Chapter Thirty-Five

Continent Number Three

Gamma 1551 AV, codenamed “Barbados”

Along the Exodus Road

11 July 2824

Nicholas stood by the depression in the ground where Franklin Hallis had been buried. The Pulverizer had been claimed by the Wolves. They wanted to learn what they could from the isorla he had piloted. The new technology that had been the Wolverines’ would trickle now to all of the Clans. Power would be distributed. Even now, the Coyotes were saying the Mercury II they had captured in the mop-up operations was worth their losses in battle. It was a shame the Wolverines had perished as they had. They had stood on the brink of greatness, but had paid a price for Sarah’s arrogance.

Franklin’s body had been buried and marked with a simple tombstone. Nicholas had ordered that none of the other Wolverines would be buried. There was little left of Khan Karrige other than shards of his jumpsuit that had survived the blast. The Wolverine-hunting parties had finished their work the day before. The last pockets of resistance had been especially bitter and downright ferocious. People that knew they were destined to die fought with a fury that was unparalleled. Sheer numbers overwhelmed those that stood and battled it out though. There were no warriors left, none that could be found. All that remained was a final goodbye.

He looked down at the mound of earth where the body of Franklin had been laid. The marker bore only the words Khan Franklin Hallis. Nicholas had not told anyone of the burial, but the craftsman that had carved the stone for the marker. He had granted Franklin the title he had never earned in life. “Your Wolverines fought well, Khan Hallis. In the end that was not enough. Their deaths already have served as a great unifier for my people. I only hope that you understand their ultimate role.”

There was an undisturbed piece of ground next to Hallis’s grave. There, a marker rested bearing the name Khan Sarah McEvedy. Nicholas stood facing it for the longest time before he spoke. “You were cocky, arrogant, and self-sure. In the end, it cost you everything. Even then, it did not bother you. Andery was right about you, Sarah. And, for what it is worth, so was I.”

A rustling in the brush off to his side did not break his concentration. He heard a voice, that of Sarah McEvedy, speaking to him, clear in his mind’s eye. “You waged genocide, Nicholas. You killed your own people. Now you will cover up their deaths. That cannot silence their voices. At night, the growl of the Wolverines will stir your sleep. You will always wonder if you destroyed the better part of yourself.”

He didn’t look to see if there was a figure standing in the brush next to him. Nicholas didn’t want to know if it was in his mind or real. “This is where your path led, Sarah…to this place. Lay here for all time, alone, screaming at the stars, and ponder if your choices were correct. I, on the other hand, know my choices were, and I regret none of them.”

He picked up a handful of black soil and filtered it through his fingers over Franklin Hallis’s grave. Nicholas Kerensky turned his back on the small clearing in Barbados and walked away—never once looking back.