Story by Ralph Carpenter Jr. ( Rc2000 ) 11-2001
I have an illustrated version of the story at my site.
CHAPTOR 1
Soon she would be home, where the specially shielded walls of her apartment would allow her to lower the shield. Though effective, her shield was tiring to keep it up. Miki paused at the cross-walk and then stepped out onto the street. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light. Miki screamed, threw her free arm over her eyes and jumped back.
As Miki's eyes cleared from the light, she looked up to see what had happened. She froze for a moment, then dropped her grocery bag. Instead of the familiar street scene filled with people, Miki saw around her a city in ruins.
Buildings lay in heaps, slow burning fires could be seen here and there. The air was filled with dust and smoke. Gone were the city sounds and smells she was used to, and most noticably, gone was the constant barage of thoughts from others. She dropped her shield and at first, couldn't sense anyone. Then slowly she began to feel the presence of another, oddly familiar mind.
Miki closed her eyes and focused her mind. The person was badly hurt and unconscious, but there were faint bursts of memory and delirium coming from the mind. Miki ran through the ruins in the direction of the mind she had sensed.
Up ahead, Miki could make out the outline of a huge metallic wing. As she ran, she tried to make sense of what had happened. But this was beyond anything she had ever experienced. Maybe she was dreaming, she told herself. Maybe - - - .
Miki put thoughts of being mind-locked with an insane mind behind her and concentrated on reaching the goal she set for herself. Rounding a smouldering pile of rubble, Miki could see the wing clearly now. It was bigger than she thought and was burnt and jagged. She could see gapping holes in it. A strong wind came up and temporarily cleared the smoke surrounding the main body of what the wing was attached too.
Slowly she walked forward. The great wing rose over her. What she thought to be an aircraft of some kind was instead the blackened and battered body of MechaGhidorah! Instead of one mechanical head, there were now three, one of them partly buried under girders and rubble. The other two necks were bent upward, curling over her, as if they had froze in place that way before the great cyborg had fallen. Mecha Ghidorah lay on it's side, facing her, partly buried by the remains of the building that the cyborg had fallen against.
At the base of the necks was the control dome where Emmee and M-11 had controlled MechaGhidorah during an incredible battle with Godzilla. One side of the dome was ripped apart. Wisps of smoke drifted out of the hole, only to be carried away by the rising wind.
There! That was where the unconscious mind was. Now Miki knew for sure it was Emmee. Miki climbed frantically over piles of bricks and girders. Slowly she made her way to MechaGhidorah.
Miki stopped, looking for a way to climb up to the dome. She looked to her left and saw where some girders of the building had fallen on the neck closest to the ground. Miki climbed up to one of the girders and slowly made her way across it.
Half way, Miki stopped. Far off, she could sense another mind. But this was no human. It was an alien, ancient mind. Even Godzilla's mind was not like this one. That brief thought of Godzilla filled Miki with a great sadness. She had seen him die, consumed by the radiation in his body. Even though she now shared a special rapport with the now full-grown Godzilla Junior, she dearly missed Godzilla. She refocused and looked in the direction where the indecipherable thoughts were coming from. Way across the ruined city, she could barely make out a great, ape-like shadow against the darkening sky. And it was coming towards her.
Reaching the neck, Miki ran down it to the control dome. Plates of armor hung from the hole in it's side. Jumping up, she managed to grab on to one of them. The mind that was coming became a little clearer as it drew closer. Still the thoughts made no sense, but Miki could feel a coldness, a hunger, a hatred about them that chilled her and filled her with fear. In desperation, Miki began to pull herself up, cutting her hands, bruising her arms and chest as she faught climb up into the dome.
The wind had cleared most of the smoke out the control room. Control panels still glowed with power. Miki stood on one wall and could see Emmee hanging by the straps in the control chair, which stuck out from the now tilted floor almost horizontally. Even though Emmee's hair was matted with blood, Miki knew Emmee was not fatally injured by probing her mind. Miki felt Emmee's pain, but the mind, even unconcious, was still strong.
"EMMEE!" Miki shouted. Miki began shaking Emmee and at the same time reaching into her mind to awaken her.
"Miki? Miki Segusa? Is that you?"
Miki almost screamed. Emmee was the only person she sensed. The voice was a man's voice and it came from the wall above her.
"It is me, M-11." Relieved, Miki looked up, but saw only more lighted control panels and what looked like a container of computer discs.
"Where are you?" Miki looked around, but could not see M-11.
"I am here, in this module." And as he spoke, the disc container flashed. "Emmee is hurt and Orga is approaching. It's last attack loosened my control fittings. You must push me back in place."
"Orga?" Miki asked. 'That must be what I sensed,' she thought to herself.
"No time to explain. Grab the end of the module and push in on it."
Miki climbed up the back of the chair and reached up. Suddenly her mind was filled with the cold, alien, hatred of the thing called Orga. Miki almost fell from the shock. She knew with certainty that it had seen where MechaGhidorah had fallen.
"Miki! Please hurry," urged M-11.
Miki put up her shield, to protect her mind from Orga, but it sliced through it as if it was not there. Then Miki drew on the strength she had once felt from Godzilla. Her shield became an impenetrable wall. She reached up, grabbed the module and pushed it in.
"Thank you," said M-11. "Get down and hang onto something. We are taking off."
Orga could see MechaGhidorah beginning to move. It roared and lowered it's torso. The concussion ray on it's shoulder started to glow, building energy for a killing blow that would finish it's enemy. Suddenly the cyborg leaped skyward, showering Orga in tons of debris. Orga fired it's ray blindly as it tried to shield itself from the mass of flying metal and rock. The ray caught one of MechaGhidorah's tails, sending sparks, chunks of golden flesh and metal flying.
The control room shook violently from the blast. Miki screamed as she tried her best to hold onto the control chair.
"Time warp," M-11 said calmly.
"Time warp," M-11 said calmly.
Madison and Garris sat strapped in their contoured chairs as the time field formed around the Mothership, sending it hurling out of normal space-time and into the time-stream. Around them, the interior of the control room seemed to stretch to infinity in all directions. Lights left faint trails and streamers as they appeared to pull away, yet not moving. On the main viewer they could see a multicolored glow ahead that gave off rings of expanding light that swept toward and around them, giving the impression of speeding through a tunnel of light.
The tunnel faded and the control room became normal again as the Mothership entered normal space-time.
M-11 looked quickly over the monitors and turned in his chair. "Timewarp successfull. Target date: March 3, 1954. Full cloaking activated."
"Excellent," replied Garris. "Proceed with the plan, M-11."
M-11 nodded and swiftly left the control room.
Garris leaned forward and activated the holo-viewer. Down below, he could see a boat crowded by the military, reporters and scientists. He zoomed in and could see two divers in primitive diving helmets being lowered into the water. "I see we're right on "time," he said sarcastically.
"If Wilson and Glenshiko had been successful in their mission, this wouldn't be neccessary." replied Madison.
Garris activated another viewer. Even though the small Teleport Ship was cloaked as it left the main hanger, the viewer showed it as a faint outline. On board, M-11 guided the T-Ship down towards the water below, coming to rest just above the water. All on the boat were facing away from him, intent on where the two men had disappeared below the water. Slowly, M-11 lowered the T-Ship into the water. Briefly, a hole in the water in the shape of the ship appeared, then was covered over. M-11 activated scanners and a holo-viewer that showed the two men as they reached the sea floor. Off in the distance, Godzilla lay resting against a huge bank of coral.
Serizawa and Ogata looked around and finally saw Godzilla through the murky water. Serizawa lay his terrible invention, the Oxygen Destroyer, gently on the rocks at his feet and began preparing it to be activated. He motioned for Ogata to start heading for the surface. Ogata nodded and pulled on his line. Above, crewmen began to pull him up. Serizawa watched his companion going up. He looked back toward Godzilla, and could see the great beast stirring from it's rest. Godzilla sensed the intruders to his realm and began to move towards Serizawa.
Serizawa watched Godzilla's slow approach. Soon, Godzilla was almost on top of him. Serizawa looked up at the incredibly huge, dark mass of the monster. He was not afraid. He knew what he had to do and with firm resolve he reached down and released the switch that opened the ball in the clear container at his feet. Bubbles began coming out of it, slowly at first, then with a massive surge of bubbles that began to fill the water around him. The chemicals that had been released into the water causing a chain reaction as oxygen was being seperated from the water.
On the boat, they began to worry about what was taking Serizawa so long to signal to be pulled up. Ogata started to put his helmet back on when the water began to bubble and heave around the boat.
Godzilla was now completely engulfed in the swirling maelstrom caused by the Oxygen Destroyer. He began to feel pain, a burning that seeped through his armored skin. The chemical reaction was taking it's effect on Godzilla, slowly taking all the oxygen out of his body. Godzilla headed for the surface.
Everyone on the boat watched in fear as Godzilla's head rose out of the churning water. Godzilla tried to breathe, to get fresh air into his lungs, but it was too late. The chain reaction had spread too far into his body. Godzilla let out a long, mournfull roar and then sank back into the sea.
Serizawa watched Godzilla's unconcious body settle to the sea floor in a cloud of bubbles. Slowly, he took out his knife.
M-11 fired several torpedoes into the churning water. They streaked away, leaving behind them a trail of chemicals that combined quickly with the ones released by the Oxygen Destroyer, neutralizing the chain reaction. He fired another torpedo at Godzilla. It's specially designed head piercing Godzilla's thick skin. Once in his body, the torpedo released an antidote to reverse the effects of the Oxygen Destroyer and a specially designed virus.
Swiveling in his chair, M-11's fingers moved swiftly over the teleporter controls. The teleport dish swiveled up into position, locked on to Godzilla and fired.
Serizawa watched Godzilla slowly begin to fade away, all the while thinking his invention was desolving it. He could not see the teleport beam. Godzilla vanished.
Serizawa cut his air hose, not knowing that his sacrifice was in vain.
On a barren island, Godzilla lay sleeping in the sun. From a safe distance, Garris and Madison watched on the veiwer as M-11 stood near Godzilla's massive head. M-11 had just taken a blood sample and was now scanning Godzilla's brain.
"The virus will take a long time to alter Godzillas' brain," said Madisson.
Garris sat quietly for a moment, then said, "True, but it will work. M-11's computer simulation shows a 98% chance of success. If you remember, the simulation showing the success of mutating the Dorats into King Ghidorah was only 77%. But King Ghidorah turned out to be even better than we had hoped, that is, until Godzilla was recreated even more powerful than he was to begin with."
Madison's normally calm expression changed to a look of anger and said sharply, "Some events can't be computed or get overlooked. The M-11 unit that Wilson and Glenshiko took with them should have known from historical records that he was teleporting the dinosaur directly into an area of the sea that would later be where a nuclear submarine would sink. I think M-11 was against us even before that traitor Emmee reprogrammed him."
Garris glanced at the veiwer controls to make sure the audio was off. Then said, "I don't know. The M-11 series are the most advanced robots ever made. Without them, we couldn't even begin to program or pilot the Motherships we stole. When I reprogrammed them to obey us, I completely erased their prior motivations. I think the recreation of Godzilla was inevitable. Sooner or later, that dinosaur was bound to come into contact with nuclear material."
A light blinked on the console. Garris turned on the audio. "Yes M-11?"
"I'm ready to report."
"Proceed."
"Godzilla's immune system is fighting the virus as expected. Even so, there are slight changes on the cellular level beginning to occur in his brain."
Another holo-viewer lit up with results from the blood tests and microscopic pictures of brain tissue. Circles enclosed areas of newly grown neuron pathways. Garris studied them intently for a moment, then nodded to Madison.
Madison spoke up, "Well done, M-11. Return and we'll proceed with the next phase."
"Yes sir."
As the Mothership speeded up the time-stream, there was a waver in the time field that carried the ship. M-11 noticed it and corrected their flight after passing thru the slight distortion.
The Mothership hung in geosynchronis orbit over Japan. M-11 had just returned from gathering news and information about Godzilla that had occured over the last 20 years. He sat quietly with his eyes closed as Garris removed the disc containing the info from his 'brain' module. Garris replaced it with a new one and slid the module back into M-11's head, locking it in place.
"There," said Garris. "Thank you M-11."
M-11 opened his eyes. "You're welcome."
Garris and M-11 walked into the main control room and inserted the disc into the main terminal. M-11 sat down at the terminal, waiting for the computer to sort through the information he had gathered. Madison sat in his chair, watching the main viewer on the wall across from his station. On it he could see Japan down below.
The monitor in front of M-11 flashed 'READY'.
"Put it on the main viewer, M-11." Said Madison.
Madison and Garris sat guietly and studied the stream of information and pictures. M-11 had been very thorough. There were news stories, scientific reports, film clips and interviews. The more they watched, the more they came to realize that their experiment had been a success, but with some side effects they had not anticipated.
"Enough!" shouted Madison. M-11 stopped the display. The screen froze with a picture of Godzilla battling MechaGodzilla and Titanosaurus. "Incredible. The virus was supposed to make a gentler, less aggressive Godzilla. And what did we create?!" His fist slammed on the console in front of him. Garris flinched. "A blasted hero! Protector of the planet! You saw it. They've even got toys and comic books about Godzilla. I don't believe this. And where did the aliens and other monsters come from? There's even a Ghidorah that we didn't create. How can that be?" Madison cupped his hands together and lowered his head into them. "Garris," he said, voice almost pleading.
"Hmmmm", said Garris thoughtfully.
Madison raised his head. "Well? I was hoping for more than that!"
Garris scratched his head. "M-11, display all instances of Godzilla attacking major cities and any aggressive acts toward mankind."
"Yes sir." M-11's fingers flashed over the keyboard. The main viewer flickered and a short list appeared.
Garris looked at the list. "Four incidents in 20 years. One occured during a drawn-out fight with Rodan. Amazing! You'd think they enjoyed it. The second was when aliens took control of Godzilla, Ghidorah, and Rodan. The third was an attack on a rouge military base on a small island. The last was when the Kilaaks - "
"I can read, Garris," said Madison sarcastically.
"Look, the virus worked. It changed Godzilla' brain. It took away his aggressiveness and made him more friendly to mankind. It even altered his body over time. You could see that in the pictures."
"Friendlier, less aggressive, yes. But I was hoping the change would have made Godzilla indifferent to mankind. Like a bird in a tree, a whale in the ocean. Leave it alone and it leaves you alone. But noooooo. Every time mankind is threatened, here comes Godzilla to the rescue. It's almost as if he can sense danger and rushes headlong into battle with whatever! And especially if Japan is threatened."
Madison stood up suddenly and began pacing around the room, steadily talking. "Do you realize what our future will be like when we get back? Japan will be even greater because it has an indestructable protector! Godzilla was originally killed by Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer. But somehow, Godzilla regenerated itself."
"Thirty years later he reappears. And what did the military do? They dropped him into an active volcanoe. Then he comes back out of that. And remember Biollante? A few Godzilla cells were cloned to a plant and look what that produced. Even if we blew him into space, he'd return in some form or another. Look at what just a few of his cells produced when some did get into space. SpaceGodzilla of all things. Even when Godzilla melted down, what happened? Another Godzilla took his place! Nothing we've done will rid of us of this thing!"
Garris sat down in his chair, deep in thought.
"I wonder," he began, "just what changes will take place in this new future?"
Madison rolled his eyes and groaned.
By the year 2000, the internet had grown to include computers and information from all over the world. M-11 easily hacked into it and was searching and cataloging refferences to Godzilla. Madison and Garris sat at their stations, intently studying the results as they were made available.
Garris stopped reading. "So, Godzilla's immune system finally destroyed the virus. These reports show a sharp rise in aggressive actions toward mankind."
Madison leaned over and looked at Garris' viewer. "But not before it changed him. Look at the changes in his body. The armored skin looks even more stronger than before. The fins are even larger."
"Yes. From this report, Godzilla's heat ray has almost doubled in power also."
"Did you see the report on Ogasawara Island?" asked Madison abruptly.
Garris nodded. "Basically a good idea, keeping Godzilla and the other monsters contained in one location. But after all the times Godzilla escaped, they quit trying to contain him. Now there's a Godzilla Prediction Network that keeps track of him so they can warn people to stay out of his way."
Madisson said nothing. Instead, he went back to studying his viewer.
Garris left him alone and went back to reading about a possible new energy source that had been found off the coast of Japan by Crisis Control.
