From: FNYK09A@prodigy.com (Gary Himes)
Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative
Subject: TO FIGHT THE UNBEATABLE FOE 7/7
Date: 30 Jun 1995 18:31:23 GMT
Message-Id: <3t1ftr$1hl4@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com>

And now, the exciting conclusion of TO FIGHT THE UNBEATABLE FOE...   

  Gushie appeared beside him.  "Hold on, Dr. Beckett!
Ziggy's running a spectroanalysis scan as fast as she can!"
     Dazed, Sam asked "Why?"
     " 'Why'?"  Zoey echoed.  "Why does the wolf prey on the
lamb? Why does the hawk devour the sparrow?  Or the spider
eat the fly?"
     She laughed without warmth.  "Do you want to hear that
I'm being forced to do this, like poor lost Alia no doubt
claimed?  Or maybe you'd believe I'm actually on the side of
the angels, committing acts that are monstrous on the surface
but really working to a greater good?"
     "Just finish this,"  Sam spat.
     Thames appeared beside Zoey, his position mirroring
Gushie's.  "Uh, Zoey,"  he said cautiously.  "Lothos is
spittin' out some really weird readings."
     Zoey ignored him, totally absorbed in her moment of
triumph.  "Why rush things?  Because the truth is I simply
love my work!  There's nothing that sends shivers of pleasure
through me like a day well spent home wrecking, framing
innocent men, or killing noble fools like yourself!"
     "You're sick,"  Sam replied flatly.
     "Only lovesick,"  Zoey teased.  "And while you might not
believe I'm your type, trust me when I say I'm about
to...steal your heart."
     She drew back her arm into a familiar position, and Sam
knew his time had run out.  Her eyes fixed on his chest as
she began the thrust he could not avoid, a thrust that would
rip the beating organ from his chest.
     Time seemed to freeze for Sam Beckett, a well-known
sensation dancing at the edge of his perceptions.  In that
instant an opportunity presented itself to him.  He had once
seen Alia leap out of harm's way, phasing away faster than a
speeding bullet.  As the killing blow descended on him Sam
knew he could do the same, vanish a microsecond before she
connected.  He could still escape!
     The only problem was, Ben Jeffcoate would die in his
place.
     In that fraction of a clock's tick Sam Beckett made a
decision, a choice that came to him as naturally as the air
he breathed.  He would not sacrifice another's life to safe
his own.  The resolution had no time to be expressed in
coherent thought, but was simply felt on an instinctual
level.  With an act of will he banished the quantum energies
and steeled himself for the impact of a superhuman blow.
     His eyes flinched shut.  One last thought raced through
his mind.
     Goodbye, Al.
     He felt a jabbing pain in his chest and waited for
the last sound he knew he would hear in life, Zoey's maniacal
laughter.
     Instead he heard silence, then Gushie saying, "Open your
eyes, sir."
     Sam did as asked and looked down to his chest.  He saw
Zoey's hand bunched up against his shirt, but not penetrating
beyond.  She wore a shocked expression.
     Snatching back her hand Zoey threw another blow at him.
But this time Sam was prepared and caught her wrist before
she connected.  She tried to withdraw it but he held fast,
restraining her without seeming to exert himself.
     "Thames!"  she screamed.  "What the bloody hell is
happening?!"
     Glassy-eyed, the evil hologram swallowed nervously.
"Looks like you...blew a fuse."
     "WHAT?!" she screeched.
     Gushie let out a whoop and practically danced for joy.
"You've got her Dr. Beckett!  Her photonic powers are gone--
she's at your mercy!"
     As if to test the truth of Gushie's statement, Sam gave
Zoey's wrist a violent squeeze.  She shrieked in pain and
cursed him through gritted teeth.
     "Looks like you've just rejoined the human race,"  Sam
said, tighening his grip further.
     "Thames!"  she screamed.  "Have Lothos pull me out of
here!"
     Thames punched his handlink frantically.  "I' tryin'!
All the interference from the radio tower is jamming our
lock!"
     Sam Beckett looked at the woman trying to wiggle free
from his grasp and felt a curious sense of detachment.  He
had never been a violent or hateful person, never gone
looking for fights or excuses to inflict pain on his fellow
man.  And he especially believed that using force on a woman
was reprehensible.
     But every case has its exception, just as every man has
his limits.
     With one sweeping motion Sam backhanded his enemy across
the face and sent her flying to the ground.  When she tried
to rise he planted his right foot on her rump and firmly held
her down.
     "You're not going anywhere,"  Sam threatened her.
"And you're not going to take anyone's family or dreams or
life away ever again!"
     "Thames!"  Zoey shouted, her voice a peal of terror.
     "Give me a minute, okay?!  Dudley Do-Right won't kill
you--he ain't got the balls!"
     Gushie looked from Zoey's sprawled form to Sam's intense
expression.  "Doctor, you're not going to do anything...rash,
are you?"  he said with concern.
     Sam ignored him.  "If you think I couldn't do it, let me
tell you I've had to kill people before,"  he warned.  "Men
AND women.  And keeping you from twisting history any more
than you already have is a good enough reason!"
     "If you do, Andrew Clemens is finished!"  Zoey said
wildly.  "You might be willing to kill me, but are you
willing to sacrifice young, innocent Ultraman to do it?"
     Sam hesitated.  Zoey pulled free from beneath him and
picked herself up roughly from the ground, brushing dirt
away as she rose.
     "Don't try anything,"  Sam warned.
     "I concede this battle to you," Zoey replied bitterly.
"But I know the war will go to me."
     "I wouldn't count on it if I were you."
     The evil leaper fixed him with a pointed gaze.  "Oh, but
I can count on it!  You see darling, I'm from your future--
the twenty-first century to be less than precise.  And while
the exact circumstances are a bit cloudy, one thing about
your fate IS known to me."
     Sam frowned.  "I wouldn't believe you if you said the
sky was blue."
     "No?"  Zoey cocked her head to the left and looked at
him with a bemused expression.  "What happened to the insight
possessed by one whose heart is pure?  You know the truth
when you hear it, and the truth is the history I know records
that Dr. Sam Becket never returned home!"
     "Oh, my goodness!"  Gushie gasped.
     "Let's not get ahead of ourselves,"  Thames warned.
     For a second Sam's features twisted into an expression
of shocked surprise, but he quickly composed himself.
"You're lying!"
     "Believe that if you want, but the future is coming
whether you accept it or not."  The sinister redhead took a
step closer to him.  "But you can avoid it--history, after
all, is our plaything."
     She held out her hand to him.  "Come with me, to my
time, and join our cause!  I can show you pleasures that
you've never dreamed of, teach you the sublime enticements of
blood and fire, give you power unknown even to the gods!"
     Her voice rose to near-hysteria as she finished her
pitch.  "All your service in the name of heaven will only
lead to oblivion, but Lothos can give you the world!"
     He stared at her hand for a moment, his expression
unyeilding.  When he raised his head Sam met Zoey's
questioning, expectant stare with eyes blazing with anger.
     "And all it's going to cost me is my soul?!"  Sam said
with sudden passion.  "Forget it--even if I did believe you,
I learned a long time ago that those who dance with the devil
are bound to get burned!"
     Sam lunged and caught his adversary by the neck,
wrapping both hands around her throat in a choking embrace.
"But if that is my future, I don't see any reason not to
finish you now!" He said furiously.  "Who knows?  Shooting
you didn't hurt Warden Masters;  maybe throttling you won't
harm Andrew Clemens either!"
     Zoey's eyes bugged out as her face reddened from
asphyxiation.  "Now Thames!"  she croaked.  "For God's sake,
pull me out now!"
     Thames, who had been struggling with the handlink, set
his jaw determinely.  "Got the lock!  Here we go--red rover,
red rover, I call Zoey over!"
     To Sam's eyes Zoey's flushed features seemed to turn a
deeper shade of red, an illusion brought on by the presence
of the scarlet light signaling her leap.
     As she began to vanish her features twisted into a
horrible rictus of evil.  "I'll see you in hell Beckett!  And
when you arrive, mention my name--they know me there!"
     Her words seem to echo for a long time after she
disappeared, leaving the unconcious body of Andrew Clemens
sagging in Sam's arms.  He released the boy and lowered him
to the grass, kneeling down to check the teenager for serious
injuries.  Andrew seemed unharmed, apparently only sedated by
those who had been holding him in the future.
     "Were you...were you really going to strangle her?"
Gushie asked, sounding as if he dreaded the answer.
     "Of course not,"  Sam replied matter-of-factly.  "But I
had to force her out of Andrew's body, and scaring her out
seemed the fastest and easiest way."
     "But she was so sure you would kill her,"  the hologram
mused.
    "That's the trouble with people like Zoey: they can't
believe that deep down everyone isn't as corrupt as they
are,"  Sam answered, then let himself breathe a sigh of
relief.

                          * * * * *

     "It was the cellular phone, you see, that gave me the
idea,"  Gushie explained, floating alongside Stephanie
Clemens' station wagon.
     After Zoey leaped Sam found Erin Clemens huddled in the
utility shack, frightened but unhurt.  Using the car phone
from Dr. Jeffcoate's jeep (about the only part of it left
undamaged) Sam had called first the police and then Andrew
and Erin's mother.  With some space cable he found inside he
had managed to tied up Chandler and his cronies until the
juvenile authorities arrived to take them into custody.
     Explanations were harder where Andrew was concerned.
When he woke up his memory of the last few days was blank, so
Sam was able to account for both his amnesia and his lack of
powers by telling him that an overdose of X-rays during an
accident his lab had temporarily robbed him of his powers,
while a blow on the head from Chandler had addled his mind
enough to cause partial memory loss.  Hopefully the story
would also cover the damage to the lab, should Andrew see it
before it was cleaned up.
     Andrew accepted Sam's story without question, saying
something about how every superhero had to suffer through
amnesia eventually.
     Stephanie Clemens pulled up a few minutes after the
police, who were handcuffing and leading the delinquents away
as she arrived.  Tearfully she hugged her son and daughter as
she checked them for injury.  After she was satisfied her
children were unharmed, she turned to Sam and threw her arms
around him also.
     "Oh Ben, thank you!"  she cried.  "If you hadn't come
out here after Andrew something horrible might've happened.
We're so lucky to have a friend like you!"
     Now, as she drove the four of them home, Gushie paced
the car and tried to explain what really happened.  "You see,
I thought about calling Admiral Calavicci in Washington on
his cellular phone when it occurred to me--"
     "Later!  In the lab," Sam hissed out the station wagon's
window.
     "Excuse me?"  Stephanie said.
     "Uh, I was just thinking about cleaning up my lab,"  Sam
covered.
     "Oh."  She drove on.
     When they arrived back at the Clemens house Stephanie
carried a now-sleeping Erin inside.  Sam made to return next
door, a worried-looking Andrew following him.
     "Gee Dr. J, do you think what happened during the last
couple of days will come back to me?" he asked while idly
scratching his head.
     "I wouldn't worry if it didn't,"  Sam assured him.
"Sometimes you have to learn to life with a few holes in your
memory."
     "If you say so,"  the boy replied.  "I just hope my
powers come back before too long."
     "They will."  The scientist laid a fatherly hand on his
young friend's shoulder.  "Andrew, I know I spent a lot of
time telling you not to use your powers, and I hope you
understand I do so to protect you, because you couldn't have
a normal life anymore if 'Ultraman' ever became public
knowledge."
     "What's so great about a normal life?"  Andrew asked,
but not unkindly.
     "But I want you to know I'm proud of the way you've used
your gift,"  Sam continued.  "Might doesn't make right or
automatically guarantee you'll make the correct choices; for
a lot of people, in fact, strength is just an excuse to act
without any conscience at all.  Just remember that Ultraman
will never come up against anything that's tougher than the
challenge of using your powers unselfishly."
     "I never thought you wanted me to ever use my powers at
all," Andrew answered, puzzled at his friend's words.
     "If you must use them, at least use them right, to help
others.  Being superhuman is easy Andrew--all that takes from
you is to wake up in the morning.  But being a hero is
something else.  It takes a special person to put other
people's needs above his own, to constantly sacrifice your
happiness for theirs."  Sam's voice grew passionate.  "If you             
                                    ever stop and tell yourself it's a 
hard life, well, it is.  That's why                                       
     God or fate or whatever chooses only the best for the job.  Just			 
remember,there's nothing more satisfying than knowing you've              
                       made the world a better place."
     Andrew looked at him thoughtfully.  "Is that anything
like 'with great power comes great responsibility'?"
     Sam smiled.  "Same basic idea."
     Andrew returned the smile.  "Thanks Dr. J!  You're a
good mentor, just like Yoda to Luke Skywalker."
     And Sam laughed.  It felt good to laugh again. to feel
safe and alive, to enjoy a short respite of peace after the
terror of the last few hours.  For someone with an existence
as hectic as Sam Beckett's any moment to just relax and catch
his breath was always appreciated.
     The time traveller said his goodbyes to the young
superhero, feeling satisfied at having left him with a little
inspiration for the future.
     Sam made his way to Ben Jeffcoate's basement where he
found Gushie looking at the wreckage sadly.  "I didn't have
the heart to tell Dr. Jeffcoate about the mess.  I hope he
isn't too mad at me:  I was kind of hoping I would see him
again to compare stamp collections."
     "Gushie!"  Sam said, sounding genuinely happy for the first time
on this leap.  "You crazy old hacker you, how did you manage
to neutralize Zoey's powers?"
     "Oh, that,"  Gushie grinned.  "I was explaining earlier
I thought of calling Admiral Calavicci on his cellular phone
when it came to me that cellular transmissions operate by
microwave transmissions, the same principle as downloading
network radio transmissions from satellites."
     "So?"  Sam asked, holding his hands up in supplication.
     "Think, Dr. Beckett, think!  X-rays and microwaves share
many of the same properties.  In fact, the microwave oven was
developed by an X-ray technician who noticed the equipment
had melted a chocolate bar in his pocket.  The difference
between the rays is just a minor matter of wavelength."
     Sam snapped his fingers in sudden understanding.  "So
you figured out that if Zoey got a strong enough dose of
microwaves it might act the same as a dose of X-rays and
blackout her photonic force...that's why you had me run
toward the satellite dish;  when she flew into it..."
     "...her whole system crashed,"  Gushie said brightly.
"Or as Admiral Calavicci might say, the nozzle took a
nosedive."
     "Gushie, I am in awe of you!"  Sam said, shaking his
head in admiration.
     Gushie puffed up proudly, like a fifth grader who had
just won the state spelling bee.  Then his demeanor turned
serious again.
     "Dr. Beckett, what she said...about your future...could
she have been telling the truth?"
     Sam looked away and stared off into space, his lips
pressed together tightly.
     "Dr. Beckett?"
     When the scientist turned back to his observer his
expression was calm.  "I don't know,"  Sam admitted.  "On one
hand she would've said anything at that point to save her own
skin.  On the the other, I've always prided myself on being a
good judge of character, and the way she said it..." He left
the thought hanging in the air.
     "She was probably lying,"  Gushie offerred hopefully.
     Sam favored the hologram with a reassuring smile.  "If
I've learned anything over that last five years, it's that
there's reason to hope in even the worst situations.  It'll
take more than a few threats from an evil leaper to ever make
me give up the good fight."
     Gushie perked up again. "That's the spirit Dr.Beckett!"
     Feeling a wave of affection for the little man who had
wanted his respect so badly and whose quick thinking had
saved his life, Sam told him, "Gushie, why don't you call me
Sam?"
     Gushie beamed.  "I'd like that Doctor...Sam."
     Just then a familiar tingle started to spread up Sam's
body.  "I think it's time," he said.
     "But what about Zoey?"  Gushie asked, reading the
handlink.  "Ziggy can't find any trace of her.  Where could
she have gone?"
     "I don't know," Sam answered. "but I'm sure we'll meet
again.  I could never rest knowing a ruthless criminal was
running loose through time, changing history for the worse."			           
                                    	"In the end it'll have to be her or 
me."
     And then the blaze of the leap took him on to new
challenges.

                          * * * * *

     When the quantum energies faded the leaper was sitting
at a desk in a room filled with similar desks.  There were no
windows and the lighting seemed dim.  One wall was decorated
with a picture of President Bill Clinton and the United
States seal.  On the desk was an open file folder containing
numerous photos of a wheat field marked by strange circular
depressions.
     "What do you think?"  said a cool, professional voice.
Standing next to the desk was a slim man of medium height,
neatly clipped hair setting off a handsome-but-dour face.
Clipped to his jacket pocket was an FBI identification tag
that gave his name as "F. Muldar".
     The leaper shuffled the pictures idly.  "About what?"
     "C'mon Scully,"  Agent Muldar said.  "If the appearance
pattern of these crop circles continues at the same regular
intervals I think we might finally be on the verge of contacting and 
actual alien intelligence!"
						                   	"What a tantalizing possibility,"  Zoey replied,
 and she
smiled her familiar wicked smirk.
    	 The game had begun again.

                             END

	Okay folks, what did you think of it?  I want comments!

						Gary E. Himes FNYK09A@Prodigy.Com