"Interlude - Eden's Apocrypha II"

Summer 2065. 

The lights were going out all over Earth, and they wouldn’t be lit again during our lifetimes. Decades of short-sighted decision-making culminated in melted ice caps, flooded coasts, drought and famine. Resources ran low. Nuclear arsenals were readied. There was no going back.

In his command bunker deep beneath the Presidio in San Francisco, Jackson Mississippi worked tirelessly. The laboratory down here used to belong to Doc Rooney, but Jackson had taken it over several years ago, outfitting it with every scientific instrument known to man. Sleek metal panels covered the walls while green lights blinked rhythmically from the equipment and consoles. He worked here alone, just him and his bleeding-edge AIs. Other humans lacked his vision and couldn’t be trusted.

All except for one.

The blast doors hissed open. The Doc stepped inside.

When the two men saw each other for the first time in a decade, they both broke into grins.

“Doc,” greeted Jackson, remaining at his console at the other side of the laboratory. “You grew a beard!”

The Doc sized up his friend. “And you got old.”

“It’s the presidential stress.” Jackson coughed violently, as if to emphasize. He waved Doc inside. “Come in, come in. There’s much work to be done.”

“No thanks.” The Doc remained standing, hands in jacket pockets.

The lights briefly flickered when a Canadian warhead struck Sausalito on the other side of the strait, plunging their faces into shifting shadows.

“The Secret Service should’ve escorted you in here,” Jackson said, already knowing the answer.

The Doc shook his head. He unveiled his hands, revealing a giant revolver aimed squarely at his old friend. “It’s over, Jack. Come quietly.”

Jackson tilted his head. “Is this about term limits? I legally abolished those, remember?”

“Nonetheless, it's been five terms too many. We're on the brink now. You used to be a good man."

Jackson laughed. “What? Are you thinking of that little story we wrote back in college? About us being Boston heroes fighting off villainous metaphors like Molasses Flood? Give me a break. The work I’m doing now is far more important. Term limits were an obstacle to humanity’s advancement.”

Doc narrowed his eyes. “That ‘advancement’ is why I’m here. Finland was destroyed because of you. That was no industrial accident. That was an experiment of yours gone wrong!”

Consoles blinked. Jackson remained steady, merely straightening his tie in amusement. “Do tell.”

Doc stepped forward. “Ever since that day in Tokyo, you’ve become obsessed with replacing the Laws of Nature with the Law of Man. Using micro-synthetic polyethylene to invent X-Polymer, harvesting dark matter, inventing A-Polymer…you achieved those accomplishments far faster than I expected. But at what cost? How many child laborers in the Congo did it require? How many Bengali sweatshops? That wealth, which could’ve solved famine and hunger, you used to reach the White House. And for what end? To remove legal barriers to further success. To turn your business empire into a real one.”

A smile. “I’m still waiting on Finland.”

“The warp gates. I’ve read the files you tried to destroy. Two gates can create a wormhole. Ten gates are enough to form a worm-universe. A pocket dimension. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life made from ten nodes.”

“That tree has eleven nodes.”

“That’s the truth about A-Polymer,” Doc said. “Get enough A-Polymer between the gates, and the dark matter within will sink our universe down into the pocket dimension. Under the guise of protecting Finland from Russian aggression, you established military bases there, spread A-Polymer across the country. You tried to sink Finland into a pocket universe!”

Doc took another step forward. “I want to know why, Jack. You could’ve used your intellect and wealth for good! Instead, you’ve turned to evil. Why? Tell me!”

Doc was practically pleading at his old friend by this point. Jackson sighed and simply turned his back on him, more concerned about his current experiment.

“It’s impossible to change the Laws of Nature. As long as we’re limited to this universe, we’re confined by its rules. What a horrible existence we’ve been born into! Only in pocket universes can we establish the Law of Man. But why would I want to rule an empty realm? Why would I want to condemn the people of our reality to one where we can never be our own masters? I’ll create paradise, Doc! Imagine a harmonic future, one with no war, pollution, poverty!”

Doc growled. “You think we can’t achieve that here?”

“Just take a look at the world and tell me.”

“The world is in this current mess because of people like you!”

With a big sweep of the hand, Jackson knocked his test tubes and beakers to the ground, glass shattering at his feet. “I’m doing my best to save everyone! Even if we can solve war and poverty, you know what? You can’t hold that moment in a bottle. Eventually, things will swing back down again. Imagine a land where moments of beauty never cease, where life has no beginning or end, a perpetual state of happiness...”

“You seek immortality?”

“Not just immortality, for time would still go on. No, in my pocket universe, I’ll stop time entirely. Never again will entropy threaten us.”

Doc wasn’t convinced. “And you’d rule over this land as a god.”

“As a first citizen. Somebody has to keep the pocket universe in order. I’d be benevolent.”

“Benevolent? Ha! Tell that to the people of Finland. Tell that to the people of Minneapolis, of Toronto and Veracruz, of any city you’ve bombed and placed under your boot when they disagreed with you.”

Jackson slammed a fist on the console. “You’d deny humanity absolute happiness just because I’d seek absolute power alongside it? You’d condemn us to suffering just because you’re jealous of my success and can’t bear to see me win?”

“It’s not like that at all!” Doc roared.

“While I was expanding across the globe, you were tinkering around here with your stupid little pie passion-project,” Jackson said with a smirk. “Aren’t you glad I took this laboratory from you, Doc? I’m putting it to much better use than making city-sized pies. My ten warp gates are in place around the Earth. And wouldn’t you know it-”

Jackson hit a button on his console. The floor rumbled as a hole opened up, a golden lever rising from beneath.

"Once I pull this lever, the warp gates will activate, and we'll enter Paradise."

“You’ve gone mad! Your experiment in Finland failed! You’ve turned that country into a state of spaghetti-fied madness. You’ll do the same to Earth unless someone stops you!”

Doc took one final step. “Last warning. For the sake of our old friendship, come quietly. It’s not too late. We can fix this mess.”

Jackson sighed and glanced at the ceiling. “If only we could’ve stayed in that crummy apartment at Cushing College forever.”

He swung back, the A-Polymer implanted in his hand transforming it into a pistol.

And so ended the tale of Jackson Mississippi and Doc Rooney. Both men pulled their triggers at the same time. Twenty-four hours later, all the world’s arsenals were launched, and humanity was plunged back into the Dark Ages.

==========

WhiteRabbit67: But their legacy lived on. Fearing he would be too late, Jackson had his AI assistants split his formula into twenty-four pieces and hid them within twenty-four time capsules across the globe. His assistants then edited Eden's Apple, a collection of Jackson and Doc's schoolboy writings with themselves as heroes, with clues to each time capsule. That way, once the time was right, and humanity had the technology to recreate A-Polymer and warp gates, Paradise could be activated once more. 

That time is now. The Caesar-Messiah is here and will achieve Jackson’s dream of creating a timeless paradise, a true harmonic future.

Come to the Presidio on December 31, 2999.