Romani Armada Read Free Page B

nothing.”
    “Nothing?”
    “No projectile. No plasma. Nothing that is normally projected by weapons of this nature, in today’s world.”
    “No weapons we knew of until now,” Ryan finished. “We have to find out what this does. Maybe it’s dead like a battery and that’s why Gabriel gave it up. Unless we know how to recharge it, it’s a blunt object of normal lethalness.”
    Nayara nodded. “Figuring that out is keeping Brenden occupied in the few moments he has spare.”
    “I don’t doubt it,” Ryan said. “We’re supposed to be invincible. We have been virtually invincible for centuries.” He touch the rifle. “This…whatever it is…will have scared Brenden in a way that Ophelia and her temper never has.”
    Nayara straightened up from her lean against the rocky wall. “Do you feel up to some light exercise?”
    “I’ve been lying around flat on my back for four days. I think exercise is mandatory,” Ryan growled.
    “It’s not like your muscles can atrophy. Your symbiot will see to that,” Nia teased him. “But I have a senior staff meeting and I wouldn’t mind the moral support, if you care to join me.”
    “Since when did you need help herding those hell-raisers?” Ryan asked, but he pressed against the edge of the thin mattress, lifting himself back onto his feet. His symbiot had been working hard in the last few minutes he had emerged from whatever state he had been in for the last three days, for he could feel strength and energy flowing through him. He would have to feed soon, but Fahmido’s injection would hold him for a few hours more.
    Nia’s lack of response made him look at her once more. She had a grim, sad look on her face.
    “What?” he asked. “Why do you look like that? What am I missing?”
    “Everything has changed, Ryan. You’ve only really been here for three days so you haven’t had a chance to see it.” She bit her lip and Ryan realized that more than simple sadness was driving her.
    “We used to sit in our station and despair about how unfair life was, about how mean humans were and how hard we had it. Then Gabriel came along and took so much away from us that we didn’t know we had. We all look at each other and wonder, now. We all watch each other. We can’t have humans here because they’ll give us away to the Psi…and I liked having humans among us.”
    Ryan reached for the cane he still needed for balance when he was walking. He was getting steadier on his feet, but it still wasn’t a complete given that his balance wouldn’t desert him from moment to moment, leaving him giddy and reeling.
    He shuffled over to Nia and pulled her against him with his one free arm. “Stop it,” he told her. “Stop.”
    Her arms wrapped around his neck and held on hard. “Everyone we trust and who likes us, we’ve had to send away into the past because that’s where it’s safest for them. It’s like Gabriel has forced us to punish those who are closest to us. He took baby Jack and he took away everything we value, all in one night.”
    Ryan lifted her chin. “We still have each other,” he told her. “All of us has each other. We’ll get the rest back.”
    Nia looked childlike with her bewildered expression. It made him add, “I promise , Nia. We’ll get everyone back here in the time they belong and we’ll see it all be as wonderful as it was, even if I have to move a few planets to do it.”
     

Chapter Two
    Liping Village, East Yunnan Province, China, 2054 A.D.: The perfectly symmetry of the arches and angles on the ancient bridge spanning the river was made for contemplation. So were the vistas of mountains, streams, wooded valleys and peaceful glens that sheltered terracotta-tiled rounded and arched homesteads and hideaways, all as ancient and peaceful-looking as the bridge.
    They were all engineered and designed to invoke calm and a meditative state and the effect was utterly wasted upon Deonne as she strode across the span of bridge, heading for