He focused inward and searched himself mentally, but he couldn’t perceive it either…or could he?
Wind rustles a sea of grasses.
Each stalk bows in submission, yielding to the wind’s will.
A splash of water escapes a creek to moisten the shore.
Roots harbored in the soil reach out, yearning for the nourishment the water brings.
He’d believed them merely vestiges, impressions formed out of the lingering echoes of memories. But maybe they weren’t his memories…and maybe they were something more.
He laughed, his mood decidedly improved. “Not going to lie, that makes me happy. An uncommon brand of happy.”
“I thought it would.” She kissed him with such tenderness it felt like a second gift, then rested her head on his chest. “I’m ready to leave now.”
“I know.” The undercurrent of strain in her voice had been growing throughout the day and evening; it now reverberated like a taut string plucked too hard. He stroked her hair, still smiling. “We’ll head to the main village first thing in the morning, thank Jaisc for his hospitality, and get him to activate the lift for us.”
She nodded languidly against him. “This is a good plan.”
29
TAENARIN ARIS
Tayna Portal Space
* * *
An elbow to the sternum awoke Caleb.
Before he’d reached full awareness he calmed the combat reflexes that had instinctively flared, for the source of the elbow was Alex.
She jerked around restlessly in his arms while muttering incomprehensible half-syllables. She was having a nightmare.
“Hey….” He caressed her body as gently as he could. His fingertips drifted along her arm, over her waist and down her hip, and back again. A fine layer of sweat slicked her skin beneath his palm. When his caress returned to her hand he found it clenched into a rigid fist. “It’s okay, baby. It’s just a dream.”
Her back pressed hard into him; she growled nonsense through gritted teeth. He repeated the words in a soothing tone. She hadn’t slept well the night before, either, but not to this degree. “You’re safe….”
With a gasp she wrenched around to face him, eyes drawn wide open but irises bleary. She stared at him for an instant in what seemed like confusion—then her mouth was on his and one of her hands snaked down his chest to the waistband of his pants.
He reined in the growing ardor her actions unconsciously evoked and pulled away slightly. He coaxed her gaze to focus on him while stroking her cheek. “Alex, are you awake? Are you here?”
Her nose scrunched up, and her brow knotted. Several seconds passed, and she blinked. “I’m here. But…I need you. Please.”
Were there any more illicit, arousing words in the pantheon of spoken language? No, there were not.
He gave up all pretense of restraint. He shifted his weight to ease her onto her back and hover above her. His lips roamed across her neck then collarbone as one hand went to her waist and seized the hem of her tank. They typically slept in the nude on the ship, but obviously not here.
He moved down her body as his palm moved up it, nudging the tank up her chest and over the curve of her breasts. He paused to appreciate the sight. He wasn’t going to tire of it…ever, he’d daresay.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as he trailed kisses along her abdomen. He countered her urgency with veneration, taking care to devote special attention to the skin once torn apart by laser fire in Cavare. No scar remained, but he’d never forget the wound.
“Caleb….” It was a throaty purr. A plea.
He complied, but on his own terms. He cut short his journey down the length of her body, instead roving circuitously upward until his tongue danced around a nipple. She gasped and bucked against him in response, which did nothing to dissuade him.
Only when she scratched up his spine savagely enough to draw blood did he journey to her neck, her jawline and at last her lips, taking care to graze the stubble adorning his jaw over all the most sensitive areas on the way.
Her hands slid beneath his pants at his hips; she sat halfway up in his embrace to shove them off. He took advantage of the motion to slide a hand down her back and do the same. A few minimally graceful but swift movements and no trace of clothing remained.
Nearly a year after the night that began with a fateful jailbreak and many months after marriage, slipping inside her was profoundly familiar, intimate and as ecstatic as the first time. Every time.
The sound escaping her throat resided in the space between a moan and a cry. She clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide in horror.
He chuckled softly. She had many exquisite talents, but keeping quiet was not one of them. But here they really, really should be quiet, for sleeping aliens lay meters away.
His lips hovered a sliver above hers. “Shhhh.”
A fractional, vertical motion of her head—an acknowledgment—and his mouth crushed hers as her body arched beneath him.
He knew every centimeter of her body now. He knew what she unapologetically liked and what she secretly craved. He knew how to keep her at the edge and how to make her scream—hopefully silently this one time.
It had been an endless source of joy for him to learn all these things, one night, morning and afternoon at a time.
Knowing all he did, he wanted to draw this interlude out. He wanted to stay this way, their bodies wound together in the most precious of ways, until the coming of the strange, subterranean dawn.
But her words had not been uttered in jest, and her very real need bled out of her and into him, radiating off her skin like searing embers and driving all other thoughts away in favor of blind passion.
One of the greatest pleasures in life was tasting the desire of one who loved you, and reflecting it back to them in full. His eyes locked on hers and held them relentlessly as her irises blazed a wild, electric silver that was all her own. Their breaths fell into a synchronicity matching the rhythm of their bodies.
Somewhere along the way he lost control to her, and she carried them to deeper, darker places with an entrancing abandon.
Her lashes fluttered and her lips parted. One hand grasped for his hair; the other clawed at his shoulder, begging him to stay with her for one…more…breath….
She did cry out, but he held her tight against his skin, muffling the exclamation in the crook of his neck.
The next instant he was grabbing the hand on his shoulder and pinning it to the mat. His other hand wrapped around her fingers clenched in his hair, and he surrendered to the rapturous abyss.
“Ah wuvf uhh.”
Still surfacing from the deeper, darker place she’d led him to, he found himself, among other things, short of breath.
He inhaled slowly, then loosened his embrace of her enough to tease her lips with his own. The tip of his nose touched hers. “Something you wanted to say?”
She laughed breathlessly against his mouth. “I love you. I mean, I was also suffocating, but mostly I love you.”
“Sorry—about the suffocating. Not much else.” He closed his eyes and let himself simply feel her, flush with sated ecstasy, warm and wonderful beneath him.
But he’d bruise her if he drifted off to sleep like this, his weight heavy atop her slender frame. He reluctantly rolled onto his side. “What gave you a nightmare?”
She murmured a noncommittal, “I don’t remember….”
He traced her cheek with his fingertips. “What was this? Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
For the briefest of seconds, a warning chafed at the fringes of his mind, whispering disquiet at her evasion. But he was still floating on an endorphin high, and her countenance looked so delighted and lovely, he elected not to see past it to anything troublesome.
Instead he fell asleep with her head on his chest, his arms wrapped steadfastly around her.
30
TAENARIN ARIS
Tayna Portal Space
* * *
&nbs
p; “I hope we’ve shared valuable information with you and provided you a measure of insight. I have tried to do as Slanait Lakhes asked of me to the best of my ability.”
Caleb nodded and clasped Jaisc’s hands firmly in his, the better to convey his sincerity. “You have. Thank you for showing such kindness to foreigners, as well as indulging our many questions.”
Jaisc chuckled in a shimmer of lavender and aquamarine. “They were indeed many. But your curiosity is refreshing. As Iona-Cead, perhaps I should consider engaging in a manner of it myself.”
The niceties and platitudes continued on and on, and on, while Alex fidgeted beside Caleb.
They had been hours trekking back from the Caomh’s home. She was sweaty, and she’d been wearing the same clothes for going on sixty hours. She wanted a shower, clean clothes, a steak and a glass—or a bottle—of wine, not necessarily in that order. She wanted to talk to Valkyrie. She wanted to touch the Siyane with her mind. And at this point she wanted all these things with a fierceness bordering on madness.
There was no way Caleb hadn’t recognized her increasing agitation by now. But just in case, she cleared her throat loudly.
He glanced over at her as the muscles in his jaw twitched beneath the skin, then redirected his attention to Jaisc. “Now we should really be going, and you can return to your normal life.”
“Yes, yes.” The Iona-Cead gestured up the pathway. “I must accompany you up, to see to the procedures.”
“Of course. Whenever you’re ready.”
She kicked Caleb’s foot, but he kept a perfect poker face as Jaisc began heading up the pathway toward the lift entrance.
Stop that. Five minutes won’t make a difference.
No, but then five minutes becomes ten minutes becomes ten hours. I’m ready to go.
I did notice.
Finally, mercifully, they were in fact leaving. The lift spun upward in excruciatingly slow revolutions. Had the descent been this slow? She didn’t remember it being this slow.
She waited as long as she could stand, then reached out in her mind.
Valkyrie?
Nothing.
Five more seconds.
Valkyrie?
Nothing.
The false ice hologram came into view above. Three more seconds.
Valk—
There you are. What was a subterranean civilization like? Show me.
Wait a minute. Weren’t you worried about us?
A little. But a Metigen paid me a visit to assure me you weren’t in any danger and inform me you would return in a few days.
WHAT?
Siyane
“There was a Metigen. On the ship. In the cabin—this cabin.”
‘Yes. It appeared out of nowhere, breached the shielding and hull as if they did not exist, and hovered around inside for several minutes. We had a most frustrating conversation. I have to admit, Alex, I now more fully understand what you’ve always said about their aggravating manner. It declined to answer most of my questions and departed without a polite farewell.’
Caleb emptied his pack onto the table. “Let me guess—did this Metigen happen to go by the name ‘Lakhes?’ ”
‘It did. Interesting that you know this. By the way, I should mention the Metigens call their own species ‘Katasketousya.’ ”
Alex tossed her pack into a corner; she’d unpack and repack it later. “Yeah, we heard that, too. We got to hear quite a lot about the great and benevolent Lakhes while we were below. Their savior and protector.”
‘Another species worshiping Metigens as gods?’
She frowned and went to grab a chilled water, then leaned against the back of the couch to sip on it. “Not exactly. They revere Lakhes, but not as a god. There’s also the distinct possibility this Metigen actually did save them.”
‘From what?’
Caleb came over and took a swig of her water. “An interstellar superhighway.”
She screwed her face up at him. “Huh?”
“Never mind. From invaders of some sort—a fleet of ships harvesting the planets in their system.”
Valkyrie sounded rather intrigued now. ‘Another system here in this space?’
He shook his head. “Nope. In the universe through the master portal. They—or the Metigens—seem to call it Amaranthe.”
‘Fascinating. Amaranthe: undying, everlasting.’
“That’s what the dictionary says.” Alex took the water back and went to the cockpit. “Let’s go ahead and get out of here. Knowing the ground is hollow beneath us, I’m suddenly imagining it opening up and devouring us.”
“Okay.” Caleb kissed the top of her head. “I’m going to shower while you get us off this rock, then I’ll cook.”
“Cook steak. Or pork. Basically all the meat, please.”
His response was laughter as he disappeared downstairs.
As soon as he was gone, she spun to face the viewport. She hadn’t had a shower, a change of clothes or any of the other luxuries she’d been so fervently looking forward to, and it didn’t matter.
She closed her eyes and glided into the walls of the ship.
Hydrogen. Oxygen. Bonded into hexagonal crystalline molecules and solid beneath her, beneath the ship.
Nitrogen in the atmosphere. A greater presence of oxygen, yet less than desired. Neon, methane. All quiet, calm, stable gases surrounding her. She didn’t feel the cold here.
She rose into the air, displacing the gas molecules with a level of violence sufficient to send them knocking into one another and creating a chain reaction which rippled outward for kilometers before it dissipated into stillness once more.
The upper air began to fight against her progress. It pressed in on her as if to demand she stay. But gas molecules were weak, paltry substances compared to hyper-strong layers of adiamene: carbon and amorphous diamond metamaterials latticed together at a pico- scale of fidelity.
Bruised but unbroken, the atmospheric components dispersed away to merge into the solar wind as space welcomed her into its arms.
Quiet. Dark. Empty. Alive, deafening and sparkling with effulgent photons and radiant energy.
She drifted for a time.
Valkyrie’s voice—no, not a voice. Merely a thought, a collection of qubits resolving.
We can transition to superluminal now. It will take us 14.2 hours to reach the portal.
All right.
She did.
The discordance hit her like a supernova shockwave. At the edges of the bubble, space and time were warped and dragged in ways which should not be, by particles which did not belong in this dimension.
Alex, do you still find the bubble disconcerting or uncomfortable?
Alex…that was her. The ship. No, her the person, the body in the chair. The ship was the Siyane. Or Valkyrie. Both, and also her.
I do.
Then why are you still here?
Alex?
I missed it.
I crave it. I need it.
PART V:
HACK THE GALAXY
“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo,
and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly,
I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight,
to create a sense of the hunger for life that gnaws in us all,
to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human.”
— Richard Wright
31
ROMANE
Independent Colony
* * *
Noah walked into their living room an instant before she disconnected the holocomm. “Hey, breakfast is….” He slowed to a stop. “What’s up? Was that Miriam Solovy you were talking to?”
Kennedy glanced over her shoulder and nodded. Her voice came out a bit tentative, as she was still processing the conversation which had just occurred. “Change of plans. We’re paying a visit to Advent Material’s Rasogo II facility this morning. I’ll fill you in on the way.”
“Okay. But
why the urgency?”
“Because we’re going to need a lot more adiamene, and we’re going to need it soon.”
In the desperate final days of the Metigen War, Lionel Terrage had solved the puzzle of how to swiftly and reliably create adiamene. The solution provided by Noah’s father worked, but it had not come cheap, keeping the promise of large-scale adiamene production out of reach as a commercial enterprise.
After the end of the war, the Prevos had taken a fresh look at the problem. As with so many things, the application of brute-force quantum algorithm analysis coupled with human ingenuity had produced economically feasible improvements in short order.
It turned out if a critical early stage of the chemical combination took place in extremely low gravity, many of the careful—and exorbitantly expensive—strictures used during the later stages of the synthesis became unnecessary. In the case of the Siyane, this early stage would have occurred during the days Alex and Caleb had fled the Metis Nebula for Earth—in the near-vacuum of space.
Ramp-up costs were still substantial, but nothing like the hundreds of millions they’d originated at. And once a line was up and running, it was commercially viable. Expensive as all hell, but viable.
Kennedy admired the Advent Materials facility out the viewport of the valet transport as they approached. The company had recovered commendably from the blow of one of its VPs being a Metigen agent, then a dead Metigen agent.
The facility hadn’t been constructed specifically for adiamene production. Many materials were easier or cheaper to produce free of a planet’s gravity. The company had, however, repurposed twenty percent of the facility for adiamene production upon entering into a nice supply contract with Connova.
Seneca was taking care of its own manufacturing, which came as something of a relief at the moment. The Romane government, though, needed kilotonnes for the IDCC Rapid Response Force ships and civilian government vessels. She also had orders for three commercial civilian transports and one audacious order from Ronaldo Espahn; he wanted to build an entire space station using it.
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