The Genesis Sequence Books 6-10

by Mackenzie Morris

  "Yes, I know everything. I intend to get the Red Sand Rebels back together. This isn't over, mate. I will need the Azimandian Underground to help."

  "And you will have our help." Visht rubbed the welts on his back. "Which brings me back to what I tried to ask you yesterday. We need your help. The warbringers are losing control. More specifically, some of us are breaking free from the signals and false thoughts that Krisharn sends to the nanobots in our blood."

  "Nanobots? So there's a glitch in the nanobot programming? How do you know you have nanobots in your blood?"

  "The injections we are given while growing up and going through puberty aren't just hormones. They are also filled with nanobots. We are supposed to be a cohesive fighting force, all thinking and acting the same. We can feel this overwhelming need to do the things the nanobots tell us to do, but we retain our own thoughts and can do what we want. However, some of us have completely lost the influence of the nanobots. Without that, I forgot how to drive that battle sphere. My mind went blank."

  Vance finished his coffee then set the cup down. "If you want me to take a look at that, you need to find if there is some terminal or some kind of computer that I can hack into. Other than that, I don't know if I'll be of any use."

  "I'll look. Well, I have a few hours until I have to report to roll call, so we need to get this moving. Follow closely behind me. Oh, and you need a disguise to get through the streets without being recognized. Change out of your uniform. There are some casual clothes in your dresser by the vanity. Wear your coat with the hood to hide your face. The last thing we need is for a group of warbringers to spot you and come begging to touch you or something."

  "Touch me?" Vance laughed. "I'm that famous to them?"

  "It's kind of endearing how naive you are about all of this. You are their idol. They love you, Aveni."

  "Please call me Vance."

  "Will do, Vance."

  * * *

  Comets and asteroids scraped across the artificial atmosphere above the streets of Star-World Zero Alpha, spraying shards of luminescent neon ice through the sky. Dust from the endless cosmic lights showered down onto the pavement, coating the hovercars and outdoor patios with a fine dusting of crystalline powder. The balls of snapping electricity, neon tubes, and the occasional candlelight danced across the shimmering surfaces, casting millions of tiny rainbows through the prisms onto the sidewalks. Bare pipes with steam escaping through the joints and sewer grates emitting gases from the internal core of the vast Star-World created a low fog in the alleyways where it hovered below the third-story balconies of apartment buildings and various stores.

  Unlike most of the human colonies, Star-World Zero Alpha was quiet and empty during the enforced and created night. With no stars nearby, the engineers in control of the artificial planet used computers and filters to recreate what night should have been if they were in orbit in a solar system. Only the occasional korvishi man and his children walking home after a long day of work in some factory or in a bio-farm growing crops or a warbringer on security patrol passed Vance and Visht on the main street.

  As they turned down a side street towards a residential district, Vance's attention focused instantly on the sounds of a crying child. He shot a worried glance to Visht, but the warbringer kept walking like it was nothing out of the ordinary. Passing below the window of a modest home, Vance gritted his teeth when the crying became louder and unbearable. He could not simply ignore it. Much to Visht's obvious annoyance, Vance rolled up the bottoms of his baggy silk pants then climbed up onto a black iron fence to look over the edge of the window and into the dimly-lit bedroom of some resident. That's when he saw it. A young rejected boy, no more than fifteen, was being brutally abused by a warbringer on the floor. The hornless boy looked up when Vance's shadow passed over the bedroom, his eyes red and filled with tears. He didn't cry out or scream for help. Instead, he laid his head back down onto the carpet.

  Vance was roughly pulled off balance and he fell backwards to the pavement. Before he could move or say anything, Visht was on top of his chest. The young warbringer pinned him there with his hands clasped tightly over his mouth.

  "Quiet. Don't say a word, Vance." Visht whispered urgently. "You can't interfere when a warbringer claims his rejected boy. It is a sacred bond that is formed there."

  Abuse. Rape. That's what it was, not some sort of love or bond. Vance squirmed below Visht's weight to no avail. He wanted to get free then break in and save that poor boy from his attacker and from the life he knew he would be forced to live after this. Vance had seen what it could do to someone through Slayven. He was not about to let another boy be subjected to that awful slavery.

  "You can't stop it. If you step in, you will be killed. Then the guards will ask questions and they will find out why we were in this alley to begin with. Then I will be killed, my sister will be killed, Lucas will be killed, and most of all, Ben will be killed. You don't want your husband to be killed, do you? I'm going to uncover your mouth now, but no screaming."

  Vance clenched his fists as the warbringer's hands were removed from his mouth. "That boy is a child."

  "Yes."

  "He's your age, Visht! If you were born in that class, that could be you in there right now."

  "I know. That's why I'm with the Azimandian Underground. I want to stop this slavery, but barging in there in the middle of the night without backup or weapons is suicide. We have to remain alive for this rebellion to work. You wouldn't even be saving that boy. His warbringer would more than likely kill him before you got the chance to get him away."

  "It's an abomination!" Vance screamed through his teeth. "It's inhumane."

  "Inhumane? We're not humans, Vance. However, I understand. I hate it. But there is nothing we can do." Visht stood up and helped Vance to his feet. "Forgive me for throwing you to the ground."

  Vance pulled his hood back down over his head, hoping the fur-lined interior would help prevent him from hearing the pain-filled gasping and sobbing of the boy in the window. "We have to win this war."

  "Agreed."

  "This is unforgivable. I don't give a damn if it's your culture or not. Once you start harming people for no reason but your own selfishness and perverted sense of entitlement, you cross a line where you need to be eradicated from the universe. Period."

  "You are angry." Visht stated flatly.

  "You bet your ass I'm angry. My friend Rav and I are different on many accounts, but there is one thing we will fight tirelessly against. We hate seeing children suffer. Once I end this war, the very first thing I will do as your new warlord is to abolish all slavery. There will be no class system in Azimandia. And anyone who lays a hand on a child will be shot in the head then burned to ashes. Or maybe I cut out the part of wasting a bullet and just set them on fire so they can burn to death."

  Visht shrugged his shoulders and continued down the alley. "You really think that will solve all our problems? If you don't stop the nanobots that control this behavior, nearly every warbringer will be killed under your new laws. They can't help what they do. Taking rejected boys, slaughtering their enemies, and their insatiable hunger? All put in their minds by those nanobots. They can't get away from it."

  "What about you? Have you ever harmed a child like that? Have you killed anyone? Have you eaten a human being?"

  "Please, Vance. Don't do this now. I'm a warbringer. I can't help what I am."

  Vance grabbed Visht around his neck and threw him against the brick wall of a clothing store below a faded streetlamp. "Space help me, Visht. If you did any of those things, I will snap your neck right now."

  "Then do it. Good luck finding Kalimis on your own."

  "You disgust me. You actually touched a child?"

  Visht shook his head as much as he could with Vance's hand holding him against the wall. "No. Never. I haven't killed anyone either."

  "Then what? What have you done?"

  "I've eaten human. That's what I was raised on. But I didn'
t kill them. It was eat it or starve to death. You'll have to forgive me for choosing to not be locked up and starve. Now, are you going to make good on your threat and snap my neck? I'd like to see you try, half breed. I could take you in a heartbeat." He gasped through the pressure of the tight hands on his throat. "We're on the same side here, Vance. I have declined every time I have been offered a slave. I went through one hell of a childhood because I refused to kill anyone. I have fought tirelessly to save lives, not destroy them."

  Vance grudgingly let Visht go. "Oh, I'm sure your childhood was so terrible as the highest class with all the food you could eat and without the fear of being sold to a warbringer as his toy."

  "You would think that, looking in from the outside, wouldn't you? Well, it's all the same now. Do you want to see Kalimis or not? I can guide you back to the palace and you'll never see me again if that is what you want."

  A twinge of pity came to life in Vance's chest. "What happened to you as a child?"

  "That's none of your business. You may be able to charm all your fellow rebels into spilling all the details of their lives to you, but I'm not influenced by your charismatic nature. I don't need your approval and I certainly don't need your sympathy. Now, do you want to see Kalimis, or do you want to go back to your bedchambers? I need to know."

  Vance's anger faded away to manageable levels as he studied the boy in front of him. That's what Visht was, and he needed to remember that. A boy. A boy with a troubled life and and future that was darker than any he would wish on his worst enemies. Visht was correct. He didn't need sympathy. What he needed was acceptance and understanding, the things Vance wished someone had shown him as a child before he lost every ounce of self respect he had and ended up on the streets. "Okay, Visht. Lead me to Kalimis."

  The warbringer remained silent while he guided Vance through the square streets and to a brick well in the middle of a roundabout. He jumped up onto the side, grabbed onto the rope that led down into the darkness, then pried the grate off. "Follow me. Go slowly. That metal arm of yours is secure, right? It won't come off when you climb?"

  Was he serious? Of course it was secure. "I'm fine."

  "Good."

  Vance followed suit, groaning a little from the weakness he still had after so long without food in the pit, but he managed to lower himself down the rope. Knot after knot, they inched lower into the dry well. It was nearly five minutes of strenuous climbing and sliding before Vance's boots hit the dusty bottom.

  Two sharp clicks preceded the light that sprang to life in Visht's hand from a lighter. The flickering flame gave them just enough light to see by in the cobweb-lined stone passageway that went off to the left. "This is the back way in. The cells down here are for the most feared and violent criminals. Usually, it is accessed by an elevator inside the security bunker, but I don't have a keycard or any way to get through clearance there. I think your other rebel friends are down here. There is a human woman tending to Kalimis's wounds on a daily basis. She cleans him and feeds him. I think she was meant to be some kind of cruel joke to force him to eat her, but he has stayed strong so far. Her name is Leah or something."

  "Leah? Leah Morgan? Red hair and freckles?"

  "That sounds like her."

  "Rav's girlfriend."

  "Oh?" Visht asked. "Interesting."

  "She was with Rav when the other rebels and I were taken prisoner. Have you seen Rav? He is tall with red hair and blue eyes?"

  "Nope." Visht stopped in front of a moss-covered wall then knelt down and reached into a crevice at the base of the bricks. He grinned when the wall shook and slid to one side, exposing the insides of a room filled with machines and screens on one side and a mattress on the floor where a large warbringer with orange horns was moaning quietly below a blanket. "Here we are. Get inside and I'll close this door again."

  Vance stepped into the light from the fluorescent tubes in the ceiling. Once his eyes had adjusted to the brightness, he dropped to his knees next to the dirty mattress. Blood had soaked into it and out onto the concrete floor. "Kalimis? Kalimis, are you all right?"

  His bloodshot eyes slowly fluttered open, weary from pain and lack of sleep. When he spoke, his normally deep voice was instead raspy and airy. "Vance . . . it's you."

  "I'm here." Vance reached out to place his hand comfortingly on Kalimis's face. "How are you holding up? I know you're in pain. What have they been doing to you?"

  "Everything. If you can think of a torture method, they've done it. I . . . I broke, Vance. I tried to fight the first couple of days, but then I couldn't fight anymore. I submitted and let them do whatever they wanted in the hopes they would let me go. I did what no warbringer should ever do. I begged. I begged them for mercy, but they only mocked me. I just want it to be over. Do you have a weapon?"

  "No. Why?"

  "Find one." Kalimis whispered solemnly. "Then kill me. If you were ever my friend, you will show me this one last act of mercy and kill me."

  A female voice came from the other side of the room. "Enough of that talk, Kalimis." The pale-skinned woman with her red hair in a bun on top of her head and dressed in plain white cotton clothes stepped out from behind the divider. "Hey, Vance. Good to see you made it out of the pit."

  "Leah. Do you know where Rav is?" Vance asked. "I thought he killed you. We all saw you get hit with that tree."

  "He almost killed me. I should have died from that, but Krisharn brought me here and brought me back around. I trust you've seen your husband?"

  "I did."

  "He was supposed to be dead too, but he was brought back to keep you doing what Tirlmayn wants of you. I am Rav's incentive to get him to join Azimandia. Rav still loves me deeply."

  "I know, but Rav won't join us just to get you back."

  "Us?" Leah frowned. "Vance, are you siding with your father?"

  "For the time being. Don't panic. I'm not giving up on the Red Sand Rebels. I'm just . . . playing both sides until I can make a move."

  "Sly ssis misslysik almis."

  Vance turned back to Kalimis who was glaring at him. "What? I don't know what you just said."

  "You need to learn your language if you're going to be Tirlmayn's buddy. Sly ssis misslysik almis."

  "Translation?" Vance asked.

  Visht joined Vance's side, snickering as he spoke. "Go eat an elephant's testicles."

  "What? That's what he said to me? Kalimis, that is like the worst insult ever."

  Kalimis groaned and rolled over to ignore them.

  "Fine." Vance stood and crossed his arms. "If you don't want to get out of here, then you can keep using petty insults and stay here."

  "I'm not going anywhere with that red-horned monster." Kalimis snapped at him. "Visht is a disgrace to all of Azimandia. And now he has a band on his horn. Why am I not surprised?"

  Visht tried to reason with him. "I already apologized for what happened between you and my sister. Slayven-"

  "Don't you dare blame Slayven for what you did!" Kalimis broke down in a fit of coughing before collapsing on his back and breathing heavily for a few minutes. "You . . . should never . . . have been . . . born."

  "You're my brother."

  "I'm nothing to you." Kalimis bared his teeth, ready to fight. "You're the bastard child of a bloodthirsty maniac who just so happened to bed my mother. That doesn't make us family. You ruined my chances with Jezzien because of your meddling. You are the reason Krisharn left the empire in the first place. Don't you get that?"

  The young warbringer's shoulders slumped in his rejection. "I was a child. I was eight years old."

  "You were a spoiled brat with horns bigger than you knew what to do with. You thought you were the best thing since Nebula Dust, but you crossed the line with the wrong warbringer and you found out what they could do to a pest like you. Guess what? I laughed. When I found out what had happened to you, I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself. You deserved everything you got from Wayxlen. But he should have finished you off. Instead, y
our dear uncle placed you in a padded cell until you came back into your sanity. The world would be a better place without you."

  Visht's lips quivered and he sniffled before running to the door, opening it, then racing out into the darkness of the well.

  "What was that about?" Vance asked. "Why are you so mean to him?"

  "Why are you friends with that slug? That's what he is. He's not better than a slimy star slug. There is bad blood between me and him. There always will be. He's a coward, a backstabbing little bastard, and a lying spineless slug. He doesn't deserve your friendship, Vance. He deserves a shallow grave."

  Leah, the voice of reason, rolled over to the mattress on a rolling chair. She injected a vial of blue goo into Kalimis's bulging neck muscles. "Enough of this talk. Whatever happened between you and that young warbringer doesn't matter now. Vance is here to help. You had something to ask him, didn't you? Go ahead."

  Kalimis took Vance's right arm in his hand then tightened his grip until his sharp nails nearly pierced the veins in his wrist. "You need to leave me here and focus your efforts on getting Slayven out. I don't know where he is, but I know that being a slave to a warbringer is . . . well, you know enough to draw your own conclusions. Get him out. Don't worry about me. Tirlmayn won't kill me. He will make me suffer, but he won't finish me off. He needs me alive to fight for him after my punishment is over. But Slayven? Slayven is defenseless and at the mercy of a warbringer. You have to save him. Break him out then put him on a ship so he can fly to Darkshot or anywhere else and get help. Please."

  "What about the others? What about Dallis, Neon, and Derek? Where are they?"