The Forsaken Empire (The Endervar War Book 2) (35 page)

The face reflected a crooked smile. It was both sad and resigned, as though the end were near.

Maybe it’s ill-advised. I know you would definitely protest. But if it works, we’ll be free. Free of the Unity. The false Unity. Our Unity it’s become corrupted. This search for godhood needs to end. They’ll die by our hands. Yours and mine together.

Although the remaining words were certain, the woman’s smile disappeared. In a gust, the face retreated into the mist. All that was left was a pillar of white smoke.

The message had come to an end; the hologram was there but empty. But Farcia had more to add. She sat there on the floor, watching and listening, only to recall the woman’s words vividly.

She was desperate, probably even reckless, Farcia said. She tried to hide from the Unity tried to fight them. But it was too late. The Unity captured her. All of her.

Arendi parsed the phrasing. All of her, she thought. It made her think back to the different rooms on board, and to the surrounding life support. It was built for a reason.

The Defector. This ship was for her, Arendi said. She must have transferred her body to an organic form.

There were multiple bodies. Dozens of them, Farcia replied. But it didn’t make a difference. The Unity found them all.

Farcia twisted in her suit, remembering it. A chill trickled down her spine, and she shivered.

Arendi came and knelt beside her. You were there, she concluded. During everything.

Yes, I was there, Farcia admitted. Twenty-three years ago, I met the Unity. I was their secret.

She twisted again. Her suit seemed to crinkle and twist in ache. As she did so, Farcia stared out the virtual windows at the rest of the sleeping fleet.

I could have crushed the Unity, she recalled. My kin and their full power were at my command. But I needed them. I needed their technology. The Unity was powerful in its own way. They promised they could help.

Help?

To save my people, Farcia explained. To try to save what was left.

Arendi turned back to the hologram. She recalled what the Defector had said. You were working on something together you and the Unity.

Yes, Farcia said. A pact was made. My people our home was dying. We needed a new one. So I sought to build it, but it wasn’t enough. None of it was.

Farcia’s voice chilled as she spoke. She sat there, shriveled, an island in the virtual void.

Arendi rose. She needed to know more. The final message from the Defector might have ended, but there were other files. There had to be. She looked at the hologram and began syncing her systems with the juggernaut.

Computer, Arendi then said. Show me. Show me everything.

***

The simulation came to the bridge. It quickly enveloped the room. The walls around them projected another view of space. This time, from twenty years ago.

Although the data was sparse, it was enough to understand what was taking place. The final logs of the Defector were there to explain. They pointed Arendi to the crucial piece of information. It revolved around an experiment. She found herself there, in the midst of it all. The area was on the rim of the galaxy, away from the Alliance, nearly hidden from all.

During the Ouryan Civil War, the recording said, the Unity fled to this region of the galaxy. They were hoping to rebuild. The Alliance had practically banished them to this backwater.

At the sametime, some of the Unity were also searching for them, the log added. They were searching for the Endervars, hoping to uncover their final fate.

The simulation brought Arendi to a patch of empty space. It stretched on for light-years, with nothing but bits of dust wafting inside. Still, there was something here. Something unique. The virtual pixels met together in the center of the room. Piece by piece, they meshed and melded, forming a temporary screen of white. In another moment, the backbone to the experiment began to appear.

I always assumed that the search had failed, the log continued. How wrong I was.

Arendi took a step back, recognizing the catalyst for this experiment. For a moment, she thought she saw a star. The sphere of white was fairly large. But as the simulation went on, she felt the alien luminescence against her face. It flickered, teeming with a power not of this world.

An Overlord, she whispered. An Endervar mother ship.

It emerged, nearly filling the room. The vessel blazed in an icy white fire, burning with untold energy. The craft was monstrous; it was the size of a moon. Arendi’s whole skin turned pale at the sight. Decades ago, she had fought something like it. In fact, her previous body had died fighting it during the Great War. Prior to that, nothing had been able to stop the massive vessel. Not even entire armadas. The Overlord was power incarnate. It could defy physical laws, and field energies the galaxy had never seen.

Arendi was startled. What is this? she asked.

Farcia lay on the ground, not far away. The alien power though virtual shimmered over her face and body. A desperate attempt, she answered. I rallied the remaining forces, so they came.

There must have been another Overlord, Arendi thought. This one apparently operated on the other side of the galaxy. The historical records had always suggested the possibility. Sporadic sightings had further fueled the rumor.

Arendi took a deep breath. For whatever reason, the massive vessel was now at the heart of this experiment.

Meanwhile, the Defector and her memory went on. At first, I didn’t want to believe it, the log said. But someone now leads the Endervars. A new entity. Her name is Farcia. She claims that her people are dying, that the universe they come from is about to fall apart.

The skepticism in the log turned into fear and worry.

The Unity intends to aid her, the Defector said. To them, it’s a tantalizing offer. Farcia has promised them ships, technology enough power to wage another galactic war.

As the voice spoke, the rest of the experiment began to build. Other objects suddenly came on display. Joining the Overlord was a field of machine matter. It was active and extended outward, surrounding the mother ship.

Arendi looked down at her waist. The simulated objects spilled out into space. She recognized these as well. It was the same Unity structure she had found on Farcia’s habitat. The same pylon that had flung her across the galaxy.

There were hundreds of them now, all facing inward, toward the catalyst. Each one was a building block meant to sustain the experiment’s main goal.

In return, Farcia has asked the Unity to create a new home, the log said. An artificial universe so that her people might live.

It’s essentially a pocket of altered space several light-years across. When the pocket forms, the Unity intends to create a bridge. It will pull Farcia’s people into our galaxy.

Arendi realized that the Overlord would power the whole endeavor. Its energy would flow to the network of machine matter below.

Farcia watched, no longer content to sit. She lifted herself off the floor and lurched over to the sight.

This is it, she said. This is the end.

What?

The experiment activated. The Overlord exploded with power. White beams shot out from the surface and to the field of pylons. The energy thundered as the entire area of empty space began to change.

It was then that the Overlord began to break. The shell cracked. The skin and structure flew apart. From its gradual disintegration, a new force emerged. Along the periphery of the dying mother ship, a light was blinking into existence. The glimmer was everywhere. One flare and then another sparked from the void. Soon, it was an entire wave of them, hovering in the air.

The sprawling flash grew. For a brief moment, any trace of darkness was gone. The light was almost blinding. Farcia turned away, covering her eyes with a hand.

Then the experiment collapsed. The glow shriveled and turned to ash. The emerging light died. It came into existence, only to float to the surface, like a corpse. The dead matter was spewing out into space. Entire slabs of shadow poured through, adding to the void.

Farcia sniffed. This is the death of my world, she said.

She clawed the side of her white hair, watching the experiment continue. To her, it was torture; the very flesh of her people had been ripped to shreds.

The memory of the Defector explained. To my relief, the experiment failed.

It’s not clear why, the log added. At this point, the Endervar universe may already have been dead. From what I understand, the alien universe had already shrunk into almost nothing. Perhaps the experiment did kill it. The final blow to a dead empire.

The words from the log were devoid of sympathy. They smacked the air, almost satisfied.

Farcia heard them and crumpled away. She couldn’t watch it anymore. She left the room, weeping.

Chapter 36

Sobs echoed out into the empty ship. The white floor was splattered with tears. Arendi followed the trail out from the bridge. Farcia was hobbling away, cupping her eyes with her hand.

Her voice quivered as she tried to speak. It’s my fault, she said, stumbling to the ground. She dropped to her side as the tears poured from her face. Her eyelids squeezed as she tried to force herself to stop crying. She could feel the anguish all over her body. She inhaled it, wanting to choke.

Arendi came to her side. She could see nothing, but a mop of raveled hair over Farcia’s face.

For so long, I blamed you, Farcia said, but in the end, it was I who killed them.

The white-haired woman shook, trying to bear it. Why couldn’t I save them? she asked. Why did this happen?

Her questions subsided into silence. Arendi had no answer to give. Farcia shuddered in the quiet. Her face was like the surrounding white floor: tarnished and dripping in ash. She clutched the ivory wall, blotching it with leftover tears.

My world it was just an island, Farcia said. An oasis in the night, trying to hold on. A great empire that dwindled into this a pocket of space exiled to nowhere.

Instinctively, she gripped the wall, catching only air. Her fingers slipped, holding nothing. She recoiled, and closed her eyes tighter.

I opened a gateway, thinking I could save my world, she recalled. But all I heard were their screams. I was there in those final moments. I heard them. My mind felt the final cry. We tried the experiment again, maintaining the bridge, but all we pulled were dead remnants.

Pulling back her hair, Farcia finally opened her eyes. They were large and in mourning.

That’s what you’re trying to do, Arendi said. You want to restore your people.

Yes. To correct things, Farcia replied. Your universe it wasn’t meant to be. Not like this.

She pushed herself off the floor and leaned her back against the wall. Out of the corner of her eye, Farcia reluctantly glanced at Arendi. She didn’t like what she saw.

We should have destroyed your universe when we had the chance, Farcia said. Then maybe, none of this would have happened.

Her eyes were growing wider now. The hate was there, beating in black.

If only we had done more. If we had just acted. Done what was necessary.

But your people, Arendi said, ready to protest. They must have known that it wasn’t right. To destroy us.

Farcia’s eyes flashed in reproach. What’s right? she asked scornfully. My people are dead. Is that right? Don’t preach your morality. You’re no better. You did this to us.

Farcia had said something like this before. She was referring to the Great War. The Endervars had once sought to control the galaxy. Their ships and their technology had invaded and ruled over hundreds, and then thousands, of different planets and moons. It had all occurred when the Endervars had opened gateway after gateway from their universe into each conquered world. Then it came apart. And Arendi was to blame.

Your liberation Farcia said in disdain. Each home world or colony you saved, it destabilized
the bridge to my universe. The fabric holding my world crumbled as we lost control. Piece by piece your Alliance destroyed us, uprooting it all. We had no choice but to retreat. By then, there was almost nothing left of my people. All I had left was the experiment. This failure.

It was the untold cost to the victory over the Endervars. A dying universe had clung to the new, only to be forced aside, and finally killed in the fallout.

Murderer! Farcia said. Do you understand?

She stared into Arendi with all her might. The black sheath over her eyes burned in anger. She then grabbed Arendi’s combat jacket and asked again.

Do you? she shouted.

Arendi backed away. She wasn’t sure what to say. Farcia remained hostile. Her rage turned into a decrepit laugh.

You’re no better, Farcia repeated, trying to find some tiny ounce of consolation. It didn’t last. Her eyes welled up; she was too upset.

I didn’t know, Arendi said eventually. I wish I had known.

Would it even have mattered? Farcia asked. What could you have done?

Maybe there was another way, Arendi replied.

Arendi offered the words, unsure. It was all she had. Farcia simply scoffed.

Don’t pretend. Sometimes there is no other way.

Farcia’s gaze fell to the floor. She was angry and vengeful but still defeated.

Why does reality favor you? she wondered. Favor your universe and not mine?

She would have said more, but she lost her train of thought. The pain ran through her again. It forced her to cough and then vomit. The red and black spit dripped down her gills. From her belly there came a searing sensation. Farcia almost lost consciousness to the agony. Feverishly she scratched her face and hair, bursting out with a new plea.

I want out! she screamed. I want out!

She was still inside her space suit. The gold fabric stretched like leather and creaked with the agony. But Farcia wasn’t referring to the suit. She scratched again, clawing into the flesh at her cheeks.

I want out of this body, she said, wheezing.

Arendi forced Farcia to stop. She grabbed the woman’s wrists and held them still. Farcia, however, writhed in her pain. Over and over again, she shouted, almost delirious. The translation failed to follow. The plea soon became shriek, unintelligible but yearning.