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                              RADIAN & SHADEBEAM
                                  Episode 32
                             (Timeline, Part Six)
                            "No One Gets Out Alive"
                                      by
                                 Gary W. Olson


                      "Master Shaman, I have come,
                       with my dolly from the shadow side,
                       with a demon and an Englishman."

                                         - Tori Amos,
                                           "Sister Janet"


                                    -<=*=>-

     Radian looked down at her arm, and flexed her fingers.  She looked back
up at The Rad, and raised an eyebrow.
     "No," he said.  "You are, like, alive, right now.  But I will, like, kill
you, y'know?"
     "You said you already have," Akane answered.
     "I have," The Rad replied.  "It all depends on, like, on how you, like,
see things.  My, like, vision has, like, become divinely non-heinous, as yours
did, like, when you were in, y'know, your Goddess phase."
     "How...do you know..."
     "I, like, know everything there is to know, like, about you," The Rad said,
moving closer to her.  Akane forced herself to stand her ground, feeling the
impulse that had moved her towards him before, and resisting it.  "You're
crackling in my veins, babe.  I have, like, ripped your Divinity from you, and,
like, made it part of me."  He leaned closer, and she could feel his hot, Tofu-
tinged breath, scented like a wild flower.  "Y'know?"
     "Why have you brought me here?" she asked.  "And where is here, anyway?"
     "We are, like, in the Hall of the Gods, like, on the continent of Fresno,"
The Rad said.  "Allow me to, like, introduce you.  Akane, these are, like, the
gods."  He indicated the blanched bones scattered about the chamber.  "Gods,
this is, like, my sister Akane."
     "I'm the sister of the 20th century Rad, incarnated on Earth," Akane told
him.  "I'm certainly not part of *your* family."
     "You don't understand, babe," The Rad said.  "I *am* the 20th century Rad,
like, incarnated on Earth.  Once you, like, understand that, everything is,
like, simple, y'know?"
     "You mean..."
     "Have you, like, ever taken the Tofu?" The Rad asked, moving abruptly
away from her.  A tension subsided in her, the tension she felt when he was
that close.  She considered his question.
     "Yes," Akane said.  "Soon after you took the Tofu and initiated the largest
toga party in galactic history." [Waaay back in Rad #60-auth.]
     "The Tofu gives visions," The Rad said.  "It, like, dissolves boundaries,
destroys barriers and other such heinous things.  The Chia Pets guard it, and
the inhabitants of this continent mine it.  After, like, the Magestrix visit
their bogus magical apocalypse upon this planet, which, like, will not affect
me in, like, the slightest, they will continue to, like, watch over it, and,
like, be come to known as the Fresmen."
     He turned to look at Akane.  "When, like, ordinary beings take the Tofu,
they see extraordinary things, experience, like, sensory epiphanies, and, like,
become, for, like, a while, more than they are.  But, when extraordinary
beings such as we take it, it reveals, like, to us our, like, Divinity.
     "Do you, like, remember when you, like, took the Tofu?  What happened?"
     "Well," Akane said, "you were going on about how it was time for a toga,
and the Fresmen were having Tofu, and Stilevan gave some to me.  I ate it...
it was sort of blandly healthy...and then I woke up, four days later, in bed
with sixteen naked Californians and what appeared to be the remains of a
volleyball net."
     "And you, like, have no memory of, like, those times?"
     "No."
     "Neither did I, when I, like, awoke," The Rad said.  "But now, I, like,
remember."
     "So what happened?" Akane asked.
     "I could, like, tell you," The Rad said, moving towards her.  "But it is,
like, far better if, like, I show you."  Radian's eyes widened, and she tried
to move, only to find herself frozen in place, as The Rad's smooth, Divinely
tan hand wrapped around her throat, fingertips pressing against the joints of
her jaw.  It fell open.
     There was something materializing in his hand, some sort of colorless
goop, that looked like it might be yogurt, or possibly styrofoam, but really
wasn't.  Was it tofu...?
     "No," The Rad responded.  "It is Tofu.  And you're going to be, like,
introduced to, like, the Way of the Tofu, y'know?"  With a swift movement, too
fast to see, let alone avoid, he slapped the Tofu into her mouth.  He pushed
it in, and the Tofu was clogging her nostrils, choking off her breath.
Instinctively, she swallowed, already feeling her head swim as she ingested it.
The hand left her throat, and she spit out what she could of the rest of it,
and waited for her senses to clear.
     Unfortunately, clearing seemed to be the last thing they intended.

                                    -<=*=>-

     "So..." Shadebeam said.  "You got anything else besides tofu around here?"
     Ranmikoto considered the question.
     "There is beer," he said, at last.
     "Beer?" Andro' asked, looking up.  "Why didn't you say so?"
     "Because you're supposed to be figuring out ways to escape the oncoming
magical apocalypse that the Magestrix intends to visit on our planet,"
Ranmikoto told them, sternly.
     "Well, you told us that your ships were out of the question," Karina
said.  "Likewise your suspended animation facilities.  And I'm an espionage
agent, not a temporal physicist."
     -Something'll turn up,- Andro opined, as Shadebeam scritched behind his
ears.  Andro' looked at her with large cat eyes.  Shadebeam scowled, and
started scritching behind Andro''s ears, also.
     "Hey!" Zen Navigator's voice came, from the depths of the Temple of the
Sun God.  "I found something!"
     "If you stop every time you find something, you're never going to get
very far!" Carmine called back.
     "No, I found something important!" Zen told them.
     "Think it's worth it?" Karina asked Shadebeam.
     "Could be," Shadebeam said.  "Beats sitting here.  C'mon."  Shadebeam
picked Andro up and started towards the hallway that led deeper into the
Temple.  She was quickly joined by Ranmikoto and Karina, and less quickly
joined by Carmine and Andro'.
     "Phew," Karina said.  "How old is this place?"
     "Millenia," Ranmikoto answered.  "It, its sister Temple of the Dark God,
which is located on the San Francisco continent, and the Hall of the Gods,
which is located on the continent of Fresno, were built by the original
colonists.  Originally, they weren't Divine Structures, but they have become
such, through the passing centuries."
     "In here!" Zen Navigator called.
     They emerged into a large chamber that was open to sunlight from high
up openings in the walls.  A large machine was in the center of the room,
gleaming and new.
     "It looks like a transmat machine," Carmine said.  "But it's...huge."
     "It's five milleniums older than our technology," Andro' reminded him.
"Does it work?"
     "It is fully functional," Ranmikoto said, proudly.  "I used it, once, to
travel to the Hyoo Beta Hyoo Lief system, to program Obelisk for the
Hyoogadabekidink people."
     *Akane saw this, on 20th century Planet California,* Symon explained,
materializing in a toga and sandals.  *It was barely functional, though it
did manage to transport Max Vax and his then-fiance, Laura, back to Earth
before completely falling apart.*
     "Why don't you use this to get your people out of harm's way?" Shadebeam
asked.
     "Prophecy tells us we did not," Ranmikoto explained.  "We are to go into
Deepsleep, and disappear from the minds and memories of the denziens of the
galaxy.  When the galaxy is threatened with galactic war, we will awaken
again, and summon The Rad, so that he may begin to know the Way of the Tofu,
and begin to reclaim his Divinity."
     "So what you're saying is that we can escape to another planet in this,"
Carmine said to Zen Navigator.
     "We could," Zen said.  "assuming that the Magestrix is not blocking
transmat energy from leaving the planet, which they likely are.  However, you
would still be stuck in the far past!  While this would not bother me in any
way, it might cause you some severe emotional disturbance!"
     "You got that right," Shadebeam said.  "What's your plan?"
     "This machine ordinarily operates by converting matter into energy, and
then transmitting that energy to another point in space," Zen Navigator said.
"With some of the circuits from my minibus, the one that broke down, I can
alter it to convert matter into energy, and then transmit that energy to
another point in time - such as present day Planet California."
     "Great!" Andro exclaimed.
     "The only problem is, it would require far more energy than your ship,
my minibus, or any energy source on this planet could produce," Zen added.
     "Not so great," Andro' sighed.
     "There may not be such a source now, but there will be," Ranmikoto said.
     "And what's that?" Karina asked.
     "The upcoming apocalypse," Ranmikoto said.  "Enough magical energy to
wipe all sentient life from the planet should be enough to power such an
altered device, should it not?"

                                    -<=*=>-

     The night air was humid, and animal cries rippled through the wetness,
emerging from Akane's ears and traveling towards their sources.  The
courtyard was ablaze in color and magic.  Some Californians were in their
togas, but most were out, engaged in a public display that would make
Pat Robertson combust on the spot.
     Even though time was flowing backwards, Akane found she could think, as
she glided around a group of revelers that had found a startling use for
rhubarb.  The air crackled with lust-magick, with life, with kinetic energy.
The ceremony of the Sun God was binding his people into One, infusing them
with purpose, and giving them a taste of Divinity.
     -Yow,- Kyoko said, looking around.  -How come you never invite me to
these kind of parties?-
     "You weren't around then," Akane replied.
     *She was,* China corrected.  *You just weren't paying attention.*
     -There you are,- Kyoko said, pointing.
     Akane followed her finger, and saw herself emerging from the Temple of
the Sun God, walking backwards, naked and smiling.  She was considerably less
pale, and her hair was long, almost down to her waist, bible black and flowing
like a serpent over her skin.  Her arms were red and bloodied, though her skin
was uncut.
     Radian saw who she had been walking towards, even though the flow of time
was making her temporal double walk away.  He stood in the doorway, looking
upon his people with approval, at her with expectancy.  Blood was spattered on
his chest and his arms.  His eyes were familiar - they were identical to those
of The Rad, when he forced the Tofu upon her.
     He looked up at her, and smiled, light falling into his perfect teeth.
     "Circles, like, have a nasty habit of, like, completing themselves, don't
they?" he asked.
     Then-Akane was walking backwards, towards Now-Akane.  She stepped into
herself, immersing her body in the vision-memory long denied.
     "You are not human, Akane Moroboshi," The Rad told her, as he approached.
"You are Divine.  You cannot deny this.  But by accepting it, you can
Transcend with me, and have a second chance at the cosmic reaches."  He
wasn't The Rad anymore.  He was the aborigine chieftain, from the tribe that
she and Shadebeam had stayed with, during their stay in Australia.  He had
laughed, when she had told him she was no longer a Goddess.
     The Eye of Horus was stamped on his forehead in gold, matching the
design on her shirt.  She reached to her forehead, and touched its center.
There was a hole there.  A bullet hole.
     *Can we get out of here?* China asked, tugging at Akane's hand.
     -For once, I agree,- Kyoko said.  -This started out fun, but now its
kinda creepy.-
     "Goddess you are, sister," the chieftain said, smiling widely.  "And
Goddess you shall be!"
     China and Kyoko tugged at her hands again, and Akane let them pull her
away.  The chieftain did not follow them, as they ran the maze of bodies
flowing through backwards time.  He simply smiled and disappeared.

                                    -<=*=>-

     One of the suns had set, but the other was still above the horizon.
The shadow of the Temple stretched over the sandy beach, disappearing into
the strangely quiet waters.  Shadebeam could feel that this beach was not
supposed to be empty, that it was unnatural for it to be devoid of partying
and music.  But not a thing stirred, save for a wily desert poodle who had
found a tube of half used suntan lotion and was carrying it off.
     There was something wrong about the sky, as well, but Shadebeam couldn't
quite place it, at the moment.
     "Hard to believe there's a space battle going on up there, isn't it?"
Karina's voice asked.  Shadebeam didn't turn, but saw Karina in the corner of
her eye, looking at her with cool appraisal.
     "Yeah," Shadebeam said, puffing on her cigarette.  She had taken a number
of ingredients for special cigarettes from the party on Planet Hottentot, nearly
five thousand years still in the making, but hadn't had the time or desire to
roll them yet.  She was down to two tobacco cigarettes.
     "Anything from Akane?" Karina inquired.
     Shadebeam turned to glare at her.  "Don't you lay off for a second?"
     "Sorry," Karina answered.
     Shadebeam sighed, and turned back to look at the San Diego Ocean.
     "Well, did you?" Karina asked.
     "No!" Shadebeam yelled.
     "Didn't think so," Karina said.
     "Then why'd you ask?"
     "I was curious," Karina answered.  "I was wondering how much you were like
her."
     "Ain'tcher spies told you that?" Shadebeam asked, sarcastically.
     "Oh, I know the minor differences," Karina said.  "You've got short
blond hair, she's got medium-length black hair.  You've got a chain from your
earlobe to your nostril, she's gotten encylephtic folds done for her eyes.
You hate exercising and getting up early, she loves it.  You're extroverted,
she's introverted."
     "Yeah.  Your point?"
     "You're more human than she is," Karina said.  "Why is that?"
     Shadebeam blinked at the question.
     "I've watched you," Karina went on.  "You've been hurt, I can see, else
you wouldn't put up a contstant shield of sarcastic retorts and antisocial,
rebellious behavior.  But real emotion is behind it - you react with honest
fear when confronted with something that can kill you, you take joy in the
pleasures of life.  Akane...I don't know what she feels, or if she feels
anything, anymore."
     "Lucky her," Shadebeam groused.  She saw Karina looking at her, curiously.
"Look, it's like this.  Where I come from, this Rad that her family adopted
never existed.  Now, maybe it's just a coincidence, but according to her,
adopting him helped smooth over some difficult family problems, and she grew
up being supported and loved.  Whereas I got beat every fucking week until
I split.  Now if you think that makes me more human, fine.  But I'd give
anything to have been her."
     "Even considering what happened?" Karina asked.
     "Yeah," Shadebeam said.  "Even that."
     "Hey!" Carmine's voice called, from the other side of the Temple.  "C'mere,
you two!  We've got it set up, I think!"
     Shadebeam put out her cigarette, and hurried toward the source of the
voice, followed by Karina.  Inwardly, she wondered how Karina had made her blow
up like that, how she had gotten under her skin so easily.  How well did she
know Akane, and how much of that transfered over to her?  What was this
Project the two had been involved in, in their youth?
     Karina and Shadebeam rounded the corner, to see Carmine and Andro's
freighter, which had been moved closer to the Temple.  Two huge connecting
hoses snaked into the Temple itself, and Zen Navigator was examining the
connections, minutely.
     "It will hold!" he announced.
     "Yay!" Carmine and Andro' exclaimed.
     -Ring a ding ding,- Andro added, from where he was resting, in the shade
under the ship.
     "What will hold?" Karina asked.
     "The connection to the Transmat Machine," Zen replied.  "We've already
finished the required conversion work, and the hookup to the engines of this
vessel is complete.  It and everything inside it will be warped four thousand,
nine hundred and ninety nine years into the future, give or take a month or
two.  All that remains is to set up the power collector for the Transmat
Machine."
     "Where's that?" Shadebeam inquired.
     "Over there," Andro' said, pointing.  Shadebeam and Karina looked at
where the feline anthropomorph was pointing.
     "Zen's minibus?" Karina asked.
     "The one that runs, that is," Carmine said.  "We used the circuits in the
other one to rig the conversion.  He said the minibus' inherently psychadaelic
design allows it to ride energy lines, and collect energy to power its
functions, or something like that.  It'll feed the energy into the Transmat
Machine, and the Transmat Machine will convert it and send it along to us,
where it'll transport us into the future.  Hopefully."
     "What'll it do to the minibus?" Shadebeam asked.
     "It'll blow up real good!" Zen told her.  "And so will I!"
     "Pardon?" everyone asked.
     "The power flow has to be manually adjusted, and only someone with a
Zen Awareness as Amazing as mine can hope to do this," Zen said.
     "You didn't tell us about this!" Carmine said, angrily.  "You're just
going to throw your life away, to save ours?"
     "One of my lives, anyway," Zen said.  "Don't worry, I've blown up
before.  I'm a professional."
     "Isn't there another option?" Shadebeam asked.
     "Well, there is the possibility that the feedback wouldn't annihilate
the minibus, and that it might fling me randomly through time and space,
without destroying either myself or the minibus," Zen said.  "But that
would require that a special fuel be put in the gas tank, in place of the
spam.  A special fuel that would change the very molecular structure of the
minibus for the time it and I traveled, and no longer.  Unfortunately, I have
seen no evidence of such a fuel here, and we are rapidly running out of time."
     "I'll say," Andro' said, pointing towards the sky.  "Look!"
     They looked.  The sky was darker now, but they could see something
approaching.  Something large and ominous.
     "A Magestrix battle cruiser!" Shadebeam exclaimed.  "How can they try
to land that thing in an atmosphere?"
     "Magic, how else?" Karina asked.  "We'd better move fast.  This planet
will be swarming with mages soon."

WILL IT, IN FACT, BE SWARMING WITH MAGES?
WILL ZEN NAVIGATOR SACRAFICE HIMSELF TO SAVE EVERYONE ELSE, ASSUMING WHAT HE'S
     SET UP WORKS IN THE FIRST PLACE, WHICH WOULD BE A FIRST?
WHY IS TIME MOVING BACKWARDS IN RADIAN'S VISIONS?
IS RAD DESTINED TO KILL RADIAN?
IS ANYBODY GOING TO GET OUT ALIVE?
ALL THIS AND SOME BODIES OF EVIDENCE, ON AN UPCOMING...SUPERGUY!

+-------- Gary W. Olson --------+        "All roads lead *away* from Ankh-
| swede@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu  |         Morpork, but sometimes people just
+----- swede@drycas.bitnet -----+         walk along them the wrong way."
                                          - Terry Pratchett, _Moving_Pictures_