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

Misha’s features softened. “Rayna, you loved him, as he loved you. But Pyotr never put his fondness of wealth and power aside. He distracted himself with people he should not have trusted. We argued often over the years.”

“I heard you. What was his Chancellor name?”

“Peter Gallivant.”

“And yours?”

“Michaud Julespierre.”

Rayna laughed, creating an echo through the narrow pass. “Sounds like girl’s name. You keep Misha.”

“I will have to claim my descendency to restore my status. I doubt the Julespierres will want a Tsukanov in the family.”

“Do I have family?”

“Uncertain. Claim your Gallivant descendency.”

“Not if name matters. I am always Rayna Tsukanova.”

“In your heart, yes. No one will take that spirit from you. But there are practical matters we must attend and…”

Rayna wanted nothing more of this. She pushed herself up and walked downstream.

The rage of these last days was subsiding, and this notion troubled her. She did not want to feel comfortable, but the memories of a Cossack childhood seemed like dreams. In the past few hours, she killed more people than in her previous seventeen years combined. Yet the sound and fury, the blood on her shashka, the nuclear cloud—all felt like distant, fading echoes.

She heard feet.

“You did not want to leave it behind,” Misha said. “It was the only life you ever knew. But if you take the lessons we taught—your father, the Mentor, my training, all of it—you will make a new life here. What we left behind has groomed you for the struggle ahead.”

“Da.” She faced Misha. “And I will kill all enemies here, as I did there. Except for Vasily Shkuro, who I will find one day.”

They spoke no more of the past or the future that night. In time, she convinced Misha to sleep while Rayna kept watch. Two hours later, they switched. Rayna closed her eyes, but she only faded to the edge of sleep. The gentlest bubbling of the stream kept her on edge. At some point, she drifted away.

And then, an unexpected sensation arrived.

It came first as a gentle breeze kissing her cheek. Next, a caress. A voice followed, young yet firm and uncompromising. She did not make out the words.

She caught his eyes. Did they shimmer?

He was tall, with broad and imposing shoulders, a chest like the side of a mountain. A monument dressed in red.

She heard his name on the wind, and then it vanished.

“Rayna.”

Someone nudged her awake. She stared up at Misha, who greeted her with a broad smile, surrounded by the light of dawn.

“They have found us,” Misha said. “Our allies. We must go.”

Across the stream, a shuttle waited in silence, two men in white sporting huge weapons.

“These Chancellors are for us?” Rayna asked.

“Yes. We will rendezvous with the others. Perhaps you will even meet the second of the Earth Jewels.”

Rayna raced to the stream and splashed her face with cool water.

“I already have.”

29

Tactical simulation facility

Great Plains Metroplex, NAC

I N THE MOMENTS AFTER JAMES HEARD the other Jewel whisper her name across time and space, dramatic changes followed.

The universe of the Collectorate opened its doors, filling his mind with its treasures and terrors. Philosophy, art, space exploration, physics, genetics, war, genocide. He needed no learning programs, no books, no holocube. James only needed keywords out of the mouths of others. His vibrant, continued conversations with Valentin provided the fodder he needed.

Unification Guard. Snap! He learned of its origin, command and control structure, deployment figures, tactical objectives, training regimens, and disposition of capital ships and Scramjets.

Ark Carriers. Snap! He learned the design of the interstellar city-ships, of their use during colonization, their planetary deployments and permanent civilian figures, and their defensive capabilities.

Chancellory. Snap! He learned of its foundation, rise to power, hierarchy of presidiums and sanctums, Elevation Philosophy, forced migrations of ethnics to the colonies, and treaty with the Solomons.

This encyclopedia of the Collectorate—impossible to consume instantaneously—stopped shy of James’s forethoughts. It was all there, waiting behind the curtain for whenever he needed to take a peek. The one thing standing guard between him and data overload was the source of it all: The Jewel called Ignatius Horne.

“Why show me this now?” James asked.

“Poor Chancellor design,” said Ignatius, standing on the deck of his orbital command ship, his uniform draped in medals. “Your engineers wanted you to have access to the Chancellory’s intellect combined with the Jewel’s primordial power. They programmed a universal database into your DNA, intending it to unlock in stages after your rebirth as a compliant soldier. But your little stunt following your death created unforeseen variables.”

James understood. “I defied the program. I kept my memories. I unleashed the dark. And now this.”

“See it as nothing but a positive, James. Your designers wanted a Jewel hybrid who might access knowledge on their terms. You are bypassing every roadblock.”

“So, I will know everything the Chancellors do.”

“Everything is an all-encompassing word. Yes? You will be up to speed on all matters at the time of your design. They introduced the program into your DNA before your second birthday. After that, the Jewel was isolated.”

“You’re right,” he told Ignatius. “Nothing but a positive. Perrone thinks I’ll create a whole new race of hybrids for him. He doesn’t know about this, or about you.”

“Hold those cards as long as you can, James. They see your growing physical aptitude. If they suspect you are far more than a Berserker with sculpted pectorals…”

“I get your point.”

Still, James could not push the other Jewel out of his mind.

“I know her name. Rayna. I can almost see her, Ignatius. This connection we have… it’s another variable I created, isn’t it?”

“Her link to you unlocked the database. But I have to wonder how much she is like you. If she were reborn