by Gorman, K.
“Oh, you’re married? Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Tillerman grunted. “Now, let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I have so many questions about her wife, Tia thought.
You sound like Soo-jin, Karin thought-commented dryly. Why? I know they had lesbian marriage in your day.
Yes, you’re correct, they did. I’m more curious as to how marriage works in Alpha Centauri and how life is there in general. Tia paused. You know that I’m pansexual, right?
I’m pretty sure we’re both asexual at this point, unless you’ve been getting some cravings you haven’t been telling me about.
No, you’re correct. I…she hesitated. I did not include either my romantic feelings or my sexual feelings when I arranged my upload. They are all still in the tank.
A hollow feeling settled inside her gut, and Karin’s chest tightened.
Once again, it felt like something small was crumpling inside of her.
I feel incomplete, Tia said. At the same time, I feel more alive than I have been in seventy years. I can actually feel alive. And feel you touch stuff, and taste, and…She trailed off, and Karin saw her mentally shake her head. It’s odd, but it’s…nice.
Yeah, well, don’t get distracted. We still have a universe to save. And men to kill.
Don’t worry, Tia told her. I am quite aware.
“That person in your head―does she talk to you a lot?”
Tillerman’s voice pierced through her thoughts, and she focused outward, finding the cyborg’s deep brown eyes watching her.
“Yes, sometimes. She was wondering how life is like in Alpha Centauri.”
Tillerman let out a short breath and turned her attention straight ahead. “You’ll find out in a few weeks, I hope.”
Karin’s lips twitched.
She thinks we’re going to ditch her, doesn’t she? she thought to Tia.
To be fair, she’s not wrong. You are planning to go back to Sirius. I can’t blame her for wondering if you’re going to leave them leaderless. Have you given it a thought?
I decided that it was an ‘after the universe was saved’ problem.
Fair enough.
She gave her head a shake. Up ahead, two soldiers, one of them a cyborg with visible metal hands coming out of the cuffs of her sleeves, stood to attention outside of a pair of doors.
“At ease, soldiers,” Tillerman told them as she went in. “We’ll be back out in a minute. Read the new data file that we’ve sent out.”
Karin gave them both a nod and stepped in.
Kalinsky and Reeve immediately turned from a terminal at the side of the room. Both gave a polite bow, though Reeve’s gaze lingered.
Then, he started forward.
“Grand Regent Makos,” he said. “I must protest the abduction of Tylanus Sasha from our Medical bay. The patient was in deep distress, and―”
“He’s fine, awake, and working with me now.”
“Grand Regent―”
“Reeve, let me just stop you there and bring you up to speed. It’s happening, right now. Sasha has already abducted the kids from the base on Chamak, and she’s already begun her Shift Event process. Currently, all I care about is stopping that. Call Fallon. I’m bringing you to the bridge. Don’t make me regret it. You will have an escort.”
He opened his mouth, looked at her, and thought better of it.
Good. They might have been friends, and he might have been her bodyguard and chaperone on Chamak, but the Fallon Empire was currently on her shit list and he was their fifth column whatever specialist, and she didn’t have time to deal with any shit he decided to throw.
She turned to Kalinsky. “Representative Kalinsky, I need clearance to land on Earth. Do I talk to you, or do I go through the UN in Geneva?”
“Either. UN in Geneva would likely be fastest, but I can be backup if you have a problem getting through.” He gave a subtle side-glance to Reeve. “It’s happening? On Earth?”
“Not yet, but I need boots on an actual planet so I don’t accidentally warp into a vacuum.”
“Ah. Yes. Good point. Where were you thinking?”
“Somewhere in the Canadian prairies,” she said. “That’ll keep us away from the radiation. We’ll find a nice bit of abandoned farmland to mess around with warps in.”
“I hear that Saskatchewan is very nice this time of year,” he said.
She doubted it. Based on Tia’s memories of the place, it was almost guaranteed to be a sheet of ice and snow with great wafts of blowing wind, but perhaps the climate shift over the past seventy years will have surprised her.
“You said you had something I wanted to hear?” Her eyebrows twitched. “Potentially about someone in a life or death scenario?”
“Yes,” he said. “I believe you were looking for Elliot Corringham?”
She sucked in a breath, and everything stopped.
Suddenly, he had her full and undivided attention.
Already, she could feel the trickle of adrenaline leaking into her system.
“Yes,” she said, careful to keep her voice even and calm. “Him and his brother, Bernard.”
“Bernard, we believe, is on Mars, which is out of my jurisdiction, but we have an address for Elliot. It seems that he moved to Japan two years ago.”
Two years ago.
He’s still alive.
A rush of bloodlust caught her as Tia’s emotions raced through. Rage pooled deep in her abdomen, hot and black and boiling, making her hands shake.
Sasha first, she told Tia, gritting her teeth against the flux of power. We need to deal with Sasha first.
I will kill them, Tia thought. I will make them suffer.
A memory bubbled up, bright and overpowering. For a second, she was no longer in her body but Tia’s, looking up from where Elliot pushed her wheelchair.
‘It’s going to be okay, love. You’ll come through this. I promise.’
Karin jerked herself back to the present. She clenched and flexed her fingers, dispelling the sensation that threatened to override her body.
“Karin?” Reeve took a step forward, concern in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
She let out a slow breath, then steeled herself.
“Yes. Fine. Kalinsky, I would very much like to get that address. Where’s the Martian rep?”
“On her way,” Kalinsky said. “I believe hers shuttle docks in ten?”
He lifted his expression speculatively at Tillerman, who nodded.
“Great,” Karin said. “Tillerman, have him on the bridge in fifteen. I need to murder one of his citizens. Everyone else, follow me. We need to deal with Sasha.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Instead of the bridge, they went back in the conference room, Captain Arnelli leaving Fiona Travers, a fully human technician who was First Officer, in charge of the bridge.
Someone arranged for refreshments, for which Karin was grateful―as she flipped back through her mind, she realized she hadn’t really eaten in quite a while, and the small amount of non-pollio grapes and onigiri just didn’t cut it for the brain and body she now had―and three-way feeds allowed both Fallon and the Alliance to have a live call into the conference room as they planned.
In the end, given her difficulty and the overwork involved with transporting the Artemide into the Shadow world before, they decided to take just two smaller ships, the Nemina and one of the Artemide’s patrol craft, Freccia 34. A small, elite crew of cyborgs would be joining them. Of the Nemina’s crew, both Marc and Soo-jin insisted on going with her.
She gave Soo-jin a hard look. “You are not going.”
“What―because I’m fragile? What if your ship breaks? You need an engineer.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but Soo-jin interrupted her.
“Seriously, think about it. What if you are flying around, all hunky-dory, and the Nemina’s fucking ion transistor goes mid-flight? You’re going to need someone who can change it out before the se
condary input kicks the bucket and sends you plummeting to your death.”
“Sasha shot you, the last time you saw her.”
“Yeah? And maybe I just want to return the fucking favor,” Soo-jin hissed.
They stared each other down across the table.
“Look, either I go and provide some modicum of help, or I stay here and find a way to truly fuck myself up for the next few hours.” She turned to Tillerman. “Any idea where a girl can get a good deal of alcohol and marijuana?”
“You’re not going,” she said. “But you can stay here, get drunk, and pester my new crew.”
Soo-jin opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked around, eyes narrowing as she took in the understated elegance of the room’s design, the high-def holoscreens on the walls, the two cyborgs standing at attention at the door. One of them looked back at her, his eyes curious.
She opened her mouth again. “I’ll think about it.”
She’s going to get drunk and hit on every living humanoid on this ship, isn’t she? Tia asked.
Yes. And possibly the curvier pieces of hallway.
“Good,” she said. “Tylanus, Nomiki, Jon, you’re with me on the Nemina, as is Baik. Tillerman, you can either head the team on Freccia 34 or come with me.”
“I’ll be with you. Captain Tavano will head his team on Freccia.”
“Sounds good. Reeve…?”
She lifted a questioning brow to the man.
He inclined his head. “I’d like to go with you, if at all possible, Grand Regent.”
Hmm. Her eyes narrowed.
“Take him,” Nomiki said. “He’s good to have in a fight.”
All right, then. She nodded.
“Reeve, you’ll be on the Nemina. Cookie…” She tilted her head and consulted Tylanus. “Does your mother have any computer systems we need to decode?”
“No.”
“Cookie, you stay behind. Same with you, doctors. We’ll run a basic medical tech and trust our field patches, suits, and augments.”
“I can be a Med tech,” Soo-jin said, half-rousing herself.
Karin ignored her. “Everyone good? Excellent. Let’s get ready and go.”
Fifteen minutes later, she was back in her quarters, and Lieutenant Seki, a female cyborg she’d seen escorting Tillerman around at the compound, was helping her into her new Centauri armor.
If she’d thought Fallon’s klemptas armor had been form-fitting, the Centauri tech had zero boundaries. It came in two layers, a gel suit to absorb shock and regulate her body, and the outer shell and panels that housed its circuitry, augments, weaponry, and protective components.
It fit her like a glove. If the glove had been made of some odd, squishy, semi-intelligent latex that fit itself right up and around the webs of her fingers and monitored every nanometer of her body―including, apparently, right up the crack of her ass. A quick slice of pain on her thigh identified where its nanomachines had injected into her thigh.
Foreign nanos in my body. Yum. Just another day in my life.
She’d refused the helmet Seki had offered her, needing to feel the world on at least some part of her skin―plus, if Sasha were going to snipe at her, she doubted it would be with actual bullets.
Without the helmet, the suit’s holo projected its HUD on the underside of her wrist.
She checked it a few times, flipping her forearm to activate it, then let the arm drop and leaned forward in a hunch onto the suite’s main table in the kitchen.
Fuck. It was finally happening. One way or another, she’d make sure that this whole thing came to an end.
Beside her, Seki glanced up. Without a word, she handed over a new Centauri blaster.
Karin gave a quick check of its activation and safety nodules, then slid it into the holster on her thigh. Seki had already gone over how to fire them. “Thanks.”
Seki nodded. “Anytime, Regent. Will there be anything else?”
“No. Thank you, Seki. Hopefully next time, I’ll be able to dress myself.”
“It’s your first time, Regent.”
Was there an edge to Seki’s tone? She didn’t think so, but the cyborg had taken care to keep it precise, and she hadn’t met Karin’s eyes when she’d said it.
A moment later, Seki bowed out and left.
Karin let out a heavy sigh and slumped forward over the table, her hands making slight clicking sounds where parts of the armor met the glass.
First time, but hopefully not the last.
Although, frankly, if all went well, she wouldn’t have to get back into Centauri armor again. Unless she decided to actually continue being the Grand Regent.
Maybe Marc will consider a move. I bet, as Grand Regent, I get pretty nice accommodation.
Yes, Tia said. He can be the Grand Escort.
I’m not sure if that’s a real position, she replied.
Of course, even that thought meant she’d have to retain her Eurynome powers. Which meant that, if she went on like this, she’d continue to be a psychopathic person with a violent streak.
And if she returned to the old Karin, she’d likely be challenged to personal combat and die horribly. And likely be absolute shit at commanding a fleet.
But, none of that mattered if she couldn’t do this. Until Sasha was defeated and the universe safe, it was useless to speculate about the future.
She let out another breath and bowed her head forward. Then, after a moment, she pushed off the table and headed to the sani, where a mirror hung from above a sink.
Her reflection stared back, blond hair pulled back and tied in a tight bun. The lines and curves of her face looked still and tense, the skin around her eyes puffy. There was no smile around her lips, nor the usual slip of worry that used to linger around her brow. Her eyes were quiet and intense, locking on with the intensity of a hunting wolf.
She hardly recognized herself.
But then, she wasn’t herself anymore. She was Eurynome.
Goddess. Warrior. Mother of Creation.
The silver armor, with its unsubtle curves and gleaming plates, suited her.
In the other room, the plates and mess from their earlier meal still sat at the main table.
Just an hour ago, maybe a bit more, she’d been laughing with her friends. Stealing grapes from her sister’s plate.
She closed her eyes.
Nervous? Tia asked.
Technically, that’s impossible, she reminded her. But I can’t help but feel…something.
Just like she felt the echoes of her previous emotions for Marc, she felt the specter of nervousness. It traced across her body, but couldn’t sink in. Instead, it felt like her body was very aware of her situation. It was tenser than normal, and not all of that had to do with her new abilities.
She took a long, deep breath, rolled her shoulders, and let it go.
Then, she pivoted on her heel, headed for the main table, grabbed a handful of grapes from the nearest abandoned plate and a powermeal pack from the counter, and left the room.
Chapter Twenty-Six
It felt odd, stepping back onto the Nemina’s ramp, hearing the familiar thump of her steps with the unfamiliar give of the boot’s sole. Like she was wearing someone else’s skin.
The running lights were on, the interior lit. The walls, floor, and air hummed with the subsonic whine of the ship’s warm-up period. Her eyes followed a narrow scrape on the air lock’s wall from when a few Fallon soldiers on Nova Kolkata had been helping Marc haul in the materials for his rec room remodel.
Voices murmured in both the front and back parts of the ship. Tillerman, dressed in a silver combat suit that was a bulkier variant of her own, followed as she turned up the aisle with the crew cabins and to the bridge.
Reeve was already there, in the pilot’s seat, where she’d known he would be. Marc and Baik flanked him, looking up when she entered.
She paused, gave the screens a glance, then headed for her usual spot at the navigator’s dashboard, making a gesture to
the crash seat next to it for Tillerman.
“Marc, I’d like you on the sensor station. You likely know it best. Reeve, how is Freccia doing?”
“Freccia is ready.”
“Good.” She reached forward and pressed the internal comms button on the dashboard. “Tylanus, there’s another crash seat on the bridge. I’d like you to be up here, please.”
In the rear of the ship, he raised his voice and said something in response. Then, after a brief exchange with Jon, who he’d been speaking with, his shoes tapped on the prefab floor, thunked on the metal plate between the posterior part of the ship and the first airlock hallway, and headed toward the bridge.
She let out a breath and brought up the camera feed. Then, her new inner ear communicator gave a light ding.
“Regent, Captain Tavano on Freccia 34, using communications code 912.” His accent gave the numbers a breathless tilt, as if he were normally lighter with his tongue. “We are ready at your signal.”
She pressed the comms tab on her wrist. Without an implant, they were using work arounds. “Thank you, Captain.”
She glanced over to Reeve. “How’s our warmup?”
“Warm-up is finished. We are ready to go.”
“Good. Pull the ramp up for me and tell Jon and Nomiki to get their asses into a crash seat. Marc, did you put the cannelloni away this time?”
On one if their recent flights, his souvenir purchase of canned cannelloni had put a dent in the refrigeration unit and had almost taken out their coffee machine when he’d left it unsecured for a spin-out maneuver.
“We ate it,” he said.
“Good. Please, strap yourself in. Tylanus, I’d like you here.” She pointed to the crash seat next to Tillerman when he poked his head around the corner. After a moment, the two decided to switch seats so that he sat closer.
His knuckles bumped past her arm as he settled in. In her mind, she felt something dark settle. A glimpse of the Shadow appeared, then vanished.
Hmm. Was it still inside her? No, it had definitely been outside of her body during her last transverse of the Shadow world.