“I objected to Alexander’s plans. I made it clear that I would oppose him.” Michael laughed ruefully. “That is almost the last thing that I remember, leaving his office, angry. We were both angry. He truly believed (or he convinced himself to believe) that he was doing the right thing. On the way to my ship, my men and I were accosted. We were overwhelmed and I was rendered unconscious. I woke up two thousand years later.”
“He didn’t want to kill you,” Arcturus said.
“I suppose not.”
“Probably keeping you in reserve. You would have been awakened after the fait accompli. A good general is always useful.”
“Perhaps. No way to tell.”
“But Montgomery was assassinated, along with his remaining generals and you were proven correct. There was civil war and the Empire went down in flames.”
“Empires come and empires go.” Michael raised his glass. “Here’s to the Empire.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Arcturus said.
The End
Information about the Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind
I hope you enjoyed The Empire of Ruin.
The series will continue in The Well of Time: Book Five of the Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind, as Michael Glover and his crew face new challenges that threaten the survival of the Empire.
For more information, please visit my website, http://www.robertikatz.com or my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Robertikatzofficial/. For continuing updates regarding new releases, author appearances and general information about my books and stories, sign up for my newsletter/email list at http://www.robertikatz.com/join and you will also receive two free short stories. The first is a science fiction story, entitled “Adam,” about a scientist who uses a tailored retrovirus to implant the Fox P2 gene (sometimes called the language gene) into a cage full of rats and a mouse named Adam, and the unexpected consequences that result. The second is a prequel to the Kurtz and Barent mysteries, entitled “Something in the Blood,” featuring Richard Kurtz as a young surgical resident on an elective rotation in the Arkansas mountains, solving a medical mystery that spans two tragic generations.
The Empire of Ruin Page 22