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

Their habitat domes for evening studies. Sam caught up to Rosa.

“Same assignments tomorrow?”

“No, Samantha. We’ll be planting. I love the soil here. Don’t you?”

Sam had yet to get her hands dirty. Any answer would have been moot, however, for JaRa’s blissful reality ended ten seconds later.

48

A CHILD’S CRY OF TERROR BROKE THE evening’s peace, though Sam couldn’t decipher its origin. Within seconds, others shouted in horror, and an earthquake of cheers interceded, creating a strange, chaotic crucible. Rosa froze, looking for anyone who knew what was happening, as if Sam might somehow have a clue.

“This is it!” A boy shouted two domes away.

“Check your amp,” another said. “It’s Admiral Valentin.”

Rosa tapped above her temple and threw open a cube, but no broadcast yet.

“I know what’s happening,” the girl said. “He always said when it was time, we’d be alerted by rank and deployment.”

“Time for what?” Sam asked, suspecting the answer.

“War.”

The neighborhood cries dimmed into an eerie calm as Valentin’s image appeared. Sam, whose own amp was removed after her capture, asked Rosa to throw open a window. The girl complied.

“Warriors of Salvation,” he said. “The moment to take your stand against the might of the Chancellory has arrived. The destiny of our city and our world will be in your courageous hands. Soon, the Unification Guard will invade the Aeterna system. We must assume they will arrive with overwhelming numbers and weapon systems they have not previously used in combat. Their goal will be no less than the annihilation of every immortal and Jewel hybrid. They intend to steal our world and use it to further subjugate the colonies of the Collectorate and extend their empire for another three thousand years. But we will shame them.

“You have been trained. You will oppose them with body armor, weapons, and a resolve far exceeding their own. Our defenses will meet them in space and in JaRa. This world is a gift to our people because we represent the future of humanity. We will not be denied. Our seven hundred will defeat their thousands.

“To this end, each of you will soon receive an emergency deployment. Teams responsible for building the secondary defense perimeter will have sixteen hours from this moment to install the final substrata field generators. All rifters in the city will be commandeered for military needs only. By this time tomorrow, all soldiers and hybrids of fighting age will be fully armored and positioned to defend our city.

“Admiral Kane and I will deliver deployment orders over the next few hours. Tonight, you will abandon your traditional studies and focus on the tactical details of the plan Homeland Fortress, which will momentarily arrive on every admin stack.

“It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of difficult news. Today, seventy-three of our bravest warriors attacked two Chancellor bases in an effort to defend our interests. We succeeded in eliminating those facilities. However, because of a savage act of cowardice by Guard forces, fifty-one of our soldiers lost their lives forever. In addition, Ulrich Rahm, one of the original ten hybrids, was lost.

“I know you are heartbroken by this news, as am I. They were our brothers and sisters who were created in Chancellor laboratories then cast away as abominations. They believed in the dream of Aeterna, and they will be memorialized after we win the coming battle. Now is not the time for grief. Now is the time for courage and conviction. Now is the time for precision and perseverance.

“Before I finish, I wish to tell you of another great victory achieved by our warriors. Today, one of the worst criminals among Chancellors – Emil Bouchet, my father – was slaughtered. He died screaming for mercy. We gave him none. We will treat our invaders no differently. I believe in you. Say after me:

“We see the first day and the last day.”

Rosa repeated the line through streaming tears.

“We rise as they fall.”

Nearby voices grew louder in reciting the second line.

“We are The Promised Few.”

Shouts of the final line rolled like thunder.

The immortals stood around in stunned silence when Valentin’s broadcast ended, but only for a few seconds. As ordered, they scattered toward their habitat domes.

“Rosa, I …”

“You need to go, Samantha, and stay inside your dome.”

Sam nodded, her stomach in knots.

“It’s not going to be safe for me, is it?”

“Don’t come out for anyone. Your people killed fifty-one of us. Go, Sam. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

Sam stood alone. The city’s joy disappeared with the setting sun. She heard nothing. The evening breeze seemed to wither with the sudden turn of events.

Calm before the storm? She despised moments like this. They never ended well. There was the night before her first Dacha hunt and kill. Then the nerve-wracking wait when her parents detected the Caryllan pulse at 1:56 a.m., beginning the eight-hour countdown on Jamie Sheridan’s life. Standing on the platform at Hinton Station three years ago as James prepared to leave with his brother and Rayna. On final approach to Vasily Station last year, sitting next to Patricia Wylehan.

She rushed to her dome, her eyes alert to the potential for someone seeking quick vengeance. The path proved clear.

Sam was trembling when she entered the dome, the terror now in full focus and her fate all but sealed. It was an ending without meaning. Tortured in absolute darkness for three months, pushed forward before her own people as a tool for James and his mad powerplays, then given a reprieve in a truly beautiful place with misguided children who were surely doomed.

And no Michael.

“Are you even alive?” Sam said.

She received an answer.

“To the best of my knowledge.”

A shadowy figure emerged from behind her wardrobe, cloaked in gray from head to toe.

Sam backed away, looking for a