The Circuit, Book 1

by Rhett C. Bruno

  “It was you, wasn’t it?” she questioned weakly as her fingers fell to caress the handle of her pistol. “Benjar was right…”

  “You always were bright,” Cassius remarked. He turned his back to her and leaned against the wall. “I think that’s why he loved you so much. Not just a pretty face. You were worth conversing with.”

  Her index finger threaded through the trigger of her gun, but when Cassius glowered over his shoulder at her she pulled it away. As much as it frightened her, she recognized the hollowness which accompanied his rage. She saw it in her own eyes every time she looked at her reflection, but it didn’t matter. She was an Executor of the Tribune. She had to do what was required of her.

  “I must arrest you, Cassius,” she whimpered. “I can’t allow you to do any more harm to the people of the Circuit.”

  “I know, and I won’t try to stop you.” He whirled around, unfastened his holster and tossed it onto her lap with his gun still inside. “But first allow me to show you something else. Let me show you the truth of what it means to be an Executor.” He extended his hand in order to help her to her feet.

  She hesitated. She wanted to trust him, but as genuine as he seemed, she couldn’t help but imagine that he was inviting her to her death.

  “Please,” he said, extending his hand again after taking notice of her skepticism. “I would never defile the legacy of my son. You have my word.”

  She glanced up toward the image of Caleb’s face. I believe him, she thought as the static, hologram looked back at her. Then, placing aside her doubt, she attached his pistol to her belt and reached up to grasp his outstretched hand. Somehow she knew Cassius would never break a promise made in the name of his son.

  One thing was still bugging her, however. “Why though? Why raid harmless transports?”

  “Harmless?” Cassius appeared shocked by her question. “Gravitum, my dear. It is the key to all of this.” Once they were both standing upright he went to wipe her cheeks but she instinctually pulled away.

  “All of what?”

  “Everything!” he exclaimed. Cassius began to lead her back in the same direction from which they’d arrived, an air of exuberance about him. “The Circuit. Our survival. The war for our Homeworld. The element has now been sought on all of the worlds we know of, to no avail. Even after spending half-a-millennium beyond it, we remain bound to the Earth.”

  “The Spirit binds us,” Sage said. “One day our homeworld will receive us with gracious arms. You know that.”

  Cassius snickered. “No, no. The ramblings of the Tribune are no more than a means of control. Tell me. Do you really believe in your heart that we are all connected by some cosmic power inherent to that wasteland?”

  Sage grit her teeth, biting off the words which popped into her head. She took no pleasure in having her faith belittled, but chose to keep the conversation civil. “You really don’t think we’ll ever return for good?”

  “Through faith?” He sounded like he was about ready to burst into hysterical laughter. “You’ll have better luck trying to turn water into alcohol. Perhaps we could fix Earth one day. My son believed that through science we could, and now he is dead for it. I believe that he was right, but not without centuries of dedicated work, probably more. But there is no Spirit unifying us. The Tribune appeases its people with lies; lies which I was once foolish enough to hope for. Faith is a powerful ally.”

  “How can you say all of that after serving alongside them for so long?” Sage argued. It was getting difficult for her to remain calm.

  “How could I not? There was a time when we needed such order to pull us out of an age of darkness. Now, the value of the Tribune has outlasted its welcome. Is our survival really so much in question anymore? I don’t blame them for their methods, but it took the death of my only son for me to realize how much their dogmatic reign is holding us back!” He stopped in front of an unmarked, serrated metal door. “I wish only to release the shackles both they and Earth have placed on us so that we may reach beyond our wildest contemplations!”

  Cassius activated a HOLO-Screen on his bracer and keyed a few commands. A console flipped out of the wall beside the door and he placed his eye in front of a retinal scanner. The door slowly began to rise into the ceiling.

  An ominous feeling ran through Sage as the opening grew. It was a cramped elevator, illuminated only by a tiny light above. “What if it is just you, Cassius, who wants to leave the Tribune behind?” she asked. “What if you’re wrong?”

  “Then at least…” Cassius sighed. “At least I will have opened some new eyes along the way.” He stepped forward onto the lift and waited patiently for her to join him.

  Everything in her body told her not to go in, but she couldn’t help it. What he was saying may have been heretical, but she couldn’t arrest him without seeing what he wanted to show her. She owed him that much for saving her life.

  Why kill me now? she assured herself before stepping in.

  The door slammed shut behind her and the elevator began to descend quickly. A ringing sound began to fill her ears as if a bomb had gone off nearby. It grew louder and louder the deeper they went. Again her heart began racing, her fingers impulsively falling toward the handle of her pistol.

  “Don’t be afraid.” Cassius placed his palm over her artificial hand and guided it away from her weapon. “It’s just interference. I would never harm you.”

  The lift came to a sudden halt and opened. Sage gratefully stepped out into what appeared to be a brightly lit laboratory. The ringing didn’t subside. She stumbled forward and immediately noticed the array of HOLO-Screens set up on either side of the passage. Each of them showed the same thing, and it was exactly what she saw through her own two eyes. As she looked around the room the view followed her vision. She came to the center of them and turned to Cassius, and he appeared all around her, as if there were cameras in her eyes.

  “What is this?” she mumbled as she began spinning around. All of the screens raced to keep up with what she envisioned, causing her to go dizzy.

  “I must apologize,” Cassius said contritely. “I did lie about one thing. I was expecting your visit.”

  When Sage’s hand grasped her pistol this time, it wasn’t out of reflex. “How are you doing this!” she shouted as she lifted her firearm to aim at him. With her other hand she held her ear to try and keep the ringing at bay.

  “I am doing nothing. I have merely hacked onto an already existing system.” He presented his empty palms to her.

  “What system? What are you talking about?” She approached him cautiously, not shifting her aim.

  “There’s the killer they made you,” Cassius remarked. In the HOLO-Screens she realized that he could see her sight directed at the center of his forehead. “I’m talking about the Tribune! The true intent behind my visit to the Arbiter’s Enclave on New Terrene.”

  Her frustration was building. Her natural hand began to tremble. Beads of sweat were dripping down her forehead and her whole expression darkened to the point where Cassius actually appeared worried that she might shoot.

  “While there I was able to obtain the encryption in order to show you this. Did you wonder how your masters knew about the raid on that freighter without you having to contact them? Have you ever wondered why that worm Benjar feels the need to enter you; to feel the supple touch of your skin when he could have any woman he so desires?”

  She shook her head repeatedly, reciting the vows of an Executor under her breath as if it would calm her. She wasn’t even looking at Cassius anymore, but her artificial grip kept her aim steady. She couldn’t help but notice that on the many surrounding HOLO-Screens.

  “After seeing through your eyes for so long, and hearing your beautiful voice, it’s no wonder he craves you. But now that I have seen it I won’t let him or others continue to poison you.” Cassius remained guarded, but he began to slowly stride toward her with his palms still held open. “I won’t let them taint what my son loved. N
ot anymore.”

  “I led Tal…impossible. This is all you!” Sage struggled to speak. Her eyes darted from screen to screen.

  “Why, you ask? You said it in your vows. A body must feel where its hand is going. It must see what its fingers graze in order to explore the darker corners of our universe. The Executors are the extent of the Council’s gaze…eyes with a gun. That is all you are to them.” As he spoke Cassius took a few, hardly noticeable shuffles forward. He was so near to her that her pistol was pressing against his chest.

  “Even when I was a Tribune, it was all I remained to them too,” he continued. “A puppet with a legend they could exploit. I only found out this truth after I took my oath, but they used my son’s life to keep me loyal. Now they don’t have that luxury.”

  Cassius went to wrap his hands around her arm and lower her firearm but she nudged him away. “No…Lies…” she pronounced. She could hardly speak.

  “The implant they gave you does more than augment your ability to fight. It latches onto your mind. It is why your memory is fading and unclear; why Caleb remains no more than a blank face. It dulls all pain, not just physical, and after too long takes away all that makes you human. What do you think happened when it was damaged in that explosion? The parts of you it had subdued were able to come through.”

  She panted wildly, trying her best to hold back from vomiting. “You are a liar!” she roared, shoving him back with the barrel of her pistol. “Betraying the Tribune…staging robberies…what are you planning Cassius!”

  He didn’t budge. Instead, he stared into her petrified eyes, somehow knowing that she wasn’t going to shoot.

  “But you are not completely lost yet, as I am,” he continued. “I found a way to remove it without them killing you! I can make your eyes your own again.” He turned his head so that she could see the long, jagged scar running up the back of his head from his neck. It was in the same position as hers and every other Executor’s was, but far more gruesome.

  “You are a servant, Sage, but I won’t allow it any longer.” He again reached for her artificial hand, its cold, metal fingers still wrapped around the handle of her gun. This time she backed away, almost stumbling as she kept the pistol upright. “Remember who fixed you before,” he said. “It’s my fault they got their hands on you, but please, let me help you now again.”

  She gazed straight into Cassius’ eyes and in them saw those of his son. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but she’d offered the whole of her life to Caleb Vale before he was prematurely taken from her. She even gave her arm to try and save him—an arm given back to her by the man standing in front of her promising his help. Yet that was all before he turned his back on the Tribune she loved.

  “I didn’t want to forget him, Cassius,” she whimpered. “I just wanted the pain to go away.”

  “I know,” Cassius said. “But it never does, and it never should.”

  His words made her heart sink. She realized then that she didn’t have it in her to shoot. Not him. On top of the incessant ringing her head began pounding with the Executor vows she knew she was failing. She struggled to keep them at bay while her foggy eyes scanned the room again to see all of the screens with her own vision projected on them. In them Cassius was staring down his nose at her.

  “It’s not too late to turn back,” she appealed, finally lowering her pistol. It was the only thing she could think of to say.

  “It is for me.”

  Before she had a chance to respond she felt an incapacitating pressure against the back of her head. The side of her gun reflected a pair of red eyes before it was stolen from her by someone strong enough to pry it from her artificial fingers. She collapsed, Cassius lunging forward to catch her before she slammed against the floor.

  He held her head up and whispered in her ear: “I will save you, my dear.” Then her world faded to blackness.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE—CASSIUS VALE

  Cruel Games of Fate

  Cassius Vale leaned against the rail of his glass-enclosed terrace, gazing out over the many tops of Edeoria’s shaft districts that filled the vast Ksa crater. He wore the stern glare of a man who was ready to plunge as far into the filth as necessary. His violet tunic was ironed and pulled neatly over the polished, carbon-fiber underlay beneath. His belt was perfectly aligned, the black and red pistol he rarely let out of his sight holstered at his hip. In his right hand he rolled his small, spherical HOLO-Recorder over his knuckles, fixated.

  Dozens of Tribunal ships were shooting through the atmosphere like a swarm of angry bees. For the second time in his life Cassius watched as attack ships and transports bore down on Titan with enough troops to occupy the colony his family had presided over since the foundation of the Circuit. Then his entire view was doused in shadow. The thick atmosphere parted ways and through it descended a New Earth Cruiser. Its massive, roaring engines flooded the scene with a blinding light that cast it as an oblong silhouette larger than any of the clouds. When they dulled it remained hovering about halfway up the height of the Edeoria Hub Tower.

  Cassius could read the name printed on the side of its plated hull. It was Calypso, the flagship of the Tribune Nora Gressler. It showed him its broadside and open hangar, which was releasing the flood of ships to invade his complex.

  The cruiser itself had the appearance of a shotgun, with the stock serving to house the two primary engines. The rest of them were located at the stern. Sapphire colored illumination shone through the thin breaks in the vessels’ dense armored-plating, forming a band of light around the center like a belt. The weapon systems facing him on the side were auxiliary, but a tremendous railgun ran along the top from beneath a semi-translucent command deck that peered over all the layers of thick cladding.

  Cassius switched on the HOLO-Recorder in his hand. He waited until the entire head of his son materialized before pausing the footage. “You asked me once, Caleb, what it was like to fight in a war,” he said, a glimmer in his eyes. “What it was like to kill. You never were one for fighting,” he chuckled to himself. The hum of approaching ships was getting louder. “But you were always strong in your own way. The truth is, every kill chips away a piece of you until you don’t even blink as you pull the trigger. I’m glad you never had to, but now I must kill again. I hope you can understand why. Yours is the only forgiveness I will ever need. I love you, son.”

  He took a long look at Caleb’s face as the terrace grew dim beneath the ships crowding the exterior of the terrace. He didn’t shed tears as he switched off the hologram and placed it into a pouch on his belt. There was too much at stake for him to lose his composure. Instead, taking long, graceful strides, he slowly backed out of the terrace and made his way into his personal quarters. There was nothing inside except for a lonely bed sitting in the corner with crimson sheets.

  He pressed on the com-link hooked into his right ear and addressed ADIM loudly enough so that he could hear himself speak over the now deafening rumble of engines: “ADIM. Proceed as planned. Use any means necessary.”

  “This unit is primed, Creator, ADIM responded without a moment’s delay. “Will move to penetrate Kalliope defenses now.”

  “Good—” Cassius paused as the blast of the Tribunal forces breaching his compound’s hangar made the floor shudder. “Good luck, ADIM.”

  “This unit does not require luck. With the will of the Creator guiding it, the odds of failure are minimal.”

  “Noted.” Cassius closed his eyes and allowed himself one last grin. The glass of the terrace shattered. “ADIM you may not be a human, but I care for you all the same. I hope you understand that.”

  “This unit understands. A man can feel love for whomever he chooses. One day, when we’re done, there will be other humans worthy of your will.”

  “Perhaps…but until then I have you. Goodbye, ADIM.”

  “Goodbye, Creator.”

  Just as Cassius switched the communications off, soldiers in green-hued Tribunal armor flooded into his room. An eme
rgency seal fell down over the translucency in order to preserve the balance of warm, breathable air, but it was too late to keep the invaders out. There had to be at least twenty of them staring down the sights of their rifles at him.

  “On your knees, traitor!” a group of angry voices shouted through their visors.

  “Disarm him!” The leader of the squad signaled his men. Cassius recognized the armor as that of a Hand. Belloth again, he thought. Right on schedule.

  “I will not fight,” Cassius proclaimed calmly.

  The butt of a rifle slammed across the side of his face. Hands grabbed him from all over, keeping him upright until they could rip off his belt. When the soldiers were done they rolled him onto his stomach and wrenched his arms back to bind his wrists.

  “I see civility is lost on the Tribune these days!” Cassius snarled and spit out a glob of blood.

  One of the soldiers delivered Belloth Cassius’ belt and she began to rustle through all of the pouches. When she found the HOLO-Recorder she carefully observed it before declaring it harmless and placing it back in. Then she fastened the belt around her own waist and positioned Cassius’ pistol opposite hers.

  “Bring him up!” Belloth ordered, and Cassius was promptly lifted onto both knees. “Check the room.” The soldiers began probing every corner, though there was little to search.

  “Clear!” they pronounced one after the other and then turned to aim their rifles at Cassius again.

  “Send her up,” Belloth ordered and then removed her helmet.

  “Hand Belloth. I was wondering when I would get to see you again,” Cassius said, his red-stained lips forming a haughty grin.

  “Shut your mouth!” the soldier standing behind Cassius shouted and kicked him cruelly in his bound wrists.

  He reeled in pain, but he didn’t allow his smiling face to shift.

  “I told you I’d be watching,” Belloth said. She sheathed her pistol and approached Cassius with a hard grimace. “I can’t wait to wipe that fuckin’ smile off your face!” Her fist crashed into Cassius’ cheek so forcefully that it would have knocked him over had the soldiers not been there to keep him upright.