Terminus Part I: The Journey There (Draft)

Chapter 44: Andy the Celestial Turtle

 The large group finished eating dinner, and went off into separate groups. James and Bluebeard followed Dale into the living room to watch TV. Joneas and Persimmon went with Franz to the excavation site in Andy's left ear. Cameron and Milangelo accepted Wester's offer to listen to spider-web. Patricia, Karnilla, and Cathy decided to hang out with Holly. Brandon and Crock followed Gere into the backyard.

James turned on the TV and there was some local news.

...the pizza had been burned thirty-two times too many.

"What the–?" asked James.

"It's the end of some fluff piece. Not that unusual," said Dale.

And now, for our top story today, the police made nine arrests relating to the Devolvers, an international gang of thugs selling turtle shell fragments on the black market.

"It's kinda messed up what they're doing," said Bluebeard. "This turtle is not dead like it was in our world."

"What is the story of this turtle?" asked James.

"Long ago, there were turtles that could swim through space, and were the size of planets. But when stars began forming, the gravity of such large objects pulled these creatures into orbit around them, killing them fairly quickly. Over time, life would evolve on these turtle's shells... they were known as turtle-shell planets. Even more time would pass, and all the planets would be destroyed by an ancient race, determined to see the destruction of all life in the universe."

"So, why is it here in Limbo?"

"Things that never were, they come to be here. There are probably numerous alternate versions of this same planet deeper into the dimension."

"How do you know so much?"

"With my command of time, all of history is at my fingertips. I can learn about any event in an instant."

We will be right back after the break.

"Oh great, alien advertisements," said James sarcastically.

"Actually, it's just a minute of cacophonous noise. They had studies that showed it made no difference to viewer retention and decided it was preferable to increased corporatism."

"Do you perhaps know why I recognise that Phe Tyler?"

"Our world has an alternate version of him, a man who was destroyed and rebuilt in order to become Phenos, Seeker of Discord. It's a tragedy that it drove him insane, and he met his end when you guys stopped him."

"You really seem to know everything."

"Nope, only what is expedient at any given moment. Time is relative, and I can't say what will be useful in the future, only what will be useful for the present. The past, well, I can't change the past. If I could, I'd have done it by now. I wouldn't have to be a pirate. But enough about me, let's watch some weird alien shows."

Franz had a late commitment: as part of his research project, he was to supervise the mining of the turtle wax that he had discovered.

"It was sheer accident that I discovered this stuff, but I'm telling you, turtle wax could revolutionise the Kelukian way of life. This stuff is packed with energy, it is durable yet bio-degradable, and there are still other things we do not yet understand about it!" said Franz.

"It is quite something," said Joneas.

"Yeah, good luck with your technological revolution," said Persimmon. "I'm still just processing that we're inside a giant turtle's ear right now."