Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection (127 page)

Upon exiting the shuttle it was a few steps to a lift and then a lobby sporting tight security. Still having no opportunity to flee, he tensed through two separate checkpoints and didn’t relax until they stood on yet another lift. Kennedy gave him a nudge.

“We’ll be meeting with the research team in a few minutes but the Chairwoman of the EASC Board wants to see us, so we’re going up there first.”

“Terrific.” This must be his worst nightmare…well, second worst after Messium anyway.

The lift finally stopped and their escort showed them into a conference room. Military officers were scattered around the room engaged in conversations.

Kennedy bolted for a woman wearing admiral’s bars and reviewing a handheld screen at the front of the room. When she reached the woman they embraced warmly.

“Miriam, it is so good to see you again.”

Terrific
. It wasn’t enough she was on a first-name basis with the captain of their cruiser, she was also on a first-name basis with the leader of the Alliance Armed Forces. He was so far out of his league it bordered on absurdity.

What had he been thinking? He shrank against the wall and tried to be invisible.

“Kennedy, I can’t tell you how happy I am you made it off Messium unharmed. Have you heard from Alexis?”

“Not since a few days after the bombing, I’m afraid.”

“Do you have any idea where she is?”

He saw Kennedy’s face darken under a somber frown. “Miriam…they went through the portal.”

The admiral’s expression, formerly warm but composed, collapsed into despair. Her eyes briefly squeezed shut and he noted her chest heave from a deep sigh. “When?”

As near as he’d managed to piece together, Caleb was dating Kennedy’s best friend, with whom he had discovered the aliens in the Metis Nebula, tried to warn everyone, gotten framed for terrorism for the effort, and fled through the aliens’ portal in search of answers. He knew the guy lived on the edge, but
damn
.

“A little over two weeks ago. I think they hoped to learn where the aliens came from, or who they are, or what they want. Anything that would help.”

The woman nodded deliberately and appeared to forcibly put herself back together. Her shoulders rose and a formal guise descended over her features. “At least it means the reason she’s unreachable isn’t because she’s…well. You’ll contact me the second you hear from her, won’t you?”

“Absolutely. Let’s not dwell on it right now—but I want you to know something. The last time I saw her she said she trusted you to not let her problems interfere with your ability to defend against the aliens. She trusted you to protect us until she could return. She may not tell you that herself, but I will.”

Kennedy shifted her bearing then, and he could no longer discern the woman’s expression. But her voice was far more hesitant than before. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me.”

“Of course. Do you—oh! Before we discuss the communications issues, I need to tell you about this new metal Alex created. The strength and conductive properties are off the charts. We should be using it to repair our ships. We should be using it to build our ships.”

He closed his eyes and let the conversation fade to the background. He didn’t belong here. He needed to go.

Where, he didn’t know. Just because Caleb had been cleared of the bombing didn’t mean Zelones wasn’t still gunning for him. The organization tended to hold grudges. It surprised him when for the briefest second he thought about going home…but he couldn’t. Besides, Aquila lay to the east and was liable to be hit by the aliens any day now. He was not going through that again.

Atlantis? A lounge chair and a steady supply of tropical drinks sounded pretty good about now.

He groaned under his breath. He couldn’t exactly sip frozen cocktails on a beach while the entirety of civilization was under assault, could he? Screw his pain in the ass conscience….

Demeter was close; he’d been told it was an attractive place. Maybe he’d find out.

He reopened his eyes for a last glimpse of Kennedy. She remained deeply engrossed in conversation with her admiral friend and plainly in her element. He had gotten her safely home. He felt good about that. It would have to be enough.

He swallowed hard and slipped out the door.

Noah had almost reached the end of the long hallway when her shout echoed behind him. “Hey!”

Before he could stop himself he was turning in the direction of Kennedy’s voice.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Eh….” He found he was ambling back down the hall even as his brain screamed at him to amble the other way. “I don’t really do military, so I thought I’d go on and head out. I’m glad I was able to help you get here, though. Good luck with the aliens, and if we survive this feel free to look me up on your next vacation.”

“Good luck with the
aliens
? You are such a prick.”

He finally succeeded in slowing to a stop five meters from her. “Yeah, I am. I thought you’d figured that out by now.”

“Stay.”

“What? Why?”

Her brow furrowed up, as if it constituted the lamest question she had ever heard. “Because I like you. You’re handy to have around.”

Oh, hell, no. “Listen, I am not your ‘beck and call’ boy.”

“Would you…consider it?”

“Consider it?” He laughed; it sounded harsh to his ears. “Thank you for making this easy. Forget what I said. Don’t look me up on your next vacation. Nice knowing you, Blondie.”

He threw a dismissive wave in her direction and pivoted to leave.

“Noah, wait. I didn’t mean consider being my…’beck and call’ boy, whatever that is. I meant consider staying.”

His mouth contorted into a grimace, but his body turned in her direction once more.

Vivid green eyes glittered with what seemed a lot like hope. “For a while? See what happens?”

Dammit. Dammit, dammit,
dammit
. He gathered up his last sliver of fortitude and brandished a pale imitation of his most dashing smile. “Thanks for the offer, but I need to get out of here.”

He spun so he wouldn’t have to know whether the hope disappeared and hurried down the hallway—

—and found himself shoved against the wall. Kennedy’s hands wound into his hair and her lips hovered a breath from his.

“You are the most infuriating, confounding man I have ever met, and you damn well better not run away from me.”

Then her mouth was on his. She was the single most delicious luxury he had ever tasted. Ambrosia soaked in champagne couldn’t hope to compare.

Wealthy heiress, talented engineer, friend to admirals, spirited, determined survivor with a heart of gold. What in the devil’s name was he getting himself into?

His arms encircled her waist as he suddenly felt the intense desire to make sure she didn’t run away from him.

When she finally allowed him to come up for air, he remembered how that dashing smile worked for real. “I guess I don’t have any really pressing engagements….”

Her eyes searched his as if she was trying to decide whether more extreme measures would be required. “So you’ll stay then?”

Oh yes.
He nodded. “I’ll stay.”

Her face lit up with a radiance that was definitely the most enchanting sight he had ever seen.

He was so royally, gloriously fucked.

60

SIYANE

U
NCHARTED
S
PACE

“
W
HAT
ARE YOU DOING?”

Caleb glanced up at her from the floor, where he had spread the orbs he had liberated, a signal scope, two crates of non-perishables and his sword. “I am going to crack one of these babies open and figure out how to switch it on.”

He secured one of the orbs between the crates, picked up the sword, eyeballed the angle once and swung.

“Ahh!” Alex leapt back as the crates skidded in opposite directions across the cabin. But they had done their job, and on the floor lay two pieces of the orb, sliced clean in half.

He tossed a smirk in her direction and picked one of the sections up. “See? It worked.”

“Caleb, you can’t turn it on inside the ship! It’ll rip us to shreds.
Oh…
.” She crouched down next to him. “Mesme was right, you know. You are an astoundingly clever man.”

When he saw the glint in her eyes he briefly considered tearing her clothes off right there in the middle of the floor. Regrettably they were short on time, especially considering they were currently drifting around in some other universe’s lobby.

“I am, or I will be if I can puzzle out how to turn it on. You know, without actually turning it on.”

She settled fully onto the floor beside him and curled her legs beneath her. “The factory was mammoth in size. We have, what, four of these—or three if this one’s wrecked? Do you really think it’ll be enough?”

“That field threw the
Siyane
four hundred kilometers in under a second. It’ll be enough.” He paused, identifying a possible flaw in the plan. “You do have remote sensors or probes or something launchable on board, don’t you?”

In the corner of his vision she rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “Yes, I have a couple of those.”

“Good. Now I suspect these little guys were supported by one another and the larger field being generated, like an interlocking lattice. When I removed each of them from their slot in the network, they shut down. So we need to either simulate the connection, or trick it into believing the field is active.”

“I think tricking it is the more viable option, for it and my ship.”

“Probably.” He studied the internal layout of the orb. Physically it was nothing like any circuitry a human would or ever had designed, but it
was
circuitry. Strands of a form of photal fiber wove in intricate patterns, interconnected at nodes and fed into a tiny euhedral crystal in the center.

The question now was which one maintained the power signal. He disconnected the strands from the crystal and grabbed the scope.

“Caleb….”

“It’s fine. I’ve disconnected the power source. It can’t switch on now.” He touched the probe tip to each strand and studied the readouts. Most of the results were crazy complicated, but he was searching for the one which was a simple on/off.

On the second-to-last strand, he found it.

He exhaled, relieved. No way should this have rightfully worked. Then he gave Alex an imploring gaze. “I need a few more tools.”

Identifying the nature of the signal which constituted ‘on,’ replicating it in the ship’s signaling system and attaching the orbs to one of the remote probes she used to take asteroid samples took an hour and change. Of course this was still an hour as it passed here, which meant in reality it took an eternity. But it was the best plan they had.

“Ready?”

He strapped into his cockpit chair. “Oh so ready.”

She retraced their path and reopened the portal back to their lobby. He braced himself against the expected vertigo as they flew through, but it was still dizzying to the point of nausea.

Alex growled beside him and set a course for the ship factory, then stood. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go vomit real fast.”

His hand shot out to grasp her arm. “Hey…you all right?”

She flashed him a weak smile, but her face had blanched. “Fabulous.” She no more looked fabulous than he imagined he did, but he nodded and let her go.

By the time she returned they had almost reached their destination. The factory loomed large in front of them, continuing its relentless construction of monstrous vessels.

How many had it sent on their way to wreak destruction upon civilization while they were gone? Five? Ten?

It wouldn’t be sending any more.

The ship decelerated to drift nearly a megameter distant. There was no way to predict how big the explosion was going to be, but any further away and the signal might not reach the orbs.

“Here goes everything….” She released the probe.

Too small to see with the naked eye after a few dozen meters, they tracked it on the radar as it sailed toward the facility. None of the mechs noticed when the probe slipped through the scaffolding and inside. She halted its progress.