“I hope it’s a lot of reinforcements. We can’t let this happen a second time.”
“Which is exactly what I conveyed to Mom. I imagine it’s been an ugly hour for them. They won’t let the opportunity slip away.”
When the first reinforcements to arrive at the Rift Bubble were a thousand Kat swarmers, she burst out laughing. Oh, the absurdity of it all. But it was good the Kats were showing up to do the work of protecting their little miracle device.
Three squadrons of Eidolons soon joined them, and shot by shot the Rasu began to fall back in an ever-expanding circle around the Rift Bubble.
When the skies were finally clogged with more good guys than bad, Caleb brought her a bottle of water, then knelt in front of her chair. She dropped her forehead to his and sighed.
“Nicely done, baby.”
“And you, priyazn.” She kissed him sloppily, guzzled the water and reconsidered the scene outside the viewport. “We should check on Pinchu and the situation at the Center.”
“Good idea. Do you want to land somewhere deserted and wormhole there?”
“Nooooo. There’s still at least a thirty percent chance the Rasu will manage to construct another quantum block before this is over. We’re landing as close to the Center as we can possibly get.”
“And if another building lands on top of the Siyane?”
“Ha! We’ll dig it out again.”
“Let’s do try our best to avoid that outcome, okay?” He waved haphazardly at the viewport. “Onward.”
CAF AURORA
Ireltse Stellar System
The flutter in Miriam’s chest stole her breath for a solid second. Damn and bless Alex, in equal measure. While she lived in a state of constant wonder at all Alex accomplished, she would never not harbor a quiet terror for her daughter’s well-being.
Oh, you’re a military tactician now?
Very funny, but it’s not the first time. Just throw everything you’ve got at them, okay?
That I can manage.
She spent half a second reorienting her thinking regarding the battlefield, then dove back in.
Commandant Solovy (CAF Aurora)(Ireltse Command Channel): “Confirmed: the Rift Bubble is once again active. Revert to TP-C 2, except I want four additional planetary assault regiments protecting the Rift Bubble at the transmitted coordinates.
“Destroy every last Rasu to grace your radar, while following safety guidelines for the protection of the civilians on Ireltse. Fleet Admiral Jenner, put every Rima Grenade launcher we possess in the hands of Marines on the ground, and I’ll contact Commander Palmer for an emergency resupply.”
How long did they have until some clump of Rasu could construct another quantum block? Could Concord stop it from happening this time? The faster they eliminated the bulk of the enemy’s ground presence, the better chance they stood, but—she double-checked the latest intel—the in-atmosphere battlefield now stretched for over three hundred kilometers around the capital city, with smaller skirmishes growing near four additional metropolitan areas. Rendering the planet safe was going to take time. Far more of it than she liked.
The Rasu now understood, at least in generalities, how the dimensional barriers were being created and how to disable them. Concord understood how they were being disabled and how to prevent or reverse the Rasu’s disabling of them.
For the moment, there were no more secrets, only stratagems and counter-stratagems.
“Thomas, please ask Mnemosyne to get Rift Bubbles deployed on Nengllitse and Tapertse immediately, and to station a Kat to watch each one until I’m able to spare some Marines to guard them.”
‘Mnemosyne responds that they are already on it.’
Her brow furrowed. “Mnemosyne said that?”
‘Perhaps not precisely. I translated.’
She laughed briefly. “I see. Thank you.”
Studying the tactical screens for the millionth time today, she had to concede that the reactivation of the Rift Bubble and their hairpin shift in tactics were already showing results. If no further calamities materialized, they could— would—win this battle.
Still, frustration she struggled to vocalize worried at her gut. For a few critical minutes, the Rasu had not merely outmaneuvered but out-thought her, and this was not acceptable.
She wanted to take the Aurora down into the skies of Ireltse and blast every Rasu terrorizing the planet into subatomic particles…and the vividness of the desire surprised her. Yes, she harbored a personal grudge against this enemy, on account of them having forced her to extinguish her ship and her life. Possibly she hadn’t yet fully healed the scar the experience had inflicted.
Regardless, the Aurora was not designed for atmospheric flight, so she had to content herself with blasting the Rasu swarming about in space.
“Thomas, reengage TP-Sweep 2. Let us dispose of our enemy here today once and for all.”
‘Gladly, ma’am.’
Space outside the viewport lit up anew from a barrage of fire delivered by her ship, and she took satisfaction from the display of military prowess.
As the minutes dragged on without a new quantum block activating and the number of Rasu vessels steadily decreasing, her mind kept trying to drift to the large-scale strategies she needed to be implementing the instant this battle was won.
The attack on Ireltse had taken them all by surprise and, as she’d observed hours earlier, she’d been scrambling to catch up ever since. Her long history in logistics tugged at her in the form of patrol redeployments, protection of supply chains and activation of more robust early alert systems. Her earned combat experience whispered of the promise of new, more powerful weapons and emerging counter-counter-stratagems.
She dragged her focus back to the battle at hand, for though it was at last turning decidedly in their favor, it was far from over, and she must remain vigilant to the end and then some.
But the fact remained that with today’s attack, the Rasu had brought their war of conquest to Concord space, and this changed everything.
8
* * *
IRELTSE
They heard the explosion before they saw it. As the thunder assaulted Caleb’s eardrums, he had the idle thought of how stone cracks and breaks apart differently from metal, with grunts and grumbles rather than high-pitched whines and screeches.
A giant plume of dust-hued smoke billowed up past the profile of the Machim heavy frigate moving dead ahead of the Siyane.
His gaze swept across the scene in a hasty evaluation of the situation. The strike had likely come from the large Rasu vessel streaking away to their port while being chased by laser fire from the Machim warship and an AEGIS fast-attack frigate. The engagement moved rapidly off to the east to reveal the site of the explosion.
A vast stretch of the top two floors of the Center was now a crater. Bodies lay broken and exposed beneath the hazy sky, though amid all the smoke he also saw Khokteh moving around. Crawling, mostly.
“Oh, no….” Alex’s hands briefly covered her face, but the next second they dropped back to the controls and her expression hardened. “I’m going to drop you off in that crater. If Pinchu…do what you can to help everyone. I’ll set down one street over and wormhole up there.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but stopped himself. Landing anywhere in the city held risks, and they’d accepted those risks when they’d come here to join the fight. So instead he stood, leaning down to kiss her. “Don’t be long.”
“I won’t be.”
He stopped off in the main cabin long enough to grab the med kit, as bandages helped trauma wounds regardless of the species, then hurried down the stairs and into the engineering well. The ramp was already lowering when he arrived. He crouched on the edge of it until the fully exposed command center was three meters below him, then leapt.
I’m down. Go.
He sensed the ramp retracting and the shadow of the Siyane receding as he assessed the scene anew. Bodies were trapped under rubble amid expand
ing pools of viscous fluid, and more than one corpse was burnt beyond recognition. The intermingling smells of fried fur and skin and leaking bodily fluids were overwhelming, but his eVi filtered out what it could, and he tried to ignore the rest.
Our enemy caused this senseless death? Akeso struggles to comprehend how living beings can inflict such suffering.
They believe this is how they will win. They are wrong.
They are wrong.
People were also alive. The strike had targeted this area specifically—almost as if the Rasu knew precisely where the Khokteh command center was located—and those who’d been working in other areas had rushed in to come to the aid of the injured. Orders were being barked, and in the brief seconds he stood there, medical personnel began arriving with stretchers and equipment.
He focused on the rear middle of the room, where the war table had been. A huge chunk of ceiling had cracked it in two and continued on to crush several Khokteh. Three people crouched around someone sprawled on the floor…
… no.
He was moving forward before deciding to do so, and in a flash he was kneeling beside the others.
Pinchu blinked slowly, his four eyes milky beneath their lids. “Caleb…you are…Alex?”
“She’ll be here in just a minute. Don’t worry about talking, okay? Let these people help you.”
Caleb forced himself to acknowledge the gory mess that was Pinchu’s chest as his gaze darted to the medical officer situated opposite him. “I brought our med kit with me. Bandages, coagulation gel, biosynth weaves, whatever you need.”
The Khokteh, her fur too coated in debris and blood to determine its color, shook her head. “I’m afraid…” her voice dropped to a whisper “…the damage is beyond bandages or coags. I don’t think there is anything we can do. Not in time.”
Caleb didn’t whisper; Pinchu certainly knew how bad of shape he was in. “Yes, there is. Go find the best emergency medical personnel on-site and bring them and every single medical tool you can put hands on up here, this instant. This is your Tokahe Naataan, and you will fucking save him.”
The Khokteh woman nodded shakily and scrambled up.
“Caleb, you…you fixed the….”
He grasped Pinchu’s hand in his. “We did. Everything’s working again, including the Rift Bubble, and the fleets are doing their damnedest to eradicate every Rasu who dared come here. Your city, your planet, will be saved today. I promise you.”
“Good—” Coughs racked Pinchu’s body, sending a rush of dark copper blood pouring out of the gaping wound in his torso. “Then I can go to my Cassela knowing I did all I could to preserve our shikei.”
“Don’t talk like that. You’re going to be fine.”
This creature is dying. I can sense its life force seeping away in the spillage of its fluids.
I know.
“I…fear I am not. I wanted to….” Pinchu’s eyes fluttered closed.
Where the hell were the medical officers? He looked up at the two Khokteh advisors holding vigil at Pinchu’s side, but they shrugged weakly.
He couldn’t sit here as helplessly as they were and watch while Pinchu died, dammit. He reached behind him and popped open the med kit, grabbed the coagulation gel and emptied the entire tube into Pinchu’s chest. He had no idea if the biosynth weave was smart enough to bond with Khokteh organs, but he laid it over the exposed flesh.
Pinchu coughed again, and new blood gushed out around the weave. No, no, no!
“Try to stay still. Help is on the way.”
He abruptly realized his fingers were tingling oddly. Were humans allergic to Khokteh blood? Whatever. His eVi would handle any adverse reaction. He frantically dug through the depths of the med kit for anything else that might do something to forestall the inevitable.
Let Akeso try.
He paused his search. What do you mean?
You care about this creature?
Very much so, yes.
Then let Akeso try.
His heart thudded against his sternum. This isn’t a flower or a tree branch. This is an infinitely complex, living being—one you’ve never interacted with before.
You have taught Akeso much about how organics function. I have learned, and grown as a result. Let us try, together.
Pinchu let out a halting, shallow breath. Almost gone.
Terrified but infused with renewed determination to not allow his friend to die, Caleb placed both hands gently upon the torn-open flesh of Pinchu’s chest. Blood seeped between his fingers, propelled by a weakening pulse. He closed his eyes.
As I am the nourishing water flowing out from the creek and swirling through roots beneath the soil, I am the nourishing blood swirling beneath the skin.
I am the sun’s rays, bringing strength to this being’s limbs.
I am the nourishing water-blood flowing along the starved pathways of arteries and veins, granting them the strength to knit themselves back together.
Replace.
Renew.
Replenish.
His entire body tingled now, flush with life, its source surging through him and out through his fingertips.
Replace. Renew. Replenish.
Dizziness overcame him, and he opened his eyes to keep from toppling over to the floor. His hands, submerged in blood and mangled flesh, glowed a pulsing copper. Beneath his left palm, an organ twitched, and he decreased the pressure he was placing on it. As he watched incredulously, it began to bind itself together.
His breath caught in his throat. But he couldn’t stop now, so he searched for what might be the worst point of injury. His hands slipped across wrent flesh.
I am the nourishing water-blood.
I am the sun’s rays.
Replace. Renew. Replenish.
His lips mouthed the words like a mantra as veins sealed fissures and interwove with one another. He curled his hand around a fractured rib and felt it reshape in his grasp.
Voices gasped and murmured behind him, but they were background noise. His entire world was his hands and the wounds they worked to heal.
An organ he could not guess the identity or purpose of continued to pour blood into Pinchu’s chest cavity, having been sliced wide open by the fractured rib. He gathered both sides of it up in his palms and pressed them close.
I am the nourishing water-blood. I am the sun’s rays. I am life flowing forth to mend. To heal.
He wanted to panic when the organ sealed up its wound more completely than any suture would accomplish, but he didn’t dare. “What else in here needs healing? I don’t know how any of these organs work!”
The Khokteh medical officer, who had returned to his side at some point in the last minute, cleared her throat with a rough growl. “Gods, above. Um, near the upper left, a heart valve is leaking.”
“Got it.” He oh-so-carefully moved a hand up, skimming across damaged but healing flesh. He saw the tear in the valve now, and placed two fingers upon it.
I am the nourishing water-blood. The sun’s rays. Life flowing forth. Mend. Heal. Replace, renew, replenish, replacerenewreplenish—
The valve sealed up before he finished the mantra. “Where else?”
“I don’t think…the internal bleeding seems to be stopping. We should…we need to close him up, but the skin over his chest is…gone. I’ll get more heavy bandages.”
Caleb lifted his hands, in awe of the way they pulsed like suns in the dust-filled air, and placed his palms along one edge of the open chest cavity.
Just a little more work to patch him up, Akeso. I am the sun’s rays and the nourishing life strengthening skin and cartilage and bone as they grow and knit together. Mend. Heal.
Replacerenewreplenishreplacerenewreplenish….
He didn’t know how long he kept on this way, his focus a narrow tunnel revealing only his hands and Pinchu’s skin and Akeso’s life force binding it all together.
The next thing he was cognizant of was a furry, shaking hand landing on his arm. “I think
you’ve done it, Human. I don’t understand—I don’t know what you are—but you’ve done it. Thank the gods, and thank you.”
He blinked and peered down to find bright pink flesh resting beneath his hands. Whole.
Pinchu gasped in a fulsome breath and opened his eyes. They were bloodshot, but clear and alert. “These are…not the halls of Mahpiya.”
“No, they’re not.” Caleb laughed raggedly and took one of Pinchu’s hands in both of his. “You’re going to have to wait a while longer to see Cassela again, my friend.”
“Alas, my nizhopini.” He stared at Caleb strangely. “Perhaps it is you who are the emissary of the gods.”
Then Khokteh medical officers were rushing in to take charge, and Caleb fell back prostrate on the floor. He stretched his legs and arms out, utterly… not spent. He was dizzy and more than a little woozy, but he felt energized, as if all that life force was still coursing through him. He held his hands up in front of his face, marveling at their odd radiance even as it began to twinkle and gradually fade away.
He became aware of Alex moving into his peripheral vision. She dropped to her knees beside him, mouth agape in shock. “Caleb, what did you do?”
Joy surged forth to replace the dizziness. He sat up and wound his blood-soaked arms around her, resting his chin in the crook of her neck. “Saved his life.”
9
* * *
IRELTSE
Pinchu elbowed a medical officer away from his bed as she tried and failed to stick him with a distressingly large needle. “I’m fine, I tell you! Sign off on my release so I can get back to work!”
“Sir, please. We can’t discharge you until we review your bloodwork and—”
“Sica sni bloodwork.” He peered past the officer and, on seeing Alex and Caleb standing in the doorway, grinned toothily and gave the officer a light shove. “Go away. The emissaries of the gods are here, and they just might smite you down if you displease me further.”
All Our Tomorrows Page 6
