Project Charon 2 by Patty Jansen (brene brown rising strong .TXT) 📗

appearance distract her or trick her into feeling sorry for him.

“I was a member of the Federacy Assembly many years ago. I was not influential or important, and the world I represented was small and insignificant, an agricultural outpost much like Tirkala.”

He had certainly done his research about her, even if all this would have been public knowledge. He wanted to unsettle her.

“I went to Olympus full of ideals, but as happens commonly, the reality didn’t live up to them. The Assembly delegates are corrupt, selfish and don’t care about the good of the worlds they represent. They go to Olympus to enrich themselves and then to nick off when their time is up, rather than to return home to pass on their knowledge to the people there. I suspect the Force is full of these types of people.”

Yes. Dexter was one.

“The interdimensional rift was discovered before you or I were born. The date of the discovery varies according to who you’re talking to; it’s one of the Federacy’s great secrets. In those early days, experiments were pretty extravagant. People used to fly into the rift and come back.”

“That’s nonsense.” That was what conspiracy theorists liked to believe.

“Who told you that?”

“Everyone in the Force knows it. Those ridiculous stories have been around for years, but they’re not true and no one can prove it.”

“How do you know for sure?” He pulled out a reader and showed her a photo of a battered-up ship, an ancient model that hadn’t been around for ages.

“What does that prove?” Tina had not seen the photo before, but had seen ones like it.

He then showed her an image of a man lying on a table—was he dead?—with growths all over his body. Just looking at the image made Tina’s skin crawl.

“That’s horrific but proves nothing. These could be from anything. I’ve studied this rift and I’ve never seen these pictures.” Heck they could even have been doctored pictures.

“That’s because the Force doesn’t want you to see them.”

“That’s ridiculous. They paid me to study the material. We took a lot more care with our people than this.” She gestured at the screen. “We didn’t let anyone get into contact with it.”

“They paid you to put a respectable face on a sordid piece of history. They paid you so they could pretend they were doing good research to keep humanity safe from this infection.”

“What do you even base this nonsense on?” He was nothing but a conspiracy theorist.

He flicked to another picture, this one showing a row of bodies in the dirt, all of them with mottled skin. There were at least a hundred, men, women and children, laid out in rows. In the background was a fence and a line of trees. Another picture involving the supposed infection that she had never seen before. “Have you ever been to Earth?”

“I haven’t.” She assumed the picture was taken there.

“You would find it interesting. The Federacy tried to kill off a huge part of the population by letting the infection loose, then tried to cover up their actions when it became clear they had done this and people were outraged.”

“That’s ridiculous. The Federacy is funding projects to find a cure.”

“Because they can make money from pretending there is a cure. By feeding into people’s fear.”

An unsettling feeling crept over her. Finn had said some of those things.

“And then why are you infecting people on purpose?”

“Because there is no cure. The infection is simply another step in the evolution of the human species. We need to embrace it. We will be a varied, powerful species with useful abilities. You look at me and I can see the revulsion in your eyes. But consider this.”

He reached for his belt and pulled out a gun. As his tentacles extended further and further towards her, Tina made out that it was a Fireseed, the same model as the battered old weapon she had given to Rex.

He held the weapon so close she could touch it.

“Take it,” he said, and laughed. “Take it and shoot me.”

Tina resisted the urge. He wouldn’t offer it so provocatively to her if there wasn’t a catch. The Fireseeds were simple weapons, and they weren’t nearly as powerful as the plasma weapons like the Q-blaster. They could kill an ordinary person in most circumstances, but if hit at an awkward angle, or the person wore armour, the result could well be different. Heck, maybe these mutants had grown armour inside their bodies.

She looked at the weapon, but didn’t touch it, because that was what he wanted. She wasn’t going to do what he wanted.

“Hmph.” He gave a small snort and with a flick of his tentacles, withdrew the weapon back to his belt. “You’ve seen a demonstration before?”

“Yes.” She had no idea what he was talking about, presumably a mutant surviving being shot.

“Then you know of the advantages of the new human condition. That’s good. Because then I don’t have to explain why I would be happy if you could work with us. You have a lot of knowledge that we could use.”

Tina stifled a snort of laughter. Well, that was something entirely different than what she had expected to hear. She’d have expected to be put inside one of those cabinets, not to work on the people inside. “The people you’re transforming did not ask for it.”

“They’ll appreciate it.”

“They’re prisoners. No matter what good you say you do, you can’t change that. Those people have not agreed to whatever treatment you give them. I’ll have no part in that.”

“I would urge you to consider this.”

“You cannot pay me enough to do that.” She gave him a hard stare. “I’d die before I helped someone who turned people into toads against their will.”

“Pity. You would be paid well. I know you can use the money. Well, then, we have plenty of ways to make you change your mind. Be warned: the deal gets worse each time we mention it.”

He gave a sign, and the three men approached. Two