Nova (55 page)

“Very touching, by the way, your little exchange.” The
smooth–headed Karukai remarked, her voice resonant with a strange combination
of humor, contempt, and reluctant admiration. “
Nyeria
. Now there is a
word one does not often hear, and with a
barbarian
, no less!” The last
was said with a laugh, a lovely sound utterly at odds with its meaning.

Kneeling before Avara, ruby–jewel–red eyes glittering with
some unfathomable emotion as Avara met her gaze while wheezing for breath, the Varda
whispered “Most unusual.”

This close, Avara could clearly make out all of the
Karukai’s features, from her large, almost voluptuous lips to the graceful yet
somehow stubborn lines of cheek and jaw. Amusement and intrigue played in her
eyes and the upturn of those full lips as she lazily regarded the battered
Human before her.

“I am Captain Ry’ar Vael,
Avara
. Tell me your
designation.”

Vael?
That name triggered something, some bit of
stored datum, but Avara was hard put to process right now, and like a sleep addled
brain combating a blaring duty alarm, the meaning eluded her.

Understanding very well that the Karukai woman already clearly
knew much of who she was by the wording of the question and, equally
understanding that prevarication would gain her nothing but conversation might
buy her a few precious seconds, Avara decided to play along. “Captain Avara
Serros, Quorum Shield Operative.”

“My, my; so
famous
a Human has come to Dantis.” Vael
responded. “I know who you are, Captain of the
QS
Excalibur
.” She
whispered. Then, moving with the speed and suddenness of a striking serpent,
the woman grabbed Avara’s chin with two, hard pressing fingers, painfully
forcing her face closer until their chins were only a bare breath apart.

“Decorated war hero of the Ministry Navy and of the Quorum.”
Tracing a synth–gloved hand across Avara’s blood–smeared cheek, Vael added
almost absently, “Do you know how brightly you burn?”

Vael laughed at the shudder that passed through Serros at
those words.

Chin still painfully gripped in the Karukai’s fingers, Avara
told herself to be patient. Coupled with the still occupied Adrenix, with every
second that passed, she knew her PV was doing its work. Serros could feel the
irritating tickle as already her more superficial wounds began to close and the
more serious at least to clot. She would take every second of recovery she
could before issuing everything she had for one, probably very final, act.

If all else was to fail, Avara also knew that time for
both
of them was running out, less than four minutes, by her measure. Her only
concern was for K’llan, for whether Serros was triumphant or lay broken, K’llan
could still escape.

“Your
nya
is like an infant sun in an otherwise
starless sector of space. I bet your Vosaia,
K’llan
, is it? I bet she
knows, and I would wager her days are spent waiting to taste you again and again.”

Avara fought the swell of naked fury that the Karukai’s
words evoked, taking a truth that was entirely beautiful and still not fully
explored between herself and K’llan and twisting it into something ugly.

“I wonder,” Ry’ar Vael whispered, offering the barest brush
of those crimson lips across Avara’s bloody mouth before whispering, “What you
would taste like, Captain Avara Serros.”

Whatever the Karukai Captain intended next was interrupted
by the precisely aimed quintet of bullet fire that raced for the Varda’s side, expertly
aimed well away from the Human.

Placing a palm up, Vael reacted instantly, enacting a
glowing globe of blue light so dark to be almost black. The Karukai’s attention
was torn away from Serros as bullets were spent against her K–Shield. Avara
hobbled to her feet and raked her gaze until she found the source. Lieutenant K’llan
Z’arr directly across and to the right of her position, Karukai Stingers
trained on Captain Vael.

Grabbing both of her knife–hilts from the outer–calves to
which they were mag–clipped, Avara thumbed each micro–assembler and flash–forged
bowie–blades, launching herself at the still–distracted Varda.

Vael managed to deflect one strike, sending Avara’s blade
skittering across the flooring, but the second plunged deep into the right side
of the Karukai’s abdomen. Vael threw Avara off, leaving the knife still lodged
within her flesh.

Turning to Z’arr, Avara shouted “K’llan, make for the last
power–core and trigger the manual release! I’ve got this!”

Offering a single nod in acknowledgement, implicitly trusting
in Avara, K’llan shot off towards the final core located near the entrance to
the warehouse.

Half laughing, with a muted grunt, Captain Ry’ar Vael
removed the knife from her belly, and then began to slowly circle Avara. “You
have
this?” She teased, a feral gleam in those ruby eyes. “Do you have
me
,
Captain Serros? I wonder?” And even as she spoke the last word, Ry’ar leaped in
to attack the Shield Operative, her blows no less powerful or skillfully
delivered than Avara’s own.

Hit, hit, hit; deflect, hit, hit, dodge; hit, riposte,
counter, hit, dodge, hit, hit.

On and on the exchange went, with neither Human nor Karukai
gaining advantage.

Serros issued a quartet of strikes to the Varda, aimed for
her temple, injured abdomen, right pectoral, and left foot, yet each was
deflected by fore–arm, shin, or elbow.

Finally, a single blow smashed into the Karukai’s rib–cage,
yet the Varda moved with the strike, minimizing the impact, even as her left
palm smacked into Avara’s injured thigh.

Breath ragged and eyes burning with fatigue, close to half a
hundred blows were launched and deflected or diffused in the space of a bare
minute, yet still, Serros couldn’t seem to break the stalemate. Avara could say
with absolute certainty that she had never before encountered an enemy with
such skill and ability.

With a start, she realized that for the first time, Captain Serros
had truly met her equal in an adversary, both in combat and Arca Enhanced
ability.

And then everything changed.

Seeking to break their impasse, Captain Vael summersaulted
backward, and with the action having gained the fraction of a second she
needed, pushed both palms outward towards Avara, once again attempting to devastate
her opponent with a K–Blast.

Yet this time, Vael didn’t have surprise in her favor.

Avara used that same moment to call up a K–Shield, absorbing
the impact even as the Karukai recovered, and in that instant, Avara demonstrated
the deep level mastery claimed by Arca Savants alone.

Almost as if sucking
in
the Karukai’s spent power,
Avara dropped her K–Shield and then, pulling power both
to
and
from
within
herself, released her own blast of night–blue kobalt powered force.

The onslaught slammed into Vael like lava overrunning a
settlement, carrying all those caught within the pyroclastic flow.

Serros couldn’t see
where
the Karukai Captain had landed,
but she
did
see the trail of shattered clone–tanks stretching far into
the back region of the warehouse that marked the Varda’s wake.

“K’llan?” Avara called wearily as she activated her DSP and
after a starting run, leaped over to the durexium walkway the Vosaia was laboring
at.

“Almost have it!” K’llan answered as Avara skidded to a stop
right before her, speed barely reigned in before colliding with the power core
and Vosaia both.

  Quickly scanning her CPA, Avara announced urgently,
“K’llan, we have only a minute and twenty–one seconds left until the first
power–core detonates from the feedback.”

“I know; almost there.” She answered, pushing at the lever.

Motioning her aside, Avara again exerted her Arca born
strength and, as it groaned into place, K’llan quickly triggered the final rheostat–keys
to release.

“Done!” She announced.

“Great work! Out,
now
!” Avara responded.

Time slowed to a crawl as she and K’llan streaked up the
warehouse stairs and through Outpost J2’s corridors. After several seconds of
travel they were forced to come to a full stop, practically smacking into a
side–wall as they came upon a locked doorway.

“Can you hack it?” Serros asked, taking up a guard position.
They had run into more than one Karukai scientist yet so far, the duo had been
entirely ignored. Not really surprising, given that most of those who remained were
clearly more concerned with ensuring their safety than stopping the two infiltrators.

“I don’t know.” She answered, and Serros could hear the
frayed quality in K’llan’s voice.

“One minute.” Avara announced quietly as her companion worked.

“I cannot bypass; someone jury–rigged it to the point of no
return.”

“Fine.” Avara said, moving in front of K’llan. “Plan B,
then.” The Shield Operative swiftly unclipped no less than three K–Grenades
and, thumbing the timed detonation trigger, hauled K’llan with her around the
corner.

Five, four, three, two, and… there!

The explosion took out the rigged door and seven or so feet
of adjoining walls on either side as well. Without pausing to watch the dust of
their handiwork settle, the two again raced off. Avara could practically
hear
the seconds ticking by in her head like a drum of imminent doom heralding the Reaper’s
arrival. Along the way, three Karukai guards made to stop them only to be taken
down by a score of bullets and two launched kicks.  The soldiers were left to
bleed out before oblivion or blood–loss took them, whichever was first.

Finally, Captain Serros could see the main glass entryway
doors ahead of them, clearly locked, as well as two final guards standing between
life and death. With thought and emotion issued and echoed in such a way that
Avara wasn’t sure which one of them had voicelessly initiated the idea and who
had agreed, Avara and K’llan again called upon their Arca Enhancements. The
action wreathed their bodies in protective, midnight colored armoring one final
time.

Neither woman slowed nor made a move towards their harnessed
weapons. They simply barreled straight through the two soldiers with bone–breaking
force and then with a running, fist–first leap, dove through the portal. A
cascade of glass followed their wake like comet tails as they landed on the grass–covered
Dantis turf.

Rolling to their feet in a synchronous move reminiscence of
gymnasts at play, the two continued their run one final time.

The concussive blast that ripped the air and space behind
them only further propelled their flight, even as fire and soot shot towards
the planet’s triple suns like volcanic spume intent on claiming the stars
themselves, almost appearing to ignite the fragile tendrils of waking dawn.

At last, with the two half–stumbling to the ground in relief
and bone–deep weariness, Avara and K’llan collapsed atop the refreshingly cool,
green–gray grass, arms locked about one another’s shoulders as tears of joy and
triumph washed a path through grime and spent blood.

Sitting with K’llan, mission complete, knowing she was
nothing short of a bloody mess but that both of them were alive and well, Avara
found herself thinking that no moment had ever been more beautiful.

CHAPTER 29

The dozen or so remaining Karukai personnel that had made it
out of the main beehive building before it blew, quickly grabbed what they
could from the facility’s ancillary structures, and then ran north along the
river as fast as their feet could carry them.

After the fantastic destruction of the facility’s prime
structure, still spitting and smoldering with flame, smoke, and cracking
debris, not a single soldier or scientist of the Eternal Imperium seemed
willing to engage the two Nova Officers or the now armed, thirty–five freed
slaves. Reviewing the eclectic but eager group of people, Gorath, Human,
Vosaia, Braxien, Shiraneth, Irdoi, Zirgesh, and Mymren alike, Captain Serros
thought escape to be a wise move for the fleeing Karukai.

While loosing cries of unadulterated joy, the ex–prisoners
surrounded Avara and K’llan as they made their way over, slapping their backs,
pulling them into rough hugs, and over and over again, with a basic humility
and depth of feeling that threatened to lance Avara in place for its sincerity,
each expressed their heartfelt gratitude.

“Captain Serros, Lieutenant Z’arr, this is Major Ca’rrakk.
Do you read?”

Fighting the suddenly even higher swell of emotion, after
sharing a look with K’llan, Avara struggled for a second and then when she was
sure she had at least
somewhat
mastered herself, responded. “It’s good
to hear your voice, Ca’rrakk, and glad you finally made it.”

“Ha–ha!” Hearing Ca’rrakk’s growling chuckle filled Avara
with a sense of place, a sense of home. “You ready to stop vacationing and get
back to work, Captain?”

“I
suppose
I can be torn away.” Avara replied.
“Though I have some new friends to bring aboard.”

“Friends that will be residing in the brig or guest
quarters?” The Senor Science Officer queried.

“The latter, though I do think an
expeditious
retrieval would be best.” Avara responded, her tone deliberately nonchalant.

“Ah, making friends again, I see. I’m reading a sizeable
explosion on my scanners. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would
you?” The Gorath probed, voice rumbling with humor once more.

“You know the Captain only too well, Ca’rrakk.” K’llan
answered before Serros could, her soprano lighter than it had been in weeks.

“You couldn’t keep her out of trouble, then?” Ca’rrakk joked
with his friend.

“I am
only
one Vosaia against a force of nature.”
Z’arr responded, lilac eyes dancing as they linked with Avara’s.