Critical Path

“We’re heading out to get the parts,” Charlie added. He eyed the croatoans with suspicion. These were a pair of small engineer types. Perhaps because of their size, and maybe because of their role, they didn’t generate the same levels of hate, and Mike seemed to be getting on well with them, swapping notes and discussing engineering ideas.

“Make sure our place stays empty, would you, Ryan?” Denver said. “I’ve grown quite comfortable here and wouldn’t want people coming and going.”

“Sure,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Right then, let’s go,” Charlie said. “We’ve got a wreckage to plunder.”

“I’ll be right there,” Denver said. “I’ll just grab a book for the journey.”

He headed back into the room, concerned the Maria clone might have snuck in, but when he checked, the weapon was still there. Packing it beneath an old T-shirt he had found in one of the drawers, he hid the weapon at the bottom of his backpack. Although they took his rifle and other weapons when they caught him spying, they did give him back his backpack and general supplies.

Not feeling confident about leaving the weapon behind, he put his backpack on and left the room, wondering just how long, or frequently, the Maria clone had spied on them.

Denver joined the others outside, climbing into the back of the adapted harvester. He sat next to Layla and Maria, who had agreed to come along to help with the search. Charlie sat up front with Mike and the two alien engineers.

The engine roared and the harvester vibrated as they pulled out of the courtyard and headed for the ramp that led out of Unity’s basin. Denver was pleased to have left his house-prison, but he worried what the clone was up to.

Either way, he would find out, and he was now armed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Augustus finished annotating another history book with his corrections and sat back in his chair. Sighing, he reached out for a goblet of wine. He needed something to take the edge off his growing anxiety.

Although Gregor seemed loyal and appeared to be satisfied to carry out his new task, Augustus had been on Earth long enough to know that treachery and cowardice were the two halves of many men’s hearts.

The only factor that guaranteed a degree of virtuousness was the promise of power and the belief in a higher creation. The latter, however, had diminished greatly in humanity’s consideration.

Extraterrestrials blew apart many of the religions and myths, leaving humankind wandering in the darkness of their own unexplained existence. Which for Augustus presented an opportunity. Those seeking answers to questions that had none would accept anything with the right delivery of rhetoric.

All it took was for someone to grasp the fate of humankind in his fist and mold it in his vision. All it took was an emperor with strength and the vision to lead humanity once more to cultural and technological new heights. A new republic inclusive of all those who sought the answers that he could deliver would start right here in Unity.

It would just take a little time.

Augustus was used to waiting.

Thanks to the croatoans’ technology and root compound, he had learned to cheat fate of its whims. He would defy the memory of the dead gods and be Earth’s immortal leader.

Unlike the aliens, however, he would not hide in stasis underground for thousands of years, waiting for the moment.

Carpe diem.

The time was now. Once Hagellan was out of the picture, he would unite the disparate groups within the settlement and drive out any dissenters to his rule—including their ally Aimee Rivery.

He could not afford any threads of subversion to remain in his new world to take hold and undermine him.

He drank deeply from the goblet. The wine tasted unrefined and agricultural. Nothing like the superior grapes from Italy and France when he was in Rome, but he wasn’t a man to hanker too much for the past.

The past remained a vacuum of potential.

Memories were but an illusion of things that may or may not have existed in reality. One only had to read the history books that had survived to see how time distorts reality. No, the past held no answers for him. It held no guidance in a world changed far beyond the imagination of anyone from that era.

He looked forward only.

Without the council managing resources on the ground, the remaining croatoans would soon learn independent thought, just as those within Unity had.

But they would still look for direction.

They weren’t bred for agency; they were bred as tools for their superiors to use to achieve their goals. Just as Augustus would use them to achieve his.

With no croatoan ground army left on the planet after they had left before the ice age, there was nothing or no one who could stop him once he had enough resources, once he had collected enough tools.

Having survived that little irritant, Charlie Jackson’s bomb, Augustus knew he had to seize this opportunity.