An End by Paul Hughes Read Free Book Online

tossed the three projectors to Fleur, who mindlessly caught them and held their metallic warmth in her new left hand, still under warranty. [you’re afraid, little girl.] Mother did not realize the ridiculousness of her statement, a child referring to someone five times her age as “little girl.” But of course, she was ancient, as ancient as the stars, or at least an ancient as those who had conquered the stars before Earth had solidified from the detritus of the galaxy.
    “Yes.”
    [good. you have every right to be afraid. we’re going to meet some people who won’t exactly welcome us with open arms, people who sent me away a long time ago.]
    A machine approached at breakneck speed, hovered dangerously close for a moment, long enough to tousle both Fleur and Mother’s curly locks.
    “Bring it back. The room. Whistler and Hank. And Ze—Nine. Nine.”
    Mother grinned savagely. [herr freud would be proud, love.]
    “Bring it back.” Another machine was fast approaching, this one hauling a nondescript metal phase drive segment that was easily the size of a mountain.
    [but don’t you find it beautiful? all of these loyal workers, doing exactly as i tell them? this awful planet reconstituted into something beautiful. his name is gary.]
    Fleur was confused, but the confusion was replaced with fear as the machine towing the phase drive passed, close enough to spin her around in its wake. All around them, countless gigantic machines were coming and going.
    [actually, the name is guerra, but he prefers being called gary, so that’s what i call him.]
    “Who?”
    [our ship. gary. would you like to meet him?]
    “Do I have any choice?”
    Mother grinned. [you’re learning, little flower. you’ll do just fine.]
    She grabbed Fleur’s hand, and away they flew, toward Gary the warship.
     
     
    It was cold here at the center of the planet, much colder than Fleur had anticipated, and the speed of their flight only heightened the sensation, caused gooseflesh to erupt on her exposed forearms, caused her breaths to come in gasps as her body
     
     
    shivered, he remembered, as the current drew them together, drew him within. That hushed gasp, the lines of her eyebrows furrowing and the feel of fingernails tracing gently at first and then with increasing pain as they began to carve faint furrows into his shoulders and back. Frantic dance of flesh as the waves consumed them both, his eyes opening for a moment to gaze upon that dark spill of curls, a halo around her head and she whispered something in that perfect moment, whispered that word that had haunted him now for months and years and decades and haunted him, just a simple word, whispered in that perfect climax, that perfect moment where he was lost in waves of
     
     
    “Heaven.”
    Zero snapped from the shiver-induced reverie, that half-sleep that so many passengers in shivers had reported, that inexplicable torpor that accompanied the vibration of phased travel. Stranger looked at him disdainfully, as if the sleep reflex was below him.
    “What?”
    “Heaven approaches. Or rather, we approach Heaven.”
    Zero remembered their vessel’s exit from the glass field, but not much beyond. Their shiver was now being escorted by an armada of larger vessels, some shaped like atmospherics, and others definitely spacers. Zero stretched to look out the rear of the vessel, and found that there were already many more orbiting spheres behind the shiver than in front. They had passed without incident through much of the enclosed solar system, apparently drawing a crowd as they passed.
    “You needn’t worry about our escorts. They’re just observing.”
    Something in Stranger’s voice resonated with its own undercurrent... Zero tasted distrust in that statement, and he caught a brief unshielded image of an accusatory finger pointed at a man in white, or perhaps just a white beard, a soundtrack of that guttural bark that these creatures used as a language. Stranger was definitely