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

“From this distance, I can’t scan through the walls. Metallurgical shows brontinium. Pure and unrefined.”

“That can’t be right, Colonel. These buildings are manufactured. You’re saying this is brontinium in its raw state?”

“I’ve never known metallurgical to be wrong.”

“Thoughts, Lieutenant?”

To Nilsson’s right, Lt. Zephyrus Manning retracted his helmet and threw open a holocube. His hands moved like works of art until he found the required database.

“I’ve been studying the classified archives since they dropped us off at NP-44. What we’re seeing can’t possibly exist. The event of SY 5320 rendered every brontinium vein on Hiebimini inert. It made extract retrieval impossible and rendered the ore unstable for industrial manufacture. These reports demonstrate any attempt to cut and shape the ore ended with disaster. It would hold together for a few days then shatter. Sir, if this is pure brontinium, then something has changed on this planet, and we’re the first to know.”

“Except this lot.” Nilsson expected a series of tents and modular buildings thrown together as a makeshift community. He remembered those eight towers Poussard called a “secret weapon.” He didn’t say it aloud, but the others had to agree: They were looking at something far beyond human understanding.

“If these are made of pure brontinium from active veins,” Nilsson said, “aerial bombardment will have limited success.”

“Indeed,” Col. Marlowe said. “Brontinium was the hardest known substance in the Collectorate. Slews will have little effect. Do we contact the Admiral?”

“No. We follow orders. Silent protocol. We don’t know the enemy’s capabilities. If we’re detected, we put the fleet at risk.”

“Then how do we proceed?”

“We knew this was going to be difficult in broad daylight. It couldn’t be helped. Poussard wouldn’t risk a thirteen-hour delay to achieve nightfall. If the enemy discovers Praxis before the invasion, we’re in trouble. So, we improve the odds any way we can.”

To Marlowe. “Surveille the eastern third.” To Manning: “Turn your focus to the western gradient. I’ll take the central region. Close off your DR29 to all diagnostics other than the Jewel composite energy signature. We can’t see through the walls, but we can find them if they’re outside. And remember, only the smallest. If we can’t carry them out in a sack, they’re too big. And they’re no good us to dead.”

Nilsson was an old hand at snatch-and-grab, but this setup had disaster stamped all over it. Plus, he never went after babies before.

*

Maya Fontaine hated men who thought they needed to protect her. In this case, she gave Michael a pass for sending her far away from danger. However, she had no intention of obeying his wishes to wait this conflict out. Soon after she left Michael’s carnage, Maya reprogrammed the rifter’s guidance web and changed course.

In time, she reached the edge of an escarpment and beheld the wonder of a fully formed city amid bountiful gardens, fields, and forests. She arrived at the northwest corridor high enough to see beyond the city to a distant waterfall and river. Far across the landscape, beyond acacia forests, a lake shimmered under the rising sun. To the distant south, a dark finger rose above the horizon. Another rose due west. She did not try to find the other six towers.

The city teemed. Figures in black, like those left behind at the graviton weapon, moved about in groups, some marching beyond the city’s immediate perimeter. Others zipped about on rifters. Drones hovered above several clusters of quadrilateral-shaped buildings, flashing lights at rooftops as if delivering encoded transmissions. Maya understood: They were preparing for war.

She rode the rifter a good distance west until the scarp merged with the terrain below and started back for the city on foot. Maya had no idea how to respond if discovered. For now, subterfuge seemed like a reasonable strategy. She used nature’s many accomplices to avoid detection over the next forty minutes, until she hid inside thick foliage on the northern slope above the city.

“Well, Michael, what’s your plan?” She whispered. “You might do me the courtesy of amping.” She did not hear a peep since separating. “You’re not dead. I can rule that out. At least tell me where you are.”

She appreciated the old days, when Michael allowed her to drive the conversation. He appreciated her ability to reset his vision on what mattered most. To see the larger picture. To find a calming center amid turmoil. But now?

“Tell a man he’s immortal, and suddenly he has all the answers. I hope you know what you’re doing, Michael.”

The morning light was limited, so Maya stayed clear of the city until she might better map out her options. Then again, if an invasion was imminent – and Michael believed it so – steering clear might be wise.

She decided to find a comfortable perch which afforded a great view of the city without risk of being spotted. Maya started down a considerable slope and spotted a suitable rocky outcropping. In the same instant, her heart froze.

Voices. Low, indistinguishable.

She needed a moment to track their location. Had the soldiers in black and bronze below been closing in all along?

That’s when she saw them. Slightly east, twenty meters farther down the hillside.

She slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the oncoming gasp.

The body armor gave them away. Unification Guard.

Cud! They’re here. Already?

Her mind raced through the possibilities. Calm, critical thinking slipped from her grasp, replaced by fears of the worst nightmare coming true. If the Guard could jump these three in so close, what prevented them dropping an entire army inside the city?

Her options disappeared. The last time she saw Michael, he spoke of a plan that was “a little nuts.” Whatever the result, he had to be warned. Maya tapped her amp and opened a cube. She dared not speak, not even a whisper.

The soldier in the center retracted his helmet.