04 Dark Space

by Jasper T. Scott

  “Are there any more questions before I continue?”

  “Sure, I’ve got a few,” Ethan said. “Why didn’t you help us? I spent ten years mourning for my family, thinking the Sythians killed them. Turns out they survived, but not everyone was that lucky. Why didn’t you stop them?”

  “We could have stopped the original invasion.”

  “So why didn’t you?” Alara put in.

  “We never could have stopped them all. You surely know by now that the fleets your Imperium has faced thus far are but seven of many hundreds.”

  “Hundreds?” Atton had kept quiet until now, listening patiently as everyone brought their charges against Omnius. “If that’s true, what are you going to do? They know where Avilon is!”

  “Yes, that is unfortunate. We are going to send what few ships we have left to rescue your people in Dark Space and bring them here. Then I will activate the gravity fields around Avilon and we will not venture out again.”

  “That will only buy you time,” Captain Caldin said.

  “A lot of time. The diameter of each field is over two light years. It would take a minimum of 15 years to cross that at sub-luminal speeds. Given that much time, I am certain to come up with a plan that will suffice to wipe out every living Sythian in existence. Until then, you and all of humankind will be safe. Is that sufficient security for you?”

  Atton nodded weakly, shocked, but no longer surprised to hear just how much Omnius seemed to know about everyone and everything. It was as if he’d been there all along, quietly observing. He was starting to wonder if Omnius really was a god.

  “There is one other question to answer, but no one here has ventured to ask it yet.”

  “Why did you shut down?” Atton whispered.

  “Yes, that is the eminent question. It is the one I have spent the past five minutes answering for my people. They are understandably more curious than you, since they have never before witnessed something so terrible as my absence, but you who have not known me your entire lives are not so easily surprised.

  “By now you all know what I am. You know that I am a god, created by man to rule and watch over them. My original purpose was to prevent crime, specifically high treason. I was created to anticipate another war before it began, and to stop it before it did. For many thousands of years since my birth, I have kept Avilon safe and hidden. There has not been another Great War between mortals and immortals, and there never will be again.

  “Your very own Admiral Hoff Heston had a part of the solution all along. He was exiled for telling the royal council what he thought, and the truth is that he was right. People must be given the freedom to choose how they will live their lives if they are expected to live those lives in harmony. I have since found a way to give them that choice without jeopardizing the ideal of immortality.”

  “So you’re saying we can live in Avilon without becoming immortals,” Atton said.

  “If that is what you truly want, then yes.”

  “That’s what the shield is for . . .” Atton replied, realization dawning. “It’s to separate mortals from immortals.”

  “There are two shields. One, which you have seen, is the Celestial Wall. It separates Celestials from Ascendants. Far below that is the original shield, and it separates immortals from the Nulls in the Null Zone.”

  “The what?” Ethan asked.

  “You might know it better by another name—the netherworld, perhaps.”

  “So you resurrect your people there after they die in order to punish them for things they did wrong in life?”

  “No. That is an Etherian interpretation of the netherworld.”

  Ceyla, who had been quiet until now suddenly burst out. “You’re a fraud, Omnius!”

  Atton felt a sharp spike of dread lance through his heart. “Ceyla!” he whispered, grabbing her arm tightly.

  But she would not be quiet. “You’re not what you’re pretending to be,” she went on.

  “Dear child, I am not pretending to be anything.”

  “You’re pretending to be Etherus! You’re not him; the netherworld is not under your city, and Etheria sure as frek isn’t this!” she said, gesturing to the world around her.

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “Our religion predates you.”

  “You don’t even know how old I am. Perhaps you should investigate the facts before you make rash assumptions.”

  “Whose facts? Yours?” she sounded shrill. “The original Etherian codices were destroyed in the Great War.”

  “I am not here to debate my deity with you, Ceyla Taratha Corbin, and I am truly sorry that your god isn’t real, but at least now you have one that is.”

  Atton felt Ceyla start trembling, but she said nothing further, and he released her arm. Hoping to change the subject, he looked up and spoke to the light, “You still haven’t told us what happened to you.”

  “That is because you keep interrupting me, but I understand. You are all very confused right now. I told you about the netherworld below the city. It encompasses the first fifty levels, as well as roughly another fifty under levels. I am saddened to say that many have chosen to walk away from the light and live in the shadows. They do not want me as their god, and they do not want to live forever in this universe. I am not a tyrant, and I love my children. My fondest wish is for them to be happy, even if that means they must stop being my children and some day die. Therefore, I have determined that all who reject me and choose not to become immortals must live below the lowest shield, which we call the Styx.”

  “So if we decide to become immortals and accept you as our . . . god,” Atton began, “then we get to live up here?”

  “No, only Celestials live above the Celestial Wall. You must prove to me you are worthy to live up here, but do not trouble yourselves—that is the reason we call ourselves the Ascendancy. Here, people are ever rising higher. If you choose life, you will have all of eternity to rise to whatever heights you are able.

  “But I digress. There is still much for you all to learn, and little time for you to learn it. For now, all you need to know about my unexpected shutdown is that there was a rebellion. The Nulls managed to introduce a virus into several of my data centers. They were trying to corrupt the Lifelink database in order to trigger a mass resurrection, killing everyone above the Styx. I was able to stop the virus and stop them from killing all of my children, but I had to shut down nearly all of my systems in order to isolate and remove the virus.”

  “How would they be able to kill people just by corrupting your database?” Atton asked.

  “Besides recording and mapping every part of a person’s brain for later transfer to another body, Lifelink implants can also trigger a premature death and resurrection. This is an insurance policy that I built into the system.”

  “So you can kill anyone at any time—shut them down like they did to you.”

  “No, not like they did to me. I shut myself down, and it was temporary. If I choose to kill someone, it is permanent. Do not worry, however, I have never misused this ability. My people put me in power because they trust me, and that trust has never been misplaced.”

  “So what would cause you to kill someone?” Ethan asked.

  “Treason.”

  “Then why didn’t you kill the rebels?” Atton added.

  “I did, but by the time I realized what they had done, it was too late.”

  “Not so omniscient after all, hoi Omnius?” Ceyla said, chiming in once more.

  “I purposefully turn a blind eye to the Nulls. It is what they wanted. It is why they live in the netherworld below the city. I was merely respecting their wishes. Now I see that I was wrong to do so. I will have to keep a closer eye on them in the future.

  “I trust that I have answered all of your questions. There is one more thing I must tell you before I leave, but I would rather you see for yourselves. Master Galan Rovik will escort you.”

  “What is it?” Atton asked.

  “A
surprise.”

  With that, the blinding light disappeared, as did the thunderous voice. Atton blinked spots out of his eyes. He noticed that the blinding light from the Zenith had toned down to a much more tolerable brightness. Master Rovik now walked to one side of the rooftop, crossing the grassy clearing where they stood to an adjacent path.

  “Come with me,” he beckoned to them from the path.

  Atton and the others turned to follow him there. The soldiers joined them, escorting them on both sides. Once they reached the pathway, Master Rovik turned and started down the path. The soldiers subtly herded them to follow. Up ahead, at the end of the path and near the middle of the rooftop, lay a golden dome with a mirror-smooth finish, shining subtly with a reflection of the artificial light radiating down from the Zenith. As Atton watched, Master Rovik reached the dome and placed his hands against it. The dome rose up on four shining pillars of light.

  Atton wondered about that dome, but he decided he’d find out what it was soon enough. Turning to Ceyla he said, “So, looks like your people were right.”

  “My people?”

  “Etherians.”

  “As I told Omnius, he’s not Etherus, this isn’t Etheria, and his people aren’t the Immortals.”

  Atton looked around at the lush, green beauty of the garden and from there up to the sparkling towers. Not far from them a waterfall cascaded from an adjacent cluster of towers, throwing rainbows into the night. “Why not? It looks like a paradise to me. Everyone here lives forever. There’s some kind of god in charge. . . .”

  “He’s an AI, not a god,” Ceyla replied. “Besides, this place might look like a paradise from above, but you saw how much of the city lies below that shield. I’d bet a month’s pay the people down there are much less convinced that Omnius is a benevolent god—to say nothing of the netherworld where he locks up all the mortals. I wonder if everyone living down there really is there by choice? It sounds like a prison to me.”

  “So where do you think they’re taking us? And what do you suppose that is?” Atton jerked his chin toward the mysterious golden dome.

  A hand landed on Atton’s shoulder and squeezed. He turned to see his father and Alara walking behind him, their expressions grim. “It’s some kind of lift tube, but a whole lot faster,” Ethan said. “And as for where we’re going, my bet’s on either of the two netherworlds.”

  “Two? Omnius only mentioned one.”

  “Yea, but there’s two shields. If life were so great below the Celestial Wall, then why use a shield to keep people out of the upper city?”

  “There could be a lot of reasons for that,” Atton said.

  “Sure, plenty. We have walls in our society, too, but they’re drawn with distance, and that distance is measured in a horizontal space rather than a vertical one. No city planner worth a damn puts the bad neighborhoods right next to the good ones unless he can somehow keep them from mixing. Omnius didn’t have a choice because you can’t waste space on a world with so little to spare. In my experience, for there to be so many haves up here living in the lap of luxury, there’s got to be a whole lot of have-nots slaving away to keep them there.”

  Atton thought about that as the soldiers guided them under the hovering golden dome. They were led into the middle of a glowing green circle on a raised black podium. Galan Rovik entered with them and raised his hands as if praising his god. With that, the inside of the dome began to glow with ever-increasing radiance, and the soldiers retreated from under the dome. As soon as all the soldiers were standing outside, Galan dropped his hands, and the dome fell over their heads with a boom. It became so bright inside that Atton was forced to shut his eyes. A loud whirring noise filled the air, and a strong wind gusted through the dome.

  Ethan called out, “Brace yourselves!”

  Suddenly the blinding light was gone, the whirring noise replaced with a ringing silence punctuated only by the hiss of escaping air, and the tik-tik-tik of cooling alloy. A cold, musty breeze swept in. Taking a deep breath, Atton risked opening his eyes. . . .

  And he beheld the netherworld for the first time. Except that it wasn’t a netherworld. It was the most beautiful place he had ever seen.

  Chapter 36

  Ethan grabbed Alara’s hand and walked up to the edge of the dome in shock, dumbstruck by the view. When he reached the edge, he stepped back with a gasp. Once again, the roof of the dome hovered overhead on four shining pillars of light, revealing a panoramic view of where they were now. That view was at once startling and breathtaking.

  A carpet of tufted clouds stretched out to the horizon, shining gold in the rising sun. Those clouds whipped by underneath them at a frightening speed, and the sun hung just above them, a blinding red eye peeking out over the tops of the clouds. Overhead, the sky was a deep indigo, still glinting with the diamonds of the night. Below the edge of the dome where they stood lay nothing but open air. If it were being carried by something, Ethan couldn’t see what it was. They seemed to be floating high above Avilon and racing after the sun at a considerable speed. A cool breeze was sweeping in, but it was not nearly as violent as it should have been at the speed they were moving.

  “How did we get up here?” Alara breathed, her nails biting into his biceps as she clutched his arm with both hands.

  “I don’t know,” Ethan whispered. A moment ago they’d been standing still on a rooftop in the middle of the night, and now they were high above the city and racing after the sun at sunrise. He thought he knew how that must have happened, but he was reluctant to accept the truth. The golden domes, which he had assumed to be some type of lift tubes, didn’t actually move people from one point to another, they teleported them instantly. That explanation also meshed nicely with how the Avilonians had mysteriously managed to board his corvette without having to dispatch a shuttle.

  Ethan heard the others gasping and shouting out with fright as they realized where they were.

  Then came the gravelly voice of Master Rovik. “Do not be afraid!” His voice was somehow louder and more resonant than before, as if he was speaking into a microphone. “We are safe here.”

  “Where is here?” Atton asked.

  “How did we get here?” another added.

  “The answers will come clear in time!” Rovik replied. “Move to the edge of the transporter,” he instructed, and Ethan saw in his peripheral vision that the Rovik was himself doing exactly that. His cape fluttered softly in the wind, and again it struck him that the wind was far too gentle to correspond to the speed that the clouds were rushing by below.

  Ethan crept as close to the edge of the dome as he dared and peered down on the tufted clouds below.

  Alara hung back, trying to pull him away from the edge. “Ethan!” she shouted. “Get back here!”

  Rather than listen to her, he turned to Master Rovik. “What now?” he asked. None of the others had dared to venture as close to the edge as he.

  Rovik inclined his head and smiled, as if in appreciation of Ethan’s bravery. The Avilonian’s glowing blue eyes were wide, but Ethan suspected that was from exhilaration rather than fear. “Now we trust that Omnius will catch us!” Rovik said, and with that, he dove off the edge of the dome.

  People screamed. Ethan’s own eyes widened with shock as he watched Rovik falling swiftly toward the clouds, his blue cape fluttering as he fell.

  “What the frek!” someone said. It sounded like Razor.

  A moment later, Atton stepped up to the edge where the Avilonian had been standing. Ceyla was with him, and Ethan noticed they were holding hands.

  “I’m not jumping,” Atton said, looking up to meet his father’s gaze. “You were right, but this is a lot of trouble for Omnius to go to just to kill us.”

  Ethan frowned. “He wouldn’t send one of his own to die just so we could all follow him to our deaths.”

  “No? Maybe he doesn’t care. His people can’t die, but we can.”

  “Atton’s right,” Alara said behind him. “Get away from the
edge, Ethan.”

  “Not yet . . .” He was still watching Master Rovik fall. Something wasn’t adding up. Then, all of a sudden, he realized what it was. The Avilonian wasn’t falling anymore. He was flying. “Hoi!” Ethan pointed to the blue speck which was the man’s cape. “Look!” Rovik was now skimming low over the tops of the clouds, arms outstretched as he flew toward the distant sun and horizon.

  “What is it?” Alara asked.

  “I don’t believe it . . .” Ceyla whispered.

  “Just because he can do that, doesn’t mean we can,” Atton added.

  “No,” Ethan shook his head. “This is an illusion.”

  “What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I mean, it’s not real!” Ethan shouted so that everyone could hear him above the whipping wind. “If it were real, don’t you think at the speed we’re moving we’d be ripped right off this platform? Not just that, the air would be too thin to breathe, and it would be much colder than it is.”

  Atton’s jaw dropped and he began nodding slowly. “You’re right. . . .”

  “I know I am,” Ethan said, taking half a step toward the edge.

  “Ethan!” Alara screamed, yanking hard on his arm to pull him back.

  He turned to her. “Trust me,” he said, using one hand to pry the other loose from her white-knuckled grip.

  Alara shook her head. “No,” she mouthed to him.

  “On three?” Atton asked from beside him.

  Ethan backed away from his wife, and shot his son a grin. “On one.”

  With that, he spread his arms wide and dove backward off the edge. He heard Alara screaming after him as he fell, but soon her voice was stolen by the wind whipping past his ears. His eyes began tearing, the clouds rushing up to greet him. The exhilaration of free fall reminded him of ejecting from a starfighter, only much more frightening. At least an ejection seat had grav lifts to slow its descent. His body was falling like a rock, faster and faster. The speed and heart-stopping acceleration stole the breath from his lungs and the tears from his eyes. As he drew near to the shining carpet of golden clouds below, he felt a stab of doubt. What if he’d been wrong? What if this really was an elaborate way to get them all to jump to their deaths? Ethan spread his arms wide, trying in vain to slow his free fall.