The White Rabbit Chronicles - Part IV

The Jeep tore through the street with the rip-rattling roar of an obstinate engine. It snorted as it shoved the shot-up car further down the path to the next time gate branch.

White Rabbit the Eighteenth braced herself as they thudded over some rubble, but the vehicle showed no sign of breaking down. No Anarakians lurked in the shattered buildings, nor did any Time Peace agents make an appearance. A rare stroke of luck in the mayhem of the day.

But it would be all for naught if they couldn’t reach a rabbit hole capable time gate before Director Sainne. Eighteen glanced at her companions. Crammed into the ride was her spitting image, White Rabbit the Twenty-Sixth, the last rabbit in this meta-timeline, and four marines. One of them an old acquaintance, Kennedy Frost.

Eighteen turned back and finished giving him the lowdown on how Iterant Point spiraled into its current chaos.

“Sounds like we were one of the only units that didn’t get the same treatment,” Kennedy noted. “The Phoenix was toying with us. Playing out the last battle for kicks.”

“At least you had it together,” Eighteen pointed out. “I take it that’s why you could answer the call.”

Kennedy gave a nod, his face a shade paler. “Yeah. I suppose. I thought that was a White Rabbit on the comm. Can’t believe it was you.”

Eighteen shrugged. “We’re getting the band back together. Playing our greatest hit – ‘Breaking an Ambush at a Time Gate,’ except this time, I get to be the frontman.”

“We’ll call it even,” Kennedy agreed.

“Speaking of the band, where’s Blake? Isn’t it his job to tag behind you?”

“He transferred to Upsilon, didn’t you hear?” Kennedy replied. A new flicker of worry dancing across his features. “You don’t think he—?”

“No,” Eighteen quickly cut in. “But speaking of timeline technicalities, you have intel on the fall?”

“You could say that,” Kennedy shrugged. “Like I said, the Phoenix was toying with us. Leading the last charge personally. Came back to bite him. He got hit before he could break us.”

“Stop being modest, Frost,” chimed in one of the other marines. “This kid nailed him as he popped up to posture. Actually got him!”

Kennedy shrugged. “Lucky shot. We were desperate.”

“Great, we’re all caught up,” Twenty-Six interrupted. “We’ve got to talk destination, Eighteen.”

“Hit it,” she replied.

“We’ve only got one shot,” Twenty-six urged, shooting Eighteen a determined glance.

Eighteen shot her a sideways glance. She really hoped that Twenty-Six wasn’t still hung up on that wild plan she’d pitched earlier.

Iterant Point trembled as a deafening explosion ripped through the air. Knuckles whitened as everyone gripped the vehicle. A couple of heads turned back, but Eighteen didn’t feel the need. She kept her eyes locked on her double. The explosion could only mean one of two things. Either their last hope had just gone up in smoke, or Silva had done his job.

The marine captain with the slick black mane hadn’t dragged out the farewells. After handing off Kennedy to lay out the info on the Phoenix’s fall, his attention had been snapped away.

“Not to break up the reunion,” Twenty-Six had said at the time, “but we got a new Anarak playing for keeps in Alpha Sphere. If he plugs into the gate controls, we can kiss any rabbit holes goodbye.”

Silva’s head had snapped to the side and immediately he rapped out, “How many?”

“Lots,” Twenty-Six said simply. “Armored bio-suit guys. Ring any bells?”

Silva bared his teeth and his eyes flashed an electrifying fervor. “Sure does. Form up people! We got an infestation to clean out back at the Nest. Hope you’re good and mad from this last mess, because we’re going to burn clean through any freak we come across. Now’s the time for antics!”

And with startling speed, the surviving marines from the bloodbath bolted off towards what used to be the nerve center of time peace.

Now, the explosion rattling through the rest of the complex must be signaling either their defeat, or their success. Either way, something else was looming in Eighteen’s mind – something that couldn’t wait.

“Oblixis,” Twenty-Six said murmured as the aftershocks rippled through. She spoke softly, aiming for only Eighteen’s ears.

But Kennedy’s head jerked slightly. His eyes narrowed and his hand subtly gravitated towards his gun. Twenty-Six caught the movement. Looking him dead in the eye, she cocked an eyebrow defiantly.

“Got a problem, jarhead?” she asked. “Eavesdropping isn’t polite, you know.”

“No problem here,” Kennedy replied tightly. “Eighteen? Is there a problem here?”

Eighteen dropped her mind down into low gear. Slow it down, churn through the muck.

“The only problem we’ll have is if we don’t have a time gate,” she said evenly. “See if you can find us a fallback. I can handle the Omega stuff. It’s my specialty,” she added with a wink.

Kennedy didn’t turn back right away, but eventually relented and turned his back to the two frosty-haired chicks. TTwenty-Six wasted no time, leaning in close with a conspiratorial air, and presenting a small thumb drive she had stashed in her jacket.

“I’ve got it all worked out,” she explained in a rapid patter, “It almost worked on my end. Oblixis has always been Anarakia’s Achilles heel. They’re so used to the mad cat they don’t even see it coming. We cut a deal with him–”

“Woah, slow down there, dude,” Eighteen cut in quietly. “Oblixis is off his rocker. What’s to say we don’t wind up with a knife in our back?”

“Oh, he’ll try,” Twenty-Six agreed with the cunning gleam of the fox in her eyes. “But once Anarakia’s off the board, we’re in the clear to deal with whatever scheme he’s got cooked up.”

Eighteen was far from convinced. “Not if he’s the one setting terms. He might be playing an angle we can’t even see. Or one too crazy to consider.”

“Like we didn’t think of that on our end–”

“Twenty-Six, I’m sure your Hawk did,” Eighteen suddenly laid out. She had to cut this short before it spiraled out of control. “And it will be up to the next Hawk to plot a course. That’s above our paygrades, remember?”

“But I’ve got the date to do it. We set the rabbit hole to 38.10.15 and we’ll be in primo position to knock the dominoes down.”

“Maybe. But that’s not protocol,” Eighteen pressed. She called up a calm to flow through her veins. Steer the conversation, steer the woman. She knew herself well enough to know plowing full-force ahead wouldn’t change a thing.

“This isn’t the time to second guess it now,” she continued. “We’ll be lucky to even get to a rabbit hole at this rate. Let’s not wash it down the drain with a last minute course correction. Sorry, sis, but we can’t afford to take chances this late in the game.”

Twenty-Six didn’t look happy at that. She held out the drive.

“Just in case,” she said. “I’ve got it memorized anyway.”

Eighteen took it gingerly and tucked it away. She had no intention of pulling it back out, but hoped that it would mollify her counterpart. And thankfully, Twenty-Six let the whole thing drop.

“Heads up,” one of the marines called. “We got a wing. Expect company.”

Their vehicle halted at the edge of the bridge, the expanse ahead daunting even in its familiarity. As it ran to the edge of the artificial chamber, it fanned out just before the wall. The lattice of sub-bridges connected to a multitude of time gates inlaid at the perimeter of Iterant Point itself. All open roads – the same deadly set-up that led to all the marines getting chewed through last time.

But there was no sign of Sainne.

Eighteen squinted, sweeping across the scene. This was the nearest time gate wing to the last one. He had to have made a break here. And there was a time gate on standby, just waiting to be flipped to a rabbit hole. So Silva had pulled it off. But what was keeping Sainne?

Her eyes fell on two little towers flanking the branching paths. Watchtowers. Secondary control points. They’d need to set the destination from there. Which meant that had to be where Sainne was now. The only other possibilities were a couple of burnt-out transports sitting near a ramp down to Iterant Points sublevels. But there was no chance he was playing hide and seek in there.

Kennedy and the other Thetas seemed to have come to the same conclusion. They pointed at a the towers and conferred in low voices. Two set out for a building that was at the near end of the big bridge.

Kennedy turned back to the rabbits. “We’re going to lay down suppressing fire on the tower, hopefully keep Sainne’s head down,” he explained. “Then I’ll take you two across in the Jeep. We gun it to the tower and try to flush him out. I’ll take point. Sainne is the priority. Don’t stop for me.”

He spoke the last with a solemn gravity. Eighteen got the hint. Everything was falling apart, and Kennedy knew the score.

“But we need some ATEPs,” Kennedy added. “We gun down an Anarak and we can kiss the whole thing goodbye.”

“I think we stashed some in the truck,” Twenty-Six said, and dashed back to check.

Eighteen turned to follow, but Kennedy grabbed her arm.

“Watch your back, Eighteen,” he warned in an undertone.

“Always do, don’t I?” She retorted casually.

“I mean it. The other rabbit–”

“I know,” Eighteen immediately beat back, all affectation dropped. “I squashed her idea.”

“Good,” Kennedy replied, though the darkness hadn’t left his tone. “But don’t ease up yet. I think she took her trip here pretty hard.”

Eighteen winced. “It happens.”

“Where’s Rabbit One?”

“Dead. Our own boys got her.”

Kennedy flinched, but otherwise kept a stony face. He glanced back towards the gate. The other marines were just about set up.

He turned back and said, “Twenty-Six can’t go down the pipe. But can you?”

“We’re out of options,” Eighteen said plainly. Defensiveness crept into her tone before she recognized it. “If there are any other rabbits left, we’ll flip for it.”

Kennedy shrugged in surrender. Then added, “You might want to lose that Oblixis drive.”

“Hey, even if I do lose it, I’m not going start trusting that Anarak–”

“I know,” Kennedy immediately assured her, easing back a little, and releasing her. “But desperate people try stupid things. And Time Peace gets desperate.”

Eighteen nodded. Then said, “Sorry, Kennedy, orders are orders. Can’t afford to start ditching them now.”

Just then, a volley of gunfire erupted from the other marines. Bullets cracked through the air and shattered the windows on the watchtower. Kennedy immediately leapt into action, waving Eighteen into the Jeep and signaling back towards his crew. One gave a quick non-verbal response which sent Kennedy flying into the driver’s seat.

“Strap in!” He bellowed, and slammed on the pedals.

The jeep burned rubber down the open bridge, but this time, there was no meatgrinder of automatic fire to meet them.

But halfway down, Kennedy swerved, threatening to eject everyone from their seats.

Because out of the corner of his eye, he saw the move. Twenty-Six grabbing Eighteen and trying to shove her over the edge.

He slammed the brakes and wrenched the wheel. He tried a swerve to toss both of them back in, but the violent change of motion was too much. The tangled twins toppled over each other in a blur of black and white, and rolled out the other side, the truck teetering on two wheels.

It skidded to a stop as the identical rabbits sprawled on the concrete causeway. Kennedy immediately grabbed his weapon, surveying the sprawled figures before him. Figures that were identical in every way. Uncertainty gnawed at his senses as he struggled to discern friend from foe.

And then a searing flash engulfed the whole scene. If Kennedy’s focus hadn’t been on the two girls, he might have been blinded by the overwhelming brilliance. He turned back to the watchtower, sure that was the source, and spotted a figure dart back into cover.

And then yet another off-putting occurrence caught his eye. Two time gates whirled into motion, one on either end of the wing. One had been the gate on standby, another hadn’t stood out until now. But in nearly the blink of an eye, it had opened up and started disgorging even more Anarakians.

Kennedy swore. Every faint hope kept getting overturned minutes after offering itself up today. He took one last split-second to take in the worsening situation. Anarakians spilling out of the gate on the left. The gate on the right glowed bright white, drawing in the very air in a voracious vortex. Two White Rabbits grappling on the ground beside his Jeep.

And Sainne was making a break for it.

That sealed the deal. He didn’t have the time to help out Eighteen. He didn’t like it one bit, but what else was new?

He floored the gas again, hard, but only kept one hand on the wheel. With the other, he unleashed a barrage of wild gunfire towards the Anarak sprinting for the rabbit hole.

For the most minute of moments, Kennedy thought he caught a glimpse of Sainne’s glowing green eyes glaring back at him. Outrage and fury pouring forth as their hue started to shift. But there couldn’t have been enough time to glimpse it as the Anarak lept to the side.

Fleeing for the lip of the passage, he made it to one of the descending ramps leading back to the complex. Even in the spray of bullets, he made it seemingly unscathed. Fine by Kennedy. He hadn’t been aiming carefully anyway. Not at him. And not with his gun.

He adjusted his course slightly and braced. The Anarakians saw him coming in plenty of time. They scattered and unleashed a storm of bullets. Kennedy focussed all of his effort on keeping the Jeep pointed the right way, even as a hail of fire turned the windshield into spiderwebs and spray. Even as a round or two or three buried themselves into his body. He stayed the course.

At the last moment, he gambled on himself. He hurled himself out the door and rolled.

It was pure pain, and his battered body almost gave up the ghost. Meanwhile, the Jeep bowled over some of the reinforcements. More importantly, it jammed itself into gate, wrenching one of the rings out of its axis.

It tilted, and a surge of blooming light and crackling energy enveloped Kennedy’s battered form. He gritted his teeth against the searing heat as the gate shook, and shuddered one last time. A destructive wave of temporal energy burst over a few more Anarakians, wiping them out in its wake. And for a fleeting moment after, the world seemed to hold its breath.

But Kennedy had some strength left. So that couldn’t be the end.

He pulled himself up on one arm, drawing his sidearm with the other. Two Anarakians struggled to rise from the ground. He put them back down with a couple quick shots. Grimacing in pain, he took in two ragged gasps before flipping over for the next job.

Sainne had just peeked up from his hiding spot.

That ticket’s reserved, Kennedy thought and with a steely resolve, squeezed the trigger.

…

END TRANSMISSION