Doctor Omega is a name that is sadly unfamiliar to most. Granted a large part of that is because he comes from an entirely separate plane of existence to ours. Indeed no one from our world should have ever had reason to know his name at all, given it was a tragedy that brought him here. Still we cannot overlook the debt we all owe this mysterious traveller.
The good Doctor’s association with our universe began billions of years ago, when he was among the millions drafted to fight in the most important war in the history of our and many realities, “The battle for creation”. This conflict was waged by another time traveller, the reformed vampire named Professor Fang, against the creatures from the universe before ours, who hoped to reshape our reality in its infancy to suit their needs. Had they not been stopped, not only would they have destroyed our universe in their experiments, but millions more in an effort to reshape other universes to become their new home. It was only through the efforts of Professor Fang, who brought forward armies of different life forms into the past that these creatures were defeated and history as we know it was able to unfold afterwards.
Doctor Omega meanwhile aside from playing one of the most important parts in the war, was later forced to return to our universe centuries later from his perspective to finally finish off his sworn enemy from the battle, Tyleskia who had escaped into his reality. Once again the enigmatic time traveller was able to save our reality from destruction before returning to his own.
Sadly not as much is known about Omega's life or indeed universe when compared with our own, but nevertheless of all the many realities within our multiverse. Omega's universe, given the designation of X-22 has enjoyed through the Doctor himself the closest link with ours. Tragically as seen with Tyleskia, the association hasn't always been positive for both.
The information gathered here comes from one of Omega’s companions, Claudia McGrath who came from our universe and joined him on his second expedition to our reality. She later returned to ours on her own centuries later. Whilst Claudia became one of the Doctor’s closest friends, sadly even her knowledge of his life was limited and we don’t know what ultimately became of him. Still at the very least this information will hopefully shed more light on one of the great heroes from omniverse.
Universe X-22's version of the earth seemed to follow a similar trajectory to ours up until a certain point. It appears to have started to form at roughly the same stage in its solar system’s history and underwent a similar evolution.
Just as in our reality the first simple celled organisms that eventually gave rise to all life on earth appeared in the first oceans of the planet 1 billion years ago.
These amoeba would then just as in our world evolve into the first insects and fish, after which a splinter group of fish evolved into the first amphibians when they crawled onto the land after which a splinter group of amphibians evolved into the first reptiles. In time proto mammals, the synapsids split off from reptiles and came to dominate the earth for millions of years, before a natural disaster known as the great dying wiped the majority of Synapsid species out at the end of the Permian era. Following this, the Dinosaurs then evolved from the reptile family tree and came to dominate the earth for the next 150 million years. One group of Synapsids however survived the great dying and became the first mammals who lived in the Dinosaurs shadow for their entire reign, until the great reptiles were killed off when 66 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into the earth. The mammals then emerged in the aftermath to become the dominant life forms, with humans finally evolving from apes just as in our reality too.
It's worth noting that whilst life on earth evolved in a similar fashion, on Mars and Venus things went very differently. It appears life underwent a similar pattern in this version of Venus' history to earth, with life forms similar to Dinosaurs and mammals evolving on two different sides of the planet, that were separated by a gigantic wall of fire known as the flame belt. Both the Venusian Dinosaurs and mammals in turn gave rise to a race of humanoids.
On Mars meanwhile which originally began as an ocean world, a race of Octopus like creatures evolved. These Octopoids soon split off into two species of land dwelling creatures after some of the oceans began to dry up, as we will later explore.
Human history also took a completely different trajectory after the initial civilizations were founded. Mankind for whatever reason was a lot more advanced in this reality. Some believe that it may have been because the Venusians visited our world when we were simple cave dwellers and experimented on humanity. There is at least some evidence that the humanoid Reptillians of Venus, the Treens and the humanoid mammalians, the Therons fought a war on earth before the first proper civilizations were established. Some have even speculated that the primitive Atlantine's who the Treens used as a slave force were in fact the descendants of humans they had captured, brutalized into being docile and experimented on. Doctor Omega himself at least seemed to believe this, though whether that came from first hand accounts of his are not known.
Regardless of whether or not they were experimented on by either the Treens or the Therons, mankind flourished in this reality and eventually built a fantastic civilization known as Atlantis, which established contact with a federation of planets that had been growing in earth's section of the galaxy.
Humanity was the only species from our solar system to join the Federation. The Martians at that stage were primitive, barbarians, the Treens were a hostile, war like race, whilst finally the Therons favored isolation. (Perhaps as a result of their prior experiences with earth men?)
It was near the end of the Federation’s several hundred thousand year long history that Doctor Omega was born in the great city of Atlantis. He came from a very prestigious and influential family, with the Omega's history stretching back thousands of years. Omega's first name is not known, as he only ever referred to himself by his last name to those he knew in the future. Some speculate it was because he wanted his family name to endure rather than his own?
Either way the Omega's whilst responsible for many of Atlantis' greatest breakthrough's and achievements over the centuries (including bringing Dinosaurs back through cloning that they then sent to live in isolated, artificial environments around the world.) They were also tragically responsible for its eventual destruction too.
Time travel was forbidden in the Federation, after an attempt to change history by the Federation to avert a disaster affecting several worlds had led to the Guardians wiping several civilizations off the map. The Guardians are beings who exist outside of time and space itself though they influence every single universe within our omniverse. No one knows how and where they came from, but the Guardians will punish any life form that changes history by imprisoning it in the Abyss, an area outside of time and space where you never age. The Guardians however do not forbid time travel. Just as in our reality, it is possible to create your own history, but not to change your established history in this universe. For instance going back and killing your grandfather when he was just a child, is an obvious change that would lead to a paradox, whilst going back and being the reason your grandparents met when they were young, ensuring your father's and your own birth is a stable time loop. Indeed many of the most important events in Omega's universe were as a result of stable time loops (and in our own such as the war of creation creating our own history.).
The Guardians had become almost mythical figures as a result to the great powers of the galaxy, some of whom even came to worship them as gods, though all the leaders of the Federation agreed never to experiment with time travel again. That is except for the Omega's who still carried out time travel experiments in secret with their end game being to create a fully functioning time and space machine.
It was later discovered that it was actually Doctor Omega himself who travelled backwards in time and told his father when he was a young man (before Omega's birth) that he needed to begin the project to create what would one day be his time vessel that in turn would prove vital to the safety of their world and even universe in its future. The attempts to create a time and space machine lasted for over 3 centuries until Omega himself was an old man, with Omega taking up where his father left off. (Atlanteans had a much longer lifespan than ordinary humans thanks to their advances in medicine.) Omega's father never told his son the truth as he had been instructed not to, though he did tell him that what they were doing now was vital to the future of the universe and had come from a message from the future. Sadly whilst Omega respected his father and believed in the mission to finish the time vessel fanatically, the two never had a close relationship, as Omega's father was somewhat scared at what his son would one day become. He tried to hide that fear as best he could, but sadly it still led to him being rather cold and distant with his son.
When the Omega's time travel experiments were discovered it led to a civil war within the Federation. Earth had always had an uneasy position in the Federation, but it nevertheless made many strong and important allies, (it was also eventually backed up by the Therons who ended their policy of isolation too, perhaps out of guilt at what they may have done to our ancestors?) The war completely destroyed the Federation's power and wiped out most of its colonies and planets, with earth itself being devastated by a barrage of enemy missiles which finally destroyed the last outposts of an already weakened Atlantis.
Omega, fled prior to the conflict in one of the prototypes for his time and space machine, and travelled through time. Another member of the Omega family, his brother stole the other prototype, with both doing so before either ship was completed. Omega felt guilty at having to leave his people, but he was so fanatical to his cause, he genuinely believed that the fate of the universe was dependent on it, and from what we have seen of his life he was right.
Prior to Omega's escape, the Atlantean government had agreed to destroy all the research on the time capsules to prevent the war, but the disappearance of both time ships finally set off the conflict. Omega meanwhile was transported hundreds of thousands of years into earth's future to France in the 19th century. After the final fall of Atlantis, humanity was reduced to the level of primitives and it took many centuries before they were able to rebuild any kind of civilization, though they never reached the level of Atlantis again. The early development of mankind after the destruction of the Federation was accelerated by a few Atlantean elites who survived in isolated bases and used the leftover technology to guide the others. In time however these elites who also used magic (that had been forbidden before in Atlantis’ time) as well as their technology to prolong their life spans became corrupted and tyrannical over their subjects, giving rise to myths about gods in numerous societies. After the last of these elites were killed off in their own wars or fled to other worlds, recorded human history would later begin.
Recorded history in this universe seems to have followed a similar path to our own in most respects, up until the early 20th century (though as we will see there were certain events that were either hidden or passed down into folklore by the 19th century, just like our reality too.)
Omega meanwhile continued his experiments, under the alias of Doctor Omega in France from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, hoping to finally perfect his time machine from the ruins of the one he had crashed into this time with. His brother, who now went under the name of Professor Helvetius (his first name in contrast) had arrived at a much later date in the very early 22nd century and was able to perfect his machine in no time. (His prototype was less damaged in the crash too.) Helvetius later visited Omega and even offered to help repair his ship, but Omega refused, wanting to build his own craft. Helvetius nevertheless left his brother with a machine that Omega could contact him with before resuming his travels.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
After ten or so years, Omega finally completed his time and space machine in 1906 which he dubbed the Cosmos. The Doctor then took on as his first companions, his neighbor Denis Borel, and his assistant, Fred (who he first met when pulling Fred to safety from a lake.) Their first journey took them to Mars 1000 years before the 20th century.
At that point Mars was still a thriving world populated by the two highly advanced civilizations of Octopoid descended creatures who had been locked in a war for thousands of years. After braving the hostile waters of Mars (where they encountered gigantic reptillian mermen and huge carnivorous fish.) As well as the jungles and deserts of Mars where they encountered gargantuan snakes and bat, humanoid monsters. Doctor Omega and his companions were attacked by the more aggressive species of Octopoid descendantss, the Kelpians, before eventually being rescued by their rivals who were known as the Mortaxans.
The Mortaxans sheltered Omega and his companions and even agreed to give them what they needed to repair their spacecraft. However following an attack by the Kelpians on the Mortax city, it was discovered that the Cosmos was immune to the Kelpians weaponry. The metal it was made of called Stellite proved to be the key to the ships success as it could repel the energies of the vortex, and therefore could also repel most forms of laser weaponry. The Mortaxans subsequently canibalised the ship and used it to create a shield with which they advanced on the Kelpians city and finally conquered their enemies.
Doctor Omega and his companions meanwhile were imprisoned by the Mortaxans who demanded he create more Cosmos like weapons for them. Fortunately however Omega with help of a friendly Martian named Tzairou, was able to get hold of the machine to contact Professor Helvetius who promptly rescued Omega and his companions and aided them in retrieving the parts of the Cosmos that he could. Back in the 19th century, Doctor Omega repaired and with the aid of some Martian technology he had stolen, improved upon his original Cosmos. Fred however, who had fallen in love and married in the year it took Omega to repair his machine declined the offer to join him, whilst Tzairou (who had returned to earth with Omega) and Denis were only too eager for more adventures in time and space.
Together the three of them travelled throughout the history of Universe X-22, with Omega constantly making improvements to his own vessel along the way, until eventually the Cosmos became the most sophisticated time and space machine in the entire universe, far surpassing even Helvetius’ vehicle.
Sadly however whilst Omega did many great things on his adventures, (with his machine often bringing him where he needed to be.) His first journey to Mars ended up having horrific consequences for both the earth and the universe at large.
The Mortaxans though initially the more peaceful of the two species (even then however there are some who believe they may have started the initial conflict.) Became terrified at the thought of the Kelpians who they now completely dominated ever rebelling and they performed horrific experiments on them to make their race more docile. Still even these atrocities did not ease their paranoia which soon spread to potential threats from outer space. Having seen how much more in advance Omega who came from their giant blue neighbor was, the Mortaxans became terrified at the thought of a full scale earth invasion and over time worked hard to make themselves the most powerful creatures in the cosmos. They also monitored the earth, having known that Omega was a time traveler from the future to prevent humanity from ever reaching his level of advancement. Some believe that they may have even tampered with human development at certain points, and sowed the seeds of Rome and other empires around the worlds downfall to keep humanity in a limbo state.
The Mortaxans also slowly transformed themselves into a race of cybernetic creatures, eventually building gigantic robotic tripods to house themselves within. By the 20th century only their brains and a few vestigal limbs remained, with the rest of their bodies being purely mechanical. The Kelpians meanwhile who ironically possessed a more humanoid appearance were reduced to nothing more than slaves and foot soldiers by this stage, and eventually food, with their blood being drained as a source of nourishment by the Mortaxans.
In the year 1912 the Mortaxans launched a full scale invasion of our planet or rather its counterpart in this universe. This wasn't just out of fear of humanity however. The Mortaxans experiments and reckless use of resources had more or less stripped Mars clean and earth was the only suitable planet in the solar system for their needs. They did contemplate an invasion of Venus and may have been able to pull it off at that stage, but they felt the primitives of earth would be a more easy target.
Doctor Omega meanwhile was away on his travels throughout time and space at this point and had no idea what was happening, though he did receive a summons from Fred, the Cosmos sadly was unpredictable and took Omega to several years after the invasion.
Humanity bravely fought back when the Mortaxans attacked, but even our most advanced weapons, such as the Thunder child (the greatest warship ever constructed) only managed to down a few Martian tripods. Within one week all the leaders of the earth were slaughtered, the largest cities lay in ruins, and our forces were either completely destroyed or rendered just as helpless as the civilians they had sworn to protect. The earth now belonged to the Martians, and they continued to rule our planet for the next 7 years.
Well over 100 million people lost their lives during the Martians rule over the planet (with 40 million having been killed in the initial invasion alone.) The Martians experimented on us in a similar fashion to the Kelpians. They cut into our brains in an effort to remove aggression or to make us docile, they drained our blood for nourishment, and they poisoned our land with their red weed which slowly began to terrorform our earth into being like ancient Mars.
Their invasion thankfully ended when Doctor Omega returned. His time machine brought him to 1919, 7 years after his last visit to the earth. After barely escaping the Martian invaders who planned to dissect him, (having sensed there was something different about the former Atlantean.) Doctor Omega allied himself with one of the human resistance groups and was able to figure out the aliens’ weakness. The Mortaxans had struggled with a new influenza pandemic that had emerged in the last year or so. A further twenty million people had been killed in the pandemic, whilst the Martians had shielded themselves from all forms of infection, though this meant that they were no longer able to harness humans for their blood, whilst they searched for a cure.
Omega however was able to hack into the Martians mainframe and make sure a tiny drop of infected blood was placed into one of their food supplies which spread the virus throughout the Martian invaders on earth killing almost all of them. The infection however even spread back to Mars too, crippling their forces there and preventing a second invasion.
Whilst Doctor Omega was hailed as a hero by the fighters he had helped, he begged them not to mention his name and quickly departed in the Cosmos. In time history would come to simply view the Martians succumbing to the virus as being as a result of their carelessness and arrogance. The Doctor sadly was almost completely broken by what his actions had caused. He was barely able to go on after the fall of the Federation, but he had hoped that in the long run he could make up for it with his actions across time and space. Now he had the death of another civilization on his conscience, and he actually contemplated simply flying the Cosmos into the sun (without his two companions of course.) However his faith in what his father told him convinced Omega to carry on as he believed that somehow at the end of it there must be a reason as to why he and his forebears had to construct the machine.
Back on earth the remains of the now shattered civilizations were forced to ally, though on a more equal footing this time. Ironically the Martian invasion, whilst more devastating than any earth war, helped to unite humanity like never before. The old prejudices were mostly forgotten about as not only did everyone need each other, but we now had a common enemy to unite us. This mindset coupled with the left over technology from the Martians allowed humanity to progress ironically to a much greater extent than in our reality at this point, though mankind's penchant for violence and prejudice would still resurface in other unfortunate ways.
The first to suffer were the collaborators who had worked with the Martians during their occupation. The most infamous was the Irish man Patrick Kielty who was tortured to death in public for colluding with the Martians. Doctor Omega himself put a stop to these public displays of brutality, shaming one of the resistance fighters who had ironically rescued him from the Martians and even helped save humanity that was taking part, by telling him he and the others were as bad as the Martians for indulging in these public acts of torture.
Omega however wouldn't get away with his role in causing the invasion. His former companion Fred's wife and son had been killed and their blood drained by the Martians right in front of him. Much like Omega, Fred initially tried to kill himself, knowing that he and Omega's mission to the past had created these monsters. However he was soon able to ease his guilt by pinning all the blame on Doctor Omega and his reckless actions and later when the new earth government was established in 1928, Fred, (who had since proven vital in helping to understand the Martian machines, thanks to the knowledge he learned from Omega.) Revealed the existence of the Doctor to the government who were planning a counter attack against Mars.
The expedition was funded by Thomas Edison who had managed to survive the Martian occupation through hiding in a bunker. Omega was lured back to earth by Fred who recreated the machine Omega had left to contact him with, that been destroyed in the Martian invasion, (as the Martians had been able to trace the unusual signals it sent out early in their invasion, which had been how they had found and captured Fred and his family in the first place.) Omega was then captured and forced to take part in this mission to Mars. The good Doctor was devastated by what had become of his former companion and tried to apologise, though obviously Fred didn't want to listen.
Whilst the Mortaxans were still struggling with the pandemic, their weapons were more than powerful enough to shoot most of the earth fleet created from crude left overs of Martian technology out of the sky, with only one ship, Omega's of course managing to survive, though even it still crashed into Mars.
Omega, Fred, Tziarou, Denis and the other human survivors were only able to defeat the Mortaxans, with the aid of a group of Kelpian rebels, who helped the earth people shatter the canals of mars, flooding the Mortaxans defenses and allowing a second human fleet to destroy their base.
Only a few Mortaxan ships managed to flee Mars. These Mortaxans eventually settled on a distant planet beyond our galaxy. They had been working on a new star drive since before the invasion as a back up plan if the invasion of earth failed, and the prototype of the star drive they tried to escape in, ended up propelling the Mortaxans further than they could have imagined beyond the galaxy. The Mortaxans then established themselves on a new uninhabited planet, simply christened Mor Tax and over the centuries recovered enough to become a galactic power in their own right developing a massive empire of worlds they had similarly conquered just like earth.
Doctor Omega faced the Mortaxans many times after this, with the monsters becoming his greatest enemies. Sadly however he was never able to end their poisonous influence on the universe and the guilt of what he had accidentally helped to create endured for the rest of his long life.
Tzairou meanwhile left Doctor Omega after the Mars mission. Deciding to stay and help the Kelpian rebels rebuild Mars. The Kelpians largely remained isolated from the earth from this point on until the red planet's destruction in the 1970s. This isolation was more on humanity's part however as they did not trust any Martians after the invasion.
Back on earth Thomas Edison took credit for destroying the Mortaxans. A book was even released "Edison's Conquest of Mars". Omega wasn't unhappy at his role being left out however, as he preferred to operate in secret. Whilst the general public still had no knowledge of who he was, the government, thanks to Fred (who was after the Martian mission placed in charge of their division to track down other alien threats) called on Omega many more times to help deal with other threats to the earth. During these missions he would work alongside Fred, with the two gradually coming to respect one another again. In his later years Fred made it clear that whilst he wasn't sure if he could forgive the Doctor or himself for what they had created in the Mortaxans, he did at least think there was a need for what Omega did and finally took responsibility for his role in helping to build the Cosmos.
In the next chapter we shall explore Doctor Omega’s later adventures with his other companions, his further battles against the Mortaxans and other enemies and the further known history of universe X-22.