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

are young, but I don’t know how many will survive. Nature is remarkably adaptable, but climate is cruel and endlessly demanding on the most pristine of worlds.”

“Aldo, I think you missed your calling. You’re putting those exobiology studies to good use.”

He returned a distant gaze. “I’m less concerned about the biology than the competence of the designers. What does this haphazard approach to terraforming say about the Jewels of Eternity? These creatures – if I may – seem to possess an intelligence damn near omnipotent. They set Hiebimini’s atmosphere on fire, killed no one on the surface, and remade this planet in less than half a century.”

“Hey,” Michael said, his eyes focused on the DR29’s data package. “Sounds like another version of Genesis. What you just said? Make it the first chapter of a holy book, and I guarantee people will eat that shit up.”

Aldo groaned. “Perhaps you’re on to something, Michael. We wiped out holy books three thousand years ago. But I studied enough pre-history to know those books each began with a creation myth. It’s the one gap in history the Chancellory has never been able to fill: how humanity came into being.”

“You ain’t suggesting these Jewels were behind it all? And now they’re creating a second Eden? Shit. I think that was the plot of a bad TV show I saw once. Stories like that never end well. Too many weird rules. People rebel. Planet blows up. End of episode.”

Michael was talking out of the side of his brain, half aware of the conversation as he scouted kilometers forward. Ecosystems changed rapidly, and the land rose steadily toward high plains. A small line of storms raced southeast, dumping heavy rain with high winds. The wormhole radiation reappeared in scattered doses, following the river’s track. Still, no evidence of human life.

Michael turned to Maya. “You spent time with one of the Jewels. It lay any of this hand-of-God jazz on you?”

“If you mean, did it talk to me about Hiebimini? No. As I said before, it showed me the past, never the future. And it spent time with me. Just to be clear.”

“It had to see, right? If they did everything for this algorithm of life, then they knew we’d end up here. The terraforming wasn’t random. They remade Hiebimini and lured us here for a reason. Spin it how you want, but it sounds like Hand-of-God, Inc.”

They reached the edge of a cedar tree line that opened onto a wide prairie with wheat-high grasses, which slow-danced in a swirling breeze. The sun raged like a fiery dome as it sank into the horizon.

“The Jewel always treated me like a friend,” Maya said. “It offered advice, showed me secrets, but I never felt manipulated. Never like a piece on a galactic chessboard.”

“God’s plan. That’s what we called it where I grew up. A lot of folks believed everything that happened was part of God’s plan. Sometimes I’d ask a friend, ‘OK, so what’s God’s plan for you?’ They never knew. Always said something like, ‘He works in mysterious ways, but I know He has a plan for me.’” Michael pivoted to Maya. “Sounds like the Jewels work in mysterious ways, too.”

“I see. Did God speak to you?”

“Me? Shit, no. But weren’t hard to find folks who claimed to talk to Him every day. At church, women raised their hands to the sky and swore they could feel the power of the Lord.”

“Ah. Your God was incorporeal?”

“No. He was an old white dude with a beard. His son was a young white dude with a beard.”

Maya and Aldo stopped and stared. Michael threw up his hands.

“What? That stuff was passed down for a couple thousand years. A lot of it sounded cool. Some of it, not so much, but that ain’t my point. Whether God was real or not, people bought it and set their lives around Him. They prayed to Him, and they thought He listened and offered advice. You know, like a friend. Mysterious ways.”

Aldo shook his head. “Michael, I think you have validated the Chancellory’s extermination of religion. Humans are at their best when they do not rely on the Divine to chart their path.”

Michael laughed. “Yeah, because that’s made the Chancellors into a winning team. Right? Maybe you folks could use a little old-time religion in your cereal. If I …”

He blinked twice and rubbed his eyes, just to make sure. At first, he thought it was a trick of light and shadow. Michael hid his face behind the DR29 and focused its convex gradient on the setting sun. In particular, he wanted to know more about a narrow, vertical structure that seemed to cut the sun in half.

“What’s wrong?” Maya asked.

“The sun. Look. See what’s in front of it?”

“I don’t see any … oh. Yes. What is that?”

Aldo looked away, rubbed his eyes, and tried again.

“My depth perception is dreadful, I’m afraid. Is that some sort of building? What are you learning, Michael?”

The DR29 analyzed the structure for height, distance, and composition. Michael realized why it never showed on the ten-kilometer sweep.

“Damn,” he whispered as the data package made its projections. “It’s seventy-one kilometers away, two thousand meters tall, and a little under fifty meters wide.”

“Its composition?” Aldo asked.

“Nothing showing up on the metallurgical analysis, but we’re too far away. Why didn’t we see this before?”

“Flat land, clear horizon. No mystery. I can tell you this much: It’s new. The tallest terrestrial structure on old Hiebimini was the Ashkinar Continental Enclave in Messalina. Five hundred feet.”

“What the hell is it?”

“If I had to guess? Answers.”

“What do you mean?” Maya asked.

“Terraforming as we know it requires more than seeding the surface. You need control mechanisms to adjust the atmosphere and manipulate the climate. Maybe that’s how the Jewels are doing