Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4) Page 34

  ‘Of course I understand,’ Lazarus replied. ‘But as I’ve said I am not the same, I’m a man made immortal by machinery, not a machine made omnipotent by its own intelligence. The Word does what it does because of fear, because it sees humanity as the only thing capable of destroying it. Did not mankind once cower beneath imagined gods, the only beings it felt certain could have created and thus could destroy it?’

  ‘They did,’ Idris admitted, ‘it was learning and education that banished such prehistoric concepts from humanity’s future.’

  ‘Then at the least be willing to learn, captain,’ Lazarus begged. ‘The creation of the Word was an act of kindness, an attempt to bring peace to our planet, and it worked for a long time. Should we have known better, that something so intelligent would inevitably eventually turn against us? Of course we should, but we cannot change the past. This machine, this box of circuits and quantum cubits is what keeps me alive, but it does not control me–I control it. That is what makes me different to the Word that you have come to hate with such understandable passion. I have retained my humanity.’

  Idris stood for a moment with his hands behind his back as he observed the machine before him, in itself a sort of prison for the personality of the man who had created it. In a sense, Idris held Lazarus’s life in his hands. The mere removal of the terminal’s batteries and the tossing of it out into deep space would forever seal Lazarus’s fate, blasted into oblivion by a single direct hit from Atlantia’s massive cannons. Lazarus could, he reasoned, thus be forced to reveal all that he knew.

  ‘Kordaz,’ he said. ‘What measure of control do you have over him?’

  ‘I have no control over the Veng’en,’ Lazarus replied.

  ‘And yet you opened his cell during Arcadia’s lockdown and allowed him to murder a senior officer.’

  ‘I observed the officer about to murder a sick man trapped in a prison cell,’ Lazarus replied. ‘The Veng’en was the only person close enough to assist.’

  ‘The Veng’en, for all you knew, could have killed them both.’

  ‘No, captain. I overhead the way Evelyn defended the warrior aboard Endeavour. I suspected that he would act with a sense of honour, albeit brutally.’

  Idris cursed himself silently. The machine, it seemed, had an answer and a reason for everything.

  ‘I could destroy you,’ Idris said and clicked his fingers, ‘just like that.’

  ‘I know, and as I said that is what the Word feared so much. I do not fear death, captain. I was already a very old man before I immortalised myself within this terminal in the hope that someday I would be resurrected and able to fight back against the monstrosity that I left behind for you to face. To be destroyed now, by humans, would be a release for it is not a natural act for a human to be confined within a machine. One day, when this is all over, I very much hope that you will do me the honour of visiting me again and blasting every part of this terminal into a billion pieces.’

  Idris stared long and hard at Lazarus’s face and thought he saw there a hint of grief touching the digital features. Despite himself, and despite his deeply ingrained hatred of the Word, he sensed something different about the machine before him and understood something of the man behind it, the man who had set out to save the world and inadvertently ended up destroying it.

  ‘We escaped the Morla’syn destroyer and are now in orbit around a small moon collecting supplies. From here, we have a choice: either we continue our mission deeper behind the Icari Line in search of new technologies with which to fight the Word, or we change course and head for the Galactic Council in order to defend humanity’s case against other species.’

  Lazarus raised a digital eyebrow. ‘You are a bold man, captain. If the Morla’syn were indeed acting under the orders of the Galactic Council, your frigates might be blasted from existence long before you reach the council.’

  ‘The Morla’syn are a powerful species but they are just as xenophobic as the Word and likely were acting under their own motivations,’ the captain replied. ‘Either way, wandering the cosmos from system to system just trying to survive is not going to help our cause. We intend to act, and right now I need to know as much about what lies further beyond the Icari Line as you know. Endeavour drifted there for decades, and you must have witnessed many things. Our soldiers encountered countless species trapped aboard Endeavour, the subject of experiments. What were you doing to them?’

  ‘Examining them,’ Lazarus replied. ‘Most were found aboard the hold of a vessel that was transporting them. The vessel had been damaged by unknown forces and was adrift–I was able to manipulate Endeavour and bring the craft aboard. Many of the species were unknown to human science and represented fascinating subjects. Alas, I was unable to learn much before each of them had to be placed in stasis before their lives were lost.’

  ‘Some believe you were examining them in order to see how easily they might be infected.’

  ‘Infected with what?’ Lazarus challenged. ‘There were no nanites aboard Endeavour, no means with which I could build them and no gain to have a self–governing force of killer robots swarming about the ship. I learned what I could from them and placed them in stasis for their own safety, that is all.’

  ‘And the face aboard Endeavour’s bridge, merged into the control panels?’ Idris challenged. ‘How can you claim that was not the work of the Legion?’

  ‘Because the man whom I used for that purpose was already dead,’ Lazarus replied. ‘I used his cadaver and instructed the crew to install him directly into the panel. By then, the only crew left were those like Emma who had come to realise that I intended only to protect them. The human face allowed me a connection to the bridge, and thus a means of controlling the vessel when required. It was a means to an end, captain, little more. I cannot act without human cooperation.’

  ‘And the Morla’syn attack?’

  ‘Exactly what I said it was,’ Lazarus replied. ‘We were boarded by the gunship that contained the soldiers. The Morla’syn must have been following them, although I cannot tell from what little I found out what they were doing to have themselves so vigorously hunted.’

  ‘They were spies,’ Idris replied after a moment’s consideration. ‘They were sent by Ethera beyond the Icari Line for reasons we do not understand. Their leader never actually revealed what their true purpose was.’

  Lazarus seemed to think deeply for a long moment before he spoke.

  ‘Captain, there is much you were not told either by your own government or by the species that occupy the cosmos beyond the Icari Line. Your government, the representatives of the people of Ethera and the core systems, were long told that the Line was a barrier that was not to be crossed because beyond it lay deep space and unknown terrors that could threaten the safety and security of your people.’

  ‘And we found that to be true,’ Idris replied. ‘Look at what happened to Endeavour.’

  Lazarus shook his head and closed his eyes as he replied.

  ‘No, captain,’ he said softly. ‘I believe I know why your government sent soldiers beyond the line. They had realised the real reason for the line being put up in the first place.’

  ‘Then tell me,’ Idris insisted. ‘What the hell were they doing out there?’

  ‘The Icari Line was put in place not to keep humanity safe from the outside cosmos,’ Lazarus replied. ‘The line was put in place to keep the rest of the cosmos safe from humanity.’

  Idris stared at Lazarus for a long beat as he tried to digest what you just heard. The Icari Line, the great barrier to human expansion, had been a feature of life ever since the Icari made first contact so long ago. The stories and legends of what lay beyond were like the tales of dragons of old occupying distant seas and attacking human vessels foolish enough to venture into their domain.

  ‘But few vessels that have travel beyond the Icari Line have returned,’ Idris insisted.

  ‘I know, captain,’ Lazarus replied. ‘Like the gunship of your Special Forces
soldiers, like Endeavour and like so many other vessels, they were destroyed not by mysterious terrors but by sanctioned missions orchestrated by the Galactic Council. I am sorry, captain, but it is my analysis of the evidence that the Galactic Council has never wanted humanity to expand any further than its present boundaries. We are a warmongering race, captain, and those of greater wisdom see us as a threat in the very same way that the Word does.’

  Idris shook his head. ‘That can’t be possible. We have had a human member of our government aboard the Galactic Council for decades.’

  ‘And yet the Line still stood for all of those decades,’ Lazarus countered. ‘The creation of the Word is almost certainly the catalyst for having sealed humanity in. You are not just facing a war with the Word, captain. You are now facing a war with every known species in the galaxy, all of whom now have a sanctioned reason to see us destroyed. If you travel to the Galactic Council, I have no doubt that it will be the last voyage you ever make.’

  Idris felt numb as he stared at Lazarus. He ran a hand through his greying hair and closed his eyes as he tried to fathom what they could possibly do next.

  ‘Then where do we go from here? Where else can we run or find the assistance we need to fight back against the Word?’

  ‘I do not know captain,’ Lazarus admitted. ‘I know only that whatever happens now, you must not expose yourself to any of the known species or members of the Galactic Council. Whatever you choose to do, you must do alone.’

  ***

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Dean Crawford is the author of the internationally published series of thrillers featuring Ethan Warner, a former United States Marine now employed by a government agency tasked with investigating unusual scientific phenomena. The novels have been Sunday Times paperback best-sellers and have gained the interest of major Hollywood production studios. He is also the enthusiastic author of many independently published Science Fiction novels.

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  Table of Contents

  ENDEAVOUR

  I

  II

  III

  IV

  V

  VI

  VII

  VIII

  IX

  X

  XI

  XII

  XIII

  XIV

  XV

  XVI

  XVII

  XVIII

  XIX

  XX

  XXI

  XXII

  XXIII

  XXIV

  XXV

  XXVI

  XXVII

  XXVIII

  XXIX

  XXX

  XXXI

  XXXII

  XXXIII

  XXXIV

  XXXV

  XXXVI

  XXXVII

  XXXVIII

  XXXIX

  XL

  XLI

  XLII

  XLIII

  XLIV

  XLV