Valkyrie was on her own for the evening. She was likely spending it colluding with the others on facilitating the gargantuan rebuilding efforts, exploring the many zettabytes of data captured on the alien superdreadnought, or analyzing the nature of time and space, and possibly all three. All worthwhile endeavors. Until those who fancied themselves in charge decided what they wanted to do with these new creations, the Artificials were at least making good use of their talents. But Alex found she vastly preferred this, right here.
She glanced back toward the kitchen to see Caleb removing a slender container from his pack. Though curious, she didn’t ask about it as he joined her.
He took a sip of wine then handed her the box. The covering was a muted delft blue and velvety to the touch.
Now she did ask. “What is this?”
A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You may remember your birthday kind of passed us by while we were on the other side of the portal. I told you we would celebrate when the crisis was over. So as a start…” he gestured to the box she now held “…happy birthday, Alex.”
She had never been any damn good at receiving gifts; the one-sided generosity involved in the act made her twitchy and uncomfortable. She stared at her hands and their contents. “You didn’t need to….”
“Of course I didn’t. Open it.”
She located the seal, unlocked it, held her breath and opened the lid.
Encased in gel cushioning rested a bracelet made of a deep onyx-hued metal. It wound around in two spiraling circles and narrowed at each end to a soft, curved tip. She ran fingertips along it, startled by the unusual texture. The metal was like no jewelry she’d ever encountered.
“I crafted it from my sword during the trip from Krysk to the Seneca battle. The sword is the last remnant of the Siyane untransformed. You deserve a piece of it, if only as a memento. I realize you’re okay with the way the ship is now, but still.”
She removed the bracelet from the box and slipped it on her wrist. It swirled in graceful arcs up her forearm. She felt no hint of sharp or abrasive edges, and the metal was cool and smooth on her skin. Simple, unadorned, strong and resilient, it was more beautiful to her than the most elaborate gold filigree.
She tore her gaze from the bracelet to look up at him with a buoyant grin. If his face was any indication, she didn’t need to tell him she was pleased, but she would anyway. “Caleb, it’s amazing and exquisite and perfect. But you already know that.”
He shrugged and made a passing attempt at appearing humble. “It’s the first gift I’ve given you, so I couldn’t be certain.”
“Uh-huh.” She set the empty box on the table and snuggled into his waiting arms. “You still have the sword, right? I mean, you only used a sliver from it.”
His lips nuzzled her ear. “Absolutely. I may need it. You never know when another dragon is going to swoop down out of the sky.”
“Any second now, I expect.”
“Well…we probably have a little time to catch our breath.”
Peace hadn’t been a feature of her life lately; in many ways it had never been a feature of her life. But it didn’t suck. She’d undoubtedly get restless soon enough, but for now she intended to enjoy this lightness in her heart. She sank deeper against him and allowed the peaceful silence to linger.
Caleb’s hand drew along her arm, dancing idly over the bracelet. “For the record, you deserve a vacation lasting six months at a minimum. Years would also be entirely justifiable. But once you’ve had all of the boring normal life you can stand, what do you think you might do?”
“Well, now that I’m famous—or infamous—the potential clients are lining up. I’m ignoring all the inquiries for the time being, but should I want it I won’t lack for work. I think it will be difficult, though, returning to the old routines knowing what we do. The galaxy, our entire universe, is something very different than we perceived it to be, and I haven’t decided yet what that reality means for me. We’ll see.”
She pointed to her temple with a wry grimace. “Also, there’s the whole Artificial inside my head thing complicating the issue. Regardless, boring normal life will do just fine. For now.”
“So…Delavasi asked me to run the organized crime section of Special Operations. Obviously my days of undercover work are behind me since my face was broadcast on every news feed in the galaxy.”
She bit the inside of her cheek to suppress the frown which tried to leap forth. The careful tone in his voice suggested he’d been waiting for the proper time to share the information. She wasn’t sure she agreed this was it. “Did you say yes?”
“I said I’d never sit behind a desk. So he asked me to take over the training program for Division’s new recruits.”
“A teacher? You’d be an outstanding teacher.”
“Maybe. It still lacks an element of excitement…which is why he also assured me I could still serve as an active agent when any non-undercover operations caught my interest.”
She moved away to retrieve her glass of wine then moved to the center cushion, creating some space between them. “You really can’t ask for a better arrangement in your line of work, and it sounds as if he desperately wants you back in whatever capacity he can get you. What did you tell him?”
“I haven’t told him anything yet. Honestly, after everything that’s happened and everything I know, I’m not sure if I’m willing to kill people—or even order their deaths—on behalf of my government any longer.”
She gave him a smile she hoped passed for genuine. “You should at least take the teaching job. It’s a great opportunity.”
His eyes met hers, but she was unable to read what they conveyed. “Is that what you want?”
Her own eyes slid away. She hadn’t meant for them to, but she could not do this with him staring into her soul. “It’ll be fine. We’ll make it work. I’ll lease a bay at the Cavare spaceport. I can be there as much as I’m here, or more. We can—”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
Dammit. Why was he making the high road so hard? “I think it—”
His hand found her chin and nudged it toward him. His voice was low, weighted by import. “You’ve spent your entire life going after what you want, to hell with everyone else. So tell me, Alex. What do you want?”
She pulled back from his grasp, and with a frustrated sigh he allowed her to escape. She picked up her glass, stood and went to the window to stare out at the light from the moon shimmering in the Sound beyond. It occurred to her the last time she had done so was shortly before she left for the Metis Nebula. An eternity—one of Mesme’s aeons—ago.
She took a long sip of wine and studied Caleb’s nebulous reflection in the window. He had dropped his forearms on his knees and simply watched her, his expression completely impenetrable.
Try as she might, she could not find the strength to turn and look him in the eye, nor to raise her voice above a whisper.
“I want you to stay. I want you to share my ship with me. I want you to share my life with me. But it’s selfish of me to want such things—and that’s what I’ve spent my life being. I can’t—I won’t—ask you to give up your career, your home and all you’ve built for me.” She summoned up her resolve and finally shifted to face him. “It’s okay. We will make it work.”
There was no change in his enigmatic expression as he stood and approached her. He silently took her glass and set it on the table, then returned. A hand came up to cup her cheek, and now she thought she saw in his eyes—
“Yes.”
Yes…it was selfish of her? Yes, she couldn’t ask those things of him? She knew all this, dammit. That was the yebanaya point. “What?”
“Alex, I don’t know what tomorrow or the next day or the next decade may bring. No one does. So this is where I make my own choice, with full knowledge and understanding of the consequences: a choice to not walk away. Yes, I will share your ship with you. I will share your life with you.”
Sh
e viciously squashed the wave of ardor surging in her chest. “No. You cannot leave everything—”
“Too late. I sent my resignation to Delavasi while I was walking from the couch to the window.” His other hand appeared in the space between them.
“Marry me. Let’s never worry about this again.”
The ring held aloft by his forefinger and thumb consisted of two bands of a subtly pearled tungsten metal woven together. Was it adiamene? In the center lay a tapered stone which…may have been a diamond, if like none she’d ever seen. With each tiny movement the facets caught a different angle of the moon’s reflected light and transformed the stone to a new and bottomless hue.
She opened her mouth to respond—
“Before you say it, I can leave my career behind. It was never mine, and I don’t want it.”
Again she tried, succeeding in pulling her focus from the sublime object he held in his hand and meeting his gaze—it burned with fervency and hope—but only managing to utter half a syllable before he cut her off.
“What I want, for myself and in the most selfish way possible, is you. My future is with you, whatever may come. If—”
She wrapped her arms around him his neck and drew him close, an insistent, tantalizing murmur on her lips as they met his.
“Would you shut up and let me tell you yes?”
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
EARTH
EASC HEADQUARTERS
* * *
THE GLEAMING FAÇADE SHONE in the late morning sun, radiant and glittering in a way only newness could exhibit. Tiers of steel and glass rose in staggered, winding levels to soar into the sky. A work of functional art, the offset floors allowed for both gardens and landing pads to blend seamlessly into the design of the structure.
It was, Miriam had to concede, a far more attractive building than the one it replaced.
Construction of the new EASC Headquarters Tower had been completed while she was away. It didn’t officially open for business until the next day, but most of the equipment and furnishings had already been transferred from the temporary quarters in the Logistics building, and her new office reputedly awaited her presence.
She almost walked in the entrance brandishing a smile. Luckily she realized her error at the door and donned a stern countenance.
A lieutenant sat behind the front desk testing the functionality of a control panel, but on spotting her he leapt to his feet with a salute. “Admiral Solovy! Welcome, ma’am. We were told you wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow. Allow me to show you to your suite.”
“I assume I take the center lift until it goes no higher, correct?”
“Um, that does sort of cover it. But—”
“Then I shall show myself up, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Beginning tomorrow there would be two additional security checks between the lobby and the top floor, but this trip required solely her personal security code. She stepped off the lift into a bright, open atrium. The marble floor felt suitably firm beneath her feet; the secretary’s station loomed with appropriate intimidation over prospective guests.
Beyond the atrium was her office. She entered her security code a final time and stepped inside.
The desk she’d ordered had arrived ahead of her, as had the matching shelves. Everything had arrived, down to the white-silver tea set she’d purchased a few days earlier. Her favorite visual of David, Alex and herself—taken in 2298 on the lawn of their home in San Francisco—was even loaded into the display atop the desk.
The chair wasn’t new, for she’d become accustomed to the one she’d claimed in Logistics. She eased into it and spun slowly around—then was quickly back on her feet and moving to the window.
Except it wasn’t a window; it was a door. She had a garden.
Well, perhaps ‘garden’ was stretching the term a bit. She had a patio decorated in shrubs, flowering morning glories, astilbe and a small table with two chairs.
Beneath her the entirety of the EASC complex spread out. Tiny forms scurried about from one building to the next, and in the distance ships landed at and departed from the spaceport with ordered regularity. Ahead of her the waters of the Strait crashed against the parapets.
Well. This was simply lovely.
“I heard you were in the building.”
She turned and motioned Richard out onto the patio. “I only just arrived.”
“Word travels fast, especially when it’s in panic. They were expecting you tomorrow, I believe.”
She draped her arms atop the railing as he joined her. “I wanted to get settled in while it was still quiet. We’ll see how the practicality holds up under duress, but I have to say so far I’m pleased.”
Richard chuckled lightly. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thank you.”
“How was Romane? More to the point, how was your first vacation in…ever, was it?”
“Not ever, merely the last decade…or two. And it was very relaxing. That’s what vacations are supposed to be, right? Relaxing?”
“That’s the rumor.”
She nodded. “Then yes, it was relaxing.”
“Did you spend the entire visit meeting with the governor and her administration?”
“Only half the visit. I also toured several art galleries, attended a horrifically tawdry circus performance and spent a great deal of time…not worrying.”
“Otherwise known as relaxing.”
“Yes.” She straightened up from the railing but kept her hands atop it. “And now it is time to get back to work.”
“Much of the unrest on the hardest-hit colonies has eased with the improvements in services. Now it’s mostly squabbling over what to build next, where and for who’s favor.”
“What about the Order of the True Sentients?”
Richard grimaced. “They will be a problem, I fear. They’re extremely well-funded, and we haven’t yet managed to find out by who or what. But after all we’ve faced, they and their ilk seem like pests rather than real trouble.”
“I gave the subject some thought while I was…relaxing. We confronted the greatest threat to our existence humanity has ever seen, and we defeated it. But a year ago we couldn’t see it coming; our most skilled forecasters could never have predicted it. What else is out there on the horizon that we can’t see?”
She shifted to lean against the railing and meet his gaze more directly. “You and I know the true extent of what Alex and Caleb discovered beyond the portal. I fear we’ve seen but a small glimpse of the dangers which may await us—dangers for which we are woefully unprepared.”
“Granted. So?”
“So, I intend to see to it that we get ourselves prepared. We can’t sit on our laurels and be caught unaware a second time.”
“True enough. I’m glad the task is in such capable hands.”
“Flatterer.”
“I’m trying to hone my skills. Speaking of, have you seen Alex recently? I haven’t talked to her in a few weeks.”
“We had a nice dinner before I left for Romane, in fact. She and Caleb have been on Seneca the last week or so helping his sister move into a new place, but I believe they are headed to Atlantis to meet Kennedy and Noah for a long weekend.”
“Good. I’m glad they—”
Miriam held up her hand to silence him. She stared at the message that had come in, searching for the correct reaction. Anger? Fear? Pride? Exasperation?
She settled on the last one, went to the little patio table and sank down in one of the chairs.
“Miriam, what is it?”
She shook her head and laughed. “I’m going to kill her.”
At Richard’s questioning look she called him over and projected the message to an aural.
ATLANTIS
INDEPENDENT COLONY
* * *
Kennedy sighed in contentment and curled up against Noah’s chest. The sun’s rays streaming in through the open windows warmed her bare ski
n, and she kicked the sheet off so as to give the rays more fulsome access. “Mmm…can we not leave this room today? Or even the bed?”
Noah’s chest rumbled beneath her in a soft chuckle as he played with her hair. “We’ve got drinks, so we’re set there. Eventually we’ll need food, but this is why room service exists. So yeah, I think we’re good. Who needs sun and sand and surf when we have this.”
“Not me. Besides, we have sun—and we can see the sand and surf, should we manage to approach the windows.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” His hand trailed lazily down her back, evoking a pleasant murmur from deep in her throat.
“Alex and Caleb will be here today…sometime. They would probably appreciate it if we put clothes on at least.”
“Probably. Have you heard from them yet? I’d like a little warning, say, three or four hours, so I can….” She shuddered beneath his hand as it drifted lower.
“Not yet. I’m sure they got distracted by—” As if on cue, a message from Alex arrived in her eVi. She opened it with only a fraction of her attention, the rest being occupied by Noah’s increasingly roving hands.
Then she bolted upright in the bed. “I’m going to kill her. I mean it this time. I am well and truly going to kill her.”
Noah raised up on one elbow. “They’re not coming?”
She rolled her eyes at the ceiling and flopped onto her back with a groan. “No. No, they are not. And you won’t believe where they are heading.”
SIYANE
METIS NEBULA
* * *
The Siyane hovered in the thick nebular clouds at the edge of the clearing, out of sight of the Alliance and Federation vessels patrolling the perimeter.
The portal was closed, occupying an invisible point at the center of the empty void in the heart of the Metis Nebula. Its activation would give the watching ships an extra few seconds to prepare for their destruction of any alien vessel that might emerge. The patrols gave the area a wide berth lest they get caught in the explosion of metal and plasma which would accompany such activation.
Transcendence: Aurora Rising Book Three Page 41
