The Sons of Sora

by Paul Tassi

  Auran shook his head.

  “Nor should there be. It is dangerous to give the public hope about such a thing. Especially given the end result, why the findings were destroyed and made illegal, and stories of clones turned into nothing but myth and legend.

  “Torn clones would have the memories of their originals, but after a period of months, the side effects were disastrous. Clones created from the living would try to hunt down and kill their originals with fervor. Clones created from the dead would slowly see their memories fracture and distort. Their realities would become unstable, unlivable. Their physical bodies suffered no ill effects but their minds were shattered beyond repair. There is nothing so tragic as to watch a mother regain a lost son through torn cloning, only to have him turn into an unrecognizable monster before the year was out. I have tried to wash my hands of those experiments for many years, yet I still find them stained. It may have been the arrogance of youth that led me to believe I could masquerade as the gods, but I cannot blame such things for what led me to you, Kyra.”

  Kyra was silent, tears etched on her cheeks.

  “You are not a torn clone, Kyra. You are a birthed clone. Though the stigma is still present, birthed clones suffer no such ailments as the torn did. They are created from embryos as all children are, not grown into already mature bodies. They simply have the exact same genetic sequence as an existing individual. This allows them to be perfectly healthy and sane, unlike their torn counterparts. For that, I am thankful, but I am still a fool.”

  “Why?” Kyra said finally. “Why was I … created?”

  Auran swallowed a practically visible lump in his throat and continued.

  “Corinthia Vale was the pinnacle of my entire life’s work as a geneticist. After Talis Vale’s husband was killed in the war, she wanted a child to remember him by. She wanted his legacy to live on. He deserved a perfect child, she said. One without equal. With an unlimited budget, I was finally able to genetically engineer a Soran as close to perfection as had ever existed, using both Vales’ DNA as a template. Ten years and a trillion marks later, Corinthia Vale was born. She was a Soran without equal, though none of you are old enough to remember.

  “I did not understand why Talis Vale came to me once I was Keeper, some years ago, and demanded I create another Corinthia. An exact replica. Though now the answer is clear. It was when the young Miss Vale was en route to Vitalla, a trip she could not be convinced to avoid. As we now know, Talis Vale had conspired with the Xalans to make a sacrifice of her father and our chancellor, Varrus, along with a sizable portion of the Rhylosi population. Though Corinthia would be protected fiercely by Commander Mars Maston, Talis knew there was every chance she too might die in the endeavor. Too late to call off the entire scheme with the Xalans, she simply commissioned me to make a second Corinthia, should the first not come home. She said that she wanted her daughter to have a sister upon her return, one as perfect as her, though I should have suspected her true motives.

  “Mercifully, Cora did survive Vitalla, and when she returned unharmed, Talis contacted me and said to destroy the child I was in the process of creating. It was then I should have realized I had not been creating a sibling for Corinthia, but a potential replacement. But I was blind by my devotion to the Vale family.

  “And yet, this was one order from her I could not obey. My own daughter had struggled for years to conceive a child. But she had a rare genetic disorder even we were powerless to heal, and it resulted in stillbirth after stillbirth in the birthing tanks. She was devastated. I believed if the Vales deserved a perfect child, so did my own family. Why should I not have such an offspring to call my own? And so, my daughter’s next child lived, a beautiful blond girl with eyes of sapphire blue instead of sparkling prism, one of only a few minor differences between the two. They treasured Kyra as I knew they would, and I was satisfied that, for all my misdeeds, I had done something right and good for my family.

  “My pride blinded me to the potential repercussions of my actions. That someday, despite her common birth, Kyra would live up to her potential and the truth would be uncovered. Talis Vale never knew what I did, but I fear her successor, Madric Stoller, uncovered my actions through extensive data reassembly in my old genetics lab upon taking office. Kyra wasn’t a present threat to his power, but a future one, if she was anything like Cora. When he ordered the death of my daughter, her husband, and the child, I realized what I had brought down upon my family. I hid Kyra away in the hopes he would never find her again. I knew if she could outlive Stoller, she still might realize her potential for greatness. And yet, here we are, and I have failed miserably.”

  Everyone waited for Kyra to speak. She finally did.

  “So I am a clone, then,” she said softly.

  “Only in the bare sense of the word,” Auran said quickly. “In truth, you are Corinthia Vale’s twin, merely born much, much later than she. You are your own person, and though you share her exquisite, invaluable genes, you are free from her memories, her life. Looking at you now, though I regret the position I have put you in, I would never, ever regret your existence, your presence in this world. The gods helped shape you through my own hand, and you are every bit the woman Corinthia was. More, in fact, with treasured friends and guardians who want nothing but the best for you,” he gestured to the group of them in the cell. “Though I fear I no longer fulfill that role in your life, as I have brought you nothing but misfortune at every turn.”

  Kyra shivered and pulled Tannon’s dusty cloak around her. Both Erik and Noah were at a loss for words, though Sakai had put a hand on her shoulder. It was true then, what they all suspected. Kyra was a clone of Corinthia Vale, though as Auran described it, more of a sister. The larger shock was how she’d come to exist in the first place, against the better judgment of her grandfather, the proud geneticist.

  “What’s past is past,” Kyra said at last, her eyes hard and dry now. “And no matter what blood runs through my veins, I shall forever be an Auran, not a Vale. It was selfish what you did, Grandfather, to steal a child for your own line, but everything you’ve done for decades now has been to safeguard me, and I thank you for that. I hope in turn to protect you here and now, so that we may move forward with no secrets between us. I cannot blame you for the actions of a tyrannical madman, who is the true cause of all the misfortune you speak of.”

  Noah watched her in awe. After everything she’d been through, everything she just learned, she forgave her grandfather in an instant. Her entire existence was shattered, and she barely blinked, concerned only for his feelings. Noah now knew what it meant when the history scrolls said Corinthia Vale was “born to rule.” If only every matter of life could be handled with such grace. In the dark and grimy cell, Kyra shone with an inner beauty that outstripped even her outward appearance. Noah was blinded by it, and could form no words.

  His thoughts were interrupted by a Solarion guard, who had walked to the lightscreen with Tannon and the others in tow. The barrier faded and Kyra was roughly yanked to her feet by an armored glove. Erik and Noah bolted up.

  “Deal’s done,” came the voice inside the helmet. “The Black Wings bitch got her marks.”

  Tannon was on his communicator.

  “Everything set, Zaela? The transfer went through like they’re saying?”

  A garbled voice spoke through his comm.

  “Yes, th’ money’s here. Ya ready for th’ next?” Zaela said.

  “Indeed,” the towering Razor said, his voice rough gravel. “We’ll see you shortly.”

  “Fantastic,” said the red-haired guard, taking Kyra’s other arm. “Now we get this one to the Commander’s chambers and wait for the SDI to scoop up the rest of these wretches.”

  He stopped, eyeing Kyra hungrily. “But maybe we can have a little fun with her first, eh?” he said, looking toward a stone-faced Celton and Worsaw. “What, you never wanted a taste of your lady’s girl? Let’s see if she likes boys just as well.”

  “Let’
s not,” said Tannon, his voice flat. He leveled his pistol at the back of the guard’s head and pulled the trigger.

  26

  The halls weren’t empty this time as Lucas, Asha, and Alpha raced back toward the bridge of the Endless Dawn. Lucas had to keep his speed in check so as not to lose the others. The group kept running into fleeing crew members, covered in blood, looks of terror on their faces.

  “What’s happening?” Lucas asked as they sprinted past them, but none answered. They rounded the corner and found a dead soldier facedown in the hall, gnarled pulp where his arm used to be. His fellow guards hurdled him like he wasn’t even there.

  “We should consider departing,” Alpha called out. “The ship is under siege.”

  “We need the ship,” Lucas said. “And we need the Viceroy, come on!” He motioned toward the bridge doors. “Just stay behind me.”

  The doors opened, and Lucas understood why the crew was fleeing.

  The bridge was painted in blood, and there were more pieces of bodies than whole ones littering the floor all around them. Legs, arms, heads, and unrecognizable bits that barely even looked like they’d once been part of a living thing. Ahead of them was a dark figure. No, the man was darkness.

  The Black Corsair.

  A few brave soldiers had stayed behind and were firing weapons at the shape, apparently not as unarmed as they’d initially seemed. But Lucas watched in horror how their courage was rewarded. The Corsair wove around their plasma blasts with ease and raised his hands slightly. A pair of guards vaulted into the air, dropping their guns and screaming. The Corsair expanded his fingers outward, almost casually, and the soldier’s cries were replaced by the cracking of bone and tearing of tissue. Both men lost the majority of their limbs, and then were dropped to the floor in a bloody heap. The remaining soldiers who still held guns threw them down and sprinted toward the exits.

  The Corsair ignored them and turned to the central holotable. He ripped it out of the ground and hurled it into the outer wall, revealing a cowering Draylin Maston, shivering in his blood-stained suit, holding out Asha’s sword with shaking hands like it was no more than a tree branch.

  “Please,” he said, his voice quaking. “I told you, he’s in the hold. Take him. Take this ship. Take everything. Please, just let me go.”

  Lucas, Asha, and Alpha took careful steps toward the turned back of the Corsair. Asha had pulled a rifle from a detached arm on the ground, and Alpha had found a damaged submachine gun that didn’t look like it would even fire. Lucas kept his pistol trained on the Corsair.

  “Hey,” he called out. “Looking for me?”

  The Corsair turned toward them, and Viceroy Maston collapsed to the ground, overcome with relief.

  “You,” said the Corsair, speaking for the first time. “It is time for you to face justice for your crimes.” His voice was a host, a thousand speaking all at once. It shook the room like an unsettled volcano.

  “You’re his slave,” Lucas said loudly. “Don’t you realize that? You serve the Archon, but for what? You can be free of him. Free of whatever influence he has over you.”

  “I am free,” the Corsair growled. “Free to exact vengeance. Free to roam the galaxy until all the traitors are extinct. Free to search until I find him.”

  “Until you find who, me?” Lucas called. The Corsair threw out his arm and telekinetically flung the Viceroy sideways into a pile of bodies.

  “The Archon says you are valuable. That you will lead me to him, as a traitor yourself.”

  Lucas thought of Omicron’s words.

  “He is the Archon’s unchained beast, a hound chasing after prey he will never catch.”

  “Who?” Lucas asked. “Who are the traitors? Who do you think you’re looking for?”

  The Corsair was no more than twenty feet away now. He snarled with unbridled rage, words that carried the force of a hurricane.

  “I hunt the Fourth Order! I seek the monster Hex Tulwar, who will pay for extinguishing the only light in this world, my Cora! You will help me find him or you will suffer a thousand fates worse than death!”

  No.

  Standing close, Lucas could see it now.

  His curled hair was burned away, replaced by a black scalp.

  His dark eyes were now lit with blue flame.

  His olive skin was charred into darkness.

  But the line of his jaw. The angle of his nose. The way he strode toward them with purpose. It was him. But how? How?

  Asha’s barrel dropped as she slipped into shock, coming to the same realization as Lucas. Her voice was a whisper in the strangely silent room.

  “Oh god, Mars.”

  27

  The cheers of the damned echoed throughout the halls of the prison facility at Solarion Security headquarters. The imprisoned banged on the walls and floors of their cells as they watched Tannon and his team butcher the patrolling guards as the final stage of the plan was set in motion. Five Red Suns were dead mere seconds after Tannon’s first shot went off, put down instantly by Celton, Worsaw, and Zaela’s man Razor before any could react. Key had disappeared somewhere into the darkness.

  Tannon stepped forward and wiped some blood from a shocked-looking Kyra’s cheek. The red-haired guard’s head had exploded right in front of her, and even after all she’d endured, it was a horrifying sight. Noah even felt nauseous as he surveyed the carnage.

  Malorious Auran had some spatter on him as well, and was clearly terrified.

  “This is your plan? To take on an army on my behalf? We will never leave here alive.”

  “We will if we have an army too,” Razor said sharply. “Up, old man, it is time to go.”

  Tannon turned to Noah and Erik, pulled the metal goggles off his head, and tossed them to the floor. No need for disguises anymore. He unslung Noah’s warhammer from his back and unclipped Erik’s laser pistol from his hip. He offered each to their respective owners.

  “You know the rest,” he said. “Go straight for the gate, and don’t look back.”

  “If we really wanted to cripple SolSec like you said, we’d leave here with Hayne’s head,” Erik said darkly.

  “We’ll hamstring them plenty as is,” Tannon said, glaring at Erik. “This may be a prison break and a robbery, but it’s not an assassination.”

  “But what he did to—” Erik looked over toward Kyra, who was being handed a pistol by Celton. Sakai already held one.

  “While I tolerate your insubordination at the colony for some reason, the time for that is over,” Tannon interrupted. “This mission is balanced on a knife’s edge. This is no time for debate, and no place to disobey.”

  Erik could do nothing but frown. Tannon’s comm chirped. It was Key.

  “Two dead in the tower,” she said metallically. “All good to spring the doors?”

  “Affirmative,” Tannon replied into his collar.

  There was a brief silence, then the lightscreens started to go out one by one. Each cell lost its glowing door, and the eyes of every prisoner lit up as the forcefields were snuffed out. When all the cells were open, the dirty, dazed gang members wandered out into the halls. It was Razor who spoke next, after clasping forearms with a dark-skinned prisoner with a Black Wings tattoo.

  “Brothers,” Razor said. “Though we come from different factions, warring ones even, the time has come to unite for a common purpose. To tear down the tyranny of Solarion Security!”

  A rousing cheer from the group indicated universal support for the idea.

  “Arm yourselves with whatever you can find,” Razor said. “You have been in the dark too long, and the light will find you soon. Once it does, make every Red Sun you see bleed crimson.”

  There was a louder shout than the first, and the prisoners set upon the dead SolSec guards, stripping them of their armor and weapons. Noah barely had time to grab a submachine repeater off a nearby guard before the dead man’s other armaments were torn from his body.

  “Let’s move,” Tannon said, and th
e rest of the haggard group didn’t need to recognize him as the former High Chancellor to listen to his command.

  The light pierced Noah’s eyes when they reached the surface level. He could only imagine what it felt like to see the sun, however dim and tinted red, after years underground like some of these men. There were no female prisoners; Noah suspected Hayne had an entirely different purpose for them.

  The SolSec guards manning the ground level didn’t have a moment to react, nor a prayer of survival. The mob rushed over them like a wave, and they were torn to shreds by hands and teeth and improvised shards of metal. Guards closer to the exit were mowed down by gunfire before they could even raise their weapons. Noah tried to level his repeater for a shot, but there were too many friendly bodies in the way. “Friendly” was a relative term in this case; the group was as savage and rabid as a pack of wild dogs. Fortunately, they were running down a common enemy.

  Noah looked behind him, making sure not to lose sight of Kyra or Sakai. Both had avoided being crushed by the stampeding mob so far. Behind them was Auran, hands to his ears. The screams of the guards and the roar of the released prisoners made it hard to hear anything else.

  Until the explosion, that is.

  Noah had just made it out of the building when the front gate erupted in an enormous blue fireball that ripped the metal doors open and took the two adjacent guard towers down with it. That brought another victorious cry from the prisoners, who must have thought Kyneth and Zurana themselves had orchestrated this miraculous day. But really it was Noah’s brother and Tannon Vale.

  Almost as soon as the flame dissipated, a dark blur shot through the smoke. An aircycle raced into the yard and swerved hard right, unleashing a torrent of piercing ionic metal rounds from side-mounted cannons, shredding the armor of the SolSec troops now suddenly caught between the prison mob and the breached gate.

  It was Zaela, her braids whipping in the wind spirals exhaled by her engines. She reached over her shoulders and brought back two energy rifles grown men wouldn’t have the strength to dual wield, but she unloaded them all the same, arms tense with steel muscle, unheard laughter on her lips drowned out by booming gunfire.