ARC OF THE IMMORTALS/ Book 1 — Part 2
Pursuit: 45/ Trapped
Recap: Luna captures Jac and Nez; Nez disappears. Bendel transports Jac into the cell where Crul Bahj was jailed. Bendel and Harry identify the location of the Needlecraft. Touzdae’s attempt to merge with the Nez realm fails. Fires break out on the ship. Touzdae gets as far as climbing into the crawl space in the engine core.
The Fish docks with the Needlecraft. Bendel decides to investigate the engine core. Recap Concluded — Now Onward…
[contains two scenes of violence]
Bendel opened the holographic plate and the hatch underneath it. Flashes of lightning darkened his helmet visor. He peered down the crawl space. A bolt of electrical energy attacked him, cracked his visor. Whiplashed, he recoiled. Banged the hatch down.
“Nobody could be in there.” He scurried through the transdimensional cabin. And slid open the canopy hatch to the airlock and climbed through.
He stepped back aboard the Fish.
“Harry, where are you? Don’t make me search for you.” Bendel’s exo-suit decompiled into his jacket. He strode down the passageway.
Harry depressed the red button. A bolt of electrical energy leapt from the corner of the cell and electrified Jac’s body. He slammed into the far wall of the cell.
“Stop what you are doing, now. Are you insane?” Bendel incensed. “We need him when we get to the beyond.”
“Won’t we need the rest of the fleet to complete the mission?”
“Come to the bridge with me, Harry, I will share my new plan there.”
Jac’s limp body floated within the cell, unconscious, with eyes open. Golden spirals turned inward to the dream body for past memory recreation. An Entu monk from the Bhantu Continuum was his teacher in this. Entering a past memory was a key to consciousness transfer.
“Don’t touch that,” Bendel barked at Harry who was about to detach the airlock from the Needlecraft.
“I’m going to use the bond to the airlock to create a glide path. It will push the Needlecraft into the paradox rings. As soon as there’s a bit of momentum, we’ll detach. If anyone returns the paradoxes will trap them; forever.”
“That’s so brilliant, Bendel. — Oh, and I forgot to tell you that an escape pod jettisoned as you entered the Needlecraft,” Harry smiled sheepishly.
The atmosphere within the Fish dimmed. It brightened from the dark smudge a small bit.
“What was that?” Harry in momentary shock.
“Nez Fish unconscious, or gone into hibernation,” Bendel surmised. “I ought to smash you one for not notifying me of the escape pod launch.”
“No life forms aboard,” Harry smiled and pointed at the read-out on a screen.
Bendel peered into the screen. “Good work. And a good save.”
“This is all right,” Touzdae whispered to herself. “I smashed a good one on that rotten Bendel. I can’t believe I was once deep in love with that creep, excrement. But he wasn’t a creep when I met him. Escape pod away at lightspeed.”
Take me to where I can be of service to Touzdae, Jack thought as he began the 27th breath exercise.
Clothed in an exo-suit she was within the med-cryo, light drive escape pod. “It’s cool in here. As it should be,” she said aloud to herself. “Let’s see what you’ve got. Neural wireless?”
“Better,” the pod responded. “Neural sensors plugged into your suit.”
“What’s the state of the ship?”
“No need to ask aloud. Think it,” the pod said. The thoughts came through, Much faster. Thought travels at the speed of light, faster — even! And I have a name. Geordae gave me a choice of several. Want to know my name?
You bet I do. What’s your name?
Majacolouray, or Maja for short.
Nice name, Maja, thanks. I want to sign off and I want you to sign off. Okay?
Yes. Call me when you need me, or when you want to converse. I like conversing, Maja sighed. Signing off.
Touzdae began the 27th breath exercise, prep for consciousness transfer. She noticed a written feed on the inside bottom of her visor. It read: “Motion of the ship detected. Momentum increasing. Leveling off.”
Maja, why are we moving?
The ship you know as the Nez Fish has propelled us towards the chaotic — what you call paradox rings of the Well. Do you want me to slow our rate of acceleration?
Arrival in the rings of paradox? Touzdae wondered.
Based on deceleration gradients about 21 minutes. I can slow the rate and avoid detection by the Nez Fish.
Yes, Maja slow the rate. Can you give us 45 minutes without detection by Nez Fish?
Done and doing more in a bit.
Thank you. signing off.
Signing off, Maja thought back.
To Touzdae, where I can help her, he thought. Jac transported to Von Deign’s ship. “Oh my Spirits, why here, in this distant past on Bendel’s father’s ship?”
Take me to Jac, I am helping him, she thought. She consciousness transferred into young Touzdae’s frantic body. She climbed into her Needlecraft. “I’ve got to get to the Well. Jac can’t be dead.”
Alarms sounded on Von Deign’s ship. “Sounds like an intruder alert.” A laz ray singed his shirt as he moved. “I’ve bi-located? How is this possible?” Jac was flabbergasted and on the move.
How is this possible? Touzdae demanded.
You need to be fully conscious for this, a voice answered. It was not her own. “Could be either, male or female?” Touzdae asked aloud. Who I am is of no consequence. Your presence is required as Young Touzdae’s observer.
Touzdae’s spirit inside her younger self acquiesced. Along for the ride, Touzdae thought.
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