by M. R. Forbes
Earth Unending
Forgotten Earth, Book Three
M.R. Forbes
Published by Quirky Algorithms
Seattle, Washington
This novel is a work of fiction and a product of the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by M.R. Forbes
All rights reserved.
Cover illustration by Geronimo Ribaya
Acknowledgments
THANK YOU for picking up the third book in the series. I’m grateful that you’ve come back for more.
THANK YOU to my team for helping with the edits. My quality has improved immensely because of you.
THANK YOU to my wife. It’s the little things that mean the most.
Chapter 1
“Isabelle, stop!” Hayden shouted. “Now!”
The robot slammed on the vehicle’s brakes, sending it screeching across the broken roadway and throwing its passengers forward. Hayden gripped the sides of the seat, his right hand crushing into the material.
The large vehicle jolted to a stop.
“Go outside, keep an eye out for trouble,” he ordered the machine.
Isabelle climbed out of the driver’s seat and exited onto the street. She looked like a force to be reckoned with in her black bodysuit, cowl, and goggles. Like a superhero from one of the old movies he had seen.
“Sheriff!” Pyro cried out.
Hayden rushed to the back of the RV. He found the botter kneeling beside the other mongrel, Gus, who was resting in a plush recliner in the vehicle’s posh living area. Gus was sweating profusely, his face pale and his mechanical arm shaking against the armrest of the chair.
“What’s going on?” Hayden asked.
He could already smell death in the vehicle. Loki’s body was still resting on the bed in the back. They had driven out of the Crosston compound at full speed and kept going for nearly an hour. Isabelle had led them on a route Hayden would never have known existed, across two old bridges that were somehow still intact, and over a pair of rivers to the mainland where she said they could find a road south and start making their way toward Edenrise.
He hadn’t wanted to stop. Not until he could be sure they were clear of the virus the Liberators had released into the air. He had no idea how far it would travel or how long it would survive. But they had gone a good distance, and now they had a new problem to worry about.
“I don’t feel so good, Sheriff,” Gus said.
“It might be the smell,” Pyro suggested. “The people in Crosston died in minutes.”
“I felt fine before.”
“Let’s get you some air,” Hayden said. “Can you stand?”
Gus leaned forward and rose from the recliner. He was a big man, almost as big as Nathan Stacker, and he had to duck his head inside the RV. He took a step forward and stumbled.
Hayden caught him with the mechanical hand Gus had inherited from his father and that he had loaned Hayden for the fight in Loki’s arena. It was strong enough to easily hold Gus up, and he used it to keep the big man steady while they made their way to the front of the vehicle.
The panic of the escape hadn’t left Hayden time to think much about what he had witnessed. Every time his mind touched on the scene at the Crosston compound, a deep chill washed across his body. When Nathan had told him the Liberators were testing a virus that killed trife, he had wondered if his instincts about Tinker and his crew had been off. He had heard the man talking on an old radio, carrying on for hours about cleansing the world and the will of the others, whatever that meant. Maybe Tinker was a little crazy, but if he was trying to end the trife for good, then maybe crazy was okay.
But that momentary dream of an Earth with no trife was shattered within minutes. He didn’t think Nathan knew the truth about the virus. That it wasn’t a targeted strain, but rather an organism that didn’t differentiate between human and trife. In fact, it killed humans faster.
He helped Gus down the stairs and onto the pavement outside. Isabelle was standing a few meters in front of the vehicle, her head moving back and forth. Satisfied, she started walking to the rear to do the same scan. So much of the landscape around them was heavily urbanized, and this area was no different. There were buildings on both sides of the street, long deserted and likely already scavenged to near emptiness. Rusted old cars sat on both sides of the road, abandoned a long time ago and moved to the sides of the pavement to keep the way clear for active vehicles.
There were plenty of hiding places. Plenty of dark spaces where someone or something could lay in wait. If Isabelle wasn’t picking up any signs of activity, he wasn’t going to worry about it.
Gus leaned against the outside of the RV. His breathing was shallow and labored. He glanced at Hayden, a worried expression on his face.
“I think it got me, Sheriff,” he said. “Fucking bastards.”
He coughed a couple of times. Then he leaned forward and vomited.
Hayden put his hand around the man’s shoulders. “Just take it easy. Try to relax and breathe. You could have eaten some bad trife meat, for all we know.”
Gus smiled at that. “Yeah, could be.”
“Isabelle!” Hayden shouted.
The robot returned to him. “Yes, Sheriff?”
“We need to get rid of Loki’s body. Wrap him in the sheets and bring him out.”
“Yes, Sheriff.”
She went back into the RV. Pyro came out. She stood with Gus, looking worried.
“It’s just as dangerous to get the flu or something out here as it would be to get whatever the Iron General deployed,” Pyro said. “Especially on the road.”
“Let’s not go there right now,” Hayden said. “We don’t make it serious until it’s serious. Did vomiting help?”
Gus nodded. “I think so.”
“Pyro, why don’t you go in the truck and ask Isabelle if Loki had a stash of meds?”
“Good idea,” Pyro said. She put her human hand on Gus’ shoulder, and then hurried back inside.
“It’s bad, Sheriff,” Gus said. “And I may be infecting you with it too. And her.”
“You and Pyro, are you together?” he asked.
“In my dreams,” he replied. “But we’re close like that, just not sexual, you know? She’s my best friend.”
“When did you start feeling sick?”
“Half an hour ago?”
“I don’t think it’s the trife virus then,” he said. “Have you ever been in a car before?”
“No. First time.”
Hayden smiled, flooded with a sudden sense of relief. “You might have motion sickness.”
“Motion sickness?”
“Your equilibrium gets thrown off by being in something that’s moving. It’s not dangerous, just uncomfortable. A few minutes outside should help.”
Pyro returned, carrying an old suitcase. She laid it on the ground in front of them and opened the snaps, revealing all kinds of old medical supplies and medications in both solid and liquid form.
“I don’t know what any of it is,” she said.
“Loki probably didn’t either,” Hayden replied. “I don’t think we’ll need it. I think Gus is just sensitive to the motion of the camper.”
She closed the suitcase and smiled. “That’s good news.”
Isabelle appeared in the doorway. She hopped to the ground and turned, reaching back and grabbing the sheets she had wrapped Loki in. She pulled his body out and onto the pavement.
“Ugh,” Gus said at the smell. He headed for the rear of the vehicle, keeping his hand on the side of it for balance. Pyro joined him, rubbing
his back as he walked.
“What do you want to do with it?” Isabelle asked.
An hour ago, she had nearly killed Hayden to protect the now dead man. Such was the nature of machines like her. Whoever carried the control device had absolute authority. There was no emotion in her voice. No concern over the man she had been serving for the last few years.
He looked at the buildings around them. One of them had partially collapsed, either due to an explosion or age. It had left a pile of rubble at its corner, and he pointed to it. “Bury him under there. Quickly.”
She didn’t hesitate or complain. “Yes, Sheriff.” She dragged the body unceremoniously across the broken pavement.
Hayden felt only the slightest twinge of remorse to treat the man that way. Loki had intended to kill him in his messed up Game, after all. He had planned to keep Hayden against his will, and prevent him from getting back home to his family. He was surprised he felt any remorse at all.
He watched Isabelle start moving the rubble with her gloved hands, pushing aside to prepare the grave. He looked back to where Gus was now standing without using the RV for balance, the color coming back to his face. He and Pyro were smiling, and by the way they looked at one another he wondered why the two of them were only friends. As if that were any of his business.
His thoughts turned back to the Liberators. What if Tinker’s virus worked, and it could kill trife as effectively as it killed people? What if he really could end the war against the aliens for good? Logically, he could understand how it might be better for Earth in the long run to wipe the slate clean and start over, especially when Proxima was so resistant to helping them fight back against the creatures.
Emotionally, there was no way in hell he was going to let Tinker send his poison to the United Western Front to kill his family. Beyond Natalia and Hallia, there was no way he could justify anyone killing so many innocent people for any reason, including that. Maybe life with the trife was hard, but his efforts had proven that it could get easier with the right motivation. The options and opportunities weren’t so black and white.
Maybe there was a compromise somewhere in between those two perspectives? Maybe if he had a chance to talk to Tinker, they could work together on a more balanced solution?
There was a part of him that wanted to kill the man for trying so hard to kill him. But what good would that do? He didn’t hate Nathan for choosing to go with the Iron General. Stacker had saved his life, but he also had his own motives.
The ring. It was easy to forget about now. How important could whatever secrets Nathan’s wife uncovered on Proxima be, when the emergency was here on Earth and much more immediate? Unless it had to do with Tinker’s designs. Was the Trust in on it? Did they know about the virus? He didn’t think so. The General had killed the Trust soldiers. Would he have done that if they were working on the project together?
It didn’t matter now. Nathan was with the other side, and probably expected him to be dead. Tinker would help Nathan access the ring. He would learn what his wife had died for, and then…what?
Hayden couldn’t guess at what Nathan would do next. Would he try to go back to Proxima? Would he join the Liberators? Would he wander off into the sunset? Did it matter what happened to him? The original mission had been to catch a fugitive, but the fugitive was innocent, and whether it was fate or circumstance or a logical, linear progression of events, he had been exposed to a different plot. A much more dangerous and deadly plot.
Tinker was doing what he was doing for reasons Hayden couldn’t understand right now, but maybe there was a line of reason buried within them. He had taken an oath when he became a sheriff to serve and protect. He had made the decision to say on Earth with all of its hardship and all of its challenges because of that oath. He wanted to go home. He wanted to hold his child and kiss his wife.
Instead, he was going to Edenrise, but he decided he wasn’t going to Edenrise to kill Tinker. Not yet. He would try to talk to him first. To explain to him how the UCF was flourishing and expanding without the need to murder thousands of innocents.
He had to protect everyone who couldn’t protect themselves. That was the promise he had made. The oath he had taken. He knew Natalia would understand that.
No matter what happened in the end.
Chapter 2
Nathan leaned against the balcony railing, an easy one hundred meters from the ground below. He looked down on the city of Edenrise, watching the people moving freely through the streets. They went on foot from place to place, from their apartment buildings to shops along the main road of the city, stopping outside to chat with one another for a minute and then moving on to their next task. He knew some of them had been born in Edenrise, but others had come from outside, making the dangerous journey from their original camps in response to Tinker’s broadcasts. He marveled at how quickly they had acclimated, so relaxed and comfortable inside the safety of the invisible walls where the trife couldn’t reach them.
He shifted his attention, pausing on the colorful flowers that lined the freshly surfaced sidewalks and then returning his gaze to the residents, gathered on a patch of grass right near the waterfront. They rested on the lawn, staring out at the water. There were men, women, and children all gathered there, the children running around together, playing and laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Because they didn’t.
Edenrise was the safest place on Earth. It might have been the safest place in the universe. Looking up, Nathan could make out the energy shield that kept the trife out by the way it seemed to slightly blur everything outside its reach. It was a marvel of technology.
Had Tinker been the one to invent it? Or did he have help from the same beings who had sent the trife in the first place?
Those were two of the least important questions that were circling around in his mind. He had hundreds more, all of them opened up by the revelation that his wife had never been the person he thought she was. That everything he had done since he found her dead had been predicated on a fucking lie.
She had counted on him, but not in the way he had thought. From the moment he had discovered the data chip in her ring, he believed she was trying to give him what he needed to take down the Trust. Data that would implicate them and all of their crooked dealings, which he could bring back to Proxima to present as evidence, to both clear his own name and get justice for her murder.
He had thought maybe it was ledgers of illegal transactions, recordings of calls where members discussed illicit business dealings, or even perhaps a recording of the agreement the Trust had made with Tinker to create a two-way trade agreement with a community on Earth, despite the edict from Proxima Command to keep the truth about the planet a secret.
He could have accepted any of those things. In fact, he would have welcomed them. He cared more about justice for Niobe than his own freedom.
But that wasn’t what she had given him. Not even close. She had used him as a fucking messenger, not to reveal the truth of the Trust’s illegal operations, but to bring the data chip back to Earth and deliver it to Tinker. Niobe had never been the girl who randomly fell in love with him because of who he was as an individual. She was a replica of his source’s wife. In some ways, she had been predisposed to loving him. It seemed like a technicality, but it hurt all the same.
Yet, he would still give anything to see the Stacker who killed her and the person who ordered the hit pay for the deed, even if he had to take care of it himself.
As he continued to stare out at the city below, he felt like he didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t, or what to believe or not believe. He had nothing to hold onto. He wasn’t a prisoner, but he wasn’t free either. Tinker had ordered James to bring him up to this room with a pair of guards. James had showed him the balcony, and told him to take some time to think. Then his near-twin had left, but the guards had stayed.
He was supposed to be dead. Tinker had admitted as much. They had tried to kill him
when they shot down the Explorer. Then James had been sent into the city to recover the chip and kill him. But James wanted someone who understood him more than he wanted to follow that command. He had been the only replica on Earth before Nathan arrived.
And now here he was, in large part because the powerful Iron General was lonely.
Nathan laughed at that idea. He realized he didn’t have to be here. The way out was right in front of him. A single short leap. He wouldn’t survive a fall from this height. James and Tinker had to know that. But they also knew his source better than anyone. They were a family, in a way. A twisted, dysfunctional family made from tech that Nathan was starting to believe should have never been invented. It was unexpected, but a part of him was starting to understand why the humans on Proxima disliked replicas so much.
The data chip was a key. He never would have guessed. There were so many questions ricocheting through the rest of them because of that truth. The Space Force had found an alien artifact before they ever left Earth. They had managed to get it open, and then they made it disappear, lost and forgotten by the universe.
Where had the Space Force gotten the key in the first place? What had they found when they opened the artifact? Why had they shut it down, buried it, and then fled the planet?
Was that even the right order in which the events had occurred?
It was obvious whatever they had seen had frightened them. If that was the right order, maybe it had been the thing that convinced them to abandon Earth. Was that why they had re-written history? Was that why no civilian on Proxima knew the truth about Earth, and why even the military was supposed to keep a no contact protocol? And how had Tinker come to know about the so-called Others? Where had he learned about the artifact and the key?
So many questions. No answers. Whatever the history, whatever the catalyst, what Nathan did know was that Tinker had learned about these Others from somewhere. They were the reason he was ready to kill every trife and every human on the planet, save for the people who had heeded his call to come to his city to be saved. Had the Others told him to do it that way? If so, how? Or was he delusional, and turning one small piece of information he had gotten from somewhere into an entire god complex?