Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing.

by Timothy Ellis

"People keep giving me rank. What can you do? So, I guess in terms of military rank, I outrank her, but in terms of civilian ranks, she's now royalty? The Darkness war ending like it did, really seems to have paid off for her. I never wanted to be a king, and since I no longer have even a duchy, I guess I'm not really a Duke either. I own a space station and a small fleet of warships and freighters, but we don’t even know where we are at the moment. Could be anywhere."

  "How do you not know where you are?"

  "Higher beings we think. Possibly Kali."

  Warspite nodded.

  "I heard rumours about her. You know Kali?"

  "We’ve met a few times. I spent about fifteen minute's dead once, while we chatted with Ganesha in my ready room."

  Warspite froze, but he recovered quickly.

  "You were dead, but also alive at the same time?"

  "Scared the hell out of us too," interjected Amanda.

  I nodded.

  "Kali and Ganesha?"

  I nodded again.

  "Ganesha has been poking things in the Gaia galaxy as well. There's even a species there which look like him."

  "They weren't the only ones too."

  "Weren't the only what?"

  "Higher beings involved."

  "Perhaps I understand why we're here now."

  "Yeah, I guess so. Highers do what they like, and you suck it up and deal."

  "You mentioned a Darkness earlier," said Snark. "Is there a story attached to that? I never could get any history out of that mop head over there."

  "Sure is."

  "I’d like to hear it."

  Over another couple of rounds, we all told the story of the last two years. It was basically the edited highlights, but enough to understand what happened.

  "You saved the universe? By causing a time line shift? That’s pretty heroic."

  Both Jane's started laughing.

  "That's him, yes," said Jane2. "He was a true hero to the end."

  "And you want to know the punchline?" asked BA. "Kali and the highers never figured out how to do it. It took Jon to come up with the idea, a lot of people to agree to cease to exist for the greater good, and two magicians and a lesser higher to implement it."

  "Seems a lot more happened, than either Jane or I and the other AI's knew about."

  "That was the problem with the jump point being closed," I said. "Everything which happened after, was unknown to everyone but those few with me."

  The bell tinkled again, and we turned to see a man enter.

  He was carrying a staff.

  Twenty Eight

  He was an average looking young man.

  I guessed a few years older than me, so maybe twenty two, three, four-ish. He was solidly built, and with a bit extra around the middle. Very average looking, except the intensity in his eyes, and the staff.

  There was something about the staff. I felt my sword appear on my back. Without seeming to control my arm, I drew the sword, and held it out in front of me. It shifted shape, and became the staff I'd used on a few occasions. All eyes were drawn to it, including mine.

  The man at the door was not happy.

  "Whoever brought me here had better put me back immediately, or there will be hell to pay."

  No-one was in any doubts at all, but of course, none of us had brought him here.

  "We don’t know who brought us here," said Jane. "Come and join us."

  He looked at her suspiciously for a moment, and began to walk over. But he didn’t join us at the bar, instead choosing one of the standing tables nearby. He let go of his staff, and it stood there on its own.

  I couldn’t help but compare them, and it seemed everyone else was as well.

  "Jon?"

  "Yes Amanda?"

  "Isn't that your staff?"

  I walked over, and stood mine next to his. For the few seconds it stayed up, they did indeed look identical. Half way to the floor, it suddenly stood back up again. All eyes went from the staffs, to the stranger.

  "Jon Hunter," I said, holding out my right hand.

  He eyed my hand for a moment, before taking it.

  "Judge Thorn," he said.

  "That explains it," said Jane.

  "Explains what?" asked BA.

  "This is Thorn. Spacemage and judge. This is eighty years in the future for him."

  "What?" exclaimed Thorn. "How do you know me?"

  "He's who the author's been writing for the last eight months." She looked him in the eyes. "We're all characters in books our author writes."

  "Did write," I corrected. "He's been dead for six hundred years."

  "You're serious?"

  "Very," said BA.

  "But how do you know me?"

  He was looking at Jane. He noticed there were two of them, looked back and forth, but settled on the first one.

  "I'm an Artificial Intelligence, using an android body. I've access to every book written since books began being written. As it happens, I know an avatar of a dark matter nebula who can time travel, and so I spent some time keeping an eye on the author, while he was writing you."

  "Absolutely nothing stalker-ish about that," I muttered, causing everyone to laugh.

  "Time travel? I didn't know anyone else could do that."

  "Else?" asked Amanda.

  "You can?" asked Aleesha.

  Thorn seemed confused to find a second pair of twins, especially since these two were identical in every way. His eyes moved from one to the other, over to the two Janes, and back again.

  "They're human twins," said Alison. "And I can't say I've ever caught them reading a book."

  The laughter continued, and Thorn's face took on the look of someone suddenly confronted with too many confusing things at the same time.

  "So who brought me here?" he said, avoiding the original question about time travel.

  "We don’t know," I said, "but the drinks are good. And perhaps whoever it was had some reason for us all being here at the same time?"

  "Can't think why," muttered BA.

  "We all needed a good party?" suggested Snark. "I know I did."

  Thorn seemed to have noticed Snark for the first time. Jane2 did the introductions for everyone else, and Thorn seemed to relax a bit.

  "Other than Snark, it's nice to put names to faces. I saw you once in a scrying platter, all saying yes to something. The Oracle told me I’d be meeting you someday, although I don’t think this is what she meant."

  He saw confusion on our faces, and laughed for the first time. But instead of clarifying, he looked around the whole bar, and suddenly instead of standing tables, or tables with stools around them, there was a large space with a ring of lounge chairs.

  Warspite almost had his electronic eyes pop out. The glass he was wiping dropped out of his hands, and shattered at his feet. He busied himself with cleaning up the mess.

  "How did you do that?" asked Aline.

  "I told you he was a Spacemage," said Jane. "Mage. Magician. Magic."

  She took a seat, Thorn followed, with him waving me into the seat next to him. Aline sat next to me, and held onto my arm. Thorn saw her doing it, and smiled.

  "My wife does that with me."

  "Don’t give her ideas," I muttered.

  Aline frowned, but the others laughed. I watched Snark bound up into his lounge chair, turn around three times in one direction, once back the other way, and then flopped down. So like a cat. His suit shifted to a belt, showing him to be furless, and he stuck one hind leg up in the air, and proceeded to lick it.

  "What?" he said, when he noticed everyone was watching.

  Jane2 lost it, causing the rest of us to laugh as well, and with as much dignity as he could muster, the leg folded down, and his belt turned back into his red suit.

  "You have a PC?" I asked him.

  "I do indeed, thanks to Jane here. Took them long enough to figure out how though. Jane did me a limited external pad based one to start with, but there was a bug in the code somewhere which kept turn
ing it canary yellow."

  When we finished laughing again, Thorn turned to me.

  "Did you really blow up a sun? An Oracle showed me it happening once."

  "Not so much blew it up, but trigger it to go red giant early."

  "You used the staff?"

  "It's not a staff."

  "What is it then?"

  "Kali's Sceptre."

  "Kali doesn’t have a sceptre," said Warspite unexpectedly, now standing beside Thorn, offering him a beer, which he took, and sipped. He nodded to Warspite.

  "She does, but she never carries it herself."

  "Why not?" asked Warspite and Thorn together.

  "She is called Kali the Destroyer for a reason. On the occasions she carries it herself, star systems die."

  "Who is this Kali?" asked Thorn.

  "The woman on the staff."

  Both staffs came flying over to stand next to our chairs. Thorn picked his up, and looked closely at the images, as if for the first time.

  "Four arms?"

  "Yes," said Jane. "We've met her a few times."

  "Is that the same staff?" asked Alison.

  The room went silent. I looked at Jane.

  "I don’t know. If it is, it hasn’t been documented."

  "How could it be?" asked Amanda.

  I looked at Thorn.

  "Jane said you were eighty years ahead of your time coming here?"

  "If she's right, I guess so. But I received the staff about three thousand years before that."

  "How can that be?" asked Aleesha.

  All eyes were on Thorn now.

  "I was born three thousand odd years before where I currently live. A magic accident threw me into the future, and a few years later, I figured out how to go back. I thought I was fixing a mistake I made, but actually, I was fixing what you did."

  He pointed at me.

  "Me? What did I do?"

  "You changed the timeline Jon, remember?"

  Jane was sounding very matter of fact.

  "It caused a civilization to vanish," went on Thorn, "and I thought I'd killed it. I went back to fix it, and instead was told you did it, and it resulted in me moving the ancestors of the civilization to another planet."

  "Are you saying there are humans besides us out there in the galaxy?" asked Aline.

  "Yes. I moved five Kingdoms out to different planets, and then my own people to the future on the one we originated on. Why? Where are you from?"

  Jane explained the arm of the galaxy we'd originated on. Thorn nodded along the way. Jane2 explained humans were in another galaxy as well.

  "I know the planet you originated from then. I sighted it back when I was looking for where to put kingdoms. You were pre space flight though. I can't say I've looked since I returned home. But I will when whoever brought us here sends me back."

  "I doubt it," said Jane. All eyes turned to her. "I don’t think we'll be remembering any of this."

  "Why not?" asked BA.

  "Just a hunch. The book bar I thought this was originally was special, and no-one retained memory of going there. This isn’t it, but I've been thinking for a while now, this whole jumping through books thing might not be something we can retain."

  "Back up," said Alison. "It's not yet been explained how this can be the same staff."

  Thorn and I looked at each other, possibly thinking the same thing. A nice thread highjack, wasted.

  "Thorn was obviously given the sceptre as a child," said Jane. "Three thousand years ago. He carried it to the future, to eighty years ago, and back again, where his Oracle connected him to its manifestation as a staff. Up until then, I’d guess it was adding power to his magic, but not needing to manifest at all. After all Jon, you did some amazing things before the sword manifested for you." I nodded. "Thorn then takes it back to the future, and thus here."

  "So Thorn is an earlier sceptre carrier then?" I asked her.

  "Yes. After he dies, it will most likely rebound back nearly three thousand years, and be given to others in a long line until it reaches you."

  "So what happens if they touch?" asked Aline.

  "The time line shorts out, and this bar becomes dust," I said.

  Both Janes started laughing.

  "You've been watching too much Who, Jon," said Jane.

  Twenty Nine

  "But who is Kali?" asked Thorn.

  "Higher being," I said.

  "What does that mean?"

  "There are a number of levels as I understand it. We are one of the lower levels. Above us are the Ascended Masters, who are like us, only outside time. Above them are the suns, who all have avatars, and above them the great nebulae. Those are ruled by a council of twelve, who Jane and I met. Thirteen, who we think might have brought us here, is one of them, and he appears to us as a man."

  I looked around to see if Thirteen had appeared, hearing his name, or not. Apparently not.

  "Above them are Angels, ArcAngels, and what some call gods. Jane and I met quite a few of them too. Kali is considered a God by some, but I prefer not to use the g word, and call them all highers."

  "Would a higher be able to change a small push a day into the future, into a three thousand year jump?

  "Pretty likely, yeah."

  "That would explain a few things then."

  He sat there, apparently brooding. Warspite refreshed our drinks again, and I finally noticed something. None of us were getting drunk. I cast a look at Warspite, and as if he knew what I was thinking, he shrugged his shoulders. I think it was more because he couldn’t tell, than not knowing why.

  "What are we to Kali then?" Thorn finally asked.

  "Hard to say," I said. "The sceptre is a burden, but it's also a power for good. Kali doesn’t give it to just anyone. You need to have a certain mindset for a start, which includes a strong moral and ethical code."

  He snorted, making me wonder where his code lay. Then again, he was a judge, and Kali would look past any youthful indiscretions to find someone who would wield the power the way she wanted. She didn’t have much to overlook with me, having been brought up spiritual. But I gained the impression Thorn hadn't always been judge material. My impression? Maybe not.

  "Does she own us?"

  I chuckled.

  "No. We do her bidding on occasions, sometimes unknowingly, sometimes against our preferences, but all towards some plan only she knows. But we live our own lives."

  "And you're both only just starting yours," said Alison.

  "How long have you been married?" asked Aline, changing the subject abruptly.

  "Not long," he said.

  "Did you know each other very long?"

  "Not really. For her it was a few months. For me it was a bit over five years."

  I could see where Aline was going with this, but his answer stumped her.

  "How do we get out of here?" I asked Warspite, trying to deflect the conversation again.

  "No idea. Presumably you can leave anytime you want. Just go through the door, and you'll be back where you came from. Once you're all gone, hopefully I'll be back where I came from too."

  "I'm not sure we want to go back there," said Amanda, hurriedly.

  I tended to agree with her. We all wanted this to end now.

  "I guess it doesn’t matter," said Jane. "Whoever's been moving us through all these books, should just pick us up and move us on to the next one."

  I felt my face light up.

  "So if we stay here, we never get dumped into another book again?"

  "No Jon," said Jane. "We're not staying here forever."

  "How do you know?"

  "All books end. This might not be a book, but this is no different. Our time here has to end."

  "Well if it has to end, it's time it ended back where we started."

  I was surprised how emphatic that came out.

  "I'm not going back to limbo," said BA. "Anything is better than that."

  Everyone looked at me.

  "What?"

>   "It's up to you Jon," said Jane. "Are you ready for the story to continue?"

  I sighed.

  "I guess so."

  "My job is done then," announced Snark, causing everyone to laugh.

  He jumped down from his chair, and extended a hand to Jane2.

  "May I escort you home majesty?"

  "You may."

  She looked around at all of us.

  "I am really glad you're all ok. Even if I forget this wonderful meet up, somewhere at the soul level, I'll know you’re all safe. I think we all will. Come on Snark. It sounds like these people have things to do ahead of them, and so do we. Bye all."

  "Nice meeting you," said Snark.

  The two of them walked to the door and pushed it open. Red light streamed in.

  "Bloody mop heads!" muttered Snark, and the two of them stepped out, and the door closed.

  Thorn rose.

  "Also nice meeting you all. Interesting test this. One wonders if magic can retain the memory, when one isn’t supposed to."

  "You'll let us know if we ever meet again?" suggested Jane.

  "Perhaps," he laughed. "Bye."

  He walked to the door, turned, closed his eyes for a moment, opened them, waved, and was gone.

  "He didn’t take his staff," said Alison.

  The two staffs were still standing upright beside each other. The door opened again, our heads snapped around to see if someone else was coming through, but no-one did, and it closed again. When we turned back, both staffs were gone. I called for my sword, and it appeared on my back, making sitting somewhat uncomfortable. I let it go, and it faded.

  "Our turn," said Jane. She turned to Warspite. "Thanks for your hospitality Warspite."

  "You're welcome. As if I had a choice though."

  Aline rose, pulled me up, and started leading me to the door. The others followed. As soon as we were beyond where the original tables had been, the whole room changed back the way it was.

  "Did Thorn do that?" asked Aleesha.

  "Well it wasn’t me," I said.

  Warspite offered me a sort of bow, I nodded in reply, and pushed the door open.

  I waved the others through, and the last thing I saw was Warspite vanish.

  I stepped through as well.

  Was That You?

  Thirty