Of Gods & Aliens

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Of Gods & Aliens
Genre	Science fiction and fantasy
Created by	Grand_Tarkin
Writers	Grand_Tarkin
No. of episodes	10 instalments
Release
Date of release	December 2023
Series chronology
Previous	Shadows & Swords

Of Gods & Aliens is a roleplay story, within the Mythos Unbound collection, that follows the adventure of Benjamin Gauke, a 14 year-old boy from the town of St. Bernard's, Lancastria, as he encounters beings from beyond the Earth. Set during the Christmas of 3023, Of Gods & Aliens explores themes of family, humanity, and community.

Part One, subtitled "Ex Astris, Scientia" was published on 7 December 2023. The finale, subtitled "The Battle of St. Bernard's Town" was published on Christmas Day, 25 December 2023. Grand_Tarkin has also confirmed that the Christmas Day finale, "The Battle of St. Bernard's Town" sets up major plot points for the roleplay in 2024 and beyond.

Two sequel stories to Of Gods & Aliens are in development: World Enough & Time and Solomon & Night - both stories within the Mythos Unbound collection.

Characters

• Benjamin "Ben" Gauke, a 14 year-old resident of St. Bernard's who dreams of the stars after hearing stories of the old Federation.
• Franklin "Frank" Gauke, a 43 year-old resident of St. Bernard's and father of Benjamin. Frank is a cook who works two minimum-wage jobs.
• Nancy Granger, a 14 year-old resident of St. Bernard's and best friend to Ben.
• Solomon Nkusi, the 66 year-old Sheriff of St. Bernard's and former Starfleet officer.
• Janine Granger, a 39 year-old resident of St. Bernard's and mother of Nancy. Janine is the local high school's administrator.
• Odo-nexmanar-syphe-moore, "Odo", a Helix teacher.
• Exfano-mennilu-fob-night, "Night", a Helix infant with strong abilities.
• 'The Master', the apparent leader of the Black Celestia.

Instalments

Of Gods & Aliens is comprised of ten parts which make up one single roleplay story.

No.	Title	Written by	Published	Synopsis
1	"Ex Astris, Scientia"	Grand_Tarkin	7 December 2023	Ben is a young boy who can't stop dreaming of the stars. Too young to remember the old Federation, Ben's been brought up on stories of utopia and of peace. Long forgotten memories in the 31st century. When Ben tries fixing a thirty year-old radio from beyond his world, he discovers a message forgotten to time. Now, his dreams and his curiosity gets the better of him...
2	"This, I Wonder"		9 December 2023	Ben rallies his best friend in the whole world to solve a mystery that has overshadowed his Christmas Eve. Not even Ben with all his dreams could have imagined the adventure that follows. Meet the Helix!
3	"9 Hours"		14 December 2023	The town of St. Bernard's is shaken by the news of Ben and Nancy's disappearance into the mountains. Town Sheriff and former Starfleet officer Solomon Nkusi helps organise search parties to search for the teenagers as Christmas approaches.
4	"Pitchforks"		15 December 2023	The Helix have arrived in St. Bernard's town and now they must decide what to do. With some scared, some excited, and some mindful of a difficult history, the full spectrum of humanity is on display in a town meeting to decide the fate of the Helix race. The Helix reveal who they are.
5	"The Fear of a Mother"		20 December 2023	With the Helix being harboured by the people of St. Bernard's, a worried mother takes matters into her own hands. Convinced of the danger that the Helix present to her daughter, and with humanity refusing to hear her pleas, Janine looks beyond the world of men for help.
6	"Heroes"		21 December 2023	Ben and Frank take time to reflect on the chaos of the past 48 hours. Their rest, however, is not meant to last forever when a new threat to humanity arrives from the edge of the world.
7	"The Black Celestia"		22 December 2023	Aliens now inhabit the town of St. Bernard's... now its time for the arrival of the gods. As the inhabitants of St. Bernard's witness the overwhelming arrival of the Black Celestia, their new friends reveal their secret powers to save the townspeople. With the fate of Christmas (and the world) at stake, Ben, Solomon, and the Helix must decide whether the risk is worth humanity.
8	"Master, My Master"		23 December 2023	The puppet master reveals himself as St. Bernard's town realises the true weight of the Black Celestia and their hunt of the Helix. Janine realises the consequences of her actions.
9	"Earth Space Dock"		24 December 2023	With the Master and the Black Celestia in control of St. Bernard's town, Ben and the team must regroup and make a plan. Their objective? Stop the Black Celestia and save the Helix, all in time for Christmas! The Helix reveal the myth of the Master as they come up with a plan to bring down his empire of shadows.
10	"The Battle of St. Bernard's Town"		25 December 2023	It’s the end but the moment has been prepared for. The Master, the Black Celestial, the end of the world. All being confronted by the spirit of a small town at Christmas. Frank and Solomon must stop a royal convoy from igniting a war across the Doggerlands. Ben suffers the cost of saving the world.

Part One: "Ex Astris, Scientia"

Once, there was a town that was much like any other, so unimportant. But one day, this town sent the world a message. A bell, tolling out across the Doggerlands, ringing across all the dark corners of this snarling planet. Because nobody understood the message, nobody cared… except for one boy.

The boy who dreamed of the stars.

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Boutet!” Ben’s bike stormed down one cobbled street. An old, rusted thing; the bike took on the agility of a sleigh marching through mounds of snow. He swerved in and around the pedestrians gathered in the narrow walkways of St. Bernard’s town with varying degrees of success. As he did, the boy smiled, waved, and wished good will to his neighbours.

“Merry Christmas, Benjamin- slow down!” Mr. Boutet shouted but there was little hope. By the time his warm enchant had left his lips, Ben’s rocket had blasted him well beyond the reach of Mr. Boutet’s bakery, down towards the end of Guy Road.

While Ben’s bike gave the appearance of a rustic, dicey contraption, it was actually far more versatile than it appeared. Directly behind the cracked leather seat, a small pouch-bag, newer than the rest of the bike, bobbed along too. Usually the home of Ben’s newspapers for his morning route, today the pouch was home to something far more exciting.

As Guy Road drew to a speedy end, Remy Avenue teetered into view. A row of old tenement houses decorated the side of the road like copy-and-pasted baubles on a tired Christmas tree. Some of the windows, each peeking into a different apartment, were decorated for the festive season. Lights of red and mint and garlands and mistletoe, all flowing from window to window. None of the decorations were fancy - many looking hand-crafted from recycled cardboard and thinning string. Yet, none of that mattered. Remy Avenue wasn’t just any destination: it was Ben’s home.

Ben smirked with his usual cheek to himself as his bike screeched to an untimely stop, his eyes flickering between the Christmas decor and the orange glow reflecting off the mountains surrounding St. Bernard’s town. When the sun set over St. Bernard’s, the mountain range regenerated from a grey waste into a celebration of oranges and purples. This evening, the party of lights was holding nothing back - all beneath the clearest view of stars and starlight.

After a few flights of stairs, Ben found his way into his castle. His home. Sure, the doors were battered and the wallpaper was one-tug away from peeling to the ground. Still, home it was.

“Something smells good,” Ben said as he strode in through the front door, his arms carrying the pouch-bag from his bike.

Ten feet away, Ben’s Dad - Frank - stood with his back to him. The lace of an apron was tied in a figure eight and hastily stamped to his lower back. Frank had dark hair, surprisingly dark for his age. Steam rose around him, making him look like he was producing the gas himself. Slowly, he turned around, revealing the stove hard at work. And a grin.

Frank’s hands were full with utensils and a particularly brown wooden spoon, “tuna madras for supper.”

“I asked for turkey!” Ben kicked off his muddy boots, adding them to a pile of trainers and shoes gathered by the front door.

Frank laughed, turning back round to stir his cooking curry. “It’s Christmas in two days - you can wait for turkey,” said Frank, again with a smile. Always with a smile. He returned to stirring his old, scratched porcelain pot of food.

The apartment was small. No more than three metres separated the kitchen, from the dining room table, from the living room, from the only two doors in the apartment (besides the entrance door). One of the doors was to the bathroom, while the other was towards the only bedroom: Ben’s room. On the couch in the living room, Frank’s bed was neatly arranged. A single pillow and a duvet to combat the winter cold.

Ben marched into his bedroom with prowess, like he’d just conquered something, ripping a radio out from his pouch-bag. The radio itself seemed well enough intact, with the only sign of age being the 30 year-old Starfleet insignia faintly stamped on its side. It was slim, sleek, and a dark grey. It had few buttons - presumably it was controlled by the small screen which also sat on its front. The insignia was faint, however. Not from age, it wasn’t worn or faded through time. No, the Starfleet delta looked as if somebody had tried to scrub the thing from existence.

“That from Solomon?” Frank asked, shouting in from the kitchen. The smell of the madras carried the short distance into Ben’s bedroom.

Ben placed it delicately down onto his desk, stationing it next to his pile of mathematics homework and his AI computer games console. “It’s the radio he promised! I told you he’d still have it.”

“I never said he wouldn’t have it. I said the bloody thing wouldn’t work.”

“Yee of little faith,” Ben laughed as he plugged the device into the wall. The wall-socket was beneath the only bit of wall decoration in Ben’s bedroom. After all, the landlord refused to allow Ben to properly decorate his space. Though, rules were made to be broken. Above the wall-socket, right out of the line of sight of the rest of the apartment, Ben’s collection of wall posters and flags stood tall and proud: 2980s recruitment poster for Starfleet, next to Federation flag, pictures of the Starship Enterprise, and signed autographs from space pilot legends.

’Ex Astris, Scientia’ - the words spoken by cadets across a millenia were stamped across Ben’s bedroom wall. Almost forgotten, besides in the hearts and minds and dreams of the hopeful. Ben was hopeful.

The noise blasted through the apartment, almost shaking Ben’s posters off the wall. He jumped back into his spinny chair, confused. ‘I hadn’t even turned it on,’ Ben thought.

“What was that?” Frank shouted in from the kitchen. The rice was close to boiling at this point so his attention was limited to a simple, half-concerned question. Probably that damned game console, or something.

“Nothing…” Ben responded, picking up the radio. He quickly found his way to the volume switch, turning it down to a more manageable decibel. ‘Nothing,’ he repeated in his head. He didn’t believe himself.

As he spun around in his chair, the radio made another noise. As the spin continued, the beeping stopped. Ben stopped the chair as he looked down at the radio. The thing hadn’t come unplugged, nor had he fiddled with any buttons that could possibly have been an off-switch. So again, he spun. And again, the radio beeped once Ben’s spin reached a certain point, only to stop before he had completed a full 360 degrees.

“Curious,” Ben’s Spock-like internal monologue continued to himself before repeating the experiment four or five times. Each time, the beep repeated at exactly the same point. Ben - a member of the local scouts group until his Dad couldn’t afford the fees anymore - whipped out a compass from his desk drawer. Again, he spun in the chair, holding the radio tightly while resting the compass on its metal top. This time, he stopped right when the beeping began.

The compass hand pointed, reaching out - almost like a dare. ‘Due north,’ Ben thought to himself. ‘But there’s nothing there. Mountains. Mountains? Beyond the mountains? What’s beyond the mountains?’ Ben’s mind wandered and wandered and it just couldn’t stop.

Ben stood up - the device still beeping. He walked due north in his bedroom. While he could only make it a few steps before his knees were bumping into his unmade bed, the beeping got slightly louder.

Quickly, Ben returned the radio to the pouch and bolted for the door. He moved so quickly, his shape was probably still visible in the steam of the cooking by the time Frank turned around. He heard the sound of the door slam shut and the faint echo of Ben’s young legs racing down the tenement stairs.

The boy rushed back down the stairs and towards the bike - he couldn’t stop. He held the radio due north, with the help of his compass, of course. He started to walk in that direction - slowly splitting across the road of Remy Avenue. The further north he walked, the louder the beeping became.

Sure, he almost walked out in front of a yellow taxi cab while crossing the road but Ben paid it no mind. He looked out across the stunted skyline of St. Bernard’s town - past the bakery and the town hall and the well in the middle of it all. He looked due north, staring at the mountains which guarded this town on the edge of civilization.

Hypothesis. Test. Conclusion?

“Ex astris, scientia,” said Ben to himself. He smiled. “Ex astris, scientia.”

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Two: "This, I Wonder"

What are dreams made of? Some kind of sticky goo that morphs and moulds into the fantasies of the resting mind? Or something more concrete - something that is treated and condensed into the dreams of our mind - sort of like how jam is made of strawberries? Grown-ups will tell you that dreams aren’t made of anything. ‘Dreams aren’t real,’ they will cry. But if dreams aren’t real, how come they can come crashing down?

Nancy jumped up, her head just an inch away from the metal grid-like mesh that separated her bottom bunk from her sister’s top. Still covered by the warmth of her duvet, she looked around her dark and deadly bedroom. Everything in the universe was surely deadly in the dark - especially that which lives in the cavernous depths of a child’s bedroom.

Of course, Nancy wasn’t a child anymore. While her pleas to her mother for her own bedroom hadn't gone unnoticed, she still shared her ‘grown-up’ space with her seven year-old sister. After all, the pink costumes that were quietly wrestled into her dresser surely were not hers.

Nancy took a sip of water from her bedside table before resting her head back onto her pillow.

Jumping again, Nancy’s curiosity far surpassed the anxious fear of something coming out from under the bed. Quickly and quietly, she dotted to the window. She was a snake wading its way through a long grass, sliding through a small opening in her curtains.

Her window looked right out across her front garden. Usually, she would use this advantage to see if her Mom’s car was coming up the driveway. Tonight, however, long into the daily Lunar reign, she saw the top of a red, stripey hat. And not just any hat, either. That wasn’t a stranger’s hat. No, it was Ben’s hat.

She opened her window. “Pssst!” Nancy shot down a confused glare.

Ben didn’t speak a reply: he couldn’t. The risk of waking Nancy’s parents was too great. No, he simply lifted up Solomon’s radio. His face said the rest.

A few minutes later, after Nancy had found the quietest way to sneak downstairs and out onto the street, the pair sat next to each other on a small, snowy bench. It was past midnight... it was Christmas Eve.

“I don’t know, Ben,” said Nancy as she looked over the radio.

“What’s there not to know? This is an away mission! Okay, we’re not a landing party from the Enterprise but…”Before he could finish, Nancy handed back the radio. He put it back into his bag, before swooping across to take her hand. “This is it…”

“What?”

“One of those moments. One of those leaps you just have to take.”

Nancy returned Ben a half-raised eyebrow. “This isn’t the old Federation - we’re not Starfleet officers. Maybe we should give it to Solomon.”

“Solomon’s been sitting on this for 30-years! He’s given up on the Federation. But what if this is a stranded officer calling for help? Or Starfleet Command looking to make contact with the Earth?!”

“There is no Starfleet, Ben.”

Shaking his head, Ben’s charm cooked up a smile. “That we know of…”

Nancy laughed. Of course she did. She never could resist Ben - not when he smiled. “So, what do we have to do?”

“It’s a modulation on a varying frequency from Lambda-Nine to Epsilon Major.”

“... and what does that mean?”

Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. I read it in one of Solomon’s old logs.” He stood up, reaching out his hand. “It’s basically a honing device. The closer we get to the source, the louder it gets. I think.”

“So, we follow the beeps.”

“We follow the beeps! Come on, the sun’ll be coming up soon.”

Night fell and their away mission began. Their destination? Due north… somewhere.

The sun began to peek in on Ben and Nancy’s adventure. It had been a few hours since they left Nancy’s house - they’d long since left the town boundary, too. Now, it was nothing but the frozen wild ahead; the frozen wild and whatever else lay in the snow.

Every time Ben passed a towering spruce, he would check the radio. Every time, it returned the same repetitive beep. Every time, its volume increased. Walk, check, breathe, repeat. They were nearing the top.

“Do you think Emily Prentis would go on adventures like this?” Nancy asked, her eyes fixed on her boots which were slowly gaining in dampness from the never ending snow.

Ben took a deep breath before checking his compass. “Due north. Must be close now.”

“I mean,” Nancy continued. “Emily’s not the sort of girl who would go hiking in the mountains looking for the Federation. She’s more of a gossip in the local Shuriken kind of girl. Don’t you think so?”

“Why are you asking me about Emily Prentis?”

Nancy shrugged. She was behind Ben so her shrug was for nobody but herself. She didn’t know, did she?

“I was just wondering.”

Ben sighed a muffled response - nothing strong enough to break into the wall of cold air which separated the two.

Nancy stopped in her tracks, resting her back against the naked bark of a great tree. “I’m freezing!”

Paying it little mind, Ben continued, slowly scraping his way higher up the mountain-side.

“I don’t know why I came, Ben. I’m freezing in the bloody cold and it’s not even like you care!”

Ben stopped, about twenty-feet in front of Nancy’s stand.

“And like right now, you never even say nothing. Like, you know why I’m asking about Emily Pren-”

“Nance…” he said, interrupting her train of thought. He didn’t turn around. No, he just stared forward. “Come see.”

Nancy trotted forward, eventually reaching Ben’s position. Out across the sudden drop before them, the open air was painted across their view. A true vista. A small flock of birds danced in between the low clouds like the ink of calligraphy on a virgin page. Everything in the entire rest of the universe ceased for that instant as Ben and Nancy looked out across this vista of everything.

“Emily Prentis wouldn’t understand this,” said Ben.

Nancy shrugged, “she’d be too busy staring at you in Chemistry.”

“Chemistry?-”

Before Ben’s words could travel any distance in the air, the vista began to bend around itself. Land on the ground became vertical walls, which snapped into becoming the sky. Trees dangled from the sky like lights from a ceiling. Everything warped, with solid snow and rock bending into a liquid of matter and space.

“Aah!” Nancy's scream scratched the face of the air, which itself was spiralling in oddly asymmetric circles. The land around her warped the most, pulling her farther and farther away from Ben’s struggling self. She reached down to grab hold of something but couldn’t manage anything more than slipping - cruelling conceding her precious balance.

As Ben was flung far into the sky, he reached out with a whimper. “Nancy!” His cries were doing nothing to assuage the melting reality to cease its insanity for a reprieve. Soon, Ben was caught in a swirl of space - as if he had been caught in a tornado of snow and stone and the mountains themselves.

While Ben’s aerospace pathway kept him from the feeling of gravity, floating aimlessly among the upside-down birds, Nancy had come crashing down. Slipping, she grasped the steep edge of a fixed piece of rock. As she looked down, she saw nothing but the eternity of space. Again, she screamed. But she was slipping, slipping far too easily for friction to stop her now. She slid closer and closer to the edge of reality as her vision of the dead space grew to become her entire vision.

“Ben!” Nancy’s final scream echoed around the arena that seemed to defy the laws of physics themselves.

Before Nancy’s fall could continue for eternity, the ground huffed its last and the mountains snapped back to the ground. Ben and Nancy sat side-by-side, breathing deeply.

“Wha- what was that?” Nancy couldn’t move. Her hands firmly gripped the soil beneath her. Her head was spinning, her eyes too.

“I-”

Jumping up, the sound of a crashing screech acted like some kind of floating agent. They rose to their feet like it was an instinct. Upon looking out across what used to be a beautiful vista, a new shape took the place of the brisk dawn air.

“Stay here,” Ben instructed as he took steps towards the large circular-goliath that had appeared before them. The circumference of the portal was made of sharp rocks; a collage of cliff-fronts all crammed together. In the middle of the circle, a serene blue light glowed from it like heat emitting from a furnace.

The screeching ‘vworp' echoed again as a small figure emerged from the serene blue flames. At a distance, the figure was indistinguishable from the trees and rubble around it - except for the fact that it was moving. See, distance - like destiny - always drew closer. As the figure came into view, its sloping ears and blunted claws began to gain form in Ben’s vision. It was small, it was shivering… it was alive.

“⊑⟒⌰⟟⌖ ⊑⟒⌰⌰⍜,” the creature squeaked. It reached for a small pin on its collar, pressing an invisible button. “Helix Hello!” It smiled.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Three: "9 Hours"

What do you fear? Beneath everything else, beneath the deepest and darkest pits of anguish and horror, what, at your core, terrifies you the most? Go on, look. Don’t stop digging until you reach it. That moment. Well, it might be a moment. It could well be a series of moments, all building towards true horror. Or, it could be a face, or a memory. What do you fear when everything else is cold and gone? Nobody can guess what you uncover when you take a trip that deep into your own mind. Frankly, nobody should want to. However, for one group of people, the answer to the question is frighteningly simple. For one group of intrepid victims, fear in anything else is but humour by comparison. That one group of people? Parents. Nothing burns as brightly as the fear of a parent.

Frank tugged at his duvet - he couldn’t sleep. Something was off. He reached his arm under himself, patting the surface of the couch in hope of finding out that he had been sleeping on something bumping - something that could disrupt his sleep like this. He shifted positions, then shifted again. No hope. He couldn’t sleep.

There was a slight glare coming from the lights on the Christmas tree in the apartment. The tree lights were approaching ten years-old so the winter white was slowly morphing into a warm beige. Frank rubbed his eyes and the lights didn’t become any brighter.

“FRANK!” A desperate voice cried out from outside of the tenement building. “YOU SON OF A BITCH,” the voice continued without catching so much as a breath.

The shouting broke Frank from his failing attempts at sleep and drove him to the window. “Janine?” Frank looked down, seeing the red-dotted face of Janine Granger - Nancy’s mother.

“What do you mean they’re gone?” Solomon said with a huff. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting to wake up this early on Christmas Eve.

Solomon was a tall man, towering over even Frank’s almost six-feet. His grey beard on the turn towards white, his eyes tired from the lack of sleep and the weight of his years.

“/His/ son must’ve taken her,” Janine replied, her eyes tearing up.

Frank scoffed, shaking his head. “Oh come on. They’re kids. We know they fancy each other. They’re probably out somewhere together and’ll be back before we know it.”

Solomon lent over his desk. The three of them stood in Solomon’s office - the Sheriff’s office - as they shouted their way through to each other. After three clicks of his computer mouse, Solomon rubbed his worn face. “I’m sorry, Frank, but it’s more serious than that. They certainly went together but…”

“But what?”

“They’ve gone into the mountains.” Solomon's bass voice howled, almost to an echo. A sad, tired echo, rattling around the room.

Time froze, at least for Frank. It was Christmas Eve and temperatures were falling. The mountains? How could Ben be so stupid? No, no time for that. Why? No, no time for that, either.

As Frank’s mind ticked over, Janine burst once again. “YOUR SON HAS TAKEN MY DAUGHTER INTO THE MOUNTAINS? YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Before Janine could pounce onto Frank, Solomon’s sheer size was enough to pull her away. He held her back - her arms and legs flailed around in the air.

“Calm the hell down!” Solomon’s commanding voice both woke Frank from his panic-induced coma and calmed Janine’s volcano. “Now the footage got them leaving town at 5.50 this morning. Which means they managed to miss the brunt of last night’s cold. But as soon as the sun sets…”

“Oh my god…”

“Nine hours,” Solomon said, checking his watch. “We’ve got nine hours to find them and bring them home.”

Frank fell into the office chair, he could hardly respond. His eyes were more tired than ever, well outpacing the fatigue of Solomon’s age. His mind continued. ‘Why?’ The question wouldn’t leave his mind.

As Solomon moved towards the phone - Frank jumped to his feet. “What did you give him?” Frank was more serious than he had ever been.

“Huh?”

“What are /you/ talking about now?” Janine grunted.

Frank moved around to the other side of the desk. His face approached Solomon’s. Now, Solomon was a large man. His breast, like the mast of a ship - stretched farther than Frank’s. Yet, the fire of a father was no idle weapon. That fire burned, straight into Solomon’s eyes from Frank’s. “You gave him a radio.”

“And old Starfleet toy. It was nothing.”

“See, I don’t know. One moment you’re giving my boy a radio and the next he runs off into the mountains. You’re telling me there’s nothing there?”

“What radio?!” Janine’s fire turned to curiosity - her tone, too, petered out.

“It’s nothing, really. It’s just a repeater. It repeats.”

“Repeats what?!”

“Anything. It receives a message and repeats it. The stronger the signal the louder it gets."

“What’s the point of that?”

“It helps…” Solomon’s defensive face drops for a moment. “It helps locate things. It can be used… as a honing device.”

The hour that followed brought the entire town into focus. ‘Nine hours,’ the words kept rattling around the minds of the men and women who were preparing an expedition into the mountains. Could they be found in time? The mountains were vast. Even if they could have mustered the numbers to cover the whole area, those mountains were blanketed with snow and forest and gorges and valleys. ‘Nine hours,’ the words sounded as hollow as poorly-assembled furniture.

Gathering the town together wasn’t too difficult. Yes, it was Christmas Eve but St. Bernard’s was different. It was a town with a smile. A town where neighbours trusted neighbours, friends trusted friends. Two fourteen year olds were missing? This is the town to call to action. Fathers, mothers, school teachers, police officers, factory workers, secretaries, and more. Everybody - the whole town - piling on scarfs and duffle-coats. All preparing to brace an undiscovered country: the mountains at the edge of the world.

“Listen up, everybody,” Solomon shouted from a stump at the edge of the town. He was surrounded by the worried faces of the town's population. All listening, their breath froze before them. “We have nine hours before sunset. These aren’t just any kids we’re looking for. It’s Ben and Nance. We’re going to bring them home. Now please, these mountains are dangerous. Stick to your designated search parties and your designated party leader-”

Solomon’s words stopped - attacked by the sound of snow crunching. The noise was slowly getting louder… the footsteps of dozens. The town’s attention was broken, it turned from its valiant leader and towards the north. There, emerging from the withered trees, Ben and Nancy looked across with concerned faces of apology.

The breath of relief was exhaled as the town noticed more than just the two missing teenagers returning from the mountainscape. Lower than Ben, cuddling behind the pair’s legs, the swooping ears and warm smiles of the Helix greeted them too.

Part Four: "Pitchforks"

Humanity conquered the stars. Most people forgot that. The species which stormed the food chain on one tiny, insignificant planet became the predators of space. The ‘New World’ became the entire milky way and the minds of humanity opened. Then war came. A war of men, absolutely. A war against greed, entirely. Yet, at its core, it was a war against nature. The great and bountiful Human Empire collapsed like Rome - in fire and in blood. What followed was no phoenix and no salvation. What remained was the barbarism of humanity: her sensibilities stripped back to uncover the venal core of man. Humankind died that day and the Terrans that succeeded them lost their trust in everything beyond their small blue orb. But, not all humanity was extinguished from the world. Not all, indeed.

One might've thought it impossible to fit an entire town worth of people into a single room on Christmas Eve. One was wrong on the day that the Helix visited the town. The room stood packed. All the foldable chairs filled, the room around them stuffed. The air itself shared by hundreds: all of them watched a teenage boy and a teenage girl walk in alongside creatures from beyond the stars.

“Explain it again…” Solomon commanded. He sat hunched forward on his chair, unsure if this was reality or just another Christmas nightmare.

“They’re called the Helix,” Ben explained. His hands were glued behind his back, like they were on the day he spoke at the St. Bernard’s High School commemoration. He didn’t believe in hand waving during a speech - he found it distracting. “They’re a race of beings from the planet Helix Major. They need our help.”

“Aliens! Monsters!” Janine shouted from the front row of gathered residents. It had been a long morning for Nancy’s mother - the redness of her face hadn’t shrunk at all.

Nancy shot an angry glare. “Mom,” she said, shaking her head.

“Janine, please. That’s not helping nobody,” said Solomon, calmly.

“Miss Granger, they’re not monsters…” Ben walked into the lioness’s den.

“Then what are they, my boy?” Solomon had spent the last few minutes analysing the mouse-like appearance of the Helix. From their whiskers, to their shining orb-like eyes, to their blunted claws. Solomon wanted to understand everything.

Ben stepped forward, tapping one of the Helix on the shoulder. “They’re refugees.”

The room broke out into a commotion. Chatter turned to a stampede of shouts and sighs. The Helix standing next to Ben patted their paws together, looking up at the boy’s anxious complexion.

“It’s true!”

The Helix coughed a little. “The boy speaks the truth…” He jumped off the stage and towards an opening in the middle of the room. His eyes blinked vertically - he smiled. “My name is Odo-nexmanar-syphe-moore. The boy has designated me Odo. You may also do the same.”

“Odo,” Solomon patted his knee. “Where do the Helix come from? Where in space?”

“Far beyond the Badlands. Beneath the dark solstice moon, beyond even the heaven-space.”

“What quadrant coordinates?!” Solomon’s shout caused the Helix to flinch. He shook his head profusely.

Odo’s head tilted slightly, before his eyes blinked back and forth between Ben and Solomon. “I know nothing about these quadrants. I know only the maps of the Untempered Schism…”

“It seems that the Helix use a system of time tunnels to travel the universe. This group travelled and seemed to land here by mistake,” Ben explained so confidently, it almost came across as if he understood it himself.

“How many are there?!” One citizen shouted from in the crowd.

“Thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one ALIENS in St. Bernards?!” Again, the room erupted. The clammer of whispers burst into screams and shouts. Janine rose to her feet.

“Anybody who doesn’t sit down and shut up in the next ten-seconds can get the hell out!” Solomon rose and, as he did, the fire of the residents calmed to a stop. “Time tunnels… so they’re from the past?”

“Or the future… we’re not quite sure,” Ben confessed.

“Which is it, Odo?”

Odo’s paws patted each other. “I know nothing of the mechanics. I am a watcher - a guardian to the thirty Helix minors in my care.”

“It's a babysitter?”

Ben shook his head. “/He’s/ a teacher… I think.”

Solomon approached Odo, kneeling down to come eye-to-eye with his warm smile. “I’ve never encountered a species like you. It’s remarkable.” He smiled at the Helix, who returned with a grin. “You said you were refugees. What are you fleeing from?”

“Monsters…” Odo shuddered, his hands flexed in on themselves as if he were cowering from his own words. “Will we be safe?”

Solomon returned to his dominant stature, resuming his tower over the residents. “I’m open to suggestions,” he said to the gathered townspeople.

One rose to his feet, “we should send them back!”

“Yeah!” Another shouted.

“Send them back?! Are you mad?!” Ben’s face soured like nothing he’d ever heard before. “They need our help!”

“Then let’s hand them to the government!”

“THEY’RE THE REAL MONSTERS!”

The scared shouts continued, causing a tremor deep within Solomon. His following shout rivalled the volume of the entire town’s protest. He brought them to their knees and extinguished their torches and pitchforks. “My God, people. Listen to yourselves! You won’t even hear them out before you banish them somewhere?!” Solomon resumed his kneel, looking directly into the eyes of Helix Odo. “Is it possible for you to go home?”

Odo’s head shook immediately. “The Black Celestia now ravage Helix Major. There is no safety for the children.”

“But your time portals remain open? Couldn’t they follow you through?”

“Only the Helix have domain over the vortexes of time. The Black Celestia would be lost between the aeons if they were to follow.”

“Okay, that’s one less thing to worry about,” Solomon said with a relieved sigh. He scratched his old head, where a powerful hairline used to be. “So sending them back isn’t an option. We should contact the Lancastrian government. They’ll have protocols for this stuff.”

“No!” Ben shouted, stopping Solomon as he approached a phone in the middle of the town meeting hall. “We can’t - they won’t be safe.”

“Ben, the Lancastrians are as Tarkinist as they come. They’ll help, trust me.”

Ben shook his head, moving in front of Odo, who sat quietly. “The Eastern Federal Republic was safe. Until it wasn’t. Look what they did to the Taurans. We can’t let it happen to them too. Please, Solomon. They'll be in danger...”

Solomon sighed, “he’s right.”

“Solomon, you can’t be serious!” Janine burst with a huff. “He’s just a boy. He doesn’t understand this stuff! We need to hand them over to the government!”

“Even if we could trust the government not to experiment on these beings for their time travelling abilities, another NCR could easily take its place. These people deserve more security than that.” Solomon headed towards the exit - his signal that a decision was made.

“They’re NOT PEOPLE!”

Solomon stopped in his tracks. His slow turning around helped soften even Janine’s anger. He smiled briefly at Ben and Nancy, before approaching Janine, who’s stature shrank by the second. “Janine," he said with a smile. "The universe shows its true face when it asks for our help; we show ours by how we respond.”

He continued towards the exit.

“The Helix will be safe... /here/, in St. Bernard’s town!”

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Five: "The Fear of a Mother"

The mother cried. And that was the worst part. Not the bombs falling or the bullets filling the air. The mother cried with the tears of all her children. Only then did the cost of war become real.

“Come on! Pick up!” Janine shuddered in the winter cold. The short daylight was soon to surrender and the elements battled a freezing war.

A static voice reached her through the other end of the phone. A voice with no emotion, no feeling - a voice as cold as the air she shrieked to breathe. “Thank you for contacting the Mirkwood Police Department. All our operators are busy at the moment. Please stay on the line.”

“Please, there’s these aliens and they’ve got my daughter. Please… she’s not safe. Help me. Oh my god, help me-”

“Thank you for contacting the Mirkwood Police Department. All our operators are busy at the moment. Please stay on the line.”

Her hands shook.

“Please,” she pleaded. As a tear rushed down her contracting cheek, she slowly put down the phone.

She didn’t know what to do. She was a school administrator - fancy term for a secretary. She spent her days filing cabinets and fielding phone calls… ‘How did I ever end up like this? Trying to protect my daughter from monsters,’ she thought as her panic continued to consume every corner of her brain. The panic of a mother.

The walk back into town from the outskirts where she found the payphone was a slow and gruelling one. Goosebumps grew into mountains across her arms and neck. The mechanism that pushed one foot in front of the other seemed to be working on autopilot. Simply, she wandered... her mind was somewhere else.

As she approached the town square, the bass-like voice of Solomon howled at her from a short distance. He waved, jogging lightly towards her. “Jan,” he started to say, catching up with her.

“Not now, Solomon.”

“Listen, I know. Jan, stop! Come on, hear me out!”

Janine’s legs paused. Releasing her gripped hands from her coat pocket, she turned. “What?”

“I couldn’t cancel the Princess’s visit.”

Janine scoffed. “Monsters have invaded this town and you’re worried about a royal visit?”

"I know you don’t want them here. I know you don’t trust them but-”

Before Solomon could finish, Janine snipped the words from his mouth.

“But what? That boy and those creatures have my daughter and you want me to be calm?”

“They don’t /have/ her, don’t be ridiculous. She’s fine. But do you think she’ll ever forgive you if you sell the Helix out to the feds?”

Janine shrugged insincerely. The implication that she didn’t know the answer to Solomon’s question was a lie. She knew - of course she knew.

Solomon continued, “the Princess will visit. She’ll cut her ribbon and give her little speech. And nobody in her convoy will find out about the Helix. They can’t.”

“And what do you want me to do about that?” Janine said with contempt.

“Absolutely nothing. We’re sorting it - finding them a safe place to hide out tomorrow. But I need you to keep your cool. You can’t say anything.”

She scoffed, shaking her head quietly. Could she contain herself? Did Solomon believe that was even possible? The fire of a mother is difficult to extinguish at the best of times.

“Fine, I’ll stay out of your way. But I want Nancy to come home with me. She’s not staying ‘round those monsters no more.”

Solomon smiled gratefully, “of course. I’ll send her home now.”

Janine continued her march, before Solomon continued with a final remark… “Thank you.”

She didn’t acknowledge it. She couldn’t - her façade would only cover so much. Her respect for Solomon? Her trust? Everything was on pause. She raced back to the town hall. It was now empty of life. Soulless chairs scattered across a worn wooden floor, the light of Christmas Eve burning to its end - everything was too calm.

She reached for Ben’s radio. Picking it up, she didn’t truly understand what it was she was holding. It was sleek, that’s for sure. She recognized the scraped-off Starfleet insignia on its side. ‘Honing device,’ she thought. ‘I just have to turn it on…’

With the town distracted by the arrival of the Helix, nobody noticed a hooded figure rush from the town hall, through the square, and towards the edge of the world. They were all gossiping. Some speculated on the ‘true intent’ of the Helix, others were excited at the prospect of aliens in Lancastria. Some scared, some paranoid, some hopeful, all distracted.

The path north was easier for Janine than it was for Ben and Nancy. Older, wiser, and wearing more appropriate shoes, she ventured - following the footsteps through the hills and valleys of the mountains north of St. Bernard’s town. She saw the same trees, braved the same gorges, crossed the same frontier.

As she climbed the last hill, the stone arches of the portal came into view. The sloping rocks, kind of like the sloping ears of the Helix, dominated the sky as the roaring blue continued to beam the vortex into the world. As she approached, Janine tapped the screen on the front of the radio. It buzzed slightly, then again, then again. The buzzing became repetitive.

“Okay…” Janine whispered to herself. “Okay…"

Raising both arms above her head, Janine became a catapult. She threw the radio forward, straight into the heart of the portal. A small vworp echoed throughout the valley of the portal - loud enough to cause a flock of birds to launch into flight.

She looked down at her hands - they were shaking. Then, she turned around and began the climb home, only this time her jittering hands were empty.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Six: "Heroes"

“An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom. From his own father, he said, he first learned that fatherhood must be at the core of the universe.” - C.S. Lewis

Frank’s table was never tidy. Sure, papers and folders and calculators and receipts were shuffled around on a daily basis in order to make space for dinner. But out of sight was never out of mind. The table was never tidy and neither was his mind.

This Christmas Eve, Frank returned to his table, in his apartment, and sat quietly as the whistle of a songbird serenaded him to the edge of his fortitude.

“Dad?” Ben’s voice surprised him. It was quieter than Ben’s normal excited entrance. Usually, when Ben strutted through the door, he would monologue about the new facts that he’d learned at school, or the games of roleplay that he’d triumphed in with his friends, or his naïve take on modern politics across the Doggerlands. Even though Frank seldom knew precisely how to reply, he always listened. This time, however, Ben simply shied his way in through the front door.

Frank turned to see his son standing - in the middle of Christmas Eve - exhausted. Ben’s boots were still muddied from his mountain expedition and his eyes heavy with all he’d done since meeting the Helix. Ben sighed and Frank sighed back. They smiled.

“Long day,” said Frank, lightly kicking out a kitchen chair for Ben to sit on. He quietly closed shut his folder, in which Ben sometimes caught glimpses of spreadsheets and rough sums too shaky to add up neatly.

Ben planted his head into his arms, resting on the table. “I’m sorry.”

“For what, now?”

“For running away… for getting into trouble.”

Frank’s face dropped. It was like anger in its effect but softer - something overcame him.

“Hey,” he said, knocking Ben’s arm. “What you did today was…”

Ben braced himself for the scolding. His body tensed, his mind flinched in anticipation. ‘... was stupid!’ or ‘... was reckless!’ or ‘... was juvenile!’

“... was so brave.”

He looked at his father, he looked at his greying beard and his working hands. He looked at his father’s chequered flannel and his light blue eyes. He looked with that puzzled face he more often shot towards difficult algebra or chemistry. He saw pride.

“I don’t know where you get it from, kid. You just- you scare the death out of me. But that big brain of yours and that heart. You stood in front of a mob and defended somebody so different from you. I was so proud.”

“Mum always said be ‘kind because…’”

And, at the same time, both Ben and his father whispered the same quote at exactly the same time.

“‘... you never know when a touch of kindness will save your butt.’”

Their voices became one, even down to the minutiae of tone and pitch. They laughed and Frank patted Ben on the shoulder.

“She’d’ve been proud too.”

Ben yawned with his whole body, opening his mouth before chuckling again. “Odo told me that Helix have three parents… ‘genetic radix’ he called them.”

“Well, that’s lucky. Maybe teenage Helix have more than these crappy apartments. Three can actually provide, ya know.”

Ben shrugged, nonchalantly rising to his feet. “I thought it was weird. Three's messy. You only need one? They are aliens, I guess.”

He began to walk towards his bedroom, when Frank jumped to his feet too. His eyes were redder than normal - his cheeks more blush. “You’re my hero, Ben.”

Ben turned around. He extended his arms and embraced his father in a hug. Father and son, united in one.

“You’re mine too, Dad.”

Eventually, Ben’s exhaustion overcame him. After Frank prescribed the intrepid teenager a lengthy Christmas Eve nap, he retired to his sofa bed. He rubbed his face. ‘What a kid,’ he thought to himself.

As the afternoon resigned to the evening, Frank found himself indulging in a nap on the sofa as well. Leaning back, his arms folded and his snores echoed, and Frank rested for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. It, however, was never meant to last.

A rumble shook the building. The half-battered Christmas lights vibrated and the sofa bed creaked. A pile of papers that was stacked on the kitchen table fell over, jolting Frank awake. He yawned, not thinking much of the shake he had mostly missed. As he stood up and moved towards the kitchenette, the building shook again. This time, it was enough to rock the walls and the doors and the windows and the dangling ceiling light. Even the hinges on the kitchen cabinets rattled with purpose.

Ben emerged from his bedroom, his face red from the interrupted sleep.

“What’s going on?” He stretched a little, moving towards Frank who stood silently staring out of the kitchen window. “What is it?”

As Ben’s sight shot out of the window, he witnessed the tsunami of black smoke flooding down the mountains of the north. It hadn’t reached the village yet but it was ravaged like an avalanche of dread.

“They’ve found them…”

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Seven: "The Black Celestia"

The universe was a place of life, long ago. The diversity of species and planets reached a height. Then it all fell. The Burn ripped through the pathways of space and left a scorched cosmos in its wake.

And everything became that bit less kind.

The black storm thundered its way from the mountains at the edge of the world, all the way into the heart of St. Bernard’s. As it crashed through streets, it smashed windows. Sparks of the town’s electrics violently vomited themselves across the scene as the power lines were deconstructed by the storm.

Ben and Frank rushed out of the door of their tenement building. In the distance, the tempest engulfed the neighbouring tower. The lights flickered off and the brickwork vanished as the opaque clouds of blackness and dread approached.

“Run!” Frank grabbed his son’s arm, beginning to sprint down Remy Road - away from the oncoming storm.

Quickly, the storm began to break off into smaller but equally rapid arms. Each of them, in their own cruel way, began to attack St. Bernard’s from different directions. One arm swooped down to swallow the High School, while another circled the park. The largest continued down main street - directly towards the town square.

Before long, Ben and Frank had made their way to the centre, where Solomon stood witnessing his town become the plaything of the living storm. Besides him, Odo - the leader of the Helix - was walking in circles and his paws were shaking.

“This is them!” Odo’s high-pitched voice squeaked higher than ever. “Ben! Ben!” Odo shouted. “They have come for the infants!”

“Who have?!” Frank was out of breath from the sprint. His body was arched over as he rested his hands on his knees.

“The Black Celestia,” Ben replied, looking around the square.

From one direction, the oncoming storm. From another, down Fisherman’s Way, another arm of the storm. Soon, they all realised: they were surrounded.

Ben continued, “Gods…”

Solomon turned, passing his attention from the avalanche of coal-like smut and towards Odo’s panicking posture. He knelt, reaching Odo’s big and alien eyeline. “What do they want?”

“Hmm?” Odo’s response was quick and sharp - almost like a shield.

“Odo quickly! They’re here and they want something. We can’t hide it if we don’t know. Why do they want the children?”

Odo shivered in his space. Despite Solomon grabbing his furry arms in an attempt to shake the answer out of him, he got no reply. Eventually, Solomon relented.

“Fine!”

“I thought you said they wouldn’t be able to follow you through the time tunnels?” Ben was braver at that moment. He faced down the quickly approaching anger of black gods and yet, his mind, like Solomon’s, was in problem-solving mode.

Odo shrugged meekly, “they shouldn’t have been able to.”

“But WHY?!” Solomon rose to a shout. The distance between the town square and the storms shrank by the second as more and more houses became food for the mouth of the storm.

“Because we can do this…”

Out of the door of the town hall, a second Helix glowed. His right hand became like the end of a torch. In between his paws, he rolled a ball of golden energy. The fire raged, brightening up a small area before him. Yet, it seemed to do no harm to the young Helix. From a distance, it simply seemed like a swirling glow. Up close, the energy beamed from his hand like smoke from lava - albeit a rich and golden and silky smoke.

“Exfano-mennilu-fob-night!” Odo screeched.

“What the hell is that?”

The energy coming from the young Helix grew. Eventually, it grew into a large dome-like shape. As the energy grew and rose, so too did the young Helix. He was at its core - like in the middle of a blazing sun - he smiled cheekily as he looked down at the remaining townspeople.

“Get in!” The young Helix beamed his voice down towards the gathered humans and the other Helix.

“Don’t just stand there,” Ben insisted, using his energy and his arms to usher people into the dome. Soon, dozens of people were within the stratosphere of the young Helix’s sun.

Once as many were aboard as possible, the golden orb began to rise. Quickly, it rose above even the black avalanche. Despite passing the clouds, the inhabitants of the Helix’s orb couldn’t see them. The golden energy was opaque, restricting the view of the deep blue Christmas Eve sky.

Ben slouched, sitting on the floor of golden light. The ground was solid, it felt as if it were made of something other than a strange emitting energy.

“You’ve got some explaining to do,” said Solomon as he assaulted Odo with a fiery stare.

Odo shook, raising his right paw. “This is the power of the Helix.” A similar sort of energy grew from Odo’s paw too, though his was a fainter and less mesmerising glow.

“But what is it?”

The young Helix descended from the heart of the orb. Delicately, his foot paws landed straight next to Odo and Solomon’s confrontation.

“It's what the Black Celestia want from us,” he said with his smirking smile.

Ben chuckled, “I take it you’re Exfan…”

“You may grant me the designation ‘Night’, should you wish!”

“Night… nice to meet you.”

Solomon rubbed his eyes. He looked around, breathing in the disbelief of his current situation. “What is the light?”

“The power of the Helix is drawn from the stream of time itself,” Night explained.

“Time energy?”

“This sphere isn’t a construction of space. Space is the domain of the Black Celestia. Time is the domain of the Helix.”

“So we’re…”

“Displaced from time, yes. This world is full of temporal energy - so much cerebral abstraction. The Helix can draw on that to build constructions of time. The stratosphere of this is the boundary.”

“How much time?” Ben asked.

Night hopped towards him, smiling as he rested his clean paw on Ben’s shoulder. “Just one second. That’s enough - we are one second out of sync with the rest of the universe. The perfect hiding spot.”

“Not for everybody else!” Odo interrupted, shaking his head. “The Black Celestia will not stop. They will ravage that world looking for the Helix.”

“We have to stop them,” said Solomon - the eyes of a Starfleet officer glowing brighter than even the orb.

Night shook his head, “we won’t be safe.”

“And neither will anybody else if we don’t beat them,” Ben said in agreement. “This'll be the last Christmas of humanity if we hide forever. Am I wrong?”

The two Helix shook their heads solemnly. Odo looked across to Night, and Night back to Odo. Simultaneously, they nodded.

Odo jumped, almost with excitement. “The humans offered their protection for the Helix. Let us do the same for you.”

“How?”

“The Black Celestia are the foot soldiers… puppets. Powerful puppets, but subservient all the same. We must find the puppet master.”

Meanwhile, beneath the orb, one second into the past, the black storm had completely consumed the town. Within the boundaries of the rushing tempest, individual strands of the storm materialised into individual beings. Soon, hundreds of them surrounded the buildings of St. Bernard’s town. All the buildings remained untouched, except for their new standing in the shadow of the Black Celestia.

One of the Black Celestia reached for a small box device. As it yanked the box from it's obsidian cloak, Ben’s Starfleet honing device entered into view. The Black Celestia pressed the front screen, causing a loud, banging beep.

“My Lord,” the being spoke. Its voice was like the wind itself. It had no tone, no expression, merely the force of nature burrowing from its red eyes and black structure. “The Helix have played their last hand. Permission to… persuade them home?”

“Granted,” a distinctly male voice replied through the device.

The Black Celestia returned the honing device to his cloak. It raised its two branch-like arms, addressing the other gathered Celestia centuries. “Gather the Terrans,” it said plainly.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part Eight: "Master, My Master"

So, you thought you knew the cosmos? Had some kind of conception of what lurked beneath the infinite folds of bending reality? Well, nobody could have blamed you. So often, the work of the mind's one of subtle simplification. What lay above the plane of space and time that humans just so happened to inhabit, into the ethereal, was as much art and fantasy than physics and facts. What happened when facts learned to evade the restrictions of the narrow mind? And who controlled them?

The townspeople of St. Bernard’s were as strong as any huddled mass could ever be expected to be. Those who remained in the town, left behind by the majestic orb of golden time energy, stood in the path of the Black Celestia. Over the course of the night of Christmas Eve, the centuries of the Black Celestia began to rip them from their homes - root and stem.

“On your knees, mankind,” the lead century spoke. Despite its red eyes and its blindingly black cloak which absorbed attention towards it, its appearance was best described as cold. Cold and death.

Nancy shook with the fear of a teenager. She had watched her whole world crumble at the hands of the Black Celestia. She was scared - of course she was scared. Ben had flown away, and Solomon too. All that was left was fear.

So, she knelt. And so did everybody else.

The Black Celestia towered above them. They were the trees of the forest of death and they knew it. The century stepped forward, throwing the honing device onto the cobbled ground of the town square.

“Who here knows where this tool came from?”

Janine, who huddled next to Nancy, wrapped in her designer coat and clinging to her expensive bag, saw the device. It was more damaged than when she last laid eyes on it - it had more scrapes and bruises. But she had no doubt, it was the same one; the one she threw into the portal. Her eyes fluttered. Slowly, her hands began to grow in heat. The veins and arteries of her body became overworked as the realisation of her actions came into being.

‘This was me,’ she thought. She knew. ‘Oh my God.’

“You!” The century proclaimed - it stared as if it knew. It marched forward, trampling over the first few rows of kneeling Terrans. It crashed into Janine and Nancy like a tsunami.

Nancy clenched her entire body. But, the century just stood there. Its eyes were piercing - she could tell where they were headed. They were stabbing the façade of her mother.

“Mom?” Nancy stuttered, recognizing the face of guilt on Janine’s face.

Janine moved her hands from her face, revealing the red of culpability and the tread marks of tears. It was so warm - the Black Celestia emitted it like heat was their breath. Warm enough to evaporate Janine’s regretting tears, leaving nothing but redness and sorrow.

Janine whispered, “I just wanted you to be safe…”

“The Terran acted wisely, child.” The century turned away from Janine, and Nancy’s judgement too, speaking openly into the cosmos. “We have found the source, My Lord.”

The calming voice crackled through to the century. “Good. Terran?”

“Yes, My Lord. I detect significant cerebral abstraction."

“Hmm,” the voice hummed. “I shall descend.”

“What? What’s descending?” Nancy asked, refusing the shaken embrace of her mother.

The century smiled, “your Lord and Master.”

The skies swirled. It was like a tornado of red, spiralling around and around as one of the black clouds materialised. This time, though, it didn’t don a black cloak. No, this time a slimmer figure emerged. A slick structure, wearing a tuxedo, floated from the blood sky.

As his feet, decorated in shining Oxford dress shoes, touched the ground, the redness of the sky coalesced into his eyes. They were redder than even the eyes of his centuries. He approached the lead Black Celestia and the two Terrans kneeling at its feet.

“Hello,” he said, his voice as sharp as his jawline. “You're the source?”

“Are you the devil?” Janine asked with a whimper.

He smiled, shrugging slightly. “Would that make things simpler for you? Hmm? Tough. The universe doesn’t care for your feelings, dear.”

“Who are you then?” Nancy's defiance was brighter and more fierce.

“Didn't my beasty-boy tell you? I’m the Master. And I’ve got some questions for you, dear.”

The Master’s hand grabbed Janine’s arm. It was warm, unlike the gaps of energy that were the Black Celestia - he was corporeal.

While Nancy screamed and shouted and resisted her mother being taken away, it did little to stop the Master escorting her into the town hall. The room’s lights were off, with only the brightness of the ether lighting the Master’s milk-pale complexion. He adjusted his bow tie as he sat, delicately placing Janine in the opposing chair.

“Can I offer you a beverage?” The Master asked with a smile, like he was pretending to be some kind of waiter.

“A what?”

With the swipe of his hand, the Master produced a glass of red sludge. He bubbled, as if simmering on a stove. “Reghlah is a truly revolting cocktail but is certainly a popular choice across the cosmos.”

“We don’t drink that here…”

“Ah, my apologies, dear. What /do/ you drink on this planet?”

“... water...”

“Water? Water. Wa-ter.” The Master shrugged. “Do you happen to know what it’s made of?”

“Hy-” Janine hesitated. “Hydrogen- and oxygen… H20… I think.”

“What a strange concoction. Hmm,” he waved his hand again, producing a cool glass of water. He took a sip, triggering a smile of surprise on his cold and devilish face. “That’s fantastic! Here, here.”

The Master passed the glass over to Janine, who took a sip. She wanted to laugh - how could she not find the sight of such an enigma funny? Yet, her fear persisted. Like snow, her fear suffocated everything growing beneath it.

“So,” he scratched his goatee. “Tell me something, dear. You are the source of the honing message?”

Janine did a slight nod, as if the muscles in her head refused to admit responsibility.

“Well, then I must thank you. We were lost, you know. The routes through the Time Vortex are not things that I am privy to anymore, I’m afraid.”

“Huh?”

“But you - you did me a big favour. Access to time travel. My people wouldn’t like that. Not after my sentencing. But you- you, my dear, are the key to my escape from exile.”

“Exile?”

“Oh, that’s nothing for you to worry your delicate little head about. I presume your thoughts are not lying to me… you did this to protect the girl? Nan-cy.”

Janine nodded. While she was bewildered by the Master’s pace of tone, she recognized his final question.

“Fine. I have no ill-will towards your daughter. Once I have eradicated the Helix, you and the girl can go on as happily as ever.”

“...er- eradicate?”

“Mhm,” the Master said, leaning back in his chair. “You may be the key to the Helix but the Helix are the key to time. I am ever so bored of the Black Celestia. Mastery of space is wonderful for sure. But, for a man of my inheritance, it bores easily. Time, now that is a whole different matter indeed. Time… time for me to bring those rats back to Earth.”

“But... they’re just children…”

The Master rose to his feet, absentmindedly walking around to Janine’s side of the table. He rested on the edge, his coat rolling off. “My dear, you be careful now. Anybody who stands between me and my inheritance will surely feel my rage.”

He stood up, moving towards the exit.

“You’ll never get Ben to give up the Helix!”

“Yet you did, my dear. If I could make you do that, what do you think I could do to him?”

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part Nine: "Earth Space Dock"

Terra. It was the Rome of the Federation. A crowning jewel, a bastion of Tarkinism, and the beating heart of the burgeoning galaxy. The Federation routed poverty, disease, and ushered in an age of utopia - with Terra at its heart. The Federation maintained its dominance through peace and a watchful eye. High into the heavens, behind the curtains of the clouds, the seat of Federation power orbited. The largest space station in the known history of everywhere: Earth Space Dock.

The Helix’s stunning golden orb continued to float in the sky, frozen out of time from the Christmas Eve below. In and amongst the clouds, dashing in between rays of burning orange light, the orb survived. It would survive - clicked out of sync with all of time. One second, just one. Enough to stay ahead of whatever devilish foes vanquished the rest of reality.

“We need a plan,” Solomon mumbled. He rested his legs on the ground of the sphere.

The interior was less blinding than the exterior to be certain and a walkable floor existed. Dozens made it into the orb, but it was Solomon, Frank, Ben, Odo, and Night who focused more on planning than the wonders of the orb itself.

“What do you suggest?” Asked Odo as he stretched his little arms from side to side, extending his paws into the air.

Frank scratched his head, “couldn’t we just bring this ball thing down back to town? Get a good look at these Black Celestals.”

Night shook his head. “The Black /Celestia/ can warp space. Even the space we currently occupy, within the orb. If they were to find our location, we would not be safe.”

“But we can’t exactly fight them without knowing what we’re up against. Where they are in town, what they’re doing down there!”

“Nancy’s down there…” Ben said, his face straighter than anything. Frank moved across to comfort him, but the hand of the shoulder wasn’t enough. He sniffled before continuing. “We need to see what's down there.”

“So, we need somewhere where we can see them without them seeing us. Something with sensors… something forgotten…”

Solomon and Ben shared a glance. With a slight grin, they nodded. Their unspoken language was louder than words, louder than anything else within the Helix’s orb. The grin grew, larger and larger, until it totally occupied both their faces.

“What?” Frank uttered.

“Earth Space Dock!”

As the orb rose higher into the air, its surface began to brighten in its complexion. The orb burned its way up, through the Earth’s atmosphere, and towards the stars. Slowly, the orange cloud-layer became fainter and the dim blue of the Sol System took over. The milky dots came into focus and the orb flew into space.

The years since Earth Space Dock was abandoned hadn’t been kind to her. The once mighty structure which stood tall above the northern hemisphere looked like it had been laid on its side, at a slant. Scorch marks still decorated the hull. Still, some holes seemed newer - likely due to meteor strikes or debris crashing into her massive superstructure.

Slowly, the orb approached. It parted its way through the debris field surrounding the station like a vessel splitting its way through the ocean waves. As it got closer, a smaller orb broke off from the main sphere. It looked like a cell splitting in two, except one was smaller and headed closer to Earth Space Dock, while the larger remains stayed farther back.

The sphere warped through the hull like it wasn’t even there.

Within the smaller orb, Frank, Ben, Solomon, Odo, and Night all stood in a circle. Night piloted the orb as Solomon knelt, whispering into his ear.

They flew up several decks, past abandoned quarters and emptied cargo bays. It was like the lifeless wreckage of a sunken ship, but with space driving the decay rather than the sea. Eventually, they reached the top. Solomon patted Night on the shoulder and the orb stopped, right in the middle of the only room with lights.

The orb rumbled as it condensed itself back into a stream of golden energy. It returned to Night’s paw, hissing its way home.

“We’ve got air…” Ben said.

“The backup command hub. Glad my guess paid off,” Solomon said. “Life support in this room should last another decade or two before power fails.”

He rushed over to a monitor. While it initially hesitated activation, Solomon’s fiddling soon brought it to life.

“What is this place?” Frank asked, dusting off a metal console - not that he understood what it was for.

“Earth Space Dock,” Ben said with his arms stretched out like he was hosting some kind of game show.

“The hub of Starfleet’s operations in the Sol System before the Burn,” Solomon added.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she.”

“She’s broken!” Odo added, his paws scratching against the tarnished deck plates. “How can a broken vessel still have working sensors?”

“You clearly never ran into Starfleet, Odo,” Solomon said with a smile. “We were the king of backups.”

He slammed his hand onto a panel, pressing what seemed like a random assortment of buttons. Then, a large screen at the front of the command centre activated. “Emergency sensors.”

“I’m surprised Starfleet didn’t take this with them,” said Ben who was still in awe at the fact of where he was standing. This was a dream - his dream. He was like an officer and he couldn’t stop smiling.

“Nah, they were out of here in a rush. There!” Solomon exclaimed, pointing at a flashing green light on the large screen. “Orbit thrusters still active.”

“The what?”

“The last official action of the Federation in the Sol System. Emergency Program One. This whole station is designed with safeguards. In the case of emergency evacuation, the thrusters are designed to keep her away from Terra. That’s why she hasn’t crashed down yet. Her orbit would’ve decayed by now but the Federation had a plan. Oh yes! The Federation always has a plan.”

“So… it works?”

“It works! It might look old and rusted, Night, but I can assure you: this is some of the best engineering in the history of space travel. She’ll do us proud.”

’I never thought I’d be back here,’ Solomon thought to himself. ‘Home,’ or at least more of a home than Solomon ever grew to know.

After Solomon’s moment of jubilation, he set to work. Diving through the mainframe, prancing past algorithms and dancing with system protocols, Solomon made his way into Sensor Controls.

“And we’re online,” he said, controlling a joystick which stuck out of the console.

On the large screen, an aerial map of the Doggerlands sprung into view. Zooming in, the Southern Sea disappeared, then the Almere, then Senones and Gorath. All the way until all that was left was Lancastria… north Lancastria… Mirkwood… St. Bernard’s town.

“Okay,” Odo huffed. “The Black Celestia surrounds the entire habitat.”

“The good news is they haven’t killed everyone. Life signs are typical. They’re holding them… but what for?”

“Can you enhance the image any further?” Odo asked, stepping closer to the screen.

As the picture enhanced further and further, a shot of the town square slowly grew. The dots of humans kneeling and the fountains of death herding them.

“What’s that?”

“What?”

“That, there,” Ben pointed to another figure. Not a Black Celestia - not large enough - but also not a kneeling human. “Who’s that?”

As the picture became clearer, the sharp figure was impossible to ignore. Odo shrieked, stepping back slowly.

“Who is it?” Solomon asked, looking at a top-down view of what seemed like an ordinary man in an ordinary tuxedo.

“The Master…” Odo spluttered. He fell back, tripping over his own short legs. He couldn’t stop looking at the screen and the unearthly figure that was on it.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Frank insisted. “Switch it off.”

Odo’s reaction was nothing but astounding. The Black Celestia ravaged their world but there was something else, something that brought him to his knees...

As Solomon continued to tinker with the computer, Odo rested up in the Admiral’s ready room. He sat, with his paws against the desk, recovering from his intermittent shakes.

“Odo,” Ben said, awkwardly looking across the abandoned Admiral’s office. “Who is he? The Master?”

Odo leaned back in the Admiral’s chair. His paws hung off the edge, dangling above the metal floor. “There was a myth on Helix Major. Of a war across time. Species battling across the cosmos for control of the time tunnels. The Helix mischief peacefully. We stayed at home. But there was a myth that persisted - echoing back into the dreams of the Helix. Two men - two criminals of a time war. Their crime so abhorrent the Helix couldn’t understand it in their minds. One criminal, sentenced to exile protecting a forgotten world. The other, sentenced to exile in the netherworld, stripped of all his powers.”

“The Master?”

“It was only three solar cycles before his legion attacked Helix Major. The Black Celestia - his shadow puppets. A tool in service of one goal: to regain his powers again.”

“His powers are… your powers?”

Odo lifted his paw and, like before, a faint golden glow emitted from it. “The Helix evolved around pockets of time energy. The Helix learned to harness it. The Master stripped my world bare looking for strong enough livestock to power his return to the tunnels of time.”

“The children?”

“The power of the Helix weakens as we age. Our infants are the strongest wielders of our power. We escaped through the Untempered Schism with only one instruction from Helix High: run and hide.”

“So how do we beat him?”

Odo stood up, patting his paws together as he approached the door to the Admiral’s ready room. “Let us gather with the others.”

There, in the heart of an abandoned space station, high above Christmas, the guardians of time stood around each other. Frank, out of his depth; Solomon, reliving the glory of his pioneering youth; Ben, experiencing the dream he never thought would become reality; and the Helix, wanting nothing but to survive.

“Travelling in time isn’t free,” Odo explained. “To move from one moment to the other leaves holes in the fabric of space-time. The blood of the universe remains on those who voyage through.”

“What does that mean?”

“Background radiation. A low-level Chronon radiation. It is harmless to most beings, of course. But it has a charge.”

“Like magnets?” Solomon asked, thinking.

“Precisely. The source of the radiation and the radiation itself both have the same charge. But…”

“But if you could change the charge of the portal, they’d attract! Like two ends of a magnet!” Ben jumped in, excited about his ability to figure out electromagnetic temporal physics. “We... learned it in physics…”

Odo nodded. “All of those who had voyaged through the Untempered Schism would be drawn back through the portal. The Black Celestia, the Master, they would all become lost in the tunnels of time.”

“Would it kill them?” Frank said with a solemn, straight face.

“No but it would force them across the universe. Away from this world and from the Helix.”

“And how exactly do we… change the charge of the portal?”

“Night's powers are strong enough.”

Night stood, his eyes blank - like all the eyes of the Helix - but still plainly scared. “Barely strong enough… it would burn out my abilities. They’d decay… like I was ageing.”

“The force of time would burn through your body, Night. It is precisely why the young can harness this power and why the old cannot. The old have less runway ahead of them to take off and fly.”

“Are you okay with that, Night?” Solomon asked.

Night nodded, smirking slightly. “For the Helix. And for Ben - the boy who saved us.”

Frank was proud at that moment. He looked at Ben, his son, and saw the kindness of all humanity - the kindness that the Terrans had lost. He saw his son and wondered ‘where the hell does he get it from?’.

Ben chuckled, “defeat the Black Celestia, stop the Master, save the Helix, all in time for the Princess’s visit!”

“The Princess!” The eureka moment pummelled Solomon to his core. He remembered. “We’ve got to stop the Princess. She’ll be on the train… now! If the Black Celestia see a fully armoured Royal Convoy heading right for St. Bernard's… they’ll attack her.”

“Okay,” Frank added, his brain working faster than at any point in his life. “We can do this. Solomon: you and I will stop that train. Ben: you and the Helix get to the portal. You started this… you’ve got to be the one to end it.”

“And how exactly do you suggest we stop a royal convoy?”

“Well, I ain’t counting on a Christmas miracle. We’ll figure it out. Ben?”

Ben nodded, that same pride passed through his father and to him. He liked to see his Dad in action. “It’s a plan.”

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part Ten: "The Battle of St. Bernard's Town"

The fire crackled and the hour-hand clicked. The room was warm, filled with the light of the town hall’s fireplace. The outside was the home of the deep and living dark - the consuming darkness of midnight.

The Master turned over the page of a large and elaborate book, bound in red and gold. His face slowly morphed, like his skin was a weird plasma. It grew older, then younger, then his hair became white, then dark, then white again. He sat, leaning with his legs crossed in an out-of-place leather chair, and chuckled. “Almost midnight! Christmas Day. Why… aren’t you pleased about that?”

There, in front of the chair, sat frozen on a rug beside the raging fireplace, Nancy shivered. Her hands neatly rested behind her back and her eyes were trapped - locked on to the Master as he robustly turned the page in his extravagant book.

“Oh, you’re probably worried about your friends? Foolishness is keen among you degenerate Terrans, isn’t it?! Friends aren’t worth the attention they take away from you!” He laughed sharply, almost comically. “You see, I wasn’t always such a handsome lone hero. Long ago, I knew a neat little Timeling who ran away from a Time War and hid in the snow. Abandoned me for-”

The bell of the clock struck, interrupting the Master’s sentence. He smiled, grinning a grin wider than even his slim, sharp face. His face morphed into the smile.

“Christmas Day… they’re coming!”

South of St. Bernard’s, down the sole railway line that connects it to the rest of civilization, a small NC operations office was a short distance from the town. From its door, the raging tempest of the Black Celestia dominated the sky.

Solomon slammed his hand against a panel in the old, empty train station. The windows were tinted with a crystal blue and the room itself was ice cold. The operators were off for Christmas, of course, so the heating was stone cold.

“Any luck?” Frank was lying on his back, his face into a bundle of oddly coloured and badly arranged wires.

Shaking his head, Solomon burst out with the most blunt sigh. “Fat lot of good this was. Ben won’t be at the portal for another hour.”

“And when’s the train supposed to come through here?”

“If the town schedule is anything to go off, five minutes…”

Frank climbed out from beneath the old console. “So, we can’t access the train signals?”

“NC’s security is too good. If I had more time - or a Tricorder - I might be able to get in. Not in five minutes. The Princess' gonna die…”

Frank rushed towards the door of the office, cracking it open. As it swung out into the forgotten wild, a small gust of wind echoed through the room. “Nah, there’s gotta be another way. Okay, okay. Things that can stop a train?”

“Another train…”

“Not helping!”

“What do you want, Frank? Maybe the Helix should have come down here first - stopped the train before going to the portal.”

“No, no. We can do this! Okay. Big, think big.”

“There’s no hope, Frank!”

Frank turned, his eyes almost as red as the Black Celestia and the Master himself. With a rage, he burst. “Where’s that Starfleet optimism, Solomon? This is your fault - you gave my boy that ridiculous device. Now, here we are. So, get yourself together. Stop being so bloody defeatist! And let’s figure it out!”

The wake up call worked. Frank and Solomon rushed out of the operator’s hut and towards the tracks. The line stretched into the winter forests south of St. Bernard’s. Realising what they had to do, Frank rushed towards an axe which strutted out of a tree trunk a short distance from the hut. Picking it up, he moved towards a large white oak which sat next to the NC line.

Strike!

“Fucking monarchy,” Frank said with a huff.

Strike!

“You okay there, Franky?”

Strike!

“Almost there…”

Strike!

The tree began to lurch over the track.

Strike!

As it drooped, Frank gave the trunk a great big kick. Using the force of his muddied boot, the tree toppled and crashed into the track. Laughing at his success, Frank rested on the stump as he caught his breath.

’Over to you, son…’ Frank’s thoughts extinguished his laughter. ‘Good luck’.

The walk back to the town was an anxious one for Frank. No way to communicate, no way to know. Was Ben at the portal yet? Had it worked? Did Night have enough power? Was the theory even possible? All questions, no answers.

Solomon patted Frank on the back. “You’ve got one hell of a son. Now that the convoy knows the line is blocked, we’ve bought him time. He’ll do it, I really believe in him.”

“So do I. He’s saved the world. That’s just who he is, Solomon.”

As they climbed up a nearby hill, high enough to gain a vantage point of the town square - the heart of St. Bernard’s came into view.

“Oh my God…”

Frank became like the snow and ice surrounding him… he froze in his place. His eyes cracked, his hands stopped. His entire body opened up and tried to run away. But, his engine had stalled. He wasn’t going anywhere. All he could see was the town square… the Black Celestia… the townspeople kneeling around them… and, in the centre, Ben tied up against a stake of black air.

“They must have captured him,” Solomon said but Frank did not listen. All Frank could hear was the cries of his son in the hands of the Master and demons of the cosmos.

The town was small enough that Frank and Solomon could hear. They could hear everything.

“Ahaha!” The Master danced around Ben, whose face was red with tears. “The child saviour. You shouldn’t thank those parents of yours, child. They’ve given you one hell of complex!”

“DAD!” Ben shouted. Frank could hear it - the echoes of his tears. Closer to home, though, was Nancy, who was being restrained by a century of the Black Celestia.

“Dad! Dad! Oh, Daddy! I can’t wait to turn your Daddy into soup.”

“YOU’RE A MONSTER!” Janine exploded but, despite her rage, she too was held by the ghostly shadows.

The Master shrugged, moving towards Janine. “Don’t thank me, dear. Once I receive my reward, I’ll be able to bend time like a smith bends steel. I can kill him and bring him back to life! Vast meadows of crying fathers, all helplessly watching their poor babby melt away. All, all at the hands of their Master.”

Besides Ben on the stake, Odo and Night were tied back too. Their fur scratched against the ropes of smoke, creating redness under their skin. They struggled but had no luck. By this point, Ben had stopped struggling and simply cried.

“No hope? Oh, where’s Daddy? Come out! Come out, come out, Daddy! Come get your prize!”

Despite Frank trying to jolt forward, Solomon held him back. “You can’t beat him!” Solomon whispered. “We need a plan!”

“What plan?! It’s over…”

“No, no - it’s not. Maybe Night can use his powers from here…”

“He’s not strong enough. Look at him!” Frank stopped resisting, falling to the snow. “Ben…” He said to himself, like an apology.

“What did Odo say… their power? Cerebral what?”

“What does it matter?”

“It could save Ben’s life! Think! What did he say? Cerebral…”

“Cerebral abstraction.”

“And what’s that?” Solomon’s mind never truly stopped. His thoughts danced around his head, overpowering his hearing of the Master’s taunts.

“Mind power?”

“So, their power comes from the mind. Some kind of mental force?”

Frank shrugged with a helpless sigh. Apathy was his nature now.

“Okay, so mental force means mental power. We need to give them mental power.”

“How the fuck do we do that?”

“Not with a log… no. With you.”

“Me?”

“You’re his Dad! You’re his hero! What else would give his mind strength?”

“But Ben doesn’t have that power… the Helix do.”

“And if Ben has strength, so might they… it’s our last shot.”

The Master continued to dance, like he was waiting. Like his laughs and taunts were just cannon fodder - waiting for the main event. He watched the children cry and swam amongst their tears. As Christmas morning progressed, the Master owned Frank’s world.

“Master…” Frank said, walking down the other side of the hill and towards the town square.

“Let me guess,” he said with a smirk. “Daddy? Well, I hope you don’t think you can save him.”

The Master waved his arm, growing a flood of black clouds to surround Frank. The clouds became a restraint, holding him a foot or two above the ground. He watched as the Master reached closer to Ben.

“Ben!” Frank screeched. “I love you, son. YOU’RE MY HERO!”

Ben smiled. The waves of his cries evaporated instantly as he took a deep breath, staring at the pride and fear and love on his father’s strained face.

“Blah! Blah! Bla-”

Night’s hand began to grow. The energy - the time energy - swirled around.

“What?!”

The Master took a step back as the energy grew. It swarmed the sky, pushing back against the dark clouds. It shined a light on the townsquare and the glow reflected on the faces of everybody. Yet, the brunt of the golden glow didn’t strike the Master, nor did it head north to the portal. No, it moved straight towards Ben.

“Ben?” Frank uttered, watching his son breeze through his roped restraints and float into the air, carried aloft by a bed of fiery time energy.

“Night isn’t strong enough,” Odo said. “But Ben might be…”

“Ben and Night… together... they have more future. More potential energy! More runway!”

Odo too began to glow in energy and, like Night’s he routed it through Ben’s floating presence. Ben’s eyes grew golder and golder - he grew to tower over the Master.

“No, you can’t do this! This isn’t fair!”

“Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when we can do this…” Ben said, his voice carried by the golden glow itself. It broadcast, like on a tannoy, throughout the whole town.

“Don’t think I won’t kill them!”

As the Master went to raise his hand towards Frank and Nancy, Ben’s golden strength pushed him back to the ground. Soon, the clouds of the Black Celestia were contained only in the town square itself.

The longer Ben stayed in the cloud of time, the older he came to look. His hair changed, his face changed, he grew… older and older. Then young again, then older. His face became unstable

“The power of the Helix, the power of humanity. Enough to switch a simple electromagnetic charge, don't ya think!”

Ben’s ageing hands reached forward into a dive, allowing him to become a beacon. All that force, all that energy, directed straight towards the portal in the mountains. As it came to an end, the last remaining black clouds fell into the portal’s vacuum. The charge switched and the forces attracted. Back into the portal — back into hell.

Along with the Black Celestia, Odo and Night began to rise too. After all, they had gone through the same time schism - the radiation was on them too. As they swirled into the sky, a sole hand reached out to grab them. Janine’s face tensed as she grabbed the paw of Odo, who grabbed the paw of Night. The three of them, tied together and to the Earth, as the black clouds of the Celestia spiralled away - returning to the portal.

“No! No!” The Master was the last to be drawn back into the portal - his strength clearly significantly stronger than that of the Black Celestia. “I will find my way back to this world… and this world will BURN!”

As his final words reached the ears of the townspeople, the Master was swept away into the sky. Like his legions of the netherworld, he was torn away and back into the tunnels of time, to be lost forever.

The last specs fell into the portal and, once they had, a large gust breezed over the town. Like the residue of a ripple in the water, the sky returned to the black of a Christmas night, aside from the reducing glow of Ben’s presence.

Soon, his feet returned to the ground. He fell onto his back, his head resting on the remaining snow. The morphing of his age slowed, settling on a more refined definition.

Returning to his feet, Ben looked at his hands - older hands… hands with more specs of hair. His face looked like it had lived more days than his fourteen years, his eyes were more tired.

Frank rushed towards Ben, who was now taller than him. “Ben?” He asked.

“Dad,” said Ben with a smile.

Odo moved across, patting Ben on his lower back, as that was all he could reach. “The curse of the Helix has been dealt, Ben. You pulled the stream of time through yourself. And this... this is the price.”

Ben shrugged, stretching his arms out to a greater diameter than he had ever achieved before. “God…” He chuckled, “I’m starving.”

“Turkey?”

“Hold on,” Janine shouted. “How… how did you do that?”

“The Master tried to force the Helix to give up their power. Tried to use them like livestock to extract it from them,” Ben said confidently, his mind clearer and more streamlined than ever before. “But he never tried asking. I used my future as fuel - pulled the Helix’s power through my own time stream and here we are.”

“Can you change back?” Nancy said, a tear still rolling down her face. She came close to Ben, the boy she grew up with, but now he was a man. His face was more defined, his eyes wearier than his age.

“No,” Ben did a half-smile. “I can see it all so clearly now. The mind of the Helix in my head. We can only move forward. /That’s/ the curse of the Helix.”

As the night rolled into a Christmas morning, Ben and Frank returned to their apartment. The Christmas tree was wonky and the lights had fallen off their shaky placement. Ben took a step into his bedroom - the bedroom of a child - and hardly recognized it. He chuckled, setting eyes on the size of the single bed. “Going to have to make some changes there.”

“So,” Frank said, “How’s this gonna work, eh?”

Ben turned around, embracing his father with a hug. “You saved the world as much as I did. I needed the strength.” He moved back, looking his father in the eye. “I never really knew everything you did for me. Not until the Helix opened up my mind. You sleep on that couch, you scrimp and you save and you did it all for me. Well, now it’s time for me to pay it back some.”

Frank smiled a hollow smile, grabbing Ben’s coarse cheek. “I feel like I’ve missed out on you… you’ll never get to grow up now.”

“Think how many children are getting to open presents right about now. About the Helix - those kids might actually get a life now. Not a life on the run but a proper go at life. I don’t know - seems like a fair trade to me.”

“Not to me.”

They locked eyes. Father and son. Man to man. They smiled one last time. “Come on, Solomon’s cooking Christmas dinner.”

“He better be making turkey!”

THE END.