Infinitys end, p.22
Infinity's End, page 22
“What are we supposed to do?” Cas asked. “The fleet is coming, Evie. We can’t not do anything.”
She turned to Sesster. “How long has passed in the real world while we’re in here?”
“Milliseconds,” Sesster replied. “Almost instantaneous.”
“Good,” she replied. “Because I’m going to need all the time I can get. I’m inside a time chamber. The Athru brass use it to extend their lives far beyond what they should, which means they stay in power forever. This entire crusade could be nothing more than the whims of an overzealous madman. If I can get close enough to the head and chop it off, maybe everything else will fall apart. Surely there will be others and we’ll have to do some cleanup, but it might be enough to stop this occupation.”
“And make them leave Coalition space?” Cas shook his head. “I don’t believe it. They didn’t travel all this way and kill all those people just for us to roll over because of a few bleeding hearts. If the Athru truly didn’t want this to happen, they would have stopped their leaders.”
“Apathy is not a crime,” Evie said.
“It is when it involves the destruction of an entire species!” Cas yelled. “By Kor, have you forgotten they have literally killed ninety-nine percent of the population? We don’t have a choice here, Evie. We don’t have the resources to infiltrate and try to separate the good from the bad. They’ll find us all long before that happens. I agree with Sesster, we destroy Earth and we deal a crippling blow to them.”
She worked her jaw for a moment. “You just said a minute ago Earth was your home!”
“But that Earth is already gone,” he replied. “You said it yourself. And they’ll just keep stripping the planet to build more and more ships. For the good of the Coalition—the original Coalition, not this monstrosity it had become lately—we have to act while we can. You’re on that ship now, we’ll never have a better chance.”
Evie sighed. She couldn’t fault his logic. But she didn’t want to see Kithal and others like him killed either. She refused to judge an entire species by the actions of a select few. “If we decided to do this, what happens to Claxia? The planets are only two hundred million kilometers apart. Surely the loss of a planet in the system will have dire consequences.”
“No doubt,” Sesster said. “We will most likely deal with severe weather problems for centuries. And it will alter the orbits of all the planets in the system. We could face a global climate challenge here on Claxia. But it is better than allowing the Athru to stay and build up their armies. Cas is right, even if it isn’t the will of the people, enough Athru support these decisions to fill their ranks and enable their leaders to continue. We must put a stop to it.”
“Fine,” she said, dejected. She did have to consider all the other species in the Coalition: the Yax-Inax, the Untuburu, the Husmus-riza, the Goruffians, and all the others. They had been unfairly sequestered on their own planets during this…occupation. It couldn’t continue.
“My hold is loosening,” Sesster said and the world shimmered around them.
“Don’t worry,” Cas said, trying to give Evie a reassuring smile. “We’re on our way to help. As soon as we get there, we’ll provide enough of a distraction for you to use the weapon. Then we’ll get you off that ship. Trust me.” There was something in the way she looked at him. Something that gave him a pit in his stomach.
“Cas, if this doesn’t work…”
“It will, trust me,” he said, trying to reassure her. He had to believe it could work. What other choice did they have?
She paused as the world shimmered once more, glancing around, as if realizing something. “There’s so much I need to say,” she said.
“You can tell me once you’re back aboard,” Cas replied. He didn’t like where she was going with this. He didn’t want to think this might be the last time he ever saw her.
Evie shook her head, the sadness seeming to envelop her. “It can’t wait. I know how you feel. I know you love me.”
Cas’s heart was hammering hard, despite the fact he wasn’t even a real being. For all of this being some kind of non-corporeal dream, it sure felt real. “Evie—”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve known for a while. I just want you to know I love you too, even if it isn’t in the same way.”
Cas felt the tickle of tears at the corners of his eyes. “I tried—I mean I did my best to make sure you never knew. Despite—I only ever wanted a friend; I never wanted to make you uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t,” she said. The world shimmered again. She walked up and wrapped him in a hug, holding him tight. He did the same, relishing the moment as if it were his last. He wanted to hold on forever, to bring her back to Tempest with him, just so he knew she was safe. He could feel her shuddering beneath his grip and Cas did everything he could to cement this moment in his memory. The feel of her next to him, her smell, even the softness of her braid against his shoulder. When she finally pulled away, she took hold of his hand with both of hers and brought it to her lips, placing a light kiss on top. She smiled. “See you,” she said, and the world dissolved.
Cas shot straight up from his desk, his eyes wet and his heart thundering. He had to give himself some time to collect his thoughts. He played their last moment over and over again in his mind until he was sure it would never leave. He was determined to make sure she didn’t die alone on that ship. Cas stood and headed back to the bridge. They had a job to do.
34
No sooner had she said her final goodbye to Cas—and that’s what it had been, a final goodbye; there was no way she was getting out of this alive, even if Tempest was coming. But as the last words had escaped her lips, she found herself right back in the temporal box, the sliver of light disappearing as Kithal finished closing the doors. The light completely disappeared and then the doors were flung open again with such a fervor, Evie knew something was wrong. She shielded her eyes just a second before lunging forward.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked. But when she uncovered her eyes, she saw it was no longer just her and Kithal. Twenty Athru guards stood around the box, while Dulthar stood in the middle, holding a limp Kithal by the neck. He was dead as he hung at an unnatural angle; his neck had probably been snapped. Dulthar threw the guard to the ground, his limp body making a thump as it landed.
All thoughts of her conversation with Cas and Sesster left Evie’s mind as she lunged for Dulthar. “Ah,” he said, holding up one hand. Evie stopped, noticing each of the guards was now armed with the same kind of weapon she’d seen on Claxia Prime. “You’ve forced me to return to a kind of warfare I don’t like,” Dulthar said. “The kind that uses weapons. But sometimes it is important to keep your enemies at a distance, especially if they can kill you with one touch.” He had a scar over his face from where Evie had scratched him, but it seemed to have healed unnaturally fast.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “How did you get in here so fast?” Her eyes fell back to Kithal and she realized he had on a different tunic than before.
“I can’t believe I ever thought you had the potential to be one of us,” Dulthar said.
Of course, how could she be so stupid. Kithal said being in the box was instantaneous, as if no time had passed at all. But something had gone very wrong. They weren’t supposed to be looking for her anymore. “How long was I in there?” she asked. She didn’t want to consider the possibility it could have been seasons, or even years. Tempest might have already come and failed.
“One of your weeks,” Dulthar said. “Though I do have to admit, you had me fooled. I thought you’d died in your last escape. Until this traitor here…” He motioned to Kithal, “…decided he couldn’t stand the pressure and came clean.”
“He…betrayed me?” Evie asked.
“Don’t feel left out, he betrayed me as well. He was a very conflicted individual. But I alleviated that problem for him.” Dulthar kicked the body of Kithal and it flew to the other side of the room, hitting the far wall and crumpling into a pile. “Now, remove yourself from that box.”
“Why don’t you just shoot me and pull me out yourself?” she challenged.
Dulthar held her gaze a moment. “You are an arrogant little shit; I’m not surprised your mother sent you off. The reason I’d rather not kill you is my business. Now get out or I will have my men blow your legs off and we will drag you out.”
Evie considered not doing it, but if Dulthar wasn’t prepared to kill her yet it was better she cooperate for as long as possible. It would give her more opportunity to escape. She had to assume Cas and the others hadn’t arrived yet, as Dulthar would have no doubt thrown it in her face. She stepped over the threshold and outside of the box while the guards kept their weapons trained on her. She couldn’t believe Kithal had betrayed her…after all that. Maybe Cas and Sesster had been right. Maybe eliminating all of them was the right call. But it was still a hard pill to swallow.
“Keep her ten meters away from me at all times,” Dulthar said.
“Just how old are you, Dulthar?” Evie asked. “Have you been around since the beginning?”
“Don’t ask foolish questions,” he said, turning away from her as the entourage moved down the corridor. Evie felt silly with so many people training weapons on her, encircling her. If she could just get them to fire at the right time, they’d all hit each other.
“No, seriously. Ever since I found out about your little time bubble I’ve been curious. You must be ancient. How old? Ten-thousand years? A million?”
“It’s none of your concern,” he replied.
“Well, it kind of is,” she continued, pressing. “I’ve just happened to learn my people weren’t originally from Earth. That we came here on a massive city-ship, not unlike this one. Which begs the question, when did your people meet mine in the past? And what did you witness that was so terrible you decided to hunt us down? You said you had a duty to protect the galaxy from us—but what caused that? Because all this time I couldn’t figure out why the Athru pursued us. Or even how you’d even encountered us. Back when I thought my species had come from a planet in the Claxian sector it didn’t make sense. You would have had to come upon a deep space reconnaissance vessel, deeper than we’d ever sent before. But armed with this new information—”
“You speak too much,” Dulthar said, continuing to lead them through the ship. They walked up a wide ramp into a larger section of the ship.
Evie began walking faster to catch up to him. The circle of guards moved quicker too. “And you owe me an explanation. For the death of my mother. Seeing—as you said—she never thought to inform me.”
“Slow down,” one of the guards said in their own language, but Evie understood him fine. She stopped in place.
Dulthar faced her. “Even now, your arrogance seeps through. I owe you nothing. Esterva betrayed me. As did Kithal. Be glad you’re not sharing their fate…yet.” He began to turn away.
“What are you afraid of? That I won’t agree with your actions once I know the truth?” Evie was tired of being jerked around. If he’d really wanted to harm her, he would have done it already and saved himself the trouble. He needed her alive for some reason, though she wasn’t sure why. But she was willing to bet it had something to do with her enhanced abilities.
Dulthar eyed her carefully. “You want the truth. Very well. Our species have met before, long ago. On another planet, much like the one you used to call Earth.” He scoffed. “So arrogant, naming your new home after your old one. So predictable.”
“Wait,” Evie said, screwing up her features. “What are you saying? Humans came from another planet Earth? In the distant past?”
“Oh yes,” Dulthar said. “Third planet in its system, around a yellow-type star. It had…one moon I believe.”
“That was our home?” Evie asked. “Where we came from?”
Dulthar approached her, grinning. “Yes. It’s where we’re both from.”
***
Cas sat at the head of the conference table, tapping his fingers in rhythm as Hank and Lieutenant Tileah laid out the battle plans on the holo screen in the middle of the table. He was having a hard time concentrating. It had been almost seven days since his ‘experience’ with Evie and Sesster and yet he remained shook. No matter what happened, they had to get her out of there. He wasn’t going to leave her to the Athru, even if she’d already given up hope, which is what that had been. He’d seen it in her eyes.
Cas listened to the rest of the presentation, which was mostly made up of diversionary tactics.
“So, if I understand this correctly,” Samiya said. “We’re not actively trying to destroy the Athru ships, at least not a lot of them.”
“Correct,” Hank said. “Based on the captain’s intel and conversations with Ms. Diazal, we need to give her as many diversions as possible so she can claim control of the Athru weapon and destroy Earth.”
“I still can’t believe we’re discussing this,” Tyler said. “Is it really that bad?”
“She said the entire planet is a factory husk,” Cas said, his voice emotionless. “There’s nothing left there to save. If there are pockets of resistance on the planet—there’s nothing we can do for them. We have to cut off the Athru’s supply chain if we want a chance of defeating them.”
“By Garth,” Ronde whispered.
“Something you want to add, Lieutenant?” Cas asked.
“No sir, I just can’t believe they’re all gone. It’s one thing to see a few colony worlds destroyed, or the others cut off. But to see our home—”
“It’s not our home,” Cas cut in. He’d had a hard time relaying the information from Sesster but given the Claxians were prone not to be deceptive he had no choice but to accept it. Half of their history had all been a fabrication, and somehow, deep inside, it made Cas even angrier at the Coalition.
“Yes, sir,” Ronde said, his head down. Next to him, River reached over and patted his hand. It didn’t escape Cas’s notice how close they’d become. And he supposed he couldn’t blame them. With so few humans left, it was only natural.
“The Sil won’t like it,” Zenfor said. Cas turned to her. For the first time since she’d come on board, she was seated in one of the conference chairs, a small device on her chest. Box had explained it was to help repair the damage and monitor any abnormal activity. And technically she still hadn’t been released yet. She was only allowed a few hours outside of sickbay each day until she was fully healed. Box told him he had to continue to sedate her to keep her immobile, as she was too energized when she was awake and couldn’t lie still for hours at a time unless she was sleeping. Right after they were done in here she was due to report back to go under again.
“What do you mean?” Cas asked.
“They will want to destroy their enemies and move on. We—they don’t tiptoe around a problem, they face it, head on.”
Cas couldn’t help but smile. “Right. Well, assuming the weapons even work, and the rest of the fleet joins us at Horus, we’ll just have to hold off until Earth has been destroyed. Once that’s done, they’ll have my blessing to destroy as many of the Athru ships as they want.”
“Does that include the city-ship?” Zaal asked.
“Not until we get Evie,” Cas said. “Since Tempest is physically the weakest ship, but also the fastest, we have the best chance of getting in there and grabbing her.”
“Are we sure she can even do this?” Hank said. “It’s been seven days since you last spoke with her. And she said their fleet outnumbers ours ten-to-one.”
Cas nodded. “I’m sure. She was hiding out on board, and she had an ally. I trust her ability to get this done.” He didn’t miss Samiya and Hank exchange glances. “As for the number of ships…we’ll just have to trust the Sil are as good as they think they are. Unless you have a better idea?”
Hank shook his head. “No, sir. Just covering all the bases.”
“Dismissed,” Cas said. As everyone filed out, Cas stood, approaching one of the windows. Outside the green tint of the undercurrent colored everything. But beyond the stars flew by in such a blur. All those people out there, all those civilizations were counting on him for their futures, even if they didn’t know it. Cas had never wanted this; all he’d ever wanted was to go off and explore, not fight an intergalactic war. But it seemed fate had other plans for him.
“I trust her too.” Cas turned to see Zenfor standing, though somewhat wobbly on her normally powerful legs. “She’ll get the job done.”
“I know,” Cas replied. “No matter what gets in her way…I know she will.”
35
“What are you saying?” Evie asked as she faced Dulthar in the wide corridor. The guards still had all their weapons trained on her but as far as she was concerned, it was just the two of them now. Whatever he was talking about, she needed him to clear it up before she took another step.
“I wasn’t there originally, but when the information was still available in our computers—before it had degraded, before we’d learned to encode our genetic material—I learned all about our home planet. Though my people have been away far longer than they have.”
“They?” Evie asked. “You mean the humans.”
“I mean the imposters,” Dulthar said. “They call themselves human, when they are anything but. They are nothing but genetic fossils, having survived long past their time. A stepping stone that should have been wiped out long ago.”
Evie shook her head. “What are you talking about? Are you saying they shouldn’t be here?”
“Of course, they shouldn’t be here,” he spat. “It was by nothing more than blind luck that they came up on this system and the Claxians. That ship—the one carrying all of humanity to this place—it never should have survived.”
