The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

“My father is dead. Is that difficult day by your standard?”

Penelope frowned. “Yes. I was anxious to see Peter again. I was there the day he crossed the fold with you. I was…”

“You know nothing of Pyotr Tsukanov.” She raised her rifle. “Speak of him again, and I will create large hole in your chest.”

“OK, Rayna. First, I am on your side. My people have been tasked to protect you. Second, there are those on the other side of the fold who wish you dead. We are racing against time to avoid another confrontation with those very people.”

“Are they traitors like Doroshenkos?”

“Traitor might be a harsh word. They are also Chancellors, but they have different ideas about the future. But to your larger point, they will kill any of us to get to you.”

Rayna smiled as a new strategy unfolded in her mind’s eye.

“So here is plan. Misha and me, we ride. We go through fold and surprise enemy. We are very good with rifles. Are you strong with rifles and horse?”

Penelope stepped away, glancing down at her thump gun.

“We don’t do horses. Sorry, no. And those rifles reload too slowly. I had no problem bringing down the last of the Doroshenkos.”

Rayna nodded. “Good. We clear path, then you come through fold, no problem. Or perhaps you wish to ride with Misha?”

Penelope sighed when Misha grabbed up two rifles and moved toward his horse. “You are insane,” she told Rayna.

“Yes. But I was not created by sane people. Is logical outcome.”

Penelope muttered something under her breath. “I’ll not debate ethics with a human-Jewel hybrid. But if you both plan to enter on horseback, prepare for a rough landing. The fold on the other side is five feet above the surface, and the surface is shifting under constant earthquakes. We leaped in from a shuttle.”

“Ah yes,” Misha said as he jumped upon his stallion. “The inertial drag between universes. Worse than usual?”

“Other than the occasional trenches opening up, the intensity is unchanged from fifteen years ago.”

“Is good,” Rayna said. “We bring horses to full gallop, as if leaping fence. Easy.”

Penelope shook her head. “The bifurcation zone between worlds is twenty meters across, Rayna. You will encounter a fog. When it begins to lift, the other side will fall off quickly. You are likely to fall and crash rather than stick a landing.”

She leaped upon her steed. “Then good you tell me distance, no? I am good with math. And you?”

Rayna beckoned her horse forward. The fold, visible thanks to the Caryllan pulse, lay fifty meters ahead. She was not surprised to look back and find Penelope jogging alongside Misha. She also saw one of the fallen Doroshenkos sitting up. Rayna turned her anger on the Chancellor in yellow.

“I thought you finished these traitors,” she shouted as a second Cossack moved his legs. Penelope held up her thump gun.

“This weapon incapacitates from a distance. It does not kill.”

Rayna grabbed the reins and signaled her steed forward.

“Chancellors are idiots,” she said as she galloped past, grabbing one of her rifles from its saddle pouch. She spat toward Penelope and aimed the weapon.

The first Cossack twisted about, looking for his rifle. Rayna ignored his pleas for life and pulled the trigger. A bullet cracked his skull. Rayna shot the other Doroshenko through the heart.

“Time to go to Earth now,” she yelled to Misha. “Time to say hello. Yes?”

28

The Ukrainian Expanse

Standard Year (SY) 5355

R AYNA LANDED HER HORSE IN THE NEW WORLD with perfect form, seconds ahead of Misha. She grabbed a rifle from the saddle pouch and took quick stock of her surroundings. Unlike the world of her childhood, this version of Ukraine was stark in every direction—various ground covers, shrubs, monumental stones, and a surface that vibrated with a low rumble. Yet the contrast paled to what hovered nearby. She took a long breath to absorb the stunning reality of a crab-shaped vessel twenty meters off the ground.

Beneath the shuttle, six Chancellors in yellow-white bodysuits huddled. Two laid on the ground, their wounds being attended, while two others looked up at the shuttle while flicking their fingers through holographic projections. Rayna had seen it all before today thanks to Mentor’s encyclopedic teachings, but the reality threw her back. For a moment, the “idiots” impressed her.

The moment did not last.

Seconds after Penelope jumped from the fold, the Chancellors beneath the shuttle turned in Rayna’s direction—not to acknowledge her arrival, but to look beyond her and gasp. Rayna heard shouts, and the shuttle lurched to one side, firing retros. She and her companions twisted about and spotted a missile followed by a long contrail emerge from the setting sun.

Rayna blinked. The shuttle disintegrated, raining fire and tech upon the ground. Shrapnel spun outward, large pieces ripping apart bodies. Rayna heard the rush of tiny, bullet-sized shards fly past. The horses reared, but Rayna and Misha kept hold of the reins.

As they regrouped, their eyes fell upon Penelope, who stood between the horses. She wavered, but not from the continuing tremors. The woman reached for her gut, through which a twisted metal fragment impaled her. The Chancellor who moments earlier sought to put Rayna in her place, now struggled to speak. Instead, she tapped her amp and opened a holocube.

“Run,” she told Rayna and Misha. “Fast as you can. Find cover.”

Rayna did not argue, even though she saw no natural cover within eyesight. Perhaps those hills, she thought. At least two miles. The silhouette of another crab-shaped vessel emerged from the sunset. Rayna reached out a helping hand, but Penelope refused. Instead, she flicked her fingers through the holocube. She spoke in soft, urgent tones to someone Rayna could not see. Rayna heard the words final mission report.

She called to her steed, and