The Adventures of Mercy Song

Outrun the Past, Defeat the Future

Mercy found the starliner to be oddly comfortable.

The quinta-annual Intergalactic Conference of Archaeology took up almost four and a half decks, each spanning almost two miles long, the floating city able to house multiple American Football Stadium's worth of people and displays on just one floor. There were immersive digsite simulations, presentations on historic mysteries still requiring discovery, and expositions of new technology. Panels were running almost twenty four hours a day, and each day would cover for a different eon of history.

There were new ideas for futuristic archeology as well. With the new fad religion of believing in the sacrality of a malleable future, many people began looking to turn archeology into a study of what the future would be like based on patterns in the past, using their skills to predict the future. Professor Song didn't like the recent twist to her beloved practice, and instead attended more professor's panels than the new fangled "spiritual divination mumbo-jumbo" side, as she called it. Mercy chose to agree with the woman's short rant as they walked through the displays, heading for a presentation on some sort of new technique for the field. They passed shelves of artifacts and tools, even some really ancient pieces from both Earth and other planets alike. Jewels and jade, pottery and plants, precious metals and strange monoliths all were set up to be viewed by the crowds.

Mercy had been on Karn less than two days ago. She had been whisked away by Ohila's teleportation powers to another location that had turned out to be this intergalactic starliner. Mercy had been deposited in a random stateroom, clearly occupied by the bags, and Mercy had panicked when the bathroom door opened in response to the loud oof sound Mercy had made upon impact with the floor. River had gasped in surprise, gushing about how happy she was that Mercy had joined her. The redhead later discovered that this was the event for which the brochure Professor Song had given her lead to.

Professor Song, being an esteemed archaeologist, had been allowed to bring some students to the convention, but had instead only booked Mercy as her plus one. Now, the two were exploring the exhibits between presentations.

As they walked, River began to chatter, and told Mercy about some of her random adventures, from being accused of a witch in Salem, almost getting away with convincing the scribes in the Library of Alexandria that she was the goddess Venus, and even causing the second excommunication of Venice. The stories all amused Mercy greatly, some being familiar and some she'd never heard before, but she tuned them out, instead trying to consider what Ohila had meant about people coming after River. Would they be here? Would they be waiting in an empty hallway? Would they use drugs or poison? How might any enemies-

"Mercy, are you listening to me?"

The girl jerked to look at River. "Oh yeah. Something about The Library of Alexandria?"

"That was almost ten minutes ago," River chided, sighing through her nose, "Really, you can relax. You don't have to always be on your toes. We already figured out this prophecy. We can put it behind us."

Mercy tried to nod, but it just seemed too simple for River to have easily accepted that as an answer. She wondered what it had taken for Ohila to convince the blonde of the lie. Some part of her hoped -prayed, really- that River didn't actually believe such a story, and was simply trying to protect herself and Mercy. But another part of her ached that the woman would trust her enough to actually be honest, even though there was no way in all the universe that such a thing might happen.

On the off chance that Ohila had lied to Mercy, on the other hand, things were still not making complete sense. Those who used to chase and hunt her years ago were at bay for now, and hadn't appeared in a while. Things were too comfortable, too quiet.