The Blood Solution (Approaching Infinity Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

she was out there among them, it would be the same. He would kill her like he had the times before, or just as well, she would kill him.
    He spun around, heading back down into the tower to check on his brother.
• • •
    Ban Kapler hung motionless, suspended in a reinforced glass tank filled with a gelatinous, life sustaining protein solution.
    “Ban,” Raus said, shaking his head. “You were always so eager for change, you always wanted to do something that mattered, to be the strong one, to make a difference even though you were sick. Father’s experiments improved us, but with you there was a cost.”
    Raus threw his head back, sucking in a deep breath as he recalled with perfect clarity the fateful night Ban was put into the medical tank more than a hundred years ago. . .
    “Raus! The dreams, you know the dreams haunt me nightly, pointing to some horrific future, but on waking nothing ever remains except the impression of the end approaching.”
    “Easy, Ban. You’re paler than usual, little brother.”
    Ban shook his head, dismissing Raus’s concern. “I’ve done it, Raus. I’ve taken the Catalyst Wine.”
    Raus started. “You— Why, Ban? You know what it’ll do to you.” Raus gripped Ban’s shoulders and noticed his brother’s legs shaking, barely able to support him. “You’re sweating, Ban, and you’re scaring me.”
    “I see it, Raus. The Wine submerged me in shadow, an ocean of shadow, but, but I could see it and I see it still. Not clearly, but it’s coming. Calamity. The end of everything. We—”
    Ban nearly fainted, going limp in Raus’s supporting hands.
    “Must. . . must get help. Viscain Empire. . . still time. . .”
    So much had happened since Ban had slipped into the coma. Calamity had come as predicted, but help was still a long ways off. Raus’s indiscretion with the serving girl, Milla Marz, had set off a chain of events that destroyed what credibility the Kaplers still had with the people and drove a wedge through the Kaplers themselves destroying them in the end as well.
    Raus sighed and forced the memory from his head. He placed his hands upon the glass and looked up into his brother’s peaceful face. “It’s just you and me, Ban,” he said. “We’ve lost so much, but the help you foretold is finally here. In less than a month the first of them will arrive.”

3. THE WOODEN MAN
     
(10,689.130)
    Planet Zahl was lifeless. It hadn’t always been so, and in fact a case could still be made to the contrary, but no animal life nor vegetation remained. Ruins of the long-dead civilization were spread across the land in various states of crumbling decay and offered no trace of the splendor of the planet’s cultural peak.
    A lone survivor of the planet’s rise and fall to oblivion sat upon a crag, observing the whorls the wind traced in the sand. This survivor could think, could perceive, could communicate, could even create, but was not, strictly speaking, alive.
    Icsain was an articulated figure of smooth wood with mesmerizing grain patterns that seemed to shift. His head was a wooden egg and, though devoid of features, was strangely expressive. Each major joint was a dark sphere and was, like his head, polished to a glossy finish.
    Icsain had been cut from a sacred tree that was worshiped in primitive times. A craftsman, immeasurably skilled, carved the figure, at first according to his own design, but as the human figure took shape, Icsain helped guide the craftsman’s hand.
    He had seen the peoples of his world settle their differences and achieve peace. He had borne witness to every major historical event, sometimes from the inside as a key participant, sometimes from afar as a simple observer. He never dared to want anything more than to share in the lives of the people who had once worshipped him. And he got his wish. The world had run its course and Icsain had been present through it all. Now he was content—had no choice but to be content—with the