Aurora's End (The Aurora Cycle #3)(106)

She lifts her head again. Looking at me across the centuries.

“I ask for your forgiveness. I hope you understand I did it all for the best, and know that through this sacrifice, we have safeguarded a future for the galaxy. The path ahead of you is uncertain. I do not know what is to come. But I know I am grateful to have known you, Tyler. Honored to have served under you. And I feel blessed beyond measure to have called you my friend.”

I reach out to the image, tears spilling down my face as my fingers pass through it. I think about what it must have been, to live with that weight. The burden of the galaxy’s future on your shoulders.

“Zee,” I whisper. “Of course I forgive you.”

“Commander,” Nari says, addressing the air. “I trust you are listening. You may now access Omega Protocol, Nodes 6 through 15. Ensure Node 10 is delivered to Aurora O’Malley personally. You may also access the facilities on Epsilon Deck, Section Zero. Passcodes to follow. Please follow all instructions exactly. The lives of two very brave soldiers are at stake.”

“I believe our calculations are correct,” Zila says. “And enough time has now elapsed from our disappearance to ensure no paradox events.” She nods, almost to herself, chewing a lock of her hair just like she used to when lost in thought. “Yes. Yes, it will work. It must work.”

Nari Kim looks back to me, a smile crinkling her eyes.

“Punch that bleach-head in the arm for me, Jones. And tell your sister thanks. Good hunting, legionnaire. Burn bright against the night.”

Zila looks into the projection, reaching out toward me.

My fingers touch hers, back across an ocean of time and tears.

“Farewell, my friend,” she smiles.

And the recording ends.

“Dammit … ,” Adams growls.

I look up at him, my eye blurred with tears, my mind reeling with everything I’ve learned. The impossibility, the enormity—it’s almost too much to wrap my head around. But the look in Adams’s eyes is enough to drag me back to reality, away from conspiracies centuries in the making, suffered heartache and hard-won joy. I sniff hard, wipe my sodden cheeks.

“What is it?”

Adams is staring at the holoplayer, his face a grim mask. The images of Zila and Nari Kim have disappeared, replaced by a scrolling stream of passcodes. “I’ll have to review the new data we’ve just unlocked. But from the way they were talking … I think it’s just as we’ve feared.”

“Look, I don’t know what the hells is happening here, but—”

“It’s like Founder Madran said, Tyler.” Adams speaks Zila’s name with something close to reverence. The way a minister speaks about the Maker.

They think of her as the Third Founder, I realize.

“She only knew for certain what happened up to the Battle of Terra,” Adams continues. “The point where she was stripped from this timeline. For all her genius, Zila Madran couldn’t actually see the future. She only remembered what she’d already seen. So she couldn’t have known.”

“About the plot on Aurora Station?”

He nods. “But not just that. All our contingencies, all the planning we have in place from this point forward to ensure the defeat of the Ra’haam, revolved around the Trigger and the Weapon.”

He drags one metal hand across his stubbled scalp.

“And they’re gone,” I breathe. “Vanished at the Battle of Terra.”

“The Weapon, the Trigger, Aurora O’Malley.” Adams turns to the viewport on the wall, stars splayed across the dark beyond. “Everything we’ve done was to ensure their presence here and now to strike the killing blow against the enemy before it blooms. And after all of that, after hundreds of years, messages and protocols passed down in secret from Founder to Commander to Successor across the centuries …” He looks down at his empty hands. “We have nothing.”

I look at the projector on my lap, my mind racing. “Founder Kim mentioned secure facilities on Epsilon Deck, Section Zero.” I swallow hard, not daring to hope. “She talked about my sister. Maybe …”

Adams slaps his Legion comm badge, speaking quick.

“Adams to de Stoy.”

“I read you, Seph,” comes the reply.

“I have more intel. Meet me in Epsilon. I’m bringing Jones.”

There’s a small pause, a tiny intake of breath. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Battle Leader de Stoy lose her chill once in the six years I’ve known her, but when she answers, she sounds positively jubilant.

“Understood,” she says. “I’ll meet you there.”

Adams nods, drops connection.

“Do you still pray, Tyler?” he asks softly. “I know when it gets dark, it can be hard to keep the f—”

“Every day, sir,” I reply. “Every day.”

“Good,” he nods. “Do it now.”

? ? ? ? ?

I’d wondered why the name Epsilon Deck sounded strange. As Adams pushes me on a grav-chair through the halls of the med facilities and into an officers’ elevator, I realize why. Looking at the hundreds of levels, subfloors, and sections of the station outlined in glowing light on the elevator controls, I understand there is no Epsilon Deck on Aurora Station.

At least, not one that exists on the schematics.