The Spaces in Between (29 page)

Something wasn’t right. The blast should have nuked more than a hundred, but it was in fact collapsing upon itself. Lam was eating it. The new and true avatar of Lam was Makoto Tsuen and unlike Harvey they were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect him. Scores of shriveled gray men poured through the nothing at Cameron and Ryoma. He dropped the flintlock pistol and his hand darted for the eye patch.

Before they could restrain him he quickly gestured at Ryoma. A protective bubble formed around him and Lam could only hope to siphon power from it until it collapsed. Tiny hands jerked Cameron into a crucified position and he could already feel his newly found strength draining out of him. Another gray man rifled through Cameron’s coat. His tiny mouth struggled into a smile when he wretched the Ark from the inner pocket.

Cameron tried to rock his body, but it couldn’t budge under the weight of Lam. The pyramid now rested in the palm of Tsuen. Outside of his body the arm was now whole again and not mechanical at all.

“They’re only using you!” Cameron cried. “They plan to topple the entire Multiverse with that-” tiny fists being shoved into his mouth until his jaw could no longer budge silenced Cameron.

“We are more than the one you called Makoto Tsuen,” Lam replied using Tsuen’s mouth. “He willingly gave us body and soul at the mere promise we would destroy you. He was a suitable host for us to reach this. We will not merely topple the Multiverse. We plan to create our own Universes where all life is already our servants. The potential in each of these Universes is certainly worth the small investment of our own power.

“Once we’ve drained these Universes we’ll move on to those made by the Creator. And once the Creator and we are the only things left in existence and nonexistence – we’ll attack him. We know that it is most likely folly, but as you say ‘whatever’.”

Cameron was in full concentration of funneling all of his power into his face and it began to grow red. The eye in his left socket began to stir.

“Oh, we can see it in your eyes. ‘But won’t God stop you.’ Was it not in His plan that you could get the Ark? Not only that, but lead us to it? Perhaps this is all an elaborate suicide like that comic from your Earth. Was it called
Sandman
?” There was a jolt in Cameron’s brain like an acupuncture needle just when straight through his eye. “Yes, it was
Sandman
.”

The needle feeling cut straight through Cameron’s left eye. Jostled fully awake now, and not a moment too soon, his right eye glanced to the side. It could see that the bubble around Sakamoto Ryoma was collapsing like a plastic bottle on an open flame.

His left eye flung open.

Its glare cut through the eye patch. Through all the shriveled gray men holding him and cut a line down the center of their ranks until it struck Tsuen. The hand holding the Ark was severed at the wrist and an autopsy cut from between Tsuen’s eyes down to his groin opened. Blood poured from the wound and floated in droplets around him.

The Ark flew through the nothing and landed back in the Pirate King’s hand. “I didn’t think that Ownership spell would actually work, but it did.” He turned his hand and winked with his left eye towards Ryoma. There was a camera flash and the extensions of Lam around Ryoma’s bubble dissolved.”

Sakamoto Ryoma!
Cameron shouted in Ryoma’s mind.
Get behind me!

The Pirate King extended his left arm to the ground steadying it with his right. He grimaced and his left hand tightened into a claw. A double circle of intricate sigils poured out from his palm and encircled both Ryoma and him. A pot of soil appeared at the Pirate King’s feet. He pulled the Watcher’s sword from his coat and plunged it into the soil. He uttered a guttural phrase.

The Watcher appeared in the form of a black dog. Its presence dimmed those lights cast by Tsuen and the Pirate King’s presence. Not afraid to take loses when they are so close Lam poured over the Watcher to smother it. Within a minute the lights reignited, but in that moment Cameron took the sword from the pot and carved a sigil on his chest.

Makoto Tsuen finally steadied himself again. The wound on him was still present, but he had been able to stop the bleeding. Like a cup on the verge of overflowing the blood bubbled to the brim, but never went over. The
rhlung
flowed down his arm and a bolt of energy crashed through Cameron’s circles before it lost all momentum. The Pirate King fell to his knees and screamed an incantation into the
Ain
.

Almost immediately Cameron could feel the great devourer pour into him. His right eye turned red to match the left and Cameron’s visage darkened. Ryoma began to back away. Cthulu feasted upon the power radiating from the spark within Cameron, and once it had eaten through this barrier would be free from the Pirate King’s control. Black tentacles whipped from the Pirate King’s midsection, ripped through the legions of gray men, and grabbed Tsuen.

The former Lemurian was ripped to shreds, and the pieces were shoveled into a great maw the opened in Cameron’s chest. The tentacles lashed out again and continued shoveling the gray men into the maw. Given the time all of Lam could be devoured, but time was something that the Pirate King currently lacked.

He screamed Aleister Crowley’s barbarous words until his black visage shattered like obsidian, and the spark within him had ignited into a fire that Cthulu could not approach. Cameron turned to Lam and made a blowing kiss gesture. The white fire within him poured out his lips and tore through Lam’s ranks in the form of an angel with a flaming sword.

Cameron stumbled and grasped his abdomen like he had indigestion for a moment. He grabbed Ryoma and tugged on the silver chord behind him three times.

33

Cameron’s eye now red jerked open in the Physical. Sananda who was sipping tea in the lotus position jumped with a start.

“Given up already?”

Cameron lifted the pyramid straight into the air with gusto, and Ryoma faded into view beside him. Lord Sananda’s jaw dropped.

“Jesus Christ! You went through lifetimes’ worth of enlightenment and found a way to undo them!” Cameron peered quizzically at him. “What? It’s just an expression. If anyone can say it should be me.” Sananda then caught a whiff of the thing teeming inside Cameron and a chill ran up his spine. His expression darkened. “And you’ve damned us all in the process.”

Cameron quickly drew the flask from his inner coat pocket, peeled the anchor from it, and tossed it to Sananda. “Here take these guys with you. I’m going to turn on time again. Lam is heading back down here. Is being forced back down here since they lost their soul. I can feel it. I’ve got a trap set on Earth to get rid of both of those problems. I just got to get
The
Soulforge
there.”

Cameron paused a moment with his eye open.
The Soulforge
roared to life and began to soar through the Astral. He traced a symbol into the air, and he could feel time start back up again. “If you hurry now you can give me some back-up. I’m not sure if I can make it to Earth on my own.” Cameron clenched his abdomen as another contraction shuddered through his body.

“If there is anything I should do it’s arrest you for theft, and the attempted murder of
everything
.”

“Well that would happen if you arrested me right now. You don’t have time to banish something this big.” He clenched his stomach and arched his back in a way that reminded Sananda of a pregnant woman. “And this.” Cameron held up the Ark. “Was a gift. So do what you gotta do.”

Sananda turned into a blue ball that reminded Cameron of Glenda the Good Witch then flew off.

“Cam,” Ryoma started.

“Since when have we been that familiar?” Cameron shot back, but Ryoma ignored him. “I don’t think this is the appropriate time for talking.”

“Considering you’ve given us a window of about five minutes to stop all things from being devoured or Lam just taking the Ark off your corpse, I think this is our last opportunity to talk.”

“About?”

“You keep saying that ghosts with a soul simply don’t exist. Then what does that make me?”

Cameron was silent.

“Why did you protect me from Lam instead of protecting yourself? Is it because once all my power is siphoned off there’s nothing left? That’s it, isn’t it? What am I then?”

“You’re Sakamoto Ryoma.” Cameron didn’t turn to face him.

“I remember being Sakamoto Ryoma, but I’m not now, am I? You seem to know what it is I am. Why didn’t we meet my wife in Heaven? Why did none of the Tree have to do with me?”

“Because you’re wife is quite happy in Heaven and seeing you might have been…upsetting.”

“Quite happy! Like with another man?” Ryoma loosened his katana with the flick of his thumb.

Cameron turned around. “Well what do you think?”

Ryoma’s katana blade went right through Cameron’s head, but didn’t affect him any. “
Kusotare
!”

“Yes, very good now just focus that on our enemies and there might still be a Heaven for her after today.” Ryoma glared at Cameron. He shrugged and turned around. “Shouldn’t we be seeing Earth by now?” In fact he couldn’t see anything, but black. Even the stars seemed to be missing. “Shit. Shit!
Shit!
” Cameron quickly drew the flintlock from his belt and fired an anti-matter droplet off the deck. He willed it to pass through the globe surrounding the deck and it immediately annihilated.

Tiny men scattered and bounced off the globe protecting the ship. For a moment Cameron could see Earth before it was blotted out again. The ship suddenly came to a stop while the engines continued to roar. Cameron tried to load the flintlock quickly like Ryoma would, but ended up with just his clumsy fingers again.

Two more blasts from the gun scattered more of Lam off the hull, but he was still only traveling a snail’s pace.

“I’ll give it a try now,” Ryoma said sullenly. “Send my wife my regards.”

“Not quite yet,” Cameron said. His stomach turned to stone. Cameron clearly remembered that sensation when he was walking as a woman at the top of the tree. “I- I’ve got something I could try.” He put his hands before him in the prayer position. White flames engulfed him and he struggled to pull them apart. There was now a small gap between his hands and the cloud of Lam parted slightly. He struggled more, there was a snap, and his arms went like a cross. Lam was scattered in all directions, and the engines carried
The Soulforge
further.

“I didn’t think you still had anything like that in you,” Ryoma said.

“I didn’t. I had to kinda liquidate it from the ship,” Cameron said, “I think that might have been life support.” The devourer in Cameron’s abdomen had eaten through his energy supply until it hit the reserves. He drew more power from the ship in order to satiate it, and it began to break apart under the strain.

And so did Cameron. Two black tentacles whipped through the air and eviscerated the line of Lam in pursuit as well as the globe and rear of the ship.
Come on baby. Just a little further.

34

“We’ve got visual confirmation of
The Soulforge
,” a Lieutenant on the deck of
Witness
informed Lord Sananda at the helm.

“Lock on with our entire h-bomb and maser payload, and await further command.”

“Sir?
The Soulforge
is in re-entry. We would damage the planet at this range. Probably wipe out the whole Eastern Hemisphere. Would it not be better to call for reinforcements to apprehend planetside?”

Apprehending him is not the part I’m worried about.
“We’re out of range of the Wireless, and
Witness
is the only warship in our command that has FTL engines good enough to get us out here.” Sananda wrung his gloved hands and stared intently at the view screen.

“Wait, sir.” The lieutenant looked at one of the panels at the helm. “We’ve got one bar. Oh, wait we’ve lost it. Wait! There it goes again. Oh, it’s gone.”

There was a flash of brilliant white light that immediately blinded everyone on the bridge of
Witness
. Everyone except Sananda. For a moment he thought he saw a giant samurai like Cameron’s accomplice. Large enough to be seen from space the samurai took out half of Lam’s number with the swipe of a sword. Lam immediately moved to flee, but the samurai drew a revolver. He fanned the hammer with the hilt of his sword and the bullets tore through Lam before it could get away reducing their numbers to a mere hundred.

Then both were gone. “It seems that
The Soulforge
did not make it through re-entrance. Shall we proceed? Wait, it seems that our sensors have picked up an energy signature similar to that of the fugitive Lam.”

The horror that dwelled within Cameron had vanished, and Sananda relaxed in his chair. “Disengage weapons and go in full pursuit of Lam. Once we get two bars call for back-up.”

“Sir? Do you sense the Dread Pirate anymore?”

“No, I don’t,” Sananda said. “Please fetch me a tea.”

35

The Soulforge
burnt out its bottom on re-entry. Cameron liquidated the entire remains of the ship in an instant to create a barrier around him. The bubble shattered on the ground and out tumbled Cameron on to a beach. He lay on the ground and convulsed. His left hand on his stomach and his right drawing the flintlock.

“We’ll need more than that at the moment,” Ryoma said, “Look up, we’re boned.” The sky was now black and writhing.

“I’m not using it for that.” The flintlock pistol dissolved and was absorbed by Cameron. “Staving off the inevitable…Ryoma I need you to turn around.”

“What? Why?” And he did. He realized that he stood in the shadow of a statue of himself. “Where are we?”

“Kastuhama beach in Kochi,” Cameron said. “They built a monument to you.”

“They did?”

“Yep. Put your remains in the national shrine, too.”

“Really?”

“All of the heroes of the
Bakumatsu
, but you’re the biggest one.”