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

Levinson from the gallery in stellar dome. “You and I finding our way back to each other, just in time to destroy humanity or save it.”

“I wasn’t aware those were the choices.”

She grabbed his hand, offering the seductive touch she employed during their garden walks in Madrid Redux.

“Come now, Magnus. Seventeen years hasn’t dissolved your penchant for seeing the obvious. We serve the three most dangerous monsters in human history.”

“Seems alarmist. The Triumvirate is still fifty million bodies shy of the Chancellory’s own litany of atrocities. And that’s just pre-history. What bothers you most, Ophelia? Their transgressions or your own?”

Sometimes, she wished she’d never accepted the transfer from her post on Catalan. Magnus saw through her then as he did now.

“SkyTower never leaves me,” she said. “I died there, Magnus. It’s why I never fought back. Why I’ve never tried to kill them.”

“Hmm. Because you gave them the keys to escape Earth? So naturally, you’re a monster of equal standing. Yes?”

“If they are Earth’s three most wanted enemies, I’m number four. There’s no future for me. Not back home, not on the colonies, and certainly not with Salvation.”

He kissed her cheek. “Perhaps you should vent yourself and be done with it.” He always had a knack for calling out her self-pity. “Walk with me. I’d like to see the view from the platform.”

They ascended the stairs. The panorama was not much greater, but apparently it made a difference to Magnus. He pointed toward the edge of the nebula.

“Align your eyes to a declination of forty-seven degrees. See the green shimmer at the horse’s muzzle? The second star? Tau Om Ceti. The Catalan system. The place I called home for twenty-five years. Where my son was born. Where my wife …”

He choked on his words. Ophelia knew he was in love with another woman at the time of their affair. It broke them.

“I’m sorry, Magnus. When you joined us, I was told your family suffered a disgrace. No more.”

“Disgrace? Hmm. That’s one word for it. My son Brice went rogue six months into his first Guard posting over Hokkaido. No family recovers from that shame. Elizabeth insisted I track him down and repair the damage.”

“Did you?”

“I found him in a village which adopted him as their protector from raiders. They shielded him with long blades. He said if I took another step, he would order them to slaughter me. He went by a different name and spoke their language.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Neither did Elizabeth. Then she jumped.” Ophelia wanted to find the proper condolence, but Magnus slipped a hand over her mouth and shushed. “The strange thing is, I never believed stories about the rogues until I saw Brice for myself. Then I met several rogues in the fleet, and they seem wide-eyed, sane, purposeful. They believe in this fight even though everyone of them is considered a terrorist. Even though their families have been shamed and their standing destroyed. They see a better way.”

“Is that why you work for the Triumvirate? A better way?”

“After a fashion. Keep in mind, Ophelia, I am not here by choice. They took me prisoner.”

“But you could have resisted. Did Brother James touch you?”

“Yes, and it was euphoric. But unlike some others, I remain fully invested in my faculties. I’m well aware much of the tech we build is not for peaceful purposes. I heard what James told his people at a recent speech. He plans to kill millions of Chancellors. He’s a monster. Yes. But he’s only a monster of another kind, Ophelia. We’ve spent three thousand years hiding our own savagery behind the veneer of Chancellor prestige.”

She pulled away. “You equate us with them?”

“Yes, I do. But it’s the reason I continue my work. Ophelia, I believe what we’re doing here can ultimately save the Chancellory. History may even rehabilitate our family names.”

“Could you say something more preposterous?”

“We work for these monsters because they will grant us full access to the Jewel’s technological and biological secrets when our job is finished. We pass those along to the Chancellory, and we give our people their best chance at renewal.”

“Yes. More preposterous.”

“As opposed to oblivion? Ophelia, he knows an alternative to brontinium extract. The tech we’re producing holds incredible promise, for Chancellors and indigos. We will …”

This time, she covered his mouth. “You will never leave here with any of it, Magnus. You live in a dream, as do all the others. The day the immortals and hybrids achieve their goal, Brother James will personally annihilate everyone else in this fleet. Assuming I live that long, I’ll be the first to burn.”

He swiped her hand away. “You’re cynical. I understand why.”

“Cynical? I never knew you to be the master of understatement. Magnus, I have been told, on multiple occasions, that I will never leave this ship alive. Even today, Valentin implied my time is all but done. Tell me, Magnus, what exactly do you build for them?”

He seemed taken aback and fumbled into an answer.

“Primarily, I supervise production on the refractors.”

“Refractors? I’ve heard rumors about them. What are they?”

“I suspect the word doesn’t accurately represent their function. I was told James insisted on the name.” He looked away. “In truth, we don’t know what they do.”

“Yet you supervise production? How does that work?”

“The process is … unusual. Brother James delivered the designs to us himself, a few days after I arrived. I was told he spent days in front of a holoscribe translating what he found inside the Jewel’s repository. He then manipulated the architectural ellipse so we can operate the phasic tools and build the device without ever knowing its purpose. A team of rogues with Jewel supervisors excavated the mineral compounds from an asteroid in this system.”

“How many refractors have you built?”

“We