Chapter XIIIc

"Clyde is dead." The SABOT with the bruise marks looked down dejectedly at his leader.

"Pennet?" he asked optimistically.

"Millers."

The leader, chosen by his fellow SABOTs to guide the lesser of their species, looked at the waves crashing on the beach. He inhaled slowly, calmly as he attempted to determine what to do. For some reason he felt more alert, sharper than he had in quite some time. He shrugged his shoulders as he turned around. "Then...it is over."

"My liege, are we giving up?"

"Yes." He inhaled slowly and looked out into space. "What are the mathematicians doing?"

"According to our sources, they are preparing to destroy this planet with an incredibly powerful energy weapon."

The leader chuckled humorlessly. "Maybe we should let them. The loss of one planet is nothing compared to the end of everything." He looked at the ocean again, narrowed his eyes, and sighed. "No. It isn’t right. I am sworn to do my best to protect my people."

"What are you going to do?"

"Get me...the Continuity Gap."

"How are you going to use it? You know that it has to be used in person in order to be effective."

He looked at his loyal, faithful friend. "I know. Get me Tibby."

Random smiled gleefully. "The Earth will be within the window of destruction in thirty seconds."

Nona chuckled cruelly. "Good. Soon...yes, soon the physicists will be no more. And the universe will bow before the power of Pure Math!" Slowly the blue-green planet moved into the crosshairs on the viewscreen of the giant weapon.

As if in the calm before the chaos, the motley group that had assembled under one roof was motionless. It seemed possible to hear individual heartbeats as Tibby cocked his head slightly to the left. "Rrrr?" he thought to no one in particular. "What can I do, oh great SABOT?"

Inside Tibby’s head the voice of the lead slug creature echoed uncomfortably. "Get the scientists to use the transference beam on me."

"Destination?" thought Tibby.

"Pluto."

Clyde looked at everyone in the room. "So, you all thought you could stop destiny? It is so written in the Book of Forever that I am the herald of Nothing!" The room seemed to crackle with the hiss of null energy, the feeling of absolute, all encompassing Void. And fear and desperation clouded the minds of everyone. "And your Savior..." he pointed to a brownish stain on the carpet, "has been heralded into this Nothingness most properly."

Tibby focused. He needed to project himself, his mind, into that of Dr. Anderson. It was difficult and painful to do, but there was no other choice. "Chet?" he thought.

"That’s Igmar!" Dr. Anderson thought, then hesitated. "And what are you doing in my head?"

Tibby winced mentally. "Please, doctor. Don’t think so loud. I need you to matter transport someone from Latitude 16 degrees 13 minutes 41 seconds south, Longitude 51 degrees 34 minutes 27 seconds east to Pluto, centered on largest energy mass."

"All right," thought the doctor, "but you need to distract Pennet."

"I shall try."

Time was molasses as Tibby leaped through the air onto the temporarily shocked Clyde.

"The Earth will be in position in five seconds. Four, three...."

Dr. Anderson ran over to the transporter and quickly typed in the coordinates.

The lead SABOT spoke one last time to his faithful servant. "I’m leaving now...you’re in charge. Protect the others, hide beneath the Earth, remain unseen, and, should you exist to tomorrow, don’t ever forget what happens in the next few minutes."

"But my liege, I’m unqualified, and I..."

"Don’t ever forget," he said as he felt his molecules being disassembled and moved.

Nothing coursed through Tibby’s body. Pure, unadulterated Nothing. As the faithful companion felt himself slowly wink out of existence, he focused his mind and stretched out his hand, extending his claws and digging into Clyde’s face. Clyde was taken aback as some of the Null energy expended on the cat began to affect him. Tibby’s last thoughts were those of mice and men, and how generally it was better to be of the former because mice tend not to get drawn into epic cosmic-scale events.

"Two...one...Earth is within range."

Nona crossed her arms, satisfied. "Excellent. You may fi..."

Suddenly the air crackled as a slug-like being materialized before the room filled with mathematicians. "Stop!" he said, oozing forward and holding out a box. "You are finished."

He pressed a button on the small black box he held.

Nothing happened.

Nona smiled. "You fool." She nodded to Random, who pressed a button on the console. Suddenly, a bucket of sodium chloride materialized above the slug and proceeding to tip upside-down, assaulting the SABOT with its contents.

As the noble slug melted into a pool of dehydrated slime, he gasped to the Goddess of Pure Math. "You are the fool, Nona. The Continuity Gap has assured your demise; you simply don’t know it yet." And with that the faint smell of chocolate quickly vanished from the room.

Nona shook her head. "Delays, delays. Random....destroy the Earth."

"Yes, Goddess." He looked at the crosshairs and saw that nothing was in there. "What the..." were his last words.

Suddenly the remaining nuclear missile crashed into the Mathematicians’ base, killing them all instantly.

Nona’s last thoughts were: I’ve been watching those missiles. There is no way that they could have made it to Pluto since they were launched. Besides, they would have run out of fuel long ago...

Clyde rubbed his face in genuine pain as he attempted to focus his mind.

As he did such, he noticed that the sheeplike people he had been toying with until recently were no longer there.

Rather, they had been replaced with a force that had been assembled, for one reason or another, through the most unlikely and curious ways. As he looked at their faces, from fifteen-year-old boy to fifty-seven year old scientist, he still saw fear, but he also saw determination. And hope. And anger. And power.

They had been replaced by a group that would stop at nothing to stop Nothing from happening.

And, for the first time in his infinite existence, Clyde Pennet felt the tiniest fragment of fear.