WHAT FATE HOLDS FOR US
In a realm where space and time are constructs without meaning, Richard Blaine and the Spartan 300 head for their destiny on Omaha Beach.
WHAT FATE HOLDS FOR US
“Our wills and fates do socontrary run, that our devices still are overthrown; our thoughts are ours,their ends none of our own.”
– William Shakespeare
“Now, what?” Nurse Reynoldscried, echoing my own question.
‘One school of Celestial Thoughtactually negates time: it reasons that the present is indefinite, that thefuture has no reality other than as a present hope, that the past has noreality other than as a present memory.’
‘Say again?’ Imind-asked Sentient.
‘No.’
Sentient’s murmur took on amusing tone. ‘As I played God just now, I also had a dream simultaneously.’
‘You can dream?’
“Hush.’
My cheek stung as invisiblefingers slapped it.
‘A dream of a long game of chess.The players were not two persons, but two mysterious families. The game hadbeen going on for centuries. Nobody could remember what the stakes were, but itwas rumored that they were enormous, perhaps infinite. The chessmen and theboard were in a secret tower, whose turrets slowly began to take shape.’
Sentient’s voice grew sullen.‘And then ….’
‘And then, what?’
‘And then, that shrill voicedNightingale asked that inane question.’
Our perpetual questioner criedout, “Major, where the hell are we now? Back where we were?
“No, Taylor. That was the OuterRealms, a place that was not even a place. According to Sentient, this … regionis beyond space and time … where those constructs don’t even exist, much lesshave meaning.”
Reese snorted, “I’m so glad Stewasked, Major. That cleared everything right on up for me.”
Amos frowned, “Why are we herethen?”
I turned to him. “Rabbi, isn’tthat the question you’re supposed to answer, not ask?”
“Very not funny, Rick.”
I ironed my face with a bandagedpalm.
“Right now, those battleships anddestroyers are shelling Omaha Beach. Sentient wanted to prevent rattledofficers from blasting us to bloody rag dolls by accident.”
“Or on purpose,” mutteredPorkins.
I nodded. “Or that, Franklin.What’s worse is that those shell are landing in the water, killing fish but noGermans … or landing beyond the cliffs. NONE are hitting the beach andcreating fox holes for us to hide in or destroying the gun emplacements.”
Theo started to order Porkins todrop and do fifty for speaking out of turn.
I shook my head.
“Everyone, keep hold of thosescooter handles. They are actually Inertia Dampeners … as is the whole of Rocinante.The handles just intensify the effect, keeping you from flying over the sides.”
“What would happen to us, then?”asked Pvt. Kent.
I shivered at Sentient’s answerwithin my mind.
“Alfred, you would stall inmid-air, looking as if you were in a still photograph. All of your essencewould … stall. Caught endlessly experiencing your past, present, and possiblefutures all at once … for all eternity.”
Pvt. Evans snapped, “Ah, Franklin,hold onto those damn handles!”
Porkins rasped, “My soul is fromelsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there not hanging in somehellish limbo.”
Reese grumbled, “I’ve noticedwhat we plan often takes a nose-dive into the ditch beside the road of life.”
Dimitri scowled, “Yes, I havenoticed what we will is sometimes merely soap bubbles blown by fate elsewhere.”
Pvt. Dickens nodded. “I concur. Ithink there's great potential for autonomy, but we have to remember that welive in a world where people may have free will but have not invented theircircumstances.”
Evans groaned, “Chuck, you knowwhat my idea of Hell is? You explaining life to me for eternity!”
Pvt. Stew Taylor shook his headnegatively (for the 1000th time that I could recall).
“Free will is an illusion. Peoplealways choose the perceived path of greatest pleasure.”
Amos chimed in, being a rabbi howcould he not? “Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of lightand another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires,necessity and free will.”
Sentient mocked them in my mind.‘I would laugh to hear ants wax philosophic if it were not so tragic.’
‘As far as I can see, Sentient, it'snot important that we have free will or not, just as long as we have theillusion of free will to stop us from going mad.’
I mind-sighed, ‘Besides, can’tyou see? They’re scared through and through down to the marrow of their bones.All this talk of free will is to distract them from the fact that they havenone in avoiding Omaha Beach and the death awaiting them there.’
I called out, “Make sure yourpacks are cinched tight and your rifles stay slinged! I don’t want to get shotin the butt until I tell you to unsling them.”
Theo grinned lopsided, “Language,Major.”
I turned to Amos and froze. Hewas as pale as a leper … and trembling. If he was like this, how were many ofmy Spartans reacting to our approach to Omaha Beach?
Sentient murmured in my helmet,and thus, in all of the Spartans’ helmets.
“You shall not be the worse forthis - I promise you. You will be much the better for it. Just believe what Isay and do as I tell you.”
Beside me, Amos was spilling allthe bullets he was trying to push into his pistol clip.
I smiled sadly at him. “A goodfriend listens to your adventures. A best friend makes them with you.”
I gently took the gun from histrembling fingers, and my artificial fingers tingled as if touched by a live wire.I felt bullets form in my palm.
I started thumbing them into theclip of his .50 caliber Desert Eagle.
He rasped, “Th-There were nobullets in that hand a second ago.”
“It’s a kind ….”
“Of magic,” he weakly grinned. “I know. I’veheard it before.”
I took his shoulder gently, for Ino longer knew how strong my new fingers were.
“The most beautiful people I haveever known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle,known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.”
I squeezed his shoulder a bitstronger and since he didn’t wince, it was just enough.
“Amos, you, Theo, and the otherswill make it through this. I don’t know exactly how, mind you, but ….”
I stiffened as Sentient told me. Itwas wild, crazy. Like something out of the Old Testament. But she had neverlied to me.
“All right, Gentlemen! That rampis just about to drop. When it does, I want you to run onto that beach as ifthe Angel of Death were right at your heels … for she will be.”
I cleared my closing throat.
“Thepath will be cleared for you. Do not stop for anything. If a brother stumbles,however, you pull him back up onto his feet and run with him. We are a family,and family leaves no one behind.”
Suddenly, Helen Mayfair’s delicate,haunted face appeared before me, and I smiled with all the love I had for heras if she could actually see me.
Sentient murmured within my mind.
‘How lucky you are to have someonethat makes saying goodbye so hard.’
I took a deep breath. “That rampwill drop at the count of three."
"One …. Two ….
