“You’re going to leave the fate of some three hundred million people to three defense arrays.”
It wasn’t a question, and Miriam had not phrased it as such. Clearly that was what she was going to do.
For a passing instant the weight on her shoulders threatened to send Eleni to her knees. The second largest colony in the Federation facing an assault by a madman wielding multiple fifty+MN weapons—and nukes. Seneca facing an assault by an alien force vast and powerful enough to wipe humanity from the galaxy. Their Hail Mary plan for victory was handing over control of their strongest weapons and the entirety of their fleets to a couple of unshackled Artificials and ‘altered’ humans, hoping they deigned to return the keys to the castles once the battle was won. If the battle was won.
These were the choices upon which the fate of humanity would hinge. So be it.
“It will take O’Connell weeks to kill a fraction of the population. I am leaving the temporary fate of a small portion of Krysk’s citizens and a slightly less small portion of its infrastructure in and around the capital city to three defense arrays. I have no other choice, for I must think of the billions before the thousands. Before even the millions. You above all people know everything depends on us defeating the aliens.”
Miriam’s nod of agreement, though unnecessary, was welcome. “We win the day, and I will do whatever is in my power to help you take him down.”
34
EARTH
EASC HEADQUARTERS
* * *
THE ENTIRETY OF CALEB’S ATTENTION had diverted to her mother’s discussion with Marshal Gianno the instant the word ‘Krysk’ was uttered, and thus Alex’s did as well. By the time the conference ended he was pacing furiously around the room.
Such tension and coiled violence. Interesting how human emotion manifests in physicality—the body serves the mind but not always the conscious one.
Alex had begun to be able to filter out the zettabytes of data and calculation threads streaming through Valkyrie’s mind, leaving solely the Artificial’s intentional thoughts on the edges of her perception. Together they were learning to separate their respective musings and impose a more conversational structure on their interaction. It was still a work in progress, however.
You can fill me in on your analysis of human behavior later. This is important.
I understand.
“They are seriously leaving Krysk defenseless?”
Miriam glanced up in surprise, as if she had forgotten they were there—understandable as they hadn’t planned to be for long. Caleb had met her at the workroom following the Council meeting, intending for them to seize a moment together ahead of the coming chaos.
“Marshal Gianno doesn’t see how they have any options other than to rely on the colony’s orbital arrays for defense. The entirety of her forces are committed to either slowing the aliens’ advancement or defending Seneca itself. The risk is too great that the aliens will arrive at Seneca before ships can get to Krysk, take out O’Connell and return—in which case those ships should stay at Seneca.”
Caleb acknowledged the information. “I need to talk to Isabela and tell her to get out.”
“Of course. I’ll be here.”
He stepped into the hallway, and she found her mother regarding her curiously. “His sister and niece live on Krysk. He’s close to his sister, but he’d want to protect them regardless.”
“Naturally.” Miriam frowned. “I am sorry. But objectively I can’t disagree with the Marshal’s decision. I’m sure Krysk’s arrays will hold O’Connell off. My understanding is they’re rather robust.”
“Maybe.” She suspected her mother knew the firepower specifications of the Krysk arrays down to the kilojoule but declined to call her on it. I don’t yet have access to this information, but I surmise she is correct as Krysk’s location and population make it an important colony for the Federation. She watched the door for his return. She wasn’t—
The door opened, and she instantly sensed the news wasn’t good. “What did she say?”
“That it’s impossible to leave. The spaceport is swamped by incoming flights and all ships have been devoted to evacuations from eastern colonies.” Abruptly he slammed a fist into the wall, leaving behind a dent and a streak of blood.
She jerked instinctively, but tried to recover as he pivoted to her. Coiled violence becomes actual violence—I wonder if—
She shut off the connection to Valkyrie. The silence was deafening, but she was growing more accustomed to the switch each time. She needed to be herself, real and whole and here for him now.
“This son of a bitch is going to be allowed to destroy the colony unopposed? To bomb civilians at will?”
“The defense arrays—”
“Screw the arrays! He found a way around them on Ogham, didn’t he?”
She stared at him mutely, for she didn’t have a response. The desperation in his countenance lay beneath the frustration and outrage, but she could see it just the same…and it was breaking her heart.
He didn’t deserve this, not now. It wasn’t fair. Isabela was the one part of his family and his past that remained untouched and unmarred. He had risked his life repeatedly in bids to save others, and now they were abandoning his family to suffer at the hands of a lunatic?
It wasn’t fair.
She wrapped her arms around him, halting his movement. He looked down and those beautiful, devastated eyes met hers.
“Alex, I don’t want to leave you to fight this battle alone—god how I don’t want to. But…” a hand came up to cup her cheek, and his thumb ran tenderly over her lips “…you’ll be okay. I believe in you. Listen, I need to try to save her. I need to find a way to get to her somehow. I’ll rent or borrow or steal a ship, and while I won’t beat O’Connell there, hopefully I can reach Krysk before he does too much damage and—”
The answer was startling, unquestionable and crystal clear in her mind. All the reasons it was also unthinkable rose up in a tsunami to carry it away, but she halted their advance. They represented another time, another life, a person she no longer was. Even so, she was a little surprised at the level of certainty she felt; there was no hesitation in her resolve.
The only thing he had ever asked of her was her trust, knowing it was perhaps the most difficult thing for her to give. He had earned it tenfold, risked it to ensure she lived and earned it a thousand-fold once more. She had given it to him in words; here was her opportunity to give it to him in deed.
She pressed a finger to his mouth, quieting his tirade. “Take my ship.”
His expression contorted through several stages of shock before a response made its way out of his throat. “What?”
“Take the Siyane.”
“Alex….” He swallowed hard. “Is this truly you? Or is this Valkyrie forcing the logical choice on you? I won’t take advantage of your lack of free will.”
She smiled softly. There had been no chance to get him alone since she awoke with an Artificial in her head, not so much as a few stolen minutes. There had been no opportunity to explain to him how it worked and all the parts she didn’t yet understand. And now she wouldn’t be able to do so unless…until they made it out the other side.
“Look at me, Caleb. Look at my eyes—it’s me. Only me. This is completely my decision. Take the Siyane. I’ll be traveling with the military so I won’t be using it. It’s by far the fastest ship you can put your hands on and your best chance at getting to Krysk in time. Plus, it’s invisible. You can sneak through, land, pick up your sister and her daughter, sneak back out and get them to safety.”
The corners of his mouth quirked up despite the struggle raging inside him. “Simple as that, huh?”
“Maybe not, but…you’re an astoundingly clever man, remember? You’ll make it happen. Just don’t…” her head shook the admonition aside “…you know what, no. Do anything you need to and everything you can. Caleb, you said you wanted to show me what I am to you. Let me show you what yo
u are to me.”
He regarded her with such unbounded gratitude and, she’d daresay, love. Her heart thrummed against her breastbone, brimming with pain, fear and compassion. “Alex, I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll come back alive.”
“And with your ship?”
“Say you’ll come back alive. It’s all I want, and everything I want.” Her skin felt flush—she had become increasingly attuned to such things even when Valkyrie wasn’t in her head—but she was not going to cry, dammit. She’d already cried twice in the last month, which exceeded her quota for the entire damn decade.
“I will. Will you?”
“No doubt about it. I—” His lips were on hers, fierce and impassioned and eloquently saying all the things there was no longer time to say.
She reveled in the sensations overwhelming her until another second and she would no longer be able to let him go, then wrenched away.
“Go! You’re wasting time. And why don’t you take Noah with you? He’s miserable here and you need someone to watch your back.”
He exhaled raggedly as he began retreating toward the door, drawing his hand along her arm until only their fingertips touched. “I’ll see you soon? After you remind these aliens why they were right to fear you by grinding them to dust under your oddly-buckled boot, baby.”
She laughed, praying for it not to devolve into a sob. “It’s a date.”
Then she watched him leave.
She had thought he’d be with her during the clashes to come, because with him at her side she had always believed they stood a chance. But she didn’t begrudge him this choice, for she recognized he could have made no other choice.
Finally she blinked away the blurriness mucking up her vision and turned from the door—and found her mother staring at her in outright disbelief. “Yes?”
“You gave him your ship.”
“I know I did. Let’s not make a big deal out of it, all right? It’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.”
“Not a big deal. Understood.”
She faked a glare. “Oh, shut up.”
“I didn’t—”
Kennedy burst into the room. “How could you tell Caleb to take Noah? Dammit, he’s not a soldier or a super-spy, and they will get themselves killed!”
Oops. Probably should have considered Kennedy’s feelings on the matter before suggesting it. “I thought he might want the help?”
Her mother had activated a new display but apparently felt the need to contribute. “She didn’t merely give him Noah—she gave him the Siyane.”
Kennedy’s eyes widened; her jaw dropped until her chin dallied on her chest. “You….”
She grimaced and offered a weak shrug. “I did, I really did.”
Kennedy’s face scrunched up she tried to absorb the information. “Well, I guess you must think they’ll be safe or you never would have let them take your ship, right?”
Alex nodded with professed conviction. “Absolutely.”
My god I have no idea please let him be safe and I can’t do anything to influence his fate and now I have to concentrate on defeating a metric fuckton of alien machines and saving the damn galaxy and I honestly didn’t see any of this coming when I decided to visit Metis and now I’m thinking like Valkyrie all on my own….
35
SCYTHIA
EARTH ALLIANCE COLONY
* * *
COLONEL JENNER: COPELAND, FAHRION, I’m tracking a superdreadnought pulling off the cluster in the southwest corner of Quadrant Two, probably going for the approaching array node. We need to protect it.
Lt. Colonel Duan (EAS Copeland): We’ll distract it for you while the Orion gets in position.
“Helmsman Paena, as soon as the Copeland and Fahrion initiate firing on target designated X17, slip us beneath and into a synchronous orbit with array node B8. Comms, request targeting lock by node B8 on X17. Firing to commence on my order.”
The strategy worked well when it was able to be executed, which was rarely. Too many ships, too many active engagements. But he’d caught this one and did not intend on letting it go.
Malcolm worked diligently to keep a realistic outlook in all matters—one always on the watch for prospects for hopefulness but informed by logic and the facts available to him at any given time.
As he examined the situation out the viewport and considered the state of affairs…he thought they were winning.
The Alliance had seen some victories to the south, particularly at Sagan and Xanadu. But despite being widely considered the strongest regional command, the NE forces had yet to beat the aliens into submission. They needed a victory here today—and perhaps they would have one.
The superdreadnought trained its weapons on the frigates as they began peppering its stern, and the Orion accelerated toward Scythia’s upper atmosphere. In a move worthy of a far smaller, lighter craft, it reversed thrusters and pivoted to adopt a counter-orbital trajectory in sync with the array node just below and to their starboard. He waited as their bearing to the superdreadnought shifted degree by degree.
“On my mark…fire.” The Orion’s lasers shot forth from beneath the viewport in a parallel trajectory to the node’s weaponry to slam into the hull of the alien vessel. The shield strength had been concentrated on the opposite side in response to the frigates’ assault. Now it flipped to this side—specifically, to the location of the node weapon’s impact as it delivered far more power than the Orion’s. This left weakened shielding to protect against the Orion’s fire as well as less to ward against the frigates’ barrage.
Evidence of the shield’s fluctuations as it tried to fend off four separate assaults could be seen in the relative splashing of the lasers and shimmers across the hull. The Orion cracked the hull first, the array last.
“Paena, get us clear. Comms, notify Scythia Terrestrial Defense to be on alert for debris making it through the atmosphere intact.”
Colonel Jenner: Copeland, Fahrion, excellent work.
It wasn’t only excellent work—it also felt damn good. Yes, Malcolm decided, they were definitely winning.
Even amidst the continuing chaos in every direction, it was impossible to miss the arrival of the EAS Churchill as it dropped out of superluminal above the arc of Scythia’s profile.
Admiral Rychen: It looks as though we’ve almost missed all the fun. Thank you for leaving a few enemy ships for us to play with.
Laughter rippled across the channel at Rychen’s jest. It was a good morale booster—and it was good Rychen had arrived on the scene. The aliens had destroyed sixty percent of the array nodes by this point, so they could sorely use the firepower of a dreadnought in order to maintain the precarious advantage they currently held in the conflict. In fact, the Churchill may permanently tip the balance in their favor.
Rychen wasted no time in entering the fray, diving 40° and joining one of the cruisers and two frigates in engaging a superdreadnought in the upper left corner of Quadrant One, opposite the field from the Orion. A multitude of lasers lit the sky to transform the backdrop of space to a vibrant platinum.
If Rychen had wanted to make a dramatic entrance, he succeeded in doing so. The force of weaponry directed at the superdreadnought instantly quadrupled, and in less than ten seconds it ripped apart from bow to stern. Though the encounter was relatively distant, Malcolm still instinctively readied himself for the secondary explosion to wash out the field of battle.
As expected, the explosion surged outward to overtake the entire scene. The thousands of swarmers littering the field vanished in the blinding glare.
As the ubiquitous light faded he blinked away the halos and peered out the viewport to consider his next target—
All the alien vessels were gone.
Shouts and exclamations erupted on the bridge and across the comms, but Malcolm merely stared out at the suddenly vacant space and the planet below, a view now marred only by floating debris and a host of very confused Alliance vessels. A large swath of cl
ouds shifted to reveal the pale teal waters of Scythia’s oceans glittering in the sunlight, peaceful and idyllic.
He knew he should feel relief and arguably pride at having played a part in saving the people who lived on the planet below. And he was beyond glad they lived. But why had the Metigens departed, and so abruptly? Had they run when they realized they were going to lose, making the decision to save their remaining ships much as he and Rychen had done at Messium? Were they moving on to a more important battle? Would they return in a few minutes, taking the Alliance contingent by surprise?
Admiral Rychen: Well isn’t that interesting.
Malcolm didn’t have to strain to detect the frustration in Rychen’s voice on the command channel.
Colonel Jenner: This is new behavior, correct?
Admiral Rychen: It is. Even at our most decisive victories—Xanadu, Henan—they fought to nearly the last ship.
Commodore Escarra: Maybe your presence frightened them away, Admiral.
Rychen indulged the brief levity. If only I were so lucky. I could leap around the galaxy, striking a mighty terror into the enemy and sending them scurrying in waves back through their portal.
Colonel Jenner: I would certainly pay to see that—but I doubt I’ll get the opportunity. Assuming they don’t materialize in the next several minutes to take us by surprise, the question becomes: did they flee to save their remaining ships or because they have someplace better to be?
Admiral Rychen: I’m not so sure it’s an either-or proposition, Colonel. My gut tells me they fled to save their remaining ships because they have someplace better to be.
Rychen switched to the fleet-wide channel. All vessels continue in orbit on full alert for the next hour. If the Metigens do not reappear by that time, 10th Regiment stay here to guard Scythia. All other vessels rendezvous at the provided coordinates in the Aquila stellar system and await further orders.
Transcendence: Aurora Rising Book Three Page 24