The Order of The Copper Planet

Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill explore an airless, cave-riddled planet. Pockets of oxygen and magnesium gas sometimes combine underground, causing large explosions. “Why did you pick such a dangerous planet to park on while we repair the ship?” Haticat asks.

“So I know we won’t be disturbed. No one else would be stupid enough to come here,” Nathaniel answers.

“I don’t know about that. There are lots of stupid people in the galaxy,” Haticat comments.

“Oh, right, but those people are too stupid to be a threat. They won’t have Doctor Bill scanning the ground for brewing explosions,” Nathaniel counters.

Fred throws down a wrench. He has been working on the engines. “These bolts are driving me mad!”

“Take a break. I want to explore a bit anyways,” Nathaniel says.

The four explorers walk up and down over the cracked boulders for over a kilometer. There isn’t much to see. The hot, yellow dwarf star beats down on them, taxing their suits’ cooling capabilities. Suddenly, four other suited figures leap out from behind porous boulders, surrounding them. They carry heavy guns with quadruple barrels. One touches a button on his helmet to switch frequencies. “Come with us.”

They are disarmed and taken into an underground fortress where the gunmen finally remove their helmets. They are Human. That means the air is breathable for Ninos and Stuffians, too. The explorers remove their helmets.

Then they are brought into a large room before three stemmed glasses about two meters tall. Inside each is a writhing mass of slimy worms – or perhaps spaghetti. However, the meatballs in this spaghetti are eyes. “This is not the Dromaeosaur. This is a Nino. Why have you brought him here?” one of the pasta piles speaks in a buzzing voice. Nathaniel sees now that there are other organs floating in the slime, including lips.

“These four were found near the bed-ship. They might know something,” one of the Humans responds.

“It does seem suspicious. We will question them,” the Pastalien says.

“We were just exploring the planet,” Nathaniel says. “What’s going on?”

“We’re looking for a Dromaeosaur named Nathaniel. We’ve discovered two of his timecraft on this planet, so we know he is hiding nearby. Have you seen him?” the Pastalien asks.

“No,” Nathaniel answers nervously. “Why are you looking for him?”

“He’s a dangerous time criminal who causes quite a bit of trouble for our employer in the future as a Light Tiger, but we have learned that he was once a Dromaeosaur before reincarnation, and therefore much easier to capture. We want him,” the Pastalien replies.

“Yikes, he sounds scary. You think he’s on this planet?” Nathaniel says.

“We’ve found two of his known ships – a Ninosan bed-ship and a Ninosan pool-ship. We think he might be here to exchange them. Perhaps he is buying one and selling the other. How did you arrive here?” the Pastalien asks.

“Me? In my ship,” Nathaniel answers.

“Which one?” the Pastalien asks.

“Oh, I came in the bed-ship, but I didn’t buy it from a Dromaeosaur,” Nathaniel says.

“Then that means he must buy it from you,” the Pastalien responds.

“Maybe he steals it,” a second Pastalien suggests.

“Maybe,” the first Pastalien says. “Who did you buy your ship from?”

Nathaniel continues to be evasive, stringing along his interrogators with half-truths and hard-to-verify facts. He and his crew are then kept in separate cells so they cannot communicate to each other while the Human servants travel to the future to confirm his story of buying the ship on Ninosa. The explorers manage to keep secret their less obvious weapons, and find an indirect way to communicate, but can’t figure out how to unlock their cells.

The next day, Nathaniel is summoned alone. He is brought before a single glass holding one Pastalien. “You are not telling us the whole truth!”

“What do you mean?” Nathaniel asks.

“We discovered that you traded in a cross-ship for the bed-ship. This cross-ship also belonged to Nathaniel. We know because we have his travel journal from the future, detailing every landing in historical order. You have some connection to the Dinosaur. Don’t tell me it’s a coincidence,” the Pastalien says.

“Oh,” Nathaniel says. He begins to regret keeping a written, uncoded journal, but he did not want to forget everything again as he did on Bingo. At least the aliens didn’t know the order he had owned the ships in. He had been inserting paper into the journal as he went so that it aligned with chronological history rather than his subjective life. “I did get the cross-ship from a Dromaeosaur. I didn’t mention him before because he told me his name was Franklin.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense,” the Pastalien replies.

“Who is your employer and why do they want Nathaniel so badly?” Nathaniel asks.

“They call themselves The Order of The Copper Planet. They are not people you should ever cross or say no to. They have spies everywhere and everywhen. They imprisoned me and my two comrades in these glass containers, but promised to let us out if we completed our mission. We don’t know why they hate him so much except that he did something that changed their futures,” it answers.

Further conversation reveals that the OCP leaders are present objectivists, who believe that the time they originate from is the only real time, the future having not happened yet and the past having already happened. Unlike the BTJ, they care nothing about changing the past, but they do attempt to protect their future, which they have planned out in great detail.

It is also revealed that the Pastaliens were birthed into their containers with no knowledge of a previous life. Nathaniel suspects that the glass is what keeps them together and that they would unravel without it. “I don’t think the Order will be able to deliver what it promised you,” he says.

Soon, he is back in his cell. He finally figures out how to escape. He sneaks around the complex, looking for his crew, but cannot find them. He doesn’t want to leave them behind, so he sneaks back into his cell before his next check-in.

Finally, he is summoned again. He is brought before all three Pastaliens. “One of you is lying,” the first declares.

“You say that the cross-ship was bought from Nathaniel, the tall Gruezhling says that you built the cross-ship yourself, the pudgy one says that the cross-ship was bought on Ninosa, and the tiny one claims not to remember,” the second Pastalien declares.

“Well, that makes sense. We all picked up a memory-erasing pathogen from planet Bingo,” Nathaniel says.

“How do you explain the inconsistencies?” the second Pastalien asks.

“Simple, we built it together – with Nathaniel – on Ninosa with parts we bought there. It was a build-your-own-ship kit. So, we’re all telling the truth,” Nathaniel answers.

“Who did you buy the kit from?” the third Pastalien asks.

“Um…Wow, that memory germ really got me,” Nathaniel says.

“Where is Nathaniel?” the second Pastalien demands.

“We believe you know where Nathaniel is hiding,” the third Pastalien says.

“No.” Nathaniel shakes his head.

“Tell us!” the second Pastalien demands.

“Fine,” Nathaniel says. “I don’t know where he is now, but I might know how to find him.”

“We’re listening,” the first Pastalien says.

“If you’re right that the bed-ship is one of Nathaniel’s ships, and I didn’t get it from him, then he must get it from me. That means he must eventually meet up with it, whether he buys it or steals it. All you have to do is keep watch. He will eventually make a move,” Nathaniel says.

“I guess that makes sense,” the first Pastalien says.

“We’ve been on this world for weeks. Why hasn’t he shown himself yet?” the third Pastalien pipes up.

“He must know you are watching. Your presence here has already interfered with the timeline. He may even attempt to return to his old ship – although there is one way to keep that from happening…” Nathaniel says.

“What?” the second Pastalien asks.

“Give it to me. Since you don’t need me anymore, let my crew and I take Nathaniel’s old pool-ship. Then he will have no choice but to make a move on the bed-ship,” Nathaniel says.

“We will consider your proposal,” the third Pastalien says.

Hours later, Nathaniel is reunited with his crew and escorted to the pool-ship. Wearing spacesuits, they walk through winding caverns of porous rock. Sensors on the wall measure oxygen and magnesium levels. Lamps light their way.

At the same time, the Pastaliens are carried into the bed-ship. Nathaniel transmits his code to open the force field for them. The three stemmed glasses are placed carefully on the bed while their Human servants look around. “Hide the tracker really well so we can return to base and pretend to leave,” an alien says.

One Human sees a ragged green book partially covered by a pillow. “What’s this?”

“That looks just like Nathaniel’s journal,” another Pastalien says.

“Bring us Nathaniel’s journal,” the third alien orders.

Another Human promptly opens a case and takes out a green book. It is more faded and has additional tears, but some tears match. He opens both books to the same page. The writing is identical! “Supernovas!” the first Pastalien swears.

“Stop them! Return the explorers to detention at once!” orders the third Pastalien over the radio.

Having breached their encryption by now, Nathaniel listens in on the whole conversation. He notices the sudden shift in attention from the guards following him. Just as one guard raises his gun, Nathaniel snatches it from his hand and shoots at the hands of the second guard. To his surprise, a warp in space opens up and swallows his hands and gun along with half his body. Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill then duck behind a stalagmite as the other guards open fire. The guns emit microscopic black holes from their guns that accrete matter around them before evaporating.

“Those are implosion bolts. There are no force fields or forms of matter capable of defending against them,” Doctor Bill warns.

“The best defense is a good offense. Run through here.” Nathaniel directs them into a tunnel.

The guards run around both sides of the stalagmite to find the explorers gone and some tiny burr-mines waiting for them. Shaped like tiny stars imbedded in the rock, they launch themselves at nearby motion. Three of the Humans find their spacesuits pierced and losing air. “Go on! Find them!”

The explorers are chased through winding, interconnected tunnels as they jump over deep pits and duck under jagged stalactites. They are almost to the ship. Nathaniel opens his oxygen valve over a wall detector. When the guard rounds the corner, he sees the danger indicator is lit up. He is suspicious, and stops in a moment of indecision. Fred then drops from above and wrestles the gun out of his hands. It goes off and dislodges a rock from above, which crushes the Human while merely hurting Fred. In another cavern, Nathaniel attacks the other Human with his superspeed and electricity. The gun is fried and Nathaniel tosses it down a hole, leaving the Human unconscious but otherwise unharmed.

In the meantime, Haticat and Doctor Bill open the Ninosan pool-ship and step inside. It is a spherical metal shell forty meters across filled partway with water, used for fishing, bathing, and engine coolant. It also holds the antigravity fuel in stable solution. Around the perimeter and connecting several gazebos on stilts are metal walkways. There is an engine station, a laboratory, a bedroom, a bathroom, a dining room, and the bridge. It looks a bit like a jungle gym playground. Six long shafts connect the machinery to the hull where the particle accelerator guns are located. A view of the stars is projected onto the curved ceiling. This was the model of ship the Ninos built after the cross-ship and before the bed-ship.

Nathaniel and Fred run inside and close the door. “Let’s go! Power up the…uh…going fast thing.”

“The engine?” Haticat asks.

As they fly the ship out of the expansive cavern it sits in, the bed-ship is already waiting for them. It opens fire. The force field on the surface of the metal shell deflects the lasers around it, collapsing the caves behind them. The pool-ship returns fire, but it has no effect. Minutes later, they are in space, still chased by the Pastaliens in the bed-ship. They continue to exchange fire, but it soon becomes clear they are outgunned. Fred and Doctor Bill had upgraded the laser pillows too much.

“The spaghetti monsters told us both ships were time ships of Nathaniel’s. Look for time machine controls,” Nathaniel orders.

“I don’t see any on the bridge,” Haticat says.

“What’s that station for?” Fred asks. He points to a large, silver sphere.

“It looks like a force field generator,” Doctor Bill says.

Nathaniel runs down the walkway and looks it over. There are time crystals attached to the inside of the fencing around it. This time machine is tied to the ship’s force field, allowing the temporal effects to be projected around the whole ship without a speed rail. “I found it!” he calls, but the others seem to be moving in slow motion from his perspective. He flips some switches and pulls a lever and the ship disappears from the timestream. Pop!

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