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

with occasional barking of orders and passing rifters. Once, she peeked out the front door. Children raced past in black and bronze body armor, weapons holstered. Inside, Sam fought against the delusion of a miracle. “He will come. Wait for him,” the stranger said.

Saying Michael’s name out loud crippled her spirit. He wasn’t coming; no insane fantasizing could make it true. The old saying about “moving Heaven and Earth” would have been an understatement for the journey he faced. She prayed he didn’t get himself killed trying to find her. And if he did, Sam never wanted to know. The pain would be more than she could bear.

By the early-morning hours, after many attempts to sleep, Sam realized her options dwindled to nothing. She was hiding from immortals wrapped in war fever, prepared to kill invading Chancellors. If she showed her face, she’d likely become a target for their rage. How soon before James or Rayna decided to be rid of her?

She grabbed the cube and pressed it for the hundredth time. It flexed when she squeezed it between her fingers. It contained no mechanical part, was odorless, and regained its form lying in her palm. She surrendered at last to instinct and placed the cube on her tongue. She closed her lips and her eyes.

The cube dissolved. No taste. No warmth. No chill. No reaction at all. What was supposed to happen?

In a blink, Sam left Aeterna.

This new world was spectacular but silent. She stood in the center of a wide avenue looking up at gleaming cylinders and towers. These magnificent structures, taller than anything still standing on either Earth, reflected the light of a white-hot sun and the beautiful glass features of their neighbors.

The wonder of this place lasted only until a palpable tension roiled her belly. Yet the fear wasn’t her own. She looked around and saw the residents of the city, much taller humanoids who observed her with suspicion. They clustered in small groups, lowering their oblong heads to avoid direct eye contact.

No, she thought. It’s not me they fear.

A shadow fell between Sam and the sun. She swung about and looked into the baleful eyes of a bald-headed man, easily nine feet tall. His arms, way too short for his thorax, motioned Sam to follow.

She had no choice. He was terrified, and he needed her.

The other citizens sidled away to give these two a wide berth as they entered the atrium of a skyscraper. Inside, the details blurred. Sam focused more on her guide, a man who dreaded his fate and wanted someone at his side before his life ended.

Sam heard no words, but within minutes she understood everything about this creature. He was appointed to the task because no one else would step forward. Time was running out; the people had all but given up hope of a miracle.

She never saw them enter a lift or scale the great structure, but within seconds, she stood next to the creature on the highest floor. A wall of windows provided a panoramic view of a mountainscape.

The great room filled with soft blue light. There was love here, but also rage. The creature touched her mind with a single word.

J’Hai.

Not his name. Their name.

Their people.

Another creature entered, and Sam was instantly terrified. It was more than her guide’s fear. Something told her she was about to look into the face of death.

The new presence was also J’Hai but taller, broader, more confident. The creature approached wearing a smile and the aura of a yellow halo around his body.

Both J’Hai reached out to each other with open arms, the larger bearing a ferocious smile which translated into betrayal and slaughter. Nonetheless, they hugged.

Their lips didn’t move, yet they spoke.

One begged. One demanded.

One spoke of hope. One spoke of conquest.

One apologized. One laughed.

One offered a trade. One demanded sacrifice.

One spoke of their mother. One spoke of their father.

Sam understood everything and reached out to her guide, pleading with him to surrender before it was too late. But he didn’t hear – or perhaps he never did. The other, more terrifying figure seemed unaware of her presence.

The encounter turned in a flash. A wall of light mutated into clouds of flame. The poor creature who met her on the wide avenue whirled end-over-end on the flames and disappeared through shattered glass.

For a flicker, Sam thought the beast that remained touched her mind. But as quickly, she reappeared elsewhere.

The wide avenue was as crowded as before, but now the bodies of these humanoids lay crumpled and rotting in the sun. A tiny craft landed at the end of this avenue. A family of these creatures emerged, their grief bringing Sam to her knees.

Their tears became her tears. They reached out for her until seconds later, when their attention pivoted to the mountains. Sam saw more of the enemy cloaked in a familiar yellow aura.

The monsters unleashed tornadic storms upon the city. The family retreated to its craft but was unable to take off. Sam saw their horrified, resigned faces. They spoke to her.

J’Hai’Nyon.

J’Hai’Kyn’So.

J’Hai’Cacc.

J’Hai’Z’Luc.

She listened and offered the only reply that made sense.

“I’ll try,” she told them.

The radiation storm splintered her genes to every corner of the world, lost to memory.

And then, someone handed Sam a poppy in bloom ...

She awoke on the floor of her habitat dome.

Sam sat up and uttered the first words she remembered.

“J’Hai no more. J’Hai pursue. J’Hai reborn. J’Hai avenge.”

A million years of loneliness grabbed Sam’s heart and told her a story of decay, arrogance, acceptance, resistance, and treachery. The images, the emotions, and the senses overwhelmed her, as if the greatest encyclopedia in the universe were dumped into her mind at once. Her head throbbed, she vomited, and then she