Heirs of Earth Read Online Free

it is upon our shoulders that the future of our species rests. You must think long and hard about what you wish to do now. We must reach consensus, or we must divide.
    “I ask you to consider this: to live as the Yuhl do now would mean that our future descendants, whatever they may be, will inherit nothing from us but our fear and obeisance. We will have run from our greatest challenge, and that will be our only legacy. But if today, together, we can find an alternative, then perhaps our descendants will inherit something more. If we can live through these next few days, then we could reclaim Sol System and rebuild our species, and our descendants may be heirs to a new Earth.”
    With that, as the echoes of her words filled the virtual meeting hall, she stepped back from the spotlight glad to remove herself from the decision-making process. The sentiments she’d expressed were genuine, but in truth she didn’t know for certain what was the best thing for humanity right now. Abandoning Surveyed Space for a life roaming the galaxy, caught between one alien race and another, sounded a lot like a prison sentence to her—one with no chance of parole. But was it worse than the death sentence humanity might face if they attempted to fight back?
    Sol understood Alander’s point all too well; she, too, was tired of endless spats, constant claims and counterclaims, petty ascendancies and power struggles. She wished her higher self, the one destroyed with the Vincula in Sol System, could magically reappear and take over. She would know what to do. With the resources of a post-Spike, twenty-second century humanity behind them, maybe the engrams would have had something of a chance at least.
    Then again, she reminded herself, it hadn’t really helped the Vincula. The Starfish had cut through its defenses like a hot knife through butter. The memory of the destruction of her home was indelibly burned into her mind, and like a recently formed scar, it itched terribly.
    “We can’t leave here,” someone was insisting. “This is our home!”
    “Then we must find a way to contact them—to reason with them,” said another.
    “The Starfish don’t care about that,” came the instant reply. “If we stay here, they’ll destroy us as easily as they destroyed Sol.”
    “But who says Sol was actually destroyed?” said a third voice, entering the debate. “All we have is her word for that. It could be a fake designed to make us leave, to empty the colonies to allow her to take over!”
    And there it was in a nutshell: all three possible responses to the situation. The engrams could refuse to accept the harsh reality and die; they could bite the bullet and leave; or they could doubt that it was even happening. The last was particularly symptomatic of newer colonies, especially those who’d been skipped by the Spinners and had yet to see any evidence of alien activity beyond the hole ships. And she could understand that. Conspiracy was so much easier to accept than the harsh reality of humanity’s genocide.
    Fortunately, though, survivors of Starfish attacks significantly outnumbered the newbies. Of the 1,000-odd remaining engrams attending the meeting, approximately 800 had lost homes and missions to the aliens. While they may not have seen the destruction firsthand since few had and managed to do so and survive, they were left in no doubt as to the desperate nature of humanity’s plight.
    Run or die, she thought to herself. It’s not a choice; it’s an ultimatum.
    “I have to say, I’ve never been one for ultimatums.”
    The voice intruding upon her thoughts, reading her thoughts, startled her. She knew immediately to whom the voice belonged, and it was this more than anything that surprised her. She quickly sent her senses through the assembly, trying to find the source of the voice, seeking out the owner. Try as she might though, she couldn’t find him.
    “That’s because I’m not there, Caryl,” Frank the Ax said with