Ethan nodded to her and smiled. "Do you know how I can get to Fairhaven District?" he had to yell to be heard above the ruckus of people arguing inside the train. "I'm looking for my wife and daughter!"
The redhead shook her head quickly and looked away. Ethan wondered if she'd seen that he wasn't wearing ARCs and that was what had scared her into silence.
"Are you sure?" he insisted. "You must have an idea where it is. You live in Etheria, right? Please. It's important."
"I—it's near the end of the line," she stuttered.
"Thank you!" Ethan replied.
"You're not from here?" she asked.
"Not Etheria, no. It's a long story. I'm taking my family and leaving Avilon before things get any worse," he replied.
"You have a ship? You're a pilot?"
Ethan nodded.
"Can I... can I come with you?"
Ethan hesitated, suddenly worried about what his wife would say about him picking up pretty girls after he told her what had happened with Valari, but these were extenuating circumstances. Anyone they left behind would either die in the fighting, or return to slavery with Omnius. Either way, not a happy ending.
"Just try to keep up," he said.
"I will. I promise."
Chapter 41
—30 Minutes Earlier—
Hoff simultaneously pushed the throttle past the speed limit and pulled out of the simulated street onto an illegal flight path. Shining windows flashed by to either side, forming racing rivers of light.
Hoff had spent the better part of an hour trying to provoke a response from Omnius before he'd realized what was happening.
Omnius is offline!
He had to get home, and fast. He had no idea how long it would last, or even whether or not it was a trick designed to test loyalties, but he couldn't afford not to take advantage of it. He planned to get his family and run with them as fast and as far as he could. They had to find a way out of the Null Zone, find a ship to steal, and then find a way to disable their Lifelinks...
One obstacle at a time.
First things first—he had to rescue them from their so-called guardian drone, Triple Nine. She was really an assassin, and she was there to remind Hoff that his family's well-being depended on his performance as the leader of the White Skulls.
But now all of that might finally be at an end. There were rumors of a battle raging in the Uppers. The Sythians were invading.
Hoff ducked and wove through streams of traffic, taking the shortest and most direct route possible to get home.
Air cars crisscrossed the sky in every possible direction—people racing home, or to wherever they thought would be the safest. So far no debris had come crashing down from the Uppers, but Hoff knew that couldn't last.
After a few narrow scrapes in alleyways and one near miss with a pedestrian hover-train, Hoff raced inside his garage and left the car with the engine running. With one hand on the butt of his sidearm, he raced up the steps to the side entrance of his apartment and waited impatiently for the security system to recognize him. The door swished open, and he ran inside.
Hoff found his family sitting on the couch, watching a local news channel. Most of the Null networks still worked, since quantum technology was proprietary of Omnius.
Destra looked up, her face pale and eyes wide. "You're back!" she said, rising from the couch. Then Atta turned, too.
"Dad!" Atta ran to greet him. Before she'd made it more than two steps, Hoff heard a clank-clank-clank of metallic feet approaching. He whirled toward the sound, drawing his sidearm and taking aim. He saw Triple Nine racing down the hallway toward the living room, but Atta was in the way, and he couldn't get a clear shot.
"Atta, get down!"
An uncertain look crossed her face and she turned to look over her shoulder just in time to see Triple Nine raising both arms and deploying weapons. The drone had detected a threat, and unlike a proper guardian, she was prepared to defend herself even at the expense of the people she was ordered to protect.
Atta hit the ground, and Hoff fired twice in quick succession. The drone fired back in the same instant. A bolt of sheer lighting tore through his side, spinning him around and dropping him to the ground. Destra screamed as he fell. His plasma pistol went clattering away, and then came a thunk and a straining whirr of servos and mechanical elements as Triple Nine fell and then struggled to get back up. Hoff lay staring up at the ceiling, dazed, his side pulsing with fire.
Atta and Destra appeared hovering over him, both of them blubbering and trying to tend to his injured side at the same time. Despite the pain, he found he could still move. He brushed them away and clambered to his feet. Dark spots crowded his vision, and he could feel himself swaying on his feet, his gut churning with a dire need to vomit. He gritted his teeth and pushed his physical self aside, hurriedly scanning the room for his target. He expected to find the drone incapacitated and lying on the ground, but Triple Nine was gone.
"Where is she?" he demanded, turning in a quick circle, looking for his sidearm.
"Dad! Look out!"
Hoff whirled around just in time to see the drone leaping up over the back of the living room couch. Two ragged black holes in her chest gave a gory view of exposed wiring and oozing green coolant. Both her arms were raised, as if to throttle him or to fire a deadly torrent of lasers. But Triple Nine didn't shoot. Hoff realized he must have damaged her firing controls.
The drone came to within an arm's breadth of him, and then he dove to one side. Triple Nine anticipated the movement and followed him down.
Then came a sharp crack and a dazzling flash of light. The drone fell on top of him, knocking him over. He grappled with her on the ground, fighting a shower of sparks and a hissing stream of coolant. He roared, kicking and shoving until the drone rolled off him. That was when he noticed her optical sensors were already dark. A hole shone straight through Triple Nine's head.
Hoff sat up and turned to see Atta holding his sidearm. She dropped the gun and hurried over to him with her mother. Again, both women tried to tend his injured side.
This time he let them.
Destra's lips trembled and she stroked his forehead with a shaking hand. Then Hoff saw her eyes dart to his injury. The blood left her face in a rush, and she started sobbing.
Hoff glanced down to see what had upset her. He saw white ribs poking through blackened skin, and a wave of nausea washed over him. His head swam with the overpowering urge to pass out.
Hoff grimaced as the adrenaline left his system and he fully felt the pain of his injury. He began to shiver. All his plans of escaping Avilon disappeared. He was done.
The world around him abruptly vanished, replaced by a vision of a planet he was sure he'd dreamed about, but never quite remembered until now. He was still conscious and fully aware but logic told him he must be dreaming.
He floated high above the ground, soaring weightless over sprawling green fields and jungles. Overhead was a high dome of the bluest sky he'd ever seen. To one side, a lavender-colored lake sparkled in the sun. Out on the horizon, tall mountains rose from the plains, green trees carpeting them, and pure white glaciers gleaming at their summits. Hoff looked down and saw a vast, milling army of...
Gors. Then he looked up and noticed the myriad shadows painted on the sky. An entire fleet hung in a low orbit above his head.
A strong, strident voice interrupted his thoughts.
"My name is Therius the Redemptor, leader of the Union of Sentient Peoples. We have come to set Avilon free. This world you see before you is the lost world of Origin, the planet where humanity was born. It is in the Getties Cluster, the so-called home of the Sythians. Yet I bear witness to you now, the only Sythians here are the ones that Omnius bred and trained to invade your galaxy. He created the Sythians and sent them to kill you so he would have an excuse to resurrect everyone on Avilon, but even the Sythians were deceived. Once they learned the truth of their own origin, they turned against Omnius, and they
stand with us now, united against our common foe.
"The Nulls are also watching this transmission, even though their Lifelinks were supposed to have been disabled—another lie. And that leads us to the greatest lie of all—The Choosing doesn't exist to give people freedom; it exists to make humanity predictable. Something vital is lost during clone transfers, something that makes humans unpredictable, and that is the real reason Omnius makes his people choose. Omnius has never been able to accurately predict human behavior, nor can he permanently do so with those he resurrects.
"I was one of Omnius's lead researchers on the team investigating the phenomenon before I escaped and came here. These are the results of just some of our experiments—"
Hoff watched a series of brain scans with before and after resurrection labels flash up before his eyes. He wasn't surprised. Omnius had already revealed all of this to him, and he didn't need any convincing.
"We have disabled Omnius." Therius said once the parade of experimental data came to an end.
The vision of Origin returned, and Hoff's viewpoint turned skyward, soaring ever-higher and aiming for the hazy blue shadow of a venture-class cruiser. Stars pricked through the blue and Hoff saw a combined squadron of Shell Fighters and Novas roar by in front of him, flying in tandem wing pairs. "He has no more power over you, but he is far from defeated. Now is your chance to be free. Join us! Fight! For freedom!"
The vision vanished, and Hoff was left staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. Suddenly he understood Omnius's absence, and the reason for it was better than he'd even dared to hope.
"It was all a lie..." Destra began.
"Help me up," Hoff croaked.
Atta shook her head and bit her lip. "You need to lie down, Dad. I'm going to get the medkit. I'll be right back!"
Hoff was about to object, but another wave of nausea swept over him, causing his stomach to convulse painfully. He cried out, and spots danced before his eyes.
"Hoff!" Destra cried. Her hand found his in a white-knuckled grip, and he focused on taking short, gasping breaths.
"You're going to be okay," Destra said between sobs. "Shhh..." she said.
Hoff looked up at her and smiled. "You're going to have to... go without me."
Destra looked shocked. "Go where?"
Atta returned with a medkit, already holding a hypo between her teeth. Something for the pain? She injected him, and a welcome rush of warmth replaced the blazing fire pulsating in his ruined side.
Hoff sighed out a belated reply, "Anywhere but here... find a way to get away from Avilon before it's too late."
Atta looked confused. "You heard what Therius said, they're—"
"They're all going to die, Atta."
"What?"
Hoff rocked his head from side to side. "Whatever these rebels think they've done to Omnius... it's not going to last. He's going to find a way to regain control, and when he does, I don't want you two to be here."
Atta set her jaw and shook her head. "We're not leaving you, Dad."
Hoff regarded his daughter with a smile. He felt the darkness closing in again. "Even if you don't leave, I will. You can't save me."
"No, you're wrong," Destra said. "You just lie down and rest. We're going to take good care of you."
Hoff tried to object, but the fight left him. His eyes narrowed to hazy slits, and then the darkness consumed him.
By the time he awoke once more, he felt much better. He was still lying on the floor, but now his side was patched, and a pair of EMTs attended him, one to either side.
"Where's my family?" he croaked.
"We're right here!" Destra said, hurrying into view.
Atta appeared over her mother's shoulder, looking hopeful. "You're going to be all right," she said.
Hoff shook his head. This hadn't been the plan. They should have gotten away! He wondered if Omnius was back online already. "How long was I out?" he asked.
Before Atta could answer, the front door swished open and Atton walked in. Hoff tried to sit up, and the EMTs helped him.
"Hello, Atton," Hoff said, smiling at the sight of his stepson.
"Hoff, we have to..." Atton trailed off, his head cocked and listening. Hoff heard it, too—the clanking footfalls of drones.
Valari Thardris came into the room next, followed by a squad of drones.
Chapter 42
Omnius saw it all play out in the blink of an eye. His awareness returned as the message from the rebels' human leader played through the minds of each and every one of his people. He saw their initial reactions to that message, the state of the battle, the locations of enemy forces... he even learned the nature of the jamming field; it was generated by a device called the Eclipser.
The jamming was deactivated for all of a minute, most of which Omnius spent fending off a cyber-attack. Even so he had more than enough time to send orders to his drones. First he ordered the fighters aboard the Icosahedron to launch, giving them basic orders to seek and destroy; then he sent updated nav data for his Facets to finish docking without further collisions. Finally, he worked on narrowing down the location of the quantum jammer.
It seemed that one of the rebel generals, Atta Heston of all people, had given the order for it to be disabled. Omnius didn't understand how Atta could be in two places at once, but he didn't have time to figure it out. Strategian Galan Rovik had witnessed her give the order to disable the jamming field. Omnius instructed Rovik to find the device and take it out.
The jamming field came back online and his awareness collapsed once more, leaving him with just his human brain and senses to rely on.
Therius! Omnius fumed, recalling the name of the Union leader. Omnius had killed him and turned him into a drone a long time ago. Yet here he was, claiming to have escaped Avilon!
Something didn't add up. Maybe this Therius was an impostor... but if he was, then that didn't explain how he knew what he did about Avilon. Even his vocal inflections and the words he used were familiar. This man was either Therius, or someone who'd known him very well.
But besides that mystery and the mystery of two Atta's, was the mystery of Origin, where Therius claimed to have come from. Was that the uncharted planet he'd found them orbiting just before the attack? He would have to go back there and investigate once the battle was over.
He couldn't believe that the planet had actually been found. He hadn't even really believed that it existed, but even he recognized it from the holo recordings in Therius's message, and that was the most curious part of all. How could he recognize a place that he'd never been to?
Omnius paced the deck, anxious for his awareness to return so he could begin solving those mysteries. Rovik would find and disable the Eclipser. He would just have to be patient until then.
* * *
Atton saw Therius's message, and he finally realized that Omnius's absence wasn't some kind of test, or even a trap to lure the invaders into a false sense of security.
Yet even before Therius had finished speaking, Omnius sent Atton a message of his own, proving that he was back—
Don't be a fool, Atton. I have Avilon surrounded. My drones outnumber the enemy a million to one. I will regain control of the planet soon, and when I do, you don't want to find yourself on the losing side of this war. Don't forget, I'm the only one who can bring Ceyla back. Bring Valari to the Icosahedron and meet me there. I'll be waiting.
After both Omnius's message and Therius's vision ended, Atton found himself lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling of Valari's penthouse. The drink he'd been carrying lay overturned on the carpet beside him. He must have fallen over at some point during the transmission.
Omnius? he tried.
No answer.
He tested his mental connection to the Omninet, but it was down, too. Omnius had only come back online for a moment. Atton sat up to see his father staring at him. Ethan's features were slack with shock.
The sound of high heels striking the floor at a hurried pace drew their attentio
n and they turned to see Valari striding into the living room.
"We need to go," she said. "Omnius is waiting for us in orbit."
"What are you talking about?" Ethan demanded, jumping to his feet. "We're the Resistance! We need to fight Omnius, not help him!"
Valari planted her hands on her hips and regarded him with a condescending look. "You can't be that naive. A few million rebels can't possibly defeat Omnius."
"They disabled him."
"Temporarily."
Atton saw Ethan's eyes narrow, but his father said nothing.
"Think about it. Omnius created the Sythians. That must have taken considerable infrastructure, somewhere far from Avilon. That infrastructure is called New Avilon, an artificial planet many times the size of this one. It's so vast and so powerful that there's no way this rebellion can succeed."
Ethan looked skeptical. "If that's true, then I'm going to find my family and get away from this frekking planet once and for all. If you really love me, Valari, you'll let me go."
Valari's expression darkened. "Fine," she said. "Go."
Ethan turned to leave, and Atton saw the metallic glint of a palm-sized weapon drop from a voluminous sleeve into Valari's hand. Her arm came up—
And suddenly everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. "Dad!" Atton screamed as he lunged toward her. Ethan turned just in time for Valari to pull the trigger. There came a sharp snap! and a bright red needle of light burned a smoking hole in Ethan's chest. He fell over, his eyes wide and staring fixedly at the ceiling.
Atton reached Valari a split second later and gave her a violent shove. She went sprawling, and he followed her down, raining blows on her face. Valari fired at him, shooting straight through one of his hands. Atton screamed as his palm erupted with a searing, debilitating pain. That moment of distraction was all it took for Valari to shove him off and regain her footing.
"Enough!" she screamed, wiping a split and bleeding lip on her sleeve.
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