Last Witch Standing

chapter 9



“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that one way or another.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer, Father of the Atomic Bomb





June, 1975

Pangea



The playground of creation. That is what Katie thought as she flew around Pangea. Cliffs, forests, jungles, waterfalls of incredible height and power, grasslands that spread for miles in all directions: all could be found on this planet.

After landing, she retrieved Thus Spake Zarathustra from the cave and sat outside on a rock that gave the grandest view of the valley below and the cliffs around them. The air was pristine, as it always was on her Pangea, and a slight wind blew Katie’s hair as she spread the book open before her.

Nietzsche was making everything so much clearer for her. She was alone because she was special. That was why she could do so much more than the human Citadel Witches. Katie was the Overman of which the philosopher spoke.

What luck finding this book had been! To think she almost left it in the Citadel world because it wasn’t a science text. Had she done so, she would have missed learning her purpose and destiny. These quotes from the master particularly intrigued her; they were so true and described her so well:



You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted.

The stronger becomes master of the weaker, in so far as the latter cannot assert its degree of independence — here there is no mercy, no forbearance, even less a respect for "laws."

I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? "All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment.

In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strength so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow.

And concerning the Citadel with their self-imposed limitations:

That is mediocrity though it be called moderation.



Yet, one problem remained, limiting her potential. This portion of the Cosmos was isolated, with less galaxies than in the area of the Citadel world. Travel between stars was not a problem for her, but away from a star, interstellar plasma or other source of energy, she could not acquire enough power to channel effectively. For the first time, she cursed not being a witch – they could store power. As a sorceress, a type of magical creature she now recognized herself to be – based upon a careful reading of “Powers of the Realm”, a book she had stolen from the Citadel’s library, she could not store power effectively.

There had to be a workaround to this. Somewhere in the science books was the answer.

Antimatter? That would be a powerful explosive. Usable both as portable source of power and as a weapon.

Or, the strong nuclear force! If she could suspend it for an instant, the particles would annihilate each other, producing energy. That meant she could use matter for energy and would no longer be tied to only what she could pull in from kinetic energy in her environment. Yet, suspending the nuclear force took energy to do. Where would she get that initial energy? Back to square one.

Finally, the vacuum energy, or dark energy, of space could be stored in capacitors via the casimir effect – but this might not be sufficient. Katie wanted enough energy to manipulate matter – regardless of where in space she happened to be. Traveling through space, she could do that effortlessly now, but when out of the effective range of stars or interstellar plasma, she could not draw ample energy to do much beyond travel. A small portion of her was witch, maybe two to three percent, and she shuddered to acknowledge it was Mountain Witch. How could one such as her be kin – even remotely so – to such silly little creatures?

Nevertheless, she would try it, she would build those capacitors. But first, there was something else she’d like to try.



***

The blue giant star filled the space before Katie, its immensity and majesty crowding out all emotions other than a contemplation of its splendor.

If I can destroy, may I also not create? We are all made of star stuff. How many new worlds can I give birth to?

The heat penetrated her shield and, with an irony not lost on her, Katie channeled the very energy that penetrated it to increase its strength. She glided back through space, still facing the star, examining its solar flares, absorbing its beauty.

Creative destruction.

Katie used the Gift to reach into the center of the star. It was easier than she imagined, to feel into the solar core, as the amount of energy available to channel far exceeded that required.

There is none but I.

Once a star began fusing iron, it was in its death spiral. Once so massive as this would then become a supernova. Katie did not know how much fire and shockwave she could take without destroying herself, but this she did know: the timid did not discover, the timid did not create. She let loose the strands of Power, accelerating the fusion within the star.

Silence.

She backed up further, prepared to channel more.

Crash!

Needles of fire radiated outward, blinding Katie and hurling her back like a steel shot fired from a slingshot.

I am become death, destroyer of worlds….

The supernova would continue to spew out star stuff for some time, fertilizing interstellar space with a multitude of matter. This matter would coalesce into smaller stars, and perhaps planets, perhaps even a Pangea. She had done it: turned a dying star into a life giver.

Who, in all the Cosmos, commanded such forces as she?

Katie raised her tiny fist into the air, as her vision returned, and grinned.



***

Katie descended onto her cliff, a string of capacitors following like a tail on a kite. She hovered, carefully lowering the line carrying the devices onto the ground in front of her cave.

Safely relieved of the burden, the sorceress landed. The amount of energy she had managed to acquire and store during this most recent trip into space was minuscule. She kicked the side of the cave as hard as she could. The stone did not yield and Katie fell backwards onto her behind, dress ruffled.

The work with capacitors was a dead end. At least for the moment.

Katie needed a witch. One that could serve as a battery for a sorceress. Where to get one? The Citadel would be wary of her, prepared. Not from their planet, then, but many witches came to them from other worlds. It only remained for her to find one of these worlds. Find and obtain a newly channeling witch before the old bats of the Citadel did.

Over the next days, as she sat on the cliff, with its breathtaking scenery, condors flying overhead, clouds forming abstract shapes as they rolled past, a plan gelled in Katie’s mind.

She could pass herself off as a Mountain Witch – even to the point of duplicating their earthy, forest smell. They were silly little creatures. Pets of the Citadel and the Witches’ Council. Yet their very inoffensiveness could disarm any suspicion. There would be some stooping involved, particularly in rolling around the forest floor to transfer soil and pine scent to her body, but she could stoop. For the amount of power obtainable, yes, she could do that.

Maybe, she would even find an intelligent one. One to talk to, one to share in her explorations.