Though his alien contact had always conveyed the impression of being evolved to a ‘higher’ level of existence, he’d never bought it and now his suspicion had been confirmed. Hyperion exhibited impatience, irritation and, most interestingly, fear.
The aliens were fallible after all. They were flawed. Of course everyone was flawed, if they believed themselves alive. It was a defect of the condition.
59
EARTH
EASC HEADQUARTERS
* * *
IT WAS EARLY MORNING IN VANCOUVER when the EAS Orion docked. A bright dawn sun gleamed outside, so far as Noah could tell through the occasional viewport he passed on the way to disembark.
A shuttle would be waiting on them for the trip to wherever EASC Headquarters was located. They were scheduled to meet some important people before handing over the data and materials to other, different important people who would dissect it and study it to determine how yet other important people might use it to fight the aliens.
He was twitchy, approaching nervous. He wanted to help, but having succeeded in getting valuable intel into hands he hoped were the right ones, he didn’t see any particular way he could. And this was not his gig.
He made his living as a black-market tech dealer and a smuggler. He did not belong inside the heart of Alliance military command, even if his genes suggested otherwise.
The security databases shouldn’t have him flagged for immediate arrest, but anyone who looked closely stood a good chance of realizing he was not precisely an upstanding Alliance citizen. Still, since he hadn’t as of yet found the opportunity to flee he would play it cool until he did.
He had hardly seen Kennedy at all in the three day trip. She had been in Medical, after which she’d huddled with Colonel Jenner and some techies studying and organizing the data and material they had. That was followed by conferences with other—or perhaps the same—important people. And if she was anything like him, he assumed she had slept a great deal.
He’d nearly decided whatever attraction or connection he imagined had sparked between them had in reality consisted of nothing more than adrenaline and fear spiking in a life-or-death situation.
Then she stepped out of the lift.
Naturally all traces of dirt and blood had been excised from her person. Her hair now shone an almost luminescent golden blond and hung in soft curls over one shoulder and down her back. Her face was scrubbed clean and other than a tiny scratch on her forehead glowed the color of honey. Sea green eyes sparkled beneath minimal but flattering makeup. She wore form-fitting workout pants and a navy Alliance t-shirt. Borrowed clothes he imagined, but on her they may as well have come straight out of a couture house.
She carried herself with the kind of confidence that only came from a lifetime of true wealth and privilege. But she was beaming and as vivacious as he’d ever seen her.
He was so royally fucked.
“Noah!” She jogged across the bay and grabbed him in a fierce hug. “I’ve hardly seen you. I was getting worried.”
He shrugged mildly and forced himself to take a step back. “I’ve been around, skulking about and hoping no one noticed me. Made a couple of friends down on the lower decks.”
“Well—” An officer indicated for them to follow him to the shuttle, cutting off further conversation.
The trip was short, so much so he would have rather walked. Three-plus days on a military ship, even a cruiser, had left him feeling vaguely claustrophobic and itching for fresh air. It looked to be very pleasant outside.
He’d visited Earth several times, but never Vancouver. It seemed nice. Cool, green and shining. Though they were on a military base, it seemed peaceful. Parsecs away from the hell that had been Messium.
Upon exiting the shuttle it was a few steps to a lift and then a lobby sporting tight security. Still having no opportunity to flee, he tensed through two separate checkpoints and didn’t relax until they stood on yet another lift. Kennedy gave him a nudge.
“We’ll be meeting with the research team in a few minutes but the Chairwoman of the EASC Board wants to see us, so we’re going up there first.”
“Terrific.” This must be his worst nightmare…well, second worst after Messium anyway.
The lift finally stopped and their escort showed them into a conference room. Military officers were scattered around the room engaged in conversations.
Kennedy bolted for a woman wearing admiral’s bars and reviewing a handheld screen at the front of the room. When she reached the woman they embraced warmly.
“Miriam, it is so good to see you again.”
Terrific. It wasn’t enough she was on a first-name basis with the captain of their cruiser, she was also on a first-name basis with the leader of the Alliance Armed Forces. He was so far out of his league it bordered on absurdity.
What had he been thinking? He shrank against the wall and tried to be invisible.
“Kennedy, I can’t tell you how happy I am you made it off Messium unharmed. Have you heard from Alexis?”
“Not since a few days after the bombing, I’m afraid.”
“Do you have any idea where she is?”
He saw Kennedy’s face darken under a somber frown. “Miriam…they went through the portal.”
The admiral’s expression, formerly warm but composed, collapsed into despair. Her eyes briefly squeezed shut and he noted her chest heave from a deep sigh. “When?”
As near as he’d managed to piece together, Caleb was dating Kennedy’s best friend, with whom he had discovered the aliens in the Metis Nebula, tried to warn everyone, gotten framed for terrorism for the effort, and fled through the aliens’ portal in search of answers. He knew the guy lived on the edge, but damn.
“A little over two weeks ago. I think they hoped to learn where the aliens came from, or who they are, or what they want. Anything that would help.”
The woman nodded deliberately and appeared to forcibly put herself back together. Her shoulders rose and a formal guise descended over her features. “At least it means the reason she’s unreachable isn’t because she’s…well. You’ll contact me the second you hear from her, won’t you?”
“Absolutely. Let’s not dwell on it right now—but I want you to know something. The last time I saw her she said she trusted you to not let her problems interfere with your ability to defend against the aliens. She trusted you to protect us until she could return. She may not tell you that herself, but I will.”
Kennedy shifted her bearing then, and he could no longer discern the woman’s expression. But her voice was far more hesitant than before. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me.”
“Of course. Do you—oh! Before we discuss the communications issues, I need to tell you about this new metal Alex created. The strength and conductive properties are off the charts. We should be using it to repair our ships. We should be using it to build our ships.”
He closed his eyes and let the conversation fade to the background. He didn’t belong here. He needed to go.
Where, he didn’t know. Just because Caleb had been cleared of the bombing didn’t mean Zelones wasn’t still gunning for him. The organization tended to hold grudges. It surprised him when for the briefest second he thought about going home…but he couldn’t. Besides, Aquila lay to the east and was liable to be hit by the aliens any day now. He was not going through that again.
Atlantis? A lounge chair and a steady supply of tropical drinks sounded pretty good about now.
He groaned under his breath. He couldn’t exactly sip frozen cocktails on a beach while the entirety of civilization was under assault, could he? Screw his pain in the ass conscience….
Demeter was close; he’d been told it was an attractive place. Maybe he’d find out.
He reopened his eyes for a last glimpse of Kennedy. She remained deeply engrossed in conversation with her admiral friend and plainly in her element. He had gotten her safely home. He felt good about that. It would have to be enough.
He swallowed hard and slipped out the door.
Noah had almost reached the end of the long hallway when her shout echoed behind him. “Hey!”
Before he could stop himself he was turning in the direction of Kennedy’s voice.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Eh….” He found he was ambling back down the hall even as his brain screamed at him to amble the other way. “I don’t really do military, so I thought I’d go on and head out. I’m glad I was able to help you get here, though. Good luck with the aliens, and if we survive this feel free to look me up on your next vacation.”
“Good luck with the aliens? You are such a prick.”
He finally succeeded in slowing to a stop five meters from her. “Yeah, I am. I thought you’d figured that out by now.”
“Stay.”
“What? Why?”
Her brow furrowed up, as if it constituted the lamest question she had ever heard. “Because I like you. You’re handy to have around.”
Oh, hell, no. “Listen, I am not your ‘beck and call’ boy.”
“Would you…consider it?”
“Consider it?” He laughed; it sounded harsh to his ears. “Thank you for making this easy. Forget what I said. Don’t look me up on your next vacation. Nice knowing you, Blondie.”
He threw a dismissive wave in her direction and pivoted to leave.
“Noah, wait. I didn’t mean consider being my…’beck and call’ boy, whatever that is. I meant consider staying.”
His mouth contorted into a grimace, but his body turned in her direction once more.
Vivid green eyes glittered with what seemed a lot like hope. “For a while? See what happens?”
Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit. He gathered up his last sliver of fortitude and brandished a pale imitation of his most dashing smile. “Thanks for the offer, but I need to get out of here.”
He spun so he wouldn’t have to know whether the hope disappeared and hurried down the hallway—
—and found himself shoved against the wall. Kennedy’s hands wound into his hair and her lips hovered a breath from his.
“You are the most infuriating, confounding man I have ever met, and you damn well better not run away from me.”
Then her mouth was on his. She was the single most delicious luxury he had ever tasted. Ambrosia soaked in champagne couldn’t hope to compare.
Wealthy heiress, talented engineer, friend to admirals, spirited, determined survivor with a heart of gold. What in the devil’s name was he getting himself into?
His arms encircled her waist as he suddenly felt the intense desire to make sure she didn’t run away from him.
When she finally allowed him to come up for air, he remembered how that dashing smile worked for real. “I guess I don’t have any really pressing engagements….”
Her eyes searched his as if she was trying to decide whether more extreme measures would be required. “So you’ll stay then?”
Oh yes. He nodded. “I’ll stay.”
Her face lit up with a radiance that was definitely the most enchanting sight he had ever seen.
He was so royally, gloriously fucked.
60
SIYANE
UNCHARTED SPACE
* * *
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
Caleb glanced up at her from the floor, where he had spread the orbs he had liberated, a signal scope, two crates of non-perishables and his sword. “I am going to crack one of these babies open and figure out how to switch it on.”
He secured one of the orbs between the crates, picked up the sword, eyeballed the angle once and swung.
“Ahh!” Alex leapt back as the crates skidded in opposite directions across the cabin. But they had done their job, and on the floor lay two pieces of the orb, sliced clean in half.
He tossed a smirk in her direction and picked one of the sections up. “See? It worked.”
“Caleb, you can’t turn it on inside the ship! It’ll rip us to shreds. Oh….” She crouched down next to him. “Mesme was right, you know. You are an astoundingly clever man.”
When he saw the glint in her eyes he briefly considered tearing her clothes off right there in the middle of the floor. Regrettably they were short on time, especially considering they were currently drifting around in some other universe’s lobby.
“I am, or I will be if I can puzzle out how to turn it on. You know, without actually turning it on.”
She settled fully onto the floor beside him and curled her legs beneath her. “The factory was mammoth in size. We have, what, four of these—or three if this one’s wrecked? Do you really think it’ll be enough?”
“That field threw the Siyane four hundred kilometers in under a second. It’ll be enough.” He paused, identifying a possible flaw in the plan. “You do have remote sensors or probes or something launchable on board, don’t you?”
In the corner of his vision she rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “Yes, I have a couple of those.”
“Good. Now I suspect these little guys were supported by one another and the larger field being generated, like an interlocking lattice. When I removed each of them from their slot in the network, they shut down. So we need to either simulate the connection, or trick it into believing the field is active.”
“I think tricking it is the more viable option, for it and my ship.”
“Probably.” He studied the internal layout of the orb. Physically it was nothing like any circuitry a human would or ever had designed, but it was circuitry. Strands of a form of photal fiber wove in intricate patterns, interconnected at nodes and fed into a tiny euhedral crystal in the center.
The question now was which one maintained the power signal. He disconnected the strands from the crystal and grabbed the scope.
“Caleb….”
“It’s fine. I’ve disconnected the power source. It can’t switch on now.” He touched the probe tip to each strand and studied the readouts. Most of the results were crazy complicated, but he was searching for the one which was a simple on/off.
On the second-to-last strand, he found it.
He exhaled, relieved. No way should this have rightfully worked. Then he gave Alex an imploring gaze. “I need a few more tools.”
Identifying the nature of the signal which constituted ‘on,’ replicating it in the ship’s signaling system and attaching the orbs to one of the remote probes she used to take asteroid samples took an hour and change. Of course this was still an hour as it passed here, which meant in reality it took an eternity. But it was the best plan they had.
“Ready?”
He strapped into his cockpit chair. “Oh so ready.”
She retraced their path and reopened the portal back to their lobby. He braced himself against the expected vertigo as they flew through, but it was still dizzying to the point of nausea.
Alex growled beside him and set a course for the ship factory, then stood. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go vomit real fast.”
His hand shot out to grasp her arm. “Hey…you all right?”
She flashed him a weak smile, but her face had blanched. “Fabulous.” She no more looked fabulous than he imagined he did, but he nodded and let her go.
By the time she returned they had almost reached their destination. The factory loomed large in front of them, continuing its relentless construction of monstrous vessels.
How many had it sent on their way to wreak destruction upon civilization while they were gone? Five? Ten?
It wouldn’t be sending any more.
The ship decelerated to drift nearly a megameter distant. There was no way to predict how big the explosion was going to be, but any further away and the signal might not reach the orbs.
“Here goes everything….” She released the probe.
Too small to see with the naked eye after a few dozen meters, they tracked it on the radar as it sailed toward the facility. None of the mechs noticed when the probe slipped through the scaffold
ing and inside. She halted its progress.
“…and here goes everything else.” In the same way her ship sent the gamma waves to open the portals, at her touch the ship sent the signal to activate the orbs.
The reaction was instantaneous. Every gram of powered machinery—the mechs, the ships, the equipment used to assemble the ships—exploded outward from the probe’s location with the force of a supernova eruption.
“Not a safe distance!” Rather than maneuver in reverse she flipped the Siyane over and accelerated away. They observed the destruction in the rearcam visual until it seemed likely they wouldn’t be ripped apart by projectile spears then arced back around.
The entire expanse of space before them was littered in jagged shards of obsidian metal, none larger than ten meters in length. The extent of the destruction was awe-inspiring in its completeness.
Alex was cackling wildly, a hand in her hair and the other at her neck. “That was amazing! I bet—oh boy.”
The dramatic shift in her tone was enough to distract him from the scene outside the viewport. “Dare I ask?”
“Our vandalism has attracted attention. I’m guessing the attention of the ships which hadn’t yet made it to the Metis portal. Or the ships which were still searching for us. Or both.”
“Run for our portal?”
“Uh…no.” She zoomed the long-range radar so he could see the metric fuck-ton of red blips assembled between them and the gateway to Metis.
“More squid.”
“God I hope all those aren’t the big ones. But the alien ships can’t see us, correct? So maybe we just sneak quietly past them? That’s an outrageous number of ships, though. One mistake and we’re in smaller pieces than the factory.”
“Go through one of the other portals. Sneak past them for real.”
“This is a good idea.” Her eyes darted with unspoken thoughts; then the Siyane was in motion. “Let’s go back through the one we did earlier to hide and I’ll figure out which portal will dump us out closest to our own.”
Their destination was under a minute away and they quickly traversed the portal. The world wrenched around—it wasn’t getting any easier to experience—and they angled another two megameters into darkness.
Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection Page 88