“I’ll look after them. You have my word. But come back in one piece so I don’t have to, okay?”
Marlee chuckled to herself. It wasn’t the first time she’d noticed Grant joking about shirking responsibility, as the insults she’d hurled at him earlier demonstrated. Once she’d gotten past her wounded pride, however, she could admit that he was an honorable man. In addition to risking his life to rescue her, he’d never hesitated to act to care for any person here in need.
But not only was he not a fighter, he also wasn’t a natural leader, and being forced into the role seemed to make him intensely uncomfortable. Which didn’t make sense to her, because he genuinely was kind, clever and resourceful. Yet whenever allowed to do so, he quickly slipped into the background. The spark of attraction might be fading after their spat, but he remained a puzzle she longed to solve.
Caleb approached her carrying a tactical flak jacket identical to the one he wore. “Have I expressed to you how strongly I want you to stay here?”
“Only seven or eight times. I understand, I do. But I can’t sit here waiting helplessly to get slaughtered, not when they’re something I can do to possibly help end this nightmare for these people.”
“But we—”
She took the jacket from him and slipped it on. “Come on, Caleb. I’m going crazy down here. I feel like I can’t breathe, like I can’t move without colliding with a rock, a wall or a dejected shell of a person. But what I can do is fight. You know I can.”
“You can. You have a lot to learn—things I can’t teach you right now—but you have exceptional natural reflexes.”
“I got them from you.”
“We do have good genes….” His voice trailed off, and a troubled expression darkened his features. Then he shook his head roughly, and the pall vanished. “Still. If I could force you to stay put, I…wouldn’t do it. Pay attention, because this is me accepting that you’re an adult, and that I can’t control your life or the choices you make.”
“Thank you! It means a lot to me.” She reached out to hug him, and was taken by surprise when he wrapped her up in his arms and squeezed her tight. She laughed haltingly into his neck. “I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t.” He stepped back to scrutinize the fit of her jacket. “Will you at least promise me you won’t try to engage in polite diplomacy with any Rasu we meet?”
She rolled her eyes for dramatic effect. “I promise.”
DAF Command
A warm, dry breeze wafted in through the blown-out front doors of DAF command, and Marlee greedily drew the fresh air into her lungs. The bunker had only the most basic air filtration system, and the air really could get stifling in there at times.
She waited by the wall near the lift, sandwiched between Joaquim and Caleb, because Caleb had conned Joaquim into feeling as though he needed to protect her, too.
Silence hung heavy in the building; no rumbles or thuds echoed from deeper inside, and it appeared to be empty of Rasu. Selene, Ava and Colonel Rogers had headed into the depths of the DAF complex five minutes earlier, hoping to reach the armory and return before that situation changed.
In the absence of working comms, Joaquim had taken to muttering in short whispers when Selene and the others finally reemerged from the dark hallway opposite the entrance. He rushed to meet them, taking the long, thick cylinder positioned under Colonel Rogers’ arm from him and crouching on the floor to inspect it.
“This isn’t a SAL.”
“No. All the SALs were damaged. It’s a rocket launcher.”
Joaquim glanced up at Rogers, one eyebrow raised. “Nice. This will certainly do.”
Selene opened up her bag as Marlee and Caleb arrived. “Frag and electricity grenades for the taking. They might not stop a Rasu cold, but they should slow them down.”
Caleb showed her how to hook a couple of grenades to the latches on her tactical vest, then proceeded to daisy-chain half a dozen off his belt. When she got home, the first thing she was going to do—after hugging her Mom and Gramps and getting a haircut—was acquire herself a military-grade tactical belt.
Joaquim returned the rocket launcher to Colonel Rogers and removed his Glaser from the holster. “Let’s move.”
53
* * *
SIYANE
Mirai
The Siyane landed at a private spaceport on the outskirts of Mirai One. At the exit from the small terminal, Nika murmured unheard words to Dashiel Ridani, embraced him, then hefted a backpack over her shoulder and picked up a heavy bag in each hand. Weapons for the coming fight.
Alex extended the ramp and went to greet her newest passenger—which was when she realized Nika now full-on glowed, as if she were a sylphean, angelic creature.
She arched an eyebrow as the woman strode up the ramp. “Get some new upgrades?”
Nika shrugged as she passed Alex and headed into the main cabin. “I dosed myself with kyoseil to be better able to protect myself and the routines I carry from the effects of the quantum block.”
“Hmm.” Alex nodded thoughtfully. “I dosed myself with Akeso to be better able to find Caleb in the city.”
Morgan peered at them from around the cockpit chair. “Can I dose myself with vodka to…be better able to endure this trial?”
“No.” Alex gestured between the two of them. “Nika Kirumase, Morgan Lekkas.”
Nika jerked a greeting and tossed her backpack on the worktable, then set the two bags on the floor. “Why is she here?”
“Because we’re going to have to leave the Siyane behind on the outskirts of the city, but someone will have to fly it when the shit hits the fan, and Morgan’s the best pilot in the universe. She’ll get the Siyane where we need it when we need it, without the Rasu destroying it.”
Nika’s gaze drifted toward the cockpit. “Best in the universe, huh?”
“On a bad day…which she admittedly has a lot of.”
“The amethyst irises…she’s a Prevo, isn’t she? I was under the impression Prevos were Humanity’s best and brightest.”
“Not just any Prevo, either. She was one of our original four who defeated the Kats when they invaded. But her partner was killed in a combat action six years ago, and since then….”
Nika’s hands paused with the backpack flap halfway open. “Oh. I didn’t mean to pry, but I know what such a loss can do to a person.”
Alex folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the edge of the data center table. “No disrespect, but how could you know? Your people live forever.”
“Not all of them. And sometimes, what survives isn’t the same person who they used to be.”
In the recesses of her mind, Akeso hummed in staccato notes, tugging her anxiously toward Namino. “Someone before Dashiel, then?”
Nika regarded her strangely. The woman’s own eyes were now more gilded honey and silver than teal. Valkyrie had once described them as resembling luminescent oceans, but with the transformation they more closely resembled luminescent galaxies.
“There is no way I can answer your question that you’ll understand, so I’m going to move on. The point I was trying to get to was, can we count on her?”
“Yes. She’ll come through for us when we need her to, if only because she hates to lose.”
“Okay. I trust your judgment.”
“Thank you. Are we ready to go?”
“Yes.”
Alex raised her voice in the direction of the cockpit. Reluctantly, she was allowing Morgan to fly from the start so the woman could get a feel for the ship while Alex was on hand to answer questions. “Time to depart, but don’t jump us into Namino space quite yet.”
Nika slipped off her flak jacket and folded it on the worktable, then removed several items from her backpack and spread them out beside the jacket. Beneath her snug tank top, the shimmer of a tattoo danced across the woman’s back above and beyond the radiance of her skin.
“Your tattoo…is it a phoenix or some other bird of pre
y, or maybe a winged ray?”
“Maybe.”
“You’re not sure?”
The woman stared at her hands. It was possible their enhanced glow was rattling her a little as well. “When we first settled on Synra, it was a prominent constellation in the night sky. The star at the tip of the beak was the Milky Way.”
Oh. If Caleb were here, he’d whisper to her how another layer of the onion that was Nika Kirumase had just been peeled away. “A map home.”
“Symbolically. The constellation no longer exists, of course.”
“Yet you’ve kept the tattoo through what must have been hundreds of bodies.” Alex took a step back and tilted her head to the side. “You know, with the glow of your skin surrounding it, the pattern almost reminds me of—”
Morgan grumbled as the hull began to vibrate against the buffeting atmosphere. “Have Asterions never invested in a few atmosphere corridors? Damn.”
Nika strapped a tactical belt over her hips, then began slotting a variety of blades and other weapons into it. “We mainly travel to other worlds by quantum d-gate, not by ship.”
“What a tragedy.”
Namino Stellar System
They exited the Caeles Prism wormhole within sight of Namino, its quantum block and its patrolling Rasu armada. Nika stood with them in the cockpit, silently taking in the sobering tableau.
Alex had seen the armada on her last visit to the planet, so this time she studied Nika out of the corner of her vision. Tiny muscles in the woman’s face quivered and jumped, and her throat worked visibly as her eyes narrowed in grim determination. Nika was here to save millions of lives; Alex was only here to save two, though the millions would serve as a nice bonus.
The woman gave nothing else away in her steely countenance, so Alex returned her attention to the viewport. There appeared to be about as many Rasu present as there had been during the battle, though their formations were more spread out now. Mini-clusters above several locations suggested they had moved on to sieging the smaller cities, but the greatest concentration by far remained above the northeastern swath of the largest continent. It was home to Namino One and the planet’s military and political seat of power, though there seemed to be little left of either at this point.
Morgan groaned. “How exactly are you planning to kick all these monsters out of here?”
Alex shrugged. “No idea—that’s my mother’s department. But I do believe we can get many more people off the planet, right out from under the Rasu’s metal noses. We simply need to take out the quantum block, even if only for a few hours.”
“Most of the d-gates will have been destroyed by now. Hopefully the Initiative can find a few that are still operational. Otherwise, this ship can hold, what, fifty people? For a short while?”
Alex smiled. “You won’t need your d-gates to evacuate people. Once we get the quantum block down, I can have a dozen wormholes open on the surface inside of a minute. In ten minutes, hundreds. Now, they’ll send people to wherever the Prevo operating the wormhole is, which means all over Concord space, but—”
“No, that’s fine. More than fine.” Nika’s lips quirked around. “We get past this crisis, and you need to teach me how to open wormholes on command.”
Alex took a moment to enjoy the fact that for once, she held a technological advantage over an Asterion. “As I think on it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do it, so it’s a deal. But time’s wasting, so let’s get ready.”
She went into the main cabin, retrieved a box of small, handheld devices, kept three out and put the rest in her backpack. She returned to the cockpit and handed two of them to Nika and Morgan.
They peered at the devices, then at her, in question.
“They used to be called ‘walkie-talkies,’ or so I’m told. They allow for communication over radio waves—no quantum signals required. Like this.” She held hers up to her mouth and activated the recessed button. “Can you hear me?”
Her voice reverberated through both devices and echoed out of her backpack in the cabin.
Morgan frowned at the device. “Weird. Where did you get them?”
“A present from Devon.”
“Makes sense. How’s he doing?”
“He seemed well. Overlord of his own tech fiefdom.”
“He must be insufferably happy. What about Mia?”
Alex stared at her in surprise. “You haven’t heard?”
“Clearly not.”
“Malcolm was killed on Savrak three weeks ago.”
Morgan’s gaze flickered to the viewport and back to Alex. “Well, have they made a new version of him yet?”
“No. He had a ‘no regenesis’ clause in his will.”
Her eyes widened. “Ah, fuck. I mean, I never liked the sanctimonious bastard, but…damn. Mia doesn’t deserve that.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Alex drummed her fingers on the top of the pilot’s chair—her chair. “When we get home, perhaps you should reach out to Mia. You’ve, um…been through what she’s going through now. You could help her talk through some of it.”
Morgan’s expression shuttered. “I don’t do ‘sharing of feelings’—not even with one of us.”
‘Us’ unequivocally meant the original Noetica Prevos, for though they’d drifted apart over the years, they would always share an extraordinary bond, one that ventured far beyond mere friendship.
“I understand. It’s just something to think about.” She clasped Morgan’s shoulder, and to her surprise the woman didn’t shrink away. “Say your goodbyes to Stanley. We need to do this thing.”
Valkyrie, take care of yourself while I’m gone. Look in on Mom, please—but don’t look like you’re looking in on her. Make sure Abigail tells you if any problems pop up in her checkups.
I will do all of that and more.
I know you will. And stay alert, because when we break the quantum block, I may need you to perform a lot of stunts in a short period of time.
I will eagerly await the excitement. Now go, and bring our family home.
54
* * *
SIYANE
Namino Stellar System
They proceeded deliberately toward the planet below. Kat scouts had pinpointed the outer edge of the quantum block at eight megameters distant from Namino’s surface, so it didn’t come as a shock when they crossed the threshold and everything dulled.
Alex and Valkyrie didn’t actively share mindspace nearly as often as they once had, but the void which opened up in her mind when the connection was severed felt vast and empty nonetheless. Silence, where there should be presence.
Morgan grimaced. “I’m going to miss the annoying prick. Don’t tell him I said so.”
“He’ll be back pestering you soon.” She glanced behind her. “Nika? How are you doing?”
The woman held out her arms and stared at them, but the enhanced glow had not subsided. Her eyes closed, and she inhaled deeply. “I’m…good, I think. Almost everything continues to function normally. I can’t send messages, but otherwise I think the kyoseil upgrades are doing their job.”
“Glad to hear it.” Alex found her attention drawn inexorably back to the viewport. The Rasu blockade now filled the landscape, dark and forbidding. “Morgan, thus far our stealth has held up against the Rasu, but give them as wide a berth as possible anyway. Our destination is planetary coordinates 36.3° N, 72.4° W, but don’t head straight down there, as that’s where the thickest concentration of Rasu are located. Swing out to the west and adopt a—”
“Oh my god, Solovy, are you seriously trying to tell me how to fly?”
“I…fine. Get us on the ground in one piece and unnoticed by any Rasu.” She muttered several curses on her way into the cabin, where she checked the contents of her backpack for the fourth time. Walkie-talkies, energy bars, water, a few grenades, all the med kit supplies she could stuff in there. The Rectifier was latched to her hip, next to an archine blade Nika had given her. She flicked her wrist to
test the conductivity lash, and was relieved when a rope of white electrical power surged out of her bracelet into the cabin.
“Nice weapon.”
She chuckled, remembering the scene with her father during the coup attempt. “I hope to hell I don’t get close enough to a Rasu to have to use it.”
“True.” Nika joined her at the data center table. “Are you certain you’re up for this? I don’t mean it as an insult, believe me, but you’re not a combat specialist.”
“I don’t have Caleb’s skills, no—or yours, I imagine—but I’ve had to fight my way out of more jams than you might expect. I’m ready. And I won’t be a burden to you.”
“I didn’t think you would be. But just in case, so I’m clear, if you die…?”
“Valkyrie will be able to provide a comprehensive neural imprint of my mind and consciousness, current as of about ten minutes ago. I’ll wake up in a new body a few days later.”
“Good.” Nika’s gaze flickered. “Dashiel says the tests on the adiamene-kyoseil fusion material I told you about are coming up spectacular. We’ll only have a few of the new ships ready for this battle, but the next one will be a different matter.”
“I thought you couldn’t send or receive messages?”
“Oh, that’s right, I didn’t get a chance to mention this detail, did I? I’m not currently the only one of me walking around.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“You remember how you watched 8,000 copies of me take on the Rasu stronghold? Somewhat to my dismay, some of our more enterprising citizens have taken the concept and run with it. They’re called ‘Plexes’—multiple physical instances of a single mind, all connected through kyoseil.” She held out a hand and twisted it around. “I made a copy of myself—actually this is the copy—so I could stay in contact with everyone on Mirai while I’m on Namino.”
Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two) Page 32
