ARC of the IMMORTALS/Book 1

Pursuit: Chapter 10.3 — hinterland

Recap: Jac lengthened the trailing end from the Fish up to one light year behind. The Needlecraft entered with Pursuer-Jac and Bendel on-board. The outer iris closed.

Jac looked into the small space behind Needlecraft’s cockpit where he saw Touzdae. and said: “I’ll be back in a second, sweetie,” he heard a version of himself talk to Touzdae. How curious, Jac thought.

Touzdae rolled the barely alive Harry into the Pool of Life. The Pool foamed and the water made mini-rapids in a tight circle. This continued longer than Touzdae expected it would. She left after ten minutes. She climbed the ladder to the bridge.

Jac opened the lower hatch at the bottom of the escape vessel. He climbed the ladder down to the plain of the Hinterland. Exterior lights illuminated the area around the Fish.

He heard someone clapping in the distance.

“Bravo, lad. Bravo,” the voice said and presumably the one clapping. Jac stepped out through an intense field of energy. Stillness. The hinterland seemed blank and devoid of life. He switched on his shoulder lamps. As he stepped forward a cobblestone path appeared underfoot. He felt it before he saw it.

Dilapidated shops appeared and a light in a fog that came from nowhere. The diffuse light permeated the ground fog. It was bright enough. Jac hadn’t noticed that the clapping had stopped until he reached the shop.

He stepped up under the overhang leading up to the door. A tiny figure in light descended from above. It fluttered a pair of gossamer wings surrounded by an aura of bright light. It was a small nondescript humanoid figure. It moved to his ear and said:

“Your Fa-Ma has granted you full access to the Confluences of Platforms beyond. Unlimited credit. But you will not need this because you have the light. You have already begun manifesting. You are the magic. Go back to your ship and to the woman that loves you.”

The village, the fog, and the lights disappeared. In a blink he found himself passing through the energy barrier to the ladder. And climbing up the ladder into the captain’s cabin/escape vessel.

Touzdae was waiting for him as he emerged from the depths of the ventral aft bottom of the ship.

“Hi, Jac. Would you like an update?”

“Sure,” he said and was taken aback by her forward manner.

She told him what had happened and concluded with: “Harry healed kind of. He’s resting in his bunk. Yon remains asleep in the dorsal escape airlock. I left him a note. Crul Bahj appears to be hibernating.”

“Good report,” he smiled. “Did you check on the progress of the Needlecraft?”

“Oh, my Spirits! I forgot it.”

“It’s okay. They’re still moving at a crawl,” Jac said.

“How do you know that?” Touzdae wondered.

Jac pointed to instrumentation that appeared in that instant behind her. It was the controls for the escape vehicle replete with navigational screens, sensors, shields, and a small weapons array.

Jac gestured for her to come to him. She tiptoed up to him on the verge of giggling.

“What’s the secret?” she asked.

“Closer,” he said.

He whispered in her ear.

She whispered back, “So a respite — a getaway or as they say on Terra Earth a ninety-ninth honeymoon.”

“Yup,” he said. “I was in Dreamtime a bit ago and I created three versions of the Escape Ship.”

“Did you ever consider a name?” Touzdae asked.

“A long time ago, after we had met I thought to call her Neadtouzac,” he said. Touzadae laughed.

“How about J Neadtouzac? That would better include more of you,” Touzdae was quick to reply.

“Good idea. Done!”

“When do we leave? Oh, almost forgot, don’t we have to travel through that iris across the bow?”

“No, in Dreamtime I was shown that there is a field that extends from the iris to include Nez and then some.”

“Even better.”

“Can’t you make this old bucket go faster?” Bendel dug into Pursuer-Jac.

“I’m exercising caution. They’re not going anywhere. Look at the plot on the screen to your right,” Pursuer Jac said.

“Since when do your aggressive dominating forces ever give sway to caution? Fool!” Bendel lashed into him.

“Shut up or I’ll gas you.”

“Now that’s more like you, Jac,” Bendel roared with laughter. He looked at the plot on the screen and saw the Nez a few miles from the inner Iris.

“Maybe some caution is called for,” Bendel acquiesced.

The J Neadtouzac faded and disappeared from the tail end of the Nez. Jac was at the helm. Touzadae strolled aft which became the new bow. As Jac turned the craft on plasma jets toward the iris he thought of the origins of Nez’s merging with the Sol Rae.

The hinterland faded out while an open space surrounded by three nebulae appeared. Jac positioned the craft in a stationary mode. Touzdae had disrobed and climbed into their bed. I am tired… they both thought.

They finished lovemaking for the twelfth time over the course of three days. There were long periods of sleep, rest and snacking. Jac slipped into his robe and stood at the port plasma portals. He gazed as if in a dream down towards the center nebulae. Nez, magnify, he thought. Oh right, you’re not here, his thinking revealed.

He walked back to the helm station and made adjustments, thinking of a binocular vision scope. It manifested in his right hand and he almost dropped it, surprised. Shocked.

“So this is instant manifestation,” he mumbled to himself. The golden dust appeared over his head leading back to the bed and Touzdae who was beginning to rouse.

He took the scope up to both eyes. Below the J Neadtouz, already he was shortening the name, he saw the Sol Rae colliding with a space mother being. The ship and the space mother merged. Jac wept. He went back to the bed and fell into it sobbing. Touzdae remained asleep.

He missed his ma-fa. She didn’t survive the merging. He saw her when he was four years old in Nez’s inner world, but… he sobbed again and fell asleep.

“What are you thinking, Jac?” Bendel asked.

“I tell you when I’m ready.”

“When will that be?”

“Twenty minutes.” Anything to put him off.

Touzdae had found the galley buttoned up in the wall. She opened it, went below to stores, and brought up some amazing fresh vegetables and spices.

The table was set. They ate a proper meal instead of protein bars and rations.

“You know we don’t have to go back,” Touzdae said. “We could bring Nez, Yon, and even Harry here and escape Pursuer forever.”

“That’s a nice thought. But…”

The last chapter:

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