chapter 4: Pavarti (Part 2)

[Johannesburg, South Africa: 2320]

After an almost tearful goodbye, filled with half lies about everything being fine, Isaac descended the stairs of the apartment tower and stepped into the arid heat of Johannesburg. The sun was dim, blocked by the residue of smog from an earlier age.

A group of people, mostly small children were across the street. A woman in the group spotted him and tensed up, ready to take her herd to a safer place. Isaac smiled slightly, and stared her down.

Just as he reached the curb, a driverless electric bus pulled up in front of him and opened the door. Isaac didn't need the robotic voice inside to tell him this was his ride. As soon as he sat down, the beeping on his arm stopped.

The bus drove off, and the woman across the street looked relieved. Isaac made a mental note to look more threatening next time.

Two others were in the car with him. A woman who must have been in her early thirties, and a young boy. The bus made a few more stops and picked up seven more people. All ages, different genders, and different nationalities, if that even mattered anymore.

They travelled over a hill where he got a good view of the city for the first time in a while. His stomach tightened a little when he saw it.

Several buildings were missing from the skyline. Of the remaining buildings, many had huge holes, and some of them looked like they were starting to tip over.

Isaac taxed his mind, trying to remember when his last trip to down town was. However long, the visitors were not leaving earth's inhabitants alone anymore.

The bus drove on. Passed the outskirts of the city, and away from the tall buildings and concrete roads.

"Anybody know where we're going?" the man next to him asked.

"No, but by the looks of things, this may take a while."

Isaac sat back and closed his eyes. If there was nothing else to do, he may as well get some rest. The bus drove on and on, over dirt roads, through small swamps and forests, and across miles and miles of prairie and desert.

While Africa had been a more popular living destination in recent years leading up to the invasion, it didn't take long to find one's self completely removed from civilization.

The sun set and darkness enveloped them. The car needed no lights to navigate the dark, so those remained off. There was no moon to cast a silver light on the proceedings. In short, outside the window it was completely black.

"Attention passengers," the bus' computer spoke in a British accent. "We will be driving for the remainder of the night to our destination. It is recommended you sleep so that you are rested for tomorrow's labor."

"Which is what, exactly?" the young boy asked. "Where are you taking us?"

"All you need to know will become apparent upon our arrival." With that, the interface shut off. The question and answer segment would be cut short.

Isaac laid back and closed his eyes, while subtly changing his tracker to beep early in the morning. He wanted the stars to give him a bearing of where he was before the sun rise took those away.

He didn't get much sleep. Most of the drive was pretty rocky. And while the bus was amphibious, and could handle nearly every terrain thrown at it, there's just no avoiding turbulence in the wild.

Isaac woke up for good before his secret alarm. He turned that off and looked for familiar constellations. If memory served him right, then they were traveling north west. Diving a whole night through nature's best, they may have gone three or four hundred miles. Unless the roads were smoother than anticipated. Then that distance could be closer to seven hundred miles.

They were also increasing their elevation. His ears popped, and the windows were cold to the touch. Not even in the shadow of the sun would Johannesburg cool down any in the summer. As the darkness was swept away, patches of snow spotted the ground, and he could see that they were at an incline. He looked out the back window and saw that the incline extended quite a ways back down.

These bits of data tumbled around in his brain. Three to seven hundred miles north west, steep elevation. He tried to pinpoint where they were being taken. And then it hit him. The bus was taking them to an active volcano.

He turned around sharply, waking up the woman in her thirties, and looked out the front window. In the distance he could see smoke pluming out of the peak, probably another thirty miles away.

The woman at first was angry at him, and then she saw it too. "Are they going to kill us in that?"

This woke up most of the other's in the bus. The sleep grog wore of fast as soon as they saw what they were driving towards.

"Not very practical of them." Isaac observed. "There were probably a dozen or more closer areas they could have crashed us into on this trip and no one would have ever found us. "

"Why else would they take us to a volcano?"

"Look, one thing you have to know about our alien robot overlords, they're not inherently evil." Isaac said, more to the group than to the woman specifically. "Their end goal isn't killing you."

"How do you know?" Someone in the back asked.

"Because we're not dead yet. If they wanted us dead, they wouldn't need to bring us out here. They have seven nation's fleets of predator drones at their disposal. And they don't even need those to kill you."

"So, we're safe?" The young boy asked.

"No." Isaac never liked sugar coating things. "They aren't trying to kill you, but they're not going to protect you. Whatever it is they want from us, it has to do with an active volcano. Chances are some of us are going to die on this trip."

By now, the whole group was awake. They drove in silence for another twenty minutes, when the computer started talking to them.

"We are arriving at our destination. Retrieve your gear from the back. More instructions will follow."

Nobody moved, so Isaac got up and shuffled to the back of the bus. It was small, and given the long trip, the passengers had made themselves comfortable. In the back, there was a large military supply chest, unlocked. Inside there were several groups of gadgets. Ten pairs of tech gloves, and ten small glass cubes. To the side was some food.

"Once we have arrived, you will be granted a twenty minute rest period for food." The robot voice continued. "Following which each passenger will put on the gloves and take a box. You will start collecting materials from the area into the box. If the edges glow red, you are to discard the object. If the object glows green, you will bring the material back to the bus for evaluation."

The bus stopped on a flat section of the mountain. Everybody got out and stretched their legs while Isaac handed out the food.

"How do you know so much about them anyway?" A man in his sixties asked as Isaac handed him a food tray.

"My father's a minister," Isaac said. "He deals with them like they're people. Makes deals. I've been studying them pretty much my whole life."

"Have you ever seen one?"

"Not in person. I saw one once on a video feed. It was only for a brief second."

"What did it look like?" The boy asked with a mouthful of processed cookie in his mouth.

"Big. I got the impression of an octopus, but like I said, it was only a glimpse." He took the last meal and sat on a nearby rock. "Listen, we need to stick together as much as possible if we want to go home. The robot didn't give us a cut off time, I'm guessing we're here until we find whatever their looking for. But they only brought one meal. I'd like it not to be my last. Let's start by going through who's who and partnering up."

They went around stating their names. The first woman he met was Laura. The young boy was Zach. He was not her son. The elderly man was Christian. The rest of the group was pretty middle of the pack, age wise, probably selected for mobility. Jessica looked frightened to be here, never taking her eyes off the smoke cloud in the close distance. There was also Danny and Lenora, they were picked up at the same spot, but it seemed they only knew each other casually. Rounding out the group was Jim, Bruce and Sara. They were the last to be picked up, and they did know each other. More causal passersby in the streets, but the familiarity was there.

"Ok great. That's twenty minutes. Better get to it, or they may send those predator drones after all." Isaac tried for a bit of humor, but the group didn't chuckle at that.

They did, however, put on the gloves and take their boxes. The group split off in teams of two, Isaac paired with Jessica, who was the most reluctant to move. But the rest of the group considered Isaac their best chance of survival, and she agreed to move if it was with him.

They started close to the bus, collecting bits of grass and weeds. All yielding red buzzes from their boxes. Isaac tried some of the surrounding rocks, which were hot, even through his gloves. Still no luck.

"It would be nice if they gave us a hint about what they were looking for." Isaac complained. Jessica grunted and frowned. She had yet to put anything in her box. "There were some flowers back down the hill a little ways, we could try those."

Jessica considered this for a moment, but didn't respond. She just made sure she was always close to him.

"You're right, they probably didn't send us for flowers." Isaac turned towards the peak. "Probably something closer to the hot zone. We should go."

Jessica's eyes grew wide, but she didn't protest. Isaac started walking and she followed. None of the rest of the group had started towards the volcano. He suspected that they had a feeling that what they were looking for was closer to the danger, but like most people confronted with these choices, decided to steer clear of it. He didn't blame them. He just wanted to get this over with.

The climb was steep. It didn't help that the air was hot, and the ground shook occasionally. Isaac held out a hand to help Jessica over a slippery part of the slope. At last they reached the crest and took a look down.

From here, it was a large, lopsided bowl, with a glowing red furnace at the bottom. The central lava pool wasn't very big compared to the small valley, but there were spots of lava that had been shot out at various places.

Isaac turned back to Jessica. "You ready?"

"You're not going into the volcano?" She asked vehemently.

"Oh, you do say more than your name." Isaac chirped. "Yes. I am. You can stay at the ridge, or come with me, up to you. But I'm not waiting around for you."

"I'll stay here." Jessica laid down on the ridge.

"Fine. At least make yourself useful and put stuff in that box."

He turned around and slid down the hill, trying not to turn the slide into a tumble and fall. The soil was loose, but there were grassy patches that he used to slow himself down.

At first he was trying the same things. Dirt, rocks, grass. Same results. He scanned the area, but it was hard to see, as the area was smoky, and the heat made visible light dance like snakes.

Sweat dripped into his eyes and he wiped it with the gloves. The ground shook and a small discharge of lava shot out of the pool and landed on the other side of the valley.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He kept sliding closer, scanning for anything unusual. The ground shook again and he fell, tumbling into a roll. He dropped the box and reached out with his hands, desperate for something solid to grab a hold of.

He tumbled past a big rock, but he pushed it enough that it fell with him. His gloves slipped on a patch of grass. Finally he caught a thick set of weeds. More lava spewed out of the pool and landed just twenty feet to the left.

Jessica yelled something from the ridge, but he couldn't hear her. He grasped for breath and let his heart rate drop for a minute. He was close to the lava pool now. Another few rolls in his tumble and he may have been melted.

With his nerves resettled, he sat back up and looked for his box. Just above him and to his right, he noticed a pool of purple liquid. It was small. Maybe a litter or two. That struck him as odd enough to be what they were looking for.

He turned around and looked below him. His box was down to the side, making a straight line between the liquid, him, and the box. He stayed in his seated position and crawled down slowly.

His skin was starting to peel in places. It was too hot down here. He had never intended to get this close. He should be wearing a special heat shield suit. But he inched on, and reached his box.

A large burst of lava shot out, high into the sky and hit the ground above. There was enough of it that it started sliding down towards him. He grabbed the box and crawled quickly to the pool of purple liquid.

Above him, Jessica was sliding down the side of the valley. Isaac wondered what would have fostered her new sense of adventure, but didn't have time to figure out what she was doing. The lava flow was coming down fast and he needed to get the sample.

As he got to the pool, he scooped the liquid into the box and then rolled to the side. The heat from the lava burned, his skin was still peeling, but he remained intact. Jessica yelled something from above him, but her message was still not discernible.

The pool of purple liquid was run over, and probably incinerated. Isaac clutched the box and took a look. It was glowing green. He had found the what they were looking for. He closed the lid and started climbing again.

Jessica was closer now, and while he couldn't discern what she was saying, her meaning was becoming more clear. She was pointing frantically to his left. Was there a danger over there? It seemed safe enough.

His pause was enough for her to head in that direction. Maybe she wanted him to go there. Maybe there was something over there to collect. Well, he already had what they were after, so no point in scooping up more of it. Still, he didn't want to leave her in a volcano, as useless as she was.

He scrambled over towards her, grateful the air was already cooling from his perspective. Halfway there, the dirt and rocks above him started to shake loose, and fall towards him. Now he knew what she was so desperate to tell him. There was a landslide coming.

He redoubled his efforts to reach her. The terrain he was on was already slippery, and he kept stumbling and sliding. At last he was clear of the path, but Jessica got swept up in it. She fell screaming and Isaac maneuvered to reach her.

He reached out his gloved hand at the edge of the landslide to catch her. He didn't, and she fell tumbling into the lava pool below.

He turned immediately and ran up the side of the hill. This place was a death trap, and staying here was no longer an option. The loose dirt betrayed his feet, and he scrambled to gain traction to move up.

Two of the others peaked their head over the edge. He couldn't see who they were at the moment, but he waved at them to run.

The motion dislodged the box and he reached out and grabbed it. The ground shook and another blast of lava came shooting out.

With all the effort he could, Isaac made it to a tree and ducked behind it. The surrounding area sizzled and popped and the tree creaked as it lit on fire. A hot rock zoomed by, hitting the box and breaking it. The purple liquid shot out and splattered on his gloves.

It wasn't lava hot, but hot enough that part of it melted into his tracker. He screamed in agony, and dropped to his knees. Every second he spent in here was killing him.

He took a deep breath, tried to push the pain away and sprinted towards the top. The ground shook again, and he fell. The loose soil made it worse, and he fell another twenty feet before he stopped himself. Lava spewed out right for him.

This was it. No more running, he wouldn't dodge this one. A wave of lava was almost on him, when his tracker tingled. He looked and saw some of the purple liquid almost solidified inside his wrist. It was more of a gelatin now. It burned and his reaction was to grab it with his other hand.

He closed his eyes as the burning shower reached him. Then, suddenly, the air turned cool. A breeze shot up at him. He opened his eyes and saw that he was on the outside of the mountain.

He turned to look up, and the other two were still there. Below him, sounds of gunfire rang out in a small jungle growth.

"What now?" Isaac asked no one in particular.

A predator drone zoomed by, killing some of the other passengers. He scrambled again, running for the bus. The dirt here was more solid, and he reached it before the drone came around for another pass.

Inside the bus, he turned on the computer. Something in his wrist flashed, and the computer turned on.

"Ok. Didn't expect that to work." Pavarti pressed the call button.

The computer linked up to the closest computer it had. The drone.

"What?" Isaac doubted his luck here, and the computer took over the drone for him. It was scanning the area for the trackers. He found his heat signature, but his location device was not betraying his location. Neither was the bus'. The only other two from the group were at the top of the volcano.

He stopped the drone and piloted it to the ground, next to the bus. Isaac went out and touched the drone, trying to find out what happened. He stumbled a little bit, and caught himself on the tail.

The edges of his vision went blurry and the other two passengers ran up to him. He couldn't tell which ones they were.

"Oh no. You're... bleeding and burning."

Hands rushed to his aid as he fell more, and blacked out.

*****

[Unknown location, Alaska]

Pavarti parked his stolen truck on a wide circle of steel in the middle of the Alaskan hub. The room itself was cylindrical; fifty foot ceilings, a single desk lining the outer walls with multiple stations. Everything was a long lasting steel.

Lights flicked on as he got out of the truck and headed to the main terminal directly in front of him. This one featured a simple computer like the rest of the stations, but on the wall was a large monitor with multiple feeds operating at once. They flickered on one by one, revealing dozens of locations. All feeds were active.

As he sat in the chair, a large circular tube below him hummed. This was the height of his technological achievements. The reason he had survived as long as he had. This machine allowed him to reset the time line and even to peak out at different consequences of minor and major tweaks to the time line.

Even though he would not be born on Earth's timeline for hundreds of years, he was here, getting Earth ready for a hostile alien takeover. No matter how he changed things though, the future always projected to humanity loosing.

Inside the tube, chunks of his discovered purple matter, the Pavarti matter, would be collecting and spinning at greater rates. Once up to the right speed, he could take a peek at what was a head, and press the red button to build back from the latest restore point.

Rather than dying on a sandy beach and leaving everything to fate, Pavarti would try going back to rescue Scott and his friends from Donovan and the Coalition. He would put a stop to Azurand before he got out of control. And he would give Scott and Miranda time to give birth to the new generation of his creations.

Something wasn't right. Pavarti pushed his chair back to the grating floor section and looked below him. The engines were running, but the tubes were empty. The Pavarti Particle wasn't there.

Out of safety, he never kept the Pavarti Particle in the same location as the machine. Only by teleporting the Particle could he make it work. Somehow, the connection was lost.

He got up from the chair and walked to the latch leading to the machine below. The ladder was long, and his current body had a programmed fear of heights. He grew woozy for a moment.

That's what he hated most about switching bodies. There were so many things to get used to. New tastes, new anxieties, different thresholds for pain. But no options to switch at the moment. Once he got this up and running again, he would have whatever he wanted.

After descending the ladder for nearly a minute, he reached the portal panel that fed into the tubes. Nothing shorted on it. It looked fine, just dead. No power coming to it. He tapped it, and then pulled his hand away at the cold shock.

He climbed back up the wall and went back to the main station. The monitors were all on now, showing what was happening in all of the key spots. One monitor in particular drew his attention.

This one monitored his other Earthly time line restore base near his boyhood home, Johannesburg South Africa. There were people in it. Again, out of security, he programmed safety measures to prevent portals from delivering the Pavarti Particle to his machines unless his security measures were met. Obviously, the people in Africa had tripped the security and disabled the time portals.

The Alaska base had little else other than the time portals. In all of his trial runs and other resets, never had his time portals been cut off this early in the game.

No more resets, no more attempts. He would have to make some drastic changes to the timeline and hope they worked.

To his right, was a small war chest. He retrieved it and opened it. Inside was a small pack of the Pavarti Particle, only enough to power his long leather jacket. He plugged that in and studied the monitors, assessing which variables he would have to plan for.

Miranda was in America, that could pose a problem. Scott and Dixon were in Europe by design, but they brought somebody with them this time. He wasn't quite sure who she was.

The legion league was everywhere. Most of his private labs were found, and some of them were infiltrated. Pavarti would have to use caution when making this trip. He set the itinerary, and shook his head. It was the exact opposite journey he took so long ago as a youth. Fitting. It would end how it began.

First things first, he would need resources. A few operations on his terminal, and old trust funds, stocks, and high yield bank accounts dumped money into several different personal accounts. With those he chartered a one way plane ticket, a large boat ticket, and acquired the services of a private trucking company that specialized in the discrete transportation of volatile materials.

Fist stop, Sparks Nevada.