“Maybe, maybe not. Morgan, everyone makes mistakes.”
“Someone in Miriam Solovy’s position isn’t afforded the luxury of mistakes.”
“Or in mine, right?”
“I don’t know. Have you made any lately?”
“Almost certainly. So why don’t you blame me?”
“I do, a little.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. Pound, pound, pound. “But I realize you were merely following orders from Miriam. And unlike me, following orders is something you are psychologically compelled to do. In your thick head, you had no choice.”
Malcolm scowled. “Um, okay, I’m going to move on past what I’m fairly sure was an insult. Listen, there’s an outfit affiliated with the IDCC running an experimental hybrid fighter craft in combat operations. If we call it field testing and fudge a few details, I can probably get you assigned to the unit.”
“Fantastic.”
“Don’t you care who’s in charge of it, or what the history or mission of the unit is?”
“Not particularly. Just tell me where to go so I can start shooting the bad guys.”
“Cool your jets. It’ll take a day or two or three. I have to leave for Earth in a few minutes, but I’ll get the process started before I head out. The unit is based out of the IDCC Orbital Defense Station above Romane. Where are you staying these days?”
“Doesn’t matter. I can have my bags packed in forty minutes.” She stood. “So I’ll go ahead and do that, and you let me know when I can climb in a cockpit.”
66
* * *
MIRAI
Ridani Enterprises Labs
Nika rested her chin on her palm as she watched Dashiel fiddle with the settings on the test rack. “Not satisfied with the results so far?”
“You know I never am.” He stepped back and placed his hands on his hips. “Palmer wants the RNEW fitted onto fighters yesterday. Oh, and by the way, he also wants two thousand shots out of the weapon before it requires maintenance. No big thing.”
“You know you love it, though. The work, that is. Not Lance’s incessant demands.”
“I suppose I do.” He wandered over to where she sat on one of the worktables and leaned in to kiss her—then abruptly pulled away, grimacing. “There’s an issue in one of the other testing labs. I don’t think it’ll take long to deal with. Can you hang out here for a few minutes? Wait for me?”
The thought, I’ll always wait for you, darling, flitted through her mind, but it felt inappropriately dramatic for the mood. So she gave him an easy smile. “Happily.”
Once he’d gone, she spent some time wandering around the lab, peeking into enclosures and perusing queued-up testing profiles. Dashiel was somehow running a hundred different projects simultaneously, across multiple labs, manufacturing facilities and planets. She had no idea how he managed it all.
At the end of the lab stood two wide doors; above them, a lit sign read ‘Kyoseil Storage.’ No angry red warnings advised none to tread there, so, intrigued, she opened the doors and peeked inside.
Storage vats were stacked floor-to-ceiling and stretched for easily thirty meters on both sides of a wide middle aisle. A sliding robotic arm assembly extended down from the ceiling, ready to unslot any vat when its number was called and deliver it to the transfer mechanism out the other end of the room.
She knew this kyoseil was brought here after being extracted from its Reor shells. Dashiel was keeping Reor-derived kyoseil separate from pure Chosek-derived kyoseil, in case any anomalies arose in the new variant. When it arrived at the lab, it was placed in a gelatinous solution that both protected it and prepared it for future use—in electronics, equipment and Asterion bodies, but most of all right now, in warship hulls and weapons.
The natural luminescence of the kyoseil bathed the room in a faint amber glow, diffused by the translucent vat enclosures.
Nika ran a hand along the enclosure nearest to her—and jumped back in surprise when the kyoseil inside it brightened considerably. Her breath caught in her throat as she stepped closer once more, her fingers splayed in front of her. Even before they touched the glass, the kyoseil adopted a lazy, pulsing pattern that seemed to reach out to meet her palm.
She lifted her other hand and stretched it out toward the adjoining vat, gasping in wonder as its contents lit up in a complementary pattern. Her fingers trembled against the glass…and gradually her skin began to tingle.
Why was this occurring now? What had changed? Or was this fated to happen when she walked into this storage room no matter what?
She took a deep breath, reluctantly lifting her hands off the vats, and backed into the center of the aisle. She switched her vision to the kyoseil band and opened her mind, as if she were reaching for a ceraff with which to connect.
The entire room exploded in brilliant iridescence, with kyoseil strings stretching between the vats so thickly they coated everything in a complex web of light.
Can you hear me? Can you talk to me?
No voice answered, but the strings began to vibrate. In excitement? The energy created by their movement thrummed against her skin—not stinging, but instead almost soothing. Certainly delightful.
My mind is open to you. Will you open yours to me?
To describe the answer as ‘silence’ would be a travesty. True, no words were spoken, but the room hummed and sang like a heavenly chorus, and she was so close to understanding the melody.
KATOIKIA TAIRI
Mirad Vigilate
I drifted listlessly across the arid steppes of Katoikia Tairi. The closest stasis tower was a gray shadow on the horizon, a hundred kilometers distant. The Directorate had destroyed their true homeworld, Katoikia, in the final chaotic days of the war. But this replacement planet was so entirely identical to the original that visiting it stirred up a maelstrom of old memories from my first days and years on Katoikia. They haunted me, picking at my thoughts like gnats in summertime.
How strange that I remembered gnats.
I avoided coming ‘home’ whenever possible—I treated the empyreal Idryma as my true home in any event, now that Aurora Thesi was no more—for doing so evoked only a deep chasm in my soul. I counted those early days as the most difficult of my long, winding life, and until recently, I had packed the memories away in a dark corner of my mind, where I had no cause to dwell on them. Recent circumstances, however, were drawing them inexorably back to my attention.
But it was no matter. The future was in the past and already written, so I worked to turn my thoughts to my purpose for coming here today.
With the Galenai, Vrachnas, Icksel and other Protected Species shielded by Rift Bubbles, Alex had inquired about what other primitive, evolving species might need special protection from the Rasu’s ravages. I owed her an answer.
The smoky glass of the Mirad Vigilate’s faceted dome loomed ahead, the lone structure to disrupt the landscape for many kilometers in every direction. Anxious to be done with this place as quickly as possible, I drew myself together and transported directly inside.
Paratyr, the long-serving Second Sentinel of the Mirad Vigilate, lay angled in its observation perch, which rotated so Paratyr could repeatedly set eyes on each of the sea of windows surrounding the chair. Once, the Katasketousya Sentinels had watched vulnerable species for impending encroachment by Directorate forces. Now, they watched for the encroaching shadow of the Rasu.
For while everyone was focused on the escalating war in Concord and Asterion territory, the Rasu were always expanding everywhere. While they dallied, the Rasu claimed worlds in the Shapley Supercluster on one end and Centaurus on the other. At this rate, in another few years they would reach the fringes of space controlled by the next nearest advanced civilization, the Belascocians. But only if Concord and the Asterions—only if Alex and Nika—failed to stop them here.
“Mnemosyne, welcome.” Paratyr roused itself from the chair and eased its bare feet to the floor. “You visit so rarely, I had almost forgotten your semblanc
e.”
“You forget nothing, my friend.”
“Too little, and too much.” Paratyr waved a thin, spindly arm, and the windows into a hundred worlds slowed their rotation. “Who are you here to check up on today?”
I wandered among the portals, careful not to slip through one. “All of them. Alex—I trust you remember her—has inquired about our efforts to protect the defenseless from the Rasu, and I promised her I would acquire an update.”
“The uncommon Human who saw what others did not. And her brooding, intimidating lover. Their visit, I shall not forget. But to your question! As I informed the Idryma some cycles ago, the Rasu draw worryingly near to the Dremosh in Canes I. Lakhes assures me a Rift Bubble will be deployed before they fall into mortal danger.”
“Then it will be done.”
“Naturally. I watch…” the windows spun up, then slowed again as two binary systems in loose orbit around one another centered in front of Paratyr “…this region of Laniakea, on the edge of Centaurus, as it is within the shadow of Rasu expansion and hosts multiple interesting species. But they remain safe for a time.”
“What about….” My voice drifted off, my intended question forgotten, as a flaring sensation on the fringes of my myriad tendrils of awareness shot to the forefront.
I dropped my presence in the Mirad Vigilate and honed in on the fragile, tentative yet melodic ripples winding across the fabric of space to reach me. Five megaparsecs away in the Gennisi galaxy, to be precise, though the distance mattered not. The source of the ripples was a tiny pinpoint of activity, of…
…awakening. She pushed relentlessly at the boundaries of understanding, and those boundaries resonated in response.
Excitement and uncommon fear bloomed in equal measure in my soul. It wouldn’t be long now.
“Mnemosyne? Have you abandoned me without a proper farewell? Eh, such is the lonely fate of a Sentinel.”
I forced my presence back into the Mirad Vigilate. “Apologies, Paratyr. There was a distraction, but I will address it after I depart. Tell me more about the Rasu’s movements in Canes I.”
Some moments later, I passed through the Mirad Vigilate’s walls once again to return to Katoikia Tairi’s desolate wilds. Memories that had toyed with me during the voyage here now assaulted my mind, demanding I acknowledge them. If I were honest with myself, I was a touch shaken.
A distraction presented itself in the form of a looming shadow to my left, barely visible against the russet stone of a nearby rise.
Miaon glided closer, until its umbral boundaries intermingled with my own. I didn’t wonder how the Yinhe had found me so swiftly; Miaon always knew how to find me. “You sensed it as well?”
“I did. How could I not?”
We considered the implications together in silence for a time, as was our way. Finally, the Yinhe’s shadow grew taller and more substantial. “Are you ready for what is to come?”
Was I? In the end, it mattered not. I had chosen my path long ago, and if I abandoned it now, it would be to the ruin of all.
I coalesced my presence into my avatar and spread my wings wide, projecting strength I longed to feel. “My state of readiness is irrelevant. It is time.”
67
* * *
MIRAI
Ridani Enterprises Labs
“For the record, I am not putting any more kyoseil in your body—Nika? What is going on?”
Nika turned to see Dashiel standing in the entrance to the storage room, his expression darkening from puzzlement to concern. She grinned to counter it. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
Back to puzzlement. He hurried up to her, clasping her outstretched hands in his. “It’s incredible, but what are you doing? How is this happening?”
‘This,’ she acknowledged, was the way the kyoseil in the vats pulsed and hummed across the space, its ethereal waves spinning around her like spun silk. “I’m not certain. It started as soon as I walked in and approached one of the vats. So I went with it.”
“Is it talking to you? Do you understand it?”
Her excitement faltered slightly. “Almost…I hope. But no, not yet. But look!”
“Oh, I see. Did you know your eyes are glowing? They look like…like teal-threaded suns.”
She blinked, as if that would somehow alter them. “I didn’t. They feel the same as always.”
He nodded vaguely, his demeanor still projecting bewilderment. “Do you think this is because of all the extra kyoseil inside you?”
“Without a doubt. But I also think it’s because I’ve been screaming at it to talk to me for weeks now. When I came in here, though, I wasn’t screaming. I was just…open. Curious. Hoping for some kind of connection.”
“Well, I think you found one.”
“Maybe. But I’m not sure what comes next. How do we take the final step toward mutual understanding? How do I convince this strange, miraculous life form to speak to me? In time, to follow me?”
The concern worrying his features finally dissipated, and he brought a hand to her cheek. “The same way you’ve convinced all of us to follow you, I imagine. By sheer force of personality. By your drive and determination and indomitable spirit. You believe, so we believe in you.”
She pressed her cheek against his palm. “That’s only a little terrifying.”
“Being afraid has never stopped you before.”
“No, it hasn’t, and I can’t allow it to do so now.”
“You know, you’re indescribably beautiful like this, surrounding by this otherworldly radiance.” His lips brushed across hers, and she focused on the sensation the contact evoked. Pliant, moist skin, conveying tenderness but also an undercurrent of passion. Heat rushed through her body with surprising vigor, desire chasing its wake. Her skin tingled anew, almost as if the energized kyoseil was feeding on her hunger.
Her arms wound around his neck and drew his mouth back to hers. This dance they knew so well, and he instinctively responded to her newfound fervency, pressing her against the nearest vat. The glass warmed her skin, leaving her flush all over.
She dragged her lips across his cheek to his ear. “I just figured out what comes next. Lock the doors.”
Dashiel cleared his throat roughly, his eyes creasing in amusement. “Done.”
The next instant she’d pulled her shirt over her head and off. He kissed down her neck, across the hollow at her throat, and was trailing his tongue along the dip between her breasts when a halting chuckle emerged. “Isn’t this a little weird?”
“Why?”
“The kyoseil is a living entity. And now it’s watching us.”
She laughed and urged him back up to kiss him full on the mouth. “Kyoseil has been flowing inside our bodies while we’ve made love thousands of times.”
“Good point.” He dropped both hands to his waist, lifted his shirt and discarded it next to hers. Then he whirled her around to face the vat; his lips carved a meandering path down her spine.
Her bare skin scorched upon the glass as she stared into the blinding amber light before her. Did the kyoseil delight in this physical, carnal contact the way she did? What an odd thought—
Her breath caught in her throat as he reached the small of her back, his hands firm at her hips, and he murmured against her skin. “You’re so hot. Literally.”
“Would it be inappropriate for me to say, ‘I burn for you’?”
He wrenched her around again to face him and deftly unfastened her pants. “Corny, maybe, but never inappropriate.”
Then his mouth was on her, and she melted into the glass. The heat from within and without grew to become deliciously unbearable, so she fisted her fingers in his hair and tugged him upward. As soon as his lips rejoined hers, her hands went to his pants, and they slid to the floor.
He hoisted her up onto his hips and was inside her, and the heat consuming her exploded.
In the darkness behind her closed eyes, stars frolicked around her. Galaxies darted through her perception. Her min
d dove into a spiral, until she was swallowed by its infinite stars. Deeper, into the ravenous hole at a galaxy’s center and out the other side. More stars upon a new tableau.
Her eyes reopened to find the room now bathed in such dazzling light that the glass, the ceiling and the floor were no longer visible. The amber hue matched the color of Dashiel’s irises, awash in ardent passion as he stared at her, pupils dilated until they resembled the black holes of her vision. Pressed between his muscled body and the burning glass at her back, pleasure overwhelmed her and she could only surrender. Then she was falling.
And Dashiel caught her, his arms bracing her body against his and guiding her head to rest on his shoulder.
They were on the floor, limbs entangled in a sweaty embrace. She looked around in wonder and a bit of surprise as the rhythmic dance of the kyoseil filling the room began to calm.
He grunted raggedly. “Sorry. My, uh, legs gave out there at the end.”
“But you caught me anyway.”
“Always.” His lips grazed her forehead. “Have we been doing it wrong all this time?”
“Nah. But you know how us Asterions are. Eternally striving to do better.”
“I’d say we accomplished that.” He brushed strands of damp hair out of her face, a speculative smile livening his features. “So, did the kyoseil by chance…talk to you in the middle? Because if this is the secret to conversing with it, I’m happy to do all I can to help facilitate communications.”
“No.” She giggled…but after a second, her gaze drifted to the vats behind Dashiel. “Still, there was something.”
“Oh? I was joking, but sure, let’s go with it. What did you notice?”
Her brow furrowed as she sat up and reached for her shirt. “Do you think it’s possible that kyoseil can traverse black holes?”
All Our Tomorrows Page 37
