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

would have remained stagnant. With those same Jewels, we have an opportunity to fulfill your grandfather’s vision of a new species, driven by new imperatives. Elian was the most courageous man I ever knew. He showed me a path without fear. Our sons might kill us today, but we will die with a smile because the new species is guaranteed. As is our legacy.”

James shared a stunned moment with his brother. He tried to process what just happened, the revelations from his father, the momentary fit and prolonged silence of his mother. Too much, too fast. Instead, he blinked and found Ignatius.

“Is he telling the truth? Is my grandfather the one who set everything in motion?”

“Possible, but he would be a convenient scapegoat.”

James recalled Valentin discussing family history during their bonding time. He recounted Elian Bouchet dying in a depressurization accident above Ganymede twelve years ago.

“Some of these things he knows about Valentin and me. Even Rayna. How is that possible?”

“He created you. He blended humans and Jewels. He knows your programmed instincts. Or perhaps he is a father who sees the truth in the eyes of his sons. Or perhaps he is guessing. Does it matter?”

“Sure, it does. He owes us the truth. If he won’t give it then …”

“Then you will murder him?”

“I may not have a choice. I think Rayna’s in danger. She said this was a trap. I think …”

Ignatius rose from the white stump amid the white forest.

“He has already provided the most pivotal answer. You are so angry, James, you missed it. Think hard. You’ll know what to ask.”

He blinked and confronted Emil.

“The new species. How is it guaranteed? There are only ten hybrids. And how can you ever be sure about immortals?”

“Now that, James, is a well-considered question, and not delivered with this petty, pent-up anger.” He turned to his wife. “Frances, do you think they’ve earned an answer after coming in here with such blood in their eyes?”

She dusted off a cookie she enjoyed.

“I am not disposed to cooperating with men who assault me.” She narrowed her eyes at James. “However, they are two of the founding fathers. More or less.”

“What do you mean?” Valentin asked.

“Awkward topic, son,” Emil interjected. “We have enough reserves of brontinium extract to fuel one more limited generation. Afterward, Chancellors will no longer bear children. This scientific reality led us down an unexpected path. I realized we had only enough Jewel energy to create one hundred hybrids like James. Too small a sample to rebuild our people before they lost their position in the Collectorate. However, your mother made a remarkable discovery. The extract can sustain life so long as that life is incapable of reproduction. If a child is born devoid of the chemical processes and internal facilitators necessary to generate new life – sperm, ovum – and infused with the extract in utero, the extract faces no impediment to regenerating cells perpetually. Which is why you,” he focused on Valentin, “cannot die.”

James saw the devastation inside his brother’s eyes.

“But I’ll never have children,” he said. “Why would you …?”

“A necessary bargain to avoid an impossible future. We cannot allow the best of humanity to wither and die. We drive evolution. We are not its victims. You will never be a father, but you will be a proud uncle.” He switched focus to James. “The hybrids will bear the children. Hundreds at first, thousands soon after. Something you said earlier, James, was not too far from the truth.”

“Which was what?”

“You said I wanted the Jewels to act as an army to fight our enemies while the Chancellors grew sick and died. No, no.”

James perceived the next words before he heard them. Something rising from the dark told him in the first hours after he was reborn. Now, he needed to hear it. To understand why the Jewels had to be hidden. To understand the last message his parents sent Jamie Sheridan: Through your death, the fates of millions to come will be ensured for centuries.

“You will not fight for the Chancellory,” Emil said. “On the contrary. You will destroy the Chancellory. Two remarkable new species will take humanity forward and build the next three thousand years. And the Collectorate? Nothing more than a launchpad. A small corner of an infinite expanse. As I told both of you before, the Bouchets are neither timid nor ordinary.”

Emil and Frances joined them in the well, holding hands. He saw it in their graceful strut, their assurance to each other of never being in danger. And the smiles they offered their sons – as if they instantly forgot the past. James recognized it: A victory march. Why did he not see the obvious? They aren’t prisoners.

“However,” Frances told her sons, “some Bouchets are gullible. You have been lied to at every turn.”

“Yes,” Valentin said, “by you.” He reached for his sidearm.

“No more dramatics, Valentin,” their father said. “It’s very simple. We are not your enemies. We are your rescuers. James, we never tried to kill you at the fold. We never tried to kill your friends or Dr. Tomelin. And my security forces on Seneca? Please. After what you’ve heard today, do you believe I would be so incredibly reckless?”

As the curtain came down, James saw the entire picture as he should have known it all along.

He whispered, “Fuck me.”

“Yes,” his father said. “That sounds about right.”

Emil tapped his amp three times. A cube emerged.

“Are our people in position?” He asked.

Maj. Sexton Marshall replied.

“Waiting for the good word, sir.”

“Outstanding.” Emil winked at James. “Execute.”

48

R AYNA LONGED FOR A FAST HORSE but settled for listening to technological explanations she did not understand.

As her group walked through Bouchet research and development, Dr. Tomelin pointed out many impressive contraptions –