The Sands of Osiris (Aegis Colony 1) by Steven J Shelley

Author:Steven J Shelley [Shelley, Steven J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Orchid Books
Published: 2015-01-24T23:00:00+00:00

He didn’t. By the time Osiris Lesser had sunk the horizon Jaeger was feeling substantially more human. Tess and Dom had recovered a little color and the lizard seemed stable, if still critical. Jaeger had begun injecting the beast with saline on the hour.

The scav had stamina - that much was clear. It had been driving for seven hours straight with unwavering vigilance. As the last light faded he closed out the propulsion bulb and let the throbbing DC come to a halt.

“I got lights but dunes play tricks at night.”

Jaeger nodded, seeing the danger. “Sleep. We move at daybreak.”

“Yessir. Yessir, now.”

The scav laughed, grabbed some desert tack and casually squatted over the shit hole. Dom turned away with a grimace. Tess watched in fascination. Luckily the thing didn’t miss. Humming, the scav opened a wall panel, not bothering to clean itself.

Kicking salvage out of the way, it deposited a thin foam mat and collapsed on it. The DC was filled with a rasping snore within two minutes. Dom followed suit, curled up against the wall. Jaeger threw a couple of rags over her.

Tess made to climb through the drop hatch but Jaeger checked her. He cocked his head. Kestrel. Coming in fast. Popping his head over the lip of the hatch, Jaeger watched the kestrel strafe the adjacent valley with shafts of infrared. It screamed its way to the south, propulsion bouncing across the dark dunes.

Jaeger shook his head at Tess - she wasn’t going anywhere. There was a slim chance Rondo had deployed ground troops. They’d have far more chance of surviving patrols in the armored DC. Tess glared at him as she slid back against the wall.

She mainlined in the DC. Her forearms were ugly with raised, assaulted veins.

“What does it feel like?”

Tess stiffened, glanced at the others. Either asleep or unconscious.

“It drains color,” she finally offered. “It turns my world into something I can understand.”

“You mean something you can process.”

Her eyes flashed momentarily. “Yes. If you like.”

Silence fell between them. Her dilated eyes bored into him, coldly processing the variables that bought them together.

“Why were you sent to the Hive?”

Jaeger immediately sensed that revealing too much would be dangerous for both of them. Despite this he felt an indefinable thrill that she was, for the moment, showing interest in him. A ludicrous feeling.

“The empire wants this,” Jaeger said, a finger at his temple. “My cartel won’t let them have it.”

Tess nodded. “The brain is vast. All manner of data gets lost in it.”

Jaeger grinned. “What do you have locked away?”

A cloud passed over her. For a moment Jaeger thought he’d stepped over the line. But then -

“I get glimpses of her,” she mused. “The shattered person inside. Sometimes pain. Sometimes joy. Systema puts those fires out.”

“Every fire?”

“Every fire,” she said with a coy half-smile. “I sometimes wish it were not so.”

Hiding his disappointment, Jaeger returned her smile. Her gaze lingered - she clearly wanted to get something off her chest.

“One thing has not changed,” she began. “I joined the Terran Corps because I believe in humanity.

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