Six, five, four, three, two, one. Reset.
A broad smile and an agreeable nod.
“If Brother James planned any additional attacks, he would not have felt compelled to send me here today,” she said. “Salvation is protected inside the Hiebimini system. No ship will survive passage through the Nexus point. It was not necessary for him to open diplomatic talks. But he did so for the good of everyone – especially the thirty-four billion inhabitants of the colonies.”
“I see,” Cardamone said. “Brother James fancies himself their protector, does he? We’ve heard stories about his so-called miracles.”
“Brother James is showing the colonists another point of view.”
The three Chancellors shook their heads in dismay.
“I’m going to assume you don’t actually believe any of this nonsense,” Drake began. “You are a very polished young woman from a distinguished descendancy, but I also think you are entirely under his control. As much as I want to call you a traitor to Earth, I don’t think you’ve been given much choice. Had you refused this role, he would have killed you. I suspect he’s threatening you with much more than your own death. And yet, I don’t see the Chancellory as having much choice but to go forward with this truce.”
Drake’s words visibly shocked Lastrobe and Cardamone. He smiled in resignation and continued.
“Ms. Pynn is right. Their wormhole technology has left us vulnerable, and Poussard assured me any attempt to run the blockade would be disastrous. I am curious, Samantha. What is your next proposal?”
So, Drake was the moderate. She didn’t see it coming.
“There isn’t one. We ask for a truce. No more. In time, we’ll meet again to discuss details such as trade and commerce.”
Cardamone pushed back her chair. “Wait. Are you saying that’s it? We came all this way to agree to a truce on your terms?”
“Not mine. Ours. This is the surest path for all people.”
Cardamone threw up her hands. “Three days we spent on a transport. Three more going back. This did not have to be done …”
“In person?” Sam asked. “Yes, it did. We needed you to sit in our presence and look in the eyes of two humans who will never have children because of Chancellor experiments. To see them unarmed, no threat to you whatsoever. Simply dropping the terms of a truce onto admin stacks would be meaningless. You know I’m right.”
“I know you’re a tool, Ms. Pynn.” She turned to Lastrobe. “Randolph has made his position clear. And you, Armin?”
He gritted his teeth. “My position is I’m glad this meeting is off-book. If my Presidium ever knew I negotiated with terrorists, they’d ruin me and my family forever. But they won’t know, and I will not take part in a second round of this fiasco. Yes, Eve, I’ll concede to the truce. What other choice do we have?”
She pushed her seat forward and leaned across the table.
“A simply majority is enough, but a unanimous recommendation will carry more weight. Before I cast my vote, I need to know one thing.” Cardamone turned to Samantha’s right. “You,” she said. “Your name is Rosa?”
The girl looked past Sam without saying a word. Sam and Miguel shared a glance. Miguel nodded his permission.
“Yes, my name is Rosa.”
“Tell me, Rosa, you are a child. How do you know you’re immortal? I can imagine only one way to be sure of such a thing.”
“All soldiers of Salvation know they are immortal because they have returned from death. Upon our liberation, we agree to be killed so that we may be reborn.”
Sam saw a measure of dismay in their eyes but also a strange sense of wonder. None of them commented.
“This is what immortal children have been willing to sacrifice,” Sam said. “They don’t wish to fight you anymore. They simply want a home world of their own and to live in peace.”
Cardamone rapped her knuckles against the table.
“Then truce it is. Do you have anything else to add, Ms. Pynn?”
“No.”
Cardamone rose, followed by Drake and Lastrobe.
“Then we’ll leave in peace,” she said. “Ms. Pynn, I wish you good fortune, as I suspect you will need every ounce of it. Should you ever extricate yourself from this obscene web, don’t return to Earth. I doubt you’ll survive a day.”
Sam knew she was right. The instant she agreed to carry out this task, Sam wrote off ever seeing Earth again. All she could do now was protect it at great distance. And hope against hope that someday …
No, she wasn’t going there. Even to mention his name.
Drake and Lastrobe offered no final words and turned their back on her as quickly as Cardamone. They disappeared into the docking umbilical, and Miguel raised the cascade barrier. He retreated to the navigation cylinder and monitored the uncoupling. Rosa brought Sam a small bottle of water, about the size she received in her cell.
“You did an outstanding job,” Rosa said. “Brother James will be so pleased. The next time …”
“You think there will be a next time, Rosa?”
“Why, yes. We just started negotiations today.”
“I meant a next time for me.”
The girl lowered her eyes. “You don’t think …”
“I’m a Chancellor. We saw what happened on the landing bay. Didn’t Brother James say he was going to kill all the Chancellors in the fleet?”
“Yes, but they aren’t like you. He made you Ambassador to Earth.”
“And I want to serve him, Rosa. I do. He showed me his light, and it’s beautiful. When you report back, you’ll tell him how good I was?”
“I will.” Her face lit up. “We both will.” She turned to Miguel, who left the navigation cylinder. “Won’t we, Col. Lennox?”
Miguel took no pleasure in the moment. Sam saw the hollow stare of a man whose worst fears were realized.
“You accomplished your mission, Samantha,” he said. “And now we know the truth.”
Sam felt a new unease. “What do you mean?”
“They accepted the truce too easily. Admiral Valentin said no high-ranking member of the Chancellory would agree to a truce with terrorists. He said if our dialogue finished in less than an hour, and they acceded to our terms, then this would prove they are planning to move against us. And soon.”
Sam and Rosa responded with a simultaneous, “What?”
“I watched them closely. Admiral Valentin has trained me on the nuances of Chancellor body language. They came here as scripted as you, Samantha. They played us, just as our intelligence predicted. They don’t think we’ll suspect their true motives.”
Sam dared to ask. “Which are what?”
“To attack us. Full on. They have figured out a way around the blockade. They just need more time to marshal their resources.”
“But how?” Rosa asked.
“We’ll know soon enough. We have allies everywhere. We’ll strike at them first. Count on it.”
Sam felt a burning wave through her chest.
“So, all of this was theater? Brother James never cared about a truce. He sent us in to be spies.”
“More specifically, he and Admiral Valentin sent in me. When I report back, they’ll escalate the next phase in our operation.”
“To do what?”
“First, win the hearts and minds of the colonists. Second, end the Chancellory for good.”
Suddenly, Rayna’s last message returned with a fiery stamp:
When task is done, you will be done.
12
O N FINAL APPROACH TO LIONESS, Sam broke the silence that dominated the return trip. She called out to Miguel, who lowered the cascade barrier. He pivoted inside the navigation cylinder when she made her request.
“Will you speak up for me when you see Brother James?”
Miguel offered a tentative nod. “I’ll try, but he will not be in a generous mood when he hears my report.”
“I understand. Tell him how much I can offer Salvation.”
“Two problems. I don’t think he actually wants an Ambassador to Earth. And he’s paranoid about having Chancellors among our people. Ever since the incident with Ophelia Tomelin, he’s been increasingly hostile, even to Chancellors who do essential work. He …”
Ophelia Tomelin. The name triggered her memory. Sam needed a moment cut through the fog of her life on Earth.
“Ophelia? I knew her for a few days after I crossed the fold. After SkyTower, I never heard anything. Miguel, what happened?”
He sighed. “She turned on us. Tried to escape and take a hostage. Sister Ursula. One of the Jewels. I was there. We laid a trap, but it got away from us. Ursula was killed in the crossfire. Ophelia and the other traitors were executed on the landing bay.
“It tore the Triumvirate apart. Ursula was one of the original ten hybrids, and Ophelia was there from the beginning. She transitioned every liberated immortal, including Rosa and me. Brother James marks that day by making sure every Chancellor we vent is standing in the same spot on the landing bay. The only reason we haven’t exterminated them all? The rest of us are stretched too thin settling the planet, protecting the system, and building alliances on the colonies. They’ll all be dead in a few weeks.” Miguel lowered his eyes. “I’ll do what I can, Samantha, but Brother James does not welcome unsolicited advice.”
Miguel returned to his duties. Rosa laid a comforting hand on Sam and offered a beatific smile.
“It’s not his fault,” the girl said. “He’s afraid of Brother James. We all are at times. But James blamed everyone who took part in trapping Dr. Tomelin. He made sure Miguel stayed in the fleet when most of the immortals rotated down to the planet.”
“I thought Admiral Valentin deployed the immortals.”
Rosa studied her with the sympathy of an older, wiser sister.
“Who do you think ran the operation?”
Sam didn’t need further explanation. Though she spent little time with James after he “evolved” on second Earth, the resentful behavior toward a brother seemed familiar. Jamie Sheridan viewed almost everyone in Albion – especially Ben – with a cynical eye toward the end.
After the Scramjet exited the wormhole and made final approach to Lioness, Sam leaned back and braced for the unknown. If the choice came down to death or the black hole, she intended to go quietly into the emptiness of space. Miguel’s stream amp was active, communicating with the command bridge, but Sam couldn’t hear and didn’t try. When they landed, she fully expected to step onto the landing bay and be told to stay behind. A few more Chancellors would be lined up next to her, and then the cascade barrier would fall. Maybe there were worse fates. At least she’d have a few seconds of absolute peace to behold the universe.
Miguel said nothing as he claimed his laser pistol from the quartermaster and led Sam and Rosa to the lift. Once inside, he hesitated to deliver a voice command to the AI.
“He wants you returned to your quarters while I meet with him and the admiral,” Miguel said. “Rosa, program the Recon tube for a tone-x bodysuit for Samantha.” The immortal sighed as he pivoted to Sam. “Same model the Chancellor engineers wear. The same model they’ve all died in.”
He delivered a command to the lift, which soared upward. Sam thought he muttered an apology before leaving them behind.
She refused to cry. Even now, Sam was not going to break.
She knew whose name would pass her lips on her final breath.
The mistake was in thinking James’s second attempt to share his light meant something deeper, might even signal hope of Jamie still being there, his better angels fighting against the demons possessing him. She had been ready to serve him – not the god, but the boy inside. If it gave her the slightest chance to see home again, to wrap her arms around the man she loved, anything in James’s service made sense.
No. How stupid am I?
The love of her life would have said she was counting on a movie resolution. He was the expert, after all. How many times did he warn her James was too far gone to be saved? This wasn’t going to be like Star Wars, he said. Brother James was not Darth Vader – he would not be redeemed, even in death. “Assholes die assholes,” he said. “They get talked about real nice at the funeral, but they’re still assholes.”
She almost laughed when Rosa produced the bodysuit Sam would wear into space.
“Why are you smiling?” Rosa asked.
“Memories.”
“Good ones?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think about my life before Admiral Valentin liberated me. I was treated like an animal, and everything those people told me was a lie.” Rosa caught herself. “I’m sorry, Sam. I just want you to know … I won’t forget you. What you did today was courageous.”
Sam undressed herself and looked over the simple two-piece bodysuit. “I need to know something, Rosa. Nobody’s given me a straight answer. How long was I in the black hole?”
Rosa glared, as if asked to reveal deadly state secrets.
“Sam, I … I didn’t come into this until they released you and started the rehearsals.”
“How long?”
“I heard Miguel talking to Maj. Kane. Eighty-nine standard days.”
Not as long as she suspected. Yet putting a time stamp on it made Sam feel stronger. She kept her sanity through three months; and today, she held her own against Chancellors of great stature. A small measure of solace.
She kissed the girl. “Thank you, Rosa.”
Sam slipped into the bottom of the blue-trimmed gray bodysuit and reached for the top when the door to her tiny quarters slid open. Her heart fell when she saw Miguel.
“Finish dressing,” he said with fleeing attention before turning to Rosa. “How many rotations have you spent on Hiebimini?”
“Three.”
“You like it there?”
“It’s beautiful. The city is … why, Col. Lennox?”
“Because you’re going back for a fourth. And I’m going for the first time. Permanent reassignment.”
“What? Miguel … Colonel, this is wonderful news. Was it the job we did today?”
“I assume. I debriefed Brother James and Admiral Valentin. They agreed to change defense rotations near the Nexus and the outer system and expedite the production lines for the planetary defense arsenal. Then the admiral passed along our deployment orders. Brother James never objected.”
Miguel didn’t smile. Sam thought he was too gobsmacked to take it all in. She slipped on her top.
“I’m glad it’s working out for you,” Sam said. “I hope life down there is everything you’ve been promised.”
That’s when Miguel faced her with a quizzical look.
“I didn’t forget you, Samantha, but I never had a chance to bring up your case. It happened like a thunderbolt. I don’t understand it.”
“Tell me.”
“Samantha, you’re coming with us. Brother James is sending you to the planet.”
“Wait, what?”
He shrugged. “I can’t explain it. All he said was, ‘Take her to the city. That’s where she needs to be.’”
She didn’t have time to rejoice or collapse in tears.
“Needs to be? Why?”
“Never asked. Not a good idea to use that word near Brother James. He is the first day and the last day, after all. And this,” he said with a slow, building glee, “is a new day. Do not ask why.”
13
T HE JOURNEY TO HIEBIMINI’S SURFACE WAS as short as it was surreal. Before Miguel programmed the destination’s coordinates and opened the wormhole aperture, he threw up a huge holowindow for the passengers to receive the best forward view. Sam and Rosa were accompanied by two other immortals – a pair of boys no older than ten – who also received permanent reassignment, their first to the planet. The boys studied Sam with suspicious gazes, their anti-solar prosthetic lenses a murky violet.
The taller boy, his jaw rigid and his stare unwavering, introduced himself in the landing bay as Rikh
i Syed. The other – red hair in a crew cut – refused to identify himself. He hugged his knapsack close and kept one hand near his laser pistol.
“Don’t take offense,” Rosa told her. “Olan doesn’t talk, but he’s a very good fighter.”
Sam already felt out of sorts – her simple bodysuit stood out from the olive combat uniforms of the four immortals. She didn’t have to imagine how alien she’d seem down on the surface. She tried, as the Scramjet left Lioness, to strike up a conversation. She quickly wished she hadn’t bothered.
“Are you excited to see the planet?” She asked Rikhi.
“I’m just tired of dying,” he said. “Every time they vent Chancellors, I’m on duty. Do you know how much it hurts to run out of oxygen?”
She remembered the scene from the control room, as James learned the immortals on the landing bay turned on their “clampsoles.” She didn’t fully appreciate the meaning until now.
“No, I don’t, but that won’t happen where you’re going.”
“I died four times.” He scowled. “I don’t want to see that ship again.” Sam nodded, throwing in a comforting smile, but Rikhi tilted his head as if unconvinced of her sincerity. “You think I’m weak, don’t you? I’m not. I’m a killer, and I’ll kill you if Admiral Valentin orders me.”
“Rikhi, I was not implying …”
“I was the one who executed her. They gave me a blast rifle, and I killed Ophelia Tomelin because she was a traitor. They thought I was weak, but I showed them. I put eight flash pegs in her.”
Sam backed off, but not until after a shared glance with Rosa, whose simple nod confirmed Rikhi’s story. James must have been letting go of everyone who was nearby when Sister Ursula was killed.
Miguel interrupted the tense moment by indicating the trip would only take 10.7 seconds, but entry and exit might be rough.
They were.
Yet none of that mattered when the ship materialized above a lush green planet that looked nothing like Sam imagined – and far from anything the official reports said Hiebimini resembled. She knew only the stories of deserts, open prairies, and clay-packed lands with barely enough arable soil and fresh water to sustain life. And, of course, those monstrous, now dead brontinium mines that speckled the surface. Was this even the right planet?
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