Gemini Ecliptic : : Chapter 13
As of the latest generation of faster-than-light engines, we have hit the limitation of FTL travel. Just as the scientists of old foresaw, the conduits themselves restrict how fast we may travel. This, taken with the gravimetric susceptibilities of the conduits, has remained a steadfast challenge to theoretical physicists for the past 3000 years. In all of those centuries, we have yet to find a way to overcome the obstacles. The implication is simple: we are confined to roughly one quadrant of our galaxy for all time. It is at this point I must reiterate the contention of our conservators: the wild turbulence of our cosmos will always play the spectre of extinction, biding its time to strike.
- Interview with Laureate Doctor Richard Speight as entrusted to Pontifex Scientia Elena Colfax in 3154 AT.
Chaos engulfed the Great Hall of Synod Republica. Tens of thousands cried out, some in fear, some in joy and some in confusion. Only the handful of men and women on a dais low in the chamber stood in silence. Shock rolled off them in crashing waves. Justin had moved immediately to support Morgan, afraid he would collapse and injure more than his pride.
The deafening clacking of the Worlds Stone in the hands of the Consul Legate upon its base stone in front of her pierced the din. Finally with order restored, her visibly shaking hand returned the stone to its perch and she turned her wide eyes on the intruding pair. She gave them a discrete nod as their cue to explain themselves.
They walked in perfect synchronicity, long, heavy blue capes trailing behind them, the insignia of the Sentinel in vibrant silver emblazoned on the rich smart fabric, down the steps to stand directly across from her. It took more effort than any person present could know not to run immediately into the waiting arms of their friends and families. However, they kept their spines straight, their heads held high and locked eyes with the Legate.
“We intrude upon this hallowed assembly to discharge our duty,” Jensen’s voice rang out across the vast auditorium.
“We come now, before you, at the due conclusion of Secernere,” Jared continued. “It is in the service of this Republic that we allowed the reports of our demise to continue uncorrected.”
“At great personal cost.” Jensen called out, his voice cracking on the last word.
Legate Rhodes stared at them, speechless, for an uncomfortably long time. Finally, shaking her head as if to clear it, she stood.
“Sentinels,” her voice shaking with disbelief. “To the fulfillment of Secernere, you come at the appointed time. You will always have audience before us.” The words of the ancient script seemed foreign and alien to her. “Speak, so that your duty may be discharged.”
“We bring before you matters of the gravest importance,” Jared responded. “We call for tribunal so that justice may be met.”
“We bring charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted murder, murder, treason against the Republic and 13,458 violations of the Tamnagar Embargo,” Jensen’s voice boomed.
The resultant pandemonium took a full five minutes to quiet. Again, the loud clacking of the Worlds Stone finally broke through, allowing the proceedings to continue.
“Is this the fullness of your charges?” Rhodes asked them.
“Sadly Eminence, it is not.” Jared answered.
“We bring lesser charges of some length, which can be heard by lesser bodies,” Jensen said diffidently. “However, to begin we call upon the Conclave Guard.”
Several hundred royal blue-robed guards moved from their assigned positions to points of attention on each circle. All of their eyes were fixed upon the Sentinels.
Suddenly, the projector in the center of the amphitheatre sprang to life.
Jared’s voice boomed with an astonishing authority. “Captain of the guard! Arrest all these listed here. They will give answer to the charges against them and suffer the punishment meted out by justice.” Suddenly, the closed and by all appearances, locked doors made sense.
One by one, the holographic image of the accused appeared on the giant projector pad. When the nearest guard had secured the indicted, he or she called out “It is done!” and the next image appeared. In all, 195 men and women of every rank of office in the Republic stood before the Legate’s dais. The silence in the chamber weighed heavily. It appeared no facet of government would remain untouched by these allegations.
Rhodes could not pry her eyes from her very own Adjutant, a trusted friend and ally, standing before the highest body in the worlds on charges that would likely bring an end to his life.
The final image stunned the gathered masses. Andre Fayon’s proud and handsome face appeared, and even over the outcry of the crowd, his shouts of protest could be heard. Forcibly escorted to the floor by four guards, he glared at Jensen and Jared, but wisely said nothing.
“Are all of the accused hereby accounted for?” Rhodes asked.
“No Eminence, they are not.” Jared answered. He ordered the guards to move the group to one side of the chamber floor. Suddenly, twelve confused and disoriented scientists appeared out of thin air.
“Of these gathered, everyone has colluded willingly in the perpetration of these crimes,” Jensen continued.
It appeared that Fayon had finally reached his limit.
“This is outrageous! Where is your proof, boy?!” he spat at them.
The group parted as Jensen and Jared walked slowly to the Legate’s dais. One by one, long, rectangular pieces of crystal appeared on the glassy surface of her lectern. Setting the fifth and last one gently down, Jared explained.
“These computer memory crystals were taken from the central computers of five illegal laboratories on Tarea, Yser, Preteil, Xepri Major, and Ialon Beta. They were removed from the computers by our own hands. Within you will find the complete record of the communications between each party and a vast amount of data that clearly demonstrate their plans and purposes.”
The Sergeant at Arms approached, cataloged the items and gently placed them in an evidence case for examination.
“Before the crystals are removed from this building, we require disclosure of the forensic teams,” Jensen urged.
Rhodes looked at them curiously then nodded. The Sergeant produced a scroll and pulled up the names. Of the eleven present, only two had to be stricken, much to Gemini’s relief.
“You have prepared a summary of the information pertinent to the charges, I presume?” Rhodes asked.
“We have,” Jared answered. “But a word of caution, your Eminence.”
“Several parties involved in this cabal acted without their knowledge. As can be attested to by Psi Min officials, many individuals have been mentally altered by a rogue empath of tremendous power. These men and women will remain anonymous at this time. We urge the Primes to consider this matter separately.”
“A prudent suggestion,” she answered. “Do the Prime Leaders not accused agree to this caveat?”
No one dissented. Rhodes appeared to regain some mastery over herself once more. Her hands moved across the surface of the lectern, manipulating something upon the holovid plate in front of her. Suddenly, the two empty sections of the first ring shifted, and chairs and half-walls emerged from the floor.
“Guards, escort the accused to their seats,” she called out, gesturing to the empty sections. The Conclave Guard fulfilled the order efficiently and silently.
Once seated, Rhodes called out “Consul Juris Pillegi, will you answer the call for tribunal?”
From somewhere behind Jensen and Jared, a rich baritone answered, “I will, as is my duty and office, serve as Adjudicator.”
“Approach the dais.” Rhodes replied. Pillegi walked purposefully toward her, and then took the seat formerly occupied by the Adjutant Consul Legate at Rhodes’ right hand. Pillegi took a long, hard look at the two young men before him. Invocation of Secernere constituted a huge gamble for them. The ancient tradition, not used in the Republic for over 250 years, allowed certain officers of the government or military to conduct in-depth, completely secretive investigations. The secretive nature demanded very few be informed of the operation. Pillegi had seen the reactions, the devastation, of the Primes, and particularly Morgan, wrought by the supposed deaths of Gemini. Clearly, they had initiated this probe without informing anyone. Sentinels had the authority, but if the findings of the investigation, and usually far more problematically, the methods of the investigation failed to justify the leeway granted the officers, the historical precedent demanded demotion, and the stripping of the privilege.
The two men’s youth sparked no small skepticism on his part. Secernere required a deep and nuanced knowledge of law and protocol, but as he stared at them, he realized this investigation had cost them dearly. Immediately behind their armor-clad forms sat friends and loved ones, who had all suffered the agony of an apparent loss, an agony that these two men could have ended. He doubted anyone trained by Morgan could shroud themselves in such deep covertness at such a high price without tremendous cause.
Regardless of his reservations, they had called for tribunal to divulge their findings, and to do so in front of the entirety of the Republic. Again, the stakes seemed to be higher than he could estimate. Whatever these two were about to divulge had better be iron-clad. Fayon was as slippery as they come. Pillegi knew that in this, he could lend them aid.
“You come before us, by your admission, at the conclusion of Secernere,” he said. “Call forth your Vox Veritas.”
Jensen and Jared looked at each other, momentarily stunned, until a voice behind them spoke softly.
“I will so serve.”
They realized immediately, it was Misha. They could not bring themselves to turn around and look at him. They knew one glance and all of the resolve they had marshaled to see this through would fold, and they would run to their loved ones. That simply had to wait.
Another voice above them and to their right called out. “Forgive me, Legionnaire. I say this not as an indictment of your ability or character, but in observance of the emotional trauma you have so recently endured. Are you fully able to serve in this capacity without bias or prejudice?”
“Princeps Minor Baritol,” Misha answered. “I take no offense at your concern, as I too would have asked the same were our positions reversed. It is precisely because of my relationship with Gemini and the suffering of the past four days that I offer my services. Only the truth in its fullness could bring honor to their torment as well as my own. Cheap or false justice would be the most grievous insult imaginable.”
The Princeps bowed graciously at Misha’s thoughtful response and said “My concern has been assuaged.”
Pilleggi looked around at the other Primes, judging if any would give further objection. When none came, he said, “Sentinels of the Republic, we bid you give account.”
“Have the Primes been debriefed on the events of the Consul Executus’ annual banquet, and the tragedy of Cavalor Canyon?” Jared asked.
“Indeed, we have.” came the reply. “However, details of the event and those that followed have not been made clear.”
“Then,” Jensen began solemnly, “We will attempt to clarify.”
The holodisplay flashed a series of messages, schematics and other pertinent information. “The formation of A Squadron, its location and drills were known only to a handful of people. None of those so informed leaked the information to the cabal. Unfortunately, the responsible party acted without consent, a victim of the mental tampering of the rogue empath, of whom we will speak a great deal more about later.
“The flight plan for the Canyon had been filed only the morning of the proposed drill,” Jensen continued. “If you examine the memory crystals, you will find that the cabal had been monitoring the squadron closely, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The Canyon provided the perfect place. The conspirators had thought to initially mislead the forensics teams into believing a collision had caused the explosions. However, an explosive device had been placed on two of the ships, the two that Jared and I were to be on board. A split second before detonation, the gunners of both ships were transported aboard a cloaked ship in high orbit over Lyrea.”
Andres called out a question. “We have no truly functioning cloaking devices.”
“You will find complete schematics in the crystals,” Jared answered. “You will also find a number of other technologies that had either been banned or abandoned that this group developed ferociously over the past seven years.”
“But Gemini has only existed for less than one,” Ryselle exclaimed.
“We were not their initial targets.” Jensen answered. “That came later. After the events in the Basilica, the kidnappers had prepared two stasis chambers, set to maximum hibernation. They wanted to be certain their victims did not wake. Unfortunately, I had moved to a different ship. They teleported Alona Tal up to the ship. She was killed almost instantly by the hibernation process. The pilots were killed in the explosions. The cabal never intended for them to live.”
Pilleggi took the moment of Jensen’s saddened silence to look at Misha. A nod of the empath’s head informed him that all he had just heard was the truth.
“Moments before the explosion, I suffered from severe head pain, a sharp pain behind my eyes.”Jensen explained. “Then, I cannot express in words the horror and incandescent agony of the next few moments. My recollection of them is poor. I can recall only hurt. I recall vaguely coming-to in the triage unit, but again, the memory gives way only to agony. The next thing I remember is attaining a level of consciousness in cryo-sleep.”
“I have no real memory of the abduction or the transfer trip,” Jared continued. “I only remember, after some indeterminate time, achieving a state of awareness which we describe as a level 7 trance.”
Again, attention turned to Misha. “I have only experienced a level five trance,” he answered. “But they are not lying. It has been my experience in training them that if any Adepts could attain that level, it would be these two.”
“I call it a level seven because,” Jared stumbled over the words, “because it placed both of us in a state of consciousness outside of space time.”
He waited for the rumbles of disbelief to die down. “Jensen and I were able to communicate then, the same way we always do when we are near.”
“But in this instance,” Jensen picked up the thought, “It was happening in real time, even though we were thirty-five lightyears apart. It was then that we tumbled to what the conspirators had done, where Jared had been taken. I don’t really know how, it’s not something I could even begin to explain, but at that level of trance, somehow we could operate as one. Let me try to explain this. Jared couldn’t take action without alerting his captors. I could. Even though we were still in the trance, we could move and operate my body. Unfortunately, those first few waking moments were lacking in, um, control.”
Jared squeezed his hand and explained. “We overshot the power needed to exit the stasis chamber by a lot. In fact, we basically destroyed MedLab 1 at the academy. The poor medic on duty panicked. She had been injured in the destruction, so we healed her and put her to sleep before she harmed herself. Then the Justicar, the Optia, and our mentors arrived on the scene.”
The memories flashed sharply through Misha’s mind, nothing more clearly than the brilliant green glow of Jensen’s eyes, the way he and Jared both spoke to them without actually speaking. It appeared neither young man realized these strange side effects of their trance.
“We arrived on Tanae, and I led them to the facility where Jared was being held,” Jensen said. “It was an ancient building, built in the first century, deep in the great desert.” The holovid switched to a map of Tanae, zooming in on satellite imagery of the installation, obviously prior to its rather spectacular self-destruction. “But one of those horrific sandstorms beat us there. The others turned around to head back, but I leapt from our transport.”
“You are saying that you jumped out of a secured transport. Into the maw of a deep Great Desert sand storm, free-falling to a fortified installation kilometers below?” Pilleggi asked, startled.
“Yes, sir,” Jensen answered. “The shield we use transduces any opposing energy into more power for the shield. The kinetic energy from the fall, the storm and the static electricity turned the shield into a hypercharged energy source. Using some of that power, I was able to slice through the rock into the facility itself. When the rock was breached, the self-destruct engaged.”
Jensen paused in his description of the events. He and Jared struggled with whether or not to tell of the 37 men and women that Jensen had killed. On one hand, nuclear-powered self-destruct assured none of them could have survived. However, that did not change the fact that they had not died then, but moments before. Both young men breathed deeply and Jensen continued.
“I chose the entry point in the building opposite from the lab where they held Jared. I did not want to leave an opening through which the storm could follow me that might endanger him. When I was safely inside the corridor, I released the power of the shield. All personnel who were in the main passageways were vaporized.”
He stopped again, waiting for the consequences of that heated decision to rain down on both of them. The moment stretched out interminably. When they finally looked up at the main dais, they found patient, sympathetic eyes fixed on them, waiting for them to continue.
“I raced down the hallway to the doors of the lab. They were heavy plastinium blast doors, newly added, judging by the materials of the original facility. I removed them, and found the lab.”
Both young men had to fight back bile and a wave of nausea. It was only going to get worse from here.
“Inside, I found Jared, and forty amniotanks. Each one contained a clone of Jared.”
The reaction from the audience was instantaneous and deafening. Pilleggi and Rhodes had gone pale, their eyes widening. It took some moments before the Consul Legate regained enough composure to attempt to bring the assembly back to order. When silence finally returned, Pilleggi motioned for Jensen to continue.
“I got Jared out of his stasis chamber and destroyed the tanks and their contents. We grabbed the memory crystal from the main computer. I threw up a large shield, hoping it would be strong enough to absorb the blast from the self-destruct.”
Both young men became lost in the memory of the reunion. They continued to recount their tale, switching back and forth. One mind possessing two voices.
Safely ensconced within the bubble of the deflector, buried under tons of radioactive glass, Jared and Jensen held tight to each other. The flashes of energy outside their shield were so blindingly bright they had to willfully shut them out of their minds. They were together, the abominations destroyed, and nothing mattered more than that.
The strand of their connection, previously stretched impossibly thin by astronomical distance, hummed vibrantly, now soothing instead of painful. There, on the periphery of consciousness, the others, the remaining abominations worlds away, tugged at them. The wrongness feeling more toxic than the radioactive wasteland surrounding them. Dark strings spread out from Jared like spokes from the hub of a wheel. Five worlds, five laboratories, they knew they had to go to each. The evil work of twisted minds must be undone, and then, justice.
But the first and most dangerous order of business was escape from a molten glass prison. The torturous separation inflicted upon them by Jared’s captors revealed more than they had expected. Whatever force had bound them together transcended space and time. Through the mind-searing agony of being worlds apart, the link held. It held to such a degree that they shared thoughts and feelings instantly. Even the most sophisticated communication arrays had lag. Between Lyrea and Tanaes, the FTL comnet ran at an eleven second lag. Trapped in that horrific in-between place, vast vacuum separating their bodies, they discovered that those lovely strings of energy that had so fascinated them afforded them far more than aesthetic appreciation. Now, they would see if they could in fact translate this new theory into practice.
A moment’s concentration and the universe revealed the complex fabric of strands and strings which interwove the entirety of the cosmos. The brightest, strongest strands led to the stars. They mentally reached out, finding the string to the Yser system. From the pull of its sun, they found the strings to its orbiting planets, and the vibrant biology of the only inhabited world in the system pulsed a deep green. Drawing more than enough power from their surroundings, they tugged at it. It stretched then recoiled, pulling them with it.
A shocking and complete nothingness surrounded them. No sound, no light, nothing. They could no longer feel their bodies, only each other’s consciousness. The nothing seemed to stretch out forever, but in fact only lasted a moment. Instantly, the green sky of Yser shone radiantly down upon them, blue-black sands underfoot. The Orinoco, a vast shallow ocean of the western hemisphere, stretched out before them and they could feel the crackling energies of a building storm. No doubt one of the typhoons that raged across the surface daily.
Behind them, a rocky outcropping signified a vast cavern underneath and shelter from the storm. No other world in the Republic they had seen appeared more “alien’ than Yser. The strange color of the sky, the inky blackness of the sands and the purple-blue of its oceans. The shallow oceans created constant, violent shifts in weather. Temperatures fluctuated wildly hour to hour, creating the infamous storms and their resultant winds, flooding and destruction. The constant meteorological chaos re-fertilized the soil nearly daily. The planet’s vegetation had evolved to grow at shocking rates. The tropical forest behind them that formed the border of the beach upon which they stood was made up of fully grown and oddly colored palm trees. The deep fuschia trunks swayed in the increasingly strong wind, the nearly fluorescent green leaves waving to and fro. The trees looked to be decades if not hundreds of years old, but from their courses at the Academy, they knew them to be only two to three days old.
Yser’s agricultural sector could sustain the entire population of the republic. Crops maturing from seed to harvest in hours or days. No other planet underwent as rigorous monitoring of its imports and exports, constant shipments of replacement material from the other worlds kept a strange interstellar type of erosion from desiccating the planet.
High overhead, glistening even in daylight, the giant space station that formed the orbital half of the system’s capital, Mesius could be clearly seen. They knew, however, that this small island upon which they stood saw no visitors. That suited their purposes well.
Within, they saw only three scientists, their energies slightly different than guards or mercenaries. The storm could be useful. A precise influx of heat, and the spiral would strengthen, stabilize. It would hit this island in the next half hour, and with their encouragement, would rage for six to eight days. The thick plastinium door the sealed of the cavern would hold up against any number of assaults, and the cavern had no alternative exit. No doubt it was precisely this that caused the island to be uninhabited, and, according to Yserians, uninhabitable. The conspirators seemed to have no qualms with accepting the dangers of a single entrance cavern, so long as it afforded them complete privacy.
Yes, this would work well to their advantage.
They stood, holding hands even though their bodies and faces were still covered in armor and watched the storm approach. They watched the waves increase in power and frequency. They had some time before the storm would land and render communications inoperative. They studied the magnificent energies of the typhoon, what fed it, what impeded it, how current, heat, water and wind worked together. Only a few, very slight modifications on their part assured this maelstrom would remain stable and by the time it had passed completely over the little island, a full week would have passed.
The sky was now dark and threatening, the flashes of lightning and claps of thunder all around them and they turned and entered the mouth of cave. The door gave effortlessly before them, the trio within startled then terrified. The lab held seven abominations, and Jensen disintegrated them to save his beloved from such a vile task. The crystal from the computer, smaller than the one on Tanea, tucked easily in Jared’s armor; he turned and destroyed the cellular samples arrayed across the center work table. One by one, he walked to the scientists, now standing flush against the back wall, trying to put as much distance between him and them as possible. A touch of his metal-encased hand and they fell in turn, each in a state of deep hibernation, not to wake for several days. Jensen fused the door into a solid mass, its edges impregnated in the hard stone of the cave walls.
Yes, plenty of room here and no chance for escape. This would do.
It was time to move on, and in the flash of a second, they were gone.
Neither could remember Preteil being described without the words “paradise” coming up at some point. Crystalline seas so deeply blue they had to strain their vision to see the horizon line given that the blue of sea and sky almost perfectly matched. The temperature, even now at the peak of the day, could not have been more than twenty-two degrees Celsius. Given the ocean planet’s unique geography, the conspirators could not have picked a more perfect place to hide a lab. Of the 50,000 plus islands, less than half of them had been settled. With the white sands under their feet and the lush patch of tropical vegetation behind them, Jensen and Jared doubted anyone deliberately came here. It was simply too small to be of interest. But below, burrowed out of the solid rock, they sensed the facility, and the three scientists within.
One moment, two metallic figures stood tall and gleaming on the sandy shore, and the next they were gone. The tanks, as had become their preference, were the first things dealt with. Then, the scientists were rendered unconscious and sent to join the others. Finally, Jared tucked the central computer crystal in his armor. A split second before they disappeared, they destabilized the rock overhead, effectively pulling the entire island down on top of the lab. Nothing would remain for anyone to find.
Were it not for the nature of their task, they would have looked forward to the next planet. Xepri Major might arguably be the most unique of the worlds in the Republic. The strange atmosphere and oceanic currents created a tropical zone from pole to pole. The largest culprit behind this strange climatology, the sister planet, Xepri Minor, dominated the late evening sky. Its coral-colored disk striated with white, pink and purple clouds gave the boys what might be the most spectacular view they had ever seen. Xepri had only one, massive continent. At the extremes of the two Polar Regions, the lush tropical rainforest turned to coniferous cloud forest. The energies of the planet, stronger than any other they had set foot on, tingled and tantalized their senses. This world was astoundingly alive. The cosmic music that had become their companion recently took on richer and deeper timbres. The voice, or as they started referring to it, the chorus, while still unintelligible reached new registers of low and high in the symphony. Yet, there, right at the periphery of their minds, something stood out, but the moment they focused on it, it would disappear. It was intelligent, psionic, but with abilities not fully formed. It merited further exploration, but not today.
Like a cancer hidden under the lushly, verdantly healthy surface of the planet, their next appointment lurked. This facility had been tucked away far into the forest, where humans dared not tread for fear of disrupting the ecosystem. Its presence here was doubly damned. Grasses underfoot became false floor, sky traded for artificial light. Their movements were now precisely rehearsed. Their work done quickly, a few more guests sleeping on Yser, and once again they pulled the roof down as they left.
New Dallas, the jewel of Ialon Beta, defied any and all expectations Jensen and Jared held. Knowing of its status as the most populous city in the worlds with over 100 million inhabitants could not prepare them for the scale of the city. Ialon Beta’s circumference was purported to be twice that of old Terra, a massive planet with 17 large continents and the highest population of any planet in the Republic. But the people of New Dallas had, like most humanity, learned well the lessons of the ancestral homeworld. The massive metropolis wound about the coast of the largest continent, but took up no more than a few hundred square kilometers. The spires of the city reached higher into the sky than could be seen from the ground level. The ten newest, and tallest, towers supported a massive circle called the Corona. The ring sat ten kilometers above the outer limit of the planet’s atmosphere and served as one of the largest space ports in the worlds. From the bases of the towers to the peak of the crown, the buildings stood some 130 kilometers tall.
Jensen and Jared had been startled to discover the final laboratory they needed to destroy was high in one of the towers of the city. All the other installations lay thousands of klicks from any noticeable population. Perhaps the strategy here was to hide in plain sight. It had not escaped their notice that the only three planets in the Republic that did not have labs were Lyrea and both of their birthworlds: Therta Prime and Kruis.
A number of challenges lay before them. As they sat on a hill outside the city’s limit they stared at the impossibly tall edifices and tried to piece together how to proceed. Before they did anything else, they needed rest and food. Preferably large amounts of both. The abominations here would not reach maturity for weeks. The pair had already stretched themselves as thin as they safely could.
They hated the thought that their loved ones would believe they were both dead, and that resting would only prolong their suffering, but they had no choice. Finding lodging and nourishment in the great city would present no significant problem. However, going unrecognized would force them to do something they had never wanted to do. An empathic touch to the minds of all around them would effectively disguise them both. It would in fact, render them invisible to the minds of anyone they came in contact with. It was mental tampering, but they knew of no other way.
Gazing at the city through the phenoptic sent them both reeling. From the ground to where the towers disappeared from sight high overhead, New Dallas contained so much psionic energy it looked like a titanic beam of pure energy piercing the clouds. Sorting through the writhing mass of concentrated energy taxed them almost beyond their weakened resources. First, they needed a place to teleport to that would not attract attention before they could deal with it. That problem had caused them to materialize well outside of the metropolis. They had been searching for over an hour, and had only in the last ten minutes figured out how to filter away enough of the “noise” to be able to find what they needed. One of the newer towers had several floors of empty lodgings within. If they could acquire food, they could simply squat in one of the rooms until they recovered sufficiently for the last three tasks ahead of them.
Finally, a plan came together; the elements aligning that would suit their needs. Jensen gathered the memory crystals they had collected and set them side by side on the grass. They closed their eyes and envisioned the destination, finding the needed thread immediately. A tug and the clear crystal chips disappeared. That done, food and sleep held a powerful allure for them both, but in truth, they had no greater need than to rest, skin to skin, together. Armor safely tucked away, they entwined their fingers and disappeared into the giant city.
Jared and Jensen paused in the recounting of their tale. The faces of the Consuls Legate and Juris, not to mention what they could glimpse from a few surreptitious glances at the other Primes, suggested to them that the tribunal and the audience beyond could use a moment to assimilate the overload of information.
Jared gestured to a steward, and he retrieved glasses of water for both of them. The look on the young man’s face provided the indicator they required to gauge the at-large response. They had decided on a fully public tribunal, guessing at the personal costs to them. The case against the conspirators offered no defense. The data in the crystals damned every last person involved in explicit detail. Closed trials or open, the bastards would not escape justice. Unfortunately, to do this for all the worlds to see would expose things about both of them, powers brand new and unexplored that would likely be the final step toward completely dehumanizing them both in the public mind.
This would be for them, the day they returned to their loved ones from the dead. History though would record it as the day Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki died, and Gemini replaced them fully. It would show them to be some superhuman deity to be feared and loved. In truth, the sequence of events, choices and morals that brought them to this nexus could not be simpler. Every step they had willfully taken, often in response to the actions of others willfully taken against them, brought them irrevocably to this place. Jensen and Jared versus Gemini.
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