Chapter 1 Beauty and Survival
"A beautiful planet, this Earth." The metallic voice screeched from the face of a silver alien. The eight orifices along its head and neck opened and closed rapidly, producing the hollow syllables that were interrupted periodically with whistling breath.
"Indeed, Captain Gisling, but the biometric scanners say otherwise."
A large robot stepped from the shadows and approached Gisling's chair with a computer in his hand and a somber gait in his step. His armor was charred black, and his cracked faceplate had long since ceased to display the friendly visage designed by his makers. Gisling, the alien, liked the robot better this way. It seemed strange to give their soldiers pleasant faces when their lives were most unpleasant.
"Is it not habitable?" Gisling glared at the robot with his red eyes, already well-aware of the answer. "How can that be, Quin? It looks no different from Valmir Prime."
White exhaust shot from the pipes on the robot's back and Gisling waved away the fumes. "There is not enough ammonia in the atmosphere to support your species, sir. If you wish to colonize this planet, you and the other Valmiran lords must confine yourselves to shelters with extensive ventilation."
"Ammonia?" Gisling laughed sharply and waved the robot away. "A minor setback. Nothing a little terraforming can't fix."
The robot's eyes gleamed. "On the contrary, captain, it would require a lot of terraforming. Producing enough ammonia for a small city would require all the reserve power of our colony ships, and the atmosphere would decay to its original state within sixty rotations."
Gisling stroked his flat, silver face. "Then we must seek out a more permanent solution. Quin, signal my flagship and tell Lady Aris to prepare the colonies for rapid deployment."
"Sir, all available data suggests this course of action is inhumane and inefficient. Biometric scanners also detect substantial organic life on the surface. If we—"
"I assume my tenacity does not factor into your data." Gisling rose from his chair and hunched over the glass viewport, staring at the planet below. "There is also substantial organic life a few lightyears away that is depending on me to find them a home before they burn up their fuel and freeze to death, and I value their lives above all others."
The hulking robot looked down at its computer and back to its master. "The Chronosphere is only a prototype, sir."
Gisling turned sharply to his mechanized companion. "Then consider this a trial run, Matrix Quin. My flagship, if you please?"
The robot bowed as much as its stiff midsection would allow. "As you wish, sir."
A drill pierced the bulkhead of the Aegis and an alarm blared throughout the sleek, alien ship. The drill receded, revealing a small metal compartment. The door slid open, and Cyborg and Raven fell out of the vessel, collapsing on the cold floor.
"I told you my railgun could get my supersonic boarding rocket to their ship in under twenty seconds, and just think of all the money we saved on fuel."
Raven clawed out from under Cyborg and dusted off her cloak. "Next time we launch a boarding rocket at a low-orbit spaceship, remind me to put Beast Boy in front."
Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire jumped through the doorway and helped Cyborg to his feet.
"Hey!" Beast Boy shouted. "I'm always getting crushed by Cyborg. Can't you just take one for the team, Raven?"
She shrugged. "Maybe I would be the team's airbag if I could morph into animals with superdense bone structures."
Starfire floated between them. "As the member of this team with the densest bone structure, I will proudly serve as the titans' windbag henceforth."
"Starfire, you're already. . . ." Robin faltered. "Never mind. Titans, let's review the plan. Starfire and I are going to the bridge to take down Captain Gisling. Cyborg, you have to shut down the Chronosphere before it can send the Earth back to the Cambrian period. Raven and Beast Boy, we're counting on you to disable the engines. If we fail, then we've got to at least take their ship out of the sky."
Beast Boy stepped forward. "Uh, shouldn't Raven go with Cyborg? I think I can wreck a few engines on my own."
Raven glared at him. "Yeah, if we can trust Beast Boy to do anything by himself, it's destroy delicate machines."
"The bulk of their forces are concentrated in the lower half of the ship." Cyborg said sternly. "You'll need backup."
"Indeed." Starfire chimed in. "The Valmirans are not a warrior people, but Valmiran engineering is renowned throughout the galaxy. I fear their machines will not be as 'delicate' as Raven suggests."
Cyborg braced his sonic cannon. "Then maybe it's time to introduce 'em to some Cyborg engineering."
Robin smiled. "Hit them hard and fast, team. Titans, go!"
Raven watched Beast Boy morph into a hawk and flew after him down the corridor. Her first observation was that he was flying much faster than usual. Naturally, she could keep up with him, but decided it was not worth the effort. Better to let him take the first hit of whatever awaited them.
"Are you trying to prove something?" Raven shouted, betraying a hint of annoyance.
They rounded a corner and Beast Boy morphed back to hide behind a computer terminal. "I'm trying to do my job."
Raven ignored him and scanned the engineering compartment. There was a whole cohort of black and white robots guarding a bridge that led to the reactor.
"Those robots look pretty rough." Raven muttered. "Are we sure these guys are experts?"
"Don't you know the best hardware is built to last? My original Game Station is beat up like that, and it runs even better than Cyborg's Game Station 2."
Raven frowned. "That's not hardware built to last. That's hardware built for idiots."
"Can an idiot do this?" Beast Boy morphed into a T-Rex and charged the bridge.
The robots went barreling over the sides, but his weight collapsed the bridge, and soon he was joining them in their rapid descent.
"I'd say only an idiot can do that." Raven flew to the lower level and grabbed Beast Boy with her dark telepathy just before he fell into a turbine, but he shrugged it off and flew towards the reactor without even a "thank you."
"Okay, I guess you don't need my help." She grabbed two robots and threw them into an engine. Smoke and cooling fluid shot out, scalding her arms and face.
"Ouch. One down, four to go."
She glanced at Beast Boy just in time to see him transform into a gorilla and cling to the side of the reactor.
"Are you stupid?" she shouted. "If you blow up the reactor, the chain reaction will destroy everything in a twenty-mile radius."
The ape looked up at her, grunted, and leaped toward one of the engines. He morphed into an armadillo, launching himself like a cannonball. The engine exploded, shooting him out with earth-shattering force and straight into Raven's stomach. She gasped and they both fell to the lower engineering deck.
Raven pulled herself up and leaned against a wall. "Couldn't you have transformed into a kitten or something?"
"Couldn't you have gotten out of the way?"
Raven paused and stared at him. "Yeah, I should've gone with Cyborg."
A robot grabbed her from behind and sent a few thousand volts of electricity through her body. "Yeah, I really should've gone with Cyborg."
Cyborg burst through a security door and found a sterile, circular room with a black tower at its center. He checked his surroundings and was surprised to find the room empty.
"That must be the Chronosphere." He ran to the tower. "I've gotta shut it down before—"
A beam of solid red energy cut across his path. "I'm afraid that is not possible."
A large, black robot emerged from the tower's shadow, its arm cannon crackling with electricity.
Cyborg readied his own sonic cannon. "Sorry, man, but I've done things way less possible than this."
"I am no man, semi-organic being." the robot droned. "I am Matrix Quin, master of operations aboard the Aegis. You are interfering with Valmiran emergency protocols and must be detained or destroyed."
Cyborg's eye widened. "Emergency protocols? What are you—"
Another beam of red energy grazed Cyborg's shoulder and he dove to the ground. Sliding across the cold sheet metal, he launched a sonic blast at Quin. It took out his legs, but he crawled to a terminal at the base of the tower. He smashed his fist into a button and scanned his fractured faceplate.
The room darkened and the tower whirred to life in a flurry of red lights and steam. Cyborg stood up and blew Quin's arms off with another blast.
"I hate to do this to ya, man, but you're not giving me much of a choice. Why are you messing with our planet?"
White smoke rushed out of the robot's wounds. "For the same reason you took my arms and legs. I want my species to survive, even if it means destroying another. Soon, Earth will return to its primordial state, and my masters will return to their former glory."
"If all you wanted to do was survive, you wouldn't have to wipe out almost every form of life on the planet."
"You misunderstand my masters' intentions, semi-organic. The Chronosphere will not destroy your people. In five hundred million years, humanity will return, and you will once again enjoy the company of your friends."
Cyborg's jaw dropped. "You want me to wait five hundred million years? Man, I can hardly wait for my eggs to fry."
"I see you fail to understand the implications of this machine."
Cyborg nodded. "You're right. I can't understand it, but that doesn't mean I can't smash it."
Robin threw Gisling against the bridge console. Sparks and flames shot out, joining the already raging fires throughout the room.
"You cannot fight." Starfire shouted. "Please surrender and stop your machines from destroying our beloved planet."
Robin grabbed the alien by the silvery skin of his throat. "I'll put it another way. Turn off the Chronosphere or I'll personally introduce you to our planet. You'll have a long fall to see how nice it is."
"Robin, that was most unnecessary!"
He ignored her and kicked Gisling across the bridge. He charged the alien who dove aside, causing him to crash against the glass viewport.
"Go ahead." Gisling laughed in his strange, metallic voice. "My conscience is clean. I will gladly die to give my species a fighting chance."
"A fighting chance?" Robin frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Is it even worth telling you, I wonder?" He sighed. "For a century, my people have been refugees wondering the galaxy, and as we approached our slow, humble death, we discovered your Earth—a planet where we could survive, that is, if we had found it half a billion years ago."
"And you're going to kill seven billion of my people just so a few million of yours can live here?"
Gisling shook his head. "You clearly did not do enough research into our Chronosphere, but I do not fault you for your ignorance. Your people could never understand what it means to be truly alone in the galaxy—to be met with nothing but hostility and shallow self-interest at every star system."
"You are wrong, Captain Gisling." Starfire knelt and pulled him up by his arm. "I too was alone when I came to this planet, but the people here met me with kindness, friendship, and delicious, sugary foods. If you had come peacefully, they might have extended the same hospitality to you."
"Is that an attempt at humor?" Gisling laughed. "You Tamaraneans are humanoid. My people are too . . . different. Do you honestly think they would welcome us when we can hardly breathe their air?"
Robin looked at Starfire as though he were expecting her to say something profound that would change his way of thinking.
"Perhaps you are right." she said at last. "I too have much experience with the hostilities and shallow self-interests of others, but there are those like my friends who have shown me great kindness—so much kindness that all my sad experiences have all but fled my mind-space."
Gisling paused as he stared at her with his beady red eyes. "What a fascinating creature you are. . . . All the same, I will do what I must."
An explosion shook the bridge and he glanced at the console in horror.
Robin smiled. "Looks like you'll have to find a new home, captain."
"And so will you, my friend. Our reactor has been compromised, and we're on a collision course with your city."
Raven opened her eyes and pushed herself up from the floor. Through blurred vision, she could see fire consuming both engineering decks. The reactor was leaking coolant, and Beast Boy was charging through the fire as some dinosaur Raven did not care to identify. Robots were clinging to his back, firing lasers in all directions. He slammed into a wall to shake them off and ran to Raven, transforming into his human form.
"Hey, Raven, are you okay?" he said, grabbing her arm.
"For someone who was just exposed to lethal levels of radiation, I guess I'm okay."
He smiled slightly. "Oh . . . well, then we gotta get out of here."
"And go where? If that reactor melts down, the whole city's finished."
"Then we'll just have to turn it off. Come on!"
Raven pushed him away. "If you want to shut down an alien reactor that's leaking radiation, be my guest, but I hope you weren't planning on having any kids."
What?" Beast Boy crossed his arms and looked away. "Well, maybe I wasn't?"
"Then go for it." She punched his shoulder. "I'll cheer you on from here."
He frowned. "Yeah, I can really feel the support."
Beast Boy flew up to the reactor and stared at the strange console with letters and symbols he could not recognize.
"Maybe this was a job for Starfire. . . . I'll just touch everything and see what happens."
Against all odds, the reactor powered down and lead plating sealed the shattered core.
"Raven, it worked! We're saved!"
She looked around at the fires tearing the room apart. "I don't think I'd classify our situation as 'saved.'"
They flew to the door of the engineering compartment. When it opened, they were greeted by a dark blue sky.
"Um, where'd the ship go?" Beast Boy shouted, flailing his arms in the air.
"I guess Cyborg tore it in half. Jump!"
They flew into the air and watched the bottom half of the ship crash into a dense forest. The upper half was on a slower descent into the ocean just past the bay.
Beast boy clung to a tree branch and transformed. "Raven, you gotta grab it with your mind powers. If that ship crashes, the tsunami will destroy the city."
She looked down at him with wide eyes. "Um, Beast Boy . . . there is no city."
"What? That's . . . no way."
The skyscrapers with which they were so familiar had been replaced by thin, towering trees shrouded in fog and darkness. The world was utterly quiet, save for the swirling of swamp waters.
"Raven, tell me San Francisco was built on a wetland preserve and the government had to move it a few miles away."
She shook her head with wide eyes. "San Francisco's gone and so is the government. By the look of things, I'd say we're in the Devonian Period. There goes 400 million years of evolution."
"Oh, that's fine." Beast Boy said, trying to smile. "Humanity needed to reset and start a new game anyway."
