The Impossible Future: Complete set Frank Kennedy (freenovel24 .TXT) 📖

be bold, she’d destroy everything right here.

“You are, Colonel,” Ursula said. “Admiral Valentin will be installing the final refractors himself on his next mission.”

Lennox nodded. “And you two are here why?”

Ophelia played her part. “I’m sure you know young Rikhi. He has struggled to assimilate into the army, but he’s making progress. Admiral Valentin gave permission for him to tour the bay, inspect a Scramjet. We’re working to make him feel at home. We literally ran into these three on the way here.”

Col. Lennox grimaced. “Syed is undisciplined, but he did well in his first training with the Mark 8. Soldier, why do you have a blast rifle?”

“Sir, Colonel, sir. I wish to relieve one of our soldiers for the remainder of the shift after I finish my tour.”

“Your gesture is duly noted, although it won’t be necessary. Please hand over the weapon.”

Rikhi did as told. “I’m sorry, Colonel, sir. I only want to serve.”

“And you will. I promise.” Lennox faced the group. “If you’ll follow me to the Scramjet.”

A few inquisitive eyes followed them across the bay, but Ophelia thought most were too enraptured in their duties to care. Harrison remained close behind Ursula, whispering into her ear. Ophelia saw how repulsed he made her. He was, in the end, a despicable figure. If her most misguided act was to help the Triumvirate escape SkyTower then working with this man took second place.

She carried no sense of impending victory, even as they approached the Scramjet and saw the starboard portal pixelate open. She understood why Ursula was chosen as hostage, aside from the precious cargo in her belly. She was a navigator, although Ophelia doubted she was Slope-certified. Didn’t matter. No one would attack the ship while she remained inside.

Are we actually doing this? It all seemed like a dream.

They boarded the Scramjet. The dream dissolved in an instant.

Magnus screamed. “Cudfrucker!”

The navigator’s chair was occupied by a severed head.

From behind, Admiral Valentin welcomed them onboard.

63

Tamarind

 

T HIS IS A TRAP,” ULRICH SHOUTED. “A Carrier has launched two energy slews. We have thirty seconds. Everyone, move!”

James leaped to his feet, the twins clustered around Zhang Wong, and blast rifles flailed in astonishment.

“What is this ploy?” Jie said. “You are trying to deceive us. I …”

Shouts followed as soldiers began running. Fingers pointed directly above, where bright yellow stars formed in the daylight.

Ulrich was dumbstruck. “Brother James, we …”

Their eyes met. Where would they run? The slews would ignite a firestorm throughout the forest.

Is this how it ends?

Yet Ulrich felt no sense of impending defeat. No resignation to the inevitable battle fought well until at last, they were outwitted.

Instead, he sourced a heat wave of fury. It coursed through his blood and took flight in his bones and tendons. His skin vibrated. His synapses catalyzed the latent Jewel energy given birth two years ago in another universe.

Ulrich Rahm left himself behind to become an animal bent on fire and decimation. He leaped into the air to meet the enemy.

His Berserker rose up to meet the incoming fire.

One. Two.

The atmosphere thundered. The fuel ingested the energy slews and hurdled their gelatinous, all-consuming madness upward through the clouds and into the stratosphere. Pushing, pushing, ever upward.

He saw a sky full of streaking flames, like a torrent of meteors crashing into the atmosphere. Then he felt weightless and collapsed.

A voice shouted in his ear, the message confusing. Rifles blasted. Arms wrapped around him and brought him to his feet.

He recognized the face, although the name eluded him. One of the immortal soldiers. Speaking to him, asking him … no, telling him.

“We have to go, Ulrich,” the girl said. “They’ll try again. Come.”

Ulrich swam dizzy as he pivoted. James fled past him, a titanic hulk carrying an old man in a chair above his head. Chinese women ran behind them.

He wasn’t sure how he dredged up the Berserker. There were no keywords, no spells, only an instinct. Of desperation. Of survival.

He held onto the arm of the immortal soldier and stumbled from the scene. Fire splashed the ground around him where his horrifying power shredded the nearby trees en route to the sky.

They reached the intersection where the path turned toward … yes, now he remembered. Spearhead.

I have to fly us out of here. They’re coming again.

He was right. The communicator in his ear warned of another pair of slews on their way, targeting the same coordinates.

He shook loose of the soldier as they neared Spearhead, whose bulkhead pixelated. James, the Chinese twins, and the Master of the Convocations disappeared inside along with a dozen other tribal leaders. The Carbedyne nacelles powered before he leaped onboard.

Indigos and immortals rolled across the cabin as Spearhead swayed laterally. Ulrich found his balance and raced to the navigation cylinder, where James slashed at the auto-spool program. Spearhead pushed hard against gravity to launch clear of the trees, shaking once as the nacelles swiped high branches. Again, the ship jerked as the concussive force of the slews slammed it broadside.

“Brother James, please. Let me take over.”

“Drop us into Slope,” he said. “We need to move clear of the planet.” James caught Ulrich stumbling. Ulrich saw through foggy eyes. “You saved us all,” James said. “But you can’t navigate like this. Hold on.”

James brought him into a bear hug, squeezing as if trying to restrict Ulrich’s breathing. But that was not the intent.

It happened all at once. A drug flowed through Ulrich’s blood, a sedative and restorative. A moment of perfect beauty. Ulrich saw inside the Jewels of Eternity as James did. For an instant, he felt the truth of the past and the future merge within.

Then it was gone, but Ulrich’s mind and eyes were clear.

“Where to?”

“Deep system.