Love's Bind
This is a short story that appears on Shattered Enigma. I said a while ago I would post everything but Rebel Yell on I've finally gotten around to it, so here it is. If you have seen Solaris or read the short story (Russian), this concept might seem familiar. I assure you, I actually came up with the idea before I saw the movie. I love the movie, but curse it nonetheless for using the idea much better than I.
Jason Fisher's wraith streaked through the blackness of space. The coordinates on the readout did not indicate the ship was headed for any system at all, but Jason paid no mind. The man who had given them to him was not one to send him to his doom. Not when he paid a princely sum in advance. Such things were virtually unheard of in the bounty hunting business and so was the only reason Jason flew his wraith to a seemingly non-existent destination.
Suddenly, the hostile alert sounded. Jason sat up in his chair but as he did so, the alarm fell silent. What the hell? It must be that damn power cell again. He swore he fixed it prior to leaving. The engine malfunction light lit up, accompanied with a high pitched whine. Jason cringed under the sound. The hostile flashed again and soon nearly every warning light in the cabin started to turn on and off. What the hell is going on here?
Having been preoccupied by his readouts, Jason failed to notice the huge swirling purple vortex that had appeared in front of him. When he looked up, his face formed into a deep frown. God damn it Jud, you didn't tell me I'd have to deal with a--- The wraith had been sucked into the wormhole, cutting off Jason's last thought, and flinging him out of space and time.
Jason stared at Ashley. Their eyes locked in a mutual understanding, a mutual love. For the first time, he felt completely content, devoid of worries, of pain, of sorrow, of everything but love. The emotion seemed to coalesce into a tangible light that permeated their entire existence.
As quickly as Jason's mind had escaped his body, he was again staring out the cockpit of his wraith. An eerie silence pervaded the moment. The alarms that had once been blaring were no longer.
At first, Jason sat as silent as the rest of the universe, but as the moments passed, his head cleared and he tried to acquire his bearings. He checked his readouts, and checked them again. That can't be… He was nearly 5,000 light years from his starting position. The weight of the fact settled on him and he felt helplessness creep in, but only for a fleeting moment. Jason had been through too much to despair even in this situation. Perhaps Jud had known of the wormhole…
Jason began the process of checking if his wraith was still intact, and to his surprise, everything worked properly. He initiated a scan of the area and the sensors located a small system not too far away. Only one planet orbited the relatively cool star. Life was unlikely, but he had no where else to go.
The wraith's engines started without incident, and Jason piloted his vessel into a low orbit around the planet. He began a scan of the surface to see if any settlements existed. It would not be complete for few hours, but Jason's profession demanded patience.
The minutes wore on, and drowsiness took hold of him. Jason's instincts fought the foreign feeling, but something overpowered him and he fell into unconsciousness.
Their life had been a blur of passion. From the moment their eyes met, the love burned constant. Only now, something else seemed to creep in. Jason felt uneasy in Ashley's presence and he did not know why. It was like a small pinprick of fear… almost like a warning. He had been able to dismiss it every time, but now, as she sat next to him, he could not push it aside.
Jason turned to look into Ashley's eyes and for a brief moment, a spike of fear paralyzed him. Then it was gone and only her rich almond-color eyes remained, conveying a deep-seated love for him.
Jason woke with a start. He felt cold and nauseated. Sweat had formed on his skin and it felt clammy when he rubbed his arms. Something in that dream… But the thought left him, and he remembered where he was. Jason started at the realization and cursed himself for falling asleep. The scan finished just then and the bounty hunter put aside his self-directed anger to deal with the present.
No life, just as he thought. The atmosphere was almost entirely comprised of carbon dioxide and the surface the same in frozen state. In fact, only a small iron core made up any great mass.
Wait. There… That's impossible. A pocket of oxygen and nitrogen seemed to hover over a small plateau of ice near the equator. His sensors must have been damaged by the wormhole. Jason started a diagnostic on the equipment, but as he did so, he remembered something Jud said to him: "Within the Pocket, you will find what all men seek."
Jason wondered if Jud meant this pocket of breathable atmosphere when he said that. At the time, the statement did not make much sense… then again, the entire job didn't either. In fact, now that he thought on it, Jud didn't give him any sufficient reason for the entire affair. The money had really been the key to it all; it was just enough to pay off his debt to--- shit. How could Jud have possibly known? The Baron never let his personal business escape the confines of his palace. No man aside from the Baron alone knew the debts owed to him.
The coincidence could not be overlooked. It was too perfect… Jud had to have known about the gambling debt. And he used it to bring him here. He should have seen it then. How could he have been such a fool!?
The diagnostic ended with a beep, thrusting Jason out of his thoughts for the time being. Nothing was wrong with the sensor bank, so either his sensors were being fooled by an outside force or there really was an impossible pocket of breathable air down there. Now all he had to decide was what to do now that he knew Jud's motivation. Jason thought back onto the entire conversation with the man on Tarsonis.
"Jason, good to see you again. How's life treating you?"
"With the same old shit, Jud, the same old shit."
Jud laughed his deep, burly laugh and the two men sat down at the booth. A waiter walked up asking for their order but both waved him off.
"So I hear you have a job?" Jason asked when the man left.
"You could say that…"
Jason raised an eyebrow, "I don't deal well with round about answers. I can easily find work elsewhere."
"No! That's quite all right." Fear seemed to flash briefly in Jud's eyes, so briefly Jason didn't consciously register.
"Well, what is it you want me to do then, friend."
Jud pulled a data disk from his overcoat and handed it to Jason.
"On that disk are coordinates for a remote system a good ways outside the bounds of settled space. Go there. Within the Pocket you will find what all men seek." He paused a moment, then continued, "I'm paying you in advance."
Jason let his surprise escape and Jud smiled.
"Even a bounty hunter such as you is not immune to emotion."
"I suppose you're right."
"I'm always right, what are you talking about?!" The two men laughed, Jud's deep rumble overpowering the slighter man's chuckle. Jud reached his hand into his coat and pulled out a black box with metal latches. He put it on the table in front of Jason. "I believe that's 37,000 there."
Jason looked down at the box, then up at Jud. His old half got the better of him. "Are you sure about this?"
Jud scoffed, "Never ask that again, Jason, you'll regret it." His voice was stern, but Jason only half heard him.
"I'll do it."
Jud's face changed back into his smiling demeanor. "Good! I'll have another one of those boxes there when you come back. Now, if you excuse me, I have something else I must attend to." Jud got up and left the café, leaving Jason to mull over his fortunate circumstances.
At least they seemed fortunate then. Now, stuck out here thousands of light-years from home, Jason gave a second thought to what he had done. Every other experience with Jud had resulted in good things… well, good for him and Jud. Nonetheless, the man had sent him careening into some God forsaken wormhole only to end up staring at a frozen ball of icy wastes…
Except for that pocket of air.
Jason began to feel an urge to take his wraith down to it. Yet the rational part of him recoiled at the idea. All his instincts and experience told him to turn around and try to get home, but the curious nagging would not go away.
Finally, out of sheer annoyance with his predicament, and to appease that incessant panging in his brain, he maneuvered his wraith out of orbit, towards the pocket. The journey took barely five minutes to complete, and another five just to land the wraith on the terrain. Normally, a wraith could not make a terrestrial landing, but bounty hunters required many abnormal modifications to their equipment, and Jason was no exception.
He moved out of his seat and climbed into his hostile environment suit. Jason still didn't trust the sensors, nor Jud for that matter. The suit was equipped with armor typically found on any Marine as well as an array of devices to pull out in the case of dire circumstance. Jason snorted at the thought. Quite a few men found death from the objects concealed there.
He lifted the cover on the cockpit release and pulled it. The entire front half of the wraith moved down the central pylon of the ship. It came to rest with a lurch just above the ventral laser mount. The canopy lifted up accompanied by hissing of escaping air.
Jason walked out of his ship slowly; the gravity was light. The land stood motionless, devoid of life. Not even a wind blew over the barren fields of frozen gas. He activated his suit's sensors, and confirmed the existence of oxygen in a fifty-meter radius about him. It just covered the plateau he landed on.
Suddenly, something moved just in the corner of his vision. He turned his head abruptly and blacked out.
Ashley was the same person physically, but in her eyes, Jason could not find the women he once loved. She was a complete stranger to him and his stomach turned. He had loved her with all his heart, and yet now she stood before him like she never felt anything for him. How could she change? What had he done wrong? His heart felt like it would stop beating. His whole body ached with the pain of his emotions.
Jason's stomach turned again and again, over and over on itself, renting him to his knees. Yet she only stared back, cold eyes locked on his crippled form. He stared up at her. Where have you gone, Ashley?
Jason's eyes blurred and his head felt like an anvil at work. What the hell happened? He shook his head, but it only intensified the pain. He was breathing and sweating heavily. The inside of his helmet was fogging, and the fans kicked in high gear to counteract the moisture.
After a few more minutes of deep breathing, his headache began to subside and vision clear. What the hell happened? His mind repeated the question over and over, but there was no answer. He tried to recall what he had seen, but even the thought of images escaped his mind, leaving him with just the receding pain.
Jason stood up from where he kneeled, suddenly remembering the movement before he blacked out. He looked around but saw the same empty world. Damn it! Why had Jud sent him here? It didn't make any sense! For over a year the man had been his friend and confidant. He'd been there for him since Ashley left.
Her eyes sparkled with love.
Her eyes left him feeling uneasy.
Her eyes stared lifelessly at him.
The pain in Jason's head came back with sudden intensity and he staggered. The images of Ashley's eyes flashed again and again through his mind. He groaned under the increasing pain and staggered again, still not quite falling on the ground. Then, just as suddenly as it struck, the pain left. Jason breathed heavily, but this time the memory did not fade from his mind.
Ashley. Ashley. Why her? Why now? Jason struggled to comprehend what was happening to him. Here he stood on a cold, lifeless world, billions and billions of miles from any other human, and he was plagued with his past. What is going on here? What is so goddamned special about this place? Why here?
Then the other memories flooded back. The time during the wormhole transit, the time he fell asleep, and the time he blacked out. All of them bore down on him at once and his eyes widened in surprise. Ashley was the key to it all. Jason's mind drifted to the last day he ever saw her.
The body lay on the kitchen floor, in a pool of blood. Jason stood over it in shock. Ashley's deep brown hair was matted to the floor. She still clutched the knife in her hand, the knife she used to kill herself.
Jason started to whisper, barely audible. He whispered no, over and over and the volume steadily grew until he was shouting. No! No! No! His body shook and he swayed back and forth with overwhelming emotion. Finally, Jason collapsed on the floor, next to his dead wife, the tears finally falling. He took her head into his hands and brushed at the blood soaked hair. Oh God, how did it come to this?
Jason's eyes were puffy with the thought of mourning, but he fought it back, knowing weakness now would surely increase his chances of death. One must be strong in adverse circumstances, and being thrust into this situation seemed as adverse as it could get.
He pushed away the blood soaked image of his wife, and shifted his thoughts to what to do next. Jason's first thought told him to simply leave. He would pay his debt and confront Jud about the ridiculous trip. Yet, as soon as his mind finished the resolution, the nagging curiosity flooded his brain again. The images of Ashley before her transformation sailed through his mind, but without the strength and biting pain. Something told him that should he leave this place, he would never know what happened to her. The thought scared him. Ever since her death, Jason felt like he was missing a part of himself. Jud had been the friend he used to fill that empty space, but it had not been enough. Not nearly enough.
Now that thought forced him into inaction. He could not move either way, could not make a decision to leave or stay. His feet seemed grow into lead weights, and his mind bound by some unknown force. Jason fought for certainty and control of his entire being, but his spirit was torn and he did not know why. The fact alone did not bother him so mach as the unknown reason for his sudden inability to decide.
He turned looked around the barren wasteland, wondering how in all reason he had found himself staring at it. Jason sighed, and finally took a step back to his wraith, but as he did, a wind began to blow in a cloud of ice from below the plateau. He froze in mid step, moving his head to look at the sudden change in scenery.
The wind had whipped the layer of icy dust into a vortex traveling towards the plateau. After a moment, it disappeared over the lip. Then, without warning, it descended upon Jason with such ferocity it nearly knocked him from his feet. He shut his eyes on reflex, though his hazard suit provided ample protection. He could hear his suit wrinkling in the wind and small pellets of ice slam against his face shield. At last, Jason, curious beyond his apprehension, opened his eyes.
Ashley sat on the blanket, and her horse stood next to the big oak, nibbling on the grass. Jason looked on his wife from a few feet away.
"Come, sit," she said.
"I don't feel like sitting," he replied.
"Well what do you feel like doing?"
"I don't know."
"What about a walk? The meadow is beautiful."
Jason nodded, "Maybe… maybe a ride." Ashley looked up with a bright smile.
The vision broke with a sudden nausea. His head pounded and his vision grew blurry. The wind no longer had the distinction of icy dust, only a white mist vaguely swirling around him. The distinct clink of the bits of debris could no longer be heard. Only a muffled whoosh as the vortex picked up speed.
Jason's felt trapped in an icy hell. Every bone in his body ached and the throbbing in his head became like the thunderous drums. His eyes rolled back into his head as he lost consciousness.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea." With that, Ashley gracefully got up from the blanket and mounted her horse. "Come on, hop up." Jason still stood where he was. "What's wrong."
I…I don't know. I thought I just saw an ice storm. It seemed almost real, more real that this…" His voice trailed off as he strained to remember the hazy scene.
"Are you sick?" Ashley dismounted and walked over to him. She put her hand on his head and stroked his hair. Her eyes looked into his and he saw genuine concern.
"I don't know, I feel funny. Light headed. I remember this throbbing pain in my head." He turned away from her gaze, look over the horizon to puffy white clouds.
The vortex swam around him at impossible speed. He screamed in agony. The dream, he wanted the dream. "But it isn't real," his mind kept telling him. What was real Jason no longer knew. He screamed out for help.
"I don't understand! What is happening to me?" He sank to his knees under the strain.
The mist suddenly disappeared in one small area, and he could see Jud standing in the hole it left.
"What? How is this possible? What are you doing to me?"
"What am I doing?" The deep voice reverberated through his head, overwhelming the pain. "What are you doing?"
"I don't understand!" Jason yelled back.
"Remember the day we met? It was the day after Ashley killed herself. That was no accident, friend."
Jason shook his head in confusion.
"I found you, not the other way around, like you believe. I found you because of Ashley. I found you because of your love for her."
Jason stared at him. "How are you doing this?" Jud shook his head and chuckled.
"That doesn't matter. Just accept that it is me that stands before you… or a reflection of me. It is an extension of the power the Protoss have learned to tap."
"How, how do you have Protoss…"
"Again, you need not concern yourself, friend. I found you and brought you here because of Ashley, because of your love for each other. I am what some call a ghost, and others a memory, but I am much more than that. I was once human, and like you lost the one I loved. A Bringer, similar to me, only much more ancient, came to me and offered to return me to my beloved. At the time I scoffed, disbelieving the very idea of what he was. Then he showed me something amazing, something more ancient than all the ages of this universe. He showed me his home. All his people lived in a dream world, comprised entirely of love. A utopia one cannot even imagine
"But when he showed me all this, he told me he was the last of his caste. There were once millions of Bringers, who would scour the galaxy of those on the verge of death and bring them into their world. The Bringers would make them one of their own. Yet the Bringers could not fully experience their own utopia, given their roll in the society, and eventually many ended their existence with a mere thought.
"This last Bringer, a man called Brona, refused to give in and abandon his creed, yet at the same time realized that he could not Bring all who died. So he set out on a quest of his own, to recruit more Bringers, but this time not of his own people. He chose humanity as his source, for our existence was so dismal, an eternity as a Bringer would never pale for us.
"Hence Brona recruited me, a man who knew the absolute pain of humanity: loss of a beloved. Through his efforts he has repopulated the Bringers with pseudo humans like myself. But the new generation has two goals, instead of one. We are not only to Bring people into the society, but also to create more Bringers out of those who know such pain as I did."
"Why are you telling me all this? What has this got to do with me? Why should I even believe a word you say?"
"Because you have no choice!" Jud's voice echoed so loudly Jason cried out in pain. "I brought you here and you are at my mercy." The voice softened then and Jud continued, "I will not harm you. I brought you here and I tell you all this because you are the prime candidate for a Bringer."
"What if I don't want to be one of your "Bringers?" What if I am happy with my life just the way it is? Who are you to change me? Who are you to toy with my life?"
"Are you happy with your life? Can you honestly say you do not want anything else?"
Jason looked down at his knees.
Jud stood silent, then sighed. "You are right, though. Why should I force you into a decision you do not want?"
"What? Now just a minute! You told me I had no choice! What do you want from me?"
"I saw the pain you went through. I saw how it tore you apart. I saw the perfect Bringer, but I also saw the perfect man to be Brought. I can give you Ashley back. I can Bring you to Brona's world."
"But I haven't died yet! I don't want to die!"
"You won't die--- Your physical body yes, but not your soul. Your soul will live on in eternal love, the world I told you about. I have the power to Bring you even without 'natural' death, but you must make the choice. You can either choose to be Brought or you can choose be become a Bringer."
"I don't want either! I don't want to go to your 'utopia' or become whatever the hell you are! I want my life back!"
"You can never get your life back, not the way you want it. Ashley is dead. You will never see her again. Are you sure you really mean that? Are you sure you don't want her?"
Jason did not answer. The images of Ashley played out in his mind. He stared past Jud, trying to come to grips with the choice before him. He weighed the facts, for what they were worth in this bizarre world he now inhabited. His rational mind rejected the very idea of what the phantom suggested, but he could not push away the memories of Ashley. He could not escape love's bind. At last he focused on his friend.
"I want to see Ashley again. I want to be with her." Jud smiled warmly and slowly faded away. The pain in Jason's head began to subside. The aching muscles relaxed and he began feeling a tingling sensation. He stared down at his feet, and to his surprise, they were vanishing in the white mist swirling around him. Within seconds only his head remained.
"Love's bind can never be broken," Jud's voice echoed one last time before Jason the man ceased to exist.