The

  Genesis

  Defense

  Book 5: Beyond the Impossible

  Frank Kennedy

  Dedicated to all those who wish they had more time.

  c. 2022 by Frank Kennedy

  All rights reserved

  ASIN: B09XBMHNN9

  To my amazing readers:

  Welcome to the fifth book in this series. If you haven’t read the previous four, I’d recommend you READ THEM HERE first.

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  Exogenesis

  Aeterna

  Standard Year 5358

  T hey won the war. Seven hundred immortal children with generals who were barely men defeated ten thousand elite soldiers of the Unification Guard in under an hour. Those soldiers jumped across light-years and gained air supremacy, yet all that remained of them were bones and ash. This impossible victory would shake the Collectorate, sending a clear message: Aeterna belongs to the promised few. All others will be killed. Yet their greatest military leader walked through the triumphant city with a melancholy air.

  Admiral Valentin Bouchet smiled for the child soldiers who ran up to him, ecstatic over their victory. He contemplated the massive cleanup to come, as shrapnel from Guard Scramjets and troop transports lay smoldering in the streets like a twisted mechanical garden. Fortunately, the grid-like pattern of homes built with refined brontinium sustained limited damage.

  He looked skyward, where new ally Michael Cooper dictated surrender terms to the defeated Chancellors aboard the Lioness. Valentin trusted Michael, though they’d known each other less than a day. No one had greater motivation to lay down a final hammer to Supreme Admiral Angela Poussard and see to it the Chancellors never again threatened Aeterna.

  Outside his brother’s home, Valentin stood over the tall, lanky remains of his nephews, burned beyond recognition. They were born as freaks to parents who were themselves abominations in every regard. Yet they were boys, growing too fast and confused. They deserved better. They were the first and last generation born to the genetic hybrids created by Valentin’s parents.

  Inside, Valentin knelt before the incinerated remains of his brother. James was once a giant. He ravaged the Collectorate, terrifying his enemies and invoking worship among his followers. His mind, opened to an intellect as vast as the universe, designed wonders for his people and led them to a home world. He killed with equal abandon, loved with a dangerous passion, and turned his jealous rage to anyone who challenged his power. His next target would have been Valentin, the brother who once raided the galaxy at James’s side.

  Now, James was a black, misshapen crust, certain to collapse at the gentlest touch. The slit in his chest came from Michael’s blade. It was a necessary end, but Valentin doubted he would have had the courage.

  “It shouldn’t have ended this way,” Valentin said. “If only you had trusted me. I could have saved you.”

  Valentin’s mind knew otherwise.

  Wasn’t it grand while it lasted? He remembered that first day when they stepped on Aeternan soil and relished in the world reconstructed for them courtesy of the Jewels of Eternity. Later, there was the celebration in the amphitheater when all the hybrids and children wearing elaborate plumage joined with the immortals to inaugurate the city. James spoke to his people of their boundless future.

  And all shouted the inaugural name of their capital city:

  “JaRa! JaRa! JaRa!”

  None of the hybrids survived the final battle, their fate sealed by a power beyond the Chancellors. Only the second batch of Emil and Frances Bouchet’s experiments – their bioengineered immortals – remained to carry on the dream.

  “They won’t forget you,” Valentin told the ashen corpse. “I’ll make sure they remember you at your best.”

  He knew the questions would follow after the glow of victory faded. Why were the hybrids destroyed? Are the rumors true? Were they planning to turn on us? Valentin didn’t want to lie to his people, but the truth had an unfortunate habit of cracking through the hardest shell. If the young immortals learned of the dangers Valentin kept from them, how long would they trust him?

  After all, they had a new hero: A warrior who crossed the stars to save the woman he loved and protect his fellow immortals against annihilation. Blessed by the Jewels of Eternity, he fought alongside the child soldiers on the front lines, survived a wall of fire raining upon him, and now stood before the Chancellors as their conqueror. The victory was only hours old, but already Valentin heard the whispers. Michael’s legend grew in fertile ground.

  Valentin refused to make the same mistake as James.

  I will not be jealous. He is one of us now. We need him.

  A few encrusted gems from James’s chest plating shimmered amid the desolation. Valentin reached for an emerald, though he didn’t know why. Dare he keep it? James wore these as ostentation for a man who thought of himself as God.

  “You were a creature, same as me. We shared the worst parents in the history of time.”

  He tossed the gem aside as if it were a cheap glass imitation. Then he saw something else shimmer. Except this one also moved.

  A blue globule of glowing light, no bigger than a fingernail, seemed to pulsate inside James’s charcoal chest. Valentin saw these lights swim through James many times. The alien intelligence, captured decades earlier and implanted into the hybrids’ genetic code, gave James a staggering vision of the universe. He often claimed to know “the beginning and the end.”

  Of course, Valentin thought. The Jewels would never kill one of their own – only the vessel that imprisoned them.

  “What now?”

  Valentin did not expect an answer, but the question appeared to elicit movement. The tiny blue globule snaked through the crusty remains until it sat still upon the cinder of what was once a man’s thigh. Valentin felt it looking up at him.

  “If you have wisdom, I’d love to hear it.”

  The Jewel did not respond. No immortal other than Michael had direct contact with the intelligence, and even he couldn’t explain why the Jewels guided him to JaRa and showed him what had to be done.

  What was it waiting for? Why had the Jewels who rebuilt Aeterna not yet taken it back into their fold?

  He’d find no more answers here. Valentin took one final glance at his brother’s miserable remains and set his mind to the many post-war tasks which lay ahead. Foremost, he needed to organize a memorial for the immortals they lost – ten percent of their population. Those children loved each other; their grief would be profound. Time for him to put his own aside.

  Before he reached the front door, Valentin heard a crack. He turned about and saw James implode. The blue globule vanished.

  To no surprise, Michael returned to a hero’s welcome. Hundreds of immortals gathered outside his Scramjet and listened as he laid out the terms of unconditional surrender.

  “We stripped those assholes bare and sent them back where they came from,” he announced to raucous cheers. “They ain’t visiting this neck of the woods ever again.”

  Michael wore the black-and-bronze armor well. He accepted every hug and shook hands like a politician. He was twenty years old, two more than Valentin, but he carried the cockiness of a man who knew he’d never be defeated. Valentin watched from a distance, and he saw the future. The man who arrived to save the day would lead Aeterna.

  In the coming weeks, they’d sit down and talk about such matters.

  Michael was a different type of immortal. He was created not in a lab but by a glitch in time. He existed outside of it. He called his state “unstuck.” An impossibility. Yet he spoke of how the knowledge freed him of all burdens. The Jewels bonded with him, so he was prepared to take on the universe, relying on the knowledge they now imparted – just as they had done with James. In three years, he had grown from a gangly “nobody,” he said, into a chiseled, Guard-trained killer.

  “The Aeternans need to be warriors,” Michael said. “People will always want what we have.”

  Any thought of living a quiet, peaceful existence grew unlikely the more Michael articulated his views. Valentin did not push back. If their people wanted to move forward as a militaristic society – even if they never waged war against anyone – Valentin would not stand in their way.

  “We can love each other but stand ready to kill our enemy,” Michael said. Soon thereafter, he parsed that idea to a six-word ideology that became a popular refrain:

  Learn to love. Prepare to kill.

  A few months following The Last Day’s War, Michael and Samantha cemented their place in the hearts of Aeternans when they announced Sam’s pregnancy. The first child born to a new world! For immortals incapable of reproducing, the idea of becoming collective aunts and uncles inspired deeper fealty.

  Six months following the war, the city voted on a constitution and a new name for their capital: Promise. The election of a governing council held no surprises. Michael would rule as Minister, his powers vast under the constitution. Lady Samantha as Ambassador to the Free Worlds. Valentin as Admiral of the Aeternan Navy.

  V
alentin grew leery of Michael’s increasingly strident tone plus demands for new weapons and ship production. They came to verbal blows a few times, but Valentin spent most of the year in orbit, where the flagship Lioness became a second home. He supervised the workforce while Michael developed grand plans for new technologies and a strategy to rescue all the remaining eighteen hundred immortal children on the colonies and Earth.

  The dreams began nine months after the war.

  Valentin was swimming on Lake Nilsson south of Promise, its water crystal clear. He sensed a familiar presence beneath him. He saw two versions of himself matching his pace. In time, the swimmer closest to the bottom broke ranks. He inspected a hatch before trying with all his strength to rotate the wheel. No matter how hard he pulled, the wheel did not budge. Valentin and his second version swam onward, disinterested.

  The dream repeated itself for days, each time broken as Valentin awoke with a start. Curiosity about the image grew to frustration until many days later, the second swimmer joined the first in tackling the wheel. They made progress, but the wheel turned partway before freezing. Valentin swam out of range.

  He called out to himself in his sleep. Turn back. Help them! Yet for two weeks, he appeared to ignore his own cry. Each day, he tried to focus on his work aboard Lioness and gave no hint of his growing distress. Valentin knew this was more than a dream.

  He never learned what triggered the resolution, but Valentin did at last dive down to help his clones. The three Valentins, not needing to hold their breath, counted to five and pulled as one. The wheel gave. They flipped open the hatch. A light blue glow exploded around them, and their six eyes twinkled.

  I know what you are.

  Valentin often heard Michael describe his dialogue with the Jewels of Eternity. There were words, Michael said, but not off the lips. “They use symbols and flashbacks,” he’d say. “If they show you a sun rising in the east, you know what it means. You hear them, but they don’t speak, if you get my drift.”

  Valentin understood what the open hatch meant. The Jewels were struggling to communicate. Only when he stopped resisting did the lines of dialogue open.

  Staring out through the giant cascade barrier aboard Lioness, Valentin knew what he had to do. He wormed a Scramjet to the eastern shore of Lake Nilsson, threw off his bodysuit, and went for a swim. His dreams guided him to the exact spot. There, he dove.

  He did not find a hatch along the sandy bottom, nor did he expect to. He did find peace, however. Sitting on the sand, unconcerned how long his lungs could hold out, Valentin watched a blue globule swim inside his left arm and come to rest inside his palm.

  So that’s where you went!

  He almost forgot about the Jewel inside his brother’s incinerated corpse. Had it been inside Valentin all this time?

  The globule morphed into all manner of geometric figures, but it seemed to prefer shapes with parallel angles. Though Valentin did not hear words per se, the Jewel spoke to him.

  It told Valentin of its great joy in reuniting with its brethren after a long, difficult struggle as a prisoner. It spoke of choosing to live within another human rather than doing its bidding. It told him of trying to understand Valentin’s conflict.

  “You do not know your place any longer. You will not turn your back on your people, but you sense your job here is done.”

  It is, Valentin thought. This is Michael’s world now.

  “Yet he is a good man and a protector to the promised few. Do you trust him to keep your people safe?”

  Valentin did not reply at once. He wasn’t fond of Michael’s leadership style but conceded the success of it.

  Yes, he told the Jewel. Michael will devote his life to them.

  “Then you may leave without guilt.”

  Why would I want to leave? Valentin asked.

  His mind’s eye homed in on a desolate corner of outer space. He sensed the vast distance between that place and all other star systems. In the middle of it, he saw the silhouette of a jagged rock.

  “We believe there is a danger in the place where all secrets are born. We learned the Great Equations here. You can, too.”

  What is it I see?

  “The light will glow when you arrive. Until then, it remains dark. But if not you, perhaps the wrong man? Valentin, you can create boundless opportunity and stand against the danger.”

  Danger to whom?

  “Everyone.”

  I don’t understand. Both opportunity and danger?

  “If you can make order of the chaos, you will find a new purpose here. We can help.”

  What happens if I say no?

  “The future suggests you cannot. You and your brother wreaked wanton death and destruction upon the innocent as much as the guilty. You did this in service of self-interest. The future suggests you will work for the greater interests of all. Bring your life into balance. Find purpose in this task, Valentin.”

  He pushed off the bottom and swam to the surface. Valentin took another look at his left palm but saw no blue light.

  Was it real? Was this how they played with people’s minds? It might explain the madness inherit in the hybrids before they died.

  Valentin returned to Lioness intent on forgetting what he saw. If the Jewel did choose him voluntarily, it had the power to leave. All he had to do was convince it to find another fool for its games.

  Yet he never devised a strategy.

  Nor did that deep, desolate corner of space escape his waking thoughts. The tug increased daily. He became distracted, and those close to him started to notice. They asked if he was all right.

  He wasn’t.

  Valentin awoke one morning early in 5359 and saw not the dim lights of his quarters but the full wormhole drive algorithm to a specific galactic destination. He plugged them into a catalyst driver to pinpoint the location: Two thousand light-years from Collectorate space. Ten times farther than the deepest research vessel ever ventured.

  There were no more dreams, so Valentin slept soundly. One night, however, he sat on the edge of his bed unable to unclothe. The room felt cold and alien. He wasn’t at home anymore.

  The uninitiated might have thought he was sleepwalking, for his movements were rote, emotionless. Yet Valentin was wide awake. It never occurred to him to say goodbye.

  He programmed the Scramjet’s catalyst drivers to the algorithm and left Lioness at an hour when all were asleep except for the night commander, who contacted Valentin from the bridge.

  “I’m going for a stroll,” he replied. “Be back soon.”

  “Yes, Admiral.”

  He took the ship out a thousand kilometers and admired the world he helped settle and defend. He ignited the drivers.

  “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

  Riding the wormhole was akin to flying through clouds: Hypnotic and peaceful. He fell asleep shortly into the four-hour journey. Just before he awoke, the Jewel came to him and said:

  “You will have to give up everything you were or might have been. Once you know the secrets, you cannot be Valentin Bouchet.”

  Those words struck him the instant before he awoke, and minutes before the Scramjet exited the wormhole aperture.

  Valentin saw black against black. He triggered the searchlight.

  The rock was more than a mile long, its jagged edges and tendril-like mountains inhospitable. He almost asked why the Jewel brought him here, but the light fell upon a small, glassy surface, like a cutaway. Four deep gashes ran parallel. He was surprised to detect a cascade barrier hovering above the cutaway like a dome. Atmosphere? Valentin landed the ship between two gashes.

  He felt the Jewel’s close presence.

  Did you build this? He asked without speaking.

  “No. They came long before us.”

  Who came?

  The Jewel avoided the question but did say:

  “We call it The Hold.”

  Valentin knew what to do, as if by instinct, though he was sure the Jewel implanted the instructions. He jumped from the egress onto the landing port. At once, a fierce glow erupted from the gashes. The way down. When he looked into the light, he saw no stairs, only a narrow vault descending farther than he could make out through the glare. He felt a tug of gravity, stepped into the light, and gradually descended.