His hand shot out to grab her and wrench her against him. His stare bored into her, only shifting briefly to glance at the blade she now had pressed to his neck. She didn’t acknowledge the gun digging into her side.
Then his mouth crushed into hers. She met it with equal force.
When he pulled back a fraction, a thin trail of blood dribbled down his neck. She hadn’t meant to cut him; he had moved too fast. Such were the risks in their game.
“Olivia. Are you asking for my help?”
“I’m asking for you to help save the galaxy. I realize ‘saving’ anything or anyone isn’t something either of us make a habit of doing, but in this instance it is in our best interest to do so.”
The blade still rested at his neck; she hadn’t yet been given a reason to remove it. “Aiden, don’t lose your business and yourself to this rising tide of chaos. Grab hold of this opportunity with me and we will both emerge stronger and more powerful. We can rebuild civilization atop the ruins. We can reshape the structure of society to our advantage. All we have to do is help them win.”
Ever so slowly a mischievous smile pulled his lips upward. “I do enjoy it when you talk dirty to me.”
ATLANTIS
INDEPENDENT COLONY
* * *
Matei reclined in his chaise and sipped on a Polaris Burst cocktail.
The afternoon sun warming his skin sparkled on the crystal blue waters and turned the sand to glittering glass. His mood was as light as everyone else’s on Atlantis was dark. The resort world hummed a chromatic vibrato, a dissonant transition portending the coming doom. Gone was the carefree excess and easy joy of a people at the height of civilization who believed themselves invincible.
There existed two kinds of people still gracing the beaches of Atlantis. One was composed of families with young children. The parents worked desperately to preserve their children’s innocence for one more minute, one more day. They built sandcastles and frolicked in the shallow waters and beamed at the young ones’ cackles of delight, but terror etched grim lines into their faces. Sunglasses hid the paralyzing fear haunting their eyes.
The other, more numerous kind consisted of those who had decided they were going to exit the universe drunk or high, and often both. Alcohol poisoning or a non-neural chimeral overdose would be all but impossible for anyone wealthy enough to afford to be on Atlantis in the first place, thanks to genetic modifications and regulating cybernetic subroutines…but that wasn’t stopping them from trying. They came from all age groups and near as he had been able to determine, all professions.
Individuals reacted in any number of ways to extreme stress and, relatedly, to impending death. A non-negligible percentage of people reacted in a manner which could be summed up by, ‘Screw it, I’m going out in style!’
Atlantis security was doing its best to keep the two groups separated, but he’d witnessed several bizarre encounters between desperate, frayed parents and persons who were quite obviously out of their minds.
The rules of civilized society were beginning to break down, and on this world where excess and debauchery were encouraged and even celebrated, the first cracks in the wall were on stark display.
He smiled pleasantly and wound his hands behind his head on the chaise. The news feed scrolling on his whisper provided a tableau of destruction and mayhem overlaid upon the bright waters and cerulean skies. The contrast pleased him—
You are too far west to do your job.
He took another sip of his drink. And he had thought the chess game over with the death of Aguirre and general collapse of the man’s little conspiracy. Alas.
“Is there something you require of me, Hyperion?”
Caleb Marano and Alexis Solovy will soon return. They must be eliminated.
“Very well, though I don’t see the point. They no longer represent a threat to the human war, seeing as there no longer is a human war.”
They represent a threat to us. Eliminate them.
Matei gave no overt reaction, but his curiosity piqued. The alien was always enigmatic and often baffling, but it had never before been…testy. He felt the need to prod at the weak spot. Explore it a bit. “How could two insignificant humans represent a threat to you?”
They traversed our portal.
So that was where they went. He was glad he hadn’t wasted much time or effort searching for the pair and instead waited for the intel to come to him. “Interesting, but I’m still not clear how this makes them a threat to you?”
They traversed our PORTAL. They have seen us. They have conversed with us. They have acquired knowledge of us.
Glimpsed the man behind the curtain, did they? He wondered what had been revealed, what the secret might be the aliens remained so desperate to protect. Sadly he didn’t expect either Marano or Solovy to consent to tell him before he killed them.
“Understood. I’ll travel to Romane. From there I’ll be well positioned to move. Besides, there aren’t many places left farther east which still have functioning spaceports.”
This is acceptable. If our units do not eliminate them on their return, we will inform you of their location.
“Your ‘units’?”
Our machines.
“You know, if you’re so anxious to have Marano and Solovy dead, why don’t you simply kill them yourself while you have them on your side of the portal?”
Absurd. We grew beyond such barbarism aeons ago.
He glanced at the vid of the alien ships battering New Maya playing on his whisper. “All evidence to the contrary.”
Your meaning eludes me.
“You’ve killed over forty million people in the last three weeks. Seems to me you’re rather adept at killing.”
No. The machines kill. We do not kill.
“The instrument a killer employs in the act does not kill. The killer kills.”
Spare me your childish logic. You will receive the targets’ location soon.
Then the alien was gone.
Matei took a final sip of his drink, breathed a long sigh tainted with regret and stood. It appeared his vacation was at an end, or at a minimum an interlude.
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 o
ffer, 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.”
Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two Page 39