IV.
I was invited upon this shore
Where the past meets the future
So it found me
So it reached my mind
Helped me find the way
That leads to [the] right place
I heard the call
I knew the form
It reached my mind
On this timeless shore
I ran no more
From what I can't escape
- AMORPHIS "My Future"
For the longest time they felt no need for human – nor Protoss, nor Zerg – company. They had once crossed paths with a feral Zerg cluster, but even the most mindless Zerglings were cowering in fear when they entered the hive. Raynor was again wearing his trusty armor – as he explained to Kerrigan, the space platform episode compelled him to regain it, since its absence would have been distracting him from the tasks at hand when they were in a dangerous environment. She smiled knowingly – and the suit, the trademark skull visor, pistol and all, appeared beside them out of a flash of golden light.
"Is that really my old suit?" he felt the need to ask.
"Of course. I don't think I could have created one with my powers, but even if I could, since I never knew its inner workings really well, there's an off chance that some part of it might not have worked as intended. Instead, I just found where your old armor was stored – I believe that some of your fans have put it up on display in a museum dedicated to you – and teleported it here", she replied.
"Nice. Now I hope you left a note where it was, or else they're going to file a criminal case of theft", he managed to say. That, and he understood the subtle meaning of his request: he was still trying to preserve some of his human attractions and mores because he was not yet ready for transcendence. Not completely, anyway.
They paced across the creep, their feet not sinking into the spongy substance, right to the central hive. The Zerg around them were motionless and visibly shaken. There, Kerrigan gestured, and a glowing, translucent facsimile of a Psi Emitter appeared.
"I'll leave this here so Zagara and her folks can come and reclaim this errant bunch into the fold. That'll make this world a little safer", she said.
"It was sheer luck that we, and not some hapless colonists, have found this first", he replied.
With that, Raynor thought of how his service to the Dominion had ended – and the Zerg played a role in that as well. In fact, he felt that he has severed all his ties to the past when he handed his resignation to Valerian, trying to avoid the Emperor's reproachful gaze. There was more than one reason to do this – to say that Jim has enjoyed universal love and adulation in the Dominion would have been a "slight" overstatement. For years he was the empire's most wanted man, and even though it could be partly attributed to propaganda, it was only a part of the explanation. He and his men have killed Dominion soldiers that would have been their compatriots now. Moreover, many people remembered that the Raiders were among the Zerg Swarm's invasion force that carved a bloody path through the Dominion's defenders in order to overthrow Arcturus Mengsk. That was not the first time when he fought alongside the Zerg – the first shocking instance was battling the UED on the same soil of Korhal years before, though that contact was not nearly as close or as intense – but he still felt remorse and guilt because he had silently condoned the killing, and some of their more macabre practices, like controlling the Dominion troops through the use of a neural parasite. He never found the courage – nor the time, actually – to ask Kerrigan what would have become of these hapless men and women. A better fate than to be killed in the heat of combat? Perhaps, but he never knew the ultimate outcome, and this was one of the reasons that he was glad to have left the Dominion. They would do just fine without him now.
More than once he returned in his thoughts to his past life's tail end. What would have happened if Kerrigan hadn't appeared in the doorway that fateful day, a golden vision of the future? He would've probably drunk himself to death in the end, or stumbled out in alcoholic stupor and fallen into a deep mine shaft, down to his demise. Whether her appearance – and everything that followed – was real, or actually a hallucination of a poisoned, dying mind... he tried not to give this thought any life expectancy. His comfort was in the notion that there was no way he could have imagined all the universal wonders that she has shown him, so it could not have been the work of his fantasy. It did not matter, either way.
But in fact, there was one instance when he felt compelled to return to those he left behind, and intervene – so he asked Sarah about it.
"Do you think we need to help them against this insurgency? These... Defenders of Man?"
"No. I've checked the probabilities, and they're going to handle it. This... Nova (a hint of vexation and – dare he say that? – feminine jealousy has edged into her voice) is likely to get this sorted out. You can see it for yourself".
He knew that she was right, so he sighed and nodded, but then closed his eyes and focused his will into a sharp, invisible needle. Slowly and carefully this shining point of light pierced the borders of reality and edged through the strands of time to the near future. And when he pulled it back, images flowed forth like liquid from a punctured water sack. He saw Valerian triumphant (if barely), and with a little difficulty – Kerrigan had taught him to do this, but he could not grasp it all at once – made some quick calculations of the probability. 85 percent was not bad. But there were still the other 15... and the shining 85 still had to be paid for in warm, red human blood.
Kerrigan's hand descended on his shoulder, offering him – like she always has – comfort and reassurance.
"This is not our battle, Jimmy. We have our own mission now".
Oh, and what a mission it was. When Kerrigan told him that she has started to bring life back to the worlds destroyed in the wars that had ravaged this sector, he was elated. After having lost so much himself and witnessing so much devastation around him, his heart yearned to see as much of that fixed as possible.
"Maybe we should set up an office in Korhal City, with a big flashy sign – "Cosmic Forester Guild", he joked. She feigned resentment by wrapping him in a rainbow sheet of ozone-smelling energy, then nullified it and laughed heartily.
"Nope, there is a reason we need to be acting discreetly. Though that doesn't mean I haven't left some hints for those who might want to follow our lead through... slightly more mundane means. Like Zagara", she said.
"Zagara? I guess a Zerg's idea of a thriving eco system might be... a little different to everyone else's. I mean, rivers of creep and spires for trees may be acquired taste", he replied. She crossed her arms in mock indignation and remained still until he rolled his eyes and spoke again.
"All right. I see you have a good plan for this. How could I ever doubt that".
She had spoken of their mission a few times since they started their new life, but for a while they were understandably preoccupied with each other, being fed up with years of separation, frustration and anguish. Their "honeymoon" wasn't entirely recreational though – all the while she was teaching him to use his new power. For instance, she told him that it wasn't her who healed him of a bunch of old sores once he had started to ascend – it was his own subconscious effort that worked.
"You always had a gift, even though it wasn't really apparent to the outsiders. But some of your abilities were directly responsible for getting you through everything that has been thrown at you", she elaborated.
He nodded, becoming a little sadder instantly. He remembered those who started out the same as him, but never made it and barely remained a footnote in the history of the sector. All of his comrades in arms from the Guild Wars, the First Great War and beyond. He was always thinking of himself as incredibly lucky – avoiding (sometimes very, very narrowly) every peril that the Universe saw fit to throw at him, but how much of it was courtesy of his hard-learned mundane skills, and how much could be ascribed to his hitherto unknown abilities?
Then his thoughts skipped back to the First Great War. A silvery strand that appeared between them the first time they shared a physical bond, that night of discovery and wonder laid against the backdrop of cold, unyielding space. Then, Char and how this link, now searing like molten lava, fed him horrendous images of both past, present and possible (or impossible) future. Was that what had awakened his ever dormant psionic abilities, he thought, because there was no way a blind man could have seen a firestorm of raging colour he was thrown into, much less find a way through the death maze? And then, when the Queen of Blades had found that she was involuntarily giving away intelligence, she forcibly snapped that psychic umbilical cord, causing Jim to collapse in midstride, his mind writhing and shrieking in pain. He descended into a boiling ocean of tormenting visions that only abated when Tassadar extended a helping hand to extricate him from the sea of nightmares.
Jim winced and forcibly told himself to ignore this line of thought for now. Instead, he started processing what she had said.
"Say… can we restore Shakuras? I kind of liked this world, even though I never stayed there for long, but hearing of its destruction was still heartbreaking. Besides, I liked these blue landscapes – kind of fits with the melancholic mindset, you know – and the flying critters were hilarious", he said.
"I'm afraid that restoring a planet that has been literally blown apart, and so long ago, is beyond even our combined powers. But we can both... pick up some of the pieces, and instill some of its imagery on some other dead world worth resurrecting. And the flying things... I'm pretty sure there are fossils and DNA samples left that we can use".
Sensing his lingering hesitation – and a deeper well of thought beyond it – she added: "Please understand... some candles are destined to burn".
