The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle (254 page)

The study door opened, and a girl walked in. Even Ozzie was impressed by how gorgeous she looked. Of course, the way she was standing there in a toweling robe that was completely open down the front to reveal a wet swimsuit probably helped that meteor-strike first impression. And after so long walking the paths it wasn’t just Orion who was desperate for the company of a woman.

“Hi there,” he said. “You must be the Sheldon girl.”

She gave him a knowing smile and shut the door in such a deliberate, firm fashion that Ozzie’s heart rate quickened. “Jasmine Sheldon, according to the certificate which got me through the front door,” she said as she advanced on Ozzie. A hand was combed sensually back through damp hair. “But we both know that’s a little white lie. The Dynasty office in Illanum gave me a nice little summary of all the hanky-panky going on here. Very kinky of you.”

“Ah well, you know how it is, the kid’s had a rough few years. You’re, um, the least I could do for him.”

She was still advancing. Ozzie wasn’t sure if he should fling himself at her or run as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

“How about you?” she asked. “Have you had it rough for a few years?”

“Boy, you are quite something. At least he’ll die with a smile on his face.”

She stood directly in front of him, a sinful smile playing on her lips. “You’re very famous, Ozzie. I hope you don’t mind but I couldn’t resist asking for this one little favor.”

“What’s that?”

“A kiss. That’s all. Just. One. Little. Kiss.”

Ozzie sucked in a breath, and checked the door behind her. “I dunno, man.”

“Ohhh.” Her lips came together in a mournful pout. “I’d be very grateful. It’s not every day you get to meet a living legend.”

“Ah …”

She stood on tiptoes, puckering her mouth up for a kiss. Her hands came up on either side, and gripped his tightly, fingers twining together. They kissed.

Ozzie’s e-butler told him the i-spots on his palms were being remotely activated to allow a simulated environment program to decompress inside his inserts. An emergency disconnect icon was flashing brightly as his intrusion counterware reacted. The weird electronic incursion interested him more than anything else. He granted the program full virtual interface authority and shifted the counterware to monitor status.

The result was like being teleported into a Russian doll of images. He now stood at the bottom of a translucent gray sphere clad in simple white coveralls, with the girl standing in front of him in the same garment. She had a slightly different face than her physical self; some features had been realigned, and the hair was shorter and golden, but it was definitely her. Outside the sphere, giant replicas of himself and the girl were locked in an embrace that he could still feel rather pleasantly on his lips. Beyond that, the Dark Fortress data swirled like a foggy nebula, boxed in by the study walls.

He brought his hand up to touch his mouth, a sensation that was overlaid on the kiss. He gave a dismissive grunt. “Okay,” he said, “you wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“Of course, but first, please try and maintain the kiss.”

“Like that’ll be difficult.”

“Very funny. This simulation should be impervious to any sensors in the mansion, and we’re accelerated in here so the kiss will be good camouflage. Don’t get your hopes up, stud-boy, a minute in real time is all the grope you’ll ever get.”

“Please to meet you, too, babe. And you are?”

“Mellanie Rescorai. The SI sent me to find out what happened to you.”

“I know that name. Oh, yeah, the one who gatecrashed my home with ten thousand guests.”

“Take it up with the SI. I have an updated SIsubroutine which I can decompress into an array for you, if we can find an independent one large enough in the mansion.”

“My inserts should be able to handle it,” Ozzie said. He ordered his e-butler to clear five of the biochips, shunting their files and programs into the remainder, and erecting some very strong fireshields.

“I doubt it,” she said.

“Let’s try, shall we.”

The surface of the gray bubble flared with squalling tangerine and mauve lines. His e-butler told him the biochips were filling up fast.

The lines settled down into interlocking spirals. “Hello, Ozzie,” the SIsubroutine said.

“Neat deal,” Ozzie said.

“You were about to reveal who built the barrier when Sheldon security broke the link.”

“Oh, yeah, what an evening that was.” He explained what Clouddancer had told him about the Anomine race.

“So they will not repair the damage,” the SIsubroutine said.

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“MorningLightMountain won’t be a problem for much longer,” Mellanie said. “Nigel and the others have decided to use the nova bomb against Dyson Alpha. They’re also going to destroy any other stars that MorningLightMountain has colonized to make sure it is dead and can’t threaten us ever again.”

“More than one star?” Ozzie asked, aghast.

“They’re worried about how far it has spread. It’s had a long time since the barrier came down.”

“The radiation will wipe out any living creature in that whole section of the galaxy,” Ozzie said. “Don’t they fucking know that? Christ, no wonder Nigel wants me locked up in here.”

“They know,” Mellanie said. “But it has to be done.”

“Can you help?” Ozzie asked the SIsubroutine. “Can’t you see we’re wrong to do this?”

“Ethically, it is wrong. Yet it is required for your survival. This is not our decision to make.”

“Okay, look; I’ve been reviewing the Dark Fortress data. The Starflyer agent has obviously used a modified version of the original flare bomb it hit Far Away’s sun with. The quantum distortion is plain enough. That’s what’s screwed up the generator; everyone’s agreed on that. I thought it would need repairing, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Why not?” the SIsubroutine asked.

“Because the effect is continuous. The whole time the
Second Chance
was in the Dyson Alpha system, it kept recording the same quantum abnormality. In other words, the actual generator systems could still be in working order, but they don’t function normally while their quantum structure is being disturbed. The disruption is just a proverbial wrench in the works.”

“Remove it, and the mechanism will resume operations.”

“It’s the only thing I can think of,” Ozzie said. “Our very last shot at redemption. Will you help me with that, at least?”

“How do you propose to remove the disruption device?”

“Nuke the fucker. What else can we do?”

“I doubt a nuclear explosive will work. If the device is producing an effect similar to a quantumbuster, the missile will either convert to energy at a distance or its components will no longer function—just like the generator itself.”

“So we use one of our quantumbusters; switch the effect from a field to a beam, point it at the Starflyer’s device, and pray our technology has a longer reach. The navy used quantumbusters to knock out flare bombs before, and it worked.”

“Assuming you are correct about every other factor, that sounds practical.”

“So I figure.”

“Do you think Nigel will agree?” Mellanie asked.

“Not a chance,” Ozzie said resentfully. “He doesn’t believe the generator can be fixed. Him and his merry band of psychopaths have already chosen the genocide option. He’s not going to let me send one of his ships on a wild goose chase.”

“Then why are you bothering with this?”

“Simple, man, now I know what has to be done, I can get on with it.”

“You?”

“Sure. Why not?”

“Have you got a starship?”

“Technically, yes.”

“What do you mean, technically?” Mellanie pressed. “Does your asteroid have FTL?”

“No no, wrong way of thinking. I own forty-nine percent of CST. I agreed to take less than Nige, because all that corporate shit just ain’t my scene. So, technically, I own forty-nine percent of however many of these starships he’s gone and built.”

“I thought the Dynasty built the starships.”

“Do you want to commit genocide when it can be prevented?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“But you just said Nigel won’t let you have one of the ships. He won’t even let you out of the mansion grounds. The security briefing I got in Illanum was very explicit about that.”

“Yeah, that’s a shame, because it means you two dudes are going to have to bust me out of here.” Ozzie paused, and looked at Mellanie. “Does Nigel know it’s you that’s come here?”

“No,” the SIsubroutine said. “We intercepted a girl procured from Lady Georgina. Mellanie is a covert substitution.”

“Okay, right, so will you two help me?”

“I don’t see how I can,” Mellanie said.

“If you can, will you help me?”

“I suppose so.”

“What about you?” Ozzie’s virtual knuckle rapped on the virtual wall of the sphere. The orange and purple lines swerved around the impact point. “Are you finally going to come down off the fence?”

“In this form we only have a limited ability. Cressat is not part of the unisphere; recently it has had its interface filters upgraded, we assume so that the Dynasty’s lifeboat project was not compromised.”

“Yeah yeah. I need you to infiltrate and subvert this mansion’s network and security sensors. Nothing physical, I know how you’re so goddamn phobic about the real world; but can you do that for me at least?”

“It should be possible.”

“Finally, your humanity is shining through. Okay, Mellanie, I want you to leave.”

“Leave?”

“Yeah. Tonight. Have a bust-up with Orion, or something. After dark, get a cab or car to pick you up. I’ll say I’m staying in the study to go through the Dark Fortress data, but while our friend here takes care of the security systems I’ll make a break for the end of the drive. You have the car door open for me.”

“That seems very crude,” she said uncertainly.

“Simple is always the best. The less there is to go wrong, the less can go wrong.”

“I suppose so.”

“The study door,” said the SIsubroutine. “Observe the handle.”

Ozzie looked out past the giant versions of himself and Mellanie, still delightfully liplocked, then through the nebulous data of the Dark Fortress. The brass handle of the study door was rotating in agonizing slow motion. “Oh, shit,” he groaned. “Not this.
Please.
”

Orion went and told the cook what Mellanie wanted for lunch, and said he’d have the same, and made sure Tochee’s meal was taken care of, too. He slung his still-soaking shirt over his shoulder and set off through the mansion to the study. Everything had gone so well with Jasmine he just knew Ozzie wouldn’t believe him. He wasn’t even sure he trusted his own memory of the morning. But it felt
so
good.
A girl so perfect, and she likes me!

He opened the study door, and blurted: “Hey, Ozzie, you’ll never …” and stopped, because Jasmine was in there. She and Ozzie were breaking apart. Their embrace hadn’t been just a kiss, Orion saw their hands clasped together. They separated fast, both with hugely guilty expressions.

“Now, er, kid, don’t get this ass backward,” Ozzie pleaded.

Orion spun on his heel, and ran. The mansion’s corridors were long and broad, he could get up a good speed. He ran hard. The shirt fell off his shoulder. He carried on running as the tears began to stream down his face. A devastated wail burst out of his mouth, echoing through the mansion.

Mellanie sucked in a sharp breath as Orion sprinted away. “Damn!” The boy’s face had looked so horror-stricken, it wasn’t easy knowing she was the cause of so much grief.

“I don’t believe this!” Ozzie yelled. His face crumpled into anguish, and he lifted both hands in an appeal to the heavens. “I’ve just crippled the kid—for life, most like. Fuck!” He grabbed Mellanie’s hand. “Go after him, put this right.”

“What?” she thought she’d misheard. Her e-butler told her Ozzie’s i-spot was interfaced with hers. THIS IS THE PERFECT EXCUSE FOR ME TO LEAVE, she sent in text.

“He’s besotted with you,” Ozzie said. “Don’t you understand? He’s never even held hands with a girl before, let alone spent a whole morning with one. For Christ’s sake; I’m beyond any form of salvation now, but he’ll still listen to you. You’ve got exactly one shot at putting this back together. Unless you do that he’ll be messed up for life.” YOU DON’T LEAVE UNTIL AFTER DARK. USE THE TIME TO STRAIGHTEN THE KID OUT. WE’LL TAKE CARE OF THE MANSION’S NETWORK.

“But …” She was exasperated with Ozzie’s attitude. It was almost as if he thought the boy was more important.
Or he’s a superb actor.
She was fairly sure the whole security staff would be accessing this little drama through the mansion’s security sensors.

“Don’t be a bitch,” Ozzie said harshly. “Remember what you’re paid for.” GO ON, RUN AFTER HIM.

Mellanie wrenched her hand from his, which didn’t require any acting. She strongly suspected he was being serious. “Yes, Boss,” she snapped angrily, and stomped out of the study.

It didn’t take a genius to work out where Orion would be—she’d retreated from the world enough times. His shirt was lying on the tiled floor in the hall. She picked it up and started up the stairs. The mansion’s network told her which was his room.

“Orion?” Mellanie tapped lightly on his door. No answer. “Orion?” she said, louder this time. Still nothing, so she told the mansion network to unlock the door. There was a moment while the household management array asked security for authorization, then the mechanism went
click.
She walked in to find the curtains drawn. Her lips pressed down on a smile.
A walking, talking cliché.
It was a wonder he didn’t have rock music playing at full volume, some angst-gorged Goth track about pain and death. Of course, Orion had probably never heard rock music, not growing up on Silvergalde.
Oh, hell, what if he likes folk music?

Orion was curled up on the bed, turned away from the door. One hand was gripping the pendant around his neck.

“That was my fault,” she said softly.

“Go away.” There was a strange juddery quality to the voice.

“Orion, please, I was being silly. Do you have
any
idea how big a celebrity Ozzie is? Everyone in the Commonwealth thinks he’s a saint, or a fallen angel, or something. I just couldn’t resist. Do you know how much kudos I’d have at school for getting a kiss from Ozzie? People would actually notice I existed.”