Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection (160 page)

—his mouth tastes so good oh! truth verified by observed results, dead why please no beautiful increase CO2-O2 conversion by 2.3% via introduction of phytoplankton for optimal atmospheric terraforming—

“Alex, can you hear me?”

—open your eyes open my eyes how here cranial nerve VII zygomatic branch trigger orbicularis oculi muscle or I could simply—

Eyes open.
Hurts.
Sharp corners—Abigail’s cold, analytical stare—
don’t insult Abigail
—Mom behind—is she afraid for me? of me?—
is that what fear looks like on a human? sometimes sometimes they run—

“Yes. No—both. Yes. But why can’t—” she sensed her neck jerk, shoulders jerk “—I see no isn’t right—”
stars rushing by how am I in them
“—want to calculate speed of—”
supernova too bright Connor sticking his tongue in her ear my ear eww don’t worry it gets better aliens departed too long
“—already done. What now? We need to stop them coordinated I can—”

“Alex.”

Warmth. Oh my the warmth pheromones skin gripping vibration beneath can you feel it so human tell my hand to squeeze.

“Look at me.”

A pulse. Beat-beating against your my our palm. Alive.

Beat by beat the bottomless whirlwind of perceptions, data, images and sensations careening through her mind—
so many how can this tiny skull hold them all
—began to abate in time to the rhythm of not her pulse, but his.

“Please.”    

Look we’ll look together.

A turn of her head to find his face. Incredible eyes now impossibly blue in her too-precise vision. They shone with tenderness and hope and faith and resilience and the faintest hint of stark terror.
Yes, Valkyrie, that’s what love looks like on a human. Be quiet for me now? Only for a moment.

She covered Caleb’s hand, so firmly gripped around hers, with her free one. “Hi.”

A relieved breath tumbled from his lips. “Hi, yourself.”

She drew him closer to rest her forehead on his. “I’m still here, I swear. It’s just a little…weird.”
Weird is this what the word means this exhilarating confusing okay yes weird will do quiet.

“I believe you.” He squeezed her hand once more, placed a soft kiss on her forehead—
rush oxytocin endorphins are we dizzy
—then withdrew, allowing Abigail to take his place.

Abigail ran a scanner around Alex’s head and down her chest. “Heart rate is accelerated but within safe parameters. Brain activity is off the charts in all regions but particularly the temporal lobe and, more surprisingly, across the limbic lobe. Most unusual.” She lowered her chin and considered Alex. “How do you feel?”

“Um…kind of shaky.”
Flooded drowning in the ocean good thing I know how to swim. “
The feedback loop is nasty, as if our thoughts are ricocheting off each other in a hall of mirrors. But we’re…working on getting it under control.”

“Good. I’m going to ask you some questions, if it’s all right?”

She nodded. Her mother flitted across her vision moving along the wall, stoic veneer back in place.
She does that does it mean she doesn’t care no I only recently realized so late.

“What is the square root of 4,671,209?”

“2,161.29
798963—”

“What is the chemical formula for fluorine perchlorate?”

“FClO4 or FOClO3, depending on the method of synthesis.”

“What was the name of your first pet?”

“Rasputin. That cat was a fiend.”
Can we have a cat god no not on my ship oh your ship we I will finally see touch the stars.

“The orbital period of Gliese 832 c?”

“36.4 Galactic days, +- 5.1 hours every other cycle.”

Touch them? Even I can’t touch them perhaps we will try.

“What is your opinion of government bureaucrats?”

“They wouldn’t know an original idea if it scrawled itself in blood across one of their fucking checklists.”
Vivid imagery vivid emotion most stimulating.
She laughed. “Did Mom tell you to ask that?”

“Yes, she did.” Abigail tilted her head. “Can I talk to Valkyrie for a minute?”

Alex met her probing gaze. “You are talking to Valkyrie. You’re talking to both of us. If you wish to talk to her alone, I can block the connection and you can go over to Special Projects and talk to her there.”
Doesn’t she comprehend feels like me but it’s you no us almost.

Abigail’s mouth opened slightly. After
2.0943 seconds
she closed it. A vein in her left temple pulsed. She began again. “If I were to go over to Special Projects and talk to Valkyrie without you blocking the connection, would I be talking to you as well?”

No yes requisite why?
“Valkyrie says yes. I’m not certain.”
We disagree interesting my brain didn’t explode good sign yes indeed.
“We should try it later. I’m curious. So is she.”
You speak can I speak words out of your our mouth stop I’m not a puppet clearly not apologies where did they go? Find them.

“We will. First, I want you to try blocking the connection. As I said, your eVi is now programmed to do it, so simply instruct it to do so.”

“I understand.”
It’s for but a minute don’t be sad this is sadness? It feels uncomfortable itchy very well.

She did as instructed. Her vision blurred—no, this was normal vision. Suddenly indistinct and washed-out. Not Caleb though. “It’s done.”

“How do you feel now?”

Empty. Hollow. “Okay. A bit slow.” Emotional, as if she was about to cry because of a wrinkle in her shirt. “It’s taking a second to get used to, but…I’m all right.”

“What is 24,019 to the 4
^th
power?”

“I have no idea. My eVi could probably tell me if I queried it.”

“It won’t be necessary. How far is it from Earth to the Rosette Nebula?”

“1.552 kiloparsecs to the outer bands.”

Abigail frowned and studied the monitors.

Alex arched an eyebrow in amusement. “I actually know that without any help. Space explorer? Scout?” Caleb now stood barely out of reach to her left; she winked at him. “Treasure hunter?”

The smile he gave her was almost enough to make her believe he truly did believe she was here and whole. Was she?

Abigail’s lips, on the other hand, creased into a thin line. “Of course. Now let’s try reestablishing the connection.”

The command was easier this time, then—
color sound discomfort I had no idea the world was so visceral hot and cold will you touch everything for me? No later I understand—did you find them? No but no is its own answer only one answer. We see now don’t we?

She forced her attention away from the fascinating nano-width cracks decorating the far wall—
decaying always new for an instant yet inevitable to fracture and die we can make it new again and again but never forever
—back to Abigail. “The toggle is functioning fine. You can ask more questions if you must, but we really need to get to work. We don’t have much time.”

Her gaze swung to her mother, silently posed upon the far wall. “The Metigens are skipping the smaller colonies next in line. They’re going to strike Seneca and Romane with their full strength, and they’re going to do it in the next thirty-six hours.”

31

SPACE, NORTH-CENTRAL QUADRANT

S
ENECAN
F
EDERATION
S
PACE

T
HE STORAGE ROOM SMELLED OF HEATED
lubricant and silicide rubber. In a way it was comforting—a reminder this was a military ship, she was a Marine, and Marines took an oath to defend the Earth Alliance against all enemies, foreign
and
domestic.

Brooklyn waited until the door closed behind Kone before speaking. “Fahrah’s a no-go. He called the Senecans ‘wazzacks’ while flourishing a nasty sneer, thankfully prior to me broaching the topic of mutiny.”

“About that…I was talking to a Navigation Specialist a few minutes ago who had bridge duty last shift. He said Nunez argued with O’Connell over hitting Krysk, and O’Connell had him shackled and tossed in the brig. The General is not tolerating dissent.”

Gregor Kone was the only member of her squad she’d spilt both blood and drinks with, and thus the only member of her squad she trusted. “Then we don’t dissent. We simply relieve him of command.”

“And how are we supposed to do that? He’s got the whole damn crew too terrified to sneeze lest it infuriate him. They won’t help us.”

“They don’t need to help us—they merely need to not stop us.”

Kone leaned against the shelving behind him and flexed his arms tight across his chest. “So the two of us are going to take down a four-star general captaining a cruiser?”

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “We’re not some grunts,
Captain
. We’re highly-trained, elite Marine special forces. We can do this.”

“Just for shits and giggles, say we succeed in throwing him in the brig. He’ll intimidate the Security Chief into freeing him in a matter of minutes.”

“Unless we kill him.”

“Jesus. And what then? You think the XO or the Helmsman or anyone else will take orders from a couple of captains?”

“You know, for someone who claims to want to take O’Connell out, you seem awfully eager to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

“Fuck, Harper, I’m only saying I don’t see how it’s going to work. Unless we get more crew on our side, we are hosed before we start.”

She groaned, but reluctantly conceded the point. “All right, let’s find more people. In the meantime I want to talk to Vinsk in Comms. We need to break through this communications blackout and get out a warning Krysk is the next target. In case we fail.”

“You sure he won’t rat us out?”

“Reasonably. He’s shown the right signs. I’ll be careful until I’m certain.”

Kone rubbed soberly at his jaw. “Okay. Who should we warn? What if O’Connell’s orders really did come from the top brass? A lot of high-ranking officers are not fans of Seneca, if only because they fought in the first war, and this includes the top two spots in MSO. I’m not at all convinced either of them would do a thing to stop him if given the option.”

“Then I’ll contact someone I
can
trust.”

And who the hell might that be?

She remained in the storage room after Kone had departed; she needed time alone to think, because he was correct. Their CO on Fionava was a veteran of the First Crux War and had never hid his dislike of the Federation, and the options didn’t get any better further up the hierarchy.

She needed someone who possessed enough influence to be able to act on the information, or at least be able to get it to someone who could act on the information. But captains, even special forces captains, saw few opportunities to rub shoulders with the upper echelon. The unfortunate fact was she didn’t have more than a passing acquaintance with any brass outside her direct chain of command.

Her foot tapped in silent agitation on the abrasive but traction-friendly floor. What about—no, he was only a Lt. Colonel and arguably lacked the power she needed to access…

…but hadn’t she seen on the official posting announcements while she was loitering at NW Headquarters that he’d been promoted and given command of a cruiser?

She wouldn’t consider Malcolm Jenner a friend, if only because he was her superior officer by several ranks. And in truth, she had crossed paths with him all of twice in five years. But she did believe he was an honorable man and not a fire-breather. He had gone out of his way to avoid casualties on Desna—including limiting the deaths of Federation soldiers to the fewest required—so she felt comfortable assuming he didn’t hold a particular grudge against Seneca.

And when she’d been stationed under him at the 3
^rd
BC Brigade, the rumor had been he was dating the daughter of the EASC Director of Operations. Even if it were no longer the case, he would still have the residual contacts.

Decision made, she wasted no time in departing the storage room for the crew deck.

Vinsk was in the mess nursing a coffee. Given the only active communications were with the
Yeltsin
and
Chinook
, comm officers didn’t exactly have much to do at present.

She’d identified him as a sympathetic soldier when she caught him making a disgusted face and walking away from two corporals cracking jokes about the destruction wreaked on New Cairo. Since then she’d made a point to chat him up when she could. Now she would find out whether it paid off.

She slid in across from him at the mess table. “Bored yet?”

He scowled at his coffee. “I’m a comm officer with no comms. What do you think?”

“Yeah, this blackout is messed up, huh?”

His eyes shot up to regard her warily. “It’s not for me to say.”

Her voice dropped to a hush. “Vinsk, I don’t like what’s happening here, and I get the sense you don’t either.”