ARC of the IMMORTALS/Book 1

Pursuit: 10.4 — It Starts

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.”

[scenes of intense violence & destruction]

“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 or triple redundancy prison where thoughts of escape tighten the prison walls inside the mind of the prisoner? Touzdae asked.

“Exactly.” A look was cast over Jac’s face.

“What’s wrong? she asked him.

“We have to go back. Now.”

Pursuer-Jac engaged the Hyper-Light Speed engines for one ninth 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 J Neztouz materialized on the tail end of the Fish as the Needlecraft appeared. Their craft rocked forward and back from recoil as a result of the 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. 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 him.

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 jump to where Touzdae is now,” Jac opened the outer door of the escape airlock and stepped onto the hull. He ran forward into a scoop that 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.

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?” Harry was shocked.

“You fool, it’s me,” Pursurer-Jac swung a blow to his jaw in the right spot and knocked him out. He dropped.

The Fish shut down. There was a descending whir.

“Shit, this is bad,” Pursuer-Jac said. “What’s that?” A soft mechanic clicking was heard by P-Jac.

Laser strikes saturated the space. P-Jac was cut into pieces. Harry was obliterated.

Yon, holding Touzdae as a destination; jumped. He was on the bridge for what seemed like a billions-in-time-less-than-a-wink; in Fish’s core — bouncing against the walls, and in the stores beneath the captain’s cabin.

Yon 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. “It’s crazy out there.”

Yon sat.

“Are you hungry, Yon?” she asked.

He nodded vigorously. “There’s not a lot of meat here. Plenty of vegetables and vegetable protein. There is some Uru-Yak jerky.”

“I’ll have a few bites of the jerky and whatever you’re eating,” he said.

The lasers ripped up the bridge where Yon had been. It was as if the ship’s defenses had gone berserk, stark-raving-insane. Or it was following Yon’s scent? Lasers cut open Crul Bahj’s cell and dissected him. Lasers cut through the pool of life and cut open the bottom of the Fish. When the lasers cut through the main passageway aft it hit a fuel line above where Yon had transported into Fish’s core.

Jac was poised at the Iris in the platform. He peered at the images coming through.

“No — “ he yelled as the Fish blew-up. The explosion completely obliterated the Nez Fish. A second explosion took out the Needlecraft. They were all gone. No one was left. They were all dead. Jac wept.

He stopped and blew out the field that he had rode in on. As he rode out he watched the first escape craft whither and die on Fish’s back end. As he landed on the Fish, time went backward until he arrived in the escape craft and it faded from view.

“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 or triple redundancy prison where thoughts of escape tighten the prison walls inside the mind of the prisoner? Touzdae asked.

“Exactly.” A look cast over Jac’s face.

“What’s wrong? she asked him.

“It’s deja vu…”

“What did you say Jac?”

“We have to go back. Now.”

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