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

“In case anything breaks through the primary, of course.”

“Of course.” Sam thought of the giant pylons that stretched above the clouds, eight of them each a hundred five kilometers from the city center. A concentric circle. They too grew out of the planet, and no one explained their purpose beyond the vague “if all else fails.”

“They seemed rushed,” Sam said. “Brother James didn’t say anything yesterday about an attack coming.”

“Does it matter? We all know the Chancellors will come eventually. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. Maybe twenty years. We’ve been preparing almost from the day we set foot in the city. We have to be tested by fire to prove ourselves.”

“Oh. Something else Brother James said after the landing?”

“No. We were told that our day of liberation. The first test came when each of us was shot through the head. If we awoke, we were told about the fire we would face as an army. Since it never happened in space, it will happen here.”

They passed what Sam thought of as the city’s industrial sector. Scaffolding, loaders, and crablike hyperphasic drivers surrounded three capital ships formerly part of the Salvation fleet: Greenland, Haven, and Benevolence. The largest was Haven, a former UG troop transport with extensive weapons facilitators. The rifters carrying cylinders toward the defense perimeter left from there. Next to it, Greenland –used for agricultural production in space – contained a wide variety of scientific labs and a medical research facility. Benevolence looked the least like a ship. More than half of it had been cannibalized, inside and out. Beside it, one of the tallest structures “grown” from the planet contained a factory full of holotools, drone scoopers, and raw materials transported here from operations outside the defense sector and from colonial allies who signed trade agreements with Salvation.

A loaf-shaped building beyond this cluster housed food preparation lines and the common dining hall. Sam ate several meals here, all of them stunning in both simplicity and taste. Of all the tasks she might face today, preparing such meals did not seem a challenge. Perhaps even the kind of work to relax her. After all, she spent many hours in the kitchen helping her mother. She took to cooking while rehabbing after she was shot in Philadelphia Redux. Michael loved her cooking.

But she didn’t enter the building. A cold wind pierced her spine.

“There you are,” a female voice said. “Beautiful Samantha Pynn.”

She didn’t want to turn around. Walk. Keeping walking. Yet Sam froze in place. She pivoted to Rosa, who looked over Sam’s shoulder with nervous reverence.

Rayna Tsukanova stepped off her rifter and landed at Sam’s side.

“So long I have waited to see what came of you.”

Three months of darkness onboard Lioness could not block out Aeterna’s sun, but it chilled the warming rays of mid-morning. And just as before, the nails came out, wrapping around Sam’s neck.

“Your hair is most beautiful this way,” the Ukrainian said. “I like it short. No?” She leaned closer. “What did you think, Samantha Pynn? Did you think Rayna forgot about you?”

The nails drew blood.

28

Two hours earlier

Imperial compound, JaRa

R AYNA REACTED EXACTLY AS JAMES predicted. She never understood his connection to the deeper universe or why she did not also receive a gift for sight into the distant past or future.

“You are insane to suggest these things,” she said, holding a hand over her belly. “Never will Valentin turn against you. He would have to kill us all.”

“No. He could tell his army that we’re betraying our promise of a shared home world. He could use my speech yesterday and twist my words. Tell the immortals they’ll never be more than a servant class.”

“But this would be true.”

“Yes, but for now they are too devout to see the truth. Valentin has never spoken against me. If he does, the army will be forced to choose. He is one of them, not of us.”

Rayna refused to sit, growing increasingly irate since James revealed the details about his encounter at the lake. He and the boys returned in the late hours, and he chose to wait until morning to explain his original message about his brother’s impending threat. When she woke, she ran a daily holoscan of her pregnancy, which showed she would begin delivery in thirty-six standard hours. She used the diagnosis to accuse James of dimming the joy of her great moment.

“Always you must be at the center,” she said. “You may be Father of our people, but I am Mother, and this is my time.” She laid both hands over her belly. “You tell me to stop being warrior and have more babies, so I do. I will not bring daughters into this world while you plot to kill their uncle.”

“I never said anything about killing Valentin.”

“But it is your meaning. I saw many Cossacks betrayed by loving brothers and sisters. One week they dance together. Soon, a grave is dug. The traitor shovels dirt on coffin. He sheds tears with all others. Though family knows he is guilty, they pretend to look other way. Revenge they will have, but they will wait.”

“Until when?”

“After the traitor is satisfied he has escaped justice.”

“And your point?”

“Valentin always has been loyal. What happened to Sister Ursula was not his fault. He followed your orders.”

“And proved himself a poor Admiral.”

“Is this why you promoted Kane? Do you wish him to replace your brother?”

“No, I …”

Rayna’s pistils turned fire-red. “Enough, husband. You are flailing like paranoid lunatic. You have only the word of a crazy man you discovered last night. Do you not see it? This Hadeed was an illusion. They are testing you. What kind of fool thing did he say? He walked this planet four times? What sort of human does this? How did he survive