Age of the Orc - 12

Now
25 Mar 2019, Fourth Age
06:20:12

The lights died, the room suddenly dark. A powerful tremor shook the floor, a deep rumble from inside the shattered mountain.

"Nobody panic!" Zoch called out, as red emergency lighting came on. "The geothermal tap is overloading, safety protocols engaged..."

"Did it work!?" Boldog shouted. "When will we be able to perceive the changes to the timeline?"

Eevin pushed the curtain aside. The inside of the temporal chamber was still bright and white. The back-up power systems were holding. Nothing had slagged. In the darkness, Boldog was clearly outlined against the entrance. Zoch was at the controls, tapping madly at the parameters.

"He went back," Zoch said, as much to himself as to the executive. "We changed history. Just not the way you thought. This is the Age of the Orc. It always has been! You assholes were just too blind, too stuck on dreams of Orc supremacy and dark lords to see it!"

The Hobbit wondered what went through Boldog's mind right then. Rage. Questions. Some instinctive promise of vengeance. Really, she didn't care. She knew what was about to go through his brain.

Eevin aimed carefully. Two-handed grip, legs shoulder-width apart, her reinforced hand and forearm positioned to absorb the recoil. The first shot was center of mass. As expected, the barrel climbed. With the second shot, Boldog's head just vanished. The headless suit sank to the ground, collapsing like the tower of Barad-dûr.

Panicked screams. Shouted commands. No one approached the body. Some of the Elders shuffled, confused, looked for cover. Others, the smarter ones, already fled toward the locked and sealed doors. Only Boldog had the access to open those from within. The floor shook again. Red warning lights began to blink, and systems began to scream. That familiar whine began to build up again, the capacitors charging even as the power grid began to flicker and fail.

Eevin stepped forward, pointing the gun at the elders as Zoch swiftly stripped. Shedding clothes so that all of them could see the binder, then the puffy breasts. How very feminine Zoch looked, after years of illicit hormone therapy.

"Safety's disengaged," Zoch panted, as they swiftly wiped the naked Hobbit down, paying special attention to her feet. In other circumstances, the Orc would have enjoyed the touch of her body, even through the cleaning cloth. Now, all Zoch would think about was how they couldn't afford to leave any footprints. With shaky fingers, the Orc tore the dustplug out of the neural port in the base of her skull and tossed it aside. "Let's go!"

The Hobbit put the last two bullets into Boldog's corpse, then threw the empty and now useless weapon in the direction of the fleeing Orcs.

The lovers fled into the temporal chamber. Automatically, the door closed. The two stood, body to body, in the center of the chamber, standing between the mirrored plates. They hugged, the Hobbit's cheek pressed into Zoch's thigh.

"Tell me you tried sending two rats back at the same time," she said, her heart pounding.

"Six times. No explosions," Zoch said, hands wrapped around Eevin's head.

"Wait! Who's going to pull the lever?" Eevin said.

Zoch grinned. "Oh, it's automated. All that was just for show. To make sure that they needed us here for the Big Jump."

The electronic whine built and built in pitch. The air tasted like the aftermath of a lightning strike. A spark leaped from the top plate to the bottom. Then another. And another. The pair clung to each other, afraid to let go. Live or die, they would do it together.

Lightning exploded around them, a torrent of raw electricity. Outside the chamber, relays glowed white hot and began to slag. The mountain shook like a wounded beast. Orcs streamed out of the facility, following evacuation protocols, but unprepared for the plume of hot ash as the geothermal tap gave way and fell into a spreading magma chamber below. Concrete cracked and the ancient chamber, which had stood for thousands of years, came crushing down.

With a thunderous groan, the geodesic bubble that contained the time machine cracked and fell inward on the trapped Elders and technicians. ****, for most of them, was swift.

All was dark, and silent.