Winds of Vengeance by Jay Allan Read Free Book Online

finished her sentence…and Heflin never knew she hadn’t. The beams struck Hurley amidships, two direct hits. The vessel shook hard for a fraction of a second. Then she disappeared in a swirling vortex of nuclear fire.
    The miniature sun existed for a few second…and then there was nothing but the silence, and a dissipating cloud of plasma where Hurley had been.
    And a small group of drones racing for the warp gate across the system, pursued by the enemy ships.
     

Chapter Four
    Underground Flyer Found in Victory City
     
    Clones of Earth Two, it is time for all of us to stand up for our rights, to compel equal representation in the Assembly and firm constitutional guarantees! We must demand the repeal of all limitations on new quickenings, and recognize all such legislation as a blatant attempt to keep us a minority. We will not accept marginalization! We will not live penned in ghettoes and be treated as second-class citizens. No! We are scientists and engineers…Marines and spacers. We have served the republic loyally and faithfully. And we will have our rights! We will take them if need be, and no one will stop us!
     
    AI Chamber
    Victory City, Earth Two
    Earth Two Date 10.30.30
     
    “Things are getting really bad. I know President Harmon is trying to calm everyone, but my gut is telling me he will fail. I feel like I should be doing something, helping somehow.” Terrance Compton II sat on the single hard plastic chair in the room, one he had brought there himself several years before. The Compton AI was accessible from any major data port on Earth Two, and few people actually came to the room that held the main processing unit. But Terrance preferred to come to the source. He couldn’t make a sensible argument for his desire to sit next to the big machine when he spoke with it, but it didn’t take a genius psychotherapist to figure out he was drawn to all that was left of his father.
    “Your species has an extraordinary predilection to destroy itself. In the absence of an exterior threat, internal conflict in inevitable. I can cite historical examples if you wish.” The Compton AI was the work of Hieronymus Cutter, the scientist’s desperate attempt to save his murdered friend. Cutter had seen the work of the Ancients, even interacted with the computer-encased persona of a First Imperium warrior. But his knowledge had been insufficient to replicate the feat. He’d managed to capture Compton’s memories, many of them at least, and his tactical knowledge. But the personality, the essence of the man had been lost. Terrance knew all of that, but talking to the machine still made him feel somehow…closer to the father he’d never known.
    “But I am your…his…son. I should know what to do.”
    “That is thought progression with no underlying logic. The fact that you are Admiral Compton’s biological son creates no obligation or rational expectation that you would continue his work, or that you would know how to address issues that, given mankind’s most profound tendencies, may indeed be insoluble.” The voice, almost human, but with a coldness that gave its artificial origins away, paused. “Admiral Compton’s memories suggest he had an unsatisfactory relationship with his own father. From what I can glean, it is likely he would have been very happy to know he had a son…and by human standards, my analysis suggests he would have made an extraordinary effort to be a good father.”
    Terrance flinched slightly at the machine’s abrupt change of topic. It did that periodically. And unpredictably. But he saw in those moments what he perceived as true glimpses of his father. He suspected he was kidding himself, reading into the words what he wanted to believe, but he clung to the thoughts anyway.
    “He would be ashamed of me. I have enjoyed every advantage in my life, yet I have done nothing of substance.”
    Terrance Compton II had been coddled and protected as a child, raised both as his mother’s