The Sprites were the disease, but a modified version of Gatticus’s virus was the cure. The original virus had pacified the surviving Cygnians, spreading across their lonely prison world in short order and making them the most civilized species in the known universe. The Sprites were the real enemy in all of this.
Cassandra battled them daily. Now she knew what horrors her father had faced, and succumbed to, during his rise to power. Power itself was addictive, and the Sprites were always there begging for more—whispering, urging, and tempting her to fill herself more fully with them, to become them.
Dyara was a voice of reason, the guiding light that kept her sane and accountable. Even so, somehow it was therapeutic to sit where her father had sat and to know the demons he had faced. It helped to reinforce the fact that he wasn’t the one who had done and said all those horrible things.
The General who had been speaking a moment ago trailed off suddenly, seeming to realize that she was no longer listening.
Cassandra smiled her thanks for his report and waved him away. “Admiral Mathos, how is our fleet doing with its task?”
The black-furred Lassarian stepped to the fore and bared his teeth in a predatory smile. “We have seeded twelve new worlds with the virus, and they are now willing to discuss joining the empire—on the condition that we protect them from their more militant neighbors.”
Cassandra nodded. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”
“I hope not, Empress,” Yuri replied. “The civil war still rages, but our fleet is strong.”
Cassandra breathed a sigh that rasped through her respirator. She had to wear that mask, and her isolation suit at all times. It was the only way to protect herself from infection. Likewise, her right-hand, Dyara, also needed to keep her abilities—at least for now. Cassandra could hear her breath rasping in and out of her mask from where she stood to one side of the throne.
Cassandra would have gladly given up power and subjected herself to the virus, but there was at least one Keth still out there somewhere, and dozens of Revenants, whose bodies had been suspiciously missing from those found in the courtyard—despite Darius’s decree that attendance was mandatory. They’d probably foreseen the coming massacre, just as Darius had.
“Gatticus?” Cassandra prompted.
“My Lady?”
“How is the production of the new Executor models coming along?”
“Very well. We’ve filled twenty-one new orders just this week.”
“Good, and the Marine bots?”
“Forty-two thousand units are on their way to support the Executors on allied worlds,” Gatticus replied.
“Excellent, and how are we doing with the relocation of the Cygnians?”
“They’ve been cooperative. There have been no incidents so far.”
“I still believe it’s a mistake to let them live,” Yuri growled. “Much less to give them a suitable world where they can rebuild.”
“My father would have agreed with you,” Cassandra said, thrusting out her chin in disdain for that objection. “And that is why I do not. The Cygnians were more affected by the Sprites than most species. It isn’t their fault that they did the things they did.”
Silence answered that rebuke, and Yuri bowed his head in apology. “Yes, My Lady.”
Cassandra’s gaze roved on, past her mob of generals, admirals, and other military leaders, until she found a particular individual, Evos—an artist, a Dol Walin sculptor who had nothing to do with the dark and ugly business of war.
She nodded to him. “How’s progress on my monument coming along?”
“It is nearly complete, Empress,” he replied in his watery voice. “With your permission, perhaps you would like to come and see it before the official unveiling?”
Cassandra’s eyes crinkled with a genuine smile that Evos couldn’t see behind her mask. She nodded to him. “Yes, I would like that very much.” She glanced at Dyara who was standing silently to one side of the throne. “Shall we?”
“After you, Empress,” Dyara replied.
* * *
Cassandra sat in the front seat of Evos’s hover car as he flew circles above the palace courtyard to show off his work. He and hundreds of others just like him had been working tirelessly on this project for the past six months. There, standing in front of the palace, with arms wide open to welcome all who might come through the palace gates, was a two-hundred foot statue of her father, serving as a massive headstone to conceal his actual grave. The sculptors had done amazing work. The statue looked just like him—but not as he had been in death, rather, the way she remembered him. Kind green eyes, a warm smile, and an expression that radiated nothing but love.
“Take us down,” Cassandra said, her voice sounding hoarse even through the distortion of her mask. “I want to read the inscription.”
“Of course,” Evos replied.
Dyara leaned forward from the back seat and placed a comforting hand on Cassandra’s shoulder.
As soon as they landed in the courtyard, Cassandra strode out to the base of the statue. There was a solid gold plate as tall as her that read:
Here lies Emperor Darius Drake, Destroyer of Worlds, Savior of The Galaxy.
“Be better than me.” -Emperor Drake 2015 AD - 1521 AU.
“Cryptic. Do you think people will get it?” Dyara asked, stopping beside her to read the inscription as well.
Cassandra turned to her. “Maybe not, but they can always read about it in the history books. In my time we had a saying about good intentions. My father had plenty of those, but the truth is you can’t do evil in order to accomplish something good. You’ve got to start with the good.”
“Wise words. Maybe that should be on the inscription, too,” Dyara said.
“Yes,” the sculptor agreed, coming to stand with them at the foot of the statue. “I agree. Start with the good.”
“But where is it?” Cassandra asked, slowly shaking her head.
Dyara placed a hand on her shoulder once more, and their eyes met through the visors of their helmets. “We’ll find it. It’s easy to look at the mess and see everything that still needs fixing, but that just blinds you to the things that are already fixed. We’ve made a lot of progress, and we’ll make a lot more before we’re finished.”
Cassandra nodded. “You’re right. I just wish...” she turned back to the statue and peered up at it. “I wish he was here to see it.”
“Maybe he is,” Dyara said, and jerked her chin to indicate the pale blue sky.
Cassandra followed Dyara’s gaze. There, gleaming against the blue, she could have sworn she saw something—a glowing, sparkling mass of Sprites. As she watched they swarmed into the shape of her father’s face. Whispering voices crowded in at the edges of her hearing, and for the first time, she heard them plainly, as if the Sprites had suddenly learned to speak her language.
I love you, Cassy, they said, and then that shimmering face in the sky smiled.
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OTHER BOOKS BY JASPER SCOTT
Suggested Reading Order
Occupation Earth
Occupation Earth (Book 1)
(Coming January 2020)
Scott Standalones
No sequels, no cliffhangers
Under Darkness
Into the Unknown
In Time for Revenge
Rogue Star
Rogue Star: Frozen Earth
Rogue Star (Book 2): New Worlds
Broken Worlds
Broken Worlds: The Awakening (Book 1)
Broken Worlds: The Revenants (Book 2)
Broken Worlds: Civil War (Book 3)
New Frontiers Series (Loosely-tied, Standalone Prequels to Dark Space)
Excelsior (Book 1)
Mindscape (Book 2)
Exodus (Book 3)
Dark Space Series
Dark Space
Dark Space 2: The Invisible War
Dark Space 3: Origin
Dark Space 4: Revenge
Dark Space 5: Avilon
Dark Space 6: Armageddon
Dark Space Universe Series
(Standalone Follow-up Trilogy to Dark Space)
Dark Space Universe (Book 1)
Dark Space Universe: The Enemy Within (Book 2)
Dark Space Universe: The Last Stand (Book 3)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasper Scott is the USA Today best-selling author of more than 20 sci-fi novels with 16,000+ total reviews on Amazon and an average rating of 4.4/5.0 stars.
With over a million books sold, Jasper's work has been translated into various languages and published around the world. Join the author's mailing list to get two FREE books: https://files.jaspertscott.com/mailinglist.html
Jasper writes fast-paced stories with unexpected twists and flawed characters. His latest project is a series of unrelated standalone sci-fi novels; no sequels and no cliffhangers. Previous works include four other best-selling series, among others, his breakout success--Dark Space, a 9-book-long, USA Today Best-selling epic with more than 12,000 reviews on Amazon.
Jasper was born and raised in Canada by South African parents, with a British cultural heritage on his mother's side and German on his father's, to which he has added Latin culture with his wonderful wife. He now lives in an exotic locale with his wife, their two kids, and two Chihuahuas.
Broken Worlds- The Complete Series Page 88
