Book One: The Gathering
By J.C. Lords (jclord96@aol.com)
Copyright and Trademark Disclaimer (Long)
Alien and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Fox and related entities.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Fox and related entities.
Star Trek and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Paramount Pictures.
Highlander and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Rysher Entertainment.
Xena Warrior Princess, Hercules the Legendary Journeys and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of
Universal Pictures and/or MCA Universal and/or Renaissance Pictures.
The Riftwar, Serpent War and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Raymond E. Feist.
Terminator and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Carolco.
Doc Savage and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Conde Nash Publications Inc.
Indiana Jones and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Lucasfilms, Ltd.
Star Wars and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of Lucasfilms, Ltd.
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Charmed and associated characters, concepts and names are @ copyright and ® trademarks of WB Television Network and/or Aaron Spelling.
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Blade and associated characters, concepts and names are @ and ® trademarks of Marvel Comics.
Chapter Six: The End of the Beginning
"On screen."
Images wavered a bit before steadying. It had taken over two hours to get the external sensors working -- an hour of flying blind, waiting to be struck at any moment by the planet-sized monster lurking by. It had been one of the worst hours in Picard's career -- to lie helpless before an enemy was the worst situation he could imagine being in.
And yet, nothing had happened.
"Sensors are back online," Data reported. The screen locked on their nemesis.
The Star Wormwood was drifting in space. Half of it was ablaze, burning in bright orange and blue colors. The tentacles were still moving, but weakly. Worm creatures were swarming back towards the central mass, as if trying to smother the flames with their bodies.
"What happened to it?" Picard wondered out loud. "This was none of our doing."
"I cannot find any traces of the shuttle, Captain," Data added.
Commander Riker, half his face covered with regenerative bandages, shifted in his chair. "They rammed it," he muttered. "That's a runaway matter-antimatter reaction burning inside of it."
Picard bowed his head. "They gave their lives to save us." There wasn't much else to say.
Troy spoke up. "Wormwood lives," she said in a deep, unusual voice. She seemed to be in some sort of trance. "It is healing, drawing power from the death of Earth.
"She is right, Captain," Data agreed. "The entity appears to be regenerating, reabsorbing the worm symbionts into its mass. The anti-matter reaction is almost burned out.
"Weapons?" Picard asked, turning to Worf and Giordi, who had come to the bridge.
"One phaser battery. The photon torpedo launchers are damaged."
"That's not enough. We cannot let their sacrifice be in vain," Picard whispered. Out loud: "Prepare to evacuate the ship."
Riker understood immediately. "Sir, I request permission to remain onboard and fly the Enterprise on the intercept vector."
"Intercept...?" Troy said. "You are talking about ramming the creature."
"Permission denied, Number One," Picard replied. "It's my ship. I will command her."
"Captain," Troy retorted. "You could direct it automatically. Nobody needs be aboard."
Data shook his head. "With the damage the ship has sustained, our automatic systems have only a 37% chance of effecting a successful ram against a moving target."
"And with a human pilot?" Riker asked.
"The odds rise to 82%."
"Betting odds," Picard said. "Start evacuating the ship. Wounded first. Use the shuttles if we don't have enough operating life rafts. Mr. Giordi, Mr. Data, you will be the last to go, and any personnel you deem necessary. We need to maximize the damage we will inflict on the creature."
It was almost a relief, to be doing something, even if it led to his death.
Picard was in command of the Enterprise once again.
Even if this was its last voyage.
"Pinch me," Phoebe asked in a whisper. "Ow! Okay, I'm not dreaming."
"It may not be a dream," Prue replied, "but it sure isn't the Enterprise."
The Halliwell sisters were in a fog-shrouded place. Dark clouds obscured the sky, and mist billowed at their feet, partially obscuring the dark ground beneath. There was just enough light to see by, but barely.
"I don't like this one bit," Piper said.
"Whatever you do, don't walk into the light," Phoebe replied.
"Shut up."
Light flared up behind them. The Charmed Ones whirled just in time to see Pug, Miranda and Qui-Gon stumble out of it and collapse on the ground. They all had nasty first-degree burns on their hands and faces, but they were alive.
"Where are we?" Qui-Gon asked, rising painfully to his feet.
"We were hoping one of you could tell us," Piper replied.
"The Threshold," Pug said, getting up. "Our defensive spells saved us from being killed outright, but the power of Wormwood was strong enough to prevent us from escaping. We are in between Life and Death, trapped here until Wormwood is destroyed, or It collapses our protective spells and kills us off."
"Sounds like fun," Prue said sarcastically.
"You know, this might give us a chance to do something constructive," Miranda said. Everybody, even Pug, turned towards her. "The Threshold exists outside time or space. That means we can actually look anywhere in time and space. We could learn more about Wormwood itself, and perhaps figure out how to strike at it even from this place."
"Cool, we get to watch a VH1 special on the life of Wormwood," Phoebe said. Piper cuffed her on the arm. "Well, I guess it beats waiting to die. Let's do it."
Buffy and Blade went medieval on Tomas.
Slayer and half-Vampire waded in, fists flying, holding nothing back. Even the Valheru was staggered by the devastating attack. Kick, punches, knees to the groin. Blade head-butted Tomas, three, four times in quick succession even as Buffy scissors-kicked him to the ground.
One hand grabbed Blade by the collar. Another gripped Buffy by the hair.
Tomas smashed their heads together. There was a sickening hollow impact, and Buffy and Blade collapsed in a heap.
Duncan McLeod stepped forward, sword drawn. Tomas growled and drew his own weapon.
Roland Ferguson roared delighted laughter. "That's right, Immortal! Put on a good show!"
Somebody tapped him on the shoulder. Roland turned.
"Laugh at this," Indiana Jones said, and followed with a roundhouse punch to Roland's face. The dark man staggered. Indiana punched him again and again. At the same time, he started chanting in Latin.
"What the --" punch "fuck --" punch "do you think you're doing?" Ferguson cried out.
"Demon, Begone!" Jones shouted in Latin. Roland screamed in rage and pain. Something unspeakable bubbled out of his skin for a few seconds, as if a hideous shape was trying to tear its way out of his skin.
"Shithead!" Ferguson backhanded Jones and knocked him clear to the other side of the tunnel. "You hurt me! For that, I'm going to eat your brain while you're still alive," he growled.
The point of a stake suddenly sprouted out of Roland's chest. He looked down in astonishment.
"Eat this," Buffy said behind him. Blood was running down her face, but she had a grim and determined expression.
Roland Ferguson staggered a few steps. "You bitch!" He grabbed the stake she had rammed into his back --all the way out the other side of his torso -- and pulled it out. "You've ruined my body! You're so dead!"
"What exactly were you doing to him?" Buffy asked Indy.
"Old medieval exorcism ritual," Indiana explained. "It involved beating the demons out of the possessed."
Giles joined the pair. "I know the ritual. You were off on a couple of stanzas, and you need to try to use Old Church Latin, if possible."
"Sorry," Jones replied. "I'm a bit rusty."
"Guys, let's chitchatting and more problem-solving," Buffy snapped.
The other agents were trying to hold Tomas off. MacLeod had been replaced by Obi Wan. The Jedi was hesitant to use his light saber on his fellow Agent, however, and Tomas was winning.
Roland dropped the bloody stake on the floor. Pieces of his heart were stuck to it. "Come here, you little slut!"
"Buffy, keep beating on him. We will recite the exorcism," Giles instructed.
"My pleasure."
The Slayer waded into the Dark Man while her companions chanted in Latin. It was having an effect. Something was rippling inside Ferguson, as if there was someone else inside -- someone who wanted out.
"We are doing it!" Buffy cried out. "We --"
Tomas' hand closed around her throat. The Valheru had rushed her from behind. She couldn't breathe.
Ferguson rose. "You lose!" He reached out clawed hands towards her face.
Indiana Jones' whip struck him across the face. And again, as the pain made Roland recoil.
A clawed hand ripped out of Roland's back, and something dark clawed out of the collapsing body. The demon looked around, howled, and disappeared.
Where Ferguson had stood, only empty clothing remained.
"We did it!" Giles said.
"Still -- strangling -- me," Buffy choked out.
Tomas had lifted the Slayer off her feet with one hand. His grip was tightening. Buffy's face started to turn purple.
Obi-Wan Kenobi advanced on Tomas. He switched off his light saber.
"Tomas."
The mad eyes looked at him without comprehension.
"Wake up, Tomas. Lock up the beast inside your soul, and become a man."
The hand choking Buffy started to tremble.
"You are hurting your friend. Wake up."
Buffy was released. She fell on her butt, coughing and gasping for air. Tomas fell to his knees next to her. "I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry."
"It's okay," Buffy said hoarsely. "You're not the first guy with a dark side I've run into."
Obi-Wan looked towards the end of the tunnel. "There are some cultists up ahead, but their powers are mostly exhausted."
"Good," Buffy said. "I could use an easy fight."
Walker grabbed a zombie by the neck and ripped his head off. An elbow strike knocked another one off him.
A third zombie grabbed Walker left arm and snapped it at a ninety-degree angle. The bone broke with a dull crack.
The pain was horrendous. The Ranger blacked out for a few moments.
When his eyes opened, he felt he was being dragged off. He looked up. Quinn Mallory was pulling him into the second barricade. Xena and Hercules were still fighting the zombies. "You okay?" Mallory asked.
Walker stuck his broken arm into his shirt, buttoned it in place as a crude sling. "Yeah."
"They overwhelmed the north side. I think they took down Arnold. Almost everyone out there is dead."
With a defiant cry, Xena somersaulted over the barrier. Hercules followed a moment later, waving a bloody sword in his hand.
Zombies started climbing the barricade, unmindful of the people swinging baseball bats or shovels or axes at their hands and heads. Many fell. Others kept coming. "Where's Trivette?"
Quinn looked down. "He didn't make it."
Walker suppressed the grief. No time for it now. He grabbed an ax handle and started busting zombie heads.
"This is the origin of Wormwood."
The world shifted, and the six Agents were now floating, watching a scene unfold beneath them. A world, rotating around a red star. A red and yellow world, looking like Jupiter, a gas giant. Weird worm-like beings lived there, swam through clouds of gas like fish through water. They built long spider-web-like buildings, and sent ships to visit neighboring planets and moons. The scene shifted. They could see the worm-things close-up now. They had a dozen limbs apiece, and looked like a cross of an earthworm and an octopus.
Things were going on with the worms, but they didn't make any clear sense. "The frame of reference is too alien," Miranda complained. "We cannot understand."
"I'll help," Qui-Gon said. He concentrated. "The Force will act as a lens: through it, the events we are seeing will be translated into something easier to grasp."
The scene shifted. The outlandish alien shapes were replaced by people, wearing robes and weird suits, but human-looking. The floating ladder-buildings became normal houses and skyscrapers. Things started to make sense.
It all started with a boy. A young boy, quiet, sensitive. His father was a spiritual leader in the community, respected and feared, for he was a harsh man. The boy was abused, berated, beaten. His spirit was broken. His father kept telling him he was worthless, pathetic, cowardly.
The abuse became more extreme. People started to wonder about the boy. Their well-meaning questions sent the father into a rage, and further beatings. Finally, the authorities became involved. They tried to take the boy away from his father. There was a struggle, and the father was killed. He died in front of the boy, cursing him with his last breath.
The boy grew up, forever haunted, driven by a mixture of guilt and rage. He became fascinated with death, and with bringing his father back, to gain his forgiveness and approval. The boy, now a teenager, meddled with things best left alone. An experiment went awry, and the young man died.
And came back, an Undead.
The scene shifted, and the Agents watched in horrified fascination as the boy -- the Undead -- started devouring people, and growing larger. The human façade Qui-Gon had used to help them understand faded away, no longer necessary, as a growing worm creature consumed others, and became a gigantic monster. When the bloated thing left the world, driven by madness, no living thing remained.
The scene shifted once more, and the Agents sensed, deep inside the monster, the scared and confused boy.
"He had an unhappy boyhood, and he became a planet-eating monster," Prue said.
"That's not very nice!" Piper protested.
"I'm sorry if I'm not dripping sympathy over here, but that little boy has killed billions of people."
"Be it as it may," Miranda said. "If we could make contact with the boy within, we might be able to convince him to repent, and abandon this insane quest to beat death."
"I can use the Force to act as a conduit to the entity's brain," Qui-Gon said. "But someone will have to contact the creature. It will be dangerous."
"I'll do it," Phoebe said.
"Are you sure?" Prue asked.
"Well, I know what it's like to have a crappy father, and I'm good with children."
"Maybe I should do it," Miranda said. "I have more experience dealing with alien beings."
"Perhaps both of you should go," Pug interjected.
"Okay."
"Quinn!"
Wade's light saber flashed past Quinn Mallory's head, cutting off a zombie's outstretched hand. Quinn kicked another zombie in the head, knocking him off the barricade.
"It's no good! Back into the last enclosure!"
The second barricade had held the zombies off for a whole five minutes. Gabrielle had a broken leg, and all the other agents had suffered a number of minor injuries. Walker was the only survivors from the other volunteers.
Arnold was still out there. The last time Quinn had seen him, the T-100 had been stripped of all his flesh, a metal skeleton surrounded by zombies, his arms and legs still punching and kicking even as sheer numbers bore him down.
Quinn backpedaled towards the open door of the sheet metal and plywood building that was their last line of defense. Wade covered his retreat, twirling her light saber like a cheerleader's baton. Then she did a back flip and jumped inside; Hercules slammed the door shut and Xena dropped a crossbar in place.
The zombies outside hammered the doors and the walls. Gaps started to appear almost immediately.
Quinn looked at the trench in the center. The women and children were huddled there. They were literally sitting on top of boxes of explosives. Alex Cahill had the detonator, a look of grim determination in her face.
Quinn tapped his comm badge.
"Quinn to Enterprise. We are about to be overrun.
"Enterprise"
"That wasn't so bad," Buffy said.
The necromancers hadn't put up much of a fight, like Obi-Wan had predicted.
Dr. Jones and Giles were dismantling the necromantic circles, with Obi-Wan and Tomas to provide a little arcane help. The Slayer's job was done; she could take a break.
She needed it.
Blade walked over to her.
"Is it over?" he asked.
"I hope so. Got any Advil on you? Aspirin? My head's killing me."
"Sorry, no. So, who exactly are you guys?"
"You know, we were supposed to have a recruiting spiel memorized, but I'm too tired to give it out right now. I'll give you the MTV news version. We Eternity Legion. We good guys. We travel from world to world, saving the world. Oh, and this is our first mission."
"First mission?" Blade looked surprised. "You don't handle yourselves like newbies."
"Well, it's not an entry-level job. Before this, I served a few years as the local Vampire Slayer."
"Ah. That explains the staking technique. Sort of like my gig over here."
Buffy nodded. "I think of them as the Good Ol' Days."
"We are inside Wormwood's mind."
It was chaotic, disturbing, and profoundly evil. Images and feelings flashed by, and only Phoebe's Jedi training saved her sanity.
"It's even worse than it looked from the outside," she whispered. "It wasn't his father. His race only has one parent, so it was his father and mother doing this to him."
"It's futile," Miranda agreed. "His soul has been tainted beyond repair. Each massacre and act of genocide has alienated him, until he -- It -- thinks it is the only real being in the universe, and everything else is something to be toyed with."
The images around them started swirling.
"I think It knows we are here."
"Then get us out!"
"Too late."
Snake-like tendrils appeared out of nowhere and surrounded them. Miranda started a spell -- and the tendrils rushed her, wrapping her hands and arms, gagging her mouth. The wizard was immobilized before she could save herself.
Other tendrils approached Phoebe more tentatively.
"What do I do?"
Miranda's words echoed in her mind. It thinks it is the only real being in the universe.
A lie. A psychopath's delusion. When people realize that others have feelings, hopes, and fears just like do, it's a lot harder to hurt them needlessly.
"I've got to show him."
Phoebe reached out and grabbed one of the tendrils. She forced a vision, and sent her towards Wormwood.
For the first time in millions of years, Wormwood received a direct message from another mind. Not worship from dark cults, or desperate death cries, but a true message, from someone who shouted "Here I am. I am real, too." Phoebe opened her mind to Wormwood.
She sensed pain and fear on the other side -- the creature had been severely hurt in the battle, but it was far from dead. And rage: it wanted to destroy and kill. But then it paused, and considered what Phoebe was showing it.
Betrayal. It had been betrayed. First by its parent, then by the power that had transformed it.
NO!
Wormwood had few choices. A near-eternity of inhumanity weighed upon its soul. It could continue as it was, or it could surrender its very existence.
Phoebe had a vision of a tired, tired child, letting go and sinking into darkness.
"Wait," she pleaded. "Maybe it doesn't have to end like this."
She felt a wave of gratitude, followed by one of resignation. It is the only way.
GOODBYE.
"Time to go, Mr. Data, Mr. Giordi."
"I think not, Captain," Giordi replied.
"Captain, the odds of success increase by 10% if Giordi and I remain at our stations."
"What is this, mutiny? I gave you specific orders."
"With all due respect sir, none of us is going to make it to a court-martial."
Picard could not help a wry grin. "So be it."
Wormwood filled the screen.
"Initiate self-destruct sequence."
"Captain, wait!"
Wormwood started trashing around. Pieces of it tore themselves loose, drifted away, breaking up into smaller pieces. The planetoid-sized creature was shaking itself apart.
Data reported, his eyes glued to the screen. "Captain, the Star Wormwood is initiating a chemical reaction inside its core. An explosive reaction. In 2.3 minutes, it will explode, with a protected force equivalent to a 3 gigaton thermonuclear reaction."
"No sense in dying heroically, then," Picard muttered. "Mr. Data?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Get us the hell away from that thing!"
"Complying. Oh, Captain, we have a priority one transmission from the surface."
"Play it."
"Quinn to Enterprise. We are about to be overrun.
"Enterprise"
"We're on the way, Quinn. You must hold!"
"Hold? Hold with what?" Quinn screamed into the comm badge.
One of the walls collapsed. Zombies poured through.
Hercules rushed forward, a big wooden table in his hands. He rushed the gap, pushing the horde back.
"They're on their way!" Quinn shouted. "Just a little longer!" He ran towards the fight, tackled a zombie, and smashed its head in with a rock. "No you don't!" he screamed at the corpse. He flung himself at two other Undead who had managed to slip past Hercules. Quinn punched them with hysterical strength. Xena's sword flashed past him, cutting down another creature. Walker leaped over his prone body and drop-kicked yet another zombie.
"Come on!" Quinn shouted. He'd finally snapped. "Bring it on!"
A beam of light half a mile wide came down from the sky. Where it touched the ground, earth and stone liquefied and turned into glass. The zombies were vaporized by the hundreds of thousands.
"Ships phasers on wide beam," Quinn whispered. His burst of hysterical energy was gone, and he tottered to his feet like an old man. The beam skirted the house with surgical precision, destroying everything within on meter of the walls. The zombies inside the perimeter were quickly dispatched.
Quinn staggered out of the house. The battlefield had been cleansed, turned into glassified earth and melted stone and metal.
"Oh, God, did you get Arnold before you shot up the zombies?" he blurted.
"We transported him just before we opened fire," Picard confirmed. "Mr. Data is tending to him even as we speak."
"And Wormwood?"
"Look up and to the north."
Quinn looked. For a moment, it seemed as if a second sun had flared up in the sky. Then, the glowing fireball broke apart into smaller pieces, raining down. It looked -- beautiful, like Fourth of July fireworks.
It was over.
Epilogue
The tropical island was somewhere in the Pacific. It had been chosen because it was totally untouched by the chaos. No humans lived there. No Undead had risen on its land. In short, it was the perfect place to rest, to celebrate, to contemplate the events of the past day.
Not everybody rested, of course. Giordi and his surviving engineers were working on the Enterprise. Dr. Bashir, Ezri and a team of medics were methodically finding and aiding the surviving human communities, providing medical help and supplies. All the zombies had collapsed when Wormwood exploded; that meant the risk of plague until all the corpses were buried or destroyed, and there were literally not enough living to bury the death. There were no nations left on Earth. The recovery process would take decades, at least.
But there would be time to do most of it tomorrow.
A feast had been prepared. The Eternity Legion, most of the Enterprise crew, Blade's survivors and Walker's contingent were all there, those fit enough to join in. Lydia and Lucian arrived shortly thereafter. People ate drank, mingled. Occasionally, some burst into tears, or bouts of laughter, for no apparent reason. Nobody remarked on it; some actually joined in the laugher or crying. They all understood. It was a time for celebration, but also for mourning.
Xander carried a tray of drinks over to the Scooby Gang. "All right, who ordered the virgin pina coladas?"
He sat down between Buffy and Willow. "Well, I'm kind of sorry I missed all the museum action, but if it was anything like the giant worms inside the Enterprise, I'm kinda not sorry."
"It was a rough one," Buffy agreed. "But the guys in Texas had the worst time of all." She gestured with her chin towards a quiet knot of agents and survivors.
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Quinn is usually a lot more lively than this. Nerdy, but lively. He looks like he's been to Hell and back."
"He'll get over it," Buffy said. "We all will."
"They tried to recruit that Walker guy into the Legion, and he turned them down. Said he had too much work to do here."
"Yeah," Buffy said. "That's cool, too. Not everyone wants to belong to our bunch."
"You got me," somebody said behind her.
Blade smiled. "Mind if I join in?"
Not too far away, the Halliwell sisters were talking quietly.
"That was a close one," Prue commented. "Nothing like floating around in space, hoping your starship remembers to pick you up."
"It wasn't so bad," Piper replied.
"Maybe for you two," Phoebe interjected. "You didn't have to talk to Wormwood. It was… It was really sad, that's what it was." Piper gave her an affectionate hug.
"I wonder if we -- okay, you, Phoebe -- did you destroy Wormwood, or was it Buffy and her team, when they took down the necromantic circle?"
"A little of both, actually." Pug and Miranda walked in. "Destroying the circle weakened Wormwood enough that the child trapped within was able to make a choice, probably for the first time since the darkness consumed him."
"So I guess we did good," Phoebe said. She knew the image of the boy letting go would haunt her for a long time. But maybe it wouldn't be a bad memory.
Walker stepped to the edge of the beach and stared into the darkness. He heard movement behind him. Alex.
"You okay?"
"Yes. No." Suddenly, he turned and hugged her fiercely. Alex could feel tears burning the back of her neck.
"Trivette," she said, and hugged him back. There was little else to say.
"He was my friend."
They held each other, sharing the grief only survivors can understand.
A year later, they would name their first child John Trivette Walker. He would inherit the Earth they would rebuild from the ashes.
Riker, his wounds healed, was chatting with Deanna and Worf. He saw Lucian, and his face became grim. "Excuse me a moment," he said, and walked towards the Worldwalker.
Lucian saw him approach, nodded at him in a friendly way.
"So, did the little experiment work?" Riker asked bitterly. "Did we pass the test?"
"This was no experiment," Lucian said. "This was for real. Lives were at stake -- your own, plus more lives than you could imagine." He paused, stared into the night. "You don't know how close we came to defeat."
"So why don't you tell me?" Riker said. His temper was deflating, though.
"This was a key battle in the war. Without a victory here, Mother's people would have lost, sometime in the unimaginable future. And all this would have come to an end."
"It did, for a lot of people. And one must wonder, how should what affects the universe billions of years from now concern us?"
"That's a fair question, I guess. One might wonder, what does anything matter? By Mother's time, you will know the answer?"
"What do you mean, I? I don't expect to be alive in a billion years."
"But you will be. That's part of what Transcendence means. All human beings -- all self-aware beings -- living or dead, will awaken and communicate. Mother likes you a great deal, you know, not the least because your desire to question everything.
"She is your daughter, as a matter of fact."
Riker choked on his drink. "What?"
"You will see, one day," Lucian said. "But trust me on this. What we do -- here, and in missions to come -- matters. Truly matters." He walked away.
Deanna rushed to his side.
"What was that all about?" she asked.
"I'll tell you someday," Riker said wonderingly, staring after the Worldwalker. "In a billion years, give or take."
THE END
Author Comments
First of all, thank you all kindly for your ego-boosting reviews and e-mails. They've kept me writing this fanfic; it's always good to see that one's work is appreciated.
I have more plans for this "series." Future Eternity Legion novelettes will have a smaller cast, as the Agents break up into teams, and each team is sent to different timelines to help save them and recruit new agents. Some of my planned stories (some already being written) include:
* The E-Files: When Aliens (from the Aliens movie series) crash on Earth, Mulder and Scully investigate -- and so does a crack team of Eternity agents, including the Terminator, Sarah Connor, Ripley Call, Dr. Bashir and Ezri Drax.
* Earth: Final War: Boone is brought back to life as an Eternity Agent. He and new Agents Mulder and Scully must work with the Resistance and stop the Taelons' plans, even as the Captain Picard and the Enterprise confront the Taelon mothership and the Dravidian fleet.
* Revenge of the Jedi: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away -- Luke Skywalker surrendered to the Dark Side, and joined his father in the service of the Emperor. Young Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and other agents travel to this Empire-ruled universe and join forces with Princess Leia and the last survivors of the Rebellion. A possible sub-plot: Indiana Jones meets Han Solo.
* Thus Falls Babylon: The Agents visit Babylon 5. The Shadows are rising, and Sheridan has fallen.
* Forsaken Dragon: Pug, Hercules and Xena fix the Wheel of Time universe (I may not get to do this one, though, since it would require me to re-read the WoT books)…
* Dusk to Eternity: Buffy, Blade, the Scooby Gang and a few others arrive to a little Undead-ridden Mexican whorehouse -- even as Jack Crow (from J Carpenter's Vampires) starts to do a little slaying of his own… This one will probably be R rated because of the language.
* The Man Who Killed the World: As James Bond, the Avengers and Modesty Blaise try to save the planet circa 1969, the E-Agents drop in… This one may be a little too dated for this forum, though…
The E-Files will probably be the second book of the Eternity Legion. I'm leaning towards Revenge of the Jedi as the third one. Any comments and suggestions are welcome, of course.
Thanks for reading the story, and hope you enjoyed it.
JCL.