Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two (14 page)

“I…we talked about it in school, I think.”

“Well, it wasn’t an industrial accident. One of the leaders of the insurgent group owned Serich, and they used the plant as a base of operations. Your father had been working day and night to expose them. He caught a break when he learned the specific time for a scheduled meeting at the plant. The entire leadership together in one place represented too exceptional an opportunity to pass up, and he put together a team to bring them all in. Tragically, the mission went to hell.

“As near as we were able to determine, the plotters were heavily armed and had brought hired protection. A firefight broke out. The location was an operating industrial plant, and several large canisters of a pyrophoric chemical got caught in the crossfire. The canisters exploded, destroying the plant and killing everyone inside: eleven plotters, six mercenaries and eight agents, including your father.

“He shouldn’t have gone inside—as I said, he wasn’t a field agent. But he refused to let others take responsibility for his case. He needed to see it through.”

She wiped away a tear with the back of her hand, but strengthened her posture. “Why didn’t you tell us at the time? The threat had ended, and he was gone. People don’t die and no one find out about it. Why cover it up?”

There was no way to temper the answer, no way to put it which wouldn’t sound as cold and calculating as the truth. “Remember, this occurred only months after the armistice with the Alliance. The administration was new, unproven and weak. Any action which destabilized it risked conflict at best, chaos at worst. Perhaps even renewed war. It was decided at the highest levels of the government that the existence of the plot could not be made public. The whole affair would be buried and every trace of its existence erased.”

“‘Was decided’? No one takes responsibility so no one bears the blame?”

He cringed at the acid dripping from her voice. “Possibl—”

“You
bastard
.”

“It wasn’t my decision to make, Ms. Marano. I had far less power then and was not given a choice in the matter.”

“Do you have any idea what my father leaving did to my family? To my mother?”

“Yes. I do. And I am more sorry than I can ever express.”

She stared at him in growing anger—then covered her mouth as a cry bubbled up from her throat, blinking away tears as she wrenched around to face the wall. He understood the need for private grief and didn’t disturb her. Her shoulders rose and fell in time with shaky breaths.

Sooner than he expected she turned back to him, eyes glistening but composure otherwise restored. Her voice came out softer than before, yet unwavering. “Does Caleb know? Is that why he works for you?”

“I don’t think so. He shouldn’t. The man who recruited him and trained him was close to your father…I’d go so far as to call them best friends. He knew from your father that Caleb exhibited a lot of potential and wanted to look after him. Nurture him. In fact, he watched over all of you for years after your father’s death. But he was under explicit orders not to divulge your father’s fate, and as far as I’m aware he followed those orders.”

“Have you asked this man?”

“I’m afraid I can’t…he’s dead now as well.”

“Dangerous business you’re in.”

“It is.”

An uneasy silence descended then. She reached for the coffee, but made a face when she realized it had gone cold and set the cup down. Sharp eyes regarded him as she absorbed knowledge which sent her family’s history spiraling end over end.

He had gambled on being right about her pragmatic nature and intelligence. He waited to see if exposing old wounds—not merely hers but his own as well—had been worth the cost.

“So…why tell me?”

He exhaled, relieved. “To gain your trust, of course.”

“I’m sorry, Director Delavasi, but I honestly do not know where Caleb is or how to reach him.”

“I believe you.”

Her brow furrowed in apparent confusion. “Then I don’t understand what you want from me.”

“I want to clear your brother’s name. I owe it to your family. Incidentally, doing so may also save a couple of thousand or possibly million lives. Caleb has caught the ire of a conspiracy far more nefarious than the one your father gave his life thwarting. To clear his name I need to expose this conspiracy. And I need your help to do it.”

13

EARTH

EASC
H
EADQUARTERS

M
IRIAM SAT AT HER DESK.
M
ULTIPLE SCREENS
hovered above the surface, and a hand rested at her chin as she stared at them. The stoic pose would convey an impression of cool-headed, deliberate contemplation to an observer, should one happen by.

Yet beneath the dispassionate exterior, her mind navigated a Gordian knot of difficulties. At least, she hoped it held Gordian characteristics, as that would mean she stood a chance of untangling it with the proper approach.

How could they have lost so many ships so quickly? In the fog of battle and from a distance it hadn’t been clear exactly how many ships they were losing and how few they had to replace those lost.

Still, they should have more ships. They
did
have more ships. But those ships were scattered in an egalitarian matter across settled space, and thus were taking days and in some cases weeks to reach any point where they might be useful. And they couldn’t move all of them, no, because what if someone or thing attacked from the south or west and those colonies were left undefended? Never mind they were presently being attacked in strength from the north and needed some damn help.

If Alamatto were still Chairman he’d heed her counsel and send more ships north. O’Connell was not so open-minded, to say the least. Despite his seemingly zealous desire to defeat the Federation, he refused to acknowledge the level of force which was going to be required to do so.

She spared a thought to recognize her arguable hypocrisy in that she was not advocating sending more than a tiny fraction of the Sol/Central Command fleet to reinforce the front lines. But that was different. If Earth fell every world would fall.

She drew in a long breath, imposing a calmer state. Tantrums were not her style. David may have been a smooth, charismatic and occasionally impulsive leader, but she rose to her position by being cool, controlled and logical. She excelled at the details of logistics.

If there was a way to ensure the northeast and northwest regions were adequately reinforced—without sacrificing crucial protections for the First Wave worlds—she would find it and make it happen and there wouldn’t even be a parade in her honor.

A holocomm request popped into her vision. She started to dismiss it out of hand as she had work to do, then noticed who sent the request. She collected herself and accepted the comm.

“Admiral Rychen. What can I do for you?”

His expression was not formal. Genuine she suspected, but pained. His pale blond hair threatened to fall from its proper location and over his weathered forehead. Yet paler blue eyes showed troubling concern. “One of my scout ships reached Gaiae and reported in as soon as they regained communications functionality.”

She leaned forward, all thoughts of logistics put aside. “And?”

His jaw tightened, and his gaze wandered off-holo before returning to her. “It’s gone. There aren’t any aliens, but there also aren’t any people. Or vegetation or wildlife or buildings. Every area which housed any population whatsoever has been burnt to ashes, and all life with it.”

She sank deeper into her chair, neglecting to maintain military posture. She had believed Alexis, believed the data…but some part of her had allowed for the possibility that it was a fantasy, a dream, a hallucination or simply a mistake.

It had been a foolish, irrational hope she should not have indulged in. Of course it was real. Terrifyingly, devastatingly real.

She willed her spine straight. “Do you have any information as to where the alien fleet is now?”

“I don’t. A straight trajectory suggests they’ll be in Federation space by now, but we won’t have any intel, and I rather doubt the Senecan government will be eager to share theirs.”

“Naturally.” It was only after the fact she realized a droll chuckle had escaped her lips. She straightened the cant of her mouth. “Karelia? I assume they’ve not seen any incidents or we would know.”

“I confirmed it personally before contacting you. They report no anomalies, nor do the smaller colonies in the area.” He frowned. “Could it be the aliens are pushing into Federation space deliberately?”

“No, Alexis was right. The aliens don’t care what faction anyone belongs to.” At his look of slight surprise, she schooled her features with appropriate decorum. “It’s logical to assume these aliens don’t understand the political intricacies currently at work in our region of space. I can’t imagine they would deliberately target the Federation over us.”

“An excellent point, Admiral. I will fight the war my government tells me to fight. Hell, I’ll even advocate for it given proper motivation, but I’m not an idealist and I’m certainly not a zealot. From afar the Federation cannot be distinguished from the Alliance in any meaningful way. The fact they’re on the wrong side of our battle doesn’t imply an alien species would choose to target them over us. It’s simply directional logistics. On that note, any news from Andromeda?”

In the wrong audience his unexpectedly frank words might have doomed his career. He was lucky this wasn’t the wrong audience—a fact she had to presume he knew.

“As a matter of fact, yes. I received word via ANNIE they were no longer reachable two hours ago, but another dramatic proclamation didn’t seem worthwhile until we gained a handle on Gaiae. Are you sure our colonies in the easternmost region are clear?”

“For the moment. I’ve set up a half-hourly monitoring ping to the local governments. If they go offline, we’ll know promptly. Not as if we’ll be able to do anything to help them….”

He fell silent, and she gave him the time and metaphorical space he appeared to need. Finally he looked back up at her, frustration lining his face. “Miriam, I don’t possess the capability to fight a war on two fronts. Not when one front is against aliens who can do what they did to Gaiae.”

“I realize you don’t. I’m working on the issue, though I fear it may be too little too late. For now I would advise you—to the extent my advice carries any weight—to manage your blockade as ordered but keep a sharp lookout on the eastern border. And if you have anything at all to keep in reserve, do so.”

“Thank you. For the record, your advice carries far more weight than anyone else in Vancouver.”

“I’m grateful to hear it, Christopher. Keep me informed.”

She cut the link, dropped an elbow on the desk and rested her chin back in her palm. She had always considered Rychen a good officer, better than most she had known. Like David he was a hero of the First Crux War, only he had lived to tell the tale. But she didn’t bear him ill will. He’d suffered plenty and borne the hero’s mantle grudgingly.

Still, she hadn’t expected to find an ally in him. She’d given up on finding allies beyond Richard and Alexis…and Alexis was gone. It broke her heart, when she hadn’t thought there remained any heart left to break. But she needed to fight for something. Without the fight she had nothing left.

You want to do something, Mom? Then goddamn
do
something.

She pulled the fleet distribution report back up, spread it out above her desk and studied the numbers for several minutes. Then she sent Rychen an encrypted message.

I’m sending you two stealth recon platoons and three light frigates from Sol/Central Command. They needn’t be part of the official blockade. Use them as you see fit, though the eastern border strikes me as a good posting for them.

— Admiral Miriam Solovy, EASC Director of Operations

SENECA

C
AVARE,
M
ILITARY
H
EADQUARTERS

Field Marshal Eleni Gianno stood in the center of the situation room. Though she was quiet, the air buzzed with noise. Voices. Hurried steps. The crackle of too many active screens in close proximity. Far more screens populated the room than people, grouped in clusters by region and purpose with a single person to staff each cluster.

Most of the data under review originated from the Alliance war, but a cluster had been set up to monitor the eastern colonies for anomalous activity.

They now knew what had happened on Gaiae and were soon to know what was happening on Andromeda. If the alien fleet was fanning out from Metis, four Federation colonies stood next in line. New Riga, Lycaon, Dair and Hadron each earned a display devoted to their status. If something happened on any of the worlds, she expected to know within minutes.