The muscles around his eyes tightened, and for a second he looked as if he was about to pass out. “Near Cornwall and Leeds. I’ve been trying to make my way toward DAF Command.”
“Good. You’ve got about nine hundred meters to go to reach the nearest tunnel entrance.”
“Is that all? Piece of cake.” His head lolled onto his chest; he wrenched it back up.
Nika took both his hands in hers. “You can do it. I believe in you.” Please, Parc. I desperately need to know there are people alive in those bunkers.
25
* * *
MIRAI
Omoikane Initiative
They had barely gotten Parc situated in a makeshift enclave in a relatively quiet corner of the Initiative when the air around Nika brightened via the introduction of a thousand points of light. She took a second to muse to herself how this war had driven her to consort with strange bedfellows indeed.
“Mesme?” She’d yet to meet another Kat, but she was too tired to be surprised by anything any longer.
The lights wavered in front of her. It is I again. In our previous meeting, I told you we hoped to contribute additional measures to the defense of Dominion worlds. Today I bring you the first of those contributions.
“Oh?” She perked up a little, though hard-earned caution tempered her response. Every passing hour brought with it the increasing prospect that the Rasu would send forces to invade other Axis Worlds. The possibility loomed like a specter over her every waking step and sleeping nightmare.
Indeed. When this measure is activated, the Mirai proximity sensors will be tripped. Might we avoid an unnecessary panic by alerting military officials beforehand?
“Of course. Let’s go see Commander Palmer.”
Mesme’s manifestation trailed her down the lift and across the hall to the large meeting room they had converted into temporary DAF Command Headquarters. Lance stood with Brigadier Johansson and two other officers poring over a bank of charts and data tables.
“Lance, can I speak to you for a minute?”
He did a double-take upon seeing Mesme. “I was going to ask if it was urgent, but I see we have an esteemed guest.”
“Yes. The Kats want to bring…something…to Mirai to aid in our defense in the event of a Rasu attack. Let’s not shoot it down, okay?”
“That depends. What is it?”
A device similar in function to the Humans’ Dimensional Rifter.
“What the hells is a singularity in space going to do for us?”
Quite a lot when one considers how the singularity in space will envelop the entire planet of Mirai.
So this was what Lance looked like when genuinely caught off guard. She made a note.
“You’re kidding me.”
I rarely ‘kid,’ Commander Palmer. Please, allow us to activate the device and demonstrate its capabilities to you.
She made an insistent waving motion at Lance, and after a beat he acquiesced. “All right, we won’t shoot it down. Don’t make me regret it.”
You will not.
“Sir, sensors are picking up a small foreign object entering Mirai’s atmosphere.”
“Already? Your people move fast.”
Indeed. Nika spun to Mesme. “Wait, I thought it was going to be positioned in orbit above the planet?”
No. Full effectiveness requires it to be situated on the ground, but it does not matter where. We have provisionally selected a location twenty kilometers outside the borders of this city.
She shrugged weakly. She wasn’t comfortable ceding their protection to these bewildering, cryptic aliens, but they desperately needed the assist right now. “Understood. We’ll worry about security once the demonstration is complete.”
Military drone cams followed the spherical object throughout its descent. No propulsion mechanism was visible, but once it broke through the cloud cover, it slowed until it settled gently to the ground in an agricultural field. The metal outer shell split open and fell away, revealing a porous lattice constructed of an obsidian metal.
A tiny, golden ball of energy manifested at the center of the lattice, spinning faster and faster until it grew to encompass the structure.
Now, if you will turn your attention to our superdreadnought located at the coordinates I am providing to you.
Coordinates popped into her head like a spontaneous thought, which was a bit disconcerting. Lance shot Mesme a suspicious glare, then went over to the officer managing the orbital sensors and muttered something in his ear.
An image of one of the Kats’ fearsome vessels orbiting Mirai appeared on a new pane.
Please pull back as much as possible for a more fulsome perspective.
The viewpoint withdrew until the hazy outline of Mirai’s mesosphere shone in the lower-left corner of the pane.
Thank you. A moment.
Five seconds passed while they waited. Then abruptly the superdreadnought fired a tremendous crimson beam toward the planet below.
“You traitorous bastard!” Lance started to lunge toward Mesme, though what he planned to do with his balled fists she couldn’t imagine—and stopped when the beam vanished. One instant it was streaking toward Mirai; the next instant it was simply…gone.
As you can see, the device will consume any physical object or energy that is directed toward the planet.
Nika stared at the once-again peaceful scene on the orbital view. To wrap an entire planet in some sort of singularity bubble…the Kats’ level of technology defied comprehension. Honestly, it frightened her. But it was what they needed if they hoped to ever defeat an enemy so formidable as the Rasu. “Where did the beam go?”
We are able to exercise a great deal more control over the location where the rift reemerges than Humans currently can. As such, I chose a location I think you will appreciate.
“Where’s that?”
The center of Mirai’s sun.
Nika cackled, allowing genuine optimism to flourish in her chest, even if for just a minute. “Brilliant.”
We will provide you with a signal for friendly ships to transmit in order to pass through the barrier and reach the surface. However, it may be wise for us to power down the device until Rasu signatures are detected, as we would not wish to cause unnecessary death.
Her brow furrowed. “No, we wouldn’t want unnecessary death. But can I count on you to activate the device on no warning, at any time? No, wait, don’t answer that question. Instead, teach me how to activate it.”
To do so will not be practical at this time. I give you my word that I will be available immediately upon notice should the device require activation. Is this acceptable?
It represented yet another step toward being dependent upon the Kats for their defense, for their very survival. She didn’t like it. Asterions had always exuded pride in taking care of themselves. And for all the Kats’—or at least Mesme’s—gracious entreaties, formidable warships and now clever technology, she still resisted trusting them fully. Their notable absence at the Namino battle remained unexplained. Also, the condescending frostiness of their treatment of Asterions, and of her specifically, while they hid behind the guise of the Sogain for the last two hundred millennia had left a bad taste in her mouth.
But she was in no position to refuse aid such as these aliens could offer. “Your word that you will be here when we need you?”
My word and my oath.
“Then accept my thanks for this gift. I pray we never have to use it.”
Nika retreated to an empty room on the third floor for a spell of solitude. By any objective measure, today had brought a deluge of genuinely good news, and she felt as if she needed to stop for a minute and reorient her attitude.
Mirai was now protected from the Rasu. Mesme had promised the imminent delivery of additional rift devices, so soon, the other Axis Worlds would be as well. This was huge.
Pridefully, she still wished they’d found a way to protect themselves. One day, they would no longer be at the mercy of m
ysterious, secretive, ethereal aliens. But for this day, it was the protection that mattered, not where it came from.
Then there was the revelation about kyoseil’s ability to penetrate the quantum block, at least for Plexes. Her mind went back to the tickle of an idea she’d had when she’d realized what Parc’s mere existence both here and on Namino meant. If there was a way—
Nika, the Anaden wants to speak with you.
Thank you, Katherine. I’ll be upstairs in a minute.
The Supreme Commander and his granddaughter had been given free rein of Mirai, though not unsupervised. Their security detail reported that they’d strolled the streets of Mirai One for an afternoon and taken several meals at local restaurants, but had spent most of their time on board their ship.
She took a deep breath, drawing on the surfeit of good news for the strength she needed to cordially interact with a man who had once been her mortal enemy. Then she headed back into the fray.
Nika sat opposite Corradeo Praesidis at one of the small meeting tables behind a shoji screen, giving them the illusion of privacy. “What can I do for you today, Supreme Commander?”
“You can begin by not calling me that.”
She didn’t respond directly to the request. “What else?”
He steepled his hands atop the table. “I recognize that I have stumbled into a crisis for your civilization. For my own personal reasons, as I mentioned earlier, I am predisposed to despise these Rasu, separate and apart from the horrors they’ve inflicted on your people. And after further consideration, I find I strongly wish to…help you.”
It was one hells of an admission from him, even if his reasons for doing so remained selfish. “What help can you offer?”
“A valid question. Nyx and I encountered something troubling during our travels that…well, she believes it might point toward a weakness in the Rasu you can exploit, though I fear the trail for discovering it is cold.”
“Forgive me, but a hundred items would benefit from my attention, and I don’t have time for obfuscation or mysterious declarations from you. I already get plenty of those from the Kats. What did you encounter?”
“Many millennia ago, I spent a period of time with a species called the Ourankeli. They were impressively advanced—far more so than either your or my people. I took Nyx to meet them, only to find their civilization in ruins. Moons and habitats destroyed, their splendid solar halo ring wrent apart, their cities smashed.”
“You think the Rasu attacked them?”
“I think the Rasu annihilated them. Which, considering the Ourankeli’s level of technology, implies only dire contemplations about the Rasu’s capabilities. But this is not why I bring up their fate. While we were there, our equipment—our environment suits, our weapons, our ship itself—came under passive assault. Multiple seals and connections became corroded and weakened in a matter of hours. And we were thinking…what if the Ourankeli devised a weapon to combat the Rasu? Something intended to prevent them from changing shape, or possibly from solidifying at all.”
“If they did, it didn’t work. You said they were annihilated.”
“Indeed. Perhaps they didn’t develop it in time to change the course of the conflict. But the Rasu left behind teratonnes of advanced materials and resources in the system. Why, unless they were forced to abandon it?”
It was a good point. “It’s worth looking into. Unfortunately, right now we can’t spare a single ship to do so. It sounds like it could be up Alex and Caleb’s alley, but neither of them is in a position to investigate it either.” She sighed. “Will you provide us the location of the Ourankeli’s system? Once things settle down a bit, if they ever do, we can send a team to delve into what happened there.”
“Absolutely. We’d return and investigate the scene in greater depth ourselves, but at present we lack the resources to do so. As I said, our ship began taking damage soon after arriving in the system.”
“I’ll make sure whoever investigates the system takes proper precautions. Unless it’s….” She fisted her hands beneath her chin. She had no reason to trust in his veracity, but it didn’t hurt to pose the question. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What’s your opinion of the Katasketousya?”
“Ah. They are quite enigmatic, aren’t they? You want to know whether I think you can trust them.”
“At present I have no choice but to trust them. But I am curious as to whether I should.”
“I’m afraid my first-hand experience with the Kats is somewhat limited. They might have been an ally to the anarchs long ago, but a bevy of misconceptions and differences of opinion kept us from working together for a long time. Once the Humans entered the picture, however, they stepped up in a notable manner. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that without their assistance, the anarchs and the Humans acting together would not have been able to topple the Directorate. I have come to accept that they are speaking the truth when they say they want to protect sentient life whenever possible. However, I continue to suspect they have their own private agenda for doing so.”
His answer made her feel a little better, though it didn’t really add much to the equation. “Thank you for speaking honestly. I also appreciate your desire to help us defeat the Rasu. Your business is your own, but if you want my opinion on how you can best contribute to our fight, then I will give it to you.
“As I understand the situation back in the Milky Way, the Anadens are busily trying their damnedest to fuck up Concord. And since Concord remains our only genuine hope of standing against the Rasu, it is in all our interests—including the Anadens, even if they don’t realize it—for Concord not to fall.”
She sighed. “I seem to recall you were a superb military commander, to the detriment of my people. I’m told you weren’t responsible for the cruel turn the Anadens took after we departed, and in fact that you were forced out precisely because you argued against following such a path. I’m also told you were an inspirational rebellion leader. I hope you learned something valuable from the experience.
“My advice? Go home, Supreme Commander. Get control of the Anadens before they destroy all of us and leave our tattered corpses for the Rasu to pick through. Reclaim your name and your position. Bring your people together if you can; bring them to heel if you can’t. With my worlds currently on fire, I frankly don’t care much which one you do. But bring them to this fight, and see to it they line up on our side of the battle.”
A troubled, almost haunted glint passed across his arresting sapphire irises. When she’d known him before, those irises had glowed the blood red of the diati. He opened his mouth and started to speak, then drew back, exhaled and began anew. “I’m not certain the Anadens remain the same people I once led…and I’m not certain I remember how to lead them.”
She leaned forward across the small table. “Try.”
Nika stared at the lift for several minutes after Corradeo Praesidis departed. Talking with him was surreal, almost like a waking dream-memory. Based on what her journals about the SAI Rebellion conveyed, he bore scant resemblance to the man who had driven her people out of the Milky Way. He was reasonable and thoughtful; he listened and discussed issues without violence or the threat thereof.
Yet in just as many respects, beneath the surface he was the same man. Quietly confident, profoundly charismatic, utterly unflappable. Those characteristics had served him well in the Anaden Empire—too well from her perspective. Maybe now they would do so again.
CONCORD
26
* * *
EARTH
Chicago
A frigid wind whipped off Lake Michigan to howl down Chicago Avenue. Alex rubbed at the arms of her black wool dress and pushed onward, one foot landing deliberately in front of the other.
The Holy Name Cathedral loomed large and somber over the next block. One of the oldest standing churches in Chicago, it had nearly been destroyed at least five times in the last four hundred years b
ut was saved every time—its parishioners would say miraculously so.
She knew all this because Malcolm had shared the church’s history with her on the two occasions she’d accompanied him here. Once for a Christmas Eve service, when their relationship had grown newly serious and she was genuinely trying to make a go of it, and once for his father’s funeral almost a year later.
Funerals. They circled around her now like a haunted, taunting mob, outstretched hands intertwined to ensure she couldn’t escape their torment. Beshai, Cosime, now Malcolm…who might be next? Marlee? Caleb—no. That wouldn’t happen. If she screamed into the void, ‘no more funerals!’ would the void listen?
She knew she didn’t have a proper right to vent or complain. In every instance, others suffered the loss far more acutely than she did. For Beshai, Jaisc and every Taenarin who knew the woman. With Cosime’s death, Eren lost everything he held dear. Today, Mia mourned alongside Malcolm’s mother and sister. Alex, however, had been spared the despair of mourning her mother, and Caleb…Caleb was going to come back. Broken and in need of healing, but he would come back, and he would bring Marlee with him.
She climbed the stairs to the cathedral entrance alongside her mother and father, just ahead of Kennedy and Noah. Behind them, a steady stream of attendees filed in through the doors. Inside, the air felt cool but mercifully wind-free. A towering ceiling loomed above them, framed by a series of dramatic arches. Dozens of colorful stained-glass windows should have rendered the sanctuary radiantly lit, but on this cold and overcast day, only meager light filtered through.
Because her mother was scheduled to speak during the service, they were seated on the third row. Mia sat on the front row beside Malcolm’s mother, sister and the sister’s husband. Alex had never actually met the sister’s husband, since her thoughtless refusal to attend their wedding brought a dramatic and abrupt end to her and Malcolm’s relationship. It had been a terrible thing for her to do, even if the outcome was the correct one.
Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two) Page 17
