Ethan nodded. “Likewise.”
They went to sit in Valari’s living room and catch up on each other’s lives. Atton revealed how he’d come to be in the Null Zone. He explained that he’d come to the Null Zone for Ceyla, that they were married now, but that she didn’t know who he really was.
Ethan’s brow furrowed and a shadow fell over his eyes. “What do you mean she doesn’t know who you are?”
“She thinks I’m Darin Thardris, Valari’s nephew.”
“How could she possibly think that? She must remember you.”
Then Atton’s features shimmered, and they were replaced by a very different face—golden eyes, not green; sharp, wolfish features with gaunt cheeks. This man was a stranger. This wasn’t his son. Ethan was on his feet before he even realized why. He rounded on Valari, who’d been sitting quietly beside him.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
“Dad, calm down, it’s still me.”
Ethan shook his head. “You don’t even look like you! How the frek am I supposed to believe that?”
“Because it’s true,” Valari replied. “Atton asked for a new body, one that didn’t look like him. Ceyla wouldn’t have agreed to date him if she’d known he was a clone.”
Ethan’s head began pounding again. He pressed his fingertips to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut. “I need to go home.”
He’d had too many shocks for one day. He’d cheated on his wife. His family was dead. His son was alive, but really just as dead as ever, and now he didn’t even look like Atton anymore. He was good and truly alone.
“Ethan…” Valari said, her soft, sultry voice sounding somehow jarring to his ears. He opened his eyes and turned to look at her. “Your son is alive. Don’t let your prejudice fool you. You’ve wasted enough time already.”
Ethan frowned. “If Atton is alive, then so are my wife and daughter.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s true…”
“I have to see them.”
Valari looked disappointed, but she nodded. “Atton, why don’t you drive your father to the nearest Peacekeeper station.” Turning to Ethan, she asked, “What are you going to tell her about what happened last night?”
Ethan grimaced. “The truth.”
Valari nodded and looked away. “I hope she understands.”
“Let’s go,” Atton said.
As they headed for the door, Ethan wondered if his wife would understand. Would he if the situation were reversed?
Ethan wasn’t sure.
* * *
Ethan expected the Peacekeepers at the station to insist that he commit to a Lifelink transfer before he could visit his family in Etheria. Instead, they told him that Omnius would make an exception for him. Atton wasn’t allowed to join him, but they promised to see each other again soon, regardless of whether Ethan chose to become an Etherian or not.
The Peacekeepers escorting Ethan took him to a quantum junction and jumped with him straight from the Null Zone to a station in Etheria just a few blocks away from where Alara was staying.
After so much time in the Null Zone, Ethan found the light of Etheria dazzled his eyes. Etheria enjoyed illumination equivalent to fifty percent of daylight, a combination of actual light coming through the Celestial Wall and simulated light generated throughout the city. That made Etheria at least a hundred times brighter than the Null Zone.
It didn’t take long to reach Alara’s apartment. Ethan decided to knock rather than use the intercom.
Alara opened the door, saw that it was him, and promptly waved the door shut.
Swish.
But he had his foot in the door. Pressure sensors detected the obstruction, and the door swished open once more.
“Alara, it’s me!” he said, quickly walking inside. The door shut behind him, locking the Peackeepers out.
“What are you doing here?” Alara demanded. Her face was dark with rage.
“I came looking for you.”
“Oh? After a few days? What have you been doing in that time?” Ethan frowned and Alara went on, “I guess after you frekked your boss, you got it out of your system and you finally started to miss me. Or maybe you decided that I’m better in bed. Is that it?”
Ethan blinked. “How did you…?”
“Find out? How do you think?” Alara’s eyes filled with tears and her expression became incredulous. “Wow. You know, I was actually starting to hope that Omnius had lied. You spent so much time questioning Him, but you never thought to question yourself, and in the end, you turned out to be the liar, not Omnius.”
“I can explain,” Ethan said.
“I bet you can!”
“Mom?”
Ethan saw his little girl come walking out of the living room. He ran to her and swept her up into a crushing embrace. “Trin!”
“Dad!”
“Why did you do it? Why did you come here?”
“Trinity, go to your room! I need to talk to your father alone.”
Ethan set their daughter down and turned to his wife with a frown. “Alara…”
“Trinity, I mean it! Go.”
“But…”
Ethan flashed Trinity a smile and a wink to soften the rebuke, but she wasn’t fooled. She turned and ran sobbing to her room. Ethan felt his heart break. Before he could look away, Alara came up to him and grabbed him roughly by the arm. “Why did you do it? Come on, give me your best excuse.”
“I thought it was you.”
Alara’s eyes flashed. Slap!
Ethan’s cheek stung where she’d hit him, but he didn’t react. “It’s the truth,” he whispered.
“You watched me die, Ethan! How could you think Valari was me? Try again.”
“I was drunk! I don’t know! All I remember is going home to our apartment and finding you there waiting for me. Maybe I thought I was dreaming.” He gave a helpless shrug. “You have to believe me.” He reached out to cup her cheek.
Alara slapped his hand away and pointed to the door. “Get out!”
Tears sprang to his eyes. “Alara…”
“I hope you didn’t transfer just to come here and practice your excuses. I know how you feel about clones.”
Ethan shook his head. “Omnius let me visit first.”
“Obviously he knew how I’d react.”
“Alara, please.”
“There’s nothing for you here, Ethan. Go back to the Null Zone. It’s where you belong.”
All the strength left him, and Ethan swayed on his feet. Alara helped him on his way, shoving him out the door.
The Peacekeepers took him back to the station and from there to the Null Zone. Atton was waiting for him when he arrived.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” he said, looking miserable.
“You knew I’d be coming back,” Ethan said.
Atton nodded. “The Peacekeepers warned me after you left. They said you’d need to see a friendly face.”
Ethan just stared at his son, who was not his son. The man looked like a complete stranger.
“Come on. Let’s go,” that stranger said. He drove him back to Valari’s place, and Ethan stumbled inside, feeling like an empty shell. Valari thanked Atton, but he left without another word.
Ethan felt Valari take him by the hand. He wanted to resist, but he didn’t have the strength. She led him to her living room and sat down with him on the couch. His tears fell silently.
Valari pulled him into her lap, whispering quiet reassurances in his ear, trying to convince him that Alara would come around, and apologizing again for not turning him down last night. There was nothing she could say to make it better. He wanted to break free of her cloying grasp and run away, to go hide in a deep, dark hole, but he didn’t even twitch.
Misery paralyzed him. The seconds ticked by, each one an eternity of torment. Eventually, he realized that Valari wasn’t the problem.
He was.
In her own way, she probably did care for him, even if she’d never cared for his marriage or
his wife.
“I need to be alone,” he said, turning to look Valari in the eye.
She shushed him. “You can’t be alone right now. I don’t want you to do anything stupid. Your wife will come around. She’s just angry right now.”
Ethan hesitated. He had to believe that. The alternative was too terrible to consider.
“You can sleep in one of my spare rooms tonight. I’ll have my drones bring you some lunch.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Valari smiled and patted his knee. “You will be.”
Ethan glared at her, but he was too tired to argue.
“Love is unconditional, Ethan. If it’s not, then it’s not love. So even if she can’t believe that you didn’t know what you were doing, she has to forgive you eventually. If she doesn’t, then she never loved you at all.”
Ethan swallowed past the lump in his throat. He wasn’t too sure about that reasoning. “Would you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing you can do that I couldn’t forgive, Ethan,” she said, smiling. Valari turned and stood up from the couch. She waved on the holoscreen in front of him, and a buzz of noise from a Null news channel filled the air.
“Try to distract yourself.”
“Where are you going?” he asked, suddenly suspicious but unsure why.
She sent him a coy look. “Miss me already?”
He gritted his teeth. “No—”
“I’m leaving you alone, like you asked me to.” Valari left, and the news droned on—something about the war in the Getties. Nanites. Omnius had finished spreading them. Trillions of Sythians, their cities and their fleets, were being disassembled atom by atom, and soon there would be no sign that they’d even existed.
An ex-strategian of the Peacekeepers, now a Null enforcer, appeared. He speculated that the Sythians might try fleeing their galaxy when they realized that there was no way to fight the plague. The former Peacekeeper went on to suggest that the Sythians might try to attack Avilon, but they didn’t have the quantum jump drives they’d need to get there, so Avilon was safe. Instead they would probably hide somewhere in the Adventa Galaxy and Omnius would have to track them down there, too.
The newscaster seemed relieved that the big eye in the sky was taking care of things, even though he was a Null and innately suspicious of Omnius.
Ethan wondered absently about that. Omnius was taking care of the Sythians, but who was going to take care of Omnius?
Part Three: Armageddon
“And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.”
—The Etherian Codices
Chapter 27
Ethan woke up. He opened his eyes and winced against the glare of sunlight streaming in through a nearby window.
“You’re awake,” an unfamiliar voice said.
Ethan’s vision cleared, and he noticed the startling view from the window. Far below, a vast green field led out to a sparkling, lavender-colored lake. To one side lay a towering range of mountains blanketed with green trees and capped with white glaciers; to the other side the sun lay close on the horizon, cresting over a boundless jungle and dappling everything in a rich golden hue. Déjà vu tickled through Ethan’s brain.
“Recognize it?” the voice from before asked.
Ethan sat up and looked around. He found that he was inside some type of recovery room. What was he doing in hospital? The man standing in the room with him had pale blue eyes and wore a pristine white uniform that contrasted sharply with his dark brown skin. His small, wiry frame made him look somehow insignificant.
“Who are you?” Ethan asked.
“My name is Therius.”
“Therius…” Ethan repeated the name slowly. “I don’t know you.”
“Then perhaps it’s time you did. I am the leader of the Union.”
Ethan’s head felt hazy—like it was stuffed full of cotton. He frowned. “The Union… what is that, some kind of doctors’ association?” He looked the man up and down, and this time he noted the old ISSF admiral’s insignia over the left breast of the man’s uniform. He also noted the silver six-sided star glinting above that insignia. The symbol looked familiar, but Ethan couldn’t remember where he’d seen it last. He frowned and shook his head, dismissing the man as a psychiatric patient who’d escaped his nurse. Why else would he be wearing an old ISSF admiral’s insignia?
Ethan turned to the view again. It had to be simulated. There were no jungles in the Null Zone. Ethan turned back to the admiral with a patient smile. “Who’s in charge around here?”
“I am.”
Ethan’s eyebrows floated up. “Really?” Doubtful, but I’ll play along. “Well, then maybe you can tell me how long I was unconscious?”
“You died, Ethan. Don’t you remember?”
“I what?” It all came rushing back. He remembered the accident, losing Alara… getting drunk and taking a taxi home only to find Alara there… then waking up to find that he was actually in Admiral Vee’s bed and he’d cheated on his wife with her. Following that realization he’d plunged one of Valari’s courier cars into the surface of Avilon. Ethan’s breath seized in his lungs, and time seemed to slow to a crawl. His body went cold all over and he shivered.
“Frek…” he whispered. “Then this must be Etheria. Why did Omnius bring me back? I was a Null.”
“He didn’t,” Therius replied. “I did, and this isn’t Etheria.” Confusion swirled once more, and Ethan’s brow furrowed. “You are on another planet entirely, Ethan. This is Origin, the birthplace of humanity.”
Ethan blinked. Shock coursed through him like lightning; then a smile crept onto his face. “Nice try.”
“I’m not joking.”
Ethan’s smile vanished. “That’s impossible.”
“You died. We intercepted your Lifelink transfer and used the data to clone you here on Origin.”
“What?”
“You’ve been recruited to fight Omnius. The Union is an alliance of Humans, Gors, and Sythians.”
“Sythians?” Ethan’s heart pounded. “There are Sythians on this planet?”
“Yes,” Therius replied. “Mostly in orbit, however.”
Ethan refused to believe any of it.
“You think I’m lying. Come,” Therius turned to an empty bed beside him and picked up a white robe. He tossed it over and Ethan caught it before it slapped him in the face. “Get dressed and follow me.”
Ethan did as he was told and followed Therius out into a broad, busy hallway. A wall of windows ran along one side, giving a view to the green field he’d seen before. Directly below their vantage point, Ethan saw the green had been trampled to a muddy red, and there were thousands of tiny black dots milling around there like ants. He stopped to watch them, trying to get a sense of scale. How high up were they? Seeing the size of the trees, he decided they had to be at least fifty stories up, and that meant those black dots were a lot bigger than they appeared.
“Our Gor army,” Therius explained. “They’re busy practicing maneuvers.”
Ethan looked up, speechless. He noticed the people walking by. They all wore bright white uniforms with glowing rank insignia and glittering six-sided stars over their left breasts. A few of the passersby wore doctor’s tunics, also white. It reminded him of Celesta.
They continued on until they rounded the corner and came to a waiting room.
“He’s awake,” Therius announced.
A pair of women rose from their seats. They were both equally young, but vaguely familiar—one of them in particular.
Ethan’s breath caught in his chest when he saw her—long dark hair, blue eyes, and smooth, flawless skin where he knew she should have had wrinkles.
“Hello, Ethan,” she said, smiling.
“Destra? You look…”
“Younger? You don’t look half bad yourself.”
Ethan frowned and reached up to feel his face. Beneath the stubble he found the face of a much
younger man.
That was when it really hit him. He was a clone. He had actually died, and he wasn’t on Avilon anymore. “Where are we?” he asked, wanting to hear it from Destra.
“Therius didn’t tell you?”
Ethan frowned. “Origin? Is that true?”
The other woman stepped forward. She wore a white jumpsuit, and she was only vaguely recognizable. Ethan couldn’t decide where he might have seen her before.
She regarded him with a frown of her own, and then turned to address Therius. “We have less than a week before we jump to Avilon. We should be training, not wasting time with a walk down memory lane.”
“Atta?” Ethan said, suddenly recognizing her.
“Good guess,” she replied.
“Patience,” Therius said. “We can use all the help we can get. Ethan is an excellent pilot, and we can’t afford to lose him.”
Ethan’s head spun. “I must have missed the part where I volunteered for a suicide mission. You’re going to attack Avilon? Are you skriffy? Do you know how many ships you’d need to take that planet?”
Therius regarded him with a faint smile. “You wanted to fight Omnius—here’s your chance.”
“What am I supposed to be flying?”
“A Nova, of course.”
“You actually found working Novas?”
“Only a few dozen squadrons, but yes.”
“It’s going to take more than a few dozen Nova squadrons to take Avilon,” Ethan said.
“We also have the Sythian fleet, and the Gor fleet. Over fifteen thousand capital ships with a full complement of Shell fighters.”
Ethan took a deep breath and let it out again. None of this made any sense, but there was another possibility. “All right, that’s enough.” He nodded to Therius. “You’re a Peacekeeper, and this is Omnius testing me to see if I’m a rebel. Nice try, but I’m not falling for it. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to go see my wife and daughter.”
Atta rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “I’m out of here. I have a battalion to train. See you later, Ethan.”
He watched her leave, wondering just how far this ruse would go.
“Your family is on Avilon in the Adventa Galaxy. You are on Origin in the Getties,” Therius reminded him.
Armageddon Page 21
