Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection Page 2

  Dark irises glittered beneath long lashes pinched tight. The intensity of the look reminded him she was indeed a formidable woman. “You’ve already helped me enough for two lifetimes—given me the capability to live a life of my own—and I adore you for it. But you’ve done enough.” She studied his face. “Do you hear me?”

  He nodded with an air of thoughtfulness, careful to project the impression he was taking her words to heart. “I hear you. Just watch yourself, will you?”

  She smiled broadly, breaking the somber mood. “Always.”

  He forced a devilish smirk. “So five hours, huh? All right, I’ll make myself scarce.” He drew her close and his lips found her ear. “I’ll come by later tonight. You haven’t moved your apartment, have you?”

  “No, but who said I wanted you to come by tonight? Maybe I have a date.”

  “Then I’ll come by after your date.” His teeth grazed her neck as he pulled back to find a glint in her eyes he recognized as assent. With a casual wave he left her to her customers and headed out.

  Kennedy’s shopping bags were jammed under their patio table. Empty plates sat discarded to the side, a nearly-empty bottle of shiraz in the center. They took turns devouring an enormous slice of cheesecake drizzled in raspberries as the sky began darkening to a cool lavender. Romane’s two suns made for a very long if most lovely evening.

  “So what are your initial plans for this new venture?”

  Alex enjoyed savoring her bite of cheesecake before answering. “I have an appointment first of the week with the R&D Director of Suiren about mining for nanodiamonds in NGC 2027, and one the next day with a rep from the Gagarin Institute about scouting M10 for potentially habitable worlds.”

  “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

  “Hell, no. I’ve been preparing for this opportunity my whole life. I am ready to get on with it.”

  “And you won’t get lonely, out there by yourself in the void for weeks at a stretch? Wait, what am I saying? This is you we’re talking about.” She paused to take another bite and wipe away the raspberry sauce left behind on her chin. “So did you tell your mother you left Pacifica to go freelance?”

  Alex scowled over the top of her glass of shiraz. “As if she would care. She’s a newly-minted Admiral and on the shortlist to be the next EASC Director of Operations.”

  “So…?”

  “Yes, I sent her a message. In vintage Miriam Solovy fashion, she responded that she hoped I understood I bore the responsibility for my own foolish choices.”

  “Well…nope, sorry, can’t defend her on this one. You’ve worked your ass off for four years—for a decade if you count earning multiple degrees—so you could make your dream a reality. She should respect what you’ve accomplished.”

  Alex didn’t dispute the truth of the statement, though she did swallow a brief disquiet when Kennedy paid the check. She’d feel bad about it, except for the fact that while she wasn’t quite ‘broke’ by the most technical definition, the ship had eradicated her savings. And she didn’t have a proper job. Or any clients. Not yet.

  So she decided not to feel bad about it. She and Kennedy had traded implicit debts which never needed to be repaid yet always were more times than she dared count over the years. This debt too was sure to come back around again eventually.

  The instant Caleb exited Mia’s store his demeanor transformed. He traded the relaxed gait for a careful, alert posture and the friendly countenance for a cool mask.

  It did not surprise him to see the enforcer exit a store three doors down a moment later. The man was making his scheduled rounds. When his target continued on he followed.

  The sidewalk ferried a busy flow of young professionals out after work and tourists perusing the shops and restaurants. The thug’s distinctly unkempt appearance made him easy to track from a distance.

  A line spilled out of a particularly popular Chinasian grill restaurant on the next corner. An expansive outdoor patio decorated in wrought iron and blooming alyssi blended into an open-air interior, and the place bustled with energy. In another circumstance he’d likely have wandered inside for stir-fry and a cold beer.

  As he slipped past the busy entrance someone tripped into him. He stiffened, keeping the stranger at a safe distance until he realized the person was merely inebriated beyond public decency. He tried to stabilize the young man, but his efforts were for naught when the guy stumbled to the ground.

  Caleb stepped away to avoid the prone figure and immediately bumped into someone else. Golden curls whipped past him as he muttered, “Excuse me.”

  “Not a problem.”

  At the sound of the rich, almost sultry voice he instinctively glanced back. The golden curls belonged to an attractive, poised young woman and were promptly forgotten when beyond her he caught a glimpse of tresses the color of fine Bordeaux and a flash of startlingly bright silver-gray eyes.

  The sight was enough to hitch his gait for half a step, to overwhelm his mission for a frozen frame of time.

  Then she was gone, and he resumed his tail.

  The waitress cleared away the dessert plates and Kennedy gathered her bags up. Alex frowned as they wound into the restaurant from the patio and navigated a growing crowd near the exit. “You seriously need to be on Erisen by first thing in the morning?”

  “I do. I have to work. You’ve been job-free for all of a day, surely you remember what ‘working’ means?”

  “Sosi yego i past’ zakroi, suka.”

  “Right, right.”

  “Next thing I know you’re going to want to sleep in the big bed. First night on my shiny, brand new ship and I’m bunking on the guest cot.”

  “Now that you mention it, I do need to be well-rested and refreshed for work in the morn—” Kennedy jostled into Alex’s side, pushed by someone bumping into her as they exited the busy doorway.

  “Excuse me.” The deep, lilting voice resonated beneath the buzz of the patrons, sending a sensual tremor fluttering along Alex’s spine. Taken aback by the unexpected, visceral response, she blinked and forcibly shook it off.

  “Not a problem.” Kennedy’s focus lingered over her shoulder as they reached the sidewalk. “He was handsome, in a rugged, ‘rock my world for a weekend’ sort of way.”

  “Whatever. Come on, there’s a tech gear shop on the next block I want to check out.”

  “I thought you were broke?”

  “This is why they invented credit. I’m investing in my ship.”

  “Clearly. Speaking of, have you decided what you’re going to name her?”

  A whimsical smile grew to brighten Alex’s features as they strolled down the sidewalk in the slowly fading light. “Oh yes.”

  Several blocks past the restaurant the ambience of the area began to shift. Meter by meter it became shabbier, darkening in sync with the evening sky. The crowd thinned and was replaced by working-class then barely working-class inhabitants. Finally Caleb’s opportunity came.

  He increased his pace to draw near to his prey. As the enforcer crossed an alley between two shabby tenements he sprang, forcing the man down the alley, deep into the shadows and far from prying bystanders, and shoving his head into the stone.

  Yanking the right arm up at an awkward angle flush against the man’s back, he held it at the end of its range of motion for a beat then thrust it upward from the elbow.

  The man screamed in pain as the bone ripped out of the elbow and shoulder sockets and the tendons tore apart.

  The other arm flailed at Caleb; he pinned it high on the wall, knifed his hand and slammed it forward. The crack was audible as the man’s forearm fractured under the blow.

  In the next motion he wrenched his captive around and got in his face. “You are going to take me to the leaders of your little ‘gang’ and you are going to do it now.”

  Beads of sweat drizzled down greasy skin, doubtless triggered by what must be fairly intense pain if not fear. “I can’t—”

  “Don’t talk. Don’t spu
tter out a solitary protest or it will be your last. Take me to them.”

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  Caleb palmed the man’s forehead and slammed his skull against the wall. “I said don’t talk, and you want to do as I say because I’m the one thing monsters like you and your kind fear. I’m what haunts your nightmares and hunts you in the darkness. Now move.”

  The man’s head jerked wildly, slinging greasy sweat in Caleb’s direction. He wiped the fluid off his chin then grabbed the arm flopping limply at his captive’s side and pointed to the street.

  Their destination lay a few short blocks further to the west, which was probably for the best because his charge was not holding up well. He groaned and moaned and eventually begged for Caleb to punch him hard enough to render him unconscious. Caleb kept driving him forward.

  When they stepped through the door to the hideout he tossed his captive to the side and drew his Daemon.

  Three men sat around a table. All were muscled and similarly greasy and easily identifiable as scum. As he breached the entrance all three were moving, drawing their own guns in surprise.

  Only one got off a shot. Caleb had put a laser through the skulls of the other two before their arms had fully raised.

  The third man wore a minimal personal shield and weathered Caleb’s first volley to return fire.

  The shots bounced harmlessly off his own shield. He advanced while firing into the gangster’s chest. The laser overloaded the cheap shield to blow the man’s chest open.

  Ozone permeated the air to scorch his nostrils. He stood silently in the center of the room and allowed the scene to settle to its conclusion.

  The body collapsed to the floor to join its companions, leaving the far wall free to reveal its gory tableau. The sound of glass cracking followed the thud of the corpse. A display panel on the desk behind the bodies, grazed by the gunfire, teetered and fell.

  Another breath…in and out…and he was moving. After checking for immediate threats he went over to where the panel had landed.

  A visual flickered, distorted in the damaged display, but he discerned a woman and a small boy. The woman was pretty in a mildly trashy way, sporting a crooked grin and too-blonde hair. The boy looked three or four and clearly favored his mother.

  All the adrenaline abandoned him in a rush, leaving his shoulders sagging and the gun dangling from his hand.

  They were thugs and bullies and murderers. They preyed on the weak and stole from those who worked rather than work themselves. They used fear as a weapon to impose their will on others. And they had pointed guns at him.

  Yet a traitorous voice in his mind whispered that he had provoked the encounter; he had stormed into their lair, gun drawn. Yes, they would have killed him, but in the present situation perhaps only because he would have done—and did—the same to them.

  Caleb didn’t know which of the dead men the woman was attached to or which might be the father of the boy. For an instant it was the only question that mattered.

  He snatched the display off the floor, spun on a heel and strode to the enforcer who had brought him here, now sprawled in a pile on the floor. He crouched and nudged him onto his back without a response. The man had passed out. Annoyed, Caleb slapped him awake.

  As soon as an eyelid opened he grabbed the man’s shirt and lifted him up to shove the display in his face. “Do you know this woman?”

  He nodded vaguely, eyes bleary and unfocused.

  “What is her name?”

  “Tam—Tamatha Baker.”

  Caleb buried the tumult he had briefly allowed to flare, and his bearing took on an uncanny stillness. He smiled.

  “This is your lucky day. You get to live—on one condition, so listen carefully. Your sole purpose from this day forward is to watch over Tamatha and her son and make certain neither of them come to harm. Use your meager, pathetic skills to protect them. Do you understand me?”

  The man’s eyes widened until they were all whites. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and merged with a trickle of blood to weave down his cheek and splatter onto his shirt. He nodded again, more definitively this time.

  “If you fail in this task I will know, and I will come back and end your life as effortlessly as I ended theirs. Remember that whenever you start thinking you can slack off.” He stared at the man another second to guarantee the message had been received, then dropped him to the floor and stood. “I’ll send the paramedics and the cops in a few minutes. Make sure you don’t get yourself arrested—can’t do your job from prison.”

  “Why? Why did you kill them?”

  Caleb laughed, and even he recognized it bore a frightening coldness. “Because you walked through the wrong door, and they paid you to do it. Mia Requelme is off limits. You will be a testament to the terror that arrives the moment you or anyone else crosses the invisible line you didn’t know existed until tonight. Spread the word.”

  ERISEN

  EARTH ALLIANCE COLONY

  The Siyane banked to soar above snow-capped mountains as the dawn sun glittered off the powdery crystals. The sky shone a perfect turquoise blue.

  Alex had deposited Kennedy at the spaceport moments earlier, somewhat less refreshed and well-rested than requested. But it had been an enjoyable night. She stifled a yawn as she gained altitude and approached the nearest atmosphere corridor, but a smile replaced it. A couple of minutes remained for her to decide her destination once she hit space.

  It was a subversive notion, the idea that she was free. Free to choose where to go and what to do with her time.

  She wasn’t a goldbricker. She intended to run a business and had crucial appointments the next week she intended to keep.

  But at the conclusion of those appointments she would choose to take the jobs or not. If she took the jobs she would choose how best to fulfill the contracts. The path between the agreement and the delivery was hers to chart. She would succeed or fail on her own merits; her rise or fall would be of her own making.

  Until then she had six days to herself, nothing but her ship and the expanse of space to distract her.

  The ship exited the atmosphere corridor. The sky darkened to onyx and the stars brightened to opalescent ivory. Her father’s words from so long ago echoed in her mind.

  Siyane is perfect, sweetheart. My little star shining brightly. One day, milaya, the cosmos will be yours to tame. One day you will hold the galaxy in the palm of your hand. I know it.

  She killed the lights in the cabin and stood to take in the view as the fullness of space spread before her.

  Her head tilted in contemplation. Could she make it to Carina and get back to Earth in six days? She double-checked the parameters on the sLume drive…yep, she absolutely could. Six days round-trip for a spectacular view? Worth it.

  Now clear of Erisen Traffic Control, she ran a quick safety check then engaged the sLume drive. The stars blurred away to surround the ship in a soft halo.

  Hey Dad? I made it. I made it to the stars.

  AURORA RISING

  TRILOGY

  STARSHINE

  AURORA RISING BOOK ONE

  * * *

  BACK COVER BLURB

  Space is vast and untamed, and it holds many secrets. Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.

  The year is 2322.

  Humanity has expanded into the stars, inhabiting over 100 worlds across a third of the galaxy. Though thriving as never before, they have discovered neither alien life nor the key to utopia. Earth struggles to retain authority over far-flung planets and free-wheeling corporations while an uneasy armistice with a breakaway federation hangs by a thread as the former rebels rise in wealth and power.

  Alexis Solovy is Earth Alliance royalty, her father a fallen war hero and her mother an influential military leader. But she seeks only the freedom of space and has made a fortune by reading the patterns in the ch
aos to discover the hidden wonders of the stars.

  Nothing about her latest objective suggests the secret it conceals will turn her life—not to mention the entire galaxy—upside down. But a chance encounter with a mysterious spy leads to a discovery which will thrust Alex into the middle of a galactic power struggle and a sinister conspiracy, whether she likes it or not.

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  PART I

  DOMINOES

  PART II

  CAUSALITY

  PART III

  RECURSION

  PART IV

  ACCELERANDO

  PROLOGUE

  THE END OF THE WORLD began with a library query.

  …or perhaps it was the space probe. The alien was being vexingly reticent on the matter, the man thought as he straightened his dinner jacket in the mirror.

  “She is hardly the first person to express an interest in that region of space. Why are you so worried about her when the others didn’t concern you?”

  The others did concern us, but they were deflected with little difficulty. This woman, however, has exhibited a notable talent for discovering what others cannot. As such, we would prefer she never look.

  The man smoothed out a crease in one of the sleeves then fastened the antique pearl cufflinks, an heirloom passed down to him from a grandfather that never was. “Do you want me to have her killed?”

  Not unless alternative methods are unsuccessful. Her death could cause the opposite effect of drawing further unwanted attention.

  The man nodded cursorily and stepped out of the washroom, crossing his spacious office to the windows lining the far wall. “Very well. I’ll work to ensure she’s distracted from this pursuit. What about the Senecans?”

  They are a more troublesome problem as they have already discovered an anomaly exists. They will send others to investigate.