Kaldean Chronicles: Kaldean Sunset (Book I) Read Free

recognized. There was also a bench where he was allowed to sit and wait while Cornel manned the controls. He looked back at Magnus and said, “I'll have to ask you to keep quiet while I try to give the boy his lesson.”
    “I'll fucking do as I please. Now hurry up.”
    The docking port opened and the ship began its departure. Antoni felt nothing at all except for the anticipation that was moving over his skin. Even thought the ship was moving, it felt like they were sitting still. “Why is it that you can't feel the ship moving,” he whispered to the Jihadi.
    “There's no resistance in space. The movement that you feel when you are in a transport is from the air rushing by.”
    “Strange.”
    They waited silently while the ship slowly left the bay and moved out into space. When they stopped they were only a few hundred meters away from the palace, but it felt like lightyears. All Antoni could see was the stars laid out before him.
    He wanted to get into a space folder and visit every one of them. He hated being stuck in the palace. He was young. He should be allowed to move around. Normal citizens his age were allowed to own their own ship, and many were even allowed to marry. They were adults, and he was being treated like a child.
    Cornel turned back to Antoni. “Tell me about the events that led to the Blood Jihad,” he said.
    “It began in the Second Millennium after the Lorian Sisterhood developed the artificial mind.”
    “But why?”
    “I don't know,” Antoni said truthfully.
    Cornel tapped his foot softly. “Tell me about the Lorian Sisterhood,” he said. He was leading into something, that's how he did his lessons, impatient that Antoni never quite caught onto his secret message. It was infuriating.
    “They began in the Alpha Centauri System, well into 6 th century. They were a secret society, who established itself against the anti-technologist Crusaders that ruled the twin systems at the time,” he responded.
    “Why was the Sisterhood formed?” Cornel questioned.
    “In response to the lifestyle that the people had been forced into because of the fact that only prehistoric technology was allowed.”
    “What happened?” he questioned again.
    “They took over.”
    “What made them better?”
    “They had hope. They believed that man could do better and that through science man can accomplish great things.”
    “What was the result?”
    “A golden age that led to space exploration. The people built a society in which empirical research took the place of the religious beliefs that drove the Crusaders to enact their failed system. In time, their beliefs became a religion of its own, even though it had no metaphysical cosmology.”
    “Why did we begin the Jihad?”
    “So we could have more.”
    “That's a foolish statement. It's more than that. Look out at the stars.” Antoni did. “You know many of them, some you've visited, others you will visit soon, and all the ones you see now are a part of your father's kingdom. But imagine that the whole of the human race was confined to just two planets, but that every night you could look up at the stars. They know there are creatures out there, amazing landscapes, things they'd never seen before, and could barely imagine. They also believed that they would never reach them. Both of you have one thing in common. You have an innate belief inside you that you own those stars, and an inescapable urge to explore them. They are yours. As men, we all feel that way. You feel that way, and it drives us.”
    Antoni did want to leave. He'd make a home for himself out there with nothing but the simplest amenities. At least he'd have that little bit of time with nature by his side rather than his prison.
    Magnus ignored his obvious inclinations. “Where does the word Jihad come from?”
    “The ancient universal language of Earth. It was a complicated mixture of all of the languages that existed before it. The word Jihad means holy war.”
    “Exactly, and why