Timeless Marine: Prequel

By Aaron Pery

Alex is so enamored with being a Marine that rejoins the Corps repeatedly under different guises for the nexy two-hundred and thirty years and serves with great distinction.
The Story takes us to the present time, detailing Alex's strange new adventuresas he assembles a small group of very close friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aaron Pery
• Release date: Dec 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301296217

Aaron Pery

As most authors might claim, I was always been a natural storyteller and voracious book reader. Somehow, I also knew that some day I would sit down and write a book, which I did quite recently.When I finally sat in front of my computer monitor to do just that, the words literally came pouring out. Before very long, I had written many books in various genres.At first, my prolific writing was mainly for the pleasure and self-entertainment involved, until I discocered Smashwords and ebooks, and here I am, a published author with a long list of books to my credit. And many more to come.

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Timeless Marine - Prequel

Aaron Pery

Smashwords eBook Edition

All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2012 by Aaron Pery

ISBN #9781301296217

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Timeless Marine - Prequel

Chapter 1

Paris, France, 1770 CE

Confused and utterly surprised, the young man found himself lying on a pile of garbage in an alley between two ramshackle brick buildings. It was night-time and very cold in a way that he had never been exposed to during his entire life, and what was worse was the fact that he was totally naked other than the brief loincloth that he wore. He could not remember whom he was or why he was where he was; only that he had never been so bitterly cold, so cold that he started shivering violently barely a moment after regaining his senses.

He was startled when a man suddenly appeared at the mouth of the short alley and handed him a long robe, then urged him to put it on. Come, my friend, we must be gone from here before the Gendarmes find and take you to jail.

The young man, by now aware that his name was Asher Ben Ahaz of the Tribe of Judah, was taken aback by his apparent benefactor's Aramaic speech. You speak my language. How come? And who are these Gendarmes, as you called them?

Never mind now because we must get away quickly. I'll explain everything when we get to my house. The man, though heavily bearded, looked and sounded much younger on closer inspection.

Asher complied with his instructions and threw the coat over his shoulders, then hurried after him. He was quite surprised, though, as he observed the totally alien environment around him as they rushed away through the nearly empty streets, but did not ask about it for fear of being rebuked again. Though he had no concept of modern time counting, Asher estimated that they arrived at their destination very quickly when his rescuer pushed open a door to a house nearly identical to those he had seen so far.

He was quite gratified by the warmth that surrounded him the moment they entered, and even more so by the rather richly furnished room. When the man saw his expression, he smiled. Quite a bit different from what you'd expected, isn't it? I'll explain why it is so, Asher, but first I think you'd like to bathe, put on clean clothes, and have a bite to eat after your ordeal of the past few days.

Asher returned his smile. I surely do. It took me five days of climbing and getting lost a few times to get here, and I'd finished the last of my food and water two days ago--I think, because there was no way for me to distinguish between day and night. So thank you and I'd like to wash first.

Good idea. By the way, my name is Ephron.

Then you're a Hittite, which must be why you speak my language.

Yes, I am. Or more correctly used to be. Ephron clapped his hand and a young slave girl rushed in. He gave her lengthy instructions, after which she took Asher's hand and led him out of the room.

To Asher's surprise and delight the room she took him to was hot and full of steam that came out of a bubbling large tub, something that only the richest Egyptian nobles could afford in his days of living there as a slave. He did not mind it when the young Kushite removed his loincloth before pushing him into the center of the tub and left him there to immerse himself in the soothing hot water, which made him sleepy. A while later, she returned with a pile of clean clothes and put them on a bench before undressing herself completely and joining him in the water, holding a large vial of a scented liquid. She began scrubbing him step-by-step from his hair down to his toes, which again made him so sleepy that he finally did succumb to it despite all his prurient thoughts about the young girl's feminine attributes.

When Asher woke up, he found himself stretched on the thickly padded bench feeling rested and almost human again. He smiled to himself when he got up and his empty stomach growled loudly. Well, he thought, now that I am clean and dressed in whatever the slave brought me; it's time I had something to eat as well. As soon as he reached the door it was opened by the slave, who guided him through the house to what apparently was a dining room with a table laden with food, where Ephron gestured for him to sit down and make a selection of what he would like to eat.

Though he made no comment about it as he ate, trying very hard not to literally gobble everything within sight and reach, Asher tasted everything and ate it very slowly. He was astonished by the amount of food, its variety, and how delicious everything was unlike his lifetime of experience. Finally sated, he burped politely to indicate his satisfaction and then washed his hands in the scented water that the slave offered him in a hand basin. Asher turned to his host, who he had noticed ate very little, and thanked him profusely for taking such great care of him.

Ephron accepted his gratitude graciously. I'm glad that you seem to like everything that I'd provided for you.

For which, again, you have my deepest gratitude. But before we go any further we have a lot of things that we need to discuss--first and foremost is where and when is this place I'd arrived at.

I agree. The name of this city is Paris, which is the capital of a country called France. As to the when part, since I'm sure that a lot of things have changed from the day you had been banished to Hades, I need to know when, where, and why did you end up in hell.

Asher wrinkled his forehead as he tried to remember the year of his banishment, then shrugged. I'm not too sure as to exactly when that was, only to say that it occurred a few years after all of my people left Egypt, in the year 2,448 according to our counting. My trouble started when the Twelve Tribes of Israel were assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai awaiting our leader and the Prophet Moses return to us after receiving the Laws of God to serve as our guide. Well, when he did not return after thirty days of absence some of us who were disgruntled about various issues, began to foment rebellion against him by claiming that Moses was an imposter rather than a true messenger of God.

I'm familiar with the story, but what was your problem with Moses?

The fact that he chose Joshua over me as general of our army when I was much better qualified to lead it. So when the opportunity arose to depose Moses I became a strong proponent of us erecting the Golden Calf as the first symbol of getting rid of Moses and his god.

Ephron chuckled. It was a great miscalculation considering what happened after Moses came down the Mountain and found out what you and your friend Dothan were doing, wasn't it?

Very true. But how come you know all that?

Because the events at the foot of Mount Sinai and everything else that happened there became quite well known to the rest of the region's people.

I see. Anyway, I was proven wrong in my assessment of Moses' true power since I was part of the group that he made God drop into the ground, from where we all went directly to Hell. Fortunately for me when I reached Hell, rather than being stripped of my material body I was kind of adopted by Demon Lilith to serve as her and every other female demons' sexual servant.

I know that what was done to you sounds awful but not quite as bad as was my fate when I reached Hades and was burned in its fire pits for over a thousand years until my daughter Rahab had discovered the secret passage out of there.

Same for me, which she thankfully told me about just over a week ago. D'you have any idea how long I'd served all those bitches from Hell?

Of course, now that you told me when you got to Hades--around thirty-three hundred years.

I thought it was a long time but not this long. How do you know about it?

It was easy to figure out once you told me about your own misfortune. The fact is that your people and their history had become quite influential in this world that we'd both found ourselves after being in purgatory for such a long absence. In fact, I was given the task by my daughter to educate you in all of today's world's customs, history, and religions regardless of how long it will take because, after all, we'd become immortals so time has no meaning to us.

I see. But who are you, or were, and why is your daughter a genuine demon? And why did she help me escape from Hades?

Ephron chuckled. The fact is that we, or rather Rahab, are quite a famous historical personality. What happened, you see, was that after Moses died Joshua became the leader of your people and was poised to conquer the Promised Land. One of his obstacles was the City of Jericho which controlled the route from the river Jordan into the heart of Canaan and was well fortified, on which he had very little information. So he sent two spies into the city to check it out.

Are you saying that he was a good general?

He was, because he succeeded in conquering all the major kingdoms of the area. Anyway, since my family was quite poor and I had to resort to various criminal activities to support us, we were forced to leave our home in Hattusa and wander through many of the city-states of Canaan, ending up in Jericho where I ran a successful whorehouse with Rahab as my premier prostitute. Our ploy was to entice foreign travelers into our house, where Rahab would get them drunk and then I would cut their throats and take their money. I hope you won't despise me for it but that was the only way for us to survive rather than being beggars.

I don't really care about your past.

Thank you. So, one day two desert wanderers came to our wine shop and Rahab took them both to her room in preparation for my part of the work. Then, suddenly, a group of the City Guard burst in and demanded to know if anyone saw two nomads whom they described in detail. Deciding that it would be foolish to help them without first telling Rahab to get away, I sneaked into her room to warn her about the Guard and tell her about these two men being wanted. Which she refused to do and told me to inform the soldiers that she was in her room alone and that they're welcome to come and search it. There was no time to argue so I did as she suggested and a few minutes later the guard burst into her room, finding her alone in bed and deeply asleep. They searched around the apartment but left quickly afterwards when they could find no one.

Strange behavior. Why did she protect the spies?

Because Rahab figured that if the rumors about the Israelites' fighting and defeating some very large, strong armies were true then we better try to be on their good side. And she was right about that because helping them escape ensured sure that we remained alive while they later killed the entire population. We joined the Israelite camp where we were caught after a while doing the same thing as we did in Jericho. Hebrew justice was fast and fair and I was hanged two days later while Rahab, because of her previous service to them the Israelite judge sent to Hades, where she became a demon and continued being a harlot, a fact she told me about once we found each other in Hell, that she loved being a lowly demon whore. It took Rahab a long time to discover the passage to the top, and once she did she carried my soul to this city, where she installed me in the body of a rather healthy and big youth, which I was delighted to receive. So I'd been living ever since as Hector Garnier, a legitimate French citizen who was born in this city thirty years ago.

"I see. And you seem to have done well