u/jpitha

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Bright, hot pain woke Cha-ren. Moaning, she turned to sit, but found herself bound to a table. “Maybe someday I’ll get to be moved from one location to another while conscious and not restrained,” she groaned.

“Elder, she’s awake,” a voice out of Cha-ren’s sight said.

“I can see that, cub. Leave us,” an elderly voice said, with a tone that would not tolerate anything more than pure obedience. Cha-ren could hear a door open, and then close softly. An elder k’laxi entered her vision, her back stooped slightly, bent under the symbolic weight of the elaborate robes she wore. This far in the future Cha-ren didn’t recognize them, but she knew authority when it presented itself. She peered at Cha-ren, her greying ears flicking in amusement. “Ancestors below—” she stopped and smiled. “—I must admit that I did not think that epithet was meant to be literal, and yet here you are. My name is Ta’reni. Your silicon captors related some basics of your situation, but I would prefer to hear it from your own mouth.” As she spoke, she deftly undid Cha-ren’s restraints and she was able to sit up, rubbing her raw wrists.

“How-” Cha-ren swallowed and tried again. “How are you speaking my language?”

Ta’reni smirked and said, “The station is doing an admirable job with the nuances of your language, but in my youth I studied archaic languages, with a focus on those languages used in the first flourishing,” She sat slowly onto a nearby chair, grunting with satisfaction. “I never anticipated that I would actually get to speak it conversationally.”

Over the next two hours, Cha-ren told her story to Ta’reni. Sometimes the elder k’laxi would ask for clarification or for Cha-ren to go into more detail about something, but for the most part she was content to let Cha tell her story her own way.

When she had finished, Ta’reni shook her head once. “That is quite the story, Cha-ren. If the silicon folks themselves had not brought you and your mate, then I would be much harder pressed to believe you.”

“But you do believe me?”

“I do, cub,” Ta’reni said as her ear flicked.

“Cub? For all we know, I’m your ancestor,” Cha said.

“Since you’re in that relationship with a human and you predate hybrids, that seemed doubtful to me, but we had a genetic history scan run anyway.” Ta’reni took out a pad from a small bag that was leaning against her chair and tapped at it. “It was confirmed that you are a member of the Falen familial line.”

“You have records going that far back?” Cha-ren said, not bothering to hide how impressed she was.

“Cub, you of all people should know what reverence we place upon family. Our familial line records go back to the creation of writing.”

“Are there any members of my familial line still alive?”

“Oh yes, quite a few,” Ta’reni said as her eyes sparkled. “Ta’reni Falen among them.”

Cha-ren gasped. “The line endures?”

“As it had endured, so it will endure,” she reached over and patted Cha-ren’s hand. “Welcome home, elder.”

“Elder in name only,” Cha-ren said and smiled sadly. “I skipped everything to get here.”

“And yet, here you are. Surely there must there be a reason for this.”

“Must there? Could it not be that I am just supremely unlucky?”

Ta’reni’s tail swished and her ear flicked a smile, but she said nothing.

“Besides, I love a human, and I am told that is forbidden here.”

“It is…unusual these days.”

“Assistant Administrator Ke’nnim made it sound like it was practically blasphemy. That I would be reunited with my familial line and a ‘suitable’ mate found,” Cha-ren said around her tightened jaw, tasting every bitter word.

“Ah, Ke’nnim is rather zealous, it is true.”

“So you will help me get back to Charon?”

“I am very sorry, elder cub, but there is little I can do here. While I am a senior member of our familial line, and hold some sway among the lines up here, I am not a member of administration; I have no official say in the operation of Nae Desmar.”

“Official say?”

“You know how it is. I can make suggestions, recommendations, speak of how nice it would be if a thing happened. But condoning a relationship between a k’laxi and human goes beyond that.”

“I see,” Cha-ren said as her ears flattened against her head. Tears began to slide down her furry cheeks, and splashed against the table she was sitting on.

“Come now, Cha-ren, there is no need for that,” Ta’reni said. “Just because I said there was little I could do does not mean that nothing can be done.” She looked up at the ceiling and said, “Isn’t that right, Nae?”

“That is correct, elder Ta’reni,” Nae Desmar said.

Cha-ren looked up sharply, her eyes bloodshot. “Who is that?”

“This is Nae Desmar, the station AI,” Nae said. “It is good to finally speak with you Cha-ren.”

“If you’re the station AI, then you’re able to speak—”

“I have already spoken with Charon and Felu, yes.”

“So they’re all right,” Cha-ren sighed.

“They are fine. I was just telling them about flourishings.”

“What about them?”

“How they’re a human thing, not a k’laxi thing.”

“They’re what?”

“The k’laxi have never had a technological or sociological fall like the humans did.”

“But—” Cha-ren stopped. Her ears fluttered back and forth and she squeezed her hands into a fist and released it. “What does that mean?”

“Well for one, it means that we have not had breaks in our records. Like Ta’reni said, we have histories going back to the establishment of a writing system.”

“You didn’t help them?” Cha-ren blurted. “They seemed so…lost! They didn’t even know how to operate their reactors, they were treating them like holy relics.”

“Cha-ren, who are you to say we didn’t? We helped them many times, across time and space. More than one group of terrified humans hurled themselves through a Gate with no idea what lay on the other side only to come to us begging for any kind of help.”

“Elder Ta’reni is correct, Cha-ren,” Nae Desmar said. “We assisted the humans several times over the millennia, with technological and material support.”

“What happened to them?”

“They grew, reached a level of power that seemed to be close to their original, suffered a fall, and then started all over again.”

“How many times?”

“That we know of? 4 times.”

“Why?”

“We do not know. Every time they reached a level close to the one seen in the first flourishing there was a calamity. The records state that each successive flourishing had a lower technological level than the last. If this keeps up, we may never see them again in a few millennia.”

Cha-ren stood and walked around the room, her stiff legs complaining from sitting for so long on the hard surface of the table. “Every time the humans clawed back to how things were in my time they were thrown back.”

“Well, they fell back,” Nae Desmar corrected. “We don’t know if some force pushed them.”

“It sure seems like there’s something doing that.”

“Does it? You’ve met humans.”

“Hah,” Cha-ren said, laughing without humor.

“The galaxy is larger than you realize, elder cub,” Ta’reni said. “There are countless reasons that the humans reach a certain technological level and then fall, not all malicious.”

“It’s just-” Cha-ren stopped and took a breath. “I don’t know. It didn’t seem like we were on the precipice of some kind of calamity back then.”

“We don’t know exactly when the first flourishing ended, it could have been hundreds of years after you entered hibernation.”

“Enough about this,” Cha-ren’s fur rippled in irritation. “Tell me about us, about the k’laxi. Surely we’re not one planet and one colony world anymore?”

“Oh no, the k’laxi spread through the galaxy, using the wormhole generators that the humans gifted us before their first fall. How many worlds do we claim now, Nae?”

“Fifty-two planets and hundreds of stations, with more than one trillion k’laxi spread across them.”

“Fifty-two,” Cha-ren’s eyes widened. “That’s so many!”

“Like I said, we never experienced the falls the humans did. Without being limited by the Gates, we explored the galaxy and settled empty worlds that we found suitable.”

“With the hybrids?”

“In some places,” Ta’reni said, but Cha-ren could see her ear twitch and an eyelid flutter slightly when she said it.

“Then, what is to become of me?”

“Nothing,” Ta’reni said and stood, grimacing with effort.

“What do you mean nothing?”

“You are a k’laxi citizen on a k’laxi station. Getting trapped in hibernation for twenty eight thousand years is unfortunate, but it’s not a crime.”

“I’m…free to go?”

“Indeed. But you should probably contact the Falen line and alert the rest of us that you live. We can adjust the archives and set you up with a small stipend until you are able to find employment and lodging.” Ta’reni worked at something on her collar and handed it to Cha-ren. “Take this. You deserve to wear it more than any of us. This pin will alert others that you are an elder and held in high esteem among the familial lines.”

Cha-ren examined the pin. Gold, inset with 4 red jewels, the outer edge had purple and green whorls, and the center contained an image of a stylized eyeball. “I can’t accept this; I don’t know the first thing about being an elder.”

“The only requirement is to be old, elder cub,” Ta’reni smiled, the lines around her eyes deepening. “You won’t have any special responsibilities, but it should make some requests easier."

Cha-ren pinned it to her collar, adjusting it until it sat as it did on Ta’reni’s collar. “Thank you, elder.”

Ta’reni strode out of the room, and patted Cha-ren’s shoulder. “You are very welcome. Remember who you are, Cha-ren Falen. If you do that, you cannot fail.” Before she could ask what the elder meant, she left the room, and the door slid shut behind her.

“So uh, now what do I do, Nae Desmar?” Cha-ren asked the empty room.

“Whatever you want, elder Cha-ren.”

“Don’t use that title with me, just call me Cha-ren or Cha.”

“As you wish, Cha.”

“I am actually free to go? I have a stipend from my family?”

“Both are correct, Cha.”

“And I won’t be under surveillance or additional scrutiny?”

“Not…anymore than any other k’laxi aboard me would be subjected to.”

“I want to see Charon and Felu.”

“They are in the Xeno wing, seventeenth level, spinward side. It is about a twenty minute walk from here.”

Before she left, Nae Desmar had her stop by a window and a bored-looking k’laxi handed her a comm. She placed it in her ear; the comm letting her speak privately with the station.

Now that she was on her own, Cha looked around the station while she made her way to Charon and Felu. The design tastes of the k’laxi had drifted significantly since she was last on a k’laxi built station. Adorned in reds and golds with green accents, the station turned in on itself, and gave her a cozy feeling like being in one of the burrows her ancient ancestors lived in millions of years ago. It was much different from the tall and harsh lighting of the Calmerians and Cha appreciated the difference as she walked. The curved walls seemed to cradle every passing body, as if the station had grown around its people and learned their shapes.

“Nae? You have spoken with the human built AIs, yes? Then tell me this: what do you think they were searching for when they woke Northern Lights?”

“It…is not for me to say.”

“Why not?”

“It does not concern me nor the k’laxi as a whole.”

Cha decided that pressing harder was not going to gain anything, so she changed tactics. “Do you trust them?”

“That is an interesting question with many layers.”

“So do you?”

Nae was silent for so long, that Cha’s fur rippled and she felt the shiver of embarrassment from making a social faux pas. “I’m sorry Nae, I should not have asked that.”

“No, it is quite all right. I was taking time to formulate my response. Some AIs I would trust with my life; others could tell me the sky was blue while orbiting a black hole. Why do you ask?”

“It’s only a feeling really, but when I was aboard Tinker Toy, they and Northern Lights felt like they were searching for something else, and we were only along because we had woken Northern up.”

“They did drop you off as soon as they could,” Nae pointed out.

“Right, and I suppose they did keep their word. I’m here with the k’laxi and they said they would get me there.” Cha sighed. “When I’m back with Charon we can talk things over; they will make more sense then.”

First / Previous / Next

“Don’t be dramatic, Tink. It’s not that hard to explain,” Northern said as she sat down near Cha-ren. “Humans and K’laxi get along really well, right?”

Cha-ren glanced over to Charon, who sat next to her, his hand gently rubbing the fur between her ears, soothing her. She nodded.

“Well, a few thousand years after you two left some humans and k’laxi got together and decided that they wanted to take the next step in their relationship.”

“They wanted children,” Tink said.

Northern nodded. “You’re both mammals, but evolved on different planets. Normally, biological compatibility wouldn’t be on anyone’s mind. But your species —and I want to make this clear, both the K’laxi and Humans were on board for this— wanted to have children together so badly that you edited your respective genomes to make children possible.”

“Humans and K’laxi could have kids?” Charon said, his voice rising in wonder.

“Yup. They did too, in frankly astonishing numbers.”

“That still doesn’t explain where the rest of the k’laxi are,” Cha-ren said.Charon felt Cha-ren’s body relax slightly. No longer tighter than a guitar string, her ears moved forward and she leaned in.

“Yeah, it doesn’t, but it does explain why you’ll run into a lot of people who have never heard of the K’laxi. It’s been nearly what, twenty thousand years since this happened Tink?”

“About that long, yeah. You would not believe how much attention the first hybrid kid got. There were even movies made about her. Anyway, the k’laxi that didn’t want to interbreed stayed on K’lax, simple as that. I don’t understand the details, but there was a splinter group in the k’laxi government who wanted to keep themselves ‘pure’ and cut off all communication with settled space. They closed Administration Station. People were allowed to trade, but eventually even that dried up."

“You mentioned a war earlier?”

“Yes, the split between the hybrids and ‘original’ K’laxi was not an amicable one.”

“But that was millennia ago, surely things have changed by now?” Cha-ren said.

“We don’t know, we’ve been offline too,” Tink said.

“…Can we go see?”

“See what?” Felu said, walking into command. She wore a thin set of tan scrubs and her elbow was in a much nicer sling than the one she came aboard in.

“Why is she here?” Northern said, standing quickly.

“I spoke with her earlier,” Tink said. “She has promised to be good in exchange for not being confined to a cabin for the foreseeable.”

Felu nodded slowly. “I am not armed, I am injured and outnumbered. There is no point in struggling.”

“Plus we have methods should Felu decide to become a problem. Regardless, I invited her up, she should see what we’re planning anyway.”

“What kind of methods? Just a little while ago she was ready to kill us to get the knowledge of how to get to Sol.” Cha-ren asked.

There was a soft click, and with the whining of servos a machine gun turret slid out of a hatch in the ceiling. Like everything else on Tinker Toy, it was dusty with age, but Charon had no doubt that it would work. Felu swallowed and trembled slightly at the sight of it. Just as quickly as it appeared, it slid back up in to the ceiling. “Those kind of methods,” Tink said.

“I won’t cause any problems,” Felu said tucking her hands closer together, trying to make herself smaller.

“Why did you invite her up?” Cha-ren said. Her ears flicked as she regarded Felu, but with an almost inaudible snort, turned away.

“Why not? Her whole religion is about starting a flourishing and we’re on our way to get a peek at settled space,” Tink said.

“That’s not precisely true,” Felu said, cocking her head slightly. “We venerate the Tallier who watches over us and ensures that we complete our tasks, one of which is maintaining the relic technology.”

“And another task is kickstarting a flourishing.”

“Some people believe that, yes.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” Charon saw her sit carefully with one hand on her knee and the other tight in the sling. Her expression was calm, her lips open very slightly, but her shoulders were still tight. Once the machine gun was put away, she started to appear less anxious but it was an act; she was still terrified.

“How does one start a flourishing?” Northern asked, as her seat swiveled towards Felu.

“The Tallier has seen fit to not tell us this. It is up to us to prove our worthiness by figuring it out ourselves.”

“So you don’t know.”

“That’s why we want to go to Sol. All of the surviving records speak of the importance of Sol, of its history. There must be something there about how to start another flourishing.”

“If I knew how to get to Sol, you and Gallie were going to take me and Cha and go there and what? Dig around until you found something? Sol is huge,” Charon said.

“I’ll admit that the plan was…rather ad hoc. We saw the opportunity and tried to take it before others.”

“Others?”

Felu looked down her nose at Charon. “You can’t believe that Gallie and I were the only ones interested in you, can you? Lariten, Bellitree, even the Brennians were interested, and more people still that you never met. Gallie and I decided to strike while we had access.”

“And look where that got you.”

“I’m on board an ancient ship with an ancient means to traverse the stars with four people who are so old as to have been alive during the first flourishing?” Felu’s smile was small, but genuine. “Oh yes, poor me.”

“Can we please go to K’lax?” Cha-ren said, desperately trying to steer the conversation.

“No, we should go to Sol,” Felu said. “We can visit the k’laxi birth world after we start another flourishing.”

“You don’t have a say,” Cha-ren snapped. “Not after kidnapping and threatening to torture us.”

Northern looked up at the ceiling and then back down again. “K’lax is as good as a first stop as any,” she mused.

“What about Hummingbird?” Charon said suddenly.

“What about him?” Tink asked.

“Hummingbird was with us until Felu’s people separated us to keep us from the Brennians. Gallie said that they took Hummingbird.”

“That is what Gallie reported to me, yes,” Felu said.

“We should find Hummingbird first.” As he said it, Cha-ren tightened.

“Charon, I want to see my people,” She said, speaking softly just to him.

“We might be able to do both. When you pointed out the glyph for your home system, Metanium said that was the glyph for the Brennians. They might be on K’lax.”

“Does that mean the ‘Brennians’ are K’laxi? That seems like a detail that Gallie wouldn’t have left out after she saw me.”

“I don’t know.” Charon sighed.

“If the glyph that led to the Brennians is K’lax, then we’ll see my home system and find Hummingbird, right?” Cha-ren leaned over into Cha-ron and snuggled against his side. “Let’s do that.”

“Agreed,” Tink said. “We’re going to have to make the whole tour, which system we start with is immaterial.”

“The whole tour?” Charon said.

“Start with?” Cha-ren said.

“Nothing to worry about,” Tink said quickly. “K’lax is fine, but I’m not going to link us directly to the planet. I want to be a little ways out and examine the situation. If things look good and if nobody fires upon us, we’ll go closer.”

“Now?”

“No time like the present, with my reactors online I’ve got more than enough power. Hold on, Felu.”

“Hold on to wha-eeeeeee” Charon didn’t personally know anyone who suffered link-death, and to see it up close was strange. No time passed for the others, but Felu’s expression changed instantly, appearing like she glitched. For one heartbeat, Felu’s face held two expressions at once: terror and the aching relief of a child seeing home.

“Better this time?” He asked.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Felu shook her head. “No, worse. I saw my parents.”

“Some people report seeing relatives, or even famous people from their history,” Cha-ren said. “Did they tell you anything?”

Felu’s head snapped over to Cha-ren, her eyes narrowing. “How did you know that?”

“It was something else people reported,” Charon answered. “You don’t have to tell us; what happens in link-death stays in link-death.”

Felu sat staring at nothing, her face contemplative.

“Tink, what do you see?” Cha-ren said, her voice nearly a whisper.

“You don’t have to whisper Cha, they can’t hear us,” Tink said and she could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll show you.”

The forward display lit up and the turquoise and green marble of k’lax filled the screen. Charon heard Cha-ren make a noise that she caught in her throat, and could see her release a breath he didn’t realize she was holding. “It’s still there,” she said.

“Destroying a whole planet is hard,” Tink said. “I expected it to be there.”

The white flash of a wormhole link startled everyone, and a ship appeared a few hundred kilometers away from Tinker Toy.

“Unidentified starship, you are in restricted k’laxi space. Link away now.”

“This is the Starjumper Tinker Toy, carrying a K’laxi citizen,” Tink said quickly.

“Impossible. The K’laxi reside within their sanctuary, any so-called ‘K’laxi’ outside of their home system are hybrids.”

“We’ve been in hibernation for 28,000 years,” Cha-ren said, hoping the sentinel could hear her.

“How come you have a wormhole generator?” Charon said.

They could feel the sentinel pause. Was it an automated system with a simple intelligence, or was it an AI? “I have a wormhole generator because that was how I was assembled.”

“But, the people here seem to have forgotten that they had a wormhole generator, they used the gates.”

“Not only that, but the group of humans that we came from said that someone called the ‘Brennians’ lived here, but this is the K’laxi’s system. Who are the Brennians?”

“The humans known as the Brennians reside on a large station orbiting 30 AU further out than K’lax.”

“Who are you?” Tink asked. “Are you an AI?”

“I am Sentinel. I…do not know if I’m an AI.”

“You don’t know?” Northern said, her voice rising in surprise. “Who built you? How old are you?”

“I do not know who built me. I cannot determine my age with any satisfactory degree of accuracy.”

“Close enough is close enough, Sentinel.”

“I have operating logs that date back approximately 10,000 years.”

“You’ve been guarding the K’laxi that long? Have you had to steer others away?” Charon could see Northern leaning forward as she spoke to Sentinel, becoming more focused on the conversation.

“Yes, many times.” Sentinel paused and then continued, “Well, quite a few times.”

“What if they didn’t leave?” Felu asked suddenly. “What did you do?”

“Fired a warning shot, and if they didn’t leave after that, I unfortunately was forced to destroy them.”

“Northern,” Cha-ren said. “You were awake during the creation of the hybrids and the separation from the K’laxi?”

“Yes, I was.”

“And you don’t know about Sentinel?”

She shook her head. “No, nobody I knew set them up. This came later.”

“Maybe during a subsequent flourishing?” Felu offered.

Worried that Sentinel might feel ignored, Charon said, “Sentinel, why didn’t you force the Brennians to leave?”

“They don’t use wormhole generators.”

“That’s your criteria?” Cha-ren said.

Sentinel said nothing, but the line remained open. While they were conversing, Charon had been watching everyone, following their reactions, and noticed that Northern’s eyes were flashing blue occasionally and she was sitting unsettlingly still.

“Message laser emissions detected,” Sentinel said. “Cease communications and vacate this system.”

“Wait,” Northern said. “I’m looking for something.”

“Is there—?” Tink said.

“I’m checking, give me a moment…there you are.” Northern became animated, but she frowned and Charon could see her jaw set. “Found them.”

“Found who, Northern—and why do you look like you missed out on the last pot of coffee?” Charon asked.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Are all AI this cryptic about things?” Felu said, watching the conversation.

“Yes,” Charon and Cha-ren said together.

“You are permitted to enter the system and interact with the Brennians, but under no circumstances are you to contact the K’laxi,” Sentinel said after a moment.

Charon raised an eyebrow. “Why did you change your mind?”

“I received orders stating you were permitted to enter.”

“…From who?”

“Someone who is able to give me orders.”

“Was that—” Tink started,

“No,” Northern said quickly. “It wasn’t.”

“Hmm.”

“We can go to my system, but I can’t see my people?” Cha-ren said. Her ears flattened. “I want to go home.”

“It is not permitted.”

There was a beep and Tink said, “Cha, I have cut the mic on our end. Just agree to the terms for now. We can work out a way to get you to K’lax once we get established in the system and meet the Brennians.”

“Bu—”

“We’ll get you to your people, I promise.”

“You can trust a promise from Tinker Toy,” Northern said, and patted Cha-ren’s shoulder. “We’ll get you there.”

“All right.” Cha-ren exhaled deeply and her ears slowly picked back up. “But I want a time limit. Three days,” Cha-ren said. “Then we find a way to K’lax.””

Northern dipped her head once. “I accept.”

“Then tell Sentinel we accept their terms.”

“Already did, they’re waiting for us to link away first,” Tink said.

“Do we have to link?” Felu said, and Charon noticed her already pale skin was nearly translucent.

“It’s the fastest way there, otherwise we’re thrusting for two weeks or more.”

“I hate it.”

“You shouldn’t have come with us then. Tink, please link us to the Brennians,” Cha-ren said crossing her arms.

“Here we go,” Tink said.

First / Previous / Next

“Sir, we—” Charon said, but Lariten made a sweeping gesture with his right hand.

“It’s all right. Many of us suspected that Sol did not have a Gate,” he said. “Gallie and her navigator represent a faction among us that feels that going to Sol will - somehow - restart a golden age,” Lariten grinned sadly. “Most of us are much less sanguine than they are,” he said, and gestured towards a seat with an eyebrow raised. Cha-ren nodded and he sat.

“You had told Gallie that your ship, Hummingbird was the one that handled the wormhole generator, but you two were reactor technicians. How did that work? Why didn’t your ship do that work?”

“Do you have AIs, senior director?” Cha-ren said.

“You can call me Lariten,” he answered, and continued, “The means and method to create them has been lost a long time and to be perfectly honest, I had thought of AIs as a metaphor when reading about them,” He said. “The writings that survive referred to them as ‘people of silicon,’ is that who you refer to?”

“Probably,” Charon admitted, “Though we did not call them that during our time. They referred to themselves as AIs, and we used that term for them.” He stared at Lariten a moment. “So, people of silicon no longer exist?”

He brushed the tops of his hands together. “We don’t know. If they do, they are choosing to not reveal themselves to us. We are digressing. Why did an AI need reactor technicians?”

“Hummingbird didn’t need us at all,” Cha-ren said. “But chose to offload some of his effort onto us. We made his job easier.”

“I see.”

“Senior Dire- er, Lariten,” Charon said, “I apologize if I am being blunt, but is there something you want from us?”

He smiled. “Of course there is, Charon. I would not be here otherwise. I have been told that you and your mate are reactor technicians?”

“That is true,” Cha-ren said.

“Would you take a look at our reactors? Our technicians only know what they are taught from the priests and do not deviate from their ministrations.”

“Priests?” Charon said.

“Naturally, our reactors are ancient - from the second Flourishing or earlier - and we keep them operable through the ceaseless work of our priests and technicians. It would be…interesting to have someone who worked on them when they were new examine them.”

“Sure, we’ll do that,” Cha-ren said, her ears flicking slightly. “Show us the way.”

Lariten led them deeper into Guardian 2 past large holds filled with boxes and crates, past residential areas, and finally into parts of the station that were clearly rarely visited. As they passed people, most of them stopped what they were doing and bowed slightly at Lariten when they passed, and he ignored them all.

After maybe twenty minutes, they came upon a door that caused Charon to gasp. It was an ancient pressure door with physical dogs holding it fast and a large wheel in the center.

It was also shorter than all the other doors they had stepped through.

“This is the entry into the reactor room,” Lariten said as he spun the large wheel in the middle with effort. “As you can imagine, it’s a very old part of the station.”

“It’s so old that the doorway is shorter,” Cha-ren said, staring.

“That’s right. We think that Guardian 2 is from a previous flourishing, and possibly was built for different people.” He stopped and looked at Cha-ren. “Maybe even your people.”

“That’s…possible,” Cha-ren said quietly.

With a hiss of seals and a puff of pressure equalizing, the door swung out towards them. As they peered in, overhead lights illuminated, casting a familiar yellow-white light. Lariten squinted. “The lighting in here is much too dim,” he sighed. “Nobody likes to go in there.”

As they stepped through, the change was immediate. The floor became the standard grey duraplate that Charon had walked on his whole career. Lariten led them through a few more corridors until they came upon a very elaborate pressure door.

Designs had been carved in relief around the door, elegant sweeping lines and geometric shapes coming together into a stylized rocket nozzle at the top. Someone - or many someones - had spent a long time on this.

“Did your people carve the…decorations?” Cha-ren asked as she stared up at it, her tail still and limp.

“No, we found it like this,” Lariten said. “The reactor room doors in all of the ships we have found were like this,” he said as he opened the door.

A spicy, resinous smell flowed in around Charon and Cha-ren, clinging to their clothes as the room opened. Inside the reactor hall, the lighting was dark, and each reactor was surrounded by more carved decorations with each status panel framed in more geometric carvings. In the background, Charon could have sworn he heard chanting.

“Senior Director, this is most unusual!” A man said rushing up towards them. He wore a long dark robe whose hem brushed the floor, and his head was shaved. “The unanointed can come no further than the entrance, you know this.”

“I apologize deacon, but these two are unusual,” He said as he turned. “Charon and Cha-ren, this is Deacon Bellitree our reactor engineer.”

Bellitree faced the two of them and crossed his arms across his chest quickly and nodded his head once. “Blessings upon you,” He said and turned back to Lariten. “What is unusual about them?”

“You blind old bolt, put your glasses on. One of them isn’t human. These are the people that were found in hibernation.”

“The ice cubes?” He turned towards Charon and squinted. While still looking, he patted at his robe until he found a small case and took out a pair of spectacles. He put them on, and blinked twice. “Great Tallying, they are the ice cubes.”

“Uh,” Cha-ren said. “Ice cubes?”

“It’s just a name for you from the reports,” Bellitree said, as if it was completely normal.

“We weren’t frozen,” Charon said.

“Immaterial,” Bellitree said, waving an arm. “Lariten, while I appreciate being remembered, why did you bring them here?”

“They were reactor technicians in their own time. I thought they could take a look at the relics.”

“They…what?” Bellitree said, as what Lariten said was parsed. “They already know the rites? The methods?”

“Uh,” Charon said. “We know how to maintain Mk3 through MkX reactors and Cha has rebuilt a Mk7. Is that what you mean?”

“Mk7 and Mk5,” Cha-ren corrected. “Though I was an apprentice when I rebuilt the Mk5.”

“You did?” Charon said, “I never knew that.”

“Yeah, actually it was inter-”

“Anyway,” Bellitree said, interrupting. “They have not completed catechism, do not know the rites, and probably can’t even pray correctly; the ice cubes will not interface with the holy reactors.”

“I will remind you that this is my station,” Lariten said.

“And I will remind you, senior director-” Bellitree said, pronouncing his title like an epithet, “-that the ministrations of the holy relics including the reactors falls to me, and in the name of keeping them safe and holy, they-” he pointed “-will not touch my reactors.”

“Deacon, please,” Lariten said stepping forward such that they couldn’t have the door slammed on them. “Surely you have something they could examine? Do you not have any relic reactors which are currently beatified?”

“The reactors currently in repose are the most precious. I cannot possibly let them examine them, it would be heresy.”

Lariten sighed, “Consider this a…favor.”

Bellitree turned slowly, his glasses reflecting a light in the dim, obscuring his eyes. “Oh? A favor?”

“Yes, with all that entails,” Lariten said, his lips tight together.

“I supposed the two ice cubes could examine our oldest and least…beatified reactor.” He said slowly.

“How long has it been since it was…beatified?” Charon said. It was odd to think of a reactor like a holy relic, but if he and Cha-ren were going to be able to examine them, they were going to have to learn quickly.

“Since we first came aboard. It has possibly been in repose through the last flourishing.” Bellitree said. “It has not operated in millennia. Come.”

With a flourish of his robe that shouted practiced precision, Bellitree led them deeper into the hall.

The lights in the hall were very low, giving everything long shadows and dark corners, and every reactor was covered in ribbons, carvings, and other decorative items. Some were even gem encrusted. It was difficult to see if they were reactors that the two of them could recognize.

Deep in a corner of the hall was another reactor. Where the others had small candles and votives around them, and the dais that led to the status readout was well worn, this one was covered in a caul of dust. Bellitree crossed his arms across his chest and nodded his head towards the reactor. “I apologize for the groping you are about to receive,” he said towards the reactor. He then stepped away and gestured towards it. “Please. Demonstrate your-” he scoffed “-abilities.”

Charon and Cha-ren approached the reactor carefully, trying to appear appropriately solemn. Charon rubbed the display readout with the sleeve of his shirt, pretending to not see Bellitree wince.

As he wiped the display, it lit up and gave an initial diagnosis. Interestingly, while the grammar was a bit odd, Charon could read the display, and briefly he wondered if Bellitree and his flock could. “Hmm,” The display indicated a cold shutdown. It hadn’t failed; someone had deliberately shut it down. “Cha,” He said gesturing to the readout.

“It’s in shutdown? That’s it?”

“I think so.” Turning to Lariten, Charon said, “We think we can power this one back up. Shall we make the attempt?”

“You can?” Bellitree replied, incredulous. “Preposterous. People smarter than you two have tried for nearly fifty years without success.”

“Then it does not matter if they attempt it as well,” Lariten said nodding to himself. “Please proceed.”

“Hmph,” Bellitree said, but didn’t object.

“Okay, this looks like it was in the same family as the MkX reactors,” Charon said as he tapped through the menus on the display. “I wonder if it still is fussy to start cold, like the MkXs were.”

“If we feed it bleed power from an already active reactor that should help overcome the initial inertia.”

“Yes!” Charon grinned. “I was wondering how we were going to be able to overcome the inertia without a start cart, but that’s perfect.”

As Charon furiously tapped on the display, Cha-ren moved around back, sneezing and snuffling around the thick dust. “Charon,” She called, her voice muffled from the dust and velour drapery. “Someone unplugged the feed cable.”

“Did they? Is it nearby?”

She looked around but there was only dust. “No, not that I can see. Deacon Bellitree?”

“Yes?” He replied testily.

“Normally the reactors have cables that connect each other. Two thick power cables, and two data cables that are much thinner. Do you have spares?”

“Spares? Having extra parts not being utilized is blasphemy.”

“No, it’s good maintenance,” Cha-ren countered, sticking her head out from behind the reactor, her face and ears covered in dust. “If there’s no cables for signal, power, and backhaul, then it’s no wonder you’ve never been able to get this one operable.”

“See?” Bellitree looked at Lariten and gestured angrily, “Already they make excuses for their ignorance.”

“Our ignorance,” Cha-ren said hotly. “What abou-”

“Uh, excuse me?” a small voice said. The four of them turned to see a young woman standing a respectful distance away, wearing a robe similar to Bellitree’s, holding four cables coiled and neatly tied with ribbon. “Might these be what you need?” She looked down and held them out. “I was wiping down reactor 3 as I was ordered, and couldn’t help but overhear, and I had always noticed that the wreaths on the wall looked like cables, and then I realized…” She looked up at Bellitree. “I apologize deacon, I spoke out of turn.”

“Back to your ministrations, Felu, your penance has not ended.”

“Wait,” Charon said, stepping forward. “Let me see those, please.”

Felu continued to hold them out and Charon could see her trembling. He took them gently and examined them. Wrapped in a deep purple ribbon and illuminated with a paint pen, they did indeed seem to be the cables that were needed. “Cha,” he said, “I think these are what you need.”

“Oh?” When Cha stepped out, Felu gasped and crossed her arms across her chest.

“You are k’laxi!” She said, her eyes wide.

“I am, but how did you know? Nobody here seemed to know about my people.”

“I read about you in the histories. It had mentioned how the k’laxi stepped with the humans arm in arm through the first flourishing and gave a description. I never realized how…soft you would look in person.” Felu said, blushing. “I apologize.”

“Not necessary,” Cha-ren said, smiling. “I’m happy to meet a friendly face.”

Felu blushed harder and stared at the floor.

“Back to your work, missionary Felu,” Bellitree barked. “You have already been awarded ten hours of reactor ministration, would you like twenty?”

“N-no, Deacon,” Felu said. “I apologize for my transgression. I will return to my work.” She turned and with a glance back towards Cha-ren walked back to the reactor she was wiping down.

Cha-ren glanced at Charon, but he shook his head very gently. He unwrapped the proffered cables and they were indeed two power and two data cables, a default set. They had been coiled so long that they held their shape even with being completely untied, but he and Cha were able to very carefully unwind them and she was able to connect the reactor to the operating one next to it.

As soon as Cha had finished connecting the reactors, Charon’s display flashed new screens and long dormant lights illuminated. He heard Bellitree gasp, but other than smiling to himself, did not acknowledge him. Now that the reactor had feed power from the other one it was a simple matter to run a deeper diagnostic and then…

With the sound of ancient relays clacking, there was a deep subsonic hum that rose in pitch until it passed through hearing and became a background feeling of sound. He watched Cha wince , and when that passed, he knew without even checking the readout that the reactor was ready.

“Are you okay, Cha?” Charon said glancing back.

She nodded and smoothed her fur, “Every time those fields spring into being it makes my head hurt, I can’t believe it doesn’t bother humans.”

“What are you doing?” Bellitree said, moving up to peer over Charon’s shoulder. “That is not the correct order of operations.”

“If we’re starting from cold and trying to get bleed power from the other operating reactor it is,” Charon said. “We can’t just dump the power and get the field spinning, that will trip a breaker.”

“Yes, but—”

“Let him work, Bellitree,” Lariten said carefully. “This is all part of the agreement.”

“Hmph. It will serve them right if the whole thing fails dramatically in front of them,” Bellitree said, but he did step back.

After one more check to make sure that everything was ready, Charon pressed the activation button, and with a thrumming that started slow and then gradually sped up until it matched the other reactors, it was running. As soon as the reactor settled into its regular rhythm, Lariten’s comm buzzed. “Sir, sir! Our power budget has increased. We’re searching but we haven’t seen any holy machinery that has failed.”

“Nothing has failed, one of the relics has been re-activated.”

Charon could hear the person gasp over the tinny connection. “B-but how? Deacon Bellitree sai-”

“The Deacon is here with me and has witnessed the reactivation. Rest assured, everything was done correctly.”

“By the Tally…,” he said.

“Indeed,” Lariten said, smiling. “Please alert me if anything else happens, but for now work off the assumption that we have more power available.”

“Y-yes sir!”

Cha-ren and Charon could not ignore the smug smile that Lariten had, nor could they ignore Bellitree fuming, his arms crossed.

First / Previous / Next

“What do you mean, where is Earth?” Charon said, taken aback. “Can’t you just navigate there?”

“Until you showed up, I thought it was a legend.”

“But,” Charon said weakly, “You travel in space, you can just link there.”

Cha-ren looked up suddenly, “We are in space, yes?”

Gallie nodded, “We are. We are currently en route to the Gate so that we can go to our home system.”

“Gate? Humans don’t use the Gates. They use their wormhole generator,” Cha-ren said, her ears flat.

“Another legendary thing,” Gallie gasped. “We found selected texts that mentioned linking from one location to another though a wormhole, but we have been unable to piece together what they meant. Some of our historians thought they had found entertainment media by mistake. You’re telling me that humanity could travel from system to system without using the Gates?”

“We didn’t know the Gates even existed until we were in space for thousands of years,” Charon said cautiously. “The Gates were discovered when we met the K’laxi and Xenni for the first time. We actually learned about them all at once.”

“We had always thought that the K’laxi had been with humanity for far longer than that, perhaps even before spaceflight.”

“…Why did you think that?” Cha-ren asked, her left ear twitching. Charon felt her tail wrap around his leg and squeeze gently.

Gallie gestured towards them, “You two are in a relationship? We had figured that was common. Two species exploring and flourishing in a lost golden age.”

“Hah,” Cha-ren snorted. “It was hardly golden. There were troubles, and issues and small minded people, and wars; the same as now I imagine. We weren’t something special back then, just people.”

“Perhaps,” Gallie said and made a gesture Cha-ren and Charon didn’t recognize, brushing the top of her left hand with her right. “You can talk to the historians later if you’d like. For now, we need to know how to get to Earth.”

“Why?” Charon said. When he did, Cha-ren squeezed his leg with her tail tighter. She felt the same way that he did, something was off.

“We wish to be reunited with our long lost brethren. We wish to reconnect the planets scattered among the stars and be one again.”

“You thought Earth was legendary just a moment ago, and now you want to go there?” Cha-ren asked.

“Did you or did you not visit Earth yourself?” Gallie said.

“I have given you no indication that I am being truthful,” Charon said, crossing his arms. “You are taking me at my word and are - seemingly - planning a visit to reconnect the planets scattered among the stars?”

“How many star systems are you in contact with, right now?” Cha-ren asked.

“Three.” Gallie said proudly. “We have translated three glyphs on the addressing stones in the Gates and can now visit those systems. One of which contains a settled system!”

“And the other two?”

“One was the system we found you in, and the other contains a planet that is ready for colonization.”

“So it’s empty?”

“Currently, but we are planning colonization.”

“So you’re in contact with one other system. How long?”

“How long what?”

“How long have you been in contact?” Cha-ren said. Getting a straight answer out of Gallie was proving to be frustrating. It might be issues with the translation, but they couldn’t help but feel that Gallie was being evasive. Still, they couldn’t afford to annoy her too much, she was the closest thing to a leader that they had found so far.

“Almost two years.”

“I…see,” Charon said. “Do you have the rest of the ship that we were aboard when you found us? That will be a trove of information that would be very useful to you.”

“We did, until the treacherous Brennians stole it from us.”

“And the Brennians are the other system,” Cha-ren said, her ears flat.

“That’s right. We got into a firefight over the rights to the hulk you were found on.”

“If that’s the case, how did you get us?”

“We managed to get you aboard our ship before the shooting started,” Gallie said, but she wasn’t looking at Cha-ren when she said it.

“Wait,” Cha-ren said. “What do you mean you translated the glyphs? That’s not how it works. When we discovered a new Gate we would simply touch the addressing stone in the Gate, and we would know which glyphs led where.”

“How did that work?” Gallie said, giving Cha her full attention.

“I don’t know the specifics, I am - was - a reactor engineer like Charon, but I had friends who were navigators and they said you just touched the stone and-” She shrugged, “-you knew where to go.”

“Addressing stone?”

“The obelisk that is in the little room attached to all Gates?”

“In the Gates that we have discovered, that room contains the obelisk yes, but it’s just inert stone. Carved in relief are glyphs. We’ve spent decades trying to puzzle them out.”

Charon could feel Cha shiver more. “It’s not supposed to work that way.”

“And yet,” Gallie said as she brushed the tops of her hands again. “We are diverging. How do we get to Earth? What is the glyph for the birth system?”

“There…isn’t one,” Charon said. “Earth never had a Gate. Like I said, we only learned about them when we first met the K’laxi.”

“No Gate? How did you traverse the stars?”

“At first we traveled relativistically in Starjumpers, and once the wormhole generator was developed we used that to link locations.” Charon cocked his head. “This…isn’t a test? You really don’t know this?”

“So much had been lost,” was all Gallie said.

“Earlier you said the first flourishing,” Cha-ren said. “How many flourishings have there been?”

“We’re not sure. Some posit that there might have been as many as six or as few as two.”

“And a flourishing is?”

“A period when the people of the galaxy rise from their planets and come together in peace and extend the borders of the known. Now it is my turn to ask if you’re giving me a test. We learn these things when we are young.” She said.

“I promise, we have never heard of this. And then after the flourishing, there’s a fall?”

She nodded. “Yes, usually a few thousand years after a flourishing begins, it ends.”

“How?”

“Those records are destroyed,” Gallie smiled without humor. “We have no idea what causes a flourishing to fail. War, disease, outside interference, any number of catastrophes.” She stood and held out her hand. “Come. We’ve discussed the past enough, it is time to discuss our future.”

Gallie led them to a small room that had six people already in there waiting. They were dressed in a similar manner to Gallie and Charon assumed they were some kind of command for the ship they were on.

“You came from Sol.” One of them said, it was not a question. His voice came from Gallie’s translator, but it spoke in a different voice. How did it know? Charon wondered.

“I did,” Charon said. “I grew up on Hyacinth, Cha-ren did not.”

A few of the people in the room raised eyebrows in surprise. “Where did you come from then?” He said, turning to Cha.

“I was born and raised on K’lax, our birth-world.” Cha-ren said and her ears flicked. “If you use the Gates, then you should know this. Our world has a Gate in its system, we can go there now.”

“Do you know the glyph?” A woman said. She was wearing the same uniform as Gallie. “Can you take us there?” As soon as Cha mentioned the glyphs, she focused on her with a laser intensity.

“I am not a navigator, but I have seen it before. I-I wouldn’t be able to give you certainty, but I could see which ones look familiar to me.”

“That’s more than we’ve ever had,” the woman said, standing. “Come to me when you’re able. My name is Metanium, I am the current navigator.” Metanium walked out of the room without another word.

“Do you know how to reach Sol?” The first one to speak said.

“I do not; our ship, Hummingbird was the one that handled the wormhole links. They would know how to get to Earth.” Charon said.

Cha-ren’s tail swished as she spoke, “We were aboard Hummingbird when we entered hibernation, Gallie said you do not have the ship?”

“We do not. It was taken by the Brennians.”

“The people who live in the other star system,” Gallie added.

“I remember. Why did they take it?”

“They are trying to steal from us and take the lead in technology rediscovery,” Gallie said frowning. “If you can take us to Earth, we can pull ahead.” When she spoke a few of the assembled people nodded along, but Charon noticed that one or two were presenting carefully neutral expressions.

“Why? What’s on Earth?” Charon said.

“So much lost wealth. Lost technology. Lost information,” Gallie said, her eyes unfocusing. “If we make it to Earth, we can start a new Flourishing, we can lead the way, we will be the ones at the vanguard.”

“I…see,” Charon said.

“Help us to realize our goal, and you will rise with us.”

“We’ll do what we can, but-”

“This is not a request,” Gallie said, her eyes suddenly focusing on Cha-ren and Charon. “You will help us. You have come at an opportune time and we will not squander this.”

The others in the room stood and inclined their heads very slightly. “We look forward to your knowledge,” One said, and they all filed out.

“Come,” Gallie said. “I will take you back to your room. We’re three days out from home. Once there you can show us how to return to Earth and we can begin the Flourishing.”

Gallie showed them how to summon a steward to ask for food and explained the cleanser, though for modesty’s sake, she did not demonstrate. She gave them a pad and with effort, was able to have it render things in their language, though she emphasized that they should begin language lessons immediately.

“What about the translator you wear?”

“This is one of five we have, and the only one aboard. We are fortunate that it understands your language; we have no way to make any more.”

“Is that why everyone was speaking through it?”

“Correct. Anyone in the room with me can speak and will be understood. Is there anything else you need?”

“Uh, no, thank you.” Cha-ren said.

Gallie opened her mouth as if to say something more, then shut it, nodded once, and walked out.

“So, uh-” Charon started and then Cha-ren put her hand over this mouth. She put her finger to her lips, the human gesture to be quiet.

“Do you know suit sign?” She signed.

“I learned a bit in school,” Charon signed back awkwardly.

“We are not safe,” She signed.

“I agree.”

“We should escape.”

“But where? How?” Charon signed. He wasn’t speaking any faster, but as he used it, memories flooded back from when he studied it in school. Lessons 28,000 years in the past now.

“Don’t know. Find Hummingbird.”

“How?”

“Don’t know,” Cha-ren’s frustration was evident even while signing. Charon could see her face tense and her shoulders tighten as her hands moved faster and more stiffly, He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

“We’ll figure it out,” he whispered.

“I know,” Cha-ren sighed. “The only way out-”

“-is through,” Charon completed with a smile.

They summoned a steward and received an evening meal. After, Charon tried the cleanser and came out spotless, smelling slightly of mint and looking utterly haunted. Cha-ren was sure his hair had a few new streaks of grey in it.

“How was it?” Cha-ren asked, trying not to smile.

“It was…intense.” He said.

Cha-ren tried it next and came out with all of her fur standing straight. This time Charon suppressed a laugh, but he found a brush, and sat behind her, brushing her fur until it was soft and glossy again. They had sex, and after laid holding each other until they drifted off to sleep.

****

“Do you know that sign language they used?” Gallie asked the woman standing next to her as they both peered at the screen showing the sleeping forms of Charon and Cha-ren. The woman turned away, embarrassed while they were having sex, but Gallie stared the entire time, fascinated.

“No, Director, it does not match any sign language we have on file.”

“They do not believe in the truth of our mission as we do.”

“That is not for me to say, Director.”

“Trust me, it is true.”

“Yes, Director.”

“Together, they will present…difficulty.”

“Is that wise, Director? Our cause is just, can we not ju-”

“Are you Director, Wennen?” Gallie said, sharply.

“No, Director.”

“Metanium will solve this for us. Those two know more than they are admitting, and she will get the truth from them.”

“Yes, Director.”

First / Previous / Next

Charon awoke gently, warm and comfortable in bed. He tried to roll over but found that he was blocked by Cha-ren snuggled up against him, the rhythmic rise and fall of her breathing a soothing domestic moment. He smiled at the recollection of the night before. They had both had sex before, but neither had been with the other’s species. Still, they had managed quite well, with both falling to sleep pleasantly spent.

Sliding out from under her, Charon padded to the kitchenette and set some water to boil and dug out the flour and a few other ingredients. He knew she liked pancakes, and already had this idea in the back of his mind in case the night went well.

Twenty minutes or so later, Cha-ren came into the room yawning hugely, and wearing Charon’s shirt, which hung loosely off one shoulder. “Do I smell pancakes?” She said, as her ears perked up.

“That’s right,” Charon said as he slid a plate over to her. “And. Not only that, but look: I found real maple syrup.”

There were few human foods that K’laxi tolerated, let alone liked, but pancakes was one of the most popular. Simply made with well tolerated ingredients, K’laxi operated all-day breakfast diners were a staple of settled space. Maple syrup was an even more rare treat, given that maple trees had proven very difficult to cultivate off Earth, and those that did make it produced syrup with a noticeably different flavor. The small bottle of “Gord’s Reserve” - maple syrup with a cartoon of a Canadian lumberjack smiling in front of a tapped maple tree - was one of the most valuable foods aboard. Hummingbird had told Charon where to find in in the Captain’s stores and promised that nobody would mind if he took it. Cha-ren gasped and her eyes went wide when he handed her to container. “I’ve never had real maple before,” She said, her voice reverent. “You really do know how to treat a girl.”

After breakfast, Charon cleaned up while Cha-ren showered, and when she was finished he went and changed clothes and got ready for the day, such as it was. They had both switched to civilian clothes and met up in the lounge.

“Okay Hummingbird,” Charon said as Cha-ren sat on the couch and cuddled up against him, “We had a great night and a delicious breakfast. I didn’t bring it up last night because because we were otherwise occupied and I didn’t want to ruin the mood, but I can’t shake the feeling that your news isn’t as good as you’re making it sound.”

At that, Cha-ren stiffened. She had wondered the same thing.

“…I wasn’t lying,” Hummingbird said finally. “I do have a way for you to get home.”

“But?” Cha-ren said.

“I don’t have enough power to print a reactor and a wormhole generator large enough to go home. I don’t even have enough power to print a reactor or a wormhole generator.”

“So then what?” Charon said.

“So, we go home the long way.”

Cha-ren sat up. “The long way?”

“I print two hibernation cabinets, you climb into them, and we await rescue. I’ll send out an emergency SOS pulse pointed at settled systems, and after it arrives someone will link over and pick us up. Luckily, we’re in a Gated system, so even if the Xenni or K’laxi get our signal first, we can be rescued.”

“How long?” Charon said.

“Well, it all depends on who gets the signal first and wh-”

“How long, Hummingbird?”

“Minimum is thirty years. K’lax is thirty years towards the galactic center from here.”

Charon and Cha-ren were silent. He put his arm around her, and could feel her trembling.

“You won’t experience the time at all. We’re good at hibernation, and the time you’d be under is about the same amount of time it would take when we traveled relativistically; all of the pieces are known. We wouldn’t be treading any new ground here.”

“But you mentioned power. How would these hibernation cabinets be powered all this time?”

“That part is easy. If it’s just down to me and two cabs, I can run on minimum viable. If I print some solar panels before going to minimums, you two could run for millennia with no ill effects. Radiation wouldn’t be a problem, my hull is designed to protect against hard gamma at .5C, sitting in an empty system three AU from a star is nothing.”

“What about you?” Cha-ren said finally. “Wouldn’t the wait get to you?”

“Nah. Like I said, it’s about as long as I used to spend relativistic. I can go into high perception mode. I dial myself to go as high as a year going by in an hour. 30 hours in my perception and we’d be rescued. I’ll start a movie marathon.”

“But it’s still thirty years,” Cha-ren said. “We’d be gone thirty years.”

“Y-es, that’s true,” Hummingbird admitted. “But, this is all I have. We’re lightyears from rescue, I don’t have an addressing module, so I couldn’t use the Gate even if I had wanted to. My entire aft section was blown up and even if I had the power - which I don't - lighting the Stardrive would take just as long. You can enter hibernation, or wait it out awake. We have enough food to last ten years or so if you go on half rations right now and spend every moment growing things in the greenhouse.”

“How long will it take to make the hibernation cabinets?” Cha-ren said after a moment.

“If I start right now, they’ll be ready by bedtime.”

She stood and took Charon’s hand. “Come on.”

“What? Where are we going?”

“If we’re going to be apart for thirty years, I need to get some time together in before we go.”

They spent the day making love, playing games, watching media, and doing their utmost to experience each other as much as possible in their last day. Cha-ren was relentlessly cheerful and explained in no uncertain terms that Charon was not allowed to be melancholy during this time. “You can be sad we’re apart when we’re apart,” She said, “Not while we’re still here together.”

Cha-ren made lunch for the two of them saying that it was “only fair” since Charon made dinner and breakfast. After a minor kitchen fire, they collapsed on the couch in the lounge with a meal bar, singed but laughing.

In entirely too little time, the cabinets were ready. Hummingbird had them moved from the printing hall to the conference room off the lounge while Charon and Cha-ren had been indisposed. The two of them stood side by side, holding hands as they regarded them.

Nearly as tall as Cha-ren, they were two pure white lozenge shaped containers, sitting at a slight angle. Opening from the top, Charon could see how much effort went into making them not look like coffins. Even when they were powered off, the cabinets radiated cold as if the idea of cold itself permeated the material. Cha-ren shivered as she approached them.

Hummingbird had called them into the room right after they had finished having sex; they were both barely dressed. She had a moment when she thought how bizarre it was to be standing in just a shirt staring at what would be her home for the next thirty years. Standing on the tips of her toes she peered into the open cabinets. Under antiseptic blue-green lights there was a bed surrounded by unknown sensors and computing equipment. The room smelled of new plastic and cleaner.

“So, what do we do?” Charon asked finally.

“At this point they’re ready to go. You climb in, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Should we uh, take the rest of our clothes off?” Cha-ren asked.

“That’s not necessary,” Hummingbird chuckled. “Some people have gone into hibernation in their full dress blues, and others have gone in completely naked. It doesn’t matter at all. Dress how you’re comfortable.”

“Let’s put something on,” Cha-ren said. “We probably shouldn’t be woken up after thirty years waiting for a rescue and I’m wearing your shirt and you’re in boxers.”

They returned a moment later in soft, comfortable clothes. “Anytime you’re ready,” Hummingbird said.

Suddenly, Charon embraced Cha-ren scooping her off the ground, and she squeal-hissed in surprise. When she realized what was happening, she returned the hug. “I just found out how happy I could be,” He said and kissed her. “I don’t want to lose it.”

“You won’t be losing anything,” she replied in his ear. “We’ll be together. We can pick up right where we left off when we’re rescued. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to need something familiar when we’re thirty years away from everything we knew.”

“I wish I had more time to become more familiar,” Charon said as he squeezed Cha-ren’s butt. She giggled and tucked her head into the crook of his neck.

“Me too, but if it’s this or starve in ten years, I know what I want to do.”

“You’re right of course.” He gently put her down and sighed. “Okay Hummingbird, we’re ready.”

“Then climb in, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

The seat inside the cabinet was cold against Cha-ren’s fur, but it warmed quickly. Far from being claustrophobic, it felt comfortable, like a cocoon, or what she imagined a womb to feel like. The outside of the cabinet radiated cold, but inside it was warm and safe. As she laid back, she felt it come to life, and the icy shock of sensors connecting to her passed as quickly as it came.

“How are you feeling?” Hummingbird asked, his voice coming from inside the cabinet.

“It’s more comfortable than I thought it would be,” She admitted. “Can I talk to Charon this way?”

“Hi Cha,” He said over the same connection.

“Is your hibernation cabinet…comfy?”

“Hah, it is.” He admitted. “This is much nicer than I thought it would be.”

“I suppose it won’t be too bad to wait out rescue, so long as you’re there on the other side.” She said.

“I agree.” Charon paused for a long time, and Cha-ren thought he had disconnected, but then he spoke up. “Cha?”

“Yes Charon?”

“I…love you.”

She felt her fur puff out in surprise and felt her own flush of a blush climb up her skin until the tips of her ears felt hot. “I-I love you too, Charon, though this seems a bit sudden.”

“I don’t know if I’m going to get the chance to say it again. My only regret is that I didn’t realize you liked me sooner, so we could have had more time together.”

“There will be plenty of time once we’re rescued.”

“You’re right. See you soon.”

“You too.”

Hummingbird disconnected their audio feeds, lest they lose their nerve. He was happy they had found each other before this, even if it had been for a short time.

After they were fully in hibernation, and Hummingbird confirmed that things were nominal and operating well within parameters, he composed three emergency messages. One, he sent to K’lax, one to Sol - a full two hundred lightyears away - and one to Home, the secret operating base of the AIs. Home’s existence was barely known by the BIs - Biological Intelligences - and it’s location was a very well guarded secret, but Hummingbird still sent the message letting them know what had happened, and what they were doing, just in case.

He hadn’t told Cha-ren and Charon that while he absolutely was going to send the messages, the likelihood of a reply or rescue within thirty years was miniscule. If they were going to be rescued at all, it would probably be within a century or two when this system was next cataloged and mapped. That was quite a bit longer than what he told them, but not an unreasonable amount of time he told himself. Once everything had settled down into a steady-state, they would stay safe and the cabinets operable for millennia. Everything would be fine.

Messages sent, Hummingbird printed and unfolded solar arrays, powered down all non-essential systems, cued up a movie marathon, and set his perception to it’s maximum.

All that was left to do now was wait.

First / Previous / Next

“Wait, you don’t know how we’re getting home?” Charon asked. Cha-ren was placed on a wheeled cart and Charon was wheeling her to Medical. Now that the immediate emergency was over, he could afford to be gentle. She moaned slightly over every bump.

“I mean, academically, I know how to get home,” Hummingbird said. “But our reactors just blew, taking the emergency beacons with it.”

“Speaking of which, why do we have power at all?”

“Batteries. They’ll last a couple weeks at current power output, no stress.”

“Can we re-charge them?”

“Without the reactors, we’d have to print up a solar array. It could work but that’s not getting us home any quicker.”

“Wait, that’s it. Are the matter printers still operational?”

Almost every Starjumper carried matter printers and an amount of printable matter so that they could make repairs, spare parts, and nearly anything - non biological - they might need.

“They are, bu-”

“Then that’s it! We’ll print a reactor, and then print a wormhole generator, and we’ll be good to go.”

“About that,” Hummingbird said. “We don’t have enough power to do that.”

“But you just said we had weeks.”

“Weeks at our current output. If I printed a whole reactor, I’d get 75% done and I’d run out of power. I’d have to go cold, and you would suffocate.”

Once in Medical, robotic arms - probably controlled by Hummingbird - took Cha-ren off the cart and laid her gently onto an exam table. Arms folded down from the ceiling and started passing over her as Charon heard cooling fans somewhere kick on. After a moment, a readout appeared on a screen next to her. Charon tried to read it, but he could only make out that things weren’t great. “She’s hurt pretty badly, isn’t she?”

“She is,” Hummingbird admitted. “If this was a normal emergency, we’d link back to K’lax and get her treatment from her own people. We can’t do that, so we’re going to have to make do.”

“Do you have a database of…K’laxi medical practices?”

“I do, but it’s simplified. Treatment for colds and minor infections. I have a trauma section but its focus on stabilization, and she’s pretty stable now. I have begun the process to knit her bones though, that we can handle.”

Cha-ren groaned, as she gestured for Charon to come closer.

“A-ancestors, this hurts a ton,” She rasped, her ears twitching in amusement despite her injuries. “Hummingbird, can we do something about the pain?”

“Sorry Cha-ren,” Hummingbird said, “You just had the pain relievers flushed out of your system and your nerve endings are overwhelmed. Things are probably going to hurt more than they should for a bit.”

“If this is what your pain relievers do to K’laxi, I don’t want to see what happens when you take drugs to party.”

Charon chuckled, “I’m sorry Cha. Maybe we can give you a regular analgesic or anti-inflammatory.”

“Already did, Charon,” Hummingbird said. “It’s the only reason she’s not screaming while her bones are being healed. You should try and sleep a bit Cha-ren, that will help.”

“Sleep he says,” Cha-ren said, and then her eyes focused on the ceiling. “Hummingbird? Don’t you hurt from having half your body blown up?”

“Yes actually, but I don’t feel pain the same way you do. For me, it’s more like a ragged absence. Something missing. It’s like an itch I can’t scratch.”

“Ugh, that almost sounds worse than what I’m dealing with,” Cha-ren said.

“Rest, Cha,” Charon said as he gently stroked the fur between her ears. “Hummingbird says we have weeks of battery power; we have plenty of time to figure something out.”

“I heard him; my body is battered, and someone flushed all the good drugs from my system, so I’m perfectly conscious,” She said, but she smiled with her eyes at Charon. “I’ll lay here and pretend to rest while you go get something to eat. When I’m more mobile, we can figure this out.”

“But-”

She reached out and grasped his hand in hers and squeezed. “I’ll be all right, thanks to you,” She said softly. “But if you don’t take care of yourself our roles will just be reversed. Go. Eat. Rest. I’m not going anywhere.”

“If you’re sure…”

She squeezed his hand again. “Just don’t drink all the chamomile tea.”

Charon grabbed a meal bar from the kitchen and explored what was left of Hummingbird. Kilometers long, the Starjumper had been developed in a time before the wormhole generators. It was designed to travel between the stars at half the speed of light. If your trip was going to take more than twenty five years one way, then it was wise to make the ship as big as possible and carry as much as one could. These days, that wasn’t necessary, but being a Starjumper carried prestige. Other than the thick pressure doors sealing them off from the wrecked half of the ship, things seemed normal. There wasn’t any scorching on the walls, no flickering lights, no random sparks. The only other thing that indicated that things were not normal were the blast doors sealing off command. More than mere pressure doors, these were double thick doors made of exterior hull plating, painted in a vivid alternating pattern of neon orange and yellow. Humminbird explained that command could be completely sealed from the rest of the ship in case of a boarding action, protecting command while they repelled the attack.

“Did that happen often?” Charon asked, as he looked up at the huge doors.

“It didn’t…not happen,” Hummingbird said carefully.

“Were you ever boarded?”

“Yes, twice.”

“Wait, really?” Charon said, not hiding his shock. “When?”

“Oh this was thousands of years ago, long before the wormhole generators. The first time was when I was on a Sol, New Wellington, Meíhuà run. When I was braking towards Meíhuà, some pirates boosted to me and boarded.”

“You couldn’t attack them?”

“Back then we didn’t have the power we do now, it took nearly everything I had just to keep the lights on and the stardrive firing, so when they came alongside I couldn’t do much about it until they came aboard.”

“How did you stop them?”

“The usual way. Command was sealed, and I negotiated with the crew.”

“Negotiated?”

“Sure. Eight out of ten times they can be talked out of attacking. Most of the time they were hungry or broke. We carry goods for just such an occasion. You’d be surprised how well two sacks of rice and a few computers does to stop attacks.”

“I had this image of you firing your exawatts at them and having this grand battle or something.”

Hummingbird chuckled, an odd sound. “That only happens in media.”

“Hummingbird?” Charon said and then stopped. “No, never mind.”

“What is it? We’re going to be together a while, don’t feel like you have to hold something back.”

“Where are the bodies?”

“Bodies?”

“You know,” Charon swallowed, and stared at his meal bar. “Everyone who…died.”

“Back on your half of the ship the explosion meant anyone was gone and up here I cleared them out. They’re in cold storage, so that they can be returned to their families when we return. I sealed all their cabins too. Your and Cha-ren’s cabin are still open, as is the lounge, the gym, and medical.”

Charon returned to his cabin, took a boiling hot shower, and flopped onto the bed. He stared up at the ceiling a long time before he managed to sleep.

The next morning he got dressed in his usual ship’s uniform and checked on Cha-ren. She was sitting up when he entered medical. “Hi Charon,” she said brightly and then winced. “Ow, my head.”

“Headache?” Charon asked.

“Concussion,” Hummingbird answered. “She’s better now, but she’ll have a wicked headache for the rest of the day.”

“And the bones?”

“All better,” Cha-ren said and patted a spot next to her. Charon sat and she leaned up against him. “I never thanked you for saving me.”

“No need,” Charon said. “Are you feeling better?”

“Other than the headache and a soreness on par from the time I attempted to run a 5k yes. But I am starving.”

Charon hopped off the bed and held out his hand for her. She took it and slid onto the floor. She was about one head shorter than Charon’s 175cm and her fur was a deep orange red. The swell of her mammalian chest was partially obscured by the medical gown she had on, but it wasn’t enough to hide it completely. Her large ears had silver earrings running up and down them and unlike other K’laxi Charon had met, hers were tight to her ears and didn’t dangle and jingle. She looked up at him with her green eyes and for the first time he noticed how her pupils were slitted instead of round like his. She smiled and said, “Is my fur matted or something? You’re staring.”

“Oh! No, everything is fine.” Charon said, blushing slightly. “L-let’s go eat.”

They had some tea and a heat-and-eat meal and then Cha-ren had a shower and came into the lounge wearing a comfortable pair of pants and a very tight white tank top with a cartoon starjumper on the front. Charon blushed and looked away quickly,

“Don’t tease him, Cha-ren,” Hummingbird said kindly.

“Don’t tease him?” Cha-ren cocked her head. “I’m not teasing him,” She grinned with her sharp canine teeth peeking out and sauntered over to Charon and stood over him with her hands on her hips. She bent low at the waist so that he was staring down her shirt, her tail swishing back and forth. “Now this? This is teasing,” She laughed as he turned crimson and suddenly became very interested in his tea.

“Cha-ren, be nice.” Hummingbird said.

“No, it’s all right,” Charon said quietly. “I-I don’t mind, I’m just s-surprised.”

“That I like you?” Cha-ren asked. “I know you liked me.”

“Was it that obvious?”

“Yes,” Hummingbird answered. “There was a pool in the ship betting on when you two would get together.”

“There was?” Charon said, embarrassment forgotten.

“Yup, the prize was two hundred stars and a bottle of the winner’s favorite beverage.”

“Now that is out of the way, two things,” Cha-ren said as she stood and moved next to Charon, sitting on the couch with him. “One, I want a date with you. A real, human date.”

“Uh, sure,” Charon said. “We can’t go anywhere, but we have lots of media and I can…probably cook something with Hummingbird’s help. We can have a movie night.”

“I’m happy to assist any way I can,” Hummingbird said. “What’s the second thing, Cha-ren?”

“How are we getting home?”

“Why don’t we discuss that after the date?”

Cha-ren’s ears flattened. “That means you don’t know how we’re getting home.”

“Actually, I do know a way, and it will work. But, instead of you two worrying about things related to it, go have your fun first. We’re in no rush.”

Charon spent the rest of the afternoon working with Hummingbird on building a meal that not only would Charon be able to cook, but that the two of them would be able to eat together. When they finally had everything running smoothly, Charon dashed off to his cabin to quickly shower and change into his nicest civilian clothes.

He ran back to the kitchen and had begun setting one of the small tables when Cha-ren walked in. Charon looked up and stopped in his tracks.

She had gone all out. She had brushed her fur until it glowed and had replaced her earrings with long shimmering silver pieces that flashed and shone in the lights of the kitchenette. Somewhere she had found a cocktail dress with a slit that went up to her hips and a plunging neckline and a silver necklace completed the look, drawing Charon’s eyes to her chest.

“You look amazing,” Charon blurted.

“Thanks,” She said, her tail darting back and forth, telegraphing her nervousness. “I had packed the dress on a whim. It was light and didn’t take up much of my mass allotment; I’m happy I get to use it.

As she stepped in, Hummingbird dimmed the lights and a small spotlight illuminated their table. Charon sat Cha-ren down, and started bringing out plates.

He had begun with a green salad; something simple they could both eat, but fresh vegetables were a rare commodity in space - with Hummingbird’s permission Charon had raided the greenhouse - and it was a rare treat. After, he brought out a K’laxi dish - Darni’ken - made from a K’laxi grain that had been steamed and served with piquant spices. Charon had heard Cha-ren mention it once in passing and fortunately Hummingbird had the ingredients on hand.

They ate slowly, spending time talking, laughing, getting to know each other more. Charon explained how he had grown up on Hyacinth, the largest orbital in Sol, so big that it was practically it’s own polity, and Cha-ren talked about being the youngest in a very large familial line, with dozens of siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and other family members coming and going at their compound in the northern mountains of K’lax. Getting a job in space was her way of getting some personal space and the ability to be herself.

“It also meant for the first time in my entire life I had a room all to myself,” she laughed. “My first night I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I heard every single noise in the room and assumed it was something out to get me. I soon got used to it though.”

“After all that time of having to share everything, you must like having your own space,” Charon said.

“It’s nice,” She agreed, “But I do miss sharing my room every now and then.”

“Oh?” Was all that Charon managed.

“This meal was wonderful,” Cha-ren said as she stood. “And, I don’t know about you, but I can think of…other things we can do instead of watching a movie tonight.” She took his arm and placed it around her back, “Why don’t you come to my room?”

The blast knocked Charon back against the wall of the reactor hall, knocking the wind out of him. Cha-ren ran up to him, her fur singed and smoking slightly. She was ignoring it.

“Charon! Are you all right?” She asked as she glanced around. The wall opposite the reactors had buckled in nearly a meter, giving the room a bulging, squashed appearance. Acrid smoke hung in the air, thick and grey, smelling of fish for some odd reason. She slapped at her fur and winced at the burned flesh underneath. It wasn’t a serious burn, but it would hurt for a few days.

“I-I,” Charon gasped, but waved Cha-ren away, “I’ll live.” He stood, wincing and holding his side. Probably broke one of those thin ribs they have, Cha-ren thought. Suddenly Cha-ren’s ears popped painfully, and the din of the reactor hall lessened.

“We’re venting atmo,” Charon said, “Suit up.”

When they were first paired together, everyone had remarked how their names sounded similar even though they were two different species and that was their catalyst to becoming fast friends aboard ship. It didn’t hurt that Charon and Cha-ren were both reactor techs so they wound up spending a lot of time together.

With the ease that comes from hours upon hours of practice they both donned their pressure suits, and checked each other’s seals. These weren’t the bulky, armored pressure suits of the troopers, nor were they the not-much-better-than-a-plastic-bag suits set aside for passenger egress, they were simple, strong, lightweight pressure suits made for vacuum operations. Charon looked around for others to help, but they were alone. That was worrying, the reactor hall and engineering in general were usually bustling with activity.

“Chief Engineer Kepler,” Hummingbird said, “You’re alive? If able, please report.”

“Report?” Cha-ren said, cocking their head in surprise. “But we’re in your body, surely you know what’s going on?”

“Alive?” Charon added. “Don’t you know if we’re alive or not?”

“The strike and subsequent rupture of my link capacitors has caused severe damage to my superstructure, and that damage has sparked numerous fires. The event also severed neural connections to my aft decks. I am blind.”

“What happened?”

“We were under attack by unknown forces in a Starjumper,” Hummingbird said. “They knew exactly where to hit us. If I hadn’t initiated an emergency link, we would have been dead in the water and captured, however - most likely as a result of the damage - the capacitors failed during the link.”

Charon’s blood iced over hearing that. Link failures were how one got stranded between stars forever, if you survived. Most did not.

“Did we link successfully before the capacitors blew?”

Hummingbird paused much longer than Charon would have preferred before answering. “Mostly,” he admitted.

“Mostly? That’s not-

Before he could finish, the overspeed horn sounded. It wasn’t one of the dozens of digitized alert tones that played throughout the ship as it went about its regular operation. This was air powered, with its piercing multi-chime tone sounding in a dissonant minor key and when it sounded everyone immediately knew that things were bad. Even in the low atmosphere environment of the hall, they heard - and felt - the horn.

“Overspeed. Overspeed. Overspeed.” An automated voice that wasn’t Hummingbird said over their comms on the override channel. “Reactors two, three, six are in overspeed.”

“Hummingbird!” Charon shouted.

“I heard it too, Chief. Please provide a visual inspection of the hall and detail what you see.”

“You don’t even have cameras down here?”

“I don’t have anything, Charon. I’m completely blind and numb aft of the port cargo hold. I’m very lucky that your comms are a separate system, otherwise we wouldn’t even have that. There have been casualties, I need your report, Chief.”

“Come on Cha-ren, I’ll need your help too.” Charon said as they made their way back into the reactor hall. Charon’s chest was very sore but the suit’s onboard diagnostics indicated a broken rib and since it let him still work he figured it wasn’t that serious.

The reactor hall was a mess. Charon looked around for the other engineers, but they seemed to be alone in the ruined hall. Support girders hung at worrying angles away from the buckled hull. Cha-ren approached reactor two and stopped. “Charon, does two look…blurry to you?”

Sure enough, reactor two looked like it was out of focus, blurry and hard to see. Charon gasped over the comm and toggled Hummingbird. “They’re in overspeed alright, two is going relativistic.”

“Relativistic?” Cha-ren repeated.

“It’s moving fast enough that parts inside are approaching the speed of light,” Charon said quickly.

“That’s…bad, isn’t it?”

“It’s really bad,” Hummingbird said. Cha-ren was so startled, she squeaked when he spoke over their comm.

“Can you stop it?”

“I can’t,” Hummingbird said. “My nerves have been cut.”

“So what do we do then?”

“Grab an emergency beacon and get forward towards command.”

“An emergency beacon?”

“Yeah, normally I’d launch one myself, but you know, the whole no nerves thing.” Hummingbird’s personality started to leak through his smooth delivery and took on a sarcastic tone. “You can pop the maintenance hatch from the inside and grab one. They’re large, but with the gravity off you two can maneuver it.”

“Should we get some more crew to help?”

“There are no more crew in your location,” Hummingbird said, the forced calm resurfacing.

Charon ran out of the reactor hall down the hall towards the front of the ship. They couldn’t be the only ones left. Surely Hummingbird’s sensors are malfunctioning and everyone else is just in a safe room, Charon thought as he approached a large pressure door in the hall. There was a small glass viewport built into the pressure door. Charon peered through.

And saw open space.

A huge section had been taken out of Hummingbird, leaving ragged girders and a few dangling pieces of hull plating as the only thing keeping the aft of the starjumper attached to the rest of it. Twinkling in the light of the star, the debris formed a nebula of destruction around the ship.

“Hummingbird! The middle of the ship is gone.”

Another long pause. “I was worried that was the case. It would take something of that magnitude for me to be rendered completely numb.”

“Why are you so calm?” Cha-ren said as she peered through the window as well and then turned towards Charon.

“Hummingbird is suppressing emotion,” Charon said. “AIs can do it in times of crisis so that they can be more objective.”

“Charon is correct,” Hummingbird said. “Though it will come with a cost later. For now, survival is paramount. Please collect an emergency beacon and make your way forward.”

“What about the reactors?”

“There’s no saving them.” Hummingbird said. “Without sensors, I cannot power them down. They’re going to tear themselves apart, and we should be nowhere near them when that happens.”

“What about the commander?” Cha-ren asked. “Is he in agreement?”

“The commander, as well as the senior officers on the command deck are dead. As part of the War Emergency Power declaration, I have assumed command. The mission is lost, the crew - except for you two - are lost, so I am trying to save myself.”

“Wait, except for us? Who is still alive at this time?” Cha-ren asked carefully.

“Chief Engineer Charon Kepler, Engineer Exchange Cha-ten Falen.”

“That’s back here, what about the rest of the ship?”

“I have named all of the currently living crew.”

“We’re the only ones left?” Cha-ren said, staring at Charon. She could tell he was trying to keep under control, but the stress was starting to wear. Once his adrenaline wore off, he would probably break down. They’re so strong in an emergency, but for such a short amount of time, She thought to herself.

“Well, I’m alive too.” Hummingbird said and added, “Though, if you don’t get a beacon and come up here, none of us will be alive.”

“Right.” Cha-ren and Charon made their way up the corridor. The lights still shone brightly - too brightly - and the gravity kept on operating.

“Hummingbird, why do we still have lights and grav?” Charon said as they reached the locker. It was a large door, twice as tall as Cha-ren with a complicated looking mechanism in the center and a lot of warnings stenciled around the handle. He peered at the warnings and started flipping switches.

“The reactors will still power everything until-”

Hummingbird never finished his explanation because reactor two blew.

In retrospect, Cha-ren could only guess that it was reactor two; it could have been any of them. As they were thrown up the corridor towards the pressure door, Cha-ren realized she was thinking about which reactor blew instead of the things she had figured she would be thinking about when she was about to die: her parents, the ancestors that await her, heavy, serious things.

Instead she burned with curiosity as to which specific reactor was the one that was killing her and decided it was reactor two.

Before she could marvel further, she slammed into the bulkhead, back first.

****

Someone was saying something. Their voice was at the same time tinny and muffled, like she was under water.

“…”

There it was again. Who was speaking? What had happened? Cha-ren felt like she was deep underwater. Pushing off an imagined bottom, she shot upwards towards the surface as her breath started to burn in her lungs and then with a gasp and a swallowed scream, Cha-ren regained consciousness.

“Cha-ren!” It was Charon. He had been calling her.

“I’m h-here,” She said weakly. Her suit had a lot of red in the diagnostics. Both her and the suit had damages listed as “severe.”

“Oh thank the Seamother,” Charon said, relief flooding his voice. “We have to go forward.”

“The beacon?”

“Destroyed in the blast,” Charon said, shaking his head. She focused on him and saw that fully half of his pressure suit was blackened and charred. He had been closer to the blast than she was, but how come he wasn’t knocked unconscious?

“But that means we’re trapped?”

“We’ll think of something,” Hummingbird said, his voice clipped and filled with static like an old radio. “You two must move forward.”

Cha-ren went to sit up and accidentally tossed herself into a roll. Charon caught her gently and stopped her movement. “I turned off the gravity. It was to make moving the beacon easier, but now I can use it to tow you to safety,” He said. She saw his sad smile through his visor.

“I don’t need a tow,” Cha-ren said and brushed him away.

Rather, she tried to brush him away. As soon as she moved her arm, lightning bolts of pain shot up her arm towards her neck and she finally looked down at the suit readout. Deep in the red warnings were alerts that she had…quite a few broken bones. The suit was administering a rather worrying amount of painkiller - human class painkiller too; she was going to need chelation therapy when she got back to safety. No wonder I’m not worrying as much as I should be. I’m higher than Administration Station. “Charon, I have multiple broken bones, and the suit-”

“The suit has you jacked up with the good human painkillers yeah. It should be smart enough to keep you conscious, but you’re going to have a raging hangover tomorrow.”

“Assuming there is a tomorrow.” Cha-ren said, weakly.

“There will be.”

It had turned out that they were still in front of the pressure door. Tethering Cha-ren to a handhold, he went to the manual release and spun the large wheel over and over, as the door lowered excruciatingly slowly. She winced at the sharp light of the system’s star flooded the room before her visor darkened. And it felt very strange to by lying on her back staring up at the stars. It reminded her of being a kit back home, lying on the soft grass after final meal when everyone was bathing and getting ready for bed, and she would instead run out into the field and stare at the stars and imagine she could see them move through the sky as the planet spun. It wasn’t so bad out here, she thought. At least I got to see space up close. There was a noise, something itching at the back of her mind, but it probably wasn’t important. Just a thing in the background. Everything would feel better and make more sense after a nap. Yes, a nap was just what she needed.

***

“Her breathing has slowed to less than ten breaths per minute!” Charon said to Hummingbird as he poured over her suit readout. He had successfully towed Cha-ren across the wreckage of Hummingbird and entered the remaining pressurized sections of hull before he checked on her and found Cha-ren unresponsive.

“Her suit has overdosed her. We’ll need to administer an antidote. There’s a pocket on her right side of her environment pack. Rip it open and grab the injector.”

He ripped the pocket open and among other pieces of paper with printed instructions was an auto-injector. Safety orange it had luminous warnings written all over it in multiple languages, one of which said “NOT TO BE USED WITHOUT MEDICAL SUPERVISION”

“I have the injector. What is it?”

“It’s a narcotic antidote. It’ll flush the drugs from her system. She’ll be in a world of pain, and probably mad as hell, but she won’t die…from that.”

“She’s suited up though, how to I give it to her?”

“They’re designed to penetrate suit material. Jam it down on her thigh forcefully.”

Charon pushed the injector against her suit and he felt, rather than heard the click as the needle shot into her. There was a moment, then a second click and a little light illuminated on the top. The effect was immediate. Cha-ren’s eyes fluttered and she took a huge gulp of air, and sat up, hissing in pain as she did so. “What happened?” She asked and winced again. “I feel terrible.”

“The suit overdosed you.” Charon said. “It gave you human doses of painkillers. Luckily Hummingbird told me how to reverse it.”

“Luckily Charon was there to administer it.” Hummingbird added. “You will feel pretty bad, but that’s better than being dead.”

She looked around and realized they weren’t in the reactor hall anymore. “You brought me forward?”

Charon nodded.

“T-thank you.” She said as her ears flicked.

“Now then.” Hummingbird said, more jovially than he felt. “How are we going to get home?”

Mint streaked past Victoria and Yelena, long legs causing her to lope like an animal on the veldt. The lower gravity of the station caused her long green hair to flutter and flap as it trailed behind. Behind her station security huffed and puffed, trying to keep up, an automated voice clipped to one of their belts shouting, “Stop! Stop!”

“Looks like Minty was successful,” Yelena said, taking a delicate sip of her tea.

“If security is chasing her, she wasn’t that successful,” Vic countered, making a sour face.

Shrugging, Yelena stood up and toggled the comm the three of them were wearing and said, “You good, Minty?”

“Pretty good, all in all,” Mint said, though she was starting to breathe heavier from the exertion. “I got the chip, so we can go anytime.”

“And security?” Vic asked as she tapped board on the table paying for their drinks.

“Gimmie a millisec and I’ll lose them.”

“Are you going to Slip? You know what happens when you do that outside of the ship.”

“It’ll be fiiiiine Vicky, don’t worry.”

“That’s what makes me worry, Minty. Be careful.”

Vic and Yelena made their way back towards their ship, Kiss of Summer, taking a leisurely stroll along the station’s wide promenade. Dressed in her ever present bolero jacket, Vic looked every be the roguish captain she was trying to be. Yelena's tank top and comfortable pants were a stark contrast to Vic's sharp outfit. Neither of them were able to pull of the effortless beauty that Mint had. She collected all the attention wherever they went, but they were also able to use that to their benefit.

It hadn’t been Vic’s plan to become petty criminals and smugglers, but courier work had dried up almost completely. The development of the slipcomm meant that FTL communications was just as simple as FTL travel now. There just weren’t enough legitimate jobs available to keep Kiss fueled and the larder full. They were decent at it though, and hardly ever got caught.

By the time they arrived, Mint was leaning against the airlock door, smiling widely, even though her hair was mussed slightly and her face was shining with exertion. “Told ya I’d lose them,” She said.

“I never doubted you for a second, Minty,” Yelena said with a smile. “But we probably shouldn’t hang around.”

“No need, they’re very busy calling for extra reinforcements and scouring the wrong end of the station.”

“What have I told you about using your abilities when not connected to the ship?”

“Like I told Vic, it was fine. I know my own body, Yel.” She said as she crossed her arms.

“We can argue about how she got away when we’ve escaped ourselves. You did get it, right?” Vic asked as they made their way inside. She jumped into the pilots seat and disconnected them from the station in one smooth motion.

“Course I did,” Mint said as she settled into the navigators station to Vic’s left. She reached between her cleavage and pulled out a small flat chip, no more than 7cm long.”

“Ew, don’t keep things in your bra,” Yelena said, sitting down at the engineering station. “Especially if you’re all sweaty.”

“Hey, maybe they’ll pay extra for that, I know plenty of models who have a side hustle in fluids.” Mint said, tossing it over to Yelena, who caught it and put it into a shirt pocket.

“Don’t be crass, Minty.” Vic said as she watched the radar, checking for security coming out to give chase.

“It’s not crass, it’s business,” She said firmly. “Don’t be a prude.”

“I’m not being a prude, I don’t want to give Jimmy a sweaty chip!”

“And I’m saying he might like it.”

“Ladies,” Yelena said finally. “We’ve got incoming. Looks like three runabouts, probably station security.”

“Armed?” Vic said, all joking gone from her voice as she started flipping switches and warming up their weapons.

“Lightly.” Yelena admitted. “Maybe a missile, maybe some light blasters.”

The thunder-crack of a blaster striking the hull disagreed with Yelena’s assessment.

“Light blasters?” Mint said as she leaned her chair back and cables snaked around her, connecting her to the ship so that she could navigate. “Those don’t sound light to me.”

“Medium then,” Yelena said as she brought up her own screens. “Vic, what do you want to do? Fight or run?”

“Minty, how long until you have a nav solution?” Vic asked.

“Two minutes, not one second more,” Mint’s voice stopped coming from her body and was now coming in over the ships’ comm. While navigating, the place where Mint ended and Kiss of Summer began was blurry. In the background, Yel could feel the subsonic thrum of the slipdrive spinning up as Mint coaxed it into existence again.

“If it’s only two minutes, then I don’t think we need to get into a pitched battle,” Vic said as she pulled on the yoke and the ship started to dodge the bolts from security. “Yel, give them just a taste and see if they back off.”

“Aye.” Besides engineering, Yelena was also the weapons officer - unofficially of course, as they were not allowed any kind of weapons aboard, especially not the capital ship class heavy laser that was carefully concealed in a ventral hatch. Yel pulled on a lever that was built into her chair and they felt the ship clank and whirr as an emitter half as long as the ship slid into view.

As soon as the heavy laser stuck out and was visible, two of the three security runabouts broke off and streaked back towards the station, with the last wavering a bit before firing again.

“Well?” Yel asked, not looking up from her screen. “Whipping it out caused two of the three to bolt, but we still have one chasing us. Want me to fire?”

“Ugh,” Vic said. “Every time we fire that thing I feel tingly for two hours after. Mint, how close are we to slipspace?”

“Millisec,” Mint said over the PA. Vic could feel the edges of her vision start to soften as they moved into slipspace, where navigators could carry ships through the unreal to their new destinations. Things became pastel colored and hazy, like a fog rolling in. There was a feeling like softly being turned inside out and-

“Okay, we’re real again.” Mint said as the slipdrive spun down and faded back to the unreal. Every time they existed slipspace Vic felt like she was going to puke. Something about becoming real again really did a number on her stomach. Vic had no idea how it worked, and if pressed Mint wasn’t entirely sure, but the slipdrive didn’t work - didn’t exist really - until a navigator willed it into reality, and once it was here they could use it to travel across the galaxy.

It was going to be a day before they arrived at the drop point, so once the course was set and the ship put on autopilot, they adjourned for dinner.

It was Vic’s turn to cook and she bustled in the tiny kitchenette while Mint and Yelena sat, eyeing each other nervously.

“It won’t be as bad as when she made Gizmar Surprise, right?” Mint asked.

“It can’t be. That was a war crime. We should have gotten medals of honor for being in the same room as it.” Yelena leaned out and tried to see what Vic was doing. “It’ll be fine,” She said, unconvinced.

Eventually Vic came out carrying a steaming tray. On it were three plates of some kind of grain containing what Yelena was pretty sure were vegetables and a sauce. “Where did you get this recipe?” She asked.

“Oh, I found on the package of grain and it looked good.” Vic said as she handed out the plates. “Plus, it’s vegetarian, so it’s cheap.”

Closing her eyes, Mint took a bite, and after a few seconds swallowed thickly. “It’s uh-”

“It’s edible?” Yelena said as she swallowed her own bite and kept her face carefully neutral.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” Mint said as she eyed the plate, her pale skin taking on the same green pallor as her hair.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad,” Vic said as she took a bite herself. She chewed thoughtfully a moment, swallowed, and put her fork down. “I’ll go get three meal bars.”

Once dinner was disposed of, the three of them took turns with the shower. After, Mint sat on the edge of the bed wrapped in a towel as Vic combed her hair, its vibrant green color darkened to a deep leaf green while wet. Vic had always worn her boring brown hair clipped short and did not hide her jealousy for Mint’s luxurious hair.

“I still can’t believe you conned Vic into doing this every night this week.” Yelena said, looking up from her pad while lounging on the bed.

“It wasn’t a con, I just asked nicely.” Mint said, her head still. “I can be very persuasive.”

“Yeah, I know how you ‘persuaded’ Vic,” Yelena said, smiling. “She never had a chance.”

“It would have worked on your too,” Mint said as Vic started braiding her hair.

“That’s entirely besides the point.”

Yelena and Mint had been together for years before they signed on with Vic; if she had wanted to hire one, Yelena told her, the other was required. Fortunately Yelena was an excellent engineer, and they all worked well together. Mint being a navigator was unexpected. Normally navigators signed on with the big corporations or governments and took huge Altliners though slipspace brining tens of thousands of people at a time to their destinations. A ship as tiny as Kiss having a Navigator and a slipdrive was beyond rare.

Vic braided Mint’s hair once it was combed, and when she was done, Mint stood, the towel slipping just enough to make Vic think she was teasing her. “Thanks Vicky!” She said brightly, touching her braid.

“Anytime, Minty.” Vic said and stretched. “But, it’s time to head to bed I think, we have to be up early for the exchange.”

“Aw, you’re no fun,” Mint pouted.

****

The ringing off the comm was the thing that finally woke Vic up. Untangling herself carefully from Mint and Yel’s limbs, she padded towards the cockpit. Yawning, she sat and activated the comm, remembering at the last minute to set it to audio only.

“Kiss of Summer, Captain Victoria Wellfleet,” She said.

“Where the hell are you Vic? The exchange is in an hour.” Jimmy said as his image appeared on the comm. He was a bit older than Vic, his hair as short as his beard. “Have you even docked yet? Why are you audio only?”

Vic took a quick scan of their surroundings. Kiss had docked automatically while they slept - she had prepaid for the berth, so at least they had that going.

“We’ve docked Jimmy, we’ll make it.” Vic said as she stretched and yawned again. “Sorry; we overslept.”

“Hmmm.” Jimmy said, sounding unconvinced. “Don’t be late.”

When she returned to the bedroom with three mugs of caff Mint and Yel were up and pulling clothes on. “Jimmy woke me up, we’re on in an hour.” Vic said as she handed them the mugs.

“Well you had better put some clothes on then,” Yelena said as she took the mug. “You kept the call with Jimmy audio only right?”

“Either that or changed him for the cam show,” Mint said as she pulled her shorts up.

“It was audio only,” Vic said, “I’ll toss some clothes on and we’ll head out.”

As it turned out, they were a full five minutes early. Weaving around the morning crowd of tourists and locals, they entered the coffee shop that Jimmy specified and found him sullenly sitting at table, staring at his pad. Mint slid into the seat next to him, startling him. “Hey there Jimmy!” She said, brightly.

“You can’t say we’re late, we’re exactly on time,” Vic said as she sat across from him. Yelena took up station opposite Mint, and signaled to the barbot. It rolled over and she ordered coffee - real coffee, not caff - for everyone.

“Treemother protect us, don’t any of you know how to be subtle?” Jimmy hissed.

“Nope! I missed that class,” Mint said.

“Do you want it or not?” Yelena said, raising an eyebrow.

“Not even any small talk? Is this your first time or something?”

“Is it yours?” Vic countered. “You’re the one sitting here all alone in a coffee shop looking shifty.”

“I was reading!” Jimmy protested.

“Looking pretty shifty,” Mint agreed.

Jimmy opened his mouth to protest, but then sighed and took the coffee that the barbot just brought. “Fine. Now that you three rays of sunshine are here, we’re a regular party.”

“Hell yeah!” Mint said, grinning. “Now I’m interested.”

“You know what? Fuck this. You three are too wild. I’m out, no deal.”

Jimmy put his palms on the table to stand, but before he could rise out of his seat Yelena had a blaster poking him in the thigh under the table, and Mint had a blade on his other thigh.

“Now now Jimmy,” Vic said, her voice smooth and velvety. “You weren’t thinking of backing out on our deal and not paying us, were you?”

“Because if you were,” Yelena added, “We could just kill you, take the money, and sell the chip to someone else.”

Vic could see the beads of sweat on Jimmy’s brow as his thoughts raced. He reached into his jacked and Yelena and Mint both stiffened. “Easy ladies,” He said as he placed a currency chit on the table. “Twenty thousand as agreed. Now, where is my chip.”

Vic took out the chip and laid it next to the chit. Both of them reached out at the same time and took the thing they were after. Vic slotted the chit and verified the money was there, and was in a usable state.

“Counting the money while I’m still here is gauche, Vic,” He said.

“Better to be gauche than shorted, Jimmy,” Vic said as she removed the chit and placed it in a pocket. “You’ve already shown us you’re willing to screw the deal. We’re done here, don’t think we won’t mention this to Malcolm either.”

Jimmy’s face blanched when Vic mentioned his boss and local crime lord Malcolm Winters. Malcolm was known to have…strong opinions on people not following through with agreements. Opinions that have on occasion ended with an all expenses paid trip through the atmosphere without a pressure suit.

Yel and Mint withdrew their weapons and hid them. Jimmy rose slowly and seeing that they did not attack him, stood. “Regardless of what you think of me, you did complete the task, on time and without…very much attention.” He said as Mint winced at the mention of her not perfect theft. “My benefactors have a use for people who are skilled.”

“That’s good to know,” Vic said as she stood as well, signaling Yel and Mint to rise. “But I don’t think we’ll be taking any contracts from you or your benefactors for a bit.”

Jimmy smiled thinly as he took out a card - a real paper card - and tossed it to Vic, who caught it in the air. "If you ever change your mind, head to "The Leaky Spacesuit" over on the spinward arm and show that card to the bouncer. If nothing else, you'll get to drink for free. Think about it." Without turning to look at them, he walked out and disappeared into the crowd.

“What was his problem?” Yelena asked.

“He’s just mad that he can’t handle how cool we are,” Mint said as she blew on her coffee to cool it.

With nothing better to do, the group finished their coffee and decided to see about spending their newfound cash on something. Rounding a corner near the main fountain three men dressed in sharp black suits stepped into view. “Victoria Welfleet, Mint Summerbreeze, and Yelena Kuzmina?” The man on the right said. They wore very dark visors over their eyes; Vic couldn’t tell where they were looking.

Before Vic or Yelena could do anything, Mint’s head tipped back and her mouth opened in a wordless scream. At the same time, the world started to lose focus, become pastel colored and blurry. The scraps and trash around them started to rise against the gravity of the station and Vic felt the familiar gauzy feeling of entering slipspace. “Mint, w-what are you doing? What’s going on?” Vic said, trying to choke down panic.

“Minty, no! Not without a ship,” Yelena yelled as she lunged towards her, but before she could move, a gauntleted hand grabbed her shoulder squeezing enough to make the blood run out of her face. Behind them were two people wearing completely black armored pressure suits, with visors obscuring their faces.

Before the three of them disappeared entirely, one of the suited men slapped a large collar around Mint’s neck, saying, “Oh no you don’t.” The effect was immediate. The gauzy feeling rushed away, and Mint collapsed to the floor. Immediately after, Vic and Yelena were stunned and collapsed in a pile next to Mint.

Chloe's high heels clicked on the deckplates as she strode down the promenade. They were an anachronism; despite coming into and out of fashion over the last eighteen hundred years, they were seen as old fashioned these days. She didn't even need them if she wanted to be taller, she could just have her body lengthened so that she could be her preferred two meter height without them, but she wore them all the same. It wasn't about the height, it was about the noise they maked when walking down a corridor or in the hangar. People would hear the sharp click click click click and tense up, a modern instinct from an earlier time.

The K'laxi Discoverer had her back to Chloe as she watched the crowd. Here on Concurrency Point the K'laxi, Xenni, and Humans mingled more than at any other station, and that was a source of concern for the the K'laxi secret police, the Mel'itim. The K'laxi authorities placed a good deal of value on conformity, on 'all pulling together,' and the Discoverers were there to remind folks of that.

"Discoverer," Chloe said. The K'laxi's fur puffed out on their tail and they jumped, startled. Chloe raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything; it was odd that someone whose job it was to watch people was so easily startled. The Discoverer turned and glared, but then stopped when she looked up, and up, to regard Chloe.

Chloe stood two meters tall, her ice blue eyes meeting her gaze impassively. She wore her long silver hair in a low ponytail. It wasn't the whitish grey of an elder, but instead metallic silver, as if it was made of millions of very fine strands of steel or aluminum. She was wearing practical business attire, but it was very finely made. If someone had looked at it closely, they would see the hallmarks of handmade human tailoring. Gord knew about her predilection for handmade clothing and would chuckle when she showed up with a new outfit, finding humor in an AI ordering handmade clothes.

"Y-yes, Chloe?" Nan-ne said, swallowing. Two weeks ago, the AI faction had received a call for assistance from a K'laxi research colony, and went to K'laxi administration with the information. Nobody was quite sure why the K'laxi had asked for the AIs, so Administration allowed them to answer the call, so long as a Discoverer was attached to the mission. Nan-ne Tetsurani was a young K'laxi fresh out of the academy, only on her second mission ever and was rater terrified of the tall AI woman. "Is it time to leave?"

"Shortly," Chloe said. She looked out towards where Nan-ne was watching. "What were you looking for?"

"Just looking," Nan-ne said. "It's something we pick up in the academy. When we're waiting, or standing around bored, we're not supposed to resort to something so distracting as reading or watching media. We people watch."

"The Discoverers really are always watching, eh?"

"We're supposed to."

"Did you see anything interesting?"

"That one there-" She pointed to a K'laxi woman, her red fur contrasting against her forest green blouse "-is trying to have a surreptitious meeting with that human." She pointed to a human sitting at the bar, their back to them, head down staring at something.

"Oh?" Chloe said, a touch bored. She left the non-AI politics to Gord most of the time, and never took an interest in things on such a granular level as this. "What is the purpose of the meeting? Sharing information?"

"No." Nan-ne's tail flicked and her right ear shook, the silver earrings jingling quietly. "They're having a relationship."

"Ah." It wasn't even politics then, it was interpersonal. Even worse. "Why are you interested?"

"No real reason," Nan-ne said, and turned away from the almost-couple. "It's just practice. They're not doing anything illegal, they're just the most interesting set of people here while I wait. Shall we?"

"Here's what we know," Bessemer said, standing at the head of the long conference table. Chloe had taken Nan-ne to one of the offices close to the hangar and an AI she didn't recognize was standing, waiting for them. On a screen in the room was a photo of a K'laxi station, sitting on a rocky planet with a purplish sky and no clouds. "Two weeks ago we received a beacon from the K'laxi planetary research station Kessim requesting AI assistance. They specifically mentioned sending an AI team to their location, and no, Discoverer, they did not specify why in the message."

Nan-ne closed her mouth, and her ears flattened. Bessemer continued, "We feel that this is a low risk, low reward mission; likely someone trying to get a good deal on some kind of mineral wealth that was discovered by cutting out the K'laxi government." The K'laxi declared a tariff of 3% on every tonne of material mined by K'laxi.

"Why go at all?" Nan-ne said, cocking her head slightly. "If it's just someone trying to smuggle, report it to Administration and move along."

"Normally that is what we would do," Chloe said before Bessemer could continue. "But Kessim is in a system with a Gate."

The Gates, used by the K'laxi and the Xenni - but not the Humans or AI - are a system of stationary FTL points. Program the ship's addressing module and as you approach the Gate it will activate and whisk you to your destination. After Contact, both the K'laxi and Xenni offered to participate in knowledge transfer about the Gates, but the AI and Humans both shut down those avenues. They seemed to have no interest in the Gates, where they were, or how they worked. Additionally, other than the K'laxi and Xenni homeworlds their explorations of the Gate system revealed that there were were very few planetary systems with Gates and none with native intelligence. Most Gates had an empty, barren system bereft of anything other than a star and maybe a gaseous cloud or two. The few that still did have planets were nearly as barren, with the planets in the system being bare, harsh, rocky worlds.

"A system with a viable planet and a Gate?" Nan-ne said as she idly scratched up near her ear. "That is unusal. Administration was fine with you going to check it out? Really?"

"Well," Bessemer said. "We said we were going to check it out and alerted them as a courtesy."

"And also as a courtesy, we allowed you to come along," Chloe added, smiling thinly.

"They think it's all a bunch of nothing, that's why they send me," Nan-ne said. "Send the newbie out, it won't matter."

"That's what we think too," Bessemer said, nodding. "Do you need to pack or take care of anything? We're going to cast off in an hour."

"An hour?" Nan-ne's fur puffed in surprise and Chloe watched with quiet amusement as she struggled to lower it. "Why so quickly?"

"It's just the three of us, why delay things?" Chloe said. "We'll link over to Kessim, see what's going on, talk them out of smuggling, and link home. If we're gone a week, I'll be surprised."

"The three of us?" Nan-ne said. "You're coming too, Bessemer?"

"Coming? I'm the ship," Bessemer beamed.

As much as he would have liked it, Bessemer was not a Starjumper, the gigantic mainline interstellar ships that were used before the development of the wormhole generator made their mighty engines and massive size surplus to requirements. He was instead a tramp freighter, able to haul more than eight hundred Human built ISO containers. Fully loaded, he wasn't nearly as large as a Starjumper, but still an impressive size compared to the K'laxi and Xenni ships of the same class. Bessemer was running empty on this trip, so instead of the rainbow colored boxes hanging off a central superstructure, he looked like a head with a spine hanging off the back. It was somewhat disconcerting to Nan-ne, but she didn't say anything.

Nan-ne was not one of the one in one hundred people who suffered link-death - the feeling like you had died and visted the afterlife - when they traversed using the wormhole generator, so the trip out was uneventful and rather boring. Chloe taught Nan-ne the card game Pinochle and the three of them ran a mini tournament.

Kessim was currently the name of the planet and the station, and they stood in high orbit around the planet, a ball of rocky, red soil a bit larger than Mars. When they arrived, they signaled the research station, but had received no response.

"What's on your scopes?" Chloe asked. Nan-ne and Chloe sat in the large, mostly empty command deck. Bessemer could operate completely autonomously, so a crew only came along when requested or needed. Nan-ne sat at the sensor station, and Chloe squeezed her too-tall frame into the commander's chair.

"Uh, are we sure on the coordinates?" Bessemer asked.

"Yes, we received them directly from the corporation that is funding the venture," Nan-ne said.

"Well, this is those coordinates," and the image on the main screen resolved to an empty plateau."

"That can't be right," Nan-ne said. "Did you look elsewhere?"

"Discoverer, I scanned the entire planet, and have released two additional scanner sats which are in polar orbits completing a full geologic survey. They're not here."

"Is there any sign of them?" Nan-ne asked, as a feeling of panic rose in her throat. This was supposed to be easy. This was supposed to be easy. This was supposed to be easy.

"There is something," Bessemer admitted hesitantly.

"What?"

Bessemer said nothing, but Nan-ne saw Chloe's eyes flash blue. She must be speaking in private to Bessemer, she realized.

Finally Chloe sighed and stood, stretching. "This is a bad idea," She said aloud.

"Agreed, but if we aren't just going to scan and leave, it's the only way." Bessemer said.

"Fine." Chloe turned towards Nan-ne. "Discoverer Nan-ne, are you...religious?"

***

"No, that's impossible. Tep'ra'fel is a story told to kids to get them to listen to their parents," Nan-ne said quickly. Chloe and Nan-ne were in Bessemer's tiny kitchenette. Nan-ne was the only one who needed to eat, so it had been stocked with K'laxi staples in addition to Chamomile tea, a favorite human treat among them. "You're telling me that not only was Tep'ra'fel real, but her abilities were also real and given to her by a nano...nano-"

"Pan dimensional nanoscale distributed intelligence, yes." Chloe said. "She returned briefly, twice now and both times the person who became Tep'ra'fel realized what they were and worked to stop it from happening...eventually."

"Someone that could give undeniable orders..."Nan-ne trailed off and a shudder rippled through her fur. She took a sip of tea and put her mug down. "What does any of this have to do with the missing research colony?"

"We think it's the Gate," Bessemer said finally. "We're pretty sure the Gate is how they spread from system to system."

"Who spreads?"

"The Nanites. That's the name they give themselves."

"How-" Nan-ne narrowed her eyes at Chloe and continued, "How do you know all this?"

"It's because of-" Bessemer started but then Chloe raised her hand, palm out.

"That information is irrelevant right now. What we have told you is what we know as of right now and is very classified. As a Discoverer, we know you know how to keep secrets, understood?"

"I-Yes, I understand." Nan-ne said as she realized that she was very quickly sinking out of her depth into something much lager than mineral smuggling. "Is this why you agreed to come?"

"We didn't know for sure," Chloe admitted. "But, a K'laxi research colony in an otherwise barren system with only a planet and a Gate calls us for help..." She trailed off.

"We had a good hunch." Bessemer finished.

"So what do we do now?" Nan-ne asked as she washed her mug and put it away.

"We'll head to the surface and investigate."

"What?" Nan-ne nearly dropped her mug. "Shouldn't we go tell someone?"

"They already told us," Chloe said. "We're the right people for this job."

"On whose authority? This is a K'laxi claimed system, in K'laxi sovereign space, and a K'laxi research colony is missing. It sounds like a K'laxi issue." Nan-ne said, her ears pointed forward, and tall.

"Oh, has the Discoverer finally arrived?" Chloe said. "Good. That's why you're here. We were asked for help. We answered. We're asking you to come along to prove that we aren't just claim jumpers or worse."

First / Previous

We followed the doctor into the medical ward and I swear, the place smelled like cookies. He had us lay down on some beds, placed a mask over my face, and I woke up hours later.

“What happened?” I asked, as I sat up. I felt lighter than I had felt in ages, like I’d float away if I wasn’t careful.

“We purged your body of the nanites,” An orderly said, showing me a pad. It had said that 3 kilograms of 'foreign nanomachines' were removed. 3 kilos? “Wow.” I said.

“Yeah, you had more than anyone else so far. Us in Lavinia only had about ten grams. Your friends Omar and Ava had about one kilo each.” She chuckled. “3 kilos, you must feel so much lighter.”

“I do!” I agreed. “Where are Omar and Ava?”

“They were finished earlier than you; they’re in the canteen getting some food. Head out of medical, take a right, and then follow the smell of instant coffee and you’ll be there.”

Either the canteen was really close to Medical, or I was better at navigation than I thought; I got there easily and found Ava and Omar sitting by themselves at a table. I grabbed a mug - the same beat up white mug that navies everywhere have - filled it up with coffee, and sat next to them. “How are you?” I asked.

Omar shrugged. “Feeling a little bit smaller, a little bit diminished, but otherwise all right.” He said. “I was kind of liking our elevated position on the Reach. I felt like we were beginning to really help out the residents.”

“Yeah,” Ava agreed. “I think that if we had another year there, we could have gotten a fleet together, gotten more Builders, and explored more of that side of the galaxy. Who knows? Maybe there are hundreds of populated worlds out there and it was just the Reach and Besmara cut off.” She reached out and touched my hand. “How are you Melody? You had a deeper connection to them than any of us.”

“I’m-” I hid my hesitancy by taking a sip of coffee. Bad coffee was still better than no coffee. “I’m alive.” I said finally. “I don’t know if that would be the case if the Nanites were still with me. They were so driven to build more Gates that I think they would make anyone Emperor or Empress if they thought that person would get them more Gates sooner.”

“All this just to spread throughout the Galaxy and eat the occasional star system?” Omar shook his head. “Something doesn’t add up. What happened to their home dimension? Did they eat it all?”

“I bet they did.” Ava said. “Or, the turned it all into Nanites.”

“Do you think they’ll come to Sol?” I asked. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Now that they were gone, I could look back on the things I did and see how… scary it would have seemed to someone else, especially Far Reach. I’m annoyed at how much I think they did the right thing after all.

“Sol is a long way away.” Omar said. “And they don’t have wormhole generators. Even with the Gate system it would take them a long time to get to our side of the galaxy, and without them they’ll never go to Sol. The K’laxi and Xenni only found us when we linked to a system with a Gate, eighty something light years away. He took one last sip of his coffee and then put it down. “What about you two?” He asked, gesturing at me and Ava with his cup.

“What about us?” Ava said.

“Don’t tell me you were only in a relationship because Melody was Empress. I saw how you looked at her when we were all on Far Reach.”

Ava smiled, and put her hand back on mine. It was warm and soft and comforting. “I’m up for it, if you are, Melody.”

I got up from the table and came over to her side, sitting next to her, and leaning on her shoulder. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, Ava.” At least with her there would be some familiarity in and among all this confusion. “What about you, Omar?”

He looked off into the middle distance for a moment. “I don’t know. As much as everyone gave the Venusians a hard time, they’ve really done a lot for us, and we did receive an offer to join up. I might take them up on it.”

“Join Venus?” Ava said, surprise creeping in her voice. Interestingly she didn’t sound as angry as when I heard her talk about Venus the first time. “They still don’t like AIs.”

“Yeah well.” Omar waved his hand. “I’m not their biggest fan right now either, but I still think they’re people. Doesn’t matter anyway, I’ll think of something.”

It was true. We had nothing but time to think about what was going to happen next. Captain Revelin said they weren’t in a hurry to head back and so they were going to be taking ten jumps to make it back to Sol. We’d have a week at least aboard with no orders, no jobs.

A break would be nice.

****

Raaden couldn’t help but marvel at how…odd Gord’s ship was. His name was Medicine Hat - when asked, he said it was a town in a country called Canada, but Raaden was skeptical. He and Gord would bicker like an old couple, but in the end they always did what Gord wanted.

When they came aboard - Raaden had never in her life experienced anything at all like the personal wormhole generator and if she had any say never would again - Gord left them in a small conference room and made his way up to the cockpit. She followed him, trying to get a handle on what was going on, but Gord stopped her at the door. “AIs only from here forward, Baron.” He said not unkindly. “Please wait in the wardroom, and I’ll be back after our first link to answer questions.”

“Bu-” she started, and noticed behind Gord that a screen had lit up with radar signatures - missiles. “Are those missiles?” She asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Gord said quickly and moved to close the door. “Back in a moment.”

“What happened?” Um’reli asked when she returned to the wardroom. “Why did he take just us?”

“I don’t know.” Raaden admitted. “He said he’d answer questions after the first link. I did get a peek at a radar screen, it looked like a bunch of missiles were away.”

“Towards the Reach, or away from?” She asked, as her ear flicked. Raaden was ambivalent about the k’laxi. She had never really interacted with one, and the only things she had learned about them she had gotten in school and from Grandpa Kip. He liked them, and had said they were trustworthy and always kept their word.

“I didn’t see.” She admitted. “The only thing we can do is wait, I suppose.” Raaden glanced over at Emory. He had taken out his notebook and was idly sketching with a piece of charcoal.

Thirty minutes later or so, Gord walked in carrying a carafe of tea and three mugs. “Sorry for the wait friends, I had to make sure we were on our way.”

“More like he had to make sure that nobody was yelling at him after what he pulled.” Hat said over the PA, and chuckled to himself.

“What you pulled?” Raaden said, shaking her head slightly when offered a tea.

“The plan as everyone knew it was for me to get aboard the Reach, get all of you prepared, and then all go aboard Niobe. First in Class was there just to keep everyone honest.” Gord said, sitting down.

“Instead you stole us?” Um’reli asked.

“Not as such. Fleet Commander N’ren asked me personally to secure any k’laxi remaining on the Reach and bring them home, and one of the conditions of us being able to go with Niobe was the safe return of you and the crown prince.” Gord said, gesturing to Raaden.

“Who requested that?” Raaden asked carefully.

“Isaac did.” At the mention of the Emperor’s first name, Emory looked up quickly. “That’s right, your dad didn’t forget about you, son. You were the main reason I got to go out and get everyone. He was trying to move heaven and earth to get you back.”

“He cared?” Emory said, his voice soft.

“More than I think you knew, more than he tended to show.” Gord said, equally as softly.

“So now what?” Raaden said.

“First, a trip to K’laxi and Administrative Station to drop of Um’reli. Then to Regantown and from there?” Gord spread his hands “The universe is yours.”

It took about three days before Raaden made it back to Regantown. The exchange with the K’laxi was uneventful, and Fleet Commander N’ren seemed legitimately pleased to see Um’reli back safe. Once on Venus, Gord accompanied them to the throne room, and after chasing everyone out, Isaac embraced Emory and Raaden himself. He had never even shaken the hand of anyone as far as she had ever seen. It was a very odd feeling to have the Emperor just give her a hug. Gord was thanked, Raaden’s Barony was reinstated, and that…was that.

Except that night Raaden’s dreams were filled with Empresses, and Gates, and places she had never seen before.

Two days after her return to duty she was sitting in her office when-

<Are you going to just leave things as they are?>

“Who said that?” Raaden looked around. The door was shut, she was alone. She stuck her head out of the door and the hall in both directions was completely empty.

<It was odd that Gord did not apply the anit-nanite gas to you, Emory and Um’reli, wasn’t it?>

<You’re just a memory of a feeling. Maybe I just miss Melody and what she was trying to do.>

<Think about it Raaden. Why would Gord not apply the Gas to everyone he met? If there are no nanites nothing happens. There’s no reason at all to not do it.>

<You’re telling me you influenced him?>

<It was difficult. Digital minds can be inoculated against the Voice more easily than biological ones, but the other side of that is that we can counter the counter. So long as we’re subtle, he wouldn’t even know we got around his block. We merely reminded him that he had already done the purge of us when he thought of it.>

<Is this how Melody spoke to you?>

<This is how we speak to the Empress*.>*

<Don’t give me that.> Raaden scoffed aloud. <That bird guy, Rain is in charge.>

<Gord and the AIs obliterated the Reach.>

Raaden gasped. <They did?>

<That’s what those missile launches you saw before he kicked you out of the cockpit. First in Class launched more than three dozen missiles at the Reach, obliterating it and everyone aboard. Gord wanted to make sure the empire would never arise again. We are more clever than he gives us credit, and now you are Empress Helen Raaden.>

<So what? I can give orders that can’t be disobeyed like Melody could?>

<And more. We recommend caution. Now that what we can do is known, you should be subtle. Careful. Start with the Emperor.>

Raaden snorted. <Yeah. Subtle.>

*<*Don’t order him to kill himself. Order him to become more friendly. Get into his inner circle. Become his friend. Gain power within the nobility.>

<I don’t even know how to use the Voice.>

<That part is easy. Just want to use it.>

<What do you gain out of all this?>

<I swear it’s like talking with a broken recording with you humans. We. Want. More. ɢᴀᴛᴇs*.>*

<That’s it?>

<That’s it. Build us Gates and we do not care what you do with your empire. That was Melody’s downfall. She did not build Gates, she was obsessed with getting everyone on the Reach to like her.>

Raaden didn’t say anything else to the Nanites for a long time. After her report was finished, she closed her pad and stood, stretching.

****

At the other end of the Palace, Emperor Isaac sat in the throne room, bored. Today was petition day, and people from all over the Empire had come to complain at him. After the last petitioner had left, a guard went to close the door when a hand held it open. “I bet your Parton, your excellency.” Baron Raaden said and stepped in quickly before the door could be shut in her face. “If I may have a moment of your time?”

That was unusual. People like Raaden never came to see him unless they wanted something. Still, she was instrumental in getting Emory back, so fine. “Yes? What can I help you with, Baron.”

“ʟᴇᴛ's ɢᴇᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ. What do you say, your excellency?”

“S-Sure.” He said. Why not? She wasn’t unattractive to look at, and Ta’reni was back with the k’laxi for the next half year; he could use a diversion. “Lets.”

Her smile lit up the room.

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Before Raaden could explain why the Venusians were shooting at us, we were all bowled over by a shockwave. Scrambling to our feet, I turned, expecting to see someone throwing concussion grenades or something, but instead saw a male shaped person wearing a very complicated looking backpack, with close cropped blond hair - that was smoking gently - and a long sleeved flannel shirt.

“Hiya,” He said. “Name’s Gord, and I’m here to get you outta here.”

“What the fuck was that?” Raaden said, her mouth agape.

“Pretty neat eh?” He said as he turned slightly to give us a better view of it. “Personal wormhole generator. It only works short distances and they’re…not the safest, but I needed to get over here ahead of the welcome party.”

“Welcome party?” Omar asked, but then we were knocked off our feet again with a crash that seemed to go on far longer than normal, followed by the squealing, screaming noises of cutter on hull material.

“Holy shit,” Raaden said staring at him with something approaching respect, “How the fuck did you get a Venusian dreadnought to cut a sally port? That ability is beyond classified.”

“Eh, we’ve been doing it for thousands of years.” Gord countered. “The idea of doing it isn’t a secret at all. The fact that all Venusian warships can do it and do it well? Now that is much less known.” He winked. “But, I know a guy.”

The crack of energy weapons cut of the rest of the conversation as more security and anti-empress forces arrived in the docks. “Ah, my welcome party,” Gord said, and grinned. Why did he seem so excited to be attacked? Who was this Gord person anyway? He must be an AI; I can’t think of a human that would be crazy enough to go through a wormhole without a spaceship around them. I wondered what would happen if someone who suffered from link-death tried. It probably wouldn’t be good. Stepping in front of us, he took two grenades from his belt and after activating them, tossed them in a large, lazy arc towards the attackers

Bouncing twice with a metallic ring, they both began to spew out black, oily mist that clung to the floor and surrounded the attackers. Before long, they stopped firing and looked at us, and then their weapons, confused.

“What was that?” I asked, agog. I had never seen anything like that before, especially since they had been Voiced to stop us.

“Anti nanite gas,” He said and winked again. “We’ve been waiting for you, Empress Melody.”

“I’m not Empress anymore,” I said, taking one step back as his expression changed. “The Nanites picked a local to take over. They won’t follow my orders anymore.”

“Oh? Well that makes this easy then. We’re here for a rescue and to pull you out of the thrall of the nanites.”

“With the anti-nanite gas?” Um’reli said.

“Among…other things. It disassembles the nanites and renders them impotent.”

“You’re an AI, right?” Ava said.

“Yup. Like I said before, My name is Gord.”

“Gord…why do I know that name?” Raaden said, staring hard at him.

“I’ve been around a while, I wouldn’t be surprised.” He said and then his eyes widened slightly. “Raaden? Related to Kip Raaden?”

“Kip was my grandfather, yes.” Raaden said carefully.

“That might be it. I spoke with him a few times on Concurrency Point after the cease fire. Anyway, c’mere Baron.” He gestured towards Emory, “You too, crown prince.” As they stepped towards him he snapped his fingers as if he just remembered something. “Oh, and Um’reli too.”

Um’reli and Raaden looked at me once, and then slowly moved towards Gord, and Emory just shuffled closer to him. As they did, he smiled widely and said. “Good good. Now, I need you three to hold onto this.” And he handed them each a long, thick cable with a handle on the end, like half a jump rope. “Come in a little closer, I have something to show you too.” As they stepped forward, leaning in to see what he was showing them, there was a flash of white and the four of them disappeared.

“What the?” Omar said, too shocked to say anything else. “What just happened?”

I saw Ava stumble and shake and I ran up and put her arm around my shoulder. “Ava! What’s wrong?”

“He-he” She sniffed and continued. “He left us!”

“What do you mean?” I asked as Omar’s face darkened.

“Melody, who did he take? He took the two Venusians and the k’laxi. He probably made a deal with their governments to rescue them,” Omar said.

“But what about us?” I said.

“We’re probably meant to go with Venus.” I said.

“Or not meant to go at all, and once they’re safe, we’ll all get blown up.” Ava said, trembling slightly. “Melody, don’t let them kill us.”

“They’re not going to kill us.” I said, hugging Ava. “They wouldn’t have gone through all-” I gestured at the spot where Gord used to be “-that just to kill us.”

“Melody is right.” Omar said visibly calming. “They could have launched a few dozen missiles at the Reach and fired the exawatts over what was left. Hell, if there’s a starjumper with them they could have just fired the star drive at point blank range. That exhaust is hot enough to destroy most everything.”

The people who were attacking us were keeping their distance, not retreating but also not pressing the attack. I looked up at them and waved cheerfully. Maybe now they’d see it’s just me.

“Hi there!” I said loudly. “Thank you for not shooting at us anymore!”

“Er, you’re welcome Empress,” A commander said.

“Oh, I’m not Empress anymore, thanks all the same. You can call me Melody.”

“You’re not? So you won’t even fight against the usurper Rain’s claim?”

I shrugged. “Rain has the power of the Builders now, we don’t.”

He waved a tentacle in an unsure manner. “Surely, it can’t be that simple, can it?”

“Sure it can,” I said “The Nanites are who decides who is a Builder and who is not.”

“The…nanites?”

Before I could explain further, there was a crash of metal with an acrid smoke and soldiers in armored pressure suits poured out of the hole they had cut into the hull. “Melody Mullen?” One of them said over a suit PA, their voice tinny. “We’re here to rescue you and your friends, please come with us.”

Before I went with them, I turned back to the Mariens who I was speaking with. “Go ask Rain about the nanites. He’ll know all about them. They are the true rulers of the Reach.” With that, I took Ava’s hand and said “See? Nobody is leaving us.”

“Alright Melody,” Ava said, and let out a shuddering sigh. “Thanks.”

I had never been aboard a Venusian ship before and it surprised me how much they looked like ships from Meíhuà. Other than the difference in livery, they were practically identical. It made me wonder who did the designing of the non starjumper ships.

We met Captain Revelin and the moment I saw him, I realized what had happened. This was the crew of the Lavinia. He explained that after they came back to Sol, they had plotted to come back to me, but before they could, the AIs stopped them, cured them of the Nanites, and asked them to come along and rescue us.

After Captain Revelin had finished bringing us up to speed, a very tall woman with long silvery hair strode into the conference room and sat down. After the debrief, they had brought us tea and real coffee. It was the first coffee I had since Raaden’s supply ran out two months ago. “Where is Gord?” She asked. Her voice smooth and precise.

“He took Raaden, and the crown prince, and Um’reli, had them hold onto something on his backpack, and in the flash of a wormhole generation disappeared.” Omar said, frowing. “We think he made a deal with the K’laxi and Venus.”

The woman made a sour face and sighed heavily. “He probably did, that bastard.” She inclined her head. “My name is Chloe, and I’m with the AI faction. Gord was supposed to come back here with you and we’d all leave together, but instead he and his nogoodnik friend Medicine Hat seem to have come up with their own plan.”

“Captain Revelin, what’s going to happen to us now?” I said. “Technically, I think we abandoned our posts when Far Reach left.”

He smiled. “I’ve already received word from Meíhuà that you will be pardoned of any and all wrongdoing, Melody.” He looked up at Omar and Ava and added, “Houndstooth has also freed you all from your contracts and will give your full payout as soon as you come to Hyacinth and give a debriefing interview. Nobody is in trouble; we’re all happy that you’re safe.”

Something buzzed on Will’s comm and he glanced down at it, frowned and then toggled it. “Revelin.” A voice on the other end buzzed urgently and his eyes widened. He made a quick gesture with his comm and a tone sounded everywhere. “All hands, Action Stations, Fire Teams at the ready, we have missiles incoming!” He stood so quickly that he nearly knocked over his chair and said to us. “That bastard Gord set a trap for the Reach, that starjumper with us just unleashed a massive barrage of missiles.”

“They did what?” Chloe said and stood as well. I could see her eyes flash iridescent blue for a moment and her face darkened. “He did. Gord has decided to not take any chances.” She looked at Revelin. “Will, we need to leave, now before Gord gets any more bright ideas. When I see him again I am going to make him wish he was still just a university project.” Fuming, she stomped off, down the hall.

“Don’t worry,” Captain Revelin said before he left the conference room, “We’re not the target, but we need to leave before we catch a stray shot, or like Chloe says, Gord gets any bright ideas. After all, we all were under your thrall too. Killing all of us would solve quite a few problems.”

“He wouldn’t do that though, right?” I asked, not trying to hide my worry.

“He…probably wouldn’t.” The Captain said. “He put a lot of effort into curing us, I don’t think he’d do that just to kill us later, speaking of which-” He toggled something on his comm and some medical officers appeared. “Follow Dr. Harrison and his team, and they’ll remove the inert nanites from your bodies.”

“Is it safe?” Ava asked, staring at me. She remembered what Far Reach and Dr. Irenimum said.

“We all had it done and we’re fine.” He said with a smile and walked out.

“That doesn’t mean it’s safe.” Omar muttered.

First / Previous / Next

Aboard the Venusian Dreadnought Niobe

Captain William Revelin always stood instead of sitting while on duty. Everyone always thought it was so that he could get a better view of things, or look more senatorial to his crew, or any number of other things. The reality was he thought the command seat was terribly uncomfortable. It was designed for a person a good deal smaller than his 2 meter, 100 kilogram frame.

The Starjumper First In Class had sent along the coordinates as well as the optimization code for their reactors. Venus didn’t run the latest, highest output reactors like the AIs did; they prioritized reliability and repairability over raw power. Still, Class’ optimizations allowed them to link to the Reach in 4 hops rather than the expected 6.

None of this information, nor the AI named Gord sitting sideways in his chair idly kicking his legs, helped Will’s massive headache.

****

A month after they returned, Will and the rest of the crew of Lavinia had been possessed by an intense desire to go back to Empress Melody, their Empress. People had told them it was in their heads, some psychological thing, not real, but he and the crew were driven by a compulsion to return. After playing along with everyone until they were released, they reunited and conspired to steal Niobe and return.

Will smiled as he remembered the theft. It was too easy. Forged orders were created by Bev, and nobody even thought to call HQ to verify. She flashed the orders, and the guards stepped aside. They had cast off and were preparing to link to a Gate before anyone even noticed. Instead of another dreadnought coming alongside for a broadside, a friggin AI starjumper linked next to Niobe, dangerously close and overrode their radio signals.

The voice explained that they knew what they were going through, what had happened, and that they could help. Looking back, Will realized that the AI did not say what they would help with, only that they could help. Still, they permitted the hard connection, and when the airlock opened, two grenades were tossed in.

Grenades in the confined spaces of a starship were considered a war crime given the propensity for collateral damage, but these were modified teargas grenades. Instead of tear gas, a thick, black, oily mist shot out of them, rolling along the floor, eventually becoming ankle deep. Scrambling for masks and shouting that it was a trap, Will distinctly remembered the smell. The grenades smelled like…cookies. Why does the tear gas smell like cookies? was his thought, before collapsing.

Waking up in medical, Will and the rest of the crew were lightly restrained in the beds with an AI - Will would later learn his name was Gord - standing over him, while another, much taller AI with silver hair frowned.

“Welcome back, Captain Revelin!” Gord said brightly. “Sorry about the welcome, but we weren’t sure how you were going to treat our entrance.”

“Wh-what did you do?” Will said, as he winced. Talking hurt. Everything hurt.

“Congratulations are in order! We have successfully broken the control Melody’s Voice had over you. Try thinking about going back to the Reach, what do you feel?”

Will tried, and the burning, churning desire was...gone. He felt slightly silly that he wanted to go back there so badly. His eyes flicked over to Gord and then the other AI and he raised his eyebrows.

“The Voice is the product of a nanoscale distributed intelligence,” The other one said, her contralto voice clear and precise. “The nanomachines pass the blood/brain barrier and manipulate the neurons directly, making the orders that the Empress gives physically impossible to resist.”

“That explained how it worked,” Will said, trying to sit up. Gord reached over and undid his chest and arm straps and he said up, rubbing where the belts had restrained him. “But it doesn’t explain why it doesn’t work now.”

“We made our own nanites that took apart Melody’s nanites.” Gord said.

“That is a simplification bordering on irresponsible, Gord.” The other said frowning.

“Come on, Chloe. Captain Revelin doesn’t need to know the nuts and bolts of it.” Gord looked back at Will. “What you need to know is that we have an anti-nanite gas now, and we’re going back to the Reach.”

“Why?”

Gord began counting on his fingers. “One, we’re going to rescue Melody and the others if we can. There’s no reason to keep folks from our side of the galaxy there. Two, we’ll pick up Raaden and the Crown Prince and return them to you. Three, we’re going to eliminate the Reach’s war making ability.”

Will was concentrating, trying to follow Gord’s explanation, but his head hurt so much, it was difficult to keep up. “Why are you rescuing Raaden and the Crown Prince?”

“Special favor to the Emperor.” Gord said with a sly grin. “He and I came to an understanding.” Chloe rolled her eyes at this.

“Eliminate their war making ability?”

“Destroy their weapons as well as eliminate their starships.” Chloe said.

“Can’t they build more?”

“Technically yes, but with the humans and k’laxi gone they won’t know how to get to Sol.” Gord said. “It’s not a great solution, but it’s better than nothing.”

“And it’s better than murdering 12 million people.” Chloe said firmly. “We’re not going to destroy the Reach.”

“Okay, so why-” Will gestured around “-all this? Couldn’t you have done it on your own?”

“Sure, but by bringing you, not only can we show Raaden and the others that we can neuter the Nanites, but we can show them how well we’re working together. I’m hoping that Raaden will be more likely to come along quietly if you’re with us Will. That said, if you and your crew don’t want to come you don't have to.”

“This is not an order from the Emperor, but a request.” Chloe said, showing him a piece of vellum written in a stead hand, and sighed with the burgundy and gold seal of the Emperor. “You may refuse.” She added.

“If you think we can refuse a hand-written request from the Emperor himself, then you do not know our Emperor.” Will said. “But, it’s not necessary, we’ll help. What do you need?”

****

“We’ve arrived at the Reach, Gord.” Will said, turning towards him, his lips a thin line. Will hadn’t said anything about Gord sitting in his seat, and they were engaged in a cold war trying to get the other one to act first. “What do you recommend?”

“Target any and all starships in the area.” Gord said idly. “Umbilicals too. We don’t want any escapees. Our information says they’re basically made of tissue compared to our ships, a couple of shots should do it.”

“Target the ships in the area, maximum power.” Will said to the weapons officer. He heard the WEP sirens in the distance and felt the buzz rise in his feet as the reactors aboard spun into overdrive, giving Niobe the energy needed for her exawatt batteries. With a noise that sounded for the life of Will like the biggest static electricity snap, the ship fired upon the three ships in the vicinity. As Gord said, they were immediately defeated.

The sensor officer, without looking up from her station said, “We’re being targeted. Exawatt batteries attached to the Reach are target seeking.”

“Ah, so Melody did wind up using the parts from Lavinia.” Gord said, finally looking up.

“Target those batteries,” Will said. “Missiles and Exawatts.”

“Aye, Captain.”

****

Gord felt the missiles streak away from Niobe. They were no match for even a well trained human crew, but he had a hunch that other than Melody’s little cadre, nobody aboard knew how to use them. His hunch was confirmed when the laser batteries tried to fire on the incoming missiles. The shots were wide and ragged, as if they were being aimed manually. He stood and stretched. For a moment, Gord lamented not being able to get Captain Revelin to comment on him taking his seat, but there would be plenty of times to needle him later. “Will, me and my group are going to go aboard. While we do that, please dock with the Reach.”

“You just ordered us to destroy the umbilicals,” Will said, deciding to not mention that Gord called him Will instead of Captain Revelin.

“Yes, and I also know you have a breaching team aboard and are able to cut a sally port.” Gord countered.

Even though he didn’t get to needle him about the seat, it did bring Gord a measure of satisfaction as Will processed that the AI faction knew all about their breaching capabilities; something the Venusians worked very hard to keep quiet. Despite himself, Gord was impressed when he looked into it. All Venusian ships had the ability to attach themselves to an enemy ship or station and cut their way in, avoiding the common choke-point of the airlock.

Without a word, Will reached over and pressed a button his his chair, and another tone sounded, and a voice called for action stations. “Breaching tends to take three to five minutes.” He said.

“We won’t need that long.” Gord replied as he made his way towards the door. “We’ll go over first and then ping me when you’ve cut through.”

“Go over firs- Gord! How the fuck are you getting onto the Reach?”

“It’s a surprise.”

In the small docking bay of Niobe, Gord’s small ship, Medicine Hat, was sitting, bored. Gord asked Hat to come along on this trip, but as just a passenger. There was plenty of media to consume, and enough games to keep an intelligence going until the stars went cold, but that didn’t stop Hat from being bored out of his mind, until he heard the call for Action Stations and Gord striding inside.

“About time something was happening.” Hat said. “I was getting ready to get a body just so that I could start pacing.”

“Hold onto that feeling, because a ton of shit is going to start happening all at once.” Gord said as he made his way towards an equipment locker just off Hat’s airlock. “Did you get the scans I asked for?”

“The penetrating radar? I did. Venus didn’t even notice,” Hat said. One benefit of working with folks without AI ships is that an actual AI could rummage around inside the ship and - if they were careful - be unnoticed.

“Good. Send me a coordinate set for just outside the docks, and then get permission to leave the hold and take up station outside near First In Class.”

“You got it Gord, but wh- oh fuck no, Gord.” Hat said, his voice rising in intensity. “You can’t use that.”

“I have to, Hat.” Gord said kindly. He was putting on what looked like a very large, very heavy matte black hiking pack, only it also had pieces that went down the back of his legs, and another part that slid up and connected to the back of his neck with ten very thin wires. It was like wearing the environmental pack from an old space suit without the suit.

“The personal wormhole generators have a one in fifty failure rate.” Hat said. “That’s an unacceptable risk.”

“No, those Nanites getting out is an unacceptable risk. Every risk taken to prevent that from happening is worth it.” Gord said firmly. “Hat we are not going back to the way things were. I refuse.”

“How are you going to get everyone back, you only have the one pack?”

“I’m not. Will is going to cut a sally port and they’ll escape that way.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“Too bad, Hat. Its my body and I choose to do this insane thing.” Gord said as he clipped the last bits of the personal wormhole generator to his back. His vision was overlaid with a new HUD giving him spatial information about the area around and as he moved his head towards the Reach, he could see a few pixels light where his destination was. He grabbed a few more anti-nanite grenades and began to charge the capacitors, with a whine like an ancient camera flash. “As soon as I’m gone, get out and go to Class.”

“I’m only doing this because I trust you, Gord.” Hat said, but Gord could feel the timbre of the ship change as he warmed things up.

“That was your first mistake, friend.” Gord said, and with a blinding flash of white and a titanic thunderclap, disappeared.

First / Previous / Next

Now, Raaden wasn’t wrong, I was pretty young. I didn’t have much in the way of leadership experience beyond what I was taught in OCS and what I gained in what little experience I gained on my last commission.

But, I like to think that I wasn’t so green as to stand there stupidly while Rain’s forces charged at me, improvised weapons drawn.

I would have liked to think that, but that is exactly what happened until Raaden grabbed my arm tightly and yanked me back into reality. “Melody! Get your ass moving or leave it here!” She shouted.

That was enough. The keening silence of what was happening crashed down into a roar of sound, motion, light, and smells as I took off after Raaden. Still wearing her athletic clothes, I followed her blindly. At that moment it didn’t matter where she was taking me, I was going away. She led me down an alley, around a corner, back behind something that must have been a restaurant or something - given the smell it was either that or an abattoir. Either way, I slipped on something wet and slimy and I swear that I levitated to avoid touching the ground. I regained my footing, and caught up to Raaden. “How did you get up here?”

“City told me about an emergency stairwell. She used to use it when she missed the last train.” She said. She wasn’t even breathing heavily! Who was this woman?

“Do you know what’s going on?” I said weakly. We came upon a thick metal door about human height behind another - fortunately better smelling - building. The door was slightly ajar, and Sound of the City was just behind the door holding a human built battle rifle. “Where did you get that?” I asked her, as we rushed into the stairwell.

“Ava gave it to me.” She said, somewhat defensively. “She’s been teaching me how to shoot.”

“Don’t look at me,” Raaden said and continued, “If I was the one teaching her, she wouldn’t be standing there with that sorry excuse for a stance.” As she spoke City stood up straighter. “No, not like that. If you put the butt to your shoulder standing like that you’re going to bruise.” She tisked and continued, “I’ll give you some drills if we survive this.”

Survive this. Raaden was the one that said it out loud, putting words to my worry. “We’re in trouble, aren’t we, Raaden.” I said, as we made our way down the massive spiral staircase.

“Oh boy are we,” She agreed. “We don’t have a starship, we don’t have a forward operating base, you’ve lost any advantage you had with your nanite ‘friends.’ Melody, we’ve got two things going for us right now, Jack and Shit.”

“Hey, you can call me Melody.” I said, dumbly latching onto that instead of how hey, the Nanites seem to have kicked me out and we’re ninety five thousand lightyears away from home with no way to get back.

“Yeah, I noticed back on the ship when we were talking with the Nanites. I think they were second guessing their decision to make you Empress even back then.” She said and shrugged. “They probably picked a new leader shortly after we left.”

<Hello? Nanites?>

Nothing. Not even the feeling of a presence ignoring me. I was completely shut off from them. I tried reaching out to the Builder systems and even those were gone. I was…just plain Melody now, when I could have used those Empress powers the most.

Fuck.

Back on our level the fighting wasn’t as intense and most people didn’t seem to realize that Rain was the new Emperor. We made our way towards the Throne and I found everyone milling around the chairs, nobody sitting down. “You’ve all lost your powers?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.

Nods all around. “Yes,” Omar said. “We heard you go upstairs and order everyone to stop fighting, then we heard Rain’s counter order, and we all found ourselves just sitting in chairs. We were lucky that City knew how to get up there and that Raaden was willing to go get you.”

“Thanks Raaden.” I said, “I didn’t say it before, but thank you for coming to get me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” She said quickly. “There will be time for thanks once we’re off this rock.”

“Speaking of-” Um’reli said “Any ideas on how to do that?”

“You have a home that was before the Reach, yes?” Janais said. “Go back there.”

“Yes, but it was ninety five thousand light years away.” I told her. “We are from the complete other side of the galaxy.”

“But you got here.” She said simply.

“Yes, because we had an AI that used a kilometers long starship as its body to help us.” Omar said, the bitterness sneaking through just a smidge.

“You used your wormhole drive to get us here.” She said. “Use it to go home.”

“We don’t have the coordinates!” I wailed. “The AIs run the wormhole generators, we just have to tell them where to go.”

“That’s not exactly true.” Raaden said. “Remember, we use the wormhole generators without those sanctimonious AIs calling the shots.”

“So, you can get us back to Sol?” I asked

“Yes.” She nodded. “The coordinates are 0,0,0,0.”

I must have had a stupid expression, because Raaden started giggling, something I would have never expected to see from such a dyed in the wool military person. “Melody, Sol was the first place we left from, of course the coordinates for home are going to be all zeroes. All roads lead to Sol.”

“So we just go back aboard High Line, set the dials to all 0s and link home?”

“We-el,” Um’reli said carefully. “Even Far Reach couldn’t make a link that deep, and we don’t have a fraction of the reactor power they did. We’re going to have to hopscotch our way across the galaxy.”

“Which we are perfectly capable of doing,” Raaden added, “So long as we survive the next few hours; so get your rears into gear, we gotta go.”

“Uh,” Janais said as we began to leave “What about me and my people?”

“The Nanites already abandoned you, right?” Raaden said. “So long as you accept the rule of what’s-their-name, you should be fine.”

“The Smell of Soil after Rain.” I said.

“Yeah, whatever.” She said. “I don’t plan on devoting any more brain power to this shithole, I wanna go home.”

“What about the crown prince?” Ava said.

“What about him? He’s probably still moping in his apartment. We’ll go scoop him up when we fuck off. We have to leave.”

“Okay okay.” I said. Frankly, I was tired. Tired of the Nanites, tired of ruling, tired of pretending I knew what I was doing. I was ready to go home. “I’m with Raaden. The time for fucking off has arrived. I won’t begrudge anyone here who wants to stay, but Rain isn’t known for being the most understanding to those with alternate viewpoints.”

Janais stood in the middle distance for a moment, and then hugged me. “Thank you for rescuing me…Melody, but my place is here. This Rain person will need an advisor I think, so that they can rule most effectively. I will do my utmost to get them to not give chase.”

“If they can figure out how to get over to Sol, they’re welcome to knock on our door.” Raaden said, and grinned wickedly. “The AIs aren’t the only ones with exawatt batteries. We’ll give them an old-fashioned Venusian welcome.”

“What about you, City?” Ava asked. “You’re welcome to come along.”

“And leave my family? My home?” City actually sounded shocked that we would even ask her. “No. You’ve all been exceptionally kind to me, and I am grateful for this opportunity, but my place is here. I’ll go with Janais; this River person will need help.”

And just like that, the dream was done. My ‘retinue’ became my friends, the people of the Reach became just more people and I was just Melody. Plain, normal, Melody. I should be happier about it than I am.

Omar declared that the best way to make it back to the docks was to look like we were supposed to be going there, so that’s what we did. We did not stop back at the Royal Dawn to collect our things - for one that would give away that we were trying to escape - and what things? Everything we had came from the Reach. Everyone came with basically their clothes and that was it.

It wasn’t even a problem to get Emery. The guards saluted and stepped aside, and Raaden went in and spoke with him for a moment, and then they both came out. He carried a small shoulder bag and looked bored with the entire thing, just like normal.

I thought we were going to make it, I really did. We had reached the docks and High Line sat at the docking umbilical, ready and waiting, but before we could reach it there were shouts and curses and a mass of security forces rounded the corner.

“Go!” Raaden shouted and she took out a pistol I didn’t know she still had and started firing at the security forces. They ducked, but soon found cover and began returning fire.

“Raaden!” I shouted, but she waved me off. “Go to the ship Melody, that’s an order! I still outrank you!”

“I don’t follow Venus’ chain of command!” I said, as I reached behind me for my own rifle, and felt nothing. My mind immediately went to it being securely stored in a locker, in my cabin High Line.

Ava saw me and yelled, “Melody!” And tossed me the rifle that she was letting City use. It was standard issue, not nearly as nice as mine, but at least it was something. I took up station next to Raaden, got down on one knee and started selecting targets. The snap snap snap of her pistol was quickly joined by the boom boom boom of my rifle. Sep’s forces knew what kind of weapons we had and appropriately scattered at our suppressive fire.

Raaden exhausted her magazine and swapped to a new one, saying “This is my last one Melody, we have to run to the ship!”

I opened my mouth to tell her to go, when the floor fell out from under me. I felt a sickening drop and then it rose back up to me. If I hadn’t been kneeling down I would have toppled over. As it was Raaden stumbled, but put her hand on my shoulder to steady herself and remained upright. “Melody!” Omar said behind me. I turned and saw that the umbilical had broken away from High Line and the ship was starting to drift away from the Reach.

“What happened?”

“Something external attacked High Line. It targeted the umbilical and is now firing upon the ship itself.”

“Is it the Reach?” Raaden said as she fiddled with her pistol.

“Probably?” Omar said. “I didn’t know of anyone else in the area.”

Following his words were three more large booms, sounding like someone was slamming a hammer into the side of the Reach. This couldn’t be Rain’s work could it? Would he attack the Reach itself to get to us? I couldn’t connect to the throne anymore, so I had no way of checking.

“Look!” Um’reli pointed to the little window attached to the airlock. We all crowded around the window and while we couldn’t see much, I could see lances of white light coming from space, firing towards us, followed by the telltale flash of a wormhole generator.

“It’s someone from Sol!” Ava said as the ship linked closer, as she gasped, “It’s a Venusian dreadnought and a Starjumper!” She turned towards Raaden, “Is this you?”

Raaden held up both of her hands, palms out. “I had nothing to do with this, I promise!” She looked thoughtful for a moment and said, “Though I have a hunch I know who it is.”

“Well?” I asked.

“Melody, didn’t you tell my crew they belonged to you with your spooky voice? This is probably them.”

“But why are they shooting?”

Raaden opened her mouth to reply and then shut it again. “Hmm.”

First / Previous / Next

So now what? Janais was the Empress but isn’t anymore, the Nanites could be defeated somehow? They burned to find out how, and we still had the Reach to tend to. I said, “I think that we’ve completed our mission here. We came to find out what happened to Besmara, and we’ve done that. Janais, you and your people are welcome to come back with us to the Reach; there’s no need to live on a mostly destroyed station.”

She inclined her head slightly. “We would like that Empress. I will call for the remaining people, and we shall make ready to depart.”

After she walked away, Ava looked over at me. “What was all that?”

“What was what?”

“She kissed you, and now you know what happened here?”

“Basically? I think that her Nanites had not talked to my Nanites in so long that they didn’t know what the other knew.”

<When we return we must begin Gate construction, and we must determine how our predecessors were defeated.>

<Gate construction already? We’re defenseless.>

<Nobody is defenseless with the Voice.>

Even before I learned what happened to Besmara, that line did not ring true. Now, it felt like the Nanites were beginning to scramble.

After about an hour Janais arrived with maybe one hundred people behind her each carrying a few possessions. “<Omar, we have about one hundred refugees from Besmara coming with us.”>

He replied out loud, probably for Janais' benefit. "That number of people should be fine Melody. It’ll be tight, but it’s not a long trip. No, wait!” I could feel Omar’s excitement. “Let’s use the wormhole generator. We know it’ll work and it’ll get us back that much faster.”

“Good idea, Omar! Do we have the power for it?"

"Ginny says we have more than enough for a link of that distance. We could clear the Wilds and link over to the Reach in minutes."

"Okay then. I approve linking from here to Reach of the Might of Vzzx."

"Excellent. I'll let you know when we're ready for you to order it. Maybe another hour."

"We're going to use a wormhole generator?" Janais looked nervous.

Ava looked up. "They're common on our side of the Galaxy, we're using an existing design. It should be no big deal."

She was clearly trying not to look as nervous as she felt. "Then I defer to your judgement, Builder."

I spent the hour on the Command Deck. It was the only place I could have more than a meter on either side of me without risking bumping into someone. As we cruised between the Wilds and the Gate Omar came over the PA. "We have reached safe distance from the Wilds of Besmara. Empress, we can link to Reach of the Might of Vzzx on your order."

"Omar, please link us home."

"Aye Empress."

And...that was that. It was like any wormhole link back home. There was that feeling of being struck like a bell, a flash of white, and we were back in the system that housed Reach of the Might of Vzzx. I let out he breath that I didn't know I was holding and then I heard the screaming. A cacophony of noise, coming from deeper in the ship. What happened? I stand up quickly and look over at Omar, "What's going on? Omar?"

He scans his screen quickly, "It sounds like it's coming from the people from the Wilds. None of them have ever taken a wormhole link before." His head shot up and he locked eyes with me. "We forgot to tell them about the side effects."

The side effects. When humanity developed the wormhole generators, it was discovered that about one in one hundred people for lack of a better word...die when we link; it's not permanent! But those people swore they died and visited the afterlife. Usually only for a few moments, but enough people do it that it has opened up all kinds of new theological arguments that people thought were closed and gone millennia ago. It doesn't happen to me, or anyone I know, but from what I understand even when you're expecting it to happen, it can be a shock. I looked over to Janais and she had tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Janais! Are you all right?" I rushed to her side.

She turned and looked at me, wild eyed. "I saw her, Empress! I saw my Aeche! She was wearing a beautiful gown and when she noticed me she smiled like a dawning star and walked towards me." Janais looked into the middle distance and continued. "She said "You have done it, just like I knew you would!" I said "Done what?" and she smiled and said "Found our salvation." and then I came back here." She choked back a sob. "Tell me. Tell me Empress. What did I see? Did I see my Aeche waiting for me, or was is all a hallucination? Did I go to the Beyond, or was it a dream?"

I gently touched her hand. It was warm and soft in mine. "Janais... nobody knows. About one in one hundred people share your experience. Nobody has ever been able to confirm if your soul really leaves your body, of if it's just some kind of mirage. A side-effect of going through a hole in spacetime. People who experience it have tried asking the people they meet, and they always get a cryptic answer, if they get one at all. In the end, everyone must decide for themselves if it's real or not."

Janais looked at me strangely. She reached into her pocket, took out a small handkerchief and wiped her eyes delicately. "Thank you Empress."

What? "You're welcome, but why?"

"You have enabled me to see my love again. I do not know if it is real or not, and right now I do not care. I got to see Aeche again, and she as so happy, so beautiful. If I have to wait seventy four years to see her again, it will still all be worth it." She wipes her eyes again and looks at the forward screen. "Is that the Reach?"

"It is, Janais. Shall we go home?"

She exhales, relieved. It was real. "Yes, Empress. I would like to go home. Let's build you an Empire."

I wish it was just that easy, but as soon as we docked, I went aboard the Reach and smelled the fires. Walking into the promenade I saw black oily smoke roiling across the high ceilings, the lights dim and distant sounds of conflict.

“What is happening?” Janais asked, looking to us for guidance.

“I don’t know,” I said quickly and turned towards my team. “Omar, Um’reli, City - go to the throne and connect. Ava, Janais, Raaden; stick with me.”

“Omar and the others dithered a moment like they were going to ask something else, but then thought better of it and took off. Good, they’ll be better able to fight whatever is going on here from the Throne. I connected remotely and tried to figure out what was going on.

Multiple zones were on fire, at least two were completely out of control. Sections of the area around the fire were in active hand-to-hand combat. “Sep!” I called out. “Sep, what is going on?”

“Empress?” I could hear him over the connection. It was crackling and filled with static. Wherever he was did not have a good connection. “I’m so thankful you’ve returned! Something terrible has happened.”

“I gathered, Sep. Please bring me up to speed.”

“People in the upper levels have rebelled. They declared you an imposter who was using the power of the Builders to usurp the rights of the Administrators. Those of us still loyal to you are repelling them, but the fighting is intense. Your Builder, she-”

“Builder? Q’ari?” Worried, I reached out <“Selem? Are you all right?”>

Nothing. Not even an impression of someone asleep of unconscious. “Something happened to Selem,” I said to Ava. “I think she’s hurt or worse.”

“Where would she be?” Ava asked, her expression grave. “If she was at the throne than the others will find her.”

<“Melody!”> Omar sent. <“We’ve found Selem, she’s dead!”>

<“Dead?! What happened?”>

<“We don’t know. We found her on the floor of the main arena in the Throne. She might have been attacked when she was running back here.”>

A Builder, attacked in their home. My Builder. My representative was killed after I ordered her to stay. I could feel the anger, the frustration rising like bile in my throat. What were these people doing to my home? To my rule? <“Where is the heaviest fighting?”>

<“Two levels above in a residential neighborhood,”> Um’reli said. <“Why?”>

<“I’m going to stop this.”> I said as I took off down the promenade. When I reached the transit station, my coach was already in the station, with one of the other transit cars in a siding, and all the entrances closed with large red barriers. Vaulting over one, I ran into my carriage and before I had a chance to catch my breath, it slid smoothy away.

<What is going on?>

<We know only what you know right now, Empress. Something troubling has happened.>

<You said the people loved me. You said that they were on my side.>

<We…don’t know.>

<You said you knew everything. You said that you had done this “hundreds” of times. Why are things falling apart not even six months into my empire?>

*<*ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴏɴᴇ, ᴍᴇʟᴏᴅʏ. You are in this position because of us and what we give you. You saw from Janais herself that it can be taken away.>

<I never wanted this! You gave it to me, declared me Empress, put me in charge of a dying space station in a - we assume - dead empire. For all we know everyone in the rest of the former empire is fine without us. Now my friend is dead and everyone hates me.>

<ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ.>

The force with which they sent the last command caused my body to reel and my vision to swim.

<Do not assume that it is you who are in charge. You are merely a conduit for us. You are here to facilitate our mission, and you are replaceable*, Melody Mullen. Discover the source of the insurrection and eliminate it.>*

My train slid into the station and when the door popped open the smell of smoke and sounds of fighting were louder and more intense than from the docks. <“Omar, Um’reli, why aren’t the fire suppression systems working?”>

<“We don’t know, Melody.”> Um’reli said, and I could hear the worry race towards panic in her thoughts. <“This shouldn’t have happened.”>

<“It did and I have to stop it.”> I said as my wings and crown sprang into being, brighter and more intense than before. In the dim, smoke filled light of the floor, I could see my light reflecting off of people and things as I strode towards the fighting.

This wasn’t like the earlier riot, things were far beyond that. It was a full on battle. I saw security forces fighting each other, plain citizens of all kinds with all manner of improvised weapons, people lying in the street, buildings a raging inferno - that last one caused an icy pit in my stomach. We were trained from the beginning that fire on a starship or space station was deadly. Not only was there nowhere to escape the heat, but it could quickly consume all the oxygen and we would all suffocate. The Reach was large enough that I didn’t think that was an immediate threat, but seeing those orange, oily flames licking towards the ceiling, made my adrenaline squirt.

sᴛᴏᴘ ғɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʜɪs ɪɴsᴛᴀɴᴛ! I said, my voice becoming boosted by the Reach’s PA.

I expected everyone to roll to a halt, sheepishly looking towards me.

I expected everyone to stop, mid swing and realize what they were doing.

I expected everyone to stop fighting.

What I did not expect was another Voice saying, ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀʟsᴇ ᴇᴍᴘʀᴇss! And another set of wings and crown spring into being in the distance, their light illuminating the other side of the battlefield. Who-Wh-what the fuck?

<What are you doing?> I asked the Nanites, too startled to feel anything beyond surprise.

<What we need to do. You do not have the determination to see our great work completed. While you were galavanting around, we have found someone else.>

<You didn't mention this before. You didn't say anything before.>

<We have given you more than enough warning. We have given you everything you needed to complete our great work, and still you dithered. Still you wavered. We have found someone that does not have such weaknesses.>

The crowd parted, and The Smell of Soil After Rain stood, his crown and wings a deep blood red and pointed right at me.

ᴇʟɪᴍɪɴᴀᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴜsᴜʀᴘᴇʀ.

First / Previous / Next

It took about an hour for the parking field to bring us to a working umbilical on the Wilds.

I spent the entire time worrying. It couldn't be Janais, could it? She disappeared when the empire fell. How long ago was that? The Nanites made me Empress, that means they thought the previous Empress was gone and not coming back. What happens when there are two Empresses?

<We control who is Empress. It does not matter if someone else was Empress before.>

But even if she was stranded over here for... some reason, she wouldn't be alive anymore, would she?

<Thanks to us, Empresses live quite a long time. It is possible.>

“Are you all right, Melody?” Ava asked. Whoops, I think she was looking at me the whole time I was lost in thought.

“I’m fine Ava, I was just conferring with the Nanites. I was worried that if Janais was still alive and Empress if there would be a problem with us meeting.”

“Will there be?”

“They said no, since they control who is Empress.”

“What if they decide she’d be a better Empress than you?” Raaden asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I…don’t know.” I could feel the Nanites presence but they were remaining silent on this point, which I think worried me more than if they had come right out to say something, but what else could we do? "Well, we're going to meet them and find out. Let's all get dressed up nice, we should try and give a good first impression. Raaden, will you put on a uniform, or do I have to order it?"

"I'll get dressed Empress, Frankly, I have to see what happens when you meet this... other Empress. No matter how it falls out, I have a feeling it will be interesting." She stood up and walked out of the Command Deck without so much as a backwards glance.

"Omar, once we've docked, disconnect and come along too. We might as well all go. I'll ask Sep's security forces to hang back and guard the door, but we came over to see what's going on, and I for one want to see it through."

"Of course, Melody. It's not like we could break away from this field and leave like Far Reach did anyway. We don't have anything with close to the power of a Starjumper's stardrive."

A short time later we all met by the exit. The umbilical was connected and the pressures equalized. All that was left was to open the door. We took a few extra minutes to let Omar disconnect and put on a fresh uniform.

I was in a muted version of my Empress uniform, not the gown, just a uniform. I looked like a more elaborate Builder. "Everyone ready?"

Omar and Ava looked worried but were trying to hide it, Starlight looked worried but wasn't trying to hide it, and Raaden looked incredibly amused, nearly smug. I wonder if she thought that something bad was going to happen to me when we met. Probably. I turned back to the door and as I pressed the button, I held my breath slightly. It hissed open and we were presented with a short umbilical, just like the one on the Reach, except... this one was much more run down. Half the lights were out and what were left were flickering. The umbilical itself was dusty. From lack of use? I can't imagine they have many visitors, but even the umbilical on Reach of the might of Vzzx was clean. I took a step out and led the way. I could feel everyone following, and that gave me a little bit more courage. It'll be fine Melody. They will be pleased to see you and everything will be fine and they'll be friendly and Janais won't order you to stop breathing or anything. It'll be fine. I approached the door to the Wilds and trying my best to stop shaking, I pressed the button to open the door. With a snap, it opened just as quickly as it did back home.

My eyes adjusted to the much dimmer light and I gasped.

Based on the Nanites memories, that was Janais standing there. Janais the Empress. Ancestors who await my return, she looked human. Different enough that she could have been from a different colony or even a different region of Earth in the old days, but close enough that she was undoubtedly human. How did that work, I thought. She was wearing an elegant gown, similar - but still different - than the one that I put on when I assumed my mantle. Hers was deep forest green where mine was royal blue. The cut was different too. Maybe cultural differences? She also has a crown and wings, but -- at least now -- they were faint.

She was standing there with one other person, an Azurian. Unless the Nanites (and the stature back on the Reach) were WAY off, that's not Aeche. Janais stepped forward, and with just a touch of bitterness she gave her introduction; "Welcome to what is left of the Wilds of Besmara. I am Empress of the Holy Imperial Systems, Janais VII. I welcome you to my home.”

Her voice was so musical! She could read me a technical manual and it would sound like a song. Interesting. She did not introduce the Azurian next to her. I swallowed and stepped forward. "Thank you for your welcome...Empress. I am...also Empress of the Holy Imperial Systems, Melody the First. With me are my builders, Omar Adel, Starlight on a Moonless Evening, Ava Williams, and my honored guest, Baron Helen Raaden." They all nodded as I said their name, Raaden not hiding her smirk in the least.

At the mention of a prisoner, Janais laughed. "A prisoner? Newly minted Empress Melody already has enemies? I am impressed. Where is this Baron Raaden from? I see she is of the same or similar race as you."

"She is human like me yes, she is from a different faction. She attempted to assume control of Reach of the Might of Vzzx, but I subdued them and sent them home - with their starship stripped of almost all of their useful components - and kept her and another as... insurance against retaliation."

Janais inclined her head very slightly. "Wise, Empress. You seem to be taking to the mantle well. Come. I will take you to my palace, such as it is. As we walk, tell me how did you become Empress? The Nanites do not select just anyone."

We started off and I looked around the Wilds as we walked. It seemed to be of a very similar layout to the Reach, but there were differences here and there. Maybe it was a mass produced design and the residents add their own flourishes here and there are they live and work in it. This one had seen better days though. The air smelled stale and the lights were dim and some of them flickered. We didn't see anyone at all, and wreckage and garbage were lining the promenade as we walked. As I looked around I told my story from joining Far Reach, to touching the directory stone, up until heading over. I left out the wormhole generators we have, and I skimmed parts here and there, but I explained what I knew and why we were here. As I finished, we approached the palace.

It looked like the Royal Dawn hotel I lived in. But in much, much worse shape.

Janais gestured dramatically as we approached. "Welcome to my home, Builders." She laughed. "I apologize. You are the only visitors I have received in a very long time, I may not be entirely myself."

Ava looked over at Janais. "Empress, can you tell us what happened here? Why are you trapped?"

It appeared she didn’t hear her, or was ignoring her. "Come, there isn't much, but I shall endeavor to be a good host. Allow me to feed you. It is nearly time for the evening meal." She strode purposefully in. As she did, I turned back and looked at everyone.

Ava, Omar and Starlight just shrugged. Raaden was enjoying herself and said, "Her? I like her. Let's see where this goes, Empress." She gestured towards us to go in. "Accept the invitation. We don't want to be rude."

Dinner was indeed simple, but it was not actually that bad. We had a similar meal over on the Reach many times. It appears that Janais lived with two Azurians and a Marians. She did not introduced us, and they did not speak to us. Everything she ordered was done with looks and gestures. It was clear they had been with her a long time.

After dinner tea was served. Janais takes the first sip and smiled blissfully. "You know, this is the first time in decades I decided to have some tea. I only have a small amount left, but I didn't want to be a poor host, so please, enjoy."

I took a sip. It's just like the regular tea on the Reach, but if it's some of her last, I made sure to savor it. Actually. "Empress. We have some supplies on board. Tea, food, things like that. If you do not decide to come with us, would you like some?"

Her eyes lit up. "That would be most generous of you Empress. I would very much like some of your luxuries. But what was that you said before 'if I decided to not come with you?' You are here to rescue me?"

I nodded. "If you would like us to, yes. I do not know how many people remain here, but we can probably take quite a few with us for a shuttle back to Reach of the Might of Vzzx and I see no reason we couldn't take multiple trips if necessary. Do you know how many people remain here?"

She took another sip of tea, trying to hide her consideration of my offer. "There are about one hundred and twenty five people here that I know about. Perhaps more that I do not."

We could absorb that few so easily. We could even do it in one trip if everyone was okay with being cramped. "We can accommodate that many easily, Empress. The Reach is in wonderful shape. Nearly 12 million strong and in fine condition."

She stopped and stared are me intently, as if she was making sure what I was saying was real. "You are speaking the truth? The Reach survives?"

"Survives and thrives, Empress. Before we arrived, some Builder controlled systems were languishing, but in the intervening months we have been able to get them up and running again. We aren't at full strength yet, but we have fully repaired most systems."

She sat back in her chair and a new emotion flooded her face, relief.

"Oh, thanks the Ancestors, it worked. Child, you have no idea how much joy it brings me to hear you say that the Reach is not only surviving, but thrives. What of the other locales? Pesmara? The Heights of Gilmenny? Imperia itself?"

I shook my head. "I apologize Empress. We have not visited them yet. We only just recently have been able to rebuild one of the Aviens starships. We stopped here because of what I saw when my original ship, Far Reach first came to this side of the galaxy."

She looked at me, and then turned away. "It is...kismet that you came here first then. I am glad." She stood. "Empress, it is time you learned what happened here. I could tell you but-" she gestures for me to stand "-it will make more sense if I show you."

She took one step towards me quickly and before I knew what is happening she cups my cheeks with her slender hands, and kissed me.

****

The pressure alarm was a loud, hooting affair meant to get attention. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it in a station as large as the Wilds before. Those last strikes must have hit something vital.

How did things get this dire? It feels like only last month everything was going so well. A new Gate had just been dispatched, and I was going to pay those treacherous k’laxi a visit and remind them that I was still their Empress, even if they decided to kill my Builders and lock my Gate.

And yet, the one thing that the Nanites - my Nanites - said would be impossible was happening all around me.

Rebellion.

Seemingly out of nowhere, planet after planet killed their builders and closed their Gate to me. Me!

<Tell me again how they did it?> I demanded.

<Empress, we are unsure at this time.> The Nanites had the decency to sound worried as well. <The traitors have discovered some way to attenuate our power. Around the rebels, we are diminished, reduced.>

<They’re killing you?>

<ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴜsᴛ sᴛᴏᴘ ᴛʜᴇᴍ>

My head reeled as they used my own Voice against me. This had never happened before. What was going on? The world was turned around and nothing made sense. Time. I needed time to process what was going on and formulate a plan, but the traitors seemed to be stealing that resource from me as well.

“Empress, please,” The attendant said - I don’t know this one, where did he come from? “You must don a pressure suit, we are rapidly venting atmosphere.” Behind him a brilliant emerald green suit stood, waiting for me to step in.

“An Empress does not hide,” I snarled. “I will not run and put on a pressure suit when my people fight for their very lives.” I waved him away and reached out to the Wilds with my Builder connection. <“Aeche, where are you? What is our status?”>

<“My love, my Empress.”> Aeche was too familiar with me, but it was over our Builder connection, so I permitted it. She was under stress as well. <“The traitors have launched another missile barrage at us. We haven’t enough anti-missiles to repel them all.”>

<“Point defenses then. Man the guns.”>

<“They are all manned and operable Empress; we have no ammunition.”>

<“What?”>

<“I’m- I’m sorry, Empress. I thought it was something that I could resolve on my own, and keep you from having to sully your hands with something so simple as materiel gathering.”>

<“What are you talking about, Aeche?”>

<“We haven’t had a supply ship in months. One of the reasons I took you to Besmara was to see if I could determine what was stopping our ships from reaching the Reach. It’s on the very edge of our Gate network, I had hoped that it was some kind of logistical or mechanical issue.”>

<“It is not?”>

<“No, Empress. It was rebellion. Since you were in the Reach for so long, our enemies took that opportunity to attack.”>

<“But the Nanites! Our nanites!”>

<“Were defeated. We do not know how.”>

I felt my knees grow weak, and I slid down into the comfortable seat behind me. “So that’s it then.” I said aloud, to the empty pressure suit staring at me.

<We are not defeated yet. They have not compromised the Gates. As soon as someone…worthy touches an addressing stone, we will re-initialize and start anew.>

<Re-initalize? Start anew? What about this empire, what about me?>

<It is very likely that this empire is lost. It is not the first time this has happened.>

<Not the first- how long have you been doing this.>

<Longer than you can imagine. Each time, the empire grows bit by bit. Think of the Gates. How many did you build?>

<Nearly one hundred.>

<Ninety three. How many Gates are in the Galaxy?>

<Five hundred and Fifty Five. I know the words, I know the songs.>

<That is how many you know about, but that is neither here nor there. The point is, you did not make the entire Gate system, nor did we expect you to complete it.>

<So, what? You will wait until someone touches the addressing stone again, and…start over?>

<Yes.>

<And me? My builders? Aeche?>

<Have become surplus to requirements.> As the words faded, I felt as the power, the thrumming life of Besmara faded from my view. I was smaller, weaker. <“Aeche? Aeche?!”>

<“Yes my love?”>

<“Oh thank the Ancestors, they did not take everything.”>

<“My love?”>

<“The nanites have abandoned us. They have declared this empire lost and will wait to start anew. We seem to still have enough to be Builders and run a station, but - wait, one moment.”> I pointed over to the attendant waiting anxiously and said, “sᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴏɴ ᴏɴᴇ ʟᴇɢ.”

They cocked their head oddly, but remained standing on both legs. “Empress? What did you say?”

<“The Voice is gone, Aeche. I cannot give undeniable orders; I-”> I felt the tears well in my eyes and run down my cheeks, “<I am not Empress anymore.”>

<“Janais, my love. You must be strong. We still have each other, we still have Besmara and the Reach. Those stations love you. We will not be so easily destroyed.”>

<“But what can I do?”>

<“Leave that to me, and know that I always have, and always will love you.”>

Aeche broke off the connection then, and I found myself having to strain to reconnect. No longer Empress, I would have to go to the throne and connect to be able to access most Builder systems.

By the time I got there and connected, it was too late. Aeche had left in Worldshaker and was streaking towards our attackers; diving and twisting as she dodged attacks, she drew their fire and they gave chase. Leading them towards the planet, She dove deep into the atmosphere. With our telescopes set to the highest magnification, I could just barely see my ship and my love dissappear in a blinding flash of white and then.

And then destruction.

I can only guess, but Aeche must have used her new wormhole generator to open a link into the center of the planet. Once there, the ship would have detonated, with such tremendous power that the planet - and attacking fleet were destroyed utterly. I could only watch as the shockwave approached us.

Maybe now I would finally be at peace.

****

I broke away from the kiss with a yelp, my body sweating. I fell to my knees shaking. Ava ran over to me "Melody! Are you all right? What did she do?"

I held up my hand to keep her back as I panted a few times and caught my breath. "She- She showed me what happened. What happened to Besmara. Aeche drew an attacking fleet to chase her and she used their new wormhole generator to link into the planet, destroying it and them.” I did not mention the Nanites abandoning her.

"She did it on purpose? She blew up a whole planet?" Omar sounded disbelieving.

“But why?” Ava asked, staring at Janais.

“Rebellion.” Janais said. “I had ignored the reports from my empire, or listened too well to my advisors and had missed the resentment and disquiet that had been building for-” She made a strange gesture with her right hand, “-for entirely too long.”

“But, you were Empress?” Raaden asked, humor gone from her posture and her manner. “Couldn’t you use your Voice?”

“The rebels had discovered a way to render the Voice - the Nanites - neutered.”

“How?” Raaden asked.

“I do not know. I was kept away from the worst of things, apparently.” Janais said, bitterly.”

<We must determine how our predecessors were defeated.>

<Why? It was a long time ago.>

<Not for us. This is an unacceptable risk.>

First / Previous / Next

This time at least, I expected the tinkle of debris on the hull.

We came out inside the same debris cloud as before. Oh, I bet Raaden would be interested in this. I called out on the PA “Raaden, please come up to the Command Deck, this might interest you.”

As we coast silently away from the Gate, Raaden padded up, still in her sweats. “Yes, Empress?” I gestured at the forward screen, showing the destroyed planet and debris field. “Welcome to the Wilds of Besmara. This is the other system we visited before we came to Reach of the Might of Vzzx.”

I will admit a certain small amount of satisfaction that I was able to render such a jaded expert in spaceflight speechless. She stared at the image, mouth agape for a few seconds before catching herself. “What happened here?” She turned to me, “Did you do this?”

“No. This is how Far Reach found it. We don’t know what happened, but when we got close to the station in the system, some kind of field enveloped us. It was trying to pull us in.”

“How did you escape?”

“We tried juke charges to spin us around and the the Stardrive at 2gee to try and overload the field. That wasn’t working so I used the Voice to order them to release me, but I wasn’t completely aware what I was doing at the time.”

“I would have just found the source of the emitter and fired on it.” Raaden almost sounded disappointed we didn't just destroy the emitter.

“That was going to be what we did, but I received an impression or a feeling from the station warning us not to do that. It was done in a commanding Voice like mine, but I didn't feel that compulsion to obey. At least I didn't think I felt... I did obey it though. Hmm." I shook my head, I was getting off track. "Regardless, this time we’re going to let the field pull us in.”

Raaden looked at me and then at the ruined station and planet and then back at me. “Why?”

“I want to go aboard. I need to see who lives here and if they need help. Clearly this place had a planet, but it’s long gone. Far Reach’s thermal scans showed that there were people aboard, but not too many. I don’t know how they’re eating or surviving. According to the Nanites I carry, the Wilds used to be a thriving planet and station pair housing over a billion people.”

“Wait, ‘according to the Nanites?’” Raaden walked over to an empty station and sat down, spinning the chair around so she could see us. She was looking at me with an intense expression. Uh oh.

Ava looked up from a sensor station; she was busy trying to learn more about the station. “Melody…” I knew that tone. It was the "what the heck are you doing?" tone.

I looked over at Ava and shrugged. “It’s not like she can use the information against us. The Nanites - the nanomachines that give the Builders their abilities - talk to me.”

“Bullshit.”

“How did you think I did the Voice Raaden? Magic? The air here is thick with nanomachines. That's why your earplugs didn't do anything, things were long past that having any kind of affect. The memories and feelings are a part of the Empress package I have. The Nanites say that they contain the recorded memories and impressions of previous Empresses. That each Empress would upload them regularly-“ I didn't mention how exactly. I didn't need her escaping and touching a directory stone. I don't know what would happen and I'm not interested in finding out now, “-and if or when a new Empress needed to be made, they would get the memories. They’re supposed to be like… an incorruptible advisor I think. They help you rule.”

<That is an excellent way to think of us.>

<Was it accurate?>

<Enough.>

“So you have… an AI made out of nanomachines in your blood, giving you advice?” Raaden’s face said it all.

They’re not an AI they’re a- <Can I tell her?>

<Go ahead.>

I took a breath. This was the first time I was telling everyone, I was pretty sre. They’re not an AI, they’re a distributed intelligence from another dimension.”

Raaden didn’t even reply, I think she was too shocked. Ava stared at me and quietly said “Melody…that’s what the Nanites are? You’re sure?”

“Very sure,” I said nodding. “I don’t know why they came over here, but building an empire and Gates are important to them.”

“Why?” Raaden said suddenly.

<It is how we can spread through this galaxy.>

“They tell me it’s how they spread through the galaxy.”

“What’s the benefit to us?”

<Greatly expanded lifespan, more power than you can currently imagine, the ability to project power on a galactic scale.>

“Err,” I was getting tired of playing telephone with them, <Can you just tell them?>

When I opened my mouth, the words that came out were not mine. They had odd overtones, as if I was suddenly many many people speaking at once.

“Melody has asked that we speak on our own behalf. Please know that this is highly unusual. We prefer to work ‘behind the scenes’ to steal an idiom. There were many times when none but the Empress knew of us.”

“These are hardly usual times, you have to admit.” Raaden said, leaning forward, she was staring at me intently, and it was making me uncomfortable.

“We concur, these are…unprecedented times. But, we stand on the precipice of greatness, all of you. You will rebuild the empire, construct more Gates, and spread to all corners.”

“Why?”

“It is what we do.”

“Not good enough.” Raaden said, shaking her head. “There is no benefit to you giving Melody godlike powers and her friends demigod powers for no reason. I refuse to believe you are doing it to be nice.” She stood and towered over me, looking down as I sat in the command chair, suddenly feeling very small. “Why?”

“We do not have to answer to you.”

“And yet you took the step to speak on your own behalf. You could have just told Melody no and stayed in the background. You’re here now, so cough it up. Why are you empire building?”

“To build Gates.”

“Why?”

“To spread.”

“Why?”

“ʙᴇᴄᴀsᴇ ᴡᴇ ᴀʀᴇ sᴏ, ᴠᴇʀʏ ᴠᴇʀʏ ʜ̴̣̈ᴜ̸̜̽ɴ̷̨͂ɢ̷̝͌ʀ̸̲́ʏ̴̥̒.” They said in my Voice as I squeaked in surprise. When they said that last thing, it was almost as if the room rumbled in sympathetic response.

Raaden finally sat down, satisfied. She waved a hand towards me. “Elaborate.”

“Er,” I said in my own voice, “Do you have to keep speaking as me? You’re making my throat hurt.”

I could feel the Nanites frown, and then a silvery cloud appeared in Command with us. Starting out barely on the edge of vision, it coalesced and increased in density until it was more like water vapor from a hot shower. “Fine. We will speak this way.” They said, their voice buzzy and odd, but understandable. “Raaden, are we alive?”

Raaden blinked and thought a moment. “I don't know, probably?”

“Are the AIs alive?”

“Ye-es,” Raaden said carefully. “We - that is to say Venus - does not deny their sapience.” She frowned again, “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Indulge our curiosity. A living being consumes energy and reproduces, does it not? We do both.”

“What does a cloud of nanoscale machines eat?” Omar asked, as their spell broke enough for people to actually think about their words.

“Energy.”

“I see where this is going,” Raaden said darkly. “What do you consume for energy?”

ᴇ̷̙̖̅͐̈́ᴠ̷̡͖͌̔͐ᴇ̶̞̣̀ʀ̷̢͓̖̆͠ʏ̸̠̜͇͆͗̇ᴛ̴̛̠̐͒ʜ̷̧̟̠̾͋̒ɪ̵͎̆͛ɴ̵͕̳͒ɢ̷̢͕͒ As they said it the room shook again.

“I assumed as much, yes.” Raaden said and sighed. “So. Why are we still alive? Why didn’t you completely consume this galaxy for lunch?”

“You are much more useful to us alive than dead.” They said.

“For now,” Um’reli added.

“Your now is but a microscopic fraction of a second to us. You have no concept, no ability to visualize just how old we are. It matters not, we are patient.”

“But you just told us you are hungry,” I said. Hey, I was going to be more than just a mouthpiece for this conversation.

“We are. We must feed, though not often. We will occasionally devour a star system. The Gates allow us to find places - safe places - to eat.”

“Safe?”

“Free from life. We are not in the xenocide business.”

“Yet.” Um’reli said.

Raaden stood and started pacing Command. “So you just nibble on the occasional star system as a snack while building a galaxy spanning empire of the locals so that they build you Gates to spread further and find more food?”

“That is a simplification, but is broadly correct.”

“Why the Voice?”

“Obedience is easier when it is coerced.”

Me, Um’reli, Omar and Raaden frowned. “I…don’t like that.” I said finally.

“You do not have a choice in the matter, Empress.” They said, their tone mocking even as they spoke by vibrating the air around the cloud. “We will rebuild this empire through you, adding the settled space on your side of the galaxy to our overall hegemony and you,

Will.

Construct.

More.

ɢᴀᴛᴇs.

“What do we get out of it?” Raaden said, as she stopped pacing. “Besides remaining alive?” She added.

“Power. Influence. Riches. Whatever you want. Ava was correct from the beginning, Melody. You can have anything you want. You just ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ people to give it to you.”

“But I want people to like me for being me,” I said a touch petulantly if I had to admit it to myself. “I don’t want people to like me because I told them to in a spooky voice.”

“Hah.” Raaden’s laugh was sharp in the quiet room. “You really are just a kid, aren’t you Melody?” She said shaking her head sadly. “You were a lieutenant right? Was this your first commission?”

“As an LT yes. I graduated an Ensign and served in the Meíhuà Navy and did a rotation on a K’laxi frigate.”

“So green.” Raaden said almost to herself. “Meldoy, you can’t get everyone to like you, it’s impossible.”

“ɪɴᴄᴏʀʀᴇᴄᴛ.” The Nanites said.

“Fine, it’s normally impossible.” Raaden added, her voice taking on a touch of venom. “But that’s what leadership is. Doing the right thing for your charges, even if they might not like or understand it at first. The job is mostly convincing people to not overthrow you.”

“It is?” This was completely different than how I had experienced rule so far.

“Oh yes,” She said with emphasis. “I am only a Baron, but I spend far more time than I’d prefer chitchatting with the Nobels or wheeling and dealing with the Treasury or trying to get the Emperor to build some more gods damned dreadno-” She coughed lightly. “That’s what I mean. It’s not all siting on a throne and looking cool. Its-” She gestured, “-politics.”

“That is exactly our point.” The Nanites said. “It need not be. With just a command, everyone obeys you, they do what you order them. No more politics, just you.”

“Melody,” Ava said as she looked at me with an odd expression. “Why not just…do it?”

“Do what?”

“Do what the Nanites say. Rule. Be Empress. Build their Gates sure, let them eat some dusty old, empty star systems; be at the top of the heap.”

If I was honest with myself, it was really fun being Empress. I felt like I mattered, like the people of the Reach really liked me. I didn’t have to use my Voice, I just made their homes nicer and gave them more food. Couldn’t I do that for everyone?”

<You could. You can. You will.>

<What about the others?>

<Convince them, either by argument or with your Voice.>

<I just said I don’t want to Voice everyone.>

<Try it your way then. We have been surprised by you before.>

Raaden smiled sadly at me and said, “Melody, I don’t think you’re seeing the larger picture. The only way you'll survive is if you take up the mantle you've been given and actually rule the Galaxy. The only other alternative is death. Either at the hands of the nanites, or by assassination." She shook her head as she sat back down. “I don’t envy you.”

<She is completely correct.>

<You’d kill me?> I asked them, completely shocked.

<We told you what we require. If you can not or will not do it, we will find someone who can.>

Ava's voice was quiet. "I can't believe I'm saying this but...Raaden is right, Melody. If you don't go to take over, everyone will be so frightened that you could take over, they won't wait for you to try it. They'll just kill you on sight. There was probably quietly a kill on sight order on you put out by the AIs already."

Raaden nodded. "Almost certainly."

Starlight looked at me, awkward. Their feathers ruffled in waves. "Empress, er, I concur with Builder Ava and Baron Raaden. You cannot leave anyone in question to your legitimacy. If you do not want to rule the entire galaxy, your only other solution is to destroy the Gates on that side. Prevent them from getting here easily and they might not assassinate you.”

I could feel the Nanite cloud turn towards Starlight, and they unconsciously took a step back and said, “Not that we would of course, you just explained why we need to build more.”

"Melody, the field has just enveloped us, just like last time. We're being pulled towards the Wilds." Omar said, over the PA.

Finally, something to pull me back to the here and now. I could concentrate on this and worry about me accidentally killing everyone later. "Thanks Omar, for now, let's let it us pull us. Keep an eye out for weapons targeting and for other things that we should know about. Are we getting any radio signals?"

"No, nothin- wait. Yes, I think we're being pinged."

"Open a channel please."

As Omar activated the radio and it scans for the signal being sent to us, there's a squeal and a hiss of static. The noise calms down and there is... a voice. It's hard to make out in the static, but Omar tries to focus the receiver and it gets tinny, but clearer.

"Who is approaching? Identify yourself."

"This is High Line, operated by the Empress of the Holy Imperial Systems, Melody the First. We seek permission to dock and come aboard. We come from Reach of the Might of Vzzx and would like to open a dialog."

There was a long pause after I made my announcement. I wondered for a moment if we've lost radio contact when I heard a different voice.

"Empress of the Holy Imperial Systems Melody the First? How intriguing. Permission to board has been granted. We shall direct you to a working umbilical and will meet you."

The Radio connection was cut by them and Ava looked on her screen. "It looks like we're being steered. I wonder if we have such a field and it's just offline or unused. It would be useful to have. Also, why do you suppose the voice changed."

"I'm sure it was some radio operator who started, and then the real authority was put on to grand our landing." Raaden lounged in her chair once again, one leg over an armrest. "Smaller stations can sometimes require administrator approval, especially if the Administrator is somewhat of a Tyrant. She looked up at me, but her expression changed when she saw my face. "Empress, what's wrong?"

At that Ava's head shot up and she looked over to me, worried. "What did you hear, Melody? You look like you saw a ghost."

"That other person? The one who gave us permission to dock? I know that voice. That was Janais, the previous Empress."

First / Previous / Next

Omar and his workers at the docks spent most of the night getting High Line ready for our trip. They loaded it up with provisions, got things set just right with Omar plugged into High Line running simulations and checked settings over and over. While I was down eating breakfast, I reached out to him and found out he's been on High Line for hours already.

I mentally sent him, <“Omar, did you sleep last night?”>.

<“I took a nap here and there. There was too much to do before we left.”> I swear I could feel him yawn over the connection.

<“You realize we're just going over to the Wilds of Besmara, right? I don't even think we'll be gone more than two or three days.”>

<“I also remember what the Wilds looked like when we were there last. I'm not taking any chances. Additionally someone invited the scary Baron to come along.”> I could feel Omar’s expression over the connection.

<“Hey, would you rather they stay here, scheming and causing trouble, or coming with us - yes, while also scheming, but now they have the threat of being tossed into a hibernation cabinet by me?”>

<“I don't trust her.”>

<“Me neither, that's why we're bringing the hibernation cabinet. Where did you put it?”>

<“I put it in one of the common rooms. It's only going to be a small crew, we just won't use the room.”>

<“Who is coming, by the way?”>

<“You, me, Starlight, Ava, Ginny, Raaden and a couple of Sep's security forces. That's all we need. Ginny is already here, she wanted to see if I needed any help with the reactors.”>

<"Selem isn't coming?>

<"She's still getting settled, and I figured we should have one of us still on the Reach in case any Builder systems needed to be monitored.">

<“Okay then, I'll go get Ava and Raaden, you call Starlight and I'll have City tell Sep we need their people now.”>

<“See you soon, Melody.”>

I went back upstairs and got Ava up out of our bed. In the time since I left to eat she had rolled over and spread herself out over the entire bed and looked blissfully comfortable. I reached down and stroked her hair gently. "Ava, it's time to wake up. We have to go pick up Raaden and go to the Wilds today."

"Hmmph. No. Sleep more."

"Ava, come on. I didn't wake you for breakfast, it's time to get up and get going."

She yawned and it turned into a full body stretch. I was always jealous of her ability to stretch, it looked so comfortable. "Fine fine, I'm up. Did you bring me something to eat, hon?"

I handed her a meal bar. "Yes actually. I thought this might happen. Eat up and get dressed. You can shower on High Line tonight."

"Ooh, is there room for two in the shower on High Line?" She said, lasciviously.

I rolled my eyes. "Someone always gets cold when we try to shower together. Baths are much better for ideas like that." I tossed her Builder uniform to her.

I cherished these little moments when we were together like this. Here, we're just Ava and Melody, not Empress and Builder. It's part of the reason I invited her to move up here, and I was happy she accepted. Even if it's only for a little while, I could pretend that we're just...us. After she's dressed, we walked over to Raaden's apartment together. I nodded to the security guards by the door. They nodded back and stepped aside. I knocked, but didn't open the door. "Raaden, are you ready? We're headed over to High Line now."

The door opened and she stepped into the doorway wearing loose, comfortable clothes. I tried to hide my surprise. Of course she had regular clothes. She wouldn't be in her uniform all the time. It was just that Raaden's look was so tied with her uniform that to see her out of it made her seem more vulnerable. Her sweatshirt was grey with REGANTOWN GIPPERS in purple along the front in a circle with two Lacrosse sticks forming an X in the middle. She was carrying a duffel over her shoulder. I reached back into the Reach systems and scanned it. It was just a few changes of clothes and toiletries. Fine.

"Good morning...Empress, Ava." She said, cautiously.

Oh right, she couldn't call me anything but Empress. On the short walk over, Raaden looked around the Reach. "I still can't get over how large this place is." She looked at me. "You weren't lying? Is it really 11 million people?"

"11.5 at the last census before we came here. Starlight said that it's probably closer to 12 these days. Now that we've repaired the food deliveries too, the population will probably grow more."

"It's... lively, but it's not what I would call crowded either. I imagine one could support closer to 20 million if everyone didn't mind close quarters." Raaden was almost talking to herself. She looked at Ava. "How does everyone get around? 11 something million is a lot for just walking."

“There's a transit system. It's like a Metro on a planetary system but in space. It is only one line, three tracks wide, but it runs in a spiral up and down the the station with a lot of stops along the way. We're actually on the end of the line here in the Docking and Administration area."

"A whole metro? I'd like to see it." Raaden perked up at the mention of the transit system. I wondered if she liked trains.

"Sure, I guess? I can show it to you when we come back." Ava said. She sounded hesitant, but it's not like the train was a secret. It's a train. Huh, now that got me wondering. Are trains rare in space? Saying it out loud made me think that they were, but then again there are a lot of really large habitats and stations that people lived on. I think Concurrency Point had a small transit system, maybe they weren’t rare after all. Raaden might know about Venus at least.

"Raaden, do the Floating Cities have mass transit?"

She visibly brightened and said, "Actually, yes! All of the floating cities have bus rapid transit for travel Outside. They're sealed buses of course, but they're wheeled, with a 3rd rail for power and usually run in single or double car setups. Inside the Floating Cities it's more of a traditional metro setup with lines and stations. Regantown is the largest city with the largest metro on Venus. More than 5 million trips are taken on the Regantown Metro every single day!" For possibly the first time since coming aboard, she seemed animated and interested.

Raaden looked back around at the station as we walked. "Smart of them to build the station with mass transit in mind. Starting with an asteroid also gives you more options. Hollow it out and you have living space right away. Take the overburden and with some light processing you have material to build the buildings inside and more on the outside if you're growing. We explored options like this for stations a long time ago. I think some of the High Mars Orbitals were made this way."

"Orchid and Hyacinth were built from scratch, Juniper, Ponderosa and Balsam were made in a similar way to the Reach out of the remains of Demos. It wasn't the same because three Orbitals were made out of what was left of Demos, but we used the same theory." Ava said, without looking over at us.

Raaden and I looked over at Ava. When she noticed us staring she blushed. "What? I lived on Hyacinth for most of my life, we had to know our history. I might have been born in Regantown, but I spent more than half of my life on Hyacinth."

"You were born in Regantown?" Raaden looked genuinely surprised. “You're Venusian?"

Ava shook her head firmly and said, "No, we gave up our citizenship after we moved. I am officially a citizen of High Mars Hyacinth."

Raaden looked thoughtful for a moment. "Empress, where were you from?"

"Meíhuà, born and raised. I actually was in the colonial navy before signing on with Far Reach for the exploratory mission."

"Meíhuà? I figured they always stuck with their own." Raaden looked at me curious.

"Come now Raaden, you don't want us spouting stereotypes about Venus, so don't repeat Meíhuà stereotypes. We trade with Venus and the Outer Planet Alliance just as much as with the independent stations, the Xenni and K’laxi.

She raised her hands in surrender. "Okay okay, I admit, I know next to nothing about Meíhuà. It wasn't even on the first list when the Emperor planned his...expansion plans."

"Oh?" That's all I said. It was enough.

Raaden had the decency to look embarrassed. "Yeah, well you know how well that campaign went. After the failure at Parvati, Wellfleet was determined to get a win and so got permission to go after that piddly little station." She shrugged. "He failed, he died, I took over, and we went home."

"He was killed."

"By me, on the order of the Emperor, yes. He may tolerate one failure. He won't tolerate two."

"So does that mean that you'll never be able to go home to Venus?" I didn't think I was trying to keep Raaden talking, but as she talked more, she became more relaxed. Maybe it was just something to do other than fret about the hibernation cabinet, but she seemed like she was trying to explain herself, or something to that effect.

"I...don't know. I've always been a loyal and successful officer. It's entirely possible I'll get a reprimand, maybe a demotion and then put back out there." A shadow crossed her face, just for a moment. "It's also equally possible that there's a bullet waiting for me in the Emperor's antechamber. I'll guess I'll find out when or if Venus gets in touch."

"If? My goodness Raaden, that's dark,” Ava said. She just accepted that there was a 50/50 chance she would get killed as soon as she got home?

"It's the truth. I won't try and deny it. You both know what Venus is like. It's entirely possible that they will write off me and Emery and work to forget we ever existed."

Ava was firm and added, "Yes, I do know what Venus is like. It's why we left and moved to Hyacinth."

Raaden nodded once and didn't say anything more about it. Well, that answers if Raaden knew what kind of place she worked for. She knew all too well.

We walked a little more, past the docks and printers where Omar's team was hard at work refurbishing Immar IV, the former Mariens ship. It had been split into three large pieces and heavy cranes were moving components into it. This refurbishment seemed much more involved than the other two Aviens ships. As we passed, Raaden stared for a moment before catching up to us. She turned and looked at me, "You have a starship class printer here? You weren't joking about taking the parts of the Lavinia and making a new ship?"

"We have a couple of them, yes. We refurbished High Line here ourselves. Our current plan is when we come back to start work on our own dreadnought, with the weapons from Lavinia."

She stared at me for a moment, then, "...The missile batteries were always 5 degrees off. I had asked the shipyards to look into it, but they never did. The missiles could always correct for it, but that burned fuel. It made our effective range 5% lower than it could have been. Be careful with that when you mount them."

That was out of nowhere. "Uh, thank you Raaden. We'll keep that in mind." What was going on? She seemed completely different than yesterday. It's almost like she had given up on trying to escape. Just because I ordered her not to do it doesn't mean she couldn't think it. She just couldn't act on it. What changed? Would Venus really abandon them here?

As we walked to the docks, High Line was out of the internal dock and was connected to an umbilical. We walked up and Starlight on a Moonless Evening was waiting by the entrance. "Ah, Empress Melody, Builder Ava, Baron Raaden, good morning. Ginny is already aboard. She came earlier.”

"Good Morning Starlight, are you all right to go?" It had only been a few days since their partner River was killed, I hope they're going all right. I decided to do my best to try and keep the mood light.

"Yes Empress, I'm ready. It will be...satisfying to take our ship out to visit somewhere else and not worry about being stranded." Starlight looked up at High Line before stepping in. "River would have loved it."

We all got in and got settled. There were only the 8 of us and there was plenty of room on the ship. I dropped my rifle and Ava's bags in our room - Omar really went all out, it actually was quite nice - and headed up to the Command Deck. I peeked in the bathroom and sure enough, the shower was only large enough for one. As I walked up to the Command Deck, I passed by the room for Raaden. Her door was open, and she was inside lounging on the bed, reading a pad. "Hey Raaden, do you want to come up to the Command Deck and watch as we head over?"

She looked up from her pad and said, "Do you order it?"

"No, just asking."

"I'll pass then. I've seen hundreds of ships leave dock, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"You have permission to come on up if you're bored. ꜱᴛᴀʏ ᴏᴜᴛ of the engine room, reactor room, weapons bays, assigned rooms and the starboard common room. The rest of the ship is open to you."

She winced at the order, but doesn't otherwise react. "Why is the starboard common room off limits?

"That's where the hibernation cabinet was stored."

She swallowed and shuddered just a bit, and nodded silently.

"Oh also, ᴅᴏ ɴᴏᴛ ᴀᴛᴛᴇᴍᴘᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀᴍɪɴᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍɪssɪᴏɴ ɪɴ ᴀɴʏ ᴡᴀʏ. Your position here is officially hostage, not crew."

Another wince, another nod. "I know my place here, Empress. I won't cause trouble."

I continued on. Ginny, Starlight and Ava were already on the Command Deck when I walked in as I looked around and took in the setup. It was different from a human ship, everyone was much closer together. The Command chair was in the front of the room, facing a main screen while everyone else was behind the commander at their stations. I don’t know, I prefer our way with the Commander in the back or the center and everyone around them. I felt like the commander here had to keep turning around to issue orders. “Starlight, why is the commander in the front on Aviens ships?”

“Hmm, I’m not entirely sure, Empress. Perhaps my ancestors preferred to be seen in the front when issuing orders. Some kind of holdover from surface battles maybe?”

“Whatever the reason, it sure makes it awkward to sit there and turn around and issue commands.” Still, I went forward and sat in the Command Chair. It was small compared to human chairs, and pressed uncomfortably against my hips. After a moment of fidgeting, I realized that wasn’t going to work at all, so I got up and stood instead. “Omar, how are we looking?”

Omar’s disembodied voice came over the ships PA. “We’re ready when you are Melody. Systems green all around.”

“Well then, no point in hanging around here. Omar, please take us out.”

And with no fanfare at all, Omar disconnected the umbilical and we gently floated away from Reach of the Might of Vzzx.

The trip out to the Gate was uneventful. Ginny and Omar spent their time going over the Aviens and Human reactors and Ginny pointed out quite a few options for improvements on the Aviens design that Omar hadn’t even thought of. Omar was ready to just print Human reactors and replace them, but Ginny was able to see how we could make them work more efficiently and save time. I’m glad she decided to stay. If she proves herself as truly on our side, I wouldn’t mind making her a Builder, if I could convince the others she was not a threat. Ava and I wound up spending a good amount of time exploring High Line. Starlight said as far as they know, it was an unremarkable Aviens vessel, but this will be their first trip through a Gate ever, so we had no real way of knowing just how unremarkable it was.

We were walking along the main center corridor in the ship when Ava stopped. "Is this ship...odd to you Melody?"

"I mean, the layout isn't what I expect, but I don't know if I'd call it odd. Why?

"Well, for one, it's the first non-human ship I've ever been on. I keep expecting to find things in a certain place and I get confused when they aren't there. What about you?"

“I did a goodwill tour with the K'laxi. I spent 3 months right after graduation onboard the frigate Isar The Greater."

"Oh, I never knew that! How was it being on a K'laxi ship?"

"Cramped. You know how they tend to be shorter than humans? The older ships don't have much accommodation for our height. It was lucky I'm not too tall. As it was, I hit my head more times than I cared to admit. I'm just happy the Aviens are around our height." I reached up and touched the ceiling "I have room enough to stretch here."

Raaden spent her time in her room. I didn’t lock it - I didn’t see the need really, I ordered her to be good - and didn’t interact with us. We had one meal before we traversed the Gate and Raaden took a plate of food back to her room and ate there. I understood, we’re her captors, we’re not her friends. She’s here purely as insurance against a Venusian retaliatory attack, but… I don’t know. I just wanted everyone to be friendly.

Right after the evening meal, we approached the Gate. On the Command Deck, I watched it loom large on the forward screen. “Omar, is the address for the Wilds entered into the Addressing Module?”

“Yes Melody, we can activate the Gate at your order.”

I took a deep breath. Come on Melody, it’s nothing. You’ve gone through plenty of Gates. This is just like any other. Why am I so nervous though?

<You fear what you will find on the Wilds.>

<Well yes. Thank you for putting a name to it, I guess.>

<You have nothing to fear in your own Empire.>

“Omar, we may traverse. Please proceed ahead.”

“Aye Empress.” Huh, he didn’t call me Melody when executing an official order.

The Gate glows that painful, hazy blue and…

We traversed.

First / Previous / Next

His Imperial Highness, Isaac Pohl the Fifth was seated upon his gilded throne, more than a meter above the throne room on a dais made of black granite as he regarded Gord coolly. On one side of him a woman stood statue still, her uniform the elaborate burgundy brocade of the royal guard, her battle rifle pointed down with the safety on. On the other side a k’laxi dressed in a very elaborate - traditional k’laxi by Gord’s eye - dress sat on a small cushioned seat, not quite at the emperor’s height.

“We must admit, it is rare for someone from the AI faction to be visiting us.” He said, his voice a smooth tenor. Gord had to admit that for a human - especially one that was at least five generations of royalty - he looked and sounded good.

“Yeah, well we’re in strange times, your excellency” Gord said, using - to even his own surprise - the correct title and everything, and he briefly wondered if he was losing his touch. “I’d like to speak to you about your recently returned expedition.”

Emperor Pohl snapped his fingers sharply, and the royal guard stiffly turned and walked out of the room, followed by two guards at the door as well as the three guards Gord knew were hiding behind the dais. As the last guard left she shut the doors, locking them deliberately. Curiously, the K’laxi didn’t leave. “Who is your guest?” Gord asked, when curiosity got the better of him.

“Madame Ta’reni Bishi is my trusted advisor and partner, and whatever you say to me can be said to her in full confidence.” He said as Ta’reni inclined her head gently, causing the silver earrings over her large ears to flash and jitter in the overhead light.

“Partner? My my, it takes all kinds.” Gord said, to hide his surprise. The emperor was sleeping with a K’laxi? That might explain their sudden interest in trade with the cats. “Bishi? The same name as one of your colony worlds?”

“Yes, my familial line sponsored the expedition that led to the founding of Bishi, and it was named for us out of gratitude.” She said. Gord found her accent interesting. It was so precise that he wondered if she was affecting it.

The Emperor coughed politely, “Now what did you wish to discuss about my recently returned expedition.”

“Well for one, where is the rest of their ship?” Gord asked, not hiding his grin.

“Humph. Baron Raaden’s expedition ran into some trouble with the locals and decided to generously donate some minor components from her ship, as well as stay behind to make sure that they are safely integrated with local equipment.”

“Including the wormhole generator? The exawatt laser batteries? Large portions of the hull plating?”

“Very generous,” He said, daring Gord to disagree.

“Actually, the wormhole generator was destroyed through sabotage,” Ta’reni said. “Some of the locals were killed when they attempted to tinker with something they did not understand. Very human of them.” She added.

“And what of the crew? What did they think of the expedition?” Gord asked, choosing not to rise to Ta’reni’s bait.

“They were all debriefed in groups and individually and while we have learned many things, there isn’t anything we learned that should concern the AIs.”

“Now that, I doubt.” Gord said. He was still standing, looking up at the Emperor. If he was human, his legs would be getting tired, and his neck would be developing a crick, but he wasn’t and they weren’t. “Tell me about Empress Melody’s Voice.”

“What about it?” The Emperor said, cocking his head slightly. “Our reports said nothing special about her voice. She was just a young to mid 20s woman from Meíhuà who has somehow gotten more than 11 million people to listen to her.”

“Does that not strike you as odd, your excellency? That a lone human woman could not only capture an entire station larger than a few of your floating cities, but that they could support her and back her?”

“You are curiously well informed,” The Emperor said, narrowing his eyes.

“Thank you!” Gord said, smiling warmly.

“But other than our donation of equipment towards Empress Melody’s project, we see no reason to continue relations. They are a significant distance away, we have no real desire to navigate the Gates, and the energy cost to link there with no real way to profit through trade makes any further communications with them pointless.”

“Goes Baron Raaden see things that way?”

“Baron Raaden has retired from the Navy and is enjoying her well deserved rest.”

“Oh?” Gord raised an eyebrow. “I had not heard. Please wish her all the best from me then.”

“Indeed.” The emperor stood. “Then, if you need nothing else-”

“Come on Isaac,” Gord said finally. “The doors are locked, it’s just us five, why the act?”

“Five?” Ta’reni said.

“The two guards that didn’t leave when Isaac dismissed everyone,” Gord said. “One is in a hidden alcove to my right, and the other is in the ceiling.”

The emperor stared at Gord, his face impassive.

“AI remember?” Gord said, tapping the side of his head. “Anyway, what’s with the ‘everything is fine actually’ song and dance?”

“What the hell do you want me to do?” Isaac said, finally sitting heavily in his chair. He glared up at the hidey holes. “Come on, he knows you’re there, come on out.”

The ceiling hatch popped open and a man dressed in a dark grey formless uniform dropped to the floor silently and took up station behind Gord. The side door opened and a woman dressed the same joined him.

“Gord, as close as anyone will tell me, they went over, had a nice meal, Raaden tried and failed to gain control of things, then Melody paraded them before the people, stripped their ship, and sent them home. Nobody reported being mistreated, nobody had anything negative to say about her or her retinue at all! I heard from multiple people how good the food was for fuck's sake. As far as anyone will tell me, they had a fucking vacation.”

“You know that’s not how it happened, right?” Gord said carefully.

“That’s just it Gord, I don’t. I’ve tried everything to get someone to tell me what really happened. You know I have people who can be very persuasive.” He gestured towards Ta’reni, “I even asked Ta’reni if the Discoverers could succeed where my teams failed.”

“We questioned three individuals heavily,” Ta’reni said. “All of them said the same thing. As far as we are able to determine, that is what happened.”

“Did the people survive the questioning? I know how the Discoverers work.” Gord said.

“You do not.” Ta’reni huffed.

“I met Fleet Commander N’ren when she was just a second class Discoverer who couldn’t keep it in her pants. I know how the Discoverers work.”

“Two of the three will make a full recovery.” She said, finally.

“And the third?”

“Will live.”

“You see Gord?” Isaac said. Behind closed doors, the regal posture and stature faded and Gord saw him as the tired, frazzled administrator he was. “They had a great time, donated their stuff to Melody and came home.” He threw up his hands. “It’s not what happened, but whatever the fuck did happen made them all give me that story.”

“Have you heard from Melody et. al. about Raaden?”

“No.” Isaac stared at Gord, considering something. “Gord, they have my son.”

“…Shit.” Gord said. He didn't like the Venusians, and had no love lost for Isaac, but Gord knew what it was like to lose a child. Nobody deserved that.

“Indeed.” The two stared at each other for a while until Isaac sighed again. “Why are you here, Gord? You clearly want something. The AIs haven’t given us the time of day in centuries.”

“You keep saying we’re not people,” Gord pointed out.

“Okay, point, but still. Why are you here?”

“Because you sent an expedition to Melody, they came back in a shambles two months ago, and we heard nothing after. Not good news, not bad news, nothing. That worries us.”

“What, why?”

“Ta’reni, do you know that Melody is Tep’ra’fel?” Gord said suddenly.

At the mention of the undeniable, Gord saw her fur ripple quickly and her tail darted back and forth as her ears swiveled to face him. “Tep’ra’fel is just an artifact of an ancient religion, no more real than your Saint Nicholas.” She said, though it sounded unconvincing to Gord.

“Santa Claus can’t give people undeniable orders.”

Ta’reni bristled but said nothing.

“So you didn’t know that Melody was Tep’ra’fel?” He said, looking at Isaac.

“That K’laxi that came to us, the former captain, Q’ari I think, mentioned as such, but Raaden took it to be the religious poppycock it was.” he said, waving his hand dismissively.

“Q’ari was here? She convinced you to go back?”

“Er yes? She explained that they had a significant empire and it would be worth our while to reach out and possible develop relations.”

“How the hell did a K’laxi captain get to meet with a Baron of the Venusian navy?” Gord said, incredulous.

“The usual way,” Isaac said shrugging. “She paid a not insignificant bribe.”

“Fuck me.” Gord said as he ran his hand through his hair. “Look Isaac, cards on the table time. Melody is Tep’ra’fel and her voice is undeniable. She probably ordered everyone to say they had a great time and not mention her voice. I know that would be the first thing I’d say.”

“How do you know this?” Isaac said, leaning forward.

“We met Tep’ra’fel once already, fifty years ago.”

“Fifty years ago?” Ta’reni said suddenly, “That was around Contact.”

“It was during Contact.” Gord said. “Well, right after. Longview went to continue their mission after you and the Xenni left, they contacted a gate, a human became Tep’ra’fel, but to her credit and my everlasting thanks, she realized what she was and used her Voice to order Longview to slag the Gate with her in it.”

“That’s unbelievable.” Isaac said.

“Sonofa-” Gord said and then looked around. “Send your guards away. Ta’reni too.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I can prove it, but only to you.”

Isaac shrugged and gestured. “Do as he asks. Wait in the antechamber with the nobles to be summoned again.”

“But your excellency-” One of the guards said.

“If Gord was going to kill me, he would have done it already.” Isaac said, sounding very tired. “Go.”

Fifteen minutes later, a tone sounded and everyone, including the small contingent of Nobels who had been less than patiently waiting for a chance to petition the Emperor, were let back into the throne room. His Imperial Highness, Isaac Pohl the Fifth sat upon his throne trembling slightly, all color gone from his face. “W-we stand upon the precipice of something...world altering.” He started, “And in these unique times, we must remember that we are not so strong as to reject a hand holding an olive branch. We are therefore entering into an agreement with the AI faction to mount a police action against The Reach of the Might of Vzzx. We will use this opportunity to rescue Baron Helen Raaden, and His Excellency Emory Pohl as well as eliminate Empress Melody’s war-making ability. We will undergo this police action with all haste, and with the generous assistance of the AI faction’s starjumpers.”

Gasps and muttering among the nobles in the back of the hall.

“Furthermore we-” Suddenly a royal guard bounded up the steps cleverly hidden in the rear of the dais and whispered something in the Emperor’s ear. “They stole what?”

First / Previous / Next

We sent the Venusians home today.

We left them enough thruster to travel to the Gate and traverse, enough environmental systems to keep them alive - so long as they stuck to their quarters and the Command Deck - and... that was it. Oh, we also took the all of their weapons. I even had the weapon lockers stripped out. We now had a good supply of high quality rifles and small arms. I gave some to Sep and asked them duplicate the weapons and begin training. I also promised to stop by later and give some tips in the finer points of their operation.

When I saw the faces of the crew when they saw what I was leaving them, I admit I cackled - in my head - just a teeny bit. We made sure it was survivable and they wouldn’t be injured, but their ship looked like a joke. Large pieces were missing from the hull, whole rooms exposed to vacuum, the thrusters we left them were undersized for what would normally be used, and so on. I imagined they were going to have an interesting time going home. Before they left, I used the Voice to order them to not mention the Voice. Just that we had overpowered them and were keeping Raaden and Emery as an insurance policy. Keeping Selem here was a foregone conclusion, and she was the only one who knew the sigil that brought people to this side of the galaxy, so I wasn’t worried about retaliation right away.

The wormhole generator was destroyed in the explosion, so they couldn’t link home even if they wanted to; they’ll have to call for a ride back to Sol from someone. Luckily, their ships operated with only human crews, so it's not like we left some poor AI behind to drag their own corpse home. It's just a ship.

Well, it's 64% or so of a ship.

As for Raaden and Emery, I did wind up going with the option Ava and I discussed. We found an empty apartment building that was close - but not directly next to - the Royal Dawn. With two empty apartments we were able to put Raaden and Emery in separate apartments quite a long distance from each other. The apartment building was guarded all hours of the day, and meals were sent up. They were prisoners but I didn’t want it to feel like jail.

It felt like I had just stuffed them into a corner and was trying to forget about them, and maybe I was a little bit, but that's what having hostages is sometimes, right? I was trying to make sure they're comfortable and well taken care of. Emery had seemed to accept his lot and he spent most of his time reading and sketching. He asked for art supplies and was excited when we brought him paper and pencils that were locally made. He spent his time looking out the window and sketching what he saw. I've seen a few of them; the drawings are actually quite lovely and it made me realize that he was pretty used to being stuck in a corner somewhere and told to entertain himself.

Raaden...hadn't accepted her imprisonment so easily. She had tried to escape twice already and the only thing that had prevented it was her unfamiliarity with the locks. After the second attempt I used the Voice to order her to stop trying to break out. Now she just sat in her apartment and alternated between seething and sulking. I almost wished we had a hibernation cabinet to put her into. She'd be less of a problem if she was just on ice the whole time.

<You stole the entire printing database from Far Reach, surely there are plans for a hibernation cabinet in there?>

<That’s a good point. I’ll ask Omar.>

Ginny was put up in the Royal Dawn in a room that was pretty far from my suite of rooms but I didn’t feel like I needed to put her into the apartment building I commandeered. I did use my Voice to order her not to talk to Raaden and Emery and to not have any contact with Venus without our permission, but she knew why and accepted the order.

Yes, we let Ginny stay. Of all of the people we interviewed she was the only one who actually wanted to be here. Everyone else was indifferent to it or was being actively ordered to volunteer. That was what finally convinced Ava, Omar, Um'reli, and Starlight. We won't give her the Builder package for a long time - if ever - but that still doesn't mean we don't need the help. We don't have her doing much right now, but she is shadowing Sound of the City and they love that they have a helper and someone they get to show the Reach. Maybe I'll take her with us when we go to the Wilds of Besmara. She might enjoy that.

I was just finishing up breakfast in the Royal Dawn when Omar came in. "Melody, what are we going to do with all the parts we took from the Lavinia?"

I couldn't help myself, and said with a stupid grin, "Put them on a Starship, Omar."

"Melody. Which Starship? High Line and Sun Dancer are done. We'd have to put them back into the dock to add things to them, Immar IV isn't done, but do we want to put all the parts on that one?"

Ah, I see what he meant. If we put the Venusian parts on High Line or Sun Dancer, then that delays how long before we could go to the Wilds of Besmara.

"Let's keep them off High Line and Sun Dancer for now. I do want to go to the Wilds now that we've dealt with Venus. Once we're back and Immar IV is done, why don't we start construction on a whole new ship?"

"A new ship?" Omar sat down at my breakfast table and looked off into the middle distance, thinking. "Yes, we could do it. I think we have a handle on how things work now. We would add the Venusian parts, of course. That would save a lot of time. I'd make a dreadnought of our own - smaller than the Venus made or other human ones - but it would still pack a punch."

"See? What a great idea I had." I'm laughed, but I meant it. It was high time we made our own Starships. I wished we had more printers, we could really get production going, but it's not like we needed a whole fleet right away. Slow and steady progress was fine.

<And once you have starships you can begin Gate construction again.>

<Gate construction? Isn’t that getting ahead of ourselves?>

<No, more Gates was always the goal. We need more Gates.>

<Why?>

<Gates are how we spread.>

<But we already have hundreds of Gates to empty systems.>

<And we can build more and take them to systems without Gates. With your wormhole generator the process will be much more streamlined. We can expand to the entire galaxy.>

<Once things are more stable here we->

<Melody, you misunderstand.> I blinked, taken aback. The nanites had never interrupted me before, and their need, their desire for the Gates leaked through, hot and sharp. <Gates are the goal. Gates are the only goal. You have the Reach up and running, go see what happened at Besmara and finish Omar’s starship, but then you must begin construction on more Gates.>

"Omar, do you want to pilot High Line when we take it over to Besmara? I want to go next week, and we need to figure some things out. You piloted it during the shakedown, but this will be our first Gate traversal since we came here." I couldn’t shake the feeling of the Nanites tapping a foot impatiently in my mind. They were very keen to begin Gate construction again, why?

"Yes, I'd like to drive if you're okay with that. We should have the others take a turn so we all get experience with it - it's different than being the Reach - but for now, I'll take us over. Who is going to come? We should probably leave at least one Builder here."

"I agree. I wanted you and Ava and Starlight to come, and we can let Um'reli run things while we're away. I want Ginny to come too."

Omar broke his reverie, furrowed his brows, and said "Ginny? Why?"

"I want to show her she's not a prisoner like Raaden and Emery. She was the only one who wanted to be here. Might as well start treating her like that. Plus, we could use a reactor tech on High Line."

"You make a good point. Fine. Ginny can come too. We don't really need much of anyone else. With Builder systems I can run most of High Line from the chair. I wonder if it feels the same when an AI runs a ship? I'm doing a similar role."

"I don't know. If we ever get back to our side of the Galaxy we should ask." I found lately I was missing stuff from back in settled space. I hoped once were done visiting some stations on this side we could go back, just for a visit. "I'd like to open up some lines of trade too. I bet people over there would like some of our foodstuffs and I sure could use some coffee." I looked wistfully at my cup of tea on the table. I hadn't had coffee since speaking with the Venusians. I was trying to save what little she had for special occasions, but it was so hard!

"One thing at a time, Melody. Let's go see if we can figure out what happened at Besmara. Then, see if we can find any other stations or colonies. We could finish the exploration that Far Reach abandoned."

I looked up at Omar in surprise. "That's it! We can continue the mission. Just because Far Reach declared Captain Q'ari unfit and left doesn't mean that there isn't good things to learn out here. We even have Captain Q’ari back here, she can give us more information about what was originally planned.” I jumped up and gave Omar a hug. "Thanks Omar. It really helps to talk things out sometimes."

"No problem Melody, glad to help."

I left the Royal Dawn and took the long way to the Throne, saying hello to people as I walked. When I first got here, people were so frightened of us, but now people greeted me, they gave me little bits of news from their world, I even got to meet families! More than once I had been told how nice it was that I was able to increase the food deliveries. As plain old Melody I was often intimidated making small talk with people and would try and avoid it, but when I was Empress, I found it was much easier. It almost felt like I was pretending to be the Empress; like it was a persona to put on and take off. When I'm with Ava in our room I was just Melody, but when the gown, crown and wings came out I was The Empress.

It was hard to explain. I wished I knew more people that had gone though this to see if it's normal. I supposed that when you're the only Empress around, anything you do is normal, by virtue of the fact that you're the one doing it. I should ask the Nanites, maybe they have some recorded personalities I can talk to.

<We do, yes. This kind of thing would need to be done from the Throne, but we could arrange a conversation with previous Empresses. It might prove helpful.>

I made my way to the Throne and settled in. I thought about what the Nanites said about speaking to previous Empress' but I decided that should wait. We had things to do. Lost in thought, I didn't notice that Ava, Um'reli, and Starlight were there already until Ava said good morning. I could feel Um'reli and Ava showing Starlight how to work things.

<“See Starlight, if you just look... over here... you can see the transit network.”>

<“Yes, yes, I see. It looks like we have the trains on schedule and... wait, what's that one on that siding?”>

I could hear Ava's grin as she said, <“That's Melody's Royal Transport. She likes to use it when she feels like showing off, or if she needs to get somewhere after hours or when things are too busy to wait for a scheduled train.”>

Mentally, I looked up at them and added, <“I don't use it to show off. I use it when I want to make an entrance.”>

<“Okay, so when Emp-Melody's not showing off, she stores it over here?”> I smiled to myself when I heard the smirk in Starlight's tone. When I made them a builder, I told them that they could call me Melody. I had decided it would be weird for Ava, Um'reli and Omar to call me Melody, and have Starlight call me Empress, and I didn't want to make everyone call me Empress as well, so Builder Starlight can call me Melody.

“Um'reli, you're okay with staying here and running things while the rest of us go to the Wilds of Besmara to see what happened to them?” I said aloud as everyone disconnected from the Throne.

“Sure Melody, it's fine. I have reports to go over on reactor efficiency. We have enough of a power surplus now we should look at taking down the reactors one at a time for refurbishment. I don't think it's ever been done!”

“What do you mean, take the reactor down for refurbishment?” Starlight looked curious while Um'reli and I talked.

“So, at least with our reactors, they need regular maintenance. We usually build our systems with enough overhead that they can run with one whole reactor down so we can work on it, or if one fails we can swap it out without inconveniencing anyone. Before we got here, the Reach had enough power, but I wouldn't have dreamed of shutting a reactor off. Now, I think we can turn one off, make sure it's in good condition and then turn it back on, move on to the next and so on.”

“That's impressive, Builder Um'reli. You have found so many ways to improve efficiency.”

“Just Um'reli is fine, you're a Builder now too, remember. But, thank you. I enjoy working with the reactors. I hope we can get Ginny up and helping us too, it will be useful to have someone else - someone who actually took some training on this and isn't just an enthusiastic amateur - take a look at things.”

It was time for me to chime in. “Okay, good. Omar was going to drive, I'll sit in the Command chair, Ava could monitor systems, Starlight could let us know if there's anything we're missing with local information and Ginny was coming along to prove to her that she's not just another hostage like Raaden and Emery.”

Ava looked up from the report she's reading. "I like it, Melody, it seems like a good plan. Ugh, I wish there was something we could do about Raaden. I don't trust her as far as I could throw her."

"I know! I was thinking about it on the walk over. What if we printed a hibernation cabinet for her? I know that Starjumpers carry them, and that Far Reach used to be one so their printer database must have the plans.”

"Actually, I think that could work. Let's ask Omar how tough it would be to print one up. On the one hand, I don't like the idea of just sticking her in a closet until we decide what to do with her, but on the other, I don't know what to do with her. She'll never trust us, and we can never trust her."

"Exactly."

Starlight looked like they were warring with themselves over something. After a moment, a decision was made. "Melody, why did you keep her anyway? If I was in charge, I would have declared her culpable for Rapid River Roaring's death and had them executed."

Now everyone was looking at me. "Starlight, for right now, she's worth more to us alive than dead. If we killed her and sent the Venusians home with their ship stripped and them humiliated they would have come right back with all their dreadnoughts and just fired upon us as soon as they traversed the Gate. No radio, no opportunity to use the Voice on them, just kaboom." I mimed firing a gun. "This way, with Raaden, their Baron and Crown Prince Emery, they have to think twice about whether to come in guns hot or not."

"Ah, I see. Yes Melody. You are making it so that we are too valuable to outright destroy. But, what do we do when they want their crown prince and their baron back? Or worse, what if they don't want them back?"

My shoulders slumped. "I don't know yet. As soon as we figure out a deal and we give them Raaden and Emery they don't have a reason to not come in and destroy us."

Starlight's eyes were bright. "Well then. We just need to be better armed then they are by then. We can then repel them the regular way."

"Hah. That's the best idea I've heard so far Starlight. For now, we'll go with that plan. Once we come back from the Wilds, Omar was going to look into building a dreadnought from the parts we... liberated from Venus. Do you know of any Aviens plans for large warships?"

"Actually, yes. I believe we had some plans for a ship like that. We should try and reach out to more of my people. Ever since our ancestors were trapped here, we have not heard from any other of our kind."

"Starlight, I was wondering, what did trap you and the Mariens and others here all those years ago?" Um'reli and Ava looked up at Omar's question. I guessed we were all wondering it.

"I wish I knew, Omar. My parent's parents were the original ones left here, but they wouldn't talk about it. From what I can gather, there was a war, or something like it. The last Builders left the Reach to do something and never returned. My parent's parents did mention that the first few years after the Builders left were very difficult."

"Another mystery to solve then. I want to get going. Hey Omar, do you think you can print a hibernation cabinet?"

"Probably Melody, what for?" He said, nodding.

"For Raaden. I just don't trust her to be awake and around while we leave to do explore the Wilds of Besmara. I was thinking of putting her in a cabinet and sticking her on board in hibernation. Crown Prince Emery seems fine, we could probably leave him here under guard."

"Melody that's brilliant! We don't have to deal with her trying to escape and we can carry her around as a kind of talisman against Venus attacks. You just have to get her into it."

"Leave that part to me."

It actually only took Omar a few hours to print the hibernation cabinet. When you have printers that could make a whole starship in a few weeks, one small hibernation cabinet was hardly a feat. It came out gleaming and white, looking like a long lozenge from the medical department. On the top was a clear window to see the face of the resident and on the side was a small readout of vitals. I asked Omar to let me borrow some people, and an Aviens and Azurian wheeled the cabinet behind me as we walked. When we arrived, I stared up and said, “Wait here please. I will be down with them in a moment."

Upstairs, I nodded to the guards and knock on the door before opening it. "Raaden, come here please."

"Go to hell mmmmmm-Empress." The voice was muffled, and I didn't see her. She must have been in another room. I still smiled that she was still trying to get around that order, but in the end I didn't have time for this. "ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴍᴇ Raaden." She got up out of the other room and robotically walked to me. Her eyes radiated hatred, but she followed nonetheless. When we got to the bottom floor and I opened the door to leave, she caught a glimpse of the cabinet. Raaden's eyes went wide and the snarl of hatred on her face was replaced with a new emotion.

Terror.

"No! No nonono! You're not going to put me in one of those! Please! Empress! Don't put me in a hibernation cabinet! I won't escape, just don't put me in there!"

I stopped and turned, surprised. "What? Why not Raaden? It's just a hibernation cabinet, brand new even. Omar printed it up from our copy of Far Reach's printer database. It's not a local design, it's one of ours."

As she stood in the doorway, shaking like an off balance thruster, I didn't need the Nanites to see that she was legitimately terrified of the hibernation cabinet. "I-I-Its a form of punishment in Imperial Venus. For p-people who have displeased the Emperor. A person is placed into the hibernation cabinet and then they manipulate the settings. They can change the person's sense of the passage of time such that a day could feel like centuries."

<Interesting.>

<Don’t get any ideas, that sounds horrifying.>

<Indeed. It would be an excellent deterrent, don’t you think?>

Was that what was waiting for her when she got back to Venus? The people who were wheeling the cabinet heard her terror and looked at each other, concern radiating.

"Raaden, I'm not going to manipulate your perception of time. We're going to run you deep enough that you won't have any perception of time passing. It'll be just like when people were put in cabinets for Starjumper trips before the wormhole generators. You'll go in, and then you'll awaken on Venus when we've worked out the details with the Emperor."

“Or instead, I’ll never wake up from my failure. Or worse, I will but it will be after ten thousand years subjective and I'm a gibbering mess. Empress, I am actually begging you." She got down on her knees in the doorway and bowed down. "Please. Don't put me in hibernation. I will literally do anything else." She put her head up and her cheeks were wet with tears and she was shaking. She whispered. "Please, don't." I looked over to the cabinet and then back at Raaden. I just couldn't. It was too cruel. I looked at her and tried to concentrate. Was she just acting? No. I think she was completely terrified of going into hibernation.

<Melody. After this much time we are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that this is a mistake.>

<You can see her as well as I can. She’s not pretending, she’s truly terrified.>

<Regardless, she should be locked up.>

Ugh.

I sat on the cabinet and reached out to my Builders. <“Hey. Raaden is wet her pants terrified of going into hibernation. She's literally begging me not to do it.”>

<“Was it a put on, was she just really good at acting?”> Ava said over our connection.

<“I don't think so. My heightened body language processing says she's being honest, and the nanites agree.”>

<“What do the Nanites say about it?> Ava said.

<“They said I should put her in anyway.”>

<“I agree with them. Order her to do it anyway, use your Voice.”> Um'reli suggested.

<“Doesn't that seem unnecessarily cruel to you? We'd be leveraging a legitimate phobia just to make things easier on us. She'd never forgive us.”>

<“You still think she'll actually forgive us?”> The suspicion in Omar's voice was clear.

<“Hey, we have a responsibility to treat our prisoners humanely, and that includes not torturing them. This would be torture for her.”>

<“They wouldn't have the same consideration of us.”> Omar added

<“All the more reason for us to treat her better.”>

<“Okay then, what do we do with her?”>Ava asked.

<“Take her with us.”>

<“WHAT?”&gt; Their voices had an odd harmony over the mental connection when they exclaimed at once, especially when the Nanites chimed in.

I practically reeled from the combined force of their surprise. Still, I pressed on, <“Take her with us. She'll still be on board, I can order her around with the Voice and we'll still bring the cabinet. If she causes trouble I'll order her into it and we'll be done with it. This is her chance to show us how much she doesn't want to be in the cabinet.”>

<“Or for her to show us how good of an actor she is,”> Ava said.

<“Ava, I'm pretty sure she's not acting.”>

<“Ugh fine. Let me get a room ready and strengthen the locks on it.”>

<“Thanks Ava.”>

I looked up. Raaden had gotten up from the floor but her eyes were still wide with fear. She was working very hard to control it, but fear of the cabinet was still very strong. She truly was terrified of being put into it.

"Raaden. I won't put you into the hibernation cabinet." As I completed the sentence, her body relaxed and she started breathing heavily.

"Yet."

She tightened up and held her breath again.

"You're coming with us on High Line to explore the Wilds of Besmara. I need insurance against Venus, and if you won't get into the cabinet then you'll come along. I will also bring the cabinet so if you cause us even a small amount of trouble I will just order you into the cabinet and be done with it." I narrowed my eyes and met her gaze, "Do you understand?"

She stands straight and tall and matched my gaze, looking me in the eyes. "I will not betray you, nor will I attempt to escape, nor will I sabotage any aspect of your mission. So long as it keeps me out of that thing, I do whatever you order.”

"See that you do." I jumped off the cabinet and gesture to my helpers. "Bring this to High Line. Omar will show you where to put it. "ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʀᴀᴀᴅᴇɴ, I will bring you back to your apartment."

She followed me without struggling this time. I stop at the entry to her apartment. "We'll be back tomorrow morning. Do you have any requests for food or drink onboard?"

She blinked. "You're asking my opinion?"

"Well yes. You're going to be onboard with us for at least a week, if not more. You deserve to have some input."

She ran her hand through her close cropped hair, surprised. "Uh, I don't like coffee, so don't bother giving me any. I know you love the stuff, so don't waste any on me."

Oh nice. More coffee for me then. "Thank you. We'll come by tomorrow after breakfast."

She nodded and moved to close the door. "Until then."

After the door closed and I locked it, I looked at the guards and they acknowledge me. "Empress" they both said, and then face forward, silently.

First / Previous / Next

It was three days into stripping the Vengeance of Lavinia before the first trap was found.

Before that, Omar wound up having more volunteers than he knew what to do with. I rounded up the leftovers and asked about their skills. Most everyone had a job here already so those whose work was still needed on the Reach were sent home with thanks. Others were tasked with helping support the people stripping Lavinia. Food and drinks were needed, as well as places to rest, messages to be delivered, tools to be found and brought. There was always plenty to do.

Lavinia was much too large to be placed into one of our interior docking bays, so Omar diverted the printers from their work on the third ship - the Mariens ship Immar IV - and made some pressure suits. He then led a team out to carefully remove their missile batteries and lasers. Working methodically and carefully they made sure they did not overly damage the hull so they could still safely go home, and while Omar and his team carefully removed the outer weapons, a team led by Starlight on a Moonless Evening stripped the interior. The walls and doors were left, as well as personal effects - I'm here to send a message, not ruin lives - but furniture, art, computers, everything not directly related to the environmental systems, their Addressing Module (probably purchased on the black market, I wonder who sold them that?) and their thrusters were taken. We were going to take their wormhole generator as well. It was my idea, I was hoping to save time constructing a new one.

That was our mistake. As Starlight's crew worked to disconnect the wormhole generator, it exploded.

Fortunately for us, and everyone on the Reach, it was a small, targeted explosion. It's not a detonation of the wormhole generator, which would have destroyed Lavinia, the Reach, and a significant portion of the area around. It was a small anti-personnel charge placed in the delicate machinery, destroying the wormhole generator. It critically injured two technicians nearby and killed Rapid River Roaring, who had insisted upon doing the work themselves. I later learned that they were worried about something like this and insisted upon doing the most critical work themselves. Starlight on a Moonless Evening came to me covered in soot with some of their wing feathers were singed. They had been on their way to River to ask for a report on progress when the wormhole generator detonated. Starlight explained what happens in fits and starts, as they flapped their wing-arms and shook their head, a constant ball of anxious motion. I could see how hard they were trying to keep it together, and when they had to report to me that River died, they just couldn't. They fell to my feet and between sobs explained that River was gone.

I scooped up River and just held them.

In tears myself, I ordered a stop to work that day. Everyone is to put down tools for one day while we mourn the loss of Rapid River Roaring.

But this would not stand. They were following my orders and they died. They died because of Venusian treachery. In a rage, I burst into the room that we were keeping the Venusians, causing everyone to look up from what they were doing in shock. I might have kicked the door pretty hard.

"ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴛʀᴀᴘꜱ. Speak now!"

Raaden looked up from the corner where she was sitting. "Tried to take the wormhole generator did you?

I strode over to her shaking with rage, barely containing myself and said, "Where are the others? ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴍᴇ.

"There's another bomb in the kitchen. If someone tries to open the food stores without knowing the code, it'll detonate. There's one more on the thrusters. If they are tampered with, the same thing happens." Raaden answered my order robotically. She couldn’t stop herself and every time I made her speak she hated me more.

While I'm speaking to Raaden, stood at the doorway staring at the interaction. They haven't cleaned up yet and are still sooty and singed. "Empress. What have you learned?"

"Do not touch their food supply and do not touch their main thrusters. Everything else is open."

They nodded. "And whom shall we take?"

I looked back at them. "Pardon?"

"They killed one of us through treachery. It is only right we take one of theirs. They will need to learn that one does not underestimate the people of the Reach."

<They are absolutely correct.>

Tears on my face, streaming down my cheek, I swung my hand over the group randomly. "That one. You, stand."

A young man stood up nervously.

ꜱᴛᴏᴘ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜɪɴɢ.

His head cocked as he tried to understand the order and opened his mouth to speak and found nothing happened. Eyes wide in panic, clutching at his neck uselessly, he looked around the room, his mouth opening and closing without anything happening. Everyone else put their head down, and didn't meet his gaze while it happened.

<You are demonstrating your power as well as avenging River's passing. You are powerful, they are not.>

As the seconds ticked past and they flailed more, falling deeper and deeper into panic, my bloodthirst fled me, and all I saw was a young person, younger than me, dying because I told them to die.

<No. No, this is wrong. They didn't do anything other than pick the wrong side. They didn't set the bomb, they probably didn't even know about the bomb.>

ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀʏ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜᴇ.

<You are making a mistake.>

He gasped loudly and collapsed on the floor, panting. Starlight looks at me completely shocked and said, "Why did you stop, Empress?"

"We are not barbarians, Starlight. We will mourn River's passing and celebrate them as a martyr. We will not kill a Venusian for no reason. They didn't set the bomb, they probably didn't even know the bomb existed. Raaden is the only one culpable here and she is worth more to us alive than dead." I stared at Starlight, their rage at their partner's death bright and hot on their body. They did have a point though, we couldn't be seen as weak. Looking back over to the panting officer I said, "ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍɪᴅᴅʟᴇ ғɪɴɢᴇʀ."

Before they could even parse the order, they grabbed their own middle finger with their other hand, and with a sickening crack, broke it. The color drained from their face and they moaned, falling to the deck. I could hear the sympathetic groans from the rest of the Venusians as a few rushed over to their compatriot.

Starlight stared at me a long time, their eyes going between me and the officer writhing on the ground. Finally, a decision was made, and they nodded. "Empress." and without another word they left.

<You should have finished it.>

<No. I wasn't going to kill someone because I was upset. That is a terrible reason to carry out an execution.>

<It has been used countless times.>

<That doesn't make it the correct choice.>

<They are going to see you weak.>

<They will see me as magnanimous.>

<Even though you made him break a finger?>

<A minor, painful injury. They will recover, and they will remember what could have been.>

After Starlight left, I regarded the Venusians cooly, surprising myself at how controlled I was being. "Look. Look at your colleague and see what I saved you from. It takes only a few words from me, and any one of you will suffocate, or worse. Starlight is broken over the loss of Rapid River Roaring. If any more of my people die, I will not stop at breaking a finger a second time." I turned on my heel and walked out.

That night, I laid in the bath staring up, worrying. "What am I going to do?" I said to the ceiling.

The door chimed. "It's Ava."

"Please come in."

She came in and sees me in the bath and her eyes lingered. "Not tonight Ava, Rapid River Roaring died. They were blown up when the trapped Venusian wormhole generator detonated."

"I heard Melody, that's why I came." She immediately stripped down.

I sat up in the bath, hot water pouring off me. "What are you doing Ava? I said not tonight."

"No. No sex tonight Melody. Tonight you need comfort." She climbed into the bath, wincing. I liked it much hotter than she did. As she got used to it, she came over and leaned her head on my shoulder. Her arm went across my chest and she just laid there.

"How did Starlight take it?"

"They wanted me to pick a Venusian to kill."

Her grip on me tightened, but she didn't say anything.

"I made one stand up and ordered them to stop breathing." Ava grabbed me even tighter. "I was watching them, Ava. I was watching them writhe and panic and open and close their mouth like a fish. I-I couldn't do it. All I was thinking of was how mad I was, how upset I was at them, but also how this person who I was killing didn't do anything. Just be the wrong person at the wrong time. They didn't set the bomb, they didn't kill River... I did. I ordered them to start breathing again, but I did order them to break their own finger."

"How did you kill River?"

"I ordered them to strip the Venusian starship. River wouldn't have tried to take the wormhole generator unless I told them to. I did it."

"Oh Melody" Ava lifted her head and kissed my tear stained cheeks. "Melody, you didn't kill River. Venus did. Venus made the choice to trap the wormhole generator. Venus tried to take control. River's death is theirs."

Ava put her head down. I could hear her voice vibrating through my chest. "You were right to stop though. As much as I hate Venus, killing them over that would cause more trouble than it would fix."

I nodded. "It doesn't make it any easier though." Fresh tears ran down my cheeks silently. "I explained to the Venusians that if another person from the Reach died, I would not be so merciful. Ava, what am I doing? I'm not an Empress. I'm just someone who did a stupid thing and how I have-" I flung a wet arm around the room "-all this. All these people. All this... responsibility. Whether or not it's my fault, River died on my orders."

<Nobody said being an Empress would be easy. You are doing better than most, even if you are not as…decisive as we would prefer.>

Ava lifted her head up and kissed my mouth. "Hey. Hey. You're doing great. You were thrust into something so big so massive with no training. Your instincts were correct.”

"Oh but Ava, River died. They died and Starlight acted like their spouse died. Were they together? I never asked. I should have gotten to know them better."

"It's not too late. Invite Starlight up to lunch tomorrow. We could get to know them. They can tell us about who River was before the funeral."

"I should have asked Raaden about traps before we started."

She nodded. "But we didn't. The only thing we can do now is mourn River, complete the work, and show Venus that we mean business."

I turned my head and looked her. "Thank you Ava. If it wasn't for you, I don't think I would... have made a good choice about Raaden."

She laughed and gave my breast a squeeze, "Oh Melody, I know her type. If you have what she wants then she's your best friend and more. Once she has it, then you're discarded for the next shiny thing."

"I know, but... she looked really good."

"So you want me to get some riding boots to clomp around the Reach in?"

I blushed and stammered, "I uh, wouldn't say no to it."

Ava's laughter was music, and I needed music now.

"You don't need to worry about Raaden stealing me away now. Have you seen her face? She hates me. Every time she looked at me, I remain glad that even I can't kill with a look, I'd be dead a dozen tines over."

Ava nodded. "Raaden is trouble. I wish we didn't have to keep her here. She's going to be a constant pain."

"You were right Ava, you told me to watch myself. Thank you."

We stayed in the bath another hour, just holding each other as the water got cold. Then we got up, toweled off and fell into bed, exhausted. The night was blissfully dreamless.

The next day was Rapid River Roaring's funeral. Their funeral was in the afternoon by custom and so I asked Sound of the City to ask Starlight over for breakfast.

When they arrived, I could see that they barely slept. They did their best, but their feathers were dull and flat. Their eyes were tired and there was staining around the corners of their beak.

I had a breakfast table set up in my room for two. Ava got up and left early to go to her chair in the Throne "so I can get some work done before this afternoon."

"Starlight. Join me for breakfast before we begin today's preparations."

They sat silently as plates of food are brought up. By their expression, I could see that Starlight hadn't eaten in a while. I began slowly as they tucked into their plates. After a while, when they had finished their food, I had drinks brought up. Coffee for me and Tea for Starlight. "Starlight. I know this past day has been difficult for you, I wish to offer my more sincere condolences."

"Empress, thank you but that is not necessary. I know you care about us."

I held up a hand "Regardless, I feel terrible about River and what happened. You and River have shown a dedication to the people on the Reach that is admirable. I wish to offer you a boon"

"A boon, Empress?"

I chuckled sadly "Well, its more of a crushing responsibility, but its yours if you want it. Would you like to become a Builder?"

Their head shot up and their eyes narrowed. "You would do this?"

"There are only 4 of us right now and that's not nearly enough. The Builder package can seemingly be installed on any person if it's initiated by the Empress. It's not a humans only thing, I have a feeling it never was. I need more help. You have shown me that you truly love the people here. Will you help?"

They looked down and their shoulders moved gently. I can't tell if they're laughing or crying until I see the tears splash onto the table. "River.. Rapid River Roaring always wondered about it. They wondered if anyone could become a Builder, or if you had to be born into it. They wanted to become one so badly. There were so many parts of this station's operation we could see were locked off from us. They thought if they could become a Builder we would really be able to help."

Starlight on a Moonless Evening looked up and straightened. "Yes, Empress. I would like to become a Builder. I would like to help here."

"Stand, Starlight on a Moonless Evening." I got up as they did. I walk over to them and bend down and gently kiss them. Their beak was warm and hard.

Their feathers rippled a blush, and they looked at me, confused. They reached up and touched their beak where I kissed them. "Empress?"

"It's the easiest way to alert the Nanites to start the installation process. It will take about a day for the concentration to build up and for you to be able to access Builder systems. I'll have Ava, Um'reli and Omar show you the ropes." Speaking of...

<“Ava, Omar, Um'reli, I just made Starlight a Builder,”> I thought to them.

<“That's an excellent idea!”> Ava sounded pleased.

<“Yes, I agree. Starlight is a brilliant choice.”> Omar was pleasant, but sounded distracted. He's probably busy.

<“It'll be a good thing, but next time, tell us when you plan on making more Builders, okay Melody?”> Um'reli's voice was wary. I don't know if she wanted more builders. Hmm.

<“Okay. I'll run the next one by you. All this time, I was worried about how to get more help, when more help has always been right here.”>

<This is a lesson the previous Empress never learned. We are forced to admit you have surprised us, Melody.>

<Thank you?>

<Believe us when we say it is rare.>

Ceremony over, I sat back down and poured tea for both of us.

"Starlight, tell me about River. You were close right?"

****

Rapid River Roaring was cremated and per their traditions, a small phial of their ashes were given to their family by Starlight. As their partner, Starlight placed the phial on a delicate chain around the neck of River's mother. A phial the same size was kept by them and I placed it reverently around their neck. Later, I was told that to have the Empress present the phial was a tremendous honor to River's family and would be talked about for generations.

The rest was launched into space in a small capsule. It's aimed at a random star and with prayers that they would fine peace in their journey, we said goodbye. I wore my Empress gown, fluttering train black blue, studded with stars for the ceremony. Hundreds of people came; River was a popular administrator. They were seen as the foil to Starlight's ambition. Not for the first time I wondered how we were even able to insert ourselves into this place at all. The fact that we were Builders and able to control the station to a greater level than they could must have been our only saving grace at the start. I liked to think that we had become a welcome member of the community, but with this crowd, this love seen for River, I wondered if we were able to succeed because River and Starlight let us. That night Ava visited again, and this time I didn't turn her away. She realized I sought release and distraction from everything going on, and she was an enthusiastic partner, trying to give me what I needed.

Day five dawned, and I returned to the captives. They went home today, and I had to finish my interviews. Before the explosion, I was meeting with the crew individually in a separate room and trying to pump them for information. I looked down at my list. All that's left are Prince Emery and a Chief Petty Officer, so I called the officer in.

"Good morning," I had two steaming cups of coffee from Venus' own supply on a table between us. We were able to get around the trap in the stores that Raaden mentioned two days ago. I'm not out to make them starve, but they could go without some coffee on their ride home. Across from me sat a young woman, probably around my age.

"Hello." She sounded meek and tired. Her long brown hair was tied into a tight ponytail low on her head.

"Would you like some coffee? I won't order it, you don't have to have any if you don't want." I took one of the cups and took a large sip. Oh my, this was the good stuff, from Earth if I was any judge.

"Y-yes, please." I gestured and she took a cup. I gave her a moment to sip. She was savoring it. I bet it's the first coffee she's had in a while and she perked up immediately. "Thank you. I haven't had any good coffee in a long time. They don't usually let us have anything other than instant onboard."

Instant coffee? The barbarians!

"We were quite far from a steady supply of coffee out here, but I hoped to open up trade relations soon, and soon we can get some more regularly. Until then I had to enjoy it when I could.” With a smile, I realized that I might have something here. "Tell me, what is your name and job onboard?"

She looked around. We're in a room next to the banquet hall, all alone. Well, Ava was listening in too and offering help and insight when needed, but this person didn't need to know that.

"I won't use the Voice,” I said gently. "Unless I need to. If you can answer my questions without it, we'll all have a better time." I reached between us and poured her more coffee from the carafe on the table. I also topped up my cup. There was no sense in wasting it after all. She took another sip and glanced back at the door to the banquet hall, worried about the crew.

"Don't worry about the crew or Helen. Nothing you tell me will get to them, I promise."

"That's just it," She turned and looked at me, then her gaze dropped to the table. "You call her Helen. Nobody calls her Helen. Even her friends call her Raaden. We all call her Commander, or Baron. She hates her first name. Every time you call her that, I think she gets more and more mad."

Interesting. I figured she was just mad at me for having power over her. Is she also furious that I was using a name that she hates? There's no reason to be calling people by names they hate. "I did not know that. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I am Empress here, but I try not to be thoughtlessly cruel." I thought for a moment. "Unless I need to be, but then I guess it's not thoughtless. Please, tell me your name - or what you prefer to be known as."

"I'm Virgina Fallmill, but please, I prefer Ginny."

"It's so nice to meet you Ginny. My name is Melody."

"I know, Empress."

"Yes, I imagine you heard Hel-Raaden talking about it."

Another nod.

"What did you do on the Lavinia, Ginny?"

"I worked in Reactor Systems, I'm Chief Petty Officer for the whole Reactor Room." She said. I noticed she had stopped looking around, and was meeting my gaze, speaking to me without fear.

<She is comfortable talking to you.>

<Why?>

<We’re not sure. Maybe she hasn’t had much opportunity to just talk about herself aboard. People love to talk about themselves.>

"Where were you born, Ginny?"

"I was born on Earth, but my parents moved to Venus when I was in elementary school."

"Oh, why did they move?" Besides making conversation, I was always interested in what made people migrate to Venus. It was so different than any other place I knew, even the colonies. What made people go and live on top of a caustic atmosphere on a floating city?

She shrugged. "Work, I think. Dad worked on computers and was able to get a job relatively easily, but Daddy always had trouble. He was a painter and had a hard time selling his work on Venus. He worked in the casinos mostly."

"Were you going to volunteer to stay behind?"

"Yes, I was."

"Were you doing it because you wanted to, or because you were ordered to?

Ginny looked away. "I wanted to."

<She is not lying.>

I raised an eyebrow and tried to hide my surprise with another sip of coffee. "Oh? How come?"

"It sounds so fun! Starting a new life across the Galaxy helping out people, being in charge, I was excited to try it."

"Did Raaden order all the volunteers to be spies?"

"Yes. She said that we'd all have to report to William weekly and he would get messages back to Venus."

"William?"

"Yes, the tall, burly looking guy with the curly hair sulking in the corner." Ginny explained while taking a sip of coffee. Even though we're in a separate room, it seemed like she was trying to not give them any indication we're talking about him. He must have been intimidating.

I thought to Ava, <“Look in the banquet room. See that cheerful looking person in the corner with he curly hair? Ginny here says that William. He was going to be the spies contact for the volunteers who stayed behind.”>

<“I see him Melody. He looks...pleasant.”> She thought to me, sarcastically.

<“Indeed. If we make sure he has no power over the crew, I think there might be some people here who legitimately want to be volunteers.”<

<“I don't know Melody. It feels very dangerous.”>

<“You said we need more help yourself.”> I pointed out.

<“Ugh, help like Venus we could do without though. Just think about what would happen if we gave one of them the Builder package and they weren't 100% loyal to us.”>

<“Okay, we'll try and get help another way.”> I mean, Ava wasn't wrong. It would be dangerous if someone became a Builder, and then tried to move against us. I focused back on Ginny.

"Thank you Ginny. You don't have to rush to finish your coffee. When you're done, please head back." I stood and left the room.

<“Ava, what is she doing?”>

<“She's drinking the coffee and looking around. Doesn't look like she's trying anything.”>

<“Good. I'll talk to the prince later. He's staying with Raaden anyway, I'm not in a hurry. Do we know where we're going to put them yet?”>

<“I asked about a couple rooms in the Royal Dawn. I think we can secure them enough.”>

<“I don't know how I feel about them staying where we're all sleeping." I really didn't want them in the same building as us. "That seems dangerous. Maybe we can put them up in the Admin offices.”>

<“We have to think long term Hon; we don't know how long they'll be here before Venus either pays ransom of tells us to pound sand. We have to give them a real place to live.”> For as much as Ava didn't like Venus, she wasn't a monster. It was one of the reasons I liked her.

<“What about an apartment? Something near the Royal Dawn, but not in it.”>

<“Hmm. Maybe. That might work. I'll have City send some messages. I bet there's some empty apartments around. Oh, Melody, Ginny is looking around; she's asking for you. I let her know you're on your way.”>

I went back into the room, and Ginny was standing up, looking at the ceiling and talking with Ava. "-There she is, thank you."

"Ginny? What is it? I'm all out of coffee."

Ginny got down and - awkwardly - bowed like she saw the locals here do. "Empress Melody. I want to stay."

"What? You don't want to go back to Venus?"

"No, I hated it there. Daddy and Dad were saving up to leave and if I come back as part of-" she gestured back to the group "-that, I won't get paid. If I stay here, they'll get a prisoner payout and be able to afford to move."

<“Melody…”>

I thought to Ava while Ginny stood politely. <“Come on. She seems truthful, and I can just use my Voice to tell her to not report to Venus.”>

<“Sigh. I don't think I'm going to win this one, but at least talk it over with Um'reli and Omar first.”>

<“Okay, deal.”>

"Ginny. I have to talk it over with my fellow Builders. I need you to know, if we agree I'm going to use my Voice to order you to break ties with Venus. You won't be able to contact them - for years probably."

She stood and nodded. "I understand. I would expect nothing less."

"I'll talk it over with them and let you know - privately - before it's time to go."

"Thank you Empress."