Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 46: The Clash, Part 3

 Glen walked a narrow pathway, holding the green lantern in his hand. A familiar voice sounded in his head. "My new body got nailed down. He's coming your way," it said, "How long till you get to the destination?"

"Not much. A couple of twists and turns," Glen replied and turned around to listen to the darkness behind him. To his relief, all he heard was his own breath.

 "Let me help." The Outsider said and took the Glen's wheel, pushing him to the distance.

"What the hell are you doing?" Glen snapped.

"Sorry, friend, but I think you are taking it too slow."

Putting the lantern behind his back, Glen ran into the darkness, gaining speed with each step. If Glen had difficult time trusting other senses to move in the dark, the Outsider had not, he found no issue in trusting the echo of his steps or the small breeze coming from the air vents as the main guidance tools. He ran madly, as if he was doing it for his dear life, slamming the walls on sharp turns with his shoulders, slipping and picking himself up again. Before he got to the end of the tunnel Glen’s body got more injured than in the incident after the visit to the house of the four wise men.

He stopped and took out the lantern again. The light illuminated a gate in front of him, words in black written on it - 'Weapon station C' 

He smashed the lantern to the ground, trampling it a couple of times with a foot, took out the laser cutter out of Glen's pocket and pointed it at the door. As the beam hit the door, melting metal vaporized like butter and after the Outsider drew a couple of lines, a rectangular piece of metal hit the ground. He walked through the gate.

Inside a massive room dim lights turned on automatically, illuminating a control console shaped as a glass table in the room’s center. Glen, looking helplessly through the eyes of a body he was not in control of, for the first time in his life saw a window to the universe. The universe with its billion sparkling stars stared back at him, dwarfing him to an ant, reminding him how small he and his world was. 

The window was circular, at least ten meters in diameter. Its center point in front of Glen intersected the glass floor. Glass substituted all opaque materials between the console and the window. When the Outsider took his place by the massive console Glen could not help, but feel deep in his gut that this room was not the only secret kept from public.

The Outsider was not amused by the view. After all he came here to do business. He approached the console and activated it. A massive rectangular screen was projected on the window 'Weapons system going online' were the first words to appear in its center, number value indicating the percentage of the process progress increased rapidly in its top right. When the digit reached 100, the control screen appeared. Powerful stationary weapons ranging from laser cannons to missile launchers were drawn and listed on the projected table.

 "Surprise, surprise, isn't it Glen? So many weapons... What did you expect to meet during the journey, space sharks, eh?" the Outsider laughed. Glen sensed the satisfaction radiating from the alien, who continued talking, "We push a couple of buttons here..." The Outsider picked the most massive missile launcher of them all - a long rectangular box with four round, wide holes in a line and pushed activation button.  A targeting screen appeared. "....we point the weapons there..." The room shifted downwards, the window with semi-transparent screen, caught a glimpse of Nautilus’s 'tails' on which the massive engines were mounted. The Outsider pointed his finger at the screen and picked four random engines as his targets. Circles were drawn on the engines. He pushed a button labeled 'Activate' blinking at the console's center.

'APPROVE YOUR IDENTITY.' the words blinked in red on top of the targeting window. The Outsider put his index finger on a small glass beneath a label 'Identity check' on the console and weak electricity charge passed through his hand.  The screen now wrote 'Glen Usher approved' and was quickly substituted by the targeting screen with words on its lower section 'Press Activation button to proceed with the launch.' Now, the button 'Activate' flashed in green color on the console.

 "Stop!!!" A voice shouted from behind. The Outsider turned, keeping his finger above the button, and to no surprise, there stood a man catching his breath, trying hard not to lose his footing, sweat all over his face - Tom Landau.

"You've come just in time to witness your failure, Tom!" The Outsider smiled, small grooves on Glen's cheeks.

"Glen, resist him, don't let him do this!" Tom said loudly, pulling out a small lase-gun from a pocket of his uniform, directing it towards Glen. "Make him go away from that console! Move him away!"

"He wishes he could, Tom. But he can't," The Outsider replied. "So many years, so much drama and it all came to this. I can't help, but enjoy the moment."

"It all could have gone differently, God damn it! There is another way out!" Landau shouted. Glen never heard Tom's voice so desperate. He could feel sympathy for the man, trying so hard to fight for  others, the cause so pure and innocent from his point of view.

The Outsider extended his finger closer towards the button and inconveniently froze.

"Glen, are you here?" Tom asked.

 -------

Tim wandered the empty hall for a long while, loosing perception of time during the process. He was helpless. The power to change his world or to leave it was beyond his strength. Strength of the enemy proved to be more than he could handle, now everything he could do was to wait, and he waited... 

Then, after hell knows how much time had passed, out of nowhere, "Go!" a voice echoed in his head, its voice an urgent hiss. "Go now!" it repeated.

Constrains magically disappeared and Tim immediately brought back the view of red points and the blue web, which now was focused in another position. Yet Tim could feel that it was not the thickest part of the web he should aim for. On a far side, concealed by the web, lay a strange formation that stood out the whole picture.  Without hesitation Tim dove towards it. Dodging and moving around the thick lines, he came to a round blue shell concealed by the web and pierced it. There, in the middle of vast blue space floated the monstrous image of the Outsider, surrounded by a transparent cocoon, web lines tangling from it into all directions, piercing the space of this world.

Tim jumped towards the creature, and placed his hand, shining in hot red, on it. The Outsider shook, screamed and pushed himself away from Tim. The cocoon surrounding him disappeared together with all lines.

The creature shouted, his eyes streaming with dark blue smoke, "Damn you! How the hell did you get out? This is not the time to play you idiot!”

Long yellow buzzing whip tangled and wrapped around Tim. It vibrated and emitted an unbearable coolness, suppressing the energy surge Tim felt inside, making him weaker with each second.

Tim turned his attention from the Outsider and looked at the blue horizon. And when the sphere was about to squeeze his life out, he disappeared.

Tim stood far behind the Outsider, thinking that he did something special. Yet after a blink of an eye the Outsider was once again in front of him, his eyes looking menacingly at the childish Tim's image.