Dragon Fire Sample Chapters

ONE

“I say we may safely ignore both you and your report.” Harsher words had never been spoken in the chamber of the Secure Council. But High Wedge Lesset was a person of passion and excessive pride. Plus, he wielded the ultimate power both on the council and in the empire. His word became dogma.

Transit High Wedge Varsor was aware of the position he’d just been placed in. He never liked the council Prime, but he’d never openly tangled with him, either. Most who had were soon dead. The few who survived did so in anonymity, serving in some far-flung backwash of the empire. Still, his intelligence report was both accurate and alarming. To the best of his knowledge, nothing like this had ever confronted the mighty armies of the Adamant. He only hoped that doing the right thing didn’t get him and his family deleted.

“I will overlook the tone of your remarks,” said Varsor evenly, “in the interest of the security of the Empire. I cannot, however, turn a blind eye to your flippant disregard of a potentially critical development.”

The other ten members of the council either sat stone-like or looked away. The certainty of a cataclysmic collision was not something any of them wanted to witness. It wasn’t that any of them were kindly, empathetic, or actually interested. It was that the impending bloodshed would only cause confusion and delay in the business of the council. Nothing useful would come of it. By tradition, the combatant who survived would choose the loser’s successor. For the other ten, there wasn’t even the prospect of juicy political infighting when the confrontation was complete.

“Do you have so many mites in your ears that you failed to comprehend? As council Prime it is my duty to the emperor to keep these proceedings focused and moving along at a productive pace. The airing of inconsequential, irrelevant, and imbecilic issues runs contrary to those efforts. Please defer for the remainder of your designated-speaking time, or I will be forced to remove it by fiat.”

“I will not defer my time when I have a report that needs to be addressed. My spies have constructed a cohesive picture of alien planets actively working together ahead of our invasion of their sector. This is unheard of and must factor into our planning.”

Leaning forward, Lesset angrily knuckled the table. “I will address your precious concerns, fool. If every world in the sector lashed their planets together like a gigantic raft and swung their pitiful paddles at our forces, it would alter nothing. We always sweep away resistance in one fell swoop. If these primitives fight separately, together, or not at all, they will die as civilizations just as swiftly and completely. The only possible difference it will make is how harshly we deal with them when the fighting stops. Are you as happy as a pup sucking on his mate’s teat now, Varsor? May we proceed?”

“I would like to query the other council members to see if they feel this new and unprecedented cooperation should be factored into our assault plans,” Varsor said defiantly.

Lesset glowered at the toad he was facing. Then he spoke loudly with a melodramatic tone. “Fine. I call for a vote. All in favor of listening to the squeals of this frightened lunatic, signal so by raising his paw. I see no paws raised,” he said without even pausing to take a breath, “so the motion fails just like its author. High Wing Oltimure, I believe the floor is now yours for the next ten minutes.”

“What of my remaining time?” howled Varsor as he leaped to his feet.

“By fiat, I declare you are out of time,” replied Lesset coolly. He drew his sidearm and blew away most of Varsor’s throat.

Varsor seized his throat and tried to keep his head from toppling. Blood geysered through his digits. He took a step toward Lesset.

“No, not in this direction,” screamed Lesset. “You’ll … ah, there you’ve done it. You have ruined my favoritejacket. I have half a mind to call a medic to resuscitate you, just so I may kill you again for that affront.”

Well before Lesset finished, Varsor was dead on the floor.

“Everything that fellow did was annoying. Look at the mess he’s made,” remarked Lesset casually. “Well, there’s nothing for it, we’ll have to continue the meeting covered in a traitor’s blood. No time to clean up and remain on schedule.” He pointed to Oltimure. “Sorry, you’re down to six minutes now. Please begin.”

“I defer my allotted time, Prime.” Oltimure wished to remain as invisible as possible while Lesset’s blood lust ran so high. He was a wise and prudent High Wing. He was a survivor.

TWO

“Jon, swim over to me. I see a turtle under the pontoon,” Jenna yelled to me joyously.

She was always full of joy, come to think of it. She exuded the stuff. She was my best friend, even though I only saw her for two weeks once a year. That’s when both our families vacationed together in the log-cabin campground near town. For us, it was Tom Sawyer and Nancy Drew all rolled into one nonstop adventure. She was ten; I was about to turn nine.

The specific problem I faced was that I didn’t want to swim over to where she was on the floating platform. It hadn’t been a full hour since I had that ice cream cone. I didn’t want to risk drowning because of a stomach cramp. My parents swore it was a certainty and made me promise years before never to attempt it. My dad said it was because we were such a poor family that if I died, they couldn’t afford to bury me. Mom slugged him good for that crack, but he just laughed. Dad was always funny, a regular cutup.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” I shouted back as I checked my Timex.

“No, he’ll be gone by then.” She pouted. From two hundred yards I could see it plain as day.

I decided if I swam real slow, maybe my stomach wouldn’t know I was cheating the clock, and I wouldn’t go under in pain. I always told everybody I wanted to be an astronaut. Heck fire, they took all kinds of risks. I had to stop being a sissy and get used to it. I walked out in the lake as far as I could and then dog-paddled slower than any dog ever did all the way to the float. I looked back at the shore. I was not, in fact, dead. Maybe my parents were wrong. Maybe there were exceptions to the rule. Or maybe the rules didn’t apply to me. That thought made me kind of happy.

“Over here, Jonny. He’s nearly gone.”

I walked over to where Jenna had her torso craned down to view the underside of the platform.

“How do you know it’s a boy?” I asked as I bent over to join her.

“It’s leaving before I’m done looking at it. Only a boy would be so rude.”

“Oh, ya mean like this?” I ripped a juicy fart.

“Oh, you’re so gross. Now look,” she pointed, “you can just see him over there.”

Sure enough, there was a snapper turtle pulling at some plants growing on a pontoon.

“You know why he’s diving down?” I asked very seriously.

“No. Did we scare him?”

“Naw. He saw us, sure. But he’s going under to be able to bite off one of our toes when we get back in the water.”

“He’s not that smart, Jonny. You’re just trying to scare me.”

“No, it’s true. It’s all instinct with them. He knows we have to try to make it back to shore sooner or later. Even if we wait for it to get dark, he’ll be happier because he’ll be more invisible. Why, last year over at Lake Dakota, a kid got—”

I was about to cook up some bull about his bones being picked clean like a piranha ate him, but Jenna was up and running. She dived into the water so fast she was a blur.

She surfaced, threw her hair off her face, and challenged me, “Come on, scaredy pants. See if you can beat me to the shore.” With that, she spun and started swimming like a pro.

I flew into the water and swam for all I was worth. Just when I was about to catch her, maybe ten yards from the beach, a thought hit me. I started treading water. She scurried up onto the muddy sand and turned to me with her hands triumphantly planted on her hips.

“Hey, Mr. Slow Boat to China, I knew you—”

Jenna stopped talking when I lifted my feet off the bottom and screamed in terror. I disappeared under the water for as long as I could hold my breath, then jumped up real high. Reaching for my feet, I screamed, “He’s got me.” Then I went under briefly. The next time I was at the surface, I yelled, “Find a gun and shoot him!” Then I vanished under the water.

By the time I was forced to come up for air, Jenna was by my side. She kicked and splashed with her arms like a girl possessed. Then she put her arm across my neck, the way we were taught when saving a drowning person. She began to walk/swim, dragging me to safety.

I wasn’t sure what to do, but when we got to shore, and she saw I wasn’t bleeding, she gave me a stern look. Then she began to laugh. We plopped onto a beach towel and both had a good laugh. Jenna was the best.

“Jon, when you die, would you rather be alone or with somebody?” she asked me after we calmed down.

“What a weirdo question,” I replied. “How should I know? I mean, it’s not like they always give you a choice, you know?”

She pulled her knees up tightly to her chest. “I died alone, and I didn’t like it one bit. I was scared and lonely. You should die with people you love all around you.” She sounded quiet, authoritative on the topic.

“One prob, goofball. You’re talking to me, so you’re not dead. That means you never died, because if you did, you’d be dead.”

“Can’t you be serious for one minute of your life, Jon Ryan?”

“What?” I reached over and pinched her hard.

She jumped. “Ouch. Why’d you do that?”

“To prove you’re alive. I rest my case.”

“Well, Perry Mason, you miss my point. I died alone.” She pointed at the pontoon. “I was swimming to that very float, and I bumped my head on it and drowned. I was all alone. You didn’t come up here in time, or you’d have been with me and I wouldn’t have died.” She reached over and punched me. “It was all your fault.” Then she threw herself belly down on the blanket. “But I forgive you because I love you.”

What? Did a girl just say she loved me? Did I need to marry her now? Gross.

“How can what never happened be my fault when I wasn’t here?”

“Exactly. Now remember, you should die in the company of loved ones. Okay?”

“Sure. I promise. Hey, maybe you can be there when I croak. That way I’ll have all the company I need.”

She sat and balled up, clutching her legs tightly again. “No, Jonathan, I can’t be there. You won’t die for several billion years. By then, I’ll probably be too busy somewhere else. Who knows, maybe I’ll have kids of my own and can’t leave them because they’ll need me.”

“What, you gonna have a family after you’re dead and gone?”

She looked at me like my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Blum. I was so scared of that witch. “I may be dead, but who says I’ll be gone?”

“Can we like talk about something less creepy?”

“Sure. How about a snack?”

“I’m always up for that.”

“My mom packed us some sandwiches,” she pointed, “over there. Grab the basket.”

I retrieved it and she studied the contents.

“Jon, I will miss you so terribly much, you know, after I die and you won’t, for almost ever.”

What a screwy conversation. “I’ll miss you, too.” I said more as a question.

“No, you won’t. You’ll have long forgotten me. Plus, you’ll be busy saving everybody and trying not to get yourself killed. No, by the time you die, no one will remember me at all. I’ll be just some silly girl who bumped her head.”

“Please stop saying that. You’re scaring me.”

She rested an ice-cold hand on my forearm. “I know you’re scared, Jonny. But don’t be. You’re not going to die now, not today.” She angled her head. “Who knows, maybe you never will. Or maybe it’ll be tomorrow. But you will not die at your own hand today.”

“Please, Jenna, you’re freaking me out. What? Are you saying I’ll commit suicide? Jenna, please help me.”

“Jonathan, I am.” She leaned over and kissed me gently on the forehead. Her lips were as cold as deep space. “Now you go show that mean robot who’s boss.”

“Where will you be? What mean robot?”

She extended her arms. “Right here at our lake. I’ll always be here. Now go, before I start missing you even more.”

I’d looked toward the lake when she gestured to it. When I looked back, Jenna was gone. Poof. She’d simply disappeared. It was like she was never there but like she was always there, at our lake. I started to cry but forgot to. I was distracted by something. Something painful. Something bad. Something slapping my face in rage and hate.

My eyes popped open. I gasped. I tried to sit up. I was lashed down and couldn’t move an inch. Someone slapped my cheek again, very hard.

“Wake up you piece of rat shit,” wailed EJ as he drew his arm above his head to repeat the action. “I don’t have time to waste getting a useless machine out of his trance.” He pounded my face again.

“Stop!” screamed a female voice from somewhere. “He’s coming to. Stop hitting him.” It took a second, but I figured it out. It was Sapale, my Sapale, not the little girl I’d saved.

EJ lowered his arm and peered at me from directly above. “Why, so he is.” Then he slapped me twice more. “Now I’m done; for now, that is.”

“Leave him be, you monster!” Sapale yelled.

He turned to her. There she was, cowering in the corner of the large room. “STFU, bitch. Remember my warning. If you so much as help him take a piss, I’ll kill your entire family, kids first.”

Wow, he was crazy mad. And I hadn’t urinated since the day I became an android. What kind of stupid threat was that?

Sapale shrank farther into the corner. It was pitiful to watch.

“Now, as for you, Sleeping Beauty, here’s the deal. I need Risrav and I need it now.”

“Huh?” was all I could muster. Some of my components were still not back online yet.

“Risrav! You know, lunkhead, the stone that negates mine, stops me from using my magic on you?” He slapped me again.

“I’m awake now, if you hadn’t noticed,” I snarked.

“I know but beating the crap out of you is better than sex.”

“Now I know we’re not identical. You’re an idiot.”

Yeah, he slapped me a few more times, but it was worth it.

“Now, I need that rock. I went over you good, but I can’t find it. I have two options. One, you can tell me where it is, then I kill you quickly and painlessly.”

“Don’t even tell me choice two. That one sounds delectable.”

“Smart ass. Option two is I rip you apart piece by tiny piece.”

“I said don’t tell me number two. Now I can’t decide which is better.”

“But if I do that I risk damaging Risrav. That I can’t afford to do. So, cupcake of shit, which will it be? Oh, and just as an added incentive, if you just tell me where it is, I promise not to kill Sapale before your weeping eyes. If you force me to grind you up, she gets the same treatment.”

I ran some quick systems checks. Everything was on and functional. My entire body was strapped to a metal table with redundancy. I couldn’t see my hands, but they were balled into fists and covered with a hard shell, maybe a cast. EJ was taking no chances. Well, he was taking too great a risk by waking me up at all. I was going to get out of this and spring my plan on him with extreme prejudice, the sorry son of a bitch. By the way, I’d hidden Risrav in my scrotum. Yeah, clever of me, eh? I knew that if this exact scenario ever transpired, EJ would never check there.

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said coolly. “Let the both of us go, and I’ll give you the rune.”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Let me think about it. No. That would be the dumbest thing for me to do. No, pal, the only way you’re leaving this room is as scrap.”

“I’ll sweeten the deal. Seriously, listen hard. If you let us go, I won’t do to you what I was planning to.”

“It might help if you told me what I’m being spared, lame brain.”

“Spoiler alert. You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Let me repeat that last line back to you. You’ll just have to trust me. Do you think in your tiny processors that there is the remotest chance in hell I’d trust you to do anything? You must have skipped your last hundred upgrades, moron.”

“Oh well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He folded his arms. “You know what, Jon? I’m sick as shit of hearing this brave-gonna-get-out-of-this crap. Hell, I’ve said the same things myself, back in the day. But, seriously, you’re not going to manage a last-minute miracle. You’re not going to save the damsel in distress,” he pointed to Sapale. “Most poignantly, you’re not going to see tomorrow, so spare me the macho speech.”

“J … Jenna told me I wasn’t going to die today. Maybe tomorrow, she said, but definitely not today.”

“Who the hell’s Jenna. I need to find her and let her know her prediction was the opposite of correct.”

“She’s at the lake, our lake.”

“Oh great, I must have fried your brain. You’re delusional. Crap, now I can’t be certain you’ll appreciate the fact that I’m killing you when I do.” He turned and paced away. The dude was seriously pissed. My, how I’d changed. I was criminally insane and a whack job.

“Jon, I’m so sorry,” said Sapale, taking advantage of EJ’s silence. “At least we’ll be together again in death.”

God, I loved that woman. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We’re getting out of this.” I nodded my head at EJ. “He’s the one who should be worried.”

“I said no stupid bravado,” he snarled, and he slapped me again. “You’re making me nauseous.”

“Well, chalk one up for Good Jon,” I replied with a stupid grin.

He leaned over and came nose to nose with me. “Oh, so you’re the good me, and I’m the evil me. That how you see it, chump?”

“To be fair, many people agree with me, EJ.”

“You’re such a fool, such a Pollyanna. You still think it’s about good versus evil, right versus wrong.” He harrumphed. “What a piece of work.”

“So, Master Yoda, what is it about if it isn’t what it’s always been about?”

He thumbed his chest angrily. “It’s all about me. Whatever I want, whatever I need, and whatever I fancy. Period. End of story. Do Not Pass Go, and Do Not Collect Two Hundred Dollars.”

“I’m so glad I’m not you. You’re more pathetic than I ever imagined. Seriously, EJ, do yourself a favor and blow your head off. If you’re too chicken, I volunteer to help.”

“Enough with the wasting of my endless time. Back to the issue at hand. What’ll it be? The easy way or the hard way? You’ve got thirty seconds.”

Captain, are you there? Sir, we’d lost you, but I detect your signal. Captain, what is your status? Al popped into my head. Oh yeah, I’d been gone a while, hadn’t I? Wait, he had to know about the electrical discharge and my seeing EJ. Until my systems went down, he had access to everything I saw.

I’m here. My status is debatable. My body is functioning well. EJ, however, has me tied up and is about to begin removing parts. Oh, Sapale’s here and says hi.

We regret to learn about your situation, sir. May we help in any way, General Ryan?

What was with all the formality?

I don’t think so. Wish you could.

I guess that softens the blow of our update, sir. There are approximately ten thousand Adamant troops swarming up the hill to your location. As we speak, the skies are filling with warships. We estimate they will overrun your position in the next four to five minutes.

It was then I noted the very odd look on EJ’s face, sort of puzzled mixed with baffled. He could hear Al, too. Of course, he could. He’s done it all the time on our shared voyage with Al on Ark 1. Al had to know that fact. Wait, wait. That’s why he was speaking so formally. He knew I’d be suspicious, but EJ almost certainly wouldn’t. Hell, it’d been two billion years since they last spoke.

Then either way I’m a goner, Al. Tell Blessing I love her and that I’ll miss you both dearly. I was stretching things out. Calling Stingray by her real name would let Al know I read him clearly. If EJ bought the ruse, he’d want to eavesdrop a while, but he also had to split soon if he wanted to avoid capture. It’d take him a couple minutes to get me off this table, so the likelihood of him taking me with him was dropping to no way.

Remember the Zeno-One Protocol, Al? After I’m dead, you must execute it at once. Do you copy?

Not the dreaded Zeno-One Protocol, Captain. I do not know if I will be able to perform it, it being so dreaded.

Al, listen carefully. I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little artificial life-forms don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that. You must execute the protocol. The part where you must mix the hyperdrive fuel with the neutron stream will be tricky, pal, but I know you can do it. I know you’re stronger than you know.

God that sounded awful. Way too corny, but I was ad-libbing to beat the band. It must’ve been working, because EJ was still angling his head and staring at the floor. Now, if he didn’t kill me gratuitously, I might not die today. I had to guess he’d leave me alive, so he could someday recover Risrav. If he killed me here and now, the Adamant would gain possession of my remains, and he’d never get the rune. Then again, he was insane, so it was hard to count on anything.

General Jonathan Ryan, it has been an honor and a privilege to serve alongside you. I will faithfully initiate the Zeno-One Protocol upon confirmation of your demise. God speed, my captain.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What the hell is the Zeno-One Protocol?” demanded EJ.

I did my best to look shocked. “How did you kn … Wait, you can still hear Al, can’t you, you scoundrel?”

“Get over your damn self, pissant. I have to get the hell out of here, but I want to know.” He pulled a blaster out of his belt and pointed it at Sapale. “I don’t think I have to tell you I’ll do it, Ryan.”

Holy crap! Now I had to come up with some version of the bullshit protocol I invented to stall for more time. If I failed to convince him, he might realize the entire Al call was a con.

“It … it’s nothing that involves you—”

EJ started a countdown. “Three … tw—”

“Okay, stop. I’ll tell you everything. The Zeno-One Protocol is a suicide procedure designed to incapacitate and possibly destroy the vortex. I can’t allow it to fall into enemy hands. There, that’s it.”

“All that drama about self-destructing one damn ship. Man, I wish I had time to kill you, squirt. I’d be doing you and the universe a big favor. But, I’ll have to save that until next time, sucker.” He mock saluted me and tipped his imaginary hat to Sapale. Then he ran from the room. His ship had to be close by.

“Thank Davdiad, he left you alive,” said Sapale rushing to my side.

“It won’t—”

I started to say it wouldn’t take him long to discover our lies, but Sapale had her lips pressed to mine so hard I couldn’t say a word. I started talking with my mouth shut. That got her to open her eyes and look at me kind of funny. She pulled back a few inches.

“That was great, honey, but Al made all that up. EJ’ll be back in a few seconds. Release me as fast as you can.”

Fortunately, she must have seen EJ strap me in, because she moved nimbly to free me. It took a full minute. I knew EJ was overdue, even madder than he was to begin with.

“To the vortex,” I said heading for the door.

“But your hands,” she shouted.

That’s when I got a good look at them. They were steel-jacketed. EJ had actually molded steel mittens on me to secure my weapons.

“No time. I left it open. I’ll think of something by the …”

Time was up. A plasma bolt struck the wall between us. EJ was back.

Sapale whipped a pistol from the back of her waist and returned fire. She just missed him, and he jerked back out of sight.

“Come with me,” she said. “My family is in the next room. I can’t leave them. He’ll butcher them.”

I couldn’t disagree with her, but we were out of time. I nodded, and we ran.

EJ figured out where we were going. He must have sprinted the back-way, because he blasted the door frame just after we shot through it. The three adults and two kids jumped to their feet.

“We need to fight our way to his ship,” she said to the frightened group. “Pick up a child and stay behind us.”

Sapale shoulder rolled out the door and opened fire in EJ’s direction. He tried to get off a round, but she had him pinned back.

“Go,” she shouted.

I led the family out the door and to the right. Sapale kept up a blistering line of fire on the corner EJ hid behind.

When we were all around the turn, I yelled, “We’re clear. Retreat.”

She backed away but never stopped blasting. The two walls that made the corner were chewed to bits. She ducked in next to me. She held up a hand signal for stop. Then she used the one for I’m going to look. Sapale needed to see if EJ was following or had taken another path. Her head wasn’t a millimeter past the edge when a blast struck the wall. EJ was a coming. She stuck her gun around the corner and fired blindly while she signaled with her left hand for us to go.

“Two lefts and a right,” I said in her ear, indicating where the ship was. Then I led the group away as fast as we could move.

We made it to Stingray in no time. I could hear the fierce firefight down the hall coming closer.

“Al,” I held up my hands, “We gotta get these off. Otherwise we’re sitting ducks.”

“Place them on the utility bench,” he replied. After I had, he said, “This will take time. I can cut through safely, but if I go too fast, the heat will melt your hands. They’re no good to us if they don’t work.”

“Do your best.”

A tiny laser beam started cutting the steel. Sparks flew, and I felt the temperature rise inside the covering.

“Estimated time to completion?” I asked.

“Ten to fifteen minutes, maybe longer.”

“Crap, that’s too long. Try and hustle.”

The hull sounded off with a plasma bolt. They were here.

Sapale vaulted through the door and pressed up against the hatch frame. She fired blindly down the corridor.

“Al says ten minutes for my hand. Can you hold him off that long?”

She shrugged and smiled. Okay, odd thing to do in a tense situation.

“I could try if you’d like. I’d rather do this.” She pointed her left hand at the floor and command prerogatives sprung to the deck. The wall instantly sealed. “Vortex manipulator, take us to the remnants of planet Earth,” she called out.

I was stunned.

She walked over to me and looked down at the cutting process. “Do you ever get used to that nausea?” she asked casually.

“You feel it, too?” Then I furrowed up my brow. “Of course, you do. Hey, Als, any sign of pursuit?”

“None so far, Form One.”

“What the hell’s the one for?” I asked with mild irritation.

“It is customary to address the senior Form as One and other ones numerically down the line. Sapale is Form Two in this case,” responded Stingray.

“Oh,” I mumbled. “Makes sense, I guess.”

“We’re so pleased you condone SOP, Pilot,” responded Al.

“Can it and keep cutting, Al.” To Sapale, I remarked, “So Toño gave you the Deavoriath tools, too.” I bobbed my head. “Seems reasonable.”

“Even though I didn’t have a vortex, he figured they were useful anyway. Remember, he was putting them in a lot of people for a while there.”

Yeah, during the fight with the Last Nightmare, he equipped all the Project Ark astronauts and a lot of human pilots with command prerogatives. That way we could field as many vortices as possible for the fight.

“I, for one, am glad he did,” I said with a wink. “Why don’t you check on your family. I’m good here.” I nodded to my hand.

She went to them and everyone joined in a big old group hug. Sweet.

THREE

Sapale sat around the mess table with big mugs of hot coffee. She tucked her family in with a bite to eat and a place to lay down. They were shaken, but they were tough. They’d be okay. Sapale said she wasn’t sure where to take them. Kaljax was spiraling down the toilet. I told her about Vorpace and how the humans there would be glad to provide them sanctuary. She said she’d consider it.

“So, the kiss thing,” I began while studying the tabletop, “I guess it means we’re a thing again?”

“By the Sacred Veils you’re just as dense as the day I died. Are you really honing that skill, or is it just instinctive?”

I threw my palms up. “What?”

“No, Jon, we’re not back together. I told you I loved you and the first thing I did when EJ was gone was to plant a wet one on your lips. That’s the new way of saying get lost in Hirn.” She turned a shoulder to me.

Okay, I think that meant yes, but it could sort of be interpreted as a no. Why didn’t she just say what she was feeling? Oh, yeah, she was a woman. Nearly forgot. I would make a command decision and go with the assumption—no, the certainty that she loved me and that we were back together again. Yes. That’s how I’d play it. No, that’s how I would proceed.

“I, for one, never stopped loving you,” I said honestly. “If I’d known Toño had downloaded you to an android when it happened, I’d have woken myself up from death to find you.” That came out well. I swelled internally.

“When you came to me on Kaljax just after you turned back on, I was in a dark and lonely place. I hated EJ so much I couldn’t separate you from him. Before you tell me that’s a silly notion, please try to understand how horrible life was with him. Two billion years of his increasing cruelty, loss of humanity, and growing insanity was bleak. I was his prisoner, and that gave him great satisfaction. When you turned up at the door, I hated you. Hell, I hated all males.” She bundled herself up in her arms.

“But after you left, I worked through it.” She turned back to face me. “I remembered how kind and gentle you were. I remembered that you were a good man. I remembered how much I loved you.”

“Always will. Nothing anybody can do about that.”

“And we’ll be together forever,” she said, smiling.

Oh boy. Better tell her about the Ralph Clause.

“Now here’s the funny thing,” I began.

She most definitely frowned. “Why don’t I like the sound of that? Wait, are you remarried already?”

“No, of course I’m not married.” I shrugged. “Haven’t been for billions of years. No, it’s that there’s this marker that comes due in a little over six months.”

She scowled. “What kind of marker?”

“The kind where I’m bound to suffer eternally under the close supervision of a terribly evil spirit.”

Her shoulders dropped. “What kind of idiot makes a deal with a devil?”

“A desperate kind of fool. I saw a chance to turn the tide on the Adamant advance, and I made the deal.”

“I wish I were noble enough to say I’d join you in your suffering. I’m not,” she replied firmly.

“I wouldn’t let you, if you asked.”

“Oh, so you’re in charge of me? You forbid me to accompany you into damnation?”

“You just said you weren’t joining me.” I was paddling, but my oars were out of the water.

“That was my decision.”

“Okay, Sapale, please come with me to the bad place.”

“No. I have work to do on this side of the veil. Thanks for the offer.”

“Anytime,” I said in defeat.

She thought a moment. “Is there any way out of this contract?”

“Yes and no. I have a notion, but I don’t have a clue as to whether it’ll work.”

“What’s the harebrained scheme?”

“I’ll let you know when it’s clearer to me.”

“Oh great. A Jon-plan.”

“Yeah, sort of.”

“Well at least I have you for six months. That’s better than nothing.”

“I swell with pride knowing I’m better than nothing. Just how much better, I hesitate to ask.”

She stood. “You talk a lot nowadays. You have a room or a cot on this rust bucket? Really, any room with a door that closes will work.” She smiled in the way only my brood’s-mate could. God, I loved that woman.

Later that afternoon, much later actually, we went to check on her family. The kids were out like the proverbial light bulb. Their mother, father, and crusty old Caryp were resting on bunks in the same room, keeping an eye on the children.

“How are you all doing,” Sapale asked.

“Fine now,” replied Caryp.

“How so,” Sapale asked with concern.

“Maybe we can get some sleep now that the moaning, pounding, and giggling is complete.”

Sapale covered her mouth and turned away.

“Who said it’s over?” I responded. I raised a finger in the air and gestured between Sapale and myself. “Androids here.”

“Oh, that’s disgusting,” shot back the old bat.

“Hey, don’t kid yourself. You would if you could,” I said with a wink.

“I did, and I might yet still. But I’d be a lot more discrete. I can tell you that.”

“TMI, Opalf,” replied Sapale.

“I have no idea what that means. If you’re asking me to join you two in debauchery, you can forget about that right now.”

I put my fingers in my ears. “TMI and distressingly gross.”

The crone waved the back of her hand in our direction. “Rookies. You disgust me. Leave us alone to rest.”

“I’ll be at the system controls if you need me,” replied Sapale, pointing over her shoulder.

Caryp narrowed all four eyes. “That what they’re calling it these days?”

I grabbed Sapale by the back of her pants and pulled her toward the door. “Let’s get out of here before she starts undressing.”

Sapale wrapped her arm around my waist as we walked to the control station. We didn’t need to talk. I sat behind the main panel, and Sapale sat next to me.

“So, was that the first time you ever flew a vortex?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“You did it like a pro. I may have to get you your own.”

“I’m fine in this one. Hey, in six months I’ll probably inherit it anyway.”

“Oh, you do like to rub it in, don’t you, you naughty girl?”

“Toño offered to let me test one way back when, but I said no. Didn’t think it would ever be needed.”

“But I bet he programed a ton of sims into you.”

“Gigabit of the darn things.”

“Whatever happened to Toño?” I asked. I’d never heard any news about him.

“No one seems to know. We didn’t. After he set me up in this android, we saw less and less of him. After a few thousand years, we lost track of him altogether.”

“Into different things?”

“To say the least. He continued to work tirelessly for the betterment of humankind. He pioneered new technologies, established top-level education for scientists, and continued to work with the political hacks.”

“Some things never change, do they?”

“Not politicians, flakes, frauds, or felons. And so it goes,” she mused.

“Amen.” I toasted with my mug. She returned the salutation. “I wonder what happened to him, though.”

“You don’t think he might still be alive, do you?”

I shrugged. “We three are. If anyone could do it, he could. He’d not just replace parts, he’d design new ones and upgrade continually.”

Sapale thought about that a minute. “Yes, he would, wouldn’t he? By now, he could be so far advanced, we’d look like horse-drawn buggies next to him.” Her eyes wandered.

“Dude could be a demigod by now, couldn’t he?”

Her eyes returned to me. “No, not Toño. He’s much too humble. He’d never go there.”

“EJ sure changed a lot. Anything’s possible.”

“Amen, I say unto you.”

“Do you have a theory as to why he fell so far off the rails?”

She shook her head slowly. “I sure thought about it a lot.” She got a distant look in her eyes. “Those first twenty-five thousand years he spent alone before he went back in time and gave you the membrane technology were tough on him. As you know, you don’t like to talk about stuff like that, so he didn’t. I was able to piece together a dour picture of his past. For a long time, he only had the Ark 1 ship, so his travels were painfully slow and lonely. When he finally managed to steal a fast ship, he was already pretty far down the path leading to a criminal life.”

“Did he have a malfunction? A corruption or something?”

She looked very concerned. She knew I wanted that to be the reason he degenerated into such a hateful pariah. I didn’t want to think it was something that lurked deep inside me, too.

“Maybe. But he positively would never talk about it. And he had his personal diagnostics encrypted, so I was never going to see them.”

We sat quietly for a while. We both had a lot of thinking to do. That’s when the now-rested kids burst into the room, the older one naturally chasing the younger one. Pretty quickly, little Sapale vaulted onto my Sapale’s lap for protection from her older brother, Irtopal. The senior Sapale snatched him up into a restraining hug. She warned them that if they didn’t calm down, she’d start kissing them. Irtopal squirmed just a little, and her assault was on. She kissed them on their heads, necks, and arms. The kids put forth a lousy defense and giggled like crazy. It was a joy to witness. This, I missed.

Their mom came to try and establish control over her wild ones. Eaptetta was her name. Dad, who remained in the bedroom with Caryp, was named Qivrov. They seemed like wonderful people and appropriately doting parents. I collapsed back in my seat. It suddenly hit me how many perfect little families the Adamant had slaughtered in the name of empire. I almost lost it then and there. Those horrible sonsabitches had wiped out civilization after civilization. And it wasn’t the grand political institutions or the cultures that made me the sickest. No, it was the annihilation of the love so many families created and shared.

My anger level rose to infinity. I began to shake. My vision went fuzzy. If I was still human, I’d have hoped and prayed I was having a stroke. But it was, for me, just another punishment of immortality. I was coming apart psychologically, damn it, not mechanically.

“…sweet love, you’re scaring me. Jon, are you all right?”

I scanned the space before my face without recognition. Then I saw her, my vision, my lighthouse, my rock. My Sapale.

“There you are. What’s happened, wensilack?” That was a Hirn term of goopy affection, like our honey pie.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

She made a show of checking the chronometer on the display panel. “Nine hours. It took you all of nine hours to lie to me.” She smiled and rested her head on my shoulder. “I’ve seen that look before. It’s the angry-Jon-Ryan look.”

“Those kids nearly died. If I wasn’t there, maybe they would have. Hell knows why the Adamant returned to the basement. Angel, those cruel monsters are extinguishing everything good and worthy in my universe. I hate them more than I’ve ever hated any person, place, or thing before.”

“We all do. And the kids are fine. You saved them.” She tapped the tip of my nose. “That’s what you do. But don’t let hate control you. EJ did, and now look at him. Now, I’m not saying I’m worried about you, not yet. But understand this, man of my heart. There is just as much good in the universe as there is bad. Actually, I think there is more good.” She held her palms up on either side of her torso. “It’s all a matter of balance.” She moved her arms up and down like a scale. “The Adamant are in their ascendancy. Goodness and light are ebbing. But there will be a reckoning. The balance will shift, and the Adamant will have to settle the very large tab they’ll have run up. Trust me, you won’t want to be them when the hammer falls.”

“Wow, you’ve become a Gypsy psychic since we parted. Can you make an okay living at it?”

“You know a lot of women would be irritated by your remark. But not me. I missed you, Jon Ryan. You’re as cute as a bean on a bun.”

“You talk about the Adamant’s downfall like it’s a done deal. Wishful thinking, says I.”

“No, it is fact. Jon, I’ve known you a long time. I have faith in you. Maybe more than you do yourself. If I were the Adamant, I’d sue for peace yesterday and make the one term of their surrender being that we keep you away from them.” She shook her head. “Now, they’re not nearly that smart, so it’ll take an ass-kicking to knock them off their pedestal. But topple they will.”

“When I start leading the charge?”

“No, sweet, you are the charge.”