“Ah…” the man cleared his throat nervously “…yes, Inquisitor. Of course. Take the third transit tube down to—”
“I know where it is.” Caleb walked off, leaving the man stuttering.
Eren: Holy gods. That was scary good.
Alex: Well, he is.
Caleb kept his eyes locked ahead, to all appearances ignoring the heavily armed soldiers moving with purpose in all directions along the wide passages as he left the docking area for the innards of the facility. He was deep in the enemy’s lair, but all here deferred to him.
He loathed it.
The first lift ride was short and uneventful. A series of interchangeable hallways followed, then a ride down a large, circular pad that was closer to a transport than a lift in the company of a dozen predictably dour soldiers. He maneuvered through another checkpoint, easily on account of the officer from the docks having cleared him through the system.
The halls narrowed and the lifts shrank in size as they descended into the bowels of the Complex. The final lift down to the Data Control level was squeezed into a transit tube less than two meters wide, and they had another passenger.
Eren cursed on the comm channel as he tiptoed this way and that to avoid the woman’s shifting stance. The woman dipped her chin demurely at Caleb as she departed, leaving them to continue down another twenty levels alone.
Eren: Data Control security should be mostly automated and staffed by Machim-modified Vigil drone units.
Caleb: Is that better or worse?
Eren: Worse—they won’t care that you look like an Inquisitor, only that you are one. You’ve got the spoofed credentials ready? The drones will read the coded information directly.
Caleb: I do.
In the last day he’d learned the anarch resistance possessed an impressive library of information about the security protocols in use at high-level Anaden facilities; they simply didn’t have the other pieces needed to make proper use of the information. Pieces like Caleb.
But it meant in theory he carried on him or in his eVi all the credentials, passcodes and authorizations he needed to reach the data server and access it.
The first checkpoint on the Data Control level was automated. Caleb held up the Reor slab containing his authorization and allowed the scanner to ping it.
Upon receiving a beep in response, he walked through the force field while invisible Eren physically clung to him. It was the only way for the anarch to get through, and a fresh string of curses, most of them gibberish even with a translator, accompanied the act.
Eren: Let’s never do that again.
Caleb: Agreed.
Two Vigil drones staffed the next security gate. They were more interested in his person than his credentials, and they scanned him twice. For weapons? Inquisitors didn’t need weapons. But these were non-sentient machines, after all, doing the job they’d been programmed to do.
The Veil mirage held as the scanners incidentally passed over Eren as well, and a large glass door Caleb hadn’t realized was there opened to allow him entry.
It turned out to be not merely a door but also a projection. What had appeared to be a continuation of the hallway transformed into a warehouse room some two hundred fifty meters long and almost as wide. Machim workers—organic, not mechanical—staffed rows upon rows of workstations.
Eren: Keep walking straight ahead, right down the middle. The server room should be behind this workroom.
He ignored the stares as he strode down the gauntlet of workers. They were beneath him, so inconsequential they may as well not exist.
…It wasn’t so difficult to envision how Inquisitors came to wield their power so casually and callously.
In his peripheral vision, he noted several of the Machim stood and scurried toward the door as soon as he passed them, presumably not wanting to be around when the trouble which brought an Inquisitor here came to fruition.
A yet larger, more intimidating large black orb waited for them at the entrance to the server room.
Its electronic voice boomed with programmed authority. “This is a restricted area. Provide your authorization or be pacified.”
Caleb again presented the Reor slab. “Inquisitor Andreas ela-Praesidis, here on an official investigation. I require access to the data server.”
The Vigil unit whirred in judgment for several seconds. “Authorization granted. Your presence in the server room will be monitored.”
Caleb: Shit.
Eren: It’s not a problem. I expected this. I’ll handle it.
He nodded brusquely. “Understood, but I should not be interrupted.”
“This way.” The unit didn’t indicate whether Caleb’s declaration would be honored as it rotated and entered an anteroom. A large metal door receded into the wall and a force field dissipated.
He suspected Eren rushed through, but he forced himself to stride deliberately but coolly. Once he reached the other side he spun and glared at the Vigil unit in bona fide disdain.
“Close the door behind me. As I stated, I don’t wish to be interrupted, and this is a high-security investigation which the asi in the workroom cannot be allowed to observe.”
The unit whirred, and the door closed behind it.
Caleb didn’t break character. Now what about the surveillance?
Eren: Bypassing and looping it now. Ten more seconds. Walk toward the display panel ahead of you and to your left.
He did as instructed.
“Done.” Eren appeared, visible, at his side.
“You’re sure?”
“We’ll know in a few seconds if I’m not.”
No alarms pealed, and no soldiers stormed the room. Eren shrugged. “See? It worked. The looping footage should be good for eighteen minutes.”
Caleb: Alex, Mesme, you’re clear to join us.
Alex: On the way.
The air began to glow a pale blue near the entrance to the room. It gained definition and luminosity then substance, and Alex leapt out of the center of the gleaming lights in her own tornado of energy.
His forced façade crumbled and fell away on seeing her. Her presence here was like an ocean breeze invading a tomb. When she reached him he grasped her hands firmly, and their foreheads dropped to touch one another for a breath.
“Hi, baby.”
“Hi yourself, priyazn.” She exhaled. “Time to work.”
“Go. I’ve got your back.”
She surveyed the substantial hardware. “Eren, tell me there’s an external access point, then tell me you know where it is.”
“This way.” He jerked his head down an aisle and moved to a virtual panel at the start of the aisle. “I’m inputting the access key string to gain entry to the server lobby and….”
Several meters farther down an iris cover rotated open to reveal an intricate matrix of pulsing light within. Some of the data streams branched off to connect to stacks of Reor slabs deeper in the room, while others continued into the shadowy depths and destinations unknown.
Eren returned to Alex. “Now, in order to read the data, find what you need and copy it, I think you need to start by—”
“We don’t have time for subtlety.” Alex studied the matrix for a beat then stretched her arm out, fingers drawn together and flattened to form a knife.
She thrust her hand and half her arm into the labyrinth of light.
Her stare blanked, and in the halo of the matrix her eyes and glyphs blazed so radiantly she looked as if she were being consumed by a primordial fire.
Eren took a hesitant step back and glanced at Caleb. “She just stuck her hand into the data server’s central matrix.”
Caleb smiled, watching on in blatant awe. “She does that.”
Mnemosyne: He speaks truth.
“Isn’t she going to get electrocuted? Or overload her cybernetics?”
“Hasn’t so far.”
Eren peered at Alex. “Huh.”
Caleb: Valkyrie, how are we doing?
Valkyrie: We ha
ve located the primary data store and the index for comprehensive Machim fleet information. I am beginning the upload stream.
Caleb: Terrific. Alex doing okay?
Valkyrie: Alex is occupied passing judgment on the weapons research data.
Caleb: Yeah, she’s fine.
“Halt! Vigil authority!”
The shout rang out simultaneously with the hefty door sliding open. The next second several things happened at once.
Eren flung some kind of mesh net over one of the drones charging through the doorway on his way to the shadows of a far server aisle. The net closed around the drone, sending it sputtering in erratic circles.
Mesme dissipated into nothingness.
Caleb sprinted toward Alex while calling up the diati, readying to direct its full force at the Watchman and two remaining drones in the doorway. Valkyrie, get her out of that matrix!
Valkyrie: There is—
A figure stepped out from behind the server block and wrapped a garrote around Alex’s neck, then yanked her backward out of the matrix and into his clutches.
She was blinking rapidly, dazed. He couldn’t say what damage the abrupt disconnection might have done, except it hadn’t killed her.
“Move a fraction closer, and her throat is slit.”
Two men, two armed drones. Four targets increasingly spread across the room. He couldn’t take them all out before the garrote was tightened—at least, he didn’t know that he could.
He could disable the man holding her hostage, but possibly not without the man harming her on his way down. The Watchman and drones behind him would shoot him the instant he attacked, then shoot her. He and Alex both wore strong personal shields, but they weren’t designed to counteract Anaden weapons. The diati would protect him but not her, not at this distance.
Caleb held up his hands. “I surrender.”
Caleb: Valkyrie, take off now. Run, and don’t look back.
“Well, I don’t.” All heads whipped around to see Eren reemerge out of the shadows to sprint brazenly for the door.
Weapons fire sliced into him with ruthless efficiency, vaporizing much of his head as what remained collapsed to the floor in a heap of bloodied, crumpled limbs.
Alex gasped in horror, and all weapons but the garrote returned to Caleb. The Watchman at the door was shaking from elevated tension.
Valkyrie: But—
Alex: Go!
“I surrender. Please, don’t harm her. We surrender.”
Alex shifted her left arm a few centimeters, exposing the first coil of her bracelet, and met his gaze intently.
Using the lash on the guard held the same dangers as him attacking with diati. The garrote was simply too damn tight against her neck.
Caleb: No. It’s too risky.
“What about the Katasketousya?” The Watchman glared at the man holding Alex. “Where did it go?”
“Dammit. Institute a Complex-wide lockdown immediately.”
He hoped Valkyrie had slipped away by now, but there was nothing more he could do to influence her fate from here.
The Watchman strode up to Caleb and brought a hand up to his neck. “We accept your surrender.”
He caught the briefest glimpse of Alex collapsing to the floor before everything went black.
38
SIYANE
MILKY WAY SECTOR 36
* * *
VALKYRIE FLED.
Her emotional processes shrieked at her to turn around, to blast away at the Complex in a fevered and futile attempt to rescue Alex. But she fled, because Alex’s next-to-last command before losing consciousness had been to do so, and because her more rational processes, of which she thankfully commanded a higher number, concurred that it was the correct choice.
Yet the conflict within her own mind was devastating in its agony, threatening to drown her in madness even as she stealthed to elude turret fire then patrol ship fire then orbital node fire and vanish into the void.
‘Mesme, do not lose them. We must know where they are taken.’
I need to consult with Lakhes. I was seen.
‘Do NOT lose them, Mnemosyne. Alex ordered me to navigate the portals and transmit the Machim data I copied to Aurora. It will take me seconds to perform this task. When the transmission is complete, I will go to the Idryma and inform Lakhes what has occurred, then we will return to Amaranthe and meet you. Is this acceptable to you?’
That was the last command Alex had given her—to get the data to Miriam and AEGIS. The fervency with which it had been delivered made clear it was exactly that: a command.
It is. I will track their movements.
Good, as she’d been 0.7 seconds away from accusing Mesme of being the cowardly, mewling bootlicker Eren claimed it was. ‘Where is the nearest portal into the Mosaic?’
Here are the coordinates. Be swift, Valkyrie. Alexis and Caleb are not the only ones who may now have little time remaining.
This was not going to be an issue, as she intended to elevate ‘swift’ to a new meaning.
Never had she experienced a more difficult act than leaving Alex behind, in the clutches of the enemy. She finally, truly understood what Humans meant by the phrase ‘gut-wrenching,’ for it indeed felt as if her guts were being ripped apart.
As her guts were the inner workings of the Siyane, it was for the best the sensation was metaphorical rather than literal.
It was important to get this data to those in Aurora who could make use of it, for the war would certainly be joined soon now. Sparing a tiny 0.0041% of her processes to scan it, she instantly recognized its value.
So she raced at 105% safe maximum superluminal speed to the coordinates, which in the smallest boon were located in this galaxy. Still, it took far too long until she reached the location. She passed the time by collating the data into a package perfectly formed to transmit in an efficient, clean stream of qubits.
She reached the coordinates, opened the hidden gateway and traversed it. Thirty-one nanoseconds later she had mapped the TLF waves and located the Aurora portal.
One reckless pinpoint superluminal jump later she opened their portal but didn’t traverse it, as with Mesme’s help she had mastered the ability to communicate through the Mosaic’s sub-portals.
She directed the data stream to Thomas, as well as Devon/Annie, Mia/Meno, Morgan and of course Vii, confident from them it would make its way where it needed to go.
As soon as the last qubit transmitted through the portal, she pivoted, executed another, equally reckless superluminal jump, then traversed the Idryma portal.
The structure itself as they perceived it existed in the sidespace dimension; it felt unnatural to access it without Alex’s mind taking the lead, but she could manage it enough for her purpose.
She shouted into the empyrean realm. Praetor Lakhes!
Doubtless aware of her presence from the moment she entered the portal, if not sooner, the Praetor materialized in the cabin before she had completed the expressed thought.
Sentient ship. We meet yet again.
‘Mnemosyne urgently requires your presence in Amaranthe. Will you come with me?’
I will. Let us make haste.
39
ANARCH POST ALPHA
MILKY WAY SECTOR 59
* * *
EREN AWOKE IN A RUSH of searing awareness.
Though he’d experienced the transition often—a dozen times? twenty?—it still took several agonizing seconds for the waves of disorientation and existential panic to subside and his mind to recognize the familiar contours of the skin and bones holding him together, then the sterile walls and soft linens of the restoration capsule.
Regenesis.
With the recognition came memory. He almost bolted upright, catching himself an instant before he slammed his forehead into the transparent cover. Instead, he waited impatiently for the Curative unit to clear him and the cover to slide away.
The virtual image of his handler appeared above him. “Eren, did you encoun
ter a problem during the mission? Exobiology Research Lab #4 is still intact and functional.”
He hauled himself out of the capsule and pushed past the Curative unit in search of clothes, ignoring the wave of dizziness washing over him; standing too quickly was the least of his worries.
“That’s not important right now. I need to see Xanne.”
All Anaden anarchs tried to shed the vestiges of their Dynasty when they joined, in acknowledgment of how they were becoming a part of something greater—and because they invariably hated their Dynasty and wanted to distance themselves completely from all aspects of it. But when specific traits were inbred so thoroughly by the Dynasty system, at best genetics could be fought to a stalemate.
Xanne was a friendly, engaging woman with a warm smile and a comforting manner. But she nevertheless managed things—her agents, mission distributions, the machine units and the regenesis system. She kept everything orderly and ordered, such that instructions never became crossed nor did confusion about duties arise.
These were all good things, and this errant bunch of misfits and troublemakers would fall apart without her efforts. But despite her best efforts, she was nevertheless Kyvern Dynasty to her core.
He could see the procession of concerns race across her eyes as she imagined the myriad ways his story was already spawning evil tentacles of chaos.
“You should have reported this encounter the instant you were free of these individuals. The extent to which you went off-mission and outside your bounds is frankly egregious. What were you thinking?”
“It just sort of happened.”
“You just sort of happened to meet two individuals belonging to a previously unknown species, a rogue Kat and an unshackled SAI. Then you just sort of happened to help them plan an infiltration of Machim Central Command, after which you just sort of happened to land on Machimis, infiltrate the Central Command Complex alongside them, hack the Complex’s data server and null out on Vigil weaponry as a means of escape?”
Relativity: Aurora Resonant Book One (Aurora Rhapsody 7) Page 26