The Constant Star (57)

THE STORY SO FAR

Some kind of guidance for him to find his way. Where are all the monsters though? Are we dodging them?

The forest floor becomes more sparse and rocky as they climb toward the mountains. They pass under cliffs and around fallen rocks until Jupiter finally stops by another cliff face, “No. Dammit, we were so close! Damn!” Jupiter turns back to look on his exhausted daughter, “The opening is not safe for us to return at this time. We have to wait here until it is.”

Siff collapses to the ground and leans against the cliff, Jupiter removes his helmet and sits next to her, “We can’t stay here long, there is no food or water. We have to move back down to the forest. I was hoping we would hold the Gate, but the fighting is still too fierce. We cannot enter the ship until the Gate is in our hands again.

“Siff?” She lays unmoving on the ground, exhausted breaths the only thing showing her life. For the first time since arriving, Jupiter looks on her with soft eyes, “Okay. Lets go. I’ve got you.” He lifts her into his arms and walks back the way they came, Siff is too exhausted to put up any kind of fight and quickly drifts into sleep, wondering how one girl’s desire to have hope could have destroyed so much of the world around her.

46

<<Citizen#0023-48325193

Entry#14250

And so our mission is fallen, and our purpose is flawed. Not the nobility of it; that, in itself, is beautiful and honorable. But if we cannot be separated from our destructive nature, we cannot be at peace with the universe. Our nature is so intrinsically knit to what we are, we cannot escape it. Cannot eradicate it. However honorable our mission is, it is not holy enough. Humanity is the plague: we are the ones that must be wiped out of existence. Only then can the universe be free of what we are.

I have found the higher calling. I have found true holiness. I no longer serve humanity and its selfish destructiveness. I serve the universe, and we must be destroyed.>>

Siff wakes to a crackling fire and fresh venison roasting above it. There are a few berries laying on leaves in front of her and her handcuffs have been removed. Wait. Not removed…replaced. Her hand reaches up. What’s this thing on my neck?

“It’s a paralyzer. Gives you the freedom to move around, but if you get more than fifty yards from me it instantly paralyzes you until I switch it off. Here, eat up. You need your strength.” Her father has removed his helmet, but remains in his armor. His expression has softened a little, but he still has the look of fierce disappointment and anger, “With the way the fighting is going, I don’t know how long we’ll be waiting, and in the meantime we have to stay out of sight of any of the Chosen Ones.”

Siff’s mind flashes back to the villagers. The Chosen Ones who had chosen her. “Why? Why did you do it? Why did you kill them?”

“You know as well as I do what the rules are. It was all I could do to get you out of there; the Council wanted to terminate you with the rest of those you corrupted.”

“Corrupted? I didn’t—“

“I am not having this conversation Siff. You know they are to be set apart. Any contact whatsoever is a potential corruption, and must be planned and executed with exact precision. You just waltzed right in like…like an absolute selfish idiot! What did you think was going to happen? We’d see you down there and just be okay with it? You doomed them the moment you arrived.”

“It was supposed to be a secret. No-one was supposed to know.”

“Well, we got word about someone trying to break into the Tube. Without that intel you may have gotten away with it, and if you had, then you could have destroyed the entire mission. But we found you, and I tried to stop you. It was just bad luck the boy saw you fall.”

“You tried to stop me…? It was you?! You shot me?”

“I saved your life! Mars and I got to the Needle and saw you falling. He found you through the scope of his rifle and told me it was you. If he would have fired, you would be dead. But I convinced him that you are my responsibility, and that I should be the one to kill you.” Siff gasps, “Well, obviously I didn’t. And I’m a good enough shot to have missed your heart on purpose. I meant to wound you so I could retrieve you from where you fell. But two things happened to prevent me from doing this: the boy saw you fall, and the Gate came under heavy resistance. I couldn’t make it through until now.”

“You would have left me to be eaten by monsters in the forest?!”

“They would have eaten you, but those creatures would not have killed you. All of us on the ship have imprinted DNA that those creatures recognize as friend. They would have done what they could in their instinct to help you. They are there to stop the Chosen Ones, but any of us that are promoted to the position of stepping into the Tube have nothing to fear from them. I meant to retrieve you, but the Rebellion took the Gate.”

“So…I would have bled out and died?”

“Yes. That was the other option, and what I feared had happened when the Gate was closed to us. But my heart sank when I received word the boy had taken you. As happy as I was you were still alive, I knew you had just doomed him and any other you came into contact with. If I was a true Jupiter I would have killed you to save them, I

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