Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two)

by G. S. Jennsen

  He received no articulated response; Akeso had stopped talking to him during the coup attempt and never resumed doing so. Their connection was as strong as ever, for Akeso’s distress churned his gut like spoiled food, but the planet’s consciousness remained stubbornly mute.

  He peeked around the corner of a rare standing wall and found a street littered with charred bodies. The stench assaulted his nostrils in a rush, and suddenly it was too much. He stumbled backward into an alley and vomited up the energy bar he’d eaten before departing the Ghost. He wasn’t keeping much food down lately.

  The buildings lining this street looked as if they’d been taken out by a giant wrecking ball, and only a few jagged pieces rose higher than three meters tall. In his mind, he saw the occupants fleeing into the street to escape the collapsing structures, only to be burned alive by the rampaging invaders.

  Focus on your goal. He stepped back onto the sidewalk. To the east, the single intact tower stood battered and bruised amidst all the destruction, Rasu trampling busily upon it. Up close, the spider forms were closer to a tank than a human in size.

  This had to be Namino Tower—and the Rasu had recognized the importance of the data it held. They were stripping it of vital information about the Asterion Dominion and its people, so they could emerge yet stronger for the next invasion. This wasn’t his world and these weren’t his people, but an aching sorrow welled up in his chest to chill his skin all the same.

  But the tragedy wrought by the Rasu’s plundering also gave him a signpost. He checked the setting sun to the northeast, then his schematic. DAF Command was located to the south-southwest of Namino Tower, three kilometers away. He turned left at the next intersection.

  A block ahead, a squad of Rasu pillaged what appeared to be an apartment building. A cluster of bodies lay strewn across the sidewalk in front of it, and loud noises reverberated from inside.

  A Rasu drone patrolled the area, its searing eye scanning the inside of neighboring buildings and narrow alleys. Its course was going to very shortly bring it right to Caleb.

  He sprinted down the closest alley and flattened himself against a standing wall, then readied the archine blade in one hand and his Daemon in the other.

  A few seconds later, the drone reached the alley and turned its eye upon it—and saw him. So much for the Veil.

  A violet beam burst out of the eye. Caleb leapt to the side and rolled away, but the beam sliced into his left upper arm, scorching his skin in a flash of seared flesh.

  Long-ago lessons clawed their way out of his memories to whisper their wisdom. Don’t let the pain put you on the ground. Use it to drive you forward. Let it hone you into a deadly weapon. Don’t stop until the enemy’s pain is greater than your own.

  He adjusted his grip on the Daemon and fired into the drone’s eye. Akeso recoiled at the press of the trigger, and Caleb fought past the overwhelming urge to collapse to the ground and surrender. The drone, however, was unfazed by the strike as it prepared to fire a second time.

  A shower of dust drifted down between them, and he glanced up. The façade on the right had crumbled in several places, and a large section of it teetered upon a long, wide crack. He swung the Daemon up and fired on the crack.

  A huge chunk of wall tumbled free and landed on top of the drone, smashing it into the ground. Caleb didn’t loiter to confirm the kill; instead he took off running into the network of interlocking alleys that wound behind the buildings.

  He didn’t stop for what felt like four blocks or so, but finally he stumbled to a halt and sagged against another crumbling wall in another alley, out of breath and out of practice. It was full dark now, but a half-revealed moon cast silvery light into the shadows of the alley, and he reluctantly peered at his left arm. The drone’s beam had taken off a sizeable chunk of flesh, exposing torn meat and muscle, but it hadn’t cut all the way to bone. His eVi medical routines must still be functioning, because while he’d been running, a hazy numbness had replaced the shooting pain. The archine blade dangled loosely in his hand, and he returned it to its sheath, lest he drop it without realizing it.

  He slid the backpack off his shoulders and dropped to his knees to open it up and retrieve the smallest medwrap he’d brought that would cover the wound. He wanted to keep as many supplies as possible available for use should Marlee need them.

  The sight of the Rasu flinging her through the air to crash into the sidewalk flared in his mind. As with the pain, he grabbed hold of the memory and used it to create the strength he needed to rise to his feet. Medwrap secure on his arm and backpack situated, he set out with renewed urgency.

  CONCORD

  17

  * * *

  AKESO

  Ursa Major II Galaxy

  Alex flopped into her cockpit chair on the Siyane and started up the Caeles Prism. Destination: home.

  Abigail said it was going to be another eight hours before her mother woke up in a brand-new body on the Presidio, and once that happened she wasn’t planning on leaving her mother’s side for a while. Therefore, she should take the time to shower and change clothes—neither of which she’d done in far too long—and pack a bag.

  Thank you for taking care of the Siyane for me, Valkyrie. For getting her out of a warzone and safely home.

  There is no need to thank me, for she is and will always be my heart.

  Alex smiled to herself. And mine.

  She was so busy adding to and annotating the list of things she needed to do before heading to the Presidio that she hardly paid any heed to the Caeles Prism traversal—then jerked in surprise when the Siyane shuddered sideways. Driving rain and hail pelted the hull at a forty-five-degree angle, driven by a vicious wind. Lightning ripped across the turbulent sky, its flashes revealing roiling black thunderclouds racing low across the horizon.

  What the hell? Akeso almost never stormed, and in fourteen years of living here, she couldn’t recall one so ferocious as this. She concentrated on carefully guiding the Siyane down onto its landing pad and was relieved when the clamps locked into place.

  Outside, the trees behind the complex whipped themselves into a frenzy, and smaller limbs lay strewn across the pad. All right, then. She went into the main cabin and retrieved a jacket she kept on board, tugged it on and stepped outside, letting Valkyrie close the airlock for her as she made a beeline for the house. Twice, large pellets of hail whacked her in the head as she dashed across the meadow. The stone path had already been overtaken by muddy rivulets, and she slipped and fell to her knees halfway to the porch. Ugh, perhaps the shower would be best performed once she was back on the Siyane, because no way was she making it out of the house and to the ship without getting soaked. She climbed to her feet and trudged forward, fighting gusts of wind as well as the mud trying to drag her into the earth.

  Finally she stumbled through the door. Warm, welcoming and most of all dry air greeted her, and she leaned against the foyer wall to catch her breath. She wiped mud off her cheeks and was about to strip her filthy clothes off right here in the entrance when the glow of a detached aural floating above the kitchen counter caught her attention.

  Dread snaked up her spine as she warily approached it. Caleb had left to go to Mirai and confer in person with Nika about the situation on Namino hours earlier, but had he come home briefly before leaving? Even if he did, why did he leave her a message instead of just pulsing her?

  Multiple paragraphs shimmered above the marble surface, which caused the dread to spike. The last time he’d sent her a message this long, he’d promptly died after sending it. A shrill ringing in her ears grew to drown out the howling wind buffeting the house.

  She placed both hands on the counter and began reading the message, until the words blurred together. Started again…and buried her face in her hands. No, priyazn.

  But she should’ve realized. If she hadn’t been so distracted by grief and worry and hope about her mother’s fate, she would’ve seen what was staring her right in the face.

/>   And he’d counted on her distraction, hadn’t he?

  A tree branch crashed against the side of the house, and she sprinted upstairs to spread her hands, palms open, upon the wide glass wall spanning the front of the house, where she gazed outside with wiser eyes.

  Her heart broke into a thousand shards and spilt upon the floor. The storm? It was Caleb’s consciousness manifested in raw, primal form.

  “Oh, Akeso. He’s not dying, is he? He’s killing.”

  THE PRESIDIO

  Christopher Rychen Memorial Wing

  Milky Way Galaxy

  Alex felt stretched thin, as if her soul were being twisted and warped by a torture rack. She ached for Caleb; her heart pounded in distress with worry for him and sorrow that he was now suffering beyond her reach. Yet hope laced with terror flooded her chest at the prospect of her mother rejoining them, miraculously alive and whole. The human soul was not equipped to hold so many contradictory emotions aloft at once, and she was surely going to crack wide open any second now.

  She strode into the private waiting room outside the military regenesis lab and dropped the two bags she carried on the floor, then collapsed into one of the cushioned chairs. Caleb was now on the other side of the Rasu’s quantum block, which meant she couldn’t so much as get a message to him…so she had to focus on her mother for now. She had to.

  The door opened to let her father inside. “Good, you’re here—” he rushed over to crouch in front of her “—milaya, what’s wrong? They haven’t told me about any problems with the procedure.”

  She shook her head wearily. God but she was tired. “I talked to Abigail a few minutes ago. Everything’s fine with Mom.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Maybe if she shared the burden, she wouldn’t break for a while longer. This was what family was for, right? “Caleb went to Namino to try to find Marlee and rescue her.”

  Her father stood and took several steps back, toward the center of the small room. “I know.”

  “You…what?”

  “I know he’s gone to Namino.”

  She slowly stood, her limbs heavy and her soul burdened. “Dad, what have you done?”

  “Everything in my power to give him the best chance to survive and succeed in his mission.”

  “What the d’yavol does that mean?”

  “It means I used Richard’s authorization codes to help Caleb steal a Ghost—the new CINT stealth reconnaissance craft. It’ll enable him to sneak past the million Rasu at Namino and, assuming he can find Marlee, sneak her back out and come home.”

  She closed her eyes to belay fresh tears, for all the good it did. “How could you?”

  “I’ve seen the look he had in his eyes before. I’ve carried that look in my own eyes. He was going to Namino, with or without my help. So I thought it was best for everyone if I helped.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you ask me?”

  He offered her a sad, too-endearing smile. “To spare you the pain and worry you’re feeling right now for as long as possible. I’d hoped your mother would be awake before you found out.”

  She lunged out and shoved him in the chest; he did her the courtesy of tripping back a step before steadying himself. “You don’t get to decide what I do and don’t know about my own husband, dammit! How dare you!”

  “Milaya, I’m sorry. I only wanted to protect you a little, for a moment.”

  “Don’t make this about you missing my adolescence. Neither of us is ever getting those years back, so stop fucking trying.” She retreated to the chair, utterly exhausted all over again. “Did you pause to consider what this is going to do to him?”

  “Did you consider what it will do to him if Marlee dies?”

  “She could already be dead, and you and I both know it. Now his attempt to save her could kill him, too.”

  “Come on now, you know Akeso won’t let him die.”

  “Oh, don’t patronize me. Putting aside how not even Akeso can save him if the Rasu slice him up into a thousand tiny pieces, you’re not comprehending what I’m saying. The Rasu might rip him to literal shreds, but killing other living beings will rip him to psychological ones. His mind could very well shatter. I just came from home, and Akeso is a literal hurricane. The whole damn planet is tearing itself apart. Do you understand what that means? So is he.”

  David sat in the chair next to her and leaned over intently. “I realize they share a deep connection, but Caleb is not Akeso.”

  “Yes, Dad. He is. He’s as much Akeso as he is himself. Now he’s taking up the mantle of savior—of killer—again, and those two aspects of his nature are going to war with one another.”

  She pressed her head into her hands as fresh despair welled up in her chest. There was no outlet, nowhere for it to escape, so it took up residence to fester away at her heart. “And there’s nothing I can do to help him.”

  18

  * * *

  THE PRESIDIO

  Christopher Rychen Memorial Wing

  “What makes you think you have the skills and mettle to excel in the military?”

  It wasn’t as if Miriam had expected a supportive reaction from her father to her announcement that she would be entering the Naval Academy in the fall. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “My track record at everything I’ve accomplished in my life so far, for one. Did you notice the part where it says I’ve been awarded a scholarship to attend? Were you paying attention when I won the Regional Tennis Championship last year? Has it slipped your mind how I was accepted into the Accelerated Program at twelve years old, then graduated Salutatorian of my class?”

  “Second place never won a war.”

  The words hit her like a punch to the gut, but she was her father’s daughter, and she didn’t flinch. “I’m sorry you feel that way, but I worked hard for every single mark.”

  He put aside the report he’d been pretending to read and stood opposite her, his expression no more cold and affectless than on any other day. “You’re not tough enough to survive in the military. It will break you, then you will run home in tears, begging your mother and me for sympathy. Better to never attempt it at all. Go to a so-called respectable college and get a respectable paperwork-pushing job. Visit us on holidays and tell yourself you’ve succeeded in life.”

  She tried so hard to steady it, but her voice trembled nonetheless. “No. I can do this. I will prove you so, so wrong. When I do, I won’t have to rub your nose in it, because you’ll know. And though you’ll never tell me so, you’ll go to your grave regretting not having faith in me.”

  Miriam stopped at the door to her tiny apartment; she didn’t move to enter the code in the keypad, instead letting her gaze rise to focus on David Solovy’s too-enchanting face. He’d thus far made good on every one of his rash declarations. He’d taken leave time to stay on Perona after the Leninist radicals were subdued and shipped off to either the brig or the morgue, depending. He’d picked her up at the station and taken her on a picnic lunch before depositing her back at work on time. Then he’d waited for her shift to end and treated her to dinner at the most expensive restaurant on Perona.

  He was funny, charming and kind, and occasionally ridiculous. Everything she was not. And while both meals had been more delightful than anything she’d allowed herself to experience in several years, she still couldn’t figure out why he was here. She was proud of all she’d accomplished in her life, but there were literally billions of vivacious, exciting and gorgeous women out there for him to waste his time with. Why her?

  “Thank you for dinner, though I wish you’d let me pay for my half of it.”

  “Nonsense. One of the locals mentioned that there’s a bakery down the street famous for its orange danishes. Can I interest you in breakfast before work tomorrow?”

  “I’ve been there. The danishes are delicious, but the blueberry scones are even better.”

  “Wonderful. We’ll have those.”

  “Why?”

&nb
sp; “When I was a kid and visited my aunt and uncle in Rybinsk during the summer, they had blueberry bushes growing all around their house. I’d stuff my face full of them and ruin my shirts with the juices. I’m a big fan of blueberries.”

  She dropped a shoulder against the door and rolled her eyes. “No, I mean…why breakfast? Why breakfast with me? Don’t you want to spend what’s left of your vacation on a beach somewhere wooing a singer or model or wealthy heiress?”

  His brow furrowed. “I can’t imagine a worse fate. How horribly dull must such people be?”

  “And I’m not dull?”

  “Bozhe moy, no. You’re fascinating. I’ve scarcely begun to unravel the mystery of how your extraordinary mind works—and of why the left corner of your mouth twitches every time I compliment you.”

  Her skin flared hot. Dear god, was she blushing? The mischievous twinkle in his gray irises suggested she was.

  “Exactly like that. Right here.” He reached out and touched the crease of her lips with a fingertip, and the heat spread to other, less visible places. He must be able to sense her pulse racing just beneath the skin.

  More fingertips joined the first, and they skimmed feather-light across her jaw. “Permission to kiss you, Major Draner?”

  Her renowned good sense abandoned her entirely beneath the tsunami of his touch. “Permission granted, Captain Solovy.”

  The doors to the womb center opened, and a medical officer emerged carrying a tiny bundle swathed in a thick beige blanket.

  She and David both leapt to their feet and hurried forward, but Miriam abruptly stopped several meters short. What if there had been a problem with the delivery? All the tests ahead of time said the baby was healthy and normal, but what if…?

  The medical officer smiled. “Are you ready to meet your daughter?”