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

“Hah. Again, you sound like your brother. Statistical justification for genocide. Excuse me, Valentin, but I thought you were the less-psychotic Bouchet.”

Valentin laughed as he walked, nodding approval to groups he passed. He stepped over a ten-year-old girl who lay moaning outside her circle, her left arm hanging limp in a sickly contortion.

“Hold steady, Anissa,” he told her. “You’ll be back in the circle soon.” The girl thanked Valentin for his words. He turned to Ophelia, who bent down to lend comfort before wisely pulling back. Her action would have been a violation, and shame for Anissa.

“I am my brother’s right hand,” Valentin said as they moved on. “He and I share a common vision. Where you might be confused, Ophelia, is that I tend to be more of a pragmatist. As a combat officer, I put greater stock in logistics. For example, here’s something you might not know.

“Last year, after James broke the conditioning web on the other hybrids, he came to me the same day and said you were no longer useful and should be killed. Immediately. But out of deference, he left the decision to me – just as he did in SkyTower.

“I saw how good you were in counseling the first immortals we liberated, taking them through the induction process. Especially the little ones. So, I convinced James of your value.”

Ophelia nodded. “I suspected as much. I suppose I should be thankful for the reprieve. Out of curiosity, how often has the Great Savior talked of killing me since then?”

“More times than I can count, Ophelia.”

“He loathes me that much? After all I did to save him?”

“James does not believe in redemption or forgiveness. Almost everyone in his life betrayed him.”

“Oh, please! We’re Chancellors by birth. We eat betrayal with breakfast every day of our lives.”

Valentin found a clearing distant from the circles and stopped. He leaned into Ophelia.

“What do you want from me?”

“What I want, you can’t give. But I’ll settle for the truth.”

“What truth?”

“Do I have any chance of leaving this fleet alive?”

Valentin refused to dodge the inevitable.

“No. This is your last home, Ophelia. You know more about what we do than anyone outside the Command Council. My advice: Pull yourself together and work with our new arrivals. You’ll have reason to rise in the morning.”

“And what if you and His Greatness win your war?”

“If we win, I’ll execute you myself. Unless you prefer the way James does it.” Her shoulders sagged and her eyes dropped. “One other thing, Ophelia: If you refer to Brother James in those derogatory terms again, I will make sure you suffer indescribable pain for days. Then I will snap your neck. Understood?”

She mumbled, “Yes,” her air of defiance annihilated.

Valentin was sick of her. This wasn’t their first go-round. After every previous encounter, Ophelia returned the next day in higher spirits. This felt different. Though she retreated from the arena, he wondered whether he was allowing a security risk to roam free. All he had to do was give the order.

He put the woman out of his mind and watched the pre-combat routines play out. Defying a trend, no one died during the circle assaults. Either his brethren were toughening up, or their killer instinct was cracking. He refused to make a snap judgement.

Midway through the fifth routine, as Valentin expected, all training came to a sudden halt. Eyes widened in awe when they knew Brother James was among them. Valentin gave his squad leaders a hand signal. In seconds, the immortals returned to strict lineups.

Valentin greeted his brother under his breath.

“I didn’t warn them,” he said. “They will be stunned.”

“Every immortal is here?”

“Absolutely. We erected the audio distortion field. I assume the other Jewels will be listening in?”

James tapped his forehead. “Right here with me.”

Valentin faced his legions. “My brother has a message for you. A message from our savior, our leader, our future. Welcome him.”

All five hundred took a right knee and bowed heads.

“Stand,” James ordered. “I want to look in your eyes.” They did as told. “More important, I want you to look in my eyes.” His voice rumbled through the arena without challenge.

“These eyes,” he continued, “have seen a million years of history. These eyes have seen everything humans have ever built. These eyes have seen the lives destroyed by those same humans. And these eyes can see a million years into the future. In that future, there are no humans. Just as there are no humans in this arena!”

Gasps and awe-inspired whispers echoed from the rows.

“I was like each of you. An experiment cast off into hiding. An angry and confused child of little worth and less hope. They created us to be their servant monsters. They would have denied us our greatness and used us as tools to fix their self-induced genetic failure. Then they would have killed us all.”

James laid a hand on Valentin’s shoulder. “Our parents were the leaders of these criminals. At their first opportunity, they tried to kill us both rather than embrace us as their children. They would have killed the woman I loved, the mother of my boys.

“Know this: The Chancellors created all of us – Jewel hybrids and immortals – for their design. As long as we oppose their design, they will try to kill us. Therefore, we must kill them.”

Fists rose high and chants intensified.

When they calmed, James continued. “We are slaves to no one, and our future belongs to us. We deserve to live by our own design, as do all those who have been held under the Chancellors’ thumb for centuries. This means we can no longer remain hidden away in this dark corner of space. We must begin a more aggressive campaign. In