Space around me was not familiar.
As I looked around I saw no planets.
There were many asteroid fields.
In the distance, two gas giants.
A movement in front of me caught my eye.
A black dot had appeared at long range.
As I watched, another dot appeared.
Then another.
Then ten, a hundred, a thousand.
Space in front of me turned black.
Suddenly I was on a planet.
Ahead of me was all black.
I was standing in the center of a line of giant combat suits.
We fired into the black with everything we had.
The black washed over us.
One by one, the combat suits fell, and stopped firing.
I was alone in the black.
Darkness took me.
Thirty Five
I woke up on sand. The sun was shining. A cool breeze blew softly across my skin. Aline was leaning over me. Topless. I looked down. No, naked. I closed my eyes and waited to wake up again.
"Welcome back Jon."
I opened my eyes. The sand and sun were still there, and Aline was still naked.
"Back? Have I been somewhere?"
"You tell me. I found you on your bed, out cold, Angel franticly licking your face. I couldn’t wake you up either. Thirteen told us you'd wake up when you were ready. We assumed you were off somewhere."
"Not as far as I know. I had the nightmare again, only it had something more to it. The Darkness took me at the end. How long was I out?"
"It's late-morning the next day."
"So I had a really good sleep. Except I seem to still be dreaming because this is not my bed."
She laughed.
"No Jon. You really are on a beach."
"Why?"
"Jane told us you were never going to take a vacation on your own, so we took the opportunity to take you on vacation while you were out."
"A beach?"
"This is Gold Coast. You remember you own an island here."
My home away from home. I’d forgotten about this one. I sat up, and looked up the beach. The mansion we'd captured from pirates was there as I remembered it. I looked down. I was wearing shorts.
"Who else is here?"
"Just the twins. Jane ran us here in Gunbus. Jeeves is pottering around somewhere."
I looked up and down the beach, but neither twin was visible. Aline laughed again.
"They had a dip after we arrived here, and settled down with the vids Jane wanted them to look at."
"So I'm the only one actually getting a vacation?"
"We're getting the vacation. Oh, and its doctor's orders too. I'm not allowed to let you go anywhere for a week."
"Five days. Slice's new Cruiser comes out of the shipyard then. I need to be there for the trials."
"Good. Let's go see what Jeeves has for lunch."
Amanda joined us as soon as we entered the dining room. Aleesha came in as a small buffet was being laid out. We picked at the food, and sat eating for a while.
"I don’t think its Nexus," said Amanda after a while.
"Nexus?"
"We're looking at the vids in order of distance to here. So Nexus is first. I'm not all that far into it, but my gut says it's not Nexus."
"I feel the same," added Aleesha. "But Jane told us to be thorough. So we will be."
"How come you're doing this here?"
"No interruptions," said Amanda. "If we stayed on the station, BA would have been after us all the time for her boot camp. We're fast forwarding as it is, but this task is going to take days."
"And the rest," suggested Aleesha.
"Okay, well don’t let me interrupt you. Did you see the nightmare last night?"
"We did," said Amanda. "Really odd. It was the original one, where you were alone."
"What about the new part?"
"What new part?" asked Aleesha.
"The line of combat suits?"
They looked at each other, and back to me.
"No extra Jon. You saw more?"
"Yes."
"You've seen the line of combat suits before?" asked Aline. "Haven’t you Jon?"
"Several times now."
"And this time you saw the suits after the darkness in space?"
"Yeah."
"What does that mean?" asked Amanda.
I shivered. I had a pretty good idea what it meant. No-one could see their own future.
"No idea," I said.
They looked at me as if they knew I was lying, but didn’t want to challenge it.
"Come on Jon," said Aline. "The girls have work to do, and we have some serious skinny dipping to get on with."
Aline pulled me away from the table, walked me into the master suite, where she pulled my shorts and briefs off. I shifted my belt into shorts for the walk back to the beach, feeling a slightly tighter fit around the groin than I normally felt, and she led me back to the beach. Now I knew why I wore underwear. The suit adjusted to what it was going over.
The water, after we were naked again, was just perfect. While we were splashing around, it occurred to me there was no point in me having simulated shorts, since the only people there had seen me naked many times before. What had I been thinking of? What the hell was wrong with me?
Thirty Six
Four days later, I felt relaxed and content. My mood at the beginning had started me watching the original Supernatural. I'd binge watched it, even while sunbaking on the beach using a popup hollo screen, only stopping to make love to Aline, and get a little sleep. I now had Wayward Son on the brain. Only I kept hearing a slightly different version, where I'd get peace when I was dead, rather than done. Being done might be the same as being dead anyway. After all, to know is to die. Oddly, I felt fine about that at the moment. Watching main characters keep coming back time after time, did give one a sense of the ridiculous after all. When the Darkness finally caught me, I'd be done with Prophesy. Done with everything. No coming back for me. Peace at last.
Aline and I had started to bronze up. I was de-stressing nicely. Watching other people's pretend stress was good for removing stress. I could feel the difference in me. The months we'd been away, travelling the length of the spine and back, long periods of boredom followed by intense action and stark terror, fell away from me. It wasn’t enough, but it was a good start.
It was Amanda who ruined it.
"Sorry to interrupt your beach time Jon, but I think I've found the right image."
"Where?"
"Come and see for yourself."
"Be right there. I better shower first."
She turned and walked briskly back inside, while Aline gathered our towels and things, and followed after her. A short shower turned into a longer shower.
"Jeez you two," said Aleesha, peering in through the fogged up glass. "Get a room."
"We did," said Aline.
We all chuckled.
"Well now isn’t the time. You need to see what we found."
I followed Aline out, we toweled off, put on the basics, and shifted into 'slinky red'. Aleesha waited for us, and we followed her into the mansion's main theatre room.
Amanda was waiting for us, and she immediately threw a vid to the wall. The image was frozen, showing a sun, asteroid fields, and two gas giants. Certainly what the nightmare had contained, but not where they were.
She waved again, and the image began to move in fast motion. The asteroids moved quickly, the gas giants slowly.
"Stop," I said suddenly, and Amanda froze the image.
I pulled it out into full three dee, using almost the entire room, and walked into it a little way.
"Here," I added.
The twins joined me.
"Yes," they said together.
"What system is this?" I asked.
"Pestilence," said Amanda.
"There is the Death jump point," said Aleesha, pointing into the image.
"When?" I asked.
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"We don’t know," said Amanda.
"We need Jane for that," added Aleesha.
"Thirteen, show your arse here now!"
I looked around for him, and sure enough, he was standing behind us. Aline jumped.
"How long have you been here?" I asked him.
"I came with you."
"Well you don’t need to skulk anymore. If you want to see the girls naked, just join them when they are, and be a real person. If you’re here, be here. Or just plain piss off altogether."
"Fair comment, but you don’t need to sound so bitter about it."
"You spied on us for a year. I call that a very good reason for being pissed at you."
"Also a fair comment."
"Do you know when this will be?"
"Why would I?"
I sighed.
"One could shoot forward along the timeline and tell you to the minute. I can't. I'm still time locked to you."
"Well tell One to get on with it."
He laughed.
"Good luck with that."
"Fine. I'll message Jane to come get us."
"Don’t bother. I'll be back in a sec."
He vanished. And reappeared a few seconds later.
"She'll be here in a few minutes. You might want to spend that time packing."
"Wasn’t she on Hunter's Haven?" asked Aline.
"She was. But I went back in time just enough for Gunbus to make the journey back here."
"I thought you said you couldn’t travel the timeline?"
"Going back is easy. Returning is just as easy. Its forward from where you are now I can't do."
"That really chaps your arse, doesn’t it?"
"More than you can possibly know."
We all grinned at his discomfort.
Something landed on the roof, and very shortly after, Jane joined us.
"We need to know when this is Jane."
She went very still, and stayed that way for an hour. We sat and waited. Aline rose after five minutes and went to pack our stuff. She was back before, at last, Jane stirred.
"Confirmed. Pestilence system."
"When?"
"As near as I can tell, six months from now."
Thirty Seven
"I don’t want to do this."
"Do what?"
"Lead the people I love to their deaths."
"Even if it means saving a good chunk of the human race?"
"Why are they more important?"
"All beings are equal."
"Yeah, but some are more equal than others."
"Not really. Some egos pretend they are. Those you know and love seem to be. But it's an illusion."
"Illusion or not, why do the people I love have to die to save people I've never met before, and never will?"
"So has it ever been. The few protect the many, so a race survives."
"Are we worth surviving?"
"What do you think?"
"I think the longer I see people, the more I prefer my cat."
"Ha-ha. That’s been around since the cat was domesticated."
"Just how many will we save? If the Darkness arrives at the other end of the spine in six months, it leaves us six months to move billions into a single system. It's not enough time to get ready. It's not enough time to move so many stations and ships so far. Sure, we might save most of the Australian sector, and some of the Sci-Fi and American sectors, some Brits and a few Canadians, and maybe, just maybe, some from other sectors who leave up spine as soon as the defense starts, but is there really any point?"
"Isn't saving even a few million worth it?"
"You mean is saving a few million worth sacrificing myself and everyone I love?"
"Yes. Isn't it?"
"Not when we have no way of sealing them off so the Darkness can't get them."
"And what makes you think you won't?"
"Because we don’t, and I can't see us developing far enough in six months to be able to come up with anything that powerful."
"Maybe you don’t have to."
"What does that mean?"
"You have what you need. All you need to do is figure out how to make it do what is necessary."
"Fine. Why me?"
"Sometimes, there is only one."
"Why me?"
"You know? I asked the same thing. Two and a half millennia ago."
"And what answer did you get?"
"What makes you think I got one?"
"So we have to choose to drink the poisoned wine?"
"Such is freewill."
"What if we choose not to?"
"Would we be the one if that was ever going to happen?"
"I guess not. So we have no freewill after all?"
"Oh we had freewill. We made the choices before beginning the life."
"So why do we fight it?"
"Freewill again. Once you're in the foxhole, freewill does allow you to question why you agreed to dive into it in the first place."
"But once you're in, you're in?"
"Yes. The choice was made before you were born. Life is about understanding the choice."
"To know is to die?"
"Yes. And no. Those who finally do understand, often die in that moment. An exit point opens up, and they take it. For others, it gives them the courage to crawl out of the foxhole, and do what they agreed to do. Some of them die at that point as well, but their death has significance for others. And some live through it, and go on to whatever they agreed to beyond the foxhole."
"Which did you choose?"
"It was sort of both at the same time."
"So you were the one?"
"In a way."
"If I'm the one, does that mean when I die I become an ascended master like you?"
"You are an ascended master now. You did the spiritual work. You experienced ascension. When you do die, you will join us. But who said anything about you dying?"
"You didn't disagree before."
"Everyone dies sometime."
"I'm nineteen years old. I know the Darkness takes me. If it's here in six months, the likelihood is, I won't turn twenty."
"Nothing is certain."
"Generally speaking? Or in just this instance?"
"Both. Those who have seen to it you were born, trained, and made ready for this task, are rolling the dice as much as you are. All else they tried failed."
"So no pressure."
"Only that which you put on yourself."
"What happens if I fail?"
"There is no such thing as failure."
"You said the highers failed in everything they tried."
"So they did. But failure isn’t in itself a problem. Like everything, it's how you react to what happens which is the important thing. Something not having the desired outcome isn’t failure, even if that label is applied, when you learn from it, and try again."
"So I'm just the next attempt?"
"In a way, yes. Some pretty high beings had to admit they chose wrongly in order to make this next attempt. It doesn’t matter what level of existence you are at, how you react to what happens is still the most important thing."
"So I'm reacting badly now?"
"Your reaction wasn’t the best, but given the curve balls thrown at you, you've done okay. You have most of what you need now. You've had time to process. You've a lot of support, both from those who love you, and the highers. Where you go from here, and how you go about it, is all that matters now."
"So full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes?"
"Perhaps. There is a lot of history you can choose from. Both what worked, and didn’t work. And not all of what you have to draw on actually happened."
"Learn from history, or you're doomed to repeat it?"
"Not really. But what you face has happened to groups of humans before."
"How did they fare?"
"Badly."
"You mean they died?"
"Not all of them. You should know this. You studied the histor
y you needed to know."
"How do I do this alone?"
"You're never alone."
"Huh? You see those tracks along the beach? There are two of us, and only one set of tracks."
"That’s because I've been carrying you. Don’t you think it's time you stood on your own feet again?"
I stood there on the beach, looking out over the surf towards the moon.
Thirty Eight
"Jon?"
I turned to see the four of them standing a short way away. Aline, who was my girlfriend. Amanda and Aleesha, who were joined to me in a special way. And Jane, my companion and best friend.
"Yes?"
"Who were you talking to?"
"You didn’t see him?"
"Him who?"
Aline was asking, but the others seemed equally curious.
"Jesus and I were walking the beach."
"Oh."
It wasn’t a questioning Oh, more an acceptance Oh.
"Are we leaving now?" asked Amanda.
"What's the time?"
"Late enough, especially if you want to make the Shipyard in time for the launch."
"Let's be off then. I think I'm done here."
"You sound better," said Aleesha. "Did your talk with Jesus help?"
"It seems so."
"Then he gets our thanks," said Aline. "We were getting worried about you."
"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday."
"Deep," said Jane.
The gig dropped lightly on the beach beside us, and without another word, we climbed in. I looked back at the sand from the hatchway. One set of footprints led back to where I'd been standing looking at the moon. There were two more prints next to the last pair of mine. Those prints meandered up the beach. I shut the hatch.
Gunbus was waiting above us, and while Jane flew us to Outback, the four of us went to bed. Angel curled up next to my head as usual. She seemed content to be moving again, even after enjoying her few days in the sand. Maybe she missed her brother and Nut. Who could really tell what went on in the mind of a cat? I wasn’t even sure what was going on in my own.
I lay there watching a popup of Gold Coast receding into the distance. Say goodbye to another home.
Maybe Aline was right.
Home was where we were.
Thirty Nine
The Cruiser slid out of the shipyard bay without any fuss. Slice and I were standing on the Bridge of Apricot One. Gunbus was still docked at her side.
Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is Page 15
