Caleb peered at a visual of what may have once been a planet. Misshapen and pockmarked, it looked as if it had been bombarded by a torrent of asteroids.
Paratyr went over and brushed the screen away. “The final result of the Cultivation of T-1391d. The time in which we could have assisted has passed, thus it is no longer relevant.”
Caleb eyed the Kat. “This is how the Idryma knows who they need to evacuate and protect. You’re watching everything that happens in Amaranthe?”
“Much, and but a sliver.”
“How?”
Alex tore her gaze from a temperate jungle world where large birds soared above a canopy of trees. “Sidespace. These are somehow windows opening into locations accessed—or rather seen—via the sidespace dimension.”
She reached out and touched a fingertip to a scene; though it displayed the full depth of reality, her finger passed through to the air behind it. If Valkyrie were in her mind and she knew the physical location, she could go there and prove it. But it felt correct.
“I am not familiar with the term.”
“It’s a word we came up with for the—one of the—quantum dimensions. This dimension, trust me. I’ve seen other Kats work adeptly in it.”
“How is it you are able to perceive and interact with such nonphysical dimensions?”
She tossed the stodgy Kat a smirk. “I speak space.”
Caleb had started wandering deliberately around the edge of the scenes, studying the presentation and setup more than individual images. “How long have you been watching? Without a stasis chamber, your body is mortal and can’t continue to function forever, I assume?”
Paratyr tilted its oversized head toward one of the two enclosed spaces separated from the main room. Alex tried to keep her expression neutral, but it was proving to be a challenge to equate the diminutive, oddly proportioned alien with the majestic, rarefied, pandimensional beings she’d heretofore known the Kats to be.
“I do have a chamber, and colleagues. Three of us share the responsibility of monitoring the Mirad Vigilate, as someone must be observant always. We each wake for four-hundred-year periods, during which time the others sleep and their bodies rejuvenate.”
“And how long has this system been in place?”
“Three-hundred-sixty millennia.”
Alex did the math in her head…Paratyr had spent 120,000 waking years in this place. Watching. No wonder the Kat was a little cranky.
A particularly vibrant and active scene caught her attention, and she crossed to it.
Water lapped at the invisible barrier of the projection as if it were about to spill into the room, though it couldn’t do so. In the left corner, a cluster of sea creatures cavorted with one another far beneath the surface.
The first comparison which sprang to mind was to devil rays, but on closer inspection they bore only a passing resemblance, most of it in their broad wing-like appendages. They were silver in color except for a rose tint to their undersides. Their torsos were lengthy even in proportion to impressive wingspans, and their heads were unexpectedly rounded. Together with extended noses, their upper body almost resembled that of a dolphin. Two lower fins were webbed together by thin, translucent skin.
The creatures darted into an opening in a coral wall behind them and vanished. She frowned in disappointment.
Paratyr appeared beside her, and under the guidance of the Kat’s gaze the ‘camera’ pulled up and back to expose more of the coral wall.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, really, when it wasn’t a wall at all but instead an intricate sculpture woven upon the sea floor.
“It looks like a…building.”
“Which it is, of course.”
She glanced over at the Kat. “Of course?”
“The Galenai, as we’ve named them, are quite intelligent. Far above primate intelligence to be certain, and possibly sufficient to qualify as an Accepted Species on that measurement.
“They mate-bond, raise and educate their children and ritualize the passing of their dead. They have organized themselves into formal societal groupings and strata. They build structures, as you see, using a variety of oceanic materials and precision tools, and they have invented a type of machinery which runs on hydropower. They also protect their settlements with inventive defensive protocols.”
One of the creatures sped past their viewpoint so swiftly it was hardly a blur. Paratyr followed it as it launched into a rapid spiral, forming a whirl of water to spin away in its wake. It rose upward to crest the surface and soar across the waves before diving under once again.
“They are also quite prideful.”
Did the Kat mean ‘playful’? Did it appreciate the difference? She laughed, but right now she so wished Valkyrie were here so she could find and visit this downright magical place.
Caleb had joined her at some point, and he gave her an affectionate smile. Naturally he knew what she was thinking—he knew her desires, her fears, her foibles, her regrets. Everything.
She stepped closer, until the tip of her nose threatened to pass through the scene to the other side, and imagined she was drifting outside of her body, the way she had so many times. Beside her, Paratyr gained a hint of a white-blue aura.
“Will you tell me where this is? Precisely?” Her voice sounded distant and echo-y.
“No, but I will show you.”
She felt a vague sensation of movement—and she was surrounded by clear, sparkling water.
The fact she wasn’t actively drowning—and a quick check down that revealed no body—told her only her consciousness resided here. She had no idea how she had accomplished it without Valkyrie, but she would work it out later. She was here.
A Galenai swept past her, close enough to touch. Its impressive size didn’t diminish its gracefulness as the water yielded to its aerodynamic form.
She moved upward, over the coral, and gasped at what the vantage showed her. What she’d thought was a self-contained formation was in reality the outer corner of a city. The impression of discrete assemblies and private spaces was created in the twists and curves of shaped coral, hardened sediment and what looked to be…vitrified sand? How had they created such a material?
Then she spotted a wall of glass and abandoned speculating on the methods behind their accomplishments.
In a shallow cavity beneath her, two immature Galenai tussled like the children they were. She watched them for a minute, until a much larger one rushed in to scold them. At least, that’s what the shrill chirps and warbles sounded like to her.
Once she realized she could hear them, the cacophony surrounded her. She suspected the sounds fell outside the range of normal human hearing, somewhere in the ultrasound frequencies, for the pitch was very high.
Sound was the final piece, and the world came fully to life. Though she couldn’t understand them, the creatures’ actions gained purpose and distinctness; interactions took on depth and nuance. Before, they were cute, even delightful—but now she understood why the Kats deemed them worthy of observation.
A rush of churning water off to the side drew her toward it. A particularly large Galenai had maneuvered itself into a contraption of some sort. A harness led to a dense shell of coral positioned underneath the wings. The creature moved forward, away from the city. Intrigued, she followed.
Several dramatic flaps of its wings sufficed to increase its speed considerably, and the water it left behind frothed in agitation. She concentrated on the device it wore as they traveled. Inside the coral shell, water funneled through a convoluted series of cavities before exiting at the bottom rear of the device with significantly greater force than it had entered with. It was a motor.
Well, wasn’t that just the damnedest thing.
The creature’s speed reached what must be hundreds of kilometers per hour, and she fell back, letting it go. It vanished from sight in seconds.
Now she was alone, fluttering among the scattered rays of light penetrating this deep beneath the
surface. She lingered there for a moment, astonished at the marvel that her life had become.
Dad, if you knew the wonders I’ve seen. She suddenly wished he was again in her head instead of cocooned in a section of Vii’s quantum network at home in Aurora, so he could be here to see this with her.
But he—his essence, the fragment of consciousness Valkyrie had accidentally brought into existence—was safer there. She sighed to herself a bit sadly; if it were truly him, he wouldn’t care about being safe. But until it was, she had to look out for him.
A touch on her arm, far away and faint, startled her. She’d been gone too long, she expected.
She twirled around once, drank in the splendor of the sea and opened her eyes.
Caleb’s head was tilted in mild concern as he searched her face. “Are you okay? You kind of drifted off there for a minute.”
Paratyr shot her a knowing smile—a bizarre sight on his tiny, permanently pursed mouth—and she exhaled. “I guess I did. Sorry.” The tale would wait until they were back on the Siyane.
“It’s fine. I was just making sure you were all right.” He turned to Paratyr. “Why are you watching them?”
“The Galenai’s planet is located in a star-rich region of the Maffei I galaxy. It is covered entirely in water. As we speak, the Directorate is completing construction on a new gateway which will grant them easy access to Maffei I. Once it is operational, a cycle that has been repeated numerous times will begin yet again.
“They will hunt and harvest the galaxy in an attempt to sate their ravenous appetite for materials, knowledge and greater dominions. They will discover thousands of primitive species and dozens of advanced ones. Eventually, they will discover the Galenai. Tell me, Humans, what do you believe they will do with the Galenai when they find them?”
Alex swallowed heavily. “Capture a lucky few to stick in aquariums for entertainment, then drain their oceans.”
“Our assessment as well.” Paratyr extended a hand, and the swarm of images spun until the bloody battlefield overrun with arachnids centered in front of them. “I watch this scene not to monitor the species of this world, but rather the status of their Eradication. When it is complete, the Machim commander there will take his forces to Maffei I, to the sector where the Galenai reside. After the embarrassment he is currently suffering at AD-4508b, I suspect he will be eager to engage in a display of Machim supremacy of strength.”
The Kat paused, and its treble voice grew shrill. “The Galenai have been added to the priority list for relocation to the Mosaic, but in light of the current crisis all preparations toward that goal have of necessity been placed on hold.”
We succeed, and maybe there won’t be a next one. The ‘next one’ now had a face, and she had a place to save.
She nodded understanding and forced herself to turn her back on the enchanting, blissfully innocent Galenai. “Your building here is cleverly hidden, but cloaking won’t save it when a Machim fleet arrives and bombs the planet. In fact, you should leave soon, shouldn’t you? How are you going to continue this work after the attack?”
Paratyr’s tiny, pinched lips curled up. “It is apropos that you so inquire.” It blinked, slowly as there was a lot of eye to traverse. “All is in place, and the time has indeed come. I will grant you your answer.”
The air around the Kat began to glow their trademark white-blue. Pinpricks of light exploded out from its body to disappear beyond the walls of the Mirad Vigilate.
The glass floor under their feet jolted and rose. She grabbed on to Caleb to steady herself while he growled at their host. “Paratyr, what are you doing?”
The Kat didn’t respond, and it seemed to be fully engrossed in its machinations.
The building teetered at jarring angles but stayed upright, or their perception of ‘upright,’ which was to say artificial gravity kicked in. The walls were too opaque to see outside, so while it was apparent they were traveling, she couldn’t say in what direction, to where or how fast.
Caleb glared at Paratyr, and his jaw had locked into place. “I’d grab it and strangle it until I got its attention, but we might plummet to our deaths.”
She grimaced. “Agreed. Nothing we can do for the moment except hang on.”
They landed on a surface with a rough thud some two minutes later. The dots of light receded inside the walls to eddy around Paratyr’s form then fade away.
Caleb shifted into full intimidation mode the instant they stopped moving, but Alex went to the door, pulled on her breather mask in case, and opened it.
The warm, bewitching hues of the Katoikia plains stretched out before her to the horizon. Her eyes narrowed as she peered to the left then right. She retreated inside. “We didn’t go anywhere. This is still Katoikia.”
“Is it?” Paratyr inquired, a touch of whimsy discernable in its reedy voice.
Caleb jogged over to her and stuck his head out the door long enough to scope out the scene, then leaned back inside and shut the door. His brow furrowed…abruptly he snorted and spun to Paratyr. “World builders. You all built an exact replica of your homeworld somewhere else in the universe.”
“Indeed.”
Obvious, in retrospect. She should have realized. “Do you plan to fully relocate here? Will the stasis chambers be moved here?”
“Perhaps, in time. For now all such matters are in flux.”
Caleb didn’t seem impressed. “And you don’t think the Directorate will find this place?”
“We orbit a lonely star in a resource-poor region of the Cetus Dwarf galaxy, a location the Directorate has already stripped of value and consigned to the scrap heap. It will have no cause to search for us and no reason to search for us here.”
She had the map of Amaranthe explored space stored in her eVi and called it up now. They were more than eight hundred kiloparsecs from where they’d been, give or take.
She crossed her arms over her chest with a huff. “Well, that’s fantastic for you, but we left our ship back in the Triangulum galaxy.”
AURORA
24
ROMANE
IDCC COLONY
* * *
NOAH COLLAPSED BESIDE KENNEDY with a contented sigh, utterly and blissfully spent. “Did we break the bed?”
She panted more than laughed. “Only the covers this time, I think.”
He nodded vaguely, still dizzy from the rush of afterglow. God their sex was spectacular. Even when it was bad it was great; when it was great it shattered galaxies. Astronomers were likely puzzling over spotting one or two right about now. “Good, ’cause I’m too wrecked to fix it tonight.”
Kennedy scooted closer to prop up half on his chest, golden curls tangled and sweaty and falling all over her face to tease his damp skin as she stretched up and placed a kiss on his lips.
She tasted like maraschino cherries…probably on account of maraschino cherries having been involved. She gave him a lopsided grin. “Marry me.”
His lips parted, and he tried to keep a casual expression in place. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I haven’t changed my mind since the last time you brought it up. I won’t be thought of as a gold-digger and apple polisher chasing after your family’s money and prestige.”
She scowled, and the afterglow abandoned him for safer environs. “Noah, don’t you realize you’re already thought of that way? The people who are inclined to jump to those conclusions adopted the opinion the first time we showed up together in proper society.”
“So I marry you and prove them right?” He cringed as soon as the words spilled out, and he wasn’t the least bit surprised when she immediately rolled away from him. It hadn’t come out right. It wasn’t what he meant. He didn’t know what he meant. He didn’t want to talk about this.
But she did. “Or prove them wrong. Or, I don’t know, maybe quit worrying so much about what other people think. Unless you’re covering for something else. Some other reason for saying no.”
He
shifted onto his side and reached for her, relieved she didn’t flinch when he placed a hand on her shoulder. “I love you madly, and I’m not planning on going anywhere. Why isn’t that enough? Why is this so important to you?”
She studied him for a minute, wariness and a glint he couldn’t deny signaled hurt haunting her eyes, then sat up and moved back to prop against the headboard.
“My great-great-grandmother? The one who invented the impulse engine? She died in an accident during the construction of the first Jupiter orbital habitats. My great-great-grandfather devoted the rest of his life to carrying on her legacy. He took her dreams and her accomplishments and he nurtured them until they were so impactful they’re still benefiting us today.
“He didn’t do it for money—he was already wealthy. He did it because he loved her, and because he believed she deserved more than consignment to a footnote in history. She was the brilliant scientist, but he built my family. The reason why everyone knows its name today—their name—is the vision of her husband.”
She stared at her hands, and her voice dropped toward a whisper. “I’ve always thought that was the greatest love story I’d ever heard. And I guess I’ve always hoped if tragedy were to befall me, someone would honor what I’ve done, and keep alive what I’ve tried to do and couldn’t finish.”
He had no idea what to say. She’d poured out this soulful story, then tied it to a dream she’d nurtured since she was a child, and he had nothing. So he did what he was best at—he deflected. Again. “Honey, we don’t need a marriage certificate for any of those things to happen.”
“Maybe not today. But two hundred fifty years later, what remains above all is the family legacy. Without their marriage, maybe it all would’ve faded away to obscurity by the next generation.”
He reached for her more fully, trying to draw her close, but now she did pull away. “I know you think this sounds selfish and entitled and stupid. You don’t need to say it—you’ve made it perfectly clear how you feel.”
Aurora Resonant: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 3) Page 17