Hammer and Crucible by Cameron Cooper (book recommendations for teens .TXT) 📕

before you died, and inserted into the same type of implants that Noam had.”

“Implants that give the array access to my mind.”

“Implants that gave the array and you access to your body. You were dead, Danny. The only part of you still alive was in the implants.”

Juliyana scrubbed at her face. “Fuck…” she breathed.

Ramaker didn’t even blink at that.

“Then you threw me under the same tractor as Noam, and tossed me out of the Rangers,” I finished.

“That was the array’s criteria, not ours,” Ramaker said, his tone short. Irritated. “It wanted you to live a quiet life. As the intelligence mission you had completed was completely off the books—no one was aware of the assignment, as the array had made it up—it was easy to encourage the Rangers to put pressure on you to resign and slink away. Which you did, to live a very quiet and peaceful life for forty years.” Ramaker grimaced. “The array loved it. And for four decades, we have been at an equilibrium with it.” Then his mouth turned down even further. “Then it apparently decided that it had had enough of the quiet life.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “You know why it stirred things up, Ramy.”

Ramy?

The Emperor looked disgusted.

Elizabeth turned back to me. “You were growing older. Dying, in fact, because of the implants. I am almost certain that the array did everything it has done to push you off your family’s barge and into a position where you were forced to undergo rejuvenation.”

I leaned on the desk and pressed my hand to my temple. Was it even really my temple? “So I would live longer and it could have its life go on.”

“It knew from your thoughts and from Noam’s memories that if it dangled the hope that Noam had died for noble reasons, and not the monster he had apparently become, then you would chase that hope down with all your energy and relentlessness. Only, that is where the array miscalculated.” Elizabeth smiled. “Over the years, the personality in the implant transferred itself to the physical brain in the body you had been using. You were alive by all normal definitions. That is why the rejuvenation on New Phoenicia went smoothly and the new implants were accepted by your body without issue.”

I rubbed my temple again. Mine, after all.

“All the array wanted, I suspect, is for you to have the rejuvenation. It arranged for the funds to pay for it and placed you in the best facility for the therapy. Then you very inconveniently continued chasing after the clues it had placed in front of you. You kept looking for the truth about Noam. We think it has been doing its best to make sure you survive the complications you’ve created in your search. It found a ship for you because even the freighter lines were too risky. It pushed Dalton at you, so you would stop looking for him. But you persisted.”

“That’s me,” I said, with a sigh. “Fucking stubborn.”

Juliyana gave a weak smile.

“Time,” Ramaker said, his tone abrupt. He pointed to the screen still showing the Eugorian Gate.

I turned to study it. We all did.

The timer ticked all the way down to zero while we stared at the starfield visible through the gate.

The time showed 0.02 when the gate shimmered.

The Lythion hung visible, the reflecting barrier switched off. Dalton had surrendered and taken the Emperor’s free pass.

It hurt more than I thought it should. I watched four of the approaching ships move forward. One of them was a corvette, which had coupling ramps and chutes. They would board the Lythion and deal with Dalton. Give him his free pass.

I wished him well.

I realized I was sitting in the Emperor’s chair, bent over while I watched the screen. I was too tired to stand up, or even straighten up. “Why are you telling me all this?” I asked. “If it is true, then why isn’t the array screaming at me in my head that you’re all lying, and it only wants the Emperor to let it live?”

Elizabeth put her hands together, a prim gesture. “It cannot talk to you directly. It never has. Your personality was too strong. It has probably spent years trying to reach you directly the way it did Noam, so that it could control the life it was living.”

“So I got nightmares instead. And seizures,” I added bitterly.

“They were the old implants malfunctioning,” Elizabeth said firmly.

“Then why am I still having seizures and talking to the array?” I demanded.

She froze. “That…isn’t possible.”

Ramaker gave a soft, surprised sound. Finally, I’d shaken him. It was a nice feeling, but not nearly enough to compensate for the chaos raging in my chest and gut.

“I saw her do it,” Juliyana said. “I mean, I saw Noam. The array.”

Ramaker glanced at her. “Actually saw him?”

“An avatar,” I ground out. “A facility provided by the Lythion’s advanced weirdness.” I looked at Ramaker.

He didn’t smile. He didn’t acknowledge the prod at all. “What implants did they give her?” he demanded of Elizabeth.

“Just the normal type,” she said quickly. Then she paused. “The new generation are one hundred percent biomass, though. Perhaps there is a flaw in the design, and with the array trying to reach her, they generate seizures, just like the old ones.”

“Wonderful,” I said dryly. “But that’s beside the point. Why isn’t it trying to yammer at me now, and drop me to the ground?”

“Because it wants to hear us tell you this,” Ramaker said patiently. “The array has manipulated you all along. It wanted you to confront me. We counted on it.”

“Why?” I demanded.

Ramaker spread his hands, a regal gesture. “So that you would be angry enough to kill me.”

It took me a moment to choose between wanting to laugh out loud, or swear, or thump the desk. I just shook my head and gave a soft chuffing sound that was a pathetic mixture of everything I felt. “Then it doesn’t know me very well at all, if it thinks that me