Free Steam City Pirates by Jim Musgrave

one could theoretically walk through time as one walks through space,” Doctor Adler explained.
    “Light! No wonder most of the great spiritual and mystical books refer to some kind of battle between the forces of light and dark. Do you suppose we are fighting the dark forces?” Becky’s voice had a mysterious lilt.
    Doctor Adler smiled and pointed to the Hebrew letters spelling “Michael” on the wall over the time machine. “The apocryphal battle between the angels in heaven is a good example. Lucifer, which means ‘morning star or morning light,’ decided the Creator had made a bad decision when he created us. Our Father gave us the chance to become part of His heavenly perfection by living our lives filled with love for each other and for Yahweh. As Lucifer saw it, the Creator was giving us the same chance at immortality as Lucifer had, and this angel, because he was jealous, chose to rebel against the Creator in heaven. Michael, who accepted Yahweh’s plan, decided to fight Lucifer and his angels. According to the story, Lucifer and his minions were defeated by Michael and the Sons of Light. Lucifer’s punishment was to be condemned to haunt our world until the end of time. Lucifer and his followers were afraid of the light of the Creator’s truth, so they chose to dwell beneath the earth in the world of lies and darkness.”
    “I don’t want to be a naysayer, Doctor, but we seem to be located in a rather dark and shady space ourselves,” I said.
    “On Earth, we are all bringers of the light. Satan brings the light, but his is the light of knowledge without love. Without love, knowledge becomes a tool for selfish desires. With love, knowledge becomes a tool to reach paradise on Earth. This is what we Jews call the Coming of the Messiah,” said Doctor Adler. “Mitzvoth increase among the people, and evil and death are defeated, so that heaven will reign on Earth.”
    “I see. We Catholics expect this Messiah to be the second visit paid by Jesus. Who cares? As long as we get the same result,” I said.
    When Bessie and Seth arrived at noon, I wanted to immediately ask him about the mazikeen . He was in his usually high spirits, and he wore knee pants and a blue suit jacket with white shirtsleeves. His mother was wearing her black dress for public mourning of her husband, Arthur. Seth was still insisting his father would be returning to us because he was also half-angel and had merely “disappeared.”
    “Seth, I have an important question for you, old boy,” I said, and he immediately left his fiddling with the time machine to walk over to me and give me his undivided attention.
    “Yes, Detective, what is it you would like to know?” He searched my face with his eyes.
    “We had a visit from a young woman before we came over here. She said she was also a mazikeen , and she had a rather large sword at my throat at the time she stated it, so I was listening quite carefully. She had also taken on the physical aspect of Miss Charming after having tied her up in the bedroom. She was attempting to find out information from me. One might also note that in her mazikeen identity all of her teeth were made of gold. Luckily, I was able to trick her so that I retrieved my pistol and had the upper hand,” I said.
    Seth’s eyes were widening as I continued the story.
    “She used her final abilities by disappearing and flying out the window,” I said. “How many of you are there? Should we expect more of her kind in the future?”
    Seth furrowed his brow in concentration. “As a future scientist, Doctor Albert Einstein, once said, ‘Space and time are not separate entities but are different directions in a single object called space-time.’ Mazikeen also seem to be separate entities, but they are opposites serving on the same space-time continuum. Whenever one of our kind enters into the conflicts of mankind, and we take a side, then our other half becomes a part of the opposing side. A philosopher, Georg