breaking into a rare rage.
“He's right Gabriel. Not only that, but imagine the power we'd have if we were to become known as the saviors of humanity. Anything we covet would be ours. You could search after your hybrid queen all you like, even create one of your own with the resources you'd have. Tell me you're with us.”
Gabriel Meunez sighed and turned towards the blacked out window. “Only if I am free once we have made it into Regent Galactic's good graces. I still believe she's the key to uniting the machine and man mind. I must at least find out what became of her.”
“Done.”
That's where the instant recall stopped, not because the rest was uninteresting, but because it was all Lucius Wheeler needed to know. The enlightenment showed in his expression as he looked down at the grinning blond boy beside him. They had stopped at the main security doors leading into the core vault of the Saviour. “You can receive messages from the future?”
“Yes, Lucius. Until just a short while ago we had access to the Victory Machine through a West Watcher operative but he broke off communication so we had to unleash the Holocaust Virus. Only by setting that chain of events in motion were we able to bring Jacob Valent's original crew together on one world and keep them away from their alternate destiny while we gained control of the Victory Machine for ourselves.”
“So you've never seen the machine for yourself? How did your last body get irradiated?”
“We tried to make our own Victory Machine and it didn't work. Fortune smiled on us, however. Instead of causing the wormhole to collapse, drawing enough matter and energy inside to create a black hole or a new star we managed to dissipate it. Unfortunately I didn't make it out and the temporal radiation affected my body for years in each direction. Very confusing even after you look at it in an educated manner.”
“You're telling me.” Lucius Wheeler looked at the large vault door in front of him. The keypad had never been used, the chamber hadn't been opened since Collins placed the Eve mind inside himself. He did everything from setting up the storage and stasis equipment to transporting the delicate, vulnerable cargo and installing it into the storage unit personally. “How does this fit into your plans? Collins was terrified of Meunez getting near this. He was afraid that he'd try and commune with it, find a host body and somehow free Eve.”
“That's exactly what we're doing. The end of our civilization is still coming and even though we have control of the Eden Fleet we will not be able to maintain that forever. Our hopes are that Gabriel will be able to befriend the Eve Mind, to reintroduce her to her creations and that when she realizes that the end of humanity as well as the destruction of her solar system is only a couple of years away at best that she should join with us. That is one of the reasons why the Order of Eden was created, to give us a way to demonstrate our dedication as a race to coming together and overcome dissent. Regent Galactic is on the verge of joining us, they just learned that we're on the verge of taking the Victory Machine for ourselves, the Carthans had it so well hidden that Regent Galactic never knew it was there. Millions of their citizens join the West Keeper organization every day now even though the Holocaust Virus is less effective than ever with the mass deletion of artificial intelligences across the Galaxy.”
“So you've actually managed to accomplish most of your goals,” Lucius muttered.
“Yes, but the most important one has not been met; the salvation of our civilization. For that we believe we need to turn to Eve. Her fleet is the most powerful united force in the known universe.” The blonde haired boy sighed slowly and folded his hands in the sleeves of his robes, a posture that didn't fit his apparent youth.
Wheeler knew the boy was studying him, watching him as he stood and stared at the keypad that was ready for the thirty two digit alphanumeric code that would break the seal on the vault. There was no data network attached to the security system, only a detection grid for screening out Gabriel Meunez, a tiny computer that would recognize the password and the mechanism that could open the door. “I'm starting to understand who Collins was and why he kept you and Gabriel around. You're both mad in your own way, but with that madness comes genius,” he let the idea of Gabriel Meunez communing with Eve in a way that no one else could sit in his mind for a moment. It was frightening, the story he was being told was spectacular, but he had seen the evidence.
Collins spent years tracking agents deeply embedded in the Carthan government, gathering power of his own, developing the virus that would make the Eden Fleet controllable and considering the problem of that virus failing one day. All the while he helped Lister Hampon develop his Cash Messiah Cult, as he called it before it was finally named the Order of Eden. It promised everyone a place in paradise if only they worked hard enough, were faithful enough and got humanity through the hard times.
All the evidence he needed was in mind, but how it could all go wrong was starting to come into sharp focus as well. The possibilities of what would happen if Gabriel came in contact with the Eve Mind were all described vaguely. He knew from succinctly worded reports from the future that from one instant to the next the outcome of such an event changed like a roulette wheel that would forever spin until someone interceded and stopped it. That's why Collins never destroyed the Eve mind. He could have at any time but for two reports that mentioned disaster there was always one that pointed to the Eve mind being a large part of the solution. But why didn't any of them say that Collins would be killed? I can't find any memory of his that contains him receiving a warning from the future about his own death. Then again, why would anyone send one back for him? It's not like he had any friends out here. Lucius mused. The notion of dying suddenly and having no one to mourn him sent a chill up his spine, but his attention was drawn back to that big, heavy door in front of him.
If Gabriel fails to commune with the Eve Mind then a great scientific wonder will go to waste and she'll have to be killed. If he succeeds there will always be the possibility that she will only trust him, that the Eden Fleet will fall under his control by proxy or that she'll earn their trust just long enough to come get in contact with her Fleet and turn on everyone.
Collins would have kept the vault shut, in fact he might have built another vault around this one and throw away the key if he had time, but I'm not Collins. He concluded with a smile. “Count me in, but even while I'm off hunting down and kill Jacob Valent I'm all the way in. You tell me everything, and I mean everything until I decide to get the hell out of the range of whatever this apocalypse is.”
“You are to flush out Jacob, get him out of hiding if we cannot catch him ourselves, not kill him. The messages concerning him and his people are still conflicting, uncertain. His interference may yet be required in the future and that won't be available if he's in hiding.”
“All right then, I'll scare him out of hiding, but you keep me up to date and in the loop or everything Collins knew gets cut off.”
“Agreed. I think you might be easier to work with, actually. Collins and I were often at odds.”
“I know,” Wheeler said as he stepped forward and punched in the password to open the vault. After a few seconds the door split down the middle and slowly began to part.
The hologram of young Lister Hampon, the High Seat of the Order of Eden began to fade as he smiled up at Lucius. “I'll see you when you emerge from the wormhole.”
What Comes Around…
Stephanie couldn't help but be reminded of the last time she'd been in the infirmary. She watched Grace, the head medical officer at the time, hold a laser scalpel to the back of a patient's neck. No one but Grace and herself were aware of the hidden threat, and it bought the traitor time. It didn't matter; Grace was killed not long afterwards because she had left Stephanie no other choice.
The whole thing complicated her relationship with Frost, especially since the last thing Grace accused her of was killing her so she could take Frost for herself. Getting together with the Gunnery Chief may have been an easy decision for her but it wasn't as easy for the crew to deal with, there was still animosity between the Gunnery Crews and Security Teams because of their last public fight. What would happen if Frost discovered her night with the Captain?
She tried to put it out of her mind as Frost noticed her coming in. He was reclining on a medical pallet waiting for the treatment systems to finish scanning the stump at the end of his shin. “'Bout time. Was thinkin' you'd never show.”
Stephanie smiled and walked up to his bedside. “You on your back? I wouldn't miss this for anything.”
The scan of Frost's healed stump completed and one of the few medical workers, a fellow with a shaved head and kind eyes, shorter than herself, came around. He took a look at the scan results and nodded. “We'll start
