted Core City settlement. After an hour of this carnage, she came back to herself and witnessed that several of her Praetorian Guards had already ended their own lives. She laughed insanely to herself and continued to do, for the next hour as the wavefront of the phase transition hit Jupiter and caused the ages-old giant planet to erupt into hydrogen and helium flame on a scale unimaginable. Several minutes later, Phobos and Deimos ploughed into the Martian surface, as Earth's nearest neighbour erupted into another argosy against the blurred starfield. And as the time ticked down, Ursienke started to howl and ululate at the blinding point of light, defying its inevitability. All of which availed her nothing as the Moon vaporised before the onslaught and then Earth 159. But thanks to the determination of two Earths protectors, the end of that world did not mean that of the species that had once dominated it, only the demise of a bereft, impotent and mad creature, shrieking her insanity and defiance at the very last.
EPILOGUE:
Earth 28,556:
The Ultrahuman Forum of California and Protectors prepared to take their leave of one another:
"Thank you, Millicent. For all you have done. We did not expect rescue."
"No, but you deserved it, Dragonbane. Now you and the others can live on and serve this new Earth's inhabitants."
"But what of your world?"
"Well, your technology sharing enabled us to walk back from the brink. It seemed only fair to return the favour."
"I look forward to visiting it one day."
"You will be a welcome guest."
As the UFC dematerialised, Dragonbane stood there for an instant, turning a tiny holographier gem that showed her and her hatchsiblings near their mother as fledgelings. Ursienke and Dragonbane were embracing. Dragonbane sniffed, shed a single tear for the lost and then walked toward the sounds of life, laughter and love amidst Draekenerys' multitude of grateful survivors, into a new day that she had truly never expected to witness.
THE END
And then came a great Crisis, and its larger satellite was shattered. Although, unlike many alternate Earths, antimatter storms did not descend onto the surface of the planet to ravage and obliterate its remaining inhabitants, the death toll was still considerable. Innocence died that day as the UFC fought to save the embattled, immobilised citizens of their world from the ravages of the sudden loss of Luna Major. It was not wholly successful- the planetary southern icecap's western fringe cracked asunder, the Pacific Rim was afire with the unleashed furies of the San Andreas and other faultlines, and Hawaii was obliterated by runaway seismic activity. Thunderwoman managed to prevent the Yellowstone supervolcano from igniting, but the death toll was estimated to be four and a half billion. The agonies of that world were felt for months, as were its long-term consequences.
At times like this, Thunder Woman thought bleakly of her brother Harry, formerly Thunder Boy. Like so many others, he had perished when Luna Major ceased to exist, before he could speak the magic sequence of words that unleashed his hidden identity. It was just as well he wasn't around to witness this sickening carnage, the debris, the blankfaced shambling adults, the skeletal children, the poisoned land, the deep, riven fissures, the shattered cities. It wasn't only Earth that had suffered, though. Venus and its satellite Lemas had been thrown into a more distant planetary orbit and the saurian inhabitatns of that predominantly aquatic planet were blinded and starving as their once-nurturant planet froze around them. Mars had been thrown out of the solar system altogether, while the sun was visibly larger, and burning brighter. She ended her morose thoughts and alighted on Lemuria Prime, the Indian Ocean outcrop that served as the UFC's base.
Lycan looked up from his sensor array: "Morning, Mill. Phew, you look beat."
"I was working all night evacuating civilians from the Rift Sea coastal areas in Africa. Of course, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya have taken the opportunity to start up territorial disputes."
"Sympathise. It was my time, last week, ridin' shotgun on a relief convoy in Australia. We were attacked about five times before they got the message."
"Sometimes I wonder what it's all for, Serge. Why do we keep doing this when they seem determined to keep ripping themselves apart?"
"Because none of this was their fault." Atlantean said as he entered the room.
"You're right, but that doesn't completely absolve them of moral responsibility for learning to live with the consequences."
"We can't just abandon them." Whisper added to the conversation, arm in sling:
"Ouch. That looks nasty." Lycan winced
"Qual thinks he's found out what happened to us. And it's not just our solar system. Antares, Betelguese, Arcturus, all the red giants have gone nova. The Andromeda Galaxy has been ripped to shreds and the Milky Way's Magellanic Cloud satellite galaxies are nowhere to be seen. Whatever happened, did so to our entire universe."
"Was it some sort of cosmic scale natural disaster?" Whisper asked.
"No, it wasn't. The scale of antimatter incursion throughout the universe suggests that it was not indigenous to it, and could not have been the product of even its entire complement of white holes."
"So...this was volitional? Why?!?" Atlantean exclaimed
"Whatever it was, it stopped short of destroying our universe. But it left it a charnel house with no roof and a shattered door." Brainwaver replied
"Is there any way we can seek help for what ails our world?" Thunder Woman asked
"The Khu'und, the Dominators... all the major galactic empires fragmented in the aftermath. They're embroiled in civil war." Brainwaver said, pointing to a map of the known significant political entitles within the Milky Way Galaxy.
"If not our universe, alternate ones?" Thunder Woman continued.
"That remains to be seen. We don't even know if there are any." Brainwaver said darkly.
But within a month, he was proven wrong. Thunder Woman landed at the UFC's Mount Sierra headquarters with Spiritwoman, who frowned:
"Milly? There is profound ectoplasmic disturbance in this area."
"Postmortal incursions, Amanda?"
"No. No, they are non-communicative and secondary in nature. However, somewhere else, a large population died amidst great turmoil and suffering."
Brainwaver turned as they entered the Situation Room:
"It appears I was incorrect. One of the STAR interdimensional probes has found an alternate universe and an Earth analogue within it."
"Great!" Thunder Woman exclaimed
"Not neccessarily. Elementary radio communication has disclosed nothing. That world may be uninhabited."
"Or inhabited by a preindustrial society." Lycan suggested
"Land area analysis indicates no concentrations of human population, not even small scale. There don't even seem to be signs of neolithic human culture."
"So it isn't currently inhabited by humans. Oh. What?" Thunder Woman queried.
"The climatic conditions are congruent with the Cretaceous era, and what's more, there are large herds of immense creatures. They're saurians. Moreover, there seem to be no signs of the asteroid that impacted in the Gulf of Mexico seventy million years ago, which indicates that it did not do so in this alternate universe. Ergo, the saurians here adapted to changing environmental conditions and have survived to the present day on that Earth."
"But how could they have wiped out that Earth's humanity?"
"Good question. Perhaps they may have evolved sapience."
"Really? The original saurians had brains that were the size of walnuts."
"We need to deal with this situation. This world could enable industrial and agricultural relief for our own world, or if worst comes to worst, perhaps humanity could be evacuated there."
"Do we have the right, Qual? Especially if that world already has intelligent indigenous inhabitants."
Earth-159.
It was sepulchural and silent. Only the wind whistled through the ruins, akin to those in ancient Egypt, but on a far greater scale. Thunder Woman looked around them as the teleport platform deposited them on the soil of the virgin world, where no human had trod for millennia. Lycan whistled:
"Check out the rows of pyramids. This world's humanity must have perished at a time analogous to ancient Egypt in our world. But no signs of human skeletal remains. It must have happened thousands of years ago. Or anything that looks like large object damage to those pyramids or that sphinx."
<Halt! You are intruders on this planet!>
"Looks like your theory was right, Qual." Lycan commented.
<We are the dominant species here. You must leave or face the consequences.>
"Telepathic dinosaurs?"
You have plenty of living space available here, Spiritwoman communicated to the saurians. We can co-exist side by side.
<These hominids hunted and exploited us, despite our possession rights as the oldest sapient species on this planet. We will not tolerate any further incursions>
"Try to stop us." Thunder Woman said, levitating into the air, balling her fists and staring balefully at the tyrannosaurus across the clearing.
<We shall.> Abruptly, a golden-scaled saurian with an identical insignia to her own appeared across from her.
"Sorry, that was not a declaration of conflict." Thunder Woman remarked.
<It is well. We appear to have analogous abilities and would probably be too well-matched as warriors. I am Dragonbane of the Protectors of the Kind."
"Thunder Woman, Ultraheroes Forum of California, from an alternate world to this one. Which has seriously been damaged by a universe-wide cataclysm."
<We observed something akin to that even in our universe. Fortunately, as far as we can tell, it has not touched Earth or its solar system. Elsewhere was less fortunate.>
<I apologise for the prior unpleasantness with General Ursienke, Millicent. She is an obstinate, aggressive militarist.>
"And I apologise for what I suspect must have been the enslavement of some saurian species to use as vehicles or construction aids, or food. Two centuries ago, much of our planet abolished the institution of chattel slavery, although the lasting consequences are still felt."
<It is well. Truth be told, we Draekenarys were still trapped in cannibal diet until the reforms instituted by Thought Mother four millennia ago, which leaves over several hundred million years of cannibal intraspecies consumotion by our own kind. And then there is the exogenocide practised by our species against your counterparts here, which was equally shameful and unconscionable. If you were expecting to encounter some utopian paragon of ethical virtue, I am afraid our species does not fit that worthy goal.>
"Neither do humans. So, from what you say, the Draekenarys, your people, occupy most of what we call Africa, Southern Asia, Southeastern Asia, Australasia, South and Central America and Antarctica?"
<The Heatlands of our world, yes. We have tried to expand out to North America, Northern Asia and Europe, as you call them. However, they remain too cold and temperate for Draekenarys to be comfortable. To which we have contributed- until Thought Mother came amongst us, our species herbivores routinely followed an ecological cycle of overpopulation, maximum greenleaf consumption, vegetation depletion, climate deterioration, species dieback, and then recovery and replenishment, only to repeat our absence of wisdom innumerable times.>
"As for us, we have our own issues. Intraspecies war. Have you developed nuclear fission on this world?"
<Yes. And shamefully, in the Ages Before Thought Mother, we used them against one another>
"So have we."
<Neccessity demands we reach an equitable solution.>
"There is one. We leave this world to its indigenous inhabitants and do not colonise it."
<When humanity faces extinction on your own world? No. I cannot accept that.>
General Ursienke had other ideas:
<The altruism and foolishness of Dragonbane knows no bounds. Millennia after we rid this world of usurping human vermin, they are back to take this world from us>
The alpha tyrannosaur had considerable presence as she awaited the response of her Praetorian Guard. The most ambitious, Verisyme, took the initiative:
<Can we not use the ancient haemorrhagic anthropotropic virus?>
<These are not humanoids from our universe. Their biochemistry is sufficiently different for HAV to be unable to cleanse our world from them. What is even more worrying, their Dragonbane counterpart Thunderwoman possesses invulnerability and advanced sensory capabilities. The stealth adept Whisper rivals our own stealth and surveillance capabilities. The Atlantean can command icythyosaurs and plesiosaurs and bend them to his will. The Spiritwoman entity can communicate with other postmortal residua. The Lycan utilises specific light and radiation frequencies to shapeshift into what appears to be a large predatory mammal. The alien Brainwaver has a highly sophisticated intellect. Added to that, they are desperate- their alternate Earth is in ruins, which may give them added motivation to take advantage of our relative paucity of numbers and concentration in specific geographical areas.>
<Ursienke! What treachery is this?>
<No treachery, Dragonbane, merely self-respect for what is gifted to us here. This has been our homeworld for millions of years. The humans have no right to be here, or to usurp it.>
<There is no "usurpation" here, apart from that within your fevered mind, Ursienke. In any case, the Council of Governance has approved human settlement in areas of our world. You have no authority to prevent it.>
<It appears you have lost sensitivity to the needs of baseline Draekenerys, Dragonbane. You and the other Protectors of Shrynaere are so isolated in your mountain sanctuary, you cannot see the threat that these intruders represent.>
<What are you trying to do, Ursienke, foment a coup d'etat, with yourself as dictator? What next? Purge all 'lesser' species of Draekenerys apart from your kindred therapods?>
<Untrue. For one thing, you are a sister therapod yourself, even if you have abandoned your heritage.>
<You claim to be a 'conservative', Ursienke, dedicated to preserving 'traditional' Drakenerys ethics. I see nothing of the sort. The Protectors will not let you violate the sanctity and wisdom of Thought Mother's teachings this way.>
<Do not presume to impose your weakling cult and its strictures on me, Dragonbane. I will not tolerate it.>
<True, but then tolerance, compassion and dialogue have always been problems for you, hatch-sister, have they not?>
Thunderwoman assembled the other members of the UFC:
"Okay. Situation report. Dragonbane and her fellow Protectors of Shrynaere are onside with us, and so are the Draekenerys Council of Elders."
"But General Ursienke clearly isn't. We can't expose the survivors of our world to her active malice and that of her political faction. Worse still, we could precipitate a civil war here." Whisper interjected.
"What is it, Brainwaver?"
"I have performed some troubling quantum calculations for this universe. It may face an imminent threat precipitated by the Crisis that is as damaging to its long-term survival prospects."
"Meaning?" Atlantean asked
"Meaning that unless I am very incorrect, this universe is about to undergo a quantum vacuum phase transition. The results are measurable at lightspeed and could cause irreversible spatiotemporal rupture within it. Earth-159 may be doomed."
"There is no doubt?" Dragonbane asked
"If we had an alphamage, we could confirm this, but it looks like the Crisis on Infinite Earths has resulted in the formation of a charged quantum transition within your universe. It is spreading outward at lightspeed."
"Ironic. Then it may be our universe that is doomed, not yours."
"Look, your people are welcome to evacuate to Earth 200."
"How far away is this vacuum transition from our world?"
"We don't know. The data isn't that exact." Thunderwoman confessed.
"It could explain things. About why I have had difficulty in access to the Shaman's Cave, about why our timestream is too chaotic to enter. Because it is being eroded by this malignant phenomenon."
Brainwaver pointed to a growing, intensely white pinpoint:
"I don't think any of us have that long, anymore. That is the vacuum phase transition. And it is already consuming Sirius and its planetary system. At the rate that it is travelling, it will arrive here in six years. Long before that, however, it may trigger catastrophic anomalies within the solar system, affecting planetary and cometary orbits and the evolution of the sun itself. By that time, it will be impossible to transition to an alternate universe to escape the impending catastrophe."
"It seems we owe you our lives and the continued existence of our civilisation. The problem is that in conscience, we cannot allow Ursienke and her minions access to your Earth. Her insanity would trigger a catastrophic war between our species. One question. Do you have access to uninhabited alternate Earths?"
Thunderwoman nodded: "Brainwaver, can you calculate one that would meet the Draekenerys needs?"
Earth 28,556:
While the sun shone brightly in its Cretaceous equivalent sky, there were no signs of Draekenerys or any sapient saurian dwellings. The planet had a large satellite, although it was only to be expected that the configuration of craters on it would not match those on either Earth 159 or 200's moons. Brainwaver sighed in relief:
"This alternate universe has no Earthgrazer asteroids or distant Kuiper Belt objects in perilous orbits, no eccentric gas giant orbital trajectories and its primary is more stable than our own. As you can see, bacteriological and viral development is virtually identical to your world. It would be a perfect habitat for the continued survival of your species."
Dragonbane nodded: "The problem is, whether Ursienke and her collaborators will accept this?"
"We can sidestep that problem. Given your small population, we can manufacture enough personal cross-universe transition units to avoid detection until it becomes obvious that something is happening."
"Knowing my insane hatchsister, she will try to stop the evacuation. That means that the Protectors must stay and fulfil our duty to protect our people to the very end."
"But you won't be able to escape the phase transition. Dragonbane, no!!!"
"What is one life against those of the many that will be saved, friend Millicent?"
Six years later, Ursienke and her colleagues awoke to a nearly silent world:
"What is that light in the sky? Has one of the adjacent stars gone nova?"
"No," Dragonbane said as she faced her hatchsister,"but you wouldn't listen, would you? Not even when Titan's atmosphere combusted, when Europa's desperate marine inhabitants broke the disintegrating ice surface of their world, not when Pluto, Eris and the other trans-Neptunian dwarf worlds were lost to our solar system. Now it's too late. For both of us."
Ursienke looked wildly around: "What do you mean?"
"It is a vacuum phase transition, hatchsister. One which our world will not survive."
"You lie, Dragonbane."
"Why do you think our world is nearly deserted? You never were particularly observant, Ursienke."
"Are they your captives?"
"No, you fool. We have already evacuated all that will be saved. From under your eyes. We remain to prevent your subversion of this."
"You will die as well!"
"Yes, we will. But it is a small price to pay to insure that your insanity and the menace that you represent to our people ends here."
But at the very next minute, there was an unexpected development. Thunderwoman and her colleagues appeared from nowhere and grabbed their Protectors counterparts. In the next instant, there were coruscating balls of heat and light as the two Earths metasapient coalitions vanished from the scrutiny of their opponents.
Ursienke was left to rage and scream as she laid waste to the surrounding buildings and foliage around the deserted Core City settlement. After an hour of this carnage, she came back to herself and witnessed that several of her Praetorian Guards had already ended their own lives. She laughed insanely to herself and continued to do, for the next hour as the wavefront of the phase transition hit Jupiter and caused the ages-old giant planet to erupt into hydrogen and helium flame on a scale unimaginable. Several minutes later, Phobos and Deimos ploughed into the Martian surface, as Earth's nearest neighbour erupted into another argosy against the blurred starfield. And as the time ticked down, Ursienke started to howl and ululate at the blinding point of light, defying its inevitability. All of which availed her nothing as the Moon vaporised before the onslaught and then Earth 159. But thanks to the determination of two Earths protectors, the end of that world did not mean that of the species that had once dominated it, only the demise of a bereft, impotent and mad creature, shrieking her insanity and defiance at the very last.
EPILOGUE:
Earth 28,556:
The Ultrahuman Forum of California and Protectors prepared to take their leave of one another:
"Thank you, Millicent. For all you have done. We did not expect rescue."
"No, but you deserved it, Dragonbane. Now you and the others can live on and serve this new Earth's inhabitants."
"But what of your world?"
"Well, your technology sharing enabled us to walk back from the brink. It seemed only fair to return the favour."
"I look forward to visiting it one day."
"You will be a welcome guest."
As the UFC dematerialised, Dragonbane stood there for an instant, turning a tiny holographier gem that showed her and her hatchsiblings near their mother as fledgelings. Ursienke and Dragonbane were embracing. Dragonbane sniffed, shed a single tear for the lost and then walked toward the sounds of life, laughter and love amidst Draekenerys' multitude of grateful survivors, into a new day that she had truly never expected to witness.
THE END