Empress Fallen (Through Darkness Book I)

Chapter Thirteen: Every Gate: Part 1

Chapter Thirteen

Every Gate

Retreat was out of hope,

Behind, a sealed route,

Eternity's white flag before,

And God at every gate.

Our Journey Had Advanced, Emily Dickinson

i. Liburna

'Ferox, take the helm,' Dux snapped. Aliya couldn't tear her eyes from the diary as Fortis and Dux hurried over to her. The silver device was glowing softly, and plastered across it were hundreds of words. Her mother's words.

'Please?' Fortis stuck out his hand. She reluctantly let it slide off her palm onto his, and moved closer to watch what he was doing.

'Jump straight to any entries containing key words, "Eversor" or "Exodus", hurry, a key search, a key search,' Dux snapped.

The Colonel's fingers flashed over the screen. Aliya was too tense to feel uncomfortable at such a breach of her mother's privacy. She was desperate to see the written words, typed by her mother, perhaps even spoken out loud. It was a chill winter's breeze that stole through her, as though she were under the stars, isolated in darkness, in suspense.

'Here,' Fortis said abruptly. And he began to read as the Redemption rose farther into the sky.

'Okay, this is an entry from the year 7037: "Our current course will bring us to the slave colonies in three days, however, an entire Imperial legion is patrolling the asteroid belt and stealth is of the utmost importance. The Exodus Initiative, as cited in the restricted Archives, will see the construction of three hundred and thirty-three armoured prison ships that will transport the population of Ignis to Caelum, and in turn, transport 300 million superiors back to Ignis, and assume the vacant slave accommodation as means of temporary survival to ensure the continuation of the human race. Arcanum reserves will be distributed among the highest-ranking, and the Empire will rebuild itself from its ashes. This group will include the cabinet ministers, the senate, the Imperial family, the Royal Guard, and any other Imperial officials. From there, the highest-paying passengers will be evacuated. The initiative will launch approximately five days before the Eversor missile strikes Caelum. The existence of such a scheme has confirmed our worst fears. Eversor cannot be stopped, and 10.5 billion people will die, whether that includes 300 million slaves or not. All we can do now, to make some small effort to prove there is still justice and compassion in our godforsaken reality, is to find some way to stop it. For if this storm is left unchecked, it will see the eradication of humanity."

'The entry ends there.'

Aliya stared at her open palms. She could no longer feel them. Either she had lost all capacity to hear, or there was a clinging silence even the dead could not endure. Three words reverberated around her mind, duplicating and festering: cannot be stopped.

'Lies.'

She looked up. Jagan was standing in the centre of the Command Centre, arms limp by his sides, staring in outrage at the Colonel.

'I could believe the Empire would exterminate the population of Ignis, but billions of its own people? It's not true.' His fists were clenched.

'Eversor is inevitable,' Fortis said slowly, 'they face either unconditional extermination, or an extermination on their own terms. Three per cent of them can live. And only slaves are the price for such a condition –'