The Forever Gate Ultimate Edition Read online

  The Forever Gate

  Ultimate Edition

  Isaac Hooke

  BOOKS BY ISAAC HOOKE

  Science Fiction

  The Forever Gate Series

  (all 9 included in this edition)

  The Dream

  A Second Chance

  The Mirror Breaks

  They Have Wakened Death

  I Have Seen Forever

  Rebirth

  Walls of Steel

  The Pendulum Swings

  The Last Stand

  Space Opera

  Star Warrior

  Star Warrior

  Bender of Worlds

  He Who Crosses Death

  Doom Wielder

  Military Science Fiction

  ATLAS Trilogy

  (published by 47North)

  ATLAS

  ATLAS 2

  ATLAS 3

  Alien War Trilogy

  Hoplite

  Zeus

  Titan

  Argonauts

  Bug Hunt

  You Are Prey

  Alien Empress

  Quantum Predation

  Robot Dust Bunnies

  City of Phants

  Rade’s Fury

  Mechs vs. Dinosaurs

  Operation: Bug Spray

  A Captain's Crucible

  Flagship

  Test of Mettle

  Cradle of War

  Planet Killer

  Worlds at War

  Thrillers

  The Ethan Galaal Series

  Clandestine

  A Cold Day in Mosul

  Terminal Phase

  Visit IsaacHooke.com for more information.

  Contents

  Special Deal from Isaac Hooke

  Volume 1

  I. The Dream

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  II. A Second Chance

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Epilogue

  III. The Mirror Breaks

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  IV. They Have Wakened Death

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Epilogue

  V. I Have Seen Forever

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Chapter 126

  Chapter 127

  Chapter 128

  Chapter 129

  Chapter 130

  Epilogue

  Volume 2

  I. Rebirth

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  II. Walls of Steel

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  III. The Pendulum Swings

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  IV. The Last Stand

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Special Deal from Isaac Hooke

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Get the Next Book

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, organizations, places, events and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

  Copyright © Isaac Hooke 2018

  All righ
ts reserved.

  No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  www.IsaacHooke.com

  Cover art by ShooKooBoo, Bo Benson Ray Sales, Jason Moser, Tenda Spencer

  Cover design by Isaac Hooke

  Ascend the impossible.

  Special Deal from Isaac Hooke

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  $0.99 for a limited time!

  Grab it here:

  IsaacHooke.com/AlienWar

  Volume One

  In the beginning…

  Part I

  The Dream

  1

  Hoodwink stared at the sword that would take his head tonight.

  The weapon was sealed away in a glass case for all to see, set there to remind the particular occupants of this section of the dungeon what their short futures held. It was a simple sword of dual-edged copper, with a blunt point. The jailer had taken the blade to the whetstone this very morning, and those edges gleamed in brutal anticipation. Scenes of agonized victims and delighted torturers etched its surface. The blade seemed rusted in places, perhaps from years of bloodletting. But copper didn't rust, so those dark brown marks had to be something else. Maybe stains from the headless men who'd shit themselves.

  Hoodwink fingered the metallic collar around his neck. If he didn't have that bronze bitch on he would've broken down the dungeon cell with a bolt of lightning, taken the sword, and cut his way out of here in a storm of electrical glory.

  The torchlight flickered and a draft of cold air kissed his neck. The touch brought him back to the present, where, outside the bars, Briar had been rattling on the whole time.

  "Are you listening to me?" Briar said.

  Hoodwink nodded. "Listening for all I'm worth, I am." Viewed through the long vertical bars embedded in the stone, Briar looked thinner somehow. Or maybe it was the rich, patterned silks the man had recently started wearing. Hoodwink recalled a time not too long ago when Briar had been the one in the dungeon, and Hoodwink the one on the outside. Briar sure wasn't dressed in silks back then.

  "Look," Briar said. "I've got the whoremongers lined up. Clerks, witnesses, and so on and so forth. Damn shame the judge is a gol though. He would have been the first to bribe. Ah well, just have to pay someone else to take the fall. You know how it is. So many poor folk in this city. Do anything to support their families. Even die." He winked conspiratorially.

  Hoodwink squeezed his fingers around the bars. "No."

  Briar knotted his brow. "What did you say?"

  "No." Hoodwink straightened his back, and stared the man down. "The only one who's taking the fall is me. You'll bribe no one, you won't." He had to protect her, no matter what.

  "Oh please, don't you give me that holier-than-thou bullshit." Briar's face flushed scarlet. "This is hardly the time. It's your life we're talking about here."

  "There's too many witnesses. They all saw me."

  Briar threw up his hands. "They can be silenced. You know that. Each and every last one of them. And if they won't take the bribes..."

  Hoodwink crossed his arms. "I don't want your help. Don't want no one's help. I don't. I'll take the blame for my actions." For her actions.

  Briar shook his head and his jowls trembled. His collar was almost buried in the folds of neck fat. "You've gone mad then, haven't ye?" Those eyes widened in mock surprise. "He's gone mad."

  Hoodwink nodded toward Briar's throat. "You really ought to get that resized sometime."

  "What," Briar said. "The bronze bitch?"

  "No. Your neck." Normally he wouldn't insult Briar like that, but he just wanted him to go.

  The simple-looking jailer came up. He wore black pants and a black vest over a white shirt. The middle of the shirt was stamped with the blood palm of his profession. He looked like a real person, as most gols did. Sometimes when you talked to gols you could almost believe they were real, if you kept things light, superficial. But engage in any deeper conversation and you routed them out. Gols, the mindless working class of the city-state.

  The jailer nodded at Briar. "Visiting hours are up, krub." He wiped drool from his mouth with one sleeve. You would have never seen a gol doing something like that five years ago. The gols had really degenerated in the past few months.

  "I heard you, gol," Briar said. "Jobe is it?"

  The gol nodded. "My name is Jobe. Now get you to the surface, krub."

  Briar smiled ironically, and glanced at Hoodwink. "Until later, then. Hopefully a few more hours in the asshole of the world will blast some sense into you."

  Briar retrieved his fleece from the coat rack outside the cell, and ambled away down the torchlit tunnel. Hoodwink was suddenly aware of other eyes watching from the dark of nearby cells. Briar seemed oblivious, concerned only with moving his bulk up the tunnel. The man paused beside the display case that held the sword, and he shook his head, muttering something.

  "Briar," Hoodwink said.

  The man looked back.

  Hoodwink almost didn't ask. He didn't want the other prisoners to hear. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again he said, "Say sorry to Cora for me."

  Briar frowned and he turned away. In moments he was a featureless silhouette among the shadows.

  Hoodwink felt the jailer's eyes on him.

  "What are you looking at gol?" He pulled the neck of his jail-issue orange robe tight, covering his upper chest, which was blistered and red from the events of this morning.

  Jobe didn't blink. "I am on guard duty, krub."

  Hoodwink scrunched up his face. "Don't you have something better to do than stare at me all day?"

  "I am on guard duty, krub." Spoken exactly the same way. Jobe unexpectedly clouted the bars with his baton.

  Hoodwink leaped back.

  Jobe broke into a stupid grin.

  Hoodwink shook his head, and limped over to the cell's only mat. "Damn gols."

  Not only was Hoodwink's chest badly burned, but he'd hurt his ankle something nasty this morning during the capture. He'd given the Gate guards quite the chase, that's for sure. If he hadn't stopped to roll in the snow and douse the flames on his person he might've made it.

  Lying on the mat, he lifted one hand to his face. The guttering torches whipped shadows across his knuckles. He made a fist. He could almost feel the electricity within, the power that was shielded away by the collar at his neck, the bronze bitch.

  The gols had bitched him when he was fifteen, just when he'd started to develop his powers, like all the other humans who came of age. Bitched for twenty years. He had tried so many different things to get that collar off over the years, but nothing had worked.