Armageddon (6 page)

“That’s the other surprise I came to share. Brace yourselves; this might come as a shock…”

Dinner sat steaming on their plates, rapidly cooling, but no one moved to touch their food. All eyes were on Atton, waiting for something unexpected to happen. Then, suddenly, Atton’s features shimmered and morphed from the green eyes, dark hair, and oval face of the boy they knew, to the face of a complete stranger. Golden eyes replaced green; brown hair replaced black; and gaunt cheeks and sharply-defined features replaced his boyish good looks. Atton’s new appearance was sinister, though Hoff supposed others might have said he looked
dangerous
.

Beside him, Destra gasped, but Hoff smiled with sudden understanding. “A bio-synthetic suit.”

Atton nodded. “Yes.” Even his voice was different. “Unfortunately, a bio-synthetic suit isn’t enough to fool someone who lives with you. That degree of intimacy leaves considerable room for failure, and I couldn’t afford for Ceyla to see through my disguise too soon.”

“Atton, what did you
do?
” Destra asked, sounding horrified.

“The face you saw a moment ago, the face of Atton, was the one projected by the suit. This one is real. It’s the face of Darin Thardris, the estranged grandson of Vladin Thardris.”

“You transferred to
another
body?” Destra said.

“Can
I
do that?” Atta asked.

“No,” Hoff replied, his eyes narrowing on his daughter. “You’re already perfect the way you are.” To Atton he said, “Have you thought about what will happen when Ceyla finds out who you
really
are and that you’ve been lying to her all this time?”

“I’m going to tell her tomorrow, before I propose. She’ll either accept me for who I really am… or not.”

“She might need some time to think about it,” Hoff said.

“Probably, but I’m prepared to wait as long as she needs.”

“She might also say no,” he warned. “It’s a big deception.”

Atton appeared to consider that. “I lied to be with her, not to hurt her. She’s smart enough to understand the difference.”

Hoff sighed. Destra looked ready to say something more, but he squeezed her knee again. “Well, If you’re sure, then we’re sure, Atton. It might be premature to say, but—” Hoff raised his wine glass. “—congratulations.” Everyone else raised their glass for the toast—everyone except for Destra.

“Thank you, Hoff. Mom? Are you okay?”

Hoff saw her staring out the windows at nothing in particular, her lips pressed into a stubborn line. He knew that look.

Atton frowned and rose from the table. “I think maybe I’d better come back another day.”

“Destra, darling…” Hoff began.

Then she rose from the table, too, and rounded on her son. “You’re a foolish, foolish boy! You expect me to be happy that you’re leaving us? You won’t even be able to visit us anymore!”

“Hopefully Ceyla will agree to ascend to Etheria, and then we’ll all be together.”

“Then why didn’t she do so sooner? You said it yourself, she believes we have a
soul,
and that hasn’t changed. Her beliefs will keep her where she is until she dies and leaves you a grieving widower.” Atton looked uncertain. “Have you considered what you’ll be giving up? Or the risk you’ll be taking with your life? If you choose to go to the Null Zone now, you’ll become a
target
. You won’t age, and you don’t look like them. You’re too perfect. Right now it’s suspicious, but once people get to know you, they’ll realize you don’t belong.”

“I can look after myself.”

“Let’s suppose you can. And that Ceyla can, and that everything works out just fine. Twenty years from now she’ll be looking old already, and you’ll still be young and handsome. How do you think that ends up? It ends up with you looking after an old crone.”

“Love goes beyond the surface,” Atton insisted.

“But not beyond death! There’s a reason marriage vows used to read
till death do us part.
”

Atton smirked at that. “And now they read,
until this contract expires.
What does your marriage contract read, Mom? Ten years? Twenty? It’s the same thing.”

“That’s none of your business, Atton. The point is, your marriage is doomed to failure one way or another, and in the meantime you’ll run the very real risk that someone kills you out of spite. Omnius won’t bring you back after that, not after you’ve chosen to become a Null and live apart from Him.”

Atton threw his hands up. “Don’t you think I already know all of that? Omnius has already tried to change my mind.”

Destra snorted. “So why didn’t you
listen?
”

Hoff rose from the table now, too. “I think we should all agree to discuss this at another time. Atton, I’ll show you out. I’m sorry that your news wasn’t the cause for celebration you thought it would be, but…” Hoff glanced at his wife, and she turned her scowl on him. “Your mother is right.”

“Thank you!” she replied.

“But even though I don’t agree with your decision I still support it. If it’s what you really want, you have a right to make that choice. In fact, all of Avilon is built on that premise. The Null Zone wouldn’t even exist if not for Omnius saying the exact same thing to all of us—that we are allowed to choose to go our own way, even if that way is dangerous. If He allows for us to live apart from Him, then we should allow for you to live apart from us. We’ll visit you in the Null Zone. I can’t promise that it will be very often, but you will still get to see us.”

Atton nodded. “Thank you. Mom…”

Destra had her arms crossed over her chest, and she refused to reply.

“She’ll come around.” Hoff crossed from the head of the table to the foot and wrapped an arm around Atton’s shoulders to guide him out. Once they reached the door and they had some privacy, Hoff whispered, “Be careful, Atton.”

“I will. Dark Space wasn’t safe either. I know how to look after myself.”

Hoff frowned. “No, it’s not that. It’s Omnius.”

“What do you mean?”

“He gives us a choice to live free as Nulls, but I’m pretty sure he still has his ways of
influencing
people in the Null Zone. It’s in his best interests for the place to look dangerous and oppressive from up here.”

Atton cocked his head curiously, and Hoff couldn’t help seeing the head of a stranger.
Darin Thardris.

“You have proof of something?” Atton asked.

“Not everyone who lives in the Null Zone lives there because they believe we have a soul. Most of them just don’t trust Omnius, and they want to be free to make their own choices. So why is it that none of them have thought to start cloning themselves and using Lifelinks to transfer to clones when they die? Or for that matter, why haven’t the Nulls figured out how to engineer their DNA for immortality the way Omnius does with Etherians and Celestials?”

Atton shook his head. “All of that’s against the law in the Null Zone. The government is too religious to support those kinds of measures.”

“Exactly! But it’s a democracy, isn’t it? Try asking Nulls what they think of those laws, and you’ll begin to wonder about a lot of things. Nulls aren’t as free as they think they are. Do you remember the battle in Dark Space?”

“Yes.”

“The Sythians shouldn’t have been able to see us coming. We were cloaked, but somehow they had developed scanners that could penetrate our cloaking shields. I think Omnius
knew
they could see us, and he didn’t tell us. I tried to warn the Grand Overseer that something was wrong with the way the Sythians were behaving, but he wouldn’t listen. It was almost as though he wanted to shut me up.”

Atton’s glowing golden eyes seemed to flare suddenly brighter with Hoff’s treasonous words. “You could get into a lot of trouble for telling me all of that. It’s bad enough just to
think
it.”

“I already am in trouble, Atton.”

“Then telling me is making it worse.”

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself. There are too many things on Avilon that don’t make sense, and if you’re going to go live in the Null Zone, where Omnius has ways to conveniently silence dissenting voices, then you’d better have your eyes wide open.”

“I appreciate the warning, but I think you’re jumping at shadows. You should have more faith. You’re a
strategian
. You should know better.”

Hoff’s lip twitched at the rebuke, and he sighed. “Maybe you’re right. I hope you are. I’ll have to repent of my doubts tonight. Forget I said anything.”

Atton grabbed both his shoulders and squeezed. “I don’t want you to get into any trouble on my account.”

“Why are you in trouble, Dad?” a soft, girlish voice interrupted.

Hoff turned to see Atta hiding behind a plant in the far corner of the foyer. She’d heard everything. Hoff’s eyes widened. “Atta! What are you doing here?”

“I—”

“Go to your room!”

Tears welled in Atta’s eyes and she ran off.

“That was a bit harsh….” Atton said.

“She’s about to go through The Choosing, Atton. I don’t need her head filled full of doubts now.”

“That’s strange, because you just filled my head full of doubts.”

“To keep you
away
from the Null Zone, not to drive you into it.”

Atton shook his head, looking confused. “Good night, Hoff.”

“Good night, Atton.”
Be safe,
he thought, as he mentally triggered the door shut.

Chapter 6

A
tton left his parents’ apartment with a heavy heart and an empty stomach. His mother had taken the news worse than he’d expected, and his stepfather…

Somehow Hoff had taken it even worse than that. He’d acknowledged Atton’s right to choose, but he had also taken a dangerous risk to warn him about Omnius. Atton had tried to stop Hoff, tried to dismiss his suspicions, but Atton had seen the truth shining in his stepfather’s gray eyes. Doubts like his couldn’t be dismissed.

The worst part was, Hoff was right. Omnius really
had
led his fleet into an ambush, and he’d even allowed the Sythians to attack Avilon before that. Admiral Vee had explained those betrayals at the same time that she’d explained the Resistance was actually run by Omnius as a safe way for the Nulls to oppose him, and as a way to justify supplying Bliss to the unsuspecting masses. The Resistance financed its operations with that performance-enhancing super drug, and Omnius used it to make the Null Zone worse than it should have been in order to accentuate the chaos caused by human freedom.

It was hard to wittingly take part in all of that, but Atton had made a deal. He’d said he would do
anything
for a chance to be with Ceyla again. Justifying his involvement was easier than he’d expected. For every one person hurt by Bliss, ten more stayed in Etheria because of it. Only complete skriffs would want to live in the Null Zone in spite of all its problems.

Atton reached Hoff’s parking garage and climbed into his air car, a shiny black one-seater he’d nicknamed the
Black Arrow
. He fired up the engines and cruised out through the hazy blue wall of the garage’s static shields. On his way out, he configured the autopilot to take him down to the Styx. It was time to return the
Black Arrow
to Admiral Vee’s hangar and start making preparations for his proposal tomorrow.

The autopilot took him into a stream of vertical traffic, and Atton watched as the car dropped past bright and shining monoliths, rooftop parks and fountains, and safe, tree-lined streets elevated high above the Styx. Over a hundred levels blurred by before Atton actually reached the shield wall that separated Etheria from the Null Zone.

The lowest levels of Etheria were much darker due to their distance from the Celestial Wall. Down here buildings and streets still looked pleasant, but not quite as luxurious as those in the upper levels.

The car came to a stop just above the Styx, and then drone-fired grav guns seized his car, preventing him from going anywhere until both he and his vehicle had been scanned. Atton used his ARCs to mentally submit his credentials and his permit to enter the Null Zone. That done, he sat back and waited. The line ahead of him was short, a handful of cars at most, so it wouldn’t take long. Going down was always faster than going up. Ascending from the Null Zone meant one had to Sync first, just in case contact with Nulls had caused changes in Omnius’s behavioral predictions. Atton was one of the few people who knew that system was a ruse. Omnius said he didn’t try to predict Nulls’ behavior; he said he deactivated their Lifelink implants when they became Nulls, but it was all a lie to lull the Nulls into a false sense of security. De-linking was impossible, and there was no way to escape from Omnius. The need for Etherians to Sync upon returning home was just a formality to support the lie that the Null Zone was
free
.

Bright blue fans of light flickered through Atton’s cockpit, and then the drones manning the grav guns at the border crossing moved his car down through a narrow opening in the Styx. That opening would be sealed completely when it came time for the Uppers to Sync.