Genesis: Part Four
Harry watched as Hermione left the room to the gentle whooshing noise of the doors, the skin on his cheek burning bright from the after effects of Hermione's kiss.
In his mind he had three options what to do now. The first was to go and confront Miss Mady, and from how arrogant and confident he knew her to be he would bet that she would divulge her whole plan pretty quickly.
The second was to go for a little walk, to look for anything strange and just to make sure he asked the right questions at the right time. His usual strategy that rarely let him down.
And the third option was to run after Hermione, forget about Miss Mady and whatever she had in plan and just spend the day together having fun.
Well the first option was out as he promised Hermione he wouldn't. As for the last of those options, he was still Harry Potter and however much a fun day with his friend sounded he just couldn't bring himself to look the other way. So, he accepted as he sighed, the second option was the clear winner.
Harry put his hand in his pocket to check for his wand, a nervous reflex he had developed over the years when preparing to walk into danger. It was there, and with one last look out at the door Hermione left from he turned on his heel and left towards the other exit. Towards the workmen's exit where he could tell answers awaited him in the running of the ship.
*
Hermione heard the door shut behind her with a whoosh and looked at the busy room in front of her and found that she still was as amazed by the sight as she had been when she had first entered. Aliens of all heights, sizes and colours were chatting away with each other and laughing at each others jokes.
"Why, aren't you a pretty little thing" a voice said next to her. Hermione turned to look at who had spoken these words and smiled with the weirdness of the situation, for the man was two foot tall and entirely pitch black with two large white as snow eyes the only discernable features.
"Thank you" Hermione said as she flashed him a smile.
"My name is Lord Gattenburg" the man said as he held out a hand which Hermione shook "and what is your name?"
"Hermione" she answered brightly to this pleasant man "Hermione Granger"
"Of the famous Health Drink Grangers?" the man asked curiously.
"I doubt it" she laughed "although I wouldn't guarantee I wasn't"
"Ah, relatives" the man said with a soft chuckle "realities are like money…it seems to be everywhere but after a while you're never too sure where it came from"
"I don't think I have that problem with money" Hermione laughed as remembered the small dingy, but cosy, flat she grew up in.
"Alas" the man said with a mock sigh "maybe it's just my curse!"
"Not the worse curse to have though" Hermione shot back.
"If you don't mind me saying so but I find you most peculiar" Lord Guttenburg said as he examined Hermione closely. She was peculiar? Amongst this group? She couldn't help but laugh.
"How so?" she asked as she calmed herself down.
"We are in a room of the richest people in the known universe, all of which are discussing ways of adding yet another trillion to their bank accounts" he spoke softly, taking his time with each word as he weighed them up "and you appear to be simply here for…a day trip"
"So your not just a pretty face" Hermione laughed and she was sure that if Lord Guttenburg wasn't entirely pitch black that she would be able to see him blushing "but I am here for more than just the view"
"Really?" he replied quickly, frantically even "please tell me…I would love to be entertained by something other than just the tired words of the rich"
"Um…" Hermione said as she thought quickly of the repercussions of telling the truth "Ok…what do you know of the Genesis Project?"
Lord Guttenburg gave a loud laugh as stepped closer to her.
"All the same myths that every man, woman and child has heard" Lord Guttenburg said with a smile "planet about to be destroyed, disappears…the man in black… radio tran-"
"Man in black?" Hermione interrupted. Harry hadn't mentioned this piece of information and her heart jumped at the idea that in this world something else had happened to the Terrans.
"The man in black, surely you know of him?" Lord Guttenburg said in amazement "he appeared the day before the planet disappeared…a single image shows his existence, standing next to the Terrans as they huddled together outside of Congress"
"A man in black?" Hermione said thinking as hard as she could.
Hermione could think of only one explanation, that someone had survived, that this man in black had held the secret of the Genesis Project and that Miss Mady had learnt the secret.
"What do you know of Miss Mady's Genesis project?" Hermione asked quickly as she desperately seeked a missing piece of the jigsaw that would lighten the entire picture.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Lord Guttenburg said brightly as he pointed behind Hermione Granger "She's coming this way"
Hermione spun around and saw her, Miss Mady eyes were staring straight forward as she pushed her way determinedly through the crowd.
Towards Hermione.
*
"Oh!" Harry said loudly as he held a hand out against the computer terminal, feeling his way like a blind man did with brail "Oh! This is beautiful!"
Harry was amazed at what he was feeling, how well this was all hidden. No one except a hand full of people in the history of time would have realized what he felt. Luckily he was one of those handfuls.
"What are you doing…" A man said from beside Harry, dressed in blue overalls and a hat. Harry could tell he was a maintenance man so he smiled brightly at him. Maintenance men rarely tried to kill Harry.
"Just marvelling at this" Harry said brightly as he withdrew his hand from the machine and looked around "I've so got to show Hermione this!"
Harry looked around and wondered how far away he had walked from where the party was happening, where Hermione must be at this moment. He had walked through three long corridors finding nothing but horribly empty beige walls, caught two elevators and crossed through a large observation deck to get to where he was. He figured he was about fifteen minutes away from Hermione which didn't allow him to go and get her and get back in time.
"Show her what, sir?" the man said impatiently.
"This computer, but I don't think she'll make it after all" Harry said sighing, since he had begun his travelling with Hermione when he was investigating alone he found himself disappointed not to be sharing it with her.
"That's probably for the best, sir" the man said with a small smile.
"Why?" Harry asked confused for a moment.
"This areas not too safe, sir" the man replied as he looked down at his shoes.
"Not safe?" Harry said raising an eyebrow "Is the beige a killer?"
Despite the look of worry on the mans face he forced out a laugh at Harry comment.
"It's Miss Madys favourite colour" the man said with a grin.
"So what do…hang on, how do you know that?" Harry said quickly, pieces of the jigsaw falling into place to form a not too happy picture.
"I work for her" the man said looking at Harry in confusion "we all do"
"Oh…" Harry said as he stopped moving and looked around. Every wall in this place had been painted Miss Madys favourite colour and this could only mean one thing "This ship belongs to Miss Mady, doesn't it?"
"Of course, sir" the man said confused further.
Harry groaned. Now the computer stopped being beautiful and amazing and dread poured over Harry as it all started to make sense.
"How come you didn't know that?" the man said inspecting Harry as if he held him for a crime "Who are you?"
"That doesn't matter now!" Harry said quickly, the adrenaline he lived on was already pumping through his body, his heart was beating quicker and the cogs in his brain was spinning so fast he was amazed it didn't fall "You have to take me somewhere, immediately"
"What?" the man stammered out "Where? Why?"
"You missed out `when' and `where' on your questions" Harry said quickly "but I'm only going to answer one…we need to go to the engine room, right now!"
Harry spoke with such force, all his passion leekinig out. The clock was against him and he couldn't waste this time spelling things out to anyone, let alone a mild mannered workman.
Harry watched as the mans old battered face looks momentarily dazed and Harry knew his words had worked.
"This way" The man said "It's on the bottom floor"
*
Miss Mady walked quickly up to Hermione. A smile was painted on her lips but her eyes showed that she was curious.
"Why, isn't it the friend of that rude man" Miss Mady said as she held out a hand for her to shake and then for Lord Guttenburg.
"Rude man?" Hermione asked as pleasantly as she could, breathing deeply to keep herself calm.
Miss Mady, up close, appeared to be closer to nine foot tall, and the five foot odd of Hermione's frame was never going to beat her if it came to a fight. Hermione had to use her wits and her experience of these situations to walk away unscathed and to find out what was really going on.
"That dark haired man who kept on trying to interrupt me" Miss Mady beamed down at Hermione "very peculiar"
"How so?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Witnessing a miracle isn't supposed to bring out malice" Miss Mady said.
"Harry doesn't put much faith in miracles" Hermione shot back.
"Harry…" Miss Mady said, her eyes closing momentarily as if she was committing that name into her memory for life.
"Doesn't really matter" Lord Guttenburg said inching closer to Miss Mady who hadn't even realized he had spoken yet "no one could tare their eyes from you"
Miss Mady paused and finally looked away from Hermione and onto Lord Guttenburg, the look on her face seemed like doing this was almost sickening for the woman.
"Lord Guttenburg, thank you for coming today" Miss Mady said smoothly "I was just speaking to your friend Admiral Addicott and he wishes a word with you…that's why I came over"
"Oh" Lord Guttenburg said, his voice noticeably dropping as he groaned "I guess it's true what they say…no free time for the wicked or for businessman"
With a small bow to the pair of them the two foot man wobbled of across the room. Hermione was mildly curious to see who Admiral Addicott was but she had bigger questions on her mind, and the woman who could answer it stood in front of her, seemingly eager to talk.
"It's a wonderful party" Hermione said with a smile as she looked up at Miss Mady.
"It's the dull rich" Miss Mady said bored as she surveyed the room "A catastrophe of society is that the more money you have, the less room is left for conversational skills"
"So why did you invite them?" Hermione asked deliberately trying to keep any accusation out of her tone.
"A million and one reasons" Miss Mady sighed "the death of a planet isn't big news, but so many of the rich and powerful under one ceiling, that's front page…and I refuse to let this planet…my planet…disappear without anyone knowing"
"But it's not going to die" Hermione said quickly "Isn't that the point now?"
"Yes it is…" Miss Mady said slowly shooting Hermione a penetrating glance.
"So why invite these people" Hermione asked as pleasantly as she could. Being so civil under these circumstances was harder than she could have imagined and she suddenly felt a keen appreciation of why Harry often snapped and turned rude in these situations.
"To verify the working of the Genesis Project" Miss Mady shot back shortly.
"Isn't the fact that it's not going to die proof enough?" Hermione said, forcing out a friendly chuckle as she spoke.
"All these questions…" Miss Mady said, her voice seemed to be slightly higher as she looked down at Hermione who just tried to smile back as nice as she could "You sure have a healthy amount of curiosity, don't you?"
"I'm just interested in…" Hermione froze for a second worried that the word `healthy' could be a threat, but she had more immediate problems at hand. What kind of science or anything did she know in the year 5 billion to be able to bluff her way through this? And then it hit her "…I'm interested in Time Flux Capacitors"
"Time Flux Capacitors?" Miss Mady said raising one eye brow at her "I don't think I've ever heard of any such science…please could you explain this to me"
"You wouldn't be interested" Hermione said as nicely as she could but Miss Mady still shot her with a penetrating glance.
"I'm interested in anything and everything that I know nothing about" Miss Mady said with a little soft laugh "as is generally the way with human nature"
Hermione paused momentarily, what Miss Mady had just said sounded just like something Harry would say in the same situation. And this could only mean one thing. Miss Mady was suspicious and digging for information.
"Oh…it's…" Hermione stuttered slightly, she would have to lie at her max to fool this woman "it's a new type of science pioneered by a…Doctor Emmett Brown and Marty McFly…it's about…temporal abnormalities and how you can stabilize them enough to push through the space in between time"
She couldn't help but feel impressed with what she had just said, and how fast and believable she had been, even if she had stolen the material.
"Interesting" Miss Mady said slowly with an unreadable expression "very interesting"
"I like to think so" Hermione said with a smile again.
She had weighed up Miss Mady and knew there was no way she could stop her, so her best chance was to appear as innocent and non-threatening as possible.
"And you're interested in the Genesis Project because…" Miss Mady said slowly, thoughtfully "…ahhh, I get it…the amount of power used to stabilize this New Earth would require an incredible amount of power and precision and your wondering if the techniques are transferable to temporal abnormalities?"
"Yeah, that's it" Hermione said gratefully, this was going better than she could have hoped "and any other things we can use for our research"
"Industrial espionage is still a crime" Miss Mady said slowly taking a step closer to her.
Hermione could feel her heart beating faster but she held the smile on her face.
"I know" Hermione said, her face was starting to hurt after smiling for so long "so that's why I have been ordered to come and talk to you directly…to see if we can strike up some sort of a business arrangement"
"A business arrangement?" Miss Mady said taking a small step back and staring at Hermione in confusion "Why would either of us enter into such an arrangement?"
"Because controlling temporal abnormalities has huge financial benefits" Hermione was talking as fast as she could, the words slipping out before she really knew what she was saying "and as you have no experience in the field and as I represent the pioneers of this science its ideal for you"
"And why would the pioneers need me?" Miss Mady said slowly. Hermione knew she was trying to sound sceptical but she could she her pride shining through. And a mad woman with pride was a terrifying thing.
"You appear to have completed the Genesis Project" Hermione said playing to Miss Madys pride "a feat that no one else has achieved for 2 billion years of trying"
Hermione knew this had worked as she saw Miss Mady stand up straighter, head forward with a grin on her face.
"Follow me then" Miss Mady said quickly as she started to turn away.
"Where" Hermione said quickly.
"A busy room full of the rich and powerful isn't the place to have a talk about business" Miss Mady said her eyes shooting across the room. Hermione noticed that they were attracting quite a lot of attention.
But leaving the safety of a busy room and going somewhere alone with Miss Mady seemed to close to the side of suicidal for her liking. But she couldn't see any choice, so with a deep breathe she stepped forward.
"You never know who might be listening" Hermione said brightly as she tried to get rid of all thoughts of scalpels and her eyes as they walked purposefully through the room towards the back door.
"Exactly" Miss Mady said as they stepped through the door to a new, slightly darker lit room.
*
Harry paused after taking a step out of the elevator and felt his jaw almost hit the ground at the sight before him.
"Now this…" Harry said stepping forward again deeper into the engine room "Now this I don't have words for!"
The ceiling was over a hundred foot and the room was easily twice that in length, and machinery filled up every single inch of room, barely leaving a walkway around it.
"Amazing isn't it?" the man said stepping next to Harry.
Harry couldn't tear his eyes from the machinery as his brain worked frantically, running through all his memories and knowledge to try and work out what exactly it was.
He stepped forward again and walked over to a large terminal, complete the obligatory flashing red buttons. Harry knew that as long as machinery had flashing red buttons he would always feel at home.
He held a hand out over the machine, slowly lowering it down centimetre by centimetre expecting a jolt of power at any moment.
And he wasn't disappointed.
In the flash of a second Harry found himself lying down on the floor, his head spinning and his limbs aching.
"What happened?" the man said panicky as he helped Harry to his feet.
"Not sure" Harry said, but this wasn't strictly the truth, he just needed time to comprehend something of this magnitude, and needed more information just to be sure.
"What is this ship called?" Harry asked quickly, he found that asking this question brought queasiness into his stomach that told him he already knew.
"It's the HMS Aguilera" the man said proudly "technically it's the eighth HMS Aguilera, but following a legacy is a great thing"
"Not this legacy" Harry said as he remembered his last encounter in the other world. Apple had tried to kill and enslave the whole of humanity, he and Hermione had been lucky to walk away with just the many cuts and bruises that had lined their bodies.
"You know the history of the Aguilera's?" the man asked curiously.
"I've been on a couple, and it's never ended well" Harry said making the man look confused at him "how big is this one?"
"Um…" the man said reeling slightly till he recovered himself "it…over fifty miles by 100 miles"
"Great" Harry groaned, another piece of information fitted his idea "how long has it been in service?"
"7 years now" the man said, he was now eyeing Harry with great suspicion, but Harry didn't really care at this point.
"And where was it built?" Harry asked.
"The Omega System" the man replied quickly. Harry was grateful that he had bumped into this man as he evidently knew his stuff.
"I'm guessing in the Persia System?" Harry said slowly.
"How did you know that?" the man said shaking his head at Harry for some reason.
"It's the brightest star within travel distance" Harry sighed. He knew he was right, but knowing this didn't really help.
He needed to act, to act fast and to be the hero once more. And all he had wished for was a peaceful day, and like everything else in his life it had spiralled out of control. But now wasn't the time for thought, now was the time for action.
He took a step closer to the man, he could feel his breathe rough in his throat.
"Do you know what this thing actually is?" Harry demanded as he turned to look the man straight on in the face.
"Apart from a ship?" the man asked confused.
"Obviously" Harry said shaking his head "but what does everything in this ship point to?"
"Huh?" the man said his eyes misting over slightly as he looked at Harry "who are…"
"Think of it" Harry said "The Queen of the World has such a love for the colour beige that she paints everything in that colour?"
"She always has a favourite colour" the man said shaking his head furiously "last time it was red…drives the painters crazy at times"
"And when did she suddenly get this love for beige?" Harry asked quickly.
"Um…a couple of years ago" he said scratching his chin.
"A couple of years?" Harry said in amazement "and where has it been positioned all that time?"
"Next to the Earth" the man replied.
"No!" Harry shouted loudly into the room, the sound echoing of all the walls "We're next to the sun! The second most powerful thing in the known universe!"
"That's the point" The man said shaking his head "the sun is going to destroy the Earth"
"Thanks to your mistresses Genesis Project it doesn't look like it" Harry stopped and breathed. She had actually managed it. It all made sense. But it wasn't the Genesis Project, it was a thousand times worse "This ship is one big, huge, gigantic Solar panel, painted completely beige to help trap the power from the sun…and you've been in orbit around this sun for years…"
"So what?" the man said dumbly.
"We are here to watch the sun die..." Harry said breathlessly, his mind running through ideas and plans as he spoke "because when that happens the amount of energy released by both the Earth and the Sun will be astronomical…equal to a black hole and you have enough machinery, too much even, to be able to store all of that energy in one go…and then…"
Harry stopped in his words, no plan was forming and just the acceptance of fate seemed to be left.
"And then what?" The man said as he held out a hand and pulled Harry roughly snapping him out of his trance.
"And then she'll reverse it" Harry said as he pulled himself out of the mans tight grip and turned away. Looking up at the huge machinery spinning and buzzing above his head his heart sank. He was so far away from Miss Mady, he had no plan and time was, for once, running against him.
"Which means?" the mans voice sounded lower, more brutal than it had before but Harry was too distracted to care.
"She'll reverse it and the Earth shall live" Harry said slowly staring up at the machine even more. Maybe if he closed down the machinery from this end it wouldn't be able to pick up the last surge of power from when the Earth and Sun finally meet. When the Earth will die. "And the sun shall die in it's place"
An ear splitting noise rocked Harry's world and he was thrown downwards almost instantly. The pain spread across his skull like fire as she felt his knees buckle. He tried with all his effort to reach his pocket but his arms weren't moving and before he could blink he felt that smash hard against the cold floor.
Whoever had hit him they had put a lot of effort behind the swing, and with the cold of cold blood falling down the back of his head he wished they hadn't got carried away and split it in half.
His face hit the floor with a crunching sound but the pain he already had from his skull dulled this pain to just a curiosity.
His eyes were misting over and going darker. He knew what was happening as it had happened so many times in his busy life.
And just before his eyes closed and his mind switched of he said a little prayer.
Please let Hermione be safe.
*
The doors closed quickly behind Hermione, so quickly in fact that her heart beat faster as it worried she'd be trapped in it.
"So, a business arrangement?" Miss Mady said spinning around.
"Yeah…" Hermione said slowly. Something was wrong, she could feel it in every cell of her body.
"And in exchange you want to know how the Genesis Project will work?" Miss Mady said with a fierce smile.
"And you'll get equal footing in the management of temporal abnormalities" Hermione said quickly. She knew something was wrong, that talking wouldn't help, but she also knew somehow that if she turned around she'd find that the door was locked.
"I…" Miss Mady said slowly, a beautiful but horrifying smile on her face "Shall explain then"
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, maybe she had misjudged the situation, maybe Miss Mady wasn't going to attack her.
"The Earth is nothing but power, created from the burning hot core and from the rays from the sun…The core heated the water which create all life and the sun fed that new life till it grew to age…in human terms the core is the biological mother of all life, and the sun is its adoptive parents" Miss Mady said, she had turned and was now walking back and forth in front of Hermione "but the sun has turned against us, trying to destroy us as her enemy…in essence we are at war with the sun"
"At war with the sun?" Hermione said slowly.
"Yes…at war with the sun" Miss Mady said brightly "the sun started the war, tried to kill us as we looked the other way…but we've mobilized now and we will defeat it!"
"Oh…" Hermione said softly.
Harry was so going to gloat when he heard about this, about how mad this woman was.
"But to carry on living we need power…" Miss Mady shot her super model smile at Hermione as she carried on speaking "and where does our power come from?"
"The sun and the…" Hermione stopped. It all made sense "Your going to create a new core for the Earth"
"Our enemy will be absorbed and become our slave" Miss Mady laughed loudly, too prettily to be maniacal but still unsettling "and the Earth shall be reborn stronger than ever before"
"And you'll have the power of the sun to control" Hermione said slowly. Harry was, once again, definitely right. Everything had a time to end, and she just had to hope this wasn't her time.
"Now it's your turn" Miss Mady said sharply, turning to face Hermione. Miss Mady was a lot closer than she had previously been, now only a metre fitted in between them.
"What do you mean?" Hermione said trying to inch away unnoticed.
"Temporal mechanics is in essence time travel, which is very interesting to me" Miss Mady "and seeing as I get to ask a real life time traveller about it its even more so"
"What do you mean?" Hermione said nervously as she watched Miss Mady take a step closer to her.
"You, and your friend Harry are time travellers" Miss Mady said confidentially taking a large step towards her "did you honestly think I wouldn't realize? The magic paper, the old fashioned clothes, even your language…also you do carry abnormally huge traces of being pulled through the void, even for a time traveller…I believe you have been travelling for a very long time"
"A year" Hermione said quickly, the only thing she could do was keep her talking without answering any of her questions.
"A year? With that much void residue? Impossible" Miss Mady said shaking her head aggressively "If you lie to me again there will be consequences"
"I didn't lie" Hermione said quickly.
"Then how have you got so much left over void on you?" Miss Mady.
"I stepped through into it" Hermione said quickly. If Miss Mady reached out right now there was no way she would be able to escape. She just needed more time and a better situation. A space to run into. Harry to return. Anything at all.
"You've been inside the void?" Miss Mady said in shock. She stopped dead in her tracks and starred at Hermione for several seconds before taking another step closer to her "I guess it doesn't matter much…there's only one reason time travellers would come here"
"And what would that be?" Hermione asked. Her heart was beating fast but she could feel the almost dizzying effects of adrenaline rush through her blood.
"To stop me" Miss Mady said with a simpering smile "but I won't let that happen"
Miss Mady took a quick step forward to grab Hermione but she was quick enough to fall backwards onto the floor and out of her grasp.
"You don't want to be doing this…" Hermione said as she got herself back to her feet with Miss Mady stepped closer and closer to her. Her already impressive height was even more intimidating when her eyes were focused so meanly on her prey.
"And why wouldn't I?" Miss Mady said, her voice light and questioning, sounding rational even though Hermione knew she was only seconds from being attacked.
"You wouldn't want to mess with my friend" Hermione said backing away slowly, inch by inch as she tried to put room between herself and Miss Mady.
"What could your friend ever do to me?" Miss Mady said throwing her head back and letting out a light girly giggle.
"Trust me you don't want to find out…" Hermione said steadying her voice "He's stopped people like you thousands of times…and it never ends prettily"
"Thank you for the advice" Miss Mady said as she stopped, barely a foot from Hermione's face and smiled before she shouted at the top of her voice "Tie him to the chair"
Hermione watched as the doors on the opposite side of the dark room opened with a characteristic whoosh and Harry was dragged into the room by a man.
His body was limp as he was thrown into the chair where he laid unmoving. Hermione's heart threatened to stop but reason told her he was safe, that he was still alive. For it made no sense in tying up a dead man.
"You're going to regret this" Hermione said bravely inching closer to Miss Mady.
"I'm Miss Mady, little girl" she said, their noses nearly touching as she lowered down to Hermione's height "and I regret nothing!"
Hermione felt the clod hard feeling of scaly fingers wrapping around her mouth as she struggled she realized at least half a dozen hands were wrapped around her from behind. She hadn't got close enough to the wall to stop being surrounded and hadn't taken her eyes off Miss Mady through threat of a lunge to notice them.
As she thrashed as hard as she could she tried to see what was holding her but her eye sight was already blurring. She must be being drugged.
As the darkness came over her the last blurred image she saw was of Miss Mady walking confidently up to the still body of Harry laying in the chair, and laying a hand on his face.
*
So that's chapter 4, and things aren't looking so great for the duo…
Will they survive? What is Miss Madys really plan? Will they both have their eyes by the next adventure?
Find out next time, till then…
Jms Granger…
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