The Stars Like Gods

by G. S. Jennsen

  She reached out and flicked the image to the left, and the focus shifted to one of her and Maris bundled up in winter-weather attire, complete with scarves and fuzzy caps, surrounded by frozen drifts and snow-coated trees.

  She flicked again.

  Dashiel paused at the door, overcome by a wave of déjà vu. How many times had he opened this door? Thousands, certainly, if not tens of thousands.

  As with so many other matters, the Guides had lied to him about Nika’s flat. They’d claimed it was sold at auction in accordance with the regulations pertaining to R&Rs, along with all the furniture inside and personal items that should never, ever have been transferred to others.

  In reality, they’d simply assigned ownership to themselves, locked it up and buried the records.

  He prepared himself for the blast of memories waiting on the other side and opened the door—

  —and traveled back in time. Everything was exactly the same, if a little dustier than on his last visit.

  Nika sat on the couch closest to the kitchen, always her favorite, with her elbows propped on her knees and her hands fisted at her chin, staring at a carousel of images floating in front of her. When she saw him, she hurriedly stood, wiping at her cheeks with the back of her hands. “I meant to ping you earlier. How did you know where to find me?”

  “Maris told me that Katherine had returned your old property ownership records, because of course Maris knows everything the instant it happens. I…are you crying?”

  She pursed her lips and wiped at her cheeks again. “Yeah.”

  “Oh, Nika.” He went around the edge of the couch and wrapped his arms around her. “Are they happy tears, or sad ones?”

  “I don’t know.” She sniffled against his chest. “All these things? Images, art, memorabilia, furniture, clothes? They’re all wonderful. This place is…amazing, and in my heart, it feels like home. But why can’t I remember the stories behind everything here?” The last few words caught in her throat as a sob wracked her chest.

  He stroked her hair and caressed her back wordlessly. It hadn’t been a question, but rather a raging shout against an injustice that could never be undone, a wound that could never be mended.

  Abruptly she straightened up and grabbed his hands then flattened her palms on his. “Relevance. There must be encrypted memories that will be triggered by this place.” She closed her eyes.

  After a few seconds, a frown darkened her features. “Maybe I need to think of something in particular. Something….” Her brow knotted up in concentration. Longer seconds ticked by.

  She blew out a harsh breath. “There’s nothing. Dashiel, I can’t access any new memories. What if there aren’t any more at all? No, that can’t be. I wouldn’t have left myself with only such paltry crumbs to go on.” She pressed her palms harder against his and squeezed her eyes shut once more…but her pained, frustrated expression told the tale.

  As gently as he could, he wound his hands around hers, breaking the connection. “Maybe you didn’t have time to encrypt any additional memories. Maybe you didn’t start to prepare until it was almost too late.”

  “I suppose that’s possible.” Her shoulders sagged as she reopened her eyes to allow fresh tears to escape in jagged rivulets down flushed cheeks. “This can’t be all there is.”

  He kissed her forehead. “It’s okay if it is.”

  “No.” She choked back a sob. “It’s not! I want to remember this place, dammit! I want to remember these stories.”

  He brought his hands to her face, tenderly catching the tears with his thumbs. “I’m so sorry. But you’ll make new memories. You already are.”

  She made a passing attempt to compose herself. “If I have no more memories to call on…can you help me remember in other ways? Can I ask you—” she reached down and flicked through a bunch of images before stopping on an image of him and her standing in front a hovercraft on a beach “—where this was taken?”

  “We went on vacation to an exploratory world, SR52-San. It has this exotic jungle island out in the middle of one of its oceans. Waterfalls and hot springs and colorful birds and whatnot. But no one had built a d-gate out to the island yet, so a hovercraft was the only way to reach it.” He chuckled lightly, though his heart felt so damn heavy. “You drove, and very nearly got us drowned skimming too close to a rogue wave.”

  She cackled through the tears. “Wonderful.” She sat down on the couch and hurriedly scrolled through several more images until she reached one of the two of them in heavy workpants and jackets, covered in dirt and grime. “And this?”

  “Ah.” He sat beside her and wrapped an arm over her shoulders. “This was taken on Chosek. Shoset—a regional Governor you often interfaced with—took us on a tour of his largest kyoseil mine, which ran under a volcano.”

  “Oh, no. Did the volcano erupt while we were inside the mine?”

  “Not erupt, precisely, but it did rumble a tad too much for comfort. Hence all the dust. The entrance caved in, and this image was taken while we were waiting for a crew to dig us out. Shoset was most apologetic.”

  “Stars….” She flicked back and forth, clearly searching for a specific image, and finally stopped when she landed on one of her and Maris in full gala attire in front of a fountain. “And where was this?”

  “This was before I met you, but you told me it was taken at the grand opening of the Mirai One Pavilion.”

  “The place we’re invading in the morning?”

  “One and the same.”

  She sank back into his arms with a sigh. “Thank you, darling.”

  “I’ll tell you stories all night long, if you want.”

  She laughed haltingly, broken up by a sniffle. “You’re sweet. How about a couple a day instead? I want to savor each story.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  ALIASES

  DAYS UNTIL RASU DEADLINE: 25

  7

  * * *

  MIRAI

  Nika had cleaned herself up and showered in the palatial bathroom—seriously, it was ridiculous how roomy it was—by the time Perrin arrived. She’d invited her friend over because she was excited about the flat and selfishly wanted Perrin to see it. And because it felt too vast to be alone in. Too many ghosts in the shadows that might start whispering to her if it got quiet.

  “Oh, my stars!” Perrin darted around the living room excitedly. “This is amazing! Did you—wait, is Dashiel here? I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of him.”

  “No, he had to go meet with a couple of metals experts who are trying to figure out what the Rasu could possibly be composed of. He’ll be back in a few hours.”

  “Great. Eeee!” Perrin flopped down on one of the couches. “I’ll be honest. I am digging old Nika’s tastes. None of your dreary, oh-so-serious black here.”

  “It is rather bright, and wait until you see the closet.” She sat down opposite Perrin and clasped her hands together. “It’s been a crazy couple of days, and we haven’t had time to catch up and talk—and there’s a lot we need to talk about. First up, you and Adlai.”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “The instant I saw the two of you together, I sensed how he felt toward you. He was practically drooling.”

  “Well, it shocked the hells out of me.”

  “Only because you never give yourself enough credit. Listen, I need to confess something. Before we went to rescue Dashiel and Joaquim, I warned Adlai that if we survived the night, he and I were going to have a conversation about you. But it wasn’t fair of me to threaten him, was it? I’m instinctively protective of you, but you can take care of your heart just fine. Unless you need me to run interference for it, in which case, say the word and I’m there.”

  “Nika, he’s a good man. A really good man.”

  “I think he probably is, yes. I distrusted him at first, but he’s proved himself to me since then—and to you, clearly. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m happy for you.” She ran her hand over the soft fabric of
the couch, shocked anew it belonged to her. Home. “But Joaquim won’t be.”

  “Ugh. For the four-thousandth time, Jo and I are not star-crossed would-be lovers!”

  “I believe you. But you’re his closest friend, and he’s not going to be happy about you dating a Justice Advisor.”

  Perrin dropped her head against the couch cushion. “Oh, crap. You’re right. He sees Justice and everyone who works there as his personal nemeses. How am I going to tell him?”

  “I can’t think of a single good way. Sorry. But I will back you up if he acts like too much of an asshole over it. Where is he, anyway? I haven’t seen him since this morning, I think?”

  “He went to get his burns repaired, and growing matching new skin can take hours. Also, all the clinics have been packed ever since the transit hub explosion.”

  “Good for him—he looked rough. Now, next topic: you shouldn’t have volunteered yourself at the meeting this evening.”

  “Did I overstep? I realize it wasn’t my place to interject my opinions, but that woman was being a heartless bitch.”

  “No, you didn’t overstep…or I suppose maybe you did, but I don’t give a damn about an Advisor’s power play. By the way, her name’s Katherine Colson, and word is she can give Gemina Kail a run for her money in the bitch department. I don’t know what it is Administration does to its Advisors to make them so unpleasant.”

  “Bury their souls beneath mountains of drudgery and mindless procedures? It’s Admin.”

  “Okay, fair point. No, you shouldn’t have volunteered because you’ve been going nonstop for weeks now, and you deserve a rest.”

  “No one else is getting a rest. We can’t afford to rest, not yet. After the horrors the Guides put them through, those people need help, and they need it to come from someone who actually cares about them.”

  Perrin’s resolute expression broadcast the futility of trying to change her mind, and Nika sighed. “Oh, fine. But if the burden gets to be too heavy, you had better yell.”

  “Whimper, maybe. But I will.”

  “Thank you.” She considered the spacious living room for the hundredth time in the last hour. As she’d observed earlier, it was meant for entertaining, meant to be filled with the sounds of joy and laughter…she turned back to Perrin and grabbed her hands. “On a related note, there’s something I can do to take a few items off your plate tonight. How many of our people still need housing?”

  “Let’s see…ten. No, eleven. Most of them slept at Mirai Tower last night with the rest of us, but now that the repair crews have moved in, I’ve got to find a new solution.” Perrin glanced toward the windows. “And it’s getting late. I ought to—”

  “Tell them all to come here.”

  “What?”

  “They’ll want to bring pop-out cots or sleeping pouches, but there’s all this floorspace and couchspace and space. We’ll transform the living room into a campground. I’ll overstock the kitchen, since it also turns out I have money to buy things now. If nothing else, it’s warm and dry, and people will be safe here until we devise a more permanent solution.”

  “Oh, Nika, you are amazing.” Perrin leapt forward to grab her in a fierce hug. “I’ll let everyone know.”

  Dashiel returned to Nika’s flat far later than he’d intended. He wished he could say his tardiness was because the meeting had been productive, but it was difficult to make much progress when you had no known reference point from which to start. He’d given the others everything they had on the Rasu, such as it was, and they’d agreed to meet again tomorrow. A meeting guaranteed to conflict with three other meetings he needed to attend, but he’d manage.

  He opened the door to the flat, then stopped as déjà vu far more powerful than what he’d experienced earlier washed over him. It sounded as though a party was underway inside, with multiple voices and conversations overlapping the sounds of movement and general frivolity.

  Just like in the old days…but it wasn’t the old days any longer.

  He stepped into the entryway and peeked around the corner to see ten, maybe twelve or thirteen strangers in various stages of camping on Nika’s living room floor. Most of the furniture had been shoved against the walls; pop-up cots lined the interior wall, sleeping pouches were spread out across the floor and pillows had been tossed on the couches. He spotted Perrin helping a man get settled into a rare free spot in the left corner.

  Nika was in the kitchen, unwrapping food platters and handing them off to another woman he didn’t know. She’d pulled her hair back in a sloppy tail, and she’d changed into lavender linen pants and an oversized chambray shirt…his shirt. From before.

  She’d mentioned earlier today in passing that a number of NOIR members remained homeless in the wake of The Chalet’s destruction, and he had to assume this was how the current state of affairs had come to be.

  How remarkable was she? Mere hours after discovering a home she’d never known existed, she’d opened its doors to…yes, her people.

  Her gaze passed across the room and spotted him. She gave him an exaggerated shrug.

  When he joined her in the kitchen, she set a platter on the counter and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I couldn’t leave them out on the street when I had this obscene amount of free space. It’ll only be for a day or two, I promise.”

  He sighed somewhat ruefully. “This wasn’t exactly how I imagined us spending our first night together back at your place, but I understand.”

  “Good. Thank you.” She dropped her voice a notch. “It’s not as if any of them are crashing in my bedroom, which does have a door with a lock.”

  “It’s not exactly how I imagined us spending our first night together back at your place.”

  “I admit, this doesn’t lend itself to a particularly romantic atmosphere.” Her eyes danced nonetheless. “But it was like this a lot, wasn’t it? I mean, maybe not sleeping pouches in the middle of the floor, but filled with people. Talking and laughing and probably drinking.”

  “Yes, it was like this a lot. You loved having people here. Loved bringing them joy. And…” he gestured toward the living room and its many occupants “…it seems you still do.”

  She peered over his shoulder. “Hey, Parc!”

  Dashiel turned to see two people he had met, Parc Eshett and Ryan Theroit. They crouched beside two spider bots that were engaged in melee combat, to the cheers of those nearby.

  Parc looked up in question. “What?”

  “You two have a place to stay, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  She made a face and approached them. “Great. Why are you here, then?”

  Parc motioned to the ongoing combat. “Spiderbot Smackdown!”

  She nodded vaguely to herself, then spun around when Perrin tapped her on the shoulder.

  “All the food’s set, and I’ve done a headcount twice. Everyone who told me they needed a place to stay is here.”

  “And two who don’t.”

  Perrin rolled her eyes. “So I see. I promise I’ll get back to work finding more permanent lodging first thing in the morning. My goal is to have everyone relocated before this time tomorrow night, and I feel good about my chances.” She fidgeted. “All you have to do is ask, and I’ll stay tonight and help you out, because this is pretty crazy. But if you don’t need me…?”

  “I guess I assumed you’d be staying, but if you have someplace to be, Dashiel and I can handle things without too much trouble.”

  “I sort of do.”

  “Which is…” Nika groaned dramatically “…oh.”

  Perrin flashed her a hopeful, pleading expression.

  Nika shoved Perrin toward the door. “Go! Get out of here. You’ve more than earned a night of bliss.”

  “Oh, I hope it’s bliss. Do you think it will be bliss?”

  “No way am I answering that.” Nika kept nudging her all the way to the door and out it before returning to the kitchen to lean against the counter beside Dashiel.

  He
gave her a confused look. “What just happened? What bliss?”

  “You haven’t had a chance to hang out with Adlai and catch up since we came back to Mirai, have you?”

  “No, not real—oh. Seriously?”

  “Apparently. They worked together to distribute the virutox vaccine after Satair kidnapped Joaquim, and she’s the one who brought him into our confidence to help rescue you on the Platform. Now they’re all doe-eyed and dreamy.”

  He pondered on it a minute. “They’re actually kind of perfect for each other.”

  “If he breaks her heart, I’m fully intending on kicking his ass.”

  “Sure. Assuming she doesn’t beat you to it. She’s very…demonstrative.”

  “Is she ever.”

  “Hey, Nika, sorry to interrupt.” A woman approached them and thrust her hand out. “Hi, I’m Josie. You must be Dashiel.”

  He accepted the hand. “That’s right. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Same.” She turned to Nika. “Do you have any bonding tape? Geoff got a nasty scrape on debris at the Tower, and he’s been ignoring it all day.”

  “I think Perrin brought some. Check in that bag over there.” She pointed to a hefty bag sitting near the wall, and Josie scurried off.

  Nika wound her arms around his waist. “Not exactly how you imagined, huh?”

  “It’s okay. We have time.” He leaned in and kissed her ear. “By the way, I like your shirt.”

  Perrin smoothed out the folds of her sweater. It being a sweater, however, as soon as she removed her hands the folds settled back into their previous sloppiness.

  She should have changed into something better. More alluring or at least easier to tame. But the rest of her clothes were ashes beneath the rubble of The Chalet, and shopping for new ones hadn’t been high on the priority list today. She’d taken two minutes on the way here to re-braid her hair, since he’d said he liked it braided. Should she change the hue? He hadn’t said he liked the color. Or disliked it.