“I don’t know how to protect my people from this enemy, and unless I find a way to do so, they will all die. If you value life, any life at all, I beg you to tell me everything you know about the Rasu.”
Why do you suggest we interacted with you or your kind in any way? We care nothing of your flailings and wish only to be left alone.
The voice came from nowhere; no distinct entity floated in front of her to whom she could direct her responses. Unless the voice originated from…the lights. Unless the lights were a Sogain, or all the Sogain.
The revelation did nothing whatsoever to slow her racing heart. She swallowed hard.
“I…think you’re lying. I think you’re the sole species we’ve ever met who is capable of contacting me in the manner in which I was contacted three years ago. I think you were in my head once before, a very long time ago, and let me assure you, it’s an unusual and memorable experience—one I experienced a second time three years ago, and a third time now. I think you remember who I am from our first meeting, and you deliberately sought me out.
“Because I think you do care. Maybe not about Asterions. Maybe you only care about yourselves and recognize the Rasu are a threat to you as well. Maybe you care about life in the universe on an epochal scale and recognize the threat the Rasu pose to all of it. Whatever your motivations, I think you want us to defeat them, whether for ourselves, for you or for everyone.”
Go on.
She smiled in her ethereal cage. Gotcha. “I’m happy to defeat the Rasu—we’ll all be happy to defeat the Rasu—but you have to give me something more to work with. What is the base material they originate from? How is this material alive? How are they intelligent? What scientific principles do their weapons and starship engines operate on? What are their structural and strategic weaknesses? How can we disable them? Repel them? Destroy them?”
Silence enveloped her for a long time. Approaching a minute, judging by the thousand heartbeats that punctuated the silence.
A Rasu scout ship was disabled by an unexpected solar flare three years ago in a binary system containing two planets in your Sector III-E, Region 183. Though in time it was able to repair itself and re-form, it has chosen to remain on the planet upon which it crashed rather than return to the Rasu bastion. Go to this planet, capture the Rasu there and discover your answers if you can.
“Thank you, but—”
The world shifted in a blur of dizzying motion, and the next instant she was back in the cabin of the Wayfarer. The lights vanished, leaving the cabin feeling dark and empty.
Her legs wobbled, and she stumbled to the couch to avoid falling on the floor. Once she’d caught her breath and the cabin had stopped spinning, she checked herself over for injuries. Her skin bore no traces of exposure to the ravages of space. She didn’t have so much as a scratch—
—she tumbled to the floor anyway as the Wayfarer was blasted out of the stellar system by an unseen force. Not quite as rudely as on her first visit, but hardly a gentle farewell.
She took the hint and hurried into the cockpit, where she quickly set a course for home and engaged the superluminal engine. No further shockwaves arrived to speed her departure, and after some minutes she decided she must be in the clear.
Her chin dropped into her hand as she gazed out at the nebulous haze of the superluminal bubble. What had just happened to her? What in the literal cosmos were the Sogain? Finally and most crucially, how in the hells was she going to capture a Rasu in the wild?
18
* * *
MIRAI ONE PAVILION
Adlai steepled his hands at his chin and stared out at nothing. He couldn’t afford to waste much time brooding. But maybe a minute or two.
The idea of ancient Asterions walking among them—friends, lovers, adversaries? He needed to figure out how he felt about it. On the one hand, Maris and Nika were the same people he’d always known. Well possibly not Nika, but only at the margins. Even Satair remained the same arrogant, short-sighted blowhard he’d always been.
And what counted as ‘old,’ anyway? Once upon a time, albeit in a distant past, they’d lived normal organic lifespans—were born, grew up, aged and died a mere few centuries later. By those standards, he might as well be an immortal. Asterions had changed what it meant to live, die and be reborn. In doing so, they’d changed what time itself meant…
…but three weeks was a frighteningly short period of time under any measure, and the calendar raced headlong toward a zero-day confrontation with the Rasu. Enough of the brooding.
He looked up as Perrin walked into the Justice command center wearing a big grin. “What’s got you excited?”
She bounced on the balls of her feet. “Nika survived her encounter with the Sogain and is on her way back!”
“That’s terrific news.” He met her halfway and wrapped his arms around her. Only after he’d done so did he remember half a dozen other people occupied the command center. Oh well, too late to be bashful now. “Did she learn anything?”
“I think so. She said she’d fill us in once she gets back in a few hours.” Perrin’s nose wrinkled up as she stepped away to scrutinize him. “What’s on your mind?”
Could she already read him so thoroughly? Probably. She was excellent with people, practically an empath, and ‘people’ included him, so he ought not to be surprised.
Now, was he going to answer her question truthfully? It wasn’t his secret to tell. But like Dashiel, he didn’t feel comfortable acting as a coconspirator to immortals. “I don’t—”
Spencer knocked on the frame of the open door. The man had as much right to inhabit the command center as anyone in Justice, but even in the face of chaos he continued to be unfailingly polite and respectful.
Adlai whispered in Perrin’s ear, “I’ll tell you later,” and motioned Spencer inside. An officer from Synra—Francis Wallman, Adlai believed was the man’s name—accompanied him.
“What’s the word?”
“The…I guess ‘regens’ is the most accurate label…of all five former Guides have been completed without any glitches. Medically, that is. I understand the transition to functioning bodies is proving difficult for some of them, at least in the early hours.”
“Then they shouldn’t have given up their physical forms in the first place.” Perrin crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.
Spencer huffed a breath. “I don’t think anyone except them will disagree with you there.”
Adlai nodded. “I heard from the teams at the internment sites we’ve chosen on Mirai and Synra a few minutes ago. They’re set up, and the locations have been secured. Selene, Harris and Julien are handling the other locations, and they haven’t raised any issues so far. Once the clinic clears them, we’ll be ready to move the—let’s call them what they are, prisoners—under full guard to their new homes.”
“Yes, sir. If it’s all right, I’d like to take Officer Wallman here with me and stop by the Synra site to give it a once-over myself before its new occupant moves in.”
“You don’t need to ask my permission for that, Spencer. It’ll be your purview soon enough.”
“I hope so, sir.”
“Don’t worry. The delay isn’t due to any doubts among the Advisors, but rather the need for us to focus all our efforts on getting the former Guides dealt with as quickly as possible.”
“I understand, and I agree. I’d as soon toss them into holes in the ground, but so long as they end up stationary and secured behind the best locks we can configure, I’ll take it.”
“As will I.” They shook hands, and Spencer departed once more.
Adlai turned to Perrin and squeezed her hand; these public displays of affection weren’t so hard. “I should do the same for the Mirai site.”
“You should. I agree with Spencer. I don’t want any of those awful machine people getting loose and coming after us.”
“They’re not machine people any longer.”
“But they are still creepy. And dangerou
s.” She bit her lower lip, eyes dancing, and swatted him lightly on the ass. “So get!”
His face burned. “Perrin….”
“Got to run myself—have to provide a shoulder to cry on for a bit. Bye!” She scurried off with a wave, leaving him standing there in mortification.
He furtively looked around the command center, but everyone continued about their work, heads down and eyes trained on panes and files…
…then Julien’s deputy, Frank Quill, winked at him.
HATAORI RENEWAL CLINIC
Ava and Maggie sat huddled together on a couch in the lobby, while Carson slouched in a chair across from them. Maggie’s skin had lightened to a shade above pale, and her formerly burgundy hair now shone bright fuchsia; when paired with Ava’s brilliant emerald locks they made for the beginnings of a bold canvas. Carson looked the same as before, with a buzz-cut fading to mahogany skin on a muscular frame.
They all stood when they saw Perrin, and she wrapped Maggie and Carson in a big hug when she reached them. “Welcome back!”
“Thanks.”
She grabbed the remaining chair in the lobby alcove, and everyone settled back down. “Has Ava brought you both up to speed?”
Maggie wound a lock of hair around her finger. “Let’s see: a nasty virutox swept through the population turning people into criminals but is now being quelled, The Chalet blew up, twice, the Guides were secretly machines but are now people who are in prison, the Advisors—of which Nika was and is again one—are forming a new government, and evil shapeshifting aliens are coming for us all with the dawn. Did I miss anything?”
Perrin shot Ava a glare. “You didn’t sugar-coat any of it, did you?”
Ava stared at her deadpan. “Why would I do that?”
“Right.” She gave Maggie an encouraging smile. “You did cover the high, or I suppose low, points. Except the Rasu won’t be here with the dawn. We have a little longer than that. Not much, though.” She felt her smile fading and willfully propped it up. “But we are working on stopping them. Not me, personally, but people. Nika, for instance. She’s on a mission for exactly that purpose, and she’ll be back in a few hours.
“There’s also more good news. You can now walk freely on the streets wearing your own face without fear of being arrested by a Justice squad. NOIR is now on quite good terms with Justice, in fact.”
Carson snickered. “Yeah, Ava said you were shacked up with someone from Justice.”
Perrin tried not to groan. She so should not have let Ava handle their regen briefing. “His name is Adlai, and I’m just staying with him until I can find my own place. I’ve been spending all my time finding lodging for everyone else—including you! Maggie, you’ve got a bed in Ava’s suite at the Mikan Hotel. Carson, you can stay with Geoff and Dominic in their suite, but feel free to rearrange yourselves as you like. The important thing is you have roofs and beds. The NOIR nex hub is also alive and kicking. You can get in touch with everyone and…” she shrugged, but tried to make it an enthusiastic one “…start living your lives again.”
Maggie rolled her eyes at something Ava muttered in her ear. “Thank you for everything, Perrin. We will. And we’ll help out wherever you need us to.”
Carson interjected. “But first we’re getting steaks. I’m getting a steak. You all can come with me, but you’ve got to get off your asses, because—” he stood and jerked a thumb toward the entrance “—the steaks are this way.”
She laid a hand on Ava’s arm as the woman stood, then leaned in close. “Where’s Cair?”
Perrin knocked to announce her impending presence before activating the door to the recovery room.
Cair paced repeatedly across the small room, pausing to glance out the window every other pass. When she stepped inside, he sent the glance her way instead. “I heard you talking about lodging suites out there. I don’t want to stay with other people.”
“I know you don’t. I got you a private room.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
“Of course. You know, you could have joined us in the lobby.”
“No. No. I burned Carson and Maggie alive. They don’t want to see me. I can’t see them.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Cair. They know that.”
“It was still me. My old hands.” He held his hands out in front of him, frowning at them without slowing his traversals.
She propped carefully against the wall beside the door in an open and non-threatening stance. “It really wasn’t. No one blames you for what happened. This virutox? It completely altered a person’s fundamental programming. It made people do horrible things that they never would have done otherwise. An Advisor, Iona Rowan, slaughtered three Chizeru diplomats—final death for them—and shot up a group of corporate executives. A factory technician named Tristan McLeros destroyed the Mirai One transit hub, atomizing more than two hundred people. I know you feel bad, but you need to forgive yourself.”
The pacing slowed, which might be progress. “I want to help on the Rasu. I’m good with patterns.”
“Absolutely. Nika’s made everything we have on the aliens publicly available, and I know she’ll welcome another skilled mind looking at the data.”
“Okay.” Cair stopped and made a good effort at keeping eye contact with her. “Thank you. You and Nika have always been kind to me, and I…I am grateful.”
“We know.” She gestured toward the door. “Do you maybe want to join the others for a steak?”
“No. I’m not ready for that.”
“Well, can I buy you a sandwich, then?”
He started to shake his head…then nodded instead. “A sandwich would be nice.”
19
* * *
MIRAI
Dashiel was waiting in the hangar bay when the Wayfarer landed—lurking in the entry hallway like a stalker, hoping she didn’t spot him as she landed. He’d almost rushed to the spaceport the instant Perrin pinged him to let him know Nika was on her way home, but he’d forced himself to plow through another futile meeting before coming here.
He just needed to see her, alive and in person. Then he’d leave, since he still had no bearing pointing to what came next. The sting of betrayal continued to burn hot, singeing the edges of every memory it touched.
Yet as soon as she descended the ramp and her feet touched the ground, he was no longer lurking in the hallway and his arms were wrapped around her, holding her tightly against him. Her warmth cooled the heat of betrayal in soothing, reassuring waves.
She gasped in surprise, then wound her own arms around his waist and sank into his embrace. He could feel her lips rise into a smile at the curve of his neck.
Holding her body against his felt like coming home. The answer to every question. Gods, how he didn’t want to let go—but then he remembered, and the sting flared to burn away the contentment, and he did.
His gaze met hers fleetingly before running from the hope and confusion her expression conveyed, darting to the ground, behind her, anywhere else. “I’m glad you made it home safely—I’m glad you returned.” He took a step back and tried to dislodge the lump in his throat. “There are a lot of people waiting anxiously to hear what you learned, so…” another step back “…you should go talk to them.”
“No!”
He looked up in surprise, accidentally meeting her gaze again. What he saw there broke his heart…but so had she. “What do you mean, no?”
“You don’t get to show up out of nowhere and touch me like you mean it, then walk away.”
A visceral image of that night at his place, when he’d lost her and found her all at once, burst into his mind in full living color, as vivid as when he’d lived it. The moment when he’d known the woman he loved still existed inside her, not yet realizing how much more did as well, or how much he’d never known.
He spat out a response. “Don’t use my own words against me.”
Her shoulders sagged, and she gestured weakly at nothing. “Why did you do that? Why did you make
me think…” her hands came to her face, muffling her voice “…why are you here?”
Because no matter what I do, I somehow always find myself standing in front of you. Because every road, every twist and turn, every fork in the trail? They all lead back to you. “I was worried, then…relieved. I wanted to make certain you were all right. And where the hells are your psyche backups? You told the others you’d taken care of it, but no one knows where they are. Not Perrin, not Adlai, not anyone!”
“I left behind a message detailing their location and queued it to be sent to Perrin and Maris if I didn’t return in two days. I’m a touch paranoid about my backups, for obvious reasons.”
Which made perfect sense, and now he’d made an idiot of himself all over again. “Sure, but…okay. I didn’t know.”
“How could you have known? You’ve been blocking my messages.”
Though her words should have sounded biting and caustic, the delivery was nothing but sincere. Quiet, resigned, perhaps even sad, but genuine. It would be so much easier to hate her if only she’d act annoyed and dismissive. “I just needed time to think.”
“And? You’ve had time, and now you’re here.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You must have something you need to say to me.”
Did he? Had all the hours of tumultuous arguments with himself, of ragged swings between despair and hatred and desperate longing added up to anything coherent? She was standing right here; she wasn’t arguing or fighting him, and no one waved frantically in the distance to demand their immediate attention.
This opportunity might never come again, only in part because they both might be walking through the dwindling reservoir of their last days. So why was he here?
Asterion Noir: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 4) Page 73