Annie - "Drop dead Jed" pt1

Who: Jedidiah Calvert
Where: Blue Dwarf
When: As Jed is shot...
<montage>
They ran towards Jed's cell, using their tazer rifles as the security
guards attempted to stop them, but they seemed invulnerable...
"Sir!" one of the further back ones shouted, a loud bleeping coming
from his wrist. He looked down at the display on it, which showed a
blip coming from one of the crew quarters. "I've got another signal,
it's at 100%!"
"What? 100%? thats impossible!" the leader called back. "Change of
plan, We don't need Jed anymore..."
"I'm... free..." Jed said as he felt the doors blast open. The laser
blasts hit him, and turned him into nothing more than a pile of
dust... He hadn't felt a thing. Jedidiah Calvert was finally gone...
<end montage>
It only took a second for the Blue-ray laser beam to completely
destroy Jedidiah Calvert's body, turning him into a pile of dust no
bigger than Tutankhamen's first dried up dump of the day.
But a second can be a long time to a time travelling being,
especially one from a dimension where time didn't obey the same laws.
Jedidiah Calvert stood frozen, the blue ray coming out of the weapon
was heading towards Jedidiah Calvert in slow motion. Everything else
was moving so slowly that it seemed to be still. The blue lance
pierced Jed's chest and instantly started to cut through. A hole was
cut into his skin that bore all the way through to the other side,
where the blue-ray burst through his back with no care for the organs
it had just passed through.
The penetrating beam was having a wider effect than just the soft
tissue it was passing through, cells next to the destroyed ones also
started to vaporise, and the ones after those. The hole grew much
larger, threatening to engulf Calvert's entire body.
That was when Annie showed up. She clicked her fingers and time
stopped completely. She looked at Jedidiah Calvert, pierced by the
long beam that seemed as static as any of the walls around her. To
her the people were like statues, frozen in a moment of time. They
would never see her, as she would be gone before any light ever
bounced off her and returned to the users eyes. In effect, she was
existing in frozen time.
She waved her hands in front of the eyes of one of the TransMed
soldiers. She knew they couldn't see her. She looked at the logo on
his short.
"Eck. TransMed. I hate these guys." She said.
Then she turned her attention to Calvert. "It's a shame Jedidiah,
your existence is over so quickly!" she said. "One second you're
alive, and the next you're dead. Literally."
On Jedidiah's face was a frozen look of terror.
"I didn't know you were scared of death Jed?" She said, and studied
Jed's frozen face. Then his mouth closed and he looked at her. "What
would you do? Ah'm being shot!" he said.
Annie could have been surprised, but she wasn't. Jed looked around
the room, and saw everything frozen in place, with a glowing beam
pointing right into his belly and out the other side.
"Whut the...?"
"I've frozen everything in time apart from you, Jed." Annie said
calmly.
"But... but why aren't I dead?"
Annie sighed. "You'll die soon enough." She said. "Not many people
will survive that!" She said and pointed to the hole perfectly carved
through his body.
Jedidiah looked down. "Yeah, sheet. That's bad huh?"
Annie nodded.
"So are yer saving me?" He said. Annie shook her head. "No, but I
wanted to say goodbye that's all."
"Oh? Who are you then?"
Annie seemed initially confused at the question, then realised there
something she hadn't done. She clicked her fingers and a glass
appeared in her hand. It contained two shots of brown liquid and some
ice.
"Drink this." She ordered.
Jedidiah screwed his nose up. "No thanks I don't drink."
"Oh come on. It won't kill you!" She said.
Jed looked at her as if he was about to punch her for making jokes at
his near-death situation.
He reluctantly necked the whole glass, then looked down at the hole
in his stomach where the liquid was starting to leak from. "You gotta
be kidding me?!"
Annie grinned, then asked him "What about the taste?"
"It's... familiar."
"It's whiskey made in your home town on your home planet."
"I remember...." Jed said.
"Good."
"I remember drinking so much...."
"And...?"
"I drank so much... I HAD to drink so much! Because of ... because of
what I would become!"
"Good your memories are coming back. You'll soon remember about being
the Captain of this ship."
"The Blue Dwarf!" Jed said in recollection. "I was... I was a shit
Captain!"
"Well..." Annie weighed up whether she should agree with him or just
say 'no' to be polite.
"I was a drunk!" He said. "I was worthless."
"Well not worthless... but yes you were a drunk." Annie admitted.
Jed looked at her and tried to remember. "But I don't remember
you...."
Annie smiled. "We've only met a few times throughout your life, but
you've presented a whole galaxy of problems for me."
"Oh well I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you!" Jed said
sarcastically. "But whoever you are "
Annie shrugged. "Well it's just the way it goes." Then she thought
for a moment. "Remember when you were ordered to return the Blue
Dwarf back home to be re-crewed, and you refused?"
"Yeah!" Jed exclaimed. "Bastard SpaceCorps wanted to take our jobs
away from us!"
Annie nodded.
"And when I refused to go back, the crew almost sodding mutinied on
me. That's darned gratitude for yer."
Annie rolled her eyes. Jed was stubborn even half a second away from
death. "Yes but do you remember the future I showed you. What it
would be like if you didn't go back?"
Jed grumbled. "Yeah. It was brilliant."
"No Jed, peoples lives were miserable! Even you were miserable."
"I were rich!" He said. "I turned the Blue Dwarf was a floating
casino and knocking shop. Don' yer tell me that's not awesome."
Annie looked at him with pitying eyes. "That future, that version of
events still exists in the myriad of parallel universes. I still have
to visit it, and see first-hand the suffering."
Jed looked down at his feet. Then he looked at the hole in his
stomach, aware again that he was about to die.
"So what happens in the future after I die?" he asked.
Annie smiles at him. "It's better."
Jed rolled his eyes. "All rainbows and puppies I bet!" He sniggered.
Annie had a thought. "I can show you what it would be like if you did
stay alive if you want?"
"If I did stay alive? You sound like ah'm already dead!" he said.
Then Annie pointed to the hole in his chest again. "You almost are!"
"Okay I want to see." Jed said.
<To be continued...>