Twenty-two
"Maligoth is clumsy, perpetually defeated by his
own lack of intellectual grace and coordination."
Wallace secretly felt a bit more tolerant of the
ungodly creature who had returned Sasha to him.
"Maligoth is as he says, a Creator. He is one who
brings life to virgin probabilities of the Earthly Spectrum and brings the
most promising species therein to fruition. There are many Creators.
Maligoth is one of many."
Wallace waited for Ghaedor to tell him that it had
all been a mistake, that he and Maligoth would now go away and leave him
and Sasha to live their lives in peace.
Ghaedor's image hopped from alongside Melanie to the
desk and sat alongside the unlikely book he had bought on parallel
universes. "The world that you do perceive is but one frequency of a
great Spectrum of worlds. Among these frequencies you would find
alternate personal histories, alternate histories of your species, and
histories of alternate dominant species. There are worlds within the
Spectrum that are not habitable by any form of life. In some distant
probabilities, Earth does not exist, nor your sun, nor the universe as you
know it. The Spectrum knows no boundaries."
Wallace fought rising impatience, wishing Ghaedor
would conclude his discourse and vanish.
"Maligoth's world was destroyed by a mountain from
the sky. Eons of evolutionary developments ended. Rather than begin
anew, Maligoth stole resources of your world to conclude the development
of the extinct species in another, empty world."
"He stole people from our world," Wallace said
bitterly. "He changed them into monsters."
"Yes, and took them to an empty world to fulfill
their destiny. Two thousand years passed in that world. Their
numbers became legion and they built a great civilization. But
Maligoth's hybrid
species is not stable. They separated into two components, one too
passive to survive, the other too violent. Rather than abandon the
adulterated species, Maligoth returns again to pilfer resources from your
world."
Waves of despair
washed over him like a rising tide of blackness. The killing hadn't
ended. It hadn't even really begun.
"Maligoth violates laws intended to allow each
world to fulfill its own destiny in isolation. I represent those who
enforce those laws."
Wallace looked at Sasha lying in a jumbled heap of
arms and legs. He reached for her warm hand and held it clasped between
his own. "Maligoth gave Sasha back to me," Wallace said with a shaky
voice. "He said he'd kill her if I cooperated with you."
Ghaedor reached out and held a clawed hand above
Melanie's breast. "This female is your greatest chance of mounting a
quick and effective resistance against Maligoth." Ghaedor then
pointed to Sasha. "That one will prove instructional in ways Maligoth
has not foreseen, but she has no place in your world."
"But I love her!" Wallace cried out. "I can't live
without her!"
Ghaedor stared at him. Filmy eyelids flashed over
his eyes. "Then you may die with her, if that is your choice, if you
do not pay close attention to what is happening."
Ghaedor vanished. Wallace stared at the dark and
empty spot for several seconds before Ghaedor's absence registered.
Minutes later, Sasha stirred to consciousness at his side. She scrambled
to her feet, pulling a table lamp to the floor in the process. The
shatter of broken glass startled Melanie awake as well. She bolted
upright into a sitting position. When she saw Sasha standing naked at the
foot of the bed, her eyes widened with disbelief. She glanced at Wallace
just rising to his feet with his own peculiar look of panic.
"Wallace?" Melanie wallowed in confusion. "Where
did she come from? Who is she?"
Wallace pointed helplessly back toward the center of
the room, except that the portal and any hope of a brief and satisfactory
explanation was gone.
Melanie rolled off the bed and began to throw on the
most essential items of her clothing.
"Melanie, wait!"
She gathered her purse and shoes. She turned back to
him at the apartment door with a pale expression. "I have to consult with
my team. I know who she is. Deal with her first and explain it all to me
in the morning. If you need us, dial three sevens on the telephone."
Melanie closed the bedroom door behind her. Wallace
waited until the sound of her footsteps on the wooden stairs faded away.
Then he turned to Sasha.
Sasha had fallen to her knees. She crossed her arms
against her breasts and stared at the floor, wide-eyed in shock and
confusion. When he reached out to steady her, he expected her to panic
and perhaps try to run away. Instead, her eyes rose from his bare feet to
his face, and with a rush of recognition, she leaped into his arms and
clutched at him with a moan of desperate relief.
With Sasha's warm and safe in his arms, Wallace felt
only a small measure of peace return to him. Where had Sasha been during
the course of the long summer? What had happened to her? What did
Melanie or Ghaedor expect him to do now?
Maligoth, he remembered, had not given him a choice.
He had delivered an ultimatum.
