*
Harley and Cleopatra were with young James when Christophe called. “I told you we should have destroyed the bloody thing. Everything we’ve done has been for nothing. Hopefully I won’t be around to see the consequences, but you will. I’m going back to Paris. Have you decided when to send Nero and the others to destroy the vials on Ganymede?”
“Not yet, I must admit it had slipped my mind when we thought the threat was gone. I will arrange it tomorrow.”
“Why do you always put things off Harley? You could do it now.”
“And you rush into every situation without thinking it through. It will be tomorrow in four hours from now. Enjoy Paris.”
It was actually another three months before the X-711 could be readied. When they got to Ganymede the cavern was completely empty.
In 2213, Christophe Rivet died. He had lived with Bianca, but they never married. They had been blessed with a son, and named him Charles. He was now thirty-one and took his father’s death very badly. He never told anyone, but he wanted to carry on with his father’s vigil. Christophe had impressed upon him that the human race had taken its eye off the ball.
Rodriguez had attended the funeral and reflected on how much he’d missed his friend in the last few years. They should have kept in touch. He died himself five years later and this was a much bigger wrench for Harley.
He and Cleopatra raised James as Hilda had also passed away. They were often asked by Neanderthals why they didn’t want more children. They were also asked by humans if they were going to get ‘married’.
Harley deflected both questions. “We will outlive our son, and that is going to be very sad. We wouldn’t want to repeat it. As far as marriage goes, we are strictly speaking, neither one sex nor the other. Taking some kind of arcane vows such as ‘till death do us part’ is meaningless if we aren’t going to die.”
In 2221, Nero called. “The new orbiting space station has just identified a new object which is circling the Earth. It is by far the largest satellite which has ever been captured by the planet. Harley gazed skyward. He couldn’t see anything but he knew they had come.
What he and the rest of the world didn’t know, was that the Midwest housed a massive colony, with almost a thousand queens. It is often said that wars are decided before they are fought. It was especially true with the one which might be about to begin. What wasn’t known was who the protagonists would be. The answer to that was in the stratosphere.
*
The Primede Ambassador and a healthy squad of security personnel descended to retrieve and reset their device in the Rift Valley. Those charged with guarding the object refused them permission. The Rift keepers and the Galactic owners couldn’t understand one another’s words, and out of frustration, the locals raised their weapons. Before they could discharge them the Primede security units cast a slimy, sticky textile-like web over them. The cocoon solidified their blood and flesh, resulting in statuesque martyrs, frozen in time. The Primedes left, and then observed various centres of population around the globe. The Ambassador took note of the harmony which prevailed and was not unimpressed. The vessel disappeared and Harley was immensely relieved.
In 31,818 BC, the Ambassador was a spectator in what would become known as France; he watched as two sub-species which normally respected each other, squabbled over the same prey. During the noisy, demonstrative posturing, the prey escaped. The Ambassador signalled his subordinates to sedate one of each species, Neanderthal and Homo-Sapiens, and airlift them for observation and experimentation.
In 18,127 BC, the planet was ruled by fifteen-foot tall Neanderthals, the perfect specimens. Homo-Sapiens had become extinct except for a few pockets in the Antipodes, and they were isolated from the rest of the world.
In 1987 AD, the Ambassador viewed the landscape with pride. There were no computers, and the Neanderthals had forged a peaceful, caring society, inclusive of the minor population of Homo-Sapiens. There was little disease to worry about, and the radiation threat had not yet become a major concern, partly because of absence of pollution by industry. There was little heavy industry to worry about as yet. The same was true of world conflicts which might have been expected in the twentieth century, they did not occur.
In 2061 AD, the peace had come under growing strain because the autonomous Antipodes accused the Neanderthal hierarchy of gross disrespect. The global attitude to, and treatment of the Aboriginal inhabitants was considered to be offensive.
In 2258, the Ambassador made his scheduled trip and was dismayed at what he saw. The opportunism of Homo-Sapiens was churning the fragile peace through the protest meat grinder and the road to rebellion was recognised. The Ambassador concluded that the ability of his species to manipulate the directionality of time was not all it appeared to be. His report would state that such tweaking was inextricably linked to the creation of another temporal paradox. Unpicking actions of that mix of order and chaos, no matter how meticulously executed, always resulted in yet another cyclical, insoluble conundrum.
It was therefore recommended to abandon temporal meddling and concentrate on the practical issues in the wider galactic hegemony. The addendum highlighted that the radiation threat on Earth was now building steadily, and it would take care of the remaining endangered Homo-Sapiens. The ruling Neanderthals were not advanced enough to prevent this natural extinction. After all they had always been classified as Perfect Specimens. The previously engineered timeline with Harley’s cherished harmony and the growing colony of Primedes had almost succeeded, but not quite. The new era of the perfect specimens had replaced all others and shown great promise.
Reflecting on the incident of solidifying the humans guarding the Rift Valley device, the Ambassador recalled resetting the protocols to allow timeline alteration. The current reality of the projected demise of antipodean humanity now encouraged him to irrevocably shut off further visits to the past. Even though inexorable increase of this harmful radiation would ultimately claim Neanderthals, in a few millennia, the planet would be cleansed of the potential to create androids. That would be the time to inherit the Earth. He was still dismayed that the latest timeline had been necessary, especially as the previous reality, the Jupiter Paradox, had been predicted to succeed, and it had been his prediction. He mused, ‘The vials with ‘multiple instinct’ specimens had provided a very promising start. If only more Primedes had been created, the plethora of vial-based embedded strategies would have converged to ensure elimination of the Borg. Albert’s pathogen, together with Jake and Primrose’s colony, were but two of many, and although very different in methodology, either or both could have led to success, they weren’t mutually exclusive. The ever-expanding colony would have eradicated human compassion, and the compliant Neanderthals would have been led by Primede humanoids, to cull cybernetic life. Without Harley the antigen would not have been developed and Albert’s purpose would have been a one-hit solution. The noteworthy strategy of Harley, patently appearing to repeat the disastrous mistake of the galactic Primedes, in offering a second chance to Borg elite, sealed the fate of his ‘species’. All things considered, Earth was to be viewed as a Noah’s Ark in the event of the conflict at the centre of the galaxy eventually being lost’.
The Ambassador smiled as he perceived another cycle beginning to take shape, one of future terrestrial Primedes fiddling with life on the blue planet. It would prove irresistible. Another visit was recommended in four galactic time segments.
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