Hunter Legacy 11: Home Is Where the Hero Is (14 page)

A half hour later, Galactica undocked, 266
squadron formed up around her, and she departed for the jump point. I watched
them go on a wall screen.

It took another half an hour before we were
ready to leave. It seems those coming with us had brought a lot of stuff with
them, and some of it had still been on shuttles coming up from the various
planets when I’d said yes to them coming with us.

Everyone was there when I strode onto the
Bridge, after Jane let me know we were finally ready to depart. Angel was on
her pad on the console. Grace was in the helm chair, the twins on either side.
I looked around to everyone as I sat, every seat occupied, and idly thought I
needed a bigger Bridge. Still, a lot of them would be heading home shortly, so
maybe this was the last time the Bridge would be full like this.

"Get us moving Jane."

"Waiting for one more on the Bridge.
Sorry two more."

"Huh?"

Footsteps came from behind me and I
swiveled my chair around to see who it was.

The Keeper. But my eyes were drawn down by
another movement. A cat was walking beside him.

"What brings you to the Bridge, Keeper?"
I asked him.

"Once we're underway, I'd like to talk
to you in your Ready Room, if I may."

"Sure. Who's your friend?"

As we spoke, I’d been watching the cat. He
was pure Siamese Seal Point, light and dark brown colouring, and obviously had
the Siamese superiority attitude. And definitely a male cat.

Angel was now stretched out flat, head to
the console, and glaring at the interloper daring to come onto her Bridge
without her permission. I glanced back and forth between the two of them. And
then cast a quick glance around the Bridge. Everyone was looking at the two of
them.

The Keeper didn’t answer me, as even he was
watching the cats.

As casual as you like, the male cat jumped
up onto the console close to Angel, but just out of whopping range. He stood
there for a moment, and sat. Angel assumed the same position and the two of
them glared at each other.

Angel cautiously sniffed him. He cautiously
sniffed her. Then as we watched, they moved closer together, kissed gently, and
started licking each other. Max slowly moved as if to join Angel on her pad,
and suddenly Angel bonked him one with her left front paw, and he fell over
backwards, with paws raised and ready to fight. She sat there and cat laughed
at him.

Jeeves rushed in, and placed a second cat
mat on the console, and Angel patted it once. He stood, sniffed it, stepped
onto it, circled around three times one way, circled back the other way once,
and plonked down. They resumed licking each other.

All eyes went to the Keeper.

"This is Max," he said.

"They look like they know each
other," said Amanda.

"How can that be?" asked Aleesha.

"Good question," I said,
"but it can wait. Jane, get us moving please."

The Keeper took up a standing position,
behind and to the right of my chair. Jane flashed a very rapid grin at him, and
then went still as she maneuvered the ship. The CAP formed up around us, and we
were soon on our way to the jump point. I glanced back at him, but he was
engrossed in the view and the HUD.

I immediately felt quite annoyed. It was
almost like I was being supervised.

"That’s it for this morning's
entertainment," I said generally. "I'll see the Keeper now, and if
anyone wants to talk to me this morning, just come on in as it suits you."

Meaning sort out who wants me among
yourselves, and do it in descending rank order.

I took a last look at the HUD, saw nothing
unexpected, and jumped up. The Keeper followed me into the Ready Room, and we
sat in lounge chairs.

"What made you think you had the right
to come onto my Bridge, and stand behind my chair?"

It blurted out. I suddenly realized I was
angry, but didn’t understand why. He laughed.

"Sorry. I should have asked. But I've
stood there so often, it never occurred to me to ask."

"What do you mean? You've never been
on my ship before today."

"Sorry Jon," said Jane, through
coms. "But he has."

"Are you mad Jane?"

"Alas no. I can confirm he has been on
the ship before, and he has stood behind your chair exactly as he did this
morning."

"That's not possible."

"A lot of things are possible, young
Jon," said the Keeper. "Take yonder cats for example. They are
brother and sister, they are the same age, and yet, while they left home within
minutes of each other, they have been galaxies apart. How is this so?"

"Exactly. Are you going to tell
me?"

"Kali."

I guess that made sense. Angel had been
forward in time, with the rest of us. To make them the same age, Max had to
have been taken through time as well. And only a being with the power of Kali
could have taken a live cat across the universe safely.

"When did she bring you Max?"

"About eight months ago."

"Why?"

"Because I was lonely? I've no idea,
but presumably it was necessary."

"I thought we were going to have fur
flying there for a moment," I said, thinking about the meeting of the two
sibling cats.

"I didn’t think so. He's a pretty
steady cat, and Angel isn't noted for being a hothead. But I can see Angel is
going to be a challenge for him."

"How so?"

"He's used to being top cat on the
station, but here, Angel is top cat."

"How do you know her name?"

"As Jane said, I've stood your Bridge
many times. Also Prophesy of course. I know everything."

"Except what we most want to
know."

"It's one of the immutable laws of
time. No-one can see their own future from within linear time."

"Huh? What's that got to do with Prophesy?
You told me it was a set of novels channeling my life."

"Yes. Which is why you were never
allowed to come across them. They travelled into the future, but not all of it
made it, and where both of our futures are concerned, that which could have
told us what we want to know, was lost."

"You're sure of that?"

"It's pretty obvious. But this is why
we have guides."

"Guides?"

"Yes. You talk to Kali. You've met her
and Ganesha. You talked to Jesus this morning."

"How did you know that?"

"I talk to them as well. I, like you,
are their instrument."

"Who are you?"

"Close, but not quite the right
question."

He grinned at me.

And suddenly, we were somewhere else. I
recognized this place. It was the Pure Land. The triangular shaped table was
there. We stood at the point, the Keeper and I, Amanda and Aleesha, and Jane.

Amanda turned her head and said,
"Jon's off the ship at the moment. Don’t disturb us until we come
back."

"You got it," said BA, seemingly
from nowhere.

On the left side, appeared twelve people.
On the right side appeared Kali, Ganesha, Jesus, and Buddha Amitabha. In front
of us, appeared Sariel, Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel. All were seated. We
remained standing.

The young woman on our left stood. For an
instant, she was a very old woman, and I recognized her from the previous time
I’d been here, and then she was young again.

"Greetings young Hunter," she said.
All the others nodded their greetings. "We welcome also the dreamer twins,
and the AI Jane."

I nodded in respect, and the twins and Jane
did also.

"I am One. We are the twelve."

"Really?" said Jane with awe in
her voice.

"Twelve what?" asked Amanda.

"These are avatars," explained
Jane. "Like myself. And if I understand the significance of where we are,
then these are beings of great power."

"Who are you?" I asked.

The Keeper laughed.

"I told you that was the wrong
question," he said.

"What are you?" asked Aleesha.

"Smart girl," said the Keeper.

For a few seconds, above each appeared some
sort of colourful lightshow. There was one above the Keeper as well, but his
was very dark.

"You're all nebulae?" asked Jane,
with even more awe in her voice.

I shot her a sharp glance.

"What do you mean all?" I
demanded.

"Jon," she said, pausing as if to
figure out how to say something. "The Keeper isn’t human. He's an avatar
as well."

"What of?"

"A dark matter nebulae."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"He's been standing behind your chair
for the last year."

"Bullshit."

"It's true," said One. "Meet
Thirteen."

The Keeper bowed to me. And rose from it
grinning madly. I had to fight the urge to smack him one.

"Not very spiritual of you young
Jon," said Kali, grinning as well.

She could read my thoughts.

"Well what do you expect? If you lot
would only be honest and up front, I’d never get these shocks, and thus never
have invalid thoughts."

Ganesha thumped the table in front of him.
Unlike my conference table, this one remained undamaged. I turned back to Jane.

"And how do you know this Thirteen?"

"I can see him when he hides slightly
out of phase. I met him the day you first had me pretend to be human. You were
staring out into space, watching Moose leave, and he was standing there
watching you. He convinced me he wasn’t a threat to you."

"And so you kept it a secret all this
time?"

"He asked me too, and I saw no need to
reveal his presence."

I turned back to the Keeper. No, I needed
to think of him as Thirteen now.

"So you've been watching me for this
last year?"

"I have, but when you went through the
jump point into Gaia five days ago, that was ten years ago for me. I saw you to
the jump point, and have been waiting for you to arrive ever since."

"Wait. You followed me for a year,
then went back in time ten years to wait for me? That's nuts!"

The twins and Jane were grinning now as
well.

"Necessary," said One.

I was close to losing it.

"Will someone please tell me what's
going on?"

"That is why you're here,"
confirmed One. "Your training has ended. You are now the leader we needed
you to be. Now you get a short time to prepare. But never lose sight of one
thing."

I waited, but she obviously wanted me to
ask.

"What?" I demanded.

"Darkness is coming."

"Darkness is coming? That’s all you
can say? Darkness is coming? How about a time table, and an explanation of what
the Darkness really is?"

I was really pissed off with the continuing
lack of useful information.

"All in good time," said Sariel.
"You will have the timetable you wish shortly."

"Such things must be discovered,"
said Uriel. "They cannot be given."

"As for the Darkness," said Kali,
"we can tell you little."

"Why?"

"Thirteen already explained this to
you. Linear time has rules, and foreknowledge is something not allowed to those
beings within it."

"Even I don’t know," said
Thirteen. "I exist outside of time, but since I've spent so much time in
an avatar state, my own future is hidden from me. I share your annoyance, but
I've been putting up with it for over six hundred and fifty of your standard
years, where you've only had to endure it for a single year."

"That’s a pretty big martyr complex
you have going there."

"Comes with the territory. And while
we're making comparisons, we were both drafted into this. I had no more choice
about it than you did."

"He has saved your life on numerous
occasions," put in Jane. "Saved all of us in fact."

"Fine."

It wasn’t. But I was sick of beating my
head against the brick wall. It didn’t stop me doing it again though.

"What CAN you tell us?"

"Ask," said One, "and if we
can answer, we will."

"What is the Darkness?"

"A mistake," said Kali. "One
which could not be undone. A race of beings, now long gone, did something which
they thought would be the answer to all their problems. Instead, it almost
destroyed them. Their compassion, coming from an immense sense of guilt,
contained their creation instead of destroying it forever. Being an act of
freewill, exercised by a vast majority, made it a point in space and time which
could not be undone."

"You said contained?" asked
Aleesha.

"Yes."

"Fuck!" I muttered.

Now it was beginning to make sense.

"What?" asked Amanda.

"The containment is failing?" I
asked Kali.

"Yes."

"Fuck!" said the twins together.

"What is the Darkness?" I demanded
again.

"You will know soon enough," said
One.

"Not good enough," I snapped.
"Throw us a bone for Gaia's sake."

"Ask the right question."

I sighed.

"Is the Darkness some sort of
celestial event we have to run from?"

"Yes, and no."

I face palmed. Silence remained until I
looked up again.

"Is it something we can fight?"

"Yes."

"Can we win?"

"Unlikely."

"How unlikely?"

"Jon," said Kali. "You are
not asking the right questions. Let me put it to you this way. Those of us
outside of linear time, have observed all possible outcomes. In all but one,
Humanity was destroyed utterly."

We stared at her, totally shocked.

"And the one?" asked Jane.

"Is what you are living right
now."

"What makes this one different?"
I asked.

"You," said Ganesha. "In all
other timelines, you were never born. Thirteen was given the task of
intervening to ensure you would be. And not only be alive, but trained."

Thirteen threw me a mock salute.

"It can't just be me," I threw
back at them. "What's really the difference?"

"No-one thought your species was worth
trying to save," said One.

"Ouch," said Amanda.

"Because we cause the containment
failure?" I asked.

"Yes. But understand this. Containment
always fails. Humans caused it more often than not, and will cause it this
time, but someone always does."

"So it hasn’t happened yet?"

"You would call it… In Progress."

I screwed up my eyes for a few moments.

"So it's begun?"

"Yes."

"Did we cause it? Did I cause
it?"

"It depends on your point of view. In
absolute terms, no. In abstract terms, yes."

"But you won't tell us what?"

"Forbidden," said Kali.

"What changed your mind about saving
us?" asked Aleesha.

"Everything else failed."

"What do you mean by everything
else?" I asked. "What aren’t you telling us?"

"This is way bigger than we think,"
speculated Jane. "Isn’t it?"

"Yes," answered One. "If the
Darkness is not stopped, it will destroy this galaxy. It already has, so many
times, and in every case, our aid was given to change the way it went in some
critical way. But no matter what we did, the Darkness always took us to the
same place. And this galaxy ended."

"But you said it was unlikely we would
win." I was getting confused. "Can we win or not?"

"It depends on how you define
win," said Gabriel.

"How should we define it?" I
demanded.

"Survive your species does," said
Amitabha, "win it will be."

"But we can fight?" asked Amanda.
"And it is possible we can survive?"

"Yes," replied One.

"So there are alien species out there?"
asked Aleesha.

"Yes."

"And they lose if we lose?"

"Yes."

I looked at Aleesha to see if she was going
somewhere with this, but she appeared to have run out of questions. She'd asked
some very good ones, much better than mine had been. I looked at Kali again.

"So let me get this straight. The
Darkness is coming. We can fight, but all we can hope to achieve is survive. If
we survive, the galaxy has hope. If we don’t, the galaxy is toast. And you're
not going to tell us anything more than that?

"You already know too much," said
the man at the far end of the left side.

"Twelve!" said One, in a tone
which left the impression he was out of line.

"Tell me one thing? Is Gaia safe if we
fail?"

"No."