Obsolete (Terran Times Second Wave Book 24) (6 page)

Olena smiled slightly. “Good. So, the Admaryn were expelled because...”

“Ah, there was a misunderstanding involving a race of primitives. Because of a slight misstep, we lost our home.”

Olena sipped at her tea. “You consider yourself Admaryn?”

He stood and thrust his shoulders back proudly. “Lomit by birth, Admaryn by genes.”

Brin came in and sat next to her, lifting her hand to his lips. “How are you doing?”

“I am recovering. I don’t know how you managed to fly us out of the station, but I wish you had let me put a suit on.”

The crewman inclined his head shortly, winked and left them. She set the tea down in a low cup holder set in a table.

Olena leaned up and pressed her lips to Brin’s ear. She whispered, “Don’t leave me alone with them.”

He whispered a response, “Why?”

“Our species don’t get along. It is the first bit of history they teach us when we leave our planet.” Olena continued to whisper. “How long until we reach the moon?”

“A matter of hours. We are about to jump, and then, it is a quick rush to the satellites.”

“Satellites?”

“The satellites have been hiding the moon since the settlers left Lomit. We will be home by tonight.”

She frowned. “What about food?”

“The crew of the ship is providing us with a year’s rations. We will be dropped on the surface and be on our own to wake the equipment and the sleeping city.”

She swallowed and held onto his hand. “Don’t leave me alone here.”

He nodded and looked into her eyes. “You are seriously afraid.”

She licked her lips. “This particular brand of Admaryn has been fed the idea that the attempted genocide of the Terrans was a minor incident. They resent the fact that they were forced into the stars as punishment.”

“What happened to Admar?”

Olena narrowed her eyes. “You already know.”

“Correct. The word of your Champion bearing the first Terran-Admaryn half-blood has even reached this portion of space. Hold on.”

She threw her arms around his neck and held on as they went through the jump. The weird sensation of being in two places at once faded quickly.

Brin cuddled her onto his lap and rested his chin on top of her head. “We will be there soon. Rest easy. They will not know what you are from my lips.”

The rest of the trip was uneventful. They had lunch with the captain of the Lomit colony ship, and then, it was time to board the drop ship.

The drop ship had been covered in her orientation, but the forward screen didn’t have anything displayed.

“What are we doing?”

Brin smiled at her as they walked toward the nondescript canister with room for two and harnesses on each wall.

“Olena, trust me. We are going where we need to be.”

She swallowed and nodded. “Right.”

She thanked the captain and entered the jump ship. Her bag was netted to the wall, and the harness pulled her snugly into the seat.

After speaking to the captain, Brin joined her and leaned in, kissing her swiftly before he took his own seat. “I will be steering the ship from inside to get us as close as we can be.”

She swallowed. “I saw the screen. There isn’t anything out there.”

“Don’t worry. It is there.” He smiled and leaned back as the door was closed from the outside and sealed shut.

The ship they were in shuddered slightly as it was presumably trundled into drop position.

She felt hot again, but this time it had an anticipation that had nothing to do with sex. Something inside her wanted to finish this trip. It was anxious and excited. There was a mind in her mind, and she finally felt it.

She stared at Brin with her eyes wide in surprise, but his own eyes were closed as they were ejected from the Lomit ship.

The excitement that wasn’t hers built to a frenzy. Brin’s features grew tense as they dropped into empty space with no world in sight. The thick windows displayed nothing as they floated forward.

“I have the site. We are going in.” Brin smiled and opened his eyes. A piercing blue light glowed within his solid black gaze.

She wanted to ask
in where,
but she kept her lips together as the drop ship rocked and twisted under them.

It shook, shuddered and finally began to freefall. The lovely lunch she had was suddenly fighting for an exit, and Olena breathed in and out through her nose as they plummeted through a gravitational field to a moon she couldn’t see.

The fall suddenly slowed, and she opened her eyes. The blue glow in his eyes was illuminating the interior of the ship.

“We are almost home, Olena.”
His voice had a weird timbre, and it reached into her mind and eased the nervous energy she was dealing with.

The ship did something it wasn’t supposed to do. It changed direction and glided on a horizontal plane.

“What is going on? The window looks like dark, empty space.”

A smile spread across his features until the ship slowed. He didn’t explain, merely waited until the drop ship was no longer moving.

He unclasped his harness, and she followed his example. To her amusement, he extended one hand to her, and he bowed. “Welcome home, Olena.” His voice was back to his normal liquid tone.

“Where is home. Why am I seeing space?”

He grinned. “That is part of its charm. Come on.”

She put her hand in his, and he stepped to the door, triggering the explosives that would blast the door open.

There was a pop, a hiss and the door fell down.

Olena only had seconds to worry about her ability to breathe the atmosphere. Air rushed in, and it was sweet, earthy and definitely breathable.

Brin hauled her outside, and she stood, stunned, on a plateau, overlooking a wild forest that extended as far as the eye could see. “Where are we?”

“The moon of Milot. New home of the consciousness of Lomit.”

He tugged her away from the drop ship and across the plateau. In the centre of the flat expanse was a large crater, and within the crater was a stone. The stone glowed bright blue as they approached.

Brin helped her down into the crater and walked up to the stone. He set her on one side and moved to face her across the glowing rock. “This is the last remnant of Lomit. Please, place your hands on it and exhale into the stone.”

The urgency inside her agreed that it was the correct action to take. With her palms sweaty, she pressed them to the stone and mimicked Brin as he leaned forward, exhaling as he did.

The heat, the urgency, it left via her breath. The stone began to pulse. Brin’s lips closed and he stepped away.

The stone began to rotate, and he jumped over it, pulling her away and into the air above the crater.

She held onto his shoulders, and they watched the stone spin until it was a blue blur. Light shot upward and the stone burrowed into the ground.

“What is happening?”

He sighed in relief. “The seed of Lomit has been planted. This moon had plenty of life but no mind. It was not sentient and therefore vulnerable to encroachment and occupation. It had to be hidden from all who would abuse it before Lomit could arrive.”

She blinked slowly. “So, you had to go dormant to keep the entirety of his mind from burning yours. That is why you needed to share the load as soon as you could.”

“Lomit has also been nagging me about finding a female. He built in a search for one so that I would have to seek you out, or at least, keep my mind open until you arrived.”

“It could have been any Terran.”

He stroked her cheek. “No other woman would do.”

He flew them higher as the crater began to collapse in on itself. Wherever the stone was going, it was going there deep under the surface.

She looked around at the view from his arms as he hovered above the surface. “Are we going to shelter in the pod?”

In the distance, she heard a deep rumbling.

Brin chuckled. “No. Lomit is bringing the library to the surface. It should be exposed to the air within the hour. I will grab your bag and some rations and fly us there.”

They returned to the ship, grabbed the supplies and clothing and were back in the air in five minutes.

They flew slowly.

“How is it that you can still fly if Lomit is now in that rock?”

“He did not take the power, merely his mind. A portion of his actual mind was hidden within me as I slept. Lomit poured his mind into mine while I was encased in ice. When he shattered, part of him was safe. That seed was what I carried, and the moment I woke, I felt the pressure to share the burden.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder as they cruised over the treetops. “I know what happened next.”

“Lomit will germinate beneath the surface of this moon and grow stronger. You and I are to be his defenders. We must guard the natural resources of this moon until he rises again and takes an Avatar.”

“How long will that take?”

“Centuries at the earliest. We will have all that time to spend updating the library.”

Olena didn’t mention that she wouldn’t live that long. This was a good moment and she didn’t want to wreck it.

The mountain he was flying toward had a plateau with a palace rising out of the stone. She smiled as he settled on one of the crenellated towers and they rode the castle into the bright afternoon sun.

She looked up and gasped. Make that suns, and the gas giant they were in orbit around took up a large chunk of the stellar profile.

“It is a wondrous view. I had to come here and supervise the building of the Library of the Sentient Stellar Bodies.”

“Who built it?”

He chuckled. “Funnily enough, it was an Avari protocol. They provided the nanites as a courtesy to Lomit. It was contingent upon there being ample building material available. As you can see, that was not an issue. It was getting the books, scrolls and memoirs in place that took the time.”

“Memoirs?”

“Indeed. Tales from worlds, from their Avatars, from priests, transport ministers, all parts of the grand scheme of ruling bodies and protocols. Some of it is dry, others are downright salacious.”

“I haven’t been out here very long, but how is there no listing for this as an information hub?”

He grinned. “We were not open for business.”

Wind whipped the stone under their feet and scrubbed it clean. The air was warm, and she was surprised by how comfortable she was.

“I am going to have to rethink complaining about the clothing.”

He grinned. “This was the same environment that Lomit had when it first rose to consciousness. It is a familiar starting point.”

“So, we are here to become...” She sought for the correct word. “Librarians?”

“Occasionally. In truth, this is my retirement plan, and you are being offered as compensation.”

“That is a little rude. I am not something up for bid.”

He caressed her hair and kissed her lips lightly. “Of course not. I stole you.”

Chapter Eight

The first week, Olena concentrated on getting to know the huge structure and what it needed in the way of maintenance.

After its long sojourn under the surface, there were a few issues that needed to be addressed, and Olena was just the woman to do it. The storage areas were empty, but they had the same plumbing and electrical connections that ran through the rest of the building. She closed off what was unused, sealed off the pipes and took the scavenged replacements to repair the damage caused by time.

Brin was working on a communication system. Since his comment about stealing her, she had kept him at arm’s length. He did his work, and she fumed and did hers.

The piping and electrical she was working on were in the Avatar collection of the library. When she had finished replacing the cracked pipe and stretched cables, she looked through the titles; her mind filled in the blanks when she looked at the alien languages.

She recognized what she was looking for the moment she saw it. The last Avatar of Lomit, Brin Tai Wekk.

Hesitation lasted an instant before she grabbed the volume and opened it. Brin was his call name, Tai was his family name and Wekk was his region or clan. He had served for two hundred years before the warning of the incoming comet arrived. He described his panic, the reassurance of Lomit and the plan to seed the consciousness on another world.

This was where the book deviated from Brin’s account. Brin had insisted on being the sole carrier of the consciousness, and Lomit had refused. The last entries were written in a different hand. The world had taken over the Avatar and forced him to do its will. The planet knew what loneliness was, and so, he gave power, regeneration of the cells and his love to his Avatar, in exchange for the service rendered to the planet in its time of need. Lomit planted the need for a mate, designed the split in the seed of power and crafted the magnetism that would draw them together over and over.

She read on and nearly dropped the book.

And because my Avatar is ham handed and not used to wooing a female, she will need time to come to grips with him. I have granted her the same regeneration that he possesses and power to match his when she is ready for it. Whoever she is, I thank her for keeping my Avatar moving forward. His grief should not be his last emotion.

Olena blinked against the tears that rushed to her eyes. She had forgotten. She had volunteered to come out into space and see new things. He had been chosen, and then, he had lost the companion of centuries. She might have been stolen, but she wasn’t doing anything interesting with her life, aside from making plans on how not to be herself anymore. The body mods would have grown more extreme, and eventually, she would have been lost in technology.

She closed the volume and put it back on the shelf. She didn’t owe him an apology, but he didn’t owe her one either. Both of them had been in situations beyond their control. When he had woken, he had needed to share. She had needed to get away from the station before they crushed her spirit. It seemed small, but it was true. Even after less than a month, she had felt herself getting lost in the hierarchy and competition. The only thing she was missing on Milot was a few shuttles to rip apart. She smiled and headed to the com centre. She was sure something could be arranged.