Free Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten by Richard M. Heredia Page B

what he was going to say next.
    “This is what made Flavia and I argue a while ago, and it is why we called you all here, even though it was tactically dangerous to do so.”  He added the past part to warn them.  They were entering dangerous times.  “There is something going on out there in the Sixteen Worlds, something big, of that there can be no denying.
    “How do I know this?” he asked rhetorically, clasping his hands behind his back as he began to pace.  No one answered.  “I know this because of what happened out on the streets of Angel Free Town.  Someone not only had the audacity to make a run for me in my own city.  They fired upon me, using the most advanced tech of one of our rivals.  I don’t like the way that fact feels inside, the more I think about it.  Somebody had to be very desperate or extremely stupid to pull such a stunt, knowing how difficult I am to kill.  They even brought a Fermonist with them, which tells me their plight may be even worse than I’ve just mentioned.
    “So,” he went on, “we know something is going on, we just aren’t certain of the details, but that’s not the crux of the question we must ask ourselves.  The question is, should we even care?”
    There were a few gasp s about.  Tirza stood, her hand over her mouth, her eyes bugging out with astonishment.
    Estefan forged on.  “Why should we?” he repeated again.  “What has anyone ever done for us?  When was the last time someone, anyone, has done anything for us?”
    “But, Effy, that sounds so callous, so cold,” answered Sandy.   “We are no longer that Synod – the one that went to war and slaughtered thousands, enslaved even more.  We aren’t them anymore.”
    “ Of course, we aren’t, Sandy, and, to me, that seems reason enough.  Why help now?” he said.  “Why, because now there is a possibility countless lives could be at stake?  Is this what draws such concern from you now?”  He stepped around his chair, closer to their projections.  “There are always countless lives at stake, always.  It has always been the way of the Human Race and it’s the same with the Combined Race now.  Nothing has changed.  We haven’t reached some plateau of benevolence and suddenly all is well across the Solar System.  Sure, we have great technology, wondrous computer swarms and biological advances making the medicine we had as children look like voodoo.  But, it hasn’t changed the fact of what we are inside.  We’re still poisoned, we still bear the mark of sin or evil or whatever the fuck you want to call it!  It changes nothing!  So, I ask, why should I risk any of you for the good of any of them out there!  FUCK THEM!!!”
    He sat wearily in his chair, winded as though he had been running a mile.  The chair creaked mildly, but no more.
    There was stunned silence around him, only Flavia seemed to be breathing.
    “It won’t change the fact they killed my family once before.  I cannot live if it were to happen again,” he mumbled pitifully, his head bowed.  None of them had seen his lips move, but he had spoken loud enough for all of them to hear.
    “Estefan?  Estefan, my love, look at me,” urged Tirza, having come to her knees, her projection closer to him than it had moments ago.  She was so tiny before him.
    He raised his head to look into her digital eyes.
    “They killed my family too,” she said, a single tear falling down her face, the 360-tru-def version of her so accurate, he saw it shimmer as it fell to the ground.
    “I know,” he barely managed, his voice cracking.
    A new figure approached and knelt next to Tirza.  “They killed all of our families, my love.”  It was Katie, her eyes full with pain and regret she couldn’t be there to hold him.
    “I know…”
    “We have to do this, Effy, for them,” came a third voice, a third figure.  It was Mena, her razor-thin eyebrows coming together, imploring him to understand.
    From further back, “We’ve