Aurora Resonant: The Complete Collection (Amaranthe Collections Book 3)

by G. S. Jennsen

  She took his next step with him then extended her arm, reached around and activated the blade.

  The plasma cut through his shield like it didn’t exist and sliced his neck open like it was warm butter. The toe of her boot shoved him forward and out of the way.

  The plasma’s gleam had briefly lit the area, and the other two assailants directed their fire away from the guards and toward her. But she was already moving.

  Lift. The boosters engaged as she launched herself toward the wall, Veil still active. One foot hit the wall halfway up to propel her through the air and above the head of the nearest shooter.

  She used the momentum of her body, naturally succumbing to gravity and falling toward the floor, to slam the blade down through the man’s shield and tactical vest into the base of his skull. When the hilt met skin, she deactivated the blade.

  The man fell forward without the need for encouragement as she landed on two feet behind him.

  The third attacker was closing on her rapidly, trigger locked to fire. Lasers washed over her from his weapon and, to a lesser extent, the guards’ behind her. Not their fault—it wasn’t as if they could see her.

  She ran straight into the primary fire, aware that the visible dispersion of the energy absorbed or deflected by her shield now identified her location. Capacity warnings flashed in her virtual vision, which she ignored. This would all be over very soon.

  A roundhouse kick at a meter away knocked the firearm out of the assailant’s hands. The motion spun her around, but she was again facing her adversary by the time they lunged forward to tackle the unseen threat somewhere in front of them.

  Brooklyn slammed the hilt of her blade onto the assailant’s forehead and activated it.

  They—possibly a woman judging by the facial bone structure—stared out at nothing, eyes frozen wide and blank.

  Harper sneered. “You’re dead, fucker. Fall.”

  The assailant complied.

  She exhaled and allowed the sitrep to stream through her mind. Hostile contacts had reached the ICU wing—

  —the shrill crash of shattering glass rang out behind her. From the direction of Morgan’s room.

  A new surge of adrenaline propelled her legs back down the hall to follow one of the guards inside, the other being injured on the floor with a leg wound. Non-lethal.

  Mia stood between Morgan’s bed and the broken window, holding an active plasma blade at waist-height in front of her. A thick coat of blood stained the plasma nearly from hilt to tip, hissing as it dribbled from blade to floor.

  Harper deactivated the Veil and approached her, taking note of the body at her feet. “Are you all right?”

  Mia gave her a wan, distant smile. “It’s okay. I’ve done it before.”

  Whatever that meant. Brooklyn waved the guard over to check the body and was starting to check on Morgan when Mia inhaled sharply and dropped the blade. Her always-lit irises doubled in brightness to match the glyphs blazing to life across her skin.

  In the sudden darkness, the persistent light cast by the isolation chamber enveloped Emily in a soft, warm aura. Devon willed it to protect her as he stood and prepared. He’d have guessed malicious intent even without Mia radiating peril into the Noesis for the second time tonight.

  One of the guards stationed outside ducked his head in. “Sir, there’s a situation. Please remain in the room and let us handle it.”

  He gave the guard a noncommittal, “Uh-huh,” as Annie gathered details on the state of affairs.

  Power outage in this single sector. Lockdown in effect, additional forces responding, on-site security moving to this location. Hospital security system is detecting anomalies on Floors 3 and 9.

  Sounds of a vicious scuffle followed by multiple thuds resounded from the other side of the door.

  Devon shifted into sidespace and moved forward long enough to see a smoke-filled hallway, two guards prone on the floor and a third form crawling across the floor farther down the hallway, then withdrew into his body.

  The reinforcements weren’t going to arrive in time. I guess we’ll have to handle it, Annie.

  Seems so.

  Nanobot filters preemptively flooded into his bloodstream to counteract the nerve gas he expected to fill the room in the next few seconds. Additional resources were redirected to strengthen his personal shield until nothing short of a targeted detonation could penetrate it. The blade hilt found its way off his belt and into his left palm.

  He moved up flush with the door—then hurried back and picked up the guest chair before returning.

  Devon?

  Tech isn’t always the best solution. Sometimes you’ve got to—

  The door burst open to ferry two attackers in full tactical gear through the entry.

  He swung the chair horizontally across his body and into their chests, prompting a round of wild gunfire. His immediate proximity exploded in thrashing limbs, weapons and chair shards.

  The closest intruder twisted toward him, gun raised. Devon grabbed it by the barrel and struggled to shove it back onto its wielder. The laser fire that washed across his face would’ve blinded him were he not currently seeing in infrared to counter the darkness.

  The attacker’s shock at the laser’s utter lack of effectiveness lasted long enough for Devon to slide his hand forward and find skin, but he wasn’t surprised when the electric jolt he delivered had a similar lack of effect. Having failed the first time, whoever was behind all this would of course send Prevo’d mercs after him on the second try.

  So this wasn’t going to be easy.

  He settled for shorting out the Daemon, noiselessly so the man wouldn’t realize it was now worthless until he tried to fire the next time.

  Move!

  He dodged the blow to the base of his neck from the second assailant just enough to keep it from knocking him out, but pain shot down his spine, and his arms went numb for 416 microseconds until his cybernetics took over. When this was finished, he was going to file a request with ASCEND to develop a shield that protected against godforsaken blunt-force trauma. Yep.

  Rage propelled him past the pain, and the instant he had control of his arms he barreled into the second man, shoving him into the wall then elbowing him in the throat.

  It wasn’t a fatal blow, but it removed the man from the equation for a few rounds.

  The first attacker grabbed him from behind, pinning Devon’s arms. He fought while trying to keep a hold on the blade hilt, gradually forcing the attacker backwards while kicking at the man’s legs.

  A glow caught the corner of his eye as the man produced an injector and struggled to aim it at Devon’s neck. Stubborn about the damn virus, weren’t they? Did the man really think a needle was going to get through his shield when point-blank laser fire had not?

  The attacker thrust the injector toward his skin, the needle crumpled, and again Devon used the momentary surprise on the attacker’s part to make his move. He forced his thumb down to activate the blade, planted his feet and pushed his body upward and back. He sensed the blade penetrate somewhere on the man’s upper leg, and the hold on him loosened.

  He strained and broke the grip to stumble forward, bounced off Emily’s isolation chamber and flung himself around to square off on his attackers.

  The window behind him shattered, and he whiplashed back around again. A third assailant rappelled through it and dropped to the floor.

  The ten seconds that had passed since the attackers burst through the door already felt like ten minutes as his perception and reflexes amped up to match the speed of his and Annie’s thoughts.

  The single second it took for the new entrant to raise their Daemon and point it at Emily’s chamber lasted a thousand.

  The gun had reached thirty-five degrees when Devon’s elbow bent to bring the blade hilt up. At fifty degrees, his thumb activated the plasma. Sixty degrees, and another flick of his thumb sent the plasma shooting away from the hilt.

  Eighty degrees—a perfect firing angle
—and the plasma spear buried itself in the man’s chest.

  He turned to face the others as a chilling calm descended over him. The creeping progression of time stretched out sound wave periods until they no longer registered, and the room hushed.

  Both men were injured, but neither were sufficiently disabled to end the threat.

  He sneered at them, or at least it felt like a sneer to him, if a possibly lunatic one. “You think you know what it means to be a Prevo? You have no idea—but I’ll show you.”

  Devon dropped the blade hilt, closed his eyes, and opened his vision. Sidespace overlaid the room and the hallway beyond. Quantum space.

  You couldn’t affect the physical world from sidespace. Everyone knew this. That was fine, because he didn’t need to affect the physical world. He only needed to affect the quantum one.

  The power we require to execute on your intention will necessitate dropping your shield.

  Do it. There’s time. 2.3 seconds until the man on the right gets his weapon raised.

  Done. But it may not be enough.

  He reached across the non-space of the Noesis to the largest source of power by a wide margin, co-opting the excess subdimensional power bleeding off Mia and Meno’s combined thoughts and processes and drawing it in to merge with his own.

  Now.

  The blast of energy surged out from him like an earthquake to rip apart the quantum entanglement of every qutrit pair in its path.

  The two men slumped to the floor as not only their connections to their Artificials were severed, but the quantum pathways that had begun forming in their brains the instant they became Prevos ruptured; the assailant in the hallway who’d been disabled by the guards but had now made it to his feet collapsed once again.

  Then the wall dividing the room from the hall exploded. And the medic station across the way. Also the storage closet and the lift beside it. The arriving reinforcements flew backward through the air from the force of the shockwave.

  Well. It seemed you could affect the physical world from sidespace, if you were the most powerful Prevo in the galaxy and you wanted it badly enough.

  He quelled the power an instant before it collapsed in on itself and took him with it.

  The next instant he whirled to check on Emily. He’d devoted significant effort to keeping the power flow in front of him and her behind him, but what if—

  The chamber hummed along unperturbed, displaying the same vital readings it had for days. She slumbered in false peace inside, and no blood streamed from her nostrils and ears the way it was from those belonging to the men on the floor.

  His forehead lowered to touch the glass cover; his hands draped around its curved shape. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

  AMARANTHE

  31

  SIYANE

  ANDROMEDA GALAXY

  LGG REGION VI

  * * *

  ALEX DRUMMED HER FINGERTIPS on the dash. “Okay, we’re at your coordinates. Scans are only picking up one tiny reading in the vicinity, likely space debris. What should I be searching for?”

  Eren peered out the viewport. “Could you open the outer airlock?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The airlock that accesses space. Open it.” He gave her a close-mouthed smile. “Please.”

  She gazed at him incredulously. Doing as he asked wouldn’t on its own endanger them, but if hazardous material entered the airlock, it moved a lot closer to doing so.

  Caleb leaned against the cockpit half-wall. “We’re going to need a little more information before doing any such thing.”

  A corner of Eren’s lips rose. “Don’t trust me yet?”

  “We are trying. You could help build trust by telling us why we should open the outer airlock.”

  He rolled his eyes. “The object your scanners picked up isn’t space debris—it’s why we’re here. It’s a container holding a special delivery to help improve our chances on Machimis.”

  “See, that wasn’t so hard. Valkyrie, open the outer airlock.” She stared at Eren. “Do we need to retrieve it?”

  “No. It’ll get itself inside.”

  He was having entirely too much fun stringing them along. It was annoying, mostly because it was something she would do.

  ‘The object has maneuvered into the airlock and settled to the floor.’

  “Scan it for contaminants.”

  ‘The outside of the container is free of contamination. The inside is…I believe I will simply let you open it and see for yourself.’

  “For fuck’s sake, Valkyrie, not you, too. Fine. Close the outer airlock then open the inner one.”

  Seven seconds later the inner hatch opened to reveal a smooth, curved container a fraction short of a meter long and made of a frosted, opaque material sitting on the floor. Most of the object was unmarked, but the end facing them included what appeared to be a maneuverable latch or handle.

  Before she could react, Eren stepped into the airlock, picked up the container and carried it over to the kitchen table. He input a code into a top panel—it hadn’t been visible until he’d begun typing on it—then twisted the mechanism on the end clockwise and swung it open.

  In a flurry of motion something flew out of the container, circled the cabin once and landed on Eren’s outstretched arm.

  “Hey there, Felzeor. It’s been a while.”

  The creature cooed.

  Alex blinked.

  Caleb laughed. “Um, Eren? Why is there a bird in our cabin?”

  The creature was about half the size of the container which had held it. The relatable image to instantly spring to mind was a falcon, but a closer look revealed it was definitely not a falcon.

  A rich pelt of chocolate and apricot feathers that appeared as soft as silk covered its body. Instead of only two legs, it had two traditional (for a bird) rear legs with taloned feet plus two front limbs that were shorter and ended in digits resembling skinny fingers instead of claws. Its head was oversized proportional to the rest of its body, which was long and slender. The beak seemed more or less normal, she guessed. She wasn’t an avian expert.

  Bright, animated ice green eyes darted around the cabin.

  “It’s not a bird—well, it is part of the Aves genetic family, but it’s a Volucri. Hang on, Felzeor, let’s fix this so we can make proper introductions.” Eren reached into the container with his free hand and opened a small recess in the bottom, withdrawing a chain. He fastened the chain around the bird’s neck and positioned a small orb attached to the chain at its throat. “There we go.”

  A melodic if slightly artificial voice emerged from the orb. “Hello. I’m Felzeor, once of Hirlas in the Pegasus Dwarf galaxy but now in the service of the anarchs. It is exquisite to make your acquaintance…?”

  Eren leaned in closer to the bird’s head and pointed to them in turn. “Alex, and Caleb.”

  “Ah. Alex and Caleb. Pleasure.”

  Alex gasped, but quickly brought a hand to her mouth to stifle it. Of all the…. “It’s intelligent?”

  Eren glowered as if offended. “Plenty intelligent enough for you to speak directly to him.”

  “Sorry. I’m sorry, Felzeor. It’s just, we have these birds where we come from that can mimic our speech almost perfectly, but they don’t understand what they’re saying. But you can truly speak Communis?”

  The bird—Volucri—jerked its head to the side. “In a manner. The translator melds my language into Communis as best it can. ’Tis not a flawless system. For instance, sometimes the translator calls Eren asi-Idoni ‘Eren ass-for-a-fanni,’ when this is of course not what I meant at all.”

  Oh good lord, it thought it was a comedian, too. She swallowed most of a groan, but Caleb laughed earnestly and approached their new guest.

  He lifted a hand halfway, then paused. “May I? I hope stroking you isn’t considered rude.”

  Felzeor clucked. “Not rude at all. Perform it well enough and I might stay.”

  Caleb grinned and reached up to ru
n a hand from the top of its head down its back. “You’re very soft.”

  “I spend an hour a day grooming myself. Not in the capsule, though. In fact, I must look a wreck right now.”

  “No. You’re beautiful.”

  She dropped her chin and shook her head. Caleb was such a nature boy at heart. “About the capsule—what is it? How did it get here?” ‘How is a bird going to help us break into Machim Central Command’ was the next obvious question, but she’d hold it for a bit.

  Eren handed the Volucri off to Caleb, who accepted it on his arm like handling wild birds was something he did. “It’s a transport tool we utilize from time to time, usually for items we can’t trust to the public cargo system. It’s small enough to go undetected by security sensors or drones unless they’re right on top of it, and access is keyed solely to the intended recipient.”

  Now she approached, the container on the table more than the bird. “How did it get here so fast?”

  “It’s a secret.”

  She shot Eren an unamused glare.

  He sighed. “It runs on an apparatus called a Zero Drive. I don’t know how it works. Few people do. But it manipulates the space-time manifold somehow in order to travel at high speeds with no external energy requirements.”

  She leaned over the object in an attempt to study it while her ocular implant captured detailed images for later closer scrutiny, but on initial inspection its mechanisms were a mystery. “Okay. Is now when I ask how Felzeor is going to help us on our mission?”

  Caleb and Felzeor were murmuring endearments or god knew what to one another, but now the Volucri perked up in her direction. “Oh, I’m not. I’m merely the deliverer of the information that will.”

  Eren reached in the container and removed what turned out to be a false bottom, then retrieved a case from beneath it. He opened it to reveal a Reor slab. “Thank you, Felzeor. And tell Thelkt I said thank you when you see him.”

  “I will, though he may not believe me. He knows you, remember? Speaking of our favorite anarchs, how is Cosime? I miss her so.”