The Sons of Sora by Tassi Paul

Author:Tassi, Paul [Tassi, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: alien contact, Action & Adventure, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781940456393
Publisher: Talos
Published: 2016-01-19T06:00:00+00:00

28

It wasn’t possible.

Lucas had watched Mars Maston die. During their mission to Xala, the man had hauled a Shadow into a cramped escape pod by the blade of his knife, and the two butchered each other as they rocketed through space. Lucas saw the blood pour from Maston’s neck in the pod’s video feed. He watched the data readouts, devoid of all life signatures. Maston had saved all of them from the Chosen Shadow’s wrath, and it had cost him everything. This was a sick joke. A mind game of the Archon. The demonic figure before him was not his former friend.

Though part of him wanted to believe it was. And so did Asha, it seemed.

“Mars,” she called out weakly, “it’s us.”

The Corsair stared at them blankly. It was hard to tell where his thin black armor plating ended and his obsidian skin began.

“What do you remember, Maston?” Lucas said. “What has the Archon done to you?”

Mars Maston’s eyes narrowed. His voice sounded as if a thousand souls were trapped inside him.

“You speak as if you know me, traitors.”

Lucas lowered his pistol as slowly as he could manage.

“Just tell us what you remember. Who you remember.”

Maston’s dark face looked momentarily confused.

“There is only the pair of them. Him and her. Tulwar and Cora. I will find him and kill him, and when I do, the Archon will bring her back to me.”

He didn’t remember them at all, then. The Archon had carved up his mind and memories to give him a single focus, to turn him into a whirlwind of destruction.

“Who have you killed? On all those ships, in all those systems?” Asha asked slowly, attempting to understand. All of their guns were now lower than they probably should have been. Draylin Maston looked at his cousin in awe as he propped himself up, his fine robes soaked in the blood of his dismembered crew.

“The Order,” the Corsair Maston replied. “Their agents are everywhere. They’ve died screaming, as they should. As you will, once your purpose has been served.”

God, Lucas thought. He’d been butchering SDI and civilian convoys thinking they were Fourth Order, thinking he was hunting down the already dead Hex Tulwar.

“Who is the Archon?” Lucas pressed, determined to find an answer from at least one of his creations.

“The Tomes of the Forest were wrong,” Maston said. “The Archon is our god.”

God of the Shadows. And still unhelpful.

“Tulwar is dead, the Order is scattered,” Asha said, a pleading look in her eyes. “The Archon is not a god, and can’t bring Cora back, no matter what he’s telling you.”

“The words of a liar mean little,” Maston mumbled, inching toward them. The viewscreen showed a vast expanse of space behind him. The stars drifted sideways as the crippled Endless Dawn was floating dead in the vacuum. “Why should I believe the fabrication of strangers, desperate to save their own lives?” he continued.

It was Alpha who spoke next, for the first time.

“You know us, Commander Maston. Some part of you does.

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