Chapter 1: Light Gathered

"Dave! C'mon, get with the program man!" I heard Mike say from the doorway behind me.

I stood up from where I'd been sitting on the porch steps and flashed him a grin.

"Sorry. I just got to thinking about something. Is everything ready?"

"Oh Yeah!" Mike answered back with enthusiasm.

Inside my parents house a blur of organization and activity through the course of the day had produced a sea of blue and gold balloons, streamers and a huge banner that stretched the entire living room, from end to end that said

'Congratulations Virginia Elspeth Parkin, M.D.'

Officially, the Parkin family was coming to one of Mom's special luncheons to celebrate Ginny's graduation. Mom had indeed cooked up a storm, and tonight we were set to enjoy a taste of New Orleans, with a Pork Gumbo, craw fish pie, tomato and melon salad and corn fritters, although I remember Mom calling them 'corn oysters' for some reason. Dessert was cushaw pie. A cushaw was a kind of squash apparently, so this was like a pumpkin pie, but it had holes poked in it and filled with a butter rum glaze, and then the entire top was covered with a chocolate butter cream layer. No need for whipped cream with this pie!

Well, the food was excellent as always where Mom was concerned, and everyone had a blast springing a surprise party on Ginny. It was later in the day, early evening really, after all the family and friends where gone off to get ready for a dinner that evening at Ginny's parent's house, and it was just the Legion of the Doomed, together again, that Ginny and I put into action the plan that this event had really been designed for. I raised my glass.

"A toast!" I waited until I had everyone's attention, and their glasses were filled and raised.

"I salute the Legion of the Doomed." I toasted.

"To the Legion!" They replied in unison.

Ginny slid off my lap and stepped out in front of everyone.

"This evening has been wonderful, and I thank you for all the good thoughts and wishes I've received today. Today was not really about me though, and it wasn't really a surprise. Davey and I planned this evening as an excuse to get us all together again, right here in the same spot where we last gathered. We have an offer to make you all." I stood then and joined Ginny.

"Although we have had only limited contact in the last six years, phone calls and email mostly, Ginny and I have been keeping tabs on each of you, and where you are at in your lives and in your careers. Chet, that would have been impossible without Cyrus' help in your case. Your military career went classified pretty quickly."

"I'm gonna hafta lay some 'esprit de friggin corp' on that man's ass next I see him." Chet laughingly answered back.

"Mike, you were the easiest of course, since you accepted Grandpa A.J.'s offer to join the McKesson Group's legal division after law school."

"Yeah, which he paid for!" Mike shot back.

"I knew you had to figure out where that scholarship to Duke came from as well, so I'm assuming it will come as no surprise to you when I say how proud we all are that you've done so well."

"Freddie, it amazes me to think that of all of us it would've been 'little Freddie Sabarte' that became a TV star."

"I just fix up pretty cars man! I can't help it if cable TV will give a show to anyone who can build pretty cars!"

"And Arden! Bret Harte High School Vice-Principal Arden Anderson! What's this I hear about you getting caught necking with the Biology teacher in the teacher's lounge yesterday?"

"Well, she was kissing me pretty hard when the door opened, but it wasn't exactly necking." Arden said.

"I had a good excuse for kissing him." Alicia added, blushing. "Yesterday Arden asked me to marry him, and I said yes!"

Wow! — talk about the Return of the Chaos Bomb!!

When the dust settled from that little announcement, I continued.

"well I guess I don't need to say any more about Alicia, and of course we're all took time earlier this evening recounting Ginny's successes. That leaves me, doesn't it?"

"You're the one who's always missing in action for long stretches, and impossible to reach when you're gone." Freddie said.

"You're harder to keep track of than Chet, and he's had Uncle Sam helping hide him!" Alicia added.

"What kind of work could you possibly do for the McKesson Foundation that you have to disappear down the rabbit hole to do it?" Mike added.

"Well, if I told you, I'd have to kill you." I said.

Chet fell out of his chair laughing. "Hey, I thought that was supposed to be my line!"

"Okay, I wouldn't have to kill you, but I can't tell you anything unless I can get your sworn promise that you'll never tell another soul without my permission. Will you all make that promise to me now?" As I asked, I reached out with my thoughts and lightly touched each of them.

"Yes." I got from all of them, both in word and in thought, except Chet.

"Chet, I can tell you that Cyrus already is aware of what I will reveal. I know you have reservations, as he did, and I know where they come from." And with that I felt Chet's reservations vanish.

"Very well, thank you all for your trust, and faith in me. It is true that I didn't follow the road people thought I should have. I didn't go to college, I didn't become an engineer like my Dad, or a Pilot like Grandpa Carson, although I did get my private pilot's license. The reason I didn't do these things is because I discovered I had a gift. I've known about this gift for about as long as the Legion of Doom has existed. The group of people who I revealed my gift to was very small at first; my parents, and grandparents, and Ginny of course. Later, when I went to visit my grandpa McKesson in North Carolina, I learned that my gift was something that tied into the history of Dad's family, and so the number of people who knew grew again, including Cyrus, and eventually Felicia Poole. Ginny's parents know, but not the rest of her family, although I expect to share this knowledge with her brother Pete in the not too distant future."

"Well geez! What is it?" Arden threw in. You actually a some alien from another planet? Those Men in Black guys will be busting down the doors any second now, I'm sure."

"Hah! More likely he's some lost prince of Finland or something?" Mike added.

"Or something." I answered. "The easiest way is to show you." And as I said it, I moved us through to Meadow, back to that same grassy field where I'd delivered so many others for the first time.

Birds chirped, the wind moved through the trees, that nearby stream babbled its usual confession. This time I didn't wait for a reaction.

"Welcome to Meadow." I said.

"Wow!" Freddie said.

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" I heard from Chet and Mike, almost simultaneously.

"Oh my God!" I got from Arden and Alicia.

I had moved everyone here, picnic table and all, and had arranged our arrival so that they faced me, looking out into the empty, untouched field.

"Meadow, as we have come to call it was the first place I was able to jump to, but this location on Meadow was not the first I learned to get to. Can anyone guess, thinking about our history together, where the first place was?"

This got me some silence for a couple of minutes, and then Alicia jumped up.

"Ooh! The Ledge!" She said excitedly. "You were always running of to that ledge up on the lake to collect rock samples!

"Oh Yeah!" Chet chimed in. "I always wondered what was so damned special about that place. I mean its kinda cool and all, but it wasn't that cool!"

"Yeah." I laughed. "Good work Alicia."

Alicia had turned to sit back down, and that's when she saw it.

"Oh my God!" She said, pointing behind the rest of the group sitting at the table. "Look at that!"

'That' was a big log cabin house. The kind you see when you go to one of those fancy wilderness resorts in remote areas, made of cedar or redwood logs, but with all the amenities. This one had huge two story glass windows in the front and huge decks on both sides. Right now the entire thing was lit up from the inside as it appeared every light in it was on. Con had claimed he got the plans from the Internet while at Grandpa A.J.'s and 'had it built' I knew exactly how he had it built of course, because I had to bounce a railroad car sized container to Meadow for him from where he had parked it next to the Seeker world focus.

"Lets head to the house." I said. "There are a couple people here I'd like you all to meet."

As we headed towards the house I popped the picnic table back into Mom and Dad's back yard.

Eru and Pearl met us at the front door, and I made the introductions.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"In the Garden. Shall I get him?"

"No, lets go out there. We're not staying this time anyway, so we might as well save the tour for another time." We quickly went through the house to the back garden, which met the back of the house in a beautiful, quiet flagstone covered patio area. Waiting there for us was Construct.

"Con, allow me to introduce you to the Legion of the Doomed." I opened with. Construct, in the years since we'd restored the focus had decided he needed a real name, and had settled eventually on Constantine Dedomena Fylakas, and that was how he introduced himself.

"Arden, now that you have met Eru and Con, you have indeed met your first two aliens. Con and I have known each other since my sixteenth birthday, and Eru and I since I was eighteen. Con is more than just an alien however, he is an artificial being."

There were a lot of wowing and oohing, and general hubbub, but that was broken finally by Alicia

"Data!" She shrieked. "His middle name is Greek for Data!!"

"Yes." Con laughed. "I originally had no name, and simply called myself Construct, which Dave, Ginny and Eru were quite happy to call me. But once I was able to interact more with the people of Earth, I desired a name that would not seem so odd. I chose Constantine just because it was a real name that resembled Construct. Fylakas I chose because it is Greek for Guardian. Dedomena I chose just to amuse myself and annoy Dave."

"You are all going to hear the story that Con has to tell about his and our history. He is, as close as we can figure it, at least four thousand years old. We are unsure how much older than that the history goes, because his creators seemed to have quite intentionally not made any direct references to events on Earth, or other places which we can associate with known human or Earth history, and they did not give Con a sense of time when they created him. Please sit, and listen to Con's story. Get to know each other a little. Ginny and I will be back in about half an hour or so."

Ginny and I excused ourselves and walked into the house. As soon as we were out of sight I popped us into my bedroom. I sat Ginny on the edge of the bed and cautioned her to just sit and wait. I took her shoes off and spun her around to sit cross-legged on the bed. I slipped off my own shoes and quickly joined her. Sitting face to face only inches apart on the bed, I gave her a quick, but soft and heated kiss. I held out my hand, palm up in front of her and reached out and moved the little jewelery box through from the gun safe in Grandma and Grandpa Carson's garage.

"Blossom, I love you. You are the center of my universe, the beacon in the wilderness that guides me home, the fire that warms me. You have been my heart and my conscience and my comfort, and I've never wanted anyone but you."

I opened the little box, and presented its contents to her, my hand shaking just a little.

"Virginia Elspeth Parkin, will you marry me?"

"Oh Davey!" Ginny said with tears in her eyes. "I have been waiting for this moment almost since that day when you first walked into Daddy's store and came back to the rock and gem counter. If I am the center of your universe, you are the universe. If I am your beacon, you are my Light! If I am what warms you ... Oh Davey, you are what heats me. If I am your heart, you are my soul. I love you Davey! Yes, David Alan McKesson, I will marry you."

We kissed, and as she slid into my arms, I thought that perhaps it was going to be more the 'or so' than it was the half hour I'd promised the Legion.

If only every pleasant interlude in life could end with a long, sensuous shower! I was happy to have this one end that way! As Ginny was dressing, I asked her to look closely at the ring I'd given her. The center stone was a 3 carat round cut diamond, and around it were a dozen ½ carat round cut diamonds, three white and nine blue, arranged in a very specific pattern. Ginny gasped in recognition of the significance.

"Grandpa A.J., Sheb and Violet have all given this their seal of approval to the stones themselves, and to the pattern. At first I didn't want to find a separate engagement ring because I knew this one would have special meaning, so I'm afraid I went a little nuts. Here."

I held open my hand and popped another box into it. When Ginny opened it, it contained a sort of inverse representation of the wedding ring I'd already shown her. This ring had a cluster of nine ½ carat blue diamonds surrounded by three 1 carat white diamonds evenly spaced around it.

"Wear this starting tonight, and I'll save the first one for our wedding day."

We managed to avoid another lengthy delay in our reappearance, but just barely. Our return engendered a lot of teasing and laughing, until Ginny held up her ring finger. Alicia and Ginny were immediately fourteen years old again, squealing and hugging and jumping up and down.

I looked at Arden as we shook hands. "What do you think the chances are that we'll be hearing talk about a possible double wedding before the week is out?" He shrugged and grinned back at me.

Once the celebrating of this latest news had wound down, I got everyone's attention again.

"I know it seems like a world of new things have been thrown at you today, multiple worlds of new things. You've heard the history of the Choctowineh and the Seekers, and my story. You know about the Light, and you've seen me use my gift. Moving between the many facets, such as Earth and Meadow is just one aspect of it. There are others." As I said this I Light-lifted one of the large flower pots that bordered the patio into the air and let it circle around us a couple times. After returning it to its place, I smiled at all of them and added

There are even more things to reveal, and to explore than you can imagine. I thought to them, and while I did, I bounced myself from spot to spot around them, doing fast flickering jumps between a dozen different spots before I returned to where I started.

"There are an uncounted number of worlds to explore, an uncounted number of new things to see and a lifetime worth of learning and discovery. There are gifts left behind that wait to be used and people out there in places yet unknown to us that we can help, just as we will help the people back home when we can."

Ginny jumped in now. "We have been keeping close tabs on all of you for a reason. We trust you, and we believe in your intelligence and honesty and your desire to do good. We knew that right now would be our best opportunity to recruit you to join us in this adventure. All of you are finally at points in your lives where you can determine your own next move without obligation or reservation."

"That is why we arranged this event today. We could have celebrated the M.D. Behind Ginny's name anytime in the last year. We've been waiting for a chance to ask you all to join us, and here we are. Arden, Alicia, Mike, Freddie and Chet. Will you walk away from the lives you are leading now and join us? You must know though, that the ability to move between worlds is not something that can be taught, and at the moment, I am the only one we know of who has the gift. If I were to die while we were off on another facet, everyone with me would be trapped there. Forever."

Some gifts, though, it appears can be learned, under the right circumstances. Ginny thought at them all.

Phew! Talk about your dead silences! Nobody moved a muscle for a full minute. Before anyone could say anything though, Eru, wise old Soul Diver that he was, interrupted everyone's pondering.

"Perhaps you all should spend the evening thinking about this. We will all be getting together in just a few short hours for dinner at the Parkin's. Save your replies for then."

"Excellent idea! I said, lets get everyone back home!" And with that I reached out and moved us all back to the patio in Mom and Dad's back yard.

I think the stunned faces of everyone as they filed through the house to their various cars was sufficient to tip Mom off to the day's proceedings.

"Where's Dad?" I asked Mom.

"He's out in the Shop I think." She answered.

Dad, you busy? I thought to him.

Just puttering around Son, something up?

Could you come in the house a minute?

Okay, be right there.

We got the two of them together in the kitchen, and instead of any kind of fancy announcement, Ginny just held up her hand and displayed the ring.

I got hugs from both of them and when Dad asked me about the timing, I confessed that I'd upped the schedule by a few days because of Arden and Alicia's announcement of their engagement.

"We need to get over to my house before people start arriving." Ginny said. "I do not want my Mom and Dad to be the last to know about the engagement!"

With immediate support from all corners, I bounced us over to Ginny's bedroom, and we were quickly on our way down the stairs looking for her folks.

"Mom! Dad!" Ginny yelled through the house.

"Out here!" we heard from the driveway.

"Silly us, we were waiting for the two of you to pull up in the GTO." Mary said as we came through the door.

I stopped and got a hug, but Ginny kept right on moving, and very shortly was screaming and laughing like a fourteen year old again. I turned from hugging her Mom, and saw the reason. Sitting in their driveway was the twin to my GTO, except hers was blue!

"Why do I suspect the hands of Freddie Sabarte have been toiling on your behalf?" I asked Paul.

"Too true!" He laughed back. "Do you think she likes it?"

"Ya think?" I said as I looked at where she lay across the hood, hugging her car. When she recovered, she came and gave her Dad a kiss and a hug, and he handed her the keys. Mary got a hug and kiss as well, and then with the two of them standing there, arm in arm, Ginny slid herself into my side.