"Yesterday, Today Was Tomorrow"
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dochermes"Yesterday, Today Was Tomorrow"
7/17/1985
I.
At ten-thirty that morning, his Link buzzed. Jeremy Bane had been at the KDF headquarters building on East 38th Street, doing nothing more exciting than writing out checks and making notes about each one in a big leatherbound ledger. He was seated at the head of the long oak table in the conference room at the second floor and annoyed at how many more he had write. When the metal device at his belt buzzed three times, he eagerly snatched it from its holster and held it up to his ear. "Yeah?"
"Captain? Larry vocalizing. Presently I find myself at a private museum on 60th Street and Park. I've been apprised of a discovery that you'll be inordinately interested in," came the familiar voice of Dr Lawrence Taper.
The Dire Wolf almost allowed himself a smile. He had long ago gotten used to Taper's fondness for colorful phrases and unnecessarily big words where small ones would work better. In truth, working with Taper had expanded his vocabulary despite his resistance. "And what would that be, Larry?"
"Nothing less noteworthy than a relic of antedeluvian Zhune! I'm standing within reach of the artifact at this exact moment."
Bane leaped up as if he had been stung. "Zhune? Larry, be on guard. Be ready to summon the Silver Skull armor and sword at any instant. I'm on my way!"
"Why the agitation, captain?" came Taper's voice. "Eldritch is as quiescent as three hundred pounds of beef in a freezer-"
But he was cut off as the Dire Wolf clicked the Link back to his belt and hurried from the room, not even cleaning up the piles of envelopes and bills on the table. He ran out into the hall and bounded down the stairs three steps at a time, moving as if he expected the building to explode at any second. At the bottom of the staircase, he headed for the walk-in closet by the front door. Bane was already fully dressed in his trademark outfit of black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket, with all the weapons and gadgets already in place. He opened a panel in the back of the closet, jumped down some concrete steps and raced headlong down a narrow passage to the underground garage. In another few seconds, he was behind the wheel of his dark green Ford Mustang and rolling up the steep ramp to the alley.
A metal panel slid up as he reached it and closed again behind him. Bane pulled out onto Lexington Avenue and headed north. It was a muggy July morning in Manhattan, with a dark sky that promised rain. But he did not notice any of that. He was preoccupied with memories of Dr Karl Eldritch and the relics of Zhune.
Five times now, Bane had clashed with the giant warlock and each time had been a close call. Each time, Bane had inflicted what should have been mortal injuries on Eldritch but within a year or two years, the warlock had returned with a new threat. It was maddening. Once, Eldritch had gotten a hole blasted right through his chest with nothing of his heart remaining. Once, he had been frozen solid. Once, he had been shrunk down in size until he disappeared from view. Yet he inevitably turned up again as if nothing at all had happened.
The truth was that Eldritch was an expert on the almost unknown ancient civilization of Zhune, from that era after the Darthan Age that archaeologists dismissed as being a result of poor dating or contaminated samples. The wise men of Zhune had left behind artifacts that could create astounding effects... a shrink ray, a beam of utter coldness, a way to pass through solid walls as if they did not exist. This was all possible because the Zhunites had figured out the ultimate secret of the universe. They could transform matter into energy and energy into matter in a process that made nuclear fusion seem elementary.
And Karl Eldritch was the only living being who knew this secret.
At 59th Street, Bane saw an open parking spot and veered in sharply, almost causing a taxi to graze his fender. He hardly noticed. The Dire Wolf leaped out of his car without putting change in the meter, he had done so many vigilante favors for the NYPD that officers would not ticket him. Trotting one block up to 60th Street, he crossed over onto Park and realized where Taper must be. One of the elegant buildings in this area had a ground floor occupied by plastic surgeons and trauma therapists, but the bronze plaque by the front door stated that the third floor was taken up by the Geoffrey M Norman Museum of Antiquities. Bane entered the small lobby with its marble floor and Art Deco furnishings, ignored the elevator and raced up three flights of stairs to a simple mahogany door with a plate that read BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. He flung the door open and stepped inside.
To his immense relief, the intimidating bulk of Karl Eldritch was nowhere to be seen. In a huge high-ceilinged room crammed with statues, weapons, fragments of pottery and bone, two men blinked at his sudden appearance. Bane did not recognize the elderly man with wispy white hair and round-rimmed glasses who peered at him with alarm. But the other was his teammate for the past seven years.
"Ah, a characteristically dramatic entrance. Colin, allow me to introduce my colleague Jeremy Bane, the notorious Dire Wolf," Taper said. "He is here to view the alleged Zhunite time machine."
II.
Bane relaxed just a bit. He had been half-expecting a desperate struggle the moment he entered the room, but for the moment everything seemed under control. "Sorry if I startled you," he told the old man. "Larry, you haven't seen anything suspicious?"
"Positively not," Taper answered blandly. Almost forty, he was an inch or so shorter than Bane's six foot height and looked fit and trim in his dark brown suit with yellow shirt and tan necktie. Taper always took care with his appearance and was well groomed. For ten years, he had been the latest mortal man to bear the role of the Silver Skull. He was also a founding member of the KDF, the Kenneth Dred Foundation, of which Bane was chairman. "It's placid as a secluded meadow in here. Jeremy, I realize that that Eldritch brute has vexed you many a time but you must remember he is in a mindless vegetative state in some nursing home upstate."
"Is he?" wondered Bane. "I intend to call there as soon as this place is secure. Eldritch has bounced back from worse than having his mind erased." He turned toward the old man. "Anyway, you must be the curator here?"
"Ah, yes. Colin Norman, eldest son of the founder of this museum." He held out a bony hand and Bane shook it firmly. "I've known Lawrence here for many years. He was a student of mine at Columbia. He has been telling me the most extraordinary tales about you, Mr Bane."
"All the merest understatement, I assure you," Taper said blandly. "Colin here has acquired a few fascinating items from an estate sale. He knows of my interest in Zhune and contacted me posthaste." The Skull gestured toward the wall behind them. On a low wooden platform stood a bizarre contaption fashioned of something that looked like bronze but which had a hot ruddy sheen to it.
"Zhune, all right," Bane muttered angrily. "There's always trouble when Zhune relics turn up." He glared at the set-up. There was a flat metal plate of the red bronze, just big enough for one man to stand upon. Two vertical rods ended in bulbs at waist level. Attached to the plate by a pair of thick wire cables was a two-foot disc held on a stand also at waist level. The front of the disc had numerous markings etched into its surface, and a single lever on a swivel. The Dire Wolf stared glumly at the apparatus.
"Why do you think this is a... a time machine?" he demanded.
"Oh, we have identified two dozen Zhunite ideograms," Colin Norman answered. "With a fair degree of certainty. The symbols on the side of that lever stands for 'yesterday.' There is also the symbol for danger."
"I can believe that," the Dire Wolf said. He turned to Taper. "This is why I hate it when Zhunite junk is discovered. It's always about stuff that I would have sworn was impossible. Stuff that never happens in the Midnight War. Shrink rays. Mind transference helmets. And now, this. A time machine. I never believed time travel was possible."
Taper shrugged. "I'm no physicist, captain, merely an archaeologist specializing in Bronze Age Northern Europe. But in all honesty, I can't envision how time travel could conceivably work. Yesterday, today was tomorrow and tomorrow, today will be yesterday. Only today is today..."
"That'll be enough of that," the Dire Wolf cut him off impatiently. "Look, Mr Norman, this display here has the potential to be extremely dangerous. It must be disassembled and the parts relocated far away from each other."
"Eh? Oh, I can't allow that. Why, I have hardly begun to work on the inscriptions."
Bane turned those pale grey eyes on Norman with such barely controlled anger that the elderly man took a step back. "That device is going to be taken apart one way or the other! I can have the FBI here in twenty minutes to confiscate it, Department 21 Black has a standing order about Zhune." With that last word, Bane dropped into a crouch and whirled toward the door, drawing his dart gun in a blur. But as fast as he was, for once the Dire Wolf was a split-second too late. The entire room flared up a blinding pure white brighter than the sun.
III.
Coming back to consciousness took real effort. Bane groaned, rolled over onto his stomach and tried to get up on his hands and knees but sagged down again. His head was pounding and the skin on his face and hands felt burned. Even with the enhanced healing from his Tel Shai diet of tagra tea, the Dire Wolf needed a few minutes to recover. He forced his eyes open but his vision was blurred. What had that blast been? It had overwhelmed him completely.
"Ah, very good. You do bounce back from the most atrocious damage," came a familiar and hated voice. Eldritch. Bane tried again and managed to get into a seated position on the floor but his eyesight still was hazy.
"That was the barest possible touch of atomic fire I loosed in this room," said Karl Eldritch. The German accent had become less pronounced over the years but the deep bass voice was still theatrical. "I did not want to merely slay you or your comrade there. No. I have something better in mind."
Bane's vision returned, he glared up to see the immense hulk of the warlock looming over him. Seven inches over six feet tall and well over three hundred pounds in weight, Karl Eldritch wore a well-tailored charoal grey suit complete to buttoned vest and polished leather shoes. The clean-shaven bullet head and square hard face had not changed, nor had the cruel hazel eyes. The warlock leered down at his dazed enemy.
"That's it," Bane said. "I give up on trying to get rid of you. You just never die for good."
The warlock chuckled. "Perhaps I cannot die at all. My body absorbs any object entering it and converts it into energy. Bullets, for example. My body repairs any amount of damage. As you have seen for yourself."
The Dire Wolf knew he could not get up just yet. He stole a sidelong glance and saw Larry Taper not far away, trying to rise as well. Colin Norman was lying motionless, with an ugly burn down one side of his face, but Bane saw the old man take a breath. With every second, Bane felt his head clear and control of his body return. He only needed another minute to go on the attack. To Eldritch, he said, "And you're still obsessed with those Zhune antiques, aren't you?"
"Of course," rumbled the warlock. "No one else can use them. Only I know the secret to charge their mechanism. When that fool Morrison died last week, I heard rumours that some Zhunite artifacts were in his collection. I have traced this one here, to the museum founded by my old rival Geoffrey Norman so many years ago. The Path To Yesterday!" Eldritch laughed out loud. "I never hoped it had survived. Yet here it is."
"Look, Eldritch. You know these encounters never work out for you. Every time we meet, you end up blown to scraps or worse, and it takes you months to recover. Be smart this time. Go look for some other Zhunite toy." Bane tried to sound more confident than he felt. He judged he would be able to go into action in just a few more seconds as his healing factor kicked in fully.
The warlock lifted a foot and shoved Bane back down to the floor again. "Not even you can be that arrogant to believe those words! Don't try to stall me. Now, watch." Eldritch went over to the metal display and carefully moved the lever on the disc a fraction of an inch to the left. "There. That should be thirty years. Just before your birth. Hah, this revenge will be priceless. I will stalk you in your childhood. You will have no idea who I am, of course, and at the most satisfying moment I will beat you to death and vaporize your little corpse with atomic fire. At that moment, you will cease to exist. You will vanish from the world, wherever in time you are. There will be no Kenneth Dred Foundation. My defeats at your hands will never have happened."
Bane rolled over, got up on one knee. "I don't believe it. You're crazier than ever."
"So? Then watch as I charge this device with the energy only I command." Eldritch stepped up onto the metal place and gripped the two bulbs tightly. Brilliant white light flared up around his hands, the Zhunite machine shimmered hotly and Eldritch himself seemed to glow from within. In that instant, faster than a real wolf, Jeremy Bane leaped up from the floor to slam the lever on the device all the way to the left. For the barest instant, an expression of dismay flickered over the warlock's face. Then there was another burst of dazzling light and Eldritch was gone without a trace.
Bane slumped, caught himself and stood upright again. That had been too close for him to feel anything now other than exhausted relief. He slowly turned and walked over to where Larry Taper had managed to get into a kneeling position. As the Dire Wolf helped him up, Taper said, "I witnessed it all but unhappily just didn't rebound in time to contribute anything."
"It was way too narrow a save," Bane muttered angrily. "Another second, and I guess I would have popped out of existence. If Eldritch had just gone ahead without stopping to gloat...!"
"It's a well-known weakness of masterminds." Taper went to check on Colin Norman, taking the man's pulse. "He's alive but he needs medical attention. I'm summoning an ambulance. Poor old fellow, that was quite a jolt he endured."
"That damn atomic fire," Bane grumbled. "Hopefully we'll never see it again." He touched the Zhunite display and found it cold to the touch. "Without Eldritch to provide the charge, this thing is useless. Just a weird looking set-up in a museum."
Looking over at the disc with its lever, Taper said, "Say, captain, just how far back did you dispatch our gargantuan sparring partner?"
"No way to tell. The Zhune civilization dates back to thirty thousand years ago, as far as anyone knows, so he went way back before that." Bane exhaled sharply and the faintest hint of a smile touched his face. "Maybe Eldritch is trying to take over the dinosaurs right now."
8/31/2014
7/17/1985
I.
At ten-thirty that morning, his Link buzzed. Jeremy Bane had been at the KDF headquarters building on East 38th Street, doing nothing more exciting than writing out checks and making notes about each one in a big leatherbound ledger. He was seated at the head of the long oak table in the conference room at the second floor and annoyed at how many more he had write. When the metal device at his belt buzzed three times, he eagerly snatched it from its holster and held it up to his ear. "Yeah?"
"Captain? Larry vocalizing. Presently I find myself at a private museum on 60th Street and Park. I've been apprised of a discovery that you'll be inordinately interested in," came the familiar voice of Dr Lawrence Taper.
The Dire Wolf almost allowed himself a smile. He had long ago gotten used to Taper's fondness for colorful phrases and unnecessarily big words where small ones would work better. In truth, working with Taper had expanded his vocabulary despite his resistance. "And what would that be, Larry?"
"Nothing less noteworthy than a relic of antedeluvian Zhune! I'm standing within reach of the artifact at this exact moment."
Bane leaped up as if he had been stung. "Zhune? Larry, be on guard. Be ready to summon the Silver Skull armor and sword at any instant. I'm on my way!"
"Why the agitation, captain?" came Taper's voice. "Eldritch is as quiescent as three hundred pounds of beef in a freezer-"
But he was cut off as the Dire Wolf clicked the Link back to his belt and hurried from the room, not even cleaning up the piles of envelopes and bills on the table. He ran out into the hall and bounded down the stairs three steps at a time, moving as if he expected the building to explode at any second. At the bottom of the staircase, he headed for the walk-in closet by the front door. Bane was already fully dressed in his trademark outfit of black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket, with all the weapons and gadgets already in place. He opened a panel in the back of the closet, jumped down some concrete steps and raced headlong down a narrow passage to the underground garage. In another few seconds, he was behind the wheel of his dark green Ford Mustang and rolling up the steep ramp to the alley.
A metal panel slid up as he reached it and closed again behind him. Bane pulled out onto Lexington Avenue and headed north. It was a muggy July morning in Manhattan, with a dark sky that promised rain. But he did not notice any of that. He was preoccupied with memories of Dr Karl Eldritch and the relics of Zhune.
Five times now, Bane had clashed with the giant warlock and each time had been a close call. Each time, Bane had inflicted what should have been mortal injuries on Eldritch but within a year or two years, the warlock had returned with a new threat. It was maddening. Once, Eldritch had gotten a hole blasted right through his chest with nothing of his heart remaining. Once, he had been frozen solid. Once, he had been shrunk down in size until he disappeared from view. Yet he inevitably turned up again as if nothing at all had happened.
The truth was that Eldritch was an expert on the almost unknown ancient civilization of Zhune, from that era after the Darthan Age that archaeologists dismissed as being a result of poor dating or contaminated samples. The wise men of Zhune had left behind artifacts that could create astounding effects... a shrink ray, a beam of utter coldness, a way to pass through solid walls as if they did not exist. This was all possible because the Zhunites had figured out the ultimate secret of the universe. They could transform matter into energy and energy into matter in a process that made nuclear fusion seem elementary.
And Karl Eldritch was the only living being who knew this secret.
At 59th Street, Bane saw an open parking spot and veered in sharply, almost causing a taxi to graze his fender. He hardly noticed. The Dire Wolf leaped out of his car without putting change in the meter, he had done so many vigilante favors for the NYPD that officers would not ticket him. Trotting one block up to 60th Street, he crossed over onto Park and realized where Taper must be. One of the elegant buildings in this area had a ground floor occupied by plastic surgeons and trauma therapists, but the bronze plaque by the front door stated that the third floor was taken up by the Geoffrey M Norman Museum of Antiquities. Bane entered the small lobby with its marble floor and Art Deco furnishings, ignored the elevator and raced up three flights of stairs to a simple mahogany door with a plate that read BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. He flung the door open and stepped inside.
To his immense relief, the intimidating bulk of Karl Eldritch was nowhere to be seen. In a huge high-ceilinged room crammed with statues, weapons, fragments of pottery and bone, two men blinked at his sudden appearance. Bane did not recognize the elderly man with wispy white hair and round-rimmed glasses who peered at him with alarm. But the other was his teammate for the past seven years.
"Ah, a characteristically dramatic entrance. Colin, allow me to introduce my colleague Jeremy Bane, the notorious Dire Wolf," Taper said. "He is here to view the alleged Zhunite time machine."
II.
Bane relaxed just a bit. He had been half-expecting a desperate struggle the moment he entered the room, but for the moment everything seemed under control. "Sorry if I startled you," he told the old man. "Larry, you haven't seen anything suspicious?"
"Positively not," Taper answered blandly. Almost forty, he was an inch or so shorter than Bane's six foot height and looked fit and trim in his dark brown suit with yellow shirt and tan necktie. Taper always took care with his appearance and was well groomed. For ten years, he had been the latest mortal man to bear the role of the Silver Skull. He was also a founding member of the KDF, the Kenneth Dred Foundation, of which Bane was chairman. "It's placid as a secluded meadow in here. Jeremy, I realize that that Eldritch brute has vexed you many a time but you must remember he is in a mindless vegetative state in some nursing home upstate."
"Is he?" wondered Bane. "I intend to call there as soon as this place is secure. Eldritch has bounced back from worse than having his mind erased." He turned toward the old man. "Anyway, you must be the curator here?"
"Ah, yes. Colin Norman, eldest son of the founder of this museum." He held out a bony hand and Bane shook it firmly. "I've known Lawrence here for many years. He was a student of mine at Columbia. He has been telling me the most extraordinary tales about you, Mr Bane."
"All the merest understatement, I assure you," Taper said blandly. "Colin here has acquired a few fascinating items from an estate sale. He knows of my interest in Zhune and contacted me posthaste." The Skull gestured toward the wall behind them. On a low wooden platform stood a bizarre contaption fashioned of something that looked like bronze but which had a hot ruddy sheen to it.
"Zhune, all right," Bane muttered angrily. "There's always trouble when Zhune relics turn up." He glared at the set-up. There was a flat metal plate of the red bronze, just big enough for one man to stand upon. Two vertical rods ended in bulbs at waist level. Attached to the plate by a pair of thick wire cables was a two-foot disc held on a stand also at waist level. The front of the disc had numerous markings etched into its surface, and a single lever on a swivel. The Dire Wolf stared glumly at the apparatus.
"Why do you think this is a... a time machine?" he demanded.
"Oh, we have identified two dozen Zhunite ideograms," Colin Norman answered. "With a fair degree of certainty. The symbols on the side of that lever stands for 'yesterday.' There is also the symbol for danger."
"I can believe that," the Dire Wolf said. He turned to Taper. "This is why I hate it when Zhunite junk is discovered. It's always about stuff that I would have sworn was impossible. Stuff that never happens in the Midnight War. Shrink rays. Mind transference helmets. And now, this. A time machine. I never believed time travel was possible."
Taper shrugged. "I'm no physicist, captain, merely an archaeologist specializing in Bronze Age Northern Europe. But in all honesty, I can't envision how time travel could conceivably work. Yesterday, today was tomorrow and tomorrow, today will be yesterday. Only today is today..."
"That'll be enough of that," the Dire Wolf cut him off impatiently. "Look, Mr Norman, this display here has the potential to be extremely dangerous. It must be disassembled and the parts relocated far away from each other."
"Eh? Oh, I can't allow that. Why, I have hardly begun to work on the inscriptions."
Bane turned those pale grey eyes on Norman with such barely controlled anger that the elderly man took a step back. "That device is going to be taken apart one way or the other! I can have the FBI here in twenty minutes to confiscate it, Department 21 Black has a standing order about Zhune." With that last word, Bane dropped into a crouch and whirled toward the door, drawing his dart gun in a blur. But as fast as he was, for once the Dire Wolf was a split-second too late. The entire room flared up a blinding pure white brighter than the sun.
III.
Coming back to consciousness took real effort. Bane groaned, rolled over onto his stomach and tried to get up on his hands and knees but sagged down again. His head was pounding and the skin on his face and hands felt burned. Even with the enhanced healing from his Tel Shai diet of tagra tea, the Dire Wolf needed a few minutes to recover. He forced his eyes open but his vision was blurred. What had that blast been? It had overwhelmed him completely.
"Ah, very good. You do bounce back from the most atrocious damage," came a familiar and hated voice. Eldritch. Bane tried again and managed to get into a seated position on the floor but his eyesight still was hazy.
"That was the barest possible touch of atomic fire I loosed in this room," said Karl Eldritch. The German accent had become less pronounced over the years but the deep bass voice was still theatrical. "I did not want to merely slay you or your comrade there. No. I have something better in mind."
Bane's vision returned, he glared up to see the immense hulk of the warlock looming over him. Seven inches over six feet tall and well over three hundred pounds in weight, Karl Eldritch wore a well-tailored charoal grey suit complete to buttoned vest and polished leather shoes. The clean-shaven bullet head and square hard face had not changed, nor had the cruel hazel eyes. The warlock leered down at his dazed enemy.
"That's it," Bane said. "I give up on trying to get rid of you. You just never die for good."
The warlock chuckled. "Perhaps I cannot die at all. My body absorbs any object entering it and converts it into energy. Bullets, for example. My body repairs any amount of damage. As you have seen for yourself."
The Dire Wolf knew he could not get up just yet. He stole a sidelong glance and saw Larry Taper not far away, trying to rise as well. Colin Norman was lying motionless, with an ugly burn down one side of his face, but Bane saw the old man take a breath. With every second, Bane felt his head clear and control of his body return. He only needed another minute to go on the attack. To Eldritch, he said, "And you're still obsessed with those Zhune antiques, aren't you?"
"Of course," rumbled the warlock. "No one else can use them. Only I know the secret to charge their mechanism. When that fool Morrison died last week, I heard rumours that some Zhunite artifacts were in his collection. I have traced this one here, to the museum founded by my old rival Geoffrey Norman so many years ago. The Path To Yesterday!" Eldritch laughed out loud. "I never hoped it had survived. Yet here it is."
"Look, Eldritch. You know these encounters never work out for you. Every time we meet, you end up blown to scraps or worse, and it takes you months to recover. Be smart this time. Go look for some other Zhunite toy." Bane tried to sound more confident than he felt. He judged he would be able to go into action in just a few more seconds as his healing factor kicked in fully.
The warlock lifted a foot and shoved Bane back down to the floor again. "Not even you can be that arrogant to believe those words! Don't try to stall me. Now, watch." Eldritch went over to the metal display and carefully moved the lever on the disc a fraction of an inch to the left. "There. That should be thirty years. Just before your birth. Hah, this revenge will be priceless. I will stalk you in your childhood. You will have no idea who I am, of course, and at the most satisfying moment I will beat you to death and vaporize your little corpse with atomic fire. At that moment, you will cease to exist. You will vanish from the world, wherever in time you are. There will be no Kenneth Dred Foundation. My defeats at your hands will never have happened."
Bane rolled over, got up on one knee. "I don't believe it. You're crazier than ever."
"So? Then watch as I charge this device with the energy only I command." Eldritch stepped up onto the metal place and gripped the two bulbs tightly. Brilliant white light flared up around his hands, the Zhunite machine shimmered hotly and Eldritch himself seemed to glow from within. In that instant, faster than a real wolf, Jeremy Bane leaped up from the floor to slam the lever on the device all the way to the left. For the barest instant, an expression of dismay flickered over the warlock's face. Then there was another burst of dazzling light and Eldritch was gone without a trace.
Bane slumped, caught himself and stood upright again. That had been too close for him to feel anything now other than exhausted relief. He slowly turned and walked over to where Larry Taper had managed to get into a kneeling position. As the Dire Wolf helped him up, Taper said, "I witnessed it all but unhappily just didn't rebound in time to contribute anything."
"It was way too narrow a save," Bane muttered angrily. "Another second, and I guess I would have popped out of existence. If Eldritch had just gone ahead without stopping to gloat...!"
"It's a well-known weakness of masterminds." Taper went to check on Colin Norman, taking the man's pulse. "He's alive but he needs medical attention. I'm summoning an ambulance. Poor old fellow, that was quite a jolt he endured."
"That damn atomic fire," Bane grumbled. "Hopefully we'll never see it again." He touched the Zhunite display and found it cold to the touch. "Without Eldritch to provide the charge, this thing is useless. Just a weird looking set-up in a museum."
Looking over at the disc with its lever, Taper said, "Say, captain, just how far back did you dispatch our gargantuan sparring partner?"
"No way to tell. The Zhune civilization dates back to thirty thousand years ago, as far as anyone knows, so he went way back before that." Bane exhaled sharply and the faintest hint of a smile touched his face. "Maybe Eldritch is trying to take over the dinosaurs right now."
8/31/2014
