“So we’ll teach them.”
“And if we fail?”
“Then I’m sure Etherus will have a plan to rehabilitate them, too.”
“Another Netherworld,” Bretton suggested.
“Maybe.”
Bretton sighed. “Sounds risky to me.”
“I think that’s the point,” Farah added as they reached the nearest quantum junction. She raised her arms and the junction hovered up. “Life’s an adventure. It’s what we wanted. The uncertainty is half the fun.”
“True,” Bretton said, nodding as they stepped into the glowing green circle in the center of the junction.
“So what do you say?” Farah asked.
Bretton turned to regard her with a wry grin. “I say, let the adventure begin.”
* * *
Ethan hovered the
Trinity
down for a landing beside his new home. It was a mansion, much bigger than the 40-meter-long corvette that he was landing beside it. Omnius had spared no expense building his new world.
At twenty kilometers thick, there was more than enough room for five kilometers of air and artificial sky for the biosphere. The landscape looked so natural and real that it was easy to forget where they really were.
Forests, lakes, rivers, mountains, and fields all ran boundlessly around the Icosahedron. When docked, individual Facets opened up to share their air and living space. Each of the twenty flat, triangular faces of the Icosahedron were self-contained with their own unique climate, wildlife, vegetation, culture, living accommodations, and inhabitants—be they humans or Gors.
Ethan was still trying to get used to the idea of living beside a creche full of Gors, but that’s what he got for picking the relatively cold and mountainous side of the Icosahedron. This face of the New Earth was the one that most reminded him of his old home in the Imperium, back on Roka IV.
A subtle jolt came through the deck as the
Trinity
touched down, and then his daughter bounced up from the copilot’s seat and said, “When can we go again?”
Trinity’s violet eyes were wide and full of wonder from their most recent flight over the New Earth. For her, everything that had happened was not as close and personal as it was for him and Alara. Trinity had been born without any prior existence to weigh her down. She hadn’t taken part in the Great War that he and Alara had fought on the wrong side of all those years ago.
“We’ll go again after dinner,” Ethan said as he rose from the pilot’s chair. “Maybe your mother can join us this time.”
“Yay!” Trinity squealed.
But after dinner everyone was too tired to go touring. They took fermented tea and a hot chocolate for Trinity up to the rooftop to watch an artificial sunset. They lay on a reclining couch, bundled up under thermal blankets, watching stars prick through a deep indigo sky as the sun sank below the distant, craggy line of the Crystal Mountains.
Trinity recounted the day’s adventures for her mother’s benefit, but soon her bubbling conversation lapsed into rhythmic breathing, and Ethan had to take her cup away before she spilled hot chocolate all over herself. He looked on with a smile as she nodded off.
Three days ago they’d welcomed Trinity into this new world. They had a month’s head start on her, but it was still just as fun seeing everything for the first time through their daughter’s eyes. They went out with her every day, discovering new things, exploring new places, and meeting people they’d once known who now lived close by—Alara’s parents, Ethan’s mother… Magnum.
Meeting the former lieutenant of the Rictans had been tense, but Magnum had chosen to take the high road.
“Water under the bridge,” he’d said. “You did what you had to do to save your family. I would’ve done the same. No guts, no glory, remember?”
Ethan smiled at the memory. He was glad that Magnum wasn’t holding any grudges, particularly now that they were neighbors.
Alara laid her head on Ethan’s shoulder and sighed. “This is a dream.”
“No, the dream is what we woke up from. I’m pretty sure this is real.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Ethan smiled. “I know. I was just being a wise ass.”
“Always were.”
Ethan snorted and shook his head. “There’s still something I don’t get. If Etherus created us, did he create everything else, too?”
“I’m not sure, but something tells me we’re not going to get all of the answers unless we go to Etheria, and we’ve already been there. We didn’t like it.”
“Well, we’re going to visit. Maybe I’ll ask a few Immortals while we’re there.”
“What makes you think they’ll tell you? Besides, we used to live in Etheria. Having all the answers wasn’t good enough for us then, and it won’t be good enough for us now.”
Ethan nodded, pursing his lips. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I am. I’m always right.”
Ethan shot her a skeptical look. “Really?”
“I was right about marrying you, wasn’t I?”
“Good answer.”
“We were meant to be together.”
“You’re talking about destiny. What about people who had other partners as Immortals? What if those were the people they should be with, rather than the ones they’re with now? How’s that fit in with destiny?”
Alara withdrew from him. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
“I’m just trying to figure things out. I don’t think we have a destiny. Not anymore. I’m with you because of free will and circumstance.”
“Sounds romantic,” Alara said.
Ethan grinned. “And love. Did I mention that?” he asked, leaning in for a kiss.
Alara leaned away. “No, you didn’t.”
“Well, I was thinking it,” he said, and used the arm around her shoulders to pull her in for the kiss she was desperately trying to evade.
“That’s better,” she said as they withdrew.
Ethan took a sip of his fermented tea. “What do you remember from Etheria?”
“Not much, why?”
“It makes me wonder if things were actually better there. What if staying here, as humans, isn’t what we wanted? What if we didn’t walk into those stasis tubes willingly and this is actually some kind of punishment for failing Etherus’s test? Maybe the reason we don’t remember everything anymore is just a way to keep us from figuring things out.”
“Did you have those concerns when your soul woke up and suddenly you remembered everything?”
“No.”
“Then don’t worry about it. You’re still thinking like we’re living under Omnius’s thumb. We’re not. Etherus is everything Omnius pretended to be and more. We don’t have to look over our shoulders anymore, Ethan. If you want to remember your life in Etheria you just have to concentrate and it’ll come back to you. Etherus gave us new implants for a reason—to keep our old memories. They’re not irrelevant, but they belong to the old us, and we’re the new. Now we’re mature enough to cope with freedom because we’ve learned how terrible it can be.”
Ethan frowned. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s hard to stop doubting things when you have a lifetime of practice. It’s a defense mechanism, I guess.”
Alara rubbed his knee. “I know, but it’s okay. We’re safe. You can relax.”
Ethan sighed again and took another sip of his tea. “Yeah, I guess we are. What do you think Atton is doing right now?”
“The same thing as us—” Alara replied, smiling. “—wondering where we go from here.”
“Onwards and upwards,” Ethan suggested, looking up at the sky as the last blotch of color faded with the sun. As the sky finally disrobed, a multitude of stars came out in a glittering field that took Ethan’s breath away. Unlike the sky and the sun, which were artificial, those stars were real and recorded from visual feeds on the outside of the Icosahedron. Ethan’s eyes skipped between those brilliant points of light, wondering what else was out there that they didn’t know about.
“What’s the first thing you’re going to do when we get to Etheria?” Alara asked.
Ethan smiled wistfully as his gaze found a particularly bright point of light, one that he’d been told was actually the Immortals’ galaxy—Etheria.
“I’m going to find my son,” he decided. It was bittersweet to think of Atton being so far away, but the distance didn’t seem so vast when he considered they had quantum jump drives that could travel from one side of the universe to another in the blink of an eye.
“Ethan…”
“Yeah?”
“I have something to tell you.”
He turned from stargazing to look at her. “What is it?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Ethan blinked; then his eyes flew wide and he shook his head. “How… I mean… we’ve only been together again for a month!”
“And before that, we were together for years.”
“But you died!”
“I know.”
Ethan gaped at her. He remembered losing his wife, and now he realized that in that moment he’d lost his wife and their unborn baby.
“Omnius cloned me with the fetus,” Alara explained.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“Because we were barely getting by as it was, and I was looking for the right moment. Then it was time for Trinity’s Choosing Ceremony, and I thought if we went to Etheria—the one on Avilon—maybe it wouldn’t be such a problem anymore. I kept trying to convince you to go, but it didn’t work.”
Ethan pulled Alara into a hug. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered beside her ear.
“It’s okay. You didn’t know.”
Trinity stirred on the other side of him. “Mom?” she asked, sounding confused.
“I’m right here, darling,” Alara said, leaning around Ethan to speak to her. “You’re going to have a little brother!” she exclaimed.
“I am?”
“It’s a boy?” Ethan burst out. “Wait—Trinity doesn’t know yet?”
“I didn’t think it would be right to tell her without telling you first. And after you… well, after I thought you cheated on me, I was too distracted. I think telling her without you around would have meant admitting to myself that we were over.”
Ethan stroked Alara’s cheek. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that.” Then something occurred to him. “Wait a minute—we’ve been here for a month already! You could have told me weeks ago.”
“We’ve both been so busy, and I wanted to wait until I could tell you and Trinity together. Can you forgive me?” Alara whispered, pressing her forehead to his. Her lips were tantalizing close.
“Hmmm…”
“What’s his name?” Trinity asked, interrupting them before they could kiss again.
“We don’t have a name yet, sweetheart,” Alara replied.
“What about… Lucien,” Ethan suggested.
“Why Lucien?” Alara asked.
“Because it means
light,
and I think we’ve all had enough of the darkness. We spent years hiding from the Sythians in Dark Space, and then years hiding from Omnius in the Null Zone, but this life and this world are going to be different. They’re going to be full of light, and Lucien will be one of the first to be born into it. That’s his birthright—an unending kingdom of light.”
Alara nodded. “Lucien it is.”
“Now I have two sons that I’m waiting to see,” he said, patting Alara’s stomach. He couldn’t feel her showing yet, so at least he knew she hadn’t waited too long to tell him. “I’ll see you soon, Lucien,” he said.
Looking back up to the stars, he found that bright point of light once more and nodded to it.
See you soon, Atton.
WHAT’S NEXT
EXCELSIOR
Coming December 2015!
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Excelsior
for
FREE
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EXCELSIOR SYNOPSIS
The year is 2790 AD, and this is the Second Cold War. The lines are drawn, with the communist Confederacy in the East, and the free citizens of the First World Alliance in the West. With space elevators and giant orbital fleets hovering over Earth, open war looks inevitable, and people are anxious to get away.
In hopes of finding a refuge from the looming war, the Alliance is sending Captain Alexander de Leon to explore an Earth-type planet, code-named
Wonderland,
but at the last minute before launch, a Confederate fleet leaves orbit on a trajectory that threatens both the mission and Alliance sovereignty. The resulting power struggle will determine not only the fate of Alexander’s mission, but the fate of the entire human race.
FOREWORD
My name is Captain Alexander. I live in a world where people are genetically-engineered to perfection, never to age and never to die—all for the right price. We call them Geners. They call us
de-gener-ates
. They live in the Northern States, while the underprivileged degenerates or
natural-borns
are relegated to the South. Geners and degeners don’t mix on any level of society. That might sound like discrimination, and it is, but it’s legal, and it’s actually enforced by the government. Degeners are overly aggressive, we have impulse-control problems, mental problems, and a host of other issues. We also score low on empathy and collective interest tests, which makes us bad citizens. But worst of all, we eventually
die
of old age. The only way to jump state lines from a degener state to a gener one is to take the retroactive therapies and implants to become like them. Problem is, that’s a hell of an expensive way to go, and who has that kind of cash?
Thankfully, there’s a war on; it’s a
cold
war, but people still die, and Geners don’t like risking their immortal necks
para
nada
. Before you ask, we all speak English, but I grew up in the
barrio
, met my wife there, and got married there. I probably would have died there, too, but then I started contemplating eternity. The Alliance has this deal. They need pilots and crew to go up the space elevator and guard their half of the planet from orbit. In exchange, the Alliance promised to make us Geners. One four year term of service to buy one set of treatments and a passport to the heavenly North. I took two terms, one for myself and one for my wife. It seemed like a fair trade at the time.