by Libbylawrence
2485:
Commander Erin Venture loved her job as head of the Planetary Defense Agency’s Military Flight Squadron. Of course, the beautiful and intelligent auburn-haired woman also occasionally found herself frustrated by the bureaucratic demands of the position. She wasn’t opposed to calm, rational discussions about the best policies to maintain the fragile security of the domed city that comprised most of what was left of the old Mid-Atlantic United States, but she also preferred direct physical action over endless talking.
As alarm sirens screamed their warnings, and uniformed men and women and flight-bots raced or scurried on servo-treads through the huge domed metropolis, Erin grinned ruefully.
Note to self, Erin, she thought. Next time you wish for some action, give yourself a good, swift kick in the seat!
Wearing a vivid blue jumpsuit with a white and blue helmet, she moved with the agility and grace of the born athlete she was. However, she also felt her mind race as she considered the peril that she and the only home she had ever known were about to face.
It was hard enough to keep the peace between New Megalopolis and the other sub-regions of the planet before we had to also consider the alien races of the other planets in our system, she thought. But I never imagined when I was a cadet at Planet Prep that we’d one day face hostile powers from beyond the solar system we know!
As she climbed the ladder that led to the cockpit of her personal star cruiser, she shoved her long hair up into the helmet and adjusted her visi-lens.
“Star Cruisers 1-15, assume combat positions. This is not a drill. Lethal force is authorized!” she said in a calm but commanding tone. Her orders were carried via her helmet comm-system to her pilots.
They were a reliable and highly trained group. She was proud of them, and they all adored her in spite of her youth, since she had proven herself again and again. She was her father’s daughter in more ways than one. Captain William Venture was a living legend, and although age had necessitated his retirement from the role of pilot, his remarkable skills and combat savvy had been passed on to his daughter. She also had her mother’s charm, courage, and beauty. For that matter, she possessed as well her mother’s royal title, although Erin made very little of her hereditary claim to be Planet Princess of the long-deceased and defunct Saturn Colony. Of course, she knew the late Princess Zyra had always cherished her title until her marriage to Captain Venture and the passage of time made it almost meaningless.
The Saturn Colony died out generations ago, thought Erin. Mother only survived with her youth and beauty intact because her dying scientists placed her within a crystal suspended animation chamber. The plague that wiped out all of her subjects left her a princess in name alone! Of course, once Dad found her and awakened her, they were inseparable, and she never looked back to the ruins of the life she had once known on Saturn Colony! (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See Capt. Venture and the Planet Princess, Nickel Comics #4 (June 28, 1940).]
As she slid into her cockpit and allowed the automatic shielding to close over her seat, she noted the comforting, emotionless drone of the nav-bot as it greeted her and confirmed that all required safety checks had been performed.
“Commander Venture, your star cruiser is ready for takeover,” said the computer.
She made the automatic reply, and the sleek white and blue spacecraft flew out of the docking station and exited the amazing dome. Her crew followed her in tight formation, and she breathed a silent prayer as the beauty and danger of space loomed ahead.
Galaxies! She’s sent an entire squadron of Space Serpents after us! The Empress means business this time! she thought, referring to the sinister-looking space vessels that dotted Earth’s orbit. She recognized the crafts, and she was all too familiar with their firepower.
Engaging the nearest ship, she almost effortlessly blasted it into rubble, then shot down the second one, and made equally quick work of a third. My father’s reflexes were viewed as a type of throwback to his supposedly primitive era, she thought, but I’m thankful to have inherited them along with his uncanny instincts about when to ignore the targeting computer!
Sending her craft into a sharp banking movement, she avoided strafing fire or venom as the enemy pilots arrogantly called their armaments. But she frowned as one of her pilots was caught by a Serpent, and his smaller ship exploded. Blast! Wilfred was a good man! she thought.
She swooped up, then angled her craft until she was able to reach a vulnerable rear position and strike the nearest Serpent. Commander Venture watched the craft explode, and then moved onward.
Spotting three of the crafts closing in on her, she calmly switched off the targeting computer and sent her craft into a dazzling spin before hitting the firing button and turning the closest two crafts into sparkling rubble.
As she soared past the third Serpent, she caught it with a glancing blast that rippled across its sleek surface and caught the pilot in its wake. Her squadron was doing equally well, even though there had been losses. She was too fine a soldier not to know of the policy of acceptable losses, but she was also too fine a woman not to mourn for each one.
As the remaining Space Serpents fled or met disaster, Commander Venture bit her lower lip as was her habit and prepared to order the squadron to return to base.
But before the sexy star fighter could make her wishes known, she spotted a bizarre sight. “Galaxies! What in the name of the nine planets is that thing?” she gasped.
What she saw was a brilliant series of colors erupting across what had been normal space seconds before. The colors flickered and shifted in shade from bright red, blue, and gold, to paler variations. The colors assumed the shape of a swirling whirlpool, then narrowed until they resembled a cone.
The patterns seem random, and yet I’ve never seen a weapon like that! she thought.
The weird colors drew closer to her ship, and she abruptly ordered her squadron to return to base. She also realized that she might not make it back in one piece. The strange pattern was singling her out for pursuit.
“It’s after me!” she gasped.
She riddled the mass with star-bolts, but the pattern did not retreat, nor did it change except for a sudden shifting that briefly opened to reveal normal stars beyond its wake before returning to a multi-colored whole.
Commander Venture made a desperate decision.
“I’m not going down without a fight! Let’s see that thing catch me!” she vowed.
She shifted the craft into its top speed, and as the blinding colors filled her rear view screens and threatened to overwhelm her, the daring pilot hit the quantum energy containment unit and allowed the normally shielded energies to erupt around her.
Seconds later, the colored display was gone — but, to the dismay of her allies below at the base, so was Commander Erin Venture.
***
Commander Venture blinked rapidly as she fought her natural instinct to rub her eyes.
The visi-screen is perfectly designed to alter in composition in response to changes in brightness, yet I can’t see through this strange white glow! thought the auburn-haired pilot.
She maintained a steady course and slowly found herself looking at a city skyline. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before, except for the holo tapes of the way the planet looked centuries before.
I’m on Earth, but not the Earth I recall! thought Erin. I see trees! I see birds! The city has a park! This is not a virtual nature preserve, either! I know I can trust my baby blues enough to know I’m looking at honest-to-goodness flora and fauna!
She landed her craft in a wide green field that was apparently occasionally used for sporting events. She knew this from listening to her father talk about the baseball games he loved back in his days in the first graduating class at Planet Prep in the year 1960.
I think I’ve gone back through time to Dad’s era! she realized. Maybe I’ve somehow found the same technique that brought him forward all those years ago! Of course, he saw a comet right before he found himself five hundred years in the future, and all I saw were those weird shapes and colors, followed by that white burst when I used the quantum engine.
She smiled broadly as she noticed that the ship’s routine enviro-scan indicated a healthy atmosphere. I may be the first woman to actually breathe real, unfiltered oxygen in over a century! she thought.
Flipping a switch, she climbed out of the cockpit. As she slid her legs over and across the ship, she relished the view. It’s beautiful! Dad always said his era was like a wonderland, and he wasn’t exaggerating!
As her high-heeled boots skimmed the edge of the raised surface, she saw a gleam of silver in the sunlight. Another ship is coming down! she realized. It’s a Serpent, too!
She rolled off the ship and took shelter in a nearby thicket. Drawing her blaster, she waited in a crouched position. The vivid blue coloration of her flight suit wasn’t designed for camouflage, but then the expert pilot hadn’t expected to need such a feature when she prepared for what was supposed to have been a normal combat situation.
As the Serpent ship blazed into view, Erin thought she could almost see a faint white glow fading away behind it. Did the same white burst of energy that surrounded me when I accessed the quantum drive bring both of us here? she wondered. I suppose releasing quantum energy in a confined location could result in chronal displacement. I wish I’d paid more attention in old Dr. Wilfred’s classes!
The sleek but ominously looking Serpent ship landed nearby, and she smiled grimly. He didn’t blast away at my ship! I suppose he either wants me alive or he suffered damage!
The other pilot emerged from his craft with three other crew members in his wake. All of them wore orange-armored suits with specially designed helmets that allowed the occupant to breathe comfortably with his elongated snout. Of course, the entire suit was created with more than the comfort of its reptilian users in mind. Their survival was dependent upon the themo waves that constantly circulated within the suits. They couldn’t survive in less than tropical climates.
Erin jumped forward and rolled across the green field to rise up and fire her blaster with perfect aim. The red beam struck the nearest alien, and he collapsed in the path of his allies. Erin swiveled in place and brought down the second alien, only to hear a disappointing click when she tried to fire for a third time.
Something’s wrong! she thought as she dived directly at the startled alien, who loomed over her even though she was rather tall in the high-heeled boots she favored.
She smashed her blaster across his wrist and nodded in satisfaction as he dropped his own weapon.
Spinning around, she delivered two swift kicks to his helmet. As he lurched forward, she ducked and jumped backward.
Sluggish! He’s still slow, and that may give me the advantage I need! she mused.
Grabbing a small stone, she rammed it into the helmet with all of her strength. It cracked open, and she started to plan her next move when he connected with both fists.
Commander Venture rolled with the impact and regained her balance. She wasn’t about to let her larger foe beat her. She had known combat in some of the most exotic locations in the known galaxy, including a bizarre adventure as a gladiatrix on a Martian slave colony. Thus she circled her foe warily and recognized the signs of his gradual submission to the colder temperature of his environment.
Timing her next movement carefully, she executed a perfect flip that allowed her to bring both feet upward and strike his snout with stunning force.
As he fell to the ground, Commander Venture sighed with relief, only to gasp in disbelief as a flying figure soared upward and into view from across the vast park.
It was a lovely girl with straight, light brown hair. She wore a red and gold minidress with gold slippers and a white and gold cape. A lightning bolt emblem was displayed on her chest.
She’s not wearing an anti-grav belt! she realized. Could this really be the Mary Marvel that Dad mentioned taught him at Planet Prep in 1960? The costumed girl landed gracefully, almost daintily, and smiled warmly at Commander Venture.
“Hello, there!” she said. “I saw most of your fight. You’re remarkably skilled! You move a lot like Mister Scarlet!”
“My name is Commander Erin Venture. I suppose this may be hard to believe, but I think I’m from your future. I mean, this era is not my natural one. My enemies there followed me to this time through a burst of my quantum engine.”
The girl seemed to accept all this strange information, understanding its implications fully. Didn’t Dad say the Marvels had the Wisdom of Solomon? thought Erin.
“I’m Mary Marvel,” the girl said. “I’ve had a few time travel adventures of my own. I can’t say I recognize your enemies over there, though they look a bit like some ancient enemies of my own. They were called the Hissmen!” (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “The Marvel Family Battles the Hissing Horror,” The Marvel Family #74 (August, 1952).]
“Actually, Mary, I last saw those creatures over forty years ago!” said a flying newcomer in red and gold.
The handsome, dark-haired man with the ready smile and broad shoulders could only be Captain Marvel. Commander Venture knew very little about ancient Earth history, but the famous Marvel Family was well known across the cosmos even in her own era.
“I’m Captain Marvel!” he said. “Those aliens look like a race I fought back in 1941. We were on Saturn, and they gave me a pretty tough time for a while! I called them Dragon Men.” (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See 3rd story, Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (March, 1941).]
“They do come from Saturn!” said Commander Venture.
Mary swiftly introduced her brother to the time traveler.
“Venture? I knew a William Venture once,” said Captain Marvel. “He was a pilot, too. He vanished in strange circumstances!”
“That’s my father! He came from this era, too. He told me all about you,” explained Erin as she mentally corrected herself. Don’t gush like a schoolgirl!
Captain Marvel casually, almost gently, lifted the three aliens and bound them with metal he had twisted off of their ship. “I guess we’d better get these fellows inside,” he said. “I’d hate to see them die from exposure to the cold!”
Quickly placing them inside their ship, he then effortlessly lifted the entire vessel with one hand. “Follow me, Commander. We’ll talk things over and see how we may help you folks!” he said with a grin.
“Commander, if you’ll climb in your ship,” said Mary, “you may leave the driving to me!”
Commander Venture obeyed, and to her amazement she found herself and her whole craft flying via the power of Mary Marvel in the wake of her brother’s own flight path.
The Marvels! she thought. Imagine meeting the legendary Marvel Family who taught Dad about piloting! They established Planet Prep in 1960!
The story was well known to Erin Venture, having heard it many times from her own father. Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, accompanied by his son Junior and daughter Georgia had time traveled from 1952 to the year 1960, by which time the Earth had advanced so much in such a brief eight-year period of time that it had established relations with other inhabited planets in the solar system. The Sivanas, allying themselves with the inhabitants of Pluto, had quickly conquered eight of the planets in the solar system when the Marvel Family — Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Junior — arrived from the past to save Earth from being conquered as well.
At the suggestion of their friend Dexter Knox, the Marvels helped set up a space school to train up pilots to act as space patrolmen to defeat the invaders. In a very short period of time, the Marvel Family had constructed Planet Prep, School for Space Patrolmen, in a desert out West. On opening day, thousands of eager young people showed up to do their part and serve their world, despite the Sivanas’ thwarted attempts to destroy or sabotage the school. Among that first group of recruits was one William Venture, Erin’s father. Alongside his fellow pilot trainees, he learned all there was to know about space flight from his instructors Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, and Dexter Knox over the next few months.
Then, finally, the day came when the Planet Prep recruits were tested in battle as a mass attack by enemy invaders threatened Earth itself. Although the fighting was fiercer than anyone had expected during all their training, the young pilots rallied through their initial fear and managed to break through the enemy lines with the Marvel Family acting as a spearhead. They could have stopped there, but instead they pushed on and began liberating Mars, Mercury, Venus, and all the other conquered planets as well. Meanwhile, the Marvels pushed on to smash the enemy stronghold on Pluto itself before capturing the Sivanas and forcing them to watch the graduation ceremony. (*) However, William Venture was not one of the young men who were officially named Interplanetary Space Patrolmen that day, for during one of the battles he simply disappeared after apparently sighting a comet, and his disappearance would remain a mystery for centuries until his sudden return in the twenty-fifth century.
[(*) Editor’s note: See “The Marvel Family and the Great Space Struggle,” The Marvel Family #75 (September, 1952).]
I know it was hard for Dad to suddenly find himself in a new era so different from everything that he had known, thought Erin, even though his wanderlust did make him a natural space explorer. But I also know he wouldn’t have changed anything if he could! After all, without that unplanned time trip he never would have met Mom or had me!
Commander Venture came out of her reverie as the heroes conducted the ships to an impressive plaza lined with statues of heroic figures and dominated by a structure that rose majestically from beyond the statues and across an ornate pool.
“This is the Hall of Justice,” explained Captain Marvel. “We can secure the Saturnians and talk things over here.”