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

That’s why our parents took us and ran. I heard other Carriers were like the Newton. Chancellors are happy when peacekeepers kill indigos.”

“I know.” Sam tried to comfort the girl. “I’ve heard the stories, but this is different. Earth doesn’t have Ark Carriers, and we don’t have indigos.”

“Yes, you do,” Rosalyn said. “You call them Solomons here.”

“No. We live and work with each other on Earth. We need each other. It’s not like on the colonies.”

“You wait and see,” Brayllen scowled. “When the peacekeepers kill Solomons until they can’t fight back anymore, Chancellors will celebrate.” He gazed away. “G’hladis are the nicest people I ever met. I’m going to live there someday, Samantha.”

“I hope you have the opportunity. But for now, what do you say we put this awful business aside and have dinner?”

Sam wondered whether they were right; would Chancellors celebrate the slaughter of people who made their lives easier? Were her people no more than an angry mob in the making?

The questions stripped Sam of her appetite, though she was starving. Nonetheless, she pulled herself together a couple minutes after the twins left and vowed to put on a strong face.

Her heart jumped when she discovered Brayllen waiting alone outside her door. He smiled, teeth visible, hand outstretched, ready to escort her. A gentleman, despite all the trauma in his life.

Yet as Sam extended her hand, an inexplicable chill curbed her enthusiasm. For a lingering second, she hesitated.

30

Danielson Outpost

Appalachian Mountains

 

M ICHAEL VOLUNTEERED FOR FIRST MORNING patrol. He snuck in three hours sleep before breakfast and stimulants and had no intention of lying about all day in a constant cycle of fidget-and-worry. Raimi Inhofe’s team had yet to signal all-clear for stream amps. Michael brought along a Mark 8 blast rifle and a pulse laser, more weapons than needed, Rikard claimed. No one was likely to breach their cascade barrier.

Michael did not share his friend’s confidence. He’d seen too much insanity this side of the fold. Why wouldn’t someone have invented cloaking tech to penetrate a full-proof barrier? He summarized the plot of a film called Predator, where a cloaked alien wiped out a team of badass soldiers in the jungle. That he’d seen Predator half a dozen times heightened his paranoia.

Rikard sent him east along the north slope, three hundred meters through heavy forest. Maya Fontaine walked at his side.

“You don’t have to do this,” Michael told her. “I’m good.”

“I thought a stroll would be invigorating. This is new for me. Nature, I mean. I am very much a creature of the city.”

“Not me. I grew up in the country. Spent most of my years running around in the woods, swimming in creeks, fishing, hunting. You name it. I hated it when Sam said we were moving to Boston.”

“But the Pynn compound is a beautiful estate.”

He nodded. “We spent a year together on the Pacific. Hardly anyone bothered us. Boston’s all right, but a fella can only take so much of breathing in all them Chancellors, if you get my speed.”

“So naturally, you decided to entertain crowds of them.”

“What can I say? I’m a natural dumbass. Besides, it helped the movement. I did what I could.”

“You’re an outstanding soldier, Michael. There are many of us around the world who sing your praises.”

They trudged through a heavy groundcover of dried leaves.

“It’s funny. Back in Alabama, you couldn’t have paid me to enlist. I’d have spent my life working the register at a damn mini-mart before putting on dress blues. I was a fanboy. Loved watching that shit, but I’d have peed my pants on a battlefield.”

She snickered. “I don’t understand your references, but I gather life would have been much simpler on this other Earth.”

“Simpler, sure. Also, a dead-end on minimum wage.”

“Do you ever wish you stayed behind?”

He stopped and observed. He listened to a rush of a waterfall not far away. Sunlight twinkled trying to burst through the canopy. The air was crisp, the forest’s fragrance vibrant.

“Not anymore. It’s crazy, but I’ve been more alive the past two years than if I lived for ninety years back home. I don’t like all the choices I’ve made, but it’s been one hell of a ride.”

“Once we settle this conflict, you’ll retire from soldiering and live a carefree existence. So, you’re familiar with forests? I wasn’t a student of botany. Enlighten me.”

It all came back to Michael, even though he’d spent little time hiking mountains. He pointed out the flora: Hemlocks and beech trees, maples and white oaks. A diverse forest. The beauty was captivating but deceptive. Death was a far greater threat beyond these mountains than what first Earth posed.

“How’d you get involved in the movement?” He asked her. “If I hadn’t seen you in action at Entilles, I never would have thought of you as a soldier.”

“My parents were chefs attached to a Presidium in Marseilles. I grew up in kitchens. Became an expert with knives. Along the way, developed into a reasonable soprano.”

“That’s a hell of a combination.”

“No more amazing than comedy and laser pistols.”

“True. So how did you…?”

“Become so proficient at stabbing people through the heart?”

“Something like that.”

“Same way most people go down that path, I suppose. I was angry. Very angry.”

“What I saw was a shitload more than angry.”

They reached the far edge of their patrol. Maya didn’t look up as they cycled back toward the outpost.

“Not every Chancellor is an asshole, as you often call them,” she said. “But most are, especially the men. The loud ones don’t bother me. They go about acting as if they’re Johannes Ericsson reborn.”

“Yeah. I know the type. Mine’s bigger than yours.”

“It’s the ones with the quiet focus that worry me. You can see it in their eyes, this