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

Michael was glad they were headed in a different direction.

“The last time I saw a tower that size, a few days later the bastard fell out of the sky.”

“What if it’s an energy source, Michael? The terrorists might have settled nearby. Perhaps we should alter course. Yes?”

“No. I show wormhole signatures at multiple locations on southward trajectory, all inside the river basin. There’s nothing out there when I sweep west. At least not for ten K. We agreed. Follow the leads.”

Aldo’s uncomfortable grin predicted his response.

“And this,” he pointed west, “is a remarkable lead.”

Michael felt a stubborn streak coming on.

“No. That’s not the way to Sam.”

“You’re certain?”

“No, Aldo, I’m not certain. I walked across the universe like God himself and jumped in here four hours ago. I don’t know Hiebimini, and neither do you. At least not anymore. I’m here to find Sam. That’s it. The Enterprise didn’t send us here on a damn science mission.”

Maya reached out to him. “Calm, Michael.”

“Sorry, but I’m the guy with the blast rifles. I’m gonna find Sam, I’m gonna kill James and all the fuckers who worship the son of a bitch, then I’m gonna get my girl off this planet before your people,” he pointed to Aldo, “land an invasion force. I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but don’t try to pull rank. Just so we’re clear …”

“Michael, sweetie, you’re …”

Aldo intervened. “No. It’s all right. Michael, we left our ranks behind. This is your mission. Given everything I’ve seen and heard, you are meant to be here. Me? I’m an interloper who grabbed your fortunate coattails. Your instincts will guide us.”

Michael felt a few pounds lighter. “Thank you.”

“But I must make this one point. That tower has a purpose we don’t understand. Possibly it’s benign. Possibly not. Either way, it was created by these Jewels, and we do not know their goal for us or Hiebimini. Keep one eye open for James Bouchet’s group, but the other needs to be alert for the Jewels.”

Minutes later, the sun disappeared, and the tower vanished after nightfall. Following an hour’s walk, they neared the opposite end of the grasslands. Maya suggested they rest. She opened her bag, which contained mobile kiosk rations. She and Aldo found a clearing and took a seat, a glow pod between them. Michael tossed his ration into a pouch on his body armor.

He couldn’t sit. He wanted to plow forward. Before long, someone would suggest they try to get a few hours’ sleep and recharge. Though Michael’s patience stretched for months on Tamarind, each hour on Hiebimini seemed dangerously long. Aldo insisted Michael’s instinct would guide them.

Fine. My instinct says I’m out of time. We may be immortal, but that ain’t a guarantee. If I don’t find Sam by tomorrow, I never will.

This realization, which had no basis in logic but he knew to be true, struck Michael like a thunderbolt. A lighted tunnel opened his mind to a variety of other insights competing for his attention. They arrived with furious abandon, but they didn’t speak.

Hiebimini shifted under his feet, and he was cast in a glow. Michael swung about and looked toward the night sky, but all the stars were hidden behind a monstrous black wall. The light source intensified, sharpening into a blue laser originating thousands of feet above the surface and filling his eyes with a blinding sear.

50

H E WAS NOT ON HIEBIMINI. Michael looked out upon the city from a viewing platform. The city’s towers reflected the rays of a white-hot sun. They shimmered in glass columns and cylinders that stretched for miles through a deep canyon beneath an olive sky. On either side, snow-capped mountains rose in steep ridges, the tree line dwarfing the city’s tallest structures. A tiny craft descended inside a translucent bubble and landed at the largest avenue entering the city.

The sights mesmerized Michael, but the sounds …

There were none. He stuck a finger in each ear, rubbed it about. Still nothing. Was this real? A memory?

A sudden wash of sorrow brought tears to his eyes, but it wasn’t Michael’s pain. As he watched three humanoid figures exit the tiny craft, he sensed them losing heart. He felt their grief.

Something approached from behind. Michael detected vibrations. He turned. A lump in his throat descended into his stomach.

Three boulders smashed everything in their path, unstoppable as they approached his position. He couldn’t run; the platform caged him in. He screamed for help, but the volume remained on mute.

The stones tore the platform off its moorings and lifted Michael bodily into the air. But he didn’t fall beneath their fury. Rather, they carried him down the mountainside and rested him not far from the tiny craft. They dissolved into dust.

The craft resembled nothing he ever saw. Its outer shell pulsated like a human heart. Blood vessels coursed through a sinewy texture.

The grief intensified. It paralyzed all other thoughts. Their hopelessness crushed Michael’s spirit. It was as if he stood over the open coffins of everyone he loved. He wiped away his tears and tried without success to contain his sobs.

Slowly, begrudgingly, he walked past the craft and saw its occupants up close. They were string-bean thin but nine feet tall. They appeared to sway in the breeze. Two legs, two arms, but proportionately small. These people were mostly thorax. Their bald heads were oblong, but the features recognizable – eyes, nose, ears, chin, jawline. Their skin was pallid. And when they saw what awaited them in the city, they fell to their knees.

That’s when the others appeared. When Michael understood.

He saw thousands more long, thin humanoids. Many sat on their knees. Others dangled outside windows as far up as he could see.

None were clothed.

A sudden swift breeze greeted him with the odor of rotting