Arc of The Immortals: Book 1 — Pursuit:

Flying and Dodging

Chapter 3.2: The Chase is On, Action, Suspense, The Hunt

[one short scene of violence]

“You did it!” Harry exclaimed.

“He made it through the first field.” Touzdae wrinkled her brow.

“I’ve got this next one,” Fish soothed.

The ship opened a transdimensional portal and jumped. The Needle Craft leapt through the last three moon orbital crunches eating the distance and followed the Fish into the jump.

Fish ejected from the jump, stopped, turned one hundred eighty degrees and opened a second transdimensional jump tube.

The Fish ejected Jac from the melding chair to the deck.

“What did you do that for?” Jac, annoyed.

“Fresh blood. Touzdae, you’re up.” Nez exclaimed, uber excited.

“Hey, that worked!” Harry blurted.

“He’ll be onto us soon enough. Damn, this guy is good.”

“ — Corintenian Asteroid Density, dead ahead.” Touzdae breaks off.

“Erecting electro-static shielding,” Fish reported. Foils of dust and debris sprayed across the bow in a wake as the ship slowed.

“Now entering the Corintenian Asteroid Density.”

Touzdae dodged two chunks larger than the Fish. She banked left and down to avoid slamming into a third gargantuan piece. Two smaller pieces whizzed by tumbling at irregular angles.

“Fish, how’s we doing?” Jac faltered and one knee dropped to the deck.

“What? Are you okay?”

Jac stood: “He’s on us again.”

“How much time have we got on him?” Touzdae asked as Jac closed his eyes.

“ — Ten, twelve minutes at most.” Jac opened his eyes. “I’ll take it from here. I need you to modify the aft shield defense so it will operate in the thick of the density.”

Fish released her and she popped up out of the seat and floated almost with grace to the deck.

Jac slipped into the seat as a huge long boulder flipped end over end above the window port side overhead.

“I’m slowing our speed. We’re having an effect on the larger pieces,” Jac retorted.

“No Fish. I want to use the “corkscrew shock” like we did in System Nine Jay when we captured Crul Bahj.”

“I see your logic, Jac, but this is very dangerous for us all,” Nez Fish countered

The Fish corkscrewed around asteroids that converged from every direction. The ship careened down through a hail of smaller fragments. The impact of the fragments pulverized the electrostatic shields. Dust clouds formed. Bigger pieces hit the metal skin. It was an natural anti-inflammatory response to surface pain in the metal skin.

The Needle Craft slipped nicely into the edge of the asteroidal Density. Pursuer sighed and mimicked Jac’s characteristic sigh as he stared into a red scope. The path of the Fish appeared on his screen. A red beam from Pursuer’s forehead altered the screen. It divided into sections displaying a myriad of possible routes.

“I’m a little worried here — -” Harry stared out at the layers of materials that surrounded the bridge of the Fish.

“Hang on!”

The Fish spun as it moved forward through the field.

“Uncle Harry is worried about the density,” Touzdae to Jac. She pulled herself back from the instrument panel.

“Oh, my Spirits! It is getting tight in here,” Touzdae shocked.

“Jac, if we go in any further we’ll be crushed. There’s too many — -” Harry.

“- Are you ready, Touzdae?” Jac cut Harry off.

She looked down into a view screen, checked a port scope, and then a starboard panel.

“Ten more seconds,” Jac.

“What the hell are you doing?” Touzdae.

Jac’s head emerged from the melding chair.

“We’re going to open a jump tube,” Jac.

“Jac, that’s suicide.” Harry.

“I’ve done it before to capture Crul Bahj. I can’t explain it now.”

The Needlecraft appeared from nowhere behind Fish.

“Touzdae!”

“Okay… now,” Touzdae.

The sleek Needle fired a weapon at the Fish as the first Jump tube opened. Thousands of asteroid micro-fragments sucked inside of it. The Fish elongated like taffy into the opening.

The melding chair rippled with Jac inside. Crushing rock cascades against the Fish and deafening.

“Blow out aft shields,” Jac yelled against the din.

“Done!” Touzdae.

The sound of the roar grew louder.

‘Stabilize aft vortex field.’ Jac communicated thought to thought-receptor to her.

Touzdae gave one thumb up through a single thought.

“Engage dampening field. Second-dimensional jump tube opening now!”

The Needle Ship slid alongside the Fish, its hull scraping the metal as it passed. Nez reflexively withdrew her neuronal tendrils.

The second tube opened behind the Fish. The Needle Craft slipped back towards the second tube. As they separated, there was a brilliant, and blinding light. A particle weapon from the Needle Craft fired.

The flash of light filled the bridge. Every recognizable feature obliterated in the white light. Ghost figures stood motionless.

“I’m not on the bridge,” Jac said to himself as he felt the shock of displacement.

Pursuer appeared as a great Samurai Warrior in an outline of white. Touzdae materialized in her own white outline. The Samurai Warrior grabbed her by the waist. A magnetic force sucked her against his elongated leg. The warrior transmogrified into Pursuer.

“Oh Jac, Jac… Help me… He’s stealing my lightbody.”

Pursuer threw his head back cackling:

“He won’t help you. He’s too good to fight.”

Pursuer roared with laughter as he resumed the shape of the Samurai Warrior. He raised the sword over his head, looming over Jac. The sword came down, Touzdae bit the other hand and spun away and the sword reverberated against the deck. The white light receded back through the ship. The sword warrior/Pursuer decompiled in layers with a pale light. The ancient sword clattering to the deck. Jac crumpled in heap. Fell to the deck and groaned. Touzdae wandered as if drunk and disoriented.

“Somebody get up here quick!” Harry shouted.

Touzdae hovered over Jac, her consciousness scattered.

“Touzdae, get to the Bridge,” Jac said with his force, unable to move. He passed out.

The Needle Craft of Pursuer was sucked into the jump tube aft of the Fish, while the Fish went forward. A third jump tube began to form. Thousands of asteroids poured into the two open jump tubes.

Touzdae jumped from one console to another setting navigational marks.

“Here we go.”

The Fish leapt into the third jump space. A few thousand asteroids lined the tube along the edges with streaked gases.

“That was a neat trick,” Harry beamed.

“Oh? Really, now? See those asteroids? When we come out we have to watch out that we don’t get pulverized by them.” Touzdae leaned into the monitors staring intently.

The Needle Craft’s defense field failed. Asteroid debris and dust overwhelmed the craft and buried it.

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