Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 19:27:55 -0500 Reply-To: LNagy10434@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Lawrence E. Nagy" llowing is a Highlander Universe Story. It does not currently feature any regular HL characters but may. This is my first attempt at pure Highlander fiction. I have posted parts of an unfinished Quantum Leap / HL crossover _HIGHLEAPER_ which I do plan to return to someday. Let me know what you think, I am very interested in comments and critique. More parts will follow. This is very much a work in progress and reader input may very well have an effect on future installments. Larry Nagy lnagy10434@aol.com THE JOURNEY OF JEREMY KELLER "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday" Part 1 The young man walked through the dark, deserted parking lot. Around him, scattered cars sat abandoned by their last drivers. The mall had been closed for hours, all windows were dark and there was no other movement in the area. An empty cup rolled across the yellow lines, crossing paths with a wayward page from the evenings sports section. He wore a camouflaged military field jacket with the collar pulled up and secured under his chin. A black printed strip over the right pocket read KELLER and one over the left read US NAVY. His short outgrown GI haircut was matted down by the mist of rain that fell about him. The black canvas jungle boots he wore made no noise on the wet blacktop and the green military duffel he carried was slung securely over his right shoulder, riding comfortably on his back. On the far side of the lot a pair of lights appeared and headed for the young man. He looked at the approaching lights then at the woods and the unseen highway beyond. The moment of hesitation cost him his choice, the car approached faster then he had originally estimated. It could be a cop, or a random driver coming to check out this lone figure. The man put down his duffel, he knew it was neither. Someone had been stalking him since his bus passed them this morning. The car stopped thirty yards away. In the dim light he could tell it was a new Camera. The black roof suggested a Z28, not bad. The driver got out, he was a tall man wearing a trench coat. A sickening knot that started in the pit of Keller's stomach then shook his whole body told him what this man was. He walked from the edge of the glow of one street light to another. Keller waited patiently to see the man's face, finally he was close enough to make out. He looked to be barely a man perhaps seventeen, maybe. "I am Grigori Neboatov." the boy said as he pulled an old curved sword from under his coat. "But my friends know me as Greg Newbury." he said with a smile. "Sorry to disappoint you, Greg, but I don't play the game." Keller informed the other. Then reached down to pick up his bag. Newbury swung his sword from one position to another and took a step toward Keller. "You don't have a choice." He then smiled again. "When I saw you this afternoon I really didn't think it would be this easy." "You mean you would kill me just like that, in cold blood." "The blood definitely isn't cold and it's all just part of the game. It is the price you pay for a few extra days, years or even centuries of life." "Its murder!" "Your already dead, I'm just finishing the job." with that, Newbury stepped forward raising his sword to strike. "I don't think so." Keller said and pulled a stainless steel .357 magnum out from under his coat. Newbury grinned briefly thinking his advisory was finally pulling his own sword. The bright flash and explosion quickly changed his expression. Pain ripped through his left side as his kidney disintegrated and blew out his back taking with it splinters of rib and parts of near by organs. Before he had time to scream his shoulder exploded shattering the top of his arm leaving only muscle and tissue to hold it to his body. Grigori Neboatov landed on his shattered side and screamed in pain. The boy/man grabbed feebly at his wounds, only his centuries of life kept him from succumbing to the pain and passing out. "You son of a bitch." he hissed "this breaks all the rules of the game." "What game? I never signed up for any game. I'm just protecting myself the only way I know how." "Next time, you bastard, I won't give you a chance." "You would still come after me knowing that I don't play." "As long as your head is on your shoulders, your playing. You'd better get yourself a sword, cause next time you won't surprise me." "I'm sorry you feel that way." Grigori watched through blurred eyes as Keller reached into his duffel and pulled out a weapon the length of his arm. The sound of a shell being pumped into a shotgun was the second to last sound Grigori Neboatov heard. The Z28 was a fine car. Grigori must have parked it at a distance to avoid the quickening, how considerate. One thing Keller had learned the last few years was that these immortals, especially the older ones, had very few ties, wouldn't soon be missed and were very hard to trace when found sans head. Jeremy Keller sat parked on the back street overlooking the Virginia Beach shoreline. A large ship glided across the horizon and pulled Keller into his dreams. ......It had been a standard mission, and an easy one. Swim in close to the shore, photograph the Iraqi fortifications at sector 12b then swim back to the ship. Along the way they would flag any mine lines found. It was a mission they had trained for a hundred times over and had accomplished without incident twelve times now. The Iraqis had no clue the SEALS had been there and gone. None of the young Iraqi boy-soldiers who sat nervously awaiting the pending invasion knew how close the Americans were. They sat huddled in their bunker watching the faint horizon for the invading fleet never suspecting the enemy floated a few yards off shore looking up at them. The mission had gone flawlessly, in and out quickly. They had found their sleds and started the long swim back without incident. In the Persian Gulf, however, the weather could change quickly. The surface had turned from slow rolling waves to a violent chop. Weather was just the beginning of trouble for Lieutenant Keller, the currents from the waves separated him from his team, then his re-breather began having troubles. Mico-chips in the complex mixed gas rebreather failed quickly poisoning his oxygen. Swimming in near blackness in the middle of the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant Jeremy Keller died, killed by the most sinister enemy of a high tech soldier, a defective computer chip. Jeremy woke up gasping for air and clutching at the steering wheel. Night had fallen and lights spotted the ocean and shore in front of him. Hunger gnawed at his gut and the pain of cramped muscles pulled at his neck and shoulders. The Z28 fired right up and carried him back toward the frenzied panic of civilization. It was time to stop remembering what had been and begin looking forward to a very long life, if he could avoid the crazies playing with their swords. The car pointed itself west and carried Lieutenant Keller into the night. to be continued.............. ----------- If you like what I've got so far and want to see some of my earlier work. Seach out _The Vigilante_ in the alt.startrek.ceative newsgroup archives. =========================================================================