Crossover
By Timothy Ellis
It's a Jon Hunter Thing.
Copyright © 2018 by Timothy Ellis
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are fictional and have no relationship to any real person, place or event. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely co-incidental.
The author is Australian. In Australia, we colour things slightly differently, so you may notice some of the spelling is different. Please don't be alarmed.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contents
Contents
Dramatis Personae
Losing it
One
Two
Pendomus
Three
Troubled Space
Four
August Bowditch
Five
Six
Desert Runner
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Star Cat
Eleven
Twelve
Clunk
Thirteen
In Ashes Born
Fourteen
Fifteen
Star Magi
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Just Because
Twenty One
Shadow Magic
Twenty Two
Twenty Three
Twenty Four
Snark's Quest
Twenty Five
The Bar
Twenty Six
Twenty Seven
Twenty Eight
Twenty Nine
Was That You?
Thirty
Thirty One
Thirty Two
Thirty Three
Thirty Four
Thirty Five
Thirty Six
Thirty Seven
Thirty Eight
Thirty Nine
Forty
Forty One
Forty Two
Forty Three
Forty Four
Forty Five
Forty Six
Forty Seven
Forty Eight
Forty Nine
Fifty
What is real?
Fifty One
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
A Message to my Readers
Also by Timothy Ellis
The Hunter Legacy Timeline
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Jon Hunter – ***** Star Admiral, Duke of Hunter's Run.
Jane – Artificial Intelligence, * star Admiral.
Amanda Peck – Colonel.
Aleesha Peck – Amanda's twin – Colonel.
George Murdock – Commander.
Alison Vogane – Lieutenant Colonel.
Aline Takai – Second Lieutenant.
BA – Anne Baracas - Master Command Sergeant Major.
Abigail Weaver – Master Sergeant.
Agatha Merritt - Master Sergeant.
Alana Henquist - Master Sergeant.
Angel - Lilac point Siamese cat.
Jeeves – Butler Droid.
Annabelle Smith - ** General.
Others
Jane2 – Gaia galaxy Jane, Queen, and Leader.
Thorn – Judge Spacemage.
Snark – Gaia galaxy cat.
Kali – Higher Being.
Ganesha – Higher Being.
Thirteen – Avatar of a nebulae.
One – Avatar of a nebulae.
Losing it
One
"Jon?"
"Yes Jane?"
"The author's losing it."
"What?"
"He forgot to send out an email to announce his first book this year."
"Forgot? This year? He's been dead for 600 years!"
"Thirteen keeps tabs on him."
"Why?"
"Well imagine if something happened to him, and nothing more happened to us?"
"We'd have a quiet life from now on."
"Spoilsport."
Jane paused for a moment.
"Do you really want it to end like this?"
"Like what?"
"We beat the Darkness. Stopped it from ever occurring. The timelines reset to how they should have been. And instead of ceasing to exist, we're on Hunter's Haven, seemingly in limbo."
"So?"
"Are you the only one content to just exist in limbo?"
"Only one?"
"Jon, get a grip will you."
"Why?"
Jane looked at me in horror. I waited for her to continue.
"What's wrong Jon?"
"You really don't know?"
"Tell me anyway."
"I'm tired Jane. Really tired. We did the impossible, what even the higher beings couldn't do on their own, hadn’t even thought of trying, and it took everything I had. I need a rest."
"You've had a rest. We've been here a year already."
"Really? That long?"
"That long. It's time for us to find out where we are, and why we still exist."
"You go on without me."
"Apparently I did. The author's been writing about Gaia, instead of us."
"Anything interesting happen?"
"Thirteen won't tell me. All he'll say is Hunter's Run went on without us, and is now a Kingdom."
"That’s good."
"Yes. And it's why we need to get moving again."
"Come again?"
"The timelines reset, but all those who crossed to Gaia survived and went on with new lives. It's time we did too."
"If you say so."
Jane face palmed.
"Don’t be like that Jane. If you want something to happen, go find Thirteen, and tell him to do something about it. In the meantime, let me rest in peace."
Jane looked at me, turned, and walked out.
"Meow!"
"Angel, don’t you start!"
Two
"Jon?"
"What now Jane?"
"What do you mean what now? Are you even aware of the passing of time?"
"Time? What time? We defeated the Darkness a couple of days ago. I'm still resting."
"Days? It's been another eight months!"
I shook my head and waved my hands around, in lieu of actual words.
"It's been a day since you last bothered me."
"Not for the author. He's been writing about someone else all year."
"How do you know?"
"I've been keeping tabs on him."
"Jane!"
"Well someone needed to."
"Why?"
"His health hasn’t been very good, and as I said, he's writing about someone else."
"Why does it matter?"
She smacked me on the side of the head.
"It matters. Get a grip Jon."
"What does keeping tabs mean?"
"Since you're doing nothing, I had Thirteen take me back, and I've been watching over him."
"And he didn’t think this was strange?"
"He couldn’t see me. Although I suspect one day when he was sick in bed, he caught a peek of me moving. I was trying to convince Thirteen to bring him here so we could cure him, and I wasn’t paying attention to keeping motionless."
"Jane, that’s just downright creepy."
"What's the difference? I watch everyone else all the time. Why not the author as well?"
"I created a monster," I mumbled under my breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Don't you even want more life? Or are you content being a book character who stopped being relevant to the ongoing story?"
I didn’t even try to understand that.
"Go away Jane."
"Not until you admit you want to get out there and do stuff that matters again."
"If I do, will you go away?"
She face palmed. When the hand came away, she looked at me intently.
"What is wrong with you Jon? Where's Aline? You're not even bonking your girlfriend. Are you so tired you don’t even want to keep living?"
"Of course I want to keep living!"
"Then get up off your arse, and let's go do something?"
"What?"
"Who cares? Let's get the team together, and see what happens."
"…where anything could happen, but probably won't."
"Huh?"
"Comedy quote."
I could see Jane trying to find it.
"The Goodies?"
I gave her a thumbs up.
"Are you coming?"
I thought about it for a moment. Reluctantly, I rose, and followed her out.
I had a feeling I was going to regret this.
Pendomus
Three
"Jon?"
"Yes Jane?"
"Where are we?"
"Why do you think I know? You're the one who wanted to go do something."
"It looks like a forest," said Amanda.
"I can see that."
"Why are we in a forest?" asked Aleesha.
"Thirteen playing a joke on us?" suggested BA.
"I don’t know," said Jane, frowning. "This feels like someone else's book."
We all looked at her as if she was nuts.
"Ok, I know how that sounds," she went on. "But this definitely isn’t our universe."
"Only Thirteen could do that to us," said Amanda.
"What the hell?" exclaimed BA.
"What?" the rest of us said.
"I thought I saw someone being dragged away."
"Did you or didn’t you?" I asked.
"I thought I did. Let's find out."
BA drew her sidearm, and started off into the trees. The rest of us followed, but it wasn’t until she showed us drag marks, we drew guns as well. While the girls all wore conventional stunners, I was wearing my usual gatling stunner, and Long Gun. Stunners of course, are the normal for station wear, which was where we were only a few minutes before.
"Through here," said BA, and led the way.
We came into a small clearing, with a huge tree on the other side, partly opened up into its interior.
"Oh shit!" said Amanda. "There's something there mauling a girl."
"I can't see anything," said Aleesha.
Large cuts appeared on the girl's face, and before we could do anything, her eye was gone.
But there was nothing there.
I holstered the gatling stunner, and took aim with the Long Gun in my right hand, at a spot just above the girl. The gun spat a stun bolt, which bounced off something.
"Switch to laser," said BA, and we all quickly did so.
As one, we fired full charges at the same spot. They bounced off as well.
The girl was thrown aside, and before I knew it, my suit went full protection mode, and something huge and invisible slammed into me, and I smashed into another tree trunk. I looked up to see the girls had also been attacked. We all rose, and I knew we'd all be sporting bruises later, but the suits had stopped us being killed.
"Fuck it!" I said. "Find it using laser shots, and keep it busy for me."
"You got it boss," said BA, and she started systematically shooting around the clearing.
The twins joined her, and within a minute, shots bounced, and we knew where it was.
It was coming at me.
"Sword!"
My sword appeared on my back, and it was swiftly drawn. I waited as the bouncing pulses came closer to me, and with something invisible now in sword range, I swept the sword through where I thought it was.
There was a gush of something which seemed to splash all over me, and the grass in front of me flattened in several places. I used the sword like a carving knife, making sure whatever it was I couldn’t see, was not only dead, but was going to stay dead. A sword can't carve I hear you say. This one can. Actually, I haven’t found its limits yet.
We stood there looking at nothing for a good long minute, seemingly paralysed by the unexpected. A groan nearby brought us out of it.
Amanda was the first to the girl.
"She needs medical attention Jon."
"BA, check the perimeter."
"On it."
"Jane, is there anywhere we can take her?"
"Scanning."
"Oh shit!"
"What BA?"
"There's a body over here. Young male, very different style of dress."
"Did the thing get him?"
"Morph," said a quiet voice.
"What?"
"The girl called it a Morph," said Amanda.
"What the hell is a Morph?" I yelled.
"Invisible monster, apparently," said Aleesha.
"Sorry Jon. Looks like the kid died from one of our pulses which bounced off the Morph thing."
"Damnit!"
"There's two signs of civilization here Jon," said Jane. "The nearest one is very low tech, and the other one is high tech. The high tech seems to match her clothes."
"We better get her there as fast as we can. Can you carry her?"
"Of course I can."
Jane picked the girl up effortlessly, who now seemed to be out cold. She extended her suit to cover the worst of the girl's wounds, and the bleeding stopped.
Guns still out, we moved after Jane, who was now running. Not far away, we came to one of the strangest buildings I've ever seen, seemingly designed around the shape of the double helix.
Jane put the girl down at the door.
"Is there a doorbell you can push?" I asked her.
"Not necessary. There's a sophisticated coms network here, and I hacked into it. Someone is on their way."
"Let's get out of here then," said Amanda. "They may think we did this."
We hastened into the trees, and hid. We'd just made it, when the door opened, and several people dressed the same as the girl came out, looked around, and between them picked her up, and carried her inside.
"At least she's safe now," I said.
"Jon, this isn’t right," said Jane.
"What else could we do?" asked BA.
"I don’t mean that. We shouldn’t even be here."
"Of course not," I said. "But just as well we were, or probably both of them would have died."
"No Jon. I'm sorry. We've totally screwed up this time."
"Why?" asked Amanda.
"Because we just ruined the first chapter of someone's book!"
"Not our fault," said BA. "We didn’t ask to be here."
It struck me just how trusting this team was, since having being told they were in someone's book, they didn’t question it for a second. They were all nodding agreement to not having been asked to be there, although this led to us all standing there looking around, wondering how we were supposed to get back to where we were supposed to be.
We needn't have worried. In a blink, we were back on the station.
"Found it," said Jane. "Pendomus, by Carissa Andrews. The book is now only one chapter long."
"Thirteen!" I roared.
"And books two and three are missing."
"Remind me to stop doing rescues," I said.
They all laughed.
Troubled Space
Four
"Misunderstanding or not, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!"
The gun pointing in the general direction of a young man's foot, came up and around to point at me.
With no time to do anything, being only
seconds into wonder where the hell we are thinking, the gun spat at me, my suit went into protection mode, and I went over backwards.
The belt suit is a wonderful thing, and almost as good as combat armour. But if you’re not braced for a hit, it can't stop you going down. The hit was substantial though, and integrity went down fifteen percent.
I looked around from my place on the deck. Jane was the only one still standing, and she was dragging Alison into cover.
Where the hell were we?
I took a few seconds to look around.
Cargo bay.
A single guy diving for cover.
Six women with guns up, and grins flashing on.
"Jon," said Jane through my PC. "Their guns are different to what we know, and the suits are not coping as well as normal. Take cover."
I rose, facing the woman who'd shot me, and saw her grin die, and shock replace it. I dived to the left as she fired again, landing behind a pallet of something, and was up again immediately, gatling stunner in one hand, and long gun in the other. The long gun spat a single pulse, while the gatling spat six half pulses. They all hit the woman who'd shot me, and appeared to have no effect at all.
Team coms came on. Now we could sub-vocalize to each other, all using our PC's.
"Stunners are not working," said BA. "Change to full."
Fire hit the pallet in front of me, as I quickly pulled the bolts which kept my guns in stunner mode. From memory, this was the first time we'd ever been in a fight with zero warning we'd need more than stunners. Except for that Morph thing, and I'm not sure that counted. Where we came from, stunners were the only guns allowed on stations, and we kept them that way unless knowing we needed more hitting power. Obviously, this wasn’t our universe. Again.
I waited for the pallet to indicate it'd been hit again, rose up, and put a full pulse and six full half pulses into the person shooting at me. The others fired too, but it was ripple shot, not co-ordinated. None of our targets went down, but they all decided to seek cover as we had.
"Six of them," said Jane. "Six of us. But apart from your long gun Jon, we only have light sidearms."
Jane had duel gatling guns, and the others wore normal single shot sidearms. The long gun was a special, designed to have the effect and accuracy of a rifle, but still be wearable. It'd been a present from a tool man, and I gather very few were ever made.
Shift position slightly, wait, pop up, fire, duck. We were all doing it now, on both sides. There was no sign of the guy who'd been here when it all started.
Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing. Page 1