Your ruse will work only once. The Prophus will never trust you again. You, and more importantly I, will never be allowed to join diplomatic negotiations. That cost is far too high.
He had been hearing it non-stop from every Genjix vessel of note since the Council meeting. From the Council to Zoras to even Amanda, everyone had tried to steer him toward what they considered proper conduct for a Genjix of his standing. Well, he was having none of it.
The phone on his desk rang and Amanda’s voice popped up. “Father, Abrams is here, as you requested.”
Enzo was grateful for the change of topics. After nearly a week of dealing with the unbearable logistics of inventory, costs, and critical path project plans, dealing with what he had in stored for Abrams would be a welcome diversion.
“Send him in,” he said.
He cleared his desk and pretended to be busy going over the delayed schedule for one of the Quasiform plants, code named Catalyst Sigma, as Abrams, pushed in on a wheelchair by a nurse and flanked by half a dozen guards, rolled in. Enzo continued studying the schedule, not bothering to look up at his prisoner.
Abrams had aged since Enzo last saw him. No longer possessing the noble bearing of Admiral of the Prophus fleet, he was now an old cripple who had to be fed intravenously through a tube. His body was a mass of bruises and his head was bandaged in a way that only exposed his eyes, nose, and part of his jaw. He looked tired and broken.
Finally, Enzo leaned back and acknowledged him. “I trust our accommodations have been adequate, Admiral?”
Abrams’s head tilted up and down in what Enzo assumed was a nod. When he spoke, the words came out muffled, the bandages and metal wiring holding his jaw together inhibiting his speech. “I’ve had better. Genjix hospitality isn’t what it used to be. Are all these guards necessary? Do you think I’m going to wheel myself to freedom?”
Enzo smiled. At least the old man still had his sense of humor. “For your own protection, of course. I assure you the medical staff is making every effort toward your recovery.”
There was a moment of silence. “Why are you treating me? So you can torture information out of me? You’re wasting your time.”
Enzo laughed. “Please Admiral, we’re not savages. I hold you in too high a regard to torture you. Besides, an old soldier like you? You wouldn’t talk anyway.”
“Then what do you want, boy?”
Enzo stood up and walked around the table. The nurse stepped aside as he grabbed the handles of Abrams’s wheelchair and spun him toward the door. Enzo leaned in close to Abrams’s ear. “You are healthy enough now to participate in a momentous occasion. You will go down in history as the human who saves the Quasing. Myyk should be proud.”
“Myyk is proud,” Abrams responded. “Though he is ashamed for Zoras.”
Enzo kept his smile plastered to his face as he wheeled Abrams out of the building. Behind him, the nurse and guards followed. He leaned in close again. “What makes you think the Holy One isn’t? We are about to accomplish something, you and I, that will mark a first among Quasing.”
“I know Zoras, boy,” Abrams said with disdain, “better than you ever will. He is harsh and totalitarian, but he knows honor. Something you know nothing of.”
That stupid word again.
“Honor, like history, is nothing more than a thought, easily changed,” Enzo said.
A few minutes later, they entered the ProGenesis lab. The room was a hive of excitement as scientists and techs prepared what was expected to be the crowning achievement of thousands of hours of research. Enzo wheeled Abrams in front of the glass vat and looked at the dark red swirling liquid inside.
“Myyk said it almost looks like home,” Abrams remarked solemnly. “How many Quasings did you exterminate to get this far, Zoras?”
No sacrifice is too great.
Enzo repeated the words.
“And therein lies our differences,” Abrams said. “I have known you for an eternity, my old friend. You weren’t this way on Quasar.”
Times have changed. We are no longer on Quasar.
Chow walked up to Enzo and bowed. “Father, we are ready to begin.” Then Chow touched Abrams’s arm and spoke in a gentle and respectful manner. “Myyk, I am saddened that we are meeting under these circumstances. Jikl has always held you in high regard. You once saved his host when Alaric and his hordes sacked Rome.”
“Hardly a horde, Jikl. They were Roman-trained legions. Leave it to the father to lose control of his sons. There is a lesson there for all Quasing,” Enzo said. “Besides, Seurot had also warned your host to leave the city.”
“Then it is a lesson the Genjix have not learned yet. One day, when the truth of the Quasing comes out, none of us will be safe,” Abrams added.
“The real lesson then is to make sure to always keep them in control,” Enzo smiled. “Which we have done. Quite well if I may add.”
Abrams snorted. “You can’t control humanity forever.”
Enzo chuckled. “We don’t need forever, just a few more years.”
Abrams leaned forward and put a hand on the glass. His eyes followed the swirling liquid inside. “So if you are successful, Myyk could survive in there?”
“We are fairly confident,” Chow said.
Abrams nodded. “Then, in that case, just this time, I wish the Genjix success.” He tore his gaze away. “I’m ready. Do what you wish.”
Irritated, Enzo snapped at Chow. “Stop playing with the lobster before you cook him. You might get sympathetic. Proceed.”
“Yes, Father.” Chow bowed. He gestured to one of his assistants, and the young man wheeled Abrams away to prepare him for the experiment.
Enzo watched them leave; then he sat down in a chair directly in front of the vat and waited. “I do not like our people fraternizing with the enemy.”
Our failure on this planet is that our conflict became personal. If it had not come to this, our progress might have been far greater.
“All the more reason to disdain the betrayers.”
A few minutes later, Enzo watched as the crane arm lifted Abrams’s cell over the vat. He clenched his fists in anticipation as Chow called for the final checks of Abrams and Myyk’s life signs. The large Penetra scanner housed at the back of the lab hummed, its vibration rising until the sound was out of the ear’s pitch. Then when all was ready, Chow looked to Enzo, who nodded. Chow barked out a few more orders and then the vat doors lifted open.
“Any last requests, Admiral?” Enzo called out.
Abrams looked straight at Enzo, his back arched and his head held high. He saluted with his remaining good hand. “May you all find peace in the Eternal Sea,” he said, his muffled mumbling words still carrying across the room. “Please see that my family receives my body, and if the Genjix do prevail, have mercy upon this planet. We provided you a home when the Quasing most needed it.”
A low rumbling swept across the room. Enzo scowled as he watched several of his people pay the old man respect. He had thought he was being magnanimous in his gesture. It figured even in his last moment, Abrams knew how to stick it to him.
You were not being magnanimous; you were being prideful. You are still young and prone to error. Learn from my wisdom if you wish to maintain your standing.
Then the squealing pitch of gears turning sounded, and Abrams’s cage dropped into the vat.
Enzo got a sense of satisfaction from watching Abrams’s calm demeanor betray him as the liquid poured over him. He opened his mouth and struggled, pulling at the bars as he sunk to the bottom. A few seconds later, Abrams let go of the bars and his body floated listlessly in the cage. There was a flatlining beep somewhere behind Enzo and then he heard the time of death called out. Then Myyk leaped out of Abrams’s body and swirled around in the vat as if a young stallion stretching his legs. He swam around the vat like a glittering fish, moving much faster than any other Quasing that Enzo had witnessed inside before.