Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection (46 page)

Acknowledged.

The
Aegea
and its complement of electronic warfare ships flew silently into the pillar of nebular clouds. The viewport revealed only a bright yellow haze, thick as the fog rolling through Cove Bay when he was a child visiting his grandparents on the Scottish coast. He hadn’t been to Earth since the First Crux War. If galactic events continued on their current path, he may never see Cove Bay again…which seemed a shame.

A bank of screens filled with broad-spectrum sensor readings created the illusion of sight as they advanced. The screens displayed the positions of the other ships (minus the Recon units), the locations of the pulsar, its companion white dwarf and the location of the portal, as well as a plethora of scientific data beyond his expertise.

“Major, we should clear the densest clouds in another thirty seconds or so.”

“All ships, slow to 0.2 impulse. Again, stay inside The Bubble.”

Acknowl—

“Sir, I’m picking up a—”

The last thought Major Fergusson had as the blazing white pulse incinerated the
Aegea
and the rest of the 2
^nd
GOI Platoon was that the viewport’s spectrum filters really needed to be upgraded, because this was just
too damn bright
.

39

SIYANE

S
PACE,
S
OL
S
YSTEM

A
LEX SPUN THE COCKPIT CHAIR
around when she heard him come up the stairs. He wore a smile; she returned it in full. If he had taken her retreat the night before as a snub, he wasn’t showing it. They had quickly fallen back into a comfortable, easy, mildly flirtatious routine this morning. She was glad for it.

It wasn’t the only reason she felt rather relaxed, all things considered. While normally she retained at most a vague, mild attachment to Earth as ‘home,’ in the current circumstances she had been relieved to enter the Sol System. Yes, it was home, but it was also the best defended stellar system in existence. If Earth’s defenses weren’t enough to keep it safe, nowhere would be safe.

“Final clearance granted. Looks like your alter ego ID held up. Ready to see the homeland?”

“I’ve seen Earth, Alex.”

“In vids.”

“In full-sensory overlay.”

“Still not the same.” She shrugged teasingly. “You’ll see.”

When they exited the Northeast 1 Pacific Corridor they were above the Gulf of Alaska. She veered south-southeast and slowed the angle of descent to run slightly off the coast.

The waters began a deep cerulean, but shifted to a paler cyan as they approached land. It being late fall, the massive glaciers had already begun descending from the mountain peaks toward the shore. Two icebergs were mid-calving from a glacier and the water was sprinkled with free-floating chunks of ice.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye as discreetly as she could manage. He had doubtless seen many worlds and more than a few wonders. He wouldn’t be easy to impress…but it didn’t hurt to try.

His gaze was riveted out the viewport, but his expression in profile appeared scrupulously neutral except for the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips—

—he sucked in a gasp, and the formerly neutral expression lit up in delight. She followed where his gaze led. A school of five orcas had broken the surface in dramatic fashion as they pushed through the ice slush and into the open waters. They danced and dove—then the largest one leapt out of the water, spinning through the air to land on its dorsal fin and send a cascade of frothing water over its companions.

She gave up watching him discreetly and grinned. “They were once nearly extinct. It took a lot of work to bring them back into the wild.” She paused, simply enjoying his delight for a moment. “Seneca doesn’t have oceanic wildlife?”

He shook his head. “What we call oceans are…well, not like this. Only about forty percent of Seneca is covered in water. It’s a young planet, rich in metals due to the active stellar cluster, but indigenous species are limited and tend to be small. This is amazing.”

Her attention drifted to the view once more. “I’ve always thought so.”

The terrain soon gave way to tundra followed by the coastal forests of the numerous islands dotting the coastline. In minutes the northern edge of Vancouver Island came into sight; beyond it the midday sun reflected brilliantly off the first of the skyscrapers which stretched from North Vancouver to Portland. It was a beautiful fall day in the Pacific Northwest.

She swung to the east, dropped into an airlane and headed down the Straight toward the spaceport. He leaned against the half-wall and draped his arms across his chest. “Nice city you’ve got here.”

“This?” She scoffed with feigned nonchalance. “This is nothing. The Northeastern Seaboard Metropolis stretches for over 1,000 kilometers along the east coast. But it
is
the largest metropolitan area in settled space, so it would.”

“Uh-huh. You done showing off now?”

“You’ll just have to stick around and find out.”
Oops, that might have come out a little differently than she had intended….

His voice became both softer and deeper in tenor. “Okay.”
Yep, sure did.

She chose to ignore it while slowing and banking toward the rooftop docking platform.

EACV-7A492X to ORSC:  Arrival sequence initiation requested Bay L-19

ORSC to EACV-7A492X:  Arrival sequence initiated Bay L-19

ORSC to EACV-7A492X:  Arrival clearance window 14 seconds Docking Lane 27

She eased in and lowered the ship to the roof. The clamps grasped the ship with a gentle
clang
.

The process was all automated for the next few moments as the lift descended to the L level and rotated to her private hangar bay. The force field shimmered as they passed through it, re-solidifying once they were on the other side. A small jolt and the clamps locked into place in the hangar floor.

She shut off the engine and toed around to face him. “Shall we—” A blinking red light flashed in the corner of her eVi; she frowned but accepted the livecomm.

“Alexis, dear, I’m afraid the Defense Minister has arrived and requested a personal briefing. We’ll need to push your meeting until 1430.”

“Oh, for fucks sake, Mom.”

“Now, I—”

“Was there something about ‘urgent’ and ‘vital importance’ and ‘grave threat’ and ‘alien
yebanyy
superdreadnoughts’ that you didn’t understand?”

“Of course not. But I have many responsibilities which impact the safety and security of the entire Alliance, and we
are
at war, and some—”

“You mean you have a Very Important Job? I hadn’t noticed.”

“There’s no reason for you to take such a tone with me. I can’t exactly keep the Defense Minister waiting.”

“
I’d
keep the Defense Minister waiting, if it was important enough. Probably even if it wasn’t.”

“Alexis.”

“Fine. 1430. Don’t postpone it any further.” She cut the link and pursed her lips, grimacing at the effort of not punching the wall or spewing forth a tirade of expletives. She realized Caleb was looking her expectantly, an eyebrow raised in question. Unsurprisingly, as he would have only heard one side of the conversation.

She glared at him, though not
at
him. “There’s been a small delay. Let’s get some lunch.”

40

NEW BABEL

I
NDEPENDENT
C
OLONY

“
Y
ES,
I
UNDERSTAND WE NEED
a larger production facility. But these things take time to build. Besides, I’m not happy with the chosen location. I don’t enjoy the thought of flying halfway across the planet should I decide to pay a visit.”

Olivia regarded the holos above her desk. “It will be cheaper and faster to simply seize an existing facility for ourselves.”

The man in the left holo frowned. “It would mean bloodshed to do so….”

“
Obviously
it would mean bloodshed—inevitably everything always means bloodshed, it’s merely a question of timing. If this war generates the level of chaos I expect it to, we need to position ourselves quickly. Hence, bloodshed now rather than bloodshed later.”

Her nod foreclosed any further discussion. “It’s decided. John, I need a list of the top four candidates in two hours. I’ll arrange a team and the post-op additional security. That’s all for now.”

Not waiting for their sign off, she gestured away the holos, stood and stretched. She needed—

Her eVi indicated a priority incoming message. It was encrypted and coded, but Marcus wanted to speak, now if possible.

She scowled at nothing in particular. She didn’t care to create an impression with him that she was at his beck and call, lest it set a dangerous precedent. On the other hand, events were moving rapidly and significant wealth was at stake. With a roll of her eyes she went over to the QEC room.

She had met Marcus almost fifty years earlier—though that hadn’t been his name at the time—when she ran Zelones operations in South America. He had risen to the top of an upstart gang on the streets of Rio, one which had begun to impinge upon clearly demarcated Zelones interests. After a series of escalating threats did nothing to stop the encroachments, she had sent a squad of her best enforcers to wipe them out.

Marcus and his lieutenants killed the entire squad. He sent her a message to let her know of this—despite the fact he shouldn’t possess her contact information. He then proceeded to come to her headquarters, kill, incapacitate or evade the entire building’s security detail and her personal guards, and stroll into her office.

For one of the few times in her life, she had been genuinely surprised when he walked in. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, scrawny and gangly in secondhand threads. But the sharp, dynamic sea-green irises regarding her shone bright with intelligence, cunning and most of all confidence.

Her personal weaponry had not been so advanced then as it was now, but she pointed a quite lethal customized Daemon at him while she calmly inquired what she could do for him.

“I want out.”

“Done. You’ve proven your point. Walk out the door, and no one will stop you. Keep walking, and no one will come after you. You have my word.”

“You misunderstand, Ms. Montegreu. I want a new life—a new identity and a new background, one which is gold-plated and foolproof. I want fifty thousand credits and a ticket to Miami and your vow you will never speak a word of this conversation to another soul.”

She arched an eyebrow and rested against the front of her desk, though the gun remained in her hand. “And why ever should I agree to do such favors for you?”

A smile crept across his face, more chilling than any she had seen on the cruelest, most malicious killers. A shiver ran down her spine…but at least now she knew what she was negotiating with.

“Because then I will be in your debt. And at some time in the future, I expect that will be worth a great deal.”

She had conceded to the transaction, arranged everything he had asked for and not seen a trace of him for more than thirty years. Then one day his face showed up on the news feed. It seemed he was being named the youngest ever Deputy Minister of the Justice Department for the North American Region.

She wouldn’t have recognized him, so transformed was his appearance, but for the memorable sea-green eyes—and the name she had given him.

It was another fifteen years before he reached out to her and, in due course, offered her the opportunity to collect on an old debt.

He was turning around as he shimmered into existence on the QEC holo, a charming smile well in place when he faced her. “Olivia. My apologies for the short notice. Are the materials on their way to Earth yet?”

She likely looked far less charming, and didn’t especially care. “Are you trying to micromanage my end of the operation, Marcus?”

“Not at all, Olivia dear. I do have a good reason for asking.”

“I certainly hope so. The answer is no. The ‘materials’ aren’t exactly the kind of items you leave sitting around on Earth for too long.”

“Good. An opportunity has presented itself—to kill two birds with one stone, as the old saying goes.”

“An opportunity?”

“A fortuitous coincidence. I need you to route at least a portion of the materials through a specific individual if possible. Ideally, have him be the one to deliver them to the necessary party on Earth. He’s a smuggler and tech dealer on Pandora.”