Aurora's End (The Aurora Cycle #3)(91)

“You all right, Kal?”

I turn as Tyler strides out of the smoke toward me, his hulking suit of power armor just as war-worn and battered as the man inside it. But I manage a smile despite the pain in me, the death raining all around us.

“You are always a welcome sight, Tyler Jones.”

“Keep it in your pants, kid,” he grins. “I didn’t brush my teeth today.” Turning to his people, he begins barking orders. “Dacca, cover that breach! Toshh, get a fire screen on this hallway now! We got more hostiles inbound, and they cannot get past us. Twenty seconds to contact, move, move!”

I watch his people scramble, preparing for the next onslaught. The battle overhead is growing quieter now, the last of our defenders falling. Each of the remainder knows this battle is unwinnable. But still, they obey without question, buoyed by the fire in Tyler’s eye, the steel in his voice.

They bear the same love for him that we all did.

Some things never change.

Tyler tosses me a spare rifle. Taking up position behind a rainbow spire of crystal, in the calm before the storm, he glances to Lae.

“You okay?” he asks softly.

She nods, tossing one silver-gold braid off her shoulder. “I am well.”

“If you want to fall back …”

He nods to the throne room behind us, fixing her with his one good eye.

“To guard Aurora …”

Lae raises her null blade, the crackling glow setting her irises aflame. I can sense the Ra’haam coming now, feel the pressure of its mind pressing down on my own. I can see the cracks around Lae’s eyes, the toll of the countless battles she has fought—that they have all fought—to keep this tiny flame alive. And even in the face of its fading …

“My father taught me to fight with courage,” she says, defiant. “But my mother taught me to die with honor.”

Tyler shakes his head. “Lae—”

“No,” she says, meeting his stare. “I do not fear the Void, any more than she did.”

I look between the pair, wondering at the truth of them. They clash like fire and ice, but they are not simply commander and soldier, that much is clear. I can sense a thread between them now, if I try. Thin as a strand of spun sugar but still, strong as star-forged steel.

“Incoming!” Toshh roars. “This is it, people!”

I suppose it does not matter now.

The enemy is upon us.

The song of battle fills the air.

And then there is no more time for words.





30



TYLER





TICK, TICK, TICK.

My heart is thumping a hundred klicks a second now. The image of the academy blowing apart is running on replay, over and over in my head. My pulse pistol is clutched in my sweating hand, the knife Saedii gave me is heavy on my wrist.

TICK, TICK, TICK.

Admiral Adams continues his speech to the assembly above, oblivious to the calamity unfolding below.

“You’ve gathered here to discuss the growing tide of unrest among the many worlds of our galaxy. But before talks commence, another matter should be brought to your attention, one that concerns not only every species here present, but the life of every creature in the Milky Way.”

The shape of the reactor core rises ahead of me—three towering cylinders in a vast circular room, running right through the academy’s spine. The walls are lined with heavy conduits, the bright screens of control terminals and monitor stations punctuating the low, pulsing light.

The temperature in here is boiling now, almost too hot to bear. Steam rising, hissing, coiling. Cat has disengaged the cooling lines, pushing the reactor toward overload, while somehow killing the alert systems.

Looking around, I can see shutdown terminals pried open, alarm relays and overrides disengaged. More dead bodies littering the floor. Their necks are broken, spines twisted, mouths open in silent screams.

Cat, what have they done to you?

“The Aurora Legion was established over two hundred years ago, in a time of darkness and strife, in the wake of a war we wished never to repeat,” Adams says, voice echoing through the amphitheater. “Since then, we have functioned as a peacekeeping force, serving the interests of the sentient races of the galaxy. But that has not been our only purpose. And I’m afraid Battle Leader de Stoy and I have not been entirely honest in our reasons for gathering you here today.”

I hear murmurs ripple among the summit audience.

The floor begins shaking beneath my feet.

Adams draws a deep breath, looks around the delegates as the image of a large bluegreen planet appears in the holo floating above his head.

“Representatives, delegates, friends, this is the planet Octavia—”

And without warning, the feed sputters and dies.

The lights around me flicker, red to strobing white. The floor shakes again beneath my feet. The light from the reactor burns brighter, the heat more intense, and through the shimmering air I spot her, bent over another terminal, the burning light of the core reflected in her blank mirrormask.

She doesn’t know I’m here. She’s intent solely on her sabotage. I sink slowly to one knee, thumb the power setting on my pulse pistol to Kill. Focusing only on the uniform. The threat. Not thinking about the girl underneath, the girl I used to know, the girl who begged me to stay.