Apex (25 page)

“Given the semi-­euphoric state you're in, I don't think you'd understand.”

“So you can sense mine, but you don't have one of your own?”

“Yes.”

“I find that sad.”

“It actually did us a favor.”

“You call not being able to have sex a favor?”

“Pain and pleasure cannot coincide.”

“I suppose not,” Jalia said, not following him.

He reached up with his one hand and stroked one of her headtails twice, trying to figure out how to explain. “Humans are constantly trying to improve ourselves. All aspects of our society are predicated on levels that we have to advance to. There are no appointments, no votes, no subjectivity involved, only what we achieve. It's taken me 12,000 years to reach C8, and to do that has required me to train nonstop. Now training . . .”

“ . . . is painful,” Jalia interrupted him. “I think I see where you're going with this.”

“Then finish the line of logic.”

“Ok,” she said, accepting the challenge and thinking it through. “Pleasure is a distraction to your training. No sex, no pleasure . . . more time for training.”

“Close.”

“What'd I miss?”

“You probably don't realize this, but when your sex drive is activated it pirates your other senses to deliver the necessary mode to facilitate reproduction. This makes part of your sexuality a lie, or you might call it an illusion.”

“Go on,” Jalia said, interested in the conversation as much as her physical contact with him.

“Any significant training requires a clear head. Truth is the basis of all things, and without it you don't advance. Therefore, why would we want to enter into a state where our senses are altered to deliver false stimuli, which in turn makes our judgment suspect and our situational awareness diminish.”

“Because it's fun,” she said, kissing his chin.

“If you say so.”

“You've never been sexual? At all?”

“No, but I'm not ignorant. I've sensed it enough in others to understand it, and I agree with the decision my ancestors made. Sex may be fun. Ass kicking is funner.”

“But that choice was never yours to make?”

“I was one of the last few natural births before Apex occurred. It happened nearly simultaneously across the galaxy. We still don't know how, perhaps a genetic countdown, but we never discovered such in our analysis. I was only a child and my sexuality hadn't formed yet so no, I didn't have a choice. Those born earlier than me did have a choice. When they ignored their sexuality it sort of deactivated. It was always there, just not used. So by my not having it at all now, I don't have to worry about it. Thus it's kind of like a favor for me and . . . the others,” he said, fighting back an emotional spike.

“Haha,” Jalia laughed, missing the slight hesitation in his voice. “Oh I really don't think you know what you're missing.”

“It's a moot point now. Our sexuality programming isn't suppressed, it's totally gone.”

“Maybe this is a stupid question, but if Humans didn't mate, how were any of you born? Clones?”

“No, Apex prevents cloning as well. The method we developed is something of a secret, and even if I told you, you wouldn't understand, nor probably care at this point.”

“You're right about the last part,” Jalia said, squeezing him a bit tighter. “You might not be sexual, but you've got me turned on. I guess Apex didn't shut off your pheromone production, because I've been hot for you since we first met.”

“Actually, it did take away our pheromones.”

Jalia laughed at herself, embarrassed. “Wow. Ok, I guess that makes me, ah, I don't know the word but it's not a good thing.”

“Well, it is your body and your sex drive, and you can control it, but to be fair it's not normal for your race. At least it wasn't 16,000 years ago. Your genetics have been altered to create a more euphoric sex drive, along with, I'd imagine, an increased mental acquisition package to make you more agreeable with races' pheromones that you can't register,” Riax explained delicately.

“What are you saying?” she asked, her mood suddenly serious.

“Now that I'm touching you, I can sample your genetic code. It's different from the Junta I knew, and I suspect the alteration has been deliberate.”

Jalia thought about that for a moment and Riax could feel a hidden anger rising to the surface. “To make us better sex slaves.”

“That's what I'd guess.”

Riax sensed her libido take a serious nosedive.

“So I'm a genetically engineered slut. Wonderful,” she said, sliding off of him and intending to crawl out of the pod.

He stopped her, grabbing her thin arm and pulling her back on top of him with a little help from a telekinetic tug.

“I like you,” he said forcefully. “I don't usually sleep with anyone, and now that you know there's nothing sexual involved, I hope that you can appreciate that for what it is.”

She settled back on top of him. “And what is it?”

“I like you as a person, not a sex slave. Don't let the plight of your race be confused with your sense of self. You are you, and if a Human likes you that's saying something.”

“You're that important, huh?” she said, her mirthful tone starting to come back.

“Well, don't misconstrue this as an insult, but if an advanced race likes a member of a less advanced race, then there must be something special about that individual.”

“It's odd,” she mused. “I'm both insulted and honored at the same time. Up until now I didn't think that was possible.”

“So will you stay?”

“It's my pod, you know.”

“Can I stay then?” he asked, half serious.

“Do you mind if I hold on to you and let my genetically enhanced sexual tension bleed off for a while?”

“Like I said, you're comfy, so not a problem.”

“And you still need to pick my brain, don't you . . . if you haven't already started.”

“No, it takes a very deep scan.”

“Then start scanning,” she said, half sliding off him then pressing up against his side and burying her face in his neck. She reached a leg up and over and latched onto him firmly. “Run in the morning?”

“Deal,” he said, making the first telepathic connection, attempting to isolate her language pathways while she was still speaking.

“Then rest up, you'll need your strength if you plan to keep up with me,” she jibed, letting her senses become absorbed in his touch.

“Never challenge a Human,” he whispered as he let go of most of his senses and began to deeply probe her linguistic memories, linking up commerce language words to their Esset counterparts, and from those to his own nonlingual flash identification silhouettes.

 

Chapter 27

T
HE
NEXT
THREE
weeks were quiet ones, filled with nonstop work for Riax. If he wasn't running circuits with Jalia, sparring with the Cres, or teaching the Kayna how to coordinate their attacks, he was running around the ship tearing it down and building it back up with the tech he'd brought onboard, scaring Jalia in the process when he started to tear down the
Resolute
's gravity drive midjump.

He also spent a fair amount of time on the battleship, picking apart the Concordat structure, records, supply routes, tactics, etc. He still didn't totally buy the Vespa's motivation. They were too proud a race to make a cultural about-­face, so he figured there was more to the story than she'd let on. He didn't find anything particularly revealing during the jump, but he did get to know the organization and Captain Terrek fairly well as he took him to school on naval warfare tactics.

He also made several suggestions as to the operation of the battleship and the organizational structure of the crew. The mercs started out skeptical, listening merely for the sake of politeness, but by the end of the jump they had come to trust the Human, for within that short period of time he'd taught them more than they'd learned throughout their entire ser­vice with the Concordat.

Riax also liked undermining the Vespa's hold on her mercs. She was clueless when it came to anything military, and that was evident in the way she'd set up the Concordat. Fortunately she'd also used several subordinates with previous military expertise to pull it all together and essentially run the organization for her, save for when she wanted to pry and institute what she thought were necessary changes. More often than not, her agenda clashed with reality and the fact that the Concordat had risen to a mediocre level of respectability was due to the mercs and not their leadership.

The second day Riax had been on the battleship he'd pulled a complete efficiency assessment of the crew, with the Captain's cooperation, and pegged them with a 124.7 rating . . . which was pathetic, though he'd seen worse. He'd explained to Terrek the finer points of the rating and the glaring weaknesses in the battleship's operation, along with suggesting improvements, and that was something their ‘Elder' had never been able to provide.

After implementing some of the minor changes and seeing significant results, the Concordat Captain gave Riax free rein to make whatever changes he wanted, pending review as to whether or not he made them permanent. With that freedom Riax dissected and reconstructed the crew rotation, assignments, and procedure based on a three-­tier redundancy model which boosted their combined rating to 653.1 in subsequent tests. Still remarkably low for Human standards, but decent as far as other races/organizations were concerned.

To the mercs, however, he was working magic and in their profession that meant they'd live longer, as well as boosting their combat rep, which meant being able to secure more lucrative contracts. Reputation and credits were the fundamentals of any mercenary organization, and the Concordat was no exception. From that point on, Riax had made some permanent friends.

During the jump Riax's arm had also grown out down to his wrist, giving him back most of his balance, the lack of which the Cres surprisingly realized had been holding back his fighting abilities. The more he healed the smoother, faster, and more agile he became in their sparring sessions, making them wonder just how powerful he'd be once he fully recovered.

Typically Humans didn't sleep much, but every third day Riax would spend the night with Jalia, absorbing more linguistic data before dropping off to sleep. He'd wake up in five or six hours, eat a very large breakfast, then disappear somewhere in the ship doing who knew what. Neither Jalia nor the Cres could keep up with him, but helped out when and where they could and by the time they arrived at Arcad every major system in the freighter had been rebuilt and upgraded.

The jumpline from Mewlon was clear when the two ships arrived insystem, with the battleship coming out slightly closer to the star and reforming with the
Resolute
minutes later. There were several capital ships in the system, but no fleets, and with a battleship in escort none of them attempted an intercept, though it was clear that they'd been lying in wait for them.

Neither the freighter nor the warship needed refueling, so they wasted no time in traveling around to the opposite side of the star and aligning themselves on the Jptal jumpline. Four and a half hours after arriving in the system they jumped out again with no opposition, using the star's gravity well to propel them on the next leg of their journey, and hopefully further away from their pursuit.

O
NE
OF
THE
smaller ships in the Arcad System, however, had also been in Mewlon and Hellis before that. It was a small courier ship that had been trailing the freighter, passing it en route and arriving ahead of it, then lying in wait for it to arrive but taking no aggressive action. It was simply a random ship going about its business within the system . . . leaving breadcrumbs for others to follow.

It jumped toward Jptal a full day after the
Resolute
had left, but after leaving a number of secure messages in the communications grid that would transfer out to other systems with the traffic flow, thus informing pursuers everywhere of the exact route the ship was taking, from which the general direction it was heading could be deduced.

J
ALIA
HEAD
ED
DOWN
to the main cargo bay, expecting Riax to be there but finding the Cres doing their own flexibility drills. They told her he'd left about thirty ren ago, so she went and checked the engine room then the crew quarters, unable to find him.

Jalia frowned and concentrated, trying to shout at him with her mind but apparently he wasn't listening. Undaunted, she continued her search through the rest of the ship's compartments until she found an open maintenance hatch. Jalia climbed inside, seeing him sitting down a long cramped tube with his legs crossed in front of him, motionless.

Figuring he was making some more telekinetic adjustments to something or other she crawled in after him and quietly sat down a ­couple inches away, looking around to see what he was working on.

Which was when she noticed the tears running down his face.

“Are you . . .” she started to say when he jerked away from her like he'd just touched a live power conduit.

Riax looked in her direction and suddenly relaxed, sagging his shoulders and sitting back down, now more than half a meter from her.

“What was that?” she asked, both concerned and startled.

“Sorry . . . I didn't sense you there.”

“Kind of hard to miss,” she said, scooting closer to him and narrowing her big green eyes. “What's wrong?”

Riax swiped at the tears. “Just running through some memories.”

“Bad ones?”

“Yeah.”

“Care to share?”

“You don't want them, trust me.”

“I didn't mean show me. I meant tell me.”

“It's Human . . . stuff.”

“I'm part Human, so try me.”

Riax blew out a breath in surrender, then tried to pick his words carefully. “Right before we met I had my arm bitten off. It might have been 16,000 years ago, but from my perspective it just happened. That isn't something you shake off easily, and I never had the time to process it.”

“Because you woke up in the middle of a firefight?”

“Yeah. Then I learn everyone else is dead and I clamped down on the emotions to keep functioning, plus I've been busy with work and focusing on what I need to do now rather than fight endless mind games with the past. Now that we've got some spare time I felt it was wise that I start processing those emotions.”

“Meaning you needed to let it all out,” Jalia said, finally understanding. She thought he'd taken the entire destruction of his ­people a bit too lightly, at first thinking he was shallow, and then stoic, but now she saw he'd just been hiding it away in order to do what he needed to do . . . like saving her life in those first few moments after he awoke.

“More than that. There are processes to go through. Humans don't just randomly let their emotions go. It's like attuning a sensor array. You don't just walk up and hit it with a hammer. You have to make fine adjustments. My internal balance has been off ever since I lost my arm. If I'm going to get it back I have to face this.”

“What were you working on in here?”

Riax looked at her sheepishly. “Nothing. I just needed to get away from everyone. I guess I should have shut the hatch.”

“I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone,” she said, backing up.

Riax's hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. “No, it's alright. Besides, you're the only real friend I have left, and to be honest I'm tired of being alone.”

Jalia didn't say anything, just looked at him and thinking a few thoughts. When he didn't object she crawled over to him and twisted him around, wrapping her arms around his torso and laying his head back against her chest, holding him tight.

“Take as long as you need to process. I'll stay with you until you're done.”

He reached up and squeezed her hand, then slowly the tears started to return.

W
HEN
THE
BATT
LESHIP
and the
Resolute
entered the Jptal System there were no ships waiting for them on the jumpline, but many others within the system redirected to intercept them immediately . . . all Xiat ships,
Frigate
-­class or larger.

“Still think this was a good idea?” Jalia asked from the pilot's seat as she moved them off the jumpline to rendezvous with the battleship.

“All according to plan. So far,” Riax added as he signaled Ella to raise shields. “Terrek said this would happen.”

“And you trust him?”

“I trust the Vespa's deviousness,” he declared as he watched the ship's now enhanced sensors tag incoming vessels with ETAs and strength assessments. The Xiat had some formidable firepower and seemed not to be shy about using it. If they were going to have to make a run for it, now would be the time.

That wasn't the plan though, so the
Resolute
just sat and waited, drifting in a lazy orbit around Jptal alongside the battleship as the blocky Xiat ships gathered around them, coming in ones and twos and keeping their distance while forming a spherical containment formation, with several of the warships deploying fighters.

“This is fun,” Jalia commented after two hours of waiting.

“Patience,” Riax reminded her. “The Concordat is the negotiator here.”

“How strong did you make my shields again?”

“Enough to run if we need it,” he answered seriously. “But that won't help the battleship if a fight starts, so just sit tight and wait this out.”

“We have been sitting,” Jalia groaned.

Riax glanced over at Ella. “Kids,” he said in the commerce language so both of them could hear.

“Indeed,” the Cres echoed with a smirk.

Jalia spun around and glared at them both. “Hey, I taught you that word,” she said as the comm activated. A moment later she took off her headset and handed it to Riax. “It's for you.”

Riax took the set and placed the band over his ears. “What's the situation?” he asked, speaking the commerce language for the first time without Ella's translation. She telepathically told him she was standing by for help if he needed it.

“They've granted you passage through the system,” Terrek said. “But they've requested a chance to speak with you first. Nonbinding . . . they specified it was only a request and you're free to leave at any time if you decline.”

“Did they say why?”

“I'm afraid they wouldn't get into it,” the Captain apologized. “What do you want to do?”

“Do you still need to refuel?”

“I'd prefer to, but we're good for the next jump if you want to leave immediately.”

“Go ahead and refuel. We'll meet them in orbit. If they want to talk they can come to me. I don't want to take the time to go planetside. Every kip we delay, the greater the chances of our pursuit catching up to us. Make sure they understand that.”

“Understood. Stand by,” Terrek said, switching off the comm.

Jalia just looked up at him with a ‘Really?' look.

“Can I help it if I'm popular?” he scoffed.

Jalia rolled her eyes but couldn't suppress a small laugh. “Just don't get my ship blown up. Please.”

A moment later Terrek reported back that the Xiat had accepted his terms and transferred the coordinates to the
Resolute
. Jalia acknowledged that she'd received them and got the freighter underway as the Xiat blockade formation parted. It'd take about three more hours to reach orbit around Deorrat, the smallest of the ten planets in the system, but also the most heavily populated with 12 billion natives.

It served as the capitol of Xiat society, but it wasn't the location of the refueling station that the Concordat used, which meant that the
Resolute
was temporarily losing its escort. Jalia didn't like that fact either when it was brought to her attention, but Riax wasn't concerned. He had a hunch that whatever the Xiat wanted with him was important. Isolationist races typically didn't tolerate outsiders, and the fact that they were bringing them to their homeworld suggested that whatever this was, it was of high priority.

More than two dozen warships flanked the
Resolute
as it entered Deorrat high orbit, then broke off as planetary defense craft took their position alongside the freighter. The visually identical ships had limited gravity drives, with the extra interior space taken up by additional weapons and shield generators, making them ton for ton more effective warships than their more mobile brethren.