Read The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) Online
Authors: Michael Kan
The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (17 page)
Arendi didn’t quite know what to make of it. She shook her head, watching it generate inside her thoughts. Perhaps she was being toyed with, and it might be false hope. The incident, however, had been very real.
To illustrate her point, she displayed the memory before Alysdeon in all its detail. Arendi was no telepath. Due to her machine nature, she was incapable of organic thought. So she resorted to the next best alternative and invited Alysdeon into her artificial mind.
The result was a virtual simulation, built from Arendi’s computerized systems. It ran inside her brain, replicating the sights and sounds of the experience she wanted to relive. Via her neural implants, Alysdeon was also there, but as an avatar. Her awareness was suddenly translating into data. The woman’s consciousness fed into the simulation.
She then stepped inside the virtual space, and watched as Arendi’s memory rewinded back to the crucial moment.
Captain Julian Nverson he was your friend, was he not?
Alysdeon listened to the statement and paced around the lifelike surroundings. The virtual sand was beneath her avatar’s feet, and the sky above had begun to burn. In the midst of it all was the white-haired woman. Farcia glared back, and spoke.
Julian Nverson another one of my victims. Like all the rest.
Alysdeon had asked who Farcia was, so Arendi responded in the best way possible. Together, they were experiencing the exact moment when the white-haired woman had decided to kill the Arcenian home world of Vellanar.
Alysdeon herself was already aware of the fugitive’s exploits. Almost everyone was. Their enemy had unleashed one atrocity after another, attacking several Alliance facilities and massacring tens of thousands. In the weeks before, the news spheres had all reported on the destruction.
But none of the prior analysis could reveal how personal this conflict had become. Alysdeon saw Farcia’s menacing and intimate stare. They were nearly face-to-face.
You will know my pain, the woman had vowed. Watch this world die.
It was then that the memory paused. Time slowed to a halt, and the central figure held still. Her hair was static in the wind.
Alysdeon held her hands behind her waist and examined Farcia’s face. The tears of ash were conspicuous, and they shrouded her eyes in more gray and black.
Arendi materialized over the virtual sand in the simulation. She joined her friend and heard her thoughts. But Arendi had her own to share.
I wished I had killed her. Or at least tried, she said, tightening her fist. Then maybe none of this would have happened.
It was an unusually cold response from Arendi. During her twenty-two-year career as a Sentinel, she had never before so desired to use lethal force. When it came to organic life, it was always the last resort. She could easily incapacitate a subject, whether through physical force or other weaponry, so why escalate?
Alysdeon pulled back from Farcia. She heard the anger in Arendi’s voice and understood the sentiment. She felt it as well. The surroundings and the event itself were just a simulation, but to Alysdeon it was real. This was the moment, right before the bombardment, when over seven billion people would die.
She shuddered, thinking about the impending destruction. That too, unfortunately, had also become real. But even as the anger was there, Alysdeon tried to set aside the emotion. They were here not to hate but to understand.
Focusing, she looked back at the white-haired woman and thought back to all that she knew.
The conclusion came to Alysdeon as she gazed at Farcia’s still-frozen face. There seemed to be subtle scorn in her eyes of the white-haired woman.
It was why Alysdeon had retired from public life. Her work was now focused on understanding the age-old enemy. Although the answers were still vague and clouded in shadow, the motives of the Endervars were becoming clear.
Arendi had heard about the investigations. In recent years the Alliance had even established an entire bureau devoted to it.
The enemy may have retreated, but the fallout from its invasion could still be felt today. It was a shared experience among billions of sentient beings: to live under enemy rule and to feel its influence.
Alysdeon was among those who had been affected. The experience had been brief, but she had seen the visions.
I remember what you saw, Arendi said. It was painful, wasn’t it? Julian saw the visions as well.
The alien sensation had once been a persistent phenomenon across all worlds conquered by the enemy. Through unknown means the Endervars had sought to manipulate the thoughts of its victims.
Billions of sentient lives had seen the visions to varying degrees, although most had struggled to recall their exact meaning. Alysdeon, however, was an exception. She rubbed her arms, recollecting the agony. Due to her telepathy, she was more susceptible to it.
Thirty years had passed since that day, but the experience was still etched in her memory. Others, particularly telepaths, had reported similar sensations. That an alien force might be seeking to control them.
She had heard the plea, over and over in her mind, and still it echoed. To even recall it was draining.
True, Arendi said. The Endervars left decades ago, abandoning all their territory. I’m guessing they failed.
Alysdeon then stepped back and returned to Farcia. She gestured to the lifelike simulation and connected her own experience to the woman they now sought to find.
she said.
Arendi looked at Alysdeon and saw her concern. There was no anger, just pity. It reminded her that Farcia or the person she used to be was perhaps a victim herself.
Just a day ago Arendi had seen the picture. It was inside the locket that Red had carried. Once, Farcia had been an innocent woman.
Obviously she is a very powerful telepath, Arendi added. A rarity, among her people. A mutant, according to Red, her husband.
She pointed to the man on the desert floor. He had been simulated as well and lay on the sand, his cheeks dripping with blood.
Alysdeon came to the body and crouched down on the sand. She delicately touched the man’s white hair and then looked back at Farcia.
Apparently, she’s dying. Farcia must have thought Red could help.
What do you mean?
Alysdeon shrugged, not entirely sure. The white-haired woman had killed her husband. That was clear. But still, Farcia had sought to speak with him. The one man who truly cared.
But for what? If she is an Endervar, then why even care?
Alysdeon said what came to mind. It was a strange thought, but the signs were evident.
They could feel it in the simulation: the approaching chaos and all its wanton cruelty. The Endervars had moved beyond subjugation to outright extermination. And with it was the cryptic statement.
Know my pain, Arendi whispered, remembering Farcia’s words.
In that regard, perhaps Alysdeon was right. So much of the destruction felt more like revenge. Even now, the Endervars continued to attack, killing the innocent.
Arendi thought further, however. She glanced at the sky and circled back to the enemy’s original motive.
You mentioned that the enemy wanted to correct our universe, she said.
Then they may have found it. Their solution to saving the universe.
The simulation ended, and Arendi accessed the other crucial data point. A new virtual landscape was now starting to appear before Alysdeon’s avatar. The surrounding desert drifted away, along with Farcia and Red. In its stead was the aftermath, a burned-out area littered with smoke and debris.
Arendi then pointed to the giant shadow. Before Alysdeon was a crater in the ground. It was what the enemy had pulled from the earth apparently a mile-long facility hidden from view. Now it was gone, its whereabouts and contents still unknown.
***
All Arendi had was her own speculation, but the assumption seemed valid.
This was the mother ship we encountered, she said, pointing to the sensor reading. It measured over ten miles in size. I’m guessing this was Farcia’s vessel.
As the elevator descended into the orbiting medical carrier, she raised her wrist and displayed the holoimage. The fog of light surfaced from her arm and blotted out the air with a neon-green disk.
It hung overhead. The mysterious ship was opaque and bereft of any detail.
The scans lasted only for a moment. Then the giant ship disappeared.
Alysdeon stood by her side and watched as the green light beamed. She imagined the actual scale and realized what it suggested.
I know. It shouldn’t be possible. They must be using a new energy source. Endervar matter or something we haven’t seen before.
But that wasn’t the worst part. The massive ship had arrived, not through hyperspace but via a spatial gateway one that perhaps offered instantaneous travel.
The Alliance science teams were still trying to understand the phenomenon. For them, such technology was still confined to theory, than anything real. But to Arendi, it was another display of Farcia’s power. The energy needed to fuel such technologies was likely astronomical and beyond anything that the Alliance possessed.
It will make finding Farcia difficult, Arendi explained. Endervar forces keep attacking other star systems, but there’s been no sign of this cloaked ship.
She lowered her wrist, turning off the holoimage. The green light dissipated, drifting away into the air.
Eventually, the elevator slowed and arrived at the designated floor. Stepping out of the lift, they entered the hangar bay. Arendi followed Alysdeon to the other end of the cavernous room. They passed by several medical transports before reaching the craft.
Alysdeon blushed at the diminutive size of her ship as she pointed to it.
It certainly paled in comparison with any warship, let alone the enemy’s ten-mile-long craft. But the vessel was born for battle.
Arendi saw the starfighter. This one was specifically designed for human pilots. The mechanical ship sat in the corner of the hangar bay, carrying the gold symbols of the Terran Hegemony. It was clamped down on the floor, as a low-tech ladder ran down the vessel’s side. It was small, with no cabin and only a single cockpit. Through the glass, Arendi saw the two seats positioned one behind the other. As for the rest, the craft was elongated like a sword and flanked by an array of weapons.
Arendi came to it and placed her fingers on the black armored hide. She read the designation and felt the blast scars etched into the metal.
Valkyrie class, she replied. It’s more than enough.
Arendi was glad to see the ship. Given the circumstances, they were lucky to have it.
Outside, the medical carrier orbited Vellanar, along with the heaps of wreckage. All existing military craft had either been destroyed in the fighting or had been forced to flee. Anything left was confined to simple passenger shuttles.
As for the Alliance, the various fleets were preoccupied with engaging the enemy threat. The fighting had moved far beyond to the Arcenian Empire, and thousands of Endervar ships had been detected moving throughout the region.
It would be days or weeks before a viable Alliance vessel might arrive, and the remaining force at Vellanar was few in number and devoted solely to salvage.
Alysdeon said, gazing at the ship.
She was momentarily silent, trying to embrace the fighter craft. It was just a ship, and they were fortunate to have it. But in a way it was another sad reminder of all that they had lost.
Her original vessel, the Au-O’sanah, was long gone. It was among those that had been declared missing twenty-one years ago. Before its disappearance, the bioship had come under Julian’s command and was well known for its speed and service during the Great War.
Alysdeon could only hope that, wherever it was now, it was still safe. She had nurtured the living vessel in its youth and would always miss it.
Alysdeon fitted on her piloting gloves and then motioned with one hand. The fighter sensed her presence and automatically opened the hood to the cockpit. The only question now was where to go. Arendi was attempting to follow the tracks. Days ago the white-haired woman had not only bombarded Vellanar, but she had stripped an entire facility from the planet.
