Infinitys end books 7 9, p.73
Infinity's End: Books 7-9, page 73
“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.”
Chapter 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.”
“Why not?”
Dulthar grimaced. “Astronomically small odds. There were four ships originally. Humans…humans had driven their planet to the brink of destruction. And they faced a choice: stay and die, or leave and take their chances in the stars. A century was spent constructing the ships that would take them to the undiscovered country to find new homes. Four ships in four different directions, with the hopes one would eventually find a place to settle.” He paused. “There was little chance of survival. An entire species moving at sub-light speeds? It’s hard to fathom. It took them fifty years just to leave their own system. And it was known if one ship made it, the others never would as it would take too long to communicate between distances and even longer to travel those distances.”
“And yet. they did it,” Evie said. “They reached Claxia, or—at least one of the ships did. But that still doesn’t explain you. You said both humans and Athru were from the same place. Did you mean the same system? Another inhabited world? Was that why you are so bent on their destruction? Because they treated their first planet poorly? It’s hardly unique, there are tons of species out there who decimate—”
Dulthar shook his head. “Oh, you stupid girl. Put it together already.” His gaze burned on her face. “Athru and Human are the same species. We were one of the other ships.”
Evie took a step back. “How is that possible?”
Dulthar moved closer and Evie felt the guards tense their weapons. But she wasn’t going to lash out at him. She needed this explained, if for no other reason than her own self-satisfaction. “Didn’t you wonder how your mother and father managed to mate so easily? How within the span of a few months you came into being? It’s because they had the same base genetic code.”
“But—there are interspecies children all over the Coalition,” she said. “It’s…nothing rare.” She’d seen plenty of children of multiple species. Though now that she thought about it, she had to work to think up examples of successful pairings and found they were rarer than she’d naturally assumed.
“Those children are the product of centuries of genetic testing and work. Years and years of failures. Your mother did this in only a few weeks.”
“But—” Evie began again, though she wasn’t sure what she was objecting to. Perhaps if she’d taken more time to think about it, she might have realized he was right—the genetic combination of two species was nothing easy, or fast. And yet, her mother and father had created her in such a short amount of time—and she had been the first attempt. Or at least, that was what she had been told. She had originally assumed it was because of Esterva’s exceptional genetic skill.
“No,” Dulthar said, stepping even closer. “No more buts. This is the reality of the situation, Evie. Humans are nothing more than the ancient ancestors of the Athru. You are looking at your future. Or, I should say one possible version of your future, shaped by one set of specific circumstances.”
“How?” she whispered.
“Hescal.” Dulthar said. “The ship my ancestors were on was lucky enough to find it, after spending thousands of years traveling between stars. Little did we know it was a planet out of time. We investigated, crashed and once we recovered, discovered we couldn’t leave.”
Evie recalled how their ships had lost power upon reaching the planet, and how they’d all almost been killed going into the atmosphere. “Because of the dampeners,” she said.
“An ancient technology, created by a race we neither know nor could understand at the time. We were much like your crew, except we had no idea the structures on the planet existed. It took almost a thousand years to discover the first ones.”
“So, you stayed on the planet? Because you couldn’t leave?”
Dulthar’s eyes narrowed. “We stayed because we wished to. Over the years we deciphered the technology, found ways to use it for ourselves. At first my people thought of it as a detriment, until we realized what a powerful advantage we had—because the planet was out of time. We’d already spent thousands of years on it, but celestially, less than a few months had passed. Do you understand? We saw an opportunity and seized on it. What better way to fulfill our mission than to continue to grow and evolve—not only ourselves but our technology as well? We managed to live and thrive on that planet for over two million years. Can you understand what that would do to a society?”
Evie scoffed. “Apparently it made you all a bunch of assholes.”
“No,” Dulthar said, drawing out the word. “It made us grow up. As we grew and evolved, we realized just how dangerous we had been in our youth. How dangerous a young humanity was. We recognized that and confined ourselves to the planet until we reached a point where we had outgrown our childish ways. Greed, lies, deception, war—we eliminated them all. We became what humanity always should have been. But we knew there were three other ships out there. Which meant humanity was infecting other parts of the galaxy—spreading the worst of us. It became our credo to put a stop to them, and to eliminate any humans who had not evolved to our advanced state.”
Evie took it all in, trying to process everything he’d said. “Do you really have so little faith in your own ancestors that you’d rather destroy them than allow them to try and develop on their own?”
Dulthar laughed, though it was forced and clipped. “Have you not been paying attention? The humans of your Coalition betrayed the other members. And not just once, there have been many, many times. They couldn’t control themselves, and risked fracturing everything you had for their selfishness. We have solved that problem. The human problem. And when we find your ship, we’ll take one more step to completing the process.”
“Surely you’re not so stupid to think humanity is the only species with those attributes. Look at the Sil, or the Erustiaans. Or even the Yax-Inax; they were involved in more wars than they’re willing to admit.”
“I didn’t say we were trying to eliminate the undesirable traits across the galaxy,” he replied. “We are just cleaning our own house. Taking care of our own mess. When other species reach this level of sophistication, perhaps they can join us once more on the intergalactic stage.”
“So that’s why you’ve confined them all to their own planets,” she replied.
Dulthar shrugged. “They’re free to leave, if they wish. They’re free to join forces. But they already know what it is taking you a painfully long time to realize: no one is equipped to stand against us. No one has reached our level of technological sophistication. And thus no one is worthy.”
“You sound like the Sil,” she replied.
His face darkened. “Funnily enough, the Sil were the one species close to us on the evolutionary scale. They were the one species we were willing to partner with. And yet, somehow, humanity came in and screwed that up too. But it doesn’t matter, they have made their choice and they will die by it. We will not be stopped.”
This was madness, an advanced form of humanity bent on revenge of its past self? No wonder they’d been so clinical in their targeting. With one glaring exception. “And what about the Bulaq? We saw you destroy their entire system. Don’t tell me they’re another one of the lost human ships.”
“The Bulaq were…regrettable. But tests needed to be made. And a backward, religious-based society was a perfect training ground. We ensured enough of them would survive to rebuild.” He said it as if destroying an entire world was nothing more than a slight inconvenience.
“You’re insane,” Evie said. What reservations she’d had about these people had just disappeared. She didn’t care if they had once been human or not. She was the only thing standing in the way between them and their destruction of the last of the human race, and she wasn’t going to allow it.
He turned to the guards. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Evie said and Dulthar, his face colored with anger, turned back to her. “You said there were four ships in total. If you were one and the humans who found Claxia were another, what about the other two?”
“Yet to be found,” Dulthar said. “But don’t concern yourself with that, we will find and purge them.” He turned away, sauntering down the hall with purpose while the rest of the group followed. “All in good time.”
Chapter 36
Cas sat in the captain’s chair, his pulse quickening with every passing second. Each of those seconds brought them that much closer to their destination, and their destiny. He still wasn’t sure if they would be successful or not, but they had to at least try, and with the Sil fleet at his back he at least felt like they had a chance. Had this been nothing but Coalition ships they wouldn’t have had a chance, but the Sil were the most powerful race he’d ever encountered. They just had to be victorious. Otherwise, what was the point of it all?
“How close?” Hank asked, sitting beside him.
“Distance or time?” Zaal asked. Cas turned to him; an eyebrow arched. “I apologize. It was my attempt at a joke. Considering the seriousness of the situation, I thought it might be warranted.”
“Time,” Cas said, nonplussed.
“Four minutes until we reach the Claxian system,” Zaal replied.
“Four minutes,” Cas repeated. It felt like both an eternity and the blink of an eye.
“I never thought it would come to this,” Hank said, his gaze straight ahead. “I thought after the Athru invaded we’d be on the run the rest of our lives. I never thought we’d be actively engaging them in war.”
“It’s a war they wanted,” Cas said. “And one we’re not going to let them get away with. Ignite the armor.”
Tileah nodded from her station. “Armor up.”
“Weapons?” Cas asked.
“Charged and ready.”
“Status on the other half of the Sil fleet?”
“Last update they were on their way,” Zaal said. “They should be right behind us as soon as we enter the system.”
Cas tapped his comm. “Bay two, status?”
“We’re ready to deploy down here,” Saturina replied. “I’m happy to report all ten spacewings are locked, loaded and prepared to engage the enemy.”
Cas had been hesitant about using the pilots who had defected at first, but it turned out Vrij had been right. In the face of an insurmountable enemy, they’d rather fight the Athru than their own crew. Cas hadn’t met with them personally as he thought it was better to let Saturina handle her own people, and any confrontation with him would probably only sabotage the situation. But he trusted her judgment—if she trusted Linkovich and the others, then he did too. “Good luck, Chief,” Cas said. “We’ll send battle instructions down as soon as we formulate our attack plan.”
“Acknowledged bridge, thanks and good luck.” Saturina cut the comm.
Even though the spacewings were small with limited range, they could team up and with their new weapons systems, hopefully disable some of the smaller Athru ships while Tempest and the Sil fleet went after the larger targets. Cas just wished he had a comm directly to Evie. They would give her as long as possible, but if things went south quick, he’d have to send the team over to grab her and get back. Cas hit his comm again. “Belmont, Harcrow, are you ready?”
“Ready, Captain,” Belmont replied. “As soon as we have her location and get the go ahead.”
“Good, keep the shuttle on hot standby,” Cas replied. He’d chosen Samiya and Hank’s two most experienced officers for the job of retrieving Evie. They’d had a decade’s worth of experience in avoiding the Athru so if anyone could do it, they could.
“Thirty seconds from the system, sir,” Ronde said.
Cas steeled himself. “Keep in mind, they may be obscured in their time bubbles. It’s our job to draw them out.” He nodded to Zaal and the Untuburu nodded back, tapping one of his controls. “Sil fleet, prepare to engage.”
“They’ve sent a standard reply,” Zaal said.
“Good enough for me,” Cas replied. The viewscreen lost its green tint as the ship came out of the undercurrent in the Claxian system, close to the defense grid, just inside Osiris’ orbit.
“Holy shit,” Samiya said. The space in front of them was littered with Athru ships.
“They’re not even trying to obscure themselves,” Tileah said. “Diazal’s readings are confirmed—almost seven thousand ships.” A current of nervousness rippled through her voice.
“Then we shouldn’t have any problem finding a target,” Cas said. “Lock on to the nearest ship and fire.”
“Aye.”
Cas held his breath. He wasn’t sure if the reason they hadn’t hit any patrols on the way in was because they’d just been extremely lucky, or because the Athru wanted to draw them in and he didn’t care. All that mattered was the Sil weapons worked.
A purple blast erupted from the ship below the viewscreen and flew toward the closest Athru ship, who hadn’t even yet turned to investigate Tempest. “Arrogant bastards,” Cas said under his breath as he watched the purple blast find its target. At first nothing happened, it was as if the blast had just disappeared. But then the side of the Athru ship exploded in a blast of white light and while it didn’t destroy the ship, it did knock it of its axis so it began to free-float through the system.
A cheer went up across the bridge as Cas smiled. “All ships, battle plan beta-seven. Spread out, high and fast. Hit as many of them as you can, and search for the city-ship!” As he said the words no less than a dozen plasma blasts launched from different Athru ships, all aimed at Tempest. “Mr. Ronde, do what you do best,” Cas said, keeping his calm.
“Yes, sir,” Ronde said, then nodded to River, whose mechanical hands were already split into two dozen fingers, working the navigational controls. The ship dived down the z axis, avoiding most of the fire but Ronde had to maneuver to keep any of the hits from the ship’s new armor. Cas wasn’t sure but based on what they’d seen back at Devil’s Gate, the armor might not be as effective as the weapons. Which meant any hit on Tempest could be its last. They need to stay fast and maneuverable. He brought up a small 3-D image of the battlefield on his personal console.
Above them, Sil ships were still emerging from the undercurrents, each of them opening fire as soon as they were out. He noticed there was nothing very innovative about their attack strategy—that it was more or less straightforward. As if they’d forgotten what it was like to be in battle. “Zaal,” Cas said. “Make sure the Sil know they can’t just attack head-on. They’re going to get slaughtered that way.”
“I have transmitted the battle strategy, but I’m afraid they aren’t interested in much of what we have to say,” Zaal replied. “As evidenced by their attack patterns.”
“By Garth,” Cas said, watching as the Sil fleet was quickly cut down by the advancing Athru forces.
“We’ve got six ships on our tail!” Ronde said. “I’ll do my best to lose them.”
“Let’s give them something extra to worry about,” Cas said. He tapped his comm. “Chief. See those six ships on our asses? They’re all yours.”
“Acknowledged bridge,” Saturina said. Beside him, Hank pulled up the rear viewers on his personal station and Cas watched as all ten spacewing ships launched in groups of two, each going after one of the pursuing ships. The pursuing Athru ships were thrown by the spacewings’ small size and maneuverability as they were peppered with hits from smaller Sil weapons. They didn’t do the same amount of damage as Tempest’s weapons, but it was enough to make them peel off and try to fight off the smaller ships. Which meant there was only one left on Tempest’s tail.
“I think we can eliminate that one,” Cas said.
“Yes, sir,” Tileah replied, launching four purple bolts at the pursuing ship. It was too fast and tried to peel off as soon as it realized what was coming, but only managed a half turn as it tried to slow its inertia before all four hit along its side, causing the ship to be engulfed in flames as each one detonated. What remained of the ship broke apart as the oxygen aboard burned in space until there was nothing left but debris.
“I’d say they work,” Hank said.
“Damn right they do,” Cas replied. He was feeling triumphant, like this might be possible after all.
