Jennifer Wells - Beyond the Stars - At Galaxy's Edge

“No. Eren asi-Idoni is my name.”

“Yet the soul behind the name no longer exists, does it?”

I cut my eyes into the crowd, searching for threats. This was all getting far too mystical for my tastes. “Not in the Annals. I’m on a tight schedule here, so‌—‌”

“Dance with me.” Her hands grasped mine in a display of surprising strength.

“I don’t dance.”

“All Idoni dance.”

“Damn, that must be why I never fit in with them.”

She pulled me closer. “There is a Praesidis Inquisitor approaching. Dance with me. ”

I didn’t panic, but I did allow her to sweep me along the smooth pavilion floor as I reviewed my limited options.

I kept a neural layer on tap which allowed me to pass as a proper Idoni connected to the integral on casual contact with other Idoni Dynasty members. But Praesidis members always saw through the charade. Praesidis Inquisitors, doubly so. And once they did, it was a swift trip to null for me.

The fact I wasn’t already dead, however, meant the Inquisitor hadn’t come here for me. If I played the part of a... well, a typical Idoni, I stood a chance of escaping notice.

I tried to relax in her embrace and flow with her movements. She was of course correct about the dancing‌—‌the natural, innate rhythm was encoded in my genetics. Annoyed, I allowed instinct to take over.

“You have stunning eyes. They are as twin starbursts in the night sky.”

I swallowed, feeling heady enough I started to wonder how empty the dispenser had been. “Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?” She swept me between two other dancers in a lengthy, dramatic spin.

“That thing you’re doing.”

“It is not a thing I am doing, Eren asi-Idoni. It is a thing I am .”

So all the Novoloume insisted. The pheromones they secreted were not intended to send most mammalian species into a sexual froth; in fact, they had no knowledge of such an effect until they encountered those species.

I’d insist as strongly it was a lie they professed to hide the nature of their blatant manipulation of others, except the talent hadn’t gained them any greater freedom than the other species were permitted. Still, it was no wonder they had been decreed an Accepted Species in record time following contact. Rumor had it the Idoni Primor kept a stable of twenty Novoloume as pets.

I wasn’t immune to her beauty, both real and sense-induced‌—‌the Novoloume, regardless of gender, were among the most lovely sapient creatures living. I was nonetheless able to resist the mesmeric aspects of her presence, but the act of resisting was itself distracting. I tried to focus my thoughts on other, more relevant matters.

“Is the Inquisitor gone yet?”

She smiled blithely. The core spun around us, or us around the core. “Nearly. He is currently disposing of a troublesome Ch’mshak.”

That sounded like a show worthy of observing, but I didn’t dare cast my gaze toward it. “Successfully?”

“If bloodily.” Her attention flitted to the left then back to me, and her tone remained studiously casual. “You are the first Anaden anarch I’ve worked with.”

“There aren’t so many of us. It’s not an easy task, breaking away from the integral.”

“I can imagine.”

“You really can’t.”

Her chin dipped. “As you say. The Inquisitor has departed the pavilion.”

“Good.” I grasped one of her hands firmly and dropped the other. “I’m in a bit of a rush. I was told you could get me into the maintenance channel, so make that happen.”

“As you wish.” Her manner became purposeful but no less graceful as she guided me past the crowd to the staff area and onward to the rear wall. A server unit dawdled above a cylindrical tunnel, and Maeli indicated for me to wait.

When it vacated, she gestured to the tunnel. I peered down it to get an idea of what awaited us.

It was tailored for product delivery, not personal travel, and it held no transport implement.

I raised a questioning eyebrow at my escort. “You know how to do this?”

She nodded.

“Then, after you.” No way was I plunging into the unknown shadowy depths and leaving her standing up here surrounded by every creature comfort, where she might decide the trip wasn’t worth taking.

A flash of defiance sparked in her magenta irises as she leapt into the shaft. 3... 2... 1... and I followed.

Falling.

The towering Arx had a thousand levels. I suspected I’d be doing so for a while. The snug, curving walls whooshed by in silence, unmarked and unrelenting. They threatened to become as suffocating as the Idoni integral had been.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the mission details.

The ways in which the mission could fail were legion.

A thruster suit was impossible to smuggle onto the Arx. A stealth, external breach by vessel ipso facto failed due to strict security protocols. An antimatter-tipped long-range missile, in the improbable event it penetrated said security, stood to cause significant damage, but not enough. Multiple distributed detonations were required, and follow-up missiles would doubtless be intercepted.

Turning a ship into an antimatter bomb was arguably viable in theory but an absurd risk in practice. The amount of antimatter needed to be stored on the ship in order for the reaction to reach the target when the vessel ignited was so large it created a sixty-eight percent chance of blowing early.

The solution‌—‌or the best solution my superiors had concocted‌—‌was a solitary incursion via the channel the maintenance and repair drones used to access the structure. It stretched the three megameters from the Arx in a series of magnetized coils which propelled objects traveling within them forward through space.

It wasn’t as fast as a thruster suit, but I would ride the stream to its destination, just like the drones did.

I chuckled quietly, though the analogy to the Anaden drones above, to when I’d been little more than a drone myself, was too evident to bother enunciating.

The increased resistance against the soles of my feet manifested a bare second before my descent slowed to an abrupt halt. The braking mechanism was designed for less squishy objects than organic limbs.

I landed on the floor with a jarring thud... and found Maeli waiting on me stoically, the swirls of her lustrous robe unruffled and in their befitting place.

It ought not to come as a surprise to me that this, too, was a skill the Novoloume had perfected.

Well, one of us no longer felt obliged to project an expected appearance for onlookers. I gathered the copper cords of my hair up off my back and secured them, then ditched the majority of the dress attire. Best to wait to don the hazard suit until we reached the channel.

She motioned me forward. “The passageways proceed for some distance. If your time is as limited as you say, we should make haste.”

In my life I had an eternity’s worth of time‌—‌and right now, none at all, so I adopted the haste.

This deep in the bowels of the Arx, everything was mechanized. Not an organic in sight. Better yet, not a Vigil unit in sight, either, for the Directorate had no need to police their shackled and neutered machines.

Let the citizens dance the night away above, secure in their warped caricature of a free existence. Let the machines do the work. Peace and harmony reigns...

...but not unchallenged. Not tonight.

After crossing an expansive assembly floor we took a left down a short, wide corridor ending in a force field. Maeli stopped.

“The maintenance channel begins on the other side.”

“Understood.” I put my kit on the floor, opened it and retrieved the hazard suit, then began tugging the snug material on.