The Spaces in Between (21 page)

“Would that be smoking it or snorting it, then?” Sananda asked dryly.

Cameron laughed. “Well imagine my surprise when it did this. I just hope that the other one turns time back on, but something tells me that it does.”

Sananda ran his fingers through his beard. A force of habit left over when he actually had one. Though he never really did. Sananda’s native race was Plaeidian pronounced “Play-At-Ease”. They were azure skinned with tiny horns and greats shocks of white hair cascading over their shoulders. They were unable to grow facial hair, but it had been a long time since he was Plaeidian.

Now he took the form expected of him. Before Cameron he appeared dark skinned with a full beard and black hair so matted they were almost dreadlocks all the way down to his waist. Sananda was pretty sure why he had taken this Rastafarian form. It confirmed one of his many theories about the Pirate King.

“Put that gun away,” Sananda said. “You know you don’t need it. I won’t lift a finger against you. It would be really annoying if you accidentally shot me.” Sananda knew that gun from the reports or rather mythologies about the pirate king. That gun was not something he could merely shrug off intangible or not. Sananda tried to disguise being taken by surprise when Cameron twirled the flintlock over his finger and deftly crammed the barrel down his belt (another benefit of being intangible is not being restrained by the position of one’s eyes).

Sananda was certain that if he had genitals he would not want that gun anywhere near them. The ease that he handled the gun told him that Cameron was not alone; the ghost that was his partner was riding him. Cameron handled this gun that could be used to fight a space ship so casually it was almost contempt. Familiarity breeds it. This confirmed one of Sananda’s theories – that gun didn’t have a safety. That gun will never fire unless Cameron wills it.

“And what brings you right here into the wolves’ den?” Sananda asked.

“I need your help.”

“My help?” He turned in his chair. “You have the audacity to ask the Command for help!”

“Not the Command. You.”

“What for…? Why should I help you?”

“It’s in your nature.” Cameron drew a flask from his inside jacket pocket. The flask was drawn shut with the gold anchor talisman. “This is the entire Paladin brigade. Not quite as spacious as those suits of armor, which I’m sorry to say I trashed most of them.”

“And what is it that you want for my men?”

“Oh…just some information. A trifle when you consider the fates of these twelve souls, and probably far more are at stake.” His arms spread in a wide gesture.

“Far more? Out with it, Pirate King.”

Cameron grinned. “Tell me where the Ark is
Yeshua bar Adonai
.”

3

Lord Sananda’s reaction was very disheartening and Cameron felt the need to pull the gun out again, but then thought he should hold out for the bigger sins. When met with the accusation of being the Earth messiah Sananda threw his head back and laughed. Cameron felt the heat rise in his face. Was he that big of an idiot?

“Oh, come off it, Pirate King,” Sananda said. He rose to his feet. Cameron expected there to be a pop in his knees as he did, but really such thinking was foolish. “This confirms my biggest theory about you. One that I’ve only shared with the Paladins.”

“And that is?” The urge to draw the gun again was rising. He felt himself losing control of this situation rapidly. He wasn’t sure if he was better off being right or wrong.

“You’re from Earth. I’m not really surprised. You’re exactly right by the way.” Sananda waved his hand and there was a second identical teacup in its wake. “Tea?”

“Yes, it is,” Cameron observed.

Sananda rolled his eyes. “What do you want in it? Honey? Sugar? Jack Daniels?”

“No backwash would be lovely.” Sananda gave Cameron another sour expression.

“At the same time you’re also wrong about me, but I’m sure you sense that.” Sananda finished his teacup with the same practiced expertise that drunk downs a shot of whiskey. “I’m not surprised at all you came from Earth. Nothing good comes from Earth. It’s an anomaly. Both the Atlanteans and the Lemurians tried to colonize there. Too far away and the climate was terrible for both. Despite their technology both of them starved to death shortly after batteries wore out.”

Sananda downed the second cup he created for Cameron since he was clearly not interested. “Of course this was not before they both breed heavily into the natives so that they would ‘leave a legacy on the planet’. So we’re left with a people mixed with the consumerist Atlantean war-machine and the spiritual fanaticism of the Lemurians.” He downed a third teacup Cameron had not seen before. “And to screw up the place even more the Merger with Aaragoth happened. Don’t even get me started on those Elves and Mages. At least the Atlanteans and the Lemurians belonged in the same Universe!”

Sananda reflected for a moment.

“I heard reports that little pockets of their tech survived along with some of their people. We don’t know for sure, because the Command doesn’t go there.”

Cameron wanted to ask him more about the Elves and Mages. It was the first time he’d heard anything like that on Earth, but instead a smart-ass remark flew out his mouth. “So much for omnipotence, eh?”

Sananda stared Cameron dead square in the eye. “I was just getting to that point.” He turned and paced to the back of the small and rather unimaginatively decorated break room. Cameron imagined this was the same kind of gesturing he made while at one of his famous and almost impossible to understand lectures. “Earth is an intergalactic and interdimensional melting pot with an unprecedented potential at altering the Astral, but some of the stupidest ideals. I’ve never seen such things. The poor grow fat while the rich starve. Instead of bettering themselves people expend all their energy in keeping others from getting better. And millions are killed in the name of a pacifist!”

Sananda took his seat again. “Its effects are felt all the way out here. For example – me. Every planet has their own messiahs, creation myths, and the like. All true…to a point. It’s reliant on the beliefs of the…believers, but take Earth during the council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. they go and deify Yeshua. Deifying something changes it.

True he was certainly one of the prophets and messiahs, but deifying altered him into, well, whatever people believed him to be. Of course, no two people can agree on that. That in its term distracts from the entire message, and it’s personifying God all over again. You can’t personify something that isn’t a person without getting it all wrong! So now we have white Jesuses. Black Jesuses. Aryan Jesus that looks German and not really Aryan at all…”

“Space Jesus,” Cameron added. Sananda didn’t laugh.

“Imagine how I feel working my way up the chain of the Ashtar Command. Not even an Earthling for my sake! A Plaeidian! I became a great spiritual master only to find that I didn’t have any free will in the matter. I’m nothing more than a fictional character come to life! Not even a well conceived one! The ascended version of Jesus that patrols the Universe for criminals! Do you know how much damage the sixties and LSD did to the metaphysical side of things?”

In a very pained movement he brushed the hair out of his face. Sananda seemed to regain his composure. “And it’s just the Ark that you’re looking for?”

“Yes. Are you telling me you can’t?”

“I’m telling you that I am not Jesus Christ, but I’m Jesus-like. I was built on the same basis. I’m probably the least Jesus-like of them all, but I’m Jesus enough to show you where the Ark is.” He sighed. “You know it wouldn’t have taken all this. Pointing you in the direction of the Ark is part of what I’m made to do. All this…was unnecessary.”

“I had to be sure that catching me wasn’t you’re primary function. “ Cameron shrugged. “This was all just a theory. That’s my nature.”

“But you have free will,” Sananda said wistfully.

“Well since when was it the messiah’s job to show people the way to the Ark? I thought that was off limits.” Cameron begin going through the small refrigerator in the break room. He found a lunch with a name on it that he could not read nor pronounce. He started eating it anyway – he was starving. “Forgiving of sins and show the path to God was more your thing.”

Sananda grinned. “Same path.”

“Guessed as much,” Cameron said with a mouthful of food. “Just a little further, right?”

“Past heaven, which is farther than you’d ever make. It’s why I have absolutely no moral qualms about showing you the way.”

4

Cameron puckered his lips. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.” Cameron and Sananda stood on the deck of the
Soulforge
staring into space of which there was absolutely no shortage.

“This ship is almost made of pure
ruach
.” Sananda was distracted. “You channeled this much divine energy…and solidified it…” He ran his hand over the railing. “And you’re telling me you can’t see that high.”

“This eye ain’t what it used to be,” Cameron replied.

“You are an absolute paradox,” Sananda murmured. “If you please. Indulge me as to why you want the Ark.”

“Am I making you nervous? Think I might be able to get it? Or worse use it?”

“I keep having to remind myself that you are not a force to underestimate.” The confidence in Sananda’s voice was slipping to more of a ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’ tone. “Indulge me please.”

“I have absolutely no intention of using it. I fully intend to continue existing.”

“Don’t you think it would be safer where it is?” The confidence was returning to Sananda’s voice. “It’s not something that belongs in the hands of a mortal.”

“Then why do you need a soul to get it?”

Sananda was speechless. “…how do you know that?”

“I’ve hit another nerve it seems. I had a run in with a little cult that was collecting souls.” Cameron cleared his throat. “For Lam.”

Sananda lost some stability in his knees. “…what? Why?”

“They were using a middle man. He thought they were the Old Ones. Don’t worry I dissolved the nets holding them. Don’t give me that look I’m not completely heartless with something that actually matters.” Cameron scratched the side of his nose and his stomach growled. Despite eating everything in the break room – he was still starving. “And why? Ghosts with souls simply do not exist you know that. There are too many safeguards in place. Lam is the ghost of a hive mind. They are only a memory. A powerful memory, but a memory nonetheless. Their middle man wanted the Ark, and call it a hunch, but I think he was collecting souls so Lam could get to it.”

“That’s worrisome, but there are fail safes. What the Universe needs is order, not vigilantism.”

“Oh please. The Command was so focused on me that Lam was able to steal souls. Right under your nose! Souls for Christ’s sake! My shit is petty compared to that!” He swallowed. “Sorry, but it seems I was completely right about you. “

“We’re standing where the Eden used to be.”

“No angel with a flaming sword?”

“That would make it too obvious. Eden doesn’t exist anymore, but the area is still special. You know what the angel told them.”

“You may return if you eat from the Tree of Life, which is a symbol of creation’s blueprints.”

“Also a path back to God,” Amanda said. “You know I was right about you too. I bet you think you can use the Ark to recharge…You don’t even know what you really are. Don’t even have the juice to make the journey I bet. You’ve been running on fumes since you faced off against Harvey as you called him.”

“Hold that thought,” Cameron said. A chain appeared in his hand and with a quick tug Xibulba was pulled through the deck. Cameron grabbed the disease spirit by the scruff of his neck like a puppy and stuffed Xibulba into his abdomen. Sananda made a very disgusted face. Cameron grimaced and his aura extended to a black with red flecks like a blood spattered obsidian arrowhead.

5

Xibulba was struggling against Cameron’s will - to wrest away the control from Cameron and take this body for his own. Such transactions were possible and far too commonplace for anyone’s comfort, but humans had souls and within each soul was a spark of God. This flash of divinity was impossible to ever overthrow, but it could be misplaced. A vagrant spirit that had made a home in a human body could sometimes rule the body for even days at a time, but the soul would always eventually win. Once the body died, however, the body was free real estate. Unless, of course, proper rites were performed, and this was the true reason for funerals.

The disease spirit from the
Fillipre
expanded. His fight as akin to swimming upstream to go spawn, but he was no mere ghost. Cameron’s will became a mere creek to him. The waters of Cameron’s will now only came to Xibulba’s waist, and he could tread the water easily. He was headed towards the light at the end of the tunnel where all the waters poured. He was certain that he could not snuff the light, but he could probably displace it. Perhaps if he were to infect Cameron with the disease then he could take the whole soul out of the equation.

“
Oi!
” Sakamoto Ryoma called. Xibulba’s eyes darted around and noticed the small samurai. He was not wading in the water and not even close to the size of Xibulba, but Ryoma did appear to be standing on the water. No, not quite. He was made from it. Xibulba grinned and drew back his hand to swat the tiny samurai ghost aside.

Ryoma’s hand darted into his kimono and drew his Smith and Wesson at the blinding speed displayed by martial artists in kung-fu movies snatching flies from the air. He flicked back the hammer with the flat of his left hand, and the report was not of a popgun as Xibulba expected. It boomed and all Xibulba could hear now was the ringing in his ears.

The .45 caliber round tore through the disease spirit’s hand now in full pimp slap position and through his face. A face, which found itself flying, out the back of his head. He fell backwards and plunged into the water. Despite his girth the waters completely engulfed him now. Once Xibulba reformed his face he could only faintly see the light from Cameron’s soul now. It seemed to come from all around him and he was now unsure of which direction to travel. The presence that dominated him was not the presence of Cameron. It was still present since they were still in the battlefield of his spirit, but the presence was that of Sakamoto Ryoma.