Ashfall Prophecy by Pittacus Lore

Author:Pittacus Lore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

17

Arkell led us down a corridor where the walls were huge windows looking into busy research stations. There had to be at least fifty Denzans working in the two rooms, leaning over terminals to scroll through data or plugged into VR headsets while their hands swiped at invisible patterns. There were a lot of numbers, a lot of measurements, a lot of patterns. Something in the Denzan part of my mind latched on to the idea of energy fields, light waves, ripples in a pond when you skipped a stone.

Goldy. It seemed impossible, but somehow I knew that it wasn’t.

“Young Batzian told me everything about your journey to Ashfall,” Arkell said conversationally, like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on us. “The origin of our so-called shame. The true nature of humanity. The fact that there’s no cure for the Wasting.”

I figured that Batizan had told Arkell a lot, but I didn’t expect him to have so many details. “He shouldn’t have done that,” I said. “It’s more complicated than—”

“Did you expect you could keep it all a secret, Sydney?” Arkell asked, interrupting me. “If that was the case, you should have stayed on Ashfall like your father. Information is the galaxy’s most powerful virus. What you’ve released will spread, whether you want it to or not. Perhaps the version I received from Batzian was colored by his mental weakness and cowardice, but I don’t hear you disputing the core truths. I imagine the version Rafe Butler received is similarly colored, yet that hasn’t stopped him from taking action. And we must be prepared to respond.”

“Wait. What did Rafe Butler do?” Tycius asked. “What’s happening on Denza?”

Arkell handed a tablet to my uncle. “I assumed being off the grid, you wouldn’t be plugged into the newsfeed. Rafe’s mysterious protest is all anyone on Denza can talk about.”

The frozen image on the screen showed four ISVs hovering low over an island on Denza that I immediately recognized. The rows of Earth flags flying over the main thoroughfare made it pretty obvious.

“That’s Little Earth,” I said. “What are those ships doing?”

“So far, nothing,” Arkell replied. “The humans on board commandeered the vessels and kicked off their nonhuman crew. Since then, they’ve just been hanging over Little Earth. Everyone assumes Butler is behind this little coup, but he hasn’t made any demands yet.”

“He’s waiting until he can get to us,” I said, more to my uncle than Arkell. Even rumors of the Origin were enough to cause major unrest on Denza. It was starting to feel like keeping peace between the species would be impossible.

“Indeed.” It was Arkell who answered, almost like he agreed with my thoughts. “Last I heard, the institute had lost contact with a number of other ships on missions throughout the galaxy. They’re assumed to have fallen under human control as well. I noticed the Eastwood was on the list.”

“So the institute thinks we’ve defected with Rafe,” my uncle said, “while in actuality, those ships are probably hunting us.”

“An interesting predicament,” Arkell said.

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