Chapter 7
Enik approached High Bluff and found the humans doing some daily chores. If all went according to his plan, the Marshalls would be dead by the end of the day and Enik could resume his quest to return home and to conquer both universes. As the unsuspecting humans saw the black Sleestak approach, they stopped what they were doing and gave Enik their full attention.
"Enik, to what do we owe the pleasure?" said Rich.
"I require your help on an urgent matter. If successful, I may be able to return you to your world."
Enik's words caused the adrenalin to rush into the bodies of all three Marshalls. "Are you saying you can get us home?" asked Holly, with a hopeful smile.
"I believe it is possible Holly Marshall, but first you must come with me." said Enik, coolly containing his deception.
"You don't need to tell us twice," said Bill, ready to go.
Rich never really liked going to the Lost City, but here was a chance to get home, and he would do anything to return to his wife.
"Daddy do something!" the Marshalls heard as they approached Enik's cave. Though the shout was clearly in Holly's voice, it came from the time doorway.
"Enik, what is this?" Rich asked.
"What you are watching is the very accident that sent your family into the Land of the Lost," he responded.
"I can see that," said Rich, "but why is it focused on us?"
Enik remembered how these events played out in the Beige Universe as he answered. "Because Rich Marshall, you are a focal point. You are watching your past selves on the day you entered this world. Look at the what happens when you go over the waterfall."
The family did as it was told. It was Bill who noticed the problem. "Enik, where's the time doorway?"
"Very perceptive Bill Marshall. As you can see there is no doorway."
"Then how did we get here?" asked Holly.
"You should not be here," said Enik.
"We should have been killed," added Bill with a tinge of melancholy.
"Precisely," said Enik.
Rich was defiant. "But we are here. You can't change that. We did fall through the time doorway. I remember it well. It was like a nightmare within a nightmare, and then it stopped."
As Rich continued recounting his memory, Enik was amused on just how similar he was to his counterpart in the Beige Universe. In fact, the dialogue spoken by both sets of Marshalls in reaction to the paradox was almost the same verbatim. But Enik was not his beige counterpart. He would not be moved by anything the humans had to say. Compassion and sacrifice would not guide him. No. He would lead the humans into a different conversation from this point forward—one that would lead to their destruction.
"But why is it repeating that day?" asked Bill.
"It's like a movie," added Holly.
"A movie?" asked Enik.
"Humans are able to film certain events that can be replayed later for entertainment," explained Rich.
"Understood," replied Enik. "This is no movie. What you are seeing are the actual events."
"That's impossible," said Bill.
"It is not. Time is like a line that moves in one direction. But everything—the past, the present and the future, exists on that line. You are witnessing yourselves as you were, in the past, before you entered this world. Yet to the Marshall family on that raft, it is their present. You are their future."
Bill understood. "Then that's really Earth? Enik! If we go through the doorway now, we could go home!"
Rich interjected. "That's a raging river in the middle of an earthquake. I want to go home as badly as you do, but that's not safe."
"But what if we took a rope and lowered ourselves down?" asked Bill. Holly's smile faded at the thought as she was not too fond of heights.
"As the cycle goes from end to beginning, your rope would be cut," added Enik, repeating the worlds of his beige counterpart when Rick asked the same question.
Eventually, the discussion mirrored the conversation in Beige Universe to the point that Rich came up with same idea as Rick, and asked Enik if the Marshalls of the past could enter the Land of the Lost, allowing the Marshalls of the present to leave. The black Sleestak remembered how his counterpart told the Beige Universe's Marshalls that it was against the Altrusian code for him to help.
In the Black Universe, there were no Altrusian codes to hold Enik back. He instructed Bill to grab a white crystal and to place it on the matrix table. As Bill followed the black Sleestak's instructions, Enik betrayed nothing as he told the humans one final truth. "Look at the doorway. As you can see, the loop has ceased." The Marshalls watched as their past selves disappeared into a cloud of smoke and the image changed to a calmer, mountainous region.
"That's Earth!" Bill yelled, as all three Marshalls smiled with glee. Distracted, they did not notice Enik add another crystal to the table. As the Altrusian had planned in advance, Bill's addition of the white crystal to the table insured that the Marshalls of the past would enter the time doorway to the Land of the Lost, just as it had in the Beige Universe. However, Enik's unseen action recalibrated the time doorway so that it would send the outgoing Marshalls to the Earth of the Beige Universe. Once the family stepped into the time doorway, their past selves would be released into the Land of the Lost, completing the circle and preserving the proper timeline.
Holly jumped for joy as the image changed again. "Look Daddy! There's a road! I can see cars!" As if on cue, the family heard car horns blaring. Bill smiled from ear to ear at the sound.
Rich responded to his daughter with a hearty laugh. "I see it too, honey." He turned to Enik. "Can we go home now?"
Sensing the end, Enik stated, "your counterparts are now suspended in between dimensions. The time doorway is now open inside that mountain. According to the Law of Conservation of Temporal Momentum, you must go through in order to complete the cycle. Your past selves cannot enter until you leave."
Rich beamed with delight. He was moments away from getting his children out of this horrible place. Moments away from reuniting with his wife. This was going to be the best day of his life since Holly was born. "Thank you Enik," he said. The family started toward the doorway, each looking back at the Altrusian as they entered the portal to what they thought was their home.
Enik watched them go with pride. His long con game had been well executed. Ever since the humans dared show him what happened to his world, all he wanted to do was to make them pay for knowing something that he did not. All he wanted to do was to dispose of them in a horrible way so that they would feel the loss of everything just as he had when they first met. He pretended to be their friend, he gained their trust and finally, he won.
But suddenly, Enik had a feeling of regret. The Marshalls had no clue that Enik had betrayed them. As much as he enjoyed the irony of what he was doing, his human adversaries would have no idea what hit them. He wanted them to know what happened and why.
Therefore, when the Marshalls were halfway through the portal, Enik put a stop to their journey. "Fools!" he shouted, as the family turned around, not realizing what was going on. Rich tried to move toward Enik, but there was a barrier preventing it. Suspended between worlds, the Marshalls looked in horror as Enik finally revealed his true colors.
"For months now, I have pretended to be your friend. Your ally. But it was all for this day! You gullible humans really believed me when I said that the Altrusians were a peaceful people! No. All you did was give me the idea to go back in time, take control of our empire, and conquer Earth, destroying all you hold dear!
I created the paradox! Your past selves were never in any true danger, because I could have made sure that the time doorway to this world opened at any time! After all, if your past selves never enter this world, we never meet, and I would never have been able to launch this brilliant plan! I just needed to temporarily remove the time doorway on the waterfall to get you to fall into my trap! I was inspired by events in the other universe, to where you are now going! That's right! The Earth you saw is the wrong one! But now, you're halfway through—past the point of no return—and you will experience your doom!"
The family could not believe what they were hearing. Bill and Holly were in shock. Rich cursed himself for allowing his desperation to get home to his wife endanger his children even more.
"Daddy! I'm scared," cried Holly.
Determined not to panic, Rich looked around for ideas. He would do anything, even sacrifice his life, if it saved his children. How could they have been fooled for so long? His fear quickly turned into anger towards Enik. Now, without any chance of retribution, they were going to die. But within seconds, that anger turned into courage. He was not going to give up. Then fate intervened and the earth shook, giving the Marshalls what Rich hoped was one last chance at survival.