Broken Worlds- The Complete Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  Even as Cassandra was thinking about that, one of the Cygnians darted out of line and grabbed her father’s arm in its massive jaws. She watched in horror as it shook its head and ripped his arm right out of its socket. A bright red spurt of blood followed, which meant that it hadn’t gotten Darius’s mechanical arm. He stumbled away and fell over, and the crowd erupted in chaos. They screamed, running in all directions. The Revenants were frozen in shock, and the portal had disappeared, leaving the remaining Cygnians in a stagnant line.

  The one that had attacked Darius was floating helplessly in the air, swiping at him with dagger-long claws.

  “Get the crowd under control!” Darius’s voice boomed as he regained his footing on the podium where he stood.

  Cassandra recovered from her shock and rounded on Dyara. “We have to go down and help him!”

  “He doesn’t look like he needs our help,” Dyara pointed out.

  But Cassandra wasn’t listening. She was already racing across the rooftop to the stairwell.

  Chapter 26

  “Your name?” Tanik asked with a furrowed brow and slowly shook his head. “One of the others must have mentioned it,” he said, gesturing vaguely to Trista and Yuri.

  Gatticus met Tanik’s gaze unblinkingly. “They did not, and I do not remember ever meeting you, so the question remains: how do you know my name?”

  “You got me,” Tanik said, holding up his hands with a crooked smile. “We did meet, aboard the Deliverance.”

  “The Deliverance...” Gatticus said slowly. That name sparked a memory. Several months ago he’d woken up aboard an Osprey bomber/transport to find himself stranded in the middle of deep space with no fuel and no memory of how he’d gotten there. He’d checked the logs of the Osprey and found that it had been launched from a Union carrier named the Deliverance. The course laid into the autopilot had been designed to leave him stranded with no hope of rescue, which meant that someone on board that ship had been trying to get rid of him—permanently. “Now I remember,” he said, nodding.

  “Do you?” Tanik asked. “What do you remember?”

  “Not much,” Gatticus replied. “I remember that I was on the Deliverance until someone cast me away in a transport with the goal of stranding me in deep space.”

  “Yes...” Tanik replied, frowning. “That was an unfortunate incident.”

  “Do you know who did it?” Gatticus asked.

  “Of course. It was Darius Drake, the leader of the Revenants. You discovered that he was trying to take over the ship, and he needed to silence you before you could warn the crew.”

  Gatticus accepted that with a nod. “I see. And now you want my help defeating him? What do you have against him?”

  “Oh, it’s not a personal quest. I’m just not eager to see the galaxy go from one tyrannical government to the next. Since you knew him, Darius has moved on from his ambitions of being the uncontested captain of his own starship and crew. Now he’s planning to become emperor of the entire galaxy. A law unto himself.”

  “And you mentioned that you need to develop a virus to target a certain strain of fungi in order to stop him.”

  “Indeed I do,” Tanik replied.

  “That should be easy enough to accomplish with either nanites or biological agents,” Gatticus replied. “The hard part will be sneaking a pathogen past the nanites already present in people’s bloodstreams....”

  “The fountain of youth,” Tanik said. “One of the Cygnians’ more ironic legacies. They used nanite injections to wipe out disease and make us immortal and then began to hunt us like animals.” Tanik snorted at that. “Do you have an idea to get by the nanites?”

  “Perhaps,” Gatticus said.

  “Good. Why don’t you put a team together and get started? The sooner we can come up with a way to defeat the Revenants, the better.”

  Gatticus nodded. “Before I agree to help, I need you to release the others—” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Yuri, Trista, and Buddy.

  “Very well,” Tanik said.

  “Wha...” Trista’s voice trailed off. “What did you...”

  Yuri gave a low growl and walked by Gatticus. “You!” He said, jabbing a finger at Tanik. “You did something to us.”

  Tanik spread his hands and smiled. “My apologies. Old habits. I won’t do that again. Promise,” he said, and held up a hand as if he were about to swear an oath.

  “Much better,” Gatticus said. “Now we can begin.”

  “Begin what?” Trista demanded.

  Gatticus started for the exit, but Tanik stopped him—physically stopped him—with an upraised hand. It was like running into a wall. Gatticus shook his head, dazed by the sudden impact with the invisible barrier. “Do you want my help or not?” he demanded.

  “One more thing,” Tanik said, looking as though he’s just been struck by an epiphany. He began waving his hands through the air, and a shimmering sphere of light appeared. The center of it quickly cleared, revealing a rooftop amidst a crowded city of skyscrapers, all silhouetted against fading purple skies. The streets below were crowded with all different species of aliens, and what looked like a long, orderly line of Cygnians. “Darius has dropped his guard, which gives us a brief window of opportunity to reach him.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” Gatticus replied. “If he is as dangerous as you say—”

  “Because it’s the only way for you to see for yourselves what the Revenants are like. Don’t worry, we’re not going to confront him. Not yet. Now quickly, follow me.”

  “What... what is that?” Gatticus asked, pointing to what had to be a hallucination. Are androids even capable of hallucinations? he wondered.

  “It’s a wormhole,” Tanik replied, and then he walked straight through. A moment later he appeared walking on the rooftop on the other side.

  Gatticus hesitated, trading glances with Trista and Yuri.

  “I’ll stay here,” Yuri said. “In case it’s a trap.” Trista frowned at him. “We can’t all go,” Yuri explained.

  She gave in with a nod. “Fine. Come on, Gatticus.”

  “Can I stay, too?” Buddy asked in a quavering voice.

  “Whatever happened to, Tograns are loyal companions? Remember that?”

  “Loyal, yes. I didn’t say anything about being blind and stupid.”

  Gatticus smiled at their exchange as he stepped through the shimmering sphere of light.

  Chapter 27

  “What’s going on down there?” Trista asked as she peered over the low wall around the rooftop. “Why are all those Cygnians just standing around like that? They’re unusually passive.”

  “Because the Revenants are controlling them. That’s not all. Look—” Tanik pointed to a podium where a one-armed man stood in front of a particular Cygnian. This one was trying to attack, but it seemed to be restrained by unseen bonds.

  “Behold!” the one-armed man said in an amplified voice. “This Ghoul is immune to our influence. He thought he could use that immunity to kill me. What should his punishment be?”

  The crowd below began murmuring amongst themselves.

  “I say we should repay his violence in kind. He removed my left arm, so we will remove the left arms of every Cygnian in this courtyard! Revenants! Draw your swords!”

  A shriek of metal answered that command, and strangely glowing blades appeared on either side of the Cygnians. Two lines of soldiers stepped toward the Cygnians, but even with the threat of mutilation bearing down on them, none of the aliens made any kind of move to defend themselves.

  “Why are they just standing there?” Trista asked.

  “They’ve all been turned into mindless slaves,” Tanik replied.

  “Ready weapons!” the one-armed man ordered.

  The soldiers raised their glowing swords, poised to strike. They were all now standing on the left side of the Cygnians.

  “Cut off their arms!”

  The swords fell in unison, and so did the monstrous aliens,
all of them slumping to the left as they suddenly lost both their left arms. None of the Cygnians screamed or cried out in pain. Trista’s lips twisted into a grimace. As much as she hated the Cygnians, it made her sick to her stomach to watch them all be mutilated before her eyes. Her eyes flicked over the group of aliens struggling to pick themselves up out of the dust. Some of them were much smaller than the average, and Trista realized that they were just children.

  “This is Revenant justice at work,” Tanik whispered.

  “Stop it!” a young girl screamed. Trista’s eyes were drawn to a small figure darting across the street to reach the one-armed man.

  “Who’s that?” Gatticus asked.

  “That is Darius’s daughter, Cassandra.”

  Trista watched her climb the podium to confront the one-armed man. That had to be the girl’s father, Darius. Cassandra launched into a heated argument with him. Trista couldn’t make out any of what they were saying to each other.

  Darius endured her tirade for just a few seconds before gesturing offhandedly at her. With that gesture, she flew off the podium at high speed, as if she’d just been hit by a charging bull, and disappeared from sight.

  Trista looked to Tanik in shock. “He did that?”

  Tanik nodded. “To his own daughter. Imagine how he’ll treat everyone else in the galaxy.”

  Darius returned his attention to the one Cygnian who had yet to have his arms removed—the one in front of him that was restrained by unseen means.

  Darius flourished his sword and walked around the Cygnian, slicing off arms and legs at random. The alien screamed with a shrill, thundering noise that set Trista’s teeth on edge.

  Darius returned to his starting point to face the Cygnian hovering before him. Now the creature had just one leg and one arm left out of six.

  “Now beg for my forgiveness!” Darius bellowed.

  The Cygnian screeched something unintelligible at him, and Darius’s sword flashed out once more, taking off the Cygnian’s head in a burst of glowing embers. The body collapsed to the ground, suddenly released from the invisible vice that held it.

  “Let the festivities continue!” Darius said.

  The crowds cheered, and a shimmering portal appeared at the end of the line of crippled Cygnians—a wormhole just like the one Trista had traveled through to follow Tanik and Gatticus. She glanced behind her to see that the portal leading back to Yuri’s flagship was gone.

  “All right, you’ve proved your point about the Revenants,” Trista said. “Take us back.”

  Tanik slowly shook his head. “I can’t.”

  “What do you mean you can’t?” Buddy asked before Trista could.

  “As long as that portal down there is open, I can’t open one of my own,” Tanik explained. “But don’t worry, Tarsus is the perfect place for us to develop our virus.”

  “You trapped us here?” Trista demanded.

  “Not intentionally.” Tanik spread his hands in a shrug. “But I knew it was a possibility. I didn’t know how long our window of opportunity would last, and you needed to come here and see this. There will be a chance for us to leave later, after Darius and his fleet have moved on.”

  “And how long is that going to take?” Trista demanded.

  “Hopefully not long,” Tanik replied. “I trust you’re both satisfied that the Revenants need to be stopped.”

  Trista looked to Gatticus. His jaw was set, and his eyes hard. “I am,” he confirmed.

  Trista was also convinced, but she wasn’t sure if they should trust Tanik. He reeked of hidden agendas.

  “Trista?” Tanik prompted.

  She wasn’t in the mood to play coy. “What about you?” she asked.

  Tanik smiled thinly at her. “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s say it works. We make this virus for you, and it neutralizes the powers of the Revenants. That will make you the only one with any unusual abilities. That leaves you in the perfect position to take control of the Union yourself.”

  Tanik’s smile broadened. “You don’t trust me.”

  “Nope,” Trista replied.

  “That’s okay. We’ll get there in time. As to your concerns, once Darius has been defeated, and the threat of the Revenants dealt with, you have my permission to infect me, too.”

  “And I suppose we’re just going to have to take your word for it,” Trista said.

  “I’m afraid so, yes.”

  Trista frowned and crossed her arms. “That’s—”

  “Fine,” Gatticus cut her off. “We need each other’s help. Trust will grow in time.”

  “My sentiments exactly,” Tanik replied. “Now let’s go find a place to get started.”

  Chapter 28

  Cassandra awoke with a start. Purple sky and white streaks of cloud swam into focus, followed by illuminated lines of air traffic. Her head pounded with a fierce thumping, as if something was trapped inside her skull and trying to bludgeon its way out.

  “Cass! You’re okay!” Dyara’s face appeared, blotting out the sky. “I was just about to call for a medic.”

  “What happened?” Cassandra pushed herself up onto her elbows to take in her surroundings. Her dad was standing on a podium some thirty feet away, giving what was probably meant to be a rousing speech about the future of the empire.

  Dyara hesitated, her eyebrows pinching together. “You don’t remember?”

  “I remember arguing with my Dad, and then... nothing.”

  Dyara grimaced. “He threw you into a brick wall, Cass.”

  “What?” Cassandra blinked in shock. “By accident?”

  “I don’t think so. He didn’t even come to check on you afterward. I’m sorry, Cass.”

  “You’re lying,” Cassandra said, flinging sudden tears away from the corners of her eyes.

  “You were right.” Dyara rubbed her back like the mother she’d never really had. “It’s not him. It’s the Sprites. Don’t take it personally. I don’t even think he’s aware of what he’s doing.”

  Cassandra couldn’t talk past the knot in her throat. Her head was pounding, her throat hurt, her chest ached, her back felt like one giant bruise, and to top it all off, her dad no longer cared if she lived or died. Just a minute ago he’d almost killed her himself.

  The one person she’d always been able to count on, who’d always been there for her no matter what, was now a monster. Cassandra couldn’t take it. She broke down in tears, sobbing violently.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” Dyara pulled her into a hug and held her, kissing the top of her head. Somehow that just made it worse. It should have been her dad holding her and kissing her head, doing his best to make her world right again. But this time he was the thing that was wrong with it.

  “We have to do something, Dya,” Cassandra mumbled between sobs. “We can’t leave him like this!”

  “Shhh. It’s okay.”

  Cassandra pushed her away, suddenly angry. “It’s not okay!”

  Dyara winced. “You’re right, it isn’t.”

  “I went to see if he was okay, and he told me to leave him alone!”

  “I’m sorry, Cass. I know how this must hurt.”

  “Did your father ever throw you away like a bag of garbage?”

  “No,” Dyara admitted.

  “Then you don’t know what it’s like.”

  “Maybe not, but I can imagine. We’re going to fix this, Cass. We’re going to do everything we can to fix it.”

  “Fix what?” a gruff voice demanded.

  Cassandra felt the blood drain into her feet with the sound of her father’s voice. She turned to see him glaring down at her and Dyara with a deep frown wrinkling his brow, as if she was the one who’d done something wrong. Blood fell in fat drops from his open arm socket to the ground, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “Your arm,” Dyara said quickly, standing up to take a look at it.

  It was a gruesome wound, with ragged bloody flesh around a hollow white socket of bone and cartilage. H
is green eyes were ablaze with anger and pain, and he was visibly swaying on his feet.

  “Why are you crying?” he demanded.

  The lump in Cassandra’s throat returned, and fresh tears streaked down her cheeks.

  “Stop it,” he demanded.

  “You need to see a medic,” Dyara urged, and grabbed his other arm to get his attention.

  Darius pulled away sharply. “I’m fine.”

  Dyara scowled at him. “Well, your daughter’s not!” she snapped. “You threw her into a wall!”

  “She looks fine to me.”

  “Are you insane?” Dyara demanded.

  “She needs to learn respect,” Darius replied. “She interrupted me in front of my soldiers, yelling at me and scolding me as if I’m the child and she’s the parent.”

  She’d been yelling at him because he’d just had his arm ripped off and he’d been more interested in getting revenge than getting his injuries seen to. Cassandra couldn’t take it anymore. She got up and stormed away.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he called after her.

  “Away from you!” she screamed, and with that she broke into a run, sobbing as she went.

  “Cassandra, wait!” Dyara called after her, but she just ran faster, drawing on the ZPF to hide her presence from detection. She dived through the dispersing crowd and down the nearest street. Buildings blurred by her as she ran, and Tarsians stole curious glances at her as she went. Cassandra could sense Dyara trying to follow her, but she wanted to be alone. Her father had been all she’d ever had, and now he’d turned into a monster that she didn’t even recognize anymore.

  Time seemed to race and crawl at the same time. Night fell with a sudden plunge into jagged shadows and glowing neon lights. Shady-looking pedestrians seemed to melt out of the walls of adjacent buildings.

  After an indeterminate period of time had passed, Cassandra stopped running. It was then that she realized she was alone on a dark, and seemingly abandoned street. Run-down buildings rose to all sides of her, and the street ended in a shadowy alcove up ahead.