Condition Evolution 4 by Kevin Sinclair (parable of the sower read online .txt) 📗

to Ember, “you don’t even want to know what Havok said he’d do.”

“I heard.” She smiled with sadness still in her eyes, but was obviously content with my response.

“One of Rufus’s close followers remains imprisoned.”

I nodded. “I’ll go get him and look for somewhere to detain him until we can deal with him properly.”

“There’s more, Shaun. Astrid. After Rufus’s death, she demanded to be put in charge, and obviously that didn’t work out too well for her. Now, she’s holed up in a different section of the station with a small group of her supporters demanding that we bring her a ship. I can say that she’s now officially left the Uprising.”

“And lost her damn mind!” Mick added.

“You’re kidding me, right? What the fuck is wrong with these people! I'll go and speak to her.”

“I’m sorry for all of this, Shaun. I tried my best with them.”

“I assure you, Ember, you could have done nothing differently. We have all worked hard to get through to Astrid,” Elyek said, swiftly followed by a stream of support from the others.

“Seriously, guys, I don’t doubt Ember, or any of you. I’m just fucking furious. Part of me wants to head in there and just kill who’s left.” I was interrupted in my speech by Havok’s howl of delight at the prospect, and subsequent begging that that was what we should do. Doing my best to ignore him, I continued, “But I know that’s not an okay solution, so I’m just gonna have a quiet word. Ember, can you take me to her?”

“I will, but I won’t be speaking to her again. Someone else can go in with you.”

“No. Everyone else get settled on the ship. It’s probably best if none of you hear what I have to say.”

“Shaun,” Ogun said, “that is unwise. There are eleven of them. They may decide to overwhelm you.”

“Ogun’s right, Shaun,” Ember said. “They are seriously mental.”

“Come on, guys. Show me and Havok a bit of respect,” I said with a broad smile.

“Yeah, but eleven nutters with mental powers!” Ember said.

“Trust me, I’ve got this.” I winked and received a bunch of unconvinced looks.

“I have a feeling he will manage without trouble,” Ialos said with a smirk which made her the new focal point of the odd looks.

“C’mon, Ember, show me where to go,” I said, leading her off.

We were quiet for a little while as we made our way into the station. I could feel Ember was working up to saying something, so I let her have the time.

“I can't believe you're just taking my word for all this?” she finally blurted out.

I looked at her like she’d just served me Veiletian stew. “Why wouldn’t I? We’re Yin and Yang, baby. None of this works for me without you.” She grabbed my hand and laid her head on my arm as we walked. I felt real sadness. This was probably the most vulnerable I’d ever seen her. This had obviously been a much harder experience for her than I could have imagined.

After ten minutes we arrived at yet another set of double doors, but Ember pulled up short this time.

“Through there.” Ember pointed and finally let go of my hand, moving to one side of the corridor to rest against the wall.

I nodded and without further ado went through the doors. There sat a mix of men and women, all of whom I recognized, if only vaguely. Unreadable expressions met me as I entered. Astrid stood upright from her seat, coming over closer to me. I did detect a hint of worry.

“Shaun!”

“Yes, Shaun. What the fuck is going on, Astrid? Why have you split off?”

“After Ember killed Rufus, we could no longer give our support for her to continue in a leadership capacity. Her response was to kick us out of Uprising.”

“Bullshit! When times got tough, you all turned on her.”

“She killed Rufus!” Astrid shouted at me.

“Don’t you go fucking shouting your mouth off at me,” I shouted back, pointing in her face. “You and Rufus have both shown your true colors. What a pair of selfish bastards you’ve both turned out to be. You get one choice…”

Astrid butted in to talk over me. “No, that w…”

“You don’t get to talk over me,” I roared. “Your choice is between coming with us and I’ll lock you up until I decide what to do with you, or you can fucking fester here in your own stupidity until the Apochros decide to move you of their own accord.”

“You’re not listening…” Astrid continued, but I’d stopped listening. Everyone else remained seated, staring like weird emotionless zombies.

“You’ve all made your choice. I won’t say goodbye,” I said, walking away from them, Astrid’s voice still bleating on about injustice and fairness. Havok’s pleading was a welcome distraction.

“No, Shaun, please. I’ll do anything you want, but pretty please with a cherry on top, let’s kill them all. You won’t regret it.”

“Sorry, pal. They’re a bunch of assholes, but you can't kill your old friends just because they’re assholes, sometimes you just gotta walk away.”

“Damn it,” he sulked. “It was worth a try; I’ll have my way one of these days.”

“Yeah, man, sure you will,” I replied. I’d just reached the doors to leave when my Omni shield flashed briefly, followed by a gasp. I didn’t even look back. If I had, they would have been extremely lucky to be left alive.

“They’re staying.” I smiled, pointing over my shoulder with a thumb as I came back through the doors. “Show me this other prick.”

Ember sighed. “I won’t even ask what happened in there. I can probably guess.”

“Yup, let's just forget all about them.” I was fuming that my reunion had been spoilt by idiots. Ember seemed more relaxed after that meeting and I asked, “So, what did this other guy do then?” I asked.

“Oh, Graeme’s a real piece of work. The fucker attacked me on the first day we arrived here, after being derogatory towards the Veiletians and Torax.”

“How’ve we had people like this in