Pax Novis

Prologue

Pax Novis
by Erica Cameron

Copyright © 2019 by Erica Cameron. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Prologue

Riston

Terra-Sol date 3811.237

Riston never forgot the smell of burning human flesh.

It had been three Terra-Sol cycles since the fleet of first-strike ships bombed Ladadhi out of existence, but time didn't seem to matter. Ze recoiled sharply from the odor and the memories that burst out of each particle, assaulting zir brain. It was almost like cooking animal meat, but with the addition of something metallic—the sulfurous tang that showed up once the flames hit hair. Riston hated that part of the smell the most. Of course, it was also the hardest part to erase. Even away from the source, it could cling, refusing to dissipate for days.

The smell got stronger. A new wave of desperately suppressed memories blasted through Riston's faltering mental blockade.

Warning sirens blared through every speaker for miles and jolted Riston awake.

Hands gripped zir small frame and threw zem out the front door.

Rough stone scraped zir bare feet bloody as the whine of Araean fighter jets grew louder.

Bombs fell. Explosions shook the world. Riston tripped and crashed into the shelter.

The door slammed shut, cutting off zir brother's screams, blocking out the sight of the fire devouring Ladadhi, and leaving zem with nothing but the smell.

Shuddering, Riston closed zir eyes and pressed zirself flat against the wall. Ze thought ze'd left this behind when ze escaped the smoldering ruins of zir home. An instant, though, was all it took to shatter all the work ze'd done in the intervening cycles to shove every bit of zir old life and the day ze lost it all into a deep mental crevice. Experience had already taught zem to fear the smell of metal and meat and sulfur. Catching a whiff of the scent now, in the quiet halls of Datax Station, sent zir heart beating dangerously fast and made zir hands shake.

Fear warred with an inescapable urge to do something. Needing more information, Riston forced zirself to take a deep breath. The scent, though it was only a whiff in the air, nearly choked zem. There was a fire nearby, and someone was caught in it, but no one was screaming. Or running. There weren't any alarms blaring through Datax Station's engineering level. If the fire was big, evacuations would be ordered so the level could be flooded with fire suppressant. It had to be done. There weren't any other options when living on a fallible human construction of stone and metal orbiting a star. Heat damage to the air filtration systems would cause even more deaths than a fire.

Those alarms hadn't been tripped, so Riston wasn't in immediate danger. But someone else was.

Ze flicked zir hood over zir head and pushed into the main corridor, hoping the power source in the ID scrambler in the top of the hood was still working. If ze got caught in a zone ze didn't have clearance for, ze'd be tossed out an air lock. Or at least thrown into a holding cell until they found zir real ID and shipped zem back to the planet ze'd barely escaped from alive the first time around.

But here you are, heading into trouble anyway. Why can't you ever leave it alone?

Because the ghosts of Ladadhi had been chasing zem for three cycles and ze couldn't stand to let someone else die the way zir family had. Not if ze could stop it.