Aurora Renegades

by G. S. Jennsen

  Alex.

  She’d want to be told about what had happened, about what he suspected was soon to happen. Of this he was certain.

  For all Alex’s devil-may-care approach to life, which he truly, no-bullshit admired, she cared for her mother to a far greater extent than she’d willingly admit—even beyond their recent reconciliation. She’d want to know. And because she’d want to know, he thought Caleb would probably want to know, too. Of course, there was also that other thing Caleb would probably want to know in an ‘I didn’t want to know this’ sort of way.

  Devon was not the grand arbiter of what-should-and-should-not-be-known. He figured the more knowledge the better. So they should know.

  Maybe he could do something to fix that.

  He’d found the peculiar quantum waves while tooling around in sidespace last week. Curious, he’d tracked enough of them to determine they streamed in from across settled space to meet up with the TLF wave still coming from the inactive portal. They flowed alongside it but in the opposite direction.

  Back toward the portal.

  It was the mechanism by which, somehow, the Metigens watched. This was the most logical explanation, and the one he, Mia and Morgan agreed was the likeliest one. The fact they didn’t understand how the mechanism functioned didn’t change the reality that the mechanism did function. The technology was simply more advanced than their own.

  There existed the possibility the Metigens had obeyed Alex’s decree at the end of the war and abandoned their watchtower, in which case he’d be whispering into the abyss.

  The signals still streaming in both directions argued they had not, but since he didn’t understand the mechanism he could only speculate. Either way, it was worth a shot, right?

  After taking a moment to compose his intentions, Devon shifted into sidespace.

  He located the closest wave by superimposing a vector from the Metis portal to Romane, followed it a few parsecs to the TLF signal—it pointed directly at Earth—then aligned himself on the path of the quantum wave nearest it and tried to match its frequency. His success was due far more to Annie’s efforts than his own.

  Thank you, Devon.

  You bet.

  He had no idea if this was apt to work, but in case it did he readied his cockiest mental voice.

  Hey, Metigen aliens. We realize you’re still watching. Enjoying the show?

  Listen, I assume you’re up to speed on events here in our little universe. But given you’re assholes, what I’m about to say might not have occurred to you. So I’m going to broadcast it at you in big flashing neon letters:

  If you happen to bump into Alex and Caleb out there in your multiverse playground, you should consider encouraging them to swing back by home. I believe they have a vested interest in current shenanigans on this side of the portal.

  But hey, it’s just a suggestion. Peace out.

  Portal: C-2

  System Designation:

  Kamen

  50

  IRELTSE

  Kamen Portal Space

  * * *

  Crushed sandstone sifted through Caleb’s fingers, insubstantial as dust. A breeze caught the debris mid-fall and spirited it away before it could join the ashes blanketing the ground.

  He stopped in the middle of what had once been a street, his arms pulled in at his sides, his fists balled in barely restrained fury.

  Broken stone and shattered walls were all that remained of the Center, and every other building in Ireltse’s capital city. But this wasn’t the deceptively sterile, pure-in-its-completeness annihilation caused by an anti-matter weapon like the one Pinchu had used to decimate Nengllitse.

  Instead, the city had been leveled by cluster bombs. Impelled shrapnel had ripped through the sandstone structures like they were butter, shredding every obstruction they encountered. The street beneath his feet was tinted a muted, rusty red. Sometime in the last several days, it had flowed a river of blood.

  In a burst of anger he grabbed the closest chunk of rubble and hurled it through the air. With nothing left standing high enough to halt its progress, it sailed far into the distance before smashing to the ground and fracturing into more dust. “Damn fool! Why couldn’t he listen? This didn’t have to happen….”

  “The house is gone, too. The cliff it sat on collapsed—was blown up, I guess. Most of the house is in pieces at the bottom of the canyon.”

  Alex knelt a few meters behind him. Her eyes were closed, and her voice sounded detached and monotone.

  He glanced around, shocked to discover the Siyane was nowhere to be seen. How had he missed it leaving? Probably something to do with the scenery distracting him. “You flew the ship over to the house?”

  She nodded slowly, without affectation.

  Valkyrie could’ve flown there herself; she didn’t need Alex’s guidance, much less her mind. Why—

  “I needed to see for myself. It was the most efficient way.” She opened her eyes and gave him a weary, desolate smile.

  “Reading my mind a new skill you picked up recently?”

  “I wish.” She sank down to rest on her heels. “My head hurts. I’m kneeling amidst a hundred thousand dead Khokteh, and all I can think is that my head hurts.”

  He crouched in front of her. “You could be suffering serious neurological trauma. You need to see a doctor…and you need to stop connecting to the ship until you feel better.”

  “I feel better when I connect to the ship.”

  “Alex….” His voice trailed off as a flare of blue-white light took shape behind her.

  She frowned and twisted around to see what had captured his attention. The Metigen completed its typically theatrical entrance, and its empyreal form came to rest above the bloodied street.

  Instantly she sprang to her feet and bum-rushed the alien. But there existed no physicality for her to attack, and she could only skid to a stop in the midst of the swirling lights.

  “You sons of bitches, all of you! Are you happy? You have your wanton devastation to feast on once again. Lap it up!”

  The alien’s presence grew agitated, and Caleb reached into the vortex to clutch her wrist. “Alex, we don’t even know if this is Iapetus. Maybe—”

  “Oh, it’s not. This is Mesme. And I don’t give a goddamn if this isn’t his realm. I’ve seen how they work, and they are all responsible for this atrocity.”

  It is true this is not my ‘realm,’ nor these creatures my focus. But in the ways which matter, you are not wrong.

  She must have shifted into the quantum space long enough to identify the Metigen’s ‘true avatar,’ as she’d characterized it. She was getting rather adept at moving in and out of the mystical dimension.

  So this was Mesme, then. Caleb worked to lessen the venom in his voice to a tolerable level. “Thank you for rescuing us at the portal, and protecting us at the lake.”

  Alex seethed. “Why did you bother, though? Does keeping us alive somehow make you feel better about all the carnage?”

  One has nothing to do with the other, and both were done for their own reasons.

  Okay, fine. He’d expressed his thanks, and he just wasn’t up to being polite on what had been a damn trying day, to put it mildly. “What reasons can there be for this? What justification could possibly exist to raise an entire species for slaughter? To give them reason and intellect and emotion, to let them love and dream and achieve, only to mercilessly cut them down like animals?”

  We did not ‘cut them down.’ They committed this bloodshed upon themselves.

  “Like your ships did all the killing for you when you attacked us. Not you. Never you. Never the taint of death on your elusive hands.” His anger over this massacre, still roiling and seeking its shape, adjusted targets easily enough from Pinchu and the Khokteh to the Metigens.

  “You have plans for us, some role we’re expected to play for you in the future. Answer the question, or we’re out. Why? What is the purpose of the Khokteh’s existence and their deliberat
e obliteration?”

  That is three questions.

  Alex screamed and lashed out at the points of light from within, desperate for something tangible to rage against. Caleb wrapped his arms around her from behind and coaxed her out while glowering at Mesme in loathing.

  Then he lessened his hold on her to a single hand. Together they turned their backs on the alien and began walking away.

  To learn how to battle. How to wage war.

  They stopped, but did not turn around.

  We have never been fighters, not in all our long aeons of existence. The fierceness, the survival instinct essential to battling—to defeating—a true foe is not part of who we are.

  So we study how to fight, how to kill and die. We study not one way to do so, but all possible ways, until we find one which can succeed.

  Caleb shared an admittedly intrigued glance with Alex, then looked over his shoulder. “Succeed how?”

  In the only manner one can succeed in a war against an oppressor: liberation.

  “You’re oppressed. You, who can build and eradicate entire universes on a whim.”

  Everything is relative, Caleb, and the circumstances are far more complicated than you realize.

  “Then explain them to us. Is it the Anaden who oppress you? Are they who you seek to overthrow?”

  Mesme churned in agitation. You know?

  “Know what? We know what they were intending to do to the Taenarin—”

  Enough. I have already said beyond what is prudent, and this is not my purpose today. I came here to you for another reason.

  I bring a message, albeit one delivered via a most unexpected method. Your presence has been requested in Aurora.

  Alex groaned. “Sukin syn, what’s happened now?”

  “Why do we bother, Caleb? Why pick up the pieces and glue the world back together if it’s just going to fall apart again the first time someone knocks it around a little? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

  “If we can’t change human nature in all its khrenovuyu stupidity, we’re simply banging our heads against the wall—hence the headache.”

  He found he didn’t have a good answer. Terrorists and governments hunting down the very people who had saved them from genocide? He appreciated that the Prevo technology was frightening; the new and unknown was always frightening.

  But trying to stamp something out for challenging the status quo had never worked, not for long. Another lesson people had forgotten more times than they’d learned it.

  And Miriam accused of treason? On the run? He couldn’t begin to fathom that one. Of course they would be returning, if for this reason alone.

  He put a hand on Alex’s hip and sighed; Mesme had departed, but they still stood amid the wreckage. “We need to consider—”

  “You bother because every now and then you do change the heart and mind of someone, even if it is far too late.”

  They both jumped in surprise as their translators squawked and Pinchu emerged from behind a wall of rubble.

  A smile broke across Caleb’s face, and Alex bolted for the Tokahe Naataan. He embraced her with enough vigor she let out an “Oof!”

  “Apologies, Alex Human. I forgot how puny you are.”

  “It’s okay.” She disentangled herself from his arms and squelched a grimace. “We thought you were dead.”

  “I nearly was, should be now and may yet still join my beloved Cassela.”

  He did look terrible. The fur on his left arm had been almost fully singed off, exposing bronze skin in patches. A thick bandage held his left shoulder in place, and his face was filthy with dirt and scratched to hell. “But some are alive? To be honest, seeing the level of destruction, we didn’t hold out much hope.”

  The Tokahe Naataan flinched and turned away, but found only ruin. “A few thousand, optimistically. We’ve been gathering survivors in a neighborhood to the south that was spared the worst. And there are other cities. Several were hit as well, but not all. Not yet.”

  “Was it the Tapertse?” The colonies supported smaller populations than the homeworld, and after the anti-matter weapon did its work he didn’t see how Nengllitse would have retained enough of a force to retaliate.

  “Indeed. You were right, Caleb Human. About everything. I should have asked for a shield. I should have fought to protect my people instead of inflicting vengeance on innocents. Now I drown in the blood of my shikei.”

  He stared at the debris, then shifted his gaze to Alex. “I saw you speaking with one of the Gods a moment ago. You truly are their emissary—unless you are their leader, to yell at one so freely.”

  “Oh, Pinchu, if you knew how far from the truth that was….” Her gaze had dropped to study the rubble at her feet, but now it rose high to meet Pinchu’s, her eyes lit with sudden fervor. “You need to make peace with the Tapertse. You need to bring an end to this war, or you will all die.”

  “At this rate, such an outcome won’t take so long…though we are nearly out of soldiers to use the weapons the Gods provide.”

  “No, you misunderstand. I’m not talking about you killing each other off thousands at a time. If you don’t stop fighting and soon, all this—” she waved an arm at the sky “—all the planets, stars and Khokteh alive today will vanish from the cosmos as if they never existed at all. This is what your gods have planned for you.”

  Her expression was stern enough to cower the mightiest warrior into submission, and Pinchu wilted beneath it. His gruff voice faltered. “You ask me to make peace with the monsters who did this?”

  She didn’t even look around at ‘this.’ “Yes. The alternative is extinction. There’s no coming back from that—no new weapon to fire when no one is left and you’ve no universe left to fire it in.

  “Pinchu, you have one last chance to stand up and say, ‘Stop. No more. We want to live.’ You can’t undo the past, but you can give your people a future.”

  He regarded them silently, then wandered several meters away to poke his feet at debris. “What if the Tapertse refuse to talk? How do I make them listen?”

  Caleb went over and clasped Pinchu on his intact shoulder. “We’ll help you.”

  51

  IRELTSE

  Kamen Portal Space

  * * *

  The temple on the outskirts of the city remained standing, not so much as a chink in its columns amid all the destruction wrought so near to it.

  Had Iapetus’ Tapertse incarnation warned its subjects not to defile religious landmarks? She absolutely would not put it past the Metigen to do exactly that.

  An ominous full moon bathed the temple in a crimson sheen, a reflection of the blood spilt at the behest of the entity it celebrated.

  Alex took Caleb’s hand in hers, and together they climbed the steps to the dais.

  They’d be returning home in the morning, later than they should but as soon as they dared, in the hope they could restore a measure of sanity to clearly insane people. But first there was one last matter to take care of here.

  She reached into the recess at the center of the long table and pressed the metal ring without fanfare.

  It took Iapetus longer to appear this time. The alien had probably not been expecting any additional summons. As before, the Metigen’s transformation into a vague Khokteh form halted on awareness of their presence.

  You do get around, don’t you, little fledglings. One can hardly keep up with all the commotion you’ve generated.

  Could the alien be more condescending? She stood tall to fix her glare on its pulsing lights. “That’s the idea. Now we’re here to make damn sure you see and acknowledge what’s happened here in the last several days. The Khokteh worlds have made peace with one another. Ireltse and Tapertse have laid down their weapons and agreed to help rebuild Nengllitse alongside their own cities. Their war is over.”

  For today, perhaps. Their brutal, violent disposition will not allow it to remain so for long.

  “
Maybe, maybe not, but we’ll all get to find out, because you will not shut this Enisle down. No one will—not you, not Lakhes or any other Metigen, not your Idryma. The Khokteh are under our protection.”

  What—

  “Here’s the thing: everyone deserves a chance to live. Not just those from Amaranthe. You—all of you Metigens—have never grasped this, but we are going to make you honor it nonetheless. Humanity will fight you to protect the lives of the Khokteh, and any other species you threaten. Now and forever.”

  She gulped in air, flush with righteous indignation and emboldened by Caleb’s encouraging touch at her waist. “We saved ourselves from the decimation you intended to mete out on us, and now we’ll do the same for others. Because life—the very existence of it—is precious, no matter where it came from or who created it.”

  Iapetus’ already nebulous form swelled and agitated around the dais.

  Who are you to believe you can make demands of the Idryma?

  She was aghast at the alien’s continued arrogance, but Caleb just smirked with a brazen, fierce certitude. It was beautiful. “We’re the people who are going to help you win your war. But you’re playing by our rules now.”

  You dare—

  A second Metigen arrived from the darkness in a rush of brilliant ice blue lights, displaying its winged form so distinctly she didn’t need to peer into the quantum space to confirm it was Mesme.

  Enough, Iapetus. It has been decided.

  Mesme shifted to face them directly. Caleb, Alexis, we accept your offer of assistance and, within reason, your terms for it. This Enisle will not be tampered with further. If the Khokteh perish in the future, it will truly be of their own doing.

  She squeezed Caleb’s hand, sensing his relief flow and merge with her own. “Then answer a few questions for us. Please. Who is your war against? Who are your oppressors?”

  There is no war today, only the dream of a future one—of a war which will free not merely the Katasketousya, but all beings of Amaranthe. Our oppressor is as you deduced: the Anaden. They have been so for many long aeons.