by M. R. Forbes
“I don’t know,” Nathan replied.
He couldn’t read it. How could this be Niobe’s secret? How could they have killed her over this? It was either total garbage, or it was encrypted, or something. But he had entered the password. Had he done it wrong? Was this the result of putting in the wrong code?
Had he lost his chance to see what she had hidden for him to find?
He couldn’t believe that. Niobe had given him the password on the ring. He was sure of it. He had checked it before submitting. He knew it was right.
But then why was he looking at a screen of shit?
He leaned back in his seat, running his hand over his head and exhaling sharply.
“I don’t know what any of this is,” he said. “I don’t fucking understand it. She died to get this to me, and I can’t do a damned thing with it. I don’t fucking understand why she would give me something I can’t use.”
“Maybe it wasn’t meant for you,” a voice behind them said.
Nathan flipped his head back. Tinker was in the doorway behind him; his eyes fixed on the screen.
“Sir,” James said. “I made a deal with Nathan. I promised him-“
“That you would let him see what was on my data chip,” Tinker finished.
“Your data chip?” Nathan said. “How do you figure that?”
Tinker rolled himself into the room. Nathan noticed he had a pair of soldiers with him, who positioned themselves outside the door.
“How much did you know about your wife?” Tinker asked.
“Everything,” Nathan replied. “Her favorite food. Her favorite color. Her hopes and dreams. Her work. The things that made her laugh. The things that made her cry. How to make her happy.”
“What about where she was born?”
“Gemini, the fourth Proxima city,” he said.
“Did you ever confirm that?”
“No, why would I?”
“You can’t trust the Trust, Nathan.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re saying Niobe worked for the Trust.”
“Of course not,” Tinker replied. “Niobe worked for me.”
Nathan stared at the old man. He was starting to get hot, his anger rising into his chest. “Bullshit. I didn’t know fuck-all about you until you tried to blow me out of the sky.”
“As was intended. Your survival was an accident, and in some ways still is. But was your escape?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Nathan snapped.
“Allow me to show you something,” Tinker said.
He rolled forward, opening a compartment on the side of his chair. He pulled out a tablet and turned on the screen. He tapped on a few menus and then turned it toward Nathan.
Nathan’s heart slammed to a stop. He was looking at a photo of Niobe, standing next to a carbon copy of himself. Another replica?”
“James, who is the woman in the picture?” Tinker asked.
“Mary Stacker,” James replied. He looked at Nathan. “James Stacker’s wife. The one who invented us.”
Nathan started shaking his head. “No. No fucking way. I don’t believe it. This is a trick. A damned trick. There are no Mary Stacker replicas. They don’t exist.”
“They do,” Tinker said. “You see, Nathan, I’ve been dealing with the Trust for a long time. I was sure they had what I was looking for, but they wouldn’t admit it. They gave me bullshit answers and excuses. They lied to my face. So I had to handle it myself. I took the items they traded me, and I fixed the replicator that made James the way he is. They had no idea I could use the resources that way. They underestimated me. They underestimated my will to do what was required. I arranged for her to be given a new identity. She had Mary’s intellect. Her thirst for knowledge. Her desire to invent. I gave her a simple order: find the key. Everything else was up to her. Everything else she did on her own.”
Nathan’s head was swimming. He heard Tinker’s words, but they resonated through his ears like they were passing through mud. Niobe looked just like Mary Stacker. There was no denying it. But accepting it meant accepting that Tinker might be telling the truth. If Tinker were telling the truth, had anything she had ever said or done with him been real?
“She loved you,” Tinker said. “I’m sure she did. You are James Stacker, whole and perfect where my James is not. How could she not love her man? And when she found you? You made her happy. I’m sure of that.”
“But she was a replica,” he said softly.
She wanted children, but she wanted him more. It was a convenient way to hide her true nature. Nobody knew what she was because there weren’t any others. Because she had a different name.
“The Trust killed her because she got what I sent her for. She found the missing piece. I knew it was on Proxima. I knew the Space Force found it before they left Earth. They buried it. Made it disappear. They feared it when they should have embraced it. At the same time, they couldn’t let it go. Not completely. Hide the key. Hide the door. Worry about everything else later.”
“A door?” James said. “What kind of door?”
“She was smart. The Trust was stupid. She hid it, and she got it to you, Nate. Imani got it to you. She couldn’t bring it herself. Not with the Trust watching everything so close.”
“The judicus was one of yours?” Nathan asked, surprised.
Tinker laughed. “She was a Centurion Judicus,” he said. “A member of the Trust. But she was as crooked as they come. She was easy to buy.”
Had she guessed the key was hidden in the ring when he had kept asking her for it, even though he hadn’t even known at the time? She had known more of what this whole thing was about than Nathan felt like he ever would.
“Sir, what kind of door?” James repeated, his curiosity latched onto that part of the story.
Tinker pointed at Nathan. “You were supposed to die on the way down. Then you were supposed to die in Manhattan. The mission was supposed to be a recovery mission. Not everything worked out according to my plan, but maybe the things that went askew will turn out for the best. You brought me the key. You unlocked the encryption. You can still be useful to me.”
“I did all of this for Niobe,” Nathan said quietly, still trying to absorb everything he was hearing. “All of it was a lie. A fucking lie.”
He was getting angry again. Tinker snapped his fingers, and the two guards moved into the room, aiming their rifles at him.
“Stay calm, Nate,” Tinker said. “I understand you’re pissed and feeling used and betrayed. How about you go with my two friends here, get some air and some time alone to think about this?”
“How about you tell me what that key is for first?” he hissed, pointing at the symbols on the display.
“The trife didn’t appear out of thin air. They were sent. Delivered, if you will. Something else was sent too. I’m not sure exactly what it was. The Space Force kept it hush-hush. Hardly anybody knew about it. But James Stacker did. What I can tell you is that it came from the Others. What I can tell you is that our military used that key once, and they buried both immediately after. I have the key thanks to you. Now I want the door.”
“Why?”
“What do you think all of this is about, Nathan? The virus, Niobe, the key? I didn’t design this whole Rube Goldberg machine. I’m just doing what I was meant to do. What I have to do to guarantee the future of what’s left of humankind. It isn’t brain surgery, Nate. I want the door so I can open it and let the Others in.”
Thank you for reading Earth Unrelenting!
If you’re still enjoying the series, the best thing you can do to support it and me is to leave a review, and let everyone know what you think. I know you’re busy and you have lots of other stuff to do (like read another one of my books ;) ), but it really does mean a lot to me, and a star rating and a sentence is all it takes.
Earth Unending, the third book in the Forgotten Earth series, is coming soon. Do you want to know when it’s available? Click here.
/> If you’re interested in reading more about Sheriff Duke’s backstory and you haven’t already, make sure you pick up Forgotten.
If you’re interested in any of my other books— there’s a more complete description in the next section of this book, or you can check out my backlist at mrforbes.com/books.
Last but not least, thank you so much for your support. If you have Facebook, please stop by my page sometime at facebook.com/mrforbes.author. I’d love to hear from you.
Cheers,
Michael.
Other Books By M.R Forbes
M.R. Forbes on Amazon
mrforbes.com/books
Forgotten (The Forgotten)
mrforbes.com/theforgotten
Some things are better off FORGOTTEN.
Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him.
That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content.
Until a malfunction forces his Engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.
Until she contacts him, breathless and terrified, to tell him she found a body, and it doesn't belong to anyone on board.
Until he arrives at the scene and discovers both his wife and the body are gone.
The only clue? A bloody handprint beneath a hatch that hasn't opened in hundreds of years.
Until now.
Starship Eternal (War Eternal)
mrforbes.com/starshipeternal
A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…
Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers— a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
(War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)
Hell’s Rejects (Chaos of the Covenant)
mrforbes.com/hellsrejects
The most powerful starships ever constructed are gone. Thousands are dead. A fleet is in ruins. The attackers are unknown. The orders are clear: Recover the ships. Bury the bastards who stole them.
Lieutenant Abigail Cage never expected to find herself in Hell. As a Highly Specialized Operational Combatant, she was one of the most respected soldiers in the military. Now she's doing hard labor on the most miserable planet in the universe.
Not for long.
The Earth Republic is looking for the most dangerous individuals it can control. The best of the worst, and Abbey happens to be one of them. The deal is simple: Bring back the starships, earn your freedom. Try to run, you die. It's a suicide mission, but she has nothing to lose.
The only problem? There's a new threat in the galaxy. One with a power unlike anything anyone has ever seen. One that's been waiting for this moment for a very, very, long time. And they want Abbey, too.
Be careful what you wish for.
They say Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. They have no idea.
Man of War (Rebellion)
mrforbes.com/manofwar
In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.
Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.
Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.
Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.
Earth was lost.
It was never forgotten.
Fifty-two years have passed.
A message from home has been received.
The time to fight for what is ours has come.
Welcome to the rebellion.
Or maybe something completely different?
Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)
mrforbes.com/deadofnight
For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:
Finish the job, or be finished himself.
Balance (The Divine)
mrforbes.com/balance
My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.
Now, I’m dead.
Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...
I met Dante Alighieri— yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.
I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.
Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.
Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and recover the Holy Grail.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.
Wait. It is.
Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)
mrforbes.com/tearsofblood
One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.
The power of magic.
Eryn is such a girl. Born with the Curse, she fights to control and conceal it to protect those she loves. But when the truth is revealed, and his soldiers come, she is forced away from her home and into the company of Silas, a deadly fugitive tormented by a fractured past.
Silas knows only that he is a murderer who once hunted the Cursed, and that he and his brothers butchered armies and innocents alike to keep the deep, dark secrets of the time before from ever coming to light.
Secrets which could save the world.
Or destroy it completely.
About the Author
M.R. Forbes is the creator of a growing catalog of science fiction novels, inc
luding War Eternal, Rebellion, Chaos of the Covenant, and the Forgotten Worlds novels. He eats too many donuts, and he's always happy to hear from readers.
To learn more about M.R. Forbes or just say hello:
Visit my website:
mrforbes.com
Send me an e-mail:
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