“You’ve already made up your mind?” Kara asked.

  “Unless the Aeternans propose an alternative, we can’t finish this mission in a Scramjet. The Inventor has an army, and now he has ships with particle weapons. I wonder: Did he ever intend to hand them over to the Zwahilis? Or any members? Perhaps Scylla was a misstep, and he made sure it wasn’t repeated. What about the other so-called ‘miracles’? Many questions, Kara. Many questions.”

  “Michael Cooper said they know who he is.”

  “Convenient how he wasn’t ready to divulge a name.”

  Kara smiled. “You skipped over a few vital nuggets yourself.”

  “Always hold some chips in reserve, Kara.”

  They studied the holo of the Milos, one-third the size of Scylla and nearing the rendezvous coordinates.

  “We’re going to sit down with them,” Cando said. “The Aeternans need to know everything, Captain. They’re part of this now. We need them.”

  39

  Y USEF BROUGHT HORN to a gentle landing in the Milos docking bay. Cando laid a peck on Kara’s cheek as they stood before the closed egress. Kara felt steadier than the moment before she stepped out onto the Mogandi ranch. She knew a friend waited on the other side. Moreover, the stakes for both sides were aligned if the Inventor was an Aeternan.

  “Allow Minister Cooper to speak first,” Ham said. “Francois’s analysis of the man wasn’t totally off base. He developed a reputation as a showstopper wherever he traveled. Michael was a performer before he became a soldier. Something called a standup comedian.”

  Yusef laughed. “A jester? We had those on Yaniff.”

  “Riff-raff,” Cando added. “They charged by the hour to put a smile on your face. If you approached one on the street and asked for a joke, he’d hold out his hand.”

  Ham sighed. “This riff-raff helped bring down an empire, negotiated interstellar trade deals, and rules a planet that has defied the laws of nature. My advice: Don’t ask about his days on stage.”

  Their smiles were still huge when the egress opened. As expected, Michael stepped ahead of his people and bid them welcome. The previous holo communications did not do him justice. His body armor accentuated a riptide of outsized muscles. A human did not grow so massive without augmentation. She’d seen nothing like him since the genetically-enhanced soldiers of the Unification Guard long ago.

  “You know Admiral Rafael Kane,” Michael said, as handshakes and introductions commenced. “No one has been more a partner to me in protecting our people.” He pivoted to a young woman of perhaps twenty. Her chest, unquestionably augmented, filled out shimmering body armor. “Cap Ina Oksana of Platoon 9. One of our finest Caps and a hell of a poker player.”

  “Thank you, Minister,” she said through deep blue lipstick. A tattoo of a stag dominated her left cheek. “I defeated the Minister with a royal flush the last time we played. He taught me a new way to use fuck in a sentence.”

  “I’ll bite,” Yusef said. “What’s poker?”

  The three Aeternans acted as if Yusef had been living in a cave all his life.

  “A card game,” Michael said.

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Well, shit. I guess some things are limited to one universe. Never you worry. My people were just as confused when I introduced it. I think I can scrounge up a few decks for parting gifts. Can you handle that, Cap Oksana?”

  “Will do, Minister.”

  “And lastly, here’s someone you already know.”

  Exeter held his emotions in check while he stood back through the introductions. He made eye contact with everyone, saw their smiles and snap-to nods. There was a time when he considered them his enemies. None stood up for him during the confrontation with Dayton Romilius. No one tried to stop his transfer to Scylla. Did they ever try to find him? Did they keep his memory alive? Or was he another soldier to be forgotten like the millions who lay shredded on the battlefields of the Swarm conflict?

  He no longer recognized that version of Exeter Woolsey. The rage that woke him in the middle of the night hid away in a locked box.

  Don’t cry again. You’ll make a fool of yourself.

  Michael called him forward. Exeter did not make it halfway to the receiving line before Yusef, he of the big, burly hugs and grandiloquent speeches, broke rank and came after him.

  “Look at this pup with his orange fucking hair. Come on in, you little asshole.” Exeter wasn’t a small man unless wrapped inside Yusef, which he now was. Yusef lifted him off the floor and gave Exeter a big, wet kiss. “It’s so good to have you back in the fold, brother.”

  “I missed your hugs, brother.”

  Yusef set him down and scowled.

  “But seriously, why in the name of the Talons did you go orange?”

  “It’s a fun color. Makes me smile.”

  “Good a reason as any. As I recall, we didn’t see you smile often enough. But we did miss you, X. The others can’t wait to see you.”

  “Me too.”

  Cando was more subdued, but Exeter felt him no less sincere.

  “We’ve had so many regrets about how we treated you, Exeter. You were one of the most courageous soldiers I’ve ever seen. You deserved better from us.”

  “It’s OK, Cando. It was a difficult time. We walked into a trap. I’m just thrilled you made it out alive.”

  “The truth is, we overlooked you for a long time. We couldn’t see you because Ryllen’s halo was so blinding, and he always made sure to stand in front of you.”

  “I know what you mean, Cando. He’s behind me now.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t asked after him. X, you need to know. Ryllen is dead. He almost killed everyone after we took Scylla. We didn’t realize until then how far over the edge he’d gone. He was killed in a prison where we banished him.”

  Exeter almost allowed the truth to slip off his lips. No, not here. Not yet. The news of Ryllen’s “demise” and how he reached that point did not shock Exeter. For years, he knew Ryllen was a psychopath, but love told him to hang on for the ride. What options did he have?

  Kara stepped forward next and kissed him.

  “We needed good news,” she said.

  He spent brief but meaningful time with Kara in the Inventor’s lab beneath Artemis Station. They were awkward moments.

  He and Ham shared a formal handshake.

  “Captain.”

  “Exeter, if I had seen another option, I would have taken it. I don’t need forgiveness, but I do hope you understand.”

  “I’m trying, Captain.”

  Exeter didn’t want to darken the moment with pitiful tales of his struggle post-Artemis. They didn’t know about his left arm, nor would they.

  “OK then,” Michael said. “Reunions done. Perfect. Let’s go have a seat and talk turkey.”

  The ships hovered over the Euphrates south pole, unlikely to draw scrutiny for now. But after the morning’s events, no one approached this opportunity with complacency.

  “You have an impressive ship,” Ham said as they entered a lift. “If I ventured a guess, I’d say it was a commercial freighter in another life. Yes?”

  “Good guess,” Michael said. “We got her in a trade with Marshall’s Haven. We gave them a thousand bi-comms and the root design. Last I heard, those Russians mass produced fifty million. We spent three years retrofitting Milos and installing weapons.”

  Kane coughed. “After the way those missiles ripped through the armor, we’ll need to install reinforcements.”

  “Yeah. Fuck. Live and learn.”

  The lift opened.

  “I’m curious, Minister. Does most of your trade rely on barter?”

  “Damn near all. We don’t have a central currency. Not yet. Collectorate credits weren’t worth a shit after every colony reverted to their own. We don’t base our economy on money. And tax collecting? Don’t get me started.” He shared an inside laugh with Kane.

  As they entered the executive conference room, Ham continued:

  “I’ve heard rumors in recent years of Aeterna sharing wormhole tech with a handful of colonies. Any truth to it?”

  “Interstellar algorithmics? Not a chance. The longer we keep a tight lid on it, the better. Although I reckon our monopoly is pretty well shot, judging from those warships.” They took their seats, four to a side. “We offer a portal system. Land-based with limited range. The ultimate mass transit. Clients will never be able to scale it, and they pay us in refined minerals, industrial components, support ships we upgrade. Shit like that.”

  “Clever, Minister.”

  “Call me Michael. We’re all friends here, right?”

  “I’m sure you have tech everyone might want, Michael. So I wonder: How is it the ten Alliance worlds aren’t doing business with you?”

  “What can I say, Ham? Market competition. They got a better offer, I guess. Truth is, we don’t have the infrastructure for trade deals with thirty-nine planets. We have seventeen, and that’s all we can handle.”

  “Our single goal,” Kane said, “is to defend our home world. Our trade deals exist only as long as their materials benefit our defense.”

  “But any materials that threaten your defense,” Ham began, to which Michael finished: “Go boom.”

  “I always heard you were direct. You do not disappoint. To that end, I have good news. Kara, share what we learned about the Inventor’s designs. The warships, in particular. Kara is our chief engineer.”

  She didn’t expect Ham to lead with this nugget, but it was a smart play. Scylla was easily the thorniest aspect to these negotiations.

  “I studied Amayas Knight’s designs at Artemis Station and for the last several months. They’re remarkable and appear flawless, until you dig deep. He designed at least one important limitation to each of his so-called miracles. We found two limitations in the warships. The first involved Carbedyne flow into the engine array. I was able to resolve it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here today. But the second? I have no clue how he did it. None of us does. Those ships can Worm anywhere in the universe so long as you know the coordinates, and so long as you don’t intend to jump into the Aeterna system.”

  The immortals leaned forward. Michael asked:

  “What are you saying, Kara?”

  “The Inventor placed a block on your star system. We can see it on the GPNM, but Scylla will not respond to any coordinate in your system. Even if we arrived through your Nexus point, we can’t jump to locations within the system.”

  The laughter on the Aeternan side of the table started slowly and built into rib-busters.

  “They were never a threat?” Michael threw up his hands and turned to his fellow immortals. “Oh, this is rich. Can you imagine Angela Poussard shitting her pants when she hears the news? All that work, and they never had a fucking chance.” He wiped away tears of laughter. “You’re sure about this?”

  “Positive.”

  “Hell, we were gonna steal the ships ourselves if the door was open. We’d have had to go around the long way.”

  Exeter apologized. “I didn’t know, Minister. They must have learned it after the Chancellors took me.”

  “It doesn’t change certain realities,” Ham said. “Those ships are incredibly powerful. The particle weapons on Scylla can wipe out a global population. Whoever holds these ships can shape the future. Now it appears the man who designed them holds two. More to the point, he’s someone you know. Another Aeternan, I presume?”

  Michael nodded.

  “Show them,” he told Kane.

  The Admiral blinked twice, his irises glowing yellow. He reached toward his face and pulled open a holo. Everyone on Kara’s side reacted with astonishment. Kara knew of stream amps and saw her share of Chancellors open holos through them. But this? The Admiral looked non-human for a moment.

  The shock did not last long as they studied the face of a man whose last name was well known throughout the Collectorate. Kane said:

  “Valentin Bouchet was the most important immortal before Michael came along. He was Admiral of Salvation’s fleet during our campaign against the Chancellory. His brother was James Sheridan, the hybrid monster who terrorized the Collectorate. His parents Emil and Frances created the hybrids and the immortals. Valentin was our voice and our hero. He was also my friend.

  “He trained and protected us before and after we settled on Aeterna. He prepared the defense against the Chancellor invasion and defied his brother to give us a chance at survival. When Michael arrived, they worked together and led us to victory. A year later, he disappeared without warning. Took a ship in the middle of the night, jumped away. We never heard from him again.”

  Michael continued:

  “I don’t know what triggered it, but Valentin was never happy. Maybe it was the guilt over the millions of people Salvation killed, or that he couldn’t save his brother and the other hybrids. He and I worked together, and I tried to be a friend. But it never happened. In fairness, I did run a blade through his brother’s heart. Makes for awkward dinner conversation.”

  Cando said, “Did you search for him?”

  “Where would I look? With his brother and parents dead, Valentin was the most wanted man in the human race. He couldn’t go anywhere without being identified. I figured he might travel as far as the ship would take him then allow the cold of space to finish him. But, kinda like with those damn warships, I was way off.”

  Cando pointed to the holo.

  “That man is not Amayas Knight.”

  “Exeter said Amayas had a full facial transplant years ago. He has a permanent bruise as a result. We compared the Arakaat speech with voice tracks in our historical database. The voice is a little softer now, but there’s no doubt. It’s Valentin.”

  Kane tossed away his holo.

  “So,” Ham said. “Let’s provide some perspective. An immortal who is the most famous living terrorist in the Collectorate assumed a new identity then coaxed the Chancellors and hundreds of thousands of influential players on ten worlds to form an Alliance. He sells it on the promise of economic prosperity and the gift of technological wonders. He uses a cube-shaped device that allows its users to see their genetic counterparts in far-flung universes.” Pointing to Exeter: “He banishes an immortal boy in his care across the divide, flees his base of operation, builds these technical wonders with deeply embedded flaws, continues to communicate with his members, and now, with this Splinter Alliance about to go public, walks away with two of the most dangerous ships in existence. I don’t know about you, Michael, but I am more than a little concerned about the future. Thoughts?”

  Kara never heard the problem stated so succinctly. The lack of immediate response made clear: No one else had either. This might have been the first time the Aeternans had to confront the scope of the trouble.

  “Honest to God, I’m at a loss,” Michael said. “I have no idea what he’s trying to accomplish. I had a saying when I was a kid: ‘This is fucked up, right here.’ Admiral, what do you think?”

  Kane shook his head.

  “There must be a reason, but I can’t see it.”

  “Exeter, you knew him longer than any of us.”

  “I’m sorry, Minister. Amayas didn’t really allow people to get close. I spent a lot of time in his lab watching and listening, but I wasn’t very smart. I didn’t have much education, and he knew it. The things he did were like magic. I hung onto every word because I thought he was like a god. He tapped into things about the universe that blew my mind. Even now, I don’t comprehend most of it. What I do know is what he said over and over: He was doing right by humanity. He was going to make the universe a better place for all. He never even tried to explain how.”

  “But Exeter,” Kara said. “You told us he had the Splinters before he found you and Katherine Woolsey. Right?”

  “Correct.”

  “He never spoke of their origin?”

  “No. The one time I asked, he shut me down. He said, ‘That’s too far ahead. Never speak of it again.’ Don’t know what he meant.”

  “OK. So, we know he possessed technology he probably didn’t design himself. He was tapping into the secrets of the universe. He knew how to transport human beings across the divide. Where does someone go to make those discoveries?”

  She didn’t consider it a rhetorical question, but no one responded.

  “It seems like that’s the key question. If we knew the answer, the rest might fall into place. Right?”

  Ham rapped his knuckles on the table.

  “Michael, I’m going to make a deduction, and I hope you don’t take it the wrong way. Salvation developed weapons beyond anything the Chancellors ever saw. The Aeternans, with less than a thousand children plus you, somehow obliterated ten thousand soldiers of the Guard in an hour. Weapons believed to be constructed on Aeterna killed millions of people in the Earth Civil War. You have built a fleet that I suspect is enormous and state of the art in a few years with what? A couple of thousand young people? I just saw your Admiral use a tech that was abandoned by the Chancellors as unworkable: Streaming from your stack through the optical nerve. You have a thriving economy on a world that is physically impossible by every standard of science. If we want to answer Kara’s question, I think we need to start with Aeterna itself. More to the point, the intelligence that remade the planet and guides you even now.”

  The Aeternans looked as if they wanted to be somewhere else, including Exeter. She had to give Ham credit: He wasn’t holding back his chips. Michael rubbed his eyes.

  “I don’t take offense, Ham. Nobody seriously believes we’ve done all this strictly on our own. We had help. But folks aren’t so impressed when they know how the sausage is made, if you get my drift. They’re called the Jewels of Eternity, for those of you who don’t know. You might recall the hybrids – James Sheridan and his lot – called themselves the Jewels. Advertised themselves as gods. They weren’t. They were just ….”

  “False prophets,” Kane said. “Genetic abominations.”