Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 14:07:18 -0500 Reply-To: "Robert A. Gansler" Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Robert A. Gansler" Subject: Rulers of the World (Part 8 of 16) Rulers of the World (Part 8 of 16) A Highlander/War of the Worlds Crossover A ContiNEWity Story * 1995: Morthrain Base Mana disengaged herself from the large organic-tech device. "It is done." She pulled away some of the tentacles that had connected her to the control panel Malzor rubbed his hands together. "Finally." He walked over to the double-bed like container that held two humanoid forms. The two bodies were exactly identical to the casual observer - a Caucasoid male with white hair and appearing to be around sixty years old. Malzor leaned over the edge of the left receptacle and began tearing away some of the membrane that covered the body inside. He grasped the occupant's right arm at which the occupant's eyes opened. Malzor helped the occupant out of the receptacle and onto the cold, hard floor. The man stood tall and proud, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was naked and in a completely alien environment. He stared directly ahead. Malzor studied the man up and down. Mana joined him in this visual inspection. They could not find any imperfection on his body. Malzor looked at Mana with rage, "I thought you had gotten rid of that flaw of the cloning process. The machinery is not supposed to make ideal copies of the original." "Yes, I did adjust the machinery. It is a perfect copy. There were no flaws on the original to begin with." Mana countered. "No flaws? I find that hard to believe. Do not try to cover up your incompetence. You can be replaced." Malzor responded. Mana stomped back to the strange apparatus. "Look at these readings! They will show that I speak the truth. Inspect the original yourself. You will find no flaws." Malzor went to take a look at the readings on the control panel. They were of much more detail than he could comprehend. From what little he did understand, it seemed that Mana was telling the truth. However, he did not want to portray and ignorance to her. He was the leader of the Morthrain people after all. He could show no signs of weakness to them. "Very well. I agree with your assessment. Now that the physical success is verified, let us see how well the mental replication proceeded." Malzor turned away from Mana and approached the naked man. He moved to about a foot away from the man and looked him straight in the eyes. "Who are you?" The man confidently replied "I am currently Brigadier General Henry J. Wilson, United States Army." Malzor was somewhat surprised by the clone's answer. "Currently? Were you a different person before?" "I have had many names over the years." "How many Earth-years has that been?" Mana inquired. "Two thousand, five hundred." Wilson responded. "Two thousand, five hundred?" Malzor was even more surprised by this response. "Either he is delusional or the mental replication was faulty. These human vermin have much more limited life spans than that." Mana stopped Malzor before he could begin raging again "Perhaps his unstable mental state is the reason why the cloning process was so difficult. It has taken almost five Earth-years to produce the clone." "Perhaps, but that is not important now. The clone is viable and we can afford to wait no longer to utilize it. We will use this clone to finally destroy the Blackwood Project. Assign two soldiers to escort the clone outside." "What will his mission be?" "We will set the clone out in the Marketplace. Eventually, Blackwood and his team will find him. They will undoubtedly take him to their base. The clone will be able to determine what other operatives this Blackwood has. Once he has the information, the clone will dispatch the core operatives and return to us with the information. It then will be simplicity itself to rid ourselves of the human scum who oppose us." "What about the soldiers that will accompany?" "They are inconsequential to the overall mission of our people. They may be killed when Blackwood and his team come to rescue the clone. They might escape, but under no circumstances are they to harm the humans. Make sure that the weapons that they are provided are not adequately charged." "You are going to allow the humans to slaughter two of our people?!?" Mana was incredulous. "I will decide what are acceptable losses. Sacrifices must be made for the greater Morthrain good. Do not seek to question my leadership. Even you can be replaced, Mana!" Malzor was raving with a manic fury. Mana had seen this overcome Malzor many times in the past. She often wondered what her father saw in him that made him choose Malzor as his successor to leadership. Tallok had died so suddenly; Mana did not even get to say good-bye to him. Mana choked off the painful memories. Malzor had commanded that they not dwell on the past. In some respects, he was right. If they continued to think about the past, they would have no future on this world. Malzor hoped that the dementia that this clone and presumably the original suffered from would not affect his memories of actual facts. Malzor had been able to acquire some information from the original a few years ago, but that was all. Somehow, the human learned to fight off the mind-control devices. The first application had resulted in some information about the Blackwood Project and the operatives known as the Kincaid brothers. The operation against the Kincaid brothers, led by Mana, and the other against the Blackwood Project were both of limited success. The former resulted in one casualty for the humans; the latter resulted in two. Later applications of the mind-control device were completely unsuccessful. Torture seemed provide no results as well. The human was able to withstand levels of pain that were unheard of, even by Morthrain standards. Malzor escorted the clone to another area to prepare him for his mission. "We have known about the existence of the Blackwood Project for some time, courtesy of your other self, but we have not been able to acquire much information about them. Tell me what you know about the project, tell me everything." * 1995: Blackwood Project Base "Look, how many times do I have to tell you. I'm not an alien and I'm not a clone." Duncan pleaded as he struggled against his bonds. Kincaid arose from his stupor and got right into Duncan's face "Whatever you are, you're not human. Human beings don't just get up without a scratch after somebody blast a few holes into him." "Easy, Kincaid." Harrison took Kincaid by the shoulders and moved him away from Duncan. "Let me handle this, OK?" "Now, I assume you have some sort of name. Can you tell me it?" Duncan responded "Duncan MacLeod. I'm in the phone book, you can look it up." Harrison nodded along "OK, we might do that. Kincaid, do we have one?" Kincaid put his hands up with an 'I-don't-know' look. "Maybe, but it would probably be a few years old." Kincaid took Duncan's sword and examined it closely. "It's Japanese. A katana, right?" Duncan nodded "Yes, it is, but it's a long story about how I acquired." Kincaid continued to study the blade "Oh, I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is." Harrison turned to Debi, "Debi, could you go look for a phone book, please?" "Sure, Harrison," Debi replied and scampered off. "All right, Duncan. May I call you Duncan?" Duncan strained against the ropes that held him fast "I'm not in a position to argue. 'Duncan' is just fine." Harrison nodded "Duncan, you say you're not an alien and you're not a clone. We say you're not human. What do you say you are?" Duncan fidgeted "It's kind of difficult to explain and it will sound sort of strange." Harrison smiled "We've got time. Beside we fight against aliens, how strange could your story be?" Duncan proceeded to tell them about his past, the Immortals, the Game, the Prize, and the Quickening. When he was finished, neither Harrison nor Suzanne nor Kincaid were able to say anything. "See, I told you it was pretty far-fetched," Duncan offered. Kincaid exploded. "That has to be the most insane story I've ever heard. People going around for centuries cutting others heads off. It's preposterous. Especially considering that no one knows about it. What about the headless bodies? Wouldn't somebody notice them? There's no way that this fake is telling the truth. I say we shoot him and be done with it." Harrison scoffed at Kincaid's suggestion "We did that already and he's still among the living." Kincaid frowned. His anger had gotten in the way of his reason. "Well, why don't we cut his head off? If one of us 'mere mortals' cuts it off, do you stay dead?" Duncan nodded. Suzanne voiced her opinion "It almost seems like a witch trial here. Look there's nothing in science to explain what Duncan is. He's told us and I'm pretty sure that he's not an alien or a clone. That leaves just his explanation, unless anybody has another explanation to offer." Nobody had any response to that. "OK," Harrison began, "I'm willing to believe you, Duncan. So what were you doing in that warehouse. Why were you hunting that old alien." Duncan scowled. "I was not hunting an alien. I was hunting an Immortal. I found him and I took his head." Harrison scowled right back. "The remains we found there were alien, decapitated but alien." "Waitaminute. I know what an Immortal is and John Martan was one. I took his head and received his Quickening ... though ..." "Though what, Duncan?" Harrsion pressed. "Well, it was the strangest Quickening I ever received. I didn't feel right. It was like their were two life forces that I was absorbing. And then the body dissolved." Harrison snapped his fingers. "You say it was an Immortal. I say it was an alien. What if it were really both?" Kincaid looked upon from studying the katana. "What do you mean, Harrison?" "It all fits, Kincaid. An alien took over an Immortal. Remember what we saw on the videotape. The alien looked perfectly healthy - no radiation burns. Running around with a sword. It's probably why he was still around. They executed him, but the host body wouldn't die." "You're just speculating, Harrison," Kincaid said. "Host body? Radiation burns? What are your talking about?" Duncan was not grasping the connection that Harrison was describing. "OK, Duncan, since you told us about Immortals, we'll tell you about the aliens." Harrison described everything that the team had uncovered during their years of battling against the aliens - the invasion of 1953, the radio broadcast of 1938, the true home planet of the aliens, the new wave of aliens, etc. Duncan took a few moments to digest it all. "OK, your theory makes sense to me, Harrison. It would explain some of the crazy images I have in my head now. I'm sure they came from Martan or whatever it was inside of him." Debi came back with the phone book. "Yep, he's listed. He's also listed as the proprietor of an antiques store along with a 'Tessa Noel.' " "Tessa." It brought a lump to Duncan's throat. He missed her terribly, probably more than any other person he had ever cared about in his Immortal life. "Thanks, Debi," Harrison said. Suzanne motioned for Debi to sit down by her and listen to the discussion. Suzanne whispered what had happened so far to her. "Umm, can I ask a question, Harrison?" Debi asked. Suzanne frowned but Harrison smiled. "Sure, Debi." "If you're Immortal and all, Duncan, and were around back then all grown-up, do you remember what happened in 1953 or 1938?" Duncan searched his memories and could find nothing. "I don't remember anything about an alien invasion. I don't remember the radio broadcast, either." "Interesting." Harrison commented. "It seems that most people don't remember the invasions. We've never been able to figure out exactly why, but we figure the aliens had something to do with it." "So, do you believe me now. Can you untie me?" Harrison looked to Kincaid. Kincaid nodded but not happily. "Sure, have you out in a second." Harrison worked on the knots and quickly had them undone. Duncan got up and rubbed his wrists, trying to restore the circulation. "Well, as someone who's seen history as it happened, I'm sure we all have a lot of question for you. Let me ask the first ... " Whatever Harrison was saying did not even register with Duncan. A strong feeling washed over him - it was another Immortal. Harrison wove his hand in front of Duncan's face. "Hello? MacLeod. Are you all right." Duncan snapped out his momentary reverie. "Somebody's out there." Kincaid sneered. "Of course there are people out there, but none of them can get in here." "No, I mean, a somebody like me, an Immortal." "Let's see what the exterior video cameras show." Harrison went over to the control board and played with a number of dials. An assorted of images appeared on the numerous video screens. Harrison pushed a few buttons and programmed the cameras to scan. Everyone studied the screens. "Which one is it, Duncan?" Debi asked. "I can't tell, not from a video image. I'll have to go out there. Suddenly, Suzanne pushed Harrison aside and froze camera #5 on a trio of men right outside the entrance to the base. Two men in what appeared to be maintenance worker uniforms were escorting a third similarly clothed man. Suzanne punched in some more buttons and focused in on the third man. "It's Uncle Hank! Harrison, it's General Wilson!" Suzanne's exclamation startled everybody. Harrison explained to Duncan that they had given up hope for General Wilson a long time ago. However, there was no doubt about what was appearing on the screen. It was definitely General Wilson - in the flesh, if not the blood. Kincaid looked closer at the men escorting Wilson. "Those look like aliens to me." He put down the katana and picked up his pistol. "Wilson's got some things to answer for. I'm going out." Duncan wondered about the possibility of a coincidence - that his sensing of an Immortal and the re-appearance of the long-lost comrade were unrelated. Experience told Duncan better. "I'll go to." "Whatever." Kincaid strapped on some extra ammunition. He turned around. "The rest of you, stay here." Harrison and the others grudgingly agreed. Duncan grabbed the katana and put it back in his coat. He hurried after Kincaid. =========================================================================