The StarMaster's Son

by Gibson Morales

  Oberon made a gesture, and their uncle appeared. A replay holodisplay of him, his eyes bearing only the faintest trace of regret. "Felik knows how dark the universe can be, but he doesn't want to accept the reality. It's not about right and wrong, it's about survival."

  Tell that to everyone subscribed to the Karma Nebula Pact, Felik thought as his uncle's holodisplay shimmered out.

  "I've got work to do," he said.

  "Has your neural virus worsened or did you not understand what I told you? You work for the Union Alpha now. Why don't you start by telling me who infected the Guardian Templar? Who knows, prove yourself useful to me and you might get what it promised you after all." An intense sinking sensation possessed him like he'd suddenly warped to a planet with ten times the gravity. His shock must've shown all over his face because Oberon was grinning smugly. "Honestly, I've met Type III species who caught on quicker than you. The Guardian Templar was working for me the entire time."

  Chapter 36

  KAI

  "You were reckless, Kai," Phoenix said, refusing to meet her gaze.

  She folded her hands together in front of her, trying to look ashamed. "I'm sorry. I..."

  He turned away from the butte cliff, glided over to the monolith, and ran a hand along its rough surface gently. "Yes?"

  "I knew that I had to confront the black goo. It killed Euphrates and I needed to see it up close. To know I could handle it."

  Phoenix cast his head from side to side. For the first time, she sensed genuine resentment in him. Then again, she had no real psionic powers. "Was that worth the lives of that station's inhabitants? The life of Sarvill?"

  Ashiban had told her that the black goo had destroyed Station 98-A(*E5-]^3L shortly after they left.

  She had no answer to that. Not an honest one nor a good lie. All she could do was try to exploit his weakness. "We saw Jace.blek there. He thought you'd sent us to deliver him a message."

  "I can't blame you entirely for his recklessness. He monitors data on the black goo there. He knows to only monitor it remotely, though."

  "Ashiban told me he placed a lot of blame on you for problems in his life."

  Phoenix nodded slowly. "Jace.blek and I had a difference of opinion. I wish there was an unbiased way for me to say it's his own fault and not mine. But there isn't." He flicked his hand and a tiny holo replay showed the black goo ravaging Station 98-A(*E5-]^3L. As well as it attacking all of them except her. "It's no coincidence that your presence at Station 98-A(*E5-]^3L affected the black goo there. It must've sensed itself in you. Did you feel any different? Was there any sort of a connection?"

  She shook her head. "Nothing."

  "Please Kai. Anything you might have noticed could be helpful."

  Phoenix's expression was unreadable. Was he doubting her?

  "Helpful how?" she asked.

  He narrowed an eye in surprise. "We need to figure out how you're being affected. You say you wanted to prove yourself at Zone 2080, but the black goo could also be manipulating your subconscious."

  He dismissed her, and she didn't see him again until the funeral ceremony for Sarvill.

  Zendant funerals were typically short and simple. As survivors of a zombiepocalypse-style disaster on their planet, Zendants had learned to accept the death of their kin without a second glance.

  Phoenix chose to respect that, but he wanted to honor Sarvill with a semblance of New Terran traditions as well.

  The Engineers gathered at a small clearing in the rainforest below the butte, a thick mist rolling among the branches and treetops. There were no animal sounds, no ambient noise. It occurred to Kai that she was the only non-Engineer there.

  She let her mind drift through the eulogy until Phoenix said he would show them a memory of himself meeting Sarvill. The mist around them disappeared. Instead, dozens of starships dotted the dark skyline. Amid the trees, encampments of human marines and various alien warriors appeared, chattering or barking or clicking among themselves.

  A version of Phoenix who couldn't have been older than nineteen was seated alone on a log, in front of a roaring fire. Even with the flames and his thick brown cloak, his eyes bore the look of a cold man.

  "Okay, so they say you can manipulate reality," Sarvill said, sitting next to him, a plasma rifle tucked under his arm. "Is that really true?"

  Like that, Sarvill's hand looked human. He gave it a surprised shake, returning it to his normal monstrous Zendant hand. "So how exactly does it work?"

  "I overclock."

  "Overclock? Isn't that an old computer term?"

  Phoenix shifted his shoulders. "It's like meditating. When we link with the Neural Network, we gain a deeper understanding of the universe by reading its source code. The equations and laws that bind the universe. Its history and its patterns. This knowledge allows us to then hack reality by altering that source code. We must constantly link with the Neural Network because the source code is always changing. Therefore, the more knowledge of the source code one gains, the more one can change reality. But as one continues this link, there's a greater and greater chance of being permanently linked with the Neural Network. Not truly death, but death in effect. Overclocking is when you run this risk."

  "That's how your master died, isn't it?"

  Phoenix grunted, staring only at the flames.

  "Hey, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about your master. But couldn't you bring him back to life with your powers?"

  "That's not how it works. It's too difficult."

  "Why?"

  Phoenix's speech quickened. "Why are atoms made of electrons and neutrons and not immutable? Why does gravity exist? It's just how the universe was designed."

  "There are reasons for that, though. The laws of physics."

  "Why are the laws of physics what they are and not another way?" Phoenix shrugged.

  "Hmm but hang on. If you can manipulate reality, can't you change those rules? The rules of your powers."

  "Engineers have been asking that question for centuries. None have ever managed to. We can only manipulate reality within a set of boundaries. I mean there are legends about Engineers that could alter the fabric of concepts themselves. Things that would be hard to even wrap your brain around under normal circumstances. I'm not that powerful, though."

  "Yeah, so you can't end this war with a thought yet. You'll get there. What about increasing the units in my bank account?"

  The younger version of Sarvill, Phoenix, and the soldiers faded away. The jungle was sullen again, the foliage a rich green contrast to the white fog.

  The other Engineers drifted off into the trees, several of them framing Raksamat as they walked. She watched the group intently for a few seconds, trying to figure out what they were doing. But showing concern would only draw attention. Sighing, she discovered Phoenix brushing his hand over something inscribed on the bark of one tree.

  Sarvill's death had gotten to him as much as she'd hoped. Now it was time to reel him in. She strode over to his side. "I've been thinking about what happened."

  "Do you know why I showed that memory?"

  "Besides the obvious?" Kai blurted and wished she hadn't.

  "The other Engineers can see into the past, and they already understand the difficulty of facing the black goo. I wanted you to realize that Engineers have limits. Our enemy doesn't have to play by the rules."

  "I screwed up, but I can make up for it," she said. "You know my network. We have our own elite soldiers. They can't hack reality, but they're skilled in other ways. I could convince them to aid in your battle against the black goo. If you just help us get rid of the Starbleeders, they'll..."

  She didn't bother finishing because he'd wandered off. Suddenly, they were on the butte, and he was looking out over the surrounding jungle, fog pouring in from the dense white clouds above. Then he sat, cross-legged.

  She continued. "Think about it. My army plus yours. We could defeat the black goo no sweat."

  "My Engineers aren't an army.
They're supposed to be promoters of nuance, objectivity, and rationality."

  "And they can't do that until the black goo is stopped. That's where my army comes in." She didn't understand. He must've known how powerful his Engineers were. Then it dawned on her. When Ashiban revealed her psionic blocker, the first thing Phoenix brought up was that she was afraid. When a person rushed to a certain accusation, it often hinted at projection. And then there was the way they'd ordered Jace.blek to return to his nest. He'd obeyed without question.

  "You're afraid, aren't you?" she queried. A grin split her face at the profoundness of such a simple answer. "That's it."

  "I'm not so much afraid of the black goo as worried. But yes, I am a little."

  "No. You're afraid of losing your students."

  Like a parent who couldn't bear to allow his children to test themselves against the threats out there. The beginning of a laugh sounded in her throat, but she stopped herself and sat beside him. "You're worried about their safety. It's why you've confined Jace.blek to his nest."

  His expression darkened, "I'd hoped your jaunt would've taught you that unnecessary adventures can bring deadly risks."

  She crossed her arms. "I see it a different way. Despite all of your attempts, you've still lost close friends."

  Phoenix turned to her with a mock surprised expression. "So because I lost one friend, I should throw all caution to the wind?" He made a gesture of tossing something as a breeze ruffled their clothes.

  "That's not what I said. I only mean that no one can protect everyone forever."

  "Believe me, I understand that. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."

  She thought about what Jace.blek had implied and Phoenix's mysterious disappearance a half century before. "Why did you really come to this place? What happened between you and Jace.blek?"

  He looked like he'd aged two decades in a matter of seconds. Maybe that was intentional, maybe not. It was easy to forget that, chronologically, he was in his eighties.

  Phoenix took a long breath and interlocked his fingers. "As the Chief Engineer of the Union Omega, I established the Engineer institutes with Arteyos's blessings and funding. And as the Chief Philosopher, I thought I could usher in a new age of science and intellectualism. The starkeepers suggested I take on multiple frames to manage these two roles. And it would have helped me to monitor the schools and work with so many students. I wanted to stay true to the ways of the Engineers, so I didn't. Trying to balance my work as Chief Philosopher, however, I became detached from the students.

  "And then I learned about Jace's rebellion. The news streams covered it up by claiming he'd been iced. But we all knew what happened. His instructors put him and his classmates into a hellish sim to force out their reality-warping abilities. A survival of the fittest mentality. They let students die. They claimed that others got iced. But they'd really sold them off as weapons or servants to anonymous bidders.

  "I was supposed to be this great hero, the Chief Engineer and the Chief Philosopher, but I couldn't even see the evil occurring under my nose. Jace had been a promising student. Motivated by his curiosity. A desire for knowledge, not power. It was this open-mindedness and love of learning that made him such a powerful Engineer. And such a threat when he retaliated against his instructors. In the end, I had to step in."

  "What did you do to him?"

  "Knowing he was ultimately justified in his rebellion, I couldn't bring myself to end him as Arteyos had ordered. Instead, I tricked him into believing that the black goo was to blame for his troubles. I stripped away his Engineer abilities and claimed the black goo had done it to him. By doing so, I steered him to a new purpose. A way for him to use his intelligence for the betterment of the universe. Researching the black goo at the edge of it. I came with him as his protector, and to start a new Engineer institute, vowing to never let another student be harmed."

  Her voice rose in anger. "All that because of the faux Engineer institutes. Except that you're letting the bastards continue. The Starbleeders are still running those institutes, aren't they?"

  "It's more than that. More than most will ever know."

  "Huh?"

  "Do you know what the Arbiters said when they first visited humanity on Old Terra? They took one look around and they asked why we ran our society so crudely. Why we judged each other on outward appearances even when we knew people were more different inside than on the outside. Why when someone did something stupid, we thought they were idiots without remembering that we'd done that same silly thing the week before.

  "When humans gained access to the technologies of the Type IV races, we could've changed everything. Arteyos gave everyone access to the same knowledge and increased intelligence with nexuses, but did we truly bring sapient life closer together? The human race is two races now. Sapients are split based on networks. As the Chief Philosopher I tried to foster empathy and objectivity. Using the power of quantum computing, I had been devising algorithms to map out, expose, and resolve all the injustice in the universe. And with the power of artificial bodies, there wouldn't have to be the inequality that's always existed in our species."

  "You're talking about a post-scarcity universe?" Kai always thought it a silly, naive idea.

  "I'm talking about advancing human nature. Sapient nature. My push for post-scarcity is only a part of my philosophy. But is it any surprise that the media streams diluted my beliefs into an idea that could be presented in a divisive rather than instructive way? What I'm saying, Kai, is that our leaders deliberately prevented humanity and many other species from entering a utopian age."

  So this was why the Union Omega wanted him dead. Why he had to flee.

  "Yeah, well I don't think anyone in power is going to give that up. You can pretty much kiss your ideals good-bye."

  "Oh, I know. That's why I'm focusing on the black goo."

  Chapter 37

  FELIK

  Sims of Oberon announcing the Union Alpha's formation flooded the media indices.

  Felik could hardly get Oberon's face out of his head. Holodisplays showed his image on every corner, every gravity tug, every probe as he declared the birth of a new empire. He could've been their father, wearing almost the same gray and brown greatcoat as their father.

  Felik had been telling his XO about Oberon's confession of controlling the Guardian Templar when the media streams lit up with the news.

  It wasn't war, but it was, technically, treason. Right about now, control of a significant portion of the Union Omega's resources were passing to Oberon and the Watchers network. Via mass-distributed hijacking viruses dressed up as invitations to "Join the Resistance" or, less maliciously, as simple commands to join a new empire, Union Omega citizens transferred jurisdiction of their karma pylon backups and nexuses over to the Union Alpha.

  To Oberon's credit, his decades of building, fostering, and, in many cases, forcing countless alliances were making the transition relatively seamless. He had pulled off the single greatest undermining of an empire in history.

  For the moment, the Union Omega had little to say, focused on its own freshly crowned StarMaster. News streams of Megas at his inauguration party showed him as lackadaisically dismissing the severity of the situation with statements like, Good riddance. Who needs them? We've got the best sapients in my empire.

  Yet most experts agreed this was only an act, at best, by the Union Omega StarMaster. And, unless cooler heads prevailed, this secession could very well lead to war. An interstellar bleeding. Exactly what the Guardian Templar had tasked him with preventing.

  Felik cast his head from side to side and paced beside the pond on his command sphere's grass surface, watching the goldfish drift. Waiting for Xerix's update on Landi didn't make things any easier—earlier, he'd informed Oberon of Landi, which sparked an immediate investigation of the Telchine.

  The Union Omega or the Union Alpha. There was no in-between. It was one or the other. So much for sapients valuing nuance.

  "How did he ge
t the Guardian Templar to act as his puppet?" Juliard said, walking up to him.

  "Some warped philosophy about alien life knowing what's best." He thought back to Oberon's words.

  Believe it or not, we humans aren't the greatest judges of morality in the universe. Just because I'm evil to you, it doesn't make me an evil sapient. I can't pretend to entirely understand the Templars' reasons, but they saw something in me.

  Felik was caught between a black hole and a supernova. To Oberon's credit, the man, if some of his humanity remained, had ensnared him from the beginning.

  The words echoed in his head as perfectly as if he'd logged them to his nexus's memory. I needed you on my side. Ideally, with your cooperation. Obviously, you would've seen through any cheap attempts from me to convince you. But I knew the Guardian Templar could make you understand by giving you the task of investigating the StarMaster's death.

  Juliard stepped up close to him. "Felik, you already know how I feel about this. You don't have to join Oberon. And, truly, you shouldn't. The universe is pretty damn complex, but I think it's safe to say Oberon's not one of the good guys."

  "Yeah, but Megas isn't either."

  Juliard clapped in a slow, sardonic fashion. "Brilliant revelation there."

  "Hey, you want to go back into stasis?"

  She issued a long sigh and placed a hand on her hip. "There aren't any good options here. So we choose the least crappy one. It's as simple as that. No need to try and overthink it." Then she laughed in a slightly crazy way.

  Felik gave her a look that said, That's extremely bad timing.

  "Sorry," she said. "It's just that Arteyos told me once that he used to overthink things. When he was younger. As a child, he was extraordinarily smart. But also a little meek. Hayland bullied him, you know. I guess I can't blame him for taking the easy way out in his teenage years."

  "He didn't kill himself, though."