Cosega Sphere (The Cosega Sequence Book 4)

Cosega Sphere (The Cosega Sequence Book 4) by Brandt Legg Page B

Book: Cosega Sphere (The Cosega Sequence Book 4) by Brandt Legg Read Free Book Online
Authors: Brandt Legg
Ads: Link
beginning,” turned out to be an incredibly accurate choice.
    Rip’s hypothesis hadn’t gone back far enough before the beginning; he was off by more than ten million years. No one with any kind of decent reputation within the scientific community, other than Rip, dared to entertain the notion that intelligent humans had existed for more than the last 100,000 years. Even Rip, who believed a sophisticated society on par with ours might have risen and fallen in prehistory, hadn’t dared to dream that they’d achieved such an advanced degree of knowledge and technology—far beyond what humans enjoy in the present day—until he held the Eysen.
    Still, after all the years spent studying it, he second-guessed everything, especially the choices that resulted in the deaths of those who helped to protect it, particularly Larsen, his closest friend. Lately what he’d been most unsure about was the decision to hide it. Enough information from their early research had been released, causing the world’s religions to collapse, but the world went on, seemingly missing the significance.
    What if they had let it all out? It had become a constant debate among Rip, Gale and Booker. Every commercial Eysen-INU that Booker sold came preloaded with actual data from the original Eysen-Sphere, complete with the new history, new science, and more, but humanity still drifted rapidly toward a perilous future. A future made more immediate because of Cira, who would have to endure what was coming. Yet now even that was in doubt.
    He stared at the Eysen-Sphere, mesmerized anew, as it floated in the air. “Like a wizard’s crystal ball . . .  What are you truly capable of?” Rip asked out loud. “You contain the history of the universe, all human knowledge, and you grant glimpses into the future . . . ” He paced around the Eysen-Sphere, thinking of it somehow as something different, something more than he’d ever considered before. “Can you be used as a weapon? A time machine?” He laughed at his absurdity. “Can you save my little girl?”
    During their seven year quest into the Sphere, they’d found so much, yet frustratingly little in the way of practical understanding. What was it for? Why had it survived? Who were the Cosegans, really?
    “Crying Man, are you there? What about the other ghosts who dwell inside this ancient orb?”
    Rip called the man who had silently guided them through the turmoil and vastness of their early days of exploration into the Sphere. Back then, Crying Man had been an almost daily presence. Then, inexplicably, he had all but disappeared five years earlier. They’d only seen him twice since, and not once for more than three years. Rip’s instincts told him that the Sphere might be the only way to save his loved ones. He and Gale had devoted their lives to its study, and, by default, Cira’s life too.
    “It’s time to give back, Crying Man,” he said, his tone more pleading than demanding. “Please, my daughter is only six. She’s never done anything wrong in her life, she only knows the innocence and beauty of the world.”
    As a single tear slid down Rip’s cheek, incredibly, Crying Man appeared in life-sized form, fully projected out from the ancient Eysen-Sphere. He stood opposite Rip, the Sphere between them. His stern expression, contrasted by smiling eyes, gave him the aura of a parent upset with a child over some minor mishap.
    Last time he’d seen him, Crying Man had had long hair. Now his head appeared completely shaved beneath a white hood of light, flowing, silk-like cloth. It matched his long robe, which was tied with a sash that seemed to be made of a thin, green, glowing, neon-like-light. His robe ruffled around him as if in a steady breeze, although the air in the skyroom was still.
    Rip stood transfixed, part of him shocked at the appearance of a man he’d just called across eleven million years, and part of him not at all surprised. He wanted to ask, “Where have you

Similar Books

Captain's Day

Terry Ravenscroft

You Only Die Twice

Christopher Smith

The Midnight Road

Tom Piccirilli

Catalyst

Shelly Crane

The Phoenix Land

Miklós Bánffy

Love Notions

Mary Manners