Who Was That Boogeyman I Saw You With Last Night, Charlie Boone? - 5. Chapter 5

"You sure this is the place?" Charlie asked, staring at the small house in surprise. He'd envisioned a log cabin, perhaps hung with pelts outside drying in the sun and the cool air, and maybe a canoe on a rack by the cabin's side. He felt guilty now, that he'd envisioned a stereotype.

"This is the spot Zefira placed in the elf guide book," Max confirmed.

It was a neat, clean little bungalow, standing among the conifers on the side of a hill overlooking Yakutat's inlet. A steel chimney to one side of the roof let forth a steady stream of clean white smoke, which curled about the mount of a small satellite dish before wafting away on the breeze. A natural gap in the trees afforded a beautiful view of Monti Bay and Khantaak Island in the distance. To one side stood a small shed or horse barn, large enough to house a single horse, his riding gear, and some stores. There was no car or other vehicle present, and really no place to park one. The house was a medium walk from town for a man on foot, or a short one for a man on horseback.

They heard a snort then, as the resident of the barn scented their presence, and then the front door of the bungalow opened wide.

In the doorway stood Will Whitesaw. "You wanna come inside before you get a chill?"

Charlie smiled. The man seemed completely unsurprised by their appearance.

Max held up the package in his hand, and started forward. "I brought you another pound of that coffee you liked."

The man in the doorway grinned. "Can't never get enough of that. Come on in." He stepped back then, motioning them to come forward.

Charlie had decided that just he and Max would talk to Will initially. The others were waiting just down the road at an inn with a day restaurant, which catered to the seasonal fishing trades. The summer fisherman had all gone home, and the winter fisherman were just starting to arrive, so many of the businesses in the area were slow. Max had provided forms to disguise Casper and Ragal, and Browbeat was just keeping a low profile by remaining still and quiet. It was surprising what you could carry into a public place, so long as it didn't move or make noise or seem threatening.

They entered the bungalow, and Will closed the door. The interior of the house was just as neat and clean as the outside. The furniture looked comfortable and cared for, and there was a large-screen TV hung on one wall, no doubt connected to the small dish Charlie had spied on the roof. A bookcase to one side was neatly filled with books and papers, some of which looked quite old to Charlie's experienced eye. Will Whitesaw was more than he seemed, definitely.

The small fireplace released an ample amount of heat into the room, and Will was dressed causally in jeans and a flannel shirt over moccasin-covered feet. The main room of the bungalow included the small kitchen to one side, and the back wall held a magnificent nine-paned glass window that had not been visible from the front of the house, but which also looked through the natural gap in the trees at the bay beyond. It was a beautiful home, just the right size for a single man of undemanding pleasures.

Max handed over the package of coffee, and Will gave him a happy smile and a small bow before turning to place the package on the kitchen table. He waved them towards the fireplace, and the sofa and chairs placed nearby. "Have a seat and tell me what I can do for you." He grinned then. "Love the duds you fellas have on. Looks like a marching band, or somethin'."

Max laughed at that, and Charlie grinned, remembering what Robin had said. "They're warm and comfortable," he explained. "That's what counts."

They sat, and Charlie got right to the point. "We came back to talk to you about the blue people."

"Haven't seen any more of them, if that's what you mean." Will nodded. "I'd say it's about time they show up again, though. Got a feeling."

"But you can't know where they'll show up, right?" Max asked.

The man before them shrugged. "Not exactly. But I can figure it pretty closely. It will be near Héiýwaa, that's for sure."

Charlie nodded at that. "It draws them, somehow."

Will grinned. "Makes 'em mad, too. I can tell. They want to get closer, but they can't."

Max pointed at the man. "This íxt you use to keep these blue guys from seeing you? Can you show me?"

Will nodded. "Sure." He closed his eyes a moment. Charlie felt the tiniest tingling sensation along his spine, and then Will opened his eyes and smiled. "What do ya think?"

Charlie blinked in surprised and turned to Max...but the elf had his eyes closed, a smile just starting on his face. "That's really cool!"

"I didn't see anything happen," Charlie said, baffled.

"You're not blue," Will pointed out, laughing.

Max opened his eyes and smiled at Charlie. "Will's right. This thing is tailored just to bamboozle them blue folks."

Charlie stared at the elf. "You learned if?"

"Sure. You could have, too, if you'd been looking." Max leaned forward and took a couple of sniffs at Charlie. "No...you did learn it. You just don't know it."

Charlie was aghast. "I...how do I use it, if I didn't even see it?"

"You felt it," Max replied. "Should have seemed like a little tingle up your backbone."

Charlie blinked in surprise. "Oh. I did feel that."

"Then all you gotta do is bring that tingle back, and you're there."

Charlie took a breath and squinted at Max...but the elf was on the level. Charlie closed his eyes, and tried to remember the tingle he'd felt. He knew it was somewhere in his memory, and he tried to bring back the moment...oh. There it was!

It was easier than he'd expected. He felt the tingle again, and then opened his eyes.

Will smiled at him appreciatively. "Man, you guys learn fast!"

"You mean I did it?"

"Sure. Worked just fine."

"Watch me," Max said. He didn't even close his eyes. Just compressed his lips for a second, and then smiled. "See?"

Charlie scratched his head. "I can still see you."

"Sure you can," Will said. "It just works for the blue spirit folks. They won't notice you, unless you get right in their face. But you don't want it to work on your own people, or they wouldn't be able to notice you, either!"

Charlie frowned at that. "But when we first met you in the woods, we didn't notice you right off. Wasn't that the same, um, spell?."

"Little different one," Will explained. "Works better on our own folks."

Max waved a hand as if it didn't matter, and sighed. "I think everyone can learn this."

Charlie wasn't so certain. "What about Dick?"

Max laughed. "He has skwish, and hangin' out with you guys is bringing it along nicely. I got him figured for the more brainy type of skwish - you know, like sensing things like Ragal and Casper can. But I think he'll do fine with this as a first talent."

Charlie just hook his head and smiled. "Wow."

"You're gonna follow these blue spirit folks home, aint'cha?" Will asked, his eyes bright with curiosity.

Even Max looked startled at that. "It seems like a good place to begin. How'd you guess?"

"Oh...coupla things. You guys send my íxt sense to the roof. Especially you, Max. You guys got it going on, is all I can say." He nodded. "That spot we met in the woods? I'll tell you now, I seen them blue spirit folk there twice. My sense says when they come back -- and that will be soon -- it will be at that spot. Guess we'll see."

Max squinted at the man. "You're coming with us?"

Will smiled. "Sure. If it's okay."

Max turned to Charlie. "Seems right to me."

Charlie nodded, feeling the same thing now. "What about his clothing?"

Will laughed. "Mine ain't as fancy as yours, but it has a few tricks of its own. I'll be fine."

Charlie stared at the man a moment, suddenly feeling that Will Whitesaw knew much more than he let on. But that feeling was accompanied by another, that having the man along with them would be a good idea, and it would all work out.

Charlie blew out his breath. "Okay, then. Let's go."

Will nodded. "Let me get my boots on first."

 

* * * * * * *

 

They met up with the others, who were sitting on the front porch of the inn looking quite content with their surroundings. Rip and Ragal were missing, and Casper said they had taken a walk up the road to look around, and would be back any minute. Charlie introduced Will Whitesaw to those who had not met him, and the man seemed quite pleased to meet so many spirit people in one place.

"You guys got some serious ixt going on here," he whispered to Charlie. "These blue fellas had better watch out."

Charlie smiled at that. "You seemed to think earlier that they were friends of ours."

Will shrugged. "It's kinda natural to assume that all spirit folks know each other. But I got to thinkin' how much those blue fellas scared me when I saw 'em in the woods, and the way they acted, like they were nosin' around, up to no good. The woods is a dark place, and the things you find there sometimes have dark purposes. And, now I sense you and your friends are goin' after em'...so, they must not be nice people, after all."

"They may have designs on our entire planet," Charlie told the man. "And they have ixt, too. We'll need to be careful with them."

Will nodded. "Want me to teach all your people the ixt of not being noticed by them?"

Charlie smiled. "That would be a great help, yes."

Will looked pleased that he could contribute, and took a seat.

Charlie heard voices than, and Rip and Ragal came into sight, talking as they walked down the road. Charlie smiled at the way Ragal towered over the other man - but Ragal towered over everybody. The two came around the side of the front porch, and started up the steps.

Rip's eyes came up then, and moved among those seated along the front wall, found Will...just as Will's eyes came up, and met his.

Rip jerked to a halt, a look of recognition on his face...but one that quickly turned to doubt. He leaned forward to stare intently at Will. "Do I know you?"

Will blinked, and looked surprised. "My name is Will Whitesaw."

Rip stared a moment longer, and then walked slowly up the steps to stand before Will. "That's always been your name?"

"It was the one I was given, yes."

Rip stared a moment longer, and then shook his head. "I'm sorry. You look very much like someone I once knew."

Kippy took a breath of surprise. "You mean Khaj?" He turned to stare at Will. "Kha'jaq'tii?"

This time, it was Will who gasped. He turned amazed eyes upon Rip Shannon. "You...you knew my grandfather?"

Charlie's eyes fastened on Will, along with the surprised gazes of everyone else on the porch.

"Grandfather," Rip repeated softly, shaking his head. He turned to Charlie. "Grandfather?"

Charlie went to sit down in a chair near Will. "This Kha'jaq'tii was your grandfather?"

Will gave his head a little shake, staring at Rip. "How could you have known him? He's been gone for over 60 years!"

Rip squeezed his eyes shut, and nodded. "Gone." His eyes opened again, looking sad somehow. "Right, right. I forgot the years. I was born in 1874."

Will's eyes widened, and he turned to Charlie. "Is this true?"

"So it seems. For some people, um, ixt bestows quite a long life."

Will stared at him a moment longer, and then turned to gaze at Rip. "My Grandfather's true name was Naadkym. Kha'jaq'tii was his keeyek spirit brother. That which gave him many of his ixt powers."

"The northern lights," Dick said softly.

Will heard him, and nodded. "The sky lights, yes."

Charlie squinted at that. "The northern lights are just energetic particles from the sun, captured by the Earth's magnetic field."

Max made an apologetic sound at that. "Uh...actually, there's a few people among my own kind that feel that them energetic particles from the sun form patterns in the planet's magnetic field that display skwish knowledge."

Kippy gasped. "You mean, these lights in the sky are alive, and intelligent?"

Max looked wide-eyed at him a moment, and then smiled. "No, I don't mean that. Some of our folks think that the planetary magnetic field stirs the sun's particles into configurations that sometimes allows other things to manifest on earth. Entities like Esmerelda, but of a different sort."

"Skwish entities," Rick said. "Of course. Some of them are drawn to high energy sources."

Charlie closed his eyes a moment. This was just getting to be a very strange investigation!

He felt a warmth at his chest then, as Castor reminded him of his presence. A skwish entity. Charlie put a hand over the dragon medallion beneath his shirt, and opened his eyes. "We've already found that the Earth is home to skwish entities of several kinds. Is one more so hard to believe in?"

Casper laughed. "Not for me!"

Browbeat tittered cheerfully. "I came from the lower level by way of Engris! I can believe in almost anything!"

That caused a ripple of laughter to circle the porch.

Will stared a moment at the talking flyer, and then smiled at Charlie. "This is going to be interesting."

"Our friend Browbeat has a point," Robin said, his eyes betraying his delight. "What was it that Hamlet said to Horatio?"

Charlie gave a slow nod. "Point taken." He smiled at Will. "So, it seems to me there is more to our meeting than we originally thought."

Will looked surprised. "I never knew you fellas before you showed up in the woods that day."

"I know that. I'm thinking about the, uh, Héiýwaa. It seems naturally improbable that we would meet the grandson of Kha'jaq'tii so quickly and so easily after coming here." He turned to Rip Shannon. "And that we would be in the company of someone that actually knew him. That prods me to consider that the probability of our meeting was somewhat magnified."

Will smiled at that. "If it was to keep the peace, sure."

"That's what we're about," Adrian said, smiling. "We like things peaceful."

Will scratched at his chin. "So, these blue fellas are the bad guys?"

"I would definitely term them so," Ragal agreed.

"I'm forgetting my manners," Charlie said then. "Will, that tall guy is Ragal, and this curious fellow is Rip Shannon."

Will nodded. "You already know my name. Pleased to meet you fellas."

"I'm sure you can only make this investigation more interesting," Ragal assured.

Shannon smiled at Will. "I can tell you a few stories about your grandpap, too."

"I'd like that. I might be able to tell you a few, as well."

Shannon gave a little sigh. "This whole thing just keeps amazing me."

Charlie grinned. "Hold that thought." He turned to Will. "If you would, I'd like everyone to learn the ixt trick that causes the blue people -- we call them poppers, by the way -- from noticing us. And then we'll need to find a spot in your woods near the Héiýwaa where these poppers may return."

"How you gonna track these fellas?" Will asked. "They don't stay very long when they come."

Charlie smiled. "We're going to lasso them with a rope, and let them pull us back to where they came from."

The older man smiled. "Somehow, I believe you!"

 

* * * * * * *

 

The early afternoon sun filtered through the mists and the trees, giving the woods an almost supernatural look. That it was somehow in keeping with their mission here only made it all the more deliciously scary in some way. The atmosphere was just perfect for a surreptitious interdiction of an invasion by aliens from a half-million years in the past.

"A few Jack 'O Lanterns placed about, a skeleton or two, and we could have the Halloween party of all time here," Kippy remarked, smiling at Charlie in the hazy light.

Charlie returned the smile, and leaned in briefly to give his boyfriend a kiss. "We need to be on our toes, Kip. I have a feeling that this one is going to count."

"I agree. But we have some really good people here, Charlie. And everyone has learned Will's ixt trick of not being noticed by the poppers. We'll be okay."

Charlie hoped so. That most of their group would be reliant upon those that could teleport -- and that they all would be reliant on only two that could navigate time -- to follow the poppers, and therefore to return, as well, didn't fill him with the utmost confidence. It meant that they had to remain together as a group, or risk someone being stranded in the past if things went bad. Charlie and Max had explained the risks to everyone, but no one had wanted to back out. The planet was in danger, and no one had any doubts about volunteering their service to protect the home world.

"We're going," Dick Sternman had said, as if the issue was over. "Earth comes first."

They had waited another day in town before coming back to the forest, because Will had said that his feeling of when the poppers might surface again was soft. It was Monday morning before Will had decided that that was the day, and suggested they be back in the woods after lunch. How the man could be so definite was something no one could explain; but Max had deemed it important to give credence to Will's intuition.

"At this point, Charlie, the probability that he's right seems greater than the probability that he's wrong."

The Madracorn's probability discriminator, once again hedging the bets?

And so there they were, back among the trees. They had teleported back to the spot where they had met Will, and then followed the man on a short walk to the place he had said felt right for the encounter. They had activated their ixt safeguards against being noticed, and now they were playing a waiting game with the unknown.

"This place is spooky by day, but I'll bet it's just plain dark by night," Rick said.

"You've never been here during the full moon," Will spoke up, smiling.

Rick looked surprised at that. "You have?"

"Sure. A good shaman has to know both sides of darkness, as well as both sides of light."

"You can explain that later," Dick said softly, patting the man on his sleeve. "Just now, I'm not sure we need to know about the dark stuff that might be here."

Will chuckled softly. "I don't wanna scare anyone. I can wait."

Robin moved closer to them, Browbeat perched upon his shoulder. "I am consistently amazed to find how many apparently occult traditions in Earth's many cultures have a basis in fact."

"The universe is a creepy place," Max said. "As well as beautiful, mysterious, and utterly fascinating. Human scientists don't have a handle on skwish yet. They're still lumping it in with dark energy, or something like that. But for us elves, who know -- skwish is a necessary part of the allmagic. It's what allows the allmagic to be used by living things, and propagated by the universe."

"We'll get there, someday, I hope," Rick said. He offered a somewhat benign grin. "As it is now, it's amazing to think I know things about the universe that even Einstein didn't know."

Adrian's eyes twinkled merrily at that. "Right. Remember Einstein's famous equation, E = mc²? Well, Rick is the one that wrote that other famous equation, L=P+RB."

Rick blinked, and squinted at his boyfriend at that. "What the heck does that mean?"

Kippy laughed, and nudged Adrian with his elbow. Adrian was doing his best not to let his smile turn into laughter. "It means lunch=pizza plus root beer."

That caused everyone to laugh. Browbeat lifted from his perch on Robin's shoulder and sailed around the group, tittering. "You guys are so much fun!"

Casper's squeaky laugh caused Charlie to grin, and Kippy pressed himself up against Charlie's shoulder and sighed happily.

Rick gave a theatrical bow, and nodded at his boyfriend. "Good one."

Adrian took Rick by the arm and pulled him closer. "It was said with a lot of love, sweetheart."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not upset." He bent down and kissed Adrian. "Thanks. We needed that."

Will suddenly held up a hand. "Fellas!"

The speed with which everyone went silent was almost shocking. Browbeat returned and immediately lowered himself back onto Robin's shoulder.

"Are they coming?" Kippy whispered.

"I think so!"

Without a word, everyone massed together so that they were touching. Max put a hand on Charlie's shoulder. "Ready."

Charlie nodded, and turned to look where Will was looking. They all did.

And so they were in time to see the four poppers appear with the trademark sound of teleporters, in a small patch of misty sunlight, ten yards away.

Charlie gasped internally. The four aliens were much larger than he had imagined, and wider and more powerful looking than he had gathered from the illustration on the cover of Rip's novel. Their black eyes seemed hard and shiny, and the beards on their faces now looked more like fur that almost completely covered the slits of their mouths. For a moment Charlie's heart raced in apprehension; but the four poppers showed no sign that they spied Charlie and the others standing nearby. The four intruders immediately leaned together and spoke in deep, barking voices that raised the hackles on Charlies neck. There was nothing cozy about this bunch. Here were members of a race so utterly alien that Charlie had never encountered their like before. They made the Moth seem like old friends, dropped in for a drink and some polite chatter.

Max squeezed his arm and leaned closer to speak in the quietest of whispers. "Now, Charlie."

Charlie nodded, and reached out with his second presence. He let it circle the alien group, englobe them, and then he drew it inward until it seemed to touch them. They showed no sign that they recognized the contact, or were aware of its presence. But Charlie was fiercely aware of their presence now, as his second presence was merged with a teeming pool of skwish energies of unknown ability. It caused him to gasp, and for Kippy to grip him more tightly in support.

The alien tongue was unpleasant, harsh, and rapid. Yet the four had barely begun to converse when Charlie felt a twisting motion impinge upon their skwish envelope, and then the sudden and now familiar feel of teleports coming, though now mixed with some incredible other power that almost immediately spiraled dizzyingly backwards into time.

The four poppers vanished in another teleport, and Charlie closed his eyes and tried not to scream. He was now part of a cyclone of forces that spun his mind backwards, buffeting it with an array of energies he could never have imagined. It was like the roller coaster ride from hell, where every turn and every grade was magnified to simply horrifying proportions, and the speed just terrifying. He felt Kip's presence with him, and then those of the others, holding him tightly, reassuring, comforting, and it was only that knowledge that he was not alone that kept him from bailing from this most terrible of experiences.

The vortex lessened then, and some place came into sight. A dark place, with light along the horizon, but eerie and unwelcoming and confusing in its proportions. The four poppers were also there, and turned as a group and started walking away from Charlie, towards some dark giant of an edifice that loomed nearby.

"Now," he heard Max say, and then there was a flurry of small pops, and the world around them came more into focus, settled into clarity...and Charlie's anguish was over. His friends were all standing around him, and even then they moved to press against him and comfort him.

"I didn't get any warnings on the atmosphere here, so it seemed safe to come," Max said, his own voice sounding strained.

"That was a damn hell of a ride," Dick said softly, squeezing Charlie's arm. "I can only imagine what it was like for you, Charlie."

Kip laid his chin on Charlie's shoulder from behind and pressed his cheek against Charlie's. "You okay?"

Charlie took a deep breath to steady his nerves, and then let it sigh out. "I think so."

Rick put an arm around Charlie's waist from the other side, and also gave him a comforting squeeze. "That was awesome, Charlie. But I'm not in a hurry for you to do that again."

Charlie had to laugh at that. "You and me, both!"

"What made them leave the forest so quickly?" Adrian asked. "It was like something pushed them off the earth."

"Something did," Rip said. "The probability that they would find the Earth was low to begin with. They somehow beat those odds and found it, anyway. But the probability that they will be allowed to arrive and to stay must be terribly low. They no sooner get there than the odds must catch up to them, and their presence there is somehow closed out. They teleport away to escape being canceled."

"Canceled," Casper repeated, with a small shiver apparent in his voice. Ragal had been carrying him, but now set him down on his feet. "That sounds unpleasant," the little alien finished.

Rip shrugged. "I have no idea. They seemed unwilling to go that far, so left before it happened."

Casper patted his clothing carefully and looked around at the desolate landscape. "Where are we?"

"We're in the past," Ragal answered. He turned and pointed. "That must be the popper base."

Until then, the place had just seemed dark and uninviting, and not all that clear. But now they looked around, and their surroundings began to seep in.

The far horizon was indeed light, but the sky above it, and arching overhead, seemed dark with clouds. Along that backlit horizon Charlie could see tall, irregular structures, which he belatedly realized were the remains of once majestic skyscrapers, now torn and disfigured by some awful force. As his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, he realized that they were surrounded on all sides by the graveyard of a once vast city, now in utter ruin, only the skeletal frames of the buildings still remaining. Piles of rubble and unrecognizable heaps of debris were everywhere, among which nothing stirred, nothing breathed the breath of life. The sense of stillness and death was everywhere, with not even a breeze to give the illusion of movement.

"What's this place?" Adrian breathed, the horror in his voice apparent.

"It looks like a war was fought here," Rip said. "A terrible one, too."

"I suspect you're right," Robin agreed. "A war of extinction, by the looks of it."

"This isn't fun," Browbeat whispered. "It's awful."

"This is someone's reality," Ragal corrected carefully. "Or, it was."

"It's all dead," Max said, his voice tight with emotion. "Only someone truly evil could have done this."

"I expect we'll find our answer there." Ragal said. pointing.

All eyes turned to the grand edifice they had noted before, looking almost like a mountain standing among the ruins. At first glance it was pyrimidal in shape, but as Charlie examined the structure, he realized that its proportions dictated that it must have six sides. It looked like it had been literally planted in the city's heart, and was completely different from the taller and narrower architecture that had once seemed to be prominent here. This monstrosity looked like an invader, squatting among the ruins of a world.

"A popper hive," Rip said then, shaking his head. "This has to be their base of operations against Earth."

"A hive?" Adrian said softly. "It's not their ship?"

Rip shook his head. "No. These poppers operate out of...well, we always called them hives, because they reminded us of beehives. But they're not space vessels. They're like huge, armored fortresses. The poppers can move them in time and space at will, just as if they were spaceships, though." He frowned. "Imagine if humans had these big, armored buildings that they could just teleport anywhere, or take anywhere in time. You wouldn't needs ships if you could do that."

Max grunted at the notion. "But they wouldn't be able to teleport anywhere they had never been before."

Rip shook his head. "The poppers are old. They have been the length and breadth of this spiral arm, and beyond. And they seem to have a communal memory of some kind. Anyplace one of them has been, they can all get to. But even then, they also have the ability to sift time, and follow the links they find there." He pointed at Charlie. "It's sort of like Charlie's second presence, except it works through time. They can look forward, and travel to places they find in the future, even if they have never been there."

"Another cheat, of a kind," Ragal mused, his long fingers rubbing his jawline in thought. He narrowed his eyes. "I get a peculiar sense from these creatures when they're near. They are not mammals, despite their appearance. Nor are they of my own kind." He closed his eyes briefly. "They come across as most unpleasant."

Rip smiled grimly. "They're like insects in more ways than one." He sighed. "One thing I should warn everyone about: these guys are really strong. You don't want one of them to get its hands on you."

Max's eyes narrowed. "I'm pretty strong, too. I ain't lettin' any of these things get at us."

Rip smiled. "I hope you're right. Because their mental...uh, their skwish abilities are pretty strong, too."

"Their skwish abilities seem to have some holes in them," Kippy noted. "They couldn't seem to detect us standing within spitting range of them. I know we have Will's ixt to hide us, but still..."

"Don't underestimate them," Rip warned. "They are totally lacking in compassion. They do not take prisoners."

That had a chilling effect on everyone.

Robin finally grunted. "Okay, we've found them. Now, what do we do with them?"

Rip rubbed his fingers gently through his hair, looking suddenly weary. "Now I remember why I retired." But then he looked up at everyone, and grinned. "This would seem to where the operations against Earth originate. But the location of our planet has sifted through the hive mind by now." He pointed at the alien structure. "Even if we somehow destroyed this hive, the knowledge of Earth is now probably part of the supermind. The probability discriminators will keep them off our world for now, but if we allow the knowledge of our planet to remain into their future, no one is safe."

"Even Madracorn technology has its limits," Charlie said. "But these people seem to be well behind them just now."

"I have to agree." Rip gazed at the alien hive, thinking. Then he looked around at the devastated city. "It took time for this place to be destroyed. And by the looks of it, it didn't happen recently."

"You think the poppers did this?" Casper asked, looking horrified.

Rip frowned. "Oh, not directly. They didn't nuke this place themselves, or anything. But they are certainly responsible for it. No doubt they pulled all the strings that caused these people to destroy each other."

"Why?" Will asked. "Why do such a terrible thing?"

"For the poppers, their battle with the Madracorn is one of survival. It's about them having a future that the Madracorn do not want them to have. The poppers are nasty by our standards to begin with. But they have become even more ruthless now that they understand that their efforts to persist into a future that is not rightfully theirs is being thwarted by the Madracorn and their agent races. Any world...any people that may assist the Madracorn, even unknowingly, in securing a future where the poppers do not exist, is fair game."

Rick waved a hand at the destruction around them. "This place obviously didn't have probability discriminators."

"No." Rip smiled sadly. "There must be a probability cutoff -- a lower probable limit -- for where your Madracorn friends feel a world or people can contribute to the defeat of the poppers. Worlds beneath that limit are not protected. Unfortunately, that threshold is apparently even lower for the poppers. If they feel a people have any chance of interfering with their plans, they move to cause them to be destroyed."

Ragal made an unpleasant sound. "This must be why they were unknown in my time, save as legends. The empires of my day would have been formidable foes, indeed, if roused to action. The poppers lurked in the shadows, causing trouble where they could, but they could not take the chance that their manipulations would be discovered and that the empires would band together against them."

Browbeat fluttered his wings in irritation. "I never heard of these guys. They aren't known in the lower level, either. But I'll bet even the empires of today could kick their butts if they got wind of what was going on and all worked together!"

"No doubt," Rip replied. "But the poppers are not known in the time we came from, because in our time they're extinct. This is what they are trying to change."

"They can't," Max said then. "It's a done deal. They're gone."

Rip gave a sigh. "They know the future, Max. Our present is their future. We couldn't go into our own past and change our present to any notable degree. The universe won't allow it. But we could go and look into our future, and then change our present so that that future would be different." He waved a hand at the devastated city. "This -- all of this -- exists a half-million years in our past. By getting these people to destroy themselves in this present, the poppers have removed them from a future where they may count against them. It isn't the past they are changing. It's their present, which alters their future." He turned to Ragal. "Your people...your empires...exist right now. It is their today, again."

Ragal let his breath sigh out slowly. "Is it possible I already exist in this time, elsewhere?"

"Possibly," Max said. "But if you do, you'll never know, because the two of you can never meet."

Dick offered a faint chuckle. "This time stuff is mind boggling!"

Rip and Max both smiled. "Not just for you!" Rip said.

Adrian waved a hand for attention. "What's to keep the poppers from finding worlds like Earth in the future, and then just eliminating them here in their own present?" He looked around at the ruined city. "Like they apparently did with this place?"

Rip shook his head. "The Madracorn predate the poppers. Your alien friends looked into their future, and found the poppers there, and saw the trouble they would cause to try to live beyond their time. The Madracorn also apparently saw which worlds and which races would have a hand in the battle to keep the poppers from succeeding, and moved in their own present to protect those worlds from future popper interference. The probability discriminators that protect the Earth and other worlds were placed before the poppers reached the technological level to find them and interfere with them. Since the poppers could not change their past, they could not circumvent these devices."

Robin laughed at that. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to outguess time!"

Max grinned at that. "Pretty much." He nodded. "That's given me an idea, though. I think Esmerelda can help with it, too."

Charlie perked up at the mention of the hernacki. "I forgot about her. She's here, too?"

"She's in every time, Charlie. Hernacki exist throughout time." The elf frowned. "She may be able to help us with dealing with this crew."

"The chrono-core thing?" Kippy asked.

"Partly."

Rip looked interested. "What's a chrono-core? And you never did tell me about how you used this hernacki thing to pull me back into the present at the house."

"That will have to wait for another time," Max said. "When all this is over, and we're having a good meal somewhere."

Charlie raised his eyebrows at that. "You think that will happen?"

"I sure hope so. I'm hungry already!"

They all laughed at that.

Kippy leaned up against Max and smiled at him. "You have a plan?"

Max blushed. "Um...not exactly. Not yet. But I do think using time against these boys might be the answer."

"You gonna tell us?"Browbeat asked. "The suspense is killing me!"

"I have to admit to being curious, myself," Rip said. "We fought against these guys for years. They're tough, believe me."

"I do." The elf nodded. "But even these guys are nothing next to time."

"They're time travelers," Charlie reminded. "Can we actually do something they wouldn't be able to handle, too?"

"Maybe not me," Max said. "Maybe not us." He grinned. "But Esmerelda...I'm willing to bet that she can."

Rip looked interested. "You and your hernacki friend plan to use time against the poppers? I'd like to know how!"

Max nodded. "I don't know yet, myself. But there must be a way. We just have to be careful in doing whatever we do, because there is always a danger in meddling with the future by changing the present. The universe doesn't much like having its knickers pulled."

Even Charlie had to laugh at that. "Your showing your age, Max."

Rip looked from Charlie to Max to Robin, and then back to Charlie again. "Is Max older than he looks, like Robin?"

"I'm not that old," Max said, with a mischievous wink at history's favorite thief. "I'm only six-hundred and a few years. And I've never stolen from the rich and given to the poor, either!"

Rip looked astounded as he digested the elf's words. He turned to Robin. his eyes full of surprise. "He's not saying that you're the Robin, as in Robin Hood!"

"I'm afraid so," Robin said, but hardly looked sorry about it at all. "You've heard of me, I take it?"

For the briefest moment, Rip looked enchanted. "Have I! When I was eight, my momma used to read me the story about you! I just loved imagining--" Rip suddenly blinked, and Charlie could see the man redden fiercely, even in the poor light. "Uh--"

Kippy put a hand on Rip's shoulder and squeezed it. "It's okay. We know the feeling."

The former time ranger groaned, and visibly pulled himself together. "We all need to sit and talk when this is over!" He turned back to Max then. "You said something about using time against the poppers?"

"Yeah. Like I said once before, foreknowledge is a dangerous thing. Used wrongly, you can change your own present in ways that make your future come back to bite you!"

Ragal frowned at that. "Are you suggesting initiating some form of closed timelike curve?"

Max looked surprised, but nodded. "Maybe. Esmerelda has a handle on time like we never will. We live in a universe of cause and effect. But Esmerelda has suggested to me that there are instances where effects can be their own cause. But only inside a chrono-core, where she can set the rules. If we can set up something like that with these poppers, we could let them slide off into their own closed bubble of spacetime, where they would simply keep repeating a certain sequence, forever."

A chill worked its way up Charlie's spine. "That's actually possible?"

"It's only been theoretical, to my knowledge," Rip said.

Max nodded. "'Cause you don't know a hernacki. But believe me, if she suggests it, it is possible."

"What would happen to them?" Browbeat asked. "It sounds like a horrible way to go."

Dick leaned closer to Max. "But it wouldn't hurt them at all, would it?"

"You're right. In a closed loop, you simply arrive at the point where you go back to your original present, and repeat the sequence that brought you to the point where you go back to that present, and you go back again. Over and over."

"Forever," Rip said softly.

Max nodded. "Uh huh. But the thing is, when you're stuck in a loop like that, your are outside the normal flow of time. You don't know it. It just seems normal to you."

"It still sounds awful," Adrian said.

"Actually," Dick said, "It sounds quite humane to me. Those that do not learn from the mistakes of the past, are bound to repeat them."

"There you go," Max agreed. "The poppers get their own miniverse where they can always cause trouble, forever, and the regular universe goes on without them."

Ragal made an impressed sound, almost like a human whistle. "In other words, we get them to make themselves extinct in our universe."

The elf nodded. "Has a nice ring to it, don't it?"

"This is sort of like what the Kift did to the Arpathant," Kippy said. "In that case, they shuttled the entire race to equivalent worlds in a parallel universe where no life had ever existed. The Arpies were not made to perish, but they were out of everyone's hair, forever."

"I always wondered how they made out," Rick said. "We were going to look into that once, with Keerby and his hernacki, Blinken."

"Always time for that," Charlie said, waving a hand dismissively. "Just now, I am wondering what we are to do next."

Casper looked up at the circle of faces. "But anything we do to the poppers here on this planet won't affect the entire race, will it?"

"No," Max agreed. "You're right. It will simply cause this hive to get lost in a loop of time." He looked over at Rip. "But if they actually have a supermind, they'll all know what happened -- or that something strange happened to their people. It won't be good for their morale."

Kippy sighed. "I don't suppose you can just wave your fingers and make it happen?"

The elf smiled. "Sorry. We'll need to set it up for it to work. And in order to set it up, Esmerelda will need to have a better feel for these guys and what they're about."

Rip pointed at the popper fortress. "Why do I think we'll have to go in there?"

Max nodded. "Because we will. We can't cause this to happen without interacting with the enemy."

And there it was, finally said: the enemy. Charlie gave a small shiver at the thought. Kippy turned to look at him, his mouth set in a grim line, and Charlie knew his boyfriend was feeling the same thing.

Ragal bent slightly and laid a hand on Casper's shoulder, but turned his eyes on Max. "It seems to me there is some small danger that we could cause ourselves to be caught inside this loop, too."

Max nodded. "Normally, I would agree. But with Esmerelda doing the set-up, I don't see that happenin'."

"You're sure?"

"Pretty much." But then the elf indicated the ruins around them. "We need to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. At least, not caused by this particular bunch here."

Everyone turned to look around at the remains of the city. Who had lived here? What had the poppers done to cause this to happen to them?

For a moment Charlie could almost visualize the earth devastated in such a manner. It made him cringe, but then it firmed his resolve. "What do we have to do?"

Max turned to Rip. "You ever been inside one of these things?"

The man turned to look at the hive. "Yes."

By the man's expression, Charlie assumed the experience had not been a pleasant one "Are you willing to go in again?"

Rip turned to look at him, his eyes looking a little haunted. "Yes."

"Then you would be best to suggest a plan to get us all inside this one."

Rip's eyes widened. "All of us?"

"We have to stay together," Max said grimly. "That's even more important now."

Rip turned back to look at the hive, and fingered his chin in thought. "Getting in is actually not that hard. The last time, we simply walked in. It was remaining undetected once we were inside that was the problem." He turned to look at them. "They will know we're there instantly."

"I haven't felt anything coming from the popper hive," Max said. "No E-M stuff at all. I figured they'd have some kinda detection gear. But if they do, I sure can't find it."

"Not outside," Rip agreed. "The exterior of that hive is some amazingly strong stuff. And by the time they actually bring a hive to a world like this, there's usually nothing left to be a danger to them. But inside, they do use equipment to detect intruders. Remember, they're teleporters. They seem very much wary of that same ability in others." He turned back to look at Will. "I don't suppose this ixt trick of yours will fool electronic sensors?"

The shaman smiled. "Never tried that before. I'd have to see what they're using to detect folks."

Robin smiled at that. "You can actually sense such things?"

"Mostly. If I know what I'm fightin', I can usually make a way to get around it." Will smiled. "Staying out of sight was always my best magic."

"That sounds like a yes!" Kippy said happily.

It sounded like a maybe, Charlie thought. But, nothing tried, nothing gained. The poppers had to be prevented from persisting into a future where their tech could master the Madracorn's. If that happened, it could be all over with for the galaxy.

He actually smiled at the thought, remembering his conversation with his parents before leaving. What he should have said was, Mom? Dad? I'm off to save the galaxy!

Kippy bumped up against him. "What are you grinning about?"

Charlie laughed. "Oh, nothing important." He looked over at Max and Rip, and then around at the entire group. "Everyone in on this? We can return anyone that doesn't want to go."

"We're all here because we're meant to be," Dick pointed out. He looked over at the hive. "Piece of cake."

"That's right!" Browbeat added. "I'm in!"

There was a chorus of agreement, and Charlie nodded. He turned his smile on the two time travelers. "Okay. What do we do next?"