by Max Jager
"I see you finally found your way to Kraven," Strange began. "Took you long enough."
Jameson cocked his head. Suddenly he realized. "You knew," he spat. "You knew what was waiting here."
Strange nodded solemnly. "Since the beginning, unfortunately."
Jameson felt his face flushing red. He saw Strange recognize the familiar trait, but she wisely didn't comment on it. Never mind the fact that she was supposed to be dead and might possibly be a ghost. How could she have stood by idly all those years at Peacemaker, knowing to some degree what was in store?
"I didn't know he would kill thousands of people," Strange added, as if she sensed his thoughts. "Really, I didn't know what he would do. But that doesn't absolve me."
"I'm sorry," Madeira cut in sharply, "but I'm a bit lost on all of this. Do you two know each other?"
Strange grinned. "'Course we do!" She was apparently back to her cheerful, happy-go-lucky self. "Jameson and I were compadres in the Fleet. This is understandably a lot for him to take in, you see, since he thought I died all those years ago. I assume he told you about the destruction?"
Madeira nodded hesitantly.
Strange stepped forward, offering a hand. Madeira took it, this time a little more familiar with the custom. "My name is Strange. And I'm guessing you're a new friend of Jameson's."
"I saved his life. Wouldn't have made it this far without me." Madeira seemed to be warming up to the ghost. Her usual playfulness had crept back into her tone. "Decided to come along, just to make sure it didn't happen again."
Jameson watched Strange closely. There seemed to be something of approval shining in her eyes as she listened to Madeira. She eventually turned her attention back to Jameson.
"You'll want to keep this one beside you. She seems like the companion you need these days."
Jameson exhaled. "Why are you here, Strange? I still wasn't sure what to believe about our last visit. And now here we all are on Kraven, at another dead end."
Strange shook her head no. "Not a dead end. The beginning."
Jameson raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"Here. It's time to explain a few things. Let us walk."
The three of them started forward across the orchard. She kept a little off to the side of Jameson, leading their group.
"To begin," said Strange, "we must build upon the basics of Lauritzen field technology."
Jameson blinked, keeping his focus sharp on Strange. He doubted she was here to attack them, but he wanted to watch her closely all the same. Still, her statement had him even more confused than he already was.
"A mysterious tech, indeed," she continued without pause. "Discovered over five thousand years ago, and yet no more understood today than it was then. What we do know is that the core mineral used to generate the field responds in interesting ways to spacetime itself. Some say the fabric warps, while others say it accelerates starships to impossible speeds relative to the laws of physics. I suppose none of it really matters. In the end, it gave humanity the leap needed to expand out across the Orion Arm, across the Mediterranean Expanse, and into the Perseus Arm. Maybe one day even beyond this tiny little corner of the Galaxy."
Jameson glanced at Madeira out of the corner of his eye. He could tell Strange's words were having some sort of impact on her. Jameson didn't know how much she understood about the Faster-Than-Light tech. But she seemed mesmerized by the mystery of it.
Most of the time it gave Jameson a headache just trying to think about it.
"We may not understand how or why it works," Strange continued, "but we know enough to construct our ships and fleets to sail the stars. And one day, in the not so distant future, some will discover that it will allow us to sail the river of time itself."
Jameson straightened up. Strange was staring at him hard now. "In the not so distant future?" Jameson repeated.
Strange nodded. "We do not entirely know how it behaves yet. But through dangerous and illegal modifications, a Lauritzen drive can interact with spacetime in ways to traverse distances back in history."
Time travel. The concept seemed laughable to Jameson. Yes, scientists may have been baffled by the mechanics of Lauritzen FTL tech, but that didn't leave the door open for something as silly as time travel.
"The details are unimportant," said Strange. "It is expressly forbidden tech. But you and I both know that where something is illegal, there are those who profit off such illicit enterprises."
"And what does any of this have to do with Kraven?" Madeira cut in.
Strange bowed her head humbly. "The man you saw back at the farmhouse is Axus's past; your present. In a few short decades, he will return to this point in history and assume the identity of Axus."
Jameson exhaled slowly. Well, he was finally able to see where Strange was taking this. There were two problems she was ignoring, though. "First off, why did Axus decide to travel back in time to now? And secondly, why doesn't the one look older than the other? The two are nearly identical. But you said one arrived here from decades in the future."
Strange grinned mischievously. "If we did not understand the mechanics of Lauritzen drives, we understood less the mechanics of time itself."
She reached up along the row, plucking one of the orange fruits from the tree. Digging into the rind, she tore back the peel, revealing segmented wedges of fruit within. They were arranged in a circle, six wedges to the interior. The aroma was poignant and acidic now that the fruit was exposed.
"I'm sure we could spend all the time in the universe in debate, discussion, and philosophical musings about the mechanics of time. But for the sake of a loose analogy, imagine the passage of time like unto these wedges of fruit. For each of us, time begins at the center of the wedge, expanding out as we travel through the orange. Each wedge of time is real and not; each wedge exists simultaneously and not at all."
Strange traced her finger across one wedge to another. "Using a modified Lauritzen field, it is possible to traverse from one wedge to another. The effect has some impact on the body; wherever you exist within the wedge of time, there your age will remain. Axus left behind his future, reverting to an age within your present, mirroring what time reflects of his age."
Jameson resisted the urge to grumble out loud. Even when it wasn't very straightforward, the rules seemed arbitrary. "So if I were to travel backwards to a time in my childhood, I would be little more than a boy?" he quipped.
Strange nodded.
"And what happens if you travel before you birth?" Madeira added.
"It is impossible," said Strange. "The Lauritzen field only has enough reach within your timeline. Perhaps there is a correlation then between the aging of the body when traversing time. I cannot say. But it is impossible to journey anywhere beyond your existent lifetime."
"Whatever," Jameson snapped. "You still haven't explained why Axus came here. Why he gave up his future to potentially destroy his past. Our present."
Strange looked at him long and hard. "You know why he came back. You know what he is trying to do now."
The three of them paused along the row of trees. Jameson stared into Strange's eyes, searching for the answer to her riddle. He thought he knew the answer, but…
"Are you saying he came back to prevent the occupation of Kraven?"
Strange nodded wordlessly.
Jameson opened his mouth to retort, but hesitated. Was it really that simple? Had Axus—or Kote, whoever he was—found dangerous tech for the simple purpose of saving his home world? It seemed too basic for everything else Axus had orchestrated over the last six years across the galaxy.
All for one little planet?
"It kind of makes sense," Madeira spoke up.
Jameson spun around to face her. She shrugged.
"Well…think about it! Do you remember that guy we saw back at the farm house? What he looked like? He wasn't a killer or a traitor. He was just a simple farmer with a life and possibly a family in the making. And if what you told me about your ti
me in the Fleet is true, Jameson, then you were all going to turn his home into a war zone."
Jameson inhaled slowly, letting Madeira's words sink in. He turned back to face Strange.
"You planned so long and so efficiently to crush Draconia," she began. "There are costs in war; no one denies that. But we often forget that in the name of victory, even the devastation of a simple world far flung in the Expanse can be the end of someone's entire life."
"So that's what happened, then?" Jameson stammered. "Gibraltar and Draconia went to war? We used the Kraven Approach after all and, what, laid waste to Axus's planet?"
Strange sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Jameson…you have to stop thinking like a Fleet Commander. Start thinking like you lived here. Like this was your home. Think back to how you felt when Axus destroyed the Peacemaker Station."
Jameson swallowed hard. He wasn't sure he wanted to remember that. He had spent four years letting such hatred fester and push him into this crusade as a bounty hunter.
But it wasn't so hard to imagine.
What if their places had been reversed? What if Jameson had found himself leading a quiet life here on Kraven? Then, one day out of the blue, warships filled the sky and took everything for a distant cause or war that wasn't his. They commandeered the cities, the countryside, and anything else they deemed of value for their battles.
And it didn't end there. More warships came and the two sides engaged in battle. Cities burned as enemies tried to deny access to each other's resources. Homes, countryside, and all that was beautiful in Kraven were shredded to pieces by bombs and pulse cannons. Both sides simply chalked it up to collateral damage.
But for Jameson, it meant the end of everything he had loved. Maybe even most of his friends, family, and lover.
"Oh no…" Jameson placed both hands on his temples, shaking his head. "I did this."
Madeira was suddenly beside him. "No. You didn't do anything."
"In another life I did." He could see it now. Him and Jester; Rappel, Kaitlin and all the others that he called friends in the Eighth Flotilla. All those times they had planned and plotted for a surprise strike when Draconia moved to war. They had known what kind of devastation they would incur coming to Kraven. But it didn't matter. If the Draconians burned Kraven to a cinder, it was because they were the warmongers.
In another life, Jameson and his friends had done it. The day they had all feared but planned for had finally happened. War with Draconia. Surprise, surprise, the Fleet went the Kraven Approach and they launched their supply lines across the Expanse, staging here, at this little backwater world. They had declared martial law, seized the planet's assets and resources, and launched a campaign into Draconia. He couldn't imagine what the occupation had done to the people, but he knew what Draconia's counter strikes would do. A key element of the Kraven Approach was to abandon the planet when sufficient territory had been claimed inside Draconia space.
They knew Kraven was a temporary measure. A gambit; a world they needed to last only long enough for Gibraltar warships to carve a path into Draconia.
They had done it and out of the ashes of Kraven, a sole survivor had come back in time to prevent it.
And Axus had done it.
Jameson balled his fists. He wanted to get away. He wanted to forget about Axus, about the war, about anything. It made him sick to his stomach.
Strange suddenly put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Jameson, it was important you understand why Axus came back. But now you must put those feelings aside."
Jameson blinked open his eyes. "That's easier said than done. I was a Commander once; I was trained to put those feelings aside so I could push over worlds like Kraven for the greater good of a thousand other worlds. But I am not a Commander anymore. And all I see is a mess I created."
Strange's gaze hardened. "No. You may be a catalyst in Axus's deeds, but now he has taken the place of the warmonger. He returned to his past with the intention of bringing balance, but instead he reversed roles. Now he has thrown the galaxy into imbalance, and you are left to do what he should have done to begin with."
Jameson threw up his arms. "You said this tech for time travel won't be invented for another few decades! What am I supposed to do? Sit around until I can travel back and stop Axus from destroying the Fleet?!"
Strange shook her head fiercely. "No. That is not the point. If Axus had done that alone, then there would be no need for these encounters. But he has exceeded his purposes. He is planning to see hundreds of more worlds burn than you would have ever been guilty of in the Fleet."
She was right. Jameson's mind suddenly returned to the overheard conversations between Axus and Jaxx.
If for no other reason that absolved Jameson's conscience. As a Fleet Commander, his purpose was to defeat an enemy that threatened the peace of Gibraltar. In another lifetime, he had done so at the cost of an innocent world. But in this lifetime, Axus was going to sacrifice many more worlds simply to protect his own. He didn't care about the lives spent. If Draconia and Gibraltar obliterated each other in mutual destruction, then all the better for him.
"It is up to you to bring balance," Strange pressed. "You are the only one who knows enough of Axus's schemes to stop them. And waiting around for the possibility of time travel is not the answer. It's unstable and dangerous. Axus sacrificed his whole timeline by coming back here now. He can never go back to what was. And it has pushed him to madness beyond simply protecting his world. Your only hope is to stop this now, while you yet remain in the present."
Part of Jameson understood her warning. It would be very tempting to wait around in the shadows and pull a similar maneuver like Axus. Wipe away the future and consequences, going back to start over from scratch. But the strategist part of Jameson knew there were too many unknown variables in such a plan. It was too simplistic of a scheme. Axus had obviously thought it poorly, and now here he was in a whole different time with things speeding out of control.
Maybe in another time, Jameson had pushed him to the brink of his madness. But Axus had carried himself the rest of the way since then.
"I don't understand," said Madeira. She seemed focused on Strange. "How can you know all of this?"
Jameson snorted. "Isn't it obvious? She came back, too."
A faint smile tugged at Strange's features.
So it was true. It left Jameson with a lot of questions. Had she traveled back with Axus, originally part of his plan to protect Kraven? Or was she merely following in his wake, knowing what harm he would bring to himself and others in this ill-conceived quest for vengeance? Or, quite possibly, was she something else entirely?
Somehow Jameson knew he wouldn't ever get a straight answer out of her. She had other purposes for orchestrating this little get together.
"Come with us," Jameson whispered, his breath caught in his mouth.
Strange shook her head, her eyes downcast.
"But you know more about Axus than I ever did. You probably know where he is right now."
"I do, as a matter of fact," she replied, still looking down at her feet. "He's on Andorra, finishing crucial parts of his plan. That is where you two must go now. But that is not my path."
Jameson exhaled loudly. "Well what is your path?"
Strange finally met his eyes. "Jameson…I was never meant to get caught up in any of this. But I did. So it was important that I fill you in on these last few details so you could better understand the foe ahead of you. But this has been and always will be a conflict between the two of you. This is your fight."
She smiled, turning her gaze towards Madeira. "And those who you call friends."
Jameson stepped forward, taking Strange's hands in his. Familiar feelings washed through Jameson; feelings he hadn't felt for her in a long time.
"I used to call you friend…"
She withdrew her hands, turning away from him. "That was another life, Jameson. And you should know by now from my sad tale that those ca
n never be reclaimed."
Jameson felt like a bucket of cold water had been doused over him. He immediately felt silly for having come onto her.
He took a step back, standing beside Madeira again.
"My time in this conflict is over," said Strange. "But you can finish it."
She looked up, slowly backing between a row of trees. She smiled at them.
"I'm glad you two found each other. Axus may have thrown things out of balance by coming here, but I believe he helped along fates that otherwise couldn't have happened."
She disappeared through the gap between the trees, now walking away with her back turned to them.