Diffraction

by Jess Anastasi

  “I am not losing anyone else today,” she muttered, tugging her med kit closer. “We need to get him back to the Ebony Winter. Someone find me a hover stretcher.”

  While Lianna hurried to comply, Kira grabbed the small automatic resus unit out of her med bag. One part went over his mouth and nose to breathe for him, the other onto the middle of his chest to stimulate his heart.

  Tannin cursed under his breath where he was still trying to free the bands from Ella’s wrists. When the priestess had first come aboard the Imojenna all those months ago, she’d been wearing something similar.

  “Damn it, Ella. It looks like these things are coded to Reidar DNA. We’ll have to cut them off like we did last time.”

  “But Rian—” She glanced down at him, shadows of desperation in her gaze.

  “He’s stable for the moment.” Kira clasped Ella on the forearm in reassurance. The small automatic resus unit was a temporary measure at best and not designed to be used for more than a few minutes on a patient with wounds this extensive. They were probably lucky it worked at all.

  Lianna returned with a hover stretcher. While she monitored his vitals, Tannin and Zander got Rian strapped on quickly. They formed a protective group around her as she guided the stretcher out of the ship.

  This time, they did get curious stares from the few people they passed as they dashed along the gangway toward the Ebony Winter.

  Halfway there, the resus unit gave a small warning beep, indicating things were getting critical, and it wouldn’t be able to sustain Rian for much longer. His injury was bad, but she’d seen him recover from something like this before—Ella had brought him back from a wound just as nasty, if not worse, shortly after she’d joined them on the Imojenna.

  She’d just have to keep Rian’s heart beating and oxygen circulating until someone could get those damned bands off the priestess’s wrists.

  The stretcher jolted to a stop. Zander had stepped in front of it, facing outward, his stance protective as the others closed into a tighter group.

  Up ahead, at the hatchway of the Ebony Winter, a group of at least twenty station security guards and UAFA agents blocked their way. A single man in a slick business suit stood just in front of them.

  She’d seen the guy only once before, and that had been on a viewer screen, but she’d never forgotten Baden Niels’s face, since the man who was the CEO of a multiversal corporation, Dieter Industries—who also happened to be a Reidar—had sent a team of aliens in to try to take the Imojenna by force.

  “I knew this was a trap,” Qae muttered as Niels stepped forward.

  Whether or not they’d walked into a trap was incidental now.

  Rian needed immediate medical attention if he was going to survive. With all those guards and UAFA agents—who were more than likely Reidar as well—standing between them and the R and R unit onboard the Ebony Winter, Rian’s chances of survival were getting slimmer by the second.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Everything was so shimmery bright, blue tinted, and pleasant, it made Rian’s body ache. Or maybe that was the stab wound. Either way, a second ago he’d been in that hold with Ella and now he was—

  Actually, he didn’t know where the freck he was. It wasn’t a ship. It wasn’t a planet. It wasn’t anywhere. It was like existing without being.

  “Sherron?”

  He turned around, but hadn’t heard the voice as if through his ears. It was just kind of there, like receiving audio directly into his brain.

  The commando he’d locked in the brig of the Imojenna stared at him with more than a little confusion on his face. Or, kind of not. The guy was there, but not fully formed or maybe not solid.

  “What the freck is this, and why are you here?” His own voice didn’t come out as though he’d spoken it, more like an echoing thought.

  “Hard to explain. And I was going to ask if you knew how you got here.”

  A few things clicked together in his mind, including the last second he’d been staring up at Ella then hadn’t been able to breathe any longer.

  “Hang on a damned second. Am I dead? Is this some kind of afterlife?” Wouldn’t that just beat all, if he’d kicked it and now got to spend eternity with a guy he’d locked up and let Callan almost kill repeatedly. Was this some kind of weird punishment because the commando was the last person he’d wronged in life?

  “This isn’t the afterlife. At least, I don’t think it is.” The guy grinned, as if he found all this amusing. “I found you in the Reidar consciousness, or a shadow of you, anyway. We got out, but you disappeared on me for a while. Now I’m pretty sure we’re in the shared human consciousness that the Mar’keish can access.”

  Okay, that was…something. How the freck was he meant to make sense of anything the guy had just said? “I’m still not getting how this is any different from the infinite hereafter.”

  “Technically, you shouldn’t be here. I must have given you access when I pulled you out from the Reidar hive mind. Anyway, what makes you think you’re dead?”

  He touched his side where the stab wound should have been.

  “I got knifed. Think my lung collapsed. I couldn’t breathe, and I blacked out.”

  “Listen, Sherron. You’re not dead yet, but it sounds like that’s an imminent possibility.” The commando came closer to him. “I’ve learned a hell of a lot in the last few days—about you, the Reidar, and myself. You can’t die. There are too many important reasons why you need to continue this fight. And if you want to win, you’re going to need me.”

  He scoffed. “I need you? And how exactly did you come to that adorable little conclusion?”

  “Because of this.” The commando clamped a hand on his shoulder.

  In a wave of energy, an overload of information flooded his mind—things about the commando and the reason the aliens wanted to exterminate Varean Donnelly at all costs. Snippets of intel about the Reidar’s plans and the things they’d done to Rian all those years ago, some of which made sense and some of which were out of context and meant nothing.

  The commando released him, leaving his mind spinning. The one thing he knew for certain—they needed him if they wanted to win. And despite Donnelly being half Reidar, he could trust the commando. The guy had access to the combined abilities of both Reidar and Mar’keish. Talk about super-soldier. As long as he kept it under control and didn’t go all dark-side on them, he’d be one hell of a weapon.

  “Jezus, that’s one way to get your point across.” Rian shifted out of reaching range in case the commando decided he needed to impart any other information. Words would be more than adequate next time.

  “Things are going to change now, Sherron. The Reidar know about me, but they also know I found out what they were trying to hide, why they destroyed all the other human-Reidar hybrids, particularly those who were Mar’keish.”

  Rian sifted through the info the guy had just shot into his mind. The Mar’keish could have defeated the Reidar, which is why the damned aliens had engineered the virus to wipe them all out decades ago.

  “This goes back so much further than I ever thought,” he muttered. “At least we know what that freak-show breeding program was all about.”

  “They thought if they could isolate the gene that allows Mar’keish—and to some extent the Arynians—to access the human consciousness, they could add it to Reidar DNA and would have access to the same mind-control abilities the Mar’keish have,” Donnelly replied. “But they found something far more powerful and far more dangerous instead. They discovered the hybrids had the potential to become unstoppable.”

  Did that answer the question as to why the Reidar were so desperate to get their hands on Ella? As a rare second-generation Arynian, she was probably the next best thing to the Mar’keish. Shite, he needed to get some answers about that girl, because there was no way in hell he was going to ever let the Reidar do to her what they’d done to him—brainwash her, control her, get access to the untapped human consciousness. And
for that he needed weapons…weapons like Donnelly.

  “So we might have one advantage over the bastards. But I still don’t get how you found me in the Reidar-whatever. I don’t remember being there.”

  Donnelly shrugged. “My guess is they did something to you all those years ago to make it possible. It was probably how they controlled you.”

  “Well that’s a frecking comforting thought. I’m on some Reidar wavelength and don’t even know it?”

  “Now you see where I’m coming from?” Donnelly sent him a genuine smile, one edged in the new hope that they could be allies instead of the enemies he’d made them into.

  “Yeah, I get it. Just one problem, how the hell do we get out of this consciousness thing?”

  The commando didn’t look the least bit worried about that not-so-small obstacle.

  “Leave that to me.” A shimmer of blue-silver power seemed to ripple around the guy. “I’m going to put those new abilities to good use.”

  Before he could reply, Donnelly straight-up disappeared.

  “Donnelly?” He glanced around, but not only could he not see the guy anymore, it was like he couldn’t feel him, either. In the same way he could sometimes sense Ella. It was a similar thread of awareness, just slightly different. Whatever the hell that all meant.

  So was leaving him here alone part of the commando’s plan, or had he just been shafted by the guy?

  The only thing he hated more than being backed into a corner was being powerless to act. But in that second, all he could do was swear loudly and inventively into the twinkling blue-lighted nothingness.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Keeping hold of the hover stretcher, Kira shuffled back when Niels took a few steps forward, as though the guns Qae, Zander, Lianna, Zahli, Colt, Jase, and Tannin had pointed at him weren’t a threat. Of course, since the Reidar were far more resilient, and quicker to heal than humans, he probably didn’t consider them to be.

  “If you would all be so kind as to relinquish your weapons to these officers?” Niels spread out his hands, indicating the guards and agents standing behind him. “This doesn’t need to be unpleasant.”

  “Like hell it doesn’t.” Lianna started to bring up her razar, but Zander stayed her hand.

  “You shoot him with this, we’ve given away our secret weapon,” Zander muttered, casting an implacable captain-admiral glance around their small group, causing everyone else to put away their stunners.

  “Not if he’s too dead to tell anyone,” Lianna snapped back, apparently not ready to stand down.

  “We’re outgunned, two to one. This isn’t the place to take a stand.”

  Lianna took her gaze off Niels long enough to shoot Zander a glare. “So what, we’re just supposed to surrender?”

  “You got a better idea that doesn’t see us all dead on this gangway?”

  The resus unit on Rian’s chest began chiming insistently, and Kira looked down at the screen, where the readings showed the device wasn’t sustaining his heart any longer.

  “Rian needs the resus and regen system on the Ebony Winter. Now.” She maneuvered the stretcher, intending to push it past Zander and right through the middle of those Reidar. There was no way she was going to stand here and do nothing while Rian died.

  But Zander clamped a hand on the rail, stopping her from going anywhere.

  “Rian was stabbed. He needs medical attention or he’s going to die.” Zander directed the statement at Niels.

  But the alien only shrugged. “Unfortunate. I had some interesting plans for the former assassin. But dead seems like a fairly good consolation prize. Hand over the priestess, and I’ll let you organize the funeral.”

  White-hot anger, the likes of which she’d never experienced before, stormed through her, leaving her flash-heated like she’d stepped into a furnace.

  “I am not letting Rian die here. You won’t let us on the Ebony Winter? Fine, I’ll find some other ship with a medbay.”

  She yanked the hover stretcher back, and Zander let it go, closing ranks with the others, obviously prepared to stop anyone from following her.

  Unfortunately, she’d managed only to turn around and take three steps when she pulled to a stop again. Another ten UAFA agents had come up behind them and formed a line to block the gangway.

  “No one is going anywhere until I get the priestess.” This time when Niels spoke, all feigned affability was gone from his voice.

  “I will go with you.” Ella stepped forward, her voice sounding stronger, more assured than when they’d found her in the Marsala. “If you promise not to kill anyone once I’m in your custody.”

  Niels sent her an oily smile. “So charming that you think you’ve got any leverage to bargain. Take the priestess, kill the rest.”

  He stepped behind the line of agents and guards as they raised their guns.

  Kira clamped her fists tighter around the handle of the stretcher, her flight response kicking in. She sucked in a breath, air catching in her lungs as a weird kind of numb disconnection suffused her body, like her mind understood too well she was about to meet her demise and wanted to shield her from the worst of it.

  Beyond the line of agents and guards, the hatchway to the Ebony Winter slid open. Some of Qae’s crew had stayed on the ship, but even with their added numbers, they were still outnumbered, which would only lead to more people dying today.

  Yet only a single figure emerged from the shadowed passage, and Kira swore she was hallucinating.

  Varean strode out, determination and anger brimming in the set of his shoulders, his eyes pure mercury and swirling with power.

  “Get down!” he yelled as he brought up his hands.

  She didn’t hesitate. She dropped, pulling the stretcher down with her to protect Rian, everyone else in their little group hitting the deck as well.

  The UAFA agents and security guards were thrown into momentary confusion—some still with their guns aimed, while others turned to Varean.

  Streaks of yellow and blue light rippled over Varean’s body, coalescing toward his hands and then blasting outward. The energy wave went above her head and took out every single guard and agent standing, sending them sprawling across the gangway.

  In the aftermath, there was utter silence and no one moved a muscle, the guards and agents all either unconscious or dead. She knew what she’d just seen, but her brain couldn’t assimilate it. Varean was alive. Not only alive, but he’d harnessed some kind of energy and taken out the threat in a single, effective blast.

  A chiming near her left ear registered, kicking her brain back into gear, shedding the last of the numbing shock.

  She looked down at Rian, the readouts on the small screen of the resus unit dire. He was out of time, the R and R onboard the Ebony Winter too many steps away, even if she ran as fast as she could.

  “I’ve got this, Kira.” Varean crouched on the other side of the stretcher, sparing her only a quick glance before pulling the resus unit off Rian.

  “Stop! That’s the only thing keeping him alive.” She went to grab his wrist, but instead Varean bundled the device into her hands.

  “It’s okay, he’s going to be fine.” He set one hand on the middle of Rian’s chest and the other over the stab wound. Just like when Ella had healed him all those months ago on the Imojenna. Except, what had taken her a number of long minutes and concentration took Varean a single, intense pulse of blue and yellow energy. It suffused Rian’s body, making his skin glow as though his very cells had turned to pure light.

  When it faded away, he sat back, and Rian drew in a long breath, looking perfectly healthy, as though he’d been asleep, not mortally injured.

  The captain blinked his eyes open and sat up, looking at Varean.

  Oh no. This was not going to end well—

  “I can explain—” The words exploded out in a rush, but Rian was already reaching, hand extended to—

  Take Varean’s offered arm, as the two of them got to their feet.

&
nbsp; What the hell?

  “For a minute there, Donnelly, I thought you’d shammed me.” Rian clapped him on the shoulder, expression as close to happy as their captain ever got.

  “I had to wake up and work out what was going on first.” Varean grinned, apparently in as good a mood as Rian.

  “If you really want in on this, you’ve got it. You’re welcome to join the crew, once we get the Imojenna back.”

  Varean’s grin widened. “Thanks. Though I’m requesting better quarters than my last rack onboard your ship. It was kind of uncomfortable.”

  “Sure, smart-ass, I’ll get you a better bunk.”

  Everyone standing around in a loose circle looked nothing short of shell-shocked.

  “Okay, did I get put into stasis and lose a few years?” Qae asked, breaking the silence. “Since when are you two not on shooting-each-other terms anymore? What’s with the buddy-buddy act? And also, newsflash, hybrid freaky-pants. You were dead.”

  “Not quite, apparently.” At last, Varean glanced over at Kira, and it was like getting hit by an electric current, his gaze leaving tingles chasing beneath her skin. “It comes with a really complicated explanation I don’t have time to give you right now. Niels is planning on blowing this space station to hell and beyond. We’ve got less than two minutes to get the Ebony Winter free of her moorings and clear.”

  “How do you know—” Even as Qae started asking the question, Rian and Varean were already moving, heading for the Ebony Winter’s hatchway.

  “Let’s just add that to the list of things we need to sort out later,” Rian tossed over his shoulder, stooping to help himself to a few guns as he stepped over the prone figures of the UAFA agents and security guards.

  “How the hell did Niels even escape? He was right here a second ago.” Zander followed Rian’s example, grabbing guns and spare ammo clips.

  Before she reached the hatchway, Kira bent down to check one of the sprawled figures. They were more than likely Reidar, so she shouldn’t care. But part of her needed to know whether Varean had just killed thirty armed and hostile men with nothing more than a flick of his hands. The UAFA agent she checked wasn’t dead, just deeply unconscious, it seemed. If what Varean had said was true, however, they’d die when Baden Niels blew up this station. And so would they if they didn’t disembark quickly enough.