Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two)

by G. S. Jennsen

  The world began to rush back in around him—the low rumble of distant buildings collapsing, the closer gasps, shouts, and insistent footsteps. He worked to find his voice and project it above the chaos. “We need to move before this monster puts itself back together.”

  Marlee gaped at him from the sidewalk, her eyes wide and mouth open. “Oh my god. Everything they ever said about you is true!”

  He gasped in short, raspy breaths. “Are you hurt?”

  “No. Are you?” She leapt forward and put her hands on the flush, sweat-soaked skin of his neck. “You’re burning up.”

  “I’ll be fine. Let’s get everyone together and move.”

  Behind Marlee, Ava was blasting the half of the Rasu he’d severed and kicked away with her weaponized arm, which packed an impressive punch. Joaquim had gathered his friend’s limp form across his shoulders while Selene urged the other two survivors out of the false safety of the shop and into the street. “We don’t have kamero filters for them, so we’re going to need to forget stealth and move fast.”

  “Don’t get any on your boot!” Marlee pointed to the expanding pool of Rasu a meter away and closing.

  He tried so hard to laugh for her, but it came out as more of a cough as he took her hand in his, guided them well afield of the Rasu pool and willed the others to move already.

  Camp Burrow

  “Quick, let’s get him hooked into the repair bench!”

  Marlee urged back the anxious onlookers who had gathered at the door to clear a path as Joaquim hurried over to what the Asterions called a ‘repair bench’—in actuality a fully equipped medical station, robotic nurse and pharmaceutical dispensary—and dropped to his knees beside it. Ava and Selene reached out, took his charge by the arms and legs and rolled him onto the ‘bench’ part of the station.

  “Hook him up to the IV. I’ll see to his leg.”

  Ava wound out a long tube with a needle at the end from the station, then hunched over the man—Marlee thought Joaquim had said his name was Parc—and jabbed the needle in where his head met his shoulder. Next, she guided a thin cable with some kind of interface on the end to the base of his neck. Meanwhile, Joaquim cut off the shredded, blood-soaked material of the man’s left pant leg and tossed it to the side while Selene grabbed two pads from the repair bench and secured them on either side of the now exposed and quite ghastly wound. Almost instantly, a mechanical appendage extended out from the bench, hovered above the wound and fired a tiny laser into the mangled tissue.

  Joaquim stood and took a step back, panting from exertion. “He needs a tank.”

  Selene adjusted a couple of settings on the bench’s console. “We don’t have one, so we’ll have to make do.” She shot Joaquim an inscrutable look. “You handled this like a pro.”

  “Not the first time I’ve had to evacuate the injured and triage combat wounds.”

  “Right.” Selene glanced toward the entrance, where the other two survivors had huddled up next to the door, looking exhausted and shell-shocked. She sought out Marlee wearing a weary grimace. “Marlee, can you get our new guests situated while we see to Parc?”

  “You got it.” Caleb had disappeared down the hallway as soon as they’d arrived, presumably to clean himself up, so she readied a friendly smile and went over to the couple. “Hi. Sorry for the commotion there, but thank you for helping our friend. Welcome to Camp Burrow!”

  The man’s brow furrowed in confusion, creating deep, dirt-filled creases along his forehead. “You’re not an Asterion.”

  She sighed breezily. “No, I’m a human. Got trapped here with everyone during the initial attack. My name’s Marlee. If you want to come with me, I can get you some cots and show you where to find food and a shower.”

  Twenty minutes later, she’d finally gotten the new residents set up in some improvised free space along the far wall and left them to catch their breaths and absorb the reality of their new, marginally safer environs. She peered around the bunker to gauge the state of affairs. The panic around Parc had died down, though the man remained unconscious and Joaquim was watching him closely while the repair bench robot did its work.

  Where was Caleb? Had he never returned to the main room? She wanted to gush over his mind-blowing moves against the Rasu.

  There weren’t a lot of places that provided solitude and privacy here—basically only the lavatory and the supply room. She headed down the hallway and opened the door to the supply room. The lights were off, and she started to close it…then hesitated. “Caleb, are you in here?”

  “Hey, muffin.” His voice sounded pinched and strained.

  She increased her thermal vision and spotted him hunched against a bare spot of wall, his knees drawn up to his chest and one arm braced atop them.

  She shut the door and went over to crouch in front of him. “Are you okay? Did the Rasu hurt you?”

  “No.”

  She put a hand on his arm above the wrist. He was shaking, his skin sopped in hot sweat. “Then what’s wrong?”

  His throat worked, and his eyes briefly shut. “Akeso and I are having a minor disagreement about my chosen course of action. Coming here, and…basically everything since then.”

  “Akeso didn’t want you to rescue me?”

  “Of course it did. Akeso cares about you. It’s…complicated. Akeso abhors violence, so much so that me committing it makes us both physically ill. It’s gentle and kind and treasures all life. And that’s the problem.”

  Dammit, she’d known something was wrong from the minute he’d arrived. He mostly managed to put on a good act, and she’d tried to chalk it up to him being upset with her, plus the whole death-and-destruction-everywhere, but in her heart she’d known. He wasn’t okay. And it was her fault.

  “What can I do?”

  “Nothing. It’ll pass in a little while.”

  “This isn’t the first time this has happened?”

  He shook his head, then flinched as if he’d been struck. “No. Which is how I know it’ll pass.” He reached out and patted her hand, though it seemed a tremendous effort for him to complete the small action. “So tell me. What were you thinking trying to negotiate with a Rasu?”

  She shrugged sheepishly. “I don’t know. Language is what I do. I thought if we talked to it like the intelligent beings we are, it might recognize we’re worthy adversaries, capable of reason and understanding. I guess that was pretty foolish, huh?”

  “No. Well, it was foolish to run out in the street and confront the monster instead of getting behind me like I told you to, but it’s not foolish to seek a peaceful solution to war. I’m just afraid the Rasu aren’t interested in listening. Or in peace.”

  “Probably not.”

  His gaze drifted toward the door. “Are things calming down out there?”

  “They are. That Parc guy is still unconscious, but he’s not dead so far, and I got the new people settled in.” She sat down, scooted beside him and rested her head on his trembling shoulder. “So I’ll stay here with you until you’re feeling better.”

  36

  * * *

  NAMINO

  Camp Burrow

  Marlee watched on in keen interest as Joaquim and Grant stuffed bundles of cloth with a bunch of archine blades wrapped around an explosive material they’d gotten from the DAF armory, all connected to a small module they called a ‘morph.’

  Joaquim hefted one of the bundles up and tossed it in the air a few times. “Thanks for the help. Ava, Dominic and I will head out and set some traps.”

  Grant nodded. “Shall I let Selene know?”

  “Up to you.” Joaquim arranged the makeshift bombs in a large bag, stood and strode off to enlist his friends.

  Marlee took half a step forward, intending to offer to go with them; then she stopped, her gaze drawn to where Caleb sat talking quietly to Selene. It had taken more than an hour for his shakes to subside enough that he was comfortable leaving the supply room. He’d taken a shower, eaten a sandwich and resumed pr
ojecting an air of normalcy. But now she’d seen behind the curtain, and she knew it was an act. She wanted so badly to help him, but she didn’t—

  “Your uncle loves you very much.”

  She turned back to Grant, who was cleaning up the mess he and Joaquim had created, and shrugged weakly. “I suppose he does. He did come all this way for me.”

  “You’re not close?”

  “We used to be. Not so much for the last several years. But I guess family is family, no matter what.”

  Grant didn’t respond, and she studied him more closely for a minute, working it out in her head. “Asterions don’t have families, do they?”

  “Not in the way you mean, no. But we do have people with whom our bonds have grown strong over the millennia—stronger than those between any mere family.”

  She regarded him curiously. She really enjoyed spending time with him, but she was tired of getting the constant runaround from him. “Can I ask you a question? I realize it’s a sensitive subject since you keep deflecting, but I’m asking anyway: exactly how old are you?”

  Grant leaned against the front of the workstation with a sigh. “Old enough that you need to stop looking at me with an intrigued glint in your eye.”

  She shrank back, mortified. “Excuse me?”

  “Listen, Marlee. You are courageous and bright—you’re running circles around me with languages, combat and possibly even programming, as promised—and very, very pretty. But you’ve scarcely begun to live your life, and I’ve…let’s just say I have houseplants older than you. Or I did. I expect the Rasu have pulverized the plants and the house by now. I’m going to try to make sure you get to live a lot longer than my houseplants, but I can’t…. The point is—”

  “Oh, I get the point just fine.” She stoked the anger rising in her chest and quelled the stinging hurt his words inflicted, taking care to ensure her bottom lip did not quiver. “As if I could ever fall for a coward like you.”

  “A coward? That’s not fair.”

  “You should be raging in fury at what’s happening to your home. You should be fighting, the way Joaquim and Ava and Selene are. Instead you’re simply…hanging out. Doing what they tell you to do and fiddling with electronics, but nothing else. Don’t you care?”

  His jaw locked, and she decided she’d struck a nerve. “I fought for my home once. It didn’t help.”

  “So you try again. Fight for this one.”

  “I did. I spent the last two months designing a fleet of warships that got themselves blown to smithereens by the Rasu in a matter of hours. See, whatever I do, it doesn’t make a difference. So, yes, I’m thinking I’m going to hang out and fiddle with electronics.”

  “Well, I’m not.” She shot him a dark glare then marched off with whatever semblance of pride she could muster.

  Selene had gone to check on Parc, and Marlee threw herself onto the couch beside Caleb in a huff.

  He was inspecting one of the kamero filter modules, but when she arrived he looked over in concern. “What’s wrong?”

  “Why does anything have to be wrong?”

  “Because your lips are puckered down just like your mom’s always do when she’s upset.”

  She cast a sideways glance across the bunker. “Grant called me a child.”

  Caleb opened his mouth—

  “I swear, if you say ‘but you are a child,’ I will…I will…punch you in the arm so hard!”

  He chuckled faintly. “I wasn’t going to say that. You like him?”

  “No. I mean, I thought I might. He’s ridiculously cute, and he seemed funny and kind at first. But it turns out he’s an asshole and a coward.”

  “He risked his life to save yours.”

  “Ugh. Okay, maybe he’s not a coward. But he’s not a fighter, either.”

  “Is that what you want in a…?” His voice trailed off.

  She leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Lover. The word you’re searching for is ‘lover.’ ”

  Caleb squeezed his eyes shut in an exaggerated grimace, and she laughed.

  “Fine, fine. Is that what you want in a…” he exhaled dramatically “…lover? Someone who’s also a fighter?”

  Well this conversation had taken a more serious turn than she’d intended. She cast her mind back to her growing list of discarded girlfriends, boyfriends, fluidfriends and unrequited crushes. “I think so, yeah. I do.” She paused. “It’s all your fault, you know. I idolized you growing up.”

  “Until you didn’t. Which is on me.”

  Deeper and darker still. Oops. She shrugged with intentional mildness. “We could split the blame and get fairly close to the truth.”

  “Deal.” He sighed. “The thing is, I never wanted this kind of life for you.”

  “I appreciate it. I do. But I get to decide what kind of life I want for myself.”

  “You do.” He shot her a smirk. “I’m still telling your mother about all of this.”

  “Unh!” She jabbed him in the shoulder, and he flinched visibly. “I’m sorry, did I hurt you? But….” Suspicious, she reached over and peeled his sleeve up to reveal a large, blood-darkened medwrap. “I thought you said the Rasu didn’t hurt you.”

  “The one today didn’t. This is from before—from the trip here.”

  “Why aren’t you healing? Akeso should have had this patched up in an hour or two at most.”

  “Akeso’s not necessarily focused on healing at the moment. I assume. But Akeso’s also not talking to me right now, so I’m guessing here.”

  “But even without Akeso, the medwrap and your cybernetics should have taken care of the wound by now.”

  “And yet.” He slid the sleeve back down over the medwrap. “We were talking about Grant, weren’t we?”

  She rolled her eyes, surreptitiously checking to confirm blood hadn’t started seeping down his arm. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, dammit. “We don’t have to. Unless you have any wise uncle insights you want to share?”

  Caleb scooted closer and lowered his voice to a murmur. “The thing you need to understand is, every Asterion in this room is ancient by our standards—they’ve all lived thousands of years longer than any human. And I suspect a few of the people in this room are ancient even by Anaden standards. Your friend Grant is one of them.”

  “He’s not my friend.”

  “He saved your life, so he probably ought to be.”

  “And a mature person who definitely isn’t a child would move past any perceived slight, right? I hear what you’re saying about their ages, and Grant’s for certain old. But at some point the number of years a person has lived doesn’t matter any longer, does it? We’ve seen it with many of the Anadens we know.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “True. But let me ask you this: why would you want to be with someone who’s seen and endured so much that they’ve lost the capacity to experience wonder?”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but he made a good point. Damn him for being so perceptive. She didn’t think most Asterions she’d met were so depressingly jaded, but she couldn’t deny Grant’s ennui—

  A small commotion broke out by the repair bench. “He’s waking up!”

  They fell silent to watch in interest as the injured man stirred, moaned and tried to sit up, only to be eased back down by Selene and one of the other women.

  She’d heard a number of interesting things about this Parc guy in the hours since he’d arrived here unconscious, most notably how he was supposed to be some sort of tech wonder-genius. With him here and now awake, perhaps their fortunes would start looking up.

  37

  * * *

  MIRAI

  Ridani Enterprises

  Dashiel pressed his palms together at his chin and studied the chemical formulation for adiamene, much as he’d done for the last…many hours. The molecular structure was a work of art—but for all the strength and resilience of the finished product, the structure was also delicate. Tweak one bond, add or remove one electron, and the whole formu
lation disintegrated. This feature of the material threatened to make his chosen goal impossible.

  Still, he stared at the symbols and interlocking chains until his eyes glazed over. Then he sank back in his chair, blinked his failing eyes several times and adjusted his neurotransmitter output for a jolt of concentration. At this rate of abuse he was going to fry out this body in record time, but it was fine. So long as the Rasu kept their shapeshifting hands off the rest of their worlds, he could order a new one. And they were far more likely to retain ownership of those worlds if he solved this godsdamned problem.

  But juiced-up attention and clarity of vision refused to yield any further answers. Honestly, adiamene shouldn’t exist, which had to be part of the reason why tweaking it was an exercise in futility. Unless…what if the answer lay in its creation? Emboldened by the head-rush of a new idea, he sent a comm request to Alex Solovy. Somewhat to his surprise, she responded immediately.

  “Alex, I’m sorry to bother you. Do you have a minute to answer a few quick questions?”

  “If they involve how to stop the Rasu, absolutely.”

  “They do. I’m hoping for some information on how adiamene was originally created, and Ms. Rossi has indicated you’re the person to talk to about that.”

  “True enough. So Caleb and I got into a firefight in the Metis Nebula—”

  “With each other?”

  “Yes. We had a…misunderstanding. I blew up his ship, but not before he ripped a hole in the undercarriage of the Siyane. We both ended up stranded on this total shitshow of a planet—I landed, he crashed—without any way to call for help, because the Kats were blocking all quantum communications—wait, I should’ve thought about that. Is anyone poking into how the Kats did it and if it can help us circumvent the Rasu block?”