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“I…I think I
was
,” she murmured groggily. “Valkyrie, are you good?”

‘I am functional.’

“What happened? My eVi’s restarting.”

“Mine too. I think Pinchu used an EMP.”

Confirmation came the next instant in the sound of thundering crashes as ships began falling out of the sky. Dust flooded the room through the open windows, sending them and the nearby Khokteh into coughing fits.

He held his shirt up over his nose and mouth and urged her back down. Though the dust would gradually settle to the floor, it should dissipate as it did so. “Stay low. It’s easier to breathe the lower you are.”

She complied, and they huddled on the floor, finding just enough air not to suffocate.

A minute or so passed before Pinchu’s voice came over the speaker again. “Push into the lower levels and clear out the remaining invaders. The city is saved.”

Alex coughed but sat up, her eyes tearing as she wiped yet more dust off her forehead. “Should we help?”

He shook his head wearily and drew her close. “You are an amazing trooper, but I think they can take it from here.”

She nodded into his neck. “All right. If you say so.”

Breathing remained slightly challenging, but Alex nonetheless relaxed against Caleb. She’d been tense and running on adrenaline and chemically heightened concentration for what had surely been hours—not nearly so long as the battle over Seneca, but still quite a long time.

Her arms, shoulders and back all ached from the strain of holding the heavy gun. The inside of her eyelids felt like sandpaper every time she blinked, and she was suspicious her lungs had a quart of dust in them. But his embrace was warm and welcoming, and she gratefully sank into it.

The moment of peace shattered when a roiling crash shook the walls of the building. Seconds later Khokteh began sprinting down the hallway toward the front entrance.

She squeezed Caleb’s hand and straightened up. “Come on. We need to see what happened. Also, the building might fall down on us, so we should get outside.”

He rolled his eyes but conceded the point. They climbed to their feet, slipped into a gap in the passing Khokteh and let the crowd carry them to the entrance.

The building they’d occupied may still be standing, but the large structure across the street and up one block was not. Most of the edifice had crumbled into the road; presumably it had sustained damage during the assault that led to a delayed collapse.

“Valkyrie, what was in the building?”

‘City maps indicate it served as the central hospital for the city.’

Hospital…. She and Caleb stared at each other for a beat. “Shit. Cassela.” They rushed down the steps and toward the wreckage.

Dozens of Khokteh heaved broken slabs of sandstone off large piles and tossed it to the side. Some of the pieces must weigh nearly a tonne, proving a challenge for the brawny Khokteh. Still they managed, undoubtedly driven by the knowledge of dwindling lives beneath the rubble. Others were tending to the injured who lay out in the open, bodies whose fur was soaked so thoroughly in blood it looked as if it had been dyed red.

She was about to lend a hand to a Khokteh dragging two of the injured clear of some debris when a piercing cry tore through the cacophony of noise. Everyone froze, then all heads turned in the direction of the scream.

At the center of the block in front of the former hospital, where the debris was the thickest, Pinchu fell to his knees and gathered a body into his arms. Even from a distance the white fur and distinctive lavender flourishes were unmistakable.

He renewed his scream, a guttural roar of anguish and despair.

Two unfamiliar vehicles were parked in front of her house when Alex got home from school. No, wait…she thought one of them belonged to Richard. She perked up; he’d been on secret assignment doing war stuff, and she hadn’t seen him in several months.

Mildly curious about the unfamiliar car, though, she tip-toed into the house. Maybe she could eavesdrop on something interesting.

Her mother and Richard were in the kitchen, along with a tall man she didn’t know wearing a military dress uniform. She peeked around the door frame. Her mom’s back was to her, but Richard stood at a slight angle from the entry.

“That is no excuse! Why weren’t they—”
Great. Drama.

“Commodore Solovy, I understand you’re upset, which is a completely justifiable reaction.”

“Upset? Is that what I am? Because—”

Richard glanced in her direction and instantly saw her. He cleared his throat. “Alex.”

Her mother spun around. Her skin was deathly pale, as if a vampire had been feasting on her. Her eyes were wide and appeared frozen, locked in a state of cold fury.

Alex frowned as she stepped into the archway. She’d never seen her mother look anything like this before. “What’s wrong?”

Her mother’s chest heaved. “Alexis, there was…your…” she spun away to face the cabinets “…Richard, I can’t…please….”

He nodded and squeezed her mother’s hand then came over to Alex. As he drew closer, she realized his eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were shiny, like…like he’d been crying? Ridiculous.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and started guiding her into the living room. “Let’s go sit down for a minute.”

“What’s going on? Why is everyone acting weird?”

He sat on the edge of the couch and patted the cushion beside him. “Sit with me.”

She backed toward the center of the room. Her skin felt tingly, and her pulse started pounding in her ears. “I don’t want to sit. Tell me what’s going on.”

His Adam’s Apple bobbed above his uniform collar. “There’s been an accident—no, he wouldn’t want me to call it an accident. There was a battle, and your dad protected a whole bunch of people. He saved so many lives, Alex. But…his ship was destroyed before he was able to escape.”

The walls seemed to undulate, pressing in on her threateningly. “So he got out in an escape pod, right? Is he hurt? Does that mean he’ll be coming home soon?”

“Oh, Alex, sweetheart…he’s gone. He was killed.”

“What? No—no, that’s impossible! They just haven’t found him yet—are they looking? They better be looking for him!”

“I’m so, so sorry. Come here—”

Richard reached for her, but she yanked her arm away. “No!” She spun and ran to the kitchen. “Mom, why is Richard saying these things? Where’s Dad? Where
is
he?”

In the kitchen, her mother again had her back to Alex, but now her hands splayed atop the counter and her head hung limply down. The stranger stood to the side, his hands clasped formally in front of him.

“Mom? Mom, answer me!” But her mother’s head shook a refusal.

She couldn’t breathe. Gasping in air, her face hot. “No. No, you can’t…he can’t…I don’t believe it!”

In desperation she sprinted for the front door. Outside there would be air, and she would be able to breathe. Outside she could find her dad.

Richard’s arms snatched her up from behind when she was but a meter from escape. “Easy now, Alex.”

She struggled in his clutches, flailing out at him, kicking ineffectually at his strong, sturdy legs with her weak, skinny ones. “Let me go! I have to—I have to go!”

He held her firmly. “There’s nowhere you need to go, sweetheart. You stay here, and your mom will take care of you.”

“I want my dad!” It came out all garbled and wet and sloppy as sobs began to wrack her chest. “I want my dad….”

“I know you do.”

She tried to see through the blurriness, and found she was curled up on the floor and Richard arms were wrapped around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay.”

But it wouldn’t be okay. It was never going to be okay again.

Alex blinked past the stab of searing pain that flared in her chest at the memory and tried to refocus on the here and now.

Several Khokteh rushed toward Pinchu. He let out a full-throated growl, a frightening warning, and thrust his arm out to wave them away. They stopped in their tracks, instinctively obeying their leader’s command.

As his gaze swept across the scene, his eyes landed on her. “You! Alex Human!”

She slowly walked to him, Caleb at her side and her heart breaking. For the first time, she was able to look down on him…and for all his size and strength, he was now a broken, diminished shadow of himself. “Pinchu, I’m so—”

“You are an emissary from the Gods. This
must
be why you were sent here. Save her for me. Bring her back, I beg you!”

She gasped in horror. “I’m so sorry. I’m not an emissary for any gods. I tried to tell you—I’m just a woman. I have no special powers. My people can perform medical marvels on those who still breathe, but even we cannot bring back the dead. There’s…there’s nothing I can do.”

“You must!” He placed Cassela’s head on the ground with shocking tenderness and rose to his feet with shocking vehemence, reaching desperately for her. “Seek their favor, beseech them for her life, I will pay any price—”

She instinctively shrunk away from him. “I can’t. I wish I could, I do, but this—” she activated her glyphs and gestured to them in agitation “—it’s not magic. It’s not spiritual. It’s just…it’s just technology—” She choked off a sob in her throat as Caleb’s arms wound around her to draw her into his protective grasp.

Pinchu stared at her in wild-eyed desperation—then he collapsed to the ground and gathered Cassela against his chest. “My life-mate…my child I’ll never meet…my….” His long nose nuzzled her forehead as a high-pitched, nasal wail emerged through his clenched jaw.

They could only stand there and watch, helpless to provide aid, helpless to provide comfort.

At last he murmured something the translator didn’t understand and gently laid her out on the ground. He gazed at the body, and his growls and cries subsided to a shuddering plea.

“How am I supposed to stand before my people now? They need me to lead them through this crisis, but I have lost my faith. I have lost my very soul.”

No Khokteh had dared approach him after his outburst. He was talking to them…but she had no answers to give him.

Caleb’s voice was resolute, however, quiet yet somehow persuasive. “You’ll lead them because they are suffering loss right now, too, the same as you, and they need you to be strong for them—for
all
of them. You can’t live for her, but you can live for your people—your
shikei
.”

Pinchu struggled to stand, as if a gravity well were dragging him back to the ground, to Cassela’s broken body.

“Then all that is left to me is vengeance.”

PART
VI
:

EVENT
HORIZON

“The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

— Charles Du Bos

P
ORTAL:
A
URORA

(
M
ILKY
W
AY)

29

NEW BABEL

I
NDEPENDENT
C
OLONY

T
HE WOMAN STIRRING ON THE COUCH
may have been well-groomed and professional at the start of her trip, but many hours unconscious on a mercenary ship and perhaps some minor jostling along the way had left her looking rather haggard. Ginger hair spilled out in tangles from a lopsided pearl clasp; her silken blouse was heavily wrinkled and had come partially unfastened. She appeared to have lost a shoe somewhere along the journey.

But when the woman’s eyes snapped open, any disheveled nature vanished beneath the sheer power of intellect and awareness radiating from them.

Olivia Montegreu gave the woman a polite smile. “Dr. Canivon, welcome. I apologize for any discomfort you might have experienced during your trip here. If you’re thirsty, which you must be, there’s water on the table beside you, and I’ll have some food brought up for you in a few minutes.”