Armageddon (31 page)

I’ll convince her.

I’ll leave that to you. And Atton—

Yes?

I’m sorry I had to kill you. No hard feelings?

None.

You’re lying.

I’ll get over it.

Good.

The voice inside Atton’s head grew silent and he shook himself. He noticed Valari was still standing there, frozen. Then she blinked and snapped out of it. It was like watching a statue come to life. She continued the thread of her prior conversation as if only a second or two had lapsed rather than a few minutes.

“Well? Come on, let’s get you some clothes. Not that I mind you being naked, but I don’t need you tempting me away from your father,” Valari said with a wink.

Atton grimaced and looked away, pretending to be disgusted. In reality he was too unnerved to react to her inappropriate comments. Omnius had frozen Valari as effectively as if she were a hologram that he’d paused. A chill ran down Atton’s spine, and he shivered involuntarily. He’d experienced first-hand having Omnius freeze his tongue to keep him from saying something he shouldn’t, but to freeze a person’s entire body without them even being aware that time was passing… it made Atton wonder what else Omnius was capable of.

Maybe he was a god, after all…

Chapter 28

“H
ello, human,” Shallah said.

Ethan struggled not to recoil from the Sythian. “Who are you?” he asked, his eyes tracing a spider’s web of blue veins in the alien’s translucent skin.

“I am Shallah the Supreme One, ruler of the Sythians.”

Ethan gaped at the alien and then turned to Therius. “Whatever this…
thing
told you, it’s a lie. He’s not on our side. Omnius might be bad, but the Sythians are worse!”

“Don’t be so sure. Omnius created Shallah and the Sythians so he’d have an excuse to kill and resurrect humanity on Avilon. Then they turned on Omnius when they realized he planned to betray them, too.”

“What?”
Ethan was surprised by how much sense that made, but it took a minute for his brain to process all of what that meant. “So they’re not really the enemy…”

“No, we are not,” Shallah said.

“But what about the war? The nanites? Omnius went to fight the Sythians here in the Getties,” Ethan said, his eyes flicking between Shallah and Therius. He glanced at Destra to see her reaction, but she didn’t seem surprised. She already knew all of this.

“Omniuss is fighting usss because we no longer answer to him,” Shallah explained.

“The nanites are a cover up,” Therius said. “He’s using them so that if ever anyone gets to see the Getties Cluster in the future, they won’t be surprised to find that the galaxy is empty rather than teeming with Sythians. There never was a Sythian Coalition, just their fleets. They were cloned and indoctrinated to fight humanity, and Shallah here, is a weaker version of Omnius himself. He is a digitized copy of all the other Sythians, a kind of hive mind.”

Ethan’s nose wrinkled at that. “How do you know you can trust him?”

“Are you questioning me, human? I am no friend of Omnius. He betrayed us, just asss he betrayed humanity.”

Ethan shook his head.

“Feeling more confident about our chances yet?” Therius asked.

“Yes and no. How can you be sure Omnius doesn’t know about your rebellion? You’re taking people from Avilon. He must have noticed that by now.”

“We intercept Lifelink transfers on Avilon and use this fortress’s cloning facilities to resurrect them here.”

“And he can’t trace that?”

Therius shook his head.

“All right, so who was first? Someone had to physically escape and build this place in order to get things started.”

“I was the first, and this fortress was already here,” Therius said. “It’s very old, built by the very first people to walk this planet. I used it over the course of many years to build my army. The fortress came with a working quantum junction and that enabled me to visit planets all over the Imperium, even before the invasion. I eventually convinced a venture-class cruiser captain and his crew to follow me here. Together we organized the Union—we called ourselves Etheria’s Army until we allied with the Sythians and the Gors.”

“But
how
did you get here?”

Therius smiled. “I escaped Avilon.”

Ethan shook his head. “No one escapes Avilon, and even if you found a way, what are the chances of you coming here and finding this place to start your rebellion?”

“Very slim, I expect.”

“It’s too much of a coincidence,” Ethan said.

“I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“So what was it?”

“An act of God,” Therius said.

Ethan frowned.
An act of God, or an act of Omnius?
“I don’t believe in god,” he said.

“Then neither of us is going to be happy with the other’s attributions for where we are and how we came to be here.”

“How did you escape?”

“I could go into detail—”

“Please.”

“—but it would take too long to explain right now. Perhaps another time.” Therius turned to Shallah. “You may leave us.”

Shallah lunged at him, hissing and snapping his jaws a few inches from Therius’s face. “I am not your pet, human!”

“Of course you aren’t,” Therius replied, not even blinking.

Ethan watched the Sythian go. Shallah’s thin reptilian tail lashed the floor restlessly as he went. Ethan’s skin crawled and he shivered.

“I don’t trust him,” he said, not sure whether he was talking about Shallah or Therius.

“Neither do I,” Destra added.

“We need the Sythians to help us take Avilon,” Therius replied.

Ethan turned and looked out the wall of windows to the field below. He walked up to get a closer look. Thousands of black dots were still milling around the base of the fortress.

“Those are the Gors,” he said, feeling his skin crawl again.

“We’ve been breeding them here for the past eight years,” Therius said.

“Breeding them?” Ethan asked. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. So this is
Origin?
How do you know?”

“Don’t you recognize it? Everyone does. It’s burned into humanity’s collective memory.”

“That sounds… unlikely,” Ethan decided.

“It’s the best explanation I can give you. Unfortunately it requires faith to understand.”

“Faith? In what?”

“Something bigger than yourself.”

“You’re talking about Etherianism.”

“I’m talking about a bigger picture of your existence.”

Ethan sighed. “Atta said you’re planning to attack Avilon in less than a week.”

“That’s right.”

“I hope you have a good plan. Avilon’s fleet isn’t as strong as it once was, but their garrison is stronger than ever. You’re going to face billions of Peacekeepers and trillions of drones.”

“Yes, but those drones will be all but disabled, and the Peacekeepers will be fighting for us.”

Ethan turned to regard Therius with eyebrows raised. “All right, you’ve got my attention.”

Therius smiled. “Good.”

* * *

As Ethan listened to Therius’s plan, he became more and more confident that it might work. The Union had a comparable level of technology to Omnius. Their fleet had already been fitted with quantum technologies, but they weren’t reliant on them like Omnius was, so their secret weapon—the
Eclipser—
was sure to hurt the enemy and not them.

With that one device they were going to defeat Omnius. It was a quantum jammer. As soon as it was activated, Omnius would lose contact with drones and Peacekeepers alike. The planet’s ground defenses would all go offline, Omnius’s fleet and garrison would be uncoordinated and easily picked off. The Union fleet was going to jump straight into orbit over Avilon and open fire on the planet’s garrisons before they even had a chance to take off. It all sounded very promising. Too promising. There had to be a catch.

“How did you develop the Eclipser?” Ethan asked. Thanks to Omnius, he was used to dealing with hidden agendas, and he wasn’t sure he trusted Therius yet. For all he knew, Therius had been planted by Omnius to lead all of his enemies into a trap. “And how do you know it works?”

“There have been plenty of field tests.”

“On Avilon?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know Omnius doesn’t already have countermeasures for it?”

“I came from Avilon. I was one of his most trusted confidants. Besides, we have people coming here from Avilon every day, and many of them were also high-ranking citizens. They know things, but none of them know about quantum jamming fields, and certainly not on the scale of the one we’re going to employ. And to answer your first question, we didn’t develop the Eclipser. We found it, just like Omnius found all of
his
advanced technology.”

“Omnius
found
his technology?”

“In the ruins of the Getties, yes, but he has yet to discover Origin, and the Eclipser was found
here
.”

“What if Omnius came to Origin long before you got here?”

“Then why didn’t he take the Eclipser with him? And if he knew where Origin was, he’d have found and destroyed our rebellion already.”

“That’s a good point.” Ethan sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He was inexplicably tired—exhausted actually, but he’d only been awoken a few hours ago…

“You need to rest,” Therius said. “Lifelink transfers are mentally draining.”

That explained it. “I’m not sure I’m ready to sleep yet. I want to see more of Origin. If this is where humanity began, there must be ruins, artifacts… something to help fit all of these pieces together.”

Therius spread his hands. “There’ll be plenty of time to fill in the blanks in human history later, but right now, you need to start training with your squadron. Would you like me to take you to your quarters and introduce you to the others?”

There came a knock at the door, followed by a muffled voice—“Captain Hale is here. You asked to be informed when she arrived.”

“Yes, thank you. Send her in.”

The door
swished
open to reveal an angry-looking woman with short, curly blond hair. “I need to speak with you, Admiral,” she said.

Therius smiled and nodded. “That’s why we made this appointment, is it not? What’s on your mind, Captain?”

Ethan saw her gaze skip sideways and settle on him. “I think we’d better speak in private,” she said.

“Yes, of course,” Therius replied. “Ethan would you please step outside for a moment? I’ll show you to your quarters as soon as I’m done.”

Ethan hesitated, wondering what this was about. Who was Captain Hale and why did she look so upset?

“Sure,” he replied, and eased out of his chair. He squeezed by the captain on his way out.

“Who are you?” she asked, echoing his own thoughts about her.

“Ethan Ortane.”

“
Commander
Ethan Ortane,” Therius replied.

The captain’s eyebrows lifted. “I haven’t seen him before. He must be new. You’ve made him a
commander
already? Of what?”

“He’s assigned to your ship, actually,” Therius said. “He’ll be commanding Rictan Squadron.”

“The Rictans?
Really.
I’d like to see that. Do they know yet?”

“They will soon.”

Ethan gave a sloppy salute. “Reporting for duty, Captain.”

She frowned and returned the salute. “Dismissed.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and walked out the door. It
swished
shut behind him, and he took a moment to collect his thoughts. The guard standing at the door eyed him, looking ready to say something about him lingering there. Ethan nodded to the man—a petty officer. He was surprised to find that he recognized the insignias. They were all identical to those worn by officers in the old ISSF, back before the Sythian invasion.

The guard glared at him. Ethan wasn’t wearing a uniform yet, so the fact that he was a commander meant nothing. He walked up to a row of seats along one wall and sat down there to wait. Then he heard something—

“Yes, sir. I’ll see to it immediately, sir.”

The petty officer by the door was speaking into his ear piece, but the conversation ended abruptly, and he abandoned his post, giving Ethan a warning look as he strode past. Ethan waited for the guard to round the corner, and then he jumped out of his chair and hurried to the door. He pressed his ear against it to listen in. He couldn’t hear a thing. But then, as if by magic, voices rippled out. It took Ethan a moment to realize that those voices were being transmitted through the intercom beside the door. Ethan eyed the intercom suspiciously. Was he supposed to hear this? Had Therius pressed the
transmit
button on purpose or by accident?

“Winning at all costs isn’t winning, Admiral!” Captain Hale said.

“Your problem, Captain, is that you don’t have enough faith. You think that everyone on Avilon will die if we detonate nanite bombs there, but you’re wrong. We’ll finally be setting them free from Omnius. He can’t follow them beyond the grave. Unlike us, he doesn’t have a soul.”