Everything that had happened between them…. She felt as if she’d lose her mind if she contemplated it too hard, and this wasn’t the time or situation to be misplacing her wits. Though she could still sense his movements, not to mention the literal beating of his heart, without reciprocation it only deepened a bittersweet pang in her soul.
She sat on of the couches lining the side wall. Right now, at this moment, she ought to appreciate the win. She’d made it here. She’d reached them both, and everyone was in one piece. They had the makings of a plan to properly disrupt this godforsaken invasion. She hoped her mother was ready to swoop in with a few hundred thousand ships if—no, when—the quantum block came down. Ready with some proper protection insulating her command ship from the Rasu this time.
Marlee sat beside her and handed her a juice drink. “Here. It’s actually good.”
“Thanks.” Alex sipped on it; it tasted a bit like pineapple guava juice. “It seems as if you’ve made a lot of friends here.”
“They’ve been great to me. And Caleb…” her niece fell back against the cushion and threw an arm over her eyes “…I’m so sorry he had to risk his life to come for me. I feel terrible about it. Now you’ve gone and done the same thing for both of us. It means the world to me.” She peered down the hallway with one eye. “Did he used to be like this, before Akeso?”
She didn’t need to ask what Marlee meant by ‘like this.’ She started to obfuscate, but Marlee had spent more than a week in close quarters with Caleb, and there was no way her niece hadn’t realized something was wrong. “No. I mean, in the heat of battle he was always…intense, focused and a whirling demon of death and destruction. But the rest of the time? No. He’d made peace with the necessity for violence and kept it separate from the person he was.”
“But now it’s eating him alive, isn’t it? It’s because Akeso abhors brutality and death, and they’re so intimately connected.”
“Their connection has always been complicated, and so far as we know, unique in this world. They’ve never been through a trial such as this one together. I’m sure it’s not easy for either of them, but….” She didn’t have a ‘but.’ She didn’t have any idea what the other side of the gauntlet was going to look like for any of them.
Marlee abruptly leaned forward and dropped her face into her hands. “This is my fault. He came here to rescue me, and to do it he had to become someone he doesn’t want to be. Then I made him stay and keep fighting, and now he feels as though all these people are turning to him for their salvation. He doesn’t see a way out, because I didn’t give him one. And it’s destroying him.”
Startlingly insightful of her. Marlee was growing up fast, and events were forcing wisdom beyond her years upon her. Alex placed a hand on her shoulder. “I won’t lie—you were dumb not to leave when Mia ordered you to. But you were trying to save people, same as he is. I guess this particular brand of dumb runs in the Marano genes. But understand this, okay? We would all have come to rescue you, because it’s what we do for family. But Caleb was, I’m a little ashamed to say, the only person who believed with all his heart that he could reach you. And he was right.”
Marlee leaned around Alex to stare down the hallway once again. “How do we help him?”
Oh, how I wish I knew. “We get out of here alive. All of us.”
58
* * *
MIRAI
Omoikane Initiative
“I was thinking you’d get me in there.”
Nika gave Dashiel a distracted smile. It had taken a little time and practice, but she’d adapted to this new, dual existence, for the most part. The words, movements, even thoughts of her twin faded into the background much of the time, like the din of a crowded restaurant. But right now, the show was on Namino, and she forced herself to pay close attention as details were hashed out and logistics debated until they had a plan, one with a non-zero chance of actually succeeding.
Then everyone in the bunker was moving. Gathering weapons and belongings, dividing up into teams and preparing to depart their underground haven for the last time.
She looked up at Dashiel, bright-eyed and focused once again. “They’ll be moving soon. We need to get the Advisors together and come up with our own plan for what to do when the block goes down.”
He frowned. “Lance is on Kiyora with Gemina, and Spencer and Adlai are dealing with a kerfuffle at one of the refugee centers on Synra.”
“No time to wait for them to return. We’ll use the Advisor ceraff.”
All the Advisors knew what she had done and where one copy of her had gone. Degrees of approval varied, as did skepticism that she could accomplish her goal, but at least no one had suggested arresting her. On the other side of this crisis, they were going to need to figure out what place Plexes would have, or not have, in Asterion society. But first they had to save what they could of Namino.
Connecting to the ceraff in her current state was quite…odd. Her mind was now split three ways, yet in some respects not split at all. Voices swam through the edges of her perception like ghosts in the mist, and she had to concentrate to discern the ones speaking within the ceraff.
Nika: “I realize everyone is busy, so thank you for jumping on here for a few minutes. We need to prepare for the quantum block surrounding Namino to go down in a couple of hours. When it does, we have to be ready to move instantly on every front.”
Lance: “How is it going to go down?”
Nika: “We—Alex Solovy and I, together with Selene’s people on Namino—have formulated a plan to take it out. It should work. The details aren’t important, though. We’ll simply proceed under the assumption that the block will go down and get ready for it to do so.”
Adlai: “We can prep to turn the d-gates back on, but….”
Nika: “I know—Firewall still applies. And much as it pains me to admit, it should, because there are thousands of Rasu crawling the streets. We need to hold off on opening the floodgates for now. We’ll be evacuating the people at Bunker #3 via Alex’s ship. For those we’ve confirmed are located at other bunkers, Alex will work with several Concord Prevos to open emergency wormholes at those locations. After that? We’ll have to see how events progress.”
Katherine: “Nevertheless, we’ll prepare for an additional influx of refugees, wounded and otherwise.”
Nika: “Most of them will be coming home by way of Concord.”
Katherine: “Understood. I’ll designate a central location for them to return to, so we don’t end up with battered, hungry, frightened people wandering the streets.”
Damn, this was almost considerate of the woman. Perrin must be wearing off on her. Nika: “Thank you.”
Dashiel: “I think we ought to consider what our primary objective here will be. Is it to evacuate as many people as we can from Namino in the few short hours before the Rasu get a new quantum block up and running? Or is it to try to defeat the invading armada and free the planet?”
Nika: “Yes.”
Beside her, his deadpan glare bore into the side of her head. Dashiel: “That’s not a helpful answer. And we don’t yet have the ships to do the latter.”
A corner of her lips curled up in response. Nika: “I know, which is why I need to speak to Mesme, then Lance and I need to go see Commandant Solovy.”
CONCORD
59
* * *
CONCORD DESIGN & TESTING SHIPYARD
Milky Way Sector 6
If there existed any seams in the sleek adiamene hull of the CAF Aurora, as Kennedy insisted there did, Miriam could not spot them. Two massive weapons bays sporting eighteen launch tubes and ten laser assemblies extended down from the main body of the ship to wrap the golden glow of the Zero Drive/Caeles Prism in a protective half-cocoon. The crew decks curved up and forward for a full eight hundred meters, leading to the semi-circular bridge at the apex. Most of the viewports had always been virtual, but now not a single pane of glass composite marred the lines of the hull.
/> The profile reminded her of a lion poised to pounce, and Miriam idly wondered if Thomas had contributed a few sketches to the design.
“She is incredible.”
Beside her, Kennedy nodded. “I think so. I admit it was kind of fun to get to start from scratch on a flagship. The basic interior design will be very familiar to you, but even given the tight time frame, I was able to incorporate a lot of improvements we’ve developed in the last few years. For the most part, they should be invisible to you until you need them.”
“And the Imperium shield?”
“Installed and rigorously tested. The power requirements for it are tremendous, but with a brand-new boosted Zero Drive, they won’t trouble you.” Kennedy gestured toward the airlock. “Are you ready to shake her down?”
“I do believe I am.”
CAF AURORA
Miriam strode onto an empty bridge, and though it was not quite the same empty bridge, a wave of déjà vu washed over her.
The bridge spun dizzyingly around Miriam, and she lunged for the railing extending out from the overlook to steady herself. Then she tried—tried so—to stand up straight and proud.
She sensed her daughter’s shadow retreat out of view and watched as this…man…slowly lowered his chin in…respect?
“But it’s not up to Alex to convince you I’m real. It’s up to me, and I accept the challenge. I will do whatever I must, for as long as I must, to earn your trust. I’ve done it before. I can do it again.”
He took a step toward her, and she fought the urge to flee. He sounded so like David, from the rolling ‘r’s of the accent he hadn’t bothered to lose to the easy confidence lending affect to his voice.
She did not understand. She could not find a path that might lead to understanding. She’d never wanted to believe in something so tremendously in her life, but belief, no matter how strong it became, did not make something real. He was gone, so long gone, and nothing could ever bring him back.
Could it?
Fourteen years had passed, but the memory still shook her to her core. The day she had never expected, when everything had changed.
But it was a good memory, so she smiled and shook off the spell. “Thomas?”
‘Welcome back, Commandant.’
“And to you. How does she feel?”
‘Like a hand-knitted sweater, all warm and cozy.’
Miriam made a face. “Try again.”
‘Like a honed and buffed weapon, primed to destroy all enemies and, this time, return to tell the tale herself from the head of a galactic ticker-tape parade.’
“That’s better. I trust you’ll inform me if you encounter any issues we need to address.”
‘Ms. Rossi has involved me in the design and testing since the ship’s inception, thus I do not anticipate any problems cropping up.’
“Still, it’s a new ship. There are bound to be a few kinks to work out.”
‘Of course. Do you want to take her for a spin and see if we can find any?’
“We don’t have any crew on board.”
‘We have you and me—and, should you deign to invite him aboard, Professor Solovy, who is currently in the observation lounge salivating all over the viewport at the sight of our prize command ship.’
She chuckled quietly.
You can come aboard if you’d like.
What? No, I was just…checking to make sure everything was going smoothly with the handover.
David.
Oh, fine. I’ll be right there.
Less than a minute later, he peeked his head in from the airlock, his gaze immediately falling on her to the exclusion of all the details of the shiny new bridge. “Magnificent.”
Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she shot him a smirk while she headed to the overlook. “Kennedy is right. It does seem to feel similar to the old Stalwart II in the ways that matter, though it is surely better in every material respect.” She glanced his way as he strolled toward her. “Where should we go?”
He shrugged broadly. “Home?”
A precious blue marble, Earth had been called. Unique in its perfection for nurturing humanity.
Even before coming to Amaranthe, hundreds of garden worlds capable of supporting human life had been discovered; here, they had learned of tens of thousands more such worlds. But none would ever match Earth. That precious, little blue marble. Home.
A hurricane swirled across the Atlantic, its outer bands tickling the Carolinas shore, as they exited the Caeles Prism wormhole and fell into High Earth Orbit above the Northeastern Seaboard Metropolis.
Comms lit up the instant they arrived.
Earth Terrestrial Defense Command: “Unidentified vessel, transmit your designation promptly or defensive measures will be activated.”
CAF Aurora: “This is Concord Commandant Miriam Solovy of the CAF Aurora, authorization CZX-89Z33 Alpha Zulu Mark 1.0. There’s no need for alarm. I’m merely taking the new ship out for a brief shakedown cruise.”
Silence answered as the shift supervisor frantically contacted Command and triple-checked the authorizations.
Earth Terrestrial Defense Command: “Acknowledged, Commandant. Will you be needing docking privileges at any AEGIS facilities?”
CAF Aurora: “Not today. Thank you.”
David wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. “It’s odd sometimes, you know. Everything looks the same, but this space? It’s not Earth’s home. Earth’s home is gone, and so is its ancestral planet that grew from hot nebular gases to come to life here in this space.”
“True, but I refuse to believe that Earth isn’t a better steward of this corner of the universe than Solum ever was. It’s earned the right to be here, at the center of a multi-galactic civilization.”
“It has.” He nuzzled her neck. “Have you checked out your new stateroom yet?”
“David!”
“Okay, we’ll save there for later. What about your new office?”
She rolled her eyes, shifted in his embrace and kissed him softly. “Thomas, take us on a gentle trip around Sector 1 and run the systems through their paces. While you do that, David and I will set about on an extensive tour of every deck, starting with my office.” She stepped out of his grasp to run her hand along the railing of the overlook. “I need to see every centimeter of this ship before I can rightly call it my own.”
60
* * *
CONCORD HQ
Command
“Commandant, Advisors Kirumase and Palmer from the Asterion Dominion are here to see you.”
Miriam had spent the hour since returning from their somewhat indulgent shakedown cruise reviewing fleet updates, and now she quickly finished scanning the latest report from the AEGIS Crux II Field Manufacturing Facility. Since dramatically ramping up production, more than 900,000 negative energy missiles and 120,000 negative energy bombs had been produced and shipped out to every vessel outfitted to carry them. Another twenty thousand such weapons now rolled off the production line every day. She allowed herself to smile a little; the Rasu were going to find themselves in a markedly different battle the next time they met.
Which made this meeting most timely. “Please send them in.”
She stood and greeted them both, motioning for them to join her at the small conference table in her office. “Welcome, Advisor Kirumase. Commander Palmer, it’s good to see you back up and among the living.”
“You as well, I understand.”
“Yes. I don’t have as much practice at it as you do, but here we both are. You’ve come to visit me today because you have news—and possibly a plan to liberate Namino?”
Nika nodded as she sat. “First, I want to let you know that Alex is…well, I suppose she isn’t ‘safe,’ but she did reach the DAF bunker where Caleb, Marlee and a number of Asterions have been hiding out. As of right now, they’re all doing well.”
“Thank you very much for the update. And you are correct. My daughter is rarely safe, and I have come to terms
with this reality. Most days.” She clasped her hands on the table and leaned forward intently. “So it’s true that you’ve been able to bypass the quantum block and establish some form of communication with those on the ground?”
The two Advisors exchanged a brief but mysterious look. “A limited form, yes. Basically, a small number of Asterions are able to use our ceraff technology to communicate with others who are connected to the same ceraff. One—excuse me, two—of those individuals are at the DAF bunker, and two others are at the Omoikane Initiative on Mirai helping us talk to one another.”
“Excellent. I assume Alex is not presently on her way home with Caleb and Marlee in tow, so what is their plan, and how does it dovetail with yours?”
Nika stared at her for a moment, then laughed. “You do get to the point, which I appreciate. The group on Namino has identified the source of the quantum block, and they believe they can disable it. If they’re successful, this will give us a few hours at a minimum and ideally several days to evacuate most or all of the people who are still alive via wormholes. But we are hoping it will mean something more as well.”
“You’re asking me to send another fleet to engage the Rasu at Namino when the quantum block goes down. We failed you so completely last time, why would you entrust us with your people’s lives a second time?”
Commander Palmer sighed. “Is ‘because you’re the only civilization with a fleet worthy of the title’ an acceptable answer?”
Miriam leaned back in her chair and brought her hands to her lap. “Yes, it is. I hoped for a better one, but it’s also the answer I deserve.”
“In all seriousness, Commandant, I’m the commander of a measly few hundred ships. There’s virtually nothing I can do to fight the Rasu right now, or for several months at the earliest. But I still want to fight for my people. The question is, do you?”
Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two) Page 35