Sullivan Saga 2: Sullivan's Wrath
Read Sullivan Saga 2: Sullivan's Wrath Online
Authors: Michael K. Rose
Tags: #Science Fiction, #Fantasy
SULLIVAN’S WRATH
A NOVEL BY
MICHAEL K. ROSE
EDITION NOTICE
SULLIVAN’S WRATH. Copyright © 2013 Michael K. Rose
Cover Design by Michael K. Rose
Original Cover Image © Can Stock Photo Inc. / AlgolOnline
All rights reserved. Except for fair use as determined by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to any actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental or, in the case of historical persons, all depictions are likewise fictional.
First Digital Edition: 04 February, 2013
This Edition: 19 June, 2014
- SULLIVAN’S WRATH
- EDITION NOTICE
- I: VISIONS AND VISITATIONS
- II: BETRAYAL
- III: REVELATIONS
- IV: THE GREAT WAR
- V: TRANSFORMATION
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ALSO AVAILABLE
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I: VISIONS AND VISITATIONS
RICK SULLIVAN HAD been dreading this for months. He smiled over at Kate, hiding his discomfort. She had just asked him the question he’d been avoiding ever since he returned from the war on Edaline. He’d been avoiding talking about it with her and had even been avoiding just thinking about it.
“How do you deal with it?” she’d asked.
Sullivan played dumb, even though he knew precisely what she meant. He could see the concern in her eyes just before he glanced away. “With what?”
“With seeing what you’ve seen. With being forced to do what you had to do.”
Sullivan picked up his glass and took a drink. “It’s not a very pleasant thing to talk about, Kate. You don’t want to hear about all that.”
“Of course I do. You went through something that changed you, shaped you. I want to know how you feel about it. If you can talk about it, that is.”
“I can, but…. What do you mean it shaped me? Am I a different man now?”
“Yes and no. You don’t seem different, but I can tell that you are.”
Sullivan set his glass down and looked toward the far side of the restaurant. He tried to tell himself that he didn’t know what she was talking about, but the truth was that he did. And it hadn’t been the war that had changed him. He’d been in plenty of conflicts leading up to the war for Edaline’s freedom. It hadn’t been seeing so many die. It hadn’t even been the fact that he himself had killed so many. He’d killed before, and it hadn’t affected him all that much—at least, that’s what he told himself.
Sullivan looked back at Kate and smiled. No, she was the reason he had changed. Ever since his parents had been killed in the first Edaline rebellion, he’d been on his own. He had formed relationships, of course, but he’d never loved someone else the way he loved Kate. He now worried about her safety more than his own. All the time they’d spent together before the war he had been focused on getting back to Edaline and fighting for the planet’s independence. He’d been able to focus his thoughts and energy toward that, and even though he had worried about Kate during that time, he had been able to keep it hidden.
But now, with the war over and little for him to do, his worrying was more apparent. Living as they were, with a thin veneer of security over them, she had been able to return to her old habits, but he could not. The Bureau was keeping close tabs on them, waiting for the moment the political favors Kate’s father had accumulated finally ran out. Sullivan worried she’d be arrested along with him. He worried the Bureau agents would be too eager to take them in, too ready to use force.
“Kate,” he said, “you’re right that I am different. I suppose ‘on edge’ would be the best way to describe it. I feel so unsettled here. I feel like anything could happen at any time.”
“Nothing will happen, Rick. We’re safe. I told you that my father’s friends will give us plenty of advance warning.”
“I know. But what if they can’t? Why take the risk? Why wait to move on with our lives?”
“You want to leave Silvanus before we have to?”
He nodded. “I know this is your home, Kate. I know you have friends here, and your cousins. But we always knew we’d have to leave eventually. Why wait? Why cut it so close?”
Kate reached across the table and took his hand. “I know you’ve let us stay here so long for my sake. You wanted me to be happy, to have some sense of normality, a taste of my old life, before we were uprooted again. But I’m ready now. I’ll be happy on Faris or anywhere else as long as you’re with me. We can leave if you want.”
Sullivan frowned. “I don’t want to rush you. You still have things to put in order.”
“Not many. I can take care of it all this week. We can leave by Monday.”
“Are you sure?”
She smiled. “Yes. And are you sure?”
“Sure of what?”
“That this is all that’s troubling you?”
Sullivan took a deep breath. “Yes.” He looked away again, knowing she would see through his deception, but he hoped she would not pursue it. His worries did go beyond Kate’s safety. Sullivan had never completely gotten over the idea that the mysterious hyperspace entities they had encountered were up to no good. Their interest in Sullivan—and especially in Frank Allen—seemed too keen. They wanted something. As far as Sullivan knew, they hadn’t mentioned what that was to Allen. And even though Allen had denied it on more than one occasion, Sullivan suspected that he was still in contact with the entities. If he was, Sullivan didn’t see a reason for his friend to lie to him about it. But that lie—if he was lying—was more concerning than anything the Bureau would be able to do to them.
IT ALWAYS BEGAN with a chill. Frank Allen would feel the room grow cold, feel the hairs on his arms stand up, feel it penetrate his skin, reach into his body and seize his heart. It filed him with a nearly unbearable sense of dread. But that would subside. Liz Wagner would appear before him smiling, always smiling. Her smile would warm him again.
“Frank,” she said.
“Hello, my love.” Allen was immediately drawn in by her smile, her dark brown eyes, the curve of her neck, the way her hair framed her face. She looked as real and as solid as everything else in the room. She looked as though he could touch her.
Allen moved to embrace her but stopped. “I hate this.”
“That you can’t touch me?”
“Yes. I can see you and hear you, but I can’t touch you. Or smell you or taste you. I want to touch you, Liz.”
“Soon, Frank. It’s what we’ve been working on. And we’ve found a way.”
“You have? How?”
“The details aren’t important right now. But I promise that as long as you do exactly what I say, it will work.”
“What do I have to do?”
“First you must get to Edaline.”
“Why Edaline?”
“You need to get the ship, Frank. Edaline’s new government has repaired one of the hyper-hyperspace ships. You need to get to it so you can return to me.”
“I can be with you in standard hyperspace, can’t I?”
“Yes. But you need to travel deeper than that. You need to enter hyper-hyperspace for me to be able to bring you over, for us to be together for good.”
“You’re sure you can bring me over? I’ll become like you?”
“Exactly like me, Frank.”
Allen studied her face. “Will I still be human? I mean, will I still feel the same, think the same?”
“You will be just as you are now, only free. Free of time and space, free of death.” Liz smiled at him.
Allen smiled back. He wasn’t particularly happy—in fact, he couldn’t really say that he had felt truly happy since Liz, the real Liz, had died—but he smiled all the same. He smiled because he didn’t know how else to react. She was smiling, so he felt that he must smile.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll make the arrangements.” He was about to continue speaking, but something in her demeanor told him to hold his tongue. What was it he’d wanted to say, anyway? He’d had a question. What was it?
Liz crossed her arms beneath her breasts, lifting them up slightly. Allen looked on longingly, forgetting his question, whatever it had been.
“Do you remember that one night we had in Paris, Frank?” she asked. “Do you remember how we could see the Eiffel Tower from our room?”
“Of course I remember. That was our last night together on Earth.”
“Yes.” She moved nearer. “Once you cross over, we can relive that as many times as we want. Whatever is in your mind, Frank, any memory, any fantasy, it can be ours. Anything you want me to do for you—to you—I’ll do it.”
He smiled again. “That sounds wonderful.”
“It will be, Frank. But you have to do what I say for it to happen. Unless you follow my instructions very carefully, you won’t be able to cross over.”
“Why not?”
“Conditions must be perfect.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Does it matter?”
Allen was about to speak but paused. He decided that no, it didn’t matter. Nor did he want to know if it would hurt. The anticipation of pain was often worse than the pain itself. But there would be pain no matter what. He would be leaving his friends behind. Even if he could still communicate with them the way Liz was now communicating with him, it wouldn’t be the same.
“It’ll be hard leaving Rick and Kate behind,” he said.
Liz’s eyes saddened. “I’m sorry that you have to make such a difficult choice, Frank. I know they mean a lot to you.”
“Rick is my best friend. I feel bad keeping the truth from him. I feel like I’m betraying his loyalty.”
“But you’re being loyal to me, Frank. No one can fault you for that.”
“I know.”
“Does Richard Sullivan suspect anything?”
Allen furrowed his brow. He found it odd that she always referred to him by his full name. It was almost as though she were trying to depersonalize him. Once again, Allen felt his next question fade away. He decided to answer Liz instead. “I don’t think so. I’ve been trying to keep him from being too suspicious. I’ve been doing my best to act… normal.”
Liz Wagner shook her head. “Normal, Frank? There is nothing abnormal in what you’re doing. There is nothing wrong about wanting to be with the woman you love. If Richard Sullivan thinks you are not normal then perhaps he’s not as good a friend as you thought.”
Frank stood up from the chair and walked toward the window. He looked out across the park next to the building. His mind had suddenly cleared. “The woman I love,” he repeated. “That’s the only thing that gives me pause. The fact is you’re not the woman I love. You say it will be the same, that I’ll never know that you’re not her. But I do know.” He glanced at Liz. “At what point do I stop loving her because you resemble her and start loving you because you’re you? Can I even do that?”
“Frank, I took this form when we first encountered one another for a reason. I knew that you would respond to it. I knew that it would not frighten you. I could feel how much you wanted to see her. I could feel your pain, and I wanted to take away some of that pain. I’ve remained like this because it still makes you feel safe, puts you at ease. But if you no longer want to be reminded of Liz….”
“No.” Allen was gripped with fear at the thought of this entity leaving or taking another form, at the thought of not being able to see and speak with Liz.
Liz nodded and smiled. That smile. Allen felt his body relax. His mind felt foggy again, but he was trying to fight it.
“I know you’ll always know that I’m not her,” she said, “but maybe, in time, that won’t matter. Once you’ve crossed over and your body no longer exists, I’ll no longer need to take this form to communicate with you. It will just be you and me, Frank, together as one. And it’s what I want more than anything. I love you, Frank. I love you just as she loved you.”
