“How big is this stockpile?”
“At the moment, about twenty days, but we set a goal to reach half a standard year.” Rosa laughed. “We have a long way to go.”
“I’ve never seen a community work together like this.”
“That’s because you lived among Chancellors. We have a better way. Who knows? Maybe you’ll like it enough to stay with us.”
Sam couldn’t believe she heard those words. “I don’t think James and Rayna would ever allow that to happen.”
She followed Rosa’s example and launched into a crate of nuts twice the size of pecans, using the driver to crack them at the seam. In a few minutes, she found a steady rhythm.
“I’m sorry about what happened.” Rosa broke the silence. “Sister Rayna shouldn’t treat you that way.”
Sam held back her tears. The girl genuinely cared, but did it matter? Rayna made clear who would have the final word.
“Your love will be strong. Then both of you will be slaughtered.”
30
J AMES DID NOT CELEBRATE the birth of his girls to Rayna’s satisfaction, and she let him know it with a single choice. Oh, he stood by her side as the girls emerged with little exertion on Rayna’s part. Hybrid women handled labor with ease, the entire process taking less than ten minutes. After the twins were cleaned, James kissed each to show them his light, and the blue glowing orbs usually hidden from public view passed from his lips through their tiny bodies and onto the streams of every immortal required to view it. The girls’ unnatural growth began. The vid went out to their allies.
Yet James did not remain for the naming ceremony. He handed the babies to Rayna, whispered, “This is your moment,” and left the birthing room. She put on her most imperial smile for her galactic audience, but she was furious, as James discovered later when he learned what she did.
“I name you Martina Oksana Tsukanova,” she told the child wrapped in her left arm. “I name you Irina Ludmilla Tsukanova,” she told the child wrapped in her right arm.
Rayna rejected the names she and James had agreed upon, neither of which was supposed to reflect her Ukrainian heritage. James insisted for two years that hybrids would forever be distinguished by the simple title of “Brother” or “Sister” followed by first name only – even when their population grew by exponentials. “We will not be divided into tribes, families, or descendancies,” he insisted. As an extension, he encouraged intercourse among different hybrids rather than committed long-term partnerships – except his own with Rayna.
Other business drew James away from the birth ceremony, the kind that refused to wait. Even as the final hours counted down to the births, James steadied his focus elsewhere.
The message Trayem Hadeed scrawled on the shore taunted him. He had no doubt the old man drowned himself, keeping hidden the identity of the one who would kill James.
Why I can’t see it myself? Why aren’t you talking to me anymore?
He looked everywhere but heard silence from the Jewels. Did he not take them seriously enough on arrival day four months ago?
They echoed across the star plane when he first set foot in the empty city, congratulating themselves while he toured what would become JaRa.
“The next million years begin now,” they said. “The algorithm is almost complete. From this gift is found final truth, the path reborn.”
“What is left to do?” He asked.
“Bring life to the city. Build upon our design. Grow the army. Show our light and forge alliances. Finish the blockade.”
“How soon before our enemies find a way around the Nexus?”
“Time and circumstance will reveal themselves. The exactitudes of strategy will be understood through patience and endeavor.”
“Is this what the algorithm shows you?”
“It shows us the final steps not yet taken.”
“Final steps before what?”
“Before all paths intersect.”
“Show me those paths.”
“Not everything can be your province, James. The future is the collective masterpiece of trillions of individual choices. You must allow the others to proceed according to their will.”
“But I am meant to be their God. You showed me this. You promised me this.”
“Did we?”
Their tone stunned him in that moment, but James decided they were testing him. Of course, they promised. From the moment he rose up and first killed his brother; to the moment he experienced the beauty of unleashing his Berserker on those who designed him; to every moment where he blew fiery death from his lips or raised bountiful harvests from his fingers.
“You promised. You showed me the path.”
“To this paradise. Yes. But all paths have yet to intersect.”
“What will happen when they do? I demand to know.”
“Clarity. Calamity. Certainty.”
“Explain what you mean.”
“You already know the answers, but they will not reveal themselves until the moment demands them.”
“Why?”
“Because your actions might then endanger the intersection and by extension, the fate of this world. The dark may yet drown them all.”
“I deserve to know everything.”
“What you deserve are the consequences of your choices. This is the true nature of causality. Embrace this world, James. Examine all around you with great care. Walk the forest and hear the messages of those long gone, of those who are damned, and those who are unfinished. Their voices will speak out as the paths converge.”
After that day, the Jewels called out to him as distant and incoherent echoes. He kept an internal eye on the white forest, deciding early on that the “message of those long gone” must be Ignatius Horne. Before the truth arrived in the form of the planet’s last surviving Hiebim, other answers landed at appropriate times, as predicted. Some political, some economic, some technological.
They told him when to open negotiations with the Chancellory and this would be Samantha’s purpose. As he prepared for her return and decided whether to kill her publicly, the next answer turned his eye to the new city. Samantha was meant to finish her life down there.
The convergence neared. He felt it, as if the Jewels still walked alongside. But why prolong her life? She was neither immortal nor hybrid. What did the Jewels see in her? Which voice did she represent? The long gone? The damned? The unfinished?
The newest answer revealed itself as his wife prepared for labor.
Everyone would be distracted by yet another celebration – the second in three days. Valentin would let down his guard.
This needed to be done. Hadeed could not have been clearer. “As for the one who will kill you,” Hadeed said, “I see two potential prospects, but only one who seems made for the purpose.”
James understood now: Two will try. One will succeed.
Who was best made for the purpose?
Made. Designed. Trained.
James dismissed his wife’s nonsense about Valentin’s continued fealty. No one on Aeterna or beyond had more to gain by killing James. Who but his brother? Who but the one James loved most? Who but the one best positioned to tell the story of Brother James to countless generations of the faithful?
The Jewels promised clarity, calamity, and certainty. This, James reckoned, was the moment of clarity.
They will never forgive you, his conscience shouted.
They will never know, James shouted back.
The rest of it came together with ease. Alone in his quarters, James opened a bicomm to his brother. When Valentin appeared as if standing a few feet away, James saw the nearby scene. Valentin was supervising immortals as they installed another segment of the secondary defense perimeter.
“Admiral Valentin,” he said with gusto, knowing the others would likely hear. “How is the installation proceeding?”
“On course. The entire perimeter should be ready for testing in three days. Is there anything else, brother?”
/> James shook his head and uttered their private code.
“Know me.”
Valentin’s features darkened. “Absolutely, Brother James! We all know your wishes and we’ll work as hard as we can to speed up the timetable. Of course, we’ll be certain to watch the births later today.”
“I’m sure you will.”
James silenced the bicomm, giving Valentin time to find the necessary privacy. They established this code two years ago, as the fleet and the army of immortals expanded. It was meant for emergencies of the gravest nature, where information dared not pass to anyone else. James based his code words on the moment in SkyTower when he became what his designers envisioned and unleashed a nightmare upon the Chancellory. Valentin insisted this cloak-and-dagger approach would be unnecessary were James to install a stream amp, but James said no hybrid mind would ever be tainted by a tool of ordinary humans. His vision called for the bicomm to one day replace all stream amps, including those in the immortals.
He grew impatient as minutes passed and Valentin did not reply. James was expected to meet Rayna at the birthing center. She’d be hounding him soon enough. He needed to take care of this matter now.
“I apologize for the delay,” Valentin said as he reappeared, sitting in a rifter. “I had to answer questions before I could excuse myself from the work site. Tell me, James. What’s happened?”
James looked as far as the bicomm field allowed. Valentin wasn’t far from the lake, albeit on the opposite side from where Trayem Hadeed appeared. The brush was thick, no one near.
“We’ve been lied to,” he told Valentin.
“By whom? About what?”
“All our plans may have to change, but I might be overreacting. Valentin, I trust your judgment. Meet me at Tower 6. Exactly two standard hours after Rayna gives birth.”
“Seems extreme, but I’ll say I’m reassessing Tower growth. What will you tell your wife?”
“Be there. Do not take a ship. And Valentin, nullify your amp.”
James cut off his brother without hearing the reply and made his way to the birthing center, a comfortably appointed suite used a handful of times since colonization began. Situated between the habitat domes designated for the hybrids, the birthing center was positioned five hundred meters from the nearest immortal habitat, and half a city from the industrial sector where most were working at a feverish pace. This provided James with another opportunity to leave the city with few witnesses – his fellow hybrids would never question his motives, though a few might gossip inside the collective mind. He hopped onboard a rifter for the 105-kilometer journey. Once outside the city, he set maximum thrust.
Valentin was waiting for him at Tower 6, one of eight forming a concentric circle around JaRa and located due west of the city. Valentin stood beside his own rifter, admiring the tower.
James steeled himself for the task at hand and stepped off with careful footing. The ground vibrated, and the tower hummed, as it had ever since the eight broke through the surface a few days after Salvation arrived.
At its base, Tower 6 held identical dimensions on all four sides, each 48.3 meters at last measurement. The dark metallic surface, which did not allow any scanners to penetrate, produced theories but no answers as to its origin. This was not brontinium – inert or otherwise. The Jewels only told James: “If all else fails, they will act as a primary defense.” The tower burst through the clouds.
“They’ve almost stopped growing,” Valentin said. “It’s as if they know the secondary perimeter is nearly finished.”
“I’m sure they do,” James said.
He was ready. This must be done.
31
T ELL ME, BROTHER,” VALENTIN SAID. “What is so urgent? Who has lied to us? The Jewels?”
James didn’t want to look at him. After all they’d been through, to know what secret hid inside Valentin’s heart, enraged James enough to kill right now. But how could he do it without knowing why? James craned his neck and scaled the tower until it almost faded from view.
“Lies kill us all in the end,” he said. “We claim to hate them, and yet we traffic in them as easily as we breathe. Yes? We lie for leverage. We lie for defense. We lie for wealth and domination. We lie for love.”
“Yes, James, people have always had trouble with the truth. Tell me, why are we here?”
He ignored Valentin. “I find it strange. When the most morally rotten among us are deceived by lies, they take great offense – as if somehow they themselves stood on higher ground. I’d blame the Chancellors, but I learned this lesson long before I crossed the fold. The only real truth is the exposed lie.”
“James, I did not travel out here to receive a morality lesson.”
“No, you didn’t.” He pointed skyward. “Our parents tried to teach us one in SkyTower. They almost succeeded. We won because we exposed their lie. We brought down SkyTower to send an unforgettable message. Before long, they’ll try to return the favor. It’s why we need clarity before calamity produces the certainty of our destruction.”
Valentin sighed. “I thought new mothers sometimes acted strange after birth, but the new father is not in his right mind today.”
“Leave my family out of this.”
He turned his eyes to Valentin and looked for any hint of concern. Did his brother sense where this was headed? Did he know the lie was about to be exposed?
“James, you said we might have to change our plans.” Valentin stepped forward. “We have only used the private code twice before. What is so cudfrucking important?”
“Valentin, do you love me like you did when we escaped Earth?”
He hesitated. Perhaps no more than half a second, but James heard it in the tone. Valentin was lying when he said:
“Yes. Of course. Why even ask?”
“I haven’t always been kind to you.”
“You’re our leader. You’re my older brother. Kindness is not always a requirement.”
“But I have guaranteed you will always be second to me. Your people will always be second to mine. You will follow our lead. And if you betray us, the consequences will be painful.”
Valentin threw out his arms, as if expecting to wrap him in a hug.
“Is this about what I said after Inauguration? Yes, James, I was hurt. I still am. And I suppose I always will be. But you rightfully stepped ahead of me the moment you killed me in combat.”
He said the right things – exactly what James anticipated.
“Will you feel this way after we have rescued all the immortals and grown the hybrid population so large, we expand to the other cities? Will you feel this way when your people live in cities named after legends not of their species? Will you feel this way when millions of disciples arrive from the colonial worlds to worship me and my kind?”
“Brother, you speak of events that won’t take place for decades. We are only four months into colonization. We don’t know how the Chancellory is planning to come after us. These are our most urgent concerns. If we fail now, your larger vision will never come to pass.”
“We won’t fail. If anything happens to me, I’m sure you will protect our people. Yes?”
James approached Valentin’s open arms but kept his own at his side. Still, the eyes did not betray the lie. Little brother had three years to position himself, three years to learn how best to deceive a god.
“There’s no emergency,” Valentin said, dropping his arms.
“Is that your analysis?”
“Why are we really here, James?”
James felt the warmth in his blood turn to magma. It surged into gaseous form and congested inside his throat. All he had to do was exhale and push the gases forward.
“To expose the lie,” James said.
Valentin was never going to admit anything. He was too clever by half. He would stand his ground, even if he knew what was coming. James was a fool for thinking Valentin might crack.
“And what is the lie, brother?”
Valent
in’s right eye winked twice. James was incensed.
“How dare you, Valentin! I told you to nullify your amp. Have you been recording our conversation?”
Valentin tapped his forehead. “Brother, no. I kept my amp streaming because I expected to hear important news. Right after talking with you, Admiral Kane contacted me. He said they were receiving new intel from our agents. The additional colonial sweep you asked for.”
James stepped back. “You violated our private code.”
“I thought the timing might not be a coincidence. You said we were being deceived, and our agents have been narrowing the search for the Chancellory’s new weapon. Kane is waiting. Should I receive him?”
Clarity before calamity.
“Yes, brother. Speak to him.”
He double-tapped his temple. “Kane, what do you have?”
Valentin listened for a few seconds before raising a brow.
“Kane, stop where you are. My brother is with me. He needs to hear this. James, I’m going to open a cube.”
Valentin showed neither fear nor joy. James recognized shock because it was so rare. Valentin threw up a holocube. Admiral Rafael Kane stared back from the Lioness command bridge.
“Brother James, we used your suggestions to narrow the search. We were more successful than we imagined possible.”
“That sounds like a victory, Admiral. Tell me more.”
“Our agents inside a Mandewatt Convocation on Tamarind made startling discoveries. A faction there has been funneling materiel to a rogue group of Mongols who claim this zone,” he said, throwing open a narrow geographical map, “as their own. They have been attempting to slaughter a scientific research team at the Void. The Ericsson Research Station. They’ve had no success because of the facility’s security team. Moments ago, the agent updated her report via bicomm. The Mongol village was decimated by energy slews, believed to have been delivered by a single craft during the night. Its origin has not been traced, but it did not launch from the base. She says no craft has been detected there in weeks.
The Impossible Future: Complete set Page 126
