“Kara?”
The voice caught her by surprise. For the first time in more than an hour, Kara’s heart lifted.
“Chi?”
Chi-Qua Baek bounced off a sofa and into her arms. Kara, to her brief shame, realized she did not think of Chi-Qua even once after the body count grew onstage.
“You’re safe,” Kara said. “What happened? Why are you here?”
“I surrendered like everyone else. They marched us to the great hall. Next thing I knew, they said we were being released. I was outside the front of the estate when he called me back.” She glanced at Ryllen. “He said I had more to do.”
Ryllen marched past them without a word.
“More what?”
“I don’t know. I was ordered in here and told to eat. We all were. What’s happened, Kara? No one tells me anything.”
“I think that’s the whole purpose of this meeting.”
Ham Cortez approached with discretion. The last time all three of them were together, they fled a killing zone inside a hopper.
“I offer my apologies and condolences, Kara,” he said. “You did a remarkable favor for us on Mangum Island, and in turn, we destroyed what might normally be considered the highlight of a young woman’s life. This was never our goal.”
“But it’s done, Ham, and we’ll never come back from this.”
“I hope what RJ and I have to say will provide consolation and perhaps an encouraging slice of light amid the dark.”
Ham acknowledged Ya-Li and slipped away. Chi winced.
“What did he mean by condolences? Who else died?”
“No, Chi. Not here.”
“Kara’s right,” Ya-Li said. “Not until we know what else they expect us to endure.”
The new couple rejected entreaties to have a bite to eat. Kara was famished, and she suspected Ya-Li was too, but the mere thought of breaking bread with mass murderers nauseated her.
Everyone took a seat but for Ryllen, Ham, and two soldiers in black armor. Ryllen began.
“We don’t have much time, but it will be enough. A few of you know the entire picture, but most only have pieces. It’s important for you to know my story, where I’ve been, what I’ve learned, why I’m here, and what we’re fighting for. Someone I respect asked the question, ‘Why did so many people have to die like that?’” He glanced in Kara’s direction. “There’s no good answer, only the best one. I’ll try to deliver. When I’m done, each of you will have a choice to make. I know who already stands with me, but I hope to win the room. We need everydamnbody for what’s ahead.
“Two years after the Chancellors retreated from the colonies, a man known to some of us as the Inventor developed a new technology to enhance intergalactic transport and commerce. He formed a secret alliance with ethnics on several colonies and promised them an empire of their own. His followers are fanatics. A cult. We killed some of them today. His name is Amayas Knight. It’s likely a pseudonym. We don’t know his true identity or where he came from, but we know what he’s done and why he has to be stopped.”
Kara interrupted. “You grew up on Hokkaido,” she said. “How did you learn this, Ryllen?”
For the first time since his return, Ryllen smiled. He turned to a tall blond man in black armor. The soldier looked Kara’s age but sported battle-weary eyes and corn rows similar to Ryllen’s yet not dyed. He reciprocated Ryllen’s smile and approached the front.
“This is X,” Ryllen said, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “We wouldn’t be here without each other. He worked with Amayas Knight from the beginning.”
“Hello, everyone. My name is Exeter,” he said. “Exeter Woolsey. I was ward to Amayas … the Inventor … for almost five years. We were based at Artemis Station in the Oorton System. I watched him build something magical. At least, I thought it was. I saw him make alliances on ten colonies. I saw designs for a new breed of warship. And I saw the wonders of his greatest creation, the Splinter. I’m the one who named it. I traveled across the divides inside it. But the Splinter isn’t what Amayas thought. Everything is coming undone.”
Ryllen whispered to Exeter, who nodded before retreating.
“Outside of Exeter, nobody in this room knew about the Splinter until three standard days ago. Ham, myself, and some of my Green Sun brothers and sisters landed on Mangum Island. We encountered a ship that shouldn’t exist. I went inside. I was hunting for a man I’d been wanting to kill for a long time. Instead, I found this.”
Ryllen tapped the panel on his left forearm. A hologram emerged of a perfect cube. In the center, a glowing pink ball radiated spikes to the eight corners, each of which pulsated.
“The Splinter. It looks simple, maybe like a glow toy you could find in a novelty store. But what I came to realize in time was just how beautiful, terrifying, and impossible it is. This cube holds secrets we were never meant to discover.”
“Tell us already,” Ya-Li said. Kara saw not impatience but the scientific curiosity of a man whose own genius went unappreciated by his family and friends. “What is it?”
“The heart of the universe. The center is a singularity created from the black substrata that lie underneath visible space. The substrata allow us to travel through the Fulcrum; it’s how the Aeternans are able to use their mobile wormholes. The technology they call Slope. It might also be the answer to instantaneous point to point travel.”
“And the spikes?” Ya-Li asked.
“They were designed to act like a galactic compass, and they do. For this universe. The next one. The one after that. And the other six. It took me years to understand.”
A hand rose in the back. “What do you mean?” A Green Sun agent frowned with obvious suspicion. “Other universes?”
“There are nine. Our universe is prime. At least, I think so. I don’t have proof. But I know there are others because the Splinter took me to each one. The other eight are fragmented from ours. Reproductions born sometime in the past. Don’t know how long ago. Centuries? Millions of years? Billions? Doesn’t matter.”
“Does to me,” the kid replied. “This shit is too big for assholes like us.”
“Yes,” Ham intervened. “It is. But I happen to know what RJ is saying is not only plausible, it’s established fact. Not for the official record, of course. Chancellors discovered tears between universes more than fifty years ago. They are akin to doorways. We called them Interdimensional Folds. IDFs. Unstable creatures, and ultimately, problematic. May I ask? Have you heard a fanciful story about children who came to Earth from another universe and destroyed an empire?”
The kid stifled a laugh. “Oh, that? They told us in school that story was nonsense. Propaganda from the Aeternans, I heard.”
Ham said nothing, but his stoic, lingering stare sealed his point.
“More like propaganda from Chancellor loyalists,” Ryllen said. “Listen, if we were just dealing with these IDFs, no worries. Ham says they’re too small and unpredictable. Very little can come through at a time. But the Splinter? It allows for instantaneous connection across the nine universes. If you know how to use it, you can travel anywhere.
“I know. I know. It sounds beyond impossible. There’s nothing in our science to explain it. But I’ve done it. X has done it. And we’re not the only ones. Most of the Inventor’s followers have been introduced to the Splinter. They’re shown the other universes from a distance. It’s call fragmenting. They’re introduced to the Splinter’s single greatest power – the ability to interact with their corresponding body in a fragmented universe. Some people have as many as eight fragments. Most have only three or two. It all depends upon causality.
“Those of you on Mangum heard how those people talked. If you were outside today, you heard the same. ‘I was never here.’ ‘He was never really here.’ Remember? Sho Parke walked away from me today and didn’t care if I killed him because the person speaking for him exists in a fragmented universe.”
Suddenly, Kara remembered. Seconds before her brother ki
lled Mei Durin, he said: “Sometimes, I feel like I was never here.”
Oh, Dae.
Ryllen continued. “Hoija Taron made a connection with her counterpart in the universe where I spent the last six years of my life. General Hoija Taron is as vicious and bloodthirsty a human as you will never want to meet. What we did today would be a light snack for the General.” He faced Ya-Li. “I don’t regret what I did to your grandmother. She and the General have been communing for years. Your Gran Hoija has been the General’s top source of intel not only about Hokkaido, but the entire Collectorate. I cut off that pipeline.”
He refocused on the room. “I don’t understand all the physics of fragmenting, but I know this: As we make more connections with our counterparts, the natural divides between universes erode. So far, the effect is small. But if Amayas Knight has his way, this new alliance will make it possible for millions of people to cross those divides. Universes and timelines will collapse on each other.
“This beautiful planet will burn, and it won’t be the last. I’ve seen what life is like in the fragments. So has X. The rest of my team was born in a universe where the Chancellory wages endless war. Their tech is generations ahead.”
Ham intervened. “I can support this. I’ve analyzed the body armor and these blast weapons. More to the point, the ship we encountered at Mangum never moved past the design stage in my Chancellory. Ryllen confirmed it: The sphere we saw that night was built across the divide. I have no love for the Chancellors, though I spent my life in their service. But it appears we were amateurs compared to those bastards. We cannot open that door.”
The room fell quiet, as if the oxygen were consumed. Anxious faces contemplated the insanity laid out before them. Kara didn’t realize how tightly she was holding Chi-Qua’s hand.
“Problem is,” Ryllen said, “they know how to break down the door.”
53
A FTER I STOLE THE SPLINTER at Mangum,” Ryllen said, “I was shot down. But the Splinter saved me. I can’t explain how or why, but it allowed me to cross the divides. I landed in the middle of a war. The Splinter never showed me a way home. I spent years fighting, dying, and trying to return. Toward the end of the sixth year, my unit was assigned to infiltrate a covert facility manned by Special Services. That’s where I discovered another Splinter.
“It was being used as the nav guide for a spherical ship called Invictus. This ship was capable of point-to-point travel anywhere in the universe. It was manned by fragments – counterparts of the Inventor’s followers. We tried to destroy it, but the sphere escaped using a mobile wormhole. Similar tech to the Aeternans, but commonplace across the divide. Right when it looked like we were defeated, my Splinter showed me the path. We linked it into our nav and locked the coordinates.
“When we came out the other end of the wormhole, we didn’t fully understand what had happened. We saw Invictus on the ground. But I realized something else. I’d been there before. It was Mangum Island. High Cannon Collective. The sphere we were pursuing was the very same that appeared on Mangum three nights ago. The Splinter brought me home – at the end of a loop.”
He paused, as if to give the room time to assess the implications.
Another Green Sun agent raised her hand. “Wait, what? RJ, are you saying there were two of you at High Cannon?”
“It was me, Jai, but in different timelines. When I realized where – and when – we were, I delayed the attack. We didn’t destroy Invictus until our team – your team – was clear.”
Ham stepped in. “When RJ and I attempted to commandeer vehicles, the soldiers in black who we assumed to be Aeternans allowed us to leave. Now I understand why.”
“I gave the order to stand down,” Ryllen said. “If I had altered history, our mission would have failed in the past and never would have existed in the future. The alliance would continue to build. The fragments would increase. And we’d have no idea what was coming. Everything had to play out. I had to fight my way back, even though it took six years.”
The girl, Jai Zaan, nodded as if she understood.
“Then doesn’t this mean we’ve essentially won? You discovered the secrets of the Splinter and you know what’s happening across the divides. Can’t we broadcast this to the colonies? I mean, if governments know about the alliance and that lunatic Inventor, they’ll shut it down. Problem solved.”
Ryllen cracked a smile. “I wish. You missed an important detail in my story. The Splinter we chased? It wasn’t created in this universe. They have the ability to build Splinters and use wormholes to cross the divide – even before fragmenting takes hold. If we find Amayas Knight and destroy every Splinter on this side, we might still lose. But finding him is our only chance.”
“Do you have any idea where to search?” Ya-Li asked.
“We’ll try Artemis Station, but X said he left there some time ago.”
Exeter added: “I last saw Amayas three months ago in this timeline. He saw what was happening to the divides. Some of his allies questioned his motives. He was preparing to leave and set up a new hidden base, so I asked him why.” Exeter glanced at Ryllen. “He told me the Splinter’s enemy was coming for him. Then he said he was giving me a special mission. Next thing I knew, I was lying in the middle of a battlefield across the divide. RJ saved my life. I gave Amayas my loyalty, and he banished me. He’s the most dangerous man in the galaxy, but RJ is right: Finding him is our only chance.”
“If we can’t track him from Artemis Station,” Ryllen said, “then we’ll have no choice. We go to the Aeternans.”
“Why them?” Ya-Li asked.
“They’re my people, for one. I’m an engineered immortal, like them. I can’t say they’ll be happy to see me when they hear all the worst bits, but they brought down the Chancellory. As children. They defeated ten thousand Guard soldiers in less than an hour, and nobody has explained how. Their secrets might give us some hope. After all, it’s their universe, too. They have as much to lose. Maybe more.”
Kara had a strange feeling where this was headed.
“When you started this talk, you said we’d have to make a choice. Ryllen, are you asking us to go with you?”
“I am.”
The idea seemed absurd. “You slaughtered all those people. Members of my family. Ya-Li’s family. And you want us to join you?”
“I do. You know what’s at stake. And to be honest, Hokkaido is not going to be a safe place for anybody in this room. Not after today.”
“I suppose not,” Kara said, “after what you’ve done.”
“Blame me if you want, Kara, but Hoija Taron made it happen. The General warned her I was coming. She used the Hokki leadership as bait to draw me in, and she knew innocent people would die. There’s a madness inside these followers; the Splinter brings it out.”
“Why me? I’m not a soldier. Neither is my husband. Or Chi-Qua.”
“I don’t want you to be. I need thoughtful people who are brave and know when to talk me down from doing something stupid. We can’t kill our way to victory. I trust Ham, but he’s a Chancellor. He won’t always be accepted. Aeterna, for starters.”
Ham nodded. “The more faces we collect from the colonies to counter this alliance, the stronger we become. The Chancellors ruled with an army in red body armor. Ryllen’s team wears black. Sovereign ethnics will make no distinction.”
“What about Hokkaido?” Ya-Li said. “Word will spread about what happened today. People will learn about the poisoning. There will be chaos in Pinchon. Reprisals. We’ll be in civil war.”
“Actually,” Ham said, “Hokkaido will be stable for a time. Shortly before this meeting, we reached an understanding with the hostages. We appealed to the self-interest of both Syungs and Tarons. In exchange for our silence about the poisoning and the Inventor’s alliance, they will return to their lofty positions controlling Nantou and Hotai, with a few changes in leadership.”
Howls of objections followed. Kara and Ya-Li shared a glance. They were stun
ned. As voices lowered, Ham continued:
“However, they will also take a vow of silence about what they saw and heard on the stage. When they talk to the authorities, they will say a Hokki terrorist group infiltrated the wedding, killed several prominent guests, and ambushed the KumTaan officers. It did so as retribution for the outlawing of Green Sun and the pursuit of its leader, Lan Chua. Since the guests and household staff who survived the initial attack saw nothing to contradict this, it will become the accepted story. The families will make sure the KumTaan close this case in short order and marshal all their efforts to hunt down and destroy Green Sun.”
The Green Sun agents were apoplectic.
“You sold us out!” “Traitor!” “We can never go home now!”
Ryllen and Exeter raised their terrifying blast weapons to counter the emerging laser pistols.
“Lan Chua agreed to this plan,” Ryllen shouted. “He has rescued almost everyone in the movement. Your goal – which used to be my goal – is to preserve the purity of The Lagos. The only way to do that now is to leave. Lan has contacts on Huryo. Anyone who wants to seek asylum on the moon can do so. The rest? Come with us. Fight for something bigger. When we win, your names will be restored. You’ll be able to come home. They might even hail you as heroes.”
Angry, terrified voices spoke over each other until the cacophony threatened to erupt into violence. Ryllen and Exeter lowered their weapons at Ham’s suggestion. The Chancellor took a position in the center of the study, his arms raised skyward, and waited. In due course, everyone got the message.
“We are not what we were yesterday,” he said. “And we will be something different tomorrow. I want you all to consider what it will mean to wear a new skin. Our past deeds and our crimes will not matter anymore. Our surnames will not define us. We will sacrifice and suffer for the greater good. For me, this is a novel concept and, quite frankly, one that I find tempting.”
The Simmering Seas Page 38
