To the Time Machine! - Part 14

"Hot on the Entrails"


Buies Creek
The Past, shortly before the Dark Times


Mystic Advisor Crankshaft put the fresh kill in the tray, slid the tray into the slot, and closed the cover. She closed the latch and pressed the green Scan button.

Crankshaft used to be a mechanic, thus her name, but she soon found she was better at breaking things than fixing things.

Rolling her chair over to her computer, she used a hand-held device called a mouse to interact with the GUI to bring up the mysticism program she needed. The machine hummed and whirred. Slowly, a digital image of the dead animal's entrails appeared on the screen.

Clicking the menu icons, Crankshaft commanded the computer to analyze the scanned sample. A progress bar appeared on the screen as the computer compared the carcass to its database, accessed star charts, and performed complicated calculations beyond most mortal understanding.

"Prediction complete," it finally displayed.

The printer made awful noises, but printed the results. Crankshaft snatched up the printout and held it up for inspection.

"What. Does. It say," said a mysterious figure in the dark.

It was a voice pattern Crankshaft recognized immediately. She looked up at the source of the voice as he stepped into the light. Dressed in a stained lab coat, tie, and gardening gloves, the figure before her looked over his glasses at the Emperor's Mystic Advisor.

"The entrails confirm what our equipment detected," she reported, showing him the document. It was the animal carcass, split open, with important points circled and diagrammed out like blue prints. "The fragile nexus has been adversely affected by temporal activity. We may be able to take advantage of these minor fractures to force open a gateway to another realm."

"What."

"Someone has been time travelling and it has essentially torn the fabric of reality," Crankshaft explained. "We can use these to forcibly create a portal to another realm."

"Specifically. The Verandan realm," the botanist corrected her, speaking in short stops and starts. "I have, No interest, In other realms. Domination, Of the mother realm. Is all that matters. I will not risk. Open warfare, with additional realms. Until we hold Earth. In our clutches."

"Yes, of course," she acquiesced. "I meant no offense."

"Locate. The required. Incantations," he instructed her. "Begin, Your preparations. We must act, before the Dossai, Also discover. What you have. Detected."

"It will be done," Crankshaft replied. "In accordance with the prophecy."

But just as this chapter of our exciting story was about to come to a close, red lights flashed above them!

"What. Is it," the Twisted, Evil Botanist asked.

Crankshaft pulled up the Imperial hub on her monitor. "Security breach," she told him. She pulled up a security camera feed.

"Looks like one of your babies got loose," she said. They watched a giant of a house plant eating a portion of the roof of the fine arts building. "But it's not a baby anymore."