A Different Ninosa

“What’s a curfew?” Nathaniel asks. He and his crew are surrounded by four uniformed Ninos as he walks the streets at night.

“Are you stupid? Nobody is allowed outdoors after sunset,” the first Nino says.

“You’re outdoors,” Fred says.

“We’re enforcing the law under the authority of the scheduling department,” the Nino says.

“I’ve never heard of that department,” Nathaniel says.

“I don’t care! You’ll all have to be arrested!” the Nino declares.

“You can’t do that; you’ll be interfering with an ongoing investigation by the…uh…exploration department,” Nathaniel says.

“There’s no such thing!” the Nino yells.

“There’s no such thing as a scheduling department,” Nathaniel insists.

“Yes there is,” the Nino insists.

Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill are jailed for one day and then let go. Planet Ninosa is very different than they remember. People stand closer, talk louder, and sometimes all talk at once. The constitution is different. The food is different. Ninos eat only plain butter grits now. Nathaniel likes grits, but he gets tired of it quickly. Even stranger, everything seems to be alive. Appliances, benches, and waste baskets have eyes and voices. They start up conversations. “Hey, do you have any grits?” a sidewalk bench grumbles when Nathaniel sits on it.

“No, not with me,” Nathaniel says.

“I want some grits,” the bench says.

Even the clouds are different. They float just above the rooftops and never get bigger than a double-decker bus. A rainbow bridges two skyscrapers together, but its colors are out of order. “That rainbow is not anatomically correct,” Nathaniel declares.

Back on board the ship where he cannot be overheard, Haticat complains. “I can’t stand it here. It’s too noisy. What happened to Ninosa?”

“I don’t understand it. It’s only been one year since the last time we lived here. It shouldn’t have changed that much,” Doctor Bill says.

“That’s why I borrowed these.” Nathaniel drops four history books onto the covers. They each take one and start reading. Twenty years ago, at the end of the boy-girl war, another war broke out between the liquid races and the solid races. The Blobs won and came to dominate the Galaxy. On several planets, including Ninosa, the native life was completely destroyed. Feeling regret for their actions, the Blobs took on the forms of those they had killed and adopted their cultures within the limits of their biology so that something of them would survive into the future.

“That’s not what happened!” Fred exclaims.

“Well, that’s certainly not history as I remember it,” Haticat says.

“Is it possible we changed history again – this time without realizing it?” Doctor Bill asks.

“No matter who changed it, we need to find out exactly when and where the timeline started to diverge so we can change it back,” Nathaniel says. “Power up the time thingy!”

“Yes, Captain,” Fred answers, hurrying over the side of the bed to the safety switch.

“Halt! No one is going anywhere until I get approval from the bureaucracy.” One of the large pillows on the bed suddenly sprouts four arms, each pointing a ray gun at one of them. Three dozen eyes swarm around its edge from its underside to the top.

The four explorers raise their arms in surrender. “How did you get through our force field?” Nathaniel asks.

He never gets an answer. Instead, they are taken to a large green building in the capitol city and interrogated separately. Being the only known living Nino, the Blobs study Nathaniel in detail, taking blood samples and x-rays. He learns that the Blobs use only two eyes when in Humanoid mode, hiding the extras under their clothing. He also learns that one of the key battles early in the war with the Ninos was won with the help of the Sulfur Amoebas, made strong because of their strategic colony world Kittledeediveytoo, hard to find by solid life since they call it Lululululu. Sulphur Amoebas are very tiny and thus able to infiltrate behind enemy lines, hitching rides on boots if needed.

Nathaniel is in prison for several days before two of his captors come to meet with him secretly. “Give us a moment alone,” the first one says. Nathaniel’s bed walks away, morphing to squeeze between the bars.

“What do you want?” Nathaniel asks.

“We want to help you,” the first Blob answers.

“We all agree that we went too far in the war. That’s why we copied your race’s form. If you really have a time machine, you could prevent all this from ever happening,” the second Blob says.

“I could,” Nathaniel says.

“We’ll get you out if you take us with you,” the first Blob offers.

“So you can play the stock market?” Nathaniel says with a slight smile.

There is a long pause. “Perhaps,” the first Blob admits.

“Okay, deal, but my crew comes too,” Nathaniel says.

“We’ll get them out,” the first Blob promises.

A few falsified orders and a long van trip later, and Nathaniel is back in bed. After running some tests to ensure that his friends are the real Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill, he powers up the time machine. They land in a volcanic wasteland. Next to their landing site is another bed just like theirs. Nathaniel walks over to it and begins fiddling with the controls. “By sabotaging my earlier navigation system, I will ensure that I never land on Kittledeediveytoo and hopefully the Sulfur Amoebas will be forced to abandon the colony, erasing the Blobs’ advantage in the war.”

“Good. Then galactic biodiversity will be restored,” the second Blob declares.

“So it’s that simple?” the first Blob asks.

“Absolutely,” Nathaniel answers, walking back to his current bed. The Blobs follow.

“Now you can take us to Candy,” the first Blob says.

“Why? What for?” the second Blob asks.

“Blobs have always been more versatile and more tolerant of different forms. With the time machine we could conquer and replace the beings of every planet early in history. Then there would be no wars, and biodiversity and cultural diversity would be maintained,” the first Blob explains.

“But it wouldn’t be real,” the second Blob objects.

“How would you know the difference? Besides, this is our chance to be the kings of time,” the first Blob says.

“Well, we could change anything we don’t like, and change it again if it goes wrong,” the second Blob thinks out loud.

“That’s right, and we’ll start with the most important planets,” the first Blob says. Turning to Nathaniel, he adds, “Take us to Candy.”

“You’re standing on it,” Nathaniel says.

“What? This place is nothing like Candy,” the first Blob replies.

“Not yet, it isn’t. This is prehistoric Candy. Check for yourself.” Nathaniel throws the Blob a scanner.

The Blob pans around, checking for radioisotopes and geomagnetic markers. “Wait, what can I scan for that wouldn’t have changed?” He turns just in time to see Nathaniel back against his bed and press a button on the control pillow. He runs toward him but bounces off the force field. Then the ship vanishes.

“Hey!” the second Blob yells.

The first Blob turns and runs toward the younger bed still behind him. He bounces off its force field, too. He throws the scanner and it also bounces off. “Ugh!”

Speeding through time, Doctor Bill asks, “What happens now?”

“Not much. If he wants to go ahead with his plan of replacement, he’s in the right place to do it,” Nathaniel states.

“And now we we’re the kings of time,” declares Haticat.

“And we always will be,” adds Fred.

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