A flare of sympathy cut through the turmoil of his own selfish ruminations. “Will’s not a soldier.”
“Today he is. But CINT should be a low-priority target for the attackers, so…he’ll be safe there.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” Caleb pressed his fingertips to his temples as jolts of pain ricocheted between them at the mere thought of the necessary violence that now lay ahead of him. His eyes watered, and his vision swam.
“Caleb? Are you okay?”
I am so damn far from okay. “I’ll be fine. Pull your men back to us, and let’s retreat to the security checkpoint outside the entrance to Command. That’s our defensible position.”
2
* * *
CONCORD HQ
Command
The floor shook from a thunderous explosion centered somewhere beyond the blast doors, but being blast doors, they held firm.
Alex watched her father as he cycled through a roulette of cams located throughout HQ. Abruptly he gave her a thumbs-up sign. “The cavalry’s arrived. About damn time.”
She moved back to her mother’s desk in time to see a torrent of AEGIS Marines pour out of the Caeles Prism Hub and fan out across HQ. Two squads rematerialized on the Vigil Security cam thirty seconds later; another moved into CINT and one into the Consulate.
Impatience bled out of her to manifest in dancing fingers and tapping feet as another explosion shook the blast doors. The mutineers wanted to take Command, and they wanted it badly.
Finally, three full Marine squads swept into the Command wing to roll through the Anaden attackers with some good, old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. In a few short minutes, all weapons fire had ceased, and an AEGIS officer she didn’t recognize began issuing orders and overseeing the restraining of their new prisoners.
All the righteous urgency that had been driving her forward abandoned her in a rush of dumped adrenaline, and she sank shakily against the edge of her mother’s desk. “Is it over?”
“For now, it looks like.” David came around and draped an arm over her shoulder. “Sorry we didn’t get to shoot anyone.”
“Me, too. I could’ve used the catharsis.”
“I know the feeling, milaya.” He motioned toward the doors to the office. “They’ll be opening in a minute, but it’s the good guys.”
On one of the cams, the blast doors slid open, and some very welcome faces arrived to hurry inside.
She kept the Daemon flush at her hip as she adjusted her posture and tried to project a calm and competent mien, as if everything about her life wasn’t crashing down around her.
A few seconds later the office door slid open, and Richard led a small team of Marines inside. Her father clapped Richard’s shoulder, and they began murmuring emphatically to one another as four Marines took up guard positions just outside the door.
She peered past them. Where was….
Caleb strode into the atrium, Daemon raised, scanning every corner for threats—until he saw her. A relieved smile broke upon features that even from this distance looked strained and worn.
She brushed past Richard and her father to meet him halfway across the open space. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against him. “You’re safe now, baby.”
She pressed her face into his warm neck…hot, actually, almost as if he burned with a fever. She kissed his ear and leaned back in his embrace, only to be stunned by what she saw. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin sweaty and his jaw locked tight, and what might be a permanent crease had etched itself deeply into his forehead.
She brought a hand to his cheek. “What’s wrong? I mean, besides everything?”
His throat worked laboriously. “Marlee was on Namino when the Rasu invaded. She’s hurt.”
“What?” She stepped out of his grasp, extended her arm and started gathering energy in the miniature Caeles Prism on her wrist. “Where is she? I’ll open a wormhole right now—”
His hand moved to rest atop her wrist. “You can’t. The wormholes to Namino have all stopped working. She’s trapped there.” His eyes squeezed shut tight. “And I don’t know if….”
“Oh, no. I’m so sorry, priyazn.” She drew him back into her arms, and he didn’t fight her. Dammit, how much were they going to lose today?
This wasn’t how the battle was supposed to have gone. They wielded indestructible warships that could leap across galaxies and rain weapons of immense power down upon their enemy. They were supposed to have won the day and celebrated a victorious night away.
“We’ll talk to Nika, okay? We’ll find out what the situation is on the ground there and see what she can do to help Marlee.”
He nodded quickly. “It’s a good idea. They must have rescue plans for those trapped in the invasion. Right?”
ASTERION DOMINION
3
* * *
NAMINO
DAF Command
Gennisi Galaxy
Grant Mesahle rushed into the operational control room on the top floor of DAF Command and ran to the windows just in time to see a bipedal Rasu swat the Human girl and an Asterion man aside like flies as it barreled down the street. Marlee hurtled through the air and slammed into the sidewalk, while the man landed atop a wrought-iron fence, impaled.
Closer to the building, a rippling oval cutting into the fabric of the air flickered and vanished.
Behind him, a panicked clamor broke out.
He breathed in until his chest filled with oxygen, then turned around to see that the d-gate to the Mirai One Pavilion had gone silent, leaving an anxious throng of people confused and desperate as they tried to escape the invasion. Two technicians fussed over the control station to no avail. Grant checked his messages; there had been no announcement from the Omoikane Initiative that the Firewall Protocol was being activated, so this meant the d-gate outage was a technical problem.
He started to go over to the control station, confident he could help—but stopped, thinking of how the wormhole by the entrance had just vanished. He sent pings to Nika, Dashiel and Maris, but wasn’t surprised when they all bounced.
Only a few things could cause all three events to occur at the same time, and they all involved blocking quantum signals.
He cleared his throat above the clamor. “The d-gate system is down, and it’s likely not coming back up in the near future. Everyone needs to get to the basement, okay? It will provide you some protection. Head to the lift behind the lobby and take it below.”
Confused exclamations continued unabated.
“Hey! Get down to the basement before the Rasu tear through this building and you! Now!”
A shocked silence fell—then everyone was running out the door.
Everyone, that was, except Joaquim Lacese and Ava Zobel.
The former NOIR mission leader threw his hands in the air. “What the hells is going on? Nika was right behind us.”
“It’s just a guess, but I suspect the Rasu are blocking quantum manipulation here. It’s the same thing they did on the planet where one of our pilots crashed after the Rasu stronghold battle.”
“What?”
“It’s not important right now. I’m glad you two are here. We need to head outside and pull off a rescue before this neighborhood is completely overrun.” He’d stupidly lost Marlee in the initial panic when the Rasu began raining down from the sky. He’d delivered her directly into harm’s way, and he deeply hoped his mistake hadn’t cost the girl her life.
Joaquim patted the assault rifle slung across his chest, while Ava bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation. NOIR’s revolution might be over, but some people never changed.
He motioned for them to follow him, and they rushed downstairs into the first-floor lobby, where a whole new level of confusion reigned. “The basement lift is at the end of the right hallway—go!” He headed in the opposite direction, pushing through the front doors and out into armageddon.
Debris particles hung in the air on a faint breeze, and the ground rat
tled every other second from the tumbling of distant and not-so-distant buildings. An unidentified roar throbbed beneath it all like the slow heartbeat of Tartarus rising.
The smoke had grown so thick he could barely see across the street, so he switched to hybrid infrared. Faint and weakening heat signatures dotted the landscape—the dead or dying. One shape, however, still burned brightly—more brightly than a healthy Asterion, in fact. The Human.
“She’s across the street and twenty-two degrees to the east. I’m going to make a run for her, and I need you two to provide cover fire.”
Ava scoffed. “I’ve got all the cover fire you need. Joaquim, go with him.”
“Fine. Let’s move!”
Grant sprinted out into the haze, keeping his focus on his target, not searching around for looming Rasu bipedals or swooping vessels. The sound of collapsing buildings and distant screams in every direction was the worst thing he’d heard since a lost battle seven hundred thousand years ago, and he swiftly shut down the resurgent memory.
An explosion a few dozen meters away roiled the street beneath his feet, and he hurtled forward, throwing his arms out to brace himself. He crashed hard onto the sidewalk, sending jarring pain shooting up his left arm into his shoulder.
“Get up, man.” Joaquim crawled toward him, blood trickling out of one ear.
Grant nodded weakly and checked his location. He’d landed almost on top of the heat signature, and he killed the infrared as he scrambled over to the young woman.
Marlee’s eyes were closed, one arm was pinned at an ugly angle under her body, and she lay in a worrisome pool of blood, but a quick scan detected a pulse and a heartbeat.
He’d figure out what injuries might be patchable later, somewhere safer. Hopefully such a place existed. He wound his arms underneath her and lifted her up, ignoring the protestations in his shoulder. Her head lolled against his chest, and a nonsensical murmur escaped her lips.
He peered across the street and spent two seconds evaluating the return trip.
Joaquim leveled his weapon to the left, then swept it to the right. “I’ve got our backs. Let’s run for it.”
Running seemed impossible, but he stumble-jogged across the broken and pitted street. Laser fire streaked above their heads as they passed through the open gate leading back to DAF Command.
Joaquim grabbed Ava’s free arm on the way by, and they all hurried inside.
The lobby had cleared out, and a sole remaining security dyne stood placidly at the counter. Grant approached the dyne to get its attention. “Shut those doors, then stay and stand watch. If any people—not Rasu, but people—come along, direct them inside and to the basement.”
“Acknowledged.”
A cough racked Grant’s body as smoke and debris demanded to be set free from his lungs, and he sagged against the wall to keep from dropping his charge. Joaquim tried to take her from him, but he shook his head and began trudging toward the lift.
‘Basement’ was a bit of a misnomer for the space beneath DAF Command. This being a military structure, the lower level stretched for the full length of the building. Storage rooms dotted the far wall and backup server rooms the near one.
Perhaps fifty people milled about, many of them bleeding, all of them covered in a fine layer of dust. All the seats in the room were occupied by the exhausted and the injured, so he leaned beside the door. “Does anyone have any idea how to treat injuries on a Human?”
Several people stepped off to the side to allow someone to elbow their way through the crowd. Selene Panetier strode deliberately up to him and peered at the girl in his arms. “No, but I suspect stopping the bleeding is a good first step.”
“You’re as helpful as—” A deafening roar erupted above them. The ceiling shuddered, raining down a shower of debris and possibly very soon bringing the building down on top of them. It would be a damn shame to have gone to all the trouble of getting these people into the basement only for them to be buried alive.
Grant felt bone weary already, though this trial had scarcely begun. “No time to rest just yet.”
Selene nodded, and the two of them approached an unmarked stretch of wall in the far-left corner. She was lifting a hand to unlock the hidden door when it slid open on its own.
Xyche’ghael stepped out of a dim, earthen tunnel and into the light. The Taiyok merchant motioned back to the passageway from which he’d emerged. “This location is no longer safe. Follow me.”
4
* * *
NAMINO
Marlee opened her eyes, then immediately recoiled from the harsh, antiseptic light flooding her vision. Ah, hell…was she in a hospital? Or worse, a Rasu lab?
She tried not to move as she peered around through narrowed, watering eyes behind lowered lashes. Above her, an earthen ceiling curved down to meet stone walls braced by arched metal girders. The room was maybe thirty meters long and twenty wide, but it felt cramped due to the low ceiling, a complete absence of windows and the four dozen people crammed inside it.
No, not people precisely—or not humans, anyway. Asterions. And several tall, winged creatures…Taiyoks?
She bolted upright, wincing as a stabbing pain in her left side halted her movement halfway to sitting. She braced herself on her right arm and eased up the rest of the way. Owww.
A man with shoulder-length, dirty blond hair looked up from a nearby workstation nudged up against the wall, then stood and walked over wearing an easy grin. She knew him…Grant!
“Hey, you’re awake. You had us worried for a while there.”
She rubbed at her face as she dragged her legs off the edge of what appeared to be a field cot, and he hurriedly placed a warning hand on her arm. “Careful now. You’ve still got several active injuries. We patched you up as best we could, but no one here has ever treated a Human before.” He tilted his head in question. “How did we do?”
“I’m alive, so I’d say pretty good. What happened? Where are we?”
He sat beside her on the cot. “You took a nasty swipe from a passing Rasu out on the street. Luckily for you, it had someplace else it wanted to be and kept going. About that time, all the wormholes shut off, so your boss couldn’t reach you and evacuate you to Concord. Joaquim and I—” he gazed around for a second, then pointed out a copper-haired man wearing black tactical gear across the room “—that’s Joaquim. We got you off the street and brought you with us down here, to our bunker. Hideout. Cave.” He shrugged weakly. “It’s protected us so far, so I shouldn’t complain about the accommodations.”
She gave him a big smile. Gosh, he was cute. “You saved my life. Thank you.”
“You’re trapped underground on a planet overtaken by highly inconsiderate shapeshifting metal aliens armed with deadly weapons. Not sure I’ve saved it quite yet.”
“Sure you have.” She lifted her shirt up above her waist and examined what it revealed. Four strips of tape were bound across her left ribs; the pain wasn’t sharp as such, but merely breathing evoked a dull ache in the area, which was mottled with bruising. “What’s the damage?”
“That is two deep gashes and three cracked ribs from where the Rasu caught you. You lost a decent amount of blood, too, but we were afraid to give you a transfusion. You might experience some dizziness and weakness for a couple of days. Oh, and you also dislocated your left elbow, hence the sling. It was probably for the best that you were unconscious when we reset it.”
She’d been so busy absorbing the details of the room and her various aches and Grant’s gorgeous, artificial eyes, it hadn’t registered that her left arm was secured in a loose cloth sling. “Ouch.” Now she gingerly tried to flex it out a little, but her elbow instantly protested. “I think I’ll leave the sling on for a while longer.”
“Good idea. Finally, you got banged on the head pretty hard when you landed on the sidewalk. I can’t say for certain if you have a concussion, but it’s likely why you’ve been unconscious for so long.”
“How long is ‘s
o long’?”
“About ten hours.”
“Damn.” She queried her eVi for a damage report, and while it mostly confirmed what Grant had said, it also came back incomplete. A quick diagnostic scan reported multiple systems were offline, most notably messaging and exanet access.
“We can’t talk to the outside world? Several of my internal systems are offline.”
“Nope. A quantum blocking field extends over the entire city. Possibly the entire planet. It’s causing plenty of issues for us, too.”
“I imagine so.” She stifled a groan. Her mother must be sick with worry. True, her mother worried about her all the time, and she’d quit letting it slow her down a long time ago, but she’d never wanted to cause this level of worry. And Caleb…god, he was going to rip her to shreds when—she needed to be honest, if—he ever saw her again. And Mia was without a doubt going to fire her this time.
But instead of dwelling on how spectacularly she’d bollocksed things up, she studied those gathered in the bunker. Forty or fifty Asterions in total that she could see. Many were actively engaged in work she assumed was designed to keep them alive, but many more moped around looking dejected and forlorn. They believed they were fated to die.
But she refused to accept such a fatalistic scenario. “What’s the plan? What is this cavernous, and also a literal cavern, hideout bunker for exactly?”
Grant chuckled. “Hiding out. We—the Omoikane Initiative, not me specifically—have been planning for the possibility of a Rasu invasion for the last two months. Somewhat to our surprise, it turned out the Taiyoks living here on Namino have been using underground tunnels to get around for years now, so we expanded them and built a series of bunkers beneath the city. One of the tunnels runs under DAF Command, and this bunker is located about a hundred meters to the east of it.”
Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two) Page 3