The asteroid was miles across, pitted and scared with impact craters. The Mothership followed it in it's orbit. Inside, M-11 was busy calculating it's orbit for the next several thousand years. "Ready," he said.
"On the main screen please," said Anderson.
A map of the solar system appeared. "Here we are now," began M-11. A light showed their position, just outside the orbit of Mars. "This asteroid is on it's way out to the edge of the solar system. As it passes the orbit of Pluto, it will pass close to a black hole orbiting out past Pluto. It will then arc back towards the sun, where it will impact and destroy a small inhabited planetoid." As M-11 spoke, the orbit of the asteroid appeared.
"Inhabited? By who?" asked Anderson, amazed.
"Unknown at this time sir. But sensors show humanoid lifeforms and industrialization," answered M-11.
"It doesn't matter," said Erickson. "Continue."
"After the collision with the planetoid, the small moon of that planetoid will be hurled into the solar system, where it will impact the island where we found several giant species of dinosaurs still surviving the main extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period."
"If the asteroid is teleported ahead in it's orbit by 50,000 miles, it will miss the black hole, miss the planetoid, and then impact the Earth at the site of the surviving Godzillasaurs. Killing all of them."
Erickson looked at Anderson and said, "Well? What do you think of my idea?"
Anderson thought back on the first time Erickson stated this plan.
"I've got it," said Erickson with a look of joy on his face.
"A way to get rid of Godzilla?"
"Yes! Look here," Erickson said, pointing to his viewer. "Godzilla was originally a dinosaur. If the dinosaurs had never existed, there'd be no Godzilla."
"Whoa! Wait a minute. It's one thing to change recent history, but prehistory is out of the question. There's no way of knowing what the earth would be like if we could somehow pull that off."
"Okay, I got carried away. But, if we could stop the species of dinosaur that became Godzilla from surviving past the extinction of the others, there'd be no Godzilla."
"Absolutely incredible." Anderson was impressed. When Erickson first came up with the idea, Anderson thought it was insane. But with M-11's help, Erickson's plan looked completely feasible. Anderson had been worried that any attempt at changing the course of history so far back would result in too drastic a change in the future.
"One thing that bothers me though." Said Anderson.
"What?" said Erickson sharply. "This will work."
"Hmmmm, well," Anderson continued, "those other dinosaurs. Could their descendants survive to live in our time, like the Godzillasaurs did?"
"Good point. We'll have to deal with that if and when it happens." Madison turned to M-11 and said, "M-11, take the Teleport ship and proceed."
"Yes sir."
Erickson and Anderson watched the main viewer as the asteroid vanished in the teleport beam. The T-ship turned and accelerated. Anderson stood behind M-11's station and watched as the other androids accelerated the Mothership to follow M-11. As the Mothership arrived at the materialization point, Erickson and Anderson could see the asteroid forming.
Anderson went back to his seat and studied the readouts of the asteroid's new orbit. "Everything checks out Erickson."
"Excellent. M-11, return and we'll jump forward to see the fireworks."
Miki and Emmee had just finished breakfast when Miki said, "You didn't tell me what else happened when you returned to the future. I've got to know."
Emmee sighed. She sat quietly for a moment then said, "I'm sorry, Miki. It - - - it's just that it was so horrible. But you're right, it might help if I talk about it. When we headed back to our future, something happened to the time-stream. There was a massive surge of some kind that shorted out our sensors. M-11 repaired the damage quickly though and we kept going."
"When we reached our time, things had changed. We managed to find out that somehow one of the other missions to the past had went back and stopped Godzilla from ever existing. Instead of Godzilla, there were other monsters. Aliens from the asteroid belt and some from outer space tried to conquer the Earth. It finally ended up in a huge war between the aliens over who would rule the Earth, with mankind caught in the middle."
Miki leaned forward and listened intently.
"Then a meteor, containing an unknown source of energy was found off the coast of Japan. Scientists brought it to the surface, in hopes that it could give them power enough to defeat the aliens. But the meteor was an ancient, alien space ship. It destroyed the aliens, then hacked into every computer in the world, gathering information."
"A Mothership appeared, and for some reason crashed. The alien space ship was seen hovering over the Mothership. Not too long after that, it created Orga. First there was only one, then it multiplied. After the alien war, there weren't enough weapons powerful enough to stop the Orgas. Together, the Orgas and the ship nearly wiped out mankind."
Emmee closed her eyes for a moment, then continued. "When M-11 and I arrived in our own time, most of the cities of the world had been destroyed and there were Orgas all across the Earth. We found MechaGhidorah, still where it had fallen into the ocean. It shouldn't have been there, not in that new future. Since there never was a Godzilla, there never was a MechaGhidorah. But it was there and we rebuilt it. We tried to go back in time to destroy the alien ship before it created Orga. But MechaGhidorah malfunctioned and we came out of time warp several years too late. When we finally got MechaGhidorah fixed, one of the Orgas found us and as you saw, nearly destroyed us."
"Oh Emmee, I'm so sorry." Said Miki. "But what can we do to make things right again?"
"I have an idea and you gave it to me."
"About Godzilla's ancestors?"
"Yes".
"So you see," Emmee was saying to M-11, "if we can find Godzilla's ancestors before they're wiped from history, we may be able to save them."
They were in the newly redesigned control room at the base of MechaGhidorah's necks. M-11 had repaired the damage caused by Orga and had installed three chairs, one for each of them.
M-11 almost smiled and said, "I think I have found them".
"WHAT?" Emme and Miki exclaimed in unison.
"Please be seated," offered M-11, "and I will explain."
They all at down. M-11 activated a holo-veiwer. On it was a scene of the night sky. "Automatic sensors picked this up." One of the brighter stars was encircled in light.
"What is it?" asked Emmee.
"It is an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. It will impact in several years."
Miki gasped. Emme looked at her and said reasuringly, "It's okay. MechaGhidorah will be finished soon and we'll be long gone before it hits."
Emmee turned back to M-11 and asked, "But what does this have to do with Godzilla?"
M-11's fingers played over the keyboard and a diagram of the Earth appeared. A dotted line came from off-screen and stopped at a point on the Earth in the middle of an ocean, showing the impact point. "This is where it will strike. I calculated where it would hit. The crater it will leave will be about 250 miles across. I did some checking and in our time, there is no crater that big in this area. Impact craters the size of this one, even though it will be millions of years old, would still be visible in the future. I believe this asteroid was moved and aimed at the Earth."
"One of the other Motherships must have done it." Reasoned Emmee.
"After what I found, I am certain of it", said M-11. "Last night I took the T-ship to the impact site and found this." The holo-veiwer flickered and showed a new picture.
Miki and Emmee stared in amazement. On the screen was video of several Godzillasaurs swimming in a lagoon. The scene changed. The jungle was lush with vegetation and walking among the trees were more Godzillasaurs. Several smaller ones chased each other and played nearby. "I also found this," continued M-11. The scene changed yet again and Rodan glided peacefully above the island.
"Now we know why there was never a Godzilla," said Emmee.
Miki sat on a large boulder, watching the waterfall. In the past several weeks, she had been spending a lot of time taking long walks. M-11 and Emmee had been working on several huge, external storage units.
Earlier, M-11, Miki, and Emmee had went to the Godzillasaurus island. Miki felt the minds of Rodan and one of the larger Godzillasaurs and realized they were the same ones she had encountered in the future. The storage units would be used to hold that Godzillasaurus, Rodan, and an egg. M-11 had already equipped one of MechaGhidorah's heads with a stun beam. MechaGhidorah would then be able to transport them to the future and place them in the right time and place.
The asteroid plummeted into the Earth's atmosphere, glowing like a small sun. In seconds it hit the Godzillasaurus island. A blinding flash of light and it was over.
Where the island had been, now there was a huge expanse of boiling sea and vast clouds of smoke and steam. Lava suddenly erupted out of the churning cauldron, shooting miles into the sky.
Erickson watched contentedly. "And that takes care of Godzilla."
Meanwhile, MechaGhidorah sped it's way to the future, carrying it's precious cargo.
The main monitor showed clouds of smoke below. Great fires raged across a devasted Tokyo. Erickson and Anderson stared in disbelief as a huge, dark shape slowly walked out of the smoke.
"No, no, " said Erickson in a voice so quiet that Anderson barely heard him.
Godzilla slowly made his way across a warehouse district. The fins on his back flickered and glowed. Suddenly, he let loose a jet of super-heated gas that ignited the buildings below him.
"M-11!" Shouted Erickson, rage on his face.
M-11 turned in his chair and said in his usual quiet voice, "Sir?"
"Now wait a minute Erickson," said Anderson in a firm, controlled voice. "We all checked and double checked the sensor scans of the impact area and the rest of the Earth. There's no way any of the Godzillasaurs could have survived."
Erickson's jaws clinched tightly. Anderson could see his jaw muscles buldging. "Then explain THAT!" Erickson said as he stood suddenly and pointed at the screen.
Anderson took several deep breaths, trying to keep his temper under control. "I can't. M-11, do you have any explanation? Something we may have overlooked?"
"None sir."
Erickson sat down heavily in his chair, eyes closed. Anderson waited. Erickson opened his eyes and looked at Anderson. "Now what do we do?"
Anderson sat for a moment, thinking. He got up and walked to the main veiwer. Then he said, " I wonder if there's something about Godzilla that's different. I've always wanted to know just what makes Godzilla what it is."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, is there something about it's genetic make-up that sets it apart from other animals. It is, after all, a mutation." Anderson turned to M-11 and said, "Zoom in on Godzilla. Maybe this will be an opportunity to study it before we go."
M-11 pressed several keys and Godzilla filled the screen. Anderson watched as Godzilla waded out into Tokyo Bay. Jets flew around Godzilla, firing missiles at him.
"Zoom in on the water just behind Godzilla." Anderson paused, then said, "There, look. Floating behind Godzilla. It looks like a chunk of Godzilla's armored skin. If we can get that, we can study it."
"You think we'll learn something about Godzilla's genetic structure?", ask Erickson.
"Yes. And maybe find a way to finally destroy it."
Erickson turned to M-11. "M-11, keep a lock on that and take the T-ship to retrieve it when Godzilla leaves the area."
"Yes sir."
After several tests, Erickson and Anderson realized that they needed a full laboratory to completely study the skin fragment that M-11 had retrieved. One thing they learned was that the torn and bleeding edges of the sample were healing at an incredible rate. They filed the information into the main computer and put the sample in storage.
Later, the Mothership jumped into the time stream and headed back to the future.
Erickson and Anderson were strapped in their chairs when an alarm sounded.
"M-11!" Shouted Erickson. "What's wrong?" The time field that carried them distorted his shout slightly.
M-11 scanned his readout swiftly and said, "The time-stream is pulling us faster than we should be going."
Earlier, during their last journey into the time-stream, there had been a minor wavering in the time field, but this was far worse.
The main viewer showed a blackness ahead of them. The tunnel of flickering light was dissappearing into it. Outside of the tunnel, they could faintly see another, ghostly tunnel of light running alongside the one they were in.
A violent shudder shook the Mothership and several control panels erupted in sparks. M-11 tried to regain control of the Mothership. Suddenly the Mothership was yanked out of the future that was and into the future that would have been. The alarm stopped.
"What the hell happened?" yelled Anderson.
M-11 said with some uncertainty, "I think we have jumped into another time-stream."
Erickson thought for a moment, then said, "I've heard theories that other time-lines could exist side by side, each with different histories and futures. Can we get back to our own - - ."
Suddenly the Mothership shuddered again. More panels sparked and shorted out. The blackness was ahead of them again, coming closer and swallowing the tunnel of light. Erickson and Anderson could feel the darkness pulling on them. M-11 was speaking, but his words came slower and slower, as if time was slowing to a crawl.
Anderson shouted, "I-n-i-t-i-a-t-e ee-merr-genn---cyy sst-o-o-o-o-o-p-p-p-p-----p--------p."
There was a horrible wrenching sensation as the Mothership burst out of the new time-stream several hundred feet above an empty expressway, plummeting out of control. The landing base snapped off the tops of several trees as it careened to the ground. Suddenly, one of the wide legs plowed into the ground and caught, breaking the entire landing base off. The front of the Mothership tilted forward and nose-dived into several buildings in a shower of debris, dust, and smoke.
M-11 was badly damaged, but he could still move. He climbed the tilted floor of the control room thru the thickening smoke. As he reached Erickson and Anderson, he realized they were dead. M-11 glanced at the main viewer. It was flickering and the image was distorted, but he could see a huge flattened ship approaching them.
Part of M-11's design enabled him to see in infra-red as well as visible light. He could see tentacles of energy entering the control room and coiling into the few, still operating consoles around him. Suddenly one streaked to his head, invading his memory units and draining all information out of them. M-11 fell like a puppet that suddenly had all it's strings cut and slid limply down the tilted floor.
Down below, intense flames were consuming the storage room. A tentacle found the sample of Godzilla's skin and absorbed it.
The OrgaShip turned and left the ruined Mothership.
