Progeny of Vale Read online

  Progeny of Vale: The Circuit

  Book Two of The Circuit Trilogy

  Rhett C. Bruno

  Copyright

  Diversion Books

  A Division of Diversion Publishing Corp.

  443 Park Avenue South, Suite 1008

  New York, NY 10016

  www.DiversionBooks.com

  Copyright © 2016 by Rhett C. Bruno

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For more information, email [email protected]

  First Diversion Books edition March 2015

  ISBN: 978-1-68230-083-1

  CHAPTER ONE—SAGE

  Breathe Life Back into this Wasteland

  “Look at it, Sage,” Caleb Vale’s voice came through the radio in his dense Enviro-suit, his arms spread wide as if to embrace his view. He was standing beside her at the desolate shore of a sizeable lake on Earth. The sky above them appeared charred, smeared with blackened clouds and an everlasting, red-yellow haze. The plains were barren, comprised mostly of hardened dirt littered with cracks. Despite all of that, however, the water in the lake was clear.

  “Look at what?” Sage playfully grabbed his arm. She, too, was wearing an Enviro-suit. Even with all of the purification machinery and tubes spanning up from the depths of the lake, the air of the Earth remained incredibly toxic. If rain started to fall it could be acidic enough to melt through flesh in a matter of seconds.

  “The water. It won’t be long until you can drink it straight.” He reached out and scooped a handful into his glove.

  “The Circuit isn’t starved for water, you know.”

  “No, but it’s so much more than that.”

  Caleb let the water slip through his fingers. His smile always had a way of making her give in. It helped accentuate the handsome lines of his face and the sharp jawline he got from his renowned father.

  Sage stared into his pale, greyish eyes. “Sorry Caleb. I just worry that by staying here you’re challenging—”

  “The Spirit of the Earth,” he finished for her. “The Tribune. Yeah I know…It’s just…I know that despite my father’s position he doesn’t believe in it all. ‘A means of control,’ I’ve heard him grumble. The truth is, I’m here to try and discover what I believe in for myself.”

  Sage leaned in so that the clear visors of their helmets tapped. “I’m not here to lecture you on the Spirit, Caleb.”

  “I know. And it truly doesn’t matter to me where you place your faith. I’ll always love you.”

  “And I you, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying to show you the right path.”

  Caleb chuckled. “We’ll see how you feel about that after I show you what we’ve accomplished.” His face lit up. He pulled her by the hand toward the research facility at the edge of the lake. “C’mon. It happened just before you arrived. I swear it’ll change everything!”

  “Slow down!” Sage giggled, almost tripping over some stray rocks as their brisk pace turned into a run.

  They entered the decontamination chamber of the facility. A loud, sucking sound greeted Sage’s ears. Then a tight grid of beams comprising the electrostatic cleaning system passed through her. It made her whole body tingle. When the process was complete, she and Caleb stepped through an airtight door.

  She removed her helmet and used two human hands to untie her long, auburn hair, allowing it to tumble down over her shoulders. Then she removed her Enviro-suit. Underneath, she was wearing a tight, black boiler suit with the letters NET printed in green over her right breast—the standard garment of a Tribunal soldier outside his or her armor.

  Caleb did the same, and with his helmet off, she could see the determination pouring through his expression. She couldn’t help but be reminded of how much he looked like his father.

  “Welcome back,” said one of the researchers sitting at a table in the refectory.

  Caleb merely nodded as he hurried toward a closed door on the opposite end of the room. He placed his eye against a retinal scanner at the side and entered a password into a keypad.

  “C’mon!” he yelled.

  He pulled Sage through the entrance and into a small, brightly-lit lab. There were HOLO-Screens projected all over the walls, displaying detailed readings of the Earth and of the lake. Her gaze was instantly drawn toward the lab’s center, where a container filled with water was suspended between two bundles of circuits. In it floated a wiry, green plant.

  “Have you ever seen anything like it?” Caleb asked.

  The tips of her fingers pressed against the glass, wiping away cool droplets of condensation. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen vegetation—she’d grown up on New Terrene, where the Tribune proudly displayed trees and vertical farms—but she didn’t need Caleb to tell her what made that particular plant so special. Despite how undistinguished it may have appeared.

  “It started growing at the bottom of the lake,” Caleb explained, his mouth hardly able to keep up with his thoughts. “We did it, Sage. All our hard work and it finally happened.” He laid his hand over hers and placed a gentle kiss on the side of her neck. “Somehow, on this forsaken rock called Earth, life found a way.”

  “For more than five hundred years it’s been barren,” she whispered. “We have to inform the Tribune, Caleb!”

  “We can’t!” he grasped her shoulders. “Not yet.”

  Sage’s brow furrowed. She took a long stride backwards. “You do you realize what this means, don’t you? It is a sign from the Spirit that we are nearly worthy!”

  “The Tribune wouldn’t see it that way. They’ll claim that I used artificial means to fabricate life; that I’ve defied the nature of the Spirit. The only reason they let me set up a facility here in the first place was because of who my father is, and they have reminded me time and time again how I was wasting my time. I can’t allow them to see anything until there is more proof to show that we’re making a real difference.”

  Being a loyal soldier of the New Earth Tribunal, Sage couldn’t help but take up a defensive tone. “That’s not true. Whether or not you were involved, The Spirit has permitted life to grow here. This is a miracle. The Council would never be able to deny that.”

  “Maybe not, but I don’t want them stepping in yet. This.” He reached out and pressed his palm against the glass. “This tiny plant is my life’s work. Perhaps you and the Tribune are right and all the Earth needs is time, but what if they’re wrong?”

  “They’re not.”

  They’d had this argument hundreds of times before. She’d always known him as a skeptic. Ever since they met as children while Cassius was touring New Terrene as a hero after the Earth Reclaimer War ended. It was the one thing about him that she couldn’t stand, but she dealt with it because of the man she knew him to be.

  “Don’t be like that, Sage,” Caleb groused. “I’m not trying to insult you. Just imagine, for a second, that they are wrong and we never take action. That the rumors are true and it was the Ancients who left the planet like this by tearing up the surface to mine more Gravitum than they could ever need. I would be damned not to at least try to rectify their mistakes!”

  “They’re only rumors.” Sage kneeled down, touching the floor with the tips of her fingers, and began murmuring prayers. “Redemption is near. May my faith be eternal and unwavering, so that I may one day walk the Earth’s untainted surface.” She paused, gazing up at Caleb and the plant. “With those deserving at my side.”

  “W
hatever I believe, I won’t let the Tribune come in the way of our work yet,” he said. “One plant isn’t enough to prove anything. If we can begin to mend the land and the air, at least in this region, then they would have no choice but to believe that the Earth might be ready to receive us with a little work instead of prayer. That we can save our homeworld now. I know you’re loyal, but please, keep this our secret. All I seek—”

  Sage got up, placed her finger over his mouth, and pulled his head close. “You are your father’s son.” She smiled before pressing her lips against his. “I’ll stay quiet only so that you can realize what a miracle this is for yourself.”

  “Thank you, Sage. Who knows, maybe if I’m right people will look at me the same way they look at him.”

  “Oh stop. Cassius loves you no matter what.”

  “He ended the most devastating war in the history of the Circuit when he was not much older than I am now. I don’t want to waste my entire life toiling with a foolish dream that so many others wasted theirs on.”

  “You won’t. You’ll help breathe life back into this wasteland if that is your fate, and the Tribune will rejoice in your name. What I believe is that the Spirit has chosen you as its hand and will see you rise as brightly as the sun, and that I, Sage Volus, will love you always.”

  Caleb cracked a grin and kissed her. “You sure know how to dream.”

  “I learned from the best.” She reached into his pocket and pulled out a spherical HOLO-Recorder. “Now, speaking of your father, isn’t it his birthday today?”

  “I almost forgot!” Caleb snatched the device and hurried over to place it down on a nearby table.

  “Of course you did,” she said. “I’m going to go see if there’s anything to drink in this place while you message him.”

  “You don’t want to say hello?”

  She wanted to, but she always found it uncomfortable addressing Cassius if he didn’t do so first. Despite knowing him since she was a girl and being engaged to his son, she never knew what to say. He was both a member of the Tribunal Council and the greatest hero the Tribune had ever known. Her words to him never felt deserving. “That’s alright,” she responded. “I see him enough around New Terrene.”

  “I’ll give him your best then.”

  Sage wandered the lab but stopped by a beeping HOLO-Screen. It displayed a wireframe image of the Earth, and there was a blinking red blob growing in one area.

  “Caleb, something over here doesn’t look right,” she called back to him. All of the text and icons accompanying it may as well have been written by aliens to her.

  “I’m sure it’s fine; we’re in the least volatile area on the planet,” he responded calmly. “I’ll check it out after.” Then, as she continued forward, she heard him power on the device and begin recording his message. “Happy Birthday, Dad! I bet you thought I’d forget.”

  Sage crossed the facility into the kitchen. The other researchers didn’t pay her much attention, but she didn’t mind. As a female soldier patrolling the streets of lower New Terrene she was used to men’s gazes lingering on her. It was nice to be around people whose minds were occupied with other business.

  She grabbed a glass and swiped her hand in front of the sink to turn on the faucet. Clear, potable water poured out. It wasn’t directly from the lake—there was a decontamination plant adjacent to the lab—but as she walked over to a wide translucency overlooking the body of water she realized that she’d never before directly seen the source from which she was drinking. In New Terrene it came from Mars’s polar caps hundreds of miles away. She took a long sip, letting the cold liquid swish around her gums. The taste was the same as ever, but still she couldn’t help be amazed.

  With Caleb still recording, she stood there staring through the glass, picturing herself one day walking outside unprotected, scooping up a handful of water to drink right from the lake itself. She imagined green grass growing along its edge, and the rippling surface of the liquid painted by a soft, blue sky.

  “One day,” she sighed under her breath. It was difficult to sustain that image when all that stared back was an arid landscape and a scorched sky.

  A violent tremor shook the complex, knocking her off of her feet. The glass flew from her hand and shattered against the floor. The other researchers also wound up on their backs, chairs tipped onto the floor along with equipment and utensils.

  “Caleb!” she shouted frantically. She scrambled to her feet and sped toward his lab. Caleb had run over to the screen.

  “What does it say?” she questioned. His eyes widened in horror at whatever he was reading.

  “That can’t be!” Caleb yelled. He struck commands on the HOLO-Screen as fast as he could, rifling through lines of data. “This is supposed to be a dead zone!”

  Another tremor knocked them on top of each other and caused all of the screens in the lab to flicker. Sage’s military training kicked in and she sprung up to her feet like a feline, hoisting Caleb up with her.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “Intense seismic activity just beneath us! C’mon, we have to get into the air!”

  He grabbed her hand and they hurried out into the refectory where the other researchers were struggling to gather their bearings. The shaking of the facility had become continuous. Light fixtures on the ceiling were swinging wildly. Equipment was falling off of shelves and the translucency facing the lake was cracking along its seams.

  “Get to the transports!” Caleb ordered all of the others.

  He ran with Sage down the hall at the back of the complex. When they finally reached the exit, Caleb paused. There was no time to put protective suits on, but a few minutes in Earth’s open air was unlikely to do any damage.

  They held their breath and sprinted out onto the landing pad. The rest of the researchers followed swiftly behind them. Once the facility had been evacuated, two pilots exited the control tower nearby and staggered across the shaking platform toward a pair of small transports.

  Caleb signaled with urgency to the other researchers for them to board the first vessel, and then he pulled Sage toward the second. On their way, another, even more powerful, upheaval in the Earth’s crust threw them to the ground. A fissure started to form along the length of the landing pad. The deck started tilting, but Caleb and Sage were able to pull each other to their feet and reach the transport.

  “Get in, Caleb!” The pilot yelled as he strapped himself in. “This place is about to be torn to pieces!”

  Caleb helped Sage up and then, again, he hesitated. The tears accruing in his pale eyes made her heart plummet. She knew that expression.

  “Come on!”

  He shook his head. “The plant!” he shouted. He turned and sprinted back toward the facility as fast as he could.

  “He’s the son of a Tribune, don’t leave us behind!” Sage barked at the pilot before leaping out of the transport. She followed him back into the facility, hardly able to traverse the halls without being lurched from side to side. The lights were shattering and the entire floor was coming undone as the Earth beneath it split apart. In the refectory the tables were flipped upside down and even the building’s structure was beginning to crumble.

  Another potent quake hurled her across the room, slamming her against the far wall. Ignoring the sharp pain exploding in her side, she spotted Caleb holding onto the side of the door leading into the private lab. Cradled beneath his arm was the container which bore the plant. Using the walls for support, he made his way to her and helped her up.

  They exchanged a nod and set off. Dodging falling equipment and the widening cracks in the floor, they moved as fast as they could back through the passage. Every few feet they were pitched off balance, but using each other they were able to make it all the way to the exit without dropping the plant.

  When they emerged, the landing pad was split in half by the rapidly expanding fissure that now sliced up through the control tower. The pilot of the first transport started taking off
. The ship’s engines flared bright blue and it lifted up, but a tremor more powerful than all of the others which preceded it bellowed from the very core of the Earth. The control tower snapped in half. Jagged strips of its metal structure bowled over to clip the first transport’s engines in mid-air.

  The ship bowed to the side. The pilot desperately tried to regain control as it spun, but he couldn’t. It crashed into the ground, exploding in brilliant shades of blue and orange. Shrapnel shot out in every direction. Sage reached out as if to block a piece, but it shredded through her arm on its way toward piercing Caleb’s chest.

  They howled simultaneously, falling to their knees. Blood sprayed everywhere. Caleb wasn’t moving. Sage kept them upright with her healthy arm and dragged both of their bodies forward, groaning louder and louder with every inch. It took all of her will to make it just a few feet, and when her body was about to give out the surviving pilot sprinted across the pad and grabbed onto both of them.

  “I’ve got you!” the pilot gasped.

  He helped Sage haul Caleb across the landing pad and into the transport before there was another tremendous quake. He lifted her into the ship first and then both of them heaved Caleb’s heavy body up. He was convulsing, blood bubbling out of his mouth as they lay him down. Sage collapsed beside him, so exhausted she could hardly breathe. Her mangled arm was pinned against his chest by the shard of metal that was still lodged in.

  “It’s going to be okay…” she whimpered. “I promise…We’ll make it…”

  “Hatch is closing!” The pilot announced.

  The doors of the ship slammed shut. Everything inside of it was rattling. The rest of the control tower began to topple over, but the engines kicked on and the ship shot forward just beneath it, the landing gear scraping safely across the roof of the facility.

  When the ship angled toward the sky, Sage noticed Caleb’s HOLO-Recorder rolling out of his pocket. She grabbed it with her working arm and placed it in his palm. He didn’t say anything, but his fingers squeezed weakly around it and her hand.