ARC of the IMMORTALS/Book 1
Pursuit: 10.4.2 — It Starts (Again)
Recap: Jac discovers from Dreamtime that he can manifest his thoughts on demand. Bendel pressed Pursurer-Jac for his actionable thoughts./“You know we don’t have to go back,” Touzdae said. “We could bring Nez, Yon, and even Harry here and escape Pursuer forever.”
[a scene of brief violence and an accident]
“That’s a nice thought. But that would mean we’d be looking over — ” Jac cleared his throat. “I’d be looking over my shoulder for Pursuer Jac for the rest of our lives. The rest of my life,” Jac paused. He sighed. “It’s time I faced up to it and capture Pursuer and jail him in a prison of no escape. Like a Labyrinth.”
“Is that the kind of double redundancy prison where thoughts of escape tighten the prison walls inside the mind of the prisoner? Touzdae asked.
“Exactly,” Jac said holding up three fingers without thinking. A look befell Jac’s face, arms and hands to his sides.
“What’s wrong? she asked him.
“We have to go back. Now.”
Pursuer-Jac engaged the Hyper-Light Speed engines for one twenty-fourth of a nanosecond, timed by the navi-computer. What they didn’t account for was the poor deployment of crash gel. While it did deploy there was enough to prevent instantaneous death. But not enough of the gel to prevent unconsciousness.
The Escape Craft that Nez and Jac built materialized on the tail end of the Fish. The Needlecraft appeared and produced a shockwave. The Fish rocked forward and back from recoil as a result of the Needlecraft’s jump.
“They’re unconscious for now,” Jac rose from the helm chair and slipped into a translucent garment.
“What was that?”
“To fight him, I need to wear an aggressor suit developed by Georgi Forae, friend to my fa-ma. Both now gone, passed. It’s the only one of its kind. It takes a little while to meld with me. But I must dash, my love.”
“Did you wear it in the games?”
“Yes,” he said. “Please stay hidden when Pursuer comes through.” He ran.
I will, my love. I will, she thought.
Harry was eating a sandwich as Jac sped past in mid-passageway.
Jac ran the length of the Nez, jumped into the holographic tree, to the ladder, to the escape hatch. Yon was awakening.
“Jump home, Yon, he’s coming. Or hide, maybe in plain sight,” Jac opened the outer door of the escape airlock and stepped onto the hull. He ran forward into an electromagnetic scoop. It sucked the force field and him into the Multi-Platform Confluence of Realities. Jac went through the inner Iris.
Pursuer-Jac groaned into attack mode from groggy unconsciousness. He appeared to be Jac’s identical twin brother. Bendel remained unconscious.
The canopy cover over the cockpit dematerialized. Pursuer-Jac dismounted the Needlecraft and ran toward the Fish thirty feet forward. He broke into the ventral hatch on the escape vehicle and climbed up into the cabin. He pushed forward at lightning speed.
Yon opened the inner door. His eyes fell upon the pool of life. He jumped/dove and hit the pool dead center. His body drifted to the bottom.
Harry immersed in the details of his sandwich heard a splash below. He looked at the disturbance in the pool and wondered who or what fell in.
Yon jumped. Later he would claim that he did not jump, but was jumped, by Nez.
Harry was chomping on his sandwich and in a daze — looking down at the pool of life. Pursuer-Jac slammed into him.
“Jac, you’re here again?” Shocked and dismayed Harry faltered backward.
“You fool, it’s me,” Pursurer-Jac swung a blow to his jaw in the right spot and knocked him out. He dropped.
Yon’s ghost-like image, holding Touzdae as a destination; jumped.
“Let’s stop this ghost from jumping from the start. Shall we, Yon?” Nez uttered as Yon dozed on the steps of the Atlantian Temple.
“Sure, if you say so, Nez,” Yon replied yawning.
His thoughts and her actions stopped the ghost of Yon’s past from jumping.
Touzdae dreamt of Yon. He appeared at the opposite end of the hold and immediately said in a whisper, “It’s me, Yon.”
“You can speak in a normal tone. I have a dampening field up.”
“Okay,” he said approaching and disappearing.
“Am I the dumping ground for repeating time loops or is it my obsessions rearing their heads?” she asked waking.
Nez said goodbye to Yon. His spirit merged with his body in the pool of life. A giant grey porcelain thing had crushed his body and filled the pool. The shock of entering his body took the life force away and he passed.
the previous sub-chapter caught in a spacetime loop:
the previous chapter:
the next sub-chapter or 10.4.3 It Starts (for a Third Time). Photo Suppressed to Avoid Confusion about alternate times lines etc. …
Thank you for joining me in the adventures that span lifetimes and worlds. (If you do NOT wish to be tagged, let me know, and I’ll tag you not):
Barbara Murray | K. Pearson Bradley | May More 💜 Tales | Dougfrombk | Rebecca Romanelli | Joseph Lieungh | Adam Mackay | Dr. Preeti Singh | Pene Hodge | Ravyne Hawke | Dr Mehmet Yildiz | Kris Bedenian | Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀 | Blaine Coleman | madmess’s thoughts | Lee David Tyrrell | DL Nemeril | David Price | Rip Parker | Annelise Lords | Libby Shively McAvoy
