Rayna and James took their seats flanking Valentin, who raised an audio baffle to provide privacy. They excused Ulrich from the bridge.
“A very rose-colored prediction, brother,” Valentin said. “Are you sure we aren’t rushing?”
“Speed is our advantage, Valentin. We’re changing hearts and minds. We’re attacking without pattern. We’ll make our move before those hearts and minds become clouded by Chancellor propaganda, or before the Guard develops countermeasures to our tech. When the fleet leaves Black Forest, we’ll be committed.”
“As long as we work together, James. I am losing track of all the pieces we’re positioning.”
“Are you still angry about Tamarind?”
“I am. You needed proper military escort.”
“I did, and you trained them. And Ulrich, as usual, was an outstanding navigator. I was in the best hands.”
Rayna sneered at Valentin. “You are jealous man. Is not like old days when three of us have fun together.”
“We agreed,” James said. “With many maneuvers in place, one of us must always command Lioness. Our people won’t survive if something happens to all three of us.”
“They might not anyway if we stretch ourselves too thin.”
He opened a holocube and fingered through until he found the latest Collectorate map overlaid by Salvation’s mission history and logistical data. He threw open the window, which hovered before the Triumvirate. More than nine hundred light-years of star systems moved in multi-dimensional patterns, reflecting their elliptical relationships. Colonies they attacked, raided for supplies, kidnapped immortals and Chancellors, or planted agents flickered brightest, color-coded for mission designation. Locations where they installed refractors glowed yellow. Deep in the center of it all, a beacon marked Black Forest.
James pointed to Tamarind. “Add her to our footprint.”
“Is beautiful map,” Rayna said. “We landed on seventeen colonies but no deaths. We have voices on Earth. Yet this troubles you, Valentin? How are we stretched, as you say, too thin?”
“We’re making promises we can’t keep. Creating indigo armies willing to die for their new gods was built on a fragile foundation. The Chancellory always puts down religious movements before they gain traction. Our caste rose from the ashes of deity worshippers. The only reason the Carriers have not deployed battalions to wipe out your followers is because they want us to reappear. Wherever we attack, Guard surveillance and patrols intensify. They’re under orders from the Admiralty to restrain.”
“Yes,” James said. “I predicted this.”
“You did, brother. But the policy will change when these indigos lose their usefulness. Between our immortals and peacekeeper rogues, we have less than six hundred fighters. We can neither hold those positions nor provide logistical support. We have only six reliable wormhole navigators.” They seemed disinterested, so Valentin made himself clear. “The indigos who survive the Guard’s slaughter will turn against their false gods.”
He eyed them both after using the term they most despised. Rayna seemed amused, but James’s eyes glowed orange.
“Do I have to keep proving myself to you? Do you think I don’t know these things? The Jewel allows me to anticipate every causality. What part of every do you not understand?”
“The part that says you are not a god, brother. You are a human-alien hybrid. The Jewels are powerful, yes. But don’t forget what happened to their creators. Gods do not die like they did.”
“They never controlled life with a finger and death with a kiss.”
“Perhaps, James. But if you were vented into space, you’d die as quickly as any other mortal man. Would a true god?”
James crabbed his fingers to mimic a stranglehold.
“If I didn’t love you, I’d kill you. Again.”
“Then we’d circle back to this argument. James, my point stands. Unless the Guard is thrown into chaos, our allies will be slaughtered and any attempt to settle our home world will be temporary.”
James lowered his hands and observed the Officers of Salvation at their duty stations. Valentin recognized the duplicitous smile.
“Chaos. You want chaos, brother?” James grabbed hold of Earth and pulled it close. “It’s coming. It’s all been arranged.”
“What have you done, James?”
“I took a chance and made a deal. No different than the promises we made with the Chancellors in our fleet.”
“And this will bring about chaos how?”
“Chancellors are desperate because they’re dying. They will do anything to hold on to the past. That makes them easy marks.”
“Another decision you made without me.”
“Patience, brother. I can’t wait to see the smile on your face.”
35
O PHELIA USED TO THINK STARS were beautiful, and the Enfidi Horsehead Nebula nature’s greatest work of art. Now, she was ambivalent about the whole of creation. She blamed no one; the choices were hers.
“What are the odds?” She asked Magnus Levinson from the gallery in stellar dome. “You and I finding our way back to each other, just in time to destroy humanity or save it.”
“I wasn’t aware those were the choices.”
She grabbed his hand, offering the seductive touch she employed during their garden walks in Madrid Redux.
“Come now, Magnus. Seventeen years hasn’t dissolved your penchant for seeing the obvious. We serve the three most dangerous monsters in human history.”
“Seems alarmist. The Triumvirate is still fifty million bodies shy of the Chancellory’s own litany of atrocities. And that’s just pre-history. What bothers you most, Ophelia? Their transgressions or your own?”
Sometimes, she wished she’d never accepted the transfer from her post on Catalan. Magnus saw through her then as he did now.
“SkyTower never leaves me,” she said. “I died there, Magnus. It’s why I never fought back. Why I’ve never tried to kill them.”
“Hmm. Because you gave them the keys to escape Earth? So naturally, you’re a monster of equal standing. Yes?”
“If they are Earth’s three most wanted enemies, I’m number four. There’s no future for me. Not back home, not on the colonies, and certainly not with Salvation.”
He kissed her cheek. “Perhaps you should vent yourself and be done with it.” He always had a knack for calling out her self-pity. “Walk with me. I’d like to see the view from the platform.”
They ascended the stairs. The panorama was not much greater, but apparently it made a difference to Magnus. He pointed toward the edge of the nebula.
“Align your eyes to a declination of forty-seven degrees. See the green shimmer at the horse’s muzzle? The second star? Tau Om Ceti. The Catalan system. The place I called home for twenty-five years. Where my son was born. Where my wife …”
He choked on his words. Ophelia knew he was in love with another woman at the time of their affair. It broke them.
“I’m sorry, Magnus. When you joined us, I was told your family suffered a disgrace. No more.”
“Disgrace? Hmm. That’s one word for it. My son Brice went rogue six months into his first Guard posting over Hokkaido. No family recovers from that shame. Elizabeth insisted I track him down and repair the damage.”
“Did you?”
“I found him in a village which adopted him as their protector from raiders. They shielded him with long blades. He said if I took another step, he would order them to slaughter me. He went by a different name and spoke their language.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Neither did Elizabeth. Then she jumped.” Ophelia wanted to find the proper condolence, but Magnus slipped a hand over her mouth and shushed. “The strange thing is, I never believed stories about the rogues until I saw Brice for myself. Then I met several rogues in the fleet, and they seem wide-eyed, sane, purposeful. They believe in this fight even though everyone of them is considered a terrorist. Even though their familie
s have been shamed and their standing destroyed. They see a better way.”
“Is that why you work for the Triumvirate? A better way?”
“After a fashion. Keep in mind, Ophelia, I am not here by choice. They took me prisoner.”
“But you could have resisted. Did Brother James touch you?”
“Yes, and it was euphoric. But unlike some others, I remain fully invested in my faculties. I’m well aware much of the tech we build is not for peaceful purposes. I heard what James told his people at a recent speech. He plans to kill millions of Chancellors. He’s a monster. Yes. But he’s only a monster of another kind, Ophelia. We’ve spent three thousand years hiding our own savagery behind the veneer of Chancellor prestige.”
She pulled away. “You equate us with them?”
“Yes, I do. But it’s the reason I continue my work. Ophelia, I believe what we’re doing here can ultimately save the Chancellory. History may even rehabilitate our family names.”
“Could you say something more preposterous?”
“We work for these monsters because they will grant us full access to the Jewel’s technological and biological secrets when our job is finished. We pass those along to the Chancellory, and we give our people their best chance at renewal.”
“Yes. More preposterous.”
“As opposed to oblivion? Ophelia, he knows an alternative to brontinium extract. The tech we’re producing holds incredible promise, for Chancellors and indigos. We will …”
This time, she covered his mouth. “You will never leave here with any of it, Magnus. You live in a dream, as do all the others. The day the immortals and hybrids achieve their goal, Brother James will personally annihilate everyone else in this fleet. Assuming I live that long, I’ll be the first to burn.”
He swiped her hand away. “You’re cynical. I understand why.”
“Cynical? I never knew you to be the master of understatement. Magnus, I have been told, on multiple occasions, that I will never leave this ship alive. Even today, Valentin implied my time is all but done. Tell me, Magnus, what exactly do you build for them?”
He seemed taken aback and fumbled into an answer.
“Primarily, I supervise production on the refractors.”
“Refractors? I’ve heard rumors about them. What are they?”
“I suspect the word doesn’t accurately represent their function. I was told James insisted on the name.” He looked away. “In truth, we don’t know what they do.”
“Yet you supervise production? How does that work?”
“The process is … unusual. Brother James delivered the designs to us himself, a few days after I arrived. I was told he spent days in front of a holoscribe translating what he found inside the Jewel’s repository. He then manipulated the architectural ellipse so we can operate the phasic tools and build the device without ever knowing its purpose. A team of rogues with Jewel supervisors excavated the mineral compounds from an asteroid in this system.”
“How many refractors have you built?”
“We should reach three hundred by tomorrow.”
“I heard they’re small, made of thick glass, octagonal.”
“Yes. The fleet has already deployed eighty-five.”
“Where?”
Magnus laughed. “Please, Ophelia. They keep secrets better than the Guard. But a few of us have a theory. Each refractor contains a magnetic cube of hyper-condensed dark matter substrata locked in the center. The radiation signature matches the wormhole drivers on every ship in this fleet.”
“Which means?”
“These refractors might act as beacons. It’s possible they’re designing a path out of the Collectorate to the far end of the galaxy, or even beyond. The Fulcrum operates like this, with beacons to guide shipping.”
“So, you think all their attacks on colonies are what? A distraction until it’s time to leave? You hear the illogic. Yes?”
“Ophelia, the immortals and hybrids will never have a proper home if they remain in the Collectorate. This is their only move.”
She hugged Magnus, as much to protect him from his ignorance as to convince herself he might still be turned.
“Magnus, you don’t understand their motives. Not like I do. They don’t want to escape. They want revenge. They want to usurp the people who created them. They use us because they know how insecure Chancellors have become. If they hand over their secrets, it will be to the indigos. They see the colonials as victims, too. Please tell me you understand what I’m saying.”
He tightened his grip, his hands running up and down her back. The memories of Catalan intensified.
“Does it matter?” He asked. “Whatever their plans, we’re at their mercy. We do our best work for them and live day-to-day on articles of faith. This is our only shot at redemption.”
She looked up and met his lips with full ferocity, not kissing a man as if onboard Lioness but rather under a moonlit sky on a building rooftop in Madrid Redux. After a few seconds, she pulled away when she realized the truth: There was no love here anymore; she’d forgotten how.
“There’s an alternative, Magnus. But it means we give up whatever pathetic lives we have left.”
“What are you saying?”
“They will never share their secrets. But we can steal them.”
“Are you mad?”
“At the very least.”
“That’s impossible. We’d have to …”
His eyes bulged as he turned a deathly white.
“Kill them,” she said. “Yes. If we want redemption, we take out the monsters we created. The hybrids are genocidal lunatics. And right now, there are only twelve of them. Within a month, eight new ones will be born. Their growth will be accelerated. New children will follow. The Guard and the Chancellory have no idea how dangerous they are. If you want to give our people a fighting chance at renewal, this is the only way.”
He pointed an indignant finger.
“I could report you for this treason. They’d kill you today.”
“An end to my misery. What a blessing.”
“You’re not the woman I loved.”
“And you’re not the man. He had a backbone. There’s only one way, Magnus. Report me or work with me.”
Magnus fell to one knee and caught his breath.
“How can you put me in this position?”
All at once, Ophelia found clarity.
“Think of Brice. What would your son do?”
Magnus didn’t answer.
That was good enough for Ophelia.
36
V ALENTIN WANTED TO TRUST HIS BROTHER, but the deceptions followed one on the heel of another. Yes, James did give way at last to explain his strategy for the attack on Vasily Station, but now this? A “deal” James made to induce chaos on Earth? How? With whom? Was it another childish intrusion on the lives of James’s former friends? A grudge of his own invention? In the early months after their escape from Earth, the brothers shared everything – their deepest feelings, their ambitions, their flights of fancy. That link was fraying. He didn’t blame Rayna or his nephews. The problem was deeper and nebulous.
Or maybe it’s all in my mind. Valentin comforted himself by suggesting his paranoia was acting up. James often encouraged him to find an outlet for his tension. “Don’t just be an admiral,” James said. “Be a man.” To that end, he tried indulging in sexual pleasure with immortals close to his age, women and men both. Neither satisfied. “I’m best as an admiral,” he told James.
Am I even that? Valentin had to ask. He was the appointed head of this fleet, yet his brother maneuvered many steps ahead, a maze of secrets following him everywhere. What remarkable revelations did James keep for himself? How far did the Jewel of Eternity remove James from his humanity?
Those questions beset Valentin as the brothers headed toward the production deck to review refractor status and deployment schedule. At least, that was Valentin’s stated destination. He stopped the lift at Level 4, habitation
quarters for immortals.
“We’ll review the refractors soon enough,” he told James. “We have a problem, and I need your assistance, brother.”
“Ah. You accuse me of deception then throw me a curve.”
“A small one. I wasn’t sure you’d agree otherwise.”
They stepped out into the entertainment commons, a gymnasium-sized space where dozens of immortal children engaged in hologames, virtual cycling, battle sims, or enhanced-grav weightlifting. All activity ceased when the giants approached.
Few saw Brother James since his speech in the dueling arena, when he promised a home world for Jewels and immortals. The moment reminded Valentin how rarely James walked among their army, but every soldier knew by instinct how to respond: Not with the military salute of right fist to the chest, but the imperial salute of bended right knee and eyes bowed.
They remained silent as the giants passed.
“We could never do this without them,” James confided. “Remember how I used to think the Jewels would handle all the heavy lifting?”
“Is that a compliment I hear, brother?”
“You’re a great admiral. I say it all the time, Valentin.”
“I’ll never have to bend my knee, will I?”
“Everybody will bend to me eventually, even my boys. But I’ll make an exception for you.”
He laughed at the silliness of the moment, though Valentin did not hear levity in his brother’s voice.
“I’m honored, brother. I look for every small favor I can find.”
James dismissed the response with a sigh.
“Why are we here, Valentin?”
“I’m having a problem with one of our newest fighters. The boy we liberated from Brahma. Rikhi Syed. He is not responding to the scripted training.”
“How so?”
“At first, he accepted his identity and believed his family needed to die because of their lies. Lately, he has questioned those decisions. He suggested he might prefer to die at your hand than live as an immortal. I spent time with him while you were on Tamarind. I can’t get through to him anymore than Ophelia could.”
The Impossible Future: Complete set Page 83
