Chapter 5 - The Mother's Execution Order
# Chapter 5 - The Mother's Execution Order
Jack had imagined a thousand explanations for why his mother abandoned him. None involved discovering that she had signed an order for his death.
The laboratory monitors glowed crimson.
EXECUTION ORDER REACTIVATED.
TARGET: JACK VALE.
AUTHORIZED BY: SARAH.
Jack backed away from his mother until his shoulders struck the cold glass of an empty containment chamber.
"Tell me it's fake."
Sarah stood motionless beneath the flickering fluorescent lights.
"Jack—"
"Tell me!"
Her lips trembled.
"The authorization is real."
Something inside him seemed to break.
Julian slowly turned toward her.
"You signed an execution order against him?"
Sarah shook her head.
"Not against Jack."
Jack laughed once, a sharp, wounded sound.
"My name is right there!"
"Because the Engine changed the target designation."
"Then whose name was there before?"
Sarah looked toward the seventh containment chamber.
Jonathan floated motionless behind the glass, watching them with unsettling blue eyes.
"His."
The king stepped forward.
"Jonathan?"
Sarah nodded.
"Eight hundred years ago, I authorized the termination of the original subject."
Edmund stared at her.
"You told me Jonathan died of illness."
"He did die."
A mechanical laugh echoed through the laboratory speakers.
"Did I?"
Jonathan's voice was soft, almost playful.
Sarah went rigid.
The boy inside the chamber pressed his palm against the glass.
"Mother, you really must stop telling that story."
Jack turned sharply.
"Mother?"
Jonathan smiled.
"She never told you?"
Sarah stepped toward the chamber.
"Jonathan, don't."
"Why not? He deserves to know what kind of family he's inherited."
The king gripped the edge of a metal table.
"Sarah, explain."
Jonathan answered instead.
"She was there when I was created. She was there when I woke up. And she was there when they decided I was defective."
Jack stared at Sarah.
"Created?"
The word felt wrong.
People were born.
Machines were created.
Sarah closed her eyes.
"Jonathan was my son."
The king's face twisted.
"Our son."
"Yes," Sarah whispered. "But after he died, the council used the Engine to preserve his consciousness."
Jonathan's smile faded.
"Preserve."
He repeated the word with quiet disgust.
"What a beautiful way to describe what you did."
A monitor beside his chamber began displaying images.
A child lying on a stone bed.
A surgical instrument descending.
A woman screaming.
Jack recognized Sarah's younger face.
The image changed.
A machine surrounded by seven silver rings.
A child's body suspended in blue liquid.
Then the same child opening his eyes.
Jonathan.
"Stop the recording," Sarah whispered.
The images continued.
A boy struggling against restraints.
A physician in white robes.
A black hourglass symbol burned into a metal door.
Jack felt sick.
"Why did you do that to him?"
Sarah looked at him.
"Because I couldn't bear to lose my child."
Jonathan laughed bitterly.
"So you made sure I could never die."
The chamber lights flickered.
The sixth bell sounded somewhere above them.
A deep vibration passed through the laboratory floor.
Julian glanced toward the ceiling.
"How many bells are there?"
Sarah swallowed.
"Seven."
"And when the seventh rings?"
Jonathan answered.
"The Engine chooses which heir survives."
Jack's smartwatch vibrated.
A new message appeared.
PRIMARY VESSEL SELECTION IN PROGRESS.
CANDIDATES: 3.
Jack stared at it.
Three.
Himself.
Julian.
Jonathan.
Only one would survive.
He looked toward the sealed laboratory door.
"Then we destroy the machine."
Jonathan's expression changed.
For the first time, he looked genuinely interested.
"That's what I said."
Sarah shook her head.
"Jack, you don't understand."
"No. I understand perfectly."
His voice rose.
"You made him. You made Julian. You made me. And now that thing wants us to kill each other."
Julian stepped closer.
"He's right."
Sarah looked at him in surprise.
Julian's jaw tightened.
"Don't look so shocked."
The king turned toward the glass chamber.
"Jonathan, if you are truly my son, tell me how to stop this."
Jonathan studied him.
"Would you believe me?"
Edmund hesitated.
Jonathan smiled sadly.
"Of course not."
He turned his gaze toward Jack.
"But perhaps my youngest brother will."
Jack swallowed.
"What do you want?"
"Open the chamber."
Sarah immediately stepped forward.
"No."
Jonathan's expression hardened.
"Mother."
"You know what will happen."
"Do I?"
"You cannot survive outside the containment field."
Jonathan tilted his head.
"That's what you told me eight hundred years ago."
Sarah's face drained of color.
Julian looked between them.
"Is that true?"
Sarah said nothing.
Jonathan pressed his palm harder against the glass.
"Ask her about the first termination."
Jack turned toward Sarah.
"What happened?"
Her voice was barely audible.
"The original restoration failed."
Jonathan laughed.
"Failed?"
The monitor displayed another image.
A young Jonathan standing in a laboratory corridor.
He looked frightened.
A woman in a white coat approached him.
Eleanor.
Jack's grandmother.
She knelt before the boy and held his face between her hands.
Then the recording's audio crackled.
"You are not sick, Jonathan. You are becoming something the Engine cannot control."
The boy looked confused.
"What am I becoming?"
Eleanor glanced toward the security camera.
Then she whispered something the recording did not capture.
Jonathan began crying.
The image changed.
Sarah entered the room.
Two guards followed.
The boy screamed.
"Mother, please!"
The recording ended.
Jack stared at Sarah.
"What did you do?"
She covered her mouth.
"I was told he was suffering."
Jonathan's voice became cold.
"And you believed them."
Jack felt an unpleasant familiarity in those words.
The king had believed the council.
Sarah had believed the physicians.
Everyone had trusted someone.
And children had paid the price.
"Who told you?" Jack asked.
Sarah looked toward the chamber.
"Eleanor."
The laboratory fell silent.
Jack felt his heart sink.
"Grandma again?"
Sarah nodded.
"She said Jonathan's consciousness was fragmenting. That if we didn't terminate the restoration, the Engine would collapse."
Jonathan's expression darkened.
"She lied."
"How do you know?" Julian demanded.
Jonathan looked at him.
"Because I remember what she whispered."
Sarah went still.
Jonathan slowly smiled.
"She told me I was the first successful human who could exist outside time."
The king stared at him.
"Outside time?"
"Not merely travel through it. Exist beyond its rules."
Jack glanced at his watch.
"Like Grandma?"
Jonathan's eyes moved toward him.
"Exactly."
A sudden metallic crash echoed from the corridor.
Everyone turned.
Captain Mara appeared in the doorway, breathing hard.
"Your Highness!"
Julian stepped forward.
"What happened?"
"The eastern courtyard has fallen."
"Then withdraw our soldiers."
Mara hesitated.
"We tried."
Julian's expression hardened.
"What do you mean?"
"They won't obey."
The king drew his sword.
"Whose orders are they following?"
Mara looked toward Jonathan's chamber.
"The original prince."
A low hum filled the room.
Jonathan closed his eyes.
"Finally."
Jack stepped backward.
"What did you do?"
Jonathan opened his eyes again.
"Nothing they weren't already prepared to do."
Mara drew her sword.
"Your Highness, the army is moving toward the lower levels."
Julian stared at Jonathan.
"You've been commanding them?"
"Some of them."
"Since when?"
Jonathan smiled.
"Since before you were born."
Julian's face darkened.
"You told me the army was mine."
Jonathan's expression became almost sympathetic.
"And you believed it."
Julian lunged toward the glass.
"You used me!"
Jonathan didn't flinch.
"Everyone uses someone, little brother."
Mara caught Julian's arm.
"Your Highness, stop!"
Julian shook her off.
"Don't touch me!"
Jack watched the confrontation.
Something about Jonathan's behavior troubled him.
The boy was too calm.
Too prepared.
He had been waiting for this moment.
And he seemed to know exactly how everyone would react.
Jack looked at the laboratory monitors.
A map of the castle appeared on one screen.
Seven chambers were marked beneath the throne room.
Six were dark.
The seventh pulsed blue.
But another symbol appeared beyond the castle walls.
A small white circle.
Jack leaned closer.
"What is that?"
Jonathan's eyes flickered toward the screen.
For the first time, his expression changed.
"Nothing."
Jack pointed.
"Then why is it moving?"
Sarah turned.
The white circle traveled slowly across the map.
It was approaching the castle.
Beneath it appeared a designation.
EXTERNAL CHRONOLOGICAL ENTITY.
IDENTITY UNKNOWN.
Jack's smartwatch vibrated.
A message appeared.
WARNING: UNREGISTERED OBSERVER APPROACHING.
Jonathan's face tightened.
"Turn that off."
Jack looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because you don't understand what you're seeing."
Jack almost laughed.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
He touched the screen.
The map expanded.
The white circle was no longer outside the castle.
It was beneath the eastern courtyard.
Moving toward the laboratory.
Sarah stared at it.
"No."
Edmund turned.
"What?"
Sarah whispered, "She found us."
Jack's heart began racing.
"Grandma?"
Jonathan's eyes narrowed.
"Not Eleanor."
The lights flickered.
A distant explosion shook the floor.
Then the laboratory speakers crackled.
A woman's voice emerged.
"Sarah."
Sarah froze.
The voice was gentle.
Familiar.
And filled with hatred.
"Did you really think I would let you steal another child?"
Sarah stepped backward.
"No..."
The king looked at her.
"Who is that?"
She did not answer.
The voice continued.
"Eight hundred years, Sarah. Eight hundred years of watching you wear my face."
Jack felt a chill.
Wear my face?
He turned toward his mother.
Her expression had become one of absolute terror.
"Who is she?" he whispered.
Sarah shook her head.
"Jack, don't listen."
The voice laughed softly.
"Oh, but he should."
A hidden door opened at the far end of the laboratory.
Cold white light spilled into the room.
A woman stepped through.
She looked exactly like Sarah.
The same dark hair.
The same grey eyes.
The same face.
But she wore a white laboratory coat stained with blood.
And around her neck hung a silver pendant shaped like an unbroken hourglass.
Jack stopped breathing.
The newcomer looked at him.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, my darling boy."
Sarah rushed forward.
"Stay away from him!"
The woman ignored her.
She stepped closer to Jack.
"I've waited fourteen years to see you."
Jack backed away.
"Who are you?"
The woman smiled through her tears.
"Your mother."
Sarah screamed.
"LIAR!"
The newcomer turned toward her.
Her expression hardened.
"No, Sarah."
She reached into her coat and withdrew a small black device.
A holographic image appeared above it.
Jack saw a hospital room.
A newborn baby.
A woman lying exhausted on a bed.
The woman was the newcomer.
A medical bracelet around her wrist displayed a name.
DR. SARAH VALE.
The image shifted.
A second woman entered the room.
She looked identical.
The Sarah standing beside Jack.
The second woman lifted the newborn from the bed.
Then she disappeared through a glowing doorway.
Jack stared at the image.
His knees felt weak.
The newcomer lowered the device.
"Fourteen years ago, someone stole my son."
She looked directly at Sarah.
"And now I've come to take him back."
The king slowly turned toward the woman who had stood beside him for eight centuries.
"Sarah?"
She was trembling.
Julian stepped away from her.
Jonathan watched silently from his chamber.
Jack looked between the two identical women.
"Which one of you is my mother?"
Neither answered immediately.
Then the woman in the white coat spoke.
"Ask her what happened to the real Sarah."
Jack turned toward the woman in the blue gown.
Her lips parted.
But before she could speak, the laboratory monitors flashed crimson.
IDENTITY VERIFICATION COMPLETE.
SARAH VALE — HUMAN — CONFIRMED.
SECONDARY ENTITY — ARTIFICIAL REPLICA — CONFIRMED.
Jack stared at the screen.
The woman in the blue gown began crying.
The real Sarah stepped forward.
"Tell him."
The replica shook her head.
"Please..."
"Tell him what you did."
Jack felt his heart pounding.
"What did she do?"
The real Sarah's voice became ice-cold.
"She didn't just steal you, Jack."
She looked toward the king.
"She stole my husband."
Edmund staggered backward.
Then she looked at Julian.
"And she created another son to replace the one she couldn't keep."
Julian's face went white.
The replica covered her mouth.
Jack stared at her.
The woman he had embraced as his mother.
The woman who had cried when she saw him.
The woman who had signed his execution order.
And then the real Sarah delivered the final blow.
"Ask her why she has been trying to kill you every time you turn fourteen."
Jack stopped breathing.
"Every time?"
The real Sarah nodded.
"Because this isn't your first life, sweetheart."
She reached toward him.
"It's your seventh."