ARC OF THE IMMORTALS/ Book 1 — Part 2

Pursuit: 62/ Reckoning/Aftermath

Recap: Touzdae meets Jac in the aft area of the Fish. She is elated that he is alive. Touzdae shares what Nez told her she is dying due to poisoning. Jac explains that he may be a ghost if his body-

Recap continued: — is dead in the wrecked healing hub. He explains about the black roots growing in Nez’s brain. Touzdae bilocates herself and Jac to the healing disk as Bendel and Baz blast through the aft doors to the Captain’s Cabin.

During bilocation, Jac and Touzdae hear Antarian birds, and they see, forests, clouds, and worlds.

Bendel radios Harry, who is having trouble with the equipment. He reports problems with Luna’s Half-Life Chamber. Bendel rushes to the chamber and finds Luna dead because of the roots. He is enraged, blames others, and wants revenge.

Jac and Touzdae appear in the broken healing chamber. Sarz explains Tui Mai visited her and shows her the shambles of her life. She wants to make amends to Jac. She explains that she brought Arturo to help heal the healing disk. Jac’s body is three-quarters healed but cannot be moved yet.

The healing chamber, untouched by the black roots, is jettisoned from Nez and is drawn toward the Well.

[Language, violence]

End of recap and now…

“This is Harry, on Bendel’s Nez Fish, reading you, over,” Harry said.

“Your communication is statickey,” the Deign Frigate responded.

“Our ship is breaking into pieces. Please put an attractor beam on us, over.”

“Message breaking up, please say again.”

Harry coughed, the air filled with fine dust.

“PLEASE-PUT-YOUR-ATTRACTOR-BEAM-ON-US,” Harry said with volume; enunciating each word.

“Say Again, Please.”

He texted it and sent it.

Baz came up through the hatch. Harry put his head down on the console.

“Are you all right, Harry?” Baz choked on his words as he finished talking.

“Fine! Hear me now?” Harry was boiling over.

“Yeah, I hear you. What’s wrong?”

Harry turned. Baz’s mouth hung open and his re-breather fell out.

Bendel ran full-tilt toward the Cargo Bay. He plugged the holes in the bay with an emergency fix-it kit. Pressure stabilized.

“This fucking ship is falling apart,” he mumbled inside the makeshift suit. He took in a breath through the re-breather and calmed himself. He went to the Dark Ray Machine and pushed the extension buttons. The additional nine feet morphed through the 15-foot roof of the bay. He began the twenty-minute check and countdown for ignition.

The ejected healing disk was picking up momentum from the gravity in the Well.

Touzdae turned toward Sarz in the booth and turned up her speaker volume. “How much time before the healing completes or before I can move him?”

“I don’t know,” she responded after a minute.

“Make an educated guess,” Touzdae suppressed irritation.

Jac walked to the other side of the disk so he could look into the eyes of his body. This is so weird, Jac thought to himself. Touzdae followed behind him.

“Okay, I have to make calculations to come up with a good guess,” Sarz said. “I hate math.” Touzdae turned again to glare at her, but she was looking down presumably engaged in math.

Jac looked at the open eyes of his body. It was a relief to see he wasn’t in there, but sad to see a vacant look.

Harry collapsed to the deck in front of Baz. His face and hands riddled with the black roots growing inside his skin. Baz was coughing. He put the rebreather into his mouth and fixed the microphone to his throat. He used a handheld device to scan the air. The device read the air. Ninety-four percent saturation with black dust. He pushed a button on his suit. “Shit,” he said aloud. “Where is my transport? Where is my fucking ship?”

Touzdae contacted Maja aboard the Needlecraft, transferring instructions and orders. In a few moments, one of the Medi-Cryo Half-Life tubes transported near Jac’s body.

“I don’t trust her Jac,” she said to the exo-suited Spirit Jac. Jac nodded.

“Fifteen percent left to go before he can be safely transported out of here.” Sarz shouted through her communicator. The seams of the free-floating disk were being pulled apart by the Well of the Souls’ gravity.

Here’s our plan, Jac and she transferred the bulk of the plan telepathically to Jac.

As Bendel counted down, the second in command on the frigate Deign authorized the attractor beam. “Make sure we’re holding that ship together and not drawing it to us,” the commander said.

“Aye, Commander, got it,” the Chief of the Ship acknowledged. “Prepare to engage beam.”

“Ready to engage beam,” the Operator said.

“We’ve got to go,” Touzdae looked at Jac in the suit, Jac’s body, the Med-Cryo Half-Life Chamber, and at Sarz. “Healing done yet?”

“About ten or twelve percent left, I think,” Sarz responded over healing disk speakers.

“Can’t wait, we have to jump out of here, now,” Touzdae shouted.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven…” Bendel counted down as the Dark Ray Machine revved up to ignition release.

“Three, Two, One, ignition. Beam at 60% calibrated on the Nez.”

“Jump,” Touzdae began the bilocation jumps.

As the Dark Ray released, the attractor beam fixed on holding the Nez together. There was a massive implosion. The Nez, sucked into a dense space, through thousands of dimensions. Compacted and out of existence into another universe; it disappeared.

For a few seconds, there was nothing.

Rush outwards to explosion!

Clouds of gas formed and a tiny ball of light appeared*. Outside the Well, Bendel’s Frigate the Deign exploded.

The Needlecraft jumped nine parsecs outside the Well. Touzdae appeared in the pilot’s chair.

“Maja, state of the Medi-Chamber with Jac inside?”

“Nothing yet,” Maja replied. “But…”

Sarz appeared in the co-pilot’s seat completely charred head to toe, eyes wide open. “Sorry, I — ” and she was gone; pulled or jumped away.

“Force 12 shockwave approaching from the Well,” Maja reported. “We must jump.”

Touzdae froze. An unseen force folded space and they jumped.

Where are you, Jac? Touzdae called out in her mind to him. No answer. She was afraid to ask the question she was thinking: Are you gone?

The space-time between the jump lengthened. She saw her early life with her fama and mafa. She saw her fall in love with Bendel. She found her soul-mate Jac. She saw her indecision between Bendel and Jac. She felt the agony within the lengths she went through to create a temporary duplicate — Luna. Touzdae saw herself choose Jac… and she burst into tears.

The Needlecraft completed the space-time jump. It was a few days travel to Geordae Phorae’s shipyard. Jac was sitting next to her, asleep.

Touzdae turned her head with a slow deliberation.

“Jac,” she whispered. He opened his eyes.

“Thank you for saving and restoring my life. I am so tired.”

“Sleep, my love.”

Touzdae set the course for the shipyard and put it on automatic pilot in ion drive until an hour out from the yard. She dozed and saw a possible future in the Dreamtime:

A pilot, using instruments, flew across hundreds of miles of desert amid plumes of dust. A robust tall bald man sat next to him, cramped by the small space of the craft. The bald man resembled Bendel. The craft zoomed forward over the last of the desert through an ancient crumbling city. It slowed at a concrete fortress. It descended through an open metal door into the bowels of the earth.

“So this is the Obz Station,” Jac said. “It feels like centuries considering where we’ve been.”

“Do you think you’ll find the Fish through time in the future?” Touzdae asked.

“She’s not alive nor is she dead,” Jac remarked. “I don’t think so. I want to see if I can influence the past.”

“There is the danger of changing the timelines. I don’t want to lose you Jac.”

“Don’t worry, my love, I have no intention of breaking protocol.”

Touzdae sighed.

NOTE: *see artwork at the the beginning of this story for a change within the Well of Souls.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ THE END ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Book 2 Time Rifts begins with the first chapter soon.

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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Thank you for joining me in the adventures that span lifetimes and worlds. Blessings on your journeys and odysseys. (If you do NOT wish to be tagged, let me know, and I’ll tag you not):

Alison Hollingsead | K. Pearson Bradley| Dougfrombk | Rebecca Romanelli | Joseph Lieungh | Dr. Preeti Singh | Ravyne Hawke | Dr Mehmet Yildiz | Kris Bedenian | Alberto García 🚀🚀🚀 | Blaine Coleman | Lee David Tyrrell | DL Nemeril | Rip Parker | Annelise Lords | Libby Shively McAvoy |