Abysm (4 page)

“Now I speak directly to the military personnel under my command, to every Earth Alliance officer and enlisted across the galaxy. Our counterinsurgency is a legal one, and it is also a moral one. We are defending our Constitution and our citizens. We will be an aegis shielding those who now find themselves under siege from their own government.

“Prime Minister Winslow’s attempts to order you to enforce BANIA are illegal. You are not required to obey illegal orders—you know this—whether they come from a prime minister, an admiral or your squadron commander. Instead, I will give you orders you can obey with pride and a clear conscience:

“Protect the people. Protect those who are innocent of actual wrongdoing. Refuse to assist in the enforcement of BANIA, but do it in a peaceful, non-violent manner. Simply stand your ground. No one, not a solitary soul, needs to die in this dispute, but if arms are taken up against you, defend yourself and the civilians in your care as you must.

“I do not want to fire a single shot at my fellow servicemen. But I will not allow the Earth Alliance military to fall to illegitimate, unlawful forces, and per our Constitutional duty, the Earth Alliance military will not allow the government to fall to those same forces.

“Godspeed to you all.”

She ended the broadcast without fanfare, not betraying in her expression or her bearing any of the residual anxiety which still churned her stomach, and immediately turned to Admiral Rychen.

“Winslow won’t hesitate to act. Watch the local traffic closely—Admiral Fullerton is in her pocket and will likely try to wrest authority over Northeast Command from you amid the confusion. I’ll leave it to you to make certain he doesn’t succeed. Richard has an eye on the rest of the network. We ought to learn who among the other admirals and generals are siding with us soon enough.”

She didn’t wait for a response before pivoting to where Alex now lounged against the wall beside the wide viewport, arms and ankles crossed like she was attending the most casual of gatherings.

Miriam strode toward her, but stopped a meter away and adopted a scowl. “You’re alive, I see.”

Alex shrugged. “Kind of self-evident, yep.”

“You should have told me what you were planning to do before you left.”

“You would’ve tried to talk me out of it.”

“Yet I doubt I would’ve succeeded. Since you’re here now, you’ve been back on this side of the portal for at least a day. Why didn’t you message me? It’s been four months.”

“Heard you were busy. Didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Yes, well….” Miriam pursed her lips, and Alex’s began curling up in response. With a sigh she reached out and drew her daughter into her arms, grateful beyond words to feel the gesture returned in full. Heart beating, skin warm, ten fingers and all the necessary limbs intact. All was well in the world.

Except it really wasn’t.

She backed up to regard Alex, keeping her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Alex flinched and pulled away. “Why not?”

It probably had been the wrong thing to say, or said in the wrong manner. Miriam worked to soften her tone—to lessen her daughter’s ire and to lessen the blow to herself from saying the words aloud. “Because you shouldn’t have to hear your mother called a traitor. I didn’t want you to see any of this.

“I hate that you’ve been gone for four months, but now, honestly, I wish you’d stayed away another one.”

“You think I care what some
svoloch
politician says about you? What you’re doing is incredible. And it was a great speech. Hell, I was moved.”

The last part was delivered in a teasing tone, and she relaxed; part of her had worried Alex would be disappointed in her somehow. It seemed foolish in retrospect. “I did try.”

“Do you think it will work?”

Caleb joined them then, and Miriam accepted a quick hug from him before responding. “It won’t prevent bloodshed, if that’s what you mean. Will it bring me the support of the people I need to pull this off? Will it win over the hearts and minds of the rank and file, of the masses? Maybe. I’m not a politician or a public speaker. I’m not…” her chin dropped “…I’m not exactly a charismatic figure. This isn’t what I do.”

Alex smiled. “Sure it is. You do what is required in the circumstances, right? You always have.”

The cryptic insinuation reminded Miriam where Alex had been these last months. “I suppose I do. What did you find?”

“Through the portal?” Alex’s gaze drifted to Caleb, and they exchanged a weighty look. “We can talk about it later. You have a counterinsurgency to lead right now.”

That was true enough. Off to her left an officer hurried up to Rychen, and they conferred in hushed tones. She fought the urge to rush over and hear the news this instant. Was the officer corps falling her way or abandoning her in droves?

Futzing to and fro like a schoolgirl wasn’t going to change the answer, so she imposed calm on herself and refocused her attention on Alex. “Very well. But answer one question for me: can anything you’ve learned help me here and now? Is there anything I’ll later wish I had known today?”

Alex’s expression grew uncommonly solemn, and Miriam realized her daughter looked tired. Strained. Concern flared, but discovering the reason for the strain would take longer than she had at present.

“Just know it’s vitally important for you to get this one right. I mean, of course it is, clearly. But if we—people, all of us—head down the wrong path now, it will have grave consequences beyond the obvious. You need to win this fight. We need to be the good guys.”

2

MESSIS I

E
ARTH
A
LLIANCE
O
RBITAL
S
TATION
M
ESSIUM
S
TELLAR
S
YSTEM

“
W
HY DIDN’T YOU
tell her?”

“Tell her humanity’s ancestors are the worst mass murderers in the history of the cosmos? That they’ve run roughshod over entire galaxies, killed untold trillions, committed genocide on countless species and are now the most reviled, feared beings in the multiverse?”

Caleb sank into one of the chairs scattered around the small breakroom an officer had directed them to. “Yeah. That.”

“Somehow it didn’t strike me as the pep talk she’d be hoping for. It hardly provides the inspiration needed to keep fighting.”

“But it does.” She sensed him watching her as she wandered through the room searching for…she wasn’t sure. “It’s the best and most important reason to keep fighting.”

“Which is what I
did
tell her. That she seriously, no-shit needed to win.” Alex massaged her face with her hands, trying to revive herself a bit. Projecting a bright, spirited persona for the benefit of her mother had been draining.

“I want to stay here for a while longer—talk to Richard and find out more details on how screwed up the situation really is, then try to catch a few minutes with Mom if I can. You should go see Mia and reassure yourself she actually is doing well.”

“You don’t want to come with me?”

“I already know Mia’s doing well.” She forced a smile and tapped a fingernail to her temple. The deluge of information had begun as soon as they traversed the Aurora portal and had yet to cease: data, news, images, random thoughts from random Prevos. There were so many of them now. Much of the information was out of order and lacking context, the product of the streams of consciousness of multiple Artificials and a neural web which had grown beyond measure.

Twenty-six hours after arriving, she still wasn’t exactly sure what she did and didn’t know. But she could fake it sufficiently on the fly until Valkyrie got it all sorted.

“Right.” Caleb stood and went over to the corner where he’d dropped his pack a minute earlier. “I’ll catch a transport. I should be back in the morning.”

“Do you want to take the
Siyane
?”
Please say no.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. You may need it.”

You have no idea how true that is, do you?
“Hopefully not, but I might. If I decide to come to Romane later tonight, I’ll let you know so we don’t pass each other.”

For a second she thought he was simply going to walk out—his stance briefly shifted toward the door—then he came over and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t go to war without me.”

Her smile remained in place until he was out the door. Then she collapsed into the chair he’d vacated and curled up, dropping her head on the armrest.

It would be the first time in months they’d been apart for more than a few hours, and his departure evoked an array of sensations…no, they were called
emotions
when she inhabited only a corporeal body.

Sadness
. She already felt the hollowness in her chest his absence carved.

Relief
. It was exhausting hiding the constant, relentless urge to slip into the walls of the ship.

Disquiet
. She recognized he’d left troubled in his own way, yet he had kept it to himself.

Weariness
. She hadn’t slept properly in ages, mostly because the hours he slept provided the best opportunity for her to explore her other perception free of guilt.

Instead of attempting to improve on any of those conditions, she closed her eyes and dove into her elemental realm.

Space welcomed her into its embrace. Warm, lit by Messium’s sun. Hectic, excited by the churning of purposeful activity all around her.

The station had no enclosed docking bay for visitors, and the
Siyane
was secured to an external docking module. Rows of vessels extended above and below her. New ships, designs she’d never seen. Adiamene hulls gleamed subtly in natural, gracefully flowing contours.

Atoms pressed against her, displaced by a vessel departing overhead. This wasn’t the void, and the atmosphere of the planet below could still be felt here, ten megameters above its surface.

She drifted along with the motion of the station as it rotated to show her the stars, the sun and the planet again in turn. The structure and the space surrounding it vibrated and hummed with enterprise. Humans rushing to and fro to effect a revolution.

It was vital, meaningful work to them…but the atoms didn’t care. They would remain here long after the people and their artificial constructs were gone.

The punch to her shoulder registered as a dull
thud
, far away and disconnected from her elemental body, but it was delivered forcefully enough to draw her attention. Alex reluctantly pulled her consciousness inward, winding down Valkyrie’s quantum pathways like a vid streaming in reverse.

She opened her eyes to find Kennedy leaning over her, peering at her from no more than twenty centimeters away. “There you are!”

“Ken?” She straightened up in the chair, rubbing at her face. “What are you doing here?”

“Stuff. Are you all right? I’ve been trying to rouse you for the last thirty seconds.”

“Sorry. I was…sleeping.” She shook her head, still trying to clear the fog. On exiting the ship’s perception, this version of reality always seemed hazy and indistinct for a while. “What stuff? This is a military base, sort of. And you’re supposed to be on Romane. Or something.”

Kennedy’s eyes narrowed until she was frowning. “You look like shit.”

“You did wake me up from a nap.”

“Not what I mean. You look like you’ve been on a month-long bender. Have you?”

“No, Ken, I have not. I’ve just had a long week.”
Walked the streets of a city bathed in blood and stood amid a hundred thousand corpses. Negotiated a three-way peace treaty among opposing factions of a warring alien species who’d previously held me captive. Bullied the Metigen leadership into doing my bidding. Found out we’re not the real humans, and the real humans are currently enslaving the real universe. Oh, and I think I’m addicted to my ship. How was your week?
“Nothing a shower and food won’t fix. You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

Kennedy sat down across from her and leaned forward intently. “You’ve seen the ships outside? The new ones?”

She nodded. “Some of them. They’re exquisite.”

“You bet they are. I designed them, supplied the adiamene and helped set up the manufacturing for them.”

“You did what?”

“While you were off cavorting through portals, I built your mother a fleet.”

“Wow.” Alex blinked deliberately, and the surroundings finally regained a reasonable level of fidelity. “Impressive. Thank you.”

“I didn’t do it for you. So, what’s the scoop? Find any grand, existential, cosmic answers?”

“A few.” She went to grab an energy drink from the fridge compartment. “Met some intriguing aliens, and some frightening ones. Watched some of them die, saved some. Not as many.”