Echo Rift

by G. S. Jennsen

  The fact that the ring was a dead world built by a dead species made her heart ache. For every glorious wonder sapient beings built, it seemed fiends eagerly waited to tear it all down.

  Reason enough to hate the Rasu, I think.

  We didn’t need another reason on top of the thousand we’ve amassed, but yes. Reason enough, Valkyrie.

  Alex brought the Siyane to a relative stop half a megameter above one edge of the ring and initiated a thorough systems check. Whatever insidious metal-disintegrating weapon was at work here, she did not plan on allowing it to damage her ship.

  Caleb sat with his elbows propped on his chair’s armrests and his hands fisted at his chin, his attention focused on the ring. She’d seen the pose a hundred times, but it had been some time since it had made an appearance, and she was glad for its return.

  “Lamenting all that must have been lost here?”

  “Thinking about how we can make certain this never happens to us.”

  Even better. “We’ll find a way. Valkyrie, are we detecting anything that can account for the corrosive effects Corradeo and Nyx experienced while they were visiting?”

  ‘There is a faint but pervasive radiation field present here that doesn’t correlate to the star’s output or other regional characteristics. It will take some time to fully catalog and analyze its effects.’

  “Before we get to any potential effect on the adiamene—and we definitely should test its tolerance—will the new shielding protect us from the field?”

  ‘I need to make a slight adjustment in the frequency oscillation of the shield to create a more fulsome barrier. A moment…done. I’m sending you a record of the changes I made, as you will need to recreate them on your personal shields before you venture outside.’

  “You’re the best.” She glanced at Caleb. “Are you ready to land and go exploring?”

  He pondered the question, then shook his head. “First, let’s take a survey of the ring and, if you don’t mind, the whole stellar system. I want to try to create an image in my head of what might have happened here.”

  She was anxious to put boots on a hard surface, but if he was engaged in the mystery, she was not going to shut him down. “We can do that.” The systems check came back nominal, and she opened up all the ship’s recording instruments to full.

  They cruised above the ring until they reached the point where it had been sheared away for more than a quarter of its original circumference. “In her report, Nyx speculates that this destruction occurred a minimum of two centuries ago.”

  ‘I concur. In fact, based on a preliminary analysis, it appears to have occurred between three and five hundred years in the past.’

  In her head, Alex scanned through the measurements Valkyrie was basing her pronouncement on—for her own edification, since it wasn’t as if she expected to find an error. “Without the support of a fully bounded structure and the stable orbit it maintained, I suspect the missing portion of the ring has already fallen into the star. In fact, the ring’s orbit is decaying badly, as the two open ends are being inexorably dragged toward the star. Valkyrie, do you want to spin some spare cycles on analyzing the ring’s orbital angular momentum to extrapolate backward and estimate more precisely when the attack occurred?”

  ‘Doing so will require a lot of spare cycles.’

  She chuckled lightly. “Maybe when we get home, then. While we’re here, concentrate on solving the mystery of this corrosive radiation field, along with anything else we uncover that’s out of the ordinary.”

  They sought out the destroyed moons of the gas giant Corradeo had mentioned to Nika and found them as described: shredded into jagged chunks of plagioclase and pyroxene rocks. In one case, an otherwise intact satellite had taken a blast straight through to its molten core, leaving a steady stream of solidified iron trailing behind its orbit.

  Caleb’s visible interest only intensified as they surveyed the damage. “There’s only one controllable force I’ve ever encountered that can cause such destruction: diati.”

  “Or a Tartarus Trigger.”

  He shot her a smirk. “Fine. Two forces. But unless it was focused, tiny and quickly extinguished, a black hole would have consumed the gas giant as well.”

  “Are you saying you think someone used diati here? This happened before The Displacement, so it’s theoretically possible.”

  He stared intently out the viewport, eyes narrowed and jaw set. A muscle beneath his cheek flexed. “It is, but…no, I doubt diati is responsible. I’m saying the Rasu have far more powerful weapons at their disposal than what they’ve shown to us so far.”

  “Or the Ourankeli did. Exotic weaponry could have inflicted this much damage if it was activated beneath the surface.”

  “Why would they destroy their own habitats?”

  She shrugged. “Collateral damage? A scorched earth campaign? Utter desperation?”

  He huffed a breath. “All viable theories. Are we picking up any traces of Ourankeli structures in the area?”

  “Nothing. If a structure was smaller than a moon, I don’t think it exists any longer.”

  “What about their homeworld? Before the ring? Do we know anything about it? How many terrestrial planets are there in the system?”

  She gazed at him rather than answer, a bright smile growing upon her lips in time to the spreading warmth in her chest. “Hi.”

  He tilted his head to regard her curiously. Then, as understanding dawned, his expression softened and he dropped out of his chair to his knees. Just as he’d done years ago when they launched themselves through a portal and into the unknown for the first time. “I am so, so sorry. I know I haven’t always been as attentive as I should be—”

  “No.” She fell to her knees in front of him. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. It’s only…this is the first time it’s felt like you’re really here, really present, on the ship and engaged in the mission, in a…little while. So…” she grinned, keeping her countenance light and teasing even as her heart overflowed “…hi.”

  His hands came to her jaw, and his lips brushed exquisitely across hers. “Hi, baby.”

  Their trajectory jerked to port, and she reluctantly glanced up in time to see a ten-meter chunk of lunar debris sail past. “Thanks, Valkyrie.”

  Caleb’s gaze returned to the viewport as well, and she pressed his hand into her cheek briefly before climbing to her feet and returning to her chair. Where were they? “We, um, don’t have any information on the original Ourankeli homeworld, but the report says they harvested both local terrestrial worlds for materials to build the ring. Presumably not down to the core, though. They might still exist in gutted form.”

  She scanned the hyperspectral imaging output for markers of orbiting bodies closer to the star. “There. We’ve got a planet-sized object 1.3 AU out.” Her attention returned to the emerald gas giant dominating the viewport. “I don’t think we’re going to find any answers out here.”

  Caleb nodded in agreement as he settled back into his chair, and she adopted an intercept course for the planet they’d identified. “How are the systems holding up, Valkyrie?”

  ‘This field is most persistent. I am successfully keeping its corrosive effects out, but it requires constant readjustment of the parameters of our shielding.’

  “Then I’m glad you’re here to do the heavy lifting.” She let her mind wander across the readings arriving from the plethora of sensors. A battle for the ages had been waged across this system. The kind of battle that Concord hoped to be able to not merely muster but win against the Rasu when the time came. But this battle had left the system uninhabitable by anyone—Ourankeli, Rasu, any microbes that had once lived on the various planets. It was possible no one had won the day here, but unquestionably the Ourankeli had lost.

  The planet in question came into view, looking as desolate and barren as everything else in the system. Once a rocky super-Earth, the planet had been stripped to the mantle as surely as if a Theriz Cultiv
ation Unit had come through scavenging for materials. Its decaying orbit would send it plummeting into the star not long after the ring burnt up.

  An alarm pealed through the cabin. ‘I am detecting Rasu signatures.’

  “Active ones? Here?” She leapt into action, opening a spread of screens across the HUD and tossing several Caleb’s way.

  ‘The signatures are weak, and they appear to be drifting in a natural orbit instead of moving under active control.’

  She studied the radar until she had confirmed what Valkyrie saw. The Rasu signatures were clustered in a loose grouping about ninety megameters distant from the nearby planet. “Stealth to full and Dimensional Rifter engaged. Let’s ease in and see what’s up with the bastards.”

  On the visible light spectrum, the Rasu formations were practically invisible against the void, and their electrical signals were barely stronger than ambient background noise. In the far-infrared band, where Rasu typically shone brightest, only faint signals registered on the instruments.

  After much tweaking of the sensor settings, the objects finally resolved into fourteen separate Rasu…blobs, honestly. They ranged in size from thirty meters to almost one hundred forty meters in length. They lacked form or definition, however, instead resembling pools of semi-solid metal, not unlike the leaking lunar molten core they’d observed earlier.

  Caleb frowned darkly. “Are they dead?”

  “I think so, or as near to dead as they can be without being atomized. There’s only minimal electrical output and no other techno-signatures. We’re not picking up anything identifiable as purposeful activity.”

  “So this is what the Ourankeli weapon did to them. Rendered them incapable of practical operation.”

  ‘Based on initial scans, I would posit that the weapon prevented them from changing shapes or functionality and from combining or separating.’

  “It looks as if it prevented them from holding any purposeful shape at all. These aren’t ships any longer. They’re messy globules at best.” Alex watched as one of the smaller blobs floated languidly by a few hundred meters from the Siyane. She’d witnessed Rasu ships in action—and Rasu foot-soldiers—and this one genuinely did look dead. “We could grab a sample and take it back for Special Projects to analyze.”

  Caleb arched an eyebrow, his eyes twinkling in challenge.

  “Hey, the Asterions managed to capture a living Rasu, bring it to Mirai and talk to it.”

  “I don’t think these Rasu are in any shape to talk. Still, though. How about we send a Special Projects HazMat team here and let them take the sample?”

  “Okay.” She rolled her eyes in mock annoyance, but she didn’t argue. Over the years she’d transported dozens of dangerous or at least mysterious materials in the hull of the Siyane. But the truth was, the notion of having a Rasu onboard, even a mostly dead Rasu secured in a sealed and quarantined container, made her shiver.

  Caleb waved a hand at the viewport, as if to say he was done with this scene. “The question is, what broke the ring? The same weapon that gutted those moons, or a concentrated burst of this anti-Rasu field? Were the Rasu winning the battle before the Ourankeli deployed their doomsday weapon, or did the Ourankeli inflict catastrophic damage on themselves simply to take the Rasu down with them?”

  Visions of what the battle might have involved danced through her mind, though the scale of the destruction suggested she had no proper frame of reference—not even the massive, sprawling final battle against the Kats’ superdreadnoughts almost two decades earlier.

  “I do not know. How about we land on the ring near where it’s sheared away and see if we can dig up some answers?”

  32

  * * *

  PANDORA

  Mia rubbed at her weary eyes as the customer began his third circuit of the displays. Enzio Vilane had joined the parade of violent faces in her nightmares, and even with Meno’s caring ministrations, she was getting less sleep than ever.

  Twice the customer had picked up an item and fondled it in his grasp for several seconds before putting it down. He wasn’t a real buyer, but he might very well be a shoplifter or, worse, casing the store for a later robbery.

  If this was his plan, he’d find an unhappy surprise waiting when he executed on it. Her security system was rather robust.

  Finally she stepped out from behind the counter. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re closing. You’re welcome to return tomorrow.”

  “Oh.” He glanced over at her as if surprised. “I may do so. Thank you.” He turned and mercifully exited the store.

  Her shoulders sagged. All she wanted to do was drag herself to the apartment, heat up some noodles, take a steaming hot bath and finish off a bottle of wine. She shut down the store’s computer system, killed the overhead lights and went to lock the front door for the night—

  —the door opened beneath her hand, and something big and bulky slammed into her face. Bolts of pain shot up through her nose straight into her brain, and she stumbled backward.

  Move! To your left!

  Meno’s order overwhelmed the pain, and she ducked left as a thick arm swung for her gut. It ricocheted off her shoulder, but then someone was behind her, grabbing her arms and yanking her back against a barrel chest. Hot breath assaulted her ear. “You should have gone along to get along, missy. Now you’ll have to pay with more than credits.”

  A shadow filled the open doorway. Its profile was muscled, wiry and dominated by gleaming silver irises. It pointed a Daemon at her chest. “The boss wants to have a word with you.”

  Reverb code!

  It had been years since she’d used it to take out an Anaden assassin on Nopreis, but the required actions sprung fully formed in her mind. She squinted at the shadow, focusing in on the center of its head.

  The shadow convulsed and collapsed to the floor.

  “What the hell?” Her assailant’s grip on her loosened in surprise at seeing his comrade fall, and she elbowed him beneath his ribcage then wrenched away to lurch toward the interior of the store. If she could reach the office and storage room, she’d be able to escape through the rear—

  —laser fire streaked centimeters to the left of her ear, and she lunged to the right, slamming into the corner of the counter. The collision spun her around, and she saw the assailant steady his Daemon on her.

  Hands reached around the man from behind, grabbed his head and—snap.

  The man fell to the floor in a heap, revealing a new shadowy figure behind him. This one, though, she would recognize from across the galaxy.

  Malcolm leapt over the body and rushed toward her. “My God, Mia. Are you hurt?”

  Her heart swelled to block any words from escaping her throat, and she flung herself into his embrace.

  Warmth. Strength. Alive, heart racing. Alive.

  He held her tight against him. A cocoon of safety, where nothing could ever harm her. Her chin lifted, and his lips crushed hers.

  She’d thought she’d never feel this again. This, her greatest wish during those agony-filled days when she’d believed him dead—one more embrace, one more kiss, one more murmured endearment, one more second to feel his arms secure around her. It was like coming home, like every dream fulfilled.

  But ‘one more’ was never going to be enough. She knew this now. Every touch, every breath, was tainted by the knowledge that one day they would come to an end, forever. Another attacker could appear in the doorway and shoot him dead in her arms this instant. Forever.

  She summoned all the anger and frustration that had consumed her for so long and pushed against his chest, stumbling out of his embrace.

  His gaze took her in, eyes full of love and fear and adrenaline. “Are you all right?”

  “I…I think my nose might be broken. Yes, Meno says it’s broken. But I’m fine.” Her voice sounded nasally and borderline hysterical. Don’t be hysterical. Now more than ever before, you have to be strong.

  “Let me get you a rag…” he glanced around “…I don�
�t know where anything is.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” She grabbed her jacket off the counter chair and blotted at her nose.

  “What happened here?”

  “I picked a fight with the local cartel. Probably shouldn’t have done that.”

  He looked incredulous and a little confused. “No, probably not. I’ve been so worried about you.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “I got a message saying you were running a store here in The Approach.”

  “From whom?” Caleb wouldn’t have betrayed her trust. He’d never do it.

  “She didn’t say not to tell you, so…Morgan Lekkas.”

  Goddamn her. Her mind started to jump through the possible ways Morgan could have known, but there were many, and it no longer mattered. Malcolm was standing in front of her. All she’d ever wanted, and all she never dared have again.

  He reached out for her. “Come here.”

  She took a shaky step back, farther out of his reach. “Thank you for the most timely save, but you need to go.”

  “I…what? No! I am so sorry for everything I put you through. I understand why you’re upset, and I can’t imagine how terrible things must have been for you. But I’m here now, and we can fix all this. So let’s go home, okay? Let’s go home and talk things through.”

  “Malcolm, you lied to me—about your will, about the neural imprints. About always coming back to me. You looked me in the eye and you held my hand and you lied to me.”

  His chin dropped to his chest. “I did. I couldn’t…I’m sorry. I’ll try to explain, if you’ll just come home with me. Please. I love you, and I’ve missed you so much.”

  She shook her head, which sent a fresh round of blood gushing out of her nose. “You don’t love me enough to come back to me.”

  “I’ve come back to you now. I’m standing right here.”

  “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”