space-opera

She skidded around a corner, slamming her shoulder into the wall and bouncing off of it without slowing. Caleb?Silence. Forty-six meters. A long stretch of hallway. She pushed faster, harder. Twenty meters.She burst into the room in unison with a deafening crash of metal shearing metal.

What emerged from the portal was not the feared armada. Instead, it was a single ship. A familiar ship. I felt a quickening in my atoms.Clever, dangerous girl. I have been expecting you.

He wasn__ going to be able to deactivate the field, which meant there was only one choice.He__ realized early on that his arcane, profoundly alien passenger came with a cost, possibly one too high to pay and get out the other side free and clear. He__ pay it nonetheless and without complaint if the diati would only come through for him now.Caleb closed his eyes.

It's only crazy if we fail.

Caleb shoved back from the table and stood to retreat to the kitchen. __o. Find another plan.___here is no other plan. This isn__ even a plan, merely a nugget of an idea for the start of a plan that__ certain to fail and end in your deaths.

An eerie, chilling voice interrupted him to reverberate through the house. __ou believe you are safe, but you will never be safe from me. My reach is limitless, my capabilities legion. Sleep fitfully and avoid the shadows, for know that I am coming for you. When I arrive, you will pay for what you did.

Alex thrust her hand and half her arm into the labyrinth of light. Her stare blanked, and in the halo of the matrix her eyes and glyphs blazed so radiantly she looked as if she were being consumed by a primordial fire.__he just stuck her hand into Machim Command__ central server matrix!__aleb smiled, watching on in blatant awe. __he does that.

No, we absolutely should do it. If we can capture such a motherlode, it could make a pivotal difference in the coming war. We need it. AEGIS needs it, my mother needs it. This is why we__e here.____ merely pausing at the precipice of the cliff, peeking down into the chasm and asking, __re we sure?_ So_ Alex eyed him wearing an uneasy grimace __are we sure?

Alex peered behind her to see Noah fussing over a scrape on Kennedy__ cheek. __nless someone__ bleeding to death, first aid will have to wait. You__l want to strap into the jump seats. __his could get interesting, and that__ before we get clear of the station.

Nisi flashed his charismatic, mysterious smile. __ow, with this in mind, are you ready to take the next step?__espite Caleb__ attempts at caution__t circumspection and even suspicion__he man__ words stirred his blood. They teased the possibilities of the power within his reach, real power extending far beyond parlor tricks and personal protection to a place where the course of life itself could be changed.__ am.

You have business and pleasure to attend to. As an expert in both, allow me to advise you to put them aside for the next ten minutes. Why? __ecause the world is about to transform, and you will want to be able to say you saw it happen. The axes of our little universe are about to flip, and you__l want to get your magboots set.

The only thing altruism will get you here is a boot stomping on your head.

May they run free forever and grow back their limbs!

Narrow, angular features, pouty lips and hatred-filled pale, washed-out blue irises glared back at him.Caleb flashed the young man a malevolent smirk and readied his blade. __ude Winslow, I presume.

You look like you__e been on a month-long bender. Have you?___o, Ken, I have not. I__e just had a long week._ Walked the streets of a city bathed in blood and stood amid a hundred thousand corpses. Negotiated a three-way peace treaty among opposing factions of a warring alien species who__ previously held me captive. Bullied the Metigen leadership into doing my bidding. Found out we__e not the real humans, and the real humans are currently enslaving the real universe. Oh, and I think I__ addicted to my ship. How was your week? __othing a shower and some food won__ fix.

The system is only as good as its leaders. When they fail__hen the system fails__ou better damn well hope I__ there to pick up the slack.__he man__ glower lost some of its fervor. __o one appointed you humanity__ protector.___o one had to__nd if you don__ understand why that is, then you__e not nearly the man I was told you are. I__ leaving now, and I__ going to assume we__e done. But if you threaten me again, you had better bring help.

The Novoloume gazed in interest around the cabin. __o the whispers are true__ats, SAIs and Humans have come to join with the anarchs in a quest to save us all.__elzeor returned to Caleb__ outstretched arm and leaned in to nuzzle his nose. __hat a grand quest it__ sure to be!

Expect an army of Vigil drones, nearly as a many Praesidis guards, a Machim ground detachment of super-soldiers and at least one Inquisitor. Oh, and security barriers everywhere. Possibly some of those mechs we met on Helix Retention, too. You Humans have kicked off a shitstorm of epic proportions.__lex spread her arms wide in an exagerrated shrug. __t__ one of our best skills.