Tracker – The Past Comes Back to Haunt Us Part 5
"NOW!" Paden's voice suddenly rose even as he straightened to his full height, shoulders spreading & eyes glittering. "WHO SUMMONS THE GUARDIAN?" Not a shout but nearly as deafening, the question thundered through the small room.
Swallowing heavily and without looking at the others, Sam stepped forward. "I summoned he who guards." His voice broke a little on the admission.
"AND DO YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS HUMAN?"
" I do." Sam replied, voice & body shaking in trepidation.
"OK." The guardian voice receded in volume as Paden re-established himself. The change in register brought all of the elderly peoples heads up to face Paden. "Forget about the part where I take your body to work with, I kinda like this one."
Disbelief spread across all of their faces as the Guardian broke into laughter, eyes crinkling. The summoner would provide the Guardian with a host body and would die, that was the admonition they had been told, that to summon the Guardian would be at the risk of their own personal peril.
"Oh come on, did you think I would learn nothing over the years? I created my own body this time. Granted we couldn't do that before but what you see now is how I'll stay…. For now anyway."
"But" Aurora stopped.
"Go on" the Guardian looked almost fondly upon the tiny woman.
"This is how you looked before"
"Well not quite Rory. I formed myself on my former host's younger self. That body was aging, slowly of course, but it was becoming, confining if you will."
"You mean the body was old & you were afraid you would die in it." Marion stated aggressively looking like an out of sorts bulldog.
The guardians eyes flared, color changing to the deep green of anger momentarily. "Noooo I mean, that I had allowed my host the use of his body again. Unlike most of my kind I did not destroy my host when I took over his body. I merely sat back for the rest of the ride through his life if you will. Learning about humans & the things of Earth until such time as I was able to move into my own body."
"Is Paden Lyles dead?" Jerry Lowenstein was a man of few words, all of them blunt or sarcastic.
"He is dying, yes. But in the normal course of human life, death is the inevitable conclusion. I did nothing to cause it. He is quite simply, old. His body is shutting down in preparation for death."
The others shifted, uncomfortably aware of their own mortality.
The Guardian turned back to Jess & Nestov "So introduce us please and then we can get on with whatever is going on."
"We caught these two" Marion was interrupted by Jess.
"Whot dyou mean caught us? I found these weird pieces of metal, along with the names of these whackos. I came here with my friend, in good faith mind you and they tie him up and start yammerin on about aliens & keys & such. That's whot's 'appening… you are all nuts! Let us go!"
"I like her." The guardian slipped the words in while Jess was taking a deep breath to begin again.
"We don't exactly know what's going on." Marion admitted. "When she contacted Sam, we assumed she was the intrusion we needed to worry about. Then another tried getting into the files, red flags went up in too many places to discount the possibility that we had Hunters back on Earth. Only someone or something that knew about the past would be looking in all of those files. One or two, maybe, but these inquires were too precise & focused."
"It would seem that our precautions took a left turn somewhere." The Guardian appeared amused. "Human history is full of these kinds of surprises."
"You said you found some articles?"
"Yeahr, my friend's Grandmother died and we found some stuff of hers."
"So Jessamin Bin Hari no one told you that you have a role to play in the continued existence of the Earth?"
"Wait! I'm Jessica Hewitt not this Jessamin whatever" Jess said, relief clear in her voice. 'Obviously these nut cases had the wrong girl.'
"No." The guardian stepped forward to regard Jess closely. "You were adopted, yes?"
"Wull yeahr, so"
"The so is that you are actually the daughter of an old friend, M'dar bin Hari, your human father was host to him."
Jess backed away from the loons. Obviously she had stumbled into some kind of cult. Hard to believe that Gran P would be mixed up with something like this, but what else explained it?
"Wait!" Sam put out an imploring hand to Jess. At her pause he turned to the Guardian, "Show her."
The Guardian bent a look of long suffering at Sam then moved away from the group. A mask of concentration and stillness came over him. His body seemed to glow a bit and his face & limbs seemed to blur or fade into the light.
"I am J'tieri, Guardian of the 8TH portal to Migar" The voice came from the light, startling Jess & frightening Nestov nearly to death.
"NOW!" Paden's voice suddenly rose even as he straightened to his full height, shoulders spreading & eyes glittering. "WHO SUMMONS THE GUARDIAN?" Not a shout but nearly as deafening, the question thundered through the small room.
Swallowing heavily and without looking at the others, Sam stepped forward. "I summoned he who guards." His voice broke a little on the admission.
"AND DO YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS HUMAN?"
" I do." Sam replied, voice & body shaking in trepidation.
"OK." The guardian voice receded in volume as Paden re-established himself. The change in register brought all of the elderly peoples heads up to face Paden. "Forget about the part where I take your body to work with, I kinda like this one."
Disbelief spread across all of their faces as the Guardian broke into laughter, eyes crinkling. The summoner would provide the Guardian with a host body and would die, that was the admonition they had been told, that to summon the Guardian would be at the risk of their own personal peril.
"Oh come on, did you think I would learn nothing over the years? I created my own body this time. Granted we couldn't do that before but what you see now is how I'll stay…. For now anyway."
"But" Aurora stopped.
"Go on" the Guardian looked almost fondly upon the tiny woman.
"This is how you looked before"
"Well not quite Rory. I formed myself on my former host's younger self. That body was aging, slowly of course, but it was becoming, confining if you will."
"You mean the body was old & you were afraid you would die in it." Marion stated aggressively looking like an out of sorts bulldog.
The guardians eyes flared, color changing to the deep green of anger momentarily. "Noooo I mean, that I had allowed my host the use of his body again. Unlike most of my kind I did not destroy my host when I took over his body. I merely sat back for the rest of the ride through his life if you will. Learning about humans & the things of Earth until such time as I was able to move into my own body."
"Is Paden Lyles dead?" Jerry Lowenstein was a man of few words, all of them blunt or sarcastic.
"He is dying, yes. But in the normal course of human life, death is the inevitable conclusion. I did nothing to cause it. He is quite simply, old. His body is shutting down in preparation for death."
The others shifted, uncomfortably aware of their own mortality.
The Guardian turned back to Jess & Nestov "So introduce us please and then we can get on with whatever is going on."
"We caught these two" Marion was interrupted by Jess.
"Whot dyou mean caught us? I found these weird pieces of metal, along with the names of these whackos. I came here with my friend, in good faith mind you and they tie him up and start yammerin on about aliens & keys & such. That's whot's 'appening… you are all nuts! Let us go!"
"I like her." The guardian slipped the words in while Jess was taking a deep breath to begin again.
"We don't exactly know what's going on." Marion admitted. "When she contacted Sam, we assumed she was the intrusion we needed to worry about. Then another tried getting into the files, red flags went up in too many places to discount the possibility that we had Hunters back on Earth. Only someone or something that knew about the past would be looking in all of those files. One or two, maybe, but these inquires were too precise & focused."
"It would seem that our precautions took a left turn somewhere." The Guardian appeared amused. "Human history is full of these kinds of surprises."
"You said you found some articles?"
"Yeahr, my friend's Grandmother died and we found some stuff of hers."
"So Jessamin Bin Hari no one told you that you have a role to play in the continued existence of the Earth?"
"Wait! I'm Jessica Hewitt not this Jessamin whatever" Jess said, relief clear in her voice. 'Obviously these nut cases had the wrong girl.'
"No." The guardian stepped forward to regard Jess closely. "You were adopted, yes?"
"Wull yeahr, so"
"The so is that you are actually the daughter of an old friend, M'dar bin Hari, your human father was host to him."
Jess backed away from the loons. Obviously she had stumbled into some kind of cult. Hard to believe that Gran P would be mixed up with something like this, but what else explained it?
"Wait!" Sam put out an imploring hand to Jess. At her pause he turned to the Guardian, "Show her."
The Guardian bent a look of long suffering at Sam then moved away from the group. A mask of concentration and stillness came over him. His body seemed to glow a bit and his face & limbs seemed to blur or fade into the light.
"I am J'tieri, Guardian of the 8TH portal to Migar" The voice came from the light, startling Jess & frightening Nestov nearly to death.