The ARC of THE IMMORTALS / Book 1 — Pursuit:

Derelict Genetics Station

Chapter 2.1

Arc of The Immortals / Pursuit the Book 1 of a Series

Pursuit: 2a “Derelict Genetics Station

Jac’s hands danced over the disk’s controls. Lightning crackled over the skin of the one-humanoid sized disk. The electrical discharge seized Pursuer in varying degrees of alternate dimensions. It turned his body into a kind of morphing gel. The disk halted the charges. Pursuer fell onto the deck plating below like refuse. The craft shot through the corridor to the docking bays. Pursuer seized and writhed.

The disk slowed, angling, and moved melting through the solid wall of the Fish’s cargo bay. The ship angled free of her dock moorings. She was swift, moving to the edge of the station, she formed a jump tube and disappeared inside it.

A Foray Needlecraft jettisoned its mooring with explosive charges. Using multiple weapons it hammered through the channel to the outer ring. The ship used a bolt action slingshot into a transdimensional jump in pursuit.

Jac entered the Bridge from below.

“We dusted him,” Touzdae flashed a smile to Jac.

“Harry, did you know that this thing has a Foray Needlecraft?” Jac commented. Harry shook his head “no”.

“That’s the fastest ship in the galaxy… almost,” Touzdae smiled again as her hands flew over the controls. “And when will you see to your hand?”

“Estimated time of arrival at the station?” Jac asked ignoring Touzdae’s comment about his wound.

Touzdae scanned the control panels. “About thirty to forty minutes.”

“Is there time for me to get something to eat?” Harry asked nervously.

“Nez Fish will show you the way. Follow the lighted Panels to the galley,” Touzdae instructed.

Harry climbed through the hatch, which closed and sealed after him.

“Finally,” Jac said. “What disturbs me is Harry’s memory. It’s been tampered with.”

“So, what’s with his memory, then? What’s it all mean?” Touzdae queried.

Jac slid into an alcove with an old-fashioned keyboard and began to type.

“It means we’ve got work to do. I was able to break through some of the defenses and get his personal access codes. Those other codes are diversions, I suspect. What I want you to do when we get to the Lab, is to do a search of the Genetics League Computer and see what you turn up.”

“So, what’s with Harry’s memory, then?”

“Someone may have tampered with it without his knowledge. Who may not matter. See if you can find out what was wiped out or added. Also, use the Mauvé system, I don’t want Fish to know of this or get contaminated if there are bugs in the codes.”

“So, do you see this as a setup?”

“I don’t see anything just yet, and that’s what concerns me. So yeah, it’s definitely a setup. If you come up with anything while Harry and I are in the lab contact me telepathically.” Jac finished typing and relinquished the chair as Touzdae sat down.

“I’ll take care of this now,” Jac held up his injured hand.

Harry paused as the hatch slid open inviting him aft.

This is amazing and boring. I feel oddly comforted as I was when I was a very young boy with my Ma-Pa. It must awful have a Ma as a surrogate Ma — Nez, poor lad. I don’t trust it, the comfort, I mean. Look at this salon. On the one hand, it’s a waste of space. I see this as a weapons hub — it would be ideal. This space and the rest fit with Jac’s sentimental personality. All these other worlds and other times in one space. It’s a womb of… failure. The holographic tree and the so-called “Pool of Life” are so old and primitive. I don’t see why he doesn’t update them. I like the red-tail hawks, though, the planet Earth birds. I’m hungry. I better go. He might read my mind if I stay.

Harry stepped into the passageway. As the hatch slid closed behind him, the bridge hatch opened and Jac descended.

The Foray Needle Craft sliced through space like a surgeon’s laser scalpel. In the small cockpit, Pursuer’s claw began to morph into a human’s hand and arm. He set the controls with a red beam from his third eye. He moved his seat back into the small tight space. With his same eye, he created a larger palace-like enclosure in the original space.

Jac strolled up to the Pool of Life and knelt beside it underneath the barren tree. He plunged his hand into the pool, which foamed and boiled for a second. He removed his hand — healed.

“Five minutes from the station, Jac,” Nez Fish informed.

Harry emerged from the aft corridor his face stuffed with a sandwich:

“Are we there yet?”

Harry and Jac stood on the Bridge as Touzdae’s hands moved over the controls. The Fish emerged from the jump tube close to an orbital space platform. In the distance, a binary star flashed. The Fish dimmed the intensity of the light from her portals.

The ship powered down as it approached the docking slips of the platform.

“Scans?”

“All negative for life forms, except the usual.”

“What’s the usual?” Harry said alarmed.

“ — Rodents, parasites, about ten or so Dackra Snakes, and some plasma beings.

“Dackra Snakes? Plasma Beings?”

“You’ve been behind a desk too long, Uncle.”

The Fish navigated through some floating debris. She attached the mooring lines in the deactivated docking bay.

Jac and Harry stepped into the force field perimeter surrounding the ship. They were lowered to the deck protected by the field. Jac carried a device in his left hand with straps on it and a blast rifle in the other. They stopped. Jac made an abrupt turn and slipped the backpack device over Harry’s arms. He fitted it around Harry’s chest as he protested

“Ho, ho, ho, what is this thing?”

“It’s a portable force field generator. It will help alert us to any Dackra Snakes or Plasma Beings.”

“Do, do I have to wear it? Why can’t you wear it? I shouldn’t even be here. Touzdae should be doing this. I’m too old.”

“ — Yes. You have to wear it so I can shoot those that break through. Touzdae’s life would be in danger out here, so you be a man and shut up!”

“Okay, Okay.”

Jac fits it and activates the machine and steps aside.

“Step forward three paces.” Harry moved forward gingerly. Jac rolled his eyes.

A field emanated from the device with a flicker. Jac adjusted a knob. A small stark white snake with huge teeth in its gaping mouth appeared in the field.

“Oh God!” he yelped.

Jac fired a blast from his rifle, and the snake’s head exploded. It vanished completely.

“God, I thought this thing was going to protect me?”

“It did. If it weren’t for this field, it would be invisible and it would have killed us both in a quick second.”

“Okay, okay… I’m fine.” He sighed, shivering and shaking. “I know this place. The best way to the lab is down — -”

“ — -We’re going this way,” Jac stated with confidence, as he pointed in the direction of a smaller darker corridor.

“But, but that’s not a quick route.”

“Trust me on this Uncle… it’s safer.”

Touzdae moved from console to console on a floating chair. She breathed and folded her hands as if she were praying with eyes closed.

— -Jac…

Lights from Harry’s force field generator illuminated the path as they inched forward. Jac stopped, blast rifle pointed into the dark.

“There’s a strange presence here,” Jac mumbled under his breath. He closed his eyes, listening to Touzdae’s thoughts.

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