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

“Who are you?”

“My name is irrelevant. You don’t know me, and my story would take longer than I can safely tell it.”

The man threw back his hood. His withered and pockmarked face was ancient, and a scar stretched from his left ear down his neck. His eyes were uneven, his long hair both silver and tangled.

“You’re not a hybrid or immortal. How did you get in here?”

“I’ve been watching the city from the day it was settled. I know every routine. The streets empty during the evening dine.”

“Why are you here?”

“Now that, Ms. Pynn, is the question most worth my time and yours. Please, have a seat. You look pale.”

Sam expected the old man was right. She reached her bed but felt no less terrified off her feet.

“How do you know my name?”

“They told me. But the question is not important, nor is your next one regarding who they are. The most vital questions always begin with why. In all my journeys, I’ve never reached a satisfactory answer unless I confront the why.”

“Fine. Why are you here?”

“They will not allow me to die until I have made amends for the nightmares I visited on this world.” He reached into his cloak and removed an object inside a tight fist. “It’s a just punishment, but I suppose in a way it’s also a gift. For the longest time, I didn’t believe I deserved the chance. Then they showed me what was possible. Still, I wasn’t convinced. So, they made me walk the planet four times until my mind was clear.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Not necessary. The why only needs to be clear to me. You will see the rest of it in time, in your own way. They told me so.”

Her heart skipped. “They. The Jewels of Eternity?”

“It’s an exotic name. Yes?”

The old man moved toward her, and Sam tensed. He opened his fist to reveal a white cube no larger than a thimble.

“It’s all here. Everything you need to know.”

“About what?”

“Something impossible.”

“I don’t understand.”

The old man laughed as he handed over the cube.

“All paths intersect at the impossible future. It’s what they told me. If you say, ‘I don’t understand’ one more time, I will lose patience.”

She studied the cube, which was feather-soft.

“I get the feeling you aren’t going to explain how I’m supposed to use this.”

“Good instinct. You’ll know the solution soon enough. Now, I should leave. The streets will not be empty for long. I don’t wish to be chased by one of those rifters.”

The madness of the moment gave Sam new energy. She sprung from the bed.

“That’s it? You appear from out of nowhere, and you’re going to leave me like this? At least tell me your name.”

“Hmmph. From my perspective, I leave you in a better place than you were a few moments ago. Listen to me, Ms. Pynn. I don’t know if this will work. The Jewels are not infallible, and they are dealing with a variable not of their making. Then there’s the other one – he must acknowledge the signs as well. This is what they told me. If the paths intersect as predicted, I will see you one more time. It will be the end of my life, mercifully, and the beginning of yours.

“As for my name, you’ll never need to know. History has forgotten it. My death will be overdue but perhaps with more meaning than I deserve. Please, Ms. Pynn. Don’t dwell on me.”

He started toward the exit. Sam sorted through a hundred unanswered questions and asked none of them. He stopped at the threshold and threw on his hood. He looked back at Sam.

“Ah, yes. One other message I was asked to pass along. ‘He is coming. Wait for him.’”

“What? Who?”

He smiled, twisting his weary features.

“You already know the answer.”

He disappeared into the night and Sam fell to her knees.

She didn’t dare say his name.

49

M ICHAEL BUNDLED A LIFETIME’S WORTH of adventure into the past three years, so this new concept of ‘forever’ stretched the limits of his imagination. The notion of ‘neverending life’ scared the hell out of him. And if he faced a sentence of ‘eternity’ without Sam, what value was there in living longer than the greatest human empires? So, as Michael trudged on across Hiebimini’s fertile, youthful terrain, he set aside the idea of immortality and focused on the single goal that propelled him across a vast sector of the galaxy.

To that end, he plotted a potential course toward a population center. The radiation signatures his DR29 discovered before Maya sang, “Happy birthday, you’re the impossible future,” matched Fulcrum radiation. One of Salvation’s ships must have opened a wormhole nearby in recent days. Yes, it might have been a long-range exploratory mission. Yes, the settlement might exist on the far side of the planet. But it was their only lead after the initial ten-kilometer sweep concluded, so Michael, Maya, and Aldo marched onward.

As the sun kissed the western horizon and turned into a dark mango blaze, the group reached seven kilometers into their journey. They passed through many distinct ecosystems – deciduous, cedar, and tropical rainforests plus tall grassland and a miles-wide peat bog. All tracked along the Bengalese River, which widened after the land settled and branched off into a series of streams.

“Whoever – or whatever – did this,” Aldo said, “must have had an endless palette of ecological options. They chose a little of everything.” These ecosystems, he explained, would exist far from each other on a typical planet, at varying altitudes and latitudes. “They either didn’t care how they seeded this world, or they wanted to create the galaxy’s largest botanical garden.”

“It’s beautiful either way,” Maya said. “Does the motive matter?”

“It might. All these systems