{Earth}

Memories. In order. Clear. So much more clear.

Andrew and Kyle awoke hours ago. Rested, hydrated, and fed. The door revolved with people—wonderful, well-meaning people—checking in on him. Tameka even requested a call once he felt up to moving around. Soon.

During a rare moment alone, he tried to apologize to Lucas, but the Icarus waved him off with a delicious smile. “You’ll make it up to me when you’re well.”

Yes. He certainly would. Honestly, exhaustion aside, physical comfort sounded beautiful at that moment.

“—It’s not responding like we hoped, but we will get it to work,” Pablo assured someone in the hall as he stepped into the room. He caught Andrew sitting upright and eating another bowl of oatmeal. “I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am.”

The doctor’s intentions warmed Andrew with their sincerity. “I think I’m getting you loud and clear.”

To the Progeny, Pablo nodded. “Good.” To the Icarus, he asked, “Now, tell me the truth. Is he following the doctor’s orders to rest and fill up?”

Andrew laughed.

The other two in the room snapped to him at the sound. Both of their intentions read gratitude and relief. It overwhelmed him.

He changed the subject, “What’s not working?”

The doctor shook his head sternly. “Talking shop is not resting—Kyle is trying out the nacre’s memory bank, but it’s not fully responsive despite the decryption program we ran this morning.” Pablo put his fists on his hips and frowned at Andrew. “Dude… not cool.”

Lucas hid his smirk and chuckled behind a covered cough.

Conscience pushed, “Bring the nacre and Kyle to me. Let me try to help.”

The sexy and sometimes quite stubborn Icarus protested, “I don’t think that’s best right now—”

“I didn’t survive this attack to sit here and eat.” The harshness in Andrew’s voice made him flinch. “Please. I need to contribute.”

Under his own intentions, Pablo nodded and left the room.

Lucas stood and came to his bedside. With his intentions bare, he brushed his fingers into Andrew’s hair and took his breath away. Kissed him a little more gently than usual. But the younger man understood.

When they separated, Lucas beamed down at him. “Ever the brave knight.”

“I think it’s your kink.” Andrew smirked for him.

“Lucky for you.” The Icarus walked away from him to reach into the suitcase. Bent over, teasing him. His ass always looked fantastic in slacks.

Yea. Physical comfort. “You know? I think I’m feeling up to—”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The door opened and an entire cadre of his favorite people piled in. Lynn wheeled over a bedside table with the questionable nacre set on a stainless steel tray. Kyle took up beside Andrew on the far side of the bed.

Smith strolled in, hands in pockets of his coveralls. “You think you can crack it?”

Too little left unknown about the Iona employee. Goosebumps broke out over Andrew’s skin. Strained. Uncomfortable. He cleared his throat to regain some calm. “Hopefully.” To Kyle, he asked, “Where’s Silence?”

He ran a joint-free hand through his hair and blew the air from his cheeks. “I thought you’d prefer essentials only.”

“Right. Let’s stop putting this off.” Andrew stared hard at the little ball of amber colored glass. An entire nano computer functioned inside. With no interface, it was just a matter of—

Kyle put his hand on Andrew and then grabbed the nacre.

Black. All dark. No light. No sound. They stepped into a place not unlike the memory-scape. Only nothing existed here. The nacre-bearer’s last wish to keep it a secret. The last vestiges of his truth remained. Behind one wall.

“We need a password,” Andrew called into the darkness.

“Pfft. You got any idea what an Imminent soldier might use other than ‘password1’?”

He thwacked the other Progeny upside the head. “No, smartass, but you would. What was the last thing this guy saw? The last thing worth caring about?”

Andrew waited. In the dark. In the nothing. So when Kyle spoke one word into the void, it shocked Conscience to his core.

“Silence.”

Lights. Sounds. Ghosts of people walked through them. Over them. Under them. Fast, sped up so fast. Andrew’s head spun with the whir of it. The guy’s entire life into this memory.

Induction into Imminent. A desperate, Invasion Day survivor. His intentions filled with hope for a future where Earth could survive. Where the Progeny died.

Andrew and Kyle both frowned as images of them and the girls swirled. Monstrous strength. Ferocious power. Greedy. Hateful.

“What the hell propaganda was this guy fed?” Kyle scoffed. Hands on hips, head hung in disgust. “It’s like he had no idea what the war—”

Rayne. In front of a star inside of a Dyson’s sphere. Blue eyes filled with tears. Alone and afraid. The entire Vast Collective wiped out by her death.

Andrew snarled and pushed through the intentions as they filled his head. “Where is it?” No time to watch this rerun prophetic, garbage. The last few weeks. “Where…”

There was no hope. The Progeny allowed my family to die. My children murdered, buried in rubble. Corpus Christi’s earthquakes never got that big. Ever.

If Rayne and the others never went there—Hell, if she’d turned herself into Nox, they’d still be alive.

“Would you like to make them pay?” A woman gripped his shoulder. Beautiful black skin. Her hair in long locs and braids. Eyes the most arresting blue. Her soothing voice eased his suffering. The words empowered him, “We can give you the significance to affect your revenge. Leave everything behind and come with me.”

“Who are you?”

She looked into his eyes. “I am the first. And when I am through, I will be the last.” Her eyes focused beyond the man and into Andrew’s soul. “Conscience, I will be the last.”

Fire. Bright and red consumed it all. Everything.

Andrew screamed awake and Kyle with him. The disabler. The virus. The memory drive decryption. Everything… Celindria led them to this. She knew how, where, and when they’d complete her tasks. It was in her intentions.

The two Progeny connected the dots at the same time. Kyle cried out, “Holy shit!” He bolted from the room without another word, presumably to find the comms device.

“Right behind you!” Lynn followed him.

“Check on everyone. Check on them now!” Hands held Andrew down as he tried to get out of bed. “It’s Celindria. She—”

Pablo held his wrists aloft. The good doctor tried to reassure him, “It’s okay, Andrew. Calm down first. It’s been a lot on you recently. Please.”

Lucas put some muscle into holding him down. “You’ve been through too much. Rest. Kyle will call them.”

Couldn’t they see her?

T.a.o. stood in the room behind the others, watching as he struggled. Andrew’s sanity splintered at the sight of her. “It’s happening. Do something!”

“You’re safest here.”

The other two men gawked in shock.

“Stay, T.a.o. We can help you,” Lucas offered eventually.

Pablo cried out, “Safe from what?”

“The beginning…”

When she vanished, the air in the room went with her.