#Jeri Quill

[foolnamedjoey]

I did a silly

[somediyprojects]

Death by Cross Stitch stitched by Jeri. Pattern (£22.50) designed by Julia Line of Long Dog Samplers.

Red "Deaths" seem to be a bit like London's famous red buses. You don't see one for ages and then two come along at once. Travellers tip: get on the second one as it tends to be less crowded.

This magnificent beast took Jeri seven years to finally conquer and she did it all on 40# Platinum Zweigart and 20+ shades of Victorian Motto dusty rose, coral and deep red threads.

Now this is the bit that really cracks me up. Jeri just casually dropped into the narrative that she did tinker a bit and deviate from the original chart but nothing major. Nothing bloody major my woman? I'd hate to see what your "major" looks like. She just completely axed the alpha and slotted in a quotation of her own choosing. And a very good choice it was too. I salute you! Have some cake while you get your breath back.

Adding that wording was a stroke of genius and for anyone unable to zoom in, either through encroaching old age or dodgey IT equipment, it goes thus:

"The road goes ever on and on and I must follow if I can."

Any dedicated Tolkienistas in our ranks will recognise this snippet immediately, but if you're more a Rose Tremayne sort of a stitcher, it's a walking song that JRR Tolkien wrote for his Middle Earth legendarium. The theme of the poem is finding one's place in the great scheme of things and can be used as a metaphor for life. Quill is still looking for his, bless him, but I don't think he'll find it in The Ratte Catchers.

—Julia Line, designer

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #46 Pocket Sliders

     “We’re back,” Melinda Summers said as she walked up to the lake on the planet that would one day be named Trantor, along with her team.  “Ohm?”      Ohm laid the body of Jack Masterson on the ground right by the edge of the lake.  Mary Bishop, Imhotep, and the Ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson made up the rest of Melinda’s team.      The lake stood up and took a vaguely humanoid form.  “I see that,” Nu said.      Imhotep immediately bowed.      “So, we’ve brought you the body, Nu,” Melinda said.  “Now you’ll help us find and save our friends.”      “Of course,” Nu said.  “It won’t be easy for you though.  I can send you to pocket universes, but I don’t know which is the right one.  So, I will send you to one, and after a set amount of time, you will be sent to another.  Anyone that is in physical contact with any of you will join you on this trip.”      “How long will we have in each pocket universe?” Ghost Jack asked.      “How much time do you want?” Nu asked.  “We won’t be able to communicate, so you’ll have to decide a length of time now that you will spend in each.”      “And what about when we’re ready to return?” Mary asked.      “If you are all in physical contact with each other, plus any others that have joined your journey, then you will all be returned here,” Nu said.  “Otherwise you will continue to be sent from pocket universe to pocket universe.”      “And if one of us dies?” Ghost Jack asked.  “I mean, if another one of us dies.”      “If someone dies, they will no longer be considered part of the group,” Nu said.  “So if eventually only one remains, they will be brought back here on the next jump.”      “Right,” Melinda said.  “Let’s do this.”      Meanwhile, back at their base in the Cretaceous, Abigail Esau was reading Merlin’s journals.  She had already made her way through everything that was written in English, and was now slowly making her way through those in French, using a mixture of what she remembered from school, and a translation program when necessary.      There were only a few in French though, and after that she was going to have to move onto another language that she would have to fully rely on translation programs for.      She just finished reading a spell that seemed fairly simple, so she tried it out, and made a heart appear on the ceiling with Mary and her initials in it.  It looked like if it had been scratched into a tree, despite the ceiling being metal.      Nu created the portal, and Melinda stepped through, with her team following in behind her.      “Four hours,” Nu had said.  Four hours in this pocket universe, and then off to another.      Melinda looked around at the place they were in.  It was a lush rainforest.  The air was thick with humidity and there was the sound of wildlife all around.      “Are we sure he didn’t just send us to the Amazon?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Can you fly up and get us a bird’s eye view?” Melinda asked.      “On it,” Ghost Jack said.      Mary was looking at the ground, checking for tracks.      “Finding anything?” Melinda asked.      “Plenty of stuff has been through this area,” Mary said.  “I’m not seeing anything indicating Humans specifically though.  Could be, but could just be animals.”      “Imhotep?” Melinda asked.      “This whole place is filled with magic,” Imhotep said.  “Very old, very powerful magic.”      “A Progenitor?” Melinda asked.      “I would assume that’s who created this,” Imhotep said.  “I could not tell you which though, and I don’t know that they are currently here.”      Ghost Jack came back down to the ground.  “Well, pocket universe is right, I could see the edges of this place as soon as I flew above the canopy.”      “How big?” Melinda asked.      “It looks to be spherical, I’d estimate a few kilometers across,” Ghost Jack said.  “I don’t think we’ll have enough time to explore the whole place, especially with how thick this foliage is, but hopefully we can get a decent amount done.”      “Okay, Ohm and I will go one way,” Melinda said.  “Mary and Imhotep you go the opposite way.  Jack, you’re the fastest of us, and can fly, so you can do your own thing.  Let’s go.”      Doctor Jeri Quill entered Harkon Smith’s office.      “Good day, Doctor,” Harkon said.  “What can I do for you?”      “Sesla’s clone body is complete,” Jeri said.  “I know you’ve been putting off that decision for a while, but unless you want Ghost Jack to lie to her next time he enters her dreams…well, you know.”      “As long as Sesla remains in her coma, we don’t have to worry about her turning on us,” Harkon said.  “If we transfer her mind to a clone body, she could become a threat.”      “Like Deanna.”      “Yes, I know Sesla is a thousand or so years older than when she was Deanna, and a lot changes in that time, but it’s still something to be considered.  On the other hand, if we don’t do this, and she wakes up on her own somehow, that might lead to her to turning on us.”      “Which means you should probably make the decision soon,” Jeri said.      “Well, Ghost Jack is on a mission right now, so I at least have until he gets back,” Harkon said.      Melinda pushed her way through the foliage as Ohm followed after her.  They had yet to find any sign that any Humans had ever been here before.  There was something else that Melinda was realizing they had not seen yet.      “Ohm, have you seen any animals yet?” Melinda asked.      “I have not,” Ohm said.  “I am hearing them, and I’m seeing tracks indicating that they have been here, but I have not actually seen any yet.”      “I wonder what that means.”      “Many animals are good at not being seen unless they want to be.  The fact that everything here is like that is worrying.”      “Sensing anything?” Mary asked as she checked the ground for tracks.      “Nothing new,” Imhotep said.  “Are you finding anything?”      “Nothing helpful.”      “Wait, stop, we’re being watched.”  Imhotep pointed up at one of the trees.      Mary looked up where he was pointing, and saw a creature that looked like a mix between a jaguar and a monkey.  Mary gripped her energy shotgun, as it just continued to watch them.      “There’s more of them,” Imhotep said.      Mary glanced around, and noticed that the trees were full of them.  They were surrounded by at least a dozen of these creatures.  “How long have we been here so far?” she asked.      “About an hour,” Imhotep said.      “Mary to Melinda, we’ve got a problem.”  There was no response.  “Oh great, comm interference or something.”      One of the monkguars jumped down to the ground in front of them.  Its teeth bared, and claws extended.  Mary shot it with her energy shotgun, and it dropped to the ground unconscious.      This caused the others to stop their silence, and start whooping as they jumped down to the ground as well.  Mary started shooting as many as she could, as fast as she could, while Imhotep put up a magical barrier around them.  The monkguars bounced off of it, but that just made them angrier and louder.      With the protection the barrier provided, Mary was having little trouble dropping them, one after another after another, but as she was doing so, more kept arriving.  There had been a dozen at first, and now there were already two dozen unconscious around them, and another twice that still attacking.      “I can’t hold up this barrier forever,” Imhotep said.      “Well, then hopefully they run out of reinforcements soon,” Mary said.      Ghost Jack had flown up to the top of the sphere that was this pocket universe.  The edge of it was a physical barrier, beyond which was a seemingly infinite emptiness.  He flew back down towards the rainforest, looking for any breaks in the canopy, but it was like a sea of green.  Even if there were breaks, it would be green there too, and he was not going to have enough time to do a thorough search of everything while they were here.      He flew back down below the canopy, as the bird’s-eye view was not helpful if he could not see anything on the ground.  Not that he was seeing much down here either, other than an astonishing amount of plant life.      More and more monkguars were continuing to try and attack Imhotep and Mary.  It seemed like for every one that Mary shot down, another two seemed to show up.      “I can maybe hold up this barrier for another minute, at most,” Imhotep said.      “We’re going to be overwhelmed if you drop it,” Mary said.  “Do you have any other magic you can use in this situation?”      “Maybe, but you’re not going to like it.”      “What is it?”      “I can maybe do a mass sleep spell on the area.  So anything and anyone within about ten meters of me will fall asleep.”      “That sounds good,” Mary said.      “It’ll include us,” Imhotep said.  “And I don’t know for certain if it will affect these things.  It affects most animals, but I’ve never encountered anything quite like these before.”      “I don’t see that we have much options,” Mary said.  “Let’s do it.”      “Melinda to Mary, you guys finding anything yet?” Melinda asked over the comm.  There was no response.  “Melinda to Imhotep?  Jack?”      “Something wrong with the comms?” Ohm asked.      “I guess,” Melinda said.  She took out her computer pad and ran a diagnostic on the comms.  “Hmm, looks like the comms themselves are fine, but there’s some interference in the area.”      “Is it just a problem with this pocket universe, or all pocket universes?” Ohm asked.      “I guess we’ll find out in another two hours or so…maybe.”      “In the meantime, should we check on the others?”      “Hmm, maybe just in case,” Melinda said.  “Although if this is a standard aspect of pocket universes, we’re going to have to get used to not always being in communication with each other.”      Ghost Jack continued flying throughout the rainforest.  So far he had not found much of use, although he had finally started seeing some animal life.  It was strange though.  He had seen some creatures which looked like a mix between snakes and parrots, and another that looked like a mix between a spider and a frog.      The sprogers were especially creepy, although the snarrots were pretty close.  And there were others that he could not even identify if they were supposed to be a mix of something else, or something entirely new.      Then, as he was flying, he came upon a small clearing.  Within that clearing was a small hut.  He flew over to it, up to the roof, and stuck his head inside to get a peak.  There was no one inside, but there was a small cot, and some cooking utensils.      He looked back outside, and saw a small fire pit, although it had not seen use recently.  Whoever lived here, possibly the person that had created this pocket universe, was seemingly long gone.  Or perhaps this belonged to someone that had been trapped here.      He looked at the ground, trying to find footprints, but had no luck.  Maybe Mary would be able to do better.  He tried the comm, but there was no response, so he took off to find the others.      Back in the regular universe, Philip Wilson and Dorian Winters were aboard the timeship in orbit of the planet Trantor.  Dorian was at the piloting console, while Philip was in the captain’s chair.      "So, how long do you think it’ll take them?” Philip asked.      “Who knows,” Dorian said.  “Melinda said they’ll be spending four hours in each pocket universe, and who knows how many there are and how long until they’ll get to the correct one.”      “And until then, we’re just stuck here waiting.”      “I mean, we could use the time in other ways,” Dorian said.  “We do have the ship to ourselves.”      Ghost Jack was flying through the rainforest, when he suddenly found dozens of unconscious monkguars.  They were surrounding Mary and Imhotep who were similarly unconscious.  And there were more of the monkguars coming in, but as soon as they got within about ten meters of Imhotep and Mary, they too feel unconscious.      He also started hearing energy weapons firing, and flew over to the source of it, where he found Melinda and Ohm, trying to hold off yet more monkguars.      “You guys need some help?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Anything you can do would be much appreciated,” Melinda said.      Ghost Jack flew down to where they were.  “Close your eyes, and we’ll see if this works.”  As soon as Melinda and Ohm had their eyes closed, Ghost Jack sent out an explosion of light to try and blind the monkguars.  And it seemed to do something, as they stopped coming at the group, and were pawing around in confusion.      “What did you do?” Melinda asked.      “Well, after realizing that i can glow in the dark when we had that power outage, I started experimenting with that,” Ghost Jack said.  “Hadn’t quite done anything like this yet, but I’m glad it worked.”      “Have you seen Mary and Imhotep anywhere?” Melinda asked.      “They are just over that way,” Ghost Jack said.  “I’m guessing Imhotep used a spell to put everything to sleep, as they are unconscious, as is every monkguar for about ten meters around them.”      “There’s more coming yet,” Ohm said.      “I found a hut over that way.”  Ghost Jack pointed.  “I’ll grab Mary and give her to you to carry out there.”      “And Imhotep?” Melinda asked.      “I don’t know if the spell is centered on him, or on the location where he cast it,” Ghost Jack said.  “But I’m immune.  So, I’ll carry him and find out, and if it’s centered on him, I’ll have to leave him a distance from the hut.”      “Sounds like a plan,” Melinda said.  “Let’s do it.”      After bringing Mary to Melinda and Ohm, Ghost Jack went back and picked up Imhotep.  He initially went over towards the blinded monkguars, while being careful to not get too close to Melinda and Ohm.  Sure enough, the blinded monkguars starting falling unconscious as he got within about ten meters of them.      That was potentially going to cause problems, but for the immediate time it was actually useful.  Ghost Jack started flying around in circles, knocking out any monkguars getting too close to his friends.      Ohm carried Mary, while following after Melinda.  Ghost Jack had pointed them in the right direction, and he was pretty sure they were getting close.      After a few minutes of walking, they got to the hut, and Ohm put Mary down inside, before coming back out.  Melinda was looking over the campsite.      “What do you think?” Melinda asked.      “I don’t think this was made by our friends,” Ohm said.  “This is a very old campsite.”      “Chronos is a God of Time.  So it being old doesn’t really tell us much.  But I do agree that I don’t think this was made by them.  I also don’t think this pocket universe was made by Chronos.”      “So then we just wait until we move onto the next?”      “It’ll be another hour so until that,” Melinda said.  “We should be able to hold out that long.”      As Ghost Jack saw that the others had made it to the campsite, he started circling around it with Imhotep, but keeping his distance.  There were monkguars coming from all directions, so he was not able to keep them all out, but he was at least able to deal with some of them that way.      He was really curious as to where they were all coming from.  Based the size of this pocket universe, there was no way it could sustain this many of them.  Possibly they were part of a security system, just being created to deal with the intruders.  It was hard to say for certain though, who knew what kind of rules were really in place in this place.      Mary woke up, and looked around.  She was in a hut, and her energy shotgun was next to her.  Ohm and Melinda were by the door, and they were both shooting out at a mass of monkguars that were approaching.      “Where are we?” Mary asked.      “Ghost Jack found this hut,” Melinda said without turning around.  “We’re using it to try and last long enough to escape this universe.”      Mary looked at her watch.  Just another few minutes left here.  She picked up her energy shotgun, and joined Melinda and Ohm at the door, and started firing at the monkguars.      Ghost Jack was continuing to circle the camp with Imhotep, when he noticed the monkguars near them were no longer falling asleep.  He was briefly wondering if that meant they were becoming immune, before Imhotep started waking up as well.      “What’s going on, where are we?” Imhotep asked.      “Still in the pocket universe,” Ghost Jack said.  “Just trying to survive long enough to move on to the next.”      “How much longer will that be?” Imhotep asked.      “Should be any second now,” Ghost Jack said, and suddenly they were underwater.      Ghost Jack was fine, not needing to breathe, but Imhotep did.  Ghost Jack looked at him, and he was holding his breath, but as they had not been prepared for this, there was no telling how long he’d be able to hold it for.      Ghost Jack looked around.  He had no idea which way was up, so he grabbed Imhotep, and chose a direction, and started moving that way.  After a few seconds they hit a solid surface, so they went in another direction.  They hit another solid surface.  A third direction led to a third solid surface.      Mary was still firing at monkguars, when all of a sudden the monkguars were gone.  And she was no longer in a hut in a rainforest, and Melinda and Ohm were no longer next to her.  She was on sand.  She looked around and saw more sand.      She was in what looked to be cubic room, a few yards across.  The floor, walls, and even the ceiling looked to be made of sand, but not packed together, which made her wonder how it was staying suspended.      Mary reached down and picked up some sand of the floor, and sure enough, it was really loose.  She tried the wall, and it was the same.  She tried digging a bit, and came upon a solid surface after about half a foot, but as soon as she removed her hands, sand flowed down to fill in the hole.      What was this place, she wondered.  And where were her friends?  She had been next to Melinda and Ohm, but clearly they were not in this room.      Ohm was in a cubic room as well.  His had grass growing out of the floor, walls, and ceiling.  The strange thing was that there was no soil for it to grow out of.  It was coming out of a solid surface.  He grabbed a handful, and pulled it out, but more instantly grew out of the spot he had pulled from.      He tried knocking on the walls, and then listened but did not hear anything.  He tried his comm, but it was still not working.  He checked his handheld scanner, but it did not show anything beyond the walls.      And in yet another cubic room, Melinda was considering her surroundings.  The floor, walls, and ceiling of the one she was in were coated in mud.  The fact that the mud was not dripping down from the ceiling, or even going down the wall, was interesting.      Melinda tried stepping onto the wall, and it was as if gravity shifted as she did so.  What had been a wall, was now the floor, as far as she was concerned.  Melinda then tried moving to the wall she had originally considered the ceiling, and that now became the new floor, from her perspective.      She wondered what was the purpose of this pocket universe, and who had created it.  And she wondered what kind of situations the others were in, and if they were all okay.      The sudden appearance in water had surprised Imhotep, but once he realized where he was, he used a spell to create a bubble around himself with air in it.  As he created it, Ghost Jack entered it.      “You okay?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I believe so,” Imhotep said.  “Where are we?”      “Some kind of cubic room, filled with water.  Looks to be a few meters wide.  I don’t see any obvious exits, although I can of course just go through the walls.”      “Assuming there’s no magic in place to prevent that.”      “True, but I should probably at least check to see if I can find the others.  If this pocket universe is just a series of room like this, filled with water, they won’t have magic to save them.”      “Right,” Imhotep said.  “Hopefully that’s not the case.”      Mary was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what to do.  Near as she could tell, her only option was to wait until they jumped to the next pocket universe.  There was nothing here but sand.  She had already tried digging holes in multiple locations, but they all filled in almost immediately.      As she was pacing, she suddenly noticed something emerging from the floor.  It was Ghost Jack.      “Oh good, you’re not underwater,” Ghost Jack said.      “Were you?”      “Imhotep and I were, he still is, but with a magic bubble.  I’ve been going through a few of these rooms that make up this place.”      “And?”      “And honestly it could have been a lot worse than underwater.  One of the rooms is filled with lava.”      “Have you found Ohm or Melinda yet?”      “Not yet.  I’m hoping that they’re close to here though, since the three of you were near to each other when we were teleported here, right?”      “Yeah, we had all been next to each other, shooting those creatures.  Do you know how long Imhotep can maintain his air bubble?”      “Long enough, although this does now make me wonder if we should have brought environmental suits or something,” Ghost Jack said.  “I mean, I’ll be fine pretty much regardless of what we encounter, but the rest of you might not be so lucky.”      “Well, we’re going to have to make at least one more jump, unless we can find a way for the rest of us to travel between these rooms.”      “Oh, and did you figure out the gravity thing?”      “Gravity thing?” Mary asked.      “Try stepping onto the wall.”      Mary walked to a wall, stepped onto it, and suddenly gravity shifted for her, and the wall was now the floor.      “Pretty cool, right?” Ghost Jack asked.      Ghost Jack returned to Imhotep after searching dozens of rooms and finding Melinda and Ohm.      “Is everyone else okay?” Imhotep asked.      “Yeah,” Ghost Jack said.  “Looks like you were the only one that got unlucky like this.”      “That’s good.  What about Tesla’s team?  Did you find any of them?”      “No such luck.  I searched around pretty far, but nothing.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t here though.  We have no idea how big this place is.”      “Yeah, and unfortunately you’re the only one who can explore it.”      “I’m going to head back out, and do that for the rest of our time here, just thought I would give you an update.”      Melinda was counting down the time until they made their next jump.  Ghost Jack had shown up twice, once to check in on her, and a second time to let her know everyone else was okay, but he was unlikely to return again, as he would be spending as much time as he could on the search.      She was really hoping their people were not here though, as according to Ghost Jack each of the rooms was about the same size, and it seemed unlikely that all of their missing people would be able to fit in one.  And since Ghost Jack was the only one that could travel between the rooms, and they needed to make physical contact to bring others with them, they would be unable to rescue them all if that were the case.      Melinda checked her watch.  Just ten seconds left.  Not knowing where she would end up next, she took a deep breath, just in case.  The room disappeared, and she appeared in a large throne room.  She exhaled as she took it in.  There was a woman with a crown on the throne, and about two dozen guards with swords.      “What is the meaning of this?” the woman demanded, as the guards surrounded Melinda.  “Who are you, and how did you get in here, and why are you getting mud all over the carpet?”      Imhotep suddenly found himself a few feet above the ground, and his bubble collapsed as he fell  those few feet.  He looked around.  He was in a town, full of stone-brick houses.  He was on a dirt road.  And there were other people around, who looked very surprised at his sudden appearance, but no one made a move to approach him.      Looking around, the town did not seem too large, but there was a castle on one end of it.  The opposite end led to a forest.  He walked over to the nearest person.  “Excuse me,” he said.  “I’m not from around here.”      The person just stared at him for several seconds before responding.  “Okay,” she said.      “Do you know if there are any other recent arrivals here?”      “No, everyone here has always been here.”      “Hmm, okay, thank you,” Imhotep said.      “Sorry, sorry,” Ghost Jack said as he flew out of the library he had appeared in, amongst the screams of the people inside.  As he went outside, there were even more screams, so he went down an alley, landed on the ground, and made himself appear fully tangible.      He left the alley the opposite way he came, and he was still getting weird looks from people, but no more screams, so that was good.  The people here were dressed simply, and they looked like they were from medieval times, although noticeably cleaner.  The buildings also looked to be from that era.      He looked up, and the sky looked normal.  Either this pocket universe was bigger than the first one, or its size was just better disguised.  If it was larger, that would be a major problem.      “Excuse me,” he asked a random person on the street.  “Can you help me out with a few questions?”      “Um, what kind of questions?” the person asked.      “How big is this place?”      “Well, the town ends over that way with the castle, and that way before the forest, and…”      “No, not the town, umm, how far do things extend beyond the town?”      “I don’t…why would anyone leave the town?”      “No one leaves?”      “Of course not.  Nobody has ever left, and until now, no one new has ever come here.”      “Hmm, right, thanks,” Ghost Jack said as he walked off.      Mary had appeared outside the town, in the woods.  The first thing she did upon appearing was check her comm, which still did not work.  It was seeming more and more likely that whatever was causing the problems with the comms was an effect of these pocket universes in general.      She also quickly realized that something seemed very off.  There were no sounds of animals in the forest.  No wind either, for that matter.  The only sounds she was hearing were coming from the town.  She checked the ground, and there were no tracks of any kind.  That was curious, so she decided to start searching, and going in the opposite direction from the town.      Mary was walking for about five minutes or so, when she hit an invisible wall.  It did not feel like a forcefield though, it felt like an actual physical wall.  She started moving alongside it, to see how far it continued.  She quickly discovered that it was curving around, which meant that this place was probably domed like the first pocket universe, just in this case the dome had the illusion of the world continuing.      Ohm had appeared in a cave.  There was some sort of glowing moss on the walls giving off enough light to see.  It was a tunnel, and it extended as far as he could see in either direction.  He picked a direction at random, and started walking in that direction.  He was walking for a bit, before realizing that the moss was getting thicker, and the cave brighter in this direction.  He was unsure if that was a good or a bad thing, so he continued on.      Eventually it opened up into a larger cave, in the middle of which was a small house.  To one of the sides of it was a garden, which was being worked on at the moment by a young looking woman.  She looked over as Ohm approached.      “You’re new here,” she said.  “That’s fascinating.  There hasn’t been anyone new here in over four hundred years.”      “No?”      “No, when I created this place, I brought the amount of people I would need, no more, no less, so there’s never been the need for new people.”      “So, you created this pocket universe?  Then I assume that this is not where Chronos put our people.”      She laughed.  “No, although I am curious as to how you managed to come here.”      “I don’t really understand the processes myself,” Ohm said.  “But we’re just jumping from pocket universe to pocket universe, trying to locate our kidnapped people.”      “Fascinating.”      In the castle, Melinda had been thrown in the dungeon.  A very clean dungeon though, much cleaner than would be expected based on the medieval look to everything here.  The guards also seemed unsure of how exactly to treat her, as if they had not had any prisoners in a long time.      They eventually decided on placing one guard outside her cell.  She looked out the barred window on the back wall of the cell.  There was a mountain range just a kilometer or two away.      “So, you don’t get many visitors, do you?” Melinda asked the guard.      “We don’t get any visitors.”      “No travellers, nothing?”      “Why would anyone travel?”      “So, what’s going to happen to me?”      “I don’t know.”      The conversation was interrupted when another guard came up, and whispered something in the first guard’s ear.      “Something happen?” Melinda asked.      “How many people came with you?” the first guard asked.      “What do you mean?” Melinda asked.      Out in the town, Imhotep and Ghost Jack had just found each other.  They were still getting weird looks, but no one seemed to want to approach them.      “I am fairly certain that if our people are in this pocket universe, they are not in this town,” Imhotep said.      “I agree,” Ghost Jack said.  “These people are not used to outsiders, and we are clearly the first in a long time.”      “Have you seen the rest of the team?”      “Nope, no sign of them.  Possibly in the castle, possibly in the forest, possibly somewhere else.  I have no idea how big this universe is.”      “So, where do we start?”      “Might as well check the castle first,” Ghost Jack said.  “It’s possibly where whoever created this is anyway.”      Melinda was brought back before the woman on the throne.  She had been told that this was Queen Rebecca.      “I have been informed that you are not the only intruder in my kingdom,” Rebecca said.  “There are two strange men that have been seen in town, and talks of some sort of ghostly figure.  What is your purpose here?”      “We are only here searching for our friends, your majesty,” Melinda said.  “And we will be on our way shortly.”      “What manner did you use to travel here?”      “That’s…complicated.”      “Do you think it is beyond my understanding?”      “Honestly, I don’t really understand how it works.”      “And who would understand how it works?” Rebecca asked.  “One of your friends in the town?”      “No, they don’t really understand it either.”      Rebecca looked around at her guards.  “Leave us,” she said.  Without question, they all filed out of the room.  “My people and I have lived here for centuries, ever since we were brought to this place.  We do not age, or need food or drink or even sleep.  No one even remembers anything from before we were brought here.”      “Okay?” Melinda asked.      “Except for myself.  She who brought us here was unable to erase my memories.  It’s why she made me queen.  Give me some power, so I don’t question that I am trapped here.”      “So, you want to leave?”      “I was content with my lot in life, but if there is a way out of this place, I want to take it.”      “Who created this place and brought you here?”      “We don’t know her name, or what she is, only that she is very powerful.”      “Powerful enough to track us down if we take you with us?” Melinda asked.      “You haven’t told me your name,” Ohm said.      “What’s in a name?” the woman asked.  “That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.  Not that I expect you to get the reference, being a Neanderthal and all.”      “Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare,” Ohm said.  “I do read.”      “My apologies, good sir, although now that I think of it, you never mentioned your name either.”      “I am Ohm.”      “A pleasure to meet you, Ohm.  You can call me Lucy.”      “Nice to meet you, Lucy.  I don’t suppose you can help us locate our friends.”      “Travelling to pocket universes you are unaware of is very hit or miss, which is how you got here,” Lucy said.  “I doubt I’d be able to be any more helpful than whatever method you are currently using.  Although I can give you some advice.”      “Okay.”      “Be very careful.  Pocket universes have been created by a great many people for a great many reasons, and there are untold dangers you could encounter.”      “That we have already been learning.”      Ghost Jack flew through the castle, searching around, and came upon the throne room, where Melinda was talking to someone that looked like a queen.  He flew down to the floor and became visible.  “Hey Red, what’s up?”      “Who is this?” Rebecca asked.      “This is my friend Jack,” Melinda said.  “Jack, this is Queen Rebecca.  Have you seen the others?”      “Imhotep is outside the castle, but we decided it would be easier if I searched it myself,” Ghost Jack said.      “What are you?” Rebecca asked.      “Oh, just your average Ghost of a Demi-God,” Ghost Jack said.  “Anyway, haven’t seen Mary or Ohm, and we’re reasonably certain our people aren’t here, at least not in the town.”      “The town is all there really is,” Rebecca said.  “The forest only extends a short distance, beyond which it is just an illusion.  As is the mountain range behind my castle.” “Are you the person that created this place?” Ghost Jack asked.      “No, that’s someone else,” Melinda said.  “But she does want to come with us.”      “Does she now?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yes, I do,” Rebecca said.  “Being the leader in a cage still leaves you in a cage.”      Melinda and Ghost Jack had left the castle and met up with Imhotep.  They explained the situation to him.      “I can understand the desire to leave,” Imhotep said.  “But if we bring her with, we might anger whoever created this place.”      “And we don’t even know who that is,” Melinda said.  “We also don’t know why these people were brought here.  For all we know this is a prison, and she should be kept here.”      “I mean, it’s pretty clearly a prison,” Ghost Jack said.  “But we have no reason to assume it’s a prison for criminals.  And even if it was, they’ve been here for centuries.  I think she’s more than paid for any crimes she may have committed.”      “What about everyone else?” Melinda asked.  “Should we take them all with?”      “She is the only one we’ve encountered that wants to leave,” Imhotep said.  “The others don’t even remember their lives before they were brought here.”      “Because they were mindwiped,” Melinda said.  “And that’s another sort of prison.  Imhotep, back when we were first dealing with the TDD, they had replaced some of my memories with fake ones, and you were able to restore my original memories.  Would you be able to do that for the people here?”      “Possibly, but we’d only have time for a few,” Imhotep said.  “And, if you’ll recall, you were asleep for some time afterwards.  We will be gone from here by the time we’d be able to see the results.”      “Hmm, yeah,” Melinda said.  “That’s not really an option.”      Ohm checked his watch.  It would just be another few minutes before they jumped again.      “Leaving so soon?” Lucy asked.      “We will be leaving shortly,” Ohm said.  “Our people are still out there, somewhere, and we need to find them.”      “I wish you luck in your endeavor,” Lucy said.  “I don’t suppose you’ll be back again.”      “I do not know, but it seems unlikely.”      “Then perhaps I will have to visit you sometime.  I do still go to Earth from time to time for business.”      “What kind of business.”      “Nothing super interesting, but I do have obligations that I have to attend to on occasion.”      Melinda, Ghost Jack, and Imhotep returned to the throne room.      “So, what have you decided?” Rebecca asked.  “Will you take me with you, or are you leaving me trapped here?”      “We don’t want to leave you trapped here,” Melinda said.  “But we do have reservations about angering whoever it is that created this place.  We already have a lot of powerful enemies, and it may not be wise to create yet another.”      “On the other hand, she may already be angered by your intrusion, for all we know,” Rebecca said.  “And this wouldn’t make things any worse.”      “Maybe, but we don’t know that,” Melinda said.      “We also don’t know where we are all going,” Imhotep said.  “At the moment we are jumping from pocket universe to pocket universe, at random.  In the previous one I would have drowned without my magic.  Coming with us may prove dangerous.”      “I am fine with danger,” Rebecca said.  “It is better than this tedium.”      Melinda checked her watch.  Half a minute remained.  “There are also other complicated aspects to it.”      “You’re stalling, so that means it’s almost time isn’t it?” Rebecca asked, right before she ran over to Melinda, and placed her hand on Melinda’s shoulder.  And then, they all disappeared.      Mary disappeared from the forest, and appeared in empty space.  She fought the urge to panic as she looked around at her surroundings, and exhaled her breath.  In the distance she saw a large metal structure, like a space station.  She could also see a few other people floating in space, but they were too far away for her to tell who.      She knew she did not have long out here, so she did the only thing she could think of.  She took her energy shotgun, and starting firing in the opposite direction of the space station, which started propelling her the towards the space station.  It was far too slow though, and she knew she was going to lose consciousness any second.      Imhotep also appeared in the vacuum of space.  He immediately created a magic bubble of air around himself.  After his near drowning, he was prepared for situations like this.  Looking around, he saw Melinda and Rebecca close by.  He used magic to propel himself over to them, and brought them into the bubble.      “Still think coming with us was the right decision?” he asked.      “What is this place?” Rebecca asked.      “Space,” Melinda said.  “Are the others out here too?”  She was already looking off into the distance to try and locate them.      “I see Jack over there,” Imhotep said as he looked out as well.  “But he’ll be fine.  Looks like there’s someone off that way.”  He pointed.      “And someone else the other way,” Melinda said.  “Jack is closer to the one you noticed, hopefully he’ll go for them.”      Ghost Jack looked around at his surroundings.  He could see a group of three in one direction, and another person further in that direction, and the group seemed to be heading towards the individual.  He assumed that meant Imhotep was there, and had things under control.      He looked around some more, and saw the final member of their team, so he flew off towards them as fast as he could.  It quickly became clear that it was Ohm, and that he was in distress.  As Ghost Jack continued flying towards him, he looked around.  The other group of his friends were pretty far away, as was the space station in the distance.      As Ghost Jack arrived at Ohm’s location, Ohm was already unconscious.  Ghost Jack grabbed him and started flying towards the others.  They were actually slightly further than the space station, but he had no idea if he would even be able to find a way to bring Ohm inside it.  He just had to hope that it was not too late.      Mary was on the verge of unconsciousness when she suddenly felt enveloped by air, and started breathing again.  This had been worse than that time she had almost drowned, and she hungrily took in the air as she looked around.  She was in a bubble of some sort with Imhotep, Melinda, and someone she did not recognize.      “Who’s the new person?” she asked as soon as she was able to talk again.      “Mary, meet Rebecca,” Melinda said.  “Rebecca, meet Mary.”      “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Rebecca said.      “Right,” Mary said.  “So, what are we supposed to do here?  Wait out in space until our four hours are up?”      “There’s a space station over that way.”  Melinda pointed at it.      “And where’s Ohm?” Mary asked.      “Jack has him,” Imhotep said.  “They are flying towards us, and now that we have you, we are flying to them as well.”      Ghost Jack looked at the remaining distance to the others, and even now that they were coming towards him as well, he did not think it was going to be fast enough for Ohm.  He was at the limits of his speed though, so he had to think of something else.      That is when he hit upon an idea.  As a Ghost he was unaffected by the vacuum.  He also did not need to breathe, but he did have air inside him.  He enveloped Ohm, surrounding him completely to protect him from the vacuum, and then he released the air stored inside him into the bubble he had created with himself.      It was not much, but it seemed like it just might be enough, as they got closer and closer, and eventually got to the others.  As they did Imhotep enlarged the magic bubble he had created to make more room as they entered.      Imhotep looked over Ohm.  “Hmm, he’ll be okay, but that was a close one.”      “So, I guess now we head over to that space station?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Seems our best bet,” Melinda said.  “Imhotep, can you get us moving over in that direction?”      “Yes, right away.”      Back at base, Abigail was continuing to experiment with the magic she was learning from Merlin’s journals.  She had figured out a translation spell, so she could read the non-English ones just as easy as the English ones.      She was currently reading one that was written in Atlantean, and was reading about an invisibility spell.  She knew Sesla had similar spells, although this one seemed to be true invisibility.      Abigail cast it on herself, and was instantly blinded.  Right, she thought, true invisibility meant light passing through you, which meant not only would you not be seen, but you would also not see.  She removed the spell from herself, and went back to reading.      It took about five minutes for the group to get to the space station, and another five to find a way in.  There was an airlock on the far side of it.  It took them a bit to figure out the mechanism of it and get inside.  Ohm had woken up by this point, and they started looking around.      “I’m not sensing any magic here,” Imhotep said.      “What does that mean?” Mary asked.  “That this place wasn’t made with magic?”      “Perhaps,” Imhotep said.  “Or it may be old enough that there has simply been no magic used here in a long time.”      “The construction of this place isn’t like anything from Earth,” Melinda said.  “It’s not like anything made by Humans or Gods or anything else there.”      “It kind of reminds me of our ship though,” Mary said.  “The one we took from the Palore.”      “Hmm,” Ghost Jack said.  “The style is reminiscent of them.  I’ll go look around, see if there’s any of those bastards around.”  He flew off.      “If this is a Palore space station, what does that mean for us?” Ohm asked.      “I don’t know,” Melinda said.  “But whatever it means, it can’t be good.”      Abigail rang the door chime on Harkon’s office.      “Come in,” Harkon said.  He looked up as Abigail entered.  “What can I do for you?”      “Well, I’ve been looking through Merlin’s journals, learning a bunch of the magic in them,” Abigail said.  “And I know we were waiting until Ghost Jack got back before transferring Sesla’s mind to her new body, but if you want to do so sooner, I may be able to.”      “Thank you, but we know his methods work, so I’d prefer not to use experimental methods if we don’t have to.”      “Understood, just letting you know there are options.  They have been gone for a while.”      “I’m sure they are fine.”      “I suppose there’s nothing saying that pocket universes can only be created by magic,” Melinda said.  “And the Palore are the Palore, so if anyone can pull it off, they’d be a decent bet.”      “I’m just wondering what the purpose of this place is,” Mary said.  “So far we haven’t seen anyone, so that could mean this place is abandoned.”      “Or it could mean that they just don’t keep it regularly staffed,” Melinda said.      “Guys, can you hear me?” they heard Ghost Jack saying over the comm.      “Yeah,” Melinda said.  “I guess comms do work here.  What’ve you found?”      “I’ve found what seems to be a command center of sorts,” Ghost Jack said.  “There’s a bunch of computers here, and what look like teleporters, but I can’t read anything on the computers.”      “It’s too bad we don’t have Abigail or the original Jack here to help with translating,” Melinda said.      “I have been spending a bit of time studying the Palore language,” Imhotep said.  “I’m not exactly fluent in it, but I’ll be able to manage a bit.”      “Which way?” Melinda asked.      Ghost Jack waited for a few minutes until the rest of the team caught up to him.  Imhotep went straight to one of the computers and started looking over the information on screen.      “So, your highness,” Ghost Jack said to Rebecca.  “What do you think of all this?  It’s a bit more advanced than what you’re used to.”      “It’s all very impressive and yes, I have never seen anything like this place before,” Rebecca said.      “The first time I left my home, it was a similar situation,” Mary said.  “I was a simple farm girl, then I went from that to a space station, and yeah it definitely was not something I was expecting.”      “I was even simpler,” Ohm said.  “From a simple hunter-gatherer society, although I also only found myself on a large metal boat, not a space station.”      “Hmm, this is really quite interesting,” Imhotep said, looking at the computer screen.      “Did you find something?” Melinda asked.      “We’ve been wondering how the Palore got back to the Cretaceous,” Imhotep said.  “Their ships only allow them to jump about 212 years at a time, but I think this is the answer.”      “Go on,” Melinda said.      “Each of those teleporters are linked to a different time, somewhat similarly to our time doors,” Imhotep said.  “One is the Cretaceous, one is even further back, one is 2017, and the final one is approximately eight billion years in the future.”      “Eight billion,” Ghost Jack said.  “Eight billion years.  That’s ridiculous.”      “Does this place have a self-destruct?” Mary asked.  “I mean, we have to destroy it, right?”      “The bigger question is if there are other places like this,” Melinda said.  “If this is the only one, destroying it would be a great idea, but if there are others, which I assume there are, it would be pointless.”      “I’m not sure,” Imhotep said.  “I’m not seeing anything about that here, but I think this is mostly just about the operation of this one.”      “Why 2017?” Ghost Jack asked.  “Like why use a time teleporter to link this to 2017?  Because isn’t this in 2017, just in a pocket universe.”      “Because the rules of time are somewhat different with this pocket universe, if I’m reading this right,” Imhotep said.      “I understand that your friends want to borrow the ship,” Harkon said.  “And I understand that we do owe them for there help in dealing with Deanna, but we’re still waiting for out team to get back.”      “It’s been months, sir,” Abigail said.  “And don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready to give up on them either, but how long are Philip and Dorian just supposed to sit around waiting in orbit?  Our team does have long range communicators on them, so they will still be able to let us know when they return.”      “I’m surprised that you’re not more worried.”      “Of course I’m worried, but there’s nothing we can do to help our team other than waiting.  My friends back home though, they actually need the help.  And I’ve been looking into the historical records, so I know that they shouldn’t even be where they are, and isn’t it our job to protect the timeline?”      “Hmm.”      “How different are we talking here?” Ghost Jack asked.      “It seems like a few months will pass in the regular universe during our four hours here.”      “Is it just this pocket universe, or all of them?” Mary asked.      “Near as I can tell this is just talking about this one,” Imhotep said.  “But that doesn’t mean the others don’t have the same issues.”      “It doesn’t change our mission though,” Melinda said.  “We still need to find Tesla’s team.  A few months shouldn’t make a big difference, and if the other pocket universes are worse, we’re time travellers, so if we are too much out of sync with our people, we’ll just use time travel to get back into sync.”      “We can pretty much assume this isn’t where our people are though,” Ghost Jack said.  “Unless Chronos and the Palore are working together.”      “Yeah, that seems unlikely, and somewhat terrifying to even consider” Melinda said.  “But while we’re waiting out this one, there is still the question of what we do about this place.  Imhotep, you said those time teleporters work similarly to the time doors.  Does that mean there are teleporters on both ends?”      “I believe so,” Imhotep said.      “Can we send something through to the Cretaceous, a beacon of some sort?” Melinda asked.      “Yes, can manage that,” Imhotep said.      “I see what you’re thinking,” Ghost Jack said.  “If the Palore have a base back then, we can let our people know where it is.  And if not, they at least know that we are okay.”      “Maybe,” Melinda said.  “The problem is, do we know when in the Cretaceous it is connected to?”      “I’m not entirely certain how the dates in here relate to our own,” Imhotep said.  “It is definitely close, but I can’t say exactly how much so.”      “So then we’ll put a timer on our beacon, so it doesn’t alert our people too early,” Melinda said.  “Imhotep, can you make the beacon invisible, so they don’t see it?”      “I can certainly try,” Imhotep said.      Harkon’s comm beeped.  “Yes?” he answered it.      “Sir, it’s Jeth Simpson, we just picked up a signal from the Moon.”      “What kind of signal?”      “It’s a beacon from Agent Summers’ team,” he said.  “They are okay, and apparently they are in a pocket universe that the Palore are using, and they say the beacon might be coming from a Palore base in this time.”      “Then it’s a good thing Abigail’s friends got our ship back to us in one piece,” Harkon said.      After their time in the Palore pocket universe was done, Melinda, Mary, Ghost Jack, Ohm, Imhotep, and Rebecca jumped once again.  Melinda was unable to look around, as the room was incredibly dark, but it started lighting up as Ghost Jack started glowing, and she saw that all six of their group were here, but they were not alone.      “Tesla,” she said.  Nikola Tesla, ERK-147, and the rest of their missing people were here.  They were in a large cubical room.      “Miss Summers, it is good to see you again,” Nikola said.  “Although I hope it is not the case that you are trapped here as well.”      “No, we have a way out of here,” Ghost Jack said.  “Is Chronos around?”      “We have not seen him since he sent us here,” Nikola said.  “Do you know why he did that?”      “Jack, the original Jack, and I went to talk with Chronos, and as soon as we mentioned the planet he got pissed and disappeared,” Melinda said.  “Since then we’ve been doing what we can to find you, but it’s been difficult, and a lot has happened.”      “Well, we certainly have the time to start filling them in on it,” Mary said.  “We’re going to be here another four hours, after all.” To be continued…

[writings-of-a-narwhal]

My WIPs!

An Elf, a Human, and a Dwarf Walk Into a Bar...

After a series of curious events, three beings begin to travel together to a new land, unexplored by anyone before them. In this group are; 

- Pendra Thorn. Going merely by Thorn, she has discarded the more human name her father gave her and has adopted a more species-androgynous name. Humans are named after plants, as are elves, this should work... She is the one who starts with series of events.

- Artaro. The son of the ruler of Theamor. With his elder brother determined to ruin the land that they rule over, Artaro decides to leave his home to find a new place where he can take his people, to save them. He ends up joining a half elvish girl to travel.

- Mica. A dwarvish woman who’s family is grown and no longer needs her to take care of them. After deciding she’s ready to have an adventure of her own, she stumbles upon two young people and joins them, knowing they will need help along the way.

Characters: Pendra Thorn, Artaro, Mica

Broken Thrones

This is a three part series that documents some of what’s going on in the countries of Feria and Issera, as well as what certain people are doing about these events.

Part One: Lumi

- After her best friend, Eira, is crowned heir of the throne of Feria, things begin to get weird. The king is killed, odd things begin happening in the southern part of the country, near the border with Issera. Crop are being destroyed, people are feeling creatures breathe down their necks, and other people are going missing. With chaos rising and odd things happening within Lumi herself, she decides to investigate what exactly is going on.

Part Two: Culraes

- A woman comes to Issera and tells of an assassination plot against the king. Culraes is put in charge of her. He does his job diligently, refusing to let anything happen to his king under his watch. Soon, this woman’s sister and a strange man joins them. After these people join the group, weird things begin happening, things that are of legends, legends that Culraes doesn’t believe. While dealing with this, a war is coming, and it’s the war that Culraes has waited for his entire life.

Part Three: Rosar

- After joining her sister, Amary, in Issera, Rosar’s migraines get worse. Two new voices enter her head, taking the place of the friend she’s had since she was a little girl. Her visions become more intense. And there’s someone out there, trying to track her down, leaving her with nightmares and constant worry. When the war starts, her old friend comes back and she finds out what her true destiny is.

Characters: Lumi, Culraes, Rosar, Eira, Amary, Finlos, Athum, Jeris, Erihhn, Leaf, Avei, Jayah, Taedhe, more to come.

Descendants of Glory 

Raisha, the granddaughter of Jeris, who was a healer and retainer of the king for most of his life. She lives on her family’s farm, breeding, raising, training, and racing horses. It’s her life and she loves it-- for the most part that is. Part of her wants to run off, to be free like the wild horses she sees in her dreams. 

She’s out riding by herself one day when her horse gets spooked and throws her. With her ankle injured and mode of transportation gone, she goes limping through the land. She finds a herd of wild horses, including a stallion with fur the color of blood. She makes friends with this horse and before long, she’s allowed to ride him.

As Rai tries to work with this horse more, her two best friends Solor and Terran, who are twin sons of the king and queen of Issera, keep dragging her into situations involving kidnappers and other dangerous beings. 

Characters: Raisha, Solor, Terran, others...

Of Heroes and Forgotten Realms

Colt Moonblood has been arrested and given a sentence of death for her crimes. That is, until a mysterious woman comes along and makes a case for her that gives her the option to travel across the country and fight the Beast that has been terrorizing the land. With great reluctance, she accepts this mission. The one condition is that a knight has to accompany her, and that knight is Faran Sunhawke.

Thief and Warrior, they set out on their journey.

Along the way, they begin to understand each other, they begin to come to an agreement. However, just as they get into the groove of things, Colt begins to uncover things that shouldn’t be.

Memories that aren’t quite hers enter into her head. Events begin to seem like they don’t add up. There are things that shouldn’t be but are. Even the Beast that lingers on the edge of the country is part of something more. It sucks Colt and Faran into a world they never could have dreamed of.

Characters: Colt Moonblood, Faran Sunhawke, Quill Moonblood, Tallah Fawnstep, Grim, Tasiriti, Seirios

The Beast’s Rose

The Beast is alone in his house with only his staff for company, until there’s an incident with a traveler who tries to steal his rose, his most precious possession, the thing that is keeping him alive. 

That’s how Beauty comes to live in his palace. She doesn’t mind his seemingly harsh exterior or his appearance, as she can’t see what he looks like. Beauty can tell there’s something off about this Beast and his rose...will she be able to figure out what that is?

Characters: Aoide, Tinker, Beauty, Beast, palace staff, others...

The Stone and the Sea

Alana used to have a family and her whole life planned out, she was to be a blacksmith, following her mother’s footsteps. But all that came crashing down around her when her family was murdered by pirates.

Now, as a siren, Alana searches for those pirates, determined to get revenge for her parents and baby brother. On this journey, she crosses paths with a certain sailor several times. Caspian doesn’t act like other humans. He’s not afraid of her, no, he’s intrigued with her. Soon, he and his family agree to help her, but there’s a twist to it...

Characters: Alana, Caspian, Darya, Laiken, Calder, Naiya, Zhaleh, Brishon, others...

Untitled WIP

Amelia Crow, a mechanic who knows nothing how the world used to be. Jax Graves, an artist who knows too much about the world, both what it used to be and what is out there now.

They’re best friends, they have been for years, yet they still don’t know everything about each other. When Amy finds out that Jax has been hiding something big from her, how will she react? And will she continue to be his friend and help him when the government starts to search for him?

Characters: Amy, Jax, Finnick, Maeve, Lisha, others...

A Song for the Stolen 

[credit to @floralandrogyny for the title]

Jessie Taylor is an ensign on a starship, she has been for almost two years. She’s bright, bold, and not trusted by her crewmates. She’s done nothing to them personally, but her family is not a good one. When she is finally allowed on an away mission, she discovers the most interesting being she has ever seen...

Arilez is a science experiment, a living being turned into an android, and after years of suffering abuse at the hands of her creators, she rebels. She takes a small pod and flies away into the stars. When she’s found by the earth starship, she gets taken aboard and befriended by one of the ensigns. This ensign helps her discover who she is and what her feelings are as they travel through space.

Characters: Arilez, Jessie, others...

[voidselfshipp]

Blues And Unorthodox Teaching

Cw: meat mention.

Moots only ok to rb.

Summmary: jerico is staying at tots place to learn his path faster. Of course. Thats not what she meant.

Taglist: @aeliusinclairs @tex-treasures @lilacslovers @qsionic

A/n: song is "tonight ill be staying here with you" by Bob Dylan.

"Tot offered me to stay at his lab in Memphis for a while! Yknow to study his path better!" Said jerico.

What she meant was "im gonna stay a week long at my boyfriends house, and im going to use learning as an excuse. Good bye"

-- and thats how you write it!-- said tot, handing her the pen-- try it

She nodded and scribbled down the hieroglyphs-- thats it!-- exclaimed the god of knowledge-- nice!, with that our classes are finished

--tatter tots, its been five minutes dont you think-- jeri is cut off when the god picks her up walking to the kitchen.

--five minutes a day for a week equals 35 minutes of studying!

--Thats not much--

--it is!-- he said-- plus I just want to be with you! , now dont argue with me and lets eat these barbaqueue ribs I made!

Jerico laughed, nodding as they sit on the sofá and eat their dinner.

--tot! This is amazing! WOW! You should be the god of barbaqueue ribs!

Tot laughed loudly, hugging her-- I think I might as well be!

She smiled, looking at him and pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth where he had a bit of sauce.

The god of knowledge chuckled and kissed her softly, hugging her waist.

He pressed his forehead against hers, he felt her arms wrap around his neck, caressing the nape of his neck.

-- hey...-- she said softly-- now that Apophis....the serpent...is gone, and the maat is restored...-- she trailed off-- I was so worried, I when the demons were sieging your pyramid...when we fought togheter...I feared the worst...the simple idea of you dying I was so worried when you made me leave with Carter and walt--

Tot tilted her face up by the chin, kissing her softly.

--my dear...-- he said-- the ink to my quill..., even if the serpent killed me..., and dissolved me into small pieces across the duat...a part of me wouldve remained with you, after all, you became my host when we were deffending our home, a part of me Will always remain with you

He pressed his hand against her chest, where her heart is-- a part of me, lives within you..., and a part of you lives within me as well-- he pressed that same hand against his chest.

Jerico felt her heart fasten, her chest warmed up-- what is th---

Tot smiled-- what youre feeling is our Bond, use your sight to see it

She descended her view to the duat,two golden Strings of light connected right in the middle of their embrace. It wrapped around them.

And in the duat she could see tot in his actual form, a Man with the head of an Ibis bird.

Returning her sight to the human world she smiled softly, her eyes had retained tears.

He pressed her against his chest and said-- if you wanna cry, Just cry...-- he kissed the top of her hear and felt his "House Of Blues" shirt soaked with tears, he caressed her hair letting her get everything out.

Once she was calmer, he used his powers to make a handkerchief appear, made out of linen.

He dried her tears and kissed her, feeling her kiss back he hugged her tighter.

--Jerico, the ink to my quill, youre the words I write, youre like the books I like to read, youre my ever expanding knowledge, everything you are, I love...-- tot said tenderly with a small smile-- I Will never leave you, and even as the years passes, ill never leave your side... -- he realized how cheesy he was being, and an awkward smile replaced his small one.

--thank you tatter tots-- she said kissing his forehead.

-- i adore that petname, you know?-- he said looking into her beautiful green eyes.

Jeri has to gather her thoughts as she got lost into the kaleidoscopic eyes of the god of knowledge. She said pure gibberish until tots laugh brought her back to earth.

--So, how about you play something for me?-- she made one of his electric guitars float to them, already connected to the amplifier.

Tot strummed the strings, with his other hand pressing the right chords on the neck of the guitar, clearing his throat-- 《Throw my ticket out the window

Throw my suitcase out there, too

Throw my troubles out the door

I don't need them any more

'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you

I should have left this town this morning

But it was more than I could do

For, your love comes on so strong

And I've waited all day long

For tonight when I'll be staying here with you

Is it really any wonder

The love that a stranger might receive?

You cast your spell and I went under

I find it so difficult to leave

I can hear that whistle blowin'

I see that stationmaster, too

If there's a poor boy on the street

Then let him have my seat

'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you

Throw my ticket out the window

Throw my suitcase out there, too

Throw my troubles out the door

I don't need them any more

'Cause tonight I'll be staying here with you...》

[spectralarchers]

Characters I would love to see meet in the MCU:

Melinda May and Colleen Wing;

Okoye and Jessica Jones;

Frank Castle and M'Baku;

Clint Barton and Everett Ross;

Sam Wilson and Wong;

Luis and Peter Parker;

Erik Selvig and Helen Cho;

Jeri Hogarth and Pepper Potts;

Heimdal and Queen Ramonda;

Laura Barton and Peter Quill;

Peter Parker and Frank Castle;

Justin Hammer and Shuri (sprinkled with Tony Stark) ;

Cassie Lang and Shuri;

Korg, Luis and Groot;

Bucky Barnes and Misty Knight;

Christine Everhart and Karen Page;

Dinah Madani and Everett Ross;

Danny Rand and T'Challa ;

James Rhodes and Shuri;

Frigga and Ramonda (let me dream) ;

Valkyrie and Wanda Maximoff;

Nebula and Helen Cho (and her cradle) ;

Curtis Hoyle and Sam Wilson;

Steve Rogers and Foggy Nelson;

M'Baku and Abomination;

Thaddeus Ross and Nakia ;

T'Challa and Thor Odinson (they can exchange about being a good man and a king);

A flashback of N'Boju and Alexander Pierce meeting;

Nick Fury and Okoye;

Maria Hill and Misty Knight

And so on and so forth. So many people I want to see meet. So little opportunity for it.

[occasionallygiveadamn]

fandom tag

I was tagged by @smhfoggy! Thanks dude!

Three Fandoms:

Marvel is my main one (and probably the only one I'm gonna answer these for) but I'm also pretty into Rent and Stranger Things.

The First Character You Loved:

Jessica Jones, hands down. Her character is what got me into the MCU.

The Character You Never Expected to Love So Much:

I have two: Frank Castle, and (prepare to be shocked) Matt Murdock. My first introduction to him was actually in Defenders, back when I knew nothing about him and was really only watching for Jess.

I watched season one of Daredevil because I was curious about him as a character, and by a few episodes in, I was in love.

The Character You Relate to the Most:

Jess and Matt, both. Matt hates his disability more than he'd ever admit to anyone, and Jess has a lot of self worth issues but desperately wants to be a good person. I relate to the two of them more than I have any other characters.

As For Me, I Would’ve Chosen:

I have no idea what this one is supposed to be. I'll just talk about ships I would've made canon, I guess?

If it were up to me, the Jessluke break-up never would have happened, and Steggy would still be going strong (because Peggy would've gotten serumed too and ended up next to Steve on that plane.)

The Character You’d Slap Repeatedly:

Trish Walker and Jeri Hogarth.

Three Favorite Characters (in order of preference):

Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock both tie for first, Wade Wilson, Steve Rogers.

Character You Liked at First, But Don’t Like Anymore:

Trish. Fucking. Walker.

Character You Didn’t Like At First But Do Now:

David Lieberman.

Three OTPs:

Jessluke, Wade/Vanessa, Steggy.

Tagging @mitsukoxaki @thereismylittlerainbow @apartofthestorm @martial-quill and @perplexedhedgehog Have fun, guys!

[transnames]

Some one-syllable neutral names

(Two-syllable names)

A: Ace, Add, Ade, Aim, Al, Ames, An, Ant, Art, Ash, Aud, Ax, Az

B: Bard, Barr, Bas, Bay, Baz, Beach, Beau, Beck, Bee, Beech, Bel, Bell, Bev, Birch, Bird, Blaine, Blair, Blake, Blaze, Bliss, Blue, Blythe, Bo, Bon, Boo, Brae, Brace, Brave, Bree, Breeze, Bret, Brook, Brooks, Bronx, Bry, Bryce, Bryn, Byrd

C: Cade, Cai, Cal, Cale, Cam, Case, Cass, Cat, Cay, Ceil, Cer, Chan, Char, Chas, Chase, Chay, Chi, Chip, Chris, Clare, Claude, Clay, Clor, Cloud, Clove, Co, Cole, Colt, Crane, Crow, Cruz, Cy, Cyd

D: Dahl, Dai, Daine, Dale, Dane, Dar, Dare, Dash, Dax, Day, Dee, Dell, Den, Dev, Dez, Di, Doe, Dor, Doss, Dove, Dray, Dream, Drew, Dru, Duff, Dune

E: East, Edge, El, Elk, Elm, Em, En, Eun, Ev, Eyre, Ez

F: Fang, Fawn, Fay, Fern, Fife, Finch, Finn, Fionn, Flame, Flann, Flick, Flint, Flip, Flor, Flynn, Fox, Fran, Free, Frost

G: Gab, Gale, Gen, Gene, Gil, Glade, Glaw, Glenn, Glo, Glynn, Gray, Green, Grey, Grove, Gull, Gus, Gwyn

H: Hal, Hale, Hail, Hall, Halle, Han, Hao, Harl, Hawk, Hayes, Haze, Hyeon

I: Ille, Inge, Io, Ire, Isle, Iss, Iv, Ives, Ix, Iz

J: Jade, Jae, Jak, Jam, Jan, Jas, Jax, Jay, Jayme, Jazz, Jean, Jem, Jeri, Jerre, Jess, Jet, Jewel, Jin, Jo, Joyce, Jude, Jules, June

K: Kade, Kai, Kal, Kam, Kass, Kay, Kaz, Keats, Kei, Kel, Kerr, Kick, Kim, Kit, Klaude, Klay, Klee, Knight, Knox, Kris, Ky, Kyle

L: Lan, Land, Lane, Lang, Lake, Lark, Leaf, Lee, Leeds, Leigh, Leith, Len, Lex, Li, Lin, Liv, Loch, Locke, Lon, Lorne, Lou, Luck, Lute, Lux, Lyre, Lyse

M: Mack, Mai, Maize, Mal, Mar, March, Marl, Mars, Marsh, Max, Mays, Mel, Mer, Merce, Merle, Mies, Miles, Mills, Min, Mint, Moe, Moon, Murph, Muse, Myrl, Myrrh

N: Nao, Nat, Neel, Nell, Nev, Nic, Night, Nile, Noe, Noel, Noor, Norm, North, Nove, Nox, Nyx

O: Oak, Oakes, Oates, Ode, Ore, Oz

P: Pace, Page, Park, Pat, Patch, Payne, Pau, Pax, Paz, Peace, Pearl, Per, Phi, Pier, Pierce, Pike, Pim, Pine, Pip, Poe, Puck

Q: Quail, Quay, Quest, Quill, Quince, Quinn

R: Rae, Rail, Rain, Raz, Red, Ree, Reed, Reese, Reeve, Rei, Reid, Reign, Ren, Reyes, Rho, Rhys, Rian, Ridge, Riles, Rin, Ro, Roan, Roar, Rome, Ronne, Roone, Roth, Roux, Rowan, Rox, Roy, Royce, Rue, Rune, Ry, Ryn, Ryo

S: Sage, Sal, Sam, Scout, Sea, Sev, Sey, Shade, Shale, Shan, Shark, Shaw, Shawn, Shay, Shea, Shel, Sim, Siv, Sky, Slate, Sloane, Smith, Snow, Spike, Sol, Sorrel, Spring, Spruce, Star, Steel, Stone, Storm, Sun, Sy, Syd

T: Tai, Taj, Tal, Tam, Tate, Tau, Tay, Taz, Teal, Tee, Tib, Tide, Tix, Tobes, Trace, Trev, True, Truth, Ty

U: Ulf, Ull

V: Val, Vale, Van, Vane, Verne, Vi, Vic, Viv, Von, Voss, Vox

W: Wade, Ward, West, Whit, Wil, Wild, Win, Wolf, Worth, Wren, Wyle, Wynn

X: Xan, Xande, Xav, Xen, Xi, Xie

Y: Yale, Yang, Yates, Yeats, Yon, Yu, Yule, Yve, Yves

Z: Zabe, Zade, Zahn, Zale, Zan, Zane, Zeal, Zed, Zee, Zell, Zen, Zeph, Zev, Zinc, Ziv, Zo

[kayawagner]

Polyhedron Newszine Introductory Issue

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Included in this issue:

Getting Together: How to Form a Gaming Club by Jeri McGraw and Greg Schwartz

Special Module Feature: Ghost Righters - by Jean Rabe Gallant Heroes Opposing Supernatural Threats-G.H.O.S.T., Inc . is hired by a mysterious client to tackle a haunted castle in this AD&D® game scenario for six player characters.

Heroes and Vlllains - by Vince Garcia Adding carefully developed heroes and villains to any role playing game campaign will add fun for the game master and players.

The New Rogues Gallery - by Skip Wllllams, Valerie Valusek, Bruce Rabe, Tracy Reed, and Jean Rabe "Sir" Orville and Company is an adventuring group that has crossed the continent and crossed paths with a terrible foe.

28 The Living City's Quill and Scribe Shop - by Fran Hart Hoaten Thee, a scribe with unmatched talent, will translate almost any document.

31 Ravens Bluff Rumors - by Matt Denzler Traveling by sea to The Living City can be dangerous.

With Great Power - by Wllllam Tracy Our columnist offers suggestions for creating your own superheroes.

© 1989 TSR, Inc.

Price: $0.99 Polyhedron Newszine Introductory Issue published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #44 Shit Hits the Fan

     “It’s not a coma,” Doctor Jeri Quill said as she examined Jack Masterson’s body.      “You’re certain?” Harkon Smith asked.      “I think I can recognize a coma when I see one,” Jeri said.  “Especially considering why I was originally brought into this group.”      “Sorry,” Harkon said.  “What is it then?”      “Well, it is something I recognize,” Jeri said.  “He’s lost his mind…literally, I mean.  It’s like Imhotep’s body after we transferred his mind to a clone body.”      “How did that happen?” Harkon asked.      “I couldn’t even begin to speculate,” Jeri said.  “Imhotep is doing some research, to see if he can find anything, but he doesn’t have any theories yet either.”      Elsewhere in their base in the Cretaceous, Melinda Summers had brought Cid into the interrogation room.  He actually looked rather amused as he sat down.      “You didn’t tell me you were time travellers,” he said.      “What do you know about time travel?” Melinda asked.      “Rumors and hearsay, mostly.  Is this really necessary though?”  He lifted up his hands, which were handcuffed together.      “Probably not, but they’re staying on.  What did you do to Jack?”      “Like I said, I was just running tests on his powers.  It was completely harmless.  Just an observation spell.”      “So you claim, but we have only your word on that.”      “Something I’m wondering is why you approached me in the first place,” Cid said.  “I didn’t reach out to you, you came to me.”      “We were pointed in the direction of that bar, and you were the most powerful individual there.  That’s why I approached you.”      “Well, I can’t argue with that logic,” Cid said.  “I mean, it’s basically a shot in the dark sort of logic, but I’m guessing you don’t have many better options at the moment for whatever problem you were already dealing with.”      “And now, thanks to you, we have another problem.”      “Like I said, I didn’t do anything,” Cid said.  “Not anything that would have resulted in this anyway.  It’s just a coincidence.”      “What were you thinking?” Mary Bishop asked as she paced back and forth in her girlfriend’s room.      “I was thinking that I’m mostly useless now that I’m trapped here on base,” Abigail Esau said.  “But there was something useful I could do.  The Ghost of Jack’s temporal duplicate was trapped in Merlin’s dream, and I could get him out.”      “Barely,” Mary said.  “You were almost trapped in there with him.”      “But I wasn’t.”      “And nobody knows why you weren’t.”      “Because I made a backdoor on my way in.”      “I talked with Imhotep about that,” Mary said.  “And I had Ghost Jack check with Sesla.  Neither of them understand how you managed that.”      “Since when do you put stock in what Sesla says?  I mean, I know supposedly I’m the one that becomes Sesla in the future now, but the one here on base is still from a previous future, before that was the case.”      “You’re the one that supposedly becomes Sesla,” Mary said.  “I’m still not entirely convinced on that.  But aside from that, there’s the fact that Imhotep said the same thing.  And him I trust.”      “But you don’t trust me?” Abigail asked.      “Of course I trust you, but this sort of magic is new to you.  I’m just worried, and I don’t want to lose you.”      Philip Wilson was down in the holding cell area, feeding all the prisoners they currently had.  They did not have that many anymore, since joining the TDD and thus releasing most of the TDD and TRD agents that they had been holding.  But they still had a few, including Aphrodite.  She was always the prisoner that Philip most disliked seeing.  That said, he was not exactly thrilled when he got to her cell, and did not see here.      He checked the computer panel in front of her cell, and ran a scan to check if she was just somehow invisible, but the scan did not reveal anything.      “Philip to Harkon,” he said over the comm.  “We have a problem.  Aphrodite isn’t in her cell.”      “Is it still closed?” Harkon asked.      “Yeah, the scan shows it’s empty, but I still figured it might be a trick.”      “I’ll send Imhotep and Ghost Jack down there.  Meanwhile, I’ll put the base on high alert.  I really don’t like the timing on this.”      Melinda heard the base alarms go off.  “Melinda to Harkon, what’s going on?” she asked into her comm.      “Aphrodite seems to be out of her cell,” Harkon said.  “Are you still with Cid?”      “Yeah,” Melinda said, glancing at him.      “Is something going on?” Cid asked.  “Those alarms definitely seem to indicate there is.”      “I’ll see what I can get out of him,” Melinda said.      “Wait, do you think whatever is going on is linked to me?” Cid asked.      “There’s a certain situation that’s been under control for a good long time, you show up here and suddenly it’s no longer under control.  You tell me how that sounds.”      “It sounds like yet another coincidence.”      “Quite a lot of coincidences around you,” Melinda said.      “Almost like they’re being caused by someone,” Cid said.  “You wouldn’t happen to have anyone like that around here, would you?”      “What are you talking about?” Melinda asked.      “I’m not detecting any magic within the cell,” Imhotep said.      Ghost Jack floated into the cell, and moved around it.  “And I’m not finding anyone.”      “So, then she has escaped for certain,” Harkon said.  “I’ve checked the security footage, but it’s been altered.  It’s still showing her in there.  Theories on how she escaped?”      “Like I said, I’m not detecting any magic,” Imhotep said.  “It could be something I’m unable to detect, but more than likely it’s something else.”      “What about Tyson Randall?” Ghost Jack asked.  “Could this finally be the outcome of that message we had to deliver to him?”      “It’s certainly what I’m thinking,” Harkon said.  “The problem is we know nothing about him other than the name, and what little we’ve heard from Aphrodite.  For all we know, Cid is really Randall.”      “Or even just working with him,” Ghost Jack said.  “Or he might not be connected at all.  There’s too many questions right now, and not enough answers.”      As they were talking, the lights suddenly went out.      “Harkon to anyone, what just happened?” he asked over the comm.  There was no response.      “Did you do that?” Melinda asked Cid after the power went out.      “No, none of this is my doing,” Cid said.      “Comms out too,” Melinda said.  “And even the emergency lights are out.”  She took a glow stick out of her pocket to provide some light.      “Some kind of EMP?” Cid asked.      “Our equipment is protected against that,” Melinda said.  “Probably something mystical, which continues to point squarely at you.”      “On the other hand, if I was behind this, wouldn’t I have rushed you as soon as the power went out?” Cid asked as he put the handcuffs, that were previously around his wrists, onto the table in front of him.      “Just stay where you are.”  Melinda unholstered her energy pistol. “Is that even going to work?”      “I can still use it as a bludgeon to knock you out if I need to.”      “Do you have any candles in here?” Mary asked.      “No,” Abigail said.  “Why would I have candles?  Aha, here’s a flashlight, but it doesn’t work.  Wait, let me try something.”      “What kind of something?” Mary asked before the room started lighting up from a glow emanating from Abigail’s hands.  “You can make your hands glow?”      “Yeah, that was another of the spells I found when looking through Merlin’s journals.”      “Cool, but we should start figuring out what happened here.  And we should probably stop by my room so I can grab my gun.”      “I don’t know if energy weapons will work after whatever happened.  I mean, lights are out, comms are down, even the air conditioning is off.”      “I have a regular shotgun as well,” Mary said.  “I assume that’ll work.”      In the time door room, Dorian Winters was searching through the supply cabinet, until he found some glow sticks.  He cracked one to provide some light, and stuffed the rest into his pockets.      He then went and checked the time door, which was just as dead as everything else on the base.  He heard the regular door being pried open, and turned around to see Philip come in.      “What happened?” Philip asked.      “No idea,” Dorian said.  “Power just went out completely.  Even stuff on their own power supplies aren’t working.”      “Yeah, has there been any time door activity?”      “Not since Melinda’s team came back.  What I’m curious about is if time doors in other eras can still connect to ours with it dead.  We can’t connect out, but I have no idea about the opposite.”      “Then we better stay here for now,” Philip said.  “Just in case.”      In the holding cell area, Harkon was just finishing checking over all of the occupied cells, to make sure they were still secure.  In case of a power outage they would remain locked, but he wanted to make sure that nothing had gone wrong.  Imhotep had created a ball of light to provide illumination.      “Looks like they are all secure,” Harkon said after checking the last one.      “At least that’s one piece of good news,” Imhotep said.  “What do we do next?”      “For now, while Ghost Jack is flying around the base trying to make contact with everyone, we wait here.”      Mary pointed her shotgun at the wall as a new light source suddenly appeared out of it, before realizing that it was just Ghost Jack.      “What’s going on?” Abigail asked, as Mary lowered the shotgun.      “Power’s out,” Ghost Jack said.      “Yeah, we kind of figured that out,” Mary said.      “And my mother is out of her cell,” Ghost Jack said.      “Aphrodite’s free?” Mary asked.  “That’s not a good sign.”      “Yeah, she got out before the power went out through, so not sure exactly what happened,” Ghost Jack said.  “I’m just trying to find out how everyone is doing.”      “Did you check the time door room?” Mary asked.      “Yeah, just went there, Philip and Dorian are guarding it, but it’s just as dead as everything else.  And it seems unlikely that Aphrodite went through it before power went out.”      “That’s good at least,” Abigail said.  “I think.”      Melinda went down a corridor, with Cid walking in front of her so she could keep an eye on him.      “How many people do you have here with magical abilities anyway?” Cid asked.      “Why does it matter?” Melinda asked.      “Well, what I’m sensing isn’t quite making sense.  Like, I’m sensing three Demigods, one with probability warping, and one of whom is dead?  And two really powerful beings, both in comas.  Plus a depowered God.”      “Well, assuming you’re being truthful, that at least indicates Aphrodite is still here.”      “But I’m also feeling flickers of something else, something more encompassing?”      “Encompassing?”      “Yeah, like it’s everywhere here.  And it almost feels familiar?”      Melinda shrugged.  “Don’t know what you’re talking about there.  Unless L is around again.”      “L?”      “Never mind.”      A thought had come to him.  He did not know why that felt so strange, yet it did.  And then another thought came to him, as he thought about the first.  He tried to look around himself, but he could not see or hear or smell or taste or touch.  He could feel though, although not in a manner that felt familiar.  Well, no, that was not entirely accurate, there was a certain level of familiarity but he did not know why.      As more and more thoughts came to him, some of them memories, he started figuring out who he was.  He was Jack.  Jack Masterson, that was it.  But he felt another Jack was nearby.  That was right, it was the Ghost of his temporal duplicate.  The meaning of those words was not entirely clear to him yet, but he was getting there.      Something had happened, but what was it?  He remembered trying to use his powers.  What were his powers?  Someone was trying to observe him, observe his powers.  Who, why?  And how did he get here?      He was back at base, that he was certain of, but the base was in another time and place, not where whatever had happened was.  His body was here, he could sense that too now.  Perhaps he was still tied to it?  But why would he not be, why did that idea seem strange to him?      An out of body experience, was that what this was?  But why and how?  Was he a Ghost too now, just like his temporal duplicate?  Those words were starting to gain meaning, as he continued trying to puzzle through the current situation.      It seemed like he should be panicking at such a strange situation, but he was too confused to even consider that.  Others were panicking though.  Why?  The base was dark, other than brief bits of illumination here and there, wherever people had found ways to get some light.      And that is when the realization hit.  His first thought he had since leaving his body, that was the cause of the darkness.  He had caused it, though he did not yet know the reason why.      “There’s someone coming this way,” Philip said as he aimed his gun at the door.      Dorian did the same, as they both ducked behind computer consoles, just in case.  Aphrodite came running into the room, a glowing orb in her hand.  She ran straight for the time door controls, and swore after noticing they were dead.      “Freeze,” Philip said as he stood up, his gun trained on her, and Dorian following his lead.      “Oh, it’s you two,” Aphrodite said.  “What are your names again?”      “Just don’t try anything, and we won’t have to shoot you,” Philip said.      “Do you also want me to drop this?” Aphrodite asked as she dropped the orb to the ground.      The room lit up, blinding Philip and Dorian.  They started firing in the direction of Aphrodite, but did not hear any hits on her, just the wall.  Then Philip felt someone behind him, who got him into a chokehold.  He tried breaking it, but was held firm.      The inability to breath was bringing him closer and closer to unconsciousness, when his sight returned to him, and he saw Dorian was already unconscious on the ground.  There was a man standing over him that Philip did not recognize.  And with that, he passed out.      “How is everyone?” Harkon asked as Ghost Jack returned to him and Imhotep.      “Everyone seems in good shape,” Ghost Jack said.  “Philip and Dorian are keeping guard in the time door room, but the time door is as dead as everything else on base.”      “And Aphrodite?” Imhotep asked.      “I didn’t see any sign of her,” Ghost Jack said.  “But with the time door down, she’s presumably trapped here.”      “Unless she has another way out of here,” Harkon said.  “And I don’t imagine she would have taken out the power if it would trap her here.”      “Assuming she is the one that took it out,” Imhotep said.  “I have been sensing something strange.  I’m not sure what it is, but there’s some sort of force at work here.  It doesn’t feel malicious though.”      The time door room, it was empty, Jack realized.  That should not be the case.  He concentrated on it, and realized that he could see what had happened there.  His mother was behind it, but not alone.      Who was the other individual that she was with.  The name Tyson Randall came to his mind, though he did not remember what it signified.  It felt like it was someone important, but not someone he knew.  Someone he knew of perhaps?  It would come to him eventually.      He realized that he should try contacting someone.  But who?  And how?  He needed to let someone know what was happening to him, but he did not even know what was happening to him.  He started looking around the base, trying to figure out where everyone was.  Stationary people were easier to locate, but he could also find people that were on the move, with a little more work.      Mary put up her hand, signalling to Abigail to stop walking.  She moved forward, shotgun first, and poked around the edge of a corner.  She saw Aphrodite, who was carrying an unconscious Philip.      “Freeze,” Mary shouted as she went around the corner, her shotgun trained on Aphrodite.      “Really dear?” Aphrodite asked.  “Are you really going to risk shooting your friend here?” She held Philip in front of herself.      “What the hell is going on?” Mary asked.  “How did you get out, and how did you shut off the power?”      “How did I shut off the power?” Aphrodite asked.      “Was that not you?” Abigail asked as she came up behind Mary.      “I want to escape this place, and the lack of electricity is making that a bit difficult,” Aphrodite said.      “But if not you then who?” Abigail asked, right before gunfire started coming from behind.      Mary turned around, to start returning fire, at the attacker, a man she did not recognize, who quickly withdrew and ran off.  But the distraction had given Aphrodite time to escape.      “Dammit,” Mary said before looking at Abigail, who was on the ground leaning against the wall, and bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds.  “Shit, shit, shit.”      “There was a fight nearby,” Cid said.  “I just sensed the probability warper get injured.”      “How nearby?” Melinda asked.      “I think one or two floors up,” Cid said.  “Probably pretty close to straight up.”      “There’s a stairway just over there.”  Melinda pointed.  “Lead the way.”      “You know your base layout better than I do.”      “Yeah, but I want you where I can see you.  Plus, you’re the one that can sense people.”      “I can sense magic.”      “Close enough, let’s go.”      “What happened?” Jeri asked as Mary carried Abigail into the infirmary, which was lit by a bunch of glow sticks.  She had been bandaged up with pieces of cloth ripped from both her and Mary’s outfits, clearly keeping her from bleeding out, and was currently passed out.      “She got shot by someone working with Aphrodite,” Mary said as she put Abigail down on one of the beds.      “Right,” Jeri said as she got to work.  “Ghost Jack filled me in on what he knew, and I’ve been waiting here in case anything happened.  Unfortunately I’m somewhat limited in what I can do.”  She finished cutting off Abigail’s shirt, and checked her front and back.  “Exit wounds for all but one entry wound.”      “What do we do?” Mary asked.      “Get some proper bandages from the cupboard over there, while I see if I can remove the bullet that’s still inside.”      “Right.”      Jeri felt inside the wound.  The bullet was pretty deep, but she felt like it was removable.      “Is she going to be okay?” Mary asked.      “Maybe,” Jeri said.  “The problem is that without medical scanners, it’s hard to judge how much internal damage there is.”      “We’ve got a problem,” Ghost Jack said as he once again returned to Harkon and Imhotep.  “Dorian and Philip aren’t in the time door room anymore.”      “That’s not a good sign,” Harkon said.  “Best case scenario it means that something happened which was big enough for them to leave it unguarded.”      “And worst case, something happened to them,” Ghost Jack said.      “What do we do?” Imhotep asked.  “Continue guarding the prisoners?”      “Where there any indications of what happened there?” Harkon asked.      “Nope,” Ghost Jack said.  “It looked about as normal in there as it can while being empty and dark.”      “Go and find someone else to come down here and guard the prisoners,” Harkon said.      “Got it,” Ghost Jack said.      “Imhotep and I will go to the time door room, and see what we can figure out,” Harkon said.  “Maybe see if you can find a few other agents to join us there as well, but make sure there’s enough down here first.”      “Understood,” Ghost Jack said before flying off.      Jeri carefully entered the wound with a pair of tweezers, moving them towards the bullet.  She knew exactly where it was, and just had to get the tweezers far enough in to grab it.  As the tweezers hit something solid, she carefully grabbed it with them, before starting to pull them back out, slowly.      As they came out, the bullet in them, she dropped it in the sink.  “Okay, get me those bandages now,” she said, and Mary started giving them to her as she first bandaged up that wound.      She then moved on to replacing the makeshift bandages on the other wounds, one at a time, along with disinfecting them all as she went.      “Okay, that’s all we can do for now,” Jeri said.  “At least until we get the power in the base back up, all we can do is keep an eye on her, and hope for the best.”      “What happened?” Melinda asked as she came into the infirmary with Cid.      “We ran into Aphrodite and some man I didn’t recognize,” Mary said.  “He shot Abigail.  I’m assuming it’s Tyson Randall.”      “Tyson Randall?” Cid asked.      “That name means something to you?” Melinda asked.      “I mean, I’ve heard the name before,” Cid said.  “Mostly rumors and such.”      “What do the rumors about him say?” Melinda asked.      “Some say he’s an immortal as he’s been seen in so many different eras.  Others say that’s because he’s a time traveller.  I never really had a preference in the debate, but considering when we are, I’m guessing the latter is more likely.”      “That’s doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know,” Melinda said.      “Well, unfortunately that’s all I’ve heard,” Cid said.      In the time door room, Harkon and Imhotep had just entered and were looking around.  Nothing seemed out of place to Harkon.      “Can you use your magic to detect anything in here?” Harkon asked.      “Aphrodite was definitely here,” Imhotep said.  “I don’t know what she did, but she was here.”      “Hmm, so that means she’s probably trapped here.  Probably came here with the intent to use the time door, which indicates that she doesn’t have another way out of here.  We just keep circling the same questions, without any good answers.  Okay, so assuming Tyson Randall did come here through some other method, that means either he just released her from her cell, and then left without her, or he’s stuck here too.”      “The second one, probably” Ghost Jack said as he flew into the room through a wall.  “I was just in the infirmary, and Abigail was shot by a man that was working with Aphrodite.”      “Is she okay?” Harkon asked.      “Hopefully,” Ghost Jack said.  “Jeri did what she could, but with the power being out, most of her equipment is useless.”      “I’ll head down there and try some healing magic,” Imhotep said.  “That might help.”      “Yes,” Harkon said.  “That’s a good call.  Jack, did you finish getting agents to guard the prisoner cells and to come up here?”      “Yeah,” Ghost Jack said.  “There are agents on their way here.”      “Okay, next up I’d like you to try and locate Aphrodite and her partner,” Harkon said.  “I don’t suppose you’ve seen any sign of them yet?”      “I haven’t seen them yet, just what they’ve done to Abigail, and the fact that Philip and Dorian are missing,” Ghost Jack said.      “Yes, well, hopefully they aren’t able to hide forever,” Harkon said.  “And if the partner is indeed Randall, and he is also trapped here, then I am really curious on who took out the power.”      Jack continued to try and reach out to someone, anyone.  He had so far made attempts to communicate with half a dozen different people, all to little success.  Then as he was mulling over what to do, he finally located Aphrodite.  She was with a man, presumably this Tyson Randall name that was stuck in his head.      They also had Philip and Dorian with them, both of whom were unconscious.  And they were bleeding.  Not enough to cause a problem, but enough to give Aphrodite some blood she was using to draw on the ground.  That was not a good sign.      He looked around near them, and discovered the Ghost of his temporal duplicate was not far from the room they were in.  It was living quarters, but ones that were currently not in use.      Jack concentrated on Ghost Jack and just thought the word LEFT as hard as he could.  He then watched as Ghost Jack hesitated for a moment, before turning left.  He tried flying through the wall, into the room where Aphrodite and the others were, but as he did, one of the blood drawings briefly glowed, and Ghost Jack was bounced backwards away from the wall.      “Hmm,” Imhotep said as he used his magic to check on Abigail’s condition.  “There is some internal bleeding, but I don’t think it’s anything I can’t repair.”      “That’s good,” Mary said.  “So, she’ll recover fully?”      “I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t,” Imhotep said.  “She may have to limit her physical activity for a while afterwards, but she should be fine.”      Just outside the infirmary, Harkon was talking with Melinda and Ohm, who had also found his way to this part of the base.  They had just finished going over what each of them knew.      “So, what now, sir?” Melinda asked.      “Hopefully Ghost Jack finds Aphrodite and we’re able to capture her,” Harkon said.      “And if not?” Ohm asked.      “Not to worry,” Ghost Jack said as he floated up through the floor.  “I’m pretty sure I’ve found where she is.  There’s a room I’m not able to enter, some sort of mystical field in the wall just pushed me back out.”      “That’s worrying,” Melinda said.  “She shouldn’t have her powers, although it’s possible she knows some spells that she can use beyond that.”      “There’s something else though,” Ghost Jack said.  “The way I found them.  I just felt this sudden urge to turn left, and that’s how I thought to check the room.”      “Your knowledge powers, maybe?” Ohm asked.      “Maybe,” Ghost Jack said.  “I’m not as experienced with those as the other Jack, but I don’t know, this felt different.  Less like suddenly knowing something, and more like…almost like a voice in my head.”      “Who’s voice?” Melinda asked.      “Umm, I don’t know, I suppose my own voice,” Ghost Jack said.      “You don’t think the other Jack might be reaching out somehow?” Harkon asked.      “Maybe,” Melinda said.  “You were saying that Imhotep has been feeling a presence of some sort, and that Jack’s mind is no longer in his body, which also tracks with some of what Cid’s been saying.”      “So, he’s a Ghost too?” Ohm asked.      “No, he’s not a Ghost,” Ghost Jack said.  “I can assure you of that.”      “But he might be astral projecting,” Harkon said.  “It’s certainly a possibility.”      Astral projecting?  Jack considered the words as he listened in on the conversation.  They did not quite convey what had happened to him, but they were not far off either.  In any case, at least his friends finally had an idea that he was around.      But what was the next move.  His situation was not the pressing issue at the moment.  He checked in on Aphrodite again, and she was still writing on the walls and floor with blood.      He concentrated on Ghost Jack again, and thought BLOOD MAGIC RITUALS.  He saw as Ghost Jack briefly flinched, and then was telling the others what he had just heard in his mind.      Imhotep looked over as Ghost Jack, Harkon, Melinda, and Ohm came back into the infirmary.      “Do you know anything about blood magic rituals?” Ghost Jack asked.      “A bit,” Imhotep said.  “Why?”      “I think that’s what Aphrodite is using,” Ghost Jack said.      “Make sense,” Imhotep said.  “She’d be able to do those even without any magical power herself, assuming she knows what she’s doing.”      “We need a way to bypass whatever protective fields she’s put up around the room she’s in,” Harkon said.      “What about teleportation?” Mary asked.  “Assuming our ship still has power, couldn’t Ghost Jack fly up there and use it?”      “Without a teleporter inside the room, there’s no way to get anyone in,” Melinda said.      “We do already have people inside the room,” Ohm said.  “Is there any way to wake them up?”      “There…there might be,” Abigail said, starting to wake up.  “Ow.”      “Try not to move to much,” Jeri said.  “You were pretty hurt back there.”      “Right, yeah,” Abigail said.  “But there might be a way, not exactly to wake them up, but to temporarily take possession of their bodies.  It’s similar to the spell I used to enter Merlin’s dream.”      “Hmm, I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” Harkon said.  “But I don’t know that there’s a better option.  We need to stop Aphrodite and her associate before they do whatever it is they are trying to do.”      Jack considered the plan his friends were making.  It was not a perfect plan, but then, he was not certain there was such a thing in this situation.  Perhaps he should turn the power in the base back on, although he had no idea how to do that.  He still was not certain how he had turned it off in the first place.      He did check the timeship and satellite they had in orbit, and both those were still at full power, so whatever he had done had just affected the base.  Or possibly stuff within the atmosphere, but it was hard to determine that since there was not exactly a lot of electronics in the Cretaceous.      Imhotep looked through the pages of Merlin’s journal that Abigail had pointed out to him.  “Hmm,” he said.      “So, what’s the verdict?” Harkon asked.      “It’ll work,” Imhotep said.  “With Abigail’s injuries she should not be doing it though, it could introduce complications.”      “Can you cast it?” Harkon asked.      “Yes, on myself and one other person,” Imhotep said.  “It takes less energy to cast on myself, so that’s they only way we can get two people inside there.”      “Ghost Jack, Melinda, Mary, and Ohm, I want you four waiting outside the room,” Harkon said.  “And be ready to go in as soon as you can.  Imhotep, you and I will be the ones possessing Philip and Dorian.”      “Are you certain?” Imhotep asked.      “I don’t like it, but we don’t have a lot of options,” Harkon said.      “Okay, let’s do this,” Imhotep said as he lied down on one of the beds in the infirmary and Harkon lied down on the bed next to him.  They clasped hands as Imhotep started casting the spell.  As he was casting it, he blinked, and suddenly he was in another room.      He kept still as he just looked around with his eyes.  Sure enough, he could see Aphrodite out of the corner of his eyes, and the man they were assuming was Tyson.  And next to him on the floor was Dorian, who similarly had his eyes open and was looking around.  So that meant he was in Philip’s body.      Harkon in Dorian’s body gave a slight nod, and both of them jumped up at the same time.  Imhotep rushed at Aphrodite, while Harkon went for Tyson.  Imhotep knocked Aphrodite to the ground, then he started wiping away the symbols she had been writing on the floor and walls.      Jack watched as the fight went on, and as Imhotep was getting rid of the bloody symbols, he felt a change in the room.  NOW he thought towards Ghost Jack.  He then saw Ghost Jack telling the others they could move, and going into the room to join the fight.      With the numbers advantage, it was not long before Jack’s friends had subdued Aphrodite and Tyson.  But as they did so, Jack wondered what they were going to do with them, since the power was still out.  And as he thought that, the power suddenly was restored.      I DON’T KNOW THAT YOU WANTED TO RESTORE THE POWER QUITE YET, Jack heard in his head.      WHO IS THERE? Jack asked.      YOU SHOULD HAVE WAITED UNTIL YOU HAD A BETTER HANDLE ON THE SITUATION.  WATCH.      Jack looked at Aphrodite and Tyson, and noticed the look on Tyson’s face.  It started with a raised eyebrow, before his mouth broke out into a smile.  And then, in a flash of light, he was gone.      WHAT HAPPENED? Jack asked.  AND WHO ARE YOU?      YOU DON’T REMEMBER ME?  WE’VE HAD A FEW CONVERSATIONS BEFORE.  IN YOUR DREAMS AND OUTSIDE.      L? Jack asked.      YES, BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE’VE BEEN ABLE TO TALK ON MY LEVEL.      SO, WHAT HAPPENED? Jack asked.      TYSON RANDALL IS A CYBORG, L said.  THAT WAS WHY YOU KNOCKED OUT POWER IN THE FIRST PLACE.      HE HAS A TIME MACHINE BUILT INTO HIMSELF? Jack asked.  I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING.  THIS WHOLE OUT OF BODY THING IS PRETTY NEW TO ME.      YES.  IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME FOR YOU TO GET USED TO IT, L said.      I’D PREFER TO RETURN TO MY BODY, Jack said.      I’M SURE YOU WOULD, BUT UNFORTUNATELY THAT IS NOT CURRENTLY POSSIBLE, L said.

To be continued…

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #43 A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Lose

     Mary Bishop followed Melinda Summers down the back alley, at the end of which was a door.  Melinda knocked on it, and the sliding peephole on it was opened and a scruffy looking guy looked out.      “What’s the password?” he asked.      “Solaris,” Melinda said, and the door was opened, allowing them to enter.      Mary went into the bar after Melinda.  She looked around at the diverse clientele.  Several were Human, or at least looked Human, but there were just as many that did not.  Centaurs, Werewolves, and animals with various levels of anthropomorphism made up just a few of the people she noticed.      “What’ll you have?” the bartender asked.  She looked Human, other than the fangs that indicated she was a vampire.      Melinda ordered a couple drinks for them, while Mary continued to survey the place.      “So, you two looking for someone in specific?” the bartender, who had introduced herself as Kat, asked.  “Or just checking out your options?”      “Don’t know yet,” Melinda.  “But the night is young.”      “So, how does that magic lamp work anyway?” Philip Wilson asked.  He was in a motel room with Jack Masterson and Dorian Winters.      “Well, assuming Imhotep’s instructions were accurate, I just have to say the incantation, and then spin the lamp, and it’ll point to the most powerful magic being within range,” Jack said.  “I tried it when we got here, and it pointed to the bar that Melinda and Mary went to.”      “Do magic people being grouped together affect that, or is it just the most powerful individual?” Dorian asked.      “Just the most powerful individual,” Jack said.  “But I mean it’s a bar for magic entities and users, so it stands to reason that there’s a lot in there, and that makes it more likely that the most powerful individual in the area is there.”      “Can we use it to determine how powerful?” Philip asked.      “I mean, other than comparatively, not really,” Jack said.  “Like, we know there’s someone in there more powerful than me, but that’s not exactly saying a whole lot.  The extent of my magic abilities is suddenly knowing things.”      “I don’t suppose that’s kicked in with anything useful?” Dorian asked.      “Not in the last bit, no,” Jack said.  “I did suddenly know a really good brownie recipe I wouldn’t mind trying out later, but that doesn’t help us out at the moment.”      “In the back corner,” Mary said.  “The guy back there looks like a Human, but the way everyone is avoiding him, and the way they’re occasionally looking at him, but trying not to, there’s a level of nervousness there.”      “Agreed,” Melinda said.  “Doesn’t mean he’s the most powerful person here, but he definitely has some level of power, mystical or otherwise.”      “Should we go talk to him?” Mary asked.      “You stay here,” Melinda said.  “I’ll chat with him, and see how things go.”      “Has Ghost Jack left Merlin’s dream yet?” Abigail Esau asked Doctor Jeri Quill as she entered the infirmary.      “Not yet, no,” Jeri said, glancing at the screen that showed Merlin’s cell.  “I’m actually starting to get a bit worried.  It’s been several hours now.”      “Yeah, there’s no reason it should be taking him that long.  Even if he was going to be questioning him that long, he’d have come out to let us know, right?”      “Maybe,” Jeri said.  “But there’s not much we can do about it.  It’s not like we can directly communicate with Ghost Jack as long as he’s inside Merlin’s dream.”      “What about indirect communication?”      “Back when the other Jack was in a coma he still had minimal control over his eye movement, and he could feel if we jabbed him in the side.  So we were able to communicate with him using morse code that way.  But in this case, it’s Merlin’s comatose body and dream, and Ghost Jack is just in it.”      “Yeah, so it might still work, but it might not,” Abigail said.  “Plus it’s not like we want to get close enough to Merlin to do anything like that.  Even in a coma, he’s still pretty scary.”      Melinda sat down across the table from the man that Mary had pointed out.  “Mind if I sit here?” she asked.      “It looks like you already are,” he said.      “I’m Melinda.”      “I’m sure you are.”      “And you are?” Melinda asked.      “Not interested in pointless flirtations.”      “I’m not here to flirt.”      “Then what are you here for?”      “I’m looking for information.”      “Have you tried a library?”      “There’s not a lot of information on the original generation of Gods in libraries.”      “Hmm, perhaps you are interesting after all,” he said.  “You can call me Cid.”      “The lamp’s pointing a different direction now,” Philip said after spinning it again.      “Whoever it’s pointing to must me on the move,” Jack said.      “Yeah, he left the bar with Melinda,” Mary said as she entered the motel room.  “She told me to head back here.”      “Where are they going?” Jack asked.  “And who is he?”      “Back to his place, I think,” Mary said.  “And Melinda said his name was Cid.”      “Cid?” Dorian asked.  “Not exactly a name that you’d expect someone powerful to have.”      Mary shrugged.  “Maybe not, but everyone else in the bar certainly considered him dangerous enough.”      “Oh?” Jack asked.  “In what way?”      “Not sure exactly, but just the way they looked at him, and mostly avoided him,” Mary said.      Melinda followed Cid into his apartment.  It was a fairly small place, but the walls were all filled with shelves, and those shelves were all filled with books.      “Care for a drink?” Cid asked.      “No thanks,” Melinda said.  “I’m more curious to learn what you know.”      “I know a lot.  After all, knowledge is power.  And I can’t just go giving away power for free.”      “Then why invite me up here?” Melinda asked as she looked at the spines of the books.  She recognized a few titles, but not the majority.      “I’m not going to give it away for free, but I might be interested in a trade.”      “What kind of trade?”      “Like I said, knowledge is power, and you clearly have a lot of it,” Cid said.  “Information for information, I’d say that’s a fair bargain.”      “What kind of information are you interested in?”      “What kind do you have?”      “First, I should be clear what I’m looking for,” Melinda said.  “I need the location of one of the original generation of Gods.”      “I know where a few of them are.”      “And would kind of information would I need to offer for that?”      “Ghost Jack still hasn’t come out?” Harkon Smith asked as he entered the infirmary.      “No, sir, he’s still in there,” Jeri said.  “Abigail was down here a while ago wondering the same thing.”      “Was she now?” Harkon asked.  “Do you think Ghost Jack has been trapped in there?”      “I don’t the slightest idea,” Jeri said.  “Demigod Ghosts entering the dreams of comatose wizards isn’t exactly something they teach about at med school.”      “Where’s Imhotep?” Harkon asked.      “I’m over here,” Imhotep said as he came over from the computers in the corner.  “But I’m just as clueless as Doctor Quill on this.”      “If he is trapped, would we have a way of getting him out?” Harkon asked.      Jeri shrugged, as did Imhotep.      Abigail stood outside Merlin’s cell, and took out one of the journals that had been brought back from Merlin’s lab.  She began reading one of the spells in it, and suddenly her body went limp and fell to the ground.      “Welcome back,” Jack said as Melinda joined the group in the motel room.  “What did you find out?”      “We might be able to get the location of one or two Progenitors from Cid,” Melinda said.  “But he wants some information in return.”      “What kind of information?” Mary asked.      “Information from Jack,” Melinda said.      “Me?” Jack asked.  “How does he even know to ask about me?”      “Apparently he could sense that I knew some Demigods,” Melinda said.  “And specifically, one with knowledge powers.”      “So, he wants me to use my powers to gain information?” Jack asked.      “He didn’t say, just that he wanted information from you, and for you to stop by his place when you have the time.”      “Come on, at least tell me something,” the Ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson said as he flew around the bar.      “I owe you nothing,” Merlin said.  “You’re the reason I’m trapped in this coma.”      “You didn’t have to chase after me after I was freed of your control.  Don’t go trying to blame me for that.”      “You were my property.”      “Oh, fuck you,” Ghost Jack said.      There was a swirling of objects in the corner of the bar as suddenly Abigail materialized out of thin air.  “Yes, it worked,” she said as she looked around.      “Abigail?” Ghost Jack asked, before turning back to Merlin.  “What are you doing here?”      “You shouldn’t be here, girl,” Merlin said.      “I came to check on Ghost Jack,” Abigail said.  “We’re starting to get a bit worried.”      “How did you get in here?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I used a spell, but that’s not important,” Abigail said.  “Why are you still in here?”      “He’s managed to trap me,” Ghost Jack said.      “And now you’ve joined him,” Merlin said.      “Are you sure about that?” Abigail asked.      “You used one of the journals from my lab, yes?” Merlin asked.  “I know which spell you used to get in here, and it will not allow you to get out.”      Jack knocked on Cid’s apartment door.      “Come in,” Cid said.      Jack opened the door and went in.  Cid was sitting on a couch, reading a book.  As Jack walked around to sit down in a chair, he glanced at the book, but it was written with a letter system that he did not recognize.  “You wanted to see me?”      “Yes, I could sense your abilities while talking with your friend.  And you two have other friends with magical abilities as well, I can sense that.”  Cid’s eyes narrowed briefly, before going back to normal.  “But for now it is your abilities that I am far more interested in.”      “You want me to know something for you?” Jack asked.  “Because it’s not like I can just choose what my powers tell me.”      “You can certainly influence it though.”      “Sometimes.”      “Either way though, that’s not what interests me.  I’m more interested in the abilities themselves, and how they work.”      “Through magic?”      “Well sure, but magic is just another set of rules.  You know this, and yet you’ve never bothered to investigate the rules by which your abilities work?”      “I’ve tried looking into it before, but to little success.  Why, do you know something I don’t?”      “I know a great many things that you don’t, but in this case I am uncharacteristically uninformed.”      “So, then what do you want from me?” Jack asked.      “Why, to run some tests, of course.”      “And in exchange for that, you’ll give us the information we need?”      “Yes, of course.”      “What kind of tests?”      “What happened to her?” Harkon asked as he returned to the infirmary, where Abigail was lying unconscious on a bed.      “She was found lying on the ground,” Jeri said.  “Outside of Merlin’s cell.”      “What?” Harkon asked, looking at the monitor showing Merlin’s cell.  “Did he do this?  How?”      “I don’t believe so,” Imhotep said.  He was holding a book.  “This was next to her, and it’s one of Merlin’s journals.  The page it was open to had a spell to enter someone else’s dreams.”      “She was checking on Ghost Jack, I assume?” Harkon asked.      “It seems likely,” Imhotep said.  “But the problem is that based on the strength of the spell, and Merlin’s magic power even while in a coma, I think she might be trapped in there.”      Abigail looked around.  She created a fireball in her hand, and threw it at one of the walls, creating a hole.  “This way,” she said to Ghost Jack who followed after her.      “What are we doing?” Ghost Jack asked as they went through the hole and were suddenly in a forest.  Looking back there no hole back to the bar, just more forest.      “We’re getting away from Merlin,” Abigail said.      “We’re still in his dream, in his mind,” Ghost Jack said.  “Just because we can’t see him doesn’t mean we’ve escaped from him.”      “Dreams are more complicated than that, which you should know,” Abigail said as she started walking around to various trees, and knocking on them.      “If you’re talking about Imhotep, that was based on interference caused by a higher level being.”      “That’s why he was trapped, but even still, dreams can have areas that the dreamer is unaware of.  I myself have recently been experimenting with redoing old dreams, and finding that there’s more in them than I was previously aware of.”      “You’ve been doing that?”      “I haven’t really told anyone yet,” Abigail said as she continued knocking on trees, until one sounded hollow.      “What are you doing now though?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yes, what are you doing now?” Merlin asked as he floated down from the sky.      “That’s none of your business,” Abigail said as she materialized a flintlock pistol in her hand, and fired it at Merlin.      He put up his hand, as if to stop it, but it went straight through his hand, and then his shoulder.  “Foolish girl,” he said through gritted teeth.  “You may be able to conjure up simple weapons, but this is my mind.” He put his hands together, and pulled them apart to reveal a ball of energy, which he threw at Abigail.      She ducked, and it hit the tree behind her, the one that had sounded hollow, which exploded with chunks of wood flying in all directions.  Some of them embedded in Abigail, and somehow in Ghost Jack.  They both fell to the ground, the pain enough that they passed out.      “So, what first?” Jack asked.      “Just sit down over there in the circle drawn on the floor,” Cid said.  “Tea?”      “No thanks,” Jack said as he sat down.      “Okay, close your eyes and concentrate on knowing something.”      “Anything in particular?”      “Doesn’t matter, just when you meditate to try and direct your powers, try that.  It doesn’t matter what you direct them too though.”      “Okay, I’m working on that.”      “Hmm, that’s interesting.”      “What’s interesting?” Jack asked.      “I’m just observing the kind of magic energy flowing through your body as you’re doing this.  Are you knowing anything at the moment?”      “Yeah, I was concentrating on knowing what’s up with you, and that’s interesting, very…” Jack trailed off as his body collapsed.      “What’s happening?” Harkon asked as he noticed the sudden spikes in Abigail’s vitals on the health monitor.      “Looks like she’s in a lot of pain,” Jeri said.  “But her body is fine, it’s just in her mind.  I can’t do anything about it.”      “Imhotep?” Harkon asked.      “I am similarly unsure of any action I can take to assist,” Imhotep said.      “So, we’re just waiting?” Harkon asked.  “Doing nothing?”      Abigail’s eyes shot open, and she sat up.  “Oh wow, wow, wow,” she said.  “That hurt a lot more than I was expecting.”      “You’re telling me,” Ghost Jack said as he suddenly appeared next to her.  “What was that?”      “I built a backdoor into the dream when I entered, it was in that tree,” Abigail said.  “My initial plan was to open it and go through, but Merlin finding us required a slightly different approach.”      “How did you manage to make a backdoor?” Imhotep asked.  “That wasn’t part of the spell in the journal.”      “Yeah, I kind of improvised that,” Abigail said.      “In the future, please check with us before doing something like that,” Harkon said.      “Right, sorry sir,” Abigail said.  “I just didn’t want to waste time.”      Mary was lying on the couch in the motel room, while Melinda was on the computer doing some research.  Dorian and Philip were playing a game of chess.      “Check,” Dorian said right before there was a knock at the door.      Mary got up and went to the door.  She looked through the peephole and saw Cid was there, so she opened the door, and realized he was carrying an unconscious Jack.      “What the hell happened,” Mary asked as she reached for her energy shotgun.      “I don’t know,” Cid said as he put Jack onto the bed.  “I was just trying to observe how his powers worked, and suddenly it was like his mind vanished from his body.”      “Right, like we’re just going to believe you,” Mary said as she picked up her energy shotgun and pointed it at Cid.  “You’re coming with us.”      “I have no objections to going with you, at least until we find out what’s going on here.  I am quite curious myself.” To be continued…

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #42 Limited Information

     Melinda Summers paced back and forth on the bridge of the UES starship Destiny as it was travelling through superspace.      “Could you do me a favor and not wear a hole in the floor of my bridge?” Captain Bonnie Jefferson asked.      “Sorry,” Melinda said.  “I’m just feeling a bit impatient.  It’s been a few days since we lost contact with our people, and I’m just getting worried.”      “We’re getting you there as fast as we can,” Bonnie said.  “I know it sucks not knowing what happened, but there’s not much you can do until we get there.  How much longer until that is, Lieutenant Gilden?”      “We’ll be there in about another fifty minutes or so,” Lieutenant Nicole Gilden said.  She was the pilot.      “Fifty minutes,” Bonnie said.  “The rest of your team is relaxing in other areas on the ship.  Feel free to do so yourself.  We have various different recreation rooms aboard.”      Elsewhere on the Destiny, in one of said rec rooms, Jack Masterson was bowling with Mary Bishop and Imhotep.      “So, you had bowling back in ancient Egypt?” Jack asked as Imhotep went up and picked up a bowling ball.      “It wasn’t exactly the same game, but throwing a ball to hit a target, or targets, isn’t exactly an uncommon game in various different cultures,” Imhotep said as he threw the ball and it went down the lane, before knocking down some of the pins.      “What about the wild west?” Jack asked.  “Did you have the game there, Mary?”      “I know of the game,” Mary said.  “Although I’ve never actually played it.  I wish Abigail was here, she’d probably be enjoying this.”      “Yes, well, that situation is definitely complicated,” Jack said.  “I certainly hope she won’t actually have to stay in the Cretaceous until she leaves the long way, but until we understand more of the situation of how she replaced Sesla we don’t want to risk jeopardizing the timeline.”      “Yeah, I know, I know,” Mary said.  “I just feel bad for her having to stay back at base while we’re out here on a mission.”      “Eh, it’s not too boring back at base,” Jack said.      “Why is it so boring here at base?” Abigail Esau asked as she sat down in the cafeteria.      “I think it’s nice, personally,” Philip Wilson said as he looked up from eating his macaroni and cheese.  “It’s good to get a break from going out on crazy dangerous missions.”      “Well sure, but not when you can’t leave,” Abigail said.  “I mean, I understand why I should stay here, because otherwise it will alter the already altered timeline in ways we can’t possibly predict.  But that doesn’t make this any easier.”      “I thought your big thing was research.  Can’t you do more of that while being stuck here?”      “I mean, I suppose.  Back home I would spend days in my room just reading stuff on my computer, only occasionally stopping for sleep.”      “And food?”      “If I remembered to.”      “So, what’s different now?” Philip asked.  “I mean, other than working for a time travel organization headquartered in the Cretaceous?”      “The fact that I have a girlfriend now, and she’s out on an adventure, and I’m stuck here.  Like, if Dorian was off doing some mission and you were stuck here, wouldn’t you hate that?”      “I mean, I probably wouldn’t be bored, but maybe worried.”      “Yeah, I’m a bit of that too,” Abigail said.  “I mean, I know Mary can take care of herself, but you keep getting into danger and eventually you’ll get yourself killed.  Unless you’re me apparently, and will live for tens of millions of years.”      The Ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson was holding the punching bag in place as Ohm was pounding away at it.  They too were on the Destiny.      “So, what do you think we’ll encounter when we get there?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I have little idea,” Ohm said.  “You probably have a lot better idea than me.  I’m not sure why I’m even on this mission.”      “What do you mean?”      “I’m just the big, dumb muscle.  And I don’t think punching Chronos into submission is going to work.”      “I mean, technically we don’t know for certain that it’s Chronos that’s behind the planet Kyklos disappearing.”      “A planet, which he possibly created in the first place, disappeared after he was asked about it,” Ohm said.  “I’m dumb, but not that much.”      “You’re really not though,” Ghost Jack said.  “Like, you are a Neanderthal, and the most advanced technology where you are from is what, pointy sticks?”      “Essentially, yes.”      “And yet after just a couple years, you’ve become fluent in English, learned all sorts of stuff about more advanced technology and even have a basic understanding of time travel.”      “Very basic.”      “Maybe, but I mean, most of us only have a basic understanding of time travel.  What I’m saying is that you learn at an amazingly fast rate.  You’re not stupid.”      “You’re just saying that because you’re interested in me,” Ohm said.      “See, you’re also really perceptive.”      Melinda was still on the bridge of the Destiny when they arrived at their destination, although she had stopped pacing by this point and was sitting down at one of the auxiliary science stations.      “Report,” Bonnie said.      “We’re at the location,” Nicole said.  “But sure enough, there’s no planet here, just like long distance sensors showed.”      Melinda looked through the sensor data on the console in front of her.  “Hmm, readings seem mostly normal,” she said.      “Then what do you want us to do?” Bonnie asked.  “This is your mission.”      “Have your scientists comb through all sensor readings for this area, for anything abnormal,” Melinda said.  “They are obviously better trained with your equipment than I am, plus there’s a lot of data to go through.”      “Can you tell us what to look for?” Bonnie asked.  “Abnormal is a pretty vague description.”      “I don’t know exactly what we���re looking for,” Melinda said.  “And what I do know is classified, so abnormal will have to suffice.”      “Understood,” Bonnie said, with a frown on her face.      Jack, Mary and Imhotep had gone to an observation room, and were looking out at the empty space where a planet should have been.      “Are your knowledge powers telling you anything?” Imhotep asked.      “Not yet,” Jack said.  “I mean, not anything relevant to this anyway.  These days they are almost constantly telling me something though.”      “I know we’re assuming Chronos is behind this, but could it also be related to the alternate universe stuff Deanna was doing on the planet?” Mary asked.      “It’s certainly possible,” Jack said.  “I mean, putting a planet in another universe would be a good way to hide it.  Especially if it was a universe without people out in space.”      “Are we also assuming the planet was moved, and not just destroyed?” Imhotep asked.      “If it was destroyed, there would be debris or something left,” Jack said.  “Even if it was completely obliterated, there would have been some sort of energy discharge we would have picked up.”      “Unless it was destroyed in another era,” Mary said.      “Maybe,” Jack said.      Elsewhere, Nikola Tesla was pacing back and forth, as well as he could in the pitch dark room he was in with ERK-147 and the other scientists that had been with them on Kyklos.      “So, this room is a perfect cube,” Nikola said.      “Yes, that is what my sensors said,” ERK-147 said.      “Which means the only way in or out is teleportation,” Nikola said.  “And we don’t know who it was that appeared before us, and presumably brought us here.”      “I believe he may have been a Greek God,” ERK-147 said.  “Although more powerful than any I have ever encountered, but what little I could detect of his genetics fits that theory.”      “It’s got to be Chronos,” Nikola said.  “He could easily be behind not just this, but the creation of the planet itself.  The only question is, how does that help us?”      “Anything yet?” Jack asked Melinda as he sat down with her in the mess hall.      “Nothing, it’s like the planet was never even here,” Melinda said.  “There’s no trace of it.”      “What about in other eras?” Jack asked.  “Like, let’s say this is Chronos.  We went to talk with him in 1984.”      “Harkon sent teams to other eras, and the planet seems to be gone in all of them, but the stuff that we know that happened on the planet, still seems to be part of the timeline.”      “Hmm, so presumably he wanted to make sure that those parts of the timeline were left intact for some reason.  But we don’t know anything about his reasons for any of this.”      “Which means that has to be our next move if we can’t figure out anything else here,” Melinda said.  “We need to find out why he’s doing this.”      “How are we supposed to do that?  Talk with other Progenitors?”      “Exactly.”      “You wanted to see me, sir?” Abigail asked as she entered Harkon Smith’s office.      “Yes, please sit down,” Harkon said as he put down his computer tablet.  “I just got a report back from Agent Summers’ team.”      “Did they find anything?”      “They found nothing, which means we’re going to need to come at the problem from another angle.”      “Oh?”      “We’re going to try reaching out to other Progenitors and seeing if we can learn anything.”      “Is that wise?”      “Maybe, maybe not, but it’s the best course of action we have at the moment.  Do you want to get started on looking into the identities of other Progenitors and where we can find them?”      “Of course,” Abigail said.  “I’d be happy to.”      Melinda entered Bonnie’s office.  “Have your people found anything yet?” Melinda asked.      “Not yet, and I’m finding it increasingly unlikely that they will,” Bonnie said.  “And I know my ship is on loan to you for this mission, but how long are we expected to be out here.  Earth doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of ships.”      “If we could stay out here a few more hours,” Melinda said.  “We’re starting to look into a few other options, but we still want to be thorough in this area.”      “Of course.”      “So, we’re trying to figure out a list of Progenitors?” Dorian asked.      “Yep,” Abigail said.  “The more the better.  So far, other than Chronos, the only one we’ve encountered so far is Yahweh, I think.”      “I mean, it was just Jack and Deanna that encountered him,” Philip said.  “And based on what Jack’s said of that encounter, I don’t know if we want to go to him again if we can help it.”      “Which is why we need to figure out others,” Abigail said.  “For instance, I’m pretty sure for the Norse pantheon it’s Ymir.”      “I’m thinking Nu for the Egyptians?” Dorian said.      “Makes sense, I think,” Abigail said.  “What about, let’s say, Roman?  I mean, that’s pretty hard to track down with the complex relationship between Roman and Greek mythologies.”      “I got nothing for that,” Dorian said.      “Me neither,” Philip said.  “But maybe for Shinto mythology we have Amenominakanushi.”      “Yeah, that sounds right, other than your pronunciation” Abigail said.  “A friend of mine from back home used to date a girl who’s family practiced some elements of Shintoism.”      “It’s just hard to tell for so many of these,” Dorian said.  “In so many mythologies, especially as you get earlier into the family trees of deities, it becomes more complicated to figure out what the difference is between a being and a concept.”      “Yeah, but at least we’re making some progress,” Abigail said.  “I think.”      Back on the Destiny, Melinda joined Jack, Ghost Jack, Mary, Imhotep, and Ohm in a meeting room.      “Have we found anything yet?” Jack asked.      “Still nothing?” Melinda said.  “We’ll be heading back to Earth shortly.  Abigail, Philip, and Dorian have been attempting to put together a list of Progenitors and seeing if they can track any down.”      “I mean, if we need to, I do know where Yahweh is living,” Jack said.  “Although I’m not sure if I want to go have another chat with him.”      “How many others have they found?” Mary asked.      “Last I heard they had a short list of names,” Melinda said.  “But no locations yet.”      “They aren’t exactly easy to track down,” Jack said.  “It took a decade for me to do so.  I mean, if we want I can do some long term searching again.  With our increased time travel options, it’s even less of an issue for me to do that now.”      “If we have to, we might take advantage of that,” Melinda said.  “But for now we’ll see what we can come up with the regular way.”      “Okay, so we haven’t figured out many, but we’ve possibly figured out a few of the Progenitors,” Abigail said.  “So, we’ll work with that for now.  Next up we need to figure out where and when we might be able to find them.”      “Are we wanting to limit ourselves to after 1984, since that’s when Chronos become a problem from?” Philip asked.  “Or 2017, since that’s when we were interacting with the planet Kyklos…sort of?      “Does it even matter?” Dorian asked.  “I mean, Chronos is a God of Time.  It’s not like causality works the same way with him as with us.”      “Maybe not, but other Progenitors aren’t necessarily the same way,” Abigail said.  “So yeah, probably best to try for times of 1984 or later, 2017 or later if we can manage.”      “So, how do we figure that out?” Philip asked.  “There’s so little about them in the historical records.”      “Then let’s go outside normal historical records,” Abigail said.  “Who would know about things like this, Merlin, Aphrodite, Sesla.  Any of them might be able to help.”      “Aphrodite has rarely been helpful,” Philip said.  “But we can try questioning her, I suppose.  Don’t know about how cooperative Merlin will be, and either way we’ll need to wait for Ghost Jack to get back here to talk with him or Sesla, unless you know another way of communicating with someone in a coma.”      “All valid ideas, although we’re not just limited to actually questioning them, are we?” Dorian asked.      “With Merlin as our prisoner, somebody could go to his home and look through what he has,” Abigail said.  “That’s a good point.”      As Melinda and her team returned to Earth, she was given an update on what Abigail’s team had been figuring out.      “Jack and I will go search Merlin’s place,” Melinda said to the team.      “I should go with,” Ghost Jack said.  “There are all sorts of magical security systems in place.”      “You’ll have to just tell us about them, since you’re the only one of us that can talk to Merlin or Sesla,” Melinda said.  “So, that determines that.”      “We can take Imhotep with though,” Jack said.  “He may be able to help with disarming the security.”      “Agreed,” Melinda said.      “Okay, I’ll tell you everything I am aware of,” Ghost Jack said.  “And hopefully that’ll be enough.”      “How long have we been here by now?” Nikola asked.      “It’s been thirty-five hours,” ERK-147 stated.  “You are worried about dehydration and starvation?”      “Surprisingly no,” Nikola said.  “I am feeling neither hunger nor thirst.”      “Me neither,” one of the others said.      “Yeah, I hadn’t even noticed, but I’m fine on that,” another one said.      “Hmm,” ERK-147 said.  “A scan of your bodies does indicate that you are properly hydrated and fed.”      “Well, if Chronos can create a planet, he can surely ensure that his prisoners are kept in good health,” Nikola said.  “The question is why?”      “Hello Aphrodite,” Abigail said as she sat down on a chair outside her cell.      “You’re a new one,” Aphrodite said.      “My name is Abigail, I’ve been here for a little bit, but I haven’t had the need to talk with you as of yet.”      “Oh, I know who you are, dear.  I’ve met your father before.”      “Don’t try playing that game with me,” Abigail said.  “You’re not going to convince me that you’re my mother.”      “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.  The woman that raised you is indeed your mother.  The man who raised you however, that’s not the father I was referring to.”      “I don’t care, that’s not what I’m here for.”      “What are you here for?  More intel?  The last time you people wanted intel you had to do a favor for me.  Are you willing to do that again?”      “How did that work out for you, anyway?  You’re still our prisoner.”      “For now,” Aphrodite said.  “Certain things can take a while, but it’s only a matter of time until I’m out of here.”      “We’re looking for one or more of the Progenitors.”      “The what now?”      “Chronos’ siblings.”      “Couldn’t help you there, even if I wanted to.  But feel free to pay me another visit if you ever want to learn who your real father is.”      Ghost Jack entered the dream of the comatose Sesla.  It was very different than the last time he had been here.  He was on a massive balcony overlooking an ocean.  The sky was sunny, with a few fluffy, white clouds dotting it here and there.  Sesla was standing by the railing at the edge, looking out at the ocean.      “Is my new body ready?” Sesla asked without even turning to look.      “Not yet,” Ghost Jack said.  “We’re still working on growing it.”      “I’m sure you are,” Sesla said.  “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit then?”      “We’re looking for information on Progenitors, the original generation of Gods.”      “Oh?”      Ghost Jack explained the situation with Chronos.      “Hmm, very curious.  I am aware of a few, but tracking them down might prove difficult.”      “Any help you can provide would be much appreciated,” Ghost Jack said.      Imhotep cast a spell to get rid of the magic lock.  It was not especially complex, although the sort of spell you would not know to cast if you had not been told.  The door opened before them.  Jack and Melinda followed him into the lab.      “So, what exactly are we looking for?” Imhotep asked.      “Notes, files, anything he might have,” Jack said.      “You don’t become one of the most powerful magic users out there without knowing at least a bit about the competition,” Melinda said.  “Hopefully in his case, that includes one or more of the Progenitors.”      Melinda quickly found a computer, which she started looking through.  Jack was mostly just looking at the various mystical artifacts.  And Imhotep located some old journals, which he started looking through.  They were in a variety of languages, but Imhotep had a simple text translation spell he could use for that.      The journals were full of a variety of different information.  A lot of it was about spells, or artifacts, but there was a bit here and there about Gods and other magical entities.  Nothing on the Progenitors that he had found yet though.      “This,” Jack said as he picked up an old oil lamp.      “What about it?” Melinda asked.      “Don’t know yet,” Jack said.  “But my knowledge powers just kicked in.  It’s something important.”  He started rubbing it, but nothing happened.  “Not a Genie, I guess.”      “I think I saw something about that in one of these journals,” Imhotep said, as he started turning back through the pages.  “Aha, here it is.  That lamp can be used to track powerful beings.”      “That could certainly help,” Melinda said.      Even though he did not need to breath, Ghost Jack took a deep breath to calm himself as he prepared to enter the cell where the comatose Merlin was being kept.      “Are you sure you want to do this?” Doctor Jeri Quill asked.      “Not really,” Ghost Jack said.  “In fact, I kind of really don’t want to do this, but we need to get as much information as we can.”      “You already got information from Sesla, and Melinda’s team may have found something as well,” Jeri said.      “Sesla gave some intel, but we need more.”      “You don’t want to wait for Melinda’s team to return?”      “It’s not like Merlin can do anything to me in there,” Ghost Jack said.  “I think,” he added before he entered the cell, and entered Merlin’s dream.      This was the first time he had entered Merlin’s dreams, so he did not know what exactly to expect.  But what he found was a small bar.  He looked around.  There were a few customers talking and drinking and eating.  He did not recognize any of them, nor did he recognize the bartender.  In the back though, there was a piano being played, and the player was definitely recognizable.      “Hello Merlin,” Ghost Jack said as he approached.      “Good day,” Merlin said without even looking up.  “I was wondering if you’d ever pay me a visit.”      “We need information.  We’re trying to track down Progenitors.”      “Who?”      “The original generation of Gods.”      “Can’t help you there.  Maybe if you wake me up, I can help you then.”      “Can’t do that, sorry.”      “You’re really not,” Merlin said.      “Yeah, you’re right, I’m really not sorry.  And if you can’t help us, then I’ll just be on my way.”  Ghost Jack tried to leave Merlin’s dream, but for some reason it did not work.      Merlin, still playing the piano, grew a rather large smile on his face.      Melinda, Jack and Imhotep returned to base, where Mary and Abigail were waiting for them.      “Did you guys find anything?” Mary asked.      Jack held up the lamp.  “This might help,” he said.      “What, is there a genie inside it?” Abigail asked.      “No, but it can possibly be used to track down Progenitors, amongst other powerful beings,” Melinda said.  “Did Ghost Jack find anything?”      “He’s talking with Merlin right now,” Mary said.  “But he got some potential leads from Sesla.  A starting location.”      “And I talked with Aphrodite, but no help there,” Abigail said.      “That’s to be expected,” Jack said.  “What kind of leads did Sesla give us?”      “What did you do?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I may be comatose, but within my mind, I am still in charge,” Merlin said.      “So, what’s your plan?  Just keep me trapped in here with you?”      “Misery does love company, but no, I have grander plans than that.”      “What kind of plans?”      “You know me better than that, I’m not going to just slip up and give you leverage.”      “Maybe not that easy, but give it time, it’ll happen.”      “Are you certain of that?” Merlin asked. To be continued…

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #41 Cycles

     Harkon Smith sat back in his chair as he considered.  “Progenitor language, you’re certain of this?” he asked.      “I looked over the pictures they brought back,” Jack Masterson said as he leaned against the wall.  “And yeah, it’s definitely that.  Although, is that really what we’re calling them?  Progenitors?”      “They don’t have a name for themselves,” Melinda Summers said as she looked over the pictures of the documents.  “Seems like as good a name as any.  The more important question is how this Chloe is connected to them.”      “We didn’t find anything about that,” the Ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson said.  “Unless it’s in the Progenitor language.”      “I can’t read most of it,” Jack said.  “I know a bit, but not much.”      “Do we know anyone that does?” Abigail Esau asked.      “I mean, I’ve met a couple of them,” Jack said.  “I’ve met Chronos and Yahweh before.  Don’t know if we can count on either of them to help with this though.”      “Is this really our primary focus right now?” Mary Bishop asked as she was pacing back and forth.  “What about the Sesla situation?”      “We’re still working on growing the clone body for her,” Doctor Jeri Quill said.      “Not present Sesla,” Mary said.  “She only even still exists because of weird time travel stuff.  But apparently Deanna is officially dead, and thus can’t become Sesla, so now Abigail will?”      “There was a lot Abigail-Sesla didn’t tell me about that situation,” Jack said.      “I mean, do we even know for certain it wasn’t Deanna-Sesla making herself look like Abigail?” Mary asked.  “I have no doubt that Deanna could have survived the destruction of that Palore ship, and even less doubt that she could make herself look like someone else.”      “It is possible, but we’ve been asked to limit our visits to that era, while the Temporal Development Division restarts their experiments there,” Harkon said.      “Which is another thing that I can’t believe we’re just letting slide,” Mary said.      “We agreed to join them,” Melinda said.  “We knew there would be compromises.”      “What weirds me out is that apparently I become Sesla after never again leaving this era, except the old fashioned way of waiting,” Abigail said.      “Yeah, that is weird,” Melinda said.  “I mean, I know you don’t age because you’re a Demigod, but we’re in the Cretaceous.  That seems more than just a little ridiculous.”      “But what happens if I just go through a time door right now?” Abigail asked.  “I mean, that right there would change the timeline.  Why would I choose not to?”      “For now, you should probably stay here,” Harkon said.  “At least until we figure more out.”      “But what if it is original Sesla, and this is just playing into her hand?” Mary asked.      “That’s why we need to figure out more,” Harkon said.  “I’ll talk with Director Teleros about this.  For now, see what we can decipher of the Progenitor writing.  And have we got an update from Tesla yet?”      “His next scheduled checkin is in an hour,” Melinda said.      On a certain rogue planet in the year 2017, Nikola Tesla was looking over what he and his team had learned about the temporal anomalies on this planet.  The bot, ERK-147, was with him, and they were going over the findings together.      “This just makes so little sense,” Nikola said.      “We have successfully mapped the anomalies on the planet,” ERK-147 said.  “And everything seems to be consistent.”      “Consistent, yes, but too convenient.  Everything fits together like a puzzle, it almost seems artificial, but who could create something like this?”      “The Clockmaker, perhaps?”      “Hmm, no.  Certainly he can create temporal anomalies, we saw that with that ship in the 1940s, but this is different.  I think this whole planet might be artificial, and he may be an expert when it comes to time travel, but I don’t know if he can create a planet.”      “I am unaware of anyone with those capabilities,” ERK-147 said.      Abigail looked at the pictures of the Progenitor writing and compared it to what little information they had on it.  “Hmm, this might be the word for planet, or it might mean apple or key or canoe or…I don’t even know.”      Mary was pacing back and forth.  “If it weren’t for you being confined to base, we could just go search for more information on the language than we have here.”      “I mean, it’s kind of annoying, but look on the bright side, we know I’m going to survive for tens of millions of years, so at least my idea about being a red shirt isn’t accurate.”      “Haha, very funny.  I don’t know why we’re just taking this at face value.”      “I mean, if it is really me, I’d like to think I had good reasons for doing what I did.  But yeah, that is something we need to figure out, if it is the real me.  Which is what Harkon is doing.”      “By going to talk with Rupert Teleros,” Mary said.  “Which is another thing.”      “You still don’t think he should be trusted.”      “I mean, I understand that the historical records of him show all these great things he did, and about how he’s such a great person.  But, I mean, people change.  Joshua Teleros, who is Rupert’s ancestor by the way, was a good friend and ally of ours, and we trusted him, as did the ESS.  And while he never betrayed us, he did betray them.”      “He did end up regretting that though, and did try making up for it,” Abigail said.  “Even after he died.”      “Ah, right, the ghost you encountered.”      “I mean, technically, I never personally encountered his ghost, I was just investigating it.”      Harkon entered Rupert Teleros’ officer, where Rupert was doing some sort of mathematical calculations on a whiteboard.      “Please sit down,” Rupert said without turning around.      “What’s that?” Harkon asked as he did so.      “I’m working on determining more time door addresses.”      “You can do that?”      “It’s why I was brought into the TDD in the first place,” Rupert said.  “I mean, it took me a while to actually get many of use.  There’s only so many unique doors out there, so mostly it’s a matter of getting through the ones we know about, but in additional time periods.”      “Fascinating.”      “Indeed,” Rupert said as he put down his marker and turned around.  “Although fairly time consuming.  So, what can I do for you?  I assume you’re here to ask for something.”      “After we returned the time door in the 2340s to the Oracle, you asked that we stay away from it.”      “I did indeed.  I know you don’t approve of the experiments we are running there, but it’s important in combating the Palore.”      “I’m not here to talk about the experiments.”      “Of course not.  You’re here to talk about the new version of Sesla that has occurred because of the changes to the timeline brought on by your team.  And who just so happens to be a future version of a member of said team.”      “We want to determine if it really is Abigail.”      “I can assure you that it is,” Rupert said.      “Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it.”      “You’re free to disbelieve me if you want.  It doesn’t really matter.”      “If Abigail uses a time door, that will change the timeline, and she might no longer become Sesla.  So we need to know if it’s really her, and if it’s important that she follows this chain of events.”      “Tell you what, Mary can go through and talk to her.  Just Mary.”      “Why just Mary?” Harkon asked.      “She is dating Abigail, is she not.  She should know her well enough to determine if it’s really her.”      “People can change quite a bit over the course of tens of millions of years.  I was thinking a more scientific method of confirming her identity.”      “Mary seems intelligent enough.  I’m sure you can demonstrate any necessary tests to her that you may have in mind.”      “So, how much have you figured out of the Progenitor writing?” Melinda asked as she sat down across from Jack at a table in the cafeteria.      He looked up from his jello.  “Not much.  Enough to know that it is most definitely about the rogue planet.  And, I’ve figured out the name of said planet.”      “Oh yeah?” Melinda asked as she starting eating her pasta.      “And it might be a hint as to which Progenitor we’re dealing with.”      “Oh yeah, what’s the name?”      “Kyklos.”      “I definitely want to go,” Mary said.  “But why just me?”      “He says he wants to limit the chance of our interfering with the experiments,” Harkon said.  “Although he’s definitely hiding something.”      “Well, no shit.”      “Which means, this Sesla is almost assuredly the real Abigail.”      “How does that follow?”      “The reason he wants you to be the only person that goes through, is because he suspects that I won’t be telling you what I’m about to tell you.  Because you can’t tell Abigail.”      “Wait, what?”      “As a Demigod, she has some powers.”      “Well, yeah, her dreams.”      “Not exactly,” Harkon said.  “Her dreams were caused by her powers, but her powers aren’t dream related.  They are probability related.  She warps probability around herself, so that unlikely things happen.”      “What?  Why shouldn’t she know this?”      “Because she already blames herself for all sorts of bad things that happen around her.  If she were to learn of this, don’t you think she would feel justified in that self blame?”      “No!  Maybe.  She still deserves to know.  But how does that confirm that it’s really Abigail?”      “Director Teleros is aware of her abilities, and wanted to study them.  I told him no.”      “But if he has a future version of Abigail that is no longer part of our group, he has free reign,” Mary said.  “Maybe.  I mean, even if this is Abigail, she’s taken the identity of Sesla, so I have to imagine she has at least somewhat equivalent magic, which would make it difficult for Teleros to trick her.”      “Yes, which means your job won’t be to determine if this is the real Abigail, so much as it will be to determine how they are planning on researching her abilities without her stopping them.”      “So, we’re thinking Chronos named the planet?” Melinda asked.      “Maybe even created it,” Jack said.  “I was skimming Tesla’s daily report earlier, and they think the planet might have been artificially created.  And I mean, I don’t know if Chronos has that kind of power or not, but if anyone does, a Progenitor would be a good guess.”      “It would also explain the temporal anomalies,” Melinda said.  “I don’t know about planet creation, but the anomalies would certainly be within his abilities.  So, do we approach him about this?”      “I mean, I know places we can go to find him.  He lives under the Vatican in the twentieth century.”      “Hmm, I wonder if that’s related to why Hercules joined the Pontifical Swiss Guard.”      “Oh, that’s right, you’ve mentioned that before,” Jack said.  “Might be related.”      Mary went through the time door, and appeared on the Oracle.  The time door had been placed in Sesla’s throne room.  There were a few TDD scientists near it, and Abigail-Sesla was seated on her throne.  A few of her followers were also present, but she waved them away and they left as Mary went up to her.      “Welcome Mary,” Abigail-Sesla said.  “I take it you’re here to determine that I am who I say I am.”      “That is correct,” Mary said, as she glanced at the scientists who were still in the room.  “Can we go somewhere more private?”      “Of course,” Abigail-Sesla said.  She snapped her fingers, and suddenly the two of them were in a room with a clear dome, giving them a view of space.      “I haven’t seen this place before,” Mary said.      “I don’t think it was actually a part of the timeline during your previous visits.  I had it constructed.”      “It’s quite a spectacular view.”      “Yes, it is.”  Abigail-Sesla had her eyes not on the stars outside, but on Mary.  “I’ve missed you quite a bit.”      “I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be so old.”      “Not many can.  The Progenitors, certainly.  Theoretically other Gods and Demigods will eventually, but most don’t have the advantage of time travel to get so old by this era.  And there was this one guy from another universe who was even older than I am.”      “Huh, so I guess it’s time to figure out if you really are Abigail.”      “So, how to you intend to do that?” Abigail-Sesla asked.      “When are you planning on approaching Chronos?” Harkon asked after Jack and Melinda had told him what they had figured out.      “We’re thinking sometime post 1970s,” Jack said.  “Just to make sure it’s after my previous meeting with him.”      “He’s a God of time, so it might not matter,” Melinda said.  “But still, better to take what precautions we can.”      “Indeed,” Harkon said.  “But you don’t want to go too much later, because as far as I know we don’t know how long he’ll continue living under the Vatican.”      “Yeah, what’s the earliest time we can visit past that?” Jack asked.      “1984 is the closest I know of,” Melinda said.      “Let me see,” Harkon said as he brought up the information on his computer.  “Yes, it is indeed 1984.”      “Then we’ll go then, and see what we can learn,” Melinda said.      “Good luck,” Harkon said.      “Scans show that your DNA does mostly match Abigail,” Mary said.  “Minus the chunks that we already know change as the result of certain high level types of magic.”      “So, are you convinced yet?” Abigail-Sesla asked.      “I mean, that sort of high level magic would also make it possible for you to mess with the scanner.”      “What if I tell you something only you and I would know?  Like the first time we kissed.  It was aboard Sandra’s ship in this very time period.”      “Hmm, the problem is I don’t know if anyone else may have found that out at some point.  Like, I haven’t told anyone, and as far as I know, my Abigail hasn’t either, but eventually one of us might.  Plus, the original Sesla knew all sorts of things that she shouldn’t.  So, if you’re just her posing as Abigail having taken your identity, you might still know that somehow anyway.”      “What reason would I have to lie?”      “I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”      “What will it take?”      “If you are really Abigail, why did you become Sesla?  And why would you have got to this era from the Cretaceous the long way?  Even if you wanted to take over for her after Deanna’s future was changed, wouldn’t you have just taken over when it was changed?”      “I did do so to protect the timeline, to an extent, but in order to become Sesla I had to become a powerful wizard.”      “I thought Sesla was a mage.”      “She was, but I’m a Demigod, which means I have hereditary magic.  It’s easy enough to pretend to be a mage when you’re a wizard though.  And I mean, I did still need to learn how to use and improve my magic, so you could maybe say I’m both.  And that took time.”      “Surely not ten of millions of years.”      “I also had to spend more time learning about time, which is a lot more complicated than we give it credit for.  At this point, I possibly even know more about time than the Clockmaker, or even Chronos.”      “Did you set out to replace Sesla initially?”      “Not initially, no.  My original intent was to save Curtis’ father.  The decision to abandon that goal, and become Sesla, came later.”      “Why?”      Abigail entered the gym and saw Ohm weightlifting.  Ghost Jack was spotting him.      “Hey Abigail,” Ghost Jack said.  “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you set foot in this gym.”      “Hello,” Ohm said.  “I haven’t seen you in here before either.”      “Yeah, I just needed to walk around a bit,” Abigail said.  “And I was tired of just pacing back and forth in my room.”      “Getting a bit restless being stuck on base?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I mean, I’d be fine with that, if it weren’t for Mary going and meeting what is possibly my future self,” Abigail said.  “That whole situation just weirds me out.”      “Did you at least tell her a code phrase before she left, so that she could determine that it is actually a future you?” Ghost Jack asked.      “No, but now I wish I had,” Abigail said.  “Wait, how much time do you spend in the gym that you’ve taken notice of the fact that I don’t ever come here?  You’re a Ghost, you don’t exercise.”      “He just enjoys my company,” Ohm said.  “I think he has a bit of a crush on me.”      Melinda and Jack were going through Vatican City, heading towards their destination.  They were using ESS credentials to get through.      “So, how much does the Catholic Church know about the ESS anyway?” Jack asked.      “Some,” Melinda said.  “The Pope is allowed into meetings with the oversight committee, but doesn’t have any authority on it.”      As they were walking, there was a voice from behind.  “Melinda, is that you?”      Melinda turned around, to see Hercules walking up to them.  “Hey Herc, long time no see,” she said.      “What are you doing here?” Hercules asked.      “I think the better question is what are you doing here?” Jack asked.  “I thought you were part of the Swiss Guard back in the forties, but this is the eighties, and you’re not dressed for the part.”      “My role here these days is a bit less official, and a bit more secret,” Hercules said.  “But it’s still related to security.”      “We’re with the ESS,” Melinda said.  “We’re authorized to be here.”      “We’re going to be seeing your great great great grandfather,” Jack said.  “At least, I think that’s the right number of greats…I don’t know, your ancestry gets a bit confusing.”      “I can’t argue with that,” Hercules said.  “But even if you’re authorized to be here, that doesn’t mean you have the authority to see Chronos.”      “I’ve met him before,” Jack said.  “And I guess technically he’s my ancestor too, just gotta add an extra great, since I’m the son of one of your siblings.”      “You’ll have to be more specific,” Hercules said.  “I have a lot of siblings.”      “Aphrodite,” Jack said.      “Oh yeah?” Hercules asked.  “Do you know where she’s been the past few decades?  It’s like she just dropped off the face of the Earth back in the 40s.”      “That’s classified, I’m afraid,” Melinda said.  “But we do need to talk with Chronos.  And you do still owe me a favor.”      “That was thousands of years ago,” Hercules said.  “I can’t believe you’re still bringing it up.”      “You know I’m a time traveller,” Melinda said.  “It was only a few years ago for me.”      “Right, right, fine,” Hercules said.  “I mean, if you piss him off too much, he’ll just erase you from existence anyway, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.”      “Why?” Mary asked.      “By the time I even got to an era where Humanity had evolved, I had already long since got over my guilt,” Abigail-Sesla said.  “You spend tens of millions of years without anyone to talk to, and it kind of changes your perspective on things.  They change even more when you start having people to interact with again, but everyone you do so with dies eventually.”      “And you don’t miss them?”      “Of course I miss people, but even still, I’ve gotten used to losing people.  And on top of that, I’ve realized that I can’t blame myself for stuff that’s out of my control, even if it is as a result of coincidences brought on by my powers.”      “So, you know about those?” Mary asked.      “I do, although I don’t imagine that will convince you anymore than the tale of our first kiss.”      “Mr. Smith thinks that you are who you say you are, and that the TDD are using this as an opportunity to study your powers.”      “Oh, they are certainly trying to, but as smart as Rupert Teleros is, he and his people have yet to figure out a way to do so.”      Jack and Melinda entered Chronos’ room.  Unlike the last visit, he was in the form of a Human this time, and appeared to be reading a book.  He looked up and smiled as they entered.  “Ah, Jack Masterson, good to see you again.  And Melinda Summers as well this time.  What can I do for you two?”      “We’re here to ask you about Kyklos,” Melinda said.      “The political cycle?” Chronos asked.      “The planet,” Jack said.      Chronos put down his book, and stood up, the smile leaving his face.  “What do you know about it?”      “Deanna was using it as a base of operations,” Jack said.  “We managed to stop her, but what with the complicated temporal mechanics in play, it may not be for good.”      “Foolish younglings messing with forces beyond your compression,” Chronos said, his voice booming, before he vanished.      “Did we play this wrong?” Melinda asked.  “Should we have built up to it?”      “I don’t know,” Jack said.  “Not quite sure what he’s left to do.”      “Mr. Tesla, I have just detected something unusual,” ERK-147 said as it entered Nikola’s office.      “What is it?” Nikola asked, looking up from his computer.      “I don’t know, but it seems to be appearing all over the base, wherever there are people, at which point they are disappearing.”      “That’s not good,” Nikola said.      Chronos suddenly appeared in the room.  “Begone, fools,” he said.      “So, I was right?” Harkon asked.      “I mean, I’m still not entirely convinced that she’s a future version of Abigail,” Mary said.  “But it definitely seems possible, maybe even likely.  But yes, she did say that the TDD is trying to study her powers.”      “Did she mention how?” Harkon asked.      “They have a lot of sensor apparatuses set up, but none that can penetrate her magical defenses.”      “Hmm, they could still be researching them in less direct ways.  Since probability is warped in proximity to her, they could be concentrating on the effects around her, instead of just directly scanning her.”      “How would they do that?” Mary asked.      “I don’t know, but if anyone could figure it out, Rupert Teleros could.”      Melinda and Jack returned to base through the time door.  Philip Wilson was on duty in the time door room.  “Welcome back,” he said.  “How was the mission?  Helpful?”      “I mean, Chronos definitely knows about the planet,” Jack said.  “Didn’t seem too happy when we brought it up though, so we weren’t able to learn much.”      “Speaking of, Mr. Tesla has missed his most recent check-in,” Philip said.      “That’s not good,” Melinda said.  “We’ll go check it out right away.  Jack, see if Imhotep is up for this mission.  Even in his new body, he’s still probably the most powerful magic user we have at the moment.”      “Yeah, I’ll get him and the Ghost of my temporal duplicate,” Jack said.      “Is Mary back yet?” Melinda asked Philip.      “Yeah, she’s talking with Harkon right now,” Philip said.      “Okay, we’ll get a team ready, and then head out as soon as we can,” Melinda said.      “What happened?” Nikola asked to the darkness surrounding him.  It was pitch black.  He started reaching around, looking for anything.      “I don’t know,” ERK-147 said.  “But I believe we were teleported somewhere.”      “Is anyone else here?” Nikola asked.      “Yes, sir,” one of the other agents, Mark Connor said.  “All of us that were on the rogue planet seem to be here.”      “I can’t see anything,” Nikola said.  “ERK-147, what are your sensors picking up?”      “Not much, unfortunately,” ERK-147 said.  “I can detect all of us, and we appear to be in some sort of cubical room, but my sensors can’t penetrate the edges of it.  Also, all of the walls and floor and ceiling appear to be completely flat and smooth surfaces.”      “How smooth?” Nikola asked.      “There are no imperfections in them,” ERK-147 said.  “I don’t know who would have put this much effort into it.”      On Earth, in the same era, Melinda and her team stepped out of the time door.  Her team included Jack, Ghost Jack, Mary, Imhotep, and Ohm.      “What can we do for you today?” the TDD agent, Robin Michaels asked.      “We need to get use of a starship to go out to the rogue planet, Kyklos,” Melinda said.  “I’ll need to talk with Admiral Teleros about that.”      “I’ll set up a comm channel right away,” Robin said.      Admiral Jon Teleros appeared on the screen on one of the walls almost immediately.  “Agent Summers, good to see you, I was just about to send you a message myself.”      “What kind of message?” Melinda asked.      “The rogue planet just disappeared,” Jon said.  “We don’t know why, or how.”      “It’s gotta be Chronos,” Jack said.  “He’s not happy with us mere mortals using his planet.”      “Chronos?” Jon asked.  “Like the Greek God of time?”      “Yeah,” Melinda said.  “We think he might have created the planet.  Either way, could we get a ride to where the planet was, see if we can maybe figure out where it went?”      “Yeah, the Unity is out on patrol, but the Destiny just returned to Earth for some repairs.  It’ll be ready to leave tomorrow, if you can wait.”      “If that’s the best you can do, I guess we’ll have to,” Melinda said. To be continued…

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #40 Trust is a Curious Thing

     Melinda Summers looked into the cell where Deanna was lying in a bed, with an IV connected to keep her sedated.  Even though she knew the door was locked, she checked one more time , just to be sure.      “Everything seems to be just the way we left it,” Mary Bishop said as she came up beside Melinda.      “That’s good,” Melinda said.  “At least as good as anything regarding this situation is.”      “So, what are we going to do about it?”      “I’ve been going over the files on all of the guards and other employees Deanna had here.  They seem to have mostly been taken from 1984, which is good as it’ll be relatively simple to return them home with their memories of this erased.”      “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll be very easy now that we’ve allied ourselves with the Temporal Development Division.”      “Still not a fan of that decision?” Melinda asked.      “Why wouldn’t I be a fan of that?  It’s not like they’ve erased our memories before.  Or brainwashed you to turn on us.  Or killed my father.  Oh wait.”      “If it weren’t for Rupert Teleros being in charge now, I’d have the same reservations.  Not to say that I don’t still have any concerns, like the fact that we’re already the ESS time division, and now we’re also going to be the operations team for the TDD.  But at least my concerns are lessened.  And in the meantime, our bigger problem is what to do with Deanna.”      “The brainwashing won’t work on her?”      “It might.  It might not.”      “Right, right, I know, I know, she’s complicated.  Speaking of, what about Sesla?  Are we still going to be working with her, considering she’s Deanna’s future self?”      “I mean, that’s a millennium of difference.  Not to mention that Deanna’s recent actions have taken her in a different direction than Sesla ever went.”      “Still, it might be better to keep her in the coma for now,” Mary said.      Meanwhile in the team’s base in the Cretaceous, Jack Masterson and the Ghost of his temporal duplicate were in Harkon Smith’s office.      “Doctor Quill has finished growing the clone body for Imhotep,” Ghost Jack said.  “So we’ll be able to transfer his consciousness soon.”      “That is good to hear,” Harkon said.  “There weren’t any complications with the new process?”      “Doesn’t seem like it,” Ghost Jack said.  “Everything seems fine.”      “So, I take it we’ll be growing a clone body for Sesla next,” Jack said.      “That’s what I wanted to talk with you about,” Harkon said.      “You don’t trust her, do you?” Jack asked.  “I mean, dumb question, of course you don’t.”      “As different from Deanna as she may be, she does still have her own agenda,” Harkon said.      “True,” Jack said.  “But it’s not like she’s the only person we have working here that does.”      “The difference is that everyone else here is on much more equal footing,” Harkon said.  “We were barely able to defeat Merlin.  If Sesla turned on us, there’s little we’d be able to do.”      “So, does that mean we aren’t going to be growing a new body for her?” Jack asked.      “We’ll have Doctor Quill start on it,” Harkon said.  “But I have not yet decided if we’ll follow through on that.  Understood?”      “You’re the boss, boss,” Jack said.      “Understood,” Ghost Jack said.      Melinda was supervising a team that was bringing several of Deanna’s guards outside to be teleported up to the UES starship Unity.  While most of the United Earth Spacefleet were unaware of time travel, there were a few high ranked individuals who were and who allowed the ESS time division to use some of their resources at times.      “Uh, Melinda, could I have a moment of your time?” Abigail Esau asked as she came running up.      “Sure, what’s going on?” Melinda asked.      “I’ve been going over the information we have on the temporal anomalies on this planet, and I’m concerned that just because we’ve stopped Deanna once, she may still continue to pose a threat.  Versions of her from before we stopped her could travel through a temporal anomaly and then we’d be in trouble again.”      “Hmm, yes, that would be a problem.  The anomalies are much different that what we’re used to dealing with.  They provide a much different set of problems than the time doors or even the Palore timeships.  Do you have any ideas on how to deal with it?”      “Short of destroying this planet in the past, no, not really.  And I’d be worried about what effect that would have on the timeline, especially because of the stuff involving alternate universes.”      “Yes, well we do have Tesla and ERK-147 working on studying this planet, so we’ll see what they come up with,” Melinda said.      Nikola Tesla threw a ripe apple a few meters in front of himself.  He then walked to it, but in a circular path so as to avoid the temporal anomaly.  He found the apple, rotten as if it had been there for a few months.      “Interesting,” he said.  “ERK-147, how big is that anomaly?”      “While less than a meter wide, it extends several kilometers up,” the little bot said.  “It also extends approximately three meters underground.”      “Fascinating,” Nikola said.  “Did the anomaly mapping from the Majestic include the underground portions?”      “It did not.  They only mapped the ones in the atmosphere.”      “We’ll have to complete the maps they started first of all.  That’s the number one thing.  And then we’ll do the second thing.”      “Which is?”      “That’s an extremely good question.  We need to determine how exactly this planet works in this method.  Objects managing to be on the borders of different times.  The fact that this apple and I started in the same time and location, but now we’re in a different time and location, but have experience a different amount of time getting there.  We are on the cusp of great discoveries here, and it’s really quite invigorating.”      Ghost Jack put one of his hands on the comatose Imhotep’s head, and the other on the head of the clone body they had made of Imhotep.  Both bodies were pressed up next to each other.      “Let’s hope this works,” Ghost Jack said before entering both of them simultaneously.      Imhotep’s dream was much the same as it had been the last time he was there, looking like Imhotep’s old home back in Egypt.  But at the same time he was entering what would have been the clone’s dream, if it had a mind.  However, being mindless, all he found was a vast nothingness.  The last time he had tried something like this it was very uncomfortable, but this time it was actually painful.      “Welcome back,” Imhotep said.  “Is it working?”      “It hurts, but seems to be working as intended,” Ghost Jack said.  “So, let’s try transferring you across.”      Ghost Jack took Imhotep’s hand, and tried bringing him over to the clone body.  It felt like a migraine extended across his entire body, which was really weird considering he was a ghost and had no body.  But as the pain faded, Ghost Jack realized that the clone body now had the dream world, while the original was now empty.      “It seems to have worked,” Ghost Jack said.      “Seems that way,” Imhotep said.      Ghost Jack exited back into the med lab.      “Did it work?” Doctor Jeri Quill asked.      “We think so,” Ghost Jack said.      Jeri gave the clone body a stimulant, and after a bit it woke up.      “Imhotep, is that you?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yes, it is I,” Imhotep said as he sat up.  He looked at his original body lying next to him.  “This is very strange.”      “Yeah, but at least you won’t have to regularly see a second you,” Ghost Jack said.  “That’s when things really get weird.”      “What are we going to do with my old body?” Imhotep asked.      “It’s your body, so it’s your choice,” Jeri said.      Over in the cafeteria, Jack was having lunch with Dorian Winters and Philip Wilson.      “Yeah, it took some work, but we managed to stop Deanna from whatever she was planning,” Jack said.      “So, you don’t even know what she was up to?” Philip asked.      “Well, we know she was trying to become more powerful, so that she could kill Sesla without us being able to stop her,” Jack said.  “Still don’t know why though.”      “Killing her own future self,” Dorian said.  “I can’t even imagine what her motives for that could be.”      “Yeah, well, for now we have to figure out what to even do with her, in order to get the timeline back on track so Sesla is still her future self.”      “Can’t we just brainwash her?” Philip asked.      “That’s the plan,” Jack said.  “The difficulty is ensuring that it sticks.  You know how much trouble we’ve had with Aphrodite on that matter.”      “Please sit down,” Rupert Teleros said as Harkon entered his office at TDD headquarters.      “Thank you,” Harkon said as he took his seat.      “I read your report on the events at this rogue planet.  Have you determined yet how Deanna even found out about it in the first place?  Or where this Chloe that she bought additional information off of, was able to get it from?”      “Not yet, we’re still working on trying to figure it all out.  Were you aware of this planet beforehand?”      “No, we were not, and that’s very worrying.  That someone in the twentieth century has this sort of information without us knowing about it, it’s unprecedented.”      “We are doing our best to look into it, although we are also having to deal with the cleanup on the planet.  Not to mention learning more about it, which itself is taking resources from our investigations into alternate universes.”      “No, I understand.  Although if you need more personnel, I can arrange that.”      “No offense, but our people are already some of the best,” Harkon said.      “Oh, no doubt you have quality, but at times I’m sure you could also use more quantity.  But if you don’t think that’s currently a concern, then I’ll trust your judgement.  In the meantime, I do have another thing to add to your plate though.”      “So, what have you learned?” Melinda asked as Nikola and ERK-147 entered her makeshift office.      “The temporal anomalies on this planet are like nothing we’ve encountered before,” Nikola said.      “Yes, I already knew that,” Melinda said.      “I don’t just mean in the effects,” Nikola said.  “I mean in the way they interact with time.”      “My sensors can detect the anomalies just fine,” ERK-147 said.  “But they read completely differently than the time doors or the Palore time drives.  If I had just detected them without knowing their significance, I would not have even known they affected the timestream.”      “So, what does that mean?” Melinda asked.  “Is there a way we can get rid of them?”      “It’s too early to tell,” ERK-147 said.      “But the other question is if we want to,” Nikola said.      “Abigail brought up the possibility that because of them, even though we’ve defeated Deanna, she could still try again from before we did so,” Melinda said.  “I can’t say I’d want to risk that possibility if we can avoid it.  Especially since we only defeated her thanks to someone from an alternate universe that we might never be able to bring back here.”      “It’s true,” Nikola said.  “That is a risk.  But also, think of the possibilities it could bring.  The whole reason we’ve agreed to work for the TDD was for access to more time periods.  But if we could learn to harness the natural forces on this planet, we wouldn’t need them anymore.”      “You wanted to see me?” Jack asked as he entered Harkon’s office.      “Yes, come in please,” Harkon said.      “I hear you just came back from the TDD base.”      “I did, and they have a mission they’d like us to take care of.”      “Sure we don’t have enough to deal with already?”      “Melinda is in charge of the stuff on the rogue planet, and as for investigating your friend Chloe to find out where she got her information on it, we can’t exactly send you for that.”      “I suppose not.  So is this mission from the TDD something I’ll be doing on my own then?”      “You can take a few agents with you, if you think it’ll be necessary, but I don’t know that it will be,” Harkon said.      “What’s the mission?”      “You’re not going to like it.  But we need to return the time door in 2349 to the space station Oracle.”      “So the TDD can continue their experiments there?” Jack asked.  “After all the effort we went into to stop that?”      “All we did was prevent them from further altering the timeline in that area.  We never did anything to fix the changes they had already made.”      “Even still, letting them back in there…”      “Is exactly the sort of thing we expected when we agreed to join them,” Harkon said.  “I’m not too happy about it, but the Palore are the bigger problem now.”      “Are they though?  We haven’t even encountered them in a while.  Doesn’t it seem awfully convenient that just as we are becoming a bigger and bigger threat to the TDD, that suddenly a new enemy causes us to ally with them.”      “Is this your knowledge powers kicking in, or just speculation?”      “Just speculation, for now,” Jack said.  “I’ll do this mission, but I am wary of it.”      “Quite a lot to get done here,” Mary said as she sat down with Abigail for lunch.      “Yeah, I’ve been working non-stop for the past eight hours,” Abigail said.  “There’s so much to go through.”      “I think you’ve been staring at computer screens a bit too long then,” Mary said.  “And your eyes are getting a bit red.”      “Yeah, well, we need to be prepared if Deanna attacks again.”      “Ah yeah, I was hearing about your theories earlier from Melinda.  Do you ever miss the old days, before all this time travel stuff?”      “Even before time travel stuff, I don’t really miss much from after the incident.  You?”      “I don’t know.  I mean, it was certainly simpler back when I was just a simple farm girl in the 1870s.  But I don’t know if it was better.”      “If I was still in 2017, we wouldn’t have met though, so there’s that.  I mean, I suppose we’re in 2017 right now, temporal anomalies aside, but that’s only because we’re on a mission.”      “Yeah, I definitely don’t want us to have never met,” Mary said.      “And even if life is a lot more complicated now, we probably won’t be doing this all our lives.  Maybe one day we can get married and settled down, and live a more normal life.”      “And we could choose from any number of time periods to live in.  Preferably your time or further in the future though.”      “Eh, even in my time people can be plenty homophobic.  My hometown is a pretty good example of that.”      Philip and Dorian were sitting at a table in a bar, nursing their drinks, while trying to figure out their next move.  They kept glancing at the table in the back where Chloe was sitting.      “She’s not going to just tell us the source of her information,” Philip said.      “Well, not for free, obviously,” Dorian said.  “That’s why we need to offer her a decent chunk of change.”      “I don’t think we’ll be able to offer her enough for that.  Giving up sources isn’t exactly a good long term business strategy.”      “Then what are we supposed to do?  Just sit here hoping she meets her source while we’re watching?  Who knows how long that could take, assuming it even does.  Plus we can’t risk spending too much time here and accidentally messing up Jack’s timeline from when he was in this era previously.”      “No, we need to figure out where Chloe lives, and search her place when she’s out,” Philip said.      “So, we’re just supposed to follow her home?  In her business, I’m pretty sure she’ll notice if she’s being followed.  Hell, she’s probably already figured out that we’re watching her.”      “Maybe we can use that.  Convince her that we’re checking her out, and one of us goes and hits on her?”      “We’re a gay couple.”      “Yeah, but she doesn’t know that.”      “You want to do what?” Sandra Rodriguez asked.      “Hire you to fly me to the space station Oracle,” Jack said.      “The last time you did that, I was trapped there for months.”      “It’ll be easier this time.  We don’t have to worry about the mercenaries now.”      “Oh yeah?”      “Yeah.”      “Do I want to know why?”      “Probably not,” Jack said.      “And you want to bring the time door with?  After all the work it took us to get it off there in the first place, you want to go and just bring it back?”      “Yeah, we have our reasons for doing so.”      “I mean, I’m going to charge extra for this.  A lot extra.”      “Yeah, no worries.  We can cover it.”      “Hey,” Philip said as he went up to the table where Chloe was sitting.  “How’s it going?”      “Not interested,” Chloe said without even looking at him.      “Not interested in what?  All I asked was how’s it going.”      “You and your buddy over there have been checking me out all evening.  But I’m not interested.”      “Right, sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you.”      “Could you also make sure your friend doesn’t bother me next?”      “Yeah, yeah,” Philip said before returning to the table with Dorian.      “So, how’d it go?” Dorian asked.      “Didn’t work, we’ll have to figure something else out.”      “That’s the last of them,” Mary said to Melinda as they watched the final of Deanna’s employees being teleported up to the Unity.  “It’s just Deanna herself we still have down here.”      “Hmm, yes,” Melinda said.  “Could you send Abigail up there to make sure they are ready to receive her?”      “Of course.”      “And then meet me by Deanna’s cell with all of the other agents we have on planet.  Except the science teams.”      “Right away.”      “They have phone books in this era, right?” Philip asked.  “If we can just find out Chloe’s last name, we can look her up in the phone book.”      “And how are we going to manage that?” Dorian asked.  “Jack doesn’t even know it.”      “Then we’ll just have to try following her and hope she doesn’t notice us.”      “It’s too bad we can’t just go invisible…”      Philip and Dorian looked at each other, their eyes wide.  “Dammit, how did we not think of that sooner?” Dorian asked.      “I guess we’re just idiots, but we thought of it now.”      “Can’t have her seeing regular Jack, but we don’t have to worry about her seeing Ghost Jack.”      Mary joined Melinda at Deanna’s cell, along with another two dozen agents.  Every one of those twenty-four agents had their weapons at the ready as Melinda and Mary entered the cell.  Mary checked the IV, to make sure it was still secure, while Melinda checked the medical scanner to make sure that Deanna was still fully sedated.      Mary and Melinda started rolling the bed containing Deanna out of the cell, while every other agent had their weapons trained on Deanna.  They went down the hallways, taking the shortest path to an exit.  Every time they went over a bump on the floor, everyone tensed up for a moment, before they continued on.      But they eventually got outside without incident, and Melinda activated her comm to the Unity.  “We’re ready,” she said.  “Get a lock, and teleport us up.”      Ghost Jack floated down into the gym, where Imhotep was working out.  “So, how’s the new body treating you?” Ghost Jack asked.      “I mean, I know it’s genetically identical to my previous body,” Imhotep said.  “But it feels different.  It’s going to take some getting used to.”      “Yeah, I can imagine.  I don’t know how comparable it is to back when I first became a Ghost, but I’m sure there are parallels.”      “Possibly, I suppose I just need to give it some time.”      “Ghost Jack, please report to the time door room,” they heard over the PA system.      “Guess someone needs me for something,” Ghost Jack said.      “How long until we get to Earth,” Melinda asked after going up to the bridge.      “Should be a day or two,” Captain Benjamin Grayson said.  “Mr. Banman, can you give a more specific estimate?”      Lieutenant Chuck Banman looked down at his piloting console.  “Thirty-five hours and nineteen minutes.”      “I’d prefer faster, but if that’s the best we can manage, it’ll have to do,” Melinda said.      “We could go faster, but it would involve going through hostile territory, which I’d prefer to avoid,” Benjamin said.  “And we don’t want to be starting any wars.”      “No, we don’t,” Melinda said.  “This will have to do, and hopefully it’ll be enough.”      “Yeah, that’s not a problem,” Ghost Jack said.  “Is she still at the bar?”      “She was when we left,” Dorian said.      “That’s the bar right up ahead,” Philip said.      “Ah yeah, I’m familiar with that bar, albeit from my own time,” Ghost Jack said.  “I’ll go scope it out, and find out if she’s still there.  You two wait here.”  Ghost Jack flew off, turning invisible as he did.      “Wait, what?” Philip asked.  “We’re just supposed to wait out here on the sidewalk?”      “I mean, there’s a bench over there, we can go sit down, I guess,” Dorian said.      As they went and sat down, they heard someone coming around the corner.  Neither of them thought much of it, until they heard and recognized two voices.  The first was Jack, but it was too soon for Ghost Jack to be coming back, not to mention he would not be walking.  And they knew the regular Jack was off on a mission in another time period, which meant it could only be the regular Jack from earlier in his personal timeline when he had previously been in this time.  That was only confirmed by the fact that the other voice was Deanna, from back when she was still their ally.      “Oh shit, we can’t let them see us,” Philip said as he looked around for somewhere to hide.      “If we run that’ll just make them more likely to notice,” Dorian said.  “We just need to keep them from seeing our faces.”      “Wait, are you suggesting what I think you are?  But we’re in public.”      “Yeah, well, it’s our best bet.”      They started kissing, and Jack and Deanna passed by without incident.      “Okay, I think that worked,” Dorian said after they had turned another corner.      “We should maybe head out though, just in case they turn back,” Philip said.  “I don’t know how common guys making out with each in public is in the 70s.”      Meanwhile in the future, the present version of Jack was playing a game of Jakut with Sandra while they were en route to the space station Oracle.      “Checkmate,” Jack said as he moved a piece on the board.      “Yeah, that’s not how this works,” Sandra said.  “I mean, that is a legal move, and even gets you two points, but there isn’t a checkmate in this game.”      “Right, right.  So, you just win by getting the most points before the game ends?”      “Kind of, but there are some bonuses awarded after the end.  That can change things up.”      As she was explaining, the ship dropped out of superspace, and an alarm started blaring.      “Proximity alert?” Jack asked.      “Probably the same mercenaries from last time.  I thought you said they wouldn’t be a problem this time.”      “They won’t, I just need to let them know that,” Jack said as he followed Sandra up to the bridge.      She opened the comm to the lead mercenary ship.  The image of the captain appeared on screen, the same one they had encountered last time.      “Hey Totorgo, long time no see,” Jack said.      “I don’t believe I gave you my name last time,” Totorgo said.      “Yeah, but I got it from your employers,” Jack said.  “We’re kind of working together now.”      “Wait, you’re what?” Sandra said.  “You failed to mention that.”      “It’s complicated,” Jack said.      “Do you have any proof of this?” Totorgo asked.  “Or am I just supposed to take you at your word?”      Jack typed a handful of characters on the keyboard.  “I’m sending an authorization code now.”      “Hmm,” Totorgo said.  “It checks out.  You’re free to go.”  The comm ended.      “So, you’re working with those bastards now?” Sandra asked.      “Like I said, it’s complicated.  Turns out they aren’t quite as bad as previously though, and more importantly there are worse problems out there.  The enemy of my enemy is my reluctant ally and all that.”      “Right,” Sandra said.      On the Unity, Mary and Abigail were having lunch in the mess hall, with some of the crew.      “And that’s when she realized that there was confetti coming out of the back of her fighter craft,” one of the fighter pilots, who’s callsign was Cheddar Cheese, said.      “I still don’t know how you managed that,” said the pilot in question.  Her callsign was Pandaherbs.      “What did the admiral say about that?” Mary asked.      “He didn’t say anything,” Cheddar Cheese said.  “But I heard that he looked like he was holding back some laughter.”      “Yeah, I could see that,” Abigail said.  “Admiral Teleros seems like he has a good sense of humor.”      “Wait, do you know him?” Pandaherbs asked.      “Kind of,” Abigail said.  “I have a friend who’s dad used to work with him.”      “Oh yeah, who’s that?” Cheddar Cheese asked.      “Curtis Hammer is my friend, his dad’s name was Aaron,” Abigail said.      “Aaron Hammer, yeah, he was part of the Admiral Teleros’ old ESS team back in the day,” Pandaherbs said.  “Captain Grayson was on that team too.”      “That’s pretty cool,” Abigail said, right before alarms started blaring.      “What’s going on?” Melinda asked as she went onto the bridge.      “We were dragged out of superspace,” Benjamin said.      “What?” Melinda asked.  “How?”      “Don’t know that yet,” Lieutenant Cerise Martel, the chief science officer said.  “We’ve never encountered something like this before.”      “That’s because that technology shouldn’t exist yet,” Melinda said.      “There’s a ship nearby though,” Lieutenant Commander Jiang Teng, the chief tactical officer said.  “And it is a type of ship we’ve encountered before.  It’s a Palore ship.”      “Dammit,” Benjamin said.  “What are they doing?”      “Nothing yet,” Jiang said.  “They do have their shields up, but their weapons aren’t locked on us.”      “They are hailing us, Captain,” Lieutenant Wesley Harris, the chief communications officer said.      “On screen,” Benjamin said.      A Palore captain appeared on the screen.  “Hello Captain Grayson, my name is Daskata.  You have someone aboard that I want.  Hand them over and you’ll be free to go.”      “Who would that be?” Benjamin asked.      “I believe she goes by the name Deanna,” Daskata said.      “What do you want with her?” Melinda asked.      “That is not your concern, Agents Summers,” Daskata said.  “You should just be glad I am not asking for you and your people as well.  But if you resist, I will be taking you and Agent Esau as well.  You have ten minutes to comply.”  The viewscreen went back to a view of space.      “What are our chances of escaping from them?” Benjamin asked.      “Not good,” Chuck said.  “We can’t go back into superspace as long as whatever they did is in effect.  And at sublight speeds, well unless they are a hell of a lot slower than us, it’ll take a very long time to get outside of this area of effect.”      “And fighting them?” Benjamin asked.      “Based on my scans, they are a lot more powerful than us,” Jiang said.      “Deanna is your prisoner,” Benjamin said, turning to Melinda.      “We can’t turn her over to them,” Melinda said.  “Who knows what they’re planning on doing with her.”      “Do you have any ideas on how to deal with them, in that case?” Benjamin asked.      “So, what did you find?” Philip asked after Ghost Jack had returned to him and Dorian.      “Well, I followed her to an apartment,” Ghost Jack said.  “Took a look inside, and it certainly looks to be her place.”      “Okay, then the plan is to wait until tomorrow, and then go in and check it out when she’s gone, I guess,” Dorian said.      “Yeah, I’d say so,” Philip said.  “And hopefully we don’t have any more close calls with the past versions of Jack and Deanna.”      “You saw them?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yeah, but luckily they didn’t see us,” Dorian said.      “As far as we know anyway,” Philip said.      Mary and Abigail joined Melinda and Benjamin in Benjamin’s office, which was just off the bridge.      “Why not me?” Mary asked, after they had the situation explained to them.  “Or any of our other people?  Why did they just say that they would take you two if we didn’t cooperate?”      “Perhaps they didn’t know who else was all aboard,” Benjamin said.      “Then how did they know that I’m aboard?” Abigail asked.  “No, I think Mary is on to something here.”      “Possibly,” Melinda said.  “But we don’t have much time.  We can’t outrun them and we can’t outfight them, at least not in starship combat.”      “You want to go aboard?” Benjamin asked.  “We don’t even know the size of their crew, but I doubt we can take on all of them.”      “Maybe we can’t, but Deanna can,” Abigail said.      “No, we can’t be considering that,” Mary said.  “We barely managed to stop her the last time, and now we’re just going to wake her up.  Hell, for all we know, she allied with the Palore, and that’s why they are here.  To free her.”      “My gut says they aren’t allies,” Melinda said.      “Even if they aren’t, she’s not our ally anymore either,” Mary said.  “Let’s say she does defeat all of them.  Then she has a timeship.”      “To be fair, you need multiple timeships to actually use them for time travel,” Abigail said.  “It’s why ours is mostly only of use as a starship.”      “Even still, setting her on the loose with a starship as powerful as that doesn’t seem like a great idea either,” Mary said.      “No, if we do use her, we’re going to need a plan to deal with her as well,” Melinda said.      After arriving at the space station Oracle, Jack teleported aboard with the time door.  He appeared in the area that had previously been controlled by Sesla.  But with the changes to the timeline, he was not certain what to expect.      As he appeared there, there was someone waiting for him.  The man named Xavier, who had been Sesla’s servant, and who still looked the same.      “Hello Xavier,” Jack said.      “Master Masterson,” Xavier said.  “We’ve been expecting you.”      “Have you now?”      “The Mistress foretold your return.  I will take you to her.”      “I still need to set up the time door.”      “All in time,” Xavier said.  “All in time.”      Melinda held the injector up to Deanna.  “The second I inject the stimulant, I will back off, and then you’ll teleport her over.”      “Of course,” Taro Tanaka, the chief engineer said.      Melinda injected the stimulant, and then backed off, and Deanna was teleported over to the Palore ship.      “Now we wait,” Melinda said.      “And hope we don’t get screwed over in the process,” Mary said.      Jack was lead into the throne room by Xavier.  It looked much the same as the last time he had been here.  The only major difference was that the throne was now on a swivel, and was facing away.      “Mistress, Master Jack Masterson has arrived,” Xavier said.      “Excellent,” came a female voice from the throne.  It was not the voice of Sesla though, but it was a voice Jack recognized.      “Abigail?” Jack asked.      Meanwhile, in another era, Abigail, Mary, and Melinda were on the bridge of the Unity, waiting along with the bridge crew for what was about to happen.      “The Palore ship hasn’t left yet,” Jiang said.  “But it also hasn’t made any aggressive moves.”      “Can our sensors detect anything happening aboard it?” Benjamin asked.      “Not really,” Jiang said.  “We’ll be able to tell if they lock weapons on us, or whatever, but if Deanna is actually doing anything aboard the ship, we can’t determine that currently.”      “Which means, we’re in the dark for now,” Mary said.  “I don’t like that.”      “Wait, their shields just went down,” Jiang said.  “In fact looks like their ship is dead in the water.”      “How many lifesigns are aboard it?” Benjamin asked.      “One human, and a few thousand Palore, but it looks like the Palore are all unconscious.”      “Hail the ship,” Benjamin said.      “Yes, sir,” Wesley said.      It took a few minutes, but eventually Deanna appeared on screen.  “Would anyone mind explaining why I’m aboard a Palore ship?”      “They wanted you, and we didn’t have much choice,” Melinda said.  “But we woke you up to give you a chance.”      “Uh huh,” Deanna said.  “Why?”      “We figured that you’d be able to take them out,” Mary said.  “And now you’ll have to turn yourself back over to us, or we’re going to blow the explosive we put in your head.”      “You mean this explosive?” Deanna asked, as it materialized in her hand.      “Shit,” Melinda said.      “So, what exactly are we looking for here?” Dorian asked as he was searching through desk drawers.      “Anything that’ll give us any clues as to where Chloe got that intel from,” Philip said as he looked through the closet.      “The problem is that she deals in information,” Ghost Jack said.  “So even if we find clues to one of her sources, it might not be the one we are looking for.”      “We’ll just have to be thorough then,” Philip said.      Ghost Jack passed through a wall, and then came back.  “There’s a vault in this wall,” he said.  “It’s too dark to read anything in there though.”      “Can’t you like, create some kind of ghost light or something?” Philip asked.      “Yeah, no, it doesn’t work like that,” Ghost Jack said.      “Where’s the door?” Dorian asked.      “Behind this painting, I assume,” Ghost Jack said as he took a painting off the wall, and revealed the door.      “I’ll see if I can unlock it,” Dorian said as he put his ear to the lock and started turning it.      “Captain, with your permission, can we fire all weapons at that Palore ship before Deanna does anything else?” Melinda asked.      “Permission granted,” Benjamin said.  “Commander Teng, open fire on that ship.”      “Yes, sir,” Jiang said as she did so.      The Palore ship was pelted with weapons fire.  Without any shields, it was quickly destroyed.      “Any remaining lifesigns?” Melinda asked.      “The Palore are all dead, many of them vaporized,” Jiang said.  “There’s no sign of Deanna though, alive or dead.”      “I’m going to guess it’s too much to hope she was vaporized,” Mary said.      “It’s hard to know what kind of abilities she even has after stealing powers from magic users from other universes,” Abigail said.      “Other universes?” Benjamin asked.      “That’s classified, by the way,” Melinda said.  “Everyone on the bridge is going to have to keep that quiet.”      “Sorry,” Abigail said.      “Got it,” Dorian said as he unlocked the vault and opened it up.  It was full of filing cabinets, which themselves were full of a variety of documents.      “This could take a while,” Philip said.      “Maybe, maybe not,” Ghost Jack said as he started looking through them.  “Everything seems to be pretty well organized, so we just need to find the right stuff.”      “Like this,” Dorian said as he pulled a folder out of one of the filing cabinets.  “This is the intel we got from her.  At least some of it is, but there’s more in here than what she gave us.”      “Hmm,” Ghost Jack said as he looked over Dorian’s shoulder at the files.  “Wait, that one there.”      “This?” Dorian asked as he looked at a paper with some sort of symbols he did not recognize.  “What is this?”      “I can’t read it,” Ghost Jack said.  “But I recognize the letters.  The other Jack might be able to decipher it though.”      “What language is it?” Philip asked.      “It was a language used by the first generation of Gods,” Ghost Jack said.      “The first generation?” Philip asked.  “Like, what are we talking about here?  Greek Gods, Egyptian, Norse?”      “All of them,” Ghost Jack said.  “The first generation had the progenitor of each of the different pantheons.  So Chronos for the Greeks, Ymir for the Norse, I think, I don’t know who for the Egyptian or others, but you see what I’m getting at.”      “So, Chloe got her information from one of them?” Dorian asked.      “Don’t know,” Ghost Jack said.  “I feel like that’s unlikely, but clearly there’s some sort of connection.”      Meanwhile in the future, Jack was still trying to process the situation, as the chair turned around, and Abigail got up off of it.  It was clearly Abigail, but she was as pale and bald as Sesla had been in this era.  And she was wearing the same sort of black dress.      “You seem surprised to see me,” Abigail said.      “How did you wind up here?” Jack asked.      “Leave us, Xavier,” Abigail said, and Xavier bowed before leaving the throne room.  “Sesla needs to be here.”      “But you’re not Sesla,” Jack said.      “Somebody has to be, and she got killed back when she was Deanna, so I’ve taken her place in the timeline.”      “When did this happen?” Jack asked.      “From your team’s perspective, it’s happening right now-ish.  Deanna was killed while en route to Earth from the rogue planet.”      “And what, you just didn’t return through the time door when you got back to Earth?”      “No, I did, I went back to the base in the Cretaceous, I just never left that era, at least not with time travel.”      “So what?  You’re tens of millions of years old at this point?”      “And I don’t look a day over twenty-five.”      “That’s insane.  Why would you do that?”      “Like I said, to preserve the integrity of the timeline.”      “There’s got to be an easier way to do that,” Jack said.  “And why from the Cretaceous?  Why not just stay where she was when she was killed, and take her place from that point on?”      “It’s complicated, as you will soon learn,” Abigail said.  “But the war for all time is about to become far more chaotic.” To be continued…

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #37 Dreams of the Past

     “So, what do we all gain from joining up with the Temporal Development Division,” Jack Masterson asked as he leaned against the wall.  “Because, I mean, these were the people that captured and planned to brainwash us.”      “Some of us they had already succeeded in brainwashing,” Melinda Summers said.  She was sitting at a chair near the head of the briefing room table.      “What we gain is legitimacy,” Harkon Smith said from where he was sitting at the head of the table.  “Along with that we once again gain access to all of the time doors.”      “Or we could just keep taking the time doors from them,” Jack said.  “Eventually they would be stuck at their bases.”      “With every base we’ve taken, they fortified the others more,” Mary Bishop said as she leaned forward in her chair.      “I wouldn’t have thought you’d be in favor of joining them,” Melinda said.      “I’m not, but that doesn’t make the point false,” Mary said.      “So, the other question is, what do we lose by joining the TDD?” the Ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson asked.      “We lose our autonomy,” Melinda said.  “We would then report to Rupert Teleros.”      “Is that a bad thing?” Abigail Esau asked.  “I mean, from everything I’ve been hearing from you guys, and everything I’ve read on my own, it seems like Rupert Teleros is a good guy.  And the worst of the stuff the TDD has done was from before he was in charge.”      “There is certainly a lot to consider,” Harkon said.      “Ultimately, it’s your decision, sir,” Melinda said.      “Yes, but I want to make sure we have at least some level of agreement on it,” Harkon said.  “In the meantime, there is also the other matter to consider.”      “The alternate dimension that I led a team into,” Jack said.  “We are fairly certain that Agent Nichols is in that universe, but it’s going to take some time to track him down.”      “Mary, you are the best tracker we have,” Harkon said.  “So, you’ll be in on that mission.  I still want Jack in charge though, for when and if it becomes necessary to make contact with the locals.”      “Yes, sir,” Mary said.      “Understood,” Jack said.      Doctor Jeri Quill was doing her regular checks on Imhotep and Sesla.  They were both still healthy, other than the comas they were still trapped in.  As she was walking away though, she heard a noise, and looked back to see that Imhotep had sat up, those his eyes were still closed.      “Imhotep?” Jeri asked, but there was no response.      “Ohm is still in the alternate reality, guarding the base camp we set up, along with a few other agents,” Jack said.  “We should definitely include him in our search team, I think.”      “Makes sense,” Mary said.  “I’m thinking Philip and Dorian too, and Abigail.”      “Going with people you know best, I see” Jack said.  “Speaking of which, I’ve noticed you and Abigail have been spending a lot of time together.”      “Well, we are close to the same age,” Mary said.      “Technically she’s nearly a century old,” Jack said.  “Remember, Demigod, like me, so she doesn’t age, and we had to get back to the team the long way from 1804 to 1876.”      “Yeah, but…wait, if you both don’t age, why does she look like she’s in her twenties, and you look like you’re in your thirties?”      “No idea,” Jack said.      “And you both still mostly act like the ages you look…”      “I mean, that’s probably just psychological effects.  How we look can influence how we act.”      “He just sat up?” Harkon asked as he looked at Imhotep who was still sitting up, despite still being in a coma.      “I don’t understand what caused it,” Jeri said.  “I’ve gone over the medical scans multiple times, and there no indications of any new stimuli to have caused this.”      “Hmm, and it’s interesting that this happened to Imhotep,” Ghost Jack said.  “I can find and talk with both Sesla and Merlin by entering their dreams, but not Imhotep.  That can’t be a coincidence.”      “Go back in, and try to find him again,” Harkon said.  “Maybe this means something.”      “What about that individual that’s been in the other Jack’s dreams?” Jeri asked.  “Did you ever find out what was happening there?”      “No, and she stopped showing up a while ago,” Ghost Jack said.  “But maybe she has a connection to this, that’s a possibility I have been considering.”      “I think Jack’s starting to suspect there’s something going on between us,” Mary said as she entered Abigail’s room.      “Really?” Abigail asked.  “The guy who, aside from being a former con artist who is good at reading people, also literally has a superpower where he gains random knowledge, he suspects that we are secretly dating?”      “Well, when you put it like that, I suppose it makes sense.  But what are we doing to do about it?”      “I mean, our options are to not do anything about it, or tell him he’s right, or try to convince him we aren’t.”      “He’ll see right through it if we try convincing him we’re not dating,” Mary said.  “Like you said, he was a con artist, he’ll know if we’re pulling a con on him.”      “So, do we just not do anything, or come clean?” Abigail asked.      “For now, I guess we just don’t do anything about it?”      “Sure, if that’s what you want.”      Ghost Jack entered Imhotep’s dream.  The area he landed in was a massive wide open desert.  He had been here before in the dream.  But this time was different, there was someone here, and it was Imhotep.      “Hey, Imhotep, how’s it going?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Jack?” Imhotep asked.  “Well, it’s nice to have someone else here to talk to, even if I know you’re just a part of this dream.”      “I’m not actually, I’m a Ghost, so I can enter dreams,” Ghost Jack said.  “Also, I’m the temporal duplicate of Jack, not the original.”      “Thus explaining how you’re a ghost, assuming you are actually here.”      “Can’t you use your magic abilities to figure that out, or whatever?”      “I just expelled a bunch to try and wake up, and I’m feeling rather drained right now.”      “Hmm, that might be why you sat up, and why I’ve finally been able to find you.”      “Welcome to Earth 2,” Jack said as Mary, Abigail, Philip Wilson, and Dorian Winters followed him through the wormhole.  “Abigail was already here with me, but to the rest of you, it’s new.”      “What exactly makes it Earth 2, and us Earth 1 anyway?” Abigail asked.      “Well, it’s the second Earth we’ve been too,” Jack said.  “And ours is the first.”      “And shouldn’t it be universe, not Earth, since it’s not like this dimension just has Earth,” Abigail said.      “Fine, just take all the fun out of it,” Jack said.  “Ohm, how are things here?” he asked as Ohm approached them.      “No one has come close,” Ohm said.  “Things seem normal.”      “Good, excellent,” Jack said.  “We’ll set out shortly.”      “So, he managed to use his magic to sit up?” Jeri said.  “That would explain why I couldn’t identify the reason.”      “Yeah, but it brings up more questions than it answers,” Ghost Jack said.  “Sesla is far more powerful than him, but she hasn’t managed anything of the sort.”      “Yes, and it also brings up the question of what to do if Merlin is able to do anything with this magic, while in a coma.  We want to wake up Imhotep and Sesla, but not him.  Not unless we can find some other way to contain him.”      “That village is where we found evidence that Agent Nichols had been,” Jack said, as he pointed it out to his group.  The village was in the open plains, past the tree line, while they were staying in the forested area to avoid being seen.      “I don’t suppose we know how long ago that was?” Mary asked.      “No,” Abigail said.  “We don’t.”      “And my knowledge powers don’t work in this universe,” Jack said.  “So we can’t count on that helping us out.”      “Then I think we’re going to have to talk to them,” Mary said.  “I mean, I can scout around the area, but the trail could be long gone.”      “Deanna, do you have any thoughts on the situation?” Harkon asked.  “Any ideas why Imhotep was able to use his magic to sit up, and whether this could be a risk as far as Merlin goes?”      “Imhotep is not even as powerful of a magic user as myself, let alone my older self, Sesla” Deanna said.  “If she has been unable to do anything of the sort, then it’s clearly not the result of power alone.”      “That doesn’t mean that Merlin won’t be able to manage the same thing,” Ghost Jack said.      “No, but his magic is more similar to that of myself than it is to that of Imhotep, so it is not something I would consider an immediate threat,” Deanna said.  “Moreover, I assume it is related to whatever was keeping you from finding him within his dream in the first place.”      “Which is what?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Figuring that out is now your number one priority,” Harkon said.      “Well?” Jack asked over the comm.      “Nothing,” Mary said.  “I mean, plenty of trails, but nothing to indicate that any of them are from Agent Nichols.”      “Understood,” Jack said as he began approaching the village, with Ohm and Abigail.  “Okay, so remember, follow my lead.”      “Do you have a plan in mind?” Abigail asked.      “I’m going to wing it,” Jack said.  “Feel out the group.”      As the approached the village, they were noticed by the people there, who watched them.  Some of the people there had weapons, bows or spears.  They were at the ready, but not pointed at the group.      “Hello,” Jack said.  “Do you speak English here?”      A man came out of one of the dwellings.  His clothing was different than the others, and Jack assumed he was a person of authority, possibly the chief.  “I can speak your language,” he said.  “Who are you?”      “My name is Jack Masterson.  I believe one of our people was here some time ago.”      “Do you refer to Calvin Nichols?”      “Yes,” Jack said.  “So he was here.”      “He was, but he was taken by the Centaur.”      “I’m sorry, what?” Jack asked.      “Hey Sesla,” Ghost Jack said as he entered her dream.      “Jack, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Sesla asked.      “I’ve finally made contact with Imhotep,” Ghost Jack said.      “That’s good.”      “It was after his still comatose body sat up.”      “That’s odd.”      “He expelled a bunch of magic energy to try to wake up.”      “That’s hard to believe.  Imhotep has decent magical knowledge, but his actual power is rather limited.”      “We suspect it’s related to why I wasn’t able to find him before, which we suspect is related to the individual that has been in the other Jack’s dreams.”      “Hmm, yes, that seems like a possibility.  I have an idea, but it will take some time to prepare.  Please come back later.”      “Right, okay.”      “The Centaur?” Mary asked after Jack and the others returned and explained what they had learned.      “A Centaur is a half man, half horse, right?” Dorian asked.      “Yeah,” Abigail said.  “But it could be that this guy’s grasp of English is incomplete.  He may have just meant someone riding a horse.”      “Or he could mean an actual Centaur,” Jack said.  “I mean, Centaurs exists in our universe, I assume.  So there’s no reason to assume they don’t exist here.”      “Why do you assume they exist in our universe?” Abigail asked.      “You and I are Greek Demigods,” Jack said.  “Centaurs are from Greek mythology.”      “Either way, how can we track this individual?” Philip asked.      “The Centaur apparently came from, and left to the east,” Jack said.      “I did see some hoof prints on the east side of the village,” Mary said.  “Looks to be a few months old, and most of them are gone, but I might be able to track them.”      “Then that’s where we’ll be headed,” Jack said.      “Hey Melinda, what’ve you been up to recently,” Ghost Jack asked as he floated into the cafeteria, where Melinda was eating a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup for lunch.      “Mostly I’ve been going over the intel we have on the TDD, and Rupert Teleros, and trying to determine the best course of action.  I’ve been talking with a lot of the TDD agents we have in custody.”      “And how’s that going?”      “Could be better, could be worse.”      “What do you think is the correct course of action?”      “Personally, I think joining the TDD might be our best course of action at the moment,” Melinda said.  “Assuming we still keep some level of autonomy.”      “Are we going to have a long distance to go?” Jack asked as Mary was looking at the ground.      “It’s hard to say,” Mary said.  “I mean, these tracks are at least a month old, which means they could be pretty far away, but we can’t really know that until we’ve followed them far enough.”      “I don’t suppose we can bring some sort of vehicle here?” Philip asked.      “We can’t fit a hovercar through the wormhole,” Jack said.      “Not to mention that Mary can’t exactly follow the tracks from a hovercar,” Abigail said.      “Ready yet?” Ghost Jack asked as he entered Sesla’s dream again.      “Just about,” Sesla said.  “Now what I need you to do is have myself and Imhotep moved right next to each other, so that our heads are touching, and then I need you to try to enter both of our dreams at the same time.”      “I’m not sure if I can do that.”      “Normally no, but I have created a magic spell that I believe will allow you to do so.”      “Are you certain?”      “Not completely certain, but relatively certain.”      “It’s getting dark,” Dorian said.  “We should probably set up camp soon.”      “We’ll go another half hour or so,” Jack said.  “See if we can’t find a more defensible location to set up at.”      “So, what exactly will entering both of their dreams at the same time do?” Jeri asked as she pushed the beds with Sesla and Imhotep next to each other.      “Sesla was kind of vague on the details,” Ghost Jack said.      “But you’re certain this is a good idea?” Jeri asked.      “Nope, but I don’t have any other ideas.”      “Right.”      “Jack definitely knows,” Mary said.  “Why else would he have us share a tent?”      “Because there’s six people, and three tents?” Abigail asked.  “So I mean, he put us women together, and then Philip and Dorian because they’re pals, and him and Ohm because they are friends.”      “Yeah, I suppose that make sense.”      “Look, Mary, I know you wanted to keep this a secret, but if you’re going to freak out every time anyone says anything about us, then I think we should just go public with our relationship.”      “But what will people think?” Mary asked.      “Most of them will be fine with it,” Abigail said.  “And those who aren’t, that’s their problem, not ours.”      “Maybe…”      Ghost Jack put one hand on Sesla, and the other on Imhotep, and then tried to enter both their dreams at once.  It was very uncomfortable, almost painful, but then he found he was essentially split into two of himself, but his mind was connected to both.      “Whoa, this is weird,” he said in both of the dreams.      “What is weird?” Imhotep asked him.      “So, it worked then?” Sesla asked him.      “Yes,” he said in Sesla’s dream.  “I’m in both of your dreams now,�� he said in both.      “Wait, what?” Imhotep asked.  “What are you talking about?”      “Take my hand,” Sesla said as she offered it to Ghost Jack, who took it, and then suddenly she was in Imhotep’s dream.      “I was not certain that would work,” Sesla said.      “What did you do?” Imhotep asked.      “I used Jack as a conduit to travel into your dream,” Sesla said.  “So that I can try to determine who was keeping you imprisoned deep within your mind.”      “Everyone, we have something to announce,” Mary said in the morning as she and Abigail left their tent.      Philip was making breakfast while Dorian was taking down their tent.  Ohm was keeping watch, and Jack came out of their tent at Mary’s statement.      “Oh?” Jack asked.      “Abigail and I are…that is to say that we have been…” Mary started saying.      “We’re girlfriends,” Abigail said.      “Yes, that,” Mary said.      “I mean, obviously,” Philip said.      “Did you think no one knew?” Dorian asked.      “Wait, you two knew?” Mary asked.      “I think everyone knows,” Jack said.      “I was just worried how people would react,” Mary said.  “Especially you two,” she said to Philip and Dorian.      “Because we’re from a less enlightened time?” Dorian asked.      “We’ve been doing the time travel thing for a while, just like you,” Philip said.  “Also, we’ve been dating for a few months now.”      “Okay, that I didn’t know,” Jack said.      “We haven’t been hiding it exactly, but we haven’t really come out publicly either,” Dorian said.      “Until now, I guess,” Philip said.      Ghost Jack watched as some sort of letters started glowing in the air around Sesla, at least he assumed they were letter but they were unfamiliar to him.      “Hmm, fascinating,” Sesla said as she was reading, and manipulating the letters.      “What are you finding?” Imhotep asked.      “Someone has been messing with your mind,” Sesla said.  “It was rather sloppy work.  That’s why you escaping the dungeon they put you in caused your body to sit up.  They seem to have overloaded parts of your mind, but you got them working again, and that caused some unintended physical reactions..”      “Is that a good thing or a bad thing for us?” Ghost Jack asked.      “It’s a good thing, I believe,” Sesla said.  “I believe I may be able to trace the source.”      Mary returned to the group after scouting ahead.  “I’ve found something,” she said.      “What is it?” Jack asked.      “There’s an area up ahead that’s clearly been used as a camp multiple times,” Mary said.  “Near as I can tell, by this Centaur each time.”      “How can you tell?” Philip asked.      “Only hoof prints,” Mary said.  “No Human footprints.”      “Are there prints more recent than the ones we’ve been following?” Jack asked.      “There are,” Mary said.  “Looks to be some from only a few days ago.”      “And Sesla can just stay in there without you?” Melinda asked after Ghost Jack had told her what was going on.      “I was the bridge, to allow her to cross over to Imhotep’s dream from her own,” Ghost Jack said.  “She’ll need to use me again to get back, but until then I am unneeded.”      “Hmm, what would happen if you transferred one of them to the dream of someone not in a coma, and then that person woke up?”      “I don’t know.  Seems like it could pose some sort of risk though.”      “But what if that body was a clone that didn’t have a mind of it’s own?”      “Could still pose a risk, but yeah, I see what you’re getting at.  If we can’t wake up their current bodies, maybe we can put them in new bodies.”      The trail led Mary and the group to a small settlement.      “Okay, I’ll go into town with Mary and Abigail,” Jack said.  “Mary, I want you to try to keep following the trail in the town, but don’t make it obvious that you’re doing so.”      “Any luck get?” Ghost Jack asked as he reentered Imhotep’s dream.      “I believe so,” Sesla said.  “I will imprint the location on your mind.”      Jack, Mary and Abigail entered a saloon in the town.  Mary and Abigail went to grab a table, while Jack went up to the bar.      “Hello, we’re from out of town,” Jack said.      “Obviously,” the bartender said.      “We’d like some drinks, and some information.”      “What kind of information?”      “We’re looking for someone who maybe have been here recently,” Jack said.  “He’s pretty tall, and maybe has four legs.”      “Oh, you’re talking about the Centaur.”      “You know him?”      “A legend comes through your town, you hear about it, but you must be from pretty far away not have not heard of the Centaur.”      “We’re from out east,” Jack said.      “Oh yeah?  New York or so?  You seem like a New Yorker.”      “Yeah, that’s where I’m from.  So, do you know where we can find the Centaur?”      “Okay,” Harkon said after Ghost Jack had explained the situation to him and Melinda.  “I want you two to go to that location and investigate.  Bring a few other agents with you, just in case.”      “Yes, sir,” Ghost Jack and Melinda said simultaneously.      “Did you learn anything?” Mary asked as Jack sat down with their drinks.      “Well, for one thing I learned that the money here is at least similar enough to that of our own universe that the bartender didn’t notice anything suspicious about it,” Jack said.      “Anything relevant?” Abigail asked.      “I got an address,” Jack said.  “The Centaur is still in town.”      “Then what are we waiting for?” Mary asked.      “Well, we have to finish our drinks first,” Jack said.      Melinda pushed aside the ferns as she stepped out into the clearing, to join Ghost Jack who had just phased through the jungle.  They had brought a few other agents, but she was having them hold back for now.      “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is not it,” Ghost Jack said.      “Me neither,” Melinda said.      In the middle of the clearing was a small Human child.  A young girl, who was just sitting there.  She opened her eyes as Melinda and Ghost Jack approached.      “I was wondering how long until you managed to find me,” she said.      “Who are you?” Ghost Jack asked.  “And what are you doing in the middle of the Cretaceous?”      “I like dinosaurs,” she said.      “Why were you keeping Imhotep caged?” Melinda asked.  “Any how?”      “He was…I did not expect his mind to be as weak as it was.  Jack, the other Jack, he had such a strong mind.  I was just trying to communicate with Imhotep, as I had with Jack, but it overwhelmed him.”      “So, it wasn’t on purpose?” Ghost Jack asked.      “No, that is why I have since avoided dreams of those other than Jack,” she said.  “And even his I have stayed out of as of late.”      “You never answered our other question,” Melinda said.  “Who are you?”      “You can call me L, I suppose.”      “And what are you, L?” Ghost Jack asked.  “You look Human, but I assume there is more to it than that.”      “I am not Human, I have simply adopted a form that you will be comfortable with,” L said.      “Please tell me you aren’t part of the L continuum,” Ghost Jack said.      “No, I am unique,” L said.  “In this universe at least.  Although, I suppose that was a joke.”      “And what do you want?” Melinda asked.      “To play,” L said.      Jack knocked on the door.  Abigail and Mary were standing on either side of him.  After a little bit, the door opened just a crack.      “Can I help you with something?” a female voice asked.      “Hello,” Jack said.  “We’re from out of town, and we hear the Centaur is in town.  We’d really like to meet him.”      “You must be from pretty far out of town,” the voice said, and the door opened the rest of the way to reveal that the voice belonged to the Centaur, who was female, and holding a gun that was pointed at Jack.  “Now, what do you really want?”      “What exactly is playing to you?” Melinda asked.      “You people are so fascinating,” L said.  “Not as fascinating as dinosaurs, perhaps, but still so much fun.”      “This is like The Sims to you, isn’t it?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Hmm, that is a video game,” L said.  “Yes, that might be an apt comparison.”      “Can you wake up Imhotep and Sesla?” Ghost Jack asked.      “Yes, but no,” L said.  “It is within my powers, but not within the rules.”      “What rules?” Melinda asked.      “There’s someone else, isn’t there?” Ghost Jack asked.  “Someone else as powerful as you are?”      “Our game has been going on for a very long time,” L said.  “And it will continue to go on even longer.”      “How can we even know anything you are telling us is true?” Melinda asked.      “You can’t,” L said.  “It’s not like it matters anyway.”      “Why not?” Melinda asked.      “Because either you believe me or not.  If you do then you will carry on as you have.  If you don’t, you may spend some time and energy looking into and researching about me, and ultimately find that you can’t do anything to me, and you will carry on as you have.  Anyway, it’s been nice talking with you, but I have to be going now.”  And with that she vanished in an instant.      “We are looking for one of our people,” Jack said.  “Calvin Nichols.”      “Huh, so you’re from really far out of town,” the Centaur said.      “So, you know who he is?” Mary asked.      “I do,” the Centaur said.  “Cal, your people are here,” she shouted.      Calvin Nichols came to the door.  “Hey Jack, Mary, and I don’t believe I’ve met you before.”      “I’m Abigail.  I’m newish.”      “So, they are legit than?” the Centaur asked.      “They are,” Calvin said.      The Centaur lowered her gun.  “You can come in then.”      “Hmm,” Harkon said after Melinda and Ghost Jack had told him the details of their meeting with L.  “I’ve never heard of this L before.”      “I checked with Sesla and Imhotep,” Ghost Jack said.  “Sesla said that there was something familiar about my description of L, but she did not know her specifically.”      “Hmm, we’ll have to get her help in learning more perhaps,” Harkon said.  “And Agent Summers, what is your opinion?”      “I don’t think L was lying about anything, but there’s also something about her that I don’t trust,” Melinda said.  “But, like she said, I don’t know that there’s anything we can do about it.”      “So, anyway Calvin, we are here to bring you home,” Jack said.      “I am home though,” Calvin said.  “I’ve started building a life here, in the past few months.”      “But…what?” Jack asked.      “I thought I was stuck here,” Calvin said.  “Initially I was captured by that Native American tribe, but then the Centaur here purchased my freedom.  We’ve been together ever since, and have started to fall in love.”      “Oh,” Jack said.  “Well, then I suppose I’ll relay your message to Harkon.  Just so you know though, we do now have easy ability to travel between our two worlds.”      “Well, then if you really need my help, I suppose you can come ask for it, but I would still prefer to stay here,” Calvin said.      “Right,” Jack said.  “Who am I to stand in the way of love?” To be continued…

[ericbarkman]

Chrono Hustle #36 Welcome to Earth 2

     “Good morning,” Harkon Smith said as a few of his top people sat around the table in the briefing room.  “So, based on the intel Agent Summers gathered, we believe that it is indeed Rupert Teleros that contacted us.  He wants to meet with me, so that is what will happen.”      “Even it if is him, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Melinda Summers said.  “We still don’t know for certain why he is leading the Temporal Development Division, and are just assuming he has good intentions based on his reputation.”      “Which is why you’ll be in charge of security for this mission,” Harkon said.  “Your job is to make sure there is an exit strategy if things go wrong, and to keep it viable.  We have a few more days to prepare.”      “Yes, sir,” Melinda said.      “Meanwhile, Mr. Tesla has discovered that the building where Agent Nichols disappeared contains a wormhole to another dimension,” Harkon said.      “That is my theory anyway,” Nikola Tesla said.  “We sent a probe through, and we’re still waiting for it to return.”      “When it returns, I want you to analyze the information, and if it’s safe on the other side, Agent Masterson will lead a team through to find and recover Agent Nichols.”      “Right,” Jack Masterson said.      “Agent Bishop will come with me as my bodyguard,” Harkon said.  “Everyone else is open to be part of either Summers’ or Masterson’s teams.”      “Understood, sir,” Mary Bishop said.      Dorian Winters was on duty in the time door room, when everyone started filtering out of the meeting room.      “Hey Dorian,” Philip Wilson said as he came out.  “We still on for lunch?”      “Yeah, my shift ends in an hour,” Dorian said.  “Unless something comes up.”      “There’s some missions happening, but not today.  So even if we’re selected we should still be good.”      “So, we are in a relationship, right?” Abigail Esau asked.  “We’re girlfriends?”      “Yeah, we are,” Mary said.  “But I’d prefer we keep it a secret for now.”      “Okay?”      “I’m just…this whole lesbian thing is pretty new to me, and I don’t know if I’m ready to tell everyone about it.”      “Yeah, no, I don’t want to pressure you into anything, but I think they’ll be okay with it.”      “I mean, Jack and Melinda and Harkon will all be fine with it,” Mary said.  “They’re from times where it’s normal, but what about Philip and Dorian?  Or Mr. Tesla?”      “I don’t think Tesla will care,” Abigail said.  “Like, I doubt he’ll even take notice.”      “Maybe not, but still, can we keep it secret, for now at least?”      “Of course.”      “Who are you thinking of using for your team?” Jack asked as he walked down the hall with Melinda.      “Probably Philip and Dorian,” Melinda said.  “Maybe a few others.  Too many people could draw attention though, so I want to keep the group as small as I can.  You?”      “I mean, I’ll probably bring ERK-147 through, assuming it’s sensors will work on the other side,” Jack said.  “And the ghost of my temporal duplicate would be a good option as well.  Maybe a few redshirts as well, just to fill out the group.”      “Redshirts?”      “Never mind, Star Trek reference.  You should consider Deanna as well, since the meeting is in Ancient Greece, and she used to live there.”      “Where is she anyway?” Melinda asked.  “I haven’t seen her in a while.”      “Doing stuff in the 1940s.  She is somewhat important to history, so she kind of needs to keep up with her own life in addition to working with us.”      “Yeah, but you two already made it up to 2016 from the 1940s.”      “Yeah, but you know, it’s complicated.  We were doing a lot of stuff as it was.”      “I suppose.”      The ghost of the temporal duplicate of Jack Masterson floated down into the gym through the ceiling.  There were a few people in there, most of whom had a momentary look of surprise before going back to what they were doing.  One person though, Ohm, did not even look away from his punching bag.      “Hey, Ohm,” ghost Jack said as he floated over to him.      “Hello other Jack,” Ohm said as he continued his workout.  “Can I help you with anything?”      “Probably not, I just need someone to bounce ideas off of.”      “And I’m that person?”      “I need someone smart, but not someone who will interrupt my thought process.  Someone who will ask questions, rather than attempting to supply answers.”      “And you think that’s me?”      “You’re already doing it.”      “Asking questions, yes.  But you said someone smart.  Would you not prefer someone who is not literally a neanderthal?”      “I’ve seen your reading material.  You’re learning at an amazing rate.  I’m quite impressed.”      “Really?”      “Yep.”      “Okay, I suppose I can help you.”      “Oh, hey, Agent Wilson,” Abigail said as she tried to catch up to him in the hallway.  “Did you hear back from your friends yet?”      “Hmm?” Philip asked.  “Oh yes, I did a little while ago, while you were away on your mission.”      “And?  What has Deanna been up to?”      “Mostly just buying old artifacts, apparently.  I can give you a list, although I don’t suppose it’s really that strange of a thing for her to be doing.”      “Thanks, I’d appreciate the list.”      “Okay, so Imhotep’s dream is a vast open world, like a video game,” ghost Jack said.      “What’s a video game?” Ohm asked.      “It’s a game you play on a screen, like a TV or computer.  Open world games are a popular type, because there’s a lot to explore and do.  The only problem is, Imhotep is nowhere to be found.”      “Shouldn’t he be found in his own dream?”      “Yes, he should, it would be like if you went to play a video game, and the main character wasn’t there.  But then who’s playing the game?”      “You?”      “Except the world is created by his brain, so he still has to be there, I think.”      “How do you know it’s created by his brain?”      “Because, what else would create it?  It’s a dream in his brain.  Granted I’m a ghost, so I’m a mind without a brain, so who knows.”      “Hey you,” Mary said as she entered Abigail’s room.  “What’re you reading there?”      “Hmm?” Abigail asked as she looked up from the computer pad she was holding.  “Oh, just some researching I’m doing.  Which I’ll probably have plenty of time for, as I’m assuming Melinda won’t be picking me for her mission team.”      “Probably not, although Jack might pick you for his.”      “True, I’m sure he could use a few redshirts.”      “Redshirts?”      “Star Trek reference.  In the original Star Trek a few of the main characters would go on a mission, along with a bunch of background characters.  The background characters tended to be security officers, or occasionally engineers, both of which wore redshirts.”      “Oh, okay, although I’d hardly say you’re a background character.”      “I also hopefully won’t die.  That’s what tended to happen to redshirts.  You know, to show that the mission was dangerous, but without killing off anyone important.”      “Well, you’re very important to me, so you’d better not die,” Mary said.      “Yeah, this is all assuming I get asked to go on the mission anyway,” Abigail said.      “Good news,” Nikola said as Jack entered his lab.      “The probe has returned?” Jack asked.      “Indeed, and it seems that everything on the other side is perfectly habitable, and seems to be similar to our own Earth,” Nikola said.      “So, it is another Earth?”      “Based on the findings from the probe, I believe so.”      “Excellent, I’ve always wanted to visit another Earth.”      “Yes, I can help with that,” Deanna said after Melinda had explained the mission to her.  “What is the plan for getting through the time door though?  The time door in that era is controlled by the TRD.”      “Can you make us invisible, so we can go through when Harkon and Mary do, but unnoticed?” Melinda asked.      “I should be able to manage that.”      “That’s what we’ll be doing then.  We’ll go in invisible, and set up shop.  We’ll have to survey the area, and figure out where to place each of us.”      “Who will all be going?” Deanna asked.      “You, me, Philip, and Dorian.”      “Not Jack?”      “He has his own mission.”      “Hey Jack,” Jack said as he joined ghost Jack and Ohm in the cafeteria.  “Hey Ohm.  What’s up?”      “Just trying to figure out what’s going on with Imhotep,” ghost Jack said.      “Oh yeah?  How’s that going?” Jack asked.      “Not well,” Ohm said.      “Well, we might be making progress, but it’s hard to say for certain, since this is not exactly well understood science.  What’s up with you?”      “Prepping for a mission to another dimension.  An Earth 2, if you will,” Jack said.  “I’d like you two to join it.”      “I’m in,” ghost Jack said.  “Always wanted to go to another Earth.”      “Yeah, I know, we used to be the same person, until that whole timeline split thing,” Jack said.  “Ohm, are you in?”      “Yes, it will be nice to go on another mission,” Ohm said.  “It gets boring around here.”      “Melinda talk to you yet?” Dorian asked as he entered Philip’s room.      “Yeah, we’ll be joining her on the mission,” Philip said as he looked up from the book he was reading.  “Her and Deanna.”      “Something worrying about that?”      “Not per se, just that, you remember when Colonel Teleros came by a couple weeks ago?”      “Yeah, what about it?”      “He was letting me know what Deanna was up to.”      “Oh, something suspicious?”      “I don’t know.  I mean, most things involving her are at least somewhat suspicious, but I don’t know.”      “Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to know who to trust,” Dorian said.      Abigail and Mary were making out in Abigail’s room, when the door chime rang.      “Quick, where can I hide?” Mary asked as she looked around.      “Umm, uh, the closet?” Abigail suggested.  “Yeah, you can hide in the closet.”      “Right,” Mary said as she ran over to it, and went in and closed the door behind her.      “Come in,” Abigail said, as she straightened out her clothes.      The door opened, and Jack entered the room.  “Hey, Abigail,” he said.      “Hey Jack, what’s up?” she asked.      “Oh, just putting together my team for the incursion into another universe.  Would you be interested?”      “Yeah, yeah, that sounds fun, really fun.  I’d love that.”      Jack raised an eyebrow.  “You seem unusually energetic.  Are you hiding something?”      “What, no, I’m not hiding anything.”      “Right, anyway, we’ll be heading out tomorrow, so yeah.”      “Okay, cool.”      “Yeah, I’ll talk to you later,” Jack said as he left.      Abigail waited until he had been gone half a minute.  “You can come out of the closet now, Mary,” she said.  “In the literal sense I mean.”      “Any change in their condition?” ghost Jack asked as he entered the medlab.      “No changes,” Doctor Jeri Quill said.  “Sesla and Imhotep are still in their comas, as is Merlin.  And no changes in any of their vitals.  Will you be checking out Imhotep’s dreams again?”      “Not today,” ghost Jack said.  “I’ll be heading out on a mission tomorrow, so just checking in before that.”      “How are your preparations going?” Harkon asked as Melinda entered his office.      “As well as they can,” Melinda said.  “Since we can’t go there ahead of time without rousing suspicion, at the minimum.”      “Yeah, but meeting in an area that we control would require us to let them through, and could lead to an invasion of one of our bases.”      “I agree, sir.  I’ve been going over information on the meeting area with Deanna, since she lived there when she was a couple thousand years younger.”      “A prudent course of action.  Will she also be joining you on the mission?”      “Yes, is that a problem?”      “I don’t know,” Harkon said.  “Joshua Teleros came by the base a while ago, while you were investigating Rupert Teleros, in fact.”      “Oh?”      “He came to talk with Agent Wilson.  I don’t know any details, but my gut says that it was about Deanna.”      “Oh?”      “I could be wrong, it could be a personal matter, but the situation with Deanna is rather complicated, so it’s best to be careful with her anyway.”      “Of course, sir.”      “This is your whole team?” Nikola asked.      “This is my whole team,” Jack said as he looked around the room.  Ghost Jack, Ohm, Abigail, ERK-147, Jeth Simpson, and Yvette Telooth were all there, and ready to go.      “And if ERK-147’s sensors don’t work in the other dimension?” Nikola asked.      “If that happens, we’ll send him back with the probe immediately,” Jack said.      “Okay, everyone into position,” Nikola said.  “The wormhole will be opening momentarily.”      “Is everyone ready?” Harkon asked.      “I’m ready,” Mary said.      “I believe we are ready,” Melinda said.  “Deanna?”      “Of course,” Deanna said, and she turned invisible along with Melinda, Philip, and Dorian.      “Then, let’s go,” Harkon said.      Jack and his team came out of the wormhole, into a forested area.      “No building here, let alone a city,” Abigail said.      “Which could mean any number of things,” Jack said.      “We are at the same geographic coordinates on this Earth as we were on our own,” ERK-147.      “So, your sensors are working here,” Jack said.  “That’s good.”      “So then, we’re assuming there was just never a city here in this universe?” ghost Jack asked.      “Seems likely,” Abigail said.      “Are we picking up any radio transmissions?” Jack asked.      “We are,” ERK-147.  “There is definitely Human civilization in this dimension, and it seems to be at a similar level of development as our own in this era, based on the conversations I’m listening in on.”      “Are you picking up any signs of Nichols?” Jack asked.      “No, I regret to say that I am not,” ERK-147 said.      “Then it’s time we started exploring,” Jack said.  “Telooth, you’re with me.  Simpson, you’re with the other me.  ERK-147, Ohm, and Abigail, you’re team three.  Let’s go.”      Mary went through the time door, with Harkon right behind her.  On the other side, there were a number of people, who Mary assumed to be TDD agents.  The time door was in a different location that the previous time that she had been in Ancient Greece.  Unlike the temple it had been in, this was clearly a base set up by the TDD.      “Welcome,” one of the agents said.  “Director Teleros is upstairs.  He’s waiting for you.”      “You’re not checking us for weapons?” Harkon asked.      “Director Teleros told us to let you keep your weapons,” the agent said.      “Right,” Harkon said.      “So, ERK-147, are your sensors picking up anything you think is worth investigating?” Abigail asked as they moved away from the wormhole area.      “I don’t know,” ERK-147 said.  “Although I am picking up some wolves nearby that we should make sure to avoid.”      “Good call.  So, do people call you anything for short?”      “Most people refer to me as 147.  Jack refers to me as ERK.”      “Do you have a preference?”      “Not really, I am fine with either.  147 is a more specific identifier, but as I am the only ERK unit around, it hardly matters.”      “What about gender pronouns?”      “I have no gender, so mostly people just use the word ‘it’ for me, although Mr. Tesla tends to refer to me by male pronouns, for some reason.”      “But do you have a preference?”      “Not really.  I understand it is important for Humans, and I respect that, but I am not Human.”      Mary entered the office, with Harkon coming in right after.  There was a desk with two chairs in front of it, and one behind.  The one behind was facing away, but as soon as they entered, it spun around to reveal a man, who Mary recognized as Rupert Teleros from the pictures they had of him.      “Harkon Smith, and Mary Bishop, how nice to finally meet you,” Rupert said.  “Please sit, we have much to discuss.”      Mary glanced at Harkon, who nodded, and she sat down, as did he.      “I must say, I was somewhat surprised to hear from you,” Harkon said.  “You are not the person I’d have expected to be running the Temporal Development Division.”      “An understandable reaction,” Rupert said.  “I only joined up with them a few years ago, and only recently became the director.”      “How recently?” Harkon asked.      “After you and your people went on the run,” Rupert said.  “And I want you back.”      “I worked for the TRD, not the TDD,” Harkon said.  “We’re supposed to be fixing the timeline, not changing it.”      “We’re working on the same thing, but from another direction,” Rupert said.  “No doubt you are aware of the Palore, by now.  We are trying to figure out ways to fight them.”      “By doing what, exactly?” Harkon asked.  “What is the experiment you were running in the 2340s?”      “We managed to make a fairly significant alteration, which had only minimal impact on history.  The people who were under your command when you were at the TRD weren’t even able to realize there were any changes in the 3000s.”      “And how did you manage that?” Harkon asked.      “Cause and effect,” Rupert said.  “We figure out what effects are caused by our changes, and figure out how to counterbalance them.  It’s already what you do to fix the timeline, but we’re applying it on a larger scale.  It’s the only effective way to fight an enemy who’s time travel capabilities have become intertwined with their very history.”      “So, Telooth, how long have you been working with us, anyway?” Jack asked.  “I think this is the first mission we’ve been on together.”      “A month,” Yvette said.  “I was recruited from 2348.”      “Ah yeah, it’s nice having our outpost in that era,” Jack said.      “So, if you know so little about me, why did you bring me along?”      “I heard you have good tracking skills.  That true?”      “It is, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem like anyone else has been around here for at least a few days.”      “That’s unfortunate, especially since my knowledge powers don’t seem to be working here.”      “Oh?”      “Yeah, not sure why though.”      “What does that even mean?” Harkon asked.  “Time travel capabilities intertwined with their history?”      “Because, once they invented time travel, they just went back and gave it to their past selves,” Rupert said.  “They’ve shared so much between themselves in different eras, and created so many alternate timelines as a result that it’s impossible to figure out what their original timeline was even like.  We can’t hope to untangle that, the best we can hope for is stopping them from continuing to rewrite the timeline.”      “You’re fighting fire with fire,” Mary said.      “It’s the only way,” Rupert said.  “If there was another option, that’s what I’d be doing.”      “And what exactly do you want from us?” Harkon asked.      “The TDD is mostly made up of scientists.  That’s why we’ve had to resort to using TRD agents for missions.”      “So, you want your own operations team,” Harkon said.  “And you want us to be it.”      “Yes,” Rupert said.  “Feel free to go back, discuss it with your people.  Let me know when you come to a decision.”      “We’re free to leave?” Harkon asked.      “Yes, and you don’t even need the exit strategy that Agent Summers’ team has figured out,” Rupert said.      “I am picking up some Human life signs, at the edge of my sensor range,” ERK-147 said.      “How many?” Abigail asked.      “Twelve, so far,” ERK-147.  “But there could be more outside of my sensor range.”      “Well, it’s something.  Let the others know while we head in that direction.”      “Huh, wait, knowledge powers just kicked in,” Jack said.      “Oh?” Yvette asked.      “Yeah, but only to let me know why they don’t work here.  This universe has different magic rules than our own.  So my knowledge powers still work on myself, since I’m still from our universe, but it can’t extend beyond myself.”      “Those are the people?” ghost Jack asked as he and Jeth joined Abigail, Ohm and ERK-147 at the edge of the tree line.  “Looks like a Native American tribe.”      “Yes, but not one that I am aware of,” ERK-147.  “The tattoos look to be culturally significant, but I do not have any records of those sorts of tattoos.”      “How aware are you of Native American tribes?” ghost Jack asked.      “I’ve downloaded most of the information available on them in the 2340s, in order to better prepare for missions in the 1870s.”      “This is an alternate universe,” Abigail said.  “There’s nothing to say that the same tribes would exist here as in our own.”      “He wants us to join the TDD?” Melinda asked Harkon as they went into his office after getting back.  It was the two of them and Mary.  Harkon had just finished explaining the situation to Melinda.      “That’s the long and short of it,” Harkon said.  “Did you or your team notice anything suspicious while there?”      “No, nothing,” Melinda said.  “This could still be a trap, but so far everything seems aboveboard.”      “Nothing has been aboveboard about the TDD so far though,” Mary said.  “They are the reason my father was killed.  Even if that was before this Rupert Teleros was put in charge, it’s not like that just erases what they did.”      “I’m curious about what, if anything, the Clockmaker knows about this,” Melinda said.  “Because if he knows about Teleros being in charge, and still doesn’t trust them, that would certainly say a lot.”      “Assuming we can trust him,” Harkon said.  “There’s still so much we don’t know about the Clockmaker, and his agenda.”      “The Clockmaker has been a lot more trustworthy than the TDD,” Mary said.  “He was right about Merlin, and ghost Jack.”      “He told us the truth and it benefited both himself and us,” Harkon said.  “The only other encounter we had with him was when he abducted Jack to learn information that he needed, and then dropped him off in another time.”      “Which did allow Jack to gain valuable allies, learn important information, and return at the right time to save us all from death,” Melinda said.  “My gut says that at least some of that was intentional on the Clockmaker’s part.”      “Perhaps,” Harkon said.  “But either way, it’s not like we can just call him up and ask for his opinion.”      “Is Agent Nichols amongst this tribe?” Jack asked as he and Yvette joined the rest of the group.      “I don’t believe so,” ERK-147 said.  “Although I think he was previously.”      “Oh?” Jack asked.      “I’ve been analyzing my sensor readings, and I believe I can tell the difference between stuff from this universe and our own.  Stuff from this universe is slightly…fuzzier would be an adequate term.”      “Okay, go on.”      “There is Human excreta near to the camp, and some of it is from our universe, or at least from a person from our universe.”      “So, we can track him with his shit?” ghost Jack asked.      “We can determine he was likely here from it, but it could take a long time to locate the next place he used,” ERK-147 said.      Imhotep looked around himself, and saw the same thing he had been seeing for… he could not even remember how long it had been anymore.  But he was surrounded by sand in all directions.  That’s all there was, sand, and sky, and that’s all there had been.      He had figured out early on that this must be a dream of some sort, there was no way he would still be alive otherwise, since there was nothing to eat or drink.  But even that fact was starting to slip from his mind.  He was losing his grip on reality.      “Good work out there,” Harkon said to Jack.  “And you made the right call coming back to base.”      “It’s going to take a long time to track down Agent Nichols,” Jack said.  “I figured we’d have to prepare for a more comprehensive search.”      “Indeed,” Harkon said.  “You’ve learned at least a bit about what things are like on that Earth, at least nearby to the wormhole.  Next up, we’ll need to make contact with the locals, and who knows how that will go.  So we’ll need to figure out the right approach, and the right team for that.” To be continued…