ARC OF THE IMMORTALS/ Book 1 — Part 2
Pursuit: 58/ Reckoning
Recap: Bendel’s ships are decimated by the outer space swimmers.
Recap continued: Bendel’s occupation of the Nez returns to the Well of Souls in hopes of destroying the swimmers with the Dark Ray machine.
Touzdae bilocates to help Jac and finds herself with Hanna back on Von Deign’s ship. Hanna gives her code in order to communicate without outside detection. Jac meets Touzdae in Dreamtime and tells her of his future death in the past on Earth. Touzdae asks about her fate. Jac says “Something wonderful will happen.”
Sarz tortures Jac with seduction and sexual arousal in a plot to save him with strings attached.
Recap concluded and now…
“Correction,” Harry began, “we have lost all our ships save for thirteen. Way below our original number.”
“Baz, can that be right?” Bendel was crestfallen.
“Transferring data to your screens, now.”
Bendel stared at the screens. “You’re right, Harry.”
“Bendel, I’ve lost heartbeat on Jac. Propose I enter the trans-D tank minus the fluids.”
“Do it! Revive him. I want him out of the way, but I want to kill him, not some random accident.” Bendel railed, enraged.
Sarz shapeshifted into Jac’s body as the fluid drained. She found the problem and restarted his heart. She shapeshifted out and left a message behind.
Jac, where are you? Touzdae thought. She used the packets of code to communicate with Hannah. I cannot find Jac.
Yes, Hannah responded, he is being shielded by a powerful shapeshifter. An alchemical magician. Not our concern at this moment. Our survival is at issue.
A moment later. You have mastered the fragmentational communication of the packets, Hannah sent the thought to her.
Jac opened the message. Sarz had disrobed. She invoked a physical sensation from the last time they made love. And she dispersed it through the message space. Jac deflected the ruse. If you agree to flee with me and never see her again I will protect you from Bendel and you will not die again. She left him with a longing for her flesh.
He sent a message to her: I will meditate on what you have offered, he thought softly reflecting her lust back to her.
They are coming for you. For your DNA. Take this magnetite through your third eye. It will bind the DNA to the crystals and inhibit the use of the machine and protect you from them. Hannah sent the thought.
Touzdae saw a fine grain approaching through interdimensional space. She opened her third eye and “swallowed” the grains.
The guards removed her from the compact mobile jail and shackled her. They wrapped her in a mat of gel packs.
The Space Swimmer held in the metal net sent out a grating vibration. It reverberated throughout the Fish. Bendel’s additional machinery on the bridge began shorting out. Sparks flew. Fires ignited. The transdimensional cell: destroyed. Jac was in the cell below, Sarz glued to the monitor, watching him.
The net disintegrated. The Swimmer broke free.
“Stun it or kill it,” Bendel shouted.
“We will have to awaken Nez to do that, now that the systems are fried,” Baz said. “That would not be good.”
“Can we launch a missile, line of sight?” Bendel asked.
“Yes, but all the missiles have nuke warheads.”
The creature folded space and was gone. The compression from the folded space slammed into the Fish. the action dis-stabilized external and internal equilibrium. As Baz worked to compensate the Fish was thrust downward into the Well. They were in an aft spiral downward toward the paradox rings.
Bendel tried opening an emergency communication channel to the Deign higher up. It failed. Sarz sent a telepathic message to the Deign.
In a moment a stabilizer beam captured the Fish. A second attractor beam dragged the Fish out of the gravity waves of the Well. She was above her previous position, outside the major effects.
Bendel was in a rage. He tore down to the cell and fired his laz pistol into Jac’s gut and a second burst through his heart.
Jac was dead/dying. Sarz was powerless to bring him back. He was bleeding out. Bendel hoisted Jac’s dying body onto his shoulder. He threw his body into what was once the healing chamber; now destroyed. The shell of the hull around the room held together by forcefields revealed the outer space. The area was filled with refuse.
Von Deign kicked the Dark Ray machine. It started, stopped, and started again.
We failed and Jac is dead. He will not go into the past to stop the Dark Ray machine, Touzdae sent thoughts to Hannah. What does this mean for all the humanoids?
It is the end of life and light as we know it. Hannah replied in thoughts. Touzdae felt a hesitancy in her thoughts.
If you want to catch-up on any chapters you missed in part 2 [Part 2 contains link for contents of part 1 for reading with continuity]:
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