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

“You had best hope my race flourishes. Kill another one of us, and your road to immortality will be short.” James blinked, and the glow diminished. He offered his right hand. “Come, Valentin. We have an empire to destroy. I want you at my side.”

Which was, at the end, where Valentin knew he was meant to be: Standing shoulder to shoulder with his messianic brother.

72

Lioness command bridge

Two standard days later

T HE MOMENT FELT LIKE A DREAM. If the plan worked, Valentin and all those of Salvation would wake exhilarated, prepared to begin a new chapter in their lives. If the plan failed, they would awaken with an uneasy foreboding governed by the question: What now? Valentin placed his faith in success because he had no other choice.

He sat at the forward captain’s dais, Brother James and Sister Rayna on his flanks. Yet each also stood inside the flight deck of a ship about to exit Slope into the Brahma system. They each held both sides of a bicomm in their palms, a genetic link tying them to the three Scrams dispatched to oversee the final maneuver. Though Valentin stood a few feet away from Ulrich Rahm, who piloted Scramjet Beta, he heard the voices of all those onboard the Lioness command bridge. Many of those officers were also assigned links to attack ships, the others of which were en route to different systems.

“It is awkward. Yes?” James said.

Valentin focused on the voice, making sure his words did not distract Ulrich’s command of his vessel fifty light-years away.

“Unsettling but also powerful, brother. I see already why they created the device. To be at the side of a loved one who might never return home would be a priceless treasure.”

“From all I’ve discovered,” James said, “those who did return found nothing waiting for them. The Jewels of Eternity spent a million years planning to redeem their creators. Our path is almost clear to join them at the end of a very long road.”

The end. Was it possible?

Ulrich nodded from inside the navigation cylinder.

“Preparing to close the aperture in fifteen seconds,” he said.

Valentin repeated Ulrich’s announcement simultaneous to James and Rayna, proving the timed Slope jump was working.

History. Three thousand years decimated in hours.

Ulrich counted down. “Two, one …

A blast of light and familiar thunder shook Beta.

“Coordinates are verified,” Ulrich said. “Twelve thousand kilometers from Brahma’s orbital temperate zone. Engaging system engines. Establishing course dynamics. Locking onto Ark Carrier Jeremiah Harrod.”

“Let me see her, Ulrich,” Valentin said.

Ulrich threw open a holowindow. There she was, a three-mile-long beast, the flagship of the Brahman Noose. Against the backdrop of the planet, Jeremiah Harrod was inconspicuous. But Valentin knew better.

Inside lay a city. A military complex. A nation. A world.

For centuries, goliaths like this orbited the colonies, housing families who rarely if ever visited Earth and took little stock of the planet below. They lived with nothing but space beneath their feet. The self-sustaining marvel gave them everything they’d need: Leisure, education, employment, wealth, idle comforts. Even nature and a manufactured sun.

Valentin spent months of his Guard tour aboard a Carrier of similar design above Zwahili Kingdom. For a time, he envied the local population. Only when called to combat on the planet surface, did Valentin recognize what was missing in orbit.

Smells. The artificial environment effectively blunted the human olfactory system. Life was diminished. To know the difference between the sweet perfume of a rose and the fetid stench of a corpse on a battlefield was a necessary contrast. To breathe in natural air, though it might contain impurities and bacteria, was proof of life. Valentin wondered how many of the forty-four thousand people on the Jeremiah Harrod ever experienced the difference.

Ulrich made the next scripted move.

“Opening a public stream channel to the planetary master links. The Harrod is now aware of my presence and is redeploying its orbital patrol to a defensive position, as expected. Wait. Two Scramjets are breaking away and are now on an intercept course.”

“Time to intercept?”

“Three minutes, twenty seconds at best speed.”

“More than enough time for us. Prepare to deliver the package to our friends on Brahma. Begin with Peshawan.”

“Working. Adding the chromatic infusion program. This is going to scare the wits out of them. Most of Peshawan is asleep about now.”

“Good. James wants them to be motivated.”

Valentin wondered whether Rikhi Syed would appreciate the moment. Just knowing he and the people he used to call neighbors would be fighting on the same side had to count for something.

“Message is away,” Ulrich said. “Harrod Scramjets have reached maximum system speed. Intercept in two minutes thirty.”

“Timing remains perfect. Spool the remote catalyzer.”

“Spooling, Admiral. Thirty seconds to catalyze the singularity.”

Valentin had to admit: James was a master at creating chaos. But more than that, a beautiful symphony of chaos. Indigos across Brahma were now seeing a holographic message of James in full god-like attire, his palms open in a gesture of generosity and hope.

From city squares to the smallest hovels in distant badlands, he spoke to them of new prosperity and the end of Chancellor rule. He told them of reaching out his hand and eradicating the monstrous Ark Carriers who guarded their world like a noose around their necks. He told them to turn as one against the Chancellor Sanctums and to storm the facilities and homes of all those who collaborated with the Chancellors to bury true Brahmans in a cycle of slavery.

Valentin was there when James recorded the message, one which he tweaked for each of the colonies they were about to attack.

Everything was timed to the second for maximum effect.

Including the end of the Brahman fleet.

“Singularity is catalyzing,” Ulrich said. “Aperture will open in ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven …”

We were