Vayha put up a fight from behind a solid piece of wall. Seyka drew his fire while Aloy climbed around the vine covered exterior, finding a crack in the exterior to squeeze through and coming up behind him and running him through. She pulled her spear free and looked at Seyka.

“Londra must be on the floor above.”

“And my sister.” Seyka nodded.

They took to the stairs, the building in relatively good condition. Unlike the other buildings that had been built on or swallowed up by mountains, the rocket and the launch tower had been built in clear, open space a thousand years earlier. With little to nothing to damage it, apart from natural decay, the interior was mostly intact and due to the power cell taken from the HORUS, all systems were humming with energy.

“I’m surprised its lasted this long.” Seyka said as they climbed stairs to the control room.

“Strong exterior to survive the rocket’s proximity,” Aloy guessed, “Londra was going to use this platform to launch several rockets into space so that he could grab every meteorite that came within reach of the earth’s atmosphere.”

“Seems a lot of effort for a bunch of space rocks.”

“He made billions from them,” Aloy thought about the rocket’s fuel system, “and clearly didn’t care about the environment when he did so. But when the FARO plague hit, he abandoned the project and jumped onboard the Odyssey.”

“And now he’s trying to do the same again…with my sister.”

“Somewhere far, far away…” Aloy paused at the door. “Ready?”

Seyka nodded, her bow in her hand. Aloy opened the door and they darted inside, weapons raised. The control room was a dome at the top of the launch tower. There were desks with consoles flickering on and off and around the walls were display panels, some cracked and dark and others showing power increase and rocket readiness for launch.

At the far side was a raised platform where blonde hair peeked out from behind a computer.

“Londra?” Seyka whispered.

Aloy nodded. “Londra!”

“I know you’re there, Aloy.” She frowned, the voice oddly different to the recording at the tower yet strangely familiar. “Only guests are greeted. Intruders are given a different welcome.”

“You think we give any kind of consideration to murderers?” Seyka snapped.

He huffed softly. “I have never killed anyone.”

“The dead Quen who died in the excavation are your responsibility.”

Londra sighed. “They gave of their lives willingly for the greater good.”

“You’ve got a nerve talking about greater good when all you’ve done is lie, cheat, kill, steal and run away.” Seyka snapped.

“Oh…so you’re going to hold me to your sense of ‘justice’.” His fingers came into view, making quotation marks. “You killed Vayha, Ovran and since you’re here I imagine Gask breathed his last also.”

Aloy flinched, his voice irritating her. Why…why was it familiar and strange? What was wrong with it?

“They were thugs brainwashed to protect you…but now you’re defenceless.” Seyka stepped forward. “There’s nothing stopping me from killing you.”

There was a click and the touch of cold metal against Aloy’s head, felt even through her thick red hair. She froze, sensing something deadly was only a heartbeat away from killing her should she move.

“I beg to differ…” Londra mocked.

Seyka spun around and looked behind Aloy. “Kina!”

“Stay where you are, Seyka…or I’ll fire.”

Seyka’s eyes were confused.

“As primitive and ancient as those uncivilised weapons are…it doesn’t make them less deadly.” Londra tapped on his console, unconcerned by their presence.

“Kina…I…I’ve come to take you home.”

“No.”

Seyka blinked, stunned by Kina’s hard answer.

“But…you can’t stay here.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Seyka. Not anymore.”

Her voice was young but brittle, shakily covering a deep well of resentment and fear and Aloy winced at the hard press on her skull.

“I’ve never…”

“Don’t you dare!” Kina cried and Aloy held her breath, sure the trembling fingers would pull the trigger and she’d be dead before her body hit the ground.

There was a long pause.

“I…I’m sorry Kina.” Seyka said brokenly. “I only wanted to protect you.”

“You, Admiral Gerrit…the Imperial Family…I was suffocating from your ‘protection’!”

Seyka faltered. “Enough to hate me? Enough to align yourself with a man who gets Quen to die for him?”

Kina huffed. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. I knew you’d only see the small picture, your boats, your ballista record…your little life as a midshipman…I see the stars!”

“And Londra promised to show them to you…” Aloy whispered then let out a sharp hiss as Kina rapped her skull with the gun.

“I will not speak with you, barbarian. I am of the chosen people. The Quen. We have been given the chance for a life beyond this doomed world! Why else would salvation come to us and us alone?”

Seyka shook her head. “He’s lying to you, Kina. Londra is lying!”

Why was Londra laughing? He was chuckling behind the console…or wheezing, or perhaps both. Aloy had a creeping sense of dread that something was very wrong. She could also hear the power pulsing strongly, infusing the rocket with energy that would activate the deadly engines. Her eye darted to the nearest console. She could see it had something to do with the flow of energy but she couldn’t get to it without Kina killing her.

The building rumbled lightly.

“Alternate bridge extended to secondary hatch opening.” Londra announced. “Thankfully I always have a backup plan.”

“This bridge…you’ll use it to load the Quen onto the rocket?” Aloy asked tensely.

“All the Quen it can carry.”

“Did you tell Kina about its limited capacity? How you only brought her because it’s only the two of you boarding it?”

Kina gave a small laugh. “Foolish barbarian. Haven’t you seen the size of it? All the Quen who are faithful will board and be safe upon the Odyssey.”

“Kina,” Seyka said tremulously, “no other Quen are coming.”

“You’re lying.”

“We killed Gask, Ovran and Vayha…who will lead them here?”

Aloy felt the press of the gun falter.

“That’s on your head, not mine.” Londra argued. “I would have welcomed them all.”

“Bullshit!” Seyka snarled. “Your sentry tower would have shot down anything out of the air or by sea. You made sure no one could approach.”

There was a moment of tense silence.

“Water…is it true?”

“I would have deactivated it, Kina.”

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“There were no skiffs on the beach. How were over thirty Quen going to get here?”

“Shut up!” Londra snapped, his voice cracking as he went to stand up. Seyka lunged forward, slapping Kina’s arm as Aloy ducked away, the gun flying through the air, clanging as it hit the wall. Aloy scrambled for the console, tapping madly. “What are you doing?!”

“Down!” Aloy cried as the power fed back into the systems that weren’t designed to handle it and the consoles sparked and shattered, lights exploded sending small shards flying. Londra’s howl, as he cowered from the erupting control desk, could only just be heard over the cacophony. The pulse was so strong that it blew out a section of wall, the conduits inside of it tearing apart what a thousand years of time and decay couldn’t do. The chill of predawn air filled the once enclosed space and the crisp breeze kept Aloy from slumping into unconsciousness. She activated her FOCUS and looked around, spying Seyka and Kina, the older having thrown her body over her sister to protect her.

“Are you both alright?” Aloy asked.

“We’re fine.” Seyka said, pushing herself up. “Londra?”

Aloy turned to the other body in the room, still alive, coughing so hard it was as though he was going to break his ribs. She approached him, spear down, ready to end his suffering from the fatal blow of the consoles but when she looked at his body, clad in Zenith white, she was surprised that he showed no sign of blood or injury.

Perhaps his Zenith suit had protected him?

She put her hand out and grasped his shoulder, pulling him over, exposing his face to the light…

…and staggered back in horror.

“No…it can’t be…”

He looked up at her, blue eyed and clean shaven if indeed he even had facial hair to do so with and with a face that was frightening familiar.

“What?” He asked mockingly. “Don’t you recognise me?” He began to cough hard again, his knuckles turning white as he made fists and struck his chest. “I know…I’m younger than you were expecting.”

“This is Walter Londra?” Seyka asked in disbelief, staring at the young man who had yet to shed his adolescent years.

“No…this is Ted Faro.” Aloy breathed. He cackled which could have been a laugh or a wheeze, it was hard to tell. “You can’t be. I saw him, what remained anyway.” She shuddered at the grotesque memory of Faro who had manipulated his DNA, hoping for immortality but only managing to turn himself into something barely recognisable as human.

“What are you talking about?” Seyka exclaimed. “This is Londra! His face was plastered all over those projected murals!”

Aloy closed her eyes. “He altered them to look like himself…so the Quen wouldn’t question it.” She groaned. “You’ve been pretending to be Londra.”

Kina whimpered behind them. “No, that’s not true,” she insisted weakly, “this is Walter…he knew everything, codes, locations…everything!”

“I’m sorry, Kina,” Aloy activated her FOCUS and found an image of Ted Faro then sent it to Seyka’s FOCUS, “but this is a very young Ted Faro.”

Seyka looked at the image and sighed. She removed her FOCUS and gave it to Kina, showing her how to find the image. Kina yanked the FOCUS from her head, thrusting it at Seyka as she backed away.

“You told me you were Walter Londra…a Legacy keeper…that you would take me to the stars!”

“I would have told you anything just to get to this place.” He sneered and Kina gave a broken whimper.

“How can he be so young? The man whose image you shared…”

“This isn’t the original Ted Faro,” Aloy explained, “he’s a clone, a copy of him made from the same DNA, flawed DNA it seems…”

“That’s rich coming from you, Sobeck!” He chuckled then gurgled, holding his ribs.

“Sobeck?”

“Didn’t she tell you? This Aloy you’re as blindly following as your sister did me is a copy of another of your ‘Legacy Keepers’.” Aloy couldn’t understand his tone. He was deliberately goading Seyka, provoking her anger to erupting. “Aren’t you, Elisabet?”

“My name is Aloy.”

“And mine is Tomas,” he smiled mockingly, “nice to meet you.”

“It doesn’t matter who he is!” Seyka exclaimed. “He still led Quen to their deaths! He was kidnapping my sister and killing the rest of us with his toxic rocket!”

“You should be thanking me for a swift death rather than waiting for Nemesis to come,” Ted Faro’s clone, Tomas, pushed himself to sit upright, leaning against the wall, “believe me…it’s quite creative when it comes to making people suffer and studies death with avid curiosity.”

Aloy held her hand out to stop an irate Seyka then squatted down to look into Tomas’ eyes. “How do you know all this?” She asked.

“Because I was ‘born’ to find a way to kill Nemesis,” Tomas snorted, “only it can’t be done. Surely your beta clone told you as much after you hacked the Zenith base’s computer core.”

Aloy studied his pained expression, disdain his permanent expression. “You were created on board the Odyssey.” His lips turned down and he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Beta wasn’t allowed to communicate with anyone. She didn’t know about you but you knew about her?”

“I was Gerard and Londra’s pet project.” Tomas grimaced. “When it became clear that the methods used to keep Sobeck’s drive and tenacity under control diminished the beta clone’s capacity and ingenuity, I was created ten years ago.”

“But you look the same age.”

“Accelerated growth,” Tomas laughed then coughed, “it has its drawbacks…genetic degradation.”

Aloy studied him as he wheezed. “You’re dying.”

“I’ve been dying for years,” he groaned, “so much so that living is a great motivator. Every inch of progress I made, I spent time in the rejuvenation capsule…”

“Why didn’t Tilda know about you?”

“Londra and Gerard didn’t trust her. But then they didn’t trust anyone…not even each other. I think they were so concerned about everyone finding out their dirty little secrets, they didn’t realise Tilda was sneaking in little visits to the beta clone, trying to recapture the magic…” Tomas hacked into a violent bout of coughing, leaning back against the wall, tears streaming from his eyes.

“They created you in secret?”

“The Odyssey’s artificial reality suites are as real as reality when the power’s kicked up to max…and there were a lot less of the Zeniths on the return trip than those who escaped to Sirius. All they had to do was program in a cradle’s facilities and artificial carers, inject me with their own special cocktail of genetic go faster juice and voila!”

It was really, really hard not to slap him. He reeked of the same arrogance as Ted Faro, the same voice and face to go with it. His bluntness was out of control, as though he was smacking Kina over and over again with the foolishness of her belief in him.

“I was exposed to APOLLO’s entire database, my progress was constantly monitored on theories and ideas on how to defeat Nemesis,” he continued, “but they underestimated my genius and will to survive their enslavement. I researched them both, finding out about Londra’s dirty rocket, his hall of fame dedicated to himself…all the self-congratulatory holograms proclaiming the greatness of a small mind.”

“Given that you were about to kill a great many people just to reach the Odyssey and escape Nemesis, I’d say you had more in common with him than you’d like to believe.” Seyka snarled.

“What happened when we attacked the Zenith base?” Aloy asked, cutting in before Tomas could taunt her.

“Oh I saw what was going to happen long before it did. The moment the restraints around me fell, I evacuated on a pod and aimed it for here.” Tomas tilted his head back, his breathing becoming laboured. “When I arrived, I found my pod surrounded by Quen who stupidly thought it was a type of sarcophagus that had landed from the stars. I’d say it was hard fooling them into believing I was Londra who was there to save them and take the chosen few to utopia,” his blue eyes looked at Kina’s with cruel attention, “but it was like pretending to steal a child’s nose…”

She sobbed, her hands clasped over her mouth. Seyka lunged forward, blade in hand. Aloy leapt in her path.

“Seyka! Stop!”

“He’s a monster!” Seyka’s eyes were filled with fury. “He mocks the deaths of the Quen who died in ignorance!”

“You’re all ignorant! You’re all so bloody primitive it’s any wonder you survived more than a year out of the cradle facilities!”

“Would you shut up!” Aloy snapped at him then caught Seyka’s hand. “No, stop…I need you to listen!”

“And follow blindly?” Seyka shot before her eyes widened and she realised what she’d said.

Aloy swallowed and breathed out. “No.” She gestured to Tomas. “Because he knows about Nemesis. He’s been studying it for years. We can’t possibly hope to replicate his knowledge.”

Seyka stared at her. “You’re going to offer him sanctuary? After everything he’s done? To Kina? To the Quen? And not just what he did but what he was going to do?”

“We need to know what he knows.”

“Oh good, more enslavement!” Tomas mocked, attempting to stand up, leaning heavily against the wall. “What are you going to do? Give me some of your primitive healing potions to cure cell degradation for every piece of information I hand over? I’d rather die now!”

Aloy grabbed Seyka’s hand before she could strike, holding fast to the blade’s handle.

“Let me go! Let me avenge their deaths!”

“Not like this.”

“He wants to die!”

“And you being angry has nothing to do with it?” Seyka stepped back from her, anger no longer just reserved for Tomas but Aloy suspected it was for her too. “Look at the way he’s been raised, if you could even call it that. You and Kina, you had parents and for all their faults, they loved you.” Aloy glanced at Tomas. “Look at the parents he’s had and ask yourself, could you really kill a ten year old boy for trying to save himself any way he could?”

Seyka swallowed, stiff as a statue and unwilling to let go.

“Seyka,” Kina said weakly, “I hate him more than anyone…but Aloy is right.”

Aloy watched Seyka like a hawk. The Quen midshipman had reflexes that could challenge her own. It was only when she turned her head away, her shoulders bowing, that Aloy felt she could breathe again.

“Keep him out of mine and my sister’s sight.”

“You’re going to allow me to live because of what I might know in order to fight for the survival of people who were willing to abandon you when I gave them the chance,” Tomas challenged, “including your sister?”

Kina cringed at Seyka’s look but her sister remained unmoved.

“If Nemesis arrives and we can’t fight it, trust me,” she looked at him with glittering eyes, “you’ll be the first body I throw at it.”

Tomas groaned and slumped down, hand over his face. “Get out…just get out and let me die.”

Aloy looked between them, knowing there was limited time to help Tomas and save the knowledge he possessed but aware that Seyka and Kina were broken and hurting.

“I’ll take Kina back to Fleet’s End on the Waterwing.” Seyka said, glaring at her sister who hurried ahead of her. “I’ll meet you there.”

Aloy wanted to apologise for hurting her further but knew anything she said would be ineffectual. She glared at Tomas who wheezed painfully, his breathing becoming more and more laboured.

“Does it hurt?”

“You know for the clone of a genius you ask some really stupid questions at times.” He sneered.

Aloy sighed and squatted next to him. “Here,” she offered him a medicinal potion from her belt, “it’ll help numb some of the pain.” He laughed at it and turned his head. “Fine, be in pain. That’ll teach me.” She folded her arms. “Why did you bother recruiting Kina? You saw a young woman and thought, that’ll make the centuries fly by?”

Tomas shook his head. “I might only be ten years old but I’ve got the physical, emotional and mental age of a consenting adult so sue me for thinking about it.” He shuddered painfully. “I couldn’t bring all the Quen so I designed that stupid ‘test of faith’ trial and the realistic projection of the rocket to stump them. I already had them in my thrall so I just took some of the strongest and dumbest as bodyguards…but Kina…she knew it was fake…so I had to take her.”

“And how were you going to explain why you left without the rest of the Quen?” Aloy cringed as he coughed so hard she thought he might bring his lungs up. His face was pale and his eyes were red rimmed.

“Natural…selection…” He heaved, grabbed the potion, scrunched his eyes shut and gulped it down, slumping to the side when it was empty, gagging on the bitter brew.

She went to ask him something else but her FOCUS hummed into life.

“Aloy, you’ve got to come quick!”

“Seyka, what is it?”

“Fleet’s End is under attack!”