Apex (28 page)

She sobbed once, then pushed the instability away. “Good. So make sure you keep your shiny butt out of trouble.”

“Shiny?” Riax asked, frowning as he pushed her back a bit so he could look her in the eye.

“Yeah, shiny. You don't have much skin pigment.”

Riax was about to say something sarcastic when a stray thought struck him. “My skin tone does stand out, doesn't it? How many races do you know of that are the same or similar coloration?”

Jalia thought for a moment. “None like you, but there are several tan races, though they're mostly quadrupeds. Come to think of it, for a biped you really do stand out.”

“Guess I'll be needing more than a change of wardrobe . . . and I'll need to program it with the equipment here before I leave.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I'm not taking any Human equipment with me, nothing that can be identified as out of place. I'm just one of the galaxy's trillions of spacefaring denizens until we get to safety.”

“No, the other part. You can change your color?”

“I could grow a tail if I wanted to,” he scoffed. “Genetics are our specialty.”

“Wait, so you can become another race to hide your identity?”

“On the surface, sort of, but I'm not going to take it that far. Just some cosmetic alterations.”

“To make you look like what?”

Riax hesitated for a moment, thinking. “Now that's the question,” he said, followed by a moment of consideration. “What's your favorite color?”

 

Chapter 30

“H
EY
,
WHAT
H
APPENED
to my favorite color?” Jalia asked as Riax arrived in the cargo bay. She was waiting near the Concordat shuttle that Terrek had sent over to pick him and Ella up when a hooded, dark green skinned Riax walked up carrying a medium-­sized satchel.

“Couldn't make it work,” he said apologetically. “Even with a hair change she said I couldn't pass for a Mendra, let alone a Liax.”

“So what are you supposed to look like now,” Jalia asked, wishing he'd at least let her see what he looked like neon white.

“Take your pick,” Ella answered. “There are dozens of races with green pigment. In a crowd he shouldn't stand out, even if his physiology doesn't exactly match up.”

“I guess you're right. Not really
you
though,” Jalia commented, looking him over. “Too tranquil.”

“No need to start with the insults,” he said, dropping his satchel and wrapping her up in one last hug. “Keep your head down until the jumpship arrives.”

“Without you here,” she said, not wanting to let go but finally relenting, “at least we won't have to stop to restock the foodstuffs so often.”

Riax laughed once, giving her a slight squeeze then walked over to the two Kayna. “The technology aboard this ship is key to my rebuilding the Empire and freeing your race. See to it that it stays safe.”

Both Kayna pounded their fists on the floor in affirmation.

“It will be done,” Steve answered him.

“Continue training,” Riax added. “I need you ready for combat when we next meet. There will be many enemies set against us.”

“We eagerly await that day,” Wes said in a short string of deep barks and growls.

Riax walked forward and placed a hand on Steve's forehead, then repeated the process with Wes, making one last check of their condition. They had a long way to go in their recovery, as well as any subsequent physiological alterations to return them to their original states if they so chose.

The Human nodded to both Kayna one final time then walked over to the boarding ramp, passing Orrona and Marren in the process.

“Keep your fingers crossed,” he said to them in the Cres language so the others couldn't understand.

“Fortune go with you,” Orrona offered from behind him as he disappeared inside the shuttle.

Ella and Marren stared at each other for a long moment, having a private telepathic conversation before she followed Riax up into the ship and the boarding ramp retracted, sealing them inside. The shuttle lifted off and passed through the atmospheric containment field, pulling up sharply to rendezvous with the battleship stationed directly above the freighter.

“Time for us to disappear,” Marren said to Jalia.

“Yeah, might as well each a lachar bolt while I'm at it,” she said, then shook off the questioning look from the Cres. “Where to?”

“Dreya.”

“Alright, no point in waiting around here,” she said, heading off to the bridge feeling a deep sense of loss.

“C
AMOUFLAGE
,” R
IAX
ANSWERED
Terrek's question before he could ask it. “It was suggested that my coloration was drawing too much attention.”

“You look like a Fret,” he said with a booming laugh when he met the pair as they debarked the shuttle.

“As long as I don't stand out too much,” Riax said, falling into step beside the towering Captain. “Is your ship ready to jump?”

“We're fully resupplied,” he said, serious again. “We'll be at the jumppoint in a little under three kip. I assume your business here is completed?”

“It is.”

“Good,” he declared. “I'm honored to have you onboard, Culnel. We have your personal quarters ready if you'd like to stow your gear.”

“Yes we would,” Riax said as the three of them passed into a liftcar alcove, “then I'd like to take a crack at your simulators again, if you don't mind?”

The Elari smiled widely. “The crew has been looking forward to your return . . . and have prepared their forces accordingly. You won't have such an easy time defeating them this go-­around.”

The liftcar door opened and the trio stepped inside.

“I should hope not, else this would make for a very boring jump.”

R
IAX
LAY
IN
his stubbed triangular bed perfectly still. His mind was active while his body regenerated from his most recent training sequence, which had lasted the bulk of three days. He'd held off from sleeping during the cycle, but was now taking the time to fully absorb the training.

As his body adjusted to the minute changes his mind wandered about. Humans only dreamed during moments of instability, and the downside from the physical training left him with a rare moment of opportunity to release himself to the mental maelstrom. He didn't fully understand what his mind was doing in these moments, but he could feel connections being made, though he couldn't trace them. He knew from past experience that if he tried to focus on something it would vanish and the instability would cease, unlikely to return again in the near future.

Riax knew this process was integral to the healing trance in which he had lightly entered. He didn't have any outstanding injuries, but it was obvious that he did have unprocessed changes that needed to occur. Every moment that went by he felt as if his mind was unwinding a bit more as internal stress bled off. During this process his conscious mind wandered about in a semi–dream state, dipping in and out of full-­blown visions seemingly at random.

No matter what his dreams were about, Riax always felt that they were important. He could feel a cool sensation within his mind whenever it occurred and knew it was linked to some deeper process that neither he nor Human science had yet to map out. Without the ability to self-­analyze he had grown to trust in his dream state and counted himself lucky whenever he found himself there.

Right now was one of those moments and he was drifting between different scenarios, which was typical. Most of it was linked to memories of the Empire, but suddenly he found himself on a world unknown to him but one that felt familiar somehow. It was dim, but daylight. The star . . . no,
stars
were too far away to deliver adequate light. There were cliffs and valleys overgrown with bluish-­green vegetation and a series of dirt paths meandering to and fro, disappearing into the terrain.

Suddenly something inside Riax began to clench up, and he knew that something was amiss. He couldn't see anything, but he continued to look around as his paranoia grew. A few seconds more and he couldn't stand it, he had to act, so he ran in the general direction of the sensation and jumped off the edge of the embankment . . .

He fell briefly, then caught himself and floated down into the valley over rocky outcroppings mostly hidden by vegetation. Though he'd never flown before, nor possessed the ability, it often manifested itself in his dreams in an unstable state since his mind didn't know what it would actually feel like.

Riax hit the ground in a small clearing and clenched every muscle in his body as a dark blur emerged from the edge of the forest. He couldn't make out a shape, just a presence. It approached him and he recoiled his left hand, gathering a bioplasma charge that seemed pathetically inadequate compared to the mass of darkness before him.

Seeing that it wasn't going to be enough, he redoubled his efforts and expanded the plasma orb, bringing his right hand on top to increase the magnetic field surrounding it and allowed it to grow in volume and power. Before long he had a glowing ball the size of his head as he began to make out the vague image of thick legs in the darkness. Two tiny eyepricks of sickly white light manifested themselves and a booming tremble reverberated through the air and ground, grinding Riax's teeth together.

Something snapped within his mind and he woke up in a flash, sitting up in bed as the dark presence reduced in size and aura, becoming a Cres mind and body standing in front of him, just past the foot of his bed.

“Ella,” he said with relief, sagging forward slightly.

“What just happened?” she asked, eyes narrow with concern.

“You could feel that?”

“I felt it from the other end of the ship. Terrek wanted me to tell you that we're nearing Iras, and by the time I got here you were literally screaming in my mind.”

“Sorry,” he said, rolling off the bed and standing up. “Guess you could say it was a nightmare.”

“I've never sensed you with your barrier down before. Was that intentional?”

“No. I must have slipped further than I was aware. I wasn't shielding per se, but I didn't realize I was transmitting.”

“Fortunately I'm the only other telepath on the ship,” she assured him.

“Can't let it happen again, I know,” he said, running a quick mental self-­evaluation. “I've had dreams before but this was . . . something new.”

“How?”

“I don't know, and it's fading fast.”

Ella looked at him curiously. “Dreams usually do.”

“What's our ETA?” Riax asked, letting it go.

“Thirty five minutes.”

“Alright. Let's head up to the bridge and see what we've got waiting for us. You packed?”

“Yes.”

“Well I'm not,” Riax admitted. “Meet you there in fifteen.”

Ella turned and walked out the door, but paused just outside the archway. “Remember to wear your robe.”

“Define screaming?” he asked after seeing her hesitate.

Ella walked back inside a step. “Highly active aura projection. Undiscernable, but very potent. I didn't realize you were that powerful.”

“Sounds like an involuntary reaction, but that shouldn't happen in a dream state. It should have been internalized.”

“Maybe it wasn't a dream. A remnant perhaps?”

Riax shook his head. “We filter out remnants.”

“You'll have time to sort it out later,” she suggested.

“Make it twenty five minutes. I'm going to reset my equilibrium first.”

“Take your time,” Ella urged. “It'll be a few hours at the least before we can make planetfall anyway.”

“Later then,” Riax said, rescinding the time estimate. He climbed back up on the bed and laid down facing the ceiling, becoming immobile again. Ella let him be and quietly closed the door on her way out.

Riax relaxed his body, disconnecting his thoughts from his motor control and sending waves of mental goosebumps through his psyche, shaking up and resetting his mental state back toward normal. He sensed a knot of resistance and realized he was suffering from a mild headache. Whatever that ‘dream' had been had fried a tiny portion of his conscious mind in a widespread and concealed way.

Knowing the source of the deviation, Riax put himself into a light healing trance and felt the knot begin to slowly dissipate.

 

Chapter 31

“T
HERE
YOU
ARE
,” Terrek said when Riax finally made his way up to the bridge. Ella was standing alongside the Captain as they studied the recent sensor data from both the battleship and the system's traffic monitors.

“What have we got?” the green-­skinned Human asked.

“A Nevari patrol fleet. Thirty four ships, all frigates and smaller, plus a scattering of mercenary ships. We also have a pair of Concordat corvettes insystem for support.”

“Any activity?” Riax asked, studying the display.

“No, and I don't think there will be,” the Captain said confidently. “They don't have the tonnage to pick a fight with us.”

“Any twitches?”

“None yet. It's possible they haven't been informed of our allegiance.”

Riax nodded his agreement. The Nevari were parked in orbit over the fourth of five worlds, all of which were heavily populated and near to the system's central star. The mercenary vessels were also orbiting worlds and not lying in wait near any of the jumplines. At first that seemed odd, but then again the point of their deployment here was ostensibly to keep them from rendezvousing with a jumpship, not stopping them from passing through the system.

“Have you got a Yiori transit schedule yet?” Riax asked, noticing that both of the small Concordat ships were on a course to rendezvous with the battleship.

The Captain nodded his large head. “Next is due to arrive in three days, but it's headed the wrong way,” he said, activating a secondary hologram of transit routes. A map of star systems appeared with blue lines connecting a series of dots.

“It's headed for Nellor. You can transfer there if you like, or you can wait twenty six days for another passing through this system headed for Prollet.”

“No, we need to keep moving. As long as we're on the Yiori circuit the general direction doesn't matter, we'll cycle through to where we need to go. Do you have individual ship itineraries?”

Terrek gestured to one of his crew and soon the map added dots for where the jumpships were supposed to be. Using a nearby control panel the Captain highlighted the jumpship en route to Iras, with a list of upcoming systems tallied beneath it extending out to the next ten.

“This will do,” Riax announced, seeing that the ship in question, the
Jannex
, was traveling to a main transit corridor that ran the length of Yiori territory, terminating in two Cres systems. They'd have to switch to a mainline jumpship, but from there it'd be three long jumps taking just over a month to complete, meaning a total travel time of about nine weeks.

“Which planet would you like to be delivered to? Yiori has kiosks on all of them.”

“Whichever is largest.”

“Metris then,” Terrek decided, pointing to the planet nearest to Iras. “Half the planet is covered in cityscape with a multitude of races present. You should be able to lose yourself there.”

“The sooner the better,” Riax insisted. “Do you have business in the system?”

“Other than protecting you, no.”

“We need a reason for you to send a shuttle to the surface.”

Terrek thought for a moment, seeing the problem. “A bit of shore leave then. You can go down with the crew while I meet with the other ships' captains in orbit.”

E
LLA
AND
R
IAX
stepped off the Concordat shuttlecraft along with a dozen other crewers onto the busy landing platform atop a large commerce center. Small towers rose up periodically on the horizon, but most of the facility stood beneath their feet. Lift shaft cupolas dotted the tarmac as the Concordat mercs settled into a line and headed for the nearest one, with the shuttle lifting off behind them to return to the battleship.

Most of the mercs carried satchels of some kind, intending to stay at least one night on the surface. That was both commonplace and Terrek's idea, to give the pair of fugitives some more exit cover. Both Ella and Riax were dressed in Concordat clothing, with their blue and green skinned faces visible above tan colored uniforms.

A third of the mercs entered the first available liftcar, with Riax and Ella taking the second down into the complex. They waited through four stops before getting off, leaving behind the last of their allies.

Where to now?
Riax asked telepathically, knowing that Ella would know her way around better than him given the present state of the galaxy.

Lodgings. Something upscale and private. Follow me,
she told him, heading down a massive corridor with rows of kiosks flooded by eager shoppers. Riax let her get a step lead on him, then followed directly behind her as she wove her way through the crowd, with both of them scanning the minds ahead for trouble.

Ella found an information kiosk within a few minutes and from there located a suitable hotel 52 levels down. They meandered through the levels for over two hours, taking an indirect route as they walked down flight after flight of sparsely used stairs until they reached their destination, confident they weren't being followed.

The Juniper Relaxation/Restoration Resort's entrance was bracketed with red waterfalls spilling out of the top of robust columns and filling small pools that jutted out into the walkway, forcing passersby to redirect around them and giving the resort a tactile grasp on the location.

Ella slowed before they reached the entrance and grabbed hold of Riax's left arm affectionately, passing between the majestic columns along with a steady stream of others coming in and out, most of whom were also in pairs. Riax took her meaning and, sensing the mental state of the others, put a pleasant and distracted smile on his face as they were approached by an attendant.

After a cordial invite they were led to a registration desk and selected a mid-­tier suite. They were given keycards, twelve recreation passes for everything from spa access to the gaming zone, and directed toward the appropriate bubble-­like liftcar that would carry them to their quadrant of the facility. After thanking the registrar and putting on an adequate imitation of the excited glee that the other registrants were displaying, Ella and Riax disappeared up into the ceiling in a private bubblelift.

Ella held on to his arm, but both their demeanors relaxed as the exotically lighted liftshaft bathed them in red and purple hues while they transited up through the complex until they reached the quadrant's nexus. The bubblelift emerged from the floor and settled next to six others on the ground of what looked like a jungle encroaching on the well-­cleaned archaeological remains of an ancient city.

The pair headed towards a partially hidden archway beneath a small neon sign that directed them towards their suite. The facility continued to segment itself until they ended up in a round turnabout with three widely spaced doors. They unlocked and entered the one on the far right.

Inside was a short archway that crossed over a narrow stream before opening up into a large central airspace with three separate levels visible around the perimeter that doubled as rooms, but were all partially exposed to the central region.

“An improvement over our previous quarters,” Ella commented, letting go of Riax's arm now that they were out of sight. “We should be able to make jumpship reservations from here,” she said, pointing to an information terminal semi-­implanted into the wall on the main level.

“Let's hope they're not booked,” Riax commented as he walked up an elegant staircase to the bedroom level, which looked down over the central floor by about four meters. He dumped his satchel on the wide bed and began undressing while Ella logged into the system below.

“Did you have anything in mind for the next three days?” Riax asked, putting on a dark garment and disposing of the Concordat uniform in the trash receptacle.

“Training is out of the question,” she said unfortunately. “We can stay here or move around a bit, either way it's just killing time. You have a preference?”

“No. You?”

“I'd like to help you track down the source of that mental disturbance earlier,” she said, pausing her search and turning about to face him. “It worries me.”

“I'm curious too, but I wouldn't label it as a worry.”

“I sensed your mental power. Whatever it was causing you distress is no simple matter. A mind 12,000 years old should be immune to all but the most direct of attacks.”

“I can't explain it,” Riax said, coming back down to her level. “What did you have in mind?”

“Use my perspective as an additional reference point to calibrate your internal senses. If this anomaly is within a blind spot you might not be able to find it on your own.”

“There are ways to probe blind spots,” Riax told her, “but a binary search would be more expedient.”

“Unless you don't want me inside your head.”

“If you were Human I'd agree, but your mind is considerably weaker. If you stumbled across an involuntary response I could damage you . . . especially if we were successful in locating the source and the disturbance reactivated.”

“I may not be Human, or as strong as you, but the Cres are not new to this sort of thing,” she reminded him. “I'll be cautious.”

Riax hesitated, then reluctantly nodded. “I could use the help, but later. Get us booked first, and order some food. I assume they have some sort of delivery ser­vice?”

“Probably,” Ella said, turning around and getting back to work.

T
WO
DAYS
L
ATER
, after four progressively deeper probes, Ella encountered an anomaly within Riax's mind. It felt like an invisible solid that inhibited her movement, but otherwise was not detectable.

Here,
she directed Riax's conscience mind.
There is something. . .

Like a glowing cloud, his consciousness traveled to her location and consumed everything around her point of reference. She could feel his power, able to overwhelm her in a moment if he so chose, but the tendrils of mist circumvented her and instead spread out, ‘feeling' around the particular subsect of his mind.

The tendrils arced when they hit the disturbance, yet nothing in the spot was visible.

I feel it now,
Riax's mental voice boomed.
Pull back.

Ella's presence in his mind retreated to a distance, but stayed in close enough proximity to observe both the anomaly and the cloud, which began swirling around the point as if it were the center of a great storm. Faster and faster it spun until it began to contract and the invisible force became apparent.

It looked like a glowing green orb, but only for a moment. The cloud immediately settled and the orb disappeared once again.

Pull out,
he ordered her.
If I start to transmit again, hit me.

As you wish,
Ella ‘voiced' before withdrawing from his mind.

Her eyes opened and she lifted her forehead off Riax's. He was laying on the bed, his head on the edge and she was kneeling over him from above. They'd been in physical contact to amplify the telepathic link, though neither had really noticed once they'd made contact . . . which was why they'd made sure to lock the door and search the perimeter beforehand. The sort of delicate mental work they were doing left both mostly blind to outside stimuli.

She stood up and looked at him. His upside down visage didn't betray any external signs of distress, but she could sense a tenseness inside that was building. Ella monitored his telepathic aura, ensuring that he wasn't unintentionally reaching out beyond his own mind and potentially disclosing his presence to others.

Nothing happened for more than ten minutes, then Riax simply blinked open his eyes and sat up.

“What did you find?”

“You were right, it is a remnant,” he said darkly with a hint of chagrin. “Encapsulated in a very thorough mental block.”

“I thought you said Humans filtered out remnants?”

“We do automatically,” he said, spinning around on the bed to face her. While she couldn't feel his mind anymore, she could see the anger in his eyes. “This is a bit different.”

“What's wrong?”

“I can't get at it here,” he said, frustrated. “It's entrenched, and more than that, it's active.”

Ella frowned. “By active you mean . . .”

“It's not a memory remnant. It's a self-­contained programming remnant.”

Ella blanched. What he was saying should have been impossible.

A remnant was an accidental copying of a memory when inside another's mind. The piece of memory that didn't belong would be imprinted in a random location and could manifest itself at odd and unexpected times. Seasoned telepaths knew how to keep their mind separate from the target's, and only had to worry about remnants occurring during deep or exhausting scans.

Once located, a remnant could be wiped away like a bit of mud being scraped off your boot. It wasn't overly complicated, but required some finesse to accomplish. Ella had to occasionally sweep her own mind to clean it of remnants after telepathic links with strong minded individuals or other Cres, whose minds were nearly identical to her own. When Riax had said Humans automatically filtered out remnants that made a certain amount of sense to her, given their advanced mental powers. The fact that this one had made it past those latent defenses was significant.

More than that though, he'd said it was active, which meant it wasn't just a memory remnant, it was a
program
remnant.

Like the computer console Ella had been using earlier, a mind operated in the same way. There was a controller at the computer, which in this case was Riax's core energy/conscious mind. That was the powerful ‘cloud' that Ella had encountered. It was linked to and operated his mind, and through it his body, just as Ella had been operating the information terminal.