Aurora Renegades

by G. S. Jennsen

  His palms clutched both sides of her face. “Look at me, dammit.”

  He was too near for her to bring him into focus. The whole of her vision was dancing, electric sapphire. “Caleb….”

  “Do you realize what you mean to me? Do you?” He slid inside her in perfect time with his lips meeting hers anew, denying her the chance to reply. And she remembered what this plane of existence could feel like.

  His words were the only gentle thing about him. Yet she pushed him further, nails scratching up his spine and trying to draw him yet closer, deeper, seeking yet more. Make me want, need, ache to choose this world, my love. Demand I choose it. I beg you.

  He lifted her up and onto him as he settled on his heels, which was when she noticed his pants were still mostly on, the waistband sitting haphazardly below his hips. Nothing to be done for it now.

  The absence of the cold metal at her back was almost as stark as its arrival had been, and suddenly she was burning up. He was even hotter, scalding her lips as they roved over his damp skin.

  She nipped at his earlobe, his neck, the pounding artery beneath the skin which had once been ripped open—

  —the memory punched all the air out of her lungs. She froze, tears stinging her eyes. He’d come so close to dying. She’d come so close to losing him when they’d scarcely begun.

  One of his hands fisted in her hair as the other held her up roughly. “No. Don’t you dare slip away from me now.”

  He misunderstood the reason for the abrupt slackness in her body and the halt in her motions. But before she was able to respond, he had all but thrown her down on the table, driving into her with renewed urgency.

  The shock from the icy surface forced out what little air she’d regained, and with his mouth covering hers she could hardly find more. It was fine. She didn’t need to breathe.

  The sensations coursing through her body grew to overpower the ice and the heat. Had she imagined anything else compared? This was better. More important. More alive. More of life. She held on to the passion with everything she had.

  His arms wound beneath her, and he lifted her off the table to brace her against him, suspended in the air.

  Her head fell back, sweaty, tangled hair sweeping across the table as she surrendered to the deluge of sensations and cried out.

  The wave of ecstasy crested but didn’t crash down. Instead his own surging pleasure held it aloft, much as his powerful muscles held her body up. She let her and his rapture wash over her, blending and merging and searing into her.

  This time the cold from the table surface didn’t penetrate her skin when he eased her down onto it. She only felt him.

  His chest heaved above hers as he regarded her with an expression of heartbreaking rawness, tainted by shadows of pain and sadness.

  She’d almost forgotten these visceral human emotions could be so…brutal. Her chest hurt, but not from his weight. From something deeper, yet maddeningly elusive.

  His whispered murmur cut deeper still. “Did you feel that?”

  She nodded; her lips parted, but no words came out.

  He seemed as if he were about to say something else…then his eyes closed and he dropped his forehead to hers and hugged her close.

  It was all she could do not to break down sobbing. She was wrecked, shredded and strewn across the stars.

  She reached out with her mind, just a little, enough for the barest link. Valkyrie, I don’t care who you have to threaten or what you have to hack, but find out where they’re taking Abigail.

  I need help.

  12

  ROMANE

  IDCC Colony

  * * *

  Noah waved his father inside the Connova Interstellar meeting room. “Thanks for making the trip. Kennedy’s over at the IDCC hangar checking on a few ship details. She’ll be back soon, but I wanted to talk to you alone, anyway.”

  Lionel Terrage strode purposefully around the room, as if he were inspecting it to determine if it passed muster. “I had a meeting with a customer here, so it was convenient. How’s the arm doing?”

  Noah stretched it out in front of him and twisted it around a few times. “Better than the real thing. A few days ago I woke up and it took me until lunch to remember it wasn’t the original. Was a nice morning.” He laughed. “Mind you, the reason I finally remembered was because I crushed the takeout container from the lunch restaurant. But hey, as problems go….”

  He sighed as Lionel activated the control panel for the conference table and began opening screens. “Dad, stop.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Stop screwing with the furniture and the fixtures and sit or something. Or no, don’t sit, seeing as I’m not going to sit. Stand, but still. Can you manage that?”

  At the sight of his father’s condescending scowl, Noah almost gave up and walked out. But then he remembered Kennedy last night, how she’d shared with him what she wanted to do and stayed up half the night working on the speech. He owed it to her to do this.

  “You know about the Alliance’s absurd adiamene restrictions, don’t you? You know how the government chased Kennedy away in an overbearing attempt at an illegal power grab, then had the gall to issue an arrest warrant for her when she refused to play by their new rules.”

  Lionel nodded and settled against the wall with a greater degree of attention. Better yet, he stopped touching things.

  “It’s only a small part of Winslow and the Assembly’s increasing authoritarianism and, more relevantly to you, anti-free enterprise leanings. Last month they came for Kennedy—maybe next month they come for you.”

  “I am aware.” Lionel looked out the window rather than meet Noah’s gaze. “Far more aware than you are, in fact. The schemes being hatched by bureaucrats and power brokers behind closed doors, the subtle pressure exerted on businesspeople which, if unsuccessful, escalates to blackmail or at a minimum the threat of it. But in politics phases such as this are nothing new. They come and go like seasons, and one can weather them as such.”

  “Not this time, Dad. This time what’s at stake goes far beyond local Assembly elections and a few lucrative government contracts.”

  “We will see. I do admit, it appears this will be a more troublesome period than usual.”

  Noah saw his chance in the uncertainty tinging his dad’s voice. He leaned forward over the table, enjoying the sturdy support his new arm provided him. “You’ve lived a charmed life, Dad. Proper, wealthy Alliance luminary by day, clever Pandora profiteer by night. You’ve enjoyed—”

  “I have not—”

  “Shut up and listen to me for five seconds, for once in your life. We share the same genes. On the theory we must share something more, listen to me. Kennedy already gave up everything to come here to Romane and start fresh. I would love her forever for that alone, but it’s not enough for her. She can’t stand by and watch her beloved Alliance fall to people like Winslow, not without trying to help stop it.

  “She’s planning to give a speech to the Allied Manufacturers Chamber. Idealistic, crazy woman she is, she believes she can convince a bunch of plutocrats and robber barons that it’s in their best interests to defy the prime minister and the Assembly and instead support Admiral Solovy. I think she’s giving them way too much credit. But she grew up among these people. She gets them, and she might be able to do it.”

  He paused, shifted his weight onto his back leg, and crossed his arms over his chest. “You know what would go a long way to help tip the balance in her favor?”

  Though he now had Lionel’s rapt attention, the man nevertheless frowned and shook his head ambiguously. Dear gods in the heavens, was his father the densest, most tone-deaf individual in the cosmos?

  He moved down the table, closer. “You, Dad. You’re a highly respected member of the Chamber. Practically revered. If you support her, they’ll have to give her the due she deserves. And she’s right—it is in their best interests, which means it’s in your best interest. Stop perturbing yourself trying
to keep your hands clean and take a goddamn stand.”

  “I don’t—”

  “I’m not asking you to rattle any sabers or wave any blooded flags. It’s enough for this to be about business. About protecting your admittedly hard-earned and richly-deserved earnings from what you’ve created. You do deserve it, and so do they. Well, some of them. A few.

  “But I’m not here for them. I’m here for her, and because I have to believe somewhere inside of you is a decent soul. You made me, and in many ways—definitely more ways than I care to admit—I am you. Which means there has to be a decent soul inside you.

  “So I am asking you. Frankly, I guess I’m begging you. For her. Because she’s right, Dad. She’s right, and you know it. So please. Just this once, and I’ll never ask anything of you again. Not money, not sanctuary, not another robotic limb. The next one’s on me. But do this.”

  His father stared at him for a long time, then out the window for longer. Noah recognized this was not the setting for an acerbic wisecrack, but damned if he didn’t badly want to make one.

  Finally Lionel turned to face him, his posture as formal and stiff as it had ever been. “Would she like to give the speech from my headquarters on Aquila? Publicly? I can guarantee her safety. No one will arrest her while she’s on my property.”

  Noah smiled. “I think she’d like that quite a lot.”

  EARTH

  Vancouver

  EASC Headquarters

  The EASC Logistics Director leaned over the desk in a blatant attempt at intimidation. “There must be evidence of misconduct on her part. To be blunt, your lack of concern about the matter reeks of misconduct on your part.”

  Major Kian Lange met the Director’s glower calmly. Calm was a demeanor he had long ago perfected. Unruffled. Composed. A proper officer.

  “I’ll repeat what I stated in my report, which is that there’s nothing to investigate. As Fleet Admiral and Chairman of the EASC Board, Admiral Solovy served as the commander of all aspects of the Armed Forces. Adding additional technical capabilities to Northeast Regional Command fell strictly within her purview and did not violate any regulations.”

  “And transferring control of the Armed Forces communications network there?”

  “If she wanted to temporarily designate Northeast Regional Command as the hub of the network, she possessed the authority to do it. Mobile command centers are used all the time. The power goes with the person.”

  “Well. She’s not Fleet Admiral now, which makes her continued efforts to hold the network hostage a violation of the Code of Military Justice.”

  Lange worded his response with utmost care. “It is a matter for an Ethics Council tribunal to be sure, but it’s outside my jurisdiction, which encompasses only what happens here on the Island.”

  The Director shot him another threatening glare. “This is Earth Alliance Strategic Command, and until proper operational control is returned here, it is your problem. I’m getting tremendous pressure from Washington and London on this. The Oversight Committee won’t be pleased to hear of your lack of vigilance on the matter, to say nothing of the prime minister’s office.”

  “Brigadier Ojeda, I’m not violating any orders or the guidelines defining my duties.”

  “Then maybe we need to get you new orders.”

  “I’ll await them, sir.”

  The Director pivoted and left the office. Lange shut the door and engaged the lock behind him.

  The EASC campus had been in a state of constant uproar since Admiral Solovy’s departure. Initially, no one knew precisely what was happening. It soon became apparent the dispute between Prime Minister Winslow and Admiral Solovy had escalated to a public fissure, but at that point it still wasn’t clear what that meant.

  Then the prime minister leveled accusations of a variety of high crimes against the admiral, and shortly thereafter the prime minister’s people had swarmed EASC. In addition to demanding incriminating evidence materialize out of thin air, they had executed several ham-fisted attempts to take effective control of the organization.

  But the military functioned on rules, regulations and orders. In the absence of a chairman, the EASC Board was in charge, but the Board had descended into as much turmoil as everything and everyone else.

  Two of the Regional Commanders, Rychen and Haraken, were unabashedly supporting Admiral Solovy, and Rychen no longer attended Board meetings at all. General Foster was just as unabashedly in the prime minister’s pocket, and Colby, the Southeast Regional Commander, was hedging her bets. The Logistics Director and several others also served on the Board, and they tended to favor the prime minister, but the real, actionable power had always resided in the Regional Commanders.

  So the Board sat paralyzed, unable to make even the most basic decisions.

  He’d say it was a good thing they weren’t fighting a war at present, but after Admiral Solovy’s manifesto broadcast, in many ways they were. And whatever side you approached it from, the enemy was themselves.

  He activated the surveillance shielding in his office. As Security Director he enjoyed the very best and latest in equipment. Then he sent a live message, one which would leave no record of its existence on this end.

  Logistics is operating on the prime minister’s orders. The investigation is being directed by the Assembly Oversight Committee, but which representatives in particular are directing it isn’t known. It may still be Winslow herself, or her aides.

  Tech is reporting that if breached, the on-site network cannot be tunneled to reach your Artificial, so core functions remain insulated for now.

  We have your back.

  13

  EAS STALWART II

  Space, North-Central Quadrant

  * * *

  “Thirty new fighters are ready or coming out of manufacturing today if you want them.”

  Miriam squinted at the left-most screen for several seconds. “Of course I want them…but I don’t have the pilots for them. Not yet.” She looked back across the table at Eleni. “Can you sit on them for two more days? Richard believes many of the field officers in the NW 4th Brigade are pressuring Rear Admiral Tarone to join us.

  “If that happens, it’ll mean upwards of three hundred additional fighter pilots. They’ll come with their own ships, but I’d certainly like to move as many as I can into the new vessels.”

  “Understandable. They’re yours until such time as I have an exigent need for them, which I pray is not anytime this decade.” The field marshal took a sip of coffee. “But the ships you’re using now—they’re working out well thus far?”

  “Beyond my expectations. Alex expressed jealousy, which I take as a sign of accomplishment. Thank you. You’ve done far more than I asked.”

  “No thanks are needed. It sounds as if you have what you require and can barrel straight through to Earth with it, but do contact me if any problems arise I can help address.”

  The woman shifted in the chair, but not to a more relaxed position. “Miriam, I know you’ve said you don’t wish to discuss Colpetto, but I feel like we should, in the hope we can move past it.”

  “There’s nothing to move past, Eleni.”

  “Isn’t there? You must realize I did not make the decision to go forward with the operation lightly. I agonized over it. But I felt as if I had no other options left.”

  Miriam had done everything possible to keep business and personal separate, but if Eleni insisted on pushing, fine.

  “You truly want to know what I think? Very well. I think you didn’t agonize over it. I think you deprived seventeen families of their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, because it made things easier for you. I think you made a cold, calculated decision to sacrifice innocents to give yourself an advantage.”

  “Don’t act as if there’s no blood on your hands, Miriam. You and I, we sacrifice people for victory’s sake all the time—in every war, every battle.”

  “Combatants, Eleni. Military personnel who under
stand the stakes and are willing to die for the mission. Not innocent civilians.”

  “You see…it’s easy for you to say that when you were on the side of the oppressor rather than the oppressed—and before you try to minimize the Alliance’s misdeeds, take a hard look at what your government is doing today. Then tell me it doesn’t know how to be evil.”

  “And your vaunted Senecan Federation killed David for protecting scientists and their families. There’s plenty of evil to go around if you’re inclined to start searching for it.”

  Eleni flinched. Good. “I don’t disagree. Kappa Crucis was a bad call. The on-scene commander misunderstood the Alliance’s intentions, but she was always a hothead. If cooler heads had prevailed and taken five minutes to critically assess the situation, the battle wouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened, and if I could go back and change it, I swear to you I would.

  “But—and here’s the thing—I wouldn’t go back and change Colpetto. I may pay for those seventeen deaths in the next life, but I submit it will be worth it for all the days I’ve seen my grandchildren grow up free.”

  “The Earth Alliance is not, nor was it ever, a dictatorship.”

  “Try telling that to someone living on a disfavored colony thirty years ago. See how well it goes over.”

  “I concede the political leaders of the time weren’t exactly luminaries, even compared to our current administration.” Miriam sighed. “I will never agree with your decision, but…I do respect your conviction. And there are plenty of sins for each of us to carry.”

  “Truer words.” Eleni smiled a bit wistfully. “Now I’m afraid I need to depart soon. The legislature is voting on the H+ bill this evening, and I ought to be on the ground in case things get out of hand.”

  “Is it going to pass?”

  “Yes. It’s a new world out there, and it’s time for us all to embrace it.”