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

He didn’t wait to see Valentin’s response. James reemerged among his adoring masses and celebrated with them. He needed only seconds to realize he assessed the response correctly.

His fellow hybrids walked freely among the smaller immortal soldiers, conversing and joking with them as if they were family. The hybrid children, some afraid to leave their parents’ sides, gravitated to the youngest soldiers, who appeared gentle and encouraging. Like brothers and sisters.

He sampled the fruit and vegetable dishes prepared from the new orchards and gardens. At one station, small pieces of steamed fish caught his eye. The flesh was white, thick, and spongy. He used to eat something like this long ago, on first Earth. Summer trips to a place whose name almost slipped away. Florida. Pensacola. James vaguely recalled the fleeting joy of those visits. Ignatius Horne took him back there shortly after James crossed the fold. Then fog descended and it vanished … until now.

What is your game, Ignatius?

The white forest was collapsing. The water rose to become a sea, and waves crashed into the trees, shattering them until all that was left were the shards drifting away on the tide.

The paths converged into one.

James found Rayna among the celebrants, talking to Alistair Kwan and his children. He pulled his wife away.

“A great celebration, isn’t it?” He asked her.

“I miss horses. Do we have horses on Aeterna?”

“I’ve never thought about it. I’ll ask.”

She studied him. “What is wrong, husband?”

“Nothing. But I need some time outside the city. The Jewels are calling me. For what purpose, I have no idea.”

“I see. How long?”

“Uncertain, but I don’t want to rouse questions. I intend to bring Benjamin and Peter. They haven’t seen the lake, and it’s time they acclimate themselves to the natural world. I’ll secure the necessary supplies and a cargo rifter.”

“Does Valentin know?”

“If he needs me, he should go through you. But I doubt he will. The Supreme Admiral has a very busy agenda.”

They shared a kiss. “Indeed. It will give him time to see things clearly. No?”

“I wouldn’t count on it, my love.”

James called out to his sons and looked back inside his mind. The white forest was gone but for a single piece of driftwood, on which lay a gray cloak.

20

T HE LAKE FOUR KILOMETERS SOUTHWEST of JaRa rippled under a steady breeze. Waterfowl with red and yellow plumage landed in flocks. The crying birds who dominated the acacia trees dive-bombed into the water and resurfaced, each with a fish for its prize. The sun was sinking; rows of slim clouds peeled across the western sky, breaking up the waning orange light. Benjamin and Peter grew anxious. Were they actually going to stay out here until nightfall? Their father laughed.

“You’ve lived your entire lives in space, and you’re afraid of the dark?” James stood at the water’s edge and took in the fragrant breeze. “Don’t worry. It’ll be a clear night. When the stars come out, you’ll feel right at home.”

“And then what, Father?” Peter asked.

“Then you appreciate what you have.”

The lake, yet to be named, brought back memories James preferred to put aside. Like Lake Vernon, Alabama, where he spent most of his final hours on first Earth, this lake stretched more than a mile across and extended five miles long. It was fed by the river that roiled from a waterfall and flowed past the edge of JaRa. Other rivers converged here as well, starting from the southern and western borders of the defense sector.

Benjamin pointed to the dive-bombing birds.

“Is that where the fish come from?”

“Yes. Did you try any samples at the festival?”

“No, Father. Why would we eat something that lives underwater?”

“What you really mean is, ‘Why eat something that doesn’t come from a kiosk?’ Those are for space, Benjamin. Here, you eat what the planet provides. Time to adapt.”

“Have you eaten fish, Father?”

“Many times. Learned how to catch them, too.”

Peter jumped up, excited. “Will you show us how, Father? Please?”

For an instant, James felt a surge of nostalgia but turned it off with an angry wave.

“One step at a time. You’ll find fish in your food packs. Try everything with an open mind. Yes?”

“And what about you, Father?”

“I have somewhere to be. Until I return, entertain each other. Count the stars. If I’m not back by then, talk to the other children inside the collective. Tell them about your experience. If I’m still not back, you have blankets. Lay them out. Sleep.”

“But Father …” Benjamin began with an indignant tone.

“Father, nothing. This is your home until the day you die. The Jewels gave it to me, and I give it to you. Am I understood?”

In unison: “Yes, Father. Absolutely, Father.”

James didn’t look back as he started east long the shoreline. He was surprised the boys didn’t call after him. Maybe they weren’t as fragile as he thought. Valentin warned him many times about accelerating their growth too quickly. James never listened, of course, but he did pause to consider his brother’s central argument: Would the Jewels’ energy grow them into complete men? Or would they be rendered so immature as to undermine their physical strength and intellect?

“No,” he argued as he marched onward while the sun set. “The sons of gods will be gods. They’re incapable of being weak.”

That’s where James left the discussion. He pushed the boys out of his mind – and for the time being, out of his heart – as he plowed on through the soft, wet sand inches from the gently lapping waves.

A half-mile on, the acacia forest receded, and tall, spiky brush dominated the horizon. He passed tangled bundles of giant bromeliads, pineapple bushes, and sawgrass palmettos.

As sunset turned to dusk, the wind dropped but a