After he leaves the Siyane, Eren is approached by Miaon, a fellow anarch. Miaon reveals that it is Mesme’s contact and urges Eren to help these strangers. Eren visits an anarch friend, Thelkt, for information on how to obtain the intel Alex and Caleb seek.
Mesme takes Alex and Caleb to a nebula hiding a massive store of Reor, the unusual mineral those in Amaranthe use to store data. Mesme reveals that the Reor is sentient, but no one else suspects this. Alex tries to interact with the mineral; she’s unable to communicate directly, but the Reor creates a new slab of itself for Alex.
Caleb dreams of the distant history of the Anadens, as relayed by the diati. When they are invaded by a powerful enemy, the Anadens face annihilation. The ethereal diati joins with the Anaden’s greatest warrior, Corradeo Praesidis, to defeat the enemy. The Anadens thrive, then face an uprising by people seeking to join with synthetics. The conflict ends in a purge of AIs and AI-sympathizers and the formation of the Dynasties. The diati propagates into Corradeo’s descendants, losing its coherence. The Anadens grow more oppressive as they abandon the ethos Corradeo espoused, but the diati cannot prevent it.
Nyx follows Aver’s trail until she uncovers one of the hidden Mosaic portals. Rather than traverse it, she goes to Katoikia, the Kats’ homeworld, and seizes two Kats in stasis chambers to interrogate.
In response to Nyx’ visit to Katoikia, the Kats evacuate the stasis pods kept there and take them to the Mosaic for safekeeping. Mesme invites Alex and Caleb to witness the exodus.
While exploring Katoikia, they uncover a hidden structure where a Kat named Paratyr monitors locations around Amaranthe, watching for Directorate aggression. Alex is drawn to a scene of an aquatic species called Galenai; she uses sidespace to “visit” their underwater city. Paratyr tells her the Directorate is expanding into the Galenai’s galaxy, and the Kats have flagged the Galenai for possible evacuation to the Mosaic.
Alex and Caleb leave Katoikia to meet up with Eren on a quest to infiltrate Machim Central Command and steal what intel they can. Thelkt sends Eren the Machim data server access codes, delivered by Felzeor, an intelligent avian. Felzeor has an engaging personality, and Caleb bonds with the falcon-like anarch in the short time it’s on board.
After Felzeor leaves, Eren tells the story of how he became an anarch. Over a century ago, he encountered unfamiliar aliens serving as sexual slaves to the Idoni Primor. Recognizing their extreme fear and distress, he fled in horror. Soon thereafter, the Directorate eradicated the species. Disgusted with his leaders, he fried his neural link to the integral, dropped off the grid and made contact with the anarchs.
When they reach Machim Central Command, Caleb impersonates an Inquisitor to get inside, while Eren guides him. They reach the server room, and Mesme transports Alex to their location. She and Valkyrie hack the server and are downloading a plethora of military data when security forces arrive. An officer puts a blade to Alex’s throat; Caleb orders Valkyrie and Mesme to flee then surrenders. Eren refuses and is killed. Caleb and Alex are rendered unconscious and arrested.
Valkyrie flees to the Mosaic then Aurora, where she transmits all the data from Machim Central Command to AEGIS. Then she travels to the Idryma portal and bids Lakhes to accompany her to Amaranthe.
Eren awakens in a “regenesis” pod, for Anadens are able to transfer their consciousness to new bodies when they die. He fills in his supervisor, Xanne, then insists they rescue Alex and Caleb. Xanne takes his request to the leader of the anarchs, Sator Danilo Nisi. After hearing Eren’s story, he authorizes resources for a rescue mission.
Caleb and Alex wake up in separate detention cells, both restrained and subjected to interrogation by drones that jolts them with electricity when they refuse to answer. Caleb’s diati absorbs the jolts, keeping him from injury; Alex is not so lucky.
Nyx deactivates a stasis chamber and interrogates the Kat until it reveals details on the Mosaic and the Kats’ work there. She relays to the Praesidis Primor what she’s learned. He sends her to interrogate the Human prisoners, then informs the other Primors of the Kats’ betrayal. They issue an Eradication Order for the Kats and decide to destroy the Mosaic, except for the portal spaces providing crucial provisions to Amaranthe.
Eren rejoins Valkyrie and Mesme on the Siyane with a rescue plan. Mesme reveals to Eren that the species he encountered at the Idoni party, leading to his rebellion, were not all eradicated. Called Faneros, many were smuggled out to safety in the Mosaic.
Nyx arrives to interrogate Caleb. She asks what he is and where he came from, but he refuses to answer. In frustration she draws closer, and he steals her diati until he’s strong enough to break out of the restraints. He then drains her of diati, incapacitates her and goes in search of Alex.
When he reaches her cell, his diati allows him to pass through the force field easily. But he’s unable to deactivate the force field, and he has to trust the diati to protect her as he carries her through it.
Security is closing in when Eren and Mesme appear. Mesme transports Alex to the Siyane as an assault mech attacks. Caleb destroys the mech, then Eren insists Mesme transport Caleb next. Once they’re gone, Eren detonates explosives he brought, destroying the facility.
Informed the Directorate is sending a military fleet to the Mosaic, Alex and Caleb rush to get a message to Miriam: it’s time to bring her own fleet. During the trip, they work on a plan to keep the Machim fleet out of the Mosaic.
The Machim fleet acquires special Igni antimatter missiles and a doomsday device called a Tartarus Trigger. Further interrogation of the Kat prisoner reveals the ultimate truth: Humans are the genetic recreation of Anadens. The Directorate wants the Tartarus Trigger taken to the Aurora portal space and detonated, annihilating the Aurora universe. Meanwhile, a separate Machim fleet bombs the Kat homeworld.
The Siyane joins the AEGIS fleet in the Mosaic. Alex reunites with her mother then briefs Miriam on their plan.
The Machim fleet arrives at the Gateway to the Mosaic. It promptly explodes, hit by negative energy missiles from the Siyane and stealthed fighters nearby. The explosion takes out a large chunk of the Machim fleet; while it’s still recovering, the AEGIS fleet materializes behind it.
The battle is joined. AEGIS enjoys an advantage in most respects, but the Igni missiles can damage adiamene hulls. Prevos in the fleet work to identify which ships are carrying the missiles, then take them out first.
Paratyr appears in the cabin of the Siyane in ethereal form. The Kat warns them about the Tartarus Trigger on the Machim command ship Imperium. If detonated, it will annihilate every molecule for parsecs, then possibly the entire universe.
Malcolm devises a way to bypass the impenetrable shields of the Imperium and is about to try it when Alex stops him, as the odds of the Tartarus Trigger detonating when the ship is destroyed are too high. Mesme volunteers to infiltrate the ship and transport the device away.
Alex uses sidespace to determine the device’s precise location, then Mesme surrounds it and both vanish. Alex gives Malcolm the all clear, and he destroys the Imperium. The remaining Machim vessels retreat, handing a decisive victory to AEGIS.
The AEGIS Council, now including Alex and Caleb, convenes on the Stalwart II to determine the next steps. They are interrupted, however, by a message from Sator Nisi requesting a meeting.
Alex, Caleb, Miriam and Mesme travel to Nisi’s headquarters. When they meet Nisi, Caleb realizes the man controls diati as well. Miriam and Nisi spar, and the lack of trust on both sides is evident. Alex challenges Nisi, and he admits the anarchs are not powerful enough to defeat the Directorate. Rather, they are a force designed to be of maximum strategic value when the fulcrum that will change the cosmos arrives.
He believes that fulcrum is not the AEGIS fleet, but rather Caleb.
* * *
RUBICON
(AURORA RESONANT BOOK TWO)
AEGIS wastes no time pressing the advantage gained at the Gateway victory, attacking and destroying a major Machim warship
construction facility. Caleb trains with Sator Nisi, learning greater control over and abilities with the diati, including teleportation.
After the mission, the AEGIS Council debates the goals of the war, eventually concluding that they will have to kill the Primors, and prevent them from undergoing regenesis, if they want to be victorious. But first, they need to win the anarchs’ trust.
The Directorate, perturbed by the Kats’ ability to infiltrate secure locations their use of it to help the anarchs and the Humans, decides they must uncover the location of a hidden portal into the Kats’ multiverse network in order to destroy the Humans’ home universe.
Malcolm returns to Aurora and reunites with Mia. He confesses his love for her, and she reciprocates. He asks her to return to Amaranthe with him to serve as AEGIS’ ambassador to the anarchs. After some hesitation, she agrees. Kennedy is also asked to come to Amaranthe to study weaknesses in the Machim Imperiums. She convinces Noah to go with her, leaving the Artificial, Vii, in charge of Connova Interstellar.
The anarchs learn that Directorate security has begun a massive dragnet sweep designed to root out anarch spies. They plan missions to extract what agents they can, and Eren enlists Caleb, Alex and Mesme to help him and Cosime rescue Thelkt and Felzeor from Plousia Chateau.
Meanwhile, the Inquisitor, Nyx, interrogates the owner of Plousia, Avdei elasson-Idoni. She has uncovered evidence of Eren’s presence there recently and shows him images captured by security cams. He recalls seeing Eren with Thelkt.
When they reach Plousia, Mesme transports Eren and Cosime into the building where everyone is being held, just as Nyx arrives to question Thelkt. Eren distracts Nyx long enough for Mesme to transport Thelkt and Cosime away, then suicides. Meanwhile, Caleb and Alex retrieve Felzeor from Thelkt’s residence, but Nyx interrupts them, and a battle between Caleb and Nyx ensues. Caleb claims a portion of her diati, but she teleports away before he can take it all.
While the events at Plousia unfold, AEGIS forces move against another Machim warship facility. However, Machim fleets are now stationed at every transit point. When the AEGIS ships emerge through a gateway, Machim vessels ambush them. The Machim commander fires Igni antimatter missiles at the gateway’s adjacent space station. Admiral Rychen intervenes in an attempt to save the station, but the station and Rychen’s dreadnought are destroyed, killing everyone on board both.
Malcolm, Mia, Kennedy and Noah arrives from Aurora to find the AEGIS forces in a state of shock. While Mia and Malcolm digest the events they missed, Kennedy meets with Alex. She reveals that with Vii’s blessing, she brought David Solovy’s quantum construct with her for Alex.
Alex accesses a virtual space where she can see, touch and talk to her father. They hug, cry, and bond anew. They talk about his journey to this point, and what to do next. He asks her not to tell Miriam about his existence, fearing he would distract her from her mission, and insists he’ll be fine in his current state for now. Alex agrees but, now convinced of his realness and authenticity, she secretly begins to hatch a plan.
In her first act as AEGIS Ambassador, Mia meets with Nisi and his advisors. A delicate negotiation ensues, but she persuades Nisi that humans can be trusted, and that they need each other if they want to defeat the Directorate. The anarchs grant AEGIS access to one of their posts, intelligence files and promise future joint missions.
Alex and Mia tour the anarch post. Alex quizzes the director of the post’s regenesis lab on the regenesis procedure and how it might be adapted for humans. Alex and Mia talk about how the Prevos can help AEGIS. The fleet can’t use the wormhole gateways any longer, so they need a way to cross galaxies in a reasonable amount of time—they need their own wormholes. Valkyrie analogizes sidespace to wormholes, and Mia reveals that Devon has figured out how to affect the real world from sidespace. Alex begins to see how it all might work together.
In Aurora, Miriam reports Admiral Rychen’s death to the Earth Alliance Prime Minister. He challenges her on the state and necessity of the mission in Amaranthe, but she stands her ground. Miriam then visits Richard at the Presidio. She unloads her concerns and fears on him, then asks him to come to Amaranthe with her. He declines, saying he won’t be of much help there, but he is doing good at home.
Mia convinces Devon to return with her to Amaranthe to help her and Alex create wormholes out of sidespace.
Caleb and Nisi talk about Caleb’s encounter with Nyx. They speculate that the Primor must have gifted her with some of his own diati after Caleb stripped hers at the Helix Retention facility. Abruptly, Caleb is overwhelmed by a strange sensation and excuses himself. On Post Epsilon, Alex begins to experience the same strange sensation. She and Caleb meet back at the Siyane and decide it must be Akeso calling to them, as that’s the one foreign entity they share.
They head for the Mosaic, and arrive at Akeso to find it under active attack by an orbiting moon. The method of attack suggest the moon originated from Ekos-3, another planet in the system. The attacker is trying to take over Akeso like a virus. In a display of impressive power, Caleb uses his diati to destroy the moon. When the diati leaves his body to attack the moon, he passes out, but is invigorated when it returns.
Caleb communicates with the planet intelligence to ensure it’s safe and well. Akeso asks them to stay for a while. They reluctantly decline but promise they will return when they can.
Eren wakes up at the Post Alpha regenesis lab following his suicide at Plousia, and is just getting his bearings when Mesme appears. The Kat takes Eren to see the Faneros, the species Eren encountered that spurred him to become an anarch, in the Mosaic. At first, Eren is fascinated, but observing them triggers vivid memories from his troubling first encounter with them, and he recoils—from himself and from the Faneros—and demands to be returned to Post Alpha.
There, he begs Xanne to bring him back as another dynasty on his next regenesis, and if she can’t do that, not to bring him back at all. When she refuses, he returns to his room and tries to overdose on hypnols. Cosime finds him, throws away all his remaining hypnols, then begs him to tell her what brought this on; desperate for salvation, he begins confessing his darkest secrets. The next morning, reinvigorated, he devises a plan to rescue alien prisoners from the Erevna exobiology lab he was once going to blow up.
Malcolm discovers a discrepancy in the number of Reverb devices in stock. He asks Harper about it, pushing her on it until she’s forced to admit the discrepancy is a result of her loaning out a Reverb to Caleb back on Romane. She refuses to reveal what Caleb used it for, but Malcolm puts the pieces together and realizes he used it to kill Jude Winslow while the OTS terrorist leader was in custody.
Alex, Mia and Devon meet on the Siyane. Together with Valkyrie and the other Prevo Artificials, they strategize how to use sidespace to open wormholes. Alex realizes the answer lies in the Dimensional Rifter. By controlling the rifts in the spatial dimensions, they can move people and objects from one rift—wormhole—out another, and a slight change in the structure of a Dimensional Rifter will generate the power required to tear open such rifts.
After the meeting, Mia meets Malcolm back at her accommodations on Post Epsilon. He shares what he learned about Caleb and Winslow, and she confesses she already knew. They argue, with her insisting Winslow deserved to die and Malcolm insisting that was the justice system’s decision to make, not Caleb’s. She recalls the times in her life when there was no justice system to protect her and she had to kill to survive. Convinced he doesn’t want to understand, she tells him to leave.
Alex goes to see the Post Epsilon regenesis lab director. She asks him to use the regenesis technology to help her transfer a quantum consciousness into a physical human body. He concedes it might be possible, but insists Nisi must give his approval first. Alex gets Caleb to ask Nisi for that approval, which he gives. Caleb, however, has some concerns, so Alex takes him into the virtual space to meet her father for himself. Afterwards, they instruct the regenesis lab director to proceed.
Mesme and two other Kats watch Directorate agents place a tracking device on a Kat vessel while it delivers supplies from the Mosaic. They hatch a plan to trick the Directorate into thinking they’ve located a portal.
Later, Casmir elasson-Machin is tasked with investigating the potential location of a portal into the Mosaic. He takes his fleet to the location indicated by the tracking device and is able to open a portal. His fleet traverses it, then abruptly is thrown across space into the center of a star and killed.
Alex and Kennedy dismantle a Dimensional Rifter and build it back up again in such a way as to capture the power needed to open a wormhole, then head to space to test it out. They’re able to successfully traverse a wormhole in the Siyane, and they dub the new device a Caeles Prism.
Malcolm confronts Caleb about what happened with Jude Winslow. They argue, nearing blows, and are left with seemingly unbridgeable differences on ethics, morality, and the role of law and order.
When Alex finds out about the argument, she sends Noah to find Caleb until she and Kennedy can return. Noah takes Caleb to get a drink at the bar on Epsilon. While there, they are provoked by two aliens into a bar fight. They escape as chaos descends on the bar, then hide from their assailants in the icy waters surrounding the post. Alex and Kennedy arrive to find them soaked, freezing and drunk, and take them back to the Siyane.
The next morning, Eren pitches Alex and Caleb on the idea of infiltrating the exobiology lab and rescuing the aliens held captive there. Caleb tells Alex to take him to Malcolm, as he’ll need the help of the Marines to pull it off. As soon as Alex sees Malcolm, they argue about his dispute with Caleb. Some unpleasant barbs are exchanged, but they ultimately call a truce for the good of the mission.
Malcolm, Harper and several Marine squads accompany Eren and Cosime to infiltrate the exobiology lab. They rescue dozens of prisoners, are forced to kill several violent ones, and Malcolm blows up the lab. Unbeknownst to the Marines, Nyx was at the lab when the attack began. She allowed the raid to succeed, then secretly placed a tracking device on the Marine transport.
Requiem: Aurora Resonant Book Three (Aurora Rhapsody 9) Page 2
