OPTION THREE (Revised on 2/13/24)

The trio had only ridden 500 yards into the winding darkness before the path forked off in two different directions. One tunnel leading up; the other, leading down. The Queen halted her raptor, studying her choices. Up to safety or down towards the planet's core and certain danger. She sat atop her ferocious steed. It stomped its front feet, bellowed loudly and reared. It was told to go out, but it didn't seem willing to defy its rider. The Queen's long billowing black cape and ebony mane of shining hair flowed over the raptor's haunches. She held on with a steely ease.

Lockspur turned to Carolyn and whispered, "And now she has hair and a floor length leather cape. What's next? A group of roadies to carry all her stuff?"

"Too late," Carolyn replied. "We're riding her roadies."

The Queen's cape flew into the air, spreading out to form thick, leathery bat wings that flapped twice. Lockspur was almost knocked off his horse by the wind. The wings settled on her back and she turned her glowing blue eyes on Carolyn. "You know, the smug little bastard only let us go because it suited his purposes."

Carolyn fought back the open-mouthed look of shock and stammered, "Sure… that… and the fact he can't hold us and go after the obelisk at the same time."

"He said, he wasn't here for the obelisk." Lockspur said.

"He said many things." the queen replied. She kicked her heels into the raptor's haunches and it turned towards the descending tunnel. "None of which were true." she said, kicking her heels and urging the raptor forward.

Carolyn looked back into the tunnel they just exited and felt her grandfather's eyes on her. For a split second, she considered fleeing the dark tunnels in favor of light. She knew her grandfather was no one to be trifled with. The warning he gave, implied or otherwise, was clear enough. Leave the tunnels or risk death. And although he would never kill her. Carolyn wasn't certain if he would stop his raptors from doing so. The only guarantee of getting out alive was to take the left tunnel up and out. But of course, the Queen was riding into the fight to the death tunnel.

"Wait." Lockspur blurted in confusion. The sharp word pulled Carolyn out of her momentary weakness. She blushed in the darkness, hoping none of them saw the shame spreading across her reddening face. "Where are you going."

"To do my job."

"Job." Lockspur called after the Queen. "What job?"

"To protect my home and people. Even if they don't know they are my people."

"I'm sorry. This is my fault." Carolyn said.

"Young Lady, Have you not been paying attention?" the Queen asked." This is my fault. It was I who used you to do all of this." She turned to Lockspur. "I used my knowledge of the events leading up to your death to engineer a series of new events."

"My death?"

"Yes,: she said, as an expression of guilt twisted her face. "You were supposed to die here. I was supposed to kill you. But Lilith bated me. She changed me from the inside out. She altered my DNA. Programmed me to find you. Placed a block in my mind, knowing what Carolyn would think. What she would have to do. She used the both of you to recreate herself. Upgrade herself. Make herself more powerful. What she actually did was create a new lifeform. A new species. A new Lilith. So... it is I who is sorry. I did this to you. To everyone."

"You said Lilith did this to all of us."

"I did." the Queen said.

Carolyn nodded and wiped a small stinging tear from her cheek. "Everything is fucked up now."

"opportunities come in many forms." the queen said, tapping her heels gently against the sides of her raptor. It snorted and moved forward towards the descending tunnel and Carolyn followed her lead.

"Opportunity," Lockspur said. "What opportunity?"

"At this very moment, there are forces racing towards the center of this planet." she added, gesturing for Lockspur to catch up. "Some are unaware of why they are drawn there. Others are looking for an object they believe will help them in the coming conflict. Some seek to protect it. Some seek to destroy it. Some seek to use it as a ploy. Regardless of their intentions, we must get there first."

"And How do you know that?"

The Queen stopped her raptor, swiveled around and said, "Isn't it obvious. I put it here."

"You put it there?"

"I will. And much more."

"Saying I will infers something that happens in the future," Lockspur said doubtfully. "If it's already there, how are you supposed to put it there in the future?"

"Because my future is your past." the Queen answered. When Lockspur scowled, she added, "If you remember, You told me to stop fucking with time. This is what happens when I don't listen."

Lockspur's mouth fell open. "You are Lilith."

"No. Lilith Hemmingford is me." the Queen said. 

"What did you do?"

"No matter what I tried, I could not intercede in the time stream for the better. Each time I tried, our adversary became stronger and we became weaker. So, I engineered a way to position myself earlier in the time line. I thought it would give me an advantage. It had other, unexpected effects."

"Are you ever going to learn from your mistakes?"

"Apparently, not." The Queen admitted, looking away. "We are nothing more than spinning gears in an eternal clock. A clock no one should tamper with. I devised a way to change my gear, and in doing so, changed every other gear."

"It seems foolish for Carolyn's grandfather to let us go." Lockspur said, watching the queen ride away towards the depths. Lockspur raised his voice, hoping the queen would turn around and come back. She didn't. "He could have just killed us." he shouted, turning to look over his shoulder to ensure nothing had followed them.

"I changed my gear ahead of his. He could not kill me." the Queen answered, voice reverberating off the rock walls as if she was speaking from the opposite side of a huge cathedral. "Not without ending his own life. Not without ending all your lives."

Lockspur saw the queen shoot Carolyn a sideways glance he neither understood nor liked. They're hiding something, he thought, bitching to himself under his breath and thinking he should be used to it by now.

Carolyn spurred her raptor onward, keeping up with the queen. She whispered something in the Queen's ear. Something Lockspur couldn't quite make out. No. I was wrong. They're definitely hiding shit, he thought.

He jabbed heels of his combat boots into his raptor's soft sides and it reared up, almost dumping him on his backside. He grabbed onto its thick neck as it let out a warning growl and leapt forward, catching up in two enormous bounds. He righted himself on its back just as it halted at the queen's side, almost pitching him over its giant head.

"Do try to be careful, Carlos. My brethren are still prone to fits of sporadic aggression. We wouldn't want him to flip you off and gobble you up. You know how they love to eat." She smiled and winked at Carolyn, who broke into a grin and tried rather unsuccessfully to stifle a coughing laugh.

"Just in case were all killed horribly, I'd just like to tell you, you are a pain in the ass."

":I know," the Queen said. "That's why you love me." Carolyn laughed.

"Funny," he said, scowling at them both. "Leaving out the fact you're not telling me shit about what's going on." he said, ignoring the laughter at his expense. "And… you both know how much I love being left out."

The queen looked at Carolyn, who shrugged and threw up a tell him whatever you want gesture. "We are going into the past, Carlos." She held up a grotesquely morphing hand. "And before you ask. No. I have no idea what will happen. The memories I gave you are from a different timestream. I anticipated changing the stream, but not, erasing my memories of today's events. I can no longer see what is coming. But I can tell you, if we fail here today, everyone we have have ever known or loved will blink out of existence. The clock we live in can not be broken."

Lockspur squinted at her and exhaled a sarcastic laugh, as if she'd made a bad joke. "You've always been such a source of comfort." he said to Carolyn.

"I was not aware I was your wet nurse." The queen said in a warning tone.

"Typical," Lockspur said, gesturing at the queen, as he looked at Carolyn. "With ever word thar comes out of your mouth, you sound more and more like her. You certainly act like her. You speak in riddles. And you know I hate that shit. It's disrespectful."

"If you knew what I-"

"You sound just like Lilith" he blared, cutting the Queen off. "You act like you know everything. But you don't know shit."

"I know you trusted me. And I know I broke that trust. And for that, I am truly sorry." The Queen said, looking at the ground. He said nothing. " But I neither sound like, nor act like, Lilith Hemmingford. As for answering in riddles, I would say that little personality quirk is hers alone. As for myself, I feel the best way to answer a question is with silence."

The Queen's raptor snorted as if laughing at an inside joke. Lockspur frowned at the creature, wanting to ask if it had. But that would mean the creature not only knew and understood the concept of humor, but that it also understood English. He kept his suspicions to himself, deciding he didn't need anymore to stress about. Instead, he turned to Carolyn and said, "What now?"

"What now is complicated," the Queen said loudly, throwing up an enormous black taloned hand to ward off Carolyn's oncoming explanation. "When you remember the simple-minded creature you first encountered in the wreckage? You think of my past. When you look at me, you are seeing my present." He made to speak over her, but she threw him a warning glare and added, "And… When you see Lilith Hemmingford, you are seeing the woman I will become. The same women in three different forms. Past, present and future made manifest in a living paradox."

"You're speaking nonsense."

She leaned in uncomfortably close and added, "Little man, even though we three are each unique creatures in our own rights, each sis separated by the unfathomable lengths of time and light years of space, and each is the same being." When his lower jaw dropped in disbelief, she smiled and elaborated plainly, "Silly human, my counterparts and I have walk the same eternal path since the dawn of creation. A never ending loop. And each of us has reached out across time and space to alter the paths of the others. And now, all our courses may be fucked beyond repair."

Lockspur turned to Carolyn, mouth still agape and blinking. She nodded. "Even if any of that is true," he stammered. "And I'm not saying it is. I thought paradoxes couldn't exist."

She chuckled to herself and said, "They can't. But there is much you do not know of my life and how it touches you all."

"Explain," Carolyn said.

"Our current situation resulted from a rather impossible chain of events, beginning long before the formation of this Universe." the queen explained, turning to Carolyn. "The tale is quite complex."

"We appear to have time,"

"Ask yourself, If I am to become Lilith, how could she exist before me?"

"Because you're not Lilith." Lockspur replied. "You only think you are because of the memories she implanted in you."

"And I would agree if not for memories that tell me otherwise."

"What memories?" Carolyn asked.

"Earlier memories. Ones that belong to my future, but were passed to me through her implant. Lilith provided me with the knowledge of my own future events. Fantastic events that she could not possess unless they were passed from me to her. So.... how did she pass them to me?"

"That's not possible?"

"But here I stand, nonetheless." the Queen replied. "It is quite a conundrum, wouldn't you say? And that is not the half of the web we have woven."

"Then who came first?" Lockspur asked. "Her or you?"

"Neither," the Queen said, "We were both preceded by another version. An ancient avatar. A being from another Universe/"

"There are no other Universes." Lockspur replied.

"You humans, with your pitiful telescopes. You have barely gained the ability to see beyond the ends of your own noses and still you think you know the truth of where we live. Your celestial facts are based on nearsighted science fiction and you profess you speak science fact. You look up and see stars and planets and blackholes and an ever expanding cosmos and still have no idea what you are looking at. You know nothing of your true place in the cosmos."

"Then why don't you teach us?" Lockspur blurted.

"Why cant you teach yourselves? All the answers are there. For those who do not see themselves as the center of it all. Your human arrogance blinds you to the truth."

"How can a woman in the future go back and create herself in the past?" Carolyn asked. "It's not possible."

"I have absolutely no idea." the Queen said, halting and turning to both of them. She gestured from her ride to herself. "You witnessed my recent transformation for yourselves. It was, and I believe we would all admit, a profound happening. But what you do not understand is the true magnanimity of what occurred here today. The time it takes for a simple creature to evolve into a woman should be measured in millions of years. But it is happening to me in a matter of hours. I believe this transformation is occurring because I have remained in this timeline longer than intended. I was supposed to be taken from this place shortly after my alteration. But that did not happen. He did not come for me." She looked truly worried. "When that failed to happen, my earliest memories began to change. Whatever is happening now, is well beyond Lilith Hemingford's plan. And I fear we are all in grave danger."

"So it's true then," Carolyn said. "Time really catches up to us all."

"Let's say I'm warming to the idea you're telling the truth." Lockspur said, leaning back on his raptor. The queen was finally opening up about what was happening, and he wanted to hear more. "But we're still missing the key event that explains your current divergence." he said, looking down at the scar on his firearm.

"Your belief in what I say is not required."

"Careful, your majesty, your inner Hemmingford is sticking out."

The Queen turned to Carolyn and said, "A billion billion years of evolution has past by, and for males, life is still all about phallic humor."

Carolyn nodded and said, "I know, right?"

"How about you tell us the other half of the queen's story? Like how you become a Queen. Because I don't Oz anywhere around here."

"Ahh, yes," the queen said, turning to look at him. "I knew we would come to this eventually." She held up her hand and peered into it like a palm reader. "As you may have guessed, my species were engineered in a lab."

"I have noticed raptors possess a collection of various traits. All of which are lethal." Lockspur said.

"What you do not know, is that samples were taken throughout the Galaxy and throughout the timestream. We are from everywhere and from all times. On the day of my uplifting, my babies. and I were supposed to be taken from this world to a strange new home in an alternate universe. We were deemed a risk to humanity. A risk I believe you have already discussed. Wasn't it you who wanted to end my life to save your own asses As if your existence is in someway more valuable then anyone or anything else's."

"We have barely reached the edge of this Galaxy. Let alone, figured out a way to reach the next one. They're too far apart And you want us to believe someone was going to magically pop you over to another Universe."

"Quiet," Carolyn said, offering the queen a sorry expression.

"Nothing that went to plan on that day of days has gone to plan on this day."

"What's that mean?" Lockspur asked, sitting forward on his raptor to make sure he heard her every word.

"Several things," the Queen replied, spurring her raptor forward slowly. They followed beside her, hanging on her every word. "First, and most importantly for the two of you, is that I am not the creature I was originally created to be. They took that creature away because it was neither in its nature to be gentle nor humane. Never forget, I am only partly human; but even Lilith Hemingford's DNA does not make me human. My people behave more like the simple creatures that live here than either of you, or her. We live to hunt and feed. And I live to rule."

"What are you saying?"

"Simple, Pray you never meet the real me. She is a heartless monster with little use for those who do not look like her."

"You're a fascist dictator Queen."

She smiled at Lockspur and said, "I ruled over an entire universe and eliminated all who failed to submit to my subjugation. And I did so in the most brutal ways possible. I relished the hunt. The fight. The blood. And I make no apologies for loving it all."

"You killed for not following?"

"I consumed them." she said matter-of-factly. She shrugged and added, "We never overcame our more primal urges to feed. Those who would not submit became cattle. And that is why we were cast out of this Universe. But because of what I... what Lilith has done here. Our Universes will forever be connected."

"Holy shit." Lockspur thought out loud. "I'm going to be sick."

"You would not have liked me, Carlos."

"How long have you known this was going to happen? Since the first night we met?" Lockspur asked, not wanting to go any further down that rabbit hole.

"The Lilith Hemingford you knew ceased to exist the moment you al altered my mind and body." the Queen answered. "That is why I believed the shard had malfunctioned. The more I changed; the more my memories changed. I couldn't make sense of the images because I was seeing to separate timestreams at the same time." 

"And now?"

"The timestream has begun to clear." the Queen said. "But I cannot tell if it will clear completely. The initial plan is influx. She always loves to improvise, that one. I swear it's going to be the death of us all one day." the Queen said, holding out a hand and inspecting it as if it wasn't hers. "I cannot be certain..." she said, pausing to pull a wing around to scrutinize it. "But I do not think this transformation has gone quite to her plan." When she saw Lockspur's further confusion, she gestured to the healed scar on his forearm. As he touched the recently healed wound, she added, "I believe that now your injuries have fully healed, your recollection of what transpired between you and Lilith may have returned."

"I haven't seen Lilith Hemingford since before we left Sol Lucia," he replied. But the more he thought about the darkness between Dahl going for help and Carolyn rescuing him from the raptor version of the queen, the more he knew a sizeable chunk of time was missing.. He concentrated on the blank space, as if willing a thick current to lift and reveal a movie screen. Images of his meeting with Lilith came back. A bright, lucid dream flickered to life, bringing with it a stinging pain in his right temple. He grabbed his head, fighting to message it away, but it would not go. The events of that meeting were more clear than any memory he had ever experienced before. But he still did not understand why Lilith had felt the need to erase his memory. Be it temporarily or not. She knew he would never betray her. He was, if nothing else, a fiercely loyal friend. 

As they descended into steep tunnels, the Queen regarded Lockspur with an empathetic glance. She saw the betrayed grimace spread across his face. It made her sad. "Under normal circumstances," she began in a soothing tone. "I am certain Lady Hemmingford would have never done such a thing. Unless… She saw no other way forward."

"Why'd you do it?" 

"Ours is a great responsibility and failure is not an option." The Queen reached out with an enormous, long black arm and squeezed his shoulder with a gentleness far greater than he thought possible. "For the hurt you are feeling. I am certain she is deeply sorry. I know I am Carlos."

During the ride into the descending tunnel, she gestured around at the dank surroundings and went on. "However, in both our defenses. These are not normal circumstances. And at the time of your meeting, you were mortally injured and quite incapable of protecting yourself. If the opposition had found you in such a diminished capacity, they would have tortured sensitive information out of you. And that scenario could have negatively affected this mission. And that is why I believe she erased your memory. It was for your safety."

Carolyn had been silent for most of the last 10 minutes, but now, she spoke, "I don't like the sounds of that."

"Indeed, you should not." the Queen said, picking up the pace. Lockspur thought he saw her turn ever so slightly to the side as if catching the sound of something in the distance. She turned to Lockspur and asked, "How many crystals did you transport here beneath your skin?"

"Two," he said without hesitation and the Queen shook her head and sighed as if hoping he would say one.

The trio came to a massive dome shaped chamber that stretched outward nearly half a mile in diameter and rose a quarter mile above their heads. Through a large hole in its uppermost point, light blazed down, illuminating the center of the chamber. A100 foot diameter hole sat in the middle of a ring of light with Gail Force winds exploding up through the opening high above. The perfectly symmetrical hole sank into the bedrock of the planet. The Queen raced to its edge of the ring of light and slowed to a trot.

"What in God's name are we running from?" Lockspur demanded, out of breath and panting wildly as he and Carolyn skidded to a tooth jarring stop beside the queen.

She strode slowly towards the swirling maelstrom at the center of the giant ring of light, gesturing over her shoulder at a river of raptors pouring into the chamber behind them. "If I were you." she said casually. "I'd move your raptors into the light."

They kicked their raptors hard and bounded into the light, landing beside the Queen. Lockspur tumbled off his raptor, landing on his backside in a cloud of dust. The raptor sniffed the back of his neck, then shook its snout and sneezed. He leapt to his feet, thinking it was about to eat him. He slowly backed away from the edge of the ring of light as hundreds, maybe thousands of raptors circled just outside. They hissed and screamed.

"Do not worry," the Queen said, walking over to him. "They cannot enter the circle. We are safe here for the time being."

Carolyn looked from her to the circling teeth outside and said, "We may be safe in here, but we can't get out either, and we can't stay here forever."

At the point where they had pierced the edge of the light, a shrouded figure stepped calmly out of the writhing pack and into the light. Carolyn's grandfather walked over to them and said, "I gave you a choice. I wish you had made a better one. But sadly, what comes next be on your heads, not mine."

The Queen nodded politely, as if following a code of nobles. "Purifier. Long have you fought to seize control of this timestream and long have you failed."

"Lady Serafina, " he said, offering a low bow. "I had hoped to make your acquaintance someday. Pity, it had to be on such a day of days. But… if you recall. I did warn you to not come here."

"And yet, you knew I would." The Queen said with a smile.

He bowed and said, "A lady's purgative, I'm sure."

"I have heard of your habit of offering polite warnings. I never imagined I would receive one myself. You are truly a kind and gifted servant of your master. Truly kind, indeed."

"Grandfather, what are you doing?"

He turned to Carolyn with a sad expression and said, "While I cannot bring harm upon you by my own hand, granddaughter. I can hardly be held responsible your self-destructive acts." He turned around to leave, walked a few yards, and then looked back over his shoulder at the Queen. "My lady. If one wanted to live another day, all one need do is look to the heavens. The Good Lord knows there will always be salvation in the light." Then he stepped into the darkness outside the circle and vanished behind a writhing wall of gnashing teeth and jagged talons.

"He knew you would lead us here." Carolyn raged at Queen Serafina. "And he could force us out through the roof opening."

"I had hoped he would allow us to get this far. His mistake." Queen Serafina said. "I needed him to trap us here."

"Why?" Carolyn asked.

"Because his arrogance will be his undoing. He believes us caught like bugs in a jar. But he misses the real reason we came for."

Carolyn looked over and saw Lockspur grinning at the Queen and said, "What's with the grin?"

"Like I said, she's just like Lilith, and Lilith always has a plan to get in, and a plan to get back out again." He turned to the Queen and said, "So, what is the plan, boss? I mean, your majesty."

The Queen walked over to the edge of the hole and scooped up a handful of dirt and threw it into the wind. It exploded in an instant and rocketed away. Nothing could survive that blast of air.

"Everything on my world runs in cycles. And like the coming of the eclipses, there are other events that takes place every 22 years. Do you know what event happens next?" She turned to them and said, "Anyone? Anyone at all?" When no one replied, she went on, "At the bottom of the 370-kilometer-deep hole lies the most beautiful world you have ever seen. The bedrock of this planet shields the fragile world far below from the harmful radiation of the stars above, and in turn, the world below flourishes. But it air supply must be replenished from time to time."

"Thermodynamics," Lockspur said to himself with a sudden look of astonishment. "No molten core means no heat. The core needs to be warmed."

"Correct," the queen replied, "warm air is drawn through the myriad of tunnels leading into the core while the cool moist air far below is forced up through this ancient lava tube."

"That explains the wind, but not how we get through opening up there without being torn to shreds by the turbulence."

The Queen gestured to the hole and said, "As I have already explained. Every 22 years, exactly 11 years after the eclipse, another event takes place. And it, too, only lasts a few hours." The queen picked up another handful of dirt and tossed it at the hole. It flew out over the edge, became a loose cloud, and wafted downward. The wind had stopped.

"You knew," Carolyn said, half in amazement and half hurt that the queen hadn't told her the entire plan.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Lockspur said, turning to the queen and adding. "Now tell her about option 3."

"There's a 3rd option?"

"We have three hours to reach the bottom of this lava tube and exit into the chamber below before the airflow restarts and we're torn to shreds."

"And it just keeps getting better." Lockspur said and then laughed. "Who's going first?"

The Queen gestured to Carolyn's raptor. It walked over and stood beside hers. She turned to Lockspur and said, "Go retrieve your ship and meet us down below."

"You know I'm not a pilot."

"Then, perhaps this may be a good time to learn." she replied, and before he could protest, urged her ride over the edge. It leapt out, threw open its giant wings and nosedived out of sight. Carolyn shrugged and followed her into the deep.