The holo shifted to a familiar face.

  “Adm. Matook!”

  Yusef’s smile dried up in a hurry.

  “I need you to listen, Captain. I’ve been told this transmission must end soon to avoid detection. We’re safe. Adm. Harkness is not our only ally. If we’re unable to leave for any reason, do not come after us. Lightfoot is your ship. The crew’s safety is paramount. We are only four. Tell me you understand and will obey, Captain.”

  “Admiral, I won’t leave any …”

  “I’m giving you a direct order, Captain.”

  Exeter swallowed his pride.

  “Yes, Admiral. I understand and will obey.”

  “Thank you.” Yusef smiled as Harkness said the transmission would cut off in five seconds.

  “I’ll see you in the morning, X.”

  The holo dissipated.

  Enfante finished his whiskey and licked his lips.

  “I do love your ship, Capt. Woolsey. It’s very … efficient. Now, about those bunks?”

  19

  Promise, Aeterna

  M ICHAEL COOPER SAID GOODBYE with a kiss. He made certain neither his children nor his wife knew what it meant. When he tucked in Danny, Harry, and Grace, Michael betrayed no tears, no halting voice. They’d see him in the morning like always. It was cruel, a father abandoning his kids in the middle of the night. Yet Michael knew they’d come to understand with time. They’d be thankful not having to watch him deteriorate into an invalid.

  Samantha might not forgive as easily. Would she say Michael put himself before his family?

  Still, he left their bed for the final time with no change in his routine. In the past few years, he rarely slept. Thus, his hours-long walk through the city and nearby region was a fixture.

  “If you feel any pain,” Sam said, “don’t be a horse’s ass like last time. OK? Contact CC and ask for a rifter.”

  “Gotcha, babe. Look, I’m feeling top of the world. Full-on jiggy. I could bust a few moves at The Goliath.”

  “I … I wish you’d stay here so I could look after you.”

  “Sam, you need your beauty sleep. I hear the trade delegation from Xavier’s Garden is a wild bunch.”

  “I won’t be my sharpest if I’m worried about you.”

  Michael caressed her cheek and leaned in for a peck. He avoided a passionate kiss, anything she’d interpret with suspicion.

  “Babe, I got a good feeling. I don’t think there’s gonna be another episode. Fingers crossed, right?”

  “Michael, I …”

  “See you in the morning.”

  That was it. Quick and simple.

  Until he stood outside and looked up at the night sky. Michael winced when the dull ache near his liver flared up again.

  If Ranke predicted correctly, Michael had two to three days before his next system collapse. Not much time, but enough to know if his hunch would bear fruit.

  He waited for the liver pain to pass and stepped through a Walker, which transported him instantly to Central Command. He stood outside the building where he’d spent most of the past eleven years shaping and growing Aeterna and her navy.

  To most immortals, he was their older brother. To the youngest, a father. For years, he took advantage of their goodwill and molded adulation into worship. Only the threat of death opened his eyes.

  “Time dies,” the Jewels of Eternity told him. “You are time.”

  If he didn’t return in ten days, his letter of resignation would be sent automatically to the Council. He imagined they’d be shocked at first, but they’d get over it soon enough. Michael expected a sense of relief might fall over Aeterna.

  At the CC landing port, he spotted his Scramjet among four other shuttles. It was a beautiful craft. Old school. Just like the models he saw flying about the first day he crossed into this universe. It was also an appropriate choice: The previous owner, Valentin Bouchet, stole it in the dead of night ten years ago and reemerged years later as Amayas Knight. He landed the Scramjet here, pleading for help to save Hokkaido from the Swarm.

  Michael refused to give it back. Aeternan property, goddamn it!

  Now, with coordinates for his destination in hand, Michael expected this sweet thing to deliver him to his last, best hope.

  He double blinked and tapped into Occip, where he had stored the Scramjet’s activation controls. To his surprise, the starboard bulwark pixelated open before he entered a command.

  “Good evening, sir.”

  Rikhi Syed stood in the egress. The Information Minister motioned for Michael to enter.

  “I’ve prepared everything you’ll need, Minister.”

  “What? Rikhi, how did you know I was …?”

  “I worked at your side for six years, sir. You fooled everyone. Not me. Please. You don’t want anyone asking questions. We must go.”

  Michael hopped onboard.

  “Sorry, bud. There ain’t no we. Jump off.”

  Rikhi, who spent years as Michael’s dutiful lapdog, crossed his arms and did not budge.

  “That won’t do, sir. I logged us in with CC.”

  “You did what?”

  “No worries. You’re on a classified mission for the UNF. You required me as your aide. It’s a good cover. Better than you outright stealing this Scramjet for no apparent reason.”

  Rikhi seemed proud of himself. A tuft of his sky-blue hair drooped over his eyes.

  “Yeah, OK. Fine. You’re right. It’s a good cover. But here’s what happened, Rikhi. I had a last-minute change of heart. I decided to carry out the mission on my own. So, take a hike.”

  Rikhi reached for the printlock. The bulwark pixelated shut.

  “I know what you needed those coordinates for. I worked very hard to obtain them, like I do everything where you’re concerned. You can’t make this trip without someone to watch after you.”

  “If it makes you feel better, I already stowed my meds onboard. If I run into trouble …”

  “It may be too late. If you have a stroke like last time, you won’t be able to take your meds or attach yourself to the phasics.” He pointed toward the rear. “A phasic trauma tube.”

  Michael underestimated Rikhi.

  “Did you steal it from Ranke’s facility?”

  “Does it matter, sir? Other than your doctors and Lady Samantha, no one knows what you’ve been through except me. You can’t make this trip on your own. It has to be me. Please.”

  “Rikhi, this trip is a thousand to one shot. If it don’t work out, I ain’t coming back. You feel me?”

  Rikhi, who wore the rings of Brahma on his right cheek, squared his shoulders.

  “I intend to be at your side no matter what. If things don’t go well, you shouldn’t be alone.”

  “I might make a choice you won’t like.”

  “Minister, I know your heart. You don’t want anyone to see you laid low. You spent a decade building an image; I had a role in it. Aeternans will always remember you at the height of your power.”

  Michael started toward the Navigation circle and laughed.

  “When I was a four-hundred-pound side of a mountain.”

  “Not just your physical presence, sir. Your stature. You were our people’s savior. They won’t forget. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “That savior bit might have been a touch overdone. I got to admit, though. You took to propaganda like a hound to a fox. You’ve sure as fuck been my man in the trenches.” He plopped down in the circle and waved Rikhi forward. “If you’re gonna do this, c’mon up.”

  Rikhi betrayed a smile.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Michael’s irises turned red when he opened Occip. He realized this might be the last time he tapped into the Aeternan network.

  “Do me one favor, Rikhi.”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “No more sir or Minister. Soon as we jump out of here, I ain’t your boss anymore.”

  Rikhi grimaced. “You’re firing me?”

  “Cut the shit. You know what I mean.” He found the Scramjet controls. The Nav holo lowered and awaited his touch. “I’m adding the coordinates now. Last chance to bail.”

  “No thank you, Michael. I’m where I need to be.”

  Rikhi sat beside him to watch the course tracker fill out.

  “Michael, those aren’t the coordinates we stole from SI. They’ll barely take us outside the system.”

  “It’s called misdirection. I don’t want CC’s worm tracker to project our course. Someone might decide to search when we’re overdue.”

  “Understood.”

  Less than a minute after it opened an aperture, the Scramjet reemerged in open space outside the system. Michael entered a new path, this one two thousand light-years away.

  “It’s gonna take an hour.”

  “What if the data we stole is wrong, Michael? If there’s nothing but empty space, what will you do?”

  He triggered the worm drive, which opened a new aperture. The course tracker plotted their journey across the galactic plane.

  “Well, Rikhi, if it’s bogus, I’ll probably throw a fit. Means I’ll have to beat you to an inch of your life.”

  Michael kept his delivery deadpan to see how long before Rikhi wised up to the joke.

  “I don’t think that’s funny, Michael. This is life and death.”

  Then Michael remembered: Rikhi never did have much sense of humor. He always laughed at Michael’s jokes, but it felt like obligation rather than appreciation.

  “You’re right, Rikhi. I’ll try to be super serious in my last days. God forbid, a dude wants to have a laugh before the reaper comes knocking at the door.”

  “What’s a reaper?”

  “Tall guy. Black hood. Carries a scythe. Not much for chit-chat.”

  “You mentioned him before. He’s a personification of death.”

  “He also ain’t real. He’s like the boogeyman. Shit they made up to scare the crap out of little kids.”

  “You mean on the Earth where you grew up?”

  “Yeah. That one.”

  Had it come to this? Small talk with Rikhi? Michael loved the kid as aide and propagandist. He was smart as a whip with language; knew all the ins and outs to spin a media release or a policy statement. Yet Michael didn’t do ‘casual’ with the office staff.

  He reached for his digipipe. Maybe if he focused on that and blew smoke rings for a while, Rikhi might get the message.

  Nope.

  “I-I left mine at home,” Rikhi said, pointing to the pipe. “Mind if I have a puff?”

  “Yeah, sure.” He handed it over and called up the Scramjet’s cargo data. If Michael had to share his pipe, they’d use up the leaf within a day. “OK. Here’s some good news. Three pounds of cured leaf, hard-pressed, plus six pipes. Slip 14 to port.”

  “Huh. That’s a lot of leaf. Odd cargo for a shuttle.”

  “This ship belonged to Valentin and his weirdo soldiers for a few years. Ever get a look at those … what the hell did he call them?”

  “Splinter Vanguard.”

  “Those dudes. Rough trade.”

  “I believe they’re all officers in the UNF now.”

  Michael sighed long and deep.

  “I reckon they need everybody they can get. Poached forty percent of our people.”

  “It will pay dividends down the road, Michael. Lots of goodwill from the Collectorate. I’ll, uh, hunt down a pipe.”

  Dividends.

  Sam said the same thing about the effect of opening Aeterna’s doors to resources and people. Isolation, she insisted, served no purpose in the long run. It was a diplomatic way of saying other voices needed to lead the way for a new Aeterna. She planted the bug in his ear about the Ministerial Council.

  When Rikhi returned with a full pipe, Michael said:

  “Did you ever think about joining the UNF? You would’ve been a great fit for Central Command.”

  “No,” he said, double tapping the pipe. “I never would have left you in the lurch.”

  Michael stifled a laugh. “Irreplaceable, huh?”

  “Just like you, Michael.”

  “My best days are long gone. When the war ends and our people come back home, I’ll bet not twenty ask, ‘Hey, whatever happened to the big guy with the braids?’”

  Rikhi coughed on his smoke.

  “That’s silly. Michael, just because so many of our people left for the fight doesn’t mean they rejected you or got tired of the way things worked on Aeterna.”

  “Some did, or you wouldn’t have said it that way, dude.”

  “OK. Yeah. There were a few. But even the ones who looked for something new didn’t lose their love for you.”

  He rubbed Rikhi’s hair.

  “You’re a naïve little brown-noser, ain’t you? They had a choice. Stay home, live forever. Join the UNF, maybe live for a few years. You don’t have to soft-pedal that shit, Rikhi. You’re not writing a public statement or a policy piece. It’s OK to tell it straight.”

  “That’s not what I meant, Michael. People change. Sure. They grow older and see the world differently. But they don’t forget the best parts. And our people aren’t stupid. They know you kept us safe for years. After Admiral Valentin left, you were strong and steady when we needed it. Speaking for myself? The past six years in CC have been the best of my life. I …”

  Rikhi caught himself.

  “You know how I really feel about you, Michael. I haven’t always been the best at hiding it. I’m sorry about that. I never meant to make you uncomfortable.”

  Michael wrapped an arm around Rikhi and pulled him in close.

  “Never did. Fact is, I took advantage of those feelings. I asked you to do shit that … well, it weren’t right.”

  “Like finding someone to hack into SI’s classified systems?”

  “The most recent example. Yeah.” He pinched Rikhi’s shoulder and released him. “That’s why you shouldn’t be here now. You need to start a life that don’t center on an asshole like me.”

  “That’s my decision to make.”

  “You’re what now? Twenty-two? Salvation kidnapped you from Brahma when you were ten. Right?”

  “They did. I’ll never forget that day.”

  “Huh. Was that one of those stops where James put on a show? Danced around like a god?”

  Rikhi nodded with the heavy heart of someone who witnessed it only days ago.

  “He burned people alive. Many were my neighbors.”

  “Yeah. He was a piece of work. But truth be told, Rikhi. I’m no better. Hell, if you dig down through the numbers, a lot more people died on account of me.”

  “I doubt it. Salvation killed two million on Ark Carriers alone.”

  Michael shrugged. “I still win by a country mile.”

  “You’re talking nonsense.”

  “Am I? Rikhi, you came on to CC after I sent those graviton weapons to Earth. I’m sure you heard the reports about what happened next.”

  “It’s not your fault how the Warner Alliance used them. If they had kept to military targets, maybe …”

  “Less civilians would have died?” Michael took a final puff and tapped off his pipe. “I knew damn well what Warner would do with those weapons. They were losing the war. They had to go big or call it a day. They say the number killed was about five million, but Rikard told me the truth. It was closer to eight. I sent those weapons, and I didn’t give a flying fuck how many they killed.”

  Rikhi looked at Michael as if for the first time.

  “Why, Michael?”

  “Earth was hell. It turned me into a killer. Really, no different than James, even though I made a ton of excuses for myself. Point is, I ain’t worth it. You sacrificed enough for me. When I’m done with my business out here, you go home and find somebody to care for. You got what it takes, dude. I can see you on the Ministerial Council someday.”

  “You think so?”

  Michael chuckled. “No, I’m making that shit up to feed your ego. Of course I think so. Asshole.”

  Rikhi exhaled a cloud of smoke.

  “Thank you, Michael.”

  “Sure. Maybe I’ll record a letter of recommendation.”

  “I don’t mean about that. Thank you for telling me the truth. It must not have been easy.”

  “You’d be surprised what happens when a man sees death playing catchup in the rear-view mirror.”

  They said little else until the journey’s final minute, which suited Michael. He never expected the trip to turn into a confessional.

  “OK,” he said as the final seconds ticked off. “There’s a chance this trip ends in a hurry. I don’t know what’s so damn important out here, but I’m betting the UNF left some kind of security behind. If it ain’t lethal, we’re good to go. If it is, looks like we have a full complement of energy slews to fire, but I’m rusty.”

  “No problem, Michael. I was once weapons officer in Platoon 5.”

  “Sounds like a winner. Snatch the weapons holo and let’s see what kind of shit we’re jumping into.”

  The aperture opened. A quick scan revealed … nothing?

  Then a silhouette appeared behind them.

  We overshot.

  Michael set the Nav to follow a wide circle around the target, giving him enough time to study the holo for particulars.

  “Too good to be true,” he mumbled. “No defenses. No ships.”

  “Look there, Michael. Inside, an energy source. It’s an engine of some sort. I think.”

  “Readings are off kilter. Looks like there’s some sort of shield around the target. It’s not a barrier, though. I don’t think we’re gonna know much until we fly inside it.”

  “You’re sure it won’t fry us?”

  He looked at Rikhi with a sly grin.

  “If I gotta go, better it be fast.”

  He set a course for the asteroid.

  20

  W HEN MICHAEL SAW THE LANDING ZONE, he knew he found his last, best hope. Still a longshot, but better than certain oblivion. Scans indicated an atmospheric bubble covered the zone, and the silhouette of an interior structure with breathable air confirmed the rest. He did not detect security features, which seemed inconsistent for a place the UNF and SI said did not exist.