by David Beers
If she was honest with herself, she’d forgotten about the Ascendant during the past few months, especially the past week. Her mind had been thrust into war, and it had been worse than she’d thought it would be. Petra had heard war stories and seen holovids of fictional tales, but nothing could capture the sheer violence. The bodies, the screams of the dying, the sobs, the begging, and opposite that, the rush of brutal battles. All those things had kept her away from the Imperial Ascendant’s original mission.
Watch Hector.
As she reached the room that contained the communication box, she tried to reframe her mind. The war was out there. In here, she needed to remember everything she’d seen about Hector.
A thought fluttered into her mind. Am I a traitor?
It was an odd idea and one she didn’t like. She couldn’t be a traitor because she was doing the Imperial Ascendant’s will. Who was she turning on? Hector? A usurper?
Petra shook her head and shoved the thought away as she slipped inside the box.
She’d never been in one of these. Given that she’d lived her entire life on Earth, there’d been no need for one.
The box turned black around her, and she couldn’t see outside it.
She heard the Ascendant’s voice a moment later. “Petra de Osimian, I take it you managed to stay alive?”
“Yes, my liege,” she responded, not sure if she was doing everything correctly.
“I’ve gotten reports, and it’s quite clear the Terram fought hard. We lost more than I’d expected, and it’s going to make the coming battle that much harder.” Petra heard the Ascendant sigh; it sounded as if his breath was inside the box. “Tell me, what news is there about Hector?”
“He’s perceptive, my liege, more so than I thought possible. I imagine he knows I’m speaking to you now, though not through anything I’ve said.”
“And,” de Finita said, “what has he said?”
“Nothing regarding you, my liege. His main concern—perhaps his only concern—is war, at least right now. It’s hard to explain, but even Titans have lives outside of their duty. We go home. We have friends. Family. He seems to have none of those outside of his grandfather, though I don’t think he’s spoken to the man since we boarded the ships. At least, I haven’t seen it.” She paused, realizing she was losing herself in a torrent of words. “What I’m trying to say, my liege, is that he is not like the other Titans or me. His life is this. He seems to have been born for war.”
The Imperial Ascendant was quiet for long moments, and Petra began to wonder if she’d said the wrong thing.
“And the rest, Petra?” he interrupted her self-doubt. “Are they seeing the same thing? Is it becoming known how great a warrior he is?”
“Undoubtedly,” she answered. “You can’t help but see what he’s doing. I’d venture to say that if he wasn’t here, we might not have taken the planet. He was that valuable in the assaults.”
“A single man?” the Ascendant asked.
“I know it seems hard to believe, but wherever he goes, people fight harder.”
“Okay,” the Ascendant said. “Stay by his side. You say he knows why you’re there, so there seems to be no harm in it. Has he intimated that he might harm you?”
“No, my liege. Nothing like that.”
Another moment of silence as the Ascendant thought. “Kane will arrive in the next few days. I want you to ensure that he and Hector meet each other in battle. One of them is not going to walk away from it, and I’ll handle the other when they return to the Solar System.”
“Yes, my liege.”
“Thank you, Petra. One People. One Purpose.”
“One People. One Purpose.”
The box cleared, and Petra could see out again. The conversation with the Ascendant had been fast, but she’d understood what de Finita was trying to assess. How much control was Hector gaining over the military?
He hadn’t come out and asked, but Petra doubted she was his only eyes here.
She remained in the box for a few minutes. She wasn’t worried about getting Hector to find Kane. Hector would take care of that on his own. From what Petra’d seen, he’d never shirk a battle, and she thought he wanted to face the former Titan.
Petra had watched holovids of Kane, both before and after his mutation. After fighting next to Hector, she thought this insurrection would be over shortly.
It was the next part she was starting to worry about. What would happen to the Commonwealth when they returned to Earth? If Kane was as good as dead, would there be a civil war between Mars and Earth?
As far as Petra was concerned, Alistair Kane was a dead man walking.
The Ascendant finished his discussion with Petra de Osimian and stepped out of the box on his side. Had Aurelius de Finita faced such challenges in his rise? Alexander didn’t think so. Back then, things had been simpler. When he had taken over the planet, the technological advances were barely out of the Stone Age, relatively speaking. The people he’d fought had been doing little more than throwing sticks and rocks at one another.
Alexander was facing multiple threats from various galaxies and mutants that Aurelius hadn’t dreamed of when he was alive. The first Ascendant hadn’t known what his children would end up becoming or about the monster Caius had created.
What Petra had told Alexander had been pretty much what he’d thought would happen. It was the main reason he’d placed the woman there—because he needed to gauge how quickly the military was turning to see the man as their leader.
Hector might have violence, but Alexander had brainpower. Let him defeat Kane out there; the two-month ride back would be a long time, and his feats would begin to fade. Alexander had a propaganda ministry that would begin spreading rumors the moment this insurrection was over. Right now, he needed the brute to kill Kane. Once that was finished, he would worry about the second half of this coup.
He’d watched Hector’s feats in those tunnels, and combined with what he’d seen against his own Titans, Alexander thought Kane’s chance of survival was low. Even the Fathers hadn’t been able to see this stallion’s coming, changing the battlefield so easily.
Alexander headed to the Fathers; he needed to tell them about the victory on Phoenix, then have them decide it was time for the third phase in their evolution.
He rose to the orb’s chamber, stepping off the small platform and moving toward his ancestors. He went to a knee and bowed his head. “One People. One Purpose…Fathers, we’ve conquered the Terram and are in control of their portal, and Kane is on the way.”
The dot on the orb spread out in a line. “We’re receiving details now. You think Hector de Gracilis will be able to stop him?”
“I’m not sure there’s ever been another warrior like him in human history. I think he’ll lay waste to the entire insurrection.”
The orb didn’t respond but paused as it did its near-uncountable calculations. “Indeed, the entrance of de Gracilis does change the probability of defeating Kane, especially given the new data from Phoenix. You’ve done well in your strategy. Perhaps the Commonwealth will yet survive.”
“That’s why I’m here, Fathers,” Alexander said. “We’re ready for stage three of the Commonwealth’s evolution.”
A dreadful silence fell over the room. Alexander didn’t know if they were double-checking him or simply thought his timing was ill-advised.
Eventually, the orb spoke. “The worlds are ready?”
“Yes, three of them. Seven more are being prepared, but we can begin with three.”
It was the one piece of data that had not been given to the Fathers for security reasons. While they were aware of the third evolution, they couldn’t know about its progress, not until the time to begin had come.
“Has there been word of the algorithm, Alexander?” they asked as one.
Alexander slowly rose to his feet. “Not for a thousand years.”
Another moment of quiet. Alexander knew they were calculating, trying to find all t
he holes in this plan and the possibilities for failure.
“There’s been no word from the search parties we’ve sent either. The last one was sent in your grandfather’s time, a hundred years ago. It was lost ten years after we sent it. The risk, as we’re sure you’re aware, is whether this is the correct time. With no word on the algorithm for a thousand years, don’t you think we’re relatively safe until this danger has passed?”
“No.” Alexander shook his head. “We began this evolution forty years ago for the very reason that we don’t know where the algorithm is. I know the specifications needed to ensure that it can’t harm us again, and we’ve reached the minimum. The process of moving you will take six months, and it’s my recommendation that we start now.”
He swallowed.
“I don’t think you are taking the threat of the algorithm seriously enough, just as you thought I wasn’t with the former Titan. Kane is becoming less of a threat with each kilometer he moves toward Phoenix, but the algorithm is still out there. We don’t know where. Once we finalize this new phase, even if it somehow returns, it won’t be able to harm you. The algorithm is the greatest existential threat the Commonwealth faces right now. It’s my job to shepherd us all forward. It’s time to start the final stage.”
“Go ahead, then. Begin preparations. One People. One Purpose.”
The Written History of the Great Insurrection
There are many problems when one is fighting a galaxies-spanning insurrection against the largest government mankind has ever known; I’ve detailed many of them in here.
However, one I haven’t spoken about is the amount one doesn’t know.
For future generations that want to do as we’ve done, that’s something you’re going to want to recognize early. We didn’t understand it. Whatever you think you know or are certain of, understand there is at least ten times that much information that you don’t even know exists, so you can’t prepare for it.
Most of it will work against you, as it has us.
It’s not what you know that will kill you, at least most of the time.
It’s what you don’t know. It might be too late for us.
Only the gods can say for certain.
Chapter Fifteen
“I haven’t seen a battle like this in over two centuries,” Victor said.
Almost twenty-fours had passed since Ares gave up his Whip, and his captor was being true to his word. He and Veena were being treated with respect, though Ares didn’t fully understand why.
He was coming to understand other things about this strange species. He would never consider them human; they simply weren’t. He didn’t know what they were composed of, but they weren’t flesh and blood like him or Veena. Some flesh and blood, yes, but the flesh beneath the armor he’d worn was hard in reality and metaphorically. Scars from untold battles covered Victor’s face, but it also appeared to have armor in it, as if it were intertwined with metal. The scars didn’t appear to be flesh either, looking as if something had covered the cuts.
Ares now knew they thought of themselves as Superior, nothing else. Not human, not the Superior. Just Superior, a species separate from humanity, or perhaps an evolution of it. Ares had wanted to ask more questions, but Veena finally got him to stop.
“Don’t wear out your welcome,” she’d whispered harshly. “We’ve got a long way to go, and your questions are bound to start annoying him. They’re already annoying me.”
Ares had shut up then.
He hadn’t seen Monk since they’d been taken, and at first, he’d felt a twinge of guilt about that. Then he’d realized those machines had closed up an entire planet, so the robot could probably handle himself.
He, Veena, and Victor were now in Victor’s quarters, which were nicer than anything Ares had ever seen inside a spaceship. He couldn’t begin to understand the tech in this place, from the membrane that their ship had passed through to the visuals he was seeing.
They were nanotech constructs of some sort, though that was all he understood about it. The tech moved so quickly he couldn’t see it until it finally stopped, and Victor was able to direct it with a flick of his hand.
Ares was staring at two separate screens, one to the right of Victor, the other to the left. The Superior sat in a chair that had formed under him as he took a seat. The first time Ares had seen it happen, he’d thought the giant was going to fall on his ass.
Veena and Ares stood to his left and right. Victor never showed any sign that he was worried about being attacked, and without his Whip and armor, Ares didn’t consider it either. The creature was beyond what he could do with just his body.
On the right screen, Ares was looking at Phoenix, the planet Alistair had originally fled to.
On the left, he was looking at Alistair’s current fleet.
“The battle should commence in another twenty-four hours or so,” Victor explained. “The Commonwealth arrived two weeks ago and, from what we can tell, took the planet in its entirety. The prophesied one is on his way to retake it.”
“What in hades happened?” Veena whispered, then, speaking louder, she asked, “Why did the Commonwealth return, and why would Kane go back?”
“Much has changed since you two were involved. The Terram pledged fealty to the prophesied one. He has an army that can challenge the Commonwealth, at least on the edge planets, if not the inner sanctum.”
“Obviously.” Ares stared in amazement at what Alistair had managed to do. His fleet appeared to be as large as the Commonwealth’s floating over Phoenix. “Why do you keep calling him the prophesied one?”
Victor didn’t look around as he spoke but stared at the nanotech screens as if studying them. “The AllMother prophesied he would come. She’s been searching for him her whole life. If you believe her, everything that happened with the Commonwealth was meant to happen, so he was prophesied.”
Ares couldn’t help but ask another question. “And you? What do you believe?”
“He will be wiped from the universe, and the AllMother will meet her fate in my master.”
It was the first time he’d heard anger in the creature’s voice, or something very similar to it—a steel-like quality.
“What part do we play in this?” Veena asked. “Are we heading there to the war?”
“No,” Victor responded, his voice returning to normal. “I just think this battle will be a spectacle to watch. My master has plans for you that I’m not privy to. My job is to make sure you reach him safely.”
“When will that be?” Veena asked.
“Enough questions,” Victor said affably. He stood. “I have work that must be done.” He moved his hands, and the screens disappeared from view. The door to his quarters opened, and someone who appeared human stood outside the room. Ares understood those people were slaves, and while Victor treated them well, he’d seen others treat them harshly. There were personality differences between the Superior, though Ares didn’t understand them.
“Please take them to their room,” Victor said.
“Yes, master,” the slave responded.
Veena sat on one side of the room, and Ares sat on the other.
She looked down at her feet, pressing them alternately against the floor. It had a sponge-like quality to it she didn’t understand, but it kept her interested when she didn’t want to consider anything else.
Which was becoming more and more often.
She found herself concentrating on the tech around her or the algorithm in her head. Anything else, and she was afraid she would lose it.
Veena had never felt like that in her life. Her mind had always been solid, but since the machine world, things had changed for her.
Ares looked up from his cot. “You remember when the Imperial Ascendant showed us the bodies floating in the vats? The twins?”
“It’d be hard to forget a thing like that.”
“That’s who we're going to, right? The male? The first Alexander?”
She nodded without loo
king at him. “Yeah, it would seem so.”
“Do you see any way out of this?” Ares asked. “Could you pilot this ship if we got loose?”
“Ha! No. This ship is unlike any other in the universe, and let’s not forget there are more besides us aboard.” She shook her head. “There’s no escaping this ship.”
“I don’t think there’s any bargaining with these creatures, either,” Ares sounded as if he might be talking to himself. “So we’re in quite a conundrum. Or we’re just fucked. I don’t know which.”
“Are you dreaming?” Veena asked. “Have you been dreaming since we left the machine world?” She glanced at Ares as he looked up.
“No. I had the dreams when I was there—or whatever they were. I saw my father a lot, but nothing since then. Why? You are?”
“Every time I close my eyes,” she answered, “my parents are there.”
“Did you dream about them before?”
Veena shook her head. “I’ve hardly thought about them since they died. This isn’t me; it’s something those machines did.”
Ares raised an eyebrow. “What are you saying?”
“The same way they implanted this algorithm in us, they did something similar with my parents.” She looked back at her feet, shaking her head. “I don’t understand it, but I know I shouldn’t be seeing my parents like this.”
“Do you not want to see them?”
“There’s nothing I want less in the universe. I can’t even focus on the fact that we’re fucked right now because I know when I close my eyes, I’m going to see them.”
“I’m not trying to criticize you, Veena, but it might not be the time to relive childhood dramas. We’ve got a pretty good host at the moment, but I think it’s going to get a lot worse fairly quickly. I need you here mentally as well as physically.”
She nodded, trying to gather herself. “I know. I know you do. I’m trying. I just don’t understand this. Why would they put something like this in me? I don’t understand the point.”
