Life After Death (short story)

Life After Death was the fourth story set in the 10,000 Dawns universe to crossover with Doctor Who. Unlike the preceding three, this story was published as episode five of the spin-off series Lady Aesculapius: Series 1 instead of the main series. It featured the licensed appearance of Coloth who first appeared in the Short Trips story War Crimes. Auteur, a character from the Faction Paradox series who had made prior guest appearances in 10,000 Dawns, was also mentioned.
== Summary ==
Blanche Combine is having breakfast in her cottage when she abruptly receives an interdimensional invitation to "the funeral of Lady Aesculapius", all the odder for seemingly having been written by Aesc herself. Indeed, earlier that day, Aesculapius's current body was killed by a trapped parcel, right in her own Factory of Crystal, while the latter was floating through "a recently-destroyed universe". As is natural for her kind, she was then reborn in a whole new body, and was thus able to stand over the body in question with her companion Jason Jackson. After reassuring him that she was "used to being murdered", she brainstormed ways to solve her own murder with Jason, settling on the idea of setting up a funeral for the old Aesculapius, inviting everyone she knows and even sending out an "intergalactic pan-dimensional obituary" to cast an even wider net.
At the party in question, then, Blanche finds herself making awkward small talk with another one of Aesc's past travelling companions, Archimedes Von Ahnerabe, scanning the crowd of peculiar-looking people gathered in the pink crystal chapel grown by the Factory. Among them are a woman with a ginger afro, a strange little girl with a ponytail who seems to be here by herself, and the cactus-skinned man, Coloth, who bumps into an unreasonably ominous man in black and crimson. The chatter quietens when Jason Jackson, wearing a suit and tie, enters the room, accompanied by a woman in a tacky Sherlock Holmes costume who claims to be Aesculapius's cousin "Lady Raesculapius", here to deliver the eulogy, although Graelyn quickly recognises her as Aesc in a new body.
"Raesculapius" ends her eccentric eulogy by confirming that the so-called "final" body of Aesculapius was murdered, and the guests retire to an adjacent, golden room for a buffet. There, while some of Aesc's closer friends confirm their mutual suspicions that the "female reboot of Sherlock Holmes" is obviously Aesc in a new body, Jason and Aesc spot the strange little girl trying to pour some poison into the scotch eggs. After disposing of them, the two run back to the Factory's main control tower to run a further test on the parcel which killed Aesc, finding that the DNA traces on it as unidentifiable to the Factory's systems.
Returning to the wake, Aesc reveals her identity (though by now most everyone had figured it out) and walks the room through her deduction that her killer must have been someone who knew her, yet who recently changed bodies, given the unfamiliar DNA. She thus identifies them as her old teacher turned nemesis, Professor Meistras of the Firmament — whose latest identity is none other than the woman with the ginger afro. This surprises Jason, who thought the little girl was Meistras's new identity, but the girl, Ofelia, who appears to have come with Meistras, impishly explained that she'd noticed him staring at her and poured ordinary tap water onto the scotch eggs to freak him out. When Aesc asks Meistras what the point of this murder was, since her impermanent killing of Aesc is always done in service of what Meistras believes to be a "lesson" they're teaching Aesc, Meistras tells her that she was getting too close to an important secret about the Utopia Dimension, which would kill her permanently if she got too close, and which doesn't "concern" her. Aesc wryly retorts: "I see. If it's not on the syllabus it's not worth thinking about. Spoken like a teacher." before Meistras leaves with Ofelia in her own Factory of Crystal.
Subsequently, the guests return to the buffet, where a mildly perturbed Graelyn watches as Aesc identifies the still-incredibly-ominous man in black and crimson as Steve and casually accepts his offer of a slice of pizza. As she reflects on the events, Aesc explains what she and Jason learned about the Utopia Dimension (a world which gained the means of wiping out other universes) on a recent trip. Leaving the investigation of whatever secret Meistras was hinting at to another day, Aesc is content, for now, to enjoy her food, reflecting aloud that "this was fun" — not just meaning the day's adventure, but her whole prior life which has now come to an end as another one begins.
== Characters ==
* Lady Aesculapius
* Jason Jackson
* Blanche Combine
* Archimedes Von Ahnerabe
* Coloth
* Graelyn Scythes
* Rita Andros
* Jessica Zhane
* Professor Meistras
* Ofelia
* Steve
== Worldbuilding ==
* Auteur is mentioned.
* Aesc dresses as Sherlock Holmes, in an old Halloween costume which had been bought by Graelyn Scythes in Rogeria City on Mercury, and left behind in the Factory of Crystal when Graelyn stopped travelling with Aesculapius.
* In her eulogy for herself, Aesc lists her titles as "dashing rogue adventurer, hero of the people, defender of Ashtzencor, saviour of the seven systems, Forbes 30 Under 30 media luminary, and Ms Reality 1066".
* After each her prior deaths, Aesc recovered her old body if possible, and laid it to rest in the Factory.
* Auteur sent a "lovely message" apologising for not being able to attend the funeral. Aesc is slightly miffed that Auteur couldn't make time.
* Ribena is served at the buffet instead of alcohol.
* Aesc rhetorically asks "who among us would be such a Debbie Downer as to commit murder".
* Ofelia describes Jason Jackson as a "budget Poe Dameron".
== Story notes ==
* This story was the first of the crossovers between the DWU and the 10,000 Dawns story not to be written by James Wylder.
* Meistras, Aesculapius's nemesis as introduced in this story, is a loose homage to the Master to match Aesc's Doctor-like qualities. "Aesculapius" was the God of Medicine in classical mythology, while "Meistras" means "Master" in Lithuanian.
* To better serve as a red herring for the actual Meistras, Steve, the ominous man who appears throughout the story, was physically described as highly reminiscent of the classic image of the Master, combining the goatee, dark suit and black leather gloves of Roger Delgado's incarnation with the "flowing crimson robe with an absurdly high collar and elegant gold embroidery" put on by Eric Roberts's incarnation of the Master at the climax of the 1996 TV movie.
== Continuity ==
* Auteur and Aesculapius crossed paths in PROSE: White Canvas, though not under happy circumstances.
== External links ==
Category:2019 short stories
Category:Stories that crossover with non-DWU series
Category:Arcbeatle short stories