BattleTech: Visions of Rebirth (Founding of the Clans, Book Two) by Randall N. Bills

Author:Randall N. Bills
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2021-10-27T05:00:00+00:00

20

KATYUSHA CITY

NOVY TERRA

STRANA MECHTY

KERENSKY CLUSTER

13 JUNE, 2807

Andery tried, but could no more ignore her than he could the sun breaking through cloud cover.

But he tried anyway, while the command room slowly filled with the eight hundred warriors of Nicholas’s new army. Friendly faces and not. The spartan room, containing the ubiquitous holotable at the center and a smattering of computer terminals—along with the microfiber poly-myomer woven flooring, charged to rigidity—seemed like a corral more than a military command center. Corralling cattle? No, a zoo. I should’ve seen it coming. Should have...so many should-haves.

“What are you saying?”

The unkind thought skittered across the surface of his mind like a reentry turned bad. He tried to blank his mind, but found her voice could and would shatter any concentration; a blazing sun burning away cloud cover, rolling back endless banks of gray-white until a searing blue sky left no shade; a molecule on the slide, bared for bright eyes.

Without turning, he responded, “What I always say.”

“You would say that? Here?” Her voice sounded scandalized. As though he threatened to urinate on the altar of Strana Prime’s principal church.

Oh, that’s right. Strana Prime’s church was dismantled. After all, it stood in what would be the central square of mystical Katyusha, eh Niki? The sarcasm almost carried him away on a wave of bitterness he never seemed able to hold off for too long. And you promised to rebuild it, just like Windham said, better than ever, didn’t you? Or wait...no, you didn’t. Jennifer promised. And I’d accept her promise as quickly as enter a burrock hole. So you’ll keep delaying. After all, we’re resource-strapped, and you’re just trying to find homes for all of us refugees, and what can you do about it, right? I mean, you’ve only got so much men and materials, and infrastructure is so important right now...and making sure that we have a good defense against any possible incursion from the Pentagon Worlds.

But you’ll never rebuild it. Because religion has no place in your society, does it, Niki? No place at all. There can be only one God before Me. And that God is you, isn’t it, Niki? Oh, if push came to shove, you’d probably say our God is now one of stone, twelve meters tall and standing in the central plaza. You might even go so far as to say you’re simply a spokesperson, though they treat you more like a prophet. But isn’t a prophet supposed to listen to the words of his God? But you don’t listen to anyone, do you? The old god, Father, is dead and you intend to remake humanity in your own image.

But what image is that, Niki? What are these Clans? What image?

“Andery.”

The voice seemed to jar something loose, as though a circuit dislodged from the endless loop of his thoughts gyrating madly, and he physically jerked, turning to meet Dana’s eyes. Those powerful, soul-mirroring eyes...that now held a shadow. Nothing she ever said. Likely nothing she even realized. But the eyes that mirrored his soul so completely seemed to have.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.