Rogue Stars

by C Gockel et al.

  “The truth is he wasn’t just somebody I knew. He was the person who recruited me into SpecOps. He was my mentor and my friend for seventeen years, and he was murdered four months ago by anti-synthetic terrorists. The funny thing is, he wasn’t even especially pro-synthetic. He was simply doing his job. I didn’t mention it because…well, because I’m not ready to talk about it.”

  “I’m sorry, Caleb.”

  “So am I…but that’s a tale for another day. Alex, I’m not lying to you—about anything. And if I try you catch me, so I may as well not try. But I can’t prove it, I can only say it. And you can take it for…whatever you think it’s worth.”

  It seemed as if her eyes were searching his very soul for traces of deception, and he wondered why he had ever thought he could lie to her. He straightened up in the chair. “Which is why we need to discuss something.”

  Her gaze didn’t budge or falter. “Okay.”

  “You’re right, I do need a false identity to get inside EASC, because there’s no way they’re going to let a Senecan intelligence agent walk in the front door. But I have an idea, one which stands a chance of bringing an early end to this war and uniting us against the alien threat. And I’d like your help.”

  “Good news. Richard’s available to meet us tomorrow as well.”

  He stowed the last of the dishes and raised an eyebrow at her over his shoulder. She had responded enthusiastically to the plan, jumping at the prospect of being able to diffuse the ‘stupid khrenovuyu war.’ She had proceeded to strategize and improve upon the plan and now had increased its odds of success considerably by bringing to the table someone who might actually possess the information he needed.

  She continued to surprise him in the most unexpected ways, and he had been an idiot to think he should—or even could—do it without her.

  “So, Naval Intelligence Liaison to Strategic Command, huh? Sure he won’t shoot me on sight?”

  “It’ll be fine. He’s a teddy bear.”

  “Alex, no one in intelligence is a teddy bear.” The man was a necessary and arguably welcome player—but he would be an adversary, at least to start.

  “Well he is.” She turned to him when he joined her at the data center. “Listen. I’ve known him my entire life, and he is one of the few genuinely good people I’ve ever met.”

  “Okay. My life is in your hands, but okay.”

  “Whatever. Besides, he’ll have no reason to doubt you because you’ll be with me. I’ll be talking about alien superdreadnoughts, and you’ll simply be….”

  “Alex’s boy-toy?”

  She laughed. “Um….”

  “How many times have you visited Strategic Command wearing a random man on your arm?”

  Her brow furrowed in a farce of deep thought. “Almost nev…once, maybe twice…three times at most. Definitely.”

  His jaw dropped open in mock indignation. “Then I shall be Alex’s boy-toy. Now that I will enjoy.”

  She grinned playfully at him, and he found himself yet again drawn into her eyes. They reflected the light from the visuals above the table, transforming her irises to an incredible luminous platinum. Mirth danced in them like fireworks against a star-soaked sky.

  Seconds passed before she tore her gaze away and focused back on the data. After a moment she flipped the position of two of the images, frowned, and flipped them again.

  “The second way was better.”

  She didn’t question his opinion and immediately flipped them back while chewing on her lower lip. “It’s not as though the fate of the galaxy rests on the order of a couple of visuals. I only hope it’s enough. Maybe when decorated by some high theatrics on my part….”

  He grasped her shoulder and shifted her to face him. “I have no doubt you’ll make them listen. You have a way of refusing to accept any alternative to getting what you want, and everyone else will find they’ve no choice but to fall in line.”

  A corner of his mouth curled up. “I mean, you got me here.”

  Her voice dropped to a murmur. “I did, didn’t I?”

  They were already standing so close. His hand, still resting on her shoulder, drifted up and slowly, carefully tucked her hair behind her ear…then lingered along the curve of her jaw. She didn’t pull away, and the ticking by of endless seconds faded to insignificance.

  The pad of his thumb drew softly over the hollow beneath her extraordinary cheekbone. With a breath she began turning into his hand, as if to place a kiss on his wrist—

  —when a chime pealed through the cabin.

  Her eyes were a little wide as she stepped back, but he couldn’t be certain if he heard regret or relief in her voice. “And that would be the Gould Belt monitoring system…with the tightened security I’m guessing I need to check in.”

  He somehow managed to wait until she moved toward the cockpit before dragging a hand roughly over his mouth to stifle a groan, followed by a curse or two. He sucked a deep breath into his oddly constricted chest. Jesus.

  She spent several minutes in the cockpit. He leaned against the wall, ankles and arms crossed loosely in a stellar imitation of casual relaxation, and waited.

  When she finally returned to the table she was grimacing a bit and managed to avoid his gaze while not looking like she was avoiding it. “Security’s even tighter than I expected—we’ll need to check in half a dozen times before we get to Earth, but I set up the next few to be automated so I can get some sleep. Which….”

  She glanced at the Metis report a final time, then shut it and the other data on the table down. “I should do. Busy day tomorrow, so I’m going to call it a night.”

  He didn’t bother to hide anything in his eyes or his expression. His voice was soft but its tone unmistakable. “Are you sure?”

  She huffed a breath that came out a ragged laugh and at last met his gaze, irises swirling liquid silver filled with unknowable thoughts. She almost smiled.

  “Not in the slightest…” a retreat toward the stairwell “…which is why I really should.”

  He bit his lower lip, blinked and forced a smile. “Understood. Good night, Alex.”

  Her eyes closed for a moment. She nodded, seemingly to herself, and started down the stairs. “Good night, Caleb.”

  Alex lay on the bed, still dressed, the bed still made, and stared at the ceiling.

  What was she doing?

  She ached to leap off the bed, vault up the stairs and claim the kiss stolen from her by the alarm. And whatever followed.

  She wouldn’t have stopped him; she had been moving into him, welcoming the embrace and its consequences.

  She had no particular problem with casual sex. Though she’d never give Ken a run for her money, she had engaged in it from time to time. And given all the stress and tumult of the last week, god knows she could use some about now….

  So why not follow through now? Why not leap off the bed, vault up the stairs and give in to the undeniable attraction and sexual tension which had been building for days—hell, since about five seconds after they met?

  Because she was afraid.

  It wasn’t easy for someone like her, to admit even to herself she was afraid. Unless it was of an army of massive alien ships—and that hadn’t been easy to admit.

  But she was afraid.

  She was afraid it wouldn’t be casual at all. She was afraid if she fell into the ocean of those devastating blue eyes, she might drown. His easygoing demeanor belied an intensity simmering just beneath the surface, one constantly threatening to overwhelm her even from afar.

  She was afraid if she allowed him in, if she opened up, if she shed the multiple layers of emotional armor in which she wrapped herself, she risked losing the very control over herself and her life she so treasured. Control she had cultivated for years, decades.

  And when he inevitably left, she was afraid she would have lost her way.

  47 Metis Nebula

  Inner Bands

  Major Donel Fergusson stood at the wide viewport of
the SFS Aegea and gazed out at nothing.

  It wasn’t actually nothing, of course. It was nebular gas and dust and particles. It glowed the color of lemonade with dashes of periwinkle.

  It was a tactical nightmare. There were no distinguishing features, no points of reference and no shadowy recesses in which to hide.

  In addition to the Aegea, the 2nd GOI Platoon consisted of four electronic warfare and two reconnaissance vessels. All the ships were well-equipped both offensively and defensively, but the majority of the firepower was concentrated in the Aegea. It also sported a suite of VI-driven probes and wideband passive sensors.

  And though every ship possessed the finest in multilayer dampeners, the Aegea provided further protection in the form of an adaptive field. Dynamically generated and powered by a dedicated LEN reactor, it extended out in a five kilometer radius from the hull and blended all emissions within it into the surrounding cosmic radiation. ‘The Bubble,’ as the team referred to it, encompassed the entirety of the Platoon during normal impulse travel. In the absence of shadowy recesses in which to hide, it would have to suffice.

  “Rather beautiful, wouldn’t you say?”

  He glanced over at Lieutenant Udine, who had joined him at the viewport. “Just looks like gas and dust to me.”

  The young man laughed. “My mother’s a cosmologist. She’d faint on the spot if she heard you say that. I guess a bit of her perspective wore off on me.”

  “I didn’t know we let dreamers into the special forces these days.”

  “Only on the sly.”

  “Well, I won’t spill your secret, but you might want to keep it to yourself. Some of these soldiers may be inclined to break your spine if they catch you waxing poetic.”

  “I welcome them to try, sir.”

  “Ha! Good to hear.” His gaze drifted around the bridge. The Aegea was thinly staffed, and everyone on board doubled as a commando, sniper, EMT or half a dozen other roles along with running the frigate. “Scans?”

  “Expected EM signatures continue steady from the core region of the Nebula, sir. No deviations and no additional readings.”

  He activated the platoon-wide comm. “Re-engage sLume drives on my mark, destination 0.4 AU out from the portal, heading 22.4° NE. This will be our final superluminal traversal before reaching the target zone. Ready state on arrival. Two…one…mark.”

  The gas clouds blurred and faded, though it hardly looked any different to him. As they had already been deep in the Metis interior, the journey took minutes.

  The ‘scenery’ which snapped back into focus shone considerably brighter than before and had organized itself into pillars of thick, nearly solid cloud formations.

  “Status report.”

  “EM signatures match those provided, sir. TLF signal originating N 297.41° W, distance 0.39 AU. No anomalies detected.”

  “Recon 1, Recon 2: fan and approach TLF origin, full stealth. Slow and easy, boys.”

  Acknowledged.

  He waited. Civilians imagined special forces missions were all gunfire and explosions—but whether in an urban incursion or deep space, eighty percent of any mission involved waiting.

  Somewhere beyond the towering golden clouds sat an army of alien vessels. Once located, the team would take measurements and visuals from maximum safe distance. They would send a drone back out of the nebula to report contact. Then they would remain here, hidden in The Bubble, ready to track the alien force if or when it departed.

  Unless the aliens were already gone, a far worse scenario. If they had departed the portal they could now be, quite literally, anywhere—in which case in order to track them, the team would first have to find them. Hopefully before the aliens massacred a world or did whatever it was they were planning to do.

  He fully understood the size and scope of the enemy force which awaited. The power of the force he couldn’t say, as the type or size of their weaponry remained unknown. But one thing he had learned over the years was every adversary had a weakness. Fortified ships were slow and unwieldy; small ones were fragile. Bombs could be disarmed, EM attacks shielded. In this case, enormous ships simply made for enormous targets—not that he intended on shooting at them. Not this mission anyway.

  “Recon 1, Recon 2, report. See anything yet?”

  He was met by silence. Sometimes their shielding was a little too good. “Comms, can you establish a connection with either of the recon units or their pilots?”

  “Negative, Major. Recon units are not responding, nor are they showing up on scans.”

  Well, they wouldn’t. “Keep trying. All ships, prepare to advance at 0.5 impulse. Stay inside The Bubble. I repeat, stay inside The Bubble.”

  Acknowledged.

  The Aegea and its complement of electronic warfare ships flew silently into the pillar of nebular clouds. The viewport revealed only a bright yellow haze, thick as the fog rolling through Cove Bay when he was a child visiting his grandparents on the Scottish coast. He hadn’t been to Earth since the First Crux War. If galactic events continued on their current path, he may never see Cove Bay again…which seemed a shame.

  A bank of screens filled with broad-spectrum sensor readings created the illusion of sight as they advanced. The screens displayed the positions of the other ships (minus the Recon units), the locations of the pulsar, its companion white dwarf and the location of the portal, as well as a plethora of scientific data beyond his expertise.

  “Major, we should clear the densest clouds in another thirty seconds or so.”

  “All ships, slow to 0.2 impulse. Again, stay inside The Bubble.”

  Acknowl—

  “Sir, I’m picking up a—”

  The last thought Major Fergusson had as the blazing white pulse incinerated the Aegea and the rest of the 2nd GOI Platoon was that the viewport’s spectrum filters really needed to be upgraded, because this was just too damn bright.

  48 Siyane

  Space, Sol System

  Alex spun the cockpit chair around when she heard him come up the stairs. He wore a smile; she returned it in full. If he had taken her retreat the night before as a snub, he wasn’t showing it. They had quickly fallen back into a comfortable, easy, mildly flirtatious routine this morning. She was glad for it.

  It wasn’t the only reason she felt rather relaxed, all things considered. While normally she retained at most a vague, mild attachment to Earth as ‘home,’ in the current circumstances she had been relieved to enter the Sol System. Yes, it was home, but it was also the best defended stellar system in existence. If Earth’s defenses weren’t enough to keep it safe, nowhere would be safe.

  “Final clearance granted. Looks like your alter ego ID held up. Ready to see the homeland?”

  “I’ve seen Earth, Alex.”

  “In vids.”

  “In full-sensory overlay.”

  “Still not the same.” She shrugged teasingly. “You’ll see.”

  When they exited the Northeast 1 Pacific Corridor they were above the Gulf of Alaska. She veered south-southeast and slowed the angle of descent to run slightly off the coast.

  The waters began a deep cerulean, but shifted to a paler cyan as they approached land. It being late fall, the massive glaciers had already begun descending from the mountain peaks toward the shore. Two icebergs were mid-calving from a glacier and the water was sprinkled with free-floating chunks of ice.

  She watched him out of the corner of her eye as discreetly as she could manage. He had doubtless seen many worlds and more than a few wonders. He wouldn’t be easy to impress…but it didn’t hurt to try.

  His gaze was riveted out the viewport, but his expression in profile appeared scrupulously neutral except for the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips—

  —he sucked in a gasp, and the formerly neutral expression lit up in delight. She followed where his gaze led. A school of five orcas had broken the surface in dramatic fashion as they pushed through the ice slush and into the open waters. They danced and dove—then
the largest one leapt out of the water, spinning through the air to land on its dorsal fin and send a cascade of frothing water over its companions.

  She gave up watching him discreetly and grinned. “They were once nearly extinct. It took a lot of work to bring them back into the wild.” She paused, simply enjoying his delight for a moment. “Seneca doesn’t have oceanic wildlife?”

  He shook his head. “What we call oceans are…well, not like this. Only about forty percent of Seneca is covered in water. It’s a young planet, rich in metals due to the active stellar cluster, but indigenous species are limited and tend to be small. This is amazing.”

  Her attention drifted to the view once more. “I’ve always thought so.”

  The terrain soon gave way to tundra followed by the coastal forests of the numerous islands dotting the coastline. In minutes the northern edge of Vancouver Island came into sight; beyond it the midday sun reflected brilliantly off the first of the skyscrapers which stretched from North Vancouver to Portland. It was a beautiful fall day in the Pacific Northwest.

  She swung to the east, dropped into an airlane and headed down the Strait toward the spaceport. He leaned against the half-wall and draped his arms across his chest. “Nice city you’ve got here.”

  “This?” She scoffed with feigned nonchalance. “This is nothing. The Northeastern Seaboard Metropolis stretches for over 1,000 kilometers along the east coast. But it is the largest metropolitan area in settled space, so it would.”

  “Uh-huh. You done showing off now?”

  “You’ll just have to stick around and find out.” Oops, that might have come out a little differently than she had intended….

  His voice became both softer and deeper in tenor. “Okay.” Yep, sure did.

  She chose to ignore it while slowing and banking toward the rooftop docking platform.