Across the Galactic Divide

Author's Notes: Here is my contribution to the whole 2012, end of the world thing. I hope you enjoy this copywrited piece of fiction. If there is enough interest, I might continue this story line. I wrote it in the style of the old time movie shorts like Buck Rodgers, Superman, and such other Saturday Matinee fodder. With luck, this will be posted on either the 21st, or better yet, on the 22nd of December, 2012.

As always, please remember this is a copywrited piece of work and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the author. Blah, blah, blah; yackity, smackity, so on and so forth.... You know the deal.

Please take the time to vote, comment, or even leave feedback. Please, for your enjoyment:

Across the Galactic Divide

The Holy One:

He looked up and wondered, 'What the hell am I doing here?' as he sat on the bottom step of the pyramid. He thought about his life and wondering about having any regrets now that his life was sliding down to its end. He thought about his wife and the life they shared for so long. He questioned if they were really going to be together forever, or if that would be long enough to truly tell how much he loved her.

"James, are you coming or what?" His companion and all around pain in the ass asked.

"Yeah, yeah... sure give a fat old fart a minute, would you?" James sighed and hoisted his overweight carcass up and followed along. "Remind me what I'm doing here again?" He asked, still questioning why he agreed to come on this monkey chase.

"Come on James, The galactic alignment will be happening soon, you don't want to miss it. It is truly a once in a life time experience. Hell it's a once in a million life times experience. You never know, you might be witnessing the end of life as we know it. The Mayans...." His companion babbled on about the great trip he had planned for them.

"Yeah, yeah, I know John... It's all the rage... the end of the Mayan calendar. Whoopee fucking doo. He debated pulling out his inhaler and using it. "If it all ends what's so important about being here to see it?" He huffed, his knees protesting as he started climbing the stairs. "We could have watched it from the comfort of an air condition house. At least then we would be comfortable as the world went to hell around us." He bitched as his body creaked with every movement.

"It's better than moping in that cave you call an apartment." He friend gave him a look that spoke louder than the words. "It's been over two years since...." He poked the bear.

"It's been twenty seven months and three days!" James snapped. Like he could ever forget the day his life ended. He knew he was still walking and talking, but his life ended the day his beloved Mary left him to meet her God.

"She was my sister.... I know how long it has been too. I was there, remember. You can't stop living just because it was her time to go. What would she say to you, if she saw you acting this way?" John looked at his brother-in-law and sighed. He knew they loved each other. They also knew by the time they found the cancer, it was already too late. They fought the good fight and his sister died in her own bed. What else could they ask for?

James bit his lip before answering. "I don't fucking know! Why I just lay down and ask her? It'll save all the time and effort... I mean this is a tomb and all. Not like the other rotting corpses will mind another one stinking up the place." James smiled tightly and trudged on down the dark passage way.

"Come on, or we'll miss everything. Damn, you act like you're dead already." John sighed, regretting his words. "I'll get you back in fighting shape in no time." John hoped that maybe this would get James out of his funk. If not, then he wasted a lot of money for nothing.

James followed along, wishing he didn't need his inhaler so much. He wished that he hadn't gotten so fat over the years. "The joys of getting older and wondering about your misspent youth." He wheezed. "If that bit boobed old tart hits on me again, I'll scream." He warned John and hung back. He saw her looking at him with a glint in her eye that he didn't like.

He took a deep breath as John rushed to get his place so he could listen to the old prune faced windbag give her lecture on what was supposed to happen in the next few minutes, like he gave a hairy bat's ass about any of this bullshit. He came just to shut his family up. Yes, he knew his Mary would have loved coming. She was into all this otherworldly crap. He figured he could tell her all about it when his body decided to catch up with his heart and die already.

"Fifty seven and already dead; in the heart and in the head." He huffed and saw a glint of light down a cordoned off passage. "Hey, I'll just duck in here and find a place to sit for a spell. John will never know." He found his first smile of the day and wheezed down the damp passage; out of sight, out of mind.

He pulled out his pocket light, and looked around the musty old room. At the far end, there was a chair-couch looking thing under a stream of light. "What the hell." He smiled to himself, knowing if Professor Fartbag caught him, there would be hell to pay. "Fuck it... I need a nap anyway." James sat down, not caring about the dust on his ass.

He looked at his watch as he laid down. "Whoopee! It's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine.... Ooooh fucking Rah!" He felt a jolt of power and his muscles tensed.

He was blinded by the light as it kept getting brighter. He was holding his breath and wondered why he didn't feel oxygen deprived. His lungs should've been screaming for air. Every nerve was sending pleasure and pain signals to his brain. He felt like he was old and young, dead and alive, heavy as a building, but light as a feather. He thought about that Sci-Fi he and his wife used to watch, the one with wormholes. He didn't know what was going on. As soon as it started, but seeming like years later, it finally stopped. In his mind, he was nothing but a puddle of mud.

"Sojat, matadt jonoo voroomda!" A high pitched voice said over him.

"Gorga holda dourff ka Illyria!" Another voice shouted. James could hear the footsteps approaching and wondered how many people he just pissed off.

"Speak fucking English would ya, or just shut the hell up! I'm sleeping here." James sighed and refused to open his eyes. His head hurt way too much to open them right then.

"Kolta ka ooman dakata. Meata!" The first voice said.

"How did you get here? Are you really human?" The voice asked, but James didn't remember hearing the words in his ears.

"Let him rest... he has not fully formed. I will have to check the archives to see if this could possibly be true, or if Kolta is playing with us to make a point." The other voice insisted.

"I see strange images in the mind. Places I have never seen or even learned about Meata." The first voice sounded astonished.

"He... my goodness, it is a he... there is a... he is a Holy One... a Child Bringer! You must tell the Master, Illyria!" James wished they would quit bugging him. He still wanted his nap. John could tell him all the exciting details later.

"Would you shut up already? Trying to take a nap here!" James swore in his mind as he tried to figure out what the fuck was going on.

"Sorry Holy one." The first voice said and touched his face. "Salla tonka Meata. Restos goanga killiouse!" James sighed as silence and warmth covered him and he took his first pain free breath in over ten years.

*****

"His mind is strange. He has lived a full life. Where did he come from Illyria? There was not a transfer scheduled for this pect. His mind is strong, but foreign to me. He is not from here. I recognize none of the stars that are in his memories." A deep baritone voice was jabbering away when James became aware of his surroundings again.

"Names James Patterson Taylor... I'm American, from North America, you know...." How stupid can these foreigners be?" He thought bitterly.

"James, we are learning, but have care. We are far from stupid." The voice hardened. "We know not of this North America.... What planet do you hail from that still has a livable north?" The voice asked incessantly. James couldn't help but remember the globe and pictures of Earth that he had seen so many times. Then it came to him.

"Hey...! Get out of my head!" He tried to sit up.

"No Holy One. Don't move yet your body is not ready!" Soft, warm hands held him still. "We do not mean offence. We are trying to learn Holy One..." James saw a smile and relaxed.

"Yes Child Bringer, it is you who are foreign to us! We have not seen a male Child Bringer in metaquads of meatrose. Since the bridge was broken after the Great War." James saw in his head what the voice was saying.

"You mean that chair thingy?" He sniffed and unfamiliar smells hit his nose as his brain tried to figure it out.

"Meatrose... is one rotation of our world around its primary. We count what you call time in Quads... in your mind I see quads as seasons... he has seen seasons. The changing of the cycle of life. I see it in his memories." Illyria's voice pitched up. "I see so many strange things. I see trees!" Her breathing was getting fast in her excitement.

"Illyria, stop...! His mind is too strong for someone like you. He will consume you like the mind spider." The deep voice warned.

"Hey, you're the ones in my head. If you don't like it, then get the hell out!" James grouched. "Why don't you just let me finish this nightmare in peace? Then I'll wake up and life can suck again. Alright?" He mentally flipped himself over and shut everything out. He thought he heard a small gasp as everything went blank and he went back to sleep.

The two looked down at the developing body with wonder and a little bit of awe. The creature was bipedal, tall, looked to be very strong and of all things, virile. They couldn't help but to look at the sexual organ that was growing between the thick long legs. It meant to them that this being could bring forth real life. He could reproduce life without the machine. New beings could be born. It amazed and frightened them.

"Do not tell the Haldract of this yet. Tell the Tacract nothing of the child bringer, or we might lose him before the process is finished. You know Kolta's law. He thinks the Creator has out lived itself and that it is up to Kolta to replace and restore Kolta as the new creator of balance."

"Kolta is mind sick. Kolta did not survive the last transfer intact. If he tries again without purification, the mind of the great leader will be lost forever. What are we going to do when the Tacract asks of the event?" Illyria looked up at her Master.

"We say nothing until I can identify the stars in the child bringer's mind. He called himself human. I can start there." They walked out, letting the sleeping body rest in peace... for now.

*****

James woke up feeling like he went on a three week bender. He'd never been this hug-over since he was young and dumb and went drinking as a soldier. He tried to get his tongue to moisten his lips. He wanted the pounding to stop in his head.

"What a strange dream I had." He sighed and opened his eyes. He expected to be stuck in the no-tell motel John had booked them at for their galactic extravaganza. "I don't remember drinking anything other than bottled water...." He sighed and tried to lift his aching head.

His brain couldn't understand his surroundings. He was in a bright room with a halo of light over him. He was nude and he knew he stopped doing that since Mary had died. "Don't tell me I...." He looked at his hand and flexed his fingers.

They were a young man's hands. The skin was smooth, but it had a bluish-grey tint. He looked down expecting to see the extra hundred pounds he had been carrying for the past ten years. "What the hell...?" He exclaimed, hearing a strange voice in his ears. "I must still be dreaming." He moved his legs.

He realized he was sitting in a couch similar to the one he found in that dusty room away from the other.... "John...?" He called out. "Where are you John, okay the joke has gone far enough." He tried to stand, but slumped back.

"Child Bringer... Please be still! You are not strong enough to walk yet" That voice said as James heard a rustlings sound behind him.

"What in the great gobbledygook...?" He looked at the tall person walking up to him. The face was strange. Not necessarily ugly, but different than anything he'd ever seen before. Bald as Mr. Clean though. "Who are you, and what have you done with my clothes?" He asked and tried to cover his private parts.

"I am called Illyria, Child Bringer." The person came closer and James noticed that it was a female, he didn't want to say woman, because she looked much too young. She just looked wrong, but also right somehow. No matter what, she didn't look like any woman he had ever seen before.

"Where am I?" He rubbed his head. "Do you have any aspirin?" He needed to clear out the cobwebs and think straight.

"The shell isn't used to the new consciousness yet. It will pass Child Bringer." James could hear the awe in the female's voice.

"Names James... James Taylor; not related to the singer. Just call me James." He looked around the room. "Where in heaven am I again?" The colors were wrong to him. Everything had a green tint and he learned to hate green in the army. The color, what there was of it, all faded with the green and into grey.

"You are in the transfer chamber. I cannot find the right word in your mind. You have so many that mean the same thing, and so many we cannot fathom... Child Bringer James." The female said her eyes tightening in concentration.

"Just James... I'm a bit past the whole child.... Great Cesar's Ghost! You're in my head. I thought I dreamed it. How are you doing that?" He looked into her eyes and knew he wasn't in Kansas anymore.

"Please stop, you are thinking too fast. I cannot keep up with the images." The female pleaded. "Too much, too fast... please Child Bringer." Her face showed the pain of trying to understand.

"You tell me where I am and I'll try and control my mind." He shivered when he realized what he was saying. "I could use some clothes too." He bit his lip trying to concentrate on a blank wall or he knew he might just jump over the edge into the deep end.

"Illyria what are you doing... I told you his mind will overtake your mind. James, please forgive her offence. She is young and inexperienced in such matters." A tall slim, it could have been male, kind reminded him of one of those guys that tried to be a girl, back in the big cities. He didn't know if it was a girly man or a manly girl.

"I'll forgive pretty much anything if someone would just tell me where the hell I am and how I got here!" James snapped, his mind trying to cope with the shocks and not being able to interpret his surroundings.

"You are on Houda... In the transfer room, where the consciousness is passed from one shell to another. It was during the time of maximum alignment when you appeared in that couch... yes; couch is the word you think. We don't know how you got here Holy One."

"You mean the Galactic Alignment, Where Earth aligned with the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy?" He rubbed his head as vision passed before his brain.

"What is a Earth?" the female asked looking at James.

"Earth, the third rock from the sun, Terra-firma, the Big Blue Marble, you know... the only planet that supports life in the solar system." He was rubbing his temples, trying to get the headache to back off. "I just don't know where on the planet I am. I was in some Mayan ruins and I sat in that chair thing and the light hit me just as... they ... said...? Hey! Where am I?" He saw a reflection of his face and realized the face looking back was his, but then again it wasn't. He tried to look around him age get some kind of bearings. Maybe the furniture could give him some hints.

"He means the third planet in an orbit of eight or nine... I see so many strange planets in his mind. A gas giant, no more than one. Orin rings, too many different stars." The female was looking at James with fear and wonder.

"You are on Houda... On the fourth moon of the gas giant Pleaper. You are at Galactic coordinates ech tac do ma que. You are in the transfer chamber. But the chamber was supposed to be inactive during the great magnetic storm of the alignment." The other voice said confused.

"Alright hold it right there. Show me, so I can understand... I used to be somewhat of an amateur astronomer. That's how I got talked into going on that damn trip in the first place." He rubbed his head again. "Never mind, I need a shower and some clean clothes. Could use some strong coffee and maybe an omelet, then I might be able to think straight." He wondered if he ate something that didn't agree with him and it was giving him nightmares again.

"You eat the unborn?" Illyria gasped frightened.

"No... if you're going to read my mind at least do it right. Eggs, as from domesticated chickens... not fertilized, for food consumption. Great source of nutrients, but a bit high in cholesterol. Coffee from the coffee bean. Grown in tropical climates... has caffeine and other stimulants in it. Throw in some cheese and bread and we call it breakfast." He sighed frustrated these people didn't know what a good breakfast consisted of.

"We will sustain you with what you need Child Bringer." The tall one bowed.

"Not that again. I said my name is James!" He huffed at them, pointedly looking down at his bare crotch to get them moving. He needed clothes if he was going to freak out, which was pretty high on his things to do.

"Yes Holy One." The both bowed. "He is stronger than I ever thought." The tall one said to the female with the weird name.

He moved his finger in an unconscious movement and noticed his finger was bare. "Oh Mary, what have I gone and done now?" He sighed knowing she would bitch him out for a week for getting himself into trouble again.

*****

"Better than army slop." James sighed and leaned back. What it was, he didn't have a clue, and thought it might be better that way. He looked down at the opalescent thing he was wearing. At least it covered everything important.

"So, do you have a picture, a star map, or a planetarium or something to show me where I'm at? Maybe a survey of this section of the universe? Something that might explain where in blazes I am, and how the hell I got here?" His voice sounded harsh even to his ears. But, he figured if he was going to play in this fantasy land, he might as well know where the hell it was.

The tall one waved a four fingered hand over the table. "We are here...." He pointed to a small dot that grew bigger until everything else started to fade.

"Hold it... back that out and put it at a standard north south declination. Put Andromeda to the north by northeast and orient it." He watched as the picture of the Galaxy moved. He didn't know the picture was coming from his mind. "Wait a minute... unless I'm wrong, we're on the wrong side of the galaxy. We're supposed to be somewhere closer to here." He pointed. Illyria looked at her Master.

"Are you sure... thinking of it will respond to your thoughts." The tall one told him, stepping back.

"Okay... I think it is six degrees for magnetic warping... at least around a sun and we're talking about the Galactic core... so, about right here maybe." James pointed and the picture swelled. As it got closer details sharpened. James smiled when his solar system exploded around him. "Right here... Earth! Home sweet home, if you don't mind the inhabitants." He smiled at them.

"The forgotten ones." Illyria said in awe. "I never thought they could advance that far. They are primitives. All the writing says how...." She looked at James and stepped farther back.