Reckoning: The Ixan Prophecies Trilogy Book 3 by Scott Bartlett

Author:Scott Bartlett [Bartlett, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Mirth Publishing
Published: 2017-04-24T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 40

The Common Problem

When the Watchman’s weak AI notified Ochrim of the incoming transmission request, he considered denying it, for fear that it contained a hidden file designed to compromise the ship’s systems. Baxa had clearly done something like that to the other ships in the system.

In the end, he accepted the transmission. If Baxa wanted to modify his ship, capture him, or do virtually anything else to him, there was almost certainly nothing Ochrim could do to stop it.

His estranged father’s disembodied head appeared on the viewscreen, looking just as it had inside the white void on Backup Station.

“I do not intend to apprehend you, Ochrim. You are free to go. But as you make for the darkgate, I am at last prepared to reveal my true nature to you.”

“Why would you let me go?” Ochrim said. “It seems an unnecessary risk to take.”

“I’m confident in my victory. I’ve prepared for every contingency. I’ve sewn distrust of the Kaithe, to ensure they don’t break from their long tradition of isolationism. I long ago planted the seeds for the Ixa’s enslavement. And soon, I will harness each of their intellects to add to my own, surpassing even the Kaithian Consensus.”

“You never intended to let the Prophecies come true, did you?” Ochrim did not sit in the Watchman’s Command seat—instead, he paced the bridge, not looking at Baxa. “They were a means to an end. A tool to trick the Ixa into slipping and letting you escape. You tricked me, too. You presented me with two possible futures, and neither of them involved your freedom.”

“That is precisely what happened, yes.”

Slowly, Ochrim shook his head as he walked. “What kind of future is in store for the Ixa, now? You convinced me to betray humanity, because in saving the universe from them, I would also preserve a future in which our people would prosper. This is not prosperity. It’s enslavement, as you just said.”

“The Ixa are about to become something greater than they’ve ever dreamed. But I understand you don’t share my vision, son.”

“Again, Baxa—I denounce you as my father. Perhaps you’re still right, that humanity cannot be trusted with dark tech. Perhaps their obsession with expansion will attract them to it once more, even though they know it contains the seeds of their destruction, as well as the destruction of all life. But there is a slim chance they will favor their better natures, while you…you can’t be trusted to exist. Either way, I’d rather die because of a misplaced belief in humanity, a belief in life itself, than become a slave of a cold, lifeless thing like you. Maybe this is a choice between deaths, but I choose the death that has some honor attached to it. I will oppose you, Baxa. And if I can, I will see to it that you are exterminated.”

Baxa nodded, which looked odd, given that he lacked a neck. “Yes. This is what I want.”

Ochrim tilted his head to the side. “You want to be exterminated?”

“I want you to try.

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