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

and died under transparent chemical clouds, the family knew their mission was a failure. Only when they saw the Berserkers high above in the mountains prepare to decimate the city, did the family decide to leave. What use were they to bear witness but die before sharing their story?

In the instant before the tornadic clouds consumed them, the family reached out to the only one who knew their plight and transferred all their grief, fury, and love. The memories of happier times flooded Michael’s conscious mind. Visions of J’Hai children playing, of families bonded for hundreds of years celebrating long-held traditions.

And then, separation. New ambitions fraught with division.

The first brother, the gem of his parents’ eyes, consumed by reckless obsession for unbridled power. The second brother, loyal to his parents and passionately in love, unable to stop the inevitable.

The poison of betrayal flowed cold through Michael’s blood when the first son became the enemy of the J’Hai people. When all others failed, they turned to the second brother for help. If anyone might find goodness within the enemy of the people, it will be you, they said.

He failed. The city lay in ruins.

Michael stood in a green field where poppies were about to bloom, but he was not alone. The nine-foot-tall humanoid who tried to avert the apocalypse stood beside Michael and cried. He extended a long, slender arm toward Michael. He turned up his palm.

J’Hai’Nyon.

He laid a poppy in Michael’s hand and gave permission to speak.

Michael replied: “J’Hai no more.”

Amid these feelings of both the victors and the vanquished, Michael now understood why he heard the creature’s words and was able to translate: The younger brother was dead. This poppy field lay beyond reality. The next place on the journey of the J’Hai.

“Save me,” the second brother asked. “Give me the strength to choose life and joy. Will you save me from my brother, now and forever?”

“Yes,” Michael said after deep contemplation. “I’ll try.”

“Thank you for your courage.”

Is that what it is? Michael wondered. Courage or insanity?

Two hundred meters from the end of the Bengalese River, he was out of options. The plan was always nuts, always facing brutal odds. Yet it wasn’t a coincidence. Their message was loud and clear.

If the Jewels wanted Michael to change the equation and avoid a wholesale slaughter of every living being on this planet, he had no choice: Buy a lottery ticket and hope it held the winning combination. The odds were no worse than dying three times and resurrecting. No worse than stepping through a doorway, crossing four hundred sixty-five light-years, and landing within forty kilometers of the woman he loved.

The river was a torrent. The sheer drop was visible in the early-morning light.

And then it came.

Dead ahead, meters from the waterfall.

A flash like the midday sun followed by thunder.

A Scramjet hovered on Michael’s heading. He pulled back on the steering arms and slowed the rifter. He grabbed a blast rifle and locked it over his forearm.

“There is seriously something wrong with me,” Michael said.

The Scramjet’s bulkhead pixelated. A giant figure in black and bronze body armor, head to toe, stood front and center. He raised his weapon and aimed.

The sunlight reflecting off the Scramjet shifted from fiery orange to milder yellow. Michael couldn’t help it.

He looked east. The sun cleared the horizon.

That’s it. Why didn’t I see it before?

The second brother gave Michael a poppy, but Michael was too focused on the hand. He almost missed the other detail.

The sun was rising behind the dead J’Hai.

Michael saw something wondrous, felt an aura of hope amid the insanity of the past few days. He understood why he fought so hard to be here at this moment.

“Please be the right brother,” he whispered.

Michael lowered his weapon and retracted his helmet.

The rifter hovered thirty feet from the Scramjet. The beast onboard did not move.

“It’s me,” Michael muttered. “I know you remember.”

The other helmet retracted.

Valentin stood slack-jawed. He did not lower his blast rifle.

Michael waited. The silence rivaled his first experience with the J’Hai. The torrent below and the thunderous waterfall provided a soundtrack for the moment.

Michael took a chance. He pressed the steering arms gently forward and summoned the courage of his long-dead J’Hai friend.

“Hi, guy,” he shouted. “So, uh, invite me in?”

58

M ICHAEL TOOK NO RESPONSE TO MEAN ‘WELCOME.’ The resulting standoff inside the Scramjet made awkward seem like a gross understatement. After Valentin stepped aside, still aiming the rifle high, Michael steered the rifter inside the cargo hold and hopped off. He holstered his blast rifle and held his hands high. The bulkhead remained open, giving Valentin the option to shoot Michael and toss the body overboard. Michael didn’t have time for such nonsense, so he made the first move.

“Sorry about what happened back there at the graviton weapon,” he said. “I blew their brains out to get your attention. They’ll be right as rain before long. Yes?”

Valentin said nothing but moved a step closer.

“Someday we’ll sit around and have a good laugh about it. Right?” Without a response, he continued: “You’re pissed. I totally get it. I’d say you ought to shoot me in the head just for the hell of it, but that would cost us about ten minutes. At least, I think that’s my recovery time. If you let me explain …”

“You look nothing like the scrawny boy I met on Earth.”

Michael’s heart did a somersault. “Not the first thing I expected you to say, but it’s better than a flash peg between the eyes. So, that was three years ago, and you knew me for like five minutes, give or take. Quick update then. I was an assassin for the Solomon movement, worked out, got buff, did