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

“I see. We eliminated all forms of deity worship three thousand years ago.”

“I am sure,” Rayna said. “Religious people would never build such thing. They would fear their God. In Bible, there was Tower of Babel. People built it high to find God. But they did not understand, and they displeased him. He cast them out. They appeared elsewhere, speaking many languages. They never tried to reach God again.”

She paused as Valentin twisted his face. “Ah,” she said. “You know me for few hours, but you will see. I tell stories to make point.” She laughed. “There was no tower, and there was no God. Is all fantasy, but message is important. Humans who reach beyond themselves will fall. Is inevitable.”

Valentin twisted between his brother and the second Jewel.

“And you think this,” he pointed upward, “symbolizes our fall?”

“No. Not our fall. Theirs.”

She turned away toward the Scramjet.

“Valentin, I know you are immortal. Do not look surprised. And no, your brother did not tell me. Not admiral. Not anyone.”

“Then how?”

“Does not matter. You too are abomination.” She glanced at James. “Is time for us to take our place, and for other assholes to go away. Da?”

When she left them behind, Valentin and James shared a quiet moment. James recognized she was a much more volatile weapon than he ever anticipated.

His spirits rose at the prospect of victory.

Neither said a word as they returned to the Scramjet and prepared to meet their parents.

45

SkyTower, 2.1 miles above Earth

Bouchet Compound, Level 6

South Platform

V ALENTIN BOUCHET LOVED HIS NEW BROTHER, yet this redirected loyalty unsettled him. These conflicting emotions clouded his goals and baffled his strategic decisions. His father would call these shudders a tragic flaw; Valentin would not disagree.

As he stepped off the Scramjet amid familiar surroundings, Valentin felt as if he were part of an army invading his own home. A traitor to his name. Then he remembered what his parents did to their boys.

“I’ve been on this platform a thousand times,” he told James. “When I was little, I loitered out here watching the ships come and go. The deck crew taught me how to control the cascade barrier and glidetrax.” He pointed to the platform’s open portal, which provided an epic view of wispy clouds slipping across the sky as if coming in for a landing. “I was raised to believe I was a god. Seems Father took it all too literally. Brother, you understand we have to hear him out first?”

James took a quick, pensive survey of the platform, as if soaking in memories that should have been his as well. Valentin saw a rock-hard, sculpted warrior standing in place of the scrawny, petulant creature he met outside the IDF. He sported the early outline of a rough-hewn, blond beard.

“Yes,” James said. “He’ll give his version of the truth. Then we’ll tell him to cut the crap or we’ll kill both him and our mother.”

His words didn’t sound like an order, but they weren’t too far removed from what Valentin feared might happen before day’s end. His brother was committed to taking the most ruthless path to victory. Valentin saw it in his eyes when he emerged from the admiral’s cloaked office and severed his connection to his closest friends. He also sensed a mysterious relationship developing between James and Rayna – if only in brief, aching glances. His brother was forming a new family.

“I am with you, James, so long as we make unified decisions.”

The crew spread out per the admiral’s orders. Already, guards under Perrone’s employ were stationed at key positions on the platform, some wearing Solomon attire. The admiral huddled with Col. Lamar Onyx, who was No. 2 in the compound’s takeover. They reviewed the mission sit-rep with Maj. Sexton Marshall via circastream. Valentin and James awaited orders.

“What do you think of it all?” Valentin asked his brother, who was studying the approaching cloud bank.

James shrugged, as if unimpressed by the spectacle.

“Hell of a garage, for sure.” He motioned to idle machinery near the landing dock. “Last place I lived, you could fit the entire shithole inside those two cargo loaders.”

“You told me of your home. All this has to be something out of a dream. Yet it seems mundane to you, as if you’ve always lived here. How have you adjusted with such ease?”

James fixed brown, piercing eyes on Perrone. His jaw tightened.

“People.” His voice was flat, resolute. “I spent the last eight hours of my first life running from people I cared about. Some trying to kill me, some trying to turn me into a monster. Then I found out they aren’t any better over here. When you are not so impressed with the people, I reckon you have little regard for the things they make. As Michael would say, you get my speed?”

Valentin nodded, but he saw a flinch when James mentioned his best friend’s name. Did he regret the decision to sever ties?

“I get your speed,” Valentin said. “But if everything goes the way we hope, I think you’ll find there are wonders beyond Earth to drive even a cynic to tears.”

Perrone and Onyx interrupted their musings.

“Gentlemen,” Perrone began, “we have three mission objectives and a delicate timetable. After consulting with Col. Onyx and Maj. Marshall, we agreed our operations can be safely sustained for no more than thirty standard hours. By that time, automated protocols will trigger unkind attention to the compound. If the Marks Presidium, of which your father is the ranking member, determines he is being held under military siege, myself and anyone under my command may be subject to Articles of Treason under Chancellory bylaws. Your career,” he said to Valentin, “will be destroyed despite your name, and you,” he told James, “will be summarily executed. On the hopeful side,