All Our Tomorrows

by All Our Tomorrows (epub)

  “Because she’s a force of nature who can suck you dry of all your intrinsic energy and replace it with her own if you’re not careful? A high-maintenance, overly dramatic whirling dervish of pronouncements and passions and adventures. The whiplash alone from entering her orbit would maim most people.”

  Spencer’s left eye twitched, and his lips wavered between a smile and a frown. “Okay, those are reasonable points. She is also utterly amazing. Every minute I spent in her company was singular, and I will never forget a one of them.”

  She couldn’t bring herself to tell him that Maris eventually would, and willfully so. “But?”

  He leaned against the closest table, his shoulders sagging. She belatedly noticed that his shirt and pants were wrinkled and his hair unbrushed. He’d had a bad night. “But, she sees the world in these grand, sweeping strokes, as if she’s always painting a canvas upon reality. Meanwhile, I’m spending my time worrying about catching some low-life criminal or protecting a business from theft or keeping the refugees from clawing each other’s eyes out in frustration.

  “We view everything so differently. When I’m with her, I feel myself being swept away into her vision of the world, and, yes, it’s like I’m losing myself. It’s a wonderful dream, her vision, but I can’t survive in it. There’s an entire planet of people counting on me to protect them, and my responsibility has to be to them. I tried, I really did, but I can’t live in both worlds at once. In trying, I do neither of them justice.” His face fell yet more. “I’m sorry. Tell her I truly am sorry.”

  Nika kept her voice gentle. “That is damn insightful of you, Spencer. I hope you don’t take it the wrong way if I say I’m proud of you.”

  His gaze darted away briefly. “No, I don’t. Thank you.”

  “I should have warned you that becoming an Advisor came with personal sacrifices. Though, in truth, none of us could have predicted the magnitude of the sacrifices the Rasu would force upon us.”

  “It’s fine. I knew going in. And I don’t regret my decision—either of them. To accept the Advisor position or to spend a few brief but exquisite moments with her in her world. I do, however, find myself questioning my sanity for walking out on the most beautiful woman in the universe.”

  “When you put it that way, it does sound a bit crazy. But you’re doing what you believe is right to fulfill your duty and protect the people you promised to defend.”

  “That’s the goal—” his attention shifted to a spot behind her “—hi, Dashiel. You look concerned. Dare I ask what disaster is befalling us today?”

  She spun around as Dashiel joined them. Spencer was right; he did look concerned. “What did you find out?”

  “A second freighter from Chosek also never arrived at the warehouse and isn’t responding to comms.”

  The likeliest scenario wrote itself in the silence that followed, and she bid farewell to the illusion of peace and tranquility they’d enjoyed for the last several days. The respite had been desperately needed, and hopefully they’d taken from it everything they could.

  Next, she accessed the Advisor Committee messaging channel.

  Nika: Lance, we need military escorts for every freighter and other commercial transport traveling to and from Chosek.

  Lance: All of them? How many are we talking?

  Dashiel: Around fifteen transports a Standard Day.

  Lance: Okay, that’s not too bad. Send me the details, and I’ll put some fighters on them. I assume it’s Rasu they’ll be guarding against?

  Dashiel: We have to so assume, yes.

  Nika: Thank you, Lance. Admin, we also need to change the Rift Bubble Access Code at all locations immediately.

  Katherine: We’ll tackle the massive pain in our ass of distributing the new code once it’s changed, but aren’t you the only one who can change it at the source?

  Nika suppressed a groan. Distributing the new code was not a massive pain in the ass for anyone; it was only a matter of broadcasting the update in a push message across the public nex web. Effecting the change itself, though?

  In theory, Parc could do it, for he knew the Rift Bubble operating code as well as she did by now. But he’d never interacted physically with one of the devices, and the first time doing so was quite a harrowing experience. The second and third time, too. Of course, Mesme could presumably alter the code for every deployed Rift Bubble merely by loosing an intentional thought into the ether.

  Nika: I’ll get on it straightaway. I’m sending you the new code now, and I’ll inform you as soon as I’ve changed it at each location.

  She grimaced at Dashiel, who’d heard the whole conversation. “It appears me and the Sukasu Gate on the roof are going to be good friends today.”

  He kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll keep dinner warm for you.”

  48

  * * *

  MIRAI

  The golden ball of energy danced and writhed among the short grasses of the quiet meadow far from Mirai One, breaking the constraints of its lattice cage every so often to send tendrils of electricity leaping out into the air.

  Nika allowed the undulating dance to mesmerize her into a trance. The kyoseil intertwined into the pathways of her body answered the power’s call, setting her skin tingling with cool energy. For such an enchanting object as this to be capable of rending apart the fabric of spacetime itself seemed a travesty. But they were each of them doing what they had to do to preserve life.

  She shook off the spell and strode up to the lattice. When she and Alex had first interacted with the Rift Bubble on Namino, she’d absorbed the code powering it but had lacked the capacity to alter it. That knowledge had come later, when adapting the code for use in the Rima Grenades.

  It would be less taxing on her to shut the device down in order to change the code, but she didn’t dare leave Mirai unprotected for a nanosecond. She steeled herself and thrust her hand into the light.

  The sensation was one of being set afire from the inside, but it didn’t hurt, not exactly. Rather, everything was simply… more. More power, more awareness, more life. The code swirled through her mind, not as a separate entity, but as one with her thoughts. She effortlessly located the bypass section and altered the passcode.

  A twinge of regret slowed her actions even as she backed her mind out of the code and her body out of the energy’s grasp.

  Nika: Mirai Access Code updated.

  One down, eight to go.

  NAMINO

  Asterion Dominion

  I watched from several dozen meters distant, my presence diffused through the air until I was all but invisible amid the bright afternoon sun.

  The alteration to the Rift Bubble located on Mirai had entered my awareness the instant the operating code changed, as I kept constant tabs on such matters. Concern had given me haste, but on arriving at each of the planets, I found all was quiet. The code for the device located on Kiyora changed while I was at Mirai, and for Ebisu while I was in transit.

  Now comprehending the nature of what was happening, I waited for Nika at Namino. She would visit it last, if only because there were few souls here to protect, only the promise of future ones. Alterations to the devices on Synra, Chosek and the Adjunct Worlds who had received them followed, and I waited.

  Nika arrived directly at the site through a wormhole, though not one of her own making. It remained open as she approached the device and, without fanfare or hesitation, thrust her hand into its inner workings.

  The energy from the device seemed to leap out and consume her, and her body lit up like a second sun. Together, she and the Rift Bubble created their own binary system, and for a time it felt as if Namino itself orbited them.

  Disoriented, I concentrated on solidifying my physical presence here, lest I lose myself.

  It didn’t take her long to make her changes, and I mourned a little as she stepped away from the device. The brilliance emanating from her skin faded back to its still-preternatural glow, and she hurried back toward the wormh
ole.

  I gathered my presence and swept forward, intercepting her before she reached it.

  She studied me curiously, shifting her weight onto her back leg and crossing her arms loosely over her chest. “Mesme. Catch me tinkering?”

  Indeed. You are concerned the Rasu have obtained the Access Code?

  “Yes. We suspect they’ve begun confiscating our freighter shipments from Chosek. For the kyoseil they carry, obviously, but also to find a way past the Rift Bubble defenses.”

  You look weary. You could have asked me to change the code for you.

  “I know, but I wanted to do it myself. To confirm I understood the method and…I think to feel as if I was taking real and tangible action to protect my people. And I’m not weary. If anything, I feel energized. Edgy.”

  Perhaps you fried a few internal circuits.

  She glanced back at the ball of energy. “One would expect so, right? But no. The kyoseil protected me from any damage the devices might have been inclined to inflict.”

  I see. Is your task complete, or may I assist you?

  “This was the last one. I’m just relieved we were able to get on top of the problem fast enough to avoid any renewed Rasu incursions. Though if they steal any more freighters, I’ll have to change them all again.” She smiled at me, whimsy lighting her features. “I don’t suppose you can create a portable ‘control panel’ where I can update them all at once?”

  Can’t you do so? I deliberately inserted a note of challenge into the question.

  “No. The devices aren’t interlinked in any manner…but they must be in some way, mustn’t they? To each other, or more likely to you. Because you’re here, which means you knew what I was doing. How? Nothing in the operating code addresses talking to external objects.”

  For one such as myself, all energy in the universe resonates. It is but a matter of knowing which wave belongs to which energy.

  She stared at me for a long moment, calculations racing behind infinite eyes. “Waves. Are you talking about kyoseil?”

  I did not say that.

  “You also didn’t not say that.” Her lips and jaw set in her own reciprocal challenge. “Fine. I will figure it out.”

  My response was for me alone. I know you will.

  49

  * * *

  CHOSEK STELLAR SYSTEM

  Gennisi Galaxy

  While he waited on the freighter to fill its belly with kyoseil, DAF Lieutenant Kiernan Phillips fiddled with his fighter’s adiaK shell controls to make certain they were functioning correctly and ready to do their job of saving his ass.

  He’d seen more combat action in the last four months than he had in the preceding forty years, which had been essentially none. The Rasu stronghold, the first and second Namino battles, the Toki’taku battle, and the liberation of Adjuncts San and Rei were blending together into a haze of dizzying adrenaline rushes followed by excessive celebration—since the first two—followed by sleeping for a day. Rinse, repeat.

  Escort duty promised to involve absolutely none of those things. He and his wingman were to guard the freighter while it loaded its cargo and ambled its way out to a hundred megameters from Chosek. They would then take a parallel trajectory as everyone headed at superluminal speeds to the Mirai stellar system, where they would again guard the freighter while it ambled its way into orbital dock to deliver the kyoseil.

  The Rasu—assuming that was who was behind the disappearances—couldn’t attack the freighter during superluminal travel, because no one could attack anything during superluminal travel. So his entire responsibility was to stick himself to the freighter’s flank on either end of the ten-hour superluminal trip.

  At least he’d be able to nap during the trip. The cockpit wasn’t built for it, but his weeks surviving on the planet he now knew went by the name ‘Hoan’ had taught him how to sleep no matter the conditions he found himself in. Anywhere, anyhow, anytime.

  Asterion Freighter #B45E: “Loading complete. Estimated dock departure in ninety seconds.”

  Kiernan adjusted his posture in the seat and triple-checked his systems. “Lieutenant Toru, confirm readiness for departure.”

  Lt. Toru: “Readiness confirmed.”

  Lt. Phillips: “Stand by.”

  The blocky, ugly-ass freighter eased out of the warehouse dock orbiting Chosek and, slow as molasses, turned itself around until it reached the correct heading. Kiernan slid into position on the freighter’s port side as Toru did the same on the starboard.

  Lt. Phillips: “Freighter #B45E, all systems are green. Ready to move out.”

  Asterion Freighter #B45E: “Roger that.”

  The freighter’s thrusters fired, and Kiernan matched its speed as Chosek retreated in his rear visual. His fighter could reach the safe-superluminal distance in forty seconds, but it was going to take the freighter, and thus him and Toru, twenty minutes.

  As they crept forward, he had to concede the wisdom of the escort, because the freighter was a sitting duck out here. It had no offensive weapons and no defenses other than the shields necessary to survive the normal ravages of space. Once it reached superluminal, it would be as fast as any ship sporting a mid-grade commercial superluminal drive, but at impulse speeds it was as sluggish as…but he’d already covered that ad nauseum.

  They still had twenty megameters to go before they’d be clear to hit superluminal when his area sensor beeped an alert. Not a shrill, ringing, ‘you’re being shot at’ alert, but more like a ‘hey, I picked up something odd, take a look’ alert. So he did.

  Unusual reading detected five megameters distant on vector S 35° 12°z W.

  Well, that wasn’t especially helpful. He pulled up the analysis and studied it with one eye while keeping the other one on the freighter. A few non-standard radiation distortions had shown up in the area and, beneath those, almost too faint to register on the sensor, a signature suggestive of possible Rasu activity.

  Instantly he sent out an active targeted scan as his gaze darted around in search of the aubergine devils. He saw nothing. His scan came back negative.

  “Toru, are you picking up anything unusual? Anything Rasu-like?”

  Lt. Toru: “I’m not sure. My sensor has picked up something it can’t identify.”

  Lt. Phillips: “Mine, too.”

  Lt. Phillips: “Freighter #B45E, move to alert status and be ready to activate your superluminal drive on my order.”

  Asterion Freighter #B45E: “Acknowledged.”

  What was out there? Probably nothing. Space was ninety-nine percent void and astronomical anomalies, right? Another minute or two and they’d be able to jet out of here anyway—

  The ‘oh shit’ version of the alert rang out the same instant that a shimmering field materialized directly behind the freighter. He only spotted the field at all because the system’s star was situated in his direct line of sight beyond the freighter.

  As the shimmer began to gain substance, it darkened into a Rasu in the shape of a scalloped flower, its petals stretching out to envelop the freighter.

  Lt. Phillips: “Freighter #B45E, superluminal NOW! GO!”

  The scalloped ends had reached the halfway point of the freighter’s hull when the ship’s superluminal engine blasted white-hot light into the Rasu’s core and accelerated out of its grasp. The edges of the trap came within a few dozen meters of scraping the hull—then the freighter was gone.

  The Rasu promptly directed its attention at Kiernan. Oh, was it pissed off? Good!

  Lt. Phillips: “Coordinate our fire on the weapons assembly. I’m going in.”

  Lt. Toru: “We can’t take out a Rasu this size on our own. Let’s get out of here!”

  Lt. Phillips: “We can render it toothless before we go. On me, Toru.”

  Lt. Toru: “All right, all right. Shit.”

  As the Rasu morphed into a proper fighting vessel and swung around toward him, Kiernan pitched low and dove far beneath the vessel, then pivoted so the nose of his fighter was poi
nted directly at the Rasu’s underbelly and opened fire.

  The Rasu opened fire the next instant, and he had a nanosecond to yank the fighter to port as the laser bathed his cockpit in violet light.

  Lt. Phillips: “Don’t stop firing!”

  His laser was now hard-locked on the enemy weapons assembly, as was Toru’s, so he busied himself with dodging the return fire while keeping the assembly in view. Finally crystals began to crack apart, and the damage ramped up until, just before his fighter was rocked by a full-frontal assault, the whole weapons assembly shattered into pieces.

  He swiped sweat off his brow, ignoring how his hand was trembling. “Now let’s get out of here.”

  Lt. Toru: “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

  Kiernan punched his tiny superluminal engine and left the crippled Rasu behind.

  MIRAI

  Omoikane Initiative

  “Stealth. Of course they have stealth. Why wouldn’t they? Everyone who’s capable of interstellar travel has stealth capabilities.”

  Lance shrugged. “In fairness to us, this is the first time they’ve used it that we’ve seen. Or not seen, I suppose. And the evidence suggests they have to deactivate it to take offensive action, possibly even to change shape.”

  Nika glared at the incident report from the fighter pilots. “Evidence from a single event is hardly overwhelming proof. But I guess it’s something.” She mustered up a hopeful smile for Dashiel. He sat beside her, though most of his attention was on a small pane in his hand. “Dashiel, can we increase the sensitivity setting for the Rasu signature in our sensors? The report says faint Rasu readings were leaking through before the vessel revealed itself.”

  “If we reallocate a few processes and divert a bit more power to the sensors, we should be able to improve the performance a little.”