Johnny White And the Emperor

OH GREAT EMPEROR, I HAVE NEWS THAT IS TROUBLING," said the underling.

Emperor Goldstein, set his golden goblet down, and scowled his disapproval. These royal banquets in the Great Hall were no longer exciting. He had tried to spice things up by adding live entertainment, such as having executions performed, and recently he had even added creative forms of torture. But none of it made things interesting. And now this boring interruption.

He puzzled to himself about what could possibly be troubling, when all the world owed him its allegiance. Not a square millimeter of land or sea was free of his domination. No soldier on the planet served any other leader, and those who served him dominated every land. If disaster hit some part of the planet and thousands or even millions died as a result, what was that to him? His power was secure. There could be nothing truly troubling.

"What? Did the chef burn one of the courses for the banquet?"

"No, oh Mighty One," and the underling had his eyes pointed firmly at the ground as he spoke. "Someone has launched a rocket from the sea."

"A rocket? From the sea?" The emperor let his golden fork slip from his hand, and it chipped a gilded piece from the edge of his plate, as his cup toppled and bled its red contents into the silken tablecloth.

"Is it headed this way?" It is only natural that a tyrant should worry about his personal safety, since he is the only one who would. But his fear was quickly put to rest.

"No, my Emperor, the rocket appears to be headed out into space."

"Surely you have been drinking moron! This is not possible. Who could do this? We would know of such activity beforehand. I will have your head for disturbing the royal peace!"

"Your power is above all who live, oh Mighty One, and none will deny this. I am only bringing news of what has happened, and it is not of my invention Great One," whined the underling in fear for his miserable life.

"Captain of the guard! Take this lying dog to the furnace and vaporize him."

A bearer of bad tidings deserved to suffer, and these were bad tidings indeed. As the underling was dragged off wailing his pleas for mercy, the Emperor had already forgotten him, and was deep in thought. What could this mean?

"Summon the Counsel of the Elders of Zion." As he spoke, the Emperor was already on his feet, leaving the rest of his meal untouched, and he headed for the counsel chamber. This was very upsetting news indeed.

Deep inside a cavern, for many years, there was a home to the last vestige of the White race, the organization called: Odysseus.

Odysseus was formed as a last ditch effort to save the people of the White race from the attack that had been carried on against them for centuries. From a time when the White race was nearly a third of the earth's population, by the late 20th century it was down to 8% of the people of earth. As each year went by, that number shrunk, as fewer and fewer White babies were born and more and more non-White babies were coming into existence. It was a one-way trip to extinction, and all governments on earth made it illegal for Whites to separate themselves away from other races. Under these conditions, it would be just a short matter of time before there would be no more White people left.

Something had to be done, and Odysseus was the answer to the problem. Odysseus started by finding a safe haven for White people to live, and then it slowly gathered in more and more of them to live in safety away from the attacks of those who hate White people.

Then, Odysseus branched out into the sciences. As it turned out, more and more of the brilliant White scientists began to realize the road that we were on led only to extinction, and they were willing to jump in and help Odysseus on is path to salvation. If the White race were to survive, it would be through the efforts of this organization.

The day finally came when a break from this planet was possible, and every resource Odysseus had was poured into that project. And the spaceship Destiny was the result. Today the ship is the oasis and salvation of the White race as it searches for a future where White people can thrive and grow, without having other races corrupt their genes and their culture.

The very idea of merely separating from other races was despised early on, even called White Supremacism, and that goes a long ways towards explaining what the evil goals were of the political groups in charge of the world by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. They aimed to destroy White people forever. Fortunately, Odysseus had other ideas and acted upon them.

In Odysseus' cavern, two men sat at a console, only there weren't two men really.

"Bolts," asked Johnny, "How many are left to send?" All the lights on his console were showing green and things had been going almost too well. "I'll be glad when we have them all on their way and we can finally close the door behind us for good."

"We have 24 humans left in the waiting area, and that makes 25 including you," said Bolts. The voice sounded perfectly human in every way. Inflection, pronunciation, and even a slight southern accent, all added together to fool the ear into thinking this was a man and not a machine that was speaking.

Through the window they could both see the platform where the Portal performed its magic. A person would step up on the platform, and then he would be gone, as if he had never been there.

"Great! We're almost there," said Johnny.

Johnny White knew the Portal worked, because he had used it to save 100 White women from a terrible fate. (See Johnny White and the Dark Slavers.) Still the invention of the brilliant Rick Johnston was something that seemed unnatural. Even the other great scientists in the group felt Johnston was a notch above.

Today's school books boil it down to this:

The Portal is based upon multi-demential motion. By focusing energy upon a set of points in one location, a hole can be created in space and time that will allow matter to move from one point in time and space to another point in time and space. By varying the application of power at the transmission point the destination point can be varied in time and space, precisely.

"It is very fortunate for us that Dr. Johnston was working with Odysseus rather than the Zion Empire," said Bolts.

"You can say that again."

Bolts was sophisticated enough to realize that no repetition was actually being asked for.

"It seems a lot longer than five days ago that Destiny took off." said Johnny.

Another man had just disappeared. For more than 48 hours there were only men left to send. All of the women and children were sent first, after a couple of men were sent along to check things out for safety.

Destiny had gone up without a single human onboard, but over one thousand people had been sent up to the ship in the time since.

"I have found the human perception of time to be difficult to understand. Time passes uniformly. Yet you say it passes quickly sometimes, and slowly at other times," replied Bolts.

"Your internal clock is a lot better than ours my friend," said Johnny.

There went another guy to the ship.

Destiny, whose launching had given the Emperor such heartburn, had been built to not only travel long distances, but it was designed to get into space, even with a hostile government blocking its way. No rocket ever designed had been able to reach space as quickly as this one had. Two great minds had combined their genius to enhance this design.

Dr. Robert Oliver created a drive motor that was based upon fusion with the equivalent force of a nuclear bomb pushing it forward. It was well ahead of anything ever built before.

But it was Dr. Wallace Pierce, the wizard of fields of force, who created the Pierce Shield, which cleared the way by removing the atmosphere's friction as an obstacle. The shield used a revolutionary ionizing field running well ahead of the ship, and it polarize all of the atoms in the atmosphere ahead. When the main electromagnetic force field surrounding the hull of the ship encountered these ions, it deflected them out of the way, leaving a path that operated very nearly like a vacuum. So, when flying at these incredible speeds, the atmosphere couldn't stop the ship. As a result, Destiny moved many times faster than any previously launched vehicle.

Destiny left the earth like a shot, and since the ship was controlled entirely by robots, G-Forces were of little consequence as it climbed into space.

"Destiny, this is White. Come in." Johnny was speaking into the headset, connected to the most sophisticated communications equipment on the planet. Pinpoint laser beams were modulated with a sweeping carrier wave and encrypted in ways that only Dr. Glenn Duke could have possibly envisioned. The set on the other end had to match frequency as well as decoding the infinitely complex encryption algorithm. Thus it was physically unlikely that anyone could possibly intercept a transmission, and nearly impossible that they could do anything with it even if they did.

"Go ahead White."

"We are down to two dozen eggs and will shortly move to housekeeping. I estimate that housekeeping will commence in 30 minutes." Johnny looked at his watch.

"Bolts, are the charges set at all the entry ways?" Johnny turned to look at the machine that he could never really view as a mere mechanism. Okay, he had a face that was obviously not human, and he walked in a way that no human could have duplicated, but that didn't matter. He had a mind that was friendly and on occasion brilliant.

"All charges are set, should they be needed." Bolts sounded worried, and that added to the human feel he emitted.

"It is going to be okay, buddy," Johnny said more to himself than Bolts.

"Of course Johnny." The reply sounded sincere.

All at once an alarm sounded. Someone was at one of the cave entrances, and trying to get in!

Johnny looked up from his console and through the window. Other than appearing deserted it was the same as it had been for more than a decade. Beyond the Portal platform, the bright artificial light shone down over a small town, complete with streets, stores and houses. It had been home for so long that he was hit, not for the first time, with disbelief that it would all be gone soon. And if the intruders were successful, sooner than even he had expected.

Looking back at the console he saw a red light flashing at the south portal. After waiting a bit to give them time to come in closer, he pushed a button, and heard a small distant rumble.

"Yo, Sarge, what is that over there?" The question was asked by Johnson, a Black private who was pointing to a shadowy depression in the rock wall.

"I don't know. Let's go check it out," replied Sanchez his Mestizo superior.

The group of soldiers had been deployed to this area by their the Zion Empire section head, and were searching for anything out of the ordinary.

The Zion Empire was out of its mind with worry, because it had yet to trace the source of that launch. The first thing that was checked was the ocean bottom. Subs were dispatched and scanning equipment, but nothing was found.

That left only one possibility: the ship had been built somewhere else and moved to the sea and launched, and it was far too large to have been carried on a submarine. Where did that ship come from?

The entire world was being scanned in every way the resourceful government could think of. There was something about this mountain terrain that had drawn attention to it. Reviewing old satellite images there seemed to be more traffic around here than the lack of population would have indicated. It was nothing definite, but it just felt wrong. So, here they were.

Picking their way over the rough ground they made their way over to the opening, for that is clearly what they were looking at.

"What do you think about that Sarge?" Asked Johnson.

Sanchez looked at the ground leading up to the opening and he noted a clear path, which had been used fairly recently. His eye caught a glimmer from something, and he bent over and picked up a shell casing.

This was significant! No private citizen was allowed to own guns on this planet. There would be no authorized target practice anywhere but on a military base. As soon as they checked out this opening, he was going to call this in. He might even get a promotion out of it.

"Hey, Johnson, can you see anything inside the cave?"

"Naw, it's too dark."

"Come on you guys, lets go check this cave out," shouted Sanchez to the rest of the soldiers of the group.

"Johnson, get up there and check if it goes any deeper." He continued.

Johnson smiled and nodded and set off.

"Hey Sarge," he yelled a few moments later. "There is a door here and it is locked."

The group of soldiers moved up to the door quickly to have a look at it. There had been no hostile action on the planet towards the military forces in generations. The military often wiped out people who were deemed subversive by the Zion Empire, but the people were unarmed and unable to put up any real resistance.

So, this group was not expecting any sort of danger, and when the explosion went off, killing them, and bringing a landslide down over the former entryway, they were completely taken by surprise. Sergeant Sanchez never got the chance to report the discovered door.

"Colonel, there was an explosion near Sanchez's group!" said lieutenant Chang, who served as his aid.

"Call Sanchez," replied Lieutenant Colonel Parker, whose freckled mulatto face wore a scowl. Sanchez shouldn't be using explosives on this mission, unless he called in for orders first.

"I can't raise him Sir," called out the communications specialist, between vain attempts to contact the late sergeant.

"Air support, do a fly by on…Chang what were Sanchez's last coordinants?" He turned to the Asian for the info.

"He was at G7 in Quadrant 3 of Section 12."

The colonel passed along the location and waited to see what the flyby would show.

"Keep trying to get Sanchez. What is that guy up to?"

"Yes sir!" Came the reply. However, the rhetorical question remained unanswered.

Johnny knew that time was now getting short. Setting off the charge would no doubt delay the small force that had approached the entryway, but at the same time, it would surely draw the attention of the main force in the area.

"How are the transfers coming?" He asked his robot friend. "Are they all through yet?"

"There are three remaining, besides yourself." Bolts appeared to be relaxing as he sat at his console, but his computerized brain was hard at work, checking every sensor, and running scenario drills over. If an entryway protective system failed and the soldiers should gain entry, what would be the most efficient response?

"Well, that means we have about 5 minutes before we can do the final clean up," said Johnny. "It looks like everything is in place. I hope it goes well."

Just then a rockslide rolled down the far wall of the cavern. Something big had hit the mountain. The main push was on from outside.

The ground shook as another blast hit and rock was now covering the houses where Johnny, and his wife Karen had lived, along with their neighbors. The wall of the cavern was about to be breached.

"All the transportees, except for you, are now gone," said Bolts with just the right amount of emotion. There was even that hint buried in there that Johnny better get a move on.

Johnny set the timer for 10 minutes on his console and pushed the activate button. That was all he had to do. In 10 minutes this cave and the mountain enclosing it, along with all the surrounding desert within a 10-mile radius, would become thousands of degrees hotter, and leave behind a shiny glass residue.

"We are picking up infrared indications from inside that mountain Sir," yelled the communications man.

The word had come back from the flyby that Sanchez and his group were neutralized by the unexpected explosion. This was unheard of. The army gave out casualties, it didn't receive them. Someone was going to pay in a very big way.

"Artillery, the mountain has a chamber inside. Punch a hole into that chamber immediately!"

Lieutenant Colonel Parker began to worry about his career. The Emperor was not a forgiving man, and if this didn't go well, Parker just might come to the end of his career very soon. Then he remembered that no one leaves the army before retirement, at least alive. He noticed that his brow was dripping.

The sound of an artillery shell hitting its mark reverberated and reminded Parker that he had the might of the entire Empire behind him, and his nerves quieted down. The second shell hit and the word came back it was nearly into the chamber. It was going to be all right.

"Destiny, this is White. Come in." Johnny said.

"Go ahead White."

"Have set housekeeping to commence in 9 minutes and 15 seconds. Am preparing my egress."

"Very well. Proceed with haste. You have drawn a lot of attention."

"Will do. Out!"

Johnny dropped the mike and headed for the door as the next shell hit. The section of wall on the far side of the cavern gave way and daylight hit what was left of the town for the very first time.

Johnny stumbled against the wall, and Bolts reached out his hand to help.

"Thanks Bolts!" Johnny said. He regained his stride and was on the way to the Portal. He still had five and a half minutes before show time, and his fingers quickly set up the Portal for his exit.

Just then another shell hit and the console went dead. Suddenly Johnny realized that he was probably never going to see his dear Karen again. It was his only regret, because he knew the rest of his people were safely in space and they would survive, even if he didn't.

"Charge!" Cried Colonel Parker. He had the tanks and heavily armored personnel carriers moving rapidly towards the hole in the side of the mountain. The Emperor was going to be happy to see this band of rebels, whoever they were, destroyed utterly. Perhaps it would be General Parker soon. He could very much live with that.

"Johnny," yelled Bolts. "The power has been lost to the unit. It appears the barrage has tripped the protection circuit and cut the power. I will go to the station, cut the lines to the damaged part of town, and restore power to this platform."

"But Bolts, you won't make it back in time," said Johnny.

"That is okay, I am a robot," replied Bolts.

"Please take this to Dr. MacKuen," Bolts continued, handing Johnny a small plastic black box. "He'll know what to do with it."

If he could do it, Johnny would make sure to grant his soon to be dead friend's last request.

There were no more shells sent in through the opening, but Johnny could hear the military vehicles growing much louder very quickly. They were running at top speed on the attack. All he could do was wait and hope that Bolts could give him power.

Suddenly the console came back to life. The info he had typed in previously was still in memory, and all he had to do was push the button and step into the chamber.

He called out, "Goodbye Bolts, and thank you!" He had no way of knowing if Bolts heard him.

The flash was impressive, even from space. From down on the ground it happened so quickly that the soldiers never even realized that they were dead. One instant in time they were charging the cave opening, the next, they were separated into billions of individual, unconnected, and highly energetic molecules.

Karen was at the platform when Johnny arrived and she fell into his arms.

"Oh, Johnny," she sighed. "I was so afraid that I would never see you again!"

"I had that very same thought just a few minutes ago," he said, as he felt the warmth of the woman he loved in his arms.

What a wonderful feeling it was, and thanks to Karen, life was very precious indeed.

"Dr. MacKuen," said Johnny as he handed over the black box. "Bolts asked me to give you this when I got back. It was his last request, and he saved my life. So, I wanted to make sure you got it."

"Hey, this is very good!" Replied Dr. MacKuen. "Just a moment."

The doctor set off into the next room and when he returned he was being followed by a robot. The robot was the same model as Bolts has been, but it had a different facial design and its pseudo-clothes were of a different style. It still made Johnny wince to think about Bolts being killed by the blast that could have taken Johnny as well.

"Hi Johnny!" said the robot. He may not have looked like Bolts, but he sure sounded like him.

"Bolts?"

"Yes sir! Thanks for bringing me along!" Said Bolts.

"The only thing he would be missing," said Doctor MacKuen. "Would be the memory of actually restoring the power to your panel and explosion. Everything else was in the backup memory module that he handed over to you at the platform."

Destiny now turned towards space, and the engines fired, and the future was their destination.