Relativity: Aurora Resonant Book One (Aurora Rhapsody 7)

by G. S. Jennsen

  Devon dropped the blade hilt, closed his eyes, and opened his vision. Sidespace overlaid the room and the hallway beyond. Quantum space.

  You couldn’t affect the physical world from sidespace. Everyone knew this. That was fine, because he didn’t need to affect the physical world. He only needed to affect the quantum one.

  The power we require to execute on your intention will necessitate dropping your shield.

  Do it. There’s time. 2.3 seconds until the man on the right gets his weapon raised.

  Done. But it may not be enough.

  He reached across the non-space of the Noesis to the largest source of power by a wide margin, co-opting the excess subdimensional power bleeding off Mia and Meno’s combined thoughts and processes and drawing it in to merge with his own.

  Now.

  The blast of energy surged out from him like an earthquake to rip apart the quantum entanglement of every qutrit pair in its path.

  The two men slumped to the floor as not only their connections to their Artificials were severed, but the quantum pathways that had begun forming in their brains the instant they became Prevos ruptured; the assailant in the hallway who’d been disabled by the guards but had now made it to his feet collapsed once again.

  Then the wall dividing the room from the hall exploded. And the medic station across the way. Also the storage closet and the lift beside it. The arriving reinforcements flew backward through the air from the force of the shockwave.

  Well. It seemed you could affect the physical world from sidespace, if you were the most powerful Prevo in the galaxy and you wanted it badly enough.

  He quelled the power an instant before it collapsed in on itself and took him with it.

  The next instant he whirled to check on Emily. He’d devoted significant effort to keeping the power flow in front of him and her behind him, but what if—

  The chamber hummed along unperturbed, displaying the same vital readings it had for days. She slumbered in false peace inside, and no blood streamed from her nostrils and ears the way it was from those belonging to the men on the floor.

  His forehead lowered to touch the glass cover; his hands draped around its curved shape. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

  AMARANTHE

  31

  SIYANE

  ANDROMEDA GALAXY

  LGG REGION VI

  * * *

  ALEX DRUMMED HER FINGERTIPS on the dash. “Okay, we’re at your coordinates. Scans are only picking up one tiny reading in the vicinity, likely space debris. What should I be searching for?”

  Eren peered out the viewport. “Could you open the outer airlock?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The airlock that accesses space. Open it.” He gave her a close-mouthed smile. “Please.”

  She gazed at him incredulously. Doing as he asked wouldn’t on its own endanger them, but if hazardous material entered the airlock, it moved a lot closer to doing so.

  Caleb leaned against the cockpit half-wall. “We’re going to need a little more information before doing any such thing.”

  A corner of Eren’s lips rose. “Don’t trust me yet?”

  “We are trying. You could help build trust by telling us why we should open the outer airlock.”

  He rolled his eyes. “The object your scanners picked up isn’t space debris—it’s why we’re here. It’s a container holding a special delivery to help improve our chances on Machimis.”

  “See, that wasn’t so hard. Valkyrie, open the outer airlock.” She stared at Eren. “Do we need to retrieve it?”

  “No. It’ll get itself inside.”

  He was having entirely too much fun stringing them along. It was annoying, mostly because it was something she would do.

  ‘The object has maneuvered into the airlock and settled to the floor.’

  “Scan it for contaminants.”

  ‘The outside of the container is free of contamination. The inside is…I believe I will simply let you open it and see for yourself.’

  “For fuck’s sake, Valkyrie, not you, too. Fine. Close the outer airlock then open the inner one.”

  Seven seconds later the inner hatch opened to reveal a smooth, curved container a fraction short of a meter long and made of a frosted, opaque material sitting on the floor. Most of the object was unmarked, but the end facing them included what appeared to be a maneuverable latch or handle.

  Before she could react, Eren stepped into the airlock, picked up the container and carried it over to the kitchen table. He input a code into a top panel—it hadn’t been visible until he’d begun typing on it—then twisted the mechanism on the end clockwise and swung it open.

  In a flurry of motion something flew out of the container, circled the cabin once and landed on Eren’s outstretched arm.

  “Hey there, Felzeor. It’s been a while.”

  The creature cooed.

  Alex blinked.

  Caleb laughed. “Um, Eren? Why is there a bird in our cabin?”

  The creature was about half the size of the container which had held it. The relatable image to instantly spring to mind was a falcon, but a closer look revealed it was definitely not a falcon.

  A rich pelt of chocolate and apricot feathers that appeared as soft as silk covered its body. Instead of only two legs, it had two traditional (for a bird) rear legs with taloned feet plus two front limbs that were shorter and ended in digits resembling skinny fingers instead of claws. Its head was oversized proportional to the rest of its body, which was long and slender. The beak seemed more or less normal, she guessed. She wasn’t an avian expert.

  Bright, animated ice green eyes darted around the cabin.

  “It’s not a bird—well, it is part of the Aves genetic family, but it’s a Volucri. Hang on, Felzeor, let’s fix this so we can make proper introductions.” Eren reached into the container with his free hand and opened a small recess in the bottom, withdrawing a chain. He fastened the chain around the bird’s neck and positioned a small orb attached to the chain at its throat. “There we go.”

  A melodic if slightly artificial voice emerged from the orb. “Hello. I’m Felzeor, once of Hirlas in the Pegasus Dwarf galaxy but now in the service of the anarchs. It is exquisite to make your acquaintance…?”

  Eren leaned in closer to the bird’s head and pointed to them in turn. “Alex, and Caleb.”

  “Ah. Alex and Caleb. Pleasure.”

  Alex gasped, but quickly brought a hand to her mouth to stifle it. Of all the…. “It’s intelligent?”

  Eren glowered as if offended. “Plenty intelligent enough for you to speak directly to him.”

  “Sorry. I’m sorry, Felzeor. It’s just, we have these birds where we come from that can mimic our speech almost perfectly, but they don’t understand what they’re saying. But you can truly speak Communis?”

  The bird—Volucri—jerked its head to the side. “In a manner. The translator melds my language into Communis as best it can. ’Tis not a flawless system. For instance, sometimes the translator calls Eren asi-Idoni ‘Eren ass-for-a-fanni,’ when this is of course not what I meant at all.”

  Oh good lord, it thought it was a comedian, too. She swallowed most of a groan, but Caleb laughed earnestly and approached their new guest.

  He lifted a hand halfway, then paused. “May I? I hope stroking you isn’t considered rude.”

  Felzeor clucked. “Not rude at all. Perform it well enough and I might stay.”

  Caleb grinned and reached up to run a hand from the top of its head down its back. “You’re very soft.”

  “I spend an hour a day grooming myself. Not in the capsule, though. In fact, I must look a wreck right now.”

  “No. You’re beautiful.”

  She dropped her chin and shook her head. Caleb was such a nature boy at heart. “About the capsule—what is it? How did it get here?” ‘How is a bird going to help us break into Machim Central Command’ was the next obvious question, but she’d hold it for a bit.

  Er
en handed the Volucri off to Caleb, who accepted it on his arm like handling wild birds was something he did. “It’s a transport tool we utilize from time to time, usually for items we can’t trust to the public cargo system. It’s small enough to go undetected by security sensors or drones unless they’re right on top of it, and access is keyed solely to the intended recipient.”

  Now she approached, the container on the table more than the bird. “How did it get here so fast?”

  “It’s a secret.”

  She shot Eren an unamused glare.

  He sighed. “It runs on an apparatus called a Zero Drive. I don’t know how it works. Few people do. But it manipulates the space-time manifold somehow in order to travel at high speeds with no external energy requirements.”

  She leaned over the object in an attempt to study it while her ocular implant captured detailed images for later closer scrutiny, but on initial inspection its mechanisms were a mystery. “Okay. Is now when I ask how Felzeor is going to help us on our mission?”

  Caleb and Felzeor were murmuring endearments or god knew what to one another, but now the Volucri perked up in her direction. “Oh, I’m not. I’m merely the deliverer of the information that will.”

  Eren reached in the container and removed what turned out to be a false bottom, then retrieved a case from beneath it. He opened it to reveal a Reor slab. “Thank you, Felzeor. And tell Thelkt I said thank you when you see him.”

  “I will, though he may not believe me. He knows you, remember? Speaking of our favorite anarchs, how is Cosime? I miss her so.”

  “She’s her usual crazy self.”

  “Crazier than you, indeed. She is not accompanying you on this mission?”

  “No, she’s…taking care of some business in Sextans Dwarf.”

  It was impossible to miss the abrupt darkening of Eren’s eyes during the rapid-fire back and forth, but Alex was more interested in the container, its hidden compartments and their contents than the Anaden’s personal demons. “You’re telling me the anarchs communicate with one another via carrier pigeon?”

  Eren shrugged. “I don’t know precisely what you mean, but I think I get the gist, and I’m insulted. So is Felzeor.”

  “Insulted. Yes.” Felzeor nuzzled Caleb’s nose.

  “But why not send only the Reor slab in the container? Why did the Volucri need to accompany it?” Caleb shot her a disapproving look, presumably because she hadn’t addressed Felzeor directly.

  Felzeor angled its talons around on Caleb’s arm to face her. “I was the navigator. Granted, navigation wasn’t so necessary this trip. But often, deliveries are made to planets, and the capsule can’t operate inside planetary atmospheres—the Zero Drive doesn’t work correctly in the thick air. In those cases, I eject from it and carry the package to its destination. Other times, course corrections or various maneuvers need to be performed—such as bringing the capsule into your airlock, for instance.”

  Now the bird did have her attention. “And you can drive the capsule?”

  “Enough. It is configured to allow for control via my foreclaws.”

  “Impressive. What about space stations? It feels as if all we’ve seen so far are space stations.” And a hidden Reor stellar system. And the Kat homeworld. But no need to overshare.

  “Alas. If I am on a covert mission, I usually have to orbit a station at a distance until my recipient comes to retrieve me.”

  Caleb seemed horrified. “What if you get captured? How do you prevent your package from being seized and you being taken prisoner?”

  Eren cleared his throat. “If the capsule is successfully broken into by someone other than the sender or recipient, it self-destructs.”

  “But wouldn’t that kill Felzeor, or any Volucri who happened to be inside?”

  Felzeor stood tall on Caleb’s arm, beak lifted proudly. “Death is a risk I accept, as do all anarchs.” A pause. “Except Eren. If things go badly for him, he wakes up in a cushioned bed with a hangover. Like he does most mornings, excepting the cushions.”

  Eren’s smirk might be the first truly kind expression Alex had seen the Anaden display in the time she’d known him. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty, or that mouth of yours would get you into trouble you couldn’t get out of.”

  “I know.”

  “Good. All right. Let’s get you situated and back on your way.”

  Caleb frowned. “Must you leave so soon?”

  Felzeor tottered back and forth on each foot upon Caleb’s arm. “I must. I am a resistance fighter, and I have important duties. Also, Thelkt has promised me baked apple tarts on my return.”

  “Well, we can’t delay you from baked apple tarts.” Caleb gazed affectionately at the bird. “It was quite the pleasure to meet you, Felzeor. I hope our paths cross again.”

  “As do I. Preferably on a planet somewhere, where we can fly about—or I can fly about, and you can chase me.”

  Caleb chuckled. “It’s a date.” He stretched his arm out, and the Volucri hopped off and flitted to the entrance of the capsule.

  Eren reached down and removed the translator, placed it in its holder and replaced the false bottom. “I’ll program Plousia as your destination and Thelkt as the recipient. Fly safe, my friend.”

  Felzeor cooed and climbed inside. Eren gently closed the door and spent a minute typing commands into the top panel, then carried the capsule to the airlock.

  Alex followed along behind. “It can power itself up and launch itself from here?”

  He knelt and checked it over. “Don’t worry, it won’t blast your airlock. It’ll basically float out into open space and fire from there.”

  She stared at the compact, innocuous looking little capsule. “Zero Drive, huh?”

  “That’s what they say.” He stood. “We’re ready.”

  They moved back to the cabin and repeated the arrival process in reverse. She watched out the viewport as the capsule drifted away a short distance. There was a brief flare of…something…and it was gone.

  “I’m sorry, but I have to ask again. The anarchs make deliveries by carrier pigeon?”

  Eren adopted a condescending scowl. “Objectively, how is Felzeor piloting the capsule any different from you piloting this ship?”

  “Well….”

  “He’s a bird?”

  She shrugged.

  “Like I said, no different. The capsules are perfect for the Volucri. If the vessel were any larger, it would be too easily detected. If you make them Anaden-sized, then you have to build in a more robust life support system and personal comforts. Volucri aren’t nearly so high-maintenance or spoiled. Also, I’m told the cost to build a Zero Drive increases exponentially with size. They want to help, and this is one way they can.”

  Had Eren accused her of being speciesist?

  In fairness, you are being speciesist. Simply because we’ve never met an avian species intelligent enough to operate complex machinery, it does not mean they cannot exist. In fact, they self-evidently do. I found Felzeor to be both delightful and inspiring.

  Wow, Valkyrie. Consider me chastised.

  She smiled blithely, as she was clearly outnumbered. “Okay. Taking everything you’ve said at face value, what’s the Volucri’s story?”

  “They’re native to the Naraida’s homeworld, where the two species lived cooperatively for millennia. As part of the Naraida’s elevation to Accepted Species by the Directorate, the Volucri were granted the status of Wildlife Pet. The Directorate acknowledged they exhibited some degree of intelligence but decided it didn’t rise to the level of ‘actualized sentience’ needed to receive an Accepted Species designation.”

  Caleb snorted. Ever since Felzeor’s departure, he'd looked as mopey as a kid ordered to eat his vegetables. “They were wrong.”

  “Oh, certainly. Truthfully, I suspect the Volucri saw the despotic manner in which the Directorate took over the Novoloume and Naraida planets and made the strategic decision to play dumb. It’s mostly worked out for
them. As Wildlife Pets their rights are restricted, but in return far less is expected of them, which frees them up to be sneaky. In addition to piloting the capsules, they act as spies planetside and, when they’re well situated, on stations.”

  That at least did make sense. “Are all the Volucri anarchs?”

  “No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a larger percentage of their population is than any other species. They have an inborn appreciation for freedom. Probably comes with the wings.”

  Eren had been fiddling with the case he’d taken from the capsule while he talked, and she gestured to it now. “So what’s our prize?”

  He popped it in some kind of reader he’d materialized out of his discreet but omnipresent hip pack, and a stream of symbols appeared in the air above it.

  “Good news. The chances of your plan succeeding just went from zero to infinitesimal. This is the access code to unlock the Machim data server. You’ll still have to break the encryption on the data you want, but this will get you to the data.”

  32

  SIYANE

  ANDROMEDA GALAXY

  LGG REGION VI

  * * *

  EREN WATCHED HIS HOSTS put away the plates from dinner. He knew so little about them. This ship, their odd food and odd tech all suggested a society existed out there, somewhere, which had arisen completely separate from and unknown to Anadens. It was advanced enough to traverse the stars and work adroitly in quantum technology. SAIs were not only allowed but seemingly treated as free, independent life forms, and he had to assume their civilization had not collapsed as a result of it.

  Where had they come from? More relevantly, why were they picking a fight with the Directorate, and why now?

  Not being privy to most of the Directorate’s initiatives, it was possible this mysterious civilization had recently been or was on the cusp of being discovered. This had to be the case, for them to be so eager to risk their lives against impossible odds.